Earl Stewart on Cars - 03.28.2020 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Southern Palms Mazda

Episode Date: March 28, 2020

Earl answers various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Agent Thunder visits Southern Palms Mazda to see if he can purchase an advertised 2019 Mazda CX-3 at a very special online price. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, his tweets at www.twitter.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. “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”

and Nancy and I and Rick are all part of a car dealership and we have for a long time and business is terrible and we have a lot of employees, 170, they're all worried about their jobs. We're worried about our customers. So the car dealers are in a bit of a bind and it's nice if you can do business with somebody and get a fair deal and help a car dealer stay open so we can pay his employees. So there are good reasons for doing business if you have to do it. you just don't want to be taking advantage of. Yeah, I wanted to add to that. It's pretty fortunate. It was scary. We started getting notifications of mandatory closures. And honestly, the chief concern from everybody there was what's going to happen to my job. Yes. Because when the supply of customers ends, the clock starts ticking on how long you can stay in business.

And so it was fortunate. So it is a good thing that they can. We just hope everybody is practicing social distancing, keeping everything clean. And the other thing, to your point about the few things, those commercials, Tina, that's just lazy. I'm sure they ordered that slot of commercials last month or even before that, and they just had a call their advertising rep at the radio station or the TV station and say, hey, let's change the message that's a little bit tone-deaf right now. And Tina, to add to that, I'd like to share with you that, you know, these tactics have been

going on since the Last Supper. And, you know, that's the way it is. And unfortunately, not everyone pays attention and recognizes the fact that these car dealers are going to use whatever they can to get you in the door. It doesn't matter whether it's the coronavirus or anything else. And now that we have this pandemic, people are just frightened. They're scared. They're out of money. They're looking for deals. And these car dealers are going to take advantage of anyone they can and everyone and i want to thank you for calling because you really open the door for the ladies to call here thanks and any car dealer that's out there that's advertising in a way to try to undermine the general public in light of the crisis that we're going in

all of them get enough minus yeah thank you tina do we have any more callers Okay, Tina, have a great weekend. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-60, and we're going to go to Vancouver. And Boston has been waiting. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome. Can you hear me?

Yeah, you're calling all the way from Vancouver? That's right. Cool. I called in probably about a year ago. and yeah no I just still don't listen to the show and all that and except there's a bit of a time different obviously it's 5 a.m. here right now that's really you got to set your alarm to call the show

exactly but anyway so my question is as you guys have talked about consumer reports you guys highly speak of consumer reports recently they have done a brand They did a survey, and they sell the different brands, which one's better, like Porsche be number one, I think. Lexus was number five, but the big one was Toyota being number 12 on the list. Normally Toyota is near the top top five, if not top three. I just want to hear what your guys' thoughts are this show's results.

Oh, you go ahead, Sue. Oh, well, we consider the Consumer Reports the Consumer Bible. And so our thought is, even though we do, like Ezrault discloses every week that we have a Toyota dealership, that doesn't make consumer reports wrong. So if they are ranking Toyota low, it's probably for a pretty good reason. I can say that we see brands of cars kind of circle in and out of the top. And historically, over the years, Toyota, Honda have been considered amongst the most reliable and recommended consistently by consumer reports.

But if they are doing reviews right now and coming up and ranking Toyota lower, I would take that pretty seriously and take a look at it. You have to be careful when you're looking at a consumer report review. They review by model, your make and model. And you can have a make that has 90% really good cars, in which case they'll have a very high image brand. But sometimes within a very good manufacturer,

high quality like Toyota, will be a real bummer. And when you buy a particular model, whether it's a Honda or a General Motors product or Chrysler Ford product, look at the specific make and model grading in consumer reports. And the opposite is true. Sometimes you can find a real diamond in a manufacturer that typically is ranked low. So it's amazing to me as a dealer for so long how a quality manufacturer can come out with a lemon and how a lemon manufacturer, can seem to come out with a quality product. Toyota, Honda, typically have very, very high ratings, but each of them has their Achilles heel and some problem cars. That does make sense.

I don't know if you guys saw their results for a few weeks ago. They published it, I think it's in their auto magazine for April, 2020. But no, they, you know, Generally, Toyoters are quite high. There is a dependable quality product, right? And so I was just surprised to see Toyota at number 12 this year.

Yeah. Yeah, I just pulled up the top picks of 2020, so this is Consumer Reports' best cars of the year. So just going down the list, under $25,000, they do have the Toyota Croll as the best pick, followed by the Subaru Forrester for a small SUV. For a hybrid, they have the Toyota Prius. Best mid-sized car of the year,

is the Subaru Legacy. Best large sedan is the Toyota Avalon. Mid-sized SUV is the Kia Telluride. Yeah, there's a surprise. Also, the best compact pickup truck is the Honda Ridge Line. And we had an interesting conversation about that in our management meeting. The true truck enthusiasts might not consider a Honda Ridge Line being a unibody thing, a true truck. But Consumer Report says it's the best compact truck.

And then we have the Lexus RX series. that's an SUV, and the best sports car is the Toyota Supra. And I agree with that. Yeah. Sue drives one. I do. I'll tell you why I'm driving one. We had too many of them we couldn't sell them.

So, yeah, but clearly, consumer reports is the go-to place to get the best unbiased, you know, non-influenced by advertising, by manufacturers, by anybody. Probably the best source of information, but you've got to dig down a little bit deeper. well thank you very much for the call no thank you you give us the ability to call this international show and people call from another country so we are

we're international and please call again in Boston pick up that consumer report the April edition you're going to find a whole lot of information and they're concerning your questions this morning and join us again

we have another caller don't we we do not I look forward to the day when I can go back to Vancouver Absolutely. We have a YouTube, Bill. We do indeed. Mark Ryan is asking, he says, looking at buying a one to two-year-old Lexus ES350 or an Avalon, thoughts on either vehicle or the general cost of maintenance for both. Thank you. And Wayne Vite actually kind of chipped in as well.

He says, wait until the checks come. Many of the car dealers will be advertising all kinds of fraudulent ads, 6,000 over trade-in book value. Yeah, that's true. You're going to see some good deals out there, folks, with this crisis for a couple of reasons. First of all, the manufacturers are going to jump in with heavy incentives. Some of the manufacturers closed, and they just recently reopened. When you're building cars, you've got to sell them because you can't keep them there.

They hurt your cash flow. You tie up a lot of cash when you have to sit on a huge inventory. So the manufacturers will be offering incentives to you, the customer, and also to the dealers. And these can be passed along to you if you're careful and do your shopping. The car dealers are hurting, too. That's the reason number two. The car dealers want to stay open. They have to pay their employees, and they have to sell cars and service in order to justify remaining open.

And so they will be absolutely taking lower-profit deals, but they won't unless they have to. And the people that they're going to get the good deals are going to be the educated consumers that listen to Erlon Cars, that go to Erloncars.com, and that do their homework and are careful. They'll make up for it for the people that walk in and think and they believe the edge and they don't do their homework. You'll pay a dealer a $5,000 profit, and your next-door neighbor who did their homework will pay the dealer a $500 profit. You don't want to be the one that pays the too much profit. And on Mark's question about the general cost of maintenance between the Avalon and the Lexus ES350, if you're going to a Toyota dealership, and if you follow the factory recommended maintenance schedule,

the maintenance schedule is going to be about the same for both of those vehicles. Going to Lexus with the Lexus, you're going to pay more because Lexus, they charge a lot more. A Toyota dealer will charge you a lot less for that same maintenance. but even an after-market operation, an after-market mechanic, somebody outside, find one that you can trust, and your maintenance costs will be lower still. Cadillac dealers go to a Chevrolet dealers, go to Nissan, Accurate dealers go to a Honda dealer for repairs. You'll find the discounts almost half of what you pay at a luxuries.

Especially on the big, on this big maintenance, like the $30K and things like that. You might see a $600, $300, $30,000. 30,000 mile maintenance on a Lexus or inaccurate. Nancy Stewart just passed me this USA Today that came across the other day on the previous subject of is now a good time to buy a car. USA Today says yes it is and with the same caveat, it is. The dealers are desperate to sell cars. The manufacturers are desperate.

The incentives, discounts will be available. But the car dealers will also take advantage of you even more. If they have a large dealer rebate that you don't know about, and you don't know about it, and you don't do your homework, shop and compare and get competitive pricing, they'll keep that dealer incentive and increase their profit per car. So it's up to you. Do you want to increase the dealer's profit per car, or do you want to get a good deal? Do your homework, and you can get a really good price on a vehicle today, new or use. I might add, and this is counterproductive to our dealership, but I might add, and this is counterproductive to our dealership, but I would also say stay tuned because I think as we get deeper into the crisis,

the manufacturers are going to get more and more generous. Exactly, yeah. It's going to get the coronavirus, I use this phrase, because you hear it 100 times a day now, but it's going to get worse before it gets better. And as it gets worse, then the retailers, not just car dealers, are going to be desperate, and they're going to be trying to encourage you to do business. Desperation does two things.

It makes retailers do things they wouldn't do in terms of ethical and moral decisions. Desperate people can really take advantage of you. But at the same time, if you're smart, educated, and you have done your homework, you can get a heck of a deal on about anything. Just be very, very careful. It's a good point they just made. A lot of dealers will be doing the right thing and a lot will be doing the wrong thing. The ones that will be doing the wrong thing are the ones that are the most desperate. they were probably in the shakier financial shape before we went into this because it's a matter

of survival. The stronger dealers have had a good business model that have been around for a long time. They're going to withstand this and they're more likely to be a little bit, be a lot more honest than some of the other dealers. Great, great information, Stu, because I'll tell you what, financially driven, it can be a real bad thing and it can be a good thing. And car dealers are very desperate right now. Remember that you could go to www.w. Your Anonymous Feedback.com and share your thoughts with us. Also, we're going to have the mystery shopping report coming up, and as usual, it is a real doozy, and that mystery shop is from

Southern Palms, Mazda, 877-960, or you can text us at 772-4976530. grow. I keep forgetting that a lot of people tune in. We are getting, the show is growing the number. Listeners are growing. And we have to remind people about the mystery shopping report. Thank you, Nancy, for doing that. It's unique what we do. Stu is in charge. We call him the spymaster because he sends an undercover agent every week to a cartel ship somewhere in South Florida. And we go in there and pretend to buy or lease a car. Typically, we'll respond to an ad. Sometimes we try to buy a Tecata airbag car that hasn't been fixed, or maybe there's no fix available.

But the interesting thing about this is we name names, we name the dealership, we name the salespeople, sales managers, and we tell them exactly what they did wrong or right. And oftentimes they're breaking the law in terms of lying, saying that they will give you a discount that they won't, or saying price, which the Florida law and a lot of other states require. You give the full price when you advertise a car. They hold back dealer-installed accessories and dealer fees that they don't disclose in their advertisement. And we do that. We absolutely name names.

And we say this car dealer broke a law. Haven't been sued in 17 years. The truth is the perfect defense against libel and slander. So stay tuned for the mystery shopping report. How are we doing on text? Yeah, I'd like to get caught up. Last week we finished and we had several that we didn't get to. so there was some from Saturday and Sunday of last week

that people, I'm sure, waiting with bated breath for our response. The first one here, if you want to talk to that now, last week we were talking about some of the people that we saw in the news that were disregarding the orders to shelter in place, a lot of the spring breakers on the beaches, so that we had that conversation.

Jay and Jupiter text that says, everything has some risk. The consequence function of the brain does not fully develop until early to mid-20s. That is one reason we need to need your program to help people with knowledge and critical thinking skills. Thank you, Jay, and Jupiter. Well, I appreciate that.

We do want to help. I didn't realize that, but what consequences part of your brain doesn't develop until you're in your 20s? There is an interesting book that my wife are reading for a very good reason. It's called The Teenage Brain. We need to understand that brain.

We have three teenagers. Absolutely. And all three of my teenagers have fine brains. They're very, very smart. But they're also very different than adult brains. And oftentimes we think of children developing, and then they come of age. They hit puberty and their little adults. But their brain keeps developing into their 20s and some of these critical thinking skills, risk assessment, things like that.

That's why teenagers drive 100 miles an hour and go to spring break on the beach during the pandemic. Their brain don't work right. I remember. I used to know a teenager. that stole the Ronald McDonald's statue from a McDonald's and held it hostage and sent a ransom note. I was technically an adult then. Oh.

You know, there's an, Earl, I don't know whether you recall this or not, but there are so many times whenever I say I refer to, the brain is not fully developed, and you tease me about it, but it is so true. And, you know, most of us go within age, and we don't consider adults, not having their brain fully developed, but there's a huge study on all of that information, and it is very interesting, starting from the day a child is born into their grade school,

teenagers, and there are more adults that don't have a brain that's fully developed. Just because you can shave, doesn't mean I'm going to hand you the keys. All right. Next one, this is from Ola, in East Peoria, Illinois. Illinois, wants to know if we know if dealers are considered essential businesses in Illinois. I looked it up. Now, here's the thing. I think so, yeah. It says that gas stations and businesses needed for transportation are considered essential.

And I think a reasonable interpretation would say that would include car dealers. Now, that said, it doesn't specifically say that in the statewide order in Illinois. I would recommend you check with your county government, just to tell you. to see if they have a more local order. For example, in our neck of the woods in Palm Beach County, they issued an emergency order last week, or earlier this week, and they specifically said new and used car dealerships are exempt from the order to close. Some counties just word it differently.

There's a lot of politics on that. I would tell you if I didn't think automobile dealerships were essential, but there's a lot of politics. I know the Florida Automobile Healders Association, lobbied heavily in Tallahassee and asked the dealers to lobby with their local municipalities to keep the car dealerships

is essential. Everybody wants to be considered essential. The thing that I kind of wondered about was the fact that liquor stores are considered essential, and they are essential to me because I have to have my martini.

You're set for months now, I believe. And I won't tell you how much Hendr's gin I bought the other day. But seriously, the liquor lobby was able to get liquor stores in Florida declared as an essential business in. And that's just silly. And the weed stores. There you go. The cannabis dispensaries.

I didn't know that. The guys are talking about these ways of medicating ourselves. But, you know, in some instances, for some people, gin, scotch, whatever, is a form of medication. Please get back to Earl Stewart on cars. And excuse me for a moment, that article that's in the USA that I saw yesterday, take a look at it, guys, and it talks about the dealerships that are open. And it's an interesting article, 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-30, and we're going to go to Pompano Beach where Warren is waiting to speak with us. Good morning, Warren. Good morning.

How are you guys? Well, thank you. okay i just wanted to let you know i'm actually in new jersey um i came up early in portly new jersey and the dealerships are all closed here i'm right across in new york city i'm across the george russia bridge from new york city where it's an epidemic over there and everything is closed here except food stores there's actually nothing open except food and the dealership the only dealerships the only dealerships the only lot open is repair places You can't sell new cars, you can't sell used cars, you can't sell anything.

Service? And so I just about to let you know that only service dealers are open. Oh, I say so. So a car dealership with a service department could keep the service department open, or would you have to be just a separate service business? No, no, a service department can be open if you're a car dealer. Yeah, I just looked up in New Jersey's. Yeah, the showrooms are closed, but the repair facilities are, I can remember.

Well, thank you, Warren. That's good information. You're mentioned in the USA about the article that I mentioned, and that's New Jersey and Michigan that were, the dealerships have been forced to close. They closed their showrooms. Yeah, and everybody here is sort of a panic is to be a business. And, you know, I'm semi-retired, and it doesn't really affect me in terms of monetarily as much as a lot of people that I know. But I have a question for you because about cars. I guess to keep your mind off of everything over here

because everybody's sort of quarantine and outside of a walk, you can't do anything here. When it's all over, I was thinking about getting a new car, lease car, use car in January, for a variety of reasons, and called me out my older car. And now once this is over, especially up here, and then have these cars on the lot, how long would you buy, look for a car immediately,

would you wait, what would you do? once they do open up again, I mean, they're going to be desperate to sell cars. I mean, especially around the ones on the lot, I would imagine. Warren, I would just, the advice I give you is what I give people even in normal times. The longer you wait, the better the deal is going to be. And as I said earlier in the show, desperation can do two things. It can cause car dealers to take advantage of those that are not well informed and haven't done their homework and their research.

A guy like you that understands, listens to Erlon Garz, understands consumer reports, understands that competition is your friend. You should always get three bids on any vehicle you buy, newer use. You're going to get a great deal. And if you wait, I wouldn't be in any rush at all. I would just spend time shopping, comparing competitively. The car that you want, be sure you know the exact year-make model you want. Don't change that. do a lot of research, check consumer reports,

and then shop that and keep shopping it. And you can just milk the dealer to death and get the best deal you've ever had in your life. Toward the end of this crisis, and when the crisis is over, because the car dealerships and all retailers are going to be desperate for your business. The manufacturers are going to offer the dealers' discounts unheard of just to get people back in the showroom.

So there's only one good thing about this coronavirus. the buyer, the consumer, is going to be able to, educated consumer, is going to get the best price on anything he buys if he's careful. I got one other question. Starting when the fall, when the new models come out, all the manufacturers now would imagine, no matter what it is American or foreign that make the cars in the United States, are they going to come out with new models?

I mean, when I was 21s, they're just going to try to get rid of the ones they have now. I mean, what are they going to be manufacturing once they open up their facilities again? I think Stu's got to answer for you on that. Well, it's just a guess. I know that the product development cycle kind of goes over a course of years. So I imagine redesigns, they've probably tooled up plants. They probably have parts being produced for a lot of the new models that are coming out. But it's a good point that you make one.

That might be delayed. I mean, right now, usually when I'm looking at, like in our dealership, I'm looking at the way the inventory flows in and out. It's, you know, numbers on a piece of paper. Now I'll pull up to the dealership and I'll see a car carrier unloading cars into spaces that we just don't have. So I see the physical, you know, the reality of a drop in sales. And so this is happening all over the country, all over the world. And so at some point, car dealers are just going to physically run out of space. They're going to have to as heavily incentivize their current model years and hopefully move them quickly.

I know that they'll probably all work with the dealers to make sure they're not overburdening them with inventory and high cost. But we might see a delay, I think, of some of the newer models. I would go with the latest model anyway. They're going to be desperate to unload last year's model. And when they do come out, they might even hold back some of the newer models to clear out. It's going to be a desperate problem for the manufacturers and a desperate problem for the dealers. Desperation can be your friend if you do your homework and are careful. Okay, guys. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Warren. Stay safe up there, New Jersey, New York. I know how nervous you must be. Yeah, absolutely. Because the thing is on the other side of the Hudson. Yeah. Okay. Rick is, Rick has another caller?

No, we don't. Rick has a comment. Just one quick one. hear from Mark, he's asking, while you're practicing your social distancing, are you working on the new book? That's a perfect time. Perfect time. I'm the perfect procrastinator, and this is the perfect time to get off the procrastination

and get into my book. You're right. Absolutely. Thanks for the reminder. Yeah, I think that being at home and working from home, you're busier now than you have ever been. I know I'm very busy, and it's great that we can work from. you know, the office.

But back to the auto dealers, you know, I've got to remind everybody that these are desperate times and the auto dealers are really making it convenient for you. They're offering these amazing incentives. They're doing, they want to remind everybody about the social distancing. And, well, that was a hard word for me to spit out. And also, I just want to remind everybody that. You can do solo test drives. They want to sell the cars.

So be careful out there. Be careful. Stay safe. 877-960. Or you can text us at 772-497-6530. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Okay. Stu, you're touching your face over there.

I know. I saw you looking at me. Nancy sent me a picture of you yesterday with a bandana over your face. I'm a compulsive face toucher, and I'm trying to break that, and I've given Nancy permission to slap me as hard as she can anytime she sees me touch my face. I love it. You gave me permission. Absolutely. We've got a YouTube over here, Rick. How many times have I hit you without permission? I'm a crazy girl. Boston Ma is asking, I hope business is still good for you, but I was curious how much of a decrease in sales have you had, because of you?

of COVID-19 and what do you expect to see from both dealers and manufacturers to move cars? Sales are terrible. Car sales, used car sales are terrible. New car sales are terrible. Services, I'd say bad instead of terrible. We're doing a lot of pickup and delivery that exceed. That was Stu's idea. We had an offer a free pickup and we charge for it. Pickup and delivery. That really moves to the service. No charge. No charge. No charge. We pay for it if we We pay for you. It's not free for us. Stu can really come up with some fabulous ideas. Services bad and car sales are terrible, and that can be your friend, because all car dealers,

it's the same way. As a matter of fact, relatively speaking, we're probably doing better than other car dealers for whatever reason that may be, but the fact is bad business for a car dealer is a good thing for you. Use it wisely. Be careful. I really think that you mentioning the fact that you didn't know why business. since, you know, maybe it was just a little bit better than maybe another car dealer. I think the operative word here is trust. It's trust.

Don't want to turn this into an infomercial. Pardon me? We don't want to turn this into an infomercial. I didn't think I was. I think that trust is a big word, and it applies to every facet of life. And whenever you trust, you can openly make a decision. You wouldn't normally. 877-960-99-60, or you can text.

772-4976530. Back to the text. Let me jump over to Facebook live video. I had a few very nice compliments for me. Yes, I am funny. Andrea, I appreciate it. None for me? No, sorry.

Oh, wait a minute. Now that people are talking about me stealing a statue. Now, I was in the getaway car, and it wasn't a statue. It was an inflatable Ronald McDonald. All right. Terrance on Facebook says, to know are we going to be able to weather this storm will be closing up. Yeah, we're going to weather

the storm just fine. We're on very solid, stable business financial grounds. So I don't like it. I'm worried about our employees more than anything else. But we're looking to see there's a lot of good stuff in this big old stimulus bill that affect all of us and affect

our employees as well. So we're unpacking that and seeing how we can apply to that, make sure that we're trying to as we take precautions. We're trying to find opportunities for working out of the homes. You can sell a car online now. And that brings up a subject.

I'm going to digress a little bit. I'm selling cars online. Very few can actually do it. All the car dealers are going to advertise that you can buy a car. Sight unseen. Don't talk to the salesman. They'll deliver the car.

The one thing you have to remember that when they deliver that car to your driveway, if they do that for you, you own the car. and there is no right of rescission. There's no right to back out of a deal. There is a law on the Florida books that allows certain businesses

when the business is conducted at your home and you buy a car and you take delivery of the product where you can change your mind in 72 hours. If you buy a car and they deliver it to your home, you cannot change your mind. And car dealers are very, very adamant about that If you take delivery of the car and drive it off their showroom floor, they're not going to take the car back.

Once you take delivery of that car, you will never get your money back. Right. Even if you get it delivered at home. And just to build on your point, what you said, buy from home, that is going to be the new buzzword. And there's not a lot of dealers that are actually equipped to actually do that. You can do it. You can go email, you can get on the phone. Very few of them really have an online buying where you can actually buy the car.

So before you get excited, make sure you just kind of do a dry run through their online program and see what are they actually asking you to do? Are they asking you to just give you personal information for a price quote? Are you actually able to price out the final price and getting out the door and then get it delivered for free? Great information. You know, I want to mention in that article from the USA, automakers have offered a slew of incentives. I mentioned that earlier. But listen to this. Ford is offering to make three months of new car payments on behalf of the customers.

So there's just a, you know, just an idea of what's going on out there. I want to address that real quick. That is actually a very popular thing and it's being suggested by some of our vendors. I'm not sure how the Ford is doing it if that's coming from the manufacturer. Be very, very, very wary when a dealer says he's going to be making your payments or no payments until 2021. I'm starting to see those. All they're doing is taking the rest of the payments from this year, and they're adding it to the price of the car. It's called rolling it in.

Manufacturers incentives are realistic. The dealer incentives are likely suspect, and that Ford is offering to waive payments for three months. It's a legitimate offer, but it's no different than a discount or a rebate. All the manufacturers and all the dealers are going to be after your business. All this talk about desperation and talking about incentives and trust, a great point. that Stu brought up. And let me tell you this, Hyundai is offering to make payments for six months, six months. If customers lose their jobs, I mean, they want to get you in the door. Not physically, but they just want you to sign on the dotted line. And you make desperate decisions. So please be careful. We're going to go to John in Palm City. Good morning to everyone. Thank you for coming. Thank you for coming in. today, people are going to hesitate now, some of them, they should, about buying a General Motors

cars. I think it's a disgrace where GM pulled. They first stepped up to the plate and said they were going to make the ventilators. Then for some reasons unknown, they seemed to back out, whether it was pricing, whatever. So since they volunteered at the beginning, the president had to invoke the War Act on him. But I was always a General Motors man. I bought new Chevolets, I liked their cars, and I got turned off for them when they had the major problem with ignitions. That was going on for 11 years, and GM did nothing about it.

It took quite an investigation, U.S. Department of Justice. They indicted 15 people. They got fired by Mary Barra from GM, but they didn't say what the prison or the fine was to the... but there was many more than 15 involved. So it was an absolute disgrace. If people remember at the time, there was a tremendous lawsuit with a college student

that got killed with a Chevrolet product and GM tried to deny there was anything to do with the ignition, but it was proven with a lot of court cases that it was GM at 4th. So I can say this much, including the latest incident with General Motors

concerning the ventilators, Shame on General Motors. That's all I have to say today. I agree. It was not only a bad decision, it was a stupid decision because the one thing you don't want to miss with is your brand, and even if they didn't want to build the ventilators, they should have volunteered anyway. You can't sell retail products today if you damage your brand.

Wals Fargo proved that, and a lot of other manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies have really hurt their brands badly. And General Motors can't afford to hurt their brand, because they're hanging by a threat anyway. I agree with you 100%. Shame on GM. Yep. Shame on GM for being stupid

and from making a bad decision at the same time. And then from what we said, we heard they were raised in the price to the federal government to make it worse. Oh, man. Well, John, thanks very much for the call. Did you have anything else on your plate

this morning you want to share it with us? No, I could go into further things with gentlemen. motors, including the Chevrolet vaults that they built. And the president at the time called it the car of the future, and he said when he was going to retire, he was going to buy one. But that's another story for another time. Another time.

Well, we'll do call next week because we'll be back. We're not going to abandon you here. We'll be here every Saturday at Earl Struton on cars. So call again, John. Appreciate the call. Thank you, guys, for coming in. Thank you, John. And take care of yourself.

Remember, ladies and gentlemen, www. www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Take advantage of it and stay tuned for the mystery shopping report that will be coming up about 9.30 from Southern Palms, Mazda. We're going to go to Stewart. Sure.

Rick? YouTube. I got Facebook. I love the microphone. Hi, folks. Rick's holding up his sign over there. He's got his YouTube. It says YouTube.

Go ahead, Rick. I've just got an interesting one here. from Donovan Lewis. He says, I've been shopping to buy a car I've wanted for a long time. And over the past week, I've talked to about 30 dealers. And oh, my God, is it bad? Most wanting to pay little for trade and not discount on their cars at all. I was in two dealers and was the only customer other than people for service

and was not treated very nicely. I've never had so many insulting offers for a car that I want to trade in my life. life. Well, it's a buyer's market when it comes to people that want to sell their trade. And forget about the dealers. You can check with We Buy Anycar.com, Carvana, auto nation, largest retail in the country. They buy a lot of cars. CarMax buys cars over the curb, meaning you just bring your car. They'll buy it without you having to buy a car from them. So there's never been a better time to get the right money for your trade. If you just go to the dealer, they'll do exactly which you experienced. They'll try to, in the business, we call it stealing the trade. You'll give

them a good price on the new car, and maybe it is a good price. And then when you show them the trade in, they undervalue it by a couple thousand dollars to make up for the discount they gave you on the new car. So use these tools we have today. Carvana, we buy any car.com, carmax, automation, and there are others out there. Okay. Text. Okay, jumping over. Ann, Ann Marie. is Texas says, Good Morning. I've watched commercials where a company sprays the vehicle's interior with a disinfectant. Could that damage the touchscreen or other sensors? I've read that just wiping down the interior with soap and water will work.

I hope you can settle this question. What is the best way to clean slash disinfect the interior of a vehicle that doesn't damage touch screens or sensors? Thank you very much. Please stay safe. I can tell you, Amory, that we are getting bombarded with vendors offering to sell us products to do disinfecting the interior. is, including the one if you saw from Michael Stelmock yesterday, who was a very respectable person.

I can't speak to it. Rick might be able to address that. I would highly advise not spraying anything inside your car. One of the things that we've come up, that has actually come out recently, I know it sounds not quite the same thing, but those air fresheners that are liquid filled that you put in the AC vents. contain a silicon-based oil and that silicon

once it gets in the air can destroy your door lock actuators so all of a sudden your doors one by one will just stop operating the lock so soap and water might be the answer then I think so Ann Marie I think you're right yeah I just I think that like if you

have a lot of plastic and vinyl services soap and water it's not porous so you can clean it up and not even have a residue and if you have leather you can also do like a really mild detergent sort of thing, just wipe it clean. Don't soak it. You want to do just something that's damp and make sure it dries and you should be okay. And I think, let me just speak from what I feel in my gut when we talk about this.

A lot of people are really afraid and I'm afraid, but I mean people, some people are more afraid or less afraid. We're all, we approach this differently. So if you're afraid to get in your car and you don't want to to spend an hour and a half with soap and water and drying your car, I go ahead and take something that we know kills virus, and I go ahead and spray my damn car, and if I ruin the leather and I stay alive to hell with the leather, I mean, I'm exaggerating to make a point. We all are worried about this thing. So if you're going to be using your car a lot, don't worry too much about damaging portions of your car.

stay safe and spray the damn car right or or um you're that's your that's your inner sanctum i mean unless you're 18 people in and out of your car all day if it's just you if you're washing your hands and using hand sanitizer you can you can you know who's been in your car so that that should be enough to keep you safe if you had a million people in the car you might want to spray it if i'm an uber driver exactly and i am a uber driver but i digress i'm going to throw another factor on that i think it's lapsed especially for our environment here in South Florida. But this stands true for everywhere. Park your car out in the direct sun with the windows up

and let us sit for hours. Without the keys in it. Without the keys in it. Lock it up and let us sit. How hot does it get in there? Hot enough to kill animals and people. Well, hold on a sudden. And it will definitely kill viruses.

I don't know about that. Last week, I don't know. I looked that up 140 degrees, 150 degrees. looks, I think, is how hot as it gets in the car, and I don't think that will kill a virus. But for extended periods of time, remember, you can't actually kill a virus anyways.

It's not a hundred percent. A virus is not a living organism. A virus is a molecule chain, and it's the coating on it breaks down before it breaks down. We shouldn't give advice like this. Right. We'll do some research on that.

To your point, I'm going to go back to the USA today. And another interesting point that they bring up They're charging $2999 for service that kills 99.9% of bacteria. And what are they desanitizing the interior of these vehicles with that is safe? Because they're spraying everything in your car. You're going to find a lot of exploitation. That could be exploitation.

People are going to come up with something that sounds good to get your money. Anne-Marie probably hit it on the head. We know this soap and water. kills viruses. If you use open water, it's just going to take you a long time, but you can desanitize your car. Use open water and the exotic, cool ideas, we are not going to recommend them. But as I said earlier, don't worry about hurting your dashboard when you're scared to death. You know, even though you're reading something in the newspaper, it isn't always true. I know that most people know that. But here's Auto Nation, who, you know, we all read

respect and there is quite a surge in their interest in Klorox total 360 sanitizing. So, you know, what do you do? Well, I'm not going to endorse AutoNation's recommendation, but they are a public held company and they would be less likely to advocate something that was pure broad. So that's something that we should check out. Read that name again. Chlorox total 360 sanitizing service.

Okay. And who spent in 2999 to have the inside of their car sanitized, you know, another violation of taking advantage of the consumer. If you're scared to death, you're going to pay $299, and you're not going to negotiate. Hey, it's simple. We're not reinventing the wheel. Wash your hands. Keep your hands off your face.

Let's move along. Next text. Dave in West Palm Beach has an idea for a name for a sale. He says, how about the end of the world sale? Thanks, Dave. I'll bet you somebody uses that. It's the end of the world. Does me know it.

Rick's singing to us. That's a great song, by the way. That should be the theme song for the show. Good morning, team. I regret to inform you that I have to stop watching Earl on cars this morning to address an immediate and dire need. I need to activate vehicle protection for my 2014 Toyota. I am already outside the Toyota warranty period, and now I'm outside of this

notice's expiration date. I'm perspiring in fear that my 2014 Toyota will no longer work to get me where I need to go. I guess I could just rely on the cars I actually own, which is a Honda and a Hyundai. My wife owns a 2014 Rav4, and I don't believe there was a transfer of ownership. Did our insurance company sell our data? How else could this vehicle protection service company know that there is a new Toyota in our family when it's purchased by my wife before we were married and combined our insurance. You know, if you're doing a little forensic investigation, you might have hit it on the head.

Or they might have cross-matched your address with your wife's registration. There's all sorts of ways to get information that don't actually violate privacy laws, and that's how you get these crazy notices. You do it online. If you're visiting something that would indicate you owned a new vehicle some of your making model online, that could be a way they find out.

I mean, if they're only 90% accurate, it still gives them a heck of a mailing list. Yeah, what you're witnessing is what's known as big data. And there's a lot of, a lot of money and a lot of effort being put into identifying consumers based on their buying behaviors, things that they own, things that they like. When you go on to get a new app,

every time you go on the Facebook and you see the privacy statement, they're basically saying, we're going to find out everything that you do and think and love and are interested in, and we're going to sell it. So that's how we, that's how us as advertisers find it. We know what you like and buy.

We know where you are. And we know that. We know how much money you make. We actually, you know, speaking as a car dealer, we can go to our competition and Stu does something called, because he's our spy master and our expert on this. He will geo-fence. Like the NSA. He will geo-fence.

Let's say we wanted to sell Palm Beach Toyota, our competition, you know, their customers. We could geo-fence. a mile or two miles or five miles around them, meaning that we could send Facebook advertisements to whoever was sitting in the Pombie's Toyota customer lounge or the showroom, and they would see our ad only if they were on that showroom. Not only that, the people that are sitting there in the lounge who are most likely to need service for the car or are ready to buy a car. Yeah.

There's no privacy anymore. We know, the advertisers know, the manufacturers, the retailers, the retailers, we know what you like, when you're going to buy it, where you are. there is no more privacy yeah and going back to the texter I'm glad that the tone of that text was sarcastic because you know if you get a anything in the mail or in the email or a phone call off telling you that your warranty is about to expire and you need to protect your car and it looks really official I'm looking at the picture that that he sent me or he or she sent me it looks very very very official state of

South Carolina but it is it's a solicitation so I get them all the time I've got a Lexus. I registered it my name because I'm an Uber driver in my own insurance and I get them all the time. It really gets me angry. I don't even open them up anymore, but then they'll send me a postcard. I got a red postcard saying, warning,

your warranty will be up shortly. It's just terrible what they do. Yeah, phone calls, mailers, I'm up to my eyeballs. And that was Andreas who sent that, and Andreas is a savvy, eagle-eyed consumer so he knows. So throw that in the garbage. Here's one for Rick.

2019, Jeep Cherokee, replacing spark plugs or recapping them. When should you replace the spark clubs? Grab that little book out of your glove compartment that tells the factory recommended maintenance that tells when to replace them. And just be very careful doing it. Make sure you follow a couple of YouTube videos so you can do it yourself

or find a reasonable guy online that can do it. Rick, if you lost your owner's manual or you're thinking about buying a car, you don't have an owner's manual for, they can't give it to you, can you print an owner's manual out online? Absolutely. Every single, every document that comes in every new car for probably the past 15 years is available somewhere on the Internet as a PDF file to be printed right out or you just have it on your phone, whatever you need. I love it. It's really easy. It's a manufacturer website. If you go to Toyota.com, and they're all the same, there's a tab that says owners.

And once you go to owners, all the resources for your car, you can search by the year and the model and all that. That's great. You know, we're totally obsolete on this show because we haven't told you anything that you can't get online. And all we're doing is just relaying it. We are guiding them. Welcome to the 21st century. We are saving people from all those paper mailers they're getting and those phone calls, and we're guiding them to the truth. Well, this is, you know what?

I think that we're not, like, not obsolete or unnecessary. This is entertaining. I mean, this is much more fun than Googling something. Hey, even right now, Donovan Lewis put a little addendum on here. He says, to add on, he says, the dealers I went into all added $4 or $500 for a nitrogen fill in the tires. I thought we were getting away from that. Nope. It's amazing how nitrogen just never goes away.

I mean, you would think that at some point, I thought when consumer reports came out and just blasted it, it said it's totally worthless. You don't spend any money. Nitrogen does not help you in your tires, does not help you in any way. I thought that would kill it. I think you guys covered nitrogen tires on your very first show 17 years ago. It's like nitrogen's in the air or something. 78% of the air we breathe is nitrogen. When you put air in your tires, you're putting nitrogen in your tires, and now they're asking you to pay $100,000.

for nitrogen. Yeah, so let's settle it right now. Four to 500. Car dealers selling that are full of hot nitrogen. That's true. Next. In reference to warranty or taking a vehicle back, this is from Ola and Illinois,

most Illinois residents don't know this, but I let all my customers, oh, this is a dealer in Illinois. I let all my customers know about it, and we will take the car back if they have any issues on the power train of the vehicle. even for a minor fix we still entertain them I believe every customer or buyer wants a reliable means of transportation

for at least a few months before having any issues and they deserve it I am very thorough with this and I let my team members have the same mentality customer satisfaction is my mission that's the reason we're existing and then here's a link to do I hear the word power train yeah we can address that for Ola and a second then there's a link on the new law that

that Illinois dealers must offer implied warranty on used cars, and she wants to thank us for all we do, especially her honesty, and we are her role models. Well, implied warranty. Oh, wow. Thank you. Implied warranty is a federal law, and it's a applied warranty means that when you sell any product, you know, here's my Purell.

And when I sell you a bottle of Purell, if it doesn't disinfect my hands, then I get my money back or I can sue you. Any product that you sell, including a car, has to perform the function for which you advertise and said it

would do. So if you sell a car and it says zero warranty as is, a lot of car dealers will sell used cars as is. If used car dealers sells you a car as is and it won't run, you can still get your money back.

because there is a federal law that says it has an implied warranty that cars must go. If it doesn't go, it doesn't qualify as a car. Yeah. And then I feel really good that we are helping to inspire you. I would take it a little bit further. You started to mention the power train warranty thing on new vehicles. Nothing goes wrong with the power train. No.

And so it's kind of a, we offer a lifetime warranty just because people are at, asking for it, but we tell them it's really never going to really come in the service. And before they attack you on that statement, we say nothing goes wrong with the power train as long as you change your oil. The power train, and this is simplistic, Rick, you can correct me, but for a simple, short answer, what is the power train? It's all of the lubricated portions of the vehicle. So, you know, it's your rear axle, it's your engine, transmission.

Your front drive axles, anything that is. internally lubricated. So if you don't lubricate it, it'll break, but if you don't lubricate it, the warranty won't cover it. The warranty says on every power drain warranty that you have to have the car according to the manufacturer's recommendation, and they all require regular lubrication, and if you do that, it won't break. So forget about power train warranties. They're worthless. What doesn't your warranty cover? We're going to go to Doc. Dog Walker, Dave, from Palm Beach. Good morning, and thank you for waiting.

Hi, guys. Oh, Dave, oh, yeah. Dave, I got, oh, listen, are you watching? I'm going to hold up my poop bag. Yeah, here's a minute. That's empty, right? Yeah, I was watching, but I didn't watch it. That sounded so bad.

Last week, Dave recommended a great idea that when you're pumping gas or anything like that, you can go and you can use these poop bags that you use to pick up at your dog. And then you use that to pump your gas. I used it this morning when I came in. I opened the door of the studio. I pushed the elevator button. I open the door to the building and everything you touch you, and then you just take it off and you throw it away.

I got 270 of them on Amazon for $11.99. Thank you, Dave. You're welcome. I can add to that one. That's not why I called, but I can add to that one. You take a couple of your sanitary wipes, you know, your klorosh wipes. Yeah. Stick them in a dog poop bag.

Fold them up, stick them in your pocket, and they'll still stay viable for a couple of days. Is that right? They'll last in your pocket. Wow. I love that. In a dog poop bag. Yeah. Oh, and all in a doggy bag.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, listen, the reason I called. insurance okay a lot of uh people a lot of major corporations and many small businesses particularly those that are delivering food and uh oh prescriptions you name it um are using their cars and i mean dominoes for instance is hiring tens of thousands of people uh they are going to be using their cars for these deliveries. There's a bit of a catch in most people's insurance about using your car commercially.

And my son was delivering pizzas for dominoes in Lake Work. And he got T-boned at an intersection. Oh, man. He had full, he bought his car from CarMax. He had full coverage plus gap insurance. and because he was delivering a pizza at the time and had not upgraded his insurance, he ate the whole thing.

Wow. Is he okay, Dave? Yes, he did some therapy. His back was a little messed up a couple years ago, but he's good. Good. Well, that's very true. As a matter of fact, when I became an Uber driver when Uber started in the business,

one of the big problems that Uber was having is people were using their own car, and exactly what you said, there was not coverage. That's the reason I had to go out and buy a special insurance policy on my car so that I wouldn't be sued or that I would be covered in the event of an accident. So this is true. There's a proliferation of people driving like never before, and a lot of people just don't want to even go into a grocery store,

so they use services. Costco's delivering, Target, Walmart, everybody. You can get delivery from everybody. Hundreds of thousands of new delivery people out there. Those that can't go to their regular jobs. I mean, this is a good opportunity, but they do need to be careful. He got a settlement through lawyers eventually, but mostly what that covered was his personal injury.

And he just, he ended up defaulting on the car, the financing through CarMax, and he had been paying all this insurance all this time, thought he had it covered, and I apparently did not read the small rent in his employment contract. And I just want to warn people about that. Make sure you have the right coverage. Good advice, absolutely. Insurance companies are taking a huge hit with this coronavirus, and they're very, very nervous. but there's also a lot of things that are not covered.

For example, I as a car dealer and I have business interruption insurance and you would think that this is really what you'd call business interruption, but the fine print and the insurance policies don't cover plagues or national pandemics, international pandemics. And a lot of people are going to be hurt and the insurance companies.

Some of them are going to go out of business. This is unprecedented, but be very careful. careful, Dave. That's great advice to check your insurance coverage. Okay, Dave, thank you again, again, and thanks for my poop bag hint, and you're a very smart guy. Please call again next week. Thanks for joining us, Dave. Remember, you can go to Earl on Cars, and you can read his column, Corona, Catch 22. A Great Read, and also World Crisis and U.S. Leaders, another great column. And you can catch it in the hometown news. You can read about it in the Florida Weekly.

And as I always say, there's so much to go to at that website. Earl has covered it all. 877960, 9960, or you can text us at 772-497-39-30. Thanks. I'd like to jump over to anonymous feedback. Oh, good. Okay, this one says, spend more time cleaning fingernails and the end of your fingers and don't touch your face. This tip was given to Ecolab employees meeting yesterday.

Ecolab is involved in providing cleaning and disinfecting hospitals and they have years of experience. Yeah, and the washing, you do like you scrub with your fingernails and the palm your hand, and that's one of the, and then you do this and you do it for at least 20 seconds. But absolutely, good, good advice. Hello, Earl, just FYI in Miami-Dade County car repair businesses are classified as essential and will be allowed to stay open in Dade County. That's right. And also in Broward County. That was when we were talking about the language and some of these business closure orders, they'll say auto service departments and related businesses. But the lobby, the car dealer lobby has really pushed to get them to specifically say the car dealership itself. and that's what happened in Palm Beach County. So Palm Beach County specifically says new and used car dealerships.

You know, Toyota, and I'm sure some other manufacturers are doing national advertisements now that all Toyota dealerships are open, and I think it would have been almost impossible for people to close car dealerships. They're just, they're too powerful, and they are vital. I mean, you need a car to get to the pharmacy, to get to the COVID-19 testing facility, to get to the doctor, to get the hospital, you know, to get to the grocery store. So if you need a car and your car breaks, you're going to either buy another one or get it fixed, and that's the reason car dealer should be essential.

Yeah. When we were talking about insurance companies, you know, not covering, you know, they used to call them acts of God and their policies, right? And so now they don't cover, you know, viruses. We'll talk about an archaic view. I mean, I act of God. It's also a lack of sanitation and a lack of, you know, a lot of other things. We've learned a lot in the last several million years. But Toyota and other manufacturers, you know, they're pretty smart.

I mean, they acted really quickly. I know that the domestic manufacturers announced some production halts. And Toyota did the same thing. Toyota is now, I think, pretty much through the end of April halting global production. And hopefully they'll kind of catch up with the existing plummeting demand. This is a follow-up on the anonymous feedback provider who was talking about. Ecolab. They said there's a great resource. It's ecolab.com. They have excellent information on the coronavirus crisis, and they also had a lot of experience with it when they operated in China.

Yeah, I don't know that's to be the case. It probably is. I just remind everybody to be very careful. I'm hearing all sorts of nutty things that people see online. And when you read something, when you see something online and you hear something, there's a zilene YouTube, there's a zillion bulletins out there about the coronavirus. Just be very careful.

We'll get verification. Don't do something stupid. There's some medications out there that people are taking because they think that there's a malaria medication more than one that people are taking and dying

because of it. So if you don't hear from the Center for Disease Control, or some valid authority, don't be taking any medication or doing something and trusted. Always get verification. That's the reason I hesitate to make recommendations. Don't listen to us. Don't listen to us.

Verify, certainly before you ingest something or trust something. Great information. Be sure that you do a double check, and there's a lot of ways to do that. You can go to www.credibledrugs.org, and boy, I'll tell you, Earl really hit on it. There's so much information out there, and it all isn't accurate. Pay attention to these medications. They can kill you. You can have a stroke.

You can have a heart attack. Now back to Stu, I believe. I think we have a YouTube over here. We'll go to Rick. We've got Brian is asking, Hi, Earl, do you think used truck prices will be going down in the following months, or will they stagnate with the stimulus slash tax returns? They're going down.

They're going down. Everything's going down. use car prices are going down we're at the auctions now we're seeing that the prices are dropping and new car prices will definitely go down and everybody's talking about that

and I'm talking about it but I keep telling you when you have a crisis this is the perfect opportunity for the dishonest, unethical car dealer to make a lot of money because he doesn't have to prove to you that this is a crisis

He doesn't have to prove to you that We're overstocked Prices are coming down But just because of manufacture cuts the prices doesn't mean he's going to get the price He'll tell you he cuts the price So you have to be more careful than ever And as I say I'm preaching to the choir here

Because you listen to Earl Stewart on cars You're probably an educated consumer The people that aren't listening to this show Are ones that are victimized You'll go in and you'll do your homework you'll get competitive pricing, you'll use consumer reports, and you'll get the deal of your life during this period of crisis. The other folks, the victims, are going to get taken advantage of

and pay obscene profits because they think they're getting a great deal. So please be careful, and help those out that need their help. You are listening to this show. You're probably an educated consumer. Help those that are out to buy a car that aren't educated. And we proved what you just said week after week. Last week, we mystery shopped Origo Dodge up in Fort Pierce that were making the claim that they're overstocked. Everything must go. They've got to slash prices. And we wound up being, I think,

over MSRP. Yes, over MSRP. After that promise. Exactly. All right, more anonymous feedback. I watched your Saturday show with you, Nancy Stu and Rick. It's very interesting and fun to watch. You guys slash gal are expert car folks, and I think you could interest a national TV network cable like Fox News. Hollywood. The spy report is great. This is not a criticism, but is a constructive critique. Number one, Earl and Stu are hidden behind the microphone. No problem on radio, but TV is visual.

You could change the camera angle. You and Stu have great radio voices. Hi there. And you could be a DJ or news guy if you things don't work out. Smiley-faced emoji. More to follow. And that's from Larry. Larry, this is anonymous.

You gave yourself away. That was my joke. Well, thanks for the tip. I just sat up straighter. We were inspired by Don Imus, and we want to look like him. So Don kind of hunched over behind the microphone. Did he smoke in the studio? Poor Don.

Did you know that he personally did a commercial for a Roll Stone Guard? Yes. I'd love to find that somewhere. Let's find that and play it because he was my hero. And to answer your questions, Stu, Don Amos did everything in the studio. In the studio, drank? Everything. Really?

Drugs, yeah. Well, I don't approve of that. Is that what that bucket was in the? the corner. You know, as the pandemic winds down, next week you're going to tune in. We're going to have like unshaven or clothes will be dirty. Your hair's messed up. I'm not where a cowboy hat.

Big bottle of a gin right in front of Earl. I can't see Earl. The gin bottle's blocking them. All right. Okay, the next one, I apologize. This one's really long. So in the interest of good radio, I'll read this after the show and kind of summarize it. And we'll try and address it next week.

on the show several paragraphs the terms honest card dealer and transparent oh this is a good one you posted this one on facebook oh yeah yeah let me read this one the terms honest card dealer and transparent card dealer are oxymorons no honest or transparent person would hold such a job more than two days we trust earl and i think this is sarcasm we trust earl because of his voice and his relatable and convincing discussions it's all trickery for you poor folks to visit his dealership or his minions are programmed to smile and always remind you there are no dealer fees

at Earl Stewart Toyota. You don't need dealer fees to cheat the consumers in the public's interest. The mystery shopping reports are a reminder of the low ethical standards to gain near monopoly over the public car shopping resources. We are a monolithic

monopoly, I wish. Earl Stewart on Cars is a propaganda machine and it's signed Earl's nemesis. I replied. He did offer a link for a reply. And I did reply. And I'll summarize my reply. Basically it says, if you think that we're not honest and transparent, I will open the doors to you to interview my customers privately. You require all of my employees privately. I'll open my books to you, my financial statements, and everything about me. I will open up whatever. And if you can find a dealer fee in there. You find the dealer fee. You find any hanky-panky, you can turn me into the police or the FBI or the federal, you know, whatever it is.

Interpol. We're international. Exactly. But, yeah, come on. I can see why people believe that there's no such thing as an honest car dealer. And that speaks sadly for car dealers. If there were nothing more than the Gallup annual poll, you know, for 50 years or 45 years, whatever it is, 1977. Cardinals rank dead last or next to last in the honesty and ethics.

So sure you think this is a propaganda machine, and I don't blame you. And I'm honest, but everybody will tell you they're honest. I'm transparent, but everybody tells you they're transparent. Those are buzzwords. All cardiolists say that. Yeah. And it is kind of a propaganda machine. I mean, if they like us, they'll probably come maybe by a car for us.

But it's true. Whatever. But I'd say that anyway. Right, because you're transparent. Okay. Here's one. Anonymous feedback. It says, when you want a particular color, by the way, it's been a while since we're not. Let me interrupt myself. Go to Your Anonymous Feedback.com. That's how I'm finding these things. People are going on and it's heavily encrypted. Even me, the Spymaster, can't find out who you are because it really is encrypted. And big companies use this thing. It's Amazon, I think. Adobe. Adobe, yeah. When you want a particular car, a particular color, model, et cetera, from another dealer's inventory for one of your customers, what does that other dealer want from your dealership in exchange? A fee or commission, another car from your inventory, et cetera. I can handle this because we do these dealer transfers or dealer trades all the time.

Basically, what's happening, and I'd say 90% of them, we are buying their car at wholesale and they are buying a car from us at wholesale. We can do these exchanges. before the car even gets to the dealership or they might be sitting on the lot in which case we'll send a driver to drive ours over and pick theirs up or send some sort of transport or like a truck, a flatbed or something like that. And good question though. That's how it happens most of the time. In some cases, there are fees and a lot of dealers will put on, you think they treat

customers bad. They'll put these packages, a pinstripe or floor mats or mudguards, and they'll charge the other dealer three or four hundred dollars just to get the car and if the other dealer wants the car bad enough he has to pay the exactly and listen since we're being all transparent this morning i go we started doing that to other dealers as well because it was a defense it's funny how these practices are almost viral they spread around because you have to do it so when we were doing dealer trades and found if we wanted to get a basic camry we had to pay three hundred dollars for a you know a bunch of garbage, well, we kind of

had to turn the tables and say, well, here's our garbage and, but we don't do that to customers. But dealer trading, swapping cars back and forth is vital to the retail automobile business. It multiplies the inventory of availability of colors and combinations of equipment to a point where

it speeds up sales. Without dealer trading, swapping cars back and forth. So it's something that the dealers look upon, even though we're dealing with our competition, we know that it's something that's vital for our existence as well as everybody else existence. And Stu thinks, I think Stu knows where I'm going with this.

Because years ago, when I first stopped charging dealer fees, I got all the toilet dealers in South Florida so mad at me that they decided they were not going to dealer trade with me anymore. So they froze me out and said, sorry, Earl Stewart, you're going to stop charging dealer fees. And parts. They stopped selling us parts too. And parts. and they were going to boycott me

and not help me sell cars. So I got very excited, so I called the president of the company the distributor and I said, this is going on, can you stop it? He says, I'll see what I can do.

And then he called back to say there's nothing I can do. Well, they screwed up though. Yeah, and so I said, I'm going to check with my attorney because I don't think this is right. And he checked with his attorney, and said it's okay and I don't want to drag this out but finally I got hold of one of the top antitrust lawyers in New York big time and got his opinion and he wrote me a letter and said

the penalty for what they're doing to you Earl the other Toyota dealers is punishable by huge fines and by even imprisonment so I sent a copy of that letter to the president of Southeast Toyota and immediately all the other car dealers started trading with me again. Amazing. Excuse me. We're going to go to Houston, and Mike is holding. Good morning, Mike. Hey, Mike.

Hey, Houston. Can you read me, Houston? Houston. Are you in trouble? Hi, Mike. Sorry, Mike. Call back. Call back.

We apologize. A little technical glitch there. I'd love to hear back from you. Mike and Houston? And did you know that Houston is the largest city in Texas, I thought Dallas was. I would assume Dallas, Fort Worth. Yeah, Houston's bigger.

I went Houston a couple of years ago. Yeah. Okay, we're digressing. All right, I have one more anonymous feedback, and then we'll be caught up. This one kind of hurts my feelings. Oh, boy. Earl, can we assume that there is a little truth and critical views of you in your show when you don't read that critical anonymous feedback?

Well, the reason it hurts my feeling is we read all the critical anonymous feedback. I'm going up a list. I'm crossing them out. I haven't left anything. Yeah. If you missed it, we did read it. Sometimes we even post them online. I tend to go more in public with the negative ones. See, I do anonymous feedbacks from my employees. We do anonymous feedbacks from our customers and from the radio show. I love to hear what's on people's minds that they tend not to want to share if they're identified. And there's nothing wrong with that. Some people say, you know, man.

up or a woman up and if you haven't got the nerve to look me in the eye and tell me, I don't want to hear it. I don't believe that. I think there is a good reason. That's the reason we have anonymous informants. Because you're so transparent. Yeah. Well, I mean, the mafia doesn't exist anymore today because of... Anonymous informants. No, I don't know if that's true. Because of rats. Anyway. You have to have, and you have to have the witness protection program. And you have to That's not what it once was. It might be there, but they're not.

According to my family, that's another show. Hey, let's check in and see what Mike's up to in Houston. Mike, are you back? Yes, I am. Oh, very good. Welcome. Thank you. How are you today?

I'm very well. I spoke to Mr. Stewart probably about three months ago, and he asked, if I would call in at some point, just wanted to give a little insight. I used to work for, was an executive of a large public company, and we spoke about a really a company practice that if, when a consumer came in, if they didn't know the Internet asking price, the stores pretty much across the board would price the car at whatever they wanted to. And in many states, it is against the law to this day that if you don't honor that internet asking price, including the dock fee, there's repercussions.

Well, what the company would do is if you went home, found this out a relative, your husband, a boyfriend who ever saw it, and you went back to the store, they would immediately rectify it and apologize. Well, there was upwards, there was a specific store. door that sold over 200 used a month and 65% of what they sold was overcharged. And it was an average overcharge of about $2,400. Wow. 2400. Yes, sir, it's pretty simple to do the math. Was that in the Houston area? It was not. It was not. It was an eastern, an eastern store. but what the company ended up doing was changing their website to where there is a disclaimer on every single vehicle

that if you do not ask for the internet asking price, they do not have to get it to you. But it is, it was well, you know, it was well known in the company that if you, you didn't work there very long. if when consumers came in, you looked up online and gave them what you offered the car for. You would be spoken to. You would be, for lack of a better term, threatened with your job. They block the internet. From the higher level. And if you continued, you'd be let go.

So what Mr. Stewart says about the dealers as a whole, there are a whole lot of public companies that are very ethical and very honest. and one based in Florida that they don't sell cars over internet asking price. It's just simply not done. I'm not saying there's other games that don't get played, but they don't do it. But there are dealers and groups out there that to this day don't honor a price that they put online. And Mike, it's especially egregious because the people today, especially, that don't go online and get pricing, are probably the less educated and the more vulnerable. And, you know, a lot of older people, you know,

I have friends that don't use computers or smartphones, and, you know, I'm 79. You know, a lot of people that just are not comfortable, and they walk in. And as you say, they pay $2,400 or more for a car that their next-door neighbor that simply went on his smartphone and checked a price can get a really good deal on. I called it when it first started, the years of years, ago when we first started the internet selling, I called it two-tier pricing. And I did two-tier

pricing myself. When I started out many years ago, we sold so few cars that we didn't even think about it. And then as a percentage grew, I started realizing that this was dishonest and unfair to have two prices, one for the educated consumer who could use online sources and one for the people that didn't and has to pay thousands of dollars more. like your best friend well Earl it was it was so when I when I took it to the attention of one of the corporate attorneys her response to me was that's why we have such a strong arbitration clause because we can't get sued as a group we'll settle these one at a time isn't that amazing and for folks who don't know what that arbitration clause is every car

dealer now we don't have an arbitration clause at my dealers So not every car dealer. But virtually every car dealer has an arbitration, which takes away your right for your day in court. You cannot sue. You cannot go to trial. You cannot have a jury of your peers. You waive your God-given American right when you sign that buyer's order because in the fine print is that arbitration clause. Yeah, and they're not separate forms now, Earl.

They are, in most cases, they are part of that. the first page that you sign. Yes. Your arbitration clause is the very first thing that you signed, so it's not an add-on later. And it's rarely, if ever, explained to you. But I just wanted to call and let you know and thank you for what you do. Thank you, Mike. And anyway, you guys take care, and I appreciate it. Call again, please, Mike. I really appreciate it. Stay safe out there. Yeah, thank you, Mike. You got it. You, too. 877-960-99-60. Or are you guys?

in Texas at 772 4976530 and you can stay tuned for the mystery shopping report that will be coming up shortly and that's from Southern Palms Mazda and we got one more. www. www.

your anonymous feedback.com now back to Stu. That's right. And also we have one last text that is our text line is 772 4976530. This is from Steve in New Jersey. It says, hi Earl, I'm ethically. Torn. I placed a factory order for a Volvo on February 17th and provided a deposit.

Recently, the dealer communicated the VIN. I'm certain I could purchase it now for much less but my conscience. That tells me a contract is a contract. I could cancel and refuse delivery, but I don't want to harm the dealer. At the same time, I must be fiscally responsible. Any advice you can give would be appreciated. Well, you know, first of all, thank you and congratulations on having a conscience and caring about a businessman, in this case a car dealer. I think that depending on the car you ordered, it isn't going to hurt him if you cancel it. If it's something you can easily sell to someone else, if it's a special order car or a particular crazy color, then it might be a problem to him. But it's a cost of doing business.

dealership we cancel sales all the time customers do I mean and we accept it as a cost of doing business but it's really nice to hear from a good guy a good gal that would care short of canceling the the whole order I mean I don't think it's unreasonable you know when you order a car especially like a factory order that might take you know 90 120 days to get things do change people lose their jobs Incentives change. Earl's rubbing hand sanitizer into his beard. I touched my chin and I just put Pure L on it. It was very distracting.

Yeah. Is your face burning right now? No, my chin's fine, yeah. Okay. So what I was going to say was saying was things change. And right now, you know, I can't think of a more legitimate time to reassess your financial situation. And I think what you're spending on vehicles are pretty essential. I'd be careful if you found out you can get it.

for much less. Just remember that the other dealer could be selling you a bunch of hot nitrogen because they say they're going to be the other dealer to get you to cancel your order and then things could change on their end. If you like your dealer and you trust them and you think they're a good guy to do business with,

maybe just say, hey, can we do something about the price? You know, things are changing, economy's getting bad and see if they'll work with you. Okay. That's it. Called up. All good. I'd like to remind the folks that we are going to go

of the Mystery Shopping Report, and we'd love for you to grade that mystery shopping report because you're an important, very important part of the show, 772-4976530, and the mystery shop is, well, elegantly written by Stu Stewart, and it is from Southern Palms Mazda. He shares a little humor with us in these mystery shops every week. Rick's out of YouTube. I'm going to read a text. This came to me on my personal phone and I hesitate, but I do it in the spirit of being totally candid, open and transparent. I'll let you decide about this. I'm going to mention the woman's name. She says, she's from Hope Sound so she knows we're reading it. She says, here's a name for your sale, wipeout sale, maybe give a roll of toilet paper to test drivers. And sanitizing wipes. And we talked about that. Well, anyway, we read everything.

I think we would sell a lot of cars if we give a big, giant Costco-sized thing, a Sherman with it. All right, we've got a YouTube over here. Just because we do read everything, Rainbow says, good morning, Earl and Friends. Love your show and hope you're all keeping well. Best from Ontario, Canada. Wow. Another international listener. How nice. I love the Canadians. I believe they, did they close the border? They did. Yes, they do. Close the border.

Okay, I guess we can move to the mystery shopping report here. And let's give the numbers out because I think we're going to get through in time to do a few more. But we will get to a couple texts after the mystery shopping report, probably. And if not, we'll do it next week for sure. But the text number is 772-4976530. that's 772 4976530 we will get to your text either after the show or next week I mean after the mystery shopping reporter next week 772

4976530 now excuse me embryo if you're listening I'll see if I can't get to your text after the mystery shopping report and I hope you're feeling better Now this mystery shop of Southern Palms Mazda, when I saw that, I have never heard of Southern Palms Mazda. And that makes me feel a little bad because they probably aren't doing very well if I've never heard of them.

I got to confess. I was confused about it because I hadn't heard of that either. And when I saw a little bit of history and we addressed it in a report about who owns it, I was wondering, is it possible that it had been bought in its whole? Because I thought, Terry Taylor bought that from Penske. and I thought that it was called West Palm Mazda. And apparently it's not. Then I wondered if West Palm Mazda had sold again

and became Southern Palms Mazda. I couldn't find anything online, and I searched. I looked on SunBiz.org, I couldn't even find out who owned it. So I'm assuming it's Terry Taylor. Well, I am too, and I think, first of all, Nissan's having a hard time selling cars, period. Nissan has a liquidity problem and a survivability problem,

and the fact that I haven't heard of them means they're not doing too well. I feel like I'm picking on somebody that's down for the count, but I'm going to do it anyway. I think a Mazda has experienced a modest uptick in sales. Did I say Nissan? I meant Mazda. Yeah, Mazda's better.

Yeah, I'm doing better. Okay, two years ago, Penske Automotive Group sold three of its dealerships in the Royal Palm Auto Mall on Southern Boulevard to the Terry Taylor Car Dealer Group, automotive management services. Worst name for a company ever. It is terrible, yeah. Royal Palm Town.

Toyota became Southern 441. I'm hearing a squeak. I think that's Nancy. Oh, okay. Royal Palm Nissan became Southern 441 Nissan, and Royal Palm Masta became Southern POMps Masta. At least we think Terry Taylor owns it. Terry Taylor is a notoriously stealthy and wealthy,

and there wasn't much news to be found online without any subsequent sale of the Mazda dealership on Southern Boulevard. Of those three dealerships sold to Terry Taylor, we have only mystery shop, the Toyota and Nissan stores. We haven't been to the Mazda since it was Royal Palm Mazda, and that was back in 2016. Yeah, it's been a long time.

Four years ago. Reviewing Royal Palm's performance during our investigations, it quickly became clear that they haven't done very well. Under its prior ownership, the Mazda dealership engaged in what we consider to be shady sales tactics. They also did poorly on a couple of Takata tests. just two weeks ago

we mystery shop Southern 441 Nissan and uncovered a blatant game of bait and switch we wondered how its sister store with a better name would do with one of their own ads I'm surprised at the amount of TV ads I still see on that the fact that they're spending that kind of money

on television ads and I don't believe they're doing very well someone's asleep at the wheel you got to call your ad rep and say pull the plug yeah just too do you agree by the way the name Southern Palms, that's a great name for a dealership and Southern 441

I'm just being critical. It's an awful name for a dealership. It is. Southern Palms, it's pleasant. It always surprised me that they had two of the three stores because it's three stores together. Two of them are Southern 441

and the one of Southern Palm. Why change just the one? Terry Taylor is mysterious. Just two weeks ago we missed her shop Southern 441 Nissan and I just do that? We found a new car special on Southern Palms, Mazda's website that promised a low price of $16,498 for a brand new 2019 CX3 sport. That's a small SUV with an MSRP in the $20,000 range. I'm also trying to stop looking my finger when I do this. I'm getting pretty good. I'm getting pretty good at flipping pages, turning pages. You get one of those little things in the accounting office.

I got those. Okay. Yeah. Should bring it to the studio. There was a link of that red disclaimer that we clicked, and this had read, this is really sneaky. Must qualify for $750 loyalty and $500 military rebate. Thank you very much. He's got a rubber thumb cover.

Nancy gave me. This is what I could put on your finger to turn pages with. No, it's a finger card. So they say military rebate and $750 loyalty plus tax. tag title in dealer fees, see dealer for complete detail. And, you know, the military rebate doesn't mean that you're a veteran. It doesn't mean that you once served. It means that you're in the active military today.

So what are the odds that you're driving a Mazda and you're also in the active military in West Palm Beach, Florida? Yeah. Now, that sort of rebates great if you live up in, like, in Jacksonville or near a big military base. but down here. So right off the mat, we knew at least $1,250 in discounts would be unavailable to the vast majority of customers. We also knew to the phrase dealer fees likely meant a whole slew of additional hidden charges by a variety of different names.

And so dealer fee just is a generic term. We hope to learn some more details, so we clicked on the ad itself to find, amusingly, this is what we got and it says this page cannot be found 404 error 404 error so I would I don't believe that's on purpose I believe that just stupidity sleep at the wheel yeah inspect with the expert yeah since we could find couldn't find any more couldn't find any more details online we had to put boots on the ground agent thunder was summoned like a genie exactly operation report I arrived at a nearly empty car dealership that looked like it was desperately trying to draw on some foot traffic. And let me tell you, there are a lot of car dealerships out there that look that way down.

They had two food trucks, and this is silly, and a DJ player playing loud, music to a crowd of exactly zero. Somebody made a bad decision. Somebody made a bad decision. I felt guilty for being there. There was nothing more embarrassing than when you put on a bad decision. big you bring the food trucks you bring the band and nobody comes that's very embarrassing especially if it's good food if they're good food yeah there are a couple of salesmen outside washing the scene i was spotted as i pulled in front to park one of the approach is i climbed

out of my car and we're shopping southern palms nissan on southern boulevard they used to be southern 441 nissan and now in southern palms nissan and if you haven't heard of it neither have we i can almost here now they've probably got somebody in there talking to radios and their ears saying target acquired approach okay I stopped walking and kept a safe so no the salesperson that approached me stop walking kept the safe social distance between us I said hi I'm RJ he called me over what brings you in today I walk closer to him still maintaining a healthy distance I said I'd come in to see about the new 2019 CX3 for 16,498 bucks. I said my wife had a key lease that was up and we wanted to try a Mazda. I said, we didn't want a lease anymore. We're looking to do a cash purchase and possibly finance it.

RJ, the salesman, asked me to come inside with him. We sat down at the desk and he offered me a squirt of hand sanitizer. Now, that's a nice touch. Much respect, RJ. That is very nice. and I accepted it. You want to know what I was talking about. I answered that it was on the website

under the new car specialist. Roger looked for a minute at the computer screen and apparently found it. He said, oh yeah, we still have a few of these. Would you like to drive one first? I said, I would like to take a test drive. I would like to take a test drive. RJ explained that there were several different models

and asked which one I wanted. I like this. I said, I would like to drive the one with the $16,000, $4998. Now, RJ was trying to do the subtle switch. What kind of would you like? Well, you want the advertised car, and they're always going to switch you to something else. So he wants the one. I want the one, I'm this dropper. I want the one for $16,498.

RJ turned the screen to me and clicked the disclaimer link. He said to qualify for the price, you have to have, currently have a Mazda, is your house in your household, and be able to show proof of it. They're not going to take your word of it, word for it. I said, no. He added, there was another rebate. I'd have to qualify for it and ask if I was in the military. I said I wasn't. So there go the rebates.

RJ said he was sorry. I couldn't get the ad price, but it would get me close to it. Now, what does that mean? Close? Six feet, six miles. I don't know. He asked if it was okay with that. I said that it was okay

if he could get close on the price, not to me. R.J. reported he had a black one and a gray one. Ask which color do you want, gray or black? That's another narrowing them down. Do you want to buy the white one or the blue one? Do you want to buy the gray one or the black one?

He gathered my driver's license and left to make a copy of return. And listen to this. I like this too. he offered to wipe my license clean I bought my license very nice touch I thought about that and I was thinking about my driver's license

once the last time I wiped mine clean don't know I thought that was nice if I ever get pulled over speeding and I give my license to the stock do you think you'll wipe it clean you better clean that before you hand it back to me I agree we went outside and RJ walked around the car talking about the features

and benefits, keeping a comfortable distance from me the whole time. The SUV was nice. It had an MSRP, manufacturer suggested, retail price, of 21,735. But there was a phony Monroney. That was a counterfeit Monroney label, MSRP, next to the real one. It added $935 in additional dealer markup. And another almost $600 for some garbage called permaplate. That's like a paint, ceiling, polish, window tent, and a lifetime warranty, which I assure you was a power train, which is worthless.

When it came time to take a test drive, I said I was a little uncomfortable getting in the small SUV with him, which I was. R.J. said, I could take it out by myself for a short drive. But he had my driver's license, so I couldn't steal the car. unless you forgot to check my picture and it wasn't really my driver's list. Right. That's happened us before. It has happened, yeah. I took him up on the offer and took a solo test drive. RJ waited for me by the front door.

We went inside, back to the desk. As soon as we sat down, he asked me if this was something I wanted to finalize today. I said, yes, as long as the price was good. If you just tuned in, we're a mystery shopping, Southern Palm's Mazda in West Palm Beach, on Southern Boulevard. RJ reminded me, I said I might finance and ask me how much money

I wanted to put down and to tell them what I thought about my credit rating. I said I had excellent credit and I had $3,000 to put down. You're taking it today? He asked again. I said yes.

You'll have to get the numbers. Very important to Cardinals. He came back with a worksheet. It was the same form used by Southern 441 Nissan, which is a sister store along with a Royal Power or a Southern, what is it? Southern 4441 Toyota. And they have the purchase option on the right

and the finance grid on the left. So probably still owned by Terry Taylor. It also had the same smart payment by monthly payment option, which I don't like because people think it's a monthly payment. There are people out there who don't know what bi-monthly means. people that are

English challenged it's just it's a smart payment yeah it's a dumb payment and by the way they tie it together with your paycheck

yeah it's sad he began by pointing out my payment for 60 months with $3,000 down just $406 a month he said now it's been a little while to turn the pages here

without licking my finger you don't have your finger cut I got it right here but I need two of them and that's the only gave me the one then we came over the cash option

he took $2,250 off the MSRP and the ads came $9,995 this is where they're raising the price, the advertised price, $995

ADM that stands for additional dealer Marco. Who knows what ADM is? They have it on their worksheet 995. Flip's by a lot of people. diagnostic machines. Exactly, yeah.

$297 for perma plate, which is what they put in your skull. Cheap wax. $297 $1.97 window tent, which we get for what? Yeah, our cost is $120. $120. $2.85 taxable fees. That's

another word for dealer fees. $8999 dock fee. That's for when you get sick. Exactly. So you had them all up, and there are $2,7,700. $173 in hidden, added fees to the advertised price, which is breaking the law because you have to include all dealer fees and the advertised price in Florida.

That is the law. And they had sales tax and, uh, no, the $2.25 dealer fees. All told by, I just did that. Effective sale price was $500 over MSRP. Now here's a sale, special price. On the internet. Yeah, 16, 498. Yeah, 16, 498.

And it's really $500 over sticker MSRP. Right, his real price was 22, 3 something. It was crazy. Yeah, and we were talking earlier in the show about the fact that during this crisis, are there really good deals? I said, yes, there are. Well, here's a crisis price ad by this Monsa dealership. that is asking you to pay over sticker price, $500,

and tricking you when to think it's a good price because they have to sell cars because of the coronavirus. RJ then reminded me that I was getting a great deal, even with the extra items. We asked if I was ready to do it, to sign. I said, I thought I needed to think about it. He looked hurt and accounted by reminding me that I said I was buying today.

But you said. I said, I changed my mind. But I still wanted to buy it. I cheered him up a little bit. Then he went and got the manager. This is the TEO turnover. I waited a minute. RJ came back with the manager.

The manager stood about six feet away, which was good. Thank me for coming in. He asked me if there was anything he could do to get me sign in now. I said, I really needed the afternoon to think about it. The manager said he might be able to take more off the price if I came back. That's sprinkling. That's very dust on you. They always give you the reason to come back.

And that's what he did. So there we are. Southern Palms, Mazda, Southern Boulevard, West Palm Beach. The good thing was they offered. Hand sanitizer. And that's where it ended. That's right. That's the good news.

They even hand sanitize the driver's license, and they maintain good social distances. That's why they need that ADM, pay for all the hand sanitizer. Okay, we got four minutes. We've got to do the votes. Rates are coming in. Bob gives them an F. Candy gives them a D-minus. Oh, that's Marky or Mary.

I can't see what I wrote. An F. And then Linda, on Facebook, give us them a big, a huge F. And I've got Karen with a big fat F. Wayne with a big F. And myself, I'm going soft-headed and soft-hearted. I'm giving them the D. Because it's just the obvious old games that we're all used to

that everybody knows how to play, that if you beat them much, you could probably get a little better deal. But it's the same game. It's not like they're doing anything new. Yeah, we've got more grades coming in. Ken gives him a G, which is below F, he says. Nate gives him a D.

Cable gives him a D and Sue comes in with an F. And I've got Mark Ryan F and Donovan Lewis with an F. Nancy, what have we got? If. You know, I'm going to pass him with a D minus. I feel sorry for them. And Rick summarized it. They're doing what all car dealers are doing.

They spend all that money on the DJ and the food trucks. Yeah, on the food truck. And they're dying over there. They need business badly. An educated consumer could go in there and get a heck of a deal. But you really got to be careful because they're not telling you the truth. The advertised price, bottom line, is not true. And that's the worst thing they do is to advertise a price and then add, what was it, $1,200.

$1,300. $2,300. $300, yeah. Hey, Stu, do we know what, like, a true car price would be on that car? What it actually would sell for at other dealers? I didn't look on true car this week, but I can tell you, if you're looking at a vehicle with MSRPA 21-7, even before rebates, and that price range, I think they could comfortably take maybe an $1,800 to $2,000 discount, maybe more. Don't add fees back in, and you can probably buy that thing under $20,000.

Yeah, so there we are. We're going to put them on the recommended list, caveat being be very careful. Anybody on the recommended list. And we should start rating these individually because this is a low rating even through recommended list. Okay, anything else? Any text?

Anything we got time for what? We have one more anonymous feedback that came in. And it says, Earl, have you given up on Big Dog Ranch Rescue? You haven't mentioned it in many weeks. Have you become too international to care about your local charity? You're making me feel very bad.

Big Dog Ranch Rescue, the best, no-kill shelter in the state of Florida, the biggest and the best. And you buy a copy of the book, Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer on Amazon, 100% of the proceeds. Not one nickel goes back to me. It all goes to Big Dog Ranch. We're always involved, very involved with Big Dog Ranch. Jonathan, what do we have a minute? One minute. Okay, to Brianna.

She wants to know when the best time is to buy a truck that she's looking for. Hey, Brianna, guess what? Take a look out there. I mean, consumer, or excuse me, these businesses are selling TVs during football season. How about a winter coat in the summer? So to your question, take a look into Consumer Report, decide what product you want, and then go to the dealership. The Internet is also a great place. Thank you for joining us, everyone. Stay safe. See you next Saturday. Let me go.