Earl Stewart on Cars - 04.20.2024 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Starling Buick of Stuart, FL.

Episode Date: April 20, 2024

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits a local Buick dealer to see what they have on the lot and how much they will charge for a new 2023 Buick Envision SUV. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

Good morning, everybody. We're back again. Doing this for a long time. Welcome all you regular listeners and callers, especially the callers. We love callers. Live radio talk show is all about talk. and you're going to get tired of us talking pretty soon. So we like to hear from everyone that can possibly take a few minutes.

We're on for two hours at 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. So we reach all over the planet. That's actually little. We've been as far as, I think, Bali. I can't remember the mileage distance, but we've had a lot of out-of-country calls. And we have a huge amount within the United States. south florida and we started out just like a little old uh half hour show uh we reached maybe a 30 40 50 mile radius and we thought we were big shots back then but now hey we're we're all over the

planet uh love to hear from out of towners what we do if you haven't tuned on the show and you're not a regular listener this is a show all about how to buy or lease a new car or have your car maintained or repair if you don't get ripped off. And I use that term, which is kind of insulting to the people that's directed at, but it's meant to be because car dealers don't treat people the way all the other retailers do. I mean, this is the 21st century. This is 2024. And if you've been into a Costco store or an Apple store, for that matter, Target, or Kmart or Walmart,

or I said Kmart, Walmart. You'll see how old I am. If you've been into a successful retail store, they treat you pretty nice. I mean, they whysed up. They realize that if you treat the customer nice, you come back and you buy products from them. Car dealers haven't figured that out yet, but they don't have to because the system is rigged. Between the manufacturers and the dealers and the lack of regulation and control from the government, It's really a three-way conspiracy.

We've got the manufacturers that play dumb, the dealers that can do anything they want because they are licensed to steal, basically, and the regulators who put some laws on the books, but then don't enforce the law. So it's a while-while list if you go out there and buy a release a car or when you're bringing into the service department to get maintained or repair. So this is a, we're the beacon of hope. we're the shining radio station on the hill we're the place you can come for advice and help recommendations and we hope you stay tuned we'll be for two hours as I said we don't expect you to be with us a whole two hours

but tune us in when you have a minute and if you can call us that's the name of the game you're going to hear this number so many times you're going to hate it if if you're listening for more than a few minutes but we're 877 960 9-960. That's 877-9-60-99-60. Please write that number down. You probably haven't got a

question now. We haven't really got into the show yet. But when you do, have it handy. And please write this number down. 877-9-60-99-60. She did it to my left as my co-host and my wife and my partner. Her name is Nancy Stewart.

and she has got a laptop and computer in front of her and we have a control room that will shoot the name and call her on the number and the caller of everybody and we prioritize it so right now if you happen to call I'd stop talking I know you're probably already tired of me yakkin

and we would listen to you and we'd hear your question your comment your recommendation and we really give you total license we're not going to cut you off I won't speak over you I'm going to give you your opportunity to say what you have to say. I know a lot of talk shows don't do that, but we do. And occasionally we have to shorten a conversation

because we have normally a whole lot of callers. And if we have someone that's talking for longer than is their fair share of the airtime available, then we'll say we have to move on to the next caller because we've only got five incoming lines and we don't like to see it where you have to wait and wait and wait. because then you hang up and you get mad and you don't want to call the show anymore. So 877-9-60-99-60. Now, you could text us. Most of you are not callers because calling live radio, being live on the radio, it's a little scary.

We've been there and we've done that. We've got over it now. We're not scared anymore, but we enjoy this. But when we started out, it was terrifying. You got 20, 30,000 people out there. Hey, you don't want to sound like a first. But I got to the point now where I don't mind signing like a fool. So you get used to it.

You get numb. If you want to text just a text number, you can write this down too if you want. 772-4976530, again and slower, 772-472-4976530. And my son, Stu Stewart, is sitting directly across me in the studio. you and he monitors those texts. And if we don't get your text quickly, which a lot of times we don't because we prioritize the phone

calls at 877-9-60-9-6-0. We will get to the text, which is 772-497-6-5-30, before the show's over. We accumulate them. Now, our biggest source, and I save that for last, because I can always count on YouTube, We have a YouTube group.

It's like a club. And they have some of the most intelligent, interesting, amusing. They could have their own radio show. They could be the YouTube on a cars. They're all on cars for slash YouTube.com group show. It could be. And it's going to YouTube.com ford slash our own cars. Rick Kearney, who was sending to my right, who was our certified diagnostic master technician.

who, as I said in my recorded introduction, I dare you to ask a question that Rick Kearney can't answer, whether it's about the electronics or computerization of your car, very high tech now, and it really takes a computer scientist type of mentality and training to solve some of these very, very sticky problems with your cars. So if you have a sticky problem with your car, you call Rick. He monitors the YouTube channel,

so if you go on YouTube and post, Rick will get that right away. Now, you can post anything you want on YouTube at or on cars, but Rick is the expert on the mechanical electronic computerization type issues that pop up. And finally, before I turn this microphone over to Nancy Stewart, my co-host, I want to say we have a secret way to reach us where you remain anonymous. It's called Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Y-O-U-R-A-N-Y-M-O-U-S feedback.com, your anonymous feedback.com.

Stu monitors that channel, and we don't know who you are, where you are, we can't come and get you, we can't sue you, we can't put out a hit on you, we can't do anything. You can't, you get away with anything you want to say. I'm saying that only half seriously because privacy is a big issue, and I respect that. I don't like sometimes to send an email or a text or even a phone call, because then I'm, I kind of reveal myself and they can come, you know, when you're being solicited, you don't like solicitors, you don't like people ringing your phone or send you a text when they're just trying to sell you something. Privacy is important.

We're not going to sell you anything, but your privacy at your anonymous feedback, we have no control. We don't know who you are. If you want to tell us who you are, we can. And if you want a reply, you have to ask for a reply because we can't even reply to you're anonymous feedback and that you ask us to reply so y-o-u-r-n-o-n-y-m-o-us feedback f e-ed-ed-b-a-ck-com and we uh would love to read those too would love to read those over here i got a nice long one to read oh good okay let's let's let's uh talk to nancy

steward uh said before she's my co-host she's also a very strong female advocate and she has single-handedly brought this show to almost parody with female listeners and callers and she has a very exciting special offer is too good to be true but it is true you're not going to believe it but she has a special offer for the first two new female callers and we do this every week Nancy the mic is all yours

good morning everyone thank you and well thank you for joining us as I say every week you make the show. This special gift to the ladies is $50 for the first two new lady callers. And if you have a car purchasing or servicing experience, you'd like to share with us in everyone else that you'd be helping. We certainly would appreciate it.

And we show that appreciation by offering $50 for the first two new lady callers. And we got bathtub. Betty. She's a real doll. Bathtub Betty. Bathtub Betty. I'm not going to her picture right now. And that bathtub sounds inviting.

Oh, bathtub? Okay. I thought you said something else. Bath tub biddy. She is a beagle. And she's our dog of the week. And we'll show you a little video about 9.30. and big dog ranch boy I'll tell you they do a fabulous job for so many dogs that are wandering

and I was reading recently about right outside of Houston, Texas, and there are so many abandoned dogs and they're doing a great job of bringing them in. I'm going to mention this morning Earl's vigilantes. I'll tell you what, talk about helping Earl's Vigilantees. They do a good job. I think it's help me out here, guys. Is it Mark that calls in so often? Yeah, Mark is one.

Yeah, we have Vigilantes who act in our stead in their geographic area. He's been a great addition, and he's helped so many. but earl's vigilantes is definitely something to sign up for and you not only are helping you know so many people by talking to them about their problem in their with their vehicles but you're helping everybody in the neighborhood and you don't have to know how to you know build a engine so take advantage of earl's vigilantes and sign up for it. Go to earloncars.com,

Earloncars.com, and that's where the application, you'll find the application. Okay, I hope you guys jotted that information, Dan. If not, I'll mention it later on the show. You know, Stu mentioned that he had a really long text, and I think that we should get to it. Okay. Well, I'd like to start out with Anne-Marie's,

which is equally as long, because that's kind of traditional. Good morning, Ann Marie. Thank you. That's right. and Mary says, good morning, right back to you. Newsflash, I regret to say that the long-weighted Tesla cyber trucks have been recalled due to faulty accelerator pedal, which can cause the trucks to accelerate unintentionally.

Sounds really familiar. Sounds scarier in a cyber truck. Well, it sounds like a sudden acceleration problem that Toyota had on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. News stories report that assembly line workers use a slippery soap to help get the throttle pedal pad onto the pedal. And Tesla explains the resulting problem. way. Residual lubricant reduce the retention of the pad to the pedal. Jalopnik has a video showing how the pedal pad can slip upwards, get stuck, and keep the pedal depressed at full throttle.

If this unintended acceleration happens to you, please remember that the truck's acceleration is cut when you step on the brake pedal. Keep calm, put pressure on the brake until you can pull over, stop, turn off the truck, and then take your foot off the brake. Tesla is reportedly going to rivet the pedal pad to the metal to keep the pad from sliding up and sticking where it doesn't belong. Anything to add or correct. That was from Ann Marie. Rick was talking about that earlier,

and we discussed before the show started that if you have a cyber truck and you Google it, you might find out somebody came up with a fix himself. Right. And it does work. And then Rick and I both agreed that it should not be recommended

that you fix your own sudden acceleration or your cyber truck acceleration problem. But if you're in a fix. Exactly. If you're in a fix and you had to. It's good news. You had to get somewhere. That means you'll get your cyber truck sooner than I thought, and I'll have that.

Are they saying this is really happening, or is it more closer to the toilet? Like, how many incidents have been reported? I've seen photos online. I saw the one at the Beverly Hills Hotel. One had jumped like a retaining wall, like a landscaping wall. And I've seen photos where they show that cover actually is slipping loose on the pedal. So it's a little bit more serious than toilets, but it's a simple fact. No, I mean, the one guy I saw that we do not recommend this,

but he literally, he pulled it back down the place. Don't even tell him. Okay, he did a do-it-yourself type thing. There are a lot of people out there that would try it, even though we weren't. It's not recommended. Yeah, wait. Rick, did you see that on YouTube? Reddit, actually.

Okay. But, yeah, wait for Tesla to make the proper fix. They will have a proper repair available, and they will, perform the repair for you. Remember, safety recalls for your cars are done at no charge to you at any time. And if you feel unsafe in your vehicle, they have to supply you with a replacement vehicle for the time until that repair can be done. That's federal law. Go to www.safercar.gov, put in your VIN number, your friends' VIN numbers, your family members. Any vins that you have, Put it in.

Easy and free. And it will show any open recalls. The dealerships must repair these. And if you'd feel unsafe with your car, they must. Thanks for that information, Rick. That's www.w-wsafercar.gov. A big difference between an accelerating and a camry and accelerating in like an electric. They have four motors on the fiber truck.

That's like a riot. The good news, there's only three cyber trucks on the road. right yeah exactly and that's a slight right now as we talk it's 2000 we're talking about a cyber truck which are very very ask yourself this question have any of you seen a cyber truck on the road i've seen one so it's fortunately not a huge problem now if you're driving any other car there's a good chance that you have a takata airbag recall that you don't know about and that has killed a lot of people and there's hundreds of thousands of the Nobody cares.

So they're still selling cars with cars that have that defective role. So right now we have Jonathan, we've got Rick and we've got Earl and Nancy, who have seen a cyber truck. I haven't seen one yet. You haven't? Oh, you haven't? I have not seen one yet. So anyway, that's four of us that have seen a cyber truck. Give us a call, ladies and gentlemen, 8779.

6.9060. That's 877-960. And don't forget, you can text us at 772-497-6530. And as Earl said earlier, take advantage of your anonymous feedback.com. We're going to go to the phones and we're going to talk to, we're going to talk to Jack. And he's calling us from Jupiter and we'll get back to stew and some interesting texts that he received this morning. Good morning, Jack. Good morning. How are you? I'm fine, thank you. Yeah, I just want to tell you a little story. About two weeks ago, I was up in Jensen Beach, and for whatever reason, the rear tire of

my Corolla 22 just blew out. By the time I was able to get to a location where I could part the car safely, all I had left with the tread from the tire. I had to get a towed, and my wife said, let's go to a Toyota dealer because going to Tire Kingdom, maybe there's a bigger problem than we know, and Toyota should be able to fix it. So we were towed to Treasure Coast, and in Stewart, I had called ahead of time, told him we'd be there about 11 o'clock, got there at that time.

Drove right in. The service desk is right there. Very nice, clean, and talked to the fellow at the desk. He took the information, told me it would be about an hour for the car, for the tire to get changed. I said, fine. So while we're sitting in the waiting room, I said, you know, this is nonsense. I should have a spare. So I called your service department in North Palm and spoke to a gentleman on the phone. And I said, I'd like to get a donut. He said, oh, they don't supply donuts with a car. He said, maybe you can go online and find somebody that wants to sell one. And I'm thinking to myself, if they don't make it, how am I going to get one online? So I said, thank you. And the response wasn't great, to be honest with you.

And my wife was right there, and she has a tendency to be very aggressive at times. And she says, wait a minute, we bought three Toyotas from Earl Stewart. I'm going to get one of the stewards on the phone. So she called back and got Josh on the phone. And she told the tale of woe. And then he got on the phone. He said, well, here's what I can do for you. I can get your full-size tire with a rim.

He gave me a price. I said, that's terrific. We have to order it. And should be in tomorrow. I should find, okay, I got the car home, and I looked in the wheel well, and I saw that a good part of the covering was gone from the tire, just slapping against it, I guess after it was blown out. So when I went to pick up the tire the following day, and they called very responsibly, I spoke to Travis, and he was very accommodating, really felt to me for my problem. them and said, you know, you should bring the car in and let us take a look at it. I said, okay, that's fine.

In the meantime, I forgot to tell you, while I jumped ahead of myself a little bit, the one hour turned into about two and a half hours to get the tire. I was pretty annoyed about that. Not only that, but while I was sitting there, I get a phone call from the sales department in Treasure Coast, Toyota, asking if I want to buy and sell my car, he gets very annoying. He kept being persistent, you know, we got good deals and so forth, and I'm doubly aggravated now because at the time and this phone call. Anyway, on the way back from your dealership, my wife calls customer service at Toyota,

in the New Trazier Coast, Toyota, and gets a lovely lady on the phone, and she appears to be very sympathetic, and she ends up with, well, how do we make this right? And I said, well, I might well go for broke, give me your free tires. So she says, well, my boss and my manager is not in. He'll be in on Monday. We'll give you a call. Well, Monday comes. There's no call. I get a email from the same girl, and it's like we never had the conversation at all. She tells me that how can we make it right? So this time I responded, you tell me. Well, anyway, getting back. Just real quick, we do have a lot of callers holding, so if we can get to a conclusion. I'm ending it soon. I got back in touch with Travis. They took a look at the wheel well, and everything was fine. But I just want to say that the service

at Earl Stewart is phenomenal. The people there are good. Travis did an excellent job for me. And Treasure Coast Toyota just kind of blew me off. I would have felt that the

serviceman up there that change a tire would have said, you know, you better advise your customer that there is a problem here that he should take care of. And that's my story. Well, thank you, Jack. I really appreciate the call. We appreciate you sharing your story with us.

please give us a call again sorry for the rush our number here is 877960 99060 and our text number is 772-497-6-530 ladies $50 for the first two new lady callers give us a call with your story we're going to go to Bob in Lake Park good morning Bob you there Bob yes good morning good morning everyone hey good Good morning, Bob. Good morning. I wish all my Jewish friends to happy Passover. Happy Passover. Oh, thank you. Happy Passover. Stu, if I take my brand new black BMW to the bank and I rob the bank and I get in my getaway car and I pull out my phone and I bring up my app and I change the color to white, have I just committed the perfect crime?

Well, nobody knows about that. this secret technology. Is this really coming out or something? Something I don't know about? No, I saw it already. Really? Oh, that's really cool. I mean, I've heard about things like that.

Rick, have you seen that? I have not. I think if you did it now, yeah, you might get away with it. We love our callers. They give us such great new information. We don't even have. Yes, I got a fine color-changing BMW. I read that Toyota is working on cars that can change their colors.

I wouldn't doubt that. Yeah, that is a new technology. That is a technology, and I'd heard about it. So it's really a, hey, did you buy the car? No. Okay, I'm looking at this. This is really cool. In order to buy the car, I'd have to rob the bank first.

That's the problem. Well, you can borrow the car, rent it, rob the bank, and then pay for it. They call it. It sounds like a great call, well, we've got so many. collars lined up right now and uh thanks for the great story uh stew has you guys can't see this but the wheels and the everything's changing it's uh it's almost of the entire service of the car is a screen look at that so yeah bob i think uh yeah use that in your next you're really got to burn to pay i would guess that paint job is going to cost you an extra

or $15,000 or $20,000. We'll find out. Okay. We are going to go to Howard, who's calling us from Jupiter. Good morning, Howard. Oh, good morning. Beautiful morning today. The ocean looks like, yeah, great.

The ocean looks like it's flat and I can swim. I'm telling you. Yes, it's great. Life is great here. Let me tell you that. Two reasons why I chose Earl Stewart Toyota, besides Gerald Stewart is Rick and Travis. I mean, those two guys, Travis is like he knows everything about the computers and he, you know, he programs my car.

Howard, you're embarrassing us and people are going to think that we're paying you to call in for an infomercial, but, but sure, we thank you very much. That's awful nice to say that. How many calls this morning have we had, you know, just. About Travis. We got Travis, we got Rick. Howard, thank you so much. Okay, okay. One other thing.

When I had my car service, I was told the front tires were low, and they were in yellow. Now, I'm going back to New York, probably for the last time. I'm going to come down here permanently. But I'm traveling up to New York, and I'm traveling down. The tires are legal, but I wonder if anything, if they could be prorated since I have tires for life. Can they be pro-rated and I get a new set of tires? Yes, we do that. Okay, so what do I do?

Make an appointment, then? Yeah, the tires are replaced if they're below 316th. So if you have 516th or 616s, we look at 3.30 seconds, I mean, percentage-wise. So if you have enough tread that would put you above 3.30 seconds for 20% more, mileage, we would discount the tire by 20%. Okay, do I have to make an appointment? We would charge you 20% instead of giving the tire free.

You get the free tire if there were below 3.30 seconds. It's pro-rated, just like you said. Just see Travis. Yeah, Rick did that for me once when I had a flat. Instead of fixing the flat, he pro-rated and gave me a new tire. Yeah. You remember that, Rick, that was last year. Anyway

Richard is not in yes Yep Yeah Okay Okay so I'll bring it in And what's the best time Monday Tuesday What's the best time

And an hour to bring it in Sunday is a good day Because it's a slow day No sorry I went Sunday It wasn't slow It wasn't going That's because Earl keeps telling people

That on the radio Yeah Yeah Monday morning Bright and early And that way The coffee's hot and fresh, the bagels are fresh, and Monday morning. And if we have the tire in stock, we can get it.

What time do you open? They're opening 615. That's right, 615. That's great. Okay, I won't hold you off. Thank you very much. Dines Howard. I don't get out of bed that early anymore.

That's right. He doesn't get up. And he's with Earl on Cars. He's speaking about Earl Stewart, to another entity. It's a separate life for mine. I have multiple personalities. Oh, no. Don't we all?

Ladies and gentlemen, if you haven't picked up your magazine from Consumer Report, that is the May June report. I'll tell you what, they have got so much information in the Road Report about taking care of your car, service mechanics, all of it. And it's definitely worth reading. Again, $50 for the first two. That's what it looks like if you're going to pick out of the news. Yeah, there you go. First two new lady callers, $50. Give us a call.

877-960. Let's go to Chris in Lake Worth. Good morning, Chris. Good morning. Good morning. Thanks so much for holding, Chris. Sure. Okay.

I'll make this one quick. Let me ask you a question before you make your... Yes, ma'am. Have you called before? yes i have okay great welcome back what can we do for you i was just calling to wish rick and happy birthday oh happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday to you thank you happy birthday to you i should have recognized chris's voice but we're moving faster we move fast we're all coming clear to me that's my that's my

better half thing, Chris. That was very thoughtful. Thank you so much. Yeah, definitely was. Thank you. We appreciate everybody that works with us and thanks. Thank you to Chris for reminding us. Chris, Rick, is a asset to this show and he just does so much for so many of our listeners, our caller, everybody. So thank you. Happy birthday again, Rick. Happy birthday. Okay, we're going to go to Doug, and Douglas is calling us from, where are you calling us from? Douglas is calling us from Tequistice, I think.

Good morning, Doug. Yes, ma'am. I have a question. I called about three weeks ago, and I said that I had a problem with my airbag lights flashing and my bright lights. They're not coming up, but they, you could flash you, but they weren't staying on. Now, all of a sudden, the bright lights, you know, a week later, the bright lights are working fine, okay? Now, you know, you did tell me it was a, someone told me it was a module five, all right? Now the bright lights are working fine and put the flashing on the, you know, of the airbag is still on.

Now, when I looked on YouTube, it was a gentleman that directed me underneath the seat where the connector, might be, because I do go back and forth a lot on the seats to get in and out. And I looked underneath there, and there's nothing underneath there that he described, but I did see a blue, a short blue connector that was unconnected, and I looked around. I couldn't see anywhere where it could possibly have gone to. Hmm. And I know what that is. Now, what you're avalon's yours?

I'm sorry, sir. I got a 2001 Toyota Avalon. I was saying that earlier. Okay. I'll have to double check on TIS. I don't think the O-1s had a seat airbag. I'll have to check on that. But here's a rule of thumb.

There are two industry standards that every manufacturer uses. airbag connectors and airbag wiring that is specifically for the airbag system and the seatbelt retentioners is always going to be bright yellow corrugated plastic on it and the connectors will always be bright yellow so if you see a bright yellow connector

you really don't want to mess with those those are specifically airbag connectors and they're usually a very complicated system to disconnect them that takes two or three different steps, actually. They're very sensitive, so they made sure that they stay very tightly secured. A blue connector that's disconnected, there are some options that are not installed in some cars, and you would have a little pigtail that's available for it in case they wanted that option.

Okay. now the car the car is full of airbags so i don't you know but but i know they're not going to come on with it flashing like that right so uh just was uh another thing too is is that i'm getting really bad gas mileage i don't want to hold you up long but i know that two or three things that it could be but when i checked out how to replace the uh what do you call it The thing that connects to the, oh, I'm sorry, sir, I've lost it. That's okay. The thing that connects to the muffler.

Tailpipe. The tailpipe assembly? It's a sensor that goes from the muffler up front for the manifold or something like that. When the exhaust comes out. MAF? Oh, the EGR system? The O2 sensor is it? Oh, O2 sensor, okay, all right. Let me raise you something from Chad, GBT.

This says that the blue wire found underneath the seat of a 2001 toy avalan is most likely part of the vehicle's wiring harness connected to the seat's electrical system. This wire could be involved in various functions, such as powering the seat adjustment controls, heated seats for other seat-related electronics. Your troubleshooting and working on the seats for electric components is essential to consult a detailed wiring diagram or a repair manual specific to the 2000 Toyota Avalon. So that's the Chet, GBT experts.

So like Rick, they don't know exactly you have to look at the wiring diagram. And if you could probably go to a toilet dealer and ask them to take a look at that wiring diagram with you. Right. And I just verified online that your Avalon, you only have two airbags in it. One is the passenger side in the dash, and the other is the one in the steering wheel. And then you have the two seatbelt pretensioners, which if you're in an accident, they will activate the seat belt to pull you back in the seat and hold you firmly in the seat so that the airbag doesn't cause extra injury when it comes out. Okay. Thanks for the education all that. And I want to thank you all very much for all your information, and you'll have a wonderful day. Oh, thank you, Doug. It was nice hearing from you.

Give us a call again. We're going to go to John in Palm City. Good morning, John. Speaking of airbags, there's a serious recall from Chrysler, 2018 to 2021, Dodge Chargers, and Chrysler 300. 285,000 cars are involved. What's happening is a rupture the side airbag. can rupture and it sends a flying projectile which can be very dangerous

and recall was announced the end of last month. So anybody that has a car that qualifies that, we read out the number wwwsaforcares.com but a very, very serious problem because of side airbag with flying projectiles. That sounds like to the car problem. Safercar.gov.

Gov. Yes. W.W. Safercar. I just want to briefly mention Thursday I was in the neighborhood and I missed Earl and Nancy. I was not able to get you anybody here,

but I left a note. But let me tell you something. I brought back the old days. I parked near the youth car lot. And there on the end was a, I think it was a cabre remind me of the old days. It was sitting there with

white wall tires. and Vogue tires on it And I said to myself This brings back to days When dealers used to put on Vogue tires, white walls Take the roofs And put on vinyl roofs

Presidential package Big profit for the dealers Palm Beach, Lincoln Mercury used to do that Catalan deal on 45th Street We did it Hey John did Did it have the gold package No I'll tell you what

But those Vogue's, though, they have white walls and a gold stripe around it. Oh, boy. And it reminds me, because I grew up in Queens, New York, and that was the headquarters of Vogue Tire of New York. And it was all the upper-end cars that the dealers used to bring on there, and it was a nice profit-maker for the individual car dealers. Oh, what a nice story. John, I'm glad you call in. I know you do often about recalls, and it's one of our frustrations. You're a long-time listener.

You know about the Takata recall thing that we went over. and over and over. Yes. I just, again, I just checked, GBT. And currently, about one out of four, 25% of every car on the road, every car in the road,

millions of cars. 25% have open recalls. So it's almost like a non-of-in anymore. When you're driving down the road, you see four cars, one of those cars is dangerous, could be dangerous, as all recalls aren't dangerous, aren't dangerous, but many of them are.

And it's just a sad situation that our regulators and our legislators, they used to have inspections, as you remember, John, I remember. There's no control anymore. You buy a car, the dealer doesn't tell you there's a recall.

You drive the car, the manufacturer the notice doesn't get to you. If the notice does get to you, you don't seem to care. And I mean that. I mean, people know they have cars with recalls. So here we have a situation in the 21st century where 25% of us are driving cars that have it open to recall it just is who are we going to blame except ourselves this is the reason i mentioned this

one is we're in south florida yeah and the cause of this is moisture can get into the airbag and cause corrosion which we're aware of in south florida and that can set this thing off so I want to mention it's 2018 to 2021, Dodge Charges at Christ of 300. Yeah, and Safercar.gov. Go to Safercar.com, put your van in and find out if your car has a recall. Hey, listen, if you don't care about yourself, how about your kids, your wife, your friends? If you're driving in that car with people you know and care about, you should take the car to your dealer and have that recall fixed. Listen to this.

And according to Carfax, this is as of just last year, You know, going along what you said, there's 2.5 million vehicles that have been tagged with Do Not Drive that remain unrepair. This comes directly from Carfax. So they got at data on both ends, the recall and the repair. So this is how many on the floor in California, there's 240. This is how many are actually on the road that they know. $245,000 in California, $242,000 in Texas in Florida is in third place. There's 237,000 vehicles that have been tagged.

do not drive, they're driving on the roads right now in Florida. Scary. That's horrible. Interesting. And if you're not a danger to yourself, you're a danger to everybody else. Because if your car flips over or won't stop, you're going to kill not only yourself, but somebody else. Or accelerates at the speed of light. You know, growing up in Pittsburgh and having that inspection that you had to go through, when I moved to Florida, when I found there was no inspection here,

it just made me go, ah, you know, it was just, I, I really think it's a bad thing. 877-960-960, Texas at 772-497-6-5-30. Excuse me, your anonymous feedback.com. Now back to Stu. All right, let's get over to that anonymous feedback. One came in about Ford, and it might have been, we might have discussed Ford when I wasn't at a show, but let's get to this. Will Ford go out of business? No.

The only reason why they made it this far was due to the pandemic's flood of free cash, 0% Fed interest rates flooding the market with money, and the vehicle buying frenzy in 2020 to 2022. Even with that massive increase in purchasing, Ford's Delances and GM have always shown an innate ability to continue. produced subpar quality vehicles, made very incorrect business decisions, decisions, pushed larger and larger cars' SUVs by means of marketing and selection choice, not catering to known market wins or customer preferences. The three names just mentioned have relied on massive lobbying campaign contributions, attempting to strong-arm favorable legislation rather than using that same money to improve quality in both design and quality control.

archaic, outdated, inefficient, ineffective, very top-heavy management that cannot compete in today's day and age. I just hope that Ford does not get rewarded a bailout, which just means that since you won't buy our product and we paid massive bribes, that we'll just steal your money anyway because this is how truly dishonest. Boy, this guy hates Ford. Immoral, unsuccessful businesses are run today. Ford GM Stalanta should also give up completely on EVs. They are decades behind Tesla on both technologies, as well as production techniques. It's already cost forward many billions in losses and will cost them much more going forward.

They should just quit. I give Ford less than eight years before the crater, and that was signed. Well, the marketplace is going to answer your question, Mr. Anonymous caller, because coincidentally, automotive news this week says that Ford has way, way too many cars and stock. meaning they can't sell them. They have 100, of all the fours in dealer's inventory right now is a 117-day supply. Now, car dealers shudder to think about 170-day supply. That means that when the average, when the car comes off the truck, on the average,

it takes you over three months or almost four months to sell that car. And with interest rates and cost of inventory so huge, that if you're a car dealer and you have that many cars in your inventory, you're on the way to extinction because you can't afford to do business that way. So maybe you're right. I mean, Ford is doing something wrong. By the way, ironically, they were the only one that didn't get a bailout when they bailed out GM and Chrysler.

I spoke highly of Ford years ago because they didn't get bailed out. And G.M. and Chrysler, as I said, did. And now maybe will they get bailed out? I don't think so. Yeah. Donovan says that Ford will not go out of business, but Chrysler before the end of the decade. I was just about to mention that one.

And he also says for the feedback, if they give up on EVs, they should close the door today, L.O.L. He says Ford EV sales were up 88% in 01, and they just had their best quarter ever for EV sales. That's from Donovan. You know, the guy that did the anonymous TV, I think he did the one right before it because he said, says, there's a whole new submission. It's a shame that my 28-year-old Toyota is more dependable than a two-year-old Ford truck.

So that might as well set the fellow off. And the last anonymous feedback we have is the Costco auto buying program the same as the other car buying services like Sam's Club, AAA, et cetera. Similar. They're not, because Costco is the best. one. Sam's Club is a good one. Yeah. So you're better off to have some sort of

a legitimate car buying program to guide you through car. You can't be consumers' report. If you follow their advice and go about their recommendations, you're not going to have a problem. Costco, consumer reports are the

two best. Most definitely can't go wrong. We're going to go back to the phones. Marty is holding, and he calls us from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Marty. Good morning. How are you? We're well. Thank you. I've just got a question on my crown.

I've got only a couple thousand miles. When you, right now I've been checking the mileage and sometimes I get like 40 on a tank. Sometimes I get 37. So, I mean, I guess when you bought the car, it says 40 to 41 to 42, I think. So when you're driving any real distance, you're not getting any kind of mileage benefit by being a hybrid, are you? No, actually, hybrids get their best fuel economy when they're driving in city traffic where it's stop and go. And he gives it to where when you stop for traffic lights and that, as you're slowing down, the gas engine will shut off and it lets you coast and make use of the regenerative braking to put power back. back in the battery, and then you can reuse that power to drive again.

Right. But by being able to turn the engine off for a lot of that time, that's where you get the best fuel economy. And by city driving, Rick's not talking about, you know, midtown at rush hour. He just means, you know, around town, you know, down here in South Florida, it's fine. So in other words, if you drive for, let's say, from West Palm to Miami, for that time period, you're really not getting any benefit of hybrid. No, not really. But you get the benefit, I mean, it's still an efficient engine,

so you're still going to get what you had a good highway mileage would be at a, you know, and these days highway mileage is still pretty good, even with a bunch of combustion compared to the old days. When hybrids first really got going, someone actually came up with the thought, they tested in theory. They said the most fuel-efficient way to move four full-grown adults was in a Prius hybrid. and the most fuel-efficient way to move eight grown adults was in two Prius hybrids. You would actually use less fuel using two hybrid cars than to use a van or an SUV to move all eight of those people to the same distance, same location.

It's just not as fun because you're not all together in a van. Right. In two vehicles. Now, one other question for Rick. the battery that's in the trunk on the side of the trunk is that the hybrid battery actually you're going to have two back there one is the the little 12 volt battery

I think the crown still has it in the back I have to double check that because they bounce them around the big battery the hybrid battery is going to be buried and hidden away you are not going to be able to get near it and that's for safety's sake because anything that you see on a hybrid that is bright orange do not touch

bright orange connectors bright orange cabling that's high voltage do not touch it that is the stuff that will make give you a very very bad day yeah the only thing I saw was like the battery that's in the trunk on the side of the trunk

right that's a small ball battery yeah that's the 12 volt battery you need to jump that's what you got to access Yep. And that actually is the one that all it does is it turns on the computers and the relays to activate the hybrid system. And once it's activated, the high voltage takes over. Why can technology, why can they use the charge and the hybrid battery in a situation like that just to give some juice to the 12 bolt to start it if you need it, like a jump, like an internal jump? Because for safety reasons, when that 12-volt battery disconnects, it shuts off the main relays to isolate that hybrid battery in a collision-type situation, you want that 12-volt system to immediately shut down and isolate that hybrid power so that you're not exposing the injured people in the car or first responders. Marty, great information.

I'm glad you asked that question. I never thought about that, but that's a great answer. It would have made all the sense of the world. You know what the question, why this came to me? Yeah, thanks for that, Rick. It was we took that RV up north, and our 12-fold battery in the engine, up in the engine compartment, died, and we needed a jump.

But we had full power with a giant battery in the back. I'm like, why can't this go to that? You can't do it. Hey, Marty, if you get a chance. Well, actually, you can, but didn't work. If you get a chance, if you get a chance, Monday, take a look at the Wall Street Journal this morning. a big write-up about the crown.

Sounds like you're really enjoying yours. Bear in mind, if that 12-volt battery in the crown were to die on you, there is a spot under the hood that's very easy to access where you can jumpstart, you hook up the positive cable to it and to a good ground source, and that will let you jumpstart the car without having to figure a way to get power to open the trunk to get to that 12-volt battery.

Yeah, I'm in trouble. Excuse me, but I'm in trouble if I got to fix anything. Well, tow truck drivers are all trained, so every one of them knows how to handle it. If you're on the highway, you know, on the turnpike, or I-95, Florida's Rescue Ranger, tow trucks, they are trained. They know how to handle it. Any tow truck driver knows exactly how to get to those jobs. Most tow truck drivers. Most, yeah.

Now, one thing I heard, it's all wheel. since it's all-wheel drive, you're not supposed to tow it. You've got to put it on a flight bud. Right, yes. Good information, Marty. That's so important. Marty, it was great hearing from you. Yeah, okay.

Have a good weekend. Take a look at that Wall Street Journal. Ladies, we're still waiting to hear from you. $50 for the first two new lady callers, 877-960. 99-60. Ladies, you have to have something to share with. us, anything at all. Say hello, if you'd like. We would just love to hear from you, or you can share your purchasing or servicing experience, and you'd be helping out so many other

ladies, 877-960, 960, and you would be earning $50. We are going to go back to Stu. Okay. We have a text, interesting text. Good morning, folks. Just for the record, I've only known own toyotas for the past 30 years i guess you could say i'm a loyalist i currently use my daily driver as a as my daily driver a as my daily driver a 2022 toyta camry s e love it zero problems whatsoever just bought a new house which is much further away from my place of employment 150 miles to be exact um i know you guys are honest so my question is with gas prices trending higher and gas companies having us um in a compromising situation there was a much more more colorful euphemism used there.

What would it be having us in an uncompromising situation? Would it be wise to cave in and buy a Tesla model Y? My only concern would be reliability, especially since I've never owned one. What do you think? Well, Tesla Model Y is all the cars virtually that Tesla makes are good cars. And if you want to make that leap, just be sure that you understand. and the pros and cons of an all-electric vehicle, your best choice would be a Tesla, Tesla, why?

And I think that's a great choice, too. I totally agree with Earl. I mean, loyalty is one thing, but if there is a, it shouldn't be just based on a motion, it should be based on the product, and it sounds like you would be a very, you know, a great candidate for an electric vehicle,

and if Toyota doesn't have that vehicle for you, then I think it makes absolutely perfect sense, to switch. I did, so my solver all owns a Toyota dealership. You want to talk about loyalty? His daily driver is a Tesla Model S because it's something he can't get through Toyota, but he still thinks Toyota's great. So go ahead and get the Tesla Model Y.

We all give you our thumbs up. Rick, how's it going over there on the YouTube comments? Well, Donovan just said that the Tesla Model Y is the most popular car in the world for a reason. And they just dropped the price $2,000 just last night. Nice. Really? Last night? Just last night, he says.

While we're on that topic, and I got to believe that this is going to be off with the future. It's not going to happen. But apparently Elon Musk has decided to quit putting the emphasis on the lower price EVs. Tesla Y, you mentioned he just dropped the price. The profit margin is getting thinner. and thinner. And B.Y.D. is nippin at their heels. So Elon Musk is putting Tesla's big financial push

toward the autonomous taxi. In other words, the auto-robotaxi. And that's another name for the, I guess you call it an electric vehicle almost like an Uber, but you own it. Instead of buying a Tesla Y, which would be a lowest price electric vehicle, you would buy a time share in a vehicle, and you would buy, and Tesla doesn't have this vehicle yet, but when they have it, you will buy 25% of the usage of that vehicle. That's about how long the average person drives a car. What percentage of the time a car sits idle with depreciation? And everything else that happens when the car just sits, not good.

I mean, cars deteriorate while they sit. If you have 25% share, you'd just be three other people that would be using that car locally. Exactly. And so there will be a huge fleet of these autonomous vehicles. Can you choose your share partners? And you'll say, well, I've got to run to Walgreens and pick up my prescription. So you hit your app. And as you hit your app, by the time you get out of the front door, your vehicle pulls up.

And you say, take me to Walgreens. And you get to Walgreens, you say, wait here, and then you get back in to take them to school. Can you put your kid in there and say take him to school? Yeah. And so that is so fantastic and so, I'll call that 22nd century. I mean, it's off the chart, and that's the way we, I believe, and Elon Musk does do, that this will be the future, maybe the distant future, but the future of automobiles. Who is responsible for cleaning it?

I was just thinking the same thing. Well, a Tesla would be. In other words, it would be, this would be a fleet of, and the cars would come in for. Oh, it's not the same car you're getting every time. You just have. No, I mean, you get the same model. Right, right. I mean, if you're only in a luxury car, 25% of a plaid or 25% of a Y, you know, you're only,

and you could probably eventually get the same color. So as far as you know, it's the same damn car. It's probably cleaner than my car. if it shows up. I'm seriously. If there's a process where it gets a quick wipe down in a vacuum before you drive in it, that would be kind of nice. And just say, think of this, I mean, think of this.

The average new car right now cost about, I'm going to round number, close to $50,000, I think it's $47, $40. So $50,000. And of that $50,000, you're only using 25% of that. So how much is $25% of $50,000 is about, what? It's about 12.5. About 12, 5? Yeah, 12. 5.

So for 12.5, you get a brand new car anytime you want. You say, well, it's not in my garage. Well, what good is it doing you in your garage? What good is my pickup doing me sitting in my yard with the paint delaminating like crazy in the sun? Exactly. Or sitting at work. So can you imagine? Imagine the economic impact on the world economy when people no longer have to spend.

$50,000 to buy a vehicle, they can spend $12,500. Yeah. I'm in. That's the reason Elon Musk is a genius because he sees things that people laugh at and say that can't happen like go to Mars and live. I mean, these crazy things he comes up with. He'll be wrong. We're all wrong sometimes. But I think this is a plausible idea for the future, probably not even my grandjold.

maybe my great-grandchildren. I think it would be sooner than that. And, I mean, it will be like anything new. It'll be a growing, it'll be introduced, not ever able to use it. And some people will. And then it might explode and nobody saw it coming except for... There's a decision we have to make as we get older. You know, Nancy and I talk all the time about our driving and how much we're driving.

And, you know, we have a lot of older people in South Florida and our customers. We have, I think the average age of our customers is in the 50s. So, you know, when you're 70 or 80 years old, instead of driving the car 25% of the time, maybe you drive the car 10% of the time. So the less you drive the car, the more feasible this gets. If you drive the car all the time, you might make an argument for the fact, well, I want to own my car. But the average is 25%. Great information.

We're going to go to Lind, who's calling us from Boynton. And before I talk to her, I want to let the ladies know $50. The first two new lady callers, we haven't heard from anyone. $50. What a great opportunity to share your story with us or just give us a call and say, hello. And what I mean by your story, you're purchasing, your servicing, your experience, and you can share that on the air, and you would be helping so many ladies that are listening to the show. Good morning, Lynn.

Good morning. are you all? We're well, thank you. It's been a while since we talked to you. Yes, yes. Well, I've been recovering from a broken neck. Oh, gosh. God bless you.

But I'm doing well. But I'm doing well. What I'm calling about is to see if any of you, a few weeks back, my husband and I were from Boynton, so we're on Congress Road, and we saw a car, and it absolutely looked like a spaceship. I mean, it looked like a spaceship had landed in the form of a tank. And it was electric, I believe. There was a license plate on it, but it was nothing else.

And all you could see was from out the windows. My husband compared it to something the A-team would have made. Would that have been the silver cyber truck? Oh, maybe silver cyber truck. I don't know, because we were like, oh, my God. And then we were trying to catch up so I could take pictures. Sounds like a cyber truck. It's all stainless steel.

It has kind of a wedge, almost triangular look about it. Huge windshield. The windshield is the largest windshield of any car in the world. Oh, wow. So there is a name to it. I was like, because we saw it a few times around this area going around, you know. Jonathan just shared with us it may have been the lucid. So anyway.

There was no name on it or any make or anything. Yeah, there's no markings on them. No, nothing. Stain the steel silver? Yeah. Yeah, that's a cyber truck. All angles and all sharp lines and... Yeah, it was beautiful, you know?

You do, yeah. Yeah. Oh, do you? You really do. It was fabulous. It was really crazy looking, and I'm like, oh, wow. Isn't it? You know, yeah, yeah.

And one other thing I wanted to mention about you guys with your big dog ranch, how a few years back, we had adopted a dog from Big Dog Ranch. He was a homeless dog, and homeless people had found him, and then they lost their car, so they turned him into Big Dog Ranch. When we saw him, do you remember when, before a pandemic, they used to have the pet segment on the Channel 12 News with Chris Farrell, and they were for adoptable pets. Well, that's where we saw him. So we went to Big Dog Ranch, and he was, my husband and I were like, wow, he needs us.

you know so we went there the old big dog ranch and we saw him he was in a kennel thing hanging people said he was so ugly nobody wanted to adopt him you know and he was probably only four or five pounds at the time

he was so malnourished and everything but so we went there we fell in love he fell in love so we took him home oh the girl came by the way to check out our house and everything and when they bought him there you know he was a little neurotic

But we had him for a long time He just passed away last year But he made it to like 14 We got him at like five years old or so And I wanted to tell you that You know, when we were in there It is amazing what these people do And we just love that Mackey to death

He was just so, you know And he used to get very upset With the raindrops Oh Wait a minute What? Yeah, but anyway We actually got three dogs

From that show From the news show Yes And yeah Well you know They're starting it up again now They have it again Now the pet of the day they call it

You know So if people looking for a pet You know If they're looking for a pet to adopt That's a good thing at noon to watch To see For all the little dogs Big dogs or whatever

And I told my husband He couldn't watch the news anymore Because every time you watch the news You're coming home with another dog You know Exactly We commend you so much for your care in that and everything and helping people out. Thank you so much, Lynn.

I think a message that you sent us to about Big Dog Ranch and having a dog, you know, I could just tell from talking to you and I hear your husband in the background, you're very happy. And when you have a dog, you're happier. Families are happier. So it isn't all about taking care of the dog. It's wonderful to give a homeless dog a living home. But you're giving yourself more of a loving home.

Absolutely. Because you feel good about life. When you have a dog around the house, you're just a happier person, a happier family. Yes, yes. And we also got a dog. He's 17 now. We got him at 8 years old because we were really trying to get a lot of the seniors out of the pounds, you know. And we took him home.

He's still alive at 17. He's a chihuahua. Rico. He's blind and deaf and walks around and stairs. the walls and everything you know but yeah but you you couldn't even touch him because he had been so abused took a couple of years for him to mend in and that now my husband is like one of his best friends of course but uh he is still a doll and he's 17 and he just is he's changed a lot and to be a loving dog you're wonderful people you and your husband are wonderful people

and you guys too and what a great story I'm so glad that you called and you know there's a lot of people that are listening to the information that you just put out there. And, you know, the most important is, excuse me, there's a lot of people who don't realize that Big Dog Ranch does a background check. You just mentioned that they come into your home. You know, there's a lot of people to think that they're just giving dogs out and they have the dog's interest in mind every step of the way because they get so many abused dogs. Dogs that are just, you know, they're not

just giving up because the person can no longer afford them. You know, they're talking, I'm talking about the dogs that are coming in from the border from all over the place. These poor dogs are just you know, and they need someone who's got so much love

in their voice like you and I can hear your husband in the background and I just want to thank you for calling. Well, you know, when they came into our house, we have all our pictures on the wall, and the girl goes, oh, jackpot, because all our pictures on the wall, we say are just dogs that are next people. You know, or just dogs.

They do bring us a lot of happiness. Lynn, thank you so much for calling. 877-960, and you can also text us at 77-4-9-6530. I mentioned rules of vigilantes at the beginning of the show. You can go to Earl on Cars. Check that out. Don't forget, you get a T-shirt and a hat. Also take advantage of your anonymous feedback.com.

I'm going to go over to Rick and check to see whether we have any YouTube's from Donovan. Well, actually, I had asked him a question because I know he, knows stuff that I don't know. I had asked him, what is the average cost for the installation of the charger for a Tesla at home? And he says, the charger installation is going to depend upon the location of the electrical panel. Florida is usually easiest in the garage, somewhere between $500 to $500, including the cost of the charger. And he says, FBL will do it for you and provide unlimited charging for $38 a month. That's a pretty decent deal because I'd say that's about a quarter of the amount of gas I normally use.

And he says, now I mentioned my neighbor across the street has one on the outside of their house. Their garage has been converted to another room. And he said, yeah, he's seen them on the outside a couple times. and it's really the price of the heavy gauge wire that needs to be used to run to it. That excess, you know, the cost of that wire has gone up a little bit. So that's what dictates the cost of those chargers. Yeah. And I'll tell you what, what a great investment that is,

and it's not as expensive as everyone thinks it is. And not only that, but when we plug in, when we charge the Tesla, you know, at night, we can wake up and we can get all the updates, you know, because there's always so many updates day in and day out. So that charger is a great investment. Stu? Oh, I just have another text here. Oh, okay.

Rick's giving you the high set. Just a little quick finish up here. He says the chargers are connected to Wi-Fi, and it tells FPL how much the charger's usage is so that it can subtract it from your bill. So it's pretty complicated. We have our set to charge at midnight because FB&L drops the rates at midnight

because there's not that much electricity being used. Right. So you get your electricity charge only the charge of the lowest rate FPNL charges. Interesting. Hey, does McDonald's drop their rates on their fish sandwich after midnight? No, only in the desert.

You know, why did you ask that question? Because I haven't eaten at McDonald's in 20 years. Oh, I haven't eaten. I went into a McDonald's on this road trip I took, and on the thing, it says, you can't order a fish sandwich after midnight. And that upset me because it's my favorite thing on McDonald's menu. We've been 20 years for a fish sandwich.

By speaking seriously, there is a hamburger chain or a fast food chain that is using cert. pricing and I think it's kind of a good idea really I mean it works for Uber it works for a lift but if you have a whole bunch of people stand in line to get hamburgers you're ready to price so the line gets shorter if you if you want to should we do that with if you got a budget problem then you just drive into the hamburger stand when the midnight should we do that to our new car order list we shouldn't do that to our new car order list should we to shorten the list remember the days

Remember the days whenever I would deliver about 12 dozen crispy cream hot donuts at 6 o'clock in the morning? Oh, let me tell you, talking about McDonald's, you may want to rethink McDonald's because they're going to, as you probably might know, all of you, crispy cream donuts at McDonald's. For real? Are they making them there or are they just bringing them over? Earl Stewart on donuts and hamburgers. Oh, wait a minute. That's not right.

This is Earl Stewart on cards. Oh, wait a minute. I got the skinny. They love us, dad. I got to skinny on cinnamon buns. Cinnamon buns. You don't have to go to the airport. You can go over to Wendy's.

And they have cinnamon buns? Yeah, folks, to make it car-related, use the mobile app and go to the drive-thru. There you go. I have a text here that says, have you heard of the new 2024 Hyundai Palisade Recall where the sub-assembly has to be replaced? How serious is this and would you keep the car? And that's from Richie Siegel in St. Louis, Missouri. per the manufacturer the valve springs could puncture the engine block the first thing i'd say to you richie is just put your vid number in um and safer car.gov see if you're affected at all before you make any decisions about getting rid of your car um i did look that up apparently it only affects 4,000 palisades from the 2024 model year so um i don't know how what a percentage of that of all of all the palisades but um it doesn't sound like a lot so run your

your VIN and if it does come up take it to the Hyundai dealer near you and they'll do it for free did you just say the valve springs can penetrate puncture the engine block through the head into the block it sounds like a very violent violent um thing that happens and damaging but um like you said it's not happening to all of them just uh just 4thous goodness that's good yeah yeah and i'm all cut up with texts and uh yeah and johnny z friedly says thanks a lot nancy now i'm craving a filia fish it's the best thing they made it's the best thing they make you know they they really are uh thanks for jenny zy he's always there he's always he's awesome yeah he's listening him and donovan and uh a few uh the whole gang a few other guys yeah absolutely okay so we're all caught up yeah we haven

Yeah, we haven't talked enough about the fact that we're just, I think we are back to normal. Our inventories of cars, it's not equal inventory being high. Toyota has the lowest day supply, the lowest number of new cars in stock, and the Ford has the highest. But on the average, it's back enough to like normal behavior is starting to come in. Depends on the make car you're talking about, but in general, in general, we're back to. Now where you can, by doing your homework and being careful and checking with Erland Carr's blogs and listening to this show and using True Car and using the Costco Auto Buying Program, it's time to go back and buy a car if you need a car.

In fact, if you want a car, you can get a good price on a car today if you're careful. We haven't been able to say that in about four years. So we're there now. And I say that's a, it's not an even playing field. If you want to buy a Ford, you can get one dirt cheap. If you want to buy a Toyota, you'll pay more because of supply and demand. Rick? The one thing I think is not back to what it was 25 years ago is the used car situation.

If you're somebody like a first-time driver, a young person that needs a very inexpensive car, that, yeah, they're going to wrinkle the fenders a little bit. Those inexpensive cars are not there. anymore they're all gone you're not going to find even a halfway reliable used car for less than five or six thousand dollars right now and for the average young person or the average lower income that's a lot of money to have to try to put out i get so many calls on that very subject i've got it before the covid thing and the pandemic of the rest of it uh you know and i get them now Now, when you're buying, when the young person wants to buy a car, a used car,

and if you're going to be paying it for that, your kid, you can get a surprisingly good price on a car if you do not take into consideration the cosmetics of the car. You can get a, the key is a safe, reliable car. now a safe reliable car can have din at fenders it can have it can have disfigurement it can have in a matter of fact it can be in a situation where you can drive it but it's just ugly i mean i mean i'm being basic here but uh so uh you can compromise between being just a bad ugly looking car but uh if if your teenager comes up to you it says i want uh i use corvette then you're going to pay a lot of money If I want to use, I want a red convertible. You know how young people are, but I was that way.

We were all that way when we were young. But if you've got to have a car, you want to save for a lot of car, forget the cosmetics, and you shop around carefully, and as Rick said, it's difficult to find the car, but you could find a $5,000 car that was safe and reliable if you didn't care what it looked like. And it would get you there and back safely, and that's really what I think we're worried about when we buy a car for our children. I think about safety. When you go to look at those cars, even a private sale, do yourself a very huge, huge favor.

Don't do the private sale. Don't do a private sale. Well, you know, I just... Find a mechanic that you can trust and make a condition of any car purchase that you take that car or have the seller bring the car to that mechanic to let them look at over really careful. When I say don't do a private sale, I don't mean don't do a private sale.

I mean, don't buy a car from someone you don't know if your uncle or your friend or your neighbor. That's a different story. But there are too many bad things happen to people that drive somewhere and try to buy a car from the street. Not a good idea. Yeah. Did you know the Consumer Report did some research? And in 2023, the average car on the road was seven and a half years old. Yeah, that's interesting.

And, you know, I have found lately that there are so many people who want to hang on to their old car. And as you were talking about used cars, you know, they just want to hang on to them because they're more comfortable and so many other things. There's just a lot of reasons that they hang on to their car. And there's also something else in the Consumer Report that is really startling. at least I think it is in the fact that do you know that there's two different reasons for people that are on the road that are driving outrageously that are there's two reasons they're driving outrageously they're driving and texting and consumer report found that 59 percent of Americans are engaged in in this kind of behavior. Not me. And it's huge.

Not me. Everybody is so distracted. Put that phone down, folks. Yeah. Oh, I see it. Everybody sees it all the time. It's really frightening. We're going to go to Larry, and we appreciate holding Larry, and Larry's calling from Tennessee.

Well, thank you for taking a call. Again, I just love you, Sherry. You guys do a great, great service to the general public and what you talk about. Thanks, Larry. I really appreciate it. I want to talk about a few things. I'll try and get them along because I know you only have time limit. Number one, I want to say that in West Palm Beach, where I originated from,

there is a dog shelter where they kill animals, okay? I don't want to make competition for a big dog ranch because I already adopted a dog from there, which I did mention to you a long time ago, and veterans get 50% deduction on dogs adopted from this. It's a great place here because the dog is fully cared for. chipped, all veterinary service, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Terrific place. Although I want to point out that they do kill dogs in the West Palm Beach Pound.

And if you want to save a dog from dying, you can take a look at that or consider it. I appreciate that. And you say competition, you know, there is no competition. When a shelter takes a dog in and takes care of the dog, we love them. That's true. I mean, I agree with you, but I use the correct word, but you're correct, yes. There are a huge number of shelters popping up around, and as far as I'm concerned, they're all good. Some are better than the other, but I think that if you want to adopt a dog, adopt them anywhere you can.

A dog that needs a home is a dog that needs a home no matter which shelter. I agree. I agree 100%. Let me talk about cars, okay? You mentioned something about your lightning shop at doing some work for Subaru somewhere in Tennessee, which started with the word free, free mount or free mint or something. Does anybody know where that place is

because I want to go to that dealership? I'm not sure that outside of Chattanooga, which is always to the western area, northwestern area. I'm not sure. I think it's outside in Nashville, I think. You think it's outside of Nashville? I'm pretty sure, yeah.

Now, do you remember the name of it? Is it free or Fremont or free mint or do you have any idea? I got to look it up. I got to look it out. I can tell you go. Okay. One last thing. Let's see. When you talk about sales tax, are you familiar with what sales tax wants for vehicles either Georgia, Florida, or Tennessee with regard to when you purchase a new car? Is it reciprocal? In other words, do you pay in the state where you purchase it or do you do it where you register? No, the question I have this. Which one do you know the way? Off the top of my head, I don't know.

Is there a way to find out? What were the three states? With Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, I believe they're all reciprocal, which means that you would pay the sale, if you bought a vehicle in any one of those states, the dealer there would collect it. And then if you registered in another state, it would be handled amongst the states. But if it's not reciprocal, and I'm not sure how many states aren't reciprocal in. I think they're all reciprocal. Yeah, which all that meant was that you'd buy the car, that dealer in Florida,

and they wouldn't collect sales tax, but you'd have to do it when you're registered at home. in New York or wherever. I see. That's the way that works. I wasn't sure. I think it's all reciprocal now, so I think it's much easier that it used to be. One that was not reciprocal would be Texas. It might have been Jersey.

I have a house in Georgia, also in Tennessee here, but I'm just saying that, you know, so I can get a bit of a deal there, but I didn't know how to go about finding that. Okay, well, I appreciate you. You found out by asking Erlon cars. That's how you found out. If you can find out, the name in that one town near Nashville, I'd appreciate it. Oh, yeah, it's in the, yeah, I'll look it up. Thanks a much, Larry.

Thanks for holding as long as you did. We are going to talk about bathtub Betty. Anybody interested? Yeah, I'm very interested in the name because I'm thinking, go both ways. Either Betty loves taking a bath or she really needs a bath. One of the other. Clearly, it does not. She loves taking a bath.

Come on. It's not in the information sheets. It doesn't say that. Well, this dog looks... She's just... She's a beagle. She smells... She looks like she smells good.

I think most of her like smell good, though. She looked like she smells good. I thought you said... I knew it was bathtub. I thought you said, back up Betty. I'm like, is that... She was back up Betty. Or backed up Betty.

Oh, boy, that's even worse. No, this is bathtub Betty. And bathtub Betty comes to us from... Arkansas. And she is really looking for a forever home. And she needs someone to love her, take her on walks. And she's good on a leash. She's good with other dogs. And she's, she's a nice size. And she weighs in at 32 pounds. And she's just as cute as something. I'm telling you. It's cute as pie. Cute as pie. Yeah. And Jonathan, is going to help us out.

He's going to run that video and show everyone just what she looks like. Okay. Hi. How are you? My name is Jennifer. Hi, Jean. And I'm from Big Dog Green's Rescue. Here in Los Angeles, Florida.

My friend here is one of our favorites, that's a Betty. Betty has come to us from a Greeter release. She's six years of age. She's had a lot of puppies in her six years. Things she's done with that. and she is looking for a loving home to get along with all age groups she would be great in an apartment

in a home great great dog very very very easy to be around she's a little shuddy extremely loving and house train which is a big flat so we love our best out Betty

we would just we will definitely miss her but she is looking for that forever home and hopefully it will be letting you one day Enjoy you go. Oh, thanks, Jennifer. Isn't she cute? We're going to get a hump for you, bathtub.

Yeah. Can I call you bath? She's got big brown eyes. Did I miss anything in the video that she addressed the name in the video? She just went with it. She looks cuddly. She does look cuddly. At any rate, Big Dog Ranch, Dog of the Week, bathtub Betty.

And I mention every week that Irwin cars will pay the registration fees. and it's a huge value, $200, and that's for the dog of the week. You can go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue, and that's www.bdrr.org. And you can take a look at all the dogs that they have over there at Big Dog Ranch, including bathtub Betty, and you can learn more about her. and what a great place it is out there, I can't say enough. And you can also take a look at earlsbook.com. That's www. Earlsbook.com.

And that book I mention every week is 1995. And the reason I mention that is because all proceeds go to Big Dog Ranch. So go to www. Earlsbook.com and you can pick up confessions of a recovering car dealer. I have an announcement. The price has been reduced.

We've been saying in 1995. I don't know who did this. Maybe Amazon did it, but it's now listed for 1895 with a slash through our 1995. In which case, still 100% is going to go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. But I'll look into this and see why they,

I haven't discounted this. thing in 15 years. Well, Amazon plays a lot of games with pricing. You ought to look again and see if it changes. I think they do surge pricing. I think Amazon prices products based on when... Right. That means?

It's up to you. Listeners. Demand is low. They're lowering the price. We've got to get the demand up and help Big Dog Ranch Rescue. It doesn't help us. I think at 2 o'clock in the morning, you can, you can, you can, at 2 in the afternoon. Krispy cream donuts?

Yeah. You know, let me say something serious about adopting a dog. I really believe, and Donovan, if you're listening, you're my Google. I got to believe that there have been some scientific studies done on the impact of a dog in a household, and I don't mean on the dog, on the household. I got to believe that there have been some studies that would show that longevity, health, harmony. I believe that

is a very strong positive impact when a family has a dog. And, you know, Rick is looking at me like he because he and Chris have got a dog. And I think that if you remove the dog from the equation, the family would not be as happy as they are now. So with that said, I foresee doctors

or maybe psychologists prescribing dogs. You know, you go in and you get a check up and say, I believe you need a Doberman Pinscher. I believe you need a German Shepherd. I mean, I'm joking there, but I believe you need a dog. And a dog in a household, I think I would love to see that study. I'll do a chat, GBT, and we'll do some search on that. But maybe we're pitching the wrong way.

Do the dog a favor. Hey, do yourself a favor. If you have, if you're not, if you don't have a perfect, life and you'd like to be have a little more harmony and calm and happiness a dog will do the trip dogs co-evolved with man with man i say man with humans going back thousands of years and they we evolved together and the dog became a being art the human being and the dog being that were compatible with each other that prolonged the life of both and that's the reason that we evolved together.

That's the reason dogs are so important. So do yourself a favor. Forget about being a nice person, help yourself out and adopt a dog. And if you think about Big Dog Ranch, we'd appreciate that. And by the book, I'm reading the reviews on Amazon. You have great reviews. I bet you didn't even know that. And the worst review says, here's the title, It's Okay, Nothing was too spectacular,

revealing to me in this book more so bought out of the curiosity and proceed donations, that's good. But it was a very thoughtful review and it is the, it's too long for a New York Times book review. It wouldn't, they would, they would cut it down.

But you should read it. It's pretty good. That's on Amazon.com. We can buy this book. Very good. More information. Great information. Okay, we're going to go to our mystery shop

and as usual, Agent Lightning did a great job, and Stu does a great job on writing this mystery shop, and with his creative writing. We went, they went out to, or Agent Lightning went out to Mystery Shop, Starling Beulick, GMC of Stewart, so you can vote at 772-497-2-497-60, and it. join us in, you know, greeting this dealership. 772-497-6530. Yeah, we appreciate that. In fact, you can text this a comment because we'll probably have time after the mystery shopping report

for a couple of text comments, or you could do a couple of YouTube comments. So we usually have a four or five minutes after the end of the mystery shopping report. I'll read this Mr. Shopping Report that's two put together for us, and it was, of course, the actual report was done by Agent Lightning, whose name I cannot reveal for her own personal safety, but I'll be speaking in the first person here, as if I had done the shopping report myself. I arrived late morning, but drove around to try and avoid all the salesmen standing around outside. I pictured that as we call it the Wolfpack, and this is really kind of an old-school thing. and you don't want to have all the salespeople out there looking hungry in a pack.

It's just not, it makes the buyers feel nervous. So that's what we saw. That's what I saw when I was Agent Lightning pulling up in front of Starling Buick and Stewart, Florida, Starling Buick GMC in Stewart, Florida. I ended up parking at the service department, walked in that way. However, I stopped before I had my door closed. by a sales manager, J.C., who asked if I was visiting their service department, or if there was something he could help me with.

I replied that I'd been looking online and saw that they have some amazing deals going on. J.C., then flagged down the sales associate, calling out Olivia, are you available? Is Olivia the name? Because it turned... And turned in Samantha. Actually, no, it wasn't Olivia was available, and I actually... I cut that part out, accidentally. But she did get turned over to Samantha.

So with Samantha, yeah. Are you available to help this young lady? He handed me off to her to Samantha and said if there's anything else I need, he'll be close by. So Jason, you stand by, and I'm with. I wonder if that's planned out. They said, all, I want to get like 20 of you guys out by the front door. You're going to, no one's going to come in the front door. It's going to funnel them to me.

I get them. Could be. I started showing Olivia what I was looking at online and I had for a new 2003 Buick and Vision Essence, new 2023 and I remind you all that new car

is a very vague thing today legally, technically practically all those different categories are different clearly this is 2024 I think we all realize that but you probably don't realize that you can

buy 2020, maybe a new, a new, legally new 2021, not too many. And probably before the year's out, you'll be buying 2025. So calendar year, there's a model year, there's a calendar year, it's complicated. And they don't have these Buick and visions, I check, the 2024s are not out yet. So we are almost halfway through 2024. In 2025s, we'll be out of this year. Yeah. Yeah, so it's confusing.

So new car isn't a very precise expression, and some new cars, even the same model and make, you can have, in one calendar year, you could have three different years that technically are a new car being sold, and that's confusing to everybody, including me. Maybe they should do it more like computers and phones are done. They don't have a model year. They're just a model name for a period of time.

Anyway, this Buick and Vision Essence had an MSRP of $44,135 and a big discount, and I mean a big discount of $12,327. That's a whopper of a discount. I asked that she could help me get this deal or something like it, and I'm talking about Samantha and the salesperson. She replied she would work to get me the best deal but said the savings. saw were real. Samantha then added the only thing that isn't listed online is that they put a package, we know that, is almost standard, especially in Florida and practically everywhere, some kind of a package which are dealer installed accessories and of course the dealer installed accessories are very very low cost, low

quality, high price. This package was $1,699 and it was a Starling Buick's sterling value package. Starling Sterling. They have a good time naming the packages. I can see that. I can see the discussion. What are we call this, baby? How about the Sterling Buick's sterling value package?

The Starling Silver. Starling Silver. Stirling Silver. Silver. Anyway, this package included a lifetime window 10. Nitrogen-filled tires. I have to chuckle every time I see nitrogen. in tires and monitor screen protector new one i haven't heard that one i haven't heard that one

no that's a good one so your your lcd your your crt your monitor has got a protector on it not a CRT not a CRT maybe back in a set again that they do honor the online pricing which he said is amazing she said they are tier one store and dealer of the year uh whatever that means it was on their website too yeah uh She said they honor their word. Samantha offered for me to take a test drive. She collected by license, grabbed the keys, and went to get the vehicle. A bernoni label, laminated and lying on the driver's seat.

I don't think that's in the federal code for the moni label. Yeah, you have to limit it. Lying on the driver's seat. I joke about that because you regular listeners know that only in South Florida. Agent Lightning roams around Tennessee, Michigan. Pennsylvania. She's been in a lot of different states. And the only

place where we consistently see the monorone's label not on the window where it's federally mandated to be is Florida. And actually we had one a week or two ago that was on the window and we really got excited about it because it practically

never happened. It was at Napleton. Napleton. Of all places. That's right. I forgot. There was Also, in addendum, and that's SOP in Florida and other states, I have to say, they confirmed the package that Samantha told me about. We headed north on U.S. 1, main drag here in Florida, along with I-95 and the turn bike, had it north on U.S. 1 where she told me to open it up and feel the power. We had a fun drive on the test drive. She was very knowledgeable and Samantha about the inventory they carried.

and it was quite helpful in helping me decide that this was the car I wanted. Once back at the dealership, we went to her desk where she asked for me to ask me for my phone number to pull up in their system. And I'm just going to digress a little bit here. Am I right that we're seeing more and more female salespeople? Definitely. You're just reading my mind. Definitely. You know, some of the mystery shops lately have had ladies, whether they're in service or sales.

We had a great one where every person they met was a woman, the greeter, the salesperson, the salesmanagers. She didn't meet anybody else. In a great article in the automotive news. Okay. So now I'm saying something good about Florida Cardinals. They're hiring more women's salespeople. So everything has a way of changing, and maybe we're seeing an evolution here. After she confirmed all my information in her computer with my driver's letters.

She excused herself and said she'd be back in just a few. moments. As promised, a few minutes later, she returned to the sales worksheet, commenting on how she feels, I will be very happy with this great offer that they were able to put together for me today and flipped it over. The market value selling price was MSRP, $44,135. There was an $8,827 discount and a $3,500 rebate, which is also a discount, which is what the manufacturer offers, So General Motors Buick had apparently a $3,500 rebate, and they passed that along to the customer, along with the $8827 discount,

and that shows the $12,327 in savings, like the has said. But, of course, we know what's going to happen now, right? But like Samantha, the addendum label said, they added $1,39 for the Starling Value package of unwanted cheap, add-ons and $905 in junk fees and you know it's a junk fee because they tax it and

the only real fee is a government fee that's what you should be expecting your license plate your registration but they use the word fee to make you think it's a government fee but it's not and the test is they charge sales tax on it and they do charge sales tax so that $9.95 is junk

the junk free wiped out 29 with the addendum $2,964 of the big discount but the bottom line was still pretty good I mean

you know 12,327 knock off 2694 that's still a big chunk of MSRP but it's a 2020 and we are talking this is 2024

that's why there's no free lunch no free lunch she asked my thoughts I said I was very impressed with the price, the out-the-door price. She laughed and said, I figured you would be. She went on to say that they're making room for the new 2024. So 24s are coming in. That will be coming in soon, and they're offering a great incentives.

I let her know that I'd have to discuss her with my family and then be in touch. She said she will be there today until 7 p.m. and all day, Saturday, and they are closed Sundays, which is unheard of in Florida. In fact, in most states, I mean, there are still blue state laws, blue law states. There are some counties here and there in the Carolinas. But they are close on Sundays. She asked me to give her another minute so she could get her manager to come and say hi.

I told her I'd be looking at the car. A few minutes later, she returned with her sales manager who extended his hand for shake. Thank me for coming in. He asked if there's anything to do to earn business right now I told him I need to talk it over with my family and I would be in touch so there you have it there was no hard high sell no no pushiness no the price is only good today and then car will be gone if you come back and all that kind of nonsense so I don't want to prejudice the the votes and you have our text number 772 4976530 we'd like

to see your vote and I recommend that you we ask that you grade on the curve because there are no perfect dealers and we give out practically no A's there are no I don't know how to word this there are terrible dealers but we don't give them Fs unless they're really bad I think the rule is if they break the law we we give them F so this dealer did not break the law they're all breaking the law well they all Anyway, you know what I'm saying. The average dealer is not very good, and that's a C. And we have anybody without an F on a recommended dealer list.

That's why we agree on the curve. So please send in your text to 772-497-60-0-2, Rowland Cars, 4-slash-Row on YouTube.com or YouTube.com for-slash-roll-in cars. That's right. YouTube.com. We're voting on Sterling. Sterling. Sterling, Sterling.

Sterling. Right. But they have a sterling package. There you go. You know, from the, I got really, I got nervous when I saw the ads. She was shopping, which sidebar for a second, it's, I think it's important for listeners to realize that as we have gotten back into a quasi normal situation with inventories, advertising, the old advertising tactics have returned, the bait and switch are things that, well, there's always bait and switch. But the big discounts being advertised and all that, I recommend going to earlancars.com and going back to some of her older columns that preceded the pandemic because like what's old is becoming new again. And there's new trucks as we've seen, such as screen protectors. But this one, it was almost unbelievable as I read it from Agent Lightning that actually unfolded.

She got the discount. Samantha told her about the package too, so you can't even say, I could say the dealership should disclose that package online if they're showing that big discount. But her point of contact was from the get-co. She goes, yeah, the savings are real. It's legit. However, there's going to be a $1,600 package.

And then when the worksheet came out, it matched exactly what she said. So there wasn't any point other than the point when Agent Line was driving over there thinking she might get, you know, 12,300 off, but she had almost 10,000 off. And rightfully so, like he said, it is a year old car at this point. And so things got to... Well, again, and again, I'll defend this dealer, the way I defend deals in general when they stray from the straight and narrow. If all your competition is doing something in a marketplace and, you know, we have a total dealership and we compete. And let me tell you something, there's nothing more frustrating than trying to sell a car honestly and transparently when all your competition does not do that.

So when we quote a price to one of our customers is the lowest price that we will sell that car to anybody for. I don't care whether it was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court or the Premier of England or the Prime Minister. I don't care who it is. We have our lowest price. That's it. And that's what we sell the car for. Meanwhile, our competition is lying about what they will sell the car for. And so here this dealership in Stewart, they have the addendum label.

That's because it could be because their competition all has addendum labels. They do. And it could be because they're using the junk fees what they do. So you really got to be gutsy. And you really got to take a chance and you've got to lose some money sometimes if you're going to be honest in spite of the fact your competition is not honest. So that's why we grade on the curve. It takes a long time. You can't just get in and start fighting that kind of business.

It took a long time to build up the people actually believe what we were saying. All right. Some grades are coming in. Bob, B for Sterling Buick. By the way, do they put nitrogen in the same? spare. I don't know if there is a spare. From Frank, finally a good shopping report, B plus. And then Anne-Marie says, grading on the curve, I'd give them a C, not keen on the added

fees. And that was kind of par for the course with the added fees. But I'm going to disagree a little bit with Anne-Marie and kind of go towards Frank and Bob. I'm going to give them a B. It was a, it was a refreshing experience, I think. It wasn't, the elements are there that are common in all dealerships, but the way they handled it was way, way preferable to the way most dealers do it down here. Yeah. All right, Rick. Okay, I've got T-Cash says D equals it was lying on the driver's seat and a liar riding shotgun.

Okay. Brian said Latko, the balance is lower than the MSRP. Starling gets a B for me. Over here, Johnny Z. Fradley says, If only the salesperson was Samantha from the 60s TV show Bewitched, then she could wiggle her nose and make the junk fees disappear. That's what we need. Tim Gilliland, C, but lose the nitrogen.

Mark Smith says, I'll give him a C plus. The junk fees need to go along with the nitrophil. Cliff's pick says, value pack and junk fee, D. Cram 1624, I bet if Agent Lightning renegotiated harder and smarter, she could have gotten that price lower, especially the junk fee line item D. So I'm going to actually go, most of my crew is going to C's and D's, but I'm going to say a B because I think she probably could have beat them up and maybe got a little lower price on it. Yeah. And we definitely have regional opinions here. So we see this as refreshing, and maybe some of your guys commenting there

are from an area where it's not as bad, and that's horrible. Yeah. In Ohio, that wouldn't fly. And by the way, Casey says the town that they were trying to think of earlier was Murfreesboro, probably. Okay, Murfreesboro. That's a while I can't pronounce. None of them could have been pronounced. And that was Johnny Zee?

Casey actually had come up with that one yeah Casey okay what do you think Earl I can't feel like Stu I won't go a B but I'll go with C plus I think it was a as far as Florida is concerned it was a it was an

upscale appearance in Florida so I'll give a C plus I just too gave me a B I mean maybe maybe B is right upscale that's a nice way you know, to put it, I'm not real keen on monitor screen protectors and, you know, this Tier 1 store, what, I don't know, it's Tier 1 store. Okay.

And also the nitrogen-filled tires to even mention, you know, that. Anyway, I'm going to grade on the curve. I'm going to give them a C. That's a place you can get. Remember now, we have the inventory level. if you're out shopping for a car, that you can really get yourself a good price. I was thinking about maybe having Agent Lightning and this report coming up next week or the week after is to actually have her do online work and maybe a bonus Agent Lightning if she can get a certain price.

I would love to see how cheap she could buy something that was like a Ford. Ford, you know, in years past, I used to say oftentimes, not often, but dealers have sold cars below what they really paid for them, and not commonly, but there are instances where that happens, and you get a perfect storm of everything, end of the month, high supply, desperate to make a commission, and blah, blah, blah, blah, stair-step financing. All this. Perfect storm is a good description. So maybe we can't do it next week, maybe nothing a week after, but Stu will work with me

and we'll put together a plan where Agent Lightning is a great negotiator, by the way. She is really good. If there's anybody that's a match for salespeople, it's Agent Lightning. So we'll incentivize her, say, within this amount of actual dealer costs,

If you can come down this low, we'll give her a bonus. Okay. I've got the details on there. I had an idea. Dollar for dollar. No, I was kidding. And an extra bonus if she makes a cry. And she enjoyed it even because she had to pay a lot of money for her own car a couple years ago.

25 cents on the dollar for whatever she can get to. You remember that for sure. I'll think about it. Yeah, definitely. Okay. Good idea of that. Okay. Are we ready to wrap it up here?

I think so. We've got a couple of minutes. Do you want to say anything about automotive news? Yeah, here's something. What we talked about this morning. I was surprised. I didn't know this. Did you know that CarMax was backing off their 30-day money by guarantee?

No. They're backing off from 30 days to 10 days. And their guarantee is that if the car has less than 1,500 miles and has in the same condition, that it was delivered, which is kind of a general term. That's very subjective, isn't it? I mean, who's to say exactly what condition? But anyway, CarMax lost a ton of money in the last quarter. There are things, which is unusual for CarMax, they're usually quite profitable.

And there also are go-to, recommended place to buy a use car. CarMax is honest. Their dealer fee is very small, junk fee, and they buy cars. If you're careful, you can get a good price when you sell your car. Anyway, they cut their money back guarantee from 30 days to 10 days. And that tells you a little bit about the used car business. And one other thing about the used car business, the average interest right now on the average use car sold is 11.7%. That's a high rate.

And mortgages are 7 plus now. Yeah. So that's a lot of money. And that's average. So you've got people out there paying 30, 35% interest when they buy used cars. So that's my two nuggets before we sign off. Sounds great. Good nighties.

And gentlemen, we want to thank you all for joining us this Saturday morning. And you do make the show. We appreciate each and every one of you. We'll be right back here next week on the Oldies Channel 8 a.m. So stay tuned for another fantastic show. Thank you, everyone here on our platform.