Earl Stewart on Cars - 05.05.2018 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Schumacher Chevrolet

Episode Date: May 5, 2018

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

Welcome to Earl Stewart on Cars with Earl and Nancy Stewart. Reach them with your questions at 877-960. Here's Earl and Nancy. Good morning, everybody. This is Earl Stewart on Cars. My name is Earl. I'm a recovering car dealer. Matter of fact, I'm still a car dealer, but I've just recovered a little bit.

And by that, I mean, I am not doing business the old way, the way I did back of the 60s, 70s, and even 80s, maybe 90s. car business is a real cesspool retail car business and this show Earl Stewart on Cars is to help you drain the cesspool. We're trying to help you avoid being ripped off when you buy a car from a car dealer or when you get your car maintained or repair or service by a car dealer for that matter. And it isn't just Earl Stewart on cars with Nancy Stewart

we've got Rick Kearney in the audience for us. He's not the audience he's in the studio, you're in the audience and we got Stu Stewart in the studio. Rick is a certified diagnostic master technician. He knows everything about the mechanics, or I should say, computerization of automobiles today, which are really rolling computers. And we got Stu Stewart, as our social media expert, communicator.

You could communicate with us via any cyber methods you want, whether you do Snapchat or Instagram or Twitter or Facebook, email. Email is old school now, right? I mean text. You'll be able to text us anytime. And we can communicate back with you. So we've got everything covered. Nancy Stewart, my co-host, is a strong women's advocate. And we're trying to, you've heard about the Me Too movement. We're trying to bring card dealers back into the 21st century, not just in the way they deal with men, but with women. They really, they're, I date them back to the 18th century, the way they're treating women, many of them. And so Nancy, is trying to rally the troops, meaning the female troops. And when she talks to you shortly, she'll tell you about a very, very special offer we have for our new female callers. We're trying to build an audience at least 50-50. I mean, half of you folks out there are female, and half of you are buying cars,

and half of you are maintaining and repairing your cars. But you don't seem to have the same voice that we want you to have and that you should and are entitled to having when you buy, lease, maintain, repair your car. from you. So you'll be hearing a lot more from Nancy pretty quickly. Thank you. I usually add this to my introduction because we do have a lot of new folks to

the regular listeners. Maybe they get tired of hearing this because they know why I do the show, why we do the show. And for you new folks that haven't heard the show before, and maybe there's some people out there haven't bought cars. I mean,

we always assume everybody buys cars, but a lot of people don't. So let me do this. And I'm going to interrupt myself because I want you to understand that you callers are the most important part of the show. No matter what you hear going on, the show, it is important that you call and talk to us. I think we have a caller. We do. And I want to remind everyone that you're listening to Earl Stewart on Cars right here at 95.9 and 106.m. Give us a call toll free at 877-9-60-99-60. or you can text us at 772-497-6530.

We're going to go to Howard, and he's a regular caller. Good morning, Howard. Hey, Howard, did we lose you? Are you still there? I think we might have dropped Howard for some reason. At any rate, we want Howard to call back. He's a regular caller. He can call us back on 877-960-99-60,

and he can even text us, but I know Howard likes to call, but should he text us, he can text us at 772-497-6530. I'll continue with what I was talking about in the introduction about why we exist. Okay, we have Howard back. Welcome to the show, Howard. Hello? Yes, hi. How are you?

Okay, I can hardly hear you. I think we have a bad line. But I just want to say that, yeah, I'm going back to the Bronx. driving up in about an hour and I have a question for Rick but I don't know if you can you hear me I can hear you fine Howard we hear but I can't hear you

I'm going to have to hang up and we hear you okay we hear you loudly and clearly okay we're having a little technical okay my question is this how many pounds of air should I put in when the car is loaded like I'm going

my trunk is completely loaded how many pounds should I have for each tire quick question first what type of car are we talking okay Howard go ahead and give him as a general an answer as you can and he's having a hard time hearing you rig

but go ahead and just give the alternatives Howard if you can hear me I would set them at the maximum level that is listed on the side wall of the tire most tires list between 35 or 45 to 50 pounds is the maximum safe pressure and that is completely safe to run and when you're carrying a heavy load like that that extra air pressure will help to compensate

so I would look on the sidewall of the tire and go with that level hopefully you can hear me or if not if you hang up now you'll be able to hear us because we're on delay so you hear us quick on the radio yeah we're going to be here for a while Howard give us a call toll for you 7-7-960-90-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. Now back to the recovering car dealer. I was just talking about the fact that there's a need for this show. There's a need for a lot of shows like this. I'm actually amazed that there isn't some competition out there.

Where do you go to find out how you can be taken advantage of by car dealers that often are and how to avoid this in measures to protect yourself? not only in buying and leasing cars, but maintaining and repairing. We seem to be the beacon in the darkness, and I'm not saying that facetiously. I really believe that we are the only show that provides us information. Why is it needed? It's needed because car dealers, for the last hundred years, have been taking advantage of their customers.

It is proven in the Gallup annual poll on honesty and ethics and professions. Now, the Gallup Organization is a very prestigious group. They've been around a long, long time. They're international. They're respected worldwide. And how often do you hear a poll that's not a Gallup poll? I mean, during the political season, that's all you hear, Gallup polls. They know what they're doing.

And in 1977, the Gallup Organization started a poll on honesty and ethics and professions. What a great idea, right? You deal with people all day long, professionals, and you talk about retail people and stores and all sorts of businesses, services, products. And they decided to see what you, the public, thought of the different businesses that you deal with. Well, car dealers came out on the bottom. That was in 1977. This is 2018. The last Gallup poll completed was in 2017.

Guess who was on the bottom again? Car dealers. Every year since 1977, car dealers. have been on the bottom of the list, last, next to last, maybe third from last, but right there at the bottom in terms of honesty and ethics and professions. That means that you, when you buy a car, are telling Gallup organization, I wasn't treated right. I wasn't treated honestly. I didn't know about that dealer fee.

I came in because I thought I could buy that new Honda Civic for $18,212,000, and I ended up paying $21,000. The one they advertised was already sold. sold. Or maybe it wasn't sold, but they told me it was sold. That's the experience that you folks are having. So we're here to provide you with information, information to enable you to buy a car without fear, and to get a good price. It'd be treated with some courtesy and respect. Same thing about maintaining and repairing your car. What we also have on the show that I want you to really pay attention to because it comes a little bit later

in the show is our mystery shopping report. We've been doing it for 10 years. We've shop hundreds of dealers all over South Florida. We go in pretending to buy, lease, maintain, and repair a car, typically buying and leasing more often. And we just report to you what happened. The trip to the dealership could take an hour, two hours, and we tell you everything going to happen.

We tell you the name of the salesman, the name of the salesperson, manager, the name of the dealership, location. and we tell you whether there was a misrepresentation of advertised price, whether there was dishonesty, whether it was bait and switch advertising, all the things that you should know before you go into any dealer. And we get some good reports, and we put those good reports on our recommended dealer list. And we get a lot of bad reports, too many bad reports, I'd say probably five bad to every good one. And we put those on the do not buy from this dealer list. access that list, online, by the way, at www.w.W.W.com. Good dealer, bad dealer, list.com.

Perfect. Bad dealer, list, plural, L-I-S-T-S dot com. And we update that all the time, because every time we have, I'll give you a preview, we have Schumacher Chevrolet from North Palm Beach. Schumacher Chevrolet, we mystery shopped. And Schumacher Chevrolet will be put either on the Good Dealer or We're the bad deal of this. Currently, Schumacher Chevrolet is on the good dealer of this. No spoilers, though. No spoilers. No spoilers.

I don't want any spoilers. I don't want to tell you. A little teaser going on. A little teaser, because we want you to stay on the line. And I'm going to do even something a little further. I always recommend Costco auto buying program. And I always recommend another auto buying program, True Car. And we discovered some problems with the Costco auto buying program.

And this is something that concerns me greatly because Nancy and I are devotees of Costco. We love Costco. We buy products from Costco online. We visit Costco on Saturdays. Today we'll probably go into Costco. Maybe not. But we love the store. I think everybody considers Costco not only having a good price, but above reproach in integrity and transparency.

I just want you to know. that this mystery shopping report is going to shed some light on the Costco auto buying program. Is that right? Something very important for you to understand, because I know we have thousands of Costco members out there. And my response to you, that was a teaser for the listeners. Don't go anywhere, guys. That mystery shopping report, it's a doozy, like we say sometimes. I mean, like a real doozy.

And also, ladies, if you're listening, don't go anywhere. Guess what? First two new lady callers? You can win yourself $50. So be part of the show if you have an hour because we're on for two hours, or you can stay with us for two hours. Give us a call. Fifty dollars, ladies. First two new lady callers. And that telephone number is 877-960-99-60. And you can text us at 772. 4976530. Now back to the recovering car dealer. You know what would be interesting, and you could call us for any reason, 877-960, 960, but if you have to be a Costco member, especially if you bought a car through the Costco auto buying program, love to hear from you, because that's the subject of the day. This is what is going to really get a lot of attention. It's going to get a lot of attention also from Costco because I've been in a community.

communications with Costco headquarters and spoke with a man named Mark Garbedian, Mark Garbedian, who is the national marketing manager for Costco. And we've had a long conversation. I've written him a letter, and this is the dialogue I might cover later in the show. It's a rather long letter, but it involves you if you're Costco members, and especially if you bought a car through the Costco auto buying program. also true car love to hear from you if you dealt with true car true car is the second auto buying program that we recommend on this show

and I would like to hear from you if you had a good experience or a bad experience with the true car auto buying program and if you have any questions about it just call give us a call 877 960 9960 and write that number down I know that I know that you probably don't have a comment or criticism or any sort of thing to say right at this minute you might even be driving you sure don't want to be writing numbers down while you're driving but if you're not

driving you can write the number down please write it down because you'll have a question or an idea suggestion later 877 960 960 and the text a lot of people just don't like to talk on the phone they don't like to talk live radio I can understand that I respect that so text Airy code 772, that's 772-497-6530, 7-7-3-0, 772-497-6530. We're not just looking for endorsements and praise and accolades. We like accolades, that's nice. But this is live talk radio, live, live.

I mean, it's scary. Thousands of people out there listening, every word we say, and listening to every word. say. So if you want to be critical, we love it. Well, I'd love the excitement builds the audience, right, Nancy? Exactly. And excuse me, you're interrupting you, but I'd like to hear from the ladies how was their experience. And I know that they realize that they buy half the cars. And, I mean, please give me a call. I know you're listening out there. 877-960. Why are we still in the 21st? Why haven't we moved to the 21st?

century, ladies, I'm not sure why. It's still the, you know, dominated by men, the automobile business, and it stopped going out there to purchase a car. But if you have a good story, gosh, we'd love to hear from you. Again, that number is 877-960-99-60. And we're going to go to Steve, who's calling from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Steve. Hello? We're having technical difficulties. Apparently Steve can't hear us, so I don't know what the problem is.

The same thing happened with Howard. Good morning. I purchased a car, believe it or not. I picked it up on Monday using the Costco website, and they gave me a dealer, which was close to my home. And it was actually a pleasant experience. They told me it was below-in-voice price, and there was really no negotiating off the price.

Pretty much no negotiating. It was that price, and that was it. But it went smoothly. There was no glitches, and everything went well. Oh, that's great, Steve. I'm glad to hear that. Can you share the name of the dealership with us? I'm sorry, you're really breaking up.

Yeah, I know. I'm very sorry about that, too. We're having phone difficulties. I hear you loud and clear. You bought a car, I'm not clear on whether you bought the car from the Costco dealership and went through the process, or did you just get the price quoted? And let me tell you why. We might as well get into that area now because you have been dealing with a Costco dealer. We found that the Costco dealers, under the rules of Costco now, Costco is allowing the dealers to add their extra fees to the Costco price.

They give you a legitimate price on a Costco sheet that is so many dollars under invoice. It could be $1,000 or sometimes $3,000 under invoice, and that is the Costco price. Then when you sign in and you sign the paperwork in the business office, you find out that they've added thousands of dollars, hundreds of dollars, depending on their dealer fees. So my concern is that the dealer that you're dealing with, have you not consummate of the transaction by signing the papers you would find that in addition of the Costco price they quoted you would be additional and that would be depending on the dear fee if i'm still breaking up you probably can't hear me but if you if by chance you can't hear me

is that what happened with you steve well steve can't hear me so okay well i apologize to our audience i apologize to steve we uh are having fun problems here and that really puts a grip on the show we hope to have them fix momentarily but if you're listening out there boy do we have a great mystery shopping report and ladies and gentlemen we're going to get to that mystery shopping report just a little bit earlier in the show so well it can get the attention that it deserves if you can hear us 877 960 9960 or you can know Texas if you'd like we love to get Texas

from our audience, and that number is 7-7-2497-6530. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Okay, we have a text here from Don and LaBelle, and Don and LaBelle is one of our regular and most interesting and intelligent callers. He just, as sharp as attack, and I love Don. Yeah, I love hearing from him. He just knows a whole lot of stuff. And Don says this in his text,

is a new safety technology becomes standard each year on new cars what might be the average cost increase each year at the retail or dealer cost level and in recent years down from Louisville? Amazing question.

I remember going back how many years now, 40 years when they first came out with airbags and I can remember as a car dealer being, this is back when I was evil. I want you to know that before I'd be understood. really, really got it.

And I said, airbags, that is the dumbest thing I ever heard of. What do you need an airbag for? We got seatbelts, and I'm not even crazy about the seatbelts. So now we got airbags. That's going to add $2,000. So we had our lobbyist in Congress, our state lobbyists, and we're lobbying like crazy not to make an airbag standard. And then they not only added an airbag, they added a passenger-side airbag,

and that's ridiculous, right? Yeah. And then as if that wasn't, I'm not how to put airbags on the side. I guess what I'm saying facetiously. And brakes. They put brakes on the car. facetiously, I'm saying that we always fight for the additions because there is a cost. Yes.

Yes, certainly it costs the dealers more to put the airbags and it costs the customer more to buy them. The good news is through the economy of volume and scale size, for getting production costs down, you know, you buy more products, you buy more material, get the price down. It really works. The cost of a car today, Don, is in today's dollars, far less than the cost of a car 25 years ago, 50 years ago, 10 years ago. If you look at the average income for the average car buyer, and you look at the percentage

that the average car cost of that average income, it gets lower and lower every year. Of course, if we had no airbags and we had no seatbelts and we had no safety technology at all, they'd be even cheaper, but we would have a lot of people dying. Rick? As a comparison there, when Prius first hit the shores here in the U.S., people were concerned about how much is that hybrid battery costing. And when they first showed up here, that battery was over $10,000. Now you can buy a battery from the battery.

Toyota dealer less than 3,000. That's a perfect example. And of course the safer you make the cars and more people buy cars and the price does come down. But it is a valid observation done because with the computers

and cars today, I think the thing that would concern me less than the purchase price of the car is the cost of repair. And we find today that the cost of repairs of the high-tech items the computer modules are very expensive. If you have a computer module blank out,

Rick will check me on this, you could be talking $2,000 or $3,000. Easily, depending on the unit, yes. And in an older car, if you go back far enough, there wasn't anything. You get a whole engine for far less than $2,000 or $3,000. Today, you can't even buy a computer module for what you paid for an engine 40 years ago.

Yep. And transmission's the same way. Everything is high-tech, but it is so far superior and the value is so much greater. And as I say, the percentage that we spent of our disposable income on cars is far less than it ever was. Yeah, absolutely. Well, Tina's calling us and she's a regular from Anita Springs. Hi, guys. How are you doing? Hi, Tina.

Hi, Tina. Can you hear us? I just wanted to kind of like make a public service announcement. And you know how I am about my public service announcement. but public service discussion, I should say. But there's been a lot of talk about distracted driving with phones, but I don't think people realize, and Rick will agree with me on this. I hope he does. I don't think people realize how distracting those stupid entertainment centers are.

They are very distracting. I think even more so than a phone. You're very right. As a matter of fact, some states even have a law that any sort of a screen, that displays any animation must be turned off while you're driving the car. Yeah, we're having problems with our phones, Tina. The sound quality is terrible, and we've got Colin in the control room here, frantically working on it.

But one of these things you have to deal with, we heard you loud and clear. I don't know if you can hear me. Very frustrating. The fact that we're getting a lot of gadgets on the cars today that can be a threat to our safety is very true. A lot of it has to do with the discipline that we have to exercise. I'll be the first one to admit. I have my smartphone with me in the car,

and I probably use it in ways I should not. I'm trying to use the hands-free, the Bluetooth. I'm trying to eliminate the distractions that I have with the phone. A lot of people are addicted to our phones. You know, the light on the horizon, the end of this, it will be best for everybody, it will be the autonomous car. What we're doing now is we're evolving too fast into autonomy, meaning we're still carrying humans around with all this high-tech.

We've got to have the human be totally non-involved with driving. When we have a human driving the car and the advantage of all the high-tech, the human is going to use it. So we have to make the human a passenger that's coming very quickly. and when the autonomous car gets here, we're going to be very, very happy for all the high take. Right now, ironically, counterintuitably, it is a threat to our safety. Yeah, absolutely.

And until we get to that point, you know, there just has to be more people on the road that understand respect. You're on the road. Not only respect, you know, the wheel that you have in your hand, but respect the other driver. And there's just, there's not enough of it. But how do you feel, ladies and gentlemen? Give us a call.

Toll free at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-60. As Tina was saying there, she was mentioning the TV screens that almost every car has now. Like Tesla's, there's the size of an old-fashioned iPad. I mean, it's huge. Yeah. And they can be very distracting, those animations. looking at the maps in that. So folks, yeah, you want to definitely

keep your eyes on the road and off that TV screen. Yeah, for sure. Tina, are you still with us? Tina's going. Let me give us real issues today. Let me give a heads up to our listeners out there. We have a technical problem. I think it's on the phone.

I think it's on the phone. Yeah, it's on the phone. And that's the problem. You can't hear us, but we can hear you. So what we would like to ask you to do is continue to call 877-960-960. We can hear you loud and clear. You cannot hear our responses. So if you could try this, if you could state your question in its entirety when you call

because the dialogue isn't going to happen, you can't hear us when we're speaking on the phone to you. You can hear us on the radio and we can hear you on the phone, but you can't hear us on the phone. Or you can resort to text, which is exactly what we could do on the phone if you could give us the complete question or comment on the phone. We'll read it and then try to answer it. This text that we just got in is regarding the Costco issue, which is going to be the primary topic today. And the text says, we have bought two Honda cars to Costco, last one in 2013, and we're very happy with the dealers and the price. but if they are now adding fees we will start doing more comparison

in our next car purchase thank you for the knowledge June F in Palm Beach Gardens well thank you June for the text as I say this is the topic of the day the Costco auto buying program and before I have people

thinking I am bad-mouthing Costco I'm doing nothing of the kind Costco is an amazing company it's honest it's transparent. This problem they're having with the Costco auto buying program is a separate issue because the Costco auto buying program is a different company. There's a little lack of transparency there, frankly, and I'll have to give Costco a little bit of blame because they make you assume

that when you buy a car through the Costco auto buying program, you're dealing directly with Costco. Actually, you're dealing with a separate company. It's not owned by Costco. It's not even a subsidiary. It's a company called the Costco Auto Buying Program that is a service that Costco subscribes to. And what has happened with the Costco Auto Buying Program is they to sign up dealers and encourage car dealers to become a part of the Costco Auto Buying Program. They're saying this to the dealers. Okay, give us the Costco price. It's got to be a very low price. The Costco auto price requires that you have the lowest price that you will sell that model car to anybody any of your customers so when you go into a car dealership on the Costco

auto buying program you are by definition theoretically of Costco getting the best price that that car dealer will sell to anybody and that has to be on a list of Costco official contract Costco auto prices you put that price on there Costco checks that price verifies it and if you try to raise a price Costco says you got to bring the price down now that sounds really good doesn't okay here's the problem here's the fly in the ointment the car dealers are adding their dealer fees to the Costco price in the business office when you sign in and take delivery oftentimes you don't even know that you think that these fees are legitimate government fees like tax and tag sales tax no these are profits to the dealer the car

our dealers are adding multiple dealer fees called tag agency fees called servicing fees called dealer prep fees called electronic filing fees and they add all these fees doc fees they add them all together and they can be over a thousand they could be over 2,000 we know dealers that are charging over $3,000 so you get the great Costco price and you thank them for it and you go to the business office and you get another $2,000 added to the price so that is the problem we're having today. And it's not the advertised price. They're adding on exactly and not giving you a fair price. Very good point, very good point. And Rick's point is against the law.

Exactly. Rick states the fact that Florida law requires car dealers to include their dealer fees into their advertised price. Now you could argue about the Costco price being advertised. I say it's advertised. Costco says it's not advertised. The Costco a other buying program says it's not, but it's on a piece of paper that you show a customer and that induces them to buy a car. To me, that's an advertisement. And to me, they're breaking Florida law. Yeah, well, ladies and gentlemen, how do you feel about all of this? It's quite an

interesting topic. And like I said, we're going to get to the Mystery Shopping Report just a little bit earlier than we normally do. But we're right here to take your questions. We are having some technical difficulty, but the text messages are coming in, and I'll give out the number anyway, 877960, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Well, again, this issue we're having, if you're thinking about calling the show with 877-960, we're having technical problems with the telephones. You can hear us fine on the radio.

We hear you on the radio. We can hear you on the phone, but we cannot transmit to you on the telephone. So when you call the show, you will make a statement. We'll hear you. It'll be live on the radio. Everybody can hear you.

But when we answer you on the phone, you will not be able to hear us answer you on the phone. So my suggestion is, please call anyway. 877-960-99-60. understanding our difficulty, state your question, comments, whatever you have to say on the phone in its entirety. And then you can hang up and we can listen to the answer on the radio. And Colin is working in the control room to see what he can do to get the phone

fixed for us. Yes, he's working feverishly. And you can text us, of course, and that way we have your complete comment. And I have one from Tina here that had called earlier. We couldn't hear her, so she's texting us now. if you call or text if you text we get your complete comment and if you call please make it complete on the on the phone and then we will you can hang up and we can answer the question let me go back to one of Tina's I think this is down here let's see Tina's text here I'm having a little problem

my iPhone this is a high-tech show we got here how many people who own Corvettes do not know about a safety manual a safety lever for their doors I didn't know about safety lever for doors on Corvettes if the electrical system goes out they'll be stuck in their car if they do not know how to use that lever wow I hope we have another text

from Tina because I'm dying to know and here's another text from Tina wow I tell you what a fountain of knowledge Tina is Tina from Benita Springs Is that Tina's home? Yes, Benita Springs. Yeah, amazing, amazing gal. Tina says, finally, all Honda Fit owners should regularly check the torque on the spark plugs.

The torque on the spark plug, yeah. They have been known to blow out, in some cases, destroy injures. Now, that'll get your attention. Yeah. I wouldn't know how to check the torque on my spark plugs, but Tina would. Tina would and Nancy would, but most of you would probably take it into your service. department and have them check the torque on your spark plugs. Isn't that interesting?

You know anything about that? We'll Google that. And Rick, you know anything about torque on spark plugs? The Honda spark plug things, that's a new one on me. I haven't heard that they were having an issue with those. I was just looking up on the Corvettes here. And apparently, yes, there is an issue where these cars are designed to where they no longer have an actual door handle,

they have a button that releases the door to open it, and then apparently they have a safety release to where if you lose battery power, because otherwise they're saying here where the car's battery cable had loosened up, and it suddenly shut the car down, and the gentleman couldn't get out of the car, and he literally, he died in a hot car

because he could not get the car open and had no electrical power, And apparently he wasn't aware of that safety lock, you know, the safety handle to open the car. And that safety handle is way down on the floor of the car. That's quite an interesting little thing there. But, yeah, let me look this up on the Hondas. Okay. Well, Rick's looking that up.

We're going to go to E.J., who's calling from Jupiter. Hi, how are you? Oh, good. E.J., can you hear us? Yeah, it's getting a little staticky now. Oh. Hello? Okay.

We're going to try. It was very loud and clear before, now it's been staticy. Well, just state your question, E.J., could you hear that? Because, as you say, you can't hear us. Well, could you state your question or comment, please? Sure. Well, I have been seeing advertisements that will say, things like buyer discount minus $1,000.

So my question is, does that mean that the buyer has to put down $1,000 in order to get that discount? Well, the thing about discounts is that it's a discount. is that it's a discount from what? And one of the most common ploys to deceive buyers by car dealers is to inflate the price of the car. The price of the car, the standard price of a car that we should always measure discounts from is the MSRP, the manufacturer's suggested retail price.

And what the dealers are doing now is they're adding, they call them addendum labels, They put a sticker alongside of the official Monroney label on the car, and they add additional profit, additional markup. They also add dealer-installed accessories, usually overpriced with very little value. So discounts really mean nothing. You can discount a car $10,000 or $5,000. We actually had a Kia dealer that was advertising discounts over $10,000, and he had an addendum label, next to the Monroney label, the MSRP, that added $10,000 and artificial profit to the car.

So all he was doing was discounted. That's what I had seen, is there was a lot of discounts. One was the consumer cash discount. There was a dealer discount, then a manufacturer's discount, and it did all total up. Somewhere from maybe $10,000. And they did have the manufacturers suggested retail price. And when all of it was deducted, it was somewhere in the neighborhood of a $10,000 discount. Yes.

Yeah, the discounts are so, you can have a $10,000 discount that's a really good deal, and you can have another one that's absolutely a terrible deal. Or you can have a $1,000 discount that's a really good deal and vice versa. There's only one way to truly measure the validity of a discount, and that's to measure the discount from the manufacturer-suggested retail price. If you are going to buy a Chevrolet and you go to three Chevrolet dealers and you compare MSRPs, identical MSRPs, from three different sellers of that vehicle, say it's a Chevrolet Corvette, if you measure that and you can buy the car then

from the dealer that gives you the highest discount, from that specific MSRP. Once you get into another model and a different MSRP, discounts mean nothing. But the federal government, back in 1958, when they established the Monroney label, there's actually a Senator Monroei that sponsored that law. His purpose in life was to make it fair

to compare prices between dealers, but the dealers have made a laughing stock of the Monroney label by adding their dealer addendums and the extra sticker price that they add to it. Well, Earl, I want to thank you for having such an honest dealership, and we really appreciate your service to the community. E.J., thank you very much. Please call again, and I'm glad you can hear me.

I think we may have gotten our phones under control, so thank you very much. I think so, Earl. Very good. Please call again. Yes, thanks, E.J. Do you have another text over there? Well, let's see here if I got another text over here. we got to. Okay, here we go. This is a statement only from Paul. He says, I leased a car

Napled and Hyundai on Okachovie, and I wanted oil changes in tire rotations included for the three-year life of the lease. After the first year, I found out it was only for the first year, and naturally it's my fault for not reading the fine print. I'd be saying I would never go back there again. Thanks for being a consumer advocate, Paul. Well, Napleton Hyundai on Okachobi did it again and we have all of the Naples dealerships to the best of my knowledge Stu I think it is they're all on the do not buy list there's not one good one among

and there's a lot of them too right I mean there's got to be a half dozen Napleton dealerships and the sound of my voice bunch of bad apples they are I'm glad you said apples you had me worried there bad apples is what the Naples dealerships are and they're all in the do not recommend list fine print Paul I'll address that that's one of my pet peeves. Do you realize that everything is okay as long as you put your disclosure in the fine print? And that's a violation of Federal Trade Commission rules. The Federal

Trade Commission says that if you advertise a price on any product, car, lipstick, refrigerator, whatever it is. The advertised price, if it's modified in any way, has to be modified in print equal in size to the price, conspicuously and plainly. Plainly. Plainly. and conspicuously displayed next to the price. That's what the Federal Trade Commission says. But who cares about the Federal Trade Commission? It's only a government agency, right? And I'm not just blaming Napleson here on Okoobie, Napleskla and Hyundai

for putting its disclosure in the fine print, and it is deceptive. But everybody does it. Napleton Hyundai on Okachobi Boulevard does a lot worse things than a fine print. Everybody does a fine print. And I'm saying the manufacturers do it. Then they get into the complacency of it all. And, you know, what you just said, you know, it isn't difficult to fulfill something like that. It's real easy, you know.

So the dealers out there are just not interested, at least most of them. If the human psychology involved in this phenomenon is getting used to something. When everybody does it. Complacency. And you did it when you were brought up. Your mother and father did it. your friends did it as you grew up it's still being done you take it for granted i mean i don't want to be maybe this is in bad taste but you know back in the 1700s slavery was involved in vogue and everybody

had slaves and that was okay nothing wrong with having slaves our society evolves and today we've evolved considerably i mean slavery has been eliminated it's a terrible thing but now we have much less problems which are fine print now can anyone give me the logic of fine print can anyone say with a straight face that it's okay to advertise a lease price of 99 dollars a month and then put in the microscopic fine print that you have to put $10,000 down to get the $99 a month payment now isn't that absolutely ludicrous it happens every day right and we say what who cares take it for granted 99 dollars for month then you you go to the car dealership and they say well you didn't read the fine print and i say i

couldn't read the fine print i didn't see the fine print have you ever tried to read fine print on a tv ad not only is you not only can't you read it without maybe a telescope depending how far from the tvs that you're sitting but if you could read it it's flashed on the screen so fast and there's so much fine print that the disclosure is usually toward the end of it and it's It's impossible. The only way we are able to read fine print on Earl Struton cars when we disclose and expose these terrible TV ads is by a screenshot. We freeze the screen and then we go in with our microscope or our magnifying glass and

we read the fine print. Absolutely. And before that, we'd walk into the studio with a magnifying glass. How long did we play with that at home before coming in for the show? So it was, you know, not all the consumers out there were going to get out. a magnifying glass, but you and I are an unusual couple. Ladies and gentlemen, if you can hear us out there, give us a call toll free at 877-960, or you can text us at 7724960, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. Remember, I have $50 for the first two new lady callers, and I'd like to know how you were treated this week, whether you purchased, you know, whether you're

released, whether he had service. Again, that number is 877-960-960. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Yes, and we had phone difficulties earlier, and if you called earlier and hung up in frustration because you could not hear our telephone responses, I think we have the phones fixed. E.J. called earlier, and we had a good dialogue.

He could hear us. We could hear him. Everything's okay now. So if you haven't given up on us, write that number down, you'll have a question. We're on until 10 o'clock. It's 877-960-99-60. 877-960-90-60. Or you can text us, and Tina just text us, by the way, and I'm going to read Tina's text. The text number is 772-497-6530. And the phones are working again. You can hear us. Call us at 877-9-60-9-9-6-0. Actually, now I'm going to read this text from Tina. And, John, we know you're out there and you're holding,

and that's John from Palm City, but we'll be right with you after the text. Well, let's get right with them now. We'll read Tina's text next. I'm so excited that we've got John from Palm City. Yeah, hi, John. Good morning. Good morning. Oh, we can hear you.

The average age of cars in the United States is 11.5 years. 260 million of them are on the road, 120,000. billion, they are six to 15 years old. Now, car brands kept at least 15 years on the top list of 15 or 16 of them. All the top ones, six cars are Toyotas. I won't go into all the models. It's Avalon, Camry, et cetera, et cetera. Then going down the list, it's Accura, MDX, Honda, CRV, Honda Odyssey, Nissan, Frontier,

Subaru, Forrester, and the last one on it is Volkswagen Golf. This is according to a website called Iccars.com. So the average car, which is important for people to know, is 11.5 years. That tells you something compared to the way the cars used to years ago, you know, I mean, we had to do a ring job in 75,000, 100,000 miles or whatever. Today, absolutely, lasting longer, which is good. because the cost of an average car. So I want to mention that.

But the other thing, which is a very important item, yesterday on NBC, our local affiliate, which is Channel 5, WPTV in West Palm Beach, was a very important item that they showed to use cars that are being pushed that were owned by Uber and LIP. Okay? There's a major problem on it because it's not divulged.

And you don't really want one of them because they have a lot of isling, you know, on the engine. They have a lot of mileage. Many of them have, like, in two years, 150,000 miles on it. Worst part about it is on the title, they want to get this changed in Tallahassee. The title says personal lease or just a lease. Now, a former taxi cab in the state of Florida has formerly used. use as a taxi. This is not on the titles for those Uber and lit cars. It's not commercial lease even. Some cars even will say commercial lease. No, they researched it and they showed even

the title on it. It said personal lease, most of them say are just plain lease. So what there is a campaign and it should, you know, be changed that they don't allow these cars to go on the market without the consumer, you know, finding out where they, and another indication, they said there's a lot of wear in the back seat, in the car, and also a big giveaway, and on the windshield, the Uber and the lip have a symbol, you know, when you haul them, you know that that's from the company. They scrape the sticker off, but there's use of residue on the glass windshield, and that's a giveaway also. So like everything else,

do the homework, they're selling them cheaper naturally because of the mileage, but it's not divulge that they were formerly used and basically that's a taxi cab. So I just want to point that out, and that's NBC had a big session on that

on yesterday's news. Well, congratulations to WPTV, and thank you very much, John. That's been one of your most interesting calls. It's something that never occurred to me. And here I am a former Uber driver. Back when Uber first got started, I just couldn't resist it, so I signed up as an Uber driver. But it never occurred to me that so many Uber cars would be on the road.

In fact, did you know in New York City last year, there were more Uber rides than taxi rides. And interestingly enough, the taxi, as you say, have to have the disclosure that it was a taxi cab, a commercial vehicle. but the Uber drivers and the Lyft drivers, they're not listed because the people don't know you're an Uber driver or Lyft driver, just between you and Uber and you and Lyft. It's not a commercial vehicle. In many cases, they don't even have commercial insurance, so it's not something that the public is aware of. Great point. We do need to have some legislation on that.

I never thought about that until you called. Well, like everything else, buyer beware. Exactly. Do your homework, do the research, even on the fax report. It's not going to say Uber or lit right on it. It's not going to list that. And the worst part about it is the way that the title reads. And it doesn't say anything about taxicab.

It has right, outright on it, personal lease or just plain lease. So hopefully they'll change the law on that. Well, it certainly needs that. That's something that the Florida Automobile Dealers Association, ought to do something about, but they're not going to because the dealers would never approve it. But it's a bad thing for the public. The resale value of a car is greatly diminished if it's been used for police or taxi cabs. Lease cars not so bad, but taxi cabs and police cars are really driven pretty hard.

And if you disguise one as a regular car, you're really taking advantage of the customer. John, great call. Thank you very, very much. All right, I'm waiting for the shopping report. That's a doozy. Great. Thank you, John. We're going to go to Howard, who's holding from Jupiter.

Thanks for calling back, Howard. Okay. I think everything's working out. I hope. Great. Okay, my question is for Rick. My son has a 2002 Monte Carlo, and he drives in New York, and he needs Bluetooth, but if that car wasn't equipped with Bluetooth,

is there anything that you could buy at... at maybe in Best Buy or some way to get Bluetooth in the car? Oh, absolutely. Adding Bluetooth to a car, a very, very simple thing. There are such items that are simple as a attachment for your mirror that can give you Bluetooth and goes right on the rearview mirror. There are others that just mount separately in the car and they transmit through the radio speakers.

Other units themselves, you can switch to a different radio that has Bluetooth built in. They can be quite inexpensive. Amazon.com has some fantastic units on sale. And my own favorite, Best Buy, I'm a Best Buy fan for certain things like that. I got a radio for my truck. I bought it from Best Buy in order to have the Apple Car Play, which is kind of Bluetooth but greatly expanded. And you're going to get the Geek Squad to install it for you.

Absolutely. And I got to tell you, Geek Squad does some great work for electronics. I'm telling you, we can prove that. I mean, they've done a lot of work for us quite some time ago. Yep. And I would highly, highly, highly recommend, especially the state of New York, where you say, I believe you said New York, I believe it's illegal to use a cell phone unless it is hands-free there. Yes, it's illegal. And I went to Best Buy, and they couldn't help me. Really? I went to Best Buy, and they told me the Geek Squad doesn't install that anymore. And I don't want anything that goes through the radio because you have to put an FM station. You've heard of that one.

So you can't listen to the radio. You have to keep it on FM. So I want something that I could attach to, I had a, me, my son had a Jabra. And that doesn't work anymore. It hooks the visor. Right. But they don't sell that anymore. and I guess Amazon would be the best way to go.

Yeah, if you want a separate unit that is just put it in the car and it's kind of plug-in-play type thing, I would look on Amazon and, of course, check the reviews on Consumer Reports, but I would go to Amazon and look for the standard hands-free Bluetooth units that you would simply turn the radio off and it has its own built-in speaker. Some of these units even have solar power,

to where they suction cup to the windshield up nice and high where they're out of your view, but they keep it continuously powered by way of solar power. So they're really great that way. Otherwise, the next step would be I would look into the idea of switching to a different radio, put it and installing a different radio because then the Bluetooth actually works directly through the radio and having an upgraded system. he'd have 2018 technology in that car for the radio system. Okay, good tip.

Thank you very much. I appreciate your help. My pleasure, sir. Yeah, have a good day, and I'll be talking to you from the Bronx. All righty. That'd be great. Have a safe trip, Howard. Thank you very much.

Bye. I hope you stay in touch. Have a great trip. Give us a call toll free at 877960-9960, where you can text us at 772-497-653. Ladies, let me remind you, if you didn't hear earlier, I have $50 for each female caller. That's the first two new collars. So, $50.

Anything you want to talk about, ladies, 877960, 9960. The texts are coming in, heavy and hot, and we're very happy. We got one from Desiree. I'm going to go to Mark, who's been holding in Royal Palm Beach. Welcome to the show, Mark. Good morning, thank you. Good morning. I enjoy your show very much, and I've learned a lot.

Two months ago, I purchased a 2016 Toyota Rev 4 at Earl's store in Lake Park, and I want to say Earl and his staff are to be commended. It was a good transaction, and I'm very pleased with the vehicle. Thank you, Mark. However, spotting on the paint job has me very frustrated. I wash it regularly. I've applied by hand two different commercial brands of wax, fertile wax and mother's brand.

The latter is a synthetic type that was recommended as being more durable under our hot Florida sun. Unfortunately, white spotting occurs every time it rains and it's difficult to wipe off. Is there anything you can suggest? Where's Alan when we're doing? Yeah, we have an expert on that is on the show once a month,

and he's due, and we're going to get Alan Napier on this thing. I'll throw it at Rick. I'm not sure whether this is something. When you first bought the car, when did you first start noticing the spots right away? Was the car okay when you took delivery, or did you start noticing the spots a few weeks or months later? I would say it was a couple days later, it rained the next day. Gotcha. Rick, do you know, can you feel this question, or shall we get, get Alan on the phone?

I'm texting him. Yeah, we're texting Alan about it. This is one that I would really love to simply drop in Allen's lap. What color part do you got, Mark? It's a 16-Rab. What color? Yeah, 2016 rave, silver. Silver.

Silver. Wow, because silver is usually one of the more durable colors. Yeah, silver, white. The only thing I could think of right off the bat is possibly having it compounded, you know, a polishing compound. But I don't want to recommend that right out of hand because I'm not too sure how dangerous that would be on the clear coat. Well, let me answer this. I think Mark's saying that you get the spots off, but the spots appear after it rains. Yeah.

Right after it gets wet and then dries the spots return. And then you have to wash the car to get the spots off. Yes, it's very frustrating trying to head of the spot, trying to stay ahead of it. Well, I think you stump the panel here. Mark doesn't happen very often, and our alibi is that if Alan Napier are here, he would have the answer. Let's do this. We're texting Alan now, and we're going to find an answer for you. If you want to leave your contact information with Colin in the control room,

and you don't want to give your number over the phone, we will contact you and get you Alan Napier's official comment. And we'll also make the information known to the radio audience, but you stumped us right at this very point in time. Okay, I would appreciate his input. Thank you, Mark. Thanks for being a customer, and thanks for a great call. Please call back.

Okay, give us a call toll-free at 877-9-60-99-60, and glad to say the things are moving along smoothly. If you'd like to text us, though, you can give us a call at 772-49. 76530, and we have Tina that's holding, and we're going to take her call and maybe continue with the conversation. Yes. Okay, Tina, how are you? Welcome back.

Hi, I'm doing good. I can hear you much better. I texted you a little bit ago, and this is just like my conspiracy theory, allegedly, to paraphrase Rich Lux, who's on YouTube, long story with that one. But anyway, I think the fine print is an attack on the elderly Because when you get past a certain age, the fine print, you really can't read it too well And I'm of that age, so I know how that is, but especially with somebody that's elderly They're not going to read that fine print because it's too much of a pain

So in that case, they're the ones that are going to get swindled That's just my opinion Absolutely correct, Tina Hey, I'm wearing bifocals right now, and I, you know, I'll freely admit it. You're technically a senior citizen now, Rick. No, not quite. Oh. Wait, 50?

50? Come on. No, you're younger than I am. Don't say that. 50 is the new 30. Hey, Earl, you and I are just kind of going to look at each other, right? I mean, here we got Tina on the line. She's talking about her age.

I'm a squinter. And we got Stu, we got, we have, Rick. What are these children going to do when they're our ages? I got my vocals. Okay, Tana. Alan replied to my text, by the way. I don't know whether, you know, everyone's entitled to their opinion, but as far as the small print is concerned, you know, I've spoken to the millennials. I've spoken to the G, what is it, the G, G, G, G, G, G, you know who I'm talking about.

You know, they're like 18, 19 years old. The gen whatever? Gen Y. Gen Z, maybe? It might be Gen Z. Well, Alan got back to us on the spots on the paint. Oh, did it? Hold on a minute, Tina.

And he says there really are new miracle remedies that he's aware of. If it's wiping off, it's coming from particulate matter in the rain. And keeping it wax will help, but basically it's going to spot it. We blame it on pollution. Exactly. Yeah. I can. that's not a good answer for me

I can't stop the rain from Let's go back to Tina We got Tina on the phone here Tina One of the things that I think that We joke about the fine print And seniors particularly joke about the fine print You see how our culture has

adopted and accepted something that's unacceptable By joking There should be no fine print And I can expand this to I can expand this to Legal documents Why should anything be in the fine print? How about your phone?

How many times do you accept a user agreement that's 50 pages of the phone? Don't even know what it said. I just want to use my phone. It's all written in legalese, too. Who has patients to read legalese? You know, I really could not afford to bring a lawyer at $400 an hour and I'm listening when I buy a car. It would be nice, but that's not the reality for me.

Well, Tena, you know, for some of us, out there, at least the people that, the consumers that I have dealt with, they're a little embarrassed. They're a little bit embarrassed. Oh, gosh, I read that fine print pick. I couldn't understand what the heck

even was, what it meant. So there's, you know, and I'm talking about 25-year-olds. I'm talking about 35-year-olds, so you know, we can blame it on whatever. And as Earl said, fine print is everywhere. So, short of Kerry, you're talking about an attorney,

I'm going to put my magnifying glass back in my back pocket. Maybe that'll solve the problem. Yeah. And I have a quick question for Rick. I have a 2015 Toyota Yardis, and I am thinking about getting a stretch and spring for it to lower it down a couple inches. I don't mind a firmer ride, but I just want to make sure it's not going to be a bad idea in the long run. The only issue that I really would be cautious with with lowering cars is places that you go sometimes with speed bumps or speed humps. You may run into issues there with the car actually scraping.

Oh yeah, I know that one. Yeah. And the other issue that, and now this is something for me personally, but as a mechanic, we have a bit of issues sometimes with these lowered cars, getting them onto a lift. when we're going to do basic maintenance and services or repairs on the car, we've actually had to tell some customers that we can't work on their car because we cannot physically put the car in the air because they've modified it so far that the car sits down on the ground so far that we can't get a lift under it at all.

And plus in some of these new safety technologies, like the smart stop and the laser guided cruise control and things like that, it can be affected if you change because they're calibrated. at the factory. Right. Of course, the 16 yards won't have those, but. Yeah, it's, and not to mention the fact that the added pounding on the car, you know, you'd want to make sure that you've got somebody very, very high quality,

putting in high quality components if you're going to do that, simply because that added vibration can actually cause things to loosen up all over the car. So it might be something just to kind of keep your eyes on. And I know a lot of folks, they want to modify the vehicles to get them to be unique, to make it their own. It just sometimes some of those modifications do have, you know, costs that they don't anticipate. We've seen it too with a lot of these guys with the big trucks where they put the big wide, wide wheels and tires on them. Trying to drive those on a lift, they're literally so wide that they're wider than the lift. And we have some real tricks to try to get some of those into where we can work on them.

Wow, well, those are all excellent points. And you know what, Rick, I think I owe you one because you're saving $1,000. I think I made my decision not to lower my car. I was just going to drop it by a couple inches, but that pretty much can convince me out of it. Yeah, sometimes those things can be, they can come back to bite you a little bit. myself, I would look at things like maybe upgrading the electronics, paint, things like that, you know, decorative things like that, that we'll still keep the car functioning properly and possibly even add some other safety items, maybe a nice backup camera.

That could be. I mean, the car has really good real visibility, so I don't have any issues with that. And to be honest, the stereo system in my car really does. sound very nice for a stock stereo system, so I don't see a need to change that immediately. And you know what the funny thing is, Rick, I had my Miata for 18 years, and there were so many people that was lower than Miata, and for some reason, I never did it. And looking back on it from what you told me, I'm glad I never did. I mean, I've heard stories of people parking their lowered Miata on grass and setting grass on fire. Yep.

Yeah, well, thank you for saving me money. My pleasure, Tina, for the phone call. We always love hearing from you. We're going to go to our mystery shopping report just a little bit early, so we'll talk with you next week. Stay tuned for that. Okay. Give us a call, toll-free at 877-960-9960,

or you can text us at 772-497-6530. And just a reminder, if you're unable to listen to our live show or you want to listen to any of our past shows, You can always subscribe to Earl Stewart on Cars, the podcast, on your smartphone or your tablet using the following podcast apps. And that's Apple, SoundCloud, Google Play, Music, Stitcher Radio, Tune-In Radio, Pocketcasts, and Overcast. So you want to keep that in mind. And again, if you would like to watch the highlights of our show, you can go to YouTube.com slash Earl on Cars. the recovery car dealer. Okay, we've got another text here.

From Desiree. And from Desiree. And from Desiree, thank you very much for texting it. Desiree probably was frightened off from calling when we had the technical problem. And so she sent us a text. Thank you very much. Desire says, good morning to you. All of my question for today is about the types of gas to put in your car. Does it really matter? And should you go to the same place all the time to get your gas? And is Walmart a good place to get your gas? This question comes from a family member, and she says, say hello to Tina, girl power. So there are a couple of gals that have become permanent callers to the show.

We're building a platform. Tina and Desiree. And as Nancy says, $50 cold cash to a new female caller. We need to get an army out there of female callers, and to get you into uniform, we're just going to pay you $50 cash. Absolutely. And we have another caller here. We do.

We have another caller. and Bob's calling from Lake Park. Hey, Bob. Welcome to the show. Good morning. How was everyone this morning? We're well, thank you. I just wanted to call on a follow-up on the Congress Avenue Extension

that I spoke to you about last week. And I was wondering if you remember that old Joni Mitchell's song, Caved Paradise and put up the parking lot. That's right. That's what's going to happen. Big in a taxi. This thing is pretty. much took on a momentum of the zone.

Great analogy. And the county's going to push this thing through. And, of course, they have an answer for everything when you talk to them. You talk to the developers, and they make they downplay the effect that's going to have on the area. But when you look at it, you see what they're doing. And you understand the situation that's on North Lake Boulevard now, you can only, you know, just if you have any type of of foresight, you can see that this over time, it's just going to be a nightmare on that road. Bob, have you tried hiring a lawyer to be your advocate?

No. No, I don't think that's going to make, I don't think that would make too much of a difference. Well, you know, there's nothing like a lawyer to slow things down. If you have a threat, sometimes even though a lawyer can't cure the threat or protect you indefinitely from a threat, I guarantee you that if you get a lawyer, you might have somebody that lives in Lake Park. If you have an attorney there that maybe do some pro bono work, I'd look for a lawyer. I assure you that a lawyer knows how to slow things down. You write a lot of letters, and you send a lot of emails, text. Lawyers really know how to stop things from moving.

And one of the reasons I don't talk to lawyers very often is because I like to move quickly. but if you want to slow something down, see if you can find a Lake Park citizen that is concerned as you are and he's an attorney or maybe knows an attorney who will donate a little bit of time. All they have to do is write a few letters.

Yeah, I'm not quite sure if the timing, you know, they're going to vote on this May 15th, so. Give it a try. I know this is, I know you're getting close to May 15th, but I guarantee you one letter would slow it down. could stop the vote on May 15th, I'd almost guarantee a lawyer would be able to stop the vote. They'd have to respond because everybody's afraid of lawyers. So just about, I know

you're frustrated, but there's not much, much else advice I could give you, Bob. I share your concern, because, you know, my dealership is in Lake Park, too, and we don't want to have any more problems than you do. So give that a try. Maybe I can come up with a lawyer's name for you. Yeah, that'd be great. It still has to go through the approval. phase over at the Palm Beach Gardens, you know, because the county dealing with the extension. But like I said before, they've completely re-engineered and rerouted that road in order in order for them to create a maximize the use of the property, which is going to in so many of these trucks and everything that's just, it's just going to be crazy.

So, yeah, that's good. If you have somebody in mind. Yeah. I've got a couple lawyers I could talk to, see if I can't ask him do some pro bono work for you. That would be terrific, and how would I go about getting that information? I'll need your contact information with Colin in the control room here, and I'll have your number, and I'll call you back on the phone. That's terrific.

All right, Bob. Thank you. Thanks for the call. Call again, please. Thank you very much. We have Pat, who's holding. She's calling from Jupiter, and welcome to the show. show pat you're the second lady caller i mean the regular caller how have you been hi okay i um i called a couple

weeks ago yeah i remember well i just heard the the man say about the spots on his car and uh i know for me i park my car by a sprinkling system and i have to move it because when the sprinklers go off, it does leave white marks on my car and my windshield that I can't get off. Yeah, that'll do it. Yeah, I think it's something with the iron in the water or something. I don't know. It is, iron. And so I was, I just wanted to tell the caller that it's not the rain.

Okay. Well, we're glad that you gave us a call. We're waiting to hear from Alan by email, correct? I just had a thought I had it in my mind wanders when I'm thinking about problems. And this isn't an answer at all, Pat, to the person that called earlier about the question. You know, Ranex works so well on windshields. I wonder if there's a product that has the Renex chemical or whatever it is in Ranex that makes the water just run right off without even appearing to adhere to the windshield at all.

I wonder if there's a Ranex product that is something you can put in wax where the whole car would just shed water as it came in. Just a wild thought, something to research. Right. Well, Pat, I hope we've answered. Well, thank you for sharing the sprinkler situation with us. And every call is an important call. I do have one other question, if you can hear me.

Yes. On the Corvette, that was very interesting. Is that only the newer models? Yes, that is the, I'd say the last four to five years they've been doing away with the actual door handle. And summarize the question, because a lot of people just talk in. Her questions about Corvettes, where apparently they have stopped having a stander. inside door handle, and it uses an electric button to release the door and open it. And now there is a safety handle located way down on the floorboards, which is the backup for

opening that door in case they lose electrical power. But this is in the last four or five years of the models of Corvettes where they've gone maybe a little too much in the way of electronics. And so just if you happen to have one of those cars, make sure you're familiar. with how to get that door open if you lose electrical power. Right, I don't, but I was wondering, a friend of mine is buying one. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Pat.

Thanks for calling back, Pat, and stay in touch with us and spread the word. I will. Thank you so much. Have a great weekend. We're going to go to Frank, who's holding. He's calling from Jupiter Farms. Welcome to the show. How are you, Frank?

Hey, good morning. As always, a pleasure to hear you guys on the radio. Oh, thank you. We just got your text. Real quick. Yeah. Okay, that too. Thank you guys.

Real quick about the Rainex from the windshield. The reason it won't work on your car is this paint versus glass. Yeah. But while we're talking about Rainex, years and years ago, I mean, decades ago, I bought an old Porsche. And I was just a cleaner at Eastern side. It wasn't making a whole lot of money, but I was driving a Porsche. And the windshield wiper motor motor work stopped work. $185.

Someone introduced me to Rain X. I never bought a windshield wiper for two more years, so I sold a car. So it really does work. That is an amazing product. To me, it's a miracle. I just enjoy watching it because I can't believe I'm in a heavy rain, and the range is running right off.

It's a heavy tropical downpour. Sometimes you have to pull over the side of the road. With a Rain X, it's just like it's not raining. Yeah. Yeah, it's truly magical. And the other thing with the guys with the paint spots on the after rain is some of it is due to nature, of course, because pollen in the air this time of year. And also, with the construction going on, it's amazing how many trees are cutting down and all the dirt and dust flowing around. In the light rain, you probably will get the water drops on a heavy rain.

It just rinses off because rain is pretty clear. Yeah. But anyway, again, thank you guys for what you do. Sounds good. I'll keep it short. But I did like that time you asked a question. and they got $50 about, you know, the song and stuff. Yeah.

Maybe we can turn around. If I can ask you a question and don't know, I'll give you the $50. Oh, okay. Is just me or can Rick and Stu and Nancy participate? Yeah, there you go. Okay, okay. Okay, we got a deal. We got a deal.

I know. Rick is. You have a good day. And let me know when you head out to the big dog ranch again all and make sure it will give some more bagels. Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks, Ray. Take care of God.

Bye-bye. Give us a call toll-free. At 877-960-99-60, we are going to be going to the mystery shopping report shortly, and that mystery shopping report is from Schumacher Chevrolet. Did we answer Desire's text? I think so. I think so. I think we're so.

But Frank had a question on his text. He didn't ask it on the air, but he did ask a question about Kia Airbags. and I think you have... Okay, is this one right here? That's it there? Yeah, okay, very good. Here you go, Frank. Thank you for your generosity to the public for enlightening them about the car buying, leasing maintenance,

and safety associated with cars, especially in regards to the airbag problem. Are you aware of the recall of Kia airbags? Saw it on several news days, several days ago. Yeah, Frank, the Kia airbag problem, we're all over it, we're frustrated, we're tearing our hair out.

I've called CBS News Anna Werner several times I did contact her once she said she's going to her editors Anna Werner, CBS Morning News we've got a local publicity person who is trying to get the local media involved there's an apathy about the Takada airbag it's one of the worst things that has ever happened

in my experience when it comes to safety recalls there seems to be almost a collusion among the media, the regulators, and I know I sound like I'm crazy, the legislature, the media, the regulators, Rick is waving at me here. Yeah, I think what Frank is discussing is there's a new issue that's just showing up where Hyundai has recalled 155,000 cars due to airbag failures, where the airbag does not inflate in a crash, and they're talking. about Kia, which has a similar automobile. Kia is a sister company to Hyundai. They're using

the same parts in similar cars, but they have not issued a recall on the Kia's. And yet four people have died in crashes where the airbags are not inflating. So if you own a Hyundai or a Kia, definitely have your car check to see if there are recalls and investigate this issue to see if maybe your car is one of the models with these airbags that may have an issue of not inflating in a crash. Well, thank you very much, Rick. I misread the text. That's absolutely right.

And I had heard about this, but I'm glad thank you very much for reminding us. And that's something it just makes the whole airbag problem beyond painful and beyond dangerous. It's either going to blow up and kill you or not go off a lot.

Well, Rick pointed out a couple shows ago that we've got Hondas out there with a 50-50 chance of blowing up in your face. For no reason at all. Exactly. So it's crazy, and I don't know what's going on with our legislators, regulators. Maybe you were right all along about the airbags all those years ago. Oh, yes.

They've saved a lot more lives. It wouldn't be something if an airbag were more dangerous than being without an airbag. And we're reaching the point now where it's almost better not to have an airbag. I don't know. I think they've probably saved more lives. You've got to be able to. Oh, I'm sure you're right. We're going to go quickly to Henry.

Henry's been on hold. He's calling from Jupiter. Hello, Henry. Good morning. Good morning. How are you? We're great. Listen, a real quick question.

I'm just testing your opinion. I have a pickup truck that was brand new in 14. It went into the dealer twice for air conditioning issues. And now the car is 9,000 miles over the warranty, allotment, and the air condition has gone out again. what do you think would be an appropriate response from the dealer? What model, make and model are we talking about, Henry? The Silverado. Okay.

Most automobile dealers, if your car has been in the shop while it was still under warranty for an air conditioning or any issue, if it's still having that same issue or that issue has reoccurred in such a short time, I would return there and go with polite, Persistence. Be nice, be friendly, but don't take no for an answer, and keep going up the food chain. Keep going up the managers until you get to corporate level and keep right on going. Just polite persistence, but don't take no for an answer. They should be taking care of that. If you had problems with the air conditioning and it's continuing, even though you're out of warranty, I would go after them and say, no, you need to fix this. okay that's kind of what I was thinking yeah Henry one additional point when you say you have the same problem they're going to hold you to the specifics there air conditioners blow warm air for a variety of reasons and if your air conditioner was blowing warm air and then they fixed it and then it happened again and they fix something else

and then they hit it again they fix something else they're going to claim you didn't have the same problem three times in a row to you was the same problem because you're getting hot when you should have been getting cold. But when you check your repair orders, find out if they're talking about the compressor, the condenser, or whatever other specific on your repair order. And if you came back for that same specific, then Rick is absolutely correct that they owe you a repair under the warranty. They didn't fix it properly the first time.

But they're going to give you an argument on that, I'm afraid. What I would also consider is trying a different dealer if you don't get cooperation. some car dealers can get the manufacturer's attention better than other car dealers, and that's what it takes. They have to get the permission from the dealer, from the manufacturer, to pay for that repair. It comes under goodwill when it's out of warranty, and that is something that requires someone at a higher level. But give it a try, and if you don't have any luck, call the showback, and we'll jump on your side and see if we can't put a little pressure on them for you.

Okay, I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Henry. We appreciate it. call, Henry. We are going to go straight to, unless you have another text, we're going to go to our mystery shopping report. Well, we've got some text here because we had an avalanche, but I'm going to do the mystery shopping report, and then we'll get to those texts. My apologies to the texters, but I think I begged too much for text earlier in the show when our phones went out, and you responded, and I thank you. And I apologize if I don't read your text, but I promise

I will toward the end of the show, if not, next week. Absolutely. Important, Mr. Shopping Report, and we want to be sure to get this in completely because it's very unusual. We're going to shop Schumacher Chevrolet. We did shop Schumacher Chevrolet. And the issue involves not only Schumacher Chevrolet, but Costco, one of the greatest companies on the planet Earth, in my opinion, one of the most transparent, honest, low-price, fair, customer-friendly companies there is. I love Costco. Yeah, absolutely. Everybody. Everybody loves Costco. If you don't have a Costco in your neighborhood, I feel sorry for you. You should call Costco and say, build a Costco. It is an amazing store. Okay, here we go. Two of the best ways to get a great price on a new car and avoid getting ripped off are true car and the Costco auto buying program. Both are similar in that they push dealers to compete to get the lowest price in front of potential customers. true car amazing company

Nancy and I were on the National Dealer Council for True Car I'm an investor in True Car we use True Car as a car dealership and Costco Auto Buying Program we love Costco as I said earlier Nancy and I are both regular shoppers at Costco we even shop online however there is an important difference

between True Car and Costco this is a revelation because up until now I kind of said they were both really good Good. True car prohibits its dealers from adding anything to the true car price, the true car price, other than legitimate government fees. It's really as simple as that. And that's the way life should be in car buying. Car dealers should quote their out-the-door price plus government fees only. They should advertise the out-the-door price plus government fees only. Who cares if they don't put the sales tax in or they put the license plate? Everybody knows what the sales tax is. Everybody knows what a license price. plate costs. If you don't, you can find out very easily. So that should be the rule. That is a rule for true car. No dealer fees.

They won't let you add dealer fees, dock fees, prep fees, private tag agency fees, e-filing fees, and I could go on for half an hour because car dealers in Florida, dealer fee is a generic name. They're very creative. Very creative. Dealer fee is a generic

name. It's like aspirin. And you can name aspirin anything you want to. You can call it Nancy's aspirin. You can call with Lulu aspirin, you know it big aspirin, little aspirin, old aspirin, you can name a dealer for you anything you want, the dealers do that. And the one thing they always have in common is they have the word fee in there, because we car buyers seem to think if you say fee, it means something legitimate, government-type thing that you can't avoid, like taxes, sales tax.

You've got to pay sales tax, and it's a fee, registration fee. So they put in profit, and they put fee at the end of it. They don't say profit, but they say electronic filing fee, tag agency fee, dealer prep fee, da-da-da-da-da. The true car price is an out-the-door price with just government fees and sales tax added. Costco, I have tears to my eyes as I read this. Costco does not prohibit their dealers from adding bogus fees, which are just additional profit. to the official posted Costco price. This is a problem.

Now, with that said, I have to tell you this. The Costco Auto Buying Program is not Costco. The Costco Auto Buying Program is a separate company owned separately, operated by, I strongly suspect, car dealers, or people from the car retail industry. We deal with them all the time. We've been dealing with Costco Auto Buying Program for a long time. And the people that we deal with are different types of people than the Costco people that we deal with when we deal with the real Costco.

The Costco Auto Buying Program is contracted with by Costco. Now, there's a big mistake. They did not go into full due diligence when they examined and checked out the Costco auto buying people. They lent their name, and they did this wrongly. They should not have lent their name to the Costco Auto Buying Program. Because people that buy from the Costco Auto Buying Program believe they're dealing with Costco, and they're not. The concept is good. The concept is good.

The way the Costco Auto Buying Program works is this. Dealers are given exclusivity to territory around Costco warehouses. When a Costco member inquires about buying a new vehicle, they're referred to a signed Costco dealer for that territory, as long as that dealer's price is in line with what Costco. consider it's a good price. Now, for example, my dealership is in North Palm Beach, Lake Park, Palm Beach Gardens area, and we are the official Toyota dealer for three warehouses for Costco, the one in Lake Park, the one in Green Acres, and where's the third one?

Boynton. Boynton, Royal Palm Beach. Is it Royal Palm Beach? So if you go in there to buy a Toyota, we're recommended. If you're going to buy a Chevrolet, they'll have, for example, Schumacher Chevrolet. If the price is too high for Costco when they're working with their Costco dealer, they will refer the Costco member to a dealer in the adjacent territory. They watch the prices that the Costco dealers post.

And if your prices are high, they'll call you up and say, your prices are higher. You need to lower them. And that's the rule. And if you don't play ball with Costco, they will move to another dealer. But it's very interesting how they determine what a good price is. And this is the crux of the matter, what Stu says.

How do they determine what is the good price? This incentivizes dealers to supply very low prices to the Costco auto buying program. But they get the price by asking the dealers. They get the price. They get the price. They get the price by asking the dealer. And they said, this is my price. And they don't.

Anybody can tell Costco what a price is. Only honest people can give the customer the price that they gave Costco. And that's where the rub is. But since the dealers aren't prohibited from adding an unlimited amount to bogus fees of bogus fees for the Costco price, they can afford to provide ridiculously low prices in which they do not intend to actually sell the car. So it's crazy. I mean, Costco is an amazingly smart company. They made one mistake.

They signed up with an auto buying car. program, Costco. They called it Costco. And they assumed that they were going to do what they told them to do. They did not do their due diligence. They did not, they should have mystery shopped their dealers. They should have done their due diligence. They did not do that. So the Costco auto buying program is essentially complicit. That's a legal term. They could get you in jail. They could get you sued. Complicit. And the car dealers bait and switch sales practices. So that's what it is folks bait and switch you advertise a price you quote a price customer comes in you add $2,000 to the price that's bait and switch and you call the $2,000 you added a fee and the customer

thinks it's a government fee sales tax tag registration who knows to illustrate this and we get to the mystery shopping report to illustrate this we send in agent X to mystery shop the Costco auto buying program. To access the site, we use the Costco membership to make an inquiry on a new 2018 Chevrolet Malibu. You have to be a member of Costco. I used to say it's worth the price of membership to get into the Costco auto buying program. So you have to be a member. And you feel very secure. You put your membership number in there. And now you're in the Costco hands, the good hands of Costco. We're going to protect you. We're going to take care of you. We're in the Costco ecosystem. We're going to give you a good price and you can trust Costco.

That's $99 for a membership, I think. It's going to save you more than that. Schumacher Chevrolet on North Lake Boulevard came up as the official Costco dealer, and we submitted the inquiry. We received a call within five minutes. That's good. From Marjorie, Marjorie, who wanted to set an appointment. Marjorie from Schumacher Chevrolet on North Lake Boulevard,

Agent Nix told Marjorie he would be there in 30 minutes. He asked if she was a salesperson he was supposed to see. Marjorie, who was very friendly and professional, said she is. assisted the sales department by making appointment. She told Agent X to ask for a sales manager when he arrived. I arrived, speaking of the first person as this, I am Agent X. I arrived at Schumacher Chevrolet about 1130, parked, entered the showroom. I found the reception's desk, but she may have run off for a cup of coffee because no one was there. I walked out of the back door to the display lot and began to walk around Schumacher Chevrolet within a few minutes.

I was approached by a salesperson, Yousaf. Y-O-U-S-E-F. Yosef shook my hand. Welcome me. I gave him my name, and I said I had an appointment to see a new Malibu. I said I'd inquired through the Costco auto-buying program and was told to speak with a sales manager. Yousef said, no problem.

I will have you out quickly with the best pricing exclusive to Costco. We walked inside, and he asked me to wait at his desk while he got the sales manager. Yusuf returned with Dave, Dave, the sales manager, who smiled broadly as he made his introduction. He handed me his business card and said he understood I was here with the Costco for the Costco auto buying program and assured me Yusuf would take good care of me. He said that Yusuf was a certified Costco representative. You asked me to find out if Yusuf was the certified Costco rep. He is not.

I have the email here. So Dave, the sales manager was, Yusuf is not listed. So for you, Costco buyers, to add to your feeling of security, you're advised to deal only with a Costco representative. The Costco representative is supposed to be officially responsible for seeing that you get the Costco price. If you don't get the Costco representative, then in some dealerships, and we have shop dealerships who've done this,

they will tell you they are the Costco representative. and give you whatever price they want to give you. Like Yousef did here, and they could give you any price they want to. They could counterfeit a Costco buying sheet. Most often they don't even show you the Costco buying sheet. But in this case here, so the red flag is up. Yusuf said he was a Costco representative. He was not a Costco representative, as we just found out.

Before he left, Dave asked me a series of qualifying questions that were not intrusive or pressuring, mainly about the car. He asked if I would be financing. But I quickly explained, I'd be using my credit union. He backed off immediately and did not try to change my mind. That's good. Car dealers usually don't back off immediately. They go on and on and on, trying to win your financing.

Yusuf and I walked back outside to find my Malibu. We landed on a nice gray L.S. model with an MSRP of $24,340. There was no addendum on the car. That was good. So far, so good. Now, if you just tuned in, this is so important, I want to remind you, we're shopping Schumacher Chevrolet on North Lake Boulevard in North Palm Beach, and we shop Schumacher Chevrolet because they're a recommended Costco dealer, and we're talking about an expose

that Costco is not doing their due diligence in allowing their by name-only Costco auto buying program to provide a real good price as they tell you they're going to do. So here we are testing out Schumacher Chevrolet to see if they will give you a good price as the promise from Costco says they will, a good low price. In fact, Costco says the lowest price. They will not allow a car dealer, that is a Costco approved dealer, to sell the car, they say, at less price than they sell anybody. They'll be the lowest price.

They'll sell to anybody. Okay. Yusuf telling me all about the car, and then we took a spin. We returned to talk numbers. Yusuf appeared to follow the Costco process correctly. He showed me the official Costco pricing sheet that showed me that the Costco price for the 2018 Malibu was $1,450 under dealer invoice. Now, that's the way Costco tells you to reference the prices. You show the factory invoice and then you show how far under factory invoice you will sell the price.

And by the way, I know this is an aside. dealer invoices don't mean anything. Dealer invoices include thousands of dollars and profit to the dealer. If you buy a car for dealer invoice, which the dealers will sometimes tell you, hey, that's my cost. They're lying to you. Dealer invoice is not the cost. That's a lie by the manufacturers and the dealers that's been accepted for many, many years.

The dealers are kicked back thousands of extra dollars of profit to themselves from the dealer invoice. So, the Costco price for the 2018 Malibu was $1,450 under invoice. He then showed me a document that looked like a real vehicle invoice that showed the amount to be $23,746. And 13 cents. Yousaf said that my price would be $22,000. He took the, how much, $1450 under invoice, took the $1450 off, and it would be $22,296. and I would still get a $3,500 GM rebate after taxes and fees. Wow, that's serendipity.

Now, you know what the price is? I said, great, let's write it up. I'd be thrilled at this point. Yusuf left to ask Dave for a buyer's order in return in a few minutes. My selling price was, as promised, $22,296. And 13 cents. Here we go. If you just tuned in, we're shopping, shoe,

Mocker Chevrolet, North Lake Boulevard, in North Palm Beach, and we shopped them to find out about the Costco auto buying program, which we fear is a fraud, which we fear is deceptive, which we feel is complicit to car dealers who bait and switch advertised. It has a flaw, a big one. And here's the flaw. It must be fixed. Yusuf, to the price that they quoted, to the Costco price, $22,296. to the Costco price that you think you can buy the car for, they added $279 for an electronic filing fee, $98 for a private tag agency fee,

and $795 for billing and handling, fee, okay. You add that up and you got $1,172 profit to Schumacher Chevrolet that you didn't know about, that he didn't tell you about, that is not disclosed and he added that to the Costco price the official Costco price of the Costco auto buying program then they added sales tax and title registration estimate of 450 next is also as they promised they subtracted the $3,500 effective rebate total off the door price 21, 1803 so the bottom line is Schumacher did everything they were supposed to do and they were aided and abetted and complicit with the Costco Auto Buying Program,

which allowed them to add profit after the quoted price. After the advertised price, as Rick pointed out earlier on the show, I'm going to say that the advertised price was the Costco price. Some people have you believed that that's not an advertised price, but it's something that Costco talks about and they tell their members about. The price is established. It's established. That's what you expect.

And they show you the price. That's an advertisement. If they chose to add $5,000 in billing and handling, that would still be okay. When you walk through Costco, which I've got a Costco membership, when I walk in Costco, I see their ads, advertisements for the Costco buying program, which promised to save me money, and it's lists right on there, everything that they say, and nowhere on there does it say anything about the dealer can add fees on top of it. Exactly.

Now, is there anybody in the listening audience that knows about the cost of auto bank program that understood that this is not a company owned by Costco? I don't think so. I didn't know that. The car dealers generally know that. I didn't know that. I'm just kidding. I knew that.

So the epilogue here. You know everything. Schumacher played it by the book. However, their Costco price wasn't really the price agent X was asked to pay. The Costco price was $22,296. And the price was increased, pure profit in Chuck Schumacher's pocket. Caching. Caching, Chuck, $1,172 profit that I think Costco probably doesn't know about the real Costco.

The other Costco, the phony Costco, that Costco should have known about, does know about it. And the reason they like it is because it gives the dealers the chance to do their bait and switch. So Costco, shame on you. Schumacher Chevrolet, I'm going to give you a passing score because you played by the rules. Unfortunately, the rules stink.

And Costco needs to change the rules because you should not allow the dealers to add profit to the Costco certified price. Rick? I vote Schumacher gets an A-minus because they do

still have their dealer fees. Yousef gets an A, because I think Yusuf did a pretty good job. He treated Agent X with respect and seemed like he did a good job showing the car. And Costco gets a C minus, because although I like Costco, I think they need to address this issue. I don't know if it's a deliberate thing on their part, but it's a flaw, and they need to fix it. I pray it is a flaw, and I play. there's got to be some complicity somewhere.

Willful ignorance. Yeah, exactly. It's, what do they call it? There's an accessory after the fact. You got something like that, yeah. If anybody out there has had a Costco experience, and we had one person calls when we're having phone problems earlier, who had a pleasant Costco experience,

I think, unfortunately, a lot of people are having pleasant experiences because they are being duped into thinking that the dealer fees that are added are official government fees and that's something the car dealers have been getting away with for a long time but when you put it in with the Costco auto buying program it's it's absolutely terrible because you're you're tarnishing a very very strong brand Apple's got a strong brand Costco's got a strong brand there's certain companies in this country that have strong brands and you're tarnishing the Costco brand now I'm in communication with Costco and I

I had a little bit of difficulty in getting in communication with Costco because they wanted to talk to the Costco auto buying program. We've been talking to the Costco auto buying program for a long time. And the Costco auto buying program does not adhere to our request to change anything. The Costco auto buying program, as I say, is not Costco. So I was able to get hold of Mark Garbidian, the last second name is a tongue toaster, G.A.R. R-A-B-E-D-I-N, Mark Garbidion, and he is a national marketing manager.

I've got an email, and I'm listening to do this, but we've got some time. I'd love to hear from Costco members, 877-9-60-9-9-60. If you could call with your Costco Auto Buying Program experience, we'd love to hear from you. Or your reaction to the shopping report, which is really a really negative comment about Costco. Anybody out there that loves Costco like I do or has bought a car through, we'd love to hear very me. 877-960-99-60. And while I wait for you to call, I'm going to read this letter that I wrote to Mark three or four days ago, Mark Garibidian, National Marketing Management for Costco.

Good morning, Mark. Thanks very much for taking the time to call me earlier this week about my concerns with Costco's auto buying program. This email is to summarize our conversation about my concerns that Costco is endangering its high-quality brand image as a result of misrepresentations by the Costco auto buying program. One, the Costco price that Costco members are promised is not the price the Florida car dealers are selling Costco members their cars for. Two, car dealers are adding thousands of dollars to the quoted Costco prices under the guise of dealer fees, which are simply extra hidden profit to the dealer three dealer fees are legal in florida but the law requires

that they be included in the advertised price of the vehicle unfortunately car dealers don't comply with the law four dealer fee has become a generic term for added dealer profit by many names florida law does not prohibit car dealers from naming this profit whatever they choose some more common terms are doc fee or documentary fee tag agency fee electronic filing fee dealer services fee, administrative fee, dealer prep fee, notary enclosing fee. Note that the one common term in each is the word fee, which is to trick the customer into believing it as an official government fee like sales tax, tag, and registration. Five, Florida law does not limit the amount of the car dealers can charge in the number of phony fees that they charge. It is common for

car dealers to charge two, three, or even more fees. The average total dealer fees charge by a dealer in South Florida is well over $1,000. Well, this one just, we did with Schumacher Chevrolet, was $1,173, I think. And some are over $3,000. Al Hendrickson, Toyota, and Coconut Creek charges over $3,000 a dealer fee. If he's a Costco dealer, the Costco price is going to be inflated by $3,000. for that $3,500 rebate, huh? Exactly. Six.

Because the Costco Auto Buying Program representatives established their dealer prices, excluding thousands of dollars and dealer fees add to the Costco price, the true price is grossly understated by the amount of dealer fees. This is not only being dishonest with Costco members, but

penalize those very few dealers that do not charge dealer fees or charge very small dealer fees. Mark, I'm speaking to the National Marketing Manager for Costco. Mark, as I told you, I'm as much a consumer advocate as I am a car dealer. I've hosted a live radio talk show for over 10 years, Saturdays, 8 to 10 a.m. They can be streamed on streamerarlancars.com.

I write a weekly consumer advice column for two newspapers, Florida Weekly and Hometown News. I wrote a book, Confessions of Recovering Car Dealer, available on Amazon. I write a weekly blog you can view at earlancars.com. I regularly speak before groups like Kiwanis, Rotary, schools, colleges, churches, synagogues, men and women's clubs, condo associations. I tell my audiences of the two best ways to buy a newer used car without getting ripped off by a car dealer are Costco and True Car. As I told you, True Car does not allow its dealers to add dealer fees or dealer installed accessories to the quoted True Car price. The True Car price must be the Althador price plus government fees only. recommend that Costco adopt the same rule for Costco members.

Last of that letter to the national marketing manager per Costco. In good conscience, I can no longer recommend the Costco auto buying program to my audiences unless it's approved dealers. Sell the car for the Costco price plus government fees only. Thanks very much, Earl. So that is a letter. I hope Mark will adhere to this. I hope he'll contact the Costco.

auto buying program and change things immediately. So I wanted to remind you, we still have a text from Desiree that she wanted to do it. She texted us and... Oh, okay. Yeah. Let me find that here. Okay, we didn't answer, Desiree, I apologize. We didn't answer your question about gas.

And Desire's question, as I recall was, does it matter what kind of gas you're using your car? And should you go to the same place? And if we know Walmart is a good place to buy gas. I can handle those. for the first one the first thing you want to check is your owner's manual or look just inside the gas door

on your car, you know the door that flips open if your car requires premium fuel then there will be a sticker located inside that door if not then you're fine to run plain old 87 octane fuel and it will run just fine in your car with no issues whatsoever

I highly recommend sticking with, if you can, at least one brand name of fuel and the same location is a fantastic idea, but I also highly recommend save all your receipts, being that if there is an issue that turns out to be related to the fuel and you have receipts showing that you purchased your gas there over and over and over, it's very likely that that company will step up and help you out with that issue. As for the Costco fuel or Walmart fuel, I don't really see an issue there, again, as long as you save the receipts. Fuel companies are required to keep their fuels to a certain level of standards, but again, even if you're going strictly to a mobile station

or Exxon station, save those receipts and keep track of those records just in case. folks you may remember a few years back shell which is a very big company had an issue with too much sulfur in their fuels and it caused damage to a lot of cars shell stepped up and fixed the problem if you could show a receipt that showed that you had purchased fuel from them so save those receipts happy motoring but be on the lookout keep your eyes open out there folks Well, we've only got about a minute left, and I'm going to remind you if you just tuned in. I hope you tuned in earlier because we just made a startling announcement that the Costco auto buying program is not to be trusted. As we speak now, our recommended place to buy a car online is truecar.com, www.truechur.com.

The Costco Auto Buying Program has been put on notice, and they need to change their ways, the way they display the Costco price to its members. and not allow the dealers to inflate it by thousands of dollars by adding their numerous dealer fees. So Costco members, I'm sorry, and Costco, I'm sorry to you too, but we hope to hear back from the National Marketing Manager and that they will be making changes in the program. I certainly hope so.

It's really very disappointing. I think we have time for you to mention your book, if you'd like, or if you have a text. Confessions of a recovering car dealer. There you go. I'm going to try to sell you a book right now, But I have to tell you first that all the proceeds from the sale, books available on Amazon.com, are to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. Yep.

Big Dog Ranch Rescue and Locksahatchie Groves on Okeechoble Boulevard, we save thousands of dogs. We're a no-kill shelter. You buy a copy of Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer, and you will not only save a dog, but you can save yourself. That's right. When you go into a car dealership, it's all about how not to be ripped off by a car dealer. Just about everything we ever said on this show is in this book. Confessions of a recovering car dealer available on Amazon, all proceeds go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. You heard it right here, ladies and gentlemen.

Right here. All proceeds go to Big Dog Ranch. It's been a fantastic show. You can go to Erwan Cars and you can relive the mystery shopping report, right, Stu? That's right. Okay. Happy Cinco de Mayo. Ah, Cinca de Mayo.

Have a great weekend, everyone. Thank you so much for tuning in. All right. Let's go I don't know.