Earl Stewart on Cars - 05.30.2020 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Sutherlin Nissan

Episode Date: May 30, 2020

Earl answers various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Agent Thunder visits Sutherlin Nissan in Ft. Pierce to see if he can purchase a 2020 Nissan Sentra on special from their website. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, his tweets at www.twitter.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

And we're here for the next two hours to answer your questions. For you newbies out there that haven't heard the show before, I'm a recovering car dealer, and this is my team. I have been in the business since 1968, a long, long time, had multiple dealerships. I've owned many different franchise and brands. Currently, in full disclosure, I am a Toyota dealer, and I want to be very clear up front that this is not an infomercial. You will not hear anybody try to sell you a car on this show. We are not here to talk about our dealership. We're here to talk about how you can avoid being ripped off by car dealers when you're

buying, leasing, maintaining, repairing your car. It's a sad fact that buying a car is a treacherous experience, particularly today during this terrible corona pandemic that we find ourselves is actually even more difficult and dangerous in economically speaking to buy a car. I also, physically speaking, come to think of it, because we've been mystery shopping car dealerships, by the way, for a long, long time. And since the coronavirus, most of the times when we send our mystery shopper in to a car dealership, nobody's wearing masks. We have to ask that the salespeople or managers put masks on. And I don't want to give away the mystery shopping report that we're going to have at the end of this show.

But same thing happened to get walked in. Nobody wearing a mask. Hard to believe, but sad truth. So that's what we're doing in the studio here. We're here to help you any way we can. We're going to try not to go off on pontification about all the stuff we know about cars. We'd rather answer your specific questions. And it isn't confined just to buying or leasing.

I got a guy sitting here to my right. His name is Rick Kearney. He's been with me for 25 plus years. He knows just about everything there is to know, both the mechanics, the electronics, the computerization of cars. And if you've got a question, I know a lot of people are a bit nervous right now about going into the service department. You don't want to go to the retail store. You don't want to go to a car dealership. I don't blame you.

Particularly the elderly folks like me, we just don't want to hang out on a place with a bunch of people, especially when they're not wearing masks. So what do you do if you've got a little problem with your car? I'll call 877-960-960. If you didn't write it down, maybe you should. You might not have a question now. Grab a pencil, 877-9-60-99-60. And Rick Kearney, sitting to my right here, as I say, he's batting about 990. We don't have all the answers, but we have Google if we don't have the answer.

And you'll find out oftentimes that the problem you're worried about is not all that serious. I think, Rick, correct me if I'm wrong, but what is it, 75% of the time when the check engine light goes on, it's just a loose gas cap, right? At least that amount. Yeah, amazing. So here you are driving on the highway. You're nervous anyway. We're in the middle of a world pandemic, and all of a sudden, flash on-country check engine light. You don't know if your transmission's getting ready to blow up. Your airbag's going to go off. Your engine's going to stop, chances are you've got a loose gas gap. You can pull over the side of the road safely. You can get out and just twist that gas gap. And about 75% of the time that check

engine light will go out. That's the kind of stuff Rick is here for. No, he says, yeah, Rick. Now, it will take a little while before it turns off if that's what it is. Yeah. Because the computer has to see that problem go away. Yeah. But then it will turn itself off. That's what he's in got, Rick. See, I forgot about that. You've got, you have a computer that's got to recognize the change has been made. And so if you're doing that and you turn and twist it tight and you get back on the car, check engine line is still there. Don't worry, hopefully in, what, 15 minutes, 10 minutes? Well, it actually goes by the times that you start the car. And it's usually about 40 times, 40 ignition cycles. If the computer no longer sees that

problem, it will automatically turn that light off. So if I wanted to really push the issue, I could just crank the car up 40 times and turn it off 40 times. And odds are it will turn itself off. I'm learning stuff. Excuse me, Rick and I are going to, you know, we'll talk for an hour. No, I'm only kidding. But really, I tell you, the guys are found out of information. And we've got Stu Stewart.

He's sitting right across from me here. He's my son, general manager of the dealership that we own. And how long have you been on the business? I started on May 1, 1997. So I don't add that up 24 years. You were wearing short pants, I think. No, no, no, I was wearing a tie. Oh, okay.

Back then we had to wear white shirts and ties. Anyway, shoes in the trenches. He sees what goes in day by day by day. He's the spy master general of our mystery shopping report. He recruits, trains, and administers the mystery shopping report. I don't want to get ahead of my game here, but we had a mystery anonymous feedback. That's another way you can get hold of us, by the way, is Your Anonymous Feedback.com, www. www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com.

Anybody, anywhere, can ask us a question or tell us anything you want to tell us. You can insult us. You can praise us. You can threaten us. Anything you want to do. We don't know who you are. You're totally anonymous. Really cool way.

And we're finding a lot of people like that, not because they want to say nasty things. You get hassled enough. If you call somebody on the phone, they got called their ID. People track everybody today. So if you want privacy, www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Anyway, anonymous feedback, one of the why we don't mystery shop ourselves. Oh, but we do.

And we do. And so we'll talk about that. They're just boring to read in the air because they're always perfect. We recommend all car dealers at mystery shop themselves. I'll tell you right up front, we find some embarrassing things about our salespeople. We've got a sales force of about 30 people, and there's always a rotten apple in every barrel, and every now and then we find a rotten apple, but we don't have to, we coach, we don't fire people, we give them, you know, second and third chances.

We try to get people straightened out. That's what all car dealerships, in fact, all retail stores should do that. I mean, if you own a retail store where there's donuts or refrigerators, go in and pretend to buy a donut, see what happens. You might be shocked. So we regularly mystery shop ourselves, and we regularly mystery shop for the past 17 years. Nancy and I started the radio show 17 years ago, and it's hard to believe. Every week we'll have to add up the number of mystery shops. We pretty well blanket in South Florida, and we have...

Yes, next week we're starting with donut shops. I'm going to start Mr. Shopping donuts for you. Yeah, that's a great idea. That'll be a reward for Agent Thunder. He gets to do a donut shop. And, of course, I'm talking about Nancy. She is, to me, if I had to give a medal out, I'd give the medal out to Nancy because she actually built our show from a male, kind of an exclusive male club. Nobody called.

It was just, I don't know why. I mean, women drive cars. Something about maybe being threatened and maybe feeling. I think a woman feels uneasy when she's alone, like Nancy. She's in a room here full of men. We got every one, two, three, four, four men and one gal. So I think the women weren't calling the show because nobody else was calling. So we had to kind of, you know, seed the pump, what do you call, prime the pump, with a few calls.

And Nancy has offered, you tell them about it, Nancy. What are you doing to be sure we have a 50-50 balance, which you have achieved, by the way? I'd like to, first of all, tell the ladies that they have to speak up. They have to let their voice be heard and they have to spread the word. We have to support each other. And what we do here at Erlon Cars is we recognize the ladies and we also have a prize for them every single Saturday. offer $50 for the first two new lady callers and you help me to build this platform

right here at Erlon Cars because you're an important part of, well, you're an important part of the show and by raising awareness in helping me build the platform, we're increasing the number of ladies that give us a call. So 877-960-9960, or you can text us at 772-497-6-9-30. And I want to give, speaking of ladies, I'd like to give a special hello to whomever is listening for the Attorney General Ashley Moody. Spread the word with her. She is an important part of this show, and the reason for that is that she provides consumer protection, and that's helping us because that's what we do every Saturday. We're helping to protect you from the car dealers that are really doing business the wrong way.

But the Attorney General Ashley Moody, she certainly could give us a boost by supporting us and helping us to protect the consumer from fraud, from scams, from all the dangerous products that are out there that are put into these vehicles that you're driving on the road. I have got Ashley's telephone number. It's Harriet Code. This is Ashley Moody, the Florida Attorney General. I wrote it down last week at my note. If you want to talk to Ashley Moody, you have a problem with a car dealer, you can file a complaint with the State Attorney General's office. Let me tell you, when you get a letter from the Attorney General's office, it gets attention because they can go straight at you. They don't need a court. You don't need a trial. They don't need a lawyer.

If Ashley Moody decides you created a problem, they will issue you, a dealer, meaning a fine, large fines. They can go, I guess, as high as they want. If you want to call Ashley Moody and get that detail, area code 850, 414-3300. Again, this is the Attorney General, the state of Florida, Ashley Moody, Area Code 850. That's Tallahassee Area Code, I believe. 414-3300. Write it down. Now, put it in your wallet, put it in your purse next time your car shopping, shoot a little email, shoot a little note. Call Ashley Moody and go on.

record with a complaint. Yeah, absolutely. And as the Attorney General, she definitely has a top-ranking law enforcement position, and, you know, she holds all the strings, and she definitely can help us. Remember that telephone number that you can give a call and ask for Ashley. 850-4-14-3-0. That's right. 4143300. And ladies and gentlemen, don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. So take advantage of that. We are going to go to Alan, who has been holding, and he wants to talk to the Toyota guy. Good morning, Alan. Good morning. I'm embarrassed. I can remember the name. I'm sorry. I have a question concerning.

lease cars. Can you help me with that? Absolutely. I'm the Toyota guy. In fact, all the guys and gals in here are toilet gals and guys. So what's your question? I was fortunate enough in 2018 to lease an upscale car for a three-year, a 36-month lease, and I did a single pay. I don't like paying interest, so I saved up my money and I bought the lease up front so excuse me so now that it's uh cars been sitting in the garage for a little over two months because i'm not supposed to be outside because of the virus etc i sent a letter to uh the leasing company and mercedes bens uh and never got a response i got a response yesterday

uh in a phone call i sent two letters i actually sent three asking what they were doing for people that in my situation, they're talking about what they're doing for people that, you know, want to, that aren't paying their leases, et cetera, et cetera. Right. But as far as I was concerned, they weren't doing anything, either a pro rating or extending, et cetera. And I got a call yesterday from somebody in the accounting department saying that at this time they're not doing anything. And they said, well, you get close to the end of the lease to give us a call. And I said, well, my lease is up in January 4th. And I said, wouldn't I be calling now?

It's the beginning of June in another day or so when I talked for her. And she said, well, they haven't done anything. Am I wrong in suggesting this? Or just let it slide? You're correct. There are a lot of blessings like you that are in this boat. It caught everybody by surprise. What I do know is that all the leasing companies, as you learn, are offering to extend the leases.

And in your case, you're just not driving the card. You've got, you know, six months until your leases up. I've heard of no leasing company that has done anything in the way of forgiving the payments. And my guess is there will be no leasing companies that will forgive the payments. They've deferred them. I beg your pardon? They've deferred them, but they're not, you're still going to pay you. So you can, if you have a, if it's an economic handicap, in your case, it doesn't sound like it is, it's just a matter of, I'm not driving the car, I feel I can't drive the car, therefore why should I have to pay the payments?

And I don't think any leasing companies are going to accommodate that. Now, it might happen because I think the Mercedes wants to sell you another car or lease you another car. The dealer does. The manufacturer would like that to happen. So if enough people like you raise the issue, there could be something, a special concession probably tied toward another lease or another purchase. You can count on this. If they make a concession, it's only going to happen if you lease another Mercedes or buy another Mercedes. If you decide to get a BMW, they're not going to help you in any way at all.

But I would also go in writing, Alan, I would, you've had a phone conversation. I would do an email to the Mercedes leasing folks. That way you're on record in writing. Copy the dealer. And even if they don't accommodate you, you have that in writing on the record later on if you need to pursue this further. Thank you. I have done what you've suggested.

And like I said, mine, I prepaid the lease, so it's paid in full. Oh, that's right, yeah. And I did send a letter to, three letters now, emails, to Mercedes customer service at the financial services, and copied the dealer. The dealer responded, and they actually never got back to the dealer either. He sent an email to them also. And I'm not looking for anything special. I'm not looking for money back or anything, really. I said, are you giving a mileage break,

i.e. if I don't use close to the mileage that I was supposed to use, are you going to rebate the mileage like you charge me when I go over the mileage or what? So that was my question. I don't think they will do that, Ellen. I think that, as I say, if there are enough people in your shoes, they might consider it. but you're in a rare pair of shoes because very few people do the one-pay lease. Most people can't afford to do that, and I understand your reason for it.

It makes sense pre-paying a lease, but not one out of a thousand lessees is pre-paying a lease. So you're unique, and that's probably going to work against you, because if there were hundreds of thousands of Mercedes lessees that were in the same situation, they'd come up with something. With you, you're unique. the best thing they got going for them for you is buying another Mercedes they want you to buy or lease

another Mercedes and they might come up with an incentive to have you do so and you're just going to have to wait. I'm sorry I can't give you any more encouragement. Okay, well that's fine. I just want an independent opinion on it. How does that sound?

And I appreciate your and I enjoy your show. I listen to it as much as I can and thank you for all you do. call again, please, Alan. I'd be interested to see how this works out. If you hear something different, Mercedes, we'd love to hear from you. Take care of yourself, and

please stay with the show. Thank you. Thank you. Good day. Thank you, Alan. Give us a call again. I mentioned earlier about the most important way that you can become a female advocate, and you're probably already there, and that's by speaking up.

Ladies, we have $50 for the first two new lady calls, So give us a call, say hello, ask a question, whatever you feel comfortable with, 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-497-6-5-30. And I mention often, www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Take advantage of it. Let your voice be heard. Yeah, Rick's got a YouTube over here.

We've got a couple of them, actually. Mark Ryan first is asking, could you provide an overview of how the auto auction process works, costs, et cetera? Number one, if the dealer purchases vehicles through the auction, and number two, if a dealer sells vehicles through an auction. Thanks. Yeah, the auction is actually almost a monopoly. It's called Mannheim.

There are a few independent auctions left, but Mannheim is just about, you know, owns, 90% of them, I'd say, in the United States, an interesting thing has happened with auto auctions. It really is a lifeblood of most car dealers. We not only buy cars at auction, we sell cars at auction. It's extremely high-tech now. Online has become a reality.

We're buying most of our cars online now. There was a time where you had to go out physically and touch the car and look at the car and stand there and bid just like you see these auctions. and on television and whatnot, if you've ever been to a live auction. It's all online now, and they have the rules set up and the standards so that you're pretty well assured of buying the car you wanted to buy. You're protected in case there's a problem with the car.

You can get your money back. It's extremely well done. You can stay home, and we have one person in our dealership, and he has a bank of televisions in his home. And he's a perfect example of working out of your home. And he can stand there and buy or sell 100 cars in a few hours. And it actually works out better. So, yeah, we even buy a car dealer sometimes.

We'll buy cars at auctions custom. You know, I have a person coming to buy a used car. We don't have that used car. But they're looking for a particular color, year-make model brand. You go to the auction where thousands of cars are being sold, especially online. I say you go to the auction, you look on your PC,

and you can buy a car anywhere in the United States and probably find something very close to the one that the person wants. So yeah, the auction is a real, real important part of automobile dealerships today. Cool. And Croceteer Den

is asking, I love the guy's name here, I have a 2011 Camry. Although my transmission, fluid cannot be checked, but can Toyota change my transmission fluid? You answer to that one. The reason for this is a lot of cars now, a lot of manufacturers, are going to what's known as a sealed transmission.

The fluid level is set by the factory when they put it in the car, and they're using fluids now that for the life of the car really don't ever need to be changed. So there's no dipstick anymore. there's no checking the fluid. And even in the repair manual, it actually tells us if there's no leaks, then the fluid level is correct. Yeah, that's amazing.

You know, for an old-timer like me, it's hard for me to get through my head that a transmission fluid or any fluid that you have can last the life of a car. Because the life of a car today is not, you know, four or five years is 15 or 20 years. Right.

And it's just hard for me to get through my head. But it's true, right? I mean, you know, you're the expert. However, if you do, there are some of us that say, yeah, but I still want to get it changed. Just about any good shop, including after market shops, but especially any dealership, will have a machine known as a transmission flush machine. And basically what this machine does is you hook it up to the cooler lines for the transmission. It drains out the old fluid and pumps fresh new fluid in the air.

exact amount gets exchanged. And then there are procedures for checking and setting the fluid level and the transmission properly to make sure it's at the proper level. Well, let me jump in there with this comment. You said, yeah, but I still, some people still feel like they want to do it. You know, sometimes some people feel like jumping off a cliff. Some people feel like a drunken cyanide. I'm exaggerating. The point is, and you said the, you said the word flush when you go into a car dealership today car dealerships are starving in the service department in many instances because the fact that the cars are so maintenance free and an example here is what we're talking about transmission fluid uh radiator fluid uh what are some other fluids

on this one uh coolant but coolant flushes there are some legitimate coolant coolant flushes which are part of the factory recommended thing and i learned that because i had a nice letter from a customer described a very big experience, but she also said I had to do a coolant flush and I panicked for a second. It was a high mileage car and it was like at 100 and something thousand miles. It called

for a coolant. Yes. Toyota recommends replacing engine coolant on most of the cars now at 150,000 miles and every 50,000 miles after that. I saw it read that. But the message before we get off on the tangent, the message I want to alert people to when you go into a service department

whether it's independent or otherwise, And the service salesperson, they'll call themselves advisors or associates or scientists. I don't know what they are as salespeople. They can pay the commission. The more service they sell you, the more money they make. So the factory recommended maintenance today on the modern car is minimal. I mean, I'm talking minimal compared to what it used to be. Rule number one, don't have anything done to your car unless it's recommended by the owner's management.

And if someone tried to sell you a flush, this is one of the most exploited, people are taking advantage of more with flushes than anything else. It sounds real good. You've got to flush out your system. You've got to flush it out. We'll clean it out. Your car will run better. It'll run smoother.

Nonsense. If the factory owner's manual does not tell you you should have this flushed, and the transmission as an example, you never have to have it flush, even if you feel like having it flush, don't have it flush, it's just going to be wasting your money. Right. And the last one I've got here is from High C. Says, hello from Kentucky, a repair question. My wife's 2016 Toyota Sienna has periodic issues with cruise control.

Last weekend, the engine light came on, track off, and the cruise was in op. Any ideas? Thanks. Well, the first thing is cruise control quite often gets turned off by the computer. when you have a check engine light situation, if there's something going on in the electronics for the engine, it's just one of those safety features where they try to avoid having cruise control because if something goes wrong,

they want the driver to be in direct control of that vehicle at that moment. I didn't know that. I've been in the business 50-plus years. I never knew that. Amazing. Well, just like cruise control can also be connected if you have automatic wipers that detect the rain on the windshield, When your automatic wipers detect rain and start activating, it will shut off the cruise control because a cruise is not recommended in the rain because of safety issues. A lot of people are just saying, you know, my cruise control is all not working right. Right.

They should tell people like that. Tell me. Thank you. So in your case, High C, my recommendation you need to get that check engine light diagnosed and find out what's going on there to see is it. that the cruise control issue is simply a sympathetic problem, or is it being, is maybe it the center problem? And that, because cars are so complicated on this, we need a lot more information to try to really diagnose it.

So you'll need to go somewhere and get that check engine light checked out and find out what's going on there. And don't forget to tighten your gas cap and then start your car and turn it off 40 times. Really? That's Rick, keeping us informed. Give us a call. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-3-0. Rick, are you finished?

Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah. I have a text that I'd like to share with all of you, and it's from Janet, and her and her girlfriends were out looking at cars. Janet wants to purchase a car, and her girlfriend said to her, you better watch out for the box and she is just frightened to death because she didn't know what the box was you know so they started talking amongst each other and I'll give you some information and then

we'll let we'll ask Earl to detail this but the box that's a slang in the car business and it's It refers to the finance and insurance offices. And you'll walk in there, and there'll be so many papers that you're going to sign that you become overwhelmed. And also, the most important thing for you to keep in mind, that is the most profitable, profitable part of purchasing your vehicle. So they're right. Watch out for the box. Now, Earl can share some details with us. I'm not let's too tell the details, but I got a great picture about the box.

This week's Automotive News. That's a trade journal for all car dealers and all auto manufacturers around the world. Excuse me just for a second. Henry, give us a call back. Henry was on hold from Jupiter, and I just noticed that he hung up. He might be calling back at a moment. Yeah, please call back, Henry. We're sorry we miss you.

We'd love to have you call in case you didn't write the number down. 877-960-99-60 you can call us at 877-960-960 now we're talking about the box which is the f-n-i department and nancy just says this is the most profitable department in a car dealership today's automotive news this week's automotive news our trade journal has a picture of the mobile f-n-i office and it's very it's kind of an inside joke uh it's frightening yeah sue and i laughed about this and anybody in the car business. That's how important it is to the car dealers. They're mobilizing the F&I department

because without the F&I department, most car dealers would go broke. I think it's a fair statement. If they took away the finance and insurance income from the box, almost all car dealerships would go under. It's a huge profit center. They make money on the interest rate and a lot of products they sell you.

Some are good, some are bad. most of them are overpriced but uh stu you uh i will tell you the last thing i would ever want to do would be getting the back of a van in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic with a finance manager in a mobile box that is like a that is really unpleasant maybe if they set up like a nice you know folding chairs and a table behind the van that would be a little bit nicer but yeah um yeah it's called the box i mean it's kind of funny um it's become such a prevalent term i've actually heard salespeople say to their customer, okay, just be a few

more minutes, we'll get you in the box, and we'll get you on your way. Not realizing it's a derogatory term. Oh, I've corrected sales. I was like, you don't say that. The box the reason they call it the box is you got them trapped. Usually in the earlier parts of the car buying process, you know, you're out in the sales floor,

you're driving in a car, customer can leave. You know, they train salespeople to get as much control, but when you get them in the box, they're not literally locked in, but you're kind of an enclosed space. It's every, the tone gets a little bit more serious because now you're doing official, you're doing contracts and DMV paperwork, so it has an air of importance. They call the salespeople who sell these insurance products. They call them finance managers, and I don't think in my 20, or business manager, but I've never met a finance manager that had a finance degree or any of their real credentials other than that they sold cars for a long time.

They're salespeople, super salespeople, yeah. But they are, in fairness, though, it's a hard job. There's a lot of painstaking details and paperwork. They have to get everything right. Contracts have to be right. So it's a lot of hard work, but the sales part of it is where the notoriety comes from. And a mobile box, when you sent me that email, I about fell out on my chair when I saw it. Okay, where are we on YouTube?

Let me finish up with Janet real quick. And Bob, thanks for holding. I'll get to you in just a moment. Janet, I just want to let you know. it doesn't have to be a frightening situation. As a matter of fact, you know, I'd look forward to it. The reason, you do your homework.

You never walk into the box or the finance. Well, you want to go in there with a quote from your credit union and your bank. Don't go into the finance department at a dealership, which we're talking about the box. Don't even go in there until you have been quoted the best terms and rate from your bank and or credit union. If they can be competitive and give you a better deal, fine. and don't buy anything that they try to sell you in there

until you have analyzed it and evaluated it because there are a number of products. There can be three, four, five, ten different products they'll try to sell you. Absolutely. I couldn't have put it at any other way. And Janet, your homework is extremely important. And please, that extended warranty

and all of these things that they just throw at you in the box, Make sure you do your homework before you walk in there. Knowledge is Power. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. We're going to go to Bob from West Palm Beach. Thank you for holding, Bob. Okay, good morning. Good morning.

I have a question for Earl. I have, would you believe it, 20003, Honda Civic. It has only 77,000 miles. Why? And, well, because I used to, every year I take a long, a big trip out west, I go, you name, you name it, the whole west, and I stay two, three months. And then when I worked, when I worked, I had, I didn't need a car, you know, was all the winter season. But anyway, it's all documents. But anyway, it's all documents. I have every repair work, every oil change I have documented. And what is the best way to sell this car?

I cannot drive anymore. I say, well, it's a better environment right now for selling a used car than it's been for a long time. Back in 2003, if you bought that car new, it was a whole different scenario. day there are a number of ways you can get prices on your car the easiest way to sell a car is doing it is a wholesale number there are people out there more than ever before especially with automation online digital going you can take your car I

don't are you anywhere near a car max used car they're the largest used car dealers well I didn't I mean West Palm Beach the south end of West Palm Beach yeah they're in Boynton on on I-95 if you can get a bid from Carmax there's also I'm writing this yeah C-A-R-M-A-X I believe there's one in north and I know where that is good they'll give you a bid on the car you have to bring it in they'll appraise it and it's good for five days two years I was gonna ask you can you do you have to sell it like right now I well I don't have to but it's sitting in my garage and I turn it on once in a while you know just to I would advise

just waiting in just a little bit because what we've seen right now the even though we've seen some recovery in it use car prices the market has been pretty depressed by the by the pandemic and a lot of the auctions shut down so we're the values that are that we're seeing are kind of depressed they're going to come back probably during the summer so if you could wait maybe until maybe July or so. Yeah, my insurance is paid, doesn't matter of fact, you know. Well, you can start the process now, Bob,

and you can also, there's another company called We Buy Anycar.com. That's an online company. I don't have a computer. Okay. We buy any car. Yeah, it's a we buy, just like you run all the words together.

W-E-B-U-Y-A-N-Y-C-A-R, dot com yeah any any car we buy any car dot com uh... and there's a carvana another online company uh... you can call them these these companies will come out and look at your car and give you a price carvana c a r v a n a we buy any car dot com uh... car max you have to take your car to them

uh... these are the nice thing about this is you might get too low price from one but if they need the car the price will be good. I don't need it. No, I cannot drive anymore. I gave up my life. I understand. If CarMax needs the car, what I'm saying is being able to shop and compare it with several buyers, bidders, is something we never had before. And, of course, another way to get a price, and this is a little harder, you need to go to a Honda dealer and go to the used car manager and ask him, what would you pay for your car? And as soon said, just be sure they know. that you don't want to buy another car you're just trying to sell your car and you

can get one or two bids three bids from Honda dealers and you can do Carvana we buy any car.com and CarMax that's a that's a real advantage to a seller to get five bids and then wait you know wait a month or two and do it again if you don't mind work yeah I don't have to it well you know my like I said my insurance is paid and I explained to the insurance company and they gave me, they made me a deal, I don't know. And if you have a friend, you know, I wouldn't try to sell my car retail on Craigslist or Facebook or something like that. It's just too much of a hassle, and it can be dangerous that people try to take advantage of you.

But if you have a friend or a relative, a 2003 Honda Civic with only 77,000 miles, there are a whole lot of people out there that would love to have a car like that. You've got all the records? I mean, it's always kept in the garage, you know. Exactly, yeah. If anybody out there, we're on the radio now, a lot of people, thousands of people, if you're interested in buying a 2003 onto Civic with only 77,000 miles, and Bob has got all the repair records, and he wants to sell it, you can text us with what you... Well, I cannot do that.

I can give you my phone number. No, no, no, no. I was going to say you could call back in. next week and we could get your contact information we would send it to you. I'm not going to ask you to give your phone up over the air. Okay, that's very kind of you. Sure, yeah. Okay, folks out there listening, if Bob's got a 2003 Honda City with 77,000 miles,

if you're interested, he has all the repair records and offer him make a bid. We'll tell Bob about it next week. When he calls in, we'll send the information to him off the air. That's very kind of you. Thank you. You're very welcome. Thanks for calling, Bob. I used to be a customer of yours. I used to have a Pontiac, but that's in Flamingo Drive.

Oh, wow. That's a long, 1928 South Dixie. That's right. My father started that dealership in 1937. Yeah. Made this picture under framed. Yeah. Yeah, that was stent.

Well, Bob, thanks so much for the call. I thank you a lot. That's very kind. Oh, you're welcome. Stay in touch with us, Bob, so we can pass that information along to you next week. Next week, okay. Thank you very much. I have a text that I really have to get to.

I overlooked it. It's from May the 22nd. And it's questions on factory extended warranties, price fixing in Florida. Higher on, Nancy, I purchased a new Subaru in October from a dealer in South Florida. During the purchase, I declined their offer for the superiors. Subaru's extended warranty, I wanted to use some time to learn about these products and the prices. So I shopped around for prices on the Subaru. Added Security Gold Plus, I called several Subaru dealers to obtain prices. The dealers in Florida said their prices are regulated.

I don't understand what they mean by regulated. Who is the regulator? I found a dealer in Connecticut that sells the same Subaru added security gold plus for several hundred dollars lower than what the Florida dealers quoted. After further review, the dealer in Connecticut called to tell me he cannot sell his extended warranty product because he is precluded to selling it to Florida car owners. The Connecticut deal said they are several states, there are, several states and have some similar restrictions. Can this be accurate? This sounds to me like a restraint on free trade.

What do you know? Thanks, Howard. Howard, very perceptive. The way you describe that, I think there is some room for investigation into restraint of trade. The Florida law, however, can be a good thing. A lot of states are unregulated. In Florida, you have to register the price of your warranty

with the state insurance commissioner. And it saves you the experience of going into the box or the finance department where they sell you an extended warranty and then they sell it for all the money they can get. In other words, they'll have a warranty and it may be good, it may be medium or bad. They'll sell it to you for $1,000, $2,000, $5,000. In some states, it's totally unregulated.

Florida they're saying if you want to sell an extended warranty you have to register the price and you cannot vary from that and even though it is designed it sounds like you might be able to get a better deal if you could hypothetically buy a warranty in another state it's kind of like a casino the house always wins when we compare ourselves to other dealers outside of Florida that don't have regulated insurance products and the sky is the limit sure they can discount it but they can also they can also get you we tend to to make quite a bit less money on warranty sales than the dealers outside of Florida for that

very reason. But I think where Howard's restraint of trade is pertinent, and I hope we have some lawyers out there listening. This is a national issue. If Subaru has a warranty, and they have a suggested price for the warranty, and the dealers in Kentucky selling Subaru sell it at that price and the Subaru dealers in Florida have registered the price higher to deny a Floridian the right to buy a warranty in Kentucky for the car because of state law that smells to me I think yeah there's something there but I would say that probably on average in Kentucky they're probably paying more for that warranty because yeah but we're talking about a Subaru warranty

We're not specific, and I think that it's worth a letter, I'm worth consulting with an attorney on that. I just think that if I can, it would be like buying a refrigerator, a Westinghouse refrigerator or a frigidere or whatever in one state, and they wouldn't sell it in another state at that price, even if you bought it in that state. So if I'm a Floridian and I drive to Kentucky, and they won't sell me that warranty for the,

prices it is sold in Kentucky that that's that's probably could if you registered in Kentucky yeah but yeah okay well thank you very much thank you Howard and I hope I hear from you at Erwan Cars and I apologize for not being able to respond to you and the others but there seems to be a glitch in that situation that's all I can call it's been there for a long time one more text and this is my apologies for not getting back to you immediately, and I hope I don't bought your name, but it's Prabah Hava, and that comes from us from Oregon. So, this is seeing information regarding car purchase. Thank you very much.

Hi, Earl and Nancy, I came across your YouTube channel when I searched for car leases, buyout negotiations. It was a six-year-old video, and I explored your channel. and found that you have a radio show great job your knowledge of your show I am sure is helping a huge number of car buyers I live in the Pacific time zone so could not text you my question during the 8 to 10 Eastern Standard time today thank you for the email and thank you for listening watching the YouTube's Jonathan does a fabulous job with them, and they're all extremely informative. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-60, and I see by the look in Stude's eyes, he's got several texts. The dream you look? I'm sorry, I have to interrupt you before you even begin.

Tina, hello, Tina, from Benita Springs. Good morning. How are y'all doing? Well, thank you. You're doing great, Tina. Thanks. Well, I was going to talk to Rick about tires, but, you know, the previous conversation, so I'll have to hold off, Rick, I'm sorry.

But you were talking earlier about buying a car from one state when you live in another, and my dad went to a sort of experience where he bought a beautiful used Lexus SUV over here in Naples, Florida, and the Toyota dealerships remain Toyota. They're very good. But my mom and dad live in Georgia, he bought the car in Florida, and it took forever for him to get his license plate straightened out and the registration of everything because he bought a car from out of state.

So I was thinking, Earl, maybe you can talk about some of the complications that can happen if you live in one state, but you buy it another. Well, almost all the states, in fact, I think all 50 states do have reciprocal agreements with each other. each state has different rules with registrations, license plates, and so on, so on. So if you live in Florida, if you're resident in Florida, and you buy a car in Massachusetts or Kentucky or California, then the person from whom you buy the car or the dealer, the title clerk in the dealership, will arrange for you to title it in the state of your residence. We have a lot of snowbirds in Florida, as you know. A lot of people come down from New York and Canada, things like that.

And so when they buy a car, they live in New York or New Jersey. So we have the car titled for them in New York, or they can do it themselves. We put a transit tag, a paper tag. You see them a lot on cars, and that paper tag is good for 20 or 30 days, giving them time to get back to their home state. and then they can not have to pay the sales tax twice and pay the proper fee for the registration and license plate. So it gets a little complicated,

and there's some states that make it very difficult, too, has a point. Yeah, the states that are truly reciprocal, basically you pay the dealer in Florida, the sales tax, the registration there, and that gets transferred up to the DMV up in the state where you're registering it. There are other ones that is not reciprocal, so you would actually buy the car

and only pay the dealer the, well, his price, and whatever dealer fees he slips in, but then the sales tax and registration would be handled directly, like Earl said, when you do it on your own in another state. I think it was kind of fun. You brought up Massachusetts. I think Massachusetts is one that's not reciprocal.

I've got to double check on it. They're the most difficult to deal with. They're one of them, yeah. But basically it's, but it is handled by the dealer unless the state is not fully reciprocal, and then you've got to go do it on your own. yeah when my mom and i got ready to drive home his tag was like on the last three or four days and he was starting to get a little bit nervous about it but he did end up finally getting his

plate so it all worked out but florida george is not necessarily the easiest transaction no yeah it's uh it can be uh frustrating we because we do so much of it our dealership uh we have so many people that live out of state you know we're really good at it uh and uh other states i'm sure you can get messed up. You should be sure that they understand what they're doing wherever you buy your car and so that it'll go smoothly. The last thing you want to do

is to buy a new car, take it home, and then your temporary tag expires and you don't have a license plate and even we get calls and customers saying my temp tag expired, what happened and their word they're going to get pulled over and get a ticket, so try to straighten all that up front, especially for out.

the state purchases. Yeah, I agree. And start working on that the very first day. Don't wait like two weeks or half the time. Between now and when your temporary tag expires, work on it right away that really can get it cleared. Exactly. Okay, Tana, well, thanks very much for the call.

We're glad you're back online. We worried about you there for a while, but you're going to be calling us every week, right? You promise? I'm going to try my best. And, you know, before I, before I leave, Ladies, Nancy and I cannot do this by ourselves. We need you.

So please call in. Amen. Thank you, Tina. It's great to hear your voice. Thank you. And it's great for your encouragement to support the ladies and encourage them to give us a call because they can win $50, the first two new lady callers. Give us a call 877-960-9-90-60 and win yourself $50, lady. Please speak up and let your voice be heard.

Okay, text. Yeah, we've got a ton of they've been piling up. Real quick, don't in some states you have to pay property tax on your vehicle? I think so, yeah. It's kind of strange, yeah. So when you do your annual taxes, you've got to include your home and your vehicle. I'm glad that is not the case here. Pretty sure they'll be tax on dogs.

That's right. Dogs are property. Well, I shouldn't say that. Okay, here's one this came in. I guess somebody was listening to this show this morning. It says, put the likelihood, this is anonymous feedback, by the way, put the likelihood of Ashley Moody giving a blank

on ain't going to happen.com. Well, it's true, and we just think pressure sometimes brings the truth to the surface. And the truth is that the Attorney General, in most states, maybe all states, are elected offices. And so what do you have to get elected? You have to have campaign contributions

It takes a lot of money, and nobody gives the Attorney General more money than car dealers. Car dealers and their associations basically are responsible for electing the Attorney General of the state of Florida. And now you'll answer the question why you rarely ever see a car dealer charged or fined or in any way reprimanded by the Attorney General. It just doesn't happen. If they do, it will be for a little use card. dealer somewhere, but you take somebody like Autonation or Penske Auto Group or Sonic Automotive or big chains of dealers that are owned individually. Privately, these folks, these companies never seem to have a problem with the Attorney General

in spite of the fact they're in flagrant violation of state law. Almost every dealer in the state of Florida advertises prices, not including their multiple. hidden fees they have hidden fees before the statute specifically prohibits that and Ashley Moody just pretends like it's not happening and we know why it's almost like and I'm not advocating for increasing the size of our of our state government that a new agency in the state government like a consumer agency with teeth should be established let the Attorney General deal with drug dealers and other and murders and that if that's what the priorities are

and have a consumer agency that truly focuses on that as can actually enforce the laws that are on the books. I think that's a great idea, Steve. That number is 850, area code 850 414-330. You want to talk to Ashley Moody, the Attorney General of the state of Florida, dial area code 8504-4-3-0, and tell her Earl has to ask you to call. Absolutely. And you know that, you know, some of her duties in Stu had a great idea, fabulous idea.

This is an important topic. And part of the Attorney General's Ashley Moody's job is to provide consumers with protection, you know, protection against, you know, these car dealers and everything that's going on and how they are able to take advantage. of all of these consumers, and it's completely overwhelming. Please help us by calling 851-4-1-4-1. Excuse me, that's 850, 4-1-4-1-3-3-0. No, no. No. No. 850 414-3-3-0.

8504-1-3-0. Thank you for correcting that. I had one, oh, too many ones there. Yeah. Okay, folks, we're going to go to Bobby in West Palm Beach. Good morning, Bobby. Hi, good morning. I have a compliment and I have some constructive criticism that Earl asked for from time to time.

Your customer, you talk about your customers and consumer reports in Costco. We're sort of cost-conscious customers to start with. And I would just like to recommend that on your services website, your car dealer website if you go to car service you have a number of services that you'll discount 12 percent something like that or a hundred dollars off i would recommend that you make a four-cylinder spark plug change thirty nine dollars a six-cylinder fifty nine dollars specific amounts for the specific job and you do have a couple of those but most of yours are percent off. And I would think that if you walked into a jewelry store to buy Nancy

something and they told you we were giving you 12% off, you would assume that they had marked it up before they gave you the 12% off. Yeah, Bob, I totally agree with you. I wasn't even aware of that. If you discount something, you need to know, you know, the actual bottom line price. So I agree with you. I walked into a jewelry store and they had 12% of it. You know, the actual bottom line price. So I agree with you. I walked into a jewelry store, and they had 12% discount percentage. I would be certain. We'll take a look at that and make the modifications, and you check it out and call us back next week.

Okay, I will. Do you have time for your compliment? I use some of your advice and it worked. Okay, I love to hear it. Sure. Sure. So I have a 2012 Lexus, and it has the melting dashboard problem that Toyota also had for a while. And you recommended that I call the dealer. I may have said I was talking to Earl Stewart from Earl Stewart Toyota, and I may have implied that we were better friends than we are.

but you're my best best friend bob well i'll tell them that the next time anyhow i i said you recommended that i called to see if the manufacturer might still be still be doing something to fix this problem because not in in the lexas it wasn't the dashboard it was the it was the armrests on the side panel and the console and like the glove box it was a different set of problems but the same melting problem and sure enough they said yeah there's a the manufacturer has extended the warranty for those parts and you bring it in and they take pictures of it and they send it out great and so then they order the parts as I understand it takes a while for the parts to actually come in so we'll see how that goes but but your name carries a lot of weight well I thank you I

I would rather have people smile when you say my name but I think I I strike fear into the hearts of some car dealers because we do talk about them on the show if they don't do the right thing. So I'm glad it works. So anybody out there feel free to use our name and sometimes it carries a little bit of weight because they don't want to be talked about on the radio.

And all we do is tell the truth. If we don't, we get sued, but we've never been sued. So, Bob, thanks very much for that success story. And one last thing. We criticize the dealers all the time. And I'll say you talked about J.M. Lexus being relatively good as dealers go. Yes. This was J.M. Lexus, by the way.

Oh, good. That's owned by the estate of the founder and former owner of Southeast Toyota distributors. Jim Moran, Jim Moran and Associates owns that dealership. And it's, of all, I recommend J.M. Lexus, if you want to buy Lexus, they're a good outfit to buy from. They claim they have no dealer fee. They have a small dealer fee. I've been meaning to say something to them about that. As I recall, still, was it, $2 or $300? It's probably minor.

Yeah, I think I was almost a $3.99. Yeah. Which is. But outside of that, that's one price. They give you their lowest price on Lexus. And the Lexus prospects out there call JM Lexus. Be sure get a price from them before you buy from another Lexus dealer. Yep.

Well, thanks for the help and take a look at those coupons. I will, Bob. Thanks for the information. We will check it out. Thank you, Bob. You're welcome. Have a great day. Bobby, A77-960, 960, or you can text us at 772-49-2-497-6-9-3-0. I think we need to get back to Stu. Oh, yeah.

He's being bombarded. Okay, I have a question for Rick. This comes on Your Anonymous Feedback.com. I have a question for Rick. Back in the day, we used to burn out by space. our tires when taking off from a spithoplate. We did this to demonstrate our masculinity and attract mates. It worked really well. I just got divorced and I'm in the market for a new woman. I tried burning the tires in my Camaro next to a pretty lady in a Jeep.

Did you join, come to us in a time machine? Honestly. Let me continue. you, next to a pretty lady in a Jeep. It didn't work. All the safety features appeared to restrain me. What can I do about this, Rick? Hey, Rick, before you answer that question,

I'd like to suggest to Anonymous that he clean up his game and, well, perform a different mating game. Or shall I say, as Stu says, mating dance. The salesperson mating ritual, yeah. It seems to be a theme. Go ahead, Rick. How can this guy get a new wife?

Come on. I'll ask a serious question, Rick, because it made me think of this. Back in my drag racing days, and you see these at the professional drag races, they will burn their tires back and forth before they go sign. Is that because the melting tire and rubber gives them a little bit better traction? Yes. Hotter tires equals better traction on a race car. on your average family car and any sports car that you're going to drive on our regular highways.

Traction control, antelac brakes, stability control, all these work together, and the car literally does not allow to burn the tires anymore. And I'm going to venture just my advice. I really don't think, even if you were able to disarm your safety features, you're not going to attract any ladies doing that. Get with the times, man. No, the much better option there, I think, would be to be a decent human being. And I would put signs up, hold up a sign in your window that says, I have a home that's in really great shape, and I take good care of it.

Clean your fingernails, get a haircut, be a nice guy. Okay, let's move along. Okay, we are going to take a call from Joan in West Palm Beach. and is this the Joan with the engine light? Yes, ma'am. Good morning. That was a great guess. Thanks, Joan.

I was hoping we'd hear from you. Good morning. Yes. Good morning. And I wanted to say thank you so much. You followed right up. I was very impressed. I got my $50 check from you.

And just thank you. It was so kind. You're welcome. I did go to the... Thank you. I went to AutoZone, and the troubleshooting computer said that it was P.O.420, and that the problem was I need basically the results. A catalytic converter. Yes, yes, that's it.

Yeah. And I have 158,000 miles on this 2005 Toyota, so I was wondering what your thoughts were. Ignore it. What should I do? Ignore it. Yeah, the catalytic converter is just to, well, you know, you can say that catteliorally, but the fact is that you are probably creating pollution beyond the acceptable level. the problem is it costs a lot of money

to replace a catalytic converter and you've got an older car if you don't replace it your car is going to run just fine the problem is you'll be spewing pollution into the atmosphere and if that doesn't bother you a lot I wouldn't worry about it

it's just a personal choice how much money do you want to spend to keep the world clean and also maybe just want to trade it in let somebody else worry about it okay that's a great thought but your car is not going to run you just don't have to do anything

and your car will run just fine okay all right well thank you you all are so kind and I appreciate it and we love your program and I just wanted to say thank you again for everything you're welcome gentlemen I'm glad you follow it up with us

and you know we not only are saving you a little bit of money but we really informed some of the Some of the listeners that are, you know, that are watching this morning and listening, that's what we, that's what we like to do, save everyone a little bit of money. Right. Okay, John. We all have a great weekend. Thank you.

And Rick? Just to clarify a little bit on that, the systems that determine that that catalytic converter is starting to go bad and will trigger that check engine light. are so incredibly fussy that I would say there's probably a 40 to 50% chance that Jones check engine light is going to relatively soon turn itself back off because the catalytic converter sometimes will not be quite as efficient as it should. And it's putting out, yeah, maybe the levels are just a little bit high coming out of that tailpipe, but they're still going to be within an acceptable safe range. I mean, we're not talking about a car that is a huge major pollutant source right now. What's a rough number for a catalytic converter? How much

the converter plus the installation? What does that cost? Depending upon the car, it can be anywhere from an aftermarket shop that simply cuts out the old one and splices a new one in, maybe five or six hundred dollars there or a little more. Okay. Factory, you could be looking at $12 to $1,500 and they can go up from there depending on the car. So it's a whole lot of money and it's really not as dangerous. I mean, we're not talking something

that's spewing out so many pollutants that it's going to, you know, the person behind you is going to drop down from it. You know, this is a very minute thing and those systems are so finicky because of the way the federal government wants them that it can trigger just for a tiny little bit. yeah definitely okay still we got a bunch of text over there i know that he's overwhelmed with them but we have amanda uh giving us a call from palm beach gardens good morning amanda

good morning how's everybody doing today great well thank you are you a first-time caller yes i'm staying at my mom's i'm from orlando but i'm staying at my mom okay amanda you just won yourself fifty dollars this morning by calling in thank you so much and if you stay on the line after you a question we can get your information contact information and get the check out to you what can we do for you this morning i was just wondering i have a car that's a couple years old and i've always got the conventional oil change is it worth switching to the synthetic or not i think it is because uh it's synthetic is a little bit better oil uh plus the fact you only have to change your synthetic half as often as you do the fossil fuel the regular oil

And all cars now are being manufactured, requiring synthetic, so you might as well get used to it. If you absolutely have a thing against synthetic oil, which I don't know why that would be, the fossil fuel will work fine, but you just have to change it twice as often. So when you weigh the frequency of the change against the higher cost of the synthetic, it's about a break-even proposition. Yeah. How many miles for each one? I'm not sure we know for Toyota but if you're doing the fossil fuel it's like six months or 5,000 miles if you do in the synthetic it's 10,000 miles or one year I'm not sure if that

applies to all vehicles but it's pretty close that's a pretty good standard 10,000 miles that's a lot yeah yeah I have time too if you don't put the mileage on you still got to do it by time, people have a hard time understanding that, including me, but the factory says that if oil sits for a year and you don't put any miles on the car at all, you still should change it. And so mileage or whichever comes first, the mileage, change it, or the time comes first, change it even if you put no miles on the car. Okay, perfect.

Thank you so much. Oh, you're welcome, Amanda. Stay in touch. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-60. Now back to Stu. Okay, so we have one from Phil in Wellington, and let me pull this up. He sent this out to us last week. We missed it, and I promised him we'd get to his question. But he also said that he chimed in on the question about paying property tax on, dogs. He says

Massachusetts already taxes your dog. Oh, God, I don't believe it. He says, if the state knows you own one of value, you'll pay an excise tax on it. He said, we had a Shih Tzu, and we never told him. That is the perfect example of

bureaucratic, governmental insanity. How do you tax a dog? Do chihuahuas, are they less than Great Danes? Is there a sliding scale? Listen, that's just a more argument for you to adopt a don't shop get your dog from a shelter no kill shelter keep those guys like like we have down here big dog ranch rescue yeah I don't think they're going to tax you on a dog that you

adopted so I don't know if you're paying big money on a designer dog I don't know maybe you know I don't know I don't think you know somebody's going to spend $10,000 on a designer dog you know maybe they should pay less I just so much on my dog he's he's visiting he's been visiting for 10 years he's He's not my dog. Hey, Stu mentioned the Big Dog Ranch. I'll take advantage of a girl's book. And all of the proceeds for the purchase of this book, The Recovering Car Dealer, go to Big Dog Ranch, 100%.

That's right. How do you like the sound effects? Okay, so you can pick that up at Amazon. Amazon.com. Confessions of a recovering car dealer. But back to Jonathan from Wellington's text. Sorry, I think I said Phil from Wellington. It's Jonathan from Wellington.

And last week he said, I love your show and your dealership, but when Earl grades the mystery shopping report, he grades on a curve. I think this is a mistake. Grading on a curve gives the other dealerships the ability to be dishonest, crooked, or disreputable, and get away with it. To truly grade honestly, we need to hear the report and grades solely based on the report and the outcome. Thank you for a wonderful show. Nancy and I talked about that very thing on the way to the radio station this morning.

And the reason we grade on the curve is that if we graded strictly by good and bad, there would be no place to buy cars in Florida. And it would be impractical. We have a recommended list, and we have a do not buy list. But if nobody passes and you want to buy a Cadillac, you want to buy a Honda, and there's nothing on the recommended list, you're going to drive to Georgia or North Carolina. So we do grade on the curve. we should probably make that more obvious what if we did percentiles you know like this one is better than 98 percent of them out there this one is better than 14 percent of them yeah we probably should fine tune our scoring so that when we're looking at 20 dealerships on a recommended list there should be the one of the bottom particularly among brands franchises that's lower and we will find tune that but yeah we can't do an absolute every dealer in florida charges hidden fees and they don't disclose it in the price. I don't like to put that on a recommended list,

but if I put no dealers on there, what good? Where are you going to buy your cars? That's the reason. It's understandable, but there has to be a better way, you know, like I said this morning. We'll find tuna. All right, we got one from, this is a text. I'm sorry, Nancy. Excuse me, Stu.

Bev's been holding from Palm Beach Gardens. Welcome to the show, Bev. Well, thank you. It's so nice to have a program where we can call in and ask questions. And especially for ladies, because it is problematic for us to go and find things, you know, if we don't have someone backing us up, which is my situation. And I did find a car that I wanted, and I was searching to different companies that are, you know, up to Stewart. And I can't seem to find the one I want.

What's the best way to approach the dealers to find the exact car you want? because they don't really know how to do that. Yeah, I wouldn't rely on the dealer to tell me what car I should buy. I would use the consumer's report, and you know pretty much what you would like in terms of, do you like a sharp sports car? Do you like a van? Do you like a pickup? You know, in general, what you like.

So narrow it down in terms of size. I mean, that's easy for you to do. Then you go to Consumer Reports and you look for brands of car and the rankings of the car by Consumer Reports. I recommend Consumer Reports because they take no advertising money. They won't even buy a car when they test it. Or they won't even accept a car from a manufacturer or a dealer. They buy the car when they test it.

So they are not beholden to any manufacturer or brand of any make car. And all they care about is protecting you. They are funded. funded by the sale of their magazine and they're online and by contributions so they are pristine in terms of ethics and honesty go to the consumer course pick out the car that's got the best ratings that fits your general requirements in terms of size and you see the fuel economy the safety rating the maintenance and repair how much is it cost to ensure it everything you need to know and bill girl i understand that and i have found the car you know i've decided what i want

Okay. But now what I want to do is find that car, okay, through the dealers, and I've checked them, and I haven't been able to find that car with the options that I want locally, okay, up to Stewart and so forth. And so how would I go about doing that? Well, there are certain, do you mind telling me the brand of car that you're buying? Yes, it's a Jeep brand, Cherokee Limited, 4,000. Okay, car dealers will typically, we call it dealer trade, they will go, there's a central computer inventory of all the Jeep Cherokees, of all the Jeeps, of all the Jeeps, of all the Toyotas, of all the Hondas, and any dealer in Florida can look at any dealer, all the dealers in Florida and see the cumulative inventory of any particular combination of options and colors and whatnot. So if the dealer that you're talking to doesn't have your Jeep Cherokee, then another dealer probably would.

Now, I don't want to overcomplicate this, but there are certain option combinations that are sometimes very difficult to find. In the south, we tend to equip our cars differently than they do up north. And some distributors will actually only take in cars of certain combinations of equipment. But in general, if you go to, one of the problems with a Jeep, you've got some Jeep dealers, for example, Rigo, has a Jeep dealership in West Palm Beach, in Fort Pierce, and also in Weston, and I believe there might be a fourth one that he has. When one dealer controls a lot of different franchises within a market area, you need to really go outside that area to see another deal that might be able to offer the Jeep. with a combination that you require. Okay, so can they bring in the car for me from another area, say if it's even out of state?

They will, and they don't like to. See, car dealers like to sell a car today. They don't want to wait until tomorrow because you might shop around, change your mind, any number of reasons. They lose the sale. So there's high pressure all the time. You come in and you want a particular car. They don't have that car in your inventory,

in their inventory, they will push you and push you and push you to take the car they do have because they can lock the deal up and you go home and that's, you know, they got their commission, they got their profit. You have to make it clear that you're not going to buy anything except the vehicle you want, equip the way you want it, and unless they can prove to you that this equipment does not exist, and it's possible, you might have a combination of options that doesn't exist. But I wouldn't take one dealer's word for that. I would go to a different dealer there.

In this area, you could probably, with a few phone calls or a few emails, you could talk to three different dealers of Chrysler Jeep Dodge that have different owners. You can't use the same one like Arrigo, because they're going to give you the same answer. But Napleton has a Chrysler Jeep Dodge. I believe there's a AutoNation Chrysler Jeep Dodge, and, of course, you could go to Arrigo, too. but stick by your guns, buy what you want, and tell them if they don't sell it to you, somebody else will sell it to you.

Okay. Now, what if I was to order it, say if no one has it, and I can order it. I know all the options are available to me. What is your opinion on that? Oh, I think that's fine. A lot of people order cars. You want to get a pretty good estimated time

on how long it will take. Some cars are imported. Some cars are built in Mexico, they're built all over the world. But be sure it's a domestic production and get an estimate of how long it would take and hold their feet to the fire. Be sure that your deposit is refundable. And I would tie the purchase to the delivery time. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes accidentally, the delivery time is a lot longer than you think.

They'll tell you, we'll have that car for you in two weeks and two months past and you still don't have the car. So be sure they know that if they don't deliver the car to you in person physically within a certain period of time, the deal's off. You get all your money back. Okay. Do you think they're, well, they're starting to build their new cars now or starting the production again. How long would that take to rev up? A long time. Good question.

It's a very difficult situation now. inventories are declining. It would be a great time to buy a car today, tomorrow, or the next day, because it's the end of May. But you should never even consider that until you've done your homework. But, yeah, Mexico is a huge problem because the pandemic has been terrible there. The plants that supply American manufacturers, $5,000 on the average of every car sold in the United States, the parts come from Mexico. And all the Mexican plants are closed,

or if they open, they just opened in the past day or two. I heard June 1st is when the Mexican plants will open up. Meanwhile, the domestic plants, all the U.S. manufacturers, they're gearing up to open to build cars now. A lot of them are producing now. But when the pipeline runs dry with parts, they're not going to be getting any out of Mexico. So it's going to be a real, real shortage of cars.

come mid-June and late June. And that's another good reason to find out exactly. If the car has domestic parts in the U.S. and the Jeep plant is manufacturing, then they should be able to give you a fairly tight, close delivery date. And if you've got parts are coming out of Mexico or someplace else, then you've got to be real careful. But just hide the money-back guarantee. I get my money back if I don't have my Jeep in.

have my jeep in two weeks or 30 days whatever you decide okay hey bet that sounds great okay i'm glad that we could help you uh bev you sound pretty savvy and uh knowing exactly what you want uh boy i'll tell you what uh that's half the battle but sticking to your guns as earl mentioned uh is very very important and what a time to purchase a vehicle i'd get uh i don't know how soon you need a vehicle, but getting right on it, like we all said, the end of the month. And with every option and with every barrier that you have to deal with, this pandemic has really, well, it hasn't been the best thing that's happened. So good luck with your purchase. And stay in touch with us. Are you a first-time caller? I am. Okay, you just won yourself $50. If you stay

on the line, you can give Mike your information, contact information. and I'll get a check out to you for $50. Thank you so much for calling. Thank you, and you guys have a good day. You're welcome. Okay, back to Stu. Okay, let's go to anonymous feedback. It says, Earl, I don't care what you say.

I'm going to keep doing break and tranny flushes to keep my car's life extended. You just want our cars to break down so you can sell us another one. Shameful. That's the reason I love anonymous feedback. Anybody can vent and they can say, whatever they want. And I disagree with you totally and obviously, but you had your right to say what you said then. Even Rick said earlier, some people feel better when they do a transmission flush. So if it makes you feel better and the facts don't bother you. If it feels good, do it.

Knock yourself out. Yeah. Knock yourself out. There's all sorts of things. I'm almost 100% sure my wife isn't listening, but she grew up in Georgia, and she has a lot of folksy sort of remedies that I've teased her about over the course of her marriage, you know. And so whenever the kid gets a rest, she does this, you know, and I know it's not scientifically proven, but I just, we just let it go. She does it. Does she believe that when a dog looks a wound, it'll help heal it? No, I don't think so. But she's surprisingly growing up in Georgia, she didn't, she never had a dog until our dog that we got, um, pastorate. way earlier this year.

Interesting. Yeah. I don't think she would agree with that because she's kind of a germaphobe. Oh, boy. Do I have to interrupt you again? Hey, it's the show. You've got a call.

Frank is calling us from Jupiter Farms, and he is a regular caller. Good morning, Frank. Yeah, we saw Frank this week. Well, that's true. Thank you. And good morning, guys. I give you a little quick feedback.

Well, thank you for your help. And your dealership is unbelievable. We'll get to that. My son came all the way from Miami to get away from the cesspool people down there. He needed a pickup truck. And we listened to you, Earl. We bide by your advice and lived by it. So I picked him up the Tri-Rail Station early Monday morning.

It was raining. Stop by Molomax, because you want to look at the 150. That was between the 150 in Tacoma was his two, you know, choices. What a three-ring circus that turned out. Oh, boy. First you couldn't find parking spot because, all the handicapped spots were parked with their vehicles that they were trying to sell. I go, well, so I get out in the rain, we walk across half a parking lot.

And, of course, the sharks start to greet you. No one had their mask on. No one in that entire dealership except for... Unbelievable. Unbelievable. And then they said, you know, what do you want? And they put us on a computer to pick out the truck we want it. And we saw the prices, and we said, okay, we can do the zero percent financing?

Oh, yes, yes. What about these discounts that are impossible to get? I mean, unless you, I mean, you'll probably get two or three people in the world it could get half of them, let alone all of them. So anyway, we decided it's time to walk out. And then we came down to your dealership. What a day and night difference. One, I haven't been inside there for a while, how nice it looks with all the remodeling,

but my son was greeted by a very nice lady, Marlene Levy. And she had some very good questions to ask if he was going to be. going to be towing something because we thought the four cylinder would be better because of gas mileage. And we're in tear on a four cylinder versus six cylinder. So our knowledge of your products was very good. And we ended up test driving a couple, which were nice, a four cylinder and the six cylinder. And my son settled on the six cylinder, and we did the job with the Costco pricing, just like they said, no hassle, no hidden fees. And he's very happy. It was his first time ever having a new vehicle like you guys did for my daughter about a month ago in utah

and um so basically all my children have cars thank to you guys all right and then the other thing is um oh lord but um no that's not you i think that's frank no i'm taking that all sorry about that i have leech i grow leachies out here he just made real panic because he's got um he usually has things going off during the studio he's scrambling to turn off his tile at But, no, and Franco was a very nice, you know, after, you know, the finance guy. He treated you well in the box. He did very well. He tried up sailing just like you guys warned us about.

But we did take the extended warranty because of the new stuff that's on the cars and all the computer stuff is beyond. So we were there quite long. It was very nice. And it was a good thing. And then Costco sent me a survey. And I was very explicit on that in regards to we had shopped other Costco sales earlier. I was helping people buy cars for the last two months.

I feel like I could have been your mystery shopper for the next year. But in any event, they all had different prices. And I wanted my feedback to Costco. I told him, I said, your price was the price that we got. There was no hidden fees, no hidden gimmicks. And I was very happy, unlike the other dealerships that had up to, you know, several thousands of dollars, but minimum 1,000. And Costco actually called me back about that yesterday in regards to some of that stuff.

So I'm going to, I didn't have time. I was in busy, but I'm going to call them back and tell them the other dealerships. It's a little frustrating. I think you're going to get such a good price. And the only place you really get it is when I went to Earl's short on about 20 different dealerships. Yep. You try to test the Costco price a little bit, I heard. Ah, yes, I just thought maybe there might be a little bit of leeway.

Hey, you're smart. Little wiggle room. You can't ask him. You're a good shopper. You're a good buyer. No, you guys train me well. Unfortunately, Nancy, I got to say, I did not heed your advice. I did not heed your advice because my son has zero credit.

He never had a credit card. I mean, he works at FedEx. He's got a nice job. So I did co-sign for him. Oh, you did? Yes, I did. I hope in five years when the things paid off that I can come back. and say, well, this was one of the rarities that did work, but we shall see.

Yeah, exactly. You know, it really builds character in between now and then, you know, you'll go, oh, geez, you know, it was a good thing. Yeah, no, I did. What a journey you've been on with the kids in purchasing vehicles. Yeah, I'm friends. I mean, it feels good. We've been part of it. No, you really have.

Like I said, I did this for my oldest son, 2008. He had just came out of doing his things, college and stuff, and he had nothing. He needed a car, and I got him one at Honda, and he had a co-sign for him, because he had zero credit now. Today's credit's in the 750s. Right, great. It helped with him, and hopefully it'll help with Eddie. But, yeah, your dealership is wonderful. You know, everyone's wearing their mask, and everyone's very polite, and, like I said, we tried pushing the envelope a little bit just to see how far, but it all worked out.

thank you guys so much thank you frank thanks for being part of the show and thanks for taking us on that journey with your children and your final purchase and now you can breathe a sigh of relief 877 960 960 where you can text us at 772 49760 we're going to go back to stew okay anonymous feedback hello all last week and weeks prior you have received feedback about being in the studio working during the pandemic. Last week, a senior stated that they and friends would not be shopping for a vehicle because it is not safe during the pandemic. To these people, I say, fine, stay home.

But to criticize others who venture out to buy, the person specifically blamed young people who supposedly were reckless and thought they would live forever, is one of the worst aspects of the virus. It's called shaming. I think we should be thankful to the people who are venturing out to get the economy moving. Personally, I have chosen to stay away from retail. killers that have made the buying process so cumbersome and impersonal, I travel around Florida and have noted that even shopping just north in Martin County people's social distance

are respectful, but 50% of the people don't wear a mask. Venturing further north and west also finds a more relaxed yet safe, getting back to normal. No visible shaming, which happens in Palm Beach County. I believe my point of view is that it is time to move on with life. It's supported by many more people than people who think but are afraid to express. By the way, I'm a senior too. Sorry, but that comment last week has bothered me since. Well, I'm not sure exactly. You know, I think what we're saying is our mystery shopping reports had been, in fact,

this recent comment by Frank with Mullinex Ford, and our mystery shopped of the Nissan store that's coming up shortly, nobody's wearing mask so why is it the car dealers I think three or four mystery shops of car dealers the salespeople nobody in the dealerships wearing a mask what is what's going on I'm not trying to shame anybody I'm just trying to say well I am trying to shame somebody anybody dumb enough to own a dealership and not enforce the rule that people wear a mask where they're coming into close contact with their customers I I mean, it ought to be a major felony in a situation like this.

The pandemic record speaks for itself, definitely. Nancy and I were at the Yards Mall Saturday, I guess, I mean, Friday. And most everybody was wearing a mask out there. I don't, yeah, there's a difference between shaming. I think, you know, trying to belittle somebody or calling them stupid or, you know, negatively doing that. I think requesting that people wear a mask is a responsible thing, and you do it in a kind and compassionate matter. Uninformed, I mean, stupid is a rude term, but uninformed and, you know, uneducated or actual terms. I think we're going to go to Warren, who's holding quickly, and he's calling us from Pompano Beach.

Good morning, Warren. Hey, I got a question for you. I have a lot of time on my hands now. And I've been listening to somebody's financial programs and not mention any names. There's one guy who gives all the financial advice. And people call him, he's given his answer three or four times during the pandemic. And I think it makes no sense. Somebody called up the other day and said to him, well, I can't afford my, pick my car payments anymore. And if I sell a car, I'm $8,000 in the hole. And his answer was, okay, sell the car and get a loan for $8,000 and pay it off and get a junk car for $3,000. And I said to myself, who is going to give a loan to a guy who doesn't have the car anymore? I said, that doesn't make any sense. And I'm saying to myself, am I wrong? Is that like absurd advice? No, you're absolutely right.

That's the dumbest thing I ever heard. It's, you know, sometimes people just don't think before they answer questions. I don't know who this person is. It's a financial advisor, but I wouldn't want to hire him. No, I mean, he's a big popular guy. I don't want to mention the name, but he's given during this pandemic. Now, the other question is, it makes definitely no sense. The second part is, wouldn't he be better at the person?

So there's only two possibilities if you can't make the payments, or if you're trying to make the payments, aren't you better off trying to make the payments and tell you're amortize it down to even, so you're not behind the eight ball on it? Would that make more sense? Of course, yeah, absolutely. You can get, the lenders are being flexible.

Every bank, every lender in the country now is sweating bullets because if this thing continues and the economic effect gets any worse, then the banks are going to get hit because, you know, people aren't going to be making their mortgage payments, their car payments, their lease payments, and real estate, we could have a crash of real estate in this country, which would put the banks right out of business. So what the lenders will do to avoid that, instead of having a person just say, I'm not going to make any more payments, they're giving them flexibility.

And the best thing you can do when you can't make the payments or you're upside down in your car and you've got a situation like that is to talk to the lender and explain to them your situation. They will be flexible today like they would never be flexible a year from now, assuming we're out of this thing in the year. in the year. You know, lenders need, you need to communicate closely with anybody you owe money to. The last part of the question is because he's given this advice at least three or four times. If, in my opinion, let's say you don't want the car, you can't make the payments behind the eight ball ones. Aren't you just better off calling up to whoever lended to and say, look, take the car back, I can't make the payment, here's the car. I mean, it's unlikely they're going to sue you in this situation. Isn't that like the last

option you would do rather than be behind and try to give a check for the car? I mean, will the lender take it back? I mean, they could always repossess that I understand that. But aren't you better off just giving the car back and hope for the best? You're better off to try to negotiate a compromise.

I think, you know, they'll defer payments. Sometimes they'll reschedule payments for a lower amount. Picking up later on. They're doing it on home mortgages and cars. and leasing. So this is a situation that the lenders have never seen, the borrowers have never seen, and it's a work in progress. And the best thing to do is get on the phone with the lender

and explain your personal situation, be pleasant, and everybody is kind of in the same boat and say, what can you do to, is there a way you can help me? Ask an open-in and question like, how can you help me after you've explained your situation? And they might come up with a compromise, that will work for you. I mean, we'll defer all payments for 90 days, for example, or will lower your payment by 50% for the next 60 days. It's whatever the lender offers, then negotiate with him. And just one last comment.

It's just funny you mention about the flushing of the fluids or something. This is the third time this year. I have an older car, an older four tours. So I went to get my tires rotated, you know, Last week or something, the rotated the tires and something like an air filter I need. First thing, the guy comes out to me is the third time in three different places said to me, oh, you need a flush of some fluid. They always got the price of around $400.

That seems to be the going price. You know, one was they were showing me a belt was wrong, another one I forgot what. But to me, it seems they see an older car. And they just say, wow, you know, we could tell his guy, you know, the hubcaps are not on correctly and he's going to believe us and give me $400. It's unbelievable that they do it every single time I bring it in with some minor stuff.

Yeah, they make a lot of money on those flushes and they're absolutely worthless, so I'm glad you were aware of that. Yeah, it's just funny. All right, thank you, guys. I enjoy your show very much. Thanks, Warren. Thanks for the goal.

Thank you, Warren. Okay. Warren's going to start rival in Tina. Yeah, we've got to stop the phone calls because we're, it's 20 minutes to nine. Phone calls are been... Yeah, okay. We're going back to Stu.

It's a relatively short shopping report, so I'm going to rapid fire real quick here to get through the last couple. From Amarachis, I hope everyone's well. I saw a story and car and driver a couple of days ago saying that Ford, in conjunction with Ohio State University, has designed software that would heat up police cars to 133 degrees and 15 minutes to kill the coronavirus

by 99%. Ohio State University's microbiology department says that the novel coronavirus is reduced by 99% at 132.8 degrees Fahrenheit or 56 Celsius for 15 minutes. If this is correct, wouldn't car sitting out in the hot summer sun get this hot? If so, I would expect that I wouldn't have to deep clean and sanitize my car to minimize the virus in the car. All I have to do is let it sit out in the sun here in Florida.

Please comment and or correct me if I've missed something. Thank you very much. Well, I didn't know that. I will Google that, 132 degrees. If that's accurate, I think you've got a point. How hot do cars get? That's a question is how. I don't know how hot.

Yeah, it depends on the car and everything else and the temperature outside. One thing to remind everybody out there, when you disinfect a car, you're disinfecting it for this minute. The next time you sneeze or cough or somebody else in the car, sneezes or coughs, you've contaminated the car again. And there is a product called Preventex. If you want to Google that, Pr, V-E-N-T-T, as a prevent with a letter X. 24-7. 24-7.

Prevent X, 24-7. Google that is a product that you net jets and wheels up and a lot of the private jets are using it. A lot of hospitals are using it, a lot of sports teams. Anyway, once you treat it, for 90 days, any reinfection is minimized. So you can disinfect the car, use the prevent X product. and then you're good to go for 90 days. But the heat, you kill all the virus,

and then somebody sneezes in the car, cop sneezes, and he's got, reinfect the car, and you're right back where he started. So Prevent X, P-R-E-V-E-N-T-X, and Google it 24-7. Prevent X, 24-7. There we go. Okay. And real quick, last one, good morning.

Guessing this is a Rick and Stu question. I'm looking to purchase a truck. Would you prefer a two-year-old pre-owned Tundra Limited or a new Tacoma SR-5? Rapid Fire Answer, Tacoma SR5. Okay, I like rapid fare. Better gas mileage, more fun to drive, unless you had bigger payload needs, I would go for the Tacoma. In my opinion.

And I've got one quick one here that Stu can probably do. Tech legal Android user is asking, he's wanting to trade in a 2016 Honda CRV-EXL with 60,000 miles for a 2020 CRV-EX without less. but a touring model. And he wants to know how much trade-in value should he offer or expect to get on this 2016 Honda. Well, I could look that up and give you a number right now or running out of time, but I can say start

with your consumer-facing pricing tools such as Kelly Blue Book. True car has this thing called True Trade. There's a few things you can do online. Get a ballpark and then start getting multiple bids from dealers. Okay, let's get on the shopping report. And if we have some

time. We'll go back and pick up a couple more texts, but this is the high point of sure a lot of people are waiting for this. Mystery shop of Sutherland, Nissan in Fort Pierce. Sutherland, Nissan, and Fort Pierce, is owned by George Sutherland and a partner. I didn't know this. A man named, believe

it or not, U.S. Marine. Together, they own a small group with dealerships in Florida. U.S. Marine. Full name is Ulrich Stanley and Marine. What an interesting bit of trivia. It doesn't have anything to do with shopping report but it is interesting. We can thank Stu for that. He included that. U.S. was recruited

into car sales while working at a restaurant in Tampa and quickly rose to the racks, began running his own stores. That's really cool. U.S. Marines was just 28 when he met Mr. Sutherland and began their partnership. So it's very nice to meet the U.S. Marine. None of this is relevant, as I said before. The last time we mystery shop Sutherland was way back in 2016. We sent Agent Excent to try a buy used car with a defective Taccata airbag in Flater.

The dealership failed our Ticada test bigly. I've never seen that. I think I'm not even. I think that's grammatically incorrect. No, no, no. I think it's been it was coined by the president. Okay. Oh, they affirmatively

denied the existence of the problem and that's about as low as you can go. We actually tried to buy a car with a defective Tricot Airbag, specifically asked about it. And they said, no, everything's fine with this car. It's perfectly safe. And we put them on the do not recommend list.

So we're back now, several years later. Let's see how they do. This week, our search for sensationalist car dealer ads tickets to Sutherland Nissan. We found an ad on their website that displayed a new Nissan Ultima, a new Nissan Central, and a new Nissan Pathfinder.

The headline read, no payments for three months plus two months paid by Nissan that's five months with no payments plus as low as zero percent annual percentage rate financing for up to 84 months is available the fine print was very hard

to read impossible to read I couldn't read it at all you must have done a screenshot and expanded it what we think it said was interest accrues from data purchase zero percent for 84 months that's $11.90 per $1,000 per $1,000 finance. Both offers

with approved credit and on select Nissan models must be with North, I think that says, Nissan Motor Acceptance Corporation. Currently in order to receive five months of no payments, must be currently with Nissan credit. Okay. Some offers may not be

combined, C-dealer for full detail, and everything ends on June 1st. We called up the age of thunder. Thunder, agent thunder, that is. Once again, we didn't tell our mystery shopper what to expect. All we told them was to go to Fort Pierce and try to get 0% for 84 months with no payments for five months on one of the cars in the ad. There were three cars, Ultima, Centra, and a pathfinder. I'm speaking in the first person. If I were Agent Thunder, I received a text

message from Stu containing the ad from Sutterle of Nissan and the instructions. Try to get 0% ready for a month, and no payments on one of these cars. I decided to go for the nice shiny blue, Ultima, that was depicted in the ad. I brought my mother along. This is the first. We brought mom along for the mission. Now, Andrew Fender has gone with his wife and his child. Now he's got his mother.

And maybe we'll get other relatives as we go. It's time past. I'm working on one of the uncles. Yeah, uncle, yeah. It was all part of my disguise, a nice son buying a new car for his mother. she was shocked when we into the Sherwood around 11 a.m. No one was wearing masks.

I just I know I go on and on about this but it just keeps me angry. Yeah we by the way just because we've seen this thing it's easier to get the good mask now. They're not as much of the shortage and so we get these

N95 masks so I've supplied him with some of those because honestly we are risking his health when we send him out. Speaking of that good and I see him some more of those. You got them right on. You're wearing it. Not enough, we're running along.

Oh, you got some barbecue sauce on here. Yeah, true. We nervously approached the front desk and asked the receptionist for a salesperson. Francisco came to greet us, so I told him that I was buying a new Altima for my mother. I explained that I'd seen their ad for no payments for five months and zero percent for 84 months. Boy, that sure sounds good, doesn't it? He told us to follow him. We were led to a desk, you offered a seats.

My mom told Francisco how much she loved Ultimus. She told him that she used to own one and how she thought it was a great car. Francisco crushed my mother's dreams with one sentence. It's not on the Ultima. The deal, special, is not on the Altima. It looked like that.

I asked what he meant. Francisco said zero percent financing was not available on the 2020 Ultima. My mother protested and said that that's not what the ad said. And then handed him a copy that I had printed off my computer,

she pointed to the blue Ultima. Francisco asked to hold the ad like he didn't, what's this? And excused himself, he said, well, you know, they told me it wasn't on the Altima, so he took the ad to his manager. He returned quickly and confirmed that 0% financing

was not available on the Ultimus. He said the ads' illustrations were just that illustrations. Now that's BS. I mean, that is just, I mean, it wasn't even disclosed in the fine print that the illustrations are for illustration purposes only. I mean, we see that a lot, but we've never seen it actually used to get out of a, you know, exactly. Exactly. It's like, it's like normal legal leads that every ad has about illustrations.

Is it puffery? Huh? Is it puffery? Is that what that is? No, it's not puffery. It's gone beyond puffery. Pure deception. To show an ultima and two other cars, none of which were eligible. And the only ones, if they showed a whole bunch of cars, and there happened to be an ultima in the picture, maybe. But the specific three cars, the pictures of, were not eligible. So it was pure premeditated deception.

He said, 0% was available on two other models and asked if we were interested. My mother said that she just wanted the ultima. Francisco looked at me. I told him the car was for her. It was her choice. We went through the routine, information gathering, photocabies, inventory searches.

Apparently only white, black, and silver altamas. That was all they had. Mom chose white. Francisco left us to get keys and a license plate. He returned to say the car was parked out while waiting out front waiting for us. We walked outside, and Francisco led us to a white ultima parked next to a smaller black Nissan Centra.

Okay, that's premeditated. Francisco said he had no idea, say he had an idea for us to consider. He said he could save us a lot of money on the CENTRA. He opened the doors and suggested that my mom climb inside. She took a look inside so she didn't like it. It was too small. Francisco asked if she was sure.

Mom was sure she wanted the alt-on. One of if there was a big flat on that CENTRA. Probably. I mean, premeditated. Something's going on. And switch car. You know, switch them. Every car dealerships have cars that are harder to sell than others.

Some are almost impossible to sell, and there's something called flat commissions, and they can be a $500, even $1,000. And so you come in to buy the car you want, next thing you know, you're riding home in the commission high car that the salesman made $500 on. And be careful. Stick to your guns. You know what you want, buy what you want. The Ultima was a new 2020s model with an MSRP, a 25,410. There was an addendum, here we go, Foney Menroney, addendum, that added another $2928, $2,928 added to the MSRP for wheel locks and exterior protection package, exterior, which is all nonsense, puffed up, valueless practically, and just jacks the price up to $28,338.

We took a test drive, Mom drove, Francisco, Francisco rode shotgun, and I rode the back. surprised I got in the car with a guy. Francisco was bare-faced and wearing no mask. Why would you put your mom in the car? Shame on Agent Thunder. You don't get inside a closed area with somebody without a mask today. We said the N95.

Yeah. After an uneventful test drive, we returned to the dealership and found our seats. Francisco started by asking how much we wanted to put down. I told him $2,000 to $3,000. He wanted to know what sort of credit I had

and asked me to fill out a credit application. I told them to assume I have excellent credit. I said I wouldn't allow any credit checks until I'd seen the numbers. That's not a bad idea. Okay, said Francisco, I'll be right back. He returned with a worksheet that presented financing options

along with a cash purchase and brickdown. Top line was dealers list, which dealers list, that's phony and roney. Anybody that tells you this is a retailer price, a dealer price, list price, dealer list. MSRP is the only thing you want to see. Manufacture suggested retail price, that is standard among all dealers of that brand. And you can make your decision to buy based on the discount from the same MSRP.

If you're dealing, use a dealer list, it's meaningless because every dealer jacks up the price differently. Our effective sales price was $26,992, $1,582 over, MSRP. Here they're trying to sell, I mean, you don't like, you don't even want to pay MSRP. That's too high for 99.9% of the cars you buy. But to pay $1,500 over MSRP is just adding insult to injury. They'd be over MSRP even if they didn't charge the dealer fee. Yeah, yeah. My payment was $3,000 down, with $3,000 down for 60 months, was presented in a range of 441 to 461. I ran the numbers real quick. They might have a, either that was complete BS

or they might have a special rate because you'd have to be down like 1.9% for the amount of finance they get to 461. So maybe there was, we don't know. Probably not. Probably not. I asked Francisco if he minded it, my mom and I spoke privately, obliged, left us alone for a few minutes.

We waved them back over and said that we needed to think about it. Francisco didn't seem to care. He said that was okay. He asked us to give him a call when we decided. He said that he had to warn us that all the incentives expired on Monday the first, we acknowledge that and left. That's probably true. And as I said before, today and tomorrow is not a bad time to buy a car if you've done your homework.

If you have not done your homework, it's a terrible time. You should not be shopping until you've done all your due diligence. But if you have and you're getting ready to strike, you're going to get a better deal today and tomorrow and maybe the next day, then you do next month, June, the prices are going up. Okay. We've seen worth bait and as, but this was pretty unique. Vehicle image for illustration purposes only.

That wasn't, that was verbally stated. It wasn't. They didn't even have it in their disclosure. Yeah. Yeah. So, so they premeditatively without any. disclosure had models of cars you could not buy with the incentives that they had so that's that's rotten I mean that is that's illegal and rotten and it

would still be rotten if they had the disclosure but without the disclosure it's just plain illegal a common element on cardiolus fine print as we've never seen before to get we've never seen this done before In this case, Sutherland didn't even, I have the language of disclosures, as I just said, instead of depicted three popular Nissan vehicles that were not eligible for the 0% to 84 months alongside an offer of 0% for 84 months. What was worse was using an inflated deal of this price to offer bogus discounts resulting in a sale price actually, what was it, $1,582 higher than MSRP, paying a huge price. And there we are, and here we come to, I'm looking at the worksheet here, which showed taxable fees, which are hidden fees, $105.50, and there were, see, a dock fee, which is another dealer fee hidden $7.99, and there may be more when you go into the box. So, that's standard operating procedure among all dealers. this graphic display of cars you could buy

that you can't buy because those models aren't eligible is what's set them apart. It's one thing if they have stock images and there's equipment, they can't change the picture, maybe it has wheels that you're not going to get. Here's the ad if you want to see what we're talking about here. And those models there, they see the pictures, and you see the ad, none of those are eligible.

And we wanted the Altima, and none of those three vehicles that they advertise were these specials. But no disclosure, no disclaimer. And to me, that's a worst thing about this whole shopping report, maybe next to nobody wearing a mask, but that's not part of the buying process. So let's take the votes.

I got two grades that came in. Anne-Marie replied right away with an F. She says that's really rock-bottom. And I'm sorry, they earned an F in a rock-bottom spot on the Do Not Buy list. and Jonathan in Wellington says bait and switch illegal and just wrong grade F stick that in your curve grade and smoke it

thank you Jonathan I've got Kyle F I'd rather buy a scooter than buy from a dealer with an addendum label and Donovan total F the state AG needs to start to go after these dealers for this horrid practices

Mark Ryan F for false advertising Karen, a big fat F. Well, Nancy, how about you? Okay, real quick, Earl talks about the only one car available at ad price and so many other scams you can go to roll on cars and catch all that. As far as the mystery shopping report is concerned, I'm going to give Attorney General Ashley Moody.

I'm going to give her a little bit of air time here. and ask all of you consumers to give her a call. And you can do that by calling 850-41-3-3-0-0-8-0-1-4-1-3-0-3-0-3-0-4-1-4-1-3-3-0-4-1-4. Yes, 3-3. I did that again. Okay, thank you for tuning into Ruan cars. Be sure to be back here next week with us. We enjoy your company.

Have a wonderful weekend. Thank you.