Earl Stewart on Cars - 06.29.2019 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of CarMax of Boynton Beach

Episode Date: June 29, 2019

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

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 cyber. 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.

Hey, how about that? That was my new introduction. We're just trying to figure out how I did. I guess I'll get myself a C-plus. I think I can tweak that a little bit. But anyway, my name is Earl. I'm a recovered car dealer. I was my voice you just heard on the end.

introduction. And I kind of told you what the show is all about. I've already introduced everybody. We've got a room full of experts, basically, that are going to help you learn how to avoid being ripped off by a car dealer. We've been on the air for like 15 years. I mentioned the mystery shopping report and the introduction. And it's really the highlight of our show. We have a particularly interesting mystery shopping report this morning. And we get to it typically in the last half hour of the show and that's between, was it 9.30 and 10.

That's right. And I'll give you a little hint. We shop the largest retailer of used cars probably in the world, certainly in the United States, Carmax. And it was a very, very interesting report.

And I'm hoping that we can have a colleague, I use the term, I flatter myself to say that Rosemary Shahan is a colleague, but she's probably the most prominent auto consumer advocate in the world, really. I mean, Rose Mary Shahan, she's the president of consumers for auto reliability and safety. Cars, C-A-R-S acronym.

Consumers for auto reliability and safety. And she is the mother of the Elin-Law. Years ago, when everybody else was, I don't know what they were doing, Rosebren was thinking about how I can help people avoid being ripped off by car dealers. And she came up with the concept of the Lemon Law, and she established it in California many years ago, and all the other states, all other 49 states copied her. So she's my hero, and I call her a colleague. She's called me, and I've called her from time to time over the years.

I just wish we had the type of consumer advocacy, what is the word, cooperation in Florida that she has in California. California is a while-a-while state. If any of been out there, it's a crazy state. All different kinds of folks out there, huge. It's almost like it's a country all by itself. And yet, Rosemary has really rained in the car dealers. They have a dealer fee out there, but it's a fixed amount.

They have to call it a deal. They have to disclose it. And so, therefore, it's harmless, a small amount, around $75, I think, last time I checked. but she does things like that and the car dealers out there when they get out of line bam they go to the slammer they get fine they get closed down

so Rosemary Shan hopefully will call in it's hopefully early three hours earlier in California and I sent her an email this morning she's probably still sleeping she should be I'll text her a little while later on the show and ask her to check her email

and I told Rudy in the control room if Rosemary Shea Ann calls in put the call through because we're talking about CarMax, and CarMax is, as I say, the largest retailer of used cars. Rosemary went after CarMax and General Motors. Rosemary doesn't mess around with the little guys. She goes after the big guys, and she went to the Federal Trade Commission and said, CarMax is violating the rules, the spirit of the law, and the letter of the law,

by not disclosing Takata Airbags and selling their used cars. I think in California they were selling about 20,000. 25 or 30% of every car, Carmack's old, had a defective Takata airbag. When she went after him, sadly she lost. I think it was politics. And CarMax is continuing. They're claiming to disclose the Takata Airbag, but they don't. But that's pretty much why I'm excited about the show this morning.

And hopefully you're excited. We invite all of you to call in 877-960-99-60. I love to have you call the show, especially our lady callers. We really, really try to persuade them to call because they're very interesting. They have a whole new light and insight into buying cars. 877-960-9960. And if you haven't listened to the show before, Nancy Stewart has got a little pleasant surprise for you ladies out through the listening but are not calling yet. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, another exciting show, just like our old Jesse.

and for the ladies, we have $50 for the first two new lady callers. Remember, ladies, over half of all the cars that are sold in the United States? Well, we take part in 80% of that purchase, and we are powerful. Women are doing more. They're more involved today, and they have a whole lot to say, which leads me to ask you, share whatever you have. have to say, share. Let your voice be heard. Give us a call. You can win yourself $50. That's $50. Whether you want to share your story or just say hello, 877-960, 9960. And also, if you'd like to text us

to vote on our mystery shopping report, you can do so at 772-497-6530. Now back to the recovering car dealer. I want to talk a little bit more about Rick Kearney because Rick, I know him very well and he's worked for me for over 20 years. Is it 25 now? Pretty close to it. Yeah. He's a certified diagnostic master technician.

I don't know how to explain how knowledgeable he is. I challenge you to call, text, email, whatever, and ask Rick. any kind of a question about the mechanics or electronics, the computerization of your car. Cars are complicated today. I'm also a car dealer in full transparency and disclosure. Been a car dealer for over 50 years. And in my dealership, one of the most common problems we have today with selling cars is the complexity, especially of the electronics. How do I pair my Bluetooth with my sound system? I have problems every day. Nancy, Stewart has problems with their car.

We all have problems with their car because of the complexity. I got a few. Stu has a few. So if you have anything that's frustrating you, especially if you have a late model car, that's one of the reasons I think some people hesitate to buy a late model car because you almost have to go to school to learn how to operate it. You call and ask Rick any question about your car, and he will be able to help you. Another thing that Rick can help you with is what do I really need to do to my car to maintain

and repair it. It is very difficult to tell when you go into a service department today because the service department, be it at a car dealer or in a garage, they're going to tell you this is what we recommend you do. And sometimes, oftentimes, they will recommend a lot more than you need to have done. Today's cars are remarkably maintenance free. In fact, a lot of the manufacturers now are giving free maintenance for two years, three years, or even four years to your car so don't overspend when you pull into the service drive Rick can help you with some of those questions and we'd love to have you jump online Facebook Earl Stewart on cars

you go to facebook.com port slash Earl on Cars Facebook.com forward slash Earl on Cars and you can post Rick and one other very important website one that I wish we didn't have to have it but we need it www.safercar.gov, I recommend everyone, go to that website, put in your VIN number for your car, your friend's cars, your family's cars, and check to see if there are any open recalls on your car. This is a federal government site, and it will quickly check to see if there's any open recalls at all. And as a matter of fact, there are apps you can download now for free.

for Android and Apple, that you simply scan your license plate with your phone, and it will automatically check your VIN number to see if there are open recalls. It only takes a couple seconds to do it. Something you really have to do. We mystery shop, as I said earlier, every week, and 99.9% of the time the car dealers will not disclose this to you.

They will say that when you catch them or you ask the question, they may disclose it. But if you don't ask the question, and they have a car with a defective recall of any kind, Takata Airbegger, otherwise, they're going to sell you the car, and they're absolved of any responsibility. So if you don't do it yourself,

the place you buy the car from is not going to tell you. It'll be somewhere in the Carfax Report. It'll be on the safercar.gov report. And it'll even be on the website of the manufacturer. You can check with the manufacturer of the car. But it's up to you, buyer beware. We've got a lot of text and post coming in already. Stu, are those Facebook posts?

We have text coming in on our text line. We have some on YouTube already. And then we got a really long one. I could probably get through it pretty quickly. It came in last week on Facebook. Let's do it. All right. It's from Mark.

He doesn't want us to use his last name, but he's in Lake Worth. He says, I'd like to tell you about my carbine experience at Ed Morris Delray Toyota. It was a two-day experience, which took a total of 11 hours. I did my homework by researching a new 2018 Avalon on KB and Edmonds. Thanks to you, I was aware of dealer fees. I went on a Wednesday afternoon when the showroom was really quiet. The salesman was pleasant and low-keyed. I told him I wanted a 2018 Avalon X-E.

He told me he could probably get me one, but the difference between an 18 and a 19 is only $175. He insisted we test drive the car and pointed out the new technology and other features. He asked if we liked it and would be ready to make a deal. I told him we were ready to negotiate, and if we get the right price, we might make a deal. Then he asked what it would take to make the deal. We told him first to take off $100 from the 18 to the 19. He said he would have to speak to a sales manager.

I told him if he wants to sell a car today, the sales manager would need to sit at the table with us. Otherwise, we're leaving. Immediately, he came over, sat down, and took off the $100. Then I told him, there's never an incentive on the Avalon, and I need an incentive. He played with his calculator and then offered another $1,500 off. Next, I asked to see the invoice, which showed the dealer fee of $800. I think he's talking about probably a buyer's order, showed the dealer fee of $800. $7.99, I believe.

$7.99, 99. I told him I knew that that was his profit. He said people are in business to make money. I told him we could get closer to making a deal if we could split the dealer fee and continue to negotiate. The sales manager said, okay. Then I asked him to give me the four rubber Avalon floor mats valued at $300. He said he couldn't do that because he was close to his profit point. That's an add-on that they put on after the advertiser price.

That is correct. We reviewed the invoice and found another $200 off from fees. Now I told him we had an 08 Avalon with 56,000 miles, very clean, an excellent condition. He went out to look at it, started it up, didn't drive it, and he offered us $6,500. If you just tuned in, this is Del Rey, Edmores, Mazda, Edmour's, Delray, Mazda, and Delray, Florida. This is Toyota. I mean, why do I keep saying Mazda? I don't know.

You got Mazda on the brain, and this is from a listener, Mark and Lake Worth. He offered a $6,500. I told him we were leaving and going to a car buying place. He said, well, what do you want for it? On KBB and Edmonds retail price was $7,550, he played with his calculator and said, if we make a deal of the day, he could give us $7,550. We said, okay. He said, leave him a $500 refundable deposit

because he needs to get the car from another place. He said, come back tomorrow at 1 p.m. And the car and paperwork would be ready. We agreed and left after four hours. The next day I called to confirm that the car was there and ready. It was, and we arrived at 1 o'clock. As we went to test drive the car, the sales manager calls the salesman and tells him,

don't leave the parking lot because it's the wrong model. When we came back into the showroom, the sales manager apologized and said we should finish the paperwork and payment, and we could come back tomorrow and they would deliver it to our house, or they would deliver it to our home. We said, no. I told him to get the car right, or the whole deal is off. He said it would take about 90 minutes. I said, fine, we would wait. After 90 minutes, no car. I told him my time is worth something, too.

If he wanted me to pay for the car when it arrived, he would have to give me the four car mats and put it in writing and initial it on the conscience. contract. He did. After another 90 minutes, he came up to apologize and told me it would be another half hour and offered us $200 to go out to dinner. I told him to take the $200 off the price of the car or were out the door. He did, and I made him put it in the contract and initial that too. After three and a half hours, the car arrived. They cleaned it, we drove it, and spent 90 minutes doing the paperwork where we found two more mysterious fees that needed to be omitted. Oh, geez.

Finally, I asked for my new insurance ID paper, which they promised yesterday to get. They proceeded to take us to their insurance representative, who said she knew nothing about getting this for us, but told us she could get it within 15 minutes. She did. The salesman felt so badly about what had happened. He offered to come to her home the next day to go over the special tech features. He did come by, and when he attempted to connect the Bluetooth with her phones and Apple CarPlay, he had to call Toyota in California for assistance.

He was with us about 90 minutes until everything was connected properly. He also had to return three days later to bring the floor mats, which had to be ordered. This goes to show that knowledge, persistence, and good negotiation skills paid off. I hope you found my story interesting. Well, I did. Yeah, it was interesting, and that was a long one, but I think it was productive. Thank you. If you just tuned in, the last hour, this was Ed Morris Del Rey Toyota,

and it was a listener that had been in there and bought a car. And it was interesting for a lot of reasons. First of all, the listener had learned from this show, which is gratifying. It also demonstrated very, very completely the pain and time consumed in having to buy a vehicle. Typically, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to buy a vehicle in an hour or two. This was, as he said, I believe, all told about seven hours. No, 11 hours. 11 hours.

11 hours. Hard to believe. 11 hours. And the game playing in the back and forth. Now, this particular caller, or I should say, texter, that sent us this information was very sharp, listened to the show. He was educated, and he was persistent. He had a strong, aggressive personality.

And if you have all those attributes, it's okay. I think he actually enjoyed this process. uh it was a it was like a test of his abilities he won the test he won the game and he got himself a new car but the average person out there does not want to go through this and that is uh rick this guy sounded like an an action hero from john wick or something i mean he he just sounds like he's going in there with a shotgun in his hand and a rocket launcher strapped on his back nobody take he got everything he wanted i agree i agree because that's how i feel sometimes 877 960 9960. Please call us. We have a lot of text waiting, and that was one of them. You can text us at 772-4976530. That's 772-497-6530. Calls, and we've been told to please repeat the number twice, so I'll do that. 877-960.

Yeah, and then I'll give out the text number. But back to what we've been. were just talking about. Boy, negotiating for me is like walking in with a hand grenade in my purse and I'm just going to get what I want and if I don't, I pull the pin. Anyway, I thought I'd share that with the audience. A little dramatic, but that's me. Listen, if you want to text us, 772-497-6530. Very good. And you already told everybody about our 50 bucks. I did, but I'll remind the ladies Again, you're an important part of the show, and we do want to build a platform here, and we want to hear from the ladies, and I heard from quite a few of you this week, and I hope you keep your promise and give me a call.

Give us a call at 877-9-60-99-60, and win yourself, $50. First two new lady callers. No gimmicks, no loopholes, just cash. you call the show, you're a lady you haven't called before, you will win $50. We do that because in the earlier stages of the show, going back years, we'd have sometimes no female callers, sometimes only a few. And now we've got it up to about parity. We got about 50-50, thanks to Nancy's generous offer,

and we just keep fueling that because we get a lot of very interesting, different perspectives on life in a car dealership from our female callers. We've got some post and text backing up here with Stu. Oh, yeah, yeah, they're coming in. Let's see. I'll go to our anonymous feedback feed here, and you can give us questions anonymously on Your Anonymous Feedback.com. The first one here, it says, question for Earl.

I heard Toyota is going to do away with the spare tire on some Toyota's. Is this true? If so, which models? I think they already have, and I think they will probably continue this. seems to be a trend in the industry. Rick, do you know specifically which models? Several, actually. As a matter of fact, the all-wheel-drive Sienna for probably 10 years has not had a spare.

Prius Prime and a couple of the other Prius models have done away with spares completely, or they've gone to what they call a flat spare that is a very tiny little space saver and a can of injectable fix-a-flat, basically. We'll get back to that topic in just a minute, but I want to give you that telephone number again in S-877-960-99-60, and we're going to go to our first caller, and that is Linda from Hope Sound. Good morning, Linda.

Good morning. I would assume that this question might be for Rick. I recently took my 2016 HRV. Honda in for an oil change entire rotation. It has about 21,000 miles. During their routine check, they told me three different things that I need in addition to what they did. They said it had failed on the battery test.

It was low on the battery check. I've not experienced any difficulty, but that's what they said. They said I needed a new battery. They said I needed break, fluid change, and an air cabin filter. And the cost of these three things combined was over $400. So I decided not to get it at that time and to ask this question of you folks. Well, you know, Linda, you've got a little almost new car. It sounds like it's under new car warranty, 2016 with 21,000.

miles on it so i'm a little surprised that you're getting a five four hundred dollar quote on the bill i'm going to just say something quickly and then rick the expert addressed it but i would definitely get a second opinion uh if not from another honda dealer from a trusted independent mechanic excuse me for interrupting you but i want to let the folks know that are calling in that our lines are full right now and uh shep we know you're holding and please be patient thank you Okay, Rick, tell Linda about the specifics of breaks. Real quick with full lines, but folks, keep calling, keep calling. The battery should be under a three-year, 36,000-mile warranty.

So if you're less than three years old, 2016, you might be right on that border. But if you're concerned about that, I would stop in at a parts store like an AutoZone or a Pep Boys and ask them to double-check that battery. it is very possible that the battery is getting old and starting to go bad, and the modern computerized testers are very good at predicting it. I just like to tell you one thing, Rick, at 11,000 miles, they replaced the battery. They said it had tested weak. It was under warranty then, so they replaced it.

Ah, okay, so I would definitely get a second opinion on that. Stopping it at low-water zone. Linda, you've got a battery, you have a battery warranty as well. as a manufacturer warranty. Well, it's usually one year. Well, it varies from bad. That's true. And they'll pro-rate it, but I would get a second opinion on that.

And then if it shows that it's bad, go back to Honda and say, well, there should still be a warranty on this battery. As for the brake flush, no. You shouldn't need that until something like eight or nine years, 50, 60,000 miles. How about the cabin filter? And that cabin filter, I'm saying 30,000 miles, unless you have breathing issues, asthma, or something like that, then I'd recommend maybe replacing that filter a little more often. And Linda, one thing you could do with a cabin filter is look at it, and if it is a white cabin filter, something I have the black ones, which are difficult.

But if you have a white cabin filter, look at it, and if it's crystal white, clean, forget about it. They're just trying to sell you something. Yeah. I see. I see. you very much. I do have one other thing to say. I went back to the dealership to talk to the service fellow because it didn't sound right to me about the battery. And I said to him, doesn't it seem odd to you? I have a brand new car. I don't drive tremendous miles, but at 11,000, you

replaced it. And now at 21, you're telling me I need another battery. And he said it was because I take short trips and I don't give it time to regenerate or whatever. Sounds like kind of a lame excuse to me. I know that a possibility. That part is true. But a lot of people take short trips, and they have to replace two batteries while the car is still under warranty and under 21,000 miles is ridiculous. Oh, yeah. Oh, okay.

All right. I thank you so very much. Thank you. Linda, thank you for calling, and give us a call again. 877-960-9960. Give us a call. Any of your questions. And I want to say again, our lines are full.

and we are going to go to Shep, who's been holding from Palm Beach Gardens. Good morning, Shep. Good morning. How can we help you? I have a question. I have a paint problem. My paint is peeling off the roof of the car, and I want to know where I could have the car painted.

Where's Alan when we need them? a decent job how year car do you have and what's the make a model I have a

a 2012 Nissan Alzheimer what color paint is it I bought it certified from them and they forgot to mention that that year

that they had a pain problem so now I'm stuck with a car with 43,000 miles, okay, and the size of the car are beautiful, you know, it's just on the roof, and now it's the darting on the hood and the trunk. Shep, this is quite a ways out of warranty, even though you have low miles on it. The car is seven years old.

Right. How often do you wax the car? it's waxed every time I wash it it's in pristine condition yeah I would say this it's worth an effort to try I think your odds are slim but I would I would go to the dealer

I would go to the manufacturer and I would ask for I did I did and they don't want nothing to do with it yeah now they're depending on the manufacturer it's very difficult it's out of warranty and that's the You know, Stu has a comment.

Well, I'm going to try and channel Alan Napier, who's our body paint expert. It's kind of what you get what you pay for. You can get a really inexpensive paint job just to make it look okay, probably for $200 or $300 from like a meiko type of place. The more extensive you get to do like a full professional job where they remove all the seals, tape everything off. I mean, it could run you close to $1,000 just to do the roof of the car. I'd be cheaper to put a vinyl top on it. You remember vinyl tops? Yeah, the Palm Beach Edition.

That might cost you a few hundred dollars, yeah. But I think, I think Stu hit it on the head. You can get a cheap one, or you can get a really good one that costs you a lot of money. I'd go for the vinyl top. I think sometimes, well, cool, I'm an old guy, and I used to like vinyl tops. What kind of car is it again? He's got a Nissan, you know, 2012. Ultima.

Ultima, yeah. That would look interesting. Yeah. Yep, thank you very much. for the call. Sorry we couldn't give you better news but think about that vinyl top you're probably getting one put on for $200 or $300. Yeah,

I understand but you have any places to recommend? I would say any of the national brand, Mako or some of the other national brands would be trustworthy but you want to be sure you get the complete

price. They always try to they'll give you, it's like a dealer for you, they give you a price and they add this, this, and this. Get the complete out-the-door price on the paint job. I'll text Alan and get a recommendation from somebody he knows that's inexpensive. And you're local, right? Are you here? Well, it doesn't have to be that inexpensive.

You know, I'm going to keep the car. Yeah. Are you local, Shep? Yes. Okay. I'm going to get a recommendation or two, and we'll read it on the air for a body shop that can give you an economical repanting on that roof. You know, stay tuned.

I appreciate it. Thank you. you okay we're gonna go to howard who's been holding and uh he is a regular caller thank you howard and he's from jupiter good morning thank you for taking my call it's always a pleasure talking to you thank you and i just want you know i want you to know i'm in the bronx and it's very hot here uh but humidity is not as bad as for all that's you know and it doesn't rain you know and then sun comes out and rain if they're like steady there's draining or is the sun is out?

So that's the only difference. No, boy. Okay, I have a question about Takata airbags. I heard that they're not re-manufacturing, they're coming, is there news about the Takata airbags? Well, I just know that

a lot of manufacturers are still fighting, and I know that General Motors asks the NHTSA for a two or three-year delay in recalling airbags. I do know that there's still a lot of manufacturers that don't have inflators available, and cars are driving around right now

as we speak with people on the front seat endangered because there's no inflator available to fix the car. But this situation is getting worse and worse and worse. And if you stay tuned for the mystery shopping report with CarMax, you'll know what I'm talking about. We have a serious situation there. And all I know is that the cut air can back problem is worse today than it ever was. Okay.

I have another question about brakes. As I told you last week, I had tires. I needed tires very badly. I put them on, and they told me I needed brakes. They pulled the wheel off. They showed it to me. I had a second opinion. I was told I don't need brakes left.

And my question to you is, isn't there a way of telling besides pulling the wheel off? Are there sensors that make a noise so that when you hear this noise, you know that within 100 miles you have to get brakes? Rick, I think this question is for you. There are little metal clips that go on the brake pads that are supposed to be positioned to where when the pads get very thin, they'll start to rub against the rotor and make a noise. However, they don't always work very well, and if the pads are wearing unevenly for some reason, they may not, one may not be close enough, and they can also damage the rotor a little bit. My recommendation is simply when they do a tire rotation, they should measure the brake pads.

And when your brake pads are below 3mm, it's time to start considering new brake pads. And if they're 1 millimeter or below, you definitely want to do it right then. I love that idea. You rotate the tires every what? Every 5,000 miles or 6 months? So that way you're perfectly safe and you get a brake check every 5,000 miles. and at 3 millimeters the average driver should still have at least

one more service left on their brakes anyways in case you need to budget for it. Very good. Okay, now another question pertains to brakes. Should the rotors be cut? Let us say you need brakes, but

the rotors were pristine, no problem. You run your finger over the rotor. There are no scratches. You have to cut the rotors when you put the pads in? You don't actually have to. We do recommend it so that the new pads will seat properly against the rotor and have a fresh surface to go against. It simply helps make the pads seat in better, last longer, and they won't less chance of making noise.

How much does it cost to cut the rotors? Cutting the rotors is for most places about an additional $100 to $150. And it's a lot less expensive than replacing rotors. with factory, ones that can be quite expensive. But it's actually a good idea to cut them. But if you don't want to pay for it and you don't have any break pulsations or problems like that, then you're perfectly fine to just have new pads slapped on.

Okay, thank you very much for taking my call. I appreciate your knowledge, your expertise. Thank you and have a good Saturday. Thanks, Howard. It was great hearing from you, Howard, Stay in that air conditioning. Give us a call next week. We're going to go to Frank, who's giving us a call from West Palm Beach.

Good morning, Frank. Good morning. Good morning. I didn't catch the app to check for recalls. I have an iPhone, and I'd like to do that. Check the license plate. Oh, yeah, Rick was talking about that a few minutes ago. What was that, Rick?

That app is on the... in the Apple App Store, it's simply called Airbag Recall. Airbag Recall. And what you do is when you click on that app, it will actually use the camera on your phone. I'll hold this up in front of the camera. I don't know if you're seeing it online or not, but you can see where it's got a... I think you, I see you're all there. Yeah.

You kind of lined a little square. up on your license plate, and then when it reads that license plate, it will automatically check that VIN number to see if you have an open recall, because it runs your license plate and gets your VIN number, and then just boom. That's pretty snazzy. That looks like the stuff we use at the dealership to appraised cars and scanned vehicles. It's quick, it's simple, and all you do, walk right up behind the car and just scan that license plate and in a couple seconds it tells you whether or not you have any open

recalls welcome to the 21st century ladies and gentlemen we'd love to hear from you yeah frank still on yeah frank do you have another question you have another question yeah i have another question oh okay i bought the rap four from you guys three months ago uh march first actually i'm the guy that called and caused problems with uh not doing it through costco right or Yeah, I remember. But anyway, I never got to check it. When I push the hold button to hold the car still on a hill, is the brake lights on?

I don't think so, but I'm going to ask Rick that. Frank's asking about the hold button, where you're not really in park, but you push the button, the car stays still and won't roll. Are the brake lights on when you do that? I don't think so On some models it is But some it is not

Most I'm going to say no Okay I'm saying all I'm going to say no on all of them And I'll differ with it Well let's be safe Be very careful because Yeah you're not The lights aren't lit up

So I guess the car is coming up behind you Won't know That's not good But if you're sitting on the hill You most likely already have the cars behind you They already stop But you don't want your brake lights going off anyways

because the guy behind you thinks, oh, I can creep forwards a little bit, and then bump. I can tell you, I've never used that button. Yeah, I don't use it. I tried to use it, but it's, you know, when the light changes, what do I do? Oh, yeah, I got to step on the gas. I tried to explain what it was to my daughter, and I failed explaining to her, and she goes, well, I'm just not going to use it. I go, well, me neither.

I never had gotten to ask anybody to stand behind the car, and I just thought of it now, as I called you. It's a good question, though. I'm going to find out about that. I want to find, I want to know that. Yeah, let's follow up. Well, I have a new RAV-4. Maybe they do, maybe they don't.

Actually, I should tell somebody to stand behind my car. Well, be careful. As a matter of fact, my wife's driving a 19 RAV-4, 2019. So I'm going to check that when I get home. We're going to find out for sure on that one. Frank, thank you very much. Do you have any other questions? No, that's it.

Thank you for you too again. Well, please call again next week. You're a great caller. We appreciate it. 877-960-99-60. And I'll repeat it for the people that'd like to hear it twice. 877-960-99-60 in the text. Yes.

7-7-2-497-6-5-3-0 and yes means we have a whole bunch of text. Yes. Before Stu gets started on his text, I have one and it's from Roberta, and I promised her that I would ask this question on the air. Is it better to hand-wax your car? And how long will a hand-wax last in Florida during the summer? and she keeps her car outside I'm going to say yes

a hand wax is the best way especially if you're having it done by a professional that's got good quality equipment because they're going to make sure the towels they're using are very clean don't have any debris or sand in there that might hurt the finish and for how long it lasts most cases let's say

four to six months and I judge it by whether or not the water still beads up when you get wet. If you run through a rainstorm and the water still beads up into those nice little puddles, it's still in pretty good shape. But about every six months, I would put a new coat of wax on there, especially in Florida with this sun. It's just going to eat that paint otherwise. Yeah, especially keeping it outside.

I love that beating effect. Oh, that's great. Yeah, gives you an idea. Stu, you have text. Yeah, we have a few more that came in on Your Anonymous Feedback.com. First one says, Dear Earl, Nancy, and Teen, forgive me for not waking up at 6 a.m. to call in out here in Los Angeles. During my car buying experience in 2017 for a Toyota Crolla, L, I used true car and car gurus to set my target price at $15,000 before tax and tag. I was in touch with 20 dealers via email, narrowed it down to about five.

By hero. Mm-hmm. Some of the, Earl's just drool, he's salivating over there. Some of the remaining dealers sent me messages that, quote, these prices can change weekly and that, quote, there are certain incentives and discounts you may or may not qualify for. In the end, I ended up buying from a gentleman who offered me a $15,400 price with no mention of incentives or disqualifying discounts. He did inform me that there was a $1,000 rebate on the 2017 model from which your show is, what I understand, as a manufacturer's discount that must be applied. What I'm basically getting at is this. When these salespeople

tell you that there are certain incentives or discounts other than rebates, should people just ignore them? With the help of your show, I got my car for $15,400 with a 1.9% interest rate. Wow. The transaction was smooth and fast, and I left the dealership a positive review. Thank you, and that's from Britt in Los Angeles, California. Well, Brett, thank you very much. And just a message to all you listeners out there. Online makes it easy to shop an infinite number of dealers. He shopped 20 dealers. That sounds like a whole lot.

But you could do that in an hour and a half online or less. And you're not going to get answers from everybody that you go out to, but competition is your best tool to get a good price. And when you do 20 dealerships online, you are going to get a great price. And he did. Congratulations. And thank you for the text. Yeah, thanks, Britt.

We have another anonymous one. This is anonymous. Of course, even though Britt identified himself. Hi, Earl, the info you put out on your radio show and website is really good, but hardly anyone knows about it. Have you ever thought about putting an advertisement on a billboard on the side of I-95 and Broward or Dade County that directs people to your channel and website? Wow. Well, that's a great idea. One of our problems, and I guess we could ask Rudy or some of the executives here at the radio station, our signal,

radio signal per se doesn't penetrate real well to Dade County. It's kind of marginal in Broward County. Of course we stream and we also have online. That's an interesting question. One of these days we need to get a count if possible to see

how many people were reaching on the internet. And if we had a sizable audience or maybe the way to jump started is to put the billboard it up, we'd love to go to Dade and Broward because the population is so high down there. But we're going to invest that. I like the idea. And the behavior

is so bad. Oh, it's Dodge City. It's just like I'm Matt Dillon going to the Dodge City. It's the OK Corral. There'd be so many people to save. It'd be unbelievable. You know, speaking of the signal, it was the day before yesterday that somebody

called me from Port St. Lucy and they said that they tune in at 8 o'clock, but they're in their car, they're on their way to work, and they're on Port St. Lucie Boulevard, and they lose the show. Yeah, that's radio. I mean, online is a wave of the future and if you can do it online

if you just streamerlecars.com you can stream it directly from the radio show www.w.w.w.stream orgoncars.com That way you're streaming on the internet as long as you have a good Comcast or AT&D or whatever you're using a Wi-Fi, as long as you've got a good strong signal

you can listen to it anywhere in the world. So streamerlorncars.com but radio is radio and you get But thunderstorms on AM and the signals come in and out. We get some more text over here. On YouTube from David. He says, good morning, Mr. Stewart. My name is Davide, I'm sorry, from Orlando, and today is my birthday.

Happy birthday, David. Can you explain about taxes? How much and if the local taxes count as well on a sale and a new car? Taxes in Florida are 6%, but counties have supplemental taxes, and they can go up to another 1% is due half percent one percent? In Palm Beach County it's an extra 1% but it's limited to the first $5,000. First $5,000. So it's basically $50 on most car sales. Yeah. The thing you want to be sure of is anything you pay to the government, there's no way you're going to get out of that. So just verify it is a government fee and if it's a county tax plus estate tax, you're not going to get

out of that. Dealers must charge that or they go to the slimmer. That's right. And actually some dealers have gone to the slimmer because they did charge you that and they stuck up in their pocket And they didn't send it in to tell. That's all I'm going to say. The state doesn't care if you charge it. They just want to get paid. They don't want to get paid. I have an answer, by the way.

Shep called in a while back, and he had a problem with delamination. In other words, peeling paint on the roof of his 2012 Ultima, and we said we'd find a reputable place to go. So, Alan Napier, let me know that Dave's Auto Body on North Lake Boulevard. It's Dave's Auto Body on North Lake Boulevard, Shep, if you're listening, is trustworthy and low cost. So Alan recommends that. But he did say that he has a special Alan Napier radio show special for Shep. And Alan said he'll take care of it for $300 if it's just the roof. Well, we don't like to advertise.

We're a consumer advocacy show. But we'll say Dave's an auto body on North Lake Boulevard. And, you know, that's invaluable. We have insider information. As I say, full transparency, we are also car dealers. And we have car dealership. And we had it for a long time. And we have our cars repaired and fixed.

If we trade in an off-made car, we'll take it to somebody we trust independent or even a dealer sometime. What we should do, and I'm thinking out loud, take notes. We will do a web page, a link that will let people know where they can take their car, Nissan, Ford, Chevrolet, Cadillac, and they can go to a trustworthy independent or car dealership. And we're talking about recommended dealers from sales and leasing, the good dealer, bad dealer list. We need to have a good repair, bad repair list. We can forget the bad repair. We'll just have the good repair list because we all would rather have our car fixed by a qualified, talented technician,

preferably not a car dealer because car dealers charge too much. And we will create such a list. Thank you for that text. All right. moving on this is a text from tyrone s who did work had a job as a mystery shopper for 16 years he says first time texting you guys and third time i've watched a show on youtube question it appears you guys seem to be focusing on florida area do you guys ever go on the road like to other cities and do what you do well i'm glad you asked that tyrone by the way tyrone if

you're interested in the job we're always looking for additional mystery shoppers and one of the problems we have, and I should have said this earlier, we had somebody earlier in the show text about a mystery shop he did Edmore's Delray Toyota. And I have to say this, in full disclosure, that we don't know that textor, and we

don't know that it was an accurate report. We know that our mystery shoppers are they're employed by us, they're vetted by us, and we know we have reliable reports. We caution them to the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Exactly. They're reputable. So we're

We're staking our reputation on their reports. When we get a call in or text on a mystery shopping report, we have to give the disclosure. So retroactive disclosure to the gentleman that called in earlier. We believe what you said about Ed Morris Delray Toyota, but we have to say we don't know you and we cannot vouch for it. Absolutely. Okay, we're going to Memphis, Tennessee, where we are going to be speaking to Reggie. Good morning, Reggie. Hey, good morning, guys.

I ran into a friend from high school. He sales cars now. I asked him about the bill of fees. His response was that the fees were used for overhangs and also cars that they lose money on. He says that sometimes they get cars on the lot that being of losing money on, especially on the used car side, that they can't say

I don't know if it's true or not but I did a little research and I found some articles one was about GM back from 2016-17 and the article talked about the hit of GM

Mary Bara who she came in and she said GM would be more disciplined about discounts they wouldn't give as many, so the article said that GM had a bloated inventory of sedans, Malibus in particular, and the article said that at the end of the year, Jim dumped a bunch of cars onto Rimalites, and that drove the value down of the Malibu's that people out their own.

Just want to know what you thought about that, if there's any truth from this said or not. It's not true. It's a rationalization. The person that told it to you, he could think it's true. Sometimes car dealers will tell their salespeople stories, untrue stories, justifying the dealer fees. Dealer fees are profit to the dealer, and it's hidden profit. That's the bad part about it. If they put a dealer fee or anything else they want to call it, and they include it in the advertised price or the price they quoted you,

when you asked them how much is that particular car, there would be no harm to dealer fees. The harm in dealer fees is they are hidden. And then when you find them, if they do find them, a lot of people never know they paid that extra profit to the dealer. But when they find them, they have to come up with a story. And a good story is they have to pay for, some of them are even tongue-and-cheek. They say this pays some payments on the dealer's yacht, or this pays for the payments on the dealer's airplane,

or this is a pension plan. Ha-ha-ha-ha. So they have rational. So they have rationale. The fact of the matter is, when you buy any product other than a car, the price that you see on the shelf or the salesman tells you is usually the price you pay. When you buy a car, there's extra hundreds or thousands of dollars that are hidden from you until you sign on the dotted line until you write the check or until you sign the installment sales contract to finance a car.

You don't find out at all, or if you do find out, it's at the last minute and it's too late. But Reggie, anything they told you about the legitimacy and honesty of a dealer fee is probably not true. And the other stories are telling you about why they price a car at a particular price. It's just a way to sell you the car. And I'm sorry that they try to mislead you that way, but that's the actual truth. Gotcha. Reggie, thanks for the call. Memphis. We love it when

we reach out of the area. We need a map where we can just put a pin every time we get a call from a new state. I was thinking that the other day. Would you please spread the word in Memphis, Reggie, and we'd love to have some other folks listening from Memphis, and just let everybody know. We'd love to hear from anybody

about any problems or questions they have about cars. I would love to visit Memphis. Call again, Reggie. Here we are. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen. give us a call toll free at 877-9-60-960 and remember ladies the first two new lady callers you can win yourself $50 this morning join in the conversation help us here to build that platform speaking of building a platform we have a young lady that gives us a call every week from Benita springs and her name is Tina welcome to the show Tina he was looking for a solar steel he was in a bag good morning everybody

Good morning, Tina. The double goes down to the car dealership. There we go. And wreaks havoc. That's my new tagline with y'all. Watch out. Yes. Both guns blazing.

Anyway, I wanted to bring about something that's been happening here in southwest Florida. Every day, for the last week or two, there have been reports of car fires. And I think part of it is because of the really high temperatures. But Rick, I was wondering if. there's a way for auto owners to prevent themselves from getting into this mess in the first place. If it's a matter of

maintenance or if it's just the luck of the draw. That'd be tough to say without knowing what causes the fire. I mean, if it's a situation, the first thing I would suspect is people refueling their car and

keeping the engine running so that the air conditioning stays cold. Now, you've got an ignition source with a hot exhaust and sparks can possibly be going while you've got live gasoline fumes moving around extremely dangerous always turn that engine off and no smoking anywhere near those fuel pumps and otherwise if it's such things as oil leaking on the engine most cases that's pretty unlikely to cause a fire issue uh the only other thing i might suggest is if they're letting the car just sit and run to keep that air conditioning going, again, that can cause excessive heat buildup and possibly lead to a

fire. But other than that, without knowing the exact cause of the fire itself, really hard to say what can be done to prevent it. Yeah, these cars that have caught fire have been on the ride of ways, like people driving down I-75, and all of a sudden they have to pull over because their vehicle starting to smoke. So it's not necessarily the parked car situation where the engine is running, it's when the car is in motion. Yeah, well, that could be just vehicles overheating, not well-maintained, and having overheat problems. I would check the makes, the brands, and models. I don't think it's a problem among all vehicles, and when you do the consumer reports check

on reliability, that's probably a factor. I mean, when the cars will just spontaneously catch on fire alongside the road, it's got to be a quality problem of some kind. And some cars have less quality. So just be very careful. Select something that's high on the Consumer Report's recommended list. Yeah. And the minute, I mean, cars go up on fire so quickly. And if you're driving, there is the least little bit of a problem. You smell even the least little bit of something burning. Pull over immediately. Get as far away from your car as possible and call 911. Don't mess around because time's not on your side. Absolutely.

about that with Nancy in the car because she's got a nose like a blood down. She can smell anything. She could smell a problem in another car on the highway. She can smell a burning car in Benita Springs. Exactly. I definitely can't. And I get out of the car even before you park it. Exactly. It's in drive and I'm jumping out. I love the thrill. You live on it is. Tina, thanks for calling. I've got a little humor there. It's the truth, though. Have a great weekend. Thanks, Tina. And ladies, I can't do this by myself.

Jump on the woman train. Let's make this happen. There you go. There you go. Chee-choo. Okay. Go wreak havoc, Tina. We're going to go to Steve, who's been holding from Jupiter.

Good morning, Steve. Good morning. I got a question for Rick. Reference check engine light. Oh, boy. I have a 2002. I bought it new. 150 with a 4.2V6.

Runs terrific. Everything looks fine. I changed the oil every 3 to 4,000 miles using synthetic. The tailpipe is clean. Check engine light came on. My buddy plugged in his little handheld computer, and it says that Bank 1 is pending, running too lean. Bank 2 is stored, running too lean.

It doesn't say how to fix it. What would cause it to run too lean? And the second part of the question is, if I do nothing, because the motor is running so good, am I doing any harm to the motor? Good question. First, the causes, there are two primary causes for that. The first one is you've either got an air leak or what's called a vacuum leak. You're getting too much air into the engine, or the second cause is you're not getting enough fuel.

you say the car is running pretty normal so I'm going to bet that most likely somewhere around there probably a vacuum hose especially on a 17-year-old vehicle one of the air hoses has got a little bit of a leak The answer is the most important question if he does nothing can he do damage to the vehicle

he says it runs like a top so most likely I would say it's probably just a small leak like that and it's not going to be a breakdown issue what you are going to see is a loss of fuel economy very possible and a little loss of power but I don't think you've got a situation especially with he says it runs great so how's your fuel economy and how is your power the motor one's fine it's still got plenty of power just like the one was new I take care of the vehicle myself change the oil and do all the maintenance on it

and it's been a great truck and I was just wanted to make sure that if I do nothing or can't find problem, would there be harm to the motive? But I think you guys answer my question. Steve, thanks for a call. I always believe, you know, like the rule of the physicians, first do no harm. And if you feel good and you're sharp and everything's fine, you don't want to go to the doctor and ask them to give you an operation. Just keep on driving that truck and having a good time. Thank you very much, guys.

Thank you, Steve. You're quite welcome. or you can text us at 772-497-6530 and don't forget Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Real important, you can share your views right there. Rick's got a couple of YouTube post, I think. Yep, we do. Let's see, the first one I have here.

Get back to this one. Is from Ernesto. And he says, according to the owner's manual, coolant is first changed at five years and then every two years. Why is it two years after the first change instead of five years? Good question. Well, the primary cause for that is because the normal coolant renew that is done at most shops and dealerships is they simply drain the radiator and then refuel the system.

This doesn't change all the coolant that's all the way through the rest of the hoses, the heater core, and in the engine. So what you're actually doing is changing about one third of the coolant and diluting the rest of it. That's why after the five-year situation, they say switch to every two years and you're simply keeping it a little bit renewed each time. Is that true on all cars? That's true for just about every car if you're doing just a simple drain and refill on the radiator, which is what most manufacturers recommend. Now, the other way you can do it, it's a more expensive. procedure, you can have what's called a flush.

We don't want to do that. Where the entire system is totally flushed out, drained, and refilled. It's a much more expensive thing, and it's not, it does make it to where you only have to do that every five years. Stay away from plushes. But you could actually do it just every two years just by doing a drain and refill. Exactly. Okay. Okay, you heard it from the recovering car dealer.

Stay away from flushes. Absolutely. Except for the toilet. Okay. We have a shout-out, by the way, from a listener in Las Vegas. Hi. Hi, Melissa. Hey, put $10 on red for me, will you?

And then if I lose, I'll send you check. There we go. Okay. We also have one. This is from, well, we don't have a name on this, but tech says, University Mitsubishi in Davy, Florida, advertising sale prices, but in the super fine print, they advise that you have to finance who their preferred lender.

Isn't that against the law? and they sent some picks of the fine print. Yeah, the only time that there is legitimacy to tying the interest rate to the purchase price of a car is when the captive lender, Mississippi or Honda or General Motors, sometimes the lender will have a super strong low interest rate and they'll offer you an alternative with a cash rebate. So to get the advertised price, you have to go through the lender. Is that right, Stu?

Because you get the rebate, either or. Okay, there's, and I'm only speaking for Toyota for sure. For example, they will offer a cash incentive. They'll call it dealer cash. Yeah. And say it's $1,500 or $2,000 that you would get off the price of the car, off the price that you negotiate, by the way. But do you still get the price off the car if you go to a different lender?

Yes. You can use it with you, you can pay cash, you can go to your credit union, you can use any lender that you prefer. So it's not legitimate that you should tie the, advertised price of a car to using a particular lender? Well, usually, like for Toyota, the advertised price for a car is actually it's higher if you use their lender because you get a special interest rate instead of the fit to cash.

So it's kind of the opposite of that. Now, Toyota does, and I think other car manufacturers do offer this. Occasionally, there'll be an additional rebate that comes with the finance and with that lender. So I'll give you an example. And this is not an advertisement for Toyota. It's just because it's the only thing I know about. The 2019 Camry has a $2,000 cash incentive or special financing, but now they're offering an additional $500, even if you get the special financing.

I know it sounds confusing. That's why you've got to do a lot of research, but there are rebates that are associated with special financing, and you have to use their lender. Well, I'm going to say this. You should not tie your purchase price of a car to the lender you use. The lender should be of your own choice, and it probably should be your credit union,

or your own bank, because when you're dealing with a car dealer's bank, chances are he's making a big fat finance reserve $2,000 or $3,000. But I will say that, like in the case of dealer cash, it's to your advantage to use your own lender for that reason and also you also get to use the cash instead of. Exactly. So if you get a really good rate. Use your own lender. Don't use the dealer's lender, good rule of thumb.

Well, if you're getting 0% on something like that, then that's something to look at. If it is coming straight from the dealer's lender, but nine times out of ten, it doesn't. Be very leery of the dealer's lender. Okay. We have a text from Anne-Marie, long-time listener and long-time texter. Good morning, Anne-Marie.

Good morning. Oh, this is a good one. Good morning. Last week he had a caller who suggested rubbing a cut potato on the windshield, and that would do as good a job as rainex. Now that it started raining regularly here in South Florida, inquiring minds would like to know. Did anybody try it and did it work?

Rick is smiling. Yes, I did. I sliced up a potato and I rubbed one half of my windshield and then I did one side window. That way I would be able to compare left to right to get an idea. I mean, interrupt you. Was it a Yukon? Was it a red potato or was it a rustic?

We're not going to turn this into a bagel discussion that takes five hours. So which one was better? Japanese sweet potato. It was a nice big old Yukon gold. There you go. And the reason I used such a large potato is because I kept having to cut off fresh slices. And folks, end of story. It worked a little bit, but it was messy.

It was hard to get a good even coat without streaking it. I kept having to go back and wash the windows and reapplied, trying to get just one nice coating. Use Ranex. My opinion. We have a caller. Let's go to the caller. We have, excuse me, we have a female caller, Susan, the first-time caller from Stewart.

Susan, you just won yourself $50. Oh, thank you. You're quite welcome. You stay on the line after we're finished, and Rudy will take your information so I can get that checkout to you. Okay. What can I do for you today? Well, I have a question. I am a 66-year-old woman, still flying as a flight attendant. I'm in the market to buy me a youth. I'm really serious about the genesis.

Would like to know what they think about what model year would last me a good 10 to 15 years. I've been looking at 14, 2014. I thought maybe I ought to go up to a 2016-year model. Do you have any knowledge on either one of those or any other year in particular for Genesis? Stu has a point. Well, Susan, I don't know, and I'm guessing nobody in the studio knows. But the first thing I would do is go to consumer reports and check the used vehicles. You just took the words right out of my mind. That's what I was going to ask you, Susan, if you had checked on any of the consumer reports,

whether it be the recent one or the past, because they have a lot of information. I have checked consumer reports. and they give the Genesis a very good rating. Oh, there you go. But the problem is you don't know how far back that rating goes, and it depends on which year you buy. But most recently, the Genesis has gotten some very good ratings. The Korean cars have really come up very strongly in their quality ratings,

and I think Genesis is a great car. You're comparing it to Lexus and some other real luxury cars, and for the price, it's a great buy. Okay. Yeah, I'm looking at the 2016. It gets high user or owner recommendations, but mid-grade, like a mid-range, like in the yellow unreliability. But you can go through the years, and it gives you the same thing.

You just choose 2015. Looks the same. At 2014, go there and find one that has good recommendations from reliability and owner's satisfaction. Have you started shopping, Susan? No, well, I just went to the place, you know, Wallace here in Stewart, and I just, you know, that's the only place I really looked at. Yeah, be sure you check the Carfax report, and be sure you have the Genesis check by your independent mechanic. It's going to cost you a few dollars, but when you agreed on a price and you're getting ready to sign on the dotted line or write out of check for your Genesis,

insists that they allow you to take that to an independent mechanic. It might cost you $150 or $200. He'll go over the car thoroughly. But you need to do that with the Carfax report. And you also want to check that car for recalls. And that's easily done just by looking at the Carfax report. And you can all go to safercar.gov. S-A-F-R-C-R-G.gov.

Be sure there's no safety recalls. And also, Susan, don't get caught. up in any fees. Okay, yeah, I've been listening to the last couple of weeks, so I know about those. I was just basically looking for a car that would last for a good 10, 12 years, and that's my last car I'm going to buy, so I just thought maybe the Genesis was the way to go. Excellent. That's a good choice.

That's a good value, and as I say, the Hyundai quality has come up considerably over the past 15 years. Okay. We'd love to hear back from you, Susan. Let us know how your car buying experience went. Okay. Thank you. Stay on the lines, Susan, and give Rudy your contact information,

and we'll get that $50 out to you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you haven't heard Earl talking the last couple of weeks, probably last month, about a $100,000 dealer fee challenge, well, it's going to be a doozy. I'm sure that there's going to be a few people that are going to chime in and join the debate with them. And it's a debate resolution to make dealer fees illegal. And the recovering car dealer has something to say about that. Well, I'm just kind of disappointed that nobody's even text me, emailed me,

have me use your anonymous feedback.com. Car dealers in Florida, I challenge you. I want to debate you live on the air on this radio station. 8 to 10, we'll have rules of debate, you'll have an equal say, I'll have my equal say, and the proposition will be, should the dealer fee be made illegal in Florida? And if you have an opinion and you'd like to debate me and you win the debate based on the votes of our listeners, you'll win $100,000 cash from me, and if I win, you'll pay me $100,000, we'll take the $100,000, we'll put it in escrow with an attorney of your choice or my choice

or a mutual choice, keep it at Nescro, so there's no shenanigans after the results of the vote come in. And I'm negotiable on the amount. If 100,000 is too little or too much, we can negotiate that. And even the format. We don't have to do it live on this stage. We can do it on another stage. Let's talk about it, and you don't have to disclose who you are. Just go to Your Anonymous Feedback.com.

I'm listening to this $100,000 challenge. I'm interested, but I want to make a few changes. Let's negotiate. I know this is obvious, but the reason you haven't had any challenge is because it's indefensible. Well, that's what I believe. Right. I mean, no one's going to, if you put a $100,000 challenge to prove that murder is okay, no one's going to get on there in argument.

That's a good example. But I have to say that here I am one person and there's thousands of thousands of car dealers in Florida. Am I right? And they're all wrong? They all want you to speak quiet about it. I know. Yes, exactly. Ladies and gentlemen, if you didn't pick up the hometown news, you should, and if you can't find it,

you can go to Erlon Cars. He recently wrote a column, and it's a question that I've asked myself over and over again. If car commercials were honest. Boy, I'll tell you what, that's a mouthful. Well, you can go to the Florida Weekly and you can read that column and you can also read the column in the hometown news and that is on leasing and I seem to have missed. Oh, here we go. Don't be trapped into leasing for the rest of your life. And if you haven't picked up, as I said, the Florida Weekly or the hometown news, go to Erlon Cars and you can read those columns and so much more. We're going to go to John. He's a. favorite caller. He needs a theme song too. A regular, yeah, we have to get him a theme song from

Palm City. We'll let John pick up. I think I know what it would be very fitting. We'll discuss it after the show. Hi, John. Good morning. Every week in the paper you see under the legal notices, you see an auction. Usually

it's a towing company, and it's put in two to three weeks ahead. It lists a car that they're going to auction off and a serial number. My opinion, my advice, never to buy one. First of all, if the cars were any good, somebody, employee, or the towing company or outside person that they're in touch with, would buy that car and fix them up. So when people usually read that, I wouldn't waste their time to go to these so-called towing companies that, you know, put a lien on a car

because the owners have never picked them up. That's the first thing I want. want to say. Actually, in general, I myself, who has followed the antique car auctions, would never buy a car. First of all, most of the classic car, by the way, today is Barrett Jackson, if you want to watch it on cable TV. I just watch it as entertainment. It's in Huntersville, Connecticut, and it's been helped. This is the third day today. I think that the auctions are for mostly for wealthy people. I mean, for instance, John Salupi, a local, bought that Supra, Toyota, for $2.3 million. People forgetting something, not only that at the auction,

the only guarantee that you get is the title. You don't drive the car. You don't really see who the owner was or get the history of it. It's a pig and the poke. It may look good, but it may not so good, you know, underneath. And by the way, auctions in general, I would stay away from the largest auction, which is the dealer go through, and it's for deals. is the Mannheim.

And years ago, I met the owner, the man that founder of it, Paul Stern, a very honest integrity man. I mean, unbelievably, he had a Chrysler dealership in Mannheim, Pennsylvania, and people came to him because of his honesty and sincerity, and he just had a great reputation, and he was the actual founder of the Mannheim Auto Auction. His name was Paul Stern, passed away, and he had a collection of Chrysler, old Chrysler cars, But my just, my point is, in general, auctions are bad news for automobiles, and it's a risk that people take, and unless they have a lot of money. By the way, I guess some people, maybe I'm not going to knock them, sloopie, but if somebody wants a collector car, and I want a Supra, 93 to 97, Toyota made a Supra Turbo.

It was one of the fastest street legal cars at the time. RICO probably remembered a car. It costs roughly about $39, $40,000 new. You can still get a new one today. A top-notch one is worth like $25,000. And it's from 93 to 97. It was a six-cylinder turbocharged Supra. John, does you know where?

No real goodbye. If anybody ever run across one? Did you know we had one? You know, some people can afford, and it's around $25,000 for a mint one. Thank you, Drone. Hey, John, we've got one. You do?

We have one at the dealership. It's bright red. Yeah, we just bought one actually a couple of months ago. Pretty nice. Well, they're fast. Did you drive it? I'm too scared. They won't let me.

Well, it really was unbelievable at the time. It would beat most people, most cars. on the road with this turbo six-cylinder engine and I just mentioned that because you know some people the worst thing that anybody could do is to buy a first model or a last model of a car in 202 when the T-bird came out the new model and the Camaro people went crazy on the T-bird there was a deal here in Treasure Coast that was getting as much as not illegal but to get ten thousand dollars above the list and what really happened to the car it sank yeah it did the

value everybody was not they said all like the 55 Thunderbird we're gonna collect it we'll put it away and this and that was all nonsense and probably the best example that I saw here in Florida was 1976 when Cadillac announced the last full-size Cadillac El Dorado okay oil Cadillac which was in Delray Beach was buying every one that he could find and paying as much as dealer. He's a cat dealer. He paid a window list and above,

and he stacked up on him. I have no idea what he finally did with him, but the bottom fell out because Cadillac's swore it's the last convertible, not El Dorado, but the last convertible, and everybody went crazy to build 14,000 of them, and guess what? They got General Motors got sued.

Seven years later, Cadillac came out with a fact, factory convertible. Good advice, John. Good advice. He sold them all to John Stalupi. Yeah.

We love hearing from you, John. Thanks very much for the call, John. And please call again next week. You are arguably, I think, in a tie with Tina for our best caller. And our longest caller. And John is definitely the longest caller. We're going to get you some theme music, John, if you're still listening. Yeah, think about your song.

We'll do it for you. But by the way, John is actually his, his, I spoke to Rudy already. All right. You have a good day. Look forward to the shopping report. Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, he's right on the auctions.

I mean, I think the danger most is the dealers, but when a dealer has a problem with the car, where does it go? It goes to the auction. Now, it's better now with condition reports, and there's some recourse, but if dealers don't want to use that, if they are purposely buying cars that are in not tip-top shape to sell it for cheap, then you've got to really do your due diligence. But you're absolutely right. Auction can be dangerous, and it can be.

a good thing. Ladies and gentlemen, if you didn't pick up the consumer report for August 2019, you should. I'll tell you what, there is a whole lot of information in this report on headlights. You know, there's not really a lot of talk about headlights, but they're so important, and they've come a long way. Wait will you read that article? And also nitrogen, that old, old topic. There's a whole lot to say on that. And then they discuss the advanced driver assistance systems and how they can help you. So

that's the August 2019 Consumer Report. Okay, we've got some more text, don't we? We do. Let's see here. We have this is from Robbie, who's a long time listener and textor. This is good morning. Why is there such a big difference in

manufacture car warranties? For example, Toyota and Honda are three years, 36,000 miles. BMW, Lexus, and Mercedes are four years, 50,000 miles. Kia is a whopping 10-year 100,000 miles. You would think Toyota would offer a better warranty since they're probably the best built car on the road for the dollar. Thank you. This is from Robbie and Stuart. Robbie, that's a question I've wrestled with for years and years, and I've always said exactly what you said. Why don't the really good manufacturers put longer warranties, and you'd think that the manufacturers of lesser quality vehicles would have shorter warranties. Actually,

It's almost the opposite. Oftentimes when cars come out and they're having problems, seldom them up. You remember the Ugo? Ugo lasted only a couple of years in this country. It was just a piece of junk. And it had a million mile warranty. And it had a five-year, 50,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty. And they never made it to 50,000 miles.

They couldn't sell it any other way without the warranty. And some of the good quality cars, and you mentioned Toyota, they have a three-year-36. I'm a Toyota dealer. and I argue with Toyota all the time. You got a great car. Why don't you brag about it? Why don't you give them a long warranty?

And they don't do it because they don't have to. I have a theory. I think it has to do with perceived cost repairs, hence the Lexus and BMW's longer warranty, and then also perceived a perception of reliability. Because I know, like during the recession, I think Hyundai and Kia came out with a 100,000-mile warranty. It was an added thing of peace of mind

because the reputation is they didn't have the quality. Well, they've improved the quality, but the warranty stays. The warranty is a huge expense, and as cars get higher and higher quality, I think you will see the warranties creep up a little bit. When the cars become virtually 100% reliable, never it would be 100%, but virtually, then you're going to have some extremely long warranties. But right now, the warrant is to make no sense. There are cars out there on the road with real long warranties that don't have high quality and vice versa. Okay, the next one, this is a text, says, hey, guys, is there a way to tell if your vehicle has a tickeye? airbag in it. And when I first read it, I thought they asked, is there a way to tell if there's

a recall? And the answer is yes, you just run your vehicle identification number through safer car.gov. It'll let you know. But the question is, how can you tell if your car is a Dakota airbag in it? Now, Rick might know the answer to this. My answer is you can still go to the NHTSA website, and they have this thing called Recall Spotlight. And you can put your year-make model in, and it will tell you if your car is potentially affected by the to Akata airbag recall. Now, I don't know that means it's telling you it's got a safe Takata airbag in there or what, but I'll leave it to Rick to answer the more technical question. Do you have to take apart the steering column to see it? You would have to disassemble the steering wheel where the

driver's airbag is and the dash where the passenger airbag is. Now, the problem is that Takata airbag recalls are still in the planning stages and coming out for more. cars. They have not all been announced yet. And unless you're a Takata executive or someone in the know of, you know, just how many more of those airbags are going to have to be recalled as the future comes, there's no way for us to know whether your airbag will potentially become on that list. Takata no longer exists, by the way. They're bankrupt and another company absorbed them and changed the name. And so you might even disassemble a car and see a name that's not Takata, but it really is a Takata airbag.

So the best thing to do is just check your sources like NHTSA, and you can go to safercar.gov, and you can check whether they manufacture your car, and you can check with Carfax. And we've got some more text. Yes, we do. Question, since we are talking about car fires, since we're talking about car fires,

at the pump, there are warning signs about not using cell phones nearby. Is this a real concern? or is it the same as not using your cell phone on an airplane? And what about turning your engine off during fueling? Is that really necessary? Yes. Next text. Absolutely.

On both? On the cell phone? Cell phone, they say you're not supposed to use your cell phone around a... I think that's a stretch myself, but if they got a sign says, don't use your cell phone, don't use your cell phone. Mythbusters actually proved that one false. Okay, good. Okay. Here's an interesting question.

I don't know if we have time to answer it in full. This is from Tim in Florida. Earl, tell us when you decided to become an auto dealer. What were you doing before Stewart Toyota? I was an electronics engineer, and I had a degree in a master's degree in physics from Florida, or a bachelor's degree from Florida, master's degree from Purdue. started out as an electronics engineer in 1964. And then got promoted.

They wanted to move me to Pittsburgh. I didn't want to go to Pittsburgh, and neither did my wife. And so my father was a Pontiac dealer, and he said, how'd you like to try the car business? And that's how it started back in 1968. I remember. I was an infant. And ironically, his second wife was already in Pittsburgh.

Really? Uh-huh. You should have moved earlier. The next one comes in here. It just says, when you buy a Ugo, you had to buy two to have spare parts, and they sent this picture here. I will show the world on our live feed here, an old Yugo ad. $3,999.

You know who made the Yugo was actually a Fiat, and it was, I believe, it was made in Russia, but it was actually a Fiat manufacturer. I'm not positive about that. But it wasn't made in Yugoslavia? I think it was a loch-a or a lotta or something like that's a potato pancake. We're going to go to Frank. He's calling us from Jupiter Farms.

Good morning, Frank. Nice to hear from you. Good morning. Good morning. Oh, it's always fun listening to you guys. It's like a trip through memory lane sometimes. It should talk about making me realize some things that happened to me back in the 50s and down in Miami or even up here in Jupiter recently.

And one of those things was when the lady was speaking about filling the tanks and the gas tanks and the fumes. I don't think the average person realized it's just how far and past gasoline fumes will spread. I'm going to give two quick examples. As a young little chap down in Miami, we lived out in the middle of nowhere, now it's called Kendall. But back then, to get rid of trash, usually had a 55-gallon steel drum, some holes cut in the bottom, elevated on some cement blocks. you put your trash in and when you're ready to get rid of it you threw some gasoline in there lit the match and boom there it goes um if you let the gas in for more than 10 15 seconds the fumes just spread so much when you threw your match in the explosion was like a 55 gallon mortar shell

going off the trash will actually fly 10 20 feet in the air and so the excitement there normally you try and use kerosene because we still like kerosene heaters we need it back from those years with the ice and stuff down in the colder weather, which was called Miami. But recently, up here in Jupiter Farms, sometimes when we were to get with some branches, we have a big fire pit with cement blocks. I mean, about six feet across, you just get one cup of gasoline, you know, to get it going. And again, if you don't light it really quick, it's amazing. Three or four feet out, it spreads the fumes and the whoosh.

Yeah. When people are filling their gas tanks, I guess they're oblivious that, you know, The fumes can spread, and they shouldn't have their car running. They shouldn't be on the cell phone. But just sharing a few quick stories. Well, that's a great story, Frank. Our cars today, the internal combustion engine with a gas tank is a rolling bomb. And when we finally go to all-electric, I think people, 100 years from now will look back and say,

I can't believe that these people 100 years ago drove around in these cars with, they were ticking time bombs. you know, when you have a gas tank that's near empty, you have the condition that you just described. Mainly vapor and just a little bit of liquid. Liquid gasoline is fine. It's a vapor that turns it into a bomb. And, you know, if you're down to the last couple gallons of gas, anything that spark that vapor in that gas tank is going to blow you right off the road. Yeah, I guess that's why a lot of people that have the knowledge and their foresight, they like to keep their tank. more on the full side than on the MP side.

Exactly. Well, Frank, thanks very much. We appreciate the call, and I love your insight because us old guys really don't have anybody else to talk to sometimes about the old days. That is very true. Next time you call, I made a bomb one time when I was a kid, and I'll tell you that story, maybe next week.

Sounds great. Thank you, all, Nancy. Stay tuned. Give us a call toll free at 877-960-99. or you can text us at 772-49760 and remember you can you can really protect yourself against hidden fees and you can do so by downloading you can go to www. out-the-door price affidavit.com where I have a well a legal document that you can use just before you purchase that vehicle you can make sure that that salesperson or the manager

signs it the out-the-door fee. I just want to apologize. It looks like we have a problem with our streaming software, and our Facebook and YouTube feeds have gone down. So if you're listening on Terrestrial Radio, please you can listen to the show live at stream earlancars.com. We are coming up to the mystery shopping report, and we're working to get those video feeds back up right now,

but it's across the board on all the streaming platforms right now. stream earl on cars.com is probably the best way to listen to the show right now. Yeah, we've had complaints, intermittent complaints all along on these streaming things. It's been a while. You would think that with all the technological capability we have, we'd be able to do this. Apparently it's on the server end of the service that does the, that spreads it out to all the different sites. So it's not our bandwidth in here. We're doing good right now.

It's just out there somewhere remotely. Can we change to a different out there? Not right now. I mean, all Facebook can't be down, so. No, it's called Wirecast. That's the thing that propagates it out. Wirecast is the only game in town? We're up and running right now,

and it's the first time Wirecass has ever gone down. Our problems before was with our bandwidth here. And ladies and gentlemen, just a moment ago, I mentioned Out the Door Price Affidavit, but I misspoke, I said fee, but it is www. www. Out the Door Price Affidavit.com. It's worth its weight in gold.

so download that at Rollin Cars. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Okay, folks, I think we've got a couple of YouTube sticks that Rick can read now. I got one good one. I think you're going to like this one. Javi El Ombre says, good morning. I just purchased a 19 RAM pickup truck, and I'm not happy with the service department where I purchased the vehicle.

I've had many issues with them saying they did work on the truck, and my dash cam caught them not doing a rotation of tires recently. I purchased a maintenance agreement at the time of purchase, and I'm considering taking it to another authorized ram dealer. Will they honor it, number one, or will they not like the fact that I did not purchase there? Thank you guys. That is a really interesting question for a lot of reasons.

Rick knows all about dash cams, and a lot of people now are putting dash cams. in their cars. And here's another interesting bit of information. The Florida Automobile Dealers Association is really up in arms. And they've said that people, customers, you, if you have a dash cam on your car, you're invading the privacy of the dealership. And they are saying that all dealers should be aware that customers that have dash cams are invading the privacy of you when you're saying bad things about that customer or not rotation. the tires, when you say you're rotating the tires, or maybe taking the car home and going

out on Saturday night with your girlfriend, your privacy is being invaded, and that's from the Florida Automobile Dealers Association. We've got a bulletin on that. But, no, seriously, on this particular text, I would advise you to, certainly, you want to be, if you know that the work wasn't done on the car, you should have reported that to the owner of the dealership and you should have protested of the charge. And I forgot what the question was.

The other one is he wants to go to another authorized ram dealer. Will they, would they honor his maintenance agreement? That's the best part. Yeah. The other authorized ram dealer, Chrysler Jeep Dodge dealer, will honor it. And that's an old myth, old Wivesdale, Bourbon legend, whatever you want to call it.

Car dealers love to service your car, no matter where you bought it. And did I just commit a political mistake by saying, old wife's tale? I don't think so. Oh, I was looking at... Politically incorrect. I wouldn't use it, but... Old wife's still. Urban legend.

Urban legend is better. Anyway, car dealers love to service your car no matter where you bought your car. So, bottom line, buy the car where you get the best price, take the car where you get the best service. I got to add something. You mentioned the Florida Automo Dealers Association, their advice on the dash cams. You forgot to mention it was an afterthought at the end of the whole bulletin that says customers are invading your privacy in their own cars. At the very end it says, oh, but by the way, you should probably be careful about what you say about the customers in the car because they might be watching. Yeah. And by the way, I have an owl dash cam and I love it. Me too.

Stu's got one. Al dash cam. They are full. fantastic. They're inexpensive. They record inside and outside, audio and video. They can save you a ton of money in an accident because you know exactly what happened. But your fault, it won't save you a ton of money. Somebody bumps a shopping cart into your car. You can see the random person. OWL, you know, like Owl. OWL. It's really good. Okay, we got another. The other one I have here is from Mr. Hand, and he's actually giving a couple of recommendations. If you happen to be down in the Upper Keys and you need car repairs,

Wheaton's Auto Repair in Key Largo, and Vick's Auto Repair in Tavenir. Can I spell those so they can... Wheatens is W-E-E-E-A-T-O-N, and Vic, V-I-C, Wheatens in Key Largo, and Vix is in Tavernier. Well, thank you, Mr. Wiggins and Mr. Vicks for the YouTube. Well, no, these are actually auto repair shops that Mr. Hand, one of our listeners, is recommending.

Well, how do you know? I'm just, I'm being half funny, and we'll just say that we hope that those are real auto repair shops, and it's not the owner of an auto repair shop, saying his name is something else to get business to his place. That was not worth explaining, but I just want to put everybody on guard when it comes to recommendations. We're going on the recommendation of somebody that we don't know. That is true. It could be the recommendee that is doing the recommending. It could be Mr. Hans' kids on those two shops.

Exactly. What's worth mentioning, folks, if you don't know, Monday, it becomes an offense. You will get fined if you are texting and driving. There's a law. No texting while you're driving Monday, July the 1st. And, of course, that doesn't apply to Apple Carplay, which you, you could use a voice recognition on and keep your eyes on the road. So make sure you do all your texting on the road tomorrow.

I believe they said if the phone is in your hand, the cops can pull you over for it. They clarify that it does not apply to a driver using navigation device system. Okay, we get to the mystery shopping report, right? I think that's right. And folks, don't forget, you can vote 772-4976530. Let us know what you think of that mystery shopping report, and that is from Roger, no, where's the... CarMax, Boynton Beach. CarMax?

That's right. Okay. That's a very special mystery shop. It's been nearly two years since we have been back to one of the most popular car dealership change in the U.S. largest. I think the number one retailer of vehicles, period. Number one retail, no, they're not. You're not? No, they're not of used vehicles.

All right. Number one, retailer of used vehicles. I'm going to fact-check you, sir. Okay, fact-check me. That's fine. And CarMax is, by the way, in most all respects, a good place to buy a used car. They're on a recommended dealer list, and they also sell new cars, by the way. But mainly, they're known for used cars.

They're traded on the New York Stock Exchange. And I believe some very significant, reliable people like could be Warren Buffett is a large stockholder. of CarMax. A respectable outfit. The last two times we shop CarMax, we investigated them for selling used cars with Takata Airbag recalls. In both instances, they actually failed the Takata test, but not nearly as bad as most dealers do. What brought us there this time, however, was an article that appeared in Automotive News, and that's our trade newspaper. All car dealers and all manufacturers read automotive news.

There was an article in Arklund there, the report on CarMax's rollout of its new customer experience program that's designed to provide customers a buying experience that seamlessly integrates online and in-store visits. And that's very interesting because most car dealers, it was especially true a few years ago, but even today, there's two-tier pricing. You have the price you get from the car salesman on the short,

floor when you walk in he gives you the high price and then you call the internet department and they give you the low price it's amazing in the same car dealership you go to any car dealership virtually and there's two prices so rule number one if you're shopping for a car forget about the car salesman just get the online price ask for the internet salesman substantial difference by the way can be a thousand two thousand dollars big difference. Now what CarMax is doing, they're joining the 21st century, they're saying we're going to merge. We only have one price. You can get that one price online, or you can get that one price from our car salesperson, or you can call the dealership and we'll give it to you over the telephone

or text, whatever you want to do. CarMax has always been progressive, and they, I love their ads. They have these young, fresh people, entertaining, lovable. and they dance around and they did the great commercials and they're telling 90% of the truth there's some things they do we don't like but they are probably your best choice to buy a used car um they stumbled with the decado issue that's our big hang up they are easily um i can't think of anybody i would rather recommend than car max to buy a used car um they have a complicated relationship with dealer fees um and this is something something that we just found out. Last time we shopped them, or the first time we shopped them,

I guess, was in February of 2016, and they had a dealer fee called a new wheels fee. Correct. I'd forgotten that. $225. It's small. When you consider car dealers in South Florida or average in about $1,000, $225, I seem small. But still, it's like, why do you hide the $225? It's part of the price of the car. Why do you try to trick me? And then they in 2016, they had a $24 electronic registration filing fee, which is BS. That's just dealer fee. And you have the two together,

and you got a $250 dealer fee, hidden fee. And then October 17, they evolved to $229, creeping up, and then $227 for the electronic registration. And they changed the name from New Wheels fee to Carmack's processing fee. The shell game continues. I can see the dealers and they're in their little conference room they're having their meeting

okay we need to change the name of our dealer fee let's ask the focus group yeah Julie what do you say how about doc fee I don't like it George what do you think let's call it dealer prep fee Henry what are you saying

I got it this sounds like an official fee new wheels electronic filing fee e filing fee notary fee notary fee imagination runs oh I had a potato fee. I have a typo in there, I'm sorry.

Okay. In 2017, it had crept up from 225 to 299. Oh, man. Yeah, yeah, so I'm sorry. In October 2017, it was a $2.99 CarMax processing fee. You got to quit writing these reports up at 2 o'clock at the morning. I didn't do that, sir. I have an explanation for that.

Okay. It was stuck in my outbox. Ah. We decided it was time to return to Carmax and see what the new customer experience was all about, you know, merging the online and the walk-in prices. We asked Agent Thunder to go through the whole thing, starting online with a trade appraisal and finishing in the dealership with a purchase of a 2015 Jeep Wrangler. While we were preparing for the mission, we stumbled upon something surprising.

The Jeep, we're pretending to buy, had an unfixed to caught airbag passenger side, airbag recall. I don't even why we say passenger side or driver's side. We're talking about a grenade. It's either on the left side of the car or the right side of the car. If a grenade blows up, you're going to get in trouble. You're going to be seriously injured or killed. So this is an unfixed to cut airbag on the right-hand side of the car. The listing on CarMax.com included a link for an auto check, which is like a Carfax report.

Yep. A vehicle history report, which revealed the recall. We confirmed that this on safercar.gov and the Chrysler Jeep recall page on mopar.com. What a stupid name. Motor parts. Yeah, I know, Mopar. They're still using it. Call it Chrysler or call it a Jeep.

I remember hearing about that like in the 70s. Yeah, Mopar was their, that was their tagline that came out in the late 60s. We're digressing here, but it's like Moped. I mean, it just doesn't make no sense. This time we tried something different. We told Agent Thunder not to ask about the safety or any of the three questions we normally do. Just go in there like the average customer does. The average customer doesn't ask these very penetrating questions.

They should. We are curious to see how things play out without prompting the salesperson. Here's the report. I'm like I'm Agent Thunder. I began my mission at CarMax.com, selected the Boynton Beach location. I found the listing for the 2015 Jeep Wrangler that no haggle price was 22,098. Now, that is a good thing about CarMax is they don't haggle hassle. they put the real price their best price on the car and it's not negotiable for you it's

negotiable for them because then they slip in their dealer fee later on which i don't like you shouldn't like it either i started the listing and clicked on the link that asked need to sell you need to sell your car too hoping to get an instant purchase offer in my 2018 dodged charger now i really do have a 2018 Dodge charger and i'm speaking as if I made you a thunder. I entered some info about my car, and I was informed that CarMax would be interested in buying it from me. I didn't get an instant purchase offer,

but I was shown a form to schedule an appraisal of the dealership. I picked up my appointment at a time for just an hour later. Within minutes, I received a phone call confirming the appointment. Up to this point, things felt pretty special. Not what I just say. Oh, they felt pretty typical. It didn't seem like, yeah. Yeah, pretty typical.

And not what I thought a customer experience program would be like. At the dealership, I was greeted by Terry, who welcomed me and checked me at the computer station. Terry also said he'd be assisting me. He found my appointment, talked to me about both the charger I wanted to sell and the Wrangler I wanted to buy. I told them that my charger was a beast, and I kept getting speeding tickets with it. And this is true. Is that true? Yes.

I wanted something fun and sporty that wasn't a muscle car. I told him that's how I settled on a Jeep Wrangler. Jury led me outside to see the Jeep. Along the way, he decided the reasons to buy from CarMax, like there are no haggle price. And the fact, I would be dealing with just one person. Instead of going from T.O. back and forth, sales manager and so on, closer, desk man, and all that kind of stuff.

As soon as we reached the Jeep, Terry started the engine, crank the AC, then he asked for my driver's license, suggested I poke around while he ran back inside for a minute. He came back about 10 minutes later. We left to test drive. Had a nice time during the ride. Conversation was easy. Terry was very professional and he knew a lot about the Jeep. We took it down 995 for a bit, then drove back to CarMax. Terry already had a lot of my personal information in the computer and he was ready to begin the purchase process on my charger. I handed my keys, and he turned them over to an appraiser. If you just tuned in, we're mystery shopping, CarMax, and Boynton Beach, Florida.

At his desk, he showed me the computer screen. He said, we'd be notified when they had completed the appraisal. In a short time, the screen flash screen, they were offering $31,000. I was pleasantly surprised. That was a very good number on my car, and I let Terry know. We moved on to the purchase of the Jeep. I had been instructed to not question the safety of mechanical soundness. We're just going in there, no prompting the salesman,

pretending like we don't care about the safety or don't worry about the safety or recalls or anything else. We trust them. Yeah, I trust them, like the average customer does. Terry printed a buyer's order and went over the figures. The sale price was the online price, $22,098. and an online price and the price of the car, identical. They merged those two departments. Then they added a $399 car max processing fee.

Got a new name, Carmack's processing fee. A new name and a new amount. You said $2.99. $3.99. Last time. 17. Yes. So they've gone up another $100.

Correctamundo. Wow. So that's a one-third increase. And at 27, they kept the optional electronic registration filing fee, electronic registration filing fee and optional, and that doesn't make sense, because it's printed on the buyer's order,

$27. So you have the $27, so you got basically a $426 dealer fee by a different name. I said that, which is extra profit to the dealer. I said, everything looked great, Terry extended his hand, and I shook it. I said, hour to run to get my wife from work and we'd be back to take delivery. Terry

has me my paperwork and I left. Here's the epilogue. Most importantly, CarMax failed another Takata test. Agent Thunder didn't mention anything about safety or recalls but neither did the salesperson. The recall was known to them. It was posted on their own website but the sale was not stopped and of course they jacked everybody around on the dealer fee and they've been doing that for some time. And all car dealers do this. It's just a shame. Now, I said at the beginning of the show that I hope Rosemary Shahan, who is a very special person, who is the consumer advocate extraordinaire from California. And she is the president of consumers for auto reliability

and safety cars. And she sued through the Federal Trade Commission, actually sued Federal Trade Commission because they were not going after CarMax or General Motors. And both CarMax and General Motors were saying, hey, we do a 125-point safety inspection and all the used cars we sell, certified used cars, are safe. And they're selling a car that they say is safe with 125-point inspection and it has a defective airbag or it has a dangerous recall that has not been fixed. Can you think of a better reason that the Federal Trade Commission should do something? The Federal Trade Commission is supposed to protect you, an American citizen, from deception on the part of people who sell you things.

If a car dealer, especially General Motors, and they are a car manufacturer who have thousands of dealers, and they tell them, you certify a car, that means you've done the inspection, you tell your customers this used car is safe. and yet they're selling you the car without disclosure that it has an unfixed dangerous recall. Rosemary Sheehan sued the Federal Trade Commission and unfortunately she lost. I could make some political comments about that, but I think the Federal Trade Commission

leaves a lot to be desired in the United States of America. They've got some rules, but they don't enforce the rules. And that's a rule that should be enforced. Now, there was some changes. There were some changes. Both General Motors and Carfax got a little bit of religion there, and they are doing some disclosure that is supposed to preempt them from being sued again, I guess. And they're saying that they are disclosing these recalls.

The salespeople are disclosing recall. I'll read from the CarMax website. Your sales consultant will review with you an auto-check report and then specific recall look-up results from the NHTSA website. CarMax notifies customers prior to purchasing to have unrepaired safety recalls by the manufacturer immediately. This was not done in our mystery shopping report. This was not done. So they have violated their own rules, and I wish Rosemary Sheehan. We'll read the shopping report.

We sent it to her, but West Coast time, three hours difference. She's an extremely busy woman. I know she will read it. We hope she'd call the show. But maybe next week she'll call the show. She has a copy of the Mystery Shopping Report. Maybe this will be grounds for another lawsuit against CarMax, or a lawsuit against General Motors.

Because I guarantee you the same thing is happening with General Motors dealers. You cannot tell a car dealer. ship, CarMax, or otherwise, that you just have to disclose dangerous recalls and you've done your duty. First of all, you're relying on your sales force to do it, and you've got, what, 25 or 30 salespeople. Do you really believe that all those salespeople are going to be that conscientious to tell the customer, hey, this car has a dangerous recall. It's a Takata Airbag that can blow up in your face. I have a management tip for anybody who wants to accomplish something important, don't put the responsibility on the largest population of people

in your dealership. Exactly, who are paid on commission. Right. Give it to have one person, do it, one person responsible. If you have 50 people responsible, it's going to get done half the ton. And the person you don't want to hold responsible are commissioned employees. If you are telling a salesperson that you will get 25% of the profit when you sell this car, or you're going to be paid $250 or whatever it is, if you're.

sell this car and you tell them to disclose something that may cause that customer not to want to buy the car there's a chance that salesperson might forget to tell that customer and this happens over and over and over again and we shop mystery shop i don't know a hundred maybe more car dealerships by phone or in person and in most cases these salespeople forget to tell the customer So this is the responsibility of our legislators, the Federal Trade Commission, the Attorney Generals, State Attorney Generals, all the enforcement agencies and the legislative lawmaking agencies, you've got to make it illegal to sell a car with a dangerous recall. CarMax, a publicly traded company regulated by the Security Exchange Commission, this is absolutely disgraceful what CarMax is doing. doing. And remember when we vote, we vote on the curve. So when we're going to vote, is this a passing grade or not a passing grade? CarMax has done better than most cardioloships did

because all cartilaships are not disclosing this to their customers. I'm sorry, when you vote, take that in consideration. So let's vote on CarMax. Well, we have votes coming in from online and And they're not kind. I don't think they're on the curve. But here we go. Linda gives them a, quote, big, big, huge F. Walter gives them an F. Ed gives them a D minus.

Jenny gives them a D and Jackie gives them an F. And I'm kind of struggling with it because, you know, I think CarMax, I don't want to, I don't want to not recommend CarMax. You can't. Where else are you going to buy you his car? Here's what I'm going to say. I'm going to give them. this is going to be a weird one

I'm going to give them an A with a big asterisk and that is if you go to CarMax you cannot count on them to follow their policy to disclose the recall so you got to click auto check it's right on their listing they make it really easy to find a recall on their website

but you got to be careful and prepare yourself so I know that's a controversial grade I'm going the complete opposite from our listeners but there you go answer you. F for the mystery shop of CarMax and folks Earl's column

why even honest car dealers lie to you read it read it and weep I'm going to follow a stew's example but I'm going to give them a B because I still think they could have there's room for improvement everywhere and from online

Frank says F Ernesto says F and Mr. Hand says no soup for them F yeah I have a Sandy just chimed in with an F and then another Frank with a D-minus. Well, I'm glad you listeners. You're voting with your heart, which is good.

And maybe we've got some legislators or regulators listening out there. You can see what people feel about car dealers not disclosing dangerous recalls. And it's just a terrible thing. But literally, the best place to buy a used car is CarMax. And we can't take them off the list because Pluritians have to buy used cars. You can do a lot worse. Yes. I think folks should take an example from Mark from Lake Worth with what he does.

did at Delray Toyota, he did his homework, he knew what he was doing, knew when he walked in there what he wanted, and he got the job done. It took a while, but he got it done. The problem is, we are not going to be able to change the

intelligence, the aggressiveness, the average shopper out there goes in, and they're too trusting. We're too trusting when we buy our cars. We've been buying cars like this, are entire life. Most people go through the same thing. And it's just a fact, I don't believe in government or regulation. I'm not one of these people that believes the government should take over and rule

every facet of our lives. But I think the government should protect our lives and our welfare and our health. And this is one area where we need protection. The regulations, legislators have got to help save lives. And that means make it illegal to sell a car with a defective recall. I didn't vote with my heart I can clarify that it just isn't ethical that's why I gave them an F I wouldn't put anyone

behind a wheel of a car that was going to explode and kill them and their children, their family ladies and gentlemen thank you ladies and gentlemen thank you for joining us this morning

we've had a fabulous show and the reason for that is because of you we enjoy your company and I want to give a special thank you to Rudy and to Jonathan in the control room for helping us again this Saturday. Tune in next week, same time. Have a wonderful weekend. Vector Vettom Fet no

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