Earl Stewart on Cars - 07.03.2021 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Phil Smith Kia

Episode Date: July 3, 2021

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits Phil Smith Kia in Lighthouse Point to see how much the dealer will charge over sticker for a new 2022 Kia Telluride SUV. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, his tweets at www.twitter.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. Sign up to become one of Earl's Vigilantes and help others in your community to avoid getting ripped off by a car dealer. Go to www.earlsvigilantes.com for more information. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

Good morning. I'm Earl Stewart. I welcome you to Earl Stewart on Cars, a live talk show all about how to buy, lease, maintain, or repair your car without being ripped off by a car dealer. With me in the studio is Nancy Stewart, my wife, co-host, and a strong consumer advocate, especially for our female business. We also have Rick Kearney, an expert on how to keep your car running right. I dare you to ask a question that Rick can't answer about the mechanics or electronics of your car. Also with us as my son, Stu Stewart, our linked to cyberspace 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 self-forward dealership. And now, on with the show.

Good morning, everybody. Well, we're back. Your auto rescue team, we're here to serve you, to help you. and you heard from the introduction that we're a car dealership show a car dealership show we're not a car dealership show we're a consumer advocacy show

and I am a car dealer in full transparency but we're here to help you we are here to help you avoid being taken advantage of when you buy a car lease a car maintain or repair your car

so it's a fun show too if you haven't tuned in before it isn't all about information You know, that can get boring. We're just not going to saturate you with suggestions about how you can save money when you buy a car. It's almost impossible, by the way, to save money today when you buy a car, by the way. It is truly a seller's market. And we love to hear your experiences.

That's what makes this show work, your experience is your comments. We have a cadre of really cool callers out there and texters and information comes from. flowing in and we try to keep the information flowing out as fast as it comes in. Sometimes I think it comes in faster. We really have some outstanding observation suggestions from all over the country and the world. If you have a situation with your car mechanically, computer-wise, electronically, fixing your car in simple terms, we've got a guy here in the studio, Rick Kearney, they can just about answer anything about the mechanics or technology regarding a car. High tech, as you all know.

If you have a car today and you bought a car in the past four or five years, there's probably stuff on the car. You don't know how it works. I mean, I'm a car dealer. I've been doing this since 1968. I've got buttons and switches on my car right now. I'm not quite sure what they do. Don't push the red one.

Oh, God, yeah. The executive seat. I did that one time. but we really have created cars that are beyond what we need and so you have questions because five people buy the same car some people don't use the cruise control some people don't use the infotainment center some people don't use the navigation some people do some people have different types of smartphones and does the Bluetooth pair I mean

he gets pretty complicated. Rick Kearney. And you can call Rick at 877-9-60-960 or call any of us at that number. That's our main line, really, I guess. Although I think we probably get more text and anonymous feedbacks. But it's kind of the heart of the show because we hear your voice. And we're communicating like human beings are supposed to communicate, I think. And there's You know, there's a certain amount of information you can transmit via telephone, the old-fashioned telephone, that you don't get with text and Twitter and email and the rest of it. But you can't text us, too. And that text number is 772-4976530.

You can write that down. You probably don't have a question right now. Maybe you do. But write it down. You will, if you listen for a few minutes. 772 497-6-530 and as I say

we're here to help you buy, lease, maintain, repair or just chit-chat we love to hear your anecdotes we love to hear people out there who have been in to buy a car or maintain your car

and how they go you know if you have a car dealership out there that's really treating you right let's hear from you if you're a Honda customer and you buy you like hondas and you know a good Honda dealer somewhere in your area

let us know we plug good dealers in fact we have a list of recommended dealers a list of dealers we don't recommend and we score dealers and we do this with our mystery shopping report but hearing directly from you is really cool because

you actually have been in there sometimes recently and you get some good experience we have some people that report excellent experiences with car dealers. Love to hear from you. And of course, we're on Facebook. A lot of post on Facebook. My son, Stu Stewart, sitting right across the street, right across the table here. He gets the text, and he gives the Facebook. He gets Twitter. We don't do no much Twitter anymore, but we do YouTube, and that's Rick Kearney. Rick is a YouTube collector.

So, you know, can watch us, you can listen to us, you can text us. We're Communication City here. Our coolest one, I just love AnonymousFeedback.com. I mean, that is, I don't know why I like it so much. I think I like it because nobody else does it. And I can't figure out why nobody else does it. Actually, I can't figure it out. A lot of people just don't, I say people, customers like to tell you,

to tell you what they think. And businesses sometimes don't like to hear what customers think. And there's a certain amount of, you know, when you're talking face to face or with email and they know you are, sometimes you just don't tell it like it is. But with anonymous feedback, boy, you tell it like it is.

And so that's the reason we have that line is your anonymous feedback.com. It's actually a URL. It's actually a link, Your Anonymous Feedback.com, and we get some cool stuff on there. You can say anything you want. We censor it a little bit. I mean, we don't want to have profanity or obscenity or any of that kind of stuff. But we will basically translate it into legal language so we can get the message across.

We get the spirit of the message out. The spirit, yeah, yeah. And we have a lot of people out there that we know are dying. to just really come after us. I mean, some car dealers, some politicians, maybe even the Attorney General, the State of Florida, or some other Attorney General. You know, we're kind of hard on the legislators

because the fact that they don't really, well, enforce the law the way they should. And the regulators are unenforced law. All legislators make the law. So if you have an extra grind with Earl and Bill, cars, Your Anonymous Feedback.com. You can even identify the agency, but you don't have to identify yourself.

And we can't find it. It's totally anonymous. There's no way we can break the code there and come through. We can't hack it. We don't know who you are. So give us a shout and let us know what you think. And that's what really makes the show work. Before I go any further, I want to introduce Nancy Stewart.

Nancy is my co-host. She's been with us for 20 plus years. She's a female advocate. She has a super offer for you. I don't know. Can I say female, lady, woman, woman callers, I believe it's a preferred noun today in political correctness. As a co-host, co-founder, I've changed that terminology. We'll get to that in a second.

So you women that would like to call the show, we'd love to hear from you. We want to get up to equality in this show. We're almost there now, about 50-50. You buy half the cars, you make half the decisions, you should make half the calls. That's simplistic, but the way we look at it. And with that said, I will turn the mic over to Nancy Stewart. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome. We so enjoy your company.

You make the show. I do have to say one thing, smart, bold, wise, great visionary. leading us in the right direction in the right direction meaning knowledge in power i'm speaking of earl stewart and what a great job he has done he doesn't like it when i will compliment him but i have he's very deserving of it ladies for you i'd like you to share your car purchase servicing experience, how you were treated when you walked into the dealership, whether you, well, walked in with backup, meaning another person. You purchase and are a huge percentage of the auto industry.

More than 50 percent, I don't have my stats in front of me at this moment, but it's It's way up there. It's probably 85% now. But this morning, I offer you, ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers. Ka-ching? Yes. The first two new lady callers, I got $50 for you. Anything at all.

Anything at all. I'd like you to call 877-9-60-99-60. And as Earl said earlier, you can also text us at 772-497-6530 if you'd like to, well, if you're a little shy. They also applies to www.W.W. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. And gosh, we have a great show. I mean, it's always a fantastic show. And you know why? because you, the listeners, the callers, the Facebook texters, the YouTube, you're all a part of this. And without you, we wouldn't be here. So join us this morning.

And remember that mystery shopping report, wow, it's another doozy. I mean, a real doozy. And Agent Lightning, who my hat goes off to, because she is a woman mystery shopper. And she went out to Phil Smith, Phil Smith Kia, in Lighthouse Point. And, well, you want to stay tuned for that. Now back to the recovering car dealer. I'll pick it over to Sue Stewart, and he is monitoring the text, and he's also in charge of the mystery shopping report.

And I agree with it. We actually have a mystery shopping report that was prompted. by a Wall Street Journal article. And I was interviewed, was it, two weeks ago? Yeah, that's right, Nora. About that. And I wondered what happened on the article. And they asked for some customers that we had dealt with

that she could interview directly. So we gave her a list. And sure enough, one of them got interviewed and the story and the mystery shopping report derives from that experience. That's right. It's kind of the most recent edition of a series we're doing

on price gouging that's resulted from the inventory shortage that every car dealer is experiencing nationwide. And so the point is, cars are, there's no cars, and dealers are overcharging and taking advantage of the situation. And we were stunned when we spoke to one of our customers who had shop, Phil Smith, Kia, tried to buy a new telluride. And I'm not going to give anything away. You've got to wait till 9.30 for that. It's like Fort Lauderdale area, a lighthouse point is a little Yeah, it's like just south of Boca near Deerfield, over on the coast and a little community. And we know Phil Smith, well, Phil Smith passed away, I think five years ago.

But we knew him, you knew him really well. And we knew his family. And so he has a general manager running the store now. I don't think anybody in the Smith family is active in running the dealership. No. It just has the name. So this is not a slight on the Phil Smith family, who we admire greatly. But just stay tuned.

And we're going to continue the series. Agent Lightning will be in the Orlando area looking for a tell you ride for next week's show. Let's see if lightning strikes twice. Wait. Well, she goes around. I think she has. She's lightning and striking twice. Exactly.

That's right. So anyway, I'm really excited to get to that. And if you're ready, we can get to some texts. You know, I'd like to mention Susan was certainly a driving force, and that's Phil's wife. And what a great couple. very involved, very driven. In the community, they're a philanthropist. Everything.

They knew their daughter, Sean. She was really cool. Yes, exactly. So they were some really great people that led the auto industry back to Stu. Yeah, Phil will be missed. Okay, we're going to start with Anne Marie's text. Yay, Ann Marie.

I read it just a minute ago, so I'm going to get to Rick, but I'm going to take my shot at answering it first. Good morning. I understand that many new cars connect to the internet. This prompts two questions. One, how does that work? Two, why would I need a car that connects to the internet if I already have a smartphone with its own communication and navigation systems?

Thanks, that's from Amory. Oh, P.S. Here's wishing that everyone has a happy and safe Fourth of July. We do too. Oh, thank you. All right, so how does that work? The vehicles are equipped with a cellular radio, and it commutes, just transmits, and receives internet signals.

If you're not using your phone, you still need that for internet radio, navigation. Oh, navigation, sorry, uses a GPS signal that's separate from the internet, correct? I'm looking at Rick, nobody is why I'm pausing. It does, but having the internet connection also allows it to use such things as traffic and weather updates so that you can,

and road closures, things like that. So you get instant updates. the moment information on what roads are good to travel on. Plus the, and I'm going to turn over to you here again, the connected services. So your vehicle right now can communicate with the manufacturer, and we're not quite there yet, but we're at the point where problems with your vehicle, like as check engine like it comes on, will communicate with the manufacturer, get to the dealer. Things can be diagnosed and even fixed over the air.

The car that I'm driving right now and the car that Earl will be driving, hopefully if he ever gets his Tesla, does updates. It's like a phone with wheels, and it updates over the air regularly, just like your iPhone does. So, Rick, connect the services. Maybe you can get into that a little bit more. Well, one of the issues that I see that would be solved is when the newest body style of Tacoma came out, they had a new engine, new transmission, and they changed the programming for that transmission like six times in the first two years.

trying to get the shift patterns down correct for the real world. And people kept coming and complaining about the transmission, and we were constantly reflashing that. That information could now be sent over an internet signal to the car, and then when you shut the engine off, the computer can say, okay, just like your home computer, we're going to update that reflash. It takes about two or three minutes, four minutes.

And it does it while you're, you know, the moment you shut your car off, the computer goes ahead, does its updates, and boom, you're back in and going again. You don't have to go to the dealership to have that stuff taken care of anymore. The computer would simply do it right over the Internet while you're parked at home. That's so cool. We're just driving computers. I'm still looking for the control.

And the overall answer to Ann Marie's question is that everything is connect to the Internet. Your refrigerator will be. And cars of, well, yeah, refrigerators have been. And everything is, this is what wife is all. all about in the 21st century. So your car is going to be autonomous and it's going to be almost like part of Google. It's going to be part of the Internet. And this is how Big Brother keeps an eye on you too. Absolutely. Hey, welcome to the 21st century. Hey, if anybody gets just a little sidebar here, anybody gets a chance to tune in to a series, Dr. Bowell, Dr. Jason Bowell, last night we watched

something that was unbelievable and it was about a company that was accused of killing one of their employees because of a self-driving car. So I digress. I'm going to go to the phones where Howard has been waiting patiently. I thank you, Howard. Good morning. Good morning. Happy 4th of July. Thank you. Happy 4th of July. And here's my question for Rick. My son lives in New York, and he's looking for a car, and he wants to know if it's a good idea to get all-wheel drive in a northern climate. And what is the maintenance on all-wheel drive? And would it help in snow?

all wheel drive is almost a necessity for northern states with the snow situations and the maintenance really is not all that much more complex depending on the model there's the differential in the transfer case that would also have to have fluid serviced like every 50 to 100,000 miles or some of them not at all there's not even a maintenance recommendation for it as for the operation of it handling in the snow is a huge improvement on any slippery condition because all four wheels are getting power and traction at the times when the computer sees it and traction control now along with all-wheel drive has just made them incredible it's almost at the point where pretty much every car should be all-wheel drive they should yeah okay now i have a a Camry with traction control and I could turn it off if I wanted to why would I in the world would I want to turn off to traction when you want to burn your neighbor's

yard yeah there are times that people just like the idea of being able to turn off some of the computer controls I it's like my 97 Tacoma that I had had a button for the transmission that would switch it from normal to power mode and all it did was delay the shift points a little bit. There was really no need for it, no reason. The engineers just put it in to give you a feeling that you had a little more control over things, and that's really all it is.

The computer knows better than you do, Howard, when to turn things on and off now, and as we get more and more advanced, to override what the computer thinks is the right thing to do is usually a bad idea, and as time passes, it's going to be, even greater. A lot of the accidents now that occur in the air are because the pilots don't believe their instruments and they try to visually, manually override decisions made by the

computer in an airplane and that gets them in big trouble sometimes. Same thing is true with a car. Yeah. Okay, now in a sunbelt area, you really don't need all the way to drive. Is that what you're saying? No, actually, if you have the opportunity for a choice of cars and all-wheel-drive is one of those options, I would go for it. Because who's to say you're not suddenly going to need to travel to a snow state? Exactly. Who wants to travel to a snow state?

Well, on the other side, as I was driving home last night, I got caught in one gully washer of a rainstorm that all-wheel drive would be a very nice feature to have when you've got heavy rainfall and the water's rising up a bit. I never thought of that. That's a good observation. Thank you, Ray. Very good.

Thank you. Let me sign off now and say, to play, talk to you guys. Again, happy fourth. Happy fourth. I'll be talking to you again. Thanks, Howard. Thanks, Howard. We love hearing from you.

Happy fourth to you. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-9-70. Back to the ladies. ladies sometimes well things are definitely getting better but sometimes we're not heard not always taken seriously but some of the well car dealers have taken it seriously because this is one way to put it it's a financial disaster for auto dealers not to get it and with ladies out there that are, I said 50% earlier, 85%, and I want to reach out to the ladies this morning and remind them they can win $50 for the first two new lady callers.

First two new lady callers, $50, win-win situation, and you can reach us texting Stu. You can YouTube, Rick, we're all here for you. 877-960. Now back to Stu. Excuse me. You got a call? We got a call. I like calls better. Okay, Marty. Marty is our regular caller. Good morning, Marty. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome. How's everybody doing? I've got a question for Rick. my 2020 camry on the armrest console I guess you would call it in the console cover every so often I get like a creaking noise out of it

if I push my hands down on it while I'm driving the noise will go away so my question is is there anything they can do for that in service a brick you can keep a brick on it Yeah, I know I'm just kidding Sounds like something's rattling Drive with somebody else all the time

With their hands Right noises like that Sometimes we can By replacing the part It'll reduce that noise quite a bit Other times we may even add a little bit of foam Somewhere to try to

Basically fill the gap Kind of thing To try to tighten up the tolerances a little bit sometimes a bit of adjustment on a couple of screws to adjust that tension. Sometimes you just go like that. Well, that's the first step. I would never do that. No.

Why would you abuse a car like that? Honestly. A poor car didn't do anything to you. I used to ask my feelings. I used to ask my dad that question. He'd walk up to the TV. Boom. And it worked probably most of the time.

Percussive maintenance. Probably work most of the time. It did. Marty, most likely some adjustments or worse. case we just simply replace that console and see if we could reduce that noise for you okay now when you say replace the console does that mean take the whole thing out pretty much yeah yeah see I don't like that I find when you see the cost of it you'd really wouldn't like it yeah well it's still I'm sure under warranty for

it but I was thinking of just stuffing like some kind of foam rubber or sponges to make the cover be very tight and i don't know if that would do anything we've we've done that sort of thing too we keep a whole stack of pieces of foam on hand it's adhesive on one side it's just a various thicknesses of foam that we can use to tighten tolerances and quiet noises like that all right so i'll have to bring it in and uh see i i just don't want the whole thing taken out because I find sometimes you find more trouble once you start taking stuff all

apart. That can happen. I don't see any screws on that. I don't see anything that you could tighten up. Sometimes the screws just kind of are hidden. Yeah, okay. All right, I'll make an appointment and eventually

get in there either that or get a second passenger. Okay. Thank you, Marty. Thank you, Marty. Call again, Blues. Thanks, Rick. Any time. Thanks, Marty. Happy Fourth of July.

877-960-99-60, and maybe this will be an encouragement to the ladies. Did you consider the comfort of the car, that driver's seat, that is so important. Once you purchase that car, I'm going to tell you what. If it is uncomfortable, you're going to spend a lot of money on Saccharoli, saccharoliac thoracic cervical pillows everything everything and you're stuck with that car and the uncomfortable feeling of driving in it so those are one of the major things that you consider when you purchase a vehicle i see rick shaking his head and there are a lot of callers uh that have called us in the past uh about that situation 877 960 99 60 Texas 7 7 7 7000000

172 497-197-6-5-3-0. Stu. Okay, let's get this some more text. We have a great one. This is from Negan. I'm starting to think that Negan is defected over to me. He was one of Rick's YouTube guys, and I think you're... He still is.

Okay, I thought maybe because you're not pronouncing his name correctly that... He's just expanding his horizons. Okay, good. All right, well, we got a great text from Negan. I think Jonathan has a picture of Negan. You can put it on the screen for a second. I learned something new, and it looks legit here. It says, good morning.

I was looking at a pickup truck on a dealer's lot. It did not have a Munrooney label on it. He did a little investigating. He saw on the website for the Department of Justice. It says that pickups are not included. And he sent a screenshot. And it says, I'm reading the text here, and it says, not included as explained in some reference, legislative history, are pickup trucks.

I didn't know that. I think that's mistaken. I think there was a time there was a time when pickup trucks were not required with his cars, but that was many years ago, so that article might be I'll do a little bit more reading.

That's really neat, but it was a it looks like it was a RAM it was a RAM truck, Dodge Ram 2021, dealer had a $10,000 markup in ADM plus another $2,100 and added equipment. That is one of the big ones.

That's crazy. Yeah, the, the, Mironi law applies to all passenger vehicles, and I think to commercial trucks might be a different story. I'm not really sure about that, but I think that passenger trucks and cars, SUVs, and the whole nine yards, since 1958 have been required to have the Mnroni label. Yeah, I mean, that's very unusual. But I'll do a little Googling when I get a moment when I get a caller or something, which is now. Right now. I'll be Googling.

This caller is from my hometown, Pennsylvania, Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Good morning, John, and welcome. Yes, hi. I have a question for Rick. I have 2017 Prius Prime, and my question is on the state of my battery charge. When my, yeah, I guess it comes down to love, my car says it's full and I get 30 miles on it. But my question is, is my battery really fully charged? Or is it only 70% charged or 80% charged?

Well, the hybrid battery is never going to be fully charged. It's always going to be fluctuating its charge state up and down, and that's a completely normal thing. As long as you're not getting any warning lights coming on the dash about it, just let the computer do its thing, and it'll take care of that system better than anything else. Okay, well, I guess it's because when I first started off with it, I was getting a range of 32 miles, and now it says I'm getting a range of 35 miles. I was just wondering if there's any way that could actually be increased through a software update or something like that, because I know when it doesn't go below a certain percentage on my dash.

So I'm just wondering if they maybe have like an aftermarket software, things that will actually change that. No, and I wouldn't do any sort of aftermarket modifications on that system. That would be, it could be very, very bad and devastating for the system. Things such as your tire pressure is being changed a little bit. your driving habits. Even the weather can cause your mileage to change up and down just a little bit. As it gets hotter, the air conditioner is going to have to work harder, and all these things are going to use more power. Your tires, changing even to a different brand or set of tires, can change fuel economy by several miles per gallon, and even just the air pressure by bumping it up of just three or four pounds could cause a big difference in your fuel economy. all righty thank you you're very welcome boy that PSI is so important it affects so much you know I mean

you're filling up that gas tank wearing out your tires and on and on and on and another thing a lot of folks don't take into account is the amount of stuff that they carry in their car the trunk the added weight causes a big difference so getting a lot of that stuff out of the car that you don't need will actually help

improve your fuel economy quite a bit including extra people what do you do if you really need what you have in your trunk i was referring to my husband i keep him sometimes in the trunk i take him and i when he gets radical on the road hancy uh hijacks the car and earl's quietly in the back muffled she can't hear him yelling that's what they used to do in my old neighborhood Oh, my gosh. All right, I have a little follow-up. I did Googling, and I found the Justice Department webpage that Negan, which, by the way, I'm sorry, I didn't send Jonathan the picture. We have a picture of Negan.

I mean, you can put it up, but on the website, it is true. It says they're exempt. But if you go down another paragraph, it says under a related statute, manufacturers, importers, and new vehicles have to fix it on cars and pickup trucks and everything. So I don't know if it was originally exempted and then a follow-ups of legislation. It was, yeah. The last legislative change to the Munrani label, I knew this, but I was reminded when you had to add the fuel efficiency standards, that was 2012, they had to add those. Were you able to get the picture up?

Cool. All right, you'll see it on the replay. Okay, let's move along. Oh, you have a call? I do. Okay, we're going to go to Palm City where John is waiting. Good morning, John. Great to hear from you again.

Thank you. Good morning. Happy July 4th. Thank you. Nancy touched on this topic briefly, and I want to expand on it. Earl Stewart, all his life, when he was only 17, he owned one of my favorite cars, but I was only in height and still in school like he was. But he foresaw the fantastic cars, including his order of the Tesla Model S. Bled. Now, I want to say it, he had an open letter that was published in the local publications to Elon Musk, and at the end, I want to quote what he said, which is true, and Earl spotted that car when it first came out, took a test drive on it, and quote what Earl says, he was drawn to it because it's the best and most exciting automobile ever built, and that happened to be very true, and then further proof on this, you should get. the article that was in last Saturday's Wall Street Journal on this particular model, the Model S. And I can't say enough about it. It's the future. It's a most fantastic car, but Earl spotted this from the beginning, and knew this would be a success,

and he was smart enough to order it. Unfortunately, many people won't be able to afford it, but it's the car that nobody could criticize, and people should read this article in the Wall Street Journal. Second thing I want to say is, I have a question for Earl. Dealers in Florida are one of the few states that allow a dealer to issue. Only a dealer can do it. A duplicate title. Now, that can be very dangerous, as Earl could probably expand on it.

Right here in Stewart, a dealer did that. selling cars and consignment. It was Blue Island Motors in 2015. He went to federal prison. He was issuing duplicate titles on cars that he did not own. He had them on consignment. So can that be, as Earl opinion, can that be very dangerous,

that idea that a Florida dealer can issue a duplicate title? Yeah, I think we have precautions that we can take. It's a great convenience to be able to do that. And you have to use a lot of care when you do it. But we, at our dealership, we do duplicate titles. We have to get affidavits and to be absolutely sure that it's justifiable. But if you're a crook like this guy in Stewart, you can do it.

You can do it and get away with it for a while. As you say, he's in jail now, so it didn't work very long. Yeah, most of the titles now are their electronic towels. and they're stored in a computer. You can get paper copies. I think at some point the scheme would unravel if once a registration doesn't match a title, I think eventually it's a very short-lived scheme.

I think eventually it will catch it when you get caught like this guy got caught. And there's some states that allow this sub-states or the probably Mississippi and New Jersey or two of the states that are the laxious title laws so you can end up with a flood car or a total car, with a new title and never know about the history of the car. But there's about six states that are just absolutely crazy about that.

Florida has got some good rules in Florida as far as titles go. Well, probably with the electronic now, I'm sure it voids immediately if somebody comes up with the original title, like the owner of the car, and that would probably be void immediately. So I'm sure with the electronic filing, that makes it easier to trace the history. that void. Well, again, I congratulate Earl in his taste of automobiles for entire life. He spotted him from the beginning, and that actually was my favorite car.

I never could afford it. But I did later on, I won't go into it, my favorite car, which was the most expensive car at the time, it was a 60 Cadillac El Dorado convertible. Wow. And I was in school then. and in 1970 I was able to find one that had 52,000 miles on it but five years later it had a problem

it had factory free carburetors and one of the carburetors flooded and set the car and had an engine fire so unfortunately I didn't keep it I collected the insurance and got rid of it but again Earl with Tesla saw the handwriting on the wall

and this is the car of the future I'm just lucky that I was able to get such a revolutionary car and I haven't got it yet, I've got it on order but no matter what you say about Elon Musk and Tesla he has created one of the most amazing cars on the planet now, you know, 10 years from now there will be a lot of competition but right now he pretty much owns the market on what he's doing

and I thought it was a unique time in history to own that car. Congratulations on a lot of ordering it, and hopefully the competition will knock the prices way down. Oh, well, absolutely. Yes, definitely. All right, well, happy July 4th. Thank you so much for your, thank you so much for joining us every week.

John didn't mention how fast the car goes. This is where I get into the trunk. That's right. You think it's bad now? And John was mentioning, I think it's bad now. was mentioned, excuse me, prices. Well, ladies and gentlemen, what a great time for you to sell your used car. Wow, you're going to make out on that one. Everyone is in need of the used cars. There is a shortage. So take advantage of that. We're going to go out to California, where Evan is giving us a call. He called us last week. Welcome back. Hi. Good morning. Good morning. I'm calling because I just wanted some advice on how I'm going to keep my 2007 Corolla going.

Last week when I called, we had no idea if the car was going to pass the emissions test. Right. And fortunately, after I got it, I got the oil change, drove it around a bit, and it passed the emissions test. awesome so that that was a that was a you know sigh of relief okay we got over that hurdle that's great I was worried about that because I didn't you know you're kind of in the pickle before we realized that you had the emissions testing we're like oh well don't worry about it you can it'll last but that little wrinkle I'm glad you made it past it so so now this is what happened I got my oil done at one of these real

You know, behind the gas station, small, tiny little, you know, one-man shops. And, you know, it's California. I called a few places, they were charging, you know, $100 oil changes here. Wow. I got to be careful because there's a lot of rip-offs out there. And when I was at this oil change place, the guy who did my oil said, well, he said, He looked at my car. He said, let me tell what I can do for you. And he gave me some prices. He said that I should change my transmission fluid for $80. And that makes sense. I haven't done it for at least two years.

And then he also said that I knew this was true. He wanted to replace my front brake pads for $150. dollars. Transmission fluid? No. If the car is shifting normally, leave it B. 2007 has... I'm sorry? Even if it's black, the transmission fluid?

Well, you said this car, you're just trying to keep it going for a little while yet, right? Yeah, I mean, I want to keep it going until you think that like November there's going to be a lot of cars for sale and that's how long save that 80 bucks don't spend that the brake pads

if now here's where I would pull out the Missouri attitude the show me state I would say I want to you show me my brake pads and if they are below two to three millimeter thickness of the friction material then yes go ahead and pull

put a set of pads on it, just replace the pads. If you're not getting any serious noises or any vibrations when you step on the brakes, don't worry about resurfacing the rotors, because you're looking to economize and do things as cheap as possible just to keep this car operational. Transmission fluid, if that car is shifting normally, just leave it be. It's not going to hurt it to go another two, three years, even if that fluid is dark and discolored. It's going to be normal for it to be discolored anyways. The brake pads, if they're getting thin enough, then, yeah, you want to get those replaced because the thinner they get, the faster they wear because they can't dissipate the heat.

So that last little bit can wear out very quickly, and you don't want to have that happen and have a safety issue with your brakes. Yeah. Is $150 a fair price for front brake pads? If it's in parts and labor and everything included, yeah, $150 is pretty fair for putting on a set of pads. Okay. I'm not going to be careful about the... I have a question about the belts. See, I haven't had a service on this car for like three years.

So... Take a flashlight, shine it on the belts. If you don't see any cracks in the rib sections and the edges of the belt don't look like they're frayed or anything, leave them be. Leave them be. So don't go to a shop because I know a lot of shops will try to, you know, say you need to pay us, you know, eight hundred $900 for a particular amount. Right now, shops are hungry. They want to sell you everything they can.

They're going to give you all these horror stories. But a lot of this stuff, if you just take a flashlight and look at it, you can pretty much tell whether or not it needs to be replaced. And drive belts, if you're not hearing any noises from it, squeaks or squeals, and you look at the surface of that belt, if it's clean, you don't see any big cracks in it, leave it be. It's fine. Okay.

Evan, thank you so much. Do you have any other questions? Yeah, I do. Okay. In terms of used cars right now, my loan, my pre-approved loan for my credit union lasts for about another 45 days. And I was thinking, I've been looking, you know, at the different prices of cars and consumer reports. I subscribe. I'm looking at the reliability.

I mean, for used cars, is this something that you think there's going to be just prices are going to be going to be going to be way down in, you know, in a couple months, or is this going to be lasting because I do have what my wife keeps telling me she doesn't feel safe in our cars. So I have a little bit of that pressure where I don't want her to feel unsafe, but the same time I don't want to get fleeced either. Right. Yeah, by, you know, it's certainly by November. It's different by manufacturer. Just speaking from Toyota because we're, you know, we're a Toyota, we have a Toyota dealership. We're expecting to see inventory start to return a normal, normal beginning in the end of August, in September. And by the fall, we should be close to normal. And once you see that, you see dealers right now, they're loving it. And as soon as there's more availability, the competitive pressure is going to build back again. Deals will drop prices to get customers, and that's what's going to happen.

Right now, it's a seller's market, and that's going to change. So if you can hold on just for a few more months, I think you're going to be a much better position. Evan, is she safe enough in the car for, you know, the next couple of months? I think she will be. I'm going to tell her that in a couple months, we're looking. looking at a different world for car, you know, car buying, and it won't be like it is right now, where it's, you know, pretty insane out there. Yeah, it is definitely, I agree with you, very crazy microchip problems.

I could name a few here. We don't have time, but the consumer report, boy, what a great magazine this is. And the last couple of months, I don't know how it's going to affect car buying in a couple of months, but some of the latest editions are showing prices for used cars that are unbelievable. And I'd take a look at it. Like I said, I don't know. That's what I saw is that a lot of, I looked at the consumer price range, and then I saw what the dealerships were asking for, and, you know, they're above the top level.

So that meant that if I went to buy a used car, I'd be, you know, paying, you know, way more. And I should. Yeah. It's just amazing what's going on right now, but things are going to get better. But like I said, Consumer Report, what a great magazine. Earl and I. Can I ask one more question? Sure.

This has been going on for actually the last three years. The tire pressure light keeps coming on my panel. yet whenever I had somebody checked the tire pressure, like I had this person check it, and actually a year ago I had to replace the battery, I had AAA coming out, and whenever they checked the tire pressure, they said, oh, yeah, everything's fine. But when I was driving recently, it turned on again. So I was just wondering, you know, your take, is this something just broken with the sensor or could it be a bad wheel, what do you think it might be?

Most likely, if the light comes on when you first start the car and it blinks for about 20 or 30 seconds, then stays solid, that's indicating a bad sensor. But if it's just coming on at random times, probably what has happened is someone has set the sensitivity, the threshold level, too high. so the car thinks that you've got a low tire when say if you're running your tires at 35 PSI and that threshold is set like at 30 or 32 once those tires get a little bit down near that level it's going to trigger that light to come on and of course the temperature of the tires you're driving is going to bring it up and it's going to turn it back off what you'd want to do is actually have that threshold reset you should have a button down under the dash the I do Okay, set your tire pressures all down to about 25 to 28 pounds.

25 is a good level. Press and hold that button until the light blinks. And when it has blinked like three times and then gone out, release it, wait about 10 minutes and then reset the tire pressures back up to where you normally run them. And that will reset that threshold level down at that lower level and then it should keep that system operational for you. okay Evan thanks so much for your call

and following up with us good luck definitely stay in touch I will okay happy 4th of July okay ladies ladies and gentlemen I want to take a moment and mention

Earl's vigilantes I think Jonathan can put Earl up there he's got his hat on but do you consider yourself an auto expert I'm not saying you have to take an engine apart, but we're all tired of the car dealers, and their dishonesty. And we do what we can here on the show.

But a lot of them. Of course. So we do what we can right here on the show, but we need your help. And you can join Earl's Vigilantes, and you can help consumers in your community. you can help yourself, us, so it's a win-win situation. You can go to Earl on cars, and you can pull up Earl's vigilantes, and not only that, but now that most of us know that you can go to the Internet to shop for a vehicle, well, some of us were not as savvy on the Internet,

and the volunteers we need for that to sort of guide the seniors into online assistance would be extremely helpful. So go to Erwan Cars and sign up and help us out. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-292-497-6530. www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Now back to Stu. Okay, so we have a question from Linda on Facebook.

She wanted to know a couple of things. One, did you get your red Tesla yet? No. Which the answer is no. No updates? No emails from me on. Not a word. Nothing.

I had a joke to make, but Jonathan didn't like the picture. Put it up anyway. I was going to joke that you got the Tesla. I'll show you what the picture looked like. We were talking about that last night at, what, 9 o'clock? I was going to show Erlanacious. I said, yeah, you got your Tesla. And Linda also wants to talk about it.

about the Tesla fire that came out on the new plaid model like the one you're getting. And supposedly it was a Tesla that caught on fire while driving, not in an accident. In China. In China. Yeah, like I said, I don't know how much of it is accurate, but I guess we'll pay attention to it. But, you know, things happen. Don't worry about it. You'll be fine.

I think the picture looks pretty good. That's showing off my Photoshop skills. All right. And I'm concerned about speed. Look at it. All right, we have a text from Everett. And Everett says, Good Morning. I have an older Toyota Avalon in good condition that I wish to sell.

How do I advertise to maximize the sale price and safely conduct the transaction? Love your show. Thanks, Everett. Well, Everett, this is the best time you ever could have picked to sell your car on your own. Put that car on Auto Trader. That is the premier nationwide marketplace for used cars online. line. And right now, people are looking all over the country for cars. So I don't know where you are, but you might get calls from out of state because people, the used cars are so in short

supply, and you're going to get top dollar for your car. So now's the time I recommend AutoTrader. I don't recommend Craigslist because it's a little less regulated, and I've heard all sorts of horror stories about Craigslist, but stick with Auto Trader. You should be good. Gone are the days where you put it in the newspaper classifieds. Nobody looks at it. It's a seller's market. The only good thing about today's market for the consumer is when you become a seller. You have a car and you can sell it. If you don't need it, sell that used car and get out of the top and wait a few months and you can buy another car, a new one, used one and save thousands of dollars. So you want to exercise your option maybe to buy your lease car, too. Yes. I was just going to say, tell us, we were talking about when we were coming in to the show what you're.

considerations can be with a lease car now. So take advantage, ladies and gentlemen, this is the time. Increase that bank account. Now back to Stu. Joe sent us a text. It says my wife is looking for a new SUV and about 80% of them. She sat in the car and we immediately left because the seat didn't adjust high enough for her to see. Well, she's 4'10. The Volvo was the highest. Why don't the manufacturers see this problem? well this is like we talked about week after week Steve up in New Jersey kind of brought this issue up we started talking about the crash test being designed for adult men and women and children are ignored smaller statured people are ignored and also it goes with visibility not just crashworthiness

car manufacturers and dealers are in business to make a profit obviously and that's the whole capitalist system which is I think the best system we have in the world and so there's some capitalism factors that are just cold and simple facts of life that manufacturers do what they can do to make the most money. Dealers do what they have to do to make the most money within the rules and the regulation. Sometimes ethics get bent, sometimes the law gets bent. Four foot ten, there's not a whole lot of people out there driving cars that are four foot ten. and so you have to build a car based on the maximum profits you can make to the maximum number of people. And average people are a benefit because they're average.

If you're 6'10 or 6 foot 11, you're not going to be able to be very comfortable in a car. And you're 4 foot 10, you're not going to be very comfortable in a car. Yeah. How tall are you, Rick? I am 5'10. He's perfect. And a half. You're the perfect size for a car.

Yeah. You're pushing the 6'5. You're pushing the envelope. Well, yeah, true. Small cars are out of the question for you. No meadas. Yeah. And on a more serious note, ladies and gentlemen, it's only been recently that, you know, women, children have been taken into consideration.

And these tests that should have been done quite some time ago are only recently. And I cringe when I say the word recently, they should have been included in the, the, testing of the vehicle and the safety. And what I have read, it makes me stuttered that there are more small people, say, women and children who are in accidents in the passenger seat. So Rick, did Donovan, was he talking about that last week, or did he mention something else? Donovan actually, I believe was talked more on the Tesla issues last week.

Okay. I can't remember the caller right now, but we, we need sound effects. We got them. We've got to use them more. We have a first-time caller, but it's great. It's Marty. Marty? Hello? From Delray Beach. Good morning. How are you? I'm in a situation when you're just talking about before. I have a ball over that the lease is coming due in three months, and it makes residual value is very good.

it's less than I wanted to resell it. So it makes perfect sense to me to buy the car what you want to do. But I'm one of those people. I've never, I've always leased cars, and I've never had a car that has been off warranty. And that's my only fear to actually buy a car and not have a warranty. It will be the best way for me to get some kind of warranty. Go back to the dealership or just do one of these callers that I get. I don't know.

That's what concerns, ma'am. Marty, when is your lease expire? In November. In November. And then you'll be out of warrant. at that point? Is it a three-year lease? Yeah, it's a 39-month lease.

It's a 36-month warranty, so I'll be out of warranty actually in about a month. Okay, I'm going to suggest getting out of the lease now. Don't wait until November. You can, I mean, it's not guaranteed, but it's likely that the vehicle is worth more than what the residual is right now. Yeah, I already found that. It was. Yeah. Residual is 41.

Right. So you can, you don't have to wait until the end of the term to do this. As long as the, you pay the leasing company. leasing company, what the residual is, what the payoff is. They don't care. Then you can turn around and sell it or drive it as long as you want. Well, I'd like to keep it. What I'm concerned is, what will be the best way to get some kind of war. Like I said, I'm afraid to drive a car that doesn't have some kind of warranty in it. I've never done it before. Oh, you can, when you buy it out, just, what state are you in? Florida. Florida, okay. So extended warranties,

service contracts, they're regulated by the state of Florida. It doesn't mean you're going to get a good price, but it means that a car dealer can't just wheel and deal and arbitrarily give you a big thing, a big, big price for the warranty. But when you, when you buy it, you're going to have to go through a dealership and you can inquire about this warranties. Well, just let me jump in there. The regulation strictly means you have to put the price with the state insurance commissioner's office. That doesn't mean a dealer can't put way, way too higher price. You can put, you can sell a warranty in Florida for a million dollars if you register that with the state.

But they won't sell very many warranties. Yeah, when you register with the state, you can't change the price that you sell it for. So there's very little protection. And one other thing, Marty, I would just say this. I know how you feel about warranty, but I suggest you think about the way cars have improved today, you know, 25, 30 years ago running out of warranty was something you could be concerned about. Today, if you buy a good car and you take care of it, the car is not going to be, you don't need an extended warranty.

If you've got a good car and you took care of it, maintained it according to the owner's manual, I wouldn't be hung up about getting another warranty. And if you have a car that needs another warranty, next time you buy a car, you should buy a better car. Because today's cars last a long, long time, and the warranties are nearly as important as they used to be. they used to be. Okay. Well, you know, I've had the cost for three years and it's been perfect. I have an X-90.

Yeah. But one thing I did, I called Volvo Financial. They told me I can just send them a check directly. I don't have to go through a dealership. So I can just send them a check and that takes care of everything. Be careful out there. If you're buying a warranty, there's a lot of, it's probably one of the biggest, bogus things going on now today are these warranty companies.

I get calls, everybody I know gets calls, emails, texts. they will disguise themselves as the manufacturer or even the state. Your warranty's expired, you know, warning. So it's just, it's really dangerous. Stick with the manufacturer's extended warranty or a dealer you can trust and then read the warranty carefully to be sure you know what you're getting and what you're not getting. Okay.

Okay, all right. Thank you very much for the information. Thank you, Marty. Welcome, Marty. Give us a call again. And, you know, the same thing applies to your auto insurance. Oh, goodness, three prices, please. And also, if you've been with one particular company for years, check it out

because you can probably save yourself a whole lot of money. And as Earl said about the warranties look at, it's a minefield out there. We're going to go back to Stu. Okay, Steve in New Jersey has a text tagging on to the smaller statured issue. He says, hi, Earl Steve from New Jersey. Last week, I called to talk about front seat safety for women, particularly those who are small in stature. You mentioned that most don't read the owner's manual. For safety reasons, my advice is to at least look at the manual to review a particular car safety systems. For example, the 2021 Avalon Owners Manual, page 39, states that

the driver should sit at least 10 inches from the steering wheel airbag. I also suggest pointing the steering wheel slightly downward towards your chest instead of your head and neck. It also states not to put a cushion on the front seat since this disperses the pastor's weight and prevents accurate detection. Oh, boy. Well, Steve, thank you so much for that information. Sorry I got your name wrong earlier. Stay in touch with us, please. Update us every single week. What a important topic. You know, I didn't even, I didn't know that about the angling the airbag, the steering wheel. I typically do that anyway, but I've seen people driving around where it's like four, they're was driving like a big truck, and yeah, that will knock your head back at that airbag goes off.

I have to say that, you know, there's good things and bad things about reading fine print and reading owner manuals. You have to remember that a lot of the fine print now. The legal department. Exactly. The lawyers decided that they know that, I mean, it's like on a ladder. Don't stand. Don't stand on the top running the letter.

There's a lot of really stupid things that go in the fine print. And the lawyers put it in there just to cover themselves and cover the manufacturers. So if you're an obsessive, compulsive person and you read the entire owner's manual, you'll be so paranoid you won't ever want to drive the car again. And we've had a caller that did just that. The real law, new lawyers out there listening, the real law says that when you build a product, it's got to be safe. and you can cover yourself in the fine print or the lawyers can try to cover but the bottom line is if you build a car

that's not safe and you are injured and you took reasonable care to drive that vehicle or whatever the product is then you have a right to sue you have a right to have a safe product so don't get too hung up on the the angle of the steering wheel and you know right don't hang up on that don't use your hair dryer in the bathtub yeah yeah don't stand on top of a left exactly yeah um excuse me stew

sorry i had taken my headphones i have a couple questions for you guys uh see if i can remember my neck's killing you have to call the show at 877 967 960 uh you can hear ladies and gentlemen i am working As a woman, the only woman, in the studio with, I'm going to include Jonathan on this, for comedians. Excuse me, four men comedians. Okay, guys, help me out here. Lumbar adjustment, all of the features that you can find in a driver's side seat. You don't get in the passenger.

Why? Steve, tell me. I know why. Why? And Steve, guess what I have to do? I have to take my pillow off my seat whenever I'm driving. I did not know that I would be, you know, more apt to be, well, dissect if I were in, you know, an accident. And I got some pretty severe problems.

So what the heck do I do? I mean, when I'm in Earl's car, his Lexus, there's nothing in that passenger seat. me in order to aid whatever comfort I need. Which is unusual because how I was going to answer that is it's an opportunity for an upgrade. I know that the higher trim levels of the vehicles, for example, like in the Avalon, you couldn't get an eight-way power seat on the passenger side until you spent all the money. You went to a limited version.

But in the case of your vehicle, that's pretty much top of the line. So I'm surprised that it doesn't have all the creature comforts, you know, as the driver's seat does. and maybe it's just because it's cost and most people drive by themselves I mean not everybody's a passenger so it's the same thing they build and sell for the averages Yeah good point

Okay I got a question here It says good morning Is it true that Toyota is discontinuing the manual transmission After the 2020 2012 models for the Tacoma I hadn't heard anything about that I don't know if Rick has any information on that

No I'm Unfortunately with stuff like that for the newer models coming out. I'm the mushroom. Kept in the dark. Okay. Is there any reason for a manual transmission today? Some people just really prefer. No, I know that. I'm not saying because they want it. You can't possibly shift better than an automatic transmission. But in the Toyota's lineup, the Tacoma is the last vehicle now with a manual transmission in the U.S. Yeah. It's a toy. I mean if you want it to have manual transmission today, you get it, you get it,

and you're Meserati and you're a Lamborghini and you can make a lot of noise. But you're really not going to improve the efficiency or the speed or anything else about a car with a stick shift today. Is there an advantage like off-road driving for a manual? Not really. Although there are manual transmissions are, I'll say it as they're less chance of an issue because there's no electronics to it. It's simply moving gears and gear loop. Yeah, it's definitely, it's like you said. It's a preference to strip your gears. There is that, but there's also the wear on the clutch.

If you're not good with the clutch, you could wear out a clutch in 5,000 miles or less. I was good with a clutch. Ladies, I was. I taught my three daughters the same. Then I taught them how to ride a two-wheel bicycle. Anyway, Steve's calling us, and he's been with us before, and he's calling from New Jersey. Hey, Steve. One of my favorite places.

Good morning, Steve. Good morning. I just, thanks for reading my text. I also wanted a follow up URL on something you just said about. Be careful when you're reading stuff in the owners, manual, other places, because the lawyers like to put things in. The things I referenced in my text about sitting 10 inches. or more away from the steering column. That's recommended by National Highway Safety.

And the reason for that is that, and Rick can probably talk more about this than I do, but when the airbag is exploding, there's a certain distance you really need to be away from it so that when it comes into contact with your face, that it's not still expanding when your face hits it. And so that's the reason why. why the National Highway Safety recommends 10 inches or more. And that's what's in the owner's manual. And the other thing about the airbag,

especially when you're sitting on the driver's side, when the airbag expands from the steering column, if your steering wheel is pointed up, it's going to primarily propel itself towards your neck and head. And when people get airbag injuries, it's typically more so because it hits their head and neck, which is the weaker part instead of hitting their chest. So sometimes you'll find stuff certainly in owner's manuals and other things that are put there by lawyers to protect the company. But in this case, that's actually based on real true safety needs. The other thing I would say is that when I mentioned that I included that other thing about the

where the Avalon owner's manual said about the sea cushion. I guess the older airbag systems were more rudimentary, whereas the new ones now, they're very sophisticated. There are sensors that can measure a person's weight. I think when the airbags are propelled, they recognize to a certain degree to size of the person. So, you know, it's good to maybe question some of this stuff you read and don't take a their face value and say, well, it's just there because the lawyers are suggested there to mitigate liability. And that's why I think, you know, when we read stuff like this, we should question it, but also

look to other sources to see what, you know, what's legitimate and what's not. And I'm not trying to be overreactive to this issue. I just think that so many people they get in their cars, and now, actually, more and more, our cars are safer and safer because of all the intricate safety systems that we have. But at the same time, I think it, maybe there's a little bit more of an onus that should be placed on the owners to understand how their car safety systems actually work

so that they can maximize the benefit of those safety systems. That's the reason why I brought this up. Well, Steve, guys like you do breathe these, and you do take the caution, and as a consequence, you are safer than the average person. Unfortunately, the average person, and I say that, we're in the automobile business, as I say, and full transparency, and we've been, we have a car dealership,

and I would throw this out maybe Nancy and Stu and Rick can agree or disagree, but I'd say 80% to 90% of our owners, people that buy cars from us, have never read their owner's manual. I'd say... Not in totality. Yeah, and probably half of them don't even know where their owner's manual is. So it's just...

The way manufacturers today have to go is they're trying to build a vehicle that is stupid proof, that people that are careless and do not read and do not take care is still going to be safe. And that's the way we're going now.

We'll have a car one day, maybe we've got a few now that are pretty close, that are just pretty much idiot-proof. You can get in there and drive the car and you're about as safe as you can be. And that's the only going to be the way you're going to be able to take care of the majority of the people. Back in the 50s and 60s, owners manuals told you how to adjust your valves. Nowadays, they tell you don't drink the washer fluid. Exactly. Exactly. You know, I was changing my own oil, and, you know, I took a look at my owner's manner, but, you know, that was a long time ago. I think people usually reference it, like, for a specific issue. They can't figure it out, but nobody studies it and reads it, and why would they? It's not very entertaining reading.

It's true. They're too long. If they were meant to be read, they would be in bold print. There would be 25 pages or less, or maybe two or three pages. And instead, there are hundreds of pages. And, you know, the lawyers that, you know, it's so silly that legally, all you have to do is give full disclosure in any type size you want and the number of pages you want, knowing full well that the buyer of the product isn't going to read the manual. And that's the way it is. Now, they have in the last maybe decade or so introduced,

they call it the Quick Reference Guide, which is a Cliff's Notes version of the owner's manual, which is easier to find things, but doesn't have a lot of detail. Some of the quick reference guys are 400 pages. That's quick. Exactly. That's quick and legalism speak. I have to, in full disclosure, the reason I guess, why I'm so interested in this safety topic is because. No, I salute you.

I've had some serious back issues, operations over the years. So it hits home with me. And maybe for the most, many people they don't have like physical. school issues or health issues that they have to worry about so much when they're in the bar. But there are a certain amount of people, especially as we get older, that maybe have other issues. And I guess I'm really calling for those people. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve, do you have any other questions? No, that was good. I just wanted to. Or information to share with us. We really appreciate your call. And keep giving us a call. We love your company. Thanks, Steve. Thank you very much. Let's see you guys. Bye-bye. You're welcome. You know that owner's manual, it doesn't fail that each time I get that owner's manual out, I think of a job. I worked in the medical field for a long, long time, and I had to use a physician's medical referral. And that book had so many pages in it. It was totally incredible to get to everything that I needed to inform myself with. Back to Earl and I, I mean, when all else fails, we both look at each other and say, let's get the owner's manual out.

I'm talking about our cars, and most people would think that we know everything. You know what he's going to love? But we don't. And the Tesla, the owner's manual is in the screen. There's not a physical book, so while you can park the car and hit the owner's manual and search, and it's pretty cool. Oh, gosh. It's actually, and it's a little bit less legalese-ish than the typical owner manuals. but it's actually a useful tool.

Do you have an option as to whether you want the regular manual or you want the quick reference? No, you just got a manual. You got one thing, it's online, and it's on the screen. So that's it. No paper. She wants more and more and more. And also on the app, by the way, so you can be in your house,

so you can use your phone to look at the owner's manual as well. Oh, great, great information. We're going to go to, we're going to we're going to go to John in West Palm Beach welcome back John oh hello

hello I have hello hope you're having a great fourth I just have two comments I probably start first with the since we're on the owner's manual and lawyers

one of the fine things I never read the owner's manual but when I had to reset my dad's flex he bought a use flex and I had to reset the door pillar entry system, I went to the owner's manual, and while looking for the reset instructions, I came across something about the 2010s for the lawyers, and this was in the owner's manual, that when we get in our car and we turn it on, that computer starts up, and it monitors everything, and it gave instructions as to the flex valve. It said that if you're in an accident, lawyers can gain access to the computer system,

and it's monitoring four things. One was the Bluetooth on, the radio volume, how hard the brakes were applied, and the speed there you're going when the accident happened, and it was monitoring those four things. I'm sure they've upgraded, and now it's got a whole slew, but the lawyers can now access that to find out what you are doing, doing when that accident occurred. And I just found that really interesting.

And I keep that in mind now. And that, you know, all that stuff is being monitored and they have access. As a matter of fact, I like to have access to too. Because sometimes when I go to the beach on Palm Beach, you only got one hour of parking. I move my car. But how do the ticket people know whether you moved it or not, if I could pull up the record on the computer that, I moved my car within an hour, I'd be safe in court if they give me a ticket, because I'll go fight it.

Get yourself a dash can. Yeah, but the second one is, and I wanted to comment on, for the people that still want the manual transmission, send them back to the mid-70 K-5 blazers that had the like 11 speeds And the shifting that you had to do go through to shift through those 11 gears, which were two separate things. It's on YouTube, by the way, they've thrown out how to shift the K-5 blazers with the 11-gear gear box. That was also featured, by the way, in the movie, Earthquake. And the Chevy paid to throw out the K-5 blazer.

Yeah, and they referenced the K-5 Blazer with the 11 gears. It was something new back then, but the shifting, you had to, it was like shifting a race car. Well, not today's race cars. Race cars pack wet. Now it's just all computerized. You should drive a tractor, try seeing the shift pattern on a tractor truck that has two and even three levels where you have a set of gears and then you hit into the, actually flip a switch that lets you go through the next set of gears with the same pattern, then you flip a switch to go through the next set of gears with the same pattern.

How many gear? 18 gears? It's kind of like an 18, like an 18 speed bicycle where you had multiple derallers on the front and back. That's right. Wow. Crazy. Our 69 dump truck, we had a dump truck. It was a 69, 1966. The little red button on the gear shift lever, once you got it, your third gear, I'm sorry,

third gear you pulled up on the little shift and this is 1969 by the way and the truck was from the 50s because we couldn't afford anything new but you pulled up on the little red lever and it's sent it into a new gear that was a lower ratio so it saved gas in that

way too much work for me I don't want to do that yeah but back then we only had eight gears not the 18 years I have zero gears but it goes you know that technology goes all way back to the 50s and 60s. Wow. Wow. That's so cool. Yeah. John, thank you. Give us a call

again. You're a great caller. Ah, let's go back to the past. I used to drive. Nancy's going down memory lane. Is it a barracuda? Earl's going with his fingers. I digress. I won't go there. He's really getting aggravated. Ladies and gentlemen, we love your company. We enjoy you. We hope that you have been just as informed as we have this morning. I want to tell you, you're a great audience, 877-960-960. And speaking of ladies, we have a lady caller, and she's called us before. And we're kind of chatty, aren't we, Mimi? Yes, we are. I love it. I wouldn't be anything else. Good morning. I love to listen. And now I have to pick up to

the brain of all you wonderful people. I called before with my conversion van, Dodge, Grand Caravan. It runs very low to the ground, and I had gone over a bump which actually ripped off a little metal strip about two and a half feet by four inches, which

I'm going to bring over to the mobility place in Lake Worth where it's been before, and you've mentioned it. But what happened is when I called last time, the swervy light had gone on, and I think it was Rick told me it could have been a sensor, so I was preparing to take it to the mechanic when he came back from vacation.

And since then, I've had the big word break come on when I break, evidently hard. And then last Saturday I was on A1A and about 50 bicyclists came rolling around, so I had to break very hard harder than ever this time to make sure I didn't hit anybody and well now the brake light came back on with the ABS sign so I take it to the mechanic and I had not had the brakes done that long ago so actually my husband did before he died so my thought was he'll do what he can he said it there all of the diagnostic equipment said it was electrical. So I figured after the holiday I can go to the mobility place, have them investigate underneath. I'm wondering if any of the wires under there influence the wires

somewhere else. What do you think? It's unlikely that hitting anything on the bottom of the car could cause any damage to the wiring because they put that wiring up high and they run it in very safe locations to avoid any chances like that. More likely what's happened is there's an issue with the ABS actuator and it's starting to see a problem there or maybe one of the wheel speed sensors. You definitely want to get that checked out either the mobility place or they may have you take it to a dealership where they're going to have more accurate computers that can talk to it and see what's going on.

Okay, because, yeah, my next question was, how do you find an elect? He said, go to take it to an electrician. He says, I can do mechanical, but I'm not into electric. So is the dealers, well, once they put the panel back underneath, is the dealership my only recourse for an electrician? It's not the only, but on a system like that, it can be the best course because the dealership are going to have scan tools that are specifically designed to really communicate with your vehicle a lot more than the generic systems can.

Like my computers, I can talk to Toyota computer systems and get way more information and way more in depth, but any other brand, I can only just scratch the surface of what's available. It's because the brand-specific scan tools are designed that much more in depth. Okay, so basically for an actuator or a sensor, I'm better off paying more and going to the dealership. Yeah, but you could also get multiple estimates on it, have the dealer take a look at it, and they may charge your small diagnostic fee, but then if it's something that's going to be pretty simple, you could have an outside shop replace it. Oh, okay. Now, a sensor, that's something that a mechanical person can do, correct?

Usually, yep. So I should call him back if that's the case. Let me go get the estimate, as you say, and pay the little fee. at the dealership all right and I guess I should go to which one should I do first mobility let them fix the bottom I would go there first because then they can also take a look make sure you don't have anything else damaged underneath okay yeah some of those bumps you know if they're really tough especially on these low riders okay well appreciate your help thank you very much

Mimi before you go it's great talking to a one and talking the talk. And I'm sure you know a lot of lady friends. Encourage them to give us a call because we do give $50 for the first two new lady callers. And we certainly enjoy talking to you. You're very knowledgeable. Oh, dear. I learned along the way.

Well, thanks again. Have a wonderful day. It's nice talking to you. I hope you're all healthy. Bye, bye. Bye-bye. Thank you, too. Stu?

Yep, I got some texts. This is from Oh, no name on it I know Earl hates advertising Toyota on his show But I have to know What truck is better No particular year Just over the decades

Toyota Tacoma or Ford Ranger Don't want to hear check consumer reports What's your opinion I think Rick's the only one with the opinion On a Tacoma and a Ranger Ford F150 Well he was asked between a Ford Ranger and a Tacoma Rangers were horrible little trucks

So Tacoma? Yeah, if you're specifically with those two, go with the Tacoma, they will last. But for some reason, Ford F-150s just through the years have been an incredible truck. Yep, and it's the number one selling vehicle on the planet. But if you look at old, old trucks that are still running, even though they look like they should have been in the junkyard two decades ago, it's usually a Ford F-150. Well, and partly because there are more of them. That too, yeah. I mean, if you build a million of one particular model, 10 years from now,

there'll be more of those million vehicles on the road. Yes, right. Earl, if you had a choice, I mean, really, if push came to shove and you had to drive a truck, which would you drive the Tacoma, or would you drive the Ford Ranger? The forerunner, which one would you favor? Well, I can't answer that because the caller said I can't check consumer reports. That's right. He's constrained.

He wanted your personal. Personally, I don't have, you know, personally I believe in consumer reports. I mean, I think when you start believing that you know more than consumer reports, that's when you get into trouble. So I don't. If you talk about styling, you know, to me, all trucks look alike. I'm not. That's true. And I will say the Ranger and the Tacoma, both are fine-looking trucks.

Yeah. I'm going to go with Tacoma. Sorry. I'm going to go with a forerunner. Well, that's not really a truck. Okay. We're going to go to Palm Beach Gardens where Steve's been waiting. Welcome to the show, Steve.

Thank you very much. I listen to the show most every Saturday for somewhere between 15 minutes and a half an hour and sometimes a whole hour. Hey, I'm negotiating an MKT Lincoln at Al Packer, and I'm wondering about, is that on the dealer, preferred dealer list, that Erlund you guys always put out. What was the dealership? Al Packer. Al Packer. Al Packer.

I don't think we have Alpacker Lincoln. Let me double check real quick. I'll pull up the list. Lincoln and Ford. Yeah. They're right together. Okay, so I'm looking under Ford dealerships and under Ford. Al Packer Ford has a C grade, which is, you have to look at that with a little caution,

which means they likely had a dealer fee, but they behave themselves. So usually if we give them somebody to see, they're doing the typical tricks, but nothing too egregious. Mullinux is a good Ford dealer. A, but they don't have Lincoln's. They don't have Lincoln? Yeah, because I've been looking for a Lincoln MKT, which is, of course, a continued car in the line, and they never carry them. And this one happens to be just perfect if it's...

Do you know if Wayne Acres, Ford has Lincoln as well? I don't know that, because they have a B-minus a little bit better grade, okay. No, they don't. But Alpacker's good I know Yeah okay Well that's what I wanted to know Because I do appreciate you guys

Rating the dealerships Yeah yeah Going there just you know Just just a little word of caution Like right now You know Like you've probably heard on the show That we you know

Prices are going to be very very high And there could even be addendums We don't know We haven't shopped Alpacker For during the inventory crunch Yeah okay Yeah well they've been talking about giving me a tremendous amount of money on my 15 Explorer, so.

Right. That's probably true. On the other side, too. So, all right. Well, thank you very much, guys. I appreciate it. Thank you, Steve. Happy 4th of July.

Okay. That was our last caller. We're going to freeze up the lines, and we're going to take a few more texts and maybe some YouTube, and then we're going to get to that, well, fantastic mystery shopping report. and that definitely is going to be very interesting, and it's from Phil Smith, Kia, and that dealership is down in Lighthouse Point, now back to Stu. Okay, I hope Rick gets back, because it sounds like a technician sort of question.

I recently ran over a curb at my doctor's office. It was frustrating, and I'm mad at the office because the curb was invisible. No landscaping or any signs, nothing that would alert a driver that there was an obstacle. Anyway, that is besides the point, I scratched up the alloy rims and took a chunk of rubber out of the side of the tire. There's no leak, but is my tire still safe? It's a relatively shallow divot, maybe the size of a quarter and an eighth of an inch deep, and that's from Barbara G. Without Rick here, I would say you should probably get it inspected. I don't know how much the integrity of the tire was compromised by that, and I don't think that's,

seems like a simple thing. I don't think you'd get charged a major diagnostic fee for somebody just to walk out to the car and take a look at it. You're also risking the fact that a salesperson in the service drive wherever you're at is going to try and sell a tire whether you need it or not. But I think safety trumps risking that because you don't want to get a blowout on the highway. Yeah, I agree. I think that's a quick. Yeah, I would scare me a big chunk of the sidewall.

Yeah. Would scare me. I would want to have something I could trust take a look at it because I without getting measurements and the exact location, it's awful hard to... Yeah, and just because it's not leaking now doesn't mean that it's not weaker there, and you could hit something in the road that could cause a blowout. Yeah, it's not the leak. It's the blowout danger that would worry me. That's right.

Exactly. I agree with the guys and something that happened to me, and I definitely had it checked out for safety reasons. Yeah. I wonder if it's the same doctor's office that I'm familiar with. there's one highly unlikely I don't know I saw this one alright never mind

okay next one I understand that synthetic oil only requires changing every 10,000 miles if I wanted to extend the life of my motor and just have a cleaner, better lubricated vehicle would I get this sort of advantage by changing it

more frequently like every 3,000 miles or every 5,000 miles? No thanks it's Rudy from Louisville by the way Nope. No advantage. Refer to the owner's manual for your specific model because some of them are actually at 7,500. Some of them are 12 to 15,000. But do what the owner's manual says for your car.

And changing oil many, many more times is just a psychological, good feeling thing that people do that it's not going to make any perceptible difference. Go buy the manual. However, check your oil, check the level of it, make sure that that oil level is safe and do that at least like once a month. Okay. All right. We're just getting through a couple of these things before we get to the mystery shopping report. We haven't read any anonymous feedback. We have several.

Here's the first one. Today, June 26, 2021, there was a conversation that using Uber was an alternative to buying a car. In May, I took an Uber to get to COVID-Vex. to get there was about $12. Uber surcharges price, surge pricing on the way home two hours later was $53. Same distance. There no longer is a way to know what the cost of the return trip will be due to surge pricing so they can charge anything. Appears they can charge surge pricing anytime they want since there is no regulations. That's a good point. I think I think you can do a round trip on Uber. I'm not sure about Lyft and I'm pretty sure that when you

book round trip, you can lock the prices in, which will protect you against surge pricing, but I'm not sure about that. And Uber prices are up. Rental prices are up. So all the alternatives you have are high. Rental car prices are crazy high now. And supply and demand. And Uber, supply and demand. And that's where your surge pricing kicks in. So yeah, if you're going to, we'll use Uber or a rental car or even carpooling. Take it to consideration. Everything is higher. Everything is relatively.

Yeah. It is an unusual, I mean, an interesting thing about the regulation of surge pricing. I mean, they're a company that can charge whatever you want. But the situation like this, this seems like patently unfair to consumers, particularly on a two-way trip, you know. If you're spending $12, I'm going to charge of $50 on the way back. I don't think they do that. I think that...

It depends on the time the day, though. I recently booked a trip on Uber round trip, and they locked my price in going and coming. Oh, okay. Now, I'm not saying there could have been a surge, and that they would have changed it, but there was no disclosure, and I was under the impression at the price that they gave me going to. That's great. If that's the case, then it would solve that. Mark just text, well, he said, what is surge pricing?

So, surge pricing is, depending on the demand for Uber vehicles at any particular time, Uber will jack up the rates. So, for example, 1 o'clock in the morning on New Year's Eve, everybody and their mother is drunk and they want to take an Uber home. And so you might have a $100 ride for five miles. So that's surge pricing. And Stu, what about not only the time, but what about the location where you live? An airport.

Where you live. I think surge pricing is a great idea because which would you rather have? the total inability to get a vehicle at all or I have to pay too high a price if I'm stranded somewhere on the second I need to come home I'd rather have the option of paying more money

if you don't have the search pricing then you just can't get a vehicle like if you ever been in New York City before Uber and you get out of a Broadway show and you try to get a cab forget about it you're not going to get a cab so with search pricing you can get a cab You just have to pay too much money.

Good point. And the last one, we get to the Mr. Shopping Report. It says, good morning, Earl. Have you heard anything about the fires in the surfside building, collapsed being related to the Tesla. And Tesla's in the underground parking and the fire department not being able to put out the lithium battery car fire.

I'm also hearing that the long-burning lithium batteries are emitting a bad, thick, toxic smoke. I've heard nothing. I don't believe that's true. I think that's one of these crazy. There's a lot of sniping on Tesla. They're a threat. Biggest disruptor in the car business in history, so there's a lot of negative.

Are they referring to the latest collapse or Juno Beach? The one in the Champaign Towers. Okay. Okay. Let's wrap it up. We'll get to these next week, and we have a mystery shopping report. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, remember that you too can vote for the mystery shopping report just by texting us. And also with all of these prices that we talked about this morning, go to Earl Encars. I have an affidavit there that you can download my little invention of out-the-door price,

and that will secure and reassure you that you are going to get the price that they said, you know, it was right there. So the affidavit will help you out. like I said Texas with your rating on the mystery shopping report it's 772-497 6530 now

Stu Earl Mystery Shopping Report I know sometimes you wonder how we select the mystery shopping targets this was unique Wall Street Journal this is Wednesday's Wall Street Journal

there was an article that said more vehicles sell above their sticker price. So I read that and come to find out that one of our customers was quoted in the article. And I'll just read what it said.

I was shocked, said Ken Baird, a 61-year-old Boca Raton resident, who was recently shopping for a key attelioride. The window sticker on the particular model he was looking at read $45,000. And he said he offered to pay $3,000 over

that knowing the vehicle wasn't high demand so he's trying to be cooperative but the dealership wanted $10,000 above the original sticker they said I'll get to $55,000 from someone else that was Mr. Beard quoted in the Wall Street Journal so I asked Stu I said that sounds like a familiar name Steve says yeah he's our customer so we used that to shop and we shopped Phil Smith Kia and Lighthouse Point, which is in the Fort Lauderdale, South Florida area. We went back to the dealership that had charged $10,000 over a sticker price for a Kia tellurine. He had told us the story because he came in, and we knew all about it ahead of time,

so that's why it rang a bell because we had been talking about this price gouching. The unprecedented inventory shortage facing the automobile industry, and the way car dealers are exploiting it will only get worse before it gets better. As a matter of fact, I predict that even after supplies begin returning to normal, we will CDOs continue to price gouge as long as they can until competition rains them in again. Competition is your friend, folks, and it will happen. Prices will be coming back in the line pretty soon next two or three months. There's never been a more impactful justification for fleecing customers than the empty car loss encountered by the shopper when they arrive at the dealership, you walk into a car lot and

you don't see any cars, you know you're in trouble. So this is what the dealers are using to justify charging you, as we say in the trade, all the money. As I said, over and over on this show, higher prices are the legitimate result of a low supply. That's economics 101. Our issue here at Earl and Cars is the excessive profit grab happening in most car dealers nationwide. I mean, I mean, it's like everything else. Sticker is a lot of money. MSRP is a lot of money. When a car dealer sells a card to MSRP, he's making a lot of money.

When you sell a $10,000 over sticker, you have to say, or is there a line? And it's not illegal, by the way. You can charge a million dollars over a sticker because MSRP suggested. It's suggested. It's not mandatory. At some point, supplies will recover, lots will fill cars, and dealers will once again compete for customers by driving prices down. And you just have to stick in there, hang in there, and it's going to happen.

Wait. But before the party comes to an end, expect car dealers to try to extend the days of wine and roses for as long as they can. And we have another mixed metaphor. Well, I noted that in the report for you did. In the meantime, you're going to see some of the most. unapologetic price gouging ever like we did when we spoke with a customer who told us of his attempt to buy a new Kia telluride at Phil Smith Kia this last month Ken ended up Ken the customer ended up purchasing a new Highlander from

my dealership after experiencing thermonuclear sticker shock at Phil Smith the dealer wanted $10,000 over MSRP unashamedly 10,000 $10,000 over MSRP. The deal was so outrageous that a story was featured in a Wall Street Journal article last week. I just showed you that paper Wednesday. Ken came to Phil Smith-Kee, expecting to pay a lot. He was educated about the current inventory situation, but he did not have the convenience

of waiting it out. He needed an SUV right now, and he was asking for it. He even offered 3,000. He knew he had to pay too much so. He said, I'll pay you $3,000 over MSRP, and they wouldn't even take that. They held the line at $10,000 over. We sent Agent Lightning in to see if Ken's situation was a fluke.

It's possible that he ran into a very aggressive salesman, who has held been on getting all the money. We've learned over the years that the type of experience that any one dealership varies widely, even on the same day. That's what makes it so. nightmarish. I mean, you know, there's no consistency. You go into like the models and you get the same hamburger over and over again. You go into a car dealership. You can be trashed. You never know what you won't get. You can love the sales person. You can get a good deal. You get a terrible deal. It's like spinning a chamber on a revolver and playing Russian roulette. I struggle to see, this is our report. I struggle to figure out what new teleguides were available and how they were being listed. on Phil Smithkia.com.

There were no prices or MSRPs listed. You know, you're in trouble right there. Now, on the rest of their cars, they were. So on all the... Just off the tele-rides. And apparently, tele-rides are a hot vehicle. I was talking before the show, and Rick says, yeah, I don't know why,

but it's a cool-looking vehicle and high demand, so they're getting all the money. No prices, and didn't even know if they were in stock. The other new car in Phil Smith is depleted had prices. For some reason, the tele-rides were being turned differently, and we know why. I called the dealership to get clarification. I spoke with a woman at the dealership and explained the difficulty I was having. I said I needed to know if they had a 2002 Kia tellied ride SX in stock. And we're seeing a lot of 2002s in Kia's, aren't we? Yeah. And it was last week

that we saw the same thing. That's interesting. Most of the other models are 2021. but they're halfway through the year it's they're popping up and with a price around 45,000 I said I was driving down from West Palm Beach to a lighthouse point which as I said is the Fort Lauderdale area I didn't want to waste any time the woman told me that they did have some in stock to telerise I asked her what the MSRP looked like on those she replied I thought this was cute she's not allowed to give our prices on the phone. I'd have to come in for that. I mean, that's old, old school. Can you imagine any other store telling you in that? I'm sorry, I can't tell you

how much that Apple iPhone is. I'll tell you after I have you bound and chained to the chair in front of my desk. I said I don't want to know if the MSRP was around $45,000 because the vehicle I researched and settled on at a $45,000 MSRP. So I said, I said, I was asking her to tell me there's, I'm not asking you to tell me your selling price, just telling me the MSRP so I can identify the car I want. She put me on hold of checks, she returned to call and said they did have a few with MSRP's in that $45,000 range. I took my husband along, Agent Lightning, took my husband along for the mission,

is very excited to participate, boned up on his teleride product knowledge, before departing for Lighthouse Point. We got there at 5 o'clock, 5 p.m. parked, I walked around a lot looking for the tele rides. We found a cluster of four 2022s, all with MSRPs in my range. We picked one with an MSRP of 46-105. We were inspecting different vehicles when a salesperson walked over, approached my husband. He introduced himself as Stephen. My husband told him we were there to take home a new telly ride.

I walked over and he introduced me to Stephen. I stayed largely quiet, as my husband discussed the telly ride with Stephen, who was oppressed with how much he knew about the vehicle. Stephen then pivoted to the issue at hand, the inventory shortage, and its effect on prices. He tapped the Menroney label with his index finger and said he wanted to be up front. You've got to hand it to him. about pricing, so our expectations were in line with reality. He told us to expect to pay $10,000 to $12,000. Just bought me another two over MSRP for the tell you right.

He referred to the MSRP as the suggested price, which it is legally. My husband was shocked and asked Stephen how this could possibly be. Stephen then re-emphasized that the sticker price was only a suggestion. we would be looking at a price of at least $56,000 plus taxes and fees, plus hidden fees. Okay. This is getting more and more outrageous as we go along. I asked them if they had any 2021 models and if we could get a better deal on one of those.

Steven said that they had one 20, 21 left and it's parked on the showroom floor. He said that the pricing would be structured the same over MSRP. SRP. I suggested, what he says is a left, it's an older leftover model. You got to wonder why, the last one. Oh, no, no, that's what Agent Lightning said. She's like, like, why is it? Yeah, yeah. Seems that he didn't matter that even their used cars were selling for more than their new counterparts, which is strangely true. If you're buying a used car today, be sure to compare the new car price and vice versa. Because it's a crazy world out there. I demand low supply on new and use. My husband, I acknowledge that we were buying a car at the wrong time, so when you were your eyes open, but we had no other option. We needed it now.

I saw I suggest that we proceed, and Stephen began his presentation. He was really working for the $10,000 premium. He went over everything in detail. This was the most comprehensive demonstration I've gotten so far. Stephen was also very aware that my husband was practically an expert on the vehicle. After the presentation, Steven Fetch the license plate, we took the telly ride for a spin. I sat in the back, Stephen climbed into the pasture seat and let my husband drive. After a long test drive, we returned to the dealership and into the showroom found Stephen's office.

We went through the usual information gathering sales and then Stephen left to speak with the sales. left to speak with the sales manager. Don't know why. Prices, the price is the price, right? He returned less than five minutes with a sparse looking worksheet. Selling price was 46, 875, 770 over MSRP. Then, there was the 425 government fees,

1360 processing document fee, hidden fee. After that came the big one. $10,000 market adjustment. So it's way over $10,000 over his ticket. Way over. Then they added $3,500 in sales tax. I assume that's legitimate. My husband told Stephen, you miss how much over them, Mr. P, they really were.

Oh, yeah, right. Althador price, I can't say it, $62,204. Phil Smithke was charging $12,130 over MSRP. Unbelievable. Stephen said, in all honesty, that the tell your eyes will be prices high everywhere. And if we didn't act quickly, this is the one that will be sold and sold for the same price he's offering us now. He told the shopper that we had that we eventually sold a car to

that was interviewed in the Wall Street Journal. Same thing. And just think of the money they're making. Hand over fist. Yeah, hand over fist. I asked about the processing dogfee as if it matters. I mean, it almost sounds inconsequential. 99, who cares?

I mean, you just popped it so far over MSRP. This is a new high for us. We sat there for quietly for a minute or two holding worksheets, Stephen, didn't say anything either. Maybe he was observing the whole, the old sales axiom, whoever talked. first loses. And he didn't care because he's telling the truth. Somebody's going to walk in the door and pay the price. So they're going to get it and they hold your feet to the fire. Finally, I spoke and said, as much as I love this vehicle, I can't find a way to justify spending $62,000 on a $46,000 car. As soon as we drive off the lot, we'll be crushed by

the appreciation. And Stephen surprised when he agreed. He said, he'll take a big hit when it came like time to trade. So that's the other thing you forget about today. And 22s are out. Wow. 2020s. He then pivoted back to the justifying their price by saying it was not uncommon for high-demand-low supply vehicles to command prices like these. He used the Chevy Tahoe and the Chevy Corvette as examples. Who would have thought the Kia cellularoid would be compared to a Chevrolet Corvette. Even in normal times, they go for $10,000 to $15,000 over a sticker. That's not really true.

Not for the telly ride, no. And not for like every Corvette, maybe like some special one. My husband looked at me and said, it's up to you, babe. I nodded and looked at Steve and said, I'm sorry. You've been very helpful and spent a lot of time with us, but I just can't do it. And you have to say, it wasn't sneaky. He wasn't. He wasn't sneaky.

No, he was sneaky. And, you know, you can make an argument for supply and demand. As long as you're totally honest and you say, I can sell to somebody else for the price, that's the capitalist system. Now, is it honest to not put any information that could give the consumer on their website? No, that was for me. No, that was sneaky. That was sneaky. And, you know, when they won't tell you the price, it's like how many times have you walked on Worth Avenue and you look at the prices and the jewelry window,

and there's no prices. What does that tell you? It's like looking on a menu and it says MP instead of a dollar figure. If you don't put any price or no price, you know you're asking for a fat price. And that's what happened here. So here we are. Interesting story. Did you see the estimated gross profit that they would have made?

Yeah. Yeah, Stu did this, and that's a lot of gross. We used to call them slam dunks. This is four. It's a mega dunk. Isn't that what we used to call them? This is four point, four point two five times higher than a slam dunk. $17,000 profit, folks.

That's a lot of money. You don't have to sell them any tell your eyes to make a nice problem. Well, Stephen, that would probably be about a $4,250 commission to him. Yeah. Nancy and I were watching CMBZ the other day, and Becky Quick, one of the reporters on their interviewed Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett in our interview. And they're, you know, Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett, Trottomonger's his partner. Charlie Munger said this, car dealerships are coining money.

Now, he's an old guy. What he meant was printing money. And they own a chain of dealerships, Berkshire Hathaway. Deerfield Toyota is one of them in South Florida, but they own the Van Nuys group. There's 15-20 dealerships. So when Charlie Munger and Warren Haput, Warren Buffett, say we're making a lot of money, everybody's making a lot of money, because they're fair.

I mean, they're charging supply and demand figures, and that's what they're getting. All the car dealers are making money to hand over fist today. So I get used to it. And if you want to participate, buy a car today. If you don't want to participate, wait until November, December, and you get a much better deal. Grades are coming in. Linda says, wow, time to vote the big, huge F. It's a mixed bag here.

Bob says C for Phil Smith, Kia, take it or leave it. Jonathan Wellington says flat out F. Scammer. I hope his doors shut soon. And I am, I'm going to give him a D plus. I don't like the mystery on the website. Forces people to drive an hour down to find out that the car is being sold for $10,000 over a sticker. That's dumb.

But like you said, it is take it or leave it. Go somewhere else or wait. Rick. I've got Karen with an F, Negan with a triple F. Let's see, we got a whole list of them here. Egan's cheating on me. Bro scientists with an F, Mark Anderson, F, Tom with an F, M.AV, straight up robbery, F minus, T.J.H. F. Mark Smith, F. We have a lot of Fs. John Strine says, classic price gaugging F. Where does Earl Stewart stand on selling new cars, presently in regards to MSRP, Brian with an F, let's see, Mark Ryan, F-minus, Wayne with an F, and myself, I'm going to agree with Stu on the D-minus, I'll go to the minus. I'll answer the old start question.

We sold this customer of the car for MSRP. No, no, no, no. That's what it said in the article. Oh, she got that wrong. We don't have any cars price of MSRP right now. I think it was probably, might have been $500 off MSRP. We have sold cars at MSRP. A long time ago.

Yeah, when the super first came out, the first couple. But typically we don't. But to full disclosure, we do react to supply and demand. Our prices are up. Oh, yeah, yeah. Nancy, your score. Well, I don't have enough time to go through at all, so I'm going to concentrate on the fact that, you know,

there's not a whole lot of consumers that realize that once you drive off that lot, it's a whole new ballgame depreciation I give it at F I pass him with a C minus it's the same thing as a D plus we gave him the same grade well next week remember we will be continuing

the expozy on Kia telluride pricing up in Orlando don't know the dealership yet we're leaving that up to Agent Lightning she's going up this weekend and I can't wait yes most definitely we always have a fantastic show My hat is off to Agent Lightning Yes and I have one little thing

I'd like to give a shout out to Lorraine Sabatella Who is the mother of my best friend She listens to the show every Saturday Is that right? Hey Lorraine Oh hi Lorraine Thank you ladies and gentlemen We're out of time And stay tuned next week

We'll be right back here Have a blessed and wonderful Fourth of July And a safe Fourth of July Bye.