Earl Stewart on Cars - 06.24.2023 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Schumacher Buick GMC of North Palm Beach

Episode Date: June 24, 2023

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits a local Buick dealer to see what they have on the lot and how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2023 Buick Enclave SUV Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, his tweets at www.twitter.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. Sign up to become one of Earl's Vigilantes and help others in your community to avoid getting ripped off by a car dealer. Go to www.earlsvigilantes.com for more information. “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”

Good morning. I'm Earl Stewart. I welcome you to Earl Stewart on Cars, a live talk show all about how to buy, lease, maintain, or repair your car without being ripped off by a car dealer. With me in the studio is Nancy Stewart, my wife, co-host, and a strong consumer advocate, especially for our female business. We also have Rick Kearney, an expert on how to keep your car running right. I dare you to ask a question that Rick can't answer about the mechanics or electronics of your car. Also with us as my son, Stu Stewart, our LinkedIn's side. space through Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Periscope. Stu is also the Spymaster Director of our Mystery Shopping Report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting South Florida dealership. And now, on with the show.

Good morning, everybody. Here we are, your auto defense crew. We're here to defend you against the evil car dealers of the world, and we've been doing it for a long time. We've got some regular listeners out there and watchers, because we're... streaming also and we're just talking before the show about how much we enjoy the show and we've seen our ratings

grow and in terms of a number of viewers and watchers and it's really getting impressive I mean we're all over the country and even the world we can go as far as India and Australia and some other places you wouldn't expect but

we're feeling a little what's the word Rick said you know it's kind of humbling to think that people are listening to us and depending on us. And some of you folks out there are regular listeners. I mean, it's like every week.

And it makes us feel an obligation to give you what you tuned in for, or what you're watching for, and we're going to try it real hard. We love to have your calls, first of all. And I should really turn it around and give you the credit for what we do because your calls make the show interesting. You know, when you tune in a show, whether it's on television or radio or Facebook or whatever you're watching, streaming,

and somebody just yaks and yaks and yaks like I am right now, that's not too interesting. But when you hear people ask the question that you had on your mind, and that's what happens with the show, people will ask a question that you've been thinking about mulling over for some time. And there it is, and there's the answer. So if you could write this number down, because you'll... won't have a question probably right now, if you do, we'll answer it. But that number is 877-960-9960. 877-960. And sitting right next to me, Nancy Stewart, my co-host, she has a laptop right here. I can kind of see the screen. And when the calls come through, Jeremy and the

control room shoots it through to the laptop, and then she taps me on the shoulder, and And whoever's talking, we stop and take her call. So we love your calls because you open up areas that we didn't know were important and we try to address it. That number again is 877-960-99-60. And the good news is that the phones are working. Ah. So give us a call. They are working.

Sometimes they don't work. We know that. And if you don't like to call, that we have a text number too. that text number is 772 4976530 772 4976530

YouTube YouTube is the big gun I snuck up on me I mean it shouldn't have because YouTube is really huge and that's where we get most of our regulars and our new stuff and we got Rick Kearney,

who was our certified diagnostic master technician. He monitors the YouTube channel, and that is YouTube.com forward slash earl on cars. If you want to go to YouTube, just go to YouTube.com forward slash Earl on Cars. And you'll be talking to all of us, but Rick will see it first. And if you have a comment, criticism, suggestion,

he'll wave. We'll give him the mic, and he'll tell you, all of us, what you had to say, and we'll discuss it. YouTube.com for slash Erlon Cars. Facebook.com, we're there too. And Stu, Stu Stewart,

is monitoring that channel, Facebook. Trying to. Facebook.com forrest slash Erwin Cars. He also watches the text, and I gave that number out earlier, 772-497-6530. It's a very interesting time.

I say this every week, and I just learned something else today, automotive news, that I didn't realize. I've been on this show talking about how cars last longer, and they do, and compared to the quality of cars 30 years ago, they're much better quality. But, you know, quality is a general term. And the fact of the matter is, in terms of complaints,

Cars are getting worse. And the reason is they're getting more complicated. And with a high-tech being incorporated into all these new vehicles now, whether are hybrids or electric vehicles or combustion engine, the high technology, like Bluetooth, is creating a lot of complaints. There's an annual survey by J.D. Power. And the quality in terms of complaints per 100 cars of a particular year-make model is worse than it's ever.

been and there's some real surprises in there when you look at who's best and who's worse the worst decline in quality was Ford ford for plummeted in quality and you say well that that means a fords or conquers they're not they're good cars but they're getting pretty complicated and part of it is educating the customer you know customers complain not only because they the Bluetooth doesn't work but because they don't understand how to use a Bluetooth. A complaint is a complaint as a complaint. And J.D. Power picks that up. So beware, if you haven't bought a new car, modern car in a while, the cars

are better. They're in terms of cost to repair, maintenance, and these things, they're pretty good. But in terms of annoyance, I'll give you an example. Nancy and I have a Tesla and my windshield washer. I mean, that's not exactly a major problem. It's broken twice. I haven't brought it back. I have to bring it back to the Tesla dealer, or Tesla actually. And I just haven't got around to it. And it's annoying to me because when I get up in the morning,

I got a dirty windshield and I can't clean them. I had to clean the windshield this morning. Every time that happens, I want you to think about Elon Musk just sitting back in his chair smoking a cigar laughing. Exactly. Lighting the cigar with a wad full of hundreds. Exactly. He probably has somebody hired to clean his windshield.

Like every time he stops at a red light, they hop out of the trunk and clean it. I don't think so. Elon's not taught. He's not materialistic. He's a newer-s yourself top of the guy. He doesn't, he sleeps like in a shack on a cot, I think. Yeah, well, to that, Stu, Earl's very spoiled. With a blanket made of diamonds.

You wash the windshield? I wash the Tesla. Oh, okay. The interior and the exterior. See, Rick, Earl's got one. He's somebody comes out and washes the windshield. He's very, very, very. spoiled. This morning was difficult

because it was a lot of condensation and it was difficult to see the road because I just decided I gave up that job. Well, he deserves it. My wife has one of those. My wife has one of those. People to take care of the car. This is a talk show but not for us.

This is a talk show for callers and I'm wondering did you get that number? 877-9-60 9960 please give us a call when you have a chance 877-960-90-90-60

because the question you have on your mind is a question that hundreds of other people have and just haven't got the time or they don't think about it, they forget, and they love it when you ask their question for them. So 877-960-99-60. I'm going to turn the mic over to Nancy Stewart because she is the only female in the room right now.

She is single-handedly, I give her full credit for bringing the listening, watching audience of Erlan Cars up from practically zero to practically 50%. To parody. Yeah, parity. And we have almost as many callers usually by the female end of things that we do the male. And their calls are quite interesting. It's so hot. Everybody's languished. It's so hot outside of her.

Yeah, exactly. So tell them about the special offer, Nancy. Good morning, everyone. Happy Saturday to you. Thanks so much for joining us this morning. You're very important to us. And we have a special guest that will be coming in this morning. And his name is Rambit.

And he's a mixed breed. And I believe he was picked up in Miami. He was astray. So he's going to dazzle us with his presence. So you want to stay tuned for that. And, excuse me, for the ladies, we have, we have $50 for the first two new lady callers. And you can collect that $50 just by calling and saying hello. Or maybe talking about a recent purchase that you made or how long you're waiting for that, you know, purchase that you made.

Some are still waiting up to a year. It's been a difficult time still. and, you know, things are getting better. Another topic, if you so wish, to discuss is artificial intelligence. You know, it doesn't seem like as if it was that long ago that we talked about electric vehicles, and here we are knee-deep in them, and now we are in the artificial intelligence explosion. If you'd like to discuss that, please give us a call at 877-9-60-99-60, or you can text us, at 772-497-653-0.

Or you can, well, you can talk to us on Your Anonymous Feedback.com. And for all of you who are not familiar with Earl's Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer, this ties in with Big Dog Ranch. And what you can do is you can go to Amazon or to Earl on Cars and EarleonCars.com. And you can purchase this book. Why is it so important? Because of all the great information in it. And it's like something you put on a shelf and you can always refer to.

But not only that, all proceeds, all proceeds for this book goes straight to Big Dog Ranch. So that book is, you know, it's something to have and to hold. So recovering, the confessions of a recovering car dealer, go to a. Amazon or Iran cars to purchase that book. Now, back out, we've got some calls, and I think I'm going to go to Lake Park and talk to Bob. Good morning, Bob. Good morning.

Good morning. How is everybody today? Good. Thank you. Good. I wanted to talk about a couple topics. One is car insurance, and the other is the test drive. I just read that Florida has the highest car insurance in the country, and the trend, and the

trend would be eventually the average car insurance in the state of Florida will be $4,000 a year over time. And I was wondering if you could talk about that. I was able to find a relatively good

quote from AAA of all people. You had talked about AAA a couple weeks ago and they actually they sell car insurance and they're very reasonable. And then I also wanted to talk about the test

drive. You were talking about test drives, and I was wondering, when I usually will go for a test drive, I'd like to take the car out on the highway to see what the acceleration is so I can get on the highway and then also how quiet the car

is when it's traveling at highway speeds. I was wondering what you thought about that. Well, Bob, you know, your observation on insurance in Florida is accurate. I'm not sure that it applies to auto insurance. I know it applies to property, home insurance, and that has to do with hurricanes and also with the fact that we have so much coastal property and with this global warming phenomenon we're having with rising water sort of a thing.

But it's really a crisis in terms of home insurance, building insurance. I don't know that it applies to matter of fact I was talking to my body shop manager the other day about that and he he didn't seem to think that there were complaints from our customers about their premium

I can see why what I had read was car insurance in the state of Florida car insurance car insurance is the highest in the country I didn't know that I was all certainly go back and double check. I can't speak to, I

can't speak as to why that would be true in Florida and not true in other areas. But I do know in general car insurance is higher now because of the cost of the materials being used for the cars. And the high-tech cars we have, normally

a bumper was a bumper, right? If you ran into something that protected the car, now high-tech electronics are embedded in the bumper, sensors, and a bumper is many, many times more expensive today than it was 10 years ago. Right. So these are the type of things.

I think they also said something about the high number of uninsured drivers that are in Florida. Ah, bingo. I do recall that. Yeah, we do, it's an age thing. And I think in Florida we have an older, more elderly population. A lot of people come to Florida to retire. Older people just like to keep using their cars. And oftentimes, their license comes up for renewal,

and they say, I don't think I'm going to be able to pass a test, or maybe they try and they fail. But they don't stop driving. And when you stop and think about it, the odds against somebody being pulled over are pretty slim. And so they feel, what the heck? If they catch me, I'll have a fine. If I don't drive, I'm going to be very unhappy.

I know, I would ask you how you feel about your car, Bob. If someone came and took your car from you and said, you can't drive anymore, you'd be kind of depressed, wouldn't you? Yes, I had to do that with my father because of his, he couldn't remember how to get home anymore. Yeah. I had to take his keys. Yeah, and that was tough on him, I'm sure. Yes, it was a tough situation.

What do you think about the test drive? When somebody takes a test drive, you were talking about that, I think, a week ago or so. Yeah. And your dealership is not anywhere near the highway. You're all the way down on US1. If someone came in, they wanted to test drive the car up on I-95, you would let them take it. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

We encourage that, and it's important that you drive. The interesting thing, as I'm saying this, it's also important. impossible to do now because there are any cars to test drive and that's an exaggeration. But because of the inventory shortage, it's very difficult for you to be able to drive that car that you would normally be able to drive in normal inventory situations. But assuming just for this discussion that you have that car, you certainly should drive it in the same conditions that you drive it every day on 995 and back roads, rough roads, smooth roads, the way you parked the car, where you parked the car.

It's amazing the things that you notice about a car when you're in it for 20 minutes or half an hour that you wouldn't notice if you just took it around the block. So if a car dealer tries to take you around the block and say, you just had a test drive, say no. In fact, we encourage at our dealership to take the car for a whole day or even overnight and drive it in all those conditions that you would normally drive. That's very unusual. I don't think very many of the dealers would do that. No, they don't.

And to be honest, today is very difficult. If you don't have any vehicles in stock are very few, the odds against the specific vehicle you want. In our situation, our dealership, most every car we sell, almost literally every car we sell, is an ordered car. So the cars that we have of the ground are usually, cars that were sold and they came in and they haven't been delivered yet and we can't in good conscience take if your car came in Bob you wouldn't want to stake that car that came in and

give it to a prospective customer on your car for a test drive so we we really can't offer test drives we encourage people these has come up in the past we say try rental companies or just you know try to find if you have to go to a dealer you don't want to buy from if they have the car and stop for a test drive but it's very difficult to do today right now could you go actually go rent the car somewhere and try it out that way i would if i could find the model i wanted to drive i would rent it it'd be worth the 50 bucks or whatever it cost me to drive the car for a full day and no i like it or no i don't like it that usually you can you can pick out a rental by you know class you want a mid-size SUV or thing and then you and then you call them say what kind of

mid-sized SUVs you got out there and and picked the one you wanted to buy. But yeah, I've actually been kind of excited. We were talking about Subaru's a couple of weeks ago, and I rented a Subaru and fell in love with the Subaru. And, well, we sell Toyota's, but that sucks. Right. Well, I was wondering your friend there that ordered the Camry and then it came in and he had an issue, I guess he never test drove the car before he ordered it.

Yeah, and he couldn't. And if we had the vehicle, he would have done it. And that's another thing that we don't think about today. That's one of the difficulties. Every car is different. Even if they don't have a model change or any change, two cars coming off the assembly line, the exact same year make bottle.

They're a little bit different the way they drive. I mean, just cars are not rubber stamp. They're assembled separately, and there's a little difference between one car or another. That's really, you have lemons. I mean, you've got about, you've got to have a, a great car with great quality, but one out of something, a thousand or ten thousand,

you're going to have a problem, and they call that a lemon. Right. Well, that's very interesting. Well, thank you for your time. Thank you, Bob. Thank you. Thank you, Bob, and thanks for bringing that topic to the show about

car insurance. And you're right, Florida ranked as the second highest average car, full car coverage. And New York, in New York is the highest and $4,769 a year. Wow.

Okay, 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-2-49-3-0. We are going to stay with the phones, and we're going to talk to Rhonda, who is a first-time caller. Welcome, Rhonda. Hi, good morning, guys. Good morning. You won yourself $50 this morning, Rhonda, and if you'll stay on the line when we finish talking, and talk to Jeremy in our control room. He'll get your contact information and hand it to me,

and I will give you that check by putting it in the mail and getting it out to you ASAP. What can we do for you this morning? Well, thank you very much for the check. My question is, I drive a 2,500 Kord, EX. I have put over 200,000 miles on it now, or it has over 200,000 and I put

over 100,000 myself and I also want to say I can vouch for the insurance I have paid probably 50% more insurance than my other family members

living in other states so it's pretty much it's a serious increase. The other thing is, in the next two years, I'll be in the car market for a new car within five years. Five years old. I want a Lexus for the reliability. But what are some other choices, maybe? In that class, an luxury class, like Lexus, well, I'd if you have access to consumer reports, they would probably give you everything that's recommended in the class.

But I can tell you, I don't know what model you're looking at, but you're looking in the right direction because I think we usually see a lot of Lexuses on the recommended list on Consumer Reports. Rick has something. The other brand I would look at is Accura. Accura is Honda's luxury brand, and Honda and Toyota are neck and neck and quality,

and Lexus and Acura. neck and neck and quality, and in the, shall we say, the bells and whistles, the toys in the cars. But Accura also has a few more, shall we say, sportier options for a, shall we say, a younger mindset. Lexus is more of the older generations, the ones that are looking more for the soft creature comforts. And Accura can be more of the sportier, a little more responsive performance-type cars. And, Rhonda, if you can pick yourself up a consumer report, I can't tell you on how much information it is in the, I'm going to say the May, June, and also the July edition, and they rate their cars. and they're out there driving them, and it's very thorough. So the information that you, you know, are going to absorb from those subscriptions,

the magazines, and you can even go to the library if you don't wish to purchase one, but it is a great way to go if you're going to purchase a vehicle. And I think Stu has something to add to that. Rhonda, were you looking to get a same-sized car as the cord, like a mid-sized car? I'm in the market for either an ES 350 or an L.S. 460. Okay. Oh, the big, the big one. Okay, so in false ultra luxury cars, oops, I'm sorry. Well, in that mid-sized range, consumer reports, the best one as far as reliability that's going to last forever is the

2023 Lexus ES hybrid. And by the way, Lexus and Toyota are going that way anyway, so. pretty much all their car is going to become hybrid and then eventually electric. So that's your ES right there. So that's like the top recommended from Consumer Reports. But you could also consider there's Genesis that's Hyundai makes that luxury brand and that's getting really good ratings on Consumer Reports and BMW as much as I hate to say it. The top three are the Alexis ES, the Genesis G80 and the BMW 5 series.

Can you believe that? BMW recommended for reliability? Okay, but it is. And also, Rhonda, you can also take a look at the cars that you really should avoid. They just do a very thorough investigation with the cars to avoid. The cars that cost you more to keep on the road than to purchase. They buy it for themselves and they go through all the stuff so you don't have to. Yeah, it's very strenuous what they do out there.

It's amazing. You can take and you can look that up too, Rhonda. So it's really informing the consumer before you decide to purchase. You know, I hope that we were able to help you out this morning. Yes, thank you very much. Thank you for helping. Thank you for calling. Give us a call again.

Our number here is 877-960-960, or you can text us at 77249-9-60. and don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. Now back to the recovering car dealer. How about techs? We've got any tech coming in? Yeah, we got, I have a segment from Anne-Marie. It's a big one, but it's pretty cool. Amri says, good morning.

It's no secret that vehicles are rolling computers that collect data on who we are, where we go, and how we drive. I have three modest proposals. If cars in the future have facial recognition and collect data on their owners and drivers, here are some programs that I'd like to see created and implemented based on the,

data accumulated by the vehicle. One, this proposal is on behalf of parents everywhere who have said, you're not going out dressed like that. I'm trying to say that these days. Let there be a program where parents can input a computer code so that the car

won't start or go anywhere if one's precious offspring is quote unquote dressed like that. That won't work in my house, I promise you that, but we'll pass it up on the ladder to Toyota. Number two, businesses today can put governors on trucks to keep their drivers from exceeding certain speeds. Let's create a similar program for parents of young drivers.

If you suspect your young driver may not be as responsible as you like, set up a computer command that limits the vehicle speed and emails you report on where the kid went and how fast a vehicle traveled. I can testify that while we didn't have a governor on the car, there are programs out there called, oh gosh, I can't remember. Remember, we don't use it anymore, but find friends on your iPhone. Well, that doesn't give you speed. But there's other programs out there that it's on your phone and alert you. They got software all over the way. Yeah. That technology is available right now.

Yeah, I don't know if it will slow the car down, but it can alert you of the car. And also, you can track the car. And that's good for parents with teenagers. But be honest with your kids, let them know you're tracking them. if the car has facial recognition and knowledge of who's supposed to be driving, and this is a really good one, I'd like to suggest a security program in case a driver is ever carjacked, or if the car is just going to be stolen.

Let the carjackers take the car, get away from danger, but contact the police and trigger a program, where the car records who's in the car through facial recognition, sends a police and email as the car's current location and occupants and takes the culprits to the nearest police station for processing. I have a friend in another city where carjackings are rampant. Kids steal the cars at gunpoint and drive them around and crash them into other cars and off in total of the vehicle.

My friend's okay, but her car was crashed in totaled. I'd like to see future vehicles have programs to minimize or prevent the dangers of carjackers. Well, I thought where you're going, because I didn't read it all the way, was that it would have facial recognition and just wouldn't operate for anybody wasn't authorized to operate it. By the way, one quick note for anyone that has a car with a smart key system, in it was the push button start.

Make sure that you don't leave the key, just losing the car when you get in it. Have it in your pocket, your purse or whatever. If something like that happens, grab your purse, get out of the car, let them have it. They drive off in the car, but when they turn it off, it will not restart. So at least then the car is disabled and hopefully, Hopefully, you've got a better chance of getting it recovered. Yeah, and new cars now, you can track them, even if you don't have special software. Most of them are connected to GPS, and you can look at your car with an app.

But remember, your safety is paramount. Cars can be replaced. Your health, not so much. And Amri asked, what programs would you like to see created for drivers in the future? And along those lines, Amory, I'd like to see that facial recognition, what you're talking about. But for things like security, if your car only starts for you, your wife, your children, and a couple other designated people, somebody breaks in the car, it doesn't matter what they do. It won't start. It's too complex a system.

I'm surprised definitely doesn't have racial recognition now. Yeah. And also she mentioned taking a picture. A lot of dash cams have interior cameras. If that's something, I think that if somebody wants to put that in their car, if you put a dash cam in your car with an interior camera, if somebody still. That's the reason I said Tesla, because Tesla is watching my eyes, or Nancy's eyes, who's ever driving. To make sure your eyes are not on the road, the car stops.

Basically, you lose your autonomous privileges. So that sounds like just an update that Tesla could do. I mean, it's not like a big, they don't have to get your car, and they just update it, the software. One feature that some cars had for a while, but I haven't heard of it again in a while, is if you don't put your seatbelt on, the radio will. not work. And that I thought was one of the, pretty good for kids. Greatest things for the young drivers, teenagers. I didn't know that. Who wouldn't necessarily wear a seatbelt. Which cars are that? I believe Honda and Ford actually were the front runners on that for a while. But I haven't

heard of that in a while. I don't know if they still have that or not. Maybe that was a fantastic idea, really. There's something. Amory has a PS. You said there's a lot of animal shelters overflowing with cute critters right now. So if you're thinking of getting a pet and you don't live down here close to Big Dog Ranch Rescue or the other place, please check out your own local rescue agency for a forever friend. Thanks.

Thank you, Ann Marie. Great to hear from you again, Ann Marie. We're going to go back to the phones where we have a few calls holding and we're going to talk to Dawn. He's calling us from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Dawn. Good morning. Question for Rick.

A 2008 Toyota Sequoia Platinum, there is whole hardware in West Palm Beach, and they were selling Dura Cell Bob's and Pee, and I've had them make them before. And yesterday, their little computer hooked up to the car, blah, blah, blah. it just it would say that it was what satisfied for the key and the bombs but then when you stuck it in the

car and so forth it would not work is there they're thinking that there is a limit on how many keys and fobs you can program for the sequoia

yes there is I believe on the sequoia it might be either four or six. Toyota generally has a limit on the number of smart key fobs and even immobilizer keys that can be programmed to their cars at any given moment. Why is that? I don't know why, but they just decided let's not allow an infinite number.

And it usually is, depending on a really crappy chip. a model either four or six maybe they need a bigger memory card in that thing well that's great information i think that's kind of stupid but it's a fact so i love that rick knew it immediately i was like whoa i program a lot of keys yeah so i've given the card to the sun and we have I have the two original fobs and two more have been done and then for the key maybe close to six keys

so then the question now is there's only one fob that works is there any way of even going to the Toyota dealership I said yes sir I'd love to ask Toyota that question because there's somebody... Rick knows. That's such a dumb thing to do.

You're a perfect example of why it's dumb. 2008. I mean, this is 2023. So the chances that you're going to have more than one key fob lost or required, the older your car. And they're forsaking the people that keep their cars for a long time. No, because all you have to do is go to the dealer, give them, bring. all the keys that you have that you want to operate that vehicle

they can erase all the old ones and set it to where only those will now operate the vehicle well that's all of your problem done well then how about the fobs that don't work anymore same thing

as long as the fobs are still operational that they're transmitting and they're not they're not that's why I'm saying I only have one fob that actually works anymore. Does that work? Oh, okay.

Well, then you need to get new key fobs. And when you go to the, if you have the dealer do it, let them know that when they're programming a new fob, you want them to erase any old fobs. Okay. Okay. Okay. Don, I hope we answered your questions. We've got some calls backed up.

Can we help you with anything else? No. I'm planning on calling Travis. I think he's one of your service riders to do with the phone, like I called last week, and also to deal with the fobs as well. Thank you so much. You got the right guy? Okay. Give us a call again.

We're going to go straight to Frank, who's been holding in Jupiter Farms, and Marty will be right with you. Hang in there. Good morning, Frank. Well, good morning, guys. Happy on another weekend. Yes, it is. The last two weekends, I really didn't get a chance to say much. We grow leachies down here.

We have about 100 leachy trees. And so this is like Farmer Frank and Juba Farms last week. I mean, you know, retired airline captain, retired military pilots. Sounds like a lot of leachies. Actually, it's kind of neat. I mean, people love them. And the tree we got now, I'm not trying to do an infomercial, but the seeds are so small

it's really a gift from Heavenly Father it's nothing that anyone knew about the seeds are smaller about one tenth the size of a raisin if they have a seed at all and everyone thinks I'm making up stories and I said here try one and the look on their face when they don't find a seed

inside of a leachie nut you know so anyway keep going you might have completely seen this one on Whill Trail if they want to come up Earl Stewart on lechy nuts we cover all yeah I'd better get back to two things. I did notice today

that there's no more AM radios in the electric cars. That's true. It's interesting because I guess the AM stations during storms and tornadoes and hurricanes have more range coverage than FM radio and stuff. But anyway, that was an interesting thing.

Yeah, they rely on like to use the streaming services. But I did hear, wasn't in this true, that Ford backtracked and said they were going to not stop putting AM radios in the car. So I guess there was enough of a backlash. Yeah, you can stream AM radio in most electric cars if they have streaming capability. In our Tesla, we have Nancy and I,

in fact, we stream, you know, true oldies, AM. But all smartphones can stream, and all new cars can, you can Bluetooth to your car, so everybody's got AM radio. Well, as they said, you can learn something new every day when you're over 65. The problem is you also forget about five. that's true

two steps forward one step back here's my question here's my question for Rick I have a 2012 Mercedes E 350 and the club box won't open I mean the latch starts

to you know move but nothing's working and you can't force it open and I know of course my registration's in there the insurance the stickers and things I went to Mercedes

and he would like $600 really yeah is there any any secret to this is why I tried lock picking kick on it on Amazon okay

actually I'm not very familiar with Mercedes how their latch system is set up but let's see where is that place I saw recently could a locksmith do it no not necessarily unless it's does it have a key lock

to it because a lot of cars don't no it has that little magic key that's in the key fob that's just a square looking thing but that's not moving it's the guy that did look at it did give me the six hundred dollar prices it's not it's a lock itself something it's not the latch yeah yeah the latch but um he said try and go on the side and and um pull back the um armature and i i did what do i have that's going to fit in there and you'll rick you'll let this i brought out an old set of feeler gauges from gapping spark plugs you know decades ago nice and that kind of

fit in there. It fits. The only small thing I have, like a little Jimmy tool. But I couldn't find any of lash. It is so tight. All the dimensions are so tight on that car. That's Mercedes for you. Yeah, they Mercedes, their fit and finish is good. Really, really good.

They have some fine fit and finish. I want to say there's a guy down on US 1. I think he's just a little bit north of Forest Hill Boulevard. that up almost to where Summit would hit US1

that does a lot of Mercedes work. So just heading your car down that way. Yeah. My real option, the first thing I would do really for that is I would go online for local Mercedes forums, and I would look and see if you have any Mercedes, just even Mercedes forums, and put your question in there.

I guarantee there are some gurus in there that will instantly be a, able to give you answers if there is a way on how to do it the easiest way because there's some Mercedes guys out there in this nation that love those things and I guarantee there's been a thousand people already in the past year that have had the same issue and also right when you got off the phone with us go on YouTube and search how do you open a stuck Mercedes glove box and I'm also looking at a glove box locks for Mercedes and you can buy them on Amazon so it's it's got to open it first you know it's available

to you. Yeah, that's what they said. Once you get the door open, there's like four little screws. They won't sell you the screws for the kit at Mercedes unless you have your registration and can prove that you're really you. And I said, well, unfortunately, it's locked in the glove box. So it's an interesting dilemma. But anyway, it's always great to hear your show. And here's a quick note from my buddy Donovan. He says, German Auto World in Del Rey Beach he says they're a good company

that he has dealt with and he recommends give them a try German Auto World there are a lot of technicians out there that specialize in European cars and that's your answer really what we're talking about before

that was that name again the German Auto World German Auto Works good Yeah I'll write that down thanks I'll be a few about a month or two ago the car wash people broke off the little Mercedes thing on the hood oh yeah oh my goodness yeah that's amazing the one in jupor doesn't have a repair shop up here you got to go down to okachovie

and it was like $400 to have that thing replaced wow thank we got a bunch of people holding here so we're going to have to move along I know I let you guys go have a nice day sir thanks for the call Frank we enjoy your company we're going to go to Marty and Betty just hold on and we'll be right with you. Good morning, Marty. Welcome. Good morning. How are you doing today? We're great. I got two points, and I'll make them quick. First point is Earl is 100% correct. My neighbor bought a new, Accurate TLX, and he can't work the radio. He can't get the stations program down there, so he's got to go back to the dealer and figure out what you have to do to get the stations program. Annoying.

Very annoyed. Yes. Now, the other thing, my other point is when you said facial recognition to drive the car, what are you going to do in your dealership when you come in for service, when you got 20 cars in there that all have facial recognition? It goes into service mode and then lets anybody start it. But you need your face to put it into service mode or valet mode. Anyone can start it?

Well, if you want to put it in the valet mode, you would just say, Go into valet mode, and it would use your face, and you'd walk out and I'd get started. Yeah, you'd tell it. Interesting. Valet mode for the next three hours. Yeah. And after three hours, boom, it cancels it. Hey, that might speed up the service in the shop.

If we have time limits on how long we can drive the car. So anybody could drive off with the cars when it's sitting in your parking lot. How about this? Toyota dealerships will have a special access for their technicians. All right. You're a beautiful twin can steal your car, of course. If you grow a beer, you can start a car. We got the ID.

As long as Sue is correct and all the cars don't get stolen, you better have your insurance paid up over there. And if it does, everybody can blame me. Yeah. And that's a lot of cabbage, Marty. A lot of cabbage. I don't think that's going to happen for that one reason. Yeah, but if I told you that you wouldn't be able to open your phone

without your phone looking at your face 10 years ago, you would have said I was crazy. Yeah, well, I've got an iPhone. And I don't put that stuff in there, so I open it with nothing. So I don't have a problem with that. But you're right. Advances are, you know, very technical. Coming along, yes.

Yeah. They sure are moving fast. All right. I'm waiting for the 24, so I'm going to sit tight. All right. You know, I got a text message last night, and I thought about you again, because I have a friend who's waiting, and she's been waiting for about a year now. So, if that's any consolation to you.

Yeah, tell her she's only got three more months to wait. Oh, no. I have to leave town if I gave her that information. I only waited 15 months, but that's all right. Now I've got to wait. Jason told me I can't do anything until August anyways as far as ordering. Oh, boy. You can come by and visit that.

Okay, Morty. Hey, Lizzie. Have a good week. Yeah, we love talking to you. give us a call again. We're going to go to Parkland and where we find Betty, who's a first-time caller. Good morning, Betty. Good morning. Welcome. You won yourself $50, Betty. And if you stay on the line when we're finished talking and you talk to Jeremy in the control room, he'll get all your information and pass it along to me and I'll send you out a check for $50.

Well, thank you. I enjoyed getting up early to hear your program. I had to buy a new tire for my car. It's a 2017 Hyundai or Sonata, and I just went to the local place. And after they put everything on it, I drove it. And there was a message that said that the air pressures are uneven. So I brought it back. And he said, oh, that's not important. It's okay.

Is that right? No, that is important. Yeah, very important. They should set all four of the tire pressures to be about the same within like one to two pounds per square inch of each other. Yeah. Well, one was 36 and 35, and one was 37 and 34 or 35. Yeah, that air pressure, your PSI is so important.

important. It affects so how your car behaves on the road, your gas model, just everything. So that information was inaccurate. I made it put extra air pressure in it so it would work. Yeah, no, it's okay. He didn't want to do it. Yeah, it's, I see, I get the air pressure indicator of my car, and it bothers me when I see them not being perfect, but within a couple of pounds, it's okay. So, yeah, he was accurate.

Now, if it was, you know, one was 37 and then you had one, you know, with 30 or, you know, several pounds difference, then I'm sure they would have taken care of it. Maybe I'm oversensitive. I like it all even and I like my, that's my, I have obsessive thinking. Everything has to be perfectly even. Yeah. But not for safety's sake. That's just for my own. Gets me in trouble a lot.

But checking your tire pressure at least once a month is a real good idea. Rick? It might also be that for your Hyundai, it may need to be driven for a little while until the computer catches the numbers up properly, say about 20 or 30 miles. Well, it was just 20 or 30 miles. If it's still giving you that warning, I'd step in at the Hyundai dealer and have it checked out. Well, I brought it back to the other guy and he fixed it. Oh, okay.

Oh, great. That's good, then. Well, thank you for your program. Thank you for all. Don't forget to stay on the line and give Jeremy that information. Great hearing from you. And thank you for helping us build this platform here for the ladies. Have a wonderful day.

Thank you. You're welcome. 877-960. Or you can text us at 772-497-3530. We're going to go back to Stu. Okay. I got a text from Roy in Denver. Roydy wants to know.

Has toyed announced when the 2024 models will be available? I think it's just the Grand Highlander, that bigger, big fancy Highlander is the only one so far. And I wouldn't tell you if I knew anyway because that's confidential toyed information. Just kidding. But, no, usually we start to see that. We get like a launch calendar.

Mid-year, we'll probably see it. So I think next month we might get an idea. What Stu said, of course, is that we don't know. The press finds out about these things before we do. When I say we, car dealers, the manufacturers, will talk to the press or somebody else. And we're sitting here getting calls from our customers saying, oh, we just read that new cars coming out. It's online. Somewhere.

You could probably find it with Google faster than me. but as far as, like, official stuff, the Grand Highlanders is it. Next one. Good morning. What is your opinion of CarMax? We live in southeast Ohio, and we're looking for a safe, reliable use vehicle for our recent college grad. Well, we love CarMax. Historically, right now, things are really weird in the used car market. So, and to be honest, we haven't, we haven't mystery shop CarMax in a while. You know, Automotive news this week, CarMax's first question. quarter net income slip 9.5% business is bad. That might be good for you, but CarMax is a great

place to buy used car. Yeah, just generally, it's tough. Inventories are still, I mean, they're built up and there's crazy fluctuations with the used car market. Even though CarMax is a, that's a straightforward place and it's a good place to do business, they're still beholden to fluctuations in the market. So we've seen it nose diving where used car prices are dropping, and then and they've come back up, but they treat their customers ethically, honestly. They have a minimal number of extra fees. They are junk fees, but I think it's a couple hundred bucks versus thousands. And they do take care of the cars and they stand behind them.

So you can't go wrong, I don't think, up there in Ohio. We have some incognito, some anonymous feedback. First one. Interesting to read about the $2 million. given to the Florida governor's campaign two weeks before the vetoed, he vetoed a bill allowing car manufacturers sell direct to residents in Florida. Each time I Google the subject and other story appears about other corrupt politicians in Florida accepting quote-unquote donations from car dealers. Maybe instead of sending your secret shopper to dealers, you could have them shop the corrupt

lawmakers. Well, actually, I'm running for Florida State Senate secretly under a pseudimate. I'm kidding. Yeah, we talked about this last. week on the show that law has always been there but what you're saying is absolutely true the reason those laws have been there is because the car dealers have a huge lobbying power in Florida and other states and with a lot of money it's not Florida it's it's our political system it's national it's just the way it works I always temper this by saying we've got the best government the best country in the world and our our system our democratic system and the

whole thing is the best in the world, but it still stinks. And we've got to live with it. But when a politician is talking, he's talking to his base to try to get reelected. And he's telling you what you want to hear, so you'll vote for him. That's the way our system is. But it still works pretty damn well. And when he's talking to his donors, he'll say because they're going to hold him to it. And so, yeah, everybody in, we'll talk about Florida, everybody in the state Senate,

Everybody in the house and the governor's mansion are kind of clientele's of the Florida car industry, retail industry. Another anonymous feedback. Toyota hybrids are impossible to get quickly. The current wait list is anywhere from six to 12 months for most Toyota dealers. The RAP-4 is a nine-month wait. A new Toyota Sienna is also about a nine-to-12-month wait. This is crazy. It is crazy, but there is kind of good news. on the horizon, to get just a little bit wonky,

our allocation system has had an adjustment somewhat recently. Toyota and other manufacturers, well, other manufacturers are going straight to electric. Toyota is taking this interim step, and right now they're gonna, they stop distinguishing between gas versions and hybrid versions for allocation purposes. So in the past, if you sold a gas camry,

you would only earn a gas camera on a future allocation to get to another customer, they release it. So now if you're selling gas, in other words, it's going to help the dealers that are selling a lot of hybrids. Toyota is panicking because they got out, late out of the gate, and they're in serious trouble. And the good news is they've got so much money and they're so big, they can endure serious trouble more than most auto manufacturers.

So they'll come through it and they'll be back on top one day. But right now, they're playing catch-up. A startup would have been bankrupt. Toyota can keep, stay in the game. Let's see. I'm in Dallas, Texas. Where to go? Okay, this is more anonymous.

I'm in the Dallas, Texas area. In 2006, I bought a new Prius from Earl Stewart, Toyota. I did the whole transaction online or over the phone. And my new Prius was shipped to me by truck. I kept that Prius for 12 years. It was the best car I ever owned. Thank you, Earl Stewart. well you're welcome

I just said something bad about Toyota I'll say something good the Prius is probably the best car that's ever been built and it's the best car that Toyota has ever built and Rick will back me up on that because he fixes them and I drove four of them

yeah they I don't make a lot of money on them that's all I can tell you Rick hates him I don't make much money on them because they don't break well sir sir you brought your car back in 2006, and that was the Prius Hayday, and that was going crazy, and we were selling cars.

I think at that time, we were the number one seller of Priuses in the country. We were on the top five. I don't know if we ever hit one. Oh, because there was a few dealers in California. That's right. We always had a caveat. Number one seller of Priuses in the country, asterisk, except California. All right, I'm all caught up.

Oh, great. We're going to go back to the phones where we're going to talk to Lance. He's calling us from Tennessee. Good morning, Lance. Welcome. Good morning. Good morning. We've got some bad news on Earl Stewart Day, 20, 24. Oh, geez.

Are we going to postpone to 25? I thought, I knew that was coming. We tried to kill enough squirrels for the squirrels too. You know, when I was a kid, they used to call me Earl. Earl is Earl the Squirrel. That was a way to... We do that drink

and we added in our squirrel story. Also, I've got a little special song for you this morning. When the morning papers it's the street, Earl Stewart on cars, K.B. Where do you want to buy

or trade. Come on around, and listen in the shade. Oh, wow, I love that. Hey, can I, will you give me permission to use that in my advertising? We'll get the audio clip off the radio show.

Take a standing ovation. We'll say courtesy of Lance from Tennessee. I want that for my ringtone. It's always good to talk to you. I love yourself. Thank you. It's just a great source of knowledge.

I don't always agree, but you know, that's what America's all about, isn't it? Yeah, that's when Nancy and I have an argument, we settled by saying, Difference of opinion is what allows horse racing. You're thinking, without difference of opinion, there wouldn't be any racing or betting. So we agree to disagree. Oh, please don't lose anything. We'll get this thing together for 2024. And it's great to see what you do for Big Dog Grant.

I'm dog lover myself and I always ask you when I call, have you heard anything about Wheatley? About what? Wheely. Oh, Wheely. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, We need to check on that. Last week we were told that Wheely was still at the ranch. Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because we need to work on that. Wheely had the problem with his rear legs and this is very difficult. So I'm glad you mentioned that because we're going to, we'll make a redoed effort.

We might even bring Willie back because we've got to find them home. Yeah, that'd be nice. And that's a good point. We ask for the difficult to adopt dogs when we do the dog of the week because, you know, your cute little puppy with a waggy tail, everybody wants to adopt the little puppies. But some of the older dogs, the dogs with medical, not medical, but physical problems, they have the difficulty. So we're going to make a, thanks to your comment, we're going to make a renew our effort to get a home for Wheely.

And we'll get that information this morning when Big Dog Ranch comes in, Lance. And if you didn't hear me that when we came on the air, Rampett will be here. And he's a mixed breed. He's three years old, and he was astray from Miami. So you can. One last thing. I don't know, Nancy, if we really need surgery to correct that condition, maybe we could raise the money on here to get that done for that good dog.

Raise some money? Yeah. If we really need surgery to get his condition repaired, maybe we could raise the money to take care of that. Well, that's a good idea. That's a good idea. I like you, Lance. I really appreciate your call.

and we'll be looking for it next week. Yeah, thanks for the call, and stay tuned for Rambit, who will be coming up, you know, just before the mystery shopper report. Give us a call again. To the lady caller, who is no longer there on my queue here, I don't see her. She may have hung up. Give us a call back.

The lines are all free, and we could take your call. That number is 877-960-99-60, and you can text us at 772-497-6530. Don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. We're going to go to Rick, who probably has a lot to share with us. Well, we've got a few interesting comments here. First, I want to scroll back a little bit. If I can get my list, move, there we go. Okay.

This actually came in a little earlier this morning. Lane A. Katz says, good morning. Hats off to you folks to put out an amazing radio show program that showcases honesty. I listen to you and also thank you for recommending Kevin Hunter the Homework Guy. So thank you, Lane. That's a fantastic thing to hear from you. Yes, thank you. And we'll get down here.

I got a comment from Donovan. Oh, great. more great advice here he says this week Rivian who Rivian is the company making the big deal luxury electric trucks yeah they announced they're going to be following both Ford GM and Hyundai is also talking that they're going to do this they're all going to be switching to the Tesla NACS type charging connector everybody's going to jump on that bandwagon you know that was the business finance The industry standard.

Of Wall Street Journal. And Donovan, thanks so much for, we may not have been able to get to that. But that's big news with Rivian and Tesla and those superchargers. So, yeah, that's apparently, he says, I cannot stress it enough. If you're looking for an EV, do not buy from a brand that has not already agreed to switch to the NACS. And that's why they'll switch. with some very poor charging experiences. Yeah, definitely.

You, Donaldvin, if you're still listening out there because you're one of our most intelligent, interesting listeners, I want to ask you this. Where do you feel artificial intelligence will fall in for consumers when it comes to choosing products? And I'm obviously thinking about automobiles or on cars, but with this incredible surge in AI technology and it's still scratching the surface, you know, we talk about when will everything be electric vehicle, when will everything be autonomous.

I'm wondering about when AI will be, will come of age, where it will basically know all, see all, and be able to explain all. but I'm having a little debate with our marketing company right now about that and they're hung up on Google and and Dealer Raider and Yelp and the other rating services rating services right now are the big gun the consumer goes to consumer reports they go to Google they check out things and the educated consumer uses those tools my question is and I'm talking to everybody, but I'm talking mainly, you know, to Donovan because he's a smart guy. Where do you think artificial intelligence, and if the apps now are worthwhile tapping for information on buying an automobile or anything else, if you're hearing me now or anybody else hearing me, what's your opinion on that?

Yeah. Earlier when we opened a show, I was talking about this explosion, and it was it seemed like it was not that long ago. we were talking about electric vehicles now they're everywhere and Tesla's superchargers and boy I'll tell you what we are here it is now and now we're talking about artificial intelligence give us a call ladies and gentlemen and tell us how you feel about this explosion 877 960 or you can text us at 772-497-60 and rick we're going to go back to the phones and we're going to talk to Kurt, who is calling us from Pompano Beach. Good morning, Kurt. Good morning.

I'm a long-term listener. Oh, thank you. I just love your program, and I wish you all were on every morning. Instead of, there's other programs on Monday through Friday on this radio station I can't listen to. So y'all just wonderful every 30 morning and I might learn off at 8 a.m. to listen to y'all. But my question is, I think you were great. questions. Number one is I told the cameras up in a few months and I'm at the chairroom and they got the new crown with the community and that they told me

replaced the um an avalorea and then also number two is my insurance I've had no accidents and my friends and relatives and the car insurance down here is my insurance has gone from like 1200 to 1,500 to 1,700 or 6 months like 3,500 so I said Earl doesn't know what's going on with the insurance market here. Everybody's insurance is skyrocket. Yeah. I was wrong about that. I recall now the earlier caller, he said something that made sense,

as we have a lot of older drivers in Florida. And I think that's one of the issues and uninsured drivers. So the insurance companies are afraid of that situation with one of their insured being involved in an accident with an uninsured. driver, then it means it all falls on them. So they have to raise a lot of luxury cars into the mix in South Florida with high repair costs. And Kurt, it's amazing. We had a call earlier about the increase in car insurance. And I was checking it out. And my goodness gracious, Florida comes in second as far as the highest. And New York is $4,769 a year. And then,

Louisiana comes in third, but the rate hikes have soared. Rick? I think our hurricanes and our weather has a factor in it too. Well, they said it did the elements and the car is, you know, depending upon your location and what is subjected to. And one of the factors that we have seen in the service department is when we all of a sudden get a flood situation, where an area gets a lot of high water, insurance, companies almost always go with the rule of thumb that if the water reached the bottom edge

of the dashboard or touched the dash got up into the dash area pretty much figured the car is totaled because there's simply going to be too much and it's that car's done and when you can have suddenly in a weekend three or 400 cars all totaled in one shot that you know that has an impact definitely hit it yeah Yes, you're right, and what's interesting is my, in North Carolina, my relative has a new Mercedes BMW convertible, and that car and two of the cars a year in the middle North Carolina that costs them like $1,200. Here, we have that here in Florida, neighbors who have a used, 15-year-old used, I think of the Toyota Corolla, and hers has gone from like 11 to 12 to $1,500 every six months. and my insurance on my state pharmacants like 12 to 15 to 1700 every six months like 3,500 all of the year with no accident so I called Geico and Progressive and they said the repair calls

also there's a lot of lawsuits you know you see every ad on TV Morgan and Morgan for you know we collect billions of dollars from the car companies for injuries and it just goes on and oh that's the other thing I forgot you're absolutely right we have more litigation in Florida I think we have a higher per capita number of lawyers in Florida than the other state. So there's a good reason right there to have high insurance cost. When you watch the TV and every truck that goes, I mean, every bus has as for the attorney.

That's all that's the big business for billions of dollars and it's like a... It's covered up. Property insurance for your house, Florida, when I moved during 1989, it certainly is a different state than what it was then. Thank you, Kurt. Kirk, it was great talking to you.

Thanks for all the information. Give us a call again. I love your show and I look forward to seeing hearing from you every Saturday morning. Thank you. Kurt, that was quite a seed you planted, asking if you could listen to our show every single morning. I don't know how we could do that, but yo. AI. We can just have a generative AI posed as us during weekdays.

Stu has all the great ideas. Hey, give us a call at 877-960. 9960 or Texas at 772-4976530. We're going to go back to Rick, where he has some great stuff to share with us. I've got a reply from Donovan. Oh, Donovan. He says, by 2030, you'll have cars doing real self-driving using real AI with quantum computers. The second half of this decade will look very different from the first half. Real AI will not happen until you get quantum computing working at a scale and reliability and you need super fast connections to everything because the data sets with AI are truly massive.

And that's when we're destroyed by the, at the moment of the singularity. Because when you have quantum computing, basically it's going to have consciousness. I read it. ABM said that with quantum computing that they had a problem that it was taken a different digital computers would have taken digital computers 10,000 years to solve. With quantum computing, they solved it in five minutes. And he says, six G connections will be marketed for that. So imagine cell phone towers that can connect to your car with GPS and suddenly your car

is able to take you literally within millimeters for location accuracy. Well, Donovan, it was a two-part question. I totally agree with what you just said. In terms of the consumer, what if a consumer were going to chat, GPT or Bard or one of the other AI apps and say, I want to buy a Honda Accord, and I'd like to know the best car dealer and the most honest car dealer to buy that Honda Accord from? Do you think the day will come when an AI app will be able to give you that information? And I say that because right now we have Google, and we have a lot of other rating things. We have Yelp, we have dealer track, but one dealer raider, but a lot of these, Google makes a huge amount of their money on advertising.

All the information, all the revenue from the AI apps is based on subscription costs. The reason I don't trust car and driver magazine I don't trust MotorTrent is because they exist because of automotive advertising and naturally the car of the year award always is a heavy advertiser in MotorTrip and so I would like to have a source of information like consumer reports that is totally

at you know they divorce themselves from the products that they rate I think where Donovan was going with the quantum, I think it would have to get to that point. Because right now, the AI is, are these language models. So it's getting all the information from the Internet anyway. You know, it's getting, if you ask it, it's probably getting it for reviews. Well, quantum is only going to allow them to get, and it's not just getting information anyway. It has to do with the processing.

It has to do with the algorithms, very sophisticated algorithms. So quantum computing will be a huge breakthrough, but right now, artificial intelligence is having a huge impact on all the companies, all industry. So I'd be interested in Donovan's opinion on that. Well, he may have, with just six words, kind of clued it right into what direction he's thinking. He says, you'll own nothing and be happy, which may just clue towards the idea. of you don't own the cars anymore. The cars are simply there. You use an app.

A vehicle picks you up autonomously and takes you where you need to go and you pay for the ride. I'm talking about a broader question of product. There will still be people competing for that. So just like you got Uber, you have Lyft. You have bread, you have TV sets, you have products. How do you get an honest assessment

of the best retail store, the best product through AI. And Stu thinks you have to wait until quality income is of age. I don't agree with that. So let's see what the listeners out there like Donovan have to say. Well, here he comes in. He says, the AI we have now is not really artificial intelligence. It's just searching a massive library of text and images using tons of graphic. Donald and I respectfully disagree because they don't just parrot the information from the that's available out there.

They also apply very sophisticated analog that are able, not analog, there are algorithms, is what I'm trying to say, very sophisticated algorithms that interpret the information that is available. So that's what makes artificial intelligence what it is today. And the only thing that quantum computing will do will speed it up and able to gobble up more information and create more algorithms. Great topic. It's a good discussion. Donovan, thanks for opening up this conversation.

Gosh, you're a great asset to the show. We really enjoy your company. Well, we're going to, Rick, I'm going to go ahead and go back to the phones, and we're going to talk to Mark in Palm Beach Gardens, who's been holding. Good morning, Mark. Good morning, Nancy and crew. How is everybody doing? We're well, thank you. To the best radio show, the most informed and opinion show in South Florida on weekend radio.

You guys do a great job. Thank you, Mark. Thank you so much. I've got one question and then a comment. Rick, 2015 Camry, being in a wheelchair now, I can't get under there and look. But turn signal bulb in the bumper. Can you get, do you have access right to the bottom to change that bulb or is it required taking the bumper off?

2015, the turn signals in that are up near the headlight. are you you're not thinking of the driving light down low are you no no maybe i was uh how i'm just saying is a left front turn signal mold has to be replaced and like shrill fast indicating that one of the elements are burned out right yeah can you get when you open up the hood can you get behind the headlight easily to replace that or is it a major thing i'm trying to figure out and one of my grandkids can do it if they've got skinny arms then yes uh i've i've got some pretty big meat hooks, but I will shove my arms into some tiny places, and I've got the scars to prove it. But yeah, I can get in and replace those bulbs pretty quick. So, yeah,

a younger kid, you don't have to take a bumper off in other words. No, no. I know you guys are busy, and I want to try to get through with this call as quick as possible. I have my own opinion a two cents worth on nancy this uh electric car explosion that we're having and you know i'm i am one that kind of don't like change and you know the combustion engine's been around forever but uh electric cars are a good thing all to talk about tesla and other models i get kind of tired of but my big thought is that yeah we're going to have to transition over to electric but uh they build the cars uh numbers are increasing they're being bought but you know there is that that constant question of availability to recharge any other thing or a lot of our politicians

they either don't understand or don't want to admit it you know it takes electricity to charge the cars and so we get back to that anti-green element that we've got to have the industry infrastructure to provide the electricity to charge the cars and I think that we're going to run into a big issue with not having the infrastructure take California you know they're pushing the I believe they're the largest market with electric cars on the road but their infrastructure is those screwed up that the more and more electric cars

that we're going to put on the roads and finding charges you know I think it's going to be a major problem and people don't want to admit it now but watch out in the future I don't think there was a lot of Mark

I think there was like close to many hundreds of buildings billions of dollars allocated in the infrastructure bill to facilitate a lot of the things that you mentioned. And I know it takes a long time right now to get nuclear power plants online with the process, but I think some of that was streamlined to get those back up because I think we're going to see a lot more nuclear power plants, modern ones that are popping up around the country. Yeah, there's going to have to be a lot of electricity produced to charge all those cars, but things kind of work hand in hand when the internal combustion there, you know,

there wasn't enough petroleum production to, you know, fuel the future of cars. So it kind of works out, you know. Yeah, and Mark, you know, from what I'm reading, you can look in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the USA Today, and everyone is targeted towards, you know, improving things as far as the chargers are concerned, and there being a nice, enough with them. And this, you know, Elon Musk, what he's doing, and the superchargers that he's making available to Rivian, to so many, it's moving fast, and we're going to be there. Yeah, and I know opinions are like, you know what, everyone has one.

And I have my own, but I sure hope that. they're still making combustion engine cars when I leave this earth. But anyway, I just thought I'd throw my two cents worth in there. We enjoy your company, Mark. We really do. I haven't been listening as much as I used to, but I'm getting back in the swing. Oh, that's nice. Anyway, I'll let you get out for your next call or comment.

but I'm looking forward to the mystery shopping report. Yeah, mystery shopping report and Rambit. Rambert will be here too, so stay tuned for that. We'll talk again, Mark. Thank you. Okay, we are going to go back to Rick. I think he's got some information for us. Well, we had a little bit more from Donovan.

He says, I don't know if that's something. AI would solve, meaning the ability to recommend dealerships or recommend one product over another. And I got to bring this one. Now, you guys are going to load. Johnny Z. Fradley comes in and says, I think Donovan is AI. And, of course, Donovan laughed at that one. And then it was just, we had a little discussion about the idea of reaching into tight places in cars. Steve Maggs even mentioned here he says

I changed the headlight bulbs on a 2011 outback and have the scars on both arms to prove it normally requires the bumper off but I went through the inner fender $15 bulbs cost $425 to change at the dealer crazy and yeah unfortunately sometimes those simple little bitty things

can be quite expensive to repair for the labor that's got to be done in order to install it and get those parts in place. And a lot of times the engineers that design these cars don't really think about that one bulb that's going to burn out and they just, yeah, what the heck, it's not going to burn out. Yeah, definitely. Well, they're doing what their boss is telling them to do, and that is to make the car saleable. I want to sell the car. And then they're not thinking about five, ten years down the pike when they're trying to

to fix the car, which they really should. And I think that's a valid criticism. I think I see a dog out there. I do. Yeah. Well, Rampett is in the house. I believe we may be. And it is time for us to introduce Rampett. Okay, for you folks that haven't listened before, we've taken on a new attacked on Earl on cars. It's kind of like Earl on dogs. And we have a, I'm looking at a dog out in the lobby there that will be making his grand entrance here very shortly. And we represent Big Dog Ranch Rescue probably the largest no-kill shelter anywhere

for doggies. And here he is. We have the dog on the premises. Nancy, what is that dog's name again? The dog's name is rampant and I want to let everyone Spell that. R-A-M-A-M-B-I-T. He's a mixed breed, and he was astray from... Good morning, thank you. He was astray from Miami.

He's only three years old, and I want to point out to everyone before we get started. Remember, you can go to... You can go to either Amazon or Earlsbook.com, and you can purchase this Confessions of a recovering car dealer, and all proceeds go to... Big Dog Branch. Okay.

He's a liquor. So this is our, welcome to the Earl's sponsored dog of the week. If you're watching or streaming online right now, you're seeing a, it looks like a small tiger kissing our volunteer Peggy from Big Dog Ranch Rescue. And this week, as Nancy said,

our sponsored dog is Rambit. And Peggy's going to tell you all about Rambit and we'll get to see some pictures. and play with them and I can tell you one thing I got so many kisses out there in the lobby he just jumped up on me and hugged me and my face was bathed

so go ahead Peggy tell us the vital stats yeah go ahead good morning good morning yeah this is Rambert he was found astray roaming the streets with a muzzle around his nose and mouth

oh Lord that is why he's got that he's got that scar From the muzzle? Yes, yeah, it's from a muzzle. I just left him like that. That's terrible. But he, as you can see, he's a little sweetheart, loves to give kisses. He gives them out all day long.

Endless kisses. Yeah, yeah. He is three years old, and he's very, very good on the leash. Loves to go for walks and just sit and cuddle with you all day if he could. Yeah, and he prefers an adult. He wants all the attention. Oh, he wants all the attention. the attention. Yeah, he craves the attention. So Rick is getting in there with the camera,

but there is something so cool about this dog. He has a, he has stripes. And I'm not kidding. I mean, maybe that's technically a brindle, but this dog has tiger stripes. I'm not kidding. He does have tiger stripes. He is a hound platt mix. Hound pup mix. I mean... A plot is the type of hound. Oh, okay. Yeah, the plot has to be Oh, a plot hound. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's so affectionate. This is crazy how affectionate he is. Especially after the way he was treated. Yeah, that was heartbreaking. I didn't know. I noticed there's the scarring around his muzzle. And we found, you know, that's because he was muzzled and in an abusive situation and neglect situation at some point. A lot of the dogs, a big dog ranch are found like this. A dog, instead of trying to find a home for dogs, unfortunately, some people just let them go. even actually take them out into the woody areas and let them go or just leave them along the side of the road it's unbelievable the way some of these poor animals have been treated and that's the reason we have so many dogs like rambit what's really amazing is after that and they are as lovable and as affectionate as they are and they don't turn

get bitter or hateful some dogs do but you know but this this this well some of the shelters are make it too easy to a dog big dog ranch it's easy to adopt but they're careful and they choose good homes they will not take a dog and have him go to a home if they'll put them back on the street yeah they check you out there's there's references you can't just go in there and and and take a dog and be responsible for would they want to make sure that the dogs that go home the adoptees that it's gonna it's a forever home so that's why we call it the forever home so I think Rick has got this on camera what I'm looking at here is a where he is on his hind legs is about as tall as Nancy Stewart.

So Nancy, Nancy, that tiger dog right there looked really good on you when he jumped up. He's in such great shape. I really apologize to her just the listeners. If you're driving in your car, you're like, what the hell's going on here? So we have a beautiful hound mix, plot hound mix, a striped dog three years old named Rambit. It looks like he's dancing with Peggy right now. dancing with our volunteer. But he's trying to do.

Bernard, I'm sorry. And trying to, Jonathan text me, Peggy, it's Jonathan's fault. But he's dancing with Bernadette, and he's trying to give kisses right there. And that tail is wagging back and forth. And Rampett wants to be, he wants to have full attention if you do choose to adopt him. And he doesn't prefer raw children or cats or other dogs. So, you know, considering that he was astray, you know, it's no surprise. He just needs all the attention and all the love, and I don't blame him, right, Stu?

No, absolutely. And so as our sponsored dog of the week, we cover the adoption fees. So if you adopt Rambit through us, just go to BDRR.org, and that's Big Dog Ranch Resu's website. You can see all the dogs up there, but you can inquire all the contact information is there. Or you can contact us. You can call the show, email or a number, text us, all the ways to get through to us. And if you like this dog, let us know, and we're going to make it happen. And we're streaming this thing, and for the next few days, you'll be able to watch the replay of the show on YouTube and on Facebook, et cetera.

So if you didn't catch the show today, and when you're watching this, and it's Monday, hi, it's Monday. send this video to somebody who needs a dog you know somebody is somebody who's been talking about it for a long time and they're not coming around I think Peggy has something to add to that I like Peggy

Bernardette It doesn't matter He does share a room with another dog And they get along fine And he's very good on the leash for walks Okay that's good enough That's important It is important

Yeah he is Especially as a three-year-old dog so he's past the crazy puppy phase, but he's got all the good puppy left in him. And so he's probably not peeing all over the place. Oh, he's kind of strained. Yeah, so he's probably not chewing things up. This is a mature dog.

He's made it through adolescence, and he's ready to go home. Matter of fact, it's probably one of the best age to buy a dog is a couple of years old because you have many years ahead of him, but you didn't have to go through the trials and tribulations of a puppy in your house. That'll wake you off.

there in the morning it's like having a baby i have never seen a dog yeah this is he's got to see everything this is a very smart this is an intelligent dog he's back right now for you those listening he's on our control table with jonathan he's climbing up there he's checking all the equipment out now he's back over the bernadette and he's just looking for he's like who's going to who's going to pet me next well bernad thank you so much and i'm sorry for calling you Peggy, I, uh, you know, I'm getting old and, uh, and I'm focusing on the dog's names because sometimes, you know, we have some funny dog names, but thanks for coming in, Bernadette. And we're going to have another, uh, dog next week, um, on the show. Um, and,

uh, hopefully, Ramit has, uh, has done a forever home by then. By Ramit. I love this dog. All right, back to you, recovering car dealer. Yeah. And we'llie, we just found out that Wheely, who was the dog before hasn't been adopted yet so. Oh really? Yeah, Wheely hasn't? Wheely isn't with the stiff legs? Stiff legs. Yeah, I think that's a problem. He can, wheelie, if you saw the show, his rear legs

are stiff, but he can walk fine. It's just when he sits, he looks funny because he can't bend the legs and they kind of go out to the side. But he's very healthy. He can walk, he can run. Yeah, that was I think that was a show and I missed because I had my teeth pulled out. Yeah. But I saw the video

and that dog was really sweet. So, hey, That's still out there. And by the way, the offer still goes for that. You know, until they're adopted, we're basically, we're putting our fingerprint, thumbprint on that dog. And so adopt really, it's not going to cost you anything up front. Later on, you know, you got to take care of the dog. And we also ask you to consider fostering dogs, not to be confused with adopting,

but if you can't adopt a dog, but you could hold the dog, take care of him for two or three weeks, that would be great. It would relieve the crowding issue. we have at Big Dog Ranch Rescue because we have hundreds of dogs out there and more coming in. We don't turn down dogs. We bring all the dogs in, even the difficult to adopt dogs

because if it takes a year or two years or three years, we keep on trying until we find homes for dogs. We do not euthanize any dogs. So that's the reason we need your help. Relive the crowding situation consider fostering a dog for two or three weeks. Just a reminder

if you want to adopt the dog of the week, You can simply go to www.W.W. Big Dog Ranch Rescue.org. That's B-D-R-R. I think maybe some of the problem is it's so nice out there. And people don't feel bad for the dogs. If you ever visit out there, it's a dog paradise. Well, if I was a dog, be honest with you, I would love it out there. It's like a resort. I prefer it there to an apartment.

They got a maternity, the hospital, they got doctors, they got everything you want. Salon. Yeah, salon. Well, they do groom dogs out. Yeah, but here's the way to look at it. It's not that the dogs don't want to leave there. They're just getting them ready for you. You're not taking them out of some dirty little cage and some concrete building.

They're relaxed. They're ready to go into a home. They're cleaned up. Come on. Adopt a dog. All right. That's great, Stu. That's great to point all that out.

I like the salon. Yeah, exactly. And it is. It's just amazing. out there, you know, it's, what can we say? You need to go out and take a look around and you will definitely be impressed. Well, for real, I mean, we've, I've taken, my kids are out there, we're younger, it's a great place to spend the day, take the look at the kids, they've got puppies out there. Yeah, and it's, it's quite an education. It is. For sure. Okay, we are going to move

along here. Let me mention before we get to the mystery shopping report, Earl's latest column and blog and that's a problem with a car dealer. Who are you going to call? And you can just read that at Erwin Cars. Great, great column. In a nutshell, the essence of the column is get the cell phone number of the people in responsibility at the dealership before you sign on the dotted line. you have to know who the people are that can make decisions and you had to insist to get their cell number before you buy the car. After you buy the car, they're not going to tell you their cell number.

Before you buy the car, they're going to be nice to you. So just remember that much or read the blog and get the whole stick. Or get their home number. That was one of my pet peeves when I'd answered the phone. When we used to have a landline, I just loved asking these guys if I could have their home telephone number. It certainly ended the call quite quick. They hung up on us.

We have our mystery shopping report, and it is a mystery shop of Schumacher. Well, we're not sure whether Schumacher Chevroleter. We think it's Schumacher Buick, because they looked at a new Buick while they were there. That's probably true. Okay. So we're going to go to the mystery shop of Schumacher.

Sure was a little sleepy when he wrote the report. No, no, it wasn't. It was, I just, you know, I type what I'm given. Agent Lightning, maybe. he types what he's given okay mystery shop both Schumacher Buick in my defense are

they're all like in the same spot that's like all right there they all look like they all look like I arrived in the evening and walked around inside for about eight minutes before finally someone to assist me I made a note when I read the report

is it's the seller's market boys and girls when you go into buy a car today they're not going to be hanging out in front in a I used to call them a wolf back waiting for you to come in and spring on you because these car dealers and the car sales people, they're selling all the cars they can. And they're making a lot of money. The salespeople

are making record commissions, car dealers are making record profits. So it's going to be interesting. The only good news about that, you're going to pay a lot of money for the car because you're going to charge you all they can get. But the good news is you're not going to be rushed and smothered and pressured as much as you normally would be. So in this case here, Agent Lightning had to wait eight minutes before finally someone inside the dealership would talk to her. After asking if anyone was available to help me purchase a car that evening, two individuals approached me with a smile.

One of them asked, what are you looking for today? I explained, well, I had a high lender on order for over a year, and I was hoping to find something similar, but sooner. specifically I'm interested in a hybrid model now this is a good scenario and Agent Lightning chose that wisely because this is true this is what's happening you hear people call this show people are waiting months and even over a year to buy a car so this people get tired of waiting and they you know the power of that new car seizes them and they say I can't wait any longer I have to

have one and they wander in and this is where you have to be careful when you wander in and that's where they took lightning down wandered in to Schumacher Buick Alonzo one of the individuals responded unfortunately we don't currently have any hybrid vehicles in stock we have only gas or electric options also none of our brands offer hybrids at the moment I didn't know that that Buick or Chevrolet I didn't know that either. I didn't know that. Maybe Alonzo is wrong about that, but nevertheless, that's what he said.

Although we do have a stunning H-2 Hummer, I never thought of Hummers as being stunning. The size is stunning. They're big. Only if they hit you. They're huge, and they're powerful. But I've never called them stunning. H-2 Hummer in the Shore Room is not available for immediate sale. It can only be ordered. Expressing my desire to explore the available option.

options to take home that day, I suggest to Alonzo, that we step outside and can show me the various brands of seven passenger SUVs. I followed them and ultimately decided on the Buick enclave. That's when I knew it was a Buick Duolian. It was a sage metallic color. However, I noticed the car did not have a window sticker. Uh-oh. When I pointed this out, Alonzo seemed unsure why it was missing, but assured me that we could go back inside. where we would print a new one for me along with the price. It's amazing how casual dealers are, and I'll have to include us. I mean, the Moroni label is not recognized with the importance that it should be.

And oftentimes, it's just, you know, they take it off and they detail the car and they forget to put it back on, or they shove it in the glove compartment, or it's on the floor. You have to look for it. It's an important document, and it's a law that it'd be to be designed. displayed when the car is delivered. And I would say in virtually most cases, that law is not observed. Back at his desk, Alonzo collected my information, printed a window sheet. The MSRP was $53,640. He got up and said that he would return shortly for the price sheet. After waiting about five minutes, sales manager approached me and introduced himself. Unfortunately, I didn't get your state. He suggested before he discussed the price,

I think it's important for you to take the vehicle for a test drive. We had a caller very early in the show today talking about the importance of the test drive. And here we actually have the sales manager suggesting the test drive because it's very important to sell the car. You want the customer to smell it, love it, have to have it. Buying cars is a very emotional thing, and the test drive is a key in selling. It's also one of the rare things that both sides should believe in. You as a buyer should not buy a car if you can possibly test drive it. And as I discussed earlier in the show, it's easier said than done now with the car shortage.

But if you can, rent a car or find a car somewhere, the car you're going to be buying and drive it. It's very, very important before you make a decision. Alonso came back with the keys, led me outside, instruct me to wait. while he brought the car around. As he parked it and I approached the driver's door in for me, this particular enclave is a demo model and has 5,400 miles on it. This was the first time I became aware that it was demo.

Now, most of you already know this, but demos aren't necessarily really demos. Demos are cars that have mileage on it, and demo is a shorthand inspection, you know, expression. Sometimes they are demonstrated by that very short, Especially, if this Buick enclave had literally been demonstrated up to 5,400 miles. It was probably a salesman's driver, a manager's driver, it might have been a service loaner. For whatever happened, it had miles on it.

Alonzo assured me that it still had a three-year, 36,000 mile warranty, which is true, they will extend on cars that have the manufacturer's origin and have not been titled the manufacturers will extend the warranty to allow for the mileage that's on the car you saw went for a brief test driver around North Lake Boulevard that's North Palm Beach area in Florida and but returning to the unit ship we found the shore of doors were locked oh my God since they closed at seven o'clock now that tells you a little bit about how lucrative the carbon this is. Not only there's not a wolf pack tried to

hound you and tackle you and put you into a car, but they locked you out of the dealership when you're out on their test drive. That's your sign that they're not real anxious to sell cars because they sell all they want and they're very, very high price. A sales manager promptly came over and unlocked the doors, guided us back to Alonzo's desk. Alonzo accused himself briefly to retrieve a printout for me When he returned, he handed me the sales worksheet and went over the numbers with me. The market value selling price, in quotes, was $48,000, which amounted to a discount of $5,640.

They added a $39 private tag agency fee, $379 in taxable fees, which are not legitimate, and a $995 service, we call it, junk fee, dealer fee, whatever you want to call it. Out the door, I was at $52,431. So, while examining the price, I noticed that the worksheet indicated the enclave had only 2,000 miles. This contradicted the odometer reading it was 5,400 miles. carelessness. At that moment I guess at Yohan

the use car sales manager approaches and explained that they had heavily discounted the vehicle due to the 2,000 miles. I pointed out actually it has 5,400 miles on it. Would it be possible to negotiate the price further? You know what happens to these cars if you just like a little insider thing? Anything with gas on it and a car

in it, and the car dealership is prone to be driven. Salespeople take them home, anybody takes them home. People are looking for cars with gas in them, and they drive them, and miles get put on them. They call it a demo, but that makes it sound good, or maybe an executive car. That even sounds better. But it's a car that's been laying around for a while, and probably everybody's been driving the car. Yohan asked me to suggest a specific price to which I replied a few thousand more. He responded that they might be able to lower it by a few hundred more,

but that would be the extent of the adjustment. I thanked him for his honesty and stated that I would need some time to consider it before getting back to him. He handed me the worksheet and asked if I had any additional questions. I said no, and I took my leave. So basically, there you have it. I'm looking at a copy of the standard worksheet, and they do have the the non-taxable fees, the private tag agency fee, all these are joint fees. They just have different names for all of them.

And the outdoor price was $52,431. And $94. That was a pretty big discount. I was looking for GM discounts on the Alenclay. The only thing I saw was a $750 discount. Is that right? That's all? But I'm also, I'll tell you one thing, it's difficult to find information about GMs.

It's not as, I'm telling you. First of all, I was trying to find out if there were any GM hybrids. And if you Google it, you'll see all sorts of results like, yeah, Malibu hybrids. So then you go to Chevrolet's actual website, GM's website, and there are no hybrids listed. And I could be wrong, but I can say I couldn't find any hybrids for GM, which is weird. And I was also having a hard time finding. They have the bolt, the Chevy bolt, which is kind of a hybrid, but it's a plug-in sort of hybrid, weird, semi-electric vehicle. And I think there's, I saw some stuff about future electric trucks, but I didn't see much about anything else.

Well, if they're owns a GM hybrid, they'll let us know, text us and let us know. I thought GM had some hybrids. I thought everybody had hybrids. Yeah, I thought everybody that, yeah. Maybe that's why they're not the number one manufacturer in the world. Well, we've got to vote, so hopefully we have some voters out there. We'll go around and we get the most votes on YouTube. I know we'll get a bunch there.

You can text us the votes at 772-497-65-30. 772-497-65-30. These votes are important because we have to choose the list, the do-by-the-recommended list and the not-recommended list. and we have this online at our owncars.com. So when you want to go shopping for a car, you can check if you live in the area of some of our mystery shopping reports.

You can find out people that are on one list or the other. You can also look at the people on the one list, recommend it, find out if they have an A, B, C, or a D. If it's an F, we put them on the do not buy list, positively do not buy a vehicle from somebody on the do not buy list. We give them an F, and they are, really bad. And we don't have a whole lot of Fs. We have some, but we don't have a ton. Yeah.

Well, Jonathan Wellington says, this dealership gets an F. The lack of a Monroney sticker is enough to add them to my do not buy from list. Moving that sticker to me is a clear sign of profit manipulation. That's true. Even if it's a demo, they've got to put that sticker back on there. Mark says sounds like an average sale to me, average sales experience, C plus. I'm closer to Mark. Mark's assessment of this, you know, mistakes were made. It wasn't perfect, but Agent Lightning went in there and got a almost $5,000 discount off of, well, take, you know, the fees, a $4,000 discount off of MSRP. And a brand new car with a little bit of miles. It sounds like a, it sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Rick?

Okay. Oh, I'm sorry, my grade. I'm going to give them a B plus. not B plus, sorry, the B. Great. We've got Negan 1 says a big D. Ooh, coming in hard a day. Tom Steckle.

The C minus, taxable fees are bogus. They also omitted the legitimate title and tag fees on the worksheet. Hmm, that's a good note. I sense a, there's distance between us and our audience. Johnny Z. Fradley, C. Fair price, some dealer fees, but at least no add-ons. Tim Gilliland, C. Brian Sidlato, it's a C for me.

And for myself, I'm actually going to go a little lighter. I'm going to see a B because I don't see anything anybody playing games here. They immediately put a discount for the mileage on it. They even offered a few hundred more discounted because of the discrepancy on the mileage. And I think it seemed like a pretty reasonable deal on that particular car. That's what I expect to see, like on a car that many miles on it, on a new demo. It seemed like a reasonable, even in normal times, it seemed like, you know, what you would see for a car with miles on it. They want to move it.

They'll get a regret for the sale and they'll make some money on holdback and hopefully make some money and finance. That's their thinking. Yeah, yeah. Well, I say there was a few inaccuracies, and, you know, the dealer fee was pretty high. No Moroni sticker? Come on. And what about 5,400 miles versus 2,000? So for that, I give them a C-minus.

Right. I'm going to go with a C. Schumacher is most of his stores are pretty decent Most of his stores are recommended I don't think Schumacher He's probably got a dozen stores in this area Something like that, yeah And I think they're all on the recommended list

So we know the dealer personally He's a good guy And he's got too many stores So he can't stay on top of them all But that's true for all dealers That have multiple stores But it's a legitimate place They've got a lot of franchise

His father was the original Buick dealer in the area, and this is the second generation, and he's really expanded considerably. So I'll go with the sea. There we go. Yeah, they always do pretty well. I don't think we've ever flunked them. All right, so it's official. Good dealer, bad dealer list. Check it out.

Jonathan, how much time do we have left? Okay, Earl, take it away. Well, the only thing I have to add is the fact that our Tesla has got another software update. And just really quickly, I was going to be on Musk, I guess because of the heat he's got on his autonomous full self-driving. He's done a disclosure now. This came up on the last software update. Full self-driving is not in early limited, is in early limited access. beta and must be used with additional caution it may do the wrong thing at the worst time i love that

phrase now he tells me he writes he wrote that personally he does a lot of things personally at this country at this company it may do the wrong thing at the worst time so you must always keep your hands on the wheel and pay attention to the road do not become complacent when self-driving is enabled your vehicle will make lane changes off highway select forks to follow your navigation route, navigate around other vehicles and objects, and make left and right turns. And I go back to, it may do the wrong thing at the worst time. So I don't think he's going to be running out in full-page ads, but that is in the software

disclosure. I would tell you one thing, that's my kind of disclosure. And it wasn't in the earlier software disclosures. It's only come out recently. You'd remember that. Yes. And I'm saying that's a good disclosure. It's a plain language disclosure.

It doesn't list a death, injury, disfiguration, emotional trauma, blah, blah, it's just like, listen, it's the worst thing that happened at the wrong time. So, you know, pay attention. Nancy, I were making a left-hand turn going to Stewart, Florida, and our car was behind us. It stopped the car suddenly with the car gaining on us rapidly. That was doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. Yeah. I warned you about that, though. Next time I'll call you when we get on the road.

I did. I remember Warren, yes. So you can remind us twice. I said it's a little hanky. Be careful of the autopilot. You kind of have to bear in mind, though, this is an emerging technology in its infancy. And if some people got to die, some people got to die. It's going to take some time. Be aware, be focused. Yeah, you have to be aware. You have to pay attention. You can't just totally trust it immediately. It's a baby. It's, you've got to give it a chance to grow. I'm going to jump on now. Speaking of babies, I can't close the show without wishing Jackston. It's his birthday today.

Happy birthday, and he is three years old. That is our great grandson. Happy birthday, Jackson. Happy, happy birthday, Jackson. Happy, happy birthday. And he listens to the show from time to time, and he carries around Earl's book. Okay. It's amazing.

It's just amazing. He says pop pop pop. He doesn't know my name. I'm just saying. Okay, folks, you are a big part of the show. We definitely enjoy your company, tuning in every Saturday morning. We thank you. Have a wonderful weekend.

We'll be right back here next Saturday. Same time, 8 a.m. Have a great weekend.