Earl Stewart on Cars - 04.12.2025 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Sunrise Ford of Ft. Pierce, FL.

Episode Date: April 12, 2025

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning travels north to Fort Pierce to visit a local Ford dealer to see how much they will charge for a 2023 Ford F-250 XLT Super Duty pickup on their website. 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”

Hello, 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 listeners. We also have Rick Carney, 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 link to cyberspace through Facebook, YouTube, text messaging, and our encrypted anonymous feedback service. Stu is also the Spymaster Director of our mystery shopping report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting car dealership. And now, on with the show.

Good morning, everybody. We're back. I think this is three shows in a row for us live. I've been a little bit under the weather recently I'm feeling really good now and we're going to have a great show it's too bad we had to be off the air for so long because we've had a lot of excitement in the automotive world

we've had a lot of excitement in the whole world as a matter of fact and we're going to try to share some of the some of the pertinent necessary information with you I probably think we're going to do roll a lot on should I buy a car now if I need one and basically we're talking about a new car and it's as you know if you're thinking about buying anything

today with this tariff controversy there's tariff confusion in the world people don't know whether to buy a tube a toothpaste much less a 40 50 60 thousand dollar new car so we've got some answers for you and we're We're going to give you some information that we hope can use, and we ask your input. And if you haven't listened to this show before, the thing you probably don't know, among other things, is that we have a cadre, a group, a following in this show.

You know, we've been doing it for 20 years plus, and we have people out there that have been with the show for a long time. some probably pretty close to 20 years. And we have people that are extremely knowledgeable. I sometimes say we're preaching to the choir because we are offering information that a lot of people really know. And they contribute more to the show

than they get from the show. I'm glad they enjoy doing that because we need them. So you regulars out there, thanks for sticking with us for all this time. and we've got some questions for you. We have questions from the audience. And I think that, as I said before, the big question is should we buy a car?

I'm going to give you a quick answer right now. Maybe it'll stimulate a little bit of interest in hanging out with us for a while. If you are going to buy a new car in the reasonable near future. It should be the nearer future. I would suggest that you consider buying a new car

within the next 30 days. That doesn't mean you rush right out and buy a new car. If you're a regular listener, you know better than that. But if you're going to buy a car, if you need a car, if you need a new car,

consider buying it within the next 30 days. That'll give you time to do your research. And listen to the show once or twice or text us or email us or whatever you want to do. We'll help any way we can. But if you wait a month or two for all the authoritative sources I've checked, including chat, GBT and a lot of other sources, although that's the very best one, maybe consumer reports, I've checked the sources.

And they say buy a new car before the trade war escalation. of course it deescalates the next day and escalates the day after so it's confusion and there's nothing worse than confusion in lack of knowledge and speculation on the stock market or in the buying of a product especially an expensive product like a car so this show I think will be extremely valuable to you if you're thinking about buying a car because you should buy it pretty soon I'm going to give this number out too much and so Nancy Stewart, my co-host, and so will Rick Kearney, our certified diagnostic master technician, and my son, Stu Stewart, who will be dropping in shortly. And the number to call the show is 877-960-99-60, 877-960. And don't expect you to be calling right now, but if you do call, we try our very best answer the phone immediately and if we have other callers ahead of you on Nancy Stewart as a laptop she's looking at it right now actually she's looking at her iPhone right now and if she gets noticed that our callers waiting she alerts

the troops that's Rick and me and Stu and herself and we stop talking and we go to the callers we try to get to all the callers all the time we're not perfect and we don't do it we apologize for those that I have had to wait too long, but we tried very hard. And the call on the real telephone, the old-fashioned telephone, is just, we've had a lot of changes in our lives in the past a few years, but I think most of us, and we carry phones in our pockets. I mean, we like phones, and there's a personality that comes through on a phone that doesn't come through as well in a text or an email. So we've got a lot of great personalities and smart people out there that we love to call the show.

And 877-960-9960, I suggest you write it down because we're a two-hour show. We are 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. And you're probably in the car now. And if you're not, you're probably doing something more important. And whatever you're doing, you'll come back to the show. listener or watcher because we're streaming also we're streaming on YouTube and Facebook the average viewer and listener is on the his listing or viewing for about 15 minutes so you know you're in and out about eight times I mean

others are in and out eight times if we are repetitive on the show it's because the people that are listening right now probably aren't going to be listening in 45 minutes or even a half an hour so you're going to write this number down please eight seven seven nine six oh nine six oh that's eight seven seven nine six oh now for those that are you know maybe you're a little nervous about being on live radio we were for a long time some of us are still are too for a little bit I mean a little nervousness and excitement can get the best out of people I think athletes certainly with their performing and entertainers they have a little

adrenaline going. We do. We got adrenaline going and I think it makes for a better performance. But if you'd rather not get on live radio, text us. And our text number is 772-4976530. Again, our text number is 772-4976530. And we will gather these texts and get to them periodically through the show. If there's a lull and the phone, calls are low and a us yaking at you and we'll try to get those texts but we have some fantastic texters out there they give us a text sometimes to advance and ahead of time and Ann Marie is our number one texter viewers we have a whole bunch of really great viewers most of them on YouTube and Rick Kearney our certified diagnostic master technician knows more about a car than anybody I know he checks the YouTube all the time. That's

YouTube.com forward slash Erlon Cars. So if you really want to get in with a bunch of people that are regular watchers and very knowledgeable and call the show often with great information that we don't know about, you get to YouTube.com

forward slash Erlon Cars. We're also on Facebook.com forward slash Erlon Cars. Facebook.com forward slash Erlon Cars. So you can watch us, you can listen to us, You can do anything you want, and I promise you that you will get something valuable if you haven't listened to the show before. If you have, you probably know you'll pick up something, or maybe you'll contribute something valuable.

I'm going to turn the microphone over to Nancy Stewart. As I said before, she co-founded this show with me about 20 years ago, and she did something that is probably, if she hadn't done it, the show probably wouldn't be on the air. She built the female audience from almost literally zero to about 50-50 today. And we have some incredible female callers, about half of them. And most talk shows, especially this type of talk show on automobiles in the past, has been almost an old man's club, right? Even a young man's club, but mainly an old man's club.

And now we have young, old, male. female and the females we can thank Nancy Stewart she's going to tell you something that will make you understand why so many females are calling the show she has a special offer that she'll pass along to you now so Nancy the microphone is all yours good morning everyone and welcome welcome to Earl on cars you know I'm going to mention what Earl was talking about earlier when to buy a vehicle and you know I'd like to ask the audience to join us this morning in giving us a call and let us know how you feel about the Amazon auto buying it's just I think it's just a win-win situation right now and

you know some of the key benefits of purchasing through the auto program is you know this the transparency the no-haggle there's so many They're so seamless on what an online experience, you know, it just cuts out the, you know, the room for deception and some of you guys know what I'm talking about. Right now they're selling Hyundai's, but nothing, no other makes, but how well, and Nancy and I think that's going to spread where they'll eventually sell all makes of new cars, but we'll find out. Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned the Hyundai. Also, you know, another key bit of information is that, what was it, $2,300 for an Amazon, they offer you an Amazon gift card. $25, $2,500. Is it $25?

Okay, I have $2,300. That was probably my handwriting. For an Amazon gift card. So, any rate, but what you have to remember is that you have to, you can take advantage of that. today is the 12th of April you have until the 15th so give us a call let us know if you would take advantage if you're looking for you know what they have to offer which is the Hyundai another bit of information this morning is our dog of the week we have Sapphire what a pretty name sapphire is a female and she's going to be with us later on in the show what's that name again sapphire Sapphire Oh Sapphire

was the wife on Amos and Andy years ago, yeah Our minds are still working so much to look into so much knowledge out there but you know something

I want to tell you I fact check everything now I don't care where I am chat GBT or any other venue so anyway you can be in control right now.

Now, you know, you don't have to fall victim to the tariffs, to everything that's changing, and how can you do that? Just do your homework, because, as I always say, you know, knowledge is power. Our number here is 877-960-9960, and you can text us at 772-497-6530. Don't forget your anonymous feedback. We love hearing from everyone who takes advantage of your anonymous. feedback. Anything else I have to say? We'll discuss it later. We're going to go to the phones where, oh, hold on, can't go to the phones yet. $50 for the first two lady callers. $50 for the first two lady callers. And I have to tell you that it's really an important time

to really know what you want to purchase before you go into the dealership. that you just, you know, go to your PC and just absorb all of the knowledge and power that you can accumulate before making that decision because there's more than just the bottom line, the cost of the car. What's the cost to keep that car on the road? There's so many questions. It's just amazing. We're going to go to Doug, and Doug is giving us a call from Boca. Good morning, Doug.

Good morning. And Ella is a fan of your show, too. And I miss you guys in the morning and hope you come back soon. And I have a question. I have a friend that wants to purchase a car because his other car is a forerunner, and it's got now 140,000 miles on it. Still going good. And I told him that maybe because of a taxi.

tariffs, what's going to happen is it's going to be prohibited prices to buy a new car. And then on the used cars, maybe the used cars would go up in price also. I want to know your opinion on that. Well, you gave them some good information, Doug. I guess the used car would be a better price. They will be affected, of course, because new and used car price. are pretty much linked when the new car prices begin to go up to use car prices for obvious reasons also go up but they creep up I said earlier in my

introduction that if you're going to buy a new vehicle I'd recommend you buy it within the next 30 days based on the craziness in the world with tariffs the tariff war we're at war with China but it's a tariff war and of course we're to some extent. But with the used vehicle, I think you could do 60, 90 days before you're going to have to worry about the lapping over from the new car storing and price to the used car. And I always feel that a good used car that you check out carefully,

late model, certified maybe is a much better value in almost as good as a brand new cars. If he were my friend, that's exactly what I would say. Go with the used car, but don't wait more than 90 days. And then one more thing, is it possible that, well, you know, I got a car from you guys, and, you know, I was just wondering if someone wants to buy a new car like in two months, is it possible that it's going to go up by 20% or 10%? I mean, do we even know? I would say, and again, I use wood because you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow on the news. I mean, they're going to have a cabinet meeting or there's going to be a press conference or there's going to be the leader of China will fly over or our leader will fly over there. So it's like watching the stock market.

I mean, you can't miss it even if you're not in the stock market. The market is making record moves in both directions, and that's the way our tariff expectations are. So I think that you're better off on the – I think new car prices could soar thousands of dollars. I mean, worst-case scenario, I can easily see the average used car going up in price by $3,000 to $5,000. That's a lot of dollars. Okay, I appreciate you guys, and Alyssa's meow to you. Hey, Ella, and I'll be back on the beach, Doug. I'm feeling much better, and so is Nancy, and we'll see out in the beach pretty soon, sooner than you think.

Okay, love you both. Thank you, guys. Thanks, we love you, too. And if you get a chance, take a look at the Consumer Report for March and April. Also, take a look at the Auto Edition for 2025 to give you a lot of answers, Doug. Our number here is 877-960 and you can text us at 772-497-497-6-5-30. You know, more important right now is that you can, you know, you can go out and you can find yourself a mechanic. And a couple of weeks ago, I shared some in for what information with all of you about the Gallup poll.

And the Gallup Hill, boy, I'll tell you what, they really gave mechanics. The survey that they did was amazing. And 33% of Americans rated the honesty and the ethics of the mechanics. And boy, I'll tell you what, they got some stars, about five, as a matter of fact. So it's, you know, you still got to keep your eyes open, do your homework. Yes, right. We're above the lobby, yes. above the lobby is that's quite a statement so anyway that's good news we get there's some good news

out there and you can you can also you know not be taken advantage of by these car dealers that are going to take advantage of the tariffs and everything in between but you are still in control our number here is 877 960 9960 and you can Texas at 772 4976530 back to the recovering car dealer well my son Stu just walked in the door and that's good because I was going to ask him a question

he charges he coordinates and interprets is a good word the mystery shopping report right and it's good good term and I was thinking out loud or actually to my myself. We're talking about Amazon and the fact that they are offering a $2,500 gift incentive.

In other words, you get a gift certificate if you buy a new Hyundai from them by April 15th. That's my notes. And there's not much, there's not much time left, as you know, and April 15th is almost upon us. And it's a quick time. I'd normally never tell anybody to go out. to go out and buy a car within the next three days. And if you can buy an electric EV Hyundai. Yeah, yeah. So here's a legitimate deal.

This is the first, we hope, to be many. And so I was going to say to Stu, let's have Agent Lightning, if possible, actually buy a Hyundai. And we'll just have to figure out how to manipulate the $2,500 gift certificate. And we can work with Agent Lightning on that, and we will actually buy one, and as many cars as Agent Lightning buy, she might want to keep it. But if she doesn't, we will have, and we are a car dealership. We have a, we have a Toyota dealership for many, many years. So we could sell that as a used car. And I think with the $2,500 off, we would treat the gift certificate as cash off because we buy.

so much from Amazon, the company, and personally, our families buy a lot from Amazon. So to me, it's just as good as a cash rebate. But we'll see how that goes. Amazon is offering a discounted price. They control the price. When you buy a car from Amazon, you don't have any junk fees, you don't have any dealer-installed accessories. The advertised price, I'll even finance the car.

for you. And the advertised price on Amazon is the price you pay. The last time we delved into that, there were some problems. With a dealer. Yeah, it was Hyundai of Coconut Creek, I believe. Is that the one? I think you're right. And it might have been, I'll reread the report, but I think it might have been like the first days of it, or maybe they just got on it. And nobody really seemed to know. It was similar to a Costco. experience where like, well, what's the, what's the Amazon price? They said, well, we'll match it. Well, if you're going to buy a car in three days is a quick, quick time to make

your mind up about Hyundai, Hyundai builds good cars in there. If you check consumer reports and you get some good information on the vehicle that would be best for you, quality, safety, et cetera, I would feel comfortable about going and buying a Hyundai. Right now, there's probably a handful of people listening that. We're going to buy a Hyundai anyway. Yeah, well, don't wait four days because you won't get the $25 million. Yeah, do it now.

And we will do a shopping report, we hope, and we will see. We will try to do it the right way by nailing Amazon down for what the price should be, the out-the-door price. And we've got to do this by Tuesday. By Tuesday, yeah. No problem. Tuesday, April 15th, and that is a $2,300 gift card. Okay, I think it's $2,500. You could take...

It's not, it's 23. Okay. That's a strange number. Yeah, there's a strange number. I confirmed all my sources. It would normally be easy to correct if I had been given out the wrong numbers of my time. Hey, yeah, $2,300. $2,500 sounds better.

Yeah. But I guess. And also, you know, you can take advantage not only the $2,300 gift card, but the incentives. There, you know, there's so many reasons to go to the Amazon, you know, auto buying a bit because it's just a win-win situation if you're looking for a Hyundai so that's all I have to say about the gift card back to the recovering car dealer okay our number you'll hear it more than you want to hear because we have a special preference for you callers out there and our new callers we love you know when Nancy just

mentioned to the audience that if you are female and you haven't called the show before, then if you do call the show, we're going to send you $50, Nancy. Personally, we'll write the checkout and personally mail it to you. And if you haven't called the show before and you're female, you can pick up $50.

Give it to charity if you don't need $50. Most of us do need $50. Or give it to your granddaughter or Rick. Rick wants to say, give it to me, right? No, no, no. why not I just playing around here I went on Amazon and I put in a search for a 25 Hyundai Santa Cruz and I noticed something they they list the price on each one and then it says like this particular one and an XRT it's located at Coconut Creek

Hyundai and it says 41 2000 $41,21212 excluding government fees taxes and $958 in dealer fees. And as I'm looking through the various cars, each one shows how much the dealer fee is that's added on. Like here's one for Brayman Hyundai down in Miami, that's $1,223 in $0.50 in dealer fees. And another one like in Deerfield, that's $1,018 in dealer fees.

This is a pretty much. prominent. I'm sorry. Those are pretty prominent, right? Is it like plus? It's literally here's the price and right underneath it. It sounds like they're trying to comply with like state laws because they're trying to get that up and they're like immediate disclosure

same size. Yeah, they're immediately saying. Yeah, this is like Costco. This is like Costco. And we have this discussion every time we talk about Costco. But the point is there's nothing wrong with a dealer fee. There's nothing wrong with

junk fee and this is something that's hard for people to understand that the threat of a junk fee or dealer fee or whatever you want to call it is when they sneak it in on you after they advertise a price that includes the dealer fee so so you'll find these when the when they're forced to publish on Amazon their dealer fee they have to adjust the price if they want to if they don't want to to sell any cars, then they don't have to adjust the price. But if they want to be competitive, and if you're on Amazon, what's the point on on going on Amazon if you're not going to be competitive, and they, therefore, we'll

say, add this dealer fee. Right, the point I was trying to make, I think we all understand that. Well, not our audience, though. It's just very transparent. I'm just kidding. The, I said, the Amazon has to, despite what? what Hyundai of Coconut Creek wants to do, they have to abide by the law.

And so they're abiding by the law in Florida and then whatever state you pull it up and it's going to abide by that law. Exactly. I just thought that was pretty cool. Yeah, I knew that was your point. You know, I think the times are changing. Did you ever think that you'd be pulling up something like that a year ago,

two years ago? No, I mean, it's so easy to compare the different ones that way. Like you said, you know, they don't want to break the law, so they're going to get the customer in whatever way they can, you know, by posting that. Yeah, Costco really could learn from Amazon because Costco is allowing the dealers to put this information on a member's only kind of a price sheet. And so they go through the Costco program and prices aren't discussed at all. Then they go into the dealership to say, I'm a Costco member, and if they're lucky, they get an honest salesperson that introduces them to the printed price sheet by Costco. If they're not lucky, the salesperson just says, I'm a Costco representative, but this is the price, but they don't see the real price. When you see the price sheet and car dealership of a Costco participating member, they will have the deal.

dealer-installed accessories, they'll have the junk fees, and they'll have, you know, dealer fees. They're known by many names. So, again, full cycle, we go back to the subject of this. When you go through the process of buying a car at Amazon, which would be a Hyundai only today, eventually, I'm predicting you'll be able to buy almost every make car from Amazon. But when you're going through the process right now, they will say dealer, fees are this much and it might be a lot of money like Rick just went through and we're in South Florida remember because South Florida is the Saddam Gamora of automobile dealerships

and they have some dealer fees that'll knock your socks off I think I heard Rick mentioned one of $2,500 so and there's probably some higher than them that was probably Al Hendrickson I think he oh boy yeah so anyway good news and we're going to try to mystery shop before Tuesday and actually buy a Hyundai, and we'll report back next Saturday. Yeah, exactly. And I think Agent Lightning can pull it off. I hear she needs another vehicle. A quick note from Donovan here.

He says, there is one big reason to not use Amazon to get a Hyundai EV. You cannot apply the $7,500 EV tax credit at the time of sale. so if you qualify for it you would have to wait to get it later oh yeah yeah so that's only a time loss of money sort of a thing on that

but you don't lose the you know the rebate or the actual tax credit you just don't get it as quickly right just a good word of caution there absolutely I love Donovan he knows

he knows he knows Donovan hang on for a while because Nancy and I have some exciting comments about our autonomous driving trips. You'll love to hear some of this. Okay, I'm multitasking over here. Let me get to the ladies real quick. I mentioned earlier $50 for the first two new lady callers.

You simply, you know, this is so important that you call for so many reasons, not just for the $50, but the fact that, you know, you're letting your voice be heard, and there are a lot of women who are listening to this show right now and you give them the courage to call in so you can win the $50 for the first two new lady callers you can help me build the platform here and also we can share whether you purchased a vehicle you're looking for a vehicle it's a win-win situation the number here is 772 I'm sorry that's the text number the toll-free number is 870 7-7-960, but you can also text us at 772-49765-3-0. We are going to go to the phone's clue back to Boca to speak with Schum. Good morning. Welcome.

Welcome to Earl on Cars. Hello. Good morning. Good morning. Good to hear from you. Good to hear your voices. Doug and I love listening to you guys and get so much information

and appreciate you both so much. Thank you. Really so much fun. I have like a weird thing that happened and nobody probably ever thinks about you put your key on the key chain and it's there for your car and then all of a sudden I'm in my car

a few days ago and I'm trying to start my car and it won't start. I was like, what's going on? Doug just started my car. He didn't have any problem. What's going on? And I see this little thing on the dash, and it says something like, check your memory something. And it's like, my remote, like, check your memory thing.

And I look over, and my key fob is missing. All I have left on my key chain is just the metal part of the key. Oh, no. Oh, my God. What do I do now? I've been looking for it and looking for it and looking for it. And I can't believe how expensive they are and how many different kinds there are out there. Rick, what do you say?

They don't have the logo on it. They do have the logo on it. It's like, oh, my goodness, I am in big trouble now trying to figure out, you know, can I trust a locksmith? Do I have to go to go to the case? Never fear. Rick is here. Go ahead, Rick. Okay, thank you, Rick.

This is like a great, I mean, I've never had this app, never. And I wonder how many people have. It's actually kind of rare because usually those, those fobs, the locking, mechanism holds that little mechanical key in they're pretty solid i mean i've seen a lot of where that you try to work it out and that key just gets stuck in there it'll never come out again but um yeah the safest way and most reliable way to get that fob replaced is of course at the dealer for the make of your car however uh since you have a working fob another one that also functions properly, checking with your local locksmiths online and finding one that gives an offer

for replacement fobs that they can program, basically they program it to clone the working fob that you have. And bear in mind, I would make sure you check the reviews on them, make sure that that place has a good review for them, and make sure they're offering a reasonable warranty on the fob of a minimum of one year. that would probably be a less expensive way to go to get that replaced. Yeah, I was wondering if that, you know, like a year warranty, is that going to be good enough? I mean, you know, all the questions and, God, they're so expensive, too. Yeah.

Whoa. One year is pretty standard for most things like that. Even dealerships, when you buy a replacement key fob, it's only a one-year warranty. Well, with the warranty apply when apparently this was broken in some way. unfortunately not if you lost it yeah well that's what I'm saying yeah now there are there are things on when you buy a new car a lot of them now have a a it's it's it's silly but it's an extended warranty and it's kind of like they have for your phones for your cell phone if you breaks or you lose the key fob it's like Apple

care for your right exactly it's you know it can be a little you know it's like it's a warranty and it's a sure by the way but if you lose your key fob they'll replace them up to a certain number of times in my opinion it's not worth it because that's insurance yeah for a couple hundred dollars or how much is it what's the what's the max you're gonna look at like three hundred and fifty dollars I think yeah I guess on a Mercedes or something like that they go you know oh some some of those fobs can be ridiculous prices and then the labor to get it programmed to your car is a another additional big hit but yeah I I would look

into local locksmiths you know look online for replacement key fobs and just find one that not only does have at least a one-year warranty but make sure that they've got lots of good customer reviews that you know they're not a rip-off company jim thanks so much for your call you do you have problems when you sell the car if the key fob is in an exact duplicate of the key fob that you had it could be um if you don't have the key fobs that were supposed to come with the vehicle, you'll definitely get a lower appraisal value at most dealerships. And most dealerships look for any reason they can to devalue the car. That's just a process that goes on. And so I would imagine if you had a non-OEM key fob,

they would devalue, they'd ding you for that. Yeah. Private party sale, however, no. It wouldn't even be a factor. Probably not. Yeah. They probably wouldn't even notice. if the emblem was on the back of the key, Bob. Well, you should disclose that. Absolutely. Thank you for all that information. You're welcome, sure. Have a wonderful weekend, and thank you for tuning in.

You have a wonderful weekend, too. Thank you so much. Our number here is 877-960-9960, and you can text us at 772497530, and don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. And, you know, I can't say, advise this any stronger than now. And they talk about watching your spending, you know, doing your homework if you do want to purchase a vehicle. We mentioned Amazon that you can auto program that you can take advantage of.

So there's a lot of positive out there. We just have to do the, you know, power and knowledge and knowledge and power. It all comes together. So right now we have a law on the phones, so we're going to go to the text, and then we're going to shoot over to Rick. Good morning, Stu. How are you? Good morning. I'm doing great. You're seeing it.

It looked great. Well, I came from New York last night at just a day trip up there, and this is what it looks like when I'm reading the book on my patio. I didn't have the laundry done. I came back, so casual stew. Thanks very much. well it's very fitting yeah uh folks you can't tell it but because of the angle he's not wearing pants today yeah this is what I wear out when I'm reading a book on my patio when it's nice and cool though we're gonna go to the text and uh most likely Anne Marie would you

say was that a I uh well I'm gonna Rick jumping over that right now but Amrey always deserves the honor of the yes thank you Ann Marie for weekend we are up you got I don't I don't have it up. Oh, thank you, Rick. Well, this is from Amory, like we just said. Good morning. American car dealers have reputation that's not good. You often call South Florida the Sodom and Gomorrah of car dealers behaving badly. Agent Lightning's experiences usually supports that observation.

But sometimes she encounters the all-too-rare dealership that's honest and provides great customer service. Usually mom-and-pop dealerships in small towns. It's true. one I was wondering do you know or have you ever heard of how car dealers behave in other countries behave and two if if so are they more customer friendly and customer oriented or bottom line no holds bar or bottom line oriented well I know that you had some conversations with a dealer in Australia a long time ago that that stumbled upon us maybe through the radio show or the book. Yeah, they actually listened. Yeah. And you had some

conversations a long time ago with him. I don't remember what it was like, but I do remember he was very interested in the way that we did business. And I don't remember if it was because it was like the way that they did it in Australia or very different. There were some similarities. And you've been in Japan several times, and I think you see how the Japanese totally different sort of an environment. You can, you can elaborate on this too, but my general answer is that there's nobody, there's no other country that abuses customers and takes advantage of them like the United States, even Canada. And I've got some good experience with Canadian dealers,

not just because we're right next to Canada, although they might even, they might even be a state soon. That's a tongue and cheek. I don't think that's going to happen. But I, we have a lot of Canadian customers that come down to attend Northwood University. Northwood University is the college for car dealers, although in my opinion, most car dealers didn't go to college, but they do have a car dealer's sons go to college. And I was an advisor. at Northwood University, and I used to interview young men that were in, occasionally a woman, that wanted to be a car dealer. And a lot of them were Canadian because Canada doesn't have a car dealership university. So from what I learned from the way their fathers and their family

operated, Canada is a better place to being treated. But there's definitely not a... I think in general, it's way more... varied, I guess, in the United States, but in general, it's more aggressive and more pressure than anywhere else in the world, I think. And more sophisticated pressure there, where car dealerships are sneakier, we're really going to be in sneaky. Right, and I'm appearing to be customer-friendly. I just remember in Japan, it was, and this is just part of the Japanese culture, it was all based on respect, so you can't, you can't do that. It would be a sign of disrespect to a lot of somebody. And not to say it doesn't happen, but that would be the, I think, the anomaly.

Yeah, exactly. And Europe, it was strange, I know, in England, outside of London, you drive by a bunch of dealerships as you're going into town, didn't visit any. They looked like American car dealerships, you know, with big glass, you know, fronts. But, you know, I didn't go inside, but, you know, the Brits are quite polite. China's probably pretty honest, because if you cheat, you get shot or something like that. China. In China? Oh, yeah, yeah, probably.

You've got a tow the line there. What does their storefronts look like? Is it more or less like a cookie cutter? Where? For all of the dealerships in Japan? In Japan, I only went to one dealership, but I also know that I think, like, door-to-door or, like, home sales are also popular there. I don't know if it's the mode.

They don't have big showrooms, do they? No, it was, no, to remind me of. It reminded me of, like, maybe your old Pontiac. dealership. Really? It was small where it sat on like one block or a smaller small block. You know this two story? Yeah, but upstairs it was just like the Pontiac dealership, all the offices, and there

was a conference room upstairs, and they had us in the conference room, and told us how they sold cars, and it was very nice and disrespectful. And then they had, but it was funny on the showroom. They had, like, lease prices. I can't remember if they were painted on. or stick-ons, but big, bright yellow colors, just like in America. But it was just, that was just the least price. It wasn't a come on.

So from out on the street, was it just a plate glass front? Yeah. Where you could see right in, and you could see the new cars. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like a picture like a smaller lot in West Palm Beach or any one of your smaller hometown, like use car places. That's the way old car dealerships of the United States were, you know. They had flags strung and, like,

just like the old deal of chips, like the little triangle flags going along between poles. You were just there, about eight months ago or a year? No, this is quite a while. I haven't been there. Oh, don't tell me that. It was nine years ago. Oh, gosh. 2016.

Earl, my mind is going. Hey, we have to go back to the phone. It's still here. It's still here. Thank you for that reassurance. I mention the ladies again. ladies, first two ladies, give us a call. You can wear yourself $50.50 for the first two lady callers. 877-960-99-60. That's 877-960. I have a question for everyone. I haven't

heard anything too much about the tariffs. But tell me, are you considering purchasing a vehicle Do you want to learn how to avoid, if you possibly can, all of these hikes that are going to, you know, take place very soon in 30 days we mentioned earlier? Give us a call. We'd like to talk to you. 877-960-9960. We're going to go to Howard, who's holding, and he's a regular caller from Jupiter. Good morning, Howard. Good morning.

I hope you all well. It's a beautiful day today. and I have a question concerning the maintenance sign that goes on and it tells you you need maintenance and it blocks certain features on it. On the screen. Yeah, on the screen, right.

So my question is, I can't get into the dealership because I'm not around now. I'm in Miami and I won't be able to get back until maybe 200 miles past my due day. So is that going to be a problem? I am, Howard, I cannot wait to hear the answer to this right now. because I'm past my maintenance, right? And every time again it says maintenance required

and the little back button, you can clear it, but then it pops up again. Rick, can you stop that without getting the car maintenance? Well, what's going to happen is within the next 100 miles, your car is going to completely shut down on the highway. He's lying. In the rain and activate the ejector seat, which will fling you out of the car violently.

Now, I'm just totally kidding here. There are two ways. that that maintenance reminder is going to come up. One of them is just a simple, the old-fashioned idiot light that shows up on the... The answer is no, you can't. I'm waiting. Is that the answer?

Well, I'm sorry, wait. It looks like a politician. Well, you've got the simple idiot light that comes up where it just lights up. And that one normally is turned off by using the trip meter button, the trip odometer button, and different models have different ways

that you have to manipulate it but yeah you can it's in the owner's manual Howard has the multi-information display on the left side of his screen right now that's like a pop-up window and it's still going to pop up that same way and you can still turn that off

as a matter of fact you can simply hit your back button and it will revert back to the normal message it doesn't pop up again no it pops back up again it'll pop back up next time you start the car well that's my point yeah but the way to turn it off for

5,000 miles or reset the clock, basically, is in most of our cars, you would set your trip meter to trip A, turn the ignition off, and if you have a push start or key start, it's going to be the same way, you'll press and hold the trip button and either turn the key just to the accessory position or keep your foot off the brake and push that button once, then twice, while holding that trip button. in and you'll normally see like a little animation as it does it's reset and basically what you're doing is you're simply resetting that timer clock to give you another 5,000 miles until that light comes on again.

And if anybody can call back in and repeat what Rick just said, we'll give me $50. We're going to send you $50. Hey, real quick though, so that is, that's it. So, I mean, if you flip back over

off the trip meter to the regular thermometer will it pop back on if you repeat what what stew said we're going to give you another 50 dollars I'm just asking a question I'm trying to say here's the true okay answer we beat that today I think these he hit the buzzer in that one sit in your car go on YouTube bring up your car it'll tell you a video perfect that's a good idea follow it to reset that right and it might even be a video of Rick the injector hey let's do a video Okay, can I go to a Toyota place in Miami? Would they do that for me?

They'll do a lot of things to you. Yeah, I know. No, seriously. We're talking legal. Yeah, you can go. You can do that, Howard, but you're risking, again, these Miami dealers, you don't know what you're going to hear. You might hear that a good thing you just came in because your car is going to roll over and play dead in the next six days.

Like Rick said. And, yeah, like Rick said. And it's going to cost you $4,11,100 and 19 cents to prevent that from happening. It's dangerous to drive your car home. I exaggerate, obviously, to make a point. But I would leave the light on because you can't figure out how to turn it off. And I would go back to the dealer that you trusted and have them check it out for you. The odds are 9 out of 10 or probably 95 out of 100 that there's nothing serious wrong.

And unless you're... You just got to, I think, to suffer with it like I do until it's time to get the maintenance. I just, I do it now as soon as I sit in their car. Now, this is crazy. You all think I'm crazy because I go to a service department every single day. I told a service department. But it just doesn't always work on my schedule. So I just, sometimes I forget.

But it's on there. everything, you just hit the back button, Howard, and it's good until you stop. And then, you know... What do you mean the back button? What's the back button? So, you know, on the left side where you see that says maintenance required? Yeah. And there's a little symbol that it looks like a little U-turn, an arrow.

It looks like a U-turn. Yeah. Okay, so on the steering wheel, there is a matching arrow. If you hit that, that... Oh, I got it. Yeah, it clears it away, yeah. And it'll stay off until you start the car again, but that's a temporary... So, actually, leave Walgreens.

It comes back. Exactly. as soon as you get back in the car. Howard, I hope we were able to help you this morning. Yeah, I think you did. And I think I'll look at the manual because the manual has the instructions. Yeah, that's a good idea.

I'm a little lazy, but I saw it once, and I looked at it and it was a little confused. But I think you straightened me out. Did you say you saw it once? I saw it once in the manual. Right. And you never wanted to open it. up again. You're not any

difference than anyone else, Howard. But we have some calls. Yes, sir. You hit on one of the really terrible things that manufacturers do. They worry people. You're a smart guy and you're right to be worried. And if you're on the Pennsylvania

turnpike at 2 o'clock in the morning on a Sunday, you have a right to be terrified. The red light comes on. You don't know what it is. They give you a code. And do you pull over and check into a motel? and you're on your way to pick up your lottery ticket. The point is they could very easily say urgent, see your dealer immediately,

or not urgent, see that your dealer within 30 days. But they don't do that because they just don't care about their customers the way they should, and that's my opinion. Take it up too much of your time. Have a good rest of the day, and I'll talk to you next week. Thanks, Howard. Thanks, Howard. Okay, we're going to go to Steve.

Thanks for holding, Steve. Welcome. Welcome, welcome back. Hi, how are you? Well, thank you. Okay, I've got two things I want to ask. I called last week about the cleaning of the lenses, and I was wondering whether any of you tried my method

of spraying the lenses with repelled, mosquito repellents to clean them, or if any of your listeners have tried that. Rick Shakin said he didn't try it, and I wasn't here, so I have an excuse. I don't even claim the lenses on my glasses. Oh, my God. The lenses on my car are still crystal clear. So you're using Raynex?

No, I'm using repel. Repel. Insect repellent. Insect repellent. It's amazing. All the brown gum comes right off and they stay clean. Okay. For the headlights.

The headlights. Okay. I was just trying to get caught up because I didn't know if you were talking about camera lenses. because a lot of cars have camera lenses all over them, and they get gunged up. So an insect repellent gets all the stuff off. I bet it's because there's a solvent in there,

and you could probably find that same solvent and something else that doesn't come with insecticide. I know it's not descent, but what does it have in, Indeed? I guess so. Yeah, it's probably like the alcohol or some other solvent that they use to put the insect repellent so you can spray it onto something. So it works. It sounds like it works. Pretty cool.

What was the other product last week we were talking about? I'm, I don't, well, we're going to keep our ears open. I'm sure anybody tried it. We'll call in and text in if they're listening now. And I'm not going to try it because I'm kind of weirded out by, like, insect repellents and things like that. Well, keep the insects off the lights. But, yeah, that sounds cheaper than take it into a service department having the big old buff job on it. But, yeah, you know, I'm going to, when we get off the call, I'm going to, I'm going to look up on

chat, GPT, and see what it says about that. It does work. Now, the next question is, why do I keep having my gas cap light on? A gas cap line on saying it, that the gas, the door is open or the gas cap? It seems a gas cap. Well, I'll tell you, Steve, how many times I went through that, and at that time, You know, I'd get out of the car and just go over to the gas tank and take the, you know, lid and the cover and make sure it's tight. And I'm sure that Rick has given out a lot of, you know, advice. I would be concerned. Well, we have, you know, I all got ahead of me on the chat, GPT, so we're surprised at the result. And this seems very credible here.

it says it doesn't recommend using that so even the net solvent that's probably getting off the yellow and the stuff that might clear it off but the deed is not recommended because it will damage the plastic over time it says it can actually break down the polycarbonate surface of headlight lenses and it means it can degrade faster and also removes any UV protective coating that the manufacturer is applied to it so they are recommending another method and they're recommending chat cheap is recommending a product that is for this like maguiar's headlight protectant and saracote ceramic headlight coating or a clear plastic of PPF film which I don't recommend

because I think they will eventually get screwed up and they don't look good but the I think this one time is you're going to be fine I just think what they're going to say is repeated use over long you might have more problems as long as it's for the month so far

as long as you get it before you sell it right that's it now again with gas cap why is it a gas cap it's reading gas light on the on death what car are you driving it's a 2008 counter country

so it actually has a light that says your gas cap is loose yeah it doesn't say loose It just says, let's see, it says gas cap. Gas cap. So I would think that's what it means. It's like we have an O2 sensor light that comes on because if you have the, or check engine or something.

It would be great. That's, that's, my hat's off to, what type of car? 2008, town and country. Town and country, so that's, what is that if? It's a Chrysler. Chrysler, Chrysler, yeah. Well, hats off to Chrysler. Give them credit where credit is due.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's a price limit. Have you replaced the cap, gotten a new one? A few times. It still goes on. Okay. I would be looking at the surface where the cap goes on,

the actual filler neck, and see if that's damaged or maybe got some corrosion or something, something that's not allowing the rubber gasket to seal properly with the field cap. You know, I'm going to say Rick is absolutely correct on that as I looked it up. Oh, that sounds right. Yeah, it's part of their evap leak detection system, just like ours. Ours would set off a check engine light, right, Rick? Like if you had, if you had a, somebody had loose gas cap.

Yeah, once you secure the fuel cap and it's sealing properly, then the computer will watch for it, and if it doesn't see that problem occurring again, it'll turn the light off. Okay, Steve. You have any other questions? Sounds like a plan. All right. As far as being the first Brooklyn caller from New York this morning,

how about $50 for that first Brooklyn, New York caller? I don't know, but is it still pretty cold? Like, it's not cold to you? 40? I'm in Florida. Oh, okay. It was pretty chilly yesterday. Yeah, I heard.

We're enjoying San Diego. San Diego weather, weather, it's beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I'm not going to hold you up any longer. Thanks a lot for your time. All right, Steve. Bye-bye. Talk soon. We are going to go to the Roadrunner.

That's Roadrunner. Another Steve. I almost beeped at the first guy, at the first Steve. Morning, morning, Roadrunner. Good morning, everybody, and he's not the first caller from Brooklyn. I am. I was born in Coney Island Hospital in 1957. Right on, Steve.

Cooney Island is a hospital. Yeah, and they also have great hot dogs. Yeah, let's go right to Dr. Steve's a hot dog. Let's go to what? Let's go right to Dr. Rick. Okay, I changed the electronic initial module, right? So me and my friend, we just laid it on the inside Senderwell, right?

Call wouldn't start. So me and my friend go, maybe you've got to connect it to the bracket, right? We connected to the bracket, the car starts right? Someone's calling you. Get in here, Steve. are you on the fall without a car dealer again here's another recommendation get out of the bathroom Steve

I'm kidding I'm kidding I said get out of the bathroom Steve no I'm not tired by my daughter junior so the car started right up and then I went over a bumpy road to make sure it was not a non negative problem so the car

is running great now and it only costs me $67 $10. Okay. Spend another $10 or $15 at the most. Take a wire with a couple of simple eye loops on it and connect it to the bolt where it's mounted to the fender and run that to either another good ground source or run it to the negative side of your battery if it reaches close enough there and give yourself a redundant ground source for that unit and you'll thank me later. Because I touched it, I didn't get no shock. So I was happy. Yeah, you won't on the negative side. Congratulations. You'll never feel a shock on the negative side.

And if you ask your wife to do it, you won't feel a shock. I was up that Nissan yesterday, my friend. So that Nissan on Lake Worth Road, they sold out to Krause Auto Group. Kraus? Yeah, that's what the guy did. I haven't heard of them. Nashville? I have no idea.

But they're still keeping the store on 4. 41 the main one we might have to sneak down there someday yeah also i was looking at the maroni label two cars having on the window the other two couldn't even find them they're gone so i'm looking at the maroni label you know they got that three thousand dollar thing where they charge you for the the addendum platinum service and all that stuff yeah reading it down there yeah head of course they brought up headlights oh you can get three headlights cleaning and here was the other one and they use deep woods off right yeah right but they want to charge you for the windows in etching number oh that's that's old school yeah in new york i had it done at the

police station for nothing that's true yeah i remember that that was a long time ago but you didn't get the insurance with it you didn't get five hundred dollars if they five thousand dollars if they never found your car. Well, I'd like to go for the $45,000. There you go to my car. Right. But, yeah, they don't do that down here no more. They do.

People still sell etch, and it's kind of strange. I think we saw it on the mystery shopper report today. There was etch put on the car. Pre-etched. You know, and it's actually not such a bad deal. It's just way overpriced. Think about it. If you're a professional car thief,

and you see two cars parked side by side one has got the VIN number etched in the windows and the other doesn't which one are you going to steal the one without the edge so it is somewhat of it to turn And then there was a fancy one that came along and sometime about 20 years ago and there are micro dots

and what it was was they had a tiny tiny pieces of plastic with a identification on it that you would just sprinkle out throughout your car and it would just remain part of the car and it was invisible to find and even if you vacuumed the car and uncleaned it there would still be enough left and you'd be able to prove it was your car

if you can find it and I said you know what you get to look at the VIN number too no I'm just kidding they take the plates on it when I was putting my inner door panels on when I got the car I took a baggie plastic bag

and I wrote my name and address on a piece of paper and put it in the baggie with the VIN number and I put it in the door panel on both sides in the door. They'll never look there. That's the same idea, yeah. Pretty smart. Dr. Rick comes through in the clutch.

He aims to please. Okay, what's that thing with the bug spray? What bug spray you use? Okay, don't use it. We have, the Steve, another Steve, also from Brooklyn. Yeah, I know. I started talking when you said that. Yeah, okay.

No, he used some insect repellent, like Deepwood's off or something and it could be another brand to clean the headlights. Then we looked it up and it said the deep that's in there will degrade the plastic. It's not a good idea, so don't.

Yeah, you don't do that. Use toothpaste. I'm just kidding. Okay, I took a picture of that car but I'm going to write it down because I use a cell phone and I'll tell you what's a $3,000 extra gets you for the platinum series.

You can't wait. Send it to me. Neither can I. I'm so excited. Oh, all right, everybody, having a good and safe weekend, stay healthy, stay happy. I enjoy that pink moon. You're good, Steve. Thanks, Steve. Hey, I have a question. Since we went on the air at, you know, 8 a.m. this morning, how many times have we used chat GPT?

A bunch. Think about it. Now, I will. Earl's been used in like every 30 seconds. He's fast. He's my... We can do the math on that. There's some interesting facts.

As early as 2025, ChatGBTGBT has experienced remarkable growth, solidifying its position as one of the most widely used A1 platforms globally. Yeah. It's amazing. And then they go on with some interesting numbers, weekly active users, over 400 million worldwide as of February 2025. 300 million in 2024. It's a small percentage.

It sounds like a lot of people, I think it's like 6%, or something like that. They went into the paid subscribers of 15.5 million, and the numbers just get higher and higher. It's interesting, a sign of the changing times. We are going to go to Bob, who's been holding from Lake Park. Good morning, Bob. Yo, Bob. How you doing? Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to Stu.

Thank you. The last week, Roadrunner was asking a question about crank windows. There was one vehicle that's still being sold that has a crank window. Do you know what it is? A Nissan Versa? A fiat? A fiat? I would guess maybe a fiat.

Are you a go? A cheap wrangler. Figures. And this is the last year for the production, so after this year, they will be no more crank windows unless you go to Barrett Jackson. Right. There'll be plenty of vehicles they would crank. Interesting. Wow.

That's a good, but I wouldn't guess that. I was thinking a tiny, like, the cheap, lost leader, microcompact car that has nothing. I would guess it's probably on the jeeps that have that removal, easy removed door. There you go. Because then you've got less wiring to try to connect because those doors are meant to be where the average person can simply release a strap. And take it off. And lift the door right off to sit, you know, to get rid of the doors.

So if they're going to get rid of the cranks and they're going to go to power, how are they going to do that with removable doors? Same thing for removable tailgates. when you have a backup camera on that in the tailgate is simply you disconnect the electric connector and then they've got little covers. There's a little work you got to do. Yes. Yeah, now the one with the key fob,

my key fob broke also the little silver clip on the end of it from the weight of the keys. I didn't lose my key fob. I re-glued, you know, I used gorilla glue, glued it back together. But what you can do to prevent losing your key fob there's something called an ad tag. I have ad tags on everything.

So does Earl? Earl has it on his keys, his notebook, his wallet. What else? Anything I lose a lot. There's one stuck to Nancy's back. The other solution for that is, instead of using the key ring that's actually attached on the fob, you can buy little cases like a leather case

that has the key ring attached to the case. you can then have easy access to the buttons and I bet some of those cases showing this Rick yeah like this one has the air tag attached right on but they also makes leather cases the entire key fob

goes inside the case to protect it and then you've also got a spot where your air tag can be attached into that case so it's all one unit nice and simple pretty snazzy this is almost foreign and familiar because of what we drive. Isn't it amazing the advantages

of driving what we drive? I mean, no, without a key, right. I can't wait for that. That's made in China and you won't be able to get it. Probably right. So, you know. I have a question for Rick. My fuel vapor hose is setting off my check engine light.

I replaced one. It lasted, I bought it off Amazon. It was cheap. It lasted nine months. They gave me my money back. So I bought one that was a little bit more expensive from the Farts Geek. That lasted 23 months. And now the check engine light is on again.

The car runs fine. Should I change that thing again? It's an easy, you know, 20 minutes. It's right on top of the car. It's easier to change out. But it's the fuel vapor hose that has the selenoid. Yeah, Rick, answer that call for a minute. Remember we have five callers waiting.

Emissions issues are not a big problem in Florida. because we don't have the emissions testing but if you were going to sell the car that would hurt you so i would replace it then but remember anytime you're replacing those those lines like that put a little bit of uh lubricant on the o rings they'll seal better and it'll make them last longer thank you rick okay thank you bob okay all right have a great day thank you we are going to go to step Good morning, Stephen. Three steves. Really?

Good morning. Yo, Steve. Steve is one. Ah. Years old. Is Stephen calling us from O'Call? Like the Liberty Mutual commercial. Ah, good morning.

It's not Steve. It's Sidney. Hey, Sidney. Yeah, Sydney. How are you doing this morning? I'm living life. All right. So are we.

I have a question, a simple question, to work. Wait, I have two cars. The engine base is dirty, but I'm worried about watching it. Some people say I might damage it, I might get oil, water to the connector, and it might not start. What should I do? How do I wash it? I don't want to pay to wash it.

I have a Twitter Highlander and a Subaru. Yeah, my advice in that case is if you're going to go to like the coin operated car wash get a can of degreaser spray spray the whole area let us soak in for a little bit and if you're going to use the gun the the pressure washer gun have it on its very lowest power setting and stay way back just let the water just kind of rinse in gently that way it's not forcing water into the electrical connectors or anything but otherwise um i generally do not recommend washing the engine bay unless it's something that you're doing it because of a real major problem i wouldn't do it uh the places that do professional car washing

they have equipment that can do it safely without forcing the water in anywhere and causing issues and i just think you'd be taking a big chance on getting yourself into trouble by getting water in places it shouldn't be so i my recommendation i would leave it alone maybe take a rag and go in just wipe surfaces that you can get to easily, but I wouldn't clean the whole day. I wouldn't try washing it. How about the garden hose? If you use the garden hose at home.

That would be good. Yeah, and a very gentle spray again. But bear in mind, anything that you're washing down is going to be going into your driveway and it's going to get all over everywhere. Parking on your neighbor's grass. Yeah, that would probably be, I'm not going to say that. Yeah, garden hose on a very gentle spray. Don't use anything that's got any real pressure to it.

All right. Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks for the call. 877. Well, after we take these last couple of calls, we are going to shut the phone lines down. We're going to go to Frank, who's been holding, and Marty, I'll be with you in a minute. Maybe.

Hey, Frank. Good morning, Frank. No pun intended. It was a pleasure starting my Saturday off hearing you guys on the radio. Oh, thank you. I'd like to bring that to you every Sunday. Oh, how nice. It was a really nice day, too, because I have every door and window open,

letting the house get free air conditioning for a few hours. Oh, yeah. And getting rid of the stale air. But the other, about 10 days ago, maybe 11 days ago, I was at Costco doing some shopping. And I said, oh, let me just pick up some toilet paper and other things I had. I actually had two things of toilet paper. I said, we don't need all this stuff.

I mean, you know. So anyway, I didn't think about it. This goes to the carers. Well, I know. This is where it's coming in. Because I think with the people afraid to buy a car now or rushing to buy a car, just let things calm down. Well, well, well.

So much for my thoughts. The other day, I went there with my wife when she had a day off. And there's not a roll. of toilet paper left in Costco. It's like, it looks like an empty. Oh, my gosh, you can't find it. We're going to have flashbacks. You go in the bathrooms.

The rolls are empty. The TK adult rolls in the bathroom. I mean, oh, long. Well, I'm exaggerating about that. But in any event. All right, I have a recommendation for you and also for all of our listeners and those of you in the studio with me this morning. During the pandemic, when you couldn't get toilet paper, we found a

company online called Who Gives a Crap? And they make toilet paper and it's a subscription. And it's made from bamboo. There's no difference from, it's not like you're taking a stick of bamboo. It's soft. It's very interesting. Uh-huh. And we get a box and it's time like an Amazon subscription.

And we've had this for forever and we have a perfectly timed schedule. And it's great. So I've never had a problem getting it from them. So maybe I'll take a look at that. Frank, thanks for Earl on toilet paper. Yes. Earl on Costco. We love hearing from you, Frank.

Do you have any of a good one? Thank you. No, I'll be sure. I know you've got five in line, so I'll be generous staying and let them go. All right, thanks. Have a great weekend. We're going to go to Marty, who has faithfully been waiting. Good morning, Marty.

Good morning. I got a couple things, not on toilet paper. Oh, no. How about Consumer Report? How about the 2025 Auto Edition? Do you have good news for me? No waiting. Okay.

So eventually I'm sure it'll show up. Yes, absolutely. And I asked you that because of all the others that are listening right now that have not received their subscription. Yeah. First thing I wanted to say is I would not buy a Hyundai first from Amazon. I would go to a Hyundai dealer first and see if you're getting the right price

because when I looked at the website like Rick said, I mean, some of these dealerships got $1,800 dealer fees and everything else. So maybe the three days left to get to $2,300 is, maybe it won't be worth it. Maybe you're going to end up paying more through Amazon than you would at the Hyundai dealer. Well, I don't totally disagree with you, Marty, but I would reverse your order of what you just recommended. I'd go to the Amazon first, and I would take my out-the-door price from Amazon to several Hyundai dealers

and say, if you want to sell me the car, can you beat this price? And by the way, $2,300 worth of a gift certificate from Amazon. So, yeah, the cool thing about Amazon is that not there. are going to sell the car cheaper than everybody else, but they're going to give you a real out-the-door price, which is all a consumer can ask for. If you've got a real out-the-door price, then you can shop and compare it.

And the shopping and comparison is what allows you to get an even better price. Yeah, well, I was just going by what their website showed at that price. I was looking at that and make sure you're going to get something less. Because it's like Brayman and Miami, has an $1,800 dealer fee thrown in there. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, you'd have to take the out-the-door price from Amazon, which is posted right there.

Right. And then you deduct your $2,300 in gift certificate, and then you call six, seven Hyundai dealers, as far as you want to travel and say, if you can give me an out-the-door price below this, I'll come see you tomorrow. Yeah. Now, my other suggestion is on my wife's CRV, the gas tank has no gas cap.

So how do they do that? It doesn't need gas caps, and all these other cars do. You'd think they would save money by everybody having no gas caps. Yeah, Ford tried that too, where it's basically it's a little flap that when you put the fuel nozzle in, it pushes that flap open and lets you refill the car and then the flap closes and it's supposed to seal up. Unfortunately, Ford found out after a very short time, those start to leak. And when it starts leaking, it's way more expensive to replace that flap assembly than it is to buy, well, to give you a comparison. The Toyota fuel cap from the dealership, which is probably the most expensive.

way you could go to get a fuel cap for a Toyota is like $35 to $40 and I'm sure right now they're going to be going up. They'll probably be $55 to $60 soon, but you could buy a replacement fuel cap that will work on your Toyota and seal it perfectly for like $20 at the local parts store. Those flip open little tab caps. I've seen those sold aftermarket where you can install the cap on your fuel car on your car. and it has the little flap that opens, and almost every single time I've seen one, it's because they're in for a check engine light because it's leaking. And then you go, you throw that piece of crap out.

Yeah. Well, I'm just saying that's how the car came. So you didn't have any choice. Right, but it's... I was talking about the car. I'm kidding. Oh, the car, yeah. There's a reason why they only ran them for a short time,

and then they said, nope, nope, nope, get rid of it, get rid of it. Yeah. All right, just wondered. if that's a new thing to save money on gas caps. Well, they tried it, and unfortunately, in the real world, it didn't work. It's a good thought. It'll be obsolete in a few years because there won't be any more gas caps. Exactly.

Yeah. All right. Have a good weekend. Glad you're, everybody's feeling better. Thank you. Thanks, Marty. Okay, have a good weekend. Have a great weekend.

Hope to hear from you soon. me about your subscription. You know, isn't it amazing every single day? You know, it's just so obvious that what we're driving is so necessary, and there are so many people that disagree, but one day,

you know, that gap will be full. I mean, there won't be a gap. And for instance, you know, on my plaid that I drive, it was really telling. After I had that embalization on my left knee,

I realized, you know, if I kept it on autonomous because I want to drive, I'm not going to, I'm not one of those. I need my freedom machine. Anyway, you know, the brake on the combustion car and so many other features, you know, that are on the plaid that are so conducive to. How many people think about that? That's an excellent point. Is to think about this, Nancy and I drive all electric vehicles, and we virtually never touched a brake, never touched a brake. Never touched the brake. The automatic braking of the electric engine is a generator, does all the braking.

Excuse me, but the only time that I hit the brake would be to deactivate the autonomy. And the autonomous can be dangerous. You know, you still have to focus. You have to especially focus, you know, the drivers around you. But it's just, you know, you just can't give up focus. because you'll be in big trouble. There's been a few mistakes, well, there's been more than a few mistakes that my platt has made when I'm in autonomous.

And I think Earl has me beat on the cyber truck because it wants to go down, you know, head south, you know, North Lane for some reason. Get your adrenaline going. Right. Get to who? Keep you alive. Adrenaline.

It's bar of life. It's the joie de vivre. I can't speak French. We do that 24 hours a day, don't we? Drilling, drooling. Yes. Oh, I have five anonymous comments waiting. Oh, great.

We're done with the phones. I thought you were saying hi to me. And we have text messages. We have Rick here with some YouTube, and we have your anonymous feedback. The first one says, I don't buy cars thinking about the next guy and that you save money up front

by buying the previous year car. The next owner of my cars turns them into small metal cubes with 300,000 plus miles on them. I like that image. The next guy is the junkyard owner. We are exploring... I'm sorry, that's spam.

We're exploring long-term business solutions. If service centers have their way, the only tools you would need is a cell phone and a credit card to maintain today's modern vehicles. Was that a topic last week? No, I don't think so. Okay.

That'd be all right with me. Yeah. Yeah, it's true. It's pretty handy. I mean, right now, they're using a lot of technology like that and service departments where you can actually communicate with the technician, and they can show you the picture. You know, so if they're telling you, you know, there's something broken on the car,

You can just, you sit there and you communicate on the phone and you see what the actual issue is. That's good. But yeah, things are changing in the service departments and everything with our cars. It's kind of strange everything. Our lives are running through. Well, Massey's plaid is three years old, and it's never been in to a Tesla server or any service. Well, actually, I take it back. Well, those are for repairs.

It's been in to replace tires that I burn out. Ran over curbs with. Right. But there has been no maintenance required on the... Right. Yeah. All the maintenance are just updates on your computer, just improvement improvements. Oh, that was a double one.

So the last one, last anonymous feedback, Nissan hating their dealers makes no sense. The dealers all make money for the manufacturer. Am I missing something here? Well, there's... John Dillinger worked for the dealers. He would make money for the manufacturer also. Right.

I think Nissan hating, like, the manufacturer and the relationship with the dealers, each manufacturer's thing is different. They have a different culture. And I would believe that they think that the aggressive posture they take with their dealers improves business. I don't think they're doing it to hurt themselves. So I think they feel that they got a, tight leash on their on the dealer body and and they kind of they call the shots the big secret is

uh in my opinion is the manufacturers hate the dealers and the manufacturers are highly educated uh they're very competent uh most of them MBAs and engineers yeah they're exactly and uh and they're real they're a smart group but the problem is their hands are tied by the dealers thanks to the dealer's efforts at lobbying over many, many years, state laws that make them Superman, they cannot be hurt by the dealers. They have a contract. All dealers have a franchise agreement with a manufacturer. And the franchise agreement is a lopsided, one-sided contract favoring the dealer, making him immune to controls by the dealers. So the dealers have formed this solid lobbying group that has put them in a position

to be able to do anything they want and literally including literally committing crimes as they do in Florida every day by advertising cars at a price they will not sell the car for that's against the law and the Attorney General of Florida

knows it and the Attorney Generals of the other states know it who is the Attorney General of Florida? The manufacturers know it and there's nothing they can do about it so I don't even know who the Attorney General is. I don't either.

Nancy, do you remember the name of the current Attorney General? I can name Pam Bondi. She won't return any of my call, so I'm not giving her any type of exposure right now. Well, no, she's not even, she's in the Senate now. We've got a new guy. Oh, no, two years ago, Pam Bobby is the U.S. Appendanty said. I know.

And then Ashley Moody is the Senator, a great state of Florida. Yeah, yeah. So we got somebody else in there. Yeah, they get promoted after they leave. They go to Washington, D.C. They do a terrible job in Florida. They side with the dealers that are screwing the customers, and then they get promoted. I mean, what kind of tell you?

She got appointed, yeah, by the governor to the Senate. So that's great. I'll look it up. It's another attractive woman, and I probably shouldn't have said that, but I did. Too late now. All right, do you got some comments over there coming in on YouTube? Yeah. All right.

Let's get into it. Mark H says I want to see a cell phone mount and dismount a 35 series tire Come on I was being facetious Well what they will have is they'll have tires Yeah my robot will do it

That never fail That or a robot Yeah Yeah exactly a little bitty robot that changes your tire A little two foot tall technician That just scrambles around with the tires Actually my dream for the future of tires would be a tire that does not use air,

a non-numatic tire that uses like a rubber matrix inside and is 3D printable to the point of which you drive in, your car goes up on a lift, and a machine simply reprints more material onto that tire and recuts the tread, and then you boom your back on the road like that. Yeah, I bet you're 100% right. I mean, you never worry about a flat tire ever again.

When the tread gets low, It's half an hour to an hour, and boom, you've got new tread on your tires, and you're safe to drive again. Let's do this real live. What is a timing on having a tire that is not necessarily to replace? I'm sorry. That's okay. I don't know what you're saying. That's the best thing about chat, GPT.

What is the time that you estimate it will, cars will have a tire that never needs to be replaced? I'm talking to chat, GBT. I thought you're talking to me. I had no idea. I didn't know how to answer you. Well, while he's waiting on that, we did have a lot of people on YouTube seconding the idea of... 10 to 20 years. Oh, that's too long.

All right, 20 years? That's still in my lifetime. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe, all right. But, yeah, a lot of people on YouTube were seconding the idea of using a clear, like 3M, clear film like a wrap on your headlights to help

prevent the headlight from aging and discoloring and my own pickup I did an experiment is still on there the pasture side is fogged over like you wouldn't believe the driver's side is still probably 50% clear from a simple

piece of 3M clear plastic that I put on there about six or seven years ago so I mean that works and even Donovan actually seconded the idea of ceramic coat, which is a ceramic coating, like for the ceramic on coating on paints to replace wax, and putting that on the headlights also extends the life of the headlight and prevents the UV from the sun from damaging that plastic

and causing it to fog over like that. Well, I'll tell you great information from Donovan and Rick. You know, we're going into a time squeeze right now, so I want to put everybody on notice We need the mystery shopping report to get to. We have the dog of the week. So real quick, Stu, is there something you want to go to? There's something I want to say. Okay.

Really quick, though. Michelin is coming out with a model called the Uptus. It's a non-numatic tire, and it's supposed to be coming out in the next year. So better than 20 years. Donovan even mentioned that, and he says, Michelin actually has an airless tire, possibly today's, but it's for off-road vehicles only right now. Well, there we go. So, hey, that's a start.

Maybe they're really bouncy. Absolutely. Okay, folks, we are going to go to the video from Big Dog Ranch, but let me give you this information first. You can go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. You can find out all kind of things that you probably don't. know. And what a beautiful day it is to go out there. They have so many programs. They have so many things that are affordable to you at this time of year as far as, you know, the fees that you know, they charge for some of the dogs, most of the dogs. And if they're out there for

a long time, they, you know, reduce the fee. So it's a good place to visit. That's Big Dog Ranch Rescue. you uh we have sapphire sapphire and uh she is a mixed breed she's a female 59 pounds and uh she came in from the bahamas and she's uh dog selective and she's dog selective dog selective dog selective so that mean some dog she's good with some dog she's not correct and she's got a whole lot of energy and uh she's uh okay kind of on a leash and she has had had a had heartworm treatment, and there's just a whole lot of good things about Sapphire. How old is she?

She is six, yeah. Six years old. She is one year, ten months, and six days. She has a baby. She's still a baby. Yeah, she's very cute. A big baby. Okay, let's take a look at the video.

Hi, this is Sapphire from Big Dog Ranch Rescue. I'm Charlie Dubino. She is a lovely little angel that just wants the attention of one human being. She loves for on her belly Get pets, all sorts of stuff like that Absolutely lovely dog for a one dog home That I think should get adopted very quickly Hmm

Sapphire, she's really pretty Yes, she is very pretty So go to Big Dog Ranch For a lot of reasons Like I said, you can take a look at what's going on Out there And you can also fill out a form For a background check

They do a background check. They just don't give the dogs out. And, you know, you can pick up Earl's book, Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer. And the book is 1995, and all proceeds go to Big Dog Ranch. Correct. Can you have your book? Okay, there it is. Confessions of a recovering car dealer.

I would like to go to the mystery shop, and that is from Sunrise Ford. Very interesting, to say the least, about Sunrise Ford. You can vote at 772-497-6530. That's 772-497-6530. Now back to Earl. A sunrise for it, by the way, is in Fort Pierce, Florida. And that's about, what, 50 miles north of us, or 40? It takes about an hour so to drive.

Yeah, it's a little bigger than Stewart, Florida, which is immediately north. We do a lot of shops there, and this is up a little bit further on the east coast of Florida. And it's, of course, our pioneer, or actually not a pioneer, but very experienced, Mr. Sheper, Agent Lightning, and I'll read this report that's too comprised, translated into this format, and I will speak in the first person, as if I were Agent Lightning. My family and I found a used 2,023 Ford F-250X-LT with 23,000 miles for just $47,3,3,000. online this is a protocol you should follow by the way check the online price first before you venture into a dealership or call or email for that matter so we

decided to take a ride to check it out our son is home from out of town and looking to buy truck to use for work well we mentioned that I think last week so here we are in a real format like situation going through the process and you can learn from the experience as you listened to this report. We arrived mid-afternoon, walked around the lot until he found the truck we'd seen online. We waited about 10 minutes, and I went inside to find the salesperson. The front desk lady walked me and asked, is there anything I can help you with today? I replied, yes, please. I'd like your best salesman for a pickup truck. She said, hmm, let me think.

Then she got up out of her seat, walked over to a salesman at his desk. Bill, are you busy? She asked. A man lifted his head and said, what's up? And seeing me with her smiled and asked, how can I be of assistance today? So far, so good. That was just me talking. I showed him my phone and said, my son is interested in this truck.

Would you be able to get the keys so he can drive it? He stood up, looked at my phone for the detail. and went to get the keys. Bill said he believed it was in the corner of the lot and pointed. I told him, my son and husband are over there, and they're looking at the car now. We walked toward them,

and Bill tried unlocking the truck with the remote, but it wasn't working. The battery was dead. Now listen carefully. This is interesting. This is the beginning of some issues. Bill apologized. Pop the hood.

and went to get a battery charger. While he was gone, we looked at the Carfax report and noticed it had been in a minor accident. When we inspected the frontlights, we saw one had been replaced and was sitting slightly lower than the other. And the thought, you know, through my consumer mind,

if I'm looking at the headlamps and once lower than the other, it does tell me that... Something's about with that car, man. It does tell to me that there was an accident. It also tells me, The repair was not. I would not.

I'd say, let's look at another. At that point, Mike, let's move on. Right. So when my husband pointed it out, Bill said, well, if this were a poker match, I would have lost the first hand and laughed. Yeah. Yoke. That was good, yeah. He got the truck jumped.

He got the truck jumped, had my son drive it to the front so we could put a plate on it and a license plate. While driving up, my son noticed the check engine light was on. We talked about that on the show earlier a lot. Bill asked for his license and went inside to get the plate. Notice we said the check engine line zone, there was no information other than the check engine light was on. All four of us got in the truck, drove a few miles down US 1.

Then Bill asked him to make a U-turn and head back to the dealership. Just before we got back, the truck stalled. It wouldn't restart. So 99.9% of the times, the check engine light isn't anything serious. Well, here we go. Something's going on here. There's a 1% popped up. Bill's not winning any of these hands right now.

Even the hazard lights didn't work. So here we are in the middle of U.S. 1, busy area, with hazard lights on. The car won't run, and hazard lights don't work. Bill quickly popped the hood while my husband, son, and I ran. across US one and walk back to the dealership this could be a movie this is it like a harmony yeah we didn't feel safe sitting there with traffic flying by you probably didn't feel safe about running across US one either it's one or the other we waited for Bill a bit then left to check out another dealership they

didn't have anything worth looking at and no one even came out to talk to us so we headed back to Sunrise Ford the truck was still in the middle US 1 I just can't believe this and Agent Lightning God bless her I mean she goes through this stuff and for this she obviously doesn't get paid enough

but either to these guys yeah so the car is still in the middle of the US 1 no police there that's what I got out of where the police it doesn't say a lot for Fort Pierce does it Fort Pierce Florida with Bill and several other guys trying to figure out what was wrong with it.

I wish we had video with this. It would just be, you could get it on national television. I was trying to wait for Bill to ask him for a full write-up and to see if they do complete inspection on the truck. Did I skip something? Let me see here. The truck sales full write-up. Yeah, no.

Yeah, okay, okay. Then maybe we could reassess later that evening. evening if they figured it out but Bill wasn't coming back and by then we'd already been there for over two hours and we need to get home right I can't just get out of my mind a amount of time spent yeah I want to give Agent Lightning a polygraph test did she really go on a test drive and the car stopped they couldn't pull the car over they were in the middle of us one and for it pierce for two hours yeah yeah I was looking on the map I've seen other dealerships right by so Sunrise Ford is right next to Wallace, Lincoln,

all the Wallace dealerships, Sunrise, Volkswagen, Lincoln, Wallace, Hyundai, Garber, Buick, GMC. It's on Car Row right there. So the mystery remains continuing as Agent Lightning. I waited through the weekend and called on Tuesday. No call from the dealership. No call from, what's the name of the dealership? No Bill.

Sunrise Fork. Yeah, no bill. No dealership. should call nobody okay I was transferred to Bill's voicemail left a message I waited until Thursday morning called again voice mail again an hour later I called back and Jillian answered I explained what had happened when we test drove the truck she was very apologetic as for our contact information to see if we were in their system she found my son's name and asked if she could

called me back after doing some research to find out what was going on with the truck and whether it was available I asked if she was a salesperson she said she was part of the internet sales team well that's you know part of kind of like salesperson it is a salesperson somehow my call had been ridded to to the internet department you're lucky it was rooted anywhere that's me speaking this was at 10 a.m. on April 10th and the price was still listed the same online, which was a competitive price.

Gillian called me back at 315 Thursday afternoon to let me know the truck was still in the service department, but they said they'd rush it for us. She said she'd try to find it exactly... She said she'd find out exactly what was wrong. In the meantime, she would speak with her sales manager and sent me a detailed sheet of the out-the-door cost. I waited until almost 2 p.m. Friday.

I mean, and called her, nobody wants to buy a car that bad. Yeah, I'm saying in reality. Yeah, you're gone. Yeah, you're gone. And called her because I hadn't heard anything. She answered and apologized saying they'd been extremely busy. They weren't busy when I was there, and she hadn't gotten to it yet. She assured me she would get with their sales manager right away.

and have some numbers for me soon. She also said she double-checked and the service department to see She had a double-check. She had to check twice. But finally, call me back at 2.30 and asked for our information again. Didn't get the information the first 11 times.

He told me the only issue was a stone cold that battery, which had been fixed. It took them six days to replace the battery. And I somehow can't believe that two hours in the middle of the US one, they couldn't figure out they had a dead battery. This is where, I'm worried about our credibility on this show because a shopping report is so incredulous that I just,

I don't believe it myself. So he might want to check in with our first to avoid doubling the work. He said Gillian had handed it back over from that day, which is why he was calling, but he still needed to confirm our contact info and ask how much we'd want to put down. He said he's going to check. with the sales manager, call me back shortly, I waited, surprise, 306 p.m. Bill texted me

pictures of the truck and the sales work sheet. The price was listed online is a 47,3233. That was the same price as before. The top line labeled the market value selling price was 51,575. They took off $4,2502 making the adjusted price, $47,000. $47,000. $4,2502 making the adjusted price, $47,000. 323, just like the Illinois price. Unfortunately, they went on to add junk fees, $1,397 in install packages, etch, spiron, question mark, I don't know what that was. It's probably a protective thing. Yeah, LoJack, which we've talked about on almost every show,

which is a worthless anti-theft protection with today's modern cars. They had a $2080, $2,080 in junk fees, electronic filing fee, $3,999.99.99 in $0.99. $0.99 in $0.99 in $0.99.0.99. Doc fee, $9.99. And $0.99. Tag agency fee, well, they made that $4.50, a little variety there. Yeah, they should check it up. Alliance fee, $450.50 license fee. Yeah, and I just want to say that's padded. I think it's padded for sure. Yeah. And Doc

stamps, which is definitely a junk fee because you don't charge duct stamps except when you finance a car. 181.65. The real selling price of the truck, after all that, that was $50,800 $300, $3,400 over the advertised

price. And it's ended up shameful. And it's probably That was me. Stu's, and that's an understatement is shameful. It's a shock, and it's hard to shock me, but I'm shocked at the shopping report. It's, because I'm looking at the listing of the truck online, and that's what people see when they get there. So you go there, it says details. Retail prize 51, 575, and then you get a $4,252, and it says total savings, $4,252.

And what universe does that not mean you're saving that money? In reality, you're saving, okay, if the retail price that they posted was somehow, you know, that's it. Then they really only got $1,500 off, but the advertisement said you're getting $4,500 off. I'm just wondering about that etch. Now, I know windshield etching is a, you know, etched to glass, but $2,500? Is that what that was? That was just when they brought. breakdown that installed package i think it was 250 i think i misspoke no it's it was in black and white

on the on the page yeah oh look at the forum here again 2,500 on the picture showed up on youtube there well we've seen yeah yeah you're right it says uh okay okay n s d okay that is from the little program that prints this thing so that's new sales department um so that's that should be printed at etch 2 500 yeah that's crazy most etch products are sold around the 600 $500, $500. So now we're continuing them for overpricing their junk fees. Right. Anyway, I don't know how to advise the voters because I don't like the prejudice to you

and we say we agree on the curve and therefore we try to minimize our Fs and our A's. I won't say anymore, but there's one of those two I threw out that you probably wouldn't be minimizing. And I, and the other comment I have is that. This is a combination. Usually we're talking about how much deception lying, cheating, and stealing did we see in the report. But here we're talking about a combination of deception and incompetence. That's where this isn't to measure the incompetence of a dealer,

is to measure the malintent of the dealer. Accidental incompetence, maybe we should have another show on accidental incompetence. That'll be the title of the show. That's great. You can vote. At 772-497-6530, send your votes in. We'd love to hear from you. Absolutely.

All right, so here's my thoughts. I was thinking along the same lines as you as it was both. But I think you have to consider competence as well because it does have an effect on your life. So, you know, Agent Lightning was getting paid to go there, but most people aren't to spend two hours waiting for, and then days and days. and days, it's a big waste of time.

So I think they get in for that, to a degree. It's not the same as dishonesty. That weighs much, that's a heavier value there. But I'm going to fail them. I am. It's just like, it was a legal combination. It was a big waste of time for the shopper. And it was a, I mean, it wasn't a waste of time for us, but as a real customer,

it would waste a time. And then there's some, I don't, probably dishonesty. Well, Stu practically never gives an F, and neither do I, and we give very few F. So this will be interesting to see. What other reports do we have? Any votes coming in, Rick? Oh, yeah. We'll go for the text message once first.

John from Palm City says, they get an F. The vehicle is traded in for an array of problems, not worth it. Yeah. And Bob from Maryland says, should be sundown. not Sunrise Ford this is a major F how do they stay in business dead battery did they check for an electrical drain or alternator issue stay away and we have let's see T Cash says F if the battery was stone cold dead how did it start in the first place found on road dead still stands true 115 years later let me ask you about this that could that have happened like

it had a zero load when they tested it it and but they still started it at the lot no he jumped it at the lot yeah when you jump start a battery it can start up and run however some batteries if they're really damaged inside we'll draw so much electricity that the alternator can't keep up and then the car will die again and you've got to replace that battery just not to get you down the road and then and then leave you there yes and T-cash goes on to say it's time for the sun to set on sunrise ford can ashur says triple a gives you free window etching what a rip off he didn't offer oh yeah here we go he says because you can't grade this car dealer a g i would give him an

okay over here we have let's see oh tim gillaland says i do apologize please check with me in six days for a grade where's tim man i'm still waiting on that grade Donovan says, oh, my God, look at those monthly payments. This is an easy F. Oh, I didn't even look at the payments. Johnny C. Freedly says, did they add a AAA membership add-on fee, too? Sounds like they're going to need it. F. For Found on Road dead.

Tom Seckle. F. Terrible sales experience, ridiculous fees. I'd rather walk on US1 than purchase from Sunrise Ford. Mark Ryan says F. Mark H says F minus almost criminal to try to sell the truck that way misaligned headlights a safety issue battery drain slash check engine light buy it and oh sorry you bought it as is Kim appreciates life says another Ford dealership equals F minus that was harsh uh folks I'm I'm usually a softie I see Rick Rick is no it's it's

It's F for me as well. Join me in the mob. Yeah, this truck was never inspected prior to letting a customer drive the vehicle, and you put customers into a dangerous situation where they're literally having to walk on a busy highway called US 1. You know, Earl and I talked about that this morning on our way in. My goodness, I just couldn't believe that. Yeah. You know, they might have done a perfunctory inspection of that vehicle.

or a incompetent inspection, or they may not have inspected. I don't know. A couple others here from Frank and Jupiter Farms. He says, Sunrise Ford is like so many other dealerships with the junk fees. Since the vehicle starts with F, Ford, the grade is F, especially with the lack of curiosity and callback or lack thereof. And let's see. Oh, Steve simply said, Roadrunner Steve simply says,

do not go to planet rip-off. Right, beep-peep. Nancy? Well, I see here by my notes that they forgot to put in the market adjustment fee. They forgot the reconditioning fee. I mean, why didn't they just throw it all in their? Total incompetence. Total, total, that's what I was trying to point out.

Anyway, I'm not going to waste any more time. I'd give an F. I'd give a Z. I've got to go an F too, and this has got to be the worst grade we ever get any cardiacity. Especially from you and Stu. No, we've given an F.

We've given F. But not this many Fs and not much. Oh, a unanimous F? You're probably right. I can't think of a unanimous. And not the emotion with the F. I mean, it's also, it was our listeners, it was drawn out of them.

That was, that was. We could start a new thing. We could do a new thing on the website, the worst card dealership ever mystery shopped well I need to go you know what's the yeah I don't know about that we're getting able to probably would have been up until now so napleton gets a lifetime achievement award yeah the I wish we don't record the votes we just have the final

final grade well we'd have to go back and watch the old yeah actually we could probably get the transcripts and then run in chat GPT and say find us the show that we're reading this is owned by a woman who I've never heard of and I can't find the name of it her name but it's a family that I have never seen owned any car dealership and it's they own several car dealerships so we need to if Stu can find that well before we have to say goodbye we got two minutes mark H he recommends combat pay for agent lightning yeah well absolutely hazardous duty yeah yeah for she kind of deserves a bonus for this one this week

Yeah. Armored car? Absolutely. Okay, folks, I see by the clock that we're out of time. Thank you so much for joining us here at Errol on Cars. We'll be right back next week. Same time, 8 a.m. Stay tuned. Have a beautiful weekend.