Earl Stewart on Cars - 05.25.2024 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Ed Morse Honda of West Palm Beach, FL.

Episode Date: May 25, 2024

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits a local Honda dealer to see what they have on the lot and how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2024 Honda Accord Sport Hybrid. 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”

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

Good morning, everybody. Well, I'm back live. I didn't think I would be, but I was feeling pretty bad there for a while. Thank all you regular listeners who stuck with us and listened to the reruns that we ran for the past several weeks. Unfortunately, Nancy has got the bug that I had, and we now share the bug. I'm well, she's got it, so Nancy's home today, and we'll not be in, but hopefully she'll be back in next week. Anyway, we welcome you here to the show that will help you buy or lease or maintain or repair your car without being ripped off by a car dealer. That pretty much says it in a nutshell.

and we're going to be here until 8 or from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Eastern standard time. It's two hours. We know you're not going to be with us for two hours, but we do want you to check in with us when you have time. If you're driving or your home or wherever you might be, you can call us. And this number is important. You probably don't want to call us right now or maybe don't need to. but if you've got a pencil or something you can write on, safely, I'm going to give you this number out, and it will be, well, several times. That number is 877-960-99-60.

That's 877-9-60-99-60. And that is the real-life telephone, the old-fashioned telephone, some people would say, that we rely on heavily. this is a live radio show but we also stream it and we stream it all over we're on Facebook we're on YouTube you know we're just on online with true oldies.com so you can you can pretty much listen to us with podcasts we're you know we're 21st century I mean we're in there this is not an old-fashioned radio show but it's got that flavor and live radio is really exciting it's it's something I think we'll always have with us because

the immediacy of not knowing what I'm going to say, or Stu Stewart or Rick Kearney, or Nancy Stewart is going to say, not knowing what the callers will say. And we don't censor anything on this show. I mean, if you say something absolutely terrible, I guess the controllable bleep it out, we have a 20-second delay. But outside of that, it's really, really comes from our hearts

as well as our minds. And you can't match that with, I mean, real live radio. So all we're doing is digitalizing our live talk radio show. Most exciting thing about the show is our mystery shopping report. And it seems it gets old school to us because we've been doing it for 20 years. But if you haven't heard the show before, think about it. How many of you remember Mike Wallace in 60 Minutes?

I mean, 60 Minutes is still there, but the old Mike Wallace thing where he suddenly walks into a business. And, you know, the business has been scamming the public and grabs the CEO or the general manager or somebody and says, hi. Of course, they know who he is, Mike Wallace, and the guy either passes out or turns white or, I mean, says no comment, puts the paper in front of his face. That's what we do when we walk into a car dealership. We walk in an announcement. We're undercover, so they don't know. It's Agent Lightning, that's the undercover name for our secret shopper who just really does a marvelous job. And we go and we pretend to buy a lease a car and we respond to an ad many times.

And we just check all the procedures, the legalities. We find so many car dealers out there that are frankly breaking the law. We find most all the car dealers are violating ethical or regulations that are just more. walls. Rick says we got a call over there. He's sitting in for Nancy. So whatever I'm doing, we go to you callers. So please call. We won't make you wait, I promise. Good morning to Nancy in Sunrise. First time lady caller. Hi. Hey, good morning. Nancy. Hello, Nancy. Hey, by the way, when you're finished speaking with us, please stay on the line so our fellow over in the control room can get your mailing details. And we'll have Earl and Nancy.

you get a checkout to you for $50 for being one of our first two first-time callers for the ladies. Oh, wonderful. That's wonderful. Thank you so much. Okay, Nancy, what's on your mind? I almost thought it was my Nancy, my wife calling back in because she's gone sick. So anything we can help you with, Nancy? Yes, I have a 2010 Toyota Rev, four-wheel-drive v. the limited edition and I have 120,723 miles on it as of June 21st of last year. So I took it into a Toyota dealer because I got the oil change and some air filters and they more or less gave the car once over. So they came back and told me, excuse me, I needed a part and I wrote down the part and they quoted me a price.

The part is V-B-T-I-B-T-I-B-Ot's gasket. And they told me the price would be $336 plus tax to put this gasket in. So I'm calling to find out if this is over-the-top price. There's nothing leaking on the car currently, and right now I have about $126,000 miles on it. Well, Nancy, Rick, it will address a tech. Michael part of this the commercial part of this I would say you mentioned the cost of a part did they quote you anything on the labor cost um I thought this was all inclusive but I know

that's all they told me the price would be 336 plus the tax so I'm not sure if that was that would include both part itself or that would include both probably if it includes the tax something yeah well um before i turn it back over to rick i'm going to say this you you should always check and you're doing the right thing you're checking with us uh you matter of fact you could call our dealership and we could give you a quote you could go to another toy at a dealership or two down there in the sunrise fort lauderdale area they'll always get always get a competitive quote but meanwhile rick can address the issue itself nancy you should bring out your intermoving Missourian, the show me state. If you say there's no leaks, and they're trying to sell you

what's called a banjo bolt gasket, basically what this is, the variable valve timing uses oil pressure, and for a couple of spots, they have these little metal tubes that transport the oil from spot to spot on the engine to be able to do this job. And the bolt that goes through, it is hollow inside and it has a special metal gasket that goes around it and it literally kind of looks like a banjo because it's round and then has a little piece that comes off the top of it so it looks like a banjo they got the neck cut off so that and that's where it got its name but anyways if it's leaking physically leaking then yes it should be replaced but i would tell them show me that leak why you want to replace it show me that leak show me that leak

If they can't show it to you, don't do it. My real advice here, don't go back to that first one because they should have taken you out to the car and shown you the leak or showing you a picture of it at the least. But I would go to a different dealership or a different outside shop and get a second opinion on it. And for the cost of it, the $3.30-some you mentioned, the gasket itself is going to be probably $10 to $12.

and should require two of them, one for each end of that little pipe, because when they go to take it off to change it, they're usually going to disturb both of them. So they should replace both. And because of where some of those are located, it can be about an hour and a half to two hours' labor to get to it. So that is an appropriate price. The only thing I'm questioning is whether they're selling you a leak that doesn't exist.

Right. Or whether you actually do have a small leak this there. You can kill two birds of one stone by getting a quote and also asking for the diagnosis from another dealer. If they check it out and they don't see a leak, the chances are their first dealer was misleading you. Yep. Right.

Well, I haven't had such wonderful experiences with the Toyota dealership down by me. So this was another one that I tried because I've been to several other ones and not always happy with their uh with their uh take for me so i jumped around a little bit different toyota dealers i went to a private shop one time for something but i guess i get leery with private shops in my mind i'm hoping they're putting in the correct part it's not something new it's really a toyota made part so that's you know what happened with that and i do have one other question thank you for that information and i do have another question for you i'm contemplating the wheel covers on the car painted and I believe they're not aluminum and my husband doesn't

think it's necessary because he said the paint's just going to chip off but I'm sure if I took it to a body place they could you know do it correctly the aim is I'm not getting rid of this car I love it and I want to keep it until it really comes apart totally it's really given me no problem so I have a couple people that do want to buy it from me, but I told them no. So I'm just want to know your take on getting the wheels done. Yeah.

I'm one that I like to keep a car for a long time. And sometimes doing something like that to dress it up a little bit makes it like a newer car to you and it makes it feel more special. So it kind of rejuvenates the car a little bit

even with something as straightforward as just having the wheel covers painted. There's another option. You can get replacement wheel covers that are like brand new looking and that really I don't know anything about painting the wheel covers but you can look like on on Amazon

or something for different it's basically just a hub cap that snaps on. Well I think it's just the rim itself oh okay yours might have aluminum rims. Yeah I guess I don't know if it's aluminum or steel because this was you know my car's at 2010

it's the special edition so I know it's not a hook Okay, then those are going to be aluminum rims. Those can be re-finished. Yes, because like we use a company called Terbax. It's T-U-R-B-A-X

and they usually deal with the dealerships but we will send wheels out to them that have accidentally got scraped against curbs and they are really scratched up and horrible looking. They restore them. And they send them back in a couple days

and they look brand, they look better than the brand new ones did. It's a lot cheaper than replacing them. Yeah, the only drawback is your car would have to stay at the shop because they got to take the wheels off and send them out to this place to be done. But then when they

come back, they look spectacular. And it can really, like I say, it can make your vehicle kind of rejuvenated to you and feel great. Uh-huh, uh-huh. And this place is through your Toyota dealership?

Yeah, but it's an outside company called Turbax, and every dealership in all automotive shops have access to them. Oh, okay. Okay, that's good to know, because I really would like to, you know, like you say, dress it up. I have, I always take care of the car inside and outside, so I, you know. Well, Nancy, stay on the line, and Jeremy and the control room will get your contact information. And then Nancy Stewart, who is out sick this week, but she's still home. working she'll send you a check for $50 and she'll get it out this weekend to you oh that's so wonderful thanks so much for taking my call and have a great day you too

Nancy and now we're going to go to John in Palm Springs good morning John good morning fellas how you doing great what can we do for you I got a letter I've had several letters from Earl Stewart which I bought my car back in 27, and I mean in 2017, and I go every six months for the maintenance. And this is for a vehicle service contract signed supposedly by Josh Stewart. My question is this thing legitimate? That's a sore subject with Stu and me. We found out about this a few weeks ago, and we called Jim Moran and Associates.

which is the company is actually part of the distributorship that ships us all of our Toyotas. They're Toyota, Southeast Toyota is separate from the main Toyota manufacturer, but they are genuine authorized a distributor. At any rate, JM&A, Jim Moran Associates, does our service contracts for, you know, for extended service contracts. They sent this letter out without our knowledge and approvals. and we've since told them to modify it and change it. Right.

The service contracts that are offered for sale are legit. They're the same ones that we approved for sale in the dealership. The language, which used kind of like pressure or scare tactics, like you could be, it says something like, you know, you're out of warranty, anything can happen, sort of thing. We would prefer if it just said, just a reminder, you're out of warranty, these are available if you'd like. That's basically the gist of it. But Earl personally told our representative to modify it, stop it, and I modified it immediately.

So if you got something recently, it was probably already in process. It's hard sell. And we don't like hard sell, especially to our customers. So Jim Moran and Associates, I hope you're out there listening. This is kind of standard operating procedure by way with all extended warranty companies, hard sell. We don't do hard sell. We think if someone feels on their own that they need an extended service contract, they know how to buy. one and we have them available for sale yeah it's but the good news it's not like

those car shield ads with iced tea yeah well I went ahead in like a dummy I went ahead and talked to the guy good and I bought it well it's a legitimate fair fairly priced well-balanced extended service contract that's what that's what our criteria is make something available to the customer that they can make the choice, not feel like if you don't buy it, something bad's going to happen to you, kind of an approach, which is what that letter. That was the feeling in the letter, yeah. Yeah, because when I looked on the Internet on this number, 866-224-4950, it didn't have

a whole lot of good things to say about that. Well, because it's the same call center that's used by probably hundreds of other dealers that use various, you know, their own style when how they market, so. And the funny thing is I called, and I was supposed to get this packet in the mail, I called on May 6th, and I even got emails, too, from Stu or Josh.

And, you know, I just dismissed those, but I thought I'd call and see what it was about. Well, thanks to your call, I'm going to follow up with the Jim Moran Associates and find out what the hell's going on, because I told them to stop. that letter. If it's still going out, then we'll have to talk about changing companies. So if I get this packet in the mail, is the thing any good if I take it to your dealership?

Oh, sure. It's good at any dealership in the country. It's a legitimate extended service contract, and our complaint is strictly with the language and the tone. It is a high-pressure sell tactic to sell, which happens to be a good extended service contract. We don't know. We don't know. need to do that. But we don't like to push people to buy anything, cars or an extended service contracts. Yeah, the funny thing is, the guy called me back yesterday, but I didn't

catch the phone, so I thought, why would he call me back if he's ripping me off? Well, he's not revving you off, but he's trying real hard to get you to buy that contract because he's probably paid commission. Everyone gets sold, he's on commission, so it's

I guess you can say that's our capital system, you know, the profit motivation. sometimes outweighs to moral and ethical consideration. Yeah. Okay, well, let me see if I get this thing in the mail from him. Yeah, I got one more question. Yeah. I got a thing in the mail from Palm Beach, Mississippi,

and it had this little game piece on it, you know, where you tear off these tabs, and if you match something, you get a prize. So it says $5,000. Now, what's the thing on that thing? The thing is the fine print, so fine you haven't seen it yet so it gets your magnifying glass out and you'll find out what the thing is that's there if you study hard enough you'll find out where the catch is

it's like like your like your father probably told you if it's too good to be true it ain't true okay that's what i'm it's going in the trash all right well thanks a lot thank you john thanks for calling. And now we've got Trisha in Boca Raton, another first time lady caller. Oh, wait on, I make a pardon. She has called before. I misread the screen. Hello, Trisha. Yes, yes. Long time call, a long time listener. Yes. Well, I'm sorry to hear about Nancy. I really wish she feels better, and I'm glad you're feeling better. Well, I'm taking good care of her, Trisha. I've got, I bought some Whole Foods, Mom's Chicken Soup, and we had that delivered. So I'm heating that up for her, and I think it's making her better.

Of course. I was kind of upset. I was calling last week, and no one was answering, no one that's in the phone. I said, what the heck's going on? So I finally heard your recording that it's not live, but I thought you were on vacation, but worse, but, you know, I sure. I really hope that chicken soup work. But I got a little brain teaser for you guys, so I hope you all had your coffee.

Okay, this is about my tires again. All right. As you know, I don't know if you remember, you know, I had some nice Michelin's on my front, and they wore out within 8 to 10,000 miles, and finally they replaced them, right? I don't know if you remember that. I do. Okay. After a little fight, I did have them rotated.

Everything was rotated at 98,000 miles. I have another thousand to go for another rotation, but here is the brain teaser. My right front tire is on the outside edge, is very, very bald, as an opposite. opposite of very hairy, hairy, okay? Not the left, okay? The rest of the tires, okay? Now, I just drive, Earl, like, you know, I'm not, I don't drive crazy. I drive, you know, making a lot of rights and left, slow. I don't do it at 80 miles an hour. It seems, no matter what tire I have up there, whether it's a cheap tire or expensive tire, my tires wear out. That is your brain teaser. There is nothing wrong with the front of the car. I've had it checked out,

and now I'm getting it even rotated, and I'm still having the same problem. Rick? Don't Google and see if there's any issue with the right front tire of Honda Fits, because there isn't. We're all staring at Rick right now. Don't waste your time Googling.

And you're not going to like my answer very much, but you've got to slow down on the left-hand turns. If you think about it, especially a Honda fit, being an SUV, they are a little bit top-heavy. The center of gravity in those vehicles is higher up, similar to what my pickup has, my Tacoma pickup, and it's a bit higher than a lot of the passenger cars where the center of gravity has been getting lower and lower closer to the ground. So what happens is when you're doing a left-hand turn, obviously right-hand turns, you're going to slow down quite a bit because they're like a direct 90-degree turn, very sharp,

so you can't do them very fast, you have to slow down. Left-hand turns, normally, especially in Florida, these are big wide intersections, four or five lanes each way, and as you're doing that big wide sweeping left-hand turn, turn, obviously in traffic, go with the flow of traffic and usually traveling quite quickly. That means the weight of the vehicle is being transferred over to the right side, and because you're doing that left-hand turn, it's also going on to that left front, or the right front tire rather.

When it's pushing on that tire, it's causing the whole thing to roll towards that outside edge tread, and that's what's wearing it down. Okay. However, Rick, I am not in big traffic. I am on streets where I'm, you know, on all residential streets, I'm going 20, 30 miles an hour through the streets. I am not in traffic. But even so, here's an experiment. If you really want to try this one, it sounds crazy. But give this a try for like a couple of months. and see if that changes that wear on that right front. Do the UPS method. UPS actually came out with a survey, a study, and they had their drivers change their driving patterns

to where they did not make left-hand turns. They had them actually plan out their routes to where they made right-hand turns every time they had to change the direction of the vehicle. And they found that it increased the, if you know, the efficiency of their routes by not having to stop and wait to make a left-hand turn. But just as a corollary, I bet if you changed your travel pattern just for an experiment and made only right-hand turns and had a different tire up on that right front,

I bet you'll see that that edgeware will not occur. That had to make the UPS drivers matter now, and I can't imagine anyone. Can you imagine going somewhere and say, oh, I can't make a left-hand turn? I've got to go an extra two miles. But I'll throw down the gauntlet. Like driving on Manhattan. This is what's causing the wear on that tire because it's a top-heavy vehicle and left-hand turns. Well, Trisha, if you're going to try that, I'd love to hear what happened, but I don't blame me if you don't do it.

I don't have a good thing. Yeah, go do that. It is crazy, Rick. I don't see myself doing that. I would get lost. You're right. I mean, I already put two-down. That was Rick's plan all along.

But let me ask you this, Rick, so much for that. But are tires going to win? I mean, even with that, how could it? tire wear out that fast. You know, no matter what, I see top heavy, blah, blah, blah, but it's just, you know, when I did the rotation at 98,000 miles, okay, you know, the tires weren't perfect, but it wasn't bald. It's, I can't imagine even a Michelin or any tire wearing out that fast.

Okay, okay. Let's ask this up. I'm going to try a crazy solution, but not as crazy as Rick's. What if you were to put, I'm asking Rick, and you, Tricia, what if you put some chalk around the right front outer edge of the tire and chalk around the left front edge of the tire, and then at the end of a day or two, look and see which has more chalk? Yeah, if you covered the entire side wall of the tire,

and you would see that it would obviously wear off more on the right side, than on the left. Now there's three reasons that would cause the tread wear on the outer edges of the tire. One is the alignment is totally out and that that tire the camber is too far negative and the tire is literally leaning onto its outer edge. But you said it's been checked and that the camber is correct. The other one is if the tire is being run underinflated but that would cause both the edges of the tire, the outer and inner edges to wear because of how the tire would be squishing down on it. And the third one is excessive speed in left-hand turns.

Okay, well, how fast a slow should I be going then? I would try to drop it down to 10 to 15 miles per hour going around any turn. Well, that's a lot more feasible than, you know, making right-hand. Or I'll tell you, come by and pick up Nancy when she's feeling better, and if she doesn't scream when you turn left, you're doing okay. Okay, second part of the question. I am due for rotation in about another 1,100 miles. I want to know if I could push it.

I mean, I'm not on wet roads. I'm not on snow. So, you know, I got another $1,100 before I do another rotation. Obviously, I'm going to have to buy two more new tires, yes. I will, I have to do. This one is bald. I'm going to get two. I'm going to get two Michelin's.

Hopefully they'll last. Hopefully I'll go slow. Hopefully, if they were out too fast, they will replace them again for free. I don't know if they'll do that. But I like to know if I could push it for another 1,100 miles. As long as you don't have... As long as you don't have cords coming through, that if it's a smooth surface, you don't see, like...

Well, two-thirds seconds of an inch, right? You'll be fine. As long as it doesn't go down or below two-30 seconds of an inch. Yeah. Well, I don't have a way to measure that. Well, any service to Barbara can measure that for you. Right, right, right. Yeah.

Well, it's bald, so I don't know if they can measure anything. Yeah. Okay, listen, Tricia, we've got to go. Thanks very much. We're dying to hear what happened. So call us next week, please. All right, thanks. Well, no, I'm replacing them at 1100 miles.

I'm getting two more new ones. Okay. Well, call us anyway. Yeah. Call us anyway. Tell them to answer. I hope that chicken soup works. I will.

Thanks, Tricia. And now we have Lane in Fort Myers. Good morning, Lane. Good morning. I'm thinking, Rob, trying to push my friend into purchasing a new car. Right now, we take long trips from Fort Myers to Missouri, to Virginia, back to Fort Myers, and we're driving in a 1999 Lexus L.S. 400. And it's a beautiful car.

Yeah. 156,000 miles. I mean, the car is spectacular. but everything on it is old and like I think it has the original hoses on it and it has original this and original that and I'm just concerned about driving that sort of distance and a car that old where if you break down getting parts would be a real treat but in any event I was trying to convince her that we need to get something else because we're carrying an animal in the car a cat and you know if I'm on the road and I break down myself who cares

so I can take care of myself, but was an animal and my friend in the car, it's not fun. But I'm looking at the Toyota forerunner, and I'm saying myself, hmm, did we care? And she's also talking about getting a dog now, too, so it may be two animals and stuff in one. But looking at the Toyota forerunner, I was on your website yesterday, and I'm a little bit confused about the car, and I've been trying to do research on it for suspension. You have K-Vis, you have K-Rez, you have whatever. whatever it is, can you tell me a little bit about the suspensions on these things? And from what I've read, the only one I want to get is Cadiz from what I read now.

Yeah, well, I just told Rick I was going to handle this question because I thought you were going to ask about dogs in the forerunner, which I have a lot of experience with. The suspension, that's Rick's subject. But if you want to talk about dogs, I'll follow up. Yeah, the Cato suspension, my opinion is top-notch. I mean, it's, they're, they're, they're designed, each one of them is designed for a slightly different road surfaces. Some are meant to handle more of slight off road, like going, uh, the, the back country roads, the dirt roads.

Some are meant to handle situations like, you know, you're, you know, just happen to be going through Death Valley, like I've seen videos just recently. Apparently certain highways in Death Valley are almost impassable because the road conditions have gotten washed over with, sand and mud and debris, and the vehicle that did make it through was a four-by-four four-runner. And the video was incredible watching to do it. But yeah, personally, I don't think you can go wrong with either of those on the forerunner, but if you like the specs on the K-DES, I'd go for it. Are there three suspensions to K-DIS, K-Rez, and just a normal suspense by that car? Yes.

Okay. and it's going to depend on the package you get as to which one comes on that vehicle well i'm looking at obviously the four the 24s are or the year is coming out and they may be coming out with a new car for 25 what's your opinion of the 24 versus the 25 or can you give me an opinion at all on it well the new 25 25s are coming out now and they're available with a hybrid power train. It's a redesign. It's, you know, it's a lot of the specifications have been improved,

like the towing capacity has come up. The gas mileage is roughly the same, I think, on the mileage. Let me jump in and say this. Just remember, whatever car you decide, when you get a brand new model, there's always bugs, even in the best cars. If I were you, I would not go for the... the very first 25 that came out on any model.

I prefer to stick with a current model that hadn't had a major change in a couple of years. That way, the bugs are fixed and the recalls and all that kind of stuff is taking care of them. You're talking about taking a long trip. Yes, but I was also going to receive, you're roughly going to get the same gas mileage as your 99 Lexus.

That's about the same around 20. Yeah. No, actually, to be honest with that, 99 Lexus gets 28 miles of a gallon on the highway. Wow. When she's not pushing. Wow.

That's great. Not using pen and paper at every fill-up and furthering out what the mileage is. That's the way to do it. Well, your gas expense is going to go up a little bit then. Yeah. Even with the hybrid.

Carrying animals, it's good to carry animals in that vehicle? Yeah, I have four dogs, and for about three years I had the current body style forerunner it took them around and not have a sequoia now but they were great for to keep them hauling the dogs in around and you have a cat so there's plenty of places for them to crawl around and hide and hang out well this this one will we got to keep it in the carrier

because the cat is a lot of them all I forgot I had cats a long time ago they don't like the ride but my last part of the question is looking on the web and everything it says when you're buying this car you should use a broker because you don't want to directs with dealer because the dealer is going to take you over the mountains and that I should be looking for a 5 to 8% off MSRP and I hate to ask this question of a dealer but what's your what's your feeling about this wayne are you are you a Costco member yes I am okay you just answered my question I answered your question Costco auto buying program you can't beat it and you can check different zip codes your zip code or even go out of your zip code find out

who the Costco approved dealer is in that area for the make you want to buy. And that will be, if you go through the process and follow the instructions and the Costco auto buying program, if you follow those, you'll get the lowest price you'll ever get on a new car. Oh, super. Yeah, we have, with Costco, for our dealership, every dealership has to sell it for the lowest price that they would sell it to anybody else. And in some case, and you're absolutely right, you know, the Toyas are going to go for Blue MSRP, in many cases, but some dealerships

are still, oh, actually a lot are still playing some games. So just use the Costco program and I think like Earl said, you can't lose. Since you have a, you're driving the four running with the animals, what's the ride like? Is it like the L.S. 400 or is it

really noisy and bumpy? I had the TRD Pro versions which have like off-road tires and the little bouncer your suspension. It's not, it's not going to be like driving your Lexus. It's a louder,

bouncier, a noisier ride. It's still on a truck, frame platform. Yeah. Yeah. All righty. Well,

I may be coming back to you just look at more of these cars. Like I said, I haven't even driven this car yet, and I'm trying to convince her to buy it. Okay, good luck. All right. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. You got it. Thanks, Lane. Bye-bye. And now we've got Bob in Lake Park. Good morning, Bob. Good morning. Happy Memorial Day weekend. Thank you.

I hope Nancy feels better. Thank you for that too. Thank you. I saw something interesting. Nissan has a 92-days-five cars, and they sent a letter out to all their dealers, giving them permission to advertise the cars at 10% below invoice. Now, I was wondering if you ever saw anything like that,

before and what's the difference between doing that and just the manufacturer giving you a rebate? Well, that's an interesting point, a very good question. It brings to the spotlight of fact that most people don't understand. The invoice on a new car from any manufacturer is packed with quite a bit of profit. And most cars, for example, when before COVID, when we were selling Toyotas, most of our There was about two-thirds of our car, the actual transaction price was below invoice. So there are certain models that if you pay invoice, which people think is the cost of the car to the dealer, if you pay invoice, you could be paying $3,000 or $5,000 profit. The more expensive the car is, the more that profit is.

Yeah, and it's a conspiracy. And I know that word is thrown around a lot, but I believe there's a conspiracy between the, manufacturers and the dealers, their organizations, to build this profit pocket into something called an invoice. Anybody you ask what is an invoice, you say that's what something costs. An invoice on this, invoice on a TV set, invoice on a refrigerator is what the dealer paid the manufacturer. Invoice on a car is not what the dealer paid the manufacturer.

The dealer kicks back, or the manufacturer kicks back thousands of dollars to the dealer under the table, off the radar, so that you, the customer, never know about it. So when this manufacturer that you refer to authorize their dealers to sell the car $2,000 below invoice, they were doing, the advertiser car, $2,000 below invoice, they were doing one thing, they were, they have a lot. The other part of the conspiracy, I know I'm rambling here, the other part of the conspiracy is that the, they, Honda, and some other manufacturers won't allow a dealer,

and even Toyota will not allow a dealer to advertise a car below invoice. And that is price fixing. That is telling the dealer he has to charge a higher price. When two-thirds of the transactions he actually makes at this time in history, not this time, but before COVID, two-thirds of Toyota dealers prices, transaction prices were below invoice. Toyota says you can't advertise a car below invoice. So he's making you

Making you advertise a car at a higher price And there's another aspect to this crime Nissan's concerned about their 92-day supply of vehicles in the lot And they're telling the dealers Okay, you guys lose money to get rid of them They're not doing rebates Well, maybe they are But they're asking the dealers to take the hit

Yeah, I get it That's a long answer, longer than you wanted, I know I just wanted to say they opened up The new DMV on PGA Boulevard Yes, it's gorgeous, I can't wait to I can't wait to renew my license. Beautiful building. They went from 20 employees, which they had at the courthouse.

They now have 40 employees. And they do take walk-ins, but you have to go after 4.30. It's really nice. It's a big, airy thing. I remember it used to be a shack that you had to wait outside in line in the heat. And now it's a big glass lobby, and it looks great. I got a suggestion for you. If you go to the DMV in Stewart, I know it's a long drive.

they're nicer people it's a smaller place there's no hustle no bustle uh you get in you get out and so uh if you if you don't want to fight the big city dmv go to the one in stewart yes i i've heard that i've done that people have told me that before it'd go up go up to the next yeah yeah now they did and during covid they they stopped and i don't think they went back because we just tried to do this with my daughter and covid they that you had to be a martin county residents, and I think they haven't changed that because my daughter was not able to go there for her driver's license.

That's interesting. That must be my granddaughter. Huh? That must be my granddaughter. That is your granddaughter. Yes, I know. I have a quick question for Rick. You said something about using oil grease on my corrosion problem for the batteries,

and I was wondering, I have some of this permatex that I used on the lug nuts. It's antithesia grease. Would that be the equivalent? It's going to be similar, but I personally kind of hate the anti-seas permatex, even on the lug nuts, simply because, first off, on lug nuts, you're taking a chance that that lug might not get torqued properly, and that could lead to an issue of the wheel coming off. The other sort of it is, that stuff makes a mess, and it gets everywhere. Axel

grease is something that you can wipe it off with a couple of paper towels. Permitex, you're going to use three rolls of paper towel, 17 cans of brake clean, four gallons of windex, and enough elbow grease that you don't ever want to do it.

It's messy stuff. Messy, okay. All right, the other stuff is simpler. And I wanted to thank John at Palm City. He had chimed in about those little donuts to go over the go over the terminals. And I did see them on Amazon and you could buy them for less than a dollar

two of those. Yeah, he's the fellow Queensland. So I want to thank John from the Farm City for calling in. Well, you got a wonderful weekend. I hope Nancy feels better. Oh, thank you, Bob. Okay, bye-bye.

Bye-bye. Thank you much. And those call-in numbers, by the way, folks, 1-877-9-60-99-60 to speak directly with us, or the text number 1772, 497, 6530. You can forget to one. Okay. That's right.

However, next we are going to Marty in West Palm Beach. Marte. Good morning, Marty. So, are we missed you last week? How are you? We're good. I've got a quick question, I guess, would be for Rick. my Toyota Crown, which is very nice, runs nice,

but I'm not getting the advertised mileage on it. So I want to know, is there anything I can do to get it, or why am I not getting it? Only take right turns. Yes. Just leave it in the driveway. Take the brick out of your shoes. Yep.

It's going to come down to real world. You're never really going to get. get the same economy that they advertise with that because they do that on a special test track. Well, well, wait a minute, no, I'm going to brag on you and you're making an excuse for Bob or for Marty. I guarantee you, Marty, I'll bet you. Put some more air on the terrace.

I'll bet you lunch that if you bring your crown in and let Rick drive it home and back one day, just enough time to get the measurement. accurate in a gas mileage, he will get the gas mileage that is guaranteed on the sticker. It's just a question of how you drive the car, and maybe he can give you a few tips on how to drive. If you want to get better gas mileage, Rick can show you how to get better gas mileage. But just bear in mind, I'm not really quite right in the head. So, yeah, I drive in a very exaggerated manner. We've been trying to keep that a secret, by the way.

But I can maximize fuel economy, but. people around me on the road will hate you they don't like me much yeah when you hyper mile you can you can do that you can ease off you can do take every advantage to use momentum we weren't kidding we've always advised putting more air in the tires yep but you can like you said exaggerate the coasting distance and you can you can get above the the estimated but like Rick said you're gonna get a lot of honking even down to the simplest method of making sure that you're not carrying anything in the car that doesn't need to be there.

Even a couple of books. Like I say, it runs very nice. I have no complaint about that. And, you know, like right now I'm getting maybe 36 miles per gallon, and it's supposed to get 41, I think. So, I mean, it's not a tremendous thing, but... Well, and bear in mind that right now, we've got some incredible heat for the past couple of weeks. So every time you're running that air conditioner, it's going to use

more gas to try to get it to that temperature because it's hot out there, folks. What is it for like five miles per gallon? It can. It's about five less. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you what I did. I put it in that eco mode for a day, and I didn't think the air conditioning was working as good. Well, that's how they do it. I put it back to normal, and I just keep it unnormal. Yeah, eco's no good in the summer. uh these days uh it's gonna be hot thanks for the call marty appreciate it i guess i got to live with it all right have a good holiday all right marty you too thank you much and next we are going to chris and davy chris and davy hey chris hey chris good morning gentlemen thank you for taking my call

i'll have a touch of laryngeitis so please bear with me um the previous caller just now uh might I've answered my question. I just bought my 2013 RAM pickup truck, 150, six-cylinder, into the shop a month and a half ago. I had a thermostat replaced, and the brake modules, and prior to that, yes, sir, prior to that, I was getting, oh, my gosh, 17.9, 18.1 miles. a gallon and

now I'm getting like 15 and a half 16 and I'm just wondering again like I said you would just mention about running the air and with this heat

I don't know and I'm just wondering if something wrong there where when they put in these parts I don't know Well, one thing they may have done is there are two places on your vehicle where you'll find the tire pressure for the air pressure. One is on the sticker on the door jam of the vehicle, and that is what the manufacturer says is the lowest pressure that you should be running in your tires.

Except they don't say that. They say this is our recommended pressure, but that is the lowest number you should run. on the sidewall of your tire is the number that is the tire manufacturer says this is the maximum safe pressure that you can run in this tire. Now myself

I drive a pickup truck I don't mind having a bumpy ride because I'm in Florida we got horrible roads so yeah I deal with the bumps. It's fun. I will run the maximum air pressure that my tires can safely handle and because it's got better air pressure, it's higher

that gets me better fuel economy. And the other thing is, and Google this, and you'll find tons of videos that give great advice, it's called hyper-miling. And basically what you're doing is you're finding ways to change your driving habits to increase your fuel economy. And, of course, again, I'll say the number one method is take a look at your vehicle

and everything that's in there that you can get out that takes away one ounce of extra weight is going to get you a tiny little bit of fuel economy better so everything you get out of there that doesn't have to be in your vehicle you're going to get better fuel economy I see

but you're running the AC is going to get you yeah I'm not a normal big AC runner I like the fresh air but again and what we're experiencing right now is like Oh, my gosh, 110-degree index. It's dangerous.

So I don't get air running constantly, yeah. Okay. Well, then that's, I appreciate the great advice, and thank you very much. All right. Thanks for calling. 877-960-99-60. That's our number 877-9-60-960. Do we have any more?

And we do, indeed. We have John in Palm City. Good morning, John. Good morning. Gas mileage is on my mind. I want to let you know that for this summer, you've heard of summer gas. Summer gas means that the manufactured petroleum companies are not allowed to put ethanol in the gasoline for the summertime. The Biden administration, eight states, Midwestern states, petitioned them and said, we were against this, and we want to put it back in again.

So it was too late to do for 2 over 24, but for 2025, the summer gas will be back in again with ethanol in it. So I just want to mention that. And also, basically, does anybody know the difference in the summer gas, that there's no ethanol in it, that there's better gas mileage? I can't say that the non-ethanol is going to get better fuel economy. It is going to be a little higher octane. so you're going to see a little less possible spark knock. And by having reduced knock, you're actually going to get better fuel economy

because the engine's not going to retard the timing as much. Okay. It'd be a minimal amount, but you would see a little bit. Let me ask Rick a question. On your Tacoma, can you tell me what octane you use and what brand gas you use? I normally buy Costco if I happen to be close to them and I run the 87 octane. I run 87 in my Tacoma and in my wife's 2019 Rav4 and no issues whatsoever. That's my point also.

You mentioned Costco. I would only get it at BJs or Costco or racetrack. And Rick will agree with me. The reason is when you buy from that source, They constantly check their tanks that there's no water inside your gasoline. Rip will tell you what a problem that is if a car comes into his shop and they went to a station that had gasoline, water in the gas. There's nothing problems.

Oh, water causes havoc with the engines. When you go to these large corporations that's not franchise, it's run directly by them. There's a very strict standards that they constantly, almost daily, check the tanks, that there's no water in it, and if it is, it shut down, and they're corrected. By the way, speaking about national chains, if they're so sure that the electric vehicle will be 100% in power, why in the world when they spend it so much money, including just three Wawa's open up in Stewart area, in Port St. Lucie, brand new. why are they spending all that kind of money? In my opinion, the future is not going to be in total electric. It's going to be hybrid cars.

So that's just my guess because these companies are not spending this kind of money to put up a brand. The latest station is in Port St. Lucie Boulevard and Citrus Boulevard, brand new station. And it's what's going on is unbelievable because you would think that the amount of gas stations would be, decreasing and instead of it's increasing and the wow stations are a house on fire because they're not only have gas but they have food and it's supposed to be Pennsylvania Dutch cooking but I just thought I'd mention that because how in the world is the oil companies thinking ahead and still building these direct stations. Yeah, Wawa is a very smart company and I agree with you John. I think they're they see the way the high hybrid is going to dominate for many, many years, and they're apparently very bullish on selling a lot of gas. They also, of course, have electric vehicles and chargers, but the name of the game for

Ola is the gasoline hybrid combination, and that's what's going to be the main number for the next 10, 15 years. Well, the ones I'm down on is that if you use your charge, it's another 8 to 10 cents a gallon additional, which is ridiculous, really, because the charge companies, charge card companies, have actually lowered the cost for vendors. And the meantime, some of them will even put a 70, like 7-Elevens, if you leave, there's another like $50 or $75 charge until they find that the charge

card that you use is legitimate and it wasn't stolen. So that's my objection to go to a station that charges another 8 to 10 cents a gallon just for the privilege of you using your charge card. Yeah, it's a bait and switch advertisement, pure and simple. You see the big sign on the road, and you whip in

there, and who doesn't use a credit card now? So, yes, bait and switch advertised just like the car dealers. Yes, I agree with you. Just thought I'd mention the summer gasoline, but for 2024, there is no ethanol in it in a summer gas,

but it will be for 2025. Well, thanks very much, John. really appreciate you. As usual, you're the most informative caller. I can think about there's some on YouTube that rival you, but as far as the telephone, you're number one. Thank you, thank you. Sorry, Marty. And we are going to Bob in Pompano Beach. Good morning. Thank you, guys. My daughter has a 2016 Toyota Four runner, and the door handle came off on the back and went to a dealership in Hollywood and I owed it and they said they wanted

11 new dollars to replace it so um she's a school teacher doesn't make that much money but so she just with some plastic over it for about a month so she goes to a funny thing she goes to a I think it's a Chipotle to get some food you know and the kid the kid in the drive-through said you know, why don't you replace that door ham? He can keep coming here. You get water in there, and, you know, oh, it's kind of expensive. I'm waiting for a summertime to do it.

No, he just replaced the handle. You got the handle, I think, some phone number and replace it for like $10. But why did the dealerships do this? We'll never go back to that place and let's go to a dealership in Hollywood again. It's so stupid, you know. Be fair.

$100, $100,000, you know, to labor and a little $10 item. Well, the guy that was trying to sell to, he's on commission. He gets a percentage, the higher the bill, the higher the price of what you buy, the more money he makes. So it's a combination of the capital system and morality. If you have a guy with low morals and ethics that's on a strict commission, watch out. You know, you're right. I know.

I mean, I was born at night, not last night. I agree with him, but the sad part about it is it's not just the dealerships. I go to an eye doctor, you know, and they keep pushing this cataract surgery. And I'm pretty friendly with people in the medical profession. I was in it myself and retired. And, I mean, it's not necessary. A lot of cataract surgeries just push, and it's something that kind of lead to problems in the future dry eye and whatever. unless you really need it.

But there's a lot of areas out there in the medical profession all over to do this. And I think an outfit that really is honest and as fair and treats people where they want to be treated. They'll do the best. Anyway, I don't want to take your time up too much. You have a great show. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

And our next caller at 1-877-9-60-99-60 is Jersey Mike. Yeah, how you doing there? Hello, Mike. Hey, listen, you and I have got some shared old times with our hot rodding, if you recall, our conversation. In any case, I got a couple of questions. Is there any way to find out, okay, the first question most important is, I know how you advise about not purchasing a car because of the shenanigans that goes on in the South Florida. I understand that clearly.

You did advise me to take a look at. Carmack up north maybe up near Rob you know Sabash you know or north northern part of Florida or maybe even go to Cormax is honest all over for they're they're an independent

they're not their corporate rules apply to all the stores but go ahead okay well you gave me a name and it was free something or other in in Georgia the town that is free free something about free bow free

free land because I'm looking to buy A new... Stu just walked out of the studio and he probably would remember, I don't. Rick is Googling something over here.

You may solve the question this way. If I lease a vehicle that's here in South Florida, I know how leases work. I've done it before. There's a lot of that's expensive and something breaks down between now and the time, you know, lease is up

because you don't own the car. They're repair for free. That's the benefit of having to have to leave first. It's a large down payment. You can put it down payment if you want. Sure. Does it matter if I lease that vehicle right here in West Palm Beach? Because they have three of them over at Brayman-Sheppelight.

Yeah, here, when you lease a car, you should buy it first. Now, what I mean by that is leases are complicated. There are a lot of variables with the rates and the residual, their administration fee. It's more difficult for the consumer to get a good deal on a lease than it is a purchase and because it's more complicated. So the lease should be based on the purchase price of the car, and the lease contracts that's referred to as a capital cost. So your capital cost determines the rest of the lease of the car.

Don't even say you're going to be leasing the car. They look at you like they're, you know, they start to salivate the car dealers when they say lease because the average profit they make on the lease is a couple thousand dollars more than a purchase. So, but go in there and do your due diligence like you've learned on this show and you can use a Costco on a buying program.

You could use a true car. You could use consumer reports. Get the best purchase price. And then say, I've changed my mind. I want to lease the car, and this is a capitalized cost. What is the lease payment on this capitalized cost? That way, you eliminate a lot of the shenanigans that they can pull on you to get a big fat profit on a lease.

Well, what I'm going to do is I'm going to say, I want to know out-the-door price. I'm going to ask that. There you go. I'm going to bargain on that number so I can eliminate the $3,000 to $4,000 junk fees. If I'm successful, and I probably will have to go to the manager you have to the salesman here, as me. It's a matter, you're up in the booth, you know?

But anyway, if I do that, I now have the actual outdoor price. When I have the outdoor price, I'm not going to say I want to lease it. I'm going to say I want to lease it at, which is going to be a substantially low. And if you just said, okay, give it to me for whatever it is, whatever your lease price is. Exactly. Exactly. And look on the lease contract and be sure that out of the door price you got is in the line. labeled capitalized costs. That is what they, that's what they calculate the lease payment from.

Okay, does it matter if I get it here then in Florida or whether I get it in the Penn State? I would get, I would get a couple of different, unless this is a manufacturer's lease. If you're buying a Honda and Honda leasing is handling it, then you're good to go. But if it's not a manufacturer's lease, the dealerships can go to different sources. for leasing they can go to a bank and other sources generally they use their manufacturers leasing my own I can go to my own Navy federal which is a you know you remember that bank as opposed to the client you know get a good deal there yeah yeah just you'll get you'll get your best deal if you do it that way

last question which has got lower sales tax Tennessee or Florida is there a way I can find that out Google, Rick will Google that right now, lower sales tax in Tennessee or Florida. And, you know, I've gravitated from Google to chat GBT as AI. And that. I don't sell my information where it's Google does. Yeah, but we'll have a number as soon as the. They have to get up the line and when you get the info, just broadcast, I can hear it.

Tennessee is 7% Florida is 6%. There you go. Maybe the 1% is better yet getting it there because then I can go to a local deal and I have a problem with it. Of course, if I buy it here, it doesn't matter because I can go to any deal there at least, correct?

Mm-hmm. No. Okay. Thank you so much for that information. I sure appreciate. You're very welcome. Call again next week. Thank you so much.

877-960-9960. That's 877-9-60-990. or text us is 7.72-4976530. That's 772-4976530. And our next caller is Lynn in Boynton Beach. Hey. Good morning, Lynn. Hi, and I have my husband Tom here with me also who has a question. And I'm going to put him on first, okay? Okay. Tom. Oh, done. Hello. Hey, Tom.

Hi, how you doing? Great. Yeah, we have two Mercedes-G-LK-350s, 2015, the last model year. Yeah, I was wondering, the auxiliary battery malfunction has come up on one of them a couple of times. And I was wondering if you could tell me if that's like a, emergency thing I should get to or what? Rick? I'm sorry, one more time

on that? It was checking us a message on YouTube here. He gets a message on his battery, a warning light on his Mercedes. What is the exact verbiage again, Tom? Auxiliary battery malfunction. Auxiliary battery malfunction. Oh, and is this I'm assuming a hybrid car?

No. No, it's just a G-LK Mercedes. Really? Okay. They must have a separate battery system or something. I would have that checked out because you don't want to take issues with a battery situation, especially here in Florida where a battery can be good today. Does you have to take it to a dealer? Can you find out what that message means without having to go to a Mercedes dealer? because they get an arm and a leg at Mercedes dealership. And here I'm going to go to my old standby.

I would immediately go on the internet to Mercedes-Benz owners' forums. Find a local forum of Mercedes-Benz owners and ask them, and I guarantee you there's somebody out there that has that information and can give you much better, you know, they've got the direct end and they know what they're talking about. My other one that I would recommend checking with is, oh goodness, the name I think is Premier Auto Repair on US One. It's just north of Good Samaritan Hospital, and I see them working on all sorts of high-end luxury cars. And, I mean, when they're working, their outside lot is full.

Let me interrupt, I've just got an answer from chat, GBT. An auxiliary battery malfunction in a Mercedes-Benz vehicle typically indicates an issue with the auxiliary battery system. This smaller battery is used to power various electronic systems when the main battery is not in use, such as during engine start-stop operations, running certain electrical components when an engine is off, or in hybrid models supporting the electric motor. Common symptoms of an auxiliary battery function include, and I'm not going to go on and on, but... This gives you more than you want to know. I don't trust, Chet.

It gives you everything the dealer would probably not know, and if he did know, he'd charge you a $1,000 diagnostic charge. Along with some AI hallucinations as well. Well, this just in from Donovan. He says Mercedes has a second auxiliary battery that's usually in the trunk of many models, and when it dies, it'll give you that message. He says, not serious, but it should be replaced.

He says, although some models, that battery is located under the rear seat. So, Donovan, is better than chat, GBT. They cut to the chase, so check the battery in your trunk. Very good. All right, I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Also, you know, my wife had talked to your wife for a few time, Nancy, and stuff, and they bought dogs and stuff at the big dog ranch.

but we go down to the inlet down in Boynton Beach every morning and last week we were sitting here and a green Jeep a literal Jeep was in the water going out the intercoastal and luckily I wasn't floating. Luckily I wasn't the only

one there or I would have figured an age-related thing, you know. Was a Jeep floating out and were people yelling help or was it actually moving as if it was moving but he was going into it. But he was going into the ocean and I didn't see him after that so I don't know I have a little boat I was going

to go out and see if I could grab it you know now all right well listen thank you very much for the information you're very welcome I appreciate it and hold I my wife wanted to say one thing okay hi hello hi this is Lynn I also I also wanted to say that um right now coming down the road in Boynton Beach here, we saw this thing coming at us on the road, and it literally looked like a yellow and white egg, okay, driving, like a tri-electric, tri-wheel, you know, electric car thing, but it was to the road, and real low, and it looked like an egg. It looked like an eggshell or something they had in some of these little races in Europe or something.

Wow, that's the new Toyota omelet. Yeah, the omelet. All right. I love that. But I love to tell you guys these things that we see on the road because someone was just amazing. You know what I mean? Yeah. But, all right, thank you so much for all the information today.

I really appreciate that. Thank you, Lynn. Okay. Thanks, guys. I have seen some power boats that, uh, getting on the ocean, they're running out, but they look like a sports car. Yeah. And it just, and it's a boat, but decided to look.

I never seen a Jeep do that. I've never seen a Jeep. Yeah. They had the ampha car. Maybe they got to. an amphigeep now. A Jeep doesn't seem very aquedynamic to me. Yeah. Okay. And we now have a first-time lady caller. Giana. Giana, when you finish speaking with us, stay on the line for Jeremy and he'll get your mailing information so Earl can get a checkout to you. But you just

won $50 for being a first-time lady caller. I'll tell Nancy and Nancy will get the checkout. There you go. Hello? Hello. How are you doing? I'm doing great, but my name isn't Gianna. It's Donna. Oh, Donna.

I'm sorry. They typed in Gianna here. That's just Jeremy's fault. I'll answer to anything. Well, good morning, gentlemen. I have a question. I recently brought a brand new car down here in Florida, and I'm going to be leading it here for the summer.

I'm going back up north to work, and I was wondering if you could recommend a car coverage cover or something that, you know, I see a lot of people covering their cars with these particular covers, but wondering if they cover moisture, if different colors better than, like, a black one as opposed to a gray one. If you look, this is, I've only done this in response to, you know, we've had questions about car covers on the show before. And so I always, I go to Amazon because, you know, auto parts stores stock these, dealership stock them, but you're going to get a better deal by getting it from a, just a well-regarded supplier on Amazon. And you can go by the reviews and that, and I'm looking. on right now. And these are, they range from 30 bucks to $70. And so, and some of them have great reviews with tons of them. There's a manufacturer called K-M-E or K-A-Y-M-E. And they have, they call them six-layer car covers and they're waterproof, UV protection. And so, and they look very lightweight. And, and those are on the more expensive side, but that's $65. So you, and, and let's

see here the good ones look like they're in the $60 range and I would just go on Amazon and order you can get one tomorrow morning that's great yeah I did see one I even saw one that was 10 layers I think it maybe more layers is better but yeah I mean there's there's some big name ones too like Armourall makes their own too we're not a fan of Armourall's spray products but this looks like but they're also actually I'm not a fan of this one because this is a sponsored one. It's $80. That's the most expensive one I've seen so far. Everything I buy on Amazon, I buy Amazon's

best recommendation. Yeah. And they're pretty reliable. They go through it. They consider price quality. Reviews. Deliver the whole nine yards. Every now and then I get burned, but 99 times out of 100

Amazon, Amazon recommended is pretty good. Yeah, and you'll also, you can return it if it's no good. Well, thank you very much for that. advice and we'll be doing that today. All right, good luck.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. 877-960-99-60 as 877-9-60-9-9-60. And we are caught up at the moment. Wow. Oh, good.

My goodness. I can't wait. That was a busy morning for phone calls. That sure it was. 9-20. We messed with everybody's head with not being on the air. We have Marty's asking us questions when we're not there.

Roadrunner Steve graded our mystery shopping report last week again. Hey, that's great. But I got a really good one from Gary sent this in this week prior to the show here. And it is about a news story here, and right here in South Florida, a woman who was killed last year and a car wreck. because the vehicle that she was driving had a counterfeit airbag in it, and it exploded like a grenade, detonated like your grenade, shot metal and plastic shrapnel throughout the vehicle cabin. Her name was Destiny Biasi, and she was a mother.

And she bought her vehicle from drive time. There's a lawsuit going on now. They're suing the manufacturer, the seller. There is a manufacture of these airbags that, you have the same information here, because I know this is the topic that Earl is paying a lot of attention to. There's an actual Chinese company that is known for putting these things out in the market. And drive time is being sued. We've mystery shopped them before.

We've mystery shopped them for Takata airbags before. And let's just say, without me looking at the records, Nobody did well in South Florida. Nobody was checking. So here is a real world example of something that happened in our backyard with a local seller of used vehicles who didn't do the, well, we don't know what they did because we didn't in this situation. I don't think anybody's checking.

I think this uncovered a really, really dangerous situation that needs to be addressed. So, yeah, it's scary. The message is if you're buying a used car, or even any vehicle that might have had an airbag replaced, you need to get verification that was a certified, qualified, NHTSA-proof airbag, because apparently there's a thriving market out there for putting in cheap, counterfeit airbags.

Here's who's being sued in this. It's being, it's Mannheim Auto Auction where the car was bought. This is Mr. Reliable. They're the big, the almost only, the wholesale auto auction in the United States, huge. And they're being sued because they sold this car with a counterfeit airbag. As Stu said, the dealer, Drive Time is being sued. And Jumbo Automotive. So drive time bought the car wholesale, sent out Jumb Automotive to do the airbag replacement.

And they didn't, not only do these. You know, if I was having my car repair it, I would. I don't think I would choose a collision center called Jumbo. Right. Well, not only they put the counterfeit airbag that was sold to them by Gillen, they also failed to repair the seatbelt pretensioner, which is the thing that tightens up and keeps you in place. So it was also a faulty position.

And so it was a big mess, but what did it was that a counterfeit airbag. You know, when we heard about this, we were establishing a new set of policies because now when we buy a car, if the Mannheim Auto Auction, we buy a lot of cars from Manhattan Auto Auction, we're going to have to have verification that the airbag, if it's been replaced, is a real airbag. And the same thing when we trade a car in from a customer. So the whole thing is kind of like a duh. Why didn't we think about this before? Well, we're speaking with our service and body shops for a way to be able to identify these things every time we see a vehicle come down. Yeah, yeah.

And we haven't been doing it. Nobody's been doing it. So we've got a whole new thing to worry about now. It's not a huge problem because not that many airbags replaced, but the problem is you don't know when. When you put an airbag egg, you can't see it. It's gone. You can check the wiring, and you should. That's part of the checklist of the things that we should be checking now before you buy a car with a replaced airbag.

Man. Oh, Enterprise is getting sued, too. Yeah. Because they said they should have taken out of service. They were running the car. Yeah. Mannheim, drive time, jumbo, and then, yeah, wow. It's a big mess.

Okay. I think, oh, here's a good one. This is from Bob. He says, he has a question. Good morning. In reference to the maximum tire pressure, if you fill your tires to the max, like we said, the one, not in the door gym on the tire, he goes, if you fill it to that maximum pressure, in South Florida, wouldn't the summer heat, would the pressure exceed the recommended? No. It will, but the tire manufacturers take that into account, and they tell you that when you fill the tire, you should be checking it with your tires.

cold. In other words, the tires should not, the car should not have been driven for at least one hour. Okay. So the pressures will be a little bit lower, and they take that into account that as you're driving in Florida is 110 degrees. And they do take that in account

as well, because they even prepare for just in case, like if you're going through Death Valley or the middle of Nevada with the heat there. Yeah, that's good to know. And I like that with planes too, that, you know, basically the envelope of tolerances are way beyond what you would normally operate them in.

Oh, absolutely. I mean, when you think about what airplane tires have to go through, yeah, that's a huge difference. Okay. Let's move on to a text from Richie. He says, recently had the oil change in my 2020 Avalon X-L-E-6 cylinder. I chose to use one of the tire company stores because the tire rotation was included in the price. I would have used your car company had that been included in the oil change. They used 0W16 when the car spec is 0W20.

Not feeling right about that, I returned and had the shop change out the oil to the OEM 0W20 oil. Should I change it again at 5,000 miles to get all the residue of the 16W oil out of the engine? My question is, how important is that? Can I just wait to the next 10,000 mile mark? And also is 5,000 or 10,000 miles the better interval to change the oil in newer cars? Thanks, and I appreciate the show. Keep up all the good work. Thanks.

The engineers that built that car said, if you run this oil, you're safe at 10,000 miles, and they would have used it for the 0.W20. If you had to run 016 in it for a short time, that's not going to hurt anything. And changing it out and going back to the 20, that was the proper way to do it. Obviously, the shop should have done the job correctly,

and they goofed up so but no I I don't see a reason to change it again early yeah I'd say you'd be just fine my gut until 2000 my instincts said the same thing and same thing even if somebody had mistakenly put like fossil fuel like traditional oil in and those mistake if it'd be drained out put the synthetic and it's not going to hurt anything well that one that one I'd be a little more nervous if you were running a thicker oil no I'm saying draining it out right and then replacing it but but what I'm I mean is if your car called for 0W16 and they put a 5W30 in it, I would be a little more...

Upset. Along the idea of, let me run it for 1,000 miles and then or 2,000 and drain it back out and get it out again because that thicker oil is more likely to cause issues than the thin oil. Gotcha. Okay. That makes sense. And let's see, are we caught up here? No, we have Bob also said... Good morning. Oh, I'm sorry, that was the same question. We are caught up.

All right. How about anonymous feedback? I've got to go over to the mail because I can't access the actual box anymore. And we didn't have Amory today? Amory, I think, is mad at us because we were out there. I'm going to read an honest feedback because it's something I was talking about before the show started. This came in Thursday, last Thursday. A question for Earl, does your Tesla have the latest version, FSD, 12, I heard it's exponentially better these days.

Now, this is the new autonomous driving. And when I came in the studio this morning, I was talking to the gang about the fact that I have switched on autonomous driving on my Tesla plaid for the past couple of weeks. And everywhere I go now, I'm using an autonomous. And I was going to be talking this morning about how amazing it was. Not only is it safe, I'm thinking of myself, but it's also a better driver than I am. And I hate to say this, but it actually drives faster than I do. Rick mentioned earlier about he gets a lot of people yelling at him because he lays back. He doesn't, you know, people like to pass him.

He's trying to get good gas piles. had my idiosyncrasies when I drive, but my Tesla plaid with the new software is amazing. It gets me places faster. It takes roots that I didn't see. Was this the new software that almost killed you coming up on $595? Well, that's what I'll be getting to now. You're getting ahead of me. So I'm getting ready for the show. So, you know, Nancy Six, she's home. I said, okay, I'm going to the studio, of course, on autonomous, because I'm going to talk about how great this new Autonomous is. On the way of the studio, it's running just fine.

I passed there, and this is South Florida, on Alternative A-1-A, there's a community called Admiral's Cove, and they have a stoplight out there, and I'm on Alternate A-1-A. Long story short, my Tesla plaid on Autonomous ran the red light, and I was on top of it. I saw, I didn't over, I didn't override the autonomous because I saw that it was going to be okay, and I was there on watching it. Did your Tesla run away from the cop too?

Well, that's, I didn't have to find out, fortunately. Now, I'm thinking to myself, why, why, of all the subtle great things the autonomous Tesla was doing, why would it do something stupid? I saw the red light. Everybody saw the red light. Why didn't the test will see the red light? It dawned on me. Elon Musk, if you're listening, it was around 7.30 in the morning here in South Florida, and the sun had risen at 628 this morning. Sunrises at 628. So around 7.30, as I'm heading south, the sun is on the east. and it was right in the eyes of the Tesla cameras. I had my sunglasses on, I had the sunshade pulled down, so I could see very, very well.

I had a human being, I pulled my sunshade down, and I could see the red light. The Tesla camera could not see the red light, and it ran it. In other words, a life-threatening defect. So Elon, if you're listening, please make note of this. Now, there's one more incident. there's like a small clover leaf area that I get on I-95

off of alternate A1A so I got on I-95 and I get off at the first exit which is North Lake Boulevard to go to the radio studio again now I have that sun blazing in my face but my eyes are protected I got my sunglasses on

and the Tesla should have made a right-hand turn to get onto North Lake Boulevard. Instead, the Tesla turned on the left turn signal, and I'm looking in my side view mirror, and Tesla's getting ready to pull in front of a car that's coming up on me fast on my left. Again, the Tesla cameras were blighted by the sun at that particular angle.

I overrode the Tesla autonomous. And how is the struggle against that? Is it easy? It was pretty hard. I had to yank. You have to fight them. I had to yank the steering wheel pretty hard, and they yanked it out, and I was fine.

So anyway, there's, for you Tesla owners out there, especially the ones that have the autonomous feature, if you could call or text or, you know, we'll stay in touch. I need to get that message. I get a little message on my display screen on my Tesla that said, why did you take it off autonomous? But when you're on 995 doing 75 or 80 miles an hour, you're not going to be using the why I took an autonomous.

No, you're not doing a survey at that point. Yeah, not doing a survey. So it's interesting because those are the type of situations. I don't think it should be an easy decision. Like, okay, your Tesla knew there was an intersection there. And it knows there is a light there. Okay. But it didn't have good information, but it made a very bold move without good information.

I was too fast on that. It actually hesitated back and forth a couple times. Oh, so it was trying to figure something out. Yeah, it was... When you were telling the story, I was thinking what a human would do. Yeah. Because you go, I know there's a light there. So you're not just the camera that stares.

You squint, you move. You're trying to figure out what's going on. So your car did that. To be fair, it would have, even if I was not paying attention, the way it jiggled a little bit. You were a word of you. It was thinking about something. And also, the second fatal error, it jiggled a little bit of,

little bit. So, again, if I wasn't paying attention, which I was, I would have been able to take it. But the bottom line is, it is not ready for a production yet. It needs to be, it needs to be watched carefully. It's getting ironed out. But it's, it is immensely better than the old. I mean, I'm telling you, when it works. It's scary. It's good. It's scary good, yeah. I want to try one out with the new, maybe I'll try yours. Yeah, yeah. All right, well, it is time for our big dog ranch rescue segment segment we are going to feature our sponsored dog of the week this is roger um we try to do this every week and we had roger uh ready to go but we um we missed a couple of live shows because uh for girl called in sick um but we're going to show you a video from a big dog ranch rescue um featuring

roger he's a one-year-old dog he's a mutt from texas um and he's about 40 pounds and they're going to tell you all about them. You're going to see them if you're watching the stream on YouTube.com forward slash Earl on Cars or tune in over on Facebook, facebook.com forward slash Earl on Cars if you want to see this dog. Otherwise you're going to have to hear it. Just listen to the description. So this is a, like I said, a beautiful little mutt dog and we're going to roll the tape now and let's go ahead and watch. Uh-oh, I don't hear a tape. No tape.

No tape. Well, oh, there's the tape. No audio. Okay, well, I will fill in up like subtitles. Roger. He's wonderful with other dogs. He's in a bunk with about three other dogs, and they all get along incredibly well. He's amazing with people.

children. He loves his toys. He loves to swim. He loves everything. He's amazing. And I'm going to show you that I even taught him how to sit and with treat. Ready? Roger. Sit. Who's a good boy? Very, very easily trained. Yeah. It's very smart. He's got a lot of energy. He loves his walks. But I think he's gorgeous. I was thinking about renaming a bandit. You guys obviously can call him whatever you'd like. But again, this is Roger, a little over one, and he so is ready to go home. And he is so lovable. I cannot even tell you. So please visit our website, b-d-r-r-r-r-org. Again, B-D-R-R-R-G. And bonus, we are having a Mother's Day special. So we would absolutely love it if you'd come out to the ranch, visit Roger on our website, and certainly visit him in

person would be absolutely wonderful. Thank you, everybody. Have a wonderful day. Well, all right. So you heard it from BDRR right there. That's Roger. He said he's about 40 pounds, one year old, three months, and since he's our sponsored dog, go through us, let us know. We will pay the adoption fees, just reference Earl on cars. One thing that you know, I just saw this on his sheet. He is Ehrlichia positive. I had to look it up. It's just a, he got a bit by a tick, and he's got a bacterial infection, so that means he's going through a round of antibiotics, but he'll be fine.

Let's take him real carefully. Yeah, and just so you all know, people cannot catch Ehrlichia from dogs. You can get Ehrlichia if a tick bite you that has relicchio, but you can't get Ehrlichia from Roger here. And I, you know, I know they said they were thinking about changing the name to Bandit. I like Roger.

Let's keep it, Roger. Roger, okay. You know, here's an interesting thing that I, And last Sunday's New York Times, there was an excellent article, a dog scientist, unbeknownst to me and a lot of people, the pedigree dogs now are becoming so inbred, they're getting to the point now where it's actually almost prohibitive to buy a pure-breed dog. And I never knew this, the American Kennel Association, in the fine print when you adopt a pedigree dog, they describe the dangers. But I've always bought, and up until my affiliation with Big Dog Ranch, I've always thought you're going to buy a doxon, you're going to buy an Airdale, you're going to buy a Labrador retriever. I thought in terms of dogs by brand, and until Big Dog Ranch came along and came into all. our lives about 15 years ago, you know, that was the way I thought about buying a dog.

Back then, you could buy a purebree dog, and they weren't that bad. But in the past just 10 years, the inbreeding is becoming off the chart. I read there's a big, like, graphical present in New York Times did a thing on inbreeding. That's what I was just saying on Sundays, yeah. They listed it from the least inbred, which would be. Corsa, one of those, what are those? Well, that list, if you look carefully, that list they had there, all of that was to be watched.

Yeah, the worst. Worse were down there, like golden retrievers. And that's what I was, we were looking at that, that the average lifespan of a golden retriever is like around 10 years old now. And in the 80s or the 90s, it was, you know, 13, 14 years. Yeah, and it's from all the end breeding. Yeah, and some of them are actually the bulldog, a particular, The French bulldog is so inbred that they are actually, you know, they, even before they get sold, they have serious problems.

And so it's just, bear in mind, I'm not, you know, I'm not telling, I have a lot of friends, a lot of people that do buy, they want a, they want a Yorkshire Terrier, they want a dachshund, they want a Labrador retriever, I understand that, and it's a very personal thing. But just be aware that if you do genetically, these dogs are bred. Brothers and sisters are commonly bred. And you know in the human race. What happens there. Yeah, what happens there. So you don't want to have that if you can avoid it. Rick?

German Shepherd dogs are known for hip dysplasia. And they're like the, you know, we're always intended, the ultimate service and guard dog for police. And they're not effective now. I've seen pictures. They show a picture of a German Shepherd from 1945 and a German Shepherd now. Their legs are they're angled down to the ground. They've completely changed the animal.

Yeah, the French Bulldogs are amazing. The head of the French Bulldog, they modified it so it would look good at the West Pennsylvania or a dog show. But they can't breathe. And they can't breathe. Yeah. They don't breathe. Yes, exactly.

You'd imagine it the same effort made to breed dogs to look cool. was made the most healthiest and long-living traits that they could find. They could probably get a dog that lives 50 years. You get somebody like Roger there. That's right. All right. Good healthy month. Okay.

Okay. Are we ready for... Mystery shopping report, yeah. We used to shop at Borsonda every now and then. We haven't in a long time. I'm so glad that we went back. They've been there for a long time. They just saw I-95 in Riviera Beach, Florida.

And Ed Morris, as you know, is a chain getting bigger and bigger. The grandson is the owner now, Teddy Morse. And I think he's up to something like 25, 30 dealerships now. They're really growing fast. Not to mention a couple of Harley dealerships, too. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, he owns the one up in Daytona now. I didn't know that.

So here we are with Ed Morse Honda. And I'll speak in the first person as if I were Agent Lightning when I went in to see if they have the morals and ethics and honesty that we're looking for. We'll be grading this show, on the show. We'll ask you listening to text in or YouTube in or communicate with us other than my phone. Your score on A, B, C, or D, F, rare. A's are very rare, but we grade on the curves. So if it's an average dealer, which ain't too good, a C. So here we go. I arrived during lunchtime, went up to the customer service girl, smile, and said, hello.

I was wondering if anyone is available for me to talk to about getting a new car. I asked. Did you schedule an appointment by chance? She asked. I replied, I have not. She said, okay, no problem. He yelled out to a salesman. CB, are you available?

C.B. walked over, greeted me with a handshake, asking, what brings me? you in today. I had an accord a few years back, and I'm interested possibly getting another one, I replied. We headed over to the desk. He asked me if I had a certain color I liked. I pulled up on his, he pulled up his accord onto accord inventory. I decided on one after seeing their online inventory. CB said, I have to tell you upfront that all our vehicles come with a lifetime power train warranty. That's a joke. Mudguards, wheel locks, and screen protectors for an additional $30,995, $395,000, almost $4.000. I don't want wheel locks.

I hate those, I said. Way to go, Agent Lightning. CB replied, well, most of that $4,000 is a power train warranty. I choked when I read that and comes with all of our new vehicles. You also get an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty on the lithium hybrid battery. That sounds to be like the factory warranty. So why he would mention that. It's those junk fees, I'm not sure.

Switching subjects, he asked, do you currently lease any vehicles? Are you a recent college graduate? Are you in the active duty retired military? No, no, and no, I said. He appeared to be taken back by my irritation and said a little indignantly, I was just looking for additional savings for you. Hey. Not professional, in my opinion, or a salesperson type indignant to a customer.

Anyway, after I picked the car from his computer, a new 2004 Honda, Cored Hybrid Sport, with an MSRP of 34,445, he asked, what exactly are you hoping to do today? You wonder about these comments. I want to buy a new car, I said. A CB paused for a moment, smiled and said, great. And as for my license, he excused himself to get the keys. CB returned a few minutes later. Let me know he would pull it up front for me to drive.

As promised, a minute later, he pulled it up by the front door. The Monroney label was in the right place. Well, I'll be darned. That's rare. We don't normally see that in South Florida in the right place. That's on the window, a fixed of the window. And the MSRP matched what I saw on CB's computer screen, $34,445. The package described by CB was also there, the Ed Morris Honda Protection Package

and Lifetime Power Train warranty for an additional $3,995. And contrary to what he said earlier, most of the... extra charges came from the junkie add-ons, not the junkie warranty. So he doesn't even know his own addendum label says. Can I point one thing? Sure. $575 for wheel locks. That's crazy.

They're like $40. They're like $40 online, and it takes 10 minutes to install them. Yeah. That's what dealer installed accessories are. They're extremely overpriced. to give a big, big, fat profit margin. And nothing like something that cost you $25 that you charge. How much for it?

$5.75. Yeah, crazy. We went on a nice test drive. He went over all the safety features of the car. Are there any regular anyone can get rebates on the car? C.B. quickly replied, no, but I'm going to work hard to get you a good price. Once back in the dealership, we went to his desk. He asked if I would be financing her paying cash today,

hired blood cash, most likely. He excused himself to speak with his manager. A few minutes later, C.B. returned with his sales manager, Raoul. That sounds familiar, and I think Raul's been in every town for quite a while, which is a good thing, you know, stability when the same person is there for a long time. Usually a car dealerships have extremely high turnover. we're all asked what type of price should I show you today what type of price should I like to see your highest I gave a puzzle laugh and said your best one of course I'd prefer

not to go back and forth and I want to know my final price you thank for being honest that's so easy you know I appreciate your honesty we didn't thank him for being at us but he thanked me for being honest and said he'd get that for me and just a few moments. Except if she's not really being honest. No, she's pretending to be somebody. I'm an undercover area, right? They went away to the sales office or somewhere,

probably to the brick room, had a cup of coffee, spoke to a cigarette. Several months later, they returned with Raoul, saying, we think he'll be happy with the price today. He said they offer several packages and would go over them with me as well. CB presented a laminated sheet of paper titled Ed Morris Honda,

preferred benefit program package he said all of it is to be optional oh i haven't that's a weird typo it's all optional all that's optional is be optional i think but he'd like to he'd like me to choose what i might be interested in a lot of vagaries here uh cb went that's the name of the game right vagaries uh cb went uh through each item with me one by one i said note everything and then he finally showed me the pricing for the accord The top line was MSRP $34,445. And here's this, a whopper of a $200 discount. Hey, and in case you don't realize it,

the COVID thing is over, the supply chain interruption is over, prices are down, price cars are being sold for substantial discounts from MSRP. So there was a $200 discount. But then they added the $3,995,000. $195 package of the dealer installed accessories, highly overpriced accessories. But then they took off another discount, this time $3,400. That's probably what all the accessories cost of, was $3,400, and they charged $395,000, $4,000.

But then they added a $9009 junk fee and another $304 junk fee. and Stu wrote this and he I might regret this I think he's probably going to retract that but he said there are more ups and downs than an airline flight I won't mention the name of the airline flights but you get you get the point

up and down up and down and dizzying discounts and markups and MSRP and addendum labels they're trying to get you dizzy so you really don't know what the hell the real price is going to be

and here we are my actual price before tax and legit fees was $35,783 a whopping $1,338 discount. No, this is a discount Oh, good Lord. 13 and $38 above. Yes.

MSRP. Yes, on the court. Wow. That is just stupid. I tell you, I'm a prejudiced thing with scores, though, I apologize. I told him I'd be in touch after I talked to my husband. He thanked me for coming up, lied to no pressure, and then walked me to the door along the way I noticed a kitty cat laying in a soft showroom chair. He said, lying, I believe it would be the correct term, lying in the short of chair.

He said, she has become the dealership kitty cat and keeps all the mice away. Nice little chuckle. And not the rats. Not the rats. The rats are still there. Very good, Stu. He walked me to the door, gave me a business card, and said he looked forward to hearing from me soon.

www. www. Ain't going to happen.com. So there we are. Grading on the curve. 99% of our scores are a B, C,D. We have maybe 1% A's and Fs, because you really got to be a criminal to get an F, and you've got to be perfect to be an A, and just hardly, hardly ever have.

happens. So sea is average. South Florida is the Sodom and Gomorrah car dealership. So a sea would almost be a good score in South Florida. So if you could text us your score, we'll read those on the air right now. It's true. No, I got annoyed at Ted Morris, Teddy Morris, when I was reading this because his people weren't bad, but they're being forced to go through this presentation. even be shown the price. They had it go through almost like a F&I menu presentation before they're even shown the price. The addendum, first I thought, okay, we've seen this trend where people are leading with the addendum. And I'm wondering if that is coming from the salespeople who are, why are you still making me try to justify these huge markups when the market's changed?

So maybe they're leading with them because they don't want to take the blame or get it out of the way. but somebody but but teddy morris it is responsible for all that and so it's well the fact of matter teddy morris has no idea what's going on in the trenches he's got he thinks he's got your back yeah yeah right 25 dealerships outside of banking tv commercials with his leather jacket and his cool beard he doesn't know what's going on in the uh in the dealerships in the trenches he's got a bunch of commission general managers that are run on the stores they get a percent of everything they can steal from the customers. They might be telling him, but he's going, okay, that sounds great.

We got the Ed Morse protection package. Perfect, do it. Oh, by the way, just as an aside here, I don't know if one another time, but Ashley Moody, Florida's Attorney General, is going after Starbucks now. She's going after Starbucks for what, I'm not sure. Now, now she lets Ed Morris, she let Ed Morris, Ed Morris, and the other South Florida dealers screw their customers, take advantage of them, and violate Florida law over and over again,

and she's going after Starbucks. Because they took the Christmas tree off their cup. Yeah, and so because it's politically, it's a politically viable target that'll buy her votes. And also, she's probably getting lobbied by the union, because the union is trying to unionize Starbucks right now. But politics is so disturbing to me, especially when it comes to something important like state attorney generals. Anyway, I digress.

That's okay. We got some grades coming in. Good. And the first one here from Bob, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, wait, dot dot dot dash dot is an F in Morse code. I'm sorry, that's the best one. Who was that from Bob? That's from Bob. Bob, I bet you're a Boy Scout.

I remember my Morse called pretty well. Yeah. I can't remember, but I learned it. And I was starting to laugh too hard. Dot, dot, dash, dot. That's great. Jonathan Palm Coast says, $4,000 for a power train warranty,

junk add-on. 600 for wheel locks, run. Do not walk from Ed Morris dealerships. A dealership that takes advantage if his customers deserves less than a stellar grade, they get a D minus for me, and I'm feeling generous today. I am definitely not feeling a C or an average. This, I think, is below what we should expect, even in South Florida.

Yeah. And, yeah, I'm going to go with a D. I mean, really old school. I'm talking old school. Yes, yeah. D for me. Okay, I've got T-Cash says, chat GTP says, hard F for the 39-95 protection package. worth maybe, maybe, 300.

Did I say maybe? A couple times. Joded. F. Dealer installed options and fees and no real discount off the MSRP. Over here, we've got Tim Gillland. Too many games and a not-so-good price.

C-minus. Joseph Kelleher, D-minus. Mark Anderson, grade C-minus. Don't mind spending money. time but probably work out a better deal. Mark Smith, I give the dealership a D. Tom Steckle, D, too many games and moving parts, hard finding an ethical up-front Honda dealer these days. Johnny Z. Fradley, D, plain and simple. The Edmore's protection packages protects you from keeping your money.

I'm not my YouTubers. Yeah, it's just, you think. I got, this will get old with me, but I get emotional about this. The problem is that the people that are being fooled are the people that are not informed. This show, we're preaching to the choir. 99% of our listeners out there and the ones are the stream us or whatever, they're actually giving advice, but the people that need the advice don't listen to the show, they don't stream it they don't know what's going on it just it is the number of people that fall for

this whole thing or it's just a crime that's where reason card is edmore's honda sells a lot of cars i mean they sell a lot of cars and uh they do it this way and people are paying them uh thousands of dollars more in profit than they should have to so uh i'm gonna i'm gonna give them my grueless too i would you would you give me a c minus i get him a d i'm gonna go with a d too Shame on, shame on them. Teddy Morris, you live down here, I think. I know you've got too many dealerships around the country, but why don't you, do you think that remotely, maybe you don't know what's going on in your own stores, why don't you mystery shop? No, you're too famous. You'll have to have somebody else mystery shop for him. Either that or take off your leather jacket and mystery shop them, and don't ride your motorcycle in because they'll know who you are. But shop your dealership, find out what's going on. And if you think I'm lying, sue me.

Yeah, you'll make more money. Yeah, sue me. If you think that what we just said is not true about your car dealership, contact your lawyers. I sued your daddy before. Yeah. Oh, you're, no, your grandfather, your grandfather sued me. But wasn't it Ted? No, no, no, no.

It was Ted. It was his grandfather. His father, right. His father sued me, yeah. Well, I'm going to agree with you on the D for the vote. Not for the radio show, for something else. Right. Maybe we ought to do a mystery shop on his Harley dealership.

Well, that's not a bad idea, except I don't know if... You just want to go ride bikes. Agent Lightning doesn't know how to ride a... Rick's Mystery Show. And then we took another test drive. And then we test the drive another one. Are we out of time, Jonathan? Do we need to go?

We have two minutes. Nancy has a grade for us. I asked Nancy for her grade. Oh. And Nancy gives him an F. And I was going to give him an F for Nancy if she didn't respond, but Nancy gives an F. fees, too many fees.

Thanks. I hope you're feeling okay. Yeah. Rick, what's your book? Okay, thanks. Thank you. Get better soon, Nancy. Hmm? Get better soon, Nancy. Yeah, I'm going to go home and heat up some mom's chicken soup for her. There you go. Yeah. We'll fix vapor rub and help her feel better.

All right. Okay, I'll just mention one thing that we'll get off. It's official in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Court, National Automobile Dealers Association, Texas, Automobile Deal Association versus Federal Trade Commission, petitioned for review of final trade regulation, and here's my amicus brief of Earl Stewart, Toyota, in support of the Federal Trade Commission combating auto retail, and we have one other dealer, J.D. Talmondson in Gainesville, Florida, who has joined the amicus brief. And so... Wow. You know, in my whole life, I never thought you would do an amicus brief,

but now that's an accomplishment. C-A-R-S, combat auto retail scam. So we're pushing it, and we need more dealers. When do they decide? Teddy Morris, how about joining the amicus brief? When does the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decide the issue? July, hopefully. All right.

Okay. I don't know.