Earl Stewart on Cars - 04.14.2018 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Toyota of Vero Beach

Episode Date: April 15, 2018

Earl answers various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Agent X visits Toyota of Vero Beach to purchase an automobile. Earl Stewart is one of the most successful car dealers in the nation. This podcast gives you the benefit of his 40+ years as a car dealer and helps you turn the terror of buying, leasing, or servicing a car into a triumphant experience. Listen to the Earl Stewart on Cars radio program every Saturday morning live from 8am to 10 am eastern time, or online on http://www.trueoldiesfla.com. Call in with your questions during the live show toll free at [phone]. You can also send a text to Earl and his expert team during the live show at [phone]. Watch the show live on Facebook every Saturday from 8am to 10am Eastern. Go to www.facebook.com/earloncars Uncover additional automotive tips and facts at http://www.earlstewartoncars.com and follow Earl's tweets @EarlonCars. Watch Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

Welcome to Earl Stewart on Cars with Earl and Nancy Stewart. Reach them with your questions at 877-960. Here's Earl and Nancy. Good morning, everybody. My name is Earl, and I'm a recovering car dealer, and this is the true oldie station, but you're not going to hear any true oldies. And I really get excited at this time because we've been doing this for a couple of months now since we changed radio stations.

Earl Stewart on Cars, our regular listeners know, because we've been doing this for 10 years, more than 10 years. And it's a show all about cars. Specifically, it's how to buy or lease or maintain or repair your car without being ripped off by your car dealer. So I really, really get excited for you, new listeners. I'm not just saying this because I'm sitting here at the studio at 106.9, 95.9 FM and 960 a.m. I'm sitting in the studio, by the way, with a team of experts. with me. We're an automotive team. And we're very unique. This is something that you have

never heard before if you're new to the show. So our regulars, please excuse me while I explain a little bit what this is all about. I've been a cardio since 1968. And back in the day, as we say, I used to do things the wrong way. I used to beat and switch advertise, use unfair and deceptive selling practices. You know, advertised cars below the price I would really sell you the car for. We would try to sell you things in our service department that you didn't need. And it just basically I sold cars and service cars the same way most car dealers are selling in service cars today. So that's what's exciting about this show.

It almost sounds radical. And a lot of my fellow car dealers out there think I am a lot of. radical, and I guess I am, but I'm trying to change the car business. I'm trying to change the way automobiles are retailed, the way they're serviced and repaired and maintained, so that you can go into a car dealership, and there's thousands and thousands of car dealerships. A car is the second largest purchase you make in your lifetime next to your home, trying to make life safe for car buyers and maintainers and repairs, easier at least. And I offer as proof to what I do, the Gallup Annual Poll on Honesty and Ethics and Professions.

I hope you, well, again, pardon me, my regular listeners now, you've heard this before. But to the new folks out there that tuned in 106.9, 95.9, True Oldie Channel, and expected some songs, 60s and 70s. And by the way, I love the channel, and I love those radio stations when they play those songs. That's my kind of music. But this is something different and special. And the Gallup poll in 1977, it's been repeated every year through 2017. That's an even number.

Is that 50 years? It is. 50 years. Half a century. For half a century, the Gallup poll has given a failing score to car dealers on honesty and ethics and professions. Now, if that doesn't graduate,

your attention. Maybe you knew it anyway. But to those who didn't know it, that's shocking, isn't it? When you buy a car, the second highest purchase of your average person, purchase of your life, you get taken advantage of. The honesty and ethics are not there. This poll is about 50 professions, and the car dealers are either dead last in the ranking or next to last. The best I've ever seen them were third from last. This year, actually last year, 2017, card dealers were just above congressmen. Well, you know why congressmen get a failing score.

I don't have to explain that to you. I don't know anybody that would say that our politicians are doing the job course that they should. But there's still some people out there that are victims when they go into card dealership. So we're going to help you, and we're going to print some information. We're going to answer your questions, probably more importantly than anything else.

We're going to answer your questions. This is live talk radio. Very exciting. You can call 877-960-9960. And I'm going to say that number many times. Nancy Stewart, my co-host, she'll be repeating the number and reminding you also to call our texting number, which is 772-4976530. I always suggest that you write these numbers down. And if you're driving, of course, we don't want your writing anything down.

But if you can write it down safely, write this number down. To call the show 877-960-99-60 and to text us if you're a little shy, very code 772-497-6530. And ask your questions, make your comments, critical or otherwise. You know, we know this show can improve. There's a Japanese word, K-A-Z-N, K-A-I-Z-E-N. It means in English continuous improvement. This show, we try to continually improve.

And some of the ways we improve are by your suggestions. We have some great callers out there, by the way, that have added to the show. Suggested websites that you can access automotive information for, places to register complaints. So you help get this show, get better all the time. 877-960-90-960. Now, I said earlier that I'm out in the studio by myself. And one of the, probably we get more calls or as many calls on car technical stuff. Cars today are just complicated.

They're computers on wheels. And sitting to my right is Rick Kearney. Now, Rick, I've known Rick for over 20 years. He's worked at my car dealership for over 20 years. years. He's been in the business probably for 25 or 26 years. And I used to call him a mechanic. Then I started calling him a technician. And now I call him an auto computer scientist. And that's because he works on computers. Your car is a giant computer on wheels. If it's, you know, if it's 25 years old, maybe not. If it's 20 years old, maybe not. But if you bought your car

in the last 10 years, it's somewhat of a computer. If you bought your car in the last five years, it is a computer. They call Rick at the Toyota dealership a certified auto-diagnostic technician. And he spends a lot of time in school. Any technician, auto technician now worth his all, is going to be spending or she is going to be spending a lot of her time in school because cars are complicated. Your questions, you know, you come in, Rick will be the guy that can answer him. We sometimes play Stump Rick.

come up with a question that he can't find an answer for. I'm not saying he's perfect, but he's 99% there. And Rick gets better all the time, too. We actually have callers that give Rick information. So we gather and accumulate information. And to Rick's right, is Nancy Stewart. She's my co-host. Nancy Stewart is, well, obviously she's female.

And one of the reasons that she is such an important part of the show is we don't get enough female callers. The women, for some reason, to hang back. The women, the men, probably on an average day, represent 75% of our callers. Back in the day, they were 100%. Nancy has been able to bring in a lot of wonderful women callers. And one of the ways she does that, well, Nancy, you go ahead and tell them, tell them up what our bait is to persuade the ladies out there to call the show.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. If you just tuned in, this is Earl Stewart on. cars right here at 95.9 and 106.9 FM. Welcome to the show. I want to take a moment to thank you for spending your Saturday morning with us and to get back to Earl's question. Yes, I do have a little teaser for the ladies. First two new lady callers, you win yourself $50. Give us a call tool-free, 877-960-99-60, or if you'd like to text us, you can do so by texting 772-497-6530, and you can only call in to win that $50. And ladies and gentlemen, I have a question for you, just to get the show started. Did the car dealer fight for your business?

This week, yes, fight for your business. So, did they cooperate with you whenever you walked in? Was it a good match? Did you feel like as if that you clicked with your salesperson? Give us a call toll free at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Nancy just said something that reminded me,

that this show isn't just to bash car dealers. It really, truly isn't. The show is to persuade car dealers that don't do business the correct way to change. And I have to remind people, there's some good car dealers out there. We have a good dealer, car dealer recommended list, and we have a bad dealer list that we recommend

you don't buy a car from. Good dealer and bad dealer lists. In fact, you can go to that list online, www.good, bad dealer, car, excuse me, www. We've got good dealer, bad dealer, list, plural.com. Good dealer,

oh, sorry, singular. Good dealer, bad dealer, list, singular.com. Now, we have a recommended list, and I recommend, don't buy list. And so we're not, we're trying to be constructive here. We're not trying to be destructive.

We want to be part of the solution, as Nancy often says, and not part of the problem. Yeah, you can also find the list at earl-oncars.com. You go to earloncars.com. It's on the right-hand side of the page, you can grind all our stuff.

That makes it easier. We give out too many websites here, and I'm guilty of that. Earleoncars.com is really the only website you need. So, www.orgoncars.com. That's a good point that you just made, because there's just so much information that we give out, and it gets so confusing. So to access the show on podcast, you simply go to Earl on Cars.com. We're going to go to our first caller, and she is.

a first-time caller. Welcome to the show, Linda. Oh, thank you. You've just won yourself $50, Linda, by being the first female caller. And if you stay on the line... I'm the first female caller, wow. Yeah, yeah. If you stay on the line, you can give us your contact information, and we'll get that check out to you. How are you this morning? Well, thank you very much. I'm pretty good. I can't complain. Great. What can we do for you? Well, like I told the gentleman, I talked to, and the first man that answered, I said that I don't have a toyota.

I have a Ford. Good car. And, yeah, I have a Ford. The most beautiful black Mustang, I'm telling you've ever seen. Oh, how nice. Here's the thing. My husband works at Auto Zone part-time. He works three jobs.

And he says to me, he brings home black wax from my black car. and I tried using it and I think it's actually dulling it so is there a certain way I've never waxed the car actually my whole life but I try to keep my new car really you know really really looking good especially a black car you have to shows dirt real easy and I live on our dirt road actually so I'm in the acreage I know if you ever heard of that I have oh yes but anyway so that's what I'm calling about is applying the black wax and is there do or don't on waxing. Where's Alan when we need them?

Well, Rick Kearney, I think. I can give you a pretty good rundown on that. Basically, it's pretty simple, but you'll want to start off, usually on a relatively cool day, if you can. Florida summertime is very hard to wax cars, especially a black car. You want the car to be very clean. You don't want any dirt left on the car, especially being on dirt. roads because that can scratch it when you go to polish the car. Then you want to get the car under shade, somewhere in a good shady spot in a garage or under

a car port. Trees not always a good idea because of the leaves and sap and everything that can drip down on it. Basically just start in a small area, wet the applicator pad and work the wax on in a nice smooth circular motion. and then let it dry for about five to eight minutes and long enough to where it turns to a nice hazy dryness and then use a clean microfiber cloth and just buff it back off. And that's the simplest answer for it.

As a matter of fact, though, if you want to get some really great information, just go on YouTube and look for waxing car videos. You will find tons of information, but I would specifically look for a guy by the name of Scotty Kilmer. One of our regular... Yes. His last name is spelled K-I-L-M-E-R. And one of our regular callers, Tina from Benita Springs,

she talks about him quite often, and I've looked at a lot of his videos. The guy really knows what he's talking about. Oh, wonderful. I have a question. This is probably going to be the last car I ever have. actually 64. I've been diagnosed with a rare eye disease that's going to make my vision go. So I'm trying to get the best out of life as a positive kid at this point. Oh, good for you, Linda.

Well, I'm so sorry to hear about that, Linda. Let me ask Rick a question while you're still on the air. We have a person that is on this show. Occasionally, his name is Alan Napier, and he's our body repair guy. And he mentioned, and we talked to maybe a year or two ago about a wax ingredient that indicates the quality of wax. Carnuba. Carnuba.

Carnuba. Oh, I've heard of that. Okay, when you're buying wax. He actually bought me the kit. I think that's what it is. Great. Well, the carnuba, the percent ingredient of carnuba, if I'm correct, the higher, the more carnuba you have in the wax,

the better the wax. Yes. It's a natural ingredient. That's what really makes the car shine and helps the water to beat up. up and makes it so much easier as you're washing the car that it will let all the dirt and everything just fall right off. Okay.

That is wonderful. Well, Linda, I think we told you more than you wanted to know, but you know all about what. No, I'm glad you gave me all that information because I can't get much your husband, because, like I said, he works all the time. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. You put a smile on Nancy's face because you're a female caller, and we don't get enough of you. usually the female callers are better callers than the men, so we're trying to get as many females for you won yourself $50.

That's enough to go out and buy some high-content Carnubo-X. Absolutely, some of the best. Well, thank you all so much. I really appreciate it. Linda, thank you so much for calling. Thank you, ma'am. That car of yours, it sounds like as if that you are truly enjoying it, and I'm so sorry to hear about your diagnosis.

Well, thank you so much. much, ma'am. It's definitely been a tough year. I found that out, and my mom died this past year. Yeah, I would imagine, you know, when it rains at pores, and my condolences... It does, doesn't it? My condolences to you as far as your mom is concerned?

She actually live with me, so it's really tough in the house without my mother. Oh, gosh, that has got to be a void that just cannot be filled. I just switched everything around. She lived in one the end of the house, you know, the bedroom just kind of switched everything around, got her new bed,

I didn't get rid of her bed, but I stored it and just kind of change everything around, but it is still tough to go in her room. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I'm sure her spirit is everywhere. So, Linda, you know, we hope we've brought you some joy this morning, and I hope that you continue to listen to Earl Stewart on cars. We're here every Saturday morning.

I mean, if I'm not mistaken, isn't Earl Stewart, doesn't he advertise about animals? He loves animals or something? Yes, we are. group. Yeah, we're, we've partnered. Yeah, I'm an animal lover, big time. Oh, great. We partnered up with Big Dog Ranch quite some time. Well, I guess it's been about three years now. Yeah, about that. Yeah. So, Linda. Yeah, I live near the Big Dog Ranch, of course, and I've been there volunteering, and, of course, I donate there to help your cash and everything. Oh, well, thank you so much. Oh, nice. Nice. Thank you so much for all your work. Oh, I love animals. Keep on listening, Linda,

and we'll talk with you soon. I sure will. Okay. Thank you so much. have a great day to all of you out there who didn't jot that number done that number is 877960 or you can text us it's 772-4976530 now back to the recovering car dealer you know linda's call reminded me something else a lot of you folks when you buy your cars you've got yourself a warranty from the manufacturer new cars through your 36,000 some five-year, 50,000, various warranties. And your paint warranty is an interesting thing. You don't think about your paint failing, but paints do fail.

And certain colors fail more than others, and certain types of paint fade more than others. It's worth investigating when you buy a car. Again, I miss Al Napier. He only comes in about once a month now. We'll have to get him on the show quickly because he knows all about paints and things of this nature. Toyota has a white paint that has a fading problem. Some paints that are red, red cars and trucks seem to fade a lot. The manufacturer will be very reluctant to include paint under their warranty,

especially when it's out of warranty or even sometimes within warranty, and they'll often ask you how did you maintain and repair your paint. Did you wax your car? Typically, they want you to wax your car every month, And I tell the manufacturer, I don't know very many people that have the time to wax their car every month. And if they have somebody else wax, it's pretty expensive. So bear that in mind. If you can wax your car at least, I would say twice a year, it would go a long way to preserving that paint.

And if you can wax it more often, that's great too. But when time comes, when you have fading paint or paint that is caused from environmental outside conditions. and by the way, your auto manufacturer will always claim that you're paintfield because of environmental conditions. Well, that's kind of a broad term, right? Air is part of the environment. So they say, well, you let your car get covered up with air, and so that's the reason you're paintfated. I'm being a little sarcastic, but in Florida with a hot sun, there were a lot of paint failure. So waxing your car as often as you can, it's probably a pretty good idea.

Absolutely. or you can tax us at 772-497-6530. And ladies and gentlemen, I have another question for you. Did you believe the newspaper and TV ads that you read? You know, I have to tell you that it never ceases to amaze me how outrageous and unbelievable the car dealer's claims are. How do you feel about this? I'll give you that number again.

just in case you didn't write it down. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us with your answer at 772-497-60. Now back to the recovering card. We had a caller, and I guess a caller, Pat from Jupiter, I guess. Pat, if you're out there and we disconnected you, you disconnected yourself, give us a call back. 877-960-99-60. Now, I've talked to about Rick Kearney, I've talked about Nancy Stewart. to Nancy's right is

Stu Stewart He's my son And we call him our Cyber Commando He's the one that's Got a whole bunch of gadgets Going in here We were endeavoring

As a matter of fact This was We're trying to go live Facebook video We're trying to go from audio To video So we'll have podcast And

Where are we right now In that effort, Stu? I have an exciting announcement to make We are live right now But, but, but, we're trying to get it on your personal Facebook page. So if you're a member of the Sunrise Club and you're one of Earl Stewart's Facebook friends, we're trying to get that live for you. But right now, you can still watch it.

We set up an Earl Stewart-on-Cars Facebook page. If you go to Facebook.com slash Earl on Cars, you can watch the show live right now. Wow. And we're going to get it better. We're going to get it on multiple platforms. We're going to go on Twitter, YouTube, your personal page everywhere. But today, we're live. You heard it right here.

We've got to thank Jonathan Cantor. He's in the control room there. And Jonathan was instrumental in this giant technological leap, this watershed event in the life of Earl Stone and course, 10 plus years. And now we're alive and living color. You can see how beautiful Nancy is when we get a camera. Hang on for a second. You can see how smart Rick is. We are officially live, right, student?

We are live, yes. I am going to have to pause the show and call for the makeup. girl for you make up absolutely well I need a lot of makeup but we're not going to do I think we got Pat back did we get another we do Pat did come back and she's on the line and

we're going to take her call right now how you doing Pat I'm fine how are you oh great what can we do for you this morning well I have a Camry and my headlights are very foggy

and at night I'm having trouble seeing, you know, it's not bright enough. And I don't know what to do to clean them because it's very hard to clean. And if there's a simple way, my granddaughter, who lives in Florida as well, has the same trouble with the headlight. Well, we've got the answer for you, Pat. We've got Rick Kearney, and I think he can help you with those foggy lights. You don't be driving in dark in Florida anywhere else with lights that don't do the job. Yeah, unfortunately, Pat, this is an issue that has hit every manufacturer across the board. They switched from using glass in the headlights to using a plastic polymer.

And unfortunately, it doesn't hold up well with the sunlight. It just beats it down and causes it to turn all foggy like that. Now, the best repair really is a professional shop that does this. They do it all the time. They'll basically take and tape off, mask around all the areas of paint to protect your car. Then they will sand the surface of the headlights to get rid of all that oxidation and then put a clear coat on it that will protect it afterwards. and they will shine like brand new. Most cases, it lasts two to three years,

and then it can simply be done again. And on average, I'm going to say for the average car, you're looking at about $75 to $100 to have that service done, and it will make your headlights look brand new again. Wow, that's high. Yeah, that's a lot of them. You know what you could do, Pat, I'd chop around. That's the asking price and in a lot of service departments you can negotiate.

You want to find a quality repair shop. You don't want to get an amateurish job. But you call, you have a Camry. I would check with two or three, two other dealers to start with, but then you can try some independent shops. As long as they're reputable, they've got a better business bureau rating, someone that's not going to try to take advantage of you. If the average price is 75, I bet you can probably find it for 65 if you try hard enough. Okay.

And you want to do that as quickly as you're possible because you've got to have good visibility at night anywhere when you're driving, and it's very important. It's definitely a safety factor. A set of headlights just think would cost you a whole lot more than that. What's a set of headlights on a camera cost, Rick? For one headlight, around $3 to $400. So if you had to replace that, you'd be caught. That's not good.

Yep. Okay. And now my granddaughter, she bought some kind of a kit to clean her headlights with. But I guess that won't work. And it was very, well, difficult because they said you've got to cover your hands. You've got to be careful, don't breathe it in, all kinds of dangerous things. And I told her, don't do it, you know, because she's 17 and she's 17. and, you know, her headlights are really bad.

And so I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get hers fixed, too. The problem is because it's such a widespread issue that a lot of these companies have come out with these kits that they say are so simple. But the reality is even a good quality company that produces a good high-quality kit, like from 3M, those kits are great. And they work very well, but they take a lot of work, a lot of preparation. You do need certain safety equipment, gloves, breathing masks to protect your lungs. And, you know, there are a lot of work, and they take a whole lot of elbow work.

And if you don't get it quite right, the results really won't look good. That's why we generally recommend a shop that can do it as all. Well, Pat, thank you very much. I hope we help you. I just want to say one more thing. Sure. When you say the phone number, say it a little bit slower because I couldn't write it down as fast as you said it. Well, I apologize, Pat.

I'm inflexic, and sometimes that happens. I apologize. Well, thanks for that tip, Pat. We will do that. That's a good point. And thanks for bringing the headlights to our attention. You know, this is a subject that has been. not in it really hasn't gotten much attention and just recently i was reading about the

headlights and you know they're they're very unsafe whenever they need repaired as you talked about inner and rick talked about so thanks for bringing that to our attention and give us a call again and stay on the line pat stay on the line pat so we can give you thank you i love your show i love your show i don't know anything about cars, I'm learning so much. Thank you, Pat. I appreciate the call. Take care. Well, that's exciting.

Pat is not only a new female caller who gets $50 cash, but she also was the first female caller while we're on live in color on live Facebook video. Yeah, exactly. I want to say, give a shout out to all my Facebook friends out there, and especially the members of the International Sunrise Club. My Sunrise Club members, we watched the sunrise every morning. It was 6.57 this morning. I was out on the beach of Jupiter,

and we were watching the sunrise together. That's all we do. And so I hope a lot of you are catching the show. This is a show all about cars. If it just popped on your iPhone, I guess we have to introduce ourselves again. This is Earl Stewart on Cars. And you just heard Nancy Stewart,

you heard Rick Kearney, you heard my son, Stu Stewart. We just got the startling. We just got the startling announcement that between Jonathan Cantor and Stu Stewart's technological efforts, we were able to bring you ourselves in living color. Yes, congratulations, guys. We can see my handsome beautiful face. They tell me I look like Clark Gable. I just made that up.

I don't look anything like Clark Gable. But we're here to help you. They show all about cars, how not to get ripped off by a car dealer. We try to raise the image of my profession because I'm a recovering car dealer. I've been in the car business since 1968. People don't like car dealers. The Gallup Poll on Honesty and Ethics Professions rates car dealers at the bottom. We're trying to raise the level, raise the image, make life easier for you when you go into a car dealership to buy service, maintain a repair a car.

So thank you all on the Facebook pages for joining us. By the way, my Facebook page number or address is simply Earl Stewart. Oh, I'm sorry, let me start out. Facebook.com forward slash earl stew. Correct. S-T-E-W. Yeah, leave the A-R-T off. In other words, it's Facebook.com

forward slash E-A-R-L-S-T-E-W. And you could go to my Facebook page. And we have it shared. We shared the Earl-on-Cars face. I know this is getting complicated. But we have the feed. If you go to Facebook.com slash Earlstoo or Facebook.com slash Earl-O-N-C-Cars,

you're going to see the video. Yeah. And, of course, how much fun is this? If you're watching this video, you can call us right now live on the radio, ask you a question, make your comment, 877-960-99-60. And as Pat just reminded me, I'm giving the number out too fast. So how about this? It's on the screen.

Oh, it's on the screen. Ah, I love live video. Okay, I've got a text. I've got a text. We have a lot of callers. There I am. Can I wave it to myself? There's a little delay.

Oh, okay. Okay, I've got a text. And you texters call a text that says 772-497-6530. The text I had is a very interesting, important text, and we haven't had this question before. And Rick Kearney is going to jump all over this one because he is an expert expert on hybrids. It is this.

Please explain to our listeners why a hybrid or electric car can be a hazard to you and emergency personnel during rescues. He's talking like first responders, police, fire people. Rick has done seminars for first responders on this very issue. Rick, why can a hybrid be very dangerous? Well, the first thing is they're silent. When first responders are approaching a car that's been in an accident, they can't tell if the engine is running or not

because you won't see anything from the exhaust pipe. on the electric cars, there is no exhaust pipe. I didn't know that. I mean, I knew they were silent, but I didn't realize what a dangerous thing to not know if the engine's running. That's one of the first things I brought out in the classes that we had, was

that they needed to be very cautious not to walk in front or behind the car without verifying that the vehicle had been turned completely off. Because if the driver, who obviously is in shock at this accident, is sitting there with their foot on the brake, and

they see a fireman, their foot slips off the brake without realizing it, suddenly that car can move. So it's an extremely dangerous situation there. The next thing is simply the hybrid systems themselves, the wiring for it, are generally run underneath the car. They're put in places where the firefighters and first rescue responders will never have to encounter them in most cases, but they do have to be aware of it in such instances of a vehicle. They ever encounter them, but on the other hand, never expect them. And anybody, I mean, you just told me something, if I were underneath a hybrid, I don't know why I would be underneath a hybrid, but, you know, there are a lot.

Suppose the car was turned on its side and you're walking up to it. I would have never thought to touch the bottom of the car might be a problem. Yep. And the thing that they watch for, a lot of folks might know, and you probably don't know this, though, anything related to airbag wiring has a plastic coating on it that is bright yellow. This is an industry standard that every automotive manufacturer follows. Anything related to airbags is bright yellow. I didn't know that either.

Anything related to hybrid wires, the high voltage cabling, is bright orange. That way as the firefighters walk up to the car, if the car's been pulled half and torn partially open, If they see bright orange cables, they know to be extremely cautious around those because they may be carrying high voltage current. And the fire chief knows not to hire a colorblind fireman. Exactly. Okay. Now, we had quite a bit of, quite a few classes. We trained all of Palm Beach County, West Palm Beach, Riviera Beach, Palm Beach, Palm Beach,

we had a bunch of different departments took advantage of that free training that we offered them. and it was all to give them as much information as they could handle and as a matter of fact with Palm Beach County we even made several videos so that they could continue training on the new people coming on board. Now Rick when we're talking about getting shocked

when you're working on a car, we all know like when you're jump-starting a battery or something like that you can get a pretty bad shock there. But the shock when you're jump-starting a battery is probably nothing compared to the shock you get with the high-power amperage voltage combination

that you get with a hybrid battery. What is the order of magnitude difference between a normal car electrical shock and a hybrid car electrical shock? I would compare a 12-volt standard car battery. The shock you might get from it would be about like a firecracker, and the shock from a hybrid system would be something more along the tone of a nuclear bomb. Oh, my. You would never even know what happened.

You're saying fatal. It would be fatal. If you were to be able to get hold of it. I see you in the shop when you're working on hybrid cars. You wear these rubber gloves. And these are thick rubber gloves. They're so thick. I wonder how you can even move your fingers and thick.

It makes it very tricky. And those gloves have to be tested for integrity because even a pinhole in one of those gloves could potentially lead to an issue. But we take good safety precautions. And, of course, in our training classes with the firefighters, we explained to them their first target is to disconnect that 12-volt battery that's in the car because once it shuts that off, the hybrid power is all self-contained in the battery at that point, and the rest of the systems are powered down. I see. Well, Rick, thank you very much. That is a very important answer.

I'm so glad we got that text question. I haven't covered it a long, long time on this show, and we have more hybrids on the road than we ever had before. And for you, do-it-yourselfers out there on hybrids, forget about it. I mean, if you have a hybrid car, don't be tinkering around the car, unless you have a course from Rick Kearney or somebody else that's qualified, how to protect yourself when you're working on a hybrid car. And I thank you very much for that text. Great information.

Who would have known? Interesting. Give us a call tool for you at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-7-7-7-7-7-7. 6530 and I have some information for all of you ladies out there from a repair pal and I will well that's just a little teaser I'll give it to you later I see where we have a call coming in and I believe that that just is John who's calling and uh is that John from Palm City or is that another John oh he's from Hope Sound I believe yeah welcome to the show John.

Good. Thank you. How are you doing? We're well, thank you. What can we do for you? I've got a 2015 corolla, and it's got the in-tune touchscreen radio that all of the Toyota seemed to have. And I was reading on the Internet that the 2014 and 2015 corollas have a particular problem with the touchscreen, and I'm experiencing that same problem.

I'm wondering, are you guys getting on? a lot of these radios with problems with the touchscreen not operating properly. Rick? Is this where the lower, about the lower inch to two inches of the touchscreen when you touch it, nothing responds? Correct. Okay. Yeah, we see quite a few of those.

And we have been reporting this. As a Toyota technician, I have what's called the power to do a dealer product report where I send information on these problems that we see back to the Toyota engineers and it goes straight to the factory where the cars are built or in the case of the radio it goes straight to the radio manufacturers. We have sent in so many dealer product reports on this exact concern that they're literally getting tired of it and I don't care. I keep sending them in.

We've seen a lot of it, yes. screen stops operating and unfortunately the only fix for it is to replace the radio. Now what I would recommend is if you're having this problem, even if your car is out of warranty by the three year 36,000 miles, I would go to the dealership and say, hey, look, I know this is a known issue. Can you please give me the information I need to contact Toyota to get some assistance on this, and in most cases, Toyota will replace that radio for you for free because it's a known issue. And the best advice I can give you is polite persistence. Be polite and be nice about it, but don't take no for an answer. Right, thank you. I've actually already

contacted the National Toyota line. They just recommended some sort of an upgrade. I've that you get, I guess you guys downloaded at the dealership, but that's only to give me more features. It won't fix the lower portion of the screen problem. But let me tell you what I've done, which has helped, although I still have issues with the bottom a lot of times. It seems like the touch screens are set too high in the dash compared to the opening.

And to get to the bottom buttons, you kind of got to put your fingernail down at the very bottom of the screen, even in that little crack at the bottom of the screen, and you can get some response down there. However, the lower left corner on mine is almost dead, although it works better when it's cold out. It doesn't work when it's hot out,

so that's probably something to do with that. It's frustrating, but Toyota International or whatever, you know, the national line didn't offer me a new radio. John, let me make a suggestion, John. Listen, unfortunately, the policy from Toyota is not very standard, and it varies from region to region sometimes from phone call to phone call. What I recommend you do is contact, you can contact me. after the show, if you like, we would like to contact Toyota on your behalf and see if we can't see we can get some goodwill done on this. I can't promise you.

But to me, it's a defect, and it's an admitted defect, and just because your car is technically out of warranty, I believe you said you had a 2015, so you're not that far out of war. Yeah, it's about three months, two and a half months out of warranty, which is... Well, we're going to try to get you a new system. And if you'll contact me after the show, my cell number, by the way. You want to write this down? Sure. Hold on, Earl.

Go ahead. Thank you. Area code 561, 358, 1474. 561, 358, 1478, 1474. Got it. And I'll do my best for you. That would be great. Oh, I had a thought.

Now it just slipped right out of my head. but if I think of it, I'll call you back. Okay. And in the meantime, I've got your cell phone. I'm going to work right now, but I'll call you after. Sounds good. And we can talk great. Thank you.

All right, John. Thanks for the call. We appreciate it very much. That number is 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. Now back to the recovering car dealer. I'm so excited here. I got my iPhone here. I'm looking, can I see my live Facebook video on my iPhone?

Where would I be? You can, but it might confuse you with the delay. Well, you don't want to confuse me there. Oh, here I am. That's terrifying. I'm confused. So for all my Facebook friends out there, you'll call in. I mean, I know I got some Facebook friends out there,

and I know you all join me for the sunrise every morning. It was 6.57 this morning. So we're a live Facebook video, and we're also an Earl Stewart on Car, on live Facebook video? We are on Facebook.com slash Earl on Cars. Oh, Facebook.com, Earl on Cars. Facebook.com forward slash Earl Stu, E-A-R-L-S-T-E-W,

or Facebook.com forward slash Earl on Cars. High tech is so confusing. We're everywhere. Without Stu and Jonathan, I don't know where we would be. Just a quick note on John's issue with his radio. There's actually two things going on there. I think when he talked to National, they may have gotten a little confused because modern radios are like your normal home computer. They can be updated now.

So Toyota is saying, well, yeah, you need to check and make sure the radio has been updated properly, but they're not understanding, I think, that he has a physical problem with the radio with that touchscreen. And that's why it needs to be replaced. Well, this brings up a broader issue that, unfortunately, all manufacturers all car owners you face and when your cars in warranty you're pretty safe when your car goes out of warranty is the wild wild west yeah every auto manufacturer has a different situation every car dealer is a little bit different and you you can be turned down at car dealer A or manufacturer A and

manufacturer B would say go ahead and fix it or car dealer C was so it's very erratic. This is advice for all you folks out there that have cars that you bought new and maybe they're a little bit out of warranty. When the cars are out of warranty, they still get fixed. And they get fixed sometimes by something called a technical service bulletin where there's a confession of the fact that the car has got a problem that nobody knows about. Technical service bulletins are confidential known only by the car dealers and their technicians, not by customers and the car dealers are instructed when a technical service bullet goes out that you don't want that we don't they don't want us to tell our customers about it they want the customer

to have to come and complain about the issue that the technical service bullet was about and this is to protect the auto manufacturer from being ripped off by the car dealer so you folks out there you customers and buy cars are not the only ones to get ripped off by car dealers manufacturers get ripped off by car dealers because they lie about warranty and they lie about goodwill and and things like this. So, when you have a car that's not a warranty and you have an issue, you should check for technical service bulletins on that issue with your dealer. And you should also talk to the dealer about calling the manufacturer on your behalf and asking for a goodwill adjustment. Now, sometimes one dealer will be able to offer you a goodwill adjustment,

but another dealer of the same manufacturer won't. Car dealers that are high on, warranty costs are often constricted in what they can do in terms of repairing cars out of warranty because the manufacturer doesn't trust the dealer if you can find a dealer that is whether he's higher not on warranty if they trust him they will trust a dealer's word that you have a car that should be fixed out of warranty and they will do it for you i'm sorry it's so subjective and confusing but for what it's worth all is not lost when your car's out of warranty find a good dealer and go to a dealer service manager or general manager who will be your advocate.

A light persistence. Yes, absolutely. 877960, or you can text us at 772-4973530, and we are going to go to one of our regular callers, and that's Howard from Jupiter. Welcome to the show, Howard. Good morning. I miss you on the beach this morning. You did.

I was saying. Do you go there every Saturday? morning? Every morning we have the sunrise. Are you talking about the beach sunrise club? I'm talking about Jupiter Beach. Jupiter Beach, yeah, I'm on Jupiter, Inlet Colony Beach every morning at sunrise, and I do a live Facebook video. Nancy and I do it together. She's called Mrs. Sunrise. I'm Mr. Sunrise, and we do the live sunrise on live Facebook video every morning. That's great. Very good. Okay, here's my question.

Because of the problem that that gentleman had, I was thinking it wouldn't be a good idea to take an extended warranty on the electrical part of the car. Is there such a thing? Can you specify, I want a warranty on the electronics? Howard, you could do that. I would say that the cost of that warranty would be quite high. and I am my I have a lot of rule of thumbs I only got two thumbs but I got a lot more rules of thumb one of my rules of thumb is don't buy extended warranties now in total transparency at my dealership we sell extended warranties this usually you know sometimes that upsets my salespeople

that sell extended warranties but there are good extended warranties and there are bad extended warranties. Too many car dealerships will sell you an extended warranty that's not worth the paper it's written on. They call them extended service contracts. They call them extended warranties. Anytime you buy an extended warranty, you need to know what it does not cover as importantly as what it does cover. They will always tell you what it covers and it sounds really good. They say, hey, this extended warranty covers your engine and your transmission, your drive shaft, your axle, And what they're talking about is something called the power train. You're talking about the most reliable part of a car that will likely never fail

as long as you take care of your car, do your basic lubrications and oil changes. You're never going to have a problem with your power train. What does fail in cars are your computers. Right now, your car is mainly a computer. Your sound systems, your electronics, all of these things are not only most likely to fail, but they're also most expensive to repair. So, Rick has a point. The biggest one is air conditioning components.

Yes, absolutely. Make sure that it covers all the air conditioning components. Howard, so my answer to your question is this. If you can find an extended warranty that specifically says it covers the sound system and including the components that we're talking about on this Intune problem, and it was reasonably priced, that's a lot of ifs and vuts. If you can find that, that might be a good investment. I look at extended warranties as insurance policy.

I look at maintenance agreements. Well, I forget about that. Extended warranties, extended service contracts. I look at them as insurance policies. Why do you buy insurance? You buy insurance to protect you against something, some sort of a bad event in your life that you cannot afford financially to take care of.

Your house burning down, getting cancer, you're stealing all your money, you're stealing your car, things that you, if the event you're going to be, If the event should occur, God forbid, you really can't afford to help yourself. But if you can take care of a repair in your car, and it's not going to put you financially in a lot of trouble, I wouldn't buy an extended service contract. But if you do buy one, be sure it's covering the component that you're concerned about.

That's great information. I really appreciate that. My other question is, I know dealerships do a great job. But let's say a car is 10 years old, but it's still a late model, and something goes wrong with it. Can you take it to a place like Pep Boys? Would they be able to really have the expertise that, let's say, Toyota has to pick something that's complicated? It could be, and it could not be. It depends.

The older the car, the more likely, the leader of the model the car, the more complicated there are. But automobile dealers today have to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in very sophisticated diagnostic equipment. Automobile dealers today also have a pipeline right to the manufacturer and manufactures techs and engineers. Rick Kearney can basically talk, converse, albeit digital, and sometimes actually audio, with engineers that design and build the cars that Toyota sells. So you have access to almost unlimited information. You also access to specialists that will fly into your dealership and work on cars that the technicians at that particular dealership cannot do. Pep Boys does not have that.

But Pep Boys has trained people, and they know what they can do and they know what they cannot do. You can check with Pep Boys, describe the problem, let them hook it up to their computer. They'll have a diagnostic computer, and they'll tell you, I think they're a legitimate outfit, and they'll tell you, yes, we can't work on this, or you should take this to your dealer. Everybody won't tell you that,

but if it's a well-known name like Pepp Boys, the chances are you'll get a straight answer from them. Today, a 10-year-old car, there's a good likelihood pet boys might be able to help you. Yeah, but a two-year-old car, I don't think so. Two-year-old car, I'm sorry. Two-year-old car. I'm not saying there are independent repairs can help repair things,

but the problem is knowing what you can repair and knowing what you can't repair. If they know they could repair it, I would ask for some kind of a guarantee. If they say, yes, we can fix this. You say, okay, if you don't fix it, do I have to pay you? That would be, here's my problem. You don't want to describe a component, say, fix my air conditioner,

fix my transmission. You say, my air conditioner is not working because the cold air doesn't not come out. If you can fix it and the cold air comes out, this is dangerous because they could just give you a Freon charge. But the point being, if they can fix your problem, transmission is a better example. If your transmission is slipping or clunking and they can make it stop slipping and clunking, then you pay them. If it doesn't stop, you don't want them going back and try Plan B, Plan C, and Plan D. that's oftentimes you get stuck with somebody says, I can fix it. They say, whoops, that wasn't it, but I know what it is now.

And three or 40 days later, they're still working on your car. But get a guarantee that they will fix it, and then you're okay to deal with an independent. Okay, great information. Thank you, Earl. Thank you, Your Honor. Thanks for the call. Yeah, thanks for being a regular, Howard. Give us a call, tool-free at 877960, or you can text us at 772-497.

6530. Now back to the recovering car dealer. We talked about so much on the show this morning. We haven't talked about the focal point of the show, or at least the most exciting part of the show. And it's our mystery shopping report. And now that I'm talking to so many new people, I mean, this is the true oldie station. So we talk about people that didn't know there was anything

but true oldies being played on the station, and they've got an auto consumer advocate talking to them, not to get ripped up by your car dealer. And suddenly we went live Facebook video this morning, so all you Facebook folks out there haven't seen the show before. So we're going to tell you about the most exciting thing that we do every week on this show. It's called a Mystery Shopping Report. Mystery Shopping Report is a real live, you know, Mike Wallace, remember Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes when he used to go in and bust all these business people. And, you know, every businessman's nightmare was to walk to come into work one morning.

and Mike Wallace is sitting in your chair, at your desk, you know you've got a serious problem. Well, our mystery shoppers doing that to car dealers all over South Florida. And we go in undercover, and we pretend to buy or lease a car. We name names, we name the dealership. I'll name the dealership. We went into Viro Beach, Toyota, this week.

Vero Beach, Toyota is a long way away, but, you know, the long arm of the law. breaches all the way to Rivero Beach, all the way south to Fort Lauderdale. I think we can stretch out even further. I mean, this is so much fun. We're on the internet. We could stretch out. We can go anywhere.

What? So, we name, yeah, Rick. I volunteered to do the mystery shop in Hawaii. Oh, okay. That would be exciting. You're reading my mind. Very nice. So, we named the dealership,

we named the salesperson, we named the sales manager, and you would be amazed at what we find out. Now we find out some good things and we put those on our good dealer list and we find out some bad things. We find out we find out some terrible things. We find out crimes. Crime. We said people breaking the law and we report it on the air. Now we're reporting it live and color on Facebook video. So stay tuned. And now our audience can see the expressions on our face when we when you read the mystery shopping report and they can probably see that my hair's on fire in the studio i wish we could bring here here's we will really have a run i challenge stew and

jonathan right now our technical geniuses stew and jonathan to figure out a way that we can video the mystery shopping report live simulcast with this show so that we can we can't do the audio Can't do the audio because that's illegal. You cannot conceal an audio. But I believe you can have video. There's no law in Florida saying you can't have a video. So, I mean, you know, you could wear a, what do you call them? GoPro.

GoPro. You could wear a GoPro. The suction cup on your forehead. So the challenge to my technical people here is we'll have our mystery shopper go in with a GoPro. And then I'll say to Colin in the control room, oh, Colin, let's cut to Viro Beach Toyota. and there will be Agent X walking into the dealership

at Viro Beach Toyota and we can't do the audio but we would at least be able to Maybe we could overdub like our own like bad lip reading I'm fantasizing Anyway, for all you people that are not familiar with our mystery shopping report

It is something else Nobody else anywhere To my knowledge I mean radio TV online I don't know of any mystery shopping. I know that, you know, CBS and some of the networks do shops like that, but they're very rare. This is

every week. We've done hundreds of these, and by the way, they're all available now for you to read at earluncars.com. That's correct. Earleoncars.com. You go to earlcars.com. Go back to have some fun. I mean, we've shot Roger Dean Chevrolete, Schumacher

Chevrolet. We've shoped a lot of Napleton, Hyundai, and Kia, RICO, Mazda. I mean, you name a dealership in South Florida, we probably shop them. So if you're thinking about buying a car, go to Earl on Cars.com, and go to mystery shopping reports, and you can

read all those shopping reports. Absolutely. And we'll have another one today. It's a doozy. Yeah, it's a doozy, Viro Beach Toyota. Yeah. So it's entertaining. You know, you can't have an educational show that's not entertaining.

People won't listen. Oh, we've got to have entertainment. So, ladies and gentlemen, pop yourself some popcorn. And to access the shows on podcast go to earle on cars.com and you can read all of the mystery shopping reports you can read all of the columns that earl has written they do appear in the florida weekly they do appear in the hometown news but if you didn't get a chance to pick up either one there you go to access the show on podcast go to earl on cars dot com you got a list of this listen to this i just got

the text. Looking good, Nancy and Earl, watching you live right now. Love the show. Thanks, Judy and Hope Sound. Now, that is fun. That is so exciting. I don't know if you're, I don't know if you folks out there are happy, but I'm happy now. Yeah, I'd be happier. Okay, what do you think about Stu and Rick? And let's just get really crazy. Let's get Jonathan on the camera and Colin. Oh, he's on. Hey, I'm looking at him right now. Just kidding. Oh, by the way, I forgot. I got this earlier. One of our absolute best female callers texture is Tina from

Bonita Springs. Tina. Mm-hmm. That's right. And she is feeling a little under the weather. We'll not be able to call in. I guess got a sore throat. She just sent us another text. Sent us another text. And Tina, I hope you get better well,

better fast, because you are our best caller. I was going to say best female caller. You're arguably our best caller. And she just sent another text in. Here's a question I found from the consumer online. When buying a used car, can you get around or negotiate an as-is vehicle and possibly get a warranty? I'm going to read that again.

That's the reason I love Tina is. She's got some great questions. She comes up with some questions that we just overlook that are so important. She gives us some great leads. Absolutely. Absolutely. When buying a used car, can you get around or negotiate? negotiate an as-is vehicle and possibly get a warranty.

The answer is yes, but it is buyer beware. The as-is warranty, by the way, is something that was made law 25, 30 years ago. It didn't used to be anything like that. As-is, you have to say on the window of the car, used car that this car has no warranty whatsoever and boy when you buy a car like that buyer beware you could be buying a piece of junk you probably are buying a piece of junk and as far as negotiating yes you can negotiate a better warranty you have to be a good negotiator and it all depends on how bad the car is if you can't negotiate any kind of a better warranty

on an Aziz car you are talking about a piece of junk probably wouldn't even be able to drive it off the lot. Now there is something and I don't want to sound like a lawyer now. I feel like a lawyer sometimes but there's something

called the Magnuson Moss Warrity Act. The Magnuson Moss Warrity Act says that any product you sell, cars, laptop computers, refrigerators, there's an

implied warranty, whether it's in writing or not, you cannot disavow this, that the product they sell you must accomplish the task for which it was designed. A refrigerator is supposed to keep your food cold. If you buy a refrigerator and the dealer sold it to you as is and it didn't keep your food cold, you can take it back under the Magnuson-Moss warranty of an implied warranty must do what it was designed to do a car is designed to take you from point A to point B it's cars designed to run cars aren't necessarily designed to keep the air conditioning cold to keep the air the transmission from clocking to make the radio work but cars is supposed to get you from point A to point B so the car won't

run and they sold you the car you can give it back that's a little known fact and only lawyers know that but if you have a problem like that and you say, I'm sorry you bought the car it is and you said, yeah, I bought it as is, I gave you my money and it won't drive off the lot. You can say I want my money back and you can get your money back if you call a lawyer.

So that's a little bit extra information you probably didn't really need but I wanted to pass along anyway. Great information. Give us a call at 877-960-99-60 or you can text us. a 772-497-6530 and I'm going to take a moment to share some of my consumer skills with all of you and for whatever reason I was plopped into being able to I use the word loosely plop

you know my negotiating skills and when I purchased a vehicle here's a question that I asked whenever I was presented with a warranty. What doesn't the warranty cover? How important is that question? And in most cases, you'll get just like a blank look from that salesperson. So just a little tidbit there. In negotiating skills, you either have them or you don't. And everything is a negotiation.

and you've got to be, well, sweet and kind and wonderful and not condescending, and you utilize your negotiating skills. So that's for our audience. Now back to the recovering car dealer who is looking at me with a glaze in his beautiful blue eyes. I got a text, and this is kind of funny, the text reads, laugh out loud Earl do you on any other color shirt

he does just busting your chops love you show and thanks for taking a live look at you love live look at me why do I wear the blue shirt

I'm not like everything else in my life it seems in my age I have a story for everything maybe it's because I've been around a long time here's why I wear this blue shirt many many years ago

when television was in its infancy there were certain colors that just didn't work and you could wear a certain kind of color like Stu's got a shirt on now if you wore that on TV it would it would mess the camera now with sophisticated lenses and whatnot you don't but blue was really a good color that really would stand out so back a long time ago when I was doing TV and I've been around since 1968 that was the reason I started the blue shirt then people recognized my blue shirt because I used to wear a all the time. In fact, years ago on TV, everybody wore blue. I mean, it was just like a good

color. And so now I still wear it because it's become my identity. And when I'm doing a public event or anything like that, I wear my blue shirt. Rick? Be glad it's not green. Have you seen some of the issues for that now? The screen, yeah. The green screen issues. Whoa. Exactly. So you'd be invisible. Exactly. So to answer your question, we have a separate home. Actually, we have a storage warehouse filled with blue shirts just in case it all runs out. Exactly. But I can't testify. I have seen you in various colors.

Well, yeah, every now and then, if I can't find any blue shirts, I wear something else. I like blue, though. By the way, my eyes are blue. They are. And blue is my favorite colors, so that's another reason. You like the blues? I like blue, yeah. Okay, folks, 877-960-9960.

And as Pat reminded me from Jupiter a little while ago, 877-960-9-9-60. Okay. 877-9-60. Write it down, even if you don't have a question. You will have one later. In Texas, the text are fun too. And we get to all the text,

and you can keep your anonymity if you want to. 772-497-6530-7-7-2-497-4-9-7-65-3-0. Text us or call us at 877-960-9-60. Yes. Brick, I have a question for you. Have you heard of Repair Pal online? It's an online service that grades car repair shops nationally. Repair Pal. Mm-hmm.

Anyway, a survey of 77% of its respondents maintained mechanics are more likely to sell women unnecessary repairs, and 66% believe that mechanics charge women more than men for the same service. It seems gender bias isn't just a figment of the imagination anymore. I know you have a whole lot to say about that. Yeah, because at our shop, obviously, that's not going to happen. It's just not. It's like everything. Well, this is throughout the world, I think, yes, I think there's a very good likelihood that people have, mechanics especially, will have this idea that women are not going to understand

the technical terms they might not understand when a mechanic rattles off a list of issues on the car and simply hits them with a bottom line number they kind of feel like yeah they can get away with charging a woman

more and that you're more likely simply to trust the male authority figure and spend your money to fix your car Yeah intimidation It's very unfortunate but When all else fails in

intimidation sometimes works, but whenever that mechanic starts mentioning those 75-cent words, ladies, turn around and go somewhere else because I myself am not impressed. On the other hand, if you only know 10-cent words, you've got a problem, too. So at any rate, knowledge is power. I do have one thing that I will say about this, and this is something I've noticed in my own experience. experience with 25 years working on cars, women tend to be more open in asking questions. If a woman does not understand a term that I have said or does not understand a system on their car that I've diagnosed, they will ask, what do you mean? Tell me more about this, explain this to me and break it down so that I can understand why I should do this repair and why I should

spend this money whereas which i appreciate that greatly because an informed consumer can make an informed decision whereas a lot of guys will they'll i can rattle off a list of terms and and buffalo them to the end of the world and not say a single thing and then hit them with a thousand dollar bill and there there are those guys that their egos will not allow them yes say wait a minute you know tell me what you mean by that you ask for directions you're you're you're Exactly, like asking for directions. But women, I find I would rather deal with a woman that will ask me questions and say, why do I need this?

Because it just makes it better all the way around. I think that you're talking about, for lack of another word, a unique experience that you're sharing with your customers. But as I advised earlier, ladies, you must do your homework. If you just don't connect with that mechanic, walk away. And guess what? The most important thing here is to get three estimates, always three estimates before you do anything. That's my advice for the ladies. Now back to the recovering car dealer.

For our new listeners, and now that we're on live Facebook video, let me hold up the annual issue for Consumer Reports. Take a hard look at that, go out and buy a copy. It's not this month's or the current issue. It's last months. You can probably still find it on the newsstands. And if you can't find it on the newsstand, you can go online. I highly recommend that you subscribe to Consumer Reports.

I highly recommend that if you don't subscribe, you get a copy of this annual auto issue. It's everything you want to know about buying or leasing a car, everything you want to know about maintenance, repair, insurance costs. It tell you the best cars. It gives you the 10 best cars and the 10 worst cars covers used cars. It goes back about 10 years. It covers all the used cars. Yes, Nancy. And it also covers the recalls, the recall and safety updates.

So keep a copy, and every year keep a copy on hand when you have a question about. cars. 90% of the questions that we get on this show probably could be answered by consumer reports. Yes. I'm not trying to give a competition out. If you read this magazine, you don't need to listen to it on cars, but it's pretty close. It's something that I refer to. A lot of the information that we share with you, we learned on consumer reports.

So online, you can go to consumer reports.org, and there's a nominal membership fee. It's well worth the investment. And, of course, you can buy the hard copy. And if you can't afford to buy the art copy, you can go to any library, and they'll have these on file. You go in there and take a look at it, maybe make some copies of the issues, and there I am, live on Facebook video. Great information. I have something for our viewers. What do you think?

Well, I don't think they can see it from there. Rick's covering his face. Hey, can you wear that uniform next Saturday? Actually, we won't be here next day. What she's holding up there that you can't see is a picture of a T-shirt. One Tank Gas. Which about 10 years ago, Rick Kearney drove a hybrid vehicle, a previous hybrid vehicle charging.

It was unique at the time, a hybrid vehicle you could plug in, drove it all the way from North Palm Beach to Washington, D.C. on one tank of gas. And when we got there, I say we, it was Rick got there. We had gas to spare. Yeah, Washington, D.C. or But. Ten years. All the way. So that was not too remarkable today, but ten years ago. It was truly remarkable. We got a lot of national news coverage on that. And Rick had quite an adventure. You got to write a book about that. I'm telling you. Our hat is off to you. We couldn't thank you enough. If you have any questions on hybrids, and there are a whole lot of hybrids out there on the roads today, Rick Kearney is not only a computer auto scientist. He's especially a computer auto scientist when it comes to hybrids. He knows everything. everything about hybrids.

He does seminars. As a matter of fact, we talked earlier in the show, if you just tuned in, he does seminars for first responders, firemen and police people that are on scenes of accidents involving hybrids. Unbeknownst to a lot of people,

hybrids can be extremely dangerous because of the high voltage, people working on them inexperienced, you can be electrocuted. So be very careful if you're a hybrid owner. If you do it yourself, forget about it, Take it to a trained hybrid technician if you need to work on your car.

Go ahead and give the numbers out. 877-960. Thank you, Rick. Or you can text us 772-4976530. And don't forget, the mystery shopping report's coming up. And that mystery shopping report is from Vero Beach. That's Toyota of Vero Beach. It is a dozy.

So you want to stay tuned for that. Also, if you didn't pick up the hometown news or the Florida Weekly and read Earl's latest column, buying a car when you have bad credit. And there are a lot of consumers out there that have that problem. Unfortunately, if you didn't pick up either newspapers, you go to Earl on cars and you can read all of Earl's columns. Our number again is 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6530.

Thank you very much. Let me do a shameless plug for my book. I'll hold it up right here. Confessions of a recovering car dealer. It's really a how-to-do-it book on how not to get ripped out by your car dealer when you buy a car. And 100% of the proceeds, I don't know if you can read it down here, but all proceeds, 100% goes to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. Big Dog Ranch Rescue is the largest no-kill shelter anywhere in Florida.

We found homes for about 3,000 dogs last year. We have about 500 dogs right now available for adoption. And this is where your contribution will go if you buy Confessions of Recovering Car Dealer, Amazon.com. and buy it online, and 100% go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. Again, this has got all the information that you need to know when you can buy or lease a car or maintain or repair your car. And you can get the information from Confessions of a Recovery Car Dealer. I already told you about consumer reports.

And I think we may have another caller. We have several. I feel like we're in a disco club. Those lights are just blinking back and forth, up and down, in and out. We're going to go to Tony, who's calling from Palm Beach, gardens welcome to the show tony hey there i listen to you guys every week oh thank you and uh never never thought i'd have a reason to call but i have a little story and and i want to see if you can figure out who i'm talking about okay on uh the last week in march i own two two automobiles

and the last week in march i put one in to have some paint work done and lo and behold when i'm driving and the second one on a Saturday, that's Saturday, it breaks down. So I said, here I am, I own two cars, and I don't have a car to drive, so I've got a renting one. Well, this particular person, I guess, is pretty straight up, so I'll deal with them. I called the establishment, and they said, we'll put you through to the rental car company. They rang and rang and rang, and rang, went to voicemail, and, and, uh, I called the establishment, and they said, we'll put you through to the rental car company. And I, as, as, like you guys used the phrase when it rang the pores, well, my cell phone had quit also when I was using a friend's cell phone.

Oh, my. And I was using a friend's cell phone, and he said, under no means, give out my number, and people will be calling. So I call, I get a voicemail. I don't leave a message because I can't call me back. I call the receptionist again. and I said, do they have a direct wine to the rental car place? And she said, no. And I said, well, I'll have to, you know, call you back if I keep getting the recording.

So after about a half an hour and six calls, and all I got was recording, I said, what, is there a supervisor I can talk to? Well, you're a patient, man. She says, sure. She says, sure, so she puts me through, and I get another voicemail. Oh, my. So then I called the receptionist back. We're getting really intimate now because it's all about seven times.

And I said, you know, I can't leave a number and nobody's picking up in the rental car company. And is there someone I can actually talk to, not that you can switch me to it? So she goes, hold on. She comes back on, never switched me to anybody and says, oh, well, the rental place doesn't go sick. But the person running is decided to close it to. Oh, my. And there's nobody here now. Wow.

She confessed. So I said, well, great. Now the only place that I got to go is they ought to get a cab and go down to the airport and run a car at the airport. Oh, boy. That's terrible. And then with my second car being older, and I said, well, you know, I think I need to get another automobile, but I don't know if I want to deal with this place. The owner's initials is ES, but I don't know if that's much of the clue.

Okay, I think I know who you're talking about. It must be Earl Stewart-Toyota. Well, yeah, you know, I've got a lot of faith in you guys, but I just thought I'd let you know what my first experience was. Well, I appreciate that. That's very interesting. We just learned something we didn't know, and I thank you very much for calling. Tony, what Saturday was that that happened?

It was the Saturday before Easter. Saturday before Easter, okay? It was 31st of March. I was going to call you last week, but usually weekends is when I have all my dilemmas. Well, I appreciate that now. And so they told you that the rental car manager had gone home early at 2 o'clock didn't tell anybody and had his phone on the answer machine. Well, I don't know if it was the rental car manager.

They just said whoever was supposed to be. whoever was supposed to be there. Gee, we're supposed to be there and see left early. Well, I appreciate that very much. I wish you to call me. You guys, I like dealing with you because I know your reputation and also I'm in the gardens here, which is close to you. Well, Tony, you've given me an inspiration as most callers do

to make a broader message to our audience. Now, you did me a tremendous favor by letting me know. And when you have a problem, I know in the past you said, you know, talk to the owner, you can get things straight now. Exactly. And I wish you had called me at that time when you were in the middle of that closed circle where you couldn't get through. You kept calling back and kept getting the answer machine. I wish you would call me. If you'd called and asked for Earl Stewart and let me know, we could have solved the problem right there. Yeah, always try to get through to somebody in authority. and oftentimes when you're dealing with lower-level people, you can have problems.

And you're doing the owner or the general manager of a business, a great favor by letting me know when he had a problem. Nancy and I ordered takeout service the other day from 2J's. And we did it through delivery dues. Delivery dues came up and left the dinner. They left Nancy's dinner, but they forgot my dinner. And so here we are without the dinner. So I could have kept quiet about that. but I called 2J's, and I told them that this is what happened.

They can call delivery dues, they can fix the problem. But don't keep quiet about problems, and I really appreciate it. Thank you very much, Tony, for sharing that. It hasn't diluted my belief in you guys. Well, it should have just a little bit, but thanks for being so kind, Tony. You're a real good customer to have taken that, still have a smile in your face, and thank you very much for calling the show. We really appreciate it.

Well, when I get ready to come in and get that second car probably in a couple of months, then I'll definitely... Okay, I'd like to come down to your place. And after you do that, call me and let me know how to win. I love to hear directly from my customers. Okay, and you guys, keep up the good work. I listened to you every week, and I just thought I'd never have a reason to call. Well, call us anytime.

Call again next week. I love to hear from you. Tony, thanks a lot. Take care. Have a good day. Thank you so much, Tony. Thanks for the phone call. That's what keeps us on the straight and narrow.

Tony took the time to give us a call in the air. And that's a good thing. We're very happy. We're, you know, a little disappointed that you had to go through what you went through. But like I said, that's what keeps us on the straight and narrow, and we fix things. That's what it's all about. You're listening to Earl Stewart on cars. right here at 95.9 and 106.9 FM. The True Oldies Channel, give us a call tool-free at 877-960, or you can text us

at 772-4976530. We're going to go to Gina, who's been holding. She's calling from Wellington. Good morning, Gina. How are you? Good morning. Very well. Thank you. Welcome to the show. What can we do for you? thank you so much first i wanted to call i've been listening for the past six weeks on saturday as i'm driving from job to job and i haven't had the time to call i just i love your show and it makes me appreciative that you're doing it and it makes me giggle because of the experiences that i've had as a woman and um have bought two cars in my lifetime thus far and uh your car reports i wish i wish someone had done that in the in the in the

the 90s and the 2000s. Thank you. My experience with my first car in the mid-90s and going to literally state-to-state, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, when I lived up north, they're savages. Oh, I like that. No, I mean, sharks, savages, blood in the water. I have a great, I'm fortunate to have a great, I had many male friends, and I have a very large male family.

So I learned a lot about cars, and I know one show, Mr. Stewart, was talking about tinkering, and you really can't do that anymore. That's right. I miss tinkering. Yes, I miss learning. And even today, one gentleman was talking about when women come into the shop, and so far my 20 years here, you know, they see a woman coming, and they're going to shoot me with a bill of $1,000 to $2,000.

And I'm like, I want everything explaining to me. Bring me in the garage. And unfortunately, I've been in positions where women are standing to the other side of me being charged, you know, $2,000 to $3,000. And it's horrible. It's really, this is so educational. And I just wanted to call, and thank you. I finally have the time.

Well, Gina, that's for a count. Normally we limit our $50 to the first two new female callers, but you are so unique and so, and you, It sounds so good on the air, I want to entice you to call back again, so we'd like to send you a check for $50 for being a new female caller, and we hope we can count on you. We've got a few female callers that are just outstanding. I was just talking about Tina from Bonita Springs, and now we've got Gina, if we can keep you calling. And don't forget Desiree. And Desiree, absolutely, so.

Yeah, we've got a list. Oh, I would love to. Just remembering some of the tidbits from some of your prior shows. um just some comments um i know that i'm again very appreciative of these and your honesty and candor because i'm sure being in the position that you're in it's probably hard you know trying to expose what people are doing but they are they're doing this and it's it's not nice how they do treat you when you go into those places i know for me i i pay cash for my first car and when i went in honestly i was going to buy

a car, probably a toy order at that time or maybe a Chevy, but one of the arrogant salespeople decided to show me a, what was it, a Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer, and I had no clue. Well, I fell in love with the car, but didn't buy it from him. I bought it six months later because I did my homework. Good for you. And, you know, just all those things you talk about on those stickers, it's just, it's really, I'm sorry to say it's nauseating sometimes and the repair people well you really you really got it Gina you I often wonder why we don't get more

calls like yours you're candid you're like me you tell it like it is and sometimes you offend people but the car business is such a must and especially for women and Nancy you know she she just doesn't talk about it on the air on Saturdays for two hours

she talks about it all week long. It really, really, it really is rough out there for ladies in the market and the automobile dealership. So we hope we can hear from you regularly. $50 waiting for you when you leave your contact information in the control room with Colin. So thanks again for the call. Gina, a great call. Thank you so much. Thank you very much.

That was really a great call. And, you know, you used all the great adjectives that should be used. And it's the 21st century. And my goodness gracious, not all the car dealers have gotten that memo. So thank you so much for the call. Stay on the line, and I'll get that $50 out to you. Thank you so much. We're going to go straight to Kendall, who is holding from Palm Beach.

Good morning, Kendall. How are you? Good morning, ma'am. What can we do for you this morning? Thank you for calling. Okay, well, I'm a long time listening to the first time caller. and I currently own a 2002 Toyota Tacoma 2 door

I was paid for already I financed it but a few years after having the truck I had to take off the liner the plastic liner in the bed and I was really really disappointed what was you?

Go ahead No I asked why why are you disappointed Well, I had to take that liner out, and when I took it off one day, I realized the truck was all dental and mashet and scrape up inside there, and they probably had the truck for a short time, use it for construction or what, you know, and bricks, I don't know, but I was so disappointed, you know, and they tell me I had it, you know, it was too long before I noticed it, but I tell them, this is the same truck I bought and this is where I bought it. But I never got any satisfaction from that. I was really, really disappointed. The truck, I keep the truck so good. But when I took that off that day, I left with my mouth left open. I was shock.

Yeah. I guess a liner can hide a lot of problems, and a liner installed improperly, and this is out of my field, Rick is going to jump in here. But I assume that if a liner's improperly installed, you can have a lot of rust and problems underneath, hides a lot of problems, and you didn't see it when you bought it,

and probably the problems were either in the middle of developing or had already developed. Rick, what can you recommend that Kendall could do at this point? There's really not a whole lot. The best advice at this point, if there's no puncture holes and no rust going all the way through or anything like that, I would recommend a rhino liner, a place that does a spray-in bedliner because those are incredibly tough plastic that is, sprayed on as a good protector, and it will seal it down to where nothing more can occur with it. Looks good, too. Yeah, they look awesome.

As a matter of fact, I've seen vehicles where people have had the entire outside of their vehicle coated with rhino liner. Rick, I spell that for me, please. It's rhino, like the animal, R-H-I-N-O. Okay. Yep, rhinocerous, but it's just rhino liner. L-I-N-R. Yes, sir.

Now, what probably happened with Kendall's truck is, sir, when the previous owner had it he probably used it for construction a whole lot got it tore up inside inside the bed got damages in there then decided to put a bedliner in it and when they trade the vehicles into us we don't remove bedliners to look underneath them one you know if a bedliner's installed on the vehicle that's pretty much you know we okay well it's got a bedliner most of them were installed when the vehicle was brand new but maybe you're saying it's probably good idea not to remove a bedliner unless you absolutely have to. Well, again, how easy is it to check?

I mean, is it something that could be part of the process? No, some of them can take quite a bit of work to get them in and out. Supposing you looked underneath the bedliner, maybe if you had Russ coming through, you would see it on the other side. You might be able to see some marks. The big drawback with bedliners is that they simply sit on top of the metal and they move a little bit. So they can wear through and get down to the bare metal. and allow it to rust underneath.

That's why those spray liners that have become so much better quality are actually a much better idea. I would have a rhino liner installed in that, have a spray-in liner put in, and I think that would solve your issues quite nicely, and your truck will actually look a lot better, and it will protect it quite nicely. Kendall, thanks very much for the call. Did we answer your question, all right? Well, pretty much, but I don't want to put no more money into the truck.

My truck is now 15 years old, and I find it as a while I was still paying for it. I see. What does Rinaliner cost? Hmm, let me do a little Internet research here. Just a few hundred bucks, like $300, $300, $300,000 or $400,000. Well, while Rick's doing a little research, excuse me, Desiree, we know you're holding, so be patient, we'll be right with you. It looks like the average cost is around $3 to $400,

although if you were interested in trying to do it yourself, they do have spray-on bedliners that you can get yourself for about $100 to $120. Okay, I'm going to say this last thing, and I'm going to get off there. Okay. What I learned over the years, I heard you all said it earlier on the show about

salesman and mechanic take advantage of women. They equally do the same thing with men if they don't have the experience. Yes. You know, that's something I want you to keep in mind. They use it on anybody who's available. Yes. Well, it's a lesson well learned, Kendall, and I know you'll be a lot more careful next time,

and I'm sorry that this happened to you. And please call the show again. We love to hear personal experiences and call anytime. We'd love to hear from you next week if you have the time to call us. Okay, thank you. My pleasure.

Have a great weekend. Kendall, thanks for pointing that out about all of us being, you know, a target. 877-960-9960. Kind of if you laugh. Stu's working on my laugh. We got about 20 minutes left, but we definitely have time to call.

Desiree, take Desiree's call. Welcome to the show, Desiree. good morning good morning guys the weather so i'm not feeling that well um yeah the question that i have for you all this morning actually i have two uh and i'm going to make it fast because i know you guys have you know something else that you want to present to us all but my question this morning is on the warranty commercials there seems to be a lot of commercials that are being advertised now where they're offering warranties for cars, you know, like if you need to have your car fixed and, you know, you can just buy this warranty thing from us, and how many car dealerships would

actually honor those? Well, that's a great question, Desiree. The warranties that you see advertised aren't worth the paper they're written on. People don't advertise warranties. Warranties are something, or they won't advertise a real warranty. The warnings you see advertised by car dealers are typically. what they call power train warranties, which are virtually worthless. And sometimes they're not honored.

Sometimes they're honored only by the dealer that advertises them. Sometimes they're theoretically honored by other dealers, but the stipulations and conditions are so great that they're valueless. So don't ever respond. Don't ever respond or believe any warranty advertised on television, online, radio, any other way. Wow. When you buy a product, read the warranty care. carefully and always find out what it does not cover that is usually where the trick is hidden

and what it does okay yeah because you know a lot of people that i'm finding when i'm like you know actually talking with people and they said well you know you can buy you know they have a lot of uh places now on commercials now that we're seeing that you can go and you know purchase you know and buy the warranty and you know you can take it to your car deal to ship and then i'm like well you know, hold off for a minute because you need to make sure that those car dealerships were even honor a warranty from

some other company that's just advertising on television. So I just really kind of wanted to ask that question. And my second question is the gentleman that just called and he mentioned that guys are also

victims when it comes down to going to purchase an automobile bill anything about your vehicle is there anyone and this may be something good for your top mechanic that is with you this morning um that someone can open up or have classes for women based uh on how to change the tire how to know the right amount of air to put it into the tire the tire gauge uh to know how important it is to know about your oil sticks, the fluids up underneath your engines, you know, those very

important things, and also how to read a buyer's order. Is there, are there any classes, or could someone start a class for the consumers? Well, Desiree, someone could and should start classes. There are some classes like that out there. Bear in mind that do-it-yourselfers are a dying breed because there's very little work you can do on a car now. One reason, the good news is the maintenance is very,

very minimal compared to what it used to be. Okay. But there is, there's help out there. Online help. And as I say, there are classes available. If you go online, you could probably find some. It's, the do-it-yourselfers today

are a vanishing breed. Okay. I think you're better off to find yourself a good independent mechanic, that knows what he's doing, and it'll be safer for you, and in the long run, probably less expensive. Right, okay. Well, those were my questions for this morning,

and my heart just kind of goes out this morning to the young man who lost his life in that van where the van seat covered his body. So I just kind of want to put that out there. I don't know if anybody's been paying attention to the news. I did pay attention to it. It's an absolute terrible situation. Yeah. Dial 9-1-1, and nobody ever responded to a terrible situation.

He was 16 years old, right? He was a nightmare freak accident. That's like a really nightmare of a vehicle. So you guys enjoy, enjoy the rest of your weekend, and thank you so much for this show. You guys are not only awesome, but the radio station itself, because this is what I listen to. I love old music. so this is my station. Thanks, Desiree.

Have a great weekend. Call again, please. Desiree, thank you. We love hearing from you. We got about, have a great day. We've got about 10 minutes left. We're going to go straight to the mystery shop of Toyota of Vero Beach. So stay tuned.

Okay, here we go. We've been on the air for nearly 11 years, and each week we've shopped a different car dealer for the mystery shopping segment. Well, we don't always shop a different dealer. We've paid multiple visits more than a few. We go back on the good and the bad dealers. In the last three years, Earl Stewart and Cars has conducted 173 mystery shops. This doesn't include the massive South Florida Dakota Mystery Shop, which was conducted by phone in 2016.

We called a bunch of dealers to find out that they were, in fact, not telling people about the defective to cut airbags. We never knew what hard work mystery shop could be. We do our best to provide a real-time glimpse to our least. listeners of the current state of the retail car business week after week. We're trying to uncover the good, the bad, and the ugly, and to let you know where it's safe and what places to avoid at all costs. So when we mystery shop a car dealership where we've never visited, we feel something special for our listeners.

When the mystery shopping team reviewed possible targets earlier this week, Agent X himself spoke up and suggested Toyota Viro Beach. We asked him why he wanted to shop the Major Neck said Because it's there I like that we laughed Was that Edmund Hillary who said that originally And after a minute we concluded that we couldn't find a better reason It was there and it had never been Mr. Shop

Toyota at Beiro Beach When we investigate a toilet dealership I typically make a point that as a Toyota dealer myself I want to be careful to not appear to be bashing my competition for my own advantage I need to remind our listeners that Toyota sells about 15% of all the cars in the United States. So we'd be remissed to exclude Toyota dealers from our shops.

Toyota sell about, they sell more cars in Florida than any other manufacturers. So they're the biggest threat out there, Toyota dealers, just by virtual numbers. So we need to shop more Toyota dealers than we would shop, let's say, fiat dealers. However, in this case, Toyota Vero Beach operates at a considerable distance from my dealership. but we couldn't be considered competitors, so this is why we shopped. Agent X's plan was simply to feel Toyota Vero out, just go up there and see what happens. He was to portray more or less, we call it a vernacular Larry Laydown, the unprepared car buyer.

Somebody that doesn't do his homework, goes in vulnerable to all the tricks of the trade. Just to throw a curveball, we asked Agent X to ask for a Costco auto buying program price. after he'd negotiated the deal, after he'd negotiated the deal. We wanted to see how they would handle that. I reviewed, and I'm speaking the first person as if I'm the shopper. I reviewed the plan of my head as I drove up to Vero. I would try to buy a new 2018 Toyota Camry, as Larry Laydown. I wouldn't resist much if they tried any funny business,

like trying to push unwanted equipment, financing, extra dealer markups or dealer fees. The trick was not making it look obvious. I wasn't expecting to see such a small dealership when I arrived and parked my car. I didn't see any employees, so I went inside to find a salesperson. No one greeted me, so I wandered over to a man at the desk and asked him if he was a salesperson. He jumped up, introduced himself as Kevin, and confirmed that he was the salesperson. Kevin was quick to tell me that he'd only been on the job for two weeks. We hear this a lot when we shop car dealerships.

High turnover. Yeah, probably true. It is true, yeah. I promised to go easy on Kevin, and we both laughed. I told him about the Camry S.C. I wanted to get, and he led me outside asking questions as we walked. He asked if I wanted a dark or light colored car, a dark or light interior. I told him I wanted something sharp-looking and eye-catching. Kevin directed me to a very sharp-looking ruby-red Camry S.E.

I was glad he was listening to me. That's usually not the case on these missions. He pointed to the MSRP, manufacturer suggested, retail price on the window sticker and said this one's 26-789 would you like me to get the keys I said I love the color on this one we'll ask him to get the keys Kevin jogged to the showroom that's good I ambled around I noticed that there were no addendums no addenda additional dealer markups on dealer install equipment so there's a good sign for Toyota Viro Beach they advertise that on their website oh they do okay no phony Monroney's no

addendum labels with BS added to the price of the car. Kevin returned to put on a decent presentation of the vehicle. I asked if we could drive it and he looked embarrassed and said he forgot to get the plate. License plate. He ran back to the showroom to get one. We drove it up and down

US 1 for a bit, then returned to the dealership. As we exited the car, another salesperson approached us. He introduced himself as Cherry. Unusual name. I saw in an instant, this was a professional salesperson. Was that Jerry? Cherry.

Cherry. I was kidding on you. It was cherry. Like cherry. Like the fruit. Yeah. Cherry pink and apple blossom white. Cherry.

His handshakes, smiled, and confident demeanor all indicated he was someone with a lot of experience. I looked at Kevin to see his reaction to the intrusion. He told me that Cherry was showing him the ropes and teaching him how to sell cars. Cherry would be the one handling the numbers from this point on. I reluctantly gave my attention to Cherry, who was, whoever, wrote this report, loved Cherry so much that he keeps repeating, Sherry, who was ready to pepper me with questions. Did I like the car? How did it drive? How about the color? Would I be making a decision today? Barely giving me enough time to answer his question. Cherry told me he

needed to get a credit application for me and that he would like to put me in front of the business manager. This is old school. Old school. Get them in the box. That's the vernacular for the finance and insurance department. I went from relaxed and happy to terrified in a matter of seconds. I said, hey, Sherry, why don't we sit down first? Cherry frown and asked, oh, you're not ready to buy today, more old school. Now you can see what's happening here. I is Agent X. I went in trying to be Larry Laydown, but even I'm upset by the aggressiveness in old school tactics and so I'm becoming less of a Larry Laydown and I'm starting to push back. I said, hey, Cherry, why don't we sit down first? And he says, you're not ready to buy? I said I was

ready to buy today, but I thought it was premature to get me in front of a business manager. Although I knew exactly what he's trying to do. He wanted to put me into what's called a box close. I could do a whole new book on vernacular in the car business, box clothes. That's when the salesperson and our manager skipped the whole sales process and put the customer right into the F&I office, which is also known as the box. There, the finance manager does a hard sale closed based on payments. Common tactic, especially in old school dealerships. I didn't let them know that I knew what he wanted to do, but remembering I was trying to be Larry Data. I'm trying to calm down. I'm got to be Larry Laydown. Can't let him

get me upset. I said, I just wanted to know what my price was going to be. He asked if Kevin had given me the price. He showed me the sticker price. Cherry led me to a desk. We sat down and I asked them again. What's my price, Cherry? Responded with another question. What other cars you're looking at? Old school. Don't answer the questions. Deflect. Exactly. I said I was possibly considering a Nissan Ultima

but would prefer to stick with Toyotas. I did say that I would consider visiting other Toyota dealers if I didn't feel I could get a good deal here. Sherry said he would rather I go to another Toyota dealer first and get their best prices and then come back to him. Old, old school.

Can you imagine going to the public You're trying to buy some steaks and you say the price is high. Listen, go to Win Dixie. If you get a better price, bring it back here and I'm at this. This is absolutely crazy old school stuff. And lazy. He was irritating me and it was hard staying in character. I asked him, what's to stop me from buying at the other toilet dealership?

When I leave, I said he should give me his best price and I may like it and buy the car from him. He said, I would just shop him. Well, okay, that's what life's all about. That's the marketplace determining the price of goods. Shopping. Dealers should allow car dealer, I mean, their customers to shop. I said he just met me and I asked him how he knew what I would do. He said, it's what buyers do.

I mean, if you accuse me of stereotyping car dealers, I accuse car dealers of stereotyping customers. Every customer, buyers are liars. That's what they think. I said that we needed to stop playing games and ask again for a price. He pulled a credit application out of a drawer. slid it over to me and asked me to fill it out. I explained I'd secured my own financing. I'm getting mad now, and I'm not even the shopper.

Jerry said he would get me a better rate than whatever I had because he could do zero percent. I told him I probably wouldn't qualify, so I had to use my credit union. I told him he was making me uncomfortable. He really was. I mean, he really was. He was staring at me. He wouldn't break eye contact. It was creepy. Very creepy. I couldn't conceal the exasperation and desperation in my voice as I made my final plea for a price on a buyer's order. That seemed to do it. Cherry finally let me go get a buyer's order. The price was aggressive, and Cherry told me, so he practically dared me to find a lower price.

The sale price was $21,352. They added $619, $619 in government fees, and $9.50 for a processing fee. Can you say dealer fee? Remember, they don't call them dealer fees. They call them something else. They call theirs at Toyota Vero Beach, a processing fee. They added sales tax, and my out-the-door price was $24,412. It was time to throw in my monkey wrench.

I pretended to suddenly remember something. I said, hey, Cherry, I just remembered to ask you about something. I'm a Costco member. Don't I get a better price? He said, it's $500 lower than the Costco. price. He quickly pivoted back to the sales clothes. He suggested we go to the business office trying to get me

back in the box. I said I couldn't do it until I speak to my credit union Monday morning. As I was leaving, I asked, Cherry says, tell me the truth. Do you really have a price from another Toyota dealer? I said yeah, and you're close. That is the oldest old school

experience we've had in a long time. That is the way they did business in the 1960s when I started out in this business. I mean, and that's the way I was, believe it or not. I was Cherry in 1968. I like that. It'll be my new book.

Instead of a Confessions of Recovering Guard Dealer, I was Cherry in 1968. That's the way we treated our customers. You can't do it in the 21st century car dealers. It just doesn't work. People will not tolerate that, which is one of the reasons why Toyota Vera Beach sells very few cars. Absolutely.

That's the mystery shopping report from Toyota of Vero Beach. The only thing I can get from this about the whole cherry cherry cherry cherry pie. Yeah. Does it ring a bell? Quick score on Toyota Vero Beach. FFF. FFF.

Anybody vote for anything passing score? No. Put them on the do not buy list. Yeah, the good, the bad, and the ugly. That was the ugly one. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for tuning in to Earl Stewart on Cars right here on Saturday mornings at 8 a.m. We can't do the. show without you. This is 95.9 FM and 106.9 FM, the True Aldi's channel. Talk to you next week.