Earl Stewart on Cars - 03.16.2024 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Wallace CDJ of Stuart

Episode Date: March 16, 2024

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning travels north to Stuart to visit a local CDJ dealer and see how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2023 Jeep Gladiator Willys Edition on their car lot. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

Good morning, everybody. Back again. Here we are. Your auto, how not to get ripped off by your car dealer team. We're right here in North Palm Beach, Florida. and we'll be on the air from now. It's about 8 a.m. until 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. So it was a live show, live talk show.

Not many of those live talk shows around anymore, I don't think. I used to watch a lot of them or listen to a lot of them, I should say. And I always thought they were entertaining. Live anything to me is entertaining because you never know what's going to happen. You heard the disclaimer when this show came on the air from the owner of the dealer of the dealership, the owner of the radio station. And he basically said, look, if this guy says something stupid, it's not my fault. And I disclaim any responsibility.

So legally, it's kind of like what car dealers do. They disclaim any responsibility for anything they do in the fine print. And I guess radio stations, legally you have to do that. I don't blame the owner of this station at all. Vic Conallis is a great guy, and he had courage to put this show on the air. From some of you regular listeners who've listened to Earl on cars, Earl Stirl on cars over the years, I got fired a few years ago. The previous owner of the radio station was under pressure by the car dealers in South Florida

to boycott advertising on the radio station. So you get rid of Earl Stewart or we're going to stop our advertising. Actually, to me, that's an illegal boycott, but you know how that goes. So we were off the air for over a year, and then a new owner came in, Vic Canales, bought the station, and here we are back bigger. I'd like to say better also than ever. We're on for a lot longer. We started out to show at a half an hour.

Now we're two hours, and we listened to a lot of you folks from all over the country. Used to be we're just radio, we're local, now we're all over the planet, all over the globe. I had an amount of feedback from France, Lions France last week. And we have a lot of areas that you can contact us on. I need to give you this information because it's important that you do contact the show

in the manner that you feel most comfortable. We like the telephone. So if you are of mind to speak live on radio and call us on our... old-fashioned telephone, we'd like you to jot this number down. It's 877-960-99-60. 877-9-60-9-6-0. Probably don't have anything to say right now, especially if you haven't heard the show before.

But if you listen a little bit, you will come up with some things that you'd like to call and tell us or ask us or suggest. We love suggestions. every week. I'm just not, I'm just not trying to flatter the listeners out there, but I truly learned something new. I've been in the car business for over half a century, and I learned something new every week on this show. A lot of it's from Rick Kearney, who is my colleague here. He's a certified diagnostic master technician, and I'm learning more about the technicality of automobiles than I ever did just from this radio show. You will, too, I promise you.

If you have a problem with your car, issue, question, the high-tech features that you have in your car now, if you know how to operate more than half of them, you're better than I am. So if you have questions, if you're afraid to take your car in for repair, because you just don't want to spend an arm or leg, you can get a free diagnosis from Rick Kearney. You just call them at 877-960-99-60, or if you're a YouTube, go to YouTube.com forward slash roll on cars. YouTube.com for slash rolling cars because he monitors that channel. Now, actually, he'd be monitoring another channel too because my son, Stu, who is normally

with us, had a little bit of an intestinal problem, and he's not going to be with this this morning, nothing serious, but his, he monitors our texting. We have a text number, and you can get through to us that way. You don't want to be on live radio. I don't blame you. Live radio can be scary. It's fun. A lot of adrenaline flowing when you're live on radio or TV for that matter.

We're really TV because we're streaming and you can stream us. And I just got through telling you about the YouTube channel, YouTube.com for slash your loancars or Facebook.com for slash your loan cars. So you can text us at 772-4976530. 772 area code 497-6-530 Tell us what you got on your mind We are in a

Gosh, a storm of Change in the auto industry It's just totally reinventing itself Manufacturing driving Autonomous cars I mean electric vehicles are almost becoming commonplace

electric vehicle registrations were up 15% last month. Now, a year ago, they were up 50%, but they're cooling down a little bit, but they're getting greater and greater and greater. And autonomous is really coming of age. We'll talk about that later, how Waymo, one of the pioneers in autonomous cars owned by Google, and you can bet Google is not short of cash, and they're going to put whatever it takes into it, autonomous vehicles, to have an autonomous vehicle.

Might not be in the next five years, but it'll be there. If you're a youngster, if you're not an oldster like me, you'll be in an autonomous vehicle before you know it. They'll be all over, especially on the freeways. Again, mechanical questions, software questions with your car, Rick Kearney, 877-960-99-60.

Now, to my left is my co-host, my partner, my wife, Nancy Stewart. She's been with me from the get-go. She started this Seaview Radio many, many years ago for a half-hour show. That's the radio station that fired us because the car dealers didn't like the fact that we were saying bad thing about car dealers. Which reminds me, before I turn the mic over to Nancy, don't forget the mystery shopping report. We've done so many of them. And it becomes so commonplace, I forget how unusual it is. You remember the old 60 Minutes with Mike Walls?

Well, 60 Minutes are still around, but the Mike Wallace part where he goes into a company unannounced and they have the cameras on him and the CEO is running for the bathroom or trying to hide and he corners him and starts talking to him. That's what we do every week. Well, not live, but we do a mystery shop that we do the same. same week. So this week, we mystery shop a car dealership. And we go in, we've been doing this for 20 years. We go in, we pretend to buy or lease a car, we talk to the managers, the salespeople, the greeters, everybody that you would normally have to deal with when

you buy a car, and we report what happened. And then we take the dealers that pass the test and we recommend them. And we take the dealers that don't pass. We say, don't buy a car from this dealer. We've done thousands of these. And I say this almost every week. We've never been sued because the perfect defense gets liable and slander is the truth. We just tell the truth. When the salesperson or the advertisement is a lie, when it's illegal, we just say so. And we named the dealer.

We named the salespeople. We named the location. So if I was lying about all these dealers being bad, I'd be, well, I'd be out of business because I'd have been sued so many times, I would be out of business. And by the way, speaking of business, in full disclosure, we have a Toyota dealership. And we've had that Toyota dealership since 1975. So this is not an infomercial. This is strictly a consumer benefit show.

We don't try to sell you cars. We happen to sell Toyotas. We're not going to sell you to Toyota. There are a lot of good cars out there besides Toyota, and we talk about them, but we recommend them. Now, finally, I will turn the mic over to Nancy Stewart, my co-host. She has an extremely interesting offer. If you're new to the show, it sounds too good to be true. But trust me, please, coming from a car dealer, I kind of gagged when I say, trust me.

But it's true. I mean, she has a too good to be true offer. If you're a lady caller, female, have not called the show before, you won't believe this, but Nancy will explain it to you. And you can trust Nancy, for sure. Oh, thank you. Thank you for that. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Earl Own Cars. And as Earl said, we're right here. We're live. And ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers this morning, $50 for the first two new lady callers. And if you didn't catch the business and finance section of the Wall Street Journal, as Earl spoke about it. about in his opening, you know, about electric cars, driverless, autonomous, I should say. And the self-driving cars enter the next frontier is what it says here.

And hey, did you know that Waymo views Los Angeles a city dense with freeways as a potentially $2 billion. industry amazing isn't it well kind of i um it's no surprise uh that's for sure and uh unfortunately we knew this was coming this month the company gained approval from california regulators to start charging for driverless rides on the freeways in the bay area and a los angeles area So, as Earl said, we got a whole lot to get to. We're going to finish sharing information with you on that article that I just read you. And I will say it again, ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers. And that mystery shopper report that Earl mentioned, yes, we went back to Wallace, but a different location.

I believe the March 1st mystery shop on Wallace was in West Palm Beach. If I'm wrong, somebody correct me. Today we are going to share the mystery shop with you from, as I said, Wallace, but this time in Stewart. And that should be a very interesting shop. Stewart, Florida, that's in the southeast Florida, on the Sodom and Gomorra area. of the Florida's auto district. Yes, and we have our Dog of the Week, and that will come to you later on in the show, about 9.30,

and you can view the video that we, too, will be looking at, and we'll be taking a look at Mickey. Mickey is a male retriever, a Labrador. He's so cute, and he's about 51 pounds, 52 pounds. and he's two years, one month, and three weeks old. So you want to stay tuned for that and so much more. And as I always say, every week, you make the show. Give us a call toll free at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 77-7-272-497-9-7-6-5-3-0.

Don't forget. anonymous feedback.com. We're going to go straight to the phones where we are going to talk to Nancy from Palm Beach Gardens, and Nancy has, she's called us before. Welcome. Hi, thank you for taking my call. I have a 2016 Kia Soul, and my mechanic has just said that I'm having trouble with the engine. It's over-consuming oil. And I just got a notice of a proposed class settlement. The U.S. District Court for Central District of California has some sort of settlement with Kia. So I don't know.

Like when I call the dealership, do I need to be careful about something? Rick? Well, class action. What did the class action? Typically, a class action suit, when it's successful, they notify all the members of the class. So apparently you are a member of that class with Kia, and they would ask for your information, and you would automatically get a check in the mail. I know that sounds too good to be true, but if there is a settlement on a class action suit,

you need to find out the instructions to how you can give them the information so you can participate. I've been a member of a class. I didn't even know I was a member of. If somebody in a different state will make a lawsuit you don't know about, it happened to involve you, and when the judge and court decides in your favor, you should be notified by the attorneys that filed the class action suit. Okay.

And I call the dealership and tell them, that I'm having trouble with the engine, right? It's a 2016, so it's less than 10 years and 90,000 miles. Is that listed as the power train warranty on your car? I have to look at, I don't understand any of this stuff. Well, the factory power train warranty, if you're still covered by that, then they should cover that problem of it consuming too much oil. What you'll want to do is definitely call them, get an appointment to go in and have them check the engine.

There's not really a whole lot of diagnosis they can do, but if you tell them that you're losing, like, say, a quart every 500 miles, they're going to have to go in there and do something to repair that engine. I would also contact the manufacturer because this is a national issue. sometimes the dealers are not on top of these things but take the information you have about that class action suit go on the website of the manufacturer and send them an email

basically if you can send an attachment of the information you have about the class action suit they can inform you how you can participate in terms of repairs there as I said earlier there may also be a monetary consideration that you should find out if you qualify for thank you so much i really appreciate it end the show oh thank you very much thank you thank you so much nancy and spread the word uh to your lady friends they too can give us a call and be part of the show

they're an important part of the industry they're an important part of the show our number is 877-960 and you can also text us at 772-4976530. Again, ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers. You know, I have a question for the ladies that are listening. How are you treated when you drove through the service drive? You know, I'm going to say from memory, that 50% maybe a little bit more of women bring their car or the family car through the service drive. Let me know how you were treated and whether the knowledge that you had accumulated previous to taking the car to have it serviced really, well, made an impact on the most likely gentleman you were speaking to. We're going to go to Carol, who is a first-time caller, and she's calling us from Jupiter.

Good morning, Carol. Morning. Welcome. You just won yourself $50, Carol. And if you stay on the line when we're finished talking, you can share your contact information with Jeremy, and he'll pass that along to me, and therefore, I will send you a check. Thank you. you're quite welcome what can we do for you this morning you can't really do anything for me i just wanted to say i'm a long time toyota uh buyer and leaser i'm a very long time earl stewart

customer i've been with earl stewart i am sure it's 15 years now um we just turned in a lease and i'll be turning in a lease shortly um i can tell you that i have been to other dealers and especially when i was a young woman making a good living and I would go and look at cars and I tell you I was you know kind of now now dear you know maybe that's out of your league you know just kind of belittled and the first time I went to Earl Stewart I was listened to I was paid attention to and I'm sure that's not a big deal nowadays but back in the day it was and I purchased my first car Toyota from Earl Stewart and I've been there ever since

Well, pleasure her. Thank you, Carol. Hey, Carol, how did you find our radio show? You know, I don't know how. Just driving the work every day, I haven't listened to it. But like I said, we've been leasing and purchasing from Earl Stewart for quite a while. And while everyone there is so nice, we do go to Jeanette. I don't know if I'm allowed to say that. He's always so respectful and just helps us in every way that he can.

And it's just a great experience. I have to say with the economy the way it is, and we're getting ready to retire and, you know, trying to trim that, we have looked at other places, as I'm sure, you know, you would understand. And it's just not worth it. So Toyota's a good car, a solid car. I don't ever have to wake up and worry that there's a problem. And, in fact, with the maintenance plans, I never have to worry. You know, one thing I learned early on, if you're a career person, you've got to get to work every day, and you have to have a dependable car. Absolutely.

You're being so nice, you're going to make me say that I promised the audience that the $50 we're sending you has got nothing to do with all the nice things you said about. You're embarrassing me. Thank you very much. Carol, you know it's nice, even great. is the fact that, you know, you're looking elsewhere. You're a seasoned, it doesn't matter how long you've been driving a Toyota. You know, you are, you know, a seasoned consumer, very educated. And it's great that you look in different places, you know,

because it really keeps you on the cutting edge. And I thank you for the phone call, and I certainly hope that you will spread the word that we do enjoy, speaking to the ladies here at Erlon Cars, and the first two new callers can win themselves $50. Have a great St. Patrick's weekend, Carol. Thank you, and we'll see you in a couple weeks to turn this one in. Thank you. Okay, we're going to go to Joe, who's calling us from Deerfield Beach.

Good morning, Joe. Good morning. I'm due for a new lease, and I'd like to. get some advice. I'd like the looks of a Jeep Grand Cherokee, but I'd like some advice as to whether or not they're

mechanically sound and should I go ahead with leasing a Grand Cherokee. I would say that you could do better. I have to also say that the Jeep is just an amazingly popular vehicle.

They have incredible design. They have, I don't know what the word is, but the Six Appeal comes to mind. You see them all over the place. So if you love Jeeps, then sometimes you just buy one because you enjoy driving, and that's a lot about what driving is. As far as Lease versus Buy, if you've got a consumer report, you'll find Jeep low on the maintenance reliability clock. They just, they don't hold together as well.

Now, their, their actual, their reseal value is very good. So that counters the other intuitive thing about, with a car that has a high repair cost and safety issues and other than number. Why does it have a high resale? Well, sex appeal, they like, they love the look of a Jeep. So as far as lease versus purchase, I always prefer purchase as a rule of thumb. purchasing is simpler, a process is harder to be finagled by a lease. Car dealers make $1,000, $2,000 more profit when they lease you a car because they can confuse you better with a lease. The lease has too many variables, and you're playing their game, and they can manipulate those variables,

like residuals and lease rate and other hidden fees that you can end up paying too much. I believe to keep it simple and purchase, shop and compare the price with at least three other Jeep dealers, and choose the vehicle you like the best, and go with a purchase. Well, thank you. I'm also something, I'm leasing a February traverse right now, and one thing that I think is I don't like at all is when you're, and drive, and if you have that auto stop, every time you

stop for a light, the motor shuts off. Is that going to be the way of the future for all cars? I think it's a pain in the neck. Rick will give you the technical answer. The answer to your question on all cars, no. It's not a very popular thing, but Rick, go ahead

with it. I think it's a feature that's going to go away because too many people hate, and I mean hate with the capital H, hate that feature, and complain about it all the time. It's not a good feature because the battery and the starter both have a lifespan built into them, and they will actually come up with a warning light at a certain time, and it's on a timer that that light comes up.

Something the manufacturers came up with is a stopgap measure to try to improve their gas mileage. And now they realize they see the wave of the future, which is hybrids, and after the hybrids, it will be electric vehicles. But that idea of turning off of the stoplight is just stupid. Yeah, it's horrible. A hybrid vehicle would be a better option, really, simply because it's going to automatically turn on and off at the stoplights. But it uses the hybrid electric motors and the hybrid battery system to start and stop that engine. And you don't even know what happened. It happened without you're being aware of it.

And it works. It's a much better system. Well, I don't know that I hate it, but it's certainly a pain in the neck. There's a way to override it, but you've got to put the car in a different here in L, and then you've got to press a button nine times to override that auto stop feature, which is another pain in the neck. Yeah, right? On Toyota's, there's a button, just a simple button you can push,

but you have to push it each time that you restart the car. And I guarantee that the Raffor that I bought for my wife about five years ago, if it had that feature pardon me I'd be divorced right now if that had had that feature in that car she would have divorced me over it so yeah it's not a good thing

and hopefully the manufacturers are taking this into account and they're going to get rid of it also that'd be good to get rid of it also on the traverse that I have now it seems that the accelerator pedal

is too low in comparison with the brake pedal because every time you take your foot from the accelerator pedal and go on to the brake pedal you catch your foot on the bottom of the brake pedal

Oh, the brake is too high and the accelerator's too low, and I don't know if there's a way to adjust the height of the brake pedal or not. Generally not. I mean, there is an adjustment for them, but it's only meant to adjust it like a half an inch or so, and that's only just to keep it in its proper range. Wow, that's, yeah, that's a... Well, half an inch probably do it, so maybe you ought to have it checked out.

If you have too much playing your brick, you should have it adjusted anyway. If it's a matter of height, a half inch lower, it might help you, wouldn't it? Well, I don't think so. It's that much of a difference, and it's one reason why I'm not going to release a traverse. Well, go to consumer reports and start looking at alternatives to Jeeps. I thought you were one of these guys that fell in love with the Jeep, And once you fall in love with a Jeep, you just keep buying them. I'm envious.

I wish I had a product in my dealership, like the Jeep is just, it's like an American tradition. Ever since World War II, jeeps have been a hot product. And Chrysler, now Stalinas, were smart enough, I guess, back in the day, to grab that brand and that name and hang on to it. So they just, their jeeps are all over the place. yeah but you hit it right on the head when you said it's the it's the visual effect it's a pretty looking car and that's the thing that attracted me but before i went to head i wanted to ask you if they were mechanically reliable and i thank you so much for your information hey joe before you go you know if you pick up the subscription of consumer report. That's a 2024 auto issue. You're going to find the Jeep Grand Cherokee, the Jeep

Wrangler, how they're all rated as far as reliability. And they come in as the least reliable. And they go into all kinds of different aspects of the Jeep. So you might want to pick that up and take a look at it. Thank you for your call, Joe. Thank you very much for your information. Very helpful. You're quite welcome. Have a great weekend.

We are going to go to Tricia, and she's called us before, and she calls us from Boka. She's always very interesting. What's gone on, Tricia? Well, thank you. That's very nice. You guys are interesting. That's what tells me. Now, I have three-part questions. I wrote everything down, so I don't forget. Okay.

Remember last week, we spoke about, you know, how my tires, my Michelin defenders wore out so fast within 10,000 miles, and we were talking about where they wore out. You know, the right outside edge, the left tire wasn't that bad. and we talked about, yes, it's probably an alignment issue, all right? Now, what I forgot to ask you, and here my question is, let's say I did get that alignment, as you know. Let's say I knocked it out a week later. Why would a tire that, well, I don't care how bad I drive. Like, girl, we both drive bad. Why, if I was going over at Mountain Roads for 10,000 miles, what would wear it out so fast?

Alignment in or out. That was my question I forgot to ask. Okay. Hey, Trisha, before we get to your question, let me share something with you. You know, your phone call last week and several other times during this past month, month and a half, on tires prompted early. and I to write a column that was written on Monday, and it's all about tires, most important part of your car for maintenance, expense, and safety. So you might want to go to Earl on cars, take a look at that column, and you might pick up more information than you already

have, you know, with all of these questions, week in and week out, but we love your call. So I believe that Rick can answer you a question. The problem is for anything to really be bent or damaged enough by an impact to put your alignment out and cause that wear pattern, it would show up at the next alignment check. And the severity of it was your question. The severity of the wear would depend on the severity of being knocked out of alignment. I mean, you can knock an alignment out really, really bad, and you could probably wear a tire out in, you know, 25 or 30 miles. I mean, if you really whacked it.

So alignment measurements are recorded on your computer printout, and they're severely out of a line. They will wear out extremely fast. So it is possible that a tire this well good would wear out that. fast. Well, we don't know exactly how fast it did wear out, but the degree of alignment out of alignment would track directly with how fast it wore out. I mean, I'm an expert. You and I have a secret society, the bad driver's society where we go too fast. And I've hit a curb. I don't remember the exact time, but I knew I hit the curb. And I said,

everything's okay I kept looking at my tires when I got home to look in the garage what I forgot about was the inside wear and so I think I took my car in for an oil change or I had my tires inflated and Rick or somebody came running out and said you're not gonna believe this but my tires were terribly worn in a very short period of time so South Florida is like a it's like a war zone with construction and potholes and curbs My pet peeve are these parking lots that are apparently built out of compliance with all the rules and regulations of how much space you should have to turn into a driveway. I mean, if you put the curb too close to the road and you have another lane and the other side of the road, you go around the corner.

I do this every time I leave my community, Jupiter and the Colony, Florida. I have a row that's so narrow If a truck's coming toward me I have to take my corner too sharply And I hit the damn curb every time Bam, there goes my alignment Okay, but my point is that it is This is normal for a tire

To wear out Only in 8 to 10,000 miles Let's say the alignment was knocked out right away You're telling me that is normal You can wear out completely We're running a set of tires in 8,000 miles if they're severely out of a line. Am I right, Rick? Absolutely.

Okay. That answers that question. The second question is we also discussed in Earl. You said something about Tire Kingdom doing lifetime alignment warranties. Well, they were bought out by another company, and they do not honor that anymore. I didn't know, but Tower King was bought out. Be wary of lifetime warranties anyway, because there are always conditions, and usually the conditions are you have to bring the vehicle back in every 20 minutes.

I'm exaggerating slightly. But they want to get you a lifetime warranty so they can have you come in frequently so they can find something to fix on your car. So lifetime warranties are usually not very valuable. They sound real good, but when you look at the time. the overall cost, they really aren't. Okay. My third question is, I'm very curious with this mystery shopper that you do every week.

Who goes in to do the mystery shopper? Well, if we told you that, Trish, you know what we would have to do to you. So let's just move along. No, she's a part of the company. She doesn't work. Well, I guess she's part of the company. And she's totally anonymous. She's a very smart person.

I'll give you a few ins. She's a mother and a wife, and extremely sharp. And she uses a code name, Agent Lightning. And she is able, oftentimes she shops with her family. Even her husband office is involved. so it's the most normal looking thing you've ever seen. So it takes talent. I mean, it takes a lot of courage.

Think about it to go in and face a bunch of gnarly car dealers that are out to get you. But she walks in there with her head high, and she really, really, she's one in a thousand there. To do that every week is not easy. And Agent Lightning, she tightens up her bulletproof vest and she walks into the dealership. And there could be a man from time to time, so I don't want to give it all away.

So that's the story. I guess I wasn't asking the names, but I was wondering, I guess if was you, Earl, or Nancy, I say, there's no way. They would recognize you. And so I guess that was my question. You can't be the mystery shoppers because everyone knows you, your voice. so I guess that's what I was wondering. I thought of it and you're exactly right. My voice would give me away.

I could wear a disguise, but my voice, too many people recognize that. And I've wanted to do a mystery shop for a long time because I love negotiating. But as you said, you know, we're both recognizable. Tricia, thank you so much for calling us, staying in touch. And following up on all this craziness with the tires, well, it's not craziness, but I hope that we've helped somewhat. I'll definitely go to your article. Thank you so much. You're welcome. 877960-9960, or you can text us at 772-4976530.

And Rick is manning the YouTubers. He's manning the texts. And also, you can go to Your Anonymous Feedback.com, and there's just a lot of choices here. So we're going to go to Doug. I've got an anonymous feedback that is, I think, a good one. Okay. And as you say, Your AnonymousFeedback.com. Y-O-U-R-A-N-N-Y-M-U-S feedback.com, just the way it sounds, Your Anonymous Feedback.com.

We don't know who you are or where you are. We can't come and find you. No way we can trace you. It's a very, very highly used, reliable on this anonymity system. A lot of big, big manufacturers and retailers to all their employees and customers, I assume. A lot of people don't want to know you to know who they are. And this, your anonymous feedback, you can have your say and have your total privacy. Here's one just came in, and it's a good question.

It applies to most of our listeners. Are participating dealers allowed to stick the customer with junk fees under the Costco auto buying program? And that's the Costco Auto Membership Program. We recommend Costco as one of our favorite sources of a third-party buying source. If you're nervous about buying a car and you want to get a good price on a car, the Costco auto buying program. You have to be a member of Costco. It costs you $65 a year to join Costco.

Well worth it. And there's Costco warehouses all over the country. And they give you a very good price, if you remember. Now, the question, again, from an honest feedback, are participating dealers allowed to stick the customer with junk fees under the Costco auto buying program? Well, the surprise answer is yes. But the fact of the matter is the junk fees in and above themselves are not a bad thing.

Why? Well, they're a bad thing because you don't know about them. You come in on an advertised price, and then they hide the junk fees, and when you go to sign the papers or write your checkout, that's where they slip it in. With a Costco auto member buying program, they have a membership pricing list. If you're a Costco member, all the cars this dealer sells on the Costco auto buying program are listed. And you ask to see that price sheet when you're a Costco member and you go in. Now, on the price sheet, they may have a dock fee.

They may have electronic filing fee. But that's included in the price of the car. The rule that Costco has is so good is the price that you pay as a Costco member must be less. I repeat, must be less than any other buyer of that model car from that dealership. So if you're a Buick dealer and you're selling Buick's, and you gave one customer a really good deal, you know, because he knew how to haggle and asshole and really wrestled you down and got a really good price, a Costco member could come right in

and buy contract, that dealer is required to give you that same car at a lower price than he just gave. somebody else that was a good low price. The caveat with Costco membership is go online to Costco.com, auto member, you know, a car car, auto buying program, Costco auto buying program.com. Go online, be sure that you're a member in good standing. Find out with your zip code, the dealers in the area that sell them make a car you want to buy. they will give you the list of the

Costco salespeople authorized Costco salespeople don't speak to anybody else but an authorized Costco salesperson also they will give you the instructions which is to look at the membership pricing list if you don't do any of this some salesman that is not

onto the program and maybe without the knowledge probably without the knowledge of the dealer is going to claim to be a Costco salesperson He's going to claim to give you the Costco price, but it won't be. So go to the website first, get the information of the dealer, get the name of the people you talk to, ask for the membership price list, and see it, and that's going to assure you a lower price than anybody else paid for that car.

Now, if you feel like you've been flim-flanned, you report that to Costco, and you have a number, 8-100 number. You call Costco and say, I win the ABC Buick, And they did this and this, and I don't think that's right. Costco will be on the line with the dealer, principle. And they'll say, listen, make this right, or we're going to cancel you as an approve Costco member. So, yeah, they can charge junk fees. I don't know why they let them do that, but they let them do that.

But that's included in the price. So who cares if it's a junk fee as long as it's something that is a lower price and you have to pay anybody else. and that's a long answer to a short question. Yeah, well-deserving and great information about Costco. Can't go wrong. Take it from me, I know. You simply can't go wrong.

Okay, we are going to, I'm going to give you the number before we go to Doug, who's been holding from Boca, 877-960, and you can also text us at 772-492-497-6-5-3-0. and Your Anonymous Feedback.com is another option. Ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers. Actually, we just had a new lady, first-time lady caller, so I have $50 for one more. Take advantage of that. You have until about 9.30.

We're going to go to Doug again, who has been holding patiently. Good morning, Doug. Good morning, Alan and Sim say, meow. Meow. I missed the pre-sunrise, but I got on this. Everything is great with the car. Thank you. I have a question for anyone who knows what I could do about this.

I have a real tiny, almost pinpoint spot near the on the paint near the before the top of the roof and I've been trying to

take it off without you know scratching or using a razor plate but it's really a hard

spot really small and I've tried everything and it won't come off I'm thinking

maybe it's bird poop that got really hard or whatever or maybe sap from a tree

you guys have ideas? Yeah, I would say sap is the most likely thing. Unfortunately, if it's hardened on that bad and it's been there for a few days in the Florida Sun, you might almost do more damage trying to get rid of it than just to kind of leave it there. If it's really tiny, I would just leave it there. But if it's one of those things, it's just, it's driving you crazy because I know there's there's times one little thing can make me insane um my best advice is a good cleaner wax and what are called plastic razor blades um these are actually they're

made for removing stickers and decals from paint and it literally it's a razor blade made of plastic and I would wash the area real well and just gently work out at it with that plastic razor blade and then hit it with that a good cleaner wax and get it the best you can. But I wouldn't really try to do too much to take a chance on damage. There's a bunch of solutions in Google. I hate to, I hate to, because you just don't know, but they're not short of answers. I'm going to read this one quickly to you, and there are others.

It says mix warm water with a mild car wash soap Apply this solution to the sap covered area And gently rub it with a soft cloth This sponge the soap will break down the sap Without harming the paint Isopropyl alcohol Isopropyl alcohol is a versatile and effective sap Remover that will damage your cars finish

So that's a late model Well I say late models within the last year And there's several other ones So it's It's a guess, I don't know. And if Rick doesn't know, it's probably difficult. Well, I've got one of my backups here. Donovan just kicked in and says, try using a medium or heavy clay bar.

This is something that professionals will use to get imperfections out of the paint. I would go on YouTube. What's a clay bar? Go on YouTube and they'll tell you how to use it. It's literally a piece of special made clay that is used as a polish, like as a polishing compound type thing. There's a lot of uses for that clay bar, too. But I would go on YouTube and watch a couple of videos on how to use it properly and how to prep for it so to make sure you don't have any damage caused by it. And Donovan, you never cease to amaze us.

Thank you so much. Okay, Doug. And I also was going to call, I called your body show. up. And I say, could I bring it in so you could just look at it? And they said, yeah, sure. That's a good place, yeah. They see a lot of that type of stuff. As a matter of fact, I got some sap on my Tesla hook the other day. And Nancy noticed that neither one of us could get it off. So it's tough to get off. Hey, where were all the answers last night when I spotted that? Okay.

Excuse me. also a product called my question wasn't important okay Doug yeah I saw that goo gone the ingredients are kind of scary but maybe yeah I'd be real careful with that one but Jonathan Cantor here our computer guy and Riley 108 on YouTube both suggested that one well thank you for all the help and you guys have a great day I'll see you in tomorrow morning. Thank you, Doug. Thanks, Doug.

Have a great weekend. We're going to go to David. David's calling us from New Jersey. Welcome again, David. How are you? Hello. Good morning. So I have two questions.

One is a follow-up. They're both for Rick. So I called about a month ago and Rick diagnosed by ABS break. That was making noise only when you held the break. Okay. Now the noise is getting louder. But my question is if I do eventually lose the ABS brakes, will I lose my brakes completely? No.

What happens if the ABS system actually sits in line between the master cylinder, your brake pedal, and the actual calipers on the wheels, and it'll help control that hydraulic pressure going through. but if that system has a malfunction it would be the same thing as if you went and literally unplugged the computers to it you'd get warning lights on the dash and you would not have the advantage of having anti-lock brakes

but your brakes would go back to being a simple normal hydraulic brake system like we had on cars for 50, 60, 70 years basically if you step on the pedal at that point it's going to put pressure to the calipers and they're going to stop down and if you put too much pressure it can potentially lock up the wheels

and you start to slide or skid so that's something just to be aware of but yeah if the ABS ever stops your brakes will simply act as normal hydraulic brakes but the ABS portion won't be there so. Okay and when you say

that the lights will come on will it be a check engine light or something different? Usually you'll see it least one light that'll say ABS, possibly another one saying break. There may be one that looks like a picture of the car in a double set of parentheses. Usually ABS systems will set off three or four different lights. Normally not the check engine, but some cars can. One of the things that the manufacturers have done is because now all the computers in the car talk and communicate back and forth, if one computer sees a problem, it'll send out a signal to the other

computers saying, hey, I've got a problem in my system, all of your information, all of your data that you're receiving from your sensors, save that and record it just be in case it makes it easier for the technicians to diagnose the problem in another system. So we call that a sympathetic code. So if the engine system has a problem, the ABS might also save data and it'll set a code, but the code will say problem in the engine circuit, but it's simply saving information also to help us diagnose it better. So, yeah, I can light up a whole bunch of things on the car. Okay.

Because in New Jersey, if there's a check engine light on, you cannot go through inspection. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And now this is my new question that just came up since my last call last month. So the noise that the car makes when you open the door, in the first thing in the morning, it's like something maybe warming up the motor or something on a Prius hybrid. Okay.

You know, I think that you would know what noise I'm talking about. It's common. There's a lot of systems. when you first open the door, there's a lot of different systems that are going to start booting up. So it's hard to really pinpoint. Right.

But it's, you know, it's, the car's got 175 and I've had it since new. It's at 2012. So I've had this noise since day one, and it's natural. And it's something booting up when you open the door. I guess it's doing something to get the motor ready,

and it's okay. Well, now it's doing that motor. It's making that noise. it's making that noise as you're driving slow it's just continuous you're doing it if you stop the car and the car is running it's continuously going on every few minutes what kind of noise is it David can you give us a rough idea

a squeak a whistle a tick tick what kind of a noise it's the boot up noise that I've had since day one so I thought it was a natural thing that every Prius has and I was okay with it it would do it when you open the door I could, um, so when you open the door, it's, um, like a boot-up noise that comes on on the Prius and it's does it once and that's it. A boot-up noise.

Can you do me a favor? Uh, try to, try to get a video of that sound and, and text it to us at our text number. Okay. Or I could call them next week. Sure, but I thought that it was a common noise that everyone has in a Prius, that, um, when you're open the door, it knows that you're going to start the car soon, so you hear like a boot-up noise, and it does it once, and that's it. And now it's doing it continuously, even as you drive slow, and after you turn the car off,

it continues to do it. Why do you need a boot? You don't need a boot-up noise once you shut the car off, and you're done. So I'm afraid something's going to happen soon, you know, like it's going to wear something out or wear the battery out or do something. Well, that I'd like to see if I could hear it. Uh, can you try and get a video, just when you get a chance and just text it to our, our show's text number, and then I'll be able to get to download it and listen to it. It's not a buzzing noise.

No, it's not a buzzing noise. It's, um, it's like a four, about five or second noise that since day one, it did it when you opened the door. It was, I figured it was doing, I was, that it was getting the motor ready, being that, um, that, um, that, um, it did. did something that makes the motor ready, I guess. Maybe I was never supposed to have that noise since day one. Well, Rick, I'll check it out if you could get them on. Right, I'll get it to you. Either that or I'll call with it next week, like I did last month with the break noise. I waited for you.

Thanks, David. Okay. Have a great weekend, David. You too. We're going to go to John and West Palm Beach. Good morning, John. John, you there? Is there with us, John? yeah i'm here oh great welcome to the show john i'm patient uh thank you john from us fall beach um let's let's first do doug's uh thing uh with the tree sap or what he thinks might be

tree sap which is actually just a heavy syrup um i didn't when i was calling in i didn't hear all of rick's um solutions but if i was dug what i would do is i'd go grab the hair dryer with the hairdryer on heat on high. And I would heat it up a little bit and then use the plastic razor blade to get that, you know, just heat it up. It's going to heat up and soften before it does anything to the pain or the wax and that.

So I'd heat it up with the hair dryer and remove it, just like they take off vinyl stickers and that. Sounds like a good idea. I like that thought. Yeah, I like that one. Thank you, John. That's great.

And then the gentleman with the Prius, I would go in and, you know, do your recommendations, but I would go to where he bought it, and I'd say, hey, listen, I got this Prius. Does it make this noise? Show me another Prius that's making the same noise. There you go. I like that.

Peruses. Yeah. And then they're going to say, no, well, that, you know, they're going to tell them whether or not it's supposed to sound like that, you know, compared to the other Priuses. You know, John, what, you made me think about something else. This is probably one of the most common. complaints, I don't mean this specific complaint about a Prius, but my car makes this noise.

And what we forget is everybody has a different perception of noise. Some people don't hear very well like me. Other people can hear high frequency or low frequency. I always recommend if you have a problem with a noise, be sure you take it to someone that can hear the noise that you hear. And if he can't hear the noise that you hear, try somebody else because I know I've had complaints for my customers with my dealership where a customer, a really good customer comes in, he's got a really legitimate complaint

and the person that happens to be working with him on the car says, I don't hear anything. Well, when they say they don't hear anything, that might mean because they don't hear very well or they don't hear that frequency. get at least one other person to try when people are giving you the thing and I don't hear it anymore. Also, like he says, get the technician to ride with you in the car and point out the specific noise. Exactly. So that way you both hear it at the same time. So that's perfection.

When you and the technician both hear the same noise at the same time, you know they're working on the right thing. But you can see from the previous caller how confusing a noise can be. You really need to nail it down if you want to get fixed right. Thank you, John. Oh, you're welcome. Not in my question. I'm getting ready to purchase tires for my Tesla. And when I was at the dealership, I happened to notice a whole bunch of tires, you know, off to the side that they had done.

And inside the tire, there's a block of foam. and it's supposed to be a noise reducer because you know because the car doesn't have an engine the road noise is more prevalent if you don't have all the dampening stuff extra like for the wheel wells and that

and I was just wondering with a noise dampener that these tires have which is like Like I said, it's like a block of foam glued to the inside of the tire, and then they go ahead and they balance it in that, and it reduces the road noise. Yeah.

I just learned that. I've never heard of that, so I, Rick, you've taken the tires off by Tesla several times. Do I have foam on the inside of my tires? You do. Oh, I didn't know that. The first time I saw that, I stared at like, what in the world is this? Yeah. What witchcraft have they been doing?

Well, that's what it is for the noise reduction, and so I was going to ask, Rick, I said, you know, I'm getting right, I got 50,000 miles on my original set of tires. I, you know, I don't beat up on the car. Oh, well done. And it's just now getting to the point where they're, you know, they're thin. But I was thinking, because I'm not going to Tesla to get the tires repaired, because it's very, very costly. I'm going through Costco, and they have the tires in that. I was thinking, Rick, would there be any, I'm going to have to research it more, but do you think there'd be any consequences of if I use that fix-a-flat, and I put the fix-a-flat in the new tires to reduce the noise, and that's going to go all throughout? Now, is it going to hurt the T-PMS gauges?

The last car that I had that came in with Fixa Flat in one of the wheels, I wanted to call in sick and gleeve for the day and never touch another car for the rest of my life. No kidding. I hate with a serious passion, all of that stuff that they spray into those wheels. And yes, it will, and I say will destroy your tire sensor. it will make that tire unrepairable. So if you drive over a nail and you come into my shop and say, hey, I've got a nail in my tire, I can take that tire off and I can do an internal patch that's glued right to the tire and it will, the glue that we use will cause that patch

to literally melt into the surface of the tire and be a permanent repair that will last just fine for the life of the tire. However, if there's fix-a-flat in there, it won't work, and that tire is done. You must replace it. All right. Very good. John, one other quick thing. I just Googled Tesla Motor Club, and they talked about the foam, and the first half-dozen answers

say that when they replace the tires without the tires with foam, they couldn't tell any difference in noise. So maybe you're better off just to forget. at the phone. Yep, I'll forget it. I will. All right. And the gun, get up to air dryer. Hey, yeah, definitely.

Hey. By the way, Donovan has just come in. He says, he puts on a tire called the Salon E-Range-E-V. This is spelled S-A-I-L-U-N, like a sailboat, U-N, Sail-U-N, E-Range, E-V tire. He says, he puts, he's

had him on his Tesla. He says, they don't have a foam in the tire, but he gets longer range and they're just as quiet. So apparently these are a low rolling resistance tire, so it increases his driving range, and they're quiet. And I'll tell you, this is a guy that, from the time we've talked with him on air, I trust him. Yes, absolutely. All right, very good. Thanks, John. All right, thank you. Give us a call again. You know, there was a day back in the 70s, I'd carry, you know, fix a flat in my trunk, but definitely things have changed.

We are going to go to Carol, who is calling us from Jupiter, and she has become part of the show. Good morning, Carol. Good morning. Welcome. Thank you so much, patiently waiting. Okay. Okay, so we've been customers of Earl Stewart for 29 years. Many Priuses.

I'm now in my 16 Prius, which I love. And all of a sudden, we had a PANDRA, I don't know what to call it, sign come up on my dash. And we had an appointment to get oil change, so we brought it in. I was not there, and I said, how do I get rid of this? It wouldn't play anything. And we were told, although I wasn't there, that Toyota had done a very large update on the Priuses, and this was a result of that. Now, it will not take a USB, which all my music is on.

is an external that I plug in it won't accept it and we were told there's nothing we can do about it do you know anything about this I don't know anything about it I'm afraid I don't know Tesla very well at all for their infatomacists aren't we talking about that Prius?

No Prius I'm sorry I'm getting kidding It's a 16 it's a 16 Prius Okay and what symbol is coming up that's not Pandora Pandora Which is a music outlet, which I don't subscribe to, don't want to. Okay.

And I'm very happy with my external port that I put in, and I get my music. It will not accept any external now. I can only play the radio. Hmm. And we had it in your shop, like within the last month. Well, I'll tell you what, I will follow up on that. It doesn't make sense to me. So they're saying if you want to stream radio, you have to subscribe to Pandora.

No, there's something wrong there. You stream your music. I know. I know there's something, but we didn't. So help. That's what I'm asking for. I think some of you from our dealership gave you some bad information, I think. Somebody dropped them all there.

I'm going to investigate that. And a matter of fact, I'll have the answer before the show is over because I'll text the dealership and get somebody that knows what they. they're talking about to get the correct answer. I apologize for you being misinformed, but... No, that's okay, and I don't want to tell you who is a service manager. I mean, I don't want to get anybody in trouble. No, no, I'm glad you're called.

I mean, you help us. This is what this is. It's like a mutual informative society we have here. We learn, you learn, everybody does. This is a great beating place for people that want to understand more about their cars. Yeah, absolutely, Carol, and it's an exchange, as Earl said. You're not getting anybody in trouble. But that is very interesting.

It's so weird. It is so weird. Carol, if you can get a chance to make an appointment to come back in, tell them that you want Rick to look at your car. Okay, okay. And if I can get a look at it, I'm pretty sure I can help you out with that and get it right for you. Okay. Well, thank you.

And I'm in my car, and I'm at my destination. I have an appointment. So if somebody is going to call me back, can they call me back on my cell? Sure. Or no? Certainly. Yeah. You'll be on our computer, so we can call you back.

Okay. Terrific. Thank you, guys. You're welcome. Love my Prius. Bye. Thank you. We're going to go to Marty.

Marty is a regular caller from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Marty. Good morning. How are you? Great. How's that vehicle running? Yeah, right now it's running good. I've got a little over 1,000 miles, so right now I have no complaints. Well, you're a traveling man. Yeah, I've had it a month.

Wow. I put on the usual maybe 12,000 miles a year now. I used to do more, but right now it's, you know, about that. Yeah. But I got a question for Earl. Okay. Here's my question. I know Earl believes in Costco.

It just may be my personality that I'm not a trusting soul. So if I went to XYZ, Bewick, and they gave me a good deal because I was a good negotiator, how would the second person know that they gave me a better deal than they're giving him with the Costco plan? because that guy doesn't know me from Adam and how would he know I got a better deal? Well, Costco audits the dealers and we're a Costco-approved dealer and Costco will periodically come in.

They will look at our Costco price sheet. They will check our invoices. They have access to what we charge for cars and they will verify that we are selling our cars. to Costco members at a lower price than we do our other customers. So we put our lowest price on every car, and we only charge, we only give a Costco member $100 less than all of our other customers because we give all our other customers a good price, too.

We charge a competitive part. We have our lowest price in every car except for Costco members, member when they verify, they get the $100 additional. Okay, but how would Costco know, let's say if I came in there without being a Costco member, but I got a lower price? They physically visit our dealerships to audit and check, and they have Costco representatives, a guy that will visit, and this is the same guy that will visit a dealer that tries to flim flam you.

If when you have a bad experience with a Costco member dealership, and you call the 800 number of Costco, say, hey, I went to ABC Buick, and they did this or this, and that's not wrong. Not according to your auto buying program. They will dispatch a individual to check that dealer. They will get a warning letter from Costco and say, make this right, or you will be canceled as a Costco approved dealer.

Oh, all right, yeah. So that's, yeah, Marty, I'll tell you this, I, if, an interest of being totally fair to everybody, I don't think Costco has enough manpower to really cover all the dealers. I mean, they, think about it. The number of Costco warehouses,

the number of Costco members, and the number of car dealerships, it's a logistical nightmare to stay on top of it. So at any given time, you are at risk, even with a Costco member dealer. The only thing that's going to save you is when you go in and they take advantage of it, you think they have, contact Costco, send them a copy of your paperwork, and they will then make it right. I've done this for other people, and the Costco is very good. Once a crime is pointed out, They correct it, or else they get rid of the dealer.

Usually they correct it. I've had a couple situations with Schumacher in this area with Costco, and Schumacher made it right with the Costco member because of the violation that they discovered when the complaint arrived. Yeah, and now also with Costco, in other words, like for your dealership, you don't have every single car that's available under Costco membership. Like if you're looking for a Camry...

Well, it's for that particular year-to-make model. That's right. That's right. Yeah. So it's that for every single model of every, say, Toyota. Yeah. If in 2024, you sell a car Camry for a particular price to a non-C Costco member, then the Costco member must get a lower price.

And as I say, in my case, it's only $100 because I don't... Right. Yeah. Well, you're one of the few honest dealers. Well, thank you. So, you know, it's a different story. But in all my years of buying cars, I feel a lot of people are not honest, so...

Most aren't. I mean, that's a sad fact. That's why this show exists. So thanks very much for you. your compliment. Yeah, well, you definitely deserve it. Thank you so much, Aldi. Have a good weekend.

Thank you, you too. We're going to go to John. John's calling us from Palm City. He too is a regular part of our show. Good morning, John. Yes, good morning. I have a question for Rick. Are you having problems, hiring qualified mechanics for your shop?

Like you wouldn't believe. I believe it, because I'll tell you Why? My regular repair ban, that's been in business for 24 years. He's closing his shop, March 29th. He sold the building for a window manufacturer. He has ASC certified for a year, now over a year. He's been doing everything himself. He can't not only find the qualified mechanics.

He doesn't even trust people to do the oil change and tire rotation. So he just said, I've had it. I see electric cars coming. I can't get to help to repair the cars that are in existence now, and he's packing it in completely the year of March 29th. And it's the whole problem is getting qualified people to work, and including simple oil changes, and that's what it's all about. It's a nationwide issue.

I am in a lot of social media groups that some of them are all on the up and up. Some of them are a little bit, shall we say, we're down in the shadows with this stuff. But it's finding good technicians that understand and can work on these cars properly is incredibly difficult. There's like one in a hundred techs that really can understand how to diagnose and repair these cars without simply pulling out the parts cannon and just throwing parts at it until the problem goes away. At our shop, we try to promote and raise from within. We take oil changers, and we look for the ones that have the best aptitude and the best abilities, and then we bring them in the shop and start training them and sending them to all the Toyota schools, and we put them in Toyota training programs, but it takes so long to get someone up to speed to where they can handle these things,

that by that time, as the older techs are leaving the business, we're losing all that experience. And even myself at my age, I'm still a bit of a young man at 55, almost 56 years old. But physically, I can't do this job anymore like I used to. I have to get a lot of help on a lot of heavy projects. And there's a lot of jobs I simply cannot do. My brain still works. But the body is old, and eventually I'm going to have to hang it up and walk away.

So, I mean, I don't know what's going to happen when this dealership or the entire nation suddenly does not have technicians that are qualified to work on these cars, and it's going to be a real boot in the butt to somebody. Well, that's why he's packing it in the same age as you are, and he said, She's had it. But I have a fast thing for Earl. Earl, can you look into this? The hometown news, which is weekly publication that's free,

and Martin County does not have your blog in it. Can you look into that and see why you're not running it? I'll check that out. I'm glad you told me. They have several editions, I think of St. Lucie County. I'll check into it. Thanks. I didn't realize that.

That's the Mont County edition. and I miss reading that every week. Yeah, they had a change of ownership, and the staff that we used to deal with is replaced, I think, and I think we got lost in the shuffle. Thanks for us. And, John, again, you know, it's the changing times, and as they all said, the staff, whatever.

You know, back to your, you know, this whole thing with mechanics, and they're going by the wayside, you know, most of the complaints I got this week in e-mail, form from more ladies. I get more emails from women that I do men was about this exact topic and it was either finding a good mechanic or the mistakes that the mechanic made when she brought her car in for a simple oil change and it there were so many complaints this past week. It's, I want to point out, you know, you mentioning, you know,

the disappearance of a great mechanic, well, there you go. But they definitely are worth looking. A good mechanic is worth searching for, that's for sure. It's a nationwide problem, as Rick mentioned. Yes, absolutely. All right. Hey, John, have a great weekend. Stay tuned for our mystery shop.

Thank you. Okay, we are going to take some time for the YouTubers, for the texts, for unanimous feedback. So with that said, the floor, or I should say, the mic is yours, Rick. Okay. Earl was just asking me a question. No, the lady's car is a 16 Prius. So actually, I think if I can, when I get with her, if she doesn't want Pandora, we're just going to delete that. And I think that might sound the problem.

The lady that called in about her Pandora being the only way to stream is she was given some bad information by somebody at our dealership. So we got the correct information. And there hasn't been any change with the Prius. Okay. Now I'm going to start right off with Anne-Marie. Then I'm going to go straight to one that Donovan had because these were both on the same topic. Good morning. The New York Times ran a news story.

the some automakers, change that to most, in my opinion, are collecting user data from internet-connected cars and sharing it with insurance companies without clearly informing the owners of this capability. General Motors vehicles with OnStar reportedly does this. Owners are concerned that hitting the brakes because a kid runs out in front of them would show us a hard stop in the database. The car doesn't record why you jammed on the brakes just that you did. Another common scenario is that data on drivers on the interstate highway who are just keeping up with the flow of traffic could indicate that they are speeders even if it isn't in a reckless manner. Obviously insurance companies take a dim view of sudden

stops and speeding and will accordingly ding drivers. The story mentioned that multiple manufacturers had this reporting feature but Toyota was not mentioned. Ah, we'll get to that. Her first Are the new Toyota's connected to the internet like other cars? Yes, they are. Does Toyota share user data with insurance companies either with an internet connected car or through an app? I don't know. And if so, is it opt in or opt out? In other words, is this something that the car is automatically doing and you would need to find a way to tell it not to do this? Or is this something that you would have to turn on and tell it I want you to do this. Now I'm going to read Donovan's. This came in very early today. He says, this week he came out to several automakers

are selling your driving habits to a company called LexisNexis which is L-E-X-I-S N-E-X-I-S who then sells the information to insurance companies. A Florida man had his rates double on his Cadillac

because General Motors sold his driving habits to them, and he is suing GM now. Ford, Toyota, and several other brands, sell your driving information, such as acceleration, braking, turning too hard, times you drive, etc. You can turn this function off either in the car or the app for the car, and everyone should. It's your data. They have no right to sell it. We have to stop letting brands get away with this. Now, from what Donovan's saying here, this sounds like it's something that you would have to actually opt out of.

So if your car has, like the Toyota Safety Sense app, or you have your car connected to your cell phone by way of an app, then yes, they have access to all of that data from your car. Now, what you'd need to do, obviously, go in that app and search for how to turn off that shan, that sharing feature or how to opt out of data sharing. But there's data in your car that is collected that you can't opt in and out of

and that if there is an accident then the police have access to that and of course also the insurance companies I would think in the event of an accident but not before the accident but after the accident. However, that is all stored as what's called an

ROB, a record of behavior. stored in the computer's data systems and it is isolated. It can only be accessed by connecting a scan tool to it, which my scan tool that I have at the shop, I can connect in and I can look and see those records of behaviors. So it is accessible and you cannot opt out of that or turn that off, but it's not accessible directly on the internet. Yeah.

If you want to read more about this topic that Anne-Marie and Donovan and Rick were covering, you can pick up the New York Times. And the rest of that story is right here on B3. It's an interesting article. You might want to take a look at it. And now this one is coming from a texter called Deck. He says the CEO of Hertz steps down after being hit with expensive. of EV repairs and low resale prices following the purchase of 100,000 Teslas.

And Deck says, where there's smoke, there is fire. Earl predicted this a while back. Trouble it hurts. It hurts have been hanging on by thread for a long time, but they keep coming back to life. They've been in and out of bankruptcy a couple times, I think. Okay. And this next one is coming from Nick. And this one, actually, a friend of mine, just had a similar issue. She was going to a parking lot and a little quick, and she hit a speed bump that she didn't see in time

and was concerned if she might have hurt her car. Well, Nick says, my wife was driving our 2020 Ford Fusion last week, and she ran over a pothole. A wrench light, a light in the shape of a wrench, came on, and the car became sluggish. I assume was the limp mode. When she turned off the car and restarted it, the light went off and the car went back to normal. I checked for codes using my scan tool when she got home, but no error codes were present.

What do you think happened? Should I take it into the shop or run it to see if it happens again? In this case, Nick, what most likely happened is your car detected that impact and was concerned that it might be a collision. So it puts your car into a safety mode. Fortunately, it didn't detonate airbags because I have heard of that happening on a hard enough impact, even with a pothole.

It can cause these cars to overreact. And that's what your board did. It overreacted a little bit to it. But shutting it off and restarting it basically reboots the system. And when it checks its systems and sees no problem, then it will run normally. So I don't think you'll have anything else to worry about on that one.

Reboot everything. Yep. A new mantra. Absolutely. Very much so. Okay, we've got 931 on the clock. Do you have something quick as far as a Texas concerned, Rick? We have one last quick one we'll do here.

This is from Bob. He says, good morning. If one buys a Toyota certified used vehicle, and has the drive train warranty, is there a list that the buyer can get that shows the covered parts? Actually, if you read in the fine print, that's one of the things that they will say, they'll list not so much the covered parts, they'll say internally lubricated. That means basically anything the oil touches is covered. If they have the goods lot of fine print there, get out your magnifying glass,

because it's going to tell you the list of the important stuff, what's not covered. And what it also means if you have your car lubricated according to manufacturers' recommendations, which today is typically about every 10,000 miles, you're not going to have any problem with your power train. So a power train warranty is worthless. When you see car dealers advertising free lifetime warranties, it's typically a free lifetime power train warranty,

and it's void and null if you don't have your car lubricated by the manual. manufacturer's recommendation. So if it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true. It's just something you don't need to worry about if you go by the rules of maintenance on your car. Yep. Okay. Okay. And Earl wrote a column quite some time ago on that exact copy. And don't forget, you know, you want to ask what it doesn't cover your warranty, what it doesn't cover. we are going to we're going to go to our dog of the week first of all and we are going to run the meeting everybody a little bit of big dog ranch rescue because we got a lot of new people don't even know what the dog of the week is we're going to get to that too

Jonathan what do you have for me anyway let me tell you a little bit about big dog ranch and the you know some of the perks out there besides having a a great place out there for you to visit you don't need you know to make an appointment you can just walk in and just like the dogs you can just go anywhere and look at anything and they have everything from a surgery room to a a puppy little playground out there you you don't want to miss that. That's a lot of fun. And they have all these perks for the veterans. And you can take a look at all of that by going to www. Big Dog Ranch Rescue, big dog ranch rescue. Big dog ranch rescue.org. And our dog of the week that we present, the fees are paid. That's a huge

help when you want to adopt a dog and it's $200 so it's it's pretty significant so we'll let Earl mention some things about Big Dog Ranch that maybe I didn't cover well it's just the largest no-kill shelter in the United States there are a lot of places that take care of dogs they pick them up off the streets and they put them in cages and I'm not I'm not disparaging those organizations A lot of them are public. They're underfunded. Big Dog Ranch Rescue is very well funded, and they take care of thousands of dogs, and they can afford to keep a dog for as long as they have to. They don't euthanize their dogs at all. So that's what really drew us to support Big Dog Ranch Rescue because they're so amazing in what they do. They save thousands of dogs from all over the world, not just the United States. And when they bring a dog into their care, they keep that dog. A year, two years, they have dogs at Big Dog Ranch Rescue, been out there three or four years. So we try to help get them adopted. Every time we get a dog adopted or fostered, we make room for another dog.

So that's our passion for Big Dog Ranch Rescue. Absolutely. And ladies and gentlemen, this is the biggest, the biggest no-kill shelter in the United States. So it's just an amazing place, and you might want to take a run out there and take a look around. Loxahachi, Florida. There you go. We are going to go to the video that Jonathan was so kind to provide us with, and it's all about Tucker. Hi, I'm Natalie with Big Dog Ranch Rescue, and today I have Tucker.

Tucker is a one-year-old male. He was rescued from a high-kill shelter in Georgia. Tucker is a hound, so they love. to sniff and so when you're walking with him he definitely will stop and sniff around he's a really wonderful boy he still is a puppy's he's only one year old so we recommend really children over the age of 10 with Tucker just because he can be a bit hyper at times but as you can see he's a really calm dog and he's just really looking for it forever home he is also heartwarm positive which we need to keep him

calm during those treatments big dog ranch rescue is taking care of all of his heartworm treatments and when he's done he'll be great but he is currently undergoing treatment he is also toy possessive so which is why with older children he probably would be better just so you understand that with him and he is good with other dogs though as well so that's you know a real positive for him and we love him here and we hope that you will come and meet him and fall in love. And, you know, I might add that Tucker came from Georgia. I wasn't sure whether that was in the video or not. And that I like this, what they say about Tucker.

He's sleek, he's shiny, and he is sharp. And he is a beautiful dog. You want to go to www. www. Big Dog Ranch.org and take a look at Tucker. I'll add to this that confessions of a recovering car dealer that has been written by Earl Stewart is you can go to Amazon.com and you can purchase that book.

All proceeds go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. All proceeds go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. So it's a win-win. situation. In case you didn't catch what I said earlier, the $200 adoption fee is taken care of by us at Earl Stewart, Toyota. Now, I believe that we are going to scurry to our mystery shop. And mystery shopping report, Agent Lightning did another fabulous job. And as she did, does every week, and she certainly is an asset and amazing person. She dots the eyes and crosses the T's.

That mystery shop is of Nissan. That's Nissan up in Stewart. I thought it was Chrysler-D. Judge. While I was reading the wrong mystery shock. Okay. Repeat that, would you? Okay, it's a Wallace Chrysler Dodge Jeep in Stewart, Florida. There you go.

Okay. Now, I'll speak in the first person as if I were, Agent Lightning. I arrived late afternoon when I walked in the front door. I was greeted by a greeter. That makes sense. Some dealers have greeters. Some dealers don't. I kind of like the idea.

It's nice for the customer not to have to wait around, wonder where the salespeople are. Yeah, I agree with you. She asked for my name and phone number and said, Sabrina will be with you just a few minutes. She had to use a restroom real quick, but assured me she'd be in soon. I asked if Sabrina was familiar with Jeeps because I had a lot of questions, and she assured me she was,

and she said she even owns one herself. A few minutes later, Sabrina came inside, introduce herself, and asked, how can I help you today? I showed her my phone and said, the Jeep sitting out front, the $17,000 discount, $17,000 off. That's a huge discount. Caught my attention. And I'm very interested. I let her know that it also had been online, saw a lot of discounted vehicles that are supposedly being cleared out. And she stopped to tell me, in order to get that clearance price, you'd have to qualify for different rebates.

And here she goes. We've been here and done that. Like retired military, first responder, etc. There's a whole bunch of them. There's even a farmer's discount, as I recall. They come up with these obscure, almost impossible, to obtain qualifications. She encouraged me to push the little eye, you know, that little eye. They put it in microscopic print near the advertisements. The little eye icon on their listing. The one that links to their disclaimer.

I did and saw this. Here's a disclaimer. If you can find the eye and click on it, you'll find this. Pricing provided may vary significantly to the website and dealer as a result of supply training constraints. Pricing shown as non-binding and does not constitute an offer. Contact your dealer for updated vehicle pricing. Now, it's just nonsense.

The world seems to believe that you can say or do anything as long as you disclaim it in the fine print. I mean, that might even be a murder defense one time. Well, I told the guy I was going to murder him. It was in a fine print. He didn't see it. I mean, when you break the law, I don't know why. Well, I do know why. It's because the regulators don't have the manpower or the funding to enforce the laws we already have on the books.

Now, this goes for every sort of crime. We're really good. The United States is really good, and the states and the localities are really good at making rules and making laws. But they're terrible in enforcing them. Not that they don't want to enforce them. Maybe they do. I don't know. But even if they wanted to, they don't have the staff.

So here we are. The old disclaimer. It is illegal to advertise a price and not sell the car for that price. If you are going to modify it, the law says, the Federal Trade Commission says if you advertise a price, you have to have the modification in the same print alongside of the price. So if you say, I'll sell you this car for $20,000, but you have to be a U.S. Marine to get that discount, it has to be in the same print right alongside of the price. Of course, they don't do that because it wouldn't work.

It only works if you hide it, hence the fine print. Continuing on, I'm Agent Lightning, and I'm the Mr. Sharper. I continued to show her the online advertisement that shows up to $17,000 like the cheap out front shows. She replied, again, like you're wasted my time, again, that's assuming you qualify for all the discounts. Sabrina then suggested we go inside and look at the models that we have available. We walked a lot.

I chose the 2012 Jeep Gladiator Willis Edition. She said she'd be right back with the keys. I sat there for about seven minutes waiting for her. The Menority label was lying on the front dash. That's where the

South Florida. The agent lightning shops other states, Tennessee, Pennsylvania. And the only state where you find the minority label everywhere except the windshield where it's slinkly supposed to be in Florida. So this binroney label was lying on the front dash.

Sometimes you're in the trunk, sometimes you're on the floor, sometimes you can't find it at all. And that's a federal violation, a federal law violation. And there was no way to view it unless you were a giant, you know, with a magnifying glass, I suppose. There was an addendum label. Of course, there is always in South Florida, always an addendum label. It was neatly adhered to the windshield next to the AP.

pillar, and it showed a $2,197 market adjustment, the infamous market adjustment, a $599-599-Wallis protection package, and then include nitrogen and auto-butler, and a $199 pinstripe that probably cost the deal $50. Sabrina return unlocked the doors. I finally saw the MSRP, which was $55,175. I pressed her to give you a better idea of what she thinks I could get for it, but she just said,

she said, you only qualify for the current owner's rebate with your Dodge registered to the house. So we will have to see once we get back inside. Of course, setting me up as Agent Lightning, setting me up for the back and forth, the manager's game. Let me see what I can do for you. you. It seemed like she was getting a little snippy, and she was. I mean, it's bad enough

to flim-flam a customer, but when you get snippy, I mean, that's just stupid. I mean, if you want to take advantage of somebody, you've got to be smooth. So Sabrina, if you really want to screw your customers, you're going to have to be nice to them. You can't be snippy, but she is. I don't she suggested I let her get into the driver's seat to back it out so we could go for a drive. She quickly added that if I'm sure we could just head back inside to work up some numbers. She, you know, I want you to waste my time driving the car is what she's saying. I said, I'm fine with that if the numbers will go and I'll drive it before I finalize the purchase. Once back at her desk, Sabrina asked, will you be financing today? I said,

either finance or pay cash, it all depends on the financing specials. We went back inside to her desk and she took my license, asked a few questions to fill out a customer questionnaire. She then excused herself to go talk to her sales manager, Michael. A few minutes later, she returned with his worksheet. The market value selling price was MSRP, $55,175,000. There were $11,035 in total savings, making the adjusted price of $44,140,140,000. And then they added $19.84 in preloaded accessories. These are dealer-ins-soled, overvalued accessories.

A $615 filing fee, that's a doozy. I mean, you see they vary from $25, $6.15, that's a big filing fee. That cost a dealer $10 to register the car through a company. And they marked the $10. that they pay up to $615 and try to take it from you in an additional profit junk fee. And, of course, the old, all-reliable dock fee, $849 dock fee. My total purchase price, accurately described on the worksheet as such, was $47,58. A $7,587,000 discount from MSRP.

Now, this wasn't so bad, but it was less than that. half of the advertised $17,000 savings. It's the old, get him in the door. Get him in the door any way you can. And that's what they did. I let her know I didn't like the price. She asked me where I wanted to be out the door. I said, I was hoping to be at the advertised price.

Where do you want to be? I saw the ad, I mean, that's where I want to be, plus tax title and place, that's government fees. That's an out-the-door price. And I even threw a, and maybe a dealer fee if I had to. I mean, I'm trying to say, I don't mind a little flim-flam, but you're overdoing this. She said she'd have to go talk to Michael again.

See what he said. The games begin. A few minutes later, they both returned. Michael introduced himself and said, I really want to sell two more jeeps today. I bet he really wants to sell three more jeeps. you'd like to sell a lot of jeeps. And Mr. Wallace, I love this.

And Mr. Wallace gives me a special gift card to give to our customers. He probably has never seen Mr. Wallace. Mr. Wallace has got about 20 stores. And my guess is that Michael doesn't even know what Mr. Wallace looks like. He pulled them out of his pocket and said, what do we need to do to make a deal? Like holding a bunch of cards, gift cards. I said, I really want the online plus tax title and plates.

Sabrina then said, conspiratorily, Michael, she hasn't driven it yet. I mean, it's a cardinal sin. In old school dealerships, you've got to take the customer for a test drive. You got to. I mean, it's mandatory. In their mind's eye that this is going to sell them a car for too much money if they take a test drive. So she says, hey, she hasn't taken a test drive yet. So Michael frown said to me,

go drive it and I'll get new numbers for you. I really like you. And I want to sell you this glad to here. Michael really likes her. So we headed out to go for a test drive. We drove all around Stewart and then returned to find Michael who had a work sheet all ready for me.

I tried to take a picture. I love this. I tried to take a picture. But Michael objected and said, Oh, no. Mr. Wallace does not allow any pictures of his internal documents. Like a Brunerone label is an internal document, right? You can write down the numbers, but no pictures, please. It's top secret.

I texted my husband, Agent Lightning, I texted my husband these numbers. Market, 55,175 savings, 14,035, adjustment 4140, preloaded. These are pre-loaded dealer in small accessories. $1984, pinstripes, nitrous, air, and two coatings of, oh, two coatings of Auto Butler. Not one, but two. Two coatings. That's desperation there. Filing fee, $615, $615, cost of $10.

$8.49 dock fee, that's nothing, because there is no dock fee unless you finance. Total purchase price, $44,58, and 50 cents, and there's $3,538, Florida sales tax. Out the door, $48,126,76. In other words, the price was a real $10,587 discount from MSRP, not the $17,000 that they advertised. The President said, let's take it to them so we can see it. Michael turned to Sabrina and said, no, if her husband was going to see it, he would be here with her. I get it.

He turned back to me and asked whose credit it was going to be under, and I said, probably my husband says he has higher credit score. Little did they know my husband was on the parking lot, waiting in the car. A few minutes later, my husband texted me back and said that he doesn't want the Willis trim level, said he was sorry if I misunderstood. we talked earlier. This is her key to get out of there because she's probably afraid they're going to tie and gag her. I acted flustered and said, I'm going to kill my husband. I can't believe that he just texted me back. I showed him the text and he said he doesn't want the

Willis trim level. I started looking at their inventory in line for the higher up trim levels and Michael said, let me know which one and I'll work with you the same type of deal that you have. I really want to sell you a Jeep today. I didn't see any colors of models on the line that I like so I told them that I was going to collect myself take a walk outside I left got a text from someone named Tony a few minutes later this is Tony don't even know who Tony was and Tony says no last page oh last page yeah I miss I missed of the last page anyway that's it that's the mystery shopping report I can't I can't do anything ladies and gentlemen if you want to vote shouldn't text us

at 772-497-6-5-3-0. That's the mystery shop of Wallace C. And we're great on the curve. A is perfect. There are very few perfect dealers. F is a failure. We can't fail too many dealers. Otherwise, you don't have a place to buy a car.

Grade on the curve. It's an average report, which is average is bad in car dealership, so that'd be a C. So, it keeps in mind. We'd love to hear your votes. Okay. T-Cash says, F equals for more fine print B.S. Click the I for more info on why you don't qualify for anything.

Tom Seko says, Up to an A if they qualify, disclaimer, they only qualify for a D. Monroney violation, addendums, and fees, on par with Central Florida CDJR, who has $4,382 in junk fees. Woof. Joseph Kelleher says,

says D minus, too many junk fees. Mark Anderson, that Jeep deal gave me the Willys. Great D. They said, Willis or Willis? It's actually pronounced Willis. Although it's spelled Willis. Caught me off guard years ago, I first heard that one. Cliff's Pick says, this nonsense of add-ons will never go away.

A big fat F. Johnny Z. Fradley, even with all the junk fees, looks like an okay price, but still a D. Brian said Latko, it's a D for me. Mark Smith, definitely a D for me. I think with these, they're saying D isn't, be ready to defend yourself when you head in there just in case. And let's see if we got, ah, here we got some more. Frank from Jupiter Farm says, Once again, more bait and switch tactics.

It would be funny if it wasn't so expensive for the consumer. Test drive tactics, no picks, on and on, walk away D plus. One more, Bob, I advertised my grade as an A, but if you read the fine print, it's really a D. Myself, I'm going to go with the D for Defend Yourself. If you go in there and work it. Mike could get a decent price out of them, but be ready to beat them up a bit. I'm going to go with a D.

Well, I'm going to give them an F, and that's just for a totally bad attitude by Sabrina and Michael. Terrible, plus all the fees, of course. I probably would go with an F. I'm going to stick with my D. And the reason I mention that is I know Bill Wallace, and he's a good guy, he's a honest guy. He's got too many dealerships, and when you have too many dealerships and too many people working for you, this is what happened. So I give him another chance. I'm going to be calling Bill Wallace anyway.

I'm going to try to get him on board to support the combat auto retail scams, which is the Federal Trade Commission regulation that we're trying to get into effect. I'm filing an amicus on behalf of the support of the Federal Trade Commission to get the regulation put into effect in July 30th. So I'm going to ask Bill Wallace to come along with us. And one last one to put in here. Dave C. says, Jeep just emptied every pocket. I love that one. That is awesome. Okay.

How much time do we have, gentlemen? We have two minutes. Okay, well, let me do this one more thing. I had a conversation with the appeals lawyer, and the appeals lawyer is very adamant about the fact that we need to get more car dealers on board to file this amicus brief with the court, circuit court in Texas to get the Federal Trade Commission

combat auto retail scamps. Any you car dealers out there listening that have got the courage to go along with me, I mentioned I'm going to call Bill Wallace. I have an attorney preparing the brief to the court, and if we could get several dealers. See, the honest dealers want to do business honestly, and a lot of them can't do it because if they advertise honestly,

the other dealers will eat their lunch, because they will be permitted to do bait and switch and steal the business from the honest dealer. So the honest dealers do the same thing to fight fire with fire. But I believe there's a lot more honest dealers in this country than we realize, and this is our one chance to come out of the closet and be honest and try to get the support of the Federal Trade Commission. Okay, folks, we're at the end of the show.

We want to thank you all for joining us, as I always say, you're an important part of the show. Have a great St. Patrick's Day weekend, and we'll see you right back here. 8 a.m. Saturday morning. Take go!