Earl Stewart on Cars - 07.01.2023 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Jim Shorkey Kia of Irwin, PA.

Episode Date: July 1, 2023

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning travels north to visit a local Kia dealer to see how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2023 Kia Telluride SUV on the lot. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, his tweets at www.twitter.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. Sign up to become one of Earl's Vigilantes and help others in your community to avoid getting ripped off by a car dealer. Go to www.earlsvigilantes.com for more information. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

Good morning, everybody. We're back again. Another exciting show. We're going to try to help you folks out there that are listening and watching, streaming. How you can buy a car safely. buy a car, lease a car, maintain or repair your car in this crazy world we live in. It's, I mean that literally. I've never seen anything like the past, what, three years, four years, it's a nutty world.

And we focus on cars, so we could talk about a lot of crazy stuff that's going on. But we're going to focus on cars. it as simple as we can. Buying a car, leasing a car has always been a challenge. It's one of the few retail products, the automobile, that is stuck

in time a hundred years ago. Cars are bought and sold, leased today just like they were 100 years ago. I mean, tell me a product. Most products we have weren't around 100 years ago. So, it's just, how did that

happened? Well, they got locked in by the car dealers who organized. There's thousands of them out there, and they make good money, so they're well-financed, and they organized. And they lobbied state legislatures, all 50 states. And car dealers are entrenched. About as entrenched as you can get. I mean, there's nothing that can't be unenrenched. Is that a word? Disenrenched? I'm not sure. But they're in there pretty firmly right now. And so they do things the way they want to. If they violate a rule, a law, ethics, morals, whatever they violate, they're protected. The legislators are in their pockets.

The legislators are elected based on the support of the National Automobile Deals Association. We're in Florida, so I'll say the Florida Automobile Deals Association. And there's other associations, there's a Tampa, again, Florida, there's a Tampa, Orlando, a Jacksonville, a Miami. And all these organizations are in business for one reason to raise funds, to send to the state legislatures to be sure that they know that the dealers are to be untouched, the dealers are protected. And that means that if you're a manufacturer, you're not allowed to sell a car. You, individually, you can only sell one car. I think they allow you one car, but you can't sell more than one car. Dealers are protected.

They do it any way they want to. So that's the mess that we address to this show, Earl Stewart on Cars. And we're in the studio right now in North Palm Beach, Florida. That's South Florida. I fondly refer to as the Sodom Gormorah of Cardinaliships. We are about the toughest place to buy a car. It's really the Wild Wild West, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach County, Broward County, Dade County. It's really tough down here.

Every manufacturer's dealers are represented. I can't think of any vehicle that isn't represented in South Florida. And the competition is fierce. And the fierce of the competition, the more unethical and rough it gets. and rough mainly on you, the consumer. So we're going to help you. We love to hear from you. There's so much news.

We could do the whole show just on the new stuff going on with cars. I mean, electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles. There's just the oversupply of, or I should say the undersupply of cars and the oversupply, if that's a way to put it, of demand. and people are buying cars like they've never bought cars before. There's fewer cars, the prices are sky high. We'd like to hear from you, though. And if you will call us at 877-960-960,

hopefully if we do our job, we'll get that number out again and again because we're over here from two hours. I mean, you're 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Eastern Standard time. That's two hours. It sounds like a long time, but it just flies. by. And if you'd like to call us, we'd love to hear from you. We prioritize the phone call. 877-960-99-60. Nancy Stewart, who was mentioned in the recorded introduction. She's my wife.

She's my co-host. She's a co-founder of the show. And she is a female advocate. And she has brought the, we have parity between women and men in the show. We have all my as many women as men they call the show. And we didn't used to have that. We've been doing this for 20 years. So Nancy will tap me on the shoulder. She has a laptop. You call 877-960-960, and she'll stop Rick or stop Stu,

stop me, stop herself, because we want to hear from you. We've only had five phone lines, so we don't want you to have to hold too long. Be honest with you, you might have to hold longer than you'd like, because we get people on the call, it's a current caller, and maybe they have something really interesting, so we do talk for three or four, five minutes sometimes. But we'll do our best. 877-960-99-60.

Now, other ways, if you don't want to call directly and be on the air live, your voice on the radio, then can text us. And there's Stu Stewart, sitting across from me now, he monitors our text as 772-497-6530 7-7-2-497-9-7-6-5-0. If you can write these numbers down, you might not have anything you want to text about now, but you will later. And we're going to give it out again because people listen for maybe 15 minutes. Then they, you know, we get where they're going.

They're listening to the radio and the car or whatever's going on. And we're on for two hours, like I say. So you'll hear this number again and again. 877-960-99-60 for callers, and we prioritize those calls. And for texters, that's 772-497-65-3-0. We might not get to you right away on the text, but we will probably before the end of the show. Now, I left our big gun for last. The big gun is our YouTube channel, and we have YouTube.

you know, YouTube.com for slash RELON cars. Two channels. Two channels. We have two channels? We have Earl on cars and the Earl Stewart Toyota channel. Folks seem to find their way on to each of them. And they both go to YouTube. They both are on YouTube running simultaneously. Oh, I'll be darned.

So that's maybe why we get so many. And Rick, the voice you just heard there, our certified master diagnostic technician, he monitors the YouTube channel. And some of our, I mean, I don't want to offend any of our other callers or texters, but the YouTube guys are really sharp. I mean, I learn more from the YouTube callers than about anybody else. They really do their research, and they come up with some really good stuff. So, YouTube.com, slash Earl on Cars, or what was the other one?

Earl Stewart Toyota. YouTube, Earl Stewart Toyota on YouTube. Okay, that's why we don't use that, because we are a Toyota dealership. and we don't like to talk about it. But it's important that you know from transparency that we're in the business. We are retail car dealers, and we are attacking retail car dealers a lot

because of the way they do business. So we're one of them, and I want you to know that, hey, I've got to admit it. I'm a car dealer. And when I go to a party or a social event, I usually don't tell anybody I'm a car dealer because it creates sometimes some animosity. Gallup Annual Poll on Honesty and Ethics and Professions.

You want some data to back up that last statement. The Gallup Annual Poll on Honesty and Ethics and Profession ranks car dealers either last, next to last, at a really good year. This has been going on for 50 years. In a really good year, they're a third from last. Sometimes we get beat out by congressmen, lobbyists, politicians, something like that. So here we are. I mentioned Rick Carney, Certified Diagnostic Master Technician.

If you have, I'm talking about buying cars now, but if you want to fix your car, if you want to maintain your car without being taken advantage of, call Rick. You'll give you a diagnostic right on the phone. I mean, you can describe the noise, the odor, the rattle, the squeak, you know, whatever. One of the cars doing that makes you nervous, and for the safety item, you should be nervous. If it's making you nervous and you're also nervous about taking it to a car dealer because he's going to rip you off and fix something that doesn't need fixing or not fix it right or charge you too much, if all that were is you call Rick.

Get a free diagnosis right here on the air. And you can call at 877-960-99-60 and we'll put you right through to Rick or you can go to YouTube and he's watching that right now. YouTube.com forward slash Erlawn Cars. I'm going to turn the mic over to Nancy Stewart because she has a special message, very important message, for you ladies out there that may be listening. Good morning, everyone. Welcome. Happy Fourth of July weekend.

We're happy to be with you. As I say, every Saturday, we enjoy your company. Just to get things stirred up a little bit, let me throw a question out there to the listeners, the viewers. As the rates soar for auto insurance, how has it affected you? Give us a call. Toll-free at 877-960, and you can also text us at 772-497-6-5-3-0. And don't forget your anonymous feedback. You can always get in touch with us through there and remain anonymous.

Youranonymous Feedback.com. Also in the news, this is an interesting story that appeared in the USA Today, and what it says is gas super users urge to step on the brakes. Guzzlers can get incentives to make the leap to electric. And it goes on to say that the government on both coasts of the U.S. want to persuade a small percentage of drivers who use most gas to switch to electric. And some leaders are taking the first steps towards incentives to make it happen.

Research shows 10% of drivers in the United States use almost one-third of the nation's gas. And, of course, they're worried about a lot of carbon dioxide, too. So that's just to give you a little snippet of what's going on in the news and how we're, well, we're directing our purchases towards electric. some of us are. Also this morning, Lulu will be in. Lulu's coming in from Big Dog Ranch. Bernadette is bringing her in, and she is here from Georgia. This isn't Little Lulu, by the way.

Yeah. Not Little Lulu. Little Lulu. It's not Little Lulu. I think that's reaching back in time. Do you remember the Connix trip, Little Lulu? Yeah, I do. Okay, that was a joke, because Lulu is a German Shepherd, and Little Lulu is quite larger. Well, little Lulu, come on. She's just a little girl. She's only three, what, three

years old? Three years and three weeks. So everyone wants to, ladies want to refer to as a little something or another. Anyway, Lulu will be here and her owners had to give her up because they had some health issues and she's a big dog branch now and she's very friendly and you're really going to enjoy her company. Also for the ladies, don't forget, $50 for the first two new lady callers. Yes, $50 for the first two new lady callers. And there's plenty to talk about. Or if you just want to call and say hello, perfect. Our number, 877-960, and you can text us at 772-497-30. Remember, Earl's book, the recovering car dealer Confessions of a recovering car dealer

All proceeds go to the big dog ranch When you purchase that book It's a double bark That was a big one For Big Lulu Okay Earl back to you How about we got any text coming in? Oh yeah

I'll kick it off with Ann Marie's text as usual Oh excuse me We have a phone call The phones are starting to light up We are going to go to Doug Who's been holding in Boca Good morning Doug good morning i just want to say i appreciate both of you you're really amazing to the whole community

and uh i still haven't had my coffee this morning god bless you that's rick sorry about that thanks doug that was really sweet but what about the rest of us you know there's not just two people in the studio no no i know all of you ella and sim say hello too and me out oh i hi ella Thank you, Doug. I just had two quick things. I've been trying to pursue to get a Corolla GR. Oh, boy. Some of the dealerships are getting them in very slowly,

and then they mark them up anywhere from $10,000 to like $18,000, yeah. Which is just, it doesn't make any sense to me, but I know you guys don't do that, but it's... Yeah, we don't do that. The GR is one of those cars that are going to produce four of. I mean, there's hardly any of them out there, and that's done purposely.

And then, you know, when the dealers get an opportunity like that, it's hard to resist. I like to say buy one from us, but it would probably take you five years to get it from us. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, I spoke to one sales guy you said about a year, Yeah, I was exaggerating, but it's going to take it would probably at least a year on that one. Okay, so then I'm going to tell you a really quick story.

So a friend of mine knows the owner's son of a dealership in Hollywood. And is it a toy to dealership? Yeah. Oh, yeah, so we know them too. So I have an opportunity to get one that's sticker part. and the thing really yeah oh good in that case it's a good story and i would say well then Craig's in is a nice guy for helping you guys out like that yeah it really is well it's only because of one of my best friends who knows yeah it's uh yeah Hollywood Toyota is one of the

largest toilet ships in the country uh they rank in the top three typically or four maybe and so he would have a lot more vehicles. So I'm glad if you know him personally and he's able to get you that very, very rare car. I'm pretty sure it's a one per dealer thing, so it's a very, very special thing you did for you.

Let us know how you like it. Yeah, I will. It's supposed to come in in like two weeks and I will make a decision whether to do it or not. Toyota's as you know is hurting because they don't have electric vehicles as most of the other manufacturers they got off to a late start

and i was really shocked to see that toyota's loyalty rating dropped precipitously in the past a few months and they've this is an automotive news story that i would have never thought this would happen but Toyota buyers who are loyal to and buy, you know, one Toyota after another, are now switching to Tesla. So Tesla has hurt the Toyota loyalty. Whoa. Yeah. This electric vehicle thing is a real, real thing. Another interesting bit of news that you'd be interested in, Doug, is that the car dealers are still in denial.

Two-thirds of the car dealers think this electric vehicle thing isn't going to happen any, time soon. I mean, it's just going to maybe go away. I guess that's wishful thinking. The problem is two-thirds of the car buyers think it will not go away and they want to buy it. So it's really interesting that

car dealers are totally out of sync with what they think's going to happen versus the consumer what they think's going to happen and guess who's going to win that argument. Oh, one more quick thing. Let's Sim's car got in a little bit of an accident, but she's

sign. And while we're getting the car six, we went to a rental place, we'll mention them. And we got a Subaru legacy, which to me is the weirdest car that I've ever driven in my

entire life. I mean, it actually keeps beeping at me when it thinks that I'm not looking. Yeah, it keeps doing it constantly. And then the other worst. Was that Samarella? Mm-hmm. Then when you come to a stop, okay, the car shuts off briefly and then restarts.

And then if you're not careful and you press the gas, it'll lurch forward. And the car is a nightmare. Unbelievable. Hey, Doug, we've got four callers on the line now. We don't want to lose any. So thanks again for your comments. And I really would like to see that car when you buy it. As I say, I haven't driven one.

So if you buy it, maybe come up here and take me for a ride. he'll race you in the Tesla Thanks so much, dog We enjoy your company You and your wife 877-960 Or you can text us at 772-4976530

And don't forget Your Anonymous Feedback.com We are going to stay on the phones We've got Dick calling from Boca. Good morning, Dick Good morning. Good morning. What a wonderful wonderful show. Thank you. To Mr. and Mrs. Stewart and all your

great helpers. And happy 4th of July of a fast question. Related to cars, but not related to cars. I listen to you every week, and I'm fascinated by it. However, I was looking at that stock Auto Nation last week, and it's making a new high. Now, they're not into electric vehicles, whatever. I don't understand why a stock would be making a new high that's connected with the regular automobiles

when the electric cars are coming in so strong. I'm just wondering, is Earl have an opinion on that? I think that a simple answer is that Auto Nation is probably the best run public auto company. They used to be the largest, I think, lithium eeked amount for first place. They probably got over 200 car dealerships. And they're just, like anything else, they have a good mix of good brands. They got Toyota, Lexus, Honda. They really have some, and they're getting into the electric vehicle business indirectly.

I mean, they have to wait until the manufacturers make the change. And one of their problems is that they can't get a Tesla, franchise because Tesla sells directly. So if the only thing that's going to hurt Auto Nation, I think they're superior and competition and profit to almost all car dealers and almost all other the public held companies. The only person that are not superior to is Tesla and that's because they can't compete with Tesla. Tesla sells directly. So Auto Nation is a really good stock buy in my opinion and they have been for quite a while okay that's that's right to the

point the only thing is I'm talking about just going into the future but yeah exactly it's all about the future exactly well thanks very much for the call to direct the answer and thank you you're welcome to was great hearing from you happy 4th of july to you we are going to go to john who's giving us a call from stewart good morning john good morning welcome hello can you hear me yes lighting clear welcome welcome thank you happy 4th of July soon to be happy 4th of July yeah I have a question for I think it would be Rick because I heard him talk about this a week or two ago in 2009 I was we lived in Georgia and I was going to buy a Prius and my wife threw a big fit because she

didn't like it as ugly and I thought it was ugly too but I was driving yesterday down the road and I saw a brand new one and it was a white one with the black the black trim and stuff like it and it was beautiful and then I heard Rick say something about like one of the best cars ever made is that true about the new ones is he think or because she wants me to get a highlander but we're getting older and I don't want to get a big vehicle then I'd rather get something that has some good gas mileage and stuff and he said it got like 30 some miles to the gallon or something like that on the electric and since most of my trips are just in Stewart I probably wouldn't have to buy much gas at all.

If you learn to drive a Prius properly, you will get anywhere from 45 to 55 miles per gallon all day long. Those cars are phenomenal. And even there are people out there that created a term called hyper-miling. Mostly Prius owners when they first really got popular. and these guys literally wrote their own book on how to maximize the fuel economy while driving hybrids. And some of these folks out there are getting 70 miles a gallon reliably out of Priuses. And the new ones, the new Priuses are just as good as the old ones.

Toyota really has actually kept it good on the Prius. They have not downgraded them. They've not lost any of the quality by thinking, okay, now we can sit back and relax and, you know, maybe cut some corners. No, they've kept the Prius up really, really well. It was a beautiful car. I liked the new styling, because the other ones were, you know, they were really ugly. I mean, they were, I thought. Yeah, I agree.

The 2004 to 2009 was such a. a shock of a body style then and the 2010 changeover they didn't really change it a whole lot so it still was kind of like this just odd looking car and it

was one of those that you either love it or you hate it John Rick really knows what he's talking about with Prius I don't know how many years ago was it Rick Trovei Prius from North Palm Beach Florida to Washington D.C. on one tank of gas

What your Prius was that? That was a second generation. I believe it was an 07 or an 08 and basically it was 1,100 miles on one tank of fuel. Now that was a modified Prius. We had a lithium battery installed as well to where it was a plug-in version.

And that was back in the days when because the government had not caught up with things, they force the engine to run the moment you start the car up to heat up all the catalytic converter and the emission systems but now they realize hey on these hybrids they don't have to start the engine at certain times and they've relaxed some of those regulations changed around to fit the car better and the fuel economy has just increased

and if you're anyone that likes the environment there's so much better for the environment too because of the emissions so low. Absolutely. And John, the new Pira said it has a lot of sparkle compared to the one you were talking about. We have some calls backed up. So. Okay, it's good.

Pardon me? Yeah, that's good. Okay. Yeah, no, that's good. I just wanted to ask you that question. So you guys have a nice Fourth of July, and it's a pleasure talking to you. It was a pleasure. Thank you.

Happy Fourth of July. We are going to go to Josh. You're calling us from New Jersey. Good morning, Josh. Hey, good morning. How are you? Great. Welcome.

Thank you. Thank you. I've been following you guys for several years. I've actually gone through four different vehicles now following your days. So it's been extremely helpful. So I'm grateful to you guys who won't. That's great. So I'm looking now, getting ready to get another one.

You know, I'm self-employed, so I need some tax ride. So I go out and leave the new vehicle and I need a tax ride off according to my CPA. And so I've been shopping around, and the Infinity Q50, I've been a big fan of with the all-wheel drive or whatnot. And oddly enough, when I shopped the Camry, the lease quote was about the same. And I was kind of scratching my head. I'm like, why is it $35,000 car, the same monthly payment as a $62,000 car for lease? And so I'm trying to get some understanding as to what's going on. And it looks like these dealers are now starting to get more and more stock.

I don't know if you guys are seeing a shift in the market where the vehicles are now starting to be in stock. A little bit. Actually, the change that we're anticipating, at least for Toyota dealers, is in the second half of the year starting now, where we're going to expect to see some increased production and delivery of vehicles to dealers. Now, on the leasing thing, I can tell you that Toyota used to be heavy, heavy in the leasing, particularly down here in the southeast, and they're going head-to-head with Honda, which had these very competitive lease programs since the pandemic or since the inventory situation, they've dropped all their support for lease programs.

Everybody's buying their lease cars. They did those programs because they wanted the cars to come back in. It was all part of a big cycle of buying and selling cars. But anyway, so there's no incentives on the lease programs. So they use the standard industry residuals and rates that are comparable to, you know, know the higher interest rates we have now. I'm wondering maybe possibly infinity is trying to lease those, and so they might have a special lease incentivized program for the infinity.

Oh, that means. Yeah, because in the past, with Toyota, you know, if you just took the industry residuals and the normal rates, it wouldn't be anything special. Toyota basically would come in and say, well, the ALG guide, which is the industry, says the residual on this camera is going to be 50%. then Toyota Financial Services

or Southeast Toyota Finance comes in and says it's going to be 65%. And that causes the payment to drop a lot and it's great for the customers. Yeah. Yeah. So Infinity's probably doing something like that. They put a little incentive into it, not a ton

because I shopped Infinity back in 2018 and they had huge incentives. Yeah. But it looks like it's starting to kind of creep up because they keep emailing me and they're like, hey, our price just dropped. You know, we got another incentive. So it looks like they're starting to... Because these same cars that I shopped six months ago are still on the lot.

Yeah, the inventory levels, like they're anticipating having a slightly higher supply at the end of the year on the lot. So we'll have some build-up of inventory, most oil dealerships. Other manufacturers are already there, and they have, like, GM dealers, they have full lots in some cases. So everybody's going to fall in between those extremes. Would you recommend waiting for the end of the year? For Toyota, there's going to be a lot more to choose from, I mean, not like, we're not like doubling inventories, but we're going from like a three-day supply to a nine-day supply. Yeah, things are getting a little better, Josh, and the incentives are getting better also,

and there are more of them. Josh, we have some calls backed up, so we are going to have. I appreciate it. We'll do you help? Yes, Josh. I'm glad we could help. Have a great day. 877-960 is a number where you can reach us, and you can also text us at 772-497-6530.

We're going to go to John in Fort Lauderdale. Good morning, John. Well, good morning to you both, and happy 4th of July, and this is not only a call, a regular call, but this is from an old friend who used to broadcast out of that very studio many years ago. This is Jammin' John Summers. It's the oldie show. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, Jim and John.

We listen to you all the time. It's great to hear from you. It's good to talk to you guys. You're always two of my favorite people at that station. I'm glad to hear that you're still on the air. And now that you have a repeater signal down here in Brower, I can listen to you. Oh, fantastic. All right.

So I actually have a question for you. And I have been a Lexus driver. My goodness, for at least 35, 40 years. I've owned about 15 of them, never bought a used one, and we bought a new one. And like Toyota, the sister company or the Penner Company, they're pretty much bulletproof. You know, I drove each one of them,

I drove 365,000 miles, and without changing tires of oil, it cost me a cent. I'm wondering, and this is going to be the first time, I'm actually selling my current RX-350, which I think is one of the great SUV that's built on a Camry platform, Tuare Camry platform, so you can get a smooth, silky ride instead of a truck-like ride.

I'm selling mine now. I could put a for-sale sign. My goodness, my phones blew up within five minutes. So obviously, a used car market is still hot. But what my question is, I went to a look at a new one. I knew 2020, I guess it's a 24 now, RX-350. And they changed them.

They took one of the best-selling SUVs and made it, Instead of that silky smooth 3.5-liter V6 engine, they put a four-cylinder that they call it turbo. I don't consider it a little turbo. I test drove, and I said, why did they do this and why did they make it a couple of inches now? Do you have any take on that? Fuel efficiency. Yeah. The number one factors.

It's not really getting the difference is about a mile or two or a gallon. It all goes into the equation. Yeah. Even a little bit on each car. increase in fuel efficiency adds up over the sack of cars over the whole fleet of them and with the government constantly telling the manufacturers you've got to get these your fuel efficiency higher and get your emissions lower and so it becomes all a numbers game and then you've got engineers that just they got to have their say in it too so they just keep coming up with these new

engine ideas. And I understand that. 50 miles per gallon, right? Do you think there's a possibility that they're trying to take an RX buyer and step him up to the big SUV, which used to be a V8 and now is a V6?

Potentially. Okay. I just found that the car, which had just gobs of power and stick as a silky smooth on the highway, now has that force, annoying engine sound that we'll just drive you nuts on a long trip and I took the present one that I had I took it on a 6,000 mile road trip last year and the car so

down comfortable I drove nine hours a day and went out and played 18 holes of golf I mean it was incredible it's just like they took one of the best-selling things and I don't want to say shot themselves in the football we'll see how sales are and you guys being Toyota specialists pretty much their interchangeable parts And I wonder if you had to take on that. Of course, I'm a car guy. Well, they're going to... I don't know if you remember.

Yeah. I don't know if you remember, but I'm a car guy. I own about 20 classic cars from the 1950s and 60s. You're going to probably have to stick to the classic cars, because, I mean, basically, these smaller engines are just, you're not going to see many of these smaller engines. They're all shifting to electric and hybrids. So as a matter of fact, the Toyota's doing that was probably something they didn't even want to do. I mean, they'd probably like to keep big.

roomy cars you know but yeah the fleets of the cafe standards in 2025 is going to 54 miles per gallon that means the I get it yeah so they get out yeah well I don't know you know the hybrid idea to me works a whole lot better than the electric idea right now because when we were on this road trip last summer I kind of put into my phone wherever I could get a signal up on a Canadian Vermont Canadian border and of course that I plugged and I said you to try and find the nearest charging station of any type was 250 miles away. And so it's great if you have an all-electric car in a metro area.

Don't take your car. Don't take your EV there. Yeah, well, that's the thing you can't take. You can't take it on a long trip. Yeah, that's in process. So I'm not quite ready for that, yeah. Yeah, I mean, there was a big bill pass for something like 150,000 charging stations across the country. So it's coming along. It's going to go, yeah, they're going to go hand-in-hand charging a bail.

and electric vehicle cells are going to kind of go along this path together. Well, I agree with you on that. I think within the next five to eight years, it'll be 75 to 80% electric on the road. And the only need to be left over to be old used cars and they'll be worth nothing. I think that's a good number of predict. I realize that I'm never going to get the rumble of a 66-4 vet out of it. But you might get an artificial rumble. They can do that with software.

John, it's been a pleasure. We enjoy talking. Thanks for your time, and thanks for the information. You guys stay healthy, and it's just terrific to talk to you again. Oh, it was absolutely great to hear from you. Let's give us a call again. We'd love to hear from you. We're going to go to Jamie, who's been holding patiently.

Good morning, Jamie. Oh, good morning. Can you hear me all right? Yes, we can hear you fine. What can we do for you this morning? I have a 2011 Toyota Cambly running like a top. but it's reaching the point where I think I need to change the transmission oil somehow. Now I understand that Toyota doesn't have a sealed transmission, is that correct?

Can you change filters of that transmission or do you just change the fluid? What you have is a Toyota transmission that has WS-type fluid. It is a lifetime fluid. it should never need to be changed. And that's all cars now. Not just Toyota, but all the cars have gone to that. Yep. And it's, there is no, there's no filter, there are internal screens,

and that fluid is lifetime. Unless something were to be broken or damaged on the transmission, you'd never need to change it. David, the thing you have to be careful of, if you're having your car service and a dealer, dealers are starving the death in the service departments for lack of maintenance items to perform, mainly because the cars require very, very little maintenance today. But a lot of them are going by the old book, and they're changing fluids, and they're doing flushes,

and they're still doing things the way they were done 25 years ago when cars required a lot of maintenance. And look at your owner's manual, and if you lost it, pull it up. online and find out what the manufacturer recommends in terms of your periodic maintenance. You'd be surprised what a low amount of maintenance is actually required. So when you go over to the dealer say, this is what I want done, don't do anything else. It'll save you a lot of money. Okay, so basically what you're saying is there's no need to change the transmission for it either. Exactly.

well you know I guess that's that's going to be an idea I wouldn't have to get used to because I've always I heard that in your voice it was tough yeah

the oil has to be changed a certain time and Tyler should have to be changed a certain time brakes have to be changed and now it's a transmission you don't have to do anything to it I mean that sounds a little weird I mean you could

same thing with the power steering Years ago, they'll change your oil every 2 or 3,000 miles. Now you're talking 10,000 miles, so it's just, it's progress. I know sometimes when you get into a habit, it makes you nervous. I understand that. But the dealers take advantage of the fact that guys like you that really took good care of their cars for so long, they're taking advantage of you because literally the cars don't need that anymore. It's just you can save yourself a ton of time and money just by using the owners.

menu. Wait, do you get an EV? There's no oil. That's in the future, right? And you only have to worry about the blinker fluid. Very funny, Rick. But still, Jamie,

there's much less maintenance on your vehicles today. It was great hearing from you. Thank you and give us a call again. All right, thank you very much. If you didn't jot that number down, it is 877-960-99-60, And you can text us at 772-4976530.

Let me remind the ladies this morning that I have $50 for the first two new lady callers. Give us a call, say hello, ask some questions. Just give us a call. You can win $50. I think we're going to try to catch up with some FaceTime, YouTube. Oh, yeah. Well, we never got to Anne-Marie's text. Oh, good morning, Ann Marie.

So let's go. She says, good morning. Right back to you. Good morning. It's summertime, and that means it's the rainy season here in South Florida. Rain slick roads lead to cars to slip sliding away, just like the Paul Simon's song. That prompts the following questions. One, what's the difference between tracks control, four-wheel drive, and all-wheel drive,

and two, which systems give the best control on rain-slick roads? That's from Anne-Marie. She says, P.S., here's hoping everyone has a safe holiday without too much rain. Okay, to put this as concise as possible, four-wheel drive is generally a vehicle that has the option to switch from two-wheel drive to all four tires get pretty close equal power from the engine to all four wheels can drive the car. All-wheel drive is a car where all four wheels always get power from the engine. They're all four being driven. Can I, can I, can I, can I do the traction control? Please.

The sensors can tell how fast the wheels are moving. If it detects one slipping from the road, it will use the ABS system to apply brakes to the other wheels and give more power to the wheel that's slipping. I mean, less power to the wheel that's slipping. In most cases, yes. But also in a situation such as if the car begins to slide and it detects one wheel is locking up, it will decrease brake to that power, to that wheel to prevent that wheel from sliding more. and traction control is basically designed

to send power to each individual wheel or braking to each individual wheel. Depending on what it needs. To keep the car under control and keep you where you need to be. And the computer is doing this like tons of these adjustments in like in a second it can be happening just very rapidly

and you don't even know it's doing it. Back in the old days, I used to use the called posit traction when I was drag racing when I was a kid because as you say, it would detect that one wheel wasn't getting traction, it would pour more traction on the other wheel. So when you're in the stoplight and you're racing the kid next to you

and you floor it, the posit traction gives you more even acceleration. Exactly. The only time I ever heard of that term was from my cousin Vinny. That was like a whole plot element, the posit traction of this old Plymouth. But that was actually that was a Pontiac. Pontiac, that's right. No, there's two cars. Well, there was, it was a.

Ponyville. The Pontiac Tempest was the one vehicle they were talking of. And I forget what the other one was that the two boys were actually driving, I think of Buick. But anyways, the posy traction, the way he gave that description was perfect. Like, as anybody stuck in the mud Georgia knows, you step on the gas, one wheel spins, the other wheel does nothing. And posy traction lets you get both wheels get traction. How do you like that? And then a hundred years later, I got pulled over.

by a cop for drag racing. And he said, I heard your tires screech from three blocks away. I said, no. I said, my tires weren't screeching because I've got positive traction. It was the other guy's tires. Did he really, did he get a kick out of that? I got to take it anyway. Well, sure, because he was racing.

All right, so there you go, Emery. Those are the things that are available to keep you safe, among other things. There's lots of great high-tech safety equipment. vehicle skid control is another one right that's over steering and under steering yes because now with electric steering the computer can control the steering as well and these all work in conjunction with each other so that the computer can see by lane trace assistant and other devices it can see where the road is where you want to go yeah and keep the car going there and do it faster and more efficiently than any driver can do See, I just, it's amazing. When I was a youth, losing control of my car was a semi-regular thing, and it's almost impossible now. All right, let me say, you said when you were a youth. That sounds like something from my cousin Vinnie.

Right. I think that's the theme for today. We have a text from Bob. Bob says, Good morning. My question is, how much market share do you think Toyota is losing due to little inventory, in some cases, no inventory compared to Honda? I looked it up because I didn't really know. I knew that Toyota's inventory share actually had come up a little bit, and it did. It went up about a half a point to 14.9.

This is only through the first quarter of this year, which ended last month, I mean, the second quarter of the year. And so it actually went up, and their volumes is actually up. Honda's market share, not to knock them, actually went down a point in a half. They're down to about 6.something percent U.S. market share. There's a current automotive news article that addresses that, not market share, but loyalty. And it's very shocking. I was really surprised. Ford and Chevrolet are topping the loyalty rankings. Toyota usually tops the loyalty rankings, but Toyota's loyalty dropped. And the essence of the article, there's the automotive dues article, the essence of the article is that Toyota is losing sales to Tesla. I just never think of that. I have.

I've thought about that a lot. Yeah. Because sometimes I, and this is, you've criticized me before because you see you don't necessarily represent our market. But I do represent a kind of person who would buy a Toyota or that sort of thing. I do too. Yeah. Right, yeah. So that's a natural thing.

I'm driving a Tesla. I mean, I had the same impulse to do it. And a lot of it had to do with frustration with how quick, how fast Toyota was going into EVs. I mentioned this on the show last week. I think, and this is not based on any kind of research, it's just a gut feeling. is that Toyota customers, they want Toyota to do it, and they're going to go and they're going to drive a Tesla or a Ford Mock-E, and then when Toyota has a good EV, which they don't now,

when they have a good, they'll come back to do it, but, you know. And here's a, I could see you in a minute, Rick. Here's another thing on that subject. It's a shocker. I've got two shockers in this week's automotive news. The electric vehicle inventory has reached 92-day supply. Really? Yeah.

And for you non-car folks out there, that's a huge amount of cars. That's a don't-buy sign on my used car buying program. Yeah. And so you have a situation where Toyota is short of cars, and as Stu just described, the Toyota demographic, the mindset of Toyota buyers is also, they're thinking EV. I mean, this is kind of a personal thing that Stu and I talk about because we like TVs, but it must be true for the whole Toyota buyer group. And the fact that the Toyota has so few cars compared to electric vehicles, there's a 92-day supply, hard to believe.

So it's kind of a hard, it's a hard thing to resist. Think about it. You go to a toy dealership, then it's going to be a year to get a Sienna hybrid, but you can pick up a Tesla three right away. Sorry. The number one reason that Tesla is beating Toyota right now is because they come first in the phone book. Tesla, Toyota, T-E. That's a real knee-flapper. You were waiting all that time

with that one. I've been home that one for a while. I don't feel bad for interrupting you. You know, folks, if you want to take a look at Earl's column, his blog, you can do so by going to Earl on Cars. Speaking of Tesla, it's a great column. Tesla's full

self-driving may do the wrong thing at the worst time. If you've been watching the news, you can understand what Earl is talking about. Well, I have the spanky. I've been praising Tesla. People think I've got this thing for Tesla. I like to drive the car.

But I'll tell you one thing I don't have for Tesla is I don't believe in their autonomous vehicle. And Nancy and I both, every time we get a software update, we go out and try it again. And the last time we tried it, that was scary. I mean, it was making turns unexpectedly. putting the brakes on i did tell you i kind of warned you i had a slightly lesser version and i warned you it's not to be trusted but they've had multiple software at least and every time they

now i'll tell you what's happened is and and the uh the inspiration behind this uh article was nancy says why don't you write about that because we had just terrified ourselves in another test drive um i i decided to go kind of hard on elon what he is finally doing now is confessing. And in the software update, which they never did before, that's where I got this phrase, he basically says in the software, please, I don't even think he said,

please keep your hands on the steering wheel and your eyes on the road because the Tesla autonomous may do the wrong thing at the worst time. And I couldn't have said it better myself. I mean, that's what the Tesla will do. it'll do the wrong thing at the worst time and it is scary

I always try to find a simple place to go that reminds me of a quote like unsafe at any speed you want to get scared take and pull up that video of the Tesla that takes and there's a school bus and there's children who are exiting the school bus that's all I'll tell you that should be enough to stir your interest yes Rick

let me ask you this Earl honest opinion here say you had no you didn't have the autonomous feature on your car it was totally turned off you were expected to control the car drive it yourself 100% of the time how is that car for just driving around

being able to bypass gas stations you never have to fuel it you simply drive the car you enjoy it it's totally silent I mean no I guess your point I mean the answer is I love it.

I love it. It's an amazing car. The technology is amazing. I don't take back anything I've said about Tesla, except I was more optimistic about the autonomous. Full self-driving is a misnomer. Ain't no way full self-driving is ready. I hope it's ready sooner rather than later, but I'm tired of these Tesla advocates,

It's these Elon Musk worshippers. And they talk about the fact that I have to believe they're lying. I've heard people say that they drove this very difficult route, like in San Francisco or Chicago. I mean, heavy trafficker. I don't believe it. I mean, in South Florida, the path we took was from our home to our car dealership, and we went on alternate A1A. folks are not familiar with this area don't know what I'm talking about

and we're on U.S. 1 U.S. 1 which is just a I mean it's hard to get messed up on U.S. 1 It's a straight shot from New York to where are it west so it messed up on U.S. 1 it was trying to make left hand turns for no apparent reason.

We were heading south and the car was going north there was traffic heading. Have you watched a video of the Waymo self-driving cars I've watched those people they're using them in some cities in California and use an app and the self-driving car comes, shows up without a driver and takes

you where you're going perfectly. The reason it can do that, it's got whirling radars and things all over the thing. It doesn't look like a regular car. And so it's packed with sensors. Monday I had a guy come up to me. I was at my therapy place for my Achilles tendon issue.

And I went out from therapy. I got into my Tesla plaid and I hear bop-bop. Somebody's knocking on the windows. So I roll the window. down. He says, I have a Tesla Platt, too. He says, do you drive this on autonomous? I say, yes,

I do, but I'm not. He says, I wouldn't dare. He's, I'm afraid to drive, put this on autonomous. Oh, it's scared everybody I know who's experienced it. It's still in its infancy. I mean, up there in Port St. Lucie in traditions, they have those Tim buses, no driver,

and it follows a perfectly set route, so it's a very easy thing to program. It's a set You can use avoidance to not have people or cars interfere with it, and they work beautifully. It's a less of a chance of a catastrophe. Being on the road like us, it is, there's just as, let me go back to the blog, Tussa, full self-driving may do the wrong thing at the worst time. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we've got to get back to the phones. Our friend Marty has been holding for quite a long time.

I love hearing from Marty. He can amuse us and inform us. And for my first-time female caller, hang in there, March. I'll be right with you. Good morning, Marty. Welcome. Good morning. How are you?

We're great. Thank you. Thank you for calling. I have something to tell you, and then I've got to ask a rural a question. Okay. Okay. As a Lexus dealer, they had a small SUV. It was model U.S.

well the trouble with that car is and it's a hybrid they all come only in a hybrid except in the back seat there is about three inches of room unless you have no shoes and you can fit in there you're you got a problem so but anyways when they brought over the closer i wasn't going to i wasn't going to buy it anyways they brought over the closer and of course when they deal with me they got to bring over the closer the salesman can't deal with me so uh closer i said to well first of all cars too small but i said your price i said you don't come down a price he said now this is the guy he said he's a sales manager at palm beach lexas said at his what he said and whether

or not it's true and ero will probably disagree with this guy he said Toyota is purposely holding back on production to two places high. Not true. Right. And I said to him, Earl Stewart is a friend of mine, I said. Oh, boy. And I talk to him usually every week. And he said to me, Toyota is not doing that.

But he said they are. So I just wanted you to know that that is out there. and I defended you, Earl. Well, thank you. The high prices are coming from dealers and sales managers at Palm Beach, Lexus. They don't even discount.

And plus, they want to give you a low ball price for your trade. Yeah, if you want to buy a Lexus, go to J.M. Lexus and Coconut Creek. And they're the best Lexington dealer. They're the largest Lexington dealer of the world. They're also the best. They have a very small dealer fee. I kid them or spank them a little bit about the fact that they got a, I think, a $200 dealer fee. And they advertise no dealer fee.

I say, why do you do that? They call it the private tag agency fee. They call it something else. But they're one price and they don't go over MSRB. Yeah, it's a straight. And they only have a thing I love about them is they have the salesperson or whatever you want to call them takes you through the whole process. F&I and the selling

and you don't have to go like you just said the TL guy you don't go back and forth back and forth it's just one person They call them sales managers And it's a legitimate turn They manage the sale from beginning and all the way through F&I

J.M Lexus It's worth the drive If you're in South Florida I wouldn't go anywhere except J.M. Lexus Margate Margate, yeah All right well I just wanted to know that's a dick I told me

Now whether he's a sales manager Whoever he is Sales manager. I said, I listened to Earl before you. Well, thanks, Marty. I appreciate your loyalty. Hey, Marty, everybody's heard of you. We're both car salesmen, so you're not really just putting on a car salesman, too.

Everyone has heard about you, Marty. You know that by now. I may have to come on the show. You are on the show. Exactly. You have to be a guest, but everyone has heard of you. They're watching for you, they're looking for you. So be careful.

Have a great holiday. Happy 4th of July, Marty. We're going to go to Mark, who has been holding. She's our first time female caller, and she is calling from Deer Creek, I believe. Good morning, Mart. Good morning. Thank you for your patience. You have been holding.

Oh, yes. You have been holding. I'm ready to hang up. Okay. Sometimes this happens. Hey, Alyssa, March, stay on the line after we're done talking, and give your information to Jeremy in the control room, and he'll pass that contact information along to me, and I'll get that check out, John.

Excuse me, I'll get that check out to you as soon as possible. Oh, thank you. So you're welcome. What can we do for you this morning? Okay, I'm calling about my insurance. I have a policy with Allstate, my car insurance, and I have two other policies, and they raised me. I was paying $246 a month.

for my car and they just raised me to $488 a month. Whoa. How long have you been with that company? Only about 69 years. Yeah. Yeah, shop the price, Martha. I really made a mistake last week on the show. I didn't realize that Florida is the highest in the United States

and auto insurance costs and for a lot of reasons. We have older drivers, we have an extremely large number of lawyers who love to sue people that get into car accidents. And so, yeah, it's tough. Because you've been with the same company for a long time, prior to this crazy issue, we're having the highest premiums anywhere in the USA. Prior to that, we always said if you've been with an insurance company for four years or more, shop, you will always get a lower price. In today's climate, I'm not sure that's true, but I was sure to try.

I call three or four of the better insurance companies and get a quote. What would you consider better companies? Oh, you know, Geico, State Farm, Allstate, Progressive, you know, any of the name insurance companies. Most of them are pretty good. State Farm, by the way, said last year, 2000. they lost an average of $60 for every policy they sold. They actually lost money. So the insurance companies, I scold them because they creep the rates up on you.

They sneak them up to make more money than they should. But I have to have some compassion for them when they deal in a state like Florida. You can't turn the television on now without seeing five lawyer commercial. Absolutely. The car dealer commercials used to make me mad and drive me crazy. Now, there's probably two lawyer commercials for every car dealer commercial. So the litigation cost for the insurance companies in Florida is huge. That's one big reason.

And, of course, as I say, this is the retirement state. People love to come to Florida and retire. So we have older drivers, and they have more fender benders probably than younger drivers, although I understand the younger drivers have worse than to benders, but the cost is higher for the older drivers. A lot of reasons, but shop around, get two or three quotes. I bet you save some money. Yeah, absolutely, Mark.

Okay, I'm going to do that. And I think that, you know, it was just like all of a sudden, there was a huge increase, as you just mentioned, and it affected Florida, it affected Louisiana, New York, and just a lot of places. But like you said, you had been with your insurance carrier for forever. A long time.

Forever and ever and ever. And it doesn't even, it doesn't matter, you know. There's still going to increase your insurance, but they're not going to count on you just taking and exploring other insurance companies. And you do have that option because, like Earl said, you know, you could save yourself a whole lot of money. Right, right. Exactly. I'm going to do that.

Yeah. You're not stuck. Okay. Yeah. Okay, Mark, give us a call again. want to thank you for helping me build this platform here for the ladies and it's ladies like you who you know they call let their voice be heard and they encourage other women to call so have yourself a great independence day thank you you too i'll stay on the line thank you okay our number

here if you didn't jot it down is 877 960 960 and you can text us at 7 724 We're going to go to Rick, who's probably got some backup over there on the U. We got a couple. Okay. First one from Brenda Wise. She says, thank you, Nancy. I was so excited when I received my check for you last week. Always enjoyed listening to the show.

Oh, how nice. Thank you, Brenda. Spread the word. And one comment we had earlier from Steve Mags. He said, good morning. This is Steve from New Jersey. I've read that recent demand for EVs has slowed. Volkswagen cut production and GM and Ford profit only from trucks.

By 2030, where do you see EV sales relative to ice, or internal combustion motor engines? And as a matter of fact, Donovan just came in, and he says, to Steve Mags, those brands are struggling to keep up with Tesla on prices. It's all about the money. a Tesla is far cheaper, plus you get the full tax credit on all of their cars as they are made in the U.S. Very true, yeah. I mean, the Tesla Y in California is a number one selling vehicle. They outsell the Toyota Corolla. So, you know, I know California is an unusual situation, but who would have thought 10 years ago that Tesla would be the number one selling car in California,

or at least have one model this number one's selling anywhere i mean yeah it's shocking okay uh we are going to uh do you have anything else for us i let's yeah think that's got us a little caught up a little slow today on me okay we're going to go to stew who has uh we have anonymous feedback uh we have anonymous feedback the first one we get this question a lot and it's uh it's just that time of year it's summer people are going on vacation uh it says hi i have a new rap four hybrid and i'm going out of town for a month. So it's going to sit unused in the garage. Do I need to do anything special to not let the battery run down? And what other things do I need to do while it's stored for a month, like a full tank of gas? Also, for new cars, is it recommended to get a first

oil change at 1,000 miles? No. Go ahead, Rick. Trickle charger. Tricle charge for the battery. If you're parking in the garage, it makes it so easy. You can buy that on Amazon at Walmart. They're less than $50, sometimes around $30. They simply hook on to the 12-volt battery and plug into the 12-volt outlet in your wall, and it will keep a very small charge going into that 12-volt battery to keep it all charged up and ready to go. Set your tire pressures at the proper level so that they won't lose too much pressure over the time. And it can't hurt to put a full tank of fuel in it. but then when you get back, take it out and give it a good drive somewhere

just to give it a chance to exercise. Rick, you always say that the best, absolutely the best, is if you have someone you can trust that will drive your car once a week and maybe for 20 or 30 miles, it would be ideal. That is the absolute best idea. What happens if, I know the battery could die, but they don't do any of that stuff. And the car sits for two months in a garage and the battery is fine,

but they don't do anything with the tire pressure or nobody drives it. I mean, is there going to be a problem with your car? A lot of little things. The battery going dead would be the first one. And when you lose 12-volt power, it causes a bit of haywire with the computers. So it can take a while for the car to reset everything.

It's short of the battery thing. I was just thinking about the fuel and the other stuff. Tire pressure going low could be an issue. You'd have to get somewhere quickly to get your tires filled up. Really, there's not too much else that could go wrong with them at that point. Cars are just so

durable nowadays. Yeah, yeah. I know there's all these things like they asked about the 1,000 mile oil change. I heard that too. It used to be the break-in period. And then even when we have the computerized you drive for a while, that's probably still the same case. It learns your driving habits to maximize efficiencies.

But yeah, I mean, they're getting more sophisticated at the same time. you don't have to think about them as much. And the engines that they're building, they actually run those engines and do a break-in in the factory where the engine is made before they even ship it out. And they do that initial oil change then.

So you've got fresh, clean oil on a brand-new engine that's already had some time, and it's ready to go. There's some anonymous feedback that came in also. It's a pretty long one, so I had ChatGP summarize it for me. Here's a summarize. The person visited a Kia dealership to look at a Kia Soul for their elderly mother.

Salesperson refused to show them the interior of the vehicle unless they provided their personal information saying that they worked on the commission and just showing the car wouldn't be any benefit to the salesperson. The customer left the dealership complained, put a call in to the, or put online, tried to complain to the general manager. I got a generic response from an internet manager, which suggests to them that, salesperson's behavior reflected management's attitude. And that's actually right from the top to the bottom. Well, I saw that. I wanted to send angel lightning in.

Well, I started reading, and it was reading like a mystery shop. And I thought, well, we can't read two mystery shops just for time. And so AI summarized it to a nice little concise synopsis. Yeah, you did it very well. And I think that's it. I'm all caught up on messages and anonymously. You know, to defend this particular case possibly, you know, all car dealerships,

there's good ones and there's bad ones and in-between ones, and they all have good salespeople and in-between salespeople and great salespeople. So we put people on the do not buy list and we fail them for a terrible experience.

But usually that experience is with a salesperson. Now you say, well, it's the responsibility of the dealership because they hired that salesperson and I have to agree with you. But, you know, I'll also be honest with you. We've hired salespeople. We should have hired. I mean,

it's difficult. When you interview somebody, they don't say that I like to beat up my customers and take advantage of and why cheat and steal. They say, you know, oh, I agree with your culture. I agree with the way you sell cars. And they sell the employer, the dealer,

on hiring that person. And then they take advantage. And oftentimes the incident is never brought to anybody's attention. And people usually don't complain. When a person gets treated that badly, they just run and never come back. A good businessman realizes that the complaints that I worry about the most of the ones I don't hear about.

And that's exactly what happens. So we have to go back and we do to try to go back when we have a horrible experience because it might just be one rotten apple in the barrel. I can tell you, and I don't know if they do this to other dealerships, but when there is a complaint and there's a problem, there is always an investigation. It never just kind of goes by and by, you know, an apology. It's like, well, what happened?

And I think that most businesses should be doing this. I don't know if they are. But you'll learn from your mistakes. Okay, I think we're all caught up with text and everything. How's the phones? Silent. Okay. Well, Rick's might have some messages.

I've got something. Do you have a... Lulu has arrived. Yeah. Bernardette's here with Lulu and one quick note from Kirk in West Buy God, Virginia. He says, for auto insurance, if you've got

former or active military in your family tree, check out USAA. Very good. You'll thank me later. Very good point. Absolutely. That's very good point. We have our dog of the week coming in. We have two ladies coming. One

that's named Lulu and the other one's named Bernadette. That's our volunteer. Lulu's a dog. Lulu's a dog. Bernadette is the volunteer. She was here the last couple of weeks with, we had Rambit last week and all that. But here comes, here comes to Lulu. And remember everyone to adopt the dog of the week, you can go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue www. W-D-R-R-D-R-D-R.org. Yeah, Big Dog Ranch Rescue. Good morning. So Lulu just walked in and this, she looks like

German Shepherd. That's right. So Bernadette is going to tell you, tell everybody all about our, this is our newest. Uh-oh, Bernard is going to take down the live feed. Bernardine got tumbled up with some boards there.

That's what I love about live streaming, live radio. And you never know what a dog is going to do. Lulu. Well, this segment is kind of like when Johnny Carson used to have the guy from the San Diego Zoo come on.

Oh, I love that. You know, we might get attacked. Why don't they ever do that? That was the funniest stuff ever on TV. Johnny Carson retired 30 years ago, or 35 years ago. Yes, I was watching some of the reels last night. Frank, I want to let you know that we're getting into the Big Dog Ranch segment. We have Lulu here.

And if you want to hang on, that's perfectly fine. We can get back to you. Thank you. All right. Well, let's kick it off. So in the midst of the chaos, the purpose of this is our weekly-sponsored dog. Bernard is going to tell you all about this beautiful German shepherd named Lulu. and we're going to tell you about how to adopt her or any of the dog,

any of the other dogs that big ranch dog, big dog ranch rescue. Gosh, I got, I got tongue tied there. All right, Bernadette, the microphone's yours. You can tell us all about Lou. This is Lulu. She's a little Georgia peach. She's from Georgia. She's, yes, she's three years old.

She had to be surrendered by her owner because of illness, but she's a beautiful dog, loves everybody. very good with other dogs, great on the leash. Lo's licking Nancy's hands. Yes, yes. Dog friendly, energy, mother's. Oh, that's me. And Limo came in because the owners just couldn't take care of her anymore.

Couldn't take care of her. She got to have reasons, yeah. So she came a long way. She has. She has. And she's very friendly. Very friendly with everybody. Yeah.

And she's great on a leash. Yep. Yep. She's a really affectionate. She is so sweet. She's a little bit scared right now. Yes. And we do that.

They come in a little bit unfamiliar, but she's so curious. Look, she wants to know what's going on. Yeah, it wasn't fun for her to get tangled up in the cores. It scared her a little bit. No, that's okay. So she's three years old? She's three years old, yeah, Shepherd. I'm going to guess she weighs about 50 pounds.

She'll get to be, yeah, 50. About 50 will be the... She's a smaller. She's a smaller. Yeah, smaller. But she's three. Stu, she's three years and three weeks. She smells good, too. Some of the dogs don't smell so good. This is a good smelling dog.

She wasn't bathed right before she came in with you. Where did Lulu come from me, proper? Georgia. Georgia. Oh, Georgia. She's a Southern girl. She's a little Southern girl. My wife comes from Georgia. Yeah. Hi, y'all.

Hi, y'all. Hi, y'all. Oh, she responded. She did. Oh. Yes, right now, folks, for you guys, listening, she just kind of. wandering around making friends with everybody wagging her tail and so while they're all cuddling up with Lulu I'll tell you as our sponsored dog if you've adopted if you up Lulu through us we pay the adoption fees there's also a special going on

called 50 what's it called again something for 50 but basically uh 50 dollar adoptions bernard's looking that up right there I know I got it right here from the first and two $100 adoptions. Gotcha. Thank you very much. I wasn't prepared. It's called Freedom for 50. It's a $100 adoption fee for the dogs over 50 pounds.

So, hey, would, well, do we get that break? If we pay the adoption fees, if we pay for the adoption fees for Lulu, 50 bucks? No, I'm just kidding. We don't need the discount. But if you are looking for another dog besides the Lulul, get out there. This is through July 1st, which is today, through July 4th, which is on Wednesday. So get out to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. So all the big dogs out there got a big discount.

So for all the dogs over 50 pounds. One of the reasons we have so many dogs out there is we don't euthanize dogs. We don't put them to sleep. A lot of the shelters do. In fact, the shelters that do this from all over call us Big Dog Ranch Rescue and we take them. If their dime is up, I mean, this is sad to think about, but sometimes it's 30, 60, 90 days, and then they have to euthanize because they don't have

room. Well, Big Dog Ranch Rescue has a lot of room, but they still we have two locations now. So that's the reason you can get a huge selection at Big Dog Ranch Rescue. Yeah. I also saw, I think, Bernadette, do you know about there was a dog that was featured on Big Dog and Ranch Rescue

social media? It was a 20-year-old a dog out at the ranch. Did I get that right? They were featuring, there was a video out there. Yes, yes. So they have a 20-year-old that's very old for a dog if you're not a dog person that's like more like a really old cat and uh they have a really old i don't remember the breed but it looks so sweet and uh that's just another like what earl was just talking about um they go out there to live they don't go out there

to die but hopefully um some they get adopted and that's really what they're out there for because other dogs it's fun to hang out with a hundred other dogs but uh oh yeah i mean it's like a resort it truly is i mean if i was a dog that's where I'd go. Yeah, if you're a dog person, you know that dogs belong in families and families can be one other person, but they come home with you. They have a maternity ward. They have a quarantine section.

They have doctors. They have, I mean, they have an entire way. They said they have a salon. They have a whole puppy town. They also have, they train dogs for veterans who have PTSD. And they give them free of charge, any veteran that needs them. I think we went out there when we were out there with Paul a couple of years ago. That's where we saw them doing that.

So here's the deal, folks. Sponsored Dog of the Week means it's basically Lulu is free to anybody who lets us know that you want this dog, this beautiful three-year-old German Shepherd. So call the show, text the show, get in touch with Big Dog Ranch Rescue. Go to BDR or you can message them there, get a phone number. But we're going to pay for the adoption fees. and like we just talked about there's so many dogs out there so look around

if Lulu is not the one for you there's another one and let your friends know please because if you're listening to this and you don't want a dog somebody you know needs a dog yeah absolutely tell the gang out there

when you find a home for these dogs like Bernadette let us know and like Wheely and some of the others so whenever you find them definitely I'd be happy to let you know yeah you know if we can bring the name up again

maybe even play the video and try to... Yeah, as of last week, Wheely still hadn't been adopted. I don't think she has yet. So, Wheely, if you remember that, she had the stiff leg syndrome, but still just an amazing dog. Still can get around. Oh, yes. Yeah, totally gets around.

They don't have any issues. It didn't seem to affect her at all. And rampant? Ramput's doing good. Still at the ranch, but he's doing good. Very good. And ladies and gentlemen, there's some out there that can't afford, you know, to adopt a dog. and that's where we come in

we pay the fees so that's certainly half the battle and as Stu said you know share the video and there's somebody out there looking for a dog

and also Earl you want to talk about the fostering that you can do at Big Dog Branch because we do take so many dogs not just from locally

the whole United States and in fact the whole world we take dogs in for pretty goes far away as China anytime there's a tragedy, a flood, a problem where dogs end up homeless, like the hurricanes in Florida, we take all those dogs in. So we do have a little bit of a crowding problem, and the way we alleviate that is fostering a dog.

So if you can't adopt a dog, but you can just give us a little help, take a dog for a week or two, and that way we have more room to take more dogs that are coming in from other shelters that might be euthanizing those dogs. So it's kind of a team effort. you know help us out by fostering dogs and then we'll find a home and and take the dog back that you fostered and thank you very much for it and there's a there's the the big dog ranch is having the big dog ranch freedom for 50 that's a hundred dollar adoption fees for two for the dogs over 50 pounds that's from july first to july the fourth so remember big dog ranch rescue you can go to ww big dog Ranch Rescue.org.

B-D-R-R-R. B-D-R. B-D-R. And you can adopt this dog or any other dog that you find on the website. And Stu? All right. I think we're all set. Thank you, Bernadette, for another

wonderful sponsored dog. Thank you. Thank you, guys. One more thing. This is great. This is fun. One more things, too. Confessions of a recovering car dealer. That's right. All proceeds of the purchase of this book goes to Big Dog Ranch.

Every cent, except for what Amazon takes. Don't forget that. Confessions of a recovering car dealer is a great book, something that you put on a shelf and you can refer to forever. And all proceeds go to Big Dog Ranch. Confessions of a recovering car dealer. And all that, everything we get back from Amazon goes to Big Dog Ranch. Thank you so much.

All right. Back to the recovering car dealer. We're back on the air. You know, the column that I, last column I wrote was about the autonomous. You touched one of the problems we had with it. I almost did a blog, and I think I'll do next week's blog on artificial intelligence. And I don't, Stu, did you know that chat, GPT, has an Edmonds plug-in. And Edmonds is got, you know.

to artificial intelligence, and apparently it gives you sources of information to find the car dealership and the car you want to buy. Okay, I didn't either. I just saw it. And so, be heads up out there, you folks, artificial intelligence is such a buzzword, and everybody's talking about it, but there's some very, very amazing uses for it. I've been using it, Nancy and I both been using it for things like diagnosis and, you know, check it out doctors, and you'd be surprised. But as far as Erwin Cars go, I foresee the future where we will have Erlon Cars and a chat, AI chat, so that you'll be able to be advised of car dealerships around the country that subscribe to the treat the customer like you're supposed to. Transparency, honesty, integrity. Also, it'll help you pick out cars like Consumer Reports does now. I'm assuming, in fact, I would bet money on the fact that Consumer Reports will have a AI plug-in.

You'll be able to go on your phone instead of having to go to the normal channels and just ask, say, hey, I'm thinking about buying a Honda cord. I want to buy a 2012. I live in Paducah, Kentucky, and can you tell me, number one, is the Honda cord as good a car as the Toyota Camry? And number two, if I buy the Honda cord or the Camry, can you recommend a dealer in the Paducah, Kentucky area? No, no, no, no, no. Can you just handle this for me? Get me the best deal in the best car and have it show up in my... I didn't even think about that.

I got the candle of the transaction and have it delivered to me, and I don't want to think about it. That'll happen. That'll happen. Right. And here, why is artificial intelligence better than other sources? Well, Edmonds, all the other, all the other, Kelly Blue Book, they all got ties, CarMax. They all have ties to dealers. They collect money from dealers. We pay, we're car dealership, doer dealership, we pay CarMax, we pay Edmonds, we pay Edmonds, we

pay a lot of people, Kelly, for services. And I'm not saying that that affects their judgment on who they recommend or don't recommend, but hey, that's the reason we say consumer reports is a lot better than Motor Trend Magazine or Car and Driver, because Car and Driver Motor Trend magazine rely entirely on manufacturers and dealers for their revenue, and Consumer Reports does it. Rick? Don't forget the human factor that there's going to be emotional. involved. You get one author that loves a particular car and he's writing about that car.

He's going to reflect that in his writing. You're going to feel that in the way he writes. But if he doesn't like that particular model, let's buy it. He may not. But the artificial intelligence is beyond that. Yeah, yeah. It doesn't have biases. It has no emotion. It doesn't have emotional biases or reality. Or childhood memories of a movie that for some reason they're going to want to push that car, you know.

No emotion. That's the key word. We are going to go back to the phones where there are two of our callers holding. That's Frank and Jim. Frank's from Jupiter Farms. Jim's from Tequesta. Jim, we'll be right with you. Frank, good morning and thank you for holding. Oh, patience is a virtue. So I must be very virtues today. My poor humor, I mean, you guys are great. Oh, thank you. No, it's always good listening. I forgot about the doggie thing, so it was good listening to all that. It came over my phone clearer than it does my radio up here in Jupiter Farms, so it was a win-win. But quick question, I was driving down the street the other day, and as Toyota goes by, that I didn't really recognize.

It was a smaller, it probably was an older model, of course, but it was a smaller Toyota, and the rear door had the funniest handle. It was a lot up high in the... That's called a CHR. That's a CHR. current model. Yeah, it's a little weird, funky car. They're produced in Turkey,

believe it or not. Yeah. And that's where those handles are very popular. I'm just kidding. I don't know if they are. Yeah, CHR is not a bad little Toyota. It's a nice little five-door SUV, a little compact guy, and they get around quite nicely. And we

don't see a lot of problems with them. They're not super popular, but there's enough people buying them, but we don't see them in the shop for repairs very often at all, just regular general maintenance. Okay, yeah, it was just, I

saw it, we were, or whatever we are, I guess on Donald Ross, I had the grandchildren, so I really couldn't do any weird driving, you know, make them, you know, get nervous, and I did, well, I did see some three letters towards the left, you know, on prairie, but I couldn't make them out, so, all right, that's

about it. And we're just out here in the farms, and now we got mangoes this week for sale. The leachies are almost gone, so there's my free advertisement. You have a little tiny seeds in those mangoes? Well, I was a kid where used to have mango fights. There was mangoes all over the place.

Can get pretty sloppy. Oh, did you? Yeah, we did that too. Yeah, we had... Boy, you get ahead and I had it with a green mango. Oh, no. Yeah, we had we had fruit wars on the North Palm Beach golf course. Oh, wow. Well, the squirrels are having a field day. There's like 12 up there, and they're dropping. The worst thing about the squirrels, they take one little

bite and they just throw it away and then they go to the next one and I oh my goodness this did you say 12 yeah oh no it's it's a herd of squirrels I mean I got four trees and they're bouncing all over the place I mean mangoes are dropping like flies wow that's fantastic honey bees like mangoes too they they if you see bees around them that's always a good thing the old mangoes have gotten soft and mushy nice and sweet hey oh frank we by the clock I have another caller and I'll let you guys. I'm going to have to say goodbye. Send me some Lachies. Have a great weekend. Happy 4th of July. Okay, we're going to go to Jim and Tequesta. Good morning, Jim. Good morning. How are you? We're great. Welcome. Thank you for calling Earl Stewart

on cars. Well, we enjoy your show and I have a tremendous amount of respect for Earl because of his honesty and integrity. But I was wondering, could you recommend an honest portion dealer in Florida? That's probably a joke of a question because I've been trying to buy a Porsche. And I've never dealt with such obnoxious people who put all these bogus charges on. They're impossible to deal with. And the way they treat customers is just terrible. I have a couple of Porsches. I've owned a couple in the past.

I still have one. But I was wondering, is there any such things as an honest Porsche dealer in Florida? We've never a mystery shopped one. We should. Yeah, we should. But there's so few of them is one of the problems that, you know, it's kind of like they pretty much have a very, you know, elite market. And people that buy portions typically don't haggle or negotiate. And I would, if I had to give you a name, I'd say Brayman, they're, I mean, I think they're probably more competitive.

there's another Porsche dealer champion further south. I've heard some bad things about them just in the press. We've never shopped them. Do you know Craig Zend? Does he have a Porsche dealership in Hollywood? I'm not sure. Yeah, I mean, I know he's got some other luxury stuff. I don't know. We just don't know. You might have to rely on reviews or chat rooms. And here's a long shot. Check

Costco. See if they have any Porsche dealers listed. Yeah, that's good idea. And the only thing you'll be sure of there, you're still going to pay a lot of money for Porsche, but it would be the agreement with Costco and the approved dealer is they will

not sell a car, they will sell to a Costco member for less than they sell to anybody else. So if that's about the best assurance you're how to get with a Porsche. Okay, well, I appreciate that. That's helpful. I've I've shopped all over Florida

and the bogus charges are incredible. The lack of honesty from the sales reps. I've never, I've been in several successful businesses I've owned and if I treated my customer like that, I wouldn't be living in a nice home. I'd be living under a bridge in a box. Yeah. The car

dealerships are a unique breed. They're the only retailer that gets away with bloody murder and they've been doing it for 100 years. So yeah, you're right. You know, you would think with a, you know, a product like a Porsche, you know, you just think of sophistication, elegance, and so many other things, and why, you know, all these fees and why the market adjustment, and it just, you know, soils their reputation, and it isn't necessary. They're making a killing anyway.

Absolutely. That's what I tried to tell them. I went in, I told them before when I called them on the phone, and I negotiated by email, and they still changed the numbers on me, but I told them, you guys need to know something. I looked at buying it to Porsche dealership, a luxury dealership, Porsche, and others, and I know how you make the money, and I know about all your bogus charges, so don't do this to me, and they still did it to me. Yeah, you just make them well aware of the type of customer they're dealing with,

but, you know, they don't care. They just do what they do, and they do what they do best. Yeah, they should have a new model called the arrogance. There you go. And I've bought probably 60 cars in my lifetime. Wow. But I'm also a cash buyer, which is a disadvantage, because they can't, you know, they'd rather lease to you and get MSRP and add everything on top.

Yeah, so many ways to get the customer. Jim, it was a pleasure talking to you. Well, thank you. Well, pleasure speaking with all of you. Yes. Donovan came in he apparently does a lot of business on cars He says Porsche of Melbourne is probably the best I mean it's a bit of a drive you're going up almost to the Cape

He says Brayman is one of the worst Oh boy Champion Porsche I don't know where that is He says no good and Porsche of Naples no good either So his opinion Which Donovan is He's a smart guy. I would definitely check with Porsche of Melbourne.

Yes. And Donovan is an amazing guy. Donovan knows what he's talking about. Thanks, Donovan. Okay, well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you. You all have a good holiday, okay? Thank you.

Happy Fourth of July. Okay, by the clock, it is just about 939. It makes Jonathan very happy. He had me on the clock. He said, 940 sharp, mystery shopping report. So here we are, Jonathan. Got a quick. though if we wanted to, real quick.

This is for Rick. Is it possible to change break? Because they asked last week and we didn't get to it. Is it possible to change brake pads on a 2020 Avalon with the sensors on the wheels? And how is it different to do yourself? Just putting the pads on is pretty much a normal job. Okay. If you're doing the fronts, just, you know, be careful when you're compressing the caliper pistons is all.

Rears is a whole different job nowadays on most rear cars. because the rear disc brakes, the calipers actually have electronic components for the parking brake built into it, so it's a much bigger job. The fronts are still pretty straightforward. Okay, pass lap on the front sounds like a piece of cake. Anything more than that? Take it to a dealer or a qualified Toyota technician. Absolutely.

We are going to get to the mystery shopping report, and the mystery shopping report comes us from Jim Asharki, Kia, Irwin, Pennsylvania. and you two can vote. We need your vote, ladies and gentlemen, and you can do so by texting 772-497-6530. That's 772-497-65-30. Okay. Irwin, Pennsylvania, that's Agent Lightning, and I'm going to speak as if I were Agent Lightning,

and the first person, I arrived in the morning, I was greeted by a very friendly front-de-front-Denstavings. desk lady. She asked my name and then inquired about how she can assist me. I asked if they had any tellurides in their inventory. She politely said she would need to find Taylor, the sales person, much more equipped with that information. She then paged for her over a female Taylor, okay. She then paged for her over the intercom and asked if I would like something to drink while I waited. I declined and just then Taylor arrived, wearing a big smile, shook my hand

introducing herself using my name. Taylor, she said, I hear you're looking for a telluride. She informed me that she had four in stock, two 2023 models and two 20204 models. Now that's a lot of televised in today's market. Asked if I'd like to take a look. We headed out to the lot. Once I picked the one I like, she requested my license and ran inside to get the keys before we embarked on an extensive test drive. The Monroney label showed an MSRP of $49,675, and no addendum. No addendum of any kind. And we'll see how that works out.

Sometimes there is an addendum. They just don't put it on the window, but there was none on this particular telluride. She had me drive on back roads in the test drive and then back on to Route 30 to the dealership. Taylor demonstrated a vast knowledge of her models and was well prepared. to share all her insights with me. Once back at the dealership, she asked me if I had any questions and then asked if there was anything

I didn't like about the model. It's a good sales question. I informed her that I really liked it, and I'd like a final price. We went back inside to her desk where she entered my details into their system. She then asked about my credit score, and if I knew our sales tax

in Florida, six percent, She acquired whether I was trading anything in or if she could possibly help me drive the car back for a one-way trip. I laughed, told her she'd be a great asset to the Kia dealership by me because it's the rudest Kia dealership I've ever been to. You know, we see a huge difference because Agent Lightning does travel oftentimes out of the state. We see the difference in culture in different states. Florida, you've heard me say it before, has got the worst car dealers in the country. I mean, even worse than California.

Pennsylvania, they got the pretty nice folks out there in Pennsylvania. I then complimented her on how helpful she'd been that day. Taylor smiled, appreciating my feedback, and shared that she hopes to make every customer's car shopping experience great, so they always come back to her. She then excused herself and went to speak with her sales manager, Jed, to get a price. A few minutes later, she returned with a worksheet. Taylor went over the price sheet, the sale price was MSRP $49,675. They added $641 in fees and sales tax.

That was it. It's likely that the fees included a small junk fee, and of course that's dealer profit, but it was small since 641 is a little high for title and registration, probably something like a tank agency fee or electronic filing fee, It's still extra profit, but it's small. That's the important thing. In South Florida, you'd be talking to $1,000 or more dollars. Typically, South Florida probably close to $2,000 in junk fees.

I guess like 400 of that might have been registration and legit stuff, and then maybe $1.99. Well, maybe $200 bucks. Most of that is legit because you've got to register the car. And you're not going to do much better than that. I mean, virtually no dealer has no... junk fees virtually. She explained that they would provide me with temporary tags good for 90 days. They'd also include a packet with a check with a sales tax for me to bring to my DMV once I get back home.

And for you folks that haven't bought a car out of the state, the states all have reciprocity. If you deal with Kentucky, they'll be, they'll reciprocate with Florida if you buy a car. car. So you can get a Florida tag or a wherever, whatever state you live in, expand your shopping, especially if you're near a state line and you can do it easily. You don't have to worry about the license tag being registered in the wrong state. They all work with the other states so that won't happen. And you might be able to get a good price by going out of state if it's reasonable for you to do that. She asked me what I thought. I responded, well, I will definitely discuss this with my husband and will likely make a decision tomorrow.

She asked if I'd mind if I have the time to have Jed come over and thank me for coming in today. A few minutes later, the return, he introduced himself and asked how everything was going today and if Taylor was able to answer all my questions. I replied that I was more than pleased with her service and she's by far one of the nicest car sales people I ever work with. I added that it was refreshing to see a female car sales person who was so knowledgeable about the inventory

and clearly loves her job. And I'll add this in general buyers, car buyers prefer dealing with a female. And when you find a person, I mean as a car dealer, I'm salivating

now because we look all the time for people with that type of personality. You can have a completely honest person, and you can't always change that person into a nice, likable kind of person. And when you find a person that has that personality that is likable, that's a great salesperson. I mean, let's face it, that's also the danger of buying a car, because you can find people that are likable and polite that you'd really like to deal with, but they will also take advantage of you. People who learn how to smile while they killed. So I hear it so often, but he was such a nice young man.

Well, that's the reason he's so successful is able to take advantage of people that way. So you can't just use niceness as a judge. And sometimes the people with kind of a poor personnel, they can be giving you a straight deal. So you really have to know your facts and get your competitive pricing. no matter where you buy. That's the shopping report for Jim Shorkekekeke of Irwin, Pennsylvania. As Nancy said, we'd love to hear your votes. You can text us, 772-4976530.

And, of course, YouTube, we always get a lot of YouTube votes. YouTube.com for slash Erwin Cars. Rick monitors that. Stu monitors to text. And we also vote here in the studio. If they pass, we don't give them an F, then we put them on the recommended list with the actual grade they got. We grade on the curve. We don't give out a lot of A's because they're very few perfect dealers.

So we typically give Bs or C's, and sometimes if they're really great, we get out of A's once in a while. Well, I think we might be looking at some A's this morning with Jim Shorky Kia. my first grade from the listener came in. It's from Bob. Bob says A for Shorky, Kia. Good service, good salesperson, a fair pricing in today's market. That's the only grade I have in, but that's Robin Klein to agree with Bob, and I'm giving them an A.

They clearly were way better than the dealers that we see down here. The fees were nothing, and it was all about as easy as pie up there. Where is it? Erwin Pins. Just a straight A, not a minus or a plus. Straight A, just an A. And that's in, I think Irwin, that's outside of Pittsburgh. So I think that's from Nancy's old digs.

That's why they're so nice up there. Well, thank you. All right, Rick. They are very nice. Well, Kirk in West Buy God, Virginia, says Jim Storky, Kia, refreshing. MSRP plus small fees earns this Pennsylvania dealer a solid A. Wow. Two A's, huh?

Oh, it ain't. done yet. Negan won. A. Finally. Negan, you're tough. He's tough, but he... And Negan, are you watching? I want to know if Negan's watching Dead City. We'll find out in a moment. Let's see here. Johnny C. Freedly, B-plus. Maybe that town has a Porsche dealer, too. Tim Gilliland, it should always be that easy. A. Mark Smith, B, James Fronte, by Florida standards with the curve, this Kia dealer would be an A-minus. Donovan Lewis? A B-plus? Even Donovan coming in, good. Rocky Blocketeel? Nice to be able to give a good grade for one. B-plus. Brian said Latko, finally a dealership that's straightforward with you. A.

Cramm 1624. Wonder what would happen when she gets in the box. B-plus. Scott Hunter, B, give me five bucks. B plus reasonable fees and saleswoman was knowledgeable and honest. Negan says Absolutely, Stu,

Dead City. Knock, knock. I started watching it last night. New series? For me? Yeah. A. Yeah, there we go.

Hey. All right. You know, I'm going to give him a day. And Nancy, what are you going to give them? Well, Fabulous, Pennsylvania. You know, it warms my heart. And for Jim Sharky, I have to give you an A-plus.

Thank you for the great service. The fees, minimal, if any. And the salesperson, thank you. There you go. If you want to buy Akea and you're anywhere near Irwin, Pennsylvania, how far from Pittsburgh is that? Irwin would be I'll map it

I'll map it It would be quite a ways That is in northern southern That's in Westmoreland County Yeah So And I'm in I was in Allegheny

If I were going to buy a Kia I would call Jim Shorky S-H-O-R-K-E-Y Jim Sharky Kia In Irwin Pennsylvania

I would get a price On the phone And Depending on how far I was I'd consider transporting the car based on my experience with the local key or deers that I had to deal with and if I didn't want to transport the car

I would take that price from Irwin, Pennsylvania, Jim Shorky and I go to the Kia deal and say, look, this is my Althador price and I'll be going up there on vacation in 30 days and I'm going to buy from Jim Shorke. Do you want the deal? and if you give me the out-the-door prices I got from Jim Sharky on the Kia, I'll buy it from you. So you just don't get that many A's. You're not going to find a Kia dealer.

There's a-kea dealer. We don't have any A-rated key-A dealers. We don't have any A-Kia dealers. I don't think we have any C-Kia dealers there. They're all pretty bad. They do pretty bad, yeah. How far is that, Stu? It's about a 30, 45-minute drive outside of Pittsburgh.

So it's in, I guess, in the Pittsburgh area, but it's outside of Pittsburgh. You know, for me, to cruise up, take a quick flight up there and pick up the car, drive through Amish country, maybe stop in at Hershey, see the gardens there. Yeah. And in a nice drive down the coast, just enjoy the sights and just take a couple days just to really relax and get used to the car. Get the fuel of the car. What a pleasant idea. I'd love that. vacation in itself right there.

Yeah, absolutely. It sounds like a great idea. And you're dealing with a dealership that's honest and that deserves your business. Yes, absolutely. Well, here we are. Telling people. Candideal is all over the place.

And we're having to recommend one in Irwin, Pennsylvania. Yeah, I wish you were better, but it isn't. Well, you know, you know, in today's age with computers and internet, you might be able to get ship from Irwin cheaper than you can buy one in South Florida. True.

Okay, Jonathan, how much time do we have left? Ah, okay, Earl. The microphone is yours. Okay, I'll use it to sell the book, and we'll go back and talk some more about Big Dog Ranch Rescue. And if you're looking for a gift for somebody, you know, son or a daughter, someone maybe it might be in the market for a car, confessions of a recovering car dealer. and it's a how-to-do-it book.

The chapters are broken down into leasing and buying, maintaining, and repairing, shop financing interest rates, eight rules for servicing your car, misaligned wheels, good people make good car dealerships. I'm reading some of the chapter names always get an out-the-door price. If you've never bought a car before, a young person, this is a great gift. And the best part about it is if it costs you $20 or $50, what's the book sell for now? I think it's $17.99. It costs you $17, $18 on Amazon.

All that money we get from Amazon goes to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. You've got a double whammy here. You've got a great gift for a grandchild or a son or a daughter or a friend. And you also support Big Dog Ranch Rescue. Classic book. You just put it on the shelf, and there won't be a moment where you won't refer to it. Now, I'm going to beat Kirk in West By God, Virginia. I'm going to beat him to the points here. Where's the second book? Okay. Well, we're very close now. He asked about it almost every week. Nancy was talking to a ghost writer this week, right?

Oh, yeah. Last week, this past week. We tied up some more sense. And we're getting closer. And I apologize to all the people that I told. I'd have the book out by the end of last year, just like I apologize to him but tell them that car prices would be normal at the end of last year. So I am not a forecaster. I'm on turning my ticket.

I'm going to retire. It's forecasting anything because I'm too much of an optimist. How about the weather? No, we seriously, we did tie a few things up last week and the introduction has been finished and we're very close. So Nancy is correct. It's 1995 on Amazon and all of that except for I think seven bucks goes to Amazon and then the rest goes a big dog ranch rescue. There's a listing for one of your books here for $64.90 from some other seller.

Yeah, it can't even tell you. Well, it must have really liked the book. Is it autographed? I'm looking. No, it's not. Don't buy that one, folks. Buy the 1995 one. 1995, and it's a good cause. Earl, the new book, just give everyone an idea of what it contains. Well, it's called redemption of a recovering car dealer. It's basically just kind of like, it's almost like my, what are you called, an autobiography?

It's a story about how evolved from, you know, a crooked car dealer into the angel that I am today. And so that's, you know. The sweet, harmless, innocent angel that you are today. No, I mean, it's more personal. The other ones is more like a collection of essays of advice. Exactly. And this one is getting into Earl's advice and explaining how he came to be. Behind the scenes.

Right. Yeah, this is a how to do it book. The other one is kind of like, you know, there's also a secret insight information because the, the co-writer contacted members of Earl's family. including Nancy and me and my brothers and we got to talk to him about what it was like living with Earl over all these years. Yeah, and I actually, to try to make it realistic, I gave them the names of our competitors, the president of the Florida Automobile Dealers Association, a lot of people that knew me from other perspectives.

So it was, it's an honest assessment. But this just in? Give me five bucks. He just ordered the book. All right So another one's out there Thank you Fantastic Okay folks We wish you

Happy Fourth of July I have to give a special thing to Rick Because he kept me in Electrolites this morning And boy do I love that type of water To all of you out there We certainly appreciate your company

You're a huge part of the show FaceTime YouTube The callers The Textors I think I covered it all Have a fabulous Happy Fourth of July

Stay safe.