Earl Stewart on Cars - 06.15.2019 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Roger Dean Chevrolet

Episode Date: June 15, 2019

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

Welcome to Earl Stewart-on-Cars with Earl and Nancy Stewart, Stu Stewart, and Rick Kearney. Reach them with your questions at 877-9-67-9-60, and now, here's Earl Stewart. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Earl on Cars. I heard the introduction prior to this introduction about the true oldie station. Great station. Listen to it myself. I like that 60s and 70s music, but that's not what you're going to hear this morning, folks, from us. and 10 you're going to hear how not to be ripped off by your car dealer and I'm talking about car dealers all over the 50 states and I guess the world we're streaming on Facebook and YouTube and Periscope and Twitter I mean we're really in the 21st century there's not

another show like this it is a candid it is a expose what can I say we just don't pull any punches on this show we have something called a mystery shopping report I hope you feel the excitement in my voice because Nancy Stewart and Rick Kearney and Stu Stewart, you know, the team here in the studio, we truly get excited. We're happy. And, you know, you can tell a happy business, a happy home, a happy person by the vibrations. I hope you feel our vibrations because we really love doing this show. We have fun. We have some yucks, laughs. We, you know, we just smile a lot and laugh a lot. but we also convey a lot of information and that makes us feel good we're telling you something very very important you know there's two really really expensive purchases that the average person makes in a lifetime their home and their car is second and arguably i can make an argument why it's even more important than home to a lot of people i mean uh you can sleep in your car but you can't drive your home to work sometimes people have to have a car and they will actually let their home be foreclosed on and keep their car payments going

because how are they going to get to work and if they don't have a job what's going to happen they can't get to the hospital the pharmacy the grocery store got to have a car especially in places like florida we don't have mass transit around here or we have it but it's not very good so most people have to own a car and car dealers uh i guess they kind of understand that car dealers are selling a necessity. And when you're selling something that somebody positively has to have, you're in danger of being taken advantage of them. That's what happens.

For you, regular listeners, my apologies, I say this every week. And by the way, we've been doing this for about 15 years. I always talk about the Gallup Annual Poll on Honesty and Ethics and Professions. Google this, if you haven't looked at it, Gallup, G-L-L-L-U-P, Gallup poll, on honesty and ethics and professions. If you'll Google that, you'll see all the major businesses' professions or whatever you want to call it

that we deal with every day, the most popular. And they've been doing this annual poll on honesty and ethics for since 1977. Car dealers at the bottom. 2018, the last poll they did dead last. Out of all

the professions, car dealers are very deceptive in their sales practices, their advertising, The advertising is absolutely terrible. And buying a car, used or new, is really navigating a minefield. You can really get taken advantage of. And that's what this show is all about. We love doing this because we feel good about helping you.

And we get calls all the time from folks that have been victimized. We get calls from people that have listened to the show and use some of the suggestions and really have been victorious in their purchase. And I don't want to forget that the most important part of this show, one of the most importance is maintaining and repairing your car. Rick Kearney is sitting to my right. Rick Kearney is a certified diagnostic master technician. That's his official title.

That means that he started out, or that he did start out as just a mechanic, you know, 25, 30 years ago. That's when they call mechanics mechanics. Grease monkey. Grease monkey. Yeah, grease monkey. You're taking it way back. I've been called worse. And then suddenly they start calling Rick an auto technician as the cars become more sophisticated.

And he's in the 21st century now, 2019. And our cars are rolling computers, computers on wheels. They've got safety products, products, devices that are absolutely amazing. If you're driving a 2015 car, I got some bad news for you. You're driving an obsolete car when it comes to safety. technology. Now, the good news is the cars, 2015s or 14s, they last forever. Quality of cars

has risen immensely. So if you're not concerned about the safety products, then you can, if I'm suddenly louder, my son just raised my microphone. So he can't see my face. He doesn't care if you hear me. He just doesn't want you to see my face. Anyway, you're driving obsolete cars except for reliability. If you don't mind the safety thing, you can drive a

2,000, if you buy it 2015, keep it for another five years, 10 years, piece of cake, that probably only have 200,000 miles on it, not a problem. Milege and time is not a problem of quality and reliability-wise. It is a problem safety-wise. So Rick is here because I know you have questions about your car. We talk about the minefield of buying or leasing a car, minefield of repairing your car and maintaining your car. Because of the cars are so maintenance-free today, I mean,

a lot of car manufacturers are giving it free maintenance for two years even four years on your car why well because they can sell more cars that way but also doesn't cost them much money it costs very very little to maintain a car today so when you go into a car dealership they're used to having their customers spend a lot of money if you bought a car 20 years ago pretty expensive to maintain and repair car dealers got used to that and the service to Today, they have built big service departments, they have a lot of technicians, and they got a high rent overhead, and they still got to pay their service advisors, also known as service salespeople, and their technicians and their management. They've got to pay them money, and they can't pay them money if they don't sell you service. But if you don't need the service, what are they going to do?

Well, they're going to make it up, and that's what happens. So when you bring your car in to a service department today, beware. They'll have a recommended list of services, most of which isn't even required. Rick can talk about that, but he also talks about the things that's hard to diagnose like squeaks, rattles, funny smell, and there's all sorts of weird things. You're going to have a light on your dashboard pop up. You're not sure what that means. You call Rick. He can answer the question.

He can also probably save you some money. Sitting next to Rick is Nancy Stewart, the love of my life, my spouse, and also my co-pilot. She's the co-host on Real Store on Cars, a very strong dynamic women's advocate. Hashtag me too, kind of gal. And she feels strongly that women should get an equal shake when they go into a car dealership, and sometimes they don't. It's better than it was. I mean, you go back 10, 15 years, it was terrible.

You could walk into a car dealership that salesman would say, honey, go home and get your husband or your brother. Or let me show you the makeup mirror. and I'm not going to open the hood because you don't know what you're looking at under a hood and it was just a terrible thing that used to happen. That really got Nancy dander up and she's been talking

about it a lot and we have a lot of female callers now whereas when we started we had virtually none. Nancy, why don't you tell them about our super special deal for female callers? Ladies, help me build that platform here at Earl Stewart on Cars.

I have something to encourage you, offer you, to give us a call, $50 for the first two new lady callers. Call us at 877-9-60-99-60, and you can win yourself $50 this morning. Very good. 877-9-960, and you text us at 772-497-6530. We have our first female caller. I'll be with her in just a second.

I know her well, and we all love. Tina. We'll be right with you, Tina. I want to give out this text number a couple times, and I want to remind you all about we're streaming on Facebook. You can go to Facebook.com. We're also on YouTube, Periscope, Twitter. Text number 772-497-6530.

That's 772-497-6530. And, of course, the regular number is 877-960-9960. and we thrive on your calls. We're going to talk to Tina right now, and you'll understand when you listen to her why we need your calls. And Stu is taking all of the texts and so many other things. Anyway, it's a team effort here, and ladies and gentlemen, you are an important part of the show.

So, again, give us a call at 877-960-99-60, and we're going to go to Tina. Boy, I'll tell you what, the lines are lit up. So good morning, Tina. Oh, good. It looks like we just got pulled over. Good morning, everybody. How are you doing?

Hello, Tina. Let's enjoy the theme song for a second. Yeah, nobody can understand the same song, so we're going to have to. We'll explain it. Yeah, it's Tina's favorite song, folks. The devil went down to Georgia. He was looking for a soul to say. We'll just play that part next time.

That's the first time. Yeah, that's the first time I heard it because I couldn't hear it all the other times. So good morning, Tina. Oh, my goodness. Thank you so much for that. I appreciate it. Wow. Big automotive news this week in the state of Florida.

Governor DeSantis signed a bill allowing autonomous vehicles. There's quite a few rules and restrictions, but we have officially entered the 21st century in Florida. Wow. Exciting time. Tina, do you remember what some of those rules were? I suppose one of the rule is they have to always have a human in the car when the car is on the road?

Yeah, I think another one of the rules is that they have to carry quite a bit of, the company has to carry quite a bit of liability insurance. And the company also has to do their own extensive testing to make sure these vehicles are safe on the highways. Tina, may I interrupt you just for a quick second?

We have a lot of calls coming in and we only have three lines. All of our lines are waiting now and for you call us waiting, we promise to get to you ASAP. But if you call in with the three lines covered, then you're going to get a busy signal. So

we really want your calls a call back in maybe 10 15 minutes and we would love to talk to you so I'm sorry Tina I apologize for that go right ahead oh no that's okay I just I just think it's really great I mean I didn't realize that there was a bill that was proposed this this season for the house and Senate but apparently there was and now like I said Florida is entering the 21st century and governor DeSantis said okay you know everybody that's wanting to tell you know everybody that's wanting to test their vehicles in California, welcome to Florida. We want you to come over here, and I think it may be less expensive for them to come here, too. So it could open the way for a whole new industry in the state.

Absolutely. And a lot of people hearing Tina are saying, oh, my God, I'm going to be on $9.95, and some car with no driver is going to be there, I'm scared to do it. I keep telling myself, and we can statistically prove this, that of all the autonomous cars that have been tested over the years, California, Nevada, and a few other states, the accident rate is much lower for autonomous cars than cars with drunks and textures and everybody else.

So don't worry about it, folks. This is a good trend, not a negative trend. This one's an even better video. We're looking at, sorry, folks in Radio Land, we're looking at a video of a guy sleeping in his Tesla on autopilot. I saw that on the news last night. But, you know, thanks for the heads up on that. That's going to be very interesting.

I can't wait until I spot my first. autonomous car. Thanks for bringing that to our listeners' attention. A lot of bills passed just recently by DeSantis, all good ones. Yeah, this one's pretty exciting. And, you know, for anybody that's looking for a career, I would say that computer programming would be a great thing to get into because these companies are going to need people that are really good with computer programming in order to operate and monitor these vehicles. So this could be a career step for a lot of young people. It's a great time.

We're certainly moving forward. Tina, I can't thank you enough for giving us a call, and we hope to hear from you next week. Thank you. Ladies, please burn up the lines. I can't do it by myself. Thank you, Tina. Okay, we're going to go to Marty,

and Marty's calling us from Jensen Beach. Welcome to the show, Marty. Hello. Hello. Well, how are you this morning? Oh, we're wonderful. We're so excited. You have a female name and a female voice sounds to me like you must be a first-time female caller.

Yeah, my name is Alicia, and I am about to buy a new car because I was in an accident. Oh, fantastic. And I wanted to ask you, and I've heard this a couple of times on the show, and, you know, accidents are unexpected, so I really didn't find my thing. I was going to find myself in the position of needing a new car. but I wanted to ask you about the dealer's fee thing. Well, it's probably the single most important question you could have asked. Dealer fees are simply hidden fees, and the dealer fee is actually confusing name. It's become kind of a generic thing.

The dealer fees are actually hidden fees. They go by many, many different names. Oddly enough, and counterintuitably, most of them aren't even called dealer fees. They're called electronic filing fees, administration fees. dealer services fee, e-filing fee, notary fee, doc fee. I could go on and on. There's got to be 30 different fees. Give me a favor.

Go back and name some of those main ones, electronic filing fee. Yes, electronic filing fee, e-filing fee, notary fee, doc fee, private tag agency fee. Private tag agency fee. CVR fee on our mystery shopping report. That's a new one. There's even an advertising fee. There are so many fees today that you can just really get confused and just caught up. Alicia, here's the test because if we, there's no way we could alert you of all the names

because the name can be made up today or tomorrow or the next day. Florida is a terrible state in regulating and taking care of car buyers. They allow a car dealer to call a hidden fee anything they want. They could call it Alicia, the Alicia fee. They could call it the banana fee. And what they tend to do is they try to name, pick out names and sound official by government fees. And that's something like electronic filing fee or tag agency fee. The acid test of it's legitimate or not is a dealer charging sales tax on it.

If they charge sales tax on it and they have to, if it's not a government fee, that's the identifying factor. when you're looking at a vehicle buyer's order and you're looking at a you know when they're writing up the deal you can look at the list of fees they have on there and you'll see which fees they assess for the sales tax on 6% if they assess it on a fee that sounds really official it's not a fee it's profit to the dealer okay and it should not be above the sales tax line it should be below it exactly bingo yeah okay i've got a i've got i've picked a car i And I found a dealership and picked a car, and I asked them if they charge a dealer's fee. And they said they do.

They charge a $699 dealer's fee. Well, sometimes they charge multiple fees. And sometimes they will say, here's our dealer fee. We charge that. Meanwhile, there'll be two or three other fees that they don't tell you about. In fact, that's common. We mystery shop a different dealer every week, and almost every dealer has several hidden fees. I hate to call it dealer fee because the dealers will actually advertise no dealer fee.

What that means is we don't charge a hidden fee called a dealer fee. We charge a lot of hidden fees, but we call them something else. So the name dealer fee has become infamous, and therefore it's almost never called a dealer fee. When they first started years and years ago, they did call them dealer fees, but now they don't. And you just have to use the acid test. When you're shopping for a car, you should just, say, I want your out-the-door price. If you have some hidden fees, put them in there.

But I want an out-the-door price, and I'm going to shop and compare that price with your competition. That way, they will adjust the overall price to accommodate what they feel like they must include in the way of hidden fees. Okay. Okay. Okay. Alicia, I have some information for you. You know, purchasing a new car should be stress-free.

It's pretty easy. pretty simple, but for you, you can go to www.W.W. Out-the-door price affidavit.com, and there you will find an affidavit that I put together to ensure that you get the out-the-door price, and you get that car dealer, that car salesman to sign that. And if they won't sign it, walk away. Good luck with your new car purchase. And stay on the line and give Rudy your information and I'll get you out of check. $50 bucks. Okay, great.

Thank you. Oh, thank you. You're welcome. Awesome. Okay, we're going to go to Eric, who's calling us from Stewart. Good morning, Eric. Hey, Eric. You still there with us?

Hey. Hey. Yep. Good morning. How can we help you? Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.

We love the show and love the station, and my wife and I were just listening on the way down. And it's serendipitous that we heard you talking about car dealerships because our Volkswagen's been in the Schumacher Volkswagen in North Palm Beach there for over a month. Wow. And they, it's been a long, long haul, and they said it was a rear-made seal weekend, and they weren't sure, and we went back and forth. But long story short, they've had the car for a month now, and they just cannot seem to get back around to.

working on my car. The transmission is still out of the car. I called them. I've spoken to not only the service manager is who I'm dealing with, but I'm also in Volkswagen customer service. And for some reason, they're just are not putting an effort into putting my car back together. And I don't know what the recourse is at this point because we obviously need our car back. What year car is it? It's in 2004. 2014 Volkswagen Toreg. What you can do is call

the manufacturer Volkswagen. They have an 800 number. Sometimes that works. You want to take it to the top. I don't know who you're dealing with at Schumacher, Volkswagen. You should at least be talking to the service manager himself. There's only one service manager.

Oftentimes, unfortunately, a lot of people call themselves managers, but you want the real service manager. You can usually identify that on the website, if you go to the Schumacher Volkswagen website, find out who is in charge of service. Who have you been dealing with? Well, I've been dealing with the actual service manager down there, Mr. Bardell, and then beyond that, there's a Volkswagen customer service,

which is an 800 number. They used to call it Volkswagen America, but it's customer care now. what they do is they call me and they say well we're going to get an update from the dealership and we'll get back to you when we get an update from the dealership and then i get an email that says we haven't heard from the dealership and it's just been a long i just cannot get their plan of action and i would love to just go down there and meet with them because i've been a mechanic for many many years since the late 70s so i understand exactly what needs to be done to put the car back together but what i don't understand is the practice of them not working on the car do you have a loaner

eric have they given you something to drive yes they did give us a loner that that that that that which is nice enough but after after four weeks uh you know is it going to be four five seven eight weeks just this is just uh there just there just seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel and i just we do not know what to do from this point forward. Like I said, I'd love to sit down and meet with them. I'd love to take maybe another mechanic with me that can go down and meet with them and try to understand why it's physically not working on the car. Put the transmission back into the car.

Eric, let me do this for you. I know Chuck Schumacher, I've known him for many years. I have his personal cell number. text me at 772 4976530 497 what sir 6530 497 6530

area code 772 4976530 if you text me of that number I'll give you Chuck Schumacher's personal cell phone number and he's the owner of course and tell him that you're a friend of mine and you listen to the radio show and we're concerned if he could

personally look into this and expedite the repair, we'd appreciate it. That would be fantastic. I will text you as soon as possible. I'm just going to keep, I don't have anything to write that number down. And I guess when I get off the call, you can put me on a hold with someone so I can just, oh, here we go again. Anyway, I don't want to take up your air time, but... Well, thanks for calling. Yeah, the text number is 772-497-60.

thank you very much for your time i appreciate it and i will definitely text you right away thanks for going erie thank you give us a call again eric our phone number is 877 960 9060 and uh folks uh we'd love to hear from you and uh you can go to your anonymous feedback dot com and voice your opinion on how we can improve the show or any opinion at all your anonymous feedback And our phone number again is 877-960-9960, and you can also text us at 772-497-6530. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Okay, I think we're building up some text. Rick, you've got a YouTube.

We do indeed. As a matter of fact, Guy Larrabee watching from Ottawa, Canada. Oh, wow, I love it. International. We are international. Is that the capital of Canada? Ottawa, I don't think so. Hey, Guy, if you're listening on, can you send me a comment?

Let me know. Is Ottawa the capital of Canada? It is. Okay. Stu's got his geography better than mine, that's for sure. Rudy's got his finger in the air. He says, love your show. I recently bought a car from a local dealer.

I squeezed as hard as I could. Got $1,500 off the Internet price with no fees of any kind. Did I do okay? So how HUD's work? You get a trophy. If you give me your mailing address, we'll send you a trophy because that hardly ever happens. So if you bear hug the salesperson, you get a better deal. Apparently.

No. I think, you know, Canada is actually a lot more civilized. We have a university here in Palm Beach County, Northwood University, and we have a large number of... It's now Kaiser, by the way. Kaiser, called Kaiser, yeah. But we have a large number of young Canadians of college age that go through their... their auto dealer marketing course. And at one time I consulted on that to speak to the graduating students.

But the Canadian dealers as general, they're far more civilized. South Florida is Dodge City when it comes to buying the car. I mean, there's a lot of gun smoke. Tombstone. Exactly. Tombstone. So in Canada, it would be a nice squeeze of a hug. And in South Florida, you want to squeeze them by the throat.

Yeah, exactly. And we've got some more text, I think, building up on shoespad over here. Oh, yeah, yeah. All right, let's get to them. First one, no name on it. It just says, when dealers swap new car inventory, does the supplying dealer add a fee for the trade? If so, does the receiving dealer tack on that fee to the customer? That's such a great question.

That's almost like an insider question. Dealer trades are what happens in probably a third or more. At our dealership, we probably do close to half dealer trades. And we don't charge a fee And some dealers do not charge a fee The interesting thing is That what car dealers like to do is they like to cheat the other dealers By when a car dealer

This gives to show you the moral fabric Of the average car dealer And I have to include myself in there sometimes Because I have charged other dealers fees To only in retaliation And retaliation But that's what we say when we do something wrong And we want to justify it

But anyway Wait, we really, then we do have a dealer fee, but we only charge dealers. Anyway, when you go into buy a car and they don't have that particular color, dealers will go to the, on the computer, and they'll find the dealer in the area. It could be out of state even. They'll find a dealer that has that exact car because there's hundreds of thousands of cars in the region, so they look, and they call the dealer and say, I need your blue Honda Civic, and I have a white Honda Civic, can we swap?

And that's called a dealer trade. and you pay somebody 50 bucks or 100 bucks or however depending on how far it is and they go and pick up the car that you have sold and they drive it back and then you deliver it to the customer so there is an expense involved and the dealers will sometimes pass this along the customer most dealers do not pass it along the customer but what dealers do is they will charge the other dealer a fee they will charge the other deal say well we have stripes and we have this and they'll put a phony mononi on the car and they will we have a dealer trade with ABC dealer

and then we'll say okay add another $375 for stripes and what floor mats and nitro nitro everything they will do the same things of the other dealer that the dealers do to the customers and of course then the other dealer

will pass that along to the customer so it's a great question because when you do have to buy a car that was swapped from another dealer of course I almost forgot to mention be aware there's going to be a lot of mileage on the car you can have a car come in from Georgia or Alabama to South Florida

and you're looking at maybe 800 miles on a car so it's going to add mileage but you also want to know are there extra charges because of the swap not just from the cost of the person you have to send to get the car but from extra stuff that

the trading dealer is put on the car correct an ethical dealer will tell you up front if there's going to be extra equipment on the car. It's not crazy. Let's say they trucked a car in from out of state. And they say, let's, we're going to bring this in from South Carolina,

and it's going to be another $600 to transport it here. You can still negotiate that because they're likely making plenty of profit to absorb it. Maybe not, but it's definitely negotiable. It's also a reason I hate to expound, but it's such a common problem. There's also a tendency to not want a dealer trade a car because they want to sell you a car today. They want to deliver the car today.

and they'll try to talk you out of it so like everything else in life there's good things and bad things about dealer trading it. Dealer trading raises its own set of hazards but it also gets you the exact car. It brings up a good point. Dealers are very incentivized

internally to sell the oldest cars that they've had in stock because there's a carrying cost to keep those cars there. So in a perfect world they would sell you the oldest car they have an inventory but that's the one that has the what they call lot rot

with dust and flat tires and batteries that have been driven a lot. No, I'm really digressing here, but if you hadn't said that, I have a friend, actually one of my best friends, that bought a car from me a few years ago, and when I delivered the car, there was a rat in the car. I still think it was his rat. And I had to take the car back, and I asked my people at the dealership, where did this car come from, with a rat in it, and we got it from Treasure Coast Toyota.

It was a dealer traded. We dealer traded. So what I had my dealer trade person do is dealer trade the car with a rat back to Treasure Coast Toyota. Well, we actually got the rat out of the car, but they chewed through. They got the rat nest. Exactly. So that's too much digression. 877 960, 9960, 877 960, or you got text us at 77272727-9530.

Or you got text us at 772-497-6530. Let's burn up those lines again, folks. We had them jammed up for a while. And ladies and gentlemen, you never know what the dealers are up to. And negotiate, negotiate. There is always room to negotiate. It's a very important part of your trade, your new car purchase, whatever you're doing in that dealership.

You never know what they're up to. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-9-7-6-5-30. and don't forget your anonymous feedback, your anonymous feedback.com. Okay. It's your opinion. Getting back to the text. I got a very, very special one here. Steve sent this in.

It's a picture from the latest Gallup poll of honest and ethics and professions. And listen to this. Car sales people have moved up. They're not on the bottom. Members of Congress have replaced car people as the lowest trusted profession in America. Okay. And where are car dealers? Well, they're second from the bottom.

Next to the left. You know, it's funny. It's funny. Here's what it tells me. The reason car dealers exist, the reason crooked car dealers exist is because of crooked politicians. And the two of them are

hand in hand. And they are voted hand in hand and honesty and ethics. The politicians are lobbied by the auto associations and the car dealers to not enforce the laws. And we have laws on the books that would actually stop all of this from happening if it were enforced. So very interesting.

Okay, let's move along on the text. We are streaming on YouTube, like we said, and pretty much every social media channel. We have some that are coming on YouTube. This is from Michael, says, wondering, can I buy a new Toyota from a USA dealer if I live in Canada? I've heard some dealers near the border don't sell to Canadians, and that some manufacturers don't honor the warranty. I don't know the answer to that. I do know that there are difference in the emission controls.

Also, you have to watch the kilometer versus miles issue. Most of the modern cars, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, Rick, have the automatic conversion on the odometer now, so you could flip back and forth between kilometers and miles per hour. On the speedometer, but the odometer usually stays in whatever it originally was. Is that right? So that's an issue. you need to be aware of, and you also need to check on the emission controls.

I'm thinking that USA emissions must meet Canadian emissions. I believe they do, because we have bought cars from Canada in my dealership, and we sold them. And the only issue we ran into at that time was a kilometer, yeah. We have sold vehicles to Canadians. There are some issues, but honestly, we'd have to look it up and get back to you next week and let you know what those are. But it's great that you can shop in another country where you go with a better price. That would be very interesting, and we probably could do that ourselves.

We can online shop prices of cars right across the border in Canada, see how they compare with USA prices. For you folks up there, because we're international now, for you folks that are on the border states of Canada, you might be better off to drive across the border and buy yourself a car in Canada. I don't know. Okay. We have one from Havi, and this is also on YouTube. Good morning. Love the show.

I purchased the new 2019 RAM, and it's been at the dealer over. five times in over 30 days of service days, which qualified for Lemon Law arbitration. I just lost the process of arbitration due to a windshield defect that makes a whistling noise at highway speeds that drives me crazy. They say I don't qualify for Lemon Law because it's not a dangerous or mechanical issue. Can I still fight the manufacturer and reapply for Lemon Law since they cannot fix the issue on a new vehicle? Thank you. What state, can you tell? Let's see, I'll have to type back. The Lemon Laws are different in each state. They're kind of the same, but there are little differences.

And I wasn't aware in Florida that there was an exclusion, and it was only for safety-related items. I thought it was for any defect of a car that was within the manufacturer's warranty. So if you have a squeaker or a rattle in Florida, and they can't get the squeaker or rattle out, you get to another car, if it cannot be fixed by the manufacturer or the dealer. So we need to research that, find out what state it is in. I was, the dealer may be giving you Florida. Florida, okay. I think the dealer is giving you bad information.

And if you have a defective windshield, they should replace it for you. And I'd like to hear the name of the dealer. By any chance, was it a Rigo? We can give cell phone numbers. Oh, was it? A question, yeah. Let us know, we can give you the dealer's cell phone number. to call and to complain, because we know all the local dealers.

They're not my friends, but back when I was evil, I got all their cell phone numbers, and now that I'm recovering. When they trusted you. Yeah. When they thought you're among the one of them. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we want to make use of those cell phone numbers that Earl accumulated through his career. So if you need one, you just give us a call. They look at me as a dealer that went rogue.

What happened you, man? We used to be friends. All right. We have one. This is from Brian on Facebook, and there are tips for dealers, so this should be pretty good. Tips that dealers need to pay attention to. One, no haggle is the way to go. It's a growing trend in the industry.

Excuse me one second. Celia, hang on. I see your name. Thank you very much for calling. I'll be with you in two minutes. Thank you. We'll be right with you. No haggle's the way to go.

It's a growing trend in the industry. No fees. Just add tax. It's straightforward. It makes it easier for the consumer. consumer, for example, Mullanex. We've got bad news for you there. Consumers will walk of spooked, make the deal easy and simple, reassure. And finally, consumers who are easily spook by details will not be so if things are fair, simple, transparent, and honest. They will buy cars more often

if the process is easy and stress-free. And we agree with all of that except for Mullinx's dealer fee. Exactly, yeah. Mullinx has several dealerships and they all operated by one of the Mullinx family and the ones that are not have varied from the path and actually do charge dealer fees. We need to reshop that particular story, by the way. Celia Hood, thank you so much for calling. I really appreciate it. Yes, welcome to the show, Cecilia.

Hey, Celia. Hello. Hello. Hi, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Celia, let me set the stage a little bit before you tell us about your very interesting situation.

And Celia called me yesterday, and she had had an issue, her cousin actually, had an issue with a dealership in western Florida and wanted some advice because the cousin had been taken advantage of. And I'll let Celia tell you the details of that. And I gave her some information to help her. And actually, as we've done on the show today already, the cell phone number of the general manager of this particular dealership. and Celia tried, and has still so far been unsuccessful. But I'm going to turn it over to you, Celia, and please tell your story. We'd love to help you, and maybe we have some listeners that have some ideas. But please go ahead.

Yes, my cousin was in the market for a car, and it so happened that this Prius that he wanted, the color, the only place that had it was at the Weston of Toyota Weston. Yes. And so he purchased a car, and before he purchased the car, he went over what could he expect interest-wise, and I told him what a fair rate would be. And to my surprise, that the rate was actually slightly below what I said would be a fair rate for him. So we're in the court, we're in agreement with the interest rate, with the term, with the car. Everything was a good experience until he gave me the pay.

paperwork. And I inspected the paperwork. I'm a finance manager. I've been doing this for 21 years. Oh. And I'm like, oh, do you realize that you purchased all the, you purchased an extended warranty, a tire policy, a maintenance policy, and the gap insurance? He goes, no, I did not. I'm like, well, this is $5,250 worth of items. Some of it makes sense. He goes, no, well they don't make sense to me because I will be it it doesn't make sense to me I don't want to pay for these things I'm like okay no problem call the dealership tell them that you don't want them this is within a day and um when he spoke to the the finance manager the finance manager told them he couldn't um he couldn't do that for him that he couldn't um cancel the product and so he called me goes oh it's too late I can't cancel because I already signed the contract and like no wait a minute although these some of these

things are very good for you and I do recommend them if you don't want them you are allowed to change your mind you don't have to if you you thought about it and it wasn't to your advantage or you don't think it's going to work for you you are allowed to cancel these products and we did the calculations and his payment would go from 650 to five $550, he goes, that would be so much more affordable for me to pay $100 less. And so I'm like, you know, don't worry, I'll call the dealership, and I will explain the situation that maybe there was a miscommunication. We're not making any accusations.

We're not saying they did it. In that face, just that he doesn't want him, and it's a simple solution, just re-contract, have them eliminated and lower his payment without these items. We called and called and called. nobody would answer, nobody would call us back. And finally, the finance director calls me back and tells me, listen, this is not my job. I don't do these things. And the deal's been funded, and so sorry for your luck, but there's nothing we can do.

They said the deal's been funded, and it's only been two days since before you called, right? It was two days, has transpired. The first day he called and said that he didn't want it, but they said that it was nothing to be done. So once he told me this, I'm like, don't worry, I'll handle it for you. I'll give a call. In my career, if somebody changes their mind and they no longer want something, it's a no-brainer. You just, by all means, just come on in, we'll take it out, and you go about your business. It's not like he was trying to return the car or he had cold feet or.

on bars, he loved the car. And it was, this is actually just made it a happy occasion of getting the car of his dreams has turned into a nightmare. Sure. So I'm like, surely there has to be somebody we can talk to.

And that's when I called you because I tried going through corporate, but I don't know anybody. And the only way you can go through through corporate is they, you have to have a name. So that's what I was kind of looking for. when you suggested, well, give the general manager a call, which I tried numerous times, but he wouldn't return my phone calls, I was able to get his cell phone and called him. And to my dismay, he was in total agreement with what his finance manager, finance director said.

They're like, he's like under no circumstances will we re-contract. and he treated me like very extremely rude and nothing that I would expect from a general manager my experience in the car business the general manager is the captain of the ship and he's the one that decaminates where the deal is going to go in and if something is wrong he's a person to make it right and for him to not do this and not only that

treat me in a very condescending way and say that there's nothing that can be done when I know it can be recontracted. It's a two-minute deal just print a contract and that's it. Exactly. No, he's in agreement with his cronies. I'm telling you, I've never seen anything like this. Well, Celia, I really admire

your attitude and to go after this and try to solve it. and stick up for what's right. You're totally right. Your cousin was taken advantage of it. I believe you mentioned to me when we were talking that he didn't understand. Was I correct that your cousin didn't understand English very well? He doesn't.

He doesn't speak, and he speaks poorly, and he understands even worse. So maybe they did explain it to him. We're not denying that, but he said, I never agreed to it. Never agreed to it, yeah. They took advantage. He said, I listened to him. I listened to him. He was explaining these things, but I never said yes.

Yes. You know, one thing. I guess they have electronic signing, so he doesn't really get to inspect this. He electronically signs and didn't inspect the documents. One thing that I would recommend is that when you pursue this, and by the way, the general manager's name at Weston Toyota is David Matthews. And I'm shocked like you are, Celia, that this man who was high up at AutoNation, a general manager is a very important position, a very high-paid, responsible position.

And the fact that Dave Matthews stonewalled you on this is shocking to me. I think that by committing this whole complaint, you're very articulate, very smart lady, and if you were to put this in writing in an email, it would have a lot of power because AutoNation, as you know, is a publicly owned company. They have fiduciary responsibility, some great liabilities because they're a publicly owned company. And what they're doing here smacks of fraud. I don't say it is fraud. It could have been a mistake, a misunderstanding.

But at this point, it sounds, they told you something that was wrong, as I recall. You told me that they could not, they could not re-contract because it had been funded. And as you know, you're a finance manager. They can re-contact it anytime they want to. My son, Stu, has a point. Not only can they re-contact, it's up to them. They can, it's called a flat-cancel. You flat-cancel the deal.

It might cost them $150 as a fee from the lender. But the other thing that can be done is you can cancel all those products that they force down. Sure. And within days of you buying the car, you should get 100% refund. If you waited a few months, you get a prorated. And Celia, here's another thing. We've been watching Auto Nation. There's been, you may have seen it in automotive news.

I didn't know until this morning that you were a finance manager, I assume at a dealership in Florida. but AutoNation has made a major strategic change. They've cut their prices very low. Auto Nation car prices, the Prius that he bought, probably had a very good low price on it. And they have openly stated because they're a public company, they're going to try to make that money back in the finance departments.

So they're targeting the finance department with products, not an interest, as you said, which is also interesting, that you said the interest was actually a good interest rate. They are selling their branded products, AutoNation products, and you mentioned an extended warranty, AutoNation warranty. They own that warranty company, Auto Nation Tire Road Hazard Insurance,

automation maintenance insurance, Automation Gap Insurance, and that comes up to... And a $799 dealer fee. And a dealer fee. So $5,250, that's a lot of money. They probably made on... No, but that doesn't include the dealer fee.

We have to add to that, too. Wow. So the point is that they actually made very little on the sale of the Prius. My guess is a profit of $1,000 or so. And they made almost six times that with the products that they sold in F&I and the dealer fee. So that is a corporate strategic decision. And what used to be Michael Jackson? I forgot who took over from Michael Jackson, his CEO.

It was Madonna. I think it was Madonna. Okay. Took over for Michael Jackson, has stated publicly this new strategic move, and they have issued new pay plans, I'm sure, to all the general managers and the finance managers, and they're saying, okay, we're not going to focus on front-end profit. We're not going to focus on the markup of the car. We're going to have low markups because we need to do that to be competitive. And here's the human impact of that.

Yeah. Human Impact is they're losing money on the markup and the front end to be competitive. They're making it in the back end, which is the finance department. So put it in writing, Celia, and you can copy me with it. Try to get a copy of that to the CEO of Automation. If my son will Google that, we'll get you his name, and you can probably even get his email address. But I think if you push this, you can actually get this situation to handle.

Yes, and like I said, normally the buck stops with a general manager. You think if you make a request, and it's a reasonable request. Exactly. We're not asking for a discount on the car. We're not asking for any trouble. It's just quick and simple. Just please remove the products and re-contract because he could really use making $100 less in payment, which is in somebody that is a hardworking person.

and counts the pennies, $100 is a lot of money that could pay for his insurance. Sure. And for them to just flat out, not even apologize, on the contrary, treat me like some crazy lady that I don't know what I'm talking about. Celia, this is going to be a crusade for you and me, and the CEO of Waddle Nation coming in is Carl, C-A-R-L-L-E-B-E-R-T. and possibly the current, the outgoing Michael Jackson, is the former CEO. He may still be. But Carl Liebert is coming in. Email Carl Liebert and Michael Jackson, copy me, and we'll keep on this thing because it fits in.

It's almost like a conspiracy, and I think it's probably happening in Auto Nation stores all over the country. This is the largest retail of cars in the USA Auto Nation, and for them to target, the finance department to make their money and keep their prices low. They're losing money selling cars, so they have to make money back by raping the customers in the finance department. And $5,250 in finance products plus a $900-plus dealer fee is outrageous. And you and I will team together and we'll get this thing fixed and your cousin reimbursed. Thank you so much, Mr. Stewart.

You have been so helpful in this matter, and I really appreciate it. Okay, let's keep in touch. We'll continue. We'll stay in touch. We will. Celia, I just want to thank you for letting your voice be heard, and it's amazing women like you that has really changed what goes on in these dealerships. Again, thank you.

Okay, how are you? We see you holding there. It's just wrong, so we can't let this happen. That's right. That's right. Thank you, Sheila. And she's a first-time female caller, so she gets 15. bucks.

Are you still there, Sillia? Stay on the line and we'll get your contact information. We're going to send you $50 because you're a new female caller. I'll send you $50 as a first female caller. And again, thank you. Thank you so much for sharing this story with us. We're going to get the job done

with your leadership. Hauer's holding. Rick has a comment and now we need to get rolling at. Rick? Real fast, you mentioned conspiracy. I almost wonder if part of that conspiracy is not only target the customer in the finance, but targeting those that don't speak perfect English

and may not understand because of that language barrier. Absolutely. It's required as a Florida law and probably a federal law that says if you are not competent in English, there has to be a contract offered to you in your native language, and I believe that probably was never done. We have Howard holding. Good morning, Howard.

Yeah, good morning. And happy Father's Day to work. all of you. Thank you. Concerning language barriers, I know in your dealership, you have Creole speaking agents, you have French-speaking Asian, Spanish. Yes. Any other languages, by the way?

We wish we had Portuguese. We're working on that. We're trying to expand. I think that there's a big Portuguese population here. We've encountered a number of issues by 9.5. having a Portuguese native speaking. First of fact, we're actually thinking about forming a Brazilian sales team, and we'd like

to, any of you folks out there that are Portuguese speaking, BOMDIIA, that would like to get into the automobile business, we'd love to hear from you, but that's a different subject. But you're absolutely right, Howard, native speaking salespeople is very important in South Florida.

Yeah, I was a language professor in New York, so I know a lot about the different romance languages. I know a Portuguese person could probably understand 80% of Spanish, but

a Spanish-speaking person will get zip out of Portuguese. So, you know, I know that as a fact. Here's my question for Rick. I always ask these questions, and, you know, they're way out of the line, maybe.

What happened to the PCV valve in, you know, in cars? Are they still around, or is there maintenance on there actually they are still PCB valves in the cars tell us what the PCB valve is because 99% of the audience has no idea a PCV valve is a positive

crankcase ventilation of course I knew that basically what it does is the fumes inside the engine from the oil vapors gasoline everything that's building up down in the crank case of the engine this actually has a ventilation system that draws those fumes out

and puts them back into the airflow of the engine so that they can go into the combustion chambers and actually be burned along with the air and gasoline. Does that answer your question, Howard? Yeah, but why aren't they changed? Well... Why is there no maintenance, no place in the manual that says change of PCV belt? And if that's the case, when should it be changed?

That's actually a part that they have by way of technology. They've improved them to the point of which now they no longer have a little checkball in there, and they really don't require maintenance anymore. They are almost a lifetime part, and the only time you should have an issue, is if it begins to plug up and the computer would detect it and actually kick a trouble code for it, So it's become a no-maintenance item. You only replace it if it goes bad. Howard is hard for old guys like you and me

to get used to the fact that cars are so much better today than they were 40, 50 years ago. Unbelievable. The cars just last forever now. Okay, now, I'd like to talk about brake jobs. Question number one. If you're doing a brake job, let's say on a Toyota, Could you use Toyota pads or is it good to use Wagner pads?

I know they're both ceramic. What do you think about that? I have no problem with Wagner. I think Wagner makes a very good quality product. There are also other companies out there that make very good high-quality brake pads. I do recommend stay away from what are known as semi-metallic pads because semi-metallic pads, although they have slight advantages in less noise, they actually can cause more wear on the brake rotor itself, and pads are relatively inexpensive compared to the brake rotor.

Yeah, and do you have to replace the, and when you do the pads, do you have to replace the rotors, or can you cut them, or can you leave them on? What is the consensus on that? As long as the rotor is still thick enough, we recommend resurfacing or grinding the rotor to get a good smooth surface, take out any pulsation, and make a fresh surface for the new pads to ride on. And once those rotors actually begin to get too thin, then we'll recommend replacement.

But again, on modern cars and with the modern technology, rotors, I figure 200,000, 300,000 miles, maybe you might have to think about replacing them. Howard, what's a language professor being so versed in mechanics? I mean, did you do that as a sideline when you were teaching German? No, I didn't teach German. I know, I could speak German, but I taught Romance language. Oh, Romance, are you? I'm Spanish and Italian.

Wow. You're very diverse. My sideline was I taught three jobs. I taught high school at a university and night school. Wow. I did that for about 10 years, and then I got burnt out, and I went back to one job. Wow. And then I retired at age 55, and I went to Florida, where I met you,

when you were recovered, before you were recovered. You know, when you were selling, I think you were selling, flimits? A Pontiacs, you know, Maas, that's right. Yeah, you knew, you knew me when I, did I ever take advantage of you when I was evil? Yeah, never. Okay. Sorry, sorry, I'm very knowledgeable about cars. Actually, my M-O-S of the Army,

They put me in the Army. I'm a college guy. They put me in the motor pool. Oh, I do. Yeah. So I was a corporal in the motor pool through the Korean War. Yeah. So what are I going to tell you?

So I know a little bit about jeeps. I know about fording. Do you know what fording is in a jeep? I bet Rick doesn't even know that. No. Let's see. I'm going to take a guess. The octane.

That it is basically, you are making a Jeep ready to go under a underwater almost crossing a river you're the best you know everything with a snorkel has a snorkel I bet

amphibious I was able to climb steep hills and go up steps yeah you know and again underwater and that's what that's why we won World War II Howard when you were When you were in the motor pool, did you know a Sergeant Bilko?

Or a guy, did you know Private Doberman? They were both in the motor pool. That rings a bell. I guess that's going. Anyway. I've been going to go out for you long enough. I'm going to sign off now. Yeah, great conversation.

What an interesting guy. Wow. Thanks, Howard. Thanks for sharing all those details with us. Just to change gears a little bit from brake pads that we were talking about with Howard. You know, going into a dealership alone is a no-no, absolutely. You know, to purchase a vehicle, it can just make your head spin. But ladies and gentlemen, I can't repeat myself enough.

Do not go shopping alone. It is a no-no. We have a mystery shopping report coming up shortly, and it is from Roger Dean Chevrolet, and you can rate that, excuse me, you can rate that mystery shopping report, and you can go to the text number 772-497-6530, and you can help us out and rate the mystery shopper report from Roger Dean Chevrolet. Rick, did you have something? I was just going to mention maybe we ought to get Howard together with our old buddy No Hill Mike.

Oh, yeah. They'd spend days talking old army vehicles. Okay, we've got the text backing up. They're coming in as we speak. Yep. All right, let me get to them. Okay, this is from Robbie, who's a regular texter, and she's referring to Celia's call. She says, why can't AutoNation just deduct the fees from the balance of the contract?

Then they don't have to rewrite it, Robbie and Stewart. And I could probably answer that question. There's two entities that Celia is where her cousin is dealing with. One is the dealership, and the other is the lender. And I'm assuming it's Southeast Toyota Finance, because she mentioned a really good interest rate on a Prius, and they have special rates. So once that contract is signed, that contract is now between Southeast Toyota Finance and Celia's cousin. So anything, any changes on that contract would have to be agreed upon by both AutoNation and Celia's cousin. So they can make the appeal to Southeast Toyota Finance, but they still need to get AutoNation on board with that call.

And if they deducted it from the total amount of the contract, the monthly payment will remain the same. Right. And as you, if you listen to Celia's words, it was $100 per month difference. Her cousin is going to be hard pressed to be able to make the payment. So they really need to be recontracted. Okay, we've got another text. Yes, we do. Hi, Earl.

This is Ann. I know you and Nancy love Consumer Reports. Did you see that Consumer Reports loves the new Toyota Supra? They haven't completed formal testing, so it's not the official recommendation, but the article states that what they've seen so far is very good. My husband is very, very excited. He drove a super in the early 1990s. I didn't know that, and I'm glad that Consumer Reports did test drive the car. I saw some pictures of it.

They showed them to our salespeople. In fact, we got all excited because we thought we'd actually got one of the dealership. Just a heads up to all you folks out there that are thinking about buying the new supra or any new low-supply high-demand car. Corvettes are a good example. We talked about that last week with John from Palm City. Corvettes can cost a lot of money. So when you're shopping around for a low supply, high-demand car like Corvettes and Supers,

bear in mind that the car dealers will probably try to market up to you over the MSRP. And if they do that, it can get real expensive, $10,000, $15,000, even $20,000 markup. There's some people that feel like they have to have the first new model. on the block. By the way, the first new Supra went through auction, and a local person by the name John Stalupi bought that new Supra that went through auction for $2 million. Yeah, most of that went to charity. It was part of the thing, but yes, he came out of pocket, $2.1 million. Yeah, $2.1 million. So there's a fervor and a frenzy hysteria that goes into buying low supply high-demand products. So be very careful when you're buying a Supra to be sure

that you know how much over manufacturer's suggested retail they're going to mark that up. Shop around and then find the dealer that will give you the lowest markup over MSRP and get on his waiting list, get a refundable deposit, and wait a while for the

Supra, and you might even find out that six months from now you can buy one below MSRP. I'm not so sure that would happen with Super because they're not going to build very many of them. Stu. I have information that makes this even more perilous for consumers.

The first super that every dealer will get is a limited edition and a special color that they're never going to make again. So that's going to drive up the demand or the hype even more, which will lead to dealers to charge even more exorbitant markups over. We'll sell ours to John Stalupi. Huh? Maybe for $2.2 million, maybe. Hey, John.

Hey, John, are you listening? Give me a call. Ladies and gentlemen, don't be taken advantage of by greed. Please do your homework. Give us a call toll-free at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. Remember, you make the show. Rick. And please vote on the Mystery Shopping Report at 772-497-6530.

Now, Rick, has a question. I've heard an interesting rumor that the new Super is going to be limited to seven years and 33,000. thousand cars total for that seven years for the U.S., I believe. Yeah, I know it was going to be. Worldwide will obviously be more, but. Okay, let's move along with another text. Okay, we have one here. There's no name on it.

It says, Earl, what precautions do you take to prevent the spread of infectious diseases that will be transmitted from surfaces and side vehicles being sold? Thousands of hands will operate the steering wheel and shifter knobs in just one vehicle before it is sold. This is a public safety issue. I doubt many dealers do take this seriously. Well, I think just general cleanliness, we don't disinfect the cars. I think thousands of hands is a generous.

Yeah, exactly. It's like anything else. You should keep your car clean on the inside. Nancy just kept your home clean on the inside and just your customary. There's no extraordinary precautions that are taken with cars. But you're right. They say that your iPhone has actually got more microorganisms and germs and your toilet seat. That's right.

However, I would throw one little caution. This is going to go on for a long time. Rick? That's legit. Do not put hand sanitizer on any surface in your car unless you test it somewhere first because a high alcohol content in those hand sanitizers, can cause damage to some of those materials. Okay.

Good point. Good point. Another text? Yes. Here we go. It's on Facebook. First one is from Steve. It says all public companies have a shareholder relationship department. I've always had success going through them to get a response from a human.

You don't have to be a shareholder to contact them. So that's good information for Celia and her and her cousin who was dealing with auto-nation. That is a great. If you just tuned in, we had a horrific complaint. from a lady that happens to be a finance manager whose cousin bought a car from Weston Auto Nation Toyota. And they charged them $5,250 extra products in the finance department without, according to the cousin disclosing it. And so Auto Nation is a public company. And this text is very, very accurate.

When you go to the shareholders, in fact, I wouldn't, if you, If you really want to get their attention, buy one share of automation stock, and then you are a shareholder, and you have certain legal rights, and they have to recognize a stockholder in a public company. And you would definitely have your email or your letter or your phone call or whatever. You communicated to the shareholders line on the AutoNation website. It would come to a whole new set of eyes that might take this very seriously. Thank you. Okay. Next one comes from Facebook live video.

This is from Edlin. Good morning. My dealer is forcing me to do a transmission service on my 2018 Honda Accord, which has 34,000 miles on it. What is good mileage to do a transmission service, by the way? It's $360 that they're trying to charge. Please advise. Rick, what is it for Toyota?

There is no maintenance interval recommended by the factory for Toyota transmission. Okay, that's likely the same for Honda, but we don't know for sure, but we can Google it because whatever is in your owner's manual, you have an owner's manual. If not, you should have one and you can get one quickly for your 2018 Honda and look up the recommended service. If it is not a factory recommended transmission service, just say no. Turn around, walk away, and I change Honda dealers. I would go to a Honda dealer that wasn't trying to take advantage of me. We don't know that for sure, but if Stu can't find it in the next couple of minutes,

it will be, the answer will be in your owner's manual. Well, I'm looking real quick, and this is not a deep dive research thing, but just the Google suggested answer says 50,000 or 100,000 miles, but that's not from Honda. So we'll keep looking and get the actual. I'm going to go out on a limb here. I'm going to say most new vehicles, 2018, 2019, do not require transmissions. services and the older ones do but I believe there's some exceptions we're not sure Honda may be one about the only exception that I might add in there is if you've got a truck or something or

you're doing a lot of towing or in very extremely dirty circumstances say you're doing a lot of dirt road driving but your owner's manual would point that out they always they will they always see why a and in the owner's manual they will give you you the recommended maintenance, and then they will say, maybe in the frying print somewhere, but if you happen to have a truck or you happen to have a car, for that matter, and you're pulling a big trailer, then all bets are off. So they even have limits on what you can pull, and if you pull too much, then you void your warranty. You know, that owner's manual is a book of knowledge, and I believe that there are more

consumers that are referring to your owner's manual, but not enough today, but pull that out, and it will definitely inform you about your vehicle. give us a call 877-960 and you can text us at 772-49760 and I believe that Stu has some more text to share with a We're getting almost caught up. We've got two left. This first one is from M Ave. For what you guys do, your show should be syndicated across the nation. Oh, thank you.

I totally agree. You syndicators out there, you syndicators out there make us an offer and we're kind of syndicated. We're self-sindicated. Yeah, we're self-sindicated. Thank you very much. The next one is also from YouTube stream. It's from Bruce, I-N-P-B. Should I buy the 2016 Lexus LX-570 with the airbag that cannot be replaced?

I think I already know Earl's answer to this. Gosh, I didn't even know you couldn't replace the airbags in a 2016 Lexus. Well, it's probably a Takata that doesn't have a fix yet. Oh, I see. Okay. Yeah, absolutely. No, I, if that's what you mean, I thought maybe Lexus had a mental breakdown and decided to build a car without, no, I see what you're saying. Yeah, if you have a Takata airbag issue and they don't have a replacement for it, I wouldn't do it.

It's just, you know, the odds against you being killed by a Takata airbag are slim, but, you know, it's slim that you're going to get kicked across in the street, too. So why not look both ways and why not cross with the light? And, you know, why increase the odds? Don't buy a car with a Tricotta airbag that doesn't have a replacement. The chances of being struck by lightning are huge astronomical. And yet a fellow of mid-Central Florida just got hit by lightning while riding a motorcycle. I mean, we're caught up. I've read that.

Actually, I've got one other here, Fender. Just wanted to share another happy story. I bought a 2017 Toyota forerunner, a couple of things. years ago, using the methods from watching you, mainly doing the negotiations via email, I ended up getting $6,000 off sticker, and the only fee was $199 dealer fee. Fantastic. Yeah, that's great. It's so unnecessary to go into a car dealership until you're ready to, well, you need

to go into a car dealership to test drive the car. You might want to smell the leather. You might want to, you know, feel the car. and you definitely want to take it for a long test drive. I recommend you test to drive a car for at least a day, and if they won't give you for a day, a few hours, and be sure you drive it in the same conditions that you normally drive your other car. I-95, neighborhood driving, drive it wherever you drive your car

and give it to go test drive, but buy the thing online, negotiate online, get your information, everything online. That kind of advice, you just can't go wrong. We're going to go to Karen, who's called. calling from Boynton Beach. Good morning, Karen. Good morning. How's everybody? Good morning. Thank you. Second time caller, listen to you every week. Thank you. I just had a question because my Toyota year is 2014, 17,000 miles is due for its two, you know, every six months I get maintenance. And my Toyota of Deerfield, where I bought it, sent me a little coupon,

on oil and filter change with tire rotation for 45 bucks. So anyway, I started looking through some of my previous receipts from them, and I also called up Firestone to get a quote on the same thing. And one Firestone tells me $28 with a free tire rotation with regular oil, and the other one said with synthetic oil, something like $60 plus $20 for the tire rotation. So what my question is, I should have probably looked into this before. Am I supposed to be putting synthetic oil in there or regular conventional oil? Rick's going to Google that. You can't go wrong with synthetic, but then again, synthetic is more

expensive. On the other hand, the fossil oil, the regular oil, you have to change twice as often, so it's almost a wash. I'm going to guess you probably should have synthetic oil in a 2014 Yaris, but I'll confirm that. What I will say while Rick is Googling, I would say this, that all these offers that you get from Toyota dealers or anyone else on oil changes and tire rotations typically are pretty good prices, and they do that to get you in. Where you really have to be careful is when they inspect, they'll have a 25-point inspection on your 2014 Yaris, and my guess is they're going to find something far more expensive

then the $65 to fix for you. So be leery of that. And then if they quote you something that needs to be checked, changed, or replaced or fixed, then go to another dealer and get a second opinion. These get you in the door offers from dealers or independent chains are just exactly that. They want to upsell you. That's what they call it in-house. They say, we need to get them in the door so we can upsell them,

to sell them something that we can make more profit on. And my other thing, I noticed going through the bills here, from the time I had the initial 40, what is it, I think 48, let's see, it was the initial two-year free maintenance. I was getting synthetic oil in there on the slips, except one-time conventional, but usually synthetic. But then when I went to my own, that I was paying for, it looked like they were putting the regular oil in, so who knows?

Yeah, I'll watch that because synthetic needs to be changed every 10,000 miles, and the regular oil, a fossil oil, only 5,000, but you have to, so one costs a lot more, and the other one needs to change half as many times, so it's really six to one, half dozen the other. I prefer the synthetic because you don't have to go in the car dealership that often. Right, and I just don't drive the car that much either, so it gets to be where I just need. Well, bear in mind that you need to do six months or $10,000, and my guess is you're not putting $10,000 on six months,

but you still, I'm sorry, if using synthetic, you should have it changed once a year, even if you don't put $10,000 on it. Oh, okay, good. Good. Okay. Well, thank you very much, and I appreciate all the information you give us.

And Karen, let me add to this, that you really have to be careful with the emails that you receive from these dealers and the mailers. They just want to get you in the door. Yeah, Karen, if Rick finds this information on synthetic versus fossil on the 2014 yards, we will announce it later in the show if you're still looking. Okay, great. And we'll let you know for sure.

Thank you. Thank you so much. You're welcome, Karen. Keep in touch. 877-960-9960, or you can text us at 772-49-30-60. It's 5W30 standard motor oil. standard motor oil. Karen, if you're still tuned in, they recommend that you use standard motor oil 5W30, and that does mean that you should check it every six months or 5,000

miles, whichever comes first. If you can use the synthetic, but if you use it, it's more expensive, but you only have to worry about it every 10,000 miles or one year. So it's your call. The synthetic actually is a little bit better, but not a whole lot better. Earl, on behalf of the consumers, I have a question for you. How can the consumer be reassured that when she or he brought the car in for an oil change, they used either synthetic or fossil. It's apples and oranges with price, with changing the oil. So what do they do?

Ask for the can. I believe it's, I think it's written on the repair order, isn't it? The actual type of oil? No, what's Nancy saying, how can you trust the dealer? Oh, you can't. Usually, very few dealers use canned oil anymore. You could ask to see the can if they use canned oil. Most of them use bulk oil, and then it's a word of the dealership.

And it's an excellent question because it costs a dealer twice as much for synthetic. And he could just be selling you refined waste oil and calling it high-quality synthetic. So find a dealership or an independent repair shop that you can trust. Interestingly enough, I asked this question of somebody one time, somebody that knew, I said, if I gave you a sample of oil, can you tell by looking at it in any way, you'd actually have to spend a lot of money, send it to the lab to have someone tell you, whether it was synthetic or fossil oil. It's a worthy question.

They could be used in olive oil, the zola oil. I don't know. Who do you trust? That's more text. Extroversion. This is actually, oh, wow, from Steubenville, Pennsylvania. Stubanville. Can I use WD40 instead of Ranex to repel rain on my windshield?

That's from John and Stubinville. That is probably the worst thing you could do. WD40, if you spray down the windshield, will actually dry it down nice and clear. And then once it starts to rain and your wipers start going across it, that stuff will smear and reduce your visibility to near zero. That's actually an old prank that we used to do way back when I was some, shall we say, with a bit of misspent youth. You're a delinquent.

Almost, almost. I wasn't quite as bad as you, but I was close. But we went to you here. We would spray this on the windshield and it would dry down clear, but the moment it started raining, it will smear horribly. How do you get that? I'm not your father, but that's a very dangerous prank. It is. All right, moving along.

Lots of soap and water and lots of elbow grease to get that off. We got a caller. We have a caller. Okay, we are going to go to Stewart, a first-time caller. Darcy, good morning. Hi, good morning. Welcome to the show. Good morning.

Hi. What can we help you with, Darcy? I wanted to know if you're speaking to Celica again. I heard someone mentioned Supro earlier on the show. show, and there was a Celica Supra in the late 70s? Yeah, well, go ahead, Phil. Well, I think the evolution of the Toyota Super, it started off as a Celica, and then it became known as the Celica Supra. The Celica continued on its own line, and then Super kind of became its own thing.

There are no plans right now for Toyota to bring back the Celica, from what I know. Oh, okay. Yeah, but the Supra is like a really kind of a limited thing. it's not going to be like a major production thing. Most deals probably have like one or two every month. But the Salica was a great car. I think they discontinued it like around 2001 or 2002. Yeah, I think you're right.

What a time. Okay, yeah, I had several of the Celica's. Yeah. That was my first car, was a Celica Subaru. Mine. Well, Darcy, thanks very much for calling. Stay on the line. And Rudy can get your contact information, Darcy,

and I'll get that check. $50 out to you. Oh, that's nice. Thanks. Thanks for calling, Desi. You're quite welcome, and thanks for giving us a call here at Earl Stewart on Cars. Have a great weekend. All the time. All right.

Okay, 877-960-99-60, text at 772, 497-3-0, and we've got another text. There's no name on this. It just says, with all the storms we've been having in South Florida, I thought it would be appropriate to raise the issue of lightning. Most people believe they are safe in their cars But recently a woman in St. Petersburg was in her car When Lightning hit it when she was on the highway All her airbags went off and the car died

If she had Takata airbags The story would have been a tragedy Wow, I didn't know that Never thought about that, that's interesting Yeah, I always thought that the car was a safe place too But I guess if it's lightning you're not safe Yeah, we've been misled With a Takata Airbag problem

We're going to go to John, who's calling from Palm City. Good morning, John. Good morning to everyone. Hey, John. Happy Father's Day to the men. Thank you. Talking, lit up a bowl with me, talking about Super and Celica. I guess Earl must have missed it for his wife.

In 1981 and a half, I purchased for my wife a Celica 10th anniversary edition. It was a Celica, special model, Super Interior. they made them only in two-tone red i mean brown or in black very very rare car i don't think even earle grabbed it for his wife they were kind of they were hard to get difficult to get i had to go to new jersey for mine and i kept it for 17 years but i finally when i moved to florida and have a garage and rather than see it deteriorate i sold it to a friend of mine in and bayside new york but it was a fabulous car it had a deluxe interior

in it very limited I forget how many they made I've never seen another one I go to auto shows and I've never seen another one at any of these shows and I was just the one I had was in brown

and it had a beige two tone on it and it was a selica but it was basically a super interior in it with deluxe trim and just a fabulous car

probably one of the best cars ever bone. But it was an anniversary, Selica, 10th anniversary edition. Does Earl remember that car at all? I remember. I was just thinking a guy like you that knows so much about cars, and you're almost like a collector

and you follow it, I bet you would agree with this statement. If you've taken all the money that you put in the stock market of the bank over the years and picked out the right cars collector type and put them in a warehouse like John Salupe does, you'd have done a lot better than you would in the stock market.

Well, I agree with you, but I bought it, my wife used it, put very little mileage on it, and it wasn't a cheap car at the time. If I remember, I did get a slight discount, and I got a fabulous trading on a 76 Corolla station wagon I got from it, and the dealer himself that owned, it was a small dealer in Jamesbury, he said to me, if you have any more trade-ins, any, I want to have your car, because the way you service it and keep it up, and your cars with mileage, they even look brand new. but it wasn't cheap like I say I remember I still have the bill

somewhere it was a basic $10,000 which was a lot that was a recession time and for a Seleca basically it was a Seleca a lot of money at the time but a very very rare car What a wonderful gift I wanted to bring up

about is safety I really have to laugh Earl is right I mean on a 2015 it's a good car to buy his use but it's it's obsolete already for the safety equipment. But I started thinking when I was 12 years old,

I'm not even in high school yet, we had a place in the country, and I drove and actually learned how to drive private road, a model A Ford. Now, probably everybody knows how well they sold, but it's probably, when you think about it, the unsafeest car, I mean, over your head on a dashboard,

but on the outside, with the actual gas tank. Now, you talked about safety-wide. Imagine driving and having a gas tank smack in front of you, if anything ever happened, you know, with explosions or accidents. And then all the cars for years, up until 1966, when the government mandated dual-speed, two-speed windshield wipers, were vacuum windshield wipers, worked off the vacuum in the engine.

And that's up until 60. basically that it was eliminated it wasn't allowed anymore it had to be electric and as you accelerated or accelerated hard the vacuum was not there and your wipe is completely stopped probably at a moment when you needed them the most yeah so it just shows you how far we went in safety features just mention those two items alone exactly yeah but you felt safer because before you were riding a horse and they were really dangerous and you felt safer in the model model a but everything is related you're right John that's a very good observation thank you thank you very much for calling okay I guess we've got to go to

Doug and Ollie from Boca good morning Doug good morning Ollie hey guys you there Doug are you there Ollie do I have to say meow you might have to you just did yeah How are you guys? Hey, Doug. Okay, so when I go to the Honda dealership, I have a Honda Civic S.I. And they say that that car can only take synthetic oil. That's not true, then. I guess Rudy doesn't like Doug.

What do you got against Doug, man? Come on. Sorry, Doug. But we got the answer is they recommend the synthetic, but I think. think it's the same thing you can put conventional correct it's not going to hurt anything yeah well the dealers recommended booklet will generally show synthetic okay however if you want they're back we can stop talking now okay dark i'm sorry uh we hung up on you i apologize oh i thought ollie did that well maybe you did i don't know yeah so so my my manual says the owner's manual says only synthetic

oil and of course only premium but I changed my gas to the second one which is a little lower octane and it's running fine so my question is can I put regular oil in there or no yeah you can and it's just a question of having a change it twice as often I think you should stick with a synthetic because you change it every 10,000 miles or one year and if you put it in the regular oil it costs much less about half as much but you've got to change it twice as often so six of one six of one, half dozen of the other, and the synthetic is actually a little bit better oil than the fossil oil.

Okay, now I have to tell you a short story about my brother who had a toy of the silica, and the sunroof on it had a crank. And this is an interesting story because one night he was driving in Tampa, and the driver cut him off, and he wound up in the Tampa Bay. Oh, Lord.

And the way he got out is he had a crank open the sunward. and then he crawled through that. That is, that's very interesting. Because, you know, sometimes the old-fashioned stuff has got some good things about it. And I worry about the idea of going to a canal what I could open and what I couldn't open. And that's an interesting story.

Thank you very much, Doug. Okay, you guys have a great thing and Ollie says meow. Meow, right back at you, Ollie. Great hearing from you. We're going to go to John. Those are Ali's friends. And John has been holding.

Thank you for your patience. He's calling from Stewart. Good morning, John. Morning. Yeah, first of all, I was calling in. I tried for an hour to call in. Because you guys, when you say the phone numbers, you say them pretty quick. And then you give the text thing.

So maybe if you just, maybe I noticed you weren't getting any calls there for a while, and I didn't know if that's why it was. But anyway, I got in. And so I had a question about the dealer swap thing, about, you know, car dealers taking and, you know, trading cars, you know, one guy has a white one, one guy, you need to blue one or something like that. Yeah. Because I heard, and you said something about paying people to do that, you know, like $50 or $100 depending on the distance, you know. I was just wondering, how does someone, like I was involved in private education, like a principal and a teacher and a coach for like 40 years, and now I'm retired down here in Stewart, and, you know, I'd like to do something like that, but how do you get your put in the door on something like that? Well, you call me, and, you know, we'd be glad to check our requirements for dealer trade people, and all dealers are always looking for,

qualified, safe drivers, and they look for, they check your driving history, and if you don't have any accidents and you're qualified, they love to have people like you that are cut above and respectable people that they can trust with their car and the car they pick up. But you can call my dealership, you can call any car dealership, and say, I'm interested in this, and usually most car dealers are looking for good people like you that would do that. You just don't want some kid coming in that's 19 years old, and you don't want somebody that's out of DUI and you don't want someone that just looks a little shady, but

you sound like a cut above the average, and we'd love to talk to you or any dealer will. Our best driver has always been retirees. Yes, exactly. And they're just, they're reliable and they don't smoke in the car. It's just, they're good people. Yeah, that's what I figured. Yeah. Because I

see, I only had, like I had one ticket when I was in college like 50 years ago. No, I'm sorry, you're just qualified. And, you know, that was a stupid thing. That's a joke. I did, but passing on a the yellow line, and the guy saw me. But no tickets, no accidents, only accident I had in the last five years. I ride my motorcycle up in Colorado, sent a red light,

and the guy came up behind me and picked up truck and ran into me, you know. But that's it. So I'd like to do that. So that's good. I'll call your dealership and call some of the other. Yeah, Tommy's point. The other thing is I have a 2008 Porsche Cayenne. Wow.

And it has like 120,000 miles that is coming up with a 132,000 mile service thing, and they're supposed to change all these fluids. Is that necessary, or do you know? Well, I'll tell you, a Porsche dealer is going to rake you over the Coles. I owned a Porsche many years ago. Yeah, I'm not going to go to the dealership. That's for sure. Oh, you had one, okay.

John, if the owner's manual recommends it, I would recommend you have it done. I'm not at all familiar, and I know Rick isn't. either with Porsches, but a good rule of thumb, if the owner's manual says you have it done. Don't take it to a Porsche dealer, take it to a good, trusted independent, and have whatever the owner's manual says done.

And when you call my dealership, tell them you and I spoke on the radio, be sure that they understand, and we'd love to talk to you. Okay, that sounds good. I love your show. I listen to it almost every Saturday. So you guys keep up to good work. Thank you very much. Thank you. Sure. Go ahead.

Just a quick thought, if you're still listening. Go online and look for public forums for Porsche owners. And if you find people that are local around in your area, talk to them and ask who they use as a mechanic. Do this for any car you have. Great suggestion. I keep forgetting, the Google world and the Internet online world, there's no question that can be answered. And the car owners have banded together. every car, Porsche's, you name it.

They have clubs, they have groups, they have online chat rooms, and everything you ever want to know about a Porsche, Cayenne, of that age, they will have it online. Seek, and you shall find. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to share something with you and to John's statement that he made, our last caller from Stewart, you know, the price that we're paying for popularity, you're going to give us a call, and the line will be busy,

But as Earl said earlier, please give us a call back. We only have so many lines so we can only accommodate so many of our listeners. And I will try. We all will, John, to slow down whenever we do give out that phone number. 877-960-9960. Right now, we're not taking any more callers because we are going to our mystery shopping report. Actually, we're going to a couple of texts. And we, to finish this up, you can get in touch with us by text at 772-497-6530.

Now to Stu's, Texas, he'd like to share with us. All right, here we go. Hello, guys. Been listening for months now up here in Vermont. Yay. Question. I have a chance to get a new leftover 2018 Jeep Compass Trailhawk today. There is $5,500 in rebates.

They're also supposedly giving it to me for cost, and they're giving me the holdback. MSRP is 3,888, my sale price is $30,400, and then the rebate would come off. Should I expect a deeper discount than this for the car they've had on their lot for over 400 days? And I can answer that because while I was waiting, I did a little research on the 2018 Jeep Compass. I went to truecar.com to see what kind of discounts and also to verify if there was a $5,500 rebate. Now, I'm looking at Florida because True Car gives you local information, but it should be pretty close. The rebate is correct, but the discounts that I'm seeing are around $1,800 on True Car, and it looks like they're giving you a $1,400 discount.

A $1,400 discount including holdback, I'm not that familiar with Jeep Chrysler, but that sounds a little bit light to me. When you look at holdbacks and discounts to cost, I mean, a minimum of $2,000 in, holdbacks so and you can just go to truecar.com input your information they'll give you the true car dealers in your region and you can compare that true car price because true car requires that they put their deal installed accessories and all their hidden fees into the true car price so you get an out-the-door price plus government fees only from true car compare that with what this dealer told you and furthermore if you have any Costco warehouses in your area

I would look for a Jeep dealer who is affiliated with Costco Auto Program. Be careful when you go in there. Make sure you follow all the steps that you find on CostcoAto.com. Okay. Mystery Shopping report. We have one more. Oh, we have another one, okay. And this came on Your Anonymous Feedback.com.

Oh, I just lost my spot. Give me one second. Here we go. By the way, you can give us all your feedback anonymously on Your Anonymous Feedback.com. shout out to Rick Case Hyundai. Great folks. I didn't get an okay deal. I didn't get a good deal.

Not even great. I got a fantastic and out of this world deal and I'm so happy that I made the long drive there. Also, they have no problem foregoing the arbitration agreement. Just say no and the deal goes on.

I followed Earl's advice and only dealt with the dealer using the out-the-door price. Thank you. This is from a loyal listener. Wait a minute. He signed it. Loyal listener.

Rick Case. Oh, right. Well, Rick Case is admitting he took your advice then. So, hey, thanks for letting us know. And by the way, listeners, please use the anonymous feedback thing if you're not comfortable letting us see your phone number. And remind me to talk more about the arbitration agreement, because we haven't talked about that in a few months. Very important that we talk about that. But it'll have to be next week because we got the Mr. Shopping report.

I'm ready. Okay. Mr. Shop of Roger Dean Chevrolet, and this is a Takata test. Roger Dean Chevrolet is a long-standing dealership on Okeechobee Boulevard and West Palm Beach. The dealership was established 50 years ago, and the name Roger Dean is well known and respected in South Florida. Roger Dean passed away in 1997, and control of the dealerships were passed to his daughter Patty. The company has another Chevy location in Cape Coral, Florida, and also ownership interest in 21. I didn't realize this.

There's 21 other dealerships in the United States. Many in our community recognize his name from Roger Dean's Stadium in Jupiter. Stadium is the St. Louis Cardinals' spring training home and got its name after a million dollar contribution from the Dean family just before Roger passed away. I went to Rogers' funeral, by the way, and I knew him for many years. We're mystery shopped. We've mystery shopped Roger Dean Chevrolet a few times over the years.

and have gotten mixed results. The last time we were in there was in November, 2017. Our shopper, Agent X, was subjected to some pushy sales tactics and a deceptive $10,000 discount advertisement in the newspaper. Roger Dean, interestingly, is about the only car dealer that still advertises on the Palm Beach Post, and I think literally almost the only one. This time around, we're putting Roger Dean Chevrolet to the Takata test.

We found a 2010, nine years old. 2010 Honda Cord with a passenger side to cut a airbag recall. There is a fix available, but no one has bothered to get it fixed yet. I mean, nine years, and we'll find out probably in the Car Factory report later, how many times this car changed hands, but nobody's fixed this four times. Four times. And nobody gets it fixed.

They don't know what's broken. It's not their fault. That's not their fault. Make no mistake about this is a dangerous vehicle. The mere fact that there's an unstable, explosive airbag inflator situated inches away from the occupants and the vehicle is bad enough. However, there are two factors that make this especially dangerous, the age, nine years, and the climate in which it existed. South Florida, folks, I mean, we're talking tropical. You know, we're talking mosquitoes, heat, humidity.

I mean, it is, why did I mention mosquitoes? It just seemed like they go swampy. And humidity. Because that's part of the definition of Florida. Yeah, I guess you're right. The propellant is in defective Takadi Airbags grows more unstable.

Ammonium nitrate is a propellant. That's what makes it blow up. After seven or eight years, the danger begins to peak. I think it's even before that, actually. After nine years, the danger is even higher. and hot and human climates also give the instability of the explosive propell, and this stuff is what they used to blow up the place in Oklahoma. Oklahoma City, that's what Timothy Murrah building.

Yeah, fertilizer. It's basically like fertilizer. This Honda has spent its entire existence all nine years in swampy South Florida. That's where the mosquitoes came from. Yeah, that's what it is. Their bag is literally, and I'm using the word, literally in a literal sense little effect but you're actually not using it because it might be a time bomb literally but it's not ticking now we wish they ticked that was irony by the yes i know that but uh so much for the english like but the ticking uh time bomb is uh it couldn't be any worse i mean nine years nine years nine years nine years i just can't believe the car has never been fixed in nine years can i just apologize And here we have it with a show, with a Chevrolet dealer.

And remember, too, that as these Hondas get much older, some of these airbags have been known to literally explode without impact for no reason. I'm sorry, I left the word not out. It's supposed to be not using it literally. Agent Thunder was set on this dangerous mission, and that's literally a dangerous mission. I called, I'm speaking the first person like I was Agent. Thunder. I called Roger Dean Chevrolet and asked to speak with someone to use cars. I was transferred for a woman named Jamie, who identified herself as an internet sales associate.

I asked about the 2010 Honda Gord. Jamie told me it was available, and they had it online for $5,969. That's a good price. Yeah, everybody wants a car that cheap. I told her I'd come to see her right away, and she told me to ask for Frankie, Frankie and Jamie. Two men, his name wasn't Johnny. But anyway, I digress. I drive right over and arrived around 12.30 p.m. As I approached to show him, I saw a man watching me through the glass.

He got up, made his way to the door, introduced himself as Frankie. I said I was the only appointment expected. Frankie was ready for me. He said it was good to see me and suggested we go see the accord. He already had the keys on his hand. Listen to this next couple sentences. Frankie was extremely likable. He was funny.

And he had a great smile. I mean, it just sounds like description. But it's important. Nancy and I were chit-chatting around about that on the way into the radio studio. I followed Frankie into the listening to him as we got in the car, making small talk along the way. Once we found it, we opened all the doors. Let me explore after a few minutes. He suggested we take it for a ride.

He let me drive. I felt a little better about that not being directly in front of the defective airbag. For Frankie. Yeah. Well, I've said before, it's not going to help you. It ain't going to make it ever. He's got a hand grenade in there. A time bomb. It goes off three inches to the right or three inches to left. It doesn't make any difference.

Frankie did not ask for my driver's license, nor did he put a dealer tag on the car. We drove off tagless. And I don't want to get it too deep, but that's meaningful also. And I'll go back to this later if we have time.

frankly really chatted me up for the ride like he was really trying to get to know me i waited for a good opportunity to steer the conversation back to the car finally i was able to squeeze in the first of the three questions was he aware of any mechanical problems he said there were not the car had checked out remember that you'll hear this praise many times a few minutes later i asked question number two did he know if it had ever been in an accident frankly said no he'd seen the car factory report and it checked out checked out he went on to say the carfax report indicated this car was very well maintained and the service records were of the carfax report slight digression the carfax reports mostly knew have the maintenance records they didn't used to but most of the good dealers signed the authority the disclosure or whatever they have to sign to allow carfax to report all the maintenance and sometimes you can really get some good maintenance records So the Carfax report has a wealth of information, never, ever buy a used car without reading the Carfax report. As we pulled back into the dealership, I asked the final question, are there any safety issues that should worry me?

He said there were none, and referred to the Carfax again. He said again that it checked out. He reminded me that it had undergone a full inspection and was ready for sale by Roger Dean service. Now remember, this is a Chevrolet deal. dealer selling a Honda they have to take it to another dealer if it was a Chevrolet car they were selling it would be far less inconvenient for them to do that and I think this is probably the problem that the only reason that you don't see these to cut airbag fact it's money to the service department and a good used car

manager will go to his used car lot at a Chevrolet dealership and if there are any recalls he will flag them for the service department department, and the service managers, the one ought to do that, because he gets paid on this. And so you'd be nuts not to do the Honda recalls on a Honda dealership or the Chevry recalls. It's a shame because it is a matter of a convenience. If I look at a Honda dealership, I don't find Hondas with recalls. If I look at a Chevry, it's the same thing, but it's the cross brand.

And that's the reason we need regulation and we need outside people looking at this, because if I'm a used car manager and I trade in a Honda at a Chevrolet dealership, there's only one thing on my mind. How fast can I get that car washed and cleaned up and put on the lot and sold and the commission in my pocket? Sales manager gets paid on the commission. Salesman gets paid on commission. Everybody gets paid on commission on the car dealership. And if you have a non-Honda product on a Chevrolet dealership, you've got to take it to another dealership. That takes time. Time is money. And if you're a competitive car dealer, and I'm a Chevrolet guy and I call the Honda dealership and send the car over there.

Who am I going to prioritize if I'm a Honda dealer? I'm going to prioritize my customers. I'm not going to prioritize the competition, the Chevrolet dealer. And sometimes these cars will sit on the lot for weeks and they can't sell it. And that's something the regulators should understand. That's something that the legislators should understand. What they're asking people to do is against human. in nature and that's the reason these cars aren't getting fixed didn't mean to have such a long

digression um i asked if i could get a copy of the car factory report frankie said sure and suggested we go inside we sat down and frankie said he needed my driver's license now he asked for the driver's license now after he's exposed roger dean Chevrolet to a huge liability lawsuit because he let somebody drive the car they didn't have a driver's license he comes back in now he gets the driver's so we can get the personal information. I gave it to him. He's done. He left to get some paperwork.

He returned a few minutes with the papers and a bottle of water. The mandatory bottle of water. Nice touch. It's hot out there these days. Frankie put the Carfax report in front of me, showed me that there were no accidents. When he got to the part that showed the recall, I stopped him and I asked him to explain it.

Frankie said that the recall had been taken care of on June 14th, 2016. Now, anybody would believe that. If he said, yes, it's been taken care of a, yeah, sure, it's taken care of her, oh yeah, oh yeah. But when you say, yes, it's been taken care of, in fact, it was on June the 14th, 2016, that was fixed. Everybody's going to believe that, right? Very specific. Yeah.

He is woefully misinformed. Yeah. He then stated that they stand by the used cars we sell, and they're. They would not sell any vehicle without standing safety recalls. Now, I'm going back to the first page. Where am I here? I went to the part where he smiled and he was a nice guy. And my point is, what paragraph is that in?

It says, Frankie was extremely likable. He was funny, had a great smile. I followed him to the car listening to him, make small talk along the way. Now, here's the conversation between Nancy and me. And this is a great salesman can make you believe anything. And Frankie is, unfortunately, a great salesman. He has a smile, he has a personality, he has a look about him. He's trustworthy.

And he sells a lot of cars. And when Frankie tells you something, you believe it. And Frankie looked, Agent Thunder, in the eye, and said, this car has never been had a recall that has not been fixed there was a recall and we fixed it in 2016 on june 14th and actually that was the date that the recall was issued exactly yeah here's frankie so this is yeah there's frankie yeah wow premeditated premeditated uh lie and it was it was obvious to him because he read the fact that it has not been a recall. Really depressing.

At any rate, I asked for a buyer's order so I could see the price, the breakdown. Frankie came back with a buyer's order and his manager with manager thanked me from business, asked if I was ready to take delivery. I said I wanted to review the numbers and ask if it was okay, if I left my, if I, if I, it was okay if I left to get my wife in our checkbook and then returned a couple hours he said that was fine the buyer's order came uh showed me a price of five thousand sixty nine dollars which is what the online price was the internet price they added seven hundred ninety five dollars for dealer handling another name for dealer fees and a hundred

eighty dollars for a cv which is another name for hidden fees and uh what's that about it's almost a thousand dollars where yeah which is about the average in south florida um uh in the tax and tag and they the $500 for tax and tag for transfer sounds pretty high it's pretty i think they probably have some more hidden fees there i would think that the private tag agency fees hidden in there probably in there yeah so here we go uh roger dean chevillet uh failed the tecotta test in a big way not only did they represent this unfixed takata airbag was safe the salesperson erroneously told agent thunder that the recall was fixed three years ago looked him in the eye and told a blatant premeditated lie.

So we have a situation here where the salesman could have committed the crime unilaterally, lied, or could be a policy of the dealership, unlikely. I think that the owners of the Roger Dean Chevrolet have too much at stake to commit this kind of overt blatant fraud. So we have a situation where what do we do? when we vote you have to make your mind up and you vote and you decide do we fail rogerdeen Chevrolet i could tell you right now the salesman failed the salesman lied sometimes we mitigate that by saying maybe he was mistaken maybe he was misinformed but the end the car of x report he saw in black

and white this car had not been repaired uh this not got here i'm not fixed he lied on purpose so uh what are we going to do pick up the postings first we have a we have a lot They're pouring in right now. I think it's all about greed, and I give them an F, the dealership, the people that were involved, all of them. They failed. You're going to fall to the dealership because they were careless enough to employ a person that will lie to their customers. They should have known, is what you're saying. Yes.

Rick? I'm seeing two Fs already from YouTube, and I got to agree. Failure. By the way, just from a mechanic standpoint, now I can only speak for the Toyota dealership, but those safety recalls on those airbags when they come in, there's a very large number of us technicians that salivate and jump on them because we've gotten very good at repairing them. We can do it very quickly and Toyota pays us very well to do it. You make money. So we make money doing that. There's money, And I'll bet you Honda's the same way. There's money to be made the right way.

We have some time, and a little extra time to read these grades. I don't think we've ever gotten this many coming in. Okay, let's take it. Linda, of course, gives him a big fat F, which is her usual grade for bad dealers. Linda's tough like Nancy. She is, yeah. She gives an A-plus for the show.

Thanks, Linda. Oh, thanks, Linda. Thank you, Linda. Dan gives them an F-minus. Gary gives them an F, Mark gives them an F, and gives him an F. Tanya gives him an F minus, minus, minus. Sandy gives him an F,

and is shocked that our shopper wasn't even offered a hot dog. I don't know if that's a Roger Dean thing at the stadium. I don't know. And Lenny in Atlanta gives him an F, and I'm concurring with our loyal listeners, a big fat F. Yeah, absolutely. And I bet you Frankie ate the hot dog.

Frankie ate the hot dog. He probably checked out the hot dog and signed for it and ate it. Okay. I don't think we had anybody pass Roger Dean Trevely. I will say this, that there are a lot of dealerships out there that have Frankie's working for him. I can't leave Doug and Ollie out, an F from Doug and an F from Ollie. Okay.

There we have the cat. You know, Cali could overrule everyone. The cat has spoken. If Ali said, hey, we'd have had to pass it. We got the CAT scan report. That's pretty good, actually. So here we are. Flunk and Roger Dean Chevrolet, and as I said, there are a lot of Frankies and a lot of dealerships out there.

So you dealers, or you general managers, or you general sales managers, find the Frankies in your dealership. And teach them how to read it. Damn Carfax. Mystery shop, your own dealership. Your own dealership. At my dealership, we mystery shop ourselves. Every week. We mystery shop outside dealers, and we mystery shop ourselves.

You know, unless you're there in the trenches, and so what's going on, you don't know what's going on if you call your frankies into a sales meeting and say to all you frankies don't ever lie to a customer has anybody ever lied to a customer raise your hand frankie's not going to raise his hand the only way you're going to find your frankie in a dealership is the mystery chop it and root them out but you see what happened roger dean chevrolet goes on the do not recommend list roger dean is dead but the owners are alive and the owners are getting a failing grade because of frankie get rid of your cookies folks mystery shop your own show i think that wraps it up that is that was a shocking report it was i was shocked it was and ladies and gentlemen would love to hear from you take advantage of

your anonymous feedback dot com yes we would love your opinion on everything your anonymous feedback dot com and today you've really got to do your homework whenever you go out into that minefield I'm telling you, don't go shopping alone. And that affidavit I talked to you about earlier, ensure that you get an out-to-door price. So take advantage of that at www. www. Out-the-door price affidavit.com. Happy Father's Day, Daddy.

Well, thank you very much. Oh, happy Father's Day, Daddy. Thank you very much. Happy Father's Day, sir. Thank you. Happy Father's Day, gentlemen. Thank you all the gentlemen in the studio. And also I want to take a moment and thank Rudy and Jonathan for all their help

and those special sound effects that Rudy shares with us every week. We're quite a team here, and I hope that you enjoyed the show as much as we did. The recovering car dealer, I think, has something to say about his confessions. Available on Amazon.com, 100% of the proceeds. Got a Big Dog Ranch Rescue. you. 100% of the proceeds. Amazon.com. Confessions of a recovering car dealer. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, have a wonderful weekend and happy Father's Day to all your fathers out there. We'll be back next week, same time. Saturday morning at 8 a.m.

Thank you, too. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Thank you.