Earl Stewart on Cars - 06.03.2023 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Joey Accardi CDJR of Pompano Beach

Episode Date: June 3, 2023

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning travels to South Florida, to visit a local Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM dealer to see how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2023 Jeep Wrangler Beach Edition that is on their car lot. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, his tweets at www.twitter.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. Sign up to become one of Earl's Vigilantes and help others in your community to avoid getting ripped off by a car dealer. Go to www.earlsvigilantes.com for more information. “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 as my son, Stu Stewart, our LinkedIn cyber. space through Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Periscope. Stu is also the Spymaster Director of our Mystery Shopping Report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting self-forward dealership. And now, on with the show.

Good morning, everybody. We're back here, Auto, How to Do It Team, as far as how to buy, lease, or maintain a car without being ripped off by your car dealer. Normally I go on to a lengthy explanation of what the show is, but because we honor our callers and our callers is so important, and because there's nothing more important to us than lady callers. We have a first-time lady caller. I'm going to turn the mic over to Nancy Stewart, my co-host,

so she can get our first-time lady caller on the air. Thanks to the recovering car dealer. We have Natalie, who's giving us a call from Tamarack, and she is a first-time caller that allows her to win $50 this morning. Good morning, Natalie. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the show.

You won yourself $50 this morning for being the first-time female caller. Congratulations. If you stay on the phone until after our conversation here in the studio, Mike is in the control room, and he will take your information. contact information, and he'll pass it along to me, and I'll get that checkout to you. Awesome. Thank you so much. You're welcome.

What can we do for you this morning? Yeah, so I wanted to know what's going on with the lithium shortage, because my mother-in-law, she ordered a Toyota Rapporte Prime, and she's been waiting for over a year. And I'm just curious to know, like, what's going on with that, if there's any updates. Yeah, just an idea, correct? There are so many people, so many customers that are on that list that, well, I'll let Earl take over. I'll let him explain all the shortages that we're having in the length of time that consumers are waiting for vehicles. Earl?

Yeah, Natalie, it's a complicated system when cars are ordered now with a shortage. And, of course, with high demand and low supply, you do. just have problems. The RAV4 Prime happens to be a lower production car. You could say the high demand to availability ratio is very, very high. And I probably get more calls on that car, the RAV 4, than just about, the RAV4 Prime, than just by any other. A way of understanding, when you come in to order a car from a toilet dealer, me or any other toilet dealer, you order it from me, the dealer. Of course, I can't build the car. I have to, in turn, order that car from the manufacturer. And the car doesn't actually get built until that manufacturer, in this case,

Toyota, decides they can build the car. And they also, another variable, is the manufacturer goes to the plant and the model, car, description of car, that they can build because of availability of parts. It could be microchips, it could be wiring harnesses, or any number of other things. And so it's so complicated today in today's shortage of parts and extremely high demand and low supply. When the manufacturer decides they're going to build the car, that's when we can give you a precise idea when you'll get it. Right now, we can only guess. And when they say they're going to build it, they call that a preference. And they preference that car for production. And the next step that really nails it down is when the assembly line begins the actual

production, then the VIN number, the serial number is assigned. So when you have a VIN number or serial number, you'll have the car within a matter of days. When it gets preference, it'll be a matter of weeks. But before that, we're as wonder, we wonder as much as you do. We have some idea because we're familiar with which cars tend to take a long time. So we probably told you the Rav4 Prime will take a while. As soon as we know, you should know, and the dealer should notify you immediately. I'm sorry the system works that way, but Toyota sets it up or the other manufacturers

and different cars do the same thing, and that's just the way the system works. And Natalie, also, I can add to that that, you know, at insult to injury, the Rav is certainly a very popular vehicle and I believe if my statistics are right that it's much more popular than the Camry and if you recall the Camry was popular for well I'm teen years you know I'm going to say 13 10 or 15 years so with that you know factor there's you got to have patience and I know it's easy for me to sit here and say that but for you and I think you said your mother was waiting for the vehicle? Yeah, my mother.

Yeah, it's hard to say, hey, you know, tell your mom to have some patience or you to have some patience. That's a long time to wait for a vehicle. Mm-hmm, yeah. But our hands are tied, as our old mentioned, manufacture. They play a huge part in all of this. Okay, and I want to ask you guys another question because I was looking into the Kia Sportage hybrid compared to the Rock 4 Prime.

I don't know if you guys are too familiar with that other vehicle, but I don't know if you can, you know, help me, you know, kind of decide which one would be a better option. And Natalie, what we do when it comes to other, are to make vehicles as far as, is something we should consider, we call Consumer Reports, our Bible. And we could look that up or you could look it up online and compare any make car hybrid or otherwise with any other make car.

And I will say this, in full disclosure, as you know, we're a Toyota dealership. So I tend not to like to talk and push Toyota because that would be selfish. But the fact is that Toyota RAV-4 hybrid is an extremely well-built. extremely good car. I mean, I have to say, tell you the truth, even though it sounds like I'm favoring Toyota, which I don't want to be partial, but it is a fact with Toyota. But there are a lot of good hybrids out there. And a lot of your manufacturers are building extremely high quality reliable hybrids. Oh, no, I absolutely agree. I love Toyotas. I've had Toyotas all my life. it's one of the

honestly the bus manufacturers out there for vehicles and they're just so reliable um yeah if there was one if there was a hybrid that might be if you're just talking pure

reliability and has a track record to prove it it would be the Prius of course you're moving down in size and you don't have the it's not an SUV but uh the the Prius in my opinion And Rick Kearney, a technician, has been with me for over 25 years.

I think he would probably agree that Toyota has never built a better automobile. I don't think a better automobile has ever been built by anybody than the Prius hybrid. And also, Natalie, let me share this with you. You know, because women have become a huge part of the automobile industry, I'm talking big time, you know, and for any dealer to ignore that, his financial disaster for them. So where I'm going with this is that there's so much information out there. As a matter of fact, the 2023 auto issue of Consumer Report, it gives you all kinds of

picks and updates on new cars, use cars. It's, you know, a whole lot of information. That's the April edition. And to prove all of this, you could go to Edmonds.com and you can see where there are more women buying vehicles, 62% of all cars are purchased by women. So with all of that said, all of the information is at your fingertips. And again, I say you are a very informed consumer. Yeah, women run the world. So I totally understand that part. Yeah. Well, they're losing ground. They do, but they're losing ground. At any rate, Nali, thank you so much for calling. And

your voice has been heard and there are a lot of women who are listening to us right now and you're giving them the courage to give us a call here, hetero on cars. Thank you so much. Thank you guys so much for your time this morning and all the information. I really appreciate it.

All right. Thank you. Have a great day. We're going to go to Casey and Casey is calling us from I believe East Tennessee. Good morning, Casey. Hey, good morning, y'all. I wanted to get in here quick and get my question out of the way, if I could. Yes.

I recently bought a Toyota crown, and I got one key fob with it, and I wasn't told about that until I just about consummated the deal, which I couldn't have done anything about. My question to you is, is there any way that I can push Toyota to give me the other key fob? They're saying it's going to be like in the fall. before I can get one and I just I feel like that's a loose end having one fob

to a vehicle I wonder if there's anything I could do sadly this is just one of the case is one of these things that we believe it or not that it frustrates us as much as our customers it's just it's just a shame that we have these shortages

I will say this the squeaky wheel gets the oil and sometimes if you protest enough and if you talk enough you can get yourself, if you work with the dealer, you can work yourself up to the front of line. I guess that's not fair to the people that are back of the line, but it is true that if you stay on top of it, if you're my customer, if you call me a lot, I'll call Toyota a lot, and finally I guess they get tired of it,

and maybe you get in the line earlier. But we see this with a lot of key fobs seem to be a problem, right? A lot of microchips I see them, Rick. Am I correct? It's because of the microchip shortage. And so unfortunately what they're trying to do is they allocate a certain amount for the brand new cars they're selling and get one each there. And then they allocate as many as they can to go to the people who have already bought new cars. See, that's the moment.

See, I should have remembered that. But Rick is absolutely right. this is what happens, you know, there's nothing that is more dear to a manufacturer or a dealer, for that matter, than profit. And if you have a, if you're going to build a car and you have to decide, well, I have enough parts for people who've already bought the car, or am I going to have enough parts to build another car so I can sell another car? I don't need to tell you which decision they make. So they've done that with a key fob so they can build more crowns because that people lined up to buy crowns

and they can't not build a car without all the parts and the working the people like you to get the extra key fob you're just going to have to wait but again you bug the dealer, me or any other dealer and I will bug the manufacturer for you

and I think that would help speed up things a little bit okay and who would be my point of contact at the dealer I bought it I wouldn't be talking to the salesman would I have I don't think that would be doing any good, right? No, what you should do is you should go to the dealer website,

and you should get the customer number to contact, or the dealership can give you that. And you call the dealer, you call the manufacturer and go on record, and you can also email the manufacturer and go on record. At the dealership, your contact should be as high up the chain as you can go. I said earlier because my customers call me directly, and I'm the owner. So if you can get the owner of the dealership, they have a lot of clout with the manufacturer. I can pick up the phone and call the top executives in Toyota, and I do that from time to time.

So if you can't get the owner, the dealer himself, then go to the general manager, and you can't get the general manager, go down the line, general sales manager, new car sales manager, service manager and sometimes Rick gave me the eye there because we happen to have an argument of our dealership we haven't to have a service manager that's been with Toyota for a long time

he has inside connections that I don't have and he's a miracle worker so if you can find a service manager that's been with the Toyota for a long time and he has those contacts he has friends in the manufacturing

of the manufacturer say hey do me a favor let me do this. Hey, do me a favor, warranty this. I know the car's not a warranty. I'll do it. And so it's like, I guess, every other business. It's not what you know, it's who you know.

And if you can find someone that can talk to the right person, it'll speed up that key foe up for you. And the best advice is polite persistence. Be nice, but don't take no for an answer. Absolutely. And Casey, there's so many shortages. Can you imagine? I mean, here we are, you know, June 2023.

And as a matter of fact, I can use an example. Earl and I are waiting for our remote controls for home. But then again, you know, with a microchip, with this, with that, everything, the list is endless on shortages. So it's a whole lot of patience. Gotcha. Okay. Well, one last thing the other gal was calling in about the hybrids.

this car, the crown, not to push Toyota strictly, like Earl was saying, but I'm getting 45 plus miles to the gallon with that hybrid system, and that's a larger car. So I think Toyota has really got the hybrid systems down to a fire. Yeah, with that. People ask me all the time about electric vehicles, and I'm a real proponent of electric vehicles, But if you want good gas mileage and range, good range, the hybrid is the choice.

I think that the hybrid is the transition vehicle to own until the electric vehicles really get their act together and they really get reliable and the prices come down. I think you've made the perfect choice. A hybrid today. And the crown, of course, is I didn't realize the crown got that good gas mileage with a hybrid engine. And so I think that's great. You hang on to that until you're ready to go for an electric vehicle in maybe five or ten years. Yeah, you bet.

It's a good step in between because, you know, it's using the electric and the gas. And I just think that that is the way to go. And we could produce a whole lot more of those than we could all electric cars. But anyway, enough set on that. Thanks, Casey. Thank you. Thank you. Great information. Casey, thanks so call. Thanks so much for the call.

You bet. Thank you guys. Keep on listening. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-3-0. We're going to go to Rick. On a quick side note, Johnny Z. Freidly had asked, why can't a phone be used as a key fob by Bluetooth? And actually, a lot of the manufacturers now are doing this. Tesla has that feature, Toyota, Honda. Most of the big names now have it where you can download an app. You can send an authorization so somebody else can even use their own phone as a key to the car. Yeah, we use that in our Tesla. Nancy and I both have that for our Tesla. I think maybe the answer why they don't do it is because they make more money when they sell you the key fob. Exactly. But it's also good, you also have to have one key fob in order to be able to access the car anyways. True.

And folks, please try hard. Don't lose all of those key fobs. If you, keep one safe at home, wrap it in tinfoil or something, but keep it safe at home. So if you lose the others, you could take that one to the dealer and simply have them make new ones. But if you lose them all, it gets a lot more expensive to reprogram the entire system. Very complicated. Rick, tell the folks why it has to be wrapped in tinfoil. That's only if you want to avoid someone having the access to it.

by way of these RF detectors. And it's pretty difficult to do that anyways. I mean, that technology, although, yeah, there are in some cases where criminals are using this, it's not as widespread as you might think. It's kind of like those of us that are older. You know, as kids, we used to think that quicksand was going to be a much bigger factor in our lives than it really is today. Good point.

Now back to the recovering car dealer. Well, I'll tell you, this is going to be a special show this morning. We have a major event, and we hope it'll be permanent. But toward the end of the show, we are going to feature the Big Dog Rens Rescue Dog of the Week. Nancy and I've been doing this for years, and we typically did it at the dealership or by Zoom. And we're actually, we can reach a lot more people. And for those of you who are not familiar with Big Dog Ranch Rescue, and we're, We're national now, we're international.

So it's the largest no-kill shelter for dogs anywhere. And they have several locations. The home location is right here in Palm Beach County. And they have hundreds of dogs. They rescue so many dogs that even go out of the country. I mean, they were bringing dogs in from China. They were bringing dogs in from Puerto Rico. If there's a flood or something in North Carolina,

They bring dogs in. The other shelters around the country often get overwhelmed. Unfortunately, unfortunately, too many shelters have a time expiration on their dogs, and then they euthanize them. Big Dog Ranch Rescue doesn't euthanize dogs, period. So we're big supporters, and we have been for a long time. So at about 9.30, we're going to be talking to our representative from Big Dog Ranch Rescue, you and we have a dog of the week and we will show you the dog the dog will be here in the studio live we won't have to have rick bark this might be your last bark rick i'll give you a chance

okay yeah that might be rich and what a beautiful bark it is we'll have real dogs in here so tune in and then if you're if you're local or i mean if you if you want to adopt a dog there's a chance we pay the adoption fees for the dog of the week and we talk uh if if you don't like the particular dog we're featuring, we have hundreds of dogs. And if you have a chance, if you want to write this web address down,

Big Dog Ranch Rescue is, Big Dog Ranch Rescue is B-D-R-R-R, Big Dog Ranch Rescue, B-D-R-R-D-R-D-R.org. And that takes you to their website. And you want to see, it's kind of like a luxury resort for dogs. They have a lake,

they have a hospital, they have a, they even have a quarantine area for dogs that come in until they'd be sure that they're okay. They're vaccinated, medicated, cured of anything they may have. But also they have a spa where they can relax, where they can swim. Yeah, a lake, yeah. It's just an amazing place. You ever get a chance to go out there and take a look around. And also adding to what Earl said, I often mention confessions of a recovering car dealer. Well, our contribution is that all proceeds from the confessions of a recovering car dealer, they go to Big Dog Ranch.

Every cent that you are going to spend on that book, and you can do that by going to Amazon. And you can go to Earl on Cars to find out more about confessions of a car. a recovering car dealer. But most importantly, all proceeds go to Big Dog Ranch. And easy to remember, you could just go to Earlsbook.com. Earls book, just like it sounds, earlsbook.com. And that'll take you to Amazon. As Nancy said, we don't take, it's not 2% or 3% of 5% of 100% of everything we get, we receive for selling this book goes directly to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. So it's important that we support them

and it's important that you know that this book it'll be like a bonus, a how-to guide to help you or your grandkids, your children, or friends, anybody that needs a car, you buy the book and you help save a dog from being euthanized. Yeah,

can be kept on your bookshelf forever. And, you know, you might think that we're just given out dogs and nothing's checked. It's real important that there's a background check and it's very important for each individual that's interested in adopting a dog. And also, you know, sometimes you get a dog home and it's not exactly the fit that you thought it would be.

There are a lot of options as far as that's concerned. Also, there's fostering that you can take advantage of. So we'll get to all that later when our special guest comes into the studio, and that is H.W. HW, a.k.a.a. Wheely. And what a beautiful dog he is. So stay tuned for that. Now back to Rick. And on behalf of my YouTube people who, a lot of them keep asking this, I'm probably going to get in trouble. Not at all. What's going on with the second book? Are we close? We are so close.

We are so close. And we dotted some eyes and crossed some T's. It's. I'm going to say Wednesday and Thursday. Nancy did the introduction on the book, and she submitted that to our ghost writer. Completed that. So then there's the rest of the work that has to be done, you know, with Earl's part in the book. And like I said, it's just dotting the eyes and crossing the T's now,

and that book will be ready, and it will be on the shelves and ready to be purchased. And what a book it is. I know we get a lot of folks out. asking about it everywhere so yeah I think that because the first book was so good and so much information and you can keep it on a shelf forever they're really interested in the book to come which represents the recovering car dealer the man of the hour if we don't have any our callers waiting we do oh we do have some problems we're going to go to our favorite caller

Marty good morning Marty hi good morning welcome back How are you? Right. We're getting used to hearing from you regularly, and that makes us all happy. I got two things. Last week I mentioned that Toyota, on a Camry, they don't have a memory seat, and I did some research on a Honda, and on the high-end Honda Accords, they do have memory seats. I think the next time Earl talks to Toyota, you ought to tell them about that.

Yeah, I'm sure that... I seriously, I love competition. You know, Toyota wouldn't be as good as they were if it weren't for Honda, and Honda wouldn't be as good as they are if it weren't for Toyota. Competition is your best friend, not just in negotiating prices and keeping each manufacturer honest, but it's also quality. I mean, a Honda Corps comes out with something and makes it a little bit better than the Toyota Camry, and then the Toyota Camry comes out with something,

makes it a little bit more desirable than the Honda. accord, and that's the reason we have such great products today. Competition is the name of the game. Right. And now I just have one other question talking about the key fobs, since you brought it up. Forgetting about getting two keys with the car, what happens when a person, before the shortages and everything, if you lost one of your key fobs, can't it be made somewhere else, or do you have to go through the manufacturer?

Well, for the key fobs themselves, you generally have to go to the manufacturer, but again, they do allocate, when they have a certain number being made, they allocate a large portion for brand new cars. Another portion is allocated for those people that have already bought cars and need a key, but they also allocate a certain portion of them to go to service departments to be sold for key fobs that are damaged, broken, lost, or maybe there was a malfunctioning. But the portion they allocate is much lower when we have a high-supply low-demand-low-supply situation. Yes. In the case of the Toyota Crown, if you're listening earlier, they're barely able to build crowns now. And they don't want to build a crown without a key fob. So the guy that lost his key-fob is just going to have to wait. Right.

But they will make sure a certain number available. So unfortunately, that guy that has lost all of them, we'll still have a chance to at least get one in a reasonable time. It may take a week or two, but he will have a chance to at least get one so they can get him back on the road. Well, you have greater faith than I do because I have a feeling that in the chain of command, responsible for profit, ask him the question, we can't build 100 crowns this month because we can't sell them without a key fob. So that's because we have the other people, Keevops, I just wonder what really happens. So I'm a skeptic.

Okay. The other thing I just wanted to tell you, when I happen to be driving down Lake Worth Road and I stopped at Brayman Honda, and they still have addendums on every one of the, they only had two cars that are in the whole lot, they were brand new. and those two had almost over $4,000 addendums on them. And also, I mean, I wasn't buying it, but also I'm sure they still have the dealer fee too somewhere in there. Well, Marty, the addendums aren't going to go away even if we have too many cars

because the addendums existed before the shortage and they'll continue to exist, unfortunately. In the past, pre-COVID, the add-ups were used to trick you into thinking you were getting a discount, making you believe that the phony-Maroni was the MSRP, and it also gives a lot of extra. They can tend to over-allow when you're trade-in, make you think you're getting more money for your trade-in. You get $2,000 more than you thought you would, but that's because they had a $5,000 addendum label. So the endums will be here to say they won't be implicit. implemented as brutally as they are now.

Now there's almost no negotiation in some models and makes with the addendums. Yeah. Well, I know every time I bought a car and I bought several of them, obviously, I always tell the guy I'm just going for the regular MSRP is what I'm starting off at. Yeah. So, I mean, anybody that's paying $4,000 or $5,000 extra and then plus the dealer fee, obviously they're getting shafted

well thank you Marty it's always great hearing from you and here I am again talking about patience and all that stuff and you continue to call us and we really do look forward

to hearing from you you know Earl and I were talking about you this week and there was a question asked Earl you can Earl you can tune in with this that the question that was asked by one of customers and you wanted to refer to Marty and the YouTube Marty that you can go to

and watch our customers are confused all customers have ordered cars this this particular customer called me up he was shopping and he went to another toilet dealer and said that he had a he had a vehicle offer against which model it was on order with my dealership and and he was told that we would he ordered it and he told us it would take two or three months And then the other toilet dealership says, well, he wasn't telling you the truth because you can't order a vehicle. So we're talking semantics, and I have to explain to him that, well, you do order a vehicle, but you order it from the dealer. You can't order it from the manufacturer.

You can request that it be ordered manufacturers. It's all semantics. And you understand it because you've been going through this. You went through it for a long, long time. but when you order a car from today and the manufacturer is not building that car, you're, in fact, ordering it from the dealer, and when they start building the car,

then it can be ordered from the manufacturer. Right, right. All right, all right, well, listen, have a good weekend, everybody. Oh, thank you, Marty. We look forward to hearing from you again. Ladies and gentlemen, give us a call at 877960, or you can text us at 772-49765. and ladies I have $50 for one more new female caller and give me a call and tell me what you think

what you think about when you go out to purchase a vehicle you know after looking all of this up I notice that there's a whole lot ladies take their time and look at and do you know credibility is number one on the list a dealer's credit and that kind of news really travels word of mouth there's nothing like it no advertisement or anything at all and this leads ladies into the dealership that they know will fulfill their needs and there's a lot they just don't go in and purchase a vehicle like guys do uh-uh they just do their homework and they study safety performance they they look at the features uh that are on the vehicle uh what the best buy is They even think about their trade-in.

So this morning, we're waiting for one more lady caller, and I will give you $50. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Well, just as a hedge up, for folks who are thinking about calling him for Stu. My son, apparently he's not going to be here this morning. He had a couple of wisdom teeth pulled the other day, and I can certainly understand why he might not want to be moving his jaw too much. So, Stu, I hope you feel better, and I'm sure he'll be back next week. Okay, we're going to get back to the phones, and we're going to talk to Paul. Paul is calling us from Ocala.

Good morning, Paul. Good morning. I am new to this area, and I'd like to find out, I have two questions. I'd like to find out about if Earl has any idea when they're going to release the Toyota Stout. And if there are any reputable Toyota dealers or Ford dealers up in this area, North Central, Florida. I know a broker

I used to live in Port St. Lucie many years ago. Yeah, I don't know about the Scout. I'm Googling that now or Rick is doing that for me,

but as far as reputable dealers, you're in a safer area than South Florida. There's good news and bad news. South Florida is really difficult.

The competition is intense. The largest Toyota dealers. in the world are located in South Florida. Our dealerships here are the number two and number three volume toilet dealerships are in South Florida.

The number one volume Lexus dealership is in South Florida. So the competition, and there are more dealers down here. So Orlando, Ocala, is quieter. I'll give you a general advice. I would probably tend to stay in Ocala. and away from Orlando, the smaller dealers, the lower volume dealers, oftentimes are a little easier to deal with. And if you can go through a third-party program, like the Costco, are you a member of Costco, by any chance? Not Costco, but Sam's Club.

Okay, Sam's Club has a program, too. I'm not as familiar with Sam's Club as I am with Costco, but Sam's Club is highly reliable, you know, Walmart Offspring. company and you can go through their auto buying program. Truecar is another, T-R-U-E-C-A-R-C-R-C-R-TruC-C-R.com is another third-party source. But I would try to do my shopping if I were you online and I would use email, phone calls, and save your shoe leather.

Don't be knocking on dealership doors and going in until you're ready to take delivery. But stay out of South Florida, and if I were going to drive, I drive west or north to get to even lower volume, smaller cities. But you stay out on West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, in Miami, because they really, really are tough to deal with here.

Okay, thank you for your help, bro, and I'll keep on listening. Okay, good luck, Bob. Call us if you have any questions. when you're negotiating. Yeah, thanks again, Paul. Rick. What I'm finding on the Toyota Stout is that they're actually looking at possibly

2024. It's supposed to be a small pickup based on a Rav4 platform. So it would almost be like the Honda Ridge Line where instead of having a full frame, it'll be a unibody construction. And a little compact pickup because Tacoma has grown up

into a pretty big truck now, and Toyota's still looking at trying to get something, a small compact pickup with an open bed that can compete with and possibly knock down the Ford Maverick. So, who knows? They've got a lot of things that there, a lot of irons in the fire. Okay, Bob, I hope you heard that. That was Rick Google of that, and it'll be about another year, but it sounds like an interesting vehicle. Yeah, interesting facts.

Okay, we're finished with the phone calls right now, so we can either go to Rick or you can finish up your, you know, topic that you want to talk about. There's one thing that I like to give out periodically, and

for our regular listeners, you know that Nancy and I have a Tesla, a Tesla plan, and we're all big proponents of autonomous driving, and we got excited. We really out the vehicle because we thought autonomous driving was going to be here sooner. Well, it's not going to be here sooner.

It'll be here later, but it's getting better. So every time I get a software download on the Tesla plan, I say to Nancy, let's try out this new download and see if the autonomous driver has gotten any better. And then Nancy says, I don't want to get in that car with you when it's on autonomous. I say, I don't blame you. We've had some hair-raising experiences. My last experience... So he ties me up and puts me in the trunk.

Okay. Again, for our regular listeners, you know that I severed my Achilles tendon. I was in a boot for a long time, and I took the boot off, and now I'm able to hobble around and drive. Folks, Earl is driving again. I am no longer driving 100%. He's driving. And he's having a ball. Yeah.

What was I saying? Oh, okay. So I was on my way to rehab to work on my foot. And I said, I know what I'll do. I'll take the Tesla, put it on top of us, and take me to rehab. So I actually got there without, it was about 12 or 14 miles, and everything was fine. It took me right up in front of the rehabilitation facility. And great, I had to park it.

I wouldn't park in the parking lot, but I was right in front of the building. And stoplights, passing, turn signals all the way. Traffic was moderate. It wasn't real heavy. But there were no close calls. So I went through the rehabilitation, came out, got in my potential plan, put in my home destination, and put it on autonomous, and it led me toward the main highway out of the parking lot. Well, I was headed toward the parking, the driveway to get out on US1 when suddenly the autonomous Tesla decided to head for the parked cars that were in the parking lot on my left.

And I had to slam on the brake, which automatically disengages the autonomous feature. And then for the first time, I got a notice on my screen, big screen up there. Autonomous, disengaged, please tell us what happened. And so I had to speak on my, and this goes into the database for Tesla. I give them credit for that. And I said, I told me exactly what happened, that I was leaving my point of, you know, where I was, and I was going back home again, and it veered away from the, entrance to U.S.1

into some parked cars on my left. So I hope the engineers will take that and work on it. But it's scary, but it's fun. It's exciting. I won't try it again until the next download. We'll see

how they get that perfect. It's interesting to say to yourself, listen, I'm going to drive that. I've had the Tesla charging all night. This morning I'm going to get up and I'm going to go out in the Tesla. There's been new download and that stirs your curiosity so you just want to get behind the wheel and I don't know it's been a little disappointing because they're not always downloaded so anyway we've

but we've had so many calls already I suddenly realized I haven't given our numbers out so we have a call yeah we do we do have a we have a we have a call maybe we don't have to give our number out anymore yes go ahead you want me too yes okay 877 960 9960. That's our call in number. We prioritize it. And as soon as the number comes up on Nancy's screen, we jump over to the telephone number, 877-960. And please write that down. If you haven't got something you want to call us about now, you might want to call later. And don't forget at 930, we're auctioning off a dog. No, we're not really auctioning on a dog. We're going to try to find a home for a dog in Big Dog Ranch Rescue.

The dog will be in the studio, and if you want to adopt this dog, we pay the adoption fees. So write the number down, 877-960-99-60. Tune into some exciting energy at 930. It'll be a whole lot of fun. Hopefully, the studio won't be turned upside down. Don't forget, ladies and gentlemen, your anonymous feedback. Your anonymous feedback.com. Exactly. I get, I'm getting less use on anonymous feedback from people that want to be

anonymous. And then people are doing it, like I had a reporter from the auto news that contacted me on anonymous feedback. Now, and then she had to tell me her name and telephone number so I could call her back. But that's okay, using your anonymousfeedback.com. But if you really want to be anonymous, that's not a bad idea either. And our text number, our text number, our text number is 772 4976530. Normally my son Stu Stewart does a text and Rick is going to pick up for that while he's healing from his wisdom teeth extractions. So that text number is 772-4976530. Oh, thank you. You know, Lance, I'll be right with you and I'll mention one more thing. We don't mention it often enough and that's Earl's vigilantes.

He has a hat. I don't know if he has it with him this morning or not. But Earl's vigilantes, you can go to Earl on Cars, and you can sign up, and you can help with the knowledge that you have. I mean, you don't have to know how to take an engine apart. This hat is yours if you become a vigilante, by the way. Yes, that hat is yours. Not this ad, another hat.

That's my ad. So go to Earl on Cars. We're moving real fast because we want to cover the callers. We want to cover the texters and YouTube and Facebook and everything else. And Rick has his job set out for him this morning. So I'm going to quit talking. Earl's vigilantes go to Earl on Cars. You can find out all that information helping out your neighbor.

We're going to go to Lance, who is calling also from Tennessee. Earlier we had a call from East Tennessee. Lance. Good morning, Lance. Good morning, Earl. and good morning, Nancy. We tune in every week here, and we're just coming off

the world's biggest yard sale and Earl Stewart Day here. Wow. And turnout wasn't that good for Earl Stewart Day, but, you know, next year's all we've got. We're starting to plan next year's already. Wow. You have a day in Tennessee?

No. well maybe maybe it just happened i'll have to investigate what what is that just once a year lands are there any streets named after earl stewart well we're going to keep working you know when they broadcast the grand o'clock i live so far out in the woods that when they broadcast the granddoll opera on sarah tonight i don't get it jukes So what brought you to this moment, you know, where it's Earl, Earl, Sirth Day in Tennessee? Was it, you know, a group effort, or how did this happen? How was this born?

I think he's pulling my leg. Yeah, absolutely. What? He's pulling our leg. Earl, what I wanted to ask you. Well, tell me an interesting story. Earl, what I wanted to ask you is that, if you well know, this is a very vast and broad country, and call me a naysayer, but I just do not believe that these electric vehicles are going to be as popular as you feel.

And, you know, as you remember, Toyota, who has some of the best business minds in the world, were very reluctant about the electronic vehicle business. They entered it kind of late. And I just think, take for instance where I live, there is, you can't find a charging station here. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Now, I respect your opinion, Lance. You know, interestingly enough, they surveyed,

All, the survey recently, of all potential automobile buyers, well not all, but a sampling survey, of course, and 50% of the people today with combustion engine vehicles are considering an electric vehicle. Now, that's just as they're going to buy one, but they're considering it. So, 50% of the people believe that they might buy one, and 50% are like you, Lance, they believe they're not going to buy. It's almost like politics. I mean, are you a Republican or a Democrat? And the Republicans think the Democrats are stupid, and the Democrats think the Republicans are stupid. And we never know.

And time marches on. So we'll see what happens in 10 years. You know, some places are going to be in serious trouble if they don't have electric vehicles, because California will not allow dealers to sell a combustion engine car after, I think it's 2026. 36, 2036, yeah. So in

2036 there's going to be a lot of people hitchhiking in California because they're not going to be able to buy anything except an electric vehicle. If they don't like them, they're going to have to walk. Jeez, that's a lot of people. Well, listen, Nancy, it's great

to talk to you. We listen to you every Saturday morning, I can say, we do get your show direct. We don't have to wait until Tuesday. until it comes in, but we're going to keep working on Earl Stewart Day up here. Oh, I'm so happy to hear that. I see where we come, where we come to, and where we come,

and we'll try to get a, at least get a high school marching band to march down the street. Oh, boy. I love that. Boy, you really do. I'll bring the whole family. We're really going to do it up. Lance, I'd like to keep you on the phone because I just like you. your southern accent.

We have calls backed up, so will you do me a favor and call in again? See, Lance thinks you have an accent. He doesn't have an accent. My husband always tells me I have an accent from, he says, you're from Pittsburgh, you have an accent. I said, I don't have an accent. Where's my accent? Okay, so.

Listen, have a good day. Keep a good workup. Thank you. Say hello to the family. 877-960-99-60. You can tax us at 772-497-6530. Did you read the latest news recently this past week? If not, you can always Google it.

And it was a column that was written about leasing, and it makes EVs more affordable. Last year's Inflation Reduction Act provided a federal tax credit of up to $7,500 to use towards an EV. under the rules of dealer, the dealer can apply that credit to any leased vehicle, no matter where it's made, no matter where it's made, to reduce the customer's monthly payment. How do you like that? But not so for people who buy an EV. For buyers, only EVs made in North America qualify, only qualify for the full tax. credit. So if you'd like to Google that, you can, and you can read about how some of the rules have changed for a buyer. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30.

We're going to go to Phil in Jupiter. Good morning, Phil. Good morning, Phil. Good morning. I just got a question for you. I was reading on the internet talking about which cars that take premium fuel and other ones don't. And it said if you have a normal aspirated engine, you probably do not have to use high test fuel. What does that even mean and normally aspirated engine? I think Rick can really answer that question. Normally aspirated means that you do not have a turbocharger or a a supercharger on the engine. In other words, it simply uses the vacuum of the engine to draw in air through the air filter and into the engine. A turbocharger uses exhaust pressure to a set of

impeller blades and forces air into the engine once it reaches a certain RPM. And a supercharger actually uses a belt-driven device to, again, suck in the outside air, and forces it into the engine in a much higher volume. That's pretty much true for a fact, but there are some normally aspirated engines that run at a higher compression ratio, and those they generally do recommend a higher octane fuel so as to slow down the ignition and not have pre-ignition. That way you don't get that spark knock. With modern engines anyways, the computer will detect that spark knock immediately and it'll retard the ignition of the engine and prevent it from occurring.

So it's kind of a moot point, really, because if you want to get the absolute best performance out of your car and your car is designed to use premium fuel, then use premium fuel. You will get the top-notch performance. Does that answer your question? Yeah, yeah, because I was thinking about getting a Lexus NX, and they were, their engines they were using in the past, you had the required fuel, and they said they weren't, they weren't normally aspirated engine, but now they went, they went their four cylinder now is a normally aspirated engine. And I just wanted to have that played out. I just didn't understand it. Okay, well, thanks a lot. Appreciate it.

Thanks for a call. Thank you. Thank you, Phil. Give us a call again. One other thing I forgot to mention, I was, I've got a 2017 Prius, and I'm really interested in the 2023, but there must, you can't, there's none, there's none anywhere you can, you can even get in a dealer and sit in one. I've called like five dealers, and I mean, these things are like they don't even exist. Is that because they just, a shortage, and they just can't even get them out? Have you checked with a rental company? Sometimes they've got vehicles when we don't.

because the manufacturers allocate certain amount of production to what they go fleet. But you might make a few phone calls to, you know, Hertzavis National Budget or the rest of them and see if you can find one. I know exactly what you're saying. One of the biggest problems we have today is people having to buy cars with actually driving it, and they have to order it. And I've always advised before this pandemic crisis, I always said, don't ever buy a new vehicle without driving it first.

I don't mean literally that vehicle, but the year-making model. Because if you could be driving a Camry all your life, and then the new Camry comes out, and you buy it without driving it, and you don't like it because maybe there's something different. And my heart goes out to you. I wish I had a better suggestion than... Oh, that's a good idea. I never thought of that before.

I think I'll try that. Well, good luck. Good luck. Okay. All right. Well, thanks a lot. Appreciate it. Thank you, Phil.

Now back to Rick. Well, I'll see. We have one quick one here from Donovan. He says what Nancy is talking about with the IRA bill, a lot of states are also adding tax credits for EVs. Colorado next month is adding $5,000 on top of the $7,500 federal federal. credit. Wow. In other words, you really got to Google this and find out what is available. The problem with the federal government, they can't do anything as simple. So their tax credit thing is so convoluted, whether the components are purchased in the United States,

whether the car is manufactured in the United States, and then they say North America versus the USA, you almost have to have a consultant to decide what's your rebate. or a discount would be on an electric vehicle. So now the states are getting into it. So don't rush out and buy an electric vehicle until you really carefully study what is available. You know, that's great that, you know, you got that text. And, you know, I say weekend and week out,

you know, you guys really make the show. All of you play such a huge part of it. And we look forward to your text. We look forward to your anonymous feedback, Facebook, YouTube. and your telephone calls. So we hear at Earl Stewart on Cars want to thank you. That was great information, Rick. Man, now we'll go with our text.

We'll start off with Anne-Marie, right off the bat for hers. Good morning, Ann Marie. She just sent a link today to a community car talk page talking about the urban legend of cars where back in the 70s, this was quite popular rumor. was some cars you have to literally remove the engine from the car to change the spark plugs. And although the article I read through it, breathed through it quite a bit, they did mention several models that although you don't have to remove the engine, there were a lot of models

of cars that have been made over the years that basic maintenance items like spark plugs, air filters. You would literally have to loosen a motor mount and jack up one side of the engine to change the spark plugs. I remember, I believe it was the Chevy Corsair, the one that Ralph Nader said, unsafe at any speed. Corvair. The Corvair. That's a yes. Where it had, the motor had to be lowered slightly from the car in order to change the spark plugs. Somebody in the comment section there had mentioned a car where the air filter box could not be properly opened without unbolting the carburetor from the intake manifold. And all I can say on that is, of all the different cars that I have seen, mechanics are

heroes to engineers to design them because some of those engineers don't stop to think. And we have seen cases where a bolt could have been. just a half an inch shorter, and you could get the bolt out versus having to jack up the engine just to get one bolt out where it interferes with something else. And so, yeah, that's a very true fact of life. Sometimes engineers don't really realize the nightmares that they have created. And they've created a lot. Absolutely.

Oh, here's another one from Donovan. the IRS has a list of all the cars that qualify and what amounts they get on their website. Wow, great. So don't let a dealer tell you the car qualifies without checking that IRS list first. Is that IRS.com or? I would bet it's IRS.gov. Dotgov, right. Yeah, because any government website is going to be.

But, yeah, I would check that. That's a great resource, Donovan, because. When you're not on the air, check to see if that is accurate then we can before we give that out that's a very important number absolutely thanks Donovan

he always has so much to add to the show and of course that that would be an excellent weapon when you're going in you're shopping for a car salesman says hey this car gets this rebate and you can pull up the website and say no that's not on the list

here's the IRS website and it's not on there you know I just I marvel at how information is available. And I know some of you get tired of, or maybe all of you get tired of me saying this, but I'm a technical freak. I just love high-tech stuff. And the fact that, you know, one thing you can, I have to tell myself this, myself this every day. When I wonder about something, you have to slap yourself in the face and say, why are you wondering about that? And I, you know, and I say ask Google.

Well, there's a whole lot of other places you can ask besides Google. I just use that almost like a, you know, because they were the first and the biggest, they probably still are. There's a lot of artificial intelligence apps available now, and they are incredible. I mean, I'm getting diagnoses for Nancy and me on illnesses that we have that on AI sites, you know, apps that are, identical to what the doctor tells us. Absolutely. Sometimes I think we get better information. The problem is you can also get some really bad information.

The AI is kind of like the autonomous driving. It is in the beginning stages, but it is scarily accurate. But when it's inaccurate, it can be pretty scary too. So have a lot of fun with that. Yeah, it is a whole lot of fun, artificial intelligence. I mean, I'm going to talk ourselves out of the show because you don't need us anymore. I mean, when you figure out which apps and which websites to go to for information, you don't need us. Yes, well, maybe you have more fun.

Here's the bottom line. AI doesn't have your fascinating personality. That's true. I forgot about that. So you forgot about that. Okay, I'm going to interrupt, Rick, and we're going to go back to the phones, and we have Bob calling us from Lake Park. Good morning, Bob Good morning, good morning

How is everybody this morning? We're well, thank you. That's funny to happen. Your show has gone to the dogs. Oh. Well, not yet, but in a few minutes. Yeah, about 9.30s. What does that leave us cat lovers?

Pardon me? In the backseat. What does that leave us cat lovers? In the backseat, I guess. Not necessarily. Really? I've got a dog and three cats in my house. They get along great. Actually, you mentioned that, Bob. At Big Dog Ranch Rescue, they actually test the cats, and they find out if they're cat-friendly, dog-friendly.

Because if you're going to adopt the dog, you've got to know, you've got children, you've got cats, you've got other dogs. And every dog is different. Big Dog Ranch Rescue, I mean, they know more about that dog. You ask any question about the dog. you adopt. They know about his health, his temperament. They know if he likes men more than women or they like cats more than squirrels. I mean, they know these dogs inside. That is really cool. Is that why they have a line on there for a cat scan? You knew that was coming.

I see that the, now the AM radio, Ford has decided to put the AM radio back to in the car. Yes. You know, I mentioned earlier, I was interviewed by Automotive News by a reporter Molly Boygnon,

and that article will be coming out pretty soon about the whole AM situation. She wanted to know what the perspective was for me as a dealer.

And I told her my take was the AM radio thing is a generational issue. Like so many things today, If you're born in 1940 versus 1970, you see the world differently.

And people, I was born in 1940, and AM radio is important to me. I always thought about AM radio. And a lot of people in my generation feel that way. You take a 25-year-old kid, and they can care less about AM radio. I think the government is remiss and the fact that they're focusing too much of the emergency services, things on AM, I understand why they do it. But that'll change. Ford goes to AM Radio, and

do they have a competitive edge over Chevrolet, who will not? That's an interesting question. And if the competition decides they want to go without a feature or with a feature, then all the other manufacturers got to scratch their head to decide what they want to do. I won't. If you're a modern person, you know that you can get AM radio a lot of different ways

on having an AM radio in your car. You can stream AM, and so why do you have to have the AM radio itself? You can stream it. I was interested in Marty, one of your customers, kept complaining about his headwrest. So I looked it up. Do you know the year and the manufacturer was the first headrest? No, I don't. Not out of the top of my head.

It was Volvo in 1968. Oh, in there. Wow. Well, a Volvo is something else, aren't they? Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. That wouldn't surprise me because they, Volvo's always been a front runner on the safety features. Safety belts, headrests. Right.

And then Congress mandated the headrest the next year. So in 69, it became a, it became a law. We had to have a head car. But I remember my cause prior to that, never had a headrest in them. No. I said it was long lives. Mm-hmm.

I saw that. And then I just also saw that the mistress is now by, going to go after off, they have until June 14th. Otherwise, they're going to have a legal issue here with the inflator. Also, Joe Biden just withdrew his nominees that they had a NIST. Yeah, they found out. There's no one running. Yeah, there's no one running.

there's no one running that there's no one had to run a Nitzer and they just came out of report on how slow they are in handling some of these situations it was a very

very discouraging report because they're supposed to be operating or putting to a certain time table they're going after they're going after the NHTSA because I think they're going to be kicking some people out

the guy running the whole NHTSA really dropped the ball. And, I mean, their own guidelines say that when you have a recall issue, the maximum amount of time to resolve it, either for or against the manufacturer, should be one year. Well, they've been screwing around with their bags for eight years, and people are dying. And the NHTSA has just totally dropped the ball. I mean, governmental agencies are just choked.

and the NHTSA is the biggest joke of all of them. They come up with great rules, but they don't enforce them. Right. It's a shame because, you know, people riding them around. You don't even know who has those deplaters in their cars. But, okay, well, thank you. Have a great weekend. I look forward to seeing the dog.

Thank you, Bob. I'm mentioning the dog, let me mention this website, Earl. mentioned earlier and as a matter of fact we have a special guest coming in around about 930 and you're going to have a whole lot of fun watching and calling and just being part of all of us with us but you can go to wwwW Big Dog Ranch BDDR.org forward slash meeting our dogs it's BDRR BDR BDR BDR thank you Rick, www. B-D-R-R dot... E, I mean...

B, that's like B-D-R-R. That's a Pittsburgh accent. Yep. Okay, so www.B-D-R-R dot org forward slash meeting our dogs. You'll have a whole lot of fun there. There are so many dogs on that side. I was looking at it last night. One more interesting than the other.

We're going to go back to the phones and we're going to talk to Brad, who's calling from Deerfield. Hey, Brad. Hello. What's going on in Deerfield? What can we do for you? Good morning.

I'm a new fan of the show. I've caught you several Saturdays, and I learn a lot from the show. And I'm a fan of the hybrid car, and I know you have Teslas, which is interesting. But, you know, I was looking. looking at the electric car and they said that they when you park them they lose like four miles a day the test was and i i don't do that much driving and um that kind of steered me away from them but when i retired in 2016 i bought myself one of those lexas ct 200 h f sports but it's basically like a prius and um i had a question so i don't drive it too much and one of

things that kind of bothers me that I can monitor the battery but when I put it away I have to make sure that the battery isn't dead when I'm putting it away because it could sit dead for a week and I'm thinking that's probably not good. I'm wondering if your technician

has any input on that. Your timing was terrible. Our technician just went down to the elevator down to the ground floor to get our dog who's coming up here. Our special guess. So this is live radio and But I will repeat the question to Rick, but I don't know the answer.

I'm sure Rick will know the answer. The battery, you say it does go dead in a week or it might go dead in a week? No, no. What I'm saying is that with the Tesla, Tesla and electric cars, you drive them home, you plug them in, you top them off. But if you leave them unplugged, they can lose four miles a day. Yeah, it does. Mine does that, maybe two miles.

I guess it depends on the temperature and whatnot. And they say you have to be careful because if you drive it to the airport and leave it unplugged and you go away on a flight and you come back, you could end up having a dead battery. With a Tesla that we have, I'll give you just from my hands on. Nancy and I have been on vacation for at least a week, maybe longer. and we lost maybe about a percent or two a day. So if you leave it with a full charge, we've never had less than probably 50 percent battery left when we got back.

I suppose if you were gone for 90 days, you'd have a different story. But you raise an interesting point. people that do travel like that with electric vehicles there ought to be some sort of provision for like a trickle charger or some kind for EVs I take my my Tesla and when Nancy and I go home

even though we're going to go out again we plug it in anyway and we have our timer set on our Tesla so that it doesn't charge actually until midnight because at midnight Florida Power and Light in this area reduces the charges greatly. So I think you raise a very interesting point for, you know,

cruise ship areas, parking areas, airport areas, all ought to be considering exactly what you're saying with people electric vehicles. There should be a provision for that. And, you know, Rick just got back, and if you'd like, he can answer that question a little more thoroughly. if you'd like, or was what Earl shared with you, was that enough information? Actually, no, if he's there, I'd like to ask him the question, but by the way, this time of year,

the FPL rates, they're cheaper after 9 p.m., and then they get expensive at 12 noon at the time of year. Well, Rick is going to talk to you about that, and he might be able to shed more light on it than Earl did. I'm not sure. The call is in regards to parking, you know, an electric vehicle at the airport. And if it's there, well, no, no, no. What I was saying is I bought, when I retired in 2016, I bought a Lexus D-T-200H-F sport, which is a hybrid. It's basically a Lexus version of a Prius. Okay.

Are you familiar with that car? I'm sure you're familiar with Prius. I've seen a few of the Lexuses, yeah. Okay. So they stopped importing that car, unfortunately. I love that car. Best car I've ever owned. But I'm considering the new Prius.

The new Prius. The new Prius is beautiful. But, okay, so my question is this. I know that when you let a battery sit dead for a week without charging, it's not good for the battery. And even though those batteries are modern technology, I don't know if they're lithium ion or nickel metal hydride or whatever. But my concern was like I only drive the car like once a week,

and I'm always afraid of putting it away with one bar on the batteries because I'm afraid for it sitting a week with a low charge and almost dead charge that it will harm the batteries to reduce their lifespan. Do you think there's anything for me to worry about? Should I focus on trying to put it away with a full charge? because I kind of have to monitor it and give it the gas on my way home to make sure I get home with it with a full charge because if I baby it, I get home with a dead battery.

By any chance, do you have a place where you might be able to plug it in? If you have a prime? Are you looking at the prime perhaps? No, no, no. It's not the prime. It's not a plug-in. The only thing I can charge is my 12-volt battery. Yeah. No, you're, the Prius, as you're driving a normal Prius, the battery's going to keep itself at a constant state of charge and discharge, but it's never going to get very low. And even leaving it for a week at a time, you won't have any problems with that. It can handle that quite easily. Two to three weeks, Priuses might start to have an issue, and you might want to have somebody available that can start and run the car to give it a chance to charge up a bit. But after that,

I wouldn't worry about it. For a week at a time, it'll have no problems at all. You're going to have a very easy time with that car. They just, they're very resilient. They're incredibly good cars. Yeah, I've seen where the older ones, sometimes will have one or two cells go bad and you have to, you know, replace those bad cells. But my concern was, like, and that would be an improvement for that.

If you're not getting a plug-in, Prius, like, I almost thought, like, you should, when you buy the car, you should program in your, it should have a feature where you, you program in your home address, and then you tell it you're going home, and it makes sure that when you're putting away, that battery's full. because I do monitor my battery, and sometimes I'm putting it away, and it's one bar, and I'm like, uh-oh, you know, I'm going to look low, but trust me, it will save plenty enough power in there that it's going to keep itself in good shape. Okay. Thank you so much for the call, and we look forward to hearing from you again and talking about this subject. I want to let Frank know that we're going to put you on hold, right, Jonathan? We're going to hold Frank, or we're going to go ahead fast. Okay, Frank, we're going to take your call right now. We do have the dog in the studio.

Your dog is in the studio. Yeah, so we have a whole lot going on. I wasn't sure whether we were going to be able to get to you. Welcome. What can we do for you today, Frank? Well, good morning. Since we're speaking about dogs, I figure I had a lot of. like to share about my mom down

on Kendall back years ago she had two Doberman pinchers and one was red and rusty color and the other one was black but the red one she named Rolex and a black one she named Hymex and you know why she chose those names why? Because they keep on chicken

because they were watch dogs I love I love corn jokes about big dog ranch so that's about it. I'll let you get back to on the air with the other. Thanks for tuning in, Frank.

Give us a call again. Our number is 877-960-960 or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Well, I'll tell you what, there's a lot of excitement here because the dog is in the studio and in just a few minutes

we will be introducing the dog of the week for Big Dog Ranch Rescue and so if you have any interest on that, it's about just about nine minutes until then and we're getting all set up we've got a Rick has got a camera

that he's going to have on the dog and we're going to have representing for Big Dog Ranch rescue tell you all about the dog and if you like what you you can adopt this dog and we will pay the adoption fees.

Also, if you just are looking for a dog and thinking about it, you go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue's website, that's B-D-R-R as in Big Dog Ranch Rescue.org. And you go to that website, you can see hundreds of dogs, the way that pictures and biographies of these dogs. And as I say, for years, Nancy and I have been doing the big dog ranch rescue video and we put that on facebook and youtube and that and help promote adoptions and i i think instead of what why don't we just go directly to the dog we're all

set up here what i'm going to do is i'm going to mention real quick again i mentioned earlier confessions of a recovering car dealer everyone knows that's earl's book maybe what you don't know is it all proceeds from that book, the sale of that book, go to Big Dog Ranch, all proceeds, and it helps out in a number of ways. Now back to Earl. Okay, let's go to, let's go to the doggie. And are you Peggy? Yes. Okay, this is Peggy, representative from Big Dog Ranch Rescue. And the doggy is here, and Rick has got the camera so you can see our doggy.

And Becky, let's just, you give us a general background on the doggie, and then we'll open it for calls or questions. Okay, absolutely. I brought Wheely with me here today. He is a Siberian Husky mix, and he comes to us from the Bahamas. He weighs in at about 40 pounds, and he is nine months old. So he will probably fill out a little bit. I don't know how much bigger, but probably not all that much bigger. He loves people.

I think he'd be great with children. He loves to play with other dogs. The one thing about Wheely that makes him unique is that he has a condition called straight leg syndrome. And that means that he cannot bend his back legs. But he walks pretty well. He can walk pretty well. But just people need to be aware of that.

I would say probably in a home with very few stairs, if any at all. and he might need some runners, like rug runners, just to help him get jump started. Yeah, one of the cool things about Big Dog Ranch Rescue is Big Dog Ranch Rescue finds homes for all the dogs, and they don't, we don't euthanize our dogs. And we have some dogs with little handicaps, like Willie, and he walks fine, but he's got the straight leg syndrome, they call it, and they can't when he sits you can tell he has a problem so a lot of our dogs have issues but we we keep on trying until we find a loving home the right home and Willie's looking for one so Rick do we have the camera on Willie we do you do and you can see that

is just the sweetest thing yeah you can see that really is really precious so beautiful You can not only go to a big dog ranch, they have big dogs, small dogs, they have cats, they have kittens, and as I said earlier, there's a background check on adopting a dog. They just don't give them to just anyone. And Earl mentioned earlier about the adoption fees that we pay. So it's really a win-win situation. If you can't adopt a dog, you can always foster a dog. Why don't you go over and introduce yourself to Willie? he is so sweet and lovable and so soft his fur is just so soft he also gives the very

best hugs he's a good hugger yeah we know a question Peggy somebody called in earlier and asked what about cats in the house or what about other dogs that information is available on most of your dogs out there because you kind of screen the dogs in terms of issues that may confront them if they are adopted right he plays with other dogs at the ranch we don't have cats at the ranch so that we're not sure about but he's just so easy-going I think he would be okay okay good we used to have cats at the ranch a long time ago so I just learned something cats willie oh give the mic to Willie does he have anything to say

Really, what do you want to tell everybody? He's just a love bug. He's been here for about four months, and we just really, really want to find him a great home. He still has a lot of puppy energy, so it has to be somebody that's patient and willing to work with a puppy. We usually have a full house at Big Dog Ranch because we take so many dogs from other states and from other countries. What we love it is when you foster a dog because it makes room for another dog to come into the ranch. into the ranch. And, you know, if you can keep a dog for a couple of weeks or more, it helps everybody. And I'll have to be honest with you. We hope that you fall in love with the dog and

decide to adopt the dog, but there's no obligation. And actually, it's kind of like a try before you buy kind of thing. You want to be sure you like the dog. But we'd prefer you adopt the dog. But go ahead. And if you're a little nervous, take Willie home for a couple of weeks. He's nine months. And we're going to pay the adoption fees. Nine months old this little puppy. You have $250 adoption fees. Another thing about Big Dog Ranch is that Nancy alluded to this.

They check these dogs out like if you were to adopt a child, you know how careful the adoption agencies are to be sure that you're going to be saying that child into a proper home. Big Dog Ranch does the same thing. Actually, you know, I've actually been called by people and say, I want to adopt a dog and they, and I, and I, they wouldn't let me, I don't want to get personal about it. But let's face it, there are some people that really shouldn't have dogs. I mean, your lifestyle, if you have a dog, you need to take care of a dog, you need to love the dog, you need to, there's a lot of responsibility. So, big dog ranch rescue, I really, a lot of these agencies out there, you can go in there and adopt the dog, long as you have, but write out of check and take the dog home. After that, they kind of keep their fingers crossed. Big Dog Ranch wants to be sure we find a loving, responsible home. And

if you are that type of person that loves dogs like we do, give us a call. You can call us here at the show, or you could go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue, B-D-R-R-R-R-org. And just let them know that you saw Willie and Peggy. Wheely. Wheeler. Wheeler. Willie is really, really adorable. And you can see that this husky Siberian, what a beautiful dog that he is. And as everyone said earlier, he is from the Bahamas. And you can go to www. B-D-R-R, that's big dog rescue.org, forward slash meeting our dogs,

where you can see Willie on that. page and so many other dogs. And Peggy, I have to ask you again, did you say that they do not, they don't have cats at Big Dog Ranch any longer? Okay, so we were unaware of that. So there you have it. You can adopt or you can foster. And remember, this is a new feature on our long cars. We're going to have dogs like Wheely every week, and we're going to find homes for those dogs and Peggy and some other people becoming actually the the founder of Big Dog Runs Rinsky with Laurie Simmons will be making a guest appearance and we we we look at her as one of the most amazing women in the

world what she's done for dogs they ought to make her a saint I mean she is she saved literally thousands and thousands of dogs from being euthanized and she's used a lot of her own personal money and she's She's raised a lot of donations, and she has just performed a miracle for dogs. Absolutely. And when Lori, when she went to China, what an amazing story. She lived in China two or three times, bringing dogs back. You know, they eat dogs in China, so they actually have them in a market, and people go in and buy the dog.

She is so passionate, you know, about what she does, and her heart and soul is definitely in this, which started out a long time ago. she's an amazing woman and she has done so much with this amazing cause of saving dogs. Back to Earl Stewart. Well, thank you. Wheely? I'm sorry, I mispronounce your name. I called you Willie.

It was an accident. He's fine. Peggy, thank you very much. Thank you for having us. I don't know if we'll see you next week, but we're going to have a dog. I said, you can bring the dog. We'd love to have you to bring the dog, and he did a great job. Thank you.

And I bet anything, we're going to find a home for us. for Wheely. Thanks for taking the time, Willie. We know you have a busy schedule. I hope you're heading back to the spa after driving over here. Oh, Wheelie's waving, bye-bye. Bye-bye, bye-bye, Wheelie.

We're going to get you a home, a loving home. Yeah. Okay, folks. Thank you very much for watching and listening. And if you don't want to adopt Wheely or foster Wheely, maybe you know someone who does and you can call us here at 877-9-60-99-60 877-9-60-9-60 and we'll get word to Peggy and Wheely

that we have someone that would like to talk to them and we'd like to talk to you at Big Dog Ranch because they are going to screen you I'm going to take a moment and thank Peggy for making the trip here everyone appreciates bye-bye Peggy and we will find a good home for Wheely, I promise you. And next week, we'll find a new home for another dog, and that's the way it's going to be. Yeah, it's going to be really more and more interesting every Saturday morning with doing it this way. As Earl alluded to earlier, you know, that Earl and I've been doing this for years,

and we've been recording at the dealership. And also, you know, with COVID and everything, we started. doing it from our home base office which made it really interesting but this was Earl's idea and boy I'll tell you what what a great idea and we're gonna have a whole lot of fun for it with it there's gonna be a whole lot more people to see our dog and just how it behaves in the studio and you'll think to yourself gee I want that dog well you definitely can have it okay I am going to share with you Earl's latest column and blog and that is

is the car buyer's Bill of Rights and you can go to Erwin Cars and you can take a look at that. It is a great read and it really gives you an understanding of exactly what is going on with the car. Do you have that, Jonathan, the car buying experience. The Bill of Rights is the way things ought to be, but they're not the way. the things are and i think uh... the more we talk about the way you should be treated by a car dealer uh... i i do believe there's a groundswell there's so many changes going on these days

uh... it's scary and uh... i really believe that the car buying experience is it's kind of like electric vehicles uh... it's not a question of if it's going to happen it's a question of when it's going to happen but the manufacturers have it wised up i believe And they realized that this archaic system that was invented 100 years ago, the franchise car dealer,

with no supervision from the manufacturers, the car dealers are considered by the manufacturers as independent business people, which is okay, but they don't enforce any rules and regulations, which they could, but they don't. And, of course, we don't have the regulators of the states, the attorney generals. and it's like the Wild Wild West when you buy a car. We have people calling in from all over the United States. I will say this, South Florida is the worst. Yeah, without a doubt. We have a mystery shopping report coming up.

I got so excited about the Big Dog. We haven't talked that much about the mystery shopping report, but we'll be doing that very soon. And it is a South Florida car dealership, and you'll see what I'm talking about when we get to that. Mystery Shopping Report. Absolutely.

It's a great one. It's a doozy. We're going to go to Bob. Thanks for your patience, Bob, from Juneau Beach. Welcome. Good morning, Bob. Hi, Bob. Good morning, Bob.

Can you turn your radio down and volume down just for a few moments while we talk? Yes, sir. Thank you much. First question is for Earl. What is the present state of the news car marked in terms of, of the prices being, let's say, above an MSRP, are they still elevated or are they coming down where it's more reasonable buying its car? They're coming down, slowly, too slowly, actually, but I have a feeling that they're never

going to return to pre-COVID. Right now, we see the cars that have the greatest inventories. We talked last week about Jeep. counterintuitively there's a very popular car that for whatever reason has a very high supply so prices from jeeps are coming down so if you're buying a car like a jeep and you see that the dealers have them in inventory

then you can negotiate and you can get the price lower if you're buying a car that is in very low supply in high demand you can still buy a car closer to MSRP but not below jeeps you can buy below MSRP The one thing that you can do in any case, whether it's low supply, high demand, or not, you can shop and compare. Even the dealers that are adding the junk fees and adding the addendum labels and charging thousands over MSRP,

if the car is that type of a high demand, low supply, you'll still save money. You might have to pay $3,000 over MSRP, but it's better than paying $6,000 over MSRP. And with a Jeep, I would be surprised if you couldn't buy a Jeep today, if you had the patience and you shopped enough dealerships, I think you could buy a Jeep at thousands of dollars below MSRP. I think you could, the day supply, that's an in-house term dealers used for how many vehicles they have. and if they typically sell 100 cars a month and they have 200 cars in inventory, that's a 60-day supply. So Jeep had over a 60-day supply, and in today's market, that's huge. So if you have a car in mind, we can tell you the availability, we have the data on that,

and that'll tell you how good a price you could expect. But it'll be probably the end of this year, 2003, before new car prices will be. bottom out. Use car prices are actually going up. They went down, now they're coming back up again. So it's still a very difficult market to get a good price in, but you can still do it.

If you have a car in mind, we can tell you the immoral building we have to date all that. I'm having a hard time. Yeah, their radio's turned up a bit. Are you still there, Bob? Yes. we're hearing two radio we're having we're hearing a radio in the background there

alright they're with me yeah okay so we get your answer okay what maker is what make you're looking at Bob Camry

Camry Camry the Camry is in better supply than it was three months months ago. Your best bet with Camry is to shop as many dealers as you can. I can give you our price on Camry's at my dealership because we draw the line at MSRP on all our vehicles. Althador with no junk fees, with no addendum labels, with no dealer installed accessories. If we tell

you the Jeep, the Camry is $25,000, that's what you. write the checkout for. You might start there and take our price on the Camry and go to other toilet dealers and say, listen, Earl Stewart will sell us this car at this price out the door. If you beat it, I'll buy it from you. And you might find somebody that would do that. We've had that happen in the past. We had somebody, a local person that used my price and went to Al Hendricks and Toyota, and they beat our price. So it's a good idea to start with a fairly good price. It saves you a lot of time.

So I can say that our price is a fairly good price, but it might not be the best price. The only way to find out is to shop it with, you know, I guess there's 10 or 12 toilet dealers in this South Florida market. In fact, I know exactly I'm there. There are 14 Toyota dealers in Southeast Florida. So you could take my price on a camera, MSRP, and go to those other 13 dealers that say, Earl Stewart will sell me the car out the door, and they might beat it.

You might get a hell of a deal. Well, let me ask you have a question quickly before I go to Rick, and that is, I think you once said that a good quality late model used car is a better value than a new car. Is that your position? Absolutely. Basically, a good used car that's only a year or too old, they've got a lot of the bugs worked out, and that car is really ready to go, and you're going to save a lot of money on that car, depending on the prices you can work out. Again, as Earl said, those used car prices are really starting to climb lately, so it's going to be kind of look hard for that needle in the haystack to find the right one. I got to get the mystery shopping report

so we'll have to cut you off please go on again next week and Bob there's more information in the money section of the USA Today and you can take a look at that and there's self-explanatory thank you so much for the call we look forward to hearing from you ladies and gentlemen we are going to get to the mystery shop the mystery shop is from Joey Arcady Chrysler Dodge Jeep

and as I say every week you are an important part of the show please vote vote on this mystery shop tell us what you think and you can do that at 772 4976530 now back to the recovering car dealer

well we talk about South Florida being the Sodom and Gibora of car dealerships and it truly is this is in the heart of that area is Joey O'Cardy Crashley-Oge Jeep and they're in Pompano. There's not very many car dealerships in Pompano. That's one of the few.

But Pompano is right down there with Fort Lauderdale and not that far from Miami. It's definitely South Florida, which is crazy. And the dealers down there have got more junk fees in any other state or other part of Florida. They have bigger addendum labels. They have crazier advertising. There's virtually no regulation. So I always get nervous when we send Agent Lightning down there. Wait, I'm afraid we're going to lose somebody going down there with the mystery shopping report. So this is what happened with Agent Lightning when she visited this dealership just a few days ago.

And this week, speaking in the first person, as if I were Agent Lightning. I arrived at the Jeep dealership in the mid-morning, was greeted by Ivan, knowledgeable, friendly salesperson. among the selection there was a striking beach edition you know like South Florida beaches the beach edition that immediately caught my attention and it's vibrant yellow color

Ivan told me that he would retrieve the keys and be right back as I promise I haven't returned as promised I haven't returned in a few minutes and we took a pleasant test drive during the drive he highlighted various features of the Jeep

such as the GPS system and the larger screen inside the I love the big screens by the way I have one of my Tesla Upon returning to the dealership I haven't collected my information told me that he would return shortly with a price and of course this is the name of the game

right let me talk to my manager and I talk to you. That's old school that's the way it's done in South Florida you don't walk into a car dealership and they give you a price and say write me out of check ain't going to happen.com and it's not going to happen at Joey R. Carty, Chrysler, Dodge, Sheep in Pompano either.

He came back with a word expression, whether this is drama or acting, I don't know. All their locations had the ability to sell their inventory, and someone at another store was trying to buy the sheep. So when I read that in the Mystery Shopping Report, I said, I didn't know that Joey R. Carty had multiple locations. So I Googled it, and they do. They have one. and that's in Ok Chambi, Florida. They have a used car lot, but that's all, and that's in Pompano where their new car dealership is. So this other dealership might have had a deal on this particular vehicle,

or they might not. So it's all part of the game. So he wanted me to buy, as a mystery shopper, this cheap right away, or else somebody else is going to buy it. And that psychology is what almost all car dealers will use on you. They won't give you a price and say, shop around and come back. They'll say, if you don't buy the car at this price today, the car is going to be gone. They'll also tell you if you come back in a week, the price will be higher.

It's just the way cars are sold, especially in South Florida. The good news, he said, nothing had been finalized yet, and they operate on a first-come-to-first-door basis, still getting me to cave and buy the car today. It seemed like Ivan was eager to finalize a deal and presented me with a sheet detailing the offer. The selling price, and I hate it when we call this the selling price or anybody they called the selling price, was MSRP of $60,715, $715. But the selling price is just not true. It's not the selling price.

It's the asking price. Then they added $682 for a new tag, $1,400,000. $993 in junk fees, you know, dock fees, ad fees, electronic filing fees, tag agency fees, all profit to the dealer. They call it a fee because it sounds like it's a legitimate fee. It's not profit. And 4,123 in sales. I wonder if that's meant to be sales tax. Yeah, sales tax, yeah, sales tax. And I'm glad you got that. I missed it. and caller earlier in the show asked if those would be going away. And that's $70,08 is actual a selling price. This adds up to just over $70,000, as Rick just calculated.

But their bottom line said 72,500. What can I tell you? So here we are. They're using new math. Right. Really loosey-goosey. I mean, you know, you don't see this almost anywhere where they will actually lie about the total. That tells you that they don't want you to take the paperwork home and study it

because, you know, in the heat of the negotiation, you're going to sign without doing it. You're not going to get to calculate it and re-ad all the columns. So they're going to get you just because you didn't do that. only in South Florida. So there we are. We have this South Florida, Joey O'Cardy, Cressler, Dodge, Jeep, and Pompano. And I asked about the Costco program, but I've informed me that they no longer participated in it, even though they used to sell many cars for that program. Well, that tells you the Costco's got a good program. If they won't participate in it, it is because the prices are too good. And the Costco program, if you're not familiar with it,

simply says the dealer has to sign a contract with Costco to be a Costco approved dealer. And that contract says, thou shalt not sell any car to any customer at a lower price than you will sell to a Costco member. That's pretty strong. And that's legal. That's a document.

Technically, Costco could sue them for violating their contract. So could you. So if, in fact, the Costco program is administered, and that's a big if, you can get a very good price on most cars. And Joey Arcardi, Chrysler-Jodged Deep and Pompano, decided, I can't deal with a Costco. That tells me Costco is starting to enforce the rules a little tighter than sometimes they have in the past. Ivan mentioned again the competing customers offer

and this is the probably mythical offer that there are one other dealership not a bunch of dealerships in Okachobee, Florida is going to buy the car but he brought that again to close me as the mystery shopper he advised me to immediately make an offer

if I wanted it but I expressed reluctance to pay over the MSRP Ivan then suggested order a customized Jeep instead, where I could get exactly what I wanted, although it wouldn't be the beach edition. I politely declined and thanked him for his time. So hopefully, those you have been listing of this, have been thinking about your vote, how you want to vote. You can do that on YouTube. You can do that by text and tell us how you would rate Julia Carty, Chrysler Dodge Jeep.

Now, our mystery shops are all archived on Irwin cars, and we have a two list. Dealers we recommend you buy from and dealers that we recommend you don't buy from. And this is the data, these mystery shops, that we've been doing for 20 years, that appear on these score sheets for dealers and recommended versus non-recognit. Now, a warning, when we say recommended, I say that tongue and cheek a little bit, because, we grade on the curve and you can have a dealer with a B or a C or a D. Take it to account the letter grade, if you buy one with a D and they're on the, they are on the recommendal list with D's, be real careful. Because even the dealers with B's are not perfect because it's a curve.

So when you're grading Eddie or Cardi, as bad he's as he sounded, don't necessarily give him an F. Now give him an F if you think he's that bad, but He won't be on any recommended list for the NEP. So take that consideration, A, B, C, D, or F. Do we have any scores, you? Well, first I got a couple of grades we need to take care of for our previous deal. Johnny Z. Fradley says, I give Wheely a grade of an A-plus. Engine 94 guys says, beautiful dog.

I just adopted a golden retriever. And I called that an A-plus as well. I forgot about the dog grade. And Tom Steckle says, Wheely is an A, no nitrogen collar and no dog fees. Seriously, thank you for helping fine homes for these pets. Yeah, if you just tuned in, we are now doing Dog of the Week for Big Dog Ranch Rescue. And every week from now on, we're going to be showing you a dog

and asking you to consider fostering the dog or adopting the dog, and we pay the adoption fees. So that was the first dog of the week was Wheely. And he got some pretty good grades. Yep. And Wheely is a nine-month-old He is a nine-month-old Siberian Husky mix

Almost pure white He does have a straight-leg issue with his back legs He can't bend his back legs But he gets around just fine And you can see on camera how friendly he is He would be a great Great addition to anyone's home Okay now for Joey Akardi

Oh boy Negan one Big F fail Boom. Kirk in West by God, Virginia, J.A. CDC, or C.D.J. with Jolla Cardi, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep. Let me do the math. Let's see, it's a solid F-minus.

Ooh. Okay, and over here we have, let's see, folks, do we have any grades on the other side? There we have them coming in. Okay. Tom Steckle, grade F. $6,500 in fake fees. Good dealership to take your dog for a walk, but that's about it.

Brian Siddletko, $72,000 for a Jeep, ridiculous, D. Tim Gilliland, BDRR, A plus, above MSRP, D. John Z. Freidly, a D. Rocky Blocketeel, D minus, those fees are excessive. Scott Hunter, D for. excessive fees Mark Smith a D cram 1624 F bad math doesn't work bring your own calculator and Mark Ryan a D for me yeah I'm gonna say a D and I think if you whipped out a calculator and told the salesman that their numbers were wrong

girl what do you think they would do well it'd be caught and with a pencil I guess I don't know it's to me that's the question. I would give, I was going to give them a D, but I had to ask myself, did they do it on purpose? It's entirely possible. I, you know, the, remember, everybody's on commissioning the car dealership. That's salesperson, Ivan, his pay plan is probably 25% of the profit that he makes off that vehicle. So if he can make an extra $2,000, or in this case here, was $2,500, so 25% of $2,500 is what, $6,700. So, $6,700 more in Ivan's pocket if he could do $72.5.

So that's circumstantial evidence that maybe did it on purpose. Could it be. Exactly. Nancy, what do you say? What's your score? No, I give them an F. Really no comment. Sometimes, you know, you just can't find the words to, well,

at least not on the air, to define some car dealers. And that shopping report came to us from, where was that? Pompano. What was the location? Joey, a Cardi. What was the location? Pompano. Pompano Beach.

Okay. So, yeah, I gave them an F. And I want to thank anyone and everyone who will think about fostering or adopting a dog. and Wally was really was just beautiful and could be a great match for anyone very

manners just sat here was sniffing around like dogs do but a great dog to adopt or to foster I'm going to give him a D-minus if he'd asked me 30 seconds

earlier or 30 seconds later I might have said F I just I haven't got a crystal the wall. I don't know that he deliberately added the $2,500. To me, that was a swing vote. I'm going to give him a benefit of the doubt with a D-minus. We'll make him the lowest on the recommended list, and then we'll shop them again and give him another shot. Do I have time to say one more thing before we sign off? Quickly. I'm just, I can't control myself being a technical nut. And I read something in automotive

news the other day. There's an Israeli company, and they've come up with a software system that is absolutely amazing that would be sold to cities and counties wherever you have traffic signals, and it will be able to be mounted on red lights. And this analog or this algorithm that they've come up with actually can tell if a car coming toward that intersection intends to run the red light. Now that absolutely blows me away. And they've tested it, and with all the variables, I suppose, like weather, time a day, speed, type of car,

I don't know what data they collect. But so they will now, when you go to that intersection, if this nut who is going to run that red light is approaching, they'll leave the green light on so that the guy can safely go through without killing somebody that got a green light in the wrong direction. So what an amazing...

These breakthroughs are coming every day and to be able to have our streets so safe the way they will be when these high-tech ideas are implemented, it's just scary. As much as red lights annoy me, sitting at a red light, I think it would be a better thing

to sit there for an extra three to five seconds and be able to go home alive. But if that guy, yeah, but you can't control the nut. Well, I mean, if I'm the guy on the other side of the intersection, that I was going to be in that intersection when he ran the red light. Yeah, but if he's doing 100 miles an hour, you don't see him. Right. So it's just, it's, it's, if the light makes me sit for a few seconds longer

so he can go through when he was going to, Anyways, at least I get to go home that night. Don't you wish everyone had that logic? Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to wrap up the show, and it goes without saying we want to thank Laurie Simmons, who provided us with the dog of the week, and Peggy, who came out from Big Dog Ranch to bring Wheely. Also thanking Robin at Big Dog Ranch,

who's worked with us throughout the years. And we're going to have a real good time every week. And not only are we going to have a mystery shop, but we'll have a mystery dog. Thanks so much, everyone, for tuning in, and we'll see you right back here next week.