Earl Stewart on Cars - 05.15.2021 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Wallace Nissan

Episode Date: May 15, 2021

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits Wallace Nissan in Stuart to see if she can the advertised price on a 2021 Nissan Sentra SV featured on their website. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, his tweets at www.twitter.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. Sign up to become one of Earl's Vigilantes and help others in your community to avoid getting ripped off by a car dealer. Go to www.earlsvigilantes.com for more information. “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 cyberspace 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. Well, we're back. We're live.

We're in color. We're all over the place. And kind of make a correction on the introduction, because temporarily, my normal cyber expert and mystery shopping report, is in New York with my grandson this weekend. And his younger brother, Josh, is with us, sitting in Stu's chair, and he will be handling the function.

And I appreciate very much Josh joining us. So we've got the whole team here. We've got Rick Kearney that you heard about. And if you have any kind of a maintenance or repair question, he's the guy to go to. We've got Nancy Stewart, my co-host. You ladies out there in the audience, you don't see women involved in the auto industry as much as they should be,

or for that matter, any of the important industries, especially automobiles. And there are not too many in the manufacturer's side, although we have Mary Bearer, CEO, General Motors, which is a rare exception. And in the retail, they're practically non-existent. You walk into a car dealership, you'll see very, very few women, especially on the sales floor and even more especially in management positions. So Nancy Stewart is here as a female advocate bringing equality to our industry. And she's done a great job on the show because we're just about at parity now with lady callers

and we encourage them. And in a minute, Nancy Stewart will tell you exactly what you can do if you're a first-time female listener to this show that you're going to really like. I'll save the surprise for her. Just one thing I want to say before we get into the meat of what we do here, which is answer your questions and reply to your comments and listen to your advice. It's a live radio, very exciting. I just want to mention that the auto industry, I've been around a long time. The good thing about being an old guy is that you've been on the planet for a long time.

You see a lot of stuff, and if you can remember it. So with my over half a century in the retail automobile business, I've never seen a time like we are going through today. And I'm talking about COVID and pandemic and the whole nine yards with the economy. It's crazy. I've never seen anything like this. And I've never seen the volatility in the car market like we have today. We had volatility before, but this is far more extreme. And we see it on the stock market.

We see it in the car market. Listen carefully today, and please give us your input today, because the cost of cars is skyrocketing new and use. And the good news is your trade-in is worth more than it's ever been. It didn't depreciate in the last year. It appreciated it. This just doesn't happen, but it has happened. And so for a limited period of time, your used car that you're driving is worth a lot more than you realize it's worth. On the bad side, there's a shortage of new cars.

So it's an important show, and it will be until things calm down a little bit. What we do is far more important. If you walk in ill-equipped into a car dealership today, may the good Lord be with you, that's all I can say, because it's not going to be pretty unless you're informed. So with that said, I want to let you know that we are available on all channels here, regular telephones 877 960

9960 that's a good old-fashioned telephone we prioritize your calls on that phone because we'd like to hear your voice it's more personal and we have a lot of regular calls that we love to hear from we want some new regular callers or

new first-time callers and that number is 877 960 9960 even if you don't have a question now and you can right if you're not driving or something write the number down 877 960 9960 we have a text number that you text us we get a lot of text nice thing about text is maybe they're not as personal but we can archive them during the morning and we get to it when we can yeah we have a

priority on a regular audio call then we'll drop back when there's not an audio call to a text call. And that text number is 772-4976530. 772-4976530. And surprise, surprise, surprise. The most amazing number, it's not a number. It's a URL. It's a website, Your Anonymous Feedback.com. That's our website. And we go through a company called, what is it? I forgot the name of the company. Incognito. Incognito. Spell differently, right? Incog, N-E-A-T-O. Yeah, dot com. Incognito.com.

He's also our cyber expert and my memory. Josh to the rescue. I'm here to help. Incognito does Adobe and Amazon and a lot of blue-chip companies for people that want to speak anonymously. I mean, what a great thing being able to do. you have anonymous pipelines to the police department, you have anonymous pipelines to the media,

you have a whistleblower way to report corporations. People don't like to be exposed to the pressure and heat when you tell the truth in public. It's a shame. I wish it could be the other way. And a lot of people tell me I would never want to be anonymous. I'm going to stand up. Well, good for you.

But there's some people out there that are not that way. A surprising number of people like to communicate with us anonymously. And if you want to, your anonymous feedback.com. Y-O-U-R, A-O-N-N-N-Y-M-O-U-S, Anonymous Feedback.com. And we get a huge amount of input there. We love it. And it's surprisingly simple. I mean, very rarely do we have to edit anything.

We only do the really, really dirty stuff or profane or vulgar or whatever, but we still get the message across. and that's the story and that's where we are and that's what we do. I always give Rick Kearney an extra plug because don't get the idea this is all about how to buy a car without being ripped off by your car dealer. It's a big part of the show.

Mr. Shopping Award, a very big part of the show. But Rick, Rick is the expert on everything else and you get your car repaired and maintain a lot more often. Nancy Stewart had her hand up and I'd like her to kick off her mission in life and tell people, especially our female audience, why they should call the show today. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome. Can you feel the recovering car dealer's energy? It is contagious. Ladies and gentlemen, I can't tell you enough. You are an important

part of the show. We love your company. So join us this morning because you're going to find something very unusual here with our show. It's called transparency, and it's called not cutting you off if you're to give a call, and we don't like what we hear. We want to hear from everyone. Your opinion is very important to us, and how your sales, lease, service went this week. Ladies, I have something special for you. The first two new lady callers, please give us a call, because you can and yourself $50 this morning. It's our way of just thanking you because you're an important part of the show and you are helping all of us build this platform for the ladies. I do have to ask you, did you go into the dealership this past week and the salesperson said to you, oh, we no longer have that car that was advertised, but we can put you into, well something else please give us a call 877 960 9960 or you can tax us at 772-4976530 and don't forget your anonymous feedback dot com now back to the recovering car dealer well thank you very

much uh you know well i i know i get redundant about the mystery shopping report uh but people who have never tuned in and hopefully we have a few of those every week, but if you haven't listened to the show before, there's nothing on the air or anywhere. And by the way, we're on Facebook, we're on Twitter, we're on YouTube. I forgot to mention Rick Kearney monitors YouTube, and you can go write to Rick with your questions on your car, but you go anywhere, text, phone call, they all get to Rick. Rick gets them directly on YouTube, and Stu, Stu, Stu, he looks just like Stu, as a matter of fact, just more handsome.

We are related. Josh is monitoring our Facebook. So we're all over the place. Mystery Shopping Report is unprecedented. The closest thing I can think of it would be Mike Wallace when he used to be on 60 Minutes. You know, the Ambush, the CEO, he comes walking to his office, and there's Mike with his Mike. Mike with his Mike. And you see this look on the CEO's face, and they say, what am I going to do now?

They can put a bag over their head. They can run, but that's on TV, or they can talk to Mike. And believe me, Mike always comes out on top. Our mystery shopper always comes out on top. We go in undercover. We have a male and female. We have Agent Lightning. We have Agent Thunder.

And they go in to pretend to buy or leave the car. Sometimes they go in with their mother or with their husband or their wife or their kids. I mean, it is really, really undercover. And they report everything. They tell it like it is. They name names. We name dealerships. If they do something illegal, we say, hey, you broke the law.

If they do something that's immoral, we say that, unethical, a whole lot of unethical. We talk about that. And then we score them. We give them on the curve, because if we went strictly by the rules, everybody would fail, and there'd be no place to buy a car. So we go from an A to an F. You've got an F, you're not recommended. If you're on the other list, we have a score. And we give you a C-minus, a C-plus, a D-minus, a D-plus.

And you can go to our list on urluncars.com and go to the mystery shopping reports, and you can go to our recommended list, and you can go to the Do Not Buy from this dealer list. I think we have seven or eight dealers on the Do Not Buy. Yes, that's not very many, because we do hundreds and hundreds of these reports. So that sums it up, and how about, are we got any messages or text? We do. We have a phone call. So before we get to the important introduction with Josh and the mystery shopping report, I want to welcome Jean, who is a first-time female caller. Good morning, Jean. Good morning. Hi, good morning. I really enjoy your show. It learned so much. Oh, thank you very much, Jean. As a first-time caller, you win yourself $50 this morning.

Great. Good deal. You had a question about auto brokers. I know some people have. I've been using them. Some charge as much as $500. Some say they don't charge anything. What's your take on that and how exactly would they get paid from a dealership if they are? Jane, they are auto brokers are a thing of the 20th century. They're still here. But what we have that is much better than an auto broker today are some of the reputable third-party sources of getting good prices on cars, Costco being one, true car. they have intermediaries. You can use your USAA insurance. You can use your consumer reports. There are a number of others. Auto brokers are individuals, knowledgeable in the car business,

but also very friendly with the car dealers. And their loyalty is questionable. Now, if you get a good broker, True Brew, he's all transparent and honest, and I know some people will have those. he will charge a fee, but you don't know what the fee is. He can say there's no fee, and maybe he's telling the truth, but how does he make a living? I question auto broker saying they don't get anything. They might mean that the dealer's paying him, but you're paying it indirectly if the dealer's paying him

because he passes the cost of the broker along to you. Brokerage fees, this is where it gives us dangerous. A fair brokerage fee, you mentioned $500. That's fair. to get a good deal on a car, that's very fair. But I paid brokers, Josh, what would you say? $1,000, $2,000,000, $5,000. It doesn't get that high, but sometimes they creep up to $1,000 or more.

A thousand or more. So what happens is a broker goes to a dealer, say, I have a customer. He'll buy that car right there, and I want $1,000. And so the salesman or the dealer says, thank you. I give me the name and information. and when they deliver the car, they get the $1,000. Now, how do the dealer afford to pay $1,000? He raised the price of the car to you.

So that's what you have to watch out for. Gene, that's a long answer to a short question. I hope I didn't go on and on too much. Yeah, and just one other thing. I think a lot of people, not only for that aspect of actually brokering the deal, but actually that is the problem for a lot of people, going into a dealership, trying to broker a deal. not knowing all the options, not knowing what even what kind of car they want.

And so I can see that, you know, it's a help for somebody who's not really versed in the car business. Or my husband, I bought many, many, many cars. And some of the dealers we've gone to, it's just a scruciating experience. So, you know, I can see two things there, you know, doing a lot of that legwork. I mean, you need to know what car you want, of course. Sure. But then doing the legwork after that to see. make sure you're getting a fair deal.

One way to keep a broker on this is to shop yourself in, you know, on a third party, and if the broker gets your better deal than you can get on TrueCar or from consumer reports or from Costco, then it's a heck of a deal. But, yeah, and some people are just happy with the broker. Yeah, so there are help, basically. Sure. You know, you have to still do your homework. Yes.

You know, for those people who don't like going to dealerships to do that, to do the deal and all that, you know, it could be an option. Exactly. Gene, you sound like a very educated consumer. And one thing you pointed out is knowing what you want and staying with, you know, that decision because, well, you share a lot of information with us this morning. And it sounds, as I said, rather than be repetitive, just want to let you know that you're definitely an educated consumer. and thank you so much for joining us this morning and I hope we answered your question. Another first time going.

Thank you so much. Thank you. You're welcome, Jane. I look forward to your email whenever you send your information to my email with us. Have a great weekend. I will.

Welcome to the family. Yes. Bye-bye. Oh, sweet. Welcome to the family. Thanks to you. Maybe we should have asked her to consider joining the vigilantes. When we send her the $50 check, but she sounded knowledgeable that we should

interview her. Very much so. I'll put a personal invitation in that email when I reply. Yeah. For you folks, I don't know about the vigilantes. We have a hat for you, and we're recruiting vigilantes all over the, I started to say world, but the USA. And these are people that assist others, and they can replace an auto broker that, as you heard, and Jean's question can be a problem, but sometimes they're okay. So if you're very knowledgeable, I think Gene may be, and if you're still listening, Gene, we'll talk about this later when we get you your $50 first on female caller. Army yourself with knowledge is a pretty powerful tool.

And the vigilantes that are all mentioned, you just don't have to take an engine apart. you know you are a qualified vigilante and you can help your community and the people in it that are being taken advantage of so keep that in mind yeah if you bought a car on cars if you bought a car on Costco or true car in one of those ways you're qualified to be a vigilante because if you can show a damsel in distress or a man in distress getting taken advantage of how to buy a car online properly, you've done your job as a vigilante. Rick? I don't mean to sound sexist with this, but a female vigilante would be of true danger to a dealership because most of those salespeople are not going to expect her

to come in with some of the weapons that a true vigilante would have. Well, a good vigilante doesn't even go in with the person because they do the whole thing online. True. Yeah. And I think, Gene mentioned if you pick the exact car you want, then that's half the battle. I don't only have to do a shop and compare a price. How are we doing on text or whatever over there, Josh? I got a text here I'd like to read.

This is from Anne-Marie. I understand she might be the sends the inaugural text every Saturday. Absolutely. So it reads, good morning. Alabama's Talladego Super Speedway announced a new incentive to overcome vaccine hesitancy. Track time. Today, May 15th. I'm reading a PSA, but I love it.

Today, May 15th, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central time, drivers who get the vaccine and or a COVID test also get track time. No registration is required for those looking for vaccinations. Licensed drivers must be 19 or older. Must be in cars registered in their name, have insurance, and must sign a consent waiver for the track. Licensed drivers 16 to 18 must have a parent or legal guardian with them. Drivers will have the opportunity to drive two laps on the famed NASCAR, 2.1.2.2. 6.66 mile track behind a pace car going highway speed and experienced a 33 degree banking in their own cars. I imagine they'll probably feel like they're about to roll over.

I wonder if anybody's going to try to pass the pace car. I think you would probably try that, so they've been pre-warned. I want to go. Well, what's the flight time to Talladega? Well, Anne-Marie, if you're listening as usual, you're a great text, because what a cool, thing, you're aiming at the folks that we need to aim at that have not been vaccinated. There are a lot of people out there, and a lot of them are younger, and they feel invulnerable, and it's not like they say, I'm not going to get vaccinated. They just say, I'll do it tomorrow.

And that's a motivation. It would motivate Rick or any of us, who wouldn't want to drive around a test track behind the pace car. Are you kidding? That's one of the most famous super speedways in the world. Yeah, that's where Ricky Biden. Bobby, he raised there, right? Perhaps, yep. They filmed a lot of that movie right at that track. It was great. Yeah, quite an experience, that would be.

I would love to do that drive. It's an amazing experience. I'm not bragging or anything, but when I lived in Pittsburgh, I did that, and I was invited, and it was, well, exciting, energizing, and it was just an amazing experience, and it was seemed like a million years ago, but I still remember that thrill of the speed. Now, I got to experience driving with a professional race car driver in Las Vegas at a Toyota event, and even though we weren't doing crazy high, you know, NASCAR speeds, but being on those bank turns, it's quite, how fast did you go?

I think they took it about to 100, 110. Yeah. Yeah, at least, you knew you were going, your face was just. Oh, man, that'd be scary. Get your heart going for sure. feel good on the slant I'm because you feel pretty yeah you're on that 33 degree angle it feels like you're at a 45 degree angle

I'm about to roll over when the car starts shaking you feel like you don't want to slow down you knew you hit the ultimate speed okay how are we doing YouTube we have a YouTube yet so far just everybody saying good morning good morning to all the folks on YouTube

don't forget YouTube.com 4th slash Erlan cars YouTube.com forward slash Relan Cars We're right online And we usually We get some good YouTube

Well answer any question on YouTube You can go to Rick directly Because he's looking at the screen And we're at Facebook.com Ford slash Erlon Cars And that's what Josh is monitoring over there I do have a couple of texts If you want me to keep going

Let's do it, yeah All right here's another one This one seems to be in Rick's Willhouse Good morning My question is Does it hurt to hurt on startup to leave the auto climate on all the time. There seems to be a pause before starting up after starting my van. Thanks, and it's from Bob and Stewart. Doesn't hurt it at all. The car is designed to

actually hold back on the AC just a little bit to get the engine up and running. Used to be way back, yeah, it would put a strain, but nowadays the cars are computer controlled to the point it won't do a thing to hurt it. We have a lot of people, older people in South Florida. And, you know, you buy a car and you learn how to operate it and your father tells you in your first car and goes father to son to daughter to daughter blah blah blah and you just get into habits and we have people that call in here and they're asking questions like how long do I need to warm my car up in the morning I mean here we are in Florida and and cars today are so much advanced over what we drove when we were younger that it's awful hard to hurt a car today I mean

you really have to go out of your way to do something wrong in the operation of the car because they anticipate all of the things you may do electronically to compensate. And it's really cool. I mean, just get in, turn it on and go. Well, and remember, as you were learning a drive and I was learning, it was the idea that if you got caught in the rain and you start to get on wet roads, you had to be ready to pump the brakes in case you start to skid. Got to pump the brakes, right.

And now it's the exact opposite. You put your foot on that brake and slamming as hard as you can. And the car will keep everything under control. That was one of the hardest things for me to learn. I just couldn't. I was afraid that I would kill myself if I didn't feather the brake. Well, thank you, ABS nowadays. Absolutely.

Okay. Another thing, speaking of, like, kind of traditional thinking when it comes to cars, like the break-in period. I could ask that question all the time. Do cars nowadays need to be broken in like they used to, Rick? Not anymore. The braking is all done now. They actually run the engines at the factory on a dynamometer to the point that the engine's ready to go.

And the tolerances are so tight. Now, we've all heard of 10W30 oil. And you know that as the numbers get lower, the oil gets thinner. There is now a type of oil used in the Yaris hybrid that's available in Japan and Europe, 0W8. The stuff is the thickness of olive oil. oil. I mean, it's literally, it's extra virgin olive oil, most in the car. But don't put on your salad. No, no.

It won't taste near as good. Okay. I'm going to excuse everyone and take this next phone call. David's joining us from North Pole Beach for the first time. Good morning, David. Good morning. I'd like to ask Mrs. Stewart a question, please.

Welcome. Go ahead. I went to True Car, and I got an appraisal on my car. I personally put in less miles than it was. and I received a note back saying, congratulations. Here is your true cash offer. These three dealers are interested buying your car. And it was printed out for the figure they told me.

And I went to the dealer, and the dealer said, I can't actually give you that. This is because of the virus and because of what's going on, a shortage of cars. If you want to buy a new car and trade this car in, I can't give you that offer. Is he obligated in any way? Yeah, you should report him the true car. And they don't have to buy the car, right, Josh? But it isn't, they shouldn't try to switch you into trading the car in. Absolutely not.

And it is a crazy market today. And I blame the dealer only for the fact he had the right not to buy the car. But that means if True Car told you that was a price, there's a good chance that someone will buy the car. It is true a seller's market today, David. and true car or anybody that gives you a price in a car don't accept it because the variables are crazy even the dealers are amazed Josh and I were talking the other day

we had a customer that was one actually it was one of our employees wanted us to buy a car from or seller a car and we took it to the auction and got $5,000 more than we thought it was worth Yeah some of these auction prices are through the moon And sometimes it's more than a dealer can actually afford to put on the car because they'd have to sell that trade in more than it would the cost of a new car. It's a very, very strange time.

So, David, the true car is an honest price. The prices, they are so volatile in the used car business that I've always said shop before you trade your used car in to at least three dealers. Today, I'd tell you five or six because there's so many swore. we've never had before and the market is so volatile. I go to Carvano, I go to Varum, I go to CarMax, I go to True Car, I go to maybe even a dealer of that make. CarMax, for example, has their own software program. I know I'm getting too technical now,

but CarMax oftentimes will play way over the auction value because they're a nationwide used car company if they have somebody in a different city that will pay, a huge amount of money for this particular car, they'll pay you more than you can give the auction. So it's a seller's market and enjoy it. It won't be around much longer. And sorry, I tend to run on these questions, no, I'm David. Well, I did exactly what you said. I went to Carvianner and CarMax, and I got offers. And then when I went to True Car, the True Car offer was $350 more.

Oh. And I wanted a Toyota, so I went to a Toyota dealer. And he said, under these circumstances, I can't give you the, price that I just, I see on paper here, he says your car is really worth a little bit less. And, you know, I wanted to go to a Toyota deal because I wanted to trade Toyota for Toyota so I could save on a tax.

Did you try a carmacks? Did you try CarMax? I did not go to CarMax. But again, I wanted a new Toyota, so I wanted to use the trade-in value. Yeah, well, no, the CarMax buys a car over the curve, David, and you don't have to buy a car from CarMax. The same thing with Carvana.

I would try I get my price from Carvon I get a price from CarMax What is another one? Vroom. Vroom. B-R-O-O-M dot com I know it's a crazy world out there Yeah Well, if you're gonna...

Exactly what you're saying, but I'm trying to get the trade-in value I'm trying to save on the sales tax difference Okay, that's why I wanted to go to a Toyota Yeah, you should do that and you can shop it with another toilet dealer Bring it to me, I'll give you a price on it, bring it to another toilet dealer, he'll give you a price on it, and then you're very smart to understand the trade in differential, and if you can overcome the

sales tax savings and still sell it outright, you're ahead of the game. Nowadays, it's not to be unexpected to get 6% more from another source. Yes. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate your information. Thanks, David. I mean, it's a very timely question, and anyone listening right now, the thing to learn from David's question, take that used car and that you want to trade in

never accept the first offer and that would probably be from the dealer you've decided to buy from the dealer might give you the best price from the new car and always get that best price from the dealer on the new car before you even consider talking about the train in

if they if he requires that you buy the new car from him before he gives you an allowance of the trade all he's going to do is give you the price from the new car your mind mark it up so we can give you more on the trade-in so separate those transactions you know a separate bid on what he'd pay for so you know without the sale and two or three other sources and then trade it in after you negotiate the best price of the new car so that's what we learned from the table exactly what you told me first of all to to Costco when I

got the price for the new car great which was thirty thousand dollars and then I I was trying to trade my 6,000-mile Toyota on 2020, and I got a price of higher on the cash offer I received on what the Costco price was, and then the dealer wouldn't honor it at that point. You know, the true car, wouldn't honor the true car price, right, and on the, on the trade end. And Matt, it was $300 difference? Correct, $300 more than I was offered for the car. the Costco price for the new car. Yeah, and you probably saved that

on the sales tax from the trade end so it wasn't worthwhile shopping it? Correct. And I had a cash off of what they did for a true car from someone else that was not a Toyota dealer, but I didn't need the sales tax difference. You did?

Anyway, that's my situation. Well, you did a great job, and it's frustrating. I see your frustration about the true car price, and I would agree that you did your due diligence. and you saved money. You probably bought the new car at a great price, and you probably got a fair trade-in allows, although it should have been $300 in your mind. I understand how you feel. Thank you for talking to me. I appreciate it. Thank you, David. And, David, welcome back. I said you were the first time caller, but you've been with us for a while.

I have a call before. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. Have a good one, David. Our number is 877-960, and you can text us at 772-497-6. 530. Now back to Josh. Yeah, I got another text here. This one's from Mark. Mark asks, when the price of a new car skyrockets, where does that extra monies go to? Profit or what? Thank you. Well, it depends on where it's skyrocketing. It's skyrockets for the manufacturers. And when they cost and the shortage issue, they can adjust their prices to the dealers whenever they want to. What they do typically is they adjust the incentives a lot. And they tend to take incentives.

when they have something that they don't have enough to sell and put incentives on when they have too much of a particular model, which there are fewer and fewer models that fall into that category. So for you to figure that out is difficult. With the manufacturers, there's also a factor that people aren't thinking about. They're thinking about the microchip shortage, and that affects some manufacturers more than others. And this is going to be, this is going to go away. I'm saying by the end of the year, I've heard four months, that's close to the end of the year, and that's going to go away.

What's not going to go away is inflation, because we're saying commodity inflation now, and steel in particular, and we don't get a lot of our steel from the U.S. anymore. U.S. Steel Corporation is the biggest supplier, but manufacturers, steal all over the world and the steel price is soaring they're going to pass that cost along to you because it's going to get passed along to me and all the other car dealers and they're going to pay more for the car so your price is going to go up you're going to be paying more for a new car for a long time and i think the only time you're going to see a difference is when we have a bit of a recession and suddenly business isn't so good and people stop buying cars and when people

slow down buying cars the prices come down so you have to recognize the economic cycles and right now it's working against you in terms of pricing okay we got another text over this Josh I do not but I do have some adama seedbacks or we can go to Nancy who might have something okay we're gonna go to Marty who's calling us from West Palm Beach good morning Marty Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.

I think, I don't know if I heard David correctly, but I just wanted to inform him and everybody else. If you're purchasing a car, whether you have a Toyota and you want a Honda, you're going to save the sales tax no matter which brand you buy in purchasing the car. He made out in his statement that He had to buy another Toyota to save the sales tax, but that's not true. Yeah, no, this is true, and it's very important that we know that this is a Florida law, and other states vary. In fact, even Florida municipalities, some have smaller taxes within the county, and so you need to check that.

But you're absolutely right. The main sale tax in Florida is 6%, and then they have a half a percent and 1% depending on where. what county you live in certain states don't give you any credit on the sales tax so we're national in fact international and all states out there you need to check your own state law and do you have a sales stack exemption on on trade ins that saves you a lot of money sometimes yeah but i don't i think for any card you know i mean this is i've lived in new york state in florida and when you do your trade in is a trade in not for a lease but for trading in as a purchase you're getting the sales tax credit so in other words if you're buying a $30,000 car and your car is your

trade in is worth 20 you're only going to pay sales tax on 10,000 exactly some states have a cap on your on the advantage and other states have no example for sales tax on New York and Florida you mentioned yes they both have that but we we have people in Wisconsin I don't know whether in Wisconsin they give you a credit on sales tax on a trade-in so much from Wisconsin can call and then tell us well I'd move out of that state I buy too many cars yeah no I hear you but they'd like it in Wisconsin and I wanted to say one thing I don't know if this is if you will approve this with the pandemic.

I think what the government should have done instead of telling everybody to take off their masks, so now you don't know who's got the vaccine and who hasn't. They should be advertising that the 600 people a day that are passing away from COVID have not had the vaccine. And that's what they should be telling everybody every day that your chance of survival is 100% better if you get the vaccine well you're preaching to the choir marty i agree with you totally and

uh i think it just takes it's slow we talked about the incentive that they're doing of the televaga race care of the nascar is paying uh they're giving him a free ride on the test track on front of the pace car if you get the vaccine the millennials are hard to convince and a lot of people even older people are hard to convince but it's coming around uh you notice on the in the if you're Watching us on video now, YouTube or Twitter or Facebook, we're all wearing these pins that say we've been vaccinated and the people in the studio, I think the more people that wear the pens, I realize you can be lying about it, but it encourages people that don't get vaccinated to consider doing it. Rick. All right. Well, have a good day and thanks again for your show.

Same to you, Marty. Oh, you're welcome, Marty. thanks for joining us you can give rick the pen that's okay i have a next one for him i i forgot mine that's okay so we kid each other about that but it's it's uh yeah it's something if you wear it somebody sees it says hey i know that guy's pretty smart uh he got vaccinated maybe i had to and pretty soon if you're the only guy walking around without a pin you see what i'm saying it's a psychological thing so we try to do that and give it a try it a try it i think it works you know what's great is what's happening now is that there's so many doors that are opening up

to what you just said and Marty mentioned so many doors that are opening up and so many people are jumping on board look at Uber providing free rides you know to get your vaccine and all of the venues that have opened up so it's a slow pace for some and for others they jump right on it and get their vaccine because you know there's a lot of freedom with the vaccine. Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, 877960, where you can text us at 772-497-60. And I'm not sure whether Earl, I don't think you mentioned us when we opened a show, but as you well know, we have an enormous population of elderly people. And because of that, Earl came up with a great idea and that would be online assistance and we're looking for volunteers that will

help senior citizens who aren't as savvy to get around the uh yeah to get around their computer and shop online and you know that the internet is the best place to go for the best price on your vehicle so with all that information we are going to go to oh boy I've lost my power who are we Rick has a YouTube

we do Neakin 1 says I would like to ask Earl if he took a ride in Stu's Tesla last week and what did he think I didn't take a ride but Stu sold me on Tesla

and Josh and my other son Stu ordered me Tesla It'll be here sometime between August and September. Yeah. And as long as I'm talking about that, I've got to tell you something really funny.

We've really got to laugh about this. Now, we like Elon Musk. We revere Elon Musk. We consider him a genius. We consider Monash, transparent. I mean, he goes on Saturday Night Live. He just is a very irreverent, amazing man, and he's done an amazing thing with a Tesla.

So I guess I wasn't shocked. I shop Tesla a couple of years ago, almost bought one. Well, now I bought one. But you see the black circle, if you're streaming us in video, if you can't see us. Bottom line is, honest Elon screwed me out of $1,300 in dealer fees. And we bought the car. Oops, I've got to raise the paper. We bought the car, and here's the invoice, and the red circle.

There's two of them. They have a $100 order fee, so they charged me $100 because I ordered the car from them. That's a dealer fee. And then they have the destination and documentation fee, which is BS. It's just extra added on to what we paid for the car. So anyway, that's the reason we grade on the curve. If Elon Musk can get away with it, how can we knock a dealer for charge them a dealer fee? If a progressive genius like Elon is doing it, what hope is there for anyone else?

Yeah, exactly. Okay. I mean, we got some more anonymous feedback? Oh, yeah, yeah. We got a few here. This one came in, actually, shortly after last week's show. It's about our good dealer, bad dealer list. It says, you should really update your good dealer, bad dealer list.

Grico Kia was long sold to the Jaguar dealer in West Palm. So we'll make sure we update that. Oh, is that right, Greeko Kia? Why would a Cadillac dealer? A Jaguar. Why aren't a Jaguar dealer buy a Kia? Well, that's an obvious, different demographic. Yeah, they're trying to cover their bases, I guess.

Exactly, yeah. Thank you very much for that input. Yeah, thank you. I can keep going. Here's one. Great information. Thank you for your mystery shop of Palm Beach Mitsubishi. My wife and I were looking at one of their used 2020 Outlanders.

Listed for a great price, but when you call, it's not available because it needs to be fixed. When will the fix be done? Sorry, we don't know. Can we really see the vehicle? Sorry, no. We can't show it to you. So does the vehicle even exist, or is it just bait? Yeah. Yeah, we shopped. In fact, it was the Grico dealership, Mazda a while back, and it was the world's record in bait and switch because we called it the ghost car. I don't remember this. And they ran it for three months of different dealerships with the stock number, and they were running at a price they wouldn't sell it for. And we kept shopping and exposing them that it was bait and switch to,

car didn't exist and then they would advertise it again and went on we figured we could never kill the deal so we called the ghost car it just kept reappearing so bait and switch standard operating procedure and almost every dealership unfortunately that's true all right I can continue on if you'd like yes keep on rolling excuse me Howard is on hi Howard how are you good doing fine nice to hear your voice you. I know you don't like infomergments, but I got to give you one in the way. My axle was leaking. The two axles going into the CB joints. So I came in an emergency. I saw a guy named Travis. Travis took care of me unbelievably. He said, don't worry about it. Shofel, you will take care of you.

leave your car here and see Alan make you I know Alan for a long time I saw Alan I said Alan can you give me can I get alone in he says it's the Pope's capital of the of course you can get along it gave me a

2021 camera I was very impressed with it what I like about is that when you shift it shifts straight down on the line you don't have to go push reverse to the left to go down uh so you know things like that to tell me in a car you know anyway the car was ready the next day

i picked it up and two axles and uh i just want to commend uh Travis and Alan well I thank you for that and I just have to I love your compliments and and I have to say you know when I do this because we've got 20 30 thousand people listening this is not a infomercial Howard is just a great guy a regular caller and he happens to be a customer and so thank you Howard but I have to do a disclaimer that we're not paying you for that commercial and then that you love us so much and you're doing that without getting a nickels but this is all about consumer advocacy and there are other car dealerships out there that have good

service too so find one with good service and give you a fair price and that's the message from Howard we love Howard yes we do the first thing he mentioned that was interesting the um the shifter how it was straight up and down now and maybe rick can shine some light on this um i believe they called it a gated shifter um when you would have to like pull you know push it to the left and then down and then to the right yeah was that a safety feature to stop people from accidentally changing gears um i think they they were trying to put less moving parts in the shifter handle itself because now in order to shift into river from park and down into the different gears you have

you actually have a button you have to grab to work the shifter that's why it can come straight down versus the other shifter was set up to where it would do that zigzag gated shifting and the idea there is to avoid accidentally going into reverse when the car is not intended to but you can still go directly from drive into neutral if needed but the safety button prevents that accidental reverse yeah i can say that i have a lot of customers who are very happy about that. Okay, Mike in the control room, Nancy has no volume. So if you could give her some help on that, it'd be nice if she could listen to the show.

My computer screen is back up, thanks to Josh. Okay. As they're also said, no volume. Give us a call at 877960-9960, or you can text us at 772-497-60. at 772-497-6-5-30 now back to Josh this is the charm of live radio I'd like to say you know I didn't get to say hi before I came in here it is an honor to be among you folks today oh thank you quite exciting I'm going to tell you a new a new personal another personality Josh Stewart I get it behind the scenes well you never get used to it

I mean, we've been doing for 20 years, and we were terrified the first time live radio. You have to keep, you have to stop thinking about that there's tens of thousands of people out there listening to every world. I just froze. I can't think about that. Tens of what? You know, we're all over the world. And if you say something stupid, everybody hears it. If you say something accidentally.

And once you just realize all that and you say, ah, the hell with it. And you're not going to worry about it. Something happens. Here comes Mike going to help Nancy get a volume gone. So what? You hear that we have problems? Life has a problem. We're human. We're just having a conversation here. I can do another anonymous feedback while we're using some technical assistance here. All right. This one comes in from anonymous. What is wrong with these car dealers in Florida? I live in upstate New York, and we do have a few bad dealerships, but not nearly as bad as some of these Florida dealerships. You know, I hate to admit it, but I believe you're right. and I think that Florida is just a great state and a lot of car dealers want to come to Florida and we have more franchises it seems like to me more car dealers convinced in Florida and so the

competition level is extremely high speaking for Toyota because I am a Toyota dealer if you go If you go to South Florida, I think two or three of the number two-volume toilet dealer, number three-volume Toyota dealer, Hollywood and Al Hendrickson in the whole United States world, really, are in Miami-Forderdale area. And several more in the top 30. Yeah. So it's intense competition, very high volume. We have more dealers competing to come. to Florida. You see what they want to do, the New York guy wants to have a home in Boca Raton

or a home in Jupiter Island or home in Palm Beach. And so it's nice to have a dealership where you have your summer home or your winter home, I should say, and you come down here. So the intense competition creates deception. And you can't advertise an honest price because you go out of business because all the other advertised prices are below cost everybody is including thousands of dollars a dealer fee and the prices so it's impossible anyway another long so it's the density if you have one one predator alone he's not dangerous but you put a pack together next thing you have a dangerous situation yeah in our dealers we have four or five toilet dealers within a few minutes drive and so people can come in get our

price and go to three four or five other toilet dealers and they can't get their price they can only get archives because the only one to give them a price. I'm digressing. Nancy, how's your volume? Everything's up in running. I think so. Let's hear it for Mike. Thank you, Mike. I appreciate that. Okay. Did you get a chance to read Earl's latest column? It's another doozy. And you can pull all of his columns up at Earl on Cars. Don't forget that. If you don't get a chance to take a look at it, you know, on Facebook or hometown news or the Florida Weekly. And that is www.W.W. Ain't going to happen.com.

Why? Buy this car for $99 per month. I'm sure you've all seen it. And it is definitely, definitely worth the reed. Why don't the dealers, I mean, it's such a hackney thing. I mean, 30 years ago it was $99 a month. And even with inflation, you'd think they would raise it a little bit. So I guess maybe 30 years ago, it was possible.

you know and then here we are today where the average car is $45,000 and they're advertising $99 a month a mystery shopping report today is on $99 a month I think well I think that was last week oh that last week okay anyway it's just got a great ring to it 99 and they don't even say $9999 they just say $99 a month and people flock in and it works I mean I'm talking big volume dealers that will run a standard ad, $99 a month. Of course, the fire and print. You know what it says on this model only, $7,000 down.

These rebates must apply. You have to be a farmer, a shepherd, and a college graduate, and how that goes. If somebody would just be smart enough to say $98 a month, they'd get all the business. That's how it sort. Maybe that's where it froze. It probably started out at, who knows, $199 or $3.99, and that's what happened. It got down, finally, $99, it was, God, that's a, we can't do any better than that. And they did 98, and no one showed up.

No one showed. It just wasn't too low. Don't believe it, 98, I know, no, no, no. You can't buy a car for this $99 a month. Okay, folks, you can see that this is a wonderful show with entertainment, with information, and most of all, you make the show. 877 960 9960 I have a question for you how many of you

received a phone call this past week in reference to warranties I'm raising my hands but Josh raised his hand I raised my hand I counted them I got I got a postcard

okay well that counts too 10 phone calls that's what I received this week I love playing with those people it's so satisfying You're like teasing the scammers. Bottom line, ignore any warranty being sold to you by anybody. And if you've got to have an extended warranty, get the manufacturer's extended warranty. Absolutely.

Be very, very careful. Tread carefully. Back to Josh. Yeah, I got another couple of texts popped in. This one, no name here, but they say, I have a 2018 Tacoma. And this past winter, I had to sit in my truck to have lunch. The engine was cold when I started it. I had it running for 45 minutes, and the temperature gauge never got to the normal operating range.

I tried holding the gas pedal to 2,000 RPM. Still, the engine would not get to normal operating range. I was wondering if this was normal. Living in the Midwest, where it gets well below zero temperatures, I would think this would be an issue if you got stranded in a snowstorm and needed to run the engine for heat. The best I could get for heat was warm air for heat. Thanks. Love your show. Listen every Saturday. Texting from Omaha, Nebraska. Well, if the heater was actually giving you plenty of hot air, I wouldn't be too concerned about just where the gauge was reading,

because that gauge is actually reading the water that's coming in the radiator, and it's going to say, yes, this is what it's seeing for a temperature, but as long as you're not seeing that temperature go way too high, that's the concern part for it. And a low temperature on the gauge I wouldn't be too concerned about, as long as the vehicle's running normally. If the car was under warranty and they brought into a dealer, is there any way dealers can adjust the accuracy of the indicators? Not really on the gauges, no, because the computer controls where that gauge is going to set. But it's simply comparing it to what that temperature sensor is reading. And myself, my first thing is I'd grab out what I call it, it's a temperature gun, basically.

basically, like what they used to take your temperature at the doctor's office. And I would simply point at various spots on the car to compare the operating temperature. And if it's normal, then I would say it's fine. Leave it me. My doctor used a thermometer, not a gun. Rick, you might want to, you know, shop the doctor market out there. That sounds a little unconventional. Where would you insert the thermometer, Josh? On a serious note, folks, I'm still hung up on the possibility that my gauges aren't accurate.

it. And I'm putting myself in the shoes of a guy that just paid $50,000 for a new car, and I'm looking at my gauge, my temperature gauge, and I realize that it can't be right. Now, just because it's not too high, if it was too low, it would make me nervous because I'm thinking maybe if it was too hot, then it would show everything's okay. So I would think that I would take it to my dealer, if it were under warranty, and I'd say, I want a new temperature gauge. And I would hate to get an argument on that from the manufacturer. Now, as you say, it might be for all the computer, well, then get me a new computer.

But I got a new car, and that gauge is supposed to indicate an accurate temperature to me. I'm only wondering, though, he said it was a 2018, but I think he also said it was a, how long ago did he say it was? If the outside air temperature is very cold, then obviously the cool is going to be right. I'm not talking about the caller. I'm just saying for the thousands of other. people that are listening that feel like they have in an accurate gauge. Oh, no, if it was inaccurate, then I definitely would want to have a check. It's not just temperature, too.

I hear complaints about your fuel gauge, you know, and I'm sure our listeners could, you know, can they can relate to this. The first, like, half of your tank, it seems like it takes forever just to get off a full and going to have a tank, but that last third of a tank, you know, goes out like a sieve. It does seem like that at times. I wonder if that's real or psychological. I notice it too, I just don't. Well, I've heard a theory, but it's not verified, but that the fuel gauge is only measuring a certain percentage of your tank to kind of give people that extra buffer.

So when you're really, it looks like you're buried on E, but you really have 10% of your tank left. Well, there is, even when the gauge is totally down empty, there is still a little bit of fuel left in the bottom of the tank because the float doesn't, when it goes all the way to E, it's not actually touching the bottom of the tank. It's still just a little above the bottom. Okay. So there's a little bit of fuel remaining in the tank, but unfortunately the pickup is also not touching the bottom of the tank. So when it's all the way down, it's still got a little space between that pickup spot.

So even then, there'll still be some fuel in the tank, but you can still run out and not have enough that it can pick up the fuel and get it to the engine. Okay, I think we beat that to death. Let's move on. Okay, we're going to go back to the phones. uh alicia's calling from lake park welcome alicia what can we do for you this morning well the deal is um i called oh about four or five years ago about my uh airbag uh and you recommended that i stopped

driving it and called so nicely um i called them and they said well, you know, we'll fix your car. It's under warranty, blah, blah, blah. And I said, well, what about it? Like you said, it's a projectile and the heat and the age of the car and whatnot. So I did get a loaner car for the, however long it took them to replace it. Well, I got another recall notice, and this is for the driver's side. And it said, what should you do? and says, Ford has not issued instructions to stop driving your vehicle under the safety recall. My question is, is that a, you know, is that a ticking time bomb, like you said it was the last time? I think you should check with another Ford dealer. I certainly don't like that decision by the dealer or Ford.

If you have a dangerous recall and they have not issued a bulletin on loaner cars, then I think you just need to check with another Ford dealer and then I would go directly to Ford. You know, safety is a red flag to the manufacturers and it should be to the dealer. If they don't care about your safety, they should care about their safety

because God help Ford, God help the car dealer that refused to give you a loaner when the recall that they acknowledged that was dangerous caused you to be killed or injured. You'd own yourself a Ford dealership, you might even own yourself a piece of Ford Motor Company, because safety is in the eyes of the law, paramount, and they will always side with you.

I would go in writing to Ford email, whatever's easy as for you. You need some sort of documentation that you put them on notice and the dealer and say, listen, you say, I've got a dangerous condition here, be it a fuel pump, be it an airbag, in my car, and there's no authorization to give me a free loaner. I'm demanding a free loaner as of now because my life and limb are in danger. Put it in writing, I have a feeling you will get a free loaner. Okay. And my other question is we had the gas tank replaced on that on a recall,

and I was filling it up last week, and all of a sudden I see this spray on the ground as it got to almost full. And I stopped it. So there must be something wrong with. Is that a possibility that there's something wrong with the tank? Rick, what do you think? If the tank was replaced and you're seeing fuel leak like that, I would immediately have your vehicle towed to the dealer and tell them this.

What possibly has happened is when they put the filler hose back to the tank, they didn't tighten the clamp or something, or it's not installed properly and it's causing fuel to leak out. and fuel leak to me is an incredibly dangerous situation. I would leave the car where it is and call the dealer and tell them to come pick it up and bring you a car. You know, again, we get back to safety. You don't want to be driving a car around with a gas leak even just to the dealership.

And if he's smart, he doesn't want to have a car in a service drive with a gas leak either. You need to flag it as a danger, have him pick it up, and accept the responsibility. That's why I say tow it. Don't drive it. Okay. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate your wisdom and your knowledge and your transparency. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Be safe.

Alicia, thank you so much for calling back. Don't wait as long as you have. We love hearing from the ladies, and you sound like a knowledgeable consumer. Thank you. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Have for a day. Thank you. 877-960-99-60. Or you can contact you. access at 772-497-6530. Speaking of text, we're going to go back to Josh. Yeah, we have a text from Colin. Morning all, great to hear Josh's voice.

Thank you very much. Continuing the Tesla conversation, I'm interested in purchasing a model Y. I believe that's like the crossover type version. Yep. But was just intrigued the other day by the Toyota RAV-4 Prime, which is a hybrid. Hoping to hear your thoughts, comparing, contrasting the two.

Thank you, Colin. I can offer my two cents on that. I mean, they're not exactly apples to apples. The Raff 4 Prime is a plug-in, but it's a plug-in hybrid. Tesla is, I think, routinely, will give you close to 300-mile pure electric range. The plug-ins are much less than that. I believe the Raffour Prime is about a 45-mile pure electric range. Then after that, it converts just to a hybrid.

So you have an overall range with your gas and your electric. of probably over 600 miles. So in that way, it has a slight edge over the Tesla model, but it's not a pure electric like the Tesla. And the RAP-4 Prime is a pretty short-supply vehicle right now. I think in California and New York, some of those

zero-emission states, they're a little bit easier to get if you want to get one from somewhere in the southeast. It's a six-month wait or more, but, you know, dealers are taking orders. Wow. And they're charging prices. And you pay up all supply of demand.

I advise people now you shouldn't be buying it. Unless you need a new vehicle today, you shouldn't be buying one today. You're going to cut between a rock and a hard place. A microchip problem is going to go away with the shortage of steel and other commodities that go into the manufacturer car is going to get worse. So it's going to be a seller's market for a while, and you're going to be paying higher prices. I think you could shoot for the dip.

microchips and buy a car then and ride the steel price of it's it's not going to be an easy ride your best weapon against the seller's market is to have your own vehicle to sell yeah we were saying earlier so if you have a trade in yeah you're going to pay more for that new car but your trade in is worth a lot more too and hopefully it'll it'll balance things out you know just second on the sad thing about that is so many people are into leasing and they don't have a car to trade so in this unique such circumstances, the lucky ones that bought and traded in a car, now have another car to trade in. And if you lease a car, you don't have any trade in. So you have nothing to offset the price that you're going to pay on the next car. Absolutely. And to Josh's point, I want to tell you

what, that used car that you're driving around, you know, you're trading. Loss for words there. excuse me that trade-in you just don't realize it is worth its weight in gold I had a couple of telephone calls from a young lady young ladies this past week and they said quote unquote

all I have is my trade-in and I said be careful at there because your trade-in everybody wants it so you can get the best price so get three prices crazy money for use cars yeah it's going to continue this crazy

ride that we're on right now with shortages, microchips, and everything that's going on. It's going to continue for a while, and I want to tell you what, a warning to everyone, you know, carefully, be very careful out there. I think we're going to go back to the phones again and welcome Warren back. Hi, Warren. How are you? Hi, how are you? Hi, how are you doing, guys? Actually, I have a question for Rick. okay and Ricky there yep he was sleeping but he just woke up

all right I have I have a 2010 Ford Corrid which has 165,000 miles on and I'm planning to get rid of it in December and the reason why I said December

because I want to buy my borders Ford's huge and hybrid which has only 10,000 miles on the lease which is hardly used because of the pandemic. And the problem I have is when I'm driving over 40, 50, 60 miles an hour, all of the time is such to make this noise and it's not shaking. It makes them kind of noise.

And I had, about a couple of months ago, what, what's the, goes from the tire to the screen, what is that called? The tyrants? Yeah, the tyrant. I had those replaced a couple of months ago. The guy who did it said there's nothing wrong with it. He says, it's probably your tires, it's probably your tires. So I went ahead and just bought two new tires, which I did.

It's still making that noise, and he said he can't put anything wrong with it whatsoever. He's examined it from top to bottom. He said, he did a good job on it. He's test-drived it. And he's still making that noise. Like I said, I only want to keep it another seven months. And I don't know if I could do that or not, but I don't know if it's safe. Is it maybe from the engine?

There's no engine light on. I mean, what's the possibility of what's wrong with it? Well, a noise that shows up at speeds like that, obviously it's something, either a moving part or something that is flapping because of wind factors. I've seen cars with like a piece of the plastic trim underneath the splash shields will start to vibrate and shake and make noise at high speeds because of the wind coming across them. Your mechanic really needs to drive the car and hear the noise and try to narrow down where it's coming from. with you on what's going on with you in the car one yeah that that would be the best thing yeah and like i said i don't want to spend a lot of money on it because i have a goal to get rid of it right and you know i mean i'm just going to hold out because i don't know even the buy out of this fusion is just good

a diagnosis you don't have to fix it i mean you could as long as you can live with it uh but you want to be sure it's not something serious and then if they say this isn't serious you can have it fixed anytime then get it fixed out to you trade the car and or sell it right and if it's a splash shield those can usually some sometimes they can be secured or for a lot of those really take them right off i mean on an older car it's not going to change the value or really put a big factor on it two kind of repairs the kind you do when you know you're going to keep the car and the kind you do when you know you're going to trade the car so you but knowledge you have to have the knowledge first is to what needs to be done and then then you're in the

driver's seat. You know, I'll have to bring it to somebody else in my theory and I say, oh, this is a cost $1,000 and that, and, you know, like the tires is enough. And I said, I'm not putting another diamond to the car. There you go. But, you know, you've got to be safety on it. I understand that. Yeah.

Let me ask you just one other quick. Is it possibly from the engine because at the end, no engine light has gone on. It is it possibly could be from the engine? Is that a possibility? Yeah, there's always a possibility from the engine or transmission causing that issue. but I would actually, if it's only occurring at those particular speeds above 50 miles an hour, normally the transmission's already going to be in its highest gear and has been for 10 or 15 miles per hour. So something that's occurring at those kind of speeds is generally I wouldn't be looking so much at the engine or transmission,

more at maybe the axles or a wheel shaking or something like that, or like I say, a splash shield or something else being moved by the wheel. wind. It's something a mechanic would have to, I'd have to ride in or a mechanic would have to ride in the car and hear the noise in order to figure out what's going on and where it's coming from. I run in a couple of times and said it wasn't

that bad. Again, I don't know. And the last question did I want to ask it? Because I take that, I'm up in New Jersey now and then I take a drive down. I'm in northern New Jersey and Fort Lee, New Jersey, which is of course from Manhattan. I drive down to see my daughter who's in Cherry Hill, which is across from Philadelphia.

And if I put the car, On cruise control, I don't hear it. I can go 65 miles an hour, and nothing will happen. It just sounds purring as a cat. What could that possibly be? And I can't do it very often because I'm on a New Jersey Turnpite, and that's like, unless you're going 2 o'clock in the morning, there's always traffic, so it's the rarity that I can use the cruise control

on the New Jersey Turnpike. So I was just wondering what, but the one of two times I did use it, I didn't hear anything. Is there any relation to that, or it's just going crazy or what? It could be just coincidence, but again, with a noise, really you've got to hear it in order to figure out what's going on. Right. Okay. All right.

And a quick question for Earl. If my deal doesn't work out with my daughter, it should, but if it didn't for any reason, she's just going to buy the card and I'm just going to give it, I'm just going to give it, and I'm just going to give her the money. She's going to whatever. The mechanics of it will figure out. But it might just best to wait until January and just get it and get a new car. at least a car in january would that be the month to do it if i could hold out yeah i mean that's right that's a crystal ball question i think the microchip shortage will be over by then and uh i think you're still going to be paying more for cars in january but not as much more and you've got the new

model so i always recommend you buy the new model uh you don't want to buy last year's model i mean if they're both new technically but if you're going to buy a 2022 that 2021 is just on paper worth be worth a far less they'll tell you they give you incentives which they will but the incentives if you get the best price on both will not will not overcome the depreciation factor i want one quick question and let you go is it true that if you buy a car in a cold weather climate the best time to buy it is at the end of january because nobody buys cars in the northeastern midwest in january because nobody wants to buy a new one and crack it up and the sales that you always get a better

you can always get a better deal when the dealer wants to sell the car worse more when they're desperate but when they're desperate they'll also take advantage of you more prices the dealers sell a car for it's an average price that's the way they make their money so you come in Warren you're an educated consumer and you've done your shopping you can shop and compare you got all the Costco price you got everything you get a really good price, even better price in January because he's desperate.

Now, if you're a little old lady and you come in there and there's the first car you bought and your husband passed away and it's January and he's desperate, he'll charge your $2,000 over a sticker to make up for Warren, who we sold a car for at a really good price. So desperation and shortage is a good thing for the sharp buyer, the educated consumer. It's a bad thing for the uneducated. the best time to buy a car is when you're prepared to buy a car exactly great information Josh if my car worth anything with 165,000 miles and 11 years old on it yeah worth more than it was a few months ago

yeah it is absolutely yeah I mean it's crazy I mean car used cars haven't appreciated the past six months they've appreciated it yeah the body's in good shape everything you know whether it's a late model used or old used cars in general used cars in general are on low supply high of them in and wholesale cars are bringing big money at the auction

crazy money and retail has gone way up so it's a seller's market for used cars and is anybody like would I have to go to a used car dealer or a regular dealer buy a card at all would it make any sense? Yeah you can buy them

you've got a lot of public layled companies Now you got Vroom, you got Carvana, CarMax, they're all legitimate and they're honest. You know, by the way, it's, what is it, Carvana has got a hysterical commercial on dealer fees. They don't charge dealer fees. And if you, there's a TV commercial for Carvana, really funny about hidden fees. So, yeah, you got some, CarMax is a good place to buy a car. Carvana is a good place to buy a car, but you shop and get there anyway. And you can get a better deal always by getting multiple pricing.

And Warren, I'll add my two cents to it, the greatest place in the world. One of the greatest places, that's Consumer Report. And I don't know whether you're familiar with that or not, but boy, I'll tell you what, they've got some deals on the best used cars under $20,000. So there's room there to negotiate and, you know, get some information. All right, guys. Thank you very much. Enjoy your program.

Thank you, Warren. Thanks, Warren. Give us a call again. I think we're going to go back to Josh. Yeah, I got a text here. This is another one for Rick. I have a 2011 G37 infinity. And when I step on the gas, it does not increase speed gently, but a short hesitation,

then a lurch. How can this be corrected? sounds to me like you might have a trans if this is from a dead stock you might have a transmission issue going on there or the possibility that maybe your brakes are hanging up and not releasing when they should this is something you're going to want to get to a mechanic and have them check out because either one of those issues could deteriorate quickly and become a much more expensive repair Yeah, take it to a Nissan dealer and see if they'll diagnose it for you at no charge or if they're going to charge you or whatever they're going to charge you, find out ahead of time. But be sure when you road test it, you road tested with the technician before and if you decide to have them do the repair after, to be sure when you go home, it truly is fixed.

Yeah, that's such good advice, especially like the previous car mentioned in noise. Like when there's a certain noise you're trying to explain, going for that ride could save you a ton of time. It's the last thing you want to hear is, after they've had the car for three hours, it sounded normal to me. I've had so many cases that the customer will come in, they'll explain a noise to me, and then I go for a drive, and I hear a noise, and I chase it and fix it, and it's not the noise they were looking for. You know, I've got an app on my phone. It's much easier to ride with the customer. I just, I think it's called Mimi, and it measures your hearing. I would recommend that you test the hearing of the technician that's driving with you.

And I say that not really tongue-in-cheek because I do that in my own dealership. Customer calls me and complains. I brought it in for a squeak. A technician checked the car out. He says the squeak is gone, and I drove it home and still squeaking. Well, we didn't try to take advantage of her. We didn't try to take her money. The technician didn't hear the squeak.

you'd be surprised at people with hearing impairments. Young people, you know, old people. And so get two or three opinions. Why did you point at Rick when you said old people? So, anyway. Oftentimes, these mechanics, too, they've been around power tools in closed spaces for many, many decades. You're usually in a closed shop running heavy equipment power tools,

the air hammers that are the impact guns that are incredibly loud. So, yeah, our hearing gets beat up. You need a nice fresh mechanic or a good golden retriever or something. Something will get hearing. Yeah, there you go. I was not about that. My hearing is damaged. Dogs have extremely good hearing.

Yes. But their fine motor skills aren't quite as... They can smell some problems. As long as you come up with the app that translates into mechanic talk, I'm in. That'd make a great Subaru commercial, wouldn't it? I mean, you know, Subaru Mechanic, you know. There you go.

Everyone loves dogs. Okay, folks, 877-960-960. And as you can hear, you can call and ask any question at all or share your opinion with us. And I'm happy to report. We're going to go back to the phones, and we are going to be talking to our second new lady caller. And she's calling us from Palm Beach Gardens, and her name is Tony. Good morning, Tony, and welcome. Good morning.

Thank you. You're welcome. You won yourself $50 this morning. Yay. Yay. And Josh just gave you a round of applause. Golf clap. What can we do for you this morning?

Well, I have a 2004 Nissan Maxima. I love my car. It's been garage, so it's been well taken care of. However, the front windows, there are automatic windows, and particularly the one on the left, driver's side. I don't let it go down all the way because sometimes it just gets stuck there and I have to pull it up. And then once I give it a little tug, I can hit the button and it'll go on up. Is that like, is that going to require replacing the motor or what could that be? That sounds like the motor's got a dead spot or something when it gets down to the bottom or something

is binding in the regulator at that point. A mechanic would have to look at it to figure out just which one it is, but with that age of car, they may, and depending on what Infinity has, because I know there are some models, you can only get the motor and regulator together as a combination. But it's going to need a mechanic to look at it, figure out just what it needs for that,

but it's probably going to be the window motor or regulator or maybe both together. Tony, I'll say something here. I have luxury car dealers typically charge an arm and a leg more than other dealers. You have an infinity. I would... No, there is actually a Nissan maximum. Oh, maximum.

Okay. I thought you said infinity. So anyway, that's good. But you're far better off to have a Nissan on in terms of cost of repairs. Okay. All right. Thank you very much for the goal. And you've got to email.

contact information to Nancy to get your 50 bucks I think is that right yes right I will thank you for that thank you thank you Tony spread the word and uh I will maybe some of your friends can give us a call and because we're here for everyone 877 960 9960 or you can text us at 772-4976530 and ladies and gentlemen I have another question for you Do you ever, when you're purchasing a vehicle, do you ever figure in how much it's going to cost you to keep that car on the road? There's so much homework that has to be done, whether you're buying you used or new. So give us a call. Let us know what you think. We're going to go back to Josh, who has some texts.

Yeah, I have a few here. Good morning. I, too, and my coward, who called in. We bought a 2019 Toyota Four Runner Limited from your dealership. This is going to sound like another commercial. It was the best carbine experience we've ever had. Before you, we bought the high-end Mercedes-Benz and BMWs. Going there was like running an obstacle course.

I know you don't like these testimonials, but you earned them. We like them, but it embarrasses us because we're supposed to be, you know, we're supposed to be strictly objective about a lot of good car manufacturers, a lot of good dealers. Well, you really can't say that. but anyway this is not an infomercial but we like compliments anyway

and we're not perfect you know we mess up sometimes but we always always do the right thing and make it right that's for sure but yeah thank you so much Robbie for this kind words have another one here from

Dog Walker Dave Dog Walker Dave says Elon Musk should get a C-minus for beating Earl out of that money you know I wonder if he even knows that you know maybe I'll do a blog on that maybe I'll try to get some

get some because I really believe in Elon I wonder if he knows that his outlets are doing this I mean he has so much stuff write him an open letter to Elon and maybe he said a lot of times the top dogs don't know what's going down

in the trenches. Great idea sounds good I'm going to do that I can see him sitting here might be able to extend an invitation to him take him for a ride in your Tesla anybody got Elon's cell phone number I'll give him a call. It'd be like his appearance on the Joe Rogan show.

Yeah. We'll have to open a window, though. I could tweet him, but that wouldn't be working. You know, what's funny is, you know, Tesla is headquartered in California. In California, caps their dealer fee at, I believe, $150? It was $75, it was probably $1509. And so the fact that their mother store, you know, their home base doesn't allow dealer fees, but here, I guess, and technically you're buying it through a job.

Toyota I mean a Florida Tesla dealer I'm not sure and it's really no it's actually Tesla because they don't have dealers they have satellite showrooms but the car is actually sold by Tesla that's how they get around the state law okay there's only a that only a dealer dealer can sell a car so but you can buy it directly for the manufacturer you but you can't have a dealer that you sell the car directly go around the dealer anyway next all right we go ahead we have call and that is from Boynton Beach. Mosher is, I think I pronounced your name correctly.

Are you there? Oh, you did great. Oh, thank you. You did great. Good morning. Good morning. Hello. Hello.

Good morning. Good morning. Can you hear me there, guys? Yes, we do. Glad and clear. Good morning. My name is Mosheat, Moshe Katsberg, and I called already in the past few months. Oh, Moshe.

One of my favorite callers. I'm sorry? You're one of my favorite calls. I remember you well. Well, I'm so glad you said that because this morning when I went to Google to look up again the phone number and on Google there were under Earl Stewart there were a couple of categories.

One of them said Earl Stewart obituary. I said, oh no. Oh, my God. Wait a minute, let me check my pulse. Oh, that's not me. Very quickly, too. So anyway, I'm glad to hear that you guys are well and alive and you sound great.

Just to remind you about my story is I have at least 2019 Jeep Cherokee, which I love, and the lease is about to end in October. However, my wife and I are snowbirds, so we plan to go up to New York and stay in New York until October. Car is going to sit here garaged, so I started babbling as to what my options are, and I realized that I probably want to buy the car. So either now or later, whichever is going to give me the best price, that started me going. So bottom line is I decided I want to try to sell the car. So I stepped into Schumacher Jeep dealer, who were very, very nice from the start, and I was told, why are you coming to us? They called the leasing company or the leasing bank, which happens to be ally financial, in my case.

And I called ally financial, and they said, no, we can't sell you the car. There's a Florida law that states that you must sell, you must buy the car through the dealer. Yes. I said, oh, I don't know whether that is true or not, so I just made no sense to me. So I'm looking on YouTube, that's how I found you, by the way. I started listening to different gurus from all over the country, and I was told that they tried to eliminate the dealer. He's a little man, he'll tack on a fee. Yes.

I went directly to do this. I went directly, and I'm kicked back to the dealer because of the Florida state law, which I questioned. So after doing this back and forth and calling a couple of times where ally bank would not give me any financial information or any, everything was a little too secretive, and that just ignited my curiosity. So then I started listening to all kinds of fees that they, attach on at the end, whether you want to buy it or return it, a return fee. And if you want to buy it, there's electronic filing fee, inspection fee, this fee, that fee.

I was wondering whether I have to pay for toilet paper fee. You know, I mean, I didn't know. That depends if you. Yeah, you really ferret out all the dirt on that deal. That's something we've talked about, and your experience was just so well put and articulated. and you tried everything, and I, it's a show that you believe. I'll have to tell you where I am right now, okay.

Your benefit and the benefit of the listeners. Please. Because I've been pursuing this from almost three weeks, just because I'm curious, and just because I don't like to get screwed. I'm sure what he does, but most people that I spoke to with leases, I'll just go in and pay them the $400 inspection fee,

and I say, with inspection fee, I'm buying the car. I should be inspecting. Yes. They should be paying me an inspection fee. Are you related to you? Jackie Mason, money, Jane. Yeah, yeah, Jackie Mayer. Psychiatrist, he should be paying me.

Anyway, and I love the band, by the way. So, I decided to call the... First of all, I decided to call the Attorney General, and here's... I'm about to tell you what I found out yet. Oh, good for you. But before I do that, you interjected in a moment of going that I said it's a Florida law. The first question was, is it really a Florida law?

Florida law says that only Florida a car dealer can retail a car or sell a car. So if the manufacturer or a leasing counter anybody, if they're going to retail a car, it has to be retailed. But originally as a new vehicle, in my experience, I think a leasing customer can exercise their lease and purchase option directly from the bank. if I'm not mistaken I'm not aware of a Florida law that says you have to buy your lease out through the through a dealer because we work with Southeast Toyota Finance and I think

those customers can purchase directly from the bank it's usually easier They set the price perhaps I think again Josh and I have a difference of opinion on this I think that you have to

a sale newer use has to go through a but they can establish the price. And I think that's what the issue with you is, Mosier, right? You didn't want all the extra fees. But did, you, you're not going to be able to buy your vehicle through Ally, are you?

Through who? I'm sorry? Ally, I don't be able to buy the vehicle through who? Through Ally. You said that the car was leased. That's exactly the point, Earl. Yeah. And Nancy and Fellows, I'm sorry.

I'm addressing all of you the whole family. No. All I, every time I called categorically stated that they will not be the vehicle, which peed me off

to begin with, and that's how I started the Attorney General inquiry, just to find out what the Florida law is, but what really ignited me was the secrecy, the shroud of secrecy where they will not divulge anything, and

And that suggested something almost sinister. Yes. Why are they hiding? I'm not what's under the covers here. Moshev, you'll recall that what I said before was this is an opportunity for you in a huge class action suit because it is kept quiet.

Yes. I'm getting there, getting there. And so far was history. Now, I'm coming to what was yesterday. Okay. Yesterday I get a call back, a callback from the attorney. I went a Florida Attorney General's office.

Oh, my goodness. Where I started this thing weeks ago, and I sent them an email. Apologies, COVID-b-bab-la. Anyway, very nice girl came on, and she said, I'm responding to you, call, and I can, by my law or whatever, my hands at that, we cannot give you legal advice.

We can only advise to you what the law says. I said, perfect. I need the legal advice, I understand. Tell me what you know. I said, first of all, is it a Florida law? She says, I don't know. I said, well, Mr. Attorney General doesn't know. Who the hell will know?

Boy, I tell you that. What's our Attorney General's name? Ashley Moody. Ashley? You're listening, Ashley? Motion is coming after you. Watch out. I will find out, and I will turn this to the, you know,

proper authorities that she came up with the names like the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Safety and Motor. vehicle and they are one of them that takes care of all these uh consumer uh leasing laws uh maybe there's another and she promised her when she was very nice and sincere she was a real sweetheart so we got along very well and then i said to her now i'm looking at the at the lease ally lease document and i'm looking at the section that says when i want to if i want to purchase at the end of the lease and there was a stated residual value, $20,000, $960, something, whatever.

That is the price I should be paying ally. Yes. But when I go to the small writing, it says plus taxes, no problem, plus any associated official fees. Yeah, that's the get-your, that's the got-your. I asked them, gotcha, what's that official fees? I called Ally three times on this subject. Nobody knew.

Yeah. So then, but I said to the Ally agent, ally. To me, you lady, you a very nice lady on the other side of Ally, to me, you are Mrs. Allied today. I don't see anyone else on the phone but you. You are Mrs. Allied. This is your contract. Your handwriting.

Thus official fees, you wrote the contract, tell me what it means. I can't tell you. General General cannot tell me, you cannot tell me, I need to go to the, I'm telling you, I need to go to the president here. We need to put this on YouTube. I want to get, I want to get this in a video. No, I think you got them. I think you have exposed them. I think you've exposed them. So wait, but I'm not going to take too much time. Anyway, Ally told me to call them, but they must explain it to me on the phone.

they cannot put it in writing. So I called up, I'll in the phone again, some of the number, I'm not sure. They said, well, when you go to the dealer, at the time you want to make the purchase at the end of the lease, have them call us. And while you sit there, the dealer and us will discuss what those... Oh, oh. A whole setup. But here, back to the Attorney General.

Yesterday, the girl says to me one thing, and this is the most significant part of our conversation. here, and I'm going to let you guys go. Too many calls, I'm sure, on the other line. So she told me, the Attorney General Lady. First of all, she said, there is a class, this is back to you, there was a class suit, a class law, a lawsuit, whatever you want to call it, that was put out Mr. Robert A. Schreiber and Winifred, Winifred Byrne, I'm looking at it on my,

I can give you the case number for in case you're interested in the Florida United States District Court for Southern District of Florida Miami Division. Case number one, colon, 14-C-V, Charlie Victor, dash, 2269-D-D-PG, Dog, Paul, George. George. That's it. I'm looking at it. On my computer and I'd be happy to forward a copy to you Earl on your email. Thank you. Thank you. And lo and behold, this class action suit was started, what is in 2016, and it was consummated on 2018, at which point Allied Bank had to shell out close to $20 million. Oh! Kaching, kaching, kaching, kaching, kachin. All clients like myself,

all shush, push nooks like myself, who were overcharged or charged in excess of what was stated in the ally contract, which is identical to my contract. And not only that, each states, I'm looking at page

number three, let me just get there, allies, here's part of the complaint, I'm reading from the document, allies leases are executed pursuant to stand, A standardized form of Ally called Smart Lease Agreement, which is what I have.

Smart Lease agreement provides the lessee has the option purchasing vehicle at the end of the lease, plus official fees and taxes. Bama boom. Which the agreement is government fees, its license, title, registration, testing inspection fees. At the end, period. At the end of the lease term, however, Ally refuses to sell the vehicle to its less. for the set price listed on the smart lease agreement.

Instead, its lessees are forced to purchase the vehicle through a dealer for a higher price, which is inflated due to the inclusion of the additional fees that were never disclosed in the smart lease agreement. Most I'll tell you what, will you meet with me, and let's put this deal together. We need to bring some attention to this, and bless you for finding this hidden class action suit got buried, PR-wise. A.G. doesn't want to talk about it. Allied doesn't talk about it. But let's get some more information on this and get some publicity, because this could scare, this could put the fear of God into all the people that are exploiting people like you now

when you're trying to buy your exercise, your option to purchase your lease car. and let's get some, let's get some PR on that. We've got to get to our mystery shopping report, Moshe, but you've emailed me, you and I all get in contact and talk this over. Yes, sir. Thank you very much. Great call. Thank you, Mosher.

Great call. Thank you so much. What a guy. He's not only extremely entertaining and hysterical, but he is smart and persistent. He's a bulldog, and he is one, I've never seen anybody that has been. been able to go this far with the attorney general and find out about a class

accuracy that affects everybody absolutely he's a force in nature yeah exactly um i see a cameo spot here for Mosher absolutely i mean this is the first phone call we've received as you said that somebody called from the state attorney's office they called motion unbelievable thank you for the phone call we are now going to get to the mystery shopping report that took us to Wallace Nissan in Stewart? The Wallace dealerships perform a little below average when considering their current grades

on good dealer, baddealer, this.com. Their current grade point average, I love it that we have this now, 1.75, a C-minus. I'm leaving out Bill Wall's own independent use car lot, easy-pay cars. That, by the way, was probably one of the best experience that we ever had, since it's not branded Wall's location, but

he should get credit for it, because it is a perfect place to buy an inexpensive used car, at least based on our last shopping report. Despite a less than seller GPA, Wallace's dealerships have historically performed better than average on our mystery shops until COVID happened. Whether motivated by fear of business collapsing in the early days of the pandemic or inspired by the opportunity to take advantage of scared consumers, Wallace's grades begin to fall. We were last at a Wallace Nissan in Stewart a year ago, just a few months into the COVID pandemic. Agent Thunder investigated a too good-to-be-true ad for a new 2020 Nissan Century for just, guess what? $99.99 a month. Of course, this ad turned out to be a bait-and-switch, enormous $7,000 down payment.

Of course, that wasn't a fine print. He didn't find out about it until it was too late. $7,000 to get down to $99 a month. The experience of the store wasn't great either, not a soul in the shore were a face mask. In fairness, Martin County, where stewards located, didn't implement a mask mandate until July 2020. However, at the same time, mask wearing was recommended by the CDC,

mandated by cities and counties across Florida and the U.S. and in widespread practice by private businesses everywhere. Wallace Nissan also had a $2,600 in combined, hidden fees and unwanted dealer installed options C minus was actually generous now the car business is dealing with different sort of crisis the inventory shortages that have resulted from a semiconductor shortage the after effects of COVID and pin up consumer demand have sent new and used cars by prices surging they truly are searching in the last several mystery shops we've seen car dealers taking advantage of this temporary burst of inflation

to price gouge and engage in even more predatory tactics. Agent Lightning began our mission, that's our female shopper, to Wallace Nissan by funding a new Nissan Centra S-Fee on Wallace-Nissons of Stewart.com. Online shopping. The vehicle was listed for sale, $40,355, after a $1,3355, and that was $21,990. below the additional conditional incentives were listed okay remember you got the price

now they say these are additional incentives NMAC lease cash that's Nissan Motor I assume acceptance corporation cash 675 Nissan military cash $500 that's your active member of the military Nissan College grad another 500 and of course

the Nissan Special APR only cash $500. So all this stuff comes to Nissan and it was after the price and it says additional. So what am I going to think? It appeared that these conditional incentives had

not been applied to the price and the sale price of $20,355 would be further reduced by these rebates, okay? I saw Agent Lightning thought and here I went in speaking of the first person. I arrived around dinnertime, was created by

my younger gentleman named Michael, who never did tell me his name, but I saw it on his name tag. Michael took me to a desk where he gathered my information, took me a copy of the license, took my copy of the license right away, asked me to sign the paper stating, I'm committed to buying today. Hard to believe. Right away. That happened to me at public, so I was going to buy some steak, and they said, we're not going to sell you the steak unless you promise to buy the steak today. Did they mean you signed right when he walked in?

Can you believe that? Yeah. I couldn't believe that. I'm only kidding. It did not happen to me at Publix. I thought that was a little weird, but it did so anyway. I signed it. He then asked me what my out-the-door number was,

I'm hoping to be at, hoping, and said, how am I supposed to know? I haven't even seen the car yet. I mean, I were chit-chatting about that coming into the radio studio. I said, school that's about this old school he got he said well I'm just trying to see what your price range is so I don't show you a car you cannot afford BS he asked me to come walked a lot and with him and see what I like it was raining at the time a tornado

let's walk the lot so I declined showed him the 2021 Altamai it up on on my phone I told him that this was a vehicle I was interested in, and he left to go find it. After a few minutes, he pulled an ultimate to the front of the showroom, had me get the driver's seat. The first thing I noticed, empty fuel gauge. Listen to carefully, if you want to chuckle. And the empty fuel gauge with a light on.

I asked him if we needed to fill up, and here's what he said. Why? Do you think we might run out of the gas? I mean, I would immediately demand an IQ test. He ended up getting a gas card from inside. Hey, the lady says we should fill up because the red light's on and says I'm on the gas. She must be an expert in cars. I checked out the window sticker, noticed the actual Monroney on the car did match the 21-990 MSRP that was online.

But then I saw there be a sedendum. It added 999, southeast, no. I love this. Southeast regional adjusted market value. That sounds official. $199 for custom pinstripe. It costs $25.00. A $5.99 Wallis protection package, nitrophil protection,

and an auto butler, which Michael said, is a paint protection guard. All the typical, old-fashioned, old-school, big-ass. It's all worthless. You don't need any of it, especially the nitrogen. This added a total of $1,197 to the sticker, raising their final addendum price all the way to $23,78787. Upon returning to dealership, he asked me to wait at the desk while he went to his manager for the figures back and forth, back and forth. After 10 minutes, he returned with a pricing worksheet.

Not a buyer's order, not a legal document, but a worksheet. At first class, I noticed that the M-V-SP, I love it, not M-R, M-V-SP, market value selling price, 23-787, didn't match the online price of the MSRP of 21-990. Cardiator's slogan, Confused, then conquer. Confused, then conquer. So they're trying to confuse me now. Furthermore, the adjusted selling price of 22-150 didn't match the discounted. online price of 2355. Nothing managed matched the advertisement.

On top of this inflated price, they added $6.50 and taxable fees. That's okay. But then here comes a $7.99 doc fee. Okay. Obviously a hidden fee. Sales tax is $14.57, probably legit. And another $6.54 keyword taxable. Taxable fees are hidden fees.

They're dealer fees. Okay. This gave me an off-the-door price of $25,069. So that's where we are. Now, I asked Michael why the adjusted price was so much higher than the online price. The answer was, you don't qualify for those discounts that, of course, we said earlier, clearly indicated that they were taken off the advertised price. I said, no way.

First of all, you didn't even ask me if I qualify for any of them, and I love it when Agent Lightning gets feisty. And secondly, I'm not buying it. Not to mention the fact that he's cowering, not to mention the fact that those conventional, conventional incentives showed online clearly appeared to be in addition to the already discounted price. We are good for 10 minutes. The guy that said that we shouldn't get gas, even though the gas tank was out of gas. Why should we get it? So an argument with a dummy for 10 minutes.

I asked him why we were starting from a price. It's almost $2,000 was higher than what I saw online. He blamed Michael's inexperienced. This is the manager speaking now. Oh, the manager. Okay, I'm sorry, thank. I'm trying to rush because we motion to rush me. There's too much good stuff in there.

Too much good there. Okay. Okay, so, you know, we all right for every time. Involved, then. The manager, Dane, it's not Diane, I guess Dane. Finally arrived to smooth things out. I asked them why we were starting for price. It's almost $2,000 higher than what I saw online.

He blamed Michael's an experience. Okay, the salesman's fault. Not my fault, not Wallace's fault, the salesman's fault. Blame on the salesman. And then he asked me to sign my name saying, again, I'll be willing to buy the car for the $20,355 number that's on their website. And unless you sign it, I'm not going to give you a price. And they call that commitment.

old old old school I told them I was done playing games and to show me what their best numbers would be he replied by asking me are sure this is really this goes back to when I first started the business you insult them

and you hurt their feeling and say I don't think you can afford this car they say what? You tell me I can't afford this car do you know what I'm worth I can pay more than that for this car they call that the takeaway clothes The takeaway clothes, get them angry, make them prove to you they can afford to buy the car. So obviously didn't work on Agent Lightning, and they tried anyway, old school.

I got real angry, it was a parent, I was ready to leave. Dane begged me to stay for a couple of minutes to give them a chance to revise the numbers. Man, what an afternoon. Of course, there was still the $7.99 dock fee, hidden fee. The inflated non-tax fees, another hidden fee, $648, along with the legit sales tax, gave me an off-the-door price $23.158. Anyway, classic old school, Wallace, old dealer, I'm an old dealer. Wallace's even, you know, my grandfather, my mother worked for Wallace's grandfather.

Wow. And, of course, then he's third generation, like you're Josh's third generation dealers, so old, old school. Difference is we've owned, and Wallace is frozen in time. You know, you could take that dealership and put it in the museum to show 100 years from now when all the young people say, how did they sell cars back then, and you show this experience? They say, no way.

No. It's a relic of the past. didn't work did it so here we are we got to vote i think my next question would be were did anyone have a polyester suit on yeah in white shoes take us back bell bottoms you know for i'm gonna go first uh first of all what an amazing mystery shopper we have agent lightning i mean does she have i better not say that on the air she really has what it takes and we thank you very very much and I give this shop an F. Straight up.

Okay. Rick. I've got Tim Gilliland with an F. Ernesto D-plus, Mark Smith, old-school F. Bro scientist says, pull the plug, end the misery. I'm going to say he's calling that an F. And let's see. Boris with an old-school F.

Wayne Fight with another D-minus. And let's see. other channel nothing coming in just yet but for me it's old school but it's the sort of thing that if you know how to battle them i think you can probably get around it i'm going to give them the d minus just because i don't think they did anything totally outrageous from what we've seen in the past gosh all right i got some uh texters here mark gives them a liar liar pants on fire f bob d for wallace but if you commit to bite today it's an f And in the comment, Agent Lightning strikes again.

Personally, I think I'm going to average them out between an F for their just incredibly rude and, you know, treatment. I'm giving them a D because they ended up honoring the online price, so I'm going to average them out to a very low D minus. Yeah, I think the thing that really made me sway back and forth was Dane blaming the misrepresentation on the sales person. And if and true, it was just an experience, Michael was just an experience and didn't understand the ad. But if the blaming on the salesman was a ruse they used when they get caught, then it should be enough. But because I'll be personal about this because I know Bill Wallace and he's a good guy. He just has too many dealerships to police and watch.

Bill, if you'll give you the benefit of the doubt with a D-minus, but you've got to be a good guy. get that straightened out. The salesman, if in fact it was a mistake, he needs to be trained. And we'll forgive the old school tactics because a lot of car dealers in Florida do that. And it's a wild, wild west. And Anne Reid chimed in with a D. Yeah, yeah. We're great on the curve. And I say this every week, because sometimes people say, how can you let that go? How can you let that go? But the sad statement is in Florida, when you buy a car, it's like a root canal. A lot of people just don't want to go through it.

And I consistently refer people to the third party services. You can avoid a lot of that with true car with Costco. To go in physically to a car dealership like we do makes no sense. Online is the only way. And you need to help those out there that don't know how to deal online. Everything today you buy online. You've got a road test a car. You've got a smell drive and all that stuff.

But that's the only reason you go into a car dealership is to find out the car, confirm it, and then buy everything else online. Amen. Great information. You know, Agent Lightning, I picked up a little bit of talking, the dealership talked down to her.

Try it wrong. Not everyone, I think, can pick up on something like that, but it was very condescending. Can I jump in here with Consumer Reports before we get to the end of the show? Because I've been carried this for three weeks. And you've been mentioning it. It's the June Consumer Reports. And she's talked about it, but with neither one of us, it's excellent. I'm going to give you just a quick thing here to give you an example, factual information.

Nissan GTR shock replacement costs $5,867. The average cost for this prepare is $937. So that shows you how you can really, when you buy the wrong car, you can pay too much money. BMW, AC compressor replacement, $4,453 per compressor. average compressor cost and new cars, $1,11, these are customer paid. You have to pay for it. Water pump, and Alexis, $2,749, average water pump, $710.

So before you buy, check out the car and see what the cost of parts and labor and things like that is. They're amazingly expensive. There's a huge swing, and it's part of the cost of the car. You know, I'll add to that also. Well, first of all, consumer report is the best place to go. Earl and I, we do not purchase anything without looking at our consumer report. But there's another question for I have the folks out there.

Do you check out that seat that you are going to be spending an obscene amount of time in? Yes, that's the driver's seat. There's a lot of people that really don't take advantage of taking that car out and checking out the comfort zone that you're going to be subjected to. So that's another point. Ladies and gentlemen, we're running out of time. It was great spending our Saturday morning with you, and I want to take a moment and let Josh know what a great asset he was to the show this morning,

and I certainly hope that we'll see him again. So thank you very much, Josh. My pleasure. To the folks that tuned in, thank you for tuning in to Earl Stewart on Cars. We hope to see you right back. here next Saturday morning. Bye, everyone. Have a great weekend.

Take it go.