Earl Stewart on Cars - 04.06.2019 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Napleton Hyundai

Episode Date: April 6, 2019

Earl answers various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Agent Thunder visits Napleton Hyundai in Palm Beach Gardens to evaluate the shopping experience on an advertised Hyundai Santa Fe. 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, Stu Stewart, and Rick Kearney. Reach them with your questions at 877-9-6-0-960, and now, here's Earl Stewart. Good morning, everybody. Well, we're back. Another Saturday, another show on How to Be Void, Avoid being ripped off by a car dealer. My name is Earl. I'm a recovering car dealer for you new folks. We've been doing this for a long time, so we've got a lot of people that have listened to us for a long time.

around 14 years, I think. Start out at a half-hour show, evolved to an hour show, and now we're doing two hours, 8 to 10 every Saturday morning. This is the true oldie station. I remind you of the fact that this is not a musical show. This is a live radio talk show. You are listening to us live. Some of us are watching us live because we're on Facebook also.

We're also on Periscope and YouTube. if you want to tune us in to Facebook, it's just Facebook.com forward slash Earl on Cars. Facebook.com forward slash Earl on Cars. And I emphasize live because live radio is an exciting thing. You know, they say radio is dying out and this, that, and the other. I don't think so. I think it's evolving like all the other media.

And the one thing that's always been exciting on radio has been live. live real time. You can call this show 877-960-99-60 and you can ask us anything and we will try to answer. Hopefully it's about cars how to buy, maintain,

repair, lease. Try to avoid the pitfalls, the minefield, we call it when you enter a car dealership. I know most of you've heard this a lot of times but the Gallup organization conducted a poll in 1977

and they kept doing it again and again and again all those years since 1977 they've asked the American public what do you consider the most honest and most ethical businesses that you deal with and they have a list from the best all the way to the worst since 1977 every year car dealerships had been near the bottom last year they were at the bottom the best year they ever had I think was three steps up from the bottom the least ethical or the least honest businesses that the American public perceives they deal with. So that's why this show exists and this is why we encourage you to call the show. You can text us, by the way, at 772-4976530. A lot of people prefer to text. I'm one of them.

You avoid long conversations. You know, you can make your point and hopefully people get tired of typing when they reply and they make it succinct. But I like texting. So a lot of you folks can text us at 772 as the area code 497-6530. Let us know if you've had a really good experience with a car dealer. Because we pride ourselves on the fact that we don't have a negative spin to the show.

I mean, if you see negativity on the show, it's because negativity occurred and something happened. but we are trying to find good cardio is because we have a good cardio list. We have a list that you can access. Just go to our own cars.com and we click on a link there for a good dealer, bad dealer list, and you can find out our recommended car dealers.

We also have a list where we say don't buy from this dealer. And we modify the list, we update it, and we do this largely by Mr. Reports, but we also rely on your input. That's the reason we like you to call this. show with good reports or bad reports in-between reports and we will keep our list updated the average American I think buys a car now about every 49 months I believe currently the time is getting further and further in between purchases but you maintain your car

probably twice a year you should every six months or 10,000 miles I mean you come in every six months anyway even if you don't put 10,000 miles on your car and have a checked over. And when you do, you got to see an independent service department, somebody like Pep Boys or Firestone or who else they got out there. Jiffy Loub. Tire Kingdom. Tire Kingdom. A few others. There's a lot of them out there. A lot of you folks like to take your car back to your car dealer, especially when you bought it new. By the way, here's a tidbit. You don't have to return for service to the car dealer you bought your car from. One of the advices we give you on this show is find the dealer who gives you the best deal on the car, the best price,

and then find the dealer that gives you the best deal on your service. So that way you can have the best of both worlds. Years and years ago, you almost felt obligated to go back to the dealer that you bought the car from. In fact, some car dealers years and years ago, if you didn't buy the car from them, they say take it somewhere else for service. And the only thing you have to go to a dealer for, by the way, is warranty service. It doesn't have to be your dealer. the dealer of the same, make a car.

But you can add your regular service, non-warranty, just maintenance, done anywhere. So you have the best to both worlds, buy it from the best dealer, have it serviced with the best independent or the best dealer. And that's just a tidbit of advice. I'm sitting in the studio today with our team. In fact, we just modified our introduction so that we introduced our whole team. I used to just talk about Earl Stewart and Nancy Stewart. Nancy is my co-host and had been with me.

since the get-go 14 years ago. But since we've added a couple of important people, one of those important people of sending it to my right, his name is Rick Kearney. And Rick is a certified diagnostic master technician. We used to call him a mechanic back in the day, and then we started calling him an auto technician. That sounded pretty good 10, 15 years ago.

But now we call them an auto-computer scientist. And I challenge you to find anything that Rick can't answer, answer about a car. I don't care how obscure it is. Now, with full transparency, Rick has got a laptop there. Was that a Dell? It is. He's got a Dell laptop. And he's got his finger within striking distance of Google. So Google is faster than the speed of light. And Rick's mind is also faster than the speed of light. So you direct your questions about automobiles or trucks or whatever you want to talk about. Got a problem? call Rick. Next, we've got Nancy Stewart, and as I said, she has been my call host since the beginning

of the show, and she is a female advocate, a woman's advocate. We live in the Me Too era. The Me Too era when suddenly we found out, well, we didn't suddenly find out, we knew about it, but it's suddenly come to be in the media. It's in the consciousness of all of us now. We've been given women the short end of the stick for too long. And I say, we, I'm a man. Rick's a man, Stu's a man, and all you men out there are a little bit guilty. Cumulatively, we're a lot guilty. And we have to do a better job of taking the women up to our level or maybe a little above

because women are equal in all senses. And that's her job is to advise women on how not to be taken advantage of some tricks of the trade. Nancy, what are you going to say about that? Good morning, everyone, and for the ladies that are listening, give us a call toll-free because you can win yourself $50. The first two female callers, $50, and I know you would like to win that. No strings attached, no conditions, just call the show. So I'm looking forward to hearing from you, and I want to thank all the ladies that have called in the past weeks. you have really helped to build a platform here at Erlon Cars and we well as I always say there is just power in numbers so ladies join me this morning 877 960

9960 or you can text us at 772-4976530 but remember you can only win that $50 if you call in to the 87777530 but remember you can only win that $50 if you call in to the 877 960 9960 we have a great show ahead of us but first we're going to go to Tina and Tina is our well most popular caller and we look forward to hearing from her every Saturday morning she's got information to share with us that kind of always leaves us breathless she's good good morning Tina good morning how are you doing thank you for the intro I appreciate it you're welcome well I wanted to talk a little bit about I'm a hairstylist I've been a hairstylist for several years

and I have a client of mine that purchased a Ford Escape a couple years ago she forgot at the time of brand new 2017 and just this past year she was having issues because she said the check engine light kept coming on so she took it to Tammy Emmy Ford and Naples and they've been really good to her they've given her loaner cars for the last month and a half, they've really examined what the heck's been going on with this vehicle. And they determined a practically brand new vehicle with less than 30,000

miles on it has a head gasket issue. So they've tried to get parts for this car. They've bent over backwards. And finally, they told her yesterday, they said, ma'am, we're going to be giving you a brand new car and we're going to lemon law this. Now, to be fair, she's leasing a vehicle. but they were just really good about it. They were apologetic. They accommodated her to the best of their ability, and she'll be picking up her new vehicle next week. Wow, what a story.

You know, there are good dealers out there, and I emphasize Tammy Amy Ford and Naples, and let's give them a shout out and a plug. All you folks on the west coast of Florida, you're thinking about buying a Ford, Tammy Amy Ford and Naples. That is above and beyond the call of duty. She did not get the runaround.

What do you think about it? What about head gaskets on a brand new car? Well, any car can have an issue. I mean, you know, sometimes maybe something went wrong in the manufacturing. So I, you know, I understand things happen. But the idea that they cannot get the parts in and cannot get it repaired, that sounds like an issue with Ford Motor Company. And I think Tammi Ami Ford did the exact right call,

regardless of who's footing the bill in the end, because obviously Ford is going to foot the bill. But it seems like Tamiami stepped up and went to bat for this young lady and said, we're not going to make you fight this. We're going to fight it for you and we're going to take care of you. And they did the perfect right thing. But with the situation had been different if she had bought the car, would she have been treated the same way if she would have purchased it?

Oh, I thought she had purchased the car. At least, you said. I'll lease the car. Yeah, I see what's your point. It was actually owned by the Ford leasing probably, a captive company. I think so. I think that this indicates a true, sincere, moved by Ford to admit they have a problem and try to fix it. You know, every company, manufacture, car dealership, you know, whether you're selling refrigerators or televisions,

every company has problems, they make mistakes. What separates the good from the bad, the ones that admit the mistake, and then try to do something about it. And too often, they go into denial, and you get a lot of tap dancing and smoke and mirrors. But when you step up and say, I'm wrong, I'm sorry, and this is what we're going to do, you can't ask for much more because there will always be mistakes.

I guess what I'd be concerned about if I was driving a Ford Escape is how many Ford Escapes have this problem because it did come off an assembly line, and they build thousands of these models, it's probably something that will be appearing in a technical bulletin or maybe even a recall. Absolutely. Well, speaking of recalls, a little change in subject here, the big news in Car and Driver magazine is NHTSA investigating 3 million Hyundai and Kia vehicles for fires.

So we're going to see how they step up to plate to six things for their customers, too, because 3 million in vehicles, that's not small. That's a huge problem. What does the cause of the fire, does it say, Tina? What causes the fire? Engine, it just says engine defects may prompt a recall as the safety agency investigates more than 3,000 fires. Wow.

And it says at Rosker, 2010-2015 Hyundai and Kia models with the 2.4-liter engines, many of which have been previously recalled for engine fires and it says owners have reported their cars catching on fire after stalling all of the fires under investigation occurred without a crash so that's the story with that so if you have a Hyundai or Kia that's

between the years of 20 to 2015 and it has a 2.0 liter 2.4 liter engine you may want to speak with your dealer or figure out what to do from there. I mean, it's really a mess for those two companies. Well, thanks for that. It heads up to you. And, of course, safercar.org.

That's the NHTSA website. I would never buy a used or new car until I went to safercar.org. They do give you the cars that are under consideration for recall, the ones that have been recalled. They even tell you the ones that have been recalled, but they don't have a fix yet. And when you pick out a specific car, then you can put the VIN in and really get the specific information. but write that down, folks, if you haven't already, I know our regular list has probably had,

but safercar.gov, I believe I said org, safercar.gov, GOV. www. www.safercar.gov, gov. There is also an app that you can get for your Google phone, Android phones, and for Apple phones, that for your own cars, you simply line up your license plate in the window of this app. Oh, I saw that, yeah. Snap a picture of it. Yeah. And within a couple seconds, it tells you if there are any open recalls on your car.

Yeah, I tried that. It didn't work on my license plate. It had something to do with a scanner, and I was able to put the VIN in, and then it worked with the VIN. But, yeah, that's a good app to have, yeah. Well, it may be, too. Your license may be registered to the dealership. No, it's not as registered to me.

Oh, it isn't? To you personally? Okay. Yes, uh-huh. Tina, thanks very much for that heads up. Very, very important. Yeah, Tina, the great story that you shared with us, we really appreciate that. It's like the Ying and Yang, you gave us the story of the recalls, and the greatest story out of Tampa.

And you're a big part of the show, and like I said before, we really look forward to hearing from you every week. So I thank you for calling. Thank you very much for letting me on. Oh, you're quite welcome. It's our pleasure. We'll hear from you next week. Yes, ma'am. Have a great weekend.

That number is 877-960-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6-530. And don't forget, Your Anonymous Feedback.com. There, you can voice your opinion. Maybe give us some advice about the show, anything at all. Youranonymous Feedback.com. Now, we're going to go to Rod, and he's calling us from Revenue. Revereux Beach. Good morning, Rod. Good morning, I'll rod to crash dummy here.

Well, hopefully a week from now, I'll be up in sunny and semi-cloudy, North Carolina. Good for you. New beginnings, you know, end-outs. And good time to be going out because the dogwoods will be starting to bloom and like seven different colors, all that stuff. Oh, yes, the dogwood. I've been endeavoring for quite a while, as you all know, to get the license right and everything and had to go through every hoop.

They spared none on me getting my gold star on my license. So I leave clean, I leave everything, and I've got my lady friend coming down. She's going to be helping me going through a few things, storage, stuff like that. Now, what you all were just talking about with the Ford Escape, Ford Edge and whatever whatever other vehicle that they put the 3.5 into, Rick, I've got the pretty much the answer from personal experience looking at a friend's vehicle. What happens is they've got a water pump that's inside the timing case cover, and the water pump basically is inside. and it's licked by oil.

Now, because it's in the middle, if it starts leaking just a little bit, then it taints the oil, it tints and everything, and $30,000, $60,000, $80,000, whatever, they don't make it past $80,000, that the water pump starts leaking and trickling in and forming that chocolate milk problem and all this stuff. Now, what comes about?

What's the end out on it? What's the bottom line? Bottom line is that you've now got a $7,000 to $10,000 job because you've got the engine and the cradle, the transmission, everything has to come down with the cradle assembly, has to come out from underneath the vehicle. Gee, isn't that a nice way to make them? In order to get this timing case off,

They say that you can take the timing case off in the vehicle. There's an inch of room. That's nothing. Now, shame on them for how they made it and all this stuff. You're going to find down the line that this is going to be Ford's Edsel, as you may say, or Ford's complete, you know, boom on any type of thing. Whoever made this had to have complete rocks in their head. That's my personal opinion.

How about Ford's Corvair? When you've got to be putting in a remanufactured engine, you know, in less than 100,000 miles or 30,000 or whatever, shame, shame, and, you know, continued shame. Rod, let me ask you this. For us non-technical folks, Hugh and Rick are absorbing all this. completely, but we've got a lot of people out there that are not as competent mechanically as you guys are. How do I identify, if I'm a buyer, and I want to buy a Ford, how do I identify this particular engine

so I can stay away from it and buy a Ford with a different engine? 3.5-liter engine. So all the... If you look, if you look, and the water pump is not driven by the serpentine belt or some type of belt, Where's the water pump? 2.7 Dodge Intrepid. It sits inside also. You've got to take a whole lot apart,

but they don't leak anywhere near like this other one does. So you're like... Full huge timing chain assembly that's there, almost like Cadillac and all that stuff. So you advise... What you look for is any tinting tainting of moisture that's on the oil cap itself, where you add the oil.

Now, what they probably do is they probably put some ceiling in. It's all over YouTube where just Google it and you'll find out that, you know, it's a, it's a 14-hour, 17-hour job, something like that. I mean, it's massive. And it's all where, you know, gee, you're going to have to go to a dealer for that one, and gee, you're stuck getting a remanufactured engine. So don't buy. Big, huge problem. Don't buy a 3.5. It's already there.

Don't buy a 3.5 leader forward engine. Is that the bottom line? I say so. And there's going to be, you know, before you buy anything, do your Google on it. The people

that are looking for stuff that are the people that are out there from, from, oh, let's see, ground roots type of thing. They're going to, they're going to know from, you know, pretty much out of the gate.

Some of what you go, some of these are, you know, the good old boys that are often, often, you know, avenue left. But once you look at a whole bunch of it, you'll find out that it's, you know, pretty true. Well, thanks, Rod, for the heads up on that. As I say, if I, you know, a lot of people just say I love fords, and Ford's been built cars longer than anybody, and a lot of people just love them. So you can still buy a Ford to stay away from,

the 3.5 liter engine, or at least go out and Google the information and see if you can deal with that. And if you do have to have that particular model with 3.5, you want to be aware of what might happen and get your regular maintenance, so it doesn't sneak up on you. Well, you mean, you all were talking about it, so I thought I'd, you know, give you the full lowdown of what I found with a customer friend personally. and it's, oh, it's sad, Nick. Appreciate it.

We'd love to have a high-tech, like, are you going to be able to call in from North Carolina, or are you just going to be relaxing all the time and enjoying the dogwood blossoms? Hey, Rod, you're still there? I think Ron hung up. Yes. Oh, there is.

Call us from North Carolina. We love to hear from you. You and Rick are really got a good rapport. Well, you know, We tried. I've gone to gaunt. It's time to lay down the tools completely and, you know, sniffing and smelling the flowers. There you go. It's a real rough day. Weather-wise, stay inside, you know. There you go. I hear you, brother. I hear you.

We'll call again, Roth. Thank you very much. Have a great time in North Carolina. Give us a call toll-free at 877-960, or you can text us at 770. 224976530 and don't forget ladies first two female callers this morning win yourself $50 so give us a call and we have a great mystery shopping report from Napleton of North Palm Beach Hyundai North Palm Beach Hyundai so have a sit back have a cup of coffee enjoy the show and we're having a whole lot of fun right here right that's right and I'm recovering car dealer and I'm want to report back on something I dropped the ball on last week, because a couple of weeks

ago I said I would get some information. I think I copied you, Rick, on the 040 white paint to see if a clear coat was being added to Toyotas that had the particular paint coat. There was a white paint that a few years back was fading and was being repaired under warranty and sometimes they're not a goodwill, and sometimes, unfortunately, the customers were having to pay for it. the reason for the fading was the fact that Toyota had omitted the clear code. And it's a long story as to why that happened.

But the problem's been remedied. I was able to find out that since 2015, there have been no Toyota white cars, 040 code, that have not been clear-coded. And it actually started the corrections back around 2010, but it took a while to get into all the models that they do build. Something to be aware of when you buy any car, because we don't know about other manufacturers. clear coat is an important thing to have on your paint. It just basically keeps the environmental contamination and the whole atmosphere off the paint itself.

Paint can't fade as long as clear coat remains there. So that's the answer to my drop the ball number one. Drop the ball number two is that we had shopped Mullinix Ford was about three weeks ago, Stom. And we found out that they were charging a dealer fee. And we were shocked because they advertised that they do not charge a dealer fee. And then we really were in a quandary because we had to give a grade to Molnex Ford. And they had been our beacon of light in the car dealer world

because they were the first people out there to do one price. They were the first people out there to do no dealer fee, I believe. And I was in a quandary, and we all decided to give Molnex Ford another chance. And I was going to call the Molnecks. Well, I did this week, and I talked to Larry Mullinex. Larry Mullinux was disbelieving, and we spoke on the phone. I finally had to send him a copy of his buyer's order at the North Palm Beach store, North Palm Beach Hyundai. I think I have that here, my little book, and I sent it, I texted to him, and he got it.

I haven't heard back from him, but this is the buyer's order that I sent him, which clearly, shows that he has a dock fee and he also has a dealer fee in fact it's called a dealer fee I'm sure he's checking this out now so I believe what's going to happen is speculation as I have not heard back from Larry Mullinix by the way here's a picture of Larry he was on the cover of dealer magazine they have Larry and Jerry their brothers Larry and Jerry I believe now own something like five four dealerships They have one in New Smyrna, they have one in Popka, they have one in Lake Park, North Palm Beach. They have another one, and I'm not sure where that is.

I think that one's run by Barry. Barry, yeah. I also found out, because I read the article in Dealer Magazine, that they don't own all of these stores. They only own two of them completely, and they have partners that operate and own partially. I'm not sure what percentage. So I think what's happened is the partner in Lake Park, Northbound Beach, has made some changes that were not known by Larry Mullinix, probably by Jerry either. And I think probably there's some conversations going on now to say that we don't charge divot fees, and this is an error, and you need to change it. So I'm not, I think what we have to do is give the Molanex as another week, would you say?

Yeah, I think that's fair. Yeah, another week until we can communicate better. And that is my answer on drop-to-ball number two. The Mullinix project is in progress. Well, there's a few steps they've got to take. If they're going to change it, they're going to have to reorder all new buyer's orders. So maybe even like three weeks or so. Who knows?

Well, I want a confirmation. We should at least have a verbal confirmation that whatever process has to be. But you know, they can cross out the dealer fees. That's right. They can use the existing paperwork. Use the existing one and say this was a typographical error. we made on a mistake. Make a better use of that Sharpie they like to use.

Exactly. It's a lot easier than getting rid of all those bottles of water. That's true. What are they going to do with the water? I guess I guess. They'll have to drink it. No, they have to put a moratorium on the water bottles until they eliminate the dealer fee, then they can use them.

Yeah, that's right. In the meantime, lock up those water bottles. Well, you can water the plants. You can drink the water. Okay, that brings us up to date on that, and I think we, oh, good, we have a caller. We do have a caller, and she is from Tennessee. Welcome to the show, Sandra. Hello.

I'm so happy to hear from you. You're a first-time caller. Yes, I am. And you won yourself $50. Thank you very much. You're welcome. You can give your information to Rudy when we're done talking. How are you today?

Oh, I'm okay. Good. I had a question about, I have a 2016 Toyota, Corolla, and I've heard some not-so-good things about the CBT transmission. And I wanted to know, you know, I bought the car brand new, and I've only got 37,000 miles on it. And I was wondering what I should do to take care of the transmission. Well, you call the right person. We got the world's foremost authority on Toyota setting right next was Mr. Rick Kearney. We have seen a couple of things on them, but the most important one is that there is a what's called a recalibration for the computer that controls it.

And right now there's actually a campaign out. It's a special service campaign where you simply bring your car into the dealership. We plug in a computer, and we download new software for how that transaction will operate. And other than that, we really have not seen a lot of issues. No charge for that. No, that is absolutely no charge whatsoever. And it only takes... Yes, I have that done already.

Okay. Well, if you've had that done, there's really not anything else, because it's a maintenance-free unit. It's completely sealed. there's there's really nothing you can do that will shall we say hurt it unless you're well intend to see you i mean unless you're going over to bristol and you're running on that track i doubt you're really going to hurt that car um just drive normal and i don't think you'll have any real issues with it there there were a few growing pains when that cvt transmission first

came out. I don't drive it a whole lot. Oh, I don't know. I've heard about you folks from Tennessee, and I've seen plenty of NASCAR races at Bristol. But, no, I think you'll have a great time with your car. I think you'll get a lot of use out of that transmission. Yeah, I hope so.

Well, Sandra, it sounds like as if that you're taking good care of your car. Yes, I have the oil change and everything done when I'm supposed to, and I've heard that that has lifetime fluid, but I've also heard if you're going to keep your car a long time, you should still have that fluid changed. Is that correct? I would recommend if you're keeping it beyond 150,000 miles, at around 150,000, I would recommend having the fluid changed. Now, you don't have it just changed or flushed and changed? Well, we actually recommend the flush, but there's no other chemicals that should be used on it. A flush basically means that they hook up a machine that slowly drains out fluid from one side and puts it back in. So that way it gets all the fluid changed out. So I don't have to worry about it until it gets up to 100,000 miles.

that yep all right thank you so much well Sandra I want to tell you you are a a woman of the 21st century I mean some of the terminology you just used I'm very impressed and I hope you stay in touch with us yes I will I listen all the time this is the first time I've called but I heard Scotty Kilmer talk about the city he's a Toyota fan like I am And my last cop, this is the first car I've had since 95, and the 95 I had was a Toyota. Is that right? I am a big Toyota fan. Gosh.

So you know you take care of your Corolla, and your Corolla will take care of you. Right. Yes. I know I was going to get a Toyota no matter what. That's the only car I would consider was a Toyota. Well, thank you so much, Sandra, for calling. I look forward to hearing from you again. All righty, thank you.

Stay on the line and Rudy will get your contact information and wish you in that 50 bucks. I've already given it to him. I gave it to him when I first called in. Fantastic. Call again, please, Sandra. Thank you. Thank you, Sandra.

All right, thank you. Well, from Tennessee, we're going to Key Largo. What an exciting show. We're globe hopping today. I'm telling you. We're going to Key Largo, and we are. are going to be talking to Karen, who also is a first-time caller. Good morning, Karen.

How are you this morning? I'm good. Oh, great. It's so good to hear from you, Karen. Thank you. And if you stay on the line, you can get yourself $50. Rudy will get your contact information. What can we do for you this morning?

We was? What can we do for you this morning? Did you call to say hello? Oh, hello, hello. Well, Karen, if you haven't got any questions, thanks very much for being a first-time female caller, and maybe next week you might have a question too and spread the word.

We're trying to build up at least 50% callers from our female audience. So thank you so much for taking the time. and you will receive a check for $50 in the mail. You're in. Thank you. Oh, you're welcome. Enjoy Key Largo. Bye-bye.

Yes. Bye. 877-960-9960. 877-960-960. And I know some of you folks like to text, 772-497-6530. And don't forget, you can stream us. Extremist on Facebook. Facebook.com

forward slash Earl on Cars. Speaking of Facebook.com ford slash Earl on Cars, I think we have some posts, don't we? We have three texts that came in on the text line. The first one, good morning, Earl. My wife and I are closing in on your dealership, yes, all the way from South Carolina.

Wow. You offered a cash reward on a prior program to anyone who finds your dealer fees. We will be combing every inch of your dealership and we will find the dealer fees. First things, first, though, I just billed coffee, my shirt. Do you sell any t-shirts at the dealership? I've already answered them that we do sell T-shirts at the dealership,

and good luck finding those fees. That's all I've got to say to that. Actually, they're on their way. They're going to stop by and get a selfie. They're heading down to Fort Lauderdale on a cruise out of Port Everglades, and they're going to swing by and get a selfie in front of the dealers. I love that, because that's what the other car dealers like to say, is that we have dealer fees, but we hide them in the price of the car.

I guess I must have said I offered a reward. Yeah, if you can find. Yeah, okay. That still stands. Yeah, sure. So if you find them, yeah. Exactly. Here's another one.

This is from Natalie and Jensen Beach. The reverse gear on my 2004 Accura TSX has gone out and I have to park in areas where I can only leave front end first. What will this repair cost me? And what component of automatic transmissions causes them to fail in this way? Natalie and Jensen Beach. Well, that's a new one, Rick. What do you have? I'll say about that.

That's going to be something internal in the transmission, obviously. And modern cars now, it's actually become less expensive to replace the transmission, either with a remanufactured unit or with, well, I hate to put it this way as junkyard. I'll call it recycled parts. A lot of cars that wind up going to junkyards, the engines, the transmissions, If they're still in good operating condition, we'll buy them and get them for you at a very reasonable cost and install it in your car for less than half of what a remanufactured transmission would cost labor included. Give me a number on a Kia transmission. On an Accura like hers, I'm going to say probably around $1,200 installed just as a guess.

And what would a new one cost? A new one, factory, if you could even find a factory new one, I'd say something more along the lines of like $3,500. Yeah. And a remanufactured would probably be around $2,500 to $3,000 installed. So a used transmission for, what did you say, $1,200? Around $1,500 and installed. Okay.

I'd go with a used, and you get a guarantee, right? You should always get at least a 12-month guarantee. Companies like LKQ, that they are a nationwide organization where they find the parts at all the various junkyards. and then shipped them to you. What is the name of that again? LKQ. L like in Larry K and K and Klo and Q like in Quebec. And it actually stands for like kind quality.

Oh, I like that. And that's their motto basically. Can you go to LKQ.com? You actually can. Although for purchasing they try to deal usually with shops and dealerships. But you can go on their websites and find a lot of interesting things for your car. Now, there's a heads-up to anybody that is getting their car repair at a car dealer or any independent service department. When they start quoting you prices on parts, especially expensive parts like engines and transmissions or even water pumps or you name it,

now you can go to LKQ, like kindquality.com, and compare prices. And consider the idea of a recycled part. Exactly. And they will give, in most cases, a one-year warranty. some cases even a two-year warranty, and some of them, they'll even include a warranty on the labor. Yeah. But that would be the best option, really.

It's a huge business. This whole remanufactured or used part. It used to be the junkyard, as Rick said, and you'd go out there and mess around on the junk and find something. You go and pull the part yourself, but now it's become, and I believe LKQ has pretty much monopolized the whole business, and they buy these all over the country. They have huge warehouses.

they have it all computerized and you can go on their website you can find any part for any car practically ever built somewhere at some price and it's much less than you're going to pay if you buy it through a manufacturer absolutely any more text too we got more text uh this is from lenny and lenny is in legrines georgia or thereabouts oh wow like tennessee in georgia i know yeah we're getting the south today he wants to know um if the new 2019 Toyota Corolla's have the new safe airbags and I'm going to defer that to Rick.

And from everything that I've been able to see yes, our 2019 corollas have no Takata components whatsoever. Okay. Thank goodness. Yeah, actually I didn't pick up. I was wondering if he was referring to like a newer generation

of advanced technology airbags but you're probably right there on the Takata thing. And just as a heads up, this thing is a little cloudy because Takata no longer exists. I need to research this. Maybe one of you guys with a computer here can find out who bought Takata,

but I'm sure they don't call them Takata airbags anymore. So whatever they're calling them, you just should know that they were the Takata. I'm sure that the person, the person, the company that bought out Takata has probably changed the, probably the

ammonium nitrate that they're using. They've changed something to make them safe. I cannot believe they would buy the company. and continue to build defective airbags. No, they've actually, even Takata started doing this when they realized what the issue was, they started adding a desiccant package in that inflator that would absorb moisture so that it could not deteriorate the ammonium nitrate like it did. So the new Takata is the last of the production are perfectly safe?

Yes. As far as we know. As far as we know. Bear in mind, the whole Takata airbag issue, it was years. before anybody even realized that that was a problem and then when they did unfortunately Takata tried to sweep it

under the rug of it. This reminds me of something that just sticks in my craw is that it took years but these airbags were exploding and they were killing people but the problem is in an accident violent enough to cause the airbag to deploy there's all sorts

of stuff flying around and people were dying and people were just assuming well he had a head on collision and that's why he died. They never autopsied anyone and nobody would demand an autopsy and then they finally figured out after a long, long time that it was a shrapnel from the inflator in the airbag that was killing some of these people. It's only hard and this is a gory thing to even contemplate when you take somebody that is so mangled in a terrible accident really to find out exactly what the cause of death was. So Takata and the rest of the

manufacturers like to say, well, we've only had a small number, 20-some odd deaths. To me, 20-some-odd deaths is not small, but it could be, in my mind, 200 deaths or 2,000 deaths, or who knows how many deaths, because it's impossible to go back in all those instances where to cut airbag deployed, and really you're not going to disinter all these bodies and do an autopsy and find out what really caused a death. So we'll never know how bad this Dakota thing really was. And especially now, as a lot of those much older airbags are getting so degraded that they can deploy on themselves, it simply explode with no warning.

Exactly. I've got another text here, too? We do. It's a good one. Earl, you claim not to charge the dealer fee, but I bought a new 2000 forerunner from Leary Wells. I paid $500 in dealer fees, and Leary said, if you charge one person you have to charge all or else you'd have to refund every dealer fee you ever charged well good old leary i'd say your past follows you didn't it yeah yeah folks that's why i call myself

the recovering card dealer because i was evil and this is this gentleman this texter was um obviously a customer of mine many years ago because leary wells we all love larry yeah and uh by the way Larry is very ill, and we wish him the best. And he left the business, what, about 10 years ago with us? Yeah, about 10 years ago. And he went to, he was a manager in a restaurant. That's right. I believe it was Fridays and, or Chili's.

Fridays. Friday. It was Friday. Anyway, Larry was a great guy as a salesman. And I charged a dealer fee, a $495 dealer fee. That's right. And that dealer fee was the last thing between me, and feeling good about myself.

And one day I had a meeting in the dealership called everybody out on the showroom floor, all the salespeople, all the managers. And as of this day, we're no longer going to charge the dealer fee. And it was mass hysteria. People said, how can we give up $500 a profit on every car we sell?

And I said, we're just going to have to do it. And the way we, I said, we don't have to lose $500 on every car we sell. we will just quote the price with whatever price profit we want to make. And that's what happened. So thank you, Mr. Textor, for bringing my pass to the forefront. I did do those things back in those days. How many years have been, Stu?

We dropped the dealer fee in the spring of 2004. So that was 15 years ago. 15 years ago. Oh, thank you. Yeah, they get me tingles. I've been clean for 15 years. You've got a follow-up, text. Follow text.

By the way, I love Leary, too. He called the forerunner I bought Boom Boom. There you go. Just for your information, Leary called everything Boom Boom, or Booboo Kitty. Yeah, it wasn't just your foreman. Including his women. That's true.

He called me Boom Boom. Oh, and by the way, what Larry said about, if one person charges a dealer fee, all dealers had, that was untrue. But I might have told him to say, I believe I was trained to say that. Probably, yes. We were all trained to say a few things.

Earl, because of your transparency, what happened? I mean, everybody went crazy. They weren't going to make that money anymore. But what happened? I mean, business increased immensely. Yeah, we actually, our average profit per car dropped about $200, but we sold twice as many cars. Suddenly, we were the only car dealer not charged.

a dealer fees and everybody's coming to us to buy cars now we're one of the largest volume car dealers in florida and uh people come in to buy cars from us so all you car dealers out there listening i i hate talking like this because i sound like i'm doing a commercial and i'm not honestly i'm just trying to say to all you other car dealers and salespeople that are listening if you would just follow our lead you would be surprised being honest and transparent with your customers is is really good for business. I'm not really sure why I did it. Was I just trying to be a nice guy?

Yeah, you felt it was wrong. Or was I just a smart business man? You dealers out there, get smart. Drop that dealer fee, sell more cars, make more money, be happy and sleep better at night. It's easy, easy. Folks, if you'd like to give us a call, 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-60, And I want to thank everyone that's listening. You're a big part of the show, and we do appreciate you.

And while we're thanking, I'd like to thank Rudy and Jonathan for doing such a superior job in the studio. It's just in the control room. We're a team, and we all work very well together. We don't have sound effects over here. Thank you, guys. We have real clapping. And by the way, we're under construction here at the studio, and we're moving into our brand-new studios,

which I understand will be outstanding and we'll have a green screen and we'll have really fancy equipment. And just, you know, it'll be like the 21st century. Wow. May 1st. Okay. We have a couple of comments that came in on Facebook. One's from Ken.

He says, to give competing dealers a mental hernia, a dealer could put a negative amount in the dealer fee line and you create a bonus consumer rebate. Very clever. We like that one. And also Linda, who is probably one of our longest listeners and Facebook viewers, just a great fan of the show. This is, good job, Earl.

Wish you had not charged dealer fees when we bought from you years ago. We apologize, Linda. Let me, have we covered the text? We're all caught up. Let me mention that Nancy Stewart and I have been asked by the Attorney General's seniors against crime group to speak and we will be we've been invited to speak Nancy gave me this bulletin from Attorney General Ashley Moody and before I get into that we have Victor calling in from West Palm Beach

yes good morning Whit good morning Victor good morning guys how you doing today great welcome to the show thank you very much for the opportunity what's on your mind oh my question this me my question this morning, Mr. Err, is there any way to track really like a black box for the mileage on vehicles when you buy it in Hughes? And the reason why I asked is I've seen in the past that you buy vehicles from South Florida, I'm calling it, you know, Boca Raton and Down South. And a lot of these vehicles are being purchased and they're leases and they never go back for maintenance. And it's kind of give you that lack of information that when you're

you pull the Carfax history, you don't see any record at all of the mileage of the vehicle being served with the dealer. And there's been, you know, news out there that people bring those mileage down of the vehicle. And there's no way to track it down for, as a consumer, go back to that question. Is there any way that you can do a black box, you know, track? Victor, I don't think a black box would answer it. You have a Carfax reports now give the maintenance history. on most vehicles also the manufacturer of that vehicle if the car is returned to the dealer

one of their dealers also has a history you can go into a Honda or Chevrolet dealer and in their computer if they've had their car serviced in New York at a Honda dealer and you're down here they'll have that service history Carfax also does it but they have to have the permission of the dealer to do that most dealers now have made that information available as far as a black box goes, this is something that is really there for the manufacturers to be able to track and measure a lot of data that they want to use to enhance the safety of the cars. There's a lot of controversy because sometimes these are subpoenaed in accidents. Attorneys like to get their hands on them.

We can access the black box. I think Rick has told me that if you have an issue that requires a black box, you know, black box information, then we are able to access it on your behalf. In some cases, yes. But try Carfax, and then if I was going to buy a car, I would definitely check Carfax on that Venn number. I'd also check with the manufacturer of that car to see if they had a service history. Rick has another point.

Now, on some cars that are within, say, the last two to three years at the most, The amount of information that is now being saved in the computers, like on a one to two-year-old car, for a Toyota, at least I know this, I can go into various computers and see mileage reports at certain points. So I would be able to at least give a basic idea of whether or not the mileage that is shown on that odometer is accurate or not. But that's only on the very newest cars one to two years old. Nothing about the maintenance.

No, not about maintenance. Victor, does that answer your question? Yeah, I mean, yes, it does. It's just the fact that sometimes there's no records that from the time that the customers buy the vehicle when you go and resell it from the dealers, there's no record of the vehicle. Never show that.

And there's the old-fashioned way of getting a name of the previous owner, and that should be on the title to the car. If you can contact the previous owner, I'm not saying it's going to be absolutely accurate, but you can at least have a conversation. Sometimes a previous owner will be honest with you and say that I did maintain the car very carefully

and I have my files or they might not even want to talk to you, but it's worth a try. If you have three sources, the previous owner, you have the Carfax report, and you have the manufacturer history, which the dealer would have access to if that person who owned a previously used the dealer and not an independent.

Got it. Thanks, Victor. Appreciate the call. Thank you, Victor. Give us a call again. That number is 877960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-65-30. And don't forget about your anonymous feedback. We would love to hear from you. We're going to go to Singer Island where Peggy has been waiting. Good morning, Peggy.

Hi. I'm driving to a meeting with, I'm going to be trained for going to go to Washington, D.C. with a veteran's group, so I'm a little nervous because I'm lost. But anyway, I just wanted to say, I'm, I have a Honda. I have a Honda fit right now, but we have a Honda, 2000. Ma'am, excuse me, no, I did not. I pulled off. I knew he was there. I waited for him.

Live radio, folks. That's too bad. Ma'am, I got to go. So anyway, I have a 2003 Honda, and my husband still drives it. and I was listening to the lady who talked about how she takes good care of her car and everything and it was just so cool to hear somebody I mean her voice clearly sounded like she was elderly but she really knew her stuff she was amazing that was a really amazing interview

and I'm only 66 so I'm so pretty young but my mother trained us she was a single parent she trained us to take good care of our vehicle Yeah, that always helps. Yes, definitely. I was trained myself. Yeah, well, I have, we still have the 2003 Honda, and a few years ago I bought a 2011 Honda fit because I need the carrier area in the back, and I like the way it breaks down flat. But anyway, I was just wondering, my husband has to do a little tiny bit of body touching,

up, and do you, could you recommend the best product for him to use? He just wants to, like, you know, stand down some areas and touch him up. Yeah, I would think. As far as the body shape. I would check with my Honda dealer, and they have factory paint codes. They would be able to identify the paint code on your Honda, and you could buy it in the parts department. If he said, do it yourself, or knows what he's doing.

You'll save yourself a lot of money by doing that. You don't want to have a 2003 vehicle repaint. that would be too expensive for you, but you could certainly do some touch-up work and try to use the factory touch-up paint. That way it'll be a pretty good match, although you do have fading on the paint, so that would be a factor to take into consideration.

It's the filler that I was wondering about where he's going to sand it down, and there's a couple of little places where he wants to level it off because there was a little rust. What kind of filler would he use? Well, now you're getting into something above my technical capacity, I wish I had Alan Napier. He's our collision repair guy expert here. I don't know.

Rick, do you have any knowledge about fillers? Well, it's a lot more work and more knowledge intensive, but I would recommend using a fiberglass type sealer and filler. You're actually mixing up a fiberglass chemical and using strips of fiberglass tape to cover over any holes where you had rust, and then smoothing that fiberglass down in. It'll seal a lot better than Bondo or other plastic body fillers like that, and it'll actually last a lot longer and give a much better appearance.

Where should you go to buy that? That way she could get some advice along with the product. Most auto parts stores will carry different styles like that, the do-it-yourself kits, and YouTube is a great way to get some information on how to work with it. and other than that, I would check a couple of the automotive paint supply stores. They'll have all the supplies for doing that fiberglass work as well. Got a name? Not off the top of the head, because unfortunately I just don't really do much anymore.

But let me Google what I can for local auto paint stores, and we'll see what comes up. If your husband's a good do-it-yourself or Peggy, then that's fine. It's pretty tricky when you're working with fillers and paints and a car that's had some faded paint. So he probably needs some advice on that, unless he's done this before, in which case, you know, he can probably do a pretty good job. Actually, as a matter of fact, one that I almost forgot about, I would go online and talk to a company called Eastwood, just like Clint Eastwood, but Eastwood.com. they are one of the premier companies for restoration parts, and I would say you'd find some really great products there that would solve all your issues.

Well, Peggy, you're driving now, so don't write any of this down, but you can't remember. I actually stopped. I stopped so I could write it down. Well, thank you. Thank you so much. That's a lot of good information. Well, drive carefully, and I hope you find your way all the way.

Thank you, Peggy. Give us a call again. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-65-30. We're going to go to Rod, and he's calling us from Riviera Beach, and he must have another question. Hi, Rod. Good morning, everybody, again. Rick, Rick, you're too much. You're recommending clean Eastwood,

three, you're good to bat and the ugly. Good God. Number two, number two, the fiberglass stuff there is good, but it's getting hard to find. And the lady there needs to tell her, tell her man to use a well-ventilated area because that stuff can get you pretty good. Now, what I mean to call that back about,

is there still, Rick, a thing, where on the computer that you hook in the computer a computer checker and it comes up with what we call an hour meter you know dinosaur cars before I could find the hour meter on the vehicle

and roughly come up with if the mileage has been refund unfortunately no hour meters went away many many years ago for those wondering about this an hour meter basically was for a lot of engines that weren't necessarily

used on cars so you didn't have an odometer so you didn't have a way of judging how long that engine had been running and whether it was time to maintenance like a marine engine when I on my boat I don't say how many miles I say how many hours I have on my engine exactly that's a perfect comparison and so you would need that and of course for like a generator or the or the like and an hour meter simply was an odometer that instead of measuring distance measured time and unfortunately for automobiles we no longer have those they they kind of quit using those back about the late 70s i want to say and since then it's it's all been switching just over to regular computerization but no there's there's nothing we'd be able to track by that anymore

Okay, just checking because it's like farm equipment like this, like that. But when I first started learning about the computers, we had a window we could check in, too, for that. Okay. Well, happy day. Thank you, Ron. And enjoy and listening. Bye for now.

Thanks for calling back, Rod. We'll talk with you soon. Ladies and gentlemen, remember you can go to Earl on Cars, and there's so much information there every day. from a good dealer, bad dealer. There's a podcast, there's the mystery shop that we'll do today. Earloncars.com. Erloncars.com.

And you can find a lot of information, and it will serve you well. So, earloncars.com. We're going to go to Howard, who's holding. Howard's a regular caller, too. And he's from Jupiter. Good morning, Howard. Uh, pleasure talking to you. I just got some information, uh, for you on the, uh, how you should listen on FM. I was, uh, listening on 106.9. And, uh, now I changed to 90, 95.9. And it works

much better. Oh. So, uh, uh, that's again, uh, 106.9 was okay, but it was, you know, you weren't hearing me too well on it. But 95.9 is absolutely clear. That's from Jupiter. So that's a bit of advice. Oh, is it? I live in Jupiter. Thanks, right. Interesting. The other reason why I'm calling is that I purchased a 2006 Prius,

and I wasn't charged a deal of fee. I bought it from the Internet with Mrs. Silverstein. Earl, you remember Mr. Silversine? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we still keep in touch with him. He's on Facebook.

Really? Man, I'm going to get it. What a nice guy. Yeah. So anyway, no deal. and unfortunately three months later had an accident and the all the airbags went off and nobody was seriously hurt this is a Prius and people say don't buy a Prius because it's too small and you're going to get into it. I was hit very hard sideways and nobody was hurt the airbag now my question is

you was that a tecata airbag and the reason why it didn't explode was the car was only three months old is that yeah it was it probably was It probably was, Howard. I mean, Takata is the largest, or it was, the largest volume manufacturer in the world of airbags. Most every manufacturer used Takata airbags. They almost had a worldwide monopoly. So chances are, this is what is so scary, chances are every collision where an airbag went off, 90% of them were probably Takadas. And we're wondering what is the death and injury as a result of that we'll never know for sure.

But in your case, it was a fresh airbag, and they don't. go off until they have had degradation. They degrade from humidity and heat, and you had a brand new Prius and so you didn't have a problem. But, you know, heaven forbid that it happened when the car was, you know, 10 years

later, you might have had a problem. So I'm glad we took out of things behind us, except for the fact there's still millions of them on the road that people don't know about. Okay. I have another question for you. Do you ever get in any drivers with Cressida for service

or Crescent. What happens if you get one? Can you get parts for it? I actually haven't seen a Cressida in our shop for I'm going to say at least 15 years. Really? Wow. Howard, you know you can get parts for cars as long as you're willing to pay for about any car. I had my 1937 Pontiac restored

a few years back, and it took about two years, but we finally got all the parts we needed. So the whole automotive American thing is such that there's so many people that are nutty about cars that you can find. You get online now, especially. You go online and you put a part request in for about anything. You'll find it sooner or later, and you'll have to pay a little bit more, but you'll find it. Now, we did. Yeah, go ahead. just a fun fun one here we did just recently have a nineteen eighty seven

selica supra come in the shop that the car looked like it literally had rolled off the assembly line a year ago and the customer wanted a fuel filter replaced and it actually took us two weeks to find a fuel filter a fuel filter but for a nineteen eighty seven Selica Supra. I mean, and, oh, that car was beautiful. Oh, love the Super. Everybody loves the Super. What is the worst car ever manufactured?

Not American, you know, in worldwide. Worst car that was ever manufactured. Not the Edsel, that was the second worst car. You go. You know what it was? DeWUGO. I would say either the Fiat. Yeah, Fiat.

Oh, that was a Fiat. The Ugo, you got it. Fiat made the Ugo. You got it. The Ugo. The Ugo. That's actually. actually a Fiat. You know, that was built in Russia by Fiat. So that was a, you know, they called it the Lata in Russia. They called the Lata, yeah.

Right, absolutely. Okay, great. And thanks for the information. I'll be calling you next week. Thank you, Howard. You know, I've got a funny story about the Ugo. When Ugo first came to this country, they were looking for dealers, and they came to me. And I can't even remember the year, but it was probably 1980 something. And they said, you know, here's this new car. I said, it sounds like a pretty good deal. And before I get into my rambling story, I think we have. Yeah, I think we should go to John.

Yes. John's a regular caller. He calls us every week, and we just love hearing from him. He always has so much information for us. He's calling from Palm City. Good morning, John. Good morning to everyone. Earl mentioned last week at one time the independence of the deal is

the Detroit area. Well, the reason I think they had a captive audience, and I'll tell you how, people like me put up with nonsense from the dealers in the New York area for years. This is the late 60s, 70s, and right up to the 80s. There was a 1295 only very low F-O-B Detroit price. So not only that they wouldn't get the nonsense, because the dealers in the Detroit area were used to dealing employees of all the major car companies, and there was really no hassle. My friends used to go, I never did it myself, but they went there, one, two, three, fresh car, fresh dark, no nonsense completely. I'd get temporary plates, get them on their way, one, two, three, and it was a big savings

because the FOB was based from Detroit, and somebody like us in New York, be a high fee, even higher, like California. It was just a flat fee, and it was not only a Mac that they saved, the savings, played for their plane fare to fly out there. They would pick you up and bring you to the dealership, but also the fact that you wouldn't go through the nonsense. And when I say nonsense, let me just give you, for instance, of some of the New York dealers, the largest dealership in New York for years,

and they're still in business today, they didn't even get their franchise revolt, was the major automobile group. They were primary a Chevrolet dealer. They had five new car agencies. Okay? There was a five-year investigation. Five years,

22-day hearing, this is for this year, January 24th, they were fined $3.1 million, $210,000 in restitution to 40 customers. Wow. Mostly all the games that Earl talks about on a radio show Plus,

and majority of them was minorities, Spanish, black, taking advantage of them. Unbelievable. I mean, they really socked it to the people. The judge gave it to them really good, but yet their franchise was not revoked. The president, I think, who was Brandel, the two brothers, they stepped down, and they're still the same name, same agency. And, I mean, the fine was absolutely nothing compared to the amount of cars that they give people on or fraud them. And yet, to hypocrites, the city of New York spent $72.1 million buying New York City Police cars and other company official cars.

So there were the dealers. I mean, everybody knows about McNamara Pontiac, is almost. bankrupt on Long Island, bankrupt Pontiac, GMAC Division. I mean, there was another one in the Bronx, they did run. They not only took it away from him, but they swapped him a dealership up in Aflo and Westchester County. There was the Chevy dealer in Brooklyn. I mean, it was just unbelievable. I put up with myself buying, I used to buy new Chevolets,

and I was tempted once to go out to the largest Chevy deal in the United States. at that time. I don't know if he's still here now. And it's just, it was a hassle, and it was a bad experience. Just to go to any one of these dealers. There was nobody that was so great. There was one in Queens as a Chevy dealer that was fabulous for prices,

but nobody would ever go to him because his servicing was so bad. It was called Luby Chevrolet, was in Queens. So that's the reason why, boom, you know, years ago, for all the new car dealerships in the Detroit area, not only that they got the business of employees

of major auto companies because you couldn't buy directly if you work for Chrysler or Ford, you had to go to one of these dealers, but they treated you respectful, and you were in and out, no baloney, no trying to sell you this and that, and no deal additives, you know, phony moroni on the window.

And it was just a pleasant experience because friends of mine did that concert, So that's why I wanted to bring that up. Yeah, that's why I wanted to. One other thing, too. You're reading so much about the closing of General Motors and other company like Lodgetown, Ohio. That's nothing new.

That's in Hammock track in Michigan. Years ago, GM closed a tremendous plant in the New York area, Ontario Town, New York. Basically, what amounts of not even was obsolete. It was the electric cost of electric water, you know, being in the New York area and believe it or not, at that plant in Tarrytown,

they disassemble it and the parts were shipped to Japan. Really? I didn't know that. Another thing, too, in the news now, all the Canadian plants of General Motors, I think there's four of them, they were all closing in 2020.

I didn't know that either. Oh, this had been going on for a long time. Plants become obsolete. I'm not sticking up for the, automobile manufacturers, but residents spend a lot of money renovating them, they go to a new location, mainly down to southern states, and cheaper labor, cheaper taxes, and cheaper costs of manufacturing. Yeah.

Now, that's right. That's interesting a revolution we're having in auto manufacturing, and it won't look anything like it does today 20 years from now. It'll be software companies and not manufacturing companies. it's really going to be some radical changes. People might as well get used to it and hang on to your seat belts. Well, one way I'm glad for the deal

is though that they stopped at, you know, Detroit FOB pricing because that wasn't really not fair to people that live like in California and far away places from the manufacturing plant. Well, John, thanks very much. It's always informative. I appreciate the call and I hope you can call again next week.

Well, looking forward to the shopping report. Oh, thank you so much, John. We love hearing from you. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. And I think Stu might have a few texts over there. We have a variety of requests and comments and questions. Actually, we got one on Your Anonymous Feedback.com.

It just came in. It says, in sales on a few car dealerships. Now I know we're using anonymous feedback. I worked in sales in a few car dealerships and not only as sexism rampant, but so is racism. And all three dealerships I worked in

in the late 2000s, Indian, Chinese, Jewish, and black customers were all given pejorative names that were routinely used by management and staff. It is disgusting. That is true. Well, that's the reason we have the anonymous feedback. We thank you very much. People don't like

to tell the harsh, national truth sometimes and we give you that anonymous your anonymous feedback.com we welcome anyone for any reason we're not saying we're always going to get the best information but we open the faucets totally we don't restrict anything and something you want to get off your chest www. your anonymous feedback.com that's right okay we have another question that came in on the text line that says my 2006 Toyota Salera continues to draw down the battery. I've had the vehicle checked, no problems with the alternator,

etc. Could it be the security system? The problem has been happening since 2012. Batteries replace and disconnected when not used for extended periods, low mileage, maintained vehicle. I did finally get the dash replacement. Looks great. Rick? What's wrong with that solar?

An 06 solara security system is a possibility, but obviously there's something. staying on that shouldn't. You've got what's called a parasitic draw. Is there a diagnostic tool that we have that we can determine that? Or is that just a really difficult thing to diagnose? Well, it takes a little time, but the basic, simple way is we hook up an am meter that measures the amps being drawn by all the systems on the car once it's shut down.

And we start pulling fuses, and if the ampers draw suddenly drops down to a reasonable level, that's the circuit that's drawing too much power. So if he took it to a two-way dealer or to an independent, they would use that technique, would you say it's 100% certain they would be able to determine the cause of the current loss? As long, when they hook up the ammeter at the beginning, if they can see an excessive amount of draw at that time, then yes. But unfortunately, if it's something that is turning itself on at a, later time. Intermittent problem, yeah.

Then you might have a little trickier problem. Like, I've actually seen such a thing as the simple pin switch that you know, when you close the door on the car turns the interior light on and off. Yeah. I've seen those switches start to go bad inside and even though the

door is closed, suddenly an hour later the light will come on. And you won't notice it because you're not near the car but it starts drawing the battery down. If you don't drive that 2006 Salera a lot. You could leave it with a trusted mechanic, and he could check it intermittently and do the

amperage test. And as Rick says, if you get the high current flow, then they can identify it. But if it's intermittent, it only happens once every three weeks, it might be a long time before they can do it. It might take a little while. Yeah, leave the car with somebody for a few days and have a pretty good chance they can diagnose it next. Okay.

This is from Ammarie. She is a longtime listener, longtime text her. Here she goes. Car buying horror stories and one good one. First, a car salesman actually told a lady buyer that a full-size spare tire was a safety hazard. Two, ladies showed up with a check from her credit union at the appointed time to take position of the car. It was a Plymouth Horizon that she was buying. Neither her salesman nor the sales manager was around to complete the transaction.

She waited 40 minutes. No one showed up, so she left. She never returned to either dealer. Salesman called four hours later, and she told him she was so angry she left and bought, bought a vehicle rabbit. I guess that was the Volkswagen Rabbit. VW. Rabbit? Number three, most shocking episode was when she walked into a dealership,

told the salesman what she needed, and he actually listened. He brought a car out that met her needs. No pressure. Did she lose consciousness? She fainted. Wow. Quite possibly. No pressure.

He was polite, friendly, and didn't bat an eye when she wanted to think about it. She checked online and found it really was a good deal and bought the car. I wish all buying experiences were like that one. So do we. You know, Anmar, you ought to write a book, really. You've got a great sense of humor, and you were very articulate, and you've had some amazing experiences. Yeah, yeah, thanks a lot, Amory.

The power of the Internet. Uh-huh. Oh, boy. Do that clean us up on that? Yeah, that's the last one. We're all caught up on text. Yeah, I wanted to mention about the Ashley Moody, our new Attorney General, and I hate to read things on the air, but I'll read this.

Attorney General Ashley Moody today announced Florida's senior protection team and intra-agency group of experts working together to fight fraud and abuse. The team is comprised of leading members from the Attorney General's Office of Statewide Prosecution, Consumer Protection Division, and Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Seniors versus Crime, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, will also actively assist the team with investigations and outreach efforts. So we salute Ashley Moody for taking care of the senior citizens of Florida. And we thank Ashley Moody, the Attorney General's Office, and the Seniors Against Crime, for inviting Nancy Stewart and myself to speak at a group gathering on April the 25th, what happens to be Stu's birthday.

That's right. And it will be at 2 o'clock. I'll be at Chuckie Cheese that day. It'll be a Chuckie Cheese. But Nancy and I, Rick, I might ask you to come along. they're asking us how to tell seniors how to avoid being taking advantage of when they buy lease or maintain a repair car. Is this free and open to the public? It is free and open to the public.

And the first 500 to sign up will receive free copies of Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer. Excellent. And we hold that up. Confessions of Recovered Car Dealer. So it'll be 2 o'clock, 2 o'clock. It's a nice book. That's a hardback. 2 o'clock on April 25th to his birthday, 900 brandy wine road.

That's just off of I-95, Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard, by the way. It's to the United Methodist Church. And as I say, we're going to have bagels, cream, cheese, donuts, coffee. And you'll have your chance to answer any question you have. I'm going to answer you or me. And Rick, if you can make it, I will make the arrangements. I will be there. And if you have any friends or relatives or seniors that are concerned,

about this thing that's the perfect for thing for perfect thing for them to come out and check out especially if they're you know right there in the area it's not too hard to get to and uh yeah encourage your grand your grandparents your parents it's centrally located yeah what a what a great venue and with this being the retirement state uh folks i can't tell you or emphasize enough this is going to be a a great event and uh bring as stew said bring your grandparents uh bring bring them all. And neighbors, everybody. Yeah, Nancy and I met with the seniors

against crime folks yesterday briefly and we talked about it and the thing they kept saying to us is the main thing that we need to make clear to the seniors that are being victimized is that buying a car today

is not like it was back in the day. And I didn't say anything but I know what they were saying and what they were thinking. Problem is, 50 years ago, there were a lot of seniors out there, because they weren't seniors then, but they were buying cars, and there was a trust thing.

There was a fact that you could trust the folks you dealt with. The sad truth is, even back then, they were being taken advantage of anyway. They just didn't know it. And now today it's gotten even worse, but car dealers have been pretty rough on their buyers for a long time, as the Gallup Poll suggests, at least since 1977, and that's 40-some-odd years ago. So 40-some odd years ago, the car dealers were held in very low esteem as they are today. But the seniors today that are buying cars are being too trusting, and they're going in

and they're buying a car from someone that has got a big smile on his face and has very very friendly and he's very charming and has charisma and they could be their grandkid you know oh tommy the salesman he looks like my grandson my grandson and they're taking advantage of and this is what we have to do we have to explain to the seniors they have to do their homework they have to research it and they have to use tools available to them so it'll be April 25th as I say 2 o'clock it'll be at the uh brandy ryan what I say brandy he had 900 brandy Brandy Wine Road in West Palm Beach. Just off I-95, Palm Beach Lakes, Boulevard, Dexon.

And we'll get the information out to you. And that's at the gathering place at United Methodist Church. Exactly. Okay, folks. We got the mystery shopping report coming up, but we got a little bit of time here. Got another text. All right, let's do that text. This is from Steve, and he's in New Jersey.

He's texted in a few times. Hi, Steve from New Jersey. I read recently about a high rate of engine bay plastic part failure in newer BMWs, Rick. What's your opinion about the durability of plastic parts, particularly in high heat areas? Do you know of which manufacturers use less plastic engine parts? Hard to say on that one, because if you use the term plastic generically, we've had Bakelite parts in cars all the way back into the early 70s. I mean, there have been plastic under the hood for many, many years,

and it's all part of the idea of reducing weight and making things lighter weight, which equals better fuel economy. Well, in your experience, in your 25 plus years' experience, have you seen an unusual number of failure of plastic bake a lighter, you know, non-metal parts? Do you see the non-metal parts fail at a greater frequency than the metal parts? Not really.

And a good portion of it is a lot of the plastic parks don't expand and contract with heat like certain metals will so things will hold up better. Plastic has a negative connotation particularly to some of us old-timers back in the day, what was it the 40s?

40s or? No, no. What was the thing? Plastics, you know, with Dustin Lovna? Oh, yeah, that was from the graduate. Graduates. Plastics. I got one word to say to you, kid. Plastics. Plastics.

So that's when the plastic first came out and then it was kind of shot. and cracked and melded. But it's an old term, and plastic parts are just fine in cars today. I was one years old when that movie came out. Oh, geez. How do I know it? I took you to the movie, but you were sleeping.

You took me to Barbarrella. Yes, I did. Which was soft porn, even by 1960 standards. All right. We have one more text that came in, a new textress, no name on it. I have, and this is for Rick, I have a 2007 suburban 5.3 engine, just replaced eight lifters last week because AMF DoD design since then

I've been driving in this is all technical stuff man Rick I hope you understand what I'm saying because nobody else does right let me try it again AMF DOD design since then I've been driving in three on the transmission to keep it in V8 mode is there a cheap bypass besides

besides buying a tuner you are right outside my level of expertise on this because you're talking about modifying an engine to try to avoid a mechanical failure. Lifters are an internal part that help move the valve train. If they're failing, it's generally because of an oil pressure issue, and it sounds to me like you've got problems in that engine a lot more than trying to use a tuner. A tuner is basically a, shall we say, a plug-in model.

module that tries to change the way the computer runs the engine. And keeping your engine in third gear in the transmission is not a good idea. You're going to cause issues with that motor. You've got some internal engine problems that need to be diagnosed there first. That was a great answer, in my opinion. I think so, too. And if you have additional specific questions, we'll give it to Rick. You can text again.

We'll give it to him, and he'll text you back after the show. Great idea. Well, we're all caught up. And we have a John from Pop City on the phone. Yeah, we're going to talk to John from West Palm Beach. And I'd like to say good morning to you, John, and welcome to the show. Good morning. Good morning. I want to respond to that gentleman about the plastic parts, the engine, and just let them know that he needs to find out whether they're plastic or an island. When you're talking about the Ford V6 back in the 70s and 80s, their timing gear on the lower ones.

one, that was a nylon, and those were out, and then we'd just go ahead and replace it with the steel one, and not the nylon, because the steel holds up longer. But also, there's nothing on a nylon part, because I had a 70 GTO judge, and I think you guys sold a couple of those? Yes, we did. Okay. Well, we took our rubber bushings out of the front suspension, and we replaced them with the nylon bushings, and it made it a lot stiffer, so it helped better.

I'm from Detroit, and used to run on Woodward and Grassians. and there's nothing wrong with nylon. I don't know of any, the only plastic parts of the door handles in that. But anything that with with suspension or engine, it was always nylon as far as I know. And you shouldn't be afraid of those. As a matter of fact, they're a lot stronger than like the rubber in that when we're talking about suspension. Well, John, you remember those judges, Dayglow orange with a four on the floor and dual quads? Yeah, well, it wasn't dual quads.

on the 70 DTO judge. None of the judges, or none of the judges, 69, had the tri-power. Oh, three-two barrels. They only had four. They only had four-barrels. Three-two barrels.

There you go, yeah. Yeah, well, the tri-powers were like 66, 66, 67, 68, and that. But the tri-power wasn't available on the judges. Or I should say the 69 judges of that. Those were all the four barrels. He got about 10 miles of a gallon, maybe eight. to do a quad for most of their motors.

But the reason why I love Pontiacs is because we could interchange them. And for a stroker motor, we took a 455 block. We took the 428 Super Duty crank and the ram our heads, and that made a great motor. Muscle cars, those were the days. John, thanks very much for the call. We really appreciate it. Thank you, John.

All right, thanks. Give us a call again. a 77-960 or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30 I think we're going to get I think we have some text, Rick. We do have one on YouTube.

Just as a quick thing, I've been kind of watching our followers on YouTube here and we have folks from as far away as Philadelphia, Boise, Idaho, and Middletown, New York have been chiming in just to say, hello today. But Michael Hartney is asking. He says, I'm in the market for a new or a couple year old Toyota Corolla, and then I'm finding out that 2014 on they have CVT problems. Just how big and bad is this? Well, it's actually, there is a recall out on the CVT transmissions for a

reflash, a recalibration. The software was written bad. and it was causing some problems that could cause damage to the transmission. Once that reflash is done, that solved that issue, and if the transmission is still driving normally, you'll have no worries whatsoever. It's not something that's like a cumulative thing. If the problem was going to occur, it would have happened, and it would have taken it out. But right now, if the reflash has been done, you'll be just fine with that CVT, And bear in mind that these are sort of the wave of the future for a transmission right now because instead of shifting gears constantly like an automatic or manual transmission normally would,

this keeps the engine in its perfect power band for the most efficient running of fuel efficiency with the best amount of power and the lowest emissions, that nice sweet spot. and because it can continuously change that drive ratio to almost an infinite level, it's not like having just a six-speed transmission where you only have six choices of ratio. This one has an infinite number of ratios. Thank you, Rick. If we have any more text, we could do one more, and then I've got to get to the mystery shopping report. We are caught up.

Okay, mystery shopping report. I can't believe it's been too. two years since we last mystery shop, Napleton's North Palm Hunting. They're on North Lake Boulevard. We're not sure where they are, whether it's Lake Park, Palm Beach Gardens, North Palm Beach. It's a jigsaw puzzle. Officially it's Lake Park. Lake Park.

But I get confused on North Lake Boulevard. Yeah, exactly. North Lake Boulevard goes through the county, Palm Beach Gardens, Lake Park. It's confusing. But anyway, GPS, Google Maps knows how to get you there. We set our sides on Naplesa Hyundai after one of last week's callers gave us a nice, glowing review of his experience there. We were pretty impressed, given that with the exception of just one, no Napleson dealership has ever made it to our recommended dealer list. Now, his experience was interesting because this caller had gone into Napleson Hyundai, and he had priced a car out, and he said,

I'm not going to make my mind up. I'll be back. And he did come back. And when he came back, he said, I decided to buy the car, the price that they discussed. And the salesman said, thank you very much. But then the manager came in and said, just because you came back and we value so much as a customer, we're going to take another $300 on the price of the car. Did I get that right?

Perfectly. Yeah. Nice. So we were a little skeptical, skeptical of that, but we believe in paying credit where credit is due, and we have to give them the benefit of the doubt. That was a nice thing to do if that was truly positively motivated. It was a good thing to do. But we decided we better go back because we haven't been in there in so long.

Anyway, this April and Hyundai is no longer on the list. When we returned in June of 2017, they were pretty horrible. Our shopper went to see about a super low payment advertised on their website, only to discover sneaky high-pressure sales tactics. Back on the bad dealers list, they weren't. As I've explained recently, because our longtime mystery shopper agent X was becoming too well-known, we took a year hiatus from investigating Naples' dealerships. In the case of the North Palm Beach Hyundai Store, it was nearly two years.

years. Hope we don't burn out Agent Thunder. We got a lot of dealerships to check out. Maybe we could go to disguises.

Sure. The addition of Agent Thunder to the team allows us to go back to these old battlefield. And that's

what we've been doing. Agent Thunder's instructions were to try to buy a new Hyundai Santa Fe while acting like an unprepared

ill-informed buyer. Someone we call Larry Laydown Female would be a Linda. lay down too many people walk into a store car dealership and are totally trusting and this is what we're going to be talking to the seniors versus crime group about to trust is something you

cannot show when you buy a car i mean i i i almost choked on that word when you go into a car dealership you can't trust the folks i'm sorry i just have to say it the way it is you just can't take it for granted no no operation report. I'm speaking in the first person, is if I were Agent Thunder. I arrived at Naples, North Palm Hyundai at 10.30 a.m. was greeted outside as I walked to the entrance by a salesperson named Tom. Tom looked friendly, energetic. He smiled a lot. Tom engaged me in conversation that wasn't directly related to car shopping, but I could tell he was doing it to get information. For example, he asked me a lot about my job, my family, about the car I was currently

driving. My answers probably helped him size me up to see if I was able to buy and what kind of car I could afford. I said I was a married mortgage broker with three young kids and that my last car was a lease. He likely surmised that I was somewhat well off with decent credit. I said my life liked the Santa Fe and we both thought it would be a great vehicle for our growing family. Tom agreed. I asked me if I had any particular trim levels in mine. I said, I don't know what a trim level is. You know, car dealers, including this group here, I might say. We say trim all the time. We say it all the time. We have to realize good salesmanship. You speak the customer's language. And you speak things they understand.

Trim level. What's the trim level? Tom Laugh, apologize. He said trim referred to the different versions of each model. Some trim levels had less bells and whistles. Of course, there's another auto term. Oh, yeah. Bells and whistles.

Gingerbread. Fluff. Yeah. I thought trim level is how high you got a haircut above your ear. Yeah. Could be. At any rate, we're into the discussion now. There's a rapport established there.

A laughter and trust is being built between Agent Thunder and the salesperson. I said my wife would probably like all the bells and whistles. A bit of a chauvinist statement there, I think. I don't know. Maybe not. Not Agent Thunder. Tom said my wife would love the limited trim level. He had leather seats, all the high-tech safety features, basically every option.

I replied that I think she had been eyeballing limited online. I said that getting all the options sounded great, but realistically, I need to keep the price reasonable. I was planning to finance the purchase, and I had to keep my payments affordable. Tom asked if she'd been shopping online. Interesting. It is interesting. I underlined that in the report that Stu wrote out for me. Tom asked, I had been shopping online.

I'll remember that. I said I didn't think so. She was on HyundaiUSA.com, not a dealer's website. We had a call her last week that wanted to know. I think it was saying that they could get prices from the manufacturer that would preclude having to negotiate with dealer. You can't get prices from the manufacturer. state law prohibits the manufacturer from quoting prices.

The only thing they can quote is MSRP, manufacturer suggests retail price. So when you go to a manufacturer's website, all you're going to see is sticker price, which is a lot of money. They'll refer you to a dealer. They'll refer you to a dealer. And the manufacturers will like to give you the price,

but state franchise laws lobbied in by a big auto dealers, big auto dealers protect them from having the manufacturers compete with them. I lost my place here. Oh, just on 100 years. I said I didn't think so. She was on, yeah, okay. He asked if I had a payment in mind. I replied that I wanted to keep it at $500 or less.

Now, I'm where they want me. Every car dealer wants you to be a payment buyer. Why? Because once they know what you, you can afford per month, they really have you. Because they can vary the interest rates, the profit on the car, the number of years that you make the payment to maximize their profit. So when you tell them any number per month, they can manipulate that number.

They can give you the number you want, but by varying the variables that they have the control over, like the interest rate, the add, The term? The term. Specifically the term. Back in the old day, there was something called a car mortgage. No's kidding. Well, we did that too.

We'd like to go for 30 years? No. A single large payment. A balloon. A balloon payment. I was blanking on that. Balloon payments were common back in the day. I mean, that's something really evil we did years ago.

Especially when they didn't tell them about the balloon part. Right. So, you want to pay a dollar a month? No problem. Dollar a month? No problem. Dollar a month for 60 months, then a $25,000 bull in money. Yep. So, that's true. That's way back. Anyway, I digress. I told him I wanted $500 or less. He asked if I planned to put any money down. I said $5,000. Boy, his eyes would have gotten big there. You say I'll do $500 a month, and I got $5,000 down. They got you. you go. You can buy almost anything. Yeah, I think it's important to point out that was the moment Agent Thunder failed, and that's what set the course of the rest of this mystery show.

Exactly. Even though it wasn't spoken out loud, that was going through the heads. Tom looked at me like he was struck by a stroke of genius. There you. He finally, I mean, his big smile on his face, he held up his hands to stop me from talking and told me not to worry about the price or payment because he had a great idea. He was actually a little convincing.

I'm telling you, that is trained, and even though we're all reformed here, actually, I didn't need to be reformed. But we were trained whenever you act like you have a brilliant idea, like you just thought of it, even though... I got it. Wait a minute, I got a great idea. Follow me. I want to do this on camera. Yeah. We were actually trained, I'm not lying, and body language.

I'm not on camera, so you can't see it. So continue, please, sorry. He told me to follow him, led me into the showroom. He showed me a bright orange Santa Fe Limited right on the show employer. It was a retired service demo with 4,733 miles. MSRP was $33,830 MSRP. Tom said because it was demo, it could get me a great deal on it. He suggested we drive it, but first we had to sit down and put my info into the computer.

I'll digress a little bit because I think we had the time here. Demonstrators are usually sold at less than a new car, but they don't depreciate demos. Demos are carried on the books just at the same price, and sometimes they'll pay a salesman a spiff on a demonstrator. It depends, but back in the day, demos used to be sold for just the same price we did a new car, because the perceived savings was there. It's a demo. It's got 4,700 miles on it or whatever it is, and therefore I'm going to save money.

And sometimes we actually ended up making more money on the demonstrator than we did on the regular car. Just a word to the wise. Tom drove the car off the showroom floor so we could take it on test drive. Before leaving the dealership, he led me around the car giving a competent presentation. On the test drive, he talked about the car,

really focusing on safety features like distance spacing cruise control. Sounds very impressive. Distance spacing. Sounds like laser. It's radar cruise. And of course, lane departure assist. We know what that is. Back at Napletons, he said he was going to get figures from his manager.

He asked me if I was still good with putting $5,000 down. I said I was. He was gone for only a few minutes, returned with a buyer's order. He said he had great news. His boss had discounted the vehicle, and I would be looking at a payment of $536 for 60 months with $5,000 down. Now, this is classic salesmanship. He did exactly the right thing. You asked for $500 a month.

He came back at $536. You never come back on the first pencil car vernacular. You need somewhere to go. You always ask for more than you expect to. get and when the salesperson gives you a price it might be a good price with a good commission and a lot of profit you don't accept it right away you have to negotiate you have to make the sales the customer feel that they won that they won the negotiation so we have to come back in at a higher so he did for 536 for 60 months instead of 500 with the 5 000 down i said that was too

high. He knew you were going to say that. And I reminded him that I needed to be no more than $500. Tom said that the payment would come down $20 with every thousand that I put down. He said, if I could come up with $6,000, I would be

a lot close to my payment. So he still got you into control here. And he's talking and he's wrestling with you a little bit. Maybe you come up to $510 a month. Maybe you come up to $505 a month. But he's working you. And he if you don't and he gives

in, then you won. That's all the psychology of the negotiation. By the way, I did run the numbers for 60 months using a decent interest rate. It comes up pretty much exactly 536, so it was a real payment. They could do that. I pretended to struggle with this.

I said I could probably come up with some money, but it would be painful stretch. I nodded, yes, I would put down $6,000. Larry laid down. I looked over the buyer's order after Tom went to tell his manager of the news. The discount I received was a mere $1,000 off MSRB. They added an $899 dealer fee, $129 e-tag filing fee,

$149 private tag agency fee. Now, folks, these are all dealers fees. He had them all up $1,177. Three dealer fees. When Tom came back with the manager, I missed the manager's name. I didn't challenge the price of the fees. I just told him I would need to take the papers home to my wife for a review. If she agreed, we'd be back that afternoon to sign in.

Back in the day, you'd say, what's the matter? You can't make a decision without the little woman? That's right. Are you a man? Are you a man? Who wears the pants in the family? That was back in the day. Exactly. Excuse me for interrupting you.

Remember, ladies and gentlemen, we would like to hear from you. We'd like to hear you vote. Give us a text at 772-497-6530. The manager suggested I signed my part of the paper, and my wife would sign later. I said, I don't think that's a good idea, and assured him that he would be back. He offered to get me the $500 payment I wanted. Okay, there you have understanding car salespeople. You asked for a certain payment and a certain down payment.

They tried to raise the payment. They tried to raise the down payment. And then you finally agreed to the payment of the $5,000 down and five, and they met your needs. They said, I asked, they said they would do it, but I wouldn't do it anyway. I went home. That's when you get your best price when they think you're going home. And you even get a better price when you really go home. The best thing you can do if you want to play the negotiation game

is to really turn around and walk out and leave. That brings, shakes it all out. The best they're going to do is shakes it all out because they know when you leave that dealership, you lose control. That's when all the cards go on the table. Exactly. Here's the epilogue. I'll do horrible this time just your run-on-the-mill car shopping experience in South Florida.

This mission highlights exactly what consumers need to prepare themselves going online before visiting the car dealership. Remember I said at the beginning when we said, yes, did you go online? It's a two-tier pricing system. Car dealers have an online price, substantially better than the one that you get when you go in the showroom. In this case here, it was $6,000 less. $6,000. If you had had just gone online, you would have. had a pretty good price.

They might have tried to bump you, but you would have still been in the same negotiating position at a lower starting point, and if you stuck to your guns, you could have bought it. Yep, and per your request this morning, we also want in the True Car, which is another great way to get a good price on the car. Now, True Car doesn't show the specific prices for the vehicles. You have to contact the dealer to get their price, but they do show you an average of all the True Car dealers' price. The average true car price is $28,344, which is considerably less than what the price that Agent Thunder was given.

What was it? Can you do the subtraction there? Because we advocate true car as a third-party pricing as we do Costco. Truecar.com and Costco automobining.com. And these two sources are something to remember and write down and try. You still want to shop. compare prices. Stooges to the arithmetic $4,486 less at True Car.

And you could have done that online. You could have gotten the price online from Mapleson himself. So online, online, online, Costcoadoprying.com, TrueCard.com are the best ways to be a car without being ripped off by a car dealer. And that sums up. We had something else interesting on there. I don't know if you caught that. So we've been saying on the show the best way to determine whether

it, a fee is legitimate or not, is if they charge sales tax to it. So if there is a sales tax charged to it a fee, no matter what they call it, it's a dealer fee. It's profit to the dealer. On their buyer's order, it was very strange. So they had the, um, tag, yeah, the tag, you know, the e tag filing fee and the bar and the dealer fee were above the sales tax line, but the private tag agency fee was below the line. However, they did calculate sales tax on it.

So it was a kind of like a shuffling around. maybe to disguise it. Well, it would be interesting if there are actually, one possible explanation is there mistakenly charging sales tax on the $149, did we actually do the, we don't know. Oh, yeah, I did the calculation. Oh, they did not charge it.

No, they did. Sales tax, when you take the total amount of sales tax, it included that 149. Well, they shouldn't be charging sales tax on that. On the tagging fee? Yeah. Well, yeah, they should. I mean, oh, okay, they did charge.

Yeah. What I'm saying, you know, what I meant to say is maybe they didn't charge, but they did charge. Okay, very good. So maybe the only reason there would be because it sounded like. Because of this show. Somebody gets out. Oh, that must be legitimate.

It's after sales tax. Yeah. It's hard to do. It takes time, but that is the acid test. When you see a fee, you can't understand or describe or assimilate, just check it out arithmetically to see if the 6% floor of sales tax was charged. If they charged 6% floor of sales tax, it is an illegitimate. fee. It is the profit of the dealer.

And that's, I'm sure, as it does. That's what I was explaining to Larry Mullenicks, by the way, when I was talking to him about his dealership at North Palm Beach or Lake Park. So there we have it. We have to come up with some scores here. Do we have some online scores? We do. We have a D from Mr. Eggers.

We have a C from Joni. Gail gives him an F. Blaney gives him an F. Bob gives him a D-plus. Linda, long-time listener, we love her, gives them a huge F, but an A-plus for our show. Oh, thank you, Linda. All right, Stu, what's your score?

Gosh, it's tough because I wasn't kidding. In the epilogue, I mentioned, that's just your typical day in a car dealership in South Florida. C-minus. I'm passing them. Nancy? Excuse me for stealing your material, but it is so typical.

so typical and C minus Rick I'm giving them a D minus barely passing but I just think they they just played the game it's yeah I'm wondering if the guys wearing

polyester pants and a two inch wide white belt you know yeah exactly I think one of the reason it's so hard for us is because it is an able to dealership and the Naples dealerships had been the worst to the worst for so long. But frankly, I'll give him, I'll give him a C. I'm going to give them the highest grade a C because it's typical.

And the dealer fees, the multiple dealer fees, we grade on the curve, we have to grade on the curve. We have to have a recommended dealer list. Otherwise, there's no place to buy cars. If you want to buy Hyundai, Napleton Hyundai in North Palm Beach on North Lake Boulevard, They didn't lie. Yeah, they didn't lie. There was no high pressure. They let them leave with a complete official buyer's order.

That's even another reason. Because a lot of cartels won't give you that. And they'll tell you if you leave, the price is no good when you come back. So there was less deception here. I almost want to give them a C plus. You didn't change your grade. If Napleton is getting better, then we've accomplished our mission. We're near the end of the show.

Recommend them. Yeah, and that's our mystery shop from Napleton. Napleton, North Palm Beach, Hyundai. Folks, don't forget you can go to Earl oncars.com. You can see the good dealer, bad dealer list podcast from our past shows and our show today. And all our past mystery shopping reports, there's a whole lot there. And you can bring you up to speed. We want to thank all of you for tuning in to Earl Stewart on Cars.

And we'll be right back here next week. Have a wonderful weekend. Let's go. Oh, go away. Oh, go away. Oh, go. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Vendor to me Wendom Wondon Wendtom Wra Oh

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