Earl Stewart on Cars - 06.23.2018 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Coral Springs Kia

Episode Date: June 25, 2018

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

Welcome to Earl Stewart on Cars with Earl and Nancy Stewart. Reach them with your questions at 877-960. Here's Earl and Nancy. Good morning, everybody. Very exciting morning here. We're just getting more and more high-tech. Before I get into the high-tech thing, I've got to tell you who we are. My name is Earl.

I'm a recovering car dealer, and this show is all about cars. This is on the True Oldie Station channel, and I know of you folks are regulars listening to that music of the 60s and 70s, extremely good music, by the way. But this is a talk show. This is an exciting, real live radio talk show. And we do something unique. I know every talk show says this.

Every radio show probably says this. But we are truly unique. We are a consumer advocacy show about how not to get ripped off by your car dealer. Now, if you are in the car buying business, for the past whatever number of years, you likely have had a very, very bad experience buying or leasing a car, repairing or maintaining a car also.

So, you know what I'm talking about. This show exists to help guide you through the minefield of buying and leasing, maintaining, and repairing your car. And who am I? My name is Errol. I call myself a recovering car dealer because I've been in this business for almost half a century. I've been a car dealer since 1968, and I've evolved.

I went from a knockum, rock them and sockham, bait and switch guy, doing everything that most of the car dealers are now doing. To what I do now, I'm a consumer advocate. I'm an advisor, and I've gathered a group of folks, and we're sitting here in the radio studio here at the True Oldies Channel. I've got Rick Kearney on my right. Rick Kearney is a technician. He works for me now. He's been with me for more than 20 years. We call him an auto computer scientist, really.

Back in the day, they would call the guy like Rick a mechanic. And then they start calling him a technician. And now they're really highly educated, trained computer scientists. Your car is a rolling computer. So Rick is here to help you about the maintenance. and leasing part of the car quandary out there. Where do you go to find an honest mechanic? Where do you go to get a fair price on a vehicle? What should you do when you bring your car in for service? Should you do what the dealer recommends? Should you use an independent

mechanic or should you use the car dealer? A lot of questions. We all have those. And of course Nancy Stewart is sitting to Rick's ride. Nancy Stewart is our female advocate. She's a recovering car dealer's wife. She is a very, very passionate advocate for women. I mean, we're looking at the hashtag Me Too movement today. Women are becoming more and more aware of the fact that they have been considered second-class citizens for a long time. Big headline the other day. In Saudi Arabia, women can drive.

Wow. Yes. A round of applause. They're going to let their women drive a car. I heard that. It's hard to believe, right? Actually, that's all they can do. They can drive a car.

They won't let them do anything else. But, you know, we say, well, this is the United States of America. That's not going to happen here. They've come a long way. They have. Well, they go. You see the handmaid's tail? What was that?

Did you see the handmade's tail yet? No. It might happen here. Okay, you never know. So that's what Nancy does. And Nancy is, she's reading up on all the progress that women are making. She's reading up on. We're coming to the radio studio this morning, and she was reading an art.

article in the Palm Beach Business Review that stated that 19% of employees of car dealerships are women, and virtually all of those are in the accounting department. So you won't find any in the service department, the parts department, very few in the sales department. And she's got a great story. She'll share with you later. Yeah, that's quite a, it's quite a teaser. So ladies, stay tuned for that.

And everyone stay tuned for that. And excuse me for interrupting you, you have just tuned in to Earl Stewart on Cars. And you can be part of the show. So you give us a call with any of your stories. We're right here at 877-960-99-60. Or if you're a little shy, you can text us, and you can do so by texting 872-497-65-30. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Well, I got around the table up to my son, Earl Douglas Stewart III.

Thank you. We also call them Stupe. stew is a very important part of this broadcast not only is he general manager of my car dealership in full disclosure i've got to tell you i'm still a practicing car dealer i guess one of the motivations for me in doing what i'm doing is i would like my legacy not to be one of evil evil yeah you were i mean when they speak of me years hence and they say he was one of those car dealers i don't want i don't want to be remembered that way i want to be remembered as a car dealer who saw the light.

And that's the reason I call myself a recovering car dealer. Stu handles our cyber function. Stu is a guy that can really reach the millennials and a lot of old guys like me that have kind of joined the cyber revolution, the digital age, whatever you want to call it. He's Instagramming, he's Facebooking, he's Snapchatting, he's, you name it, he's doing it.

He's getting the word in the cyber world. He's tweeting, Nancy. Oh, Tina's calling. Good morning, Tina. Welcome to the show. Everyone knows that Tina is from Bonita Springs. What can we do for you? And what kind of information do you have to share with us?

You always have something interesting. Good morning, everybody. I don't know if it's necessarily information, but I think that there's a subject that hasn't been discussed for Clyde O'Lyle that needs to be discussed because there's a lot of misunderstanding about it, and that's Florida's Lemon Loss. And, you know, people don't really know how it works.

I was looking it up online because I didn't really understand it myself. But this pretty much applies to new cars and used cars, and you guys can chime in anytime, not use cars, but new cars and lease cars. And you guys can chime in at any time and correct me. But it's my understanding that if you buy a new car or lease a new car and you have significant problems within a 30-day period, if they're not fixed within that time period, that you have the right to either get another vehicle

or get reimbursed for the vehicle that you purchased. That's simplifying it way too much, but that's my, that's the basic gift. Well, Tina, that's the reason I love you so much is because you come up with great questions. I'm not just saying that. You know, interviews, they always hear that. Hey, that was a great question. Well, the fact is, Tina does ask great questions

and bring up interesting points. The Lemon Law. I happen to know and be considered myself a friend of the woman who started Lemon Laws. Her name is Rosemary Sheehan, and she operates a consumer group in California, an amazing woman. I've been collaborating with her for years, and she designed the original Lemon Law, and that was something to protect Newark buyers all over. Now, it started out in California. Every Lemon Law is different in each state. So if you're a Floridian, you want to familiarize yourself, obviously, with those lemon laws.

I can speak to the Florida Lemon Law. I can't speak to the Idaho or the Massachusetts Lemon Laws. But we're reaching the whole world now. So if you're in the United States, check out Google Lemon Law in your state. And it'll tell you what your rights are. In Florida, Tina pretty well had it. It's only on new cars. And Lemon Law is set to protect someone that went.

and signed on the dotted line and got them a got themselves a car of some brand that can't be fixed and so the law says if you bought a new car and the dealer or the manufacturer or both together cannot fix the car then you don't have to keep the car you get your money back now you don't get all your money back you get your money back based on the usage of the car so if you've had the car for six months or a year or whatever the period of time may be The lemon law has to be while the car is under new car warranty, I believe. Is that right, Stu? I believe that's right. Yeah. And you have to go on record. It's hard for the consumer, and you need to know the rules before you start, because you just can't go into a car dealership and say, hey, I got a lemon.

I'm invoking the lemon law. Give me another car. Or give me my money's back. It won't do that. The first thing you have to do is you have to go on record of advising the car dealership of the lemon law. And you do that by a certified return. receipt letter. You have to write the letter, state exactly what the problem was, and say, I'm invoking the Lemon Law. Now, once you've invoked the Lemon Law, the dealer and the manufacturer

have a certain number of tries that they can to fix it. I'm believing the number is three. And if they can't fix the car in three tries, then you go to an arbitration board. In Florida, is administered by the Better Business Bureau. And so the manufacturer sends a representative in, and then, of course, you're there, and the Better Business Bureau is the arbitrator. They hear your side of the story, and they hear the manufacturer's side of the story.

Now, interesting thing is, the Lemon Law is against the manufacturer. It's not against the dealer. The dealer has no penalty to pay. The dealer tried to fix the guard, and he couldn't fix it. chances are by the time the third repair attempt came up the manufacturer was working on the car too because they don't like the idea of lemon loss then the manufacturer is the one that suffers the embarrassment and the expense the dealer gets off scot-free and sometimes that's maybe that's the way

it should be manufactured built the car and under their supervision if the dealer can't fix it and when he can't manufacturer can't fix it with their own technician then you know that they're at fault now you get let's say you've used a car for one year you're going to get something like 70% of your money back or 65 or some percentage of your money back because they do charge you for the amount of time that you're able to use the car you don't get 100% back the interesting thing is what happens to those cars manufacturer buys it back I can tell you this they don't scrap them I believe they end up going through auto auctions some car dealer buys it and then sell it back to you again.

So that's the story of the Lemon Law. I hope I didn't go on too long, Tina, but I wanted to be sure I didn't. Oh, no, not at all. No. And you're right. But if a Lemon Law car is recirculated into retail sales again, to me that should be against a law. That car should be parted out, whatever, scrap. It should not be resold to somebody else.

That's amazing. It is amazing. And I think it has to be on the title, Stu, correct me, if I'm wrong there. So this is the reason, it would be a used car, obviously, because it's been title. So you want to be sure when you buy a car, a car max report would show that up. It would be on your title. And if the car had been under the Lemon Law, that's a red flag.

You know, find out what it is. That means they didn't fix it. I wouldn't buy a car. In fact, I'm not even sure why they allow them to sell cars that could not be fixed under the Lemon Law. Well, they actually do eventually fix it. them before they sell them, but what they generally wind up having to do is take them back to the, basically for Toyota, they would go back to the port where they have the engineers, the guys that have had years of training on actually designing and building them, and they get

more engineers from Toyota involved to find out what went wrong and what they need to do to correct it, and quite often they wind up, instead of selling those cars, they'll actually send those off to trade schools or to Toyota training centers and use those cars as demo cars that they can disassemble and put back together over and over. Yeah, well, you're speaking for Toyota and that may be the policy with all

money. I've heard a lot of others do that too. My question to that would be, is the arbitration board, or the Better Business Bureau says the car doesn't, isn't fixed. Now, do these go back to the arbitration board so they can re-rule and withdraw their other ruling?

I don't know. Who makes the decision, the car has been fixed. I don't know, but I just can't imagine they'd pour a whole lot of money into a car that they just bought back, lost money on, and I don't see that many resources going to fix that car. But maybe, like Rick said, for training, maybe that's something, I don't know. Or the engineers will want to find out what happened so they can be ready to correct it on future problems.

Well, that's good for the manufacturer, but I'm still going to maintain, don't buy a car that has lemon law on it. It would be, there's too many cars out there that haven't been through the lemon law. Nancy. And Tina, as you can hear from Rick and Earl, boy, I'll tell you what, it really gets complicated. And, you know, the manufacturer is extremely important. It'd be a lot of time that you would have to put into the Lemon Law. And if you want to learn more, Earl, if my memory serves me, he wrote an article, and it is about the Lemon Law.

so you can take a look at that, Earl, on cars. So that was a great question. Thank you. And I know the way that it is structured, it's structured in such a way that you can't abuse it. I mean, you can't just come in after having your car repaired once you're like Earl says. You can't just show your weight around in the dealership and say,

I hate this car, I don't want it, I want my money back. It's not that simple process you have to go through. Yes. And in some cases, if the dealership is not agreeable or amenable to your complaints, you might want a lawyer up. You might want to find a good attorney to help you through the process. Yeah, like I said, it gets complicated. Yeah. One other thing to consider, though, note they do, once you begin the Lemon Law proceedings, basically the manufacturer tells the dealer to stop talking to the customer.

So if you have a dealer that you can trust, that's working to help you, that kind of gets cut off once that starts, and that's unfortunate. But, fortunately, not that many dealers were that willing to help. Good point. Very good point. And I was also reading something about a class action lawsuit regarding the Lemon Law. The Ford Focus, 2015, 2016, if anybody out there is a Ford Focus, 2016, 2016, there is a major class action lawsuit regarding those vehicles. So I would suggest Googling that. And if you want to jump on the bandwagon, please do.

that those two particular cars are really, really unreliable and have been fraught with problems. And I know a lot of people love the focus, but it's something to be aware of if you have those vehicles. Great advice, Tina. Thank you very much. As usual. Thank you very much, Tina. And we hope to hear from you again. Okay, guys. Have a great morning. Thank you. Thanks, Tina.

Give us a call to all free at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 7-7-7-2. 24976530. And as a reminder, ladies, I have $50 for each one of you. First two female callers, so give us a call. Share your story. 877-960-9960, or you can text us at 772497-49-7. And we have another caller, Paul, who's calling from Royal Palm Beach. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Great show, guys. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Just a comment.

I find automobile shopping one of the most distasteful things that I've ever done. However, and it kind of ties in several times on your show, you've mentioned we need more female salespeople. Well, I purchased the car at your dealership from a female, and it was the only tasteful car buying. experience that I ever had. Well, thank you. Thank you. We appreciate that. Statistically, they find that women prefer to deal with other women when they purchase a car,

but strangely enough, men also prefer to deal with women. So it's almost like, why do we have male salespeople? The car dealerships would probably all do a lot better if they had all female staff. Probably. And then a comment. When are you going to change the name of your show from me? recovering to recover. You know, there's a Japanese word,

Kaizen, K-A-I-Z-E-N, K-A-I-Z-E-N, K-A-I-Z-N, K-E-N, and it stands for continuous improvement, so I'm never going to recover. I thought I was going to recover in a couple of years, and then as I, as time goes by, I mean, and I'm saying, this isn't tongue-in-cheek, this is actually true. Every time I think I'm getting close,

I realize I got a ways to go. So I hope that apply. That's a, I guess, kind of a symbol for civilization, right? We all think we're smart. And if you go back a thousand years, man thought he had all the answers. And it goes down to individuals. So I love being recovering. It's fun.

I hate people who think they've recovered because I think that's a misstatement. I don't think humans can't ever fully recover. Okay. Okay, thank you for your time. Okay. Paul, thanks for recognizing our continuous improvement, and give us a call again. Thank you again. Thank you.

Okay. I think Nancy has a phone call. Do you need to take that, Nancy? We can put show on hold for a few moments there if you need to. Exactly. Thank you, Stu. Give us a call toll-free at 877960. 60-99-60.

And again, you can text us at 772-497-67-65-30. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Tina, our first caller this morning was talking about the Lemon Law. And I want to give this advice to you folks out there on the Lemon Law. It's a, when you actually invoke the Lemon Law, you actually sometimes end up getting less out of it than by using the Lemon Law to intimidate. I know, I mean, that's a nasty word to have to use, but sometimes you just have to slap the dealer in the face to get his attention.

So if you're dealing with a dealer that can't fix your car, and Stu alluded to this earlier, when you officially evoke the Lemon Law, communications are cut off between you and the car dealer, because the manufacturer will tell the car dealer, and the manufacturer has a contractual arrangement with the dealer. so basically the manufacturer can tell the dealer what to do manufacturer will say to the dealer you can't talk to this customer anymore so even if he wanted to help you and really tried the one to fix your car he's prohibited from doing so so you've got a car a new car and the dealer can't fix it my first advice would be to try another dealer maybe even another dealer after that sometimes dealers just you know one dealer is less competent than another dealer but when you're

really start to get worried and you think that none of the dealers in your market can fix your car, then you can use the manufacturer. You can go to the manufacturer directly and say, look, I'm in my wits in. I don't want to have to invoke the Lemon Law. I don't want to have to hire an attorney. Please help this dealer fix my car. They'll get a technician on an airplane. They'll put a Rick Kearney on an airplane, a guy that really knows what he's doing,

fly them in to the car dealership and they're probably the most knowledgeable technician ever will look at your car and probably fix it and so the threat of a lemon law is far more effective than the actual invoking of the limaugh that's the point i want to make in terms of lemon law and remember lemon law is very from state to state i keep forgetting that we are going worldwide now so in the state of florida i'm conversed with it but there are lemon laws and all 50 states. Okay, great information. We're going to go to our next caller, and that's Tom, who's calling from Stewart.

Welcome to the show. Hey, good morning. How are you? Oh, we're great, Tom. How are you doing? Good. I've just started listening to the show on Saturday mornings. I think it's great.

Oh, great. I have a question about the airbags. There was a recall in the airbags, which was taken care of by the deal. Fine. But there's supposed to be, again, a cross-action suit. I can't know me ever. Do you have any knowledge of that at all? I think there's probably more than one class action suit.

Tom, I don't know the specific one to which you refer. This, there should be a lot of class action suits. I'm surprised that the attorneys are sitting on their hands here. This whole thing with the airbag recall and repairing cars with defective airbags. and if you think you misunderstood me, I'll repeat that. Cars are being repaired with airbags that are still defective. The only reason they use them is because they have no other airbag to do the repairs with. So the law is being violated as we speak.

There is a federal law that says that sellers of products cannot sell a dangerous product. I mean, that's no big surprise, right? But there is a law that says, nobody, I can't sell you a TV set, I can't sell you a flashlight, I can't sell you a car if it's dangerous. Now, if I sell you a car with a we call Takeda Airbag, how could that not be a dangerous product? So the laws are being violated. The only reason there isn't more hue in the crime about this is because of the power of the auto manufacturing lobbyists, the car dealer lobbyists, the car association lobbyist. Tom, I'm glad to hear there's a class action suit.

I think we need more and more of them to finally get somebody's attention. Well, I actually got a letter from Mazda and listed all the cars that had the airbags. But again, it was supposed to be connected with the class action and they talked about money and millions of dollars and everything. Where does that money go besides the attorneys? Where is the money going? Is it coming back to the consumer? No, unfortunately, the value of a class action suit to the consumer is really to get everybody's attention. Because unfortunately, consumers get very little. The way it works out is the settlement is in the hundreds of millions of dollars in a big national class action suit.

The attorneys get a big piece of that, 30, 40, 50%. And then the rest of it, after cost, and the cost are huge. So after the attorneys get paid and the cost are paid, then the rest of it trickles down to the consumer. Unfortunately, there's millions of consumers. So if you have $100 million and you have 100 million consumers, everybody gets a buck. So that's the problem. But the threat is to the manufacturer. If they're going after Mazda, Mazda is terrified with the idea that this could be a huge hit against him.

The money comes out of the manufacturer's pocket. So, yeah, it's part of the problems that the lawyers have with class action suits is the apathy of the consumer because most consumers realize they're not going to benefit very much from this. But they are going to get the manufacturer's attention. And that's the reason I like the idea of more and more class action suits against the manufacturers on these airbag problems. Well, disappointed I'm not getting any money back. I plan on taking my wife to Longhorn tonight. But, hey, thanks for the information.

I really appreciate it. I'm going to listen to you next Saturday morning. Oh, thank you. Thank you, Tom. Enjoy your dinner. All right, bye, bye, bye-bye. Okay, I think we... No, I thought we had another caller.

We don't, but let me remind you, just a little reminder, that... Oh, we do have a caller. We have a caller from Boca Raton, and that's Doug. Good morning, Doug. Good morning, you guys. Ollie is watching too. Oh.

Hey, Ali. Ollie. Good morning, Ollie. Meow. Ollie and Doug are members of our sunrise club. Yes. That's another show. Yes, really.

Oh, we're so excited to hear from you, Doug. Okay, well, Ollie doesn't drive. That's a good thing. So I have a question. question, and you probably can't answer it. So if I wanted to go to a dealership and find out if they're reputable or good, how could I find that out without having to spend two hours there trying to get a lease car? Doug, that's a great question, and it's so difficult.

there's dealer ratings there are you know Google ratings and Yelp ratings there's something called dealer raider you Google and find out what the ratings are the problem with that is the dealers have learned to manipulate their ratings used to be that Google was really a great rating service because it was accurate they would enforce it if they found out that businesses including car dealers were manipulating the ratings they would wipe out their ratings and take them off the google rating but they're making such sophisticated ways to to manipulate the ratings even very subtly uh that you really can't count on them now there is some validity to the google ratings today and i would still put some

right if you if you have a dealer that's got a very low google rating he's too stupid to know that he could manipulate it. That's an indicator of lots of other problems. Not only is he bad, but he's stupid. But if you see a dealer with a four-star Google rating, that might mean he's a good dealer. It definitely means he's probably not stupid because he cares about his ratings. We read a New York Times article recently that said when you're looking at online reviews, try and look at the three-star.

Don't look at like the five-star reviews or the one-star review. usually that's been influenced in some way. The ones, the average one, the three-star reviews, and read the comments, and that might give you a better idea what kind of deal they are. That's an excellent point. Yes. And I should have said that you find out that if you're manipulating, you're looking for five stars.

And so you go for the five-star reviews, and they're just cosmetic. If someone's really, really mad at you, they might even be unreasonable. So they'll give you one-star. the thoughtful reviews are typically the three-star and to read the review just don't look at the stars go through and read the three-star reviews and read the three-star reviews look for patterns yeah if you see the same complaint over and over again there's a good chance that's a real that's really happening and you can also find good salespeople they'll name the good salespeople too and I have one more question I had gotten a car and the tires that were on there were all-season tires. And I noticed in the rain that they were not very good. So I complained to the dealership. They said, there's nothing they can do.

I called the manufacturer, nothing they could do. I called both Hondas, on the USA and Honda, Canada. And they said, sorry, there's nothing we can do. so in the rain these these tires tend to not grip very well and they're they're all-season tires but when I looked at the tires they were actually used for like up and up north when it's snowed for traction so I tell the dealership that these tires right are actually meant for the northeast

for snowy conditions and if you look at the ratings on them look at a review that they're not good in rain Doug that's an extremely good point that's a subject I've covered in my blog Erlancars.com

manufacturers design their own tires now they say a manufacturer tells you, the dealer tells you you've got a bumper to bumper warranty well they don't warranty the tires the tires are warranted by the tire manufacturer Now, when the manufacturer comes out with a car, they're going to build a brand, I mean a make model.

They designed the tires for that model. And your Honda, Honda designed those tires. They gave those tires to the tire manufacturer. They use a lot of manufacturers, you know, Michelin Goodrich, Goodyear. And they build the tire, the tire manufacturer builds a tire to the auto manufacturer's specification. You really can't buy that tire. It might be Michelin, but that particular tire is not sold retail. Originally, it might end up in a retail store somewhere,

but they are designed for the manufacturer to enhance the drivability of the car when you buy it. So my complaint about these OEM tires that are designed by the car manufacturer, not the auto, by the, not the fire manufacturer, is the fact that they are, The rubber is designed for a softer ride. The tire is designed for a softer ride. Therefore, the tires were out too quick. In your case, thought never occurred to me. The reason I love callers to the show,

I hadn't thought about the fact that when they design these, when they put these tires on the car, or they're thinking about the region of the company, of the country. My guess is not. They buy the tires, and then they ship them to the dealers based on the way they allocate the cars. and cars that are going to Florida may have been originally thought to go to Minneapolis

and therefore you've got a tire that doesn't really fit that particular locale. But I always suggest to people when you replace your tires, you check the tires you want, all weather, winter, whatever you want. And be sure you pay attention to treadwear index and rolling resistance and some other factors that are more important,

than they were to the auto manufacturer. Rick's looking at me and he's very knowledgeable about tires. You got to comment, Rick? The only real thing I would say is when you're looking for newer tires, check consumer reports, but also investigate whether that

actual model of tire, not just the brand, but the model of tire, is designed to handle the heavy range that we get here in Florida, and make sure that they have an A grade for traction, because traction, temperature, those are rated with A, B, or C, A grade is the best, and A is what you want to have on traction.

And it's weird, too, because last time I bought one of these cars, they had the choice of summer tires, which I got. Okay. And this time, there was no choice, so it's kind of like you either want it that way or they won't do anything. So I thought that was kind of weird. So you bought that, you ordered the Honda, Dug, and they manufactured it for you to spec, or you didn't buy it out of dealer inventory? No, I did get on dealer inventory, and when I looked at the other ones, they all had the same tires. So I said to the dealership, I said, hey, you used to have summer tires on these civics,

and now you don't offer it. He said, yeah, this is just the way. they're coming from the manufacturer. That's what he said. Yeah. Yeah, it's one of the greatest secrets of car dealerships is the fact that the tires are designed by the manufacturers and they really don't have the consumer in mind years ago.

When Lexus first came out, they really wanted to make people believe, boy, this is a really comfortable ride. So they put the original tires on these Lexus designed by Lexus were so soft. They would wear out in like 20,000. miles or less. And the head of Lexus at that time was a guy named Jim Press. And he was so much a consumer advocate and realized what he'd done that he basically gave every Lexus owner a rebate of something like at the time, $400 or $500 toward their next set of tires because

the tires that Lexus is designed for the new luxury car were so soft. They wore out right away. Wow Well, that's nice Like I said I tried all ways And they said Well, if you're not happy with the tires Get new ones

Yeah Yeah, that's too bad That is really too bad Here on tires And it's one of the most least understood I'm so happy You ask his question Doug

When you have a problem with a tire You should go to the dealer The soldier the car Even though the manufacturer Warranties the tire But be sure that the dealer contacts the tire distributor on your behalf. Dealers have more clout. They deal with the tire distributors typically.

And so when a dealer calls Firestone or Goodyear for you and says we have a defective tire, you're far more likely to get help and an adjustment in your tire than if you go in by yourself. And they should be able to help you there. But it is ultimately the tire manufacturer and the local tire distributors that are going to have to make that call. Okay. Well, I appreciate you, and I'll see you tomorrow morning. Okay, I say, meow, to Ollie for me. Looking forward to hearing from you tomorrow morning, Doug. Have a great day, and thanks for calling in.

We're going to go to Mark, and we all know him. He's calling from the Turnpike. Welcome, Mark. Turnpike, Mark. Hey, how you doing? Great. Yeah, one thing I noticed about original tires, they're definitely not the cheapest because they're most frequently sold as one. Sold as new.

Mark, say that again, I'm sorry. They're most frequently sold as one, not four. So they're more expensive. Oh, I see what you're saying, yeah. So one tire at a time is going to cost you more than if you buy a set of four? right I had a 93 Ford Mustang the original tire was general

and it was 15 inch at the time and I had a sudden flat at 13,000 miles on that car and to go to a general dealer and get the exact same tire was over $100 at the time we're talking 25 years ago so

so like I said original tire is definitely going to be more because they're most frequently sold at one. Yeah, well, the original tire. Another source to get tire ratings, tire rack, because it's the people who buy the tires who report their findings on the tires. Yeah, tire rack.com. Tire rack is a great source for tires.

We've actually, our dealership has used tire rack quite a few times. looking for when cars come in to have kind of an odd-sized tire on them, one that we don't normally service, because we service all make some models. So if a car comes in that we don't usually deal in that size of tire, tire rack's one of the first places that we look. Yeah, they're highly reliable, and we can recommend them. Yeah, like if you have a core sport with 19-inch rims.

Yep. Yeah, I don't think anything Toyota has 19-inch rims. Oh, sure, they do. Yeah, we do. Yep, Highlander. It's on my car right now. Yep, the new Avalonce. Your car, Nancy.

I'm waiting. Well, Mark, thanks very much for the call. You're a pro, professional driver, and your input is always very, very helpful. Thank you very much. I guess you've got to take good care of your tires because it's part of your profession. Yeah, and both my cars having 17 is they're not cheap. No. Makes a whole lot of sense, Mark, if you're going to buy one tire that is going to, you know, cost you a whole lot more than to buy four of them.

Mark, are you on the turnpike right now? Not yet. I just left Montpelau Beach. Oh, did you? Okay. Well, give us a call again. I'm sure you have a lot to share about driving, you know, and being on the turnpike, being on 95. Got some crazies out there lately.

so thank you for giving us a call I've given you traffic issues before and I'm not on the road yet yeah I'm still locally in Pompano but I'm just now leaving my leaving to go on the road

drive safe mark okay okay well give us a call again have a safe day we'll talk to you soon as a little reminder to all of you if you're unable to listen to our live show or you want to listen to any of our past shows, you can always go to Earl

Stuart on Cars podcast on your smartphone or your tablet using the following podcast apps. And that would be Apple, SoundCloud, Google Play Music, Stitcher Radio. And if you'd like to watch the highlights from our show, you can go to YouTube.com slash Earl on Cars. And again, ladies, we've got $50 for each first two new lady callers. And give us a call at 877-960-99-60, and you can text us at 877. Excuse me, I keep wanting to go to 877-77-77-47-272-497-6530. So if you're a little bashful, make use of that text number.

Now back to the recovering car dealer We've got a Well excuse me Stu's giving me I wanted I was making eyes I wanted to chime in We need some text

We're really light on the text this morning But if you want to see what everybody looks like You can go to Facebook slash Erlon cars Sorry Facebook.com slash Erlon cars We're live right now With the show

So you can see what we look like And You know That's a good point Thanks to I was wondering why you're winking at me Something in my eye You know

I noticed that Craig sent in he text a question What do you think about plug-in EVs and charging networks? Did you guys see that? Yeah, Rick will answer that. As a matter of fact, Tesla

is one of the big front runners in that with their charging stations all across the U.S. But believe it or not now, electric car charging stations are available through city and county government places. A lot of library and parking garages have plug-in stations for an electric car, such as the Nissan Leaf, the Chevy Volt, the Prius plug-in hybrid. There's a lot of different cars with plug-in capability, whether they're a hybrid that simply recharges its system by way of the plug-in,

and they can run under its electric power more or a complete electric vehicle. And personally, I think electric vehicles are the wave of the future. I think it's where we need to go. And charging one of those batteries up, the cost of it is so much less than the cost, the actual money cost, and the carbon footprint cost of fuel. I think the big argument against batteries has always been range, and that's being overcome very quickly. and you're going to find the luxury car manufacturers,

especially BMW Porsche, Lexus. Electric car manufacturers are jumping into this with both feet. They are. And the battery technology is progressing in leaps and bounds. And instead of a 300-mile range, you're going to have a 600-mile range, then you're going to have a 1,000-mile range. The old days, when you were worried about range anxiety,

will stop to exist. And then the cost is going to come down, too. But you've got to get Tesla a lot of credit for that. They really got everybody excited. The sad thing is I believe that Tesla might be left in the dust because the other manufacturers, they've got a whole lot more money than Tesla are taking Tesla as a platform and then leaping from there with their own technology. And I can see five years from now a lot of EVs on the road

that are going to get you a thousand miles. And I think that competition is actually going to hurt Tesla a little bit. I agree. because as you've said in the past, Tesla seems to be working on, I don't know, Elon, it's like they're looking at a bunch of different projects that he really wants to play with, but they're not keeping the other features of their cars up to date like they should. Yeah, and excuse me for a moment, Rick, Craig chimed in and he said the Tesla Model X is about 300 mile range. Yep, and imagine that's about the average for a lot of cars. cars, smaller cars for a tank of fuel. And if you're going off on a road trip and you stop at a supercharging station, well, 15 minutes, that battery's back at 75% capacity, ready to go

again. And that 15 minutes is the time it's going to take you to get a bathroom break, get a cup of coffee, stretch your legs a little bit, and be ready to get back on the highway. Thanks so much for that, Rick. Rick always has something interesting to say, we're going to go to our next caller. And he's a first-time caller. And he's a first-time caller. and it's Sam. Good morning, Sam. How are you? Nancy, it's a woman.

It's Sim. Sam is a she. Samantha. She, yes, Sam. Sim. Sim. So is Sim. I am.

I think Sam is a Sunrise Club member. Right? Yes, I am a member of the International Sunrise. Sam, thank you so much for calling. You know that you're going to win yourself $50 this morning for being the first female caller. Yeah, I'm curious about the difference in the engines I'm going to be leasing another Honda Accord, but, you know, they offer you the different engine sizes, and I'm curious

for your insight as to why one is better than the other. Well, Sam, Kazim reports, as always the ultimate answer, and I would check the Honda accord, and they will address, I'm sure, the engine is the... as a consumer kind of a person, and as a car dealer kind of a person, I always opt for the lower, I'll go with a four-cylinder over a six. The engines today are so efficient, they have such good torque that you really don't need a high-powered engine unless you're a hot rod like I am, as a matter of fact, but I've got a lead foot. So I like big engines.

And from practicality, you've got all the acceleration speed you need. and the lower power to lower horsepower engines. Rick is most far more than I do about that. Rick, what do you say about? Well, I'm looking at them right now just to kind of get an idea of what they have for engines offered. I see they've got about four models listed for the Honda Accord. They're LX, their sport, the EX, and a hybrid.

One thing I know is that a lot of hybrid cars will have a different designed engine than what would be in a normal standard car. And let's see. If you were buying the car, Rick, let me ask you, if you were going to buy a Honda Corp, which power plan would you choose? Well, I'm seeing two listed here as a 1.5 liter and a 2-liter turbo.

And being as you're both turbos, I'd probably go for the 1-5 myself simply because it's going to have a little better fuel economy. There you go, Sam. That's what I wanted to know, because I was thinking, the hybrid would have the best fuel economy, wouldn't it? It will, but at a higher price overall because hybrids are generally more expensive a vehicle. That's what you have to look at, Sam.

A lot of these hybrids sound great when you look at the fuel economy, but if you look at the incremental cost, let's say you spend $4,000 extra for a hybrid. For the equivalent model, you could get a gasoline engine for $4,000 less, or it could be $2,000. do the math and you decide the fuel savings and you figure the cost of gas and then you figure how long you're going to keep the car. It's just an arithmetic problem. And if you're going to keep the car, say, for six or seven years, a lot of times a hybrid

will be the answer because the fuel usage will more than off-way the incremental cost. But if you're going to keep the car for two or three years, you might find out that the incremental cost is not going to cost you more than the fuel savings. Yeah, I just wish that I could support the idea that we should not be using oil out of the Earth Mother and be moving more towards solar and hybrid vehicles that don't use as much gasoline. We're almost there, Sam. I mean, we're not just moving. We're accelerating.

And in 10 years, you're going to see, and this is just my prediction, the majority of vehicles on the road will be electric vehicles. and it's just going, it's mind-boggling how quickly it's happening. And it's too late, you know, it's still too late, but they're really making amazing progress now. I'm so glad to hear that because it seems like we've been trying for so long and it hasn't happened. You're right. It's been terrible. Absolutely terrible.

I was selling cars back in the 60s and 70s and 80s, and I can remember selling cars 8, 10 miles per gallon. I mean, how atrocious is that? to mention the emissions. So from the 60s and 70s, we've really made a quantum leap. And it'll be another quantum leap in 10 years. I mean, we're going to make more progress for the next 10 years than we made in the last 50. Absolutely. Sim, you know, there's so much going on. And we definitely are moving forward as far as the electric vehicles are concerned. And there's so much information on the internet. And one of the sources that Earl and I use is the Consumer Report

and the auto issue of 2018. There's a lot of information right there. And I want to take a moment and thank you for your call and also for being part of the International Sunrise Club. Sim, I'm not sure whether you heard me earlier, but as a first-time lady caller, you can win yourself, you did win yourself, $50. Woo-hoo! And my apologies for mispronouncing your name. That is a beautiful name. Stay on the line, and we'll get your information, and I'll get that checkout to you.

That is so awesome. Thank you guys so much. I love both of you. You really are a day in the morning. I love seeing the sunrise every morning, and we're hoping one of these days we may bring Ollie with us to the ocean. Is that, would that be amazing? I mean, this international sunrise club has definitely exploded.

And Earl is amazing. I agree, Nancy. Thank you, Sam. You're welcome. Stay on the line and give us that information. Thank you. Give us a call, toll free at 877-960, or you can text us at 772-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-65-3. zero and I am I thought we had a text but we don't

back to the oh you do okay great we got three texts here's a first text I'll read are all the tire brands today pretty much safe when running down the turnpike is 70 miles an hour with kids on board is there a particular brand that's far superior to the others thank you Robbie from Stewart again I know we sound like a broken record consumer reports Consumer reports should be mandatory reading for everybody. Certainly every consumer. That's just about everybody.

Online or it's your newsstand or pick it up at the library. The annual auto issue. All you do is go online and say your question is safest tire and you'll find out. Here you go. You'll find out your safest tire. But in general, yes, the tires are. are pretty much all safe. It's a question of which ones are safer. And you want to be sure, by the way, this is something that I don't remind people of often enough.

The age of your tire is very important. And when you buy a tire, the date code is stamped on the tire. Once a tire gets to be six years old, depending on the air you live in, high humidity, high heat, tires deteriorate faster. how you drive tires to deteriorate faster you should buy a fresh tire you buy a fresh loaf of bread you buy a fresh quart of milk buy fresh tires there's no law that says I can't sell you a tire that's 20 years old crazy we have a lot of things in the government that are crazy National Highway Traffic Safety Association

somebody should have a law that says you can't sell old tires but there is no law it happens so when you're buying a tire be sure you check the date code on the tire to find out if that tire was manufactured in the year you bought it yeah great information check the tire and check that date i think the second text is on the same subject so everybody wants to know about tires today okay let me find the second text here uh the second text is okay no that was first test yeah yeah from todd johnny from revere beach that's one of them but todd jupiter said that we talked about dry rot last week and want to know if that's what we were referring

the small cracks in the tire. Right. Yeah, is that dry rot, the small cracks in the tire. Exactly. That's the H problem. That's kind of like me. I have dry rot because I'm 77 years old. I'm starting to crack.

And when you get to an old tire, they crack just like I do. What about me? I'm 75. What's going on with me? I don't know, but you look great. Well, when you're buying a bargain tire, be careful. That's it. That's right.

Good moisturizer. Maybe we could use it on the tires. Don't do that, folks. don't do that. Moistrarize your tires. Okay, I got another text here. As soon as Stu and Nancy get through to...

Well, Rick, would that work? Could you moisturize old tires to make it? Okay, don't do that. Now, wait a minute, Rick. Look at my face. Look at this face. Would it do a great job on tires? No, right there.

Okay, we're getting into the wheeze. Go ahead, Earl. Johnny from River Beach. President Trump has threatened to oppose a tariff on foreign cars coming into the U.S. from Europe and Japan. If this happens, I'm quite sure these automobilee dealers will pass that extra tax on to the consumers, so it won't affect their bottom line. Or they will start adding more fees, such as a test driving fee and a fee if you drink their water or coffee.

Well, they already do that. They'll just have to increase the fee. You know, I have to be very careful about political commentary on the show, and the country is divided. You all know that. 50-50. I'll try to give you my honest economic answer. The way it is now, American manufacturers, when they sell cars in Europe, they pay a very high tariff. It's 10%. When the European cars come into the United States, there's a very low tariff. I think it's like 1 or 2%. I happen to believe that it should be a level playing field and that all countries

should trade equally without any tariffs at all yes so what you say is true Johnny from River Beach if we did impose a tariff on European cars coming into this country the cost would be passed along to the consumer by the manufacturers to the extent that they could given the limitations of supply and demand but right now there are countries the charge one case of Europe I believe it's a 10% tax that's passed along Their country is charged American car manufacturers a 25% tax, and all this has passed along. China, I believe, charges something like a 25% tax on Buick.

So if you buy Buick and, you know, Peking, then you're going to be paying a 25% more than you would in the United States. I don't like tariffs. I don't think anybody likes tariffs. But, yes, your question would be that tariff passed on European cars, you're going to be more for your Mercedes and more for your Porsche. More from your BMW. Great information. We're going to go to Craig. No, we're not going to go to Craig.

Give us a call, tool free at 877-960. And again, you can text us at 772-4976530. And remember, we all just want a deal from an honest dealership that's transparent. So I'm sure all of you out there can elaborate on that. So give us a call or text us. We're going to go to Hope, who is a first-time caller from West Palm Beach. Wow. Welcome to the show, Hope.

Hi, how you doing? We're doing great. Hey, Hope, you won yourself $50 this morning. Oh, wow, that's great. Yeah, first-time caller. So if you stay on the line after you ask your question, we can get your information. I'll get that checkout to you. Okay.

It's about the lemon law. Okay. A few years ago, I bought a car, and there was some noise in the car, and I brought it to the dealership, and they said that there was nothing wrong with it, and I kept telling them I was hearing the noise. So they changed a few of the parts. It was a brand new car. They changed a few of the parts, transmission, this, and not. I was just wondering, like, why would they change all that things if they would think that there was nothing wrong with it?

Well, that's a good question. I guess they were smart enough to realize if you thought there was something wrong with it, that they should try to do something to make you happy. I find when there's noises and squicks and rattles and vehicles, we forget, you know, the most obvious answer to some of these questions. Maybe they can't hear it because their ears aren't as good as a customer. I mean, let's face it, frequency. I have high, I can't hear high frequency.

I have a mailbox detector. When someone leaves this mail, I have an alarm, it goes off, and Nancy can hear it, but I can't hear it. People driving cars, hear squeaks and rattles that the technician can hear. So if you have a problem like that, the same thing goes with vibrations. Some of us are more sensitive than others. So I salute the dealer that took your word for it. Apparently, hope I understand that it must have stopped making the news.

noise or else you would have invoked a lemon law i i actually i actually did and i had to get a new they just they just gave me my money back and i've got a new car i got a new car good for you same company same company good for you well um let me ask you this uh how much what percentage of the cost of the car did you have refunded to you um they gave they took they took two thousand I had the car for a little bit more than a year. Yeah. Well, that's great. That's great.

You must be a tough gal, and you're the type of person, you're persistent. It's not easy confronting a car dealer and the manufacturer and going head-to-head. And I presume you went through the arbitration process, too? I'm not sure. Yeah. I'm not really sure, but, you know, the company was great. still are great and um i it just you know unfortunately it was just a mishap that happened you know what had things happen you know so so i just got a new car and it's great well good for you and i

the lemon law as i say is a yeah i think as i said earlier if you just tuned in um it's more of a threat it can oftentimes be more used as a as an effective threat against the manufacturer but if you're tough like hope and you can take it through all the way through the process which isn't easy, and I salute you, Hope, for being able to do that. And I congratulate you on getting a positive result. Oh, well, thank you. Thank you very much. I hope that doesn't happen a whole lot, you know, because it's really, it gets complicated.

You've got to put a whole lot of time into it, but I also commend you for, you know, standing strong and having the situation taken care of, and thank you so much for the phone call. And Hope, how did you hear about us? Well, I buy all my cars from you. Oh, okay, fine. And I heard about your show.

One day I was just flipping channels, and I heard about it, so now every week I listen. Oh, great. And it is a great channel to tune into, whether it's Saturday or throughout the week. Hope, thanks so much. And, like I said, stay on the line. We'll get your information.

and get that $50 out to you. Okay, thanks so much. I love you guys. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. You know, I have a text from Tamara, and she has an Audi, an A4. I have the text, too, yeah.

You also have the text. Okay, Tamara, Earl is going to address that question that you have. And, well, Turnpike Mark is back. Let me answer this question. Hang on, Mark. Yeah, hang on, Mark. We'll be right with you. I'm going to flip this to Rick in a minute, but the question is, my Audi A4 is drinking oil like crazy, yet I don't see it dripping on the driveway.

Where is your oil going? I'll tell you what I know about it before Rick jumps in here. Every vehicle, and I mean even every vehicle within the same make and model, varies in the oil consumption. So if oil isn't dripping out of the crankcase, it's being burned up by the car. and oil will burn up, and if you have smoke coming out of the tailpipe, then you know your oil is burning up. Oil consumption varies from, as I say, make and brand. You're going to have two cars that are identical. One will burn more oil than the other.

It has to do with the specifications of the engine. And manufacturers will have a range, and they will say, this is normal oil consumption. And the range is quite wide. It's always surprised me why they would have such a wide range. One car could get, correct me if I'm wrong, Rick, twice as good or twice as bad oil consumption as another and still be within the manufacturer's range. So I don't think that's right, but that's reality and that's the way it is. So what do you say about the Audi drinking the oil? Well, the problem with oil consumption, and just to be sure, I know you're not seeing.

any drips on the driveway but what you might want to do is take your cell phone if you got one of those selfie sticks put it underneath the car and snap a picture and just make sure that that oil isn't actually leaking and only leaking while you're driving and that the airflow isn't making it run back along the bottom of the car because you might not see any drips but still might be a pretty good leak there so just double check that one and if not then obviously the engine is burning it and you may not see a whole lot of smoke because believe it or not the catalytic converters nowadays are so good that they will burn up that oil without leaving a lot of evidence of that heavy smoke that you might normally see okay well so they could still use a lot of oil that way

and not really show anything as like a ghost solution you know whenever you say catalytic converter the only thing I can think about is my cousin Vinny what a great great movie um we are going to go back to Mark and he was an earlier caller we call him Turnpike Mark. Hi there. You still there Mark? Maybe we lost Mark.

Mark call back if you can hear us. We can't hear you on this end and I'm going to go to some text now. Okay that sounds real good. I'm going to give out that phone number first and text number just in case somebody may have not heard it earlier. 877, 960, 9960, or you can text us to 772-497-60.

Now back to the recovering card dealer. He's got a few texts he wants to answer. New Jersey. We got Steve from New Jersey. I love the way these people are coming from all over the country. Maybe we get some people from out of the country. That'd be fun. Steve from New Jersey, you said that lease pricing is difficult to figure out,

and it's best to get three prices before buying. Since ads often do not include all costs and one's credit rating as a component, what suggestions can you provide to comparison shop? Leasing is complicated. That's the reason car dealers make more money when they lease you a car. Manufacturers want to lease you a car because you're more inclined to repeat with that manufacturer when you lease than when you buy. So if they're going to push you, push you, push you.

push you to lease this be very careful here's how you get the best lease price choose the exact your make model car you want to lease the exact options accessories and shop that exact car with at least three dealers now be sure that the MSRPs are identical get a lease price from each of the three dealers on the exact terms of the same lease with all three dealers meaning 36 months or 48 months whatever the length term you want you're comparing apples and apples 36 months you also want to look at the mileage allowance so now you have you know they allow you 10,000 miles a year 15,000 miles a year whatever the

mileage allowance is now you're comparing apples and apples and apples okay so you're going to have your term 36 months you're going to have the same mileage and you're going to have the MSRP and Stu just hit me with a note here if I forgot that that would really have been dumb down payment they all are going to hit you with a down payment be sure that the they call it a capital cost reduction it's really a down payment if you're going to have to put $10,000 down put down what you want to put down if you don't want to put anything down then compare no down payments and what they do a lot is in really confusing. Even in the ads

they'll say, or in the disclosure, they'll say total due at signing, that rarely really means the total. It's total due to signing plus fees. So you've got to really hash that out. Yeah. Here's, the verbiage is really, they do it to confuse you. Sometimes

the first lease payment will be due. Sometimes there'll be a security deposit due. Sales tax and tag will be due. There's a lot of cash floating around there that they don't talk about until you sign in. So you'll want to know if I'm going to come out totally zero, $1,000, $10,000, just be sure that every nickel that you have to pay that dealer is accounted

for. And then if you also, then if you do that and you go with the lowest monthly payment, then you've got yourself the best lease deal. I think you're beginning to understand Steve from New Jersey, why I recommend purchasing over leasing, because leasing can get very complicated. And I'm just talking to the tip of the iceberg about why leasing is far more complicated than most people realize. This is very true, very true about leasing. You know, they just think that this is an easier way to go, not realizing that, correct me if I'm wrong, it costs more to insure the car.

Exactly. And there are so many other things that are just a negative. So, ladies and gentlemen, what do you think? 877-960, or you can text us at 772-4976530. And ladies, Earl mentioned something earlier in the show, and it was about an article that I read from the Daily Business Review. We haven't forgotten about that. We are going to get to it.

We're going to go back to the recovering car dealer because he has a few more texts to address. These are actually coming in our live Facebook video. So what about hydrogen fuel cell power plants? John and Jupiter, hydrogen fuel cell power plants. That was a hot topic a while back. Toyota was a leader in the hydrogen fuel cell, and they're kind of fading. Rick?

Well, we've got the Toyota Marai that's running out in California. The problem is there's only a few hydrogen fueling stations where you can refuel it, and of those few that are available in California, only a couple of those, a small percentage, are open to the general public. So it's a very limited thing. Well, I think the reason that you're not seeing a storage of infrastructure being built for hydrogen fuel cell refueling

is because the battery technology is going so fast now you don't need the fuel cell. You'll be able to buy a battery, as we talked about earlier in the show. 300 miles is a no-brainer now. a thousand miles, I'm saying in 10 years, and who knows, in 15, 20 years, it could be 3,000 miles. I mean, hydrogen fuel cell was a hot topic. Now it fell behind technology and batteries has pushed that into the dust. And the other big drawback on it was they were getting the hydrogen from the hydrocarbons in oil.

So it was really, you were still using the oil anyways, and we weren't getting away from oil. hydrogen fuel cell is deader than a door now. Good point. We are going to go to Elle. Al has been holding, thanks for your patience, Al. He's calling from West Palm Beach. Welcome to the show. Yeah, hi.

I know you're talking about mostly cars, but I focus more on the driver because of the fact that my limited vision, I no longer drive. But one of the things I've always thought about is the fact that while they give you a vision test, they never test your hearing. You go in there deaf and get a driver's license. Well, it's funny you should mention that. The only requirement if you're deaf, I mean totally deaf, is that you have a side view mirror on the driver's side. That is the only rule, which is always amazed me because certainly that's one of the senses that's very important.

And if there's an emergency vehicle with a siren going, you should be able to hear that. So that's just one of our laws. It's a little difficult to understand. I suppose that's something that people have talked to their congressmen about, their senators, their legislators, as to why there isn't some sort of restriction on hearing. I will say this, though, that I think with technology exploding the way it is now, there probably is technology out there that essentially we're talking autonomous cars autonomous cars can hear so yeah if we have devices in cars that would be like the hearing of

an autonomous car it could visually alert the driver who is doing some driving so so i think i think the likelihood that deaf drivers will ever be or i should say hearing impaired is politically correct but that the hearing pair of drivers will probably continue to be able to drive because of technology, even if they do pass a law that says that you must be aware of emergency vehicles with their sirens on. There's one other incident that's demonstrated by a story about a mother who took a daughter for a drive, and as they were driving, the mother went through a red light, and the daughter was hesitant to say anything because she didn't want the mother to feel that she was. who's being thought of as not able to drive anymore.

But then when the mother went through the second light, she said, Mother, you just went a second light. You went through that light. And the mother says to, am I driving? Oh, dear. Okay, Al. Hey, Al, let me ask you a question. You said you're usually impaired and you can't see all enough drive.

But are you excited about the fact that you could possibly be in an autonomous car in three or four years? Well, I think we lost hell there, but I always get excited when I talk to people that are elderly, people that have impairments of vision and hearing and other physical impairments. It's just the idea, partly because I'm 77 years old, it's going to happen to me. It's so exciting to me that I could be in an autonomous car in five years, at least on 995 in the turnpike. but how cool is that yeah absolutely we're going to go back to mark

hey we got you back mark how you doing yeah can you hear me now loud and clear I was sorry for the glitch before okay now going back to tires how long should the average person keep their spare tire

that's in the trunk the zona spare tire what spare tire oh man that's a joke You know, the spare tires are disappearing. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. But you're right. If you have one of the few cars that has a spare tire,

I would inspect it carefully, and I would look at the age on the tire. And if I had a six-year-old spare, I would be very, very sure. I'd have an expert probably look at it and say, do you see any dry rot or defects that may cause a problem? That's the last thing you want us to be on a turnpike somewhere. Yeah, I have an 06 Mazda 5, and I changed the tire a year ago. I bought the car brand new, and like I said, me personally, I changed the tire, so I have a brand new spare tire. Even though it's a donut, because the regular one don't fit in my trunk.

Okay. Well, it's good to be ultra cautious, yeah. Yeah, I got one more topic. but you were talking about Lemon Law also I heard about a case in California where a woman sued Honda because she bought a civic hybrid and the car did not get 50 miles per gallon

as advertised now we've covered on the show many times before many other reasons why the car wasn't getting 50 miles per gallon first we have the ethanol and our gasoline Sure. That's not the manufacturer's fault. Second, she lives in California.

So California has got more emissions, therefore reduced fuel economy. Well, that's really subjective. And as a car dealer, with the advantage of me being currently a car dealer, is we have a lot of people that come in and complain about their fuel economy. And sometimes it's legitimate. sometimes it's the driver's fault. And as you say, ethanol, that's a whole other topic there. For you, if I asked Nancy what she got in her car,

and then Rick drove her car, and I asked him what he got, and I drove her car, you know what I'm saying. You're all going to have a different result. Exactly, exactly. It varies. I mean, driving conditions, a lot of different variables. But there are legitimate complaints, And if you're not getting the fuel economy that you expect, then you should have the car checked out.

And what I do, in my dealership, I pick on Rick a lot. We have a customer that's convinced that the car is not getting good fuel economy. Typically it happens with hybrids because, you know, they hype the mileage so much. They think they can get, you know, the 55 or 60 miles per gallon that it says on the window sticker. so we'll have Rick take the car home and drive it maybe two or three times back and forth and he will record the gas mileage and typically if you drive the car he's a really good driver he knows how to maximize fuel economy he can usually get very good fuel economy so very subjective I'm surprised do you happen to know if that woman in California won the lemon law complaint

I would say she probably didn't well I think she was an attorney so she did a direct loss, not a class action. Oh, okay. Well, she might have won. You didn't mention that. Yeah. That was a very important detail. Yeah.

Thanks, Mark. Now, like, another thing, now, like, we're talking about the ethanol. Like, I have a 10 Toyota Prius, and if we fuel it at Costco and Davey, I might see 30.5, 31 miles per gallon

from a Toyota Prius. and if I get Wawa non-ethanol, I might see like 42-43 miles per gallon. Interesting. That is very interesting. Can I ask one question here? What's the difference in price per gallon between the Costco fuel with the 10% ethanol and the Wawa non-ethanol? It varies.

I mean, I mean, I, I would say, I don't know where your local Costco is in Riviera Beach, or if you got one there. Palm Beach Garden is actually Lake Park on North Lake Boulevard. All right. I don't know. And then, of course, I know you have a Wawa next to 95 on Blue Heron. I haven't been there because I usually been by there with the truck, so it has nothing to do with me there. But I've seen, like, recently something like $3.42 a gallon for the Wawa.

non-ethanol in like Pompano, Fort Lauderdale, Broward Boulevard. But... Of course, Rick's point... Rick's point was Mark... I don't know with the price. Yeah.

You've got to, you... The price is the name of the game, and if you have to pay too much more for the non-ethanol, then you're better off to go with the lower mileage. So that's what he's basically saying. We might do a little experiment. I am noticing,

yeah, knowing what I used to get with my Mastafive, I haven't put ethanol gas in that in years, but the math is still better in favor of the more expensive non-ethanol gas. Especially with older vehicles. I don't know about newer because they seem to work with the ethanol blend, but older vehicles definitely make a difference. Like I said, my Mazda is in 06, and they started the ethanol blending in 07. So the car started out with straight gasoline. Mark, we got to run.

We got to run. And I know, Mark, you're really, really interested in fuel economy. I would be, too, if I were a professional driver. But we'll do a little test and see what the cost advantage or disadvantage is. We'll check the non-ethanol and we'll check a low-priced with ethanol, see what we come up with. and give us a call next week, and we'll see what the results were. Thanks, Mark. Thank you, Mark.

We're going to go straight to Steve, who was calling from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Steve. Hi, good morning. Can you hear me? Yes, I can hear you. Is this the Turnpike Mark show? No, I'm just kidding. Yeah, he broke the record this morning. I texted a little while ago, and I know you folks have been. so I decided to call for the first time, so that's why I'm calling.

It's concerning lease vehicles. There are general rule of thumb as far as the amount that a dealer will give a lease or as far as general wear and tear, small, dense, and ding number, and whether they are they there? What do you have on that? You're talking about lease cars, and you're talking about turning your lease car in, and then being charged a lot of money for the lease. company to fix the car repair the things and dents yeah it's a it's a racket

it is common we we lease a lot of cars in my dealership and I talked to a lot of car dealers the leasing companies have looked to the abnormal wear and tear column and their ledger as a profit center and they are overcharging the the lessees to repair these vehicles and I admonished every person who has a lease car to be very very careful when they turn that car in they should be sure that the car is inspected while they are present they should actually take pictures of the exterior the interior of the car include the tires on that to see exactly document what dinks and dents do I have how serious are they do I have

any stains in the upholstery what's the tread depth of my tires That way you have an objective reference point when you get a bill from them. A lot of the leasing companies now will charge you if your car has been repainted, even if it's a first-class job. You could take your car after a ding fender to a collision repair. They do a perfect job. You look at the car. It looks like brand new. You can't tell there was the dent repaired.

But the leasing company will put what they call a paint meter. It's a device that they hold up on the metal of the car, the paint of the car, tells the depth of the paint. And if it's been painted, they say, okay, this car's been painted, we're going to charge you $1,000. You have to argue. You have to go back to the leasing company and through the dealer typically and say, look, here's my car. It's perfect. And I got a bill for $1,000. When you complain, they will typically take the charge off.

And that's all I could. but be sure you have the documentation because they will try to come after you in many, many cases. Okay, Earl, do you find that if one was to lease again with the same dealer, do they show more of flexibility as far as, okay, this is going to leave the skin? We'll let this flyer let that slide. Do you find that? Does I repeat the question, Steve, do you say, repeat that place? If someone would to lease again with the same dealer,

Oh, soon. Yeah. Yeah. The typical lease has that hook in there. And the manufacturer and the dealer, if you release with the same dealer, then they will waive what they call a disposition fee. And that's a bad thing. I mean, it's a hook, and I don't like that.

And they, typically $350,400, but if you release with the same dealer, they'll waive the fee. There's no other advantage. The dealers and the manufacturers are exploiting the fact that you're leasing. See, they have a string on you. You have to come back to return the car. You have to make the payments so they know where you are all the time. You bring the car back in.

They're going to take another run at you. Typically, you'll start getting mail or phone calls from a leasing dealer six months before your lease runs out. And they'll offer you a special deals. They'll say, we'll waive the last two lease payments. or maybe the last three lease payments or we'll give you this special deal or that special deal. And the final gotcha

is, well, if you don't lease from me, you're going to have to pay a lease disposition fee if you go over and lease from another manufacturer or dealer. Exactly. Okay. Earl, thank you. Thank you, Steve. Thank you so much. I look forward to hearing from you again.

That number is 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-60. We are going to go to a caller that is calling us from St. Louis, and his name is Glenn. Wow. Welcome to the show, Glenn. Thank you. Love your show. Oh, thank you.

How'd you hear about us? Basically, I've seen almost all of Earl's YouTube videos. Oh, very good. Very good. And I've been ready to shop for a car, and I'm not sure. I don't think I've ever missed one of them. Very good. I tried calling, Nancy, I tried calling last week, and I tried calling too late.

And so I emailed Earl, like, three questions. Oh. And within an hour, he emailed back with answers. And I really appreciate it. Yeah, yeah. You're not going to get that too often from a car dealer. He's the greatest at doing. I'm pretty sure Earl realizes I'm never going to buy a car from him.

Well, you know, it's just something he feels passionate about. Yeah, we don't deliver to St. Louis. Not for free. Well, that's too far for me to drive. I've got a couple comments and a question, Earl, at the end. I guess my first comment is I've been shopping. I'm pretty well decided what I want. I've got a pretty good offer that I'm happy with.

I've tried to follow all of your advice. but I have to say your industry makes my chest hurt. Mine too. Okay, let's go back. One of the issues you've had lately is with Costco, and I'm like you. I love Costco, and I tried to pursue it that way. They emailed me one dealer with names, you know,

six names of his salesman. I called, and I wanted to. wanted to do it over the internet. And this guy told me they cannot do that. It's Costco's policy to not do that. Well, I called Costco and they said that's not our policy. That's their policy. I don't know if that's common.

I don't know if I should have expected the Costco thing to transpire over the internet. But they made it clear. clear. They want me to come in. So they're not going to sell me a car. Well, that's, I'm glad you're called. Your timing's perfect because we're going to be going to Mystery Shopping Report as soon as we talk to you, and it's another Costco dealer. And we have, my son and I are meeting with the Costco executives Wednesday. And they're coming in, I guess,

from San Diego. They're coming from the West Coast to talk to us about our concerns with the Costco auto buying program. So your timing is perfect. I'm so happy that you called and share that information with us. Well, wait a minute. I'm not done. I'm going to out-talk turnpike mark. I've got a buyer's order that was sent to me yesterday, and I'm, let's say I'm happy

with the price, but something, I haven't bought a new car in nine years, and I don't recall this. but there is an arbitration clause that I question, and I went to your webpage to see if you had ever commented on it, and guess what? The first article is just about it, and you talked about it, but my question is, can I refuse to sign it? Will that kill the deal?

Glenn, I tell you what, you can refuse to sign it. The question is whether the dealer would accept it. I'd say you'd have a pretty good chance. A lot of car dealers, especially the salespeople, the sales managers are not even aware of the arbitration clause. Most people, and you're a very sharp guy to even be aware of it, virtually every car dealer I know has that arbitration clause, which basically waives your seventh amendment rights, your right to a trial by jury, you're a right to have your fair day in court. You cannot sue a dealer when they have that arbitration clause.

No matter what the dealer did to you, you go before an arbitration council. The arbitration council typically favors the dealer because the arbitration councils work for the companies. And they only deal with a consumer once, they deal with the same company hundreds and hundreds of times. So there's a slant toward favoring the company. I would recommend that when you go in. Make the deal. You're happy with the price and everything else is fine. The car. You like the car. And you say, okay, we're ready to do business here, Mr. Dealer. One thing, I want you to cross out that arbitration clause and initial it and saying, this is Nolan Boyd. And you initial it and he initials it. You do that and you've got a deal. I'd say you have a pretty good chance for them doing that. They don't like to do it. But I think you would have the leverage there because you're going to buy the car on that condition. Yeah, I don't know if it should be a deal killer. Earl, I'm almost as old as you, and I've never sued a dealer.

But, you know, it may have to happen. They take that option away from you. And it's, like you say, it's stacked in their favor. And even if you're only bluffing, I mean, it's a good bluff. You know, you look at it. See how good a poker player you are. You look them in the eye and see if you don't initial this, I'm going to walk out of here. And then if they say, no, you can say, well, I was just kidding.

and I want to buy the car anyway. There you go. Well, thank you very much for your help. I love your show. Glenn, you're a great caller, and thank you so much for watching my YouTube's, and I look forward to hearing from you again. I do hope you'll call again.

I love it when we get calls from out of the area. Definitely. And I really appreciate the call very much. Thanks for taking the time to give us a call. Give us a call toll-free at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-4976530. I unfortunately am not going to be able to get to the article that I read in the daily business review ladies, but hopefully I'll have time next week.

It's worthy of talking about, and we're going to go to our next caller. It's Dealey from Lake Park. Good morning, Dealey. Good morning. This is Dee Lee in Lake Park. How are you? Great. Thank you for the call. What can we do for you? Well, I am a first-time caller, and I accidentally came across your radio show about two weeks ago. Well, thank you. Driving.

Yeah, you're welcome. And Dealey, before you go on, let me tell you that you just won yourself $50. Thank you. And if you stay on the line and you share your information with us, I can get that. that check out to you. Thank you very much. You're welcome. So what can we do for you?

Well, I want to just first say that my very first car was a 1973 Toyota Celica when I was 20 years old. Wow. And it ran until it had 260,000 miles on it. Wow. Nothing lost at all. Okay, but the reason I'm falling is having some anxiety issues. I had a Ford Explorer at 2,000, and it had 100,000 miles on it.

And my husband came home with a new gift for me, which is 2007 CTS Cadillac with 200,000 miles on it. So I need to be appreciative of this new beautiful black CTS Cadillac with 200,000 miles, and I had to get rid of the explorer. And I'm used to getting rid of cars when they have 200,000 miles, not getting a new one. So how long do you think this beautiful Cadillac will run? Well, you know, Rick had talked to you for an hour and a half on that, and he probably would if I let him.

But you have to know a lot about the car. I would say the most important thing would be its maintenance history, You could check, try to go to the previous owner or owners, a car like that with 200,000 miles has got maybe several owners. But I'd have a knowledgeable technician check it out, preferably a GM trained technician, go over the car with a fine tooth comb. If you can get the maintenance repairs as far back as you can and you can have a good technician check it out, then... Yeah, let me just add to one tooth, two quick things. My husband is a mechanic, which helped, and the car was one owner previous to me. So, yeah, so those are very, very helpful things.

Well, you can, the cars today, Dealey, will last a lot longer than they did 10 years ago. You can get a 200,000-mile car, last you, 300,000. You've probably got another 100,000 before you even have to worry if the car's been well-maintain. and your husband checked it out. If he says it's okay and you've got the maintenance record, you might even get 400,000 miles. You take care of a vehicle. You'd be surprised how long they'll last.

Just like our bodies, right? Exactly. Exactly. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Dealey. Great call. Dealey, thanks so much.

Okay. And spread the word to the ladies to give us a call that we do have $50 for them. Perfect. Thank you. You're welcome. Have a great weekend. Our mystery shopping report is from Coral Springs, Kia. And unfortunately, we are going to have to go to the mystery shopping report, which is an important part of the show.

So I apologize to the callers that have been waiting, and we'll try to get to you next week. If you could be so kind to give us a call, then. Again, the mystery shopping report is from Coral Springs, Kia. Now back to the recovering car dealer and the mystery shop. Well, this mystery shopping report, as we've done the past several shows, addresses the Costco Auto Buying Program issue. And this one is particularly important because it would be the last mystery shopping report

before we meet with the Costco Auto Buying Program executives. They're coming into town, and we are meeting with them on Wednesday. The meeting has to do with our criticism of the Costco Auto Member Buying Program. I always like to say when I speak about Costco that I hold Costco in very high esteem. And I always remind our listeners that Nancy and I have been Costco members for many, many years. My company shops with Costco, we shop with it personally. I rank them the highest in integrity, quality, pricing. The Costco membership warehouse, the Costco warehouses, I consider,

be the number one retail store anywhere. We love them. So it's with love and concern that I'm constructively criticizing the auto member program and I look forward to resolving our issues this Wednesday when we meet. As Nancy said, this mystery shop is of Coral Springs, Kia. We went way, way far south. This is our seventh Costco mystery shop in as many weeks. early bay we've investigated Schumacher Chevrolet, West Palm Beach, Kia, Edmores-Dolray Toyota, Pompano Ford, Auto Nation Toyota Weston, and Lexus of Pembroke Pines. Each expose of these dealers' Costco Auto Programme experience was unique, some adhered perfectly to the rules and others behaved as if there were no rules.

Last week's shop of Lexus of Pembroke Pines was a shocking example of the latter. I mean, that really shocked me. I'm not easily shocked. That was really a train wreck. Despite our investigators repeated, please, to be assisted by an official Costco rep, he was refused and subjected to a very non-cosco-like buying experience. Even after the official Costco rep was brought in to save the deal, our shopper was charged a large $499 electronic filing fee that was not disclosed

on the member-only price sheet. Again, that was the last shopping report that we did. Affinity Development Group, and they call themselves a Costco member auto buying program, the Affinity Development Group has told us that bad dealers ignore the rules, and therefore the Costco Auto Program cannot be held accountable. This washing of the hands is not acceptable when the very essence of the program is the leveraging of the incredibly popular and trustworthy Costco brand. There is no finer brand.

I would say Costco is right up there with the Apple brand. I mean, it is a pristine brand. If nothing else, the program's own survival, Costco Auto Buying Program, own survival depends on defending that brand as much as possible. The reason people will use the Costco Auto Buying Program is because of that pristine brand. trying to save them from themselves. Exactly. A point we've tried to drive home again and again

in discussions with affinity, this is the Costco Auto Bank program, is that they cannot have it both ways. They cannot profit from Costco's good name while simultaneously taking a hands-off approach when it comes to its dealers and bad behavior. Their position is neither honest nor defensible. Yesterday we investigated Coral Springs Kia and authorized Costco Auto Program dealership. We began with an online inquiry for a new 2018 Kia Optima EX. Agent X was our investigator. Speaking of the first person as if I were the shopper, I submitted my request on a new Optima and was referred to Carl Springs Kia. I received a confirmation email from the Costco auto program. It was the same email I've gotten from the last six dealers we shopped. It listed

six salespeople who were approved to take care of me. The email also instructed me to ask for my member only price sheet and to see the invoice, factory invoice, to confirm my special savings. Also, making another appearance was the promise to pay only 50% of the price for dealer installed items. That cracks me out. That's so nice. Yeah. You set your own price for dealer installed items. You set your price of $1,000, and then you only charge $500. Oh, hey, let's set the price of $2,000,

and then we'll only charge $1,000. And I could go on and on. Before heading down, I called Coral Springs Kia on the phone to see if they could tell me my Costco price on the phone. Isn't that funny, we just had Glenn from St. Louis.

Yeah, they wouldn't do it. Call, they wouldn't do it. I spoke to Monique on the phone. She said, up an appointment for me at all I'm somewhere that's you're right for 730 oh yeah 730 and said to ask for her when I asked about telling me the price of the phone she said she would email it to me and I thanked her and I said I'd see her at 730 okay if you just tuned in we had a call from a gentleman in St. Louis Glenn who had called the Costco dealer and asked for the price of the phone and they say Costco doesn't allow it well that's not true he called Costco Glenn did and Costco said

we allow it it's the dealer that doesn't allow it so here we asked her price on the phone and they said they'd email it to us what they didn't do it she did not send my Costco price instead i was in information and photos of four different kia optimus the only pricing that accompanied these were the msrps sticker price i asked for monica when i got to the dealership or monic she came out to say hello and told me that she was not my salesperson she was an appointment seller set her. I reminded her that I was a Costco member and was supposed to get special pricing. She fetched Fabio for me. Fabio was not on the list of authorized Costco reps. Fabio put me through the sales process, information gathering, product presentation, demo ride, etc.

He did a decent job and appeared to know his product and how to sell. It wasn't an unpleasant experience. I noted the MSRP was 26,000, 845 in the addendum's $1,295 for here we go nitrophil lifetime car washes one oil change first the first one yeah $1,295 you get one oil change and air and air and shuttle service okay after the test drive I told Fabio that I like the car and I want to buy it I said I was ready to see my special pricing. He left me at the desk with a spring in a step to get the numbers. Fabio returned with a worksheet. It showed the real MSRP with no addendum price added, interestingly, 26,845. Below that was a discount, just discount, $4,000. That's a pretty big discount. My sale price

was $22,845. Then they added the typical $799 dock fee. $675.50 for tag and sales tags, and the out-the-door price was $26,082.13. I asked to see the member-only price sheet and the invoice. Fabio looked confused, and he said he didn't know I was a Costco buyer. Isn't that strange? We've been telling Monick we were a Costco buyer. We asked Monick for the Costco price sheet. She said she was going to send it.

Monick introduced us to Fabio. I told him I had explained this demonic on the phone and again when I met her in the showroom, Fabio had to, you guessed it, the old game time, speak with the manager, be right back. He returned with Arthur, the sales manager. Arthur said, I love this. I'll try to do the impersonation.

Scott, man, I could have told you. Try it again. Take two. I can't do it. Scott, man, I could have made more money on the deal if I had known that you were a Costco member. The deal I gave you was $2,000. better than the Costco deal.

So this is the first. We've done this seven times. Now, they're telling us that their price is $2,000 better than the Costco price. I didn't believe him. I asked if I looked naive. I said, Arthur, man, wait here, I'll show you. Arthur said, man. Arthur said, man.

Anyway, he and Fabia left for a few minutes and came back with the papers. One was a factory invoice. The other was the member's only price sheet that listed the models and the discounts below invoice. The pricing sheet showed a discount of $900 below invoice for the Optima X. The invoice showed the correct MSRP of 26,845 and an invoice price of 26,000, 464. Now, I know I'm throwing a lot of numbers at you. I'm confusing myself. I know I'm confusing you, but the point I make is this is confusing to real buyers. It's confusing to real Costco members. And fake buyers, too.

Fake buyers, real buyers. Agent X was very confused. Exactly. I asked if I could get copies, and Arthur said they don't give these out. We don't give copies. We don't give out no stinking copies. I had my phone in my hand with a camera ready to go,

and I snapped a couple. If you look at them, you can see that it was in motion. They're kind of blurry. Yeah. I whipped my camera out, and Arthur gave me a disapproving, but amused look. He says, look, man.

Look at you, man. Right. He called him. He saw him doing it. Yeah. This cat's got more moves than PlayStation. Yeah, absolutely. If the invoice and price sheet was authentic, Arthur was telling the truth, the Costco price would have been 24,000, 564 before fees, and Fabio had given me a price of 22,0845.

So, I mean, that shook up Agent X, me as the first, you know, I made. That shook me up. I wasn't sure of how to proceed, and Arthur noticed. He said, I don't look happy and ask why. I told him I was confused why I was given a price so much lower than the Costco price. I told him I understood Costco promised a better price to its members than anyone else. Now, let me put on my dealer hat. I'm a Costco dealer, and I have a contract with Costco.

And my contract with Costco says, I must sell Costco members at a price lower than I will sell anybody else. That's my contractual obligation is a Costco dealer. I'll put on my mystery shopping ads again. I've just been told by this Kia dealer in Coconut Creek, Costco-approved, certified Kia dealer, that he's going to give me the car at a lower price than the Costco price, but his contract says he can't do that. So I just want to try to bring some sense to all these numbers I'm throwing at you. Arthur was cheerful

he said he was there to make deals and he wanted to make a deal today he suggested that we get right into finance and finish out the deal they always try to get you into finance that's the smokiest room in the house you go into the box you go into the box it's filled with smoke

your eyes are watering you can't read and you're signed a bunch of papers they always try to get you into finance smoky joes smoky joes metaphorical smoke folks I told them that I promised my wife. We would go over everything tonight before finalizing

the deal. Arthur picked up the phone on the desk and asked me for her phone number. Ooh, he's slick. That is good. Well, this happened before. We actually had... You trained to do that. Yeah, we had a few years back. We actually had a salesman or manager that called Agent X's wife

and talked to her on the phone. Drove to the house. Yeah. So this is high aggression when they insist on calling your wife or your husband when you say i got to go home and talk over with my spouse oh let me talk to your spouse yeah hey do you think they'd want to talk to me i doubt it they wouldn't know but they would regret it i told him she was working her shift she's a wild cat agent x thinks fast on his feet i told her she was working her shift to the hospital that's when they wanted to go his wife and uh couldn't take the call i asked for a buyer's

order. Arthur said he trade me a credit app for a buyer's order. I'll make you a deal. I was always willing to. I love Arthur. I love Arthur. A lot of tap dance. Arthur. I want to buy a car from him. Yeah, we almost did a sitcom at the car dealership that I own. We really, we almost sort of realized it had an outside company coming and I could produce a sitcom. I would have wanted Arthur to be there as one of the actors, typical car salesperson, car sales manager. So Arthur said he trade me a credit app for a buyer's order. I told him no. I was paying cash. He said all his business managers were busy, but he would email me a buyer's order the next day. I would have bet $100 you wouldn't have done that. We said our goodbyes and I left. I checked my email the

next morning. Arthur made good on his promise. That's amazing. He actually sent me a scan of a buyer's order. I would have lost my hundred bucks. Amazing. I looked it over. The first thing I noticed was my out-the-door price. It was $182 less than the price I got from Fabio on the worksheet. I know this is complicated. I've said that before. But stick with me and you'll understand.

The selling price was different too. $26,614, about $200 less than Fabio's worksheet. Then came the fees, okay? Dumb-da-dum-dum. Look at. $799 dock fee and $360.

$190 electronic filing fee, another dealer fee. That's $1,168 in dealer fees. After taxes, fees were added up, they took off $4,000 as a factory rebate, which gave me an off-the-door price of $25,900. Sound great, Wright, Arthur, and Fabio looked agent up with a deal that was $2,000 better than the Costco. price. Sounds too good to be true, right? What's the problem?

After intense head scratching, our shopper analyst who's sitting next to me. Figured it out. And it almost lived by Stu. They lied about the Costco price. Exactly.

The Kia, Coconut Creek Dale, what's the real name? Coral Springs. Specialist. Coral Springs, Kia. Yeah. Coral Springs, Kia. Yeah, Carl Springs Kia lied about the Costco price. Costco members are entitled to the special Costco discount below invoice. There was a manufacturer discount, and it should have been factored into the Costco price, but it was not. Arthur told Agent X the Costco price was $900 under invoice, but made no mention that there should have been another $4,000 taken off.

out and out blatant line. Yep. Remember the worksheet Fabio gave to Agent X. It showed a $4,000 discount. He didn't verbally convey that this was actually a rebate, not a dealer discount. See, a dealer discount

comes out of the dealer's pocket. A manufacturer's rebate comes out of the factory pocket, so it doesn't cost a dealer or anything. So in reality, the great deal they presented was actually MSRP. Right. Plus dealer fees.

Full boat as the dealer's like that said. Slam dunk. Slam dunk. So this Coral Springs, Kia, which down the four-letter deal area, Coral Springs Kia, certified Costco dealer, lied about the discount and inflated the Costco price to make it look like their price was actually a better price. And they showed them the documentation to prove it. look, $900 below.

Yeah, yeah. The real Costco price should have been $900 below invoice with another $4,000 taken off after that. In other words, $20,564 before adding dealer fees. Agent X's price wasn't $2,000 lower than the Costco price. It was $2,000 higher. And they never presented the member-only price sheet, which is supposed to be.

We asked for it, and they never showed the invoice. which they're supposed to be, and they had a hidden dealer fee, $369. This is the worst we've seen. And the timing's perfect, because we are meeting with the Costco executives on Wednesday. Now, we checked True Car price. Yes, we did. We've been recommending True Car Auto Buying Program. We're loving them more and more.

We're loving them more and more. Because True Car does not allow the dealer to add dealer-installed accessories or dealer fees. The true car price is the price you get. It's the outdoor price plus government fees only. That's the reason we recommend the true car price. Costco allows the dealer to put on the dealer fees and dealer and sold options or discount them. They're inconsistent on that. So here's the true car price. The best true car price we got of the 2018 Kia Optima, which is what we just shop Costco for, was 19,896. including all fees, everything, except government fees, including dealing fees.

That's $3,886 less than the price we got on this mystery shop. $3,886. Now, I have a little, I'm suffering from cognitive dissonance here because that great true car price is from Napleton, North Lake Kia. Probably my head's spinning. I think. We need to do a real. The world makes no shape. Makes no sense.

We need to do a quickie shop on that to verify that true car. For you, new listeners, to True Oldies and Earl Stodon cars, Napleson is on our do not buy, do not buy, please do not buy list. Don't go near the dealer's show. Speaking of the list, we need to do a quick vote. I know the answer, but we've got to do it. We'll start with Stu. F on every conceivable category.

Nancy? They should be taken out behind the barn. Horse whipped. We're out of time, so I won't elaborate any more on that F. Rick? Yeah, all the way around. If there was an F-minus, we put...

Okay, that was our mystery shop from Coral Springs, Kia. And we are out of time to all the callers that we didn't get to, we do apologize. And we thank you for tuning in to Earl Stewart on Cars right here at the True Oldies Channel, 95.9 and 106.9 FM. Have a great weekend, everyone. Let's come. We're going.

I don't know I'm gonna away Ha ha ha Ha ha Ha