Earl Stewart on Cars - 03.18.2023 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Southern 441 Nissan

Episode Date: March 18, 2023

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning revisits a local Nissan dealer to see what they have on the lot and how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2023 Nissan Pathfinder Platinum SUV. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, his tweets at www.twitter.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. Sign up to become one of Earl's Vigilantes and help others in your community to avoid getting ripped off by a car dealer. Go to www.earlsvigilantes.com for more information. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

Good morning, everyone. Well, we're back in the studio, and we're having a lot of fun already. I know it's hard for you folks to believe it, but I think we enjoy the show here in the studio with Nancy and Rick and Stu and I and Jonathan. I really think we have as much fun, maybe more than you do. We love being here. It's a pleasure. And

I start to say, even if you weren't out there listening, we'd still do the show, but I'd be lying to you. We probably wouldn't do that. Radio station wouldn't let us do it anyway. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it half as much as we do. We're here to help you learn

a better way to buy or release a car. learn better way to maintain or repair your car. It's a challenge today, we know that. And a whole lot of stuff going on in the automotive world. Manufacturing, retailing. Of course, today with the, can we call this post-COVID era? I hope so. In this post-COVID era, there's just a whole lot of stuff going on.

I mean, I've been around a long time, and I can tell you, I have never seen the world the way it is today. It's crazy. It is crazy. And we've always said that because I'm sure my grandfather and my father, everybody said. But today it is extra crazy. It is extra crazy. And I think I'm an optimist.

I see things in a positive light. I think that we're on the road to a far better future. I know people look at it the other way, but hey, everybody's entitled to their opinion. I really think that you folks out there, and I don't know whether to say you're driving automobiles, because in a few years, the automobiles will be driving you, and I know a lot of you think that's a bunch of poppycock, but I believe that. And I think the manufacturers will be selling you cars directly before much longer, and instead of going to a dealer, well, of course, we'll be out of a job here, maybe.

could be Earl Stewart on manufacturers taking advantage of you instead of Earl Stewart on car dealers taking advantage of you. But the whole thing, retail, wholesale, manufacturing technology is just going through the roof. Now, I have to bring myself down to Earth. Nancy and I were having our typical morning discussion before the radio show, and we started to talk about the fact that, you know, 95 plus... percent of you out there driving combustion engine vehicles.

And you've got enough problems with those. Now we're going to, now we're throwing the electric vehicle, and we're throwing the autonomous at you, and we're telling you how to deal with that. Well, you've got enough problems dealing with the gasoline-powered car that you're driving, and we still have the dealer network, the most infamous group of retailers in the world, the car dealers, the Gallup annual poll on honesty and ethics and professions, which car dealers right at the bottom or next to bottom every year. I've been doing that for 40-some-odd years.

So, even though it's fun to talk about autonomous driving and electric vehicles and all that kind of thing, we have to be careful not to go nuts in that area. And what's interesting to us isn't necessarily the same thing. It's interesting to you because, you know, we're in the business. We're on top of things as to what's going on. And you've got that, you know, a 2020, you know, a Honda cord that you're talking about getting repaired or maintained or you want to maybe buy a 2023 Honda cord. You're probably going to buy a gas power, maybe a hybrid.

And so we've got to help you there. And a caller, I think it was two weeks ago, text or something, he said, you should rename your car. Earl Stewart on Tesla instead of Earl Stewart on cars. And that kind of sobered me up there because I do know that I tend to talk about Tesla. And it's hard for me to control myself. So help me control myself. Ask the questions that are on your mind, not on what's my mind or Nassies or Stoos or Rick's mind. Ask your questions.

And probably most of them are going to be related. or may I get my tongue untwisted here, be related to combustion engine vehicles. And if you want to talk to us with your human voice, you can call on the old-fashioned telephone [phone]. That's 877-960-9960. Nancy Stewart sitting to my left here in the studio. She's got a laptop.

She'll see the call when it comes in. Jeremy in the control room, shoots it through to her laptop. She knows your name and where you're calling from, and we will stop whatever we're doing, go to the phone and answer your call. We like the calls. They're personable. We get your personality. Everybody gets a feel of the communication better on an old-fashioned phone call.

If you get to want to do that, we have a text number, and my apologies to all you folks that listen every week. I know we've got some really loyal listeners. You've heard these. You probably know the number is better than I do. Text number is 772-4976530. That's 772, 4976530. And my son, Stu, who's sitting right across the desk from us here,

he monitors those texts. And he keeps a tally on them. And we get to them before the end of the show. So if you want to text, then I'm a texter. I have to confess. I know I'm bragging on the phone calls. Be honest with you, I get so many phone calls during the day. I prefer text, and that's just me.

But I think listening is a special thing, so we prioritize you, we drop what we're doing. We've got five lines coming in. We promise we'll try not to make you wait too long. Now, there's a whole, my favorite communication, I just because I'm a tech guy, I like Your Anonymous Feedback.com. I discovered that, I think.

I probably Googled it. And it's a way you can contact the show, communicate with us, and we don't know where you are. You're totally anonymous. I know some of you don't believe that. I think that's the reason we don't get more of those, but we really, truly, cannot trace the call. We don't know where you are, who you are,

and you can say anything you want to because we can't get mad well we can get mad at you but we still get the message and we read it now we will also repeat it on the air although we will censor it for really you know for profanity and lewd and lascivious behavior

we gotta we gotta do that but we will get the message I strongly apply what it is yeah I don't say the words but I don't get in trouble with FCC I can do that expletive deleted kind of a thing So we'll do that.

And then, of course, we've got the YouTube. YouTube is big, big, big. We just had a presentation from our marketing company at our dealership, full disclosure. We own a Toyota dealership. But we had a marketing presentation, and YouTube was the number two form. TikTok was number one. Number two form of marketing communications. Isn't that wild?

I mean, good Lord. YouTube. I mean, remember when it was a daily newspaper? Yeah, and then it was radio, and then it was television? Boy, television was big. Boy, if you can afford to be on television and be marketing something, you are the king. Now, TikTok and YouTube. Rick monitors YouTube. YouTube.com for slash wrong cars.

We have a cadre of the better-informed, more, entertaining, better, the personalities on YouTube are incredible. We've got some people out there that are just really, really interesting. They can have their own show. And Rick Kearney, who is sitting to my right, if you're new, Rick Kearney is our certified diagnostic master technician, knows everything you can know about an automobile. You can ask him anything about maintaining, repairing the car. And he'll help you.

whether you're driving a Honda or a Prius or a Subaru, whatever you're driving, Rick can give you some tips, save you money. Diagnose a problem over the air. He does that frequently. So he's monitoring YouTube. He also monitors Facebook. Facebook.com. Or slash hurl and cars.

You know, Facebook, I thought I was really a cool guy because I do a whole lot of Facebook. People are stopping the Facebook, and they're going to. They're going to YouTube and they're going to TikTok. I think I have the TikTok app, but I don't even use it. So that's because I'm an old guy. It's really entertaining. It's really entertaining if you want to give up your private information.

I should. I'm going to make it a resolution to go and familiar. When I found out it was the number one marketing thing, I'm still in the business. I still like to market things. I've got to know about TikTok. So we'll have to start monitoring TikTok, I guess. I don't know. So there we are.

That's what we do. That's why we're here. 20 years we've been around. Nancy Stewart sitting to my left is my co-host from the get-go. And she was with me when it was just a half an hour show. Now we're two hours. And we're on from 10 to, no, from 8 to 10 on east of. standard time, 8 to 10, Eastern Standard Time.

I'm going to turn the mic over to Nancy because she's got an offer a lot of you regulars know about to the ladies out there. She's turned our show into a co-ed show from a old boys club, start out just a bunch of old guys like me yakking back and forth at each other. Now we have about 50-50. The ladies are calling the show. Thank God for that because they know a lot of stuff we guys don't know because they're different people.

they think differently. They operate differently, and they operate pretty damn well, in my opinion. So I'm going to turn the mic over to Nancy, and she'll tell you what she's got to say. First of all, you're not an old guy. No, that's true. Okay. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Earl Stewart on Cars. I have to mention something that Earl talked about when he opened a show, and that is this crazy world that we're living in now since COVID. you know, I really believe that it is we're going to get back to that comfort zone. It's just going to be a rough journey and things are going to be comfortable again. So with that said,

give us a call. Tell us how you feel. 877-960-99-60. And you can text us at 772-4976530. Also, you know of your anonymous feedback.com always available and you can let your voice be heard and no one will know who you are. For the ladies, I thank you each and every week. You've been instrumental in getting us, the ladies, where we are today and it has been quite a journey again. I give $50 to the first two new female callers. And if you could be so kind to give us a call, say hello. Or if you'd like to share your experience with us, whether it be leasing, buying, whether it be service. Service is big with the ladies.

The percentage of women who come through the service department will really surprise you. 877-960-99-60. That's 877-960. and don't forget about Earl's column. Very interesting again this week, and you can pick that up in the hometown news, the Florida Weekly, or you can go to Earl on cars. And that column is don't pay full price for half a car.

Makes a whole lot of sense. You want to take a look at that. And more good news, I believe that it was Stu, who mentioned it last week, about incentive, car incentives, and they are returning, and as inventory rises, slowly rises, and you've got to make sure I'm tapping my pen on my book right now because I couldn't emphasize this even more than verbally. Make sure you're on top of things as far as the incentives are concerned. The dealer isn't going to say, hey, we have this, this, and this for you.

They're going to keep that quiet because that's money in their pocket. So make sure that you know what the incentive is in the purchase that you make. Again, that number is 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-60. Now back to the recovering car dealer. You know, I forgot to cover perhaps the arguably the most important part of our show, at least the most entertaining. That's our mystery shopping report, and that'll come in the last half hour. And we go out somewhere, and we have a mystery shopper right now named Agent Lightning. We've had several over the years.

Agent Lightning is arguably the best we've had, and she wonders around a lot. You'll see her in Tennessee, you'll see her in Pennsylvania, and she's, you'll see her in Pennsylvania, and she's, in Florida now. She hits her on. We concentrate on South Florida, I have to tell you, but nowhere that I know of is there an equivalent to what we do.

First of all, we sneak into it. We don't sneak in. We go in disguised as a customer, Agent Lightning does. She pretends to buy her lease a car from a dealer. Now, we name the dealer. That's pretty dangerous, libel, slender, you know, very scary.

But we name the dealer, we name the salespeople, we name the sales managers. And if the dealership broke the law, we're talking about federal and Florida law, we say so. Do you know what could happen to us, me personally, and Stuart, for that matter, Rick and your co-conspirators, Nancy, maybe they might even go after Jonathan, you never know. Jeremy I don't know

I think the disclosure in the beginning the show says the opinions are of Earl Stewart's only and not of the crew and staff they do that disclosure and I consider that a compliment the fact of the matter is I think a good lawyer could penetrate that

defense because what about somebody that doesn't listen to the first part of the show? Oh no that's it I'm out of here and I say something like dealer XYZ broke the law and dealer XYZ says oh no I didn't and he girly he hires a really good lawyer

I think they could they could go after everybody anyway I probably terrified the radio station the owners and even the people in the studio here but the point is we've been doing this for 20 years and nobody sued us

much less one to be honest with you I hope somebody sues this I mean I really mean that because I would demand a jury trial I would demand cameras in the, or I guess, iPhones. There will be 300 cameras in the quarter.

We have video. I would publicize that trial. I would take it to the Supreme Court. And this would be national PR. So whether you won or lost, they'd hear what you did. And even if you won, they'd think, boy, he got off, you know, pretty easy from my opinion, Rick. Negan 1 actually has an incredible story that fits right in with that.

I'll think let's hear it. Apparently the Stalantis group that owns Dodge Chrysler, he says, Negan says, I would like to ask Earl's opinion. The Durango Hellcat owners, the Dodge Durango is a mid-sized SUV that for some reason Dodge decided to put in a Hellcat motor drive line,

which is a super strong, basically turns this mid-sized SUV into a rocket, are suing Stilantis. A Durango Hellcat was promoted as a one-year-only vehicle for 2021. They were going to be a limited production and only for that year, meaning obviously would make it a very valuable vehicle to collect. 2003, Stalantis announced a 2003. Dorengo Hellcat, so the 2021 owners are quite angry. Do you think the owners can sue Stilantes over false advertising?

And because 21 was advertised specifically that it was going to be the only year ever that that vehicle would be produced? I'd say absolutely. I think they, obviously, if they can sue, you can sue anybody. But the fact is, I think they can sue and win. But it won't go to trial because I think Stalantis knows they're guilty, and they'll settle out of court. 90-some-odd percent of all losses are settled out of court.

So that goes what I'm saying. But, yeah, there you go. And it's exciting, the Mr. Shopping report we have at the end of the show. So stay tuned, even if you don't want to listen to Us, Yak. Tune in around 9.30, and you'll be able to hear that Mr. Schropper's right. By the way, it is, I don't want to give it. it away. I'm not, I'm going to tell you either it's almost the best, almost the worst. Don't call it a doozy. Don't call it a doozy. We have too many doozies. We need something above dozy.

Well, let's get to our text or our YouTube's or whatever. Who else to go? Can we say that on the air? Doozzy? No. If we elevate the. I was going to say dozy plus. Yeah, I got a text from Anne-Marie. She sent a cartoon. I sent it to Jonathan. He can put it on the screen for our streaming audience. I saw a cartoon in the paper that brought home the importance of mechanics slash auto technicians. Thank you, Rick, and all the other technicians out there that keep our cars running. This got me thinking.

50 years ago, it was common to see fathers and sons working on the family car, changing tires, changing the oil, doing tune-ups and routine maintenance. Kids developed a love of cars. They wanted to drive as soon as possible and often became mechanics. Nowadays, cars are so sophisticated that it's getting harder for people to do their own maintenance. I understand that kids nowadays aren't interested in learning to drive as soon as they are legally allowed.

That's true. I have a niece that is putting that off, much less repair cars. That presents a problem. Until the day comes when cars are totally self-driving and repairs can be taken care of by either software update or a skilled robot, how are we as a society going to train and retain all the auto technicians that we need in the meantime? And that's from Amory. and I hope you saw the cartoon up there.

It's kind of inspiring. That's a great question. I think that for a long time we're going to have a lot of non-autonomous used cars and non-electric cars that require that. But eventually, over time, there will be fewer mechanics and technicians needed and eventually, just like, you know, old technologies,

we don't have a lot of chariot, you know, maintenance guys around anymore, but I think it's going to be longer. than we think. There are still ferriers and blacksmiths who shoe horses. Right.

So I'm just saying it'll become a... It'll drop that number dramatically. It'll become like an artistry like you see people that make their own wine or olives. For the guys that can still repair the old cars.

Right. They'll be highly in demand. I still kind of laugh because when I started working for Earl 28 years ago and working next to me was a young fellow by the name of John Desmond. He had been to Lincoln Tech, or no, I beg a pardon, New England Tech.

And their big advertisement was be a New England Tech graduate or compete with one. Right, I remember. Well, he bought an old FJ40 land cruiser, the Jeep style, the old original one. And when he couldn't get it to run at one point, I asked if he had checked the points on it. And he looked at me, he said, points. I don't know anything about points. They never taught us about points. And I kind of laughed because one of the first things they taught us was the history, of cars,

so that we understood how the basic systems became the electronic systems. And I helped him adjust the points on this thing and got it running quick and easy. And it was just the idea that he had gone through the entire school and it paid like $30,000 and didn't know points he could have. sensor on an ignition system that now it's all electronic, but even so I could still go back and work on 50s and 60s cars. Thank you, Rick. And it just, it's, we're not going to have that anymore.

Right, but you'll be very valuable when the one in the Armageddon comes. Maybe so, but. Stu, I think that you probably are better able than anyone here to answer this question, I think. Would you say that there are less Gen X. And millennials that would say, oh, geez, I've got to go out front and I got to fill my windshield wiper fluid. Or, damn, I got to change this tire, you know. Not many, like, I mean, Rick is an exception, I think. You are.

In my generation, which is Generation X, I don't know very many people that fix their own cars or do their own maintenance. And I was born in 1968. I grew up with a love of cars. I couldn't wait to get my license. A lot of that was I was in a car family. but I really didn't have a lot of friends. I mean, most of my friends can change the tire, but they're not doing their own maintenance.

Let's take, for example, you have, well, are they still called teenagers? They're a little older than, well, close to being. Would you say, you know, one of them would go out front and say, hey, listen, I've got to change that tire? No, no, I don't think Gen Z, and I don't know them all, but I know a little subset. But for my kids, they don't change tires or know much about the cars at all.

Let me interrupt there and just get on with the thing. Let me say this about tire changing. Tire changing is a very dangerous thing. And it ought to be recognized. It's no longer a badge of ability. And I can change my own tires. I've changed a lot of tires when I was much younger. and I can remember almost dying

I remember changing a tire in El Miro, New York when it was below zero and I had to put chains on my tire. I didn't change the tire. I jacked up the back of the car on Icefield Street and the wind was blowing

the car was waving and I'm under there put these chains on it. So I think it's a good thing we don't maintain our cars anymore. you can get electrocuted, you can get crushed, you can get hurt badly. And so you old-timers out there, I know you won't listen to me, but I don't blame the younger folks for not wanting to work on a car. Get electrocuted, you don't want to do that. And plus, like a lot of things, it doesn't make sense

because usually everything is with an app or a phone call, so roadside assistance is what you get when you feel like that. I agree. What else did that, Marie have to say? I agree with what you said, Stu, but you said you came from a car family. I came from a different culture, and we just kind of grew up. It was just secondhand what we did. Your dad just talked about chains and all that.

That was just something I did, and you take these safety precautions with brick behind the tire, you know, this behind the back tire, and it was just secondhand. A couple bags of kitty litter in the back seat. Everything and anything. Yep. So your dad wants to move on with. with Ann Maria. I can see him glaring at me. We have another text from Bob.

Good morning. My question is with the push button starting system that works with key fobs. If you're on a trip and you lose the key fob, what do you do? Unfortunately, if you lose the keyfob, you're going to have to go to the manufacturing dealer to get a replacement. It costs a fortune. And it'll cost a lot of money, yeah. Roadside assistance, we were just talking about that can get you to the dealership. But the dealer needs to actually program a new remote that matches your car. Now, there is, and this is actually one of the few warranty type things that I would highly

recommend if you feel that you're one of those people that you lose things a lot. My first thing, put an air tag on your key chain. You've got a good chance then, because everybody knows right where their cell phone is. Half the people can't tell you where your keys are. Half the people can't tell you what an air tag is. Well, an air tag basically. Or you get a trucking device. Put a tracking device on your keys. But if you do lose that Fobb, if you do lose that Fobb, there are companies out there where you can buy insurance basically

that you pay a certain amount per month. And if you lose your keys, they will pay to replace that key for you. And it actually is, it'll pay for itself if you lose your keys more than once. You could also put it in a little jar every month. month in case you lose your keys that certainly too and by the way bear in mind if say for instance you happen to fall in a pool or something with that key fob and it stops working don't just assume that you're stuck hold the key up to that push start button within an inch half an inch of the button and push the button with your foot on the brake and it will

still start the engine because the chip inside is totally waterproofed itself the electronics that send the radio signal are not, they really can't be without massive fortune. But the chip itself, as long as it's up next to that spot, you'll be able to start the car. You can start the car. That's so cool. Good information.

All right. I'm going to jump over to anonymous feedback because, unless we have any calls, here's a good one. I didn't realize this. It says, I saw, it's also from Roy, from Denver. It's anonymous feedback. I saw an article stating a federal agency is concerned that some EVs, including some Tesla's, don't include an AM radio. The article stated the electronics, drive train, power converters, et cetera, caused so much interference that an AM radio would be unusable.

Do you know if this is common across all EVs or just select manufacturers? And that's from Roy. I read that article, too, I think it was in New York Times. And, yeah, Tesla, I didn't know this because I don't really listen to the radio, but they've removed AM radio for that reason. I did a little Googling, I guess, AM radio, which we're on right now, listenership has shrunk over the years. No, we're on that. We're on both.

And about 20% of the global or the American listening audience listens to AM radio. When that happens, if that's true, I mean, there's other ways to get radio on streaming devices on your phone. You can play it through your car if you have a Tesla right now. And most do. Most do, especially Tesla's. Tesla already has an internet radio service that's separate from your phone that you can dial in an AM radio station on the car. So it's coming through the internet wirelessly, I mean, over the 5G network, and then your car is going to play it. So effectively, you're not going to lose it. But the actual radio, apparently that's what's happening. And my comment also would be our federal government and our state governments and all the other people that are responsible. for advising the public of emergencies ought to be thinking about a better way to reach everybody than AM radio.

So they're living in the 20th century. The people that are doing the emergency warnings should be in the 21st century, and there should be digital warnings to everybody. Okay. Rick, how are you doing over there with comments? I'm pretty quiet right now. Okay, that gives me a cue to mention the telephone number. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-650.

Don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. Here's a little bulletin from the automotive news. Nancy and I read that every week to get some interesting stuff for the show. And this will send a chill down all you dealers' backs, including Stu and I. Mercedes has built a, I think it's like an 800-foot showroom in, or 800-foot dealership in Georgia, something like that, very small. In other words, it's a boutique kind of a, we don't call ourselves a car dealership, you come in here and you buy a car, and they're also going to satellite service. So the brick-and-mortar dealerships that most you car dealers out there have, including us, we have a Taj Mahal, huge dealership that we spend a lot of money on, renovated two or three times, and a huge investment in this brick-and-mortar dealership. And the fact that the matter is, people are buying cars online.

They're not walking in the dealerships anymore. You go online and you could conduct the entire transaction from choosing your vehicle to financing it, to buying it, paying cash. Anything you want to do, you got the video apps, you got everything going for you. Do it on your phone. And you don't need a 80,000 square foot giant palace dealership with a Starbucks in there in a massage chair. I mean, the dealerships today are way overbuilt. mainly because the manufacturers have put a gun to our dealers, you know, our dealership. I could tell you some stories that would really make you angry about how Toyota pressured me.

I used to be in a little bitty dealership in Lake Park, Florida, and they said, either you build us a new dealership or else, and then they wanted to tell me to build it on $9.95, and they wanted me to spend millions and millions of dollars, and so I didn't do it. for a long time and they really, really pressure. I had a meeting in Deerfield, the Southeast Toyota Distributorship Headquarters and that's who I report to for Toyota. And they call me down there.

And when I went down there, I brought my attorney. You're talking about 30 plus years ago. Yeah, and I sat in that room with the top people for Toyota in this region and listened to them. Well, they didn't threaten me as much because I had my attorney there. They asked me why I brought

the attorney, and I lied to him. I said he was one of my board of directors, therefore he's had every right to be there. So it's going from that now to the manufacturer saying, you dealers that spent 20 million on that new dealership, he shouldn't have done that. All you have to do now is have a computer and you're a dealer. I'm sure glad we didn't put in that Starbucks. I think your office at the dealership is bigger than 800 square feet. Absolutely. Our service, Our service customer waiting lounge was so small. How small was it? It was so small that when I went in there to say hello to the customers,

I had to knock on the door because the door opened in, and we were so small we had to have a chair in front of the door. So I had to enter, I'd ask my customers stand up, so I'd come in and say, is everything okay? It was until you made me get up. Now we have bagels and coffee and television sets and beautiful lounge shares, plug-in chargers, a giant fish tank. Other than the goldfish, the fish tank, other than the fish tank, other than the fish tank,

everything you described is pretty cheap there. That's good. Anyway. This aquarium, folks, your kids can actually go through a little space and stand up and they're standing in the middle of the aquarium. That's right. That's quite an attraction. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-49-6-5-30-0 ladies.

Let's celebrate History Month. Yes, Women's History Month. It's March. Give me a call. Give us a call. 877-9-60-99-60. First two ladies. First two ladies.

These first two ladies, did you hear me? You can win yourself $50.50. Just call and say hello. And ladies, did you read about the Ford Explorer and how they're celebrating Women's Month? Oh, my goodness. Rick, you had to have heard this story. I actually haven't.

No, okay. No heater, no windshield wipers, no teard. turn signals or brake lights. No GPS. All are missing from the Ford Explorer. Men's only addition, not because Ford Motor Company is cutting corners or think men don't use turn signals anyway, but rather to spotlight many indispensable vehicle features invented by women. Invented by women. And you remember the week before last I talked about Buick. And, well, we all did even, even Stu. But this is really interesting.

And I'm sure you're all familiar with Brian. Brian Cranston, I believe his name is. And he was with Breaking Bad. Well, he just puts the commercial across like crazy. And everybody is talking about bare bones Ford Explorer, celebrating Women's Month. The Man's Edition. It reminds me of when the Simpsons, Homer, designed his own car based on all the things he wanted.

Oh, yeah. Oh, man. He thought he could design the All-American, the Great American car. It was ridiculous because he's an idiot. Because he's a what? Because he's a... Well, this is a nice bull session we're having here in the studio. You folks out there, call the show, please, I'm begging you.

Well, we have someone who has called the show, and that's Morty. Oh, good. And we have some other callers that have popped up. So let's take Marty from West Palm Beach. And Mario and Howard, hold on. We'll be right with you. Good morning, Marty. Good morning.

How's everybody doing? Good. Great. I got a couple questions for you. First question on a Camry hybrid. Does the brake, when you put the brakes on, or I should say when you take your foot off the accelerator, does the car slow down?

like it does on a Tesla? Yes. Yes, it does. Okay. Second question, when you get a new Toyota, do they give you the second key now, or do they have to mail it to you four months later? Now they've got it to where they do have the two keys available now.

Okay. There might be a Tacoma, I think. Is there still a Tacoma that's with the holding off on the key? I think they're probably caught up. We're all caught up now. Yep. Okay. And the third question, I have to knock. Earl may not like this, but I have to knock Tesla. Here's the thing. I went over there, and I said, how much will you give me for my trade in on a three or a Y?

So they told me, we won't give you an exact price until you order it for $250, and the $250 is not refundable. I said, well, that doesn't make any sense. If I don't know the amount you're going to give me, why would I pay it $2.50 just to find that out? They said, well, that's our rules. Well, I didn't know that. I don't remember where they asked me to do that or not. A Tesla, right?

Well, you didn't trade anything in. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah, you didn't trade in anything, so that's a difference. But maybe they just changed this now. Yeah, but I ordered the guard. You didn't have a trade it. He said they won't appraise your car.

They won't trade in it. Oh, they won't trade the car in. They won't appraise your car. Oh, that's praise your car. They'll give me an estimated price. I got you, yeah. But they won't give me an exact price unless I order it. I got you.

To order it, you've got to pay $250, and the $250 is not refundable. Well, you know, I also talked on the show a long time ago. I didn't think they had a dealer fee or a junk fee or hidden fee. they actually do. Tesla has a very small, I forgot what, it might be 250 or 200. It is 250, I think. It was 100 when you ordered yours and they've raised it. They've jacked it up, yeah. I think that's stupid, really. I think that's really stupid. Now, real quick, I'm not defending Tesla. I'm just wondering that I know that a Tesla boutique, they're not technically dealerships around here. And so they're not equipped with the personnel of a

dealership. I think appraising a car requires a certain amount of, you know, there is some infrastructure and maybe there's not equipped to do like a big appraisal. I don't, I'm just wondering, like, I don't know if they have a used car department with appraisers. Yeah, it's still bad business. I totally agree with you. I probably cost them $250 if you look at it in the big picture to do the appraisal, but it's still, it's not something you do with customers. And it's good news. That's good to hear. And the other thing that I have to complain about, in a normal car dealership,

when you buy a car, you can test drive the car. And at Tesla, when their car comes in, it's yours. Once you drive it, you know, if you've been in Okeechobe, you know, it's not too big of a lot. So you can't drive it too far to test drive it. And they said, once you take it out, it's yours. Once you're the car that you ordered. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

Well, they have cars that you can test drive. ahead of time, but when your car comes in, again, that's good information. I'm surprised. I mean, I think Tesla might be falling into the trap of we're so good, we're so popular, and we have such high demand and low supply, we can get away with this stuff. And I think that Elon Musk probably is not a micromanager. He doesn't see this going on. But all these things that you mentioned, it kind of reminds me of J.M. Lexus, that's a Lexus dealer,

Coconut Creek, that's near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, largest Lexus dealer in the world. And they advertise no dealer fee, and Lexus says they don't have any hidden fees. And J.M. Lexus has got, what is this, do it, a $200 dealer fee? I don't know. I don't remember. Very small. And I've talked to the general manager down there,

and by the way, I've got to call him anyway. His name is Mohamed, aka Mo. And I've got to call him and talk to him about some other things. But I'll ask him the same question I asked the previous general manager. Here you are a Lexus dealer. You're making more money than anybody in the world, and you say you don't have a dealer for you do. That's petty nonsense. You shouldn't do it.

We have a caller. All right. Well, thank you. Thanks for the information. Thank you, Martin. And have a good day, everybody. You too. Thank you, Marty.

It's great. Always great hearing from you. 877-960-99-60. Give us a call. And also, text us. you wish at 772-497-653-0. We're going to go to Mario in Davy. Thank you for holding on. Hello, this is Mario. Earl, Nancy, and Rick, I'm a long-time listener, 15, 20 years back. You guys are wonderful. I enjoy your show. Thank you.

And I'm all excited here. I got a couple of things for Rick one question and just a couple of the comments. I bought a Mazda in 2015. It was a 2012, maybe 32,000 miles. Ever since I bought it in summer of 2015, the engine light came on here and there, just enough to come on and off and you forget about it. Also, when you would come up to a light or you're stopping at night, the headlights would flicker a little bit. So from 2015, on and off. off, but just enough, you forget about it, and it came. Well, seven years later, the end of 2022, it just not bothering me. I've taken the car up to Georgia and back a few times.

And so all of a sudden, the lights coming on more and more. Now, I've kept maintenance on my car religiously. So just the end of the last year, I put in coil packs. I did smart plugs, clean the things up. But it's running the best it's ever. ran okay i've never had no problems with it still the lights flicker a little bit here and there and the light still keeps coming on so it's just lowered me away but i just want to make two other comments i've been an a m listener for a long long time and i've noticed this last year or two

the interference with a m and i'm all around broward county has just been terrible it's just been terrible. Anyway, but now I watch you on Facebook here when I get home. I work overnight. But what do you think, Rick? It's just, it's killing me. So I bought a computer from Amazon and I just shut a damn thing off, but it's run. I've

never had. I think I got a PO 300 on it. Misfire. A little bit. It's from 15 to now. And so I keep shutting it off, but it's run the best it's ever. But the lights still flicker here and there. Just once a week, once

a month. So you tell me. Okay. A PO300 code means the computer is seeing a random misfire, but it's not able to determine directly which cylinder it is. It means you've got some very tiny little problem there. And the lights flickering.

Those both speak to me of a ground wire. If I were really looking for this and this may be extremely hard to find because it's such a tiny thing that's so intermittent and has not gotten worse over the years that's what really tells me you got something tiny going on there I almost wonder if you have a ground wire

where the bolt is tight everything seems tight but there's just that one little bit of looseness that loses connection just enough that it makes those lights flicker and at the same time it may be sending a back signal to the computer making it think it has a misfire typically when you get the PO 300 you'll also get a PO 301 2 3 4 that will tell you just exactly which

cylinder is misfiring and having only the 300 that speaks to me of a ground wire situation or possibly the computer If that's all it's doing, I would kind of just wait and monitor it as you have been because it's not causing you a drivability problem at this point. Not at all. Obviously, you know, you're wayless rewarding. Did you say your gas mileage was suffering? No, and you know, and that was one thing on my mind because I'm on the road a bit,

and I'm getting on the average 30 miles to a gallon because I zero out and then I kind of once a month or so, just check it. But I'm right up there. I've not seen really gas mileage. And I'm on the highway a lot, and sometimes I'm a heavy hitter. But I can't really save my gas mileage. Since I put in my coil packs, it was just what a, it just, for a little, what is it, a 2.0, you know, there's about 150,000 miles on, you know, it goes, you know, it goes.

Like they say on the, like they used to say on the Sopranos, forget about it. Yeah. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And at this point, I think it may be, you may be, there's something a little broke, but if it's still working, I would just go with it. Yeah, yeah, I didn't want to tell them a little bit of a mechanic there. And another thing, I had a 96 Tacoma. I was in field service for that, them couple years.

Second year they made them. And I think I put about 150,000 miles on it, about 16 months, gave it to my daughter. It was clean. It was red. And about a month and two later, she's taking a left. And there's that, you know, they have yellow poles by a gas station. They yell like the block off. Yep.

She totaled out the whole thing. Oh, yeah, I was looking for another one last year, but I'm totally outpriced. My car is still fine. so I'll wait a year or two. But do we see prices coming down? And I like to keep a car, but should I lease? I see the lease offers on TV, three, four, five, six thousand down. I mean, I could afford it, but what do I do?

Read the fine print, and you'll find that they're going to get you. Yeah, it doesn't make sense to put that much money down. When you put a big amount of money down in a lease, all you're doing is reducing the payment. you're not putting, betting an equity or reducing the amount of time they're going to pay off the vehicle at all. So, and right now, you know, we got, a Toyota has some new incentives for leases.

They're not really impressive. So, I mean, leasing is way off. It used to be 30%. Now nationally is down to 9%. That's really low. Yeah, because most leasing was done with special incentives from the factory. So, you know, if you're paying a really ridiculous low payment without a lot of money down,

then you start thinking about it. about it, but right now it's... Will there be a better time this year to look? Yeah, later on, right now, at our dealership and other dealerships across the country, inventories are slowly grown again, and as they do, you'll see, deals will get better. They're still not great, but they're better than they were a few months ago, and they're going in the right direction. Yeah, okay.

All right. Well, I've always enjoyed your show, and I'm glad I called. And one other thing, years ago, a lady called. And I'm one, when I go to a light, if I know the light is going to take a minute or so, or I'm not on a hill, I put my car in neutral. Now, you've got to be careful, because if you're sleeping and you hit your gas. But I remember they asked Rick that years ago, and I've been doing it for years, and I think maybe I'm getting good gas mileage then. But I always sort of saving my light bulbs. That's why I've done it.

Mario, it's really great talking to you. Boy, you sound like as if that you are an educated consumer and not. My goodness, do you take care of your car? I mean, and are we impressed that you have been watching and listening to us for as long as you have? It was just great talking to you, Mario. Call more often. You have a lot of great things to share with us. All right.

Back at you. You guys take care and stay healthy. Thank you. Have a great weekend. We're going to go straight to Howard, who's holding in Jupiter. He is a regular caller. Good morning. Good morning, Howard.

Oh, good morning. I hope you all well. beautiful day today to have the turtle fest as you know turtle fest today's right yeah over at the loggerhead loggerhead you got it okay um i received something from cafax i hear you you have some kind of relationship with carfax so it said the services do on my car and it gives the address correct address but it says what's palm beach okay so what i did is i uh i went to the dealership i spoke to Josh. So, uh, Josh knows about it. Right. And Josh, they'll fix it because if somebody puts in that navigation, West Palm Beach, they're not going to get, uh, they're not going to get, uh,

you know, um, there's something strange. I've seen this before and this is, uh, just, I see this on websites, um, like when you put in your address and it starts auto filling. Have you seen this? Like if you're buying something online, I see that a lot of time where you put in a, uh, a zip code and it comes up as West Palm Beach and you can't change it. Um, but we can't change that and that car effects thing marty i think that's what that is uh but we have access to that go there and and change it for you but has you have you seen that before i've like i have yeah and i've even gotten things addressed to my house as west pond beach yeah well that does jupiter for nancy and i and we live in jupiter and the colony yeah so it's frustrating though

marty i mean exactly yeah yeah okay a couple of other questions i'll be fairs uh i want to clean my battery, and I don't want to lose my navigation on my cell phone, which I would if I unhooked the battery completely. Can I leave the car running and then take the positive off and clean that, put it back on and take the negative off and clean that? The car will still be running. The car will not cut off if I leave it running. However, I was told I could get a shock. Is that true, Rick? It's possible. I would leave the terminals on, turn the car off, take just a simple paper cup, a little bit of baking soda, some water, mix it up to where it dissolved in nicely, an old toothbrush, scrub the terminals with that, rinse it off

with the water hose, and blot the top of the battery dry with some paper towels, and then drive the car. That's all you really need to do. If you can get some protective spray from the auto parts store, spray that on there. Otherwise, even just some grease, put some grease on there. Simple Vaseline actually works. Just a coat of Vaseline, smack it on there nice and thick. Olive oil?

Well, olive oil will run off, but something will stick and stay on there. So what will happen is it'll stay on there and create a barrier so that oxygen cannot get to the metal components. If the oxygen cannot get there, it cannot oxidize, and therefore no corrosion. So you don't unhugged the battery. Is that what you telling me? No.

That's what he's telling you, yeah. Do not unhooked the matter. That's exactly what I'm telling you, yes. Okay, how about dielectric grease? Dialectic grease is actually used for the rubber boots going on the spark plug. This is a grease that keeps the rubber boot

from sticking to the surround spark plug but does not conduct electricity so the electricity will not go through it into the metal tube the spark plug is in and you really don't want to use that on your battery because it's more expensive and you would need so much of it that it costs you like 20 bucks just to protect the battery terminals I've heard of dialectic materialism but dielectric grease dielectric yeah I was he said dialectic no okay Okay, one of the first questions, that'll be my call for today. I have 040 white paint, which means there's no clear coat on it.

And what is, and I was told that it's warranted against flaking. What does flaking mean? And what happens if I get the rush spots on the belt? Is that covered? Flaking is when the paint does not adhere to the primer coat underneath. And the way that this will be tested, if you go to the dealership, to have it tested to see if it will qualify for such as that, they'll put some tape on the paint. Yeah, there's no more, there's no more campaign for the determination. Yeah, that has expired for that extended warranty on the paint.

But Howard, your issue, you have the 040 paint, and that was a different issue that it faded and got really chalky looking. How's the paint looking now? Great. Paint is great. I think they made some improvements. This was a problem years and years ago. I don't know if the chalkiness is, I don't think we're seeing a lot of that now.

Yeah. On older, older cars. What years are your car, Howard? 2017. 17. Mother's California gold auto wax. Do that about once every three months. You'll be in great shape.

Mother's California gold auto wax. Yep. Try to remember. I'll have to write that down. There's really only one reason I recommend that above the others is because you're going to be out there working in the heat, hopefully in the shade, to do this, and it's got a nice cherry fragrance. So at least it smells right to get it.

Oh, okay. Okay, that's great. Okay, guys. Have a good day, and don't forget the Turtle Fest. Thanks, Howard. We certainly won't. Thank you, Howard. We love hearing from you. George from Pennsylvania. First of all, let me say you get an award.

I was truly hoping that you would hang on and you have hung on for quite some time. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you very much. You're welcome. What can we do for you? Well, my, excuse me, I got a little throat thing going on. My comment is on this Talanis Dodge situation.

I remember back in the 1980s, I was a staunch BMW motorcycle rider. And I still wrote them for 40 years, so I gave up a couple years ago. But in the mid-80s, they came out, made an announcement that they were doing away with their famous Viet twin-cylinder-opposed motors. And we're going to replace it with a four-cylinder in-line motor. and they said next year, I think it was, no more twin-cylinder bikes. Well, you can imagine the stink that was raised among BMW purists, but they stuck through their guns. And the next year they came out with a limited edition,

a limited number of last edition models, special paint jobs, pin striking, and even had last edition written on a motorcycle. And they did stop making the twins and brought out the cave bikes, which were the four cylinders. And people just went crazy over, angry, upset. So BMW, a year or two later, caved in and started to reproduce the twins alongside these four cylinder models. A large number of the people who bought the last editions, as these Dodge owners did, went up on their hind legs and started a file class action suits.

Like I said, I read Road Motorcycles many years after that, and their opposition went nowhere. BMW continued to make the twins. They're still making twins. I'm not a lawyer, but the thing fizzled. Yeah, from a legal standpoint, I don't think they're going to come back and bite them on that. they responded to the conversations or the request to their customers.

I've got nothing but good things to say about BMDDutty. Even though I have a problem with them on the road because a certain sort of a personality seems to be driving, most of them, and they drive real fast, a little bit reckless, in my opinion. But the vehicle itself ranked, had more models in number one ranking by Consumer Reports than any other menu. manufacturer for the annual auto issue this year.

And BMW is number two selling luxury card, number two to Tesla, as a matter of fact. So I hear what you're saying. It's annoying. If I were in your shoes, I'd feel the same way. But I don't think there'd be a lawsuit in the wings about that. Yeah, and then BMW never made any concessions to these people, trying to give them a few bucks back or anything like that.

They just says, too bad. So that's all I got to say. Terrible. Well, thank you, George. I appreciate the call. Yeah, thank you so much, George. Thank you for your patience. Give us a call again.

A77960-9960, or you can text us at 772-49-30-3-0. Don't forget, ladies, first two new lady callers. You can win yourself $50 this morning. and we have a, well, what can I call it, a spectacular mystery shopping report and that's from Nissan 441. I think that we're going to go to Rick, who may have some YouTubes for us.

I do have one interesting one here, one, from Steve Mags. He says, electric vehicle battery fires are no more frequent than internal combustion engine fires, which is totally true. However... But you have to say this, less than 5% of the cars on the road are electric and 95, obviously, therefore, are gasoline.

So you're naturally going to have a hell of a lot more fires and combustion engine cars. Right. Is he talking percentage? Well, the commonality, it's not so much that number that he's looking at here. Because, yeah, it does occur. The cars catch fire, especially in an accident situation. you do have the vehicle fire issue what he's bringing up is the idea that

the electric vehicle fires are much more difficult to be handled by the fire departments the first responders and he says a parking lot jammed up with EVs where one catches on fire could potentially ignite the others and be extremely dangerous

a lot of first responders he speaks before, you know, fire groups, firemen groups, police groups, first responders, when you have an electric vehicle or a hybrid, you've got to know what you're doing before you start messing around with a car. Absolutely. Especially due to the fact that these systems contain such extremely high voltage and can be very dangerous to the first responders when they're at an accident scene. but he's mentioning the idea

would he feel dangerous having a level 2 charger in his garage or in a parking garage using a level 2 charger and I say no there's no reason to be concerned about that the safety features that are installed in those are very well kept it's highly unlikely you'll have any

worries with that you just want to be sure that your power supply in your house is sufficient to handle the additional drain on the electricity because it can be substantial and you might have to have somebody go into your breaker box and give you a higher capacity, which that adds to the expense to the charger.

Exactly. I'm speaking from personal experience. Ah, yep. But in the case, if you are involved in an accident that an electric vehicle is part of the accident scene or your witness to it, if there is any sign of fire with an electric vehicle. Evacuate the area, get everyone away from the vehicle well away,

because these fires, because the battery is sealed in such a manner, it's very difficult for the fire department to get water into that battery to try to put the fires out. So it takes a long time. So get everyone as far back away from the area as possible and just let the fire department do their jobs. They're trained. They have the knowledge of how to handle the vehicle. And tow companies have been advised, too,

that an electric vehicle that they're brought to an impound yard needs to be kept away from other vehicles. But for personal safety, if you see a fire with one of these vehicles, get away from it. Let it go. Thank you, Rick. There's nothing in there. It's worth your life.

Very dangerous situation. 877-960-960, give us a call. And you can text us also at 772-497-65-3-0. Ladies, first two female callers, $50. Give us a call. We're waiting. Back to Rick. And let's see.

Oh, Kyle in Pennsylvania says, I got those Carfax emails, too. It says, Earl Stewart wants to buy your car. And it had my exact mileage. and an estimated price for a trade-in offer, which was way off when I asked you guys about it. Well, that's a joke, right? No, actually, that's what Kyle said, but I think perhaps... Oh, he got a...

A Carfax offers saying that you wanted to buy their car. Yeah, that's sort of confused me with Carfax. Okay, apparently, Sue's not here, so he could answer this minute I could. apparently Carfax has a marketing division, which makes me nervous, by the way, because we rave about consumer reports because they have no connection with any commercial endeavors that might prejudice their opinions on things. Carfax, we rely on them for their accuracy, and we always say, don't buy a use car without getting a Carfax report, the fact that I pay Carfax money to do marketing for me

makes them a little bit beholden to car dealers because they're doing this with all car dealers and they're making money from car deals. Cars.com does the same thing. Car guru does the same thing. Auto trader does the same thing. All the Edmonds does the same thing. So I'm a little nervous about Carfax because of that fact. So, yeah, we probably did a mailer. The fact the matter is, there's a huge shortage of used

cars now. I mentioned earlier that leased cars, leasing is way down. Most people now, when the lease comes back in, they exercise their option. 90%, this is mind-boggling,

90% of people who are leasing cars exercise the option to purchase their own car so this puts a hurting on car dealers and we have a very hard time buying cars for as long as i can remember car dealers have always sent the same offer out i desperately need your car please bring it in in our case we're saying we desperately need your car please bring it in and we're telling the truth but uh why do why should you believe what we say or carfax says because car dealers were something saying they desperately needed your car 10 years ago when they didn't need your car.

It was a get me in the door thing so they could sell you a new car. The dealers cried wolf. Yeah, we cried wolf. Our problem in our dealership oftentimes is that car dealers have beat the credibility so down of our profession that people don't trust any car dealers. it, you know, when Nancy and I are at a party or socializing, sometimes we don't even want to admit we're in the car business because, you know, it's just like saying I'm a lobbyist,

I'm a congressman, or I'm a lawyer. I don't like you, you know, don't talk to me. So it's a bad situation. Where are we? Okay. Let me mention something else on a different subject entirely. I didn't realize this. I'm going to ask Rick, if this is accurate. Automotive news said that electric vehicles are harder on tires than combustion engine because they're heavier.

And it makes sense. So Rick is nodding his head. I won't let him start talking because I'm not finished yet. So the other thing I learned in the article is that there is finally some major technological advancements and breakthroughs on tires. And we talk about tire sensors all the time. They're working on tire sensors now that will not only tell you

when your tire is low on air, it will also tell you if your tire is overheating, it'll tell you if your tire is low on tread, and which one, it will even tell you if you need a wheel balance or a tire rotation. It is really amazing. When you stop and think about it, there's no reason why they can't do that.

So now, you're not going to have to come into a car dealership or an independent shop every five or six months to get your tires checked. Your car's checking your tires every day. And I think that's amazing. It's going to add to the cost of the car. But, Rick, I cut you off when I said that the electric vehicles wear tires out faster. Well, the tire sensors we have now, Talk about, well, a heavier vehicle because they have batteries, will it wear tires out faster?

Yes, it will. Okay, I was right. And always bear in mind that cornering is one of the biggest things that wears your tires. Yeah. A heavier vehicles, a lot of people find the right side, outer side of their tire wears very quickly. Because the left turn is a big sweeping turn that you're taking about two to three times of speed, that you can do in a right-hand turn, which is a much sharper turn in most cases.

So, you know, city driving, are you turning around the block? Slow down a little bit on those turns, if you can, folks. Especially those left turns. Slow it down, and you help save your tires. Well, to me, I've always considered tires an old-fashioned thing. I never have understood why cars have to run on tires the way they do. rubber tires that wear down.

Yeah. And now, at least we know there is going to be a breakthrough very soon so that you won't have to check your alignment. You won't have to check your balance. You won't have to check the treadwear. You won't have to check if there's a nail in your tire. If you have any kind of damage to your tire, there's going to be software that will be on your car

and just say, hey, you better come in and get your front end align and save a lot of money. worn out tires. Yeah, definitely. Ladies and gentlemen, you can take a look at Consumer Report, the February edition of the cars with amazing

new features, as they all pointed out, you know, not only will you know which tire is low on pressure, but you'll know which one, and there's so many other features that are just amazing. Some you like, some

you don't like. 877-9-60-99-6. Or you can text us at 772-4976530. We are going to go to a caller if Rick can wait a moment on the next. Okay, very good. Frank, thank you for waiting. He's calling from Jupiter Farms. Welcome to...

Good morning. Good morning. It was a pleasure listening to the show. And when I have something to say to calling, the warm greeting that is like family. family. Thank you. Frank, we're having a little bit of a problem hearing you.

I'll tell you what. Does this work any better? Oh, yeah. Much better, yeah. Sorry about that. Yeah. Where the cell phone. Anyway, it's always a pleasure to call on the warm green I get from you guys.

It's just always very heartwarming experience. But some of the memories, I just with the tires, it reminded me back when I lived in Miami back in 50s, where they would take your tires and and then they re-tread them, recap them. And that was an interesting saving on price for new tires until they actually, sometimes they just... What was that exactly? That took place a long time ago, retreading tires. What did they actually do, right?

They just paced a tread around the outside of the tire. Like with... Fuses all the tire. And it stays there for a while and it falls out in the middle of the road. Exactly. It was like putting a glove on an old tire. Yeah.

Does not sound safe. But something different. And the other thing, oh, did you see like that picture I sent them with a flathead? It reminded me because we had a couple of flathead motors in the backyard at one time. We would jump cars. But anyway, the other thing earlier when you spoke about, key fobs, I have a small business on Beach Metal Detectors, and I provide a service when people lose things on the beach, like the rings or what have you.

I come out there and help them find it. I got a call about a month ago for a guy who lost his key fob. It was on a rental car from Enterprise down in Waterdale, and he looked everywhere for it. And they were going to charge me $800 to replace that key fob, plus the towing down to Lauderdale. He's here on vacation, so basically he was going to lose the day of his vacation. So he called me, and I went out there in my metal detector, and within about five, ten minutes, we found it. He was so happy. So I understand what you're talking about with Key Fod's and how important they are.

But just the other than that, everything else is good. I'm enjoying life. We have, I heard one man talking about Turtle Fest, and I was almost tempted to go there. But we also have something in Jupiter Farms for the residents today with a band and barbecue from McCrae. Like a big block party? A busy Saturday. That sounds nice. Boy, Frank, that was a great story about the key part.

thank you for sherry yeah anyway if people lose it just look for some guy with a metal detector that'll ruin your trip okay your vacation yep thank you guys so much thank you frank great hearing from you um 877 960 960 or you can text us at 772 4976530 now back to rick i think he's got some youtubes over there actually i'm looking forward to the new technology and tires where they'll do away with a pneumatic air-filled tire and it'll be like a sponge material that absorbs the impacts of the bumps and then the tread surface can be simply have rubber glued on like we used to do it in the back in the day for new treads and re uh 3D printed this would make tires last indefinite and you'd never have these dumps full of

tires anymore. It will happen one day. We have any text over there, too? Let me check. We do have anonymous feedback. Okay. What's the latest excuse for low-car inventory now? Well, my guess is a pretty deep hole was dug when orders couldn't be filled,

and there's still most of the cars that are arriving at the dealership slots. Well, I don't want to say most, but I'd say a significant amount that are being produced now or filling orders that were at our dealership, we have over a thousand orders. Yeah, it's all relative. And our inventories now are definitely much higher than they were a year ago. And they're even higher than they were a year and a half

or two years ago. So literally, at our dealership, literally we would have zero cars in our inventory. Now, what do we have, 100, 110? Stu? Right around 100, less than 100. Yeah, so it's getting better, but it's still short. There's no conspiracy.

Believe me, the manufacturers are dying to get the production up. Do we have any callers? We do not. Okay, I want to talk about something that Jonathan has forwarded to us. It was very interesting to me, and I had to bite my tongue

this whole time during the show because people tell me I talk about Tesla too much, but I think this is pertinent, and this is a graphic that will show on the screen if you're streaming us on YouTube or Facebook or wherever. And it talks about the profitability of Tesla. Now, I'm talking about Tesla based on the fact that they are electric vehicles. I'm not, Elon, I'm not in the fan club or anything like that.

I'm just talking about why electric vehicles are a huge factor. They're a huge factor because Tesla is huge in electric vehicles. And one of the things that you gas, lean manufacturers that are trying to convert over and play catch-up to Tesla and the other electric vehicle manufacturers is the fact that you're very, very thin financially. General Motors just announced they've offered buyouts to every salaried employee. I mean, that's trouble in River City. Ford is losing money. people are spending billions of dollars, manufacturers, billions of dollars, to catch up on battery technology, electric vehicle technology. Now, the graphic that you see behind on the screen if you're streaming us is Tesla profit margins.

The bottom line is Tesla is making a ton of money every time they sell your car. they are extremely profitable and their profit per car and students in the business and so he'll understand this and Nancy and Rick that Tesla makes $9,574

every time they sell you a Tesla now let me give you a comparison the second biggest profit is General Motors that makes 2,000 $1,150 a car. It goes down to

B-Y-D. What's B-Y-D? That's not a U.S. manufacturer. They make $1,50 a car. Toyota, and we have a Toyota dealership, Toyota only makes $1,197 on every Toyota.

They sell a dealer. Now, keep in mind, Elon Musk makes $9,574 on every Tesla he sells. Volkswagen, only makes $973. Tesla makes 10 times that profit when they sell the car to you. Remember, they're eliminating the middleman, okay?

Hyundai, $927. I mean, it's hard for me to conceive of that. Now, if you really want to feel sorry, I said Ford, Ford is losing right now $1,197 every time they sell the car. It kind of makes you wonder why. They're depleting their cash, that's what, and they're having to sell assets, they're having to borrow money. It's not a pretty picture for you Ford people.

I feel sorry because we know James Farley, the CEO of Ford, and he's been there two or three years, trying to turn around that Ford mess, and he hasn't done it. And then I got the other two I don't even recognize, It must be a Chinese car. Ex-Peng, they lose $11,735. And Neo-N-I-O, that's a Chinese electric vehicle,

they lose $19,141. So there's Elon up there laughing and joking around and tap dancing and being silly and everything you say about him. Some of it may be true. But the fact of matter is he's making a ton of money and that money he can use to reinvest. He is planning now to reinvest a huge amount of money

and restructuring his entire manufacturing process. He's building a plan in Mexico. He's changing, he's already ahead. Now he's going to make it even cheaper. And he wants to build, listen to this. If it was anybody other than Elon Musk saying this and Tesla, he wants to build 20 million Teslas a year. and you know what

he will be spending and building 20 million a year and when he does he'll be the world's largest auto manufacturer so I'm sorry

I had to go off on the Tesla rant but now that's interesting the facts are the facts that's pretty interesting I have another interesting story

and it's a little funny but it's definitely about Tesla and it's about the Model X Sam's Club Robbers Nab stopping to recharge Tesla. Despite an impressive

acceleration in spacious cargo area, a Tesla Model X turned out to be a poor getaway vehicle for a duo accused of stealing electronics from Sam's Club store in Georgia. The suspects were caught

when they stopped to recharge the electric vehicle 10 miles away in Winnett County, police told insider last week, witnesses spotted the two getting into the Model X with boxes of gaming consoles and electric toothbrushes

and police broadcasts. And they probably couldn't afford the supercharger so they had to wait about six hours and the police were behind them. The suspects stopped at a Tesla supercharger only a few exits south of the interstate of

Interstate 85. Police arrested them at the charger's site. You know I've got a question on that subject. So Stu, maybe you know the answer. I don't use the supercharger because I have a garage charger. I haven't even used the Tesla chargers

on the highway. When you pull your Tesla into a Tesla charger, they know who you are and they charge you directly. Yeah, I didn't have to do anything. Can you pay cash if you have to?

I never even occurred to me. I'm thinking the crooks now. They didn't own the car. Right. So maybe they could have still charged up They're going to know where you are They're going to know where you are Because the car is getting tracked by your app anyway But they can at least could charge the car up

They have maybe 15 minutes to charge And get the hell out of there This couple didn't do that Hey we're going to go back to the phones Bob is waiting to speak to us from Lake Park Good morning Bob Good morning, good morning Is this Earl Stewart on Tesla's?

You're the guy. We were talking about you this morning. You were just waiting for me. I was, well, you know, what could I tell you? I did see General Motors decided to close down one of their factories for a few weeks. So that makes large trucks. It has nothing to do with parts. They did it because they said there was a softening of demand.

And I find this to be very interesting. So in other words, they're trying to. to manipulate the inventory levels that are at the dealerships, so you're coming in, and the dealer will tell you, well, we don't have any vehicles. So I thought that was pretty interesting. I wanted to ask you, do you have a boat? Yes. Oh, okay, because what they're doing with that bridge over there where you live,

I guess the only way you're going to be able to get around is why you're getting on your boat. Yeah, Bob's talking about closing down the bridge. that goes across. I call the Jupiter and they call it the Lux Hatsy River. But they have closed it down for two and a half years. I had, we haven't done anything as not that bad. It was an alternate bridge available.

But I have thought about using the boat when they said they're going to close down the Beach Road Bridge, which is the road to Jupiter Island. We live on an island. They close that bridge down. and then you don't have to travel 10 or 15 miles north to the other bridge at the other end of the island. I was thinking about getting an amphibious car to run across the inland.

Right now we're just trying to get out of the driveway. That's complicated because there's so much construction that's going on in our neighborhood. So once we spend 15 or 20 minutes getting out of our neighborhood, then we have to deal with what's going on. ahead of us for the next two and a half years. The answer, leave about an hour, hour and a half early. Well, I can see your house, and I can see not only your house, but I can see Perry Como's house. Do you know where I am?

Perry Como put the door on our house when it was built. Which house are you talking about? That's my own acclaim to fame. I never met him, but they tell me he put the door in my house. I can see your house and Perry Como's house. Do you know where I am? his first house or his second house? You're standing on the top of the lighthouse. There you go. You got it. That's right.

On top of the lighthouse. Don't you remember that James Cagney movie? I'm on top of the world, Ma. Well, I'd like to go on the top of the lighthouse, too, except I don't have an elevator, and I can't walk up those many stairs. So congratulations, Bob. You're in pretty good shape. Well, that was not recent. But in any event, I wanted to tell you, there is a situation with the Mustangs that I find very interesting.

They're coming out with the 24 Mustang, and they're going to start building them next month, and they're going to be in the dealers' show houses. And the dealers are going to have them this summer, probably sometime in June. And now you've got – now a lot of the dealers still have the 22s, and they had a short order book on the 23s. So a lot of these cars are getting discounted pretty heavily, because some of them are going to be two years outdated. So I find this to be very interesting.

Not locally in this area, you have to go out of the area, but there are some dealers that are taking $4,000 or $5,000 off of some of these cars, you know, off of the MSRP. Yeah, a lot of them take the $4,000 or $5,000 off, and they add $10,000 in the fine prints. So you've got to be careful about that. You know what? What's happened, Bob, that people don't realize?

They always talk about the dealers, price gouging, and God knows there's enough of them doing that. With the manufacturers, they're kind of like behind the scene. They're in the shadows. The MSRP on new cars in the past two years has gone from $36,000 average MSRP, from $36,513 to $47,000 to $47,000. 600. So they have secretly jacked the prices up more than they have I was arguing. I don't know about being a secret.

Ford just announced that they're raising the price of the Broncos again. And that's like the fourth increase. But they announced it. I mean, if you already have the car ordered, you're okay. But if you go in there for something else and it's going to be a problem. I do have one Tesla

story. I hate to talk about Tesla. I did read a story where somebody that had spent $100,000 on the Tesla. And this is common. A lot of these people are extremely aggravated that Tesla is going to allow other cars to use their fast charges because of the waiting times. One guy says, I'm not going to stand in line behind a Kia.

I said $100,000 from my car. I want to be able to get in and get my car charged. He says, I'll sell this thing and go back to an internal combustion. Good. Well, if he can afford a $100,000 for a car, he can afford to put a charger in his garage. Well, that is a, you know, it is a consideration for people. They have to be able to get their car charged, and, you know, if they're going to allow Tesla charges to be used for all these other electric vehicles. How many high-speed chargers are going to get built in the country?

I mean, how many billions have been allocated that? I mean, I think hundreds of thousands of high-speed chargers, I mean, are in the works right now. So I think it's not going to be an issue. But you know how the government works, though. You know, if it's a government program, you know, it could take who knows how long before that happened. Yeah, but they're private contractors. The companies are doing it. They want the money.

They're still commerce going on. They've got to get them a check. Well, we can't pay, I don't think we're paying on bills, are we? From when I heard, we're only going to pay our bills until June. We're going to find out. Who's going to sign a contract with the government if you're not paid? That is true. That's true.

Okay. Well, you guys have a great weekend, and I'll be listening to your show on the leprechaun there that's on TV that says no markups. He's his advertisement now is for St. Patrick's Day, so he's all dressed in green. Thanks so much. Don't forget about Brayman Honda. also advertising below MSRP, so I'd be interested if you get a chance to shop them at some point in time. Thank you for that.

Okay. They're on the list. Thank you very much. Have a great day. Great hearing from you, Bob. Have a wonderful weekend. Back to the recovering car dealer. Well, if we have any text or YouTube's or Facebooks, we've got time.

Otherwise, I'll go ahead and do the report. I'm looking to see if I've missed any old anonymous feedbacks because there's so much spam coming in, by the way. Yeah, there is. And, yeah. It's outrageous. Oh, okay. Here's one. Sorry, you thought you're going to get away from this one. Wondering if Earl has this new book out yet. No. I have heard a comment. I haven't heard a comment on the book lately. If it's not out yet, is there a projected date. And that's from Roy in Denver anonymously. You know, I apologize for that, and I feel guilty. I'll get personal for just a little bit. During this whole COVID thing, I, you know, Nancy,

I both modified our lifestyle like everybody else in the world. And when you modify your lifestyle, we stopped going out and moving around, and we stopped physical contact outside our home. And we just got way behind on a lot of stuff. And right now, medically speaking, we're still catching up with the dentist, the doctors, MRIs, cat scans, all the other stuff that we did. and do for three years and I know that's a lame excuse but I promise you it's 99% finished we just have to get a few more things done we're using a ghost writer

so that's that helps and I'm driving him crazy he says oh when are you going to send me this when you're going to send me that so we can get this book published so we will we will do it I'll make a tentity promise it'll be by the end of April. And also, there is the other side of the flip side of the coin, and that is operating a business and speaking engagements and so on and so forth. So we've really been trying to play catch up. There's meetings.

I could go on and on and on, but no excuses. The book is going to be published soon. That's all we can say. Okay, recovering car dealer. Okay, we'll do the Mr. Shopping Report, and then you texters out there, YouTubers, Facebookers, we'll probably have a few minutes before the show in. So, get us your text and your Facebook's and YouTube's in now. And my people, my textors.

I don't mean to admonish you, but let's get these grades in a little earlier. Last week, all the grades came in after the show is over. So I feel bad for them, but by the way, they gave Kia D-minuses on average. But, yeah, get them in early. Yeah, it's really important, folks. As Stu said, you know, we really want to announce the grades right after the Mystery Shopping Report. And it's so important that we hear from you because you make the show. And that's YouTube and that's Facebook.

For the callers, you can text us at 772-497-6530. You're a big part of the show, and we went out to Southern 441 Nissan. So all I can say is listen up. This is going to be something else. A dizzy plus. Very insulting, outrageous, annoying. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Okay, Southern 441 Nissan and West Palm Beach is a Terry Taylor store.

Terry Taylor is kind of like the Howard Hughes. of the automobile dealers. He's just, you know, you don't see him. He stays pretty much as a recluse, no publicity. When he buys a dealership, he buys it secretly, and he puts somebody else in to manage it, but he controls all these dealerships. In fact, he is the largest private car dealership owner in the world,

Terry Taylor. and we know a little bit about him because we knew him when he started out in business many, many, many, many years ago with a Mazda dealership, I think, in Miami. So we've mystery shopped some of his other dealerships and now we're getting to the Nissan. I think this is maybe the second or third time we've been in. I'll speak of the first person as if I were Agent Lightning, our renowned mystery shopper. I arrived in the morning and went to check out the new Nissan Pathfinder that was parked up front. The color caught my eye, so I checked it out for a few minutes.

It was a new 2023 Nissan Pathfinder platinum. It was a 4x4, and the sticker MSRP was 52,895. Now, I remember that, 52,895 was the sticker price. That's a pretty high sticker. It's above average. Okay. There was an addendum, of course, that added $1,973 for an appearance package. And there's also a market adjustment for $4,995.

If you add those together, you're talking about a round number of $7,000. So they've added $7,000 that we know about, and believe me, there's more we don't know about, right there on the car. So we're looking at a Nissan Pathfinder, 2023, and they want to sell it to us to Agent Lightning for $7,000 over a sticker. I opened their website, I being Agent Lightning, on my phone, and saw they were advertising the same vehicle online for $49,192.

Okay. That's a $3,3 discount, off MSRP and they want to sell it for $7,000 over MSSA. So basically they've advertised this car for $49,192

and they want to sell it for $10,000 over sticker price. And they do sell cars like that and people do pay. You listeners to are old cars you think everybody's kind of, you know, you're not really

sharp about buying cars, but you think they you think they couldn't get taken advantage? They do. Trust me. They do get... People will buy these cars at ludicrous prices over MSRP and never be the wiser.

I'm mulling around. Again, I'm back on the Nissan 441 lot and I waited to see if anyone would come out to greet me. No such luck, so I wandered inside. Again, I'll editorialize here. one of the reasons there's no such luck is car sales people are shooting fish in a barrel.

I mean, they don't have to work. They don't have to smile. They don't have to be courteous. They don't have to cut the price. All they've got to do is be there, and they're going to take their good time about coming out and talking to customers. Because if you don't buy that Nissan Pathfinder,

platinum, 2023, somebody right behind you will come in and buy it. So they're nonchalant, sometimes even rude and abusive. That car, you need to think. think about as the car that someone else is buying the next day. Yeah, exactly. That's what the sign said. That's right.

I wait to see if anybody will come out. Standing at the front, I looked around before one of the sales managers looked up from what he was doing and said, how can I help you today? I asked if a Pathfinder out front was available. He replied with a questioning expression, said, let me find a salesperson for you. He left me standing there for about five minutes and returned with not one but two ladies. Oh, introduced with them as Leia and her shadow. Leah, like me and my shadow?

Leah and my shadow. They didn't give the shadow's name Lamar Cranston. Oh, you all guys are there? Only the old people will know. I don't know that, but I know you're referring to something obscure, so I laughed. Yeah, who knows what evil lurks in the heart of me. The shadow. The shadow does.

Anyway. The shadow knows. The shadow is. The only people laugh. That's the radio. That's the old guys like me. That's like the 40s. They didn't give the shadow's name, but she did say anything, she didn't say,

nor did she say anything the entire time she was with us. Leia, who was the salesperson, asked me for my license, said something to her shadow in Spanish, and then told me they'd be right back. They returned a few minutes later with keys and plates, license plates in hand, and we all walked outside where the Pathfinder was parked. One of my first questions was about the price is there was no window sticker. I mean, this is just so, so bushlegs, so stupid, so unnecessary. Violating federal law, the Moroni law.

I did a blog on that recently. No window sticker. You have to have, by federal law, the window sticker on all new cars. The manufacturer's window sticker, by the way, not the addendum, window sticker. So when I replied, there was a window sticker. Leia said, it's in here somewhere. All our cars have them.

After searching through, she couldn't admit it, she couldn't find it. Well, hey, when you're going to try to sell me a car for $10,000 over a sticker, I can kind of understand why you don't want me to see the sticker. And I hate to, you know, imply that

it was done on purpose. But I'm implying that it was done on purpose. Oops. We left it over there. Well, I went over all the features of the platinum pathfinder. She then had me get into the passenger seat, so she could pull the car out from the tight spot. It was parked in. She continued to drive going through all the amazing options, including the heads-up display, blind spot monitors, as he drove to a secluded lot. Now, I'll say something nice about this. I mean, as a car dealer, this is the way you're supposed to

demo a car. You're supposed to drive the car first and then turn the car over to the salesperson. You're not supposed to hand the prospect of keys and say, try it out. So she was doing the right thing when it comes to

demonstrating the car. So there's, there I said something nice about Leah. There, she backed the car into a spot and offered me the, yeah. Yeah, she back the car, offered me the driver's seat, saying we would go anywhere I want so I could feel just how nicely it drove. Good. We went on a pleasant test drive, and then I backed the car

and just bought up front before we headed it into her desk. Laya gathered a bit more information from me, and then she said she'd be back shortly with a printout of the Menoni label, the manufacturer's suggested retail, and some numbers, which should have been on the car. I interrupted Leah to ask about, you wonder, I'm second-guessing. myself here, you wonder, would she have asked for the Menroney label had I not made a stink about it? I don't think so. Absolutely not. Yeah. I interrupted Leah to ask about the online price I'd seen showing her my phone that said, 49,192 displayed. She responded that was just an online price. I mean, just, I mean, it's like just an after. Are you going to ride this car online?

Yeah, it was just a little, you know, showing the lowest the customer could go if they qualified for all the different discounts. Wow, it doesn't say that on the listing, though. I know, but that's like a confession. Right now. It's confession. We have a picture of that, and I don't see any disclosure of the picture. So it just purely lying. Well, it made me feel dumb because I thought it was a price, and I didn't realize it was just a demonstration of how low.

the customer could go. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, and she says, for example, military, college graduate and a Nissan owner. Now, statistically, if you're going to advertise a car, and in order to get the price, you have to be in the Army, graduate from the college,

and you have to bought a Nissan. Only 5% of the market buy Nissan's, and what percent of the market are in the military, and what percent of the market are college grad. So you run away, you know, is deceptive, even if they do have discounts which add up to what they claim and they don't, I promise you. Anyway, she says, I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do about that.

That's true. She then excused herself to go speak with her manager. About 10 minutes later, they both return with a label and a press sheet. Top line was MSRP, 52,000. But they added the whole addendum, label MESS, a total of $6,968. Then they added $285 in taxable fees. Those are hidden fees. And a $999 dealer fee, that's a hidden fee and obviously a junk fee.

Their government fees were even too hefty. And we think, Stu and I both think, that they're using electronic filing fees and tag agency fee names for junk hidden fees and claiming that they're not taxable that is like that takes it to the true definition of hidden fee because now they're actually they're not even labeling it on the line they're just lumping it in the legitimate line so my real price was 61,147 before tax and tag $8,250 over MSRP a huge amount higher than probably most Nissan dealers were charging and definitely higher than most car dealers were charging. They're asking the price because every now and then a gullible person comes in.

I mean, I'm not calling these people stupid. I'm just saying, you know, we live our lives. We buy a car every four, five, six, seven, ten years, baby. Out of a side out of mind, you don't think about cars, advertising, MSRP. You're not on top of things. You don't listen to Erwin cars. and you say, hey, I need a car. And you hop in the car and you go to the car dealership

and, you know, you're dead meat. You're a big target. You're an easy target. A lamb in the lion's den. Exactly, yeah. I asked about all the extra charges, and she said all their vehicles have those paid by the customers. That's a flat lie.

I had to go over all the fees and write down what they were. then I asked if I could keep the sheet you know what they're going to say right she said absolutely not I mean like what did you ask me to do you want me to can I have your wallet I'm not even supposed to let you take a picture

I could get in trouble for this outrageous I mean this is all true stuff folks she then asked me what I thought she had asked me what I thought. I said that I wasn't aware they were still charging markups on vehicles along in addition to appearance packages.

She replied that there was nothing she could do about the appearance package. What do you want me to do about it? I just work here. I can do nothing. As they come on all vehicles. I mentioned the window tent, paint protection, edge guards

would cost me much less on what they're charging on this addendum sticker. And I can install it myself, but it didn't matter. She asked me, okay, now we're getting back to the old school, 20th century, early 20th century. Yeah, old-fashioned. Maybe 19th century, a couple of centuries ago. Yeah, to the game. We're back to the game.

What price I would need to be at today to make a deal? What price, give me a number. I replied that we were nowhere near where I needed to be, so it seemed pointless. Laya asked me to give her my signature. They're looking for commitment. See, that's the standard classic car dealer way. Get a commitment from the customer. Well, he didn't have any cash.

Get his watch. I'm serious. Sales manager says, if they don't have any cash, bring me his wristwatch. Or bring me the lady's purse. That is the standard old school way to sell a car. So she wants my signature that said that if she could get the price down to $60,000, I would buy it. And where am I?

Oh, I had her sign on the line at the bottom of the seat. She then left, again, to speak with her sales manager. I mean, that's pressure, folks. That's high pressure. About five minutes later, the three of them returned. Okay, now I'm really outnumbered. Giulio, the sales manager, was quite aggressive, pressing me to make a decision on what my husband would agree to

regarding the price. I said he would never agree to pay this much over MSRP and asked for Giulio's, I asked for Julia's best off. I think it's Julio. Julio, oh, Julio, okay. He told me that he was in a tough spot because he could call corporate, he couldn't call corporate without me agreeing to assign price.

I mean, even the sales manager has got to go to. He's got to call corporate. Maybe corporate's got to call the President of the United States. I'm not sure. But it's the blame game. You want to identify affiliate yourself as the friend of the customer, and you're going to have to go out to that bad person that is asking these extraordinarily high prices.

I'm on your side. Let me work with you to get the manager, or corporate or the President of the United States to come down on the price. So that way you're a team with a customer. That's the old school way. I replied, obviously, you're not wanting to turn my business here today.

There's no reason you can't give me a solid best price scenario. Julio then said, sit down because you're going to be laughing so hard, you're going to start crying here. Julio then said, my word is as good as a written piece of paper. My word.

Julio's word is as good. Strong as oak. A piece of paper. I respond, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. I guess we're done here, and I stood up, and I walked away. So there it was, folks. I think you have... That's a little more.

Oh, yeah, there's a little more. Here, yeah. I thought I was through here. He said he would... He said he could do $61,000, and write it at the bottom of the paper, but refused to let me take a picture of it. My word's good, but I don't want the evidence. My word's better than a piece of paper, but I don't want the evidence.

I think I shocked him because he stood up speechless and stumbled over his words, trying to ask me for my email. He then said he would email me, say that he would get the price down to $61,000 out the door. I replied, no thank you. Have a great day, and I left. So, anyway. Okay. Here's a picture of the Internet price, $49,000. And it says price.

Yeah. It doesn't say example of the lowest one could hypothetically go. Yeah, exactly. So this is just, it's illegal. You can't advertise a car for more than the selling price. And they did in spades. I mean, they were thousands and thousands of dollars above the advertised price. I mean, I don't even call it bait and switch.

I mean, a bait and switch, you advertise a price on one car, and then you switch them to another car, which is lower cost, and therefore a lower price. But when the same car you advertise, and you admit you have it in stock, and you admit that's your advertisement, and they say,

it's only good if you're a fireman, and the commandos, you're a Green Beret and what else? You're a farmer and you also own a Nissan So there we are I can't. A rough, rough report. Let's see what the audience has

to say. Stu? They're not coming in yet. Let me double check Facebook. We have quite a few here. Johnny Z. Freid Tim Gilliland will start with got to get the top. No window sticker. It's not

bad business, it's illegal. I'm out. Johnny Z. Fradley, F-minus. Maybe Southern 441 should merge with Napleton, that way they can double the MSRP. Rocky Blockatiel, they deserve an F for fraud. Brian Siddletko, false advertisement once again, F, and a big thumbs down. Mark Smith, I give him a solid F. Over here we have Kyle in Pennsylvania. I can almost give my F grade to Southern 441 Nissan before the report. They're advertising MSRP, and they have a dealer fee, dock feet, probably dumb accessories. I actually feel bad for the salespeople that have been trained in this way. Of course, they have billboards of 95 advertising not to pay over MSRP.

Casey, I wanted to be early on my grade. I give them an F. Kirk, at West By God, Virginia, Southern 441 Needs. on? Seriously? No window sticker? Watch this magic sales trick. And at no time when my fingers leave my hands, solid F-minus. T-cash, F-minus. Are even Subaru dealers scummy in Florida? Mine was great in Hanover, Hanover, Massachusetts. 2K under MSRP could deal T-Cash. Thank you, Rick. My grade is going to be an F because it just exceeds all bounds of of decency yeah and F for me as well by the way oh thank you F for Rick and we are out of

time Earl F Stu yes you heard it I hardly ever give enough folks but I gave enough okay we're gonna take and we're gonna thank everyone for tuning in to Earl Stewart on cars Stu may have a grade for us I'm not Sure. No? No, I gave that. No, I gave them F. No, nothing's come in. Oh, okay. Thanks a lot, folks. Thanks for tuning in, Daryl Stewart on Cars. We'll be right back here next week. Have a great weekend. Right back here at 8 a.m.