Earl Stewart on Cars - 04.06.2024 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Massey Yardley CDJR of Plantation, FL.

Episode Date: April 6, 2024

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning travels to the Fort Lauderdale area to visits a local CDJR dealer in Plantation, and see how much they will charge for a new leftover 2023 Dodge Charger GT. 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, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting self-forwarded dealership. And now, on with the show. Good morning, everybody. We're back again. Live in color, Facebook. We're on YouTube, and we've been doing this thing here for 20 years. I hate to bore all you regular lists. really good following and but a lot of new people tune in every week every

Eastern standard time 10 to 10 a.m. and we're in North Palm Beach, Florida. We've been doing it since well as I say over 20 years and start out at a half an hour now we're up to two hours so new folks keep coming on board so we talk to them as if they haven't heard the show before because they haven't heard the show before so my apologies to you, regulars, thousands and thousands of you out there. We're a show about what you need to know before you buy a new or used car, or for that matter, lease or maintain repair, or anything to do with automobiles, especially automobile dealers. We have a unique industry, a unique retail platform that hasn't changed in 100 years.

still selling cars today, and I say we, because I am a car dealer in the way of full disclosure. We're selling cars today the same way we did a hundred years ago. Horse trading. It's like literally we evolved from the way horses were changed hands, you know, back in the old days, you know, when you were, you had the barns and you had stables, you know, kind of like gun smoke and you want to buy a new horse. It was a haggling sort of a process. You didn't have a manufacturer-suggested retail price on the horse.

It was what you could get the other guy to pay it for the horse. And that's the way the car business evolved. That's the way it is today. I mean, when you talk about it and think about it, it almost sounds ludicrous, doesn't it? I mean, you can't imagine walking into a normal retail store like Costco or Target or Kmart. Oh, I said, Kmart is gone now, right? Apple store and say I'll give you that much money for that iPhone and the salesman says let me talk to my manager I mean it's so ludicrous it makes you

laugh but that's the way you buy a car today new car or use car or lease a car for that matter it's almost as bad in the service department so this show is dedicated to arm you with the tools you need the knowledge suggestions to make it safer for you to go into a car dealership or an independent dealership, for that matter, used car, had your car maintained or repaired, same sort of thing. People think they're safe when they service their cars, but did you know that most car dealerships and, in fact, almost all independents have a junk fee on their, when you at least a car, I mean, when you repair the car.

So you might be paying a bigger fee when you buy a car in terms of junk fees, but when you maintain and repair your car, which is more frequent, if you add up the visits and the smaller junk fees, you're probably paying percentage-wise about the same thing you did when you bought the car. So they're getting you either way. Listen to the show, and we will try to help you avoid that danger. We have a number of venues to call, number of avenues, to get through to us, communicate with us here.

We're in North Palm Beach, Florida, as I say. And our main number, if you've got a pencil handy, you want to write this down if you can't call now. The number is 877-960-99-60. 877-9-60-9-9-60. We have a text number, which is 772-49765-30. Let's text, remember, 772-4976530. Now, we've got five incoming lines here,

and sometimes we get jammed up, and I apologize to those that have called in weeks past and not been able to get through. We're put on hold too long. We do our best to avoid that. So Nancy Stewart, my co-host, sitting next to me here, got a laptop computer, and Jeremy in the control room, Every time you call, your name goes on the screen, your number, where you're calling from.

And we stop what we're doing in the studio. If Rick Kearney, who is my certified diagnostic master technician, most of you know, if you listen to the show. If he's talking, if I'm talking, my son, Stu, is not in the studio this morning. But if anybody in the studio is talking and a phone call comes through, we will stop and take her call. value phone calls. We actually, this sounds like I'm just flattering the audience, but it's true. We actually learn more from you than I think a lot of what we have to say on the show. Because you ask questions that are timely and you make suggestions that are timely.

You tell us about experiences that you've had somewhere in the country or the world when you went into have your car repaired or maintained or when you bought a car. And it's really, really interesting. We've got a whole flock. I call them a flock. They're Rick Kearney's YouTubers. And if you've got a smart phone or you've got a PC and you want to go YouTube.com forward slash Earl on Cars,

YouTube.com forward slash Earl and Cars. Rick is looking at that right now. And he can tell if you've made it a posting or maybe send a question or recommendation, even an audio clip or a video clip we can get right on top of that and I'd like to have some new YouTubers try it so I give the new address or the address out

it's YouTube.com for slash roll on cars and Rick actually you know we probably it probably ought to be Rick on cars because I'm talking about buying and selling cars Rick has talked about maintaining and repairing. So everybody has a problem with maintaining and repairing a car. Some of you don't have the problem with buying the car.

You already bought the car. And you're not thinking about or worrying about buying another car for four or five years. But if you bought a car, you better be bringing that car in at least once a year, maybe twice a year, and you have to have a check. And when you go in to an independent service department or you go into a car dealership service department, you can really be victimized. Rick? Johnny Z. Freidly wants to know, when Napoleon was selling horses,

did they put nitrogen in the hooves? I tell you, wouldn't it be fun to go back in time and just buy a horse? I wish we could send Agent Lightning back in time and have her go in and negotiate. Because it's very, very similar, right? I mean, I bet they had some tricks that we don't even know.

I say we, car dealers, probably don't even know today. I wonder if there was a horse junk fee. I mean, you'd agree upon a price, and then you'd have a stable price. We have a stable documentary fee. Well, I bet they were pretty unstable. Right.

Anyway, it is kind of funny. I mean, it is, and people who grew up, older people, who grew up with the haggling. Haggling used to be all over. As a matter of fact, retail and I haven't been to Europe

at a long time but when Nancy and I were Too long. Younger, yeah, we would travel and when you go out of the country there's a lot more haggling going on. I just got the high sign. Nancy has a phone call. I shut up and it's up to Nancy. Yeah, we're going to jump right on the phones. Good morning, Doug.

Welcome. Doug's calling us from Fort Lauderdale. Welcome. Yes, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Earl and Cars. What can we do for you, Doug? Yes, Nancy. I have a 2010 Lincoln Town car that I bought last summer with 50,000 miles on it in a very good shape. The problem I'm having is it's stalling out occasionally when I'm stopped at a light or waiting for something,

even coming into a parking spot where it's going slow it'll stall out just before I park it but I can start right back up and everything else is normal Rick what do you think about that Has anyone looked at it yet for that condition? Yeah yeah I had it looked at I had it there for two days and they couldn't find really anything they changed the fuel filter but tells me, you know, it's pretty much a computer thing.

Yeah, the fuel filter is the first thing I'm going to ignore because a fuel filter would cause more of an issue at higher speeds when it's getting a great volume of fuel going through and a restricted fuel filter would slow that down and cause problems like on the highway. So yes, coming to a stop, fuel filter first thing that I would not be looking at, I would be looking more towards the concern of obviously the computer, maybe the throttle body. Actually, I think the throttle body is going to be my first choice.

However, the first place I always recommend folks do is go online and look for forums on your particular car. and you will find that nationwide and even worldwide about every maker model of car has got a fan club and in these forum sites quite often there's going to be four or five different guys that I will call gurus these are the guys that they have

they know these cars inside and out and they've taken them apart 15 times and put them back together and I'd say they probably are going to be the best choice for giving information about that. Car grooms. Okay, now, Earl just looked up and got a just-an-answer on a website here, and they're saying that for the 2010 Lincoln Town Car,

the fuel pump relay and the AC clutch relay. Yeah, either one of those, AC-clutch relays certainly could be causing that issue because the air conditioner will try to turn itself on and off at certain times, and if that air conditioner comes on or stays on when the computer isn't expecting it, that can be too much to draw on the engine and cause it to stall. The fuel pump relay obviously could be intermittently causing an issue like that. Doug, have you tried to Google it yet? What Rick was reading there, I just Googled 2010 Lincoln Town Car stalling problems,

and there's a lot, a lot of information there. And if you went to Google and did that, you could probably narrow it down even further. Well, that's a lot of help. Well, good. Let us know how it works out. If you get the right answer there and have someone that can take care of it for you, we'd let to have you call back.

Yeah, I've had it. The weather's been better, so I haven't had the AC on all the time. and it has stalled without the AC on. Okay. Yeah, I'd be looking at the throttle body because it has what's called the idle air control, which when the throttle body plate closes, they close pretty good now.

They seal very tightly, and there's a bypass that lets a certain amount of air go through so that the car will idle. And if that bypass, that idle air control is sticking, then it's not getting the right amount of air through, and it can cause the car to stall. I've seen that on a lot of older Toyotas. So that's probably one of the first places I'd be looking at.

Yeah, there's a matter of fact, Johnny Fraudley on YouTube, he says he had that problem on a similar car. So with the idle air control. We've had a lot of feedback, Doug, and Air Idol is one of them, spark plugs. So there's a few issues to look at. Give us a call. Let us know how things turned out for you.

I will, and thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Doug. Okay, before I switch back to Roe, I want to let the ladies know that I have $50 for the first two new lady callers. This morning, $50 for the first two new lady callers. And we've got a great show to get to, and I'll send it back to her. Well, let me give you some good news. This has been happening gradually for those of you who are with us through the whole pandemic.

issue pre and post pandemic. You've seen the craziness in the car buying business, a car selling business for that matter. And some of you paid exorbitant prices for cars during this period because you had to have a car or maybe you just wanted a car so bad you paid. And you might have paid four or five or even more thousands of dollars over sticker price. The good news is that the microchip shortage is not an issue. The supply chain is not as big an issue, I should say. The inventories are building considerably. Car dealers are coming back to where they were pre-pandemic

where they had too many cars, and there are a lot of makes. One reason I was thinking about that, a dog who call from Port Lauderdale, he's got a Lincoln town car. If you want to buy a Lincoln today, a Lincoln town car, they're stacking up on the lots and the dealers can't get rid of them. So maybe, Doug, if you're listening, if you're in the market for another car, if you like Lincoln Town car, you can buy one. And if you listen to the show, if you look at our blog and you follow our tips on how to be careful, you can come up with a really good price with competitive bids.

By getting competitive bids from various Lincoln dealers, you can get a very, very good price. And the same thing applies to a lot of marks. Honda and Toyota are the exceptions. Honda and Toyota are doing very well right now, and their inventories are not as high as most of the other manufacturers. So if you've been hiding out, waiting for the market to get right, the market is right, but you still have to get the competitive bids and you have to follow the advice that you see at Earl and Cars.

Rick? I saw an interesting report yesterday that said that the new Dodge Charger, their new two-door model, there's a potential there for them to have a 400-day supply of those cars. And if they stop building them right now, they would still have enough cars to sell them for 400 days. Another example is the F-150 electric. Ford can't get rid of them. I mean, they've got a warehouse. The manufacturers are starting to get nervous.

And Ford, for example, is going to this new, what they call stair-step incentives, which is this crazy program that throws pricing into disarray. The dealers don't know what to price the car at. The buyer doesn't know what to buy the car at. It's a chaotic old school. I go back to pre-pandemic when you could buy a car at the end of the month for thousands of dollars less than you could buy it for at the beginning of the month

because of the old way cars were sold. We're getting back to that way, folks, and if you use that to your advantage, you can get a heck of a price on a newer-used car today. Great information. I'm going to give out that number again. I'll jot this number down. You may need it throughout the show,

and also the text number 877-960-99-60, and you can also text us at 772-497-7-7-7. 6530. You'll need that text number if you want to vote on our mystery shop. Our mystery shopping report comes from Agent Lightning, and I will repeat what she said later in the show, which will surprise you. The mystery shop is of Massey, Yardley, CDJ Plantation. It is an interesting mystery shop. Also, we have Connie. Connie is our retriever, Black

Labrador, that comes to us this week, the dog of the week. And we'll feature that at about 9.30. And as I said, we have an interesting show to get to. Back to Earl. Yeah, Big Dog Grants Rescue,

which Nancy just mentioned, our regular listeners are all about that. Big Dog Ranch Rescue is our our charity, our pet charity. We have a book available called, what's the name of my book? Confessions of a recovering card dealer. Confessions of a recovering card dealer. I know you were just kidding.

It's on Amazon. I'm going to interrupt you. You can think about what's in that book. So can I. Hey, we're going to go to John in Palm City. Good morning, John. Welcome. Good morning.

Earl gave some good news about the current car market, and I want to share good news. GM, General Motors, stopped sharing the data information on drivers of insurance. They were selling it to three major companies, LexisNexis, which is nothing to do with Lexus. They were selling it to Rick Solutions and Veriq, and they've been doing it since quite a few years. And it was exposed in 2022 by a New York Times article and a Florida man started a class action suit. And some people had their insurance doubled. And kind of wise guy that General Motors would they're giving you like free on star with a new vehicle that you buy? And meantime, they were monitoring everything that you were driving habits and selling it and making money on it.

Oh, geez. That's the good news. They stopped sharing this data with the private companies, and they were getting paid for. Well, that was shocking. I read that, too, John, and I was amazed that General Motors would do that type of thing. There are some manufacturers out there that wouldn't surprise me, but the fact that they were secretly selling that information. Now, that information they collected, and if you are involved in an accident or something,

than the evidence in the black box, they call it, is made available to the courts and to the lawyers. But that's a different story. But to sell it is really immoral. I was really disappointed in General Motors that they would do that. Corporate America, selling everything they can. But I want to tell you, it goes further than that. I spoke to a woman, she's a widow.

She lives here in Stillwood, and she has an Escalade Cadillac, and she went to a wedding in Palm Beach exclusive wedding, and she left the car, which is a long period with a attendance, okay? And it turns out to be she did her homework. She found out her insurance suddenly was almost doubled, and now we all been raised in Florida, but this gets worse. It seems like the attendant that took the car to park at the valet parking was free. It was painful by a wedding.

to take in that car and did some damage or not physical damage, but did some spin-outs or whatever he did, acceleration, and that got recorded, and it was against that, but she was able to find out the exact time that it happened, and that she couldn't prove it. But in the meantime, her insurance, just from that incident alone, not her fault, somebody else driving the car, a valet parking attendant, and it was against her on her insurance. Well, that's very interesting. So, you know, what a perfect way to, you know, every now and then you get a ding or something on your car and you swear you didn't do it, but you know, you had a valet parked or something like that. So that would be recorded in the black box.

And it's your request, the owner can request that information? Or I did it, or was it the insurance company that had to request the information? Yes. Insurance company, okay, I got it, yeah. I'm always against Every time I have valet parking I do something very smart I take care of the guy and I give him cash

And I said to him listen I'm going to park the car myself Just show me where I should go And I don't trust Some valet parking They actually hire security So the security can check on the valet parking guys Oh geez

Yeah so it's interesting But thank God GM have stopped this cold. No more sharing down on drivers. Good information, John. I really appreciate the call. All right, guys. Have a great weekend.

Thank you for taking my call. That information by Toyota is known as record of behavior. And any time that you go wide open throttle or a hard braking or a hard high speed steering, say you're in a parking lot, you turn really quick,

even just someone out driving in a totally empty road, the car records every single incident of that and every time it records it, this is all being uploaded to the cloud and the car manufacturers are able to see all this information. Now they're tabulating it, collecting it, and like he was saying, some of them were selling it and they have been caught. Yeah. Record of behavior on I-95. That's what I want to see. Ladies and gentlemen, that number is 877-960, and you can text us at 772-492-497-6530. And don't forget your Anonymous Feedback.com.

Ladies, do you have a car purchasing service, car purchasing or servicing experience that you'd like to share with us? and you would be helping others who are listening, give us a call, and you can win yourself $50 this morning, $50 for the first two new lady callers. 877-960-9960. Now back to the recovering car dealer. And don't forget our anonymous feedback number. We have a, it's actually a web, a website,

and it's Your Anonymous Feedback.com, Y-O-U-R-A-N-Y-M-O-U-S-Feedback.com. And a lot of people use it just for normal comments and suggestions. But if you have something you don't want, we're just talking about privacy and people value their privacy.

So if you just like to make a comment, say something that we don't know who you are or where you're from or anything like that, you feel freer sometimes to speak. And we'd love to have that. We keep track of that. We get several of those. We use a website called Incognito.

It's used by a lot of blue chip companies around the country that like to hear candid remarks from their employees or candid remarks from their customers. And when people speak freely, oftentimes you get the truth. Of course, sometimes you don't get the truth, but at least the opportunity to say anything you want, the fear is taken out when it's when it's not known so in your anonymous feedback.com and incognito Earl was mentioning earlier when I spoke about Connie or Labrador retriever he was mentioning

his book and the reason he was mentioning his book Confessions of a recovering car dealer was that our relationship with Big Dog Ranch goes, well, our reach is pretty far. And that includes the book that you can purchase either on Amazon or you can go to Erlon Cars. And it is confessions of a recovering car dealer. All proceeds go to Big Dog Ranch. Oh, thank you. Feed that dog, would you? At any right, Connie is so precious.

Wait until you see the video of Connie at about 9.30. So that is Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer, and you can find that book on Amazon. We are going to go to Frank from Jupiter Farms. Good morning, Frank. Good morning to you all. It's always a pleasure waking up and hearing your show. Well, thank you. Thank you, Frank.

Did Earl happen to see the little cartoon I sent him about bacon the other day? I've got that in the messages. I was going to message that over to Earl real soon here. Okay, no problem. I thought it was ironic that you like bacon with chocolate. It's a unique combination. Oh, I thought you were talking. about me with my bacon and how I was busted out on the sunrise but that's another show

oh no Rick's going to show Earl your comment about bacon hold on a hold on a second yeah I just saw the picture oh did you folks for those of you listening it's an egg a couple slices of toast, a cup of coffee, and a huge, huge plate of bacon, and one of those little pew-poo lead-throwing devices. And Frank, now that we have, because of Earl, he purchased a toaster oven. Well, it's a little more elaborate than that, but he had his first taste of bacon cooked in that oven. And, well, you're very lucky. that you're not watching him eat bacon right now because he loved that bacon that was cooked a whole different way wow that's that's interesting a lot to explore that but i i've been in your dealership

a couple times this last week um we heard i got my yeah we saw patty and um we're still trying to figure out how to get my name off that title for um it's just in my son's name for it but We're still working on that. I appreciate the help. And we'll see how that progresses. I'll follow up on that for you, Frank. I didn't realize we're still struggling with that. But I don't see why it should be a problem, but I'll look into it.

Oh, well, thank you. I appreciate it. And again, I think about the time, like, we used to go every Friday morning for a prayer breakfast at Lighthouse Diner. And that's when I started meeting up here, your police officers from your community there, which is not a very big police force, but it was an interesting bunch of folks. So anyway, with that, I'd better let you get back to other folks. But you all have a really nice weekend.

Oh, thank you, Frank. Same to you, my friend. Enjoy totality. Have a great weekend, Frank. Our number here is 877960-9960, and you can text us at 772-497-6530. Now back to the record. covering car dealer. We were just talking about anonymous feedback and that's our website.

You can go to your anonymous feedback.com and if you'd like to say something or suggest something or ask a question and we don't want to know we don't want you to know who you are. We will read these and I'm going to read one right now that came in just recently. You can, of course, identify yourself if you want to, but the ideal idea is not to have have to. Here's the anonymous feedback. I bought both of the last two vehicles using the Costco program. We talk about the Costco program a lot here. That's our number one recommended way to buy a new car without being ripped off. If you're a Costco member, in fact, if you're not a Costco member, we advise you to join Costco for 65 bucks. It's an annual membership,

and it's well worth it because you can save a lot of money buying a car through the Costco auto buying program. going on with the anonymous feedback, obviously I knew going in the dealer wasn't going to make a deal without making any profit. And that's okay because I feel I got a nice deal both times. I found on both occasions after doing a lot of research in my local area with using Edmonds and the Kelly Blue Book and others, those are both consortions, by the way, that I got a very fair deal and actually paid less than others in my area paid for the same vehicle.

A fair deal is fine with me. So, you know, you car dealers out there who are listening to these calls and comments. Nobody's trying to take the, you know, the bread off your table, the money out of your pocket. We want you to make a profit. We want you to have a profitable business, but we just don't want to be gouged. And that's what the hue and cry is all about. Just a fair price. So the Costco auto buying program, we recommend.

and the Costco contract says with the dealer that you will sell any car on your lot, any car that you sell must be at a lower price. They don't tell you how much lower. It could be $1 or $100 or $1,000 or $1,000, but it has to be lower than the lowest price that you would sell that car for or have sold that car for to anyone else. And they audit you. So if you can find, and now I'm talking to you, you know, all the listeners, if you can find a Costco approved dealership in your zip code, and you just go to Costco.com, and you can go and talk to them in their auto buying program, they will tell you the surrounding Costco warehouses that are members of this auto buying program. And when you go to that dealer, you ask to see the Costco representative, and that's named on the Costco website. So that way you know you're dealing with Costco representative and not a salesman who says, I am a Costco representative, and he's really not. So you identify the Costco representative, and then you ask to see for the Costco price sheet, Costco requires that they have a price sheet,

that every car they have has the special Costco price on. And you verify that the price that the Costco representative gave you is the same price is on the price sheet. Now, by contract, that price is lower than that car has been sold to anybody else that dealer has sold that car to, that you're making model. Now, that's a pretty good deal. And usually it's considerably lower

than just about anything else in the market. So there's a lesson to be learned. If you don't have a Costco warehouse near you, it might be worth the drive because Costco's all over the United States. And if you had to drive 50 miles, it might be worth the drive just for the benefit of the price. And you can do this online, by the way. And if you do it online, then all you have to do is pick up the car. Maybe they deliver the car to you. So Costco auto buying program, we highly recommend.

Yeah, great information for all of you out there. Talking about information, listen to this, guys. Indiana Department of Transportation is teaming up with Purdue University to install a stretch of highway to test wirelessly charging electric vehicles as they travel. Is that interesting? Construction is expected to begin this spring. and be completed by summer. And the work will entail removing the existing pavement

and installing coil circuits and electronics, including inverters and transmitters. Wow, that should be very interesting. Our number here is 877-960-99-60, and you can also text us at 772-449-9. we're going to go back to the phones where we have our regular caller jersey mike from west palm beach and he really believes in big dog ranch and he is always adopting and you know talking about the veterans program out there hi jersey mike hi folks another great show love it i'd really really

like it. Thanks. Thanks, Jersey, Mike. Thanks for tuning in every week. I'm going out to Big Dog Ranch again today. I'm going to see if I can get lucky enough to get there before it disappears

because the last time I tried it, it didn't work. I got there and it was already gone. I'm going to go see if I can get Connie today. Oh, Connie. Yeah, Connie is really a pretty one. She is just absolutely adorable. How old is she?

She is, I think she's only about eight months old. Oh, she's a young guy. Okay. Yeah, she's eight months. To be exact, she's eight months in one week. Well, being a big dog, she's probably about the exact same size as Colette that I've already

went out there and got. I bet you're right about that. Okay. So let's get the cars. One thing you folks don't know is back in the day, because I'm an old guy, all right? I'm a motorhead, you know, I've gone this and done that and everything else. I used to have a 69 Corvette that I really worked over, took the heads off,

took them to a racing shop, had them redone, you know, and I put a cam in it, side pipes, I dyno did it out on the denominator to a 490 horse. I could do 060 and 4.0 seconds with a stopwatch. So it was really a fast car. And I never took it out except for the weekends. And everybody that wanted to come up alongside me in a race, I beat every single time. And only took it out on the weekends because they see it

and they'd want to race. You know, we had different places we could go in North Jersey there where, like, an entrance to the Garden State Parkway that was like long straight, like it was longer than a quarter mile and we used to do right there.

All right. So anyway, what they don't know, what you guys don't know is there was a time when I actually took a jug, a plastic jug, put it in my trunk, filled it with four, not this is not on the Corvette,

this was on a command, Okay, 327 Camaro. Standard car was all stock, you know, it was in beautiful shape. And I went ahead and I put water in that container in the trunk. And I read the line up, fished it through the interior of the car, and up and through the firewall and into the car, but I put a spray and eyeball on it. Now, you could not use this when you were taking off and beginning to accelerate.

But when the car had momentum, you know, you're doing 50 miles an hour or 60 miles an hour going from North Jersey down to South Jersey traveling on the Jersey Turnpite the Guard State Parkway I was able to get 38% more gas mileage by

believe it or not spraying water into the good bunch of chambers You hear that Rick? Now I'm sure you're spraying just tiny amounts Yeah I had the floor with the nozzle several times before I

got it right because otherwise it would just flood it out the only thing that i can guess at is that you are probably cleaning out a lot of carbon and thereby making the car run more efficiently which would improve your fuel economy in the long run big time yeah because i saved myself about uh three gallons of gasoline to going down there i said i'll guess it was cheap back there i mean you know it was kind of foolish but i wanted to see if i could do that and i was able to figure it out, and it actually did work. And I don't know why they don't install hydrogen

or water, which is H2O, that makes hydrogen in cars for better fuel economy from the car manufacturers. Well, there's no, you don't get any hydrogen out of water. I know water has hydrogen, H2O, hydrogen, two

molecules, two atoms of hydrogen. But they're a lot together so it becomes an entirely different chemical substance you can't it's very very hard to separate the hydrogen it can be done but you can't do it by spraying

it into your engine. Well wait wait if you're in the combustion chamber on a compression stove coming up the cylinder is coming up and then it fires as that fires that's going to split that molecule and release that hydrogen. No it won't

I have to I have to tell you I have a degree in physics and it's a, you know, if you know better than I, I'll take your word for it. You know, you have to use the hydrogen bomb. They finally figure out how to get the hydrogen out by separating the hydrogen. And the amount of energy that you have to put in to separate the hydrogen atom from the oxygen atom in water, there's so much energy there that you're going to. I'm going to take a guess.

I'm going to take a guess in physics. Maybe because the water is being, I had the food with different. for nozzles, otherwise it wouldn't work. But when I finally got down to a very fine mist, maybe what it does is it actually assist with the combustion of the gasoline and so you get a better

burn, maybe. I don't know, I'm guessing. Personally, what I would see is occurring. Now, in a perfect world, a very perfect world, you have oxygen and hydrocarbon going into the combustion chamber.

Hydrocarbon is your gasoline particles and oxygen. When those combust, when they combine together in combustion, now you have a change in your physical structure and the output is now carbon dioxide and H2O, water. These are what you, in a very perfect world, perfect combustion would be HC and O2 going into the chamber and CO2 and H2O coming back out of the combustion chamber in the exhaust. That would be the perfect world combustion. By adding in extra H2O that is in a much more stable molecule, because hydrocarbon is not a very

stable molecule, H2O is a much more stable molecule. What you're actually doing is the H-2O is actually being vaporized into high-temperature steam, and it's actually steam-cleaning the inside of the cylinder. That is fantastic information, Rick. We have four phone calls. One last question. One last question, please, real quick. I have a friend, a good friend, who has a BMW X-3 at 2018 with 60,000 miles on,

and he's put into it in repairs from a local dealer down here. Your lightning shop, you should go there and check it out on military trail here in West Palm Beach where they sell sports cars and other exotic cars. I don't remember the name of the dealership, but what has happened is he's put $11,800 of his money into that car, never gotten reimbursed for it in any way, and what they're basically doing is robbing this man because when he goes there, they don't only fix what's wrong. they ruin or they do other things to the engine or the compartment to make him come back for more repairs

and he's been foolish enough to do that. Can you go into looking as a lightning inspector at that location? Say that again. Is it possible your lightning inspector may go there? Oh, is it like undercover? Yeah, yeah, we could, we should do some service inspections. That's the possibility of Texas. to see information on that.

One last quick question. Does it matter if I lease a brand new Subaru in South Florida? If you always advise, don't buy anything in South Florida. Would that make any difference whatsoever because I got my eyeball on the Subaru out back here locally? Well, as long as you shop and compare,

as long as you shop at compare, I mean, good deals can be had in South Florida. It's just a lot harder. I mean, if you can go elsewhere, It's a lot of easier tasks, but you get a really good price if you really mind your P's and Q's. Well, thank you so much for answering all my questions. You've got a great show. Keep up the good work. You're doing a big service for the general public.

Thank you, Mike. I appreciate that. Okay, we're going to go to Boynton. We're going to go to Roadrunner, Steve. Me, me. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. I was listening to the part about the Costco deal.

Yeah. And when they all said, you would go to the dealer and ask for the Costco dealer, and the salesman would say, oh, I'm the Costco dealer, but he's lying. That's right. Yeah. Okay, so when you go to Costco, don't they give you all reference and names to speak to at the deal issue? Yes, I do. That's the reason you go to Costco first, and you ask, and on the Costco website,

when you give them your zip code, they'll tell you the names of the Costco representatives. at that dealership. Okay, so it's up to the customer to ask without us. You know, he'll go in there blind. Yeah, yeah. You're probably better off to call and say, look, I just spent on the Costco website. You have a Costco representative his name as Bill Jones. I'd like to come and speak to Bill Jones.

Will he be working tomorrow afternoon or get his schedule and make an appointment to see the Costco representative? That way, you're far less likely to be scammed by just the average sales. person claiming it to be the Costco guy. Okay, the other thing is, the guy with the watering, spraying into the carburetor? Yeah. Okay, well, back in the day, remember Grandpa Munster? He invented a pill to turn water into gasoline, okay?

Uh-huh. With that, so I started laughing when he brought that up, so that was the only thing with that. Well, yeah. And here's something I heard the other day, speaking of car dealerships, and crooks, like oil and water, the truth shall rise to the surface. Thanks so much, Steve. Thank you, Roadrunner. We appreciate your call.

The Charlie Chan, the dark alibi. There you go. Okay. Ladies, do you have a car purchasing or servicing experience? You'd be willing to share with us? Please give us a call toll-free. first two ladies, new ladies, that you can win yourself $50 this morning,

$877-960-99-60. We're going to go to Howard. Good morning, Howard. Welcome. You there, Howard? Yeah, right, right. I'm here. Okay, my question is,

the next camera coming at, 2025. I have no idea. and if it's going to be the exact same thing. I know it's a hybrid, but will it be the same as the 2024 hybrid or will it be different, will there be more innovations, or do you have that information now?

Well, it depends on, you know, if you talk about Toyota's, Toyota has already got a pretty sophisticated hybrid, so I think some of the other manufacturers are playing catch-up, but you won't see any major breakthrough in hybrid in one year I think that

if you compare the Prius that we have today with the Prius of 25 years ago their night and day they've just made some incredible improvements in terms of battery life and efficiency and fuel economy

and everything so it's if you buy a hybrid today especially with a hybrid manufacturer that's been doing it for a while, you're really getting about the best product you can buy. And that's the reason that a lot of people are saying

that Toyota was smarter than we thought they were when they kind of nixed on the EV idea. We're going to put the EV on the back burner and go with a hybrid as a transition until we can finally build a really good EV. Right now, you buy an all-electric vehicle. you're buying it with typical bugs and problems that any technology has when they first get started.

So Toyota said, hey, I'll sell you an EV, but it's not 100% EV, and it's the best one on the market, and that's the reason that they're just absolutely doing an incredible job today. Their Honda and Toyota both are doing an incredible job. Well, you think eventually we're going to get to the point where all cars will be EV? Oh, sure. Yeah, no, there's no question. Anybody that is serious and educated in this whole process is when an EV, all-electric vehicle is finally near perfection, it's going to be the total answer.

And in fact, it isn't just all-EV. What you're going to have is you're going to have an all-EV autonomous car. people don't believe that it sounds too crazy today but that's what it will be and people will not own the cars they will time share because you know think about it you go out you spend $50,000 on a new car and you only drive it about 25% of the time now what if you could buy that a $50,000 car for for $15,000 or $16,000 and you only use it $20,000 75% of the time when somebody else use it the other 75% of the time. And you know, there's no sense when you drive in a car once the technology is perfected because the autonomous driver driving will be far safer than the human. But we can't visualize that today. We can't see it, feel it, smell it, just doesn't sound logical.

And there are a lot of people right now there listening to them and say, Earl's crazy. That's not going to happen. They're never going to happen. but in 25 years, there won't be a combustion engine car on the road unless it's an antique, and the collectors will have them. But for driving, it'll be all EV, all autonomous. What about the infrastructure? How are you going to get the infrastructure and get rid of the gas stations?

Well, you're exactly right. That's the reason that's everything is going so slow. Now, the infrastructure is going to be a whole lot different than what we're talking about. We're talking about, you heard Nancy earlier in the show, talking about in Indiana, they put in a highway that you can drive on and automatically charges your car. So you talk about a huge infrastructure change to take all the highways in the United States and convert them into charging stations for your car. So you get on I-95 here in Florida in Miami and you drive to Jacksonville and you're on an EV. When you get to Jacksonville, you've got a full charge because you've been charging your car all the way. from Miami. And listen, to interrupt you, and Howard, I think that, Rick, did you see Donovan's

comment to my comment about the building? About Michigan? Yeah, about Michigan and how it's already. Michigan's been testing an electrified road, but Sweden has had an operational electrified highway, one of them, for about three to four years now. Yeah, but Michigan, getting back to Michigan, when was that when did they begin that work a couple years ago okay so there you go Howard we have Michigan Rick mentioned Sweden we've got Indiana that is expected to start in the spring and be completed by summer so we are moving forward as far as these roads are concerned great information thank you very much very informative and Have a good day.

Thank you, Howard. Ladies, $50 for you this morning for the first two new lady callers, 877-960. Give us a call. You can win yourself $50. We're going to go back to the phones, and we are going to talk to Paul, who is calling us from Denver. Good morning, Paul. Good morning, folks. Regarding the data privacy issues in cars and then in general,

general. I wanted to provide some information. So Subaru, and I imagine other manufacturers as well, has an option on there. You can call their national line, and they'll direct you to, they could send you a form, email it to you, that you could fill out. It doesn't take very long. Actually, it's online. It's just a matter of finding it online. It might be easier just to call them, to opt out. So they will not, and I did it a couple of weeks, two weeks ago. I opted out of them collecting any information. Well, they collected, but they can't share it or sell it anywhere. And then I also am getting a copy of all the information they've already collected, and then I've asked them to delete it. So they have those three specific options.

available to you. Oh. I'm guessing that the other manufacturers, I certainly don't know about Toyota because I have a few Subaru's. So that's that one piece. I suggest that people who are interested in that kind of thing.

Yeah, that's a, they're very progressive. I'm always impressed with not only the way Subaru builds cars or the way they sell cars, and now they're, they really respect their customers. That's, if you heard earlier in the show, General Motors just got sued and had to pay a lot of money out because they were selling this data, unbeknownst to the people that actually the data was about. So there's a difference between the moral imperative of Subaru and General Motors right there. Well, Subaru was doing it, but they didn't, and weren't, and most people didn't know about it. Oh, so they changed their, I see.

They just provided an option. now that you could opt out. Now, I don't know how long that option existed. I just found out about it. Now, here's the other piece for general information regarding it. So obviously, one of the vendors that they sell it to was LexisNexis, as was previously mentioned, one of the largest data brokers in the world. So, Lexus, you could opt out of Lexus, Texas, too, and I've done that.

So similarly, you can go on. mind to the Alexis nexus data site and uh for free i mean this is all for free i opted out of them um collecting it uh or sharing it i should say selling it sharing it for free whatever they don't do anything for free uh selling it i've asked them to uh again there's an option of them sending me uh making available to me a copy of all the data so you can correct it or um or just review it to see who they provide what it is and who they provided it to and then you could ask them to delete it you also have an option on lexas nests to freeze the uh your profile your account so i and when i say account it's not something i've ever signed up for they just collected from Subaru to whoever else uh but they um that freezes a lot more than just the automobile that freezes everybody, and everybody in the world basically uses LexisNex, the attorneys, the courts, you know, a lot of landlords, et cetera, et cetera.

So that's information. Again, it's a lot of cause. It's not like, first of all, I don't have anything to hide, but I don't want, I respect my privacy. I want my privacy. I cannot get 100%. There's no way in this world. that ship has sailed.

But at least there's some things that make it a little more difficult for folks who will want to scam you or just use you data to bombard you with ads that you're not really interested in. That's good information. I have you know with I drive a

Tesla and Nancy and I have a Tesla plaid and we opted in because we were given that option but with the with the Tesla, they record with cameras everything that the car does, and this is on the autonomous train where eventually you'll have a total autonomous driving. And they collect

millions and millions of videos of every imaginable driving situation that you can find, whether it's heavy traffic or highway driving. Picture this data, cellular data, being made available to determine what is safe and what is unsafe driving. So there is really a very strong, positive, good thing about data gathering and sharing in terms of the overall safety that we would have with our cars in the future. the autonomous driving by Tesla really took a quantum leap forward instead of having to design the autonomous driving by computer code they were able to take the cellular examples of real drivers they actually separated out the drivers the good drivers from the bad drivers

used a good driver's video data and put it into their autonomous program So there's arguments to be made on both sides of the privacy thing. Yeah, I don't have an issue with them using it internally to improve their product and services. My issue is that information is there then being sold in detail, in other words, with your name associated with it to insurance companies and what have you. Tesla using it to figure out how do we design the software, make the software, make the software. software and hardware better and we're comparing good and bad drivers safe and unsafe driving habit that's fine i don't have any problem with super or anybody else doing that that's quality control is quality assurance and and good product and service development but they don't

have the right without you signing it off on it on selling it to anybody who wants to pay them that's something entirely different and and then specifically with your identifiable information on it and a you know in other words if they wanted to provide it for the benefit of humankind whatever to as an aggregate information without your ID that would I would have a problem but but when they were doing it and what GM was doing it was selling it with your ID which is what was the value for people to purchase it that's the issue and I don't know Have you looked at what Toyota has, whether Toyota has an option to opt out on collecting and selling?

I believe, I don't believe, I think they have an option on some data. Rick, maybe you can answer this. With Toyota, if I buy a new Toyota today, I'm going to buy a new camera. Is there anything I can communicate to Toyota in terms of the data they gather, or is my understanding that that's pretty much up to them? Most of it is through the, if you're going to opt out on anything, it's through the Toyota app that you would have connected to your car. Otherwise, I don't think Toyota's even been one of them that they've looked at for selling that data. I don't think they've been doing that.

Yeah, not selling it, but they're gathering the data for their own research. And being able to see how the entire worldwide fleet of Toyotas, they know about performance and braking. speed and the rest of it. So I see both sides of it. I see the privacy end of it and I also see the manufacturers end of it. Selling it is a whole different story. If I gather data from a product that I sell you and then I sell it to a third party, well, I'm even telling you, that's immoral in my opinion. All right. All right. Thank you. I'll take a look at Toyota and see what they're doing, what they're not doing. I really don't know. I'm ignorant on that. I'll take a look at it. Hopefully they're not sharing

that information outside of their own internal. I'll check it out too, Paul. Thanks very much from the call. Thank you. Very interesting. Our number here is 877960. Our text number is 772-4976530. Don't forget ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers. Gee, I think we have Rick on overload this morning. He not only has

YouTubers and Facebook and Texers and now he's got my X-screen. I'm not feeling too good. Well, we're going to go to John in West Palm Beach. Morning, John. How are you this morning? Yo, John.

Maybe John. Hello, John. You're on, John. Can we help you? Call up. Give us a call back, John. Yeah, call back. I'm sorry. We probably kept you on hold too long. We apologize. We'll switch over and try.

Tony in Georgia. Hello, Tony. Hey, hi, Tony. How are you doing? I've been watching your show for a few years. I think it's fantastic. Oh, thank you. I got a grike, though, dealing with the service department.

Uh-huh. I took my Honda Odyssey into the local dealer here for the regular 50,000-mile kind of check up, the changing of the fluid, the cabin filter. I think they even went into the reaction with transmission fluid or something. and I got a bill for $685. About a day later, I'm driving down the road, and I need to clean my windshield, and I pull the little button, I get two squirts,

and they didn't fill the tank for the windshield wiper. Oh. Now, I'm really great, okay, because I'm 80 years old. I'll be 81 in a week. I'm 80 years old. I don't have the strengths after COVID and stuff, you know, to open the hood and all.

all of that kind of stuff. And I know you can't go back to the service department, you know, and watch the guys do the work and all of that. But since you're in the business, is it any type of thing? Okay, I mean, I'd like you to make a comment about it. I don't think it's an uncommon problem. No, you're talking to a car dealer, and I have a toilet dealership in North Palm Beach, Florida.

And so the advantage I have of being a consumer advocate, is what we do on the show and also being a dealer. I can compare myself and we have the same problem. I'd be less than honest if I didn't admit that I get complaints on exactly what you just said. I have probably on the larger size dealership. We have about 160 employees. Our service department has well over 100 people coming every day

with appointments, some without appointments. and they have their factory recommended maintenance and sometimes other maintenance done on their cars. So we've got how many texts do we have, Rick, would you say? We're running about 30 to 35 texts right now, counting all our oil changers. So 30 technicians, and we have a lot of other people, the service department. So you come in there and you bring your car and your car goes through several hands. You're talking about a lubrication guy. You're talking about a wheel guy.

You're talking about an engine repair. Everything is a specialty today. And everybody's in a hurry. And then the car gets ready, and hopefully we have time to wash it for you. And you pick it up, and lo and behold, I get the call. And I say, boy, guess what? I came in to have my tires rotated balance, and I put a chalk mark on them, and you never touch the tires.

I get calls like that. And sometimes we're guilty. So, yes, it does happen. And it will happen. My only advice to you is find a service advisor in the Honda dealership you go to that, introduce yourself, get his cell phone number, get his name, address, you know, get to know the guy. And when you come back, work with the same guy and go over the list that you want to have done and say, do me a favor, Johnny, whatever his name is.

And will you check to see this work is done? And will you check with the loop guy, check with the, they washed the car like they said they were going to? And the more of a personal relationship you could develop with the dealership that you deal with, the more likely that it won't happen. But you're always going to have this problem. Service departments are crazy places to go, and nobody's happy to be there, and everybody's in a hurry to get out. So those things do happen. Rick is waving at me.

Yeah, at one point I'd like to make is the technician that was working on your car dropped the ball and you should at least call back and advise them, let them know, hey, yeah, this did happen because he may be a young guy that has only been there a couple weeks and was forgetful. He may just need a little additional training. And one of the things that we would like to do in our shop is if we find out that one of our techs is missing something like that. We take them aside, we give them the additional training, and we encourage them to make sure they double-check everything to be sure it's right. Because my motto that I've always had is every single car that I work on, my wife or my

daughter or my mother was going to be driving that car out on the highway. And if I tell these young texts to picture that car that way, it makes them have a personal connection and they try to double-check themselves and do right. But they do need to have that proper training, and it should be corrected. Yeah, well, but the point is, Tony, this is going to happen, and you just have to live with it as part of service departments. If you have somebody that you know, I don't get complaints from customers that deal with a service advisor that they're regularly dealing with.

my complaints I get when they came in they get maybe the first time in or they get a different service advisor every time they come in, that creates a problem. But my best advice is develop a relationship with a person you're having a car

inspected by. They should check the car too before it goes back to you especially when it has to do with fixing a problem. You should road test a car with the technician or with the service advisor to verify that it's been fixed. I don't blame you for being upset.

In closing. It really destroyed my confidence in other things being completed. I understand exactly what you're saying, and the reason I called in is to get you to say what you're saying. However, I'm in my 80s now, and it's really destroyed my confidence, et cetera. I don't want to go back to the dealer anymore for, you know, five-gallon can of wash your food.

I don't mind me. Yeah, you're right about that, Tony. I'm in my 80s, and, you know, you just question things after a while, and your car is very important to you, and a mechanic, the tech's service, it's very difficult to build a relationship with them, and I understand completely what you're talking about. But go back. I will. Give them another chance.

Yeah, I figured you would. and give them another chance. And, you know, it's always good to share your last experience with your next experience. I figure there are other people out there like me. And we need a decent response. Yeah. Well, there's a lot of people out there like you that won't even say anything. So for that, we thank you for your call.

Okay. Au revoir. Adios. Oh, wow. Thank you. Have a great. weekend. 877-960-99-60 or you can text us at 772-4976530. Ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers. Give us a call toll-free at 877-960. Let's go to Rick. He is on overload this morning.

He's taking care of some YouTubers, Facebook. He's doing it all over there. And I have my X-Green back. Thanks, guys, for taking care of me. We are going to start right out with Anne-Marie's opening text. And she says, good morning. Wow, what a week we're having. First, it was the 7.4 earthquake in Taiwan on Wednesday.

That was followed by a 4.8 magnitude earthquake, about 50 miles. outside of New York City on Friday, I live on the East Coast and I've never considered... Hey, how about Ann Marie before the earthquake in New York? How about the night before California? Mm-hmm. There you go. I've never considered what it's like to drive during an earthquake until I saw a dash cam video of a big bus and other vehicles and the road wobbling side to side in Taiwan. That'll get your attention. If you get caught in an earthquake while driving, the U.S. Geological Survey says, move out of traffic, stop your car away from any overpasses, light posts or trees. If you're on a bridge, do not stop on the bridge, pull off the side of the road, set the parking brake, sorry, parking brake, and stay in the car until the shaking stops.

Afterwards, do you pray? I guarantee anybody will be. Afterwards, you can continue driving, or if you can, proceed carefully watching out for fallen debris and cracked or shifted pavement. Myself, if I was on an area that I thought was solid, I'm not moving for a while because you don't know what sinkholes might open up. There you go. If a power line falls on or near your car, do not get out of the car. car. Now this is great info, even if you're just in a normal car crash and you get a power line down that you see, do not touch anything metal, call 911 and wait for help to arrive. If you're

driving on a coastal road, tune into local radio stations for possible tsunami warnings and head inland. If severe shaking lasts for 20 seconds or more, move inland or get to land that it's higher than 100 feet above sea level. Folks, in Florida, just hope you got your water wings, because you have to not. Seek safety in an elevated open area. On Monday, a wide swath of the U.S. will be in the path of the eclipse. It's going to get dark, even if it's cloudy, so please turn your headlights on if you have to drive. If you're planning to watch the eclipse, please find a safe place to park,

And used to special eclipse glasses to watch the spectacle, do not drive with the eclipse glasses on because they're too dark to see anything while driving. Whether we're facing earthquakes or an eclipse or just the run-of-the-mill heavy traffic, please drive safely. And do you have any other suggestions? No, except folks, those... If I had a retail store and I was in an area of the total eclipse, I would want to... to be sure to have all everything locked up and guards around because my thing my thinking is everyone's going to be looking at the eclipse and the crooks are going to be robbing my store so i'm just certainly possible i'm thinking as a banker or a retail establishment i'd be very

careful about my merchandise during the eclipse great information guys i can just imagine the places having drink specials and food specials at all the bars and parties we're going to go back to the phones. We are going to talk to Ron in West Palm Beach. Good morning, Ron. You're there, Ron? Are you still there? Yeah. Oh, thank you. Welcome to the show. Hi, how are you doing? I'm Jersey Mike's friend. He called before. Oh, good. Oh, hi, Ron. Hi. How are you doing? We're great. Thanks for the call. I got, I got a nightmare that I don't even know where to start. Okay. I'll tell you where it starts, I guess, is what kind of car

is. It's a 2018 BMW, it had 52,000 miles on it as of last June 1st when I bought it. And since then, everything was flying until

I got a water accolent week. And I'm going to tell you all this, like next week when I get all my stuff together. And that's when I I'm going to spit out the names because I don't, on the places that I took it, and who's doing the work and who's been doing the work, after I see what they're going to do for me, and I promise I'll call you back next week, but let's just see what's going to happen.

I'll tell who it is and everything. Great. But I paid over thousands and thousands of dollars. First of all, they replaced a water pump, and looking at that right now. That was 1485. Okay, that was 10-10. Okay. And then that wasn't it. That wasn't the problem with the water pump. It was the adapter hose. And it's like maybe a 10 degree or 20 degree. It looks like a fiberglass connection and like a snap connection. And then three bolts on it with an O ring. And they replaced that. And that was $2,000. Okay. All right. So anyway, I drove it a little bit and it started, it just started cutting out. So they ended up, took it back to them and I got it back there. And they told me it was just the battery. Replace it. So the test, it was 212. I'm not going to do to change. And then the back.

battery placement is $534. I should be writing all these down because I'm actually scared to. Over $700 to replace a battery? Yes. Yes. Okay. And now, after that, that didn't really work. Okay?

It started doing the same thing again. All right. So they said, okay, Ron, we got to test it some more. And they put the replace car access nods, module. Okay. That was to a tune of 1539. That's your car access. That's your CAS.

I guess it has a lot to do with the security. So that had to come, that actually had to come from Germany. Okay. Yes. So that's to a tune of 1539. and to software update on it. Okay.

After that, it was 587. That's after the replace the access module. Which then it wasn't that. They told me it was the integrated control module. Oh, sorry, Ron. It wasn't that. It's the integrated control module. That wasn't it.

So, all right, it's still doing the same thing. So this is with the computer stuff. So now, hang on, Mike. So now I'm going, now this is why I'm not going to say anything right yet until I get all my stuff ducks in a row, okay? And what's the grand total of all the... I never added it. You want to go back through it?

I'm too scared. It sounds to me like you just paid for a Toyota, Camry to fix your BMW. Oh, my gosh. Now, I had, now they went and told me that it's water damage on the whole computer, okay? So my insurance actually paid for some of this, okay? But the bill to that was $2,800. And wait a minute.

And then I paid $2.50 for, that's the oil change of stuff. So forget that. That was just an oil change and tune up. So just forget the 250. That's nothing. That's like that doesn't even count. Oh, and then the other one is 5,246 for the computer. Oh, my gosh.

Ron, hey, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how he spoke to with this, is, uh, repair? Is it an independent repair facility, I presume? What, not a dealer? Yes, it is. It's right on military trail, right off of, South, South, South of Okeechobee on military, and the right on site. Are you dealing with the manager or the owner? No. Yeah, I think my advice, the first thing you have to do is what's happened here is just totally irresponsible on their part and you pouring good money after bad money in the vehicle still isn't fixed. So they're

clearly at fault. They don't know what they're doing. You need to get to the top guy. Now, if the top guy isn't going to help you, then then you have to go. go to the outside, I would, I would start with the Department of Motor Vehicles. Do they sell BMWs or just repair BMWs? Right. Do they have a license to sell cars? I think they do. I believe they do.

Yes, they do. They do sell cars. Yeah, the department. The reason I ask is the Department of Motor Vehicles has the greatest punch when it comes to getting a dealership independent or otherwise back on track because they can yank their license. The Department of Motor Vehicles can put this BMW facility out of business if they don't do the right thing. They have a responsibility to deal honestly with the public. So if you file a complaint with the department of vehicles, they will go to the owner of that establishment and they will say, make this right. If these charges are accurate, you must make them right or, and they have a list of they can fine them, they can suspend their license or they can revoke their license.

So of all the, of all the, you could go to a lawyer too, but a lawyer's going to charge you a lot of money. And you might get it back and then some, but with the Department of Motor Vehicles, it doesn't cost you anything to fill out a complaint and file that complaint with them. They will go directly to the owner, and at least you start the ball rolling with that. Is this a place called Foreign Affairs Auto? Oh, oh, boy. Yeah. We've all heard of them. Yeah, I would follow her.

advice, they are simply guessing, they're basically, they're doing what's called, they're pulling the lanyard on the parts cannon. They're simply throwing parts at your car one after another to try to figure out what's, nobody, somebody is not diagnosing your car to try to figure out what's going on. They're simply throwing parts at it to hoping that something will fix it. you're not you're not getting diagnosed there you're just getting just try this try this try this and they're just sucking your wallet dry for no reason uh yeah that's yeah and yeah wow um you're you're basically just getting ripped off big time yeah well i'm not done i'm not done yet now after the water coolant week

was fixed with that elbow, and there was nothing wrong with the water pump. There wasn't. It was so, you know, how it looks like a horse pee in that round tube, a round ball that's up there by the radiator. You know, that was running super hard. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. Like you said, I believe you, 100%. And right now, it's back over there.

Okay, it started. Now it's leaking oil, or cooling from the turbo. and also from the oil cooler. Oh, boy. Yeah, now they want $4,700 to fix it now. On top of everything. My answer would be no. I would be either taken over to Brayman, BMW, the dealership,

or I would consider there is a place on US1. I can't think of the name of it right now, But we've already advised him to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles. If you do this, before you do anything, go to the DMV, get the complaint application, fill it out, and file it. And then you can, I know you'll want to get the BMW fix, but you need to get this done first. Because once they get that complaint, you might find out that they will snap to attention and make things right. Yeah. Ron, that is major, and I'm sorry to cut you off right now, and I certainly hope that you'll call next week.

But this form to fill out is first and foremost. Okay. And please give us a call next week. Sorry to catch you off. Yeah, that's okay. That's okay. Yeah, so it's back over there as we speak. So, yes, all right, I'll call you back next week, I promise.

Okay. I'll let you know how things go. We'll be waiting for your call. Okay, folks, at the, by the clock here, I see that we are going to go to our dog of the week and might I remind you that the dog of the week the registration fees are paid for and they're paid for by us and that's $200 and you can also pick up Earl's book and the reason I mentioned this because before I even mention our dog of the week is that Earl's book Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer, all proceeds go to Big Dog Ranch, and it is a major help with their cause out there at Big Dog Ranch. Again, the registration fees are also paid for $200. So we have Connie, and Connie is eight months in one week, and she,

is most adorable. She's just about 30 pounds, I think. And she'll get between that in 59 pounds. And she's, they call her an absolutely adorable pup with an uplifting rescue story. One of the last two of her siblings to find a home. Connie and her devoted mom were rescued from a property by a kind-hearted individual and brought to Big Dog Ranch rescue, ensuring their safety and a chance at a happy future. Connie's personality is incredibly sweet, radiating love and playfulness in every interaction. She is very lively, very lively gal, but settles down after a few joyful moments of attention with interaction with humans. Always ready for a warm embrace. So, and she loves to snuggle. So we're going to take a look at the video from Big Dog Ranch,

and Jonathan will pull that up right now. Hi, my name is Susan, and I'm here at Big Dog Ranch rescue and I just wanted to introduce our puppy here Connie. Connie is an eight-month-old Labrador Retriever Mix. She's obviously young, very playful. She came here as a young puppy with her siblings and she's one of the last ones to get adopted. She's looking for a family of her own. As a puppy, she's typical. She has energy. She just needs a family of her own. She has bunkmates, so she gets along with other dogs. Give her a chance.

Well, that was a great video. And just like, who was it, Jonathan that did that video? That was Susan. Susan, like Susan said, give Connie a chance. and she's so adorable and she is waiting she's waiting for you right out there at big dog ranch and you can pull up all of the dogs that are up for adoption at big dog ranch rescue.org and you can see all of the dogs that are available we are going to go to we're going to go to our mystery shop and I want to tell you that Agent Lightning did a fantastic job and she had some

well great exciting what else do you want to call it it was just very profound her words that you don't hear too often now back to the recovery oh that is mystery shop of mass Yardley, C.D.J. Plantation. And those words from Agent Lightning were, Earl? Well, let's let it be a surprise. Okay. We haven't had this happen before, so we'll just pop it in there when I go for the report, which reminds me, I forgot to talk about the mystery shopping report at the beginning of the show. It's too late now, but if you haven't heard about our Mr. Shepin report is probably the highlight of the show. It's something that we do that's different than any other radio show or TV or streaming or anything else. We actually

go undercover into a real live car dealership somewhere in the United States. We focus in Florida obviously, but we also go outside of Florida from time to time, depending on where Agent Lightning's schedule brings her because she's our full-time mystery shopper now as a family she goes in with her husband or her or her children it's a totally realistic I hate to use the word tricking the dealer but we do trick the dealer into believing that this person agent lightning is going to buy a car and the amazing thing that sets us apart is that we actually relay the facts, the names, the places, live on radio and live streaming on YouTube and Facebook and the actual experience of if the dealership, and we name the dealership breaks the

law, we say the dealership broke the law. Now, you can't say that about a company or a person without getting sued unless it's the truth. And as I say oftentimes that, that The truth is a perfect defense against liable and slander. So in 20-some-odd years, we've never been sued. So mystery shops are something special. We have our mystery shops archive at earluncars.com. You can go to earlncars.com and look at all the dealerships that we mystery shopped. We have a recommended list and a list that we say don't buy from these dealers.

And we grade them. We'll ask you to send your grade in if you're listening or watching right now. about this particular dealership, which is, as nicely just said, is a Massey, Yardley, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Plantation, Florida. That's in Fort Lauderdale area, South Florida. South Florida is the heart of the worst, most untransparent, I'll use the word crooked car dealers in the world, right here in South Florida. So, be prepared. Sometimes we get surprised. so maybe this will be a surprise.

I will read the mystery shopping report as if I were Agent Lightning. I arrived in the late afternoon and was greeted immediately by a salesman who eagerly jumped out of his seat. He introduced himself as Gregory. He asked me, what brought me in today and replied that I was looking at a Dodge Charger online.

He then asked, new or used, to which I responded to noon. He mentioned for us to go outside check out the inventory they had in stock. We walked out to the lot and he pointed to an entire row of Dodge Chargers. Actually, before the show started, Rick Kearney and I were chatting and he was telling me about how they're stacked up with John Chargers. There's just a lot of Dodge Chargers to be had. Two years ago, that wasn't the case. A year ago, that wasn't the case. So the good news for you, the buyers, are that the inventories are building among many

makes and models in the Dodge Charger, they are plentiful. So here we go, and you will see how this goes. We walked out a lot, pulled out in Tyros, I said, Chargers telling me, take my pick. I explained that I preferred something on the lower end, price-wise, and that I really liked the blue one. And Gregory informed me that it was a lower model price, and the color was called Frostbite Blue.

I expressed my liking for it. He asked me if I wanted to get the key. keys, I agreed, excused himself, promising to be right back. While he was gone, I took a picture of the window sticker and the all-to-familiar addendum. So there we go. That practice is still in place, as despite the fact that we're post-pandemic. Adendum sticker right next to the minority label. The official MSRP was $40,215,000, but the addendum added $2,799. for something called, and here's the list of products that they pre-installed,

and this is what addenums are all about, for putting cheap products on the car and charging you exorbitant prices for those cheap products. This is called the Massey-Yardly Advantage. It includes permaplate automotive protection, which is a paint sealant, a paint we used in the old days. We call that rust and dust. It's just a very inexpensive process that they try to make sound really, really good. They have a guide point systems vehicle protection.

Sounds like a GPS sort of a thing. And, of course, tire and wheel protection. These are all insurance products, which really, really don't insure the product very well at all. Road hazard and roadside assistance and Mopar wheel locks. Now, if you knew what the... these products cost the dealer, you'd be shocked at how little. They're charging you, $2,799. I'd be surprised if all these products lumped together costs more than $2 or $300. So it's more than a 10-time,000% markup. Gregory returned with the Keys, and off we went. As soon as I pulled

onto State Road 7, that's the South Florida Road here, Fort Lauderdale area, I noticed a warning on the screen indicating low tire pressure with the right front tire pressure showing only 16 pounds oh Gregory asked me to pull over so we could check it out he found a back street with minimal traffic he inspected the tire he ensured me that it didn't look low but suggested we not go or drive and asked for my thoughts I expressed my liking for the car requested a price back inside Gregory gathered my information despite the slow computer who remained curious

after collecting the details he excluded himself to speak with his manager. Upon his return, he presented a sheet with a pricing, mentioning that the car included a protection package but ensured me they hadn't charged for it. So that'll give you an idea right there. Now, it probably

they priced the package at $2,790 million dollars so they're not going to charge it for it. So I assure you that was not a $27.99 discount because, as I said before, the cost is probably $300. And they pre-installed it, so they did lose whatever small amount of money they spent on that supposed protection package. The worksheet that they had, they had the selling price was $40,0215. sales tax for six and a half percent, $2,552.84. And the dealer dock fee, that's a junk fee, $999,000 call it.

Registration estimated $375,85, that's about right. They have a subtotal, $44,112. Factory rebate, $4,500. So the total cash due, out the door. $39,612 in 69 cents. Wait, below MSRP. Yeah, yeah. Wow. Yeah, well, you called it.

They got too many Dodge Chargers. So if you're a Dodge Charger fan, now's the time to buy a Dodge Charger. Just be careful because you've got to go through the process of competitive pricing, comparison, Costco Auto Buying Program, true car, use a program, use Edmonds or anything else you can get and shop and compare at least three or four different dealerships. And if you do, you can get a real good price on a $2,0.24 charger. Back, back, 2020? Okay. He then asked if the price worked for me, I commended

him for honoring the online pricing. Now, this is almost unheard of, and that was kind of like the surprise that we talked about advanced he alluded to earlier, rarely have we ever gone into a car dealership with an online price and actually got the price. Now, we had to handle, but we still got the price. Gregory explained that it's the dealership's ethos not to pressure customers into buying something they wouldn't personally choose. He mentioned previous experiences for the South where you had to do just that. I informed Gregory that I needed to consult with my husband.

Again, I'm speaking in the first person as if I were Agent Lightning before making a decision. He asked if I wouldn't mind waiting while he informed the sales manager. At a few minutes, he returned and asked if there was a price that would make me want to buy the car immediately. I thanked him for his consideration, but it repeated that I needed time to think it over with my husband. He understood, made sure I had his contact information. before thanking me for the visit. Now, listen to this. Agent Lightning has never said this

in any mystery shopping report. So I don't know. I hope she's not getting soft. I think she's still tough and I believe that she meant this. Here's quote Agent Lightning. In all my years of shopping, Gregory, was the most sincere

and professional car salesman I've ever encountered. Wow. I just, I mean, I had to read that twice Nancy said, did you see what Agent Lightning said? I said, yeah, wow. So, I mean, I've never heard her endorse a salesman or a dealership. Never.

So that's special. Very, very special. Take that into mind when you come up with a grade. And as I should have told you, if I haven't already, we grade on the curve because we don't have a lot of A dealers, a handful. You don't fail a dealer unless they are just, crooks. I mean, just absolutely scary, bad, crooked. So we use C is the average grade of the curve and C is average. And in South Florida, the average deal is pretty bad. So great on the curve, Rick. Now, we should let them know that this is a leftover 2023. Okay, yeah. It's a brand new

car. It has never been titled, but it is a 23. Yeah, be careful today because we're in that We're in that strange time of year, calendar year, where you're seeing 2023s, 2024s, and people are buying 2025s. So when you say new car, the new car is not, a 2023 today, it's not really a new car. Technically, it's a new car because it's never been titled, but it's truly not a new car. So take that into consideration and be careful. know the calendar a year. Am I buying a 2023, 2004,

or 2025? So please submit your grades and we'll see what we have to say about Massey-Yartley-Krasler Dodge Jeepa Plantation. Okay. Let's see.

We're going to start with the text in ones. And I'll remind everyone you can text your grade at 772-497. and you can also go to good dealer bad dealers.com and you can check out the information that we have up at that site. Go ahead, Rick. We've got Jonathan and Palm Coast. Too many useless add-ons, too many fraudulent freeze, but a price that's better than MSRP is amazing. They get a B-plus from me and Bob says A on the Dodge Charger and you should hire Gregory, that actually might

not be a bad idea. Well, you know, we sometimes forget, if you have an honest salesperson who cares about his customers or her customers, that's almost as important or maybe more important than the dealership. We have had nobody recommended by Agent Lightning before, but we have encountered these type of salespeople working in car dealerships that you got to know they wouldn't want to be working there if they had a choice. So if you can find a good salesperson, we probably should repeat Gregory's name. If anybody wants to buy a Chrysler Dodge Jeep in South Florida,

We're not going to say Massey Yardley. We'll say, go see Gregory. At Massey Yardley. At Massey Yardley. So you know where to find him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's where, because he's, Gregory's there, we would recommend Massey Yardley. Gregory will take care of you once he understands that you're going to be straight up with him.

He'll be straight up with you. So I wish we had his last name. Maybe we could get that from Agent Lightning later. Can you imagine if all of a sudden this guy, gets like five or six people in the next week coming to specifically ask for him because they heard his name on our radio show. We did that many years ago.

We had a couple of salespeople that we used to recommend, not the dealership, but we would recommend the salespeople. Okay. T-Cash says F for Frost Blue and C-O-L Frozen-in-Time addendums. Okay, all right.

Joseph Keller, her says, C plus would have been higher without the high dock fee. Yeah, that $9.99, oof, that hurts. Cliff Pick says, we have a jumper of a deal, but he didn't give a grade. Hey, Cliff, give us grade, will you, buddy? Brian said Lacko says, B for me. Donovan says, it's a 23 because there's no 2004 production of that car has ended. I guess they're stopping the four-door models and the 25 is actually going to the two-door, the new Dodge Charger. So that'll be the 2025?

The new one, yeah, will be the two-door. Interesting. Yeah. Rocky Blocketeel says for $2,790 bucks, I would choose to be disadvantaged. Grade B. Tim Gilliland, more good

than bad, but the dock fee is still an issue for me. B-minus. Now, for me, the fact that Gregory even came back and said, hey, is there, my manager wants to know, is there a price that you would be buying this car today? And if you offered, say, take away that $1,000 dock fee,

they might very well go for it, and boom, you've just got your sale. That's a very good point. I miss that. I'm glad we had that input because you always, until you actually sign, there's always a little bit more you can, negotiate off, no matter how small. I mean, be sure it's in writing, they'll do things for you to get you to sign that you wouldn't expect they would do. So that's a very good point.

Yeah. And Johnny Z. Freedly says, the price is too high for a 2023 and the high inventory. C. Cliff Pick says, I give this... He says, I give a C. Okay, let me take over both my partners here and Diane. I'm going to go ahead. That's terrible. I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to vote. I'm going to give Gregory an A.

You know, what a great salesperson. Whether it's male or female, it's definitely nice to. We should start a separate grading procedure just for salespeople. We should have, and we could follow the salespeople around if they would keep in touch with us. That's a wonderful idea. Yeah, you come up with a lot of great ideas. That would be a great process. But at any rate, A, for Gregory, as I was saying, whether it be male or female, it's always great to have a, you know, somebody that's going to work with you as far as a purchase that you're going to be making and you know there's two big purchases that we make in our lifetime and that is a home

and a car anyway uh i am going to give the dealership a d um i just i'm not crazy about that dock fee and uh they're they're very lucky they got the d from me for me i'm i'm going the other way i'm impressed gregory and the fact that they they immediately got rid of the advantage package thing they didn't even bother trying it they and they only have the one doc fee the one junk fee which I think they would have gotten rid of it I'm going with the a minus I'm saying if you want a Chrysler Dodge your Jeep you see Gregory down there I think you can work get rid of the dock fee and you can get a heck of a deal even on that old the old charger

yeah it's a year old but it's a brand new car the new ones are coming out for 25 and I guarantee they've got other inventory that if they're going to be that honest on their pricing on all of it hey it's worth a try I would talk to them yeah there's negotiating well I'm going to make it a B

with an asterisk that you have to buy it from Gregory so we're going to start a whole new thing with mystery shopping now we're going to try to get salespeople involved and names and I'll ask Agent Lightning to try to get the first and last name

of the salespeople so we can follow them around because they do move but for this particular shopping report Massey Yardley, Cresler, Dodge Jeep, and Plantation we're going to give them a B

with an Astrith if you buy it from Gregory. Yeah, most cases they give out a business card so it's going to be easy to do. And here's a We have time, right? I just want to say that there's a terrible business practice that the car dealers did rampantly before the pandemic, before the whole COVID thing, and everything changed. And it was called Stairstep financing.

That's a inside term that car dealers and manufacturers understand. But it's a crazy way that the manufacturers get the budget. to get the car dealers to sell more cars and sell them faster and sell cars and accept cars from the manufacturer for the inventories that they don't want stair step financing Ford has revised that now so when Ford revises it General Motors will be following who knows Toyota Honda at one point almost all the car dealerships at this now for if you haven't listened of the show before, stair-step financing.

I'm going to hold the automotive news article up in front of the camera so you can see it. Stair-step financing. The manufacturer says to a dealer, in the next three months, if you sell 300 cars,

we will pay you at the end of those three months, if you sell 300 cars, we will pay you $500 per car retroactively. Now, multiply $500 times 300 cars. That's, what is that, $150,000? $150,000.

Now, what if they only sell $299? They don't get it. So, you can see what a chaotic incentive, that is. The dealer doesn't know how to price the cars. So for the first month of that 90-day period, he's got prices, he's trying to sell these cars for. Suddenly he realizes he's not selling cars fast enough to hit his 300 mandatory quota. If he doesn't hit it, it's going to cost him $150,000. Now, it could be $250,000 or it could be $350,000 depending on the manufacturer and the dealer.

What this means to you, the consumer, is when you walk in to buy a car from this particular dealership during that 90-day period, the best price you can possibly get is going to be at the end of it. Because if that dealer is not anywhere near his incentive and he is desperate to hit that number, he will cut the price of the car as far as he has to. Actually, and we've seen this, I've seen a situation. where dealers had actually sold cars below cost, which you say, well, that's a good thing.

Well, it's a good thing if you don't mind chaos and you don't mind uncertainty, and you can imagine entering that dealership on the last day and see what happens. And what if you had bought the car two months earlier? You would have paid thousands of dollars more for that car than you would just a couple of months afterwards. So that's what throws the car dealership

into the status that it is now, which helps, which is the manufacturer participating in the chaos. They're creating this problem with Stairstep Finance, Excel. I just say shame on Ford for doing this. And you other manufacturers, learn something from this pandemic,

learn that you can sell cars with lower inventories. You don't have to shove cars down the dealer's throats and force them to sell a certain quota. Let the marketplace take care of it. My word to the dealers. Are we through it? Does this mean that we should buy stock in the companies making those wide white leather belts, polyester suits, and the white shoes?

Well, it's a possibility. Put it back in the 1970s used car salesman outfits? They feel like they have to do it. See, the competition is what drives the chaos. Yeah. Ford's got to beat General Motors, General Motors got to beat Honda, Honda's got to beat Toyota, and it's the 30 day cycle. Every 30 days, if you watch CNBC, you watch read the Wall Street Journal. The first thing all the investors want to know is, did Ford hit their forecast? Did General Motors hit their forecast? Every 30 days. And if you miss your forecast, the stock drops, when the stock drops, a lot of these top executives are paid with stock options. So a huge amount of the compensation for the presidents and the CEOs, the top 10 or 12 executives

in any manufacturing, auto manufacturing company gets probably half their compensation from the stock price. So it's a 30-day battle. If Honda beats Toyota, all the Honda executives are tickled to death because they hit their bonus money and this chaos trickles down into the marketplace, into the consumer, affects the consumer, it affects the dealer.

So as a dealer, I am enjoying the relatively smooth ride that we've had with low inventories. I want more cars, but on the other hand, I don't want Toyota be coming up to me with putting a gun to my head and saying, listen, you better take another 100 cars or else. And that's the kind of market we emerged from four years ago. go before the pandemic. Very chaotic and unnecessary. We are going to wrap up the show, but first I want to thank our digital genius who keeps us, that is Jonathan, just in case you forgot his name, who keeps us aware of the clock ticking,

and he keeps us on the straight and narrow. Thank you to Rick for your fast response. in my dizziness and a special thank you to the man of the hour Earl Stewart we'll be right back here next week same time at 8 a.m. on the oldies channel thank you for joining us have a beautiful weekend