Earl Stewart on Cars - 06.15.2024 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of AutoNation Cadillac of West Palm Beach, FL.

Episode Date: June 15, 2024

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits a local Cadillac dealer to how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2024 Cadillac Escalade 4WD Sport SUV on their showroom floor. 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, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “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”

Hello, I'm Earl Stewart. I welcome you to Earl Stewart on Cars, a live talk show all about how to buy, lease, maintain, or repair your car without being ripped off by a car dealer. With me in the studio is Nancy Stewart, my wife, co-host, and a strong consumer advocate, especially for our female listeners. We also have Rick Kearney, an expert on how to keep your car running right. I dare you to ask a question that Rick can't answer about the mechanics or electronics of your car. Also with us is my son, Stu Stewart, our link to cyberspace through Facebook, YouTube, text messaging, and our encrypted anonymous feedback service. Stu is also the Spymaster Director of our mystery shopping report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting car dealership. And now, on with the show.

Good morning, everybody. We're back live in the studio, and you just heard the introduction, so you know pretty much what we're here for. But I'll tell you again, anyway, buying a car from a car dealer, which is about the only place you can buy a car, a new car, for that matter, is a frightening experience. It's annoying. It is considered about the least pleasurable retail business in the world. I started to say the United States, but I think the entire world, for some reason, is taken on the culture of the American automobile retail system. You've been through it before. You know exactly what I'm talking about. If you haven't been through it before, Google Gallup annual poll on honesty and professions. Gallup, that's a big number one survey organization, among other things. But Gallup has this poll been doing it for 50 years.

And you'll see all the professions and all the businesses ranked according to honesty, ethics, and transparency. and out of all those 50-some-od car dealers are on the bottom. They've been on the bottom for 50 years. So we feel this show is important. And my wife, Nancy, and I, we started this show a long time ago, about 20 years. It was only a half an hour show then. And we've grown, even changed radio stations, and now we're two hours instead of a half an hour. And it's a highly rated show, by the way.

We keep trying to make it better. I have Rick Kearney here in the studio with us, and Rick is a certified diagnostic master technician. And he's in school half the time because the technology is accelerating so fast that if you don't take a test and keep yourself up to date, you're behind the times. The new model cars that are coming out now, every one of them is a puzzle. Manufacturers are building them faster that they can build them right, and you need good technicians to do that.

So if you want to talk to Nancy, if you're a woman, you should talk to her because Nancy's reputation as a female advocate is extremely well-known. And she is single-handedly been responsible for bringing this show from the cellar all the way up to the stratosphere. We have women calling.

We have parity. Last couple of weeks, we've been right there. women's calls are intelligent, they are very articulate, and Nancy Stewart even has an incentive. I won't tell you what it is, but I'll tell you, Nancy will tell you

as who she gets on the microphone. Now, you're going to be hearing these numbers until you're tired of them, especially if you listen to a lot of the show. There's probably a few people who listen for the whole two hours, or maybe an hour, so it gets redundant. So if you're one of those, go out

kitchen and get yourself a glass of orange juice or a cup of coffee, but I'm going to give these numbers out again because a lot of people are just tuning in and say, what the hell is this? A car dealer telling us how not to be ripped off my car dealer? I got to hear that. So if you're one of those, our telephone number is 877-960-99-60. That's 877-9-60-99-60. I ask you to write it down if you can grab a pencil on the pad write it down and when you're ready for a question you call us back

you probably don't have one now but if you do if you call that 877-960 Nancy is sitting just to my left she's monitoring the calls because the call is the most important way to communicate to the show 877

960 9960 but if you're timid like a lot of people or timid. We've got something for you too. We've got Facebook. Facebook.com forward slash Erland Cars. Rick Kearney, who's our certified diagnostic master technician, also monitors the YouTube channel. So, YouTube.com, forward slash Erl and Cars. We're also on Facebook. So you make a post on Facebook, you make a post on YouTube, and it's just like, almost like calling in. We have a very special link, it's a website that you go to, and then you can communicate with us totally anonymously. I mean, you can't get through an hour of media today when there's not somebody complaining about invasion of privacy.

And it's become a huge issue. It's separated the entire country in a lot of ways. I mean, the issue of privacy versus freedom of speech. and so on and so forth. So if you want to say something that you just want to be totally quiet, you don't want people to know you said it. We have an anonymous feedback line,

wink, and that's Your AnonymousFeedback.com. Y-O-U-R-A-N-Y-M-O-U-S feedback.com, your anonymous feedback.com. Now, my son, Stu, monitors those on his smartphone when he's here. He'll be here shortly. a little late this morning. And another way to get hold of us. You're regulars, please bear with me. I apologize, because I know I've given a lot of numbers that you already know.

We have a text number. The text number is 772-497-6530. That's 7-2-497-65-30. The cool thing about the text is that we can save them. You know, we could get a text to write this minute, but we don't read the text for 15 minutes or maybe an hour. But we will get to those texts before the show is over. And it's a nice fill in for us sometimes when the phones are too quiet. And it's a great thing for you. If you got mic fright, I mean, I can't believe that I'm sitting here in front of a live microphone and all my words, if I say something really stupid, which I've been known to do,

20, 30, 40,000 people here. So you have to kind of get over that. and I it's fun and I and then if that isn't enough I say something stupid I've got anonymous feedback they can tell me what they think of me and I don't I can't come to your house and get you so I really wish you would participate I say this all the time your calls your text your anonymous feedback make the show now I'm going to turn the mic over to Nancy Stewart and she is as I say the female advocate all you ladies are like out there listen up and then she's got some great information for you good morning everyone and

welcome uh real quick i'll mention to you that um we're excited to offer a special promotion uh just for the female listeners uh the first two new lady callers uh you can win yourself 50 and you have until i'm going to say 9 30 uh to give a call in and uh say hello or uh get some advice or offer us some advice. Number is 877-960-99-60. I'm sure that a lot of the ladies that have leasing on their mind, servicing, purchasing, purchasing, a vehicle would be, well, happy to get some advice from all of us here at Erlon Cars. Again, that number is 877-9-60-99-60. We're going to go right to the phones and thank Tom for hanging on as long as he did. Good morning, Tom.

Oh, hi, Nancy. This is Lynn, the wife. Pardon me? Pardon me? Hi, this is Lynn, Tom's wife. He is Tom. Good morning, Nancy. How are you?

I'm well, thank you. Good morning, Tom. Good morning, Nancy. How are you? I'm well, thank you. Good. You know, I had to, we were frequent listeners, my wife's talked to here a few different times, but I had just an unbelievable situation, and I knew Earl would be the one to talk to here.

On Wednesday, my wife and I have two GLK Mercedes, and same year, same color and everything. It's just kind of ironical. But I went into the Main Street car wash, and I haven't gone there in a long time, but I felt like having my wife's car done completely because we have three little dogs that we take in it. And anyway, I drive into the car wash, I stop. I get out of the car, and the car is running, and I have it in park, and it's where the vacuum section is.

And the guy was very nice. I told him what I wanted, and he goes fine, and I go into pay. I'm in there, and all of a sudden I hear all the machinery stop. and then this kid comes walking over and he knows me and there's three people there and he goes do you own the silver Mercedes I said well of course I own the silver Mercedes

and he goes well your emergency break you broke your emergency break I've never used my emergency break so what happened was he he says you better come look at this

and I go over and the car is on the track it's stopped it stopped and the owner's right there and he had these two little Haitian kids I think one of them might have whoever drove it from the vacuum

section to where you go on the ramp to get it done they jammed the emergency brake so far to the floor that it not only wouldn't release I had to have it at my mechanic for three days. Wow.

And the first thing, this idiot that owns that place said to me is, I've never in 37 years touched the emergency break. I said, what are you talking about? He goes, you must have done it. I said, now, wait a minute. He goes, I said, how did it get from the vacuum section to this ramp? And he goes, I said, which one of you drove it here? And none of them would admit.

I said, well, whoever did it, that's what happened. and he and I got in him. I'm an Irishman from up north. And let me tell you some, I don't take crap from anyone. I'm 72, but, and he, and, you know, I laid into him, and I said, you know, I'm going to see you, you have a chance to fix this. Luckily for me, my mechanic is basically right around the corner. He goes, how did you drive this here?

I said, you know, I was in a stage where I was going to have a heart attack. So, anyway, she went over there. Tom, thanks for sharing that with us, Tom. It brings up a subject that I talk about a lot, and an organization is only as strong as its weakest link. Main Street car wash might be the best car wash in Florida in terms of pricing and transparency and honesty and how clean they make your car.

But they have a lot of people working there that are the weak links. I have what weak lengths in my organization. And it proves to, it proves to the dealers that are listening to the show, and any business owner, you know, you might be the sharpest tech in the box, you might be the nicest guy, you might have the best intentions for your business. But all it takes is one guy that jams your emergencies break to the floor and does something stupid. And then when they're that stupid, they deny it. And then it becomes a matter of contention.

So, no, that is a horror story, and I'm sorry it happened, but don't think a Main Street car wash is being the bad guys. You could critique them for not doing a careful job of screening. But, you know, washing their car is not rocket science. So typically, if someone wants to do the job and he wants to work hard, he gets the job. That doesn't mean that he's smart enough not to jam the emergency breakdown. So, Tom, thanks very much for that call. Hey, Tom. It's Nancy. Tom, what finally happened? Did someone, you know, admit the wrongdoing, or did, uh, were you, was there no satisfaction and now you're looking, uh, for legal help?

Oh, yeah. I need, I need the legal. This, so what happens is I said to him, I said, look, I said you obviously, someone, whoever drove it from the vacuum area to there, obviously hit the emergency break. But the owner of that place looked at me, and he goes, 37 years, I've never done it. I said, I didn't say you did it. He goes, I'm not taking responsibility for any of this. And I said, well, it's $750 later. Yeah, he's going to, I don't care if I have to hire a lawyer and lose money on it. But, you know, 750 bucks or so. Well, at least you had satisfaction because he refused to fix it.

which means he's a real ass, because that's not good business, but he does own the company. But I'd say 25 or 30,000 people, a lot of them in South Florida are listening to this radio show, and we're not worth talking about Main Street Car Wash. Now, would it have been cheaper for him to pay to repair your car or to tell you to go jump in the lake and have you call on the radio? How much business is that going to cost Main Street Car Wash? well it he deserves what he gets as far as i'm concerned well i don't only that if you look at if you look at the write-ups on this place in google you'll see that they've had a lot a lot of problems

plus the uh the quality of the car wash is completely down they don't even do the tires now so i mean i'm just calling up because i don't want someone else to have to fall into the case i don't want to i don't really i hate to be critical of a caller but if you knew this was a bad car wash based on the reviews why did you take your car in there well i didn't read the reviews till after oh another message for the main part of the audience read the reviews on the car dealership that you're going into yeah Tom thanks so much for sharing your story with us on a more personal note i can share with you that something similar happened to me where my vehicle and And at the time I was driving my father's Cadillac, and back in those days, that Cadillac meant a lot to them.

And I was at a restaurant, and so I had to valet, and they had taken the gear shift and jammed it into bark. And they knew what they did, and I didn't until I got into the vehicle, and I could not shift the gears. so I can understand your frustration. Tom, please give us a call back and let us know the outcome of your dilemma. Yeah, well, I already take the car. I already had to pay it, take the car up, and now I just have to take legal action. I'm not sure what legal action I should, how I should approach it. We've already called it to the Business Bureau, but can I put you back on to my wife, Lynn?

I have someone here at the door. Hold on. Okay, it's Lynn. from boynton oh good morning lynne good morning i know this is a terrible thing and and you know we've been going to this car wash for 15 years so we know the people it was just an unfortunate thing that but they just have they should admit it absolutely uh lynn uh are you a first time caller this morning no no i'm not nancy i have called many times very good i can't keep a you know a list of everyone female callers but you guys do great and thank you let you go on with you

but we wanted to be the first callers you you well congratulations you beat everybody thank you all right thank you have a great weekend appreciate all you thank you we're going to go to uh i think we'll go to palm beach gardens we'll talk to dawn good morning don good morning i just wanted to let you know that i got my cyber truck about five weeks ago oh good for you i'm jealous i'm not i'm not i'm I don't even know where mine is. I ordered it about a year ago. And no information. I hope they didn't sell it out from under me.

And I'm, Don, I'm personally looking for that cyber truck because Earl and I are at this point fighting over the Tesla. You'll love it because I can't, I was involved kind of like when you got your plaid that Sunday that, I don't know if you remember me. I also had that van. You helped me get that. through a lemon lot. I had the bump chuggle fish bite.

Remember that one? Well, anyway, I got the cyber truck, and I got 2,500 miles on it the last month. This thing is an absolute engineering marvel, and it's fully functional. I can't say enough about it.

How does it fit in your garage? It's fine. I just have a standard garage door. The reason I ask is there was a story at automobile news about a cyber truck owner who just received a cyber truck and he wouldn't fit in the garage

so he took it back to Tesla and said I can't use this because I can't put up my garage and I'm in an area where I have to keep my car in the garage well not only wouldn't they give him his money back they told him and this is a fact the conditions when you bought that cyber truck said you can't sell it to anyone else for a year and there's some fine involved if you do.

So that's one nightmare on the cyber truck. I hope they didn't sell mine out from under me. You won't want to sell it, I can tell you that. I mean, it's like going from an early model Beetle Volkswagen to your plaid and going from the plat to this cyber truck. You just don't want to quit driving it. Sounds good. Hey, Dawn, how's the comfort as far as?

Your driver's seat and the passenger seat. I've owned escalades and navigators, and this thing is the equivalent to all of them. You can go down the road at 75-80. You can't hear any road noise. Wow. It just floats on the road. So your seating is more comfortable than any other vehicle that you've owned? Yeah, I can't say enough about it.

In a back seat, you can put three big guys there. they also fold up you can use it for storage I hold a sheet of plywood flat on the bed so it's fully four foot wide it's just a functional truck and I don't know why you need it in the garage

you can't hurt the damn thing you didn't get the beast did you that's the top of the line model the one that's 174,000 no I just got the entry model one they added a 20,000 to it through the foundation yeah

but that's It's an 80,000, but 100 included full service drive and all that. But I don't have that yet. They're not going to download that until about three weeks will have it. Well, thanks. Thanks for going. Yeah, thanks, Don. We're looking forward.

You want to go for a ride and want to drive it? Call me. I appreciate the offer. Thank you. Appreciate it. I'll bring it over to your dealership. Who are you addressing just now, Dawn? Are you looking for it?

Either one of you. Oh, okay. Sounds good. We're looking forward to that cyber truck, Earl, more than I. Rick? I think you'll get it sooner than you think because a lot of people are backing off them because back when they ordered them, you know, interest was $2.000 and $100 deposit. Don, we got to run.

We got dollars back up here, but thanks very much for that offer. We just might take you up on that. Thanks, Don. Stay in touch. Rick. Just wanted to mention that Donovan says the cyber truck is slug. slightly shorter than a standard F-150, but what's happening is builders are actually making the garages smaller, and that's where you're seeing this conflict. So you'll want to check your own garage, and if you can get the specs on what the cyber truck and the F-150 are, you may be in like Flynn.

Yeah, that's a great idea. Our number here is 877-960-99-60, and you can also text us, if you so choose, at 7-7-7-7. your anonymous feedback is pretty important and we love hearing from you so take advantage of your anonymous feedback.com you know we have a lot to get to in the consumer report there's just so much interesting information in the road report and also on leasing and versus person thing and you're going to be well you're going to be very surprised when when I share that information so stay with us ladies $50 for the first two new lady callers we're going to go back to the phones and we're going to talk to Trish and Tricia is from Boca and she's a regular caller

now good morning Tricia good morning and I'm so glad you're feeling better I know Earl's two weeks ago, you were sick, and Earl was giving you his chicken soup, so I'm glad it works. Actually, it was Whole Foods chicken soup. Moms, they call it. Well, I'm glad it worked. And when I spoke to you two weeks ago about, you know, my tire wearing out fast, you told me to call the following week, you know, have it checked out,

call the following week, but I guess you were off last Saturday. Oh, my God. So I'm calling again, and you're not going to believe this information. Well, Earl, you told me to check it out, and I wanted to see if there was anything else causing the premature wearing out of my tires. Right. So I got my new tires, my Michelin's Attire Kingdom, which has now made this. They expected my car. They told me I needed a control arm with ball, it says, on here,

a complete strut assembly, and sway bar link for a grant total of $1,500, and a discount to $1,300, okay? would that sound about right Rick price wise yes that's that's about correct for that okay all right well the second part of this is you're gonna probably need to do a show on

on badass repair shops I guess that's another show right other than dealerships because then I took my car to my friend who lives on the other side of town with 45 years of experience. He's got a very small shop. He works by himself. He's the only guy I trust.

So I said, look, Dino, please check out my car. Tell me what I need. This is what I got from Mavis. He put my car up on the lift, and guess what? What? Nothing. I need nothing. Oh, boy.

He said, nothing's wrong with my car. This is corporate BS just to try to get your money. Well, that is a great story because we talk about this on the show all the time. It happens all too frequently that people take their cars in, and they forget that the guy they're talking to is not really a service man. He's in the service department, but what he is, he's a very highly paid commission salesman. And if you get a highly commissioned salesman that sees a ripe target

and might have even thought the less of you because he's used to seeing women don't know much about cars and they try to take advantage of you. I mean, it's not uncommon. Women, Nancy told me about this, she was doing some research the other day and women spend more in the service departments of the world, or at least the United States, than men do. So I think that you were seen as a target, but you were too smart, and you went out and you got the competitive quote and put them in their place. I don't know how to put in that place, but the only thing my friend told me of 45 years experience, he did say, just it's your alignment.

He said, that's your major problem. You've got to really keep your alignment in gear. Do you guys agree with that? That's what's premature wearing out my car is my alignment. That sounds about right, really. Alignments are very important, and I think if you get your alignment check, it should be free wherever you have it done. So if I were you, I would get a free alignment check every,

three or four weeks. I mean, it's so easy. Everywhere Nancy and I go, one of us hits a pothole or something that could knock that car out of the line. So you should get it checked regularly and they should not charge you for it. Yeah, and where is that? Because I don't know any place that gives you a free alignment check. Well, you can't. We don't. Earl Stewart Toyota that North Bond Beach doesn't charge, but you'd be surprised there are a lot of stores that do not charge.

So with that said, if you go into a store and say, yeah, we'll check your alignment free. Also, be sure to ask for the computer printout or actually see the machine. And that will say in black and white, if you do or don't need a machine on alignment. But, yeah, most people do. The man you went to, does he have an alignment machine? No, no, of course. I would use it. And that's the only thing.

Of course, I would have checked with him. No, that's the one thing he doesn't have is an alignment, but he told me, Earl, you could, you know, fudge an alignment report. These guys know how to fudge these reports. Oh, that's simple. So it make it look like you need an alignment when you don't. Yeah. You agree? Well, it's possible to do, then that's why you have to, you know, the character of the shop that you're dealing with, you have to, would they do something?

something that easily and grossly dishonest. You know, they could also... Well, obviously... Trisha. Trisha. Yeah. How long have you been going to this mechanic? Uh, my...

The good one, Dino of 45 years, or the new one at Tire Kingdom? Well, whom ever finds your problem about the alignment? Um, that, Dino, well, he... He says that's going to be the major cause of my tires wearing out prematurely. He says there's nothing wrong with my control arm, my struts, or my sway bar. It's only my alignment. He doesn't have an alignment machine. Of course, I would go to him.

I see. You know, I have to commend you again, and there's a lot of ladies that are listening on not only your confidence, but your knowledge. And I so appreciate you sharing that with the audience. on Saturday mornings when you get a chance. So I think that everyone has added their two cents to this dilemma. Does guys, anybody have anything else to say?

We're going to hang up because we've got people waiting. Thank you, Tricia. Bye-bye. Thank you, Tricia. Give us a call again, please. Let's go to... First, let me remind the ladies that they can win themselves $50. this morning. First two new lady callers. Give us a call. You have $50. I'll write that checkout

and mail it to you. And Jeremy is all ready to take your information, contact information. We are going to go to the roadrunner. Roadrunner, Steve, what I meant to say from Boynton. Good morning. Good morning, everybody. First of all, I did something on Memorial Day. I got the fly in the UE helicopter over the National Cemetery on 441. It was a great experience. Wow. How did you do that? Well, my friend's neighbor has owned a Ui right there on 441.

They have their own grasslandings ship and everything. I go to call shows with them. So it was great. I've never done in one, and I always wanted to know what it was right to be in one. Oh, that's great. At that time, I had to watch. watch the draft on TV. Okay, the other thing was, I was up at the Dennythies on Lake Worth Road the other day with my friend.

So I look at the call-ins, though. You know who I'm talking about, right? Napleton. No, the Nissan. Oh, okay. Nissan dealership? I don't think that. I believe Napleson knows that one.

I think so. I think so, but Terry Taylor. That's what it is. lower level lease car up and they had the whole paper load sitting on the car seat so I went over there took it out I'm nosy so I'm looking at the price blah blah blah so they had the 1900 and one thousand nine hundred ninety five dollar thing you know protection free you know the paint the seats and that right so I'm walking around I get to the other end where they got the high-end Nissan car that sports coupe two doors

sports coupe. I don't know what motto was. Okay. There was a father and son there. The car listed for $65,000. Wow. Hey, Steve, hold on for just a second. I want to give a shout out to Sarah, who was holding, who's a first time caller. Please, Sarah, I promise you, if you call back, I will take your call. I will interrupt everybody and take your call. Okay, Steve, continue. I went over to the high-priced Nissan. A father and son was there. The kid just must have graduated high school,

and this is the car he wanted. A $65,000 car. Well, I'm like, are you kidding? He's going to give an 18-year-old kid a $65,000 car with high performance? I mean, that's asking for trouble. I mean, if I owned a Hellcat when I was in 18, I'd be probably still be in jail. But the point was, I'm looking at the car for the same protection package that was on the cheap car,

this protection package went to $9,995. Wow. So all that $65 plus another $10,000 onto that car. And the fart goes, this is the car, my son, one. I was like, oh, Lord, don't you read the paperwork on that car? I mean, if you've got the money, fine, you know. Yeah, absolutely, yeah. I mean, for $10,000, I'd go buy a kid of $10,000 car,

so he ran out of his ride properly. Instead of giving him something like that, especially that's your first car. Having a car like that is just going to get in trouble. Plus, the insurance is probably going to be sky-high. Well, you're right about all that. You're talking to a man that has three sons, and each one of them got a new car,

and I won't tell you all the experiences we had with that. But I caused you the least amount of anxiety. Okay, then. You were a good son? You were the good son? No. And Steve, I got to tell you, I have three daughters. And between insurance and everything in between,

we don't have time for me to share some of the nightmares on the air. If I told my father to let him listen, I wanted that call, People out and come and get five jobs to pay for that day. Yes, that's the times have changed, Steve. Yeah, you ain't kidding. The times have changed. Steve, we appreciate your call. Did we cover everything that we had time for with you?

Yes, we did. Everybody stays safe and well. See you next week. Thank you. I hope so. Bye-bye. 877-960-9960, and you can text us at 772-4-9-9-6. 7653.0. I have some interesting facts to share with you from Consumer Report. A little teaser.

Did you know that it cost you $5,000 more to lease a vehicle? To be continued. Sarah, I can't thank you enough for calling back. Good morning. Good morning. I'm in the market for a new car and I'm looking at Toyota and Nissan and I would like to know if you could tell me the most reputable dealers in South Florida. I'm looking at Al Massey, Toyota, and Toyota in Deerfield Beach, and I don't know anything more about Nissan. Well, Sarah, let me start off by saying stay on the line when we're finished and give Jeremy your contact information in the control room, and I will get a check out to you when I receive that information.

And you were asking about reputable. dealerships. Did you know that you could go to Erlon Cars and you could click on good dealer, bad dealers? Did you know that? No, I did not. There's some, you know, pretty important information right there. Good dealer, baddealer, dealers.com. And a few places that you can go to build your knowledge is Consumer Report, just in name one, the Internet is filled with all kinds of information on what they think. If you enter your needs, what you're looking for, that's also a big help. And you're best suited for staying out of the dealership up until the time you purchase your vehicle and that's the only time that you go into the dealership.

You can test drive that vehicle, and then you can make up your mind. Guys, do you have any more information for Sarah? No, I think you cover it all. You've got to figure out the car that you want, but it also has to be a car that has a good rating. You don't have to buy Consumer Reports number one car. Just don't buy their worst car. They have an annual list of the best and worst cars.

So I would say, look at the worst, and definitely don't buy one of those. Yeah, absolutely. And safety features, you know, and so many other things that you can check out on the Internet fuel efficiency. I have been trying to do that. I like the RAV-4. That's a very good choice. Very good choice. I believe if I'm not mistaken that the RAV-4 still holds first place, the camera used to be.

be there but uh that's right uh stew is that an accurate statement in terms of sales uh yeah the camry uh it was surpassed by route four a couple years ago and for number one sales and it is a great car um i have my uh my daughter my youngest daughter is driving one and i feel very comfortable with the route four the rave four hybrid it's uh so it remains uh at the top of the list okay thank you you're welcome stay on the line talk to jeremy okay like dokey dokey Shirley Earl has something to say can you hold on I didn't know we had a caller let's go to the caller okay welcome Shirley as a first time caller good morning good morning hey welcome and you just won yourself $50 when we're finished talking Shirley if you will give your information to Jeremy in the control room he'll pass that alone to me and I'll get that check out to you absolutely thank you very much you're welcome so what can we do for you I have an older car and I drove through

some I said 2014 and I drove through a bucket of paint and got paint all over a tire and then it flashed up on the side of the fender and a helpful neighbor decided to try to get that off with a scrubby pad

oh no I've got a lot with a what Scrabby pan, like a scotch bright. Scruby pat. Yes, something like a scotch bright. Eeks. Yeah.

Uh-huh. Is there any way to buff it out or try to? Yes, yes. What you're going to want to do, you're probably going to want to find a local neighborhood kid. Somebody that's got a little, maybe a little experience, but a lot of elbow grease is going to be necessary. for this they're going to want to wash the area carefully and then use what's called a polishing compound

and the instructions for it will be on the packaging but it's basically like putting on a wax and then you let it dry and then buff it back off and once that polishing compound run that like twice over it and that will help to smooth over that's those scuffy marks and then wash it again and then run it with just normal car wax over the whole area. My recommendation for a car wax, I always like Mother's California Gold. And the only reason that I ever recommend it is because it's a high-quality wax, but it also has a cherry fragrance to it. So when you're sitting out there in the heat and you're dying, putting all this stuff on,

at least you've got a pleasant fragrance for it. But, yeah, a polishing compound will help to smooth those high spots down and clean up those scuffed areas. And it will probably bring it back almost to original condition. And Rick, the name of the product that you just suggested, Mothers. Mothers, California, Gold. Okay. How do you like that, Shirley? Mothers, California, Gold.

But the compound, the buffing compound, you just go to a Walmart or wherever. Yeah, you're just looking for something called polishing compound. By polishing. And now Jonathan also, Jonathan Canter here, he recommended how about a mobile detail service that can come to your house? That's another good option because they will have a lot of experience handling situations like this. The only drawback is they can get kind of pricey. You might be looking at a couple hundred dollars to get that. Shirley, are you looking to do that job yourself?

At 81, not particularly. That's the answer I was looking for, Shirley. There's a whole lot of stuff that I used to do that I don't do now, and I am 81 years old. To have a car, a 2014 vehicle that you've held on to, I don't know, without getting into. your financial status and so on and so forth. It would be well worth my while to make sure that somebody was reputable,

that they were knowledgeable, and that they were going to, you know, make me happy. And if that takes somebody coming out to the house to do that job, that's an option that I would entertain. Thank you very much. I really appreciate your advice. I've been listening to this program for a long time, but never had a chance to call. Is that right?

Glad you did. You had a great job. We might want to hire you. I hope we hear from you again, Shirley. You were a great addition this morning, and you really, you know, as an important female caller, there's so many women that are listening to the show

that don't call in. And you're a living example of, you know, just dowling that number and getting on the show. And it's easy-peasy. It's not something, you know, that it takes a little bit of courage. But there are more women calling the show that didn't. Thank you so much, Shirley. Well, if they write down their question, it helps a whole lot. You know, that's great advice.

I'm sure that there are a lot of ladies that are going to take you up on that. It's great advice. You have a wonderful. You're welcome. Have a great weekend. Okay, our number here is 877-960-99-60. You can text us at 77249-9-7-6-5-30. Your Anonymous Feedback.com.

Take advantage of that back to the telephones where Phil is waiting from Jupiter. Good morning, Phil. Good morning. I've got a question. I guess I don't know who would answer this one, but I'm in the market for an SUV, and I've come across to Venza. It's supposed to be a crossover. What makes it a crossover? I mean, what is it? Crossover, it kind of varies because it's applied to quite a few vehicles, but simply put, it's somewhere between a sedan and an SUV. So a crossover has the seating and some of the storage of an SUV, but they usually sit a little bit lower. They don't have that high profile of an SUV. Yeah, if a van mated with a savan.

Yeah, or if like a Highlander made it with a Camry. Then you end up with a crossover, a combination of two styles. Yeah. And Stu, didn't the Crown take over for the discontinued Avalon as a crossover? Yeah, that's interesting, too. So we have quite a few crossovers in the Toyota lineup, and so do the other manufacturers. The crown was a replacement. It's a crossover, and it replaced a luxury sedan, which was interesting because you don't

really see a different body type replacing an old body type, but it's a really nice crossover. Yeah, and Tom, I had the opportunity to drive the crown, and I'm not sure which are looking for as far as luxury is concerned and the feel, you know, and the look of the crossover. But that crown is just an amazing vehicle. The Venza is, they're all hybrids, so is the crown. And the Venza is pretty nice. It was, it was originally introduced as a, it looked like a crossover, it looked like a kind of like a fat station wagon. And then it came back and it looks kind of a little bit more SUV-like. So it's going to drive more like a car?

Yes, exactly. It's all on this Toyota T-N-G-N-G-A platform, and it's a unibody, and it's very comfortable, and yeah, it doesn't feel like you're driving an SUV. Well, that's why I like a test drove of Venza, and I felt like I was driving a car, and I think it's so smooth. Yeah, they're all going to feel like that. they're all because they're basically tall cars

oh okay well good that's the answer's my question I appreciate it it's not going to be like that station wagon that is so low you know to the road you know what I miss about the station wagon though is the way back seat that faced rear I remember we had one we had a Pontiac I'm pretty sure had it been a Pontiac what else could have been and we'd go out and the cars and me

and my little brothers would sit facing rear just waiting to be rear-ended by another giant bonneville or something but anyway phil thanks for calling okay thanks a lot appreciate it you get it okay we're going to stay with the phones and we're going to talk to pat she's calling us from new jersey and she's called before good morning pat hi how are you we're great thank you thanks for giving us a call this morning who can we do for you 2010 for you now last year I called about my 2008 well

yesterday or the day before I got in the car and I had a message on the dash checked hybrid system so I went to my local mechanic and he put it on the

code and I've got a code it's P-O-A-8 6 no P-O-A-6 Rick just passed out. Oh, I was kidding. No, I was kidding. He didn't have me.

I'm joking. I'm sorry. I do that. Please continue. Okay. So anyway, when I drive the car, it charges, but it doesn't, it seems like it doesn't flip back and forth. Like when I came to a slow, normally, if you take your foot off the brake, it comes to a slow stop. If you were approaching a stop sign or a red light, I had to really press on the brake to stop.

the cost. So it appears that hybrid isn't being inactive. Well, the P-O-A-6 is what's known as an isolation code. This is going to sound like a cop-out, but basically what that code says is that somewhere in the high-voltage system, one of those wires is detecting a short-to-ground on the hybrid actually connecting to a ground source in the car. And this can be as minor and simple as a little bit of corrosion has formed on the metal of the battery case for the hybrid battery and it's actually got a little connection down to ground from the hybrid battery terminals. Or it could be damaged insulation on wiring, a problem inside the ground. the transmission motor assembly,

a problem with the electric brakes, a problem with the air conditioning. So you're saying it's a really wide area. And she probably ought to take it to more than one store. You might get three different diagnoses if you go to three different dealers. It's a complicated problem. So you need to be very, very careful.

Don't let someone sell you something that you pay a lot of money for and you still got the same problem. Right. And the big issue here is you're going to need someone with a more in-depth scan tool because the basic scan tools will pull the basic code, but a more in-depth scan tool, one of it is designed by Toyota, will actually get more information from the system about where that isolation fault is located

and what's causing it and help them diagnose what's going on. Because it gives you a blanket code that says somewhere in this whole system, But there will be more information in their detailed information that will narrow it down and say, okay, it's in this area is where you've got to start looking. But that's, yeah, that's where you're going to have to go for that one. Pat, thanks for the call. Thank you. I appreciate your time.

Oh, thank you, Pat. Give us a call again. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to go to Marty. Matt. Good morning, Marty. Good morning. welcome i hope you're both feeling better how's that crown treating you i's what i was going to say my first comment is i've had a lot of cars in my 79 years i've had at least 15 people come up to me

since i've had that car for four months and people have raved about the styling and the look of that car and i will say this it does obviously it does drive very nice i got the one with uh panorama camera so i like that yeah but it's a very nice car i know earl doesn't like an info commercial but it's it's a very nice well there's a there's a lot of our audiences of the work everyone's listening and you know for you to call about the crown we appreciate you and the crown is a showstopper and how do I know I drove it Earl drove it so yesterday yesterday I took a Menteco car wash over here had a promotion and I had two people that were giving out sandwiches and they ran over to the car And so, what is this?

You know, I don't see it advertised on TV at all, but they didn't even know what kind of car was. Did he give you a sandwich? The other thing I wanted to tell you, I took my wife's car at this CRV to Ed Morris for just an oil change and tire rotation. He's still on all his stickers. He's still got 3,995, which is the minimum.

price adjustment he's got on all of them plus you pay 99 dealer fee plus 300 and some dollars to get the license plate so he's still

$5,000 over sticker but they've got a lot and I don't want to do an info commercial for them they got a lot of they got a lot of CRV sitting in the lot Yeah, maybe they ought to get rid of those markups.

You know, a lot of dealers are having a hard time letting go of those are now the good old days to them. You know, they don't want to let it go, so they're going to keep trying for a while. We're seeing in the mystery shops. We did the Honda dealership a couple weeks ago. Yeah, yeah. I mean, believe me, the CRV is a nice car because I bought her lease out at the end, and they wanted, if I bought the lease through the dealership,

they wanted $1,400 more than the payoff. Big no-no there. I just paid directly to Honda. Yeah, it's crazy. After what just happened down here, there was some big court cases with dealers that were doing that, adding on to the lease buyout, which is a big no-no. Yeah, well, they told me, which is BS, I'm sure,

that they have to sell. that if they pay it off, they're saying they have to sell it as a used car. Yes. But I'm sure that's BS. No, that is true, but that's okay. But they're still lying about having to

charge you all the fees. That's right. That's a bunch of garbage. Thank you, Marty. Appreciate to call. Thanks, Marty. Okay, I hope your crown sales go up. I hope so too. Thanks, Marty. We're going to go to David

David, David's calling us from New Jersey. Good morning, David. Good morning. I've called before, and Rick's helped me quite a bit with diagnosis. Oh, great. And my Prius has a new issue. It's 2,012, $175,000, and it seems to need struts. And first, I was surprised that my Toyota dealer doesn't use a Toyota part.

So I wanted to ask him about that, and if he could recommend some parts. but they use FCS struts. One of the things that we found at our shop, it's a big, huge savings to the customer. Toyota struts, Toyota's extremely proud of them. As a matter of fact, back in the 80s, they used to give you, if you bought new struts for your vehicle, you only paid one time.

They gave you a lifetime warranty on the replacement strut that you were installing. But now the quality really is not any greater than what you're going to find on a lot of the aftermarket parts for struts. And one of the things we found is we can buy from an aftermarket aftermarket sources the strut with the spring and assembly all put together for about the same price as just the basic strut on a Toyota, which is just the shock absorber. and it's less expensive to swap that out and also the mechanics like it because it's a lot less dangerous you're not worrying about having to compress that giant spring in there.

Now for testing your strut to just to verify if you think they maybe kind of being a little early on you, the first thing you can do is look down in the wheel well with a flashlight and shine it on the strut and look if you see any signs of dampness or leaking or something. signs where it looks like it's wet or sticky. If you don't see anything there, if everything

looks nice and dry, then you go to the good old bounce test. And that's basically you go to each corner of the car, start bouncing it up and down. And when you stop pushing on it within like one to one and a half moves, that car should settle right down and stop bouncing. If it keeps bouncing a couple times, then yeah, you need new struts. Or if you're going over a bump and you hear a noise that sounds like it's right up near the usually going to sound like it's right at the top of the tire up near the windshield

you hear a clunk or a rattling sound then that can indicate also that those struts need to be replaced and like I said it's actually a savings to you to replace that whole strut assembly with the aftermarket units and

again the quality on them has come up so much that I just you know make sure that they're offering a regular warranty on it and I would go with it okay but um I think I do need him because it's just starting on it and it's

and then when it's bounce it's making all kinds of what you're just saying the noise yeah and when you do the bounce to everything and it started like immediately it didn't you know but the car does have

175,000 miles it's probably fun at first you know yeah and I've seen that happen quite often. Now bear in mind with the Prius, there also can be one other noise that you'll hear that may sound similar, but you won't get that bouncingness to it. And this is when you go over a bump, you'll hear this metallic rattling sound, but it's going to sound like it's in the dash almost right ahead of you. And it actually is, it's actually in the steering, the electric steering where the motor mounts up, there's two little gears that have dampeners,

plastic dampers and when those dampers break down they start making noise in there um so just make sure that they've looked at it and that it's not coming from there but if you say you're getting that bounciness to the front end yeah it's going to be the struts yeah and but what brands would you is the fcs good or is there other brands that because i also took it to an independent and i i don't know the names price is quite a bit less than the tiodas Well, anything you buy that's not a factory part. You want to find out what the warranty

is, and you want to find out the company that's manufacturing them. If you go to rock auto.com, rock auto.com, you will find more choices than you can imagine, and you can even find Toyota parts there

that will be cheaper than what the Toyota dealer would probably charge you. I looked at Amazon 2012 pretty of struts and they got a million of them there. And there's a lot of different pride in there quite a bit less, but I need to have it installed. But how about the FCS brand if I do go with Toyota?

I don't really know that brand myself right off the bat, but if they've been using them for a while, I would ask the service riders, hey, how long have you guys been using this specific brand? And if they've been using them for quite a while, and they say, yeah, we've had good luck. luck because they're going to have to warranty it if it's you know if because if it starts making noise or starts getting sloppy again it within that normal one-year warranty the toyota offers

that dealer's going to have to take care of that so i would ask him about it and odds are they're going to say yeah we've used them for a long time and they're good okay and one of the question the dealer says i need a stabilizer bar but the independent said you can just do the links would you just do the links if in fact you needed to stabilize or would you do the whole thing just the links because there's the the bar itself never wears out that's just a big metal bar the links actually have the little uh moving parts in it and that's what's going to wear and possibly the rubber bushings for the bar but you don't need to replace the entire bar just the links yeah the deal had that so that would be quite a bit less too right okay well that you're

help greatly helps me. Thanks for it all David. Really appreciate it. Glad it can help. I appreciate you. Thank you very much. You're welcome. I think we have John from Palm City holding. Okay. Can Jeremy can you put John from Bob City and Nancy stepped out for just a

second? Good morning. Good morning, John. Yes, this is John from Palm City. Yeah. I just want to mention Nancy briefly mentioned the Avalon being replaced by the crown. Nancy will probably tell you you should roll an Avalon for a long time, and I read an oil company Petroleum Report. I think it was from Quaker State, one of the oil companies, specifically said that year,

they came out with an oil OW-16. That's used today in a lot of cars, and Toyota and Honda had it. And specifically in their report, they said at 2021 Toyota Avalon, Sudan, due to the this O.W. 16 oil had improved cold starts, faster engine warm-ups, because it's a light, viscosity oil, and it helps the variable valve timing. And I connor this OW-16 oil, that Avalon in 2021 can get 34 miles per gallon. So it was, is that where we're using? It was a regular about the viscosity, but they did mention Avalon specifically. Hey, John.

Yeah. Did you know that we're also now running a 0W8 motor oil in the New Camrys? No, I had no idea with that. Wow. That's really slippery. Also, in that 2021, you could use OW20, but they don't recommend. They stay with the 16. So I wasn't aware of the new oil that you said.

Yep. As a matter of fact, our dealership, we have 0W20 in the, in the pump. guns and 0W16 to the pump guns and now now they're switching us now on some of the newest ones to 0 W8 it's it's literally the thickness of olive oil that's what it feels like right well that's important because I'm whenever I call you drive make sure either in your owner's manual or on top of the additive the oil cap is the oil that is supposed to be recommended and used only by the manufacturer so this is critical because there's so many weights I'm going back to the old days when it was 1030 oil which they still use today

and it's very critical in the amount of correct viscosity that you're used in your automobile absolutely I want to mention to the car wash I would if I had a Mercedes Ben the last place I would go to as a car wash, and I wouldn't like a beautiful Mercedes finish to use brushes on my car. What I recommend, and what I use, they're a little hard to find. You go to a car wash where you drive it in yourself. There's no racks. It's a straight concrete floor, and lasers come around.

You park in the center. They guide you where to go, and no brushes, and nothing touches your car or you finish, and it dries itself. There's no men needed, and it does a fabulous job, but they're a little hard to find, and it's a call a laser car wash, and no brushes at all touch the finish on your car.

Thank you, John. That's really good information. I recommend it in the past to Earl. It was one, but if you look around and you'll find it, that it wouldn't have, if I had a Mercedes, no car brush on a car wash would touch my finish. Great advice, John. All right, guys. I'm looking forward to the shopping report.

Oh, thank you. All right. Okay. Who's lined up? We're all finished with our calls, so I'm going to hand it over to Stu or Rick. Good due to the traditional Amory because it's been a while.

And I think we've confused people. We've been live and not live. Amory says, good morning. It appears that no good deed goes unpunished. The National Highway and the Traffic Safety Administration, NHTSA, has required automakers use flame retardants and car seat foam to slow or prevent the spread of car-related fires since the 1970s. Now data from recent studies indicates that fire retardants may be carcinogenic. Nikes. Number one, if that proves to be the case, what would you suggest that automakers and NHTSA try and state?

Instead, should they try to develop fire retardants that are not likely to be carcinogenic? I think that would be a start. Or should they switch from foam seats to something less flammable? Any ideas? Well, our technical advisor just walked out of the room. Okay. Well, we can just, we can guess. I think they should let everybody know that they might have carcinogen in their carcinogen in their car.

first, and then maybe try a nitrogen-based flame retardant. I believe those are very non-toxic, and they might use those in kids' clothing. Never did like carcinogens. I didn't. So, yeah, listen, if you read, Amory read this in Jalapnik, and the story was in there, and it's very concerning. So I didn't click the link yet. It'll read into it.

But, yeah, if that's going on, like you said, that's one more thing we need to worry about right but hopefully it's something that could be uh that they can fix or they've been aware about and the newer cars don't have carcinogens so we'll look into it a little bit more all right thanks amory okay got any more text yeah you're just going to find that in your charcoal on your grill now i know my god when they said that steak charring steak uh was carcinogenic and went come on man no no feeling no tastes like it i should say i know i'm gonna make steak tonight that's my plan Are you? I have another text from Richie in St. Louis. He says, question on car charging. We are purchasing our first electric car. And we were curious if we can just put a standard 240-volt plug

or should we purchase an actual car charger to put in our garage. I can answer that because Earl and Nancy and I, we've all done that. Earl and Nancy have the Tesla home charger put in. and I have a charge point home flex charger put in. There's an advantage to the actual EV-specific chargers because they use more amps and they'll charge it faster. But it's a lot cheaper to go ahead and you can charge with an adapter in your 240-volt plug. But it just takes a lot longer.

That's not a big deal if your car is at your house and it's parked for a long time, you could save a lot of money by using just your 240-volt plug. Yeah, and excuse me, Stu, but it is really cost effective if you're to take and charge your electric vehicle after midnight. That's true. It's another thing because Nancy brought up a good point. The reason she said that is because the electricity is cheaper and low demand periods. One of the nice things of using like an installed charger or a home charger as opposed to the 240 plug is they often come with apps and they can regulate that.

so they can use the cheapest electricity. It will slow down the charge. It won't get as much electricity when it's higher. And it taps in. It's called a smart charger. And I think that's what your Tesla charger has those capabilities. Yeah. And so there's your options.

And so I'd think if you're going for absolutely just saving money, go ahead and just use your 240 plug, but you've got to leave your car there longer. But like my charge point was about 500 bucks, but you got to pay an electrician to install it unless you're, unless you're electricity yourself. So that's going to cost you a few more dollars. So it could cost you close to $1,000 before you're all set and done. Yeah, it's a great investment. Yeah, Rick.

A little note from Donovan. He says, do the FPL plan. They'll install a wired charger for $31 a month. Don't use a plug, please. Always hardwire if you can. The time they use plan starts at 10 p.m. not midnight. And it changes in the wintertime. the FPLEV plan

manages in the charger automatically. Great information. So that's, I'll do that. And also quick, I have a follow-up and this was from Dave in New Jersey. He just wanted to know what brand

of stretch are we using at the dealership, the aftermarket ones. We tried to look for the Monroe's. Monroe's. As often as we can, but there are several others that we're using. It depends on what we can get from like AutoZone

and we're trying to find ones that give us a, they obviously are going to have a good warranty to them, but we look for something that's also going to be the best cost effectiveness to the customer. Oh sure, because if you're assembling this thing, you said wrestling around the spring, that's longer it's going to cost more to put in.

Exactly. Exactly. Put together a unit, plug and play, right? And if you ever want to see a terrifying video, go on YouTube and look for some where struck disassembly and you'll see. And people are getting impaled by these things? Yeah, some of these guys

will literally take an air gun and put it on that top nut and spin it off and let that whole assembly just fly apart. That spring has so much force that I've seen them hit the ceiling of a 20 foot tall shop and stick. And literally

bashed concrete out of the ceiling. That's horrifying. It's terrifying. It's terrifying how much power is there. Yeah, so safety is also another consideration here. Big time. Yeah, people don't want their mechanics getting impaled. Okay, I'm all caught up on text. There is a

anonymous feedback if you want to do that or if we have a call. We do. We don't. We don't. Okay. Anonymous feedback real quick, and I'll clean my slate. I've had Toytas for over 30 years. Why, God's green earth did Toyota take out the V-6

of the Tacoma? Nobody asked for that, we don't want this. Well, you don't want more horsepower and torque and better fuel efficiency? Go ahead. I mean, I actually looked it up because I knew it was a better car, but I know that people have a very strong

attachment to the Tacoma, but I can tell you, and I actually chat chatted this down because I want you feel better about them. The old V6 Tacoma, on the 4x4 is 278 horsepower and 265 foot pounds of torque.

The new I-Force hybrid four-cylinder turbo gets 313 horsepower and 440 pounds of torque. And turbo is where it is. Yeah. And also, it's more reliable, less problems. Yeah. So I'm not trying to get defensive. I'm just saying. Well, the anonymous feedback is probably from an older guy.

Yeah. And back in my day, it was all about cubic inches. You almost didn't ask a guy what kind of car or what he paid for it. You say, how many cubic inches you got that baby? And the bigger the engine. Remember Cadillac had the 16-cylinder? Yes. I don't remember, but you wouldn't remember.

No, but I do know, like, seeing, like, I know there are, like, Rolls-Royce has a V-12 on the market or something. There's some big. The Chrysler used to come out of these 500- cubic-inch engines, which, my God. Jaguar had a V-12. And I actually saw one one time. It was amazing, though. The guy, he starts the engine up. He takes a little plastic cup of water and sets it on the hood.

And the water was just as still as it could be. This V-12 was so smooth. It just bounces out every opposing force, right? Yeah, wow. What did it sound like that? Here's one of the things that a lot of people are nervous about is turbo's got a bad rap in the U.S. When in the 80s, Honda and Toyota, a lot of them tried turbochargers. and Honda especially

and they were trying to boost their cars because Honda wanted cars that young people would like that could be like race cars. Turbo charge is a great way to do it. The problem was their turbos were running at such high speed that you couldn't keep them oiled properly and they would break down

and fly apart. Now everybody's seeing these turbos coming back. They're remembering what they saw in the past and they're terrified of, but what Americans don't understand is that Toyota has been running turbocharged diesel engines throughout the rest of the world for the past 50 years. And they've worked out all the bugs and know how to make a turbo actually work properly.

Yeah. And so now they're simply bringing that technology to these gasoline engines. Yeah. And yeah, we had a couple of them when they first started. There were a couple of them that had some issues, little growing pains there. But they had that solved within a few weeks. I drove one for a year. Yeah. Had no problems. Okay.

One more anonymous? Or we got somebody on the deck? One more anonymous. Okay. True car ripped me off. They charged me a dock fee, $175. Well, that's a pretty good doc fee. Got me hook, line, and sinker.

Not going to defend anybody here, but I don't think True Car ripped you off. I think the dealer that was signed up on truck. Well, I don't understand what she say, or he or she said, true car. you don't buy a car from True Car. True Car is a third-party consulting company that charges the dealer for a referral. They show you the dealers in your area as many zip codes as you want to put in.

You can look at a lot of dealers and they will give you the dealer's price and they will give you the breakdown of the price including if they have to add dealer fees and things like that, that has to be disclosed. So I don't think true, I don't think the

anonymous feedback person means that true car screwed. They went through true car and the dealer's car. Yeah, yeah. And you got, it's like Costco. Their third party systems, Costco's very good, true car is very good,

and the dealers are the ones that actually sell you the car. So even Costco program has rotten apples in their barrel. And if they don't go by the rules, then they can really take advantage of you. I suggest that whether it's true car or Costco, if you use a third-party

auto buying company, is to verify with them the true car or the Costco, that that is their price. And then it will be a good deal. And just, you know, the silver lining,

that's the smallest dock fee I've ever seen in my life. It's a cute little 175 dollar dog for you so they got you but nice you're clearly not living down here in south florida um you could they could have got you for over a thousand so count your blessings yeah all right all caught up uh okay are you got we're gonna tell everybody about our our secret thing yeah we have uh we're gonna have hang on dog uh we have a new um addition i should say to uh Earl on cars. And it's in the making as

we speak. And it's going to be a Zoom add-on. Earl? Well, you're holding, Doug. And when we get the Zoom set up, which hopefully will be next week or the week after, we'll be able to see you, your ugly face

right here on screen. So we're going to be almost like a TV station. So Zoom is coming to Earl on cars. And Jonathan, is working on that right now from the technical aspect and we'll keep you posted you'll be able to go to a zoom link and you'll be able to be right here in the studio with nancy and sue and rick and me yeah it's gonna be pretty exciting so when you thought you thought saturday mornings you could just roll out of bed and call us

yeah look however you looked we can do the show for bed that's a great idea you got to brush your teeth now you got to comb your hair you talk about stress uh you know you know i think one of the qualifications of being here on Erlon Cars with this group of guys is that I have, you know, it's learned behavior and what I've learned to do most times is talk real fast. Sometimes you just can't get the words out, but we are going to have to talk even faster because not only are we going to have, you know, your anonymous feedback and Facebook and YouTube and texting and the phone calls that are coming in, this is going to be massive.

And if I have got your attention, that was my intention. So stay tuned for Zoom. You had my attention. I was like, where are you going? Wow. By the way, you look really nice this morning. You look wonderful. Hey, John is he afraidly wants to know.

Hey, hold on a second. Will that Zoom be sponsored by my Zoom? I have more. Okay. Later. Go ahead. He wants to know if it's going to be sponsored by Monster, ZoomZoom. I don't know. We could, we'll take some sponsorships.

Yeah. Earl has a whole lot to get to some really very important information, most of all, in Apleton, and I don't want to take up any more time. Doug, welcome to the show. You're calling us from Ticuista? You know Doug Hello Doug Hello

Good morning Good morning and welcome Yes ma'am I just want to say I First of all I like to wear you Treat the public It's you know It's great

So my question is I have the 2001 Toyota Avalon I called before about my airbag light flashing and the gentleman told me it was a Modula 5. I called the Parks Department at Stewart Toyota, and the gentleman had no idea what I was talking about. So I need to know, is this Modula 5 a fuse or some kind of gadget, or what?

What is it? Oh, wait a minute. You say airbag light. I recall you said your headlights were in op, and you had a... You're right, sir. And that's, that, that, that's started working again. Okay, that's, it again. But the flashing of the seatbelts kept on going on.

Well, wait a minute. Now we're here in seatbelts, I'm, all right, let me, let's start over here. The headlight issue is most likely going to be module D as in David. Okay, sir, I have no more headlight issue. Okay, so we'll, we're going to, we're going to leave that one alone then. All right. It fixed itself. But the airbag.

And you say the seatbelt light is flashing now? Man, he's got problems. Not the seatbelt, sir, just the airbag. Oh, just the airbag light. Okay. That's, yeah, that's not going to be the fused block under the hood. That's more likely going to be the center sensor for the airbag itself, which is located on, it's basically going to be bolted to the floor of the car

up underneath the air conditioning box, way up near where the, the, the floor starts to curve upwards into the firewall. And what years your Avalon? 2001. There is, yeah, there is a possibility. You're going to need to get this checked out by someone to pull the codes to find out what's going on, you know, specifically with your airbag. But with it blinking, I would say my first guess right off the bat, you know, obviously I'd be getting the codes out to very clarify this, but there's a possibility you've got water leakage or something, has gotten into that airbag sensor that's on the floor underneath that air conditioning box.

Listen, we got some calls. We're running out of time, Doug. If, listen to what Rick told you and calls back next week and give us a report. I sure will. Thank you all very much. Have a great day. Thanks, Doug. Have a great weekend. Okay. We're at 926 right now. We do have the dog of the week to get to, but Earl has some important information to share with you. Well, you know, now that you mentioned dog of the week with the Zoom, we now have the potential to be able to actually have our dog of the week on screen. Where we can interact. And they could be a big dog Ranch Rescue. I can't think of the The more I think about Zoom, I think about

the possibilities that we have to see what we've been talking about. And I think the dog of the week, we used to have the dog come into the studio until we got a, was it a Great Dane one time? Knocked everything over.

We have a very small studio, so I believe were you trampled, Nancy? No, but Jonathan, this Great Dane was the object of Jonathan's affection. Yeah, well, Jonathan was the option. He climbed up on his computer, I believe, something crazy. As I recall, when he started wagging his tail,

I took a, knocked out a tooth. I almost got a concussion. I got, almost knocked out my tooth. We're going to be talking about Woodrow as far as the dog is concerned, which is a boxer mix. Earl has some other things to share. This was an automotive news article

and I printed this out. The headline says Napleton Automotive Tops new survey on web lead response times. Big deal. Yeah. I'm a loss for words because

you regular listeners and a lot of other people know that Napleton runs one of the most disingenuance negative, crooked, untransparent operations anywhere. And he's one of the largest dealers. And part of my shock when I saw this article in Auto Body News is praising Napleton

for the shortest response time in having the F&I person greet the customer when he came in. Now, having the F&I person, the business manager they sometimes call them, the guy that wants to sell you a bunch of worthless products and a high interest rate and make on the average $2,000 more than what you've already paid for the car. Automotive News gives Napleton this award because the man

in the box came out of the box and talked to the customer quickly to gain the customer's confidence. And for that, it gets an award and a big article in the auto body news. So the moral to this story is, as long as you have instance, institutions like Automotive News, and you have regulators like we have in almost all the states. Unless you have the people out there that are going to enforce these rules, the bandits of the world would be able to continue to get away with things. So Napleson, even when I talk to the Federal Trade Commission, and I'm talking to them a lot now because I've submitted an amicus brief in defense of the regulations. FDA wants to add, they are remiss, and they know that Napleson does bad things, they don't have the manpower to enforce laws they already have.

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, for all the listeners for everyone out there that just heard what Earl just announced from automotive news, what do you think this does to them? let me tell you what it does to him it drives them it just it just reinforces his passion his passion for cracking down on these dealers and uh with a force like the automotive news you know you just can shake your head and complain hey guess what nobody likes a cry baby so what we do here is or what my husband does is that he's out there and he's fighting for you the consumer and he's trying to reinforce

and this transparent pricing when consumers can easily compare prices across products and everything in between this is the essence of capitalism and Earl is going to pursue his goals with this cracking down on

junk fees and overpriced overpricing for view, everything. Yeah, and by the way, the U.S. House of Representatives committee has already blocked any funding for the Federal Trade Commission. So that's a sneaky behind the closed doors thing that goes on in Washington that you never know about. I mean, you can play verbal support for something. and when you go in your committee and say, yeah, we're in favor of regulations and keep

those on us, but guess what, we're not going to pay. You will not be able to have anything in the budget to implement the regulation enforcement that you need. So until the media takes hold of this and runs with it, there's all the lobbying in the world. The lobbying in the world is going to run the country, and the only people do in the lobbying right now virtually are the business so the businesses have got the edge yeah absolutely so I just want to bring everybody up to speed as far as what is what Earl is doing for for you for everyone for all of us as far as the combating auto retail scams we we've got to get

to somebody and I think that somebody has four legs and Let me get out His name's Woodrow And no dealer flees Yeah there you go We have a dog by the name of Woodrow He's so sweet

Woodrow And you know before I forget Before we get to the Big Dog Ranch As far as Zoom is concerned How does that affect the mystery shopping report Well The Zoom is a potential A tool that we could use

they're still figured out the states where we could legally do it and you could actually have agent lightning do a video recording of a mystery shop right and it could be live right here on or on cars so the the possibilities are limitless okay let me ask you this what about her what about their identity well she won't show she would have the camera she'd have the camera away from herself. Or she could wear a disguise, you know, but I mean, she would be pointing the camera at the salesperson, and she wouldn't have the camera on herself. I got you. I got you. Okay, it's doable. Or she could do what I always to do is wear a GoPro strapped to his forehead. Okay. Woodrow is a four-year-old boxer mix, and he comes to us from Big Dog Ranch. And

every week we pay the dog the adoption fees and what else happens to we just make it a lot easier we are sponsored dogs every week we show and we make it easier by taking care of the adoption fees and we get on the show here just to make sure the everybody who's listening or watching hopefully watching because you got to see this dog shares it with people that might be interested in a dog because not everybody is listening as we see in the car business and the market for a canine but share it and let everybody know what you saw and heard on roll struton cars yeah absolutely uh okay uh we're going to roll that video all right hi my name is judy i'm with big dog ranch rescue and i'm woodrow's friend he's just over four

years old and he's been here since last august um he's really well behaved um i take him home for a week at a time or days out he loves meeting children He loves meeting people. Even when I'm at the dog park, he plays with other dogs. And he's always very happy, as you can see. When I have him in the house, he'll be by himself sometimes for 10 hours at a time. He doesn't chew anything, he's house broken, and he is just a sweetheart. At first I thought he would be great for a big farm, but he's also perfect for anybody with

an apartment that has time for him. Because he wags his tail all the time when he sees the kids, the kids approach him, and and then they end up petting him, and he's very much a family. It's very healthy. He has no quirks about him, and he just needs love, so hopefully you can meet him. And he's looking for his forever home. And his tail wags in sync with his panting. That's right.

His tongue and his tail are synchronized. Woodrow. That guy's a big dog, but I could tell you right away that soon as I saw her, if you weren't watching, And he was leaning into our volunteer and just standing there looking at the camera, he is, he's, my dogs do that. They're just, this is, even though he's big, I'm telling you, this is an inside, outside, anywhere dog. And he does look really healthy. So give Woodrow a chance. Give us a call if you're interested or text us and or go to BDRR.org.

And you can see Woodrow and they got hundreds of dogs on that website. And Woodrow came to us from Georgia. and Woodrow's got, you know, he's got some history. He has, my point here is that they're looking for a home for Woodrow, and he is 73.2 pounds, and he's a big dog, and you can, as Stu said, you can go to www.bdrr.org. And guess what? They're having a some sort of, they're having an event out there for Father's Day,

and they've got a lot of dogs out there that you can, you know, find a home for. Again, that's Big Dog Ranch Rescue, and it's WWW BDR, and you can take a look at Woodrow also. I do want to say on Father's Day, BD, Big Dog Ranch Rescue is having their 100 puppy paluza. That's what it is. A puppy paluza. And so they are going to have $200 puppies. They're normally $325 to adopt puppies because everybody wants puppies. Yeah, big discount.

And big discount on other select dogs. And that is on Father's Day this year. It's probably the whole weekend. I don't know the dates, but it's... Yeah, and that's what I was looking for that I brought in with me because I believe that's a long weekend. I think it begins before the weekend. then Father's Day starts, and then it's well after Father's Day.

Yeah. So commemorating Father's Day. Puppy Paloza. Yeah. And you can go to big dog ranch, big dog ranch rescue.org, and you can see the advertisement that they have for that event. And one other thing, and kudos to Big Dog Ranch Rescue, you might wonder sometimes why does this one dog home facility. rescue area why is it so big and the reason is it's one of the there may be some others but this is certainly the largest no-kill shelter and no cage in the world so big dog

ranch gets calls every day from people who care at shelters where they have to euthanize a dog it's a rule it can be 30 days it could be 60 days whatever the public shelter wants to use and the amount of time is based on overload because they have too many dogs when they have too many dogs they start to have to euthanize the oldest dogs so what they do is they call Big Dog Ranch Rescue and they take dogs this a woodrow

came from Georgia probably from a kill shelter now he's in a no-kill shelter so he's going to be in a resort for it could be a couple months it could be a couple of years nobody no animal is euthanized at Big Dog Ranch Rescue. So you've got to love Laurie Simmons, the founder,

and the head of Big Dog Ranch Rescue. Absolutely. And ladies and gentlemen, keep in mind, too, that there are some long-term dogs out there. And, you know, they take, they certainly, it makes up for the length of time that they're out at Big Dog Ranch because, as Earl said, this facility,

I'd like to go out there. I mean, it is just amazing. how they take care of their dogs. I think that Jonathan is having a heart attack because he told me probably 10 minutes ago that we have a mystery shopping report from, the mystery shopping report is from Trezikos, Lexus, and you can vote,

and we definitely appreciate you voting by texting your vote to 772-497-6530-7-7-7-7-7. 172 4976530. Okay, Treasure Coast Lexus, and they're up in the Barton County area, if you're not familiar of Florida, near Fort Pierce, and they are owned by a man named Sandy Woods, who I personally know, and the Treasure Coast Lexus has been there for a while. Speaking in the first person, as if I were Agent Lightning, I arrived around lunchtime and was greeted by Sandy as soon as I walked up to one of the, I'm sorry, I got Sandy the owner mixed

up with the person that greeted Agent Lightning. Anyway, the person that walked up to greet her said, what brings you in today? I said, I was in the market for a new car, so she invited me inside. She led me to a table to gather more information. It was then that she asked my name and introduce herself as Jennifer. She asked me the usual questions, including how many miles a year I drive and whether I'd be leasing or buying. After handwriting a long info sheet, Jennifer asked me to follow her for a tour. And that's a little unusual. And Agent Lightning says, good Lord, this tour lasted, no joke, 15 minutes, a tour. The only thing she didn't show me in the dealership were the bathrooms. That could be the most important thing

you want to look for uh from the owner's offices they covered that went into sandy woods's office and uh this is a tour and the business meeting rooms and pointing upstairs to their snack area of finance offices the business offices if if i were ever to need to work while i you know if i ever needed to work while my car was being serviced to the service department. Okay. She was telling me it's cleaner than her three boys' rooms. I told her I have boys to and would have to show them. Now I've never heard this done in all the mystery shops that we do. I can see why they did it because Lexus does things a little bit differently. Nancy? They do things a little bit differently, but don't you think this here was a bonding process

and to, you know, make that consumer feel warm and fuzzy to relax? That's right. your defenses. Right in the sales handbook. You have to earn the customer's confidence and trust. And as you say, you can chit-chat, say, here's the owner's office. Oh, come on in. This is our snack room.

And look how well we treat our employees here. So it's smart. Smart business. Jennifer and I walked every square foot of the dealership to the finance office. Okay, I got that. They have a room where they parked the car and a vehicle guru comes and goes over every inch of the vehicle. This is a thing Lexus does, and it's very smart,

and I have often thought all dealers should do this, especially with today's complex cars. You really need a thorough explanation of all the bells and whistles, because otherwise, even I or Nancy, we get a late model, I get a new Toyota. It takes a long while before you can figure out what everything is. Absolutely. I couldn't say that as far as the Crown was concerned.

You know, we were very schooled on its, you know, advantages. So Jennifer introduced Agent Lightning to one of the girls who performs the service, which is telling them about the product and, you know, all the things that you're not going to find out unless you read the whole owner's manual, and you're not going to do that. That's like reading Encyclopedia Britannica. She said you also have free car washes every day, except Sunday, for as long as you own, never on a Sunday, for as long as you own the vehicle. So Agent Lightning is getting out of patience now. She wants to get to the meat, the nitty gritty.

After all that, I jumped at a hybrid car, saw on the chrome floor and said, this is exactly what I'm looking for. It was a new shiny black, 2004 Lexus NX. 358 with an MSRP, $51,070. The MSRP, the minority label, was in the right place, and we mentioned that. It's happened twice in the past month or so that we've actually had the minority label where it's supposed to be by law. Ed Morris had it there. At Morris, Honda, right?

Yeah. Most of the time, you can't find it. It's in the trunk. It's under the seat. It's in a glove compartment. Or you just don't have one at all. federal law violation folks Jennifer tried to get me

outside but I just fell in love with the one that was on the shore floor and it was a hybrid she tried to get me to look at other options bigger and smaller but I wasn't having it this was the car for me Jennifer demonstrated everything

about the NX-350H from the kickplate black hatch opening if keys are in your pocket or purse to showing me they don't have spare tires anymore and the extra storage space where the spare used to be. Then she opened up the front door,

showed me how they recently came up with the new push-to-exit feature, so if a car or bicycle, which drives too close, the door won't open due to a sensor. I hadn't heard about that. I've never heard of that yet. I've never heard about that. So it locks you in the car. Yeah, the first thing I thought about,

I had an attack of claustrophobia because I just, what if you were in a canal and that thing didn't work? Exactly. Or open the pod bay doors. Boy, oh boy. If there's a bicycle blocking me in my car, the bicycle is going to fall over. And Jennifer told me that the hybrid battery has a 10-year. That's a long warranty.

$150,000 a mile on the hybrid battery. That's a standard on all hybrid components on all Toyota. Toyota, Alexis, yeah. Real quick, you missed something on, right, that was next to the, the monroney label oh the endem label yeah how could I miss that that's quite salient I got so excited to see the

monon label in the right place right next to it was the Treasure Coast Lexus 999 addendum label so shame on you Sandy your listing I don't think most of the Lexus Steelers have addendum labels I

thought that they really pushed the dealers not to do Yeah, I think they strongly encouraged the dealers not to do that, but Sandy's a bit of a rebel. Oh, he is. I know. He is. You said I knew the guy. I know we're not out of time here, but it's kind of funny.

Somebody had a bad experience at Treasure Coast, or he owns Treasure Coast Toyota, too, and the person could not get satisfaction from the dealership. So I gave this caller, Sandy Woods, personal cell phone number. So I said he solved the problem and then he called me and says, Earl, what the hell are you doing? Give them my cell phone number. He says, please don't do that anymore. And you didn't, so. Okay, then we finally went for a test driver. By this point, by this point, I've been there for almost an hour. She had me head south on US 1, wanted me to go several lights and drive all around. But I had enough, so I let her know I want to test,

out the U-turn in this car after two lights. Test out the U-turn. I think she just want to check out the turning radius and make sure it's easy to turn around. I also gave it some gas. She let out a nervous, ah! And said she is not a very good passenger. That's funny.

In the original report, Regent Lightling wrote, she lit out a nervous ah, and I changed that to vocalization. Okay. Once back as a dealership, meanwhile, back at the dealership, I backed the car into a spot, and then we hit it back inside. I said, I'd like to see a price for this car, ask if they're doing market. Jennifer said, no, they only sell at MSRP.

Now, remember that. Remember what I saw, the paragraph I missed that Stu pointed out, said something about the package, the addendum label, $999. Well, Jennifer just said, no, they only sell an MSRP. She couldn't promise how long the car would be there, as it's the only one. one they have interesting she then left me sitting at a table while she got a tablet to put my information in the system this might be the longest car shopping if it's dragging on I've ever endured that's not a good thing not a good thing

I mean she was thorough you got to give her that she did everything she did too much you got to read your customer though yeah she's sighing and saying ugh all the time I think it's time to so after Jennifer had all the info she asked me how much money if any I'd be putting down I gave her a few options that she excused herself again to get a price sheet for me. She returned a few minutes later with the worksheet, the famous or infamous worksheet. Top line was MSRP, $51,070. There was no discount from that. Then they added $4.99 for door cups, another $499 for garage guards. Then they added their $849 dealer dock fees. They added $700 non-tax fees, which sounds

a bit high. That non-tax fees is supposed to be legitimate, but you can't be sure until you get in the F and I office. Well, usually they use the Knox tax fees as a tag at registration, and $700 is way high. I'd say $400 to be fair. Yeah, they slipped in $300 a junk. So, yeah, Stude estimates about $300 that $700 is junk. My real price was $53,217,000 over MSRP. But You heard Jennifer tell Agent Lightning that they sell at MSRP. That's an untruth. Just an hour and a half ago. Maybe they drag it out so long so you forget what they say.

It was a long time ago. Building trust. She figured she could build enough trust that you would, she could lie to you and you would still trust her. I don't know. I was incredulous just an hour and a half ago, Jennifer said they only sell at MSRP. That's it.

I asked that she confirmed that was the deal on the last hybrid in stock. I would say she looked at resolute. Well, okay, I guess. I said, I'll talk it over with my husband and shoot you a text. She thanked me for coming in and said she also brought me a credit card authorization form. She suggested that if I decide to move forward, I can fill this out and put up up to $5,000 on a credit card to begin the process. They're really pushing that toy to credit card. It's available to all Toyota Lexus dealers and you get like a $5,000 limit and you could use it as a down payment.

Yeah. So there you have it, a Lexus dealer, which we don't shop many Lexus dealers. I also usually praise Lexus dealers because the manufacturer has more involvement with Lexus dealers than any other manufacturers that I know of. And they use moral suasion to have people lower the fees now. Oh, incidentally, on their addendum, the door cup holders and the doorage guards, I priced those out on Amazon. You can get both of those for $25. You don't have to spend $1,000 to get those. Or I'm having them tomorrow on Prime.

I'm glad you did that. Yeah, it's just, you can just go to, you won't be able to see this very well, but these are pictures of the junk fees and the dealer installed accessories that he used to jack the price up. So you're talking, you know, 1,000% markup, 800, 500% markup, and that's what they're doing there at Treasure Coast Lexus. All right, well, Bob says a C for Treasure Coast Lexus. It would have been a B if they included restrooms on the tour. That's the only grade I haven't so far. So I'm just going to jump in with mine real quick because we're running out of time.

They've got to go lower than a C for me because it's a Lexus dealership. I think luxury brands have a. have a different curve. And so this is the worst Lexus shopping report I think we ever had. So I'm going to give them a D. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

I got Doug Tesler says, Ella says, Miao a F for fail. Niga 1 says D for dealer installed junk. T-Cash says D for a pointless dealership tour. Just give me your out-the-door price. And don't give Earl Crap for giving out your cell number. Sandy should be grateful.

Joseph Kelleher, D, junk fees are a turnoff Over here I've got Tom Steckle says C Luxury car dealers don't need to sink into the abyss with addendums and fees could get the same car at J.M. Lexus at a much lower cost. Scott H. Senior, D. Don't care for the add-ons. Brian said, let go, too many addendums, C-plus. Johnny Z. Fradley, grab your treasure chest for Treasure Coast Lexus add-ons and no MSRP discount, D.

Mark Smith, I'll give the Lexus dealership a C. Myself, I say C. Okay, Earl. I'm going to go C minus. Okay. We're going to make this fast and painless F from me. Okay, I think it's really, it would really be, and I believe we have a couple of seconds left to talk about autonomous,

and Earl wrote a column, and finally, autonomous driving is here autonomous autonomous driving is here is that how you got here this morning and yeah yes and everywhere we go we're on autonomous now Nancy in fact Nancy did some with the Tesla camera automated parking very cool really yeah oh yeah I mean it just it's it takes the fear out you are you guys are like like four like for like four runners on pioneers here with this I I mean, seriously, I think, obviously, it's not available to everybody yet,

but you're really dipping your feet in the beginning of something. And I think other seniors, I mean, should hear about this. Yeah, absolutely. It's something working for you. You know, not only seniors, but it's very telling that I'm on the... Seniors and drunks. There you go. I was just taking...

Took the words out of my mouth. Anyway, it's very telling. And the reason I say it's very telling is from... in the very beginning, I really wasn't on board with autonomous driving. And it's been improved by leaps and bounds. And also on the road that we've been on, I've noticed more lady drivers. And there's a whole lot to learn about autonomous, right, Earl? Yeah, you've got eight cameras outside the car.

Those eight cameras can see higher up. they can see much more than you can see, and they do it simultaneously. While these cameras are also measuring the speed of the traffic, and when I finally, when I realized that Tesla is actually driving better than I do and better than Nancy does, it can get you there quicker and safer. They actually, you know, think about it, you're in heavy traffic, and you have a car close behind you, you have cars on either side of you,

You have a stoplight up ahead of you. And how long does it take you to turn your head, which is dangerous? Look at the rearview mirror, the side view mirror. And a human being is very slow. That autonomous car simultaneously sees 360 degrees, and they know exactly what to do. Because at first it scared us, but we realized, oh, why did they do that? And we start thinking, why didn't we call the Tesla Miss Nancy? Why did Ms. Nancy move it into the other lane?

And we realized that she saw traffic up ahead of us down the road that we didn't see and we couldn't see. Absolutely. And you know, our reflexes, they lessen as we get older. I'm not talking about 80-year-olds. Let's go back to... I just threw a water bottle at Nancy. Let's go back to being 50 years old because there's so many distractions on the road. And I even experimented with Tesla Vision.

Yes, Rick. Imagine when the day comes when all the cars are talking to each other electronically, and they all know what they're each going to do, and there are no more accidents. That's exactly. Well, what's really telling is if you are old enough to remember, which Earl and I do, back to the Jetsons, and I'm Betty, and I think he's George. I'm Elroy. I'm Elroy.

Yeah, are you? Anyway. Rosie was the robot. I love her, the robot. So you're distracting. Sorry. So at any rate, my point here is they were talking about, in 1962, they were talking about 2063, was that what I quoted to you?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but what is amazing is to learn another feature on autonomous, and that is, and Earl does it much better than I do. I need more practice, and that is the Tesla Vision, right? Yeah, and they back into the parking place, so you're always pointed out. I love it. I think the only thing. That's great at the dealership, you know.

That's where I want to go. But, you know, like I said, it's very telling. So from the very beginning, I wasn't really on board with this, but then, Again, I'm a control freak. By overcoming that, I keep my fingers on the yoke, and I am letting her know that at any time I can take over. The yoke is a steering wheel on the plaid. It's like an airplane steering wheel.

Yeah. Because you're flying in that thing. Yeah, exactly. Hey, I think we're out of time. I'm talking so fast. Anyway, thanks, everyone. for joining us this morning. We have one minute left. We'll be right back here next week at 8 a.m. And I hope that the show is entertaining and educating. We thank you for all of your input for us.

We've learned a lot from you. Again, next week at 8 a.m. Have a great weekend. And if you've seen Jonathan's backdrop, the kids are back to school. Be careful out there. Have a great weekend. Let's come.