Earl Stewart on Cars - 05.10.2025 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Mazda of Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, FL.

Episode Date: May 10, 2025

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits a local Mazda dealer to see what they have on the lot and how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2025 Mazda CX-5 on their showroom floor. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting the car dealership. And now, on with the show. Good morning, everybody. Back for two hours of advice on how you can buy or lease your next car. It's confusing out there. It's hazardous. this, if you watch TV or check the online news or whatever your source is. The whole process of buying the car has got a new slant now, tariffs and regulation, electric

vehicles, hybrid vehicles. We have to make a lot more decisions today than we did just a few years ago. And there seems to be everything okay with the, yeah. So don't be to give us a call. What I didn't say, which is probably the most important thing I should say, is that your feedback, I usually say phone calls because we love your phone calls. We have five lines coming in to our station here in North Palm Beach, Florida. We give that priority because we like the human voice, especially yours. And Nancy Stewart, my co-host, she has got the

priority to make us stop what we're doing and take phone calls, telephone calls. Now, we take all input from you because you are not just an important part of the show. You are the core. Without you, the show wouldn't exist. You tell us things that we don't know. See, we encompass the globe. I mean, I don't want to sound like we're big shots. We're not.

We have most of our callers are in the United States, but we have calls from all over the world. And you're all over the world. I mean, I don't know exactly what's going on in California now because I'm in Florida, and I'm certainly not in India, and I'm not in Australia. So when we give these calls from all over, we learn things just like we do when we're on chat, GBT,

or Google, or our daily existence. for you new callers, or new listeners, or watchers, because we're on Facebook.com forward slash earlun cars, YouTube.com, forward slash earlun cars. Stream us, listen to us. We do something very special that I'm surprised. The competition hasn't jumped on this. I'm surprised.

I'm not sure the competition is. But we mystery shop a different car dealership every week. We've done hundreds, thousands of these mystery shops. And we've had many mystery shoppers over the past 20 years, and our current mystery shopper is extremely good. Her name is Agent Lightning, and we don't give you her real name. She's undercover, right? I mean, she goes into some dealership in the United States.

She's been in dealerships in Pennsylvania, and I think New Jersey and all over Florida. I don't think we've hit the West Coast yet, but we've been in Pennsylvania. We've been toward the West Coast. And she pretends to buy or lease a car and reports exactly what her experience was. I mean, I'm talking names, name of the dealership, the real nice. the name of the salesperson the sales manager and we tell you what happens we don't pull any bunches you heard the disclosure is the beginning of the show a few minutes ago here on the true oldies channel and they say this this radio

station just claims any liability or responsibility of what is said at Earl on cars Earl Stewart on cars I mean, they don't want to get sued. We, of course, don't want to get sued either, but we have control, and our control is telling you the truth. So if we go into ABC dealership and find out they're stealing from their customers, we say ABC dealership is stealing. They're breaking the law.

Now, if you don't anything about libel and slander, you know how much money that could cost me. as the guy that's saying bad stuff about an incident dealer. So we watch it carefully. And we just tell the truth. We've been doing it for 20 years. We have been sued but never successfully. I think we only got sued one time.

As a matter of fact, I don't think I never went to court. It was a bluff. I was kind of hoping I would go to court because then we really get some attention to the dealer, especially when we won. So it's good radio, it's good video, it's good video, it's entertaining, we do the mystery shopping report at the end of the show last half hour. We're on the air from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time for you folks all over the globe. And we'd love to have you listen. If you don't listen live, you can listen on podcasts, on your favorite podcast source.

You can go by category because we also have information at Earlongcars.com and Earlongcars.com has archives based on, are you thinking about leasing? Are you thinking about having your car service, oil changes? I cover a lot of topics, and you can go directly to that. It's an archive of everything we've been talking about for a long, long time. probably the most important thing I say for last is it isn't about this show is for it's about far more than buying or leasing and I'm talking about maintaining or repairing which in the long run cost you a lot more money than the car itself I

mean the car itself they're pretty damn expensive I agree with you there but if you look at the potential cost of repairs and maintenance if you're careless of the way you choose your car you need some help and we have a guy by the name of Rick Kearney said to my left a certified diagnostic master technician been there done that he knows everything about the old-fashioned stick shift car all the way up I won't say to the EV because there's not that many EVs on the road now but he he's probably ahead of the average technician on EV he's definitely ahead the average technician on hybrids and a hybrid is an EV it's just a it's a hybrid

that's what he's called it's half combustion half electrical and pretty much all of the electrical principles apply in the total EV so he's on top of that want to save yourself a lot of frustration time money anger before you drive into an independent repair dealership or or a new car dealership before you just run in there and say, I think I have a problem, and they say sign here on a blank repair order before you get yourself into trouble, call the show.

877-960-9960. That's 877-960-960. And ask for Rick, and describe it. You know, tell them the noise you're hearing that you don't like, tell them the smell, you've got a squeak or a rattle you're burning a lot of oil whatever

it worries you and if you've got a car you're going to have some problems every now and then get a free diagnosis call up go to YouTube.com Rick personally monitors that source video and audio YouTube.com

forward slash earloan cars we have an army of YouTubers I mean, they could have their own show. And if you want to go to YouTube because Rick will monitor the post. And

even if you don't call the show, he'll find your post on YouTube and he'll answer it on the air. Dialogue with a phone call is pretty good. And we like that. My wife, Nancy Stewart, who I alluded to earlier, Nancy has the computer

laptop connected to our producer and every time you call one of the numbers we have five lines but you style 877 960 960 and we will give you difference we will stop the show and go to your call you got five lines we don't want to have you wait sometimes the lines go crazy and you're gonna get a busy signal and sometimes you do have to wait but we try honestly very hard so call us at 877 960-9-6-0-9-6-0. Now I'm going to turn the mic over to Nancy because I haven't told you yet about her female advocacy. She is a female advocate for you ladies out there in terms of buying cars, leasing cars, maintaining cars, and also just to call the show.

For many years, when we first started out, we just talked to a bunch of guys. and Cars are a guy thing back then. Now they're a human being thing, and we have a 50-50 audience of females and males. We want all of you, both of you, to call males and females. And Nancy has a very special offer for females who have not called the show before. So Nancy, the mic is old yours. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Erlon Cars.

We have a whole lot to get to, and as I always say, you make the show. So give us a call toll free at 877-960-9960. You can also take advantage of a text number 772-4976530. And don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. This is a pretty special weekend, and I want to take a moment and wish all of the mothers out there a very happy Mother's Day. I'd also like to ask you to please share with us your, you know, your experience, whether it is renting a car, purchasing a new car, purchasing a used car, your experience inside the dealership, if that's which you, you know, had to resort to, as I always say, a better choice for you to you know go to the internet and start your well your search so to speak

because there's so many things to take in to consideration today and as I always say knowledge is power and ladies we are in the driver's seat financially we are shall how can I put this we have a huge impact on the auto industry millions and millions of dollars and we are a powerful force and it is time that we are all recognized so give me us a call toll-free at 877 960 and remember you make a contribution not only at home but I'm going to say all the world in the auto industry share with us your experience whether you took a road trip whether you know took advantage of some factors that led you to purchase a special vehicle that met your needs and not the needs of the well car salesman if you were in the dealership again that number is

877-960. Also, I have $50 for the first two new lady callers. So take advantage of that. You could use that this weekend. Also, we're going to talk about Hugo. They're in the news. And we're going to talk about our mystery shopping report, which is Mazda of Palm Beaches. We have so much to get to. So I'm going to go right to the phones. And also, let me mention Your Anonymous Feedback. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. You can take advantage of that and not be identified. So there you have it, folks. We're going to go to Bob in Lake Worth. Good morning, Bob. You there, Bob? Yeah, I'm here. Good. What's up? Anyway, this is a rig question. It's amazing how our little stupid phone.

push all these ads at us. So I've been getting bombarded with ads for ceramic coatings on vehicles for like $345 a vehicle in the last three to four years. Is there any advantage of that stuff as far as keeping up the outside of your car?

There is, but bear in mind do your research, do your homework because like any good product like that, you're going to get what you pay for. Find a good quality ceramic and And you may even want to find someone to do the install for you to actually do the installation

of it because it can be very labor intensive. You know, it's not like just putting on a quick coat of wax and wiping it off. But the big advantage to these ceramic coatings, a lot of them, they are so incredibly hydrophobic that you literally, like some of those commercials show, you throw a bucket of muddy water onto the car and it literally just slides off. Yeah, the higher quality ones are fantastic. With one caveat, if the paint on your car is not in really good condition, you might have a harder time with it. So that would be something I'd want to have evaluated by someone that's a professional that does this a lot, knows what they're doing. So just do some homework. But yeah, those

ceramic coatings, new technology, and that stuff, I've seen some beautiful cars with that. It just, it's, it makes it like greased lightning. Bob, I just checked chat, GBT, and if you want to write this down, they consider

one of the best ceramic coatings. G-technique, G-T-E-C-H, as in tech, G-T-T-N-I-Q, G-T-E-K-K-K-K-K-E-K-K, Crystal Serum Ultra

That's a mouthful, isn't it? G-technic Crystal Serum Ultra. Durability, nine years. I don't know what their scale they use

but they call a hardness of 10H and when you're shopping around or just go to chat GBT and ask for quality

ceramic coatings and you'll get a good one. And a quick note from Donovan on YouTube here who I got to say I trust his opinion a lot of the time he says no one's doing a real ceramic coat for only $300 a real ceramic coating requires paint prep which takes a lot of time so that that kind of fits right and it is very labor intensive yeah this guy Donovan knows what he's talking about yeah absolutely and Bob it can be pretty

expensive anywhere from $500 to $2,000 and you've got to be careful you know where you go to have that done and as the guys said you know researching everything is key because you can get taken advantage of as you well know that's hard to believe nancy's being taken advantage of the car industry i've never heard of it but excuse me that's with sarcasm in the morning Oh, I didn't hear what you said. I really appreciate it. Oh, I just said that being taking advantage of the car industry, I've never heard of that before. That is funny.

Long-time listener, and I love Donovan's input. He always seems to add to the show even over and above with your guys' knowledge. So thank you very much, guys. Have a great day. Amazing. Thank you, Bob. We're going to go right to Peter, who's calling us from Stewart. Good morning, Peter.

Good morning for taking my... I'm kind of a merit of hard to drive across to the wheel fall off. I have an aging. Peter, excuse me. You're breaking up, but we're going to try real hard to hear you. I have a little bit of value and oil analysis. No, we can't understand what you're saying right now. Before I could understand, I could hear you a little bit, but right now not at all.

Hello? Peter, can you give us a call back, maybe from another location, possibly? Okay, hopefully we're going to hear from Peter. He'll give us a call back. That number is 877-960-99-60. You can also text us at 772-497-6530. Don't forget, your anonymous feedback.com. Now back to the recovering car dealer.

We've got some further breaking news on you folks that listened last week. And if you didn't listen last week, we're very excited about our affiliation with Amazon. And everybody knows Amazon. Everybody knows Jeff Bezos. They're the second largest retailer in the world. I believe soon to become the number one retailer in the world, Walmart has been around for so long that they're still number one worldwide. But Jeff Bezos and Amazon are nipping at their heels.

They shocked everybody about a year ago saying they're going to start selling new cars. I mean, you talk about a lot of dealers having heart attacks. Nobody wants to compete against Amazon. I mean, they just pretty much wrote the book on retailing. Scared the heck out of all the car dealers. And they actually signed an agreement with Hyundai and they are selling new Hyundai so as an aside if you're thinking about buying a Hyundai

and they build some mighty fine vehicles if you're going to buy one by all means go to Amazon and get the Amazon price out the door that's key out the door you bring the check in for that amount give it to the dealership you still have to go in the dealership to pick your car up. When you go in there, you give the check for the Amazon price, which we have tested with a mystery shop. It is a good price. There are no surprises. There's no junk fees. There's no dealer installed accessories. It's a real fair price that you're going to get on Amazon. We're not saying you don't want to shop the Amazon price, but you now have an Althador price in your pocket, and you could go to 25 Hyundai dealers and say

if you can match that out the door and be sure you underline out the door price if you can beat that price I'll buy it from you and not Amazon so that's what's going on but only Hyundai's can be bought on Amazon well they're opening it up to other new car dealers we have applied for those new listeners and I don't want to

shock you now, but this consumer advocate group that you're listening to, Earl Stewart on cars, we're also car dealership. We have a Toyota dealership in North Palm Beach, Florida. No, we're not sneaky and we're not trying to, you know, advertise our dealership. This is not an infomercial. We are a consumer advocate. We say things if the truth about Toyota or the truth about our own dealership, we screwed up, but we admit it, and we change it. I mean, my dealership is not perfect. So we actually have callers that will say,

I went in and this happened or that happened, and it shouldn't have happened, and usually they're right, and we find we've got maybe a rotten apple in our barrel, and we change it. So we are a car dealer, but we're also honest and transparent. So we are going to apply to be an Amazon dealer.

In fact, we have applied, and we have been, I'm so excited to say this, we've been accepted as a used car dealer. Now, they haven't started the new car program yet, but we are going to pray that we can also be a new car dealer. But we are approved as a used car dealer for Amazon, and we are going to put a full-page ad in the Washington Post. And for you in the know, the Washington Post was bought out a few years ago by guess who? Jeff Bezos, the guy that owns or runs Amazon. It's publicly traded, but he owns a big chunk of it. And we're going to open letter to Jeff Bezos, and we're going to say, we're a used car dealer now. Thank you for accepting us.

We'd love to be the first non-Hundee dealer approved to sell new vehicles. So we're hoping for that honor. And if you have any poll with anybody at Amazon, put in a two cents for us, will you? If you think we're doing the job right, tell Amazon you'd like to see this as a new gardener. Yeah, I can hardly contain myself. When you told me what was about to happen,

what was in the future, it was an amazing moment. I will never forget it. Ladies and gentlemen, you know, there's such an advantage of online shopping it eliminates the need for you to physically go into a dealership, and we all want to avoid that. And there is so much knowledge at our fingertips, as I said, it's just an amazing time. And do you know what our goal is and always has been is to give the power back to the consumer?

And by doing what we're doing, week in and week out, we hope with all of the information we share with you, the information you share with us, we are going to reach our goal very, very soon because everything is definitely changing and we wanted to change in your direction, giving you back the power and the choice. give us a call. Let us know how you feel about this breaking news about Amazon and our connection at 877-960. If you don't want to give us a call, you want to remain anonymous. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. We have Peter back on the line, and he's calling us from Stewart. Good morning, Peter. Yeah, I'm sorry about the last call. Oh, you're loud and clear right now. Thank you. I drive cars until the wheels fall off. I have a 2006 Toyota Highlander hybrid with 129,000 miles on it. Wow. And the question is, do you think there's any value in doing an oil analysis on the engine at the oil change for aging engines? I think Rick can answer that.

I see a lot of people that do this. They send in oil samples to have them analyzed. For the most part, I kind of think it's a waste of money. If you are changing your oil regularly, you know, on a regular basis, and the oil comes out and it looks normal, in other words, it's dark, it's going to be dirty, that's what oil is supposed to do. Oil helps. It's number one purpose, obviously, is to help cool the engine, take heat out of those main engine components, and to lubricate all those moving parts. but it's also there to help collect all the dirt and debris and run it through the oil filter to get those out of the engine

myself if you really were kind of just want to know I would take the old oil filter cut it open and basically you're going to find paper in there that is kind of folded like in an accordion shape and I would stretch that out, shine a good light on it and just look for any signs of metal particles and if you're not seeing anything major there I wouldn't worry about it especially like I say if you're doing regular oil changes you're doing a

proper basis I'm gonna jump in and and disagree with you it won't be me it'll be chat GPT which you know I is chat GPT is not perfect but neither is Rick and neither am I so I want to give you that a chat GPT is a very knowledgeable they basically say that oil analysis can be surprisingly valuable for both diagnosing existing engine issues and preventing future problems it says it's particularly valuable if you have a older or a high-performance high-mileged vehicle so you've got an older vehicle they tell you that engine wear what an oil analysis reveals is engine

wear metals defects early wear components like pistons bearings and cams high levels of iron, aluminum, copper, lead may signal internal damage or stress. Contaminants, fuel dilution, leaky injectors. I'm skimming this. Oil condition and additive depletion, extended oil change intervals, baseline for new rebuilt engines. And as I say, for older high mileage vehicles is pretty beneficial. So it's something to consider.

Look at the cost. Does it say how much that cost to have an analysis done like that? Well, no, I'm a general aviation pilot, and I have an aging continental aircraft engine, and I've had that engine analyzed every oil change every 50 hours for the last 15 years. Well, one big difference, sir, if your car engine stops working while you're going down the highway, you kind of coast over to the side and wait for a tow truck. If your airplane engine stops working, when you're at 10,000 feet, not too many tow trucks up there. So, yeah, I understand.

A little bit of different side, I throw it on that one as long. And oil analysis costs between $40 and $50 for a car. Okay, so that's reasonable. Yeah, I found it very prophetic in, I had a cylinder going bad, and they predicted it 50 hours before the cylinder had to be replaced. very, very interesting, if you do it over the life of an aircraft engine. I just didn't know if those kinds of principles applied to automobile engines. Well, I hadn't heard of it, and I appreciate your call, because that's something that apparently Chatch EBT thinks pretty highly of,

so I'm going to go back to the dealership and find out if we're doing it or offering it, and then we can look into it more deeply. But hearing an airline pilot or airplane pilot talk about it, So, you know, if you're going to base a decision on flying a plane or not flying to plane based on the oil analysis, you're thinking pretty highly of one. But as Rick says, you're not going to likely have to, you know, plunge to the ground if you're driving your car. So there's two sides. Don't worry. If the engine stops, I'll fly it all the way.

I'll be the first one there. Get there 20 minutes before the paramedics. And by the way, in from Donovan here, he says, wear gloves when you cut that filter open if you do that it's no fun cutting yourself on that can i agree completely there and he goes on to say uh 100% agree with rick no reason for a normal car to do an analysis i only see the point of it for a high end more exotic car with a stupidly expensive engine uh and yeah we we're in palm beach county florida and yeah we do see Supercars on the road here.

Lamborghini, Ferrari, Jaguar. I honestly, I have even seen McLaren's on the road. Here's a reputable, according to Judge EBT, BT, laboratory for standard oil analysis. Cost you're 40 bucks, and it's called Blackstone Laborator. Blackstone. That's what I used for my aircraft. Oh, great. Yeah, okay.

Well, you got a good one. Yeah, they're very good. And they're very smart. They do marine engines and they do truck diesel engines for, you know, long-range truckers so they can gauge the wear on their engines. And I just didn't know if it applied to a high-mileage automobile engine. Well, and again, marine engines and truck engines, huge, huge money on those. Right, exactly. And thank you for what you guys do.

What you do is a great service to all of us. I'm a longtime listener. Thank you, Peter. wonderful weekend and happy Mother's Day dear thank you Peter thank you for calling back interesting conversation you're quite knowledgeable give us a call again okay we will

877 960 9960 you know just recently Progressive had they've asked a question and I've talked about this often on the air and I'm not so much looking at how much a car costs but how much it costs to keep it on the road

road. And it's really something very serious to look into. And oftentimes we neglect that we're looking at how much the car costs, the car payment, you know, things like that. But like I said, Progressive recently asked this question, and they said, how much does it cost to get to those 200,000 miles? And are the repair and maintenance costs even worth it? The money as your as your car depreciates. So there's some decisions, very serious decisions to make right there, because you may, like women, we fall in love with our cars, and we're teased that we move in to our vehicles with guys.

It's a little bit different. But it's definitely worth researching and being sure how much that car is going to cost on the road for maintenance, for everything you can imagine that could possibly, go wrong. So, yes, Rick. Well, here's an interesting question. Just to throw this out for any of our callers or anyone on YouTube or that would like to respond in, what is the highest mileage that you personally have ever put on a car? Oh, good question. In other words, what car did you have? How high a mileage did you actually take that car to? Great question. Great question.

That is a great, great question. I mean, I'll start it off. My 97 Tacoma Forest. by four that I had 270,000 miles when I sold it, and the guy that bought it got in touch with me through a friend, a couple weeks later, about four weeks later, and he said he still felt like he could drive it to Alaska and back. Isn't that amazing? I mean, it just, you just piqued my recent recollection. Nancy and I were at Palm Beach Gardens Hospital, and I was in the waiting room, and a man walked in and sat next to me, he says, oh, are you Earl Stewart?

I said, yes, and he said, you know, I bought a Toyota Corolla from you in 1977 or 78. And he says, I bought it from my older brother who was sitting next to him. And I said, how many miles does it have on? He says, over 900,000. Yeah. And I said, do you two guys put 900,000? He says, no, I gave it to my son. and now we're using it in some sort of a school

because of a repairing vehicles. But so it's amazing the mileage you can get on an old combustion engine car, 1970. Toyota I know used to have a what they called their high mileage club where they would actually send you little decals and pins and things at 100,000, 200,000, 3. 100,000 miles. And other

manufacturers I know have done this. We have the 200,000 mile club. We used to see. Yeah. And even now, the vehicle I'm driving now, I've got 187,000 miles on it. I mean, I don't have a problem with high mileage cars, because if they're properly

maintained. Absolutely. And just following what the factory recommends, you don't need all the extra fluff folks. You follow what the factory recommends. And these cars will last. Absolutely. I have more conversations with women who have told me that, well, for instance, I'll just use one example, a young lady that I know is driving a Ford truck, and she's up to 300,000 miles, and she said that she has maintained her vehicle from day one, and that is, you know, the magic formula for keeping a car on the road and being careful what it needs, what it needs. It doesn't need because it definitely needs a whole lot of attention.

And I don't know whether I mentioned earlier or not, but the cost of car repairs is definitely continuing to rise just like everything else. Our number here is 877-960-99-60. You can text us at 772-497-6530. And don't forget, Your Anonymous Feedback.com. We're going to go to Howard, who has been holding, he's a regular caller from Jupiter. Good morning, Howard. Good morning. Happy Mother's Day.

Thank you. It's a beautiful day. I have a question concerning my serpentine belt. I have 70,000 miles on it. Now, I know I can inspect it, but how do I inspect it to see that it's okay? The easiest way, just get a nice, bright flashlight, look down in on the belt, and what you want to do is look at the edges of the belt to make sure that they look nice and clean and sharp still

and then look for one of the pulleys where the belt is coming kind of backwards over the pulley so that you can see the ribs and shine the light on there and look and see if there are any signs of cracks forming in those ribs on the belt. If there are no cracks, keep driving that car, it's fine. Especially if you're not getting any squealing noises on start. start up, you know, that might indicate a problem. If it starts up nice and relatively quiet and you don't see any signs of cracks in those ribs and the edges of the belt look nice and clean, you're good.

Keep on going. Okay, so I'll be able to see that servitine belt with bright flashlights shining down on it. Yep. Okay. Okay, another thing that my paint, 040, that was condemned. And paint's no good anymore. And as a recall, I told you last week, they recalled 0-40 paint. And I'm having a paint job. So complete paint job.

It's in the shop. And what happened is that I asked them if they're going to do the bumpers. He said, no, we don't do the bumpers. But what I did is my front bump is pristine. My rear bump is messed up. So I asked Mr. Wiggins, who I think he's the manager there, I said, could you paint it? He said, give me a fair price. So he gave me a fair price.

And I said, go ahead, paint the rear bumper. Now, my question to you is, do they use, is it a two-part paint on the rear bumper? Or is it, do they put the, what's the other part in the paint that they put? The clear coat? The clear coat? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, if the rest of the car is clear-coated, then yes, it will be clear-code on the bumper as well.

So, yeah, you'll be just fine with that. And the reason why the bumpers are not technically included in that is because it's an adhesion problem with the paint on the metal parts of the car. So that's why on the plastic bumpers, they didn't have an issue with the paint not sticking properly. It was on the metal portions of the car. That's why that extended warranty was covering only the metal portions of the car. Yeah, I paid, we made a deal about how much I'm going to pay for the rear bumper. But from now, when I touch up the car, after it's done, I'll have to have a two-part touch-up bottle, correct? I'll have to have the 040 plus the clear coat.

Is that correct? Yep. okay so how do you apply you but I never had the clear code before you apply the of course yeah you're basically going to do the the color coat first for any deep marks you're going to want to clean it really well there's there's a whole process involved uh YouTube will have some great videos that will explain to you the full procedure and kind of walk you through it but it's basically remember that the prep work is key the more time you spend preparing that project,

the better it's going to look in the end. That's great. Okay, and one other question. What about sway ball and the links, actually, the sway ball links, how often do they have to be replaced? I only recommend it when they start to get too much free play or they start to get a little loose.

And you can ask the mechanic to inspect that when they bring your car in for maintenance, just ask them take a look at those sway bar links and the bushings as well. And as long as they're in good shape and you don't have any extra free play in them, I wouldn't worry about them. Okay, last question.

Spark plug replacement. And transmission oil replacement. When should I do it? Factory recommended maintenance schedule. The book in your glove compartment will tell you for your specific model when to replace those spark plugs, and when the transmission fluid should be done. Okay, now, the problem with the spark plug, years ago I used to change my own spark plugs.

But a friend of mine changed it, and something happened, it broke. So he had to get an easy out, and that was very labor-consuming. Yeah. Does that happen in the shop? Very rarely. Okay. Okay. You have the capability if it happens to use an easy out and get it out.

Yeah, we've got a few tricks we can use. But I personally have never seen one break. And Howard, you know, you're amazing. You really take care of your vehicle. And right now, I'm just wondering, is when you went in for an oil change, did the mechanic bring to your attention? Hey, listen, the serpentine hose maybe shows some sign of aging or, maybe it's a little loose and did he advise you on what to do about that no what he said i'm not

going to mention his name but he says you have you have uh 70 000 miles i think you should change it he didn't oh okay very good so he didn't so you know but uh i'm going to have it checked out very good howard it's a it's a pleasure speaking to you uh i've got some calls backed up okay uh have a great weekend you too and we hope to hear from you again thank you bye We're going to go to, let me mention real quick, ladies, if you didn't hear the opening of the show, $50 for the first two new lady callers. And I was reminding all of you what a financial impact that we have on the auto industry and that also I'd like for you to share your experience, whether it was in purchasing, having your car maintained. And as you well know, there are more women who are coming through the service drive than men. And we play a powerful, very strong impact on the auto industry.

$50 for the first two new lady callers. Give us a call, 877-960. We're going to go to Tricia. And she's the leader of the ladies. And I have given her a new title. She calls us from Boca, and we hear from her almost every week. She's a lady leader. Good morning, Tricia.

She's the leader of the pack. I better live up. My reputation was starting out with a very beautiful. Happy Mother's day. The clock's ticking. Let's hear something. Give us some sort of a revelation. All right, ladies call in.

It's funny, and you'll make money. Okay, there you know. All right. Okay. Two-part question. A follow-up from my brakes and oils. You know, last we got called in, and I needed my rotors replaced because they were warped. And my main guy, a 40-year, said, okay, I'll replace the rotors, and my shaking stop. Now, just for shits and giggles, I called up other places. And they, every single place I called up, so this is a warning to men and women and repair shop, they said, oh, no, you have to get the rotors and the pads done at the same time. And, of course, they all said that when my pads have plenty of meat on them, and I did not need to them replace.

I was told they have several months left on them. so I want that's a question for Rick all right did they have to re-replace at the same time all right and then I have another question about the oil my oil okay well for break pads my general rule of thumb is that when the break friction material on the pad gets down to about two to three millimeters I'm recommending replacing it simply because the as that material gets thinner, it can't dissipate the heat as well so it will actually start to wear

just a little bit faster. Now, if you've got pads that have got plenty of friction material left on them and you're replacing the rotors because a rotor got warped or damaged or corroded, there's not a single problem with doing that and what I would do as a mechanic is I will take that old pad

and take a little bit of sandpaper and I just lightly sand the surface on it to kind of freshen it up a little bit so it doesn't have a glaze, that way that pad will seat properly with that new rotor and you'll get a lot less in the way of possible noise or vibration or squealing from your brakes. However, if those pads are worn down significantly and if you're putting in new rotors and I see that your pads are like maybe a third of their life or less. I'm going to say, hey, why don't we go ahead and put the new pads on now because I've already got it all taken apart. It's all disassembled. So the only additional

cost to you is the cost of the pads themselves. There's no additional labor. That way, six months down the road, if those pads were to be worn out now, now you have to pay the labor all over again in addition to the cost of just the part. Okay, well, my guy has given me a great price, either way. I mean, when I called the repair shops, they were like $400 to do both. And I said, and my guy was going to be $180. He did the rotors and $90 to do the pads when he says come back in a few months. So it's significantly less, even though he said I have a few months to go on it.

And he also said, I needed, you know, I needed my oil replaced at 120, okay, which he did. Okay. And he said, now my car is already at 120. And he told me, well, when you come in in a few months to replace your pads, you could get your oil done then. And yes, you could go several thousand miles over the 120 when it's due. so I want your feedback on that I'm a little bit anal retentive when it comes to oil changes

I like to have it on that nice simple schedule and for my own vehicle I do it every 5,000 miles that way I can simply look at the odometer and say if it's got a multiple of five it needs to be done and I would give it a leeway of up to a thousand miles but then I try to get it back on that nice, easy schedule of every 5,000 miles. So to me, oil changes are cheap insurance to keep an engine in good condition and keep it running. And like I say, I push my cars to a very high mileage.

So that's one I would take with a grain of salt. I'd be more interested in saying, no, if it's at 120,000 miles, and that's when, you know, the last oil change was done at one, 15 or so, I would say, no, let's go ahead and do it now and get it out of the way. Tricia, it sounds like you got yourself a good technician there, a mechanic. If you like, we'd be glad to mention his name and location on the show here, and any people in the Boynton area. You know, we're not saying he's always right.

Sometimes Rick disagrees with things, but I like the idea that he gives you the prices right up front, and he actually says, don't have something done. Now, he might be, there might be an argument about whether he should have it done, but obviously he's not out there just to get in your purse or pocketbook. He's there to help you the best of his ability and technicians like him are rare. Would you like us to give him a plug on the air? Yes, I've known him 15 years, and yes, he's the most reliable, dependable, honest guy out there. The name of the place is called Colby Co. C-O-L-Y-B-C-O.

Colby Co. He's in East Boca, but he's a one-man show, so he's very, very picky on what he takes and who he takes are all in. Okay. So, you know, that's what I'm saying. Now, he's the one who did my oil change last. he's the one who put in slightly more than was requested. Remember, we talked about that.

He said, Rick, you said, if it's slightly over, it's no problem. I found out from him that he does that on purpose. He puts it slightly more than required. Yeah, slightly is okay, what Rick is about to tell you. So you just want to, you don't want to have it too far overfilled. but that's a, you got yourself a good guy there. Colby Co. Yes, yes, but he's very picky.

He's one-man show and very, very busy, so that's what. No wonder. I mean, an honest mechanic, the world will be the path to his door. Yeah, and Tricia, you know, how smart are you from the very beginning? We've heard about your mechanic over and over again, and isn't it fantastic that you have a relationship with your mechanic, which helps keep your vehicle on the road. And break pads, back to brake pads, they last between 30,000 and 70,000 miles,

while your rotors, they can last longer if they're well maintained. And my hat is off to you as far as having, you know, on many levels here, but in particular our conversation we're having right now, there's a lot of our listeners who don't realize that relationship with your mechanic is key and I have to tell you that honesty and integrity has risen as far as the pools were concerned with a mechanic and thank you for sharing your mechanic with us yeah I've had had other ones that are closer to me that I think I told you maybe you know weren't so honest that maybe I thought yeah so it's been you know it's it's been a you know an up and down road because sometimes I can't always go out east and you know for an oil change I might stay close to home but since I was having other things done I had him do last an oil change and a tire rotation yeah what I was what I was going to say is that you know your journey

in finding an honest mechanic it's not easy and you really have to stay at it and my hat is off to you and do you have another question before we go no just another beautiful happy mother's day and thank you for all you do thank you tercia happy mother's day to you also ladies you just heard what trisha said mechanics are difficult to find excuse me and honest mechanic. And as I said during my conversation with Trisha, you know, it was an amazing revelation when I found that mechanics, there are more people today who believe in their mechanic and the mechanics, the percentage of mechanics are so honest today. It's just, it's like a Unicorn. So my hat is off to all the mechanics, including Rick, who is quite knowledgeable.

877960, or you can text us at 772-4976530. Guess who we have on the line? Roadrunner, Steve. Me-be-beat. He catches you through. Road runner. Hey, Steve. Good morning, Steve. Good morning, everybody. Happy Mother's Day to everybody out there. Oh, everyone is very thankful for your call. You amuse us. I agree with Rick, the car's up on the lift, and you need something. Get it done there and save some bucks. Okay.

Here we go. I got a letter. We need to purchase your vehicle. We would like to acquire 62, use vehicles by Wednesday, April 30th, to increase our pre-owned vehicle inventory. Great news. Your car qualifies, and we could pay you up. the 30% above book value. Because of our need for such a quick transaction

and potential inconvenience to you, I am willing to offer you a brand new Toyota of your choice at exceptional prices. Please call our sales team. P.S. receive a $500 gift card when we make a deal to buy or trade your car. Huh. Jim Big Jim Riga from Edmour's

Del Rey Toyota. Oh, boy. I don't even know the Toyota. Oh, boy. Taking a shot. How do these our addresses? Public records?

Yeah, they get them from public records, registrations, things like that, and they'll target zip codes. I don't know why they thought you had a Toyota. Who knows? Or it could have a toy, but not a Toyota. Right.

It's called. spray and pray if that's what they just send it out to everybody and hope that they hit some toy owners but you know that's too funny spray and pay yeah I know what's a $500 gift card you're going to give me well you're not going to get that gift card not because you don't have a Toyota you have a better chance of winning the lotto yeah yeah buy a scratchy ticket that were getting married for the fourth time the uh with that but uh That's about it. Everybody stay safe, healthy, and happy. Enjoy. Thanks, Steve. It's a pleasure. It always is a pleasure, Roadrunner, Steve. Thank you for listening.

Forget about the Toyota part to that, but we know that whatever the offer is, it's not what it seems. Well, you know, thinking back in the past when we used to be evil and do those sort of things, or mainly I, I don't think Stu was ever corrupted like I was. But they're a huge industry, underground industry. It's kind of like the Costa Nostra. They're underground. They only deal with car dealers, which you'll tell you, they're pretty rough people to do that. And they try to come up with a way to get people in the door.

And so they come up with these devious, too good-to-be-true offers. and the way they price it, the way they sell a dealer, because dealers know the tricks, they know that this is a useless offer, and they judge the quality of the product these people are selling by how many people will come in. So the salesman to the dealer, you're going to have this sale where they want to buy your used car

at a huge price, they guarantee the dealer a percentage. So they say, okay, how much is this promotion going to cost me? And the guy will say $10,000 or $50,000 or $100,000, depending on the market. But they guarantee a certain number. They guarantee a certain number. And think about it, you wonder, you hear these stories about people who are victimized, and they get an email from India or Nigeria, and somebody promises them, If you'll give me all your Social Security, data birth, and bank account number, your uncle passed away in Nigeria.

And if you'll give me all that information, we're going to send you a million dollars. So if you send out a million of those letters, you're going to get some percent back because there's somebody, I hate to use the word, cruel, but use the word stupid, gullible. And car dealership sales are the same thing. Are they asking for your firstborn? As a car dealer, I don't have to pay anything unless I get a 5% return or a 2% return. So I know if I do 10,000 mailers and I get 500 people in, a 5% return, I know that I'll sell 30% or 25% or 40%. And if I do, I paid for the illegitimate lying, cheating sale and made a good profit for myself. And what they do to help to ensure that, they have their own team that comes out to the dealership.

They're usually ex-car guys, closers. And they don't have the same incentive to, you know, they're leaving town the next day. Yeah, they're even more evil than the car salesmen. Yeah, the salespeople still have to face repeat customers and their neighbors and things like that. And that acts as a governor. But these guys don't care. They're mercenaries. They come in and then they leave.

And usually it goes hand in hand with the mailers. So there will be a mailer offering, what Earl just talked about, and you'll come in. Instead of going through the normal process of an appraisal, they'll send you for your appraisal to these guys. And they're usually dressed, like, inappropriate for South Florida, I would say. Usually we're in, like, really hot suits. They're sitting at a table outside. White shoes and sunglasses? Yeah, they're shiny shoes, and they're sitting out there, and then they're appraising the car.

They take it completely out. And if you don't agree to this as a dealer, you don't get the guarantee. say, well, you didn't sell these cars because your team sucks, you know, you have to use our guys. So, and we know this because a long time ago, I know that you guys used to, used to have them like slasher sales, and

where there would be a mailer sent out to a lot of people, hopefully gullible would show up, and they say, sit in the car that you want, and if you're sitting in there, when the slasher comes around, and he's going to slash that tag that's hanging in the wind, it says you how much the price is, and people get all excited in there.

And they'll also have a free car. Yeah. And one, One of them is free, and they'll line up on the street outside the dealership before they open because they say first come for a serve, and it is a circus. Well, many years ago, when I first started as a Toyota dealer, the distributor, Jim Moran, it was kind of a wheeler dealer, too. And he used to have these tent sales. And he had a product, they still have the product, Toyo Guard.

and Toyota Guard is a bunch of, you know, fabric coat and road hazard insurance and an overpriced product that the Toyota distributor sells. So we would have a tent sale, and you had to go to the tent sale, and you had to bring all your cars out there. And if you didn't bring all your cars out there, then you didn't get any more cars. And if you didn't, and you said you weren't going to do it, and they would just deliver your cars there. They would deliver it to the tent. Yeah.

To a different city. One time they delivered all of my cars in North Palm Beach to Orlando. Yeah. And so if you wanted to have anything, you had to send your guys up there and sell. And then their guys would go and they would sell the Toya Guard.

And this is going to be amazing. Because normally when you sell Toya Guard, if you're selling it, and it's not on the car, you might sell 5%, 10%. If you're really good, you might sell 20%. So, So at a tent sale, there would be 1,000 cars sold, and guess what?

A thousand Toyota guards would be sold. Well, that's not all that different than what's happening now in the southeast. Yeah, because they pre-install it on the car. Many toy dealers, if not most, pre-install it. So we're still at 100%, generally speaking, in the area. You know, let me walk down Memory Lane for a second. Ten sales, you, me, Jason. Wow, what a time it was.

Incredible. How'd you get away with that? That's rhetoric. Okay, we don't have, we don't have time to get, to go into it. But let me add this, does Amazon, does it sound good to you? Earl mentioned it earlier, you know, that merged, that connection with Amazon and what Earl spoke about, is it okay to mention the dealership? Anyway, if you didn't pick up this morning when we opened about our connection, possibly with Amazon, it's coming. Well, we've got the used car connection, right? So you heard it just now about used cars.

It's going to be an amazing time, ladies and gentlemen. And I asked what you thought about it earlier, please give us a call. Let us know how you feel. It's just going to be an amazing. amazing, easy way to purchase a vehicle. With a consumer in mind, you are an important part of this auto industry, and you should have the power, the knowledge, everything in your back pocket. Give us a call.

Let us know how you feel about what I just spoke about. 877-960-9960. We're going to go to Marty, but first let me tell. John and Laurie to please be patient and hold on. I'll get right to you. Good morning, Marty. How are you? Hi. Good. Hi. How are you?

Well, thank you. I have a question for Rick. Okay. With Toyota for the first two years, they give you free oil changes every 10,000 miles. And free tire rotations every 5,000 miles.

Right. Right. My question, is once the freebies are over, should you still keep doing the 10,000 miles with the synthetic oil? Yes. Or should you do it in less than 10,000? You're supposed to do it every 10. Yeah, stick with the 10,000. It's totally safe.

I would always recommend, even if you do not do your services at the Toyota dealer, which you are not required to do. Just make sure you keep all those receipts. Exactly. the receipts and find a reputable shop that you know is going to use a good quality oil and is going to stick with a full synthetic and we'll take care of your car and inspect it properly if you're a gambler and give you an honest opinion as to issues that you might have coming up

with your car okay so now with that the car if it came with toil guard whatever that's called they give you more you get an additional services yeah more oil changes and four more tire rotation yeah usually what it does it takes you up to i think about five years of coverage um with with both of them but if if you're paying for the toy guard uh full price um which right now i don't think you have to you i mean you can get a deal on a toyota um then that's fine doesn't mean you have to stay away from you know other toyota dealerships just looking the bottom line price. It's about 300% markup.

Yeah. So there are tangible things that you get benefit from it. And I do know that Toyota is trying to get rid of all the fluff because they don't, they're committed to this product. They're going to keep it forever. But they also are slowly over the years recognizing that people saw it initially as a scam and now is a overvalued, overpriced item. And who knows, maybe it'll, in a few years, they'll get it right.

But you're likely to get a toy agar. You get toy card if you're buying a Toyota in the southeastern United States. Yeah. So if it's on the MSRP, you have it. Correct. Okay. Yeah, money is fungible. So if you get a big discount, let's say you bought a Toyota and you got it close to the dealers, quote-unquote, invoice.

Which would be a good deal these days. You know, are you paying for the toy guard or not? It doesn't really matter. You look at your bottom line price for the same car, you know, and if you pay maybe $100 or $200, $200,000, for the car with toy guard. You could justify that, but you couldn't justify paying $700 more for it. Right.

Now, can you use that in any Toyota dealership? Yes. Yeah, yeah. Well, outside of the South East. Yeah, yeah, too. Anywhere. Yeah, anywhere. Anywhere in Canada, anywhere in North America, actually.

Okay, so that's on your record that you have it on there. Exactly. It's a warranty, and it's a management. by a Jamin A, and it's a national thing, so where have you go in? Jim, Jim Moran is a god to the Japanese. Jim Moran, when they first came in in the United States, taught Toyota how to retail cars. And he used to fly over, they called him Moran's son,

you know, Mr. Moran. And the Japanese to this day, he's been dead for 15, 20 years, revere his name. and they made the Toyota manufacturer and the toilet dealer's wealthy people because Jim Moran, they wouldn't have survived without his advice. You know, like right, it's still to the day in the United States. You know, how many states are there? There's 50 states, all right?

There's how many. Are you counting Canada? I'm not counting Canada. I might count Puerto Rico, but. But anyway, no. Greenland, that's including Greenland. In Greenland. So there's 52 states. Don't forget, Greenland.

But, and how many in the SET? There's five Southeastern. There's five. So 10% of the states in the United States sell over 20% of the Toyotas and the United States. So it's a big region. That was Jim Maria. Donovan's got an interesting question here. He says, do the BZ4X have Toyogard added to the MSRP?

Yeah, but don't worry about that because there's currently a 10, thousand dollar dealer cash or cash incentive that you get when you buy a bz4x so toy guard is free and then some it's like getting 10 free toy guards now when well earl when you get your cars you usually don't have toil guard on there's that how you can order it yeah we order we order all of our cars without toilet guard but uh to get the cars quicker and especially during shortages which we've been through a lot of We have to, what we call dealer trade. So we go to another toilet dealer, and all the other toy dealers, except us,

order all their cars with Toyagard. The reason they order it with Toyer Guard is they kick back money to the salespeople, they kick back money to the dealer, and the actual cost, last time I checked it on a $690 Toyota package was $210. $259. $259, so it's grown up a little bit. It's marked up well over $100. So probably 25 or 30% of the cars that we sell have the Toyo Guard because that's about how many we have to go to other dealers and swap back and forth.

So those people that have it on their MSRP get it. Yeah, you got to get it. I mean, they're going to at least charge you their cost, and their cost includes the kickbacks that go to the dealer and to the salespeople. Marty, do you have any other questions? No, it's a... Okay. Have a happy Mother's Day. Thank you so much, Marty.

Are you enjoying your consumer report? Give me a call later, Marty. We're going to go to Laurie, and she's calling us from Palm Beach Gardens, and Lorry has won herself $50 this morning, $50 as a female caller. And thank you for calling or on cars, Larry. Oh, you're welcome. And you can stay on the line and you can give Jeremy your contact information. He'll give it to me and I'll write that check out for you and send it to your location that you give Jeremy. Thank you.

My question is, with the tariffs, how are they affecting the prices of your cars at your dealership? Because that's where I buy my car stuff. Nothing yet. There's not going to be, we don't have any vehicle. so far that have, you know, that came in after the tariffs went to effect, but that will change. Toyota intends on absorbing the cost of the increases for a period that they, you know, that they can, and it will be several months probably. Other manufacturers are doing the same thing. Parts increases, price that start coming in, that could start happening a little bit more

immediately, and I'd have to ask our parts manager, because if it's happening, I mean, it's happening within days because everything's in effect. So parts that are not inventoried currently, we'll start to see that. But currently, parts are inventory. We're not sourcing parts from the manufacturing companies. Southeast Toyota, who's our distributor, warehouses parts to have on hand. But those are constantly refilled, and eventually we're going to see that. So my best guest is in the coming weeks.

we'll start seeing increases on parts in repair vehicles, and then it will probably be later this year before we start to see anything happening on new cars. Lori, but remember this, because tariffs are so misunderstood and so misreported and because they change almost daily, that there's a lot of confusion on the part of the manufacturers and the dealers, especially the customers.

And of course, as you could expect from a car dealer, car dealers are going to use that to their advantage. Now, indirectly, tariffs are going to cause a price increase even before the price increase before the tariffs are applied because what we've seen now is a rush to buy cars before the tariffs are affected. So a rush to buy cars increases demand and decreases supply, and that's economic. economics 101 for price increase and when a manufacturer or dealer is able to sell more cars that he did last week he's going to raise his price a little bit even before the tariffs come so the longer you'll wait the more the prices will probably go up but you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow i mean on monday there's a lot of be breaking news there's no tariffs there are no tariffs right that's why it's hard to predict and and confusion causes of the manufacturers dealers don't understand it either but they understand more about it than you the customer and they're going to use that through advantage so we already saw it in our mystery shopping reports salespeople well apparently yesterday the tariffs were 80% now or he thinks that it's a good idea for 80% that's from china but the ones that

really are affecting the United States dealers is all of North America because since the 90s and then during the last Trump administration they modified that it's a big free trade zone so most of the cars you get

in the United States are part of it. It's all North America it's a whole parts it's a big web of manufacturing and those are still effects so the Canadian tariffs of 125% those are in place, and that's a huge impact on the whole U.S. auto industry.

Yeah. And, Laurie, I mention, you know, all the time, well, before I tell you what I mentioned, you know, everything is so up and down with the tariffs, with everything right now. But doing your homework, you know, is key, and knowledge is power, and you're in the driver's seat, absolutely, even with everything that is affecting all of us. So that's my advice. Great. Thank you. You're welcome, Laurie. Stay on the line and talk to Jeremy in the control room.

Okay, thank you. Okay. You're welcome. We're going to go to John from Palm City and Mary. I will be right with you. Good morning, John. Good morning. Happy Mother's Day to Nancy. Oh, thank you, John. On the subject of mechanics, a good mechanic is guided by the quality of the tools that he uses. That's very important, especially tolerances on the tools. Can I ask Rick what brand tools that he uses on his own parts? I think we'll have to have another show for that.

Well, there's one particular brand, probably snap-on. Snap-on. Probably about 80% of my tools are Snap-on. I also have a large selection of Mac, Matco, and Craftsman. Are they available to individuals or just dealers? The trick would snap on Mac and Matco is that they are generally only on a tool truck and really the only way to get that is if you're a shop that the tool truck comes around to you. However, if you're someone that you happen to own those tools and you've got one that's broken

and you see a snap on guy parked and you walk up and ask him, odds are he's going to take care of that tool for you. basically all these tools have lifetime warranty and they are good quality tools craftsmen still my father swore by them back in the day when sears was the only place for craftsmen now you can get them was it Home Depot or Lowe's I think took over and what's the one that Lowe's uses

I don't know I I just want to warn you early as the fact tech you can search the web for a snap on retailer and you can buy them even if you're a private person. I want to head off, Earl, because I saw you went right. You certainly can buy all those tools that way. You know, they have a website. I'm faster with the keyboard, though.

But to me, the most important tools you have are the ones that you have with you right then. Husky and I cannot remember the brand name that Lowe uses, but their tools are decent quality, and it's more in how you're using those tools, really. that's a key right there really is how you use them well i just want to bring up that point and craftman is no longer sears sold a craftman name and i think that's black and decker in connecticut or somebody else uh with the name and some of the craftsmen are made in uh china right yeah i've seen things on i've seen things on youtube videos of comparing um like what a good hammer like one main

they use one in the United States versus one overseas how they just break they don't use quality steel not everything but you have to buy something quality Lowe's carries cobal that's their house brand

yeah cobalt that was it yeah and now with terrorists I think that Harbor Freight is in trouble because every item in Harbor Freight is from China so I don't know what they're going to do

but boy I'll tell you what John things used to be a lot simpler when I think back to the 40s to 50s. Absolutely. Life certainly has gotten complicated. But if you go back to the 30s, if you go back to the 30,

it was pretty very similar. Well, it's a big old terrorist back then. To answer Johnny Z. Freidly on YouTube, yes, I actually do own some harbor freight tools. Most of them are simple things like those magnetic cups that'll hold the nuts and bolts. But they will come in handy. Its hammer won't hold up to a craftsman.

You know, there's nothing like having, great quality tools and I speak from experience nobody is allowed to touch my tools I have my drawer and I go that's my go-to drawer and that tool depending upon the quality of it we'll get the job done I just I took all the tools that I like and I segregate I took them away from and these are my I did the same thing you did yeah I'm tired of looking for my tools I'm telling you Earl found on Facebook here a snap on tools of Stewart Florida which is authorized dealers, Travis Kitt, Chris Holm, and Dan Bodon, where they have their own Facebook page.

So they will work with locals on helping them get to Snap-on tools. They need to get you one of those big old toolbuses. And the biggest advantage that mechanics have with places like Snap-on, Mac, Matco, S-K, Cornwall, is that when these trucks come around to your shop every single week and you can walk on the truck and you get a no-interest, credit account on that truck up to maybe $1,000 or more, and you can simply say, hey, I need this tool, and if he's got it, he hands it to you, or within the next week, you have it, and the old mechanics rule, if you have to borrow it more than twice,

it's time to buy it. Right, exactly. Great information. That's great that they come around to the mechanics, because they're right there at the car. And if you've got a broken tool, he comes around, you hand it to him, he hands you a new one. John, do you have any other comments or questions? No, but thank you for the input, input about tools. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in and stay tuned for our mystery shopping report from Mazda of the Palm Beaches. We're going to go to Mary.

Thank you so much for holding Mary, and Mary calls us from Palmano Beach. Good morning. Hi. Thank you once again, to all of you. I have a question. I'm about to, I have a 23. Subaru Forrester. I'm about to take it into North Lauderdale Subaru.

So I keep all my records, and I'm looking over, you know, what maintenance I need. I have very low mileage. And I'm seeing these, what I assume, and you'll tell me if it's true, these bogus fees like environmental impact fee, it's a different amount on every single bill. And believe me, all I've been doing is oil change and tire rotation for what I've needed. um can you comment on that i mean if they have to be on the bill what is an appropriate percentage yes what i figured mary did you say um did you say fort lauderdale subaru okay um and um so i'm looking at the receipts and it doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to them they're not

it's usually a percentage it's usually a percentage um like 10% of the service bill it's a junk fee that we don't mention often enough. And I'm really glad you brought it up, Mary, because if you want to find dealers without it, if you're a AAA member, the American Automobile Association doesn't allow that. We're the only dealership that I know of that does not charge a jug fee in the service department.

But like Stu just said, you should itemize what you have done and agreed with. you should get an estimate when you come in. And if you're going to have an oil change and tire rotation, alignment check, whatever you're having, you should see the charge for that particular operation and agree to it. Two reasons for that because, one, you know what the price is, and two, they can't vary by more than 10% by Florida law by what you agreed to. Oh, that's great. And then when you go to the cashier,

We've found in the past and in general, if you object strongly to the environmental impact fee or it'll be a miscellaneous supplies, it's like car sales, junk fees, they have a million names. They come up with something that sounds legitimate. Shop supplies. And environmental impact sounds really kind of warm and fuzzy. I'm helping for a clean, green earth. But the fact of the matter is, it goes in the dealer's pocket, and as Stu said, it could be a percentage, five or ten percent of the total bill.

If you squawk loud enough, they'll take it off. And nine times out of ten, if you object and say, I'm not paying that, this is not part of what I had done. And I want to talk to the manager, and you probably got a couple of people waiting to pay their bill behind you, and they don't want a ruckus in the service department. I'll scratch through it. You want to prevent it. Nobody does that. Mary, you know, I can't emphasize enough what I say on this show. Your voice is powerful and voicing your opinion, what you want.

Yeah. I was going to say, Earl had mentioned the law. And just if you think for a second, you can see exactly why there is a 10% shop fee in Florida. Law allows you to go 10% higher than your estimate. So they encoded that into their computer system. So every estimate, everything they tell you is always going to be 10%. It's going to be added to every bill. Interesting.

You really answered my whole question, so I really don't have, you know, I wanted to know, can I push back? What is not an acceptable C because none of them are acceptable, but what is the normal one and what is an outrageous one? I mean, I think they're all outrageous because it's like it's just a little instrument they put on there to scrape up a little extra gross profit. So if there is none, the only thing, it's sales tax. It's not a little bit of profit because a dealership will sell 10 cars a day, but they'll service 120 cars a day. So you take add-on, which probably averages $50 or $75 or maybe $100 on 150 cars. That's a lot of money. It is. And it's also up to the individual. You pay one big dealer. fee when you buy the car, but you pay

if you own the car for seven years, you're paying hundreds of dollars. Yeah, exactly. And use AAA. You're going to say, you know, I'm a, if you want a fib, you can say I'm a AAA member and they say this is not something I should charge. You know, I should be

charged. And they have a list of dealers that don't charge it. If you want to keep my business, would you please ask the manager to take this charge off? And 90% of the time, they We'll take the charge off. Well, Costco, actually, North Lauderdale Subaru is one of the Costco dealers.

And they give you supposedly 15% off any services, but when you read the fine print, it doesn't include tire rotation or oil change because, I guess, really, when you have a car, that's mostly what you're doing if you're selling your car every three to five years. There's really not too much more that's going to be done. Your eyes are wide open. Exactly. Well, you're one of the few people that read those things carefully, but that's exactly correct. Congratulations, Mary. Thank you so much.

There's a lot of ladies who are listening to you, and you sound very knowledgeable. Well, thank you. I'm also knowledgeable because of you guys, and I really appreciate every show you do. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you. Have a great weekend. Happy Mother's Day. Okay, we are going to check on, how about Ann Marie? Okay. Happy Mother's Day, Ann Marie. You got her queued up? I'll have that in just a quick second here.

Pardon me. That's okay. While Rick's curing that up. Where does she call us from a couple of weeks ago? What was it? No, no, what was that? She was in New Zealand. Or, Tasmania.

She was in New Zealand, Tasmania. Tasmania? Yeah, that's it. That little devil. Yeah, Hobart, Tasmania. Hobart Tasmania. And her question for this week, she says, Good morning.

In your opinion, what is the worst vehicle ever made and why? Thanks. I know it. I'll let me answer to that. We were talking about the Yugo this morning. And does anybody know what to Yugo? Yeah, I remember that. Looks like what it is, where it is.

I have not seen. many Ugo's on the road recently. They're all part of an artificial reef off the coast of Florida. That's a good place for them. Anyway, here's some news. Hugo shows model of small car. Guess what? It's planned for 2027.

How can that happen when it was such a terrible vehicle? There's no Yugoslavia any, though. Where are they going to make this thing? Yeah, I was approached when Hugo first came to the United States back in the, I don't remember, 70s, 80s. And you said, sure.

Well, I've never heard of it. And everybody was real, I did. And I said, no, Daddy, don't do it. I said, yeah. So the U-G-G-U-Go guy came into the dealership, and I said, okay, where do I sign? I mean, what do I got to lose? He says, okay, he says, but you must sign to buy the first year's amount of U-Gos in advance. I said

That's funny But seriously I'm serious So I think at that time He told me I would sell 500 Ugoes in the first year So I passed So he went out and signed up the Dodge dealer

On Okechobee Boulevard At West Palm Beach And I can't remember what his name was But it became the joke of the industry The worst car ever made It was based on a Fiat 127 I was just going to say To get back to your question

to me it was the fiat and the top of the list is the fiat 500 yeah and I knew how bad the hugo was because I was also a fiat dealer and they were just absolutely terrible cars and uh yeah it's not because I'm digressing and and so I hired an Italian service manager named Carlos Sartelli and uh and he was excellent and the and the Ugos that we sold the Ugoes that were so old would all come into us for service and he was the only one that could fix a Ugo and

it was just anyway it's the good old days Yeah very much so Thanks Ann Marie All right So let's go over I have some anonymous feedback

The most recent one came in this morning So it's just a couple of questions If I may Lately I haven't mentioned anything About the lawsuit and the Texas Automobile Association Association followed concerning additional fuse. The dealer adds on the sale

of a car. Has that lawsuit been decided? The answer, I had to check that out on online, but it looks like it was dismissed in January. It's done. And so, that's dead. And then there's a second question

about the situation in Florida. And while it still remains the law, it's not enforced. It's not regulated. It's not enforced. and the issue in Texas that was fought by the Texas Deals Association and the National Dealers Association, the attorneys that we hired that soon are amicus,

our friend of the court letter in supporting the FTC ruling, was read and discussed, but again, it looks like it's going to be dropped. Nancy found something online about, the Federal Territory Commission going after junk fees, and they only mentioned things like hotels and rental cars

and what else was there? Yeah, the list was very short. And she also checked on chatGBT, and they say yes, these hidden fees can apply or may apply to car dealers and, of course,

they just won't be enforced. No will. There's no place. little for well to do it. Our new long range you're riding to the rescue is Amazon. And Amazon, you can't trust the government, the government

won't do what they say they're going to do. And I don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat or an independent government is government. And we've got the greatest government in the world, but government is inefficient and doesn't work as well as private

enterprise, in my humble opinion. So private enterprise is Amazon and they are an amazing company and once they start selling new and used cars the dealers if they want to sell cars they got to play by the rules you got to play by the rules and if not it could be there's you know we'll have a few dealers and in Amazon a few honest dealers working with Amazon and we want to be one of those honest dealers yeah I have a comment on the last thing we talked about and that will tie in nicely to the next anonymous feedback so I'm going to be an idiot by saying this.

So I check with ChatGPT on the Dodge dealership in West Palm in the 70s, and it was Palm Beach Dodge. Yeah, and I can't... But ChatGPT cannot find the name of the owner. No. It'll come to me. Yeah, I don't know who it is. All right, so that's a nice segue to the next anonymous feedback we have.

It says, Earl, a recent article in the Atlantic, Atlantic Magazine, ChatGPT is dumber than you think. treat it like a toy not a tool and there's a post for medium a website that's focused on text says why chat gpT is stupid and you are stupid for using it and uh and i listen i'll answer that problem i use chat gpt extensively i know earl and nancy do as well

um i will have to say you i think you have to be a smart person in general to see praise the questions phrase the right and um you can go back and you can tell when it doesn't know what it's talking about. It's more like a really smart friend that's really fast at getting information

but it's not infallible. So yeah, there's problems and I also read an interesting article and seems to be this thing. Jonathan, can you put up that picture that Chatsy, BT, made for us with this thing with the show? So look at this picture

that's going up on your Facebook or YouTube screen now if you're streaming us. And all I did was, I said, I asked Chad GBT to make a poster for me about my book, Confessions of a Recovered Car Dealer and our link with Big Dog Ranch Rescue. And five minutes later, I have this picture. So you can't say it's stupid to do that. Yeah.

You can't say if chat GBT makes up something that's wrong and then you go around adopting that, then maybe you are. but what they've seen is that the more logical and better it gets, the more it will hallucinate. And so they're working on that. So the most recent chat GBT models are the most powerful that can do all sorts of stuff, but as a higher hallucination rate. And for people who don't know what that means,

occasionally it will come up with synthetic or fabricated information. That doesn't make sense. And I'm more cautious now. I use chat GBT, 100% now, but I'm a little more cautious. A simple phrase that I like is, are you sure about that? Yeah, there you go. Oh, you're absolutely right.

I made a big mistake. I was wrong. You know, excuse me for a moment. Last week, we really ran short as far as the mystery shopper report was concerned. And Jonathan is giving me the signal. So is there anything here that you, Rick, or Stu, wants to mention real quick. I have one from last week from Paul that we didn't get to. I wanted to just bring it.

It says a $37,500 MSRP, Toyota BZ-4X. He's retired living on Social Security, and he says the EV tax credit is so confusing. What would be the cash price to purchase outright? For a $37,000 MSRP? On a BZ-4X. So let's just take the dealer is going to give that thing away because if it's sitting on his lot, it's been there too long he wants to get rid of it. So he's going to sell that at his net cost.

So that's going to take you down probably to about $34,000, maybe $35,000. And then you get the EV tax credit if you qualify. I'm not an accountant. So that's $7,500. So take that $34,000, now you're down to $27,000. And now Toyota has a, at least in Southeast, has a $10,000 dealer cash. So the $27,000 now becomes $17,000. There's your answer.

I want to tell you what. That was, Stu did all that without a calculator later. I'm not looking at Jonathan. That was so natural. It just ruled off of his... I can feel Jonathan's tapping his watch behind me. I know. Okay, a mystery shopping report.

Okay, we have the mystery shopping report. Please, you can vote and rate this mystery shopping report. That number, it's a text number, 772-4976530. Mystery Shop is from Mazda of Palm Beaches, and Agent Lightning did a fabulous job. Thank you. agent lightning and a special happy mother's day to you. And Stu did a fabulous job writing it up and I'll do a fabulous job reading. Stu always does an elegant job. I'm thinking of the first person as if I were Agent Lightning and here we go. I arrived mid-afternoon, wandered around the lot

before heading inside. I browse the showroom for about five minutes before a salesperson named Esteban approached me. He asked, is there anything I can help you with today? I said, I I'd really like the CX-5, especially this one. It was a new 2025, important today, that is also calendar year 2025, Amasa CX-5, 2.5 carbon turbo in Zircon, sand, metallic. Where do they come up with the, I mean, just, who was in charge? And an MSRP of $40,020, $40,020.40,000.

The Monrooney was laminated and was not affixed to the vehicle. Give them a couple points for eliminating it and not wadding it up and putting it in the trunk. Yeah, they weren't trying to hide it. They weren't trying to hide it, yeah. There was also a laminated addendum that if you're going to have a funny mononi and you laminate the brony, you've got to laminate the addendum. That added another $2,895 to the MSRP that got you Mazda Plus. Platinum protection, and we have a photograph attached. They wanted $42,915 for the vehicle.

Esteban explained, that's our carbon turbo edition. It's a little more expensive. Are you okay with that? Test clothes, they go on it. I respond, I think so. I really like the interior color. Esteban noted this color combination is exclusive to the carbon package. I replied, even better, like something different,

and I can't say I've seen many in this color on the road. I mentioned that my daughter-in-law has one, and I love driving hers. I gave him my license, and we took a test drive, and a very similar model, not the one that was on the showroom. Real quick, I just want to say for people trying to wonder what zircon, carbon, metallic, all that is, it's beige. It's beige. How do they come up with these colors? Sounds so much better.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry, not the colors. The design department. The description. Every car dealer has a manufacturer has a group of artists in an office, and they come up with artistic names. They do. They do. Okay, though he did offer to take the one off the showroom floor, so that's good. It's nerve-wracking taking cars on and off the shore floor.

We can testify from personal experience. Occasionally one goes through your showroom window, and that's no fun. I didn't go far on the drive and headed back to begin discussing fees I told him right away I might not be ready just yet I'll need to talk to my husband before moving forward

and if the price doesn't make sense we might wait he asks let me ask you this what would the price need to be for you to buy the day test close number two trial close number two this is a trial close yeah

this is right out of the book boys this is a handbook how to screw a customer when they're trying to buy a car. Moving right along, I said, I'm not sure looking at the window sticker and the added package. I don't know if we can get there, you know, but I'm going to try.

Those are my words. That usually follows. He replied, have a little faith in me. Just give me your number, and I'll do my best to get you there. He entered all my information in the computer. Asked, what's more important to do? the out-the-door price or a monthly payment. Oh, boy.

They want you to go for that monthly payment. He's well-trained. This salesman is either well-trained or a veteran because you love the payment buyer. I mean, the payment buyer, if you get to payment low enough, you can sell them a car for a million dollars. I mean, you know, that'd only be $23 a month for infinity, you know. So they love you to, and we all are payment buyers. in art. I mean, think about it. Our mortgage payment is monthly. Our car payment is monthly. All our big ticket items are monthly. And we get our paycheck monthly. And so everybody thinks

in terms of monthly payments. And a huge number is very scary. Because the human brain doesn't automatically do arithmetic. That's exactly. He asked me how much I'd be putting down today. I answer for me, it's more about the Althador price than the monthly payments. He excused himself to speak with a sales manager, came back a few months later with the sales worksheet. They started me at $43,345. The philosophy being he could always come down,

but she can't go back up again. So start a my, which was $430 more than the showroom asking price. There was no discount. Then they added over $1,700 in junk fees on top of the existing pile of junk. My price was $45,133, $5,130 over MSRP, $5,000 over MSRP. Zoom, Zoom.

He seemed really young, if I had to guess, mid-20s, Esteban, but I could tell he's a sharp salesman. I let him know I didn't expect to be that far over the window sticker, and that the MSRP didn't seem to match the one on the show of a model I wanted. Sharp, notice that. He asked me to pull up the window sticker on my phone and said, let me see what I can do. I think I chose the other one that's just like the showroom car.

Just a few minutes later, he returned with another pricing sheet and said, I think you'll be much happier with this one. This one started at the window sticker price, $2895 over MSRP. They took off a $3,500 discount. Then they added another $1,800 dollars in junk food. and you wonder why Amazon's going to take over the car business shortly. This time, my price was $41,204, which was $1184 over MSRP. He asked what I thought, and I said, I'll have to talk to my husband,

but by the looks of this, this just doesn't make sense to me. He explained that once my credit was run, the number might adjust. And then he asked, let me ask you this. He didn't say which way he was going to adjust, but if I got to get your out the door monthly payments to $4.50, would you drive it away today? That's called if I could, would you? And that's a car slang, if I could, would you?

I laughed and said, I think we both know, that's unlikely. He shrugged and said, you never know what I can do. I thanked him for the time, stood up to leave. he asked if I wouldn't mind waiting it's mandatory for a sales manager to speak with customers before they go I mean that's almost lappical

you mean I have to stay here all night if I don't talk to them I'd say I go it's mandatory for you kid I'm going home I agree a few minutes later the sales manager came over and asked how did Esteban do today was he professional

what are your thoughts I said well he did a great job I just don't think I'm going to be able to get there with these numbers today. He asked if there was anything else he could do and said, when you're ready, please come back and see him. I'll get you the best price I possibly can. He didn't have business cards, so he wrote his number on a piece of paper. A little suspicious.

Maybe that's his first day of the job. And there you have it. There you have Mazda of the Palm Beaches, and you can catch your vote. grade on the curve 772 4976530 I asked a chat GPT to grade

them last night and I guess Yeah I decided so I uploaded the report Cool And let me see if I can find this thing That had to be fun That is a great idea

Yeah I like that We could have three We could have three votes We can have Well I'll start with yeah I'll start with chats All right so

So verdict, okay, bottom line. Oh, I'm sorry. I ask, I ask follow-up questions here because Chatsy T, which I felt was a little naive on Esteban. Gave Esteban, gave Esteban a great grade, but the dealership, not so much. But it sounds like us. So here's sales experience.

This week, Agent Lighten made Estabon, apply it, well-spoken. Anyway, final grade, C. This was a tale of two experience. is. Esteban, courteous, knowledgeable, and respectful, he earns a B-plus. The dealership's pricing and tactics, that's where things fall apart. Mazda the Palm Beaches is using outdated opaque sales practices that we've worked hard to warn buyers about. Padding the price, burying the fees, and trying to close them with monthly payments instead of real transparency, that's a C-grade experience in 2025 at best. But then I just asked, I go, did you think

that maybe Esteban's professionalism was a sign of slay? sickness. And then I said, well, when you put it that way and kind of agreed with me more. So Chad GBT gives it a C. I disagree. I think that's, we see it is 2025 and maybe that that turbo or the carbon thing is as a low supply high demand vehicle. Carbon turbo. Carbon turbo. I don't, I don't think we're in that market now. I mean, I don't know much about the carbon turbo, but we did check they're not selling for MSRP, you are getting discounts from them. So they are still going for over 1,000 more than MSRP, and the wrong person would have bought it for 5,000 over.

I mean, the person that went in there and just took, you know, there are, there's marks out there. And Agent Lightning is not one, but yeah. So I give them a, I'm going to fail them. I think they're really out of the norm. Wow. Yeah, I'm going to give them an F. Wow, Steve.

It's 2025. Wow. Well, we've got Bob and Maryland says at first tried to sell with the MSRP over the showroom model. Then on the second quote, $1,100 over MSRP? It's a D. Over here we've got T-Cash says D. Yes, Mr. Sales Manager, Estabon was okay, but you're a crook. Cliff's Pick says

Buy U's not from a dealer that adds fees I have to give them another D minus Neg at one I give him a D too many old car sales games Tom Steckle D too much runaround labeling taxable fees as DMV is dishonest almost as bad as Orlando Sport Mazda

with $1,700 in junk fees Joseph Kelleher simply says F. Over here, we've got Donovan says, that's one expensive Mazda. Kim, Brian Sondlatko, says, tell the manager I said goodbye. D. Tim Gilliland, junk fees and add-ons have me walking away. C. Nice on that one. Johnny C. Fradley, zoom, zoom away from that dealer. D. And Kim appreciates life, says F minus.

That's hard Harsh today Makes me feel better I don't want to be the only harsh person It's because Mother's Day is tomorrow And I mention mothers Going into this dealership And ruining their day

It makes me mad Myself, I'm going to give my grade As a D plus I think they're just playing too many games But I'm not ready to go all the way To the failure And happy Mother's Day to my wife Christine oh happy Mother's Day christie how lovely happy birthday Emily happy birthday

Jenny oh and cram 1624 says junk fees add-ons how much extra for beige F that's a isn't that the truth beige I mean they're really running with this carbon turbo ridiculous just totally ridiculous guys you're you're ridiculous. Mazda of the Palm Beaches, you're ridiculous. Migrate, F. Well, I'm going to give them a C-minus just because of the guy that did the anonymous feedback

and said I was stupid for believing chat cheap. You know, I was looking up all these colors and where they come from. We've talked about that years back, about how they come up. And I even asked some, you know, Stu, I thought the answer, you know, might have changed. But you were right. I mean, they just sit in this. Years ago when Earl started making the comment about the crazy colors, I intentionally started putting, make sure I would put the name of the color in there.

I did this for a couple of years, I think, and you go, what is this name? And then I stopped because the guy got old. And they reflect current trends. And if you take a look at the colors on the road right now, do you notice that really, really, it's, pardon the expression, it's like they're in Afghanistan or that they're going to be traveling through the Grand Canyon. And now what's happening is you're going to start seeing these trends of pinks and blues. I hope so.

because everything is beige and gray right now. It's so redundant. It's gray and silver. But you're seeing some really good colors like Nancy's, the Tesla. The most beautiful, cheery, burgundy, red. Really, really cool. Yeah, it was just amazing. I thought the original vehicle that I drove was a beautiful red.

But this is just stunning. Absolutely. And it is the hue in it is very unusual. was even better yeah yeah kim appreciates life says happy mother's day nancy who that's kim appreciates life on youtube oh thank you thank you happy mother's day all right so the final grade well well unfortunately that's yours it's c minus yeah okay uh jonathan how much time do we have i really believe that uh the chat gbt was correct with a c i mean i think we got carried away on this one it was wannabes to Amazon and the FTC start to get to us and the South Florida dealers are

totally ignoring it so we got to go back to the curve where if you want to buy a Masta where are you going to go if we if we fail the Maza dealer I mean there probably other Moussa dealers out there that are cheating worse than he is all pretty bad yeah do you want to talk quickly about I believe that you found this information about a former Florida dealer employee that it was accused to stealing $75,000? Yeah, Frank Hernandez owns Beth Smith Kia and Beth Smith. Gonzalez.

Gonzalez, yeah. And we think he owns, I don't know how much he else, but I was friends with Nick Smith, whose father owned Best Smith's board, just one of these, you know, reminiscing sort of things. And I saw that they caught an employee for stealing $75,000. And the employee was apparently a key accounting person over both dealerships. The accounts playable clerks, the clerk. So she's responsible for paying everything. She had the company credit card. And she was out there buying all sorts of stuff. And 75,000 worth. She was buying gift certificates for cruises. And she was in a, it's like she had quit and she was training her replacement.

Yeah. So she thought, I'm off the door. I might as well take a little bonus. Yeah. But she's in jail. Moving on quickly, let's talk about New York. Let's talk about the three point, three point two million dollars. The attorney general, they're trying to resolve the allegations with Nissan. He had a bunch of Nissan dealers for three point two million. I mean, I got nothing but good things to say about The Attorney General of New York is one of the few states where you really have somebody that cares about car buyers and tried to punish people, the dealers that aren't really screwing them. What they were doing, by the way, is they were marking up lease option prices.

So on the show, we've talked over and over again. If you're leasing a car, you have a purchase option price required by law, federal law, cannot be raised. So the option price on your lease contract, that's engraved in stone. That's your right to buy that price. And sometimes you can buy it and save thousands of dollars. So the dealers in New York were marketing it up with all sorts of crap, and they got caught and it cost them $3,2 million. And there was probably $300 million going on, but they caught.

Absolutely. They're all Nissan. All Nissan? They were all Nissan. That was interesting to me. And it wasn't a chain of one guy that owned them. It was probably a 20 group. Yeah, what could have been?

You guys said, I got a great idea. I never thought about that. You know, real quick, we're out of time. I want to mention all of the ladies that have called and the ones that are listening to the show who are trying to, well, get comfortable in giving us a call a very special Happy Mother's Day to all of you

and to Anastasia, a special shout-out from Charity Boy. he wishes you a happy mother's day and Lisa and Lindsay the list is endless I'd need two more shows to mention all of the ladies who play a huge part in our show and play a big part at home taking care of so much happy Mother's Day to everyone thank you for listening to earle on cars we certainly enjoy your company your information that you share with us weekend and we got we'll be right back here on the old channel at 8 a.m. next Saturday morning. God bless and have a great Mother's Day.