Earl Stewart on Cars - 05.26.2018 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Ed Morse Toyota of Delray Beach

Episode Date: May 26, 2018

Earl answers various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Agent X visits Ed Morse Toyota of Delray Beach to purchase a car from the Costco Auto Buying Program. Earl Stewart is one of the most successful car dealers in the nation. This podcast gives you the benefit of his 40+ years as a car dealer and helps you turn the terror of buying, leasing, or servicing a car into a triumphant experience. Listen to the Earl Stewart on Cars radio program every Saturday morning live from 8am to 10 am eastern time, or online on http://www.trueoldiesfla.com. Call in with your questions during the live show toll free at [phone]. You can also send a text to Earl and his expert team during the live show at [phone]. We are now on Facebook Live every Saturday between 8am and 10am. Go to facebook.com/earloncars to also watch it live or to watch a replay in case you missed it. Uncover additional automotive tips and facts at http://www.earlstewartoncars.com and follow Earl's tweets @EarlonCars. Watch Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

Welcome to Earl Stewart on Cars with Earl and Nancy Stewart. Reach them with your questions at 877-960. Here's Earl and Nancy. Good morning, everybody. I don't know how I feel so good on this rainy dismal day, morning with Alberto approaching and flooding approaching and all that kind of stuff. But my name is Earl. I'm a recovering car dealer, and I feel really good.

And I'm sitting in a room, maybe. That's why I feel so good. I've got a team of expert, colleagues, friends, relatives, all of the above. We're here to help you learn how not to get ripped off by a car dealer. And I keep casting a remind myself, we're on the true oldie station. And the true oldie station is essentially music of the 60s and 70s. So I've got to tell you, if you tuned in for Bebopalula, you're not going to hear it unless I sing it. And you wouldn't want that.

So we're just going to talk about cars. We're going to talk about buying, leasing. maintaining, repairing, anything that you want to talk about. It's really all about you. It's a talk show. And that's another thing that really gets me pumped up, maybe, is I come in here just a normal guy, sit down on a stool, and suddenly I've got 20,000 people out there listening to us and calling us. I don't know who you are.

I mean, all I see is I got an iPhone camera looking at me, so I see myself, because we're transmitting a video. and you can pick us up on live Facebook video we'll tell you all about that later but it's the excitement of live radio I mean anything goes and we hope it does go it's very entertaining I'm an old guy and I grew up on radio

used to be only radio and there's a lot of interesting things about radio it seems to be kind of almost more of a natural form of communication people tend to say what they mean more. Talk radio is really big. It's the last of the radio that's really hung in there because TV and digital is kind of taken over everything else. But I get excited about the fact that you can call me and say anything you want. And I can say anything I want.

Well, not really, but I got fired once. That was about three years ago. The reason they fired me from radio three years ago is because what I was saying about car dealers. You're still saying the same thing. Exactly. I'm saying the same thing. But I've got a a radio station, fortunately, Matt Goldapper, I respect that man highly, Matt Goldapper, who was one of the owners of the station, 95.9 FM and 106.9 FM and 9.60 a.m. We were on all different, all those different channels. Matt Goldapper had the courage to hire the team here, Nancy Stewart, Earl Stewart, Stu Stewart, Rick Kearney, and occasionally Alan Napier, a Clayson Repair guy,

And he hired us back, really, because we had lost our job and were unemployed for about a year and a half because the previous owner of this station had succumbed to the pressure of car dealers who said, you get Earl Stewart on cars off the air, or we're not going to advertise with you anymore. And that's exactly what they threatened. And unfortunately, that's the reason we were let go. But, you know, journalism still has some integrity. And one of the integrities that you'll find is this station here, 95.9. the true oldies channels.

We have this talk show. And there's another talk show, I believe. Matt Goldapper has plans to add even more talk shows. So here we are. I'm pumped up. I'm excited on a rainy day. A little bit about my background for you, new listeners, is that I am, in fact, in full transparency and disclosure,

I'm a car dealer. I know you don't like me as a car dealer. I know that the Gallup poll on honesty and ethics and professions said every year since 1977, the poll said, we think car dealers are just about as bad as you can get in terms of honesty and ethics. They read it all the professions. Nurses got number one of the 50 professions. Card dealers come in last, next to last. The best return they had was, I think, fourth from last.

Last year, 2017, for the full year, they were next to last. Congressman are at the bottom and lobbyists and, you know, that type of riffraff. so it's no surprise that's the reason I'm here and I'm trying to as a car dealer a recovering car dealer I'm trying to improve the image of car dealers everywhere and we're doing a we're having a pretty good track record if we look back over the 10 years it's slow so you can't just take this week and next week you don't see the change but if you go back 10 years ago it was truly the while while west when you walked in to a car dealership today it's not quite, it's kind of like the Midwest.

You know, there's a lot of danger, but you're not going to be attacked physically anyway. We've actually had one of our shoppers was physically attacked in Fort Lauderdale in a mystery shopping report. So we're safe now. We feel we don't have bodily harm when we walk into a car dealership that we fear,

but we do see a lot of shenanigans, dealer fees, bait and switch advertising, flat out and out lies. We love it when we do a mystery shop when we walk into a guard dealership, and the salesman says, well, the advertisement that you're referring to, sir, is not true. We just put that in the paper so that you'll come in, or we put that online so that you'll visit the dealership, and then we try to sell you another car.

You know, they try to sell you on their honesty and transparency because they've already written off the dealership, because most of them, virtually. I even will take the word virtually out of that statement. All car dealers that I'm aware of have some form of bait and switch. advertising. So that's why we're here. Don't want you to get the idea. It's all about buying and leasing. We do have a very important mission to help you with maintaining and repairing your car. And I have Rick Kearney sitting next to me on my right.

Rick Kearney is, well, he's an auto computer scientist. Some of us old-timers used to refer to Rick as a mechanic. And then we realized that wasn't fair. So we started calling him a technician. then we realized that wasn't fair. So we call them an auto-computer scientist. Today's car, when's the last time you open the hood? If you open the hood, do you recognize anything under the hood?

Probably not. That's because you've got a bunch of computer modules under there. And every time there's a problem with the car, I won't say every time, but most every time there's a problem with a car, what happens? They do a software check, fix. It's good for you in the sense that it doesn't take very long, But it's complicated. You don't know what they did.

They plugged the car in and suddenly the car is supposedly fixed. That's a little scary. So Rick will update you on all that. And I think we might have a caller, Nassiz. We do. And, you know, I think we should let our listeners know how they can get in touch with us before we take that call. Great idea. Great idea.

877-960. Or you can text us at 772-497-6530. If you just tuned in, you're listening to... Girl Stewart on Cars right here at the Oldies Channel. We hope you'll stay with us for the next two hours. We have a lot to get to. And the mystery shopping report that so many of you really appreciate and look forward to the next two hours, we would love to hear from you. Again, that number, 877-960.

We're going to go to Tina, and Tina has become a regular on Saturday, mornings, and she calls us from Benita Springs, and she always has some new information and some entertaining information. Welcome, Tina. Thank you. Welcome. Good morning. Good rainy morning. We're starting to love that rain, Tina. How about you? Oh, I'm glad the drought and the seas are going down, but too much of a good thing is like, okay, let's see some sunshine. Ask, me about this again on Monday. I'll have a different opinion of it. But anyway, we've got a lot of big industry

news this week. A bullet point number one is that President Trump wants to put a 25% tariff on foreign-made vehicles. I'm sure you may have discussed that earlier. I'm repeating myself. I'm sorry. I haven't discussed it, but that's a big industry news point. No, go ahead. I'm sorry to it. I'm

aware of it, but we haven't talked about that specific tariff. I'm glad you brought it up, Tina. Yeah, so what is your opinion on? And I'm sure that you're probably not very happy. Well, actually, you know, it depends on how you look at it. The argument for the tariff is the fact that the tariff on imported cars is much higher than the ones that we import. When we bring in a car, it's only 2.5%.

And then they charge much higher tariffs on the... American cars when they're exported. So I know Trump is a volatile name and people either love President Trump or they hate President Trump. If I was a BMW or a Porsche or an Audi dealer, I'd probably be a Mercedes dealer. I'd probably be very unhappy. But that would be a financial thing. It would hit my pocketbook.

I think that in a perfect world, we should have equal tariffs that if another country will not charge us for exporting any of our goods. We shouldn't charge that country for importing any of their goods. So that's a perfect world. I think from a personal standpoint, the very wealthy people that buy BMWs and Mercedes and Audi's and Land Rovers, you know, that type of car, they pay typically $100,000 for one of these vehicles. So most of those people, that are paying $100,000 for a BMW aren't going to worry too much about $120,000.

Unfortunately, if you put a big fat tariff on a Chevrolet or a Honda, that'd be a different story because that's a lower price vehicle. Even the luxury cars, when they become used cars, that's going to jack the whole prices up all the way down the chain. That's true. That's true. And a lot of people buy those.

Well, there's no argument, and this is all you hear when you turn on the TV or digital or whatever you turn on is this tariff to talk, tariffs are just bad for everybody, and the tariff dispute comes when tariffs are not balanced. And there's a lot of other factors that come in that affect the argument about tariffs. You know, Korea, Libya, I mean, it turns into a huge political discussion, but... Yeah, we're not here to discuss it.

Bottom line is, we think tariffs are bad. Yeah. There's a lot of imbalance all the way around. and to turn this into a political show that, you know, that isn't what we're looking for. But I would love to hear from our listeners. Yeah, that's a that's... Yeah, that was not my intention to turn it into political... No, no, it's just...

Tina, it's such a complicated issue that, you know, one of the things that I hate about the media, and we are the media, one of the things I hate about the media are the sound bites and the simplistic discussions. And when you have something very complicated, most people do not understand the whole tariff issue. And if you pose a question simplistically, what do you think about a 20% tariff on a BMW? You're going to get an answer that's simplistic too. And then if you don't give a simplistic answer, then it becomes complex, and you do two hours talking about tariffs. So that's another reason.

I don't really have an opinion that I can express transparently, honestly, and totally, we just don't have time. Yeah, Tina, your point, let me rephrase what I said earlier. Your point was well taken, but my point was that with such an imbalance all the way around in the world today, I would say that we would need another maybe four-hour show to attack that situation. but the topic that you brought up very important tariff and I appreciate it yeah thank you and another bullet point is the big Chrysler Fiat recall this weekend of the cruise controls there's many models of Chrysler's Fiat that should not be using their cruise controls right now and you need to go to the dealership and you need to have the programming taken care of as far as the

software that's another one yeah definitely I was reading something consumer reports does not like the Tesla Model 3, I believe it is. They say it's uncomfortable. And they also say the stopping distance is completely unacceptable. The stopping distance is worse than a Ford F-150 if that tells you anything. So, and for consumer reports to say something bad about a Tesla, people should take notice, definitely. Well, let me jump into the Chrysler. I'll jump into the Chrysler for you. I think because I can give a fairly simple answer. of that that happens to be accurate. And you mentioned consumer reports, which

makes it even easier. Consumer reports is traditionally, and you left out Jeep, you know, when you say Chrysler Fiat, that's their name. But the fact that matter is they sell very few Chrysler's and even few fiats. What they sell a whole lot of is jeeps, and jeeps are part

of that whole thing. In fact, jeeps are the biggest problem with the cruise controls. It tells me this, that people that buy a Chrysler Fiat or a Jeep, have not read consumer reports. Or if you want to read consumer reports and know you're buying a piece of junk

and buy it anyway, that's fine because we all sometimes admire things by their looks. The Fiat and the Jeep, especially the Jeep, is just a gorgeous vehicle. Every time I see a really tricked-out Jeep on the road, I want to drive it because I really like... It's just a cool-looking vehicle.

But when I read consumer reports, I'm afraid to get in it and drive it because it would be endangering myself and my family. So this is kind of like, and I told you so, to all the people that bought cars and the fiat and jeeps, and they suddenly find out five and a half million of them have a dangerous issue called cruise control that you turn on your cruise control,

then you can't turn it off. Rick, you had to comment. Yeah, the interesting part is that also includes the challenger, the charger, and their full line of ram trucks. Yeah. So... Just about all them. Five and a half million vehicles are affected.

And you've got to be real careful. It's scary enough where you want to bring it into the shop right away and get it fixed. And I would tell all those folks out there driving jeeps when you have that problem, take it into the Chrysler Jeep dealer and say, I want a loaner car, because I'm not going to drive this car until you fix it. And if they can't fix it today, then I want to loan her for two days. And if you can't fix it in two weeks, you get me a loaner. And if not, I would get really, really tough about it.

and let this show know. We'll store on cars if you have a Chrysler Jeep or Fiat and they can't fix it right away. If they won't give you a loaner, let us know. We'll pull a little heat on the Chrysler Jeep dealer. I have an even better idea than the loaner. I have an even better idea. Uber back and forth from your house to the dealership

and give them the bill. There you go. That's what I would do. And one more little bullet point that I have. This is for people that are really into Ferrari. and the demographic that wants to buy one. Apparently, there's some of these Ferrari, not the dealerships necessarily, but there's people that are selling used Ferraris,

and these are actually car dealers that sell secondary upscale used cars. And what's happening is sometimes the pedometer and the odometer gets changed out because it's not functions, they have to replace it. But what they're doing is the nut computer putting the original mileage back in. They're setting the clock back to zero, and there was a case recently where Ferrari was being sold. It was sold from over $3 million, and it should have only been sold for two, because the odometer got set back to zero.

Wow. So I guess the person that bought that car, they're suing because of the odometer fraud. However, Ferrari has found out about this, and now they're changing their software that way that cannot be done. Well, shame on Ferrari for not having a protection for their buyers. It's, again, I'll say this tongue in cheek for the guy that stroked a check for $2 million and found out he had too many miles on his Ferrari,

I'm not going to shed a lot of tears. Anybody that can stroke a check for $2 million. I'm not a consumer advocate for multimillionaires, but it's the wrong thing to do. And Ferrari should take precautions. And that allow me to digress because I love digressing. It reminds me of the change that of, occurred in the past few years. In 1968, I started in the car business. In 1968, I and all the

other car dealers, we had a guy that came around to the used car lot once a week, and we would show them all the cars that had too many miles on him, and he would take like an electric screwdriver, and he would set this odometer back, because there's nothing digital, there's nothing software that was just all mechanical back of those days. So we'd have a car with 150,000 miles on it. And the guy's name was, I think, Zuck. We'd say Zuck, give me 25,000 miles on that car. Everybody did it. I'm telling you, I'm the only dealer that would admit it. I probably shouldn't be admitting it. I'm not even sure the statute of limitations is up, but if the sheriff comes in, it takes me out in cuffs. But I had to tell that story. We called it clocking the

odometer. And that was part of reconditioning. You know, you had to check the tires. You had to be sure the car was washed nice. You had to be sure the interior was clean, and you had to be sure the odometer was set back. Something like they did on what was the name of that movie, Bueller's Day Off. They spun that odometer back. It didn't work that.

And zero. We actually had a... The car flew through the back window and got ruined in a ravine. Everybody saw that, Joe. We actually had a customer ring a Camry hybrid into the shop one day that he had purchased

from someone on the internet down in Miami, and we found that the car had had the odometer replaced with one from a junkyard. The car had originally had well over 200,000 miles. It had been used as a taxi cab. And they had put an odometer in it that only had 60,000 miles. Say Carfax.

Can you say Carfax? That's the way you find out about these shenanigans. That's the reason you never buy a car without a carfax or an auto check. Yep. Exactly. See, Earl, this is the thing. Some of these used car lots, if you don't know about Carfax, and this has happened to me, and when the story is over with, I'll report back because I'm in litigation right now.

But when I bought my Honda, it was sold to me as Carfax certified. I didn't know that much about Carfax at that point. This is the end of 2016, and I took their word for it. I bought a car that had 91,000 miles on it, and when I come to find out later, I'd had 186,000 miles on it. So I'm currently in litigation. Good for you. Well, if you need an expert witness, I'll volunteer.

Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. Great call, Tina. You're the best. You are the best. And I don't mean that just to be flattered you. You truly are. You're not only, you have a great personality and a great sense of humor,

but you're one of the most informed callers we have. I love talking to you. Very knowledgeable, Tina. We appreciate hearing from you on Saturday mornings, and we hope to hear from you again. Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much, guys. I appreciate it. Have a great Memorial Day weekend.

Ladies and gentlemen, 877-960-9960, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. And before we go to our next caller, ladies, without a doubt, women make, find decisions on everything from vehicles to real estate, home purchases, health care, and therefore I ask you this question, when you walk into the dealership, why on so many occasions do you get asked? Where's your husband? Did you talk to your boyfriend? Ladies, how do you feel about that? Give me a call. I have another good reason for you to give me a call, and that is the first two new lady callers. You can win yourself $50 by giving us a call with your opinion on any thing that happened to you when you went in for service.

And by the way, 65% of women come through that service department. Leasing, buying, whatever. it was. Maybe you were, well, talked into some add-on features when you were in the service department. Your calls are very important. We're trying to build a platform here, and with your help, we can do that. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. We're going to go to Mike, who is holding. Thank you for your patience, Mike. He's calling from West Palm Beach. Yes, good morning, everybody. Good morning.

Big time listener and a car junkie. I don't chase women. I don't drink. I don't gamble. I just like to buy cars. You sound like a boring guy. Yeah, yeah. And I want to ask you a question.

Excuse me, Michael. I'm going to interrupt you for a second. You know, we used to do this in the beginning whenever we went on from 8 until 10. and we were really curious how you heard about us now that we're on the oldies channel. Did I hear you say you were a first-time caller or you were... No, it's the second-time caller, but I listen all the time. And how did you find us? I love the oldies.

Oh, great. So I'm locked into the station. Oh, very good. Okay. I was on Saturday morning, and you guys went on, and I've been listening to you ever since. Very good reason. Okay, back to the recovering card. No, back to Mike, he had a question.

Yes. Yeah, my question earlier is this. For you. I have a car that was having trouble starting, and I had brought this up to you once before, by my first call. And I have a mechanic that I go to, and I brought it in a couple of weeks ago, and he looked at it, and he says,

now he thinks it's the head gasket, okay, the head valve gas. And he told me, and I've been using him, and he's an honest man, and he knows his stuff. He's expensive, but he gets the job done. But he was having trouble because I was bringing it in, and it was starting. But anyway, he found out, and he says that it's a big job. You know, we've said we've got to take out a lot of the engine, and he gave me a quota between $15,000 and $2,000.

Okay? So my question to you is, what happens if he does change what he thinks it is? I mean, he says 99% sure, you know, they always say 99% sure because, you know, they're not going to say 100% sure. But I want to ask you this, what happens if they do the work, and he charges me X amount of dollars, $2,000, and I take the car home, and the next day it doesn't start. Now, I understand when you buy a, you get a tires, you get a, you know, a six-month or a year guarantee, or, you know, they put in a, you know, a stock. starter engine. That part is usually guaranteed. But what happens with this work? Do I have any recourse? Mike, you know, what you describe is very common. It's probably the hardest question to answer. A lot of it depends on the skill of the individual, the company that he works for. Maybe he's

in business for himself. Sounds to me like you like him. You say he's qualified, he's honest. the fact that he would admit to you that he's not 100% sure is good I would do this any time an expensive repair even if it's someone that you trust just like a doctor you trust your doctor

your doctor says you need an operation you should go to another doctor interestingly enough insurance statistics say that over half the time second opinions are different than the first opinion and that's with a medical doctor he's been going to school for half his life technicians when you get a diagnosis on your car and you get a second opinion, there's a good

chance that might be different than the first. And if you have to spend $1,500 to $2,000, it's worth your time getting that second opinion. Also, sometimes asking for a second opinion tells you a lot about the guy that gave you the first opinion. An honest doctor will tell you and encourage you to get a second opinion. A doctor that's not such an honest doctor will try to discourage you from getting a second opinion. No one likes to be contradicted. No one likes to be overturned, you know, argued with. So it sounds like you got a pretty good guy there.

You don't, you do not have any recourse to answer your question. If the one or two percent occurs and it's the wrong thing, what I, what we do when my dealership, we're pretty good, but we don't always get it right. And I, I insist on total transparency, which you had so far, and they should tell you what the odds are. Sometimes it's 50-50. Sometimes it's 98% likely they'll find it.

That's total transparency. And if it didn't work what I'd do, I'd say, look, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to pay my technician because he tried hard. He gave us his best shot. He really believed it was the thing to do, and somebody else would have believed the same thing. But he spent three hours working on your car. I'm going to pay him, but I'm not going to make a profit. for the car dealership.

I'm not going to mark up his work and charge you for that. And if I have parts involved, I'm just going to charge you what I paid the parts company for the parts I bought. So, you know, he should catch you a break there. That might be something you might want to negotiate with him, say, hey, Mike, you're Mike, but whatever your techs, whatever your mechanics name is,

to say, hey, Charlie, I trust you, go ahead and fix it, but do me a favor. If, in fact, it doesn't work, can you just give me the labor at your cost without the profit and if you have any parts involved would you give me the parser just the cost that'd be cutting you a little bit of slack and be the right thing to do but I didn't mean to go on and on but it's such a common problem that others everybody listening probably has encountered that same thing

so it's a great question and it was really good for the show yeah yeah and also because I understand like you bring a dog this has happened to me to the emergency room and the dog stays there a couple of days and you know it's it's expensive and then the dog dies okay did whatever they did didn't work now you have to pay the bill you know you're for three thousand dollars even though the dog died you still have to pay the bill because of of the care that was given and you know which really shouldn't be up the dog dies you shouldn't pay anything but you do so i i just don't understand that you know now When is the piece says that, well, you know, let's try something else.

And, you know, when does it end? When do you say enough is enough? That's the reason it's such a terrible problem because we see this happen all the time. We'll have customers bring cars to us. And they'll say air conditioning is one of the typical things. Somebody doesn't know what they're talking about air conditioning. You can spend $2,000 on three or four different repairs on an air conditioner, and it still doesn't work properly.

So there's a lot of... There's a lot of things you do for preventative medicine so this type of thing doesn't happen. You've already taken the first step, and I'm taking your word for this, you've got yourself a really good, honest, qualified technician mechanic. You've got an experience with him. He's got a good reputation. He's taken good care of you over the years. So you've chosen the right guy.

It's very good. I've gone to him 20 years. Oh, okay. I've got to say 20 years since he's got a good guy. And then he's given you full disclosure. He said, I don't, I think this is going to work, but I can. I can't be 100% sure. He's being honest with you. So you've done that.

The only thing you haven't done, and you know, you might be hesitant to do this, but I encourage you to do it anyway. Get the second opinion. Take it to what make car do you have? It's a Honda. Okay. Take it to a Honda dealer and check with Ed Morris Honda.

I don't know where you live. What, where do you, are you from West Palm Beach? I'm near Brayman. You can check with Brayman. You can check with Ed Morris. You can tell them up and say, look, I've got a problem. My car's hard to start. I need a diagnosis.

Can you give me a free diagnosis and an estimate? If they won't get you... They want to charge $99,000, which I can understand. I'll leave that up to you if you want to pay the $99. That would be insurance. That would be your second opinion. And then I would take it into the tech mechanic that you had working for you for 20 years and let him do the work if the opinion is the same.

If it's not the same, then you go back to your guy anyway and say, this is what Edmore Sounded Honda had to say, what do you think? So you have a conversation about it before you make the final decision. Okay. That sounds like a good plan, and I am going to do it. Mike, thanks very much. Call again sometime. I love these type of questions because what you just described,

probably 5,000 people out there have had the same problem before. Oh, of course. Everybody has that problem. So it's a great question. You helped a lot of people by asking a very good question. Thank you. And you helped a lot of people by answering it. Thank you, Mike.

Tina just chimed in. She says, tell him to get a head gasket test kit. What does that sound like, Rick? There are some test kits that you can try. Sometimes they work well. The best thing I would say, actually, is I would want the guy to explain to me why he thinks the head gasket is the problem. If it's leaking, there's ways to test it. Yeah, what if you're not a mechanic?

and, you know, it's kind of like a doctor explained to you why they need to take out your gallbladder. I mean, most people don't understand that you have to trust your mechanic like you have to trust your doctor. Exactly. Yeah, what I would, well, what I would like to offer, and you might not want to do this either, because you really like this guy

and he's treated your right for 20 years. If you like to tell us his name and location, we'll mention it on the air. Maybe drum up a little business. for him. Okay, yeah, it's a break world on State Road 7, just south of Okedjobie Boulevard. Okay, break world. And is there a particular man there that you deal with?

The owner, yeah, Mote is his name. I spell that. M-O-T-A-Y. Okay, M-O-T-A-Y. Okay, M-T-O-E-Rourl on State Road 7. near Okacharbi? Yes. I sent many, many people to him, and they've all been, you know, very pleased. Great. You know, that's probably another, you know, one of the things I hear all the time, can you tell me the name of a good independent mechanic or independent shop

because the dealers are so expensive? So we've just done that for you, thanks to Mike, and you go to Breakworld on State Road 7, near Okoobie, and ask for Motay, M-O-T-A-Y, the owner. Yes. Thanks very much, Mike. He's very good. Well, okay, guys, thank you, and have a good weekend, try to stay dry. Same to you. Thanks, Mike.

Keep on listening. We're going to go to Frank. Frank's calling from Jupiter Farms. Welcome to the show, Frank. Hey, good morning, Earl and Nancy. As always, the pleasure to hear you guys on the air. Thank you. The purpose I was calling was basically with that gentleman that just got off about his car

and saying there wasn't going to be a warranty if they did the repair. And since he listens to the radio station often, there is a mechanic or repair shop that gives a two-year warranty. I don't really recall their name. But he listens to the radio is on all the time. I think it's up near Lake Wharf somewhere. So there's an option. But again, it's like I agree 100% get a second opinion with a head gasket.

That's a pretty easy test. they should be able to tell that. Every mechanic and every repair shop should warranty their work. You can't always warranty the car, per se, because something else can go wrong with your air conditioner. But the work they do should be warranted at least a year. Two years is a really good warranty.

And if a shop will give you a two-year warranty on their work, that's a very good thing. Be careful about warranties in general. Most car dealers give you a lifetime warranty every time you buy their car, which is a bunch of nonsense. but a warranty on the work that a mechanic performs is important, and they should do it for at least 12 months, I would say. Yes, and again, our compliments to Tina.

She is this absolutely remarkable young lady. Isn't she? That's amazing? Definitely. I'll keep it short, so you guys have a good day. Well, frankly, you don't ever have to keep it short. You're a great caller, and we appreciate what you're calling every week, I hope you continue to do so.

And please have a great Memorial Day weekend and call us next Saturday. And I'm still waiting for your callback about mystery shopping. We got another good one. You're going to enjoy it. Thanks, Rang. Take care. Bye-bye. Ladies and gentlemen, if you just tuned in, you're listening to Earl Stewart of Uncars right here at the Oldies Channel.

Give us a call. Be part of the show. You are an important part of the show. 877. 960, 9060, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. And remember, ladies, you are a very important part of the show, and you too can win yourselves $50, the first two new lady callers. That's a good reason to call, isn't it? And to share your experience with us, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Now back to the recovering car dealer.

Is everybody else warm in here? It's quite muggy. Is the air conditioning still broken, Colin? The air conditioner has been fixed. Oh, it's been fixed. Okay. They're just saving. And I've adjusted the temperature.

Oh, you have? Okay. Or maybe I'm having a hot flash. I don't know. It could be something. Maybe manopause. Men do that, you know. Let me say this.

I've got another little bullet, and I want to share it with you. A lot of you know we've been doing a little battle with Costco and not the Costco so much as the Costco auto buying program, which is also known as the Affinity Development Corporation in San Diego. And we've done some mystery shops with Costco members pricing, and we've done, I've done some blogs, and we've done some postings on Facebook, and, you know, we're really stirring the pot up because the Costco auto buying program is not treating the Costco auto members the way we feel they should be treated.

And in full transparency, it kind of reminded me of this when I said at the beginning of the show that I got fired from the radio station three years ago, and I'm back. Everything I do is controversial. I've got Toyota really angry at me sometimes. I have other auto manufacturers angry at me. I have every car dealer in Florida, or the country, for that matter, angry at me. I stir up a lot of controversy and I guess they say well you like it don't you

yeah I guess I like it I mean I got to be honest with you I enjoy being able to stand up to the man one of my sons said to me the other day but dad you are the man I thought that was funny yes yes we say that to you it's kind of like I am the man and I am also the car dealer

so what is better than a recovering man I'm a recovering man too I'm a recovering car dealer All the more reason that we are spending more money now on security. Yes, exactly. And I'm in charge of crowd control. It's cost us a fortune because you're accumulating so many enemies. You're digressing and you're causing me to lose my point.

My point has to do with Costco. We have been threatened by the Costco auto buying program indirectly. And I was talking to Jonathan, our colleague, our cyber colleague in the control room in there. And Jonathan, I said to Jonathan, I said, you know, Costco threatened me the other day. They said that we had broken the Costco contract by publishing the Costco member price for our dealership on the blog. We put a link on our blog to the Costco membership program. And all it had was all of the cars that we had in our inventory and what the Costco member price was. by the way the Costco member price

was exactly as we published because we don't add dealer fees and we don't add dealer install accessories so when we show the Costco member price to a Costco member they see the real price the only thing you have to pay is a license plate and sales tax

government fees only so we published that pure member of price sheet and they threatened to cancel us as a they said if you don't take that down we're going to cancel you as a Costco dealer Now, that would, be honest, would you have an economic impact on me as a dealer?

I try to keep my dealership separate from my consumer advocacy work, but it's not always easy. I mean, I am both. I'm a consumer advocate, and I'm also a car dealer. So I just wanted to reveal that. In the cold light of day, I've been threatened by the Costco auto buying program, aka the Affinity Development Corporation. for you folks are just tuned in and don't know what's going on about Costco Costco is my favorite company retail-wise

I like Costco probably more than Apple I love Apple I love I love Costco twice as much as I love Apple I love to walking into the Costco warehouses I love the people are so nice in there everybody's nice the pricing is incredible they don't be sure They don't mark up anything over 15%. A lot of stuff, they mark up less than 15%. They have a great value, everything you buy.

They have a good selection of everything. I just, I love the company. And if you don't like a product, you just bring it back. No questions ask. Every time I leave Costco, I see a bunch of people lined up. They're returning stuff that they didn't want to buy. They don't give you the third degree. They don't ask you for your receipt.

or anything. They just take it back. So I just want everybody to know out there how much I love Costco. Costco is like anybody, any other company. They're not perfect. They make mistakes. And one, in my opinion, one of their big mistakes was affiliating themselves with the Affinity Development Corporation. The Affinity Development Corporation offered Costco a deal. That's what the Affinity Development Corporation does, is they market products for other companies, that have diamond brands, which Tiffany, you know, Tiffany has a, you know, no pun intended, they have a tremendous brand. If you go into Tiffany, you're going to pay all the money, but you're going to get a great diamond,

and they just don't give you any nonsense at all. If you go into Apple, they're going to treat you like a million bucks. You know the stores I'm talking about. Costco has got a great brand. So the Affinity Development Corporation goes to the Tiffany's and the apples and the Costco's of the world and say, you want to make some more money? And they say, yeah, but, you know, how do we do this? They say, you want to sell cars.

That's too complicated. We can't sell cars. Well, we got a deal for you. We will market the cars. You let me use your name, Costco, the magic brand. Costco. I can use your brand. And I want to call my company the Costco Auto Buying Program.

And then you pay me, I'm making these numbers up, 25% of all the money that you charged the car dealers, or we charge the car dealers, and that's like free-found money. So you're paying us for the use of your brand. So that's what they did. And then they started banking the money from the Affinity Development Group, and they didn't police it. The policing is being done by the Affinity Development Corporation.

So the Costco member price is not the Costco member price. The Costco member price is the Costco. member price plus the dealer fees and I hope you got the fees plural because car dealers charge multiple fees they add the dealer fees to the Costco member price they don't tell you what the dealer fee is and they don't tell Costco what the dealer fee is they also charge you for dealer installed accessories interesting twists there I'll I'll tell you now when we first started talking about adding dealer installed accessories they were charging

50% of the dealer installed accessories. In our most recent shop, they aren't charging anything for the dealer installed accessories, which is exactly what they're worth. They're not worth anything, so you're not being charged anything. So we think we've had an immediate impact on Costco because suddenly they're not charging you 50%, which is a ripoff. They're not charging anything for the dealer-installed accessories.

But they're still charging you for all the dealer fees. Well, they're not really charging you for all the dealer fees, all the dealer fees because, and I hate to give away too much, in our mystery shop coming up, they didn't expose, they didn't tell about all the dealer fees, which is exactly the problem because Costco, the parent company, doesn't know this is going on. Now, that's the reason the Affinity Development Group wants to cancel me. I cancel my dealership, and I represent three warehouses, and they want to cancel me for those warehouses and not be an approved certified Costco dealer.

because I'm telling the truth right now. So I'm on a rant. We have a caller. Nancy, who's calling the show? The truth will prevail. Give us a call toll free at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us. 772-4976530. Feels good in here now, doesn't it?

Remember what I said. The truth will prevail. We're going to go to John, who's calling from Palm City. He, too, is a regular caller. Good morning, John. Good morning to everyone. I can't say enough about Costco. I've been with them from the beginning.

If everybody remembers, they used to be called Rice Club. And I can't say enough about their products, especially Kirkland products. I mean, they're above and beyond, for instance, like their tuna. It beats Bumblebee. It beats them all. They do thorough testing in their laboratories on any product that's on the show. shelf, especially at Kirkland brand, and it's just, they're the best. They're the number one company, in my opinion, in America, but I have an answer to the whole situation. It looks

to me like this Infinity Group is bad, bad news and everything they're handling. So here's my suggestion. If you're a Costco member, okay, they give you a Costco, your number, Costco member number, and email or call them directly and say in Costco, So you need to do the right thing and divest yourself completely of this buying service, which is a disaster, and immediately we demand that you stop this service with them, whether to contract or whatever, because it's an invalid contract in the way it's been handled. And that's the way I say every member, either email them, write them in Seattle, Washington, and tell them as a copy. Costco member, I demand that you, people with your reputation, not continue with this infinity outfit. That's my suggestion, and I say it very strongly, because it sounds like they're a big joke

when they're made aware of a problem. They don't want to hear it, they don't want to know it. I love the idea, John. It's getting out of hand now completely. I love the idea. And what we're going to do is we're going to try to get some contact information, email. I have some. and we will launch a campaign.

My problem, and maybe you can give us some advice on this, how can I arouse the Costco members? We've talked on this show for two weeks, maybe three, about please call us if you're a Costco member, if you've had any experience with the Costco auto buying program. I even offered a $100 donation to their favorite charity for a caller who had had experience with the Costco auto buying program. So I'm not sure what the problem is.

We have, by the way, 20,000 people listening to the show. We just have the Nielsen ratings coming in, and I was really surprised. But for all those 20,000 people, we haven't had, we might have had one or two. I think we've had one or two Costco members that have not had direct experience with the Costco auto buying program. But I love your idea, John, and we will pursue that. We might even do a hashtag Costco kind of a thing, an Internet kind of a thing. you know, like a hashtag Me Too, this will be hashtag Costco, something. Well, unfortunately, people that don't listen to the show are not aware of the fanagans that they're being pulled on them.

But I do say it's very important just for the people that do hear the show. It's Costco.com. Okay, that's number one, 800-774-2678. This is their headquarters in Seattle. If you're a writer, it's P.O. Box 34535, zip code 98124. Well, thank you very much. Probably to Costco.com is probably adequate alone, and let them know how you feel about it. And it's not a matter of change, it's just get rid of them completely.

Yeah, exactly. And, you know, of all he is ever with Costco, I don't remember any problem except a slight problem. They were sued once way back when, if you remember it. And it was a misunderstanding that on some of their jewelry line or something, it made reference to Tiffany and company. But that was quickly settled with Costco, straightened out, nothing was deliberate. And that's all the years that I've been a member, the only time they ever remember even a slight problem.

But as far as Costco named, it's number one in the whole United States. and they just can't be involved with a scandal of a company like this, Infinity. Exactly. Their brand is their most precious possession, and it directly correlates to their stock price, by the way, it's a publicly held company, and there's another group of people. We probably ought to get the attention of Costco stockholders.

I might even do a little research on how do we get a list. It's probably public, I'm not sure, the Costco stockholders, And once this comes out, remember what happened to Wells Fargo, John? Wells Fargo, iconic brand, Warren Buffett, a large, large shareholder at Wells Fargo. And when this thing came out, what Wells Fargo was doing to their depositors, I mean, flat fraud, lying and cheating their depositors, because the Wells Fargo stock has plummeted. So there's even class action suits now against Wells Fargo.

So iconic brands have a higher, a longer way to fall. You know, when you're on top of the mountain, you've got a long way to fall. And Costco is on top of the mountain, along with Wells Fargo, Apple, and the rest of them. So Costco stockholders, and for Costco members, you need to shout it from the highest rooftop to Costco. Get rid of this Affinity Development Corporation. Well, I'm glad you mentioned also Wells Fargo at the beginning in California, where the problem was real big, it was pointed out to them about the problem. and they did absolutely nothing about it.

So this would be us, the public as members, to do something about it. You just gave me an additional idea. I don't have, I wish I had Costco stock, but one of my letters that's also going to go out to them is going to say, as a stockhold, and by the way, they have no way in knowing, because if you have a stock that's in a street name

in which a broker, they don't really know exactly who you are. And I'm going to say as a stockholder, I demand that you remove it. that you remove your relationship with infinity. So you just gave me another additional idea. John, great call. I tell you, we love you. You are probably our longest caller.

You've been calling from the old show, and you stayed with us all to the trials and tribulations. You stayed with us after they fired us, and you waited, and we came back, and there you were. So we love you, John. Thank you so much. Well, it's my pleasure, and I thank you people for donating your time and service to educate in the public.

We love it. Thank you. We love doing it. Thanks, John. Well, our telephone number here, if you'd like to give us a call, talk to any one of us. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-60, and I can't mention it enough, ladies, $50 for the first two, new lady-call. callers. So give us a call. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Jonathan, in the control room, our cyber expert, is also a very smart guy, and he suggested

that we asked Costco members to please don't fire Earl. The Costco Affinity Group, the Affinity Development, has told us that they were going to terminate us as a Costco member dealer. If we didn't take down the price sheet, we posted on one of our blogs. I think they're out to get us, and I think they'd love to have Earl Stewart go away. And I think, so if the Costco members could call Costco parent company the good guys and say, please don't let Affinity Development Corporation fire Earl Stewart, we would appreciate it. Definitely. Exactly.

Yeah, definitely. We would definitely appreciate it. Ladies, I can encourage you enough to give us a call this morning. Isn't it time that salespeople recognize that women should be given the same respect, information, treatment as any other customer? Don't shortcut them. Do you know why? Only when this happens will salespeople be able to capitalize on the enormous purchasing power and control that women have. Give us a call with your story.

good, bad, ugly, 877-960 and for that story you win yourself $50. The first two new lady callers. 877-960 9960

and the text number is 772-497-6530. Calling has given us all kind of ideas over there in the control room. Yeah, hashtag ways to spread the word about the Costco fiasco. Well, he's got a couple of good ones there. Yeah, he'll come up with something.

Yeah, he's got a couple of good ones. Really good. One of the reasons Nancy's so pumped up this morning about women, rights, and whatnot, is that Nancy and Rick and I spoke before the Valencia Shores Women's Club about a week ago. And it was an hour and a half presentation, which made me a little nervous because that's long. We don't normally do that. And, but we felt like if there were enough questions and we'd make a presentation. That hour and a half went like 10 minutes.

And we've never met a more articulate, intelligent, passionate group of women. You know, I always tell groups when we speak to them, you know, thank you. We really like you and you're a really great group. This time I really meant it. I mean, they were incredible. And the women in this group were asking the questions that so many other women have. but for some reason they're nervous to articulate

and they told us some stories named names that they had car dealerships including ours by the while we had one of the women had a problem with our car dealership I mean they were fearless we have people out there I've been a car dealer

for 50 years a whole lot of people out there had bought cars from me and a whole lot of people who bought cars from me had problems and here I am on the air they don't call up in complain. I wish you would. Why? Why do I want people to complain about my guardianship? Because if I let you do it and I acknowledge it and maybe I try to help you and make it right, then I reinforce my own brand. To me, making

mistakes isn't a sin, making mistakes without reparation, without fixing them, without caring about them. That's the sin. And so these women were talking about their bad experiences and how they've been treated with disrespect, how they had what Nancy said earlier why don't you go home and come back with your husband we had one one woman

this one really got me she went into buy Lexus and they really gave her a hard time and she just ran out of the car dealership and she was so upset the way they treated her and she went home she started talking to her friends they said well you need to bring a man in

with you she was a widow so her next door neighbor was a man, and he volunteered to go into the car dealership. So the two of them went in together. I'm not going to name names. I won't even name the car dealer, but they went to this car dealership

who was in the Lake Worth area and had another bad experience, but this time her friend, the man that she was advised to bring in with her, sided with the car salesman. Suddenly, the man's siding with the car salesman.

So this goes back to the pound me too. I mean, women have been treated with such disrespect for so long, so long, it's become ingrained in our culture. And you get a bunch of guys together, and I'm a guy, and trust me, this is true. You get a bunch of guys together. I have dinner with a bunch of guys, old guys like me, every month we go out. And some of the comments, the sexist, chauvinist remarks that are made about women are embarrassing. And I used to make them.

I mean, you know, heaven helped me. You know, cultures, things are changing. And you've got to change with the times. And if you're a businessman, you better change or you're going to go broke. Yeah, definitely. That's the key word. The guys are going to go broke. Because women make up a huge part of purchasing a car.

I can't emphasize it enough. Car dealers are going to go broke. They need to get into the 21st century. Rick? As a, from a technician's side point view, I actually see almost a little opposite thing now because I find it refreshing and important when I write an estimate on a car and the customer comes back and asks, you know, please show me why I need these things done on my car. And it seems like the men are, I'll say, more inhibited to ask questions because they don't want to see more. like as guys, they don't understand what I'm talking about with their car. You're absolutely right. They won't ask directions where they get lost in the car.

That's part of the man's personality. You're absolutely right. Whereas a woman customer will walk back into the shop. I'll show her what I see on the car. And if she doesn't quite understand exactly what I'm saying, she'll ask me to put it in different terms and to help her understand why this is a needed thing. And to me, I think that's fantastic. I like to see more lady customers because they're not afraid, they're fearless to ask questions

and understand why this is a good thing. And as a mechanic, to me, an educated customer can make a good decision on repairing their car. They'll ask those questions, but not in front of their husbands. They won't ask them. And this is a reason

if the Valencia Shores Women's Club, we're just a bunch of women in there. And Rick, you and I were the only two men, and Nancy was there and they were uninhibited and they just said what they thought and they asked the questions that were important to them and these were all important questions. They weren't going to be told or given a dirty look by their husband or some man because the men, part of men's culture growing up in the 40s, 50s, 60s, you know, we grew up to think we're supposed to know everything about cars.

Don't look weak. Yeah, you're supposed to know about mechanics. You're supposed to know how to take things apart and put them back together again. so you go in and you pretend like you know what's wrong with your car. Worst thing you can do for you men or anybody, when you go into a repair shop, the worst thing you can do is say, I want you to tune my car up.

What you do is you do a self-diagnosis, and you bring it in there and say, now this is what I want you to do to the car. And if the service writer, service salesperson, whatever you want to call him, doesn't ask some very intelligent questions to be sure that's what's wrong with your car. They'll just go ahead and do what you wanted to do.

And then you pick your car up and the car still got the same problem. And the repair shop says, well, you asked me to tune the car up. And it turns out the tune up had absolutely nothing to do with the problem your car had. So when you go into a car dealership repair shop or an independent dealer repair shop, speak very simplistically. If your car is making a noise thing, my car goes boom, boom, pop, pop. A good mechanic translates that or he'll put the diagnostic machine. on there more likely. But tell them, my car's pulling to the left

when I'm on the right-hand side of the road. Tell them exactly what your car is doing. Don't diagnose it. Don't even suggest anything. Just tell them what it's doing. The noise, the rattle, the phenomenal with the steering wheel, the brakes, whatever it may be. And a good mechanic can take that, translate, and fix it.

And don't be afraid to go for a test drive with the mechanic that's going to be working on your car and show them what your... experiencing, show them what your concern is. Be afraid that they won't ask you to do that, because only one out of ten will ask you to do that. If the service advisor offers to take you a test drive, that's good, but it's even better if the technician takes you for the test drive. You should take a car, your car, particularly when it has rattles, smells, squeaks, things

that are part of the sensory perception. your sensory perceptions are picking up a problem. You want another human being in the car with you that knows what they're doing, preferably the technician. Take a test drive before you leave in the car, and then take another test drive when you pick the car up before you take it home. If you do that, that will eliminate 90% of all problems. A lot of great information right here at Earl Stewart on cars,

and we would love to hear from you. And ladies, let me ask you a question. What do you think when a woman is dissatisfied, if she's angered, disrespected, regardless, if she is with a man or not, do you realize the chances of that sale just dropping to zero? And that woman walks away, and knowledge is power, ladies, and your voice must be heard, heard. loud and clear. Give us a call with your stories. First two ladies, 50 bucks, 877-960, or you can text us.

772-497-65-30. Yeah, we need some texts. We've only had a couple so far. Yeah, what's going on out there? I think you might have one there that you might not have read yet. You texters out there, 772-497-65-30. I know sometimes you don't want to be on live radio, but here's a way to get on the radio without having to face 20,000 people.

Okay, I don't see a text. It was a compliment. It was a compliment for the body shop. Oh, I apologize. Yeah, I apologize. You know, sometimes I don't read compliments and things that are, I appreciate it. I thank you very much when you do it.

But sometimes people interpret that as this being an infomercial. I'm trying to sell Toyotas. because I have a toilet dealership. I try to stay away from that because 85% of the cars are on the road or non-tootas. Don't want to sell your car. Just want to be sure that you know this is purely consumer advocacy show. Understandable. Ladies, I'm not going to go on any further here without thanking the ladies at the Social Club at the Valencia Shores.

What a knowledgeable group out there, and we hope to see you again. That number again is 877. 960, 9960, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. We're going to go to Lori, who is calling us from Tamarack. Welcome to the show, Lori. Hi, how are you all doing today, not too wet, I hope? Nope. The reason I'm calling on, when Nancy was saying about female is going to dealerships,

I am not an expert on cars. I never claimed to be, but I have a general idea as to what to ask, what to look for, or whatever. And what you were saying about people going to dealerships, many, many years ago, I went into a dealership. My brother-in-law had a deal for me on a car, but he said, you know, it's similar. You know, I can't take you to the dealership right now. He was working. Why do you go in and just, you know, try the car out and see, and if you like it, you know, I can get you a deal on it?

I wanted to go a dealership, and I said, I'd like to, you know, see the car. I'd like to test drive. But you know what they said to me? Well, unless you're going to buy today, you can't test drive it. Oh. I said, excuse me? And they said, no, you know, it wasn't. a rainy day. It wasn't a busy day. It wasn't a holiday weekend. The guy would not

let me test drive the bloody call. I was going to say I would buy it that day. So I said, okay, to let you know every time I go buy that dealership, I hear it advertised. Let's just say a few curse words. I will never deal with anybody in that area for that dealership. Not to mention, I've told other people about that dealership, not to even go there. I don't care if they changed owners 75 times or management or salesmen. Lori, that is amazing. And what the car dealers do to themselves, it's amazing how they survive. And by the way, feel free to mention the name of the dealership.

If you feel more comfortable not to mention, I can say it. Oh, I don't mind mentioning it. As I said, it could have been changed 75 times. It was University Dodge. University Dodge. And they're in, where is that? They were in. What city was that in considered back then?

It could be Pembroke Pines. They didn't know Davey area, I think. Yeah, it's hard to believe. Sometimes it's the salesperson, but it's still the dealership's responsibility. You can say there's always a rotten apple in the barrel, maybe so. But you always hold the owner of the dealership responsible. And something like that is just insulting. I wonder how many people, you know, you told your friends,

and then your friends told their friends, you told me, this is Earl Stod and Cars, we have 20,000 friends out there that heard what University Dodge did to you. If you put a pencil to it, I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales that you cost University Dodge because that salesperson was so rude to you. And when will the car dealers learn that just treating women and men and minorities with courtesy and respect is like advertising? You treat somebody right. You do something special for them. They'll tell as many people what a great dealership you are as they tell when you, when you, when you,

when you do something rude like you did to Lori. So Lori, thank you very much for sharing that. Yeah, Lori, one more thing. One more thing, I want to let you know. That kind of advertisement that comes from you is worth its weight in gold. You just don't realize how many people that you reach at that moment when those words come out of your mouth and you speak to another woman or another man, it doesn't matter. And guess what?

That kind of advertisement is worth more than those billboards. words that you see on 95. That word spreads rapidly. And for that, I thank you. I thank you for letting your voice be heard. Well, two other things, if you don't mind. One, you know, back then I was a little bit, I guess, more reticent about opening my mouth about things and, you know, how hindsight is one thing. A few choice words I could have said to the jump, which I wouldn't stoop to that low, you know, to that low to do it. But, you know, over the years I said I should have told the blankety blank this and that. But, Earl, I had thought about something.

You mentioned that, I think I mentioned this to Nancy a long time ago, that you had met with the ladies group, and they had very informed questions and stuff like that. Have you ever considered having a, for lack of a better term, a guide for women for what's the best things to do to ask the questions at your dealership, not promoting necessarily your cars? That's not what you would be there for it. It's just to educate the female consumer and say, hey, I'm not trying to plug you a car, but come in, you know, listen.

Give us your questions ahead of time. We'll be glad to answer them or something like that. I think a lot of women might come in and listen. Will you get a deal of it? Maybe you never know. But still, it's to educate. That's what you're trying to do to us out here. Well, yeah, I think that's an excellent suggestion.

What I have been advising women to do when they go into car dealerships is to ask to speak to a woman salesperson. And one of the problems the car dealers have is they have very few women salespeople. Some car dealers don't have any women. And if car dealers heard more customers, especially the women coming in, asked to speak to another woman, that would encourage them to hire more. And it would be a really nice, not only would it help the women want to buy cars, it would help a lot of women that would like to have jobs in car dealerships. You walk into a typical car dealership, less than 1 in 10 employed is a woman.

There's thousands of thousands. That's true. I could tell you about a car salesman. It was a team. I went with my boyfriend to look at a car. I'm not going to say the name of the dealership. It was a smaller car, and it was a female salesperson. You know, it seemed very nice, very nodule.

Well, it was a small car, and she didn't want to go in a test drive with the three of us because she was claustrophobic. So she let us have the car by ourselves to go test drive. And that, to me, seem a little bit weird. Okay, she never said, hey, she might if I just go with him? Because I don't, I'm not, you know, so I don't go in the car. But she never said that. She got in the back, and the whole time it was, oh, no, I've got to get out.

I can't be in the car. Really? Wow. I think we thought that was kind of weird. That's just the offset. You know what I mean? About the one female salesperson we ever dealt with. Exactly.

We find in our dealership, Lori, that not only do the women prefer to speak to women salespeople, but so do the men. I mean, women are different than men. Anybody that tells you that that's not true is crazy. Women have more empathy. There's a lot of good things about women. They're more compassionate. They listen better. People don't like to go in and have a speech made.

at them when they're trying to buy something. So our customer, a lot of women, we have about a third of our sales force as women. We wish we had half. I've often said I wish I had 100% woman sales for us because the women, as I say, are more understanding and

empathetic and listen better. And that's what buyers want to do. They want someone to listen to their needs and try to fulfill them. So your point is excellent, and I'll certainly try to consider and Nancy and I could put this together. In fact, Nancy could do it all by herself. You know, as a woman, she can understand and probably make a list of the things that women should do when they go into a car dealer to be sure they're treated appropriately.

And, Lori, let me add to what Earl said. You know, maybe my opinion is just a little bit different than Earle's, but I entertain the idea of walking into a dealership if I had to either deal with a man or a woman. I have no preference. My preference is this. If you and I don't click, I simply turn around, and I leave. So, hopefully that'll be helpful

to you or any of the women who are listening. I thank you for the phone call, Lori. Do you have any other questions? No, that's it. You all have a good day and keep doing what you're doing. It's really informative and helpful to people. Thank you, Lori. Thank you, Lori.

877-960-960, You can text us at 772-497-6530. And Earl's got some interesting columns in the Florida Weekly and the hometown news that you might be interested in, and that's eight steps to selecting and buying the right car for you. And if you didn't pick up either newspaper, you can always go to Earl on Cars, and you can check out all of his blogs past. and today's blog, back to the recovering car dealer. We can't let a show go by without saying the four-letter word, Takata.

I know Takata's not really a four-letter word, but it should be a four-letter word. The Takata company is out of business, and they're bankrupt, and somebody bought them by a different name, some innocuous name you can't remember, probably on purpose. They probably formed a name that could not be remembered. So when they bought Takata, you don't want someone saying, oh, that's the new Takata. So the new company is now taken over the reins.

Leaving millions and millions of vehicles on the road with time bombs, airbags that explode in your face. Florida is the number one state for deaths and injuries and Takata airbags on the road because Florida is a high humidity, high heat state, and it's a terrible situation. So, try to, we actually, write a lot down and you're driving a car you don't want to write it down but the

NHTSA the National Highway Traffic Safety Association website for finding out if your car has a dakata airbag is safercar.gov s a f-r-c-r-c-r-g-ov www www.shafercar.gov you go to that website put your vent number in find out if you have an outstanding recall for a takata airbag or any other recall for that matter if you are buying a car do not buy the car do not buy the car until you find out if there's a recall on that vehicle and that's got to be a condition carfax reports are helpful auto fax auto what is it auto check auto check reports are helpful calling or the dealership or going online to the

manufacturers you can do that there's a numerous ways that you can and find out if your car has been recalled. The worst thing about the Dakota airbag recall is there are a lot of parts that are not available, meaning you could be driving your car with a dangerous airbag that has up to a 50% chance of exploding certain Honda models on the road now. Have a 50% chance. You know, I think the best resource to determine is go to the manufacturer's size. Because it starts there because they determine they report it to the NHTSA.

Right. And sometimes it takes time. So if you got a Honda, just Google Honda recall site, and you'll find it. Exactly. But there's even a lag there because they know that there's a recall the manufacturer does, but they don't know instantaneously if the recall has been fixed. Yes. So the dealer knows that.

So it's almost like you have to check everything. I would, if it were my life or my family's life, I would check with the dealer, I'd check with a manufacturer, and I'd check with safercar.org. Yeah. Gov. Gov. I always do a GOV. And I'd also check the Carfax, or maybe the other check.

There's a lot of sources, and we hate to give you all those sources. But we have found, through experience in mystery shopping, that we have found sources, every one of the sources we mentioned have been wrong. And sometimes up to 30 percent. We find Carfax reports have been wrong up to 30 percent of the time. So put that in your pipe and smoke it. Look at it. Togata.

Not to mention one of the truly terrifying parts with these Takata airbags is in some of the cases with Honda's. There are a few models that the inflator can literally explode for no reason at all. The car can be sitting still at a traffic light, and that inflator will not simply inflate the airbag and deploy the airbag, which would be terrifying enough, but explode like a pipe bomb. right in front of you I think about all the hype we see we've got a lot of hysterical meteorologists on television right now talking about Alberta

and they talk about the worst thing can happen with Alberto is we're going to get wet carry an umbrella but these people are hysterical they got their shirt sleeves rolled up I want to tell you excuse me I'm going to interrupt you Steve's listening to what you're saying

you're not going to be his friend anymore now let me say this Steve Wiggle does not do that Steve Wiggle is one of the few calm meteorologists. As a matter of fact, WPTV, Channel 5 is saying, we don't get hysterical. Steve is going to be calm, he's going to give you the facts. But the rest of them, forget about it. But they don't say a word about the Takata Airbag.

And why doesn't anybody get hysterical about the Takata Airbag? Takata Airbag will kill you. Hurricane Alberto will get you wet. What's going on here? Don't understand it. Keep your jacket on, Steve. 877-960. 9960. It's a little quiet here. We still have a little while before the mystery shopping report.

You do have a text, though. Oh, I do have a text. You got to go. It's not a compliment. Here, pull the text up for me. And, uh, it's not going to recognize my face. Oh, exactly. High tech. I love high tech. And, uh, if, if I get ugly, will it recognize my face? It will, it learns. It grows with it. Talk about my iPhone. All right. We'll keep reading this as radio. But 877-960-90-60, Texas, which I have right now, the latest text, is 772-497-6530. Okay. I'm acquiring my grandmother's 1973 Corolla. Can it be serviced at your dealership and get parts for it?

Are there service texts that still know how to do a traditional tuna? Paul from Justin Page. Great question. Isn't that cool? 1973 Corolla. I want that car. Oh, I want that car. I wonder how many miles are on that.

But I feel sure that we have the parts for the car. I think most Toyota dealers would have the parts. Rick informed me a few shows ago that it's a 10-year mandatory requirement to keep, and he keeps raising his hand. So go ahead, Rick. You know, that was 50 years ago. Well, we're talking about a, what are we got here now? a 45-year-old vehicle.

Parts may be an issue on that. However, we do have one technician who started at our dealership. It's not me, but he started at our dealership in 1978. Oh, Grandpa. So when he started there, your Corolla was still a pretty new car. And he has worked on plenty of them. I'm not going to put his name over the air. Grandpa's a little slow, but he knows it.

Didn't he start in 75? I think he was there before. 1978. Really? Okay. Here's the reason. That's the myth. Here's the reason I think you won't find any problem with parts is I once restored a 1937 vehicle with all original parts. So if I can restore a 1937 vehicle with all original ports.

And there were a lot of parts involved. There's parts for everything somewhere. We could 3D print anything these days. That's exactly right. So to answer your question, your grandmother's 1970. Corolla, we will find the parts for it, or any toilet dealer, probably, if you'll try hard enough, we'll find the parts, and that's really cool. Hey, Texas Mac, I want to know.

I'd love to have the mileage on that vehicle, and I'd also like a picture of it. If you could send us a picture of that 1973, really be cool. Thank you very much. 877-960. We have that mystery shopping report coming up. You do not want to miss that. Our text number, 772-497. 66530, and it is a double mystery shop.

So, as I said, you don't want to miss it. And don't forget to pick up that 2018 Consumer Report Auto Issue. There's so much information in there that will certainly empower you before you do anything. That's the April edition. April edition. You can always get at the library if you can't find it on the newsstands, which you probably can't, but you can do it online. Okay. April, 2018. That is the auto issue. It's going to give you information on the best-use cars.

It'll give you information on all the recalls and safety updates. You can take a look at the best new cars. So it's a book of knowledge, I call it. And Earl and I definitely, if you've listened to the show before, know that we just simply love the Consumer Report. And just as a reminder, if you're unable to listen to our show or you want to listen to any of the past shows, you can always subscribe to Earl Stewart on Cars, a podcast on your smartphone or your tablet, using any of the following podcast apps. That would be Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Google Play Music, Stitcher Radio, Tune-in Radio, Pocketcasts, and Overcasts. and if we'd like to watch the highlights from our show, you can go to YouTube.com slash Earl on Cars.

Now back to the recovering car dealer. We just got a bolton back from Paul and Jensen Beach. His grandmother's 1973, Carolla, has 160,000 miles. That's it? That's really cool, yeah. Wow. That is very cool. I love to have a car like that.

Uh-huh. And take good care of it. I know you will, Paul, and thanks for the text. And anybody else wants to text us? It's 772. 4976530. Once again, that's 772 area code. 4976530. And if you want to call us, it's 877-960-90-90-60. That's 877-960. By the way, just a shout out to this station here, True oldies.

Number one, adult station in the market. Number one, I'm so excited. We're part of a winning team. More people, more people in this market listen to true oldies than any other radio station. I mean, we're competing with stations all over the place. And Matt Goldapper and 96. 95.9, 106.960, true oldies, number one. And we're doing a pretty good job here for Earl Strung Cars. We've got a seven share, which they tell me is really, really strong. and we have between 15,000 and 20,000 listeners, and the average listener listens to us between 45 minutes and an hour. I mean, it is, you know, I'm going to talk to myself into stage fright.

I'm going to freeze right here on camera. Oh, look, Mike, I just, Paul, Paul from Chesa Beach, thanks. He just sent me a picture of the Corolla, 160,000 miles. It is a beautiful red corolla. Very, very cool, oh, yeah. If you're not watching the show live, it's a show live. You got to do it right now. Go to Facebook.com

slash Earl on Cars. Look at that. 160,000 miles, 1973 Toyota Corolla. Wow. Keep it up there. We're live. Oh, I know.

On this one here. Oh, this one here. report in a five or ten minutes i'll make i need to make another appeal to costco members i know you're out there Costco warehouse in your area if you're not out there you should be a Costco member i'm telling you it is a great great value they do not mark up any of their merchandise over 15 percent so the average is probably like 8 percent or 9 percent their kirklin products are better this is a generic product, right? Kirkland, they're better than the brand.

And you heard John from Palm City, he says that Tunafish, Herklet Tunavish, is better than bumblebee. Well, I believe it. I agree with that, yeah. I buy all the Kirkland brands. Anyway, you Costco members out there and employees, please call the show.

We have a serious issue that can affect a lot of things. If you're a Costco stockholder, call the show. If you're a Costco employee, if you're a Costco member, We need to hear from you folks and maybe get some advice on what we can do to try to solve the problem of this Affinity Development Corporation, this Costco Auto Buying Program, which is a rip-off to the Costco members. If you're a Costco member, please call the show 877-960-9960, give us some advice.

What is it we can do to get the parent company, the top executives for Costco, aware of what's going on? I've got a text here. I'll take that text while I'm waiting for Costco members to call. Excuse me for a moment. I want to remind Mike, if he's listening, I believe that Mike was the only one from Stewart that had called in regards to the Costco topic. And Mike, I didn't get a chance to give you a call back.

I know you left your phone number. Give us a call right now. We've got plenty of time to talk to you and your opinion about this topic that we're trying to cover. Okay, here's a text that is about my dealership and I just said earlier

I didn't want to read a text because it was complimenting my dealership and I don't want us to become an infomercial deal. But this one has some broad aspects and ramifications and I'm going to read it. Good morning. I bought my fading white 2013 Camry into your body shop for a high-speed polish and detail.

It came back looking short and fresh and as pretty. It's the day I bought it. Kudos to Betty, Katrina, and Marlon. My question is how to keep bugs from sticking when I take a long drive. Thank you. There's two things about this text that I like. First of all, Toyota has a problem with their white color. Their white color does not have clear coat.

Clear coat is a clear coat, as you would expect, that is added to the paint of the car to protect the paint. Clear coat appears on all the other colors except for white. And this is true. Some manufacturers happens to be true of Toyota. So what happens in the hot sun, you get fading. And what do you get after three years and the warranties out? You get an argument from Toyota.

You get Bubkus. So for you Toyota owners out there that have cars with white paint and fading, you can help yourself by doing what this customer did but you have to pay for it and the car shouldn't have faded in the first place so that's message number one and it's a shot at Toyota

that's one of the reasons that I have a lot of Toyota people in the manufacturing room that don't like me and just see here Rick go ahead well as for those bugs on the long trips

oh yeah my best advice get your car detailed well make sure that the paint has cured long enough that you can safely have it waxed. Get a good, fresh coat of wax on it before you go on any sort of road trip. And when you get where you're going, immediately have the car washed, a good hand wash. Then when you get ready to come back, when you get back from where you're going,

another hand wash to get those bugs off as soon as possible. Thank you. The chemicals in those bugs can eat right through the wax and right through your paint if you leave it on there too long. reason he's asking. He's worried about that. Okay, here's another text. Texts are pouring in now. This is a long one. Earl, I live on the Treasure Coast. It's easier for me to buy a car and service up here, so I did. I bought a 2017 Toyota Highlander. I myself have been in the business over 50 years as a mechanic. Can't do it anymore. I'm retired, but when I bought

this vehicle, they said nothing about the Takata Airbag. Now I didn't want to start anything after I bought the vehicle because my son is a technician at the dealership. So I find out that I am one of the ones that need my airbag replaced, which I think will never happen in my lifetime. Besides writing letters, the only thing I'm going to do is disconnect the system so I don't die, but the dealer should have said something about the airbag. Yes. Like I said, I didn't want to start anything because my son is a technician there,

and they would probably fire him when I started something. I did get an employee discount on the car. So sad, but I don't think so. And also, this is the first time I've changed dealership. I've always bought from you. Yeah, letting him know about the bomb and his car would have been a nice touch, don't you think?

So shame on you, Treasure Coast, Toyota. It's really, this whole Takata thing, it's overwhelming. You know, they say, you know, ignorance is bliss. I think, I don't know, I almost wish I didn't know about it. Now that I know about it, I can't get it out of my head. Every time I see a car on the road,

I think, does that car have a Takata airbag? And I wonder why is the world ignoring this? We had a good response a couple of years ago from CBS News. I'm talking national CBS News. Nancy and I actually were in New York, and we were on network CBS News talking about it. Anna Werner, A. NNA Werner. She is one of the morning news people.

And she came to the dealership and actually did another telecast on the subject of the Tickada Airbag. They did a mystery shop of a car dealer trying to sell a Tocati Airbag equipped car. Much has happened to this texter whose son is working at Treasure Coast Toyota as a technician. And they don't reveal the fact that they're selling cars with time moms in them.

So again, I'm getting so wound up now. I could do another two hours. We don't have two hours. Yeah, I know you could do another 24 hours. And it's amazing that it's our camp right here at Earl Stewart on Cars, the Oldies Channel. It seems like as if we're the only ones who know about this death trap selling cars with these recalls. And, I mean, I could go on and on. We don't have time. At any rate, we've got a mystery shopping report coming up, and it is a double mystery shopping report.

You don't want to miss it. And we're going to go straight to a caller. And that's Ron, who's calling from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Ron. Hey, good morning. I'm going to give Costco a plug. Right. On the magazine, the Consumer's Reports, use car buying guy, you can get it.

I bought, I took your suggestion and bought a copy of that, but I bought it at Costco, and it is, cover price is $12.99. You can get it at Costco at $8.99. Fantastic. That's $4 roughly off the price. If people want to go in and pick up a copy of that consumer's reports, that's the way to do it. Well, that's fantastic. Ron, have you ever used the auto buying program at Costco? I never have used the buying program. Were you aware of it? I know I've been talking about it a lot, but before I started to shouting about it, were you aware of their Costco auto buying program? Yes. Yes, absolutely. I thought at one point I might use it. I never did, but I was aware of it.

I, well, I did purchase a new car, a new Honda, a leftover, but new. And when I tried to, I actually called the number and tried to look in. into what their their prices were. They have, I guess, like a certain person in the dealership who deals with that. Not like every car salesman doesn't deal with the Costco program. For whatever reason, I don't know. Exactly. But they never seemed to get back to me.

It was a very slow, they eventually got back to me, and then they were all gung-ho, but I had already nailed down some price. I did my research on what, you know, what the true cost would be and what the cars had sold for somewhere in between. So I forget what service. It might have been the one you said. There's an outfit where you can go and find out what the cars actually have sold for. Well, Ron, what you just told me is very valuable. And I think your experience is very common with Costco members.

I think just like you, most people don't have the details of the Costco auto buying program. And so you assume that I'm a Costco member, I'm going to get a good price. And the deals are... I don't think that's necessarily the answer. No, and the dealers are reluctant, I think, to give you the Costco price, because it is a good price. And that's the reason they're adding dealer fees and dealer-installed accessories to it. It's too good a price. So they'd rather sell you the car in a conventional manner.

and most people either do it in the conventional manner. There's probably 90 Costco members buying cars as a result of the Costco name that don't go through the program to every 10 that do go through the program. That's adding damage to the Costco brand. So we're going to try to save the Costco brand, Ron. Your call, you're a very, very positive, strong advocate of Costco, and we're going to try to preserve that brand by getting them. to expose this Affinity Development Corporation,

and I'm about ready to do a mystery shopping report on that, so please stay tuned and listen, and you'll see exactly what happened when we pretended to be a Costco member. Okay. Thank you, all right, Earl. Thank you so much, and take care. Have a great Memorial Day weekend.

Bye-bye. Thanks for being part of the show, Ron. As I always say to everyone, you are an important part of the show, so give us a call toll-free at 877-960-99-60, And you can text us at 772-497-6530. Okay, double mystery shop of Ed Morris Del Rey Toyota Costco Auto Program. This week we continue to focus on the Costco Auto Program

with a double mystery shop of the official Costco dealer, Ed Morris Delray Toyota. We learned on last week's mystery shop that a car dealer can follow the program's rules to the letters and the consumer will still get a raw deal, a bad deal. Terry Taylor's West Palm Beach Kia did just that. They did everything they were supposed to do but our shopper was still charged over $1,000 in

dealer fees. I'll repeat that. Over $1,000 in dealer fees and was asked to pay over $500 for unwanted items worth about $150 bucks. One of the phenomena we've observed with the Costco Auto Program is that

many, if not most Costco members looking to get the Costco deal, do not follow the official process of going through the Costco Auto Program. And we just had Ron call in as a Costco member to the show. And this is exactly what happened with him. The Costco Auto Program online portal, you know, I'm not even sure what a portal is. That's a, I know what a portal is. I'm just saying a lot of people don't know what a portal is.

And a portal is just a portion of a website that you have to find, navigate, to, they say, to find information. Most Costco members, they know they're a Costco member. They know that this dealer is a Costco dealer. They go in and they say, I'm a Costco member, and you're a Costco dealer. Give me the Costco price.

That's pretty simple, isn't it? No, we've got to complicate this, don't we? We've got to go to the portal. Okay. The Costco member is supposed to go to Costco.com. Click on services, finding that sometimes can be a task. Then click on Costco Auto Program. So that's a lot of activities.

That's a lot of mental choices. That's a lot of digital punching and clicking and so on and so forth. Once in the portal, the member simply enters the type of vehicle they want, then they will be referred to the official Costco dealer closest to their zip code. Oh, you have to put your Costco membership number in, and that's a doozy. I mean, how easy is that to get your Costco membership card out of your wallet or your purse? And then see it, look at it. and then hold it here and then get it to the click click and then you get it wrong i mean you're

really putting you also got to do your email you got to do your phone number the type of membership executive blah blah blah it's it's a little bit of it is a terrible terrible system uh in zip code they say instructions are then given to the Costco member telling him who to ask for and what to expect of the dealership and they have a list of many names of people her she or he is told They will be shown a Costco member only price sheet with an exclusive discounted price. They will be advised that they are entitled to all available manufacture incentives in addition to the discount. Strangely, this is very interesting, listen carefully, especially if you listen to the show last week. There was a major change in the language that addressed dealer-installed options.

Last week, it was indicated that Costco members get 50% off dealer-installed options. and we made a big joke out of it because the dealer they take the dealer installed options they're trashed or junk like nitrogen they mark it up 10,000% and then they give you a 50% discount off which gives you a huge markup even then so we say big deal ha ha 50% of dealer installed options is still terribly wrong this week the confirmation email indicated there would be no charge for these worthless items I think we had something that they do with that. Do you think so? Congratulations. Thank you Affinity Development Group for paying attention. I'm just

patting myself on the back. We had, we did something, we accomplished something. And we can stay on as a Costco dealer and Affinity Development doesn't fire as a Costco dealer. We can continue to, but let me tell you folks, Affinity, you fire me. I'm going to get even Nash. They're going to thank us one day. Yeah, you better thank me. Of course, noticefully absent was any mention. of dealer fees because they're still doing that since there's virtually no significant promotion of the program it's understandable that most Costco members are ignorant of the process I just described they may be aware of

special Costco pricing and if so they're likely to wait until after they have visited the dealership before asking about it this is where it can get dangerous there is nothing stopping an unscrupulous salesperson or sales manager from making up any price when the Costco member asked about his or her discount. The member won't know to ask about seeing the member-only price sheet. Even if they know to ask, you don't want to. I mean, you're in the dealership for, you know, longer than you like anyway, and you don't want to see a price sheet. You're not sure. If you do see it, you'll be able to decipher it. Unfortunately, neither Costco Affinity Development Group, aka Costco Auto Program, nor

the dealers themselves really know how many customers. customers are using the program this way. It's completely unaccounted for, and it allows for bad faith car dealers to use Costco's good name to lull their victims into a state of vulnerability. Now, this means that even if you're not a Costco approved dealer, you can say it. Everybody knows about, I say all the car dealers do. All the car dealers know about the Costco auto buying program. They also know that the price that Costco wants is the lowest price that they will offer anybody. That is the official credo. By the way, we need to find that in print somewhere. We've been a Costco-approved certified dealer for many, many years, and that's been their credo that they offer.

The dealer must offer the lowest price they'll offer anybody to a Costco member. So you're going to do Roger Dean Chevrolet. I don't know if they're a Costco approved dealer or not, but let's say they're not. And you walk in, you get Charlie's salesperson. He's got the white shoes, the gold chains. I'm just making that up. They don't dress that away anymore. But you know what I'm talking about.

Not Roger Dean. Yeah, you get one of those car salesmen. And they say, I'm a Costco member. I understand you have some really good prices. Are you a Costco approved dealer? Oh, of course we are. There you go. Good impersonation.

That's Charlie. That's Charlie. So that's what's going to happen. everybody's a Costco approved dealer. Costco, this is the strength of your brand. You are creating a problem. It's the unintended, unintended consequence of the strong Costco brand. You're creating a huge deception that you don't even know about

with your approved dealers and with the dealers that are not even approved. Everybody's a Costco approved dealer. Exactly. And that's what's happening. And thousands and thousands of people are being taken advantage of because you're not policing the Affinity Development Corporation in San Diego. We send in Agent X as the official Costco shopper, and Agent MiniX is the walk-in.

That's an inside joke, and I won't even bore you with that. But if you're listening. It is right. Agent X and Agent Mini-X is the walk-in. In the interest of time, we've tried to get to the main points quickly. So we go with Agent X first. we went on the Costco Auto Portal that's the part of the

website, the portal a portal, what is the port? It's like a hatch in a submarine. I think of it as like a portal. Yeah, a doorway to something better. A portal to the future.

Right. Anyway, you go to the okay, we went to the Costco portal and selected a new 2018 Camry S.E. We used the 33444 zip code for Delray Beach and naturally Ed Morris Delray Honda

was presented as the official Costco dealer. Toyota. Yeah. Del Rey Toyota was presented as the official Costco dealer. I was instructed to ask for Rodney. Within minutes of receiving the confirmation email from Costco,

I began to receive a deluge of emails from Rodney and some of his colleagues at Delray Toyota. I replied to one that set up an appointment for 6.15 in the evening. I arrived on time, asked to receive, for Rodney. Rodney came to greet me and was prepared to help with my inquiry in hand. We discussed the Camry for a few minutes, and then Rodney went to get an invoice to

show me. He said he wanted to verify it, had all the features that I wanted. The MSRP was $27,093, and the invoice was $25,388. I confirmed it had the right equipment. So if you just tuned in, Mystery Shopping Report, Del Rey Toyota, approved Costco member, were going through the ropes the way Costco intends you to go through the ropes which are very tedious and complicated and forgetful and almost impossible to navigate. I'm just telling you. Rondi went to get the car from the parking garage, came back to get me, then we walked out to check it out. I verified it was the same car I saw on the invoice. I also noticed an addendum for $399 for dealer added equipment and services.

Addendum, we call them phony and ronies. But there was no equipment or services listed. So an anonymous addendum. You just imagine what the accessories are. 399. After the test drive, we went back inside. Rodney showed me the

member only price sheet with my deal on it. I noticed there was a disclaimer that indicated my price did not include a $799 administrative fee. administrative fee, one of the many creative out of the mind of Ed Morris or Ted Morris or now the currently

the estate of Ed Morris. These creative ideas come out. Dealer fee, folks. Profit to the dealer. $799. Price increase. Call a spade of spade. It's a price increase.

It's profit. It's not an administrative fee, folks. And it should be included. Price bump. Exactly. It should be included in the price. Included in the Costco member price. But it's not.

It's added to the price. For some reason, its math was off by $1.32, but what can I say? Alongside the member-only price sheet was a worksheet buyer's order that further detailed my purchase. The numbers matched the cost sheet, but they added sales tax and $1,192.45 in fees. This was explained to be the $799 dealer fee, which they call the administrative fee. A $99 electronic filing fee, which is not a filing fee, is another dealer fee. And an $85 tag agency fee, and that's not a dealer fee, that's a dealer fee too. That's not a real fee.

And then they got a buck and a half battery fee and a $5 tie free. Interesting enough, those are fees. They are federal fees and their government fees. And so the $5 and the buck and a half is legitimate, the $99, the $85, and the $799 are all BS, they're all profit, to the dealer. And they are dealer fees. And they should be included in the Costco member price, but they're not. They're added to the Costco member price.

I asked him about the $399 addendum, and he said it was for pinstripe, mats, and nitrogen-filled tires. Oh, those are some real values. He quickly added that he wasn't charging me for that stuff. That's the new bulletin, that's the change that we'd like to think we affected from our last week's show. Okay. I said that was good because there were no stripes on the car and the mats were on the factory invoice and he'd already been charged for it. So in that sense that was pretty good because all the Costco non-members are getting ripped off

and they're paying for mats that are already in the car again and they're paying for no stripes on the car. And that's the reason they don't list the items because they're not on the car. I gave my X story and left. Okay. Second shopping report, MiniX. We went this time not going through the portal into the future. I arrived at Delray Toyota early afternoon parks and entered the shore home to find the salesperson. After running around for a bit, I was greeted by a salesperson and introduced himself as Alex.

I asked to see a 2018 camera. Yes.E. We went upstairs to find one. We found a black one with an MSRP of 27,7-11. He gave me a presentation, and we drove the car. I waited until we returned to bring up Costco. Okay? Didn't tell him.

Didn't tell him I was a Costco member. Back at his desk, I told him I was a Costco member and understood that there was special pricing available. Alex seemed a little deflated and then excused himself, Structo's manager, deflated because he's trying to get all the money. He didn't know your Costco member. And I have to say that even when they jocke it around on the Costco price and have the dealer fee, it's probably a better price than you would have gotten

had you not been a Costco member. Excuse himself, talk to the manager. Alex left me sitting there for 30 minutes. That's a long time. I wouldn't sit and wait for salesman for 30 minutes. I was getting ready to go find him when he and his manager approached. His manager asked me a long series of questions about my credit, time frame, blah, blah.

He seemed keen to get me to finance, of course, but I kept insisting that I wanted to pay cash. I declined his offers to fill out a credit app. They both left me alone again. I waited for 20 minutes before Alex returned. It's almost an hour sitting there. Why, why, why? He had three sheets of paper with him.

One was a piece of copy paper with handwritten numbers, scribble all over it. some suggested interest rates, although I told them 30 times I was financing, and out-the-door figure, no details were written down. The other two documents were printed worksheet buyer's orders. One was a financing option that did not include Toyota dealer cash, and the other one included it. My selling price was $22,208, a $5,503 discount off MSRP of $27,711. They added $1,392.25 in fees. He said it, included their dealer fee and some other standard fees.

They weren't standard fees. They were more dealer fees and, of course, a few minor standard fees. I asked him if I was getting the Costco price. Alex assured me, I was. He said it was a better deal than anyone gets. I gave him my exit story, and I left. Okay, using the vins, the vehicle identification numbers provided to the shoppers, we were able to access the actual factory invoice.

You can't do that, but we can't do that because we're a Toyota dealer. to verify the numbers presented were accurate. They were. Agent X's invoice was $25388, subtracting the Delray Costco discount of $2,400, and dealer cash of $1,250 gives us the selling price presented to him almost to the penny. So Agent Miniacs landed on the Camry.

There was about $700 more than Agent X's, but with a VIN, we accessed the invoice and saw that they really did honor the Costco price. Okay, there you have it. We report it, we tell it like it is. In a way, we're sorry, we thought there would be jacked around more, but they did honor the Costco price, even though they didn't verify that this was a Costco member who'd gone through the Costco portal. So, kudos to Ed Morris Delray Chevrolet for doing that. Agent Minnex's invoice was 25, 858, and its price was 22, 208, right on the money.

They were both charged over $1,000 a deal fees. Bad, bad, bad. That's why we're angry. We're angry at the Affinity Development Group and Costco, the parent corporation, the company I love, I'm mad at you. I love you, but I'm mad at you. You need to get the Affinity Development Corporation out of there or get them in line. Get them to treat your Costco customers with honesty and integrity. For some reason, Agent Minniacs was hit for an additional $200. We suspect he may have been charged. charge 50% of the dealer installed equipment per Costco auto program rules and we're waiting for a return call which we may never get if they heard this mystery shopping report on the air as you can see inclusion of large dealer fees allows Delray

Toyota to submit a huge discount $2,400 below invoice to Costco Auto Program so this price looks like the lowest price and guarantee referrals from the program so they're they're deceiving Costco and to think this is a good price by adding more profit and more price to the Costco price and they're saying you can give me a Costco member price and I'll say oh that's a good price

and I still am going to allow you to increase it by over $1,000 and some car dealers are increasing it by $2,000 or $3,000 so the Costco price they report to Costco is not the Costco price. When they add that dealer feedback and so effectively, Del Rey is really about $1,000 blow invoice.

So any other dealer who submits anything without a deal a discount that big, they're not going to show up. Exactly. They're defrauding the Costco Auto Buying Program in Costco and they're also defrauding

the Costco members. And it's still within the rules and that's a problem. It should not be within the rules. And I've had multiple conversations with Costco, parent company, and with the affinity development. They're being very silent now.

They're probably listening to this radio show right now. And if you are listening to this radio show right now, Hi. Rick Borg, Executive Vice President of Operations at Infinity. Let me hold that up. There he is right there. Rick Borg, the Affinity Executive Vice President. Rick, if you're listening,

he's kind of a cool-looking guy, aren't you? He's like me. He's got gray hair. Rick, I'm not going to give up on this, and I sure hope you don't cancel me as a dealer. I really hope you don't. I hope you just work with Costco to do the right thing. This fraud is larger than you realize, I think,

and you don't know what the car dealers are doing, and I don't think you're doing the mystery shops that you say you're doing. If you are doing the mystery shops, I'll share my mystery shops with you. Will you share your mystery shops with me? And we're going to continue to do this. We're going to ramp it up. We've hired an outside shopping corporation, and we're going to ramp it up. We're going to be shopping Costco dealers all over South Florida, and we're going to continue coming back.

Now, you know what I think's happening, and this is a good thing. I think the Costco Auto Buying Program, Affinity Development, Rick Borg at all, are going and calling all the Costco dealers in South Florida. Say this guy, Earl Stewart, he's nuts, he's going crazy, he's stirring the pot. If you tell your Costco auto buying people that they better go by the, The book, if you don't dot your eyes and cross your T's, you're going to be on the mystery shopping report. I really think that this is affecting it. Okay, if it is, that's a good thing.

If you know we're coming in, then treat the Costco members right, but also treat the other people right, because we're going to do shops and we're not going to identify ourselves as Costco member. If we're not a Costco member, you better treat us right, too, because we are going to find out if you tell a Costco, a person who says he's a Costco member. He's going to get a better price and he doesn't. So we're on it and we're going to continue to do it. And we're also going to be shopping people out of our market because we know you warned everybody in the market. We just might run up to Orlando or maybe Tampa and do a Costco member dealer up there and find out what's really going on. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, are you waiting for us to vote on this mystery shopping report?

or excuse me, the double mystery shopping report. Let's do a vote. I think we owe it to Del Rey Toyota to do a shopping order. Stu? I wanted to give them a high grade for honoring the program faithfully, but Agent Minnex's treatment was kind of old school. I got to give him a C-minus. And, of course, we know how we feel about affinity

and the Costco Auto Buy-M program. Nancy? I'm going to give them a D. Okay. And there's a lot of tap dancing. and goodness gracious, it takes a long time to build a brand. I agree. That's true. Rick?

I'm going C for the dealership and a B for each of the salesman, although I think that 50 minutes of waiting time for Agent Miniacs was extremely excessive. I can report they were not busy. So, matter of fact, let's switch Alex on that one to a C. That 50 minutes. Rodney was good. Okay, I'm going to do a C-minus. We're passing them, or putting them on the recommended list,

Toyota dealer in South Florida, recommend the list. And as I say, the target of this issue is the Costco auto buying program, not Delibrate Toyota. They pretty much went by the rules. They could have done better, but C-minus, we're not going to fail them. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for tuning in to Earl Stewart on cars, and you are always an important part of the show. I wish you a lovely weekend, and we will be right here next week.