Earl Stewart on Cars - 07.12.2025 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Stone Mountain Nissan of Lilburn, GA.

Episode Date: July 12, 2025

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning travels to Georgia to visit a Nissan dealer and see how much they will charge for a 2025 Nissan Pathfinder SL SUV on their car lot. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “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”

Hello, 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 link to cyberspace through Facebook, YouTube, text messaging, and our encrypted anonymous feedback service. Stu is also the Spymaster Director of our mystery shopping report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting the car dealership. And now, on with the show.

Good morning, everybody. I have to remind myself now every Saturday that is our, I don't know what the word. it is as our base of knowledge grows so rapidly with artificial intelligence and chat GBT and all that kind of stuff, is that really this is show about you being able to drive safely and drive economically and purchase a car at a reasonable price. I mean, it might be boring to some people. It's not boring to us. I hope it's not boring to you. And I know when we get off on these esoteric crazy thick rants about chat gbt and artificial intelligence it boars the hell out of a lot of us uh not me because i'm kind of a nut in that subject but i got i do i do

take this show very personally and i do know our duty is to help you and you're driving a probably a combustion engine car now maybe a hybrid and you're probably not driving an autonomous or even maybe even EV and these are the new new things that we could get off on and talk about a whole lot and we probably will I just want you to know that we know that the core value of this show is well my car won't start or I got this smell and I took it into the dealer and he told me it was normal when you have that kind of aggravation we're here for you and we have a telephone number we would love love you to call will help you with your really important problem because there's nothing much more important than my car won't start and that number is 877 960 960 that's 877 960 960 we've got a guy and the your regulars know this is Rick Kearney very well Rick Kearney is a certified diagnostic master technician he knows about everything there is to know about your car.

Trust me. I've been in the business for about a half a century and I have never met anybody that knew any more about the nuts and bolts of a car. Today it's the rectifiers and the integrated circuits. It's the software. It's all the fancy stuff, but he knows it all. Excuse me.

So give us a call at 877-960-9960. You can text us at 772-4976530. That text number again is 772-4976530. Now, for some reason, the YouTube followers of the world have jumped on the bandwagon and they follow Rick. I mean, he's got a huge following on YouTube. and YouTube.com forward slash Earl on Cars. YouTube.com forward slash Earl on Cars.

In fact, he's attracted some people. We've got a guy named Donovan. Donovan, I sure hope you're listening today, who probably knows more than we do. I mean, he corrects us all the time. And I think one thing that sets us apart as a talk show is that we're not, we know we're not the only authority. And we know there people out there that know more about a lot of things than we do.

And we welcome the Donovan's of the world. So on YouTube.com forward slash our own cars, you can post along with Donovan and the whole crew. And I just mentioned Donovan because he's been around the longest, I think. But we have a lot of, for some reason, real authorities on YouTube seems to attract people that are very learned. And they read a lot and they know a lot. So YouTube.com port slash hurlone cars, you can probably just stay in that group there and join it and learn as much as you would on the show. They're a really smart group of people. And Rick Kearney, as I say, is in the studio, certified diagnostic master technician.

And save yourself a ton of money by, if you go into an independent repair store or car dealership today and say, hey, I got a problem with my car dealership today and say, hey, I got a problem with my car dealership. car fix it and then you give your checkbook and go home you're in a lot of trouble so I know you don't do that but you're gonna you're gonna meet a real slick service advisor who is really a service salesman and he's gonna tell you probably that you need more than you really need and I'm not saying he's dishonest but he's a commissioned salesperson what would you do if you were a commission salesperson and you had to feed your family by your earnings on your commission well you you tend to exaggerate is a kinder word and you can't afford a lot of exaggeration

when you're fixing the car so call Rick Kearney at 877 960 9960 that's 877 960 960 and describe your problem if you really want to get fancy you can hit them with a video file or an audio file on YouTube and we can actually see the problem with your car or hear the problem with your car and you'll diagnose it free everybody uses that word it's a great word right free usually it's not free but on this show Rick's advice is free and it's and it's worth a lot more than free let me tell you he'll save you oftentimes thousands of dollars 877 960 nine six oh now on the other end of this oblong table

here in the studio in North Bond Beach, Florida, is my lovely wife, Nancy Stewart. She co-founded the show with me about 20 years ago, and she's grown with us in the show. We start out a half an hour. Now we're two hours every Saturday morning from 8 to 10 Eastern Standard Time. And probably one of the biggest contributions Nancy made to this show is bringing the female audience on board and now we have a really cool bunch of female listeners when we started out we weren't female listeners they were they were if you go back 20 years ago cars are a guy thing right and I mean admit it you know you go back Henry Ford was a guy cars are were a guy thing no longer women buy more cars than men and they influence the purchase

of even more than that unfortunately they're quieter than men and they don't call the as often as a lot of people do and then she fixed that because she let them know that their opinion was important to us important not only to other women but also to the men too you see life differently that we do and that's a good thing because between us female and male it seems to work pretty well so you ladies out there please give us a call and Nancy Stewart will get your call ASAP. We are not going to let you hold and hang on for too long. Now, sometimes we can't avoid it. I'll be honest with you. But we prioritize our phone calls. So if I'm talking like I am now and there's a

call holding, Nancy will weave at me and I will just stop and she will bring the call in. So please call. We'll get you on the air ASAP. And she has a very special offer for you first time female callers and she'll describe that to you. So with that said, turn the mic over. to Nancy Stewart. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. Thank you so much for joining us here, Earl on Cars, if you just tuned in. That number is 877-9-60-960. We have a whole lot to get to this morning, and, you know, to what Earl said about Rick, who is such, he's so famous long before YouTube you know and it's no wonder that the you know honesty and integrity just recently was you know put out there for everyone to see you can really trust your mechanic today and

Rick is right there and like Earl said there's not a question he can't answer so anyway enough about Rick we'll go to but it's very It's very true. You take a look at the Gallup Pull and auto mechanics in 2024, Rick. Survey 33% of Americans rated honesty and ethical standards for you guys. So it's a handful. It's getting better. I mean, a lot of technicians that used to play those games of selling needless work continuously,

they've kind of, they're getting caught. and they're either straightening out and flying right or they're getting booted out of the industry and now the honest technicians are the ones the cream is rising to the top. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, well said. Our number here is 877-960.

And ladies and gentlemen, I'll tell you what, paying attention to rising prices on everything is, you know, most important today as far as purchasing or you know a new or a used or leasing so there's a whole lot more homework i say to do so be on the alert and we have a great mystery shopping report coming up at the half hour you'll enjoy that and like i said earl's going to get to some pretty pertinent subjects that we went over this morning the two of us and i have a whole lot to share with you from consumer report now back to the recoup oh excuse me we're going to go to the phones and we're going to talk

to barry and barry has called us before he's from tampa good morning barry morning everybody this one is for rick i think it seems that jumper cables might be old school and maybe not the best way to deal with a dead battery and maybe a jump starter is a better way to go what's your opinion about that and on a related note what's the best way to revive a dead 12-volt battery in a hybrid um to start off first jumper cables they they still have their place in the emergency world but i myself is a mechanic i have one of those little battery backups a lithium powered battery box that is um it's about the size of the original cell phones remember when they first were, not the big one where you had to have a strap hanging on your side, but the big handheld

bricks. So they're really not that big, but this thing could start a tundra. I mean, it had a massive amount of power in it. You could plug it into a cigarette lighter and it would charge, plug it into a USB port, and it would charge up, and they're really not big. It would fit in a glove box, and yet it could literally start a tundra engine. as long as the battery is not totally stone cold dead. If you had just a little bit of battery power in it, it'll start that big one. Now, for hybrids,

trying to jumpstart a hybrid is a special thing. A lot of them require certain things you have to get to to do it because the 12-volt batteries are often hidden away. Like on the second-gen Prius, it's hidden in the back corner of the car by under the hatch and it's an electric hatch so there's actually a terminal up under the hood and the fuse block that you go to to jumpstart the car but bear in mind that hybrids you're not actually needing enough power to crank over an engine just enough to turn on the relays so that

the hybrid battery can then power the systems up and so they're very straightforward and simple you just need to know for sure what you're doing and this is a case where the owner's manual makes the biggest difference for all the various models. Yeah, just one thing I cannot stress enough, always check the owner's manual before you jumpstart a car. Yeah, Earl just brought up one here on Amazon. It's a 4,000 amp jump starter pack. It's $60 on Amazon, and this is probably just a hair smaller than the one I have because mine's about four years old now. But yeah, these things are incredible. And 4,000 amps, even though it's a

very small thing, it's a lithium battery, and these things will start a car. And now the one big advantage that I have to them is that unlike some of those old Samsung phones and the hoverboards, I've never heard of one of these catching fire unless it was seriously abused. So yes, you are safe to charge it up, keep it in your car. Just don't set it on the dash in direct sunlight, but they are a great handy item to have. Sounds like a good thing to have in an emergency kit. Just one other thing.

Would you ever want to use your hybrid car to be the source of a jumpstart, or is that just a bad idea? Now, that I would definitely avoid. even jump-starting another hybrid it's going to put a lot of draw on that battery and remember the 12-volt battery

and a hybrid is normally only there to turn on the relays and turn on the computers so they don't have a whole lot of power to them so I would be cautious with that

and of course folks remember one thing when you're hooking up any sort of a jump starter a jumper cables anything like that especially if you're connecting them to the battery itself, always connect the negative side last, and disconnect the negative

side first, because it is less likely to throw off any sparks that could potentially cause a fire hazard. So just be aware of it, and be careful, and do what the owner's manual tells you to do for how to jumpstart that car. All right, thank you very much. Barry, did you ask him about the reviving a hybrid battery? I thought you mentioned that at the beginning. On the 12-volt battery.

Oh, 12-volt, okay, yeah. And the best thing you can do there, basically, is once you jumpstart the car, just drive it. Take it out and drive it. And let the battery get its charge back in it. And if it comes back, and what I would do especially is after you've driven at a good distance, you know, say 30 or 40 miles or more, stop in at a dealership or, at some of the park stores and have them test that battery. And as long as it tests okay, then you're good to go.

Very good. Thanks, Barry. Call again, please. Thank you, Barry. 877-960. And you could text us at 772-4976530. And don't forget your anonymous feedback. Ladies, you still have time to call in.

First two new lady callers can win themselves $50. $877, 960, 99060. Good morning, Warren, and thank you for waiting. Warren's calling us from Jersey. Hey, Warren. How's things in New Jersey? Oh, they're wonderful. Nice and hot.

You're getting to Florida temperatures in July. I got a question for you. They're all about leasing. I have a car, a Chevy Equinox, that's coming, going to come off the lease in about a year. And I know you talked about, you know, maybe the car's worth more than what the, you know, the buyout is. What's the way to handle that?

Would you tell the dealer, I'm not the dealer I bought it from, he's going to know that it was leased, but go to another Chevy dealer and say, you know, like how would I get an estimate? Tell him his lease, keep that hidden from him. What's the best way to do that? Well, I tell you what, it's a seller's market for off-lease cars, and you'll be in a, well, you're in a good shape now,

but you'd be an even better shape in another year. Excuse me. I think we have more sources to sell a used car or buy a used car than we ever have. So, yeah, I would go to another Chevy dealer. I'd go to at least one other. But I'd also go to CarMax. They buy a huge number of cars. I would go to We Buy Any Car.com.

I would go to, name a few of them. A lot of people out there are doing nothing but buying used cars over the counter. In fact, you know, Cars.com, you can sit at your PC or use your smartphone and spend all day getting prices on your car. Just you could go to Google and say list the sources of selling my used car online today. day. And then I take the top bid, and I would go back to the dealer and say, if you match this and you give me a good price on the car I'm buying, I'll trade my car, and otherwise, I'm going to sell my car, and I'll pay cash because I'll have a better price by far than what you offer me. All right. I got another question for you about, okay, good suggestion. Another question,

Another question about leasing. Is there any advantage or no advantage to, let's say I lease another car, and the total cost of the lease is $20,000. I'm just making that up. Is there any advantage just to write a check for $20,000 for the three years or that makes no sense at all? That makes no sense at all. You take that, it depends on, I guess I could say,

sometimes you're risk-taking. I would take that $20,000, and I would put it in a secure investment, a safe investment. You can find a safe investment today that will pay you a rate of return of certainly over 5% or 6%. We have some interference here on the line here.

I don't want that one. Yeah. I don't know. I got one last question. question for you, a quick one. Oh, it's not a question, sort of statement. I know you do the short car shopping report. I was wondering if you ever did this, and I'm just picking in Camry, because obviously you sell Camry, if you set the shopper into like three Camry dealerships and say, I want the cheapest camera you have new one. I want the cheapest

new, nothing on it. I don't want any dealer add-ons. I don't want anything whatsoever. Can you get me one? If you don't have one in stock, would you order for me? And I'm just wondering, If you ever tried anything like that? You can do that, and I don't want to complicate the answer, but it depends on where you are. You're in New Jersey. You're probably dealing directly with Toyota Motor Sales. The reason I say that is there are Toyota distributorships.

For example, in the southeastern states where I am, we have a distributor, and most of the cars we get have packaged accessories. So you might be looking for a Camry that is stripped down to, zero additional accessories as far as Toyota's concerned. But when Toyota sells cars to the distributors like Southeast Toyota, they will have pre-packaged amounts to ship that dealer. And we can't in the Southeast oftentimes get a car with particular accessories or without particular accessories that Toyota manufacturing decides that Southeast Toyota should get.

there's two other distributors in the country. But in New Jersey, as long as you're dealing with Toyota Motor Sales directly, yes, you can buy a car with the bare-bones accessories that Toyota will sell the car for. Well, let's say you sent the shopper in, and she said, I just want the cheapest car you have. All right, if it does come with accessories, I want the cheapest one you have. I'm just wondering how they would deal with that and just say, you know,

I need a car quickly, but I don't want to pay, I want to pay the least amount, and I want the cheapest car you got on the lot. I was just wondering how the dealers would handle that. If they try to upsell her, if they try to go a song and a dance, I'm just wondering how that might work. Well, remember you're dealing with a salesman. He's on commission, and he's going to try to sell you the Camry or the car period that he can make the most commission on.

So you shouldn't go into a car dealership and rely on the information that you get from the dealer or the salesman. You should do your homework first, and you can research that. You can go online to the Toyota or the Honda or whatever the car you're buying. You go to their website, and you can manufacture your car on the website. You could go to a Toyota or a Honda website, and you can see exactly what accessories are available in what models. And that's the way you know what's that manufacturer, Toyota, in this case,

will build, so when you go into the dealership and the salesman says, this is the lowest price Camry, you can fact-check him and say, well, no, I happen to know that I don't have to have this, this, and this. When he told you that, that was because that's what he had in stock, and that's what he could sell now and make a commission on. Okay, great. That's a great advice. Okay.

Thank you very much. I appreciate your time. Thank you, Warren. Call again, please. Yes, please give us a call. call again 877 960 9960 we're going to go to road writer Steve who's a regular caller and he calls us from Boynton welcome morning road brother oh good morning everybody how we doing uh the guy who called up about the uh paying the three year money for the lease

yeah that's a bad that's a bad idea suppose you that's in an accident and the call is totaled in the first year. Well, that's one of the advantages of leasing a car, really. If you have that, then you're going to be, the insurance is going to cover the replacement of the car. So it can be a good thing or a bad thing, but when you lease a car, you're protected in that case. Yeah, but what about getting his money back? Well, you don't get your, you're not going to. to get your money back if they could give you another car.

So that's the reason that, so you don't own that car when you lease it. Yeah, right now. To me, it's a rental car. Yeah, yeah. Did you say a rental car? Yeah, that's what leasing reminds me of. You just rent in a car. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, you're, you know, they own, the leasing company owns the car, and they're sure that you're going to get that replacement coverage because you're paying for it. And when you pay for it, then you've got to continue the lease. So, yeah, in the interim, they would provide you with another car to drive. So, yeah, that's one of the good things about leasing a car. And the other good thing about leasing a car and wrecking it is when you wreck the car, if they fix it and give it back to you, you return it to the leasing company, even though you devalued it considerably by the accident.

Because when you go to a car max, they're going to say, that car was in a big collision, and they devalue the car by $1,000 or $2,000, and so the leasing company, they're stuck with it, and they've got to buy the car back, even though it's worth far less than they thought it was going to be when they leased it to you. True. Okay, Rick, are you ready for this? I'm ready for you.

HBO has a show called Duster. It's about a private eye who drives a 340 Duster. I'll tell you. I just saw a recent TikTok video that showed the, remember the, the, the, the, the, the transformers where they were robots that would change into, into various vehicles. Oh, yeah. And this one was based, it was all AI created, but it was based on the idea of new transformers that were coming from all the various cars from the old 80s TV shows. like the Ferrari from Magnum P.I. Night Rider, the Dukes of Hazard, the Pork Chop Express truck from Big Trouble in Little China. I got to tell you, it's the imagination out there now of what they're doing, basing on cars.

In the 80s, remember, you know, we had that huge love affair, and cars stole the show. Now, I think some of them are trying to bring that back a little bit. true they called that I forget what they call that era like the malage area era in cars where they you know did the uh crushed velvet seats inside the car and all that stuff oh yeah right that the velvet seating in all that but also on youtube they also show you Chevy or primit coming out with a new pickup truck it's the old style but modernized 2025 roadrunners there coming out I mean the cars look great

I've seen stacks of those videos and I wish they were real but again those are just AI created but I got to tell you some of the designs that these guys have come up with they're gorgeous they just tear my heart out there so gorgeous I mean it just

they bring back the nostalgia of some of the old designs back when cars didn't all look the same. But our cats and our grandkids don't know what we're talking about. Right. To me, it's one of those things where I look at Earl's cyber truck, and the one thing that really truly impresses me about that vehicle is the idea that there's nothing else on the road that looks like it.

I mean, if you go out there right now and you look at SUVs, you have to look at the name of them to figure out what they are. They all look the same. I disagree. I disagree. Flash Gordon had those things. Back in the 30s and 40s, looking like that. Right, but they're not on the road.

They're not out on the road right now. But those cyber trucks... Yeah. Those spaceships were funny. With the spark were on the back of the spaceship, and they crash land, and they all lived. Hey, it was... Donovan says it was the Malaise era. He says it's the one.

Worst time for cars. All right. Everybody, have a good weekend and stay safe and well. Thank you, Steve. Okay, we got any calls out there? 877-960. And you can call us at that number. You can also text us at 772-497-6530. And I was mentioning earlier some of the things that we were going to be getting to.

And I didn't mention, a remission, I should say, because I think you've all heard it before, about Earl pairing up with, you know, Amazon. I can't believe I'm saying it. Amazon, yes. He wrote Jeff Bezo a letter, and I'm sure that, you know, they're working on it, and there it is right there. And it appeared in the Washington Post.

and just wanted to reiterate the fact that, you know, it's not a surprise that Earl would, you know, make this commitment because, you know, his transparency aligns perfectly, perfectly with Amazon's reputation. So that's in the Washington Post, and now you can pull that up at Earl on cars or anywhere else, just to enter in the information box. Okay, we have no more calls, so... Yeah, let me mention something. I promised in my introduction that we weren't going to get carried away with AI

and ChatGBT, GBT. I promise we will get carried away with it, but it is an integral part of our show now, and I'm sitting here with ChatGBT, GBT, sitting right next to me, and he's waiting for... a question. So if any of you have a question for Chad GBT, we

have the coach. His name is coach. And you can name your chat GBT. If you didn't know that, you're using chat GBT. Name the chat GBT that you're using. Give him your name. This chat GBT happens to call me the professor. And I call him coach and we have a relationship. So

if you have a call, you can now call in for 877-960-960 and asked to speak to the coach. Okay, coach. I have a call for you, and his name is Mark from Lake Worth. Okay, hey, Mark. Is this for Chad GBT or me? Oh, okay. How do I get the question to...

I had asked the question, so I hope that he was listening. You've got to turn on the microphone. Yeah, you've got to turn on the microphone here. I have to turn it on. So, repeat the question. Okay. We have Mark, coach. We have Mark on the line, and we would like for you to speak to him.

Good morning, Mark. Good morning, Mark. It's great to have you with us. What can I help you with today? I've got two questions. One for Earl, if I may, regarding the Tires for Life program. Okay, shoot. All right, sounds good.

If anything else comes up, or you have any. questions, just let me know. Thank you. We turn the coach off for a second because we haven't quite got the dialogue fine tune yet, but let's talk about the times from life. What's your question, Mark? I've been an active participant for several years, and to your store's credit, you do indeed honor it, and I appreciate that very much.

I had a situation in which somehow I rolled over a. a blade, a razor blade, and it may, yes, it damaged the tire beyond repair. I was able, fortunately, to get to a tire store before it went completely flat, but I had to replace it. Is there any way to get a credit or a reimbursement for this damaged tire? Okay, Mark, this is, I'm going to tell our audience what. you're talking about because this is a I'm a Toyota dealer as well as being a talk show host

and my dealership has a program for our customers that when you buy a new or used Toyota from us for as long as you own the car and you have the car maintain according to your factory recommend maintenance

and owners manual with us will provide new tires for you and we have a there's a cap on the amount we will pay for one tire and the here's the answer for you mark it's for for the normal wear and tire we don't play pay for road hazards there's a road hazard a razor blade would be the road hazard so your insurance and yet uh there's there's there's road hazard insurance that you can buy for that but we we only will buy new tires if you

If you drove the car, put 40, 50,000 miles on it, and the tread depth got to blow 3.30 seconds, then we would replace those tires for you as many times as for as long as you're on the car, but not for road hazards. Okay, I sort of thought that was the deal, but I thought, well, it doesn't hurt to ask. Well, you know, in a situation like that, and what I would be, did you buy the tire from me, or did you buy it from someone else? Yes, I got it at your store Okay, you tell them that you talk to me on the phone And that because of the misunderstanding I want to credit you for our markup on the tire

And the price that you paid will be reduced down to my cost Oh, splendid, okay Glad to do so. We didn't communicate very well When we explained the details of the Tires for Life program So the least I could do is not make a profit off you when I sold you the tire and thank you very much for calling that to my attention okay well thank you I appreciate that you're very welcome thank you mark please give us a call again okay um do I need to make an appointment uh with your service department to to arrange this

you know you don't really have to but it's always a good idea and I would I would suggest when you do that be sure you tell them you spoke to me and then you uh if you can go without an appointment, but you'll get in and out a lot faster with an appointment. Should I bring the tire, the damaged tires to your store? That's not necessary. I take your word for it. Okay, very good. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mark. We hope they hear from you.

Yeah, sure. I have a question for Rick, if I may. Sure. In the course of replacing the damaged tire, the tech said, he mentioned the sway bar, either the link or the bushing on the right side should probably be replaced. I'm not familiar with what that part does, and I'm not sure I even have the right term. Is there a sway bar? It was a little connector right next to and behind the disc brake.

Yes. Both those terms are, they are parts on the car. the sway bar basically it's a big steel bar that connects to the body of the it bolts to the frame of the car and then the ends of it bolt to the control arms and the idea is that when you turn the car left and right the forces that would make the car want to lean bend this bar and actually they cause it to kind of twist and it's like a spring steel so that when it tries to twist it gives some allowance for movement and then it pops you back so it try to keep the car level so that your car

doesn't do it like a total center of gravity over to the side on the bushings are rubber mounts that are held by a steel joint that connects it to the frame and those bushings do wear out over time you know they can start to break down but most likely what they saw were what are known as the sway bar links and these are basically just a little metal rod that is bolted to the end of the sway bar and then bolted to either the strut or the control arm and they help to connect they actually connect the sway bar to the control arm but allow a little bit of rotational movement in it so if they're starting to look worn out or the rubber boots on them are torn and there's getting dirt and grease into the you know dirt's getting

into that joint on it then it should be replaced average cost on a sway bar link depending on the vehicle is probably going to be anywhere from $75 to $125 at the most And labor should be about an hour and a half Yeah, we got to run, we got some calls holding here But thank you very much Thank you

Good bye, right Excuse me Freddie, thank you for holding Freddy's calling us from Lake Worth What can we do for you this morning? Good morning, Freddy Yes, hello Good morning, what going to

we do for you this morning yes good morning i've been listening to the show for a while you guys are great and that's my opinion but i have a question for rick i have a 2002 toyota sienna it's old enough to drink and old enough to vote yeah 84,000 miles on it i take good care of it somewhat i change the oil when i could put gits in when i should um other than that someone that i know to me that I should consider changing the timing belt and the water pump. And I inquired about

that to someone and they told me you might want to think about just redoing the whole engine. And that was like to change the water pump would be like $18, $1,900 and to change the whole engine on it, which I don't only know if I want to spend $2,700

for that. So I don't know if you have any thoughts on that. Also, someone else that I know mentioned something about if the car has interference or not. I don't really understand what that is or what it is if I don't have interference. Okay. Real quick, the definition of interference on an engine is certain cars, the valves, when the valves are open and the piston comes all the way to top dead center in the combustion chamber, most cars are designed with what's called zero clearance, where when the piston comes up, if the valve is open at the wrong

time, it can hit the valve and bend it and cause damage. Older Siena's like your 2002 should not have it. They should have clearance to where even if the valves are stuck open and not moving. Excuse me for gentlemen. I think probably the big problem here is

if he does or if he doesn't is one, number two is should he? Because you're looking to me at a very large cost compared to what a 2002 Sienna is worth. So keep that in the I wouldn't worry about the idea of interference problem because that's only going to happen if the timing belt breaks.

And my opinion, if you've got 84,000 miles on that car, now is the time to go ahead and replace the timing belt, the water pump, and the appropriate oil seals that are behind there. There's two camshaft seals and a crank shaft seal. And as for the idea of overhauling the engine or something. What's the cost for all that? Yeah, that's going to be about the $1,800 that he mentioned for the T-belt seals and a water pump. That's a maintenance type thing.

Anything else, I would only repair if it's absolutely needed. There's no overhaul to an engine at that point. I mean, overhauling an engine is a huge repair and a huge expense, more like $8,000 to $10,000. but a T-belt on those is a maintenance item and with the age of the car and the mileage I would definitely recommend it because at 84,000 miles that car's still a baby

there's no reason that that engine shouldn't get 3 to 350,000 miles out of it but with that maintenance do the timing belt it's not a bad idea to do that. Here's a problem that car is worth maximum three or four thousand dollars And you're talking about spending close to 100% of what the car's worth to fix a couple of items on. So that's the point I'm trying to get across.

Unless you're in love with the car, and there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, it's not illegal. If you want to keep that car around as part of the family and spend as much as it's worth to fix it, then you'll still have the car. But it's not economically, it's not a good decision. The other thing I'd recommend is if you put it up for, if you're going to put up for sale or something, start an asking price of like 6,000 and let them work you down. Fives a sucker.

Yeah. Okay. And it runs very well. And the beauty of it is that I'm not married to it. So it's not like part of the family. And, you know, if I leave work and it's on fire or there's a big dent inside of it, I really don't lose too much sleep over at all. So that's part of the enjoyment of having a 12-year-old vehicle that there's not a lot.

to worry on my end of it and I don't know anything on it so exactly no I understand that I the reason that I've been successful as a car dealer is people love cars yeah and they even love their old cars so it's a it isn't a financial transaction when people buy a car from me new or used there's a lot of emotion involved and when you've had a car for 20-some-odd years it's like a child Yeah. Yes, correct. Well, also, one advantage to a vehicle like that, if you're in South Florida,

and it runs good, and the AC is blowing cold, you could put that thing on the side of the road with a four-sale sign for five or six thousand. You'll probably sell it within three days. I don't know that. I'm going to start putting all my used cars on the side of the road. You'd be surprised. You would be surprised.

Let me tell you what. That's another show, right, Earl? That's the reason I'm the dealer and you're working for me. It's illegal to put the cars on the side of the road. Okay, back to the timing back. So you guys, your idea would be that to spend the 1800 on it might buy me 300,000 miles out of it. Yeah, if you wanted to keep it that long. But otherwise, right now, use car prices are through the roof and you could get a very decent amount of money for that vehicle.

Yes, indeed. You are in the driver's seat. Let me tell you, because Rick hit on a hot note because you could sell your vehicle and get a heck of a lot more for it than you think. Okay. You guys are great. I appreciate all the help, man. Thanks, Randy. Call again, please.

Please give us a call again. Okay, we are going to go to John in Palm City. Regular caller. Hi, John. I have questions for Rick. A major windshield replacement company. the advertisers all over saying we come to you are the replacement windshields which is a very critical part are as good as the original we're always saying try to get original parts as

replacements are they as good as the original windshield that came with the car yep and I can tell you for a fact because I just had the windshield in my truck replaced just a few months ago And it was done by that major glass company that starts with an S, safe light. Right. And they put a new windshield in my truck, and it's perfect. Well, they're probably experts, especially to steal. But let me ask you this question. On a used car market, the numbers won't match to other numbers that are on your other windows.

Will that hurt the value of a used car or any? Somebody sees a windshield was replaced, and maybe it was possibly in an accident or anything? No, because in the state of Florida, if you have a cracked windshield, and the windshield is, the crack in it is greater than six inches, your insurance company, provided you have regular full coverage, your insurance company is pretty much required to replace that windshield, no deductible, no charge to you, and basically, here's my experience. with it. You call up the glass company. They put you on a three-way call with your insurance company's agent. They get the information from you and they simply say, okay, schedule a time and get your windshield replaced. It's covered. And your windshield gets fixed. This is one of the Florida state laws so that everyone has a safe, clean windshield in front of them going down the road and for the ones that have like the VIN etched on the windshield you would

have to find a service place that could do that for you but let's face it people don't steal windshields anymore they're not stealing glass out of the cars anymore so those VIN etchings on the on the windows really isn't going to do much of anything and it is certainly not going to hurt the resale via value on your car but you go in looking to trade just trade or your car and it's got a big crack in the windshield, that can hurt the value. Okay, so whatever happened, that same company you sabotage repairing a very small crack with liquid resins, are you a fan of doing that, or are you against that? If it's done by a professional like SafeLight, then yes.

And by the way, Donovan has clued in here. He says, the company that you're talking about, SafeLight, they get the way. windshields OEM, original equipment manufacturer. They get them from the dealership. So if you've got a Toyota, you're going to get a Toyota windshield. Ford, you get a Ford windshield. That's a very important point because I check my Lexus, and it starts right at the beginning with Lexus, and it says Temple Light, and it has six different lines, including the DOT

number on it. So that's a very important point that you brought up, and it'll say Ford. or manufacturer on the windshield. And that's a very, I didn't know that. I just thought they remade windshield and it doesn't have any numbers on it. Nope. And like I say, it's a simple, painless process.

If you've got a crack in your windshield, folks, get it repaired. Thank you, John. You bought up a point-check with your insurance company because the same company used to show, no, you don't owe anything, but now that the van say install now and pay later, so check it out with the insurance very important. Yes, and by the way, don't fall for the upsells that they go for trying to sell you a new pair of windshield wipers at $35 each,

or, well, you might consider, but they do charge something like $75 to put Ranex on your new windshield. I wish I could buy a woodchial washer for my cyber truck for $75. Oh, good luck. You need, what, about $18,000 for it? Well, Rick, you're a great education. Thank you very much for the information. Thank you, John, for being part of the show and sharing so much information with us.

And we definitely appreciate, Rick. Our number here is 877960-9960, and you can give us a text. at 772-4976530, and ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers. So give us a call. Time is ticking away. You have till about 915-877-960-99-60. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Rick, is the windshield protection.

Is that part of the comprehensive, what they call the comprehensive? I think it probably is. Because almost everybody has it. Right. I say, oh, maybe everybody has it. If you have them, sure it, I don't know whether comprehensive has to be part of it. Or it's probably extra. You can probably admit it.

Yeah, but I mean, when you figure, when I first started driving back in 84, oh, boy, am I getting old? PIP and liability was a low portion of, of your insurance and comp and collision and all that was huge money. And now it's totally reversed. When you get insurance now, PIP and liability are like the big massive money and comprehensive

is like a few extra dollars. But yeah, and I think even for PIP and liability, if you have just basic insurance, I still think that your insurance may cover the windshield. Could it cost you a lot of money to replace the windshield. I'm trying to think, on a

if there's such thing as a typical car what would a windshield cost if you had to pay out of pocket? I would guess well over $1,000, probably $1,500 or more. Yeah, well, last chat. Hey, we'll last chat, G.B. Yeah, there you go. Coach,

can you tell me how much it cost to replace a windshield on the average car? Sure, the cost to replace a windshield can of the car and whether it has any special features. Well, just an average windshield on an average car. We're talking about insurance versus no insurance.

And if I don't have insurance and I break my windshield, how much does it cost on the average American car? Got it. So if you're paying out of pocket, the average kind to replace a windshield in the U.S. Typically runs between $200 and $400, though it can be higher for certain vehicles or if there's special technology.

Thank you very much, Coach. I appreciate that. So without having to go to Google. You're very welcome. Happy to help any time. By the way, complimenting coach again, where Nancy and I use the chat CBT to prepare for the show. And I asked chat just because it's something we talked about on shows a long time ago.

We used to get a lot of calls. And as I was having my coffee and preparing for the show this morning, I said, I wonder what I wonder what Chatt GBT thinks about car brokers, auto brokers. And years ago, it was a big thing.

And it still is, but people aren't talking about. A broker is a person you go to because you're afraid to buy a car. And why are you afraid to buy a car? Because you're afraid the car is going to take advantage of you. So I asked ChetGBT if there were honest, reliable,

useful money-saving car brokers. And I got a nice list. I'm not going to read the list to you. But I'll tell you there are a number of car brokers out there. And you want to be sure, if you go to chat CBT or go to Google or wherever you go to find a car broker, find a car broker that charges you, not the dealer. The reason being, some car brokers are in cahoots with the dealers. And that means that they advertise it, they'll buy a car for you.

And then they get a kickback from the dealer. And so the more they can sell the car for... I'm sorry, but I'm having trouble responding right now. The more they get paid. So typically, you should find a car broker that you pay. And the price could be $2 to $500. You say, well, if I'm going to pay all that money, the car is in fact costing me more than that. If there's anything else you need, just let me know.

So what's the problem is you need to find someone in your area that will save you more than $2 or $500, and they will. Trust me. So car brokers, if you pay them yourself and you can check out their reputation, I've got a long list here, and you can do the same thing if you want to ask, chat, GBT. But for example, I think I even, on the Florida base, this is for our Florida listeners, these are, These are some of your trusted car brokers, auto advisors, and that's also the Florida Credit Union affiliation, auto advisors. There's car concierge there in Palm Beach County. They charge from $4.95 to $9.95.

That's a lot of money, but again, you don't have to buy the car through them. You can shop yourself and see if you can get a better money. I'm sorry, but you've hit the time limit. And let's see here. Anyway, I've got a half a dozen of these, but you don't have to use my list, go to chat GBT and say, get me some car brokers in my area that are trusted, and one of the fees they charge to buy the car for me, and they will, on the average, save you a ton of money. if we don't have any text or phone calls

I wanted to oh we do have a phone call we're going to go back to the phones we're going to go back to the phones and we're going to talk to Steve thank you Steve for holding on Steve's calling from Del Rey what do we do for you hi yeah I got a question

regarding my 2013 Honda fit I purchased it from a dealer it was leased but it had very low mileage on it, and when it reached 90,000, I had all the fluid flush, the new serpentine, new brakes for the very first time. What would the longevity be on a car like this if I take care of it and baby it like I have? Well, you know, I'll give you my answer, and Rick will give you his answer. You've got one of the best cars on the road, and if you do all the fact that you recommend

and maintenance, it used to be 100,000 miles. You get scared. Today we're talking 300 or 400,000 miles on a car like a Honda. Rick? Nice. You took the word sign out of my mouth. And then second, if I were to put it up for sale, what might it go for? The only problem it has is a slight leak in the air conditioning,

which I've had to fill it up once each year. have it filled up or whatever and it runs fine really cold but it only lasts about a year and this is three years consecutively well let's ask chat you btiz that question i was getting ready to google that because i don't have that answer out of the time can you give us the the the year and the mileage please one more time uh it is a 2013 Honda fit and i just reached over a hundred thousand miles okay Coach, what is the value of a 2013 Honda fit with a little over 200,000? 100,000 miles? Oh, a little over 100,000 miles. I'm sorry. What would be the, what could I sell that Honda fit for? No worries. A 2013 Honda fit with just over 100,000 miles is generally still pretty reliable. And the value can vary a bit depending on the condition, location, and any additional features. On average, you could probably expect.

to sell it for somewhere between $6,000 and $8,000, but it's always a good idea to check local list. You're welcome. If you need any more details or have any other questions about that car or anything else, just let me know. So basically, it's a good investment. Keep baby and it should last me a few more years, yeah? You can, you could probably get another, depending on how much you drive in a year. It looks like you might have gotten cut off there for a second. If you need to repeat anything or if there's something else I can help with, just let me know.

Sorry, Coach, jumping in. Figure another close to 10 years, depending on how many miles you put it per year. But look at mileage, and I would say 300,000 is not an uncommon thing. I would easily see that vehicle hitting 300,000 miles. Awesome. Thank you so much for your time. And if you do decide to sell it, starting price, 10,000 and let them work you down from there a little bit yeah yes you can stay

thank you for the mechanics team give us a call next all right sales business okay we're gonna go to our next caller has been patiently holding and that is david are you talking to us honey i i i where are we here we're looking for david david david david oh david hi david david hi uh i have a two thousand Camry. I changed in service the fluids and the brakes and the transmission in about 65,000 miles in 2013. I have 112,000 miles on it now, and I wondered if I should go ahead and do it again, or should I just leave it alone? Leave it alone.

Toyota does not recommend a lifespan interval for the transmission fluid on that car i would leave that alone um i would consider at about 50 to 60 000 miles after your last coolant change to have the coolant changed again but it generally recommends about 50 000 miles per coolant change uh okay oil changes i would stick religiously every 5 000 miles or less on the oil change uh tire rotation every 5 000 miles and brake fluid and power steering fluid only if it absolutely needs it. Otherwise, I would leave those alone and not mess with it. Just double-check your levels every now and then.

And dump in a bunch of windshield washer fluid. Right, yeah, because I don't put that many miles on it, I probably get the oil changed about every six or seven months. That's fine. Because I put about 3,000 miles a year. years. So because it sits outside in the Florida heat, I just figure, you know, it's better to keep fresh oil in it. Right. Definitely check your tire pressures at least once a month. And consider getting, look on Amazon for a solar powered battery trickle charger where you can

mount that solar charger panel in like the back window and connect it out to the battery. and this will actually help keep your battery charged up, make the battery last longer, where you don't drive it all a lot. Cool. Great information. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you, David. Let's go to Marty.

Good morning, Marty. You're on the air. Good morning. Good morning, hi, Nancy. Thank you so much for waiting. I have a comment first and then a question. I understand why you use chat GPT, but I think the benefit of your show

is talking live to the four of you better than chat GPT because anybody can go on chat GPT without calling the show. So I don't know if you'll agree with me, especially Earl may not agree with me, but I just think it doesn't really benefit your show.

I like talking to Rick or Earl or Stuart Nancy. And then I got another question. I agree with you. I think there's a, the audience is mixed on that, but a lot of people feel that way, and I understand it. Before you say anything, Marty, what I want to say to you is I want to thank you for calling the show and sharing your opinion on this subject because we've been waiting for, you know, that response,

but we haven't had it, and you stepped up to the plate and maybe opened the door for others to comment on chat GBT and we're wide open to what you just said and to talk about it, right, Earl? Okay. That's exactly right. Okay. I appreciate that you don't, you know, it's just my opinion, and I hope you take it that way. Well, you're in the majority, actually.

I think I'm a little bit of a nut when it comes to this chat, GBT thing, but that's just me. But the average, more people are like you, Marty. And we're going nowhere. We'll continue to do the show. And ChatGBT, GBT, we'll only have a part of the show. We'll have most of the show. And I'm like you. I enjoy your, you're a friend.

And I think you look at us as friends. And we like that. It makes us feel better. Good. Okay. And Marty, what you were saying, though, is that the reason that you would rather hear from us is because we fill the show with more. emotion, there's more

energy, is that what you meant? Opposed to chat TBT? Plus, I can go to chat GPT without calling you. Right. Okay. By talking to you or Rick or Stu or Earl, I feel it's

more personal. Yeah. And I'm getting more of a real answer than a robot. There you go. And if everyone is listening right now, Mark is sharing his opinion about chat GBT and the use of it. And he's opened the door to all of you.

Please, we've been waiting for a response from you. How do you feel about us introducing, well, I should say Earl, he's always behind all of these fantastic ideas. But he was the one who decided and we want to hear from you. What do you think? 877-960. 9960. 99-60.

Marty, now you can go ahead and ask your second part of your call. My question is, with Amazon, you're going to sell just used cars through there, correct? Initially, and hopefully new Toyotas, but we have to get the approval from Amazon. The only new vehicles that Amazon's selling now are Hyundai's, and they're going to expand that program, and we want to be able to. Here's my question. go to say new or use whatever it happens to be and somebody looks you up on in new york city do you ship the car to new york city from your dealership or do you make a deal with a new york city Toyota dealer well the the delivery is made uh through the dealership so that if you're going to

buy a car on amazon and assuming all cars are going are being sold on amazon which i think will happened one day but let's say you want to buy a Hyundai today because they are sold on Amazon you go to Amazon and you buy the car from Amazon now the terms and conditions are you take delivery at the dealership so it's between you and the dealer if you're in New York and you buy a car on Amazon and the dealer that you bought from happen to be in Florida you need to go to Florida and pick the car up or have the dealers ship the car to you that would be extra over and above the Amazon price that you quoted. Because when Amazon puts a price on there, there's more than one dealer that can be the dealer for you.

That'll be the closest dealer to you, but the closest dealer might be quite a ways away. So how is it going to work with your dealership? Well, I think that based on the price, we will very likely, sell mainly cars that are generally speaking in our area but someone from Jacksonville I can easily see buying a car on Amazon because they beat the price by more than they could in the Jacksonville area in which case they would have to decide do they want me to ship them the car or there's something called a courtesy delivery where I could arrange for a Toyota dealer in Jacksonville to

deliver the car, I'd have to pay that cost of the delivery fee. Typically, it's $100 or $200. I'd have to pass that along to the customer. But when you buy a car on Amazon, as I say, a new car, it's only Hyundai. The price you see is a price you pay unless you want to transport it somewhere else. Yeah, I guess my only question was you being only a single dealership and being in Lake, you know, West Palm Beach, how would mechanically work if they got to buy it

or get it from you actually to come into the dealership to take possession of the car? Well, what Hyundai would do, they would not just have me. I would be, I could be the first dealer, but they've signed up all Toyota dealers. Oh, okay. So that's how that then. That's it.

Okay. Thanks, Marty. Very good. Glad to talk to you. personally. Thank you very much. We know exactly what you mean. Thank you so much for being a great part of the show this morning. Not that you're always a great part of the show, but as I said, you know, sharing your opinion with the audience, you'll encourage some calls. Thank you so much. We're going to go to Douglas. Good morning, Douglas. Thanks for holding.

What can we do for you, Douglas? Good morning. I'm kind of so good. I'm kind of so. up, Mr. Stewart, I've been listening to your show for many, many years, and it chokes me up to hear your voice. It's fantastic. You're still doing this, and I thank you very, very much. Thank you. I got a, I'm very happy to say that I have a 2003, four-runner, SR5, with 157,000. I bought it when they had 100,000. It was in Daytona, garage, et cetera, and it sits out now. I live in a condo. Mechanically, I've had a great dealer taking care of it.

I wish I was a little closer to yours because your reputation and your thoughtfulness. But I have a quick question on the body. It's never had a paint job, and it probably needs one. But I'm concerned if the value of the car versus the paint, I'm trying to find a reasonable place to take it to get it painted. Well, that's a hard question. If you haven't painted... What year was it?

What year was it again? 2003. 2003? Yeah, yeah. It costs a lot of money to have a factory high-quality pay job. And you're talking several thousand dollars. And for 2003, it doesn't make economic sense. I am not qualified to tell you about lesser pay jobs,

but there are companies out there that the joke is they paint it, you know, they take a spray can and they paint the car. Maybe some of them literally do, but you can get a cheaper paint job. So maybe I need to do some research around. Maybe Stu's got an idea on that. Well, I have a question. Do you plan on ever getting rid of that four-runner? I'm 72.

I'm happy. So you're going to keep it forever because it keeps going, right? Yeah, I just put it. new timing water pump in so yeah i'd consider if you don't plan yeah if you're not planning on selling it or trading it on another one you might want to consider a nice paint job you know the downside is like girls said um on a wholesale market on trading value that forerunner you know it's worth more than any other 2003 SUV out there i guarantee you in in that condition and there's probably not very many in that condition um but since it's it is kind of a classic and it's a car that's going to run

for another 100,000 or more miles. That's a good question. That's a good answer. I like that. Yeah. I mean, but if you're going to, you think you might want to sell it, it's just going to make it, you're going to spend $3,000 on a page job maybe or more, and then you'll get $6,000 or something, whatever.

And then you're going to end up getting $1,500 for the, or $2,000. I'm just making up numbers for the forerunners. But if it's not an economic calculation and it's just something you want your forerunner to look great again. Yeah, we had an earlier caller that had a question about repair. an older car and the bottom line was it's like my kid i've had it for a long long time and i'm going to keep it for the rest of my life thank you and yeah thank you i appreciate that because when i talk to the younger i guess i've learned my lesson with my neighbors they're called

motorheads and when the guys are talking my v8 and this is this 2003 four runner they say you've got a Lamborghini it's all greek to me unfortunately i wish i can maintain it as well as the younger guys can because when it comes to motors it's all Greek to me. I got another real quick question. You're very patient and I appreciate your help with 155,000 miles it's been maintained but is

there anything else coming up? I put brand new tires on and the just changed the timing belt and water pump. Is there anything else that you'd recommend maybe in the near future? 2003-4-Runner when's last time into Sparkplex changed? It's been a while.

You don't have a radium, does he? Check the spark plugs, okay. O3, I think, are going to be platinum, most likely, 60,000-mile plugs. I would recommend a set of plugs. They're not going to be super expensive on that one. Is that on the owner's manual? Yes. One thing you probably should do if you don't have one is buy an owner's manual.

Because if you're going to keep that car for the rest of your life, just be sure you everything that the owner's manual recommends yeah but don't buy it my glove I got it in my glove compartment oh okay yeah all all the owners manuals and the the booklet that is the dealer factory recommended or the factory recommended maintenance those are all available online and if you want to really spend the money to print it out otherwise just save it like as a PDF on your phone and you've got it saved mm-hmm one thing I'll say would Toyota, I was very impressed the operation, how they keep

service records, and also going online, their websites. I'm very, very impressed, Mr. Stewart. You have a fine organization. I'm the Lachia's guys. I have a Toyota franchise, I have to say it. Gentlemen, I encourage you to get on YouTube.

Well, we are. We are. We are street to you right now. YouTube.com.com slash your own cars. You are on YouTube right now. You're You're in for a treat because you're on the show. You're talking on YouTube. All the shows.

You can watch the old ones. Can you imagine how many people are going to be watching you, Doug? Uh-oh. But thanks for the suggestion anyway. We can't see you, but. Give us a call again. We're going to go to Patient. You're welcome.

Thank you. We're going to go to Patient Hauer. I'm going to call him because he has been waiting. Good morning, Howard. Good morning. I hope you all well. and I'm up in the Bronx and the weather is terrible here

but I have to bear it I wish I were in Florida and have a nice much better weather okay here's the story with my car I had it painted Wiggins did a nice job it was a recall 040 was recalled and how does that affect

my selling the car because it was a factory paint job is it worth more money now what year is your car and what mileage 2017 and the mileage is uh what you're is that the Honda is that one your Toyota yeah Camry yeah camry you have the you got the recall campaign for the paint peeling off yeah yes it's going to be worth more after you paint it okay because you're going to try and you're going to trade in or if you're trading in at a Toyota dealership you can say

clearly this has the paint delamination and they'll get it done and get paid for it. I think it's something that should be pretty easy at a Toyota dealership and probably had another dealerships. They might be aware of this, you know, someone with an appraiser. But yeah, they're going to, if you trade it in at a non-toited dealership, they'd give you less worth probably. And then they'd have to get it to a Toyota dealership to have the campaign done. So it'd be better if you did it ahead of time and just keep those.

that paperwork in your glove compartment or pictures on your phone so you can say that it wasn't, you know, something you felt like doing one day. Oh, I have no paperwork. I was never given any paperwork after it was done. Oh, then you can contact the deal issue.

Did we do it? Yeah. We did it? We can get you the record of that. Okay, no, I'll only deal with Earl as far as the trading in my car. I won't do anything. Then don't even worry about getting it because we know what we did to your car. Well, that's great information. Well, there's there's two ways to looking at that. And I

I don't want to confuse the issue, but typically when you bring a car in, let's forget we had this conversation. When you go into a dealership and they see the car's been repainted, that devalues the car. Now, in your case, of course, when it was repainted, it looks a lot better than it did. But it's, you know, get, get, if you're, if you're going to sell car which whether you do or not you should get three bids on it and but it is an arguable question about whether having the car repainted added or detracted on the value if they'd seen the car before you had it repainted right it probably would add to the value it takes some pick well you don't have pictures but on the carfax report it will say the car was repainted and they it'll say the

is it a warrant here at sb rick do you know i mean is it a recall uh it was a limited recall would And it has now expired. Because that's why as I'm asking. I'm wondering, because recalls are going to show up on a Carfax report for sure. Actually, I think it was a limited extended warranty. Right. So it's not going to – I don't think it will show up on a Carfax report. Well, it will if the service records are getting uploaded.

Yeah. Oh, that's great. That's good for me. Another question. When Wiggins did the job, he unhooked the battery. And when he put it back on, I lost the audio on my signal. You know, the audio, the sound. I don't hear any sound when I make a left turn and right turn.

I see the flash, but the sound is gone. The click? So, you know, when you make it a left turn, I push the thing down, and I hear nothing. I see, I see the flashing and everything. That's good. Yeah, so what could be done about that? Let's got to bring it in, right? yeah um that's something we'd have to look at because the flasher unit where remember it used to be a mechanical device that you can actually unplug and replace it that's now integrated into the body ecu which is the main fuse block underneath the dash um it would be something that for me i would not even bother messing with it because that would be very expensive to replace that you

unit um my recommendation what i would try just for the fun of it is i did i did what you said i got the negative terminal you told me to do that yeah and then it works it works for one day and stopped uh yeah i would just kind of live with it because okay yeah okay eight-year-old car and that's probably a two thousand dollar repair just for for a click noise okay no yeah yeah i agree with 100%. I'm not going to do anything about that. No problem. Okay, so when I get back down, I'll be down probably in November, and then I'll look to trade the car in.

Oh, what's a good time for you? I'm joking. No, but at that time, I'll have like 76,000 miles. So does that bring, and 76,000 miles with 2017 Chamery isn't too bad, right? not bad at all that's that's low actually you should have about 100,000 okay okay now can I get a camry that tomato hybrid um

no no all the camrys are hybrid then I would have to get a used one correct yeah yeah that only I mean you get a really recent model one because they only it's only I think this year is the first year without the gas carrier So, yeah, I'll look into that.

Okay, thanks for all the information, and have a good day. Thank you, Howard. Thanks for being part of the show every week. Okay, we're going to check out some YouTube. We're going to check out text, anonymous feedback. We'd like to go first. Well, we've got Anne-Marie. Okay.

She says, good morning. It has been said that nothing improves the good old days like a bad memory. That can easily apply to automotive innovations over the year. that we might prefer to forget. Take the electronic voice alert, for example. It was found on some cars, including Dodge and Chrysler, in the 1980s. The EVA would literally tell you if you were low on fuel,

if you left your key in the ignition, or if a door was ajar. Nowadays, we might have a light or a chime to get our attention, but back then the car actually talked to you, and people didn't really appreciate this feature, since it felt that our beloved cars were nagging us. You've sold foreign and domestic cars for decades. What features have you seen that initially seemed like a great idea

but turned out to be highly unpopular? Yeah, yeah. I think a lot of them did, not so much that they were bad ideas, but they weren't built in in a proper fashion. I'm thinking about navigation. I remember when they first came out with navigation, it was not a good product. And I can remember driving in Fort Lauderdale with Nancy in a never-ending circle. It kept telling me to make a legal return.

And so after two or three hours you're going around, I'm only kidding. But after going two or three times. So I used to use my Garmin, a handheld navigation. Like for hunting. I think all of the new products that you see of, of a science fiction nature that first came out were so awkward and didn't work so well that people got didn't want to have them now I think they're pretty good I think this explains why you're so comfortable you know even now 50 years later 40 three years later with the new technology jumping behind an autonomous vehicle because you've kind of been doing it I remember in the 90s with one of I think it's the first one of the first cell phones you had and you actually had a voice dialer and you showed us like this is like 95 or something you go phone the office and your car phone the office and you know that's what we all do now today every day everybody does that well let me let me give you a great example of uh this

autonomous thing uh nancy and i came in this morning into the studio and i'm driving the beast by cyber truck on autonomous i should say the beast is driving and so uh as we came into the driveway this time of year for the past 20 years there are a lot of peacocks around and they just just prance around like they owned a place. They don't pay attention to anybody. They're like pets. So we're driving toward the parking place at the radio station. And Nancy says, stop, stop!

Well, I'd take it off autonomous. And I didn't see the peacocks. And if she hadn't screamed at me, they'd probably be a couple of mashed peacocks out there. But the autonomous, I told Nancy, and the autonomous would, autonomous would have stopped the car. They stop for dogs, and she'll. and of course. Let me as a sidebar add to Earl's story to the audience. I'd ask you to call

on up but the lines are closed. How do you feel about me being a passenger and my favorite word is to stop, stop, whether we're headed down, we're headed south in a north lane, whether we ran a stop sign. Is it something to talk about? Well, it isn't perfecting yet. We know that. And soon we will have, it's legal in Florida to have a stage four autonomous car. We're driving, Nancy, and are driving the number three level in the Teslas. So even though we could use the full autonomous, technically the driver has to be there in control. But with a stage four, we could sit in the back seat.

I could buy a robotaxi and be basically. You can buy a bottle of rum. And sit in the back and do shots. Yeah. Well, you can't. Open container. And isn't the assisted park amazing? Amazing.

Yeah, you guys parked better to me. Every time I pull in, I see the cyber beast there, and I go, all right, I got something to compete against. And I'm always off to the left, off to the right. And you guys are right in the middle. Pasha, my friend. Mm, yeah. Well, on a note with what Anne-Marie asked, Negan 1 and South Florida Two-Step both chimed in to say,

and this is one of mine that I hated. automatic seat belt oh yeah I hated this and South Florida two sets says I had a 94 Nissan Centra with the auto seat belt you know we're the ones that would

run all motor to put that shoulder belt on you and he says the driver's side stopped working and I got pulled over constantly and yeah I mean not only are seatbelts a safety item gave it simple stupid but they are

legally required in like I think all 50 states you are required to wear your seatbelt while you're driving. It doesn't make sense there wasn't a manual override in an event of a motor failure or track. Yeah, to put it back on. So the whole idea of a manual seatbelt while it seems like a great idea,

if it breaks, you're not allowed to drive your car. Well, there's no incentive to improving seatbelts because people generally don't like them. It's a necessity. It's something you, if you're conscious, you should use them. But it's not something that's easy.

to do. It drives me crazy. The older I get, the harder it is for me to get my seatbelt buckle properly. And if I didn't have a sense of safety, I would never wear the seatbelt, but I do have a sense of safety. Now, if it were an item on the car that a customer could opt in or out of and the manufacturers realize they might not buy my car, if I don't make this seatbelt easy to use and comfortable, we would have much better seatbelts right now. Yeah. And the one thing that pops in my mind is, something that came up a long time ago. I don't know who did it first.

GM did, maybe. It was a Pontiac. I remember back in an old Bonneville that you had, you had heads-up display on the windshield. So you could see your speed and some other information. And it was a cheap little projector. And you saw the reflection. And I remember thinking it was kind of corny back then

because it wasn't really, you could even see the dash part was coming out in the reflection. And then 40 years later, they come out with a Prius and with a heads-up display. I'm like, can't wait to see a modern head-up display. The exact same technology is just a little beams looking under reflection. And did you know I had at least three different customers come in complaining my heads-up displayed as a work? And it was because they had either turned the brightness of it all the way down or they had put something on the dash.

Yeah, that was just blocking. One person had actually bought one of those carpeted dash covers and it sold it in the car and it totally covered. You pulled out your sheet. You put out your scissors. and cut a hole in it for him. And, yeah, there you go, try it now. Oh, I was so tempted. All right, so anonymous feedback.

Here's one. Okay, sadly, Earl, I find it hard to believe that when you apply that robo-taxies are going to become the norm because at the end of the day, it's you and your dealership's wealth that's at stake if people no longer have a reason to buy cars. Oh, yeah, you were wrong because it's going to put us out of business. Well, I mean, that's sad. I wish we weren't going to be put on business, but what we'll have to do is adapt or die.

That's all. We can't deny something's true because we don't really like the news that much. In my lifetime or Stu's lifetime, perhaps, you know, and my grandchildren, maybe in Jake's lifetime or Eli's lifetime, but there still might be a Earl Stewart Toyota doing something else. It might be Earl Stewart Robotaxy Service.

Yeah, could be, yeah. We don't know. There you go. Or we could have our own. brand of robo-taxies and they'll be known as earls and you can say call earl there you go and forever people call an earl when they need to get a ride there's always a sales idea so i can't stop thinking yes i'm telling you it's dangerous these scientific minds i've got one here from guy larrabee he's asked this a couple weeks and and we just weren't able to get to it

i says um i've asked a few times haven't gotten an answer yet what could you tell us about the new Toyota compact pickup. The internet is all about, all the buzz about this coming out in 2026. The stout. The stout. Yeah, it's supposed to come in and compete with like the new Maverick, the Ford Maverick little truck, which used to be

I used to hate those little pickups. I saw them in 1975. I remember. I think I learned to drive on a four-wheel drive version of this. It didn't have a name. It was just pickup. It was Toyota. The Toyota truck. A lot of them went overseas. We call it a little bitty pickup. People love those. And then as they

They got bigger and bigger. Well, Toyota dealers hated them because all the Ford, the Chevy guys had the big macho pickup. Until we had this little, mini pickup, and we were embarrassed. And workers and pool companies and landscapers, all, they loved them. And then it became so hard to get them. Are you kidding? They put camper bodies on them, the big giant RV body on the back of it and turn it into a motorhome. Yeah, a little truck.

So what do I know about it is it's coming out next year? I think it's going to be offered in an EV. version. I'm not Googling this. I'm just doing this on memory. So, yeah, 26. I don't know when in 26, but yeah, we'll get more information. I've said this to our listeners before as a dealer. They don't always give us like a lot of heads-up information. We get it probably before everybody else, but not much before. Chat-G-T-T probably knows because it's going to find every leak. It's going to find every little video, every sneak-shel. Jonathan's...

Oh, wait, my, let me ask Chatt GVT. Jonathan mentioned the HILUCS that started in 1970. Yeah. But Hylux is for the rest of the world. Yes. We can only get them here if you get it specially imported. Yeah. So...

Well, folks, you've had that to look forward to the Toyota Scout. Chat, GBT, BT, when is a new small pickup in Toyota... Stout. Stout, like this. Like this. You're probably talking about the Toyota Stout. That's their new compact kick-up truck. that's been getting a lot of buzz. It's expected to come out sometime in 2025. So

definitely something to look forward to if you're in the smaller trucks. That might been a little anticipatory. How about that? Okay. Here's another anonymous feedback. How much time I got? I got two minutes before we shut down for the other stuff. Two minutes. We got two minutes, two, three minutes. Anonymous feedback. I prefer an electric car for its mechanical simplicity and higher reliability. But I think the transition should always be market-driven by customers, never buy government. At some point, electric vehicles will be less expensive than equivalent gas vehicles. And this will sway many buyers in that direction.

But sports car enthusiasts may never embrace electric cars. It's nice to have the choice. Fair opinion. Well, I just think you never say never and race enthusiast. Right, what till they drive your car. Yeah, when all the races, you know, to me, again, I'm different. I'm a little strange. But there's nothing more boring to me than sitting there and watching 100 cars

going around an oval track for eight hours. And I think this includes the Indianapolis 500 and the NASCAR racing and the rest of it. It bores the hell out of me. And the reason things are going to be obsolete. I remember when the Toyota and the road engine, Back in, they didn't invent it, but they used the patent on it. And they had the rotary engine in 1972 or something like that. And it was faster than any combustion engine car on the road.

Well, guess what? They made it illegal to run it in a race. And then they would have their own rotary engine races. So it's... I didn't know that. Yeah, the artificiality, if there's such a word, of having, you know, races and limming it to... a certain technology

I mean the combustion engine is going to be like a horse and it'll be like well we still have horse races so maybe that's what will happen watch I was thinking of I was picturing in Star Wars they have these pod races with these loud noisy

homemade contraptions dirty and yet the rest of the technology they're flying through space at the speed of light but they're still having races with these driving around on the ground so that was for my nerds out there all right one last bit of anonymous feedback says I agree with Marty

we listen to your show to hear Rick and the rest of the team give advice based on the real world and personal experience not a robot by the way you've had three anonymous feedback saying something similar in the past two weeks

and there are a couple of new ones here I was going to read them they all say the same thing I brought this in for dummies and this isn't meant to insult anybody it's funny and still would agree

Rick is dying Anyone who hasn't used something for dummies It's a joke It's not for dummies, it's for smart people And they're very, very good At least they were at one time That's a really good thing to read, because I bet you It guides you on how to prompt

Yeah, and just how to deal with it Well, I'm holding in my hand for the radio listeners Is chat GBT for dummies Chat GBT for dummies And if I don't think think you want to have Chad GBT take over your life like it probably will some people like me. But if you want to just be conversant at a cocktail party or any kind of a party about

chat GBT, this will help you be conversant. And it doesn't tell you that chat's going to take the world over the world or it's a joke or anything else. It just shows you the facts about it. And if nothing else, it's fun to play with chat GBT, even if you don't take it too seriously. Thanks for your encouraging words, Earl, honestly. And believe me, chat, GBT, there's so many ways that you can use it. It isn't just what you're annoyed with right here, Earl, on cars. But we appreciate your feedback, and I can thank Marty for opening up that door. We are going to have to get to our mystery shopping report,

and because we are running out of time, our mystery shopping report went to Georgia. Not too far from Atlanta. And that is Stone Mountain, Nissan, Georgia, about 15 miles east of Atlanta. So if you want to vote on the mystery shopping report from Stone Mountain, Texas, 772-497-6530. So Stone Mountain, yeah, sorry, Stone Mountain Toyota, it's in that Atlanta metro market. So it's similar to South Florida. It'd be like Coconut Creek or something like that. Yeah, it's not where once you get into the Atlanta downtown and the surrounding suburbs,

you got several big Toyota dealerships up there and they are very competitive with each other. They are. Okay. I'll be reading as if I were Agent Lightning, I arrived at mid-afternoon, and as I was looking at the first car, a salesman named Patrick approached me. He shook my hand warmly and welcomed me to Stone. Mount Nissan. I told him I'm interested in this new 2025 Pathfinder SL, but I see there's a market adjustment on the sticker. Okay, make a note of that, market adjustment. Very common

terminology here in South Florida. Patrick interpreted reassuringly, don't worry about that. We really want to earn your business. And if you love the car, I'll do whatever is necessary to make that happen. And those are two phrases that have been around, since I started in the business. I don't know why, but every car dealer uses the word. They don't want to sell your car. They want to earn your business. And they don't, they make it happen.

I'm not sure about that. It's just kind of a light, fuzzy, not too serious statement. I don't know how serious the psychology was in sales trading, but I remember being trained that. Just never say, I'm going to sell it. Because people don't like things being done to there. You want to put the power. And I question that, like what's,

Did that come from Freud or? Probably some guy that thought he was Freud. I don't know. Anyway, back to being Agent Lightning, I looked at the Menroney label, and I looked at the menorny label and the addendum over. The MSRP was $43,785. The addendum had a familiar, nostalgic feel. It added $9.95 for nitrogen and wheel locks.

Nitrogen came around 20 years ago. I don't know. And it's just a big thing with car dealers. And they love it because NASA does put nitrogen in their tires at the Daytona 500 in Indianapolis. They're in the wheels of the, they're in the, what are they on, the rocket jets there, they're somewhere. Well, the shuttle. Oh, airlines, airlines have. Airlines and military planes.

At high speed and huge forces. It might be worth. Tiny, tiny advantages. Yeah, but it's, a consumer report says it's worthless. And so does Rick. Nitrogen and tires. And there was the old 2009-95, 2995 market adjustment. So this is something you've seen in South Florida.

It's interesting, a market adjustment on a mid-level, plentiful car. They don't care. The original motivation behind the market adjustment was not so much, to make a lot of money more on that particular transaction, it was to pretend like you're giving a discount to make the customer buy. So it's more of twisting the mind to buy than to actually get it. Most cartilists don't really think. Now, occasionally, the real sucker walks on the lot.

And then they have what they call the slam dunk. And they high-five each other in the sales meeting and say, John, stand up. Three slam dunks last week. Your referral to slam dunk is very quaint. The $4,000 deal, that was the big exciting thing a long time ago. These guys are making $15,000. Yeah, but I also, I went back when I was evil.

I had the slam dunk. Then I have the megadunk. Megadunk who has $5,000. I think so, yeah. Right. Megadunk is still clean. I had a hatcher's three cars. If you do a three cars and a mega dunk on one of them, you're getting a steak dinner that night.

Okay. Back to reality and back to the shopping reports. Back to 2025. Here at Stone Mountain, Nissan. He asked me, the salesperson asked me to wait while he retrieved the keys for a test drive. Patrick, listen to this. This is knocked my socks off.

Patrick was sharply dressed in his Sunday best suit. Even in the Atlanta heat. Now, years and years ago, I would wear a suit to work. I was a manager. I don't ever recall salesman wearing suits They wear shirts and ties and maybe jackets, but maybe suits. Some do. And when he said Sunday best, I had a check on the date.

For example, Jean-Tier-Albert, he's a guy who's been able to 20 years. He comes in on Sunday, wearing a suit because he goes to church before work, and he comes in wearing Sunday best. But this is on the 4th of July. Ah. This took place on July 4th, this shop last week, in the heat on a Friday. So this guy must have been Schvitzin. Could have been an obscure religion we don't know about.

Very dedicated. Maybe. Anyway, it's really, I mean, here I've been doing this for a long time. And for me to see a guy in 100 degree weather walking outside in, I'll say Atlanta, Georgia in a suit and tie is just, I don't know. Maybe he does it to get sympathy and he can close deals with it. During our short test drive, Patrick asked, how will you be purchasing the car today? I explained that's something closed.

See, if you will, or when you will, is how will you be purchasing the car today? I explained cash, or I'm in the process. Moving here from South Florida, still need to change over my license. He replied confidently, don't worry about that. As long as you have a U.S. driver's license, we can work it out.

If it were from France, Mexico, or somewhere else, we'd have a problem. I'm not sure why he threw that out there. Could have been a political statement, I'm not sure, but... Probably. Then asked exactly, where are you from? I'm from Port St. Lucie area. And West Palm area, I answered, to clarify.

When we arrived back at the dealership, we went to Patrick's desk. As soon as we sat down, Carl, his sales manager came over to introduce himself. Patrick informed him, she's in the process of moving up from Florida. Carl asked, which part? West Palm, I replied. Carl smiled warmly. I'm from West Palm Beach, too. What's going on here? I used to go swimming at Du Bois Park all the time. Nice and beaches around. Patrick here will take care of you.

Develop a little rapport. They're a little fuzzy kind of a thing. Patrick collected my information to enter into their system, then excused himself briefly to speak with Carl about some numbers. when he returned he asked where would you like to register the car I'd rather register it here if I didn't have to do so twice it might take me a day or two to sort out my license I explained Patrick asked which zip code will you be using I'm not sure yet but it's right here in Stone Mountain I responded perfectly perfect I'll be right back a few minutes later he returned with a price sheet

the top price top line was MSR $43,785. They took off, this is, you can build it up so you can take it off. They took off $3,733, which made the adjusted price, $40,052. Then they added two more junk fees, $199, $199 for taxable fees. And as you know, if there is tax paid on the, on the fee, it cannot be a legitimate fee, it's junk. And an $899 doc fee, which is, again, junk,

there's no documentary, she's paying cash, there are no doc stamps. I mean, that's a total, to me, you know, in North Carolina that's illegal to call their junk fee, a doc fee, because it's a lie. A doc fee is doc stamps that you pay when you finance a car. Agent Lightning is gonna pay cash, you're not gonna finance it.

So even if they were paying a charge of a dog fee, which they're not, they're lying, it would be a misstatement. Out the door was $43,715. He was somewhat pushy saying, this is a great deal. I can get you financed at around 6% if you have good credit. I politely declined, explain no one, paying cash. I'll really need to figure out everything with my first move when I move here, after I move here.

I'll be in touch soon. Patrick backed off and Carl expressed understanding saying we completely understand. If you need anything at all, please let us know. We pride ourselves on amazing customer service. So if you need a ride or anything else, just reach out, I think. They've been left.

I was wondering if the manager was wearing a suit. Yeah, she didn't mention Agent Lighten, if you're listening, let us know. Well, there you have it. And we vote on this. and the voting is on the curve and Stu made sure you understood that this is a suburb of Atlanta

so it's a metro market which is that's where the Sodom and Gomorrah car dealers live in metro markets and that competition fans the tricks of the trade so when you have a lot of dealers relatively close together

and that's what you have in metro markets And a lot of advertising, you really, really have to get nasty to attract somebody on an advertisement. Your competition is advertising cars below his actual cost and below what he will sell you that car for by thousands of dollars. So when your competition is six blocks away selling the same product you are, how are you going to get people into your dealership? And the way you do is you out lie him, you out cheat him, you maneuver and use his advertising to bring people in. Multiply that by four or five dealers of the same make car in the same metro area. And that's where you really, really get some nasty, illegal, unethical, immoral, I'm running out of adjectives, terrible advertising. And that's what we have in Atlanta.

So vote please. You can text us at 8. I want to text us at 772-4976530 YouTube.com for slash roll on cars. And we'd love to hear your votes on the curve. A's we don't use. F's we don't use. I say we don't. Once in a blue moon we've used an A and once in a blue moon we use an F.

But we found ourselves if we get too loosey on A's and Fs, we don't have enough places to go to buy a car. And because the state requires that only car dealers can sell you a new car, you'd be in tough shape to buy a car if we said don't buy a car from any dealer. So there you are, A to F, but really B to D on a sliding scale. I know, realistic scale. Yeah. All right, I'll kick it off.

My impression is they did a pretty. good job. I thought it was bad at first seeing the addendum, but that never came up in the process. It made me wonder how old that car was, but it was a 25, so it couldn't have been that old. I'm thinking maybe it was a holdover from the days they were putting the addendums on all the cars. So the treatment inside was polite. They gave a real discount. I asked chat GPT last night and also looked on KB and all that. It was in the pocket. You can get a better deal but it wasn't a they definitely was right in that range

including the dealer fees oh fee because they only had one that was the other thing I was surprised by they had one traditional fee that other taxable fee was like a little small small fee yeah so I thought it was going to be a lot worse so they're going to to me they

they're above the curve so I'm going to give them a B for Stone Mountain Nissan okay we've got Jonathan and Palm Coast says this hot Atlanta dealership gets a C plus for me for the numerous junk fees. The salesman and manager were courteous, but the junk fees cost them a better grade.

Over here, it's, oh, that's a different one. I'll have to, that one, send that to you, Earl. This one says, Bob and Maryland, F is stetch, yeah, thank you, pardon. My F is etched in stone for Stone Mountain Nissan. They earned it. I did not sell it to them. But they didn't have etch. That's probably a good thing.

Yeah, it is. Over here, we've got South Florida Two Step says, $1,000 for nitrogen? Wow. I remember when I worked at a shop in the mid-2000s, when nitrogen was all the rage, we charged $10 per tire. And an extra $1,000 for fees?

No good. F all day, too pushy. Joseph Kelleher says, F, junk fees, market adjustment, and nitrogen are the reasons for the grade. Johnny Z. Fradley says, $9.95 for nitrogen? Give me more oxygen. I think I'm going to pass out. D minus. Tom Steckle, C minus. Overall out the door was less than MSRP. A thousand in junk fees keeps them at average, much better than Nissan 441. Brian said Latko. Sounds like an average dealer. C-minus, C-M-1624 says D, 2,000 in junk fees, just wait until you get into the box.

For me personally, I'm going to say a D. I just, the whole nitrogen charging $1,000 for nitrogen and a $50 set of wheel locks is just out there. I don't want to, we should never did big grades, and I completely respect the grade. you're giving but the reason i was hired because i'm starting to feel dumb what's all these fs i'm like i gave a beat of these guys because i don't think that the addendum came into play you know it's probably just like i'm gonna put this in every car and it's clearly not part of the process because the manager didn't bring it it was never they never tried to put it on the buyer's order and then take it down it was just there so we can't disregard the end them because some people

do pay you're right all right let me take my can i can i change my grade b minus B minus. Jonathan, how much time do we have? We have seven minutes. Okay. Can Stu change this grade? Of course I can. It's B minus.

I want to let everyone know. Okay. I'd rather hear from ChatGBT, but I'm going to give my grade and based on, you know, they dazzled me as far as their Sunday best and their politeness and all of that, but not enough for me to give them anything less than an F. Oh, boy. The Black Widow strikes. Okay.

So what did chat TBD have to say? Do you have a minute? Did you do it? We're ready to go. Good morning, Coach. We'd like you to tell us your score and feeling about the Mr. Shopping report of Stone Mountain Nissan. Good morning. Absolutely.

I'd be happy to share my thoughts. The Stone Mountain Nissan report was definitely interesting. They seemed eager to earn the customers. business, which is always a positive sign, but I'll give a more detailed review and a grade when Earl calls on me during the show. Okay, I'm calling on you now during the show. So we've already given our grades, Coach. Can you tell us what your grade is? Of course. Based on what I saw in the report, I'd say Stone Mountain Nissan did a pretty good job with customer service, and they were willing to work with the pricing, which is always nice to see. There were a few minor hiccups,

But overall, I'd give them a solid B plus. A great effort and definitely some room for improvement. But overall, not that at all. Thank you very much, Coach. I appreciate that. That is so wrong. We are all over the place. You're very welcome.

I'm glad I could help out. If there's anything else you need, just let me know. So we are like, what did you give? Oh, you haven't given yours yet? No, I'm going to give them a C. Okay. I'm going to see. Listen, each of us feels guilty when we give the,

reports. We all, we're human and we tend to great things the way we feel all the time. I'll be honest with you. Every show when we do the report, I changed my mind. Nancy asked me on the way in the car, what do you think that it's going to be? And I give her a number. And then we get in here, we talk. I think of another number. I listen to one of you guys or somebody else's evaluation. It's very subjective. It's just, that's the reason I want to rules out A's,

because I guess the rule is a C dealer can be a D dealer or an F dealer or an A dealer on a given day. But it's, it's an art and a size, a C, I see, I see. You're great as a C. Let me ask you this question, did Chad GBT at all give you, you know, more support than you would have had on your way in? Maybe, maybe a little bit. So you leaned.

Yeah, as I think of it now, if I lived in Atlanta and I went into any dealer in Atlanta, I think I have about the same thing happen, and that's average, so that's a seat. Yeah, I think so, but I would love to get another one just to see if this was an outlier. Oh, you're right. You're absolutely right. Well, you definitely have to sharpen your tools to go into Stone Mountain, Nissan, because Stone Mountain, Nissan, Georgia, because they had to. a lot of tap dancing going on a lot of charges and they could have taken advantage they can take advantage of anyone so again knowledge is power

we had do we have any time we do we do have a short amount of time and would you like to discuss that I just want to talk again about the broker thing I asked before you got in this morning to do I asked chat GBT about car brokers. And surprisingly, I didn't prep touch EBT in any way. He spoke highly of car brokers and he said that, and we haven't talked about it on this show in a long time, but he basically said he gave us a list of good car brokers

and said, be sure the car broker, you pay the fee and not the fee is paid by the dealer. And he gave us a recommendation of about a half a thousand different car brokers. I hope they were our brokers. brokers. I hope they were our brokers. Well, yeah, well, anyway, a $300 fee can save you $3,000. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. They work it in there because they will, they don't work with the, the people at the dealership that work with the brokers aren't working with the sales managers.

They don't go through the same process. They make the deal and that's what happens. Exactly. There's a lot of good to it. And, you know, you know, I was thinking back during the inventory crunch, It wasn't such a great deal because the brokers were getting fat, the dealers are getting fat, and the customers are getting screwed. What was the name of the company that we were talking about a long time ago? Nancy and I couldn't remember.

Yeah, and I asked Jonathan, and he couldn't, and it was the father and son. We didn't pair. We mentioned them on the show. We talked about them, but we didn't pair. Y, Y, way A. We didn't pair up because of the dealer fee that they were charging. Right.

Yeah, it was, I think it was called Y, Y, A or something. Yeah, and they charge a, three to $500 fee, and that's the reason we never joined up. Right. But maybe we should reconsider. Because we're running out of time, the guys were talking about this car brokers, as Earl was talking about earlier in the show, and it's just a great idea for you to get some tips on using the broker wisely.

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for joining us this morning. We had a fabulous time. A lot of great talk, a lot of great information, and as usual, you had a lot of great great advice and we so enjoy you why because of many things but one that you are such an important part of the show so we'll see you right back here next week at 8 a.m. Have a great weekend everyone.