Earl Stewart on Cars - 07.23.2022 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Off Lease Only of West Palm Beach

Episode Date: July 23, 2022

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning revisits the nearby location for Off Lease Only to see how how much they will charge for a used 2021 Toyota Camry as compared to a new vehicle. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, his tweets at www.twitter.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. Sign up to become one of Earl's Vigilantes and help others in your community to avoid getting ripped off by a car dealer. Go to www.earlsvigilantes.com for more information. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

Good morning, everybody. Here we are. Your auto team, right on the job in the studio. We're in South Florida, but we broadcast and we videocast all over the world. We're pretty heavy in the United States. We get people from a lot of states calling in. Once in a while we get a call from overseas. And our task, our dedication is very, very simple.

We want to help you buy your car easier for less money and repair your car, and lease your car, or maintain your car. We just want to save you money, save you aggravation. You know, sometimes I think the aggravation that people have going into a car dealership is worse than the money that it costs them. You know, mental anguish is not inexpensive. You know, if you experience enough trauma, it's not good for you.

It can shorten your life. And favorite expression bounces around all the time. I'd rather have a root canal than buy a car. And you also, I know people that just say, I'm not going to buy a car because I just don't want to go through the experience. And you've all heard, your regular listeners, anyway, have heard me talk about the Gallup Annual Poll on Ethics and Honesty and Professions, Ethics and Honesty. I mean, guess who?

Guess who was at the bottom of the list? For I think 50 years, in 1977, the Gallup poll started that, and every year, car dealers are right down at the bottom. Sometimes they get lucky, and they're second from the bottom, and lobbyist or congressmen, or at the bottom, but they're always down there. I mean, 90% of the time you can count on the Gallup Bowl showing you. Car dealers just make us angry. And I'm a car dealer, by the way, and they make me angry, and I'm a car dealer. So, in a way of full disclosure, we are selling cars.

Been doing it for a long time. This is a completely separate division. I don't advocate or try to sell you cars on this radio show. This is not an infomercial. In fact, I get a little upset sometimes when we start talking too much about the product we sell. I just try to keep it very, very generic because every car dealer virtually is trying to get away with something. And we're trying to reform that. Federal Trade Commission, by the way, is – that's really the buzz now.

The Federal Trade Commission has really jumped on possible modifications for car dealers and requirements. It's almost comical. Nancy Stewart and I, she's my co-host. She's sitting right next to me now in the studio. We were talking on the way to the studio about the Federal Trade Commission. And she says, well, you know, one of the regulations is that when you advertise a car, you have to sell it for that price out the door. We also have a text from our favorite texter, Anne Marie.

And Anne Marie is, she's just amazing the way she's perceptive and intelligent and sends us interesting text. Her text that she sent, which Stu will introduce a little later in the show, pretty quick, actually, about the Federal Trade Commission. And they're proposed changes. I mean, they're well-intended. I mean, they are definitely well-intended. How much effect they'll have? Well, that's what we can talk about later in the show. Of all that said, we listen to you,

and we're going to talk about what you want to talk about, not what we want to talk about. Call us. We prioritize calls 877-960-99-60. That's 877-960-99-60. Nancy Stewart she looks at her laptop your call comes in

I stop talking Rick Kearney stops talking Stu stops talking and we go right to the phone so we like the phones they're personalized I know some people don't want to use the phones but they make for

a more of a personal exchange 877 960 9960 now for you folks just want to get it off your chest you don't want to have a be live on the air you could go to Facebook.com

forward slash hurlun cars if you're a Facebook person Facebook. Facebook.com ford slash whirlwind cars or you can go to YouTube.com forward slash rolling cars. Rick Kearney monitors that particular channel Stu monitors Facebook.

So we're all over. We're all over. We can be reached in a variety of manners. The coolest manner, though, I like it. I love it. anonymousfeedback.com, your anonymous feedback.com, Y-O-U-R, A-N-O-N-Y-M-O-U-S, feedback.com. Your anonymous feedback.com. See anything you want? And I say that, literally, you can swear, you can threaten, you can. Oh, please don't threaten me. But you can. You can.

we will read all the no matter how caustic your comments are they will be read with you know bleeps for the vulgarities now we don't get a lot of that I actually most of the anonymous

feedbacks are quite literate well written I mean interesting and not not costic at all and once in a while we get one but I say that just to emphasize you no matter what you say

we don't know who you are we don't know where you are We don't have your IPO number. We don't know. I mean, all the ways things can be traced. This is truly a cool way to be anonymous. And there's a company, incognito.com. If any businesspeople or individuals out there are interested in having a URL, a web address,

that people can contact you through and not know who contacts you, you go to incognito.com. and N-C-O-N-C-O-N-E-A-T-O, N-A-A-T-O, I-N-C-O-N-A-T-O. Really cool website. You business people ought to do it. A lot of blue-chip companies use it because if you really know what you're doing and you're a businessman,

you really want to hear unexpregated what your customers think. I mean, if you're listening to what your managers are telling you and the people that work for are telling you, they're telling you what you want to hear. If you want to hear the truth, go to Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Okay, I'm going to turn the mic over to Nancy Stewart, who is my co-host. She's a female advocate.

She's responsible for bringing a huge number of females, listeners, and callers to the show. And she does this in a variety of ways. She has one way, which is monetary, and she'll explain that to you. Nancy, the mic is all yours. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another. great show here at Earl and Cars. Ladies, I have $50 for the first two new lady callers this morning, and we would love to hear from you and hear from you just to say hello or maybe share your experience about

buying, leasing, renting, anything at all that you may have been part of this past week or this past month. 877-960, 9960, and again, $50 for the first two new lady callers. And the Federal Trade Commission has certainly been in the news a lot, and I'm happy for that. But there are some that aren't, and they criticized the Federal Trade Commission this past week. That's the National Auto Dealers Association. And also, well, to shorten this, what do you think? Do you think the proposals to control these car dealers in taking advantage of us is valid?

What are your thoughts this morning? the National Auto Dealers Association, their criticism, they said that it was unwarranted. They said it's ineffectual, that they're going to make the car buying process more complicated. Give me your thoughts. 877-960-99-60. We're going to go right to the phones where Warren is waiting from New Jersey. good morning hi good morning how are you

hi good morning how are you great I like to talk to Rick okay right here great he's right here okay Rick I got a question of you

last Monday I have a 2010 for tourist and I was parked in a parking lot and we had a thunderstorm and water came up to about the door level but we've seen I have water on the passenger side and I thought I got rid of it.

I had bailed it out. I shampoo. I, you know, those vacuums and all that kind of stuff. All the sun, all week long, water keeps coming up from someplace. I hear it swishing, and it keeps coming up, and I probably had a hole underneath. There's any way I can get rid of it. As of last night, I still had water just on the passenger side. No place else, and I just can't seem to get rid of it.

The first thing I'd be checking, especially if you're getting water just on the passenger side, is the AC drain tube. the little tube for the air conditioner are you kind of handy yourself or do-it-yourself type stuff no no i'm not i'm the most unhandy person in the entire world sounds like a baby what you can try doing though reach up to the front of the carpet up where your feet would be pull that carpet back and you're going to look for a box basically which is where the air conditioner has a little drain weighed out the bottom and a rubber tube that comes off of that and you just want to check and make sure that that tube is letting the water drip out of it from the air conditioning.

It may be plugged up, especially if water or mud got up in it, and it plugged up that tube. The water from the air conditioning is actually filling up that box and then overflowing on the floor. So check that tube, make sure it's clear and draining properly. And the other thing that I'd highly recommend, get a couple buckets of damp rid. It's a product that's meant to absorb moisture. close the car up tight, leave that dampred sitting in the car, and it will help absorb that moisture right out of the air, but it will also suck up all that water.

If you can't get it with like a wet dry vac, try that, and it will help you out. Okay, okay, because it's been close to 100 degrees here every day. Right. So obviously the air conditioners and you're running that air conditioner all the time. Now I got one more now that you brought the air conditioner. You know, the car, you know, the car is, you know, 12 years old, has almost 200,000 miles on. I had the air conditioner replaced under a warranty job many years ago.

When I have it on high, just on ultimate high, sometimes when I'm driving, it goes off and comes back on. So I don't keep it on ultimate high. Keep it on the net, the level below that, and I have no problem. Is that like a shortage in it, or is that telling me the air conditioner might go? What might be the problem on that? I would be looking for what's called the blower resistor. Ask a mechanic to have that checked out for you. Usually what they have is there's the fan switch.

I'm assuming you're saying that the air stops blowing, which is the blower fan. It's like a second. Like two seconds, and I'll come back on again. Yeah, it's probably that either that blower motor or the resistor causing that to happen. I would have a mechanic check out that blower motor for you. and calls back we'd love to hear what they say if it's a high price remember

to shop it around but we'd like to hear from you next week when you find out what the mechanic found for you yeah okay I mean I'll do that I'll look at and Earl I just got one one statement if you know you talk about

this all the time and I know you don't have to politics or anything it's not a really political state but you know in a lot of states the big thing is anti-government So, you know, you've got these politicians, and again, I don't think it to politics, but when it comes from enforcing any laws, you know, they'll get on a whole rant about, oh, well, you know, the government shouldn't be involved in anything. The government shouldn't be involved in anything. So there's a sort of a tinge of politics in all of this when enforcement comes to do anything. Exactly, yeah. I, you know, government is great in making laws, but they're terrible about enforcing them. So every time you turn around, they've got a bunch of laws on the books. Most people don't know. what the laws are and even if you know what they are the regulators don't enforce them

either though maybe they don't know or more likely uh they've been lobbied so heavily by people that are depending on breaking those laws of yeah the government is they i started to say they mean well i don't even think they mean well uh politicians want to get elected they say what they have to say to get elected and uh they tell you what you want to hear and they make laws that you want to make as many laws as you want, they just won't enforce them. So it's frustrating. We have to take care of ourselves. Government isn't going to take care of us.

No, that's it because I hear these people on ranting. And I'll be a quick, I hear them ranting all the time. Well, government should enforce it. Government should do this. Well, sometimes you have to. And, you know, and politicians are just afraid to say, well, we don't want somebody coming out of us because we're pro-government or something. But, anyway, thanks a lot. Okay, thanks, but I enjoy your show, and thanks for Rick for helping me out.

Yeah, call next week after you get that car checked out. Yeah, thanks for tuning in, Warren, and that damp-rid product is definitely worth every cent that you're going to pay for it. I use it a lot. 877-960-960, and you can text us at 772-497-30. Don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Now Warren says something, and I was hoping we'd get some calls about that I have an attorney that's been talking to me,

and they've got a big case that they're thinking about bringing to court lawsuit. It'll be big. And it has to do with a car that was flooded, not from a flood, but from a leak in the car that was a manufacturer's fault and the car sat outside because the owner wasn't home and when she got home

there was like three feet of water in the car the problem is mold and we all know that mold is you know it's a plague I mean it's terrible sometimes it's practically impossible to get rid of so I'm just curious about anybody

out there that's had that experience we know that a flood car is the kiss of death you have a flood car it's got to be noted on the title the insurance companies total it if you have a car that's been under x amount of water from the outside from the flood then it's totaled uh the insurance companies will total it what if the same car is underwater from the inside is that total too i don't know the answer to that yes it is um now this this is kind of going to with the rule of thumb that the insurance companies were using from floods that came from the outside

but it would be the same result is if the water reaches the bottom of the dash you can pretty much assume that so many computers in that car and so much of the wiring has gotten wet that

now that's understandable what about mold if water sits in a car for you know a X number of weeks or months, isn't mold, particularly in a high humidity area, pretty much going to happen? Absolutely, but there is actually a way around that. Basically, the interior of the car would have to be removed.

The carpet shampooed, any padding would have to be replaced or make sure it's completely dried out. So you have to remove the entire interior. Exactly. Oh, I see. And then we would call a company, like for a local company here, is serve pro. and they come out and do what's called a mold remediation where basically they scrub and sanitize inside of the car.

Is it guaranteed? We've had excellent work from them, and I believe they do have a guarantee on it. Well, let's find out, because I think that's a good question. If they guarantee it, it's one thing. But I know there are a lot of mold-removing companies and the good ones and bad ones, but I'm wondering about the guarantee.

The reason I say that is that how many times you were read about houses that have been torn down because of mold. There have been houses in flood areas. And once the mold gets into a house, I guess you just can't gut the interior of a house the way you can gut the interior of a car. Right. That might be the problem.

Well, and one thing we have had, Tacoma pickups, the past couple of years of them, had a problem with the center brake light up on the top of the cab, leaking water inside. And in a case like that where we find any sort of water down inside, if there's any signs of mold, even the slightest little bit, this is our procedure. We strip the interior. We call serve pro.

And so, I mean, if Toyota authorizes it, then, yeah, I'd say that's guaranteed enough for me. Thank you, Rick. Did you make the offer to the ladies about calling in the first-time lady-cullers? I did, but I'll remind them again in case they just tuned in. Ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers. $50 this morning for the first two lady callers. Give us a call at 877-960-960. We are going to go back to the phones.

We have Doug. Good morning, Doug. Hey, good morning. How are you? We're great. How are you doing? Good. Hey, Earl, I'd like to ask him a question about the Tesla.

Yeah. I was thinking about purchasing one. Is there a long waiting list? Do you know? I thought you was going to get nasty one. Well, I tell you a lot, a very long waiting list. And this whole pandemic and the economic situation and the shutdown in China is shut down manufacturing plans for Tesla.

Some of their, they call them their gigafactories shutdown. So they're falling behind. I think we do want to buy. I won for Nancy, but they're talking like eight months, and it's crazy. I waited months for mine. So all cars are this way, Doug, and Tesla is no different than the rest of them. Also, by the way, Tesla's raising their prices like crazy. They're, you know, everybody thinks I'm in love with Elon Musk.

I think he's a very smart guy, but he's a businessman. He is truly a businessman, and he's got a higher margin when he sells you a car. I say he, Tesla sells cars directly. They don't go through dealers. So you think going by directly, you get it for less. Their margin of Tesla is almost 25%. That's more than dealers make. So 25% every time Tesla sells a car directly to me or Nancy or you, it's a huge markup.

The fact the matter is, apparently people think it's worth the money and they're paying it. At least they are so far. but you're going to wait if you want to buy a Tesla, Doug. Yeah, and now also, I know, I heard you say you have different models. Like, what's the fastest one? I mean, I like, I'm old school, so I would like something with speed. But I know you have a fast one, don't you? Yeah, the S model, and the fastest is the plaid.

The S model, that's the S model, is the fastest. And all the Teslas are fast, whether you're talking, I think there's five different models. the way it's set up with the electric motor, they're all fast. As a matter of fact, hybrids are fast. I mean, Tesla happens to be the fastest, but all electric cars are real fast. Okay. Now, do you have to, now, if you went online, say I had a year to wait for it,

can I go through my local dealership to order, or you go, like you said, right through Tesla Direct? You have to go, Tesla, you can't buy a car through a dealer. Now, Tesla has dealers, but they're factory-owned. In other words, the dealer is Tesla. So there's one on Okotoba Boulevard. There's a Tesla dealership, and that's part of Tesla. So you go over there, and then you order online, or you can go home and order online.

Occasionally, you buy cars because they'll have demonstrators and things like that, but if you want to buy a new Tesla, you're going to buy it online directly from Tesla. Okay, and now, and I've mentioned to you, I heard you before talking about leasing. Now, if you lease to Tesla or any other electric car, are the batteries covered under the lease, the whole amount of leased the whole time? The lease is up until a lease is up? Sure, yeah. The batteries, everything's covered.

I mean, I have very little problems, and there are very little maintenance. You practically never go into the service department with an electric car, and it's, we'll cover the. Your concern is well-founded, though, because the battery technology is changing, improving. Every year the batteries get the last longer, more powerful, smaller, everything. They're just improving at warp speed. So if you, at least a Tesla for three years or buy a Tesla and keep it for three years, you've got a battery that's obsolete.

It's not going to die on you. Those batteries will last a long, long time today. They didn't used to, but they do today. So the battery is not a big concern anymore. It's just getting better and better. And that's a concern. I would recommend you lease the car instead of buy it. Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too.

That way there, at the end of the three years. Now, say when your increase is up and you get ready to turn it in, and there's no model available. Do you have to wait a year after you turned it in for the next one if you wanted to lease another one? Well, you could buy it. You could excise your purchase option and buy the car. drive it until the new models come out or you can show it to you know there you go yeah yeah I got you listen and how what's the battery life on them uh two you know what 10 years or what's the battery

life on a on a on a electric I don't know I mean I'm sorry the my least oh the range it varies from the two like two in the mid two's on the you get extended range into the mid threes Yeah, my Alexa will get 350 on a full charge, 350 miles. Now, can you charge it just off the 110 at your house? Yeah, I plug it in. I don't have the supercharger, so if I plug it in, it takes overnight. I'll plug it in typically at night and in the morning it's fully charged, and I got 350 miles if I want to fully charge it.

They recommend you don't fully charge it to maximize battery life, so I've got it on 90% charge, so I'll have like 300 miles. instead of 350. Right. So I work like at the post office, which is like 60 miles away. So I have to just get together with the supervisor. Tell I'm, hey, I need to put with my car in. Anywhere down here, in fact, it's pretty much anywhere.

You have superchargers within 15 or 20 minutes. A supercharger will charge that Tesla to 80% charge in 20 minutes. So it's not much worse than going into a gas station. You have a doughnut and a Coke and use the rest of it. and use the restroom and your car is charged. Yeah, I see them all the time that Wawa has them. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah.

Do they charge you to charge your car? It goes right on your card. You're a Tesla owner. The cool thing about Tesla, when I took mine in for service the other day, everything was on my car. I mean, on my app, everything on my account. So everything you do with Tesla goes on your account. The charging, if you have to buy a tire, anything you do, everything.

It goes right on your account. It goes right on your account, yeah. Good for them, good for you. Okay, Earl. Okay, Earl, Nancy. Thank you. Thanks, I listen to you guys every Saturday. Thank you.

Thank you very much, though. Thanks for tuning in. I did the supercharger at Wawa in Orlando, and it was a good experience. Were they right? 20 minutes? There's 20 minutes. I filled up almost, filled up. I filled up with electrons, almost completely, and I sat there,

Wawa with my daughter, and we ate snacks in the car, and it was nice, and we drove home. So when the future looks like, that when it's that convenient, I don't think there's going to be a problem. And you're talking about waiting, you know, with a Tesla, at least with my plan, I think the S models, you have, you have Wi-Fi, you have internet, and you have a big screen, like a big TV screen. You can play games, watch movies. You can play games. You can watch stream movies. I mean, sometimes I go out and sit my Tesla in the garage and dancey wonders where I am. I'm out playing. You're making fart noises in your in your car.

Yeah, I mean, you can entertain yourself for hours in a Tesla. You need to do that more often. Let's get back to... I'd have a comment here for us, too. You know what's so nice about that story you just shared with our audience about going to charge... Yeah, Wawa. When you were sitting at Wawa, what was so nice about that is something that doesn't go on today very often. And that's that one-on-one with another human being.

that's in your vehicle that you wouldn't normally be able to... Eat potato chips and... Welcome to Rural on psychology. Excuse me? I'm only kidding. I said, welcome to Earl on psychology. But at any rate, about another question that I have is the, if you can answer this to, a warranty on a battery for a Prius, is that seven, eight years?

Is it, or has it changed? It's 10 years. 10 years, how much? 10 years, 100,000 miles on the high. hybrid system. Okay. Was that? Start off as eight.

Did they change that from eight years? Eight years, 100,000. Okay, very good. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, as you can see, we're covering a lot of different topics here, and we would enjoy your feedback. We love hearing from you because you make the show. Give us a call toll free at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5. would love to hear from you about the Federal Trade Commission and how you feel about it.

You're going to take a look hopefully at Earl on Cars and take a look at Earl's last column. That's the warranty on your new car. A lot of interesting information here. And as I said, you can go to Earl on Cars and read about everything that he covered in the column. 877-960-99-60 or Texas at 772-497-6-5-3-0. We're going to go to our favorite caller, and that's John from Palm City. Good morning, John. Good morning to everyone.

Have a question for Rick. Let me just turn my radio down. If you don't have any statement in the owner's manual about antifreeze, is there any recommendation, a house, often that you should change the antifreeze in your automobile? Toyota right now recommends it at 150,000 miles and every 50,000 after that. And I would say just about everybody, every manufacturer is going to have some maintenance interval for antifreeze.

Except for electric vehicles. Yeah. Well, the reason I say that is my friends recommend a brand call Peak. This is for the older cars. They're collectors. And on the label, I was very impressed. It says over 300,000 miles, and it says ingredients for anti-corrosion, et cetera, et cetera. But it seems to me like a recommended brand, but Rick would probably know more if you recommend using it for replacement of uranium freeze that's in there now.

It's called Peake, P-E-A-K. Yeah, Peak has been around for many years. they're a very high quality product but on those old classic custom cars you're talking cars that are 40, 50 years old I would be changing that fluid about every 30,000 miles and for a car like that

I'd step up and make sure I had a good quality product like Pek and of course also make sure that the especially in the older cars Earl and I are from the era especially when I lived up north there were two antifreezes it was X-Rex and zero. It was a DuPont product. One was for the winter. One was for the summer. Big headache using it for one reason. You had to put a sealer in besides that and a water pump lubricant.

We are fortunate today, all the antifreeze that you put in every one of those ingredients in the antifreeze. So that's a big step ahead. But what I want to warn people, if you should flush your radiator yourself, you shouldn't. Because I'll tell you why, especially the top of Antifreeze is toxic, and if it goes on the ground and an animal like a dog or something, it's sweet, and they lick it, it's almost an instant death. People don't realize it that don't know that. When you go to your dealer, he has to recycle that. He's not allowed to dump that into the city's sewer system, and you also, as an individual owner, should be aware, never to attempt that because it's such a problem when you drain it, either in a train. sewerage or a driveway, and it could be very, very dangerous and toxic to any animal or

anybody that's around it. That's the ethylene glycol in the antifreeze that is that poison, and all fluids from your car, if you're doing your own maintenance, should be taken back to a parts store or to an appropriate site for recycling or disposal. Very good tip. Excellent. Yeah, that was a good point, John. Very good point. I learned that when I lived in Pittsburgh and I was maintaining my own vehicle and you think you're doing something, you know, easy, but there's, you know, a lot of thought that should be put into that and the reason you just pointed out, it can be very deadly and you must dispose of it properly.

The same goes for storage. If you have it in your garage, put it on a high shelf or something because, God forbid, a young child or anything should get into that and open it up and consume it. And like I say, it's actually instant death. Yeah, aesthetically, it's very misleading. Thank you so much, John. We love hearing from you. My pleasure. I look forward to listening to the jumping report.

You got it. Very good. That's a good one. Thank you. Yes. You know, ethylene glycol, not to be confused with propylene glycol, which is actually used in food and cosmetics. We're going to go back to the phones.

We're going to talk to Sarah. and Sarah is a first-time caller. Good morning. Hello, Sarah. You there? Hi, can you hear me? Good morning, Sarah. Welcome.

Welcome from Pittsburgh. Thank you so much. I have a 2009-based Toyota Rafflor that I love, and I have been having some trouble with it over the last couple of years, and I'm trying to decide whether or not to keep maintaining it or to part with it. There are two things that have been noticing pretty frequently, and the one is on a cold start, it makes a very loud noise at startup, almost like there's something in the engine that's stuck,

and then a couple seconds later it quieted down. That's the first thing. And that's been relatively new over the past year or two. I have 140,000 miles on it. And it was purchased new. Is that sound kind of like a rattling sound just when it first starts up? It's not really a rattling. It's almost like a grinding and a like a roar almost like.

It's almost like roaring. That's one I would have to actually hear in order to get a better idea of what's going on. It could be just about anything really. One of the accessories, not spinning up to speed properly, something internal in the engine. Kind of hard to say without actually getting my ears on it. Okay. Can you imitate it? I could probably be for you.

It's like very loud. Excuse me. Yeah. I would actually see if you could have it, get, you know, just stop by a shop and ask a mechanic, take a quick listen to it. Just to kind of give you a basic idea what that may be. Because, yeah, if it's something serious in the engine, it may not be worth repairing. But right now, the way used car prices are, it might almost be better to look at repairing a car versus trying to. to find something else to drive because I wanted to jump in and say if you're considering

getting a new one just factor in that it's a long wait right now probably for a quarrel or probably four to six months so if you do think go that route just plan ahead and Sarah this is Nancy I have to tell you my thoughts on your vehicle right now as everyone would agree with me here right now is a great time to hang on to your vehicle and Earl wrote a call column on that very topic, so you can go to Earl on cars and read that. Number two, I'm not sure, did you say that your RAV-4 was making that noise all the time? Cold starts. Pretty much on any cold start, yeah.

Okay, what's a good idea would be for you to take your phone if you're able to and record that sound whenever you take it in for inspection to take a look to see what's wrong with it? because that's worth an awful lot. The mechanic is not a mind reader, and with you recording that noise, it could be very beneficial to you and to the mechanic. Absolutely. And also, Sarah, I want to remind you

that you won $50 by calling in this morning, being a first-time female caller. Thank you so much. You're welcome. I have a second question, and then I also, you can have a time, if you guys have the time. Pardon me?

Sure. I have another question about the RAV. Certainly. So the other thing that I noticed, too, and I had taken it in probably five years ago, is when I'm hitting about 35 to 40 miles, there is a sound that comes from the undercarriage of the car as well. And I did take it into a couple places, and they couldn't ever hear it. But it almost sounded, I don't want to say like the transmission,

but it was sort of making a, like almost like a grinding noise. Like it was almost struggling once it's at 35 to like 50 miles an hour. So I just didn't know if that was anything you guys heard of. That could possibly be an axle or a wheel bearing. Wheel bearings usually start making noise once they get a little higher speed. if they're starting to get corroded inside, losing some of that lubrication, that's when they'll start showing up at around 25 to 30 miles an hour, and it'll start getting louder. If you're hearing it all the time and you really can hear it inside, I would definitely get that

rechecked out because a wheelbaring can turn into a big problem very quickly, because once it starts getting really torn up inside, it could actually cause a breakdown issue. You could get stuck alongside the road from that. Okay, great. Thank you. That's really helpful. Sarah, can you tell me something before you go? How did you hear about us?

How did you hear about the show? Well, my dad, my dad loved listening to you guys, and he was just up here visiting, and I was telling him about the car because I had just gotten a new oil pan put into it. And I'm actually, actually are about to get a new car. we're getting a 2022 Highlander hybrid. We've been on a wait list for about three months, and we have a VIN number finally. So I was talking to my dad about whether or not keeps the job is young, maintaining, or to try to get some money for it at this point.

And so you said maybe you could call, you could call, you know, Earl and Parsons talks about it. So my dad is what you told me about you guys. Interesting. A word to the why. as far as the hybrid highlander there is in some cases a halt because of the lack of components and the availability of them and again I have to go back to Earl's column on how to keep your old vehicle so I would factor that in because

right now right now if you're interested in a used vehicle a use vehicle a use vehicle is going to cost you more than a new vehicle. And it's all because of the shortages. It's because of the components that are unavailable, the microchips. Right now, it is a tough time for the consumer. But there is light at the end of the tunnel, so I wish you good luck. And please stay in touch with us. Thank you.

You're welcome. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. We have no more phone calls, so Stu or Rick. Let's jump over and hear what Amory had to say about the FTC. Mary said, good morning. The FTC is proposing new rules concerning car dealer steady tactics. The rules cover everything from financing to advertising. There is a 60-day window for public comments starting July 13th.

So it started 10 days ago. I'm scheduled to end on September 12th. Popular opinion is reportedly running strongly in favor of these new proposed rules. I couldn't imagine how they couldn't. Just real quick, I don't think she has it. And if you go to FTC.gov, and you should be able to find the section for public comments. Amory continues. The National Automotive Dealers Association, NADA,

and the American Financial Services Association are apparently not, enamored of these proposed rules. No kidding. The rules include banning junk fees. Ouch. Bait and switch advertising requiring full disclosure of costs and conditions.

If you are interested in these rules, go to, I'm sorry, go to regulations.gov, and then click on the box in the lower right. In the lower right hand corner, mark Federal Trade Commission, Motor Vehicle Dealers, trade regulation rule. Federal Trade Commission, motor vehicle dealers, trade regulation rule.

Then you can read all the proposed rules and send your comments for or against to the Federal Trade Commission. Amory has some questions. One, she says, I was wondering, have you had a chance to look into these proposed rules? They sound a lot like consumer protection you've been advocating. Thank you. And P.S. Here's another bit of good news for consumers.

The FTC is also looking into the car and car warranty robocalls and asking food companies to block these robocalls. Thank God. Yes. Honestly. We don't have enough time to cover that. Thank you, Amory. We kind of, I mean, you might have looked into a more last week when we were talking about, well, it started with the Napleton, and we started looking to the proposed rules.

And I'll turn over to Earl, but they are, they sound better than what has already been in place, but I think it's going to be enforcement, ability to enforcement, and will to enforce. Yeah, the problem is the Federal Trade Commission, they have a lot of rules, as Stu said, they're ignored and they're not enforced. So we had a caller earlier in the show. The government is great about making rules and making laws, but they're terrible about enforcing people and informing the people about them.

I mean, the Federal Trade Commission for years and years and years has had, to me, one of the best, most comprehensive rules you could have for any company, including auto manufacturers, car dealers, and whether you're selling toothbrushes or refrigerators, It says, the price that you advertise must be the prominently displayed, and anything that modifies the price that is advertised must be just as prominently displayed alongside of the price. That is so totally ignored by everybody.

You can see a General Motors ad, you can see an Apple ad, you can see a Target ad, you can see any advertisement that you see, the advertised price does not have all the information you need to see what is going to cost you when you take it out the door. And so these other Federal Trade Commission rules are excellent. And they obviously, Anne-Marie said very flatteringly to us on the show, sounds like they've been listening to our show. Well, we've been talking about the things that they put in this for 20 years. I'd like to think they were listening to us.

I think hopefully they're listening to the public. They talk about 100,000 complaints over the past three years, Federal Trade Commission, and they're waving that flag like that's a lot. The fact of the matter is, that's not really a lot of complaints. I'll switch gears now I'm jumping on the Federal Trade Commission and the government now I'll jump on the public

this show is here to stir you up too many people get screwed get taken advantage of get lied to get deceived when they purchase a car and they just complain about it

they talk to their mother about it they talk to their friends about it they talk on Facebook about it they don't talk to a lawyer they don't talk to the Federal Trade Commission They don't talk to the Attorney General. They don't talk to the county office consumer affairs. They don't take the action that you have to take to get laws enforced.

And so complaining isn't going to help anything. You complain to your friends. You have to complain. The government has to feel that the public is so fed up with what they're doing with what the car dealers are doing to them in any other business that if they don't do something about it they're going to lose votes

that's right politicians only take action to gain votes or to not to lose votes and we're going through a primary election now I mean everything that you see of the political advertisements it's all a bunch of crap

you can hear them talking to their base and trying to to gain votes. And what they say, they don't believe necessarily. Maybe they do. But a politician's got to get elected. Once he gets elected, they don't follow through with what they said. I mean, I know you know all that, and I'm being repetitive. But with all that said, go back to Adamarie's point. The Federal Trade Commission, I law them for their new rules and regulations. They're excellent. I mean, Nancy was laughing in the car. She says, oh, listen, that says that says that

that the car dealer must sell you the car for the price that they advertise it for. That's a new Federal Trade Commission law. What are we talking about? Oh, you mean, up until that law came about, they could advertise any price they want? Well, you had laws that said you couldn't do that already. You had another law that says they can't do the same thing

you told them they couldn't do before. Get on the Attorney Generals in all 50 states and say, listen, enforce the rules of the Federal Trade Commission. And they'll say, well, you know, the state's rights, the state could do what it's want. Federal government can't tell me what to do. I mean, how many times have you heard the argument between what the federal government says and what the state government says?

Politics is politics. You have to stand up as a consumer and take action. I hate to say lawsuits because then the lawyer has been a vet, but listen to the show, spread the word. and it's very important that you're excuse me that your voice is heard the federal trade commission and the proposal is completely valid and they need to hear from you they need to hear your complaints so be part of the 100,000 complaints that they read and that they listen to the more complaints the more these rules will be put into place and they should have been

There should be 100 million complaints. Instead of 100,000. 100,000 complaints. First of all, those complaints were not just on car dealers. Those complaints were on manufacturing items, like parts and things like that. And also, when you consider the number of car dealers, that was only three complaints per car dealer per year. Do you really think that car dealers, you're listening to the show now, you know what happens when we do mystery shop? do you really believe that each car dealer only has three complaints that's apathy on the part of the consumer

each car dealer should have 3,000 complaints 30,000 complaints how many cars do they sell so yeah 100,000 complaints three per car dealer and a lot of complaints came from national independent automobile dealers association why wouldn't they complain they're going to lose control They will lose control if this proposal goes through. Ladies and gentlemen, our phone number is 877-960-90-60, and you can text us at 772-497-6-530. We're going to go to Danny in West Palm Beach, and Nick, please hang on. Nick's calling us from Boston. Back to Danny.

Welcome. Good morning, y'all. How are you today? Great. Awesome. I wanted to go back to what John was saying about the coolantani freeze, and obviously not dump it on the ground but I've been a heavy

diesel technician for about 25 years now and I'm sure Stu can attest to this as well they have actually changed the way that the antifree taste and smells on a vehicle overheat. They used to have a really sweet smell and sweet

taste and now it's extremely bitter and the reason they did that was to keep the animals away from licking it and that's good enough. Yep that's very true because a lot of cars used to have the older cars where when the pressure built up too much the radiator cap would simply let the extra antifreeze flow onto the ground and of course then they changed them over to a yeah and they

changed over to a reservoir system now so that the antifreece simply goes into a jar and is then drawn back into the radiator once it cools back down and the pressures go down well that's all I really had so I just wanted to throw my two cents and that's a very good point I'm glad you call Danny that's very interesting thank you

it's kind of neat how they do that with various products like propane liquid propane they put smell in it because you can't smell it so they put something stinky so you can smell it coming and yeah exactly well you know if you've got a leak is exactly you've got a propane leak at your house when you're using natural gas please call again Danny we really appreciate it

yeah we're going to go to Nick who is holding from Boston good morning Nick. Good morning, Nancy and crew. How is everybody doing? It's been a while. It's great to hear from you, Nick. Thank you.

Yeah, it's really hot up here, even in New England, but there's the Revere Beach Sandcastle exhibit this weekend, which is fun to know about that. It draws people from all over the world, and there's some really, really unique sandcastle creation. So, listen, I wanted to share, I listened over the podcast. I've been really busy, but it was either last. Last week or the week before last, we're talking about people that are, let's say, less than forthcoming to be diplomatic about the state of their trade, accident history, things, that sort. So I had seen in one of the electric vehicle groups that there was somebody somewhere that traded in a circa 2015 BMW I-3, you know, the little mini, like, egg kind of urban car.

and they went as far as drilling two holes in the charge port, which is probably really dangerous, and certainly nobody should attempt, but they did that to, I guess, trick the appraiser to think that it had the at-the-time optional equipment of the CCS combo, you know, DC fast charge, you know, the additional two-kins. And I had just seen that after you shared that, and I just thought, I don't know, I just thought I would call, and I mean, I would think any astute appraiser would know when they have a bevy of tools to check by the VIN, the equipment, but I guess if it's a niche vehicle and they don't know about electric. Yeah, and charging. Oftentimes, those booking out programs miss options and equipment all the time. You can't tell, as a matter of fact, if you run a VIN number of like a Camry, I don't know if this is the case right now, because it's been a well since I was the used car.

our manager doing repraisals, but the VIN number was indistinct, you can tell the difference between trim levels, an XLE, an L.E, and it was all, you know, the same VIN. So an appraiser, unless they really know the vehicle can get fooled. Yeah, Nick, the point of how upfront you're supposed to be with a car dealer when you're trading your car in, you know, we could talk a long time about that. It depends on the individual, it depends on your old moral ethic standards, and I kind of fall in the middle on that. I think that it should be, basically the car dealer's buying your car. There's a standard of law called caveat emptor, buyer beware.

And that's a generally accepted principle of law. When you cross that line is when you misrepresent, proactively misrepresent, then that is going beyond buyer beware. I think we are under no obligation as consumers when we trade a car in to say, oh, by the way, I have this problem, I have that problem, the air conditioning is not quite as cool as I think it should be. You don't have to be proactive.

But I don't think when you go, as you describe here, you're actually modifying the car to trick the dealer. That would go beyond my morals. But, hey, dealers do it to, and some people would say, well, the dealers do it to their customers. Why should the customers do it to the dealers? I'm not going to spend a lot of time arguing about that, but that's just not me. And so, but it's an interesting question. I would not go overboard in disclosing everything I suspected was wrong with my trade in.

I'd say, listen, here's my car, appraise it carefully, please. Tell me what you think it's worth. I'm going to take it to several other places and get their appraisals. and see what they think is worth, and I'm going to sell my car to the highest bidder. That would motivate them to give you the best price. Describing your car, I think, is futile. I think, no, I, for the most part, agree. You know, I think I would also say that, you know, especially,

and I've seen this in, like, video trainings of Steve Richards that are on YouTube, that, you know, appraisers love it when they get people that hate their trade, that they come and they say, you know, how much they don't like it, because, you know, they absolutely then probably feel that they can get away with giving them less than wholesale or a less aggressive bid, you know, offer, you know, however you were to say. Nick, also, you're speaking, I'm also a car dealer, as you know, and one of my concerns as a car dealer for years and years are lazy used car managers, lazy appraisers. It's pretty hot here, just like it is in Boston, and 100 degrees in the middle of the afternoon here the past couple of days. days. And who wants to get out of their nice cool air conditioning used car office and walk out and get into a car? If it's 100 degrees in the air, inside of a lot car, it's probably

120. You don't want to get in there and figure out this, that, and the other drive the car around. So a lot of dealers sit on their fanny in the air conditioning. They look out at the car in a lot, and they put an appraisal on it. Now, there's a tremendous opportunity for you if you've got a piece of junk that you want to get a high price on because believe it or not I'm just telling you the facts I've seen it many times biggest mistake I ever made was I I missed a Hyundai sonata about 20 years ago because it was pouring down rain I looked out the window I said I've seen a thousand of these things and so I just put the number on it and missed it by 2000 and people you know use car managers and when business is good they're praising a lot of cars

every day. And they're pretty accurate. They have a book. They have an online source. There's a lot of ways today we can appraise cars. But there's one drive and accepted thing you cannot not do. You must get in the car. You must smell it, taste it, feel it, drive it, listen to it, and check it out carefully. If you don't actually drive that car, you're shooting in the dark and you're going to occasionally, you're going to pick up. In my early career, my biggest mistake was was missing the fact that a trade-in was an ex-police car. And I was 50% too high on my appraisal because I didn't see through the white paint

that there was a shield in there that you could have seen. It was nighttime, and I didn't look at the car closely. So anyway, this is good news to you consumers out there that if you shop enough car dealers, you're going to find someone that will make a positive mistake for your trade-in because they don't look at the cars. carefully as they should. Bring in your car for appraisals in the pouring rain and

in the pouring rain and dark. Super hot days. Yeah. Or the snow up here. Maybe not in Florida. Not yet. That was a great call. We appreciate it. Very interesting. One other thing, though, if I could, though, I mean, I guess all I would say for me is you know, I just, whenever I'm in situations

like this, I always think how would I feel if the tables were turned and, you know, just speaking for myself not to get too philosophical, that usually if you do that test, you usually, I think, arrive at the right point. I'm with you a thousand percent. That's where I stand. Well, I'm with you too, but somehow I can't feel sorry for these car dealers, but I

feel sorry for the use car manager, the salesperson, get screwed. I waver between the New Testament, the Old Testament, eye for an eye and do one to others. Sometimes I'm in the middle. The dealer needs the shop, but not the poor salesman or the used car manager. They're just working hard. Nick, it was great hearing from you. We love Boston.

Thank you. I'd like to get back up that way. Give us a call again. I love Boston beans. The candy or the real beans? We're going to go to Julie, who's calling us from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Julie. Good morning.

I had a little story about selling a car. Years ago, I had sold a car to a friend of mine in a private sale. We went to the DMV, we fell out the necessary paperwork and legally transferred my car to him. A friend of mine told the story about how he had pulled a car to his friend, and for whatever reason, it wasn't transferred immediately, and unfortunately it was involved in a car accident, and they traced the car back to my friend,

and he ended up having to pay thousands out of pocket because he no longer had insurance on the car. So if you sell a car, make sure it's really sold, because it could be a very expensive mistake. Julie, that's a great, great advice, and I can tell you right, now, it's a combination. It's a comedy of errors. Car dealers are sloppy about it. Things get stuck paperwork-wise. They get stuck to the finance department, the accounting department, or the

sales department, and the paperwork doesn't go through and the title doesn't get transferred. Or the title department, the department motor vehicles can drop the ball too. One of my most common complaints is a real live car dealer is I bought the car from you two months ago and I still haven't gotten my title. I mean, there's a law in Florida. Of course, the laws are laughable because nobody cares about them or enforces them, but in

Florida, 30 days, you must have the, you have 30 days to get the title to the car, otherwise you're in violation, but nobody enforces that, but you're always check, Julie, very good advice. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Julie. Give us a call again.

877-960-99-60. again, you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30 Your Anonymous Feedback. Take advantage of that. www. www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Rick, do you have anything for us down there? Not right at the moment. Okay. It's been a little active with discussions from Donovan about the cost of the kilowatt charging on his test.

Stern's probably got some stuff, though, right? I sure do. This is a text. I don't think of a name on it. It says, hear you talking about CarMax. What are your comments and thoughts about Offleas Only? Who, who are you in store?

We have something in store for you. That's our mystery shopping report today. So we're going to hear all about Offlease Only. Well, that prompts me. I didn't even mention this, too. I texted Mark Fisher. Oh, you texted me. Yeah, I forgot.

And I text Mark Fisher. He's a part owner, original founder of Offlease Only. Offlease only is a very large used car operation in this area. And I think they spread out of state. Two, they were acquired from Mark and his wife a few years ago. As I say, Mark is still a stockholder, and I believe he's on the board of directors. But they're one of the good guys. They're on our recommended list.

And Mark Fisher and I have talked to the past. So we haven't shopped them in a long while, so we shopped off lease only. Where are they at Royal Palm Beach? The one we shopped is in West Palm Beach. West Palm. But they have a new location. Braden in Florida, which is on the West Coast near Clearwater, Tampa. Yeah.

And I'm not sure if they are at the state. I heard the same thing, too. So, Mark, you'll be interested in. We can talk after the show at what happened. I know you're following it. You got your stock, and you're doing very well, and you found out of it a great outfit. I mean, you're really up there competing, and you're on a recommended list. So we had to come back at Choppy again.

You'll hear the results between 930 and 10. That's right. Let's jump over to anonymous feedback. I have one here that says, I read that four new tires for an electric vehicle is $1,000. That's like for any vehicle. And if one tire is bad on the vehicle, all four tires need to be replaced. Also, tires and electric cars, due to the increased weight of the vehicle,

are needed to be replaced in as few as 20,000 miles. Let me refer it to our tire expert, Rick Kearney. Well, I do know that Earl had a flat, tire. They had to be replaced on his Tesla. And I do believe they replaced just one tire. There was a nail on the tire, yeah. And how many miles have you got on your car now? Under five. I think I just went over $6,000. Okay. So I'm still waiting to see on that. For the increased weight wearing on the tires, that could possibly be a factor. But bear in mind that pretty much all new cars, the first set of

tires that they put on the car are usually a softer compound tires straight from the factory. They're designed to ride nice and smooth because they, you know, you're, they want you to be in love with that brand new car. Then when you replace that first set, the next set of tires are usually a harder compound that will last a lot longer because you just paid for them and you want those tires to last a whole lot longer. So, yeah, that's a treadware index and you can read it right off the side of the tire. Does TWI do they use that in a TWA Treadware index?

Usually you'll just see the number. It'll just say treadware. And it'll give a number. So the higher the number, the hard of the rubber, and the lower the number the softer, the lower the number, the quicker it wears, and the higher number, the slower it wears. It gets bumpier.

So if you get something like a four or five hundred, you're in the middle, you get up to around seven or eight hundred, you're going to have a bumpy ride, but the tires will last forever. So you have to choose long wear or soft ride. I usually split the difference somewhere in the middle. Okay.

Another anonymous feedback, it's really long, so I'm going to summarize it, but this is someone who wants to help somebody out. Basically, they're in Brevard County, and they're looking for her new Corolla. And her friend, and she made up a name for her, is buying a car through an advisor, which it's a broker. and so she showed her friend that and it turns out we're the selling dealer through the broker and she has a question and this breeds a very important thing for anybody who is ordering a new car

so just she's been waiting a few months and she just got a it's called a build sheet it's called a consumer sheet and just shows the car and has an interim VIN because it was just allocated the car hasn't even been built yet and Ana elicited a whole lot of accessories and she was concerned and she asked, well, the Earl Stewart, including Toya Guard. She says, well, Earl Stewart doesn't do that, and she told her friend that. Anyway, so I checked it out for her. So when the vehicle is first allocated, it comes in loaded up with accessories, and that will be on that sheet. Before the car is actually work ordered, we stripped those off.

And I just checked the VIN that you sent me, and it is all stripped off. So there's nothing on the car right now. But if you want to add anything, please make sure that she speaks to, I'm assuming her, the it's paul is the guy that deals with the brokers so i just make sure if there's anything she wants to add because there's there's nothing extra on the car right now and the msrp is lower than the one that you mentioned here it's which i think it's about 22 so sorry that was a very personalized answer but but it raises a point if you're ordering a car um the manufacturer lease in toyda they will load up the cars in the beginning maybe the dealer will not pay attention

and leave it on and it'll wind up at the lot um but especially now when dealers are selling cars for thousands over MSRP, one way to jack up the price and make more profit is to load on those accessories. So be very specific with your salesperson and the dealership and say, I don't want that. You might want some things, but make sure you choose them and not the dealer. Well, here's an important point, too. This is a very interesting question. We charged the broker MSRP. Because that what we sell a lot of cars for was MSRP. Right. So we take a lower profit because we have to pay a fee. to sell cars out of the area.

So he gets a referral broker fee on that. It comes out of our profit, though, but the customer doesn't pay more. Yeah, but the MSRP was the price. MSRP is the price. So basically what the question is, what did the dealer, what did the broker sell the car to the buyer for? Oh, MSRP.

I just found the whole deal there. It's through Paul. Oh, okay. So Paul Gera is the guy at our dealership that works with brokers and he sells out of the area down in Miami and North Florida. Do we know what the fee was? It depends by broker. They run anywhere from 300 to 800,000, some cases.

But probably for a car like this, probably $3 to $500. I don't want to get commercial. I'm the one that slaps everybody down when we get commercial. But I think there's a huge opportunity for us finding brokers because they understand the business. Yeah. And because we're the only ones. We're getting a lot of that. I mean, Paul's having great business now.

So everything's increased. and what's really neat though is we've seen at our dealership and we'll stop talking about it is the spread of customers we've never had a larger range like from distance just coming in just to

you know they're willing to wait but they don't want to pay over MSRP okay all right I have another one here okay 20 21 Corolla Toyota Crolla purchased new for 21,000 which included taxes and fees so that's out the door.

Carfax sent an email today said the trading volume is $24,060. It doesn't seem logical to me. It may be an example of new math. That was a popular term many years ago. No, it's not new math. That sounds about right, and we're going to be talking about that

in the mystery shop today. Last week, we mystery shop CarMax, and they had a grab four on the lot. That was about, what was it, 4,000 over... 3,000 over the MSRP of a new one. So that's what's just going on right now. So stick around, listen to the mystery shop report in about 20 minutes. Hi, Earl and everyone, this is still anonymous feedback.

I have a question about oil changes. Do you go by miles or time, 5,000 miles or six months? Or is it more like it depends on the usage and you adjust the timing based on that? Also, I've heard from some people that it's recommended to change the oil on a new car in its first 1,000 miles just to flesh out the impurity. is from the manufacturing process. Do you do the same on your own car? Thank you for your time and help on your channel.

The answer is strictly go by the owner's manual recommendation, which is six months, or depending, six months or 10,000 miles. And that actually changes by various manufacturers. However, the old thing of change the oil after the first thousand miles, not needed anymore because modern engines now are built to such tight tolerance. and their dynamometer tested well before they ever get to the car builders. So, nope, you don't need to do that anymore. All right, that's great.

Here's for Rick. Rick, correction. The improved Toyota hybrid battery warranty is 10 years 150,000 miles rather than the 10 years 100,000. That's right. That's why they increase from 8100 to 10150. See? Thank you very much, Jim. They went to the California standard with that.

Thanks, Jim. I listen to Rick all the time and I'm walking around that information. It's so cool when people correct us. I mean, most people get embarrassed. I've been corrected many times. Rick is credited. You know, we say things. We're yacking a lot, and sometimes we misspeak.

So please keep us honest and keep us accurate. We love it when you call in with corrections. Absolutely. Speaking of calling in, ladies, I have $50 here for the next new caller. Every Saturday morning, we offer two new female. callers, $50. So we still have time to take your call, and you can win yourself $50 at $877-960. Now back to Stu.

We're all caught up with anonymous feedback and text. I got a couple quick ones here. Stu, Casey's asking, do we have a waiting list for the new Toyota Crown that's coming out? We got a waiting list for everything. No, we don't. But if you want a Crown, even though there's not a... vehicles not even been made it. If you want to get in early, anticipate a rush for these things. Just get on the list. It won't cost you anything. And just get in ahead of time.

Well, I knew they were building it in Japan. Did they say when they were? No. I don't know when it is. Travis sent us a bunch of information. This is that. I don't even think we know they're building in Japan. Do we know that they will bring it into the U.S.A. It's so far down the road right now that, well, I mean not that far in next year or two. I don't even know that. This is an amazing story because it even appeared in the automotive news. Japan's been building this vehicle for decades. And it's replacing what I'm driving is the Avalon.

And it's such a mystery. Does anyone know aesthetically what the vehicle looks like or maybe Googled it? I haven't had a chance. It looks like a million bucks. That's great, yeah. 877-960 or you can text us at 7-7-2-49-2-497-6-5-3-0. Now back to Stu. We're all caught up.

This one from Donovan, Ford, this week, announced they're going to lay off 8,000 workers all from the internal combustion side of the business to save money and focus more on moving to electric cars for each model. What's your opinion on this, Earl? It's what's happening in industries all over the world. People are having to be retrained, jobs becoming obsolete, and new jobs are being created with new technologies, and you have to learn how to do the new job. So right now there's two jobs waiting for every person that's looking for a job. Problem is most of the people are not trained to do that job.

So we're going through such a rapid knowledge explosion, technological advances, is that you just got to stay on top of it. You know, Rick, you're a proof of the pudding here. I mean, you're just, you're constantly learning. If you were to suddenly go into a coma for a year, you'd come back, I'd have to fire you because you wouldn't know how to fix a car. I mean, that's how fast cars are changing.

You have to stay on top of it. Rick's online all the time. Changes are in advances. It's a crazy world we're living in. So, yeah, it's tough on the people that aren't trained. They just need to get online and get trained in something. And there's a lot of people out there begging to hire you. We're dying to hire technicians.

We're dying to hire trained people, but we can't find them. You talk about something you can't find. You can't find somebody that knows how to do body repair, collision repair on the car. So people aren't trained for it. If someone knows somebody that needs a job as a technician or collision repair, call me. I mean, we have a lot of people, thousands and thousands of business owners like me, they're looking to find the people that are trained currently in technology. You know, I just read one of my notes I made this morning that kudos to a Subaru dealer in Oregon.

I mean, Capital Subaru and Salem, Oregon. Sometimes you think you're all alone. Capital Subaru and Salem, Oregon, and draws the line to MSRP. Cool. In fact, they even go further than that. They sell all their Subaru's and MSRP, and if you're not local, if you're not in their market, they won't sell you a car.

People will call in from out of state and say, I'll pay you $3,000 or $2,000 or $5,000 for that Subaru. They won't sell it because they don't have enough Subaru's. they are if they're like us right now at our dealership we have zero cars in inventory and we have an order bank of about a thousand cars and everyone we sell a sticker because we draw the line everybody else is selling the car for thousands over stickers so as far as I know Stu stepped out of the studio for a minute but I'll ask him when he comes back I'm curious how many out-of-state people are calling,

bidding up the price of our cars, and we're saying no. I'll pay you $5,000 for that camera. Our answer would be no, just like the Subaru dealer in Salem. And he says, no, you're not in our market, and we're going to take care of our customers first, and they're not going to pay one nickel over sticker.

I like that. I like that a lot. Excuse me, Rick. We're going to go back to the phone. Angelo's been waiting and he's calling us from Wilmington. And Casey, we'll be right with you. Angelo, good morning. Good morning, Nancy. How are you?

Thank you very much. I just have two things. First off, my wife called about a month ago about a lease. They were giving us a runaround to buy it out. And you guys gave us the perfect information on it. I was able to go back to the dealership, told them that what they were doing, was wrong. I called the lawyer up that you guys told me about and the deal was made and it was done. And again, I want to thank you very much for the information. And my second thing is now

I have two vehicles. I'm not going to say what kind they are, but the tie is I only have like 17,000 miles on one and 20,000 on another. How do I get them pro-rated because they're telling me, I mean new ties. Well, that would be with a tire manufacturer, and each tire manufacturer may be a little different. They just based on the estimated life of the tire, and if you have a typical tread would be like 8.30 seconds, and if they recommend tire replacement at 2.30 seconds, then you take the difference, that would be 6.30 seconds, so if you had 3.30 seconds where, they would

probably give you 50% credit. But as I say, if it's a good year of Firestone, whatever, Michelin, whatever tire make, check with them. The dealer, the manufacturer, does not warranty the tire. The tire manufacturer warranties it, and it's a pro rata based on their estimated life of that tire. Okay, so I would contact the tire manufacturer. The tire manufacturer, yeah, the dealer.

You know, you have Michelin dealers, Firestone dealers, and they have the information, and they can make the adjustment for you. Great. Thank you very, very much. I'm sure this information will be just as good as the information on the lease vehicle that I just purchased. Well, thanks for the compliment and the feedback. That's very important. I appreciate it.

I'm going to reiterate now what we told you that saved you some money, and what Angelito was talking about was off-lease car, option to purchase, has a specific purchase price that he cannot buy it for, that price could not be higher than that price stated in his lease contract. And the dealers, what they're doing is they're taking and adding thousands of dollars to that or trying to persuade them not to exercise their option so they can exercise the option. The leasing companies are also playing that game. You have the option to buy it at that price.

This price was determined 30 years ago when you lease the car. before the shortage, high-demand, low supply that has caused used car prices to spiral. They're up thousands of dollars. So you have thousands of dollars profit built in if you exercise your purchase option. Stick to your guns. If they give you an argument, do like Angelo did, say, I'm going to call my lawyer. You're violating the Leasing Act of 1976, which says you must honor the purchase option price in the lease. not one penny more so thanks again and uh you lease customers out there that was a that was a great call

angelo uh bringing uh this topic uh it's very important to all of our listeners give us a call again uh we're going to go to casey who's calling us from east tennessee good morning kacey good morning how are you all doing today great listen i've got i've got a question something came up here just a few minutes back about selling cars out of state and you sell more of them and you go through a broker or something that was in the middle of trying to call or find the number. About back in June, this isn't to knock your dealership in the head, but back in June, I went online and I contacted your dealership, your website, and went through the whole thing of giving my phone number, my address, et cetera,

the kind of car I was interested in, which would be a Rav 4, a 2023 Rav 4. And that was back in June, and I never heard anything from anybody. And I thought, well, maybe they don't sell cars out of the area. They don't have enough. They take care of their home base type thing. And then when the crown came out, I called your dealership up, and I said, are you guys starting a list for this crown? it looked pretty interesting because I've kind of the time if it's six months or a year it doesn't matter so it's just a matter of getting in line my perspective but the gal on the phone that your dealership said no I said you don't have a list or taken no so I hung up scratching my head I thought well maybe they just don't deal with people that are you know not in their local area and I wanted to get your thoughts on that

Excuse me, Stu has just passed out, and he's sobbing now. Yeah, that's, that's, yeah, that's, that was a screw up. I mean, we do, we get a lot, and all I can say is there isn't a reason or an excuse. It was just a screw up. On the crown thing, though, we need to make that very clear, because we've had, we've addressed this on the show. When people are specifying a vehicle they want, that's a future model year. And sometimes the message just doesn't get down. A salesperson is taking an order.

Sometimes that's a situation that they don't know how to handle. But we're going to try and get the message out. Even the vehicle isn't even being produced yet. If somebody wants to wait on the list, we're going to have a list on it. There's not going to be VIN numbers or anything technical on it, but just a name and a number. And that way we can establish the order of interest. So if you want a crown now and you want to be the first one to get it, there's nothing we can tell you. But if you're on the list and you've raised your hand first and we'll make sure you're the first on the list.

Well, Casey, Stu's a general manager of the dealership, so you got very precise accurate information from him. The problem is when you have 150 employees and our dealership isn't that big, we have dealerships south of us a few miles that have twice that number of employees. You have a lot of people. You have people answering the phone. You have people that are new. I have people that haven't been trained properly. You have a lot of things out there. You have to watch everything real closely.

and I get a whole lot of calls like yours and it's we dealt with a couple of things like that just this week yeah so your basic question yes we do sell cars out of state and we'd be happy to to take care of those calls we need to do a better job about training the people that are in direct contact with people like you People get online, and they email somebody in our dealership, and that person needs to understand how we do business. And we aren't doing a very good job of that. I get too many calls like this on my own, either text or my own personal cell phone, and this happens. It happens at all dealerships, but I really appreciate your call because it really got our attention here, and it's going to make us focus more on saying that the people

that answered the phone and answer the emails and the answer the text know what they're talking about. In your case, they didn't. Yeah, yeah. Well, I appreciate that response, and it was kind of funny to me because I thought, what a world we live in. Somebody's calling, trying to give you business or texting. You can't get a return, but that's not a slam on you guys.

I mean, I know everybody's busy and whatnot. So, well, at least I know. So if I go online to your website and I try to, like, do the paperwork over line online for ordering a 23-Rav-4, that can be done through your website or somebody gets back to me or what? Yeah, you can go on the website and you can contact us through that. Here's another issue that you might run into. We're struggling with Toyota on our website. You're going to see a lot of vehicles. I'm going to say all of those are probably sold, or 99% of them.

You get on the list, and when future vehicles get allocated, and that's how we fill the orders. So even if you see them there, just realize that those are, even though they might say, well, there's lots of things that says it's not available, but just contact us and we can put an order for you. Casey, if all that fails, write my number down. This is my personal cell phone number. I've got your number, Earl, and I was going to text you, but I didn't want to, you know, be one of those guys that goes to the, you know, goes to the top guy and try to get it.

No, that's the reason I give out my number because I find out things directly from potential customers and customers that I never hear about. In any organization in the world, I don't care how big or small, they always tell the boss what he wants to hear. The customers tell the boss the way they see it. Sometimes it's not accurate. Sometimes they're angry. But at least they're not telling me what I want to hear. I can separate the wheat from the chaff from a customer a lot easier than I can directly from some of the people that work for me.

So it's hard for the boss to know what's going on. The bigger you are, the harder it is. And when you really get big and you're a car dealer and you've got 25 dealerships, they have no idea what's going on. I've only got one car dealership, and I have a fairly good idea of what's going on, but not perfect. But thanks again. It was a great call, and please call again. You bet.

Appreciate it. Thanks, Casey. And isn't it amazing this 20-23 Toyota Crown, what you never expected, the Avalon replacement you never expected, and everyone is interested in the Crown. so here we are give us a call and no don't give us a call I see by the clock that well let's take a couple more calls okay we're going to take a couple more calls and then we are going to get to the mystery shopping report give us a call toll free at 877 960 9960 um Stu Rick do you have anything for me I'm looking and And we are called up, no more text.

I've got one quick one here from Randy Henry. He says, at the time of purchase, at Earl Stewart, Toyota, can $5,000 from a credit card be added to the trade-in to lower the loan amount? Yeah, what's our line on credit card? Because we have to pay a merchant fee. There's a merchant fee. We basically, we just to have a rule, we keep it at $2,000, but anybody requests will extend it. Yeah. And we'll put the whole card on a credit card.

Because people just want to deposit. Like American Express, for folks that don't realize there's a merchant fee, they're the highest, 3%, I believe. So if you talk about a $50,000 car and somebody comes in and said, I want to pay for it on my American Express card, then you're talking about having to pay 3% of $50,000, which is $1,500. That's more than the profit you make on some cars. Not today, but there was a time when it was. So I was going to, there's no other text. YouTube's always going to talk about

I'm going to interrupt you for a moment we do have another call and it's Joyce calling from Jensen Beach good morning Joyce good morning how are you great welcome what's on your mind Joyce well since last November I've been looking for a vehicle

and I hate going on to a car lot spending four hours to get the information I need and you know I feel like I'm in a shark tank and so I have text multiple calls gotten you know numbers names text multiple people what I'm looking for and they either call me back with something total you know text me back with pictures here I've got this thing which is you know ten thousand dollars more than I want to spend and two years newer than I want to spend again so I'm just I actually was in my car today and heard you all and I thought I'm just going to pull over and call them

maybe they can give me clue as to how to get through this ordeal in my mind Joyce I think the best thing you can do is try not go to go into the dealership try to I'm not. I don't. Oh, okay. Communicate online. And if you have to, don't, if you're going to call, don't let them have your telephone number. If you're going to go online, you can use another email address. You can get free email addresses in case you don't want to give me a real email address.

You can remain anonymous and do all your shopping by phone and online. eventually you'll have people to give you the information. Once you go online, you'll say, give me this information or you won't hear from me again. And if they refuse to give you the information, just go to another dealership. In your metro area, I'm not sure what you're shopping for. There are probably dozens of dealers.

If they're used cars, new cars, you've probably got half a dozen dealers within a reasonable distance. And then when you finally get all the information, and you have a commitment on an out-the-door price, then you can go in. I have attempted that process, from Carvana to everything else on the Internet. And it's like, you know, I'm a 70-year-old woman. I'm driving a 17 e-lantra. And I don't want to drop into my car.

I don't want to have to haul myself out of my car. I'm not married to any kind of car. I just want something taller, a couple of years old, that is not going to break the bank. And, I mean, they, even, my car, when I get an estimate on it or I go to a blue book, it's $6,000 more than anyone wants to offer me to buy it. So I at least know now I will end up selling the car myself

because that's the only way to get the value out of it to put onto another vehicle. Joyce, you're, you're, you're probably ought to keep that car for a while because we were just talking earlier on the show. Use cars are selling more than new cars, MSRP. I mean, when we shop, use car dealers, if you buy, used car. The prices are so high. Use car sales are going down. Not only is there a limited supply, but the new car, you can almost buy a new car for less money than a used car. So I think if you,

if your old car now is getting you there and back, let it get you there and back for another six months and then think about buying a car when this crisis has ended. You're going to pay too much money for a used car today. So forget about it. Maintain. your current car and get back to the market six months from now you know a couple other people have mentioned that to me but I actually am taking it to heart hearing it from you well thanks for the call Joyce let me ask you this question is that the only vehicle that you have it is it is the only vehicle okay because the reason that I asked that is because that vehicle is worth a whole lot of money in the right person's hands and

And you have that advantage. But like Earl said, right now is just not a good time. With the shortages all the way around, it is not a good time. And with the price of a used car right now, again, because of shortages, I would hang on to what you have right now unless you really are set on buying a car. Thank you so much for calling. Thank you. Thank you.

And you all have a wonderful day. Thank you, Joyce. Give us a call again. 877-960-99-60, and you can text us at 772-497-6530. Stu, Rick. We're all good, ready for the MSR. Yeah, let me mention one more thing. We've talked the past couple weeks about the auto manufacturers adding subscriptions to the price of the car. and we're laughing at BMW

because they're going to charge if you want your seat heater to go on you have to pay a monthly fee the whole point being and there was an article in the current automotive news about from an automotive news reporter I might add saying what you're doing is just stupid

that he's talking to the auto manufacturers the manufacturers are building features into the car and basically by flipping a switch they turn it on and when they turn on the, when they turn it on, you've already paid for it, by the way, but you can't use it until you pay a subscription fee. Now, I was wondering, why would they be so stupid until I read this?

General Motors is leading the pack here. Toyota does it too, by the way. I'm not picking on the other manufacturers. When General Motors is projecting, and they're looking at their OnStar, on Star, on Star is General Motors, they see them in a lot of Cadillacs and other models, that if your car's in an accident, it will immediately notify the dealer and the repair shop at the Collision Center. It'll notify the police. It's a really cool feature that you can use, and there's a monthly fee. So they're charging you a monthly fee for that. Well, they're making so much money on this

OnStar. They're projecting now, and this is for Wall Street, so you didn't hear a about it, but investors heard about it. They're trying to jack their stock up. In five years, General Motors plans on adding, are you sitting down for this? 25 billion with a B, 25 billion with a B revenue, additional revenue from subscription services from General Motors cars. In other words, they're going to charge it for what you're buying twice. It's built into the car in the software. And then, they charge a monthly fee to turn it on. You already got it.

So this is unconscionable in my mind. Well, that said, we can talk about that next week. But be careful when you're buying a car now. Be careful. Find out what's there that you already think you have, but you're going to have to pay a monthly fee when you buy the car. And now it's mystery shopping report time. Yes, it is.

We are going to, we're going to go to the mystery shopping report, and the mystery shopperry report is from off-lease only in West Palm Beach. And ladies and gentlemen, it's very important that you grade this mystery shop with us. You can do so at 772-4976530. That's 772-4976530. Off-lease-only, West Palm Beach. to the recovering car dealer. Okay, I said earlier in the show that Mark Fisher, the founder of Alls Lease Only, I text him early and say if you have time, tune us in.

He can always get the podcast, but Mark, I hope you're listening, and then maybe we could talk either after the show or you could call the show next week. We might even have time for you to text me this week. I haven't, I've been checking my text. Okay, Off Lease Only in West Palm Beach. We're on a used car kick here at our own cars. new car lots empty and waiting times to order a new vehicle, in some cases, exceeding a year. I'd say averaging, what, six months to?

About six months. Can consumers hope to find a refuge at one of the big used car retailers? Well, that's been happening up until now, but I will say use car sales are down, and they're down all over. We think so. We think that last week we reported on Asia Lightning's visit to CarMax, Royal Palm Beach, and the grades from our listeners and from the team here in the studio were really good. Now, off-lease only, by the way, is, I guess, second to CARMAX. I mean, their CARMAX is national.

Offleash-only is regional, but they've got a lot of stores. I think locally they outsell the CARMAX. Locally, they do, yeah, exactly. It was the first time ever, the Mystery Shopping Report of that location, and we put them on the recommended list with an A-grade, CarMax. Now, everything wasn't perfect. The good grades were for transparency, honesty, efficiency, and smaller than average junk fees, hidden fees, dealer fees, call them what you will, a $3.99 processing fee.

That's what they called it, Carmex. $27 optional electronic filing fee. That's optional is laughable. But there is something one needs to be aware of before heading over CarMax in Royal Palm Beach. Just like nearly everywhere else, the prices in CarMax. are high. I just spoke to the last female caller thinking about buying a car. The prices on used cars are ridiculously high now and that's the market. I mean that's I don't condemn a used car dealer for selling a used car at an externally high price because

he had to pay an externally high price to get the car. I blame the dealer for marketing about thousands over MSR to be because they're still buying it from the manufacturer at a rollably low price actual cost so the used car dealers are doing what they got to do they got to mark up an already high price they used 2021 Raffor agent lightning tried to buy last week was priced yeah okay I looked it up last night six thousand holy mackerel six thousand dollars over MSRP can you believe that of a new in 2022 Raff Whore. So the used

Raffor that Agent Lightning was going to purchase last week was $6,000 over sticker of a new 2002. An almost two-year-old car. Yeah, yeah. I mean... The 2023s have just been being built or allocated. So why aren't you buying used cars today? Because of that. Same reason. I guess people that are desperate and they can't wait six months up to a year,

to buy a new car, they're just having to go and be victimized and pay a huge amount of money for a used car. We've had an interesting relationship with this used car mega dealer. We joined forces in a war against junk fees, hidden fees, dealer fees, and ways dealers were advertising, even having one of the founders, Mark Fisher, as a guest on the show. We call the show a couple times, I think. We've texted it back and forth. Real nice car, smart guy, and he and his wife, found.

this, how long has it been, 20 years ago? Yeah, something like that. Offleas Only. There was just a little, they're on Lake Worth Road, just a little dirt lot, and he just went from nothing, and now he's one of the largest huge car dealers anywhere. We've defended their business practices. They're kind of like the Walmart of used car sellers. We've defended off-lease only's business practices of buying damaged vehicles on the cheap and passing along savings for the customers. They're not buying cars that are unsafe in most cases.

unsafe in most cases. They're buying cars that are listed by Carfax as having damage and cars that other dealers pass on. They buy them but they mark them up just a small amount typically $1,000 a long time ago.

Today, I don't know what they're marking them up but it's more than that. And they're also paying one hell of a lot more for the car. So we're back on off lease only. They've got a name now, as I said, Walmart,

or the low-price spread, how do they reconcile this core identity with the reality that they're facing in today's market? There's no more buying vehicles at the auction on the cheap. They're just expensive as hell. Even the damaged ones are overpriced. I mean,

we're at the auction, and we own a dealership. We're out there every week. In fact, I guess we're actually out there every day because we're buying a huge amount. Online. So, we see the real market in real time. and these used cars are sky high. We're going to try to answer all these questions

with Agent Lightning's investigation. Here's a report. Speaking in the first person, I'm Agent Lightning. I arrived at off-lace-only late this afternoon, found my way inside. I was greeted by Derek, the front desk. He wanted to know if I had an appointment. I said I didn't.

I was there to see a 2021 Camry. I found online. Derek said he'd find someone to help me. A minute later, a woman approached introduced me as Lettie. I showed her my phone with the listing for the camera in a price of $33,999.

I mean, that's kind of cool. Here we are. Digital age, you walk in, you got your smartphone, you show it to the salesman, you got this car advertised, here's the price, he looks at it. I mean, there you are. There's the price. Let me buy it. I mean, he gets to the point pretty quickly that way.

Alexi, yeah, Levy, excused herself to get the key of the car. Oh, I forgot to mention there was an accident on the Carfax report and it said body damage repairs. I didn't mention that to Lexi at that time. Lexi excused herself to get the key to the Camry. She'd back at 10 minutes and led me outside to where the vehicle awaited. The doors, hood and trunk were all open and the engine was running. Now, the car dealer said, hey, I like that. That's kind of cool. That's, we have nothing to hide, Bill. Yeah, there's a hood, there's a junk that popped up, we have the doors open, you know, the car's open, let's check this out carefully.

I like that. It's a good sales technique, and maybe we ought to try that at our dealership. The vehicle seemed tired. This is, you know, I'm speaking as Agent Lightning now. The spare tire in the trunk looked a little beat, beat up, and the front tires look really worn. There were 36,07 miles on this 2,021 Camry, okay? Now here's an old worn-out car. I asked Lefty, it wasn't really that old, but it was worn out.

I asked Liddy if their price was negotiable, she answered no. And that's one of the cool things about off-lease only and CarMax. They have the price. They put their lowest price on every car. And folks, that's the price. That's their best price. And if you don't like it, you go somewhere else and buy a car. And that's the way shopping ought to be done.

If you got a target and you don't like the price, you go to Amazon, you don't like the price, you go to Walmart, you go anywhere you want. You get the best price out the door. And that's what off-lease-only is now doing and CarMax does too. She said that, no, but they had a five-day, 500-mile return policy for the customer's peace of mind. And I remind you all that a return policy is not a money-back guarantee. not a cashback guarantee. The return policy is, if you don't like this car, bring it back and we'll sell you another one. But you can't negotiate that price either. So you're still paying the same profit. But it's better than no guarantee. So it is a return, not cashback.

Then let me ask me for my driver's license and my insurance card and left me at the car while she fetched the plate. She was back in eight minutes and asked me to sign two documents which allowed me to drive their car. Just a question for Stu on the side here. Why do they ask for the insurance card? I don't think we ask for the insurance. We don't. It's not required by law.

This must be their process. I think our insurance covers it. Right, our garagekeepers. If you, maybe it's something internal, and it's also convenient because then you have it ahead of time when you do the deals. Maybe Mark Fisher can answer that if he's listening to this. He's the founder of Offleashone. He might be listening to this mystery shopping.

I pulled up to the gate of the exit of the lot and handed the guard my papers and notification. It was raining hard and I was uncomfortable driving with front tires that were looking pretty slick. I returned to the lot. The cars commented on how short my test drive was. I mentioned the tires and they looked and said, I don't blame you. Back inside I saw Derek at the front desk.

He asked me how would I like the car and I said, I felt uncomfortable because of the tires. He said you'd have somebody take a look at those. these off-lease only cars are priced as is and they're they don't do anything to the cars normally i'd be curious what they would do if they found ball tires but this was they said they'd look they didn't say what they would do about it but they say okay we'll put two new tires typically off-lease it's things are are as-is but i've have we've heard from salespeople that they do they will fix things like that safety item yeah yeah things like that's smart i i believe you're probably right.

Lettie approached and asked me how I liked it. I said, I want to see the pricing. I followed Lettie to her computer, and she printed out a worksheet. The sale price was posted $33,999.9.99. Now, that was posted, that was advertised, that was online, had it on the smartphone. Here we go.

You're listening, Mark? They added a $799.000, phew! My lips aren't. working. My mouth's not working. They added a $799 pre-delivery service charge and a $199 electronic filing fee. The $988 and new junk fees are a big jump from their old $199 dealer fee. They gave up on the dealer fee fight right there. Yeah, they gave up on it. There's no longer they don't have that. Yeah. And so they just changed the name and then they still are not advertising the car at the price that's out of the door that you're supposed to do under

Florida law. You're supposed to advertise the car if the price you could buy it plus government fees only. The junk fees made the actual price $34,997. Now, this two-year-old, 36,000 mile Camry was priced almost $3,000 more than a new, spanking new, 2002, with no miles. There you have it. Lettie said the $500 tag estimate would be less than the final paperwork, which it probably will be. We've done that in our dealership.

We estimate a little higher than it is and then do the refund. I prefer to go, we don't do it now, we should go with the exact amount. It's not all that important. Now, one thing I noticed, I don't know if Stu noticed this or not, If you'll do it, you'll look at the line there where they had the sales tax. I'm looking at the copy of the worksheet. And they added the electronic filing fee and the temp tag below the line after they calculated the sales tax, as if there was no sales tax paid on those things like the electronic filing fee.

Did you do the math? I didn't do the math. I'll do the math because sometimes there are no. different order and it is calculated so because they have a total here with the sales tax so it would be if they'd have to kind of do it awkwardly back yeah it says taxable amount is a 35917 so mark fisher if you're listening if in fact you are charged not paying sales tax on your electronic filing fee and your temporary tag fee then you are in violation of florida law because you have to pay sales tax on those items and that's just a heads up to

Offleys Only and to Mark Fisher. So there we have it. This is not a bad report. I mean, this is a report. We need to vote on it. And we need to decide ABC, D, or F. We grade on the curve. A's are very rare.

Fs are very rare. C's are common. And let's hear the incoming votes on what you think about off lease only. I'm going to remind everyone that you can vote. If you didn't hear me earlier, and you can do so at 772-497-6530. Your vote is very important. Well, I don't have any yet coming in,

but my thoughts on personally, I can't get away from the suspicion that they raised the dealer fees in response to this inflationary use car market that we're in. It wasn't, I don't think it was a competitive thing. I know that Mark Fisher did say, and he can correct me if I'm wrong, that, you know, one of the big things that we struggled with was advertising use car prices

without having a dealer fee because it makes it look like we have a lower, a higher price than dealers with dealer fees. So I think that the market went crazy and they saw a profit opportunity and they jacked up their fees. So I'm going to give them a C-minus. Yeah, it's out of control. I mean, we're talking to Mark Fisher like he owns it. He doesn't own it anymore. He's a minority owner. And when he ran the store, things were a lot tighter and things were a lot more consumer-friendly. So, you know, he has a vested interest in there. I want to go to a D, by the way. I'm making it a D. A D. I got a D. Okay. Rick? I've got Negan 1, D-minus for don't buy a car with bald tires. Tim Gilliland, junk fees equals C.

Let's see, Nate Miller, $800 pre-delivery service charge for not really doing anything to the car. D. Yeah, what pre-delivery service was going on that one? They wouldn't change in the tires. Tom Stuckel, C, the owner used to allocate for no dealer fees. Tim in Florida, C-plus, not bad considering all the other dealer's practices. Brian said Lacko, C-plus, don't like the extra dealer fee. Mark Ryan with a C-minus

and Scott Hunter D for the fees All right We got some coming in two Bob gives them an F for off-lease junk fees junk cars Unsafe cars

Stay off their lot We have an anonymous D D that Joseph popped into My inbox And Jonathan and Wellington Also gives them a D Well that's rough

I mean What were they before I think they were an A A yeah Or an A-minus That's a long fall Long fall Yeah and remember ladies

the gentleman, you still have time to vote. We want to hear your vote on Offlease-only West Palm Beach. Texas 772-4976530. We do have time. As far as my grade is concerned, you know, in the beginning of the report, I read the transparency, the honesty, the efficiency, and how we base our grade on that. And we definitely have given a lot of good grades. as far as the shop is concerned, I'm not real happy with it, changing, you know, a $199 dealer fee to $799.99 just, and I really think that the 500-mile return policy is misleading. That leads a person to think they're going to get their money back. Indeed, that's not true. They're just going to bring that car in, and they're going to trade it in for another car. So with all that said, the Federal Trade Commission, that proposal that they're making to, that you won't be able to sell your worthless add-ons, I think that the Federal Trade Commission is right on this. So my grade is a C-minus. And I've got Guy Larrabee with a solid B in light of the add-on extra fees. and my own

I'm going to go with the C minus because the dealer fees make a slippery slope but maybe they'll consider correcting that Stu does you ever calculate the sales tax no yeah if the sales tax is not on there Mark that's pretty serious

I mean you'll get an audit and they'll come out and nail you're going to have to go back and pay that sales tax not so much of consumer deception but a business error that you want to watch hopefully we're wrong It is misleading because it does show the selling price and then they put sales tax in there and the electronic filing tree and paper tiger blow the line. So that makes me nervous as an owner.

As a part owner, it should make you nervous too. I'm going to give them on, gosh, I hate to do this, especially if Mark's listening, I'm going to have to give them a D. There's too many things here that are worrisome and nothing huge, but, you know, combination of things you know the front tires um being we have pictures of the tires by their way they are pretty slick and uh he didn't calculate the sales tax on it he didn't calculate the sales tax on the uh you got problems there mark i'm i'm sorry i hope the the department of motor vehicles isn't listening to the show because you've got a problem there and uh we hope you can bring it up we'll shop you again and we'll go back to off lease only uh

I think they slipped a little bit. We need them bring them back. CarMax is the standard now. So CarMax is where we recommend if you're going to buy a car. As I said before, don't buy a car. If you can help it, it's just going to be too expensive today. Absolutely. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for tuning in to Earl on Cars this Saturday morning.

We'll be right back here next Saturday morning at 8 a.m. And thank you for sharing your information, your advice, and joining us. weekend.