Earl Stewart on Cars - 03.24.2018 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Arrigo Dodge Chrysler Jeep of Fort Pierce

Episode Date: March 24, 2018

Earl answers various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Agent X visits Arrigo Dodge Chrysler Jeep of Fort Pierce. Earl Stewart is one of the most successful car dealers in the nation. This podcast gives you the benefit of his 40+ years as a car dealer and helps you turn the terror of buying, leasing, or servicing a car into a triumphant experience. Listen to the Earl Stewart on Cars radio program every Saturday morning live from 8am to 10 am eastern time, or online on http://www.trueoldiesfla.com. Call in with your questions during the live show toll free at [phone]. You can also send a text to Earl and his expert team during the live show at [phone]. Uncover additional automotive tips and facts at http://www.earlstewartoncars.com and follow Earl's tweets @EarlonCars. Watch Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars. “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”

Welcome to Earl Stewart on Cars with Earl and Nancy Stewart. Reach them with your questions at 877-960. Here's Earl and Nancy. Good morning, everybody. Thank you very, very much for joining our show. We're a little different for you true oldie fans. Great station, lots of fantastic music, 60s, 70s, music, and that's the kind of music I love, too.

But what you're listening to now is something entirely different. hear that to our new listeners. I hope a lot of the folks have been following Earl Stewart on Cars, which is the name of the show for the past 10 years, have been looking for us because we change stations. And here we are at 95.9 and 106.9 FM also 9.60 a.m. And we're a talk show. We're a consumer advocacy talk show, live radio talk.

Real fun. You know, live radio, that's a lot of fun. And my name is Earl. Earl Stewart, I'm sitting in the studio now with a team of auto experts on buying, leasing, repairing, maintaining your car. And it's a little bit of a how to do it, but more, really more directly speaking, this show, Earl Stewart on cars is how to buy lease, maintain, or repair your car without being ripped off by your car dealer. And I say that, well, what do I say that, unapologetically. I say that unapologetically because the fact of the matter is for as long as you've been buying cars and probably your mother and father were buying cars, it's not been a pleasant experience.

Okay, to you skeptics, to you few lucky people out there, and also to you car dealers and employees of car dealerships that are getting ready to attack me right now, let me give my proof. I've got some really, really good proof about my comment about car dealers ripping off buyers. It's the Gallup poll. The Gallup organization, probably the most prestigious polling organization in the world. You can't turn on the TV, you can't turn on the radio, you can't pick up a report about a poll and it's usually Gallup, they are the most reliable. Every year since 1977, the Gallup poll has been asking you, Americans, which professions

do you consider the most honest and ethical? In fact, the name of the poll is honesty and ethics and professions. It took most of the professions that we deal with on a day-to-day basis and just asked the question. Transparency, honesty, integrity. How do you feel about it? Well, you know what the answer is going to be. Car dealers come on the bottom. Now, you would think that with the evolution of consumer advocacy, educated consumers, I mean, there's a big difference between 1970s.

in 2018. A whole lot of things have changed. We have a vast wealth of knowledge. Google. I'll just name one, Google. Google really has got the sum total of all the world's knowledge. And all I have to do is ask the question.

If you want to know the cost of a car, if you want to know the rating of a car dealer, if you want to know anything about anything, if you want to know how many electrons there are in the mercury atom, I mean, you can find out anything that you want on Google. So all this

knowledge is there for everybody. You would think that the car dealers would realize that you can't pool all the people all the time but they're still trying. Every year since 1977 the car dealers have come up on the bottom and sometimes next to last

or their best year ever was third from last. Last year 2017, the first full year of the poll they were second to last last two congressmen or was a lobbyist either lobbyist or congressman were on the bottom and next to last the worst were cardilist so that's why we're here that's why earl stuart on cars exist were a service to the community and this is not an infomercial by the way i don't pay the radio

station to do this so i can sell cars and total transparency and disclosure i am a car dealer i still am a car dealer i've been a car dealer since 1960s And I even wrote a book called Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer. Why Confessions? Because I'm not going to be the squeaky clean guy. I'm not going to be the guy that's going to stand up here and talk on the radio and tell all car dealers that I was always an honest, transparent dealer, because I wasn't. I was kind of born into the business. My father was a car dealer.

He started in 1937. And I just kind of emerged. I came along in 1968. and I did business just like all the other car dealers did. I sold cars just like all the other car dealers did, bait and switch advertising, dubious sales practices, advertising cars. I couldn't sell you for the price I advertised them for. I did a lot of that.

And about 20 years ago, I started to, pardon the expression, get religion. I started to worry a little bit about what I was doing. A lot of things happened. in my life. I had kids. I had, in fact, my oldest son is in the studio with me now. He's in the business with me when he was getting ready to go out. In fact, when he went out in the world to find a job, he didn't want to have anything to do with the car business. He didn't like the way I did business. I mean, you talk about a dagger in the heart when the father hears the son say, Dad, I don't like the way you do business. I'm really sorry about that. I never got

the chance to tell you. Yeah. Never got a chance to stab the dagger. in my heart. Anyway, that's just one of the many things. I have two more sons of business. I have a wife, Nancy, who's in the studio with us right now. And I think Nancy would be one of the first to admit that I've changed a lot. And so here I am the recovered car dealer trying to help you buy, or at least a car without being ripped off by your car dealer.

And I've got Rick Kearney sitting next to me. Rick Kearney is, Rick, tell us a little bit about yourself. He is one of the most knowledge. guys on repairing automobiles I've ever known. Good morning, everybody. I'm 25 years working on Toyota's and almost 27 years in the business. And I've just gotten pretty good at dealing with the problems and figuring out how to solve them and making Google one of my best friends because I'll tell you what, the Internet is full of information

on how to figure out what's going on with your car. Probably the best advice I can give anybody if you're dealing with a mechanic that you're not quite sure what he's talking about and you want to do your own research. Google it because I'll tell you it'll explain it and help you understand what's wrong with your car and whether or not yes, this is an estimate you can trust or whether you need to get a few more estimates on that issue with your car. That's a great suggestion. That is really a great suggestion. You know, one of my problems with Google is I can't remember to ask Google. And I find myself scratching my head and I'll call my son or I'll call my wife or I'll call Rick. I mean, I'm so used to asking other people and they'll say, well, I'm not sure. And finally, usually what my son says, Google it.

If you can just remember, maybe I should tattoo it on my hand. Google it. That's how I answer the phone when you call me. Google it. When you call me, I usually just try to stall you for a few. amendments while I'm Googling it and trying to find out for sure and make sure I know what I'm talking about. I'm thinking about Rick. We were talking about, you know, Rick was born in 1968. That's here I started in the car business. I think about

Rick and how cars have evolved. He's been doing this about 25 years. You know, when you pop the hood 25 years ago, you open the hood, even I, and I'm not a mechanically inclined person, I could tell, you know, this is that, and here's the coil, here's the distributors, and I could see a lot of the parts the working parts of the car. Today, all I see is these giant black modules. And that's the way they've all evolved now.

25, 30 years ago, you would need to take your car to a mechanic every so often for a tune-up and he'd pull out the screwdriver and he'd start making adjustments here and there. But now, everything on the car is computerized and the computer is literally doing a tune-up on your car. car 20 or 30 times a second while you're driving the car. You know, I just forgot something.

I got carried away, and I forgot about the most important thing. I bet you at Nancy Stewart, that was exactly what I forgot to do. Absolutely. Living together for many years as we have, we can finish each other's sentence. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for spending your Saturday morning with us right here at TOC. That is the true oldies. channel. And for the next two hours, well, there's not going to be any music, but you'll

definitely be entertained and informed. So stay with us for the next two hours. The mystery shopping report, I can't say enough of it, about it, to all of you who are maybe tuning in for the first time. Yes, we have a mystery shopping report every single week, and we have been doing the mystery shopping report for, I'd say probably 10 years. And it certainly has been enlightening. And as far as you, the listener, the caller, all of you, we have your best interest at heart. And that's the reason that we've done these mystery shopping reports. It's an exposure of the good, the bad, and the ugly. So please stay with us and give us a call at 877-9-60-99-6. or you can text us is 772-497-6-5-30.

And ladies, first two new lady callers, you can win yourself $50. So give us a call. Say hello. Let us know you're listening. And I will send it back to the recovering car dealer. Yeah, ladies, that 50 bucks is cash, by the way. It's no strings attached.

You don't have to sign anything. You don't have to do anything. We value you so much as a caller. We find that women have a whole lot to contribute. They're a special segment of consumers, and unfortunately women sometimes are looked down upon when they come into car dealerships. Some of the old-boy networks, most car dealerships have very few women employed, either in sales or service or parts or any of the other departments of the dealership, maybe less than 10%. So 50% of the population out there are you women, you buy cars, and you should be represented. So we want you to call this show and tell us what your problems are.

877-960-99-60, write the number down. You probably don't have a question now, but you will have a question, I promise you. If you listen to the show for 15 or 20 minutes, you will have a question or a comment or a criticism. And remember, this is live talk radio. It's exciting. I mean, I get nervous. I mean, my pulse goes up when I sit down and put this microphone in front of me. You never know what's going to happen.

People can call and they can say anything. And we love it because excitement makes entertainment. So 877-960-99-60, write the number down. And please text us. If you're a little bit nervous about being on live radio, you can text us at area code 772-497-6530. that's 772 497-6530.

It will be, it'll make this show better. It'll make it more interesting to you and everybody else who is listening. I want to say, and I want to compliment, thank Nancy. She's working injured today. She's working hurt. She pulled her neck muscle.

Matter of fact, I had her in the emergency room yesterday. And she is, in spite of that, sitting here with a heavy microphone and headphone around her head and a smile on her face and a smile on her face so she gets a purple heart for working injured

and then my son Stu Stewart oh I mentioned sitting here and Stu is a guy that oh we have a caller I believe we do good morning John

and welcome to Earl Stewart on cars good morning to everyone and thank you guys for giving up your Saturday to educate the public I just want to start with the sad news of a very wealthy Floridian passed away yesterday and he was the founder of

auto nation the largest car dealership in the United States at Wayne Heisinger. He died of cancer and he was 80 years old but I just want to announce that and the second thing I want to say this is a special anniversary 60th anniversary year of the starting of the Monroney sticker that appears on every brand new car, manufacturers, MSRP, also notified at that. And this sticker is so important because before that, all times of games could be played and nobody really knew what the manufacturer or the list price, so-called list on a car was. But this sticker goes beyond pricing and the base price and the accessory price and the content of the material on the car.

and it also has the plant manufacturing on it. And it just goes miles per gallon EPA standards with the city and road mileage. And it's just an education in itself, and it's a starting point. And we're very thankful that this was issued by this senator by law, and it's already 60 years old. So I just want to mention that. And also, Earl makes us aware that next to that, some dealers have what they call a phony Monroney. And that just is nothing to do with the manufacturer. It's the dealers add-on for nonsense, air and tires and striping and all kinds of crazy things,

but not people not to confuse that with the actual manufacturer's MSRP. Exactly. So I wanted to mention the importance of that. And then I have a question Either Earl can answer it My neighbor bought a Mustang I forget the year Down in Miami

And for three and a half years It's a Mustang convertible He's waiting for the airbag The sensor For the recall And there's no sign of it coming in yet Is it legal Could he possibly

He really doesn't use the car much But it's the passenger side I know Ford won't do it He asked him but can his mechanic disconnect until that part comes in and makes the car usable? Is it the passenger or driver's side?

Passanger side. Passanger side. Would it be legal? I mean, can it be done? Maybe it's not ethical, you know, by federal law, but could it be disconnected and then until the part comes in and meantime it would make the car usable?

Let me ask you a question, John. You say the sensor is defective. and they do not have a sensor to replace it? No, not, you know, the recall. You know, the taccala air-based sensors that explode. Well, the taccata, okay, the inflator. You know, from the weather in South Florida here. Yeah, I see.

I believe, and again, I hope there's some lawyers listening out here, I believe it is illegal with the driver and owner of the car's consent for a technician service department to disconnect the, airbag. And I know at some point it was being advocated by the manufacturers. I don't know that we've done any of that recently. And Rick is shaking his head that we have not done that. So that is something you'd have to research. I would think, and as a lay opinion, not a legal opinion, that if you own the car and you sign a release, that a technician should be with that able to disconnect that.

And the point being, as you say, if you have a passenger driving there, you have to make a judgment. Is he under greater danger without an airbag or is he under greater danger with an airbag that may explode upon impact? Rick? I think with a release signed by the owner of the car, there should be no issues whatsoever with disconnecting it. I know when the campaign first came out for the Takata airbags,

Toyota actually had us disconnecting some of the. the bags and then they came down and said legally we couldn't do it because they weren't obtaining releases from the owners first but I would see no issues with disconnecting you're not a lawyer and I'm not a lawyer so I would advise your friend to to check with a lawyer on that here's one thing that complicates the issue a little bit I'm going to go into this too granular air but statistically every Takata airbag is not going to even defend effective one is not going to explode an impact. There have been something like 20 have killed people.

Who knows how many have actually exploded and not killed people, just injured them. It's a worldwide, terrible, terrible situation. So I'm going to pull a number out of the air. If you're in an accident and you're, say, a head-on collision and the passenger airbag is disconnected, you might have a 25% chance of being killed. If you have the Takata airbag employed with the danger of the inflator possibly exploding,

you might have a 5% chance of being killed. So if those are the odds, then you might say you're better off leaving the Takata airbag intact than removing it entirely entirely, which is essentially what you do when you take the disconnect the sensor. So that's something that needs to be thought about and it decided a decision has to be made. In terms of the liability of the owner of the car, check with your lawyer. That's my advice. Well, the reason I mention that is eventually Ford, they will get the part in, and they told them that. I mean, this is a fairly new car.

What I'm concerned about is the hundreds, probably hundreds of thousands of cars that are out there that are older, and they will never get the part. What does that make them? The people have to scrap the cars? That's the reason why I bring that point up. That's a terrible question. that there are cars that exist that will never, never get the recall part, and they won't be fixed. Well, that's why...

25% of all recall cars never get repaired. So 25% of those cars would take out airbags will never be repaired. And the older they get, the more dangerous they get. So you're absolutely right, John. Yeah, well, that's why I just mentioned it. All right. Well, thank you very much. I'll wait later for the shopping report.

Great call. Thank you very much. Thank you for being there. Thank you. To John's point about it being 60 years since the Monroney, you know, label was instituted, you might say. Well, I would say it. Can you imagine what Senator Monroney, if he was alive today, how he would feel about all of these car dealers that are breaking the law? I mean, there is some very important information on that Minroni sticker, and it has been, well, played with.

So to Senator Monroney, congratulations on a fabulous job. I think that he was a senator in Oklahoma. Does that ring a bill? I forgot. I remember that because that's the year I graduated from a Palm Beach High School. And that was the year Senator Maroney was able to get this law through Congress. And we don't even think about when we're only able when we buy a car. But I'll give everybody some advice.

don't ever buy a new car without knowing exactly what the monorny label says if you know nothing more than the manufacturer's suggested retail price the MSRP manufacturer suggested retail price is the price that each auto manufacturer suggests now the fact that they suggest it doesn't mean it's a good price doesn't mean it's a bad price matter of fact it is a bad price 99.9% of the time it's too high. So what's the value? The price is high. It's suggested by the manufacturer, and it's a lot of money. It's a big profit to the dealer. There's not a dealer in the world that wouldn't give his right arm to be able to sell all his cars at sticker price, MSRP. Let me be careful when I say sticker, because manufacturers suggested retail price, MSRP. But what's the value

about the suggested price by the manufacturer? It's the same on each car. of the same description. So if you're buying a Chevrolet Impala and you have the same MSRP on two different ones, Roger Dean Chevrolet sells one for $18,275. And so there's a Auto Nation Chevrolet for $18,275. Those are the exact same cars. They're exact same cars. Apples and apples, right? When you buy something, you always want to compare apples and oranges. If you're pricing apples and you decide to buy an orange you've got no comparison you got no relativity so you should always when you're shopping and comparing and getting up to the bits be sure the car has the same manufacturer suggested retail

price why do the car dealers confuse you as John law John law as John from Palm City said when he called he said there's something called a phony monorone it's an addendum label it's a another sticker that car dealers almost without exception. They counterfeit a Monroney label. They inflate the price with whatever they want to. A lot of times they just call it market price adjustment. Sometimes they use nitrogen in the tires or stripes or, you know, road hazard. And they got up with all sorts of low cost and then they overpriced the product. So they inflate the price over the Monroney suggested retail price.

That way, you can't compare apples and apples. They don't want you to compare apples and apples. But by law, they are required to keep that MSRP, Minroni label, on the car, when they deliver the car to you. Now, I'll tell you what, most car dealers don't do that. If the Monroney label is not on that new car that you bought when they deliver it, you should insist on seeing it. you can verify that it's the right Monroe because it'll have the VIN number,

it'll have the dealer's name, it'll have a lot of good information about gas mileage. It's really, really a valuable piece of information, but especially for the MSRP, manufacturers, suggested to retail price. So this is one of the reasons I get so upset about what car dealers are doing. This is a federal law. Now, what about the Federal Trade Commission? What about our federal legislators? They all know this is going on.

They buy cars. Their kids, their mothers, their fathers, their friends, everybody buys cars. And nine out of ten times when a person goes into buy a car, there's a counterfeit Monroney label next to the official federal sticker. They're breaking a federal law by trying to fool you. Nancy? I was just going to bring that to your attention, but, you know, it's just amazing. How many people know that that is the law?

How many people know that you're either going to do jail time or you're going to pay a substantial fine? Have you read anywhere? You've been in the car business since 1958. Have you read? Have you spoken to anyone who said, listen, the Munrooney label is not where it should be. it has been fudged and played with and so on and so.

Have you heard of anyone going to Joe? Yeah, we did some mystery shopping reports on that a long time ago. We ought to go out and do that again. I believe it was Grico. I can't remember which car dealer it was, but we went out and we found a car dealer that had most of the cars on the lot without Monaroni labels on. Yeah.

Senator Monroney, he put that law into place for a reason. and if you want to look him, if you want to Google him, like we do everything, you know, you can see where, why, and how he decided to put that into law. I mean, into law, you can pay a fine, you can go to jail, but I don't know, Pam Bondi, give me a call, let me know if she's the Attorney General, let me know if you know of anyone who's been, you know, put in jail or has had to pay a fine. And by the way, the other trick the car dealers pull with respect to this, they will come up with names, pseudonyms for the Monroney label.

Most people don't even know the word Monroney label. They call it the sticker price. Now, that's where you have to be careful, because there's also a dealer sticker price. That's the phony Monroney. And sometimes they refer to the Monroney as the list price. What's the list price of that car? Well, there's a dealer list price,

and that's the phony Monroney. that's the counterfeit Monroney where they inflate the price of the car by sometimes thousands of dollars so when you hear the terms dealer list do you hear the term sticker you know that's your antenna needs to go up you need to think there's something wrong here

he didn't say manufacturers suggested retail price you're either going to have to have MSRP manufacturers suggested retail price or mononi label anything else should be suspect because they do it on purpose Yes. Confusion. Okay, give us a call. I'm getting a little bit nervous.

We had no phone calls. 877-960-99-60. Write the number down. 877-9-60. Call in and rattle our cages. Yes. He got a text. I forgot about the text. I forgot about the text.

Let me find that text. While you're pulling that up, I'll give our listeners the telephone number again. That's 877-9-60-99-60, or you have. You can text us at 772-4976530. Now back to Earl. He is going to... Here, where's Tina? That's what I want to know.

Tina, if you're out there, that's probably her right now. She's looking up Scotty Kilmer's latest video. Oh, there we go. Here's a text. I had an old 1971 Volkswagen Super Beetle with a semi-automatic shifter. Back then, I had a paperback book called Volkswagen Repair for the Complete Idiot. I was able to take care of a lot of the problems that came up, picks my own alternator, for example,

forget about doing anything like that on today's modern cars. And then the texture, thank you very much. That's a really great text. And also, he said it's a book cover, a copy of the book. It is really exactly what he said. He says, fair, cooled, air-cooled Volkswagens, bugs, buses, geas,

Gia. Carmen Gia. Carma Gia. High performance. And then the title is How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, a manual of step-by-step procedures for the complete idiot.

It looks like a coloring book, doesn't it? Yeah, that is really cool. I love that. That's a vintage-looking book cover. I had a 73 Super Beetle. They were awesome. Amazing. We've got a call from Desiree.

Let's go to Desire. real quick. Hey, Desiree, it's so good to hear from you. Good morning, guys. How are you all this morning? Good morning. Thank you for calling in. You're so welcome, Ms. Nancy.

I heard that you're not feeling well this morning, so I'm hoping that you get better. And, you know, it's good to be a trooper, you know, and come on and still do your thing. So I commend you for that this morning. Oh, thank you. Being a trooper sometimes gets me in trouble. I know.

I think I'm Wonder Woman. Well, we all do. That's the thing that most women do. Yeah, a woman is born with that. That's in her DNA. It is. It really is. It really is.

But my question for you guys this morning, since we've been talking, I tried to get through last week. We had such an awesome show last weekend. You guys were swamped with calls. Oh, thank you. The question this morning also, it has a lot to do with the Ticana airbags again, and Volkswagen. I have a friend who has already purchased a Volkswagen from the off-leash.

And the question that they have is if they've already purchased a vehicle and they didn't know about the Takana Airbus. bag's saga is what I call it. What can they do now as a, how do they check to see if the car has a the kind of airbag? They bought a Volkswagen of 2013 Passat. Well, Desiree, thank you for asking the question because it's on the minds of a lot of people. And as we speak, I see. Stu and Rick both clicking the keys on their PCs, and we're going to find out for you.

And I'll give out a website that all of you can use any time to check the VIN number on your vehicle to tell you if you do have a Takata Airbag. If so, is it defective? And if it is defective, is there a replacement available? And that website is from the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, NHTSA, also known as NHTSA, and simply www. www.safercar.gov, gov.

www. www. Safercar. gov, GOV. And you can put your VIN number in, and as a matter of fact, everybody should do that before they buy any car.

Before they even... So that's all you can actually do that. Say, for instance, if I'm actually going on the lot, and I see a vehicle that's a pre-owned vehicle. I can then take that then right then to check while I'm there. You sure can.

You know, a lot of people don't really, you know, a lot of people don't know that. A lot of women don't know that because we, like I said before, we're the ones who go, you know, on these dealerships on the car lots and we're the ones who are checking. So a lot of people don't know that. I didn't know that. Most people don't, Desiree. And as a matter of fact, there's another thing you can do that's not quite as accurate as that,

but it'll give you a good idea virtually. every car dealer, I say virtually because there's always an exception, we'll offer you, or at least have a Carfax, C-A-R-F-A-X, Carfax. Carfax is a very reputable, large company that almost every car dealer uses.

And before they sell a used car, or even before they buy one, they trade it in, every car dealer wants that Carfax report, because the Carfax report tells you if the car has been in an accident, it also tells you about mechanical condition, repair history, And most importantly, maybe, it tells you about recalls.

So the Carfax report should spot a Takata Airbag recall or, for that matter, any recall. It should also tell you if it has been repaired. So this is so important because it's a life and death question. We have a triple check. We do the safercar.org. We have the Carfax Report. And you can also do this at the car dealership. You can ask the car dealer to check with, let's say, you're looking at.

for Honda. You can ask the car dealer to go on his computer and he can do this for you. Honda dealer can and he can go on and put the VIN number in. He can tell you if Honda says the car has it to got a recall. So you can each of those three processes we have found mistakes in. About 30% of the Carfax reports are inaccurate. Probably 5% of the safercar.gov reports are and accurate, and closer to 100% of the car deal of manufacturer reports are accurate, so not 100%. So if you do all three, then you're virtually going to be sure you don't have a problem. Wow. Okay. Thank you, guys. Well, thank you, Desire. Yeah, I really, yeah, I really just needed to, you know, try to figure out, like, because he was like, well, I don't know, what if, what if

I don't know if the car that we purchased has that, that, that, that, to come. You know. Airbag in it, you know, and he has his family in it, and so I was like, well, you know, let me call and check that question out. Desiree, the best way to tell is to go to safer

car.gov and put in the VIN number to get the most accurate information. But looking on their site right now, the 2012-2014 Volkswagen Passat is included in the Takata Airbag recall.

So there is a very good likelihood that that car does have a Takata airbag. And if it does, you'll need to contact Volkswagen very, very quickly to have them find out how soon they can get an airbag in that car for you. Anybody that wants to text us the van of their car, we'll be glad to run it right here and let you know right away. So if your friend, Desiree, wants to text us, and he can text us at 772-497-6530, that's 772. 4-9-7-6-5-3-0. Texas, the VIN number of that Volkswagen Bassat will run it for you at safercar.gov. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you, guys.

And you say 2012 to 2014, that's the actual window. Yes. Of a possibility of it being with the Takana Airbag. Yes. Exactly. Okay. Thank you guys so much. Thank you.

Desiree, that was really nice of you to call for your friend. So she must be a, or he must be a real good friend. And, you know, in this world that we live in, you know, in this world we live in today, we have to take the responsibility of, you know, just the knowledge. It gives us power and to keep our ears and eyes open, and Google can help you in so many ways. So I hope we helped you today with giving you the wwwsafricars.gov website.

Stay in touch with us. Yeah, you guys really did. I promise you I will, and thank you guys so much. Yeah, you're a great caller. Join the rest of your Saturday. Okay, thank you. Give us a call toll free at 877-960, or you can text us at 772-49-30-1960. Or you can text us at 7-7-2-497-6530.

Remember, you make the show, so we're waiting to hear from you. We are going to go to Howard and Cy. I'm not sure if everyone who's listening today, well, we're listening last week. We had quite a great conversation, and we were informed by the two of them. And we were also entertained. So Howard and Cy, welcome to Earl Stewart on Cars. Well, thank you. This is Cy.

Howard and I called last week. This is a thank you call to Earl and the day. and their team. Last week I called about a parasitic drain on my Honda, Accura, and Earl was very kind enough after listening to my problem to offer me a complementary diagnostic test, which I took yesterday. Josh, the service manager, was wonderful. They took the car in. Rick called me. They diagnosed the problem as being attributable to my blue. Bluetooth, it had gone out. It was not working, but apparently Rick was able to determine that that was a problem on the Honda Accura's. And he felt a module, which was warm and it shouldn't

have been. So apparently it was draining power for my battery, even though it was not working. they found it and they fixed it on a complementary basis and I truly appreciate the courtesy of having the check and the accuracy and the quickness with which they found it so I wanted to thank Earl and Rick and Josh for helping me out so much well we're glad to do that Howard and I mean sigh and you know it just reminds me I'm sitting here next to a computer

genius and we call them a technician but it reminds me of an old joke. So do you know what they call the doctor that graduated last in his graduating class in med school? No. They call him a doctor. So the message is when you go to see a mechanic, you need to find some of the graduated first in their mid-school class, and that's Rick Kearney. So the message there is, if you have a problem. difficult to diagnose or you have a problem that they quote you a whole lot of money to fix you need to get just like you would a medical opinion you need to get two maybe three opinions and you sound like you might be about my age I go to doctors more than I like to and any time they want to do something serious on me I always get a second or third opinion and the same thing when you own a car you always going to get a second or a third opinion you'd be surprised you'd be shocked I think statistically in

insurance company say that when you have a second or third medical opinion, 90% of the time it's different than the first opinion. That's frightening. And it's the same thing with your car. Well, this time I'm sure I got it fixed right. Rick was right on. Yes. And he told me that the easiest, cheapest way to fix the problem and it's done. So I can rest assured that when I go back up north, I don't have to worry about my battery dying when I'm at a motel somewhere in North Carolina. No, Brad. And, Sye, I will absolutely confess because

Accuras are not my number one product, but I will confess that, yes, I did research that issue on Google, and that helped lead me right to the solution and help me diagnose and verify what was going on. And it's one of the greatest sources out there. It's awesome. Well, I thank you.

My pleasure, sir. My pleasure. I think Howie has a question. Okay. I have a question for you. Shai is going to be interested in buying a new car when he comes back in November. Will the 2019 Camrys be ready by then? Good question.

Probably towards the end of the year. We'll probably see them. I don't know if it's going to be October or November. Toyota has an unusual rollout schedule, so sometimes they come out in the middle of the year. We've got Avalon's coming out in May, and so it all depends on the site. but I would guess towards the end of the year. I did have a question on that. I find that it's much more difficult, as I'm,

Earl mentioned them. I sound like I'm up in the years than I am, driving at night when I make a turn, and I know they have something new on some cars called adaptive headlights where they turn with you. Do you know whether any of the Toyota cars have that or will have that? I don't think so.

I don't think we have the intelligent adaptive headlights. I think BMW might have those. I'm actually Googling it right now because I have no information of that coming out. Lexus probably has it, I'm guessing. But if Lexus has it, Toyota will have it. And I believe from what I've heard about these, they're really cool additions to the safety of your vehicle. I'm sure that almost all cars will have this with the next couple of years.

What a great idea. Yes, absolutely. Okay. And you're talking about night blindness, correct? Yes, especially on turns. Yeah, exactly. That would be a great feature, great safety feature. Hey, I'm 75, and I got night blindness,

and the last thing I want to do is get on the road, you know, with that kind of a, well, disadvantage. Okay, well, thank you. You're welcome. Howard Sine, thank you very much. You guys are great callers. I love the team. So, too bad, you've got to go back up north.

Well, I love your team as well. Maybe you guys could do a conference call and do a team conference call. You know, I was going to give the both of you like an A.K.A. kind of a, you know, like, you know, like click and clack and, you know, things of that nature. Sion Howard. Hmm? Sion Howard. There you go. I knew Stu could come up with something.

Hey, give us a call. Our lines are open. has been waiting, so hang in there for a minute, Tina, while I give out some information. Give us a call, toll free at 877-9-960, and you can text us at 772-497-60, and I want to share just a little snippet of information here. The Earl Stewart on Cars podcast is now available on SoundCloud. We posted all of our past shows going back to the beginning of January. So if you can't tune in to hear our show live, well, you can go ahead.

And that's, you know, every Saturday morning from 8 until 10, if you don't already know. So if you've missed any of our past shows, you can hear them now whenever you want on SoundCloud. Simply go to saunclad.com slash earl on cars or download the Sanclad app from the Apple Store. or the Google Play Store. If you would like to see the YouTube video on the Greco Mazda Mystery Shopping Report, which we have today, actually, that was from last week.

So you can go to YouTube.com slash Erwan Cars, and that is the Greco Mazda Mystery Shop from last week. And the newer version, today, Mystery Shopping Report is from O'Reilly Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, Ram, Fiat of Fort Pierce. Boy, that's quite a mouthful. Yes, she is. Okay, so we are going to go to Tina, the little ballerina from Benita Springs. How do you like that, Tina?

Hey, Tina. How are y'all doing this morning? We're just sitting here waiting to hear from you. Oh, thank you. I was going to answer the question earlier about the airbag repair. I remember quite a number of years ago. I wanted some work done to the dear old departed and the yada that I used to have airbag-wise. And the people that I took the car to, this was an independent car repair shop,

they would not touch it with a 10-foot pole. They said, any time you want to have the airbags work on, you need to go to the dealer. They're the only ones that really are authorized to do anything with your airbag system. And I was also thinking about, you know, disabling the passenger side airbag more for my mother than anything else because my mom is short and she doesn't need to be close to an airbag, and they wouldn't come near it just for liability reasons. So I think it depends upon the shop. I remember you're saying about having you sign a relief.

There's some that won't even touch it then. So I think it's a case-by-case basis. Well, I can see why it is a very scary thing. And if you're not a factory-trained representative on that particular car, you really would be taken on the owner's life. your hands and I they were very smart they're being right they're being honest to say we can't work on it if you got a Honda you go to a Honda dealer and get a good technician if you have them work on your airbag and body shop too a lot of times a lot of times when you have a repair after

a collision you have to reinstall an airbag and that requires the factory to do it if you go the way independent body shop for repair and your airbags went off you should be absolutely assure that the manufacturer of your car's technician trained in that car was the guy that puts the airbags back in again. Now, this brings about another question. Say, for instance, you get into an accident in both airbags deploy or all of your airbags deploy. Will the insurance company automatically total your car on that basis? You know, it depends on the...

Where's Alan? We need Alan. We need Alan. We need Alan. the insurance company's total car is based on the percentage of the cost of the repair. If the value of the car for round numbers is $10,000 and the repair is $7,500, that's three quarters, most insurance companies would call that a total. So it's just a matter of the equation of adding the cost of the airbags, which are quite expensive.

So an airbag repair is in the name of what, like $3,000 or something like that? So anytime you have one or certainly two or more airbags to be replaced, you're coming close to a total. By the way, just as an aside, be very careful when your insurance companies are totaling your car or not totaling your car. They can get you in trouble either way. Sometimes you want your car to be totaled. Insurance companies oftentimes will not declare your car total, but as the repairer is inside the car, and they start, as they say, tearing down the car, they find more and more damage. So what you believe was a 30% percentage of the car being damaged turns into a 75% after they get inside.

Then you're fixing a car that should never be fixed, and you don't want to do that. You want to get a replacement car, but that's a... Yeah, that reminds me of the old bumper stickers that used to say, go ahead, hit me. I need the money. Yep. I like that. And I have a question for Rick. Okay, most of the cars down here in Florida are four-door heavy sedans,

and we're getting to that point that in a couple months we will be in rainy season. I know Florida is a tender box right now. People, please do not show cigarette butts out of the window. Our state is not an asterisk. Just mentioning that. But I was wanting to know for a nice average sedan, four-door sedan, What brand of tires do you really like that are reliable, and what brand of tires, what kind of tires do you think are great for our wet roads in Florida in the summer?

I am going to defer to consumer reports, and you go to consumer reports. This is what my dealership studies when we buy replacement tires. There are a lot of tires out there with brand names, and brands can cost you a lot of money. You know, you go to Tiffany's and you buy a diamond ring, you can get the same diamond ring at Costco for about half the price. So don't buy Firestone or Michelin or Goodyear just because of the name. Now, that's not to say that they don't make very, very good tires. They do. Sometimes cost is a very, but sometimes, you know, you'll see Japanese tires and Korean tires, even Chinese tires that are high quality.

Consumer reports is the ultimate authority because they don't take opinion. actually road test these tires, and they will tell you by region of the country, by weather, by road condition, the best tire for you. They even have the best all-around tire. But off the top of my head, I would say, Michelin's a good tire, Pirelli's are good tire, Japanese tires. I like Toyo. Toyo. Trio tires are very good. How about Kumos? My favorite tires ever on my Miata were Toyo T1S, those. Those things were great.

They didn't last super long, but they handled well, and they were great in the rain. So if I ever could get another kind of Toyota TUNS for this car I have now, I would do it in a heartbeat. Yeah. I agree to you know. There's so many different specifications. I mean, I wish I didn't make it so complicated. I feel like when I walk into Publix to buy a box of cereal, you know, there's 8,000 different kinds of cereal. All I want is some grape nuts.

I mean, don't do the, you know, don't get me 85 choices. And you go to consumer reports, you want to buy a set of tires. You're going page after page after page, I usually focus on the best all-round tire, although living in Florida, I sure don't need to worry about snow or ice, but I just don't like to complicate life. But when you say this tire, Toyota tire or this tire, sometimes it's a really good tire for this application, but there's another tire that's a better buy for another application. Absolutely. And I've seen some tires that were great on most cars, but not on others. so. Mm-hmm.

Yep. And then you have speed rating and everything else, too, which is a whole other issue. So it depends upon the vehicle. I kind of figured it wouldn't, there would not be, I knew there would not be a general answer. No, no. Because every vehicle is different. Every driver's different. Every condition's a little bit different, too.

Absolutely. And like Earl said, Consumer Reports is the best place to get your basic information and decide what you're looking for. And then go for it from there. You know, consumer reports, one of the things that you should use it for is just so you don't make a bad mistake because there are a lot of good tires out there. There are a lot of good cars out there, a lot of good refrigerators, but there's also some really, really bad ones. So the first thing I look at when I'm looking at the ratings of a product and consumer reports, I look at the bottom of the list. Because if I'm thinking if I saw something on sale and a really good deal, and that's the worst refrigerator. ever made. I'm not going to buy that. I might not buy the one that's on top of the list

because maybe I get a better deal on the second or third one. But, you know, the top three or four in the rankings are all pretty good products. But you don't want to buy the line on the bottom. You need a no. You need to know. Exactly. Yes. At Consumer Report is worth its way in gold, as you well know, Tina. Yeah. And then if you're just looking for reliability on cars and you want real-time information, and you also want something online, carcomplaints.com is great, too. Would you repeat that again?

That place, awesome, that site. Carcomplaints.com? Yes. Yep. Just in case our listeners didn't jot that down last week whenever you called, Tina's repeating that website that would be very beneficial to you,

carcomplaints.com. Mm-hmm. And I found another one, I think it's called lemonade and lemmon, L-E-M-O-N-A-D, and they actually put out a publication every year, and they also have an online website. They go by the reliability of each car model, and they go in detail in pretty good depth. That's interesting. Yeah, I do believe it's called lemonade, L-E-M-O-N-A-I-D, and I saw that the other day. I thought, wow, that's really fascinating. It was very good. Yeah, I have to check that out because I've been passing out, well, the last 10 years, the Lemon Law,

And you can go there and you can get, you know, all kinds of information. But the website you're talking about is lemonaid. aid.com. It's lemonadecars.com. I will send you the link later. Hey, Tina. I'll send you the link later on. Hey, Tina, that's lemonade cars.

Okay. That's great. Hey, Tina, while we got you there, you gave us another great website three or four weeks ago, and I was about how to fix cars and do your own. Orca, do you recall that? You're talking about Scotty Kilmer? I'm not sure. He's kind of a state tree mechanic, and he'll show you how to do things, fixing your own vehicle.

Wow, I wish I could remember that one. Scotty Kilmer is the guy on YouTube, and he's got some fantastic videos out there. I think that was a lot, too. The car complaints. Oh, I mentioned engineering explained. Engineering Explained with last week. That was an engineering explain. dot com. Very good.

I'll tell you what, like I say, if people will just avail themselves with the information on the Internet and these really great websites, they can answer so many questions. And you just got to remember to ask yourself to go to the Internet. You just don't ask your friend, don't ask the guy at the corner gas station, go to the Internet. A wealth of information. Great information. Keep you out of trouble. Yeah, and Tina, that's engineering explained.com?

Yes, and if you're a car nerd or a nerd in general, you will be in heaven if you look, it's a YouTube channel. You'll be in heaven if you look at that YouTube channel. He's so in-depth, so precise and everything else. Yeah, just like watching a surgery, you know? Yeah, except a little bit left gross. Oh, it just, you know, attacks your senses. You're digressing, honey. You're digressing.

Oh, I'm in weeds. I'm in the weeds Just don't do surgery yourself That's all Oh please Tino they're picking on me Because I love to watch Surgery's on you too

Listen listen Her neck is bothering her You know be nice people Let me do some work on you I'm going to look that up on you Earl you need to give her a shoulder rub once in a while Oh no He can't touch my shoulders today

Last time I tried that she screamed We had the police at the house. What? How about a hot pad and some tea? Oh, okay. Hey, I'll take whatever I can get this morning. I'm running on empty. Tina, you're a fabulous caller.

I appreciate you giving us a call. I would say that you're encouraging the ladies to call because you, Earl, Stu, Rick, myself. We just talked about a popery. of things here and we really helped each other out so ladies if you're listening this is tina from benita springs who's calling and she wants more lady callers right tina yes they do yes they do and i texted you last week about something i was thinking about about when women go to buy cars you have to look at it like an adversarial but civil uh mediation with your ex except you're getting what you want and if the mediation doesn't work out

to where you don't get what you want, then you have the freedom and you have the right to walk away. And don't worry about hurting anybody's feelings. Most of these car salesmen don't have feelings. You're my kind of gal, Tina. The last time I did that, Tina, boy, I'll tell you what, the office was on fire during a mediation. So that's a good example. Tina, thank you so much for calling, and we look forward to hearing from you next week. Yeah, please call again. guys. I certainly will. My pleasure. Have a great weekend.

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we have got a couple of numbers to give you so that you can give us a call. You do make the show, and we go over the good, the bad, and the ugly. The telephone number is 877-9-60,

or you can text us hit 772-497-60. And ladies and gentlemen, Don't forget to pick up that addition, the 2018 auto issue. Oh, my goodness gracious, I'll never put this down. It has everything in it. 255 vehicles that are rated and reviewed, so they'll break it all down for you. 2018 auto issue of the Consumer Report. Now back to the recovering tar dealer.

We had it with a text five minutes ago. I'll just read it. It's a comment more than a question. I tell my family and friends to watch out for the fake window stickers. They look like these are part of the official window sticker. If they show you a big discount, don't get excited because they're probably taking that off the made-up sticker price. There's an informed consumer.

And, of course, he's talking about the Monroney label that we talked about earlier in the show. And that's exactly what they do. That's the purpose of the phony Monroney to inflate the asking price of the car make you think it's the official monorny label, the MSRP manufacturer's suggested retail price, which it does not. And by adding $2,000 or $3,000

profit, they can give you a $2,000 or $3,000 discount, and they're still selling you at the car at full sticker price, which is absolutely crazy. You know, Tina said something in her call. I love Tina. She's got very, very smart lady. And she said something

about you can't hurt a car salesman's feeling because they don't have any feelings. That was a little tongue-in-cheek. But what she said is important because salespeople, and I respect salespeople. I mean, they're a successful salesperson, honest, transparent, successful salesperson, that's an honorable profession. And I really, we love good salespeople.

But part of a good salesperson's personality profile is to be able to handle a rejection. And that's what Tina was alluding to. when you say you can't hurt a salesman's feelings. That's not literally true. I know there are salespeople out there that would take issue with this, but a very good salesperson can plow through rejection over and over again because if you don't, you can't be successful. In a car dealership, a typical car dealership,

car salespeople will sell maybe 10 to 20% of the people that they talk to. So that means that if there's a car dealership, selling 15% of 100 people they talk to, 85 people reject them. Now, if you or I, or if you're not a salesperson, are rejected 85% of the time, you're not going to like what you do. So, when you are dealing with a car salesperson, do not be afraid to be direct and reject him and go, as Tina said, somewhere else. Because when you say to that salesperson, I'm sorry.

I don't like the price, I don't like the car, or I don't like the way you're treating me, or I don't like the selection, whatever. And I'm going somewhere else. He may have crocodile tears, but that's what they are. They're crocodile tears. He's not really feeling bad about that. He's ready to go to that next.

The very best salespeople in the world are still getting rejected by half the people they talk to. Exactly. An outstanding. Nobody sells more than half the people they talk to. So, Tina, a very, very astute observation. Absolutely. 877960, or you can text us at 772-497-60.

We're going to go to Bob, who's been holding, and Bob's calling from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Bob. Yeah, good morning. Well, I have an insurance question. I don't know if you can answer this. I have a 2003 Honda Odyssey and I'm ready to renew my

insurance and should I forget about the collision they pay, I have a $250 deductible and they pay whatever the value of the car you know how that is.

Is it worth a while or should I? Bob here, you know, a lot of this depends on you and your personality and your tolerance for aggravation and pain, so to speak. Insurance to me is to pay for something that I cannot afford to pay for myself. In other words, if I have something insured, be in my house or my car or my health or whatever it is, and I can anticipate what might happen to the car, and I will be able to take that money from my savings account, and fix the car and it will not affect my lifestyle in other words I'm not going to

be I can still buy medicine I can still you know pay to have my clothes for my children I can still make my mortgage payment in other words I can fix that car it doesn't affect it doesn't affect my lifestyle on the other hand if if the cost of whatever I insured is going to cause me to have to go out and borrow money or maybe not do something important like buy clothes for my kid then I'm going to buy the insurance policy. The reason I say that is the insurance policy is always profitable, virtually, always profitable the insurance companies.

Matter of fact, insurance companies are among the most profitable institutions, companies in the world. Warren Buffett's is one of the number two, number three richest men in the world. He made most of that through insurance. And insurance companies make a ton of money. So that premium you pay every month. is putting money in their pockets, and they make a lot of money. But that doesn't say that you shouldn't buy insurance. In your case, Bob, you have an older car.

I would, in your shoes, not buy, I would not buy a collision insurance. I would say that I've got enough money where I wouldn't like to do it, but if I wrecked the car, I could go out and buy another one to replace it or a buy or to fix it. Fix it, yes. And it wouldn't hurt me that bad, $250. $250. That's what I would suggest.

But if it keeps you awake nights, then I'd go ahead and buy it. Okay. Oh, by the way, I used to do business with you, with your brother, Err. Doug. Doug. Yes. Iron and Flamingo? Yeah, Stuart Pontiac, 1928 South Texas, yeah, right across from the Care Free Theater.

Neither of which are there anymore. Oh, yes. Oh, no. No, no. You've gone a long time. All right. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you, Bob. Thanks for the call, Bob. Give us a call again. Ladies and gentlemen, you are a very important part of the show, so give us a call toll-free at 877-960, or you can text us hit 772-497-65-30. and remember that we do have the mystery shopping report coming up, and that is from Arrigo, Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, Ram, Fiat of Fort Pierce. You want to stay tuned for that.

That name is a mouthful, isn't it? Well, let's talk a little bit more about that mystery shopping report, especially for our true oldies listeners, and here we're going to do a mystery shopping report. Well, let me tell you exactly what our mystery shopping reports are. They're really kind of cool. Nobody else does mystery shopping reports. I know no one on radio.

I know no one on television. We, every week, we go out and send an undercover agent. I mean, a real, like, spy kind of a person. And we send them into a car dealership, and they pretend to buy or lease a car. Sometimes we do to pretend to buy or maintain a repair the car. But mostly, we go in and pretend to buy a car. Sometimes we look for an advertising. We've even played television ads, played the audio on the air, to go in to see what the offer was and see do they honor the offer.

We go in and we simulate the actual purchase or lease, and we name the dealership. That's what really makes it unusual. We name the dealership. We name the car salespeople. We even name the sales managers. Everything is just as is nothing withheld, nothing held back. And I guess I amaze myself, I can't believe that I haven't been sued. I just knocked on wood.

I haven't been sued. Actually, I want to be sued. And that's the point I'm making it. The reason I have been sued is because libel and slander can only be proven if you tell the truth. If you don't tell the truth, excuse me, if you don't tell the truth. So truth is a perfect defense against liable and slander. Now, that's the reason I haven't been sued. Now, I was hoping I'd be sued anyway.

Because it's so much fun. Well, because it would be a media circus. Yes. It would be a media circus, and we would have so much material for this show. I mean, and I would just love to be there in front of the jury and talk about ABC Chevrolet or DEF, Honda, and talk about it. I mean, it would just be. If we could get cameras in the courtroom, it would be so much.

What did George Bush say? Bring it on? Bring it on. Yeah. Bring it on. Anyway, I think we might have a caller over here. We're going to go straight to Mike, who has been holding from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Mike.

Good morning, guys. How are we here today? Hey, Mike. Great. Good. I'm the second time in the corner, and I'd like to ask a question. Can I name me? I just purchased a, a, two,

2015 ACS Cadillac. Can I mention where I got it or no? Oh, sure. They encourage you to. Yeah. Oh, okay. You know, I bought it from Auto Nation on 45th Street in Congress, and I was very pleasant people there,

and even had a female style who I didn't use, but, excuse me, they were very pleasant there. My point is I want to go over some of the things that I purchased on my, my sheet, and then I still have a couple of days to renege and take them off. I just want to go over, like, I know you mentioned about the deal of fee. I had a deal of fee, excuse me, let me see how much the deal of fee was. $799. $799.

Yes, $799. Pure profit. And, yeah, but I said, I didn't want to get it, but they said, you have to get it because of this and that and everything. So, I, you know, I said, okay, you know, I mean, I'm not going to argue because I've got a very good deal on the car. But now I say that maybe that's why they're jacking up everything else. The list price that I paid was very, very reasonable on this car. So the dealer, what do you say about the dealer service fee? Don't pay it.

Well, the dealer surface fee, Mike, is profit to the dealer. Now, unfortunately, we have some terrible laws in Florida protecting dealers and allowing them to charge this fee. But there is a law that says that when they advertise a car, they must include the dealer fee in the advertised price of the car. So if you responded to an advertisement on the Cadillac that you bought from Auto Nation on 405th Street and West Palm Beach, and that price that you responded to, the attractive price, you responded to, included the $7.99, then they can include it in the advertised price. But if you came in on the advertised price

and they added it after the fact, they broke in Florida law. Mm-hmm. So did you respond? Did you respond to an advertiser? No, no, I just went in there to look. There's someone that told me that there's more Cadillac there and then you can shake a stick at, and there's a wide variety,

and, you know, they're honest and reliable and very pleasant, which I found that all to be true. But as I said, I just want to know about the, you know, these fees that they hit me for here, the deal of C-799. Then they got me here for a battery and, what is it, The battery. Disposal? Yeah, yeah, but it was more than disposal.

It was, I can't find it right now, yeah. But I'll skip that one. Let me just go on to the optional accessories that I got. Okay, I got the appearance protection. Okay, that was for $4.99. All right, it's called appearance protection. Okay. Then I got tire and wheel protection.

and cosmetic wheel protection. And these were not cheap. How much were there? Cosmetic wheel protection $554. Right. Tire and wheel protection, $709. Oh, Mark. I shouldn't be allowed, but I'm sorry, Mike.

Yeah, go ahead. I'm not done. Dense protection, $4.99. Oh, my. appearance protection, another 499. And what they would tell me, what they were telling me, is that, you know, if I

get a dent in the car, they'll fix it. If my dog tears the leather approaches it, they'll fix it. You know, they said, you're covered, you know, head to toe as far as all these, all these things. But I'm saying to myself,

I don't know if I'm, do I need all of these things? And then they've gotten for excuse me a tag agency C-149 sales tax okay Palm Beach County tax

TACOC 114 so it bumped the car up to another $2,500 Well Mike you're the victim of a phony monerone which we talked about earlier Yes, I was listening

That's why I'm calling Exactly and these this appearance package and the cosmetic protection of the wheels and the tire wheel protection and the rest of the ones that you name, over $2,000, they're all dealer fees, really. They're very, very low cost to the dealer. And the appearance package probably costs a dealer $150, maybe, and he's charging you $4.99. So by inflating, by adding these products that you don't need, I would not have paid any of these.

I would not have wanted any of these. Anything that the car dealer adds to the car in the way of what they call options is usually worthless. And it's added just to boost the price of the car so they can either add to their profit when you decide to buy it or when they advertise the car, they can give you a big discount because the cost to them of these packages is nominal. So you've already taken delivery of the car, and it's too late for you to do anything. But the less...

No, it's not. No, it's not. I can have a week to kings, you know, to take these appearance, all these paint, wonderful. The tire wheel protection. I can take them off.

That's why I'm calling now. Take them all off, Mike. Every one of them, they're worthless. You don't need it. And the dealer fee, that's going to be the tough one. because they don't like to take that off. You can try.

But certainly the appearance packages and the cosmetic wheel package and all the rest of you name, you name $499, $499, $5.54, $7.09, and $499. That's every one of them. You don't want any of those. And if they give you an argument, go to another Cadillac dealer.

But, you know, the thing is, now I spoke to the finance man and I called them back and he told me I'm leasing, I'm paying it off. All right? I put down $5,000 and I'm going to pay the I'm paying it off in December when I get my

RMD for my IRA, okay? I got some extra money and I want to pay it off. But right now I'm leased, you know, I'm not leasing it. I'm, you know, I have a loan on it for So, 286, which is not bad. But he says to me, I went in and said, well, when you come and pay it off, we'll take these things off. No, no. That's a real gamble.

First of all, if he wants to put that in writing and you want to have your lawyer review it, then possibly, then maybe. But for the verbal promise from the finance manager at AutoNation Cadillac on 45th Street, it's not worth even paying attention to. You can't rely on that. Right, right. I mean, you know, I haven't bought a car in a long time. I've kept my older car, and, you know, I listen to you, and I'm saying, you know, I should check and see.

You know, they seem very nice, like I said. They're very hospitable, you know, looking to help. But, you know, like I say, when it comes to money, you'll have to be careful. money, you know, that makes the world go around, and I know that the price was very attractive. I don't know if I can mention the price to it,

but it was very, very, very good for 2015, ATS, white, beautiful, I love the car. But I just want to know if I can get away, you know, it seems a lot, you know, the tire and wheel, and the cosmetic wheel. How much do I want to pay for my

dollars here, you know? What am I getting for it? Yeah, they're probably banking or booking these items themselves and their cost of repairs and costs out of pocket for these insurance policies or whatever you want to call them are either

zero or nominal. This is not untypical of car dealers. They have these packages. Usually they put them on the window alongside the Monroney label. Were these displayed alongside the MSRP on the

cat? No, you bought a 2015 so it wasn't a new vehicle. They added after the fact, yeah. I see what you're saying. Now, don't pay for these in advance, especially because you're only keeping the car for a few months. You definitely don't need them. And even if you were keeping the car

for a few years, you don't need them. No, I am keeping the car. I'm saying I'm paying financing it until December. You won't be financing it. I'll pay it off. Yeah, I understand. Yeah, no, definitely. No, I'm going to, I'm planning on keeping this car.

It's a beautiful car. It runs beautifully. I'm really never in my life thought I could, you know, have a Cadillac, you know, but I'm 71 years old. I said, if I don't get it now, when am I going to get it? And I'm in the nursing home, I'll say, gee, I should have gotten that car seven years ago. So I'm happy. But like I said, I listen to you, and I know what you're saying about, you know, how, you know, a car sells, and, you know, they try to get as much as they can. I just want to know if this was legit if you would say yes or no.

So I hear you, and I'm going to go back there on Tuesday, and I'll, you know, I'll tell him, I don't, I want to get these things taken off. Because the price went from, excuse me, 17 and change to 21 in change because of the, you know, the sales tax, okay. But then, like I said, that $2,000 of extra is that they say, you know, I need because it's an expensive car. And if you have to have these things fixed, it's going to cost a lot of pocket money. But I'm saying, I don't know, what am I going to do to the tire that they're going to, you know, do I need $1,000? dollar's assurance on the tires. Mike, when you go back, just tell him to call Earl Stewart

if he has any of anything he wants to argue about or discuss, and tell him, I'd be glad to discuss it with. Tell him, I'm the one. Give him yourself on the number. Yeah, you can get my cell phone number. You can reach me directly at 561-358-1474. 561-358-147. It says, I talked to Earl Stewart the other day,

and he said, you're trying to take advantage of me, and he'd be glad to discuss it with you directly. He wants to talk to you right now. Yeah. And he loved to talk to. talk to you right now. Okay, Earl. Okay.

Hi, Mike. Thank you very much. We are cleaning up guys. I appreciate for your help. Take care. Have a good day. Bye-bye. And whenever Earl's done talking to him, I'll talk to him.

You want to talk to Earl, trust me. I say no more. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, give us a call. Toll free at 877-960, or you can text us at 77-49-60, or you can text us at 77-49-3-0. And pick up the weekly, the Florida Weekly, blah, blah, blah. This is those muscle relaxers. The Florida Weekly and the hometown news, there you will find Earl's column. Car dealers exploiting the elderly.

It's done a whole lot. So you want to take a read. And if you haven't picked up the Weekly, Florida Weekly or the hometown news, you can go to Earl on Cars, and you can read all of Earl's. blogs and there are several there very informative now back to the recovering car dealer is this a text too or did i no no i just i screenshoted that yeah stu still went to the florida statute on dealer fees which you could google and uh i'll read you the excerpt that applies to dealer fees it says um the advertised price must include all fees or charges

that a customer must pay including freight or destination charge dealer preparation charge in charges for undercoding or rust-proofing. State and local taxes, tags, registration fees, and title fees, unless otherwise required by local law or standard, need not be disclosed. So the rule of thumb when you're buying a car is that the only thing a dealer can legally add after the fact, meaning after the advertised or quoted price, are government fees. So if it's a sales tax for Florida, sure, they can add that 6%. If it's a license plate and a registration that you have to buy to legally drive the car, you have to do that.

Mike mentioned battery disposal fee. I believe that is a government fee, and so that's okay. So the way to get around the discussion about fees, because they don't name them all dealer fees, they name them everything. Florida law allows them, they can call them a box of oranges. I say, what's this? This is for a box of oranges. They can name it anything they want. The owner really likes oranges.

Yeah. Every car sale. Yeah. So if it's not a government fee, I ain't going to pay it. Rick? I've heard it said that if it's added on after the sales tax and you're not paying tax on it, then it's a legitimate government fee. Good point, Rick.

You have to pay tax on it, then that's a dealer fee. Yeah, definitely. That's exactly what I was going to say. We see week after week in every mystery shop we do, they might disclose the dealer. fee. But it can't. It has to be in the advertised price. When you see that 21 995, that deal free has to be in that price. Yes. Yeah.

You can't just say, yeah, we added the dealer fee. Sometimes they do that, and they don't even tell you the amount of the dealer fee. Even if they tell you the amount, it's got to be included. You know, add it in there. Then you have a total. And that's what it's supposed to be. Yeah, that's the legal way to do it is you put it in the price. Exactly. That's why

I love when you say, you know, we do our mystery shops and you tell how other places will say, well, yeah, those places that don't charge a dealer fee they just hide it in the price well that's where you're supposed to put it isn't it exactly there isn't any hiding so that's a good point rick uh this here topic that we're discussing right now that uh honesty and ethics uh in professions let me tell you what a lot of these car dealers are keeping us second from the bottom yes take a look at the gallop poll honesty ethics in professions

Boy, I'll tell you, they just keep us at the bottom, but we are climbing to the top right here at Earl Stewart on cars because we're exposing all of them and their dirty little secret. Give us a call with your experience. 877960, or you can text us at 772-49-60. And we are going to go to Margaret, who lives in Boynton Beach, and she's a first-time caller. Welcome, Margaret.

Kaching. Hi. Hi. Hi. You just won yourself $50. Wow. Yeah, so whenever we're done talking, you can stay on the line and give your contact information

so that I can send that checkout to you. So I'm welcoming you to the show, and what can we do for you this morning? Thank you. I am the first time calling any show, but I bought a 2008 Honda Civic with 160,000 miles in it. And because I'm a snowbird, and I just use it for four months, so I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a car,

which would be in the garage for the rest of the time. So I, it wasn't running very smooth, and I bought it from a dealer in West Palm. He's actually a mechanic shop. and it's not running smooth, but I had to go in and get a battery for the key, and I told them at Honda that what was going on, and they said it's probably the motor amount.

You know, when I stop at a light and I have the EC on, it feels like it's going to conch out on me. Well, Margaret, we've got somebody that knows all about cars, a mechanic that is the best in the business. His name is Rick Kearney. I'm going to let him address that question for you. Well, there's really two things that could be causing that could make that feel that way. The motor mounts generally will cause the car to feel a vibration.

That wouldn't necessarily, yeah, that wouldn't mean that it's going to feel like it's going to stall. If it feels like it's starting to stall out, the first thing that I would do is I would go in and I would have them do a throttle body cleaning and okay call what's the name of again the throttle body cleaning clean the throttle body and this should cost you no more than about 40 or 50 dollars and they're simply going to disconnect the air hose from the throttle body which is where the air goes in the engine and they're going to clean up that plate that's in there and nine times out of 10 on older cars, that makes them run 100% smoother. Oh, great.

Mark, remember, the price on that should be no more than $50, hopefully closer to 40. And if they quote you any more than that, then find another repair. Ideally, it would be nice if you could take it to the Honda dealer, but an independent mechanic should be able to handle that. Absolutely. Absolutely. An independent shop that specializes in the Asian cars, the Japanese cars, they would absolutely have every bit of knowledge on that, and they shouldn't have any problems cleaning up that throttle body. And like I say, most cases, that solves the issues right

there and makes the car run away smoother. Oh, that sounds great. Because I do like the car, and it is, you know, it's okay for me. It's good enough for now. Honda is a great car Yeah, I'm going back to the guy who I bought it from Because he said bring it in I'll do an oil change before you leave Which I'm leaving next week And I will ask him to do that

He should do that for me Absolutely Well, Margaret, call us back And let us know if it worked And I hope it does And I hope you have a safe trip in your Honda Back home And I hope you come back again next year

and call the show again. We really appreciate it. Remember, we're going to send you $50,000, so stay on the line. That's great. That'll help pay. Hey, that'll pay for your throttle body repair. There you go. Yes, it will.

Thank you so much. You're very well. You're welcome, Margaret. Stay in touch with us and let us know how everything turned out on that Honda. I think you got a couple of texts. Oh, got a couple texts here. Well, you're checking those texts. I just want to mention something here.

NHTSA has recently announced that certain models of cars have been added onto the do not drive list for the Takata airbag recall and the 2006 Ford Ranger pickup and 2006 Mazda B series pickups with defective Takata airbags based on new testing they have been added to the do not drive warning list. by NHTSA, by the government, if you own one of those vehicles or any model of those vehicles that is similar to that year, pull over now. You should immediately have your car checked to see if it's under the recall for Takata Airbags, and if it is, get it to the dealer as quickly as possible. They are supposed to provide you with a loaner vehicle, and they will even tow your vehicle to the local dealership for repair free of charge.

This is coming from the NHTSA's government website right now. And it's something that everyone needs to be aware of. This Takata thing is not going away, and it's only getting worse. And it seems like everyone else in the media has forgotten about it. And these are getting more dangerous. Give those cars out again, will you please? That's the 2006 Ford Ranger and the Mazda B-Series pickups. 2006 Ford Ranger and the Mazda B-Series pickups.

Now, what year? The 2006 as well on the Mazda. Same car. They're basically the same pickup, but marketed under the Ford and Mazda badges. But due to additional testing that they've been doing, they said these are dangerous to drive. Yeah, don't drive it. I wouldn't take it to the dealer. I'd park it.

And I'd call the dealer and say, this is where the car is. Come get it. And bring me a loaner and get this car, get it fixed, because that's, That's demanded by the government. NHTSA has said, you cannot drive this car. It's on the NHTSA's website. I'm looking at it right now. How is it we're the only people talking about this?

Great information. Isn't that the truth, Stu? Why is this not on the clock news? Because we're not worried about commercials and ratings. We're worried about taking care of people. Ladies and gentlemen, that's www. Safercar.gov. enter your VIN number and you can find out whether your vehicle you're driving well is a death

trap so I can't put it any plainer than that give us a call toll free we have the mystery shopping report coming up and everyone is always intrigued by that present company included so give us a call toll free at 877 960 960 share some of your stories anything at all not just what we've discussed this morning, or you can text us. His 772-4976530. Now back to what's your name of you? Earl, his moniker.

Hang in there, Nancy. We've got 30 minutes. Got another text here. Text reads, Earl, Johnny, from Riviar Beach. You do a good job making people aware of all the dishonest things that go on when buying or leasing cars. But do you know if the same thing goes on when buying RVs, motorhomes. I haven't heard of people complaining about these RV dealerships.

I see they do a lot of advertising on television. You know, there's a huge one up there in Port St. Lucie, I think, and they're all over TV. All over TV. That's the place. And they have a huge number of recreational vehicles. You know, it's difficult.

I'm tempted. I've actually thought about I'll bet there's something going on up there and we probably ought to check it out. But, you know, we're trying to appeal to the masses. We're trying to do the most good. We have two hours every Saturday and we're trying to save the most people. It's kind of like a triage thing.

More people buy cars than buy RVs and RVs are very expensive so people that buy RVs probably are not as hurt as much financially as people who buy cars. Maybe I'm rationalizing it. I must say out of my own

curiosity, I just might sneak up. I have the perfect shopper. I do too and I just texted him. That's Ted Kabo. Oh, okay, well, he wouldn't use it. Oh, yeah, yeah, he'll be agent something early. Yeah, but we could. He just answered me.

That would be fun. Maybe, okay, Johnny from Maria Beach, I think we just might do that because it'll be fun. Well, I texted Ted. We can't do it regularly, yeah. Yeah, I asked him, I said, do RV dealers behave badly like car dealers? Quick question, we're on the air. Yeah. One word answer, yes.

So I think we got something interesting to check that out. Well, you know, they could probably get away with a lot more. I mean, you don't, car dealers, you're doing a lot more shopping and comparing. RV dealers, you probably don't do as much. And you're paying, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars for some of these things. I mean, you're paying, you know, 80 or 90,000 would be a cheap RV, I guess. But I know a lot of folks actually buy RVs to live in. They store them, you know, live on the little campground areas and live in them.

So, you know, it is a reasonable alternative to trying to buy a home and it's mobile. He added very old school tactics. So this could be interesting. Interesting, yeah. I would be surprised. I'd like to hear from our listeners out there if you have bought an RV. Has anybody bought an RV and they know they paid a dealer fee or were they the victim of bait and switch?

In fact, do RVs, do they have Monroney labels? I don't think that they come under the Monroney Act. I'm not sure if they have to, does a Winnebago have to have an MSRP so that you compare one Winnebago against another Winnipeg? I don't know. I'm just not educated on RVs. I've never owned an RV, and I don't ever want to own an RV. You were thinking about it a long time ago.

I don't like the idea of a huge thing on the highway with me behind the wheel. No, I definitely agree with that. We don't want to put you in anything large with a steering wheel. For public safety, safe. Not for his comfort. Hey, it's your turn to be picked on it. And they do require a monolith, by the way. They do require a monroe.

Okay. You know, that's a good point about these RVs, you know, and which, ladies and gentlemen, go to www. safercar.gov and check that out to see whether or not your RV has been recalled for the Takata recall. And, wow, that just came up. I mean, that is great. That's a great topic that we have. have not addressed.

877-960-99-60 or UCon Texas at 77249-9-7-6-5-30. I think that we're coming up on a time that we got 20 minutes left, according to a good source. And we are going to be... You'll watch? No, my friend here who's on the other side of the glass who helps me out so much. That's a mystery shopping report from Arrigo Dodge. Chrysler Jeep, Ram, Fiat, and Fort Pierce. Okay.

Go get them, Tucker. Here we are. We took a break this week, mystery shopping report. We took a break this week from our anatomy of Cardiola ad series and did an old-fashioned Agent X mystery shop. Now, the anatomy, we take a clip of a TV ad, and we play the audio, and then we analyze the fine print and the rest of it. This is just an old-fashioned report.

We pay the visit to a Rigo Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, Ram, Theat of Fort Pierce. We're just going to call them Arrigo Dodge. That's easier. Because I wasn't even sure I could say all that fast. We'll call it Arrigo Dodge. In Fort Pierce. After seeing their advertisement for a new 2018 Dodge Challenger, SXT, with a low monthly payment of $189 a month.

189 seems to be popular It's a hundred eighty-nine Yeah It sounds so much better than $1.99. Yeah, that's played out. $1.99. Earl Sturt on cars

It's a mystery shop to Rigo dealerships nine times in the last three years recently focusing on the Takata airbag issue. Now, the reason we hit Arrigo so many times First of all, they advertised to be the largest Chrysler Dodge Jeep. There I go again.

dealership. You know, what we ought to call him is a Rigo Jeep because he sells more Jeeps than anything else. He sells very few Dodges. Well, I won't say that. Dodge truck and Jeep. The Fiat's, forget about it. They don't saw any of those. I think he even has a what is the new Alfa Romeo.

I think he... But anyway, he's a large dealer. He says he's the biggest... Let's add that to the name. He says he's a largest dealer for Chrysler Jeep in Florida. At one time, he was saying he was the largest in the United States. He is at one time may still be

the chairman, national chairman of the Chrysler Dealer Council representing all USA Chrysler dealers on the dealer council. So we hit him nine times because of that and because his tactics were in

the past somewhat less than regal, sterling, honest. And we shopped him nine times. So we have to cover the volume dealers because you buy more cars from the volume dealers. By definition. Rollsard-run cars is a mystery shop.

Okay, the past we focused on the Ticada airbag issue, and we did check a Rigo Dodge, Fort Pierce's inventory yesterday, and I can happen a report that we could not find any Ticada affected vehicles. Now, I'm the pat, myself on the back, and the other members of our team on their backs, because our efforts in the Ticado realm have not only called, cleaned up the act for ARIGO, but for a lot of car dealers in South Florida, when we first started this crusade, whatever you want to call it, a year and a half ago, has it been two

years, a year and a half? Everybody was selling cars with Takata Airbeck recalled, and they were not disclosing it. They were the used car lots, and the new car dealers used car lots also were full of cars with Takata Airbags actively selling these cars. Now it's a rarity. And in the case with a rego dodge jeep in fort piers there were no tecotta airbag for sale uh tecotta equipped used cars for sale and so i feel very good about that now again with transparency and disclosure i have to say that i am litigating with erigo jimbarigo uh erigo dodge jeep uh with his westpon beach store and i sued him because as i said earlier he was selling these cars and he was selling dangerous cars not disclosing it and that's the reason I sued him it's in the courts we've been to court a few times it hasn't gone to trial we're now appealing a verdict by the judge it's in the appeals court and I'll keep you posted so in all honesty and fairness there is a litigation going on between Jim or we go or we go Jeep

Dodge and me. So there you are. It's always fun with that said to shop the Rigo's. It is fun. You probably know who I'm talking about. The Flamboyant Oregal Brothers, Jim and John, and the father's name is Joe, by the way. The Flamboyant Arrigo Burgers have dealerships in three locations in South Florida.

Arrigo sawgrass down in Broward, huge, huge facility down there. There we go Palm Beach on Okedobie Boulevard, also extremely large dealership. It used to be an auto nation used car lot out there west of the turnpike on Okotruby Boulevard. And there's also the one in Fort Pierce. And I haven't seen that one, but I believe it's probably a large dealership. They are known in our listing area for their prolific and sometimes entertaining advertising. Back of the 90s, they became very well known for a series of radio advertisements. featuring celebrity impersonators

doing Bill Clinton and Eddie Murphy impressions. I love those. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. They were really entertaining. Origgo Dodge, Dodge Land. That's what they call it. Yeah, yeah. More recently, their TV spots that feature the Arrigo brothers themselves starring in comedy sketches

with Jim playing the straight man. Bud Abbott to Lou Costello. John is to Lou Costello. Yeah, he's the funny one. And Jim is Bud Abbott. And they're funny. I mean, they're funny. It's not easy to be funny. No, it is.

On television. I mean, if you try to be funny and you're not funny, that, you know, it's really, it's embarrassing, and you don't want to do that. But Jim and John, Rigo, are funny. Okay. Now, the ad we're checking out was a big headline banner. This is a mystery shopping report, by the way,

in case you just tuned in, a Rigo Jeep, Dodge, and Port Pierce. Big banner headlines special on their website. The $189 payment really stood out in huge, bullet print just as we noticed the disclaimer language at the bottom of the banner ad it disappeared and a new banner took its place I'm sure you see that's frustrating you can't read it that's what television ads do they blink it on the screen so you can't read it so the big banner 189 hit you between the eyes

and then bam it's gone and so is a fine print all your member is 189 a month I'm looking at a screenshot wasn't easy I have it printed out on my paper here. There was no way to go back after the banner flashed off, so we had to wait. You've probably seen that if you're an internet shopper. So we had to wait for the website to cycle through a dozen

or so banners, different cars are advertising before it got back to the Dodd Challenger with $189 payment. When it did, we're able to grab the screenshot. And you've got to be fast, let me tell you. I mean, yeah. A lot of work. Actually, it took more than one try.

Yeah, right. You hardly ever get it on the first try. And remember, we're trying to get a screenshot. If you're trying to read it, forget about it. You can't. You have to do the screenshot first. So we've got the screenshot, and it stays there for about two seconds, and I'm going to read this to you.

Screenshot says, remember all we have is $189 a month in our mind. Big red. Big red print. You can't miss it. Fine print says select models, 39-month lease, $3,000 do its signing, $0 security deposit

plus tax tag title and $7999.95 dealer fee. Why do they have to put the 95 cents in there? It scales up, 95 cents over a lot of cars. It's a lot of money.

You sell 1,000 cars? It's almost $1,000. Lissy pays for, this is a little fine print. Lissy pays for excess wear and tear, no, excess wear and mileage of 25. cents per mile for each mile over 10,000 miles per year.

I'll tell you what, that's something that bites you big time. I had a call last week from a person that had bought a car, leased a car, and had not realized until it was too late that he'd run over, turning the car back in in a couple of months. It kind of cost him over $4,000. Unbelievable. Won't know of the same thing I could do. And that's closed in the barn door if the horse is gone. I said, I'm sorry.

You've got to read the fine print on these leases. So 25 cents a mile for each mile over 10,000 miles per year. And then continuing with a fine print on this Arrigo Jeep Dodge Mystery Shopping Report, minimum $7.99 credit score required. Now, $7.99 is getting right up there. So let's round that off to $800. An 800 beacon score outside of the Pope and a few other people, I'm not sure how many people have $800 plus beacon score.

course, not a lot. So there is a loophole, see, there is a way to back out because shoppers probably, in fact, most people don't have 800 beacon scores, 799, with approved credit, includes lease conquest, loyalty, must qualify. See dealer for details, lease conquest, loyalty. Now, what that means, because you probably don't know, that means, If you are leasing a Jeep and you want to buy a Jeep or lease a Jeep, that's loyalty. And then if you're leasing a competitive make and they have specified makes that you have to qualify for, then you also qualify. So these are things that you don't know you have to qualify for, and you probably don't qualify for. And we've seen that over and over again.

So we asked Agent X to go in and mention the 189 payment and proceed as if they had not read the disclaimer, just like anybody else who saw the ad. Here's the report. Speaking of the first person, I pulled into Arrigo Dodge, Fort Pierce, Rigo Dodge Jeep, that's what they sold the most of. In the early evening around 7 p.m., I was quickly greeted by a salesperson named Jacob. He was enthusiastic and seemed genuinely glad to see me. That's a good salesman. when they seem like they're glad to see you. I told Jacob I was interested in getting into a new 2018 Dodge Challenger,

just the basics, nothing too fancy. He asked me to follow him so he could get some information from me. We went inside and sat down. Jacob had me completed an information for him that asked questions about trade, payment, down payment, etc. When we finished, he asked me what color I liked? I said blue. Matter of fact, I do like blue.

I'm wearing a blue shirt right now. Jacob excused himself to get the keys. Things were going very smoothly. He returned after a few minutes with the keys and led me outside. We found a new 2018 Dodge Challenger, SXT, in stunning indigo blue. The MSRP was $29,690, and there was no addendum sticker. A rarity, folks. A rarity.

We talked about the phony Monroe. That's what we're talking about. The addendum sticker, Arrigo Job, Jeep Dodge. did not have these on this car and i presume on any of their cars jacob did a nice presentation of the car and we took a few took a short test drive we returned to jacob's desk to talk business he asked if i wanted to pay cash finance or lease i told him i had visited arigo's website earlier and the day and saw special one eighty nine dollar payment on the challenger jacob explained wonderful let me get those numbers for you things were going great jacob left me to speak

speak with someone I assume was the sales manager, the old back and forth. He returned with a worksheet with some printed information and some handwritten information on that. In black sharpie print with the terms $4,850 total out of pocket, abbreviated on the worksheet as TOP. Oh, wow me. For as if there's not enough slang expressions to confuse. excusing expressions when you're buying something.

T-O-P. You never heard of that before. I haven't either. For $189 payment, not including tax for 10,000 miles per year for 39 months. The out-of-pocket was comprised of a $3,000 down payment plus a $799 dealer fee, a $599 tag agency fee, and $4.99 lease paperwork fees. Never heard of that one either. I haven't heard of that one.

And when I first read this, I said, is this a leasing company administration? I don't think so. I think what we've got here, folks, are three dealer fees. And we're talking about, let's round these off, okay? $800 plus $600 plus $500, I believe that's $1,700 total. More than that. $800 plus $600 is $1,400. $1,900.

$1,900, okay. I fluck math. You were a physics major. I was, true. That's the reason I'm not a physicist. What do you call a physicist who graduates last year? Yeah, a cardiola. A cardio.

I like that, right. I told Jacob that I thought it was a lot to come up with, and it did not seem like a good deal for just 10,000 miles per year. I said I needed 12,000 miles per year and asked if I could get that without raising the payment or out of pocket. Jacob said he would need to get a credit app for me at this point. I explained that I had a freeze put on my credit. I would need to involve my wife to get it unfrozen.

I also, I guess that means you put a freeze on your credit, that's for privacy protection. Yeah, yeah, so you don't get hacked or fraud. That's a great excuse to use. I also explained that I would need to convince her, my wife, we were getting a good deal, so better to go see what we could do. Jacob said he would do his best. He went back to the sales manager, returned with a new worksheet, also written in Black Sharpie. the payment was 189

for a 39 month lease with a 12,000 miles per year allowance. The out of pocket looked the same to 4,850. However, Jacob said I would have to pay the $799 dealer fee on top of that.

Now, if $799 isn't out of pocket, I don't know what it is. Where's it going to come from? It's a showdown. It's not going to come out of your pocket. So the 4850 became a 800 plus 4850 so that's 5650. Something like that. That's the best we can do, I asked.

I should say, that's the best we can do, I asked. He said it was, so I said I would call him in the morning after speaking with my wife. We shook hands, hello. Okay. A rigo played loose with terms out of pocket, clearly, and do its signing. These expressions are commonly used in advertising,

and I don't think they should be allowed because they are ambiguous and there's no legal definition so if you say you said out of pocket there's no legal argument there you just start arguing back and forth it's like two people we got four minutes to go

so let me wrap this up do it signing also is an ambiguous unlegal term they should be banned in advertising or define them exactly define it and legally define it The disclaimer read $3,000 due to signing to any reasonable person.

This means the total amount of money you have to pay at the time the lease contract is signed. But no, it wasn't the case. When Agent X was presented with lease figures, the $3,000 was actually a down payment. Now, a down payment has a legal definition. And what they're talking about now was not a down payment. Technically, the leases capitalize cost reduction. Leases are complicated, folks. That's always the reason I say.

All things being able, rule of thumb. Buy the car instead of lease it. More fees, all bogus, by the way, were added to that, bringing the real due its signing to $4,850, $1,850 more than the disclaimer in the ad indicated. Additionally, a Rigo sales manager raised the out-of-pocket on the second pencil. Now, to be fair, that was because it was 12,000 miles. instead of 10,000 miles, so the lease factor probably went up. But he tried to make it look a little bit better.

Exactly. By no longer including the dealer fee and the $4850 out of pocket, that was the sneaky part. And the second set of lease figures to do it signing had risen to $5,649, $2,649 higher than the amount of the estimate. So here we are from a $189 a month payment. to having to come up with $5,649 cash, you can buy a car for $5,649, and you're having to come up with this to get $189 payment, pure patent switch, pure deception.

The question is, is we score O'Rigo Chief Dodge in Fort Pierce, by the standards that Cardinals set in this market, is that where he should be not recommended, or is that standard where you've got to have some Cardinals recommended? I leave it up to the wisdom of the panel. Stu? I like Jacob. He seems like a good salesperson.

I don't think he's necessarily complicit. But you're right. This is a C score. I'd say a C minus score. You've just got to be educated. You've got to be prepared before you go in. But it's kind of par for the course. By ever where.

Yes, absolutely. Well, the DS, the T-O-P, the O-P, all of these. little cute little things that they refer to these cliches. Stu is right. They need some sort of a quick, defining, carse salespeople's terminology. For that, you know, it just doesn't represent my culture. I'm going to give them a D. Rick, I call it a C level all the way across the board, C's.

I'm with Stu on the C-minus and we'll pass him and reluctantly Rego Cheap Dodge and Port Pierce is going our recommended dealer list but if we didn't have

some people on our recommended list you wouldn't have any place to buy vehicles We got to recommend it with caution Absolutely Yeah, power is knowledge Ladies and gentlemen I think that we are at the end of our show We want to thank each and every one of you

for spending your Saturday morning with us and you can find us right back here at the True Oldies Channel. Have a great weekend.