Earl Stewart on Cars - 05.24.2025 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Braman BMW of Jupiter, FL.

Episode Date: May 24, 2025

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits a local BMW dealer to see what they have on the lot and how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2025 BMW 330i Sedan on their car lot. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

Good morning, everybody. Back again, back at action, and bringing you a show that we've been doing for a long, long time. A lot of you new folks don't know this, but we started this show as a half an hour show on a little radio station called Sea View. Same building, actually, North Palm Beach. It was only a half an hour. I think it was on Thursdays. And we've been doing it for two decades now. Nancy Stewart, my co-host, founded the show with me.

And we've evolved two hours. We've got ourselves a really, really good chain of states now the true oldies, and we cover a blanket South Florida just in terms of radio. But we stream. We stream all over the world. Yes, all over the world. And I think we had some communication with Tasmania not too long ago. One of our regulars, Ann Marie, buzzed us from Tasmania.

That's pretty cool. But Australia, India, you know, we have the contacts and the calls, and we just don't know all, who is listening. Everybody drives cars, right? Almost. And it's an interesting subject. It's an emotional thing to people. A car is more than just a object. It's not, it's what's more exciting for a young person, turn 16, their first car, or maybe 18.

You know, it doesn't make any difference. Your first car is really exciting. And, of course, we're dealing with a phenomenon unmatched in retail. You can't think of another product that's still done the way they sold horses back in 100 years ago, 200 years ago. Hagling, negotiating. There's no such thing as a fixed price on a car anymore or anymore for 100 years since Henry Ford got things going big time you buy a car you play the game car dealer has too much money you offer less and you bet go back and forth and hours later if you're lucky you might have a car if you if you do have

a car you probably paid too much for it so that's all we are we're all fashion why because car buying hasn't changed in over a hundred years but we're getting close we are getting very close to some major changes. I can't forget, though, that the important thing is today. People buy cars now once every six or seven years. You maintain your car all the time, and we talk about that a lot, too. So I have to mention Rick Kearney, who is a colleague of mine for the past quarter century. And when he was just a kid, he was taking engines apart and transmissions apart,

and he's been doing that for 25 plus years. And he's pretty good at it. He's better at it in a lot of ways because the cars have become, they start out as a mechanical device and now it's a software device. Really, it'll eventually be almost totally software. It's very complex and algorithms and all that kind of stuff.

And so you practically have to stay in school. He used to go to school maybe once a year. He's online all the time now because of the rapid, rapid advance in technology. It's a good news and bad news. Good news for the owners, you have fewer problems with cars. The bad news for the owners is when you do have a problem, it's more complex, very difficult to diagnose, oftentimes requiring high-priced equipment, at the very least, high-skilled people to do the diagnosis.

And that's the reason we have Rick Kearney here. And if you got a telephone, a smartphone, or something like that, we'd love to have you call Rick if you've got a problem with your car. You've been into a dealership or an independent repair, and they haven't been able to give you a good answer, or maybe they've given you an obscene price that you just know can't be right. Give Rick a call at 877-960-9960. You won't have a question now because we're, you know, we're moving fast here.

But you might have a question and a half an hour or so write this number down. When you come back and start watching or listening again, write this number down. 877-9-60-99-60. Again, that's 877-9-60-9-9-60. And my wife, Nancy Stewart, sitting in this studio right now. She has a laptop computer. And when you call, our control room puts the call through, put your name in and the fact that you're holding. We have five lines coming in.

So we stop what we're doing in the show. If someone's yakking like I am right now, Nancy waves at me, points through her laptop, she says, Hello Bob or Hello Charlie or whoever is calling. hopefully hello Lori or hello Mary because we're looking for female callers all the time. So Nancy Stewart will stop us from doing what we're doing to take a phone call. We prioritize your phone calls. 877-960-9960. Nancy and I were talking on the car coming in the studio,

and we're saying, well, what are we going to talk about today? And we always say the same thing. We answer ourselves. we're going to talk about what our callers want to talk about. I mean, we're in the business. We're car dealers. In full disclosure, we have a Toyota dealership in North Palm Beach, Florida. But we don't want to talk about what interests us.

This radio show is what interests you and challenges you in the buying or leasing process or in the maintaining or just repair process. And you need to know what you're doing because you can be taken advantage of. We don't want you to be ripped off by anybody. We don't want you to be taken advantage of it. And that's kind of like the essence of the shelf. So that's your call. Nancy will stop us from what we're talking about and take your call.

And we try not to keep you waiting. Not that we fail sometimes because we do get a large number of calls. It gets bigger every week. But that's a good thing. 877-960-99-60. We have a text number. A lot of folks prefer the text, and I won't go over the reasons. It's obvious.

I text a lot, and I prefer to text other than call people. And that text number is 772-497-6530. 772-497-65-30. And we keep these texts as they come in, and then when there's a lull or whether there's a lull or not, We get to the text before the end of the show. Now, we're on for two hours. I mean, we're on from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. That's a lot of time, and we try to use it constructively, and we will get to your text.

You text us at 7-72-497-6530, and we get some interesting calls also, not calls, but contacts on our anonymous line. we have a line, very few shows that I know of, have this sort of an anonymity line. You know, like when you call the cops, or when you call the Internal Revenue Service to report your neighbor. You don't want your neighbor to know you turned them in. Well, we have an anonymous line link, actually,

and that anonymous link can't be identified. We don't know who you are, where you are. We cannot find you. And it's just as safe is the police anonymous or the IRS anonymous. And that anonymous link is your anonymous feedback.com. Y-O-U-R, A-N-O-N-Y-M-O-U-S, Your Anonymous Feedback, just like it sounds, feedback.com. Youranonymous Feedback.com. So I've covered the basics, probably yak too much, but I'm going to turn the microphone on to Nancy

Nancy Stewart, the co-founder of the show, who has single-handedly built the female audience to 50% from zero back two decades ago. And we have some amazingly informed, interesting female callers thanks to Nancy Stewart. Nancy, the mic is all yours. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for the introduction. It was quite nice. Before me, I have the automotive news.

How exciting is this front page? I'll show it to you in a second. But for the sixth time since 2000, Automotive News honors 100 leading women. And, you know, it's just an amazing time. We haven't. There we have. It's radar.

You see that, Jonathan? Okay. 100 leading women. Full page. See? Okay. Let me get back to the show. Part of the show.

Progress is powerful, and we have become a big part of the auto industry. And, you know, I'm very proud of that and proud of all of you that have called or thought about calling and called me. But we would like to hear from you this morning, and I have $50 for the first two new lady callers, and $50 for the first two new lady callers. And this morning, I'd like to add the consumer report as a gift also to those two ladies. So give us a call at a 7-7-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. And don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. We're going to go to Barbara, who's been a holding in Stewart.

Good morning, Barbara. Good morning, Barbara. Good morning. How are you all? Great. Barbara, have you called before? No, this is my first time. Well, congratulations.

You won yourself, you've won yourself $50 and also a free subscription to the Consumer Report. And if you stay on the line, you can give Mike in our control room your information. He'll pass that to me, and I'll send that check out to you. What can we do for you this morning? Okay, well, I have a 2020 Subaru Forrester, the base model, and I know it needs right now, it needs an oil change, but that's besides the point. What I've been having lately is I'm not sure if it's the TCV issue because all of a sudden it stalls out, the lights, all the lights come on, I have the eyesight, of course, and that lights up, and then all of a sudden, like, a bell goes off. And then it is able to start.

But like I said, it has 27,702 miles. Could that be what it is? Because I did call Schumacher. And of course, they didn't call me back. But I don't know if that's the issue. What do you have to say? My first guess on that would possibly be a fuel pump. Oh.

Because I've seen a lot. of times with fuel pumps where it'll cause the car to stall and once the engine shuts off the lights will come on and then once you go for a restart quite often it'll almost like reset the fuel pump and it'll start operating again uh that's going to require a little extra diagnosis in order to find out what's going on um they should be able to put a scan tool up to your car and see if there's any codes, but also try to determine if it has any data recorded for when that incident occurred that may help figure out what's going on with it. Okay, because this is like the third time it's happened, and the first time I brought it in,

they didn't see any codes, everything was perfect, but it keeps happening. I'm afraid to drive it right now. Yeah, I can understand, because, I mean, unfortunately, I'm not personally aware of any common issues with Subaru's. Let me see if I can Google anything up that might let me know what's going on. Thank you.

Sorry, we're getting a little bit of weird feedback issues this morning. That's all right. Have you had the battery replaced recently by any chance? No. No. Original battery. Now, that's something

that you may want to look into. Just Googling it here for common issues, again, first one that pops up really is the faulty fuel pump and battery issues can also cause that because if your battery is starting to get weak, what will happen is it starts trying to get so much power to recharge the battery that the electrical system just kind of gets wonky and it'll cause it to stall out. so I would have them test that battery as well especially a five-year-old battery if you're here in South Florida our heat down here is just devastating on batteries for sure yeah I'm in Stewart

yeah yeah so yeah Barbara this is Earl Stewart I one thing also is is to be sure that after you've discussed your issue with Schumacher you're taking into Schumacher Yes, uh-huh.

Yeah, I bought it there, so. Yeah, be sure you get an estimate on what is going to cost you and what they're going to do. Florida law protects you. They can't go more than 10% over the estimate. And if you see some items that they're going to perform that you didn't hear Rick discuss, then question those. You might want before you have them go in because there'll be a diagnostic charge, and you need to know what that diagnostic charge is,

that should be included in your estimate. But if it's going to be more than, you know, a couple hundred bucks, be sure you go to another store. It could either be a Buick store or you can go to an independent mechanic and get, you should always get two or three bids on an expensive repair unless you have total trust in the dealership. Okay. Okay. That's good to know. I appreciate that.

Well, you're very welcome. Thank you very much for calling. And remember one thing especially, one thing that I've always, in 30 years of turning wrenches, it seems like the lady customers, the female customers are more likely to ask questions and ask me to explain how the system works and why they're having that issue. and it seems to that's one thing that I always have appreciated because my opinion, an educated customer can make an educated decision. So feel free to ask questions because an honest mechanic will be very happy to help explain that to you and help you understand what they're seeing going on in that thing.

And Barb, just to give you some update on, you know, They rate pretty high today, and they weren't a while ago. And they're difficult to find, but a good mechanic is something to hold on to. Thank you so much for calling a roll on cars. And please spread the word that we're trying to build the platform here for the female caller. And listener, I will. Stay on the line. Thank you.

Okay. Our number here is 877-960-99-6. and we're going to go to Howard who's patiently been holding. Good morning, Howard. How are you? Hello. Hey, Howard.

Yeah, how are you doing? Doing good. How's everything? Beautiful day today. It is. Okay, here's the story with my paint job. You know, 040 was was that

doing the job? because it didn't have clear coat. So I brought it in, and Wiggins took care of it, painted. He also detailed the car. The car looks brand new. And, you know, the seats were detailed, the dashboard.

Everything is wonderful. The only thing is, the next day when I drove the car, there were no turn signals. So I went back, and I saw Wiggins He said, I'll take care of it. So the wind-up is that the turn signals were not hooked up.

However, everything worked fine, except there's no sound on the turn signal. So I wonder, is it something wasn't hooked up, right, or a switch, or what's the story? Good question. I haven't heard of that issue. Now, that is odd, because if the term signals are functioning, it's what's known as the flasher unit that normally will make that little ticking noise that tells you your turn signals operating

and way back the original versions that was actually a mechanical thing so you'd actually hear the mechanical contacts clicking and then when they made them electronic they added in a noise maker basically so that you would have an audio thing telling you hey these things your turn signal is still on As silly as this sounds, I would try the simple solution.

Grab a 10mm wrench and just disconnect your negative terminal on the battery. Wait about a minute and then reconnect it. Basically, it's like that old thing with computers of unplug it and plug it back in and try it again. And sometimes just rebooting the system will clear up a lot of those weird problems. I know it sounds like a cop-out, but five minutes of that can save you a drive all the way back to the shop and back, and it might just solve the issue for you. I think that fix works about a third of the time on everything in the world. I mean, I don't care whether it was a toaster, a computer, or a car.

I think it might be a little higher than a third. Okay, so let's say I do that, and I still don't have an audience. and I don't have the sound. How can this be fixed? My next thought at that point is I would be testing what's known as the body control module. It's actually the computer that has that flasher unit built into it that actually controls the turn signal, turning those lights on and off. Okay, so I'll try it, and if it doesn't work, I'll bring it back to the, I'll bring it back to Toyota. Yeah, and we left one thing out because it's part of our lives now, Howard.

I mean, you know that because you're a regular listener. Chat, GBT.T. Check, chat, GBT, and you're going to ask. I call him Chuck now because he and I are clubs, and I use him all the time. Chat, GBT, GBT. I'm serious. And you wouldn't believe. Nancy and I have, we used to be the two of us living together.

Now there's the three of us. And they see Earl and Chuck Check GBT. We'll have a conversation And I'll say, I don't know. She says, I'll check chat CBT. So he knows all and sees all. Definitely knows all.

Okay, well, I was very impressed with your body shop. And also, Travis helped out, you know. Wiggins gave the job to Travis and he took care of me. and I have to wait too much. So I'm giving kudos, okay? Thanks very much. Thanks, Howard.

There's a core dealers. I don't have body shops much anymore. There are very few have them. And it's kind of like different than the mainstream service. Therefore, only about one dealership out of ten as a closure repair center. And thank you very much for the compliment. Yes, thank you, Howard. Bye.

Bye. Thank you. 877-960 or you can text us at 772-497-6-9-0. I'm going to mention Earl's letter that is going to hit the stands tomorrow in the Washington Post. And it's the open letter to Jeff Bezo. And, you know, what better people to line up with. And the word that describes it all is transparency. And that's who, we are, and that's who Amazon is. So it's going to be a pretty exciting time. Yes, probably most of you know, Jet Bezos owns the Washington Post, and what we're going to try to do is be the first non-Hondealer that will be approved by Amazon. We're approved now by Amazon at our dealership to sell used cars under the Amazon use car program, but the only

new car dealerships, the pilot program that Amazon started with, were a Hyundai dealers. So they're starting to look around, and they will be adding other dealerships. So we've asked the full-page letter to Jeff Bezos, and tomorrow at Sunday's Washington Post, we're asking Jeff to consider our dealership as the first one. And we think that what Amazon is doing is bringing total clarity, transparency, and honesty to the car buying experience for the first time since it started in over 100 years. And they have a program which we've tested by Mystery Shop. And this is all you can expect, folks. They give you their lowest out-the-door price.

Amazon gives you their lowest out-the-door price, but right now they're only going to do it on Mondays. And then you can take that out-the-door price and you can shop it for another out-the-door price. I underline out-the-door because, as you know, especially your regulars, prices quoted now are just nothing because there's thousands of dollars of junk fees and dealers installed accessories and fine print that you don't know what's happening.

but not with Amazon on their new car program. So we salute Jeff Bezos, and we're asking him to please consider us as the first new car dealer. If you're anywhere near a Publix or a Walgreens or a CVS or whoever sells newspapers, of course, any place, we'd love you to pick up a copy tomorrow of the Washington Post, read our letter to Jeff Bezos, and I think you'll like it. And hopefully, I figured he owns a newspaper,

even if he doesn't read it, somebody will say, hey, Jeff, you got an interesting letter from a card here, take a look at it, then he'll look at his own newspaper, maybe read it, and maybe we get a call, and we'll let you know next week. Yeah, Jeff Bezos, if you're listening, give us a call. Yeah, or right now, yeah, Jeff, hey, if you're out there, what is our number? Oh, yeah, 877-960-960. Wouldn't it be funny if Jeff Bezos called us right now? Anything's possible. Is he the richest man in the world or is Elon?

They go back and forth to the richest man in the world. A little shift there. Not much, though. Yeah. Okay. 877-960-9960, or you can text us at 772-497-2-497-60. I offered the ladies $50 this morning for the first time female callers, and I also added to it a subscription to the consumer.

report that you will find, you know, it just covers everything, and you'll definitely use it a lot. So you can win that this morning also. I've already had one lady caller, and I'm waiting for another at 877-960-99-60. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Rick? Hey, are you going to be putting that ad on your Facebook page? Yeah.

I asked that this morning, Rick. Cool. Yeah, we're going to put it everywhere we can. But when? Yeah. Did you check this morning? I didn't check this morning, no. We'll ask Stu when he comes in.

Because if I asked, then Rick asked, everybody's going to. Okay. I forgot what I was going to say. There is some good news out there for you folks that are concerned about the terrorists. and the government is trying to mitigate the tariff effect, which is raising the cost of cars, obviously. And, of course, the car dealers are waving flags like it's not my fault. Is all these tariffs, that's the reason I have to charge you so much more for the car.

Well, there's some truth to it, but not as much truth as it sounds like. Good news is there's a bill in the Congress right now, the U.S. Congress, that is approved to deduct $10,000 of auto loan interest expense when you buy a car. So that's good news. It'll help a little bit there. And bear that in mind when you're financing the car, you'd be surprised what that finance cost is. And you could deduct up to $10,000 if this passes the Senate.

It's been approved by the House. I think it'll probably pass the Senate. But that's some good news there. Also, we have an issue right now with all the local, I say local, this is an international show. We have an issue with the Florida regulators. We have issues with all the regulators in the country. in terms of enforcing dealership laws. The Attorney Generals of the state,

the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of all the states, with a few exceptions. New York is an exception, for example, and to some extent, California is an exception. But in Florida, the Attorney Generals have been, what is the word, a pawn for the Florida automobile. mobile dealers, a pawn for the car dealers to ignore the laws on the books to protect you,

the Florida car buyer. Right now, and I know some of you folks have heard this before, but right now, when they advertise a price, meaning car dealers, when they advertise a newer used car, and you come in the dealership and you try to buy the car, you'll find out that the advertised price, or maybe you called on the phone or emailed, the quoted price is thousands of dollars less than the advertised or quoted price. That's a violation of the law.

You know, you think when you break to law, people do something about it. They fine you, they arrest you, they at least reprimand you, not in Florida, and not when you buy a car. Virtually every car dealership in Florida, and your regulars, pardon me, for boring your rights. now, but I know you've heard this before, I'm talking to our newer listeners, and we have

more and more new listeners every week. When you go into virtually every car dealership, I'd say 99% of them, the price that you're trying to pay that said that was the price of the car is not the price. You have to pay 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, more. And if you'll stay tuned until the end of the show, that'll be probably around 930 when we start the, the, uh, the, um, mystery shopping report, you'll hear a mystery shopping report that confirms what we say. Because every week, I can't remember a mystery shopping report where the advertised price was the out-the-door price. It's a violation, Florida statute.

The Attorney General has admitted it was a violation of Florida statutes and had reiterated the fines that the dealership. should pay, but nothing ever happens. So if you've got any contact at all with a, yeah, we have a phone call. So I was off on one of my favorite rants now. Turn the mic over to Nancy. Okay. Good morning.

Good morning, Linda. Welcome. Linda's calling us from Fort Lauderdale. Good morning. Welcome. I love your program. I listen every week. And I never learned how to drive.

But all the men in my life are big car people. Interesting. Linda, is this the first time you've called? Yes, it is. Congratulations. You've won yourself $50 as a first-time female caller. And thank you for helping me build the platform here. And you also win a subscription, a year's subscription to Consumer Report,

which you'll find valuable. Excellent. And if you stay on the line, you can talk to Mike. in the control room, give him your information, he'll pass that along to me. Thank you very much. I'll get the check out to you. So welcome, welcome to the show.

And what can we do for you? Well, just continue providing excellent listening. I enjoy your program so much. And I can identify with so many people, whether you're talking about Satchel Page and the old

And I'm just, everything has a meaning for me. I'm on Shulis, Joe Jackson. Oh, that's great. That's really great. Yeah. And I'm just so happy that you said, you know, you just learn so much from the show. You know, as other women do, and they find it very interesting, interesting, because, you know, it would, you know, it's going to really take them a long way whenever they go to purchase the vehicle, you know, rent, lease, you know, use cars, a service. and we try to get out all of the information to all of our listeners.

Let me ask you a question. The fact that you don't drive is interesting because Nancy and I are both driving autonomous cars fully. I know. Have you ever thought about right now the autonomous car is not the level four which you can buy and use, it's a level three. Somebody could correct me out there if I got my numbers wrong, but we both drive a different model Tesla's. And for example, this morning, we live in Jupiter Island, Colony, Florida,

and the radio station we're at now in the studio is at North Palm Beach. It's about 12, 14 miles. So Nancy and I got out and walked into our garage, got in the car. We drove our Tesla, our Tesla cyber truck. and I pushed the button for the address for the radio studio, and the car took us right to the radio studio, parked itself, and we got out.

I think shortly you'll be able to buy a car that will have that ability. As a person who doesn't drive, would you ever consider that? Well, I always get curb service with a smile, and I have relied on that. And when I was living in New York City, I could always walk to work. And, no, I've just never had a need to. And I could always, living here in Fort Lauderdale, I've always been able to walk to the public. And, no, I like to keep my life very simple. And, no, I don't really have any desire to drive.

I enjoyed your story about Jeff Bezos when in my brother had a camera years ago. I love that story about him going in to pay for his mom's family. I enjoy everything I hear on your program. It's just... Well, thank you. So it's my Saturday morning pleasure. I don't even know you, but I like you already. You're my kind of gal.

I mean, you know, you're happy, you're comfortable with your position. You like to walk a lot, which means you're very healthy. Oh, yeah. Yeah, eight vitamins a day. And Linda, thanks again for calling, and we hope we keep you centered and informed. May I just say that I probably never wanted to learn how to drive because I was in an automobile accident with my grandparents in Dallas when I was seven years old. And I think that has had a slight... My brother, of course, got his Mustang the day he turned 16.

Of course. But, no, I'm very happy being a non-driver. Good for you. Keeping your circle small. Yes, yes. But I do have, I have pictures in Clark Gables, Dusenberg. And I have some wonderful, wonderful pictures of NASCAR, who is NASCAR drivers and all that. And my husband's nephew is a NASCAR driver.

So I'm very interested in the automobile world. Well, you know the expression, that's a doozy, came from. Yes. And our neighbor in New York had a Dusenberg, and he was Santa Claus at Christmas and would, you know, throw out little toys. But I'm interested in automobiles, but just not for my personal use. I understand. That's even better.

Linda, we can't thank you enough for calling. Thank you. Hope to hear from you again. And get that information to Michael in the control room. You're welcome. Thank you so much. You're so welcome. Have a great weekend.

We're going to go to our favorite person, and that is the Roadrunner. Me, me, me. Good morning, Steve. Good morning, everybody. How are you? Great. I was up at Nissan getting an oil change, and I'm looking, I like looking at the cars. So I'm looking at the Moroni was this for, I wrote down these crazy things.

Cabin sanitation service, okay? Door Edge and Cup Guard service. Customer mobile app. Rain repellent. And here's what I don't get. Interior anti-microbotic service. whatever that is. What they do?

Take a can of Lysol and spade the inside of the car? Yep. And it's not even Lysol. It's a generic knockoff. And this court, there was other ones, but I picked out these. $2,995 for this service. Yep. Yeah, they're getting desperate, Steve.

And Nissan is on the verge of bankruptcy. They just, their CEO is gone. They got a new die jump. and they're trying to save Nissan. They're taking fast. The dealers don't like them. Their customers don't like them. And when you got that kind of a combination, you're in trouble.

Yeah, well, they kept the one on 441. The one I go to is under a different name. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's owned by, oh, who's the guy that owns all the private stores? I told you the main way of them. Terry Taylor, yeah. Yeah, with that. But I don't get this.

How can you charge $3,000 for stupid stuff? Well, they have immunity. Supposing there was a law about robbing banks, but you could rob a bank, and they wouldn't arrest you. The banks would be in a lot of trouble, wouldn't they? And that's what we have. They have laws against all the things that you just described, but they don't enforce the law.

So people, the dealers continue to take advantage of their customers. It's almost laughable if it weren't so tragic and tragically true. Yes. With that, it reminds me of Ed Norton when he said, don't call me a sewer worker.

I'm a subterranean engineer. I love that show, the honeymooners. Okay. All right, everybody, have a good, safe holiday, and thank you to all our veterans out there. Thank you. Thank you so much, Steve. Have a wonderful weekend. Happy Memorial Day. Okay, I think we're going to go to Anne-Marie's text and a few other things. You guys ready? I am. This is a little bit long, but we're going to read it right out. She says, good morning.

The National Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is an independent research organization that crashes cars to study crash protection, to study crash protection. and crash avoidance. It's been issuing crash test ratings since 1995. No testing program is perfect because of all the variables, but one institution has taken testing a step further. Advanced Vehicle Engineering of Cranfield University staged a real-world high-speed multi-car pile-up in Scotland to study what happens without risking anyone's life in order to better design cars that can get you from point A to point B safely. PBS's science show

Nova recorded and just aired this ultimate crash test. You can find it streaming on pbs.org on YouTube and also on jalapnick.com. It's compelling and thought-provoking please watch it if you can.

Putting seatbelts in cars started the movement for safer cars. She asked first, what current feature do you feel is the best at making vehicles safer and what safety feature would you like to see on all cars in the future it's memorial day weekend millions of us will take to the road please drive carefully thank you signed mother hen so what about it row what do you what current feature do you think is the is the best at making the cars feel safer and what would you like to see on all the

cars in the future? Well, for one single feature, I would, I would go with the airbags. And I think the seatbelts are a close second. In fact, I might have them reverse. But those two primitive by today's standards are, I think, the most important in terms of keeping people for big hurt. Myself, I would go with the idea because every car now has seatbelts and airbags. It's standard, and some cars have got like 20 different airbags. I think the blind spot monitor system and what it's growing into with having cameras to watch around your car. Here's a problem. I was going to say something like that, but you're talking about the accidents that didn't happen.

And so how do you really know how many accidents didn't happen? I think there were a lot that didn't happen, and that might make it number one. But in terms of real, in terms of reality, where I can look in the eye, I've had a body shop. Heck, at one time I had five body shops, and I've seen a lot of cars where there were deaths, injuries, and I've seen cars where there are zero deaths. I've seen cars where the car was in a basket, and the people survived. So I've seen a lot of very, very terrible accidents where people didn't have a scratch,

because of airbags and seatbelts. So, therefore, that gets my number one vote. But I don't disagree with you. I think, here, it'd be an interesting question. Would you, for safety purposes, would you rather, your children or your loved ones, drove in a car like a fully autonomous that was top of the, you know, level four,

which had eight cameras which stopped the car, started the car, swirved the car, did everything can hear emergency sirens to pull the car over. In other words, and also be part of a system where it talks to all the other cars.

In other words, the ultimate, fully autonomous car will probably be totally safe and it'll be all electronics. You won't need seatbelts and you won't need airbags. They might even take them out of the cars. I honestly, I, I am waiting for the day when traveling on our roads becomes that safe,

simply for the factor that we're taking out the distracted human part of it. Even this morning, I'm driving up the turnpike to come here to the show. And this guy in another car, he's just kind of moving around a little bit, he's speeding up, slowing down. I get next to my glance over, and he's got one hand on the week. and his cell phone right up in front of him. Yeah, yeah. And it just, to me, it's, I just, I truly, I'm begging for autonomous cars across the board.

You know, on my autonomous car, Nancy's autonomous car, if we do that, and I won't say that we haven't been a little careless behind the wheel, we will get what they call a strike. Yep. And they give you, they used to only give you three strikes. Now they give you five strikes. And if you get five strikes, they disable the car at no more autonomous driving. So even in a fully autonomous car, they want you to be fully aware. Yes, you're right. We see it all the time.

The guy drives by the way. Well, it's still in its infancy. I mean, the autonomous car is... Totally an infant. The autonomous car have to be more aware. They have to be focused. Don't let your guard down. because you're driving autonomous.

Take it from someone who has experienced it yesterday, today, and tomorrow. They're fine-tuning that feature. You know, for me, whenever we talk about safety features, you know, I love the lane change. I just really, that lane keeping assist of the cameras, rareview cameras, and, of course, the seatbelt. So the list is pretty long as far as safety features are concerned. or folks for everybody out there please please be safe this weekend put the cell phone down while you're driving yeah take a break put your seat keep your seat belts on keep your car in good condition you know make sure your tires are aired up make sure your wipers are in good shape

i mean we just saw a thunderstorm come through last night at my house we had hail again in lakeward florida uh so hey folks it's you know make sure your car's in good shape and be safe this week Keep your eyes on the road. And we are going to go back to the phones, and we're going to talk to Jake, who's been holding. Good morning, Jake. Welcome. Welcome to the show. Sorry for the hold.

What can we do for you? Hey, Jake, you out there? Oh, yes. I'm sorry. I was daydreaming. I do that a lot. Oh, how nice? Hi, good morning.

What can we do for you, Jake? I was just, I was looking up new insurance because I just got my bill and went up so much. I can't believe they won over six grand for the two cars. Isn't it something? Wow. It's unreal. So I was just shopping. So I was just, I'm sorry.

That's great. That's great to shop. That's a great approach. So my 2019 BMW 330I, it's, it has, it just flipped over $25,000. of miles but i bought it it's over six years old already do i really need to replace the road it's too when i do the brakes because it doesn't feel as tight as it should plus it's over six years already so it's probably time um the first thing i would do is take your car out for a drive on the highway make sure you got a good clear road you know nobody around you uh get up to around

6570 if you can and then step on the brake not full panic mode but give it a good firm step on the brake and if you don't feel any major vibrations in the steering wheel or the seat of the car if it feels pretty smooth when you give it that relatively hard braking then most likely the rotors are relatively straight and true and as long as they're not rusted or anything and as long as they are not what's known as a drilled rotor, the ones have the little holes in them, like race car looking things, then they should be perfectly safe to be resurfaced.

The mechanic or the shop doing the break job for you should measure those rotors in a couple of spots and compare it to the book for the thickness of it, and if it's still got plenty of metal left on it, there's no reason they can't resurface that rotor. so it can be reused. And on a BMW, just going out on a limb, I would bet that quality rotors for that car

are probably $300 each or more. So resurfacing them is a much, much better option. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with safely resurfacing a rotor as long as it does not go below the minimum spec, the minimum thickness that is recommended for that car. Okay.

And I was thinking of sticking with BMW original pads. That's always a good idea because to me, the factory pads, they're designed a little better and they're usually more specifically designed for that car to help cut down on noises and vibration. And nobody likes that idea of you get a break job done and you're driving along somewhere and you know, you just lightly apply the brakes and you hear that. annoying squeak and squeal kind of embarrassing

but a good mechanic will understand basically what they need to do in order to make sure that that's not going to occur and it comes down to simply doing a quality break job so I would find a good independent shop somebody that's got good reviews

that has had recommendations and does the quality work at a reasonable price and I think you'll yeah an ASC certified I mean, almost every shop now is ASC certified, but it's always good to ask for that. I would, what I would do is I would go online

and look around for local forum groups for BMWs and for people that are local here in your area and then ask them who they recommend as mechanic, who do they go to? Because a lot of these, the forum groups, these are guys that they know these cars inside and out, and if they have a mechanic they trust, you know you're getting a good name.

Definitely, Jay. Boy, what great information, Rick, just gave you. Because these mechanics are tough to find. Have you, Jake, ever had those to go to a mechanic? Years ago in New York, in Manhattan, when they used to have to change the brakes twice a year and the way they used to drain the liquids into the subway grades. Yeah, back in the 70s.

Yeah. I hear what you're saying. I remember those days. I'll find so much. The good news is a mechanic today has really high ratings all the way around from the consumer, and they come up on top as far as honesty, where they never did before. So you're going to be very successful in finding a good mechanic and hanging on to that mechanic. Yes.

Thank you, guys. Always great listening to you. and speaking to you guys. Thank you, Jay. Have a great weekend. We're going to go to John in Palm City. Good morning, John. Good morning.

I just want to mention a question for Rick. Some of the cost goes, they have a sign posted, and it says, attention, 15% off on your next visit to mechanical work or a total of $500 a visit. Call us number 877-427-5. What does Rick know about that program that Costco has to get a re-tuction in your botanical work done on your car? Absolutely nothing. Although that would seem like a very reasonable offer that they're doing is somebody's looking to get repeat customers. I totally see that as a reasonable thing that if you have a customer that they're coming back to you, and you offer them, basically, it's a loyalty rebate.

You're giving them a discount because they're a returning customer. What's that number again, John? Okay, at 877, 427-5-55-65, I call that number on Thursday, and what they do, you have to give you a Costco number, and she gives you an email, identifying who you are, and you have three weeks to use their email, and they've mentioned via zip code, two repair plates, One is here in Stewart, and another one is Port St. Lucie, that this is valid, this coupon,

with 15% off or $500 per visit. So that's all that I know about it. Sign has been posted in a new Costco that opened up in Martin County, and I never heard of the program before. But nothing surprised me at Costco because they're selling everything now, including car insurance, and you can even buy gold bars at Costco now. Costco now. Isn't it amazing? Yeah.

I trust everything Costco does. They're not perfect, and I've had problems. You have problems with any store, but they're by far and large the best. We'll check that number out and see what it is. But if Costco's got its name on it, then they're backing it, which would be a good thing. It's also a website, Costco Auto.com dash PS. And that's all that I was able to notify on it. And the coupon is good for three weeks,

and I'm sure it's available in all other Costco's. So leave it to Costco. Nancy even mentions two people that we should be attended to is consumer reports and Costco wholesale out. That's a great place to start. That's for sure. At Costco yesterday, and I needed some socks. and the only problem with Costco now

is I had enough socks to last me 112 years, but I couldn't buy a pair of socks I had to buy about 600 Didn't the U-Haul deliver those? Did you get your hot dog? No. Why did I get the hot dog? The good news is this Costco in Mont County now

took some pressure off the one that you go to a North Lake Boulevard and maybe you'll find the parking spaces now. The other thousand pair of socks that Earl ordered, they'll be coming in, I believe, a month, correct? So anybody needs some socks? Drop by the house, I've got socks. Free socks. What does it come to?

We're selling socks. They don't knock your socks off. All right, guys, I'm looking forward to the report. I'm shopping. That's great. Our mystery shop is from, Brayman, BMW, and Jupiter, so you want to stick around for that. And you can also vote on that mystery shop by texting us at 772-4976530.

We're going to go over to John in West Palm Beach. Good morning, John. Welcome. You're talking to West Palm Beach. You're talking to you, right? Yeah. Oh, okay, very good. First of all, Kostel only sells tires and batteries, correct?

I don't think they do automotive service. No, I think they do. Rick, what? I don't know if they do the actual automotive service right there at their location. I know they'll do tires and batteries at that location. If they have a gas station, don't they have expanded the gas station kind of services? No, the gas station is just gas. I know that.

Because I make use of it often. but I'm suspecting that this may be similar to their Costco auto buying program and some of the other things that you'll see as you're going out. That's what it is. And it's vendors. And basically they're simply working a program with these local auto shops, a couple of shops, so that you get a discounted rate with someone that obviously is vetted by Costco. If you're a certified Costco dealer, that's what it is.

That's what it is. It sounds very misleading. So anyways, on from that, the one technology for safety as far as in cars that I would like to see that I enjoy having it, not that I ever have to use it, but the early warning system on my car, if the cameras see something that's going to be a danger, if I was going to hit it, it automatically puts on the brake, and it doesn't allow me to hit it, but it's only up to a certain speed that the car stops. If I'm doing 50, I'm going to hit a tree. It's not going to stop in time. I don't believe. And I'm not willing to try it out. I've never tested it, yeah.

But, you know, like going 10, 15 miles on, if you're backing up in your driveway and you're about to hit something, the car stops. And it throws on the brakes for you. I would like to see that technology be increased much higher speed. For instance, you know, going 45. If you're going to be hit or if you're going to hit something, And the cameras see it where you don't because, like you said, you know, someone's looking at their phone.

Yeah. You know. Most like now with the advanced, like the laser adaptive cruise controls, it will do it at high speeds. At least I know in Toyota's, Honda's, Nissan's, things like that. If you're going along, it's similar to what Merlin Nancy's Teslas will do. You're going along 45 miles an hour in traffic comes to a complete stop in front of you. your car will come to a complete stop and then you just hit resume when the traffic moves again you have to manually say okay it's time to go again and on its own it'll accelerate back up

you know the Tesla's with the autopilot they'll just it tested on its own but it's a step in that direction yep as a matter of fact we actually had a recall on a certain number of cars through Toyota because the radar sensor was actually a little too sensitive in it and the aiming was a little off and if you were driving your car and going down a slight slope and you had some sort of metal in the roadway like a bridge or cattle guard something like that they actually had cars who were slamming on the brakes for no reason and the car would literally stop in the road because it detected what it believed was a metal object in the road that was actually the road surface so that we had a recall where we had to replace the radar sensors on a lot of cars for that okay the uh on my tesla same thing goes true on my trip to michigan every year when

and i think i mentioned this to you before uh on the radio that when in uh cruise control if the car senses that the road material changes like from cement to asper you it recognizes something different and it will slow the car down, you know, the ghost breaking. And I've experienced that with a difference in, you know, the road surface. That's, yeah, that's not surprising to me at all. I mean, the technology of these new sensors and camera systems is so advanced. It detects a change in the road surface, and it's going to adjust the vehicle speed for safety. One of the advantages to the Tesla autonomous system is that it's designed with literally hundreds of millions of videos of Tesla drivers all over the world.

And every Tesla that's sold, this autonomous, feeds that information back, whether it's in China or the United States or India. and hundreds of millions of videos. And these are integrated into the software of the car you're driving. So you get a software update to Tesla about once a week. And that means that the sum total of the video information of actual drivers under actual driving conditions is being tweaked. And it's far more efficient and faster and accurate. than what the other software designers have done, they're actually inputting code.

You envision thousands of people, coders, they call them, you know, doing code language to tweak and change the way, and a ton of his car drives versus the actual video of a real driver in real driving condition. So, you know, five years from now or less, imagine the amount. of data that has been integrated into the Tesla autonomous by real humans doing real driving under real conditions.

Yeah. I heard a rumor that Tesla owners who allow all that information to be collected from computers, we're going to receive some sort of a stipend or a small little paycheck for all the information that they grabbed from us. Have you heard anything like that? been paid? Yeah, that you were going to get some sort of royalty or dividend from sending. I haven't heard that, but I'll ask.

I'll ask. All right. And then one last thing. Hey, when can we see the BZ5 here in America? Which one? The Toyota, BZE5. Oh, the one that is following the BZ4X? We don't know.

They said in 26 and 27, we're going to get new old. electric models, and I know the BZ's four X is coming back as just a BZ. We've got three of them now. They just announced it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't remember the names, though. But, oh, yeah, over the next couple of years, but Toyota's still just kind of

dominating with hybrids. Yeah, everything's becoming hybrid. Great, thank you. Have a great. Okay, you too. Thank you. We're going to go to Bobby. Good morning, Bobby. Welcome. Good morning. Thank you for continuing to put the information out.

We appreciate it. Oh, thank you. I'm going to tell you about some shady service in a minute. But while you were talking about Costco, I wanted to bring to your attention. BJ's tires has started to put alignment machines in their tire centers. They have one down in Boynton, and they're putting one in on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard, that new store they have on Palm Beach Lakes. $69.95 for a four-wheel alignment.

That's a good deal. Yeah, it is. Not if you could get a free one. That is true. Yeah. Right. If you get a free one, but I haven't gotten a free one in a long time. You know, it's the reason they're doing that, and it's very profitable and lucrative,

but in a honest way, so many cars are out of alignment, and the owners don't realize it. And so any kind of, any service that we did, we put an alignment of, you know, it's a really sophisticated, automatically checks it, and it's really surprising. The dealership has free alignments. And it's a... Checks. Free-linement check. Yes.

Oh, I thought I'm sorry. I thought you said check. Yeah. No. The alignment. They do the $69. If you have a free alignment check, then you don't have to have too many alignments because you'll be, you know, you'll be right on top of it.

So here's my shady service story. I have a nephew who's a mechanical engineer and he builds race cars, so he knows what he's doing. He took his truck to Mullinx Ford to get an oil change because his back was hurting. So they changed the oil, but they came back in and said, sorry, we're sorry to tell you, you need new brakes, all four tires. And he said, no, I don't think I'm going to do it. And he knew he didn't need breaks. And they continued to say, this is really dangerous. We don't think you should leave.

You need new brakes. So he said, no, but thank you. Went home, measured his brakes. They were six millimeters, which was, there's plenty of meat left on the brake pads. and so when the surveyor called, he gave them all ones. And so the next day, after that, the service writer called him back and said, why did you give me all ones? And he said, because you lied to me.

And the guy insisted that he didn't lie. But he told him, I got six millimeters. What do you want me to say? And he said, well, that wasn't me lying. That was the tech lying. and you are and the tech are the collective view right exactly and so and then he went on to say

you know my pay gets affected when you give me all ones so I want you to change it I mean he carried on for a while please tell me you told him you're angry at the wrong man you get mad at the time you lied he's the one who created the situation but but they but they said

while he was there You know, this is a critical problem you need to fix now, sort of putting the pressure on, and I'm sure they do it to a lot of people. But oddly enough, he took his BMW to get the oil changed a few weeks later. Same story at Brayman. So, breaks are the new cheating tool. Yeah, it's commissioned. You know, if you really want them assigned blame, assign it to the dealer.

When you put people out there to talk to your customers and you pay them a percentage of every nickel they can get from a customer, whether it's honest or dishonest, it's the commission plan. The more you can talk a customer into having done, whether it's needed work or not, the more money you make. So it attracts people. If you have weak management or apathetic management or immoral management, they really take advantage of that whole. commission model because if you're paying commission. I was a little surprised at Molinex, given your experience buying cars there. But let me ask you this. You were talking about commission for the service riders.

What about the technicians? Are they getting paid different amounts? Are the technicians that change the oil getting paid different amounts than the technicians that do the brakes? And if they get somebody to buy brakes, are they getting more money? Oil change. techs like they're doing the rotations and the tire changes and oil changes they're they're getting paid hourly generally I'm when the car goes into the shop for

repair there can be bonuses they can be absolutely let me yeah let me just go back there is usually bonuses for things like that but yeah then the shop there's something called flat rate and there a job pays a certain dollars per hour to the tech and the tech can do it quicker than what the book calls for? Yeah, the answer is yes, but they do what the service salesman, the service advisor, you know, the service advisor recommends what the tech says. But the tech can say to the service advisor and sometimes with the customer,

he needs this, this, and this. So everybody's on commission. The sales writer, the service advisor, they're on commission, clearly. And so is the technician. So it's, if you. put a dishonest person in front of a lucrity pay plan. He works to pay plan and to hell with the customer. That's the problem we have.

Well, that was, I was surprised to hear that the mechanic is also incentivized to create service. The biggest problem with all this is, though, when you really do need breaks, you're not going to believe them. That's right. And then you're going to have. trouble. I'll tell you, here's an inside joke about us car dealers. We have different departments and obviously service and parts and new car sales and used car sales. Now there's always a big argument between the used car sales manager and the service manager because the service manager when he's fixing a used car, which is a company, you know, is owned by the dealership until you

sell it, they screw the service department and they charge too much, or at least the use car manager says they take advantage of it. So what a lot of car dealers do, and I did this, was I have the used car mechanic that worked in my service department who does the use car work. I had them on salary. And then I used car managers. Yeah. That's right. You know to put them on salary, but for us, we didn't know he was getting a commission. I should have all my mechanics on salary, and

I should have all my, I do have my new car salesman, and use car salesman on salary. They don't get a percentage of the price of the car or the profit. They get incentivized by selling more cars or less cars, but I haven't done that in the service

department, either for the service advisors or the mechanics, but I should do it, and I haven't done it. Shame on me. Well, what I did ago, you did job pricing. You brought him job pricing, which was basically kind of like that. It couldn't be manipulated with the hours.

It was just, this is what this paid. And it was kind of just a flat commission. So Rick, what do you do when they come in and say, you need new breaks? And I mean, do you just make them take you out there and measure them? You become the man from Missouri. Show me. We show people. and also we have a system that has

communicates from the technician to the customer with text and the camera on the tablet so it shows the actual you know what's going on if you need a problem be prepared for this I'm sorry Mr. Jones we can't take you back into the service department because our insurance company won't allow yeah so that and then you're right

our insurance company doesn't like us to have they don't like it customers into the the service department, but we do it anyway. So it's our choice. How can you tell the guy, I'm not going to show you your breaks that I just said you got to spend $1,000 on it. I refuse to show them to you because my insurance company won't let you back there. I just think that's so silly.

We just violate the insurance rule and take the customer back. The rule of thumb at our shop is we request customers not to come in the shop on their own, but if you want to come and see your car, the service rider will be more than happy to walk you back to your car and any honest mechanic will be more than happy to show you the work that he's recommending on your car and explain it to you.

Only our honest mechanics, right? Well, yeah, honest mechanics, but I would say in our shop, 95% of our mechanics are honest to a fault. There are a couple that may be through ignorance, or, you know, inexperience may not be as able to describe things properly and it may come off wrong. But the older mechanics, we are always ready to step in and help those younger guys out too

and help explain the issue. And my honest opinion that I give to everyone is I would rather have an educated customer. I want that customer to come back and ask me, I don't understand why you're recommending this. Please explain it to me because if you are educated about what I'm recommending and you feel comfortable spending that money with me this day, then you're going to go out and you're going to tell five other people that they can trust me. And my business is going to grow.

My work is going to grow. But if I tell you something falsely dishonest, you're going to go tell 100 other people and my business isn't going to grow. So, in my opinion, I will always give you an honest opinion. I will always tell you the truth as I see it. And I will explain the system to you and explain everything of what I'm doing and why. And if I don't think you need breaks, if I look at them and I say, okay, these breaks are getting close. And you come back to see it.

I'll say, all right, now these are at four to five millimeter. You're good for a certain distance yet. You don't need them today. If you want to do them today, we can do it. But you do have some time so that you don't have to. Now, and if it's any consolation, Bobby, the Gallup hole has definitely shown that honesty and ethics has certainly the ratings for these technicians has certainly grown. It's just an amazing time. And they're not a unicorn any longer.

You can find a good, honest technician. And by the way, Earl, do you recall this morning you and I were talking about justice and the news bulletin with service and parts tips? Pay your technicians more than your advisors. And then they go on to talk about a toxic atmosphere that this has grown into. Salespeople can make an obscene amount of money, a really good salesman. I'm talking car salesman now, but for example, but it's not unusual

at a successful dealership for a new car sales want to make a quarter million dollars a year. Now, the skills are there, but it's a selling skill and how much honesty goes into all that when you understand

that he's getting 25% of all the money you pay, of you profit, you pay the dealer for the car. So if you pay the dealer, a $1,000 profit, on that one transaction, that salesperson can make $250. But if he can make a $10,000 profit, which is not uncommon, he'll make $2,500. And a good salesman, I mean, a really good salesman, can sell 30 cars a month or more. So we, what is the word?

We crown, we worship great salespeople. We anoint them. anoint them. Celebrate them. If you've got a salesman making $300,000 a year in a car dealership, he can get away with anything he wants. The owner loves him, the managers love him.

Everybody loves him. It's fireproof. Well, my new response for service is going to be, let's go take a look and have him take it out there. And one last thing, I will say, Rick has worked on my car. few times and invariably he goes above and beyond and does even a better job than I think he was going to do so there's that thank you much thanks Bobby sure thank you Bobby give us a call again

we're going to go to Andy and Fort Lauderdale good morning Andy yes I called in August I was buying a SL 55 I'm going to know if you know enemy and I got it from Alabama so when it came here everything was good and then all of a sudden the back window the electric window wouldn't go up so I went to a European dealer that fixes your cars they said okay so I go in there and I'm in there like an hour he comes out and he says it's He's a regulator. So I said, okay, how much is it? A $2,500 plus tax.

You hear this? Is that the price price for Mercedes regulated? For a factory part? Is that for the roof thing? Is he talking about it? No, the window, the window regulator. Oh, just for the... Which with Mercedes probably has the motor built onto it.

Unfortunately, for a Mercedes, that does not sound that outrageous really. to me. Is that like a retail price? What about a used part or something like that? Probably retail price, yeah. Did that include the labor? Okay. That's what everything. Then I said, what are you, adding in your mind? You know, I didn't go shopping in a while

with cars with, you know, they don't break. I don't drive a lot. So, okay, so I said, this is a little high. So he goes in the back, he says, maybe we'll save you by the hour. He said it takes five hours. So I said, so he came back out, he

said, okay, we'll do it for $2,000 plus tax. So I said, give me, give me the car back. I got to go around. Okay, he brings the car back. I go in the car. This car has paddles on it. I don't know if you know what that is. The shifter's on the steering one.

Right. Yeah. Okay. I pull away, the downshift the falls in my lap. Oh, God. You believe this? And I, I said, what, he's really? they can believe that the car's old

and it fell out. I could see it was cracked out. Could I sue him or what should I do? Because the guy's making it believe like just happened. There's no way in the world that could happen. I had to call nine months. I mean, you can sue it.

I never touched that thing. Go ahead. Well, I'm going to sound like my lawyer. Uncle Gary. Could I be, should I sue this guy? I'll give you the name of the company. You want to hear it? Sure.

USP, U-A-P, UROMotive, U.S.P. Never heard of them. You never heard of them. They said they were in for 25 years. He's in Coral Springs. You can sue anybody. I mean, but, you know. You probably have a hard time to find it.

Lawyer that would take it. Lawyers work on contingency. Yeah, I know that, right. And there's no law against overcharging people. Right. You can do a small claims court claim without a lawyer. And that could do something. I don't remember with the, you know, with the dollar amount that you've got to be under to do that. And that can be effective. I mean, we've been... The guy, the guy tried to put it back in. If he didn't drink it, why did he try to put it back in? The difficulty, you know, I'm being, you know, just thinking as a, you know, as a lawyer would. It'd be kind of hard to prove it. But that's, you know, it's not a jury. You're, you're going to be. going to be in front of an arbitrator, and you're going to make your case, and whoever

convinces the guy will win. So it might be worth it. You don't have to spend any money. You could see it was broken, and I looked in it to see if there was ever glued in. Like, then I wouldn't care. I'll play the devil. I'll be the other guy. How do you know when broken? How do we know it wasn't broken when you got here? I mean, I believe you. I mean, they broke it, clearly. I'm just saying that it's going to be a tough one, I think. Yeah. We believe you. Oh, yes, so he said, she said. You wouldn't be calling if you broke it, calling us, and sounding so exasperated.

I know the same. No, the guy, I got, then look, I know that here's what happened. The next day, I called and they blocked me. Then I called again in the afternoon. Then I had my nephew call, and they picked up the phone. So what do you think about that? And then he's telling me, and I left him a message, he said, he says I got no messages.

You understand? Like it's... They're trying to blow you off and it just needs to want to forget about you. So you might surprise him with small claims. But see, how much really costs to fix it? He says the thing still might work if he glues it in there. Could that be possible? Maybe.

It's possible. I would make sure that you're going to get someone to do a real quality job with that simply because just a little bit of super glue, odds are it's just going to break again the moment you go to use it. But I never use it. I'm an old guy here, and I don't use no,

I don't need no paddles. I wanted the car because there's only 500 in the United States. Well, the car should still drive even without that little panel switch. Yeah, no, it drives. But I could see who is broken because, like, there's a clean break. If it's a really clean break, I bet you're just some super glue or gorilla glue. If you're not using it, it would hold it up there, I bet.

Actually, for me, because I'm a fan of overkill, I would actually take and drill little holes in the broken spots and put like pieces of like paperclip to make like a brace in between it and then use either a two-part epoxy or gorilla glue type stuff to glue that back together. Do you have a dental drill set? That's a joke, sorry No, I'll get it in

But you think $2,500 is fair for that I looked it up I think that's insane Rick knows more than me Because he does Does that include labor? Chat JP says

Oh, that was really labor, yeah He's telling me five hours to put that in And he didn't touch the window It was the same way I left it To how do he know it's the regulator because the motor works, but it's not hooking on, like. So how does he know it's that part if he didn't open it up? Well, I know from experience with me, we had one set of Camrys,

the 92 to 95 body-style camrys. I remember those. Bulbous. Yeah. The window regulator actually had pulleys and metal cables. And so when it acted up, you could hear the motor running, trying to run back and forth, but the window wouldn't move because the cables would get all destroyed inside.

And just through experience the sound of it, I could tell within seconds, yes, this is what it needs. Now, granted, the window regulator replacing that back then was running about $350 maximum. That's what Chad GPT says this regulation costs. Well, it may be. I'm not very familiar with the Mercedes setup. I just know German cars are generally more expensive for the parts than that. Yeah, I know that. I'm lucky, actually, because I got the car very cheap.

And someone also has me 10,000 more than my hatred. So I don't know if I sell it. But it's such a good car. And I know it's not going to go. He's got 510 horse an hour. I know my first car was a Bonneville, 66, with tri-power. A 421 H.O. My father.

Two-barrel curbs, yeah. Well, that's fantastic. I wish I saved it. It would be worth of fortune. You know what I mean? It was a special model, and I used to beat GTOs because it had no insignias. You know, it didn't say. It was just put in there.

You remember the Ponyate injection, 1957, the Pontiac Fuel Injection. Yeah. I think it was Bonneville. Yeah. Greatest cars. It was a Vanneville. Two-door hard. top, badly blue with a white vinyl top, white rather than kids.

I ordered my father's patron. That's my first job. Interesting conversation, Andy, for sure. Okay. I'll let you go. I want to thank you. Good luck. With the price on the road.

See, I'm from Brooklyn. He's lucky. If I was younger, I would break his place. I would bust all of his windows. Okay, I was just kidding. There you go. I would get even with him. Okay.

I like your style. I'm too old to do that. Okay. Thank you. She can always hire somebody. Let's go to Bob in Lake Park. Morning, Bob. Yes, good morning.

Happy Memorial. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I have a question. I have a question for you. They say that the best time to buy a new car is at the end of the month. Mm-hmm.

Does that carry forward for the used car department of the dealership, or is that just for the new cars? Yeah, it does carry forward to the use card. Not as much because it's not factory incentives that they're chasing. There's some weird status to the month end that's granted. And some of it is legit if they're trying to scramble for these last minute incentives. But everybody is scrambling because the pay plans, and we keep coming back to pay plans, because pay plans drive behavior.

And that's something, and we know about this when we craft a pay plan, Do we want to make people behave in a normal human way that our customers like, or do we want to turn them into fiends at the end of the month trying to get their bonuses? In a sales department that is not properly supervised in a culture that, like, the ones we see in South Florida a lot is it's kind of like no holds barred on the last day of the month. You can blame it on Wall Street because all the car manufacturers are measured. their CEOs, all the management is based on a 30-day cycle. So they squeeze out every sale they can every 30 days, and then they pass those squeeze along to the dealer because the dealer gets bonuses.

Everybody gets bonuses. A lot of other countries that are more, I don't know what the word is, level-added, like maybe the Toyota, Japan, they look at things on a yearly or maybe a five-year basis America execs on a 30-day cycle. Right. And it's kind of silly. You're saying that that's the standard operating procedure for most dealerships.

And there has never been a dealership I've encountered that didn't have this thing built into their. Oops, sorry about that. Yeah, it's crazy because, okay, think about what's happening. They're scrambling at the last day of the month, the get sales in that would have normally happened on the first day of the very next month. But they're calling the customers. They're saying, get in here. you know, everything's going to change tomorrow.

Price is going to go up. So now they've stolen business from the following month, which creates a desperate situation at the end of the month again, and it goes on forever. I never thought about it that way. That's very interesting. You never want to talk to the controller or office manager in a car dealership on the last day of the month.

They're very snippy. Right. We cut it off. There is no scramble. We don't do that anymore. It's not part of our culture. I didn't realize the use card department. if it was the same.

I know the new car. You have manufacturers incentives for the monthly quotas. Right, yeah. But everything's set up by the dealer to maximize that. So it's going to mirror what, you know, the overall environment is, and that is primarily driven by manufacturers' incentives. There's something called a fair step incentive, and you want to hear this, you won't believe it.

But one car at the end of the month could mean a quarter million, dollars for the dealership one car you think they're going to give a discount in that car probably if they have to right well that would be you mean in the new car department yeah yeah here take it let's just title it in your name and here just take the car right and and we just were a lot richer well you know there's there's a line in cats a blanket where they the fellow says there's gambling going on here i'm shocked and i would say that would be the two statement for the fellow with the service problems. So, yes.

These things are, this has been going on down here forever. Absolutely. They're always trying to tell you something else. Yeah. So, in any case, you've got a new routine now,

9 o'clock? You like my bank. You open up at 9. That's what I have decided to do, but I got in here at 855 this morning. All right. You guys are teasing on that. Thanks, Bob. Enjoy your weekend.

Well, you guys have a great Memorial Day weekend. You stay on the road. Okay. Thanks. Thanks for enjoying our show. Okay. We're going to take a look at some text. Maybe you too.

What you guys got for me? Let's look at Amarise first. I'm sure she's got one waiting. We read hers. See, that's what happens when you show up a little bit late. All right. I have some anonymous feedback. Oh, great.

Cool. They're always interesting. Yeah. I find that CarMax offers fair buy-out prices if you just want to sell your car instead of trading it in. But don't forget to factor in the tax reduction you get on a trade-in at a dealership and the cost of your ride home from CarMax. Sometimes it pays to trade-in.

Other times it pays just to sell it to Carmex. And that can be true. But we always say that make sure you get a few sources. And there's a lot of really easy sources now with Carvana, CarMax. Everything can be done pretty much online. CarMax, you're going to talk to a person. But on Carvana, you can just do it without speaking to anybody. And there's some other sources you can do that.

It's better for the, better for the seller of a use car today than it's ever been. You've got so many different ways you can get a good price on your, on your car. You can shop your used car trade in like never before in history. Absolutely. Because every, here's something interesting that we don't talk about a lot. Every new car dealership that I can think of has a what they call a VIP department, which it's a title I hate. And it's kind of a, I don't even know why they call it VIP anymore.

All it is is a system put into place in a car dealership where they have employees, usually salespeople approaching service customers to buy their car or to offer a free appraisal. And so they, some have an electronic system, some people hang, some dealers hang, like these hang tags in the windows. Sometimes I'll have a person in the service drive speaking to every single. person that comes in. Some use sophisticated computer systems which identify the cars that they truly need and the people that have equity that can get out of those cars even the most easily. And so people are looking for these cars. And the reason for it is because it's hard to get used cars to sell in your used car department. When you buy them at the auction, you know

what happens at an auction, you know, people are bidding up the price. So the cheaper used cars are usually the ones that dealers can get in on trade are the ones they can buy in this sort of situation. We recommend if you're approached by a salesperson or anybody in a service drive, you can sell your car to them, but you're being put on the spot. You haven't thought about this. You don't haven't educated yourself. They're going to give you a bunch of information telling you how much your car is worth. And that's fine. Take the information with you. And if you're interested in selling it, then go on to do what we say. is make a couple other calls, go online, and see if what they're offering is within reason.

Yeah, I mean, so don't be surprised and agree to it right then and there. But this is what we're seeing is everybody's scrambling for inventory, but they see your card and the service drive is a cheaper card a bit yet. And three opinions is definitely the way to go without a doubt. And like we always say, knowledge is power. I see by the clock that we may have to go to our mystery shopping report. Are you prepared for that? Okay, that mystery shopping report is from Bremen, BMW, Jupiter.

You can vote. We look forward to your vote, and you can go to our text number, which is 772-4976530 to vote on Bremen, BMW, Jupiter. Okay. Okay. Just as an aside, I saw a cartoon on Facebook, and I just, I posted it last week, I think it was. On Instagram, I saw it to you. Yeah, it was just on a, I'd seen the cartoon before, and for some reason, we had a huge, I had a huge response, and everybody agreed with it. And it was, the cartoon was of a customer in a BMW dealership.

And he was talking to the salesman, and he said, who were those people over there? And there were a bunch of people in front of a destructor and sitting in chairs in the BMW showroom. And the title was, can I see it on the air? Yes. You can say ass because you're not reflective anatomy. Go for it. The subject title was, how to drive like that? an ass oh okay yeah and uh but the point is i found out that everybody thinks that bmw drivers

are are just rude uh uh they they don't care they they speed uh their bullies uh they tailgate you i think this was proven everybody believes that i think this was proven with a study We put on Chagabit, and there was a... Chaginibb T says there are scientific studies that show that the personality of the people on the road would be a W. Now, this is obviously not everybody. I have friends that drive BMWs. There are really good people that drive BMWs,

but... Have you ever seen them driving on the road? Maybe. Probably not. Anyway, it's funny. personalities do demonstrate by your car. People know a little bit more about you, psychologically, by the car you choose. BMW drivers are all crazy.

I'm only kidding there. You're not crazy. Some of you are. Look at it. Here we go. Okay. Mystery shop, Brayman BMW, Jupiter. They're on Indian Town Road.

That's in northern Palm Beach County, speaking in the first person, as if I were the famous Agent Lightning. I arrived around lunchtime, was greeted by his salesman, who introduced himself as Jorge. I walked over to where the cars were parked. He followed me, asking, is there anything I can help you with today? Do you have any questions for me? I said, I really like the color combination of this car here. Now, listen to these color days. This has something to do with the psychology of BMW drivers.

It was a new 2025 BMW 330I in. Race blue metallic, R-A-C-E-V-R-A-V-R-A-V-R-E-V-R-M-W, okay, see, B-M-W driver, and a cognac leather in interior. Very creative. Drink and drive. Very colorful. Right, I didn't think of that. I was like, whiskey.

If anyone's interested in what this race blue metallic is, it is a blue, a deep blue, and it has some metallic flakes, but depending upon the lighting, that could go reach deep, rich blue with purple tones. I and all of our listeners just visualize that car, thank you. There's actually Toyota's coming out with a new color called WaveMaker, which is like a kind of slightly dark baby blue. Last week I was talking about the colors. Anybody's interest, and I have a Mr. Schiaberg report.

Sorry, I'm sorry. Maybe we have 20 minutes, though. MSRP, $51,230. The Monroney label was where it's belonged, and that's a plus. South Florida folks. Moroni label actually on the window. So let's give Brayman a little bit of credit for that. And there wasn't, listen to this, there was not any addendum.

So here we go. sales motion, I asked, would you like to take it for a test drive? I said, yes. We headed inside because it had started to rain. Jorge walked over to his desk and handed me one of his business cars. He excused himself to get the keys on a license plate. When he returned, we went out to the car. He had me started up. It was extremely hot, and believe it is hot here in Florida this time of year. It's horrible. It took a while to cool down. He rolled down the windows and suggest I start driving to help cool it off.

We hit it west on Indian Town Road. I could tell he was a bit nervous about me driving. He motioned for me to move into the slow lane so we could make a big loop back to the dealership. He kept looking in the mirrors and leaning toward the side, blocking my

view of the mirrors when I tried to switch lanes. I mentioned, I got this. I've been driving for almost 35 years and haven't had any accident. Thank you, Agent Lightning. Like, settle down, kid, I got this. Really?

Yeah, Agent Lightning's got it. Orie apologized, sat back in the seat only to quickly say, watch out. There's a police officer sitting right there. The officer ended up pulling out and following us when I went to turn down the side street to return to the dealership. Oray said, oh, no, you can't go that way. I should have turned, but I kept going and said,

that police officer has been following me this entire time. time. Jorge became visibly nervous. You'll see what this all about in the minute. Jorge became visibly nervous and said, I didn't put the plates on the car and pointed down to his feet, but I have them here in case you got pulled over. And this is standard operating procedure car dealerships. Salesman always got to find a plate to put on the car to take it for a demonstration ride. It's a lot of trouble to get down on your hands and dates and put a plate on. I will say magnets and things like that. I will say this.

Generally speaking, around a dealership, the police, the local police know when they see a car with a big yellow 25 painted on it or a Monroni's label

and they know it's a test drive and generally speaking you're not bothered by the police near a dealership. That's true. Cops know the dealers. Back at the dealership he had me pull over,

pull into all of the handicapped spots and said someone, I would move the car later. I decided back in and he pointed out the car's cameras and 360 degree bird's eye view system. That irritated me a little bit by parking in a handicapped spot, but that's because, you know, I'm handicapped. We went inside to his desk where he asked for a buying license and contact information. Then he asked, if all the numbers look good to you, how soon would you want to purchase or are you looking to lease? I said, no, I'm looking at

purchase he replied uh that's better than leasing uh totally uh surprised me when i saw that phrase uh the salesman typically they try to push push in the lease because dealers make more money leasing uh this guy could be a rookie uh why he thinks uh buying is better than leasing i'm not sure i can't say that i don't know it'll be in w but i know right now like the toilet's lease programs are mid you know like you're not it doesn't it's not a good deal right now they don't because they're not incentivizing them. Yeah, it can be yeah. Particular. So maybe it's just

Yeah. Excuse themselves to speak with his sales voucher. After about 10 minutes he returned to him his boss really wanted to earn my business. It's always earned my business and has significantly discarded the car. He said, I think you're going to be

really happy and showed me the MSRP on his phone $51,230 from the Windows. along with a piece of paper. It was a worksheet with few details. It showed that I was getting a $5,875 discount from MSRP. That's a real whopper.

My price was $45,000, $355,000, but there was no other helpful information. I asked, can I get a printout with a breakdown of the dealer fee taxes and a new plate? He replied, you need a new plate? I said, yes. I told you, I'm not trading anything in. I figured, yeah, I need a new plate. He said to be right back about five minutes later, return with a requested document. This worksheet revealed that I would be paying $9.99 pre-delivery service charge, junk fee.

It's an old-fashioned euphemism for junk fee delivery, pre-delivery service charge. That's what I used to call my dealer fee, which was $4.99. Yeah. Yeah. I remember that term, by the way. Pre-delivery for service charge? Yeah. You're owed royalties on all of this.

They said we couldn't charge a delivery fee because we were already being reimbursed. So I changed the name to pre-delivery. You know what? You're owed a debt of billions from South Florida car dealers. And a bogus $414 tax. title processing fee, but that was it, other than tax attack. He also said, I printed a lease option for you in case you're interested and should be another sheet with lease payments.

He asked, what do you think? Would you like to move forward with purchasing the car? I replied, no, I told you from the beginning that I need to talk to my husband before making any decisions. He asked, can you call it now so we can get the process started? I said, no, can't bother him while he's at work. I'll be in touch later. He didn't ask, would it be okay if my sales manager, George, came over to say hi?

Interesting that his name was Jorge, and his manager's name was George. It's our policy at the dealership. I showed up, and then less than a minute of the manager, George, came over, introduced himself, and asked if Jorge had done everything to my, had done everything to my citizen. faction, I said yes, and then I left. And there you have it, Jupiter, Florida, BMW, Brayman, BMW. The only car dealership in Jupiter, Florida. The only car dealership in Jupiter, Florida. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it was a long story there, but we haven't got time for it. All right, well, let's see. This is kind of an easy one for me because we're great on the curve.

I am grading on the curve, of course, and they're getting a C because it was just, a typical experience and it wasn't a bad I might I don't want to give them a C plus because that's the same thing as a B minus but it was a pretty good C I this is something you know I expect more from my luxury car dealer and so if anything is true yeah I I did see like okay here's something they did I don't know anybody noticed most of the mystery shops that we see are now combining these electronic filing fees in the private tag fees into one big fee

like they're combining it with so it looks like an $800 registration fee and they didn't do this they had they separated the result completely so you could see what you know what the state was getting and what Bremen was getting

and I don't care about the license plate thing I mean that is it's funny and it might bother some people because you know you're supposed to drive it was out it was a little sloppy but it wasn't it should have been more he should have been reassuring saying don't worry about the plate this is this what we do every day yeah he should have said i'm going to put this in the back seat all the cops know us around here

and we never get pulled over yeah but he kind of he made he created a kind of a stressful situation unnecessarily um there's that and let's see if i can uh oh we have chat gpt who's going to provide their grade, along with me. Chat GPD says, things started smooth, Jorge was friendly and on it, but the test drive, not so much.

He forgot to put the plate on the car, so we're cruising at a brand new BMW with a cop behind us and the plate at his feet. Not a great look. He offered a decent $5,875 discount, but the price sheet was vague and packed with about $1,400 in junk fees.

Then he pushed the shopper to call her husband on the spot to close the deal. Final grade. C, not terrible, but from a luxury brand, this felt more like a valet with amnesia. I just had a great thought. What if we fed MP3 files, audio files, and to chat, CBT, or every one of our podcast on the mystery shopping reports? Hey, Jonathan, what do you think about that? I don't know.

I mean, he'd know everything we know. Oh, yeah, because I commit this to memory. Yeah. We could create, because,

you know, on chat GPT, there are little bots or specialty chat GPDs that are created. Like you can have one that's, you know,

especially for screenwriting. We could create a recovering car dealer bot that knows everything that you do and we do. All right. I'll put that on the list. Yeah, things to do.

All right, more grades. Okay. We've got Bob from Maryland says Agent Lightning could have ended up with a charge of Grand Theft Auto. It's a B. Do we have any more?

I want to interject because we do have a little time. I want to say this, though. That happens, and it's happened to us. It even happened to us, I'd say, about 10 years ago. So I remember it was before the big remodel we did. And we had someone, and we had a missing plate.

It wasn't a missing, you know, it wasn't a missing car. It was a missing plate that had been reported stolen by one of our salespeople without anybody's knowledge and somebody was put out on a ride and was pulled over by Palm Beach,

the town of Palm Beach police and with guns and everything. And it was a horrible, embarrassing thing that we were completely at fault with. I recall. Wow. Yeah, I know you recall because I think they called you guys.

Not only that, that happened to me also. So that's another show. Okay. Okay. Frank and Jupiter Farms says mystery shop is a C, but an A for the color combination. Yeah. And we'll keep watch on that one as we go on to say, Nigan 1 says junk fees equals D.

Cliff's picks, fees added on once again, but this one is a C-minus. T-cash says C, let me block this mirror so we can move forward with this deal. What's behind us is behind us. Joseph Kelleher, D-plus, junk fees and high-registration fees are the reasons for the D-plus grade. Cliff's pick says, I love chat, GPT, and I use it for lots of searches. Over here we have, Tom Steckle says C-plus, no addendums, straightforward, exactly the same junk fees as Fields' BMW in Orlando. Tim Gellalance is C.

Brian said Latko, C. Mark Smith, I'll give the dealership a C. Mark H. C. J. C. Junk fees, test drive weirdness. Johnny Z. Fradley. C. Fees not too bad, and the tire battery fee was only $5.50. Such a bargain.

Kim appreciates life. That's better than most. C. Brian said Latco, nice back. up, Jonathan. Jonathan gets an A. I haven't even seen what it is. Johnny Z. Freidle says, my dealer forgot to put a temp tag on my car. I didn't notice until after my 60-mile drive

back home, but they did overnight the tag to him. For myself, I'm going to give this one a B. I mean, they've got a few junk fees on there, I know, but they really kind of seemed like they gave the out-the-door price right at the beginning, even though the fees, they were included in it. You're going to piss off all of your fans.

I really didn't see anything. You know, for South Florida, these guys were almost angels compared to what some of what we see. So, in my opinion, I'm going to say with a B, solid B on Brayman. Brayman generally in South Florida, they do better, I think. They're not notorious.

They got a lot of dealerships. Okay, guys, I'm going to vote. Excuse me, Stu, and we're running out of time. You know, on so many levels here, I find this mystery shopping for, I don't know, I was just scratching my head. First of all, the salesperson, was he wanted in another state, you know, by his, I don't know what to say, except, you know, this, pardon me? He seemed nervous. I didn't think of that aspect that he really didn't want the cops. I mean, he's talking about the police.

He's talking about he wants her to move over into the slow lane or whatever lane. He's throwing caution to the wind as far as the disabled parking place. There was just so much that went on here. And was he, I don't know, controlling, protective? I don't know what he was trying to do. But Agent Lightning had to say, I've been driving for 35. years. So, you know, unless we're on a heist here, and I'll keep your opinions to yourself and let me enjoy this, you know, this ride. So that's my opinion. I give him a D-minus.

I'm not giving a C-plus. Rick changed my mind. I was going to just give me C. I give him a C-plus. I mean, I don't think he was wanted. I don't think the sales wasn't wanted, but, uh, you heard that here, folks, grade was raised. You were, uh, Rick? You swayed them. That's pretty good. All right, so the final grade is a C plus. Yeah, there we go. And for the record, I probably have driven thousands of our used cars out on the road for test driving purposes, looking for issues.

And I almost never even bothered bringing a tag with me. Right. And I never once got pulled over. Yeah. The police see a technician in a uniform, and obviously you're driving a, company-owned vehicle, and they're just like, okay. All you car thys out there, all you car thays, remember, all you have to do when you get pulled over and say, why don't you have a tag?

It's just, I'm a mechanic, and I work into the car dealership over there, and I left it back on my bench. Or like the salesman said, I didn't need a tag. I'm just test driving. I was actually more nervous about the idea that I might get pulled over in a customer's car that, shall we say, smelled of an illegal. illicit material when I'm test driving it for a customer right well we we've told you know you're allowed to refuse to test drive the car for if it's a safety reason yeah if it gets really

bad yeah we've had some things that were um so disgusting for health reasons we said no you don't we don't we can't service the car yep there's animals in there we can hear them yeah don't forget to pick up a copy of the Washington Post and see the full page ahead and where we asked jeff Bezos to make us a approved Amazon new car dealer. And if anybody out there has any connections to Jeff Beez's. Sunday, Washington Post. Sunday, Washington Post. If anybody has any connection through family or business to Jeff Beezus, tell

him to check it out. Yeah. Because it's a really nice letter. He'll like it. He'll read it and it's a good thing. Absolutely. How much time do we have, Jonathan? Three minutes.

Okay. I have, I love old stories. This whole Brayman thing brought me back to the day when I was, you know, younger and a toilet dealer, and Toyota was putting a lot of pressure. They put the pressure on all car dealers, even today. They like lots of dealerships. They like new dealerships. Wherever you are, they want you in a better location.

So there's always that tension between the car dealers and, in this case, Toyota, the manufacturer. So they wanted me to build in North Palm Beach and Jupiter and Juno. And the reason they were wanting me to go there is because BMW was there, which is who we mystery shop today. So there was a big plot of land next to that dealership, BMW, and it was owned by Beth Smith, actually, Nick Smith, his son. So Nick Smith was getting pressure to relocate there, too, and he had that land. So I got with Nick, and I said, let's tell, you tell Ford, and I'll tell Toyota that we're going to build here, but we can't get approval from the Jupiter, which we couldn't get approval from Jupiter, because somehow B&W slipped in the door there.

Brayman did, I don't know how he did so. He kept Toyota off my back for years and years. forward off his back for years and years. Well, there used to be a Dodge dealership there. And I think the BMW took them over. Yes, it was. Yeah, it was Jupiter Dodge. Yeah, and I think they might have got in before Jupiter started saying,

no, we're not allowing anybody. Yeah, he did. Got grandfathered in. Well, I'm keeping my eye on that place. I live right around the corner practically, so they're not doing so bad. Maybe it'll be a shorter drive for me to work. I don't miss those rides. I don't miss those drives that we did looking for.

So-called property. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, happy Memorial Day. Have a wonderful safe weekend. And we'll be right back here next week. And same time, 8 a.m. until 10. Thank you for joining us. You're a huge part of the show. And we'll see you right back here next weekend.

Saturday morning.