Earl Stewart on Cars - 06.09.2018 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of AutoNation Toyota Weston

Episode Date: June 9, 2018

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

Welcome to Earl Stewart on Cars with Earl and Nancy Stewart. Reach them with your questions at 877-960. Here's Earl and Nancy. Good morning, everybody. We're back, your auto team, right here at the True Old League of Channel, sitting in the studio with a team of experts that are going to help you make your next buying experience of an automobile, your next leasing experience of an automobile, a more pleasant one than the last time, repairing and maintaining

of course are all part of the equation of your relationship with your car and we've got an expert on the technical aspects of automobiles in the studio too for you new listeners and hopefully we have a lot of them because we're on the true oldie

station which is Goldie Oldies, it's the 60s and 70s music and we're not a music show here. We're a consumer advocacy show. We're a live radio talk show to answer your questions live on the radio. In fact, we can answer your text, too. And we'd like to welcome you to our talk show. I hope you do like live talk. If you're tuned in for songs,

you'll have to wait two hours because I'm not going to sing to you. I mean, I'm doing you a favor. Trust me. If I don't sing to you, you wouldn't want to hear me sing. Oh, come on. Nancy might sing to you, but I'm not going to. You're a great singer. We want to hear you sing and entertain us. And again, for our new listeners, who am I? My name is Earl, Earl Stewart, actually. I'm a recovering car dealer. I call myself, I wrote a book called Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer. I've been in the automobile business for a long, long time, since 1968, as a matter of fact.

I've had multiple dealerships. I want you to know that even though I'm still a car dealer, this is not an infomercial. okay I don't pay this station 95.9 true oldies anything to be on this show it's not an infomercial and I will do my very best to stay away from the fact that I am a car dealer I have a Toyota dealers I'm not going to try to sell you Toyotas for one thing 85% of you out there don't even drive Toyotas or want Toyotas and I have a we have one of a regular call is calling in I'm going to wait a minute Tina, till we get to you until I finish some of this introduction, so we don't have anybody confused who just tuned in this car dealer on the true oldie channel. But I do have a lot of experience in automobiles, and I used to sell automobiles the wrong way, the old-fashioned way, bait and switch advertising, unfair, deceptive sales practices, all the things that you probably encounter today when you go,

going to buy a car. So because I did it the wrong way for so many years, and now I've changed, I do it the right way, I've changed even further because I'm broadcasting this. I'm talking about it. I'm on blogs. I do public speaking. Nancy and I talk to Kiwanis Club, rotary clubs, condo associations, libraries, colleges. We speak all the time about how you can avoid being ripped off by a car dealer. My qualifications, as I said, a lot of experience close to a half a century. And when you've done something the wrong way and you learn how to do it the right way, I mean with honesty and transparency, you're a more effective tool to be able to analyze what can happen to the average consumer when they go in to buy a car. Part of the information

that we find most useful in this analysis are our mystery shopping reports. And by the way, this radio show, not this particular one, but we have been on the radio live for more than 10 years. We started out half an hour and went to an hour, and now we're up to two hours. These mystery shopping reports have been going on every week for all those years. And we sent an undercover agent into some car dealership in South Florida. We went all the way down of Fort Lauderdale, actually Weston, this week, I talked to a car dealer. We've been north to Vero Beach. We cover just about all the car dealers in South Florida, certainly all the ones of any significant size or reputation, meaning positive or negative. And we learn

from their actions because that's the tip of the iceberg when our mystery shopper is taken advantage of. That means hundreds and hundreds of ordinary consumers like you were taken advantage of. And we talk about it on the air, live, like I am right now. We don't change the names. We name the dealerships. We name the salespeople, the sales managers, and we tell you exactly what happened. So with these mystery shopping reports, and we've got one coming up on the show later on, we vote on the results of the mystery shopping report. We, A, B, C, D, F, just like when you're in school. We don't have very many A's.

Actually, we don't have that many Fs, but you've got to have a passing grade to be recommended. And we have two lists. Do not buy from this dealer list and a recommended list. So this helps you, and you can go to this by going to the web, and you can go to www. www.baddealer, baddealer, list.com. www. www.

Baddealer list. Did I get that right, Stu? That is correct. Okay. Good dealer, baddealer list.com. Okay, so this is what we do. We help you. And your calls are of primary importance.

fresh information what happened to you last week the week before what happened to you when you bought or leased your last car or brought your last car in for service i get a lot more calls complaining about service from our listeners than i do about sales that's because you have to service your car a whole lot more than you have to buy a car you buy a car every four or five years you service your car at least you should service your car at least every six months or about 5,000 miles So there's a lot more opportunity to be deceived, taking advantage of in car servicing. So let's talk about it, call. And Nancy?

Yes. Good morning, everyone. First and foremost, we want to thank you for tuning in to Earl Stewart on Cars right here at the True Oldies Channel. And also, I want to let the ladies know that I've got $50 for the first two new lady callers. So give us a call. help me support the ladies here on Earl Stewart on Cars. Share your story with me on service, sales, anything at all, leasing, and you are a very important part of the show. And if you're hungry for something new, you found it right here at Earl Stewart on Cars. Now we're going to

go to Tina, who's calling from Benita Springs, and she is a regular caller. Good morning, Tina. Hi, how are you guys doing? I wanted to get on the phone right away because I was reading automotive news, and I saw something really important. This is a recall from Kia, and it's an airbag glitch. It's going to affect over 500,000 cars. And we've been having problems with the Tata airbags deploying just automatically. Well, these airbags might not deploy, and what's even worse is that the seatbelt tensioner won't work either,

and the airbag control unit might short-term. So this affects the 2010-2013 Kia Fortes. This also affects the 2011-2013 Kia Optimus, the hybrids, and Sedona's. Here's the important part. There's no available fix yet. So what would your recommendation be, Earl? Would you recommend that people that own these cars not drive them until there's a fix available? I certainly do.

I'm not sure what Kia's position is, Tina. is, Tina. But oftentimes, Rick, you have a... Well, as a matter of fact, this recall is coming right on the heels of Hyundai, which is an affiliate with Kia. They work together. And there's a million, over a million

cars total in this recall now. Yeah, same manufacturer, Kia and Hyundai. So, anytime you have a car that has a dangerous airbag, something that is especially unfixable, the recommendation has to be, do not drive the car. Now,

You need to talk to Kia, and we'll do a little research on this, now that we're aware of it, Tina, thank you very much, by talking to Kia and Kia dealers to see what the manufacturer's position is. But sometimes the squeaky wheel gets the oil, and the customers who complain get help, and the ones that don't complain, don't get help. So if you're driving one of these cars, call your Kia dealer, tell them you insist on a loaner car, you will not drive your car until the fix is available and your car is fixed. That should be the position. Some manufacturers are being proactive in this and they will offer the loaner cars proactively to their wires, drivers of those cars. Some of them just want to remain quiet and will not do anything until you ask.

But my advice, if you're affected by one of these keyers, ask your dealer. And if the dealer will not follow suit and get you a car, I would call Kia directly on the 800 line. And my next step would be to call an attorney because it's dangerous. I mean, we're not talking about, you know, your radio. Yeah, your stereo is not working. We're talking about something that could kill you. So, number one, get a loaner from your Kia dealer.

If no, talk directly to the manufacturer on the toll-free 800 number. And then number three, call your attorney. And anybody out there in that boat, please call me. Remember, as Rick just said, it's also Hyundai's Antkey that are affected by this. It's shocking they would have this many cars without a fix available. And I think this should be big headlines. I'm not sure why we haven't seen this more on television. Yes, Rick.

As a matter of fact, it just came out on automotive news two days ago. Oh, I say, yeah. So this is like cut off the press. Well, as a matter of fact, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Safety, Safety Association, there have been six confirmed cases for Hyundai Sonata and two with Kia Forte's where these cars have had serious collisions and airbags have not deployed and at least four serious injuries and two people have died already. And yet we're just hearing about it now.

And this is 1.1 million cars total. If you're driving in Kia or a Forte, Kia Forte and what was the other one Sonata? The Hyundai Sonata. Yeah, Hyundai Sonata. or the Kia Forte. And you've got the article in front of you. I got the 2010-2013 Forte. What were the models on the other Kia?

The 2011-13 Kia Optima, the hybrid, and a Sedona. Yeah. Yep. Well, you go to Safercar.org. That's the NHTSA National Highway Traffic Safety Association website. www.safercar.gov. www.safer.safER-C-A-R-C-A-R-G-O-V. And put your VIN in if you have a Hyundai or a Kia

and find out if your car is affected. And again, my advice, call the Kia dealer, demand, demand a free loaner car. If they can't provide you one, demand they reimburse you because then you rent a car from Avis Hertz Enterprise and they should reimburse you. Do not drive the car because you could die. And that's a sad fact. The fact that it's an automotive news and I'm not seeing that on Channel 5, Channel 12, Channel 25, Palm Beach Post, Fort Lauderdale Sentinel online.

I don't know why this isn't more of an important news story than a lot of the other stuff I'm saying. but thank you very much for pointing this out to us, Tina. You always have a great call. This is one of your most important calls, and I thank you very much. Thank you, Tina. I look forward to hearing from you. And on something a little happier note, I'm going to talk to Earl for a second. I was on my soapbox with Nancy last week, but, you know, Cadillac is a really neat company, I think.

Because back when Oldsmobile was having problems, I think the biggest problem is they did not market to a younger audience. and Cadillac has done that. And Cadillac has something really cool that kind of came out a little bit last year and it's called Super Cruise and it is a semi-autonomous car and it has gotten really good ratings. So starting in 2020,

all of Cadillac's vehicles will come with what's called Super Cruise. Well, that's interesting. What exactly does the Super Cruise do? It sounds like you put it on like you would a cruise control on the turnpike but it does even more than a normal cruise? Yeah, it's hands-free driving, but the driver has to be attention.

So the driver's eye direction and safe direction are monitored. And if you're not paying total attention, if you lose focus, the system will, like, it'll prompt the driver to look at the road. And if something happens to where you get unresponsive, the car will come to a controlled safe stop. There's more to it than that. I'm simplifying it, but it's really a cool thing. You know, it's funny you mentioned Cadillac.

Cadillac, of course, has been suffering in sales for a long time. And the luxury cars, foreign luxury cars, BMW, Porsche, Mercedes, have really come in. Volvo. A lot of the European cars have come in and really taken away the luxury car market from Cadillac. Now, you could argue about quality and a lot of other things, performance. But one of the things that you're reading about in the news today are tariffs. And there are no tariffs on the European luxury cars. So they're really able to come in, Mercedes, BMW, Porsche,

are able to come in and compete against Cadillac, whereas American cars sold in Europe have a very high tariff. So that's just a little, I don't want to get political here, but I'm just saying that it'll be interesting to see what happens to Cadillac sales if and when the tariffs are put on B&W, Mercedes, and the rest of the European luxury cars. And as I say, a lot of the reason Cadillac sales have suffered have been because of quality and some other things. But price disadvantage, unfair disadvantage, is a reality. Yeah.

An unrelated subject, but something I think is important. There's a car dealer, I think it's the Nissan car dealer. They're always having these crazy ads. and one of them is saying, this drives me nuts, $5,000 for your trade in, drag it in, drive it in, push it in. They don't care, $5,000 for your trade. But what they don't explain to you is that they want to put you in a car that you can't afford. Because, no, you can't buy a $10,000 car. You have to buy this $30,000 car over here in order to get the $5,000 off.

Yeah, that's one of the old-school tricks. And the problem is the people listening to this radio show, especially if people like you, Tina, they call in. You know, they laugh at these ads. You see an ad, and we have them all over the East Coast, too. Some of the most outrageous, stupid, you say, how could anybody be dumb enough to think that they're going to get me $5,000 for my car if I have to drag it in or tow it in?

But people believe it. And these people are taking advantage of. They don't listen to Earl Stewart on cars. They don't go to, they don't Google research. They don't go to Edmonds or Kelly Blue Book. They don't do any homework. They go in and they buy the car they get taken advantage of. And people like this need to be protected.

And that's the reason we need regulators. We need legislators. We need people to take care of the people that can't take care of themselves. And there's a lot of reasons for it. Very young people are exploited. Very old people are exploited. People that English is not their first language. People that, unfortunately, don't have the education.

And everybody in our society isn't so sharp and aware and educated that they can defend themselves against ads like $5,000, even if your car is in a basket, we're going to give you $5,000. But people fall for it, T.N. These people, I think I know the deal you're talking about, I think he also has a Kia dealership and maybe a Hyundai dealership. He's over there in your area, and he does some outrageous ads. It's Sutherland, it's Sutherland Nissan. He's the one that really pushes it. And at the end of the mentors, he'll say, I have to get rid of this many models worth of cars and he'll just offer this outrageous discount.

Yeah, he's the largest Kia dealer. He's the largest Kia dealer in the world. And he sells like four or 500 Kia's a month. He outsells the toilet dealer because he lies better than anybody over there in the West Coast. He tells the most outrageous and he aims at the victims, the people that will believe they could get $5,000 for a pile of junk that they towed in. So, yeah, that's interesting. We need to maybe do a video YouTube of one of his advertisements and put it on.

Now that we're live and in color, and we're doing a podcast and YouTube, I'd love to have one of those ads. Yeah, definitely. It's going to be huge. Yes. And Nancy, I found something really cool, and I'm not a Forbes reader. I'm not of their demographics, but I found something really cool. we've been talking about autonomous cars lately and I sent a link to the text that there's a company called phantom and what they're going to be doing is level four autonomous cars they're going to be able to overtake the car in a safety situation so it works by cellular signal and there's an actual human operator and they can stop the car they can steer it out of trouble they can whatever I mean it's really really a very clever thing and there's way

more to it. I sent you guys a link you can discuss it at length, but I just thought you'd find that very fascinating bit. Absolutely. Autonomous cars, now that there's this startup company, it's going to make autonomous cars a lot safer. Absolutely. Well, thank you, Tina. Thank you very much. I'll take a look at that link. And Tina, again, thank you for being part of the show. You always bring so much information to the table. Back to Tina pointing out the newspaper and TV ads and unbelievable just whenever you think that you've seen and heard it all

they never cease to amaze any of us and for the poor unsuspecting car buyer it's really unfortunate so knowledge is power as I always say give us a call tool-free at 877-9-60-99-60 or you can text us 772 697

excuse me 497 653-0 now back to the recovering car dealer well thank you let's talk about

now I've got a text here which is I came in from the West Coast which is kind of cool I love it when we get people watching us from afar and I'm just going to read the text it has to do with a RAP for lease question I went over on my mileage

excess mileage on my Toyota Rav for 2016 that I lease for three years. I'll be over by about 30,000 miles. Wow. That's a lot of mileage to be over. But I do want to buy the vehicle in cash for my wife. Any suggestions on what my options are?

How should I handle this issue exceeding the miles? My wife recently wants to keep this SUV. How can I deal with a Toyota dealer? I'm in a bad position. And this is from Georgia and Los Angeles. George, that's great. You're lucky.

I know it sounds like you're unlucky, but the fact that you want to buy the car is your savior here. This is which bails you out of a very, very serious situation. I'm not sure what your mileage charge would be. Sue, what's the mileage on a rap for or lease? Typically, 20 cents? 18 cents a mile. 18 cents a mile. So you do the math, 18 cents.

That's over $5,000 on 30. What is that? 18 cents. Yeah, about $50, almost $6,000. Penalty charge for going over. So, chances are you have an option to purchase that RAP for in your lease contract. It's a residual value, which is your right, your option to buy. Chances are the purchase price is going to save you because it certainly wouldn't be over $6,000 or less than $6,000 from the market value.

You'll be able to buy the car and come out way ahead on the deal. But the way you do this is, just to be sure, you want to get a market. value analysis on your RAB 4 so you get that by having it appraised by a toilet dealer or anybody that thinks that they want to give you an extra vigor you could go to any car dealer you could go to CarMax and I'm sure you have CarMax out there in California say you want to sell your car they'll tell you what the market value of your Rav 4 is and then you can use that to judge based on the residual option purchase price you have and exercise your option and that'll save you several

thousand dollars and a lot of people don't know they have that option fact the matter is usually the option doesn't do you a whole lot of good because the option is not something that would be lower than the market price so if it's not lower than the market price you're better off not to exercise it market price means you can buy one just like it for a lower price so thank you very much for your text and all you folks out there that don't want to be on live radio Our text number is 772-497-65-30. That's 772-497-65-30. That's pretty impressive.

He's texting us. It's 5.30 in the morning out there. I was just going to say that. I was going to thank George for listening and texting us from L.A. 5.30 in the morning. Thank you for your dedication. For all of you, if you would like to join in the fun that we're having, Any of the information you'd like to share with us, 877-960-90-60, maybe a car-buying experience.

If you're a little shy, 772-497-6530. And now we are going to go to Pat, who's been holding. She's a first-time caller. Oh, great. Good morning, Pat. Good morning. How are you all? We're well, thank you. Very good.

I'm calling this morning. I've been trying to reach you for now for over a month, but every time I try to dial I get the wrong number, it's not your fault, it's mine. I just want to say thank you for this show. I wish I had listened to this show before I bought the car that I have now because I would have been much better off.

But I just want to thank you all for this show. It's very informative. Well, thank you, Brad. That means a lot to us. Yes. We do a lot of talking on this show, and sometimes we wonder how many people are really listening and absorbing what we have to say.

And would you mind sharing with us what you would have done differently when you bought your previous car? You don't have to, if you'd rather not. But maybe that would help some other people that might be in your position who are listening to the show. Well, I went to a dealership to be both looking for a car and a truck, my husband and I, and we started searching around. We heard about you being the best around.

So we went to you guys first, and we were looking for something specific, but the salesperson, and no offense to you, but the salesperson was not user-friendly, shall I say? As we went in there, he wanted to know exactly what we wanted, and I didn't know what I wanted for a car, and he says, well, I can't help you until you can tell me what you want. Oh, boy. So that made us walk away, and we went to another dealership,

and the other dealership that I went to, and I'm not going to mention to, was far worse. We ended up buying the two vehicles there, but I will never, ever go there again. That's my experience. Well, I'm sorry you had a bad experience at my dealership, but I'm glad that you learned from the show. And next time you're in the Margaret Vergar,

you'll be forewarned and forearmed. And I know you can, you sound like a very sharp person who learns from this show, and next time you go in, you'll get a good deal, and you'll have a much more pleasant experience. Hope you can listen some more. And I'll see you. I'll call you on your phone.

Okay. You do that, Pat. And please call in again. We really lobby heavily for female listeners. That's the reason Nancy is waving a $50 bill at me right now. She has $50 for you. Oh, my goodness. She's got $50 for you, Pat.

You're a first time. Well, thank you. Absolutely. And all you other ladies out there, we do this twice. So if there's other female listeners, who haven't called the show before, we're not, you know, we have no shame here. We pay $50 because we love women. We think we need more women callers, and that's what we're going to do.

And Nancy, we'll be sure that you get that $50. Just stay on the line and give us your information. I'll get that checkout to you, Pat, and spread the word. See if you can get some other ladies to give us a call and share their stories. Oh, I sure will. Thank you. Thank you. Give us a call toll free at 877960, or you can text us at 772-497-60, and boy, the studio is just lit up here.

We have some great backdrops behind us. I'm sure everyone can see it, and I believe that Stu is the man. So congratulations, Stu, for a job. Well done. Oh, no, no. Thanks goes to Fast Signs of West Palm Beach. Okay. Back to Roll Stewart.

Thank you. Got another text. And again, for you, texters, some people are just not extroverts. They don't want to be on live radio. I don't blame you. But the texting number is area code 772-497-653. Oh, that's 772-497-653. 3-0 and we've got a text right here i regarding the airbag recall my 2007 lexas

es 350 had this issue i called my dealer on the first week of every month for nine months meaning the issue he's talking about is i got a problem but they don't have the part to fix it the inflator is the part for a long time parts weren't available sometimes the brands that makes catch up sometimes they don't we just heard about kia and unde they've got over a million vehicles on the road with no fix. So what this gentleman did with his 2007 Lexus is he called the dealer on the first week of every month for nine months. Now that's persistence. Isn't it a shame that you have to do that? Isn't that a shame? He said the parts manager, he knew on a first name basis. This paid off when he alerted me to an incoming shipment of replacement parts and I wound up being the first. The squeaky wheel gets to oil. is what he says, and that is great advice. It's a shame that I have to say this, that there would be a more organized fashion

if you have a car that you're driving with a defective airbag that can kill you, and I know I sound dramatic. You know, I get mad at meteorologists and weathermen when they say hurricanes, you're all going to die. So I feel foolish when I say here, people out there driving those kios and Hyundai's, and Toyotas and Lexus and Hondas,

with defective airbags, you can die. I mean, if I didn't say it, I'd be remiss, right? Yes. I got to say it like it is. So, tip, if you are having trouble on a car that you're driving, first of all, this gentleman here was driving a car that could kill him. He should have tried to get a loaner from the Lexus dealer, but the car is fixed now, so that's academic.

So the first step, when you have a car that has a defective airbag, is don't drive it, park it. Then you call the dealer and you say, I demand a free loaner car or I demand you reimburse me for the car I'm going to rent because I'm not going to drive that death trap. And if they say no, you call the manufacturer. And if they say no, you call your attorney. If we had more people out there that were getting excited about this, but you'd be surprised. In the studio right now is a newcomer to our show.

is Melissa Barton. She's our public relations person. And Melissa is listening to the show for the reason of understanding more about this Ticada airbag recall problem. And not just Ticada, there are other problems with airbags, and there are other problems with dangerous recalls. And she's incredulous as I am, is the fact this thing doesn't receive more publicity, that we're watching things on the news that are far less important than the death traps that are on the road, the millions of death traps that are on the road with defective airbags and other recalls. I mean, there was a, I believe it was a Hyundai Sonata in Tampa that burst into flame

the other day on the road, and no one was killed, thankfully, but this is a type of thing. It was a Kia. Yes, it was a Kia. And the person that owned the Kia was never notified by the manufacturer that there was a recall. And fortunately, just by a stroke of luck, somebody driving by, saw the car was on fire, waved at the person, had the person pull over, and then the car was suddenly engulfed in flame. She got out in the nick of time.

So Melissa Barton is handling our publicity now is going to try to get through to some of the local media and say, listen, it's important that you publicize the fact that a lot of your listeners, watchers, readers, the people that are your customers too, are driving, Death traps. Let them know. Tell them about safercar.gov. www.safercar.gov. At least people are aware this Kia person that could have been died, could have burned to death,

they're on I4 in the Tampa area. If she'd have known about safercar.gov, she could have gone online, found out her Kia was a death trap. So we need to get the word out. And hopefully we can do this through this radio show, through our blog, and through any other means possible. Absolutely. Great information.

Ladies and gentlemen, just a reminder if you're unable to listen to us live, the live show, or you want to listen to any other past shows, you can always go to Rowan Cars, and there you can find YouTube podcast, blogs, a lot of information to empower you. Remember, I always say, knowledge is power. Our number is 877-960-99-60, and you can also text us at 772-497-6-5-30. You know, I wanted to mention something. The Consumer Report has been talking about for a while, and that's the sunroofs and the dangers that they pose. And there was a particular woman out in Houston who's had her sunroof explode.

food. So if any of you haven't read about that, Consumer Report, I always say. It is something that Earl and I, it's our Bible at home. And the 2018, I talked about it last week, the auto issue, that's the April issue, will give you recalls and safety updates, everything that you want to know, the best used cars. So if you did can pick up an addition of that, you should. Back to the recovering card dealer. The text are working real well this morning, folks. Thank you very much for all you texters out there. I'd love to have you call, too. I actually prefer the call, but the text is second best, and the text number is 772-4976530. Again, that text number, very code 772-497-6530, And, of course, the colon number is 877-960-9960. That's 877-960-90-60. Got a text.

The text says, Hi, Earl. I typically buy and keep my new cars for 15 years. Wow. The recent change of technology, safety mechanisms, and engine technology has caused me to question, continuing with this approach. Do you think it might be better to switch to a three-year lease? now tremendous question it's a question that is especially important because of the data the technology the knowledge the explosion we're talking about autonomous cars yes you should be trading at a shorter

cycle and remember i'm a car dealer so don't believe everything i say we car dealers would love to sell your cars every three years instead of 15 years i will say i respect the fact that you were able to buy car and maintain it the cars today are built better than they ever were before you can drive a car for 15 years and 300 000 miles or 400 000 miles more today than ever before time was 50 years ago 50 000 your car was getting ready to fall apart the cars today are built so well they'll last for a long time so if you have to keep the car and you maintain the car you can do it however caveat safety It's a good thing. They have got things on cars today that you couldn't even dreamed about 25, 50 years ago.

Things that will save your life. If you haven't purchased a car, if your old car is five years or more old, you will be startled at what the increase safety can mean to you and your family. Even if you don't want to buy a car, you owe it to yourself to check consumer reports like Nancy always said, find out a good, safe, reliable car. Go in, check it out, or just check it. it out online. Don't go into a car dealership. They'll just try to hassle you and sell your car. Go online, find out what is available in safety. But I would recommend that you

shorten your purchase or lease cycle to about three years. Because three years from now, today's cars will be almost technologically obsolete. I think we have a caller. We do. But first, I'd like to tell the ladies that, you know, women simply just want to experience a straightforward and a fair transparent respect situation whenever they come into a dealership and that's all we want and I can't stress enough that we would love to hear from more ladies and I am going to go to our call and that's from West Palm Beach and that's Meg. Meg thanks for calling. Hi, my question is, we purchased a Ford fusion for my son a couple of years ago when he was going off to college,

and it's an older vehicle, but it was in good shape. We just got a recall on it for the passenger airbag. I'm concerned as the age of it, I'm concerned about the driver's airbag, too. Can we request to be replaced? Well, Meg, the passenger's airbag, of course, is an important consideration. And if your son can't get that fixed, is a fix available for the passenger bag? Meg, can you hear me? Yeah.

Go to safercar.com. .gov, put the VIN number in of the Ford Fusion, and this will tell you if a fix is available. If a fix is not available, as I said earlier in the show, demand a free loaner car for your son to drive or demand reimbursement for a rental car so you can keep him safe. But if a fix is available, you want to get that passenger side fixed right away. If it is a driver's side issue too, it will be on the safercar.gov website. Sometimes these have airbag recalls for both, sometimes just the driver's side, sometimes the passenger side. Now, the push comes to shove and you have to drive the car to get to school or get to wherever you need.

If you have to have the car, you can just not carry any passengers in the front right hand seat in the passenger seat. You carry them in the back seat and you can sit on the driver's side, but you can't have anybody, if you do have somebody in the passenger side, obviously you're risking their life. First thing you need to do, Meg, is find out if the fix is available. If the fix is available, fix it. Fix not available, then demand a free loaner car. If you can't get the loaner car, just be sure your son understands. Don't have any of his friends driving with him in the passenger side because you're putting that friend at risk.

And Meg, thank you very much for the call. Go ahead. I'm sorry, we're getting in and out here. I thought you were off the line, but what were you going to say? we are getting a rental car they did say we could have one okay but I'm concerned about the driver's airbag if the age of the car is that the passenger side isn't good I'm concerned still if he were to get an accident that driver's side

the NHTSA is pretty good about that and if they do not have a recall on that then the driver's side would be safe Rick has a comment hi Meg the main issue that they're having with that recall is the inflator that actually operates to blow the airbag out and what a lot of car companies have done in order to keep from being considered what's called monopolizing on using only one company one producer makes the inflator for one side airbag but a different company makes the inflator for the other airbag so the driver side airbag is a different design inflator and

It does not have that issue that the Takata airbags have. The Takata inflator is the one that can literally explode like a pipe bomb, and those are being used mostly on passenger side on the cars. But that safercar.gov website would give you the list of any open recalls on that car. Okay. All right. Well, thank you for that information. That's helpful.

Thanks, Meg. Please call back in again. Love to hear from you next week. All right. Bye-bye. Spread the word. Give us a call to all free at 877960. Or you can text us at 772-4976530.

And remember, ladies, I have $50 for one more lady caller. So give us a call. And remember, ladies, knowledge is power. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Got another text? Love these texts. They're pouring in. 772-497-6530. Text us at area code 772-497-6530. This first text, I have several here. Earl,

Johnny from Rivera Beach, I tuned in late on the Kia Recall. My daughter drives a 2014 Kia Forte. She bought brand new. This car has been absolutely great with no problems at all. She's thinking about trading it in and getting a new one. Is her car on Recall? for the airbags. Rick will run a quick check here. Sometimes all the vehicles of a particular year and model. I already checked for Takata. They're not under any Takata recall, so it's

probably the other one that you guys are talking about. Okay, great. Okay, we got the answer is no. On your 2014 Kia Forte, there is no recall. Not Takata. Not Takata. I'm checking right now. Yeah. And write this website down, if you haven't already, www.safercar.gov.

That's the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, N-H-T-S-A, www.safer, S-A-F-E-R-C-A-R-C-A-R-G-O-V. And you put the VIN number of your daughter's car in, and that will give you that information. By the way, you can also call the Kia dealer, and he can take the van and do the same thing, or you can go get the Carfax report. Carfax has this information.

Once you have the VIN, you can get the information a lot of places. And the third place is the manufacturer. You can call the 800 number, and you can call the Kia manufacturer and find out. So thanks for the call, and we'll get you the information. Rick is looking right now, but again, the VIN is the way to go. Here's another call. This is Barry O'Brien. the Kia Airbag recall has been all over the news in the past few days.

So I was remiss. I didn't think it had been all over the news. It wasn't all over the news I was looking at. And maybe we just need to do a little bit more. He followed up, said it was two days ago in the Palm Beach Post. Okay, very good. Very good. Rick? On the Kia, the 2014 Kia Forte, I'm finding two possible open recalls for their car.

They'd want to check the specific VIN number, but there's one for, the brake pedal stopper, a plunger that may not retract properly, and one for a cooling fan resistor that could possibly overheat and melt down a resistor. So definitely run your VIN number through Safercar.gov to see if you have any open recalls. Yeah, we talk about to cut airbags a whole lot, but there are other airbags out there that are defective. In fact, this is the Kia, I believe the Kia and the Hyundai are not Takata. Correct. So Takata is the 800-pound gorilla.

The Takata is the airbag manufacturer that supplied most of the airbags in the whole world, and therefore there are millions and millions of cars all over the world with Takata airbags. There's so many class action suits and other suits against Takata. They went bankrupt, and some other company bought them. The name of the company escapes me. I think this company that bought them wanted the name to escape me because they don't want to use the word

Takata that's like the plague. But there's still millions and millions of Takata airbag out there and there are a lot of them being recalled. There's also other recalls out there. So we talk about Takata all the time. There are other airbags and there's all sorts of other dangerous issues

with cars. It's all about dangerous recall. There should be a law on the books that makes it illegal for a car dealer to sell you a car with a dangerous recall. That would solve the whole problem. We wouldn't be talking about safercar.gov if it was against the law and it was enforced. If a car dealer lost his license to sell cars because he sold you a car with a dangerous recall, there would be no problem.

But unfortunately, the car dealers are too powerful. And they're lobbying groups such as the Florida Automobile Dealers Association, the National Automobile Dealers Association. These are the ones that give the big bucks to our politicians, our state senators and representatives, our Attorney General, and all the other folks that should be regulating and making laws. They're being basically bought off by the manufacturers and by the car dealers and their associations.

But I've written Rick Scott a letter. I have published a full-page ad in the Tallahassee Democrat, It's the main newspaper in Tallahassee where Rick Scott should be, and he's seen the letter, I'm sure. And I've said, issue an executive order making it illegal for Cardinals in Florida to sell cars with dangerous recalls. I mean, that's a no-brainer. It's so easy. Can anybody out there tell me why that's a bad idea? Rick Scott, with a stroke of a pen, can solve this whole problem, as could Pam Bondi, the Attorney General, as could any of the people in Tallahassee that we elected,

to do the right thing by us, but they don't want to pass any laws to do this. Why? Because the car dealers would get very angry with them as well as the car manufacturers. If they did that, we could sleep in on Saturdays. Absolutely. Uh-oh. Ladies and gentlemen, they say you can't fight City Hall. Well, let me tell you something right here. We're fighting City Hall our way. And that is by helping you with these car dealer tricks that continuously, just every single day, there's something trickier from the car dealers. And I'm not saying that they're all bad people, but we're here to point out the ones who, well, may take advantage of you.

And that www.w safercar.gov and enter your VIN number, check to see if your car is recalled. 877-960-99-60 or you can text us at 772-497-6-9-30. We're going to go to John from Palm City. John's a regular caller. Good morning, everyone. I want to ask a question, especially to Rick. Have you ran across any missing side-view mirrors that have been stolen from cars? Stolen from the cars?

Yes. It's a rash of the mainly new. New York City, some in Fort Lauderdale, some in Miami. Takes less about 30 seconds. Don't ask me what they do with the part. They clip the wire part of it with a wire cutter, and it's a rash of, especially in the, particularly in the Bronx of New York City. But there is a way to stop it.

There's a website, www.w.com. They sell you for $199 a part that has. carbon steel in it, it's power coated, it has 15, 16 screws, and they'll never be able to get that off. Wow. How's it looked? It's so bad that they're even order a discount for a New York City resident of $25 off on it. It's the only company since December 2015 that offers this online theft return part, and it's

it's been going, I don't know. First it started, if you remember, with catalytic converters stealing, then it was airbags, and now it's, for some reason, they got onto this sideview mirrors. Yeah, those sideviews are very expensive, John. I'm going to guess

$500, $600, because they're so fancy now with the remote controls and other electronic apparatus. I'm looking at this website, and I'm guessing, John, are they stealing just the glass portion of the mirror or the entire mirror assembly with the body and all I believe I don't have a diagram on it but I believe it's just a glass part that's what they

take I don't think they take the whole mirror but it is a maybe problem so this is a good way as they all said it's an expensive part and it's for $199 for both sides and it it is a theft-proof way to stop it John, thanks very much for the call. Thank you very much. I have a second question, too, Earl, on shopping reports. Can I make a suggestion that we do two places? The one is that's advertised on TV.

You mentioned once that they seem reliable. The Carvanna, you're buying a car online, and they deliver it. But the mysterious part is they say you can pick it up, and they show like a parking garage with multi-levels on it. I don't know how that works. and the second one is it's well it's in Pointe Beach but there's a brand new CarMax

that opened up in Martin County in Jensen Beach it's right off Route 1 and Jensen Beach Boulevard but I think we did in the past a shopping report on them on CarMax well great I didn't even know that they had one in Jensen Beach so that's good information

and it only took two weeks ago it only opened up well we'll definitely we'll definitely shop them and you know CarMax is on our recommended list. They're not perfect, but if you're buying a used car, you could do a lot worse than CarMax.

But we'll definitely shop the one of Jensen Beach. Thanks for that information. Yeah, it's on Route 1, right off, half a block off, Jensen Beach Boulevard. And then just fares, the third thing, have you ever heard, and leave it to New York City again, my friend's son,

he's in the Auto Thethft Squad in Manhattan, and they found a car, with a bogus car fax report. I asked him if he could get me a copy, but they're holding it as evidence. Have you ever heard of this? They take some kind of form, and they type in the numbers

and all the things that they want to say that's good about the car. Have you ever heard of anything like that? Not until now. But, you know, it doesn't surprise me. It's kind of scary because we keep talking about Carfax reports. We always get a car factory report

had no idea that the car dealers were counterfeiting them now. So we got phony Monroney's and now we got phony carfax reports. How do we tell if we got a phony car fax report? I guess we just have to pull one directly and compare it to the one that you got. So

that's a great call, John, and we need to now warn everybody that when you get a car fax report, don't necessarily accept the one the car dealer gives you. It might be counterfeit. Might be counterfeit. So pull your own carfax report, wouldn't that be something? What we'll do now, you really

got me pumped up now, John. What we're going to do now is we will be doing that ourselves, and then we will ask for the Carfax report. I'd love to bust South Florida car dealer that was passing out phony Carfax reports. Wouldn't that be something? Well, they're checking

out the source of it, but they're not sure. They just found it in the glove compartment from one of the cars that was stolen and recovered. Wow. So they really don't know the source of it, but I know for a fact, living in New York City for 50 years, that everything is available in bogus, private license, passport, until they put it into the system and find out that it's a phony. Great information.

I just thought, I'd mention that because nothing can shock us today. Nothing. That's great. John, thank you so much. Great information any time you call. So I just want to let everyone know you too can give us a call at 877-960-99-60. And that you can text us, we've got a lot of Texas this morning, 772-497-6530. And if you just tuned in, you're listening to Earl Stewart on Cars right here at 95.9 and 106.9 FM.

We are going to go to Steve who's holding. Good morning, Steve. Good morning, Mr. Stewart. Good morning to Mr. Stewart, if I may, and Rick and everybody. I just had a comment and a question This is what happened back then It's happening now But I wanted to thank you for your mystery shopper

For the West Palm Beach Kia here I just want to say that I didn't like it because of my experience But the general manager who served you Paul, I guess I'm glad that he did That shows that he's listening to your show Or recognize you But I don't like George

the manager there because I've had too many people there's you know I just they're sending me warranties now that for certain things that you know doesn't cover I don't know but if it goes bad I'm maybe going to eat it or I'll take it up for you and say

refinance and get a new Toyota but but I just want to thank you because you know there was a good A plus on the service and then Rick had rated it bad you know they got a bad letter great so that's good. I appreciate that because that shows

the clarity and non-bias for that. Well, Steve, I appreciate that information because, you know, we know the car dealers out there are listening and we just but we'd always like to the verification. They're very silent. They won't call the show but I have a feeling

that probably a big segment of our total audience are car dealers and their employees because why wouldn't the silent majority? Yeah. Why wouldn't you listen to this show? First of all, if, you know, if I weren't doing what I was doing and I was one of them and I had some nut like Earl Stewart on the air every week who may come into my show

and pretend to buy a cigar, I would, if I didn't listen to him myself, I would assign somebody, listen to the show, and find out if that crazy guy is coming after us again. So I think maybe we're having a positive impact because maybe we're also modifying the behavior a little bit. I mean, you have to modify it. Oh, absolutely. You have to modify, what I just said, John from Palm City, a great caller,

informed us about counterfeit Carfax reports. I had no idea. Never thought about it. So he talked about it, and we just said that we're going to go out and get Carfax reports

from dealers when we do mystery shop them, but we will have already pulled the Carfax Report on the car and that way we can bust them if there's a counterfeit. Now, if a car dealer is listening to the show,

he'd have to be mentally ill, to continue the practice of counterfeit Carfax Report. Anyway, thanks for the information again. Steve, great, great call. Keep listening and keep calling that, please. Absolutely. Okay.

Okay, I think we... Ladies and gentlemen, I remind you that we have a mystery shopping report coming up, and as Jonathan would say, there's a lot of shenanigans, so stay tuned for that. It is going to be a doozy. I have a question for both the ladies and the guys out there. Negotiation. Were you asked when you came into the dealership, do you want to negotiate a monthly payment?

Give us a call tool-free at 877-960-960, or you can text us at 772-4976530. There are a lot of tricks out there. Join in our conversation here at Earl Stewart on Cars, and I believe we are going to go to Bob, and he has been holding. Thank you for your patience, Bob. Good morning. Good morning, everyone. Good morning.

Stop raining for a few hours anyway. Yeah. I had a situation with my Mustang, 2015 Mustang, over the last weekend, where the brake lights wouldn't go off. and I was very fortunate when my neighbors alerted me to it otherwise, they probably would have been on all night, and my battery would have been dead. So I went online and I looked it up and that it wasn't a usual thing. There were these plastic pieces that were on my floor mat on the driver's side.

So the first thing I did was I pulled the fuse for the brake lights, so my battery wouldn't die. And then according to what I saw, online, it was supposedly an easy fix, a little plastic bumper that snaps into a hinge that's controlled by the brake pedal assembly. So let me go down to my friendly Ford dealer on North Lake on Monday and get the pot. The part runs about $3 or $4, and I'll snap it in there and, you know, everything will be fine. So I go down to the Ford dealer and on the website it says the parts department It opens at 7.30, but when I get over there, the sign on the door says 8 o'clock, so I had to come back.

So I went back, and the pot's guy that was very good, and he was looking it up, and we couldn't find it. So he tells me it's non-serviceable. So I said, well, what does that mean? He says, well, you can't buy the pot. Got to buy the whole brake pedal assembly, which is $60 some odd dollars. It's a replacement. And I said, well, how about a book through off of one of the other? Ford vehicles because I saw one online where it was on a Ford escort where the kid

had the same problem because Ford used to use the same setup on all their cars and he ordered me the park and then I also went around to all the local parts for us to see if I could find a bumper that would fit and no one had anything they had him for Honda's and all the foreign cars but nothing for Ford so you got the part in I tried to get it in there And, you know, I had to have the car running so I could press the brake pedal. And I couldn't fit it in there. So I had to bring the car into the Ford dealer to have them do it. And I just wanted to let everybody know.

It's a good thing. I bought the extended warranty on this vehicle because I always keep my cars long after the original warranty goes out. And I can say that I would definitely recommend everybody buy an extended warranty if they're an American-made car, if they're going to keep their car outside the period of the original warranty, because it's just ridiculous what these men, what the manufacturers have done. What they did here was they made it so you can't fix it,

you stop, you have to bring it in to be fixed. You know, so I had $100. Adoptable cost me $100 plus the tax, $107, to fix something that should cost me $4. Yeah, Mom, that's an interesting. or your listeners, if they buy a car that's an American-made car, and they're going to keep it, and they're not leasing it for three years and turning it back in, they're going to keep it five, six, seven years,

whatever it may be, that the best thing they could do is buy the extended warranty and buy it from the manufacturer. There you go. And this would be entitled to, you know, they gave me a loan of car and everything, so that was good. I don't quite sure what Toyota does, but I know for one thing that this is not the first time I've run it to this situation with the manufacturers designing stuff,

so you can't do anything with it yourself. You have to bring it in. Bob, thanks very much for a call. You make two important points for our listeners, and I agree with you on the extended service contract or the extended warranty. Be sure you buy it from the manufacturer. If you want to buy one,

do not get one from an independent or one that does not have the coverage that good manufacturers' extended warranty would have. But the other thing is, this is common practice with too many manufacturers. If you want to have a problem, they make you buy the entire module when one little component would fix. And I've even gone so far as having parts made to fix a problem when the module would be in the thousands of dollars and there'd be a little cotter pin or some little piece that you couldn't buy individually, but you could kind of make one.

And you can actually sometimes make a part cheaper than buy the entire module. But very good advice. Well, a couple of people said to me, why don't you just glue on the bumper, you know, cut the stem off because you can't get the stem through the hole. It's a little bit too big. Why don't you just glue the bumper on there? Because the bumper sits on the brake light switch, which has a pin that's spring activated. There you go.

And when the bumper sits on that switch, the light stays off. When you depress the brake pedal, the hinge moves the bumper off the switch. and the pin comes out and the brake lights go on. It's a very simple setup. But I didn't want to do that because, you know, it gets so hot inside the car. Sure. Especially over the summertime that all the time,

that glue, that glue, no matter what she is going to degrade and the thing's going to come off. Yeah. And then I'm going to wind up with a dead battery or I'll be driving around with my brake lights on and I won't even know it. So I figured I'd like the bullet, just go ahead and bring it in and let them replace the assembly.

You know, because another question I wanted to ask, you is do you think I should notify NHTSA on this? Because it is a safety issue, you know, especially anything to do with brake lights. And I just, it just, it just, good point. I think you should. I think, I think it should. Well, why there is a plastic piece like that. Exactly. And they could use some other type of material that wouldn't break down for that, for that setup. I think you're absolutely right. I think there are many ANISA issues that are not reported because they don't have a direct safety effect, but certainly indirectly

a brake light is a safety factor. If your brake lights run all the time it's making an unsafe for other people on the road. I would definitely report that. I can't tell you that Nitzhill will respond, but you should go on record email and writing, go on their website, and I'm sure there's

an area there for these notifications. If they get enough of them, then they take action. Right. Now, I just, is it up to the dealership when they have a safety issue like that, whether it be an airbag situation or brake light situation or seat belts or something like that, whatever it might be, when customers come in, they have to have those things replaced because there's

some type of an issue. Are they obligated to send that into NHTSA or not? No, no, they don't. And it would vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. Some manufacturers do have a place where they listen to these type of complaints. And some of these manufacturers, for example, Toyota has a direct contact with technicians at the dealership because they're in the trenches. They see things that the engineers and everybody else in the manufacturing company don't even see. But, no, they have no obligation or responsibility

notifying this is strictly your responsibility, and I think you should exercise it. I think you should let them know. And then they have to respond, and that's the best way to get their attention. Okay, well, that's good information. I'll make an attempt to do that during the week. I'll go online and see if I can do that.

I'll let you know how I make it out. I just want to say, you know, I enjoy your show. Oh, you know, I wanted to ask you, back when you had your Paniak dealership, you had this real old car in the showroom, whatever happened to that vehicle? It's still in the showroom, 1937 Ponteak. You're invited to come in and take a look at it. The first car my father sold in 1937. They repurchased it from the original owner, and we had a restored.

so 1937 Pontiac come on in and take a look at it listen oh that's true you have it in your showroom it's in the showroom yeah actually it runs we can still drive I have to wear a hot hat to get over there because I see there's a lot of construction going on yeah we'll loan you a heart ad come on by yeah it's worth it's worth the trip oh you can have a great weekend thank you very much I'll talk to you soon great call Bob call again please thank you we're going to go to John who's been holding good morning John

Oh, hey, good morning. Earl, I want to say, thank you for the show. I really enjoy it. I've got a question. I'm looking at buying a car here. And, you know, I've heard Carfaxes are a good resource to utilize when you're looking for a car. But now I've just recently saw something online about some of these car faxes are fakes or they can be altered or something like that. Is that the case?

And maybe you can give some insight on how to use a car fax when you're buying a car. And I'll just let you respond. and listen to the show. John, thank you very much. You know, isn't this amazing? When it rains, it pours. I had never heard about fake Carfaxes. And then John from Palm City,

and now another John from Jupiter, have both seen the publicity on this. But apparently, John from Jupiter, earlier caller, has called this to our attention. They are actually counterfeiting Carfax reports. And this was in the newspaper or television about being found in cars people bought cars the car dealer provided the purchaser with the Carfax report I guess they put it in their

glove box or something and then later on they took a look at it said hey this isn't the real Carfax report so we were astounded and all you listeners out there buyer beware when you go into a car dealership a lot of times they advertise in fact if you're a Carfax dealer they have signs and things like this we provide Carfax reports to all of our buyers. Well, you want to be sure that's not a counterfeit Carfax report. So, attention car dealers, we know you're listening. We're going to be doing mystery shops of your Carfax reports. We're going to have a legitimate Carfax report on an advertised car.

So we'll have the real one. Then we're going to ask you for a copy of your Carfax report, and we're going to find out if any of you out there are doing counterfeit Carfax Report. Rick, just a little side note on that, folks, if you're considering buying a car from a private party from someone that you've found an ad online or Craigslist or something, and you're going to buy this from another individual, get a car fax yourself on that. For the second time now in recent history, I've had a car come into the shop that the person just bought that needs major engine work and it's, It's got a mileage discrepancy. The odometer shows over 60,000 miles less than what I expect this car to be because I have service histories from Toyota that show me that the odometer is not reading the correct mileage.

Very good. So what you're saying, Rick, is that Carfax reports are not the gospel. They are not the absolute answer. And there's other reasons, too. I mean, I have dealt situations where we had a case with a Carfax report that said

cosmetic damage only and it turned out it was far more than cosmetic damage. That's correct. So what we have to do is this is a recommendation I make to anybody buying a used car. Get the Carfax report. They're about 95% accurate, but

they're not 100%. Take it to a mechanic. Take it to your mechanic. Third party. You don't want to use the car dealer's mechanic or their car, use car lots mechanic. Go to your own person that you trust. It might cost you $100, $150, and say, just do a check on this car. Is there something that I don't know about? That'll be the best $100 you ever spent.

Rick? And it certainly couldn't help if you're buying a car not from a dealership or anywhere else, or if it's not the same make dealership. If you're buying a Ford, stop at a Ford dealer and ask them if they will, run the VIN number and just print you the service history on that car. Yeah. Because that gives you a lot of information about what's been done on that car, and it takes literally less than five minutes.

I guarantee any dealership would be happy to do that because then they'll hope that you'll come back and have the car serviced with them. He just reminded me of something, Rick. That's a great suggestion. Just because there's no service history doesn't mean that car hasn't been serviced. The Ford dealer will only have the history of the people that brought it to a a Ford dealership. Very true. And I had a text, and frankly, I've got

a delusioned text. I apologize to the texters that I haven't responded to. Try to get to them next week. We're just getting too many responses, but I love it. So don't stop texting and don't stop calling. Question was, if I take my car to

an independent, and I don't take it back to a Ford dealer, and it's a Ford, or I don't take it to a Honda dealer, am I going to be penalized with my warranty? Am I going to be penalized? in any way, shape, or form, no. As long as you maintain your car according to the manufacturer's recommendations

and you do it, hopefully, from a reputable mechanic, keep a record of it. And if you take it to ABC independent mechanic and you did the service that the Ford or whatever the other brand you own recommends, and you can document that, it's just as good as having it done at a Ford dealer. It's probably a lot less expensive, too.

So that's another reason. Be sure you get a quality guy, someone that knows what he's doing, and you trust him, and he's charging you a fair price, take it to an independent. They can do the job, and that'll suffice for any warranty work that you need to claim in the future. Now, warranty work doesn't apply. All the manufacturers require that their dealers perform the warranty work,

so your independent cannot do warranty work. Great advice, ladies and gentlemen. If you didn't jot that number, Don. That's 877-960-99. And you can also text us at 772-49765-30. And remember what I said earlier, no games, no gimmicks. We're here to share the truth with you. We're going to go to Mark, who's calling from Davy.

Good morning, Mark. Hey, how are you doing? Great. What can we do for you? I got three topics I want to talk about. A couple of years ago, we talked about rotating tires. when you buy only two tires. I remembered a good possible reason why a lot of these places put new tires on the rear,

even if the car's front wheel drive. Okay, Rick. The reason for that... Go ahead. Yeah, because if the rear tires are not moved, they will age faster than the wear. Somewhat, but age usually is not a big. issue on the cars for most drivers but the main reason that they recommend to put the newer tires the the better tread tires in the back is because there's less

weight in the back of the cars on front-wheel drive cars the weights all up in the front so if you have to step on the brakes your rear tires need better tread to be able to dispel water in a braking situation in the rain especially here in South Florida so that's why they always recommend have the best tread in the rear of the car. The weight on the front of the car will help to push the water out from underneath the tires, but you don't want all that weight transferring to the front, and your back tires losing grip and sliding out on you.

Good point. A couple weeks ago, I got an ad on Facebook Messenger from a place that does ceramic coating for auto paint. Yeah, Mark, that is something I hadn't been aware of, and we spoke to Alan Napier, who is our collision repair guy, and knows all about painting. And he tells me, of course, the caveat is you want to get the right product and the right application and someone that you trust to do the work. It's very expensive, but it works. And this is the type of thing that you might see on Bentley's and Mercedes and things like this. but apparently it is very effective to protecting the paint.

I think he said that the cost was hundreds of dollars, so it's not cheap. Yeah, $750 to $1,800 is what you told me in message. Yes, okay. So that's right. You were the one that brought it up. So that's, you know, if you've got yourself a $200,000 Bentley or Rolls-Royce and you want to spend $18,000 to protect the paint, it sounds like a pretty good idea

yeah but you said you said it wasn't a good idea for daily drivers because it's not really it's awfully expensive like I have an older car so it doesn't make sense no I wouldn't say that

you could probably get a pretty decent paint job repaint your car for less than $1,800 so yeah I think that is I think it's something it's a luxury and some people just want to have you know everything they can get and if they can afford it

and I don't have an argument with them. Okay, topic number three, the app we talked about last week. Absolutely. A clean game. I have it on my phone right here, because thanks to you, Mark. What is the name of that app again? He has so many apps he'll never find us on his phone. Pure gas.

Pure gas. Yeah, pure gas. I've got it right here. I have 8,000 apps on my phone. Yes, we were looking at it last night, Mark. 8,001. I'm looking at it right now. And I just pulled it up

and it says here, racetrack, one and a half miles east, southeast, 200 North Congress Avenue, Lake Park, Florida. So all you do, the GPS tells you where you are. Of course, then it tells you where the nearest pure gas. That's what you can buy gas without ethanol. And Mark is a perfect. They have, they only have like one type of gas

without ethanol, the rest is just regular 10%. So like you go to a Wawa, for example, the hose is blue. And they're on the outer end of the pumps. And Mark's a professional driver, and he's found that using non-ethanol gas has increased to reduce his maintenance, increases mileage, and he has nothing but good things to say. And I'm assuming because you pay a little more for the ethanol-free gas, it's worth the slight added investment.

because you're getting a return. Yesterday, the Wawa on Broward Boulevard Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale was 3.42 a gallon, but still, you know, I mean, and with my older car, it definitely makes a fuel economy difference, so it costs less per mile to drive. I love just saying Wawa. I can't help myself. Let's all say it together.

I guess it's a brilliant name, but when you said Wawa, I smile, I can't help myself. I was giggling. But that's great. I mean, it's like they got one of those on the corner of Blue Heron and Garden just east of 95. And the submarine sandwiches are outstanding. Great submarine sandwiches. Okay, Mark. Thank you so much for the information.

And that was, well, Friday night recreation for Earl and I. We were going over that app. And we had some meatballs, too. So a little bit of gravy. Some meatballs. Give us a call, toll free, at 877-960. I think Stu has something to say. No, I just think you guys live in an exciting life.

772-497-6530, and I believe that we've got Doug in Boca. Welcome to the show, Doug. Hi, how are you? Good, great. I saw you guys this morning in the first morning. Sunrise Club, and Ollie was watching. Oh, a little meow. I have two questions.

Okay. One question, I have a Honda Civic SI and wanted to know, do I need to use premium gas on it? Well, the Honda Civic, I'm going to guess no, but the way to find out for sure is when you're a little cap, when you go to pump your gas, typically it's imprinted there. on the little lid that you open up before you take off your gas cap. And the other place you'd find it would be in your owner's manual. Typically, the economy cars, the lower price cars don't require premium gas. Rick, what year said, Honda? It's a 2018 Honda Civic S.I.

High compression engine. Is it a turbo? Yes, it is. I think so, yep. According to Car and Driver magazine, the Honda Civic S.I. does require premium fuel. Now, I'm going to jump in here, Doug, and say this. You could probably go down one level of fuel

instead of using the high premium. You drop down one level. And see how the car drives. If you don't have any knock, you don't have any noticeable change in your performance, go ahead and use it and save yourself some money. Manufacturers typically over-engineer, over-design, and over-recommend. When they build a car, they know that if they recommend too high an octane,

it's not going to hurt the car. But today's cars are designed to compensate a lot more for lower octane gas. And if you don't get an octane, you don't get any kind of performance problem, I would try the lower level. It might even drop down another level to see what happens. It's not going to hurt the car to do that. and you can save yourself a lot of money. And then I have one more question.

I don't know if you guys know the answer to this. But my wife's son was in a car accident, hit and run Honda Accord. And the guy destroyed our car $9,000 worth of damage on a lease car. And they just fixed it. She's pretty okay. And we have a friend who told us to file for a diminished voucher.

value, which is basically you get a, basically, an adjuster to look at the car and to determine how much less the car is after the accident. And supposedly she can collect on this, even though it's a leased car. And everybody we talked to about this said no. I don't think so. I think, interesting, we had a situation like this involving somebody from Pennsylvania used to be a customer of ours. And where the diminished value factor came in was the fact that they were going to exercise their option to purchase the car. You're not going to exercise your option to purchase the car.

So the owner of the car is the one that has to worry about diminished value. Now, you raise an interesting question. If the leasing company, Honda Leasing, says that they want to penalize you for above-average normal wear and tear because your car was involved in a $9,000 accident, then you might get into that argument. The way the leasing companies are supposed to charge you for above-average wear and tear is if there was a substandard job of repair done to your car. So if you had a first-class repair job, hopefully, was it done by the Honda dealer's body shop? No, but they used all Honda part. Okay.

Well, if it was a first class repair, then your leasing company should not charge you anything. If they try to charge you, first I would resist strongly, but a letter of diminished value would certainly protect you from that charge. I don't think it should be necessary, though. I would not pay a lawyer right now. But you could keep that in mind just in case you get into a fight with the leasing company.

But you let me know if they try to charge you, they should not charge you. You get a magnifying glass out and read that agreement. Yeah. Yeah, and your... I will definitely let you know. So if I wanted to come to your dealership and take my Honda and turn it in, then it would have to go to Honda, and you guys wouldn't be able to take care of that, correct?

No, you have to take it to a Honda dealer because they're going to require an inspection report be made. Exactly. And so when they do the inspection report, it's always a good idea. Take your smartphone or your camera. Take a picture, some pretty good pictures. Tire, tread, doors, bumpers,

any place there might be a ding or a scratch. And the interior, too. check the odometer, make a record of that. All this should be written in the lease inspection report, and before you sign off on it, be sure that you agree with their assessment of the car. If they say there's a scratch on the right rear door, verify that there is a scratch, and take a picture of the right rear door. That will avoid them trying to charge you for things that you're not responsible for. What happens a lot of times, Doug, you turn a car into a dealer and the car sits on the lot for several days, maybe several months.

Sometimes the car is driven. Oftentimes a lease car, return lease car, might have a full tank of gas. Some car salesman says, ooh, look at this. They get the keys, got a full tank of gas, they drive the car. They run into a telephone post, and they put the car back where they found it. Leasing company picks the car up, takes it back to the leasing company, and you get a bill for $3,000 because there's a dent in the car that you didn't put there. So be sure you document it.

Okay, thank you. Thanks, Doug. Great call. You're welcome. That camera is very important when you turn that car in because, you know, what Earl said, boy, it's absolutely true. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to apologize to any of you that we didn't get to, the texters. We never have, well, enough time, and we do have to get to our mystery shopping report. But I see Earl with his phone in his hand, so he may make.

be getting another text 877-960 or you can text us at 772-497-6-6-5-30 Well, let's see if we can do one more text if I can just get my iPhone to behave Yeah, we had a text from a listener in New Jersey Yeah, yeah

Jersey. Amazing. Is this the one here? L.A. Jersey? The last one that came in. Okay. Hi, Earl, I've owned a 1999 Honda cord since new. It's well-maintained and has 220,000 miles. Wow. The airbag has not been subject to the recall. However, with that said, does this airbag mechanism have a useful life age limit?

Is this something I should be worried about? I'm from New Jersey, and I love your show. That's fantastic. Text us and tell us how you found us in New Jersey. We're always curious. airbags I guess everything has a useful life you raise an interesting question the airbag warranty is not does not cover a 1999 car your car is 19 years old so all components of your car power train emission controls and safety devices are

technically out of warranty so you raise an interesting question you've just stumped Earl I think we need to do a little research on that, but it's a great question. Great question. Cars last a long time, and I don't think there's any provision for testing an airbag. Rick, if I have a 19-year-old car and I brought it into you and I'm worried that my airbag might be too old and may not work, what would you do? You're a technician.

The only thing that I could tell them is I can check to see if there are any diagnostic trouble codes in the system, which most likely there wouldn't be, and the fact that according to most sources, which I can find on the internet, airbags from about 95 on up are pretty much designed to last the life of the vehicle. That being said, it's hard to determine what's the life of a vehicle. I mean, is a vehicle actually meant to last, like in the case of you're a Pontiac, 70 years or one. A good thing it doesn't say for the life of the driver. Exactly.

Because that would be a self-fulfilling process. It certainly would be. It doesn't go off. You're dead. Well, it lasted until you died. Yeah. That's a bad joke. Anyway, there is an article on Edmonds.com that addresses this, and it's too long to read

right now, but maybe next week we could report on it. I actually looked at that one and also Auto-Trader, and both of them state that they pretty much decide that it should be okay for the life of the car. However, the expense of replacing those airbags and trying to find them when a car is that old could be, probably you wouldn't be able to do it. Well, thank you very much for the call or the text, and we're going to have to do some more research. And I have a feeling the answer is not going to be, there won't be an answer. I think because no one can tell me that anything lasts forever. if it's mechanical, we know

they... And there's got to be a difference between airbags from the 90s and airbags from the 2000s. Exactly. Exactly. Well, they're constantly improving and constantly changing. A little hard to stump the recovering car dealer. Give us a call toll free at 877960 or you can text us at 772-4976530.

And I think that we are ready to get to the mystery shopping report. Would you agree? I agree. Okay, and that mystery shop report is from Auto Nation, Toyota, Weston, Costco Auto Program. Listen up, ladies and gentlemen, this is a doozy. I'm going to do something a little unusual. I'm going to read the blog that I wrote before I do the mystery shopping report. The mystery shopping report has to do with Costco, and we've been shopping Costco-approved certified dealers for several weeks now.

We're having a dialogue with Costco and with a Costco member auto buying program, which is the Affinity Development Group. We've had telephone conversations, and we have a meeting on the 27th of this month with the Costco Auto Program folks. And we're getting calls from the Costco auto buying folks about our negativism about the Costco auto buying program and the fact that we are pointing out problems that we feel can affect listeners to the show. especially members, listening to the show that are members of Costco. Now, I wrote an open letter to the founder of the Costco Corporation. The founder is named Jim Senegal. He retired a short time ago, and his replacement is Craig Jelinek.

But I wrote an open letter to Jim Senegal, and I want to read a little bit of this letter here. And I want to go on record of saying that I can't think of a better company, a better retail company in the world than Costco. Nancy and I shopped there, online, in person. We love it. I can't say enough. Let me read this.

And again, this is open letter to the founder of the Costco stores. Dear Jim, his name is Jim Senegal, S-I-N-E-G-A-L, and I copied Craig Jellinick, who is a current CEO. Dear Jim, you're my hero. The company you co-founded in 1983 is the greatest retail store in the world by all measurements. I've tried to model my company, Earl Stewart, Toyota after Costco. I struggle with one location, and I marvel how you've accomplished near retail perfection with 580 locations in nine countries around the world.

It blows me away that you personally visit each of your Costco stores every year. Isn't that amazing? Your systems and processes and above all your honesty and transparency have earned you the total trust of your customers and your employees. Any product that a Costco supplies, any company that, any product that Costco supplies, my company buys, meaning Earl Stewart, Toyota. My wife, Nancy, and I shop at Costco almost every week. Of course, it's not all about being honest and transparent and loved by your employees and customers. it's about making money and fulfilling your responsibility to your stockholders. You've done that so well that you're loved by your stockholders, including me and Wall Street.

Costco truly is a darling of Wall Street. If you don't have any Costco stock, you ought to buy it. Great company. The purpose of this letter isn't only to tell you how much I admire you in your company, is to suggest something to help you improve your company, you and others. May well ask how I could deal. to offer advice to my retail hero. There's not much about running a retail store

that I could offer you advice on. But there is one field that I'm an expert on, and that's the auto retail business. Costco Sublets is auto member auto buying program to a company in San Diego, Affinity Development Corporation. As you know, each USA Costco warehouse offers special,

very low prices to Costco members members that purchase from Costco certified dealers. This program is administered and overseen by Affinity, but Affinity, this is a part I think they don't like. Affinity allows car dealers to add additional profit to the price over and above the Costco member price. There are other issues with this program which I would like to discuss with you or your designated successor, Craig Jellanick.

Actually, Craig Jellanick is the CEO now and I... edited this particular version of the blog. I know that it's your attention that a Costco member buying a newer used car from a Costco certified dealer received the same transparent, honest, low price that a Costco member gets buying any product in one of your warehouses. This is not the case today. I would be happy to meet with you personally

or speak with you by phone to share more details and evidence of what I'm saying. Thanks for taking the time to read this letter. And again, that was addressed to Craig, no, to Jim Senegal, who is currently the, who is the founder, and then to Craig Jellanick, who is the current CEO. And I haven't had a call back from them yet. As I say, I do have a meeting with the Costco auto buying folks who are the Costco auto buying program.

They call themselves a Costco auto buying program. Now here's the mystery shop. It applies directly to this letter. mystery shop of Auto Nation, Toyota, in western Florida, which is the Fort Lauderdale area. Auto Nation, as you probably know, is the largest retailer of vehicles in the world owned by the stockholders as a public-held company. Michael Jackson is the CEO of Auto Nation. This week, we continued to shine the spotlight on the Costco Auto Program.

We mystery shopped Auto Nation Toyota using the Costco Auto Program to try to learn several things. With the dealership, follow the rules of the Costco Auto Program and, use an authorized Costco representative, show our shopper the Costco membership-only price sheet, and honor the Costco price. With the flaws of the Costco Auto Program, even if the dealer followed the rules ultimately work against the favor of our Mr. Shopper. Among the flaws with the program that we've discussed on this show include the problem with dealer fees, and dealer-installed options. The Costco dealer may show the Costco member a very low price, but he will eventually surprise the customer with a large dealer fee or multiple dealer fees. We're not entirely clear how Costco Auto Program handles dealer-installed options. We've seen language that promises 50% off the price of these unwanted items, and we've seen language

that promises no charge for them. If it confuses us, it probably confuses the Costco member. Since we've experienced a mixed bag of mystery shopping and experiences, this is about the sixth or seventh. We've been going on, yes, it's beginning of May. A mixed bag. We always learned something new. We inquired about purchasing a new 2018 Corolla L to the Costco Auto Program and we're referred to Auto Nation Toyota in Weston, that's Fort Lauderdale area, down in Broward County. In seconds, we received an official confirmation email.

The email indicated that we should expect an email from the dealership to set up an appointment. It also introduced us to the official Costco representatives who would be the ones authorized to work with our shopper. A few minutes later, we received an email from an auto-nation Toyota salesperson, Sebastian. Sebastian's email contained a first for us among Costco shops. Never happened. This never happened. a price quote in writing my email first written quote from a Costco approved dealership normally we'd have to wait till we physically visit the dealership to see the price on the

official Costco member only price sheet if we can find it this time we got our price almost immediately at least we thought Sebastian's email included a photo of the 2018 Corolla I had inquired about the price was an incredibly low 15 thousand four hundred and fifteen dollars credibly low the vehicle was in stock i've got the Venn number right here and it lists at the Venn number of course 15,415 dollars is exactly four thousand dollars below invoice four thousand dollars that's way we we below invoice now there's currently a two thousand dollar toilet cash incentive so other nations discount amounted to two thousand dollars below

which is still way, way, below invoice. Now, this written price that we got, never gotten before of my Costco member, also had a curious disclosure. There's a disclosure. All prices listed are for promotional period on in-stock vehicles only when financing with Southeast Toyota finance

with approved Tier 1 credit and include all dealer cash discounts. Never seen that before. Tier 1 plus, too. Yeah. That's like 740 up. Very high. You've got to be the Pope.

You've got to be, you've really got to have their credentials with that kind of a beacon score. Incentives offered are in lieu of, and this is the fine print disclosure, incentives offered are in lieu of, it cannot be combined with special APR offers. Dealer retains all incentives. Pricing does not include taxes, tag, and electronic filing fee, and dealer fees. It doesn't tell you what the amount of the fee is, and it doesn't. doesn't tell you what the dealer fees or the electronic filing fees. It doesn't tell you anything.

It just said, this price that we were startled to receive doesn't include something, but we're not going to tell you how much. Offer valid for 24 hours unless expressly specified and with copy of email only. That's the shortest expiration period. 24 hours. Hurry. Yeah.

Anyway, this two was the first. I mean, this is new. Now, this is the largest retailer of cars in the USA. AutoNation. We sent Agent X down to AutoNation Toiland Weston to find out what was going on. And here's a report, speaking in the first person as if I am the shopper. There was a pack of salespeople waiting in front of the showroom when I arrived. One broke away to approach me as I made my way to the door. He asked me how he could help and I asked him to direct me to the

restroom. That always slows him down. It's a long drive to Weston. It is. A long drive to Weston. He asked how he could help. I asked him him to direct me the rest of me, he pointed the way, and I asked if I was there to see a car. I said I was, and he replied, he'd be waiting for me. Always makes me nervous when someone's waiting for me when I'm in the restroom. Like a vulture. It makes me a little I'll be right outside. It makes me a little nervous when there's a pack of salespeople. After I left the restroom, I walked back to the front of the showroom, and I found the young man who greeted me. His name was Juan. I told him I was there to buy a new carolo. He

pointed outside to where the crows were parked. It was pouring rain and one asked if I wanted to him to get a couple of umbrellas. I suggested we stay inside until it lit up. I told him I was with the Costco Auto Program and I was referred to Auto Nation. So there, he knows I'm from the Costco Auto Program. Okay. I asked him if there was anyone in particular I needed to speak with. He said that all the salespeople worked together and that he could take care of me. He paused. then said he better check with a manager first. Juan was not listed on the Costco email. So Juan was not an approved Costco representative.

We both walked to the sales manager's tower. You know, these towers they have in the cartelagel of ships. You know, up at the top where they look down. Where the council looks down. The council looks down everybody. So we went to the tower. Juan told Shevin that I came through Costco. Shevin was the manager up in the tower.

and ask what he should do. Shevin told Juan to go ahead and take care of me. I didn't say anything about my email from Sebastian. Strike one. It's getting a little confusing, though. We got Juan, we got Shevin, we got Sebastian. Sebastian is the Costco approved member, or Costco approved representative. Juan is the salesman, and Shevin is the other salesman.

He's the one in the tower, correct? Shevin, Sebastian's the one of the tower. Oh, Sebastian's in the tower? No, Shevin. Oh, Shevin, so off the car. See, I'm confused already. So that was seven. Okay.

The rain cleared up and we walked outside. We couldn't find an L model, so one asked if I would take an L.E. He said accurately that it was about $500 more, so I agreed. Now, you wonder, why couldn't they find the car that they'd sent the VIN number on? But, okay, we agreed. We found an L.E. It was silver with an MSRP of $20,000, $928. It had an addendum, the amount of $998.

Addendums are what we call phony monronies, and they have $998 for an appearance package and dent protection. Addendum labels are phony baloney. They are adding the price, increasing the price. And we found one on the Moroni or the Phony Monroney. One that told me all about the car, and we took it for attention. and we took it for a test drive. On the drive, I told them that, I forgot to mention, I had an email from Sebastian,

the official Costco rep, about my Costco inquiry. I asked him if he should be involved in the sale. Juan again said that he and Shevin would take care of me. Juan wants to keep himself in the picture. We returned and found a table in the corner. One left me for about 10 minutes, then returned with Shevin.

Shevin is the manager from the tower. So Shevin came down from the tower? Am I getting that right? That's correct. Okay. I was expecting to see all the promise Costco documents, member only price sheet, invoice, buyer's order, etc. Juan and Shevin were empty-handed.

No documents. Shevin launched into a high-pressure close. He peppered me with questions about financing credit, down payment. When I wanted to buy, was I buying today? I said I was buying next week. He asked me, why I wasn't buying? today. I said, I didn't even know my Costco price. Shevin replied that I would get all that information once I was in finance. This doesn't sound like a Costco experience.

Does not. Finance, aka the box, I won't get into that. Let it be said about finance that car dealers make more money in finance than they do when they sell you the car. Let's also be said that AutoNation makes more money in finance than any other publicly own car dealership. They average about $2,500 per car sold in finance. So you don't want to wait until you get into finance before you find out the price of the car. Not a good idea. Where am I here? I was left alone for 15 minutes? No. Yeah, I was left alone for 15 minutes. Occasionally I could hear both of them talking and laughing somewhere out of sight. They returned and Shevin sat down. He had the evening.

email that Sebastian has sent me. He said, this was my Costco price sheet. It's not. He explained that although the quote was on the L model, the structure would stay the same for the LE, I had expected to buy. That's correct, isn't it? Because it's a discount from indoors. That's correct. I protested. I said I needed a detailed price sheet that explained all my costs. I all said I would need an itemized buyer's order. He asked me why I would need all of that when I hadn't even decided to buy the car yet. I said I was buying the car. Shevind reminded me that I was buying next week. Now he started to argue with me. A little strange and maddening. I asked if I could speak with Sebastian. He was the authorized

Costco Rupp. After all, Shevin agreed he and Juan left together again. They returned 10 minutes later with Sebastian. Finally, we get the Costco approved representative, Sebastian. Sebastian showed me a Costco member

only price sheet finally with my price $15,903 plus AutoNation's $799 dock fee he also had an invoice for the car I was buying the invoice was $19,903 so my price on the price sheet was indeed $4,000 blue invoice this match the same discount I received on the old model so far so good I thanked Sebastian, and I asked if I could get a buyer's order. Sebastian asked Shevin, if you could print one for me, Shevin said, okay, and left again. Juan didn't follow him this time.

Shevin delivered the buyer's order, and Sebastian reviewed it for me. Okay, here it is. The selling price was $15,900. It wasn't $15,903. Yeah. The sell price was not $15,903. It was $16,404. I asked why the price was $500

higher. He said it was because I was not financing with Toyota. I said, that doesn't sound right. He said it was an incentives thing. He had no control over it. It was a lie. It's just not true. It's a flat lie.

They've had bonus cash before. There is no bonus cash on a caroline out. Exactly. So they added the $799 dealer fee and this wasn't even a mention in the disclosure that we talked about earlier, $149 private tag agency fee, which is a dealer fee. Dealer fees go by all sorts of different names. Now, you take the $900, well, $7.99 plus $149, you get $948 worth of dealer fees.

And then you got another $500, which came out of the air, which was a lie about not financing with Southeast Toyota. So a lie about not financing with Southeast Toyota, $500, and then $149, undisclosed dealer fee, $799, kind of a disclosed dealer fee, but they didn't tell you how much until you bought the car. It all adds up to $1,448 more than what the Costco price was. Apple Log Auto Nation Toyota List didn't get any part of the Costco Auto Program right, and they used the Internet flaws. in the program to take advantage of our shopper. They also misrepresented the current incentives on the new 2018 Corolla to justify a $500 bump in price. A discount of $2,000 bull invoice would mean a hard, meaning a real, honest, to gosh. $7.9 lost, losing money to the dealer.

But all nation did not need to worry about this. After adding their first dealer fee of $7.99, they had less when they added the second dealer, fee, a 149, and they had absolutely nothing when they added the $500 bump, which was a lie about the financing. So the Costco price was a lure to get you in to buy the car below the dealer's true cost, and then they bump you by dealer fees, by different names, and an artificial price increase about a lie on the financing. And that's what happened to our mystery shopper at AutoNation in Weston, Fort Lauderdale, the Costco Auto Buy program. Now, we're getting a lot of pressure from the Costco

Elbib member of buying program, folks, and they're coming on on the 27th. There are threats to cancel us as a Costco dealer, meaning my Toyota dealership. They say we're defaming them. I say we're telling the truth. And I'd love to hear from anybody out there who can say to me, one way or the other, how we have. defamed anybody because all lawyers know that the perfect defense against liable and slander

is the truth is there anything we said that is not the truth it is all true yeah i have nothing but praise for costco oh absolutely my problems are with the costco member auto buying program which is administered and really run totally by the affinity development corporation in san francisco and that's where we're getting all the heat and they're coming at us phone calls all sorts of emails telling us to shut up. They want me to shut up. They don't want me to be talking on the radio show. They don't want me to be posting on blogs.

They don't want podcasts. They don't want YouTube. They don't want the truth. And there you have it. Okay. I think we should vote. Well, it would be easy one. Yeah, we're going to vote.

Very easy. You folks that are listening in the Mystery Shopping Report. This is the automation store in Weston, Florida. near Fort Lauderdale. Rick, you want to go first? Absolutely, and I'm probably one of the easier graders, but I'm going to say it's an easy F all the way around. Here, here. Nancy?

Well, I can honestly say this definitely isn't a Costco experience. And, you know, you walk, you even think of their name, and you feel comfortable. You know, you feel like as if you're really going to be, taken care of. But here, quality, satisfaction, credibility, I give it an F. Stu? I got a ditto Nancy and Rick. Double Fs. Yeah, double F, and I'm going to make it unanimous. And I'm also going to say that Michael Jackson, who is the CEO of Auto Nation, is an honest man. He's a good man. He's a good manager. He's got something like 250 stores. And in his barrel,

he got some rotten apples. Michael Jackson is well. Word gets back to you, you got a rotten apple in the barrel in western Florida, because those people out there totally disregarded the rules of the Costco member auto buying program, which we don't salute and enjoy very much anyway. But not only did they violate the rules, they try to deceive the Costco member. If the publicly owned company, AutoNation, has problems with the Costco member auto buying program, a whole lot of other car dealers are doing the same thing or even worse, and that's what we've seen from our experience.

So Costco, please help us get this straightened out. And Michael Jackson, please help us get this straightened down. Yeah, we need to restore the truth. And by the way, I'll take a moment and commend you how elegantly you wrote your column. And it blew me away whenever I read it. So, ladies and gentlemen, if you missed that, you can go to Erron cars. And you can read all of the columns and blogs that he has written. And also in the Florida Weekly and the Hometown News, you'll find his column there.

Thank you for joining us this morning, and we'll be right back here next week.