Earl Stewart on Cars - 03.30.2019 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of EZ Own Car Sales

Episode Date: March 30, 2019

Earl answers various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Agent Thunder visits EZ Own Car Sales in West Palm Beach to see if they will impose a dealer fee, when their sign says that they don't charge them. 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”

Welcome to Earl Stewart on Cars with Earl and Nancy Stewart. Reach them with your questions at 877-960. Here's Earl and Nancy. Good morning, everybody. So we're back. My name is Earl, by the way. I'm a recovering car dealer. I'm in the studio here at True Oldies with a team of auto experts.

We've been doing this show for a long, long time coming up on, like, how many years do? 15? Oh, gosh. 15 years, Nancy Stewart and Earl Stewart, and now we've added Stu Stewart. We've got three stewards in the room, and we got Rick Kearney. Rick Kearney is a certified diagnostic master technician. He's our expert. He's our technical guy.

And we are not a musical show. This is the true oldie station, but we're not true oldies. We don't sing anyway. I might be a little elderly, but I'm not a crooner. I am a car dealer in way of full transparency. I've been a car dealer since 1968. That's kind of like my qualifications over a half a century of retailing automobiles.

But I'm not here today to talk about my dealership or talk about you buying a car from me. I'm here to talk about how you can avoid being taken advantage of when you buy a car. Or today, highly likely you might lease a car. And of course, you have to maintain and you repair your car all of those things that you have to do if you live in florida particularly we don't have a lot of uh transit you know we don't have a lot of mass transit transportation around here

so if you don't have a car you're pretty much out of luck of course there's uber and lift but and there's the palm trend but most people want to buy a car if they live in florida and you typically buy a car every four or five maybe six years you repair your car maybe you repair your car maintain your car. You should at least twice a year. And every time you do that, you're exposed and you have to, in many cases, deal with the car dealer. Car dealers are not held in the highest regard by the buyers of cars or the repairs or maintainers of cars. And I quote this over and over. My apologies to our regular listeners because I talk about this Gallup poll all the time, but I do that because it's my justification for having this show. And that's,

There are people out there that buy cars and get along fine. It's a very small minority of people that do that. Most people consider buying a car something like having a colonoscopy or a root canal. Very unpleasant experience. And the Gallup poll has been asking the American public since 1977 every year they've had a poll on honesty and ethics and professions, which companies, which businesses that you deal with, do you hold in the highest regard in terms of honesty and ethics and which do you hold in the lowest regard? Cardinals come out on the bottom every year. Sometimes they're

next to last, and the best year I remember, they were a third from last. Last year, they were dead last. 2018, card dealers were held number, well, I don't know how many, 40. They were dead last in honesty and ethics and professions. So here we are to help you avoid that navigate that minefield I call it there are a lot of things you can do to make your life a lot easier when you're leasing or buying a car I mentioned Rick Kearney earlier Rick we used to call him a mechanic years ago when he first started working for me 25 years ago then we started talking to him as a he didn't like the word mechanic and I don't blame him but we said well you're a

technician Rick he is okay and now he's an auto computer scientist I used to say that tongue in cheek but not anymore because you know he's he's covered up with computers that's what he does when he repairs cars he's checking nine times out of ten is the computer issue and that's the problem with the car so we often we're even piped into the manufacturer in many cases where we can check their computers and we have the cumulative information of all the computers that check on the make car we sell So we can compare notes. It's highly technical today.

Remember the day when you could look under the hood and kind of guess what was wrong and maybe tinker around, twist this, pull that out, push that in, and suddenly it would run smoothly. No more, no more. So, Rick, I hope we get some calls for you today because you could save the listeners out there a lot of money. And there are a lot of car dealers out there

and independent mechanics and independent shops laying for the owners of today's high-tech cars. It's hard to keep an auto computer scientist, mechanic, or whatever you want to to call it, honest, when you don't understand the product. And today, very few people understand the product. That's very true. I mean, it comes down to the basic idea that computers are controlling almost everything in the car. And if you think it's amazing to see Elon.

Musk, his Tesla is doing autopilot, but almost every car out there right now has the capability to do that. Yes. We simply, the manufacturers won't throw the switch because there's a lot of liability left in that yet, but autonomous cars are coming. It's like you wouldn't fix your iPhone on your own or bring it to a trade, trade, a shade tree iPhone mechanic. I never thought about that, yeah. Sometimes I bam it on the table. Well, that doesn't work. That's not a good idea. And I turn it off and I turn it back on again.

Hey, guys. I'm going to interrupt your breaking news. We've got a call from Vermont. I'll be darned. Is that great? Fantastic. Beautiful place. Never been.

Definitely beautiful. It seems like you's gorgeous. Good morning, Mark. Beautiful state. Welcome to the show. Hey. How are you? How are you?

Our connection is a little bad, but I'll try to make it work. Okay. What can we do for you today, Mark? Okay, I was going to tell you about a scam that I ran into in September when I bought my truck, which is a Toyota truck. I went online, went to three dealers, got my best price, and then shopped that price among those dealers. and ended up going to one of the dealers and I made a deal with a salesman and was turned over to their finance person who also tries to sell all of these other add-on things like undercoding and so on and so forth,

which I didn't want. I told them right up front. I didn't want any of it. Right. And he wasn't keen on that idea. He was actually kind of rude. Yeah, he's paid on commission. He was a younger guy, kind of rude about it. And so I said, I want the deal that the salesman and I agreed on, and he had an iPad, a type of iPad with the deal that the salesman and

I had agreed on, and I signed the iPad. I see. High Tech. And then he took the iPad and said, I'm going to go run some hard copies because you'll need to sign hard copies as well. Interesting. And when he came back, we're going over the paperwork, and he had changed the deal.

Huh. and it had made a difference of about $350. Wow. And over the course of the deal, what he had done is actually changed the payment amount. And I caught it, and he said, that's what you signed, and he showed me the iPad.

And that deal, he had changed it. on the iPad. That's amazing. Good thing you're sharp, Mark. That happens so often in the F&I office. Interestingly enough, I've been interviewed by a Wall Street Journal reporter, Adrian Roberts, who's writing an article about this very subject, deception in the F&I department.

And I wish I'd known about you a couple days ago. She called and asked for the names of some people I could put her in touch with. But your story would have been very interesting. It'll be in the Wall Street Journal in the next couple of days. But, yeah, it's amazing the number of people that are deceived. You buy the car, you sign the papers with the salesman, and you breathe a sigh of relief, and you're happy, and you go into the business office sensibly to sign the papers

and just consummate the deal. And what happens to you happen so often. They redo the deal. They change the terms to increase their profit. But congratulations. You caught this guy cold. landed. Congratulations. Well, I threatened to go out into the showroom and tell every other customer that was there what was going on. Good for you. That's a great tactic. We didn't get the deal

the way it was supposed to be. And I did get a call from the, I spoke to the salesman after, was a salesman, and I got a call from the manager the next day, and she wanted me to make sure that I didn't give them bad ratings on their reviews. Yeah, why should you give them bad ratings? They just tried to lie cheating and steal. I mean, no big deal. Exactly. And another interesting part of the story is my brother-in-law had also, he had bought a Prius there about six months before at the same store.

And I asked him, this finance manager slash crook was very distinctive looking in the sense that he had bright, bright red head. was quite short in stature, so it was easy to pick out. I said, is this the guy that you signed with? And he said, yes. And I said, I wonder if they changed your deal, too. Yeah. You know, in my dealership, we have video cameras in each of the F&I offices. We have, you know, several F&I managers.

And when you're paying people on commission, whether they're selling cars or selling service or, you know, a lot of people are paid on commission. You've got to have a person that's genuinely honest in his heart because the temptation is always there. If you're getting a cut of the price or the profit on whatever you're doing, financing or selling, you've got to be an honest person. And when you're in the F&I office,

it's typically just you, the buyer, the financier, and the F&I person. And no one's looking, and it's just like smoking mirrors. That is a very, I'll, I started to say a neat trick, it's a terrible trick, to have something on the computer screen, in this case an iPad screen, and then go out of the office and bring you a hard copy. You just naturally assume all he did was print out what you'd agree to,

but he obviously changed it, printed it out, and brought you the hard copy to sign. That's a new one on me, but it just goes to show how many tricks these guys could come up with. Exactly, and it's right here in Vermont where we don't. don't tend to usually do that kind of thing. Exactly. Vermont, you've got a reputation for integrity and honesty, and that's absolutely true. Did you report this to the owner of the dealership? Mark?

Yes, and I never got a response from him. Yeah, well, you've done all you can do. I say sometimes the owner of the business doesn't know what's going on. He should, but oftentimes they don't. So as long as you've notified the owner, he knows what happened. Let it be on his conscience that he keeps that guy working for him. But thank you much for a great call. Are you streaming us on Facebook, Mark?

Yes. I'm on YouTube. YouTube. Fantastic. Well, that's good to hear, and I'm glad to see our reaches all around the country now. Love to hear from you again, Mark. You are definitely an educated consumer, and that's what we're trying to create with this show is more people that are aware, and you're very aware. Thank you so much for the call. Thanks, Cheryl.

Have a good day. Same to you. Take care. Bye-bye. 877-9-60-99-60. Really thrilling that we're hearing from people as far away as Vermont. We're streaming on YouTube. Obviously, that's where Mark from Vermont is watching us now, and we're streaming on Facebook. Facebook.com forward slash hurl on cars.

I guess we're on Periscope. Yep. And what else are we on? Twitter. Twitter. Yeah, and I was going around the room here. By the way, the text number was, is 772-4976530. A lot of folks like to Texas, 772-4976530. And let's get to a couple texts.

I see a mark on Stu's pad there. Let's take those texts first, and we'll go around, and I'll talk to Nancy Stewart, Mike O's. But who's texting now, Stu? No name on this one, but it says, Speaking of the F and I office, I've been told by two different dealers that they aren't permitted by law to discount the price of the extended warranty. I smell a rat, but is that true? In the states where extended warranties are regulated by the State Insurance Commission, that is true. Many states don't regulate it, in which case you've really got to be on guard if you're buying an extended warranty because the car dealer can charge anything he wants.

One car dealer would charge you $2,000 for an extended warranty. for the same extended warranty and now the dealership they might charge you $3,000. State of Florida, there is a regulation that keeps the, now that doesn't mean you're getting a good buy on the extended warranty. All that means is the car dealer has to register the price with the state. So whatever that price is registered for, that's what he must sell for. And car dealers can have their own warranty companies. You form a warranty company.

You put up a bond with the state. You apply with the rules and regulations. and you have a warranty company and then you come up with something you want to sell and you decide what it's going to cover and you decide how much it's going to cost. So you can charge $100 for that warranty or a million dollars for that warranty

as long as it's registered with the state. But at least there is some protection if it is registered. So check with your state insurance commission before you buy a warranty. Very good. The next one is from Danny and Green Acres. He says, is there any way,

this is probably for Rick, to prevent those little leaves from getting into my engine compartment. They drive me nuts, especially when they get wet, Danny and Greenacres. Unfortunately, there really isn't. Car cover. Well, a car cover, yeah, or try avoiding parking underneath the trees. But unfortunately, the area around your engine, there's got to be a certain amount of airflow that can get through there. And you don't want to have it totally sealed like at the top too much because you want the heat of the engine to be able to work its way out once you've parked the car.

Leaf blower work? Would that work? Leafblowers actually work rather well, and better than using like a high-pressure hose at the car wash because you're less likely to get water into something in the engine that could damage it. So, yeah, leaf blower is actually the best idea, really. That'll be my next crusade is to outlaw the leaf blower. I hate those things. You and 100 other people.

I know. Or maybe 100 million. I hope so. We've heard from Nancy Stewart, my co-host, Nancy Stewart, is our female. advocate. And she speaks to all people, but she also has a special place in her heart for the women in the audience. And I don't need to tell you if you're alive today, you know about the women's movement. And it's a long time coming. It should have been here a long time ago. And it's here in space. It's here high pressure. It's long overdue. You look at some

of the news around the country, of the world, I should say, in other countries. and you see some of the discrimination against the females. And we still have some in the United States. So that's Nancy's mission in life, is to speak to the ladies and tell them to stand up for their rights. Absolutely. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to tell you that you're listening to Earl Stewart on cars right here if you just tuned in.

And we're here to, well, let you know that the car business can be pretty damn tricky. and we're here to share some advice with you and to, well, prevent you from getting ripped off. And for the ladies, as Earl said, I'd like to extend $50 to each new lady caller. The first two new lady callers, you can win yourself $50 this morning. So give us a call at 877-960-99-60,

or you can text us at 772-49-6. 76530 and remember every story is important to us and don't forget that you can go to your anonymousfeedback.com. Let us know how you like the show. Maybe you could add your story and share it with us so that we can share it. Back to the recovering car dealer. Youranonymousfeedback.com, I'm glad you mentioned that. It's one of the most interesting things we've done I find it's something that would be useful to a lot of businesses out there. How many businesses really know exactly what's going on in the trenches, owners of businesses, managers of business?

Do you really know what's going out there on the floor when a customer goes head-to-head with one of your employees? This radio show, we ask for constructive criticism. It can be harsh. It can be angry. it can be kind it can be anything the point is if you open the door widely and we do it with anonymous feedback your anonymous feedback.com we would love to hear from you we want to we want to get better we want to make the show more interesting for you more entertaining more informative whatever it may

be so if you have something that you could suggest that we do you don't have to be known your anonymous feedback.com is a concept concept come up with a by a company called Incognito. And if you're interested, if you're a business owner, incognito spelled N-E-A-T incognito I-N-C-O-G-N-E-A-T-O

incognito not the way the normal incognito is spelled I-N-C-O-N-C-O-N-C-O-N-C-G N-A-T-O-O-N-C-G and they came up with this idea and a lot of blue-chip companies

out there like Adobe and and I think Amazon and a lot of the high buck blue chip companies are using this, the more progressive companies who really want truly want to hear from their customers, I think

it's a great idea. Your Anonymousfeedback.com and tell us what you really like to tell us without pulling any punches. I like that. Tell us what you really want to tell us. And also, ladies and gentlemen, don't forget, our online streaming sites are up and running.

So there's a lot of ways you can reach us. Facebook, as I mentioned earlier, YouTube, Twitter, you can go to Periscope, and we would love to hear from you because I always say, you make the show. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6-9-0. I know a lot of you have questions for Rick Kearney or certified diagnostic master technician, computer scientists,

anything to do with the mechanics or electronics or computerization of your car. And these cars are complicated, folks. I'm telling you, on my car. and I'm in the business a long, long time there's little buttons I don't know what they do and Rick knows what all the buttons do

so just give Rick a call You know well before I make a comment on what you just said we're going to go to John and he's one of our favorite callers and he calls us

from Palm City he's a big part of our show and has been from the very beginning Good morning how are you John Good morning Thank you for the compliment I'd like to talk about today

Odometers and a certificate of title. Most people don't realize what's going on when they get rid of the car. They're signing these papers, especially at a dealer, sign here, and that's the end of it. But on a title, you're trading a car

or you're selling it to an individual. Never, never, actually. Just put your signature on it, and the rest is not filled in. What I mean by that is the name of the purchaser, the date, the odometer reading, which is very important. On the back, by the way, it's very complicated.

They keep changing. I'm reading from a title from 2015, which has a lien, but the lien has been satisfied, so not should it is a stamp, but they know it's legitimate because you would never get the title if you didn't satisfy the lien. Then you go down to the bottom, and there's so many places that it can be filled out. It's a place for a dealer, for a wholesaler,

If you don't get in the right place, and there's a mistake on the title, when you go and that's surrendered, especially if you're an individual, they surrender the title, they will not accept it until a duplicate or another title is issued, which is expensive. So it's very important that either if you don't know, have it signed in front of a tag agency, but here's the catch on the bottom. when all the signatures are made, including the buyer and seller, it has the five or six-digit odometer reading. Number one, it says, is this the actual mileage? This is either five digits or six. Two, is it in excess of mechanical limits? Quite a tricky terminology.

Number three, it says not the true mileage. Then on the bottom, you know, the buyer and seller, they sign the price. on it, and it says, under penalties, I quote, of perjury, I declared that I have read foregoing, the foregoing document, and the facts stated in it are true. So my question, and then, by the way, on the bottom completely, it says note, penalty, if, hold on, if not, oh, we're registered by law, it's went, and not submitted for transfer within 30 days of data purchase. So what I'm trying to explain is

it's not an easy transaction if you basically don't know what you're doing or if you just sign a title on a car that you're turning in either private or dealership and you don't really know where it's going and the mileage is not stated on it. And I'll give an example. Five years ago, a friend of mine sold a car

and he just signed back at a title. not the name of the owner, no other information on it. Well, the car was found abandoned on a New Jersey turnpike, believe it or not, that far away. And guess what? All the bills, all the expenses of removing that car from the state of New Jersey to the wrecking yard. That's probably where it won because it was pretty old car. And it was traced back to him. Nobody's registered since that time that he sold it.

So it's a caution that I'm giving. you, but the main thing is people have to sign the right spot and know the responsibility what they're signing off on their title. Well, John's good advice. I'll let that know. Yeah, I like some of the other things

most people, the average layperson doesn't understand. And something where you need to seek some advice out from someone you know and trust that has expertise in automotive titles. Department of Motor Vehicles can help you there. And if you know a title, we call them in the car business at a car dealership, title clerks. It's a real specialty.

And every automobile dealership has a title clerk, and they have to be trained. A good title clerk is a hard individual to find and hire than make good money because it is a complicated, precise, legal sort of thing they have to observe all the time. But all the pitfalls you describe are real, and for you to take a title and not understand, what you're doing and never, ever sign any document without filling in all the blanks. Too often that happens. Car dealers do it

to their customers. Even innocently, they might have something like power of attorney signed in blank. When you go through the F&I office, you'll be presented with a number of documents. Be sure that there are no blanks on the document. If there is,

draw a line through it or put an NA or something before you sign the bottom line. Never sign any document. with blanks left on the document. Good advice. Illinois from the school, when it was common, and that was a different type of speedometer in those days, mileage was set back like crazy.

Oh, yeah. And it was a federal law even in, but I don't think anybody ever got prosecuted. And then the second thing that they did also, there was an instrument that you could set back because it was a mechanical cable, and they could set the speedometer back, but then they came out with a thing where to die,

would appear on it, and with a red dye, it would blur out all the numbers. But I want to ask Rick a question. Today, does he ever get a car either used, probably not new, that the speedometer is malfunctioning, and legally what do they have to do by putting a new spomper speedometer in? Normally, when we replace the instrument cluster that has that speedometer in it, it has to be ordered from Toyota, sent to another company that programs in the mileage and the car is required to stay at the dealership

until we get that new part in and we install it and it has then the correct mileage on it so then it gets an adjustment on the car fax then it wouldn't really even show up because it's a it's a replacement part with the exact same mileage you know we're we're telling a third party company what the mileage is and we're we're certifying that as the dealer and then they program it in sounds like an expensive operation it's actually not too bad it's uh we did quite a few of them on Priuses because they had an issue where the ODOT the screen would go blank on it while you're driving the car I got you so we replaced a lot of those and it got to be you'd order the part and usually a one-day turnaround sometimes a two-day turnaround you'd have the

part you install it and the correct mileage was right there on it well john thanks very much but it's not very common like it was years ago because years ago they had places that were just rebuilt speedometers because i remember my 66 ford the speedometer was erratic a miles per hour and they had to rebuild what they call speed cups in it but that's the old-fashioned type of cable speedometers and also i remember my first car you went to the auto store and the cable was dry, and you bought like a plastic little container, and you put it at the end of the cable, and it lubricated the cable, and then the speedometer was fine.

But thank God there's no reason today for speedometers probably will last forever of the life of the car plus. Yeah, you're right. But good information about the title, John. I appreciate the call. Stu? Yeah, like 20-something years ago when I first got started in the business, there was just legends of, like, guys that would come to the lot

and would clock the car for you. So there were experts out there, deceptive, shady creatures that would show up and used car departments would pay them to reset the clock, as we called it. You're looking at one of the guys who used to pay them. That was commonplace. Yeah? We had a guy come by, Stuart Pontiac lot, and he would come by once a week and clocked the cars. He charged you based on how much he took off.

I sure hope the statute of limitations is up on that. What an amazing time. What an amazing time. The trick they had then was just go to a wrecking yard and buy his business. From a used car and put that in the car and it had a different number on it and and people still do that today even with the electronic ones. Yeah. They'll buy an instrument cluster from a car at the junkyard and they'll take along a small battery so they can power it up to see what the reading is on it and if it's low enough, they take and swap it to another vehicle. Amazing. Especially on the titles and speedometer, odometer, try to do your homework the best you can.

and try to get it from a reliable, whether it be a used car dealer or a new car dealer, and then you'll be fine, hopefully. Thank you, John. Great call. You always bring up some interesting things. That's very important also. Appreciate the call. We always look forward to hearing from you.

It's a beautiful day in Florida. Thank you so much. Statue of limitations is only two years. Rudy, are we going to go to John? He's not on, okay. Well, you know, we're talking about my confession on the air. I just remembered the name of the guy we used. Isn't that amazing how old guys like me remember these things?

But this is going back 40 years. Clocky McDaniels. No, Ed Zuck. Ed Zuck. Ed Zuck. He went to every car dealership in Palm Beach County, and he'd come by, you know, and he would come by like once a month for us, and he'd come by, and he would just say, he'd list of the cars, and the used car manager would put down

what mileage he wanted on the odometer. Oh, man. And he had a drill, and he would just rewind the... Oh, he didn't put the car in reverse and drive around the block. Exactly. Oh, no, that was Bueller's vote. Ferris Bueller's Day off. Everybody did it.

We didn't think there was anything wrong with it. I mean, this. Why do you do that? Because we get more money when we sell the car. I can say that since 1997, that's never happened that your dealers said that I've been there. Yeah, exactly. And you know what? I'm really appreciating my freedom.

Your freedom, his freedom, and my freedom. We're lucky we're not all. We didn't all go. to jail. 877, 960. I was born, recovered. What are you talking about? And you text us at 772-4976530.

That's the text number is 772-497-6530. Let me give a shot out to John, who was holding for quite a while from West Palm Beach. Do you get a chance, John, give us a call back. 877-960 and the Texas 772-497-60. And remember, ladies, the first two new lady callers, you can win yourself $50. Just give us a call, share your story, or just say hello. Now back to the recovering car dealer. We had three ticks, now we got two ticks.

Oh, no, no. When was just a follow-up that popped in? If you're ready for those, we got. All right, good morning. My name is Paul from Jupiter, a longtime listener. My question pertains to the no-dealer fee that is often discussed on your show. In the early process of getting a price for a vehicle, would it be rude for the purchase sir to mention right in the beginning of the process that you're not going to pay for the

dealer fee? I think that would be okay. I think I have a better idea, though. You can ask them if they charge a dealer fee and then say, okay, is that all the dealer fees? Is that the only non-government fee? Because car dealers today are playing games with terminology, and they will say, we don't charge a dealer fee.

But what they do charge is something called electronic filing fee, a notary fee, a doc fee, a dealer prep fee, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You know that. So if they charge a non-government fee, say, I want a bottom-line price, I want all your fees, the non-government fees included in the bottom-line price you give me. That way, there's no surprises. The whole purpose of the dealer fee, the hidden fee, is to surprise you, or maybe you don't even and know what happens. But if you know about it, it can't hurt you. Because then you can shop and compare prices.

We're going to go to John, who's given us a call back from West Palm Beach. Good morning, John. Good morning, ma'am. How are you? And I just want to say, a fairly new listener has heard the show before. I enjoy fairly great, knowledgeable people there. Thank you. Thank you.

I have a pleasant experience with a dealer. I don't mind sharing. It's minorly pleasant. My wife and I were in the market for a convertible, late-month-old. model Mustang recently, and we found one at a Hyundai dealer in North Palm Beach. We went and looked at the car during the week, liked it, a pretty car. And I said, all right, we'll be back. And then by Friday, I said, you know, we better go and buy the car because maybe he'll

be done by the weekend. We went back, and it was a 2011 convertible. They're asking $10,000, which I thought was very fair, had 80,000 miles on. on at V6, fully loaded, otherwise than that. And went in, made the deal, signed the papers, and before we were ready to go to the finance guy, the manager came over, said, you know what, I appreciate you coming back in.

You were here during a week. I'm going to knock $300 off the car. Okay. And we knew there was a deal of fee going in because I asked a salesman on Wednesday If there's a guilty, there's, yeah, unfortunately, there is. It's all right. I knew that it was.

But they knocked $300 off. I didn't even have to ask. And then when we hit the finance office, we were paying cash for the car. But I told them, I said, don't even bother trying to sell me anything if you use a car. I'm not interested. No, I understand. Went through all the paperwork. I did the motor vehicle registration for me.

And I just want to pass wrong. You know, I know a lot of horror stories, but it was something good for once. John, would you like to mention the name of the dealer because it's a very positive comment, and as you say, that's extraordinary, that they would actually reduce the price of the car after you had bought it, just because you came back. That sounds like such an extraordinarily nice thing. Would you like to mention the name of the salesman, if you recall, the manager, and the dealership? I don't remember the name of the manager, but it was Napleton, Hyende, on North East.

Boulevard and North Palm Beach and if anybody there is listening right now we are enjoying the car is a white Mustang

with a tan drop top so thanks guys we're enjoying the car well thank you you know we we bash car dealers so often

and the whole show was about how to avoid being taken advantage of and we want to know from people who have pleasant experiences like you do too

so thank you very much John for calling in and that's Naples in Hyundai on North Lake Boulevard in North Palm Beach. And if you just tuned in, John went in there, bought a 2011 convertible.

Well, the first time he came in, he said, I'm going to come back and see you. He did come back and bought the car, but the manager came in and said, thank you for coming back. And we're going to take, to show you, we appreciate that, we're going to take another $300 off the price of the car.

So that is something we haven't heard before, and we want to spread the word. Thank you very much. Keep a good welcome. You've got a lawyer with me here. Have a great day. You too, John. Thank you so much, John.

Bye-bye. 877-960-9960. I think Stu and Rick both are smiling. And I think the reason we're smiling is because Naples is on our do not recommend list. However, it's been since mid-2017 was the last time we shopped. Yes. and so I think we need to go back in there again and check them out

put them on the good list exactly and by the way Mark in Vermont says confessions are okay Earl it's part of your recovery but

but this I call myself a recovering car dealer as we just alluded to here and in full transparency I'm a current car dealer back in the day I did things the wrong way

I just confessed on the air that back in the 60s and 70s 70s, we were rolling back speedometers in our use car department. And everybody did it, I mean commonly. Hard to believe now. I look at that era. I say, I can't believe I did that sort of a thing. So that's my recovery.

I have to keep reminding myself. So this call from John, who bought the car from Naples and Hyundai, made me think of another devious thing that I used to do back in the day. When we traded a car in... Should I look up the statute of limitations first? I think we're okay. We would, when we would clean the car, detail the car, you know, sometimes you take the seats out and you do a good detail job on the car. We would often find change in the down between the seats.

You know, 30 cents, 40 cents, 50 cents change. You rarely found any bills, but you find change or things like that. And even if we didn't find change, we would call the customer. who traded the car in and say thank you very much for your business we're sending you a dollar and 35 cents we found that fell down behind the seat and your backseat now in the backseat of the car where we just rolled back the odometer yeah where we just rolled back but you imagine the impression that these people say Stuart Pontiac sent me a check for a dollar and 35 cents what honest people they are and I'm not saying that Naples

did that, but the $300 discount, maybe it was genuine from the heart, maybe it was the fact that they'd made so much money on the car that they were able to discount it by $300. I don't know.

Or maybe it was a bet between the sales manager and the salesperson. But we are going to reshop Napleton. He ain't coming back. If we does, I'll take $300 off the car. I'm almost sorry. I said that because I hear myself on being disingenuous. We really want

car dealers who have done good things, to call the show where people who bought from Cardinals have done good things. We want to put it out there. And I'm going to stand by what I said. Naples and Hyundai on North Dakota Boulevard did a good deed for John. We hope we'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

And we will reshop them. Yeah, we'll go back. Maybe this upcoming week. Thanks for you later. 877-960960. We're streaming on Facebook. Facebook.com, for it slash for own cars.

We're on YouTube. We're on Periscope, we're on Twitter. Okay. We're streaming fools. I have a question about fees, period. Brianna, she texts me this past week. She wants to know if she were to create a form of her own, just write it up, that when she walks into a particular dealership and she's looking for a used car, and she gets that person who's waiting on her to sign a, it that there are no fees. That's dealer fees, filing, e-filing fees, delivery fees, any fee

that you could, would that hold up? Is that legitimate if she got that salesperson to sign that? Now, that's the reason I love this show. I mean, obviously I love the show. It's my show. But I love the callers, is what I meant to say. Brianna, that is a stroke of genius. It truly is. I don't think that you'd be able to get them to sign it but that in itself is a tell I think that's a wonderful idea and I think we probably ought to come up with a forum like that it would simply say as Brianna so brilliantly suggested

this is to certify that in the purchase of this vehicle there are no non-government fees included in the bottom line price and have a place for the officer of the company, the dealership. You just can't have a salesman sign it. All of that would be better than nothing. But a manager, a management representative would have to sign it.

Because that would really be proof of fraud if they violated it. There will be a form that you can download on Erlon Cars. Yes. That's what we're going to do. Yes. That's a great idea. And she named all of these fees. You talked about prep fee, the private agency fees, every single fee.

I got it. This is great. We'll have fine print that would rival a cardiolid's fine print that list every conceivable name by any name. Just have it like paragraphs. Such is. Yeah, yeah. Let them study the fine print for once. But she wants to walk in with a few weapons of her own and to ensure that she doesn't get taken advantage of.

I think it's a fantastic idea, Brianna. Thanks for the idea. We're going to use it. And do you see why Nancy is paying $50 for the first two new female callers? You females out there are pretty smart. And that's the smartest thing we've heard in a long time is a suggestion to protect the consumer. So, Brianna, thank you very much. Matter of fact, Brianna, if you will give your contact information to us, we'll send you a check for $50.

There you go. How about we could also have T-shirts that we provide that says, I ain't paying a dealer fee? there you go walking with the form the t-shirt hat hey if they can make up bottles of water no fees we can take it to a new level

let's do another text what you say this is a great one no name on this one it says I just started a used car dealership which I intend to grow bigger this has been my dream I'm in Illinois and I offer my customers

free title plate and dock fee all I charge is price of the vehicle in tax but I pay the state all required fees is this legal for me to advertise this way? By the way, I love what you do. God will reward you all. Oh, thank you. There's a name there just from Illinois.

I'm starting to get excited now. This is going to be a dynamite show. This is going to be when we go on vacation, Nancy. This will be one of the ones we replay because we've gotten more valuable information. Illinois use car dealer, fantastic idea. I've often thought that it should be a state-law. law to require that all advertised prices include all fees, including government fees, tax

and tag and registration. How else are you really going to be sure you're comparing prices honestly? I think that's a splendid idea. The pressure on you on this is going to be the fact that your competition doesn't do that. So your prices are going to appear higher. That's going to be your challenge. But if it works for you, there's certainly no law against it. should be a law requiring it.

I love to hear from you again, Use Car, Illinois dealer, who is proposing including all government fees, license registration, and the advertised price of the car. The bottom line, Althador price, I salute you. It's a great idea.

And just beware the fact that your competition is going to take advantage of you on that because they're going to advertise something not only without the government fees, but also without non-government fees, aka dealer fees, hidden fees. So thank you, Illinois, use car dealer for that call. It's a minefield out there.

We're going to go to Jupiter, and we have a regular caller, and he calls us just about every week, whether he is here or he is in New York. Welcome to the show, Howard. Good morning. Nice hearing from you. Hey, Howard. Okay, and it's a little cloudy, but I'll take it. Yeah. I have a couple of questions.

The first question I have is my son is looking for a car. He needs to put a bass guitar in there, and he needs a hatchback. So he's looking for a Prius. I told him there's a Corolla Hatch now. Yes. So I have a question about, the first question is, what would the advantage be of the corolla hatch over the Prius, or is there an advantage? well i'll try and tackle this one yeah you should number one i can certify that a bass guitar will

fit in the back of a prius and also the corolla hatchback so you got no issue there and i also happen to know that my friend matt who might be listening uh drives a prius v and he loads an entire bandsworth equipment in the back of that thing uh that said i don't know howard uh the prius uh i mean the the Prius, it's a hatchback. It's going to get a lot better gas mileage than the Corolla. That's probably going to be the main difference. Also, price, Prius costs a little bit more than the Corolla hatchback. Rick's chiming in.

Yeah, Howard. You've only got one little bug coming along. What is this, Stu? Next year, we'll have the Corolla Hatchback Hybrid. Right. And that's going to have the best of all of it. That's the one is looking into, the hybrid. Oh, okay.

Wasn't clear about that. yeah so explain to me number one what kind of battery does it have an ion battery or a lithium battery lithium ion the corolla it's oh that's great the corolla will have the lithium ion battery okay so when is it coming out i'm not sure usually we get notifications not that much before the public does um it is going to be i believe a 2020 2020 yes and um i think we're going to see it later in the year probably in the fall, but we'd have to double check. We just have some pretty vague information on that.

Well, my tuba... The mileage should be similar between the... Corolla Hatchback Hybrid, is that correct? The hybrid will actually be about the equal of the Prius, and maybe even a little better, because they're improving them all the time. So it's actually going to be just a little better than the Prius, I think. Okay, now,

Would it be, the first year, would there be any bugs in it? In other words, should he wait until 21 before he gets it? You should wait. I recommend if you want to be a careful purchaser, you never buy a car on the introductory date. There's usually, I won't say usually, but I'm going to say 30, 40% chance. A higher likelihood. The high likelihood.

And the manufacturers, they push it out too quickly. You know, Tesla is famous for this. that's the reason they got in trouble with consumer reports but Toyota does the same thing and if I were being cautious which you should be I would wait a year yeah and another thing Howard

the Krola hatchback hybrid is next year the Krola hybrid just itself is on its way in right now yep it's very limited run at first is with the speed rating Z means you're gonna do 110 miles an hour what if you want to get a cheaper tie that's not Z-rated, that's H-rated, and you don't do 110 miles an hour.

Is that recommended or not? I think so. I think it's a smart move. Yeah, you wouldn't have any problems with that. Okay, but there's some dealerships, I mean, like Pet Boys, a lot of them refuse to do that. They say, no, we have to give you what's on your tire now, let's say the dealers, let's say Toyota, what Toyota calls for. We have to match it up, but I don't understand why that has to be. I'm surprised if they say that. I don't know that there's a law against that.

I can see why they would recommend it. The manufacturer chooses anything on a car. It's their standard. Once you vary from manufacturers' standards, there's some risk, I suppose, and warrantability and things of this nature. But the manufacturer doesn't even warranty of the tires. I think if you have a safety-rated tire, you should be the, you know, whether you want a high-speed or a low-speed tire should be your choice.

I think the main reason places like Pepp Boys do that so they can sell you a more expensive tire. Good be. I want to research that, though, Howard, because you raise an interesting question. Pet Boys is a national company, and they've got attorneys, and they're not stupid. I'll look into that, but I'm going to give you a tentative. I don't think they're right about that.

Okay, great. Thank you very much to the information. Have a good day. Enjoy your time here in Florida. 877-960-99-60, and you can text us at 772-497-60, and I have a young lady who will remain anonymous that would like to become a mystery shopper for Earl Stewart, and she says that she finds that it certainly is a male-dominated industry, and she's been in and out of quite a few dealerships looking for a car and she's honestly, well, going to put it on the back burner for a while. She said she didn't want to use the word scared,

but she needs to get herself a little more information so that she doesn't get taken advantage of her. Is she serious about wanting to be a mystery shopper? I'm just relaying information from her. I'm the messenger. Tell her to contact Stu Stewart. He's in charge of mystery shops. and he would be glad to interview her

and we would love to have a female mystery shopper. She was very curious as to why we don't use female mystery shoppers. We try. Miss Anonymous, one of the reasons we don't is we can't find

the volunteers. We cannot find the women that want to do it. It's hard to find anybody who wants to be a mystery shopper. It is a very difficult chore. People have reservations about being, well, you're being dishonest. I mean, it's legally, you're misrepresenting yourself as being a real buyer.

People feel bad about it. Yeah, and we also kind of have a higher standard for, I mean, mystery shopping is a whole profession. There's companies out there, and they pay people, and there are full-time mystery shoppers, and we have a higher standard from what we're asking for. We're not asking this to mark things off on a checklist. We want them to be able to really absorb the experience, understand what's going on, and then be able to describe it honestly and in detail. And we've had people that thought it was going to be a good idea,

and I'm talking, you know, men and women who did their first mystery shop, came back, said, I never want to do that again. Honestly. Yeah. Well, we've got Matt holding here. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, well, we'll get back to that in a minute. We're going to go to Stewart. Matt's been holding.

Good morning, Matt. Good morning. Mr. Stewart, what's your opinion on this type of insurance, I guess, on the automobile, which is called Car Guard? After you buy a, I believe it's a decent vehicle, and they contact you about this insurance on the automobile. Matt, by the way, call me a row, please. Matt, you'll be contacted for extended warranties and insurance and other things. The Department of Motor Vehicles sells their list, and they shouldn't do it, but you can buy from any state a list of registered motor.

And this is what these companies do. They buy Nationalists. And by looking at the time you bought the car, they can estimate the mileage you're going to have on your car. Plus they've got your information. And they contact you often to pretend like they're the manufacturer or some official agency suggesting that you buy their product, which is an extended warranty or something this nature. Disregard anything that you get in the mail trying to sell you something on your car with respect to warranty or or other insurance.

Also on those lines, don't believe anybody, any mail that gets to you after you buy your car that says your warranty has expired. Exactly. Because you're never going to get anything like that from the manufacturer. Exactly. That answer your question, man.

So disregard it then. Disregard. That is, anything in the way of direct mail today, I'm glad to see everything being replaced by email. You still get the garbage, but it's a lot easier to get rid of. I hate to have to go out to my mailbox now and bring in, you know, a dozen pieces of mail, and I throw them all in the trash can.

It's just, of course, it's my exercise for the day. They contacted me by phone. Oh, phone. Same difference. They have the mailing list and they have the phone list. Any phone solicitations today regarding your vehicle, there's just too many of them. There's a lot of robocalls because of the availability of the information about your car. They have the vent.

They have the year you bought it, you're making a model, so they can pretend to offer you things that are not legitimate. Okay, thank you very much. Thanks for the call, Matt. You know, we now go down to the mailbox with a wheelbarrel and pick up our mail. That's how overwhelming it is. There's so much garbage in that mailbox. But there's so many different ways that these dealers can get to you with these mailers, whether it be warranty, whether it be that they, they'll pay you anything for your car bring it in so buyer beware

you should just put wheels on your recycling bin and wheel it down to the to the curb you know I have wheels on my recycling bin but they're in need of a little maintenance from me and I did drop the ball and my Houdini is dry I've got to get a I've got to get a can of Houdini that reminds me of a nice story I want to share with everyone you know I just recently went into Ace Hardware yeah I'm giving them a plug and do you know

that there were six female employees in Ace Hardware. That was one of the Promenade Plaza, right? And one male. And I said to these ladies, this is amazing. I said, do you know why I like coming in here? Because you have all female employees. Here's my business card. If any one of you need a job, just see me.

I said, this is an inspiration. She says, you know, she says, we have more female customers coming in now than we ever did before because they didn't always have females at that particular Ace Hardware Promenade Plaza location. But, boy, what a nice story. And we've got an Ace Hardware that's half a mile away, and you drove 10 miles to get to the one with all the females. Exactly, because the one that I could walk to.

Rockies. They have, well, I'm not going to comment on that now that you gave out that name because I don't want them to come looking for me. Oh, to heck with it, they can come look for me. I've got a lot of people looking for me. They've got a man in there that's 106 years old, and he is unable to tie his shoes. Is that because you're saying nasty things about seniors, and I'm a senior? Yeah, I'm picturing Tim Conway and Carol Burnett show right now. Can I get those screwdriver?

You're a senior. Let me say something positive about Ace Hardware, by the way. We know that they can sell you a smart key for far less than the car dealer, which charge you. And a lot of the stores out there, not just Ace Hardware, but Ace comes to mind, can save you a ton of money on the smart key. If you lose your smart key in today's cars, you're talking hundreds of dollars. Things have changed. Ace is the place. They can take care of it.

always do we do uh this is from uh ralph in virginia beach virginia he asked what is the best time to buy a car the last day of the month the last day of the quarter or the last day of the year ralph i'll tell you what i'm virginia beach virginia beach i'm just i can't believe in vermont virginia beach i'm so happy ralph um it sounds like all the above sounds like an old wise tale sounds like a urban legend but it is true that the end of the month is a good time to buy a car uh the end of the year is a really good time to buy a car doesn't there's a logic behind it it's just not a it's not a myth bonuses incentives the manufacturers bonus to dealers and these the dealers live in a 30-day world every 30 days the bonuses

expire and new bonuses appear they incentivize their customers with bonuses that expire at the end of the month at the end of the year it's like a avalanche of bonuses expiring because it's the end of the year. There's quarterly bonuses that expire. It's crazy, but it's good to know. My advice, when you're shopping for a car, read my book, go to three different dealers and you know the drill. Get competitive bids, get your best price. Start early. Don't wait until you're going to buy the car. Start two weeks or three weeks before you want to buy. You can shop and compare prices any time during the month. When you get your best price, Wait till the end of the month.

Maybe if you're getting close to the end of the year, wait till the end of the year. You go in on the 30th or the 31st of the month, even sometimes the first day of the next month because they haven't cleared up all their paperwork yet. You go in at that time, you can literally save hundreds of dollars, maybe thousands of dollars. I'm going to say New Year's Eve, before you go shopping for champagne and all the goodies, then you go to the dealership. Wait all year. Because honestly, that's the best.

There's something called a stair-step bonus, and I don't want to get technical dealer jargon on you, but the manufacturers, incentivized dealers, with hundreds of thousands of dollars that builds up and builds up over maybe a three-month period. It's an amount of money on every car that they sell, and they don't get that money until they sell that last car. If they have a 300-car quota, they get zero on $2.99. they might get $200,000 on the 3-0th car. That 3-0th car is going to be sold close toward the end of the quarter, and you can imagine what kind of a deal you might get if that car got that dealer $200,000, he could give you the car.

End of the month, end of the quarter, and we have a call. Great information from the recovering car dealer. Give us a call toll-free at 877-960-960, or you can text us at 772-497-60, and you can hear from what's going on in the studio. We have a whole lot to talk about. Don't forget the mystery shopping report. We're going to go to Lake Worth, and we're going to talk to Dennis. Good morning, Dennis.

Good morning, everyone. I have a little question to comment about the Costco car buying program. My wife and I were in the Costco on Lantan Road the other day, and Delray Toyota has a car. They always have someone's car in there, and it's a Honda SUV, but on this Honda SUV, they have the price, and then they have a $3,000 phony maroni label, as you called, that adds an extra $3,000 to the price of the car.

So when you go in to buy a car, what happens if they have that phony-meroni, and you say, I want to see the prices? Did they include that in there? I was really surprised to see that on a car in the Costco store. Well, Dennis, I'm surprised, too, because that's a violation of the agreement with Costco. I would tell the store a manager, but you could go online to the Costco autobuying program.com,

Costcoato.com, Costcootobying.com. And you could probably do it online, but the store should not allow that car to be displayed with the phony monroney. You're an educated consumer. A lot of people don't know that's a phony monroney. And the dealers obviously put that on there so they can mark up the MSRP by whatever amount they choose. It was almost $3,000. $3,000, yeah. So they can give you a $3,000 discount on that car,

and they're still selling it to you at full sticker, and that's a violation of Costco's agreement, and they should be advised of that. They'll make them take that phone even running off. But it's a common practice, just not allowed at Costco. One of the good things about the Costco Auto Bike Program, but they're not policing it, and shame on them. I didn't think it was right when I saw it,

so that's why I thought I'd call them asking. about it because it seemed to me like it was definitely a way of jacking up the price and wouldn't be too advantageous to buy the car at least from Del Rey Toyota or Del Rey Honda, I'm sorry, it was a Honda. Del Rey Honda, yeah. It makes me want to send

somebody over there and take a picture of that because we're close with Costco auto buying. We recommend them and we've talked with some of the executives of their program. They came and visited us because we had some problems with the Costco auto buying program and they were receptive and we had

nice meeting. So we like to keep them informed when their Costco warehouses are not enforcing the rules in this is a case. And Dennis, I can't thank enough for calling that to our attention. Okay, well, thanks for the information. You're very welcome. We haven't been there since February

2017. Is that right? Yeah. So we're going back. We're going back. Ladies, I extended an invitation to you earlier in the show. First, two new lady callers. You can win your

$50. Give us a call. Don't be shy. Share your stories with us or like I said just give us a call and say hello and you know that car buying experience can be well somewhat like a game show and you can either love the first door that you open or maybe open up that door that it just you say to yourself I will never ever forget this terrible experience. Share your experience with us. 960, 9960. Rick, did you have something to say? Actually, we've got a text in from Frank on YouTube.

Oh. And he says a tire dealer told him they would sell him a lower speed rated tire, but would put on the sales invoice that they advised against it. And he says his insurance company also advised him to not go down on the speed rating. And he says he was told that it can affect the vehicle's overall handling and could be a factor in a crash. However, just for clarification's sake, most car tires, automobile tires,

are rated at a minimum of S for... As in Sam. Yes. For pretty much most cars that you're going to buy tires. And the maximum speed rating on an S-rated tire is 112 miles per hour. I believe our earlier text person had mentioned that they were going from a Z-rated tire

down to an H-rated tire. 110, they said the Z was 110. Well, actually, that's not quite correct. H-rated tires are rated for up to 130 miles an hour. Oh, really? And at the time when Z was first introduced, Z was listed as being in excess of 100,000. 49 miles per hour.

Since then, because we've got now these supercars out there, they've had to come out with two more ratings, so we have W and Y, W 168, and Y rated tires, 186 miles per hour.

Can I ask a question? This is really a redundant. I don't expect an answer. Why do you have to have a tire that will go 168 miles an hour? I guess there are some States where there's no speed limit. But why don't they have special tires for those states?

In Florida, the highest speed limit is what? 75? 70 miles an hour. And why do you have to have something with the speed rating of twice that? Makes no sense. And it should be illegal. I don't think the tires should be rated that. And if they are rated that, they shouldn't advertise it.

Well, they also, we know, we think of ourselves here in America, however, you have places like the Audubon in Germany. Cars there will do 120, 130. You make tires for Germany. But for the United States, don't make tires we don't need, or they will encourage people. They think, oh, look what I got. Let me try it out. Same thing with your odometer.

Why don't they put a governor on cars? I don't know. Freedom? Liberty? I don't know. Same reason people don't wear helmets with their motor. Yeah, I think it's stupid. But I do like the idea of having tires that say these tires will shred at 85

miles an hour. That would solve the speeding problem. I think autonomous cars would solve it all. Absolutely. Absolutely, Rick. 877-960-9960, where you can text us at 772-497-930, and I'm happy now. I have a first-time caller from West Palm Beach. Her name is Mary.

Good morning, Mary. Good morning. How are you? I want to tell you I love your show. Oh, thank you. And I love Toyotas. I've had three Toyotas. My first Toyota, I had a Toyota Corolla.

I got almost 300,000 miles on it. And I gave it to somebody that needed a car at the time, and they got probably another 25,000 miles out of it. Nice story. And then I bought another one, and I'm on my third one, and I've also sent three people to your dealership. to buy cars. That's how much I love the Toyota. Well, thank you. Thank you, Mary.

I appreciate your car. I never had a bit of trouble and I've always enjoyed going to get my car service and you know, always had a nice time there. Thank you so much. That's a great story. I have to say they were not

paying Mary $50 for that nice commercial for my dealership, but I I will say this. We hope you will call. We are so happy to have women call the show. We don't get enough women calling. And that's the reason we incentivize them with this $50. So, yeah, we'd love to have any of your questions that you have about the mechanics of cars and anything about buying. I do have one question. Great. When I purchased my last Toyota, I purchased it in St. Augustine, and they gave me one key, and then the other key they didn't have because the person that traded it in didn't give them the other key. And then they gave me this key that they had a key person make up. And then when I went to use the key, it opens the car doors, but it doesn't start the car to make it run.

So I don't know if you have any thoughts on that. Did you buy the car new from the dealer in St. Augustine? Well, it only had 2,000 miles on it. It was considered new. And I've called them since then, and they wouldn't do anything about it. The building told me it was my problem. Is this Beaver Toyota? Beaver Toyota in St. Augustine.

When did you buy the car? I bought it in the end of 14. It was almost 15. I was going to say, if it was somewhat reason, I know the guy's up there. You know, one thing you might try, Mary, is we were talking earlier about check with Ace Hardware and some of these third-party key sources. You might Google it, but we know Ace makes smart keys for cars for considerably less. 60% less.

Yeah, we would be glad to sell you a key at our cost. But unfortunately, Toyota rips us off on smart keys. And we pay, sometimes we'll pay $200 for a smart key, and I think that's just too much. Check with Ace Hardware, and if you can't find one there suitable, then we'll be glad to sell you one at our cost. Okay, thank you very much. you still have the factory key that will run the car right yes sir i do make sure you take that one with you

when you go to ace because what they'll do is they can program their key to be a clone of your master key and they can do it very inexpensively there really and they can make as many of those as you want oh awesome yeah it is a great idea mary and i can speak from experience I helped a friend out recently, and I did just, what Rick recommended, make sure that you have that original key, and it's amazing how much money you can save on having that key duplicated. Okay, yeah, because I need to really get a spare one that worked. Yeah, it's nice to have a backup. You know, that was a great story that you shared with us, that you gave somebody your car, and the fact that, you know, hit 300,000 miles, and then another 25,000 miles. That's fantastic.

Hopefully they'll love that car just as much as you did and take care of it. Mary, stay on the line. I love Toyota. They keep running, and as long as you keep them maintenance, they keep going, running and running. Very smart consumer, you are. Thank you so much. I really hope we hear from you again. Spread the word.

Tell the ladies out there that they can win themselves $50, and we're trying to build a platform here for the, ladies and good luck with your key and ace is the place I love that place they can do a lot for you yeah I love going I love going in there give us a call again stay on the line and give us your information I'll get the check out to you okay thank you you're welcome Mary have a great weekend we're going to go to another first time caller from Stewart and her name is Leslie welcome to the show Leslie Good morning.

How is everybody today? Great. We're great. I have a question for Earl Stewart. I live up in Stewart. I had a Toyota actually for over 12 years, and I would still be driving it if I hadn't had been hit by a garbage truck. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, goodness.

And, yeah, loved. love, love my Toyota Camry. My question to Earl is, are you still offering the same type of... Tell me about your financing for your Toyota vehicles.

What do you offer? Well, we do most of our financing, and most Toyota dealers do most of their financing through Southeast Toyota Finance. Now, we're streaming nationwide now in the Southeast United States, the five southeastern states, they use

Southeast Toyota Finance and the rest of the 45 states, they used Toyota Motor Finance, which is a national Toyota financing company. They have competitive rates, but the thing you have to remember, when you finance through the dealer, they mark the rates up from the lender. So no matter who they use for a lender, Honda would have Fonda Finance, Chrysler would have Chrysler Finance, Toyota has Toyota Finance, and the rate that the dealer charges you is marked up. So what we suggest that you do is check with your bank and your credit union. Stu?

And at the risk of making it sound like a commercial and it's not, but Toyota and all the manufacturers will usually offer an incentive, an incentivized interest rate that they don't mark up. It's like a 0% or a 0.9%, which is a lot better. Actually, that's what I got with my current vehicle, which is an ultima. So one way or the other, I probably ended up, I'm guessing, paying more for my vehicle because of the zero financing. Is that going to take away from that? Not necessarily because usually they offer an alternative.

They'll say, we'll give you a thousand dollar discount on the car or you can have the zero percent financing. Yeah, the way to look at it is if you're going to drive the car all the way through the whole term of the loan, it's usually more avatations to get the special interest rate. But if you're going to pay it off or trade out before the loan is over, the cash incentive might work out better for you. But to your point, that's true, a lot of dealership will want to get you to focus just on payment. So with that great interest rate, you don't, you know, you have to be very, very vigilant and know what you're paying for the car. and don't just focus on a payment because they can get you there. And Leslie, if it's not a special rate by the manufacturer,

it's usually a scam by the dealer. So if it's a legitimate rate by Toyota or Honda or Chrysler or whatever, is something you should take advantage of with the qualifications that's due just described. But if it is not a special rate, if it's not a 0% or a 1% special rate, always get a bid from your credit union or bank because the manufacturer also offers their captive finance company rates to the dealer, but these are the ones

that the dealers mark up in the finance department and they might be offered 3% from the Toyota or Honda finance company and they'll charge you 4% and that's where they make their profit. Your bank will probably give you as good or better rate so always check with the bank or credit.

Okay, and before we hang, I do have one other question. As I said, I'm currently driving an Ultima, a regular car. I don't even know if Ultima makes an SUV. And I'm looking, since I'm in the car, 47,132 miles. I'm the only owner. I bought it brand new. Is it, and it's a 2013. It's paid off.

Is it, I mean, is it a decent, low enough mileage car to think about using as a trade-in on a Honda? Oh, sure. That's a beautiful trade-in. That is a perfect car for a used car lot. It should have 60,000 miles under the car. What I would do, if I were you, Leslie, is shopped that car. I'd go to three Nissan dealers, and I would go to the used car department. And I'd say I'm thinking about selling my Ultima.

I'm going to sell it to the Nissan dealers use car department that gives me the highest bid. Don't tell them you're thinking about buying another car. Just tell them you want to get the best price on an Ultima. You'll get three bids on that, and that will maximize the value that you can get for that. So when you decide where you want to buy your car, you then have something to negotiate with on the trade-in allowance. So you get the discount on the new car you want to buy, but you've already got the best price on your trade-in. So, you know, again, I'm not blonde, but I'm a typical, I don't really know a whole heck of a lot about buying cars. So it's my takeaway to get the information from the Nissan, from three Nissan dealers,

even if I were going to be buying a Toyota. Sure. See, what you're saying, a lot of people sell cars to dealers because they have too many cars in the family. could be a financial situation maybe a son went away to college you know they have fewer people in the family so it's not it's very common for people to drive up to a used car dealer and say or new car dealers to use car department and say i want to sell my car car dealers buy 20 30 cars we call it over the curb every month it's a good source of product for the used car department so they would think nothing though was out of line when you make an appointment call the use say i want

Let's talk to the use car manager and make an appointment to the CM and make it clear you don't want to buy another car, Steve. Mary, even though it sounds like a lot of work, what Earl is telling you is the best way to do it, because you're probably going to see on TV or even online a lot of websites where you can go in it like we buy cars.com and even true car. They're not a magic bullet. They're still going to go to the dealers. They're still going to try and get the car on the cheap. The truest way to do it is to get multiple bits. So you can try, you know, save a little time to go on, say, true car.

They have a thing called True Trade, right? Is that what it's called True Trade? We Buy Cars.com. Feel them out, but you've got to do the legwork to get the most for your car. Okay. I'm sure glad I was listening to the station, and I thought that that was Earl Stewart's voice before I heard what the program was about,

and I recognized it from the TV commercials. You guys have been awesome. Thanks so much. Thank you, lovely. Thank you. Give us a call again. 877-9-60, where you can text us at 772-497-6530. We're going to go to Laxahechi where Marv has been holding.

Thanks for your patience, Marv. How are you doing today? I'm well, and thank you for taking my call. You're welcome. Now everybody in Laxahatchie knows I'm calling you, but that's fine with me. Wonderful. Just a wonderful program. I'm so glad I ran into you a couple of months ago, and I can't miss it.

can't miss it every Saturday morning. I have two quick questions. One concerns the car key. I had a duplicate key made at a locksmith's shop, and I had to make it, and I noticed that on the register there was a note that said, no guarantee on car keys. And so I made the key, and I took it out to the car, and I slipped it in the ignition. And the car started, but it ran very rough. furthermore the windshield wipers wouldn't work and the directional blinker wouldn't work so I shut it off took out the key put in the key that I had prior and everything worked fine any idea why that would be the case well I'd say if Rick can't answer that we're in trouble I've never heard of anything like that and I've never seen a more perplexed face on Rick's face

before. This one actually does have me stumped. I got you stumped. Yeah. We should have a prize for stopping Rick. I noticed on the cash register, I noticed on the cash register he had that sign that said no guarantee on car keys. And I said to me, what's that all about? Mark, give me the, he made the key, so I'll use it anyway.

It ran rough. I did go out to the car. I started the car. It turned, the ignition turned on. but the car was running rough. And what did you say about the windshield wipers? And the directional wouldn't work. Directional and the windshield wipers.

Right. And then I shut it off, pulled out the key, put in my other key that I had, and everything is fine. Wow. Well, another reason I love this show. Cosmic race. We learn more from customers, I mean, from the callers. Maybe you come up with an answer for next week or something. Holy cow.

The other question I have is because, concerns painting a car. Let's assume for the sake of argument that I go and I find a very, very low-price paint job. It's going to give me a very, very low-price paint job, an incredibly low-price paint job. And I'm going to drop off the car. I'm going to leave, come back either that day or the next day to pick up the car. And when I do, it's bright and shiny new paint job. My question to you is do you know what steps they use to give me that paint job? Inexensive paint job. Yeah, it's...

What steps would they go through to do it? I'm not there to watch them. I have no idea what they're doing with my car. I just wondered what they do. Marva, it's just not a quality paint job. I wish Alan Napier, he's our body shop collision expert. He comes on the show about once a month. But typically, there are high-quality paints and low-quality paints.

there's a number of coats of paint they're also how they mask the car how they protect you know when you paint a car it's a complex labor intensive operation you have to use a lot of tape and paper and protect other areas and stew has a point

even though I'm not in I don't personally fix the cars I've appraised quite a few and we see these not to bash Mako but there are like you know economy car paint jobs and we see things like And the reason they're so cheap is because they have to cut corners to save on the labor.

So you'll see overspray, which will go on the panels that aren't painted, debris or imperfections in the paint itself. And the paint, I don't think, is the same quality. But usually you'll see it, and like on the seals on the doors, you'll see paint actually gets on the rubber gaskets and things like that. So you kind of get what you pay for. If it's an older car, if you have an older car, if you have an older car, car and you're not worried about it. You just want to look nicer. A cheap paint job is okay.

But if you've got a leader of a car. That's exactly the case. A good quality of paint job will cost you $3,000 or $4,000. And if you get one for $400 or $500, I can see the temptation. But it's not something if you have a nice car you want to do. Do they normally wash the car before they paint it? Oh, sure. Not only do they, should they wash it, clean it carefully, it should be painted in a

special booth that exhaust all the debris and dust and anything that might settle on the car. There's quite a bit involved in a... There's anything put on the car prior to the paint. Exactly. I'm always amazed myself, and I'm in the business, because friends of mine will call up and they'll check with my body shop, and I ask my body shop manager, Alan Napier, how much would cost to paint this car? And when he tells me, I can't believe it's that much.

But they're expensive to do a really quick. quality factory like paint job when you do a quality paint job it looks like the car came from the from the manufacturer on the shore floor that's a good paint job and frankly sometimes you don't need that high quality you can get a good paint job but not a perfect paint job but a cheap paint job and i'm talking five or six hundred bucks uh only if you've got a 15 or 20 year old car i've got uh may maco last year maco offered on TV this was last year

a $600 paint job for $300 and I just want to know would that paint job include an undercoding of some kind or no

no anything you can't see it's not going to be there you know for $600 or $300 bucks in this case it's going to be one of the reasons they do that Mark is you come in and then they say they tell you this is

what we're going to do but for another $100 we can do this and for another $200 we can do that and then they try to upgrade you and upsell you, I'm sure they're not going to just do the job for $300 without pushing you to buy something more. Right, right.

Well, okay, thanks again. Again, your show is unbelievable. Thank you, Marl. I'm so glad I ran into it and I make it a point of going out of my way to listen to your program. Well, that is great. How nice. I love to hear that.

Love to hear that. Thank you, Marv. Have a great weekend. Good luck with your choice of Paines. Remember, ladies and gentlemen, we do have the mystery shopping report coming up, and it's from Easy Own car sales. And we want you to vote. Give us an idea of what you're thinking when you hear us report this mystery shopping report from Thunder. And do you want me to mention the Tesla subject? Well, we've got some text. Yeah, we've got some text here. We'll read these texts, and if you have a text, we'll read that text. So, Stu, it's all yours. We got a little time. Okay, dokey.

By the way, the dealer in Illinois who had texted in, also came in on Your Anonymous Feedback.com with some more nice comments for us. And the name is OLA, O-L-A in Illinois. That's the dealer who wants to include the government fees and the prize. Yeah. All right, so we got a text from Johnny and Rivier Beach, and this is one of the most interesting questions I think we've gotten. I've just read a somewhat disturbing report that said,

female drivers are more susceptible to injuries in car crashes because of differences in neck strength and musculature, the positioning of the head restraints, and their shorter stature, and preferred seating posture. I was shocked to find that car safety devices have been designed largely for men. Can something be done to reduce the injuries of women in crashes? Well, I tell you, I didn't know that. I think it's absolutely terrible if that's the fact. And it's something you need to talk to your legislator about. today there are a lot of things coming out like this women whether you like to admit or not guys

we've been pushing them around for too long reminds me the the all-woman spacewalk that was supposed to happen and they didn't have the right equipment for the for the female astronauts and you can't believe in NASA can't get that right yeah that's pretty sad is that amazing yes a lot of things are coming out I think we're having a cultural revolution I think we're having a digitalized intelligence revolution, and with intelligence comes the fact that we've been beating up on the ladies for too long, and taking advantage in subtle little ways we don't like to talk about. But we'll investigate that, and that's a great text, and we'll try to get some more information

and get back with you next week on that. Okay. We got another text? Hi, yeah, this is from Bob in store. He says, good morning. I purchased new in 1977, in Toyota, Krola, in Detroit, Michigan. Needless to say, I wasn't the most popular guy in the big three. country. No kidding.

Moved to Florida in 1981, sold it just a few years later. A couple of years ago, I heard it is still running. Just a testament to Toyota durability. A little commercial there. I didn't see that. It hits me interestingly because I was in a Pontiac 20 group

back in the 80s or before that. I think I joined maybe the late 70s and we had Detroit dealers in the 20 group. And Roland Rinky, I remember these names, Rinky and Michigan, famous name. And they

ran the city, ran Detroit, the domestic, the big three. And the dealers were so arrogant in Detroit that they would close on Saturday and Sunday. And they were open 9 to 5 during the week. And if you didn't want to buy a car between 9a M and 5 p.m. to hell

with you. And we're not going to be open on the weekends because we want to play golf and we want to enjoy ourselves. And they were making a ton of money because they had it going on. Well, in Detroit, the big three General Motors

Ford and Chrysler gave big incentives to their employees to buy from the local Detroit dealers. And so they couldn't afford to buy a car anywhere else. Toyota didn't have much for a chance or Honda. And besides there were them forward cars back in those days. Yeah. I did one of them

foreign cars. And so the car dealers were making so much money, they just were up with nine to five, five days a week. And I used to sit there and listen to Roll in Rinkie and cry. Because I had to be open seven days to make a problem. Well, I remember when you bought the Toyota store when I was in elementary school

and I used to get beat up every day for that. Yeah. Not literally. I believe it. Your daddy sells rice burners. I remember hearing that. Next one. Speaking of paint, last week, Earl said he was going to find out if the white paint on a Toyota has a clear coat because no one really knows.

That's from Bob and Stewart. Bob, we haven't found out. Thanks for keeping me honest. I apologize. Alan. I'm sorry, that's Rob. Alan Napier was going to see if he could find that on, and so was I. And I will. Thanks for reminding me. And if I don't do it next week, what do I do to punish myself?

Ice water challenge. I'll handle it. A bucket of ice water over my head if I don't do it by next week. Matt, can we do that in the studio? Like I said, I'll handle that. I think a day out at Big Dog cleaning kennels. Oh, there you go. I like that.

So do they. They love it. Special effects from Rudy. We love you, Dural. Stu, are you serious? You were in elementary school when your dad opened up that Toyota dealership. I feel so old. I feel I've known you a lifetime.

A long time. Yeah, I was seven years old. Amazing. Hey, ladies and gentlemen, I forgot to mention to you earlier. If you missed our live show, you can listen on any of the following podcasts. And podcast apps, Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Stitcher Radio, and Google Podcasts. So take advantage of that. And don't forget, Your Anonymous Feedback.com.

We'd love to hear from you. And don't forget, we want you to vote on the Mystery Shopping Report. and you can vote on the mystery shopping report by simply texting us at 772-4976530. Now back to Stu. I think we've got all the text taken again. We're all caught up. Yeah. I have a kind of a commercial that I have to do before the mystery shopping report.

It's seniors against crime. Nancy Stewart and myself, yours truly, will appear to speak before a group of folks. that had been invited by the Attorney General's Division, Seniors Against Crime. And we're going to be speaking at the United Methodist Church of the Palm Beach's 900 Brandywine Road in West Palm Beach. And that's April 25th, Stu's birthday. My 31st birthday.

All right, April 25th, and that'll be at, I think, 2.30 in the afternoon. I'll fine-tune that. But we'd love to have as many seniors as possible, and we're going to be talking to you about how to not be taken advantage of. We talk about how women are taken advantage of. Seniors are specifically taken advantage of, and that's the reason seniors against crime have asked Nancy and I to speak. To the first 500 people that attend this,

we're going to give a copy of my book, Confessions of Recovering Cardiore. Fantastic. Confessions of recovering cardio, thank you, Stu. will come the first 500 attending the Seniors Against Crime sponsored how not to be taken advantage of my car dealer April 25th, 2 o'clock, United Methodist Church 900 Brandy Wine Road in West Palm Beach, April 25th.

That's a great location, really centrally located. It is. And it's going to be very, very exciting. It's going to be one of our biggest events that we've ever had, and we're going to have a great time and share a lot of information that all of you could use, and I'm looking forward to listening to all of your stories that you have. I've got a shout out to Ashley Moody here,

who is the new Attorney General, and Ashley Moody has formed a new group called the Florida Senior Protection Team, and they will work hand-in-hand with seniors versus crime, singers against crime. Did you have a text next to me? You know, it concerns Tesla. A young lady, I'm saving up my memory. money for a done payment on my first new car. Should I consider a Tesla? I have a friend who

owns one, and he loves it. My dad says that I shouldn't buy one because of all the, well, uncertainty surrounding Elon Musk from, and you know who that guy is. And you know, something, that's a great question, Yolanda. And before I get to that, you know, something caught my eye from Consumer Report. And the headline is, as Tesla, Unvails Model Y crossover, should consumers buy into drama, a drama-filled company? Wow, that's quite a statement. And as you know, there's been a lot of drama around Elon. Well, I'll answer your question, Yolanda.

And it's easy enough to say that Warren Buffett is pretty reputable. We all know him. And he's extremely skeptical about Tesla. I love smart old guys. Yeah, and he is a smart man. He knows a lot. And as I said, he's very skeptical about Tesla. And consumer reports rates three of Tesla's models below average.

All three. They only have three models, so every one of them is, you know. Yeah, they rate them below average for reliability. And I'll tell you a personal story about Earl and and how we almost bought a Tesla. And it was a couple of years ago. And we just decided that it would not be for us. It was a pretty close call.

It can be a pretty impressive ride. And we went over to the Riviera Beach location. So there's your answer, Yolanda. Good luck. And Texas back. Okay. Let's move along to the Mystery Shopping Report. is of easy-owned car sales,

who I had never heard of, although I realized after the report that I drive by there almost every day, it's in North Palm Beach on US One. We've been talking a lot about hidden dealer fees lately, so we thought it would make a good progress in our campaign to expose and ultimately eliminate the dealer fees back around 2010 or 2011.

We actually had a bunch of car dealers that dropped their dealer feedback back in the, those times. It was tough back then. That was during the Great Recession. A lot of car deals were going to try anything to boost sales. There was one car dealer around, and we won't mention his name. It was weathering the bad economy pretty well. It was well known for not charging any dealer fees. Several dealers eventually decided to give it a try and begin advertising the phrase, no dealer fees. The trend was picked up, and we felt like we really got excited. We figured we're finally, we've won the battle. Well,

The era of no dealer fees was short-lived. Soon as the economy began to recover, the car sales surged again. Dealers began to reinstate their hidden fees. So all of us as Earl Sturton cars picked up our megaphones and resumed our work of exposing the exploitive practice. The period we're in now could be described as the hidden dealier fee renaissance. Hidden dealer fee renaissance. The amount of fees have grown.

Nobody has just one fee anymore. they've got several. The average are around $1,000. We've seen them as high as $3,000. That's absolutely amazing. I mean, can you imagine $1,000 is added to the advertised, quoted price of every car you buy in South Florida virtually? Amazing. Even worse, car dealers have muddy the waters by changing the names of these hidden fees.

Several, they just let your imagination run wild, and there's a hidden dealer fee by the money. that name. They call them e-filing fees, dock fees, private tag agency fees, pre-delivery service fees, vehicle prep fees, vehicle inspection fees. I'm starting to run out of breath. The state senate, state legislature, did a study about eight or ten years ago, and there were 30 different names of dealer fees, and there's a lot more probably now. That's just a few of the more popular. Some of the dealers will even have, we shop one dealer, and he had dealer fee zero on his buyer's order, his legal document, zero. Talk about deception, and then below that, he has $599 electronic filing fee, and then he had several more hidden fees below that.

So that's super deception. No dealer fee, but then they have what really are dealer fees. They just don't call them dealer fees. So given the current state of the car business in Florida, we get very excited. excited when we see a car dealer announce they have no dealer fee. Last week, we went to Mullinux. And I dropped the ball again, by the way. I promised to call one of the Mullinix owners to find out why they're advertising no dealer fee.

And we busted them last week. They had two dealer fees. They were small, $122 in dock stamps and $53 dealer delivery fee. But these are hidden fees. They're non-government fees. And they give you a bottle of water. when you go in the dealership that says no dealer fees. Deception.

So even though it's a small amount is deceptive, I respect the Mullinix family and I was supposed to call them last week. I didn't do it. Two things they've got to do. I've got to check on, what was the other one break? The, whether the 040 paint has clear coat. The paint and the dealer fee, I've got to check. And if I don't, a bucket of water over my head.

No, no, no. Kennel cleaning. Kennell cleaning. I'll do both. Two days worth. You're going to want the bucket of water. Right. So you have to sleep over?

Now we heard about easy-owned car sales, and they're advertising, no dealer fees. Easy-end car sales, not to be confused with Easy Pay, cars and Stewart, is located on the newest one in North Palm Beach, just north of PGA Boulevard. It's on the west side of the street. I go by there, they have these big, what are they slinky-like things. We call them the balloon men. Balloon men. Balloons. A lot of cars.

They've been in business for about three years. Right in front of their small lot is a sign that reads, no dealer fees. I didn't even notice it. We were intrigued. A little research showed us that easy-owned car sales is a privately-owned buy-here pay-heer a lot. That's for people with bad credit. Everybody goes in there because they haven't got credit, but they will finance them.

And there are a lot of these type of car dealerships, buy-here-pay-payer is popping up. They have a good Google review, but bad Facebook, and a D-plus with a Better Business Bureau. That's kind of hard to get. If you're listening at Easy Owned Car Sales, all you have to do is call the Better Business Bureau back, and they will give you an A rating. All you have to do is call them and give them your side of the story. If you respond to every complaint, they'll give you an A rating, so Easy-owned car sales is not doing that.

They have a D-plus. another interesting thing we discovered was that easy on car sales shows almost 600 used vehicles listed for sale on their website and there ain't no way you're going to get 600 cars on that lot I've been by there they might have them on the website but they don't have them on the car lot yeah some dealers will like list a total amount of inventory

I added up they had 89 Chevroletes and a whole lot of other things it doesn't seem reasonable but it's hype and puffery I used that work last week. Like the balloon men. Balloumen are all puffed up. So we sent an Agent Thunder to see if the no-dealer fee

promise was for real. Speaking in the first person is Agent Thunder. I pulled into the parking lot at EZ on car sales early afternoon. Had a terrible time finding a parking spot. Well, with 600 cars on the lot,

you're not going to be able to find a parking spot. Cars were jammed everywhere. It was semi-organized chaos. I parked along the side of the building that housed their offices. There was a group of sales people gathered about, a set of customers speaking with a female salesperson near a large SUV, refreshing female salesperson. As I made my way to the entrance, the salesperson broke free from the group, came over to me. He said his name was John, and then he oddly asked me if I was there to get a car. That is odd to go into car dealership.

Are you here to buy a car? I'm here to get a sandwich. I'm looking for a bus. I said I was, and I told I'm looking for a car. I told them that they had a nice-looking 2017 Nissan Rogue on their website, and I wanted to check it out. John then asked me how I came to pick Easy on. That's a good question.

I said, you got the car I wanted, and I was attracted by their promise, I'm not charging deeper fees. John acknowledged that and said you'd go get the keys. He came back, led me to the Rogue. It was priced on the lot same as it was online, $1,900,99. That's unusual. Typically, the online price is lower than the lot price

or the price on the window or whatever. But in this case, they were the same. And there were no addendums. That's also unusual, but not necessarily so unusual on buy-here pay-here. It's unusual in normal cardio chips. And there was no added to equipment. John did not engage me at all in a test drive. It was priced on a lot

We drove on U.S. 1, made a U-turn before I reached North Lake, and then headed back to Easy Own in silence. John was busy on the phone during the ride. That's very unusual. But, as I say, this was a buy here, pay here, different animal. I announced we're back when I pulled in the lot.

John didn't even know we were back. And looked up from his phone, he said, he asked me what I wanted to do. Another kind of an unusual comment. I said I wanted to buy the car, and John led me to the building. We stayed outside sitting in two chairs near the entrance. John said the only time we'll go inside will be to sign the paperwork. He began by asking me to complete a credit application.

I told him I'd be paying cash. John paused. He said, he rarely has a cash-paying customer. As I say, buy here, pay here. people come there to get financed. They usually don't have cash customers. They're not buying a car. They're buying a credit approval.

Exactly. He said it happens, but not often. He said cash buyers really were internet shoppers, and that's what I was, like me. I asked him about the price. He said that he didn't handle numbers. He needs to talk to Mike, the number guy, and he's a sales manager. John went inside to get Mike. Mike came out, shook my hand.

John told him I was paying cash. Mike immediately asked me what I wanted to pay him for the rogue. Unusual question. I don't know. We were trained like that. Yeah. What would you like to buy the car for a day? Yeah, yeah.

But I haven't even tried to get a discount. Without a warming. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it was $14,99, and I said I wanted to buy the car. Anyway, it was pretty abrupt, no conversation. Mike got right to business. I said, I'd like to pay $14,000. I said, I thought a thousand dollar discount.

was fair and Mike said he would check to see if he could do it at the price for me he went inside and the return less than a minute I can do that he said now I'm gonna digress just for a minute Stu will remember this he was trained in the car business I was trained in the car business I'm our carving car dealer we were trained when we negotiated is you don't ever come down drastically on the price if you come down drastically on the price the buyer is gets nervous he thinks maybe he left something on the table something on the table that's the vernacular if you come down if they're asking 14,999 you should if they might ask for 14,000 you come back and say

I can do it for 14,980 dollars and they say no I'll give you a 14,600 and then you go to the sales manager you come back no we can only come in you see where I'm going you're going to come down a little bit the customer goes up a little bit you haggle you hassle and you reach in the middle but when you another vernacular

when you go down too fast we're saying you're dropping your pants vulgar car expression you don't drop your pants right unless you got a monster and FNI

you come all right you come back in the box right you come back too fast so that was what was unusual because I don't think buy here pay here they don't have cash buyers

and they usually don't negotiate on price because as Stu said earlier you're really buying a payment you're buying getting financed by somebody because your credit's so bad that's the reason for the unusual behavior get me done. Yeah.

Expecting more of a fight as he came down a thousand dollars in one fell swoop. I struggled to come up with what to say next. Mike asked me if I was ready I asked him ready for what? Strange dialogue we're having here. He laughed and said are you ready to sign in? So

like we're speaking two different languages here i said i'd expected to be here a lot longer and asked if he cared if i took a if i took a purchase order with me to go home and show my wife before i come back and to sign it mike said no problem another surprise to offer that so quickly from a car dealer and he went inside and got a printed buyer's order for me he returned and then had a carfax offered it without my requesting it. The selling price was $14,000 as I negotiated. There were no dealer fees. And we looked it all carefully by any name. And the only thing added to the tax was the sale, the price was sales tax, tag title, and that was COD. I looked at the buyer's order, and I have a copy

of it here. There is a place on the buyer's order and also a disclosure for the dealer fee. And It's fine print. You can't read it very well, but it's down here at the very bottom. If you're streaming us, if you're streaming us, you can see it right there. And the legal disclosure of the state authority says, this charge represents cost and profit to the dealer for items such as inspecting, cleaning, and adjusting vehicles, and preparing documents related to the same. I'd address that.

That doesn't raise any suspicion with me. I mean, these are standard forms that they buy from a supplier, and they don't modify them. So, I mean, I think at one point, ours still had a spot for a dealer fee, and then we eventually had ours modified, customized. And also here it says they have the pre-delivery fee and electronic transfer fee, but this too said this could have been pre-printed. A little shout out to easy, was it easy, who was this? Easy-owned car sales. Easy-owned car sales.

What you ought to do in your buyer's order, if you're sincere about this, and we're going to give you, take it to your word, you should put in there, you have innate in there, but none, none. It will really hammer home the point that you're not charging any sort of a dealer fee. Or ask your supplier if they can modify the buyers. So the bottom line is we salute you the fact that you are not charging a dealer fee. You may be the only car dealer in the state of Florida except for Earl Stewart, Toyota, and I hate to say that, but it's true. And Mullinac's in Apopka.

A Molinac's in Apaka, that's right. And Malnix is supposed to not do it in North Palm Beach, but they have a rogue situation. Hey, when in Rome, you know. Yeah. So there we are. There we are with a car dealer that does not charge a dealer fee, and we can take a vote now,

and we can see if we have any calls, post, text, about the grade we give this dealership. Well, voting on the curb, uh, curve, sorry. I'm going to say a B-minus. There was a couple little things there, but overall, pretty good. They're definitely going on the do not recommend list.

I mean, on the recommended list, I'm sorry. And won't we go around the room and I'll see if we got some grades coming in here. Rick, you want to go first? I'm going to put a curve on this one. I'm giving them an A. Yeah. I mean, it sounds to me like Thunder went in there.

Granted, he might have needed, you know, want a little more personality from them. of folks, but they gave him a straightforward, simple transaction with no dealer fees, no bait and switch, nothing odd going on, and simply had the car sale ready to go. As for a discount, they gave me a discount. I appreciate the simplicity of it. And by the way, Stu checked the value of the car, and for $14,000, that particular vehicle was on the very low end of the KBB range.

So they gave them a good low price. And they didn't charge them due to me. One caveat, it wasn't a severe accident on the Carfax report. So that could have devalued the car. It doesn't mean it's a bad car, though. No. Nancy. Well, I'm a little iffy on this place.

There's a few things that they need to clean up as far as their act is concerned. You know, there's nothing like speaking to someone, and they're on their cell phone. How annoying and rude. So this guy, I don't know. I don't even care what his name is. He leaves U.S. 1 and goes all the way to North Lake Boulevard. Aren't you being a little picky? And turns around and he comes back and the salesperson says, are we here?

I mean, what was he doing? You know, was he shopping for a new suit? Was he? You were playing Tetris. Okay. Also, the whole cell phone thing, really turned me off. And as far as the vehicle being wrecked. Here we have dealers out there, raping, plundering, and murdering customers. So complacency, we'll just give this one, you know,

while they're a pretty good person, and, you know, there was no dealer fee, blah, blah, blah. It's the wholesale experience. What's your score? And all these balloons all over the place and you can't get into the place. Okay, I'll give you my score. You're shaking your head. I don't know. A. I don't care whether you're shaking your head or not. I'm giving them a D. Oh, gee.

All right. Well, we have some grades that came in. I don't know if you want to go. Doug and Ollie, meow. Both give them an A. Yes. Deanna gives them an A. Robert gives them an A.

And Leo gives them a B. I smell a rat. You told me that this morning. I smell a rat. I might have to disqualify you as a judge. You can try. She's the judge from Estonia. Yeah.

And Frank from YouTube gives him an A, but he says his opinion, on a test drive, I would prefer quiet so I can focus on the test drive. So I can understand that he's, you know, maybe you want to really get to feel for the car. Yeah, I don't want to get him right at me.

Yeah. You like it? Want to buy it? Well, I tell you what, this was such a good, a good experience and of course I'm going to give them a too that I was

suspicious and I just it's just you know my nature but I was suspicious I think we we need to revisit them oh yeah yeah

yeah definitely because I also found some ticata cars there after the fact yeah but nevertheless nevertheless

I don't think we can be too picky and not give them recommended we'll put them on a recommend list and with a very

high score and easy cars, well, I can't remember the name. Easy-owned. Easy-owned cars. Beware, we will be back, and we won't be back when you think we're coming back, and we won't be back with Agent Thunder. We might be there right now. We might be there enough.

We'll go back, and we'll visit, but let's not take away from the fact that we finally have a car dealer that does not charge a dealer fee, and we should celebrate for that. It's good. I would recommend at this point anybody that, is the market for not the best used car, older used cars and lower price used cars, and you want to be treated fairly, I would go to easy-owned car sales on US1

in North Palm Beach, just off of PGA Boulevard. So we're going to recommend that place as a pleasant experience. Okay. Okay, we're getting close to the end of the show. Yeah, we've got one minute left, and we're going to remind our listeners, if you missed our live show, you can listen on any of the following podcast apps, Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Stitcher Radio, and Google Podcasts.

So take advantage of that. Also take advantage of Your Anonymous Feedback.com. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks for joining us this morning. We thank all of you so much because you are an important part of the show. We'll see you right back here next week. Goh. Go.

Go. Go to. Go. Go. Go. Go. Come! Oh!

Oh! Momuah! Oh! Oh! Oh! I think of it. We're going to be. I don't know.