Earl Stewart on Cars - 05.11.2024 - The Best of Earl on Cars with Mystery Shop of Prince Chevrolet of Tifton, GA.

Episode Date: May 11, 2024

This is a replay of one of our past Earl Stewart on Cars live shows. If you have a question for our auto expert team, you can text it to [phone], or online at youranonymousfeedback.com, and we’ll answer it during our next live program. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning travels to Georgia to visit a local Chevrolet dealer to see what they have on the lot and how much over sticker they will charge for a new Chevy Equinox SUV. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”.

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

And now, on with the show. Good morning, everybody. We're back. We're here in the studio in North Palm Beach, Florida, your automotive team on how not to be ripped off by your car dealer. And we've been doing this for a long time. We're live as I speak now. You heard my recorded introduction, and we got the full crew.

I mean, we got my son Stu Stewart and Rick Kearney, my wife, Nancy Stewart. We got Jonathan in the control room there. I got Jeremy in the control room. Full crew. It's been interesting in the past few days or months or weeks or whatever it is. It's always something. I tore my Achilles tent on the other day and put me out. for a few weeks. I'm back.

And, of course, this whole COVID crisis thing has just turned the world topsy-turvy, automotive especially. And you car buyers out there are in need of help, and that's why we're here to help you and listen to your calls, learn from you, actually. We learn a lot. We've got some regular callers from all around the country.

We rely on them not only for great questions, but for information. and we're in the information age like never before. I mean, we got so much information. We even got artificial information now. We got more information. I used to think I was cool with Google. Now Google's having to switch over to AI.

So artificial intelligence. It's absolutely amazing. Exciting to be alive in the 21st century. And risky, risky to be alive if you're a consumer. You know, the consumers are getting smarter, the charlatans out there, the devious sellers, you might say, among which the car dealers probably lead the pack. They're getting smarter, too.

So car dealers are trying to figure out how to take your money, and when they repair or maintain your car, when they sell your car or lease your car. And here we are, Earl Stewart on Cars in about its 20th year telling you how you can give a good deal on the car and how you can buy the right car. how you can maintain and repair it correctly. Love to hear from you. I can't over-emphasize how important your calls are. I would just keel over it right here in my chair in the studio

if we didn't have any calls. I mean, that's happened years ago. I still wake up in a cold sweat remembering when we first started half an hour show and nobody would call. One time we did a whole show, and this is a truth, I swear, One time we did a whole show and wondered why nobody called out that the transmitter was broken and we were speaking to nobody for a half an hour.

Anyway, I hope that doesn't happen again. We're, as I say in the 21st century and things are working real well. Call us on the landline, as we call it now, landline 877-960-9960. Please write that number down if you haven't got a thought in mind now. a question, advice, if you don't want to call, just write the number down. 877-960-9960. Now, Nancy Stewart sitting to my left here, a co-founder of the show with me back in the day, she is monitoring those phone calls carefully.

We prefer the phone calls because we hear the person, we hear the personality, we hear the emotion, the, it just, I mean, the humor. I mean, we have some very, very humorous callers. I'm thinking of the roadrunner from Miami as I say that, but we have some people out there just are very entertaining. So love to hear your calls. And when you do call, bam, Nancy will knock me off here or Stu or Rick, whoever's talking to us. Hey, hey, we've got a phone call.

We will prioritize your phone calls. 877-960-9960. And if I'm talking too much about buying and selling and leasing, kind of thing. I can't give Rick Kearney's name out enough. Rick, he monitors a YouTube channel, by the way, YouTube.com forward slash Erlon Cars, and he has a following of callers that are just amazing. I mean, I don't want to say he's got the best callers, but I will say. I think he's got the best callers. And Rick is a certified diagnostic master technician, and he knows what he's talking about he's been 25, 26

years, he's been fixing cars and you talk about changing I mean what he did 25 years ago, what he does today I mean, he's a computer guy and cars are complicated today they're overly complicated

I blame the manufacturers for that I don't think they should be I think they should be simplified elegantly simple as what they should be but we've got bells and whistles you can't even think about and they're just complicated I mean, people buy a car today, and if you bought a new car recently, you'll know this. Now, you drive it home, you don't know how to operate half of the buttons and switches.

You don't know where this is, where that is, and the only thing you have to rely on is a giant, old-fashioned handbook called an owner's manual, or you can go online. I know that, but it's just too long. It should be simple. User-friendly is my favorite phrase. user-friendly. If you can figure out how to make a car that runs well, economically and fast...

AI. Well, you just talked to it. Yeah, yeah. AI, yeah. But let AI handle it. You just should be able to get from point A to point B in comfort, and that's the way it should be. So, ask for Rick Carney, if you have any questions about your car,

they'll give you a free diagnosis, and that's worth $100,000 probably. You go into a car repair outfit, and they'll, of course, repair, you know, charge you to repair the car, but they're going to charge you to tell you what's wrong with the car. I mean, I don't think that's right. Sometimes you get free diagnosis, but most often they're going to try to charge yourself, and, hey, get a free diagnosis.

877, 960, 996. He just asked for Rick or go to YouTube.com forward slash earlone cars. And, of course, Facebook.com, for slash row on cars, you can reach us that way, too. Now, for you texters out there, and that's me. I'm a texter. I always prefer a text. But that's me personally, and that's my business. It's not on the radio show. We prefer the phone call. But the text number, for you texter, like me, is area code 772-497-6530. 772-497-6530. We have a few choice texters. Ann Marie comes to mind. She texts us every week.

hope she does this week too and she is incredibly perceptive she stays on top of things i mean she she asked the perfect question meaning it's the question that's on your mind and on our mind and it really makes us think so if you have a question and you don't want to pick up the phone call then please use the text number 772 4976530 and of course there's the anonymous feedback line, which has kind of fallen into lack of use. I don't know why. Your anonymous Feedback.com. You want to mean total secrecy?

You want to have no one know who you are, where you are, and you have something to say that maybe you're a little bit nervous about. Use Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Why are you are, N-O-N-Y-M-O-U-S feedback? F-E-E-D-P-A-C-K dot com. Your Anonymous Feedback. come. Rick, what do you got over there? Speaking of good questions, I've got a great one from Negan 1. Oh. He says, gas gusler tax. You know, a lot of these cars, like the hot rods and they

put this gas goesler tax on. He says, I just read the manufacturer is responsible for paying it is what the law says, yet it is passed on to the purchaser. So is that negotiable? Well, that's capitalism. Taxes are cost, and the more taxes we have, the higher the prices. So, yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm a consumer advocate, but I'm also a car dealer, in full disclosure. We have a toilet dealership in North Palm Beach. So I understand both sides of the street. We have to make money, and when prices go up to the business, you know, real estate prices go up,

oil, gas, telephone, you know, salaries, the higher the prices, the higher the cost, the higher of the prices. I don't think choosing their tax that they have to pay it would be a good negotiating tool. I mean, like, I'd pick their, oh, you're making enough money, you have to pay taxes. I mean, that's a hard cost to explain away. Okay, folks. Okay, and Nancy Stewart is going to tell you about a special offer, a special special offer she has this morning. for you ladies and she's our female advocate then you know her well the mic is yours nancy okay uh all of you that are waiting um that have called in i'll be right with you but i do want to

announce that uh four female callers you have to be a new caller four usually we give um we go for two female new callers this morning uh to celebrate mother's day uh we are going to wait for four of you to call for what I said, we're waiting for four of you to call. We're going to, the callers that hung up, give me a call back, please. We're going to stay with the phones for a little while. Harriet is calling from Powerwood County, and she is a new female caller. Good morning, Harriet. Hi, how are you?

Well, thank you. Happy Mother's Day, and you just won yourself $50. If you stay on the line, you can give Jeremy your contact information. and he'll give it to me and I'll get that check out to you. Thank you for calling Earl on Cars. And happy Mother's Day to you too. Yes. I have a 2000.

Yes, I'm here. Okay. How can we help you this morning? I have a 2007 Toyota, Yaris. It's a four door. And at about 60,000 miles, it first started, where I was getting a, I don't know how explain it. It's basically a sloshing of water under, sort of, it seemed like, under the glove compartment

area. Eventually, it would get worse as I made sudden turns. That's when I was here at the most. And I started to get the dripping on the floor, and this was on the passenger side. I brought it into the Toyota dealership. They didn't tell me what it was. They wanted $500 to fix it. Eventually, I couldn't pay that.

I went to another dealer and another service department from a Toyota place. And what happened was he said, oh, it's nothing. It's an accumulation of either leaves or debris. They drained it out for nothing. But eventually, after miles and miles, it started to happen again. And this time I called up Southeast Toyota, told them they sent me back to a dealership, and they cleared it out. But my question is, I now have 125,000 miles on the car, and it is still happening. I have asked many questions whether there's an add-on or there's something I can.

put on to prevent this from happening or is an inherent to the car. And I've tried parking away from leaves. I, you know, trees, I live in a condo area, and it is very difficult for me to escape this situation with the trees. I've tried to do that. I finally found a place to park, but it's still happening. Sometimes it can take a year before it happens. Sometimes it can take six months and that's my question is there anything that i can do for this well here's what's happening the what's called the evaporator box and the evaporator core is part of the air conditioning and you know when you take a cold can of soda or cold water and you walk outside in florida humidity hits it and immediately the outside just starts dripping moisture all over the water's just dripping off the

outside from the humidity. Yeah. This is the same thing that's happening inside that core. It's collecting a lot of the air. It's blowing air across it. But the humidity, the water is staying in there. And that water is supposed to drip down into the box and go out through a little rubber hose down at the bottom.

And unfortunately, sometimes things not being perfect in life, leaves and debris can get down into that box. and they work down into the bottom and they cover over that little hole down at the bottom. That's when it starts filling up with water. You get that sloshing noise and condensation will, because it's so cold water, you'll get condensation on the outside of that box

that will drip down inside. And what happens is they're going in and they're using like an air blaster or maybe even a piece of wire, they'll poke up in there or they'll go inside the car and pull that draper hose off and poke something into the box to try to break those leaves up and get them to move out of there but once the leaves are in there if they're big enough pieces they don't always like degrade or break down so they can move them away from the hole and they may stay away from

that hole for months and months and then eventually they'll move back the only permanent fix to it is you've got to remove that entire AC box from the car and clean it all, take it apart and clean out all the debris that's in there. Or basically, you've just got to try to avoid being under trees. And when it does happen like that, when you do get that blockage, you've got to just blast something up in there to clear it out. Rick, how much would it cost her to have the operation done to where they would remove the box and get all and clean the leaves out? Probably somewhere near to $800 to $1,000. Wow. Because most places, if they're going to go in there, at that age for the car,

it'd be a good idea to replace that evaporator core anyways because it's going to have started getting corroded. It's going to be dirty and packed up with goo and debris. And it probably would just be a good idea to go ahead and replace it at that point if you wanted to keep the car for a good length of time. But for 2007, that would be a huge expense percentage wise. It would. Well, what I would, my recommendation would be to find a local independent shop or even a dealership that's going to charge you a reasonable amount to do this. When it occurs, just have them go in and pull that drain hose loose and clear it out again. And it shouldn't be more than $150 each time, depending on how often it needs it.

That's about what it has cost. It's been about that, but I think it's been about four or five times, you know, throughout the year. years. And I was just wondering, I mean, is there any way I know I can't stop the humidity here and I can't stop the leaves, but I don't know. I've tried putting it on in the car, the setting where you don't get the outside circulating air or the inside circulating in the air. Would that be any benefit? No, because unfortunately, you're still getting, even when you said it to recirculate, you've still got a certain amount of air coming in the car because otherwise it would be like driving in a refrigerator you'd be all sealed up and

no fresh air coming you wouldn't be able to breathe so there's always a lot of outside of air coming in and it's just that Florida humidity the only way really is just try a car cover when you're parking the car so that no more leaves can get in there or just actually just try blasting it ever so often that's rough because of the rain and bringing it back up into a condo the wet cover so i thought about what about if i open up the hood and where that ledge is and i see some leaves that have gone down into that area definitely clean that off yep but how do they get in there to begin with that i've i've seen them work their way in just the wind and gravity gravity and rain mother nature does mother nature takes her course harriet you know uh whatever decision

that you make. I hope that you give us a call back and let us know what you decided. And as I sit here, I'm wondering if there's any odors that have accumulated in the interior of your car. My suggestion to you is to get some damp red and to put that in your car. I'm a firm believer in damp red. My husband teases me about that. I use it in a lot of places. You couldn't even imagine. It's very effective. Harriet, thank you. would that help the situation it will help the odor in the interior of your car which obviously you know by now you've accumulated but as rick said the debris that you can see make sure that you clear that out and choose whether you want to spend 150 or you want to spend $800 so

thank you so much for calling we are backed up with callers and I hate to be short with you but I have to get to them. Stay on the line, Harriet, talk to Jeremy, and give him your contact information. And also your email address, if you have any other questions, I'll answer them. Okay, thank you very much. You're welcome. Mary, thanks for calling back. I really appreciate it.

You've called before, and you're calling from Pompano Beach. Welcome back, Mary. Hi, how are you? Thank you so much, Nancy, for... acknowledging my first call. I love you guys. You're really great. My question is, actually, I probably could fill an entire show with the fact that I've

been trying to purchase a Subaru Forrester Limited and what the shenan, as you would say, of all these dealers. So I've seen on social media, and I've decided that when I go back to New York in the summer that I'm going to buy a car in New York, but I don't trust the dealers because all of them say, oh, yeah, we sell cars out of state all the time. So my one question was, what is really the protocol? I don't want to leave New York unless I know that the paperwork to satisfy Florida has been done. So what would I ask them for? Well, if you're going to ask them to show them to The first thing is a total of all of your costs.

I'm going to drive. I'm going to drive. Oh, you're going to drive it up there? Well, I'm going to drive up my 2018 Honda, EXL. And I'm going to trade it in to whomever gives me the best price up there. And then I'm going to drive the car back. So I'll need some, I know, temporary permit, but what do they have to do to satisfy Florida when I get back here? Okay.

Well, New York and Florida. Florida, their departments of motor vehicles are reciprocal, so you'll be able to get a, you can register your plate down here. You want to register it in Florida, right? Well, yeah, I already have tags. So they're going to transfer, they will transfer the registration and do that work for you. I would just speak to the dealer that you end up getting the best price from, have them run that through you, run that over for you, just so you can be sure. But we do it all the time. We have a lot of customers that are snowbirds that live in New York and Florida, and they routinely buy cars down here, register them here, up in New York, and it's a pretty simple affair.

Some other states aren't that easy, but as far as your tag and registration, you only need a temporary plate. You'll be able to put your current tag on the new car, and they'll handle the DMV paperwork for you. okay so would i would i be able to put my florida tag right on the car up there or would i have to have temporary tags from new york and then drive it back and then in florida you can just put the the the old plate on the on the new car i'm pretty sure that's how it works in new york i mean there might be some little quirk where they give you a temporary tag until the until the registration transfer is complete but um probably that you're just going to put your your plate on it and and in the intervening time

while the dealership is doing the work, you keep your paper work with you in case you're pulled over. I think in New York you actually have to have the real tag on the car before the dealer delivers the car. Okay, so even for a new tag? Yeah. Okay, so you're going to leave that dealership

the other with your tag as you're transferring it. So I wouldn't worry about that. But make sure you're getting all this information when you speak to them on the phone, you know, speak to a manager, not like an entry-level salesperson who might not have experience with this sort of thing, you know, speak to, you know, a sales manager and experience personal at the dealership, just to make sure that you feel good about how they're going to go about the process.

Oh, thank you so much. I do just want to mention one thing. I've been on social media down here in Florida, and so many people are talking about how much money they've saved, simply going out of state because the junk fees here, I mean, they're adding 4% when I'm going to look for a car, at least 4% in junk fees. And in New York State, there is only the law, the consumer law says that a dealer can only add the maximum of $175. I mean, I'm going to Schumacher, I'm going to Hendrikonda, I'm going to Coconut Creek,

all of these Honda and Forrester Subaru dealers, I mean, they have $900 document fees. They've got $300, on top of that, $370,000 electronic processing fees. They make these fees up depending on the dealer that you go to. It's glad to see a consumer like you that understands that. A lot of people just don't understand what you just described, but you're right. Florida, especially South Florida, is absolutely the worst place in the world to buy a car with respect to transparency and honesty. And as you say, the junk fees, the hidden fees, they make up names for these fees, so you don't even know that they're junk fees. They're electronic filing fee, tag agency fee.

They get away with a bloody murder, and the Attorney General, Ashley Moody in Florida, sits around with a smile on her face and pretends like it's not happening. In New York, the AG there seems to, all the AGs you've had in New York seem to be real consumer-oriented, and they've got some excellent laws protecting consumers in New York. The car dealers can't get away with half as much as they do in Florida. And also, Mary, I do want to mention to you that one of my pet peeves is the market adjustment fee, and it can be off the wall. mean, extremely expensive. And as Earl always says, you know, dealer fees, you know, they're not illegal.

The hidden fees are illegal, and there are so many hidden fees. And I agree with you with wanting to go home to purchase your vehicle. It's a minefield down here. The other thing that I wanted to mention, I heard Earl say on another show about Costco's program where they don't monitor their dealers. And that's another thing that I'm finding. If I go to New York and I get the Costco deal at that particular dealership and only pay $175 in fees, I'm way ahead of the game.

Instead of buying the car down here, they give me the Costco discount, and then they add the fees. But the fees for Costco, I've found, it's not one flat rate. they literally, Costco has a deal with every different dealership. So I, so people don't understand that. But, you know, they say, well, give us your zip code and you can go here. But I've called the president's office at Costco and said, look, you should be telling people that they can shop around, not just go to North Lauderdale Subaru.

They're giving a different price than Schumacher Subaru. And it's really not that far a difference. And now I've gone to Bill Colt Subaru, who literally in New York, in Rockland County, in New York, has sent me the whole sheet immediately by text and email. This is what the car will cost. No playing game. I now understand why I see so many posts about people saying I went to Georgia, I went to Tennessee, I went back to. Now, Mario and Costco, they require the contract that a dealer has with Costco to be a certified Costco dealer is that they will sell a car at a lower price to a Costco member than any other person. So they have to sign that contract with full disclosure.

Now, the question is, many have slipped towards a cup in the lip because somebody comes in and gets a salesman. He says, yeah, we're Costco dealers. and he makes up his own price and lies to the customer. Costco is not able to police the way they should. But if you shop Costco and the dealer, and they do give you a Costco price, you absolutely should get another Costco dealer and get another price just like you would

if you weren't buying through Costco. But the Costco auto buying program is a good program. It's just not policed the way it should be, and they don't have the manpower. are to do that. Mary, I hope that we've really helped you this morning. I'm sorry to catch you off, but we've got a lot of calls on the line, and I just want to commend you.

I want to compliment you. You are an educated consumer, and you are really, you know, an example for a lot of ladies out there, and I definitely appreciate you calling this morning. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. You guys are the best. um stay in touch let us yes yes definitely stay in touch and let us know what your decision was okay thank you so much have a great day bob uh thank you so much for waiting i appreciate it

bob's calling from a lake park good morning I'm looking Bob Bob Are you there Bob Hey Bob We kind of got a bad connection I can't hear you Happy Monday weekend

You're kind of in an interrupted kind of mode in some static I think I just heard him Are you there Bob? Yes We can hear him now Oh, okay.

Okay, perfect. Happy Mother's Day weekend, everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. How's your foot doing there? How's your foot doing? How's my wife?

Bob, are you asking me or are you asking Earl? My Achilles heel, yeah. I tore my tendon. It's getting better. It's a few more weeks in this boot, but I don't have to use my knee scooter anymore. Thanks for asking. Okay.

Well, it reminds me of that movie with the U-Boats. It was called Dots Boot. Oh, I hate that boot. I had to sleep, and I begged the doctor. I was just going to take the boot off when I'm in bed. He said, yeah. So that helped. I'll get through it.

I'm lucky. I didn't have anything worse happen. Well, the reference to the gas does the attack on the Mustangs, that's right on the Moroni label. They put it, they're going to have it on the, they show that to you. right on the Moroni label. So it's baked right into the price of the car. Also, the new Mustangs will have no AM radios next year. Yeah.

The new car that's coming out. But I wanted to talk to you about the airbag situation because I've been reading a lot about BMW issued a no drive for their Series 3 and Series 5 cars. And I just read that now the United States wants this one company to recall 67 million cars to the airbags. The inflators, yeah. To the inflators.

I think they're called arc. Yeah, they're out of Tennessee. Yes, they're out of Tennessee, and they're refusing to do it. They're refusing to recall the cars. And I know you used to go around doing the airbags thing. You don't do that anymore, but I thought it's very interesting that there's still extremely dangerous situation out here with numerous millions and millions.

They said 67 million cause. They said that there's been nine documented incidents over the years, similar to Takata, and they wrote a letter back to NHTSA saying they disagreed with their assessment that needs a recall. They're claiming it was a few one-off from manufacturing anomalies that's since been addressed. And so they're refusing. I don't know, can they be forced to recall a product?

do you know that that's up to nitzer is it not i don't know if it's a compulsory thing or if it's like i do know that some of them some manufacturers it was at ford voluntarily are recalling some of the vehicles that were built with this inflator um but the manufacturer of the inflators like you said refusing um so i don't know if they could be compelled or if it's a do you know um earl well i think a safety recall is is mandatory and i think they're suggested recalls that are involuntary. So interesting enough, with recalls, what we're seeing now is a ground swell of recalls. As you know, production was halted, not halted, but slowed down considerably because of

microchip, shortages, the wiring harness, and a lot of other parts. Now that we're playing catch-up, all the manufacturers are gearing up the assembly lines. increasing sales are increasing and they're trying to get back into full stride but they're pushing cars on the market too quickly and there's a lot of there's a lot of new innovations electric vehicles are coming out from manufacturers that never build electric vehicles before and we're seeing a potential for a huge amount of recalls because you don't know about the recall until somebody gets killed or injured and then by that time it's too late there's so many on the road there are too many people in danger so all i can say is try

to stick with the more reliable vehicles some of these manufacturers out there are really taking chances when they're putting cars into production that they shouldn't i don't identify if you have an arc reflator though that's not yeah what happens next i think is if they don't come to an agreement they'll get sued by the initial deal there'll be legal actions and they could be forced to do it. Right, well, that could take years to play out, right? I saw the Costco Auto Program has collaborated with Volvo. They give you a coupon now if you buy an electric Volvo for $2,500.

Really? And if you buy one of their other vehicles, a $1,000 coupon if you go through the Costco Auto Program. I thought that was interesting. That's good. Costco does that with a few manufacturers. I wish more manufacturers would sign up, but, yeah, that's good Volvo. Yeah, I had a couple calls last week. One fellow called him changing his wheels out on his car,

and I was wondering if you do something like that, would you not have to call your insurance company and get a rider on your policy? Because if the wheels get stolen and they're very, wheels that can be very expensive nowadays, they may not cover it. That might be something you put under your home, owners or something like that. I think can you put something valuable that you own on another policy?

Actually, I think a lot of automotive policies, if you upgrade the car with upgraded stereo, offered equipment, anything that you've done that increases the value of the car, you would get a rider put on it. Same thing as a lot of folks that own classic cars, antiques, even though the insurance value of that car would be relatively low, if it's restored and considered a collector, then they can get a rider. Of course, that costs a lot more. We've got four callers holding now, so we need to push us along here.

Yeah, we sure do. Bob, you know, we appreciate your call. I have a load of calls that are backed up this morning, and I want to thank you for calling. Thank you. Thank you for taking my call. Thanks, Bob. Have a great weekend.

Thank you. You do the same. We're going to go to John, and he's been holding. And Kevin from Buffalo, please hold on. I'll get right with you. John's calling from West Palm Beach. Good morning, John. You there, John? Joe John. John. John gone. John's gone. Hey, John, if you can hear me, why don't you give me a call back? Let's go to Kevin, who's calling us from Buffalo, New York. Good morning. Good morning, Kevin. this is Kevin yes good morning thank you welcome yes thank you I really appreciate your show the knowledge your team provides it's very very good for example I went out of my area to buy a carcass it was several thousand dollars cheaper because my local dealer wanted to put on add-ons that I didn't want to pay for good for you dealer ad-ons

your idea about going to a dealer to get even an oil change is $30 cheaper at a lower end of the same manufacturer's dealership, and it was a very great knowledge. Rick, I watch your video about changing a lug nut on a car using a breaker bar. Very nice. The information is, that's a couple of years back that video. My two questions this morning are, one, I have a full-size spare tire, and when they do an oil change, they always want to rotate your tires, but they resist on putting the full-size spare tire in the rotation.

Should that be done, or do I have to pay? extra for that. I generally would recommend it simply because the tires that are on your car are they're pretty much geared to the side of the car that they're on and should be rotated front to back. The reason for this is if you cross the tires, you're very likely because the tire conicity and radial tire pole, you're going to create a pull to one side of the other. Despair, keep it full of air make sure they check it each time you do a service but keep that in the trunk and the tires that are on the ground keep those rotated about every 5,000 miles and I think you're going to be a lot happier with life because I know Florida roads aren't the greatest

but I've driven on some roads in the U.S. that are pretty nasty and it's best to keep them nice and straight like we have okay front to back that's great news The last question is, my car says it should take 91 octane. Is that a good idea or a bad idea? If it recommends 91 and you're comfortable with it, go for it. If you do want to switch down to the lower grades of fuel, you can do that. You might notice a tiny little change in power in drivability, but for most cases, you probably won't even notice it. And the computer in your car will automatically adjust to any driver.

such as knocking or peeing or predact nation, it's going to detect that, and it's going to return the time. It won't hurt to go at all. It's not going to bother the caller. Yeah, good idea. Again, thank you for your knowledge. It's very interesting, and I want to give my time up. I'm sure Marty will be calling pretty soon about his car coming.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you so much, Kevin. We love hearing from you. Have a great weekend. Give us a call 877-9-60-99-60, or you, can text us at 772-49760 and we sure would like to hear from you at anonymousfeetback.com and ladies I there's three I'm waiting to hear from three more of you because each one of you

as a new caller can win yourself $50 this morning and I have a question for you do you pay attention ladies do you pay attention to maintenance and repair costs, you know, statistics show that there are more women in the service drive taking care of either their car or the family car. Give me a call. Give us a call. We're here to answer your questions. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-60. Now back to the recovering car dealer. much I'm in love with consumer reports and a new issue. I get emotional sometimes. I like this magazine so much. I'm going to hold up a page for you people streaming. Maintenance and repair costs by brand. And the bar charts you see there, and you probably can't read it even if you

are streaming it. But see how short the bar is on top and how long the bar is on the bottom? the car on top the make of car that has the lowest maintenance repair cost is in 10 years is $2,975 and the one that has the most repair cost is $8,740 so. A difference. So I'm just saying I'm not recommending you buy the top car or you don't buy the bottom car, but you should have that knowledge. and the this is something when we buy cars we don't think about here's another little tidbit I've got to give you of consumer reports

I didn't even know this was in there but if you go to consumer report.org CR just the letter CR.org for slash car repair CR.org car repairs for slash car repair and you put your zip code in, it gives you safe places to have your car repaired. I mean, that's pretty good, right? I mean, of all the conundrums, the of the dilemmas or whatever you're going to call, where do you get your car fix? You take it back to the dealer? Well, we all know dealers charge more. And a lot of the maintenance repairs, you could do yourself, but you don't like to do it or you don't know how to do it. And then you have to take it somewhere else,

and then you get taken advantage of. I mean, just write it down. You don't have to subscribe to consumer reports, but CR.org for slash car repair. And I'm not saying they're perfect. I mean, callers come in and say, I don't agree with consumer reports about this. I don't agree with consumer reports about that.

I find the same thing. They're not perfect, but they're better than nothing. And to go blindly into a car dealership or an independent repair shop and say, we had a caller just a few minutes ago on the air that had an issue with leaves that are getting into her evaporator hose

and plugging up the hose and her in her, what she have? Toyota de Yaris. Yaris, yeah, Toyota at Yars. And she went to some place and they want to charge her $500. Go to Consumer Report.org 4 slash car repair, put your zip code in

and you put your your mac model of your car what the problem is and they will give you an estimate of what it should cost I mean that in itself is worth its weight and gold I mean how many people really know what car repairs cost so if you can

if you've got a pretty good idea what your problem is with your car or let's say you go to a car dealer and he gives you a quote what about your smartphone and keep him honest Say, okay. It gives the estimate right there. Yeah, give the estimate right there. So I'm in love with consumer reports.

I think that you can subscribe for $30 a year. I mean, when you consider how much a car dealer can take advantage of you for, that $30 is money well spent. They can also tell you where to buy the car, the best car to buy, the lowest maintenance, the lowest insurance is worth its way to go. Okay, what are we doing? Or call wise. Well, I can get to Ann Marie's text. Yeah, she's got a text waiting for us. Good morning. I hope everyone is well. And on the mend, yes, everyone is, I think. I realize you're a car dealer and not a veterinarian, but you are a dog lover. We all are. In your opinion, what is the best, safest way to secure a dog in a vehicle so the pet doesn't go flying in the event of a sudden stop or accident? Thank you. I got the answer for you because I got to

for my dogs. There's clips that hook to their harness that clip into the seat belt receiver. And you just basically, it's a, you put the harness on your dog and on the back where you hook your leash that hooks into the seat. And it has, they have a little leeway, but it also keeps them from climbing all over the car and causing an unsafe situation, which some dogs do. My dog doesn't. He's a great car boy. The thing that prompted her to, um, uh, ask about that was the tornado that hit Palm Beach Gardens last week that we i think we talked about it um did a whole bunch of damage um down here it was an f2 tornado so down in florida we get a little skinny waterspouts but nothing usually nothing like that anyway cars got flipped there was a video

that um it's viral online i have a guy right there at us 1 and p j boulevard somebody was filming in their cars the tornado across the intersection picked him up picked his car up he had this vogue an SUV flipped them around landed back on the tires fortunately but he was in there with his i think it was an australian shepherd he had his dog in there with him and neither one were injured but the dog started in the front seat and wound up in the back in the cargo area so it was probably terrifying but yeah that's probably the best way is that is that is that clip thing yeah i've also seen like barriers and things that you can put between the like mesh and things like that that could stop some forward progress of a dog flying through a car but you probably

want to belt them up pretty good i just googled safest cars for dogs and there's a wealth of information is it oh yeah yeah i think yeah i think yeah i think about that but uh you buy a car you think about uh how women are affected how men are affected what about dogs yeah yeah um i had a was driving a tundra um big big old truck because i had to move some furniture and i had my dog in yesterday and he loved it because it's so huge on the inside you can roll the rear window down and i think he's a truck dog my my dog is 65 pounds yeah and i had a uh the aluminum bars barricade uh that i bought at a pet store and i would strap it to the seat the back seats uh the back of my front seats so she my dog could be in the back seat and not jump up on you

and i still use the harness strap for her her but in an accident even just the idea of a 65 pound dog flying loose through your vehicle it's not good it's horrible for the dog and for yourself yeah and so yeah folks if you carry your animals with you your pets take good care of them strap them down you know they don't understand it but in an accident they'll still be around to be annoyed at you they don't even understand that you're driving the car. I'm convinced that my dog thinks he's putting the same amount of effort into this trip as I am.

Like, we're both passengers. Oh, I quickly learned I had to put the barricade up to keep my dog from getting in my lap. All right, we've got to stop entertaining our audience. All right. Do we have any other texts? I think we do. We have another text from Gary, and he asked about the arc manufacturing

recall that hasn't happened yet. So he just made a point. He identified it's ARC in Tennessee. and they're in a lot of cars. Like he said, it was 67 million affected airbags. Across about 12 manufacturers, GM has put out a voluntary recall on a lot of theirs. And you've got Kia, Hyundai, BMW, and possibly Ford, and some others.

I don't know if it's going to be another Takata situation, but let's wait and see. Yeah, we'll wait and see. I always said, GM voluntarily recalled a million of their vehicles. Because they're smart because they know that it's out in the news right now. You know, we talk about recalls all the time. And one of the problems, I think, are the buyers of the cars. People are not concerned. And even too many people, when they know there's a recall, they just don't bring it in.

I beat up the manufacturers and the dealers a lot about not taking care of cars that need recalls. but there's an apathy, and I think a lot of people think of it, okay, so there's a recall because there were three deaths with Takata or there was death with this or that, and I'll get around to it. And, you know, let's face it, we get into a, we're busy, and to take your car into a dealership and have a recall fix, you might have your car tied up for a day or two or longer, and you need your car. so one out of only one out of four recalls has performed three out of four they're still driving the cars around

and even when they know they have a problem people don't bring it in and with takata those inflators were designed there a heavy metal casing with holes in them meant that when the airbag was to be deployed the gas would simply spray from those holes into the airbag and the metal casing was supposed to stay intact. And there is a video that someone was able to create where they took an inflator detonated it and

it ruptured and the shrapnel flying through the air was terrifying. No one's despairing the fact are dangerous. My point is there's dozens and dozens of recalls out there and one out of every four car still needs to have

the recall fix or more. I don't know. We pioneered this Takata thing for a long time, and it didn't do any good. I mean, people, flat just don't care. Well, I mean, they didn't do any laws, but a lot of people listening to this show, I guarantee, could have avoided a disaster because thousands of people ran their vins that they didn't know how to do that. We did this for years.

We didn't help everybody, but we helped a lot of people. It's still worth it. There's also the advantage now that as things have been, have progressed in dealerships, Every time a car comes in for service, the VIN is automatically run to be checked for recalls on those. They're supposed to. The dealers are supposed to do that. Well, they're pretty much getting them now. So it's, I mean, it's automatic.

Yeah, at least for Toyota, I know it's automatic. It is done. Every single time that that VIN gets put into our computer system is checked for campaigns. Absolutely. If you're trying to get in touch with us and you don't have the number by, now that number is 877 960 9960 and you can also text us at 772-497-2-4976530 and ladies as I said earlier we are celebrating Mother's Day we have we're waiting for three more new female callers and you can win yourself

$50 and I'll put another question out there for you whenever you are looking to purchase a new car or a lease do you ever factor in what it's going to cost you to keep that car on the road do you do you know that there are a lot of consumers that don't take that into consideration give us a call let us know how you feel about it 877 960 9960 now back to Stu no we're all caught up I don't have any text or anonymous feedback okay how about Rick I've got One quick one here from Igor Koski. He says, I have never seen any dealer principal take the time on a weekly basis talking to folks about cars and being so transparent as you, Earl.

I take my hat off and bow down to you, sir. Keep doing what you're doing. Oh, thank you very much. It's nice to be wanted. I sometimes wonder why, you know, we're successful. We have a car dealership, but we're successful. And you would think at some point in time it would dawn on a lot of car dealers that buying a product, whether it's a television set or a home or a car, one of the things that

you have to have is the buyer's trust. And you'd be surprised. A lot of people think I'm a do-gooder, but. But I'm doing myself good, too, because by treating customers the right way and paying attention to their complaints and trying to take care of them, we're far from perfect, it's good for business. So you car dealers out there listening and salespeople, give it a try. Try being honest for a few weeks and see what happens. I mean, if you're going to, if a person comes into your dealership and asks for a price in a car, give them the price. and give them their God-given right to be able to shop and compare that price

it's in America competition that's the name of the game this reason we're a great country we have capitalism we have competition and competition keeps everybody pretty sharp because if you're dull the sharp competitor is going to take advantage

so give people a good price and let them shop and compare it and be honest with them you'd be surprised how many more cars and how much more money you'll make if you try doing that. Meanwhile, I know we're preaching to deaf ears to a lot of dealers, but it makes me feel good to say it anyway.

Okay, we're going to go back to the phones, and we are going to talk to Marty. Marty is a regular caller from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Marty. Good morning. Happy Mother's Day to you. Thank you. Do you have good news for us? Yeah, Tuesday is a big deal for me at your dealership.

Supposedly my car is coming in. I've been given the date a few times, but now the salesman called me up and told me the 16th, so we'll see if that really happens. But my question is for Rick, before I celebrate, is there any, since I've never had a hybrid car before, is there anything that Camry hybrids have people have complained about that is really normal and that I shouldn't be nervous about it?

The noise it's going to make, there's a noise that the hybrids make intentionally. That's not a defect, it's because they're so quiet when they're in all-electric mode that you need to alert people and animals, and it sounds like a howling... Especially when you put it in reverse. Yeah. I've heard it described as the whaling of damned souls. Yes, that was me, I think. A chorus of demons.

No, mine was a chorus of demons. Yes. That's what it was. It's unsettling, but when you've, because people have asked there's something wrong with the car, it's not. The other one is when you put the car in park, you're also going to hear this little kind of a zipping sound almost from the back. That's the actual electronic park. braking brakes applying on the rear wheels in addition to having it in park the

parking brakes apply by themselves now what's that noise is that what it is or yeah it's just a little slight buzzing sound when they apply it lasts for about a second and a half but yeah we've had that other than that it's just it's the uniqueness of the gas engine does not run all the time you don't control it the computer will determine when the gas engine runs, and especially just sit back, relax, and enjoy it, and let the car do what it wants to do, and you will get the greatest fuel economy. Just drive gently and enjoy that new car. Do you have to press that EV button, or is everything automatic?

It's automatic, but there is an EV button that you can push that at lower speeds, you will be able to drive at your choice as long as there's a full enough charge on the hybrid battery and the indicators on the screen will show you what your charge looks like. That's another fun thing about it, Marty, is that, I mean, well, don't get in an accident, but there's all sorts of stuff to look at, like the energy flow between the battery

and the electric motor and the gas engine, and you see when it's charging. Also, when you're using, when you're breaking, you'll see how you're getting a charge from the regenerative braking, so that braking energy is getting transferred back into the battery. So it's pretty cool. So like if you drive somewhere, let's say it takes you 20 minutes to get someplace,

it should be driving on the battery? It's going to go to pound some with the charges. Let's say you drive home one day from, you know, Publix or something. You get home, you're parking your driveway, and just happens to be at that moment. The hybrid battery is not very charged. Well, when you leave the next day to drive in your car, it's going to have to charge up, so you're going to probably be using more gas right off the bat.

On the other hand, sometimes when you, you know, if it's got a full charge and you're going in your neighborhood, it's going to say, I don't need any electric motor at all. I mean, I'll need any gas motor at all, and you'll be cruising silently through your neighborhood. It's kind of neat. Okay. But, yes, there is an EV button that you can push, and you can choose to go in all EV mode, but I'm not sure what the top speed for that is. It was a while back, it was pretty slow.

It's about 20 to 25 miles miles off. In other words, if you press that and there's no juice left in the battery, it won't do it. Right to gas? Yeah, yes. It just won't do it, yeah. Okay. All right, I'll see if Tuesday's my big day.

I hope you have a big cake there or something. We might have bagels, Marty. Well, that I know. That I know. That I know. I might put a 15-month candle on a bagel. There you go. There we go.

We'll sing for you. That's a great idea. Well, hopefully Tuesday it'll be there. All right. All right. Thanks, Marty. Thank you, Marty. We're looking forward to it also.

Give us a call and let us know how you like your new car. We're going to go to John in West Palm Beach. And Franklin, hold on. I'll be right with you. Good morning, John. Hey, good morning. Welcome. I'm open.

Thanks. Thanks. I'm hoping Mary is still listening. you know she was concerned about the dealer fees and all the hidden costs and I just wanted to see and you called her an educated buyer and things like that which is great but I'd like to give her just a little bit more education and just it this is to her there's a dealership near North Lake Boulevard I can't remember the name but they don't have all those dealer fees and nonsense as a matter of fact I think they still have the seven-day return policy no question just asked, I think it's on a U.S. one near North Lake. I can't imagine. They may not have the Subaru or Honda

that she wants, but there's other that I'm sure she might like. Yes, yes, yes. And, you know, she might want to take a look at that and look up dealerships on, you know, what's name of the year that dealerships is in North Palm Beach? Yeah. Or it's West Palm Beach.

Yeah. I hear there's a lot going on over there. Yeah, but like, hey, Mary, if you're listening, you might want to check them out. They're really fair, and they're not going to cheat you. Yeah, save her a trip. Yes, definitely. And that's all bad. Thanks for the girl for a real comedian.

Thanks, Sean. Oh, you're a wonderful. I like that. All right. If you weren't going to promote that dealership, if I figure I would. There you go. I mean,

well, you know, I tell you what I, one of the reasons I try not to is because I get accused by other car dealers as using my whole stick here is for self-promotion. But the funny thing is, it is, but it isn't. I mean, I found out that by treating customers fairly and honestly, you actually sell more cars and make more money. And then when I found that when I tell other people,

even if they don't want to buy a car for me, how to buy a car, honestly, it still builds your image. So, yeah, I'm being, I'm really an infomercial, but I'm not an infomercial. I know this, if I tried to sell vehicles from my dealership on the air, I would definitely be an infomercial, but by being subtle about it, like we're doing, by just helping people and being honest, if that builds my image and reputation, then so be it. So it's not a selfless thing I'm doing here. It's really helping me and other people at the same time. Yeah, John was pretty subtle.

Hey, John, you're out on Saturday morning and said, what are you doing? I mean, maybe you could open up the show and just, you know, drop some hints here and there. Well, actually, I've got a teacher that I work with. I've given her your number. She'd be a first time caller, but she's a, she went through the, tornado and her car is in the process of either being it should be totaled because the tree landed

on it. And I talked to you about that last week, but I gave her your number. Hopefully she gives you the call. And if she wakes up that early on Saturdays. So I don't know. Yeah, a lot of people. But I did have a question.

Okay. Because I do promote you guys. Because I bought cars for me. And you is my salesman. He's a great guy. In the use car with. Do you still have that tire for life promotion? Yes. If you buy a tire as tires for life, how does that work? Well, it's again, there's a selfish

behind that. We know that if people return to you from service after they buy their car, that they're 50% more likely to buy their next car from you, which is common sense. You'll walk into a dealership and you buy a and you never go back to, you go somewhere else for service or whatever, you don't have the familiarity, you don't know the people, and if you were treated fairly. So we said, let's give them some incentive to bring their car back to us for service.

So when we give away, if you buy a Toyota from our dealership, we give you the tires up to a cap of, was it, $750? Yes. Yeah, we cap the amount that we reimbursed at $750,000, and then you have to have all your factory recommended maintenance done with us. So if you do your factory recommended maintenance according to the owner's manual, and then, you know, 40,000 miles or 50,000 miles when you need a new set of tires, we buy your tires, we charge you to mount and balance them, but we pay for the tires themselves. So it cost us about a million dollars a year and cost, but we think we're getting that return to us many times and extra customers we wouldn't have, Rick. The NHTSA says when your tires are below 2.30 seconds of an inch, they should be replaced. We replace the tires when they fall below 3 30 seconds of an inch. So it's a very fair deal, and it keeps a lot of business in the service department.

Wonderful. Okay. Well, I appreciate the call very much. Yeah, not a problem. Nancy, you ask what I was doing on a Saturday, and actually, I'm dealing with the service department. My Tesla had a sensor go out for, like, the safety belt or something, which isn't a big deal, because you can still drive the car and everything. But their service, Tesla's service, I've never had a problem with them because I very, very rarely use them. I only had to do it one other time.

They had to have the car until Wednesday. They had already set me up with the loaner and everything. I didn't have to do anything as I'm showing my license, and that was totally unexpected. I thought I was going to have to take an Uber home, but they really take care of you at Tesla. Yeah, thanks so much for sharing, John. We've got to get down there ourselves because we need service, and that's a good story.

Great story. Yeah, very painless. effortless my part that good choice of words painless okay john thanks so much give us a call again i will all right bye-bye uh we're going to go to frank i believe and uh we're going to ask uh the other frank to hold on frank's calling us from boca good morning frank good morning welcome what can we do for you this morning well i've got a 2013 Toyota Sienna i've had it since it was new i didn't notice it for after the first year before i i rolled the back window down by mistake hitting the wrong button you know well when you try to roll it up it just keeps going down and

down and down until it hits the bottom and then you can bring it up from from from the the driver's seat. Now, if you do it at the, at the door itself, you can, you can, you can do it. And I'm just thinking probably it's the master switch up there, because it does it on both sides and the back. Try, try this first. Turn your key on, go to those back windows. You want to use the window switches on the actual back doors. Press the switch down and hold it. When the window gets all the way down, give it account of about, five, just five Mississippi, then pull it to the up position and hold it, and when it gets all the way up to the top, again, give it another five Mississippi, and do that on both sides. Don't you laugh at me, Earl?

You know how we count it. No, I'm just saying, I know how we kind of move your kids, but why in earth, who was ever going to figure that out if they hadn't called you? Well, just five, about five seconds, but that's how we always counted as kids, one Mississippi, I'm just talking about the fact that you have to go through that to close your window. What you're actually doing is you're re-initializing the auto up and down and then try to get from that front seat after you do that, and odds are that'll take care of that.

If you've had the battery disconnected or a window at some point. If you hadn't called Rick, you'd have gone into another dealership somewhere, and they'd charge you $300 for that. but so now you got you just got a $300 diagnosis and we're only going to pay you $100. Hey you said send me $100 and hear the radio show here and

I mean nobody nobody knows that I didn't know that Stu didn't know that Nancy didn't know that only Rick knows these things so you know you don't think there's any chance that it won't fix it right? I think probably 80% chance

that'll take care of it for you call us back I can't wait to say. Yeah, that's for sure. Okay, I'll do it. You don't think there's any chance of something wrong with that master switch, huh? Very unlikely. If the windows will still work from the master switch, but they go up and then they come back down, that's, they need to be re-initialized. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thanks for the call. Give us a call and let us know what happened. You know, certified master diagnostic technician. And I hear that I'm not just trying to flatter Rick.

I'm just not trying to brag on him. I'm just saying that it scares me as a consumer. I put my consumer head on to think that what, if I had that problem and I went in, I wasn't in the car business, I went into a dealership, and they came back out, says, Mr. Stewart, that's going to cost $327.19, but we think we can fix that problem for you. And meanwhile, the guy goes out there and he hits one Mississippi, two Mississippi, and bam, he fixes it. And I pay him $175. So it just, I just really glad we got you on the show.

And you folks out there listening, hey, if you got a problem, call Rick. And get a free diagnosis. I mean, Rick might get his own show and start charging. Really? It's a pay radio. Maybe you should have a pay show. Here is my best advice. for anyone that has any issue like this so this is my absolute best advice go on

Google put in for the car forums for car clubs and car forums for your making model and I guarantee you out there on the internet somebody has had that problem they've posted it in one of these forum sites and you'll see at least 50 or 60 of them and it'll give you the answer I'm gonna give you a truth to right now. Have you ever, in your course of your daily work, had a problem that you couldn't figure out and you use Google?

Absolutely. Probably within the last month. See, not only is he smart, he's honest. He's using Google to fix your cars. I have a big blue toolbox sitting in your shop that I've spent somewhere in a neighborhood of $75,000 to $80,000 on tools sitting in that toolbox

and to me, Google is just as good a tool as a 10 millimeter wrench. And they're getting even better because they're going into AI. Google's even getting better and smarter. I mean we're all going to be working for Google. I see

it. Google is a tool. It's just as good a tool as a socket or a wrench or a hammer. It's a great tool. I'm going to use every tool at my disposal. Absolutely, absolutely, yeah. At the end of the day, Rick. Especially with the, I'm hitting a point now, my memory's starting to slip

because I just can't remember everything anymore. So, yeah, I'm on Google all the time. We can end this by saying. When we leave the radio show, Nancy will ask Google where our home is, right? I mean, seriously, we travel with Google Maps. I mean, if you think you know where you're going, use Google Maps, they will tell you not just a way to go. the quickest way to go, the safest way to go, with or without toll roads.

I mean, anybody just drives by feel anymore is crazy. Google is the name of the game. This is true. At any rate, back to Rick, I have to say you never cease to amaze us and our audience irreplaceable. Rick has the answers. Give us a call toll-free at 877-960, Texas at 772-49-30-6-7-7-2-49-3-0. ladies we have still have time for you to win that $50 first three new lady

callers 877 960 9960 we're gonna go back to Rick well it seems we have a bit of a celebrity on YouTube right now I'm Igor Koski who I mentioned just a moment ago he said he was happy to see someone as transparent as you Donovan clicked in and says that he's nice to see Igor here from the car edge live streams. Oh, cool. And I'm unfamiliar with Igor, so I asked, and he says, Igor says he is an ex-dealer principal.

He sold his franchised automotive group in New England last year. He also believes in transparency and always puts his customers first. His policy was, customers are always right, with no ADMs. I'm guessing that's additional market adjustments. and he is a long-time member at Car Edge with Zach and Ray. He says, I'm glad you, Earl, and your organization are a part of the Car Edge community and now the most recommended dealer in Florida to do business with. That's great.

He says, 100% Earl, repeat business and keeping existing customers is what transparent dealers strive for. So, Igor, thank you for joining us. Yeah. I mean, getting another connection in it with courage. We are not alone. You're blushing. That's great. That's really nice.

No, it's a pleasure. You know, I get these occasionally, you know, with social media. A lot of times retired dealers, I had one just this morning. And, you know, they contact me because it's like we're in an endangered species. And when we find another one, oh, you know, here's another one. And maybe it's growing. Voices in the dark finding. each other. We're finding. Right, exactly.

We're a community now. Yeah. And Karas.com, by the way, I'm glad that was mentioned because it's a kind of a new venture of Zach and Ray where they're going to be aiding people in finding the best dealers,

the most transparent honest dealers. Also, it will give you different people in experts in finance, experts of this, and that, Carridge.com, check them out. They do a really good job. And they are going to be able to, you'll be able to eventually be able to go to every state and get, if you want to buy a Subaru

and you live in this part of New York, this is the best place to go. So Carriage.com, they're evolving in that direction. And Zach and Ray, the founders, the father and son team, they do a great job. Yeah, definitely they do. I want to ask Frank, if you're listening, Frank, give us a call back. Sorry, I couldn't get to your call in time. Earl's latest column that you can read in the hometown news and in the Florida Weekly is grading car dealers on the curve. Who are the most honest prisoners in Sing Sing. I really like the first. sheet here. It's really, can you see that? That's nice.

Did you know Sing was still around? I mean Seg-Sing in New York. I think I knew that, yeah. It was very old. 1823 or? I thought it was older than that. I thought it was like a 19th century. 1825. 18, yeah, and it wasn't 19-25. Wow, that's really old.

200 years old. tongue-in-cheek, I always say in South Florida, when we're doing shopping reports, that every time we give a recommended dealer that we're saying he's one of the more honest prisoners in Sing Sing Sing. So that was a motivation. Anybody have firsthand experience on Sing Sing. Our cousin, Lou, has been in Sing Sing,

Sing, since 1975. Is that right? Thank you for sharing. Frank and Jupiter Farm is on the line. And how are we all? I'll be right with you. Good morning, Frank. Welcome. Good morning, Nancy, and I'm sure I'm wishing a happy Mother's Day, so I might as well get along. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Please tell your wife I said happy Mother's Day. I will, for sure. He's right here, but you heard that. She's smiling. With that, it's funny how you talk about people forgetting things and moving the memory. because the other day, I forget who I was talking to now,

but they knew about a Pontiac dealership and they knew about a real estate, and the road and the place. I'm going to meet this guy again sometime in the future, and I'll find out more information, but it was really fun to accolades about your husband, real estate, and the family, and it's just all these kinds of pushing. It's always cool to hear when people talk about the history,

you like about this Pontiac dealership because so many people that was like kind of a like a downtown landmark so a lot of people kind of associate it you know when they because they drove past it so often so when people talk about that time and that place it is really touching for all of us yeah

but the other thing I saw just on TV last night and of course it made me think you guys immensely the big recall on air package for GM now yeah we were just talking about it earlier it's not a recall well GM did a voluntary recall

because they had some of these airbag deflators, inflators so maybe a deflator is more appropriate but there's millions more and they're not going to, or they're fighting the recall. The manufacturer doesn't think it should be recalled so I guess they're going to fight

it out. Oh okay, no I miss it. It's been a busy week and I was a little late to a minute and say about it's a class by. No, It's crazy. It's like a deja vu all over again. You know, Earl expressed how disheartened he was. I mean, because after years of the Dakota thing,

and now it looked like here we go again. And there's really not a whole lot that's going to get done. So it's really frustrating to see this. Well, I hate regulation. And I don't like the government telling us what to do. But, you know, if the government wants to get serious about safety recalls, they just have to make it illegal. to sell the car with an unfixed dangerous recall and if they did that there would be a huge

scream and yell and it'd be a political nightmare and i don't know which is uh how much is our freedom worth the freedom not to have a safety recall fixed uh is how important is that and uh i guarantee you until some enforcement is done recalls just aren't going to get fixed i mean you can recall all the cars you want but you can't make the customer bringing in they did a pretty good job getting the manufacturers and the dealers to notify the customers but you notify them and they still don't come in to get them fixed it's better than it was but not much yeah if they made a law you can't register a vehicle with any open recalls yeah there you go and then you can't drive it on

the road that's that's a great idea yeah that's not quite as draconian is saying you can't sell the car but you just can't register and I like that Those are all good. That sounds great. So let me let you get back to other folks, but you have a great weekend. It's always wonderful listening to your show. You too. Thank you, Frank.

Thanks, Frank for inspiring the answer to the recall crisis. Yes, thank you, Frank. Always a pleasure to talk to you. We're going to go to Howard, who has been holding. He's calling us from Jupiter again, another regular caller. Good morning, Howard. Happy Mother's Day to you. Oh, thank you.

Okay, beautiful day today here in the brink. Bronx. Yesterday it was like 90 degrees, and I felt like I was in Florida. Today, it could only be 75. Is that right? But it's clear, right? It's clear. Yeah, yeah. My daughter's in Manhattan. Yeah, nice. So anyway, a friend of mine has a Subaru, and he's a fish. He does whatever they tell him in the dealer. And I don't even think it's a dealer. At 2021 Subaru, they said you have to have a throttle body clean. I told him, forget about it. It's a joke.

This was a long time ago when the gas wasn't that good. And you only have 20,000 miles on. Why do you need a throttle body clean? And then they wanted to change his brake fluid. I said, you don't change breakthrough until at least 50,000.

Maybe I'm going wrong here, so maybe Rick could come in. Am I correct, Rick? You don't change break fluid at least until $50,000? that almost be early you're right on the money yeah is that your friend that you help out from time to time

Howard that's my friend but unfortunately he knows zero about cars and not only that he has a Subaru and after the first serviced the oil change

he said stop I don't want you to do anymore so they said why he says you put six quarts of oil in and my car only falls for five. So the guy says, oh, we know what we're doing, you know, correct. Now, what I told him, if they put six quarts and it calls for five, you could do damage to the engine, correct, Rick? Yes, he can.

Okay, so I told him, post-haste, get back to the dealer and let them take out the quarter of war and the extra cord. Unless, you know, unless he had a special engine or something and they require six quarts. The first thing I would do is park the car on a level surface, make sure it looks relatively level, let us sit for about five minutes, and then check the oil,

and see if it's at the top mark on the dipstick of the safe range, I would leave it be if it's within that range. If it's way over, I'd go back. Okay. Now, being a little less than a quart, would not do any harm, but more than the court does harm, correct? Well, I would say there's a range on the dipstick. There's two marks, a low mark and a high mark, and it should be in between those marks.

If it's over that high mark, go back. Even just a little bit, I'd go back. Okay. Great, great information. Thank you very much, and again, happy Mother's Day to all. Mothers are listening, and I'll call you back next week. Thanks, Howard. Thank you, Howard.

We love talking to you. Hey, 77-960, or Texas at 772-49-3-0-9-3-0. We have a great mystery shopping report coming up, so you want to stay tuned for that, and that's just going to be in a couple of minutes. Our mystery shop took place in Tipton, Georgia, so stay tuned. that don't go anywhere uh we are going to go to uh one more caller here uh john from west palm beach good morning john yo john yeah hi hey this is i'm calling for howard and that and i don't know if you covered it because i didn't get to hear the complete answer but he was complaining

about or he was mentioning about the six quarts oil instead of five should only take five but when you get oil change don't you need that extra oil to cover the new oil filter that has to be filled as well. Because whenever I've done oil changes, if it costs for five quarts, you had to put extra because of the new oil filter. Well, it depends on the manufacturer. Most of them include the filter in it already. So when they say 5.5, 5.6 quarts, they're already compensating for the amount that's

going to need for the filter. That's why it's because the proper percentage. procedure is to make sure the car is level, run the engine for a few moments, so the pressure's up, shut it off, let it sit for a few minutes, so that the oil will drain down into the crank case, and then check your oil level. And obviously at that point, it should be somewhere in that safe range, preferably up near that top mark. Okay, all right, you know, because last time I changed my oil was like 1978. So I think they've changed things. Holy moly. Yeah, it's depending because, of course, most manufacturers now are going to say they're going to list it as leaders, and they're also going to have it in quartz, and it can be confusing.

So, and for even our technicians, that's why we always tell them, put in this amount, then double check it, and if the oil level is correct, you're good, if not, add a little extra if you need it. yeah all right very good i learned something all right thank you great talking pleasure okay uh rick or stew do you have anything for us i'm checking okay nothing so far it's quiet on the text maybe we've got no anonymous feedbacks i find out since the last one we got was on uh last week you know i was asked a question about electric vehicles and uh whether or not they may cost more for insurance, you know, than the gasoline, what am I trying to say, the gasoline powered cars. Anybody have the question? I mean, have an answer? Well, the interesting thing I see with the electric cars is I think a lot of states like California

are going to start increasing the registration rates on electric vehicles because what the state is not getting from the electric car owners is the gas tax is the taxes that you would have paid on all the gasoline you used so suddenly they're going to start hurting in a lot of states as more and more electric cars get on the road there's no gas tax money to help pay for those roads and those governments are going to start they don't like losing gas money they should start finding they're going to be selling cars and recalls yeah they're going to track you down California and New York are great for taxes. That's why our population is growing right here in Florida. Well, oh, believe me, we pay our share too here. Matter of fact, here's from Donovan. Florida and Texas have passed laws

for a $200 registration fee on electric vehicles. Who did? Florida and Texas. Damn you, DeSantis. so yeah that's good information that's great information Stu I'm sorry our taxes are so low here we had some

we had a room for one little text we've really had a great time today on the show we're going to go back to the phones and we're going to talk to Carlos who's calling us from I think he's calling us from

Tequesta and I think Carlos has called us before good morning Carlos good morning How are you today? Thank you for receiving my phone call. Oh, you're welcome. Nice to hear from you again. Last week I was listening to your show, and I have a problem with 2011 Mercedes-Benz.

I purchased the last year for a friend of mine who went back to Connecticut. And when I got the car, the wood dream on the car is falling out out of the door panels. And he told me it was a request for that, a recall for that, but I went to the computer and looked at it and was only for the faith color and the wood dreams. I wonder if you know anything about this, who can I contact and the company directly? What year was the Mercedes? It's at 2011. 2011. What's the model? It's $3.50. E350 Okay

Trim recall I'm Googling this just to see if there's anything I could find online Yeah Carlos you want to write this down while he's Googling safercar.org S.A orgov Safercar.gov If you write that down

and anybody else listening Safercar.gov put your VIN number in they'll tell you exactly what the recall is on your car if there is one. Now technically this is not a recall, Carlos. this is a class action suit so it's not a safety issue it was just a defect in the trim so yeah so i don't you go to and you can write this well not so that's a that's a lawyer's website if you do you use a computer or phone and can use google yes okay just just

search for uh 2011 mercedes e350 trim recall and there is a class action lawsuit and you just need to there's a little bit of information they'll tell you how to get into get a part of that yeah because I don't know if it has anything with it coming off because everything I'm seeing here has to do with the it's the burl walnut trim that's fading

and it doesn't look like it's so there's nothing I'm saying about it peeling off or breaking off yeah the old the wood trim is supposed to be the wood trim is fell enough out of the panel so this person tried to the person who I purchased a car

he tried to clue that. Yeah, he told you that it was going to be covered under this thing. And the car's hidden self-force is coming down. So I went to the, this guy who I know over here in Tequista, who does Jupiter. Just trim. What they do is the cars. Yeah, the trim. He told me it's going to cost me $1,500.

Whoa. Really? Do you have all the pieces? Well, the pieces are breaking apart. Oh, so they didn't just fall out intact. I was going to say it can glue them back in, but... And it's one piece for each trim is one entire piece. When you look at the door, the trim is coming out before you get the handle.

Yeah. So it looks like the guy is trying to put crazy glue or paxie. Yeah, that's not good. I don't know if you don't have any recourse probably with the guy who sold you the car. There might be an alternative solution, short of putting real burrow wood back in. So maybe the guy who would you do the $1,500 to bring it up to like new quality, I mean, not quality, but there could be another, you know, like a plastic trim that looks nice that could go in place instead of the real burrow that would make it look really nice.

Yeah. Just one suggestion. But I would also just look a little bit lower on the recall. Maybe I miss something. Maybe it does include cracking and breaking. But Carlos, good luck. I hope that works out for you. But like I said, a less expensive.

Yeah. You got it. A less expensive option, I think. Happy, very, happy good day. Thank you. All right, thanks, Carlos. Bye, bye, Carlos. Okay, Rick, do you have anything? As a matter of fact, Igor is popping right up with that one.

He said, no, there's no recalls on the 11E350 class. But Donovan also mentioned, he said, the, let's see here, get scrolled back a little bit, the $200 registration fee that Florida and Texas are suggesting to use, or that they have just passed, he says that's basically the equivalent of someone with a 20 mile per gallon car, not a lot of good mileage there, driving 15,000 miles a year would be about $200 in taxes. So they're putting the spurs to it a little.

Yeah, and he says Florida's about $75 for a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. he says he doesn't mind the idea of paying a little extra for the you know for the taxes but being paid at the rate of a 20 mile per gallon car 15,000 miles

he says now I suggested maybe the government's looking to pad their pockets a little extra they are because the average MPG is 26 miles per gallon and he says that's exactly what they're doing electricity's already heavily taxed they could have just

use some of those taxes but now people with EVs are paying double because you're paying taxes on your electricity and paying an extra registration fee for the lost gas tax or they could have done the math with a vehicle getting better fuel economy because most cars today get much better than 20 even my Tacoma pickup I'm getting better than 20. So you're talking about politicians and politicians actually in the last Gallup annual poll came up lower than car dealers. So that's, that's your, this is, this shows about car dealers, but politicians are just as bad. And, you know, they'll, everything they do is so they can get elected. When they, when they move their mouth, that means they're trying

to get elected. Anything they say, they're trying to get elected. They don't care about you. They don't care about the country. They don't care about their city or the municipality or whatever. all they care about is getting elected and it's just a damn shame those are seriously on the Gallup annual poll members of Congress are next to last telemarketers are last holy mackerel where's the car dealers here we're number one oh wait a minute must be on the next page yeah we're still last another page yeah we're still laugh so it's uh it's uh they're trying to beat us on the last place I won't have that we won't have a show okay folks I think we are going to go to the mystery shopper report how's that sound guys yeah okay and my people you need a

vote yeah definitely go to 772 4976530 and my last blog was about that why do we grow it in the curve if we didn't grade on the curve we wouldn't have any dealers certainly in Florida that you can buy a car from so I was in the process of speaking about that you can go to Earl on cars and you can read his blog and you can go to Florida weekly hometown news and you can also read Earl's column that is grading cars grading car dealers on the curve who are the most honest prisoners in Sing Sing who are the most honest prisoners in Sing Sing. Anybody have the answer? No one's guilty. Everyone's innocent in Sing, Sing.

Exactly. But at any rate, seriously, we love to hear from you. We want your vote. 772-4976530. The Mystery Shopping Report was our mystery shopper went on to Tipton, Georgia. Now back to the recovering car dealer. The first question is, where the hell is Tipton, Georgia? I wrote that because it's Tifton. You know, Tifton. Tifton? It's Tifton.

It's a lot of two o'clock at the morning. So sometimes we give a little. I think I sent this around like 8.30 or 9. It's interesting here because, oh, this brings to sharp focus the difference between small-town dealers and large-town dealers. You know, if you're in the, if you're in a highly popular Chicago, New York, Miami, I mean, it's just a bloodbath. in the smaller rural areas we we have found because agent lightning travels around and when she's in a smaller area uh the dealers are more honest i i i don't want to tip my hand here but just because everybody goes to church together and it's like fall there's tifton georgia this is a tick i i googled it i googled it okay

population of tifton georgia 17 000 45 it's like bigger in lake park i think i think i think i think i'm I mean, that's a little, they have a college there. It's a Baldwin Agricultural College, and the farmer, it's a farming town. They farm peanuts, cotton, and tobacco and pecans. I mean, it says, I just, what a wonderful town to live in. And in a small town, if a business of any type takes advantage of somebody, it doesn't take long for word of mouth to spread around, then you're out of business. And there's a lot of bigger towns.

I mean, if you wanted to, you could drive to Atlanta. That's about a three-hour drive. But people in Tifton, Georgia, go to Prince Chevrolet, and that's who we mystery shop. So here we go. Speaking is if I were Agent Lightning, I arrived mid-afternoon. Notice that there weren't many vehicles in the lot, so I went straight inside. I was greeted by a young gentleman named Russell. He smiled broadly, introduced himself, and asked my name, followed by what brings you in?

today. I chuckled, replied, I'm looking to buy a new car, but couldn't help, but notice there aren't any, or very many cars outside. Russell explained that they had several trucks and an equinox. To my delight, I responded, that's exactly what I'm looking for. An equinox. Russell informed me that it was top of the line, came with all the bells and whistles. He excused himself to fetch the keys so we could check it out. Vehicle was parked to the front of the lot pacing the road with a hood open. Manufacture suggested a retail price, MSRP, was $36,665. The addendum, let me clear something up. Nancy talked about this earlier. There are different kinds of addendums. You've got the addendum where they have the dealer install accessories,

which are worthless things like nitrogen and tires and paint sealant, and then you have the addendum, which the market adjustment addendum, which is a matter of, we don't have very many of these cars, demand is high, therefore I'm going to charge you more money. Now, no one likes to be charged more money, but of all the addendums, to me, the market adjustment is less offensive than the dealer installed accessories. Dealer installed accessories addendum, they're lying to you. They're telling you the nitrogen and the tires is worth $200 or $150 or it's worth nothing. And they'll tell you that window tent is way more than what would cost you to have the window tent on.

And they'll tell you the stripes cost you way more than they do. So I can defend as a capitalist market adjustment addendum. If it's honest, I mean, let's face it, you want to buy a Corvette today? You're going to pay over a sticker. You want to buy a Shelby. You want to buy any scarce car today. You're going to buy a lot of money over a sticker. but that's supply and demand.

So here we are looking at the addendum. The addendum glued on the window next to the Moroni label, added $970 for Prince Complete Care. Okay, whoops, it wasn't a market adjustment. It was for dealer-installed accessories. So that's not good, but most dealers do it, and that's the reason to grade on the curve. We both walk to the driver's door,

and again, we're back in Tifton, Georgia, the Chevrolet dealership, Prince Chevrolet. I climbed to the driver's seat while Russell, the salesperson, walked around the passage side and took a seat. He didn't mention anything about test drive, but spent a considerable amount of time going over the car's safety features.

He also mentioned that they pride themselves on not marking up their vehicles as much as their competitors. I mean, that's refreshing. I mean, to be honest, you're not going to have anybody say that we sell cars. You know, to be totally honest with you, we sell charge more money than our competition. I mean, you're not going to hear that. So he's going to tell you that he does mark up their vehicles as much as the competition.

That's okay. acquiring about the $970 print scare, Russell explained the benefits, especially for local residents. I inform them that with which there aren't very many of them. I informed that I was the process of purchasing a second home in Georgia, but believed I still, I had to still insure the car with my Florida insurance coverage, which includes windshield repair, replacement, and I didn't think I needed the other benefits from the Prince Care, the Prince Total Care. Blossel suggested he could speak to his sales manager to see what could be done should I decide to move forward.

I get the idea they don't get that many shoppers from out of the area. It's a small dealership. I expressed my liking for the car and asked if it was possible to see the final out-the-door price. Russell agreed, and we returned inside together. He offered me some water and asked for my contact information. Once we had everything, he excused himself to speak to his sales manager. A few minutes later, Russell returned with a sales worksheet. There's always the worksheet, right?

Why is there always a worksheet? Because a worksheet, and it says so in the fine print on the worksheet, it's not a legal document. And you're not going to have anything on a worksheet that's going to obligate that dealer. On a vehicle buyer's order, that is a legal document, and it does obligate you and the dealer. So there is the interim paperwork, the worksheet. Top line was MSRP, 36,0665.

There was a $1,500 rebate in the case. came off and this was a factory rebate which my advice to you with this is to always try to familiarize yourself with the manufacturers rebates in this case here it was taken off but maybe it wouldn't have been taken off if you had said if you didn't know about it or maybe they planned on taking it off but they just added it back on with some other things so Arm yourself with whatever Subaru or Honda or Toyota or Chevrolet is doing for you, the customer. You don't know what they're doing for the dealers.

The dealers' money is confidential. Top secret. Yeah, the manufacturer of the dealer. But customer money you should know about because they'll keep your customer money. It's called galamming. Yeah, yeah. Galam the rebate. Yeah, and they'll sign a waiver and say, all rebates come back to me,

the dealer and so they you lost your rebate know what it is in this case it was $1,500 just of the price to 35-165 and then they added the nine hundred seven dollar prints complete care thing next came $89 in taxable fees and $699 doc fee which is also taxable fee but they didn't have that in label on it and my real price uh was 36,000 $2,923, which was $258 over MSRP. Now, that tells you that things are coming down, at least at Tifton. For a Chevy. Yeah, for Chevy, yeah.

But prices are coming down, and discounts are increasing. Manufacturers' discounts are increasing. Dealers' discounts are increasing. So prices are slowly coming down. I mean, the fact that GM's putting up $1,500 on this equinox suggests they know which way the market's going. Yeah, exactly. He informed me that his manager had found a rebate from me,

which more than covered their protection plan. He hoped that would work for me and showed me the price sheet. He explained that once they ran my credit, monthly payment would likely decrease as they automatically use a higher annual percentage rate for worst-case scenarios. on the worksheet, yeah, the sample payments. Yeah, and, yeah, exactly. And they probably use a higher average.

I mean, they're not going to be using an 800 beacon. No, they usually what most dealers do. They claim it's the store average. And in often cases it is, which is higher than, you know, than what most people, well, half the people get it. Just the bottom line, when it comes to payments, never buy a car on payments. Or if you are thinking payments, don't tell the,

the sales bundle of the dealership, you're thinking of payments, because it's too easy to be taken advantage of. You need an out-the-door price, cash price, and then you could convert that to payments yourself, by your bank or your credit union, or if you have to, you can go to the dealer. The manufacturer might even have a really good deal, but you want to know the cash out-the-door price, and then after that, you can do anything you want to. You can change your mind and lease it. You can change your mind and finance it, but always start with that lowest Althodore price. I thanked him first time and insured him. Did I jump in? No.

Okay, my real price was, yeah, $258 over MSRP. Pretty good. And I thanked the first time for him that I needed to discuss and purchase of my husband. I sure it might be in touch and that we should try to buy. We should try to buy the only thing left would be to drive it. So this will thank me for coming in and said, let them know should we proceed. So, you know, I kind of tip my hand and told you this was going to be a pleasant experience

because in a small town. They did get a big Agent Lightning. Did get a pretty good picture of the MSRP and also the addendum label. And I show you that if you're streaming this to show you how dealers will typically take their addendum labels and put them right next to the Maroni label, and at first class it just looks like one big fat label. And you have to look closely

because they try to get the addendum labels to look very similar. Yeah, they didn't do a good job with this one. Usually they match the color. This one, they have a blue adenum and it doesn't look that good. Yeah, these addendum labels are printed up by companies that try to make them.

You know, these dealers don't design their own addendum labels. They fill in the blanks and buy a bunch of them. them and put them on the car so they look official, and then you think it's just an MSRP. So there we are, Tiffin, Georgia, a Chevrolet dealer, and we grade on the curve, and that means that it's almost impossible to get an A, but we do have an A or two in our recommended dealers list, and C should be the most common grade. I'm not sure that it is, but that's the way it should be, and please let us know.

You can go to YouTube and Rick will read the scores out. You go to text or Facebook, and Stu will find the scores. Yeah, I got some coming in. Bob starts it off with a B for Prince Chevrolet. Jonathan Wellington. I guess a Floridian needs to drive the Georgia in order to get a good deal when buying a Chevy. Present dealership company accepted. Thank you.

I'll give them a B-plus. The add-ons cost them for the higher grade of A. um let me make sure i don't have anybody else i'm kind of going in that direction um if the if it was a market adjustment i'm with you um dad that uh that's almost more excusable the extra equipment we don't like but it was such such a small amount and and the out of the door wound up being with the help of general motors um just a little bit over MSRP it sounds like a pretty good deal and they seem to be really nice. I'm giving them a B as well. Yeah, yeah.

Sounds baseball. Rick? Okay. This is going to be a good one. You're going to love these. We'll start right off with Mark Anderson's as Mark from St. Louis B. Time to party like it's 1999.

Johnny Z. Fradley, I wonder if Prince Prince Chevrolet sells a lot of little red corvettes. I would probably. Purple Rain, a score of C. I didn't even, I never, it didn't even watch. Johnny, I love you, buddy. I love you.

Johnny, be good. I like the Corvette's one. Tim Gilliland, with a B. Brian Siddlatko, with just a few new cars on the lot, tells me they're selling cars at a good price. B. Mark Smith, I'll give them a B, and give me five bucks, B minus. myself at one little markup that they they're open and honest about it just a little misdemeanor hiding anything though I'm I'm going with the B plus I think it

seems like a very honest friendly dealership yeah that's fair yeah I'm gonna go with I have I have kind of like a maybe re-feeling and you know I'm gonna be good this morning. I give them a B plus. They were honest. They were up front. You know, whoever walks in, they know what they have to offer. So B plus for

Tifton. You know, it occurred to me as we had this relatively pleasant experience with Tifton Chevrolet is when, let's say you live in Atlanta and you know you're going to get hosed shopping in Atlanta. You will.

If I lived in Atlanta and I was just the average car buyer, and I considered myself an educated consumer, I just might call Prince Chevrolet and Tifton and get a price, and then get the out-the-door price. That's a nice thing. If you can find an honest dealer with a fair price, you might not want to drive for three hours to get there, But if you deal online or by phone with Tifton because you found their odds, I know you're taking advantage of Tifton, but you go to your Atlanta dealer where you're next door in your neighborhood and you say, listen, if you'll match this south of door price, and otherwise I will drive three hours to Tifton. So don't just buy from somebody for convenience sake. get prices from people that aren't convenient because they're too far away

if you can get a low price because you're playing poker and when you say to your dealer I'm going to drive three hours you might in your heart of hearts though I'm really not going to drive three hours but make it believe you will and you could.

Yeah. Hey, Georgia's not that big of a state I mean that's too far in Georgia. You're like four hours from everything. And if you can save $1,000, hey, it's worth it. It is worth it. So, what's your vote? You know, I'm wrestling between the B plus and the B.

I think I'm going to give them a B. I changed my mind. I'm going to make it a B plus. All right. B plus. They're really good, really good experience. Okay. Any more votes?

We're looking caught up right now, I think. I think the gavel has come down. You know, the one constant theme that rang in and out of the show. show is competition and I say over and over again that competition is a consumer's best friend and use the aggressiveness

of car dealers and their competitiveness against them their weakness. It's your Achilles heel. I shudder when I say that because mine is severed. Your Achilles heel is literally an Achilles heel. But go around and go as far as you

have to go to get a good out-the-door price. Get it in writing and there's going to be some frustration of all because you're going to be trying to get prices that they won't give you the price. But if you get a price in writing email or text you are going

to, even the old-fashioned snail mail, if you get a price in writing, they have to abide by it. Thank you very much. You heard it from Earl Stewart. Ladies, I wish you a Happy Mother's Day. We all do. Happy Mother's Day. Enjoy

your moment. Enjoy the day. We'll be right back here at 8 o'clock on the Oldies Channel, and please tune in. We look forward to hearing from you. You do make the show. We'll see you next week.