Earl Stewart on Cars - 06.08.2019 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Mystery Shop of EZ-Pay Cars in Stuart

Episode Date: June 8, 2019

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

Welcome to Earl Stewart on Cars with Earl and Nancy Stewart, Stu Stewart, and Rick Kearney. Reach them with your questions at 877-9-6-0-960, and now here's Earl Stewart. Good morning, everybody. It's another day. It's another Earl Stewart on Cars, and you're listening to, Earl, I'm a recovering car dealer. And this is a show about how not to be ripped off by your car dealer. I think that a lot of you folks know that. Hopefully we have new listeners every week.

We've been doing this for a lot of years, and our audience has grown and grown and grown. We've been on the air for only half an hour when we started. We've gone to an hour, now we're at two hours. We find it's a popular show. We find a lot of people find it entertaining and interesting. I'm sitting in a studio here at 95.9 FM, 106.9 FM, True oldie station.

Oh, by the way, this is not a true oldie. This is a live radio talk. show. And you're going to be able to call the show at 877-960-9960, or you can text us at 772-497-3530. We thrive on your input. We really, really exist because of your questions, your comments, your text, your emails. And we feel exactly what's going on in the marketplace when you're out there with your car. bringing it in per service or repairs, maybe body repair, or buying or leasing a car. It's kind of a terrifying experience. And I talk about the Gallup annual poll on honesty and ethics and professions every week.

I know some of you regular guys and gals get tired of it, but it verifies why we're here because car buyers have a problem, and they've had a problem for 100 years. ever since we started retailing cars in this country through car dealers we've had problems and the problems have become ingrained embedded in our laws we are car dealers are like a protected species they're one of the few retailers that can get away with what they do which is haggle and hassle and negotiate add hidden fees and all the other nonsense that you have to go through and most people would rather have a root canal than go in and buy a car and we hear about this on the show, you call in, you talk about your problems. And by the way, we know

there's good car dealers out there. We mystery shop car dealers every week, and we find out some dealers that are very good, some that are so good, and some that are in the middle. And we list these in our good dealer and bad dealer list. So if you have a good dealer, we'd love to hear about that experience. If you have an experience with a dealer that you can trust, even the salesperson. And sometimes your sales experience is only good as a salesperson. And you might have a salesperson that's been with a particular dealer for a while. We will recommend him by name or recommend the car dealer by name. We like to have the idea.

We want you to believe we're being impartial. This is not a way to ambush and put down dealers. We'd love to be able to take both sides of the story. And as I say, callers are the most important. important part of the show. I believe we may have a caller on the line. We do. Arthur's calling us from Massachusetts. Good morning. How are you, Arthur? Good morning. Good morning. I'm reading an article in Consumers Report. I don't know if you've seen it. It's called the Hidden Risks of Used Cars, and I'm reading it, and it sounds just like your program. It sent out a mystery shopper,

and as a matter of fact, I'd like to read you one of the mystery shoppers thing. He says, I'm seeing a Ford I'm seeing that Ford issued a driving warning for the 2006 Ford Ranges. They say the consumers should have them told to the dealer. The dealer's answer, oh, they

just list about everything just because they're listed, it doesn't necessarily mean anything. How's that for an answer from the dealer? That's amazing. It is really amazing. Some of the experiences we hear, and we have a mystery shopping report. We'll do with the end of the show, and we have

a surprise for you on that, a similar sort of an experience. So, Arthur, thanks very much for sure. That was, that was, that was in the, that was in the June issue of consumers. I don't know if you read the new one in July, and it's called How to Go Around Fees, and it's your program to a T, you know, documentation for annoyances and charges, advertising fees, delivery and preparation fees, marketing adjustment, loan payment fees, just like your program. Unbelievable.

It sounds like you even wrote this for a magazine. Arthur, I'm holding the magazine up. You're right on. You must be a subscriber because I don't think they're on the newsstands yet, but you can access it online, consumer reports.org. And I recommend this issue, the July issue, of Consumer Reports on Hidden Fees to all of you. And Arthur has already got his copy and already read it.

So you're ahead of the curve, Arthur. Amazing, amazing. isn't it? It is, really. I thought you wrote it. Thank you very much. Thanks for the call, Arthur. You too.

There we had an educated consumer from Massachusetts. Very educated. Thank you, Arthur. One of the things I love about the Consumer Reports article is consumer reports adds validity and believability to what we've been talking about this show for 15 years. Hidden fees are, they should be banished in all industries. And by the way, this Consumer Reports article is about hidden fees. in all different other industries.

It's like, you know, the travel, you have rental cars, you have, oh gosh, airlines, you know, where they get the baggage fees and hotels. You're checking, it used to be your room charge was your room charge. Now they've got hidden fees, multiple hidden fees on about every hotel you stand. But the leader, by far, are car dealers. They have the highest and the most expensive. Over your life, you'll pay more money to car dealers.

hidden fees than you will anybody else. Rick? I recently did a little, just a couple days trip to one of our local theme parks, and I stayed at one of their hotels, and they had an additional $10 fee for parking on the property while I was spending the night at their hotel. You're kidding. Wow. Unbelievable.

I guess they expected me to park off property and walk in. Yeah, we'd love to hear from you folks out there about hidden fees and car dealers. One thing we don't talk about with hidden fees with car dealers too much as often as we should are service department hidden fees. I guess we focus on buying the car hidden fees, which average over $1,000 in South Florida. But every time you bring your car in per service to an independent or a dealer, there's usually, I'd say usually is not the word, 99% of the time there's a hidden fee at the bottom of the service invoice. They call it miscellaneous supplies or hazardous waste disposal or what else, miscellaneous sundry. I mean, they come up with ingenious names that sound like their official fees. It's typically 5 or 10% of the amount of the invoice.

Sometimes they cap it, but it'll be like 15, 20, 25, maybe 50 or 60 bucks. If you look at the bottom of the invoice when you go to pay your service bill at any car dealership or independent, and you find that if you object most of the time they'll remove that they know they're doing the wrong thing and so when you say what's this the cashier will start to sweat a little bit looked a little bit nervous you say well if you can't tell me what this is for i'm not going to pay it and she might say something like what's for miscellaneous supplies you can say well uh all i did was have my oil filter changed what miscellaneous supplies did you use to change my my oil filter i paid for the oil filter but that's a game that they play that usually they get away with.

I'd love to hear from you about your experience with any hidden fees with car dealerships. 877-960, or you can text us 772-497-3530. And by the way, I can't forget the fact that we're streaming. I held up the consumer reports before when Arthur was calling from Massachusetts, and a lot of you who didn't realize that, I might wonder, what good does that do? well, we're on Facebook. Facebook.com, Florida slash Earl on Cars.

We're also on Twitter. We're on Periscope. We're on YouTube. And we've got Rick Kearney right here. He's taken posts from YouTube. Got my son, Sue Stewart, to my left. He's taken post on mainly Facebook. Get a lot of, and if you have any posting or texting or calling,

you're the lifeblood of the show. We appreciate your input. But I have a comment I want to make about Takata Airbags, and I think this, again, was prompted a little bit by our mystery shopping report. My son, Stu, spends a lot of time trying to find cars in our market now with Takata Airbags, whereas two and a half years ago, they were all over the place. And the question remains, it pops up as to where are these cars. I have a theory, and Nancy and I were talking about that driving into the, show to the studio this morning. I think because of the pressure

that Erlon Cars has been putting on the dealers in South Florida, especially over the past couple of years, I think the value of these cars has been dropping in this market because the dealers are reluctant to put them on the lot and sell them when they know that we're on top of that.

And I think his cars are being sold at auction by people, dealers from out of state. So I think I want to pet myself on the back and say everybody in this room will pet on their back the fact that we've done a service to the local market

but these Takata cars have not gone away they're just moving to other areas there are more tecata cars on the market today with dangerous airbags than ever before good morning Tina

welcome to the show hi how are you guys doing this morning great hey Tina there you go your theme song I love it that's awesome thank you well in Big Autumn

motive news this week, the Fiat, Chrysler, Renault, Berger, went bust. It went by-bye. There was no deal. So that's big for Chrysler because they were hoping on this to keep themselves afloat, and now they're in a little bit of trouble. What do you guys think? Well, that was an interesting occurrence. You know, the reason that went bust was because Japan and France got into an argument.

I mean, that's one thing I love about America is that we own our corporations and our car companies. France owns a big chunk of Renault and also of what was the other French company, Pujo. And also, of course, in Japan, they own a piece of Nissan. And they were trying to get France and Japan to agree on the merger. But France and Japan couldn't agree on the merger, so the merger fell through. The companies all wanted to combine and merge, they would have been stronger if they had merge, but politicians got into the way, and that's the reason the deal fell through. Oh, wow, that's pretty interesting. But I was reading, I think it may have been in Jolopnik or some other website, but I was reading that Chrysler was really hoping this merger would go through because it would benefit them definitely financially.

It would help them cut costs in continued production. my understanding. Well, that is exactly right. That would have been the case, but the point being, and this isn't directly related to what we do on the show, it has more to do with what happens in countries when you have the government involved in their businesses. You know, China is a good example. France is a good example.

In Japan, a lot of people that don't know this, but the Japanese own a piece of a lot of the major companies there and they're highly influential. They'll actually be on the board of directors of some of these companies. France is the same way. And I don't need to tell most people that when you get the government involved in business, sometimes you have awkward, you have delays, you have problems. Whereas we have the same sort of thing in the USA, it's not nearly as bad as it is in France and Japan, in Italy, for that matter. well my question to you is what what plans do you think Toyota has in the future do you think they're going to stand alone or do you think that they might buy up other companies since they

are a well thought of and very reliable overall car manufacturer i don't know i think what uh Toyota seems to do and some other companies they do agreements they'll work they have an agreement with Subaru and they have agreement with other companies that well they'll manufacture engines or transmissions, you don't actually have to buy a piece of a company to have that reciprocity to be able to work together and help each other out. You know, Fort Eustone, part of Mazda, they sold that off. I think a better way, rather than buying a piece of a company, is to have a contractual relationship so that you can share trade secrets and engineering design, share engines and

transmissions, I think that's a great way to have your cake and eat it, too. I wouldn't want to sell a part of my company to somebody. I would rather just have, you know, contractual grievance to enhance the value of my company. And in another vein, I was looking at something else about Toyota's plans for the future, which is really interesting, and they're going to apparently be coming out with a whole fleet of hybrid cars by about what 2025 I think it is it was really quite fascinating

oh you mean an auto autonomous no Toyota's yeah well not autonomous but I think I think it was the hybrid vehicle now Toyota made a commitment to have some electrified version of every vehicle that they make by 2025 and that includes things like hybrid plug-ins

all electric so it's and it's also not necessarily in the American markets it could be overseas China or wherever else it's more sense for them. I believe all the manufacturers have pretty well got on the all-electric bandwagon. Every car on the road in 20 years will be all-electric, and I think it'll phase in with hybrids, and eventually the hybrid will phase out, and the cars will be all-electric, and after that, or maybe about the same time, they'll be all-electric and autonomous, but the future's coming

up a lot faster than a lot of people thought. oh yeah definitely but i mean i'm kind of a rare bird because i like to have a driver's experience and i wonder if we've had this discussion before it's been quite a while though but i wonder if having an electric car or a hybrid car is going to feel kind of sterile behind the wheel that's sort of what i'm not looking for number two because for those of you listeners that don't already know i like to drive my stick shift I do not like an automatic transmission. And the thought of eventually having an electric car kind of depresses me a little bit.

What depresses a lot of people, Tina, and unfortunately it's people that are older. And the younger folks, and let's face it, they're going to be running the world pretty soon. And the younger folks don't have that feeling. I'm exactly like you. You know, I drove a four on the floor, you know, a three-two-barrele carburetor, Pontiac, when I was a kid and I had a GTO judge and I love the roar of the engine I love to squeal the wheels

I love to leave a lot of rubber on the road and burn a lot of gas and create a lot of pollution and that's the way I was I've kind of evolved a little bit from that but you know those kind of cars are gone and even the ones we drive today will be gone we've got to worry about cleanliness on the planet we've got to worry about energy efficiency

and the world's a changing but Yeah, a lot of us folks that love cars are going to be a little bit unhappy. I kind of get caught up in the technology, so the excitement of the high-tech cars, the amazing safety features we have on cars now, the acceleration. I mean, let's face it, Tina, you've got to be impressed with the fact that there's not a gasoline-powered car in the world that can out-accelerate an all-electric car. The fastest car on the road today is a Tesla. Rick had a point.

I've seen videos on YouTube where they have raced Tesla's against not another car, but against sport motorcycles and won. I mean, if you can beat a motorcycle in acceleration. I saw that. So we just have to let go and give up. Remember our grandparents and our great-grandparents needed to give up the buggy whips, but they finally had to. And now we have to give up the gasoline-powered cars,

just a fact of life, not to mention the fact we might be running out of gasoline, so it's going to happen one day. I don't know, my dad held on to that buggy whip and used it quite effectively for many years.

Yeah, you can use it for other things. Well, Tina, we'll just have to grin and bear it, you know, and we've got plenty of time. I mean, you'll be able to buy cars that you love to drive for as long as you live, and I will too.

You can drive gas cars in a virtual reality machine. That's true. I never thought about that. You'll go to a circus and they'll say, Exactly. I know you do it in your living room. Thank you for giving us a call.

You are an important part of the show. And hang on to that stick shift, take care of it, and you won't have any worries in the future. And as far as the recovering car dealer is concerned, hey, he's still burning rubber. Have a wonderful weekend. Give us a call again. I try to, but I'm like sure.

That is true. That's right. Every once in a little chirp in there. Well, you're doing a pretty good job. Ladies and gentlemen, if you didn't jot that number down, you can reach us at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us 772-497-6530. And ladies, as usual, we have a gift for you. The first two female callers, you can win yourself $50 this morning. Again, that number 877-960-99-60.

Thank you very much. I haven't really talked. I've talked to Rick briefly, but I have to tell you about Rick Kearney because he is, we're Stu Stewart and Nancy Stewart and I, we're talking about buying selling cars. Rick knows how to fix cars. He knows how to fix computers, actually, because cars are really rolling computers today. And really, you're probably having more, you're thinking about more about how your car runs. You've got to squeak, a rattle, a smell, a vibration, or you just spin into a service department

where they want to charge your $1,000 you came in to get your oil change, and somebody said, you need a new drive shaft. I mean, it is really scary out there, folks. So if you have questions, you're nervous about repairing and maintaining your car. Rick Kearney can answer all of your questions. It isn't all about buying and leasing. It's about maintaining and repairing. Rick has been doing it for 25-plus years.

Worked for me for about that time, and he was working with cars even before that. Every time I'm looking for Ricky's in school somewhere, he's trying to stay on top of what's going on. These new cars are hard to stay on top of. The advances in design, and particularly safety technology, are moving at warp speed. And every time I get into another car, a newer car, I have to go to school because there's about 50% of every car I get in and make that 75% sometimes. I don't understand. If you don't understand something about your car, call us at 877-9-66.

9960, text us is 772-4976530 and asked to speak to Rick Kearney. He will answer your question, I guarantee it. Definitely. You know, I think I can count on my one hand how many times Rick was unable to answer a question. There's not a question he can't answer, and that's a pretty good track record. Ladies and gentlemen, again, that number is 877-960, and don't forget. That's Stu has a whole lot of information to share with all of us. And it's a real team here.

Texas, if you're a little shy. 772-497-6530. Stu's got some text. I see a little marks on his white pad there. That's how I signal the text. And I'll start with the first one. We might have somebody on the phone. The first one's kind of long, but I think it's definitely worth reading.

Okay. I think you're going to enjoy it. Here we go. Salespeople aren't all trying to rip us off. Most are perfectly honest and reasonable. With internet pricing, you are only going to win or lose a few hundred either way. I might grind them on the delivery fee, which is three or four times what shipping actually costs. I might balk at the document fees if there are a lot, but that's about it.

If the price is below market value, that is a good price. The reason for the fees is that dealers have to out-internet each other just to get you to call or show up. Grind them a little more, and the sale profit isn't enough to keep the lights on. Hence the fees. In the past, it was different. You couldn't really know what a car was worth. I'm reading fast because it's a long one. So I'm just not worried about it.

If I buy something for $30,000, I know the dealer might have got 200 or 300 more out of me than was absolutely necessary, but I don't begrudge anyone making a decent living. By comparison, I'd gladly pay a nickel more for my Big Mac if it makes a difference to the workers. So unclench your sphincters, people, as long as you do basic research first, you're not going to overpay. Dealer profit margins are an all-time low. And by the way, if you think you're saving money by cutting out the middleman, with CarMax or such, then you have been suckered. They make more than twice the profit off you than a dealer would,

and with only a small fraction of the overhead. Are you really happy with the faceless, anonymous, Uber, corporate, brave new Amazon world we got now? Car dealerships are as American, are Americana, and they are a lot easier to deal with than 20 or 30 years ago. And I'll kind of fast forward to the end. It says, sorry if this post looks like virtue signaling, I am sincere. I've been watching a lot of videos in preparation for my next purchase, and the amount of suspicion, contempt, and even hatred for a whole class of people seems a bit much.

Take it away, Role. Well, I tell you what I'm going to do. I'm not going to take it away now because we have a caller waiting, and that was a long one. But by the way, if you're listening toxter, that's a great text. You're a sharp individual. You're an educated consumer, and I agree with a lot of what you said, and I'd like to address that in just a few minutes. But we have a first-time female caller, which is very important. We do.

We definitely do. Carol, welcome to the show. Thank you. Can you hear me? Yes, I can hear you. You've won yourself $50 as a first-time caller. And if you stay on the line after we're finished, Rudy will take your information and I'll get a checkout to you next week. What can we do for you this morning? You're welcome.

I'm calling because I'd like to know what fees we should. should be paid. Carol, that's a succinct question. It's a very intelligent question and I can answer it succinctly. Government fees. The only

fees you should pay in addition to the asking price, quoted price, advertised price, are government fees. And the whole purpose of the hidden fees which is what the car dealers are really making most of their money on, is

is to deceive you into thinking it is a government fee. Now, what are government fees? Pretty simple. Sales tax in Florida is 6%. Some of the local municipalities or the counties have another tax. It can be as much as 7%. But sales tax is a government fee. And the other government fee is your tag and registration.

You have to have a license plate on the car. Sometimes you transfer the tag from one car to another. sometimes you buy a new tag depends on the size of the car your birth date there's variables but those are government fees and the acid test you can actually test to see if the fee the dealer's trying to charge you is government there's no sales tax paid on government fees you don't tax a tax so you don't charge 6% sales tax on the $300 which is a 6% sales tax you don't charge 6% sales tax you don't charge 6% sales tax on the $400, it might be your tag in registration. So if you have a fee that sales tax has been charged upon on your vehicle buyer's order,

that is a lie, that is a deception, that is not a government fee, and you should not pay it. And I went on, your answer was, your question was succinct, and my answer was succinct by my explanation was very long. So a question, what fee should I pay when I buy a car, government fees, and that's really the way you should look at it. Carol, did I confuse you? I think I just confused myself. No, not of all.

It's a deep topic. And I also want to know, does this apply to used cars as well as new cars? Yes, absolutely. Anything that you buy retail, new or used, you should, the car dealers are charging hidden fees on everything they sell, even service. But use cars, new cars, the average hidden fee, in South Florida is over $1,000. That is mind-boggling.

In other states, like California, is fairly inexpensive. California mandates that you call a dealer fee, a dealer fee, and they also mandate that they charge only, what is it, $75 do? Yeah, I think they're up to $75 right now. They've increased it every year. Just generally, Carol, listen,

if the total amount of fees exceed maybe $400, your red flags need to go up. Your registration title fee for a brand-new tag really shouldn't be much. over $400, and the other fees that are state fees literally are under $10. It's like a tire and battery fee, so it's really inconsequential. So if you see anything that's approaching $5, $700, question it, and it's probably not proper. Carol, I don't want to overload you here, but it was such a good question.

Nancy Stewart, my co-host, came up with this idea, and it's an affidavit that you can have a car dealer sign. You can download it, and I'm going to give you a... I'm going to give you a website you can download it from. It's just www. out-the-door price affidavit.com. Out-the-door, just the way it sounds, AlthadorePra-F-F-A-F-A-F-A-V-A-V-I-T. Out-DorPrice affidavit.com.

Well, thank you so much. You're very welcome. And if the dealer won't sign that, there's something they're hiding. And all it basically says is this price that I quoted you that I advertised contains, everything except government fees and Carol

that definitely will that definitely will protect you and it would definitely be worth your while to download that affidavit www. www. out-the-door price affidavit.com and like Earl said

you know they won't sign it and you can get it to the car dealer salesperson by emailing or faxing or whatever. And if they won't sign it, you just leave. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you, Carol.

Give us a call again and let us know how your, you know, car buying experience went. Stay on the line so we can get your contact information. I've been a customer of Earl Stewart for many, many years. I only buy Toyota from here. Well, thank you very much. Okay. Well, thank you.

Thank you. If I see them, I'll let them know. Maybe you can pass that information along to some of your friends who, you know, aren't coming into Earl Stewart, Toyota. I will. It's a great affidavit to have. Have a great weekend. You too. Bye now.

Bye-bye. Give us a call toll-free at 877-960-90-60, or you can text us at 772-49-30. and don't forget, you can go to www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Tell us what you think about the dealer fee, about the radio show, anything that's on your mind, how we can improve ourselves. Again, www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Now back to the recovering car dealer.

We have a new caller, David from Orlando. Good morning, David. How can we help you this morning? Hi, good morning, Mr. Err. First of all, I want to congratulate with you for your show. I'm a new listener. I've been learning a lot in the past week. I've been listening all your shows on YouTube.

I'm looking to buy a suburban. I'm a chef-air. So I'm looking to buy a good. 2019 Suburban. So I'm in the market right now for the particular car. So I've been looking like off-list. I don't know if I'm going the right direction. The only thing, because they don't have any kind of like dealing or anything going on, that's like I like to have a nice experience. So and also I contact dealers as well, but you know, I'm kind of afraid after everything I heard before, so.

Sure. Do you have any suggestions? Did you say you're considering off-lease the company or an off-lease suburban? No, no. I'm going to check off-lease first, and then I'm going to go to the dealers if I can find anything. But I don't know. I heard very good things about off-lease.

Do you know the company? Do you have any suggestions? Off-lease is a good place to buy a car with buyer-beware. you need to be careful. They have excellent pricing. They buy all their cars at auction, and they buy almost any car at an auction, including cars that have been accidents,

and they fully disclose everything they sell. There's no kind of a warranty. You have to buy a warranty if you want a warranty on the car. So what I recommend you do is you select these Chevrolet Suburban from off lease that you like. You check the Carfax report on the car to be sure that there's no outstanding recalls or if the car's been in an accident which is troubling, a serious accident. So minor accidents are not a problem.

And you also want to take it to your independent mechanic. You don't want to take their word for their belief as the condition of the car. Take the car to an independent mechanic. If you have to pay him to check the car over. hundred maybe two hundred dollars average probably 125 150 bucks the best money you'll ever spend is having that independent mechanic check that car over thoroughly because he can tell you not only mechanically but the car has been an accident of flood or something else that might not even show up on the carfax report but off lease only is one of the

largest volume car dealers in in florida they start out small in this area and have grown immensely and i recommend them uh they're on the uh orlawn car recommended list for buying they will treat you honestly they will it's kind of a a Walmart or it's kind of like a lean sparse there's no frills there you know what you see is what you get they have the cars on the lot you buy it as is and it was up to you to do your due diligence and check the car out if you do your due diligence you can get a great price or you have to be careful is in the finance department if you're going to finance the car I

I would highly recommend you use your credit union or your own bank. In the finance department, it off-lease, they will try to make a lot of money. When they sell you the car, the average profit is very low, $1,500, which is low profit for a used car. But when you go in the finance department, they typically will make a lot more money. They will sell you extra products that are questionably necessary, and they will charge interest rates, which are a little higher than you could get, or maybe a lot higher than you could get with your credit union or with your bank. So, in summary, I would recommend off-lease only as long as you're very careful. Yes. I was actually concerned about the extended warranty.

I don't know, because I heard many things about the extended warranty. There, most of it are scams. So since it's going to be like 2019 with low mileage, and I need it for business. I'm just concerned if I have to get it or put the money away and save it for any eventually problems that I may have later on. About the finance, I'm going to go through my federal unions because I can get a very good price and very good APR.

So I follow your suggestion. Yeah, the extended warranty, I would recommend you don't buy it from off lease only. there are extended warranties available. You might check with a Chevrolet dealer and see what the factory General Motors has in the way of extended warnings available on a suburban. If you check the car out carefully and it's good mechanical shape

and you're always going to be able to fix your car on the average for less expensive than if you buy an extended warranty. Extended warranties are often overpriced and often what they won't cover is far more than what they do cover. The devil is in the details. The devil is in the details, as do said.

So maybe after the original warranty expire, they may be offered me later on. The dealer may offer me later on or like the Chevrolet south. Yeah, I go to a General Motors dealer and I would check to see what's available from General Motors on Chevrolet Suburban's for extended warranties. The good news is that in Florida, extended warranties are insurance products. and they're regulated. So, you know, if you're getting a price, it doesn't mean you're not getting ripped off,

but they're not ripping you off alone. So, in other words, they can't discount it. They have to file their premiums with the state. But like Earl said, the calculation you've got to make is how much am I going to spend on this warranty versus what am I likely to come out of pocket for repairs? And cars that have a higher likelihood of expensive repairs are going to have a much more expensive warranty.

So I would think a Chevy Suburban would probably have, have a higher cost warranty than a Hyundai Sonata. So you have to just really do your research and look at what's excluded. That's the main most important thing. What doesn't it cover? Do we answer your question, Tim? Yes, yes. Well, today I have an appointment with the office of police only, so I'm going to go and check

it out. Well, fine. Let us know how your experience was. Call us back afterwards, and we'd love to hear how your experience was. When I recommend a company, a car dealer, I always like to hear back from the people that actually deal with them. And if you have a pleasant experience, love to have your calls back next week or the week after. Well, also, I send an email early to you with a bunch of questions. I don't know if you're able to answer to me any time.

I really appreciate it. I will answer. I don't want to hold up. There's so many other listeners that they want to call. All right? I will definitely answer your email. David. Thank you very much. Thank you, David.

Thank you, welcome. Ladies and gentlemen, stick around. We're going to go to the Mystery Shopping Report, and it is the highlight of the show, and you are all welcome to vote on the mystery shop. It's from Easy Pay Cars and Stewart this week, and you can text us at 772-497-6530. Remember, you can give us a call with your questions

at 877-6-9-6-9-0. I just forgot the telephone number, 960, 99-60. Yes. We had a text earlier. It was a long text, and we had our first-time female caller waiting. And so we read the text, but we didn't read the answer. I'll briefly summarize the text. It came from a sophisticated buyer knowledge about the car business,

and he was saying that, you know, kind of, why should we be so hard on the dealer? all they're doing is charging dealer fees and he understands that and dealers aren't making much money today and all the information is published online you know pretty much what the cost are you know what the market value of cars are and why are we making such a big deal about being taken advantage of and the gentleman wrote that text would not be taken advantage of and a lot of you in the audience sometimes i know we're preaching to the choir that we have a lot of people out there that are educated consumers. And we talk about all the tools,

the consumer reports, Edmonds, Kelly Blue Book, True Car, Costco. A lot of you folks out there would never be taken advantage of by a car dealer. But some of you are taking advantage of and you don't realize you are. In fact, the texter may have been taken. You only know when you've been taking advantage of

when you know you've been taking advantage of. And I'm not attacking the texter or anything, but what might not be a big deal to you, you know, a couple hundred dollars might not be a big deal. It might be a big deal to somebody else. And some of it is just on principle. You know, it's just, yeah, let them make a buck, but let me make a buck honestly. He said something that is very true, and I want to make this point.

He said the reason the car dealers have these high dealer fees, and I say over and over again, averaging over $1,000 in South Florida, the reason they have the high dealer fees is because if they advertise the price of a car, the other dealers will just cut their price. And that's what happens. All the advertising is meaningless. Every price that you see advertised, you can't buy the car for. I mean, I would love for someone to call the show. We had one person to call the show one time, so they actually did.

I'd like that someone else to call the show. If you ever bought a car at the advertised price on television, online, newspaper, tell us you can't do it. It is suicide for a car dealer to advertise the price of a car. at the price that he wants to sell the car for because competition will just reduce the price. So what they do, they have hidden fees. Now I can advertise a price so low that my competition can't advertise lower. A lot of it isn't what you end up paying.

It's the trickery that was used to get you to come to the dealership. If I have a $1,000 dealer fee, I can advertise my car for $500 less than I want to sell it for or can afford to sell it for because I've got in my hip pocket I got the hidden fee pop that $1,000 on and suddenly I got a nice private deal he's absolutely right about that it's kind of like the dealers feel they have to charge dealer fees he's right but it doesn't make it okay doesn't make it okay because all the other dark and I hate to mention this because I don't want this to sound like an infomercial but our dealership charges nothing but government fees on top of the price.

We have no dealer fees, no hidden fees, and we're doing just fine. So, yes, car dealers out there, use that, you use that as a your excuse. I have to, because all the other dealers do it, not true. We don't, and it works. People will gravitate toward a dealer they feel they can trust.

But that was a very good text, and I hear a lot of folks out there that they can handle themselves easily with car dealers. For sure. But a lot of people, we call them victims, They're very young, the very old, the English language impaired. How many people in South Florida, English isn't their first language? We have a lot of people, Creole, Spanish, other languages.

Imagine going to Japan and have somebody, and you barely know the language, and somebody's speaking to you fast about a bunch of fees. You're just going to nod and smile. We have a lot of Brazilians in South Florida. Portuguese. So we have Portuguese, Spanish. We have Creole. And then you have people that just don't have the education.

I mean, everybody isn't a college graduate, everybody isn't a high school graduate, and we have a lot of people that just, so you take that, you love them all together, the very young, the very old, the education problem, language problem, these people really, really get taken advantage of it. I've had widows on the phone made me cry while they're cried because they paid a $10,000 profit to a dealer that they didn't have to pay and they were victimized by that. That's a terrible thing.

At-risk consumers. Yeah. At-risk consumers. Ladies and gentlemen, 877-960, and don't forget, speaking of fees, you can pick up the Florida Weekly, and you can read Earl's column. Should dealer fees be illegal? We're going to go to our next caller, and that is John, who is a regular caller from Palm City. Good morning, John.

Good morning to everyone. I want to speak about good experience. I didn't have it, but a good friend of my friend. mine. I know him since high school. Actually, we attended high school just when the 53 Corvette came out, and I've always wanted a Corvette, but I never could afford it. Well, earlier this year, he had a great experience and got a car, Corvette, New Corvette, unbelievable price. Somebody told him, why don't you go to the factory? Or you can't buy from GM, but Bowling Green, Kentucky is where the car is made. Okay? So not only had a beautiful experience, he toured the museum,

He toured the plant where it's made. He went to a motor park, would it race track, would he have an expert that drives the corvettes? But anyhow, the name of the dealer that he dealt with, but he saved Florida dealers are going to hate me completely. Campbell Chevrolet, and the salesman was called Chuck Raymer. This is in Bowling Green, Kentucky, right at the plant, and in the town that it's made,

and he had such a great experience with the salesman. no nonsense, no fees, no nothing, and a choice of cars beyond belief. He bought a stingray coop, which is quite rare, but the savings on it were absolutely unbelievable. I'm not even going to mention on radio lower than any, even not even close that anybody in South Florida would come. So I want to mention that Campbell Chevrolet, Bowling Green, Kentucky,

and I also want to tell you about experience I had years ago and with a 75 Chevy that I bought I had an order in for one and it was canceled and then I said somebody told me go to the world's largest dealer I think they're still in business today which was Reidman Chevrolet in Langhorne, Pennsylvania

unbelievable size dealer I mean if you buy a car from him used or new there's even a test track that you can take the car out and I was treated like an absolute gentleman temporary plates they were open light till late in the evening, seven days a week, and it was just a great experience, had the color that I wanted,

and I couldn't find a car locally because it was toward the end of the year, and they were discontinued that model, was the Chevy Caprice convertible, and I got the color I wanted, and everything, and it was a fabulous experience, and it was Reedman Chevrolet in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. They've been there a long time, it pays, and the savings and treatment, From some of these, that's why they're as big as they are, these dealers, is unknown. By the way, they specialize in military. They have a special bus that picks them up at the airport and everything and caters to the military with financing and everything.

So it was Reedman Chevrolet then, and this Campbell Chevrolet in Bowling Green is well worth people to check out if you're a potential call that buyer. Yeah, that's great information. And online is easy to do. But I would buy a car if I was buying the Corvette because, as you say, they can really lay you away, jacking the price up way over a sticker. You buy a Corvette save yourself $3,000 or $4,000. You could fly up there, buy it, drive it home, or have it shipped. Absolutely.

And Corvette, every deal is no. That's one of the highest profit margin cars that they could sell at Chivalet. It sure is. Well, thank you very much, John. good information. John. Do we lose you, John? We might have.

Give us a call toll free at 877-960. I want to give a special shout out to Serge. He's listening this morning. Oh, fantastic. Yeah, great. So, Serge, if you have the urge? I think that's very poetic. Very good.

I don't know why that tickled me. Serge is our audiologist, and if I don't hear he is, Serge's fault. And if you want to have your ears checked or get some hearing age, go to Palm Beach audiology. So Serge is listening and he's hearing us very, very well because he's, that's his field. He definitely is. It's a professional listener. A lot of clarity. I got a voice mail that I'm going to read. Texas at 772-4976530. When Nancy and I were coming in, which we pulled in, Stephen Wise called, I didn't take the call because we were getting ready to walk in the studio, but he left a message. And I'll read it to you.

It's along the idea of this text we had about take care of yourself. In other words, if you do the right thing, you won't be taken advantage of. Hey, Earl, this is Stephen Weiss. I was reading your thing about, should the dealer fee be illegal? My first thought is, yeah, they should make, it should be. And my second thought is, maybe not, because of the way I figure I drove 172 miles off the floor to turnpike in my car at a dealership that doesn't have a dealer fee or those bogus registration fees. I save myself a lot of money if these people are willing to do their homework and go do some shopping and check out when they deserve what they get as far as I'm concerned and what the market should or got a person is the right.

In other words, it's one of these guys that says if you don't know what you're doing, shame on you, you shouldn't be taken advantage of. And that's a school of thought out there. Sure. It's people that feel like. It's a brutal outlook on the world, but why not? So thank you, Stephen Wise. I can't say I respect your opinion, but I. Every man for himself.

Exactly. Let's shut the shit. I respect Stephen Weiss for leaving a message. Absolutely. Yes, I love it when everyone leaves us messages. Thank you for addressing that. That's a pet peeve of mine. Let's just get rid of voicemail.

Let's just get rid of voicemail. Oh, there, just text me. We're going to go to Frank. He's giving us a call from Jupiter Farms. He's a regular caller. Good morning, Frank. Hi, can you hear me? Yeah.

Live and clear. Yeah, it's a little scratchy on my end, but that's okay. A couple questions. I actually got a lease a couple years ago before I listened to Earl and said I should have bought. But at the time, it seemed like a very good option. It wasn't that much. It was zero money down and payments that were less than what if I was paying for the car. And the problem is I didn't put very many miles on it.

And I got less than a year before I got to turn it in. Would it be who is inexpensive? It's a Jaguar in the six figures. So, with such low mileage, I was supposed to put 36 on, I got 4,000. Would it be possible maybe try and sell it outright to someone else at my buyout price? Or I know it probably won't get anything back from the dealer, that's for sure. Yeah, it's definitely possible, but you have to be careful.

What you're talking about is exercising your option to buy the vehicle at the end of the lease. All leases have that option. The amount that you're eligible to buy it for is your residual value that the lessor put in your contract. you can check it in your contract it'll have it right there in black and white what the price that you can buy the car for what you have to do is find out what the market value of the car is and the way you find out the market value on a jaguar is to check with a jaguar dealer you go to a jaguar dealer use car department and you say i want to sell my car you don't tell them you lease it because you'll know you don't own the car so you just tell them i'd like to know what you would pay me if i were to sell you my car and i'm going to take it to another jaguar dealer uh and maybe car max, you know, you're going to get three prices, three bids on what the value of your car is. That's the ACV, we call it the actual cash value, that's a market value, and then you compare it with your residual. If you can sell the car for more than what the residual value is, then you exercise your option, and then you either keep it or you sell it.

You have your cake and eat it too. You can drive it because you know you got yourself a really good deal. Oh, great. I appreciate it. It was one of those, like, midlife crisis where I thought it was going to be a fun thing. But I said, well, if I buy this car, it will give me the incentive to lose some weight for it's easier to get in the mouth. Well, low mileage. I could never use it for a getaway in a robbery because they would get to me before I could ever get in the car. Anyway, okay, and I will admit, too, on that dealership, I went on the way to Tampa. I might have told you this a few years ago because I tried the local dealers here, and I'm not trying to get them.

you know, disappointed, but they just, oh, the down payments, the monthly prices, the low only 5,000 miles a year. And I said, holy cow, and very arrogant. And this place advertised in Tampa, I actually called Crown Jaguar, St. Petersburg, I believe. Anyway, you know, one thousand, or zero down in one thousand a month for 10,000 miles. And I go, it can't be. And everyone said, and all the dealers said, there's no way. They can't do that. It's false advertised. It bait and switch. I went there, not a penny on a pocket, $1,000 a month, wonderful experience,

but it's rare. I mean, it's just maybe because it's on the other side of the coast. It is. You know, for a big investment, like you say, six figures, why not go out of the market area? Why not go to Tampa or Jacksonville? Or, you know, or even out of state, we talked about going to

Kentucky for a Chevrolet Corvette. We forget we have online access in our smartphones and you get a price anywhere in the United States on any car. And the dealers vary tremendously. And some dealers thrive. Reedman Chevrolet is a good example when John from Palm City called earlier.

Reedman Chevrolet was there since I worked for Westinghouse in 1964. So that's a multi-generational family. And some dealerships exist on business from out of the area. There are dealerships that will sell cars at extremely low prices, and they survive on huge volume. If you can find those particular dealers, you can save yourself a ton of money, as you did with Crown Jaguar. By the way, not to digress, but I knew the owner of Crown Jaguar, a man named Dwayne Hawkins, many years ago. Dwayne.

Quite an interesting man. Well, thanks very much, Frank. Yeah, not too. Thank you. I got some guy going to come. I sell leachies, so I got a hundred trees out there. We've got to start making my profit today. So let me get on there and start selling.

but thank you so much you guys have a good one thanks thank you it's great hearing from you frank give us a call again okay uh ladies uh i have uh i'm waiting to hear from one more female caller i have $50 right here for you so give me a call give us a call you have a question opinion anything at all 877 960 9960 i think we got some youtube text don't we rick we do indeed Let's see. The first one we have, Jave El Homre. I hope I got that pronounced well enough.

His question is, can you get a good or a better deal on a build-your-own car from the dealer rather than a new car that's already on their lot? He says he can't seem to ever find the right car with the right options he wants. The problem is that you often have to wait a long time for that car. And sometimes that car doesn't need.

even exist. Regional areas tend to have cars of particular combinations of equipment. The problem with the manufacturers is the permutations and the combinations of trim, color, options, and accessories is so great that to have one of everything, a car dealer would have to have a million cars in inventory, and then he might cover, not cover everything. So usually you can dealer trade for a car. You can go out of the area and find the exact car you want. But if you order a car to spec, one thing, it might be.

coming from Japan. That'll take a long time. Stu, at a point. Yeah, one thing to worry about is that not all car dealerships, there might be some that be willing to do a special order and wait. But most car salespeople want to sell the car right then and there, and you might find a change in attitude in the salesperson, the amount of help you're getting,

and also even on pricing. I mean, if a car is on the lot and they get a whole bunch of them, they're more likely to sell to the lower price. When you customize it, that's an opportunity to jack up the price. If you absolutely must and feel like you want, of course, then you have to watch the car carefully. You have to find out when it will be coming in, because the car salesman will always tell you it's coming in sooner than it really is. You need to nail them down and say, listen, you told me three weeks. If it's not going to be three weeks, tell me now.

Because if you give me a negative surprise, I'm going to cancel my order. Be sure that your deposit is refundable. and it's very most common complaint that we have at our dealership is when someone orders a car that we don't have an inventory it just doesn't seem to come in as quickly as everybody wanted it to so nail down the timing nail down the fact that your options and accessories are available and be sure your deposit is refundable in my experience well I'll tell you what the length of time and the cost I don't know I don't know if it's really worth all of that

But there are some people that really want some, you know, that special... Exactly what they want. They want it. A special car that are truck, but it can be months. Yeah. Okay. And our next one here, Al Shukry is asking, Good morning.

I called a car dealer for a car price. They added a dealer's fee of $7.99 and a tag transfer of $324. Is that a rip-off? Please let me know. Well, the $7.99 dealer fee is a rip-off. off. The $7.99 should be illegal. It is strictly profit to the dealer. The transfer is presumably legal. It's probably, it should be a government fee only. The dealer fees that you have to worry about are the ones that they don't tell you about. The car dealers are very smart. They know that a lot of folks have their antenna up about dealer fees. So the first thing they do is they usually don't call them dealer fees. They call them something else like electronic filing fees or notary fees or dock fees. So they rename them, so they disguise them as government fees. And then they have more than one.

So they can say, this is my dealer fee, but they don't tell you about the electronic filing fee, the admin fee, whatever the fee. There's hundreds of names for dealer fees. Actually, if all dealers disclose all their extra fees when they quarter to the price and the advertising, you knew about it, then you could just take all those fees, put it into the price, and do. comparison, competitive shopping and comparison, which is your right as a consumer. If you're a smart consumer, you check competitive

pricing. The fee that is the most dangerous is the one you don't know about. In this particular case, they gave you one fee, but the other ones were probably hidden. And my last one here, Remy D. says, I think what's worse than car dealer fees

are the cell phone and cable company fees. If you've ever seen your bill on those, Wow. Yeah, you ought to get the consumer reports. We talked about it earlier. It covers all the hidden fees. Of course, we're mainly interested in car dealer fees,

but they went around the country, and they averaged the fees, and they looked at all the different industries. And I mentioned before, hotels, airlines, travel in general, rent a car, car dealers, electric utilities. The name of the game now is if you're going to advertise a price, be sure you have enough hidden fees to bring that price up where you can make them a higher profit.

And it should be made illegal. It should be a federal law. It should be a federal law that if you're charging a consumer something for a product, it has to be disclosed and the advertised or quoted price, no matter what it is. And you know, these hidden fees, you and I have had these conversations at the office at home, That's a complete show.

You know, I take a look at an invoice, and that hidden fee is really a hidden fee because it's among so much information, you don't even realize that every month you're paying that hidden fee, and it should be debt. I mean, to read an invoice or a statement that comes to our home with a magnifying glass, I think, is just unacceptable. I think we've got some more texts from Stu over here. They're flooding. So let's get you. Floating?

They're flooding. They're pouring in. This comes from the true crime category. Earl, if you can believe it, a car salesman is stealing from customers and forging signatures at Lexus of Greenville in South Carolina. And I clicked on the link to the story, and I can summarize it real quick.

A salesperson had been stealing portions of down payments given to him on car loans on vehicles they were buying. There were 119 different cases, so on 119 different deals, he stole $83,000. He is locked up and charged with multiple felonies. A tip on that is be sure when you leave a deposit of any kind of cash or check with a card deal that you get a company official receipt. Correct.

Never take a business card or be sure you get a receipt, official receipt. Get your receipt and then also look at your contract and see the down payment amount and make sure that matches because they can monkey with the contract. And also check to see that. in the fine print on the receipt, it says that the deposit is refundable. That's right. Okay, here's another one here. It was explained to me that the electronic filing fee,

or dealer fee, or dock fee, or whatever the name, is compensation for the dealer to process paperwork, such as the tidal registration. Then I'm not sure what this means it. So the video compares tubes of toothpaste. I think they're referring to a video on dealer fees. So the video compares tubes of toothpaste and refrigerators, that the price should reflect that.

When was the last time someone had to title and register their tube of toothpaste? Maybe in some countries, I don't know. And when I stopped by cell phone shops, they often sell cell phone plans that advertise one plan, but there are additional and unadvertised fees that accompany the price, not just sales tax. Don't want the dealer to be compensated for his work. Tell the dealer to hand over the paperwork,

and you'll handle it yourself, see how far the sale will go. Well, see, the premise, it's a false premise. when they say to you, this is the cost of my doing whatever. All businesses have cost. And in a business, you take your profit, you take your sales, what you sold your product for, you subtract your expenses, and then you're left with your profit. So when a car dealer sells a car, he has a lot of expenses. He has to pay the salesman a commission.

He has to advertise the car. He has to pay his light bill, his phone bill, his water bill, lots of expenses. He has to pay the accounting department. He has to pay lots of expenses. Believe me, I'm a car dealer. I got a lot of expenses. But when I sell my product, I'm supposed to take all those expenses, pack them into the price that I quote and I charge you and that I advertise. It isn't right to have a price and take a certain group of expenses.

And after you agree to the price, say, oh, now I want you to pay these expenses for me. Before you get jumped on by people who think that was some sort of sort of. a nefarious thing that you said, I think maybe a better way to put it is you need to take account of your cost of doing business into account when you price your products. You don't necessarily pack it into the price as a hidden fee. It's you know what you need to make to break even, and you know what you need to sell the car for to run a reasonable profit. Yeah.

And when you say put all of your costs in there, I believe, I mean, I'm not going to do this now, I believe one day even the government fee should. be included in the advertised price. We know what the government fees are, and why not include them in the advertised price? Why does every car buyer get a surprise when they get the final amount that they have to write the checkout for our finance? You never buy a car. You always have that surprise.

There should not be a surprise. Rick? It's like when I visit my sister-in-law up in New Hampshire, and I go into a store to buy something, and they have no state sales tax. So the price that's on the shelf is exactly what you pay for a television, a radio, whatever. It should be. And it's all one price. Taking it to the ridiculous extreme, you could take all those expenses that you mentioned and have a line item for it.

You could have a line for the dealer's Internet Services bill and a line for his light bill. That's what we're trying to get here. And they're moving in that direction because they've gone one for one gotcha, one dealer fee, two multiple. I mean, three is common. Four is not unheard of. We mystery shop car dealers with four or five different hidden fees. Crazy. That's right.

Okay. The next one is probably for Rick. 1997 Lexus ES 300. The battery light on the dashboard is staying on. When it's jumped, nice crisp lights in less than a minute. It's discharged. Click, click, click, dead. Won't hold a charge.

I was told various things as to why. What's your take on this? Thank you, Ms. D. First thing is you'll need to have that battery tested, and probably the battery is going to need to be replaced, but the battery light remaining on indicates to me that your alternator is most likely not charging, and if the alternator is not charging, your battery is going to be getting destroyed. So you'll probably wind up needing both of them.

Okay. And get another bid on the alternator and the battery, for that matter, because you're talking a few bucks and let them know that you're going to check the price when they quote you the price. Next one. Question. When you take a car to an independent mechanic that you're going to buy from a dealer, so in other words, you're looking at a dealer going to buy a car, used car, and you take it to an independent mechanic,

do you have to get permission from the dealer to take it to that independent mechanic? Yes, you do. If the dealer wouldn't give you permission, I would just leave and not buy the car from the dealer because he's got something to cover up. Now, if he's worried about his property, you could say if you want to drive the car over to my mechanic for me, that's fine. You can drive it back or you can come with me, but there's no reason any reputable dealer would object to you having the car he wants to sell you checked out by an independent mechanic. Okay. Steve, who is watching our Facebook live stream, and he watches every Saturday, by the way. Hey, Steve.

Steve asked, well, he states, Honda dealer charged me for an automatic transmission fluid at the 15,000 mile service. When I made a stink and demanded to know where he put the automatic transmission fluid into my manual transmission car, he removed it from the bill. Wow. Kept him on us.

Congratulations. You don't replace transmission fluid anymore, do you? 99.9% of automatic transmission cars the fluid is now a lifetime fluid and you would have no reason to replace it. Yeah, this is a manual transmission. And on a stick shift car, a manual transmission, that fluid shouldn't need to be replaced for at least 30,000 miles,

if not 60 or 100,000 miles, depending upon what Honda says in their factory recommended maintenance books. Exactly. You know, this fellow, nobody's going to take advantage of him and we have a lot of people that call the show and they say, what's all the fuss? Just stand up to these dealers

and question them and challenge them. A lot of people don't have that personality. I really don't have the personality. I seem like an aggressive person on the air, but when I'm going into a retail store, I'm not into confrontation. I might not come back. I go into a restaurant and I get treated wrong.

I just won't go back. But I don't want to fight. And if you have that aggressive, Nancy likes to fight. And there's nothing wrong with that. But remember, there are a lot of people out there that are relatively passive and they don't want to challenge. I think that's a little bit of a stretch. Yeah.

Okay. How are we doing on the text? We're wrapping them up. We got a couple of more. We have one from California. It's John, who's listening in California right now. My question is to anyone that may have an answer for me. My Honda dealership is now trying to charge me for an oil change.

for over $100 and telling me that if I don't pay for it, it would void my warranty, when in fact they were not charging me before, but I know nothing is free. I was paying $40 before this, but now I'm being told to this. Well, first of all, you don't have to have your car service by your dealer to maintain your warranty. If my dealer was charged me $100 for a oil change, I'd be heading for Jiffy Lou in a hurry. And find someone that will change your oil for a fair price. Keep the receipt. and if there's ever a challenge about your warranty, you have the receipts.

And by the way, I have never known a manufacturer to disallow a warranty because they challenged the customer to pursue receipts to be sure they'd maintain the car. If he clearly hadn't maintained the car because of the condition of the car, maybe. But if the car was in normal operating condition, they don't ask you for the receipts, but keep the receipts to be saved. Rick? I do know there is a quick-loop place on North Lake Boulevard that charged a customer with a 2005 Prius $90 for a synthetic oil change, which is a very inexpensive oil filter, and four quarts of synthetic oil.

Four quarts, that's it. $90 for a synthetic oil change at a quick-lob place. On North Lake Boulevard. On North Lake. I saw the receipt. Is Quick Loop the name of it? No, it was a Valvaline jiffy loop type place. Well, let's get the name of that so we can report it on the show next week.

That's interesting. I thought most of these Quick Lobes were low price, but you just... Well, because they actually charged them. The entire receipt that I saw was $150 for an oil change, an air filter, and a cabin filter. Wow. Now we're going to start mystery shopping, Jiffy Loeb. I mean, that's the attraction, you know, that inexpensive way to, you know, be serviced. Let's give those numbers out again before we get back to the text.

We're going to take Linda's text, but first, I'll give you the number if you didn't jot it down, and you'd like to give us a call at 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497. 6530. Remember, ladies and gentlemen, would love for you to be part of the rating system for the mystery shopping report, and that is from Easy Pay Cars in Stewart. Okay, Linda has a question, and she's interested in these, she says, does any auto still have built-in boosters, booster seats for children? I didn't know any ever did have built-in booster seats. for children. Does anybody know about that? Not in any Toyota vehicles.

I have no vehicle. We learned something. Maybe she could text back and tell us which vehicles do have. If I close my eyes and I look back in time, I think I do remember something. I don't know if it would be considered real safety equipment. I think I remember things folding down in the back seat like a station wagon. Armrest. Yeah.

And I was small and I could fit on the armrest. That's what it was. Because you didn't put seat pulse on me. Back in the 50s, I remember... 50s. Let's move along here. What were you?

877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. That was a terrible response. To me? No, I remember kind of something. Made me feel really old there for a minute. Oh, sorry, the 50s, I was talking about me, yeah. Okay. In the 50s, we carried the kids in the drunk.

Let's get back to the text Well, we've got to call her Oh, but West Palm Beach Hey Bennett Bennett Good morning Hello

Hey Bennett, can you hear us? Yeah, hey, good morning, everyone Good morning Good morning All right, a couple of questions, of course That's what we call You always talk about The Cotta airbags

okay and it gets you all crazy so who is making Takata airbags these days did a company take over Takata and what recourses do you have when you're ready to buy a used car

or a new car for that matter? Bennett the company Takata went bankrupt, it was bought out and we can Google that maybe Stu or Rick can Google that to see the name of the new company the new airbags now are being built under a different name,

which is a good thing, because I wouldn't buy a car with a Takada Air Bag, even if they said it was better. I know what the manufacturers were doing for a long time. They were replacing bad Takata Airbags with more bad Takata Airbags. I understand that this practice has ceased, and the Takata Airbag branded did have a different design

so that they were okay in the long run. But for a while, there was nothing to replace a bad Takata Airbag with, So we knew the Takata airbags degraded under heat and humidity conditions over a period of time. So what the manufacturers were doing, they take a five-year-old Takata airbag that they were afraid was going to blow up, take it out, and put a fresh one in, knowing that in five years that might blow up too. We have an answer on who the company was. That's correct. Last year, a Chinese company called Key Safety Systems acquired Takata for $1.6 billion.

They're rebranding the company. it's now going to be called or I just lost that something safety systems which is kind of funny Joyson Joyson Safety Systems How do you spelled Joyce?

J-O-Y-S-O-N Joyson Safety Systems, the new Takata. So we can write that down as a Chinese company. That's nice and we'll see how they're going to. Are they taking over for the other

airbags or you're at a look on that I don't know whether the manufacturers have contracts with Joyce and my guess is it sounds like Takata got a lot of money for their company my guess is they sold their database

and their contractual agreements with the other manufacturers This calls for a little bit more research just because Toyota and other manufacturers have announced that they're no longer getting Takata airbags They might be getting Joyce in mailbox For all we know we don't know

Joyce and safety company Takata we never heard of it Joyce and Safety Company is where we're getting our... Maybe, maybe not, but we've got to look into this. Yeah, we will check that out. Okay, another question. You know, when you buy a new car, there's a freight fee, correct? As well as a dealer's fee.

Those are two big fees. Is that correct? What was, I'm sorry? Freight. Oh, freight. Yeah. There's a freight fee on a new car as well as a dealer's fee. Yes.

When you buy these car, isn't that even more wrong that when you buy a used car that did charge me another freight charge? It's highly wrong on a used car. Understand, Bennett, that the freight fee that's on a new car is baked into the price of the car from the get-go.

The manufacturer of General Motors, every General Motors dealer has to pay General Motors, the freight fee, and it's baked into the invoice and the MSRP. So when you buy a GM car or any car, the freight, the cost of the shipping the vehicle from the plant to the dealer is all part of the cost of the car and the

selling price of the car a used car well that's you know you're just regenerating a cost that's already been paid so if somebody tries to charge you freight on a used car then they're double dipping in fact a lot of new car dealers will try to double dip you if you see freight appear on your vehicle buyer's order that's a double dip it's already happened when you Okay. Other than the tax on a vehicle when you purchase one, what other the fees are legitimate that they're entitled to? Government fees. What you pay the state of Florida, basically. There's a few nominal fees, $2 for a battery or $1.50 and then $5.5.

Yeah, we don't even talk about those. But we're talking about the only ones that you need to worry about are your sales tax and your license. and registration and that goes to the state of Florida so we give the dealers a pass on those they have to it is an expense to them but the profit doesn't go to them it goes to the state of Florida any other fee that's it might sound like a dealer fee the whole purpose that dealers have in their hidden fees to make them sound like a government fee you have to verify and that's the reason that I mentioned earlier in the show Nancy Stewart came up with an affidavit, which you can have signed by a dealer, you can download it at

www.W.W.Atherdorprice affidavit.com. Download that. You asked a dealer to sign it when you're buying the car before you buy it. He's given you a price. You responded to an advertisement and you say, oh, that's the price of the car? Yep, that's the price of the car. Sign here. What's that? That's an affidavit. saying that that is my out-the-door price with government fees only added. If he won't sign it, turn around and leave. Yep. Okay, so thank you.

So my daughter lives in Denver, and she was in an accident last week. The insurance company settled up with her, and now she has to purchase another car in Denver where she's living currently. So is there anything you could tell me about that state? if it's as bad as Florida, do you know, or anything to beware of? No state is as bad as Florida. Denver, as I recall, is kind of like a medium state. They don't have good, tough regulations like California,

but the dealer fees out there, and I haven't checked in a while, but the same rule applies in Colorado as it does Florida, only pay government fees. If they have other fees that they won't take off the car, let them disclose those to you so you can take the real bottom line price and shop and compare with other dealers. The best defense, and some dealers will say, we have to charge this fee. If we charge any customer this fee, we have to charge you this fee. If they want to make that fallacious argument, so long as they disclose it,

you can shop and compare the bottom line price, including that fee with the other dealers that they compete with. very good okay I have so many more questions but I'll let other people get on here thank you very much I really thank you very much for calling give us a call again Bennett great discussion

I'll tell you Florida you know it's a special kind of brazen you know and the group we meet regular with other Toyota dealers and their jaws drop I mean all over the country so we have dealers from Colorado who's in our group all over the country and no one can believe how big the dealer feels like it's like a

disease spreading and the more spreads the more jump on the bandwagon and as an earlier texter said it's a defense mechanism car dealers feel they have to charge these exorbit hidden fees to survive and really they kind of have to uh it's it takes a lot of courage and a lot of staying power uh to really say i'm not going to do it anymore. Imagine taking away all your hidden fees $1,000 or maybe $1,500 worth of fees and just stop charging them. And now you've got to advertise your product. And you've got to put it on TV and online. And all your other competitors have the hidden fees. So they have prices much lower than yours. Until they actually hurt their sales volume, they will not reduce the price

of these fees. As long as customers continue to buy the car and pay them, then they'll keep getting bigger. Yeah, when we first dropped our dealer fee a long time ago, we had several dealers, Delaware Toyota, Palm Beach, Toyota, Treasure Coast Toyota. They all, after a year or two, Mercedes of Palm Beach, they all dropped their dealer fees because we were making such a big deal out of it that they were feeling guilty and said, hey, let's jump on the bandwagon. And they jumped on the bandwagon for about six months or a year, and then they jumped off

the bandwagon because they could not make a profit. and do it honestly. Okay. You know, there's a whole lot of states that just have a no-cap rule, and that's just the way it is. I am going to answer, thanks to Stu, Linda's question about the booster seats for children, and Linda, Stu passed along to me that in 1994, the Dodge Caravan had full-down child booster seats. So there you go.

Thank you, Stu. That's some trivia. I could win a bed at a bar there. 25 years ago, yeah, I mean, I know that there's a lot more regulation on, like, child safety issues. That sounds like a Jeopardy question. I will remember that, and I'm going to audition for Jeopardy. Okay, we got some more text. We do. We have one here. It actually came in on Your Anonymous Feedback.com, and it's kind of interesting. It says, Earl, you need to look up Journey Autos of Largo, Florida. They're in the news for being brutally honest about their used

cars. There is a breath of fresh air. It's from a loyal listener who is anonymous. I looked up Journey Auto Sales in Largo, and I didn't see a whole lot until I checked out a news story. So here's what they're referring to. They were advertising a used 2002 Oldsmobile Allero for $900, and the ad basically says you're getting $900 worth of car. Don't bring your A blank blank down here saying it looks different in picks, or you didn't know that it had much rust. I'm telling you right now, this expletive is rusty.

And then the news story says, and should you bring your butt to the dealer, there's no haggling. The ad says, no, I don't have any wiggle room. You can wiggle yo blank down to another dealership. And then it goes on and says, bottom line, the car runs, the air conditioning works, and this car will get you from A to B. Just don't try to make it to C.

You know, I love that. I like that. Journey auto sales. Journey auto sales, J-O-U-R-N-E in Largo, Florida. Now, I will say their online reputation, their reviews don't look so good, but you've got to give them credit for that. They've got a sense of humor. I love that. I love it, too.

All right, so let's see, do we, okay, if you have done a synthetic oil change in the past, do you have to continue that, or can you go back to a standard oil change? You could go back. All right, there you go, quick answer. Just remember to go back to the cycle instead of 10,000 miles, 5,000 miles. That is correct. And finally, Steve in New Jersey says Volvo has an integrated booster seat option, whereby the back seat thigh cushion can be raised. However, I'm not aware of an integrated baby child car seat.

We just addressed that. We found one, yeah. There we go. We're caught up. That's it? On my end. Okay. $100,000.

challenge. Well, that's right. $100,000 challenge. Still no phone calls. We have absolutely zero calls from car dealers. I gave up my personal cell phone number last week.

Maybe that's a car dealer call. Oh, it could be a car dealer. Not a car dealer. $100,000 fee. The new folks that don't know what we're talking about, we have said we would challenge any car dealer

in Florida to a debate on the air on this radio show and we would do it by the rules of debating and you would have three minutes, and I'd have three minutes. The debate would be, should the dealer fee be made illegal in Florida? And we will debate that. I say the dealer fee should be made illegal.

You argue it should not be made illegal. And all you card dealers are all charging dealer fees, so I would think that all of you think it should not be made illegal. What I want to know is why won't you debate me? Why won't you call me? and I've even challenged you to contact me anonymously, and then she gives out the anonymous, Your Anonymous Feedback.com.

www. www. Youranonymousfeedback.com. Tell me what terms and conditions you would like for the debate. Maybe $100,000 isn't enough money, or maybe it's too much money. A lot of people accuse, somebody accused me of being a fat cat,

rich guys were just challenging each other. I'm trying to make it serious because I know car dealers make a lot of money. And if you want to put your money, you want to do it for $50,000, $10,000, we can talk. You want to do it for $1,000, we can talk. Text me, anonymous or otherwise. Call me. My cell phone number is 561,358, 1474. Call me.

We'll discuss it. If you feel you're right about dealer fees, if you feel that you're, you feel that you're you need to charge these, and there's a good reason for it. We even had a texter that said, we understand why you charge dealer fees. Let's talk to the audience about it. Let them vote on the debate. And everything I win, whether it's 1,000 or 100,000, I'm given to Big Dog Ranch. I'm not trying to enrich myself.

To anybody's listening who's a car dealer, this is not going to be a shaming, a public shaming, or a moral argument. It's just basically arguing this thing on the merits. How does it help a business or hurt a business? How does it help a customer or hurt a customer? And it's just going to be based on facts. I will swear to you, I will not humiliate you or try to humiliate you. I will not downgrade you. I will not call you names.

It will be a respectful, mutually respectful debate of the facts. We'll debate the facts of the dealer fees, hidden fees, and we'll ask the radio audience to vote, and the winner takes all. And if I win, my proceeds go to Big Dog Ranch. If you win, Mr. Car Dealer, you do with it as you, you can give it to Big Dog Ranch or the American Heart Association or you can, you know, buy a boat. I'm just worried that dealers out there listening might not be responding because they're just afraid of being associated with the dealer fee publicly bringing attention to it. Well, of course, that's what I believe to. And I think that I just, I guess what I find, I know that a lot of dealers wouldn't call, I guess I was surprised.

that no dealer called. You would think that somewhere in Florida, and I guarantee you, every dealer in Florida knows about this. I mean, you know, we have a network. I mean, we talk back and forth. I did this on a blog. All the car dealers in Florida know me, and I know most of them,

but a lot of them. And this word has traveled. I'm amazed that not one car dealer would say, hey, Earl, $100,000, that's a little rich for my blood. Let's do it for... $50, fill in the blank, yeah, for whatever. Because I tell you right now, if I can't get anybody to meet the amount, I'll lower it. I mean, make me an offer.

Make me an offer. Just come on the radio show. Yeah. I really think it is a fear factor, most definitely. So, ladies and gentlemen, if you just tuned in, we were talking about the $100,000 dealer fee challenge that Earl has been talking about the past couple weeks. What do you think? Your Anonymous Feedback.com. How do you feel about the $100,000 dealer fee challenge? Do you think we're, well, right or wrong by saying it's just a fear factor among the dealers and that's the reason that there hasn't been, you know, any attention paid to

it? Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Give us a call toll free at 877-960, or you can text us at 772-4976530 and you know just let me share this with you about Linda and the booster seats and her question and what Stu found as far as 1994 that was the what was that to do the Dodge Caravan was also the Chrysler version of that and the town and country and Linda says that my niece had a terrible accident and that booster seat saved her little girl She had gotten hit from the rear, and the engine dropped on impact. Wow. Thanks, Linda. Speaking about safety, Nancy told me the other day, just tell the audience you were driving home and you had kind of a scary experience. Yeah, yeah.

I was on alternate A1A, and we were coming up to a red light. There was a lot of traffic, and Florida Power and Light was working on, the right hand side of the road and a gentleman pulled out in front of me and it was quite startling because I was so close to the red light and he was on top of me and I hit my brakes and you know I wasn't thinking about my automatic emergency braking system and what a feature that is on a vehicle I mean how many times do and we still even I it's it's all automatic reflex. Every day for me.

Yeah. Some people who cuts in. Your reflexes aren't as good as Nancy's, but even when we react quickly, it's really scary. But after I reminded Nancy, I says, you have automatic emergency braking. And you would not have hit that car. And think about that, folks. That's pretty cool. I mean, when I get in my car now, I don't think about it because I've been driving so long.

It's just how I park now. Yeah, the bottom line is there's a lot of great features in these new cars. and people that are now trying to, they're proud of how they maintain the car. I've been driving this car for 15 years. I got 350,000 miles. I applaud them. I love that.

I love people who take good care of things that they own, and that's a great thing. But don't forget the safety features. A car today in 2019 is infinitely more safe. And if your family and your safety is important to, I'm not trying to sell your car. No. You know, I'm just telling you now, no matter what...

I hear what you're saying. Like, I don't consider myself a salesman. I hate sounding salesman, A. But when somebody asks me now, should I keep my car? I'm between a rock and a hard place. I got to tell them about the safety stuff, but then you sound like you're trying to sell the car. And it doesn't have to be a new car.

A late model... It's a matter of stepping up. If you can buy a car today that is four years newer than the one you own, you have made a quantum leap in safety. So you drive... We talk to somebody. a little while ago. They were driving in 2010.

All they've got to do is move up to 2014. Get a used car, certified use car. If possible, that would have to be later model. But if you can improve, come up in the technology curve four years, you have really made your family safer and your life a lot more secure. Yeah. I was, you might say, a step ahead of the automatic emergency braking system. because, you know, out of my peripheral vision,

I could see him coming at me, and lo and behold, I saw the red light, and I was on top of that, but never for a moment did I think that he was going to go right through the red light, but he was gone. You know what happened to me? I forgot about this happened the other day.

Nancy couldn't have been in the car because she would have remembered it, but for some reason I took my foot, I was stopped, and I was waiting for the light to change, and for some reason I took my foot off the break I don't want to I could have been doing something texting got on the phone or something I shouldn't have been doing and all of a sudden the car stopped and I looked up and I was drifting if I if that hadn't happened I would probably yelled at the guy for backing in to me

because I had no idea that the car was moving I was joking around about using it to park but it does go off I'd say maybe every other day as I'm trying to inch up to the parking stop and then it flashes red, screams break at you, scares the crap out of you, but you stop. What about the remote control for the Lexus and what happened yesterday? There's so many people that really complain about those remotes, you know, but in our case, it was a great advantage.

I'm just going to make a little announcement that all of our lines are on hold, and we are ready for the Mystery Shopping Report, and let's go to it. Mystery Shopping Report, just in case you haven't heard of it, is something that's worldwide unique. Nowhere in the world, to my knowledge, does anyone do anything like this? We send out a mystery shopper every week, been doing it for years and years and years. We pretend to buy a lease a car, and we go through the whole process.

Now, let me say this. I should have said this earlier. I've had some criticism. I had an email from somebody that said that I'm wasting the salesman's time. And I say I know I'm wasting the salesman's time, but the greater good is we are making the salesman a little wiser, the dealership that we mystery shop a little wiser, we're making the audience a little wiser about things that are being done that shouldn't be done in car dealers. I feel bad about the car dealers, about the salespeople that are whose time has taken up and we know they work on commission. And they may lose a commission because they were busy in this mystery shopping report. On the other hand, they're learning from the experience, and the dealer is learning from the experience, too. Quick point to make is we have more dealers on the recommended dealer list than dealers on the do not. Exactly.

And when the salespeople do a great job and the dealership gets a great job, they get free advertising because we tell them by name to go see this person. So we've probably done it. And we also mystery shop our own car dealership every week. We mystery shop our own salespeople. And if I thought I was wasting my time, I wouldn't do this. Mystery shopping. All businesses should do it. Many, many businesses do it. The better businesses do it. You should mystery shop yourself. You should mystery shop your competition. It's a tool of doing business. It's a tool of improvement to learn how to get better. But I do apologize to the car salespeople, whose time we do take up. And I just ask you, reach your own mystery shopping, of course. You can go online. Just go to or oncars.com. We have an archive of all. all of our mystery shopping reports or own cars.com and

reach your own mystery shopping report. Learn how to improve and get better. As you are mystery shopped, you learned what you did wrong, you correct it, you sell more cars. So in the long run, you car salespeople that will be a mystery shop are going to sell more cars and make more money.

Short run, I apologize. Mystery shop has been a run for so long. I mean, you can even go into a restaurant and see a review a mystery shop. So we're not looking to be heroes. Mystery shop of easy-pay cars in Stewart, Florida.

On Stu's Day off this week, he did what he usually does when he's away from work. He scoured the internet, a little tongue-and-cheek there, to search for cars with Takata Airbag recalls. What can I say, weird,

but he's my son, he is weird, and he is my son. It's my hobby. Exactly. Mystery shopping, people with Takata Airbags, is a way to make Florida safe. And I think we succeeded to some extent

because it's become harder and harder for us to find cars. Two and a half years ago, no problem. Hop on any used car inventory, it was littered with Takata Airbag recalls. And we nailed them. We did like 75 counting phone shops in a row. I think we had one that had no Takata Airbag. So the whole state of Florida,

at least South Florida, was permeated with dangerous airbag recall cars and used car inventories. Now it isn't so. So we pat ourselves on the back a little bit. I don't think these cars are disappearing into thin air. I think they are selling at auctions and they're going out of state.

I think the heat is on in Florida. We've raised hell with the governor. We've raised hell with the Attorney General. We have had news coverage, CBS News. I'm on the air every Saturday. We talk about it. So the heat is on and the car dealers are reluctant to try to get away with selling Takata airbag recalls. That's one of the reasons why it's hard to find them, but that's good news.

Florida's safer than Georgia or Alabama. Trust me. Our efforts to shine some light on this issue included mystery shopping, dozens of car dealers across Florida, and putting them on what we call the Takata test. On each mission, we sought to learn whether a car dealer would be willing to sell a car, they know to be unsafe. The only passing grade we give for that test comes when the dealer stops the sale and refuses to sell the cut airbag to our mystery shopper.

This may get points for disclosing the recall, in that case, only if they give accurate information about how to remedy the problem, but only stopping the sale counts for passing. Now, I think about why that happens. You know, there are different reasons why the car isn't disclosed. and later on in the mystery shopping report you'll see what I'm talking about and I think there's three reasons the dealer can just be a bad guy evil trying to trick people or the salesperson and or the dealer can just be ignorant about the whole problem which is certainly a possibility and there's a certain apathetic way people look at things people walk outside

during a thunderstorm and don't worry about lightning or they're play golf they'll they'll swim when there's a riptide they'll text at a red light they'll text there are people that are apathetic about their lives and and that goes for the salespeople the dealers and the buyers when you go into a car dealership today and haven't and you have heard about takata and you don't do a car effects check shame on you So there's a lot of reasons why these Takada airbags are getting on the road, but it's still wrong. I mean, if you're out there and you think there's nothing wrong with buying a car with a defective airbag, give us a call. I'd love to find out about it.

We had one, by the way, was Mullinex besides Easy Pay car. That's right. I had a feeling that there was something. Over the last three years, we've administered the Takata test two-passed. I just mentioned that. Mullinx and Easy Pay. Easy pay is owned by Wallace, Bill

Wallace, and it's up in Stewart, Florida. So naturally it caused Stu's attention, we found a 2010 to Honda Civic on their website with a fixable, but yet unfixed, passenger site to cut airbag recall. The recall is reported on Carfax,

safercar.gov, and Honda's own recal website. So there's the three places you can go. If you're thinking about buying a car and you have the Venn number, You have three ways you can check to see if there is a Chicago Airbag or any other kind of a dangerous recall. Just because they have the car listed for sale, Easy Pay cars, doesn't mean they wouldn't eventually do the right thing. So we've got to check it out, right?

And that's what we did. We sent Agent Thunder in, find out what would happen, what didn't happen? Speaking of the first person, I called prior to heading up to Easy Pay to see if the 2010 Honda Civic were still available. I spoke to a man who didn't identify himself that offered to check. After being put on a short hold, he came back on the line, said the car was still there, until it might be there within the hour. The lot looked like an old-school used car lot. Cars, they had looked clean and well-maintained.

The inventory was neatly arranged, and there was only one small building looked like a house, which served as the sales office. I spotted the civic, and then went inside the building. There was a man inside named Bill. and he was the guy that I talked to on the phone. Bill asked how he could help me, and I said I'd call it about the 2010 Civic. Now, remember this is a nine-year-old car, folks, nine years old.

It's in the red zone. The Ticada airbags are, how dangerous they are is directly proportional to their age and the heat and humidity. So what we have here, nine years, and we have South Florida. That's where, if you look up in Webster's Dictionary, heat and humidity,

Florida. We are in the tropics. So I'm telling you that is one dangerous car. We walked outside Bill explained there was no salesman at DCPA just him and another guy. They did it all. He said they were part of the Wallace group and specialized in dealing with people with bad credit. Now that brings up another subject. It may not be coincidence that we find to cut airbag cars or cars with dangerous recalls on these type of car lots. People with bad credit, sadly, have one thing on their mind. Can I get financed? You might be thinking I like red or I like blue. You might think I like convertibles. You might think I got to get my payments under $500. A person with terrible credits that's

thinking one thing. Can you get me financed? I don't care what you sell me. Unsafe car, where do I sign? They just want wheels. They want to be able to get. get to work and back, to the doctor in back, to get their kids to school and back. Cars in South Florida, where we don't have mass transit, you know, you have to have a car. So they're victims. The people that go into these, we call and buy here pay your lots, they are victims. I told me he wouldn't have to worry about the financing because I was just looking for a good used car. I could buy for under $10,000 with cash.

Bill said that would be fine, and I picked a good car for that. I said it need to be safe and reliable and Bill nodded. He handed me the keys when we approached the car said I could drive it around the back lot. I guess it was right on their property. He didn't ask for my driver's license or anything and stood there and waiting for me to get in the car. Highly unusual. Nancy mentioned that as we drove in.

The first time we've heard in a long time where they don't ask for the driver's license, but in this case they didn't. Well, he didn't drive it on the roadways of Florida. Yeah, that's true. I got in the Civic, started it up, proceeded to drive around the lot for a few minutes, drove fine, the air was cold, seemed to be a good car.

I returned to the spot we found it, went back inside with Bill on the way in, I asked first the first of the three questions. And you remember, if you're buying any car, you should ask these three questions. Do you know about any mechanical issues? Of course, you should have checked Carfax before you even came in, but ask the question anyway.

Do you know about any mechanical issues? number one. Bill said no. If the car had been inspected and passed next door, another wall's dealership, and I nodded, and we went inside. Once at his desk, Bill asked if I liked it, and if I wanted to do a deal, now. I said, I liked it, but I had some questions. Bill said, like what? And I replied with the second of the two, of the three questions. Had it ever been in an accident, as I said before, Carfax, Carfax, Carfax. Always checks Carfax. Bill said he print a Carfax report for me. Strangely that they didn't already

have one printed, but they didn't. I waited a minute or two for him to do this. When we looked over the report together, Bill pointed to the summary, would indicate that an accident had been reported in 2011 and weren't an indicated

damage report in 2017. So, two accidents. I saw the recall was indicated right below it, but I kept my mouth shut. so did Bill. Bill Downey played the accident and said that

if it was severe then the car would have been towed or Carfax would have so indicated and he was trying to talk me out of worry about the accident. That's may or may not be true. Sometimes it doesn't tell you. Check any used car you buy

with an independent mechanic and of course going to back what I said with the buy-heer payer payer with the people that have bad credit they can't afford to pay $150 bucks. have the car checked. They are truly victims and they are

preyed upon, I'm sorry to say. I asked him the third of three questions. Any safety issues that should concern me about this accident? Now, when you ask three questions... Besides the accident. Beside the accident. And Bill said no.

Beside the accident. And I reminded him that he told me that the car, and he reminded me that the car had been checked out in their shop. Okay. Part of a check should always be to see if they're in recalls yeah i pointed the car fax report and ask him if recall was something to be concerned with i mean that's strange question right bill picked up the report and studied it

he said that there was recall for one of the airbags he said he wouldn't consider an issue sure he's not trying to drive the car not his family and read to me that the repair for the recall can be done at any honda dealership Yeah, the way I read it and understood it from Agent Thunder was that he was saying he didn't consider an issue because it could be repaired. Yeah. Right. Well, think about this, folks. He didn't mention it.

No. And if it wasn't an issue because it could be repaired, how would you know that it had to be repaired if he didn't mention it if he didn't show you the Garvex report? Or at least tell you to pull your own Garvex report. This is clear, blatant deception. clear, blatant deception. I asked so you have to take it to Honda and this is a good list of this. Bill replied

yeah. I asked so I can't even buy it until you take it there? Bill replied, we're not supposed to, but it depends on the guest, meaning me, the customer. Depends. He added that ideally

we'd like to get these done first and that this one must have slipped through. yeah it slipped through and it also slipped through you when you read the car factory report and saw it right in front of you and black and white and you were hoping it would slip through me and i wouldn't see it blatant deception bill asked me what i wanted to do if i wanted he could have the car sent to the honda dealer for the repair before he finished the sale i said i would prefer that he said he would write it up get the repair taken care of he'd call me on Monday with an update and we could schedule my delivery at that time. I said I would like a better price

than the online price because of the accidents and recall issue. Bill said he would be able to do it for $8,500 including the dealer fee. It was $8,900 plus dealer fee before. Okay, $8,900, so he went down to $8,500

including the dealer fee. On the buyer's order, he printed, it got pretty close. $7801 plus $6.99 dealer fee did equal $8,500, but he also added a small $22.75.75 fee for state docks stamps. We're seeing that a lot more. Yeah. And there are no dock stamps, folks. Not only, it's bad enough to charge a customer for a fee that you have to pay, but when you charge your customer fee that you don't have to pay.

They don't even apply here. There are no dock stamps. There's not a loan. There's no state fee. Why? Why? Yeah, it's up. Yeah.

I mean, yeah. Epilogue. Last year, easy pay pass spectacularity. This year, well, they did better than most. They still failed. They deserve credit for making the arrangements to get the civic fix before selling it. But Bill himself said something like that depended on the guest. Yeah, well, I get caught.

It depends on whether I get caught. Do I need to fix it where you caught me? It depends on if the guest points it out. Yeah. Furthermore, Agent Thunder had to point out the recall for Bill, and like Bill didn't see it. And here we are. We're here at vote time.

It always depresses me when we have a shining beacon on the hill of transparency and honesty, and then we have to consider taking the shining beacon off the hill. It goes back to, I think, the one, like, overriding characteristic of all car dealerships, it's inconsistency. you know it's just it's kind of at the whim of the people

who are working at the time yeah here's something I before we tell post your votes text your votes uh when we're going to open

internally get as many votes as we can one more thing I want to read here because we got a little bit of time I think

I don't usually do this but when you go to the air carfax report or you go to the safercar.gov report read what they say about these airbags airbag inflator rupture metal fragments could pass through the airbag cushion material potentially resulting in injury to vehicle occupants

the risk of such an occurrence increases over time it is imperative you schedule an appointment with an authorized honda dealer now to avoid this condition in the future now this is a 10-year-old honda nine-year-old Honda and how many times has it, do we know how many times it was sold between 2010 and now I would say two or three times anyway and how many times

two other times this was a third sale these cars are being bought without people even reading this even though they say it's imperative now here's something also that I just popped into my head. I've seen it

didn't register. Honda says this. Several years okay. Honda suggests that you avoid having a passenger sit in the front passenger seat until the recall repair has been performed. Now this is a hang grenade.

You're in the car and the hang grenade is either going to explode three feet to your right or right in front of you. Put another three feet between you and the hangarade. Now what They should say that If you're going to have anybody in the front seat

Unless you're lying down The back seat You're going to get killed or maimed Make sure to put all your passengers in the trunk Yeah put all your passengers in the trunk It's comical but it's not comical It's very sad Okay, it's vote time on easy pay cars

And Stewart owned by Bill Wallace Who by the way is a friend of mine Let's at least he was a friend of mine He's still a friend Bill, if you're listening, come on. Get it together. Get it together. Okay, what are the votes on that we posted so far?

Okay, so we have, one just popped in, we have Linda, gives him a big fat F, Neil gives him an F, Gigg gives him an F, Nancy, not that Nancy, gives him an F, Boris gives him an F, and as I was speaking, an F popped in, and it is from Lenny up in Atlanta. He gives him an F as well, so I think it's pretty unanimous. I agree with our textures and listeners. give them an F. YouTube, I've got Ernesto, L.J. and Frank, and I'm seeing F's across the board.

Steve on Facebook, F. You know, I'm going to say one more thing here. I start to feel this guilt as I talked to Bill Wall. Bill, it's not your fault. It is your fault. The buck stops here. But I have things that happen in my dealership, too. Things that are wrong.

We do wrong things. what we're doing new to you, Bill, is making you aware. When we shopped your dealership before, it was pristine. You had a salesperson there that cared about the shopper. When we shop before at Easy Pay cars, the salesperson we talked to would not allow our mystery shopper to take the car. And he volunteered without being called to his attention to take the car to another, I believe it was Honda, to have the car, the recall fixed. It depends on the people you have working for you. Every barrel has a rotten apple.

My dealership has rotten apples. We all have rotten apples in our business barrels. The responsibility of the owner is to be acutely aware and try to get rid of these rotten apples or else bring them back to life and make them into nice, crispy, tasty apples that do their job. So I'm not blaming easy-pay cars or the owner directly, but make the correction there.

I'm having a depressing thing. thought. I'm thinking last year when they passed, I reread the report from last year. And basically, when they asked if there are any safety issues, the salesperson looked at it and then saw the recall and said, oh, yeah, there is one. Yet that car was still online offered for sale. That might be the operating thing that triggers it. If they ask about it, deal with it. If they don't ask, keep going. The fact of the salespeople are paid on commission, right? 25% of the profits they make on the car. And they are not financially, motivated to not sell a car they're financially motivated to sell a car and sometimes

their morals and their needs are going to trump what's right so it isn't the car dealer's bad the business is bad every organization has people that need to be coached i don't like to fire people we try to coach people and if we can't coach them in improvement then we have to fire them but in this case here it's pretty clear we got all this we'll go around uh stubert which vote. I'm giving them an A and I'm just kidding. I'm sorry. All right, yeah, F for sure. Nancy. F.

A. F. Yeah. Bill, I'm sorry. My, you know, my emotions are, I feel you can give me a call after the show. We can talk about it if you're mad at me. But, you know, I know you, I know you're a good man and I know you got a whole lot of dealerships.

I don't know how you do what you do with as many dealerships as you do, but you need to do something about easy pay cars. You need to do something about being sure that dangerous cars don't get sold off that lot, and so I'm going to have to give enough easy-paid cars. We will go back to easy-pay cars and give you another chance to get back on the recommended list, and I hope you do. Absolutely. You know, our agenda here is not to be heroes. Our agenda here is to save lives, and the more exposure that we give to

our listeners, and they're far and wide, the audience is, you know, all over the place, all over the country, and to the emailer that shared this extensive email with you, Earl, we're not looking, as I said, to be heroes. We're just looking to put the truth out there. And the mystery shop for today gets an F, and that's from Easy Pay Cars in Stewart. So I'd like to thank you all for joining us this morning. Again, I'd like to thank you all. Thank Jonathan and Rudy in the control room and being part of the show. And from all of us right here at Earl Stewart on Cars, have a wonderful weekend and we'll be right here next Saturday. Bye-bye. Let's come. Thank you.