Earl Stewart on Cars - 06.21.2025 - The Best of Earl On Cars with Mystery Shop of Daytona CDJR

Episode Date: June 21, 2025

Today’s show is a re-broadcast of one of our past Earl Stewart on Cars shows. Go to streamearloncars.com between 8am and 10am eastern time to listen to the re-broadcast. If you have a question for our auto expert team, you can text it to [phone], or online at youranonymousfeedback.com, and we’ll answer it during our next live program.

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, this 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. Well, we're back in the studio, and I love this show. I probably don't feel as good or excited. any more than I possibly can feel when I start to show out on Saturdays. So glad that Nancy and I are back and that we're able to bring you a full show again. We had some illness in the family, actually both of us, and we're back.

We're back strong and we're feeling good. I just can't believe the changes and the opportunities available to you now in the automotive We're buying retail, we're talking about auto retail, manufacturing. The whole world automotive situation is so exciting. And it's just fun to talk about. I mean, America has always been since Henry Ford or before excited about their automobiles. The rest of the world, you know, oh, China's coming in there. But it's an American phenomenon, really.

We love our cars, and we leave the world in technological. although we've got some countries that are nipping at our heels but that's good competition is a great thing and whereas manufacturing design and technology are moving fast the retailing is is moving along the one negative thing that we and the reason this show exists is a negative thing about way cars are retail and that's why we're here to help you protect you actually the The automobile dealer, well, it's a franchise system in all 50 states, is the way that cars are sold to you. The people, the reason cars exist, because you want to buy them and drive them.

So the auto dealers just don't treat you right. And in full disclosure, we are auto dealers on this show. We have a Toyota dealership in North Bond Beach, Florida. So we've been there, we understand both sides of the story, completely. I mean, I've had, I've been, I was personally in the start of 1968 and the garbage was with a Pontiac dealership. Now we just have the Toyota dealership in North Palm Beach. So we're on the inside. We know what dealers do because we're dealers.

But we also have become consumer advocates, and that's what this show is all about. and that leads me to say that you are the show you make the show and you will hear me give out a telephone number I'm going to give it out right now my my apologies to our regular listeners when I say regular I'm talking 20 years you're probably getting tired of hearing this number but we got to do it because we have a huge number of new listeners and your participation really makes the show your your comments your questions your criticisms, live radio, there's nothing like it. I mean, and let me correct myself, this is really live television. I'm an old guy.

Streaming is the moderate word. We stream everything, and so we're streaming on Facebook. We're streaming on YouTube. We're streaming directly. And the good old-fashioned number that I'm going to give you right now is this. 877-960-9960. Please think about writing it down, grab a pencil or pen if you don't have one, and we will give it out frequently if we're doing our job for two hours.

We're on from 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, just about now, to 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. And gosh, we get calls from all over the United States and other countries. We're growing and growing and growing. And every little area of the country is a little bit different. So again, here comes the number. Got your pencil? You got your pen? Got your iPhone?

877-960-9960. 877-960-99-60. And we have a text number, of course. I mean, unfortunately, phone calls are declining and importance to a lot of people. And they're moving to text and email. Actually, they moved to email. Now they're moving to text.

I don't know what will be next. Probably mind reading. I'm not sure. But the text number is 772-497-6530. That's 772-497-6530. We've got some other ways to reach us, too, and we'll be talking about us. I'm going to turn the microphones over to my co-host shortly.

name is Nancy. Nancy Stewart. That's because we're married. And she was a co-founder of the show 20 years ago. And she has made this show co-ed. Used to be an old guy school where people would just, the old guys would call up or the old car lovers. I shouldn't call them old guys. Car lovers, car bus. Men are nutty about cars. Women are smart about cars. We buy cars. We men. We bike cars went a motion and you know how fast will go zero to 60 you know back in my day how big the tail fins were and now you know it's we're we're technically oriented and and not we're not grounded like the ladies so what nancy's done is turn this show into a co-ed we have 50-50 now ladies and men and she's done that for a lot of reasons first of all the women

like to hear her because she expresses the female point of view but also I guess she has a special offer it's a valuable offer to new callers to the show and she's going to explain this to you and just a second as soon as I turned the mic over to you and I was promised you this if you call the show especially if you're a lady but anybody calling the show we are going to prioritize your phone call we've only got five phone lines coming in to the studio here in North Palm Beach, Florida, and it gets tied up pretty fast. And sometimes people wait and wait, and they're on hold,

and they're talking to our production guy, and they just can't wait anymore. And when that happens, we feel real bad. So we move very quickly, we try, to your phone calls. And with that said, I'm going to turn the phone over to Nancy Stewart, my co-host. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. Boy, do we have a busy show this morning, I better start talking fast.

You know, Earl mentioned women and their impact on the, well, on the automotive industry. And, you know, I want to tell you that it's very interesting statistics for sure. Sure, I give ladies $50 for the first two new lady callers. But there's more meaning to that. It is more or less an encouragement and letting you know that your voice is, well, it's very important for us to hear from you and our audience. But more importantly, does anybody know the impact that women have on the auto industry? Do you realize that $300 billion, $300 billion a year, is a $300 billion? dollars a year is spent on car purchases and maintenance by women.

Yes, by women. We certainly have a financial impact on the auto industry, and there's some dealers out there that just don't get it. Also, an interesting statistic is that today more women than men walk into a dealership alone. to buy a car. I never thought the day would come whenever I could make that statement, but indeed it's very true. And this has been more or less like an insidious duration kind of a thing, if you will.

And over 70% of women won't return to a dealership after just one bad experience. there you go ladies please give us a call this morning share your experience with us were you respected did you have a fantastic you know experience in the dealership or even on the phone with to whom ever you were speaking give us a call tool free 877 960 9960 that's 877 960 So 9960, you can also text us this morning at 772-4976530. And here's an interesting bit of information that's in the news. Did you hear about Mazda's advance safety tech that aims for zero fatalities by 2040?

Earl will elaborate on that later on. 19,000 deaths last year. I mean, you know, if that happened anywhere in the world in a disaster or a war, we just take traffic deaths for granted. But good Lord, 19,000 last year. In 2024, there was an estimated 39,000. Okay, 39,000. It's such a big number, yeah.

39,345 people died. And it just goes on. It's interesting. So anybody out there that wants to take a look at the statistics, go to chat, GBT, our favorite place, and you can learn all about it. We have a great mystery shopping report, as usual, and that mystery shopping report is from DJC. That's Dodge Jeep Chrysler in Daytona. So we are going to go straight to the phones. I see where Johnny has been holding from Del Rey.

Good morning, Johnny. Hi, this is John, the guy who cleans his engines. But I got a question for Rick. I got a 2019 Hyundai-Connor, and the last time I went in to get my oil change, the three people said you have hardly any oil in the crane case. Now, I'm not burning oil. I'm not leaking oil, and there's no oil anywhere to be found. But they said those engines have a tendency to use up oil.

and I don't know how true it is, but I've been looking at watching my oil every month, and I always add a little bit in. Do you know what the reason for that is? Yeah, you're burning it. It's being burned in the engine. Okay, so I should keep an eye on it, then, huh? Yes. John, let me jump in there for a minute, too.

Here's an interesting thing that consumers usually aren't made aware of, and I can understand why. Every car, regardless of the maker model that comes up the assembly line, burns oil a little differently. So you could have a Honda accord with the exact same equipment and year, make, and model, and everything else. One of them would burn twice as much oil as the other one. The manufacturers, and again, this is all kind of secretly done. The manufacturers give the dealer, and we're a Toyota dealer, so Toyota tells us, okay, this model year and make should burn this much oil between this and this amount. So it's a pretty big spread.

Rick probably knows more than I do about the actual spread, but unless you fall within what the manufacturer says is normal. And we have customers that have to come in every two or three months to get their oil checked, and we have other ones that don't come in for, you know, every two or three years. I mean, it's really crazy the range that they go, Rick, what is the difference in the, within one year-make model car? Well, the one thing that I can tell you that is black and white that you will find, this is a true fact, Toyota, in every owner's manual that comes in a brand-new Toyota, there is a line in there that says that your car, through normal, normal use can use as much as one quart of oil for every thousand miles that you drive now this means that when Toyota says that the first oil change interval and that's true for all makes they all they're all going to have that in there and but if you're set to do 10,000 miles per oil change in your car your car could technically use up to 10 quarts of oil in that 10,000 mile range and Toyota would still say oh no that's normal although I say it's not I says that's wrong but that's just me and I certainly have no power

over this over the mega corporations of Toyota Ford Honda Hyundai but they they all have that little weasel clause so yeah unfortunately the cars that sometimes the tolerances just aren't right and they do use some engines will use a little more they say up to a thousand miles one quart of oil per thousand miles and that's why they tell you to check your oil at least once a month to see how much oil you're using and unfortunately you know there is that that weasel clause they put in there wow that's that's very interesting but i've been you know i'm 73 years old and i never knew that until until just now but i've always checked on oil oil on my cars from pushing a horse and buggy yeah John check your owner's manual if you don't have one you can get one online or find one of the dealership might even have one to give you but get your owners manual and you

might be able access it online anyway without having to have the hard copy and see what what kind of vehicle do you have what year make model two thousand nineteen Hyundai Kona okay well Hyundai and see what Hyundai owner's menu for that model says it should burn. It probably has, like Toyota does, it probably has a suggestion as to what it can burn up to so you don't have to worry about it. I don't know that Hyundai does, but Toyota does. And the dealer, the Hyundai dealer, should know.

And if you're outside the average, then you have an issue that is not related to normal. All normal is, it means at the low end of the tolerance for the manufacturer, of your components in your engine that do the ignition and everything, that there's a range. And you need to know what that is before you become too worried about something. If that's the way it is, there's nothing you can do about it. If it's outside the tolerances, you might be able to get some help from Hyundai, the manufacturer. Yeah, because I just turned 98,000 miles, and I've changed, you know, the 100,000 mile checkup.

everything that has to be done to keep my car up more beyond than most people do but yeah we're just curious about that but that was very valuable information well i'm glad we could help you on that issue most people don't know that we uh it's not something the manufacturers like to brag about uh the average person when i buy a car today and they see uh if if you've got six hundays of the exact a year making models stand side by side you like to think think they're all identical, but they are definitely are not identical. They're identical in a lot of ways, but they're also different in a lot of ways. I guess there's no practical way you could determine the oil consumption by a test drive. So you're kind of rolling the dice when you do that.

Might be a good reason to lease a car. And if you like the way the oil consumption is, exercise your option to purchase. And at the end of the lease, at least that gives you an escape patch and case you get one of these oil burners okay i thank you very much you're welcome johnny give us a call again have a great weekend our number here is 877 960 9960 rick i have a question for you on newer vehicles under normal you know driving conditions would you say that they burn a lot less oil um you know i'm saying maybe even uh less than a cork the much newer cars are burning a lot less oil just like Earl and I were talking before the show

about how medical advancements are like increasing the knowledge of medical advances the quality in cars has been increasing a huge amount a car that is right now say my pickup that's 12 years old it's the quality on that engine although it was great the newer ones are even better. Yeah, that's a perfect example. And so, yeah, they're going to use less oil,

but they still leave that weasel claws in there. And it can have to do with such things as your driving habits, too. Driving conditions. People that do little short trips just here and there and never really get the car up to operating temperature, that's going to cause carbon buildup and things that are going to make the car burn more oil. That's one of the reasons why I recommend often is,

you know if you don't do a lot of driving just do those little short trips to the grocery store and back once every couple weeks take your car out on the highway and just drive for 30 or 40 miles it's kind of like your dishwasher it gets all that oil gets nice and hot works that hot oil around and breaks up all those deposits and gets them out of the engine and cleans everything up and it'll make your car last longer yeah and you know what that's great information that rick is just about every Saturday morning, you know, there's so many of our listeners who will call and say they're going on vacation, you know, and he talks about this exercise that your vehicle needs. So there you have it. Well, I can say my 12-year-old Tacoma with 185,000 miles on it probably doesn't

use a cord of oil in 10,000 miles. No kidding. That's interesting. Wow, that you said it has 185,000 miles? Yeah, that's all. It's still a young truck. Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely. I'll get 300, 350,000 out of it, easy. Exactly. We're going to go to one of our favorite callers, female callers, and she's, you know, I passed her the baton quite some time ago. And, you know, I don't thank her very often, but, you know, her contribution to the show is showing us.

her support for me and also, you know, the flip side of the coin, she's encouraging women to call the show to express themselves. And with what I shared with you this morning about the effect that women have on the auto industry, you know, we are certainly holding the auto industry together positively. We all have had a huge impact on the auto industry. And not a lot of men or women know that. Yes, we have invested females have invested more money in the auto industry. So you would think by now that they would be treated with respect and they would be treated like, well, if they're not treated right, they're going to turn around and just walk away. So, without further ado, I'm going to introduce Trish.

Hey, Trish. Good morning. Wow, morning. Wow, I feel honored. I'm glad you do. I hope that there's all kinds of women who are listening to the two of us, and they will take your lead. Well, I hope so, yes. Listen to Nancy.

Call in. Thanks, Trisha. Anyway, I'm so glad both of you are. are feeling better because it was a long time that we, you know, missed you. Thank you. You know, for many weeks, but I'm glad you're feeling better. Now, I have three-part questions, so I'm going to go quickly, so I don't take up too much of your time.

We talked last week about, you know, my rotors, and Rick suggested maybe having them resurfaced. I spoke to my guy. He said, no, the rotors are cheaper. up just to get new ones. Okay? They're cheapen up. If you resurface them, they'll warp again. So he suggested just getting new ones. Easy for him to say.

Probably because he doesn't have a resurface it machine. Okay, that's number one. Number two, I found out a few weeks ago, I forgot to ask you this, that my oil was slightly overfilled. one guy said it's not much of a problem it was slightly overfilled do you agree rick um on the rotors my first thing that i will say is there are various levels of quality if you buy the cheap cheap rotors odds are they're going to be warped right out of the box and buying a better quality rotor is less likely to warp over time but yeah cheap rotors yeah they're they're cheap but they're

cheap for a reason and so that's just something to be aware of now on the oil fill level if the oil is over full by just like an eighth of an inch a tiny little bit over that full mark on the dipstick it's not going to hurt anything you're not you're not going to cause any problems you're going to be just fine with that. If it's way over full by like a half an inch or more, then I would say, hey, I'd be talking to the mechanic and saying, hey, look, the last oil, Phil, you got it over full. Maybe we should lower this just a little, or at least at the next oil change. Let's make sure that we don't get it over full. What happens when it's over full, Rick? In extreme cases, if you get too much oil, it'll actually start to suck the oil out through the ventilation

for the engine and you'll have that oil going in and being burned in the cylinders and can cause the car to start to smoke a lot it can also contaminate and damage the catalytic converters by getting too much oil into those cats and as anybody that has heard the stories with cats being stolen off your car they are very very expensive to replace so yeah if it's only a tiny little bit over it's not going to hurt anything Okay, okay, so I wanted to know. My third thing, I suggested this many, many months ago, and you agreed that you might do this with the repair, instead of the, you know, contacting the dealership and seeing all the scams there, you were going to do the repair shops and see, you know, how much they're scamming and overcharging.

Because remember if you, like six months, to go, I called in and I told you, you know, this place that I needed, you know, $1,300 worth of front row work and then I really needed nothing, remember? Mm-hmm. So I'd like to see you start doing that. Well, you know, remember, you know, going over that, doing those kind of things. You're trying to, doing mystery shops at repair shops? Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, we've done a few of those in the past.

Yeah, we don't do enough. I was just going to say. They're difficult, more difficult and time-consuming, but we should do them. You're absolutely right, and the fact that you brought it up makes me think we need to get right on that. We're never going to be able to do as many service department. But what we should and we'll go through based on your recommendation, is we take one of our used cars and we have our own technicians go over it

with a fine tooth comb and see what is wrong and what isn't wrong. And then we drive it into another independent repair shop or another dealership and we just say, please check my car over and tell me what I need done. And that's the shopping report. So we- Thanks for the suggestion in bringing it to light.

Again, Tricia, what like Earl said, you know, just to re-neutral. We have, but we haven't really done enough. You know, back to your rotors. Let me ask you real quick, and then we have to go. Would you say that labor and machine costs to resurface often equals or exceeds installing new rotors? Has anyone shared that with you on your journey here on wanting to know what to do? Yeah, I think it can.

It can, yeah. Pardon me? Are you asking me or Rick? I'm asking you. Has anyone said to you, you said you had your to-go-to guy, has he said to you, hey, listen, resurfacing, it often equals or exceeds, you know, installing new rotors? Yeah, Rick said that a cheap rotor can actually be less expensive, but a cheap rotor will cost you more in the long run.

You really need to be careful when you make that decision. That's what I was trying to get at, Trisha. No, no, no, I've gotten good rotors, and they've actually lasted, let me see, I'm going to even tell you, Lena, last time I had breaks done, brake oh break pads were done 1214-22 so that's quite a long yes it definitely is

a time to look into that hey Tricia I have calls just backed up all the lines are lit up so I'm going to thank you for encouraging the ladies to call the show and thank you for staying with us You're quite dedicated. Good luck with your rotors.

Every Saturday. Every Saturday. Thank you. Thank you. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-49-2-49-2-49-7-6-5-3-0. I'm going to jump ahead and take Adriana's call. She's a new caller, female caller, and I can't thank you enough for calling. She's from Singer Island.

Good morning. I'm getting a caught uh she really shook up Pardon me hello hello hello yeah go ahead this is Nancy Is this my time to I'm having a hard time hearing you is this my time to say a question it is first of all I want to thank you for calling Errol in cars and supporting the ladies and did you hear my introduction in the beginning of of the show and what an impact women have on the auto industry? No, I missed that. Oh, okay.

Well, we are an important part, and we're more or less keeping, you know, these dealers happy and fat, so our voices must be heard, and we must support each other. And I want to thank you this morning. Stay on the line, and you can speak with Jeremy in the control room. Give him your contact information, and I'll send that checkout to you. For $50. What can we do for you this morning? So my question is, in regards to my new Kia Telluride, 2022, has a BCA activation

when someone is in the rear right or left, pretty close, I guess, and it just, like, breaks instantly. I just want to know what the purpose of that is and if you know how to turn that off. What's the activation that's getting? Do you say E-C-A? It's B as boy, C as in Cat, and A as an adult. Hmm.

The electronic control assembly? And that's on a Hyundai, you say? No, it's a Kia, tell you ride. A Kia, okay. Let me look that one up real quick, because I'm not familiar with what, the BCA? Oh, blind, slow, okay, that's their blind spot collision avoidance. Yeah, basically, that's like our, for Toyota and the other systems I've seen,

that's the blind spot collision. It's the light that comes on in the mirror to let you know there's somebody up in your blind spot. And apparently, Kia has a system that if you try to change lanes, it will try to avoid that collision by applying the brakes or something or not letting you do that. There probably is a system that you can turn that off, but if you're having issues that that thing is turning on when there's no car there, I would have it taken in and inspected to find out if that sensor for that rear end is starting to have a problem. Yeah, Adrian, that's a very valuable warning system, and if it's not working, as Rick says, you should get it repaired. But of all the, all cars now have that, all the new cars, and not that exact same type, but one of the biggest savings for accidents and injuries and things like this, one of the biggest safety factors is that blind spot warning, and different cars give you different types of warning.

be sure that yours is operating properly, I would not disconnect it because it can really save you and somebody else a serious accident. But find out how to operate it, be sure it's operating properly, and it probably will be fixed under warranty because most safety features on cars tend to have five-year warranties. And you should take it to your Hyundai dealer and discuss that with them. So you would rather have it turned off, is what you're saying? Well, actually, I didn't know that's what it was. It just scares me because it's like somebody's right there, and it breaks really hard. So I didn't know that it was a blind spot activation. Yeah, it might be really working, okay, and you didn't see it, but that's what it does.

It activates when you are starting to move and you can't see it. So the fact that you didn't see the car doesn't mean there wasn't a car there. I would definitely check into your owner's manual, or even the simpler method, go on YouTube and put in just a search as to how that system operates for the driver, so it basically will help you understand how that system is supposed to work and how it's going to protect you to help avoid accidents. And, Rick, isn't it true that you can go to the steering wheel menu? even Donovan says that there's usually a button down low on the dash by your knee yeah there's a little button puts them there some other cars they have it where it's in the dash controls your combination meter controls where you can turn that off but myself I don't recommend turning off the blind spot monitoring because it's a very valuable safety feature

and you can learn a whole lot more about it and you know how important it is for you to keep that, Adriana. And like I said, if you go to the steering wheel, the steering wheel menu, you can scroll down and you can go through driver assistance settings, and you can take a look at all that and kind of understand how important that is to keep, and it's also important that it works. As a matter of fact, Donovan mentions that you can turn off the assist function so that The light will still light up, but it won't activate the brakes or any of the steering controls to try to avoid the accident, but it would still give you the illumination light. Myself, I would educate yourself more on how it's supposed to work for you and be able to make a good decision as to whether you want to deactivate that or not.

And, Adriana, whatever you decide to do, give us a call back and keep us informed. And most of all, all of the ladies that are listening to you right now. Well, thank you very much. I'll go ahead and YouTube to understand it correctly. Okay. And also, don't forget, Jeremy in the control room, he'll get your contact information. And please, spread the word. We have a platform here, and it is for the ladies.

This is just not, you know, the old boys' school kind of a show. So this is, you know, it's the 21st century, and women's voices are being heard in the body shop, you know, in service, whether they're going to purchase a car, whether they're going to lease a car, rent a car, anything at all. And we're supporting each other right here, Earl, on cars. We're moving forward, Adriana, so help support us. We'll do. Thank you. Have a great day. We're going to go to Paul, who's been holding.

Good morning, Paul. Paul's calling us from Lake Worth. Oh, hi there, guys. Please forgive my laryngitis, but it's time to upset the apple cart a little. Oh, boy. And let me go on here. According to Google AI, the average price of a new car in the U.S. right now is $48,401. dollars. So this week, some friends and I were discussing electric versus hybrid. And I think you're

paying you audience in one respect, and that is getting the best value for your money, not just negotiating the best price. So what about the average person, say a school teacher, and you just need a basic new car. We got to talking about what would be the most reliable new car that someone can buy for the lowest price and operational cost in today's market. And I understand that Earl sits there in his ivory tower, totally impressed by a $165,000 car that can do zero to 60 in two seconds and almost drive itself. One point nine. Remember, Earl, you are also driving around in the ugliest vehicle since the Pontiac S.

So while some people are hung up on the latest technology, I think you guys have forgotten a little bit about the good people out there who just have to go to work tomorrow. And it's something else. Not everyone has a garage. Not everyone lives in a house. Not everybody has a home charging station. And I think there are a lot of people out there who would like to drive an electric vehicle, but would need to utilize charging stations, which aren't cheap.

So my point, in the next five years, yes, battery technology will go bonkers, but today, one thing Tesla owners are missing, the Tesla brand now has market competition that wasn't there five years ago. A lot of manufacturers now offer all-electrics for less than money than a comparable new Tesla. But with so many choices now, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Lexus, Chevy, Cadillac even, based on quality build alone, why would you choose a Tesla over one of the other guys? And here, case in point, the new Toyota BZ4X, the Subaru Salterra, the new electric Chevy Equinox, are prime examples.

All priced under $40,000 but with excellent build quality along with a smooth, quiet, refined ride. Hey, Paul. The lower-priced Teslas are not smooth and quiet.

So anyhow, I tried to figure out with my friends. Paul, we got five people holding and I'm not interrupting because I don't appreciate you're being candid. Believe it. I love a guy like you that can

you express your opinion you're not timid about it you feel strongly and so I respect that I'm I hear you I'm driving an expensive car I got a drive but here let me

one more minute I want to answer part of your question and then I'll give you another minute we can't talk over each other because nobody understands it's listening so one person at a time Paul you had your time now it's Earl's time

Nancy, there are more good bargains today and use car lots of electric vehicles than anywhere else. Sure, there are. Of all makes and models. So to answer Paul's question, if you want a value at a good price for a good car, you can buy a Tesla, you can buy a General Motors product, you can buy, there's a dozen cars out there, electric vehicles, and I would go to Consumer Reports, and this is, Nancy's in my Bible, and I would look for the quality electric vehicle, used vehicle, and that's what I would recommend that people, unlike me, that I can afford to buy a toy, and you're absolutely right about that. The average person, the guy that's working for a living, I'm 84, I'm not working at art anymore,

so I can play around. Okay, Paul, I'll give you another minute. Okay, so anyway, so what I tried to break it down was that Tesla charging stations, nationwide, if you don't have a driveway and a charger at home, nationwide, Tesla charging stations cost an average of $13.20 for an 80% charge on a model Y in 25 minutes. The hybrid Toyota Corolla and the hybrid Hyundai Allantra both have an 11.1 gallon gas tank with a range of 285 miles on a fill-up. Most electric vehicles today have about a 250-mile range,

so an 80% charge gives you about 200 miles. Bottom line, to drive 600 miles, three electric fill-ups at a Tesla charging station nationwide will cost you a total of about $39.60. cents a one-time 11-gallon fill-up on a 50-mile-per-gallon hybrid at 315 a gallon will cost 3456 or about one cent one cent less per mile to drive the hybrid versus the electric okay paul you forgot about oil changes and a hybrid requires oil changes and the all if he doesn't so you had your minute, and this will probably surprise you. I agree with you. The best value on the road today

is a hybrid. You pick a quality car, go to Consumer Reports, buy a hybrid, and it is a better deal than an all-EV. So how do you like that? We actually agreed, and thank you very much. I hope you encourage a lot of other people to tell it like it is. So call again next week, please. Thanks. Bye. You're welcome. My quick opinion on the first. question he asked, what is the most reliable, reasonable price vehicle? I have two choices. A two to four-year-old Toyota Corolla or a two-to-four-year-old Honda Civic, either of which find one with relatively low miles and have it inspected by a mechanic, a qualified mechanic,

and you will find that that is going to be an incredibly reliable, economical, well worth its money used car. Hybrid? Hybrid or non-hybrid? Either one. Yeah, hybrid's better. But you're going to find a much more, a ton of reliability in a car that's going to last you a long time for the money you're going to pay. Okay, okay. And, you know, here's another sidebar. Purchasing, making, you know, an initial purchase for an electric vehicle, let's talk about maintenance. Do you realize that have cost about $949 annually, annually on maintenance compared, this is with an electric vehicle, and you compare that to $1,279 for a gas-powered car. And there's, you know, I have a lot of that's oil, by the way.

Pardon me? And a lot of that is oil. And there's not a lot of consumers that I speak to that talk about what it's going to cost to keep a car on the road. They're more interested in a car payment or some other... You're right, unfortunately, you're right, you know. Information.

And you really have to, you know, look into this because it can be costly to keep a car on the road. But that's to Paul's, you know, comment about electric vehicles. And where do you want to spend the money? Do you want to spend the money initially or do you want to spend it down the road where you have, you know, a lot of maintenance,

and so much more. Anyway, moving along here, we're going to go to Howard, who's holding, he's a regular caller from Jupiter. Good morning, Howard. Good morning. It's a very nice presentation that that guy gave,

and Earl answered very well. I have a very simple question. I'm going in for an oil change probably next week. Whenever I go for an oil change, the oil line is in the middle of the two lines. It never on the end line. So can I ask my service manager to make sure it's at the end line? Is that possible?

Yes, you can. Okay, that's what I wanted to know, because every time I spoke to the service manager, he said to me, we put in the amount that's called for. Yeah. If you want to be at that line, we have to top it off. so what do you okay that's what i'm saying well the automatic gun that they're using to pump the oil into your engine it'll it'll have the number of quartz that that toyota says is the amount to refill it but those guns also have the capability to add another 10 percent so what

tell the technician you want them to add the oil check the oil level and then add as much extra as is needed to bring it up to that top line and those guns are designed to It will give you the opportunity to add up to 10% of that amount more to bring it up to that top level. What I was doing, I was buying a plastic oil bottle and popping it off myself. But I'll take your advice. And I won't ask any more questions because I know you're backed up. No, we love your questions, Howard. You're a real guy with real problems that most of our listeners experience the same things.

You are in our dealership and most other car dealerships. To me, the biggest problem for my customers in service is having to wait too long. You know, you got a dentist appointment or a doctor's appointment. You come in there, you give the guy your car, the service advisor, and he said, I'll have this ready for you in two hours. Four hours later, you missed your doctor's appointment, and everybody's upset. So the problem that we have in our service department, And most car dealers service department is we don't value the customer's time when they come in.

And to me, there's nothing more, you know, when you get to be 84 years old, time is extremely expensive in my mind. Time is very valuable. I just have, I'm having signs put in the customer lounge now. You can tell me when they're finished because they're in process now and will say, if your car, is it going to be ready when you were promised please call this number and this number no it's not my number but this number goes to a special cell phone that uh answers questions only on service customers being made to wait too long so you'll call this number and uh coming from the top that's me i'm saying it will be the death sentence to anybody that does not take care of our

customers and makes them wait two and three hours when they were promised half that time so uh your your your comments are always very valuable and i thank you for calling hour okay one thing are you service right is to steve goldberg he's great oh he's the best you know best of the best thank you for that compliment i'll i'll tell uh steve what you said okay thank you have a good day thanks Howard uh we are going to go to john in poem city good morning john good morning john good morning, I have a question for Rick, the auto stop feature, and people don't know what that is, when you stop to the light, that your engine stop, can that be, if there's not a button on the car, can that be disconnected, Rick, without any big deal involved?

It's going to depend on the manufacturer, but I'm pretty well certain that every car that has that feature has either a straightforward button on the dash somewhere or there's a way to turn it off by going in through the infotainment system, the radio, or by the steering wheel controls for the combination meter. But yeah, 99% of them, there's a button on the dash somewhere, just a hard-press button where you can turn off that auto-start-stop feature. And for those that aren't quite aware of what that is,

it's when you're driving the car and you pull up at a traffic light now this is on a normal gasoline engine car not on a hybrid but when you pull up to the traffic light the engine will shut off and then when you step on the gas

the engine restarts and the biggest drawback to this other than it being rather annoying and surprising is that the battery and the starter motor both have to be a special part number, they are much more expensive,

and they have a manufacturer of lifespan, a recommended time in which they are to be replaced, even if you're not experiencing a problem with it. And I think most of these, when you turn them off, they come back on again, very few cars have a feature that you can turn off permanently, but some cars do, some cars don't. Most of them, every time you get in the car and start it up, you have to turn that feature off each time you start the car up.

Well, the reason I bring this up is the National Highway Traffic Safety Bureau is investigating 2.3 million Hondas from 2016 to 2019, the Honda pilot, and 2015 to 2019, Accurate TLX. They have so many complaints about this problem that they want to have a recall done on. on that car in particular. And Honda's got problems last year. My friend has a 2019 Honda Civic, and the recall was so serious that the fuel pump had to replace in the gas tank

because the car would just quit suddenly if you were on 95 or a major road, all of a sudden your car could go dead. And he waited as much as nine months for the part to come in or else they were calling him, tell him, Do you have a quarter of a tank of gas now? No, he said, I have three quarters or full.

They said they can't take the car in. So this is some serious features, particularly involved a great car like Honda. But does every automobile manufacturer go through these recalls? Toyota had a recall on our fuel pumps just a couple of years ago, and a massive one. And we were replacing fuel pumps probably two to 300 of them per week for a long time. But, yeah, I can honestly tell you that in 2019, when I bought the RAV-4 for my wife, if it had had that start-stop technology, I'd be divorced right now. That would have been a big deal breaker.

Yeah. Yes. Well, I just want to mention it because it hasn't been a recall yet, but it's a probe because of the complaints that they have on these particular model of Hondas. So I just want to bring it up. Thank God they did away with this auto stop features because it was never any good from the beginning. No, and the cost involved, the maintenance cost of replacing that particular battery design and that starter motor was horrendous. The part prices were just almost triple in some cases.

Yep, well, thank you for the information and let's go on. I know you have a lot of calls. Thanks, John. Thanks for staying in touch every Saturday. Have a great weekend. Ladies, if you didn't hear the information I shared with everyone this morning, you know, about the amount of money that women have invested, you know, it's over $300 billion a year. And that's on car purchases and maintenance. And did you know this? I mean, those numbers are staggering for sure. And over 70% of women who walk into a dealership that have been mistreated, walk out.

And I'll tell you what, for the dealer, if you don't realize the impact that women have financially, you're in big trouble. So all they want is their voices to be heard, they want to be respected, and they want to be dealt with like everyone else. So there you have it. It's an easy recipe for success, I would say. We are going to go to Linda. Linda's gone. Linda, give us a call back. I'll take your call as quickly as I possibly can.

The lines are well lit up, all of them. We're going to go to Bob and Lake Park. Good morning, Bob. Hi, Bob. Welcome, Bob. Good morning. Good morning. First, I'd like to say, rest in peace, Pope Francis.

God bless. God bless. And Rick, the fellow they're called with the Hyundai Conner, with the oil consumption problem. Yep, yep. He's going to need a ring job, and there's a TSP. I'll give you the number. So if he's listening, it's 21. 1-01-0-05-4M-1.

And that's a manufacturing defect that he has in that vehicle. And it's 9 years old, so he's going to have to fight to get them the patient system. Bob, you better... Wow. Bob, can you repeat that? Give that number out again, and Rick will write it down.

Yes, it's a TSP 21-01-01-0-0-4. 54H dash 1. Thank you. And he can present that, get a print out, bring it down to the dealer, and he can call the manufacturer, and usually what the manufacturer will do on something like that. He'll have to fight for it. I had the same situation. I had to fight with General Motors, had North Star Engine, same problem.

The call was out of warranty. a general motors agreed to pay for half it was a $6,000 job and I had to fight the dealership to pay for the rest of it but we negotiated it down and in the end run it cost me 500 and they had to redo the

they had to redo you know do a ring job on it but he has a technical service bulletin on that vehicle it's not a common problem and as far as burning a court every thousand miles I've never heard of such a thing

I think that's, you know, I don't know why they would even put that in the service manual, but it's crazy. Well, they put that in is what we call weasel notes. That's their way of weaseling out of having to do anything. Let me read that number back to you one time just to make sure I've got it down here correctly. It's TSB 21-01-5-4-H-in-hotel dash 1. Is that right? no it's zero five four zero five four okay and and there's also a superseding bulletin on it so you could you could pull it up you could google it and pull it up and it'll tell you right there that there's a problem with it related to the

heat and the rings and it you know it it degrades the rings and then you know it all gets burned up Bob, you just proved why, what I say at the beginning of the show, the callers make the show. You just proved that fact. By sharing information with other callers, you're answering questions for our listening audience as much as we are. Thank you very much for taking the time and giving us a very direct answer for a very real problem for the previous caller. No problem.

Well, like I said, I've been listening to your show for a really long time, and there's a lot of good information and you do a wonderful job and I'm just very happy that the both of you are healthy and I miss Stu where Stu? Stu took the day off I guess

He texted me and said he can't make it in today and so he's got some of our grandchildren or his children are in various schools and he has some of them visiting home right now so

So you've got to let them spend time with his family. Right. I got one other thing. We were talking about used cars, trying to find a good certified used car because the new car prices were so high. But there's a dearth of cars that are coming off lease because three years ago there wasn't a great supply of cars.

So the cars that are coming off lease that are going to be certified, there's going to have to be a lot of them around. because they just didn't have a lot of cost years ago. So it's going to create another problem. And I think the used car prices, people are going to be surprised that the use car prices are going to be very high. Yes, they will.

Definitely. The good thing about that is if you're getting an off-lease situation where you have a lease car and the lease terminates in the next few months, you should definitely check the market value because as you say, the prices of used cars are going up, you exercise your option at a much lower price. So that's money in the bank.

So all you leasing people out there, be sure to check the actual cash value of your car and see how it compares with the option price, the purchase price. You'll probably find out you can make a, even if you don't want the car, exercise your option price, flip it, sell it after you buy it. You can make yourself $1,000, $2,000. Absolutely, absolutely. It's good advice. I think a lot of people are not smart enough to understand how their lease contract works.

Yeah, that's really important. Very important. I think the dealers take advantage of that when you go to turning you. I've never leased a car because I've always thought it was a little bit too complicated. It is. It is. And the dealers love it because it's complicated. You know, focusing on the out-the-door price.

Thank you. Have a wonderful weekend. Thank you, John. And, you know, focusing on the out-to-door price instead of monthly payments, you know, knowledge is power. And there's all kind of ways to get around all of this wheeling and dealing. And I can't say enough about consumer reports. And Earl would definitely agree with me. Hey, as a sidebar here, anybody remember Carlos Gohn?

Anybody? Yeah, anybody out there? Okay, let me, I'll bring you up to speed on Carlos. He, five years after he escaped in a crate. He was ahead of Nissan? That's right. Yeah, yeah. After five years that he, when he escaped in a crate,

Gung has a mansion and a yacht in Lebanon. And guess what he's doing? He is teaching business strategy. in Lebanon. So there you go. I mean, Nancy's not kidding, by the way. He landed on his feet. He was in a, he escaped a Japanese jail.

He was able to get out of Japan in a, packed in a trunk of a car. I don't mean of an airplane. They put him in a crate and on a plane. And now he's teaching business strategy. In Lebanon? Yeah. Yeah, very interesting. and Stu, everyone wishes that hopes that you feel better soon.

We'll see you next Saturday. That is the sentiments of some of our callers and listeners and texters. They miss you. Okay, we are, yes. One quick note, this one from Negan 1, he says, in chat, GTP agrees with him. He says, most vehicles, if they have a sport mode, by putting the vehicle in sport mode, It will disable the auto start, stop. Great information, right?

The listeners make the show. Yeah, definitely. Thanks for sharing that with us. We are going to go to John. Good morning, John. John's calling us from West Palm Beach. Hello. John from West Palm Beach.

I do have a question, and it falls right with what we were talking about. We are into our second year of a lease. um we we are going to keep the car and buy it when would be the best do we wait to the end of the lease to to keep the car and purchase it or could i do it now uh or when would be the most opportune time we're going to buy the car your lease contract uh gives you uh if you if you terminate your lease early that hurts you financially and uh they're going to demand all the lease payments. And you just can't get out of a lease without making all the payments. So by keeping it to the end, your option price, the longer you keep it, well, depending on the

used car market, the better the deal can be. But when you exercise that option price, the law says that you can buy it at that option price on your lease contract. There cannot be any junk fees, any dealer in saw accessories, any administrative fees. The only thing that you pay in addition to your purchase option price on your lease is sales tax and license plate. But almost every dealer is going to try to tell you you have some extra fees that are due. In that case, you call the leasing company and you say, I'm being flim flam by the dealer I'm trying to return this car to, and they'll take care and be sure you get your.

option price, pure and simple. Wonderful. Great. Thank you so much. You're welcome, John. Thanks for tuning in. The number here is 877-960. And you can also text us at 772-4976530. I didn't mention earlier, Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Youranonymous Feedback.com. It says everything.

You can just say anything you want, and no one will know your name. Fabulous.com. Your anonymous feedback.com. Linda, I do apologize. I was just getting ready to take your call, and you hung up, and I don't blame you. You really have to have a lot of patience to sit back and wait.

We have so many callers. We are going to go to Marty, who's calling us, and he's a regular caller from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Marty. Hi, how are you? You know, I'm going to ask you the question. Not yet. Not yet.

They haven't received anything yet. Okay, Marty. I'm staying on them. They know we've gone by first name now. Okay. What can we do for you? As a safety feature, and I don't know if Toyota changed it in the 25 Camrys, but in all my previous Camrys, when somebody was in your blinds,

spot and you turn your turn signal on to go in that lane the mirrors would flash but there would not be an audible sound and i think Toyota should put in an audible my wife has it on a 2021 CRV and they do have it in my crown but in camrys and avalons that i've had they never put in audible it would just be a flash of the lights and the side view mirror yeah that it should be audible but I mean to play the devil's advocate when you're when you put your turn signal on you should be looking at the mirror as you go to change lanes and that's why they have it with it flashing so hopefully the flashing light will get your attention but yeah there should be an audible beep as well if you put a

turn signal on and it detects there's a car are there, there should be more than just a blinking light. If you design cars and engineer cars for the way people should drive, you're not a very good manufacturer, you know, because people don't drive the way they should drive. And that's a genius of a very safe car as the engineers and designers realize that we're all, all of us are sloppy.

They say, don't use your cell phone. We do use our cell phones. Don't text. We do text. just drive down the street and look over if it's not tentative glass and the car beside you the people inside of the car are not doing what they're supposed to be doing so the cars today the good cars and Toyota should be better about that should make it very difficult for you not to know that there's a car coming by in the blind spot people kid me because Nancy and I

drive Tesla's let me tell you something I'm never going to have a problem. Nancy's never going to have a problem when the car is in our blind spot because you're scared to, I mean, the warning you get gets your attention so you don't do it again. Yeah, saves lives. Did you know that Ford actually for a while had a system where if you did not connect your driver's side seatbelt when you got in the car, the radio would not play? Smart. They did that for teenagers to try to teach teenagers.

Buckle your seatbelt. Otherwise, you can't have your radio playing. Genius. And they did away with it. And yet that was like genius factor. Definitely genius. They did away with that. Yeah, genius.

Well, I'm just saying for safety reasons, I can't see. It can't cause Toyota that much to put an audible in. Yeah. And again, this goes back to a discussion that Earl and I have had for years now. neither of us can wait for the day when all the cars on the road or at least a greater majority of them are autonomous computer controlled and all the computers are communicating and our lives will then be so much safer and simpler and straightforward and take the people out of the equation for driving cars yeah well let's hope uh you know nobody gets into an accident

because they did he's a flash in their side of you. Yeah, good point. Definitely. Marty, it was a pleasure. Have a good weekend. Thank you. Thanks, Marty. You do the same.

Okay, we are going to go to the roadrunner. Me-meet. Good morning, Roadrunner, Steve. Good morning, everybody. How is doing? Doing good, Steve. You're doing good. Okay, this is a question for Dr. Rick, the automotive surgeon general.

Oh, wow. What a title. He's got enough pressure. I love that. That's your new name, right? Automotive Service General. No, Surgeon General. Oh, yeah.

Okay. Okay, I got a question about key fobs. On my Nissan Central, it came up on my dashboard, key fob battery low, okay? Yeah. And then sometimes when I tried my other key fob, but the battery was then that, wouldn't even start with that.

But there's also a key inside that key fob. Now, that key is just to open the card door, right? Right. Okay. And I can anticipate what you're going to say, and here's the answer. Take the key fob out of your pocket, hold it right up against the start button. Right.

And as long as it's within about an inch of the start button, step on the break and press the button, and it'll operate. Right. Well, I put a new battery in it. Right. And, yeah, they just get new batteries when you can. Yes.

And the other thing is, when that key fob is dead and you go to put your foot on the brake, the brake will not move. It's as hard as a rock. Yep. With that. But the thing is, I looked on the side of my right side steering wheel column. There's a silver plastic piece there. Okay?

I just noticed it now Now, would that have been for a key start? It may originally, they may have to simply blanked it out, but there's going to be nothing behind it. Okay, so the key is just to open up

the door or the trunk thing, right? Yes. And that's also, if your battery dies on the car, say you park your car and something happens, the battery just goes low enough that you can't get the door to the remote to unlock, door. You can use that manual key to unlock the door so that you can open the hood and be

able to jumpstart the car. Right. Well, a lot of people don't know about the key and the key fob. Yep. They've all got one. It's hidden away there. Okay. And that guy, John, who washes his car motor. Is he washing an old motor or a new motor? New ones. And there's a lot of folks that just they want to wash the engine compartment and myself you know i i appreciate the idea that you want to get that area clean um but i still say be very very careful when you're spraying high pressure water of any sort near any of the wiring the electronics the plugs the the spark plugs on the engine uh you're you're kind of you're dancing with the devil at that part folks oh he isn't that the truth just be careful because yeah because i think that would be a big amount of money

to fix that when you do that i would never do that well especially if a drop of water gets in one little spot and creates a little corrosion it can take a mechanic hours and hours and hours to finally find that one little problem and that's huge money yes so i would not recommend that anybody I never do I can see I mean you could cover the carburetor and cover the alternator and you can go nuts in there but

I would not recommend that for a new car yeah no okay thank you surgeon absolutely Steve we have to get him a name plate thanks roadrunner Steve thanks for tuning in every Saturday

morning you know I have a special offer for Linda. She has called twice. And I want to let you know, Linda, you know, we're going to have to shut the lines down and take the last of the calls. So, you know, write a little message to yourself on a post at Nancy is going to give me $50 if I call in the radio show next week. So that should be a, that's an incentive for you. She can call back. It's only a quarter after nine and we are that's right we are going to go to George and uh George is calling us from Pennsylvania my favorite state good morning George all right good morning this is a beautiful morning here in soggy South Central Pennsylvania it is

oh wow wish I was great we need to rain yeah I have a question for Rick it's about the infotainment feature of my car last February 24 I bought a new Camry L.E and it took me a little while to get on the infotainment

system but we got 10,000 miles on her we've been up and down the east coast, north side of the east west and yesterday something happened that had me second guessing myself we're out running around a beautiful day

had the XM radio on, and I wanted to make phone call. So I asked Siri to call a person. The phone rang. He wasn't home. I shut, I canceled the call, but being on, I was on Apple CarPlay. Instead of going back to my music, my XM, the screen went back to the menu option. And I had to physically push the Apple CarPlay button again to get my radio back. that happened two or three times now as I got closer to home here I made another phone call and it worked fine

so I it had me second guessing myself whether I was going crazy or something is that not being normal these things happen these glitches or should I take it back to my dealer here's you're still under three-year 36,000, I'm betting because you've got a one-year-old car, two-year-old car. What I would do at your next maintenance interval, provided it's still under that 336,

or if not, get in before that expires, and ask them to check to see if there are any software updates for the radio. Believe it or not, those software updates come out almost regularly, almost every couple

months, there is an update anymore. for the radio system now a lot of these actually occur over the air so when you're parked at home when you are driving in your home area it'll simply update straight through the internet right to your phone right into your car some of them however do not and they actually require for the technician to download this update onto a USB drive and then plug that into your car and it will upload into the radio and reset your radio that way uh so that's that would be the first thing i would ask them about to see if there's an update available

for your particular one i and each radio is going to have its own system and there's multiple different updates available it's worse than windows computers for the number of them george is a save your trip to the dealer you could probably do that online and just go on uh chat or go on google and say give the year bank model of your car and ask if there's a technical service bulletin on this issue and then you or go to uh there's so much information online i don't know how difficult it is for you to come in to see the dealer or to call the dealer but whichever is easier for you well i'll tell you what uh my dealer is three miles away oh that's great i got it made that's great yeah even if you go in at your next service you know your next maintenance

service and just asked them to double check that okay thank you thank you Thank you very much. Absolutely. Thank you, George. Give us a call again. I bet George is getting ready for football season. As long as you send some of that rain down here, my yard is brown. Isn't it?

I'm telling you, we need the rain. We are going to go to our favorite caller, Frank, from Jupiter Farms. Hey, good morning. Hey, Frank. Good morning, Frank. Hey, hi. A couple quick things. Your shows always trigger some memories in my past.

Oh, no. I hope it's good. No, no, it's actually pretty good. Last week, when you mentioned about the battery failing in your car with the new cars, the doors may not open, electric windows won't go down and all that. And it reminded me of an accident I had with my mom's Plymouth Barakuta back in 65. Wow. Yeah, it was her first ever new car, and she entrusted it to her son, her only child, Little Frankie.

And Little Frankie just was going a little too fast, like 70 miles an hour. And I hit a big puddle, and I hid her plane backwards into a canal on a 130-7-bound right in front of where the Tammy and my airport is now. But back then, there was nothing. And the car is sinking. The canal is pretty tight. and I make sure the speedometer's not stuck on a 70 and then I tried open the doors they wouldn't open because the power walls were so close

so I cranked down the window climbed out through the window as it sunk and was on the roof of the car so it triggered by a boy today with electronics and electric windows that would probably be your coffin so to speak nowadays so there's that memory and she was so good

this shows you the mother's low she could care less about her car she just wanted to make sure I was all right and it really taught me a valuable lesson that day oh what a nice story wow yeah we talked about I believe consumer reports Nancy will correct me

I believe consumer reports has some information about escaping a car and we talked about I think last week or week before we did last week and if you want to go to consumer reports online or pick up a copy they tell you how to escape a car

and it's interesting there's a lot of changes that need to be made because some of the ways to get out like the back seat you have to know where a lever or a button is on the floor of the seat under the seat

in front I mean the point is when you're in a canal you're not you're not thumbing through a book to find out how am I going to not drown you're on the verge of panic and so if you have a car you can go to consumer reports you can look up your type of car or you could probably do this online but we all should know with the car we drive just what if it goes into a canal Florida down here the rest of you states out there people from all over the country Florida is covered up with with canals you know irrigation and of course we we got the ocean on three sides of us, and we got a huge lake in the middle, Lake Okeechobee,

and at least in South Florida, you're never far from water. And every day, you pick up the paper, you look on the television, go online. Some cars have gone on the water, and God help the people that don't know how to get out of the car. Absolutely. And, you know, somebody gave one of our staff here on the panel we have,

as to, they suggested taking the head rest off the sea, and use the middle prongs to break the window. And that wasn't in the Consumer Report. That was from Jonathan. That's been proven online and MythBuster type things. Yeah, it doesn't work very well. My best advice, those little escape hammers have a very sharp point. Yeah, I have that in my glove box.

Yep. Because what happens is you're getting a hard impact at a very tiny point, and all the energy gets driven into that single point and that will 99 times out of 100 shatter that window. It really penetrates because it's so focused. Don't be afraid to really whack it. You've got to hit that thing hard.

I could do that really hard. Right, Earl? Trust me, folks. If your car goes in a canal, you are going to be panicking and you grab that hammer, you're going to have like Loufer Rigno incredible Holt type strength

to swing that hammer. because in Frank I think that that was in the consumer report May June I'm not sure we mentioned it last week but you can go to consumer reports dot org and and check that out no I took your advice I had a annual subscription so they're there here I just got to dig it out yeah dig it out yeah Frank it was a pleasure talking to you one more quick thing though it's a question for Rick too when you talk about the oil and things like that. I noticed that in the Amarie's

car that I got her a couple years ago, the oil said it was low, and I said, man, and I'd look for minutes, hours trying to find a dipstick. There's no dipstick on a lot of these engines. You've got to go through your computer, I guess, to see it, because the levels. Is that pretty well

the fact that a lot of cars are getting away from dipsticks? No, that's because transmissions now have gone away from dipsticks, but there are very few engines I know the new Toyota Supra and a couple of hours of the higher-end BMWs and those are doing away with dipsticks. But for the most part, the cars that, well, sorry, Earl, but those of us that are the blue-collar working class, the middle class, yeah, our cars still have dipsticks. Yeah, this is an SQ5, Audi, which was like a $90,000 payment.

Oh, okay. So you're up with Earl. All right. I'm deferral. Okay, and I noticed after the oil change, I turned, where you see it on the dashboard, that you've got to go through the scrolls and stuff like that, you're right, the high-level line and low-level line, and it was right in the middle, and I go, well, they keep me out of half a quart. And I said, well, you do that every oil change, they're going to have a lot extra oil at the end of the month.

But again, real quick memory lane, Nancy. I used to, one of my first jobs was working at Shell gas stations, being a pumping gas in the 60s, and that people come in, that's when you did check their tires, the oil, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, and all that. And they had a contest at Shell that if you sold cans of oil, you got a little bonus.

You could shake the can, and if there was a plastic thing, if you got enough, you could win a fishing pole or something. So a lot of people, when you know the dipstick was right, adding oil, they go, nah, I'll wait the next time. So then I'll learn the short dipstick way of, just not pushing all the way in, and it's down a quart and a half,

and then I would sell a quart of oil, and everyone at Shell was saying, boy, Frank, sells more oil than anyone in the old system than Miami. But it wasn't overfilling the engines. It just was an interesting way of seeing with the tipsticks. Interesting. So you have a wonderful weekend. Thanks, Frank. Thanks, Frank. You have a great weekend. We have got to get to Ann Marie's text.

We've got to get to all the other texts. we really need to read we need to go to YouTube also I was trying to think of what else also your anonymous feedback we need to get to that so we're going to break away from the phones

we have a whole lot more to get to we're going to get to the mystery shopper report remember you can vote and your vote is extremely important at 772 4976530 and that is the Dodge Jeep

Chrysler in Daytona so we're going to go over to Rick and read away well I'm going to take Anne-Marie's text kind of backwards here the first thing I'm going to start with is her little PS at the end she says I understand that you like to know how far your show reaches I just want to let you know that thanks good Wi-Fi and YouTube I was able to stream your show when I was in you ready for it Hobart Tasmania Oh, get out of here. Literally, the other side of the planet, not only around, but up and down. What's the first part of Tanzania?

Hobart. Hobart. Hobart. H-O-B-A-R-T? Yep. Well, I'll tell you what, Amory, you made Jonathan's month. You made him, the smile on his face is incredible. For those that might be a bit geographically challenged,

Tasmania is literally right next to Australia Oh boy This is literally the southern hemisphere And about the farthest you could get from Palmidge County, Florida, which is where we are now Literally the other side of the planet That's the way I felt when we went to Tearo del Fuego That's, yeah

Hobart, Tanzania, wow Tasmania, yeah, is that incredible or what? Wow, cool It is definitely incredible And now for the question that she asked, she says, in your opinion, who made the biggest impact to the auto industry? Oh, boy. I'm going to throw my vote out for Mr. Henry Ford by producing an assembly line process. Yeah, mass production.

To mass produce his car and bring his car literally to the masses. He produced a car that the average person could afford. Yeah. And I think he was the one that shut down the horse and buggy and brought automobiles to everyone. Well, I have to tell you, I can't, I think you're right. I can't think of anybody. I mean, how could anybody have a greater impact than the guy that started at all?

Yeah. Which was, we wouldn't have cars like we had today. or we might have got him later, but there'd have been another Henry Ford, but the first Henry Ford has got to be the most impact on the world. And he made, he made the Model T affordable. Yep.

He made it affordable for the working class that we've been talking about all morning. And I'll throw another thought out. Even though back in the 1900s, the very early 1900s, there were models of electrical. cars, literally 120 years ago, there were electric cars that you could drive with like a

four-mile range. But Elon Musk probably has, regardless of his politics, his impact on the automotive industry, when you look around the average big city nowadays, the number of Teslas

that are on the road, I think he has made the next greatest impact. Yeah, well, he's on the list. Here's an interesting aside. What do Elon Musk and Henry Ford have in common? The answer is a lot of people hated both of them. Henry Ford was an anti-Semite.

He was, you know, he thought Hitler was a cool guy. And that's about as low as you can go in terms of that. And now we got Elon Musk. I don't need to tell you why somebody. many people hate Elon Musk because they shout at me and Nancy all the time when we're driving our Teslas. Yeah. But anyway, I think that's, I think you get it. You answered her question perfectly. One and two, Henry Ford and Elon Musk. What about Lee Iococo? I mean, the list is, yes. Yeah. Hey, I mean, as long as we're talking, um, oh, Shelby, Carol Shelby. Yeah.

Look what he did for cars. We're on the short of time there. Okay. A quick note from Jonathan and Palm Coast. He says, thanks to the Internet, I listen to your show in Peru. Oh. Not quite Tasmania, but still right down to South America. Tasmania. Still made Jonathan smell. Yeah.

And a quick note here from Donovan, he says, a new company backed by Jeff Bezos called Slate Motors has unveiled a $27,000. electric vehicle pickup, an EV pickup truck. They're scheduled to be delivered by the end of 2026, and it's what they're terming a DIY truck. In other words, you order the base pickup, then pick the options that you want to buy from Slate, and you can literally install a lot of these yourself. You can.

Well, Donovan says that he's actually already putting in an order for one. And he says such things as the body panels can be literally unscrewed and install new body panels if one gets damaged. What's the name of the company again? Slate. S-L-A-T-E. Yep. And Kim appreciates life even brought out the idea that, isn't it interesting, that Slate and Tesla are anagrams? Same letters.

Just rearranged a little bit. Makes you wonder, were they kind of, maybe Jeff. is kind of doing a little... I think Jeff says a humor. That could be. So, just an interesting thought. But a $27,000 pickup, which after the tax rebates for being an electric vehicle, now becomes a $19,500 pickup truck

that is an electric vehicle with a 240-mile range. Yeah, okay, we've got to move along here. What else we got? Because I know we got some more taxed. Okay, here we've got some more taxed. Okay. Here, let's see, we'll read this one straight off from Paul. He says, here's a curiosity.

A friend just bought a new Hyundai at Napleton. Oh, boy. Turned out, Napleton is the only local dealer participating in the Costco program. I pressed the issue wondering how Napleton could possibly be on that program. The salesman alluded to the possibility that Napleton was sold, but the stores are still being operated by Napleton. the deal was legit they did not try to

screw her over until she landed at F-N-I Which Napleton store Is this? Napleton Hyundai In West Palm Beach I'm going to check and see if they have Any others but I Think that would be the one

I didn't know that Naples had sold this West Palm Beach store It wouldn't surprise me Hyundai and all the manufacturers are after Napleton because he's an embarrassment and the Attorney General's office is after him and he's being chased by a lot of people

so I didn't know that that store was sold but that's good information Well according to Google Napleton actually has 200 locations, North Palm and West Palm Beach. Well we'll check that out we'll get Agent Lightning to shop one of those stores

Yeah, interesting, that's a great text So that's actually got us pretty well caught up on these. Very good. Very good. Speaking of shopping and speaking of Hyundai dealers, you folks who heard the show last week is we bought a car, literally bought a car from Amazon through Del Rey Hyundai.

And it was an interesting experience. The bottom line is it worked for the shopper, Agent Lightning. She got the price promised by Amazon. In addition, she got $2,300 back and a gift certificate from Amazon. We looked at the dealership, our dealership bought the car, and after, you know, it was secretly, we bought the car through Agent Lightning. So the deal was as represented. It was a good price.

it wasn't a you know the world's best price it was a good price and we we we figured that out by looking at the car that she we actually bought uh in fact we have that car on our used car lot now and uh we we're looking at the fact that that the profit on the car as accounting for the gift certificate was a little over two thousand dollars profit to the dealer, Del Rey Hyundai, which again was a Amazon purchase. The best thing about it was the price that Amazon gave the mystery shopper, Agent Lightning last week, was the exact price that she paid. So had it not been as good a price as she wanted, she could have shopped and compared it. It was an out-the-door, bottom-line price. Only thing had to be added was sales tax

and license plate so this Amazon program it looks really good and we will be shopping more and more Amazon Hyundai dealers in the future yeah it makes for an interesting mystery shopping report that's for sure okay how about YouTube Rick well we're pretty well caught up here yeah for the most part we are okay we are going to go to the mystery shopping report, which I told you earlier, is from Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler, and they're in Daytona. And as usual, our mystery shopper, Agent Lightning, did a fantastic job.

Again, you can vote. Your vote is extremely important. It's seven-set. The number you can text your vote is 772-497-6530. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Yeah, and just reminding the newer listeners, we grade on the curve. So we don't give out very many A's and we don't give very many Fs because if we gave out a lot of Fs, we would really reduce your opportunity to shop dealers.

So we have an approved dealer list and an not approved dealer list on earluncars.com. So think of the curve, meaning if it's a good dealership based on how all other. other dealers are, you give them a B, you give them a B, and B plus maybe. Every now and then, once in a very rare occasion, we do give out A's, but not too many of them. Okay, Dodge Jeep Chrysler, D.J.C. This is what Chrysler is now, Stalantis, and this is in Daytona. I'm going to speak in the first person is if I were Agent Lightning. I arrived mid-morning and started looking around the lot. Within less than five minutes, a salesman who introduced himself with Dimitri came out.

He noticed I was looking at a special edition Jeep Wrangler model with a $24,000 addendum. You heard me right. I know you don't think it's really true, but I'll say it again. The addendum, the added BS to the Menoroni label, the addendum, $24,000. It's just absolutely laughable or cryable, depending on how you're looking at it. And the salesman complimented my taste

asking what I thought of the Spider edition. So there we are, special edition, Chief Rangler, with $24,000 over sticker, over a mandroni. And if you're a regular listener of the show, you know what consumer reports considers the worst car anywhere. And that's the Jeep. The Jeep is considered the worst car quality, you name it, safety. By all criteria, consumer reports ranks Jeep as a terrible vehicle. So if you can get $24,000 over a sticker price for a terrible vehicle,

what can I tell you? Continuing on as Agent Lighting, I said, I love it, but not the 24,000 in added options. I replied, yeah, it's nice, but it comes with a big price tag. That's the salesperson, Dimitri. I told him I was interested in a four-door wrangler, possibly a new 2024 model, and that I was helping to get a good deal on a soft top for my daughter.

We walked over to the section of the lot, where they had more wranglers, and I found one that I liked. We wrote down the stock number, headed inside to get the keys. As we walked through the door, another salesman was standing there. Dimitri immediately introduced us, and Aaron, the other salesman. Aaron says, how's Dimitri doing today? I said, great so far. Aaron asked for my driver's license and pulled up the wrangler.

We were looking at it online and entered me, into their computer system. Aaron came over and asked, do you mind if a brand new employee shadows Dimitri? So there you go. Dimitri is an experienced person. This is a way buys and a side. This is a way car dealers typically train

their new salesmen. They come in from all previous occupations and they follow the salesman around for a month and if they seem like they're doing a good job, they hire them. I said, of course, as long as you're going to give me a great deal on this Jeep, he laughed and said, definitely. While Aaron was standing there, I asked if there were any other price breaks available. He said he would have numbers ready for me when we got back.

I said, I would appreciate that very much. Of course, here we are in the standard operating procedure, the game. Virtually every dealership plays the game. the back and forth between the customer and the sales manager or the general manager or sometimes they just have another salesman but it's a back and forth give me an offer I'll take it to the man the man comes back and what they call a pencil the sheet and they say we can't do that but we'll do that and blah blah blah blah three hours later you're frustrated and you want to hang yourself and you go home but that's the system

We then went out front, Dmitri pulled the regular round for a test drive. It's a weird setup. They have a bunch of dealerships lined up along a one-way road, and you have to drive quite a way to actually get out onto the main road. Since it's Jeep Week, I didn't even know it was Jeep Week. I wonder who named the Jeep Week. Stalantis, I'm betting.

Up there, up here, all the dealerships had their rank. inventory lined up along the road as advertising the new 2024 Wrangler four-door sport had an MSRP of 14,950 dollars how do you have the how do you have the nerve to put a 24,000 dollar addendum on a 44,000 dollar car I mean you're marketing up over 50% for the consumer reports voted worst car made. Well, that's what they do. The Bernardini label was on the passenger seat. What could you expect? By federal law, they're supposed to be on the window when delivered to the buyer, only removed at the buyer's request or by the buyer. On the passenger seat, we drove around,

returned to the dealership. Neither of the salesmen seemed very knowledgeable about how the soft tops work. I had to figure out myself as I looked. But Dimitri assured me they would go over everything thoroughly before I drove away. Once we got back, we headed inside. I reminded Dimitri that Aaron had said he would have numbers ready for me when we return. Dimitri said he probably did, and he walked over to the sales office. There were no other customers in the showroom. That'll tell you how good business is at Christchardodge Jeep dealerships.

He returned a few minutes later with a worksheet. Written in green Sharpie pen was the MSRP 44,950 crossed out and 40,055 written below it. So he said, I could do this

and walk back over to Aaron. Aaron came back a few minutes later with another document. This one was detailed that bore little resemblance to the handwritten offer. Price was back up to MSRP $4.9.50. They added an $8.99 junk fee, then another $1.99 junk fee.

And for your newer listeners, we started just referring to the BS extra charges as junk fees because all dealerships name them something else. They call them electronic filing fees, administrative fees, doc fees, documentary fees. They're very creative. but they're all junk fees. They're all just extra profit, hidden extra profit for the dealer. After writing it all up, they took off a $4495, $4,4,495 manufacturer's rebate, winding up roughly where the handwritten sheet was. We went over all the fees and asked, what do you think?

I said, well, it being 2004, remember, that's a year-old car. I mean, I don't care what you say. It might be early in the year of 2025, but it is a one-year-old car. When you trade that in, they're going to be looking for it as a 2024, not one that was sold at the end or beginning of 2025. It's an old car.

He asked, are you planning to finance or pay cash? I said, likely financing. But I need to get going. Can you send over? the terms. He replied, well, I could probably get a little more aggressive if you're financing. You regular listeners know why that is. That's because they can make more money financing the car and selling you worthless after-sale products than they can't selling in the car itself. So he's hoping that the salesman here is hoping that they're going to be financing.

And in this case here, Agent Lightning is not going to finance. It is in 2024, and it needs to go, he said. He texts me right after he spoke with Mike, sales manager, to see what else they could do. As of the time of this writing, no text has been received, so we don't know what the follow-up would be. But there you have it. And bear in mind, this is a Hyundai dealership,

and Hyundai can now be bought through. Oh, this dodgy question. I'm sorry. I started to say it was not. It's not on Amazon. Right now, on Amazon, you can only buy Hyundai's, and hopefully they will expand to include Chrysler Jeep Dodge, but it hasn't happened so far.

So the votes, send your votes in, great on the curve, sparingly on A's, sparingly on F's, BCD are usually the ones that we see. Rick? Well, I've got Jonathan and Palm Coast, says, with a $24,000 addendum on a 40K car, the Monroney label being misplaced, junk fees, and just a general waste of the customer's time, this dealership gets an F for me. With such an exorbitant price above the MSRP, I wouldn't even speak to a salesman.

I'd see the price and run out of the dealership laughing and laughing. We've got Bob says they should give you $24,000 to take a Jeep, and they should deliver it to your home and thank you for taking it from them. It's an F. By the way, have Agent Lightning shop a Ford dealership to see if you really get employee pricing. Oh, that's a good idea. I saw that. Employee pricing, yeah.

Ford's been advertising that lately, so yeah. Anne-Marie says, 50% markup, no Monroney label, where it should be in violation of federal law, more gamesmanship with junk fees, et cetera, equals F for, for, flee this dealership to avoid a fleecing. And that vote came from Tasmania. I think you might have. Negan 1. How do you like that,

John? Says a big fat F. Over here, we've got T-Cash says the acronym for Jeep is just empty every pocket. But that's supposed to be for repairs, not for the purchase. F.

Tim Gilliland, D-minus. Brian said LATCO, says, D for me. Tom Steckle, D. Just about every above, or just above Central Florida, CDJR that charges $4,328 in junk fees. Oof. Wow. Johnny Z. Fradley, buyers start your engines. D. for Daytona. Rocky Blockatiel, F is for fail. And we'll see you got any more coming in. And we need to do a show, do a show's up time on just the votes and the comments of the, of the YouTubers.

Oh, these folks are awesome. I mean, they are smart. They got incredible sense of humor. And I tell you, if they can make B-Lab, they're really good. Yeah, definitely. And I think they appear at the comedy corner. I really do. Not only are they smart, but they're very comical.

And they just are on spot. Joseph Kelleher says F and it looks like we're pretty caught up on YouTube Oh Ann Marie says she is home now She's she's already back from Tasmania For me I'm actually going to give them a little benefit of the doubt I'm gonna say a C

Because I know jeeps are way overpriced But they have their following But I don't see anything there That wasn't really Out of line for any other side Florida dealership so I'm gonna say they're about average for our area well this is Daytona so it's not exactly South Florida Nancy what's your vote I'm gonna I was just getting ready to ask you first yeah I'm gonna give them a D because I

agree with Rick if it were a South Florida dealership I might give them a C or a C minus but the further north you move in Florida the the better quality the the more honest car dealerships we see, most of the just absolutely terrible dealerships are in Portnardale, Miami, and Palm Beach County. Oh, and Cramm 1624 is F. Can't find the top price. Where's the top price?

Yeah, exactly. You know, a complete waste of time, you know, for the customer. And what else can I say, except they get an F for me? You know, I'm just, I forgot, I was going to mention this earlier. You regular listeners who listened for years will probably, Rosemary Cheyenne will strike a ring a bell with you. Rosemary Cheyenne is an incredible consumer advocate in California. And she and I talk back and forth and, you know, it's kind of cool.

We're on the East Coast, she's on the West Coast. And she's the president of, she's the president, of cars, C-A-R-S, consumers for auto safety and reliability. She called me the other day to tell me that California is trying to pass a law now making a $500 junk fee legal. Right now I think it's $150. This is doubly bad and I wrote a letter at her request

to their legislature down there saying that I am totally against that. You know, the one thing that is, if there's, the worst thing about a dealer fee is the fact that it's hidden because you don't know it's going to happen. I used to think that was the worst thing. There's something even worse, what California's talking about, to make it legal and require, basically, the dealer to add $500 to the price of the car. That's what California is doing. So it's bad enough to hide the fee because then you can find it and refuse to pay it

or shop around and find a dealer that doesn't hide their junk fees. If you're buying a car in California and this law passes it, hey, if a stroke of a pen, the legislature had just raised the price of every car sold in California by $500.

I can't believe. I thought the Florida legislature was bad something I mean if this passes something is rotten in the state of Denmark and somebody needs to do an investigation yeah absolutely kind of reminds me a boardwalk empire Nancy and I are rewatching the old TV series boardwalk empire where the legislature was absolutely unbelievably corrupt yes they scalped him last night yeah quite bloody and we still got a couple of minutes I know the, I think it was Paul called in and scolded me for, you know, our Tesla and we drive Teslas and our autonomous driving and things like that. Well, I don't blame them.

I mean, it is a toy and away from me, but I'm also in defense of myself. I'm just a high tech, I got a high tech mine. I love, I love gadgets, I love technology, and I love to see science. accomplishment chamber i missed one thing that came up on youtube here donovan announced that walmart apparently is installing their own proprietary set of chargers they're going to be putting electric vehicle chargers at all their stores four thousand walmart's wow that where you can plug in and charge your eve and i'm sure they're going to be set up to where they can handle all the various models that's a game changer and a

smart move. Can you imagine if your car, say like the Tesla Y that he says takes 25 to 30 minutes to charge to an 80% charge from almost zero. So you pull up at Walmart, you plug your car into the charger, it costs you $10, $15 to charge it up. While you're in a Walmart, you can't go into a Walmart and pick up one item and get out of there in less than 30 minutes. That'll never happen. This interest me for two reasons. First of all, Walmart is the number one retail in the world right now. Dippin at their heels is Amazon number two. So here we have Walmart going into realizing the power of electric vehicles and here's Jeff Bezos doing the same thing with slate. So the largest retailers of the

world are coming to realize you got to marry electric vehicles if you want to continue to be a big retailer and there's a whole lot to be said about Walmart a whole lot and Walmart is making a significant move you know into the electric vehicle and it's it this charging space and everything in between they are going to make it very easy for the consumer amazing let's see it's just amazing YouTubers are fantastic yeah absolutely oh quick note from Kim appreciates life she says Walmart is where you can keep an RV overnight so if you yeah you park your RV though right smart is that she says we need EV RVs yes isn't that the truth wow hey I see by the clock we have two minutes left Earl is there something

real quick you want to mention no I think there's a fact that we're still in all of our autonomous Tesla and they're still not perfected but we're seeing through what they call the crowd sourcing, which is the way that the Tesla has gone in terms of perfecting the autonomy is working. And we see it every day. They download into our Teslas about once a week in improvement, and we see these Tesla autonomous getting better every day.

And Nancy and I go everywhere on autonomous. Absolutely. And I never thought I'd be sitting here saying, you know, that that's exactly what I do. anyway I could elaborate on a whole lot more but we have one minute left I want to thank everyone for tuning in to Earl on cars we so appreciate you and for the ladies this morning that tuned in and called and to Linda we will be back next week same time right here on the Old East channel so be with us next week and have a blessed weekend thank you again Thank you.