Earl Stewart on Cars - 05.18.2019 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Arrigo Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram

Episode Date: May 18, 2019

Earl answers various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Agent Thunder visits Mystery Shop of Arrigo Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram, to see if he is able to purchase a promotional car on their website at a very attractive discounted price. 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. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

Welcome to Earl Stewart on Cars with Earl and Nancy Stewart, Stu Stewart, and Rick Kearney. Reach them with your questions at 877-9-60-960, and now, here's Earl Stewart. Good morning, everybody. Boy, the week flew by fast, isn't it? Saturday. This is Earl on Cars. My name is Earl Stewart. I'm a recovering car dealer. And this is a show on how not to get ripped off by your car dealer,

whether you're buying a car, leasing a car, maintaining, repairing it. We're here to help you out there in the minefields that are also known as car dealerships. It's a shame. It's my profession. In total transparency, I am a car dealer. I've been a car dealer since 1968.

In recent years, I've evolved into more of a consumer advocate, write a column for two newspapers. I have a blog, a lot of public speaking engagements, and this radio show, which we've been doing in one form another for about 15 years. Why do we have to do it? Well, a lot of regular listeners know the answer to this, and we have a lot of regulars. In case you're new to our show, Erlon Cars, on the True Oldy Station. Kind of misleading because we don't sing.

This is not a musical show. It's a live radio talk show. We exist because of the different way car dealers treat buyers, retail is huge in the world. I mean, you buy just about anything these days. I buy it online, buy it in the showrooms, buy it wherever you want to buy it. And the consumers are fairly well educated

and they're demanding more so than ever before. So most of the retailers in the world have tried to accommodate the educated consumer with respect, courtesy, transparency. Now, I'm not saying that all retailers do this. I'm just saying the one group of retailers that has totally not done it are car dealers. Car dealers are ranked dead last almost every year

in the Gallupol, Honesty, and Ethics and Professions. My apologies to you, regular listeners. You've heard that hundreds of times. But I put it out there mainly for our new listeners and for the people that are wondering, why is this car dealer on the air, live radio, talking about how not get ripped off by car dealers? He's a car dealer.

That's why. It's my profession. It's my legacy, and I'm all ashamed of it. I would like to be respected and looked up to and admired. But when people here I'm a car dealer, they're a little bit nervous about my company, frankly. And my sons are in my business, and one day they'll be running the business, and I want respect and people to look up to them too. car dealers are not looked up to, and the Gallup poll is proof of that. This poll has done every year. It's been done every year since 1977, and since 1977, car dealers are either dead last or next to last. We have a lot of competition from congressmen and lobbyists, but otherwise we're dead last all the time. The thing is best about the show is you almost every week, probably every week.

I hear from a listener, something I don't know. By the way, I'm in a studio here with other folks that are experts in different areas. To my right is Rick Kearney. Rick is a auto computer scientist. Okay, what's that? Well, if you're past 60, you're probably thinking of it as a mechanic. If you're in your 40s, you might think of them as a technician. Today, he's working on rolling computers, computers on wheels, and we call him automobiles.

very complicated, almost impossible to diagnose problems yourself. Remember, back in the day, pop the hood, there's a coil, there's a distributor, there's a carburetor. And, you know, you can look at it and identify most of the components of the engine. You can't do that anymore. Rick can identify them, but he uses a computer to diagnose the computer. If you have a problem with your car, you can call Rick Kearney, 877-960-9960, and he can answer your questions. You can also access us on Facebook, facebook.com, or slash Hurl on Cars. What's our text number? I can never remember our text number.

772-497-6530. Let me hear that again. 772-497-6530. Thank you. We had a caller one time that said you should give the number out twice. Makes a lot of sense. You can't memorize this from one. So please contact Rick Kearney or any of us in here. You just heard Nancy Stewart. Nancy Stewart is my co-host, my wife, and she is a very, very strong female advocate. She's into the hashtag me too kind of a thing where finally us men are openly admitting that we've been given women a hard time for not just our lives, but throughout entire history.

Women have played a secondary role in civilization for far too long. And we finally hit the 21st century, and people are really accelerating the recognizing the respect and recognition of women that we've never had before. So Nancy is, she believes that very, very strongly, and she appeals strongly to our female audience. And we are building a wonderful following of ladies out there. We're almost to a 50-50 balance, which is where we should have been from the get-go. 15 years ago, all we had were male callers. Nancy has a very special offer for female callers. Tell us about that, please.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Give us a call toll free at 877-960-99-60. And ladies, you are very special to the show. And here we are building a platform for you, and you are an important part of the show. I can't emphasize it enough. When a woman shops at your dealership, this is for all the car dealers that are listening, do you know what she's thinking?

Do you know what she wants? She just wants a fair deal. Ladies, this morning, $50 for the first two new lady callers. The first two new lady callers, win yourself $50. Give us a call. Say hi. Give us a call. Let us know how you were trying.

treated whenever you made your purchase and just add an opinion to our show how we can improve it back to the recovering car dealer well we've got a caller i think we uh d do i think i recognize that name uh do you yeah it sounds a little familiar good morning Tina Tina's a real important part of our show hi how you all doing this morning great how are you well this is public service announcement time. I was reading something on the news. It was Orlando News. W.E.S.H.

I do believe they had a video about push-button cars. And push-button start cars, you're going to find push-buttons on over 90% of vehicles being sold. However, there's a real danger to this because the cars run very quietly. And if you park your car in the garage and it's running, you could poison yourself with carbon monoxide very easily. So to everybody out there that buys a push-button-start car, please also buy yourself a carbon monoxide monitor and put one in your garage and put one in the inside of your house.

Great suggestion. Very, very true. Great advice, Tina. And we had a close call ourselves, Nancy and I one time, accidentally leaving a car running in the garage. And it's a real hazard. And a lot of people in Florida, they have the garages attached to the, the home, and I suppose everywhere in many states you have that.

And if you don't get that warning sound, then a lot of people that are hard of hearing don't hear the warning buzzer. A lot of the cars have the beep that goes off, and some people just can't hear it. So very, very good advice. Rick has a point. Yeah, that's a major failing on every car manufacturer that, in my opinion, when that key leaves the car,

it should set off a timer in the car that, five minutes, it should shut the car down. Yes. Unless the car is in motion. But if the car is in park, five minutes later, shut the car off. There is no reason that that car should be left running for more than five minutes once that key remote has left the car. How about a piercing alarm when you leave the car running instead of a little beep?

Yeah. Like a siren. Your car is on. That quiet little beep, you can't hear it for more than 15 feet away. and if there's the least bit of outside noise a little bit of wind or traffic nearby, you'll never hear it. Tina, what do you think about that?

Is that a good solution? Yeah, but how many car manufacturers actually have a little alarm or an automatic shut off? Is there something you can get from the aftermarket that could shut the car off after five minutes or is this not something that's been developed? That's a good question. We have a project for you.

Yeah, there's some money to be made out there on. That particular gadget. And, you know, with Earl's Lexus, the car can be unlocked. We can walk away from it. This is in our garage. And less than five minutes later, I can come back, and Earl's Lexus is locked. So I think that there's room in the future for us to solve this problem, because once you turn your, once you leave your car and you're in the garage, it is such a quiet, I'm going to

This is dramatic, a quiet death, especially if you don't have the carbon monoxide installed in your garage. What do you think, Tina? Yeah, one in the garage and one in the house just to be on the safe side. And 36 people have already lost their lives because of those. Yes, exactly. I was going to mention that. Was that just in the past year, Tina? I think the last couple of years.

And I do believe if you look on Orlando's, W-E-S-H website, you'll see a story about a woman who lost her 85-year-old, otherwise healthy mother because of this. Wow, it's terrible. As more and more cars are purchased, the push button, you're going to find more and more accidents because it's so quiet. You just don't know the car's on or off. Tina, what a great topic.

Yeah. Thanks for keeping us informed. Oh, thank you. My pleasure. Hope to hear from you again next week. Yes, ma'am. Have a great weekend. Thanks, Tina.

Thank you, too. Okay, we're going to go to our next caller, and that is Jackie. Good morning, Jackie. Good morning. Hi, how are you guys doing? Great. Are you a first-time caller? Yes, I am.

Oh, lucky you. You just won yourself $50. Okay, thank you so much. You're welcome. Stay on the line, and you can give our control room the information that I need to send that check out to you okay i'm sure your information my question though will be much more valuable okay i'm i guess i'm kind of in a frustrated spot right now i had gone back to the dealership where i have bought hers over the years and had two less than positive experiences um i've read

through most of earl's book um i attended your seminar a couple weeks ago and my frustrating came from just, I guess the best way I could describe it is not being taken seriously. So I left the dealership both times like, okay, there's no point in even being here. Based on the advice in Earl's book, I started doing nothing but Internet searches. And now what I'm finding is the information, and it's not just one dealer, it's many of them. You'll have pictures of the vehicle, and you'll have a description, except they don't match. And I'm told many of these are stock pictures. So how am I supposed to find the vehicle to begin with when all the information is contradictory

to even get in touch with the Internet Department to start the process, as Earl outlines in the book, to try to get an out-the-door price from the Internet Department before I even go down and waste my time doing this? What is wrong with having accurate information on these websites? I mean, we're talking, you know, tens and tens of thousands of dollars for these vehicles. It's not, it's like somebody, it's a big price for anyone. to pay. You can get accurate information. Good question.

Stu has a comment on that. Yeah, I'm involved in you putting inventories up online, so I can tell you that the process is completely automated. So there's not a whole lot of human intervention in putting vehicles, the information, specific information on the website. Most of it's done with computer programs that decode a VIN. So your point about having actual pictures versus stock pictures is very important. Some dealers choose to just use the stock pictures.

which comes in in a computer feed from some other company. Other dealers will choose to actually have pictures of the car, and they'll put a lot of pictures, say, like 20 pictures. And that's really important because that's really the only way you're going to see what features, what kind of alloy wheels might be on it, if there's leather, the color interior, all that stuff. I even found the pictures to contradict each other. One picture showed a very light interior, which is what I'm after,

and then several pictures later trying to show the dash but actually photographed the front seats. They were very dark and didn't even look like leather. So I asked them, my request was, send me the window sticker. You know, I figured I could at least decode everything from the window sticker. That was three days ago, and I still can't get a picture of the window. Were those pictures with the mismatch colors? Was that, were those stock pictures, or were those actual pictures of the car?

They claimed it was actual pictures of the vehicle. But I don't see how you can have light back seats and very dark front seats. No, somebody messed up. Yes, oh, yeah. Yeah, I got that part. But then the idea is I made the request of, because, again, the other thing they don't outline, in the particular vehicle I'm looking for,

there's, I'm sure it's in many. There's three or four different packages. They say LT, but there's all these different LT packages, which aren't obvious in the write-up either. If they would just call them that, you know, I would be light years ahead on stuff. Yeah. So it's been quite frustrating.

I don't have time to run around and spend, as you guys know, how long it takes. I want to pick the vehicle that I'm interested in, find it that's actually an option, as Earl had said, negotiate the price, out-the-door price, online, and then I'll go down and test drive, and we'll see if it's a deal or not. Yeah, I think what you tried to do, at least get them to send you a picture of the window sticker is a great idea. I mean, an in-tune or a modern salesperson, they have an iPhone or an Android, phone they can take a picture of anything you want to see if they don't send it to you i'd suggest move on to the next dealer and jack well that's what i've been trying to do but apparently what i'm after is not a normal vehicle but for one thing for example and it's been explained to me

why it's like 99% of the interiors of vehicles down here are black yeah jackie you're gonna have frustration with the color and the match of the trim but the most important thing is i think when you're shopping is a price uh you you can state your preference in color uh and And you can even put it in your communication, online communication with the Internet Department. But you can put the specific accessories and options that you want and the model and all that in writing in an email. So when you get a price responding to that, you've got them locked in. You said you wanted to have the sunroof or you wanted to have this particular sound system. And you can also state the color.

The color is always an issue in the final analysis because sometimes that particular, color isn't available. They have to dealer trade, maybe special order the car, but at least they're not going to trick you on the price. If you want a particular car, and you did it exactly right with the MSRP, if you've got the copy of the Monroney label, and that's what you want to buy, and the discount comes off that MSRP, you have them locked in. But trim, color, interior, and exterior color can be a challenge for the dealers in terms of what's available. yeah that's what i'm finding and i'm as far as far as i'm concerned if i'm going to spend this kind of money i want what i want exactly and stick to your guns into something else that's where

they get you is black leather interior in south florida to me is unbearable well i've got black leather interior mine i hate it because i can't see anything in the car it's like i'm in a i'm in a black hole yeah black on black yeah it's like finding a black hat in the dark at night you know that sort of thing. So I guess I should just keep pushing further. I've even gone through the classic car searches, and some of them you can actually put in the exterior color, the interior color, you know, some but about the packages.

But trust me, when there's searches come up, even within a 90-some radius, finding a light interior is next to impossible. Yeah, yeah, it's too bad. But you can special order if you don't mind waiting, and that might be your only option and if you are going to be a real stickler for exactly the combination you want. Yeah, I'm just kind of picky about that when I'm spending a lot of money.

I don't blame you. I don't blame you. You should be. Absolutely. I think the only risk you have was special orders is if they're manufacturers' incentives that may expire. They can't guarantee it. Right. Beforehand.

Exactly. Well, I think I would also get a price in writing, an out-the-door in-writing price before I would special order, because I'm sure I'm going to have to put money down. on top of it for a special order so I do believe in everything in writing because a lot of people get amnesia that's right that's exactly right Jackie I'm an amateur photographer and I can say one thing about photos I can take a picture of a wall that is painted and then change a couple settings on my camera or step a couple feet to the side and change an angle and I can show you two pictures of the exact same wall and you would swear they were two different

colors so it's something where you you really have got to actually see it in person and see it yeah in the daylight and at night and various times in order to understand what those colors might be inside a car because it a photo can be changed so many ways and not intentionally it just happens to be the angle and the lighting okay sure that's a possibility well that's why I was going for the window sticker. I figured, you know, that would at least tell me some accurate information. I want to thank you for helping us

build a platform here for the female listener, and all of you were extremely important, and this $50 is our way of thanking you. And I hope you spread the word. Earl mentioned earlier about how important the prices on your vehicle.

Well, there are other things that are really important. You can't remember everything. But let me tell you, that you can go to Erlon Cars and you can download a form that will guarantee you a price out the door. And the next time you purchase a vehicle insists that the price quoted to you by the salesman be certified by the signature of a manager of that dealership. And that is for him to sign no dealer fees. And you can download that form.

Go to Erlon Cars. It definitely is worth your while. Well, it's a good memory sheet, too. So, you know, you need to go in with notes, just like anything else, because you're not going to remember everything, just like you say. Yeah, there's nothing more intimidating than to walk into a dealership with a bunch of papers. And it's extremely intimidating to them to see that you have prepared yourself. Thank you so much for calling.

Good point. Okay, great. Do I hang on for someone? You do. You do. Sam will take your, she's in the control room. and she'll take your information. I'll get that 50 out to you.

Okay, well, thank you so much. And I will spread the word, and thank you guys so much for doing this because I know there's a bunch of us out there that need your help. Absolutely. Keep on listening. Give us a call tool for you at 877-960.

And Earl can give the text number out later. At 772-497-3530. Text us at 772-497-6530. some text or post, and Stu can go to those now? We do. Let's see. We have one. This is really interesting. I was Googling it during the last caller. It says a dealer in Wichita, Kansas was ordered to pay a $20,000 fine and compensate

two customers for not disclosing a dangerous safety recall. Couldn't this be a precedent to get your mission back off the ground? That's from Diane. Awesome. Well, it's interesting. being a fine, it sounds like if something came from Attorney General and maybe even the Department of Motor Vehicles and so I don't think it would be a case law

and it wouldn't be a precedent but it would be something that would be close and we need to investigate that follow up because that's very important. Yeah, I looked it up here so it's a dealership called 37 auto sales it's in Wichita, Kansas and it says it was the it came after a district attorney's office investigation

and there was another their salespeople weren't licensed so I guess in Kansas you have to have a license to sell cars but it also included failing to disclose a safety recall so yeah we'll look into it more well let me expound on that

because we have a lot of new folks to tune in one of our mantras on this show we've been talking about this for two or three years is the terrible condition of no law making it illegal to sell a car with a dangerous recall When I say it, the words stick in my throat, I just can't believe it's true, but it is true.

In the United States of America, in Florida, any car dealer can sell you a car with an unfixed, dangerous safety recall, a recall that could cause death and injury to you and your family in your car. It's perfectly legal for a car dealer. And as we speak during this two-hour show, there'll be hundreds of cars sold to unsuspecting buyers, with dangerous safety recalls and the attorney general of florida the governor of the state of florida uh let's go all the way to the top the president of the united states uh the congress the legislature the senate all you lawmakers out there that are listening governors uh law enforcers attorneys sue somebody uh this kansas city wichita was it wichita wichita wichita kansas this is a very

interesting case we'll follow up on this But it is an outrage, what's going on. Rick, you have a point. In the two hours that will be on the air, there will probably be a bunch of people in accidents in cars with faulty airbags. Yes. Okay. That's the horrible part.

We do. We have a few on Your Anonymous Feedback.com or Incognito Anonymous Feedback site. I came in last night. You might have seen them before. One's really long. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I did read it and I can summarize it. So a listener who listens to her advice all the time, wanted to buy a new car. So instead of getting four quotes to compare online by emailing dealerships,

this caller contacted 15 dealerships by the telephone to get quotes. That's great. Right. But basically, four of them wouldn't even give them a quote at all. It came down to 11. So in a nutshell, so now I got the lowest quote. how do I proceed? Well, without waiting for your advice to proceed,

this texter proceeded anyway and narrowed it down to four, really beat him up, did a great job, and finally came down, got the four lowest prices, and then took the absolute lowest one, and basically said that he had lower prices elsewhere, kept working the deal,

and got a price that was $1,387.50 lower than his previous lowest, out-the-door price. It was on a Hyundai Alontera. So this guy did a great job. He's my hero. And he, by the way, never spent one minute of time in the dealership. Didn't spend a penny on gas driving around.

He did it all by the phone and got the best deal you can imagine. That can be done. It takes a special kind of person with a special kind of stamina and determination. You've got to be smart. You've got to be tough. And you can do that. I mean, think about it. You could get a quote from every car dealer in the United States.

I mean, that's ridiculous exaggeration to make my point. He went to 15 different car dealerships, got 15 quotes. Poor people wouldn't quote. He got 11, and then he narrowed down from there. But you say that takes a lot of time, let me tell you. Shoe leather and gas on your car and you're driving around takes a lot of time. You go into a car dealership to get some prices. That takes a whole lot of time.

Mystery shopping reports show us this. Car dealers will try to wear you down. If you physically try to go into cardinal chips to get prices, you're going to spend 10 times as much time as you're online. This guy did a great job, and my kudos to whoever you are. Thank you very much. That was anonymous. Not only is he driven, but he's focused. Exactly.

And he never left his home or his office. I like this quote at the end. He says, all it took was making some calls, and the dealer had already come down in price. Don't run with the first quote. Don't let up. Be hard. Be tough. Be real.

be patient, be truthful, the odds of a better price in your favor. And he really liked your analogy of liking it to a raffle. You're the prize, and the dealers are all competing to win you. So it's a numbers game. They want your business. There's no more competitive group of animals out there, and I use the word animals on Burbis, than car dealers. They are extremely, extremely competitive.

And that's their strength, is their competition. you turn their strength against them, and that is a way to win. Very good. Bravo. Yes, absolutely. We have a caller, I believe. They are not your friends, ladies and gentlemen. Give us a call to all free at 877-960-9960, and we have a caller, and it's Liz from Stewart.

Hi, Nancy. Hi, Nancy. Hi, Earl. This is Liz from Stewart. Hi. Are you a first-time caller? No, I'm not. I listen to you all the time. My husband does too. So we love all the information that you give out. So I do have a question, though.

Thank you. We bought a forerunner just recently three months ago from your dealership, which is wonderful. It was a wonderful experience. Probably the best experience we've had at buying a car. But the reason I'm calling is regarding the tires. I am experiencing something unusual, and we've had multiple kinds of vehicles over the years, and I know when the weather changes, whether it's the coolness or the humidity or whatever is causing it, but when the tire light comes on, and I know that with the forerunner, the tire pressure needs to be at 32.

And, you know, they have these new type of machines where you fill up your tires, and it tells you, you know, or you can set it what you want and all. But I can actually see that the only about five times in three months, five times maybe even a little more, but I take my daughters to school and then my tire light would come on. And so I would go and fill up the tires and check them and make sure that there's no screws or, or nails or anything like that, but the right side, front and back, always seem to be like two or three or four down in numbers, maybe down to 31, 32, or 30, but the back left seems to go down like to 26. That's kind of low, and the driver's side's always been pretty good, but of these five times, you know, that's pretty frequent, isn't it? am I not thinking right? Is that normal?

I think Rick can give you a brief answer to that question. Yeah, if you've got one tire that's going lower than the others more frequently, it's probably got a tiny, tiny little pinhole somewhere. It's amazing how small of a leak you can have and how long it will take for a tire to lose six, eight, or ten pounds of air. Really the only solution for that is have the mechanic take the tire off the car, and put it in a basically it's a dunk tank of water

and we look for bubbles yeah or we literally will spray the entire tire with soapy water to find those bubbles it can take a while and it's kind of a tough thing for the tech sometimes to find these

because some of those holes are very very tiny and they'll only leak as the tire reaches certain temperatures oh so it is It is a normal thing that you've seen before. It's not abnormal or anything like that.

I've never had that happen before with other vehicles. Well, how long have you had a vehicle is? Three months. Okay, well, your tires are under warranty, and if there's something from the manufacturer of the tire causing the problem, then your tire would be replaced at no charge under warranty. Do you happen to recall the make of tire you have? Probably not.

Most people don't do it. Oh, and no, I don't, but my husband's just right here. I went in the other room so that the radio wouldn't echo. It's, well, I would ask. Bridgestone. Okay, Bridgestone. You can check with your Bridgestone dealer, and normally when you, we would be happy to do it for you,

we could call the Bridgestone dealer, and if you just, you could send me a text or an email, and we'll have the Bridgestone dealer get in touch with you, you and that way we can verify the fact that they would cover it under warranty if you had a defect in your tire causing the tire to leak. If it's not a defect

in the tire, of course if it was a screw or a nail or something you just couldn't see then that would have to be coming if you don't have road hazard insurance or something like that. But let us check on your behalf. Give Nancy a call or a text after

the show and we'll have the Bridgestone dealer check on that for you. Oh, that's really kind of you. Thank you very much. You're very welcome. So in other words, when it goes down to like 31 or 30 or even 29, it's okay. But when you're talking down to 26, then there might be a bigger issue there. There's no danger there as long as it doesn't go real low.

And I would, if I were you, I would put an extra five pounds on the tire. And I always recommend, and Rick recommends too, that you put in what the tire manufacturer recommends on the car, not what the Toyota recommends on the car. Look at the tire pressure stamp on your Bridgestone tire and inflated to that amount, and that way it'll take a while longer for it to go down and cause that light to come on. You know, there's only 1,600 miles on the car, though.

Would that make a difference? It doesn't really matter if there's something going on with the tire. It's something going on. I'd check. I'd want the tire checked if I were you, because if it was doing on all the tires, I'd wonder, but because it's only on one side, we might want to take a look at it. Yeah, that's got a leak there somewhere.

Yeah, Liz, and there's nothing wrong with you, you know, being worried about this situation because your tire pressure is very, very important. And you've had this vehicle for three months. It deserves some attention, so get it taken care of. All right. Well, thank you. I know that I've heard you talk about tire pressure and how important it is to get good gas mileage and all that kind of stuff.

when this was happening i'm thinking hmm this is different you're glad you're called thank you so much uh you just share some information that we've shared through the weeks and months and you just proved you are listening to earl stewart on cars and we thank you thank you for everything i appreciate it give us a call let us know what happened sounds like my dogs visited liz this morning is that my house yes sounds like my house somebody was loose Give us a call toll free at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us. We've got some YouTube's there. 772-497-6530.

Mr. Hand is asking us. Mr. Hand. He says he's looking to buy a used Toyota Matrix for his daughter, who accidentally had her Mazda get wrecked in an accident, and he's asking any words of wisdom. for buying a used matrix? Well, the standard operating procedure for used car is always get a Carfax report. Always have the car checked out by an independent mechanic.

You want to check consumer reports. They have an annual issue that gives the best and the worst used cars. Check where the matrix stands on that list. I don't always recommend that you try to buy the best used car because sometimes the price could be a killer. But you don't want to buy the worst. And those are the three most important things. Carfax, Consumer Reports, and be sure it does not have an outstanding recall. I will save you a little legwork.

Consumer Reports recommends used matrices, maybe. 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013. There you go. And I just stopped there, and it looks like there's more. So consumer reports.org. Independent mechanic is going to cost you some money because you can't take it to the dealer who's selling you the car to check it out

because he's going to tell you it's perfect. So you need an independent mechanic. A general check on a car like that shouldn't unless you any more than $150, right? Yeah. And they could go over a car pretty carefully. So you've got to seal of approval from independent mechanic.

You've got a Carfax report. No safety recalls. Hasn't been any collision. Matrix is recommended by a consumer report. That's a good buy. Yep. And the fact that it's got a Toyota Corolla drive line, that's one of the most reliable engine combinations out there. So you really can't go wrong with that one.

I think the man in the control room just held up a blank sheet of paper, but I bet the name was on the other side, right? Bob. Bob. It's Bob. Okay, Bob. Can we use a dark marker on the paper from the – okay, Bob, welcome to the show, and how can we help you? Well, thank you. Good morning.

Rick, Connie, that's a question for you if he's available. Oh, sure. Okay. Listen, Rick, I recently had my Honda service, well, there was a recall to repair the repair, you know, the airbags. Okay, everything was fine. That treated me very well. Well, I have no complaints. but after I left the dealership that I had it done

the lights came on and I said geez you know what is he sees a dealer immediately you know all that you know and then all of a sudden the whole Christmas tree came on so I said oh boy let me go back there and tell them so I turned But I pulled over and I turned off the car, and I turned it on again, and everything was fine. And ever since then, so I don't know. What was causing that?

I would still stop back in at the dealership and ask them to put a scan tool on there and see what codes came up. Because anytime that check engine light comes on, the computer stores the codes. But just the airbag light came on. The airbag light came? Oh, I definitely would be back at the dealership because the airbag light has its own computer with its own codes. And I would definitely be back there having them checked to find out what's going on with that.

Well, after I turned it off and turned the car around again, everything was fine. Mm. Like it self-adjusted itself, I don't know. Well, it could be nothing. It could just be a little shorter glitch or something like that. But when you're talking about your airbag, it's serious enough where I know it takes left in. No, no, of course.

Yeah. You should have them check it out. And I wouldn't give up until it stopped coming back on again. I wouldn't drive a car where I was wondering if my airbag worked. So if the dealer that you take them. No, no, not that airbag doesn't come. I mean, the light doesn't come on. Yeah.

Because that's a safety item and you were just there, obviously they won't charge you. But you definitely, I would go back in and just ask them nicely, please put a scan tool on this, and let's make sure that there's not something going on just for safety's sake. Because anything to do with the airbag system can be extremely dangerous. So I would be very, very sure to go back and have them check that. All right, okay, I do that. All right. Thank you, Bob.

Thank you, Bob. Stay in touch. Let us know how that... You know, airbags aren't just dangerous because they don't go off. They can be dangerous because they do go off. Yeah. So Bob, give us a call back and let us know the outcome. 877960-9960.

And don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. Go there and you remain totally anonymous. Give us your feedback about the show, about your experience, with the car buying, anything at all. We're right here to read it. We're going to go to John from Palm City, and he is one of our regular callers, filled with so much information.

Right, John? Good morning to everyone. Good morning, John. I want to mention their license, transfer fee, and registration. When the car is delivered brand new, the dealer doesn't know exactly what their price will be, so they estimated on your final bill, and that's fine because some of them will actually not good.

They'll way overestimated, and then you will see any refund back when they get the actual amount. But the reason I'm mentioning that is it's exactly 10 years ago when Florida came out with Sokittuia, and they raised all the fees in Florida. It's 2.09. The ID cards were only $10. They raised them to $25. first-time registration went from $100 to $225. Title fees went from $24 to $70 for a new plate issued.

That's another fee, $12 to $28, but they did raise it. The plates in the past were only six years, and now the plate is supposed to last for 10 years. Driver's license fee went from $27 to $48, and renewal for the driver's license, one from 20 to 48. Now, my point again is, on your final papers on a brand new car, some of the dealers will weigh over and freight that registration title and transfer fee. And a real good dealer, at the end, when he does get the plates and transfer to you, he will give the separate check later on and send it to you for the difference that was estimated on your bill. The second thing I want to mention also, I don't recommend anybody, and I'm given two incidents

is why, for a friend of mine in Boca and another friend in Fort Lauderdale. They encourage you to get two-year renewals. You don't get any discount on it. What happens now, I see, and this is two people that I know specifically, they stole their complete license plates. One of it down in Fort Lauderdale, believe it or not, they got back to him. They found that tag because the tag, the two-year renewal tag, has also your ID, your plate number on it. So I don't encourage anybody to get the two-year renewal because it's more of a red flag for somebody to take that and steal that tag off.

And they're all methods that they could get that sticker right off. And in one case, I heard of they took a metal shear and actually cut that part off and transpose it onto another. plate that was expired. So I just want to mention those items. Good information, John. You know, the big increase in registration and license tag charges

is bad, but even worse than that is the fact that the car dealers are adding phony tag fees on top of the tag fees that the state actually charges. And they call these things tag agency fees, e-filing fees, electronic filing fees. All this sounds like

official department motor vehicle tax and tag kind of stuff but it's profit to the dealer it's actually a dealer fee so when you're when you look at those tag charges in addition to worrying about the fact that the dealer as you say can overestimate the amount he also premeditatively adds something called a tag agency fee which is profit to him has nothing to do with the tag agency he also has electronic filing fees which is profit to him and e-filing fees so be very very careful in addition to what you say Now, as far as estimating the amount, the dealers actually have the wherewithal computer-wise now to know exactly what the tag and registration should be.

And if they use it, which is a very fast process, and they use almost all dealers do use this, there really is no excuse for estimating it. But some dealers still do. That's right. Yes, buy it be well. Now, John, you gave me pause because I've recently done two-year registrations, because I'm lazy and I always forget to do the renewal. and now I've got something else to worry about.

Thank you very much. Like, have a good day. Thanks, John. Thanks, John. Stay in touch. Give us a call toll free at 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. And remember that we do have the Mystery Shopping Report coming up, and you can be part of the rating of that Mystery Shopping Report by texting us at 772-4-9-7.

for you newbies out there that haven't heard the show the mystery shopping report is actually the most exciting part of the show most informative in a lot of ways and we send an undercover agent out every week to a different dealer in south florida and we pretend to buy or lease a car and we tell you exactly what happens we name the name of the salesman the manager the car dealership if they break the law if they flaunt the law unfair and deceptive advertising and sometimes they do everything right. We've actually had some A pluses scores on the dealer shopping reports. We had some F's too. We have a recommended list. Dealers you can safely buy from and we have a do not buy from this dealer list. So mystery shopping report coming up, you ain't never heard anything like it.

Currently there is twice as many dealers on the recommended list. Then there are on the do not recommend a list. So my plan this year is to go back over the recommended list and circle back and see if anybody comes off the list. There you go. A lot of suspense. Yeah, drama and suspense. We've got those texts backing up on us. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to go over the good, the bad, and the ugly when we go to the Arrigo Dodge Chrysler Jeep Mystery Shopping Report.

So stay tuned for that. Did you get the whole name in there? And don't forget, you can vote 772-497-65-0. Okay. We have a anonymous feedback. comment, I guess, says, even without dealer fees, Earl Stewart is making a killing from his car business. Just look at that remodeling, fancy schmancy all around. Thank you very much. I hope some car dealers are listening because, you know, being honest and transparent is profitable.

If you sell a lot of cars because people trust you, you can make money. Yes, my dealership does make a fair profit, and we are able to afford to spend on an expansion. The car dealers out there who think you have to light, sheet, and steel to make a profit, you're wrong. You treat your customers with courtesy, respect, transparency, and they will be the path to your door. Exactly. And you'll actually make a profit. Exactly. All right.

Follow us. We'll lead the way. Sorry. Okay. Somebody commented on our show from last week. This is also on anonymous feedback, your anonymous feedback.com. Ha, ha, ha. Steve Richards.

Someone mentioned Steve Richards on last week's show and a video of his show. and a video of his showed up in my YouTube recommendations. I watched the video and several others. His words are correct and he never lies, but it is the relentlessness of his assault that will likely wear down a prospect and the sale is one. His approach is old school.

I think his information about saving money is correct. Just to inform everybody last week, a caller mentioned there is a sales trainer, a car sales trainer named Steve Richards. He's got a big following, and I'll say the videos are pretty entertaining to watch. It's all about combat, the salesperson versus the car.

customer was that Tina you mentioned I'm not sure I can't remember but we were it could very well could have been Tina yeah she always has yeah for you folks out there don't understand the retail auto industry is really sophisticated in a lot of ways and there are trainers that make hundreds of thousands probably millions of dollars training uh state of the art online training a lot of in-person training and some of these people are not only super entertaining very smart and psychological experts on selling anything really and they can take a sales force and if they listen carefully they can train them to overcome objections and to take a normal person turn them into a sales demon right who can sell people cars that don't even want to buy a car

I mean when you walk into a car dealership you're dealing with a group of experts you're the amateur in the card game the old joke when you're in the poker game and you look around the table and you don't know who the sucker is, you're the sucker. And that's what happens when you walk into a car dealership. I like that. It's like Navy SEAL training. Exactly, right. It's scary.

I mean, it doesn't get any better than that. It takes a certain breed. Yes, a very certain breed. We're going to go to Gloria. G-L-O-R-I-A. She is holding. Good morning, Gloria. Good morning.

Are you a first-time caller? I'm a first-time caller. You are. I'm up in Hope's film. Oh, great. Congratulations. If you just won yourself, $50. Stay on the line when we're finished talking and give the guys into control room.

Pardon me, Samantha. I'll give Samantha the information, and I'll get that checkout to you. Thank you so much. What can we do for you this morning? What can you do for me? Do you have any questions for us, Gloria? The question is, what's that clicking sound? I was driving my friend's car, and it's in her left wheel, and it's clicking.

Is that like... You're blinger. It's not like her brakes, is it? Sorry. Obviously, she needs to do something about it. It's a clicking sound. Rick, what's your answer? My first instinct is the hubcap.

That's the first thing I would look at, because a lot of the plastic hubcaps, if they're not installed exactly correct when you're driving and the tire is flexing a little bit, it'll actually hit that hubcap and create a clicking noise. The other thing is, does the car have hubcaps? Now, that's a very good question. Glory, does a car have up caps? I think we discussed that yesterday. I didn't look to see.

It's an older car. It's like a 2002 that she acquired with 20,000 miles. It was her mother's car. Okay. The other thing, does she hear the clicking all the time, or is it only like in a very sharp turn I didn't pay attention to that I didn't drive it that long but I think it's all the time because I put the window down I'm like what is this yeah just a light little ticker tap I would look first at the hub cap and if that's not the case then you'd want to have a mechanic

evaluate that to make sure that maybe a bearing or something isn't starting to come a little bit loose there and tell your friend to get a free diagnosis You don't want to go in and just say, check out my hubcap, and then you get a bill that you didn't anticipate. If there is going to be a diagnostic charge, be sure they tell you up front. I would think for something that simple, there should be no diagnostic charge,

but you have to find out when you take it to the dealer. Okay, thank you so much for your time. Well, thank you, Gloria. You're welcome, Gloria. Spread the word and give us a call again. Tell your lady friends that we're right here. Sure. And that we would love to hear from the ladies.

for building a platform. Thank you. I like it. Thank you. Thank you so much. Have a great weekend. 877-960-99-60, where you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. Now back to...

Got some more text. I got text. Who are we going back to? You ready? Here we go. Cardiolers have been ripping people off for 100 years at least, but it's rare when you actually see one literally stealing cash from the... customer. A dealer in Tampa

literally stole $4,000 from a customer here's a link to the story. I linked over, it is in Tampa. It's a small use car a lot. A customer wanted to buy a 2011 Chevy Traverse, gave the dealer $4,000 deposit, came back to get the car. The car had been sold, but the guy wouldn't

give, the dealer wouldn't give him back to $4,000. Try to switch him to another car who refused. He called the Florida Highway Patrol who came in and they began a investigation, I believe they arrested the dealer. That's correct. By the way, be very careful when you put a deposit on a car especially a cash deposit always get a receipt on the official receipt of the car dealership and while you're getting that be sure that the refund is it's refundable that you deposit refundable but unsavory crooked salespeople will pocket a cash deposit and they'll give you maybe a phony receipt or something like that so get a company receipt be sure they deposit is refundable and it's signed um next one uh earl i see your service vans all over town very nice photo

of you by the way thank you um i know what dealer fees are but your van also says no shop fees i don't i don't know what that means can you elaborate i sure can that's something that we don't pay we don't talk about enough a shop fee is the dealer fee in the service department uh it's a charge that has no warrant it's profit to the car dealership that says the bottom of the service invoice and it varies just like dealer fees and the sale in the showroom it varies in service departments all over virtually every car dealer charges one of these fees they call them hazardous waste disposal fees they call them miscellaneous supplies uh special small tools and nuts and bolts i mean you let your imagination run while and they charge it it's

typically a percent of the invoice uh 10 percent if you have a hundred dollar bill 100 dollar invoice They'll charge your $10 sundry fee or miscellaneous supplies fee. It's phony. My advice to you when it happens, and it will happen, anywhere you take your car, independent repair or a dealership. If you look down at the bottom, there'll be this nebulous little, what is this kind of a thing. And they behave like dealer fees, too, because you probably see a lot of ads and coupons out for service departments. They might offer a $15, a $10 oil change.

Yes. But the shop fees comes on after you pay. When you pay, so it's not really 15 bucks. If you object to the cashier when you're paying, oftentimes they'll take it off because the dealer knows it's wrong and the cashier has probably been told if someone's going to make a fuss, just take it off. So if you fuss about it, but you've got to know about it before you fuss about it. So look at the bottom, you'll see something right at the bottom. That's a miscellaneous supply fee. Yeah.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, you can eliminate that problem. There's not too many problems you can eliminate, but you can eliminate shop fee, doc fee, all these fees that they try to get you on by downloading that. Stu, you're good at putting that on the air. It's the Nancy Out the Door affidavit, and you can find it on earluncars.com. Oh,ancage.com. Thank you, Stu. We're going to go to Britt and, wow, Los Angeles. Wow, it's early out there.

Good morning. Crack of dawn. Good morning. It is early out there. Thank you. You are a true follower. Thank you for taking my call. You're welcome. You guys helped me buy a car in 2017.

There was a question I really wanted to know the answer to, so that's why I'm getting up early to ask. Now, when I was comparing prices of true car and car gurus in 2017 for my Toyota Corolla, I was wanting to know, is it fair to compare those prices, state to state? Like, should I expect the car price to be the same in California as it would be in Dallas, Texas? Because I noticed that cars were selling for cheaper in Dallas versus Los Angeles. There can be a legitimate reason for the variance. You mentioned Dallas. Dallas, for example, for Toyota, and I can't speak for all the other makes, but there are distributorships that deal directly with the dealers as opposed to the manufacturer.

Toyota has a distributorship in the Southeast United States, and that distributors, Southeast Toyota distributors is for the five Southeastern States. Gulf states would include Texas. You'd find a difference in the price of Toyotas in the Gulf states, and you would also find a difference in the southeastern states. It's a higher price. Toyota manufacturing is direct from the dealer from Tokyo, from Toyota in Japan, and they have lower prices than the Toyas that go through the distributors. Now, Honda and I believe some of the other imported cars also have distributors. For domestically manufactured or domestic corporations like Chrysler, Ford, General Motors,

their prices should be uniform all over the country. There are some differences, I believe, in emission cost in California, which would make your prices a little bit higher than emissions in other states. I'm not exactly sure how that would be. So you might find a lower price in a non-California mission requirement state. A lot of the states now are copying the California Mission Control. So it's complicated. In general, as a rule of thumb, I'd say if you can shop in another state because you happen to be close like you're on the boundary, I would do that. If I were, you're close to Nevada, I would check Nevada prices if I were

near the borderline with California prices. And that's a great way to get a low price. I mean, go across state lines. But sometimes there is a legitimate reason. Right. Oh, very interesting. Thank you for answering my question. You're very welcome. A true car, by the way. That's the home of True car, Santa Monica, California. And that's a great place. The car dealer is out there. And California fought True Car tooth and nail. They were instrumental in almost driving True Car out of business, as a matter of fact. And the State Dealers Association in California sued True Car and did everything they could to bankrupt True Car.

And they almost did. And they got very disrupted if they had to change CEOs and they survived. And they were alive and well. And True Car is still a good place to get a good price on a car. Apparently, we can't thank you enough for joining us from L.A. Oh, you're welcome In a long time I wanted to talk to you guys Please call again

We love hearing from people out of our area It makes us realize that our Facebook and our Twitter and our periscope and the rest of us reaching out to the world Well, we're hearing from the East Coast, the West Coast And Dave, let me give you a shout-out in Massachusetts Thank you for listening

877-960 Or you can text us at 772-496 seven six five three zero we are going to go to gale who's holding on line two good morning gail how are you i don't know if we have gale gail can you hear us okay boy i was hoping you get through because i think we're setting a new record on female callers i am really excited this might be the first show where we actually have more female callers than male and thanks to nancy stewart Sitting right there. Well, thank you for the compliment that I have to disagree with you.

This isn't the first time. Don't ever disagree with me on the air live. See what she's got to deal with? Hey, Nancy, me too. You know, I'll disagree with you if we're on stage at the Kraviss Center. Gail, call back. Okay, Gail. I think you're right there.

I think you're holding. Are you there, Gail? Oh, I think we lost. Anyway, my husband's a comedian. If you can call us again. Hey, Gail, give us a call back. 877960, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. Still, get back on those texts.

We're backing up again. We'll do. We got a text from Anne-Marie, a long-time listener, long-time texter. Oh, good morning, Anne-Marie. Hey, everybody. Good morning. This is from Anne-Rie. Good morning.

Thank you, Tina, for mentioning the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning from start button cars with quiet engines that you don't realize are still running. There's another danger to watch out for, especially if you're used to driving a car with an old-fashioned key. Ladies, please be careful when leaving the car and pulling your purse after you. I rented a car with a start button. I stepped out of the car and pulled my purse after me. It swung and hit the button and started the car with me outside of it.

It was awkward to reach in to shut it off again. After that, I started paying attention to the location of those start buttons on rental cars. some are easier to accidentally hit than others thank you well that's a new one yeah thank you very much very interesting thank you ann mary uh we are going to go to paul who's holding uh from jupiter good morning paul hi good morning everyone how are you good morning good um can you can you get can you hear me okay yes okay great i was listening earlier with glory with that clicking sound in her tire. I was just thinking, because this has happened

to me before, I was just thinking maybe there's a piece of metal in the tire tread that just not has started to leak yet. Could that be a possibility for her to check? That actually is a very real possibility. A rock or stone or something

stuck in the tire as well, yep. I would ask, I would think. If it clicks faster when she goes faster or slows down when the car slow that might be an indication of metal or a nail yeah that's what i was going to say that's a great way to diagnosis exactly anyway good luck laurae thank you paul i really appreciate the call i like this exchange of synergy we got going here with callers calling on other callers and back and forth like

community we got yeah ideas opinions so on and so forth everybody's a very important part of the show 877-960, and I think Stu's got some texts to get to. Yeah, they're just coming in this morning. This is from Sam and Hobes Sound. Do gas stations clean the sediment out from their tanks? Would new stations provide better quality gas? There's a new race, there's a new racetrack that open in Hobbs Sound, but I stop for my gas, Sam and Hobes Sound.

Well, I think the ones that you have to be careful of, Stan, are the older, off the beaten track, cheaper, kind of a dingy-looking gas stations. that don't do much volume. If you have a high volume gas station, unfortunately, that's typically where the prices are a little higher, but a brand, a racetrack is a good brand, and they typically locate in high volume areas.

You wouldn't have to worry about sediment. But in our experience, I think Rick would confirm this. When someone has sediment in their tank, it's probably from an off-the-beaten track, off-brand-brand-to-gas, and they buy maybe their gas from an independent distributor, and they don't sell a lot of it and it sits in the tank for a long time

and that's how sediment happens. Well, I do know that the tanks are required to be replaced in a regular pattern. I don't know what length of time, how many years they're allowed to be there before they have to replace the tanks, but I do know they are required

to replace them every so often. I would question that, but maybe there's a new law. And yes, the newer stations obviously are going to have less chance to have any sediment in there. And, of course, like Earl says, to more high traffic, that fuel doesn't get a chance to just settle. So little bits of sediment would be picked up,

and it would just kind of self-clean itself. Okay. Next, next next. Okay, we have one from Robbie and Stewart, Florida. It says, good morning. In response to John's call about car dealer's overcharging tag fees, I'm happy to inform you that when we bought our vehicle from you, brand new a few months ago, there was an overcharge on our tag and registration fee.

I know this because we received a refund check from you that we were not expecting. Thank you for being so honest. That's Robbie and Stewart. I can tell you that we in most dealerships use a software program when you buy the car, and if that does not reconcile perfectly with the DMV, they'll issue a refund, and then an honest dealer will send it back to you. Well, it's hugely accurate, though, isn't it? I mean, there was a time, go back 20 years.

Where everyone was an estimate. Everyone was estimating. But now, the offline or the off-campus company's software program that's due referred to, they know all, they have all the facts. They got the date of birth. They got the type of car. They got the history. Is it a transfer or not?

And there really is very little reason. There should be a mistake. If there is, it's rare. And we see them once in a while. It used to happen all the time, though. so yeah um here's another one uh took my car to a tire place because i was losing air in all four tires they said i need to replace all four wheels in one tire i hope i'm not being taken what are your thoughts that sounds to me like uh a pretty crazy thing uh that if you're losing air in one

tire or two tires uh not three or four if you're losing air in all four tires how could all your wheels go bad at the same time if you have a bad wheel they're not going to go bad simultaneously. The odds against that are very, very rare. I would get a second opinion on that. I don't think that you're getting... It's not impossible, but it's highly improbable. Okay, we have a text from Wayne. Wayne says when you buy a car across state lines, sometimes you have to pay sales tax outright in your home state when registering the new car. That's from Wayne. There's a reciprocity agreement that states have that will refund the tax in the state that you didn't pay the tax in or where you had to pay the tax,

I should say. So you shouldn't ever have to pay sales tax twice. Correct. Not all states are reciprocal. If that's the case, if they're not reciprocal, you won't pay sales tax in the state where you buy it. It's when you register it and ensure it in your home state where that would be where they'd apply that. Don't ever pay two sales taxes when you buy a car in the other state. That's right. And the last one, which we'll will get us caught up. This is from Stephen, who is watching our live Facebook video on Facebook.com Ford slash Erlon Cars. When in Jansen Beach, we usually buy gas at BJs. In New Jersey, Costco is our go-to place, and they're very high-volume places. So that was probably

in response to the comment on the gas tanks. We're all caught up with text. We've got one more over here. Okay, good. Dino Cardella is asking, well, actually, he's telling He says it took two years to get his passenger airbag replaced on his wife's Lincoln, MKC. He said even the dealership was frustrated and they felt very unsafe. He said they actually talked about the idea of wearing motorcycle helmets while riding in the passenger side seat. And that is still a very real issue for a lot of manufacturers are getting replacement airbags in. As a matter of fact, Toyota forerunners for the model 2016 year, which is one of the newest additions to the list of vehicles we need replacement airbags, they are right now on back order until September.

And that's a small amount of time compared to some of them like the Hondas, where even now some of those cars are still going to be waiting another year or two years just to get these airbags. replacement parts yeah that's a shame that's again goes to the whole scenario of dangerous recalls not being addressed by our legislators and by the fact that it's legal to sell these cars and somebody should get a horse whip out on these manufacturers and say you will build these airbags to replace the defective ones or else you're going to shut your plant down somebody has to have the courage to go to an auto manufacturer and say we're not going to let you sell

these cars until you can fix your airbags and they have to have the courage to it's a financial thing it's you know follow the money the car dealers are afraid of it the manufacturers are afraid of it because of the economic hit so they're weighing the lives of the car drivers against the economic impact on the economy through the manufacturers of the car dealers i mean how could you compare a human life uh to uh losing money because you can't sell the car and the scariest part is as these airbags are getting older and decaying more, there have been documented cases where airbags have exploded, not just inflated normally like for no reason just bursting the bag out,

but literally exploding like a hand grenade for no reason whatsoever. Exactly. So folks, if your car is on this list for the recall, keep at your dealership, keep on the manufacturing. manufacturer, make some noise. You need to get this taken care of because you could be driving around in a death trap. Okay, folks, get in touch with us. 877-960-960.

We don't have any text waiting. We don't have any YouTube's, and we don't have any phone calls. We will, though. I encourage you, ladies, to give us a call. You know, right here at Earl Stewart on Cars, we are, well, we're creating an appealing and a trustworthy environment for you. And we want to make you feel very comfortable. And this is how we'll increase the female callers

to Earl Stewart on cars. Well, we have a couple of texts just came through. They did. 877-960. As we spoke. Okay, hi, folks. You were talking about high-pressure sales tactics. In the 70s, I sold cars at a Ford dealership.

Oh, boy. I was trained by an outfit from Chicago, known as APB, it's automotive profit builders. We were taught to get the customer's car keys and not return them until we had a signed deal. I quit after three months. Good for you. That's true.

Yeah. Well, I wasn't trained that way. Things had probably progressed a little bit about 25 years ago or so, but I was trained to do things I was really uncomfortable doing. Now, back in the day, and I was there back in the day, there was a system also called Hall Dobbs,

H-U-L-L-D-O-B-B-S, Paul Dobbs, and that was very aggressive, and that was literally true that you would not give the keys back, trade-in keys back to the customer, and you'd wear them down. There was even talk of them throwing the keys on the roof of the dealership, totally aggressive, illegal, brutal. One of the big things back in those days was bugging the closing offices, we called them, where you took the customer to negotiate the deal, and you would sit the customer down, Mr. and Mrs. Jones, and you would give them a price, and you would say,

want to the two of you discuss this, think about it, and I'm going to go out and have a cup of coffee. And so the salesperson would close the door to the closing booth, walk out, go around the corner, and they end to a sales manager's office, turn on the bug device, and listen to Mr. and Mrs. Jones, discuss this. This was common. Almost every car dealership did it. And finally, the FBI somehow got involved, and they raided a bunch of car dealerships in Texas, and that's how that came to us, but they practiced this. So I guess I'm hard on car dealers today, and they are bad by today's standards.

But I have to say, having been back in the 60s and 70s, they're pretty good now. They're pretty good now compared to that. It was terrible back in those days. It was even more terrible if you really experienced it back in the 70s. And as a woman, having my keys taken away from me, was, well, it was quite a dog and pony show. Let me tell you, the salesperson became very frightened. Let's put it that way. And I'll hold off to discuss the details at another show.

Rick, do you remember in the movie Vacation, the beginning when Chevy Chase takes his car in, he's going to get his new car? And they don't have the Arctic Blue. that he was supposed to get, and they bring out the truckster. Oh, yes. And when he argues, they say, well, bring his trade in back out, and they had crushed his car. Not too far from the truth. I think we got some text over, don't we still?

We do. That's a classic. I love that. Okay, we have a text from Steve in New Jersey. Oh, New Jersey. I love it. I have an all-wheel drive Subaru. Recently, I had a sidewall tire of failure and had to replace it.

I was told that since my car was an all-wheel drive, I should replace it. all four tires at the same time. I plan to replace all the tires anyway, so I did so. Was the advice who received accurate? No. There you go. If you've got four brand new tires

and you hit a pothole and it destroys one tire and the other tires are still completely serviceable, you only need one tire. His question was because it was an all-wheel-drive. You're right, but that really doesn't make a change. No. Yeah. Next.

A simple question for Rick. Is there a fix? to a stripped oil pan screw besides a new oil pan. This came up last week, didn't it? A couple weeks ago. There is a fix, but it's not reliable. Is that correct? Yeah, we have what you can put in what's called a helicoil,

where we drill it out and cut new threads and put this dreaded insert. They're not very safe. They're not very reliable. In our shop, in an emergency situation, we will do it one time, and we tell the customer, we won't take it. it back out because it's not likely to seal properly if we try putting that plug back in.

And remember, if you lose your oil pan and you're out on the road, you lose all your oil, you lose your engine. So it's serious money you're playing with. Best thing to do is replace the oil pan. Unfortunately, that's expensive. You've got another text. Yes, we do. This is on our live Facebook feed. It's from Steve. He says, my money

pit, 944 turbo. Ouch, that sounds like a money pit, has 31-year-old airbags in it. They suggested servicing them every 10 years, do I need to come up with even more money? Can I go to Plan B and pull the fuse on the airbags? Well, you can do that if you want to die.

I mean, airbags serve a purpose, right? They should, yes. And, no, I wouldn't pull the plug on my airbags. You could pull the plug on the airbags if you don't want to have an airbag deploy, but it's just not a good idea. And whoever did it for you would have a huge liability. I wouldn't do it for you. and the mechanic that would do it for you is not doing this job privately.

I think the main thing is acceptance, and you've accepted that your 944 turbo is a money pit, so I understand. Pour some more money in it or get rid of it. Okay, I guess we're caught up. No, I've got two YouTubes over here. Mr. Hand is actually saying he's looking forward to the mystery shopping report today. He says the Hand family just had a horrible experience at Midway 4,

in the Miami area. That might be a little hint for someone for Agent Thunder to be aimed at. Might do a mystery shop. Midway. I'm going to write that down. Midway Ford. And my other one here, Gregory Harris, has what I think is a good suggestion. Always leave your radio on at a reasonable level.

And when you turn your car off, if the radio goes off when you open the door, you know the car is turned off. But if you get out of the car and you can still hear it. of the radio playing, you know your car is still running. I do that all the time anyway. So for those push-button cars, that's a pretty reasonable idea. It certainly would be more attention-getting than that single little beep. You know, a thought came to me when we were talking about it earlier, and the question was, why isn't there, I think Tana said that is there an aftermarket solution of that?

There's remote start technology that you can use with a phone app, and there is a key fobs that you can use. I don't think it would be that difficult to do to put a timer cut off on an engine. And I don't, I'm speaking to know. I think people are probably afraid to play with that because of the liability. You've got to remember, you don't want your engine turning off when you're on I-95 doing 78 miles an hour. And I think people are afraid of that exposure of a possible liability. Because I agree with it. It is simple.

My opinion, the manufacturers could do a simple computer reflash that all it does is tell the car if the key leaves the car and the car is in park and not moving five minutes later shut the car off no i agree with that manufacturers can't change it and the manufacturer is responsible after market maybe you can use iFTT another show so the manufacturer should really get on this very serious topic very serious let me uh let me mention something while we have time here that uh and a little pause and the calls uh and then and i talked about this on the way in uh the fact that there is a huge switch we're witnessing in the way car dealers make their money and it is very encouraging in a way because the

consumers are becoming more educated the data available is huge uh we did big data is out there artificial intelligence you can really find all you'll want to find out about what a good price is on a car earl on cars is a good way to find out how to shop and buy a car cars have become a generic product a commodity and a honda is a honda is a honda all you need to worry about when you buy that specific honda with a particularly msrp is which deal you buy it from they're all the same a lot of other things you're buying it for you that you get a better quality product here or there but all hondas are made the same all general motors uh all chevales are made the same it's a commodity product like buying oil and soybeans and wheat so all you want to do is get

the lowest price and with the data available to you it has become the fact that car dealers aren't making any money when they sell new cars car dealers are breaking even and many of them are actually losing money so they're switching to other department heads or departments to make money we've talked about the f and i department where they finance the car huge profit center the car dealers are focusing very heavily on that also the service department ironically you should probably be more careful now having a car service to maintain contain than when you buy the car if you are an educated consumer parts service use cars is another source of profit but that doesn't mean you let your guard down in the new car department and a lot of the calls today are about buying new cars but the word is out there if you use the tools available to you when you buy a new car you can get a great price chances are if you use true car or Costco and i think stew would agree with me on this if you use cook True car Costco, to buy a car, the car dealer will actually break even or lose money.

Yes. So, very close to it, very close to it. Yeah. Many car dealers out there are losing money. Now, used cars, strangely enough, are also narrowing their profit margins because even though used cars are unique as opposed to a new car, every used car is different. But because of big data and because of sources and pricing mechanisms available to card dealers, we know in real time, as I mean I'm the car dealer, we know in real time whatever used cars worth. We buy used cars online.

We sell used cars online. 20 years ago, if you told me I'd be buying a used car on my computer, never seeing it, never driving it. I would say you're crazy. But we do that today. We buy used cars on the computer. And then we go pick up the used car. And we sell used cars on the computer, and people come and pick up the used car. So it's almost a commodity in used cars.

The only source of profit left is in the flam-flam, the smoke and mirrors, in the F&I department, financing high interest, Mickey Mouse products, like GAAP insurance, service contracts, maintenance contracts, road hazard insurance, products you've never heard of before. and also in the service department. Cars today require less maintenance and less repair than ever before, and the strange thing is the car dealers are charging you more than they should. They're making up stuff, and they're calling it dealer-recommended service, flushes.

If the dealer tries to sell you a flush, forget about it. Transmission flushes. Forget about it. Radiator flushes. Forget about it. Go in and use the factory owner's manual when you have your car repair it or maintained. And be very careful in shop and compare repair repair prices, just like you would shop and compare a used car. That's right.

Okay. I think we have a text. We do. Nobody talks about the discrimination LGBT folks experience in car dealerships. I'm gay and I've dealt with disrespect, snickering, and outright abuse just about every time I've tried to buy a car. Well, I can tell you that a lot of car dealerships are throwbacks to the past. I mean, there's a lot of old attitudes that still survive among car dealers. and car sales people, and it's a shame.

Well, it is a shame, and the same thing applies to women. And the whole idea of the old school, a lot of car dealers are intelligent people, and a lot of car dealers are understanding that they have to appeal to the customer and treat the customer politely with courtesy. I'm not saying, you notice I didn't say transparency, but to be rude to a female or be rude,

to a gay person is just plain stupid because women buy a whole lot of cars and so the gay people buy a whole lot of cars and if you want to make a profit you better treat everybody with courtesy and respect the other old school thing is if somebody comes in wearing torn jeans with a hole in a shirt and sneakers you figure right he can't afford to buy a car the fact the matter is a lot of people that are very wealthy dress very casually and people and car dealers are even getting on to that today so the old school is pretty much out of focus beware of the well-dressed friendly courteous car salesperson he's got your number do so take courtesy as the answer you also have to do your research yeah some people some car dealers just haven't gotten the memo and it's a rather

unfortunate situation and to the texts are his name there's no name on no name okay i just want to remind you, as I tell women, the same, I give them the same identical advice that is just leave. When you just can't connect with someone in that dealership, and first of all, when you walk in, you know they are not your friends. And if you can't connect with them on any level, just leave. Yeah, you're right. I mean, there's some dealers that get it more than others, and find those. They're not all bad. no they're definitely not all bad okay we're all cut up a text yeah i got a text a personal text here and uh it's a should i lease or buy kind of a text and uh it's uh probably if i had to rank

all the questions i get that's probably the most common should i lease or buy and uh what i do usually as i say rule of thumb buy it's simpler it's safer leasing is very complicated there's a lot more ways to be taken advantage of in a lease. If you're a sophisticated, top drawer type of educated consumer, it doesn't make any difference with you lease or buy. I do a side-by-side analysis. Sometimes the manufacturer will have a leasing program that's very attractive. And the manufacturers, they have a dog in the hunt, too. They want to make more money, and they know if you lease a car from them, they're more likely to buy or at least another car. So sometimes they have very attractive leases with, you know, high residuals, with low rates, with very good payments.

My advice to you, if you're going to lease a car, just be sure you know what the down payment is. The advertised prices always include down payments. If you're going to buy a car, you can check, the checklist is much shorter and much less chance you'll be taken advantage of. Do your homework, ladies and gentlemen. It doesn't matter what you're after when you walk into a deal. Whether you're going in for service, whether you're going to lease a car, whether you're going to buy a car, do your homework. I'll tell you right now, knowledge is power. Give us a call toll-free at 877-960-960.

And don't forget, we've got the Mystery Shopping Report coming up, and you too can be part of it. All you have to do is text us and rate at 772-4976530. couple text just came in we do this is on our Facebook feed one's from Joe it says if you don't like the way they treat you walk the blank out so that is absolutely true echoing nancy sentiments I would have gotten the dump button a little bit more profanely it takes a certain demeanor personality to be able to do that you know unfortunately we a lot of people don't like to hurt people's feelings they walk in there the car sales people usually are smiley well-dressed handsome pretty you know disarming you're trustworthy looking and you don't like to be rude

I mean when you turn around and walk out the door and slam it you consider that rude but unfortunately sometimes aggressive behavior is the only way to deal with car sales people particularly when they're trying to take advantage of you well I think you know you don't slam the door you just look at the person and you say look I don't think we connect have a great day Here you try this. I'll be right back. Yeah. And then just go to your car.

Where's the ladies' room? Did that guy ever come back? No. Check the bathroom. I left my sunglasses in the car. Right. I'll confess I've used that technique at parties before. Hey, I'll be right back.

I need my asthma inhaler. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Oh, no, no, no. We're introverts, believe it or not. Okay, this is on Facebook feed. It says, Ford tried to sell an engine flush for our edge. Subsequently, I read that it can damage the engine by loosening debris and leaving it inside the engine. I also read that voided the manufacturer's warranty because of the dangers that it presents.

I didn't know that, but Rick could probably chime in on that, but that's a good thing to watch out for, I suppose. I've never heard of anything like that being able to void a warranty from a flush, but no. It's one of those snake oil things, but I've never heard of an actual flush causing damage to an engine. Unless they're running some chemical that is really caustic, most cases it's pretty benign. But unfortunately, it's not benign on your wallet.

Bottom line, just don't have a flush. Just don't do it. Don't come into a car dealership that's all you went. Okay, are caught up. We are caught up. Let's get to the mystery shopping report, although we might have a caller there. I see the phone, the white phone being picked up.

If we do, we'll take the call. And the mystery shopping report, as Nancy mentioned earlier, is to Rego Dodge, Chrysler Jeep Ram. We shopped them a couple years ago. The Rigo brothers own this particular dealership. They have four locations in South Florida, claimed to be the largest volume, Chrysler dealers. And I call them, I'm just going to say, Christ, they're for short in the nation.

They probably are in Florida. I'm not sure about the nation. They have dealerships in Palm Beach on Okachia County Boulevard, West Palm Beach. They're in Broward and Sawgrass. They're in Margate. And they're in Fort Pierce. We have a long and storied history with the Arrigo's. Not only have we mystery shopped their dealerships more than a dozen times,

I actually sued them under Florida's deceptive. But Unfair Trade Practices Act for selling used cars with Takata airbag recalls. And actually, it's a little complicated, but we lost the suit, we appealed it, and we lost the appeal, which is very disappointing. We could appeal it further to the state Supreme Court. It was lost on a technicality, and it didn't have to do with it if it's okay to sell a car with the defective airbag. I wish it had been that issue, but it had to do with whether or not by, Origo

Origo selling cars that I couldn't sell because of my conscience and my morality was that an unfair and was he harming me competitively and I thought and my attorneys thought

that yes he was if you allow a dealer to break the law do something that is seemingly harmful freely without any repercussions He's got an advantage and your hands are tied if we have a caller

we'll take the call. We don't know. If I would think it's going to harm me competitively, but the courts didn't agree, and that's the name of that to him. Took a shot. Exactly. So we are shopping, a regal, but I can give Arrigal credit where credit is due. Arigal won, and we lost, and that's the story. Not going to hide that. Feel bad about it. That's the way the cookie crumbled.

That's the way the cookie crumbles. Although Arrigo's market themselves a lot with loud, flash, and undeniably funny as truly funny. I like this guys. I turn off a lot of ads and some of them trying to be funny and they're just not funny.

Rigos are really funny. And I wish they would sell an album. Yeah, they need to go on the road. They do. I mean, you could do it on YouTube. You could probably do a, you could probably go to Rigo and YouTube commercials

and watch them. And what's the guy on the West Coast? Fuchillo. Fucillo. On the West Coast. He does very funny. And there's also the prime auto sales. 99.

99. There are a lot of funny car. The deal man. The deal man, exactly. Reminds me of the old Chuck Curseo tire kingdom commercials. They were good. They were good. Betting was awesome.

How about betting barn? We do have a call. Okay, we do have a call. We'll take her. We're going to take Joan. She's been holding. Hi, Joan. Hi.

Good morning. Yes. Good. morning. Welcome. What's your question, Joan? Oh, I'm sorry. Not quite three years ago.

I went to an Audi dealer, and the pressure I received, I mean, I went in deliberately looking for an Audi, and I tried, I wanted 2016, and I tried it out, and it was very nice, and it fit me, and it was. very comfortable. And when we came to talking about, you know, doing a contract, I said I had to have, I could not use a black interior because it's too hot in Florida. I had to have a light interior and they didn't have any. And then after a little while, my salesman says, oh, I just remembered, we've got one out back. And so I looked at it. And, and, um, so I looked at it and I didn't get in and drive it or anything.

I just looked at it and it had a beige leather interior and that was what I wanted. So I drove away with the car. Meantime, I was, I don't know, I'm almost 88 now. Then that was three years ago, whatever, my age. And I have had the most miserable time with this car for almost three years. It doesn't fit me. It just doesn't work for me. I don't want to drive it.

It's a nice car and, you know, would be fine for somebody, but it's not what. And when I tried a 16, when they brought one for me, when they took my car for service, was totally different. They slipped a 15 in on me, and I didn't notice it. I've been very ill with back surgeries. and a lot of age-related things. And my stamina does not stay up, and I was completely wiped out

at the time I got through with this dealer. So anyway, I just wanted to tell people out there to really watch what they're getting once they sign a contract. I agree. And I didn't discover it for months because I was ill. I had to have another back surgery, and I really didn't drive the car that much.

And I didn't discover it. So I am stuck with a car that I have hated for three years now. Brand new, full price. I'm sorry. And I just wanted people to know that even what you think is a dealer that's honest will pull these tricks. Well, Gail, I thank you very much. Sometimes it's embarrassing for people to admit they made a mistake. And it isn't your fault.

It's just the fault of the system and the way car dealers are able to prey on people that they can take advantage of. Your courage to call in and tell that story has probably saved a lot of people out there and raised their attention to be very, very careful. Nobody should buy a car alone. It's a shame to have to say that. I mean, you can buy a TV set alone. You can buy a refrigerator alone. You can buy almost anything.

But when you buy a car, you better have some company. And that's what I recommend to anybody, whether you're elderly or not elderly, whether you're a sophisticated buyer or not. Two people is better than one. You go in there and to do your research ahead of time. But thank you for having the courage to call us. And we hope you call it again, Gail. John?

And keep us posted. Joan, I'm sorry. Again, I'll just, Earl was correct, it took a lot of courage for you to call. And that was an unfortunate situation that happened to you. And was that a local car dealer? Okay, Joan, it was nice talking to you, stay in touch with us, and good luck with your back problems. We're going to go back to the mystery shopping report.

That mystery shopping report is from Rigo Dodge, Chrysler Jeep, in West Palm Beach we're just talking about the Regal Brothers and the fact they have four car dealerships three of the four in Florida are on our recommended dealer list but we haven't talked to them or visited them in a couple of years so that's too that's too long we revisited them agent X pretended to buy a Chrysler 300 and more or less experienced with a typical buyer expenses of Florida car dealership unexpected pricey hidden fees after a Okay, here we go. I got ahead of myself here.

We looked at an advertisement where they online advertise $10,000 off MSRP on new jeeps. And that's a lot of money to discount the manufacturer's suggested retail price. I actually have a copy on the mystery shopping report. You can't read it very well, especially the fine print. But what you can see is a $10,000 discount on a Jeep, and that'll get anybody. attention so that was our reason premise for going in get them in the door exactly the format of the ad was familiar the one phrase that stood out from the rest of the ad copy was a giant glowing red ten thousand dollars off in SRP the only

other words were in large and legible type size words were the new jeeps new jeeps ten thousand dollar discount stand in line that's a heck of a deal much less obvious was a phrase very popular with car dealers and for all intents of purpose everybody up to all advertisers up to when you see up to folks I hope it rings a bell it just completely nullifies the offer up to right this appeared right before the $10,000 legally they're off the hook at the bottom the ad was the ever-present fine print and you just couldn't read it and especially online if you do a screenshot and

blow it up you can read it and that's what we have to do so the rules on advertising allow dealers to get away with bloody murder we blew it up and here's what the fine print says subject prior sale that's standard amounts vary on select in stock vehicles now what that says is if it's not on the ground in that dealership they don't have to sell to you that price even though a third or a half of car deals sell their cars by dealer trading them back and forth. But they have a technical exclusion if it's not on the ground at that dealership. And then they say, plus tax, tag, title, dealer installed options, that's a huge mouthful. Dealer install options.

This is a huge rip-off because they add valueless products on the car, such as nitrogen and the tires. and you can check that list off there's all sorts of things they charge paint sealant plastic stripes fabric protection uh loaner cars which you're entitled to anyway or they won't really give you and they put all these market adjustment addendum which is just saying we mark the price up and this dealer installs options go on the window sticker next to the monroney label and we call it the the phony monorny and then here's here's another beauty not all buyers will qualify see dealer for details so they'll even give you the disclosure in the fine print you got to see the dealer for the details and nobody ever sees the dealer for the details so right away we know that

nobody's going to get this deal it's important to note that the set appeared online in a rotating slideshow you know you've seen it online if you do any online shopping flashing back and forth now you see it now you don't now you see it no you don't and impossible kind of like a tv fine print they flash the fine print on these tv screen and before you can notice the fine prints there it's gone and radio does the same thing and they do it at warp speed sonic speed verbiage um there we are we sent an agent thunder to find out how a regal dodge carstage ibrahim west palm beach would explain why he wouldn't be getting the 10,000 dollar discount we assume that was going to have maybe maybe who knows i mean it can happen i mean

we just say lightning can can strike twice in the same place highly unlikely and here's a report speaking as if i were agent thunder i headed to a regal on ok chobie uh late afternoon it was just after four rush hour had already kicked in ok chobie was a beast when i arrived at the dealership i was stressed and i hope no one would be too rough on me feeling very vulnerable agent thunder is very sensitive he is he is I enter the showroom and unlike agent X right

he's a whole new personality totally new personality which is good I ended the showroom and it was met by a greeter named Veronica she asked if I was there for sales I said I was I told her I was there to see about an ad for $10,000 off

the MSRP on a Jeep Veronica was pleasant said she needed to enter my information into the computer before I could proceed with a salesperson. She went to know my name, address, so and so forth. When she was done, she called over a young man sitting at a desk. He hopped up and walked away. Or walked my way.

Rocked our way. Corey. His name was Corey. Young, new in the business. You'll find a lot of young new people in the business because car salesmen really don't stand up long under the high pressure. You think about you have high pressure. Think about the young, innocent person that's looking for a job, and he needs to feed his family, and he sees an advertisement, car dealers are deceptive when they hire, too.

$100,000 a year, no experience required, we train you, all you have to do is follow orders, do what we tell you to do, and you'll make $100,000 a year. And these poor young innocent people come in, and they're taking more advantage of in a lot of ways than the customer. So, Corey was young, fresh, and knew, said he was learning the ropes. We sat down and asked what I was looking for. I told him I was there because I had seen the ad for the $10,000 off on the Jeep. I said I wanted to get a grand share key, ask if the offer applied to these models. Corey wasn't prepared to answer. And immediately he sought help from his manager, David.

Corey told David, I want to know about the ad for $10,000 off. David asked me what model I was interested in. I told him the Grand Cherokee. He replied that the offer was only good on the SRT and summit trim levels. I asked him what those ran, and he applied, but I was looking at a $60,000 to $70,000 vehicle. That's a lot of money for a Jeep, right? The SRT is way up there.

Yeah, $70,000 for a Jeep. Yeah, they went online for $72,000. Amazing. You must be going to the Grand Canyon. Exactly. I said I was looking to be in that, I wasn't looking to be in that price range. I'll buy a Ferrari if I wasn't, no, I'm just kidding. I said I thought Grand Cherokees ran in the $30,000 range.

David said, I'd need to look at the altitude trim for a price like that. He went on to say that the $10,000 off also required me to qualify for a bunch of different incentives. I probably didn't qualify for. That's honest. Now, yeah, we hear that all the time from salespeople. They are just being barraged by customers, and they're on the front line, and then comes the customer who has been deluded into coming in on an impossible advertisement, and this poor salesperson has to deal with a customer. That must be horrible.

I just, I don't know how you deal with it. A lot of them don't, and that's the reason we have the high turnover in salespeople in most car dealership. David said, okay, there we got there. I asked. Okay, yeah. I asked him how he knew I wouldn't qualify. He asked if I currently leased a Jeep. I said, no.

He said, you don't qualify. Now, how many people in the USA population are leasing a Jeep? Now, Jeep sells quite a few vehicles, but how many do they lease? What would you say? A Jeep has got maybe, what, 6% of the market and maybe a third of those. leave so 2% the odds are about two out of a hundred that he's leasing a jeep and the advertisement went out to everybody we've got eight people right in this area and i bet none of us are leasing jeeps anybody lease a jeep so this was a premeditated deceptive ad to get people

to come flocking in to only find out that they don't qualify for the discount i asked him if he knew I wouldn't qualify. He asked me if I currently leased... I don't get my up. David switched gears suggests I work with Corey. I'm losing track here now. We got Veronica.

We got Corey. David. Okay. And we're not through. Corey and I... Yeah, Corey will find a Jeep Gerichy, a leg. He said, we'll see what we can do. Corey and I walked out to a lot.

Found a new 2019 Jeep Jerkirki. altitude with an AMR's heartbeat of 39 385 no addendums that's a surprise because the fine print did say plus addendums I believe he did a pretty good job with his presentation and then we took it for a test drive back of the showroom Corey led me to a desk and said he'd be right back I sat down wait a few minutes before Corey returned with another manager Nick so now we got Nick David Corey and Veronica and so you talk to a lot of people when you go to a cardiologist room Nick sat down and Corey's chair and said, Mr. Blank, we didn't put the real name in, must have used Agent Thunder's real name. We want your business today, so here's what I'm going to do for you. I'm going to get you as close to that $10,000 off like the ad you saw. Oh, thank you. How does that sound to you? I said it sound better if I was getting the whole $10,000 off.

Nick replied that he could take $7,386 off the MSRP of 39385. He took out a marker and wrote on a guest sheet. We got worksheets. We got yes sheets. We got paper that the car dealers are using now under the advice of their attorneys. They used to use the buyer's order. The buyer's order got too restrictive in legal terms. So they use something now that is definitively and, you know, they declare up front.

This is not a legal document so we can do about anything we want. Right. and the whole negotiation takes place on these guest sheets, worksheets. It's just talk. Yeah. We're just talking. We're talking. Yeah.

We're talking turkey. Yeah. And you won't find the dealer fees and all the other, all of them disclosed. All the hidden stuff is on the official document, the vehicle buyers order, and then sometimes only on the installment sales contract. And the fine print on these is voluminous. That's a bunch of horse hairs if you ask you. It is a bunch of horse hairs.

absolutely no seriously they can tell you anything and nothing there's no restrictions so we're looking at the workshop i'll show you what the guess sheet looks like uh agent thunder got a great picture of this look at the pose of that manager i mean that's that could that could that could be from like a that needs to go in your blog and they always use the felt tip the felt tip the sharpie yeah the sharpie and there's the uh and the plus plus plus that's classic yeah the plus plus plus We like that. His price was $31,99999. Notice it wasn't $31,900 or $3,995, or $3,995.

Or $32,000. Exactly. $319999 plus plus plus. Nick asked me if I had a deal. I told him I won't know what plus plus plus meant. He said tax and fees, Agent Thunder. If I'd have been Agent Thunder, I said, that's only two pluses. well there's two fees

that's true but plus plus plus what's the third plus it should be plus plus plus dot dot dot yeah I asked to be more specific as I'd like to see a complete breakdown of tax and fees

he asked you mean like a buyer's order like you know what a buyer's order is yes I said that would work Nick excused himself walked over the office returned with a blank buyer's order using a pen calculator

he hand wrote the itemization I requested my sale price was 35,749. He added a $799.99.95 cent pre-delivery services fee. That's one of the thousands of names that car dealers have creatively come up with in Florida for a dealer fee.

When a car dealer says, I don't charge a dealer fee, that means he doesn't charge a hidden fee named dealer fee. He comes up with his own name. This one happens to be pre-delivery service fee. And there was also a $159.95 cent electronic registration filing fee. Now, that's another pretend dealer fee. And it's something to make it sound like a real charge from the Department of Motor Vehicles for tax and tag. You get that electronic registration filing fee.

Ah, profit to the dealer. It is another dealer fee. finally he subtracted 3750 that he described it as a factor rebate okay more about that in a minute Nick asked me how my credit was I said it was great and I asked him why he wanted to know and he said dependent on whether or not we can get you finance through Chrysler credit Chrysler financing I figured my mission had been accomplished and I asked if I could take the buyer's order with me He said they couldn't take it with me, but I could take a picture of it.

We've seen this before. Yeah. Usually from a salesperson. You know, I think they're using technicality on the dealer. The dealer probably says, if anyone of you gives out a buyer's order, you're fired. And then he didn't say you couldn't take a picture of the buyer's order, so that's a loophole they're losing on the dealer. That's probably what it is. So, Jim and John Irigo, if you're listening, this is a loophole they're using.

and thank you very much to Dave and Nick and Veronica and all you folks to help us get a picture. Jig is up, guys. Of the buyers are, exactly. I figured, okay, here we go. Here's the Apple log. Agent Thunder came in to get a $10,000 off sticker

MSRP on a new Jeep Jeep Geregray, left with the actual discount of about $7,000 after factoring in two dealer fees. Now, one dealer fee was the only one disclosed in the advertisement and the fine print. Florida law says that the dealer fees must be included in the advertised price. The online advertisement did not include all of the dealer fees, only one. Violation of the law.

And even then, it's supposed to be in the price. It's supposed to be included in the price. It should say price includes. It's not plus. So if you want to stretch it like the car dealers and apparently the Attorney General's office is letting them get away with it, you still. can't get away with it when you only put one dealer fee and you got two dealer fees was not in the advertised price so many things are wrong so many things uh again more than half the discount

was the kickback from Chrysler credit and uh you had to qualify by financing through Chrysler credit uh we use true car to find the market average price which was 34 000 975 this price does not reflect the Chrysler finance incentive of 3750 that was presented by Nick. Without that incentive, Agent Thunder's price would have been 36708, dealer fees included, $1,800 higher than the true car average. Now, the true car average does not include dealer fees. So, to be fair, Rego's deal for Agent Thunder was about $800 higher than the true car average. something that

Stu and I talked about and my feeling is that you cannot tie the financing of a car to the sale price of the car now Chrysler credit which is also

Chrysler was offering the $3,750 discount if you finance with Chrysler a lot of the manufacturers do offer special financing or a discount and you can take your choice the special financing offers you a saving and if you don't want to finance with them and finance with your bank

or credit union uh you can opt to take the financing rebate only but you get the rebate either way right stew if they have a bonus rebate some manufacturers do that yeah but i'm asking any lawyers out there in the audience to back me up on this i think it would be a high crime to allow a manufacturer seller of anything to tie the financing to the sale price of the car why well okay i could sell you a car below my cost and say you're going to finance it with me and then when I finance it to you instead of giving you a fair interest rate like three and a half percent I could charge you 17 and a half percent which is a Florida legal limit on new car interest rates if I charged you to you 17 and a half

percent I would make thousands and thousands of dollars more than I would if I sold you the car at three and a half percent it would more than offset any loss I would take a selling of the car I'm looking on Edmonds, and they do list this, and it does say that some rebates are contingent upon financing with the captive lender. Yeah. So I have to get a third part. This might be a class action suit we're looking at here.

I need a legal opinion from an attorney in the audience and the radio audience, if you have a thought on that. Rick, you've had been waving your finger at me. I'm just curious. I'm a little confused. What happened to the $31.9999? that one just went away well no no no I like I mentioned in the report it gets very confusing so the to get to the 31 999 they applied that 37 if you do all the math it's very confusing

but yes it did come at the 31999 in a very convoluted way so and to summarize this whole thing we have a question about the legality of tying the financing to the sale price and I think it's wrong. It should be illegal if it's not illegal. But we have a clear-cut violation of not disclosing all the dealer fees in the advertised price. We've got boats coming in on, or we go Jeep Dodge, Chrysler. We have five that have come in. Bob gives him a D-minus. Gene gives him an F, J-J, and F, and Ed gives him an F, and Leanna gives him an F, and do it have any more? That's it. It doesn't look good. Let's go around the table here, and who wants to go first?

I beat you, Rick. Good. I'm going to give him a D-minus, barely passing. We've seen worse. Rigo in the past has done okay on our mystery shopping reports, but this was a bait and switch, so not a good grade for me. Nancy? Well, it's unfortunate that the consumer is taking advantage of

by so many dealerships, and I want to tell you, I really feel sorry for the person that would walk into this, well, I'll put it kindly, this Origo Dodge in West Palm Beach that sells jeeps and Chryslers and everything else. It took three people to really screw the consumer on this mystery shopping report, three, that was Vivian. that was Dave, who else? It doesn't matter. It's disgusting. I don't like it. It doesn't represent my culture. I give them an F.

Rick? I'm going to call it a D. I think barely passing is just another one where you've got to keep your eyes open. I'll give them a D too. We'll barely pass them. But I think it's a shame

that we have to make an exception for a dealer that is breaking Florida law. And I think that we're going to raise our standards. I think we're going to start failing people. I want to give fair warning to all you car dealers out there. If you don't disclose

all of your car, all of your dealer fees and your advertisement, we're going to fail you, and we're going to put you on the do not recommend a list, and I'll go further than that. I'll write the Attorney General personally, and I will complain, I'll demand that they enforce the law. The law is

the law. You break the law, you shouldn't pass. We have one minute left. One last YouTube question. Each hand is we squeeze it in real quick. uh paul's asking on if you refuse to pay the shop fee at a service shop can what would you do if they refuse to release your car well i would pay the service fee and then i would complain to the better business bureau and the attorney general's office and i'd make it rough on them but you're not going to let your car be held even if you win in the long run a word of the wise ladies and gentlemen uh to mostly the car dealers

We have partnered up with the Attorney General, Ashley Moody. So, again, a word to the wise. Don't try to take care of every single consumer that walks into your dealership. I want to thank all of you for tuning in to Earl Stewart on cars this morning, and I want to thank everyone in the control room has helped us out tremendously. Sam's back. Jonathan's helped out, and I think, I'm guessing Bob has also helped us. I'm not sure whether his name is Bob or not, but nobody's saying anything.

Have a great weekend, everyone. We'll see you next week.