Earl Stewart on Cars - 04.26.2025 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Daytona CDJR of Daytona, FL.

Episode Date: April 26, 2025

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning travels to North Florida to visit a CDJR dealer in Daytona to see how much they will charge for a leftover 2024 Jeep Wrangler Sport 4x4 on their lot. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

Hello, I'm Earl Stewart. I welcome you to Earl Stewart on Cars, a live talk show all about how to buy, lease, maintain, or repair your car without being ripped off by a car dealer. With me in the studio is Nancy Stewart, my wife, co-host, and a strong consumer advocate, especially for our female listeners. We also have Rick Kearney, an expert on how to keep your car running right. I dare you to ask a question that Rick can't answer about the mechanics or electronics of your car. Also with us is my son, Stu Stewart, our link to cyberspace through Facebook, YouTube, text messaging, and our encrypted anonymous feedback service. Stu is also the spymaster director of our mystery shopping report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting the car dealership. And now, on with the show.

Good morning, everybody. Well, you know, I'm back. First of all, this is live. Nancy and I are in the studio, and you're not listening to a rerun. means we can't use this show as a rerun, because then I'd be lying. But I am just feeling extremely excited this morning because forgive me, the regular listeners

and hear me say this almost every week, but it kind of makes the time when you really feel excited that it doesn't sound genuine, but I'm really excited and here's the reason, and you'll agree with this. We have a mystery shopping report today. We play at the end of the show. And by the way, if you're new, we'll be on the air for two hours. Eastern standard time, 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Two hours, 8 a.m. Eastern standard time to 10 a.m. And it's, we're in Florida. So you newbies out there. This mystery

shopping report, we read in the last half hour of the show, last half hour between 9.30 and 10. Now, why am I excited about this mystery shopping? which by the way again for the newbies is we have a secret agent a very famous secret agent we don't know her identity or name her euphanism we refer to her as agent lightning and she's amazing she's been doing mystery shopping reports for us for years this week she actually bought we literally and usually we just go in a mystery shop and we report what the sales button the managers, a dealership, how to behave the advertising, and all these, we write a report up for you, but we don't really buy a car. Hey, we just bought a car. We bought a new car. I'm not even going to tell you the make, the regulars will know the make. And we bought it through the Amazon program. We bought a new car in Amazon. We took delivery at the dealership. So when you buy a new car in Amazon, and I think 60 or 70 percent,

you people out there use Amazon. I mean, I hate to tell you about Nancy and me, but we're, I think without Nancy and me, the stock would plummet on Amazon. We, we buy everything. And our dealership, by the way, buys a lot of stuff. They have a business program, and our dealership uses Amazon also. Amazon is almost the world's largest retailer. I think Walmart still has that lead by a small market, but I believe they will be number one. So what? a deal say with Amazon you get an upfront price you get a money back guarantee you get honesty and integrity and transparency I mean I mean that's the reason they own the retail market so agent lightning went into a dealership in South Florida we'll tell you

that much and she bought a brand new car and she bought it well I hate to give it way I'm gonna give it away anyway she did she did buy it at the average at the Amazon price and in addition to that she got $2,300 kickback from Amazon in terms of a gift card and obviously you know we paid for the purchase and and then she will give us the points we have a toilet dealership in North foundation we'll use that in our purchasing it if we purchase at our dealership a huge amount of stuff through Amazon for the same reason I just covered a minute ago honesty transparency integrity good quality products guarantees I mean I hate to

say this I'm not Jeff Bezos grandfather or anything I'm just I'm just a big fan of Amazon so stay tuned for the last half hour if you do nothing else if you're busy now or driving around somewhere, tune us back in at 9.30 a.m. and catch the mystery shopping report, I believe probably the first fully, full complete transparent rendition of an Amazon new car purchase, how it went,

where we bought it, and there were a few interesting instances as there always, you can't go into a car. See, she had to go into the car dealership to take delivery, so there's always something interesting in humors, frightening depending on how you look at it when you go into a cardio ship especially in South Florida now to the nuts and and and and and you know nuts and bolts of the show please call we have a number that we beg you to write

down and call some time when you tune us in now or back in later on that number is 877 960 960 877 960 960 960 877 960 960 9000 960. If you'll write it down now, when you get back to listening, you'll be able to call us back. I mean, you definitely want to call back in in the last half hour. I mean, listen to that mystery shopping report. Now, if you're a little bit timid about calling, and why not, your live radio, we'll have tens of thousands of people listening to you. Does that make you nervous? Well, they don't call. But text us at 772-49765. That's 772-497-6-5-30. And we accumulate your text.

And my son, Stu Stewart, who should be here shortly, he usually comes in a few minutes late. And Rick Kearney, who is our certified diagnostic master technician, will accumulate the text. Sometimes we get to a text right away. Sometimes we wait, but we, correct me if I'm wrong, we're gonna usually get all of our text taken care of unless we have a crazy day and so your text will 99% be read and

answered 772-4976530 the other what we streamed say I call this radio it's not really radio it's it's it's a 21st century version of television we stream that's the name the game streaming so we're streaming on YouTube is the the big, big streamer, YouTube.com forward slash earl on cars. YouTube.com forward slash Earl on cars. And Rick has a following. Rick Kearney has a group of folks that really are the background, backbone, excuse me, backbone of the show. And by that I mean they not only listen to the show and learn from the show, but they probably teach us more.

they learn and they also are car people they have a lot of sources that they access and without the YouTube call calls the show wouldn't be what it is today so if you really want to see some cool stuff go to YouTube.com for slash or on cars and watch the post they come up and you'll know the questions and the comments and the feedback information ideas that we get on YouTube.com for slasher along cars we're also on Facebook and I guess Facebook is kind of like for old guys now old gals and old guys it's not hip but that's that's what we do anyway and YouTube.com forward slash Facebook and you can stream us live there and see what a handsome

guy I am and Rick and what a beautiful woman Nancy is I'm kidding about the first new Nancy is a beautiful woman and I'm very lucky because She is my wife. She's also the co-founder of this show 20-some years ago, and she has done something almost impossible. She's built the listening audience of this radio show, the streaming 21st Century show, to 50-50, ladies and gentlemen. And half the people that call the show now are female.

And when you listen to the special offer, she has to you ladies listening out there you're not going to believe it too good to be true but it is true she has a special offer she's going to tell you ladies about please call the show I mean we realize or actually Nancy realized years ago that men and women are different I mean I know we all realize that now but women have a completely deal about buying a car women look at car buying and car servicing and maintaining and and they look at it and more objectively and logically than men. Us guys, it's a compliment to say, hey, you're a car guy. Well, car guys are emotional.

I mean, they love a car because of the way it affects them emotionally. Women, they still have that emotion, but they also are very practical. And studies have shown that they actually do a better job of vetting car dealerships and cars in preparing the to make an intelligent purchase.

So that's the reason we're so appreciative of Nancy for building the female audience up to 50%. Nancy, I'm yakking. I'm going to stop yakking. I'm turning the mic over to you, and here you are. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. When Earl opened the show, he was speaking about Amazon. He was speaking about the Amazon auto buying program.

for any of you out there that haven't followed along with us as far as this auto program is concerned. Amazon Autos is a new online buying platform launched by Amazon in partnership with Hyundai, allowing customers to purchase new Hyundai vehicles directly from Amazon's website. The initiative aims to streamline the car buying process by integrating it into Amazon's family shopping experience. And I emphasize streamlining, the streamlining that they talk about in the process that's supposed to simplify the car buying experience. For all of you out there, the reason I mentioned this, are you familiar with this program?

And most of all, would you use it? Our number here is 877-960-99-60. And if I'm talking with a lisp, it's because I chipped my tooth. No fun at all. My tongue is messed up and rubbed against the top of the tooth. Anyway, I just want to explain my lisp that I've come in with. Our number here again is 877-9-60-99-60. 877960, that mystery shopping report, you certainly want to stay tuned for it because, well, Agent Lightning, she went in with a cup of patience and everything else.

She really stood the test of time along with, I gave you a little teaser, a little abuse. So, at any rate, that mystery shopping report comes to us from Hyundai Del Rey. That's an Amazon auto program buying service. So stay tuned for that. We have so much to get to. Interesting article in the Consumer Report that I just loved is how to escape your car in an emergency. Any of you ever think about that? and if you do, do you automatically say, I've got to get that manual, I'm going to take a look

to see what I have to do, you know, sharpen my senses to get out of this vehicle that I have just went into a canal, the ocean, whatever. So it is an interesting article, and of course it is in the Consumer Report. Marty and the rest of you, if you're listening, give us a call this morning. Let me know whether you receive your consumer report, along with the 2025 Auto Edition. Again, our number is 877-960-99-60, and you can text us at 772-497-6-530. Don't forget, your anonymous feedback.com. Now back to the recovering car dealer.

Oh, excuse me. We have Howard. Howard's a regular caller, and he's a regular caller, and he's... on the line right now ready to speak to us welcome howard uh well thank you very much happy easter and uh i think i have good news for a rap for SUV's uh buyers because uh toyota's not considering uh producing them in the their kentucky factory instead of uh in japan oh yeah i just just read this uh just said i'm reading it right now uh they're considering because there won't be tariffs.

So that's actually good news for... Yeah, hopefully we'll hear more and more of that from Toyota and all the manufacturers. Yeah, well, I hope they think they could do that because the tariffs are coming. Yeah, that's a huge factor. And the problem is nobody knows how high or how low or when it will apply or to whom it will apply.

Confusion is the worst. thing for the buyer and the seller. Absolutely. Yeah, we're completely confused now. We don't know what's happening what the future will hold for us as far as these tariffs are concerned. Yeah, they just stopped

the court made, I believe it was Stalantis, formerly George Deep Chrysler. Stalantis was advertising made in the USA for the ram truck. and they found out that the parts weren't made in the USA, and it was misleading.

So it's going to be interesting to see how this flies. And hopefully we'll get some definitive final answer from Washington before much longer. Okay, that's all my call is about, and you have a nice holiday. Thank you, Howard. Okay, again next week. Thank you, Howard. Happy Easter, happy Passover. You know, so much has changed since last week when we aired and we talked about, you know, the possible changes.

Speaking of tariffs, rise in new car sales, used cars, leasing, everything, the whole across the board will change. And I bought a report this morning and you read this report, didn't you, about the tariffs and everything that was going to change and this move is expected to increase vehicle prices hang on to your hats $5,000 to $12,000 interesting we'll get to more of that later in the show I'm going to remind the ladies I've loved to hear from you all of us would you can win yourself $50 for the first two new female callers say hi tell me how your purchasing experience went anything at all, anything at all because there are other women who are listening to you and you may give them, you know, a reason to give us a call also.

$50 for the first two new lady callers, 877-9-60-99-60. We're going to go to Ken, who's holding from Lake Worth. Good morning, Ken. Welcome to the show. Good morning. I just purchased a new... Toyota Rav from your dealership and I was very happy with my purchase and quite impressed by some of the salespeople that I met and it was a pleasurable experience. I would go back a second

time. My question today is for Rick. Being a snowbird, I'm getting ready to head up north and work my summer job at a golf course. And I want to put my RAV on a trickle charger. Well, I've done this very easily on my older vehicles, and when I popped the hood of the RAB and looked at the battery, I thought I was looking at a wiring situation from Space Odyssey 2000. Oh, boy. Yeah.

I'm defuddled here. I don't use the alligator clips. I do the plug-in. makes it a lot easier on the trickle charger and the actual there's two nuts on the negative and there's two nuts on the positive side and Rick your guidance please 10 millimeter socket and quarter inch drive works perfectly and just go right to the the actual terminal itself where you got the clamp just take that 10 millimeter nut off of the clamp slide your little ring terminal on there for the positive and for the negative

make sure you disconnect the negative terminal always do that first and reconnect it last that way you don't get sparks and you won't have an issue with you know possibly shorting something and once you're there just hook them up and you're good to go okay let's go back to the positive terminal for a second the two wires that come up alongside the battery at that terminal there a nut there and then there is a nut on the side which attaches the actual clamp to the terminal yep which of those two are you connecting to i i would go straight on the battery terminal itself okay all right so not on the one that holds the two wires coming up now okay now on the negative

just real quickly here and i want to hold jenny longer i bet you have a lot of calls today you have such a wonderful show um the two nuts that are there the one that uh is connected to the terminal itself is more like a hold down rather than a clamp it's an interesting that they design both ends two different ways yeah kind of what that kind of threw me because i'm used to the old old way we did things but i've realized we live in a world where everything old is new and what You know what the saying. Yeah. So, all right, I'm going to work on that.

And one more question, and I'll let you guys go because I know you have a lot of callers. You have a fabulous show. Thank you. When you don't have somebody to come in and unlock your garage and take your car off of a charger, has to sit on a charger until you come back. We come back in October. This brand-new rav is sitting in the garage on a charger. I know you talk about lubricating the seals by driving it once a week.

It's just impossible to be done. Is it something because of the way I'm going to do this? I should stay up at night worrying about this? No. No, it's for a few months like you're doing, you're not going to have any problems. When you do get back to the car, I would do like just take it out for a nice, just a short drive, just to kind of, like, ease it and let things lubricate up and let everything kind of work their ways out. But just a short drive, you know, 10, 15 miles, you know, easy acceleration.

And if you have the opportunity, maybe take it out on the highway, just a nice, easy cruise along the highway somewhere, just to really stretch out all the kinks, as it were. All right. Lastly, stable, no stable? No. I... Full tank? Yeah, full tank is actually best because that way you have less surface area for fuel evaporation, so you're better off that way.

But it's a minor thing, really. Yeah, I don't ever recommend any additives except for the people that are storing your car up north where you get those extreme cold temperatures. And those are times when humidity and the dryness, that can play a factor. and it can mess with the gasoline, especially sitting for a good length of time in those extreme temperatures. But here in South Florida, we really don't get the abuse that the weather can give in other places. So, yeah, I don't recommend additives in the fuel or anything. All right. Thank you very much, and I appreciate the service that you provide on Saturday morning.

Oh, our pleasure. regular listener. It's led me into the Earls. Thank you for all of the compliments. We really appreciate your call, and you're a regular, and there's so many people that are listening to you, and we definitely want to let you know. We appreciate you. Have a wonderful weekend.

You too. Thank you. Okay. I'm going to mention the Wall Street Journal this morning, and if you haven't read the Wall Street Journal this morning's edition. There's some news, and it has everything to do with tariffs and where these vehicles are going to be built and so on and so forth. But here's some news about the F-150 Raptors, also the Mustang muscle car, also the Bronco

SUV and the Lincoln navigators, and the news is that China, they're avoiding terrorists that have shot up in recent weeks. The latest effect on the auto sector from the Trump administration escalating trade war. That's an interesting article if you want to open up the Wall Street Journal this morning and take a look at Ford's Shipping F-150s and other pricey models to China. There's a lot. There's also, if you have the New York Times, You can take a look in the business section and see just how many Tesla's are sitting on the lot. And these vehicles are sold or traded in protests against Elon Musk and his political statements. And you know how all of that goes, how it fuels this animosity.

They're very biased because the prices are very low. Pardon me? It's a bargain price if you're looking for a Tesla. Well, I was just going to get to that. And, you know, it's just like the stock market and everything that has gone on, you know, since all of this stuff has hit the, well, fan. But here's all these Teslas, and they're on the lot, and guess what? It's a good time to buy a Tesla because you're going to be able to negotiate or do, you know, some wheeling and deal in here because somebody else got rid of their Tesla for political reasons. I digress.

Okay, our number is 877-960-90-60, and Rick's looking at me with a smile. I think he loves Elon Musk. Just kidding. Actually, I'm going to say this. I'm offended by one thing that I see on the Internet a lot, and that is people vandalizing other people's cars because of what the owner of the company is doing. I'll cut that as short right now, but I'm offended by that, folks. Let's find some way to stop vandalizing cars that have nothing whatsoever to do with the owner of the company at this point. Nothing at all.

Ladies and gentlemen, don't forget, take advantage of your anonymousfeedback.com. Your anonymousfeedback.com. We'd love to hear from you, and you absolutely do. I'll reassure you, you do stay anonymous. Also, ladies, if you didn't hear me earlier, $50 for the first two new lady callers. We are going to stay on the phones, and we're going to go with John, who's calling us from Del Rey. Good morning, John. Hi, my name's John, and I've listened to your show for quite a few years and never really got a chance to call in.

Well, thank you. week, somebody called in about cleaning your engine compartment, and I think your son there was saying you shouldn't water it down or whatnot. But I found a company called Total Auto Wash, which is a solvent that you spray on your engine for about a minute, but make sure you cover the alternator with a plastic bag, spray it on, let it soak in for about a minute, a minute and a half tops, then spray it off. with a regular hose, and then if you have a garden blow up, blow off the excess water, and then take the bag off and start your engine up for, you know, two or three minutes

just to get into all the nooks and crannies. And I've been doing it now for about two years. I think one bottle costs either $39 or $49, and I've done about 10 or 15 cars with it, and I still got half a bottle. So if someone wants to clean their engine compartment, it's called Total Auto Wash, and you can get it online. The only comment that I really have on that is be very careful when you're putting water on the engine itself to avoid, if you can, the areas where the spark plugs are. Because a lot of those spark plugs, you know, was the coil built on the top. This isn't water.

This is something he buys. Right, but it's got to be rinsed off with a garden house. off walking. Yeah, and the problem there is if water, if you get too much water that goes into that spark plug tube, it'll actually cause the coil to start shorting out, and you'll get a severe misfire. So it's something you just want to be careful of. Be very gentle with the water hose when you're rinsing it off. Okay. Yeah, like I said, I've had it for two years, and the first time I tried it, I did it in my driveway just to make sure if it didn't start, I could get towed. But it was work fantastic. But I'll keep that in mind. It's just, you can do it with all your cars that come in there, call Total Auto Wash. I mean, the car looked like brand new.

I was impressed. I couldn't believe. Total Auto Wash. That will add to your resale value, too. A typical appraisal, the used car manager typically pops a hood. And when I see a shiny, nice-looking engine, they mentally add value, and you get it. get to basically you're cutting the price of the car you're buying by keeping your engine looking good

yep yeah it's called total auto wash thanks very much john that's good information uh well we'll let's hear you thank you thank you oh we lost you okay we're going to go to trisha good morning Tricia. How are you? Tricia, are you holding? Oh, yes, yes. Sorry, I didn't hear my name. Sorry. Okay. I'm glad I got through our calls early this time, and happy belated Passover and happy Easter to everyone. Thank you. Okay. Now, I'll be like the caller, two callers ago, when I'm ready for a hybrid. I will buy from you guys, because like the guy said before, he's had a good experience, and I'm going to trust no one but you guys.

Thank you. When I'm ready, I'm just hoping it's, you know, the prices aren't going to be sky high, like, unfortunately, we are anticipating. Yes. All right, but hope not. Um, anyway, and, um, but here's my question about some breaking issues I have. Now, it's not severe, but I do have some shaking, very mild shaking when I'm breaking from like 40 miles on down, okay? So when I had my tires rotated and balanced, like a good. girl this is what i'm doing now every time i do an oil change to make my tars last i had them look at my

brake pads and said they said there was plenty of meat on there and also to check the tire rod because maybe sometimes that could cause shaking well i had the tire rod check and that is fine now My guy of 40 years experience, Dino, the guy out East Boka, which I only go to, you know, what I have to do because he's so far away. He said to me, and this is what I want to ask you, Rick, if you agree, he said it has not, it has, yes, the brake pads might have meat on them. What's making your car shake a little bit is that the rotors are warped, okay? And he says they should have told you that, but he said, don't change them until it gets so bad that you can't deal with the shaking anymore. Do you agree? Mostly, depending on the thickness of the rotors, now the rotor, if you look in through the

space around the wheel, you'll see this big disc right behind the wheel. That's the brake rotor. And what happens is the brakes will squeeze the pads together on either side of that rotor to slow the car down. When those rotors are, when you're driving, they get hot. They get really hot. And sometimes you might hit a little water puddle or something. Some water splashes in there or something. The rotors will just start to get a little bit of warpage. or what's called thickness variation. And basically, when the rotors are brand new, they are very, very thick, and they're designed to where you can put them on a machine called a brake lathe,

and it will grind a little bit of the surface off of those brake rotors to make them nice and true again. So usually you can get two or three resurfacing out of a brake rotor before you have to actually replace it. and this makes it so you go to a break place or the dealership they will take the wheel off

take the brake rotor off and have it resurfaced they'll grind it back smooth again and then reinstall it. How much for that cost there Rick? At our dealership it would be somewhere around the neighborhood of about

with new brake pads installed about $500. Okay. Now replacing the rotors you're going to increase that amount by about another hundred dollars per rotor so it can get expensive almost double yeah almost seven hundred dollars really to get new rotors put on with the new brakes so resurfacing gives you the advantage you can do that a couple of times until that rotor gets thin enough that it can no longer be resurfaced properly and still be at what's known as the minimum thickness.

So that's a couple options you have. You can have them resurfaced or you can replace them. I've never had that offer to me, Rick, okay, about resurfacing. And I'm sure if I went to a dealer, if they're going to tell me I'd have to, I need pads and rotors, you know that. I'm not going to trust anybody. They're going to say it's all bad. Yeah. So, right there, there you go.

So, I've never been offered, excuse me, the resurfacing, but I will ask that to my guy, you know, that I've known, you know, for a long time about resurfacing because the paths are still good, Rick. The paths aren't really worn down. There's a lot of meat on them. Right. Okay. So figure probably around $400 at the maximum, because our dealership, yeah, it's being. a dealership our prices are probably a little higher than a lot of the independent mechanic shops but yeah if he has a brake lathe available that he can do that if he has one then yeah

rotors can be resurfaced uh now for a lot of folks up north where they get much heavier the the road salt and the winter time brake rotors tend to corrode a whole lot more and warp to a much greater degree. So generally, in northern states, they don't even bother resurfacing. They just replace the rotors automatically. They don't even offer resurfacing. It's just here in South Florida, our environment allows us the opportunity to offer resurfacing that saves the customer some money for several occasions.

Well, that just shows you how all previous people have been. never been offered a resurfacing even here in South Florida so you know yep so there you go so this is what this is why this show is so great look how well it educates look how well it educates us I love it well thank you Andrea it's also it's also a great on the back now here here's a man who worked for me for 25 years that just on the radio 30 here that we will charge you more to research your brake pads thinking you probably get from a bit of mechanic and why did he say that because it's true and uh it's you know sometimes you have to tell something that might not

be popular or going to be profitable but you just have to be transparent and honest so i i respect rick and that's the reason i consider i'm one of the top technicians i've ever had work for me no oh thank you thank you for the info okay dokey Thanks for the call, Chair. Have a great. You're very welcome. I hope to hear from you again. Our number here is 877-960-99-60.

And earlier in the show, I was putting this question out there, and I was asking the audience, would you be swayed to go through the Amazon Auto Program? I would love, we all would love to hear from you. Our number is 877-960-9960. We're going to talk to David right now. David right now he's calling us from North Palm Beach. Good morning, David. Good morning.

Last week when you were talking about the Amazon Auto Program, you were saying you might send one of your people out and actually buy a car. If you did buy a Hyundai through that auto buying program, which model car would you buy? Because I know you have to resell it so you thought you'd be able to get the most amount of money. And also, would you have to pay sales tax? You being a dealer. Can you buy it from the Amazon and not pay sales tax?

Those two just walked in and he can answer all of your questions. That's right. Well, to answer the question about the sales tax, if a dealership would be willing to sell a car to us, and I don't see any reason why they wouldn't if we wanted to buy a new Hyundai unless there was an availability issue. We would buy it for whatever price they would agree to sell it for, but we would not pay sales tax. But what was the first question about the, how do you select the car? But he raised an interesting question because I've just, we've never done this before, but we basically had our agent buy a new Hyundai. You're giving it all the way.

You're giving it away. Okay. No, no, we talked about earlier. Oh, okay, okay. But my point being that because we are not buying it for use, we bought it for a resale, and it's on our used car lot right now. So we should be exempted from the sales tax. Well, of course. I mean, we paid sales tax because she purchased the car.

So when we effectually re-bought it from her, we didn't. We'll talk about this after the show, but we didn't really buy it. She worked for us. We told her to buy it. And on paper, she bought it. But in reality, we bought it. It was our money and our employee. Yes, but we didn't approach them as we were all to it.

Had we wouldn't have paid sales tax. I think we're exempt from the sales tax. Well, you already paid the sales tax. Well, I think we'll get it back. Okay, we'll move it along. But to answer the question about the vehicle, yeah, we wanted to have something that would be, right now, the average MSRP of a new vehicle is, what, 40-something, close to 50. Yeah, so we wanted an inexpensive vehicle, which would look attractive to purchase. and no, the price that we bought, we bought the vehicle for retail price,

which was thousands over what we could have bought hypothetical duplicate of it. So when we stock it into inventory, we stock it in at the correct what we call ACV, which is the actual cash value. And our best estimation, what that car would be had somebody had bought it and then turned around and sold it. And that's what we established the ACV. and then we priced it accordingly. So, yeah, we'll have a brand new, extremely low mileage

doing an advertisement on the lot that's priced like a used one. We took a hit. You didn't answer my question, no. What model, what models did you buy that you thought? I'm not going to tell you. That's in the mystery shopping report. You have to listen for another hour. Okay, good enough.

Thank you. No, no, no, no. You want me to get it right? The answer would be this. you can go to consumer report.org and they will give you the best hundays that and by the way the Hyundai is a very good overall car so you really can't go too far wrong buying a Hyundai and I would go to www.com consumer reports.org and you can put in there what model Hyundai is best you need to give them

some guns like if you want an SUV or do you want a sedan or do you want a convertible or what you know give them a general guideline and they'll give you the best Hyundai that uh for your money that wasn't my question no my question to you was which particular model did you buy that you think was the best resale value oh and i made a little quick a joke i said in the mystery shopping report that model is revealed um i'll tell you right it was it was a Hyundai view that's a small, little vehicle, MSRP, around $24,000. Thank you very much. Nice talking with you. You're welcome.

Thanks, David. Hope to hear from you again. Our number here is 877-960-9960. I'm going to mention how to escape your car again. Pretty interesting article in the Consumer Report. And after I read this to you, you can go to ConsumerReport. dot org forward slash escape consumer report dot org forward slash escape and this is so interesting and it's something that we don't think about getting our manuat and taking a look at you know so many

different things that we need to know about our vehicle that we're driving so before something terrible happens it's best to get that out now but listen to this the door handle both inside and out on many new vehicles require electricity to work. If you're in a collision that cuts the power, or if the battery dies, the door handles may not work as expected. Before your next drive, learn how to manually use the handles. From inside, some cars require you to pull the interior handle twice to override the electronic latch.

Others have a hidden release lever. Exterior handles can be even trickier to use without power. Check owner's manual and learn how to open the doors or go to Consumer Report. Excuse me. ConsumerReport.org forward slash escape. Great information. I like to jump in there and hopefully that our Our previous caller, David, is still listening because he was begging us to answer his question, and it took us a long time.

Yes. I just check with our fourth, fifth member of this show, Chat, GBT.T. What was the question you, I think he just wanted to know what car we bought? No, he wanted to know what car he should buy with the highest reseal value. That's not what he asked. You answered him, and he told you that wasn't the question. I'll play back the podcast and bet you the replay. I'll bet you lunch.

If you're buying a Hyundai today, the one with the highest resale value is the 2025 Hyundai Kona, K-O-N-A electric. The 2025 Hyundai Santa Fe stands out also, and the 2025 Hyundai I-O-N-I-Q-6 has a solid resale value. So at any rate, all the hundays have got good resale value. Chach EBT says those three, I think I just mentioned, have the highest. And David said that wasn't your question. I thought your question was, if you bought a Hyundai, which one would you buy that would have the highest resale value? So let's move along with the show.

Yeah, maybe David should call back. We'll continue the conversation. 877-9-60-99-60 and I think that John hold on I'll be right with you from Palm City Rick is going to ask a question let's go to caller first okay yeah see that John you count callers always get priority we're holding off with Rick's question good morning John how you doing good morning I want to talk about two federal laws which they don't pay any attention to when they're federal laws at the end I got a question for Rick. The one is MSRP, which had been in effect since

1958. If you're going to a dealer now, and they don't have that listed right on the window of your brand new car, walk out because they're hiding something. Even if it's in a glove compartment, or if it's on the seat or on the floor, and nobody seems to enforce that law because it's being neglected left and right, especially the dealers in South Florida. The second law, I've never heard anybody at all getting a ticket for, is the seat. When the seatbelt law came in, I think in the 70s, at the beginning, there was so much objection to it because the manufacturers had a system where if it wasn't clicked, the car wouldn't start.

There was so much controversy over that. They backed off. They stopped that. They made it at you'll get a light on the dashboard or a buzzer. And I've never heard anybody recently that got a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt. And then they're This is what I'm here, and also somebody did. What you do, they go to a hardware store, and they get a metal insert like a chim. They stick it in the slot where the seatbelt's supposed to be attached to. And I want to ask Rick, is that true that it works, as if you have your seatbelt on, on any car or any particular car? Yeah, you can, if you really want to mess around with that, but I'll tell you the easier way, pretty much every manufacturer has what's known as seatbelt extenders why are you telling people how to how to break the law

it's not breaking the law well I'll let you everybody know they issue about close to 100,000 seatbelt violations statewide every year so I wouldn't say it's it doesn't happen now right just in Florida that's what chat GPT told me seatbelt extenders are for those of us like me that we're a bit fluffy or we're a little larger around the middle. However, when you plug a seatbelt extender in, it basically will shut off that light. But I always wear my seatbelt, and the fact of the matter is I know at least three people relatively close to me who have gotten seatbelt tickets in the last two or three years.

before they just didn't put the seatbelt on when they should have, and they got ticketed for it. I think what it turned into, like, as far as enforcement, a secondary violation versus a primary. Like, they can't see it riding down the street. No. They can get you? Originally, in Florida, it was a secondary.

And now, if a police officer sees that you do not have your seatbelt on, they can and will stop you and write a ticket for you. and yeah if you're if you are not nice they may very well shoot you or even worse pull out the taser or the pepper spray so yeah it's uh i do everything get pepper sprayed the shot wear your seatbelt every single time you get in the car put your seatbelt on yeah john anybody that doesn't use it as a fool because it's been proven that seatbel save lives absolutely that's a fact yes that's a fact and i'm sure rick was don't we remember that the original law, the call wouldn't even start if you didn't have your seatbelt on.

So, John, I'll tell you a secret that the statute of limitations is up so they can't arrest me now. But when the seatbelts first came out, as you say, the law came in 1958. It's Stuart Pontiac, where I worked for my father. We thought it was a joke. Everybody thought the seatbelts were a joke. And just they were, yeah. So what we would do at Stuart Pontiac is we would buckle the seatbelt and then we would stuff it down inside the seat where you couldn't see it

because, like, our customers didn't want the seatbelts. We didn't want the seatbelts. And the car would start if you buckled it. And so people would buy the car with the seatbelts never knowing they had seatbelts. You said if you ever want to race it, he just take the seat belts out. When I think of what a stupid thing that was, as I look at me doing that. I know we've talked about this before, and I think it's good for the audience. The design, the thought behind automobile design was to create very elegant, almost like little living rooms that you could tool around in.

It didn't have a sport connotation like an airplane right now. We're looking like we're strapping into a cockpit. But back then, you put these seatbel into this beautiful, luxurious sofa. Imagine doing that to your home couch, you know. It would look kind of stupid. When I was in high school, I had a... 71 Chevy Bel Air with that big bench seat in the front, and if I didn't wear my seatbelt and I went around a corner too quickly, you were in the passenger seat.

I'd slide all the way over the side of the car, especially after the armor all the seats. John, sorry about that. We were signing it every minute of it. Never forget the seatbelt. Never. Exactly. All right. Okay, John.

All right, guys. Waiting for that chopping report. I'm active. Oh, thank you so much, John. We appreciate your company. Have a great weekend, 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. Boy, our lines are really lit up this morning. I feel good about that.

Okay, let's go to Bob. Bob has been waiting patiently from Lake Park. Good morning, Bob. Good morning. Happy holiday, everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Happy holidays.

Thank you. Stu, that Hyundai, that's considered a second-owner car. Is that considered an economic car? Second-owner. Yes, I'm sorry. Yes, it'll be sold as a used vehicle because it will be titled and transferred to us. It will be used vehicle. Legally, we cannot sell a new vehicle, a Hyundai.

We don't have the franchise, so it'll be sold secondhand. And, yeah, but there's no difference. between that and a new car, other than the miles that it took to get to us. We drove it to the dealership. We didn't tell it. All right. Can I be a wise guy now? Sure.

Sure. Everybody else is. Okay. You know what the policy is with Hyundai. Right. Okay. So there would be a problem with them having this resold? Will they get a charge back?

No, no. know okay because that's what that's crossed my mind okay well this is the problem is with Hyundai they have a policy with the warranty okay that you know they have the best warranty of all the manufacturers I think it's 560 on the Hyundai's a very good warranty 10 year 100,000 miles on the drive train yeah but that that doesn't apply in this situation you know that the warranty doesn't apply in the situation right well it's it no if that's the case um and it doesn't sound well that doesn't sound incorrect at all um that's the case with every use hunt day if it doesn't transfer the full of warranty that's that's no difference in any is that something

that you're going to disclose to the person that buys the cost we don't disclose anything at earl stort Toyota just kidding no of course we know every um new use vehicle by law we have to disclose what's remaining of the factory warranty that's on the federal buyers guide and also in her paperwork. However, the difference between that is this is an identical one to a new car on the lot that will be purchased by somebody for thousands cheaper than they could possibly get a new one. I get it. So they could purchase an extended warranty if they chose to, but that's really up to them.

Well, they wouldn't buy that from you, though, would they? They would buy that from Hyundai. No, we can sell an extended warranty on a used on day. Oh, okay. A really good one. All right, I got something for Rick. I used the, I tried to set up another one of their products for my headlights, and it worked pretty good.

It cleaned them up pretty good. It was a little bit of an arduous process. You had to do a few things, and you put some masking tape underneath because you don't want to harm the paint with the chemical. Yep. But I would give it three and a half stars out of five. Look, they cleaned it up. It looks pretty good.

There's one light that still has a few little streaks that didn't come out. But overall, it was pretty, it was, you know, it did the job. They look a lot better, you know. I can recommend that product if anybody wants to clean their headlights. You know, I wouldn't use the bug spray. Yeah, one thing I've learned about headlights when you're to resurface a headlight to clean. it properly the product that says this does it in 10 seconds and it does it those never seem to work well the ones that say hey you're going to have to put a little elbow grease in here you've got to

scrub this polishing chemical in you got to really work it if you put some effort into that and do it right those can come out looking literally brand new i mean you follow the instructions on most of the that, you know, you've got to work for it, but they will look brand new and they will last for months and maybe even a couple of years. So, yeah, those, you know, just do a little research on what product you're looking at to use for resurfacing your headlights. And when you go to do it, just be aware, you know,

get yourself an umbrella, park in the shade somewhere, get a little chair to sit on, and, you know, put some time and effort in it, and they're going to come out really looking good. Well, the funny thing with the instructions, they strongly recommend that you watch the YouTube video before you do it. Yes. I thought that was fun because I had already seen that. Oh.

It was right on the instructions, you know, and strongly recommend the YouTube. I have a question, too. 441 Nissan, is that a Terry Tyler franchise, do you know? 441 Nissan. Terry Taylor. Terry Taylor. You think, Jonathan?

Is it? Yeah, it is. Jonathan is nodding, yes. I was wondering, does they have a vehicle I saw a $61,000 MSRP? They have an internet price on it for $48,000. And I thought, you know, I said, what's the gimmick? Yeah. You know, it's a Nissan.

But I know Nissan is offering cash back on a lot of their models now, especially the 24s. They're trying to move them out. Did they specify a model because sometimes dealers will advertise, you know, the up to based on, like right now, we could, we could advertise over $10,000 off MSRP on new Toyotas, but it would only be on a BZ4X because they get a $10,000 dealer cash thing. So, yeah, it depends on that, and there's a lot of ways where they can claw back from the advertisement up to a profit situation. Well, they did have their deal with the It was over $1,200, and then the electronic filing fee was almost $400, and they had

a couple of those $500 deals that nobody qualifies for. Well, just to wrap it up real quick, I'll just go on what Earl always says if you're seeing a car dealer's advertisement, it's a high probability that you're listening to a lie. So that's kind of harsh, but we've got to get on to a few more callers.

Thanks for chatting. Okay, have a great day. Give us a call again. We're going to go to Jerry, I believe. Our lines are really let up this morning. So, hey, guys, just be patient, and we'll be right with you. We're going to go to Jerry, who's calling from Deerfield Beach. Good morning, Jerry.

Good morning. How are you? Well, great, thank you. Enjoying your program. Thank you. I got a weird question. I have a problem. I think it's with my car.

I'm not sure. But what's happening is all my T-shirts, the developing holes in the area of the seatbelts. Now, we thought maybe it might be the wash machine as first doing it, but it's only in that area, and it couldn't be insects either. So we're just wondering if my sister also has the same problem. She's in Massachusetts, and my nieces in Connecticut has the same problem. And one area where the seatbelt goes across your belly.

That's where all the problem is. And I'm just wondering if anybody has had that happen to them also. No, but I want to inspect my, my, clothes just to see if there is more wear in that area. I don't I'm looking right now. No, even no T-shirts. If I wear them for a short period of time. Oh, just T-shirts, not

like other... No, just T-shirts and only in that area where the seatbelt goes across your stomach. And I was wondering if they put chemicals in those seatbelt or what? They're smooth surfaces, but still, that's the only problem in that area. They're pretty smooth, but over time, I would say, you know, they

kind of, they can pick and pull. You know, you have two fabrics, and friction Rick's got an idea Rick's got a thought I checked the seatbelt There's a little fight on that area Where it goes across your chest

It's looser But I just wondering if anybody else Had that problem I think it depends on the shape of your body Do you wear any sort of Like a large belt buckle No I just wear My t-shirt

My shorts And no Okay because I used to be a sort I always wore like a large belt buckle like the wrestlers more like a redneck but yeah

I found that that would a belt buckle would hold it away from you well no it would wear on the shirt and right but it doesn't not on your belly though

I think I think Earl has an answer yeah I chat GBT the fifth member of our team says that this is a common problem and one of the preventive measures you might try is use a seat belt cover or pad soft lace or near print uh clean the seat belts regularly with mild soap and water

adjust seat belts properly so they don't rub unnecessarily uh rotate clothing styles or shoulder bags to very wear parents that's uh from our assistant and don't get t-shirts from timu exactly so it is a common problem it is a common problem according to chat gbt we didn't realize it on this show but chat gbt knows knows all and ceas all have you ever noticed anyone driving on the road that has a added accessory on their seatbelt across the chest i haven't noticed that well it doesn't happen across the chest just the belly yeah just the belly area yeah it depends on where you have more meat uh jerry i'm looking at uh i've got all kind of calls do you have any other questions no that's it that's it okay jerry thank you so much give us a call

again. We're going to go to Marty. Hi, Marty. First, I just wanted to tell Nancy I still didn't get the consumer report. Dang it. Okay. Marty. The next thing I wanted to say, I've traded in a lot of cars over many, many years. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the dealership never picks up the hood. And I would just say to Rick, somebody like me would never try to clean the engine and I think 99%

of the people should not try to clean their engine. Totally. Yes. Well, let me jump in there and say that you're right. The reason people don't look under the hood when they appraiser car dealerships is because they're lazy

and if Stu or I or any of the upper management thought that our appraisers were doing what you described. Regularly. We would, yeah, we would certainly take immediate action. It happens occasionally everywhere. It happens everywhere.

I mean, when the cats and the way, the mice will play. So unfortunately. It happens a lot everywhere. Yeah. But it is, if I were, if I were to clean my engine, the way we described earlier, and I was trained the car in, I would be sure they opened the hood,

and I would be, explaining what a wonderful car I had, I'd be selling my car to them, my trade-in, just like they are trying to sell their new car to me. And I would also get their managers involved. If the appraiser came out, I'd say, let me speak to your manager. And I would pop the load. I'd say, look at that engine there. I mean, that's cleaner than the engine on the new car. You're trying to sell me. So you clean the engine and you clean the car. If you're trading in a car, take it to a good detailer spend spend 200 bucks or 150 or whatever it costs you and make that car look like new a good detailer will make that car look like new and that you'll get that 150 bucks back 10 times over because car appraisers and managers salespeople they are as gullible as the buyers and they love a clean good smelling you know sparkling car and you can get another thousand and $2,000 on your trade-in by that process.

Okay. Earl, I know you're not, or still are not going to agree with me, but I find most times when you trade in your car, they try to low-ball you. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's true. 99% of the time. Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you. That's standard operating procedure.

That's always, they treat it very much like a car deal. When they go in with that praise value, they know very well. what the actual market value is. They're not going in there to, and then when they have to do the shuffle, when they have to, you know, when they come up with some more money, they'll give you an excuse,

but they know what it's worth before they go back the first time. And if you're talking about our dealership, we probably do the same thing, but it's like not looking under the hood. We have people there at our dealership. We have 170 employees, and I, and Steele and I would not tell you

that we know that, Everybody that appraises the car has always abided by the not giving the full amount of value of the car. I mean, sometimes it's a mistake, sometimes the purpose. But, you know, that's the reason. Even if you're coming to our dealership, shop and compare the price you're treated. You need to do that. But you also have, just like we warn people about pay plans with salespeople, you're, you know, a car buyer is inherently at odds with the salesperson because you're getting a percentage of the profit.

pay plans can also prevent shenanigans with the trade-in. So while our managers enjoy the profits that we make, they also are penalized on the wholesale losses that come from over-appraisal. So you can't have it both ways. So they're in it like we're in it. Now, the big story I always get, I always first go on KB to try to get an approximate value. and every place I've always gone, they say, well, KB doesn't buy cars.

Yeah. So that's one of their answers. Oh, that used to be a fact. And in fact, it literally is still a fact. But that's not true now. But what KBB can do now, and they do do, is that they can get the value of that car real time through auctions. And they also have, they actually do buy now. It's called the instant cash offer.

It goes through a dealership. Basically, it is. They come up with a, you can get a check. So they've changed that. That phrase, KB, you know, they don't buy the cars. That's always using kind of a hostile, challenging sort of way. It's never, it's not a friendly bit of information. Even though it might have been factually true,

it was almost a way to throw it back in someone's face to say, well, go ahead and try and sell it because we're the only ones writing checks. And that was before with a click of a button on your smartphone, you can get the value of any car in the world. and it's real time. That car that the appraisal was given probably actually went through an auction that day and somebody actually paid that price.

So whatever your big model, you're going somewhere in the world, that car was sold. So you're getting a real-time price from KB today. Okay, well, that's good to know. All I know is I really don't mind dealing with car dealers, so I don't mind spending some time. You're very unusual. Yes, I agree.

I agree. Most people hate to buy a car. I actually, believe me, I don't like paying, but I don't mind sitting in there. All right, well, have a good Easter. Hey, Marty, we need to team up. I like to negotiate, and you like the success. exciting, car buying experience. I find that it's a very interesting afternoon.

Isn't it? Yeah. Peanuts and popcorn. It's a game. Yes, peanuts and popcorn. Hey, take a look. I responded to your text. Thanks for the call Monday.

Okay, thanks, Nancy. You're welcome. Have a great weekend. We're going to go to John, who's been holding in West Palm Beach, and Stu, who's calling us in Coral Springs and Larry, who's calling us from Tennessee. Hang in there. be right with you good morning john hey good morning i'm going to make mine real quick all the regular callers are long-winded sorry about that i'm one of them so i'm going to make this one quick

i don't know if you've got noticed that i probably talk about it after the show though uh going back to the seatbelts for those who want to bypass the seatbelt and uh i know you guys can't recommend that things like that i can because i'm not a dealership and i'm not you guys Hey, go to the junkyard, find your car, find the seatbelt, cut three feet off. Reason why you cut three feet of it off is you stick it in the thing. If you get pulled over, take that extra three feet, throw it over your shoulder. It may pull the top. It may not.

Either way, you were going to get a ticket for not having a seatbelt back. That is very clever. And then when you're in accident and you're seriously injured and they find that, they say, boy what a dumb guy he was yeah well they you know what whether they're wearing it or not it was dumb in the first place exactly right but there's but hey there's people that are adamant that they don't want to be controlled by the government and they don't want to wear their seatbelt and they'll die trying yeah that's right as long as they don't become a projectile and somebody else i'm fine with it you know i don't think people should be forced to all right hey

And before they go to the junkyard, all the junkyards now have websites. And you didn't check and see if you have a car in that junkyard. They list all their cars and what they have available in their inventory. And they even tell you what lane number and road number it is. That's a great tip. A great tip. Let me tell you. Car dealers usually use a, they don't call them junkyards anymore, but they're very sophisticated.

Recycling. And what a bargain you could get, I mean, to buy a use. danger or anything. And you can also get warranties and guarantees. So if you have a reputable company that's selling used parts, we don't call them

junkyards anymore, but they're huge. And you could get almost like a new vehicle warranty on parts from used and you'll save thousands of dollars. And then if you're not mechanically inclined, they do have

people that sit out front and they'll pull the parts for you just give them a couple bucks to tip them and they'll go you know they bring their tools with them and they sit there and if you can't pull the part they'll do it for you in that if you're lucky to find someone that's sitting out waiting to make money yeah great tip

great tip okay thank you so much john thank you happy easter you too let's go to stew in coral springs thanks so much for your patience welcome welcome to the show good morning good morning stew

Happy holidays, everyone. Thank you. Same to you. Happy holidays. So I've got a question. So my question is, my sister has a 2018, top of the line Lexus. It's got 13,000 miles on it. It's been sitting in the garage since my brother-in-law passed away in 21.

I should be coming into possession in that car by the end of the year. And it's up north. So besides putting air in the tires, and battery, charging the battery, what would I need to do to get it running? Should I have to change the oil or fluids or anything? I would, if it's been sitting for almost seven years, you know, obviously at least five or six years,

I would just plan on replacing the battery, check the date on the tires, and have them inspected carefully for any signs of dry rot or age on the tires. that they might need to be replaced. And other than that, a nice, careful initial test drive, work the brakes, gently give it a chance for the car to kind of stretch yourself out a little bit, lean out.

And I would then run the tank as low as you can, refuel it with fresh gasoline, and I would recommend an oil change. Other than that, I wouldn't recommend any other maintenancees and just drive the car. fantastic that sounds good to me fly you up and drive back pretty much yeah yeah that sounds great thank you I appreciate that

okay my pleasure thank you nice plenty time for another call off okay thank you so much too great name by the way give us a call when you get that when you get that car on the road we're going to go to Larry

thank you for holding Larry welcome hi there folks I got to tell you I've been listening to your program for decades okay Earl and I go way back and he may not remember what I'm going to tell him because when we get old we get a little dimension and forget things, you know?

That's true. I went to his dealership at the end of North Lake Boulevard in North Lake and one of his big billboard signs before you get there used to say no dealer fees. Do you remember that, Earl?

Oh, sure. Well, you know what? Most of your public out here is listening to the show maybe you may not even have an idea about what those junk fees are about and how they try to just honestly take you over when you go into that sales room. I don't know why those people are so dishonest, but be what it made. They're like that anywhere in South Florida. I would say that you may talk about that when I get off the phone and educate people

are listening out there because that's a very important thing. You're talking about sometimes around $4,000 or $5,000 almost, okay? They're tacking on They don't need to I mean If you've got a plate And you want a treasurer I could down in a motor vehicle

For 60 bucks on PGA Boulevard Here in Florida And you can get it done yourself Instead of $450 that they want to charge you And so forth and so on, you know? Exactly, yeah We still have that billboard We have a different message on it now

But I do remember that one That was I got a lot of heat from a lot of people It's a new thing We just changed the language now it says no junk fees. Yeah, we just change the level. Yeah, same message, modernized for the 21st century. I'm in West Palm Beach right now because I own a home in Tennessee also.

You know, I'm one of those snowbirds in my own homes, okay? Yeah, yeah. Be what it may, Earl, what you did to me, and I don't think you're going to find this anywhere else ever, and I bought a lot of cars. I probably on my 20-second car right now, okay? I've got two collector cars in my driveway. A 95 caroac sedan de Ville, four-door. It's all made a steel that weighs about 4,000 pounds.

And then I got a 55 Chevrolet Bel Air, beautiful, four-door, which is unusual. I collect cars, you know, choice cars. But my point here is you came out and you, in your hand, when I didn't even ask you about it because the salesman went back and got you to come out, you handed me the Carfax right down in there on the apartment. parking lot for a for a 2018

Kia and I said wow you know I never seen this before I mean you were so honest to do something like that and you're not going to find a dealership anywhere I think in South Florida it's going to do that unless you ask them for it they might

even be reluctant to get it for you yeah yeah well Larry I vaguely remember and I I was, it's so unusual today with dealerships because most dealerships you walk in, the owner is in, you know, Idaho or France or someplace. And so there are very few that are family owned like we are.

So when we have family and used to be me before I got old and sick, but I don't spend much time there at the dealership anymore. but yeah my son Stu Wood or my two other sons but family dealerships do those sort of things and they're just we're a dying breed

we're becoming extinct and auto nation and the rest of them are taken over so the good old days I remember them well I'm glad because you know what when you think about it I've always thought

that I've devised my three children about this. Remember the good times. Forget about the bad stuff because it's never coming back anyway as long as you don't repeat the mistake. Exactly. Exactly. Good advice. Well, let me say this here. Two things I really call about one. She's going to announce the name of the dog at Big Dog Rich. And I already went out there one time and I did adopt this particular dog. Oh, thank you. Which you talked about, okay? And, you know, they're fantastic out there. So no kill housing for dogs, and I can't just understand how people would ever want to kill dogs in the first place, but they do, okay. But out there, they don't. So I'm just recommending

people listen up. If you're looking for a dog, that's where to go. And you've got a gigantic variety of different dogs out there that are available. And I know on your show, you go ahead, you put some of the costs and all of that on the adoption. So that's great. What I want to know is, Can she tell me, or I have to wait to hear it on the show, what's coming up for adoption? There is no dog this week, unfortunately. It's a cat. It's named Sevelster. No, I'm kidding.

Hey, Larry, thanks so much for the plug on Big Dog Ranch. It's quite an organization, and they've been doing, well, so much for so long. and there is a lot of people who don't realize that and I appreciate you shouting out. And let me just say this here about Big Dog. Let me say this about Big Dog Ranch. Okay, we have about two minutes and then we have to go. I'll make it real sure.

They have a veterinarian there, a doctor, okay, with the credentials. Once you get a dog from there, you can always go back there and get a more fair price on anything that may be wrong with your dog, And I'm going to tell you this. If you go to just the run-of-the-mill veterinarian anywhere else, you're going to pay a lot of money for the staying visit. You're going to pay probably a half or less if you take your dog back to Big Dog Ranch, if that's where you've got it.

That's good enough. Well, that's great information. No, I want to pass down knowledge whenever I can. You can be guaranteed when you adopt at Big Dog Ranch. They have gone over that dog with a fine-tooth comb. And believe me, there isn't anybody that is going to. go to get away with going to big dog ranch and they're not going to get a background check. They just don't give those dogs out because, as you said, there's so much abuse out there.

And not to even mention the dogs just recently that were in the news that were tied to a tree. I know, I thought. They should take those people if they catch them and hang them upside down. You know, I only wish for that human being what they did to the dog. That's it. Well, you know, it's going to happen? You know, I'm not going to wholly roll you, but time is coming. Their lives are going to end, and they're going to go someplace where the good people don't go.

That's exactly right, Larry. You understand what I'm trying to say. The bad place. We hear you. Larry, thanks so much for the call. We appreciate you calling. And we hope. I love your show.

Just keep up the good work. There's a lot of people out there that need this knowledge, okay? Yes. Thanks, Larry. Thanks for the reinforcement. I think that we're going to go ahead and check out some text messages. maybe your anonymous feedback. How about some YouTube?

So the floor and the mics are yours. Okay, well, I want to look at some anonymous feedback that came in. The most recent one was a commentary on our shop of Sunrise Ford, our mystery shop. And here's here it goes. Here's my opinion on your mystery shop of Sunrise Ford. No call back. That truck was a real lemon, and they were not willing to fix it. completely. They were going to sell it to some of them. L-O-L. Yep. L-O-L. Six. That's how like

L-O-L, yep, L-O-L. Six days to replace a battery in a car someone wants to buy. The dealership sounds like a real disaster. People there don't care about doing their job. And to remind anybody or to, if you didn't hear it, it was kind of a comedy of errors on the mystery shop. It's something that can happen at a dealership, but the follow-up was terrible. So there was a dead battery they jumped it very common experience at a dealership but then the battery completely died while they're on u.s one and they had a little situation getting off u.s one they went to another dealership came back hours later or maybe an hour later and they were still in the middle of us one and uh no cops it was just uh right there well it's you know it's in Stewart florida

so fort pierce it was it was way up up up uh kind of like out of the metro area and Yeah, it was embarrassing for them, but they could have made it better, and they didn't. And days later, the car still wasn't fixed, and the problem, according to them, was just a bad battery. So, yeah, it was, I agree with you, we didn't like that experience. Agent Lightning did not like that experience. Not at all. Okay, here's another anonymous feedback that came in. It says, competition breeds innovation and forces quality to rise.

And it's absolutely true. I'd love to see American car companies make more reliable commuter cars akin to the GM-38V-6. Keep dreaming. Yeah, it's driving cars and is it going to be a thing in the past. You're going to have your own electronic chauffeur, like it or not. They're talking 15 years, we'll have over 50% of the cars will be autonomous. Autonomous and probably not V-6s. I've got a doozy

This one's from Negan 1 He's out in Arizona Rick, I read an article that Teslas don't have accurate odometers A person drives 40 miles Round trip to work And their Tesla shows

70 miles driven Google it Tesla mileage shows higher To get the warranty to end quicker. Says it's based on usage. If you drive the car hard, it'll show more

mileage than actual. What does Earl think of this? And he goes on to say a recent class action lawsuit in California alleges that Tesla odometers are inaccurately inflated, potentially overstating mileage by as much

as 117%. The suit claims Tesla uses algorithms and sensor inputs to inflate the mileage readings impacting warranty periods, repair costs, and consumer obligations. I'll answer that simply. Chat, GPT agrees. I will personally donate $10,000 to Big Dog Ranch Rescue if the YouTuber that just state of that can give me evidence of that charge.

Oh, you got to get it from the court case. It says a class action. Well, yeah, but I'm saying that the implication is that Tesla is hiding and retarding their premeditatively retarding their odometers. And I will guarantee you that's not true. And rather than make a bet with somebody I can't see, I will publicly on the air state that I will contribute $10,000 to Big Dog Grants Rescue because I'm absolutely sure that's not true. Will you accept the outcome of the lawsuit? No. So even if they, the Tesla loses.

No, because one of the, first of all, the suit will never go to court. It'll be settled out of court because it's a BS nuisance suit. And they might, they might give them a few thousand dollars so they don't have to hire lawyers and go to court. But, no, it's just stupid. When the richest man in the world owns Tesla, and the richest man in the world is not going to risk. He's also gobbling. And that's of a risk of destroying his entire reputation

by being convicted of something stupid like setting back a stonometer I think Elon Musk is a stupidest thing I ever Do you think that Elon Musk is averse to ruining his reputation I do I think that Elon Musk what he does do It's already ruined He doesn't consider to be wrong

But everybody knows But he's blown his reputation I mean he's completely I mean sales are crashing worldwide Well, tell me one thing he's done. I mean, half the country is on his side, and half the country's against him. Not half. As soon as living, his emotions run away with him.

That's not entirely true either. But the, anybody that says that nobody, I held this up, this is all Tesla's. Nobody would dispute that Elon Musk is all the smartest men of the world. The smart people do not go out there and commit suicide. I did Google it real quick, and according to Reuters, Yeah, I'm looking at Reuters, Fortune, Jalapnik, business standard, and a couple other posts, it is an actual, this one person has actually started the lawsuit against Tesla. I can sue Stu for divorce.

I can sue you for... You will never divorce me. For molesting my dog. I will never grant you a divorce. Oh, that's... Just try. I can sue anybody for anything. I'll see you in court.

So to make a big deal about a fallacious lawsuit, it's just stupid. Well, I mean, it's, we'll just have to wait and see. But, yeah, apparently this is what he's claiming. I read one article just breezed through a little bit, and this particular individual says that a normal 20-mile drive to and from work, he said it actually the car stated he had driven 72 miles on one particular day

well Nancy and I own three we have three Tesas and we've uh the first one we bought was about three years ago and we we have never seen any variance like you discussing in the three we have

but that's not why I'm sure this is a BS charge is whether you like Elon Musk or don't like Elon Musk. I read his complete biography by Stephen Isaac, by the way, which is absolutely amazing. Still on the New York Times bestseller list, I think.

And everything that Elon Musk does, even those things that seem outrageous to others, inside the minds of this genius, and he is a genius, it's for the good. I mean, I can say to you, it's crazy, stupid for him to think that he's going to populize and colonize Mars. A lot

of people believe that. But the fact of the matter is scientifically he has shown those that can understand what he does, which is not many people, that it can be done. And I believe it will be done one day. The electric car

Earl on Mars. They laughed at him on Mars. They laughed about him about the electric car. I would only just a thought in my head. I wonder if Elon, if it is occurring, would he be aware of it? If you read his biography, you'd know the answer to that. There's nobody that's more hands-on. He actually will sometimes sleep on the floor of one of his factories.

He's far more, yeah, he's far more. You're letting your emotions get to you. No, no, it's true. No, but you're getting worked out. Did you read his biography? Yes. Okay. Yeah, I was very impressed with the biography. Since I read the biography, I've seen a lot of things that made me think a lot of things were bullshit.

And his biographer, also his biographer is highly respected. Do we have? I know. I read a lot of stuff that he did. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Are we moving on to a mystery shopping report or a caller?

Because I have more anonymous feedback. Where's, where's, where's Anne-Marie's text? Oh, does Rick have it in there? I can bring that up right now. Okay, well, Rick is doing that. Can you imagine not reading Anne-Marie's text? We're going to be going to the mystery shopping report, Hyundai Adele-Rae, and that is through the Amazon auto-buying contest.

Not before we do Anne-Marie's text. That's what I just said. So stay tuned for that. Rick, did you get the... Got it. Good morning. In your opinion, what is slash was the most dangerous vehicle you've ever encountered? Was it dangerous because it was badly designed, or was it dangerous because of poor maintenance?

The Chevrolet Corvair, the one that I, that first car I bought for my first wife, Sue's mother. She loved her. It was, Ralph Nader wrote a book about that car, the Chevrolet Corvier, called. unsafe at any speed and I gave my ex-wife the most dangerous car that I could possibly have given her and it was after you read the book

no I read the book later okay it wouldn't be funnier if I had read the book first I'm saying that was that was the joke I was sending you up there oh my God the most dangerous car I ever encountered I don't know it was like this Lincoln town car appraised a million

years ago and all the shocks all the suspensions often it bounced down the road and I felt I was going to bounce out of the seat, but no, I don't have a particular one. They accused Toyota of being dangerous in 2010 and 2011 with the sudden acceleration fiasco and hoaxe or whatever it was. Misunderstanding. And, yeah, so, but cars have gotten safer and safer,

even the bad cars are pretty safe now, would you say? I think he was toy out of covering up the sudden acceleration. Right. And it turned out to be a floor mat issue. Yeah, it was crazy because they were getting to the point where they were suggesting cosmic rays could affect the chips that Toyota was using. And, well, if that was the case, you know, we're all using chips. That's for sure. Hey, the most dangerous car that I ever drove is a Mazda.

And I lost my, no, I lost my steering wheel. Mm-hmm. And my car hit a telephone pole. Oh, that's all I said. It was a Mazda? That's right. Oh, my gosh. Jason assisted me.

Jason did? Jason Stewart. Jason sell it to you? Anyway, what are we going to do, guys? We're getting to the Mystery Shopper report. I have one more. I got one more anonymous. Okay.

Yeah. Okay, here is, this is for Earl, anonymous feedback. Earl, you often talk about the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen. We did this one? Yeah, we did. Okay, well, I'm coming in late. That was last week? Oh, I'm already in there.

Okay, well, it was a good one. How'd you answer it? I'm just kidding. I'm all done. You came in with your New York attire on. That's right. You were dragon. That's right.

That's right. Okay, we are going to go to the Mystery Shopping Report. Okay, guys? The Mystery Shopping Report, you can vote 772-497-6530. We would love to hear from you how you feel about our mystery shop from Hyundai Adele. And it is, again, as I said earlier, Amazon auto car buying experience. And boy, I'll tell you, everybody's going to love this report. Yeah, and point of fact, it's actually, we mystery shopped Amazon

because we actually bought the car, you know, through Amazon. So this is historic, certainly an historic moment for your regular listeners of the show back over the years we've been talking about this moment probably for two or three years about Amazon it took them a long while to get this thing going and there was a lot of stuff behind the scenes I'm sure lobbying and a lot of stuff we'll never know about Jeff Bezos we're talking about rich guys on this show we're talking about Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos they're kind of like you know one and two or two and one depending on when you check as to who's the richest person in the world so truly historic if you know anybody to like to listen to this and you're not

they're not near the radio or the streamer tell them a run list of this this is this is something you'll remember for a long time on day del Rey Amazon speaking in the first person is if I were agent lightning I did a really really good job on this I was given the mission to buy a Hyundai through Amazon I went through the process and it was very simple. I chose from three participating Hyundai dealers, Coconut Creek, Deerfield Beach, and Delray Beach. I was all in South Florida. Sadly, I first asked her to shop Napleson Hyundai for obvious reasons to regular listeners, but Naplesen Hyundai is not participating with Amazon. Right. And this, can you imagine why? We could only speculate. I mean, the greatest

endorsement you could get on the Amazon program is in fact that Hyundai um I don't think Napleton said no I don't think Napleton said no I think Amazon said no Amazon probably said are you kidding us yeah we read about you man you're in the papers so anyway I'm containing Iraq as Agent Lightning I chose Del Rey Hyundai says it was the closest I found the vehicle I was searching for easily new 2,025 Hyundai venue, SEL. The MSRP was $24,165. And selling price was $22,469. And I made a note to myself on this, that is also less $2,300 in Amazon gift card for it. Because if you're not familiar, the Amazon's program, legally, really, with Amazon.

So they offered up until, what was it, April 15th, $2,300 gift cards. So that amount of money was given to our Mr. Shopper, who credited us with it because we'll use it in our. It's important to note that when we read the numbers here, that $2,300 is, they mail actual gift cards to Agent Lightning, and then those will be turned over to us, our account. But that's a, effectively, it's cash. Exactly.

So you'll see what a great deal it is, and we'll remind you of that at the end of this report. Right on the listing, and notice the price excluded, government fees, taxes, and $1,304.50 a dealer fees. Now, you can say that's ridiculous and stupid, it's mean. I'm going to give you an F for charging all those junk fees.

But it's right there. But the danger of a junk fee is not the junk fee because when you see the junk fee, you don't want to pay it or you won't pay it. But when they sneak it in on you in the F&I department or someplace else, hidden fees that they add and you don't realize you've paid, that's the danger. You know what I bet? After a while, as this grows and becomes more common other manufacturers, it is really silly. I think somebody at that point is going to say, okay, what are we doing here? We're putting a price, but we're making people just do addition real quick. We're hiding it, and they're telling people about it.

This isn't hidden. It will say 22-469 plus 1304. That's the price. It's goofy that you've got to add it, and eventually I think they'll just take that away. Well, Costco does this, and so does a true car, but Amazon is huge, and the publicity and the growth factor, Stu says, As this thing gets bigger and bigger, I think it'll erase junk fees. Right. It doesn't make sense. It looks stupid.

Dezos doesn't want it. Okay. I'm back on the dealership now. I clicked into the listing, it was presented with some options. I skipped over adding a trade-in. I'm online with Amazon now. I'm buying the car. I click into the listings that was presented with some options. I skipped over adding a trade-in, so Amazon doesn't need to take that, but they would if they're if I had one. I didn't select any F&I, meaning financing, but they will finance your car for you also.

We probably should have got into that a little bit more, but this is our first Amazon shop. We will do it again, find out what their financing deal is. Correct. We could purchase, also they also offered the products like warranties and tire and wheel, stuff like that. We could choose that later, because you can cancel those in the first 90 days.

is so because we don't need them so I told Amazon I'm paying cash and make it simple easy and we were rushed on this because we only did she rushed me yeah I read a complete breakdown of the charges I would be expected to pay the outdoor price was 25,000 eight hundred six dollars and 56 cents this was the amount Stu wrote the check for so Stu actually we knew before ever saying anything at all to the Hyundai dealership, Del Reyundi, they didn't even know we were coming. And so Stu wrote the checkout like you will be able to do when you are an Amazon buyer to whatever dealer.

We can't stress that much. We can stress that enough because that's the whole, that is the outdoor price. When I say, wait, you write the check for. And any, you have the check has already written. Any surprises just walk out. Remember, $2,300 comes off that check. So $2,300 less than $25,806 is what the real out-the-door price is for this vehicle. Okay, continuing on, as Agent Lightning, as soon as I hit submit on my computer

and paid the $500 deposit that goes to Amazon, put it on my credit card, my phone rang. It was Will congratulating me on my purchase and asking when I'd be there to pick it up. So Will was the salesperson at Mapleton Ande, and he was notified that an Amazon buyer was coming in. That's good for a lot of reasons. We've seen oftentimes with the Costco auto buying program that you will walk onto the dealership lot and the Costco approved salesperson isn't the one that greets you. They still tell you it's a Costco program, but they lie. So here, with Amazon, we know it's an Amazon purchase.

We have an Amazon price, and the Amazon representative will, in this case, is handling the transaction. Well. Okay. We scheduled for 2 p.m. the same day. I went to pick up the check from Earl Stewart, Toyota, to deposit it into my checking account. I would get a cashier's check to buy the car. Although later I received an email stating that my order had been canceled When I was reading this, that shook me up. It probably shook agent lighting up

I immediately called Will and he assured me this was an error and the car was currently in detail. I don't know why that happened Maybe we can figure it out, I don't know, big prep for our 3 p.m. appointment He said I should be there only for an hour and most to process the paperwork and drive away in my new car. I arrived at Del Rey Hyundai at 2.37 p.m. was greeted by a guy holding the door open for me. He asked, are you looking for anyone in particular? I said, yes, I'm here to see Will. I bought a new Hyundai through Amazon this morning, and I'm here to pick it up. The man gestured to another guy at a desk. Will, on the phone, looked up to apologize and pointed to another guy standing in the lobby. He said, that's your guy right there.

Okay, that was the designated hitter from Amazon. The man came over, introduced himself as Tony, and had me go to see the car. We did a walk around and then headed back inside to handle the paperwork. Once inside, Tony had me write my name and address on a credit application, but assured me they weren't doing anything with it. It was just another form of ID along with my license. license. A little aside, Steve had, which I did too. That's the reason we recommend you pay cash usually. In this case here, Amazon did offer buying finance. So next time we do an Amazon shop, we'll get the financing terms and interest rates, et cetera. And so when we go into the dealership, we'll be able to compare. And we'll do that next time. And this, by the way, was silly.

She didn't give them the Social Security number. I don't know if they're asking for that. Because they said they weren't going to run a... But you can do a soft credit pool without a... Yeah. But I don't know why they would do that. It's just... Actually, I know why they would do it.

Yeah, well, confusion. Well, no, they want to do this because, hey, we can get... They can promise a rate and trick her into getting a car. But she didn't play along there. That's good. Okay. Continuing, he also had me sign of worksheets showing the price I had a great. to on Amazon, okay, why not? The numbers matched Amazon's, exactly.

On the bottom line, I don't know how it got there, but they all worked in. After waiting for 40 minutes, my husband came inside. Listen carefully. After waiting for 40 minutes, my husband, because Agent Lightning, another reason we love her so much is that she brings her husband

and often purchasing cars and her kids. Not only this, but she has purchased. card before purchasing this car herself so I mean she's she's dynamite anyway her husband came in to see what was taking so long he asked who was helping me that walked over to the office where Tony was with Cody the senior finance officer my husband asked how much longer Cody replied it takes time if you think you can do a better job or faster you're welcome to it I mean jaw drop what Why?

That's a short fuse right there. Yeah. Listen, I'm not saying anything because Agent Enlighten is she's part of our team. I just want to go, how did her husband ask how much longer? I thought the same thing, too. But by the same token, if you're in retail, you deal with people. Now, if someone comes in and takes a swing at you or swears at you, calls you a dirty name, that might be a different story. but at any rate, you don't get rude and abusive with a customer,

particularly one that hasn't signed on the dotted line. My husband was shocked and challenged him. You don't need to have an attitude with me. Then Cody asked, do you still want to continue with the paperwork and buy the car? I'd kind of fire that guy. Honestly, if we hadn't already committed to the purchase, we would have walked out. So there's rudeness on the face of the, as far as the, the shoppers concerned me.

Cody picked up his phone and called his senior sales manager saying he had a customer who was threatening him. A few minutes later, the senior sales manager came over. If all this is accurately relayed by Agent Lightning, it is pretty rough. It is pretty rough. He said, my finance guy needs to concentrate on doing the paperwork. If even one letter or number is off, you'll have to come back to re-sign. he listened to my husband and when we brought up Cody's rude

comment about doing his job the sales manager said do you want me to bring him out here so we can beat him up I mean I get outrageous accurately portrayed my husband looked at him and said no I just want the paperwork done

so I could get to the bag to get the cashier's check I'll beat you up tomorrow let me say something about Agent Lightning this relationship that we have with Agent Lightning. It's been nothing but amazing from the get-go. The first moment that I met her and she met me. And I want to tell you, this here, what do you want us to do,

take them out and beat them up? This could have gone in an altogether direction by Agent Lightning because I know she could have taken them out and beat them up. I don't want to encourage you to do this, but if there was a brawl, that would be good radio. That's all I'm saying. We're going to have a knockdown, direct, right, agent lightning? We had a mystery shopper years ago that was chased out of the dealership. That's our service manager. In this case here, he was our service manager who was a big, strong guy, Scott.

Yeah. And it was lucky that the guy that was chasing Scott didn't get you, that's all I can say. Yeah, should write a book one day. I remember when I was attacked and Terry came out to save me. Let me continue with this, Mr. Shopping report. So back at Delray Hyundai, the guy says we were given the wrong information on the phone. He asked, what do you mean? I spoke up and said, Will told me I could put up to $5,000 on a credit card to write a personal check for the rest.

But when we got here, we were told it had to be a cashier's check. The sales manager replied, Amazon should have called to let you. know that. I said the only call I got was from Will, here at the dealership, shouldn't he have known? He responded, that makes me super happy. My team is doing what they're trained to do, and I know Cody was trained well because I trained it. So we got a lot of personalities going back and forth here and diverting it a little bit from the... It does say on the... This is a celebration, and when we went to the end of it, it's the first, uh, retail sale through Amazon, we presented on the show,

and one of the first sales to Amazon ever. So it's a turning point in the automobile retail business. A very, very good thing. And fairness, we didn't catch this, neither did agent lightning. It does say, it doesn't say it has to be a cashier's check. All it says is you're paying in cash and full. It says most dealerships except wire transfers or cashier's checks. And small, and we didn't see that.

So, yeah. Okay. Finally, an hour later, a hour later, Tony came back with the paperwork for me to sign. I asked him, what's the amount and who should I make the cashier's check payable to? He walked back into the finance office, returned with this post it, with $25,8006 written on it. I said, that number isn't right. I already paid $500 deposit online. He excused himself, spoke to Cody again, and came back for the amount, adjusted $500 less.

my husband and I left went to the bank I can't make this up the bank was having system issues blah blah blah blah we had to leave and go to another branch we finally pulled back

of the dealership almost two hours later at 4.24 p.m. Tony was waiting for me at the door accepted the envelope with the money and walked toward the senior finance manager's office when he came back he had the license plate

and a bag in his hand he walked me to my car installed the plate and had to be the bag with a sunshade, umbrella, and the extra key. I asked him, what's your sales manager's name? He said, Eric, he then asked, do you want me to go over the car with you? I said, no, and drove away. Other than the behavior of the staff at Delray-Hunty, there were no surprises. It was straightforward and easy process.

So when you're voting on this, and Nancy and I... I got two grades. Yeah, and Nancy and I kicked this back, and that's exactly right. And we said that, you know, we got a grade for the dealer the way they behaved. We've got a grade for the process, which was the Amazon process, which was adhered to. I rudely, albeit adhered to, and sloppily in some cases. But there was no overt attempt to bypass the rules of the road as it stated by Amazon. That's a very good thing.

So that's one grade. The other grade are the interaction between the retail customer and the seller of the product. And that was just, that was messy. So you're going to give either an A or an F. We say there are no perfect transactions or dealership. So we try to disclaim you from scoring A too often. Same thing with an F. If you score F too often, we don't have.

have any car dealerships to recommend. Hopefully that won't be a true statement five years from now because Amazon will be selling all the cars and it will be a pain-free, very, very pleasant process. Okay, time to vote. Yep. So we're in the early days of the Amazon car buying thing. It's just getting started and it's working as design.

I mean, the Amazon part was flawless. A for Amazon, without a doubt. It was really easy, and I can't wait to see how it gets refined and improved. Because we're literally in the first months of this, maybe the first year of it coming in. What we need to do is modify our good dealer or bad dealer list by having the Amazon transactions. With an asterisk. With an asterisk saying, listen, Amazon cannot control the individuals at the dealership. So if they act strange or rudely,

It's not Amazon's fault. But what you can get is a price. And also knows those dealers that are not on the Amazon program, even if we have a job to because why aren't they on the Amazon program? We don't know. I don't know if they're going to reveal that, but I think we can guess. And for Del Rey Hyundai's part, I mean, I'm not grading them on tactics and things like that. By the way, we have a picture of the window sticker, and they do have a big addendum on it.

That never came into the discussion with Amazon. So that's another great reason. Amazon's not going to let them do that. It's a C-minus, maybe a D on the behavior. If everything went down exactly, I'm not questioning Amazon, it's like it's bizarre how quickly they jump to assume a hostile posture. So that's not good. That's bad business.

I mean, it's bad for the customer, but even him telling them what you want to cancel the deal. Could you imagine one of our people in our sales department on a disagreement or personality? conflict just offer for them to leave you would fire them right that's what I was my comment so um but I'm I'm judging them as a consumer not as a manager of a dealership but they'll get a C minus for me all right okay I'm going to go ahead and vote and I think I have a question first of all I'm not sure whether Cody was there to sell a car or will it does sound like as if that there may have

been a contest and that is the who is the alpha dog so with all of that said there you go i wanted to keep it clean i'm going to give uh the staff big fat f and i'm going to give um amazon and a all righty from jonathan and palm coast says happy easter uh del ray hundy gets a c from me a thousand three $1,003.50 in dealer fees, $899 dock fee, et cetera. It's an average grade for an average dealership. They're hard to find, but there are better deals out there. That's true. And let's see. We got Bob from Maryland says, I was headed for an A, but this went downhill. F for the team at Del Rey Honda with a Hyundai with a C overall as some aspects are being quick and easy. another dealer might have been an A

Frank in Jupiter Farm says Interesting mystery shop All in all it was a good experience B plus only due to the behavior of the salesperson Pricewise an A And he says Did the dealership sell other Amazon deals?

I don't know That's a good question I don't think they They don't mention that on Amazon But that would good to know Yeah Okay and we got let's see, Negan says

D for poor customer service but the process gets a C Joseph Kelleher says B plus for Amazon, D for the dealership. T-Cash says dealership in Ring 1 versus the customer D. Amazon gets a C

I thought this was going to completely eliminate the dealership and have the car delivered to your doorstep. That's certainly possible. Let's see what we got over here yet. Okay, scroll back a little. There we go. Johnny Z. Fradley says,

If you have Amazon Prime, do you get same-day delivery? And yes, I think so. A generous D for me only because of the $2,300 gift card. Tom Steckle says A for Amazon, D for the dealership's behavior, and time taken to complete the transaction. Didn't like the credit report. would also compare with Central Florida Hyundai with no dealer fees. Now, that could be a big bonus.

Tim Gilliland says, feisty crew this morning. In theory, car buying the way it should be, except for the rudeness, which would have sent me out the door. The deal gets an A, the dealership, a D. Brian said, Lacko, no haggle transaction for the car A,

Delray dealership gets an F. We're running out of time here. Okay, yeah, we'll have to. Sorry, guys, we've got to skip the last couple. For me, Amazon gets an A, dealership gets a D. Same, A, and a D. Okay. Hey, Agent Lightning, you did a fabulous job. It proved to me that you have got patience, I'm telling you.

Stay tuned next week. We'll be right here, the oldest channel. We're having a whole lot of fun, and we want to thank all of you for tuning in this morning. We enjoy your company. have a wonderful weekend. See you next week. Same time, 8 a.m.