Earl Stewart on Cars - 07.09.2022 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Riverview Chevrolet Buick GMC of Irwin, PA

Episode Date: July 9, 2022

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning travels to the Pittsburgh PA area to visit a Chevrolet dealer in the Irwin suburb to see how much they will charge for a new 2022 Chevy Equinox LS 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 listeners. 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 is my son, Stu Stewart, our LinkedIn CyberSiber. space through Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Periscope. Stu is also the Spymaster Director of our Mystery Shopping Report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting self-forwarded dealership. And now, on with the show.

Good morning, everybody. Well, we're back again, and we've got a lot of new stuff for you. Sometimes I apologize to our regular listeners. We have thousands of them out there that call the show regularly, and some more than that listen to the show but don't call that's okay whatever you're comfortable with but no more exciting time than these days right here in the automobile industry whether you're a manufacturer or a retailer and i usually mention on the show that uh this team here we're retailers we have an automobile automobile dealership in north pond beach florida i say Florida

in North Palm Beach because we're all over the place. Our mystery shopping report today was done in Pennsylvania, and we have callers from out of the country, from all over the country. We're truly international, and I think that we're doing some good. I see a positive trend toward the unfair and deceptive trade practices that have been carried on by automobile dealers, particularly in the United States for, I guess about 100 years. It's hard to believe that.

but the retail franchise system for automobile dealers has been around that long. And I guess from the very get-go, there have been some pretty sneaky behavior to get more money than they're entitled to, to sell your cars that you shouldn't be buying and trick you into buying a car. Now, before I get too carried away, let me say this. There's some good dealers out there, and we find them. There's not a lot of them. And I won't tell you whether the dealer we mystery shopped yesterday,

in Pennsylvania was good or bad, but you'll find out. If we do the mystery shop at the end of the show, that's to keep you listening because it's truly, truly exciting. I mean, if there's one thing on this show that nobody but nobody has ever done is send an undercover agent into a car dealership totally disguised as to the fact that they are not a real buyer or a lessor, they're not leasing or buying or maintaining. Sometimes we even do service shops. So they go in and they record everything that.

happens. I don't mean video or audio record in their mind, and they write it down. It's illegal in many states to record video without permission, so we don't do that. But right after the visit for the recollection is still fresh and the undercover agent, our current one is Agent Lightning, she records that information gives it to my son, Stu. By the way, Josh Stewart, his brother, is sitting in for Stu today. And Josh will be doing. doing the mystery shopping report. In fact, he's integrally involved with the mystery shopping report also. So, if you haven't heard a mystery shopping report on Earl and Cars,

you don't have to stay tuned for two hours. It'll be, you can turn it off and then come back on around 8, about 9.30, and you'll hear the mystery shopping report. But it's really cool. Rick? No. They should listen to the entire two hours. Well, we like it.

You're wonderful. We like it. We like it. I know. I know you think I'm wonderful, Rick. Thank you very. We're awesome. I think you're wonderful.

But the show is interesting. If you're thinking about buying a car, our advice to you is just don't buy a car, okay? I think we have a caller. We prioritize callers. So Nancy Stewart, my co-host here, will introduce her. Good morning, everyone. Good morning, John. You're an early caller.

Welcome to the show. Yes, ma'am. Good morning. Thank you so much. Okay. I've called several times before. I called a couple of times and talked to Rick and Earl about this Mercedes-Benz I had, and it was just 2003, and it was messing me up.

So I spent some money, so I was just going to cut the line. So my wife wanted a genesis, and so SUV, GV, 80, or whatever. And I said, I talked about it, I said, no, I said, what we're going to get? And she agreed with me, a Toyota, either a highlander or a forer. And so I hate going to the car places. I hate it because it's one, I live in Stewart and the Treasure Coast guys. When I've gone there before in the past, get a part for my cars, they're just like a bunch of piranids. So I hated it.

I said, okay, but you do the talk, and I'm not going to say anything. So you get out, and we're looking at all the cars, so we found the Highlander stuff. And then after about 10 minutes, this fellow named Shane came out. He said, could I help you? We told him what we're doing and everything. And so he said, well, okay, he says, let me go get a key, and you can get in and look at it. And so that was it. We looked at it.

We showed it. She showed it this. We walked away. And I said, wait a minute. I said, you know, I've been here with poor. I said, and it's like a bunch of piranhas. I said, if you were really courteous, you were polite, you answered our questions, and he gave us your card. And I said, I asked him what he's name was.

He says, well, you know a new general manager, and he said, we're going to treat people like human beings. So I just thought, yeah, I know. You might want to know that because before it was very unpleasant. I didn't even like to go and get parts because, yeah, can I help you?

I'm just getting some parts. Can I help you know? I'm just getting parts, you know. So there's, I haven't heard one on them lately, but I know in the past they probably weren't very good. Well, John, thank you. That's great news.

I hate to be the bearer bad news all the time. I love little beacons of light like this that come through with your calls, and we will recheck Treasure Coast Toyota. I'd love to find a conscientious

caring car dealership in South Florida, especially. We call that the belly of the beast or Sodom Gamora. We have all sorts of names, but we find nice places outside of the state, but South Florida seems to be really bad. I really hope.

I know the owner of Treasure Coast Toyota, his name is Sandy Woods, and he's a gentleman. I like him. We've been friends for a long time. And when you have a lot of dealerships, sometimes it's hard to keep track of what each individual one is doing. But thanks for your call, and we will respond. You will see a mystery shopping report on Treasure Coast Toyota shortly. And I can't thank you enough for the call.

Yeah, and the guy's name was Sean Deffer, and I told him, I asked me if you ever listen. He said, yeah, I listen to it every Saturday. Encouraging. I'm going to mention your name. Encourage you. I've been having kind of a rough morning, John, and your call just put a smile on my face. So thank you so much. And we'll try to get Sean when we go to Treasure Coast. Yeah, I'm sorry, Shane. H-A-N-E, Shane.

Okay, Shane, not Sean. Very good. Thanks again. You have a great day. And please call again next week. You have a rest of your day. Have a blessed day, buddy. Thank you, my friend.

Bye-bye. Thank you, John. We definitely enjoy the company of our listeners, of our callers, texters, everyone, YouTube. You guys do such a great job every single Saturday morning. We love hearing from you. And we learn something from you. Give us a call toll-free at 877-960-960. You can also text us at 772-497-6530. Don't forget. Feedback.com. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Again, talking about John's call, this is what makes the show so important. It's real time. It's what's happening today. And so much of the news we get is yesterday's news. So we're seeing change for the good and for the worse. Here we see a hopeful we'll keep our fingers crossed, change for the better, with Treasure Coast Toyota in Stewart, Florida. and we will visit them shortly.

It may be not next week, but the week after, and we will verify that. And then we'll move them to the recommended list or raise their score. We have the good dealer list and the bad dealer list on earluncars.com. That's our blog site. And so we're a story in motion.

We change every week, every day, and things are starting to get a little bit better. I think in the next few years you'll see some major change. and the way cars are bought and sold. Before I get too much hung up on the sales, you heard Rick earlier. Rick Kearney is sitting next to me.

He's a certified diagnostic master technician. Simply speaking, he just knows everything about cars. I know that's a slight overstatement. Nobody knows everything about anything. But if anybody knows everything, it's Rick, if you have a problem with your car, and I'm advising you today, we advise you today here at Erlon Cars,

don't buy a car, don't lease a car, wait. Things are changing for the better. The car prices are at all-time highs. I'm not going to say they're going to go back to all-time lows, but they're coming down, and they will come down further. If you can possibly wait, wait, and during that waiting period, you need to have good transportation, and you need to be sure your car is running okay.

If you have a little symptom you're worried about, if you hear a little noise, you smell something funny, a little vibration in your car, a warning light came on, all these things. Why be nervous about it? Why get stranded on the highway? Call Rick Kearney. You can call them here at 877-960-99-60, 877-960, or if you've got a smartphone, go to YouTube, Erloncars.com, ford slash, I'm sorry.

Yeah, no. Not backwards. If you go to YouTube.com for us slash rolling cars. YouTube.com for slash Erland Cars. And he monitors that channel on YouTube. So you can ask Rick his question directly. And we also encourage you if you can, send up an audio clip or a video clip of the symptoms. You know, the noise or maybe what you're seeing.

We don't have smell of vision yet, so you can't describe that. but describe the symptoms either verbally or more specifically with a clip. You can send to YouTube.com, and he can see that, and he'll respond. We also have a text number, 772-4976530. That's 772-4976530. Audio, text, and our most unique spot, we get a lot of calls on this, where I say responses, I should say, it's Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Now, Josh Stewart is monitoring that along with our test, text.

So it's your, Y-O-U-R anonymous, A-N-N-Y-M-O-U-S, Feedback.com. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. And you can say anything you like. We don't know who you are, where you are. We get a surprisingly a number of positives. We don't have a lot of attacks on your anonymous feedback, but we don't mind. The only thing we censor, when we read them, we read them all, sooner or later, we read them all. But we, if there's profanity of vulgarity, obviously we're not going to put that out of the air.

But we'll put in a, we'll say bleep or blank or something like that. So if you want to swear at me, that's fine. I'll say blankety blank and then get the context to your message and we'll answer it. So we got texting, we got audio calling, we have your anonymous feedback, we got YouTube.com, or slash rural and cars. And we have Facebook.com forward slash real-on cars, and that's Josh. He monitors that. Nancy Stewart, as you just heard earlier, if you've been tuned in, she monitors the phone.

And when you call in on the phone, 877-9-60-960, we stop what we're doing. Nancy taps me on the shoulder. I stop in mid-sentence and we prioritize callers. Why? Because you're driving along the highway and you're going to make a call. He probably shouldn't be calling anyway, but we don't want you to worry about holding anywhere. And we only have about five lines coming in. Sometimes we get real busy, and then you get a busy signal, and we hate that.

So that's why we prioritize phone calls. 877-960-99-60. Now, Nancy Stewart, she's a very strong female advocate. You ladies out there, we know a lot of you are listening. Thanks for Nancy, because we've been doing this for almost 20 years. She has a special offer, if you haven't called the show before, if you're female, and your first-time caller is a special offer, your regulars know what it is. But if you haven't, stay tuned. I'm going to turn the mic over to Nancy now, and she'll tell you all about it.

Good morning, ladies. We have a special offer for you. Please, take advantage of it. I know you can use it first two female callers. You win yourself $50 this morning. First two new female callers. And you can share anything with us, whether it be just to say hello or, well, possibly a purchase you made, leasing, anything at all, anything in service also. And it is for the first two new lady callers.

So give us a call, 877-960-99-60. And we are going to go back to the phones where John from Palm City is waiting. He is a regular caller. morning, John. Good morning to everyone. Earl Stewart has talked in the past in spite of the robust car market of companies that are into trouble

or may not be around any longer. I'd like to mention one with people who would be a little shocked over it. This company was formed about 10 years ago, originally from drive time. Anybody want to guess what the company is? Hmm.

I give up. The answer is Carvana. Carvana has tremendous problems. The stock is down 90% from its peak. They bought Odessa, which is Adessa, is the second largest car auction company for $2.2 billion. They have in trouble with the financing of that money. They're also having layoffs. They built 33 of these so-called vending machines, slick like a soda vending machine.

And it continues. But the major problem is they have multi-lawsuits. What are the lawsuits about? Glass action. Just in one example, William Strolls of North Carolina, he would stop the speeding in his Hyundai Sonata.

When he was stopped, they found 12, he had the car for a year, 12 temporary plates from Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Arizona. They ran the VIN number and found out that the car

was registered to somebody else. They immediately arrested him. He was, arrested, he was spent over eight hours in jail, he had a post bond, and they found out that that car was all the temporary plates that were issued were unnecessary, basically, because they don't do their proper paperwork. Wow. And there's other examples of that, a question I want to ask, Earl, in the state of Florida,

can they issue a temporary for the same car more than once? Yeah, but not one line after the other. Technically, you can only issue one temporary tag when you sell a car. Then you're supposed to have the real tag. But if another, if they trade that car in five years later and the car gets sold again, then you could have another temporary tag. But to have that many in the car, something fishy was going on because you just don't keep, now, in practice, I don't want to get too granular here.

But sometimes dealers do put a second Tim Tag on, but I've never heard of 10 temp tags. That would be in the room. Yeah, that's excessive there. This is an actual case, and there are other, but I won't get into the details of states involved. Pennsylvania already has revoked their temporary, temporary revocation of the issue, any tags.

It happened several times because of many of these other incidences. But the main thing about them is layoffs have started, this department that's in charge of registering the cars, is evidently defunct. It's one joke. I mean, if you don't have the proper registration or ownership of a car, technically, they don't have any right

to issue a temporary, and that's what they're in deep trouble for. Yeah, that happens. You know, I suppose, you know, sometimes these temp tags lay around in a closet somewhere, anybody can go in grab a handful of them, and you can sell them. I mean, it's just, there's very little enforcement

on it. One thing, John, if anybody else there has this bad experience, if they contact the state department motor vehicles, whichever state it's in, the state of department motor vehicles regulates the life and death of a car dealer. They can take away their license, basically put them out of business, bankrupt them, they can find them. They don't have to go through the judicial process. It's a agency that has enormous power of a car dealer.

So if you get flim flam by a car dealer, especially on something like a temp tag, a quick fill out the form Department of Motor Vehicles in your state and when they get it they will contact the dealer personally and they will jump and act on anything from the DMV. Sometimes they'll ignore lawyers,

they'll ignore the Federal Trade Commission, the dealers will ignore a lot of people. They won't ignore the Department of Motor Vehicles. Well, the good news, I read some of the lawsuits and it's nothing involved with Florida. Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, he's a big

class action suits for the same type of reason that I gave about issuing temporary tags for long, long time, and not properly giving the people the proper registration for the cause. So I just want to mention that. People will be kind of shocked that it's a big outfit like Alvon. I think at one time there was a second or the third largest after ordination of the, you know, used call business. Very good. Well, John, thank you.

Very informative. even. You're a great caller. We love to hear from you. You never cease to amaze us, John. We can, and we got you come to the show with so much information and, you know, bring us a lot of things to light that nobody really knows about. We do, indeed. Thank you. Well, thank you, guys, for being there. I know you'll enjoy the Mystery Shopping Report.

Don't forget to grade it. Okay, we're going to go, we're going to stay with the phones, and we're going to go to Sarah Lynn. who is calling from Boynton Beach. Good morning, Sarah Lou. Good morning, Nancy. Good morning, Earl. Good morning, all you.

Thank you. So I was just listening to John, so that means I have to get all my licenses out of my trunk now. I'm kidding. It was just a joke. So I really just called to say thank you and good morning to all of you. And I love your show. I just want you to know.

Thank you. Well, thank you. Thank you, Sarah Lynn. It's my pleasure. I wish you all a fantastic day. Thank you. We enjoy your company. And I love this.

Give us a call again. Our number here is 877-960. Ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers. And please don't forget your anonymous feedback. www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Now back to the recovering car dealer. I think let's get into some text or anonymous feedbacks, YouTube's, whatever we have.

What are we having the backlord? Yeah, sure. We have Amory's text. She's always first on the docket. Greetings. Thursday morning, I was driving along North Lake heading to your dealership for the six-month maintenance check-up on my Camry.

Suddenly a fire truck flew past me and there were more vehicles with flashing lights coming up fast. When I got closer, I saw several fire trucks at your dealership. One, what happened? Two, is everyone okay? Three, is this the first time anything like that has happened? Thanks.

we did have a small fire in a vehicle that was put out quickly by a fire extinguisher and everyone's okay the only the only danger really was from the fire extinguishers that those the chemicals they used to suppress a fire aren't good for people so we had to clear out the service department for about 10 15 minutes I didn't even know about that if Ann Marie hadn't told me my sons didn't think it's significant enough to call me tell me tell me more about the fire judge I believe there was a fuel injector repair being done and some, you know, really... Mechanic was smoking while he was doing that? No, no, I don't believe that was the case.

Only afterwards. I need some details. I hate to call the fire department to find out, but what happened? The best I can guess is that... Oh, you weren't there? No, it was about, oh, let's see, about... Rick knows nothing. No, the distance from you to me,

that's where I was. It was my car. I was working on the car. Oh, now here we go. Rick's car caught on fire. This is good radio, ladies and gentlemen. And Rick says he wasn't smoking until later. I'm only kidding.

Afterwards, a little bit. But tell us a whole story. There was an issue with the fuel line up. I'm still not even, I have no real way to say what happened specifically. No injuries. Why don't you have any eyebrows? he's been talking them they kind of disappeared a little bit

just some of them but basically the engine was running on the car with the hose on the exhaust and unfortunately a fuel line split or leaked and suddenly we had a nice

wump big fireball and the unfortunately the first fire extinguisher we grabbed something was defective with first fire extinguisher. Oh, we haven't had our fire extinguishers inspected. Well, we have, but this one, apparently something got missed on it. A rogue fire extinguisher. And so we suddenly wound up with three other fire extinguishers involved and a massive cloud of yellow powder and smoke. And it seemed like it took something like 15 or 20 minutes, but I'm sure it was more like

about less than a minute total. No one was injured? nobody injured and how bad was a car damaged the car was burned up pretty good burned up pretty good yeah what do the customer say the customer was surprisingly understanding

and obviously we're going to complete make them whole yes absolutely yes okay folks this is one thing to this is live radio folks see you can't get this anywhere and so it isn't amazing

caller calls in saw fire trucks going to my dealership and I didn't know anything about it and the mechanic who was sitting to the right of me was working on the car that caught fire now you can't make this stuff up and he said it was spontaneous combustion because it was just one of these things that well there nothing caused the flame there was a fuel leak yeah and unfortunately now let's this is a good public safety announcement to anyone okay that's what we that's what this is this is a public safety announcement bear bear in mind every one of us goes to the gas

gas station. Well, you don't anymore. Let's keep this on the car. Well, I'll get there. But gasoline is an extremely dangerous. I know. I also know I have a degree in physics. Did you know that? And I know that you cannot ignite gasoline vapors without a spark or a flame. So it wasn't because the engine was hot. There was a spark or a flame. And we just don't know where that spark or flame came from, do we? Almost any electrical connector could have had a minor little spark. Okay. But gasoline vapors

How long have you been working on cars? Detney very easily. For your dealership, 27 years now. Have you ever had a car catchment fire while you're working

on it before? This is my third. Oh, third. Oh, I didn't know that. Was that in your resume when I heard you? Well, they all heard you. They all occurred to hear that.

They all occurred to your dealership. I think we've devoted enough time to that. We have about several fires a week that you don't know about. Jonathan, can you do an audio? We'll do it on YouTube

video on this. This will be, I'll come up with a really good title. I think it's going to go viral. So, let's get back to the basics here. Do we have any callers? Well, there's more to Anne-Marie's text here. Hold on for a second. I want to pick myself up off the floor.

Okay, Josh. So, and before I continue to the second part of her text, I would like to give a big shout out to the North Palm Beach Fire Rescue for their quick and speedy trip to the dealership. I understand that they stay close to Rick Kearney.

I mean, they have a truck. He has like a caravan of police of mercy vehicles that follow him around. Exactly. I have a new entourage. Yeah. Well, they do know Rick, because Rick does classes for the, I'm not joking now. This is talking cheek. He does classes for fire departments and police department on hybrid vehicles.

So they all know them really well, and by knowing him really well, they know they keep a man in a truck close to Rick at all times. So, the second part of Anne Marie's text. So moving on from Dashie Goes, P.S., I think a book based on the questions and comments generated by a radio show would be a great idea. It does sound like a good idea. Well, my third book. Because I've got, I didn't even tell Josh this, as she knows, the final draft, the first draft of the book is ready. And I'm getting in today or yesterday. It might have come in already and we'll be reviewing the book.

So that is revelations of a recovering car dealer. And book three, I love the idea, will be Earl on Cars. She even has a few suggestions for the titles. Oh, great. First one is The Radio Show Chronicles, where knowledge is power. I love it. Number two, the radio show Chronicles were the public hears car dealer's secrets. And last but not least, grilled, a car dealer spills his secrets.

Oh, I like that one. Yeah. And we could tell the grilled, we could do the fire part. I wish we had some real sound effects here. Jonathan, we need a rim shot for next week. So that's it for Amory. Those are wonderful titles, and a special thank you for stimulating probably the most exciting, impromptu conversation in the history of our long cars.

Thank you, Amher. We love hearing from you every Saturday morning. You've become a great part of the show. A fixture of the show. Okay. Okay, Josh. Yeah, I have some more text. Let's do it.

We can get back to Rick on a less. controversial topic or humors as I were I had my rear brakes done on a 2011 46,000 mile four-hunter along with the tires rotated after that I had a vibration in in my steering wheel and a little wobble I had the truck tires balanced and I still feel a slight vibration with a subtle balance in the back of my truck any ideas hmm so rear brakes and a rotation rear brakes and rotation the The rotation probably is what prompted by moving the tires up to the front. Those front tires might have been out of balance a little bit.

And if they only balanced just the front tires, that's going to correct that feeling up in the steering wheel and in the front end. If you're feeling it more in the seat, then maybe one of those back tires was improperly balanced or needs to be rebalanced. Or they might also want to check the road force of the tires to make sure that the tires and got excessive. road force, which is, it's a measurement of the stiffness of the side wall of the tire. Is that a good rule of thumb if the vibrations in the sternly will is more likely from up front and if it's in the seat, it's in the back? Yes. That's cool.

And also, pay attention to if you're feeling the vibration at highway speeds, say, somewhere between 45 and 65, it's most likely a tire balance issue. But if you only feel the vibration when you're stepping on the brakes, obviously it's going to be more of a brake issue than tires. All right. Very good stuff. Let me ask you a question. I'm thinking about balancing. We can check alignment. Most service departments check alignment and don't charge, and if you need alignment, they charge

for it. A balance. When you check the balance, is there a charge for that? Yeah, because normally to check a balance, you've got to remove the wheels from the vehicle, mount them on the machine, and actually run the balancer. And at that point, it's only a few seconds longer to remove. move the old weights, put on new weights to get an incorrect balance. You don't say check by balance. You just say, you say, I got a vibration and the normal diagnosis of this being a balance issue. Thank you.

Okay. All right. Here's another text, and I'd like you to handle this one since you're our statistician here. When you give a statistic like the average selling price of a new car, wouldn't it be more useful to the consumer if you gave the median selling price? Yeah, I would. It actually, in this, you know, the average selling price can be distorted by extremely high prices or extremely low prices. The mean is the middle.

So it's a little bit more information because you know that if you bought a car below the mean, then you're getting a better deal than the average than most people. If it's above the mean. Median. Median. Yeah, median, I'm sorry. Median. And so, yeah, that's absolutely true with a guy who sounds like a mathematician.

Yeah, I figured that would tickle your own. mathematical brain there. All right, I can go back to Rick real quick because there's another technical question here, unless we have something. No, we don't, but I will mention again, the telephone number is 877-960-960, and we'd love for you to stay with us this full two hours. We have a whole lot to get to, especially some information about the Federal Trade Commission. And ladies, I'll remind you again, $50 for the first two new lady callers.

Please give us a call. 877-960, and for you others, Texas, 772-497-65-30, and of course, Rick is here taking the YouTube's. Okay, Josh. All right, this one's back to Rick. This texter owns a 2006 Toyota Tacoma pre-runner. The last four to five years, I've been hearing a clunking sound from the rear of the truck. This noise only happens when I stop at a red light or stop sign and then proceed across the street. The truck has been lubed, have had the rear end replaced, bearings greased, as well as the pinion rod.

They also check the brakes and the tires. Mechanic technicians are not sure what it is. They emphasize to me not to stop quickly. Whatever happens during the braking, something in that area rolls up and then releases to make that noise. Do you have an idea what this is? Yep. All right. Are you going to tell us?

Yep. This is known as drive shaft wind up. I know it sounds like an odd term, but basically you have a long shaft that goes from the transmission to the rear end, the drive shaft. It's a solid steel pipe with the U-joints at each end. Tacomas, for some reason, are incredibly susceptible to this, and even mine does it occasionally. Basically, what we have found, and I found this by just playing with it in my own truck, when you're coming to a stop, the drive shaft is actually being taken. turned by the rear end at this point. So the torsional forces are reversed of what normally it's feeling. When you get to a stop, that force is still slightly there in the drive shaft, and every so

often, the AC compressor, which normally will turn off when you're decelerating, because you know, the computer will shut it off and on as it goes, may kick back on just at the moment that that shaft is releasing that pressure. And you'll feel this thump because the engine has just increased its idle speed for the AC as well as that shaft, releasing that torsion pressure at the same time. And that's why you suddenly feel that little thunk as the gears in the rear end are now going from pushing in one direction to going to push in the other direction so that you can start driving forwards. Rick, that's very interesting. This is the 2006 of the textures. What are you here?

Mine is a 13. So, you mean, in seven years, Toyota still hadn't figured out how to fix that? They started finding that problem in 2005 was when customers started complaining about it, and it persisted all the way through the 2015 model year. They didn't change the comb of is off for nearly 10 years in that body stuff. But, I mean, you would think there would be an engineering tweak that they could have made on it. They tried many different things. They said, don't lube the drive shaft as much, because there are several lubrication points on the drive shaft.

They said, don't put as much grease in it. Put more grease in it. They tried changing springs on the leaf springs on the rear end. They did a whole bunch of things. And finally the engineers just said, we just can't seem to figure out how to get rid of this. And they finally just said, well, it's the gears in the rear end, which are turning one. By a Nissan or a Dodge.

At that point, yeah. Is it just a noise or is it causing any kind of internal damage? So far, as I can tell us, 150,000 miles on my truck, and it hasn't caused any damage yet. Just a clunky truck. It simply, you feel it at times, and like the caller was, or the texter was told, if you coast gently to a stop, it doesn't get as much pressure wound up in the drive shaft. And then that will release that pressure a little easier, and you won't get that thump. Okay, well, change the way you drive your vehicle to accommodate our engineering. expert in expertise. That's pretty much what it is. Okay. Any more interesting text over there?

Yeah, this one definitely falls into the interesting category. This is from Negan. And he's saying hi to Stu. Does Earl know that Tesla cars don't have AM radio? I did not know that. Earl does not know this. And it's really strange because I like to listen to AM radio sometimes. Well, there's some theories here. I don't believe that. Well, you can test it in about And now we're in 24 minutes. I know what, no, no, no, I don't know. I'm but think of it because I don't listen to. So that's the last time you put on, you're right, you're right.

You're right. Wow. Okay. Well, it's not, you know. Well, that's the reason when I'm driving it, I can't get AM. Well, this is what, this is what, uh, uh, Negan says here. He says, electrical noise from the motors will cause interference in noise. However, the new Ford Lightning does have AM.

There's a, but there's a conspiracy theory, apparently. on the internet as to why. And it has to do with talk radio on AM stations being mostly conservative radio talk shows. It seems that most Tesla drivers don't fall into that, you know, conservative category. I'm not sure how much, you know, legitimacy there is to that,

but it's very interesting. When Ford was asked why AM radio is included in Lightning, they said the average F-150 was a blue-collar man and they tend to listen to more conservative talk radio. On the way to work or home, I found this interesting. Thanks for a great program. Well, that is a great call. That's a really interesting text.

I love the callers to teach us things. I didn't know that. And her reasoning is very logical. It absolutely seems logical. I'm not sure that I would say Elon Musk and Tesla is liberal, but he's kind of lackey back and forth on both ends of the spectrum. The first part, though, was there being some sort of interference from the electrical motor making the AM station more, like, not as, I guess, you know,

and not being able to pick it up as easily. Yeah, the Ford Lightning is an electric vehicle. It's electrical vehicle, but I guess, you know, according to this theory, they want to make sure that their target consumer could get the radio they want. Love the, love the text. Really interesting stuff. Really good, yeah. What else we got?

I got something else coming in here. Okay, let me jump on something. I want to talk about that I was talking briefly to you about Josh and I talked to Nancy about. We had an issue the other day with a prospective customer. at our dealership, and she had a problem with the valuation of her trade-in. And we went through a process that I advise you, you listeners, anytime you are trading your car in to go through the same process. That process is to go through the third-party buyers.

You heard John from Palm City earlier talking about some of the third-party buyers like Carvana that were having financial troubles, and that is true. So we put this particular trade in through the process to be sure we got the most for the vehicle. And I just thought you'd be interested. The range of prices offered from the various third-party used car buyer-sellers was over $10,000. Wow. And we had the low, let me rephrase that, it was more like $7,400, $7,400. The low price we got was from Vroom, and their price was $10,000, actually below $10,000.

And the high price we got was from Car Guru, which was $17,400. We had, no, the CarMax was $17,500. So we actually allowed on the car, our appraisal was $17,000. So I'm saying to you, if you make a note of, and you can Google it, third-party car buyers, the ones we checked in this case were we buy any car.com, CarMax, Carvana, Vroom, VR, O-O-O-M, and Car Guru. And we went through these, and you can see a $7,500 round number swing in price. Now, as I was going through this process and discussing it, it occurred to me that, finance, Wall Street has a name for this phenomenon, and it's called the Greater Fool Theory.

And it helps me remember this. The greater fool theory has been around for years, and the really sophisticated people on Wall Street, the speculators, use this. You realize, if you're in the stock market, if you watch the financial news, you know about Bitcoin, and you know about the currency, the cyber currency that's gone up and down and all over the place. Bitcoin varies $10,000 per share. It's way down now, was way up.

And sophisticated Wall Street people were actually buying it, 15, 16, 17, and they were buying it under the Greater Fool Theory. And the Greater Fool Theory says, first of all, I know about the theory, but I know that what I'm doing may be foolish by definition, but somebody is even more foolish than I am. So that's what happens. So when we appraise a car or your car dealer appraiser, raises a car, he's going to put a number on it that he really believes you might be right

or wrong, but somebody else might be wrong in your favor. So the more people you check, the greater the fool you can find. And sooner or later, the market crashes. The nice thing about shopping your trade in is you're not invested because you don't have to commit until you find the greater fool and then you sell it to them. In this case, the greater fool was car guru. And there might even be a greater fool than Carguro. Cargoro might be able to go out and find another company that'll pay even more than that.

So the message in simple terms to you folks that are looking to sell your off-lease car because you exercise your purchase option or you have a trade in and you want to be sure you get maximum value from your dealer is go online and contact as many as you have time for. I think you could find a dozen of these and you get a bid and sell your money. car to the greater fool and you get much you know we're talking thousands of dollars of difference so that's my tip of the day that's great advice always great advice from the recovering car dealer ladies and gentlemen give us a call toll free at 877 960 960 the lines are open we're waiting to hear from you remember you make the show also you can text us at 772

4976530 and you can all also sent us an anonymous feedback. www. Youranonymousfeetback.com. Now back to Rick, do you have any YouTube's over there for me? We're running a little quiet here, except for Mark Ryan saying we should get t-shirts printed for Rick's gift shop that say the fire may be out, but I'm still smoking hot. I like that. Well, if we're going to do it, we're going to do a YouTube.

to a video on this and Jonathan is very creative we might even get maybe our marketing company in there we can we'd splice some stuff together I think we could make a I think we could get you two or three million views on that

I can see that we need we need some graphics do you think we could recreate the fire oh let's not okay we won't do that but now I have a question for you Earl asked about the smoking aspect of things was anybody smoking any

ribs in the back. No. Oh, no. But I'll tell you the creepy part was about 15 minutes after all this had happened. And I'm kind of coughing a bit because, you know, and every time I coughed, I would see

puffs of dust and vapor come out of my mouth. It was, oh, weird. Okay, let's go. That is amazing. Let's move right along. Any text? Yeah. I got a text from Robbie and Stuart Florida. This is for you guys here.

This is good morning. I listen to your show every Saturday. A couple weeks ago before Father's Day, Earl said Nancy was making him a blueberry pie. Nancy then said, I'm even going to roll the dough with a rolling pin and make this pie from scratch. Earl, my wife, heard that, and I got a blueberry pie too. The only difference, I told my wife no rolling pins in case she gets mad at me. Well, I told Nancy the same thing, but she bought the rolling pin anyway. You were a good boy that day and you didn't get smashed. I can't find a rolling pin.

Yeah, he's hit it far, far away. I bought a backup. Amazon. Have a few in the car just in case. There you go. Well, thanks, Robbie. That's a very, very sweet text. Yeah, thank you, Robbie.

I'm glad you got that blueberry pie yourself. I got one from Regina and Coral Gables here, too. Hi, it's Regina from Coral Gables. My husband, Richard, and I regularly listen to your show. We have learned valuable information by listening each Saturday morning and appreciate each one of you. We're ready to purchase a prime round four, and I want to purchase it from your your dealership. Please write us to someone out there. I'll text her off the air and we'll be more than happy to take that. Just, you know, just practice patience. Unfortunately, the Ravrefour

Prime is incredibly in short supply and it'll take some time, but we'll be happy to push you on the list. On that subject of all you listeners out there about thinking about buying a car, and as I said earlier in the show, don't buy a car, don't lease a car today, late a few months. By the way, the microchip shortage is abating, and there are actually, the problem now is the manufacturers are, unfortunately, stockpiling, hoarding, as it were, microchips. There's more microchips than are needed. So we're evolving now to stage three of the whole shortage problem, and if you can wait until the end of the year, I said this last year, and I was wrong, but if you can wait until the end of the year, you'll get a much better price. If you think about buying a car and you have to buy a car, remember this. If you buy a car from dealer's stock, there are very few there.

The reason they even have the very few there is because they're charging huge prices. Thousands of thousands of dollars over MSRP. So counterintuitively, it's absolutely wrong to buy from stock. You should order the car. In most cases, you have to order the car if you want what you want. If you buy from stock, you're going to get something you didn't want. Color, trim, options. If you order the car, you should get exactly what you want,

but you're going to have to wait maybe six months or maybe seven months. If you can wait, you should wait. Most cases, you can get the dealer to agree to sell you the car at the Costco agreed upon Costco membership price when it comes in, so you're not locked in. But at the very least, when you order the car, you're going to get a lower price than you would if you bought one from stock. Now, they won't tell you that when they're advertising and they're talking to you.

But if you list to our mystery shopping reports, when you buy a car from stock, you'll see an MSRP and maybe even no addendum sticker on the window of that car you're looking at. But the prices and the hidden accessories that are added after the fact, unneeded accessories, and the hidden fees, they pop up, pop up. And by the time you leave there, you're paying at least three or four. thousand dollars over sticker so do not buy a car unless you absolutely have to today and folks you know i want to remind everyone that earl did write a blog on just that topic and hanging on to your old car is just the best way to go right now as he said for a number of reasons and also

the car that you do have and you can give up is worse it's uh well it's worth a whole lot of money. So look into that aspect of it. Our number here is 877-960-960 and you can of course text us at 772-497-6530. Back to, actually we're going to go, we're going to go to the phones and back to the phones and we have a call from Charles and he's calling us from North Palm Beach. Good morning, Charles. Good morning, Nancy. Quick question. My wife and I own two Volvos, a 2009 XC70 and a 2012 XC60. And I can't understand what is going on sometimes very, very infrequently, when I either start up the car or after I'm leaving from a red light or stop sign or whatever.

There's a misfiring, a bucking, or whatever, so I quickly turn off the engine. and my question for Rick is, what's the cause? Does this cause damage? And is this unique to Volvo's? They're the two engines, one's, I think a five-cylinder on the 70, and the 60, I believe, is a six-cylinder. Unfortunately, I don't have a huge amount of experience with Volvo. I'm primarily invested in the Japanese end of the cars.

A misfire on acceleration, I'd definitely be concerned about that because any time you get a misfire, it can start getting a lot of extra fuel in the cylinder. That can cause pre-ignition, cause damage in the engine. So I would definitely get that checked out. First thing I'd be looking at is when it's the last time you had the spark plugs and the spark plug wires replaced? Waldo says that they should be done, I think, at about 70,000 miles. So we're getting up there.

So maybe that would help. And Charles, I just Googled this. I went on Google, and the first Google that popped up was Volvo 2.5 cylinder misfire solved case study. There's a YouTube on that. Locate faulty, coil pack, sudden engine hesitation. Volvo, these are all YouTube's, Volvo S-40, misfire. So there are apparently a lot of other people are having the same problem. and all I put in

Miss Fire on 2006 Volvo and there's a whole wealth of diagnostic information on there. Check it out. Okay. Well, thanks to go. And how do you like, you've called before,

you've owned Volvo's for a while, is that correct? My wife and I were both pretty tall and unfortunately Japanese cars don't seem to be dealing with northern European stature. That's why. thing for sure. At one time, Volvo

had the reputation for being about the safest car on the road, is that still the case? You would know better than I. I don't know. I fortunately haven't cracked up either car. That's good. It was good news. Well, thanks very much for calling, Charles.

Yeah, we... Okay, thanks. We love hearing from you, Charles. Our number here is 877-960. You can also text us at 772-497-6530. I mentioned the mystery shopping report earlier, and it is definitely spectacular from not only, not from anyone that can't do the job weekend, and we got the spectacular Agent Lightning, and she

went out to Irwin, Pennsylvania, so you want to stay tuned for that. Again, our number is 877-960, now back to Josh. Yeah, we have an anonymous feedback here. Sort of on the same topic you mentioned about ordering a vehicle instead of taking out a dealer stock. It says, on last week's show you explained to avoid having your ordered car sold to another customer, you'll need to get the VIN number assigned to your car. Yes.

This anonymous feedback asks, can you provide some additional details as to when the VIN number is assigned? Is it sent to the dealer, when the car is built or shipped? What is the timeframe for that VIN number assignment to the dealer as part of the ordering process? And what would I need to say in order to, get that VIN assigned to my order. I can answer from a Toyota perspective. I'm sure most of the

manufacturers work in a similar way. Early on in a vehicle's life before it's actually built, Toyota issues, an interim VIN, which is not going to be really much used to you. The real VIN is made when the vehicle is actually built at the factory. Typically, that occurs about six to eight, 10 weeks before it gets shipped to the dealership. Probably right after it comes off the assembly line. Right off the assembly line. But it still has a lot of transportation and stuff before it gets to the distributor and then to the dealership. So we get our vins about six weeks before the car gets here.

Sometimes it's a little bit shorter. It depends on where the vehicle is being built. You know, if a car is being built in Japan, we get the vint a lot earlier than if it's being built in Georgetown, Kentucky. Because it takes a lot longer to get from Japan to Florida than it does from Kentucky to Florida. And you really probably should call the dealer. Unfortunately, a lot of dealers aren't good about contacting the customers. Most dealers have a huge backlog of ordered cars, and there's a lot of information that comes in all the time on all these cars,

and you have hundreds and hundreds of customers. So you should be the squeaky wheel. You should call the dealer periodically. If they told you the car will be here in four months, I'd start calling them in three months, and I'd say, have you got the vine yet? if he got the serial number, the vehicle identification number. Once you have a vehicle identification number, and they've communicated that to you,

and you have an order, you legally own that car. Up until then, any car of the general description that you ordered can be substituted. So someone else might buy that car that came in because the dealer can sell it for more money, or maybe they just make a mistake. There you go. So, yeah, it might take, depending on the model,

If it's going to take six to eight months to get, you might not get a VIN for several months after you're older. But typically a dealer gets that VIN anywhere between four to, I'd say, four to eight weeks before your car arrives. Very good. Very good question, especially in today's market. Okay. Great. We're really moving along here with a whole lot of information. And Mary is on the line from LaBelle, and she has called before.

We always love hearing from Mary. Good morning, Mary. Good morning, Nancy. and crew. I'm calling this morning with a follow-up on my 2011 Honda CRV that had a shutdown problem a few weeks ago. I called two weeks ago, and today I'm calling with follow-up from the repairs I had done at the Honda of Fort Myers dealer.

I took it in and gave a statement to the service advisor of the car shutting down while cruising, not accelerating, not breaking, and the fact that it had happened two different occasions while traveling at slow speed and both times with the steering wheel turned, turning into a roundabout or turning into a parking space. And the advisor took my information and parked the car, went into the customer service waiting area. He came, first I was approached by a female salesperson who wanted to know whether or not I would like to trade in my car.

This was before I had any feedback from the mechanic. and would be interested in a used CRV or a new CRV, I declined. Then the service advisor came in to speak with me and said that a video of my inspection would be forthcoming and I would be able to access that on my phone. In about 45 minutes, I did get a video on my phone. I unfortunately was unable to access it. But later when I got home and had my laptop up,

I got to actually see the mechanics assessment of the problem. Basically, there were two issues. The first was the air cleaner lid, was not fitted correctly. And he found dirt and debris in the M-A-F sensor and the throttle body. So that was cleaned and reset. The filter was replaced.

And he also recommended a new set of plugs, which I also had done. When I asked about the steering locking up, which was my primary safety concern, I got a little bit of a brush off and was told, well, yes, when the car, when the ignition shuts down, the steering locks, that's the way it's supposed to happen. I said, well, I say, you know, that's, that's a, that can be a real safety concern at highway speeds. And I basically got the brush off there and was told, well, that's the way cars operate. So I was also told that I needed four new tires, that I had, I should have my brake fluid change. a long list of pricey other services, which I declined. Mayor, were you given an estimate of the total cost? I was told that it would be $169 an hour.

And then, yes, I was given, not just an estimate, I was given a very close breakdown of labor parts, miscellaneous items, and tax for each potential. service. What was the total? If I did everything but the tires, the total would have been 1,000 here. Mary, you're from LaBelle. Did you go to a Honda dealer in that area, or did you come into West Palm Beach area? Which dealer are you going to? I went to a dealer in Fort Oh, Ford Myers. He's relatively new, opened up just before the COVID pandemic. The estimate minus the four tires would have been $1,560.

Rick will have an idea on the diagnosis, but in spite of what Rick says, anytime you're spending over $1,000 on a car, particularly at a older car, 2011, you should get a second opinion, and so you need to go to either an independent service department mechanic that you can trust or to another Honda dealer. But Rick, what do you think about the diagnosis? My first question, Mary, does your car use a normal key, or do you have a push-button start? Normal key. Okay.

Go somewhere else. Do not go back there. A car with a normal key type system, unless you turn that key all the way back to the lock position, the steering wheel should not lock up. Thank you for that. So they told you wrong there. Okay. I mean, that's both good and bad to hear. because I got the feeling that I was getting the little old lady brush off there with my concern.

Yeah, somebody's messing with something here. My first thought is when you turned the wheel and the car shut off on you, did the steering wheel actually locked to where you could not turn it, or did it just get very difficult to turn? It would not turn. Okay, there's something going wrong with that steering lock system then, and you should definitely go somewhere else and make sure that they check that system properly, because that is obviously an extremely dangerous situation.

As a matter of fact, most cars, especially Japanese cars, when you turn that key all the way back to the lock position, even then that steering wheel, although it'll be hard to turn. turn, it should still turn all the way full distance left to right until you take the key out of the ignition. That's a mechanical system that it should not lock that wheel until that key is out of the ignition. And if it's locking, there's a serious problem there and that's extremely dangerous and you definitely should get that checked, but somewhere else because if they brushed you off on that, they're not doing right. That's a disservice. I take it to another Honda dealer, and I would get another opinion.

I'd love to have you call the show next Saturday and let us know how it went, Mary. Okay. I will take your advice. I appreciate that very much. Well, thank you so much for the call. Mary, we really appreciate you calling and would love for you, as everyone has said, for you to stay in touch with us and let us know how things turn up. Well, I really appreciate the fact that you agree with me that that,

that steering issue is a safety problem. I will definitely call up with a different dealer. And Mary, you sound like an educated consumer, and there should be more of us out there like you. Good luck. Thank you, guys. Have a good week. Thank you. 877-960-9960, or you can text us at 772-497-970.

Now back to Josh. That kind of reminds me of that Chevy recall, Rick, that wasn't there an ignition switch recall, and that was a major, like, or the cars were actually turning off just because a key would be too heavy or the keychain was. Right, yeah, a lot of people, and this is something a lot of people do like to carry a lot of things on their keychain, and in some of the older cars, that could actually cause stress on that ignition cylinder by having all that excessive weight on the ignition key. Yeah, so that's a good advice not to have a five-pound. key chain right very good most cars are going to push start so that but if you still have a key you know it's really amazing that you mentioned that Josh because that used to be like standard operating procedure for everybody you have a big big ring and you felt like Moses I mean everybody had this huge

ring of keys like carrying around a tambourine and also a lot of a lot of ladies used to carry with a strong lanyard on the end of the keys, just as kind of a safety issue. If somebody comes up that you don't like, you've got a little wallop. That's a good point. And a little can of pepper spray. There you go. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, please, 877-960, 9960.

The lines are open, and we'd love to hear from you. Now back to Josh. All right. I got a text here. It's a long one, so hopefully it's an interesting one, too. Hello, gang, long-time listener here. I enjoy your show, mainly because I'm very mechanically inclined and listen to the callers present their issues to you

and get an honest answer, unlike what I've been getting. I just do it as a hobby. I told my wife that I would do it for money if I did it for money it would become a job, and I'm not going to enjoy it as much. That's a good point. My question, I have a 2014 F-250. Like one of your callers, I'm having a little bounce, which seems to be coming from the rear tires at highway speeds

about 65 miles an hour. I visited a couple shops in the West Palm area, and before I could even explain what my problem is, they're trying to sell me tires. It seems to be that they're all on the same page because I get the same response from every place. They actually get upset when I decline the new tires. My tires are not new, but they do have a little less than half of the life left. As you know, the price for tires is up in the sky just like everything else. I've paid on two separate events to get the tires balanced, but the problem is still there. I don't know what to do anymore. I can't seem to find an honest mechanic to tell me if my tires are bad or if it could be fixed by properly balancing.

Being that I had oversized tires on my trucks is hard to find a reliable and honest shop. Please advise. Thank you. Well, the only thing I can think that would make someone honest to recommend you replace your tires if you still have tread, the NHTSA National Highway Traffic Safety Association guideline is 2.30 seconds. We're more conservative at our dealership. We use 3.30 seconds. But if you've got tread, it could possibly be deterioration like, and I'm by said tread, I mean even tread on all your tires. If they're old tires, they could be cracking. You know, rubber cracks when it gets old. You can check the date of manufacture of your tires. And if they're over

six years old, you have reason to be concerned in an inspection to see if there's some cracks could be a problem. But I don't know. If you got, I'd be a little bit worried if everybody, You say every place you go, they recommend new tires. There might be something that I'm missing. I hope you don't have a nail on the tire or something else, but I'm sure they would have said something to you if they did. Uneven tire wear can also be an issue there too. Treadware by definition.

Treadware by definition, you have to have 2.30 seconds on all your tread, not just one tire. So if you have uneven treadwear, then you blow 2.30 seconds. you need to give that a replace right away. All right. Okay. Unless there's something on the phones, I have another text I can go to. Okay, do it.

They're coming in fast and furious today. I just heard your comments about waiting until the end of the year to buy a new car. What is your take on the status of the used car market right now? This textor needs to buy a used car in the next few weeks and is concerned that he'll be overpaying. Use car market is in better shape than the new car market. I think the prices are coming down and used cars. a little bit. They're not really coming down much at all in new cars. You're still talking about a bad time to buy. And by definition, a used car is a greater risk than a new car.

So I don't change my mind on used car or new car. Don't buy either unless you have to. And I believe you're going to see used car prices come down. Another strange thing is happening with used cars. It's kind of a push-pull thing. Demands dropping, but supplies also dropping. These cars are becoming scarcer and scarcer because you, West, people that are leasing cars are whising up to the fact that when that car comes to the end of your lease, you have a purchase option, which is a bargain. So more and more people are exercising their option to purchase their lease car and you don't get to buy it by them turning it in.

Also, it's becoming much more important to have the car that you're looking at inspected by a mechanic very well by someone you trust because a lot of cars that have, problems are still winding up on the lots, even with those problems, because people still want to, the lots still want to make those money. Yeah, dealers are desperate for inventory. They may be a little less discriminating about what they keep and what they use to wholesale. They might be selling. That's a good point.

Also the fact that our advice on this show is don't buy a car unless you have to. And what I have to, that means there's something wrong with your car. That means you're trading it in to a dealer and the dealer is going to sell it again. So we have a greater supply of high mileage, cars with problems, and we have dealers that are more desperate to sell those same cars. So it's really a real risk. Would you say, though, if you're shrewd enough and you have a nice trade-in, that minimizes the danger because if you shop your trade in,

get top dollar for it, as long as you don't get too, you know, as long as you get a fair price on the new car. Absolutely. I actually saw an ad for a 1990. for Geo Metro, $9,000. There must have been a nice suit in the backseat. Well, if it still runs decent, those things got 50 miles a gallon back in the 90s, but still. I remember during one of the gas spikes in the mid-2000s, geometros were doing big money because they got such a great gas mileage, probably in the 30s even back then.

Oh. Yeah. Folks, you're going to hear it all here, a lot of information. Remember, you've got the power of the Internet. It is just an amazing time. You've got a lot of options in these volatile times that we're living through. And if you didn't pick up the consumer report, you should because it does have some pretty important advice on car buying. And it talks about seven essential questions that every single car buyer should ask.

because it's a minefield out there. And you've got to dot the eyes and cross the T's 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-3-0. What do we have, guys? I have another anonymous feedback here. Hi, everyone. Hope you all are well. Is the Toyota Lifetime Battery available for the hybrid 12-volt battery,

or is it just available for gasoline-slash-diesel engines? As far as I know, there's no hybrid lifetime warranty. There's going to be some lifetime regular car batteries. Is that correct, right? Actually, I believe what they're asking is the 12-volt battery that hybrid cars all do have a 12-volt battery as well. And yes, you can get the Toyota Lifetime warranty, 12-volt battery for a hybrid. Now, what does lifetime warranty mean?

Good question. Basically, it extends the length of the 100% warranty. on the battery and for the as long as you own that particular car there will always be some value left in that battery that they will prorate even if it's only 25 cents right but a last you'll get something back out that's really you know i'm surprised at toyota advertising lifetime warranty yeah i know a lot of car dealers that advertise lifetime warranties which is all BS so you know a warranty is a very specific thing with exclusion and inclusions and what it covers and what it doesn't cover and how long.

But when you say to somebody, here's a lifetime warranty on your battery, what does that mean to the average person? You know what it really means? It's making that consumer a captive audience to that particular place. Yeah, so it's also being fooled into thinking that if I buy that lifetime Toyota battery warranty, if anything happens to my warranty, my battery, as long as I live, they're going to give me another battery. And that ain't true. So any time you see a superlative advertisement or billing for any product, don't believe it.

If it's too good to be true, it's not true. The old saying, there's no such thing as a real lifetime warranty on anything. But as long as they keep you coming back to their shop, they can keep selling you more work. Alter your motive, and you're exactly right. I wonder what kind of premium they pay for that lifetime battery, you know. I'm surprised that Toyota or anybody gets away with it. I mean, we don't have enforcement of regulations. Clearly, it's a deception to the consumer.

If I say, I'm going to sell you this Toyota with this lifetime warranty on the 12-volt hybrid battery, and that 12-volt hybrid battery has a lifetime warranty, that is deceptive. That is deceptive to the consumer. And I'm surprised at Toyota does that. I'm a Toyota dealer. I, personally, I'm growing a little disgusted by some of the things I've seen from Toyota and all of them. There's not enforcement of the rules and regulations. Federal Trade Commission, by the way, says that's deceptive.

I was going to talk in a minute about that. We have time. Front page of the automotive news today. Federal Trade Commission rules on dealer, F&I practices debated. The Federal Trade Commission has been in the news recently, Automotive News, Wall Street Journal, any periodically you read and they're coming out after card dealers. The problem is

with the Federal Trade Commission, they're making a lot of rules, but nobody enforces them. They're making more laws. We're in Florida. Florida just came out, a legislature closed up and shut their doors in Tallahassee. 150 new laws in

Florida. I mean, they can crank these laws out like hotcakes. And the government keeps making laws, but they don't enforce. the laws. And the reason they don't enforce the laws is because the regulators are in the pockets of big auto, a big everybody, big insurance. And the regulators who get elected and the legislators, they get elected by the corporate people out there that are selling products like batteries. They have a lot of influence. They have lobbyists making millions of dollars in Washington and Tallahassee and every other state capital. And so the regulators are very hesitant to enforce the laws. So thank you federal trade commission very much. These new rules that you issued on, I think it was June the 4th. Yes. Yeah, voted 4 to 1 on June 27th. July the 4th edition. On June 27th,

4 to 1 they invoke all sorts of great rules. Basically they said that if a car dealer advertises a price, now listen to this, Federal Trade Commission, new regulation. If a car dealer advertises a price or quotes you a price, it has to be the price you can drive the car home for plus government fees only, tax and tax. Now, where have you heard that before on this show? We've been arguing that for a long time. Now, the Federal Trade Commission has made it federal law, but it's not going to happen unless somebody, like Ashley Moody, the Attorney General of Florida, or Governor Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida.

or the governor or attorney general of any state enforces the laws you've got the laws on the books the state laws the federal laws enforce them if you're wondering where the crimes are go online look at any advertisement of any car dealership anywhere and I promise you I in my letter open letter to Governor Ron DeSantis I said Governor DeSantis go to any advertisement for any car dealership and you will find federal law and Florida law being broken. Call Ashley Moody and ask her to enforce the law,

find them, threaten them, whatever you can do. It's on the book. So you have the statute. More laws are just making life more confusing for the consumers and for the regulators and for the everybody. So, excuse me and ladies and gentlemen,

we both feel pretty passionate about this cause. And this radio show has really done so much. And we've all worked together here to bring us to this moment. Federal Trade Commission on the front page of the automotive news talking what we have been talking about. And Ezrail said that these rules have to, these laws have to be enforced. They can just, they just keep throwing laws at everybody, but they're not enforced. And that's where they drop the ball. And Ashley Moody, our Attorney General,

or Governor DeSantis. And by the way, Earl did, as he mentioned, write a column for the hometown news that was supposed to be. It was a, I find it hard to say this. There are amendments. We do have freedom of speech, right? We live in the United States of America. At any rate, he wrote a column and the hometown news wouldn't even run it. So, and that is the column that he talks about.

open letter to Governor Ron DeSantis. So all of you stay in touch with your congressmen, do what you can to write a letter, whatever you can to support all of us. Let me quote here from the Federal Trade Commission new regulation on June 27th. Requires dealerships to produce a true offering price for any vehicle they promote. It's effectively the out-the-door price at a dealer. would charge to purchase the vehicle not counting any government taxes and fees.

So that's the law, folks. That's the law. And they're violating it in Florida and the other 49 states and nothing's being done about it. You know, and the Gallupil that we talk about every week, that's what keeps us at the bottom. We've been at the bottom for so long, folks. Does that really turn your stomach? Do you want to do something about it? Join us.

Join us in this fight. We can get something done here. We can do it with your support, with Ashley Moody. Hey, Ashley Moody, are you listening? How about Governor DeSantis? They tune in every week, right, Rick? Okay. Our telephone number is 877-960-9960.

To make me feel better. Lorraine is calling. She's a first-time caller from Hoot Sound. Welcome, Lorraine. Hello, I'm not a first-time caller. We'll listen to you anyway, though, right? Yeah, your voice will make me feel good. I appreciate that.

First of all, thank you for all of your service and what you do for all of us. And this is a little story for all of the women that are listening to tell them what I have learned by listening to you and your beautiful team for a long time. I have a 2013 Elantra and right beside my gear shift there's a little teeny thing that says shift lock release and I was

traveling I got out of the grocery store and Wind Dixie and my gear shift lock was just not moved it would not move no matter what I did so I saw that little thing there for whatever reason

and I decided to get on my web and look it up, and I did exactly that, and it told me that that little teeny square, you had a really small screwdriver, flat hat, you put that down in there, but to release it, and I didn't know anything, how to do that. So I watched the video, and I obviously didn't have a small screwdriver with me. So I was in the Wind Dixie Plaza. There was a dollar tree. I went in, and I bought a $1.25 set of screwdrivers that had every size you could think of. And the very, very teeny, tiny last one fit in there. And that popped open, and I followed the video to hold it down, and it released it.

Well, congratulations. Wow. Congratulations, Wayne. Pardon me? Congratulations. Thank you. I wouldn't have been able to do that, not having a listen to your program. Thank you very much. But my question is, why did it lock and will it happen again soon?

Those are my two questions. Most likely what happened is the car got bound up in park. What you're actually trying, using that button for is to release the shifter, the lock system that keeps it from going from park into any other gear. without the ignition turned on. Probably the solenoid inside there that when you turn the key on and step on the brake, it's supposed to release that solenoid and let you push the button and shift the car from park down into reverse, neutral drive, etc. So if that solenoid in there is starting to act up, that will not let it come out of park.

Were you able to push in the button on the shifter at all when you stepped on the break could you push the button in? No, it would not move at all. I tried, I tried to do as much as I could by the video and I did have to use a little teeny screwdriver and I did do it said and it didn't release it. I guess my whole request, my whole question is that I'm going to keep the screwdrivers with me but I don't know what caused it and I want to, when you say Sally, I know, does that mean something that I need to have replaced? Probably, yeah, because what you used the screwdriver on that's actually a mechanical override for that lock system and I would definitely have a mechanic check out that solenoid on your shifter lock

because basically what happens that it's a safety feature so that the car can't be shifted out of park accidentally without the the key being on and your foot on the brake in order to be able to shift it and so using that override that gives you the ability to do it even if say the battery was totally dead you'd be able to get the car into neutral to push it for a tow truck or the like but if yeah that solenoid has gone bad if it's starting to go out then that lock system you could get stuck with that in park and you'd have to use that override all the time so I would definitely have a mechanic check that out okay and so is that something that would be a

really big really big expense to have fixed No, the Solonite itself would probably be at most, maybe $100 to $150. Labor on that shouldn't be more than $150 to $200 total. Okay, well, thank you very much. You answered that, and I have one more quick question. Sure. My visor in my car is it broke on one side, and so it doesn't stay down, or excuse me, stay up very well. So I tried to, I use some Velcro to make it stay, but it doesn't stay against the material.

And I tried to get a new visor, and it's hard to get one for this old of a car. Is there any type of tape or anything you can tell me that would hold it up against the material? This sounds a little silly, but what I would recommend is actually get a strip of material. And you know those pins that you can buy at the craft stores and furniture stores for like putting like slip covers on your furniture? It's kind of a little decorative head and it's like a curly cue pin. Yes. All right. Get a strip of fabric.

Attach it to the headliner with those curly cute pins so those will hold nice and solid. Have that fabric come down to your headliner and then use like just a straight line. a straight pin going into that, that will hold your head, your visor up in place, and you can still pull that little strip of fabric loose any time you need to pull the visor down. Perfect. It's a silly shade tree fix, but it works. I know, but I appreciate it. And you're just such a wonderful show to listen to, and I hope that all these women

that are listening, if they have any problem with whoever, no matter how silly it is, to call in because you have the answers. And I appreciate you. God bless you all. And thank you for listening. Thank you, Lorraine. Thank you so much, Lorraine. And please stay in touch with us.

And good luck. We're going to go to Chuck, who's been holding from Oklahoma. Oklahoma. Oklahoma. Hi, Chuck. Good morning. How are you all this morning? We're well.

Thank you. Thank you for your patience, Chuck. Oh, quite fine. I hope you all had a good Fourth of July week. again. I was calling because I know you both have Tesla's, and I was reading quite a bit of the Tesla stuff this week. I heard that he's supposed to be having the, well, he won the award for Best Electric Vehicle for the year, I believe it was. I forget the name of the brand, but it was rated number one, of course. And also, he was supposed to be coming out in a few years with a $25,000.

in this RP electric vehicle. Since you're pretty knowledgeable about this stuff, my question was, I'm reading a lot on the maintenance is supposed to be quite a bit lower because you don't have a combustion engine, you don't have a power train, no transmission, no oil changes and that kind of stuff. Yeah, I've had, so, nope.

I've had my test over a year and there has been no required maintenance. So it's almost maintenance free. So electric motor on each wheel, or how is your electric motor system set up? Your tires are the only thing. Your motor requires no maintenance. Your battery requires no.

If you have a problem, obviously you have to have it resolved. But there's no maintenance required maintenance on anything, as far as I know, except the tires. I get them checked regularly, and I had a problem with one. Okay. I understand a lot of that. What I find very interesting is, you know,

all the manufacturers are putting out target dates, you know, Ford, Chrysler, General Motors. They're saying, well, by 2030, we'll have X percentage of all electric vehicles. I'm wondering, like, it's 2022. Now, say we hit 2030 or even 2040, what will all these parts distributors, everybody that works on engines and transmissions, are they retraining all these mechanics to move more into the electric vehicle maintenance work and knowledge as opposed to your average guy that just changed your oil and redise your transmission and your combustion engine? And, you know, no spark plugs anymore. So it's going to be a revolution. It's the same thing happened to the buggy whip manufacturers a long time ago.

So everybody has to be retrained. You know, California, I can't remember the exact time, but it's less than 10 years. Less than 10 years from now, I believe. California will not allow any cars except full electric. So they're really getting serious about it. And California always moves first. and then it follows to the rest of the country. So this isn't a joke.

This is happening. Everybody's getting real serious about it. And if you only know how to, if you're a technician only knowing how to work on internal convention, internal combustion engine, you're going to be out of work pretty quick. Well, that's the thing. It's going to be retraining the entire industry

so that, you know, you don't have a backlash of people complaining that, well, we're out of the job, blah, blah, blah, you know what I'm saying. Well, you do what Rick Kearney. also known as Fireball Kearney, Rick Kearney sitting here. He's been doing this for 27 years, and he's gone from the buggy whip of 27 years ago to high-tech electric vehicles today.

So the smart technician that started out with combustion engines is staying up on the electric, the hybrid, even the hydrogen-powered. You have to stay up on it. Rick's online educating himself every day almost, and sometimes he goes away to school. So the word to the wise, if you're a combustion engine technician today, start taking those online courses and be ready because the revolution will be here very soon.

Is Toyota going all electric in 10, 20 years, or what's their plan? They are hedging their bets with hybrids, and Toyota actually is looking at it less urgently than a lot of the other manufacturers. I think they've seen the light, and I think Toyota has decided all electric is the way to go. But they are so far ahead on hybrids than anybody else. That is the transition vehicle. The hybrid will be the transition vehicle. So they'll be fine, and they won't come out with all electric until later than some of the other manufacturers.

But when they do, they'll be right in the ballgame with everybody else. Do you think hydrogen will play a role anywhere in this? It'll play a role, but it's going to be a minor role. I mean, you can talk about hydrogen fuel cells, the infrastructure is the killer there. You have to have hydrogen stations all over the world, and no one's building them. Right now, we're worried about charging stations, and people are building those. So if you can't get the hydrogen in your car, and you can't plug it in somewhere, then you're going to go to all electric. Well, what will the gasoline station owners do?

Will they transition to have both gas, if you still gas, and plug-ins? You'd pull into you to get gas or electric when you go into a gas station. Wouldn't that make sense? Absolutely. Huawei is going, they have the charging for Teslas, and the smarter gas stations are going to be making the change. The good news is they've got great locations. They got very high visibility.

That's because... Don't they make most of their money from their convenience stores anyways? It's not on the gas itself. Very true. So they're going to be okay. And the rest of them will just have to get out of the business. But it's a good thing. It's a good change for everybody.

It's not a bad change. Rick? A quick bid here from our buddy Donovan. He says the battery on the electric cars does require some maintenance. And you do have a coolant change at 200,000 miles. And for the caller. Get ready for that. for the caller. Hundreds of thousands

of people are going to lose their jobs at the lower end of industry because EVs use less parts and have far less maintenance, but... Okay, we have a caller on that. Thousands of people will be hired in the battery construction. Okay, thank you very much. Sorry to cut you off there. Absolutely. Well, that's

my main thing. I'm 64, but I didn't envision owning it, but I pretty much am sure that I will own an EV here before long. Well, yeah. And you're looking at the future which is smart, you know, I'm 81 and Nancy's 80, and we're betting on not just all electric, we're betting on full autonomous because we know that, you know, I have to, I said this last week on the air, I'm going to have to have my Florida driver's license renewed in December of 2022. I'm not sure how I'm going to feel, how my ears, my eyes, and my body is going to be at that time. I would like to be able to summon my Tesla to come up to the front door, get in it, and say, take me to Publix, and it takes me there.

I have full autonomous on my Tesla, and I'm just waiting for the software to be cut over when my score gets high enough. And even then, when it cuts over, it won't be fully legal. But again, I'm saying a prayer every night that by December 22, it will be legal, and I'm going to have my freedom machine, my car. I don't know what I would do, and Nancy doesn't know what she would do without her automobile. A lot of people, our age, are thinking about that. You should start thinking about it. You're a kid at 60, but how important your car is to you. Think about it.

Fully autonomous car. You could be 110 years old and say, take me to the nursing home, whatever you want to say. Well, you know, I tell you what shocked me the most when I was watching the show on the electric vehicles was They showed a parking lot, for instance, somebody going to a major city to work their job. They're all driving their cars. They don't even want a carpool. You know, while they have the contraflow lanes, I lived in Houston for 20 years. They kept building the highways bigger and bigger, but still there was too many cars coming into the city.

They showed a parking lot at a business filled with, you know, thousands of cars. And they said, the people drive their cars to work takes some maybe 20, 30 minutes, an hour or whatever but then their car sits there 96% of the time right so the question is why do you want millions of cars sitting all day long doing nothing when all you did was get from a to b exactly and that takes you from you go all electric then you go to all electric autonomous and then you go to all electric autonomous ride sharing i mean why own the car you know i mean you walk you walk out to your front door you hit your app on your Apple Watch and a car pulls up you get

in the back seat and they've got those in San Francisco right now. In San Francisco you have to go on the waiting list to do it because they can't build them fast enough but you go to San Francisco and you hit your Apple Watch app and a car pulls up you get in the back seat you say take me to Taco Bell

and there you are. So the future is here and just a question of spreading Florida and all 50 states and it's exciting. What a very exciting time that we're alive. Well, you know, we would go to New York City. Of course, I have friends that moved to New York City, and they said, nope, sold my car, don't need a car.

Yeah, Uber. And in New York City, we take the subway, we, you know, we walk. I mean, you don't need a car. No, exactly, yeah. Even in L.A., we go to L.A., we took the train to the basketball game, and we took a taxi over here, whatever. You realize you're talking to a car dealer.

I'm starting to have palpitations. Chuck, I can understand where you're coming from. I'm from Pittsburgh and used to get around the same way. The good news is that I read more and more that the electric vehicles, they're becoming more and more affordable, and the prices are coming down and depends on which direction you're looking in. As far as a purchase is concerned, it was a delight talking to you. We are going to go to the mystery shopper.

report give us a call again please please you're a great caller our mystery shopping report we got some more text it's only 937 now let's do we have any more text over there yeah we do got a couple here let's see here the 2017 tundra SR5 5.7 during breaking it will rev to about 1500 RPM it has done this a few times truck only has 23,000 miles and they just just bought it less than 500 miles ago. Any clue? What size boots do you wear? Believe it or not, that actually is a concern. I have seen sometimes folks with large footwear. Our big feet. When you move your foot from the gas to the brake pedal, if you don't bring your foot all the way over and your boot actually catches the accelerator when you're stepping on the gas on the brake pedal, you will engage the accelerator just a little bit.

Yeah, he says it's only done it a few times, so it might be just an accidental replacement. I would be looking at that. Well, it's part of the problem with sudden acceleration that Toyota made famous several years ago. And my suggestion there is that all manufacturers consider that they're building cars for people with big feet and people that wear boots. And so they need to take into consideration the design of their pedals. You know, you don't always know why somebody runs into a lamppost. And I just, it makes me shudder a little bit to think that cars are designed with that issue. I mean, if you have small feet or normal feet, it doesn't happen.

But hey. Now, most cars also are designed now where the, and 1,500 is a little excessive, but most of the new cars, pretty much all the new cars built for the last five years, if you are stepping on the brake pedal enough that it engages the brake light switch, the accelerator pedal becomes inert because the accelerator pedal is now electronic and the computer controls the engine. Therefore if you step on the brake pedal just enough to engage those brake lights, your gas pedal will no longer accelerate. What a great idea.

The sudden acceleration problem and this all says that's the reason we want autonomous cars because when a car is built for a human being to drive it, they make physical mistakes and mental mistakes and when we have to the fully autonomous, all electric car, there could be far a few access to death. So much better. But to your point, Rick, you know, I think that would be an easier option than to be selective about the shoes that you're going to wear.

Definitely. Let's mention the ladies. They wear a lot of different types of shoes, and that problem has been going on for an awful long time. Me being one of them back in my younger day, I would just simply take that shoe off because I had that problem. In South Florida, too, a lot of people wear flip-flops. It's not safe to drive in foot-flops.

They can flip underneath the pedal there. On the autonomous driving, I'm just curious, is, will they have to look at the laws? Will it be, you know, having to have a driver's license in a fully autonomous vehicle? That'd be something they'll have to look at. That's what I got my fingers crossed. I think that the question is exactly that. If it's fully autonomous and is judged safer than a car with the human being driving it, I can't imagine why they would care if a blind man drove the car.

Exactly. So, in fact, there you go. People that are hearing impaired, vision impaired, physically any other way impaired, you can have transportation now. If you're physically impaired in some way, or even mentally, for that matter, and you are not qualified to drive a car, autonomous car is something that will give you that freedom. So it's an amazing invention that is so important. It is so important for so many people. It'll change things that we can't even conceive of right now.

Exactly, exactly. Okay, I think we are close to the mystery shopping report time now. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, remember you can vote, and you can vote by texting us. You're great for the mystery shop of Riverview, Chevrolet, Buick, GMC of Irwin, Pennsylvania. You can text at 772-497-6530. 772-497-65-3-6-5-0. So take advantage that.

We'd love to hear from you and know how you feel about the mystery shopping report. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Okay, now this was written. By the way, I've given credit to my son, Stu Stewart, who is not with us today. He's at home, and Josh is substituting. But he writes this.

Josh collaborates, and the mystery shopping person, of course, Agent Lightning, It's a joint cumulative effort for these reports, and I'm reading it, so I'm just the guy that reads it. As you may have guessed last week, Agent Lightning is making her way north, taking our mystery shopping on the road. On our last show was Mike Erdman, Nissan, of Cocoa Beach. This week, we're back in Pennsylvania. This is the fifth mystery shop we've done in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, one of Agent Lightning's homes away from home. The two most recent missions happened earlier this year, so we've seen what Pennsylvania dealers are doing in the midst of the inventory crisis.

What we've seen is a lot better than what we see down here in South Florida. As Sindle, Subaru, the price was just a hair over MSRP, and the treatment was so good. That Agent Lightning's friend actually ordered the car, so it's unbelievable. She went in on a mystery shopping report with a friend as a cover-up, is a business. disguised and the deal was so good that people were so nice is Sindel Subaru that they bought a car. That's got to be a first for the mystery shopping report. Exactly. At Camlin Hyundai, the experience was pleasant. The price was $1,400 over MSRP. Now, if I, you said that three, four years ago, I'd say that's a slam dunk. They really got to take advantage of. Now, ironically,

14 out over MSRP is not a bad deal. From all we see, Pennsylvania dealers are making their money just topping MSRB. when they're going too crazy. They're probably making the biggest profits of their careers, I can assure you, we are at our dealership. But unlike the dealers down here in South Florida, they're not murdering, they're not massacring their customers, not taking advantage, price gouging and all the other verbiage we can throw at them. Irwin, Pennsylvania, just outside of Pittsburgh, the hometown of Nancy Stewart, sitting here to my left, my lovely wife and co-host, and of course her famous Plymouth Barracuda. her first car really tell us about that i've had to find her okay excuse me i have to interrupt the

mystery shopping report to talk about the barracuda we're talking about your permit barracuda it's a small town that is uh josh incited this whole thing that is small town erwin's a small town just outside of uh just by 43006 about 4366 people nice string of car dealerships along state road 30 known locally is a lincoln highway uh riverview riverview chevi is located on the Lincoln Highway in Irwin, Pennsylvania, right next doors with a loon? How do you pronounce that? L-U-E-H-M-Candy Company. Never heard of it. I've heard of Hershey, and they're in Hershey, Pennsylvania, but I've never heard of Linn candy company. It was in this Norman-Rackwell setting where Agent Lightning went to work. Now here's a report. I'll pretend like I'm Agent Lightning,

speaking in the first person. I arrived at the dealership late morning and was quickly greeted by salesman named Brad. I explained I was in town to help my son buy a new car. I said he was attending college in Pittsburgh. Brad began by saying he did not have much inventory to choose from. He said my options were pretty much restricted to small crossovers and SUVs. He asked me to follow him and he led me to a car across the parking lot. We got in and drove to the upper level of the lot. I'm not referring to a parking garage. There was a lot of construction and there were different elevations on the property.

A little chaotic. There are 11 new vehicles on display. Brand told me that he had more to choose from in the used car inventory, just like most dealers. We looked at the cars he had to discuss what would benefit my son the most. We settled on a new 2002 Chevy Equinox LS all-wheel drive. Brad ordered a test drive and offered a test drive and explained he would need a I was back to the room to get the keys, I declined, and we went over the car's features instead. Brad focused on safety features, since I'd mentioned safety was a concern, I had.

I focused on the Monroney label. I focused on the Monroney label. The MSRP was $29,045, that's fairly low by these Monroe standards, and there was no addendum. No amendment. That's an anomaly. I told Brad, I was ready to look at that. the car at the numbers, so we got in his car, descended the terrain, went down the mountain. I'm glad I don't live in Pennsylvania. I take that back. I like nouns. I just don't like driving up and down. He led me to his desk. We both took a seat. I asked him if they had any incentives. I like rebates or special financing. Brad said I could choose between $1,250 rebate or 0% for 60 months. That's typical. And it was nice that he mentioned.

alternative. Sometimes you don't get the alternative mention. I said I want to see the cash option. Brad excused himself for a few minutes and returned with a worksheet. The selling price was MSRP, 29,045. The next line showed the promised $1,250 rebate. Whoa! So then we're coming off of MSRP, and here's a gentle mother's rebate of $1,250, bringing the price down from MSRP to $27,000. $975. Now, let's see where we go from here. To that, he added $422 in documentary fee, not say a hidden fee, dealer fee, whatever you want to call it, but it's pretty small.

422. You know, years and years ago, when I had a dealership, a dealer fee, I should say, I had a dealership going back, let's say 20 years, my documentary fee, my dealer fee was $4.95. And that was, now there were $1,000, $2,000. So 422 is extremely reasonable for an extra fee. And there was $58 for title, $39 registration, a $34 plate. And there was $45,47, and additional fees. So you add them all together, and you're still only at $598.47.

Very low by South Florida standards, certainly. Then he added sales tax attack, which is good. And the out-the-door price was $30,456. It looked like the only big junk fee was a $422 dock fee. So my real price, hang on to your ads, folks. We haven't seen this ever, I don't think, ever. I mean, in the past three years, $828 below MSRP. You heard it?

I'll repeat it. $828 below MSRP. almost unbelievable. Brad went over the 0% financing option and asked me to reconsider the certified pre-owned vehicle. He continued to apologize for having so few cars.

I might mention a little bit. With interest rates going up, you really want to compare of those two. The cash and the interest. 0% for 60 months can be a lot of money if you're financing a lot of money. So just do the arithmetic.

My guess is on the average purchase price today, you could save more than $1,250 by going to the 0%. So think about that. I told him his price was very good, and he was very helpful, but I needed to go see my son and discuss things with him. Brad walked me to the door, and there was no, let me get my manager. There was no, if you buy today, you'll get an even lower price. There was no Mickey Mouse.

It was just delightfully almost, I get emotional when I think about it. It was just like the way cars should be sold. So, God bless you, Pennsylvania. God bless you, Irwin, Pennsylvania. And God bless you. What's the name of the dealership? Riverview, Chevy. I mean, what a job.

My heart be strolled. I've already prejudiced the vote, so I can't, I shouldn't say anymore. And we need to talk about it when you vote. But see the point is that when the other dealerships say they're all doing it, that's not true. and South Florida is the belly of the beast and Irwin, Pennsylvania is what? How far up? How far up can you go?

The years. The years of the beast. Irwin, Pennsylvania is about 1,200 miles from it. Norman Rockwell. Yeah. Norman Rockwell. Exactly. Okay, we got any votes coming in?

I got a couple on the text here. Jonathan Wellington says that added fee cost to dealership is A, I'll give him a B. Mark gives it a B plus and above average experience. Bob says A for Riverview Chevy. Wow. Okay, I've got Kyle in Pennsylvania.

C in South Florida standards. F in Pennsylvania stands. Oh, Kyle, tough. You got that wrong. Tough standards. Yeah, I guess he doesn't like any dealer fees. Well, you have to go back and look at the archives. Mark, is that kind of?

Kyle, Kyle in Pennsylvania. Look at the, go to Arollancars.com, and look at the archives, and you will see that our shops in Pennsylvania have been very good. We haven't really had any bloodthirsty beast in Pennsylvania that I can recall. Rick, did he give a reason? I, well, he's, Kyle does say, I'm from Hershey, Pennsylvania, and live in Florida now. I've bought over 10 cars in Pennsylvania, zero dealer fees ever. And he says, Earl Stewart, Toyota is like a great.

Pennsylvania style dealer dropped in Sodomond Gamora. Wow. Well, I didn't know that. Well, maybe we can do Hershey. That's really cool. I mean, our dealers with no dealer fees at all, we haven't had one of those. So thank you very much for the information. And we will ask Agent Lightning, how far is Hershey from Irwin, I wonder? That far. Just a hop, skipping and jump, I'm sure. Yeah, right. And pick up some M&M's where you're there for me. And Negan 1.A. Sounds A.O.K.

me. Kirk in West by God, Virginia. $800 plus below MSRP for an in inventory car sounds like a solid A. Like many dealers, not in Sodom and Gomorrah. Wayne

with an A plus, Joseph Kelleher, B, lower that dock fee a couple hundred bucks and they get an A. Over here on the other one, we've got Tom A minus, very refreshing. Brian, I will give a B-plus. I think Toyota's a better quality vehicle. Mark Ryan with an A-minus. Tim with a B-plus.

And Donovan says, give them an A really shows how bad dealers are in Florida. Well, that's a good response. For me, I say A. If they didn't have the dock fee on there, but just the regular, I'd be an A-plus, but even so an A. Okay, Nancy, you're up. Well, I think with a dock fee, I have to lean on the side of a C because of the dock fee and because of it being over MSRP. No, it was actually below MSRP. It was actually below MSRP with a $1,250 factory rebate. Oh, okay, I didn't take it in consideration.

the rebate. Okay. My grade is going to go to a B. All right. Very good. I believe that's the highest grade you've ever given any dealer. I believe it is. Nancy's heart grew three sizes that day. Thank you for that. I'm a solid A. Just like you said, we grade on a curve and in today's market to give the rebate to the customer, not try to keep it for the dealers and raise the price to offset it. I think is admirable, so solid A for me. I'm going to go with an A, too. In fact, I'm going to call Irwin. Riverview. Riverview and Irwin. And I'm a thing company. I'm going to tell them who we are and let them know that we're anybody in that area. We're referring Pennsylvania area to them. So to buy their Toyota, right? Chevy. Chevy. Chevy. Chevy. Chevy. Riverview Chevy. Chevy. Chevy. Chevy. Chevy, very good. So it's

refreshing. We talked about that last week, I think of the week before. Stu, when he wrote it up, he says that small dealers, and family-owned without the public dealerships, typically in small towns. So they fit all those, I think it's a privately owned dealership. It's not part of a chain. It's in a small town. So, you know, you listeners out there put that to use. If you're looking for a place to shop, try to find one in a smaller town.

If you're in a big town, look at the smaller towns in the suburbs and consider maybe one that is not a publicly owned dealership. a publicly owned dealership. It's a way to start looking anyway. Absolutely. Ladies and gentlemen, we want to thank Agent Lightning, Stu and Josh, for their help with the Mystery Shopping Report, from Riverview, excuse me, Riverview, Chevrolet, Buick, GMC of Irwin, Pennsylvania. And we have about five minutes left, Rick.

Kyle just came back. He says, my F was too. harsh, but those dock fees aren't necessary, especially if they're willing to go MSRP. So he's switching his grade to a B. Great. And Donovan comes in and says, I would like to see a mystery shop for Ford, Hyundai, or Kia, specifically looking at buying one of their electric vehicle offerings. Oh, great idea.

Yeah. Yeah. That's something that is going to be interesting to watch when the electric vehicles come because there will be a shortage, I believe, and like with Tesla's right now, Nancy wants to buy a Tesla, I'm driving a Tesla, and the waiting list is months and months and months. So we'll see if the sellers of the EVs, electric vehicles, are marking them up over MSRP. So we'll do that. Thank you very much for the suggestion.

Yeah, great. And you have made me a designated driver, correct? He even got, Earl even got me a chauffeur's hat for me to. She drives better than I do. I have to get my score. They have a beta program on my iPhone that I measures my driving skills and, you know, breaking too fast, turning too fast, following too close, all the things. It's a proprietary analog software that Elon Musk has to determine how you drive. And if you get to 100, then you get to autonomous turned on.

They're dropping it to 95. I have a score of 98 now, so I let Nancy drive because when she drives, she gets better scores than I do. And as soon as we get that 95, we will be fully autonomous. And we'll say on Saturday mornings, take us to the radio show and we'll be talking to each other. But I'll have my hands poised over the wheel because you still have to do that. Better safe than sorry. The yoke and everything that comes with it, it really requires a whole lot of focus, and I really mean focus.

And it is just a talent that you acquire by using the car over and over again. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us this Saturday morning. We definitely enjoy your company, and we wish you all a great weekend. See you right back here Saturday morning at 8 a.m. Back no! Weak! Back no! Thank you!

Vett. Oh, Doctor. Thank you.