Earl Stewart on Cars - 07.25.2020 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Greenacres Nissan

Episode Date: July 25, 2020

Earl answers various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Agent Thunder visits Greenacres Nissan to see if he can purchase a new 2020 Nissan Rogue and get the special lease price as seen on their website. 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. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

We're back. I say this some Saturdays. It's probably the most exciting time of the week for me. I really mean it. We enjoy this show. it's a hopefully it's educational entertaining to you. It's very entertaining to us and fun to do

and I guess it has to be that way because we've been doing it for 17 years. That was the recorded introduction you just heard and this is Earl Stewart the recovering car dealer, live and in color. I need to make a little correction in the recording introduction. We have a son

substitute this morning. Stu Stewart who is very popular in the show and gets a lot calls. On staycation, a COVID-19 kind of a thing. He's staying home with his family and trying to calm down and relax and a little R&R, but do it in a safe manner. So Stu's on a staycation, and I would like to introduce Josh Stewart to you. I'll do that in just a second. Josh is my youngest son. I have three sons. And Josh is our co-general manager at our dealership. And when I

mention our dealership, I have to say this is in full transparency because I am an automobile dealer. Josh is an automobile dealer. Nancy is an automobile dealer. We're all retail associated, Rick. We're in that business. But this is not an infomercial. And I know you old listeners, I don't mean chronologically, but you know, the ones that have been with us for a long time. You understand that. But I think a lot of people, the naysayers in the audience, might think that I'm using this as some sort of a means to sell more cars at my dealership. I don't, I truly don't. In fact, I probably err on the extreme there.

We push Hondas and we push Nissan's and we push all the good cars out there on the road, General Motors. All the manufacturers today build some really good cars and there's some good buys. So we're not trying to get you to buy a car from us. We're trying to protect you from being taken advantage of when you do buy or lease a car or when you maintain or repair your car. And one of the, if there's something that we overlook too often, is maintaining and repairing. We focus, like on a mystery shopping report,

we focus on sales practices and deceptive advertising and things of this nature. But people go in two or three times a year to have a car repaired or maintained. At least you should have them maintained two or three times a year. and Rick Kearney is a part of this team has been a part of this team for a long time been with me for about a quarter century

does that make you feel old when I say a quarter century and that's a lot of big time of your life no no no I think being old makes me feel old but the matter is Rick is really good at what he does and if you have a squeaker or a rattle you can't figure out or you got some sort of a symptom in your car and maybe it's not accelerating around or you know a smell there's so many things that can happen when you're in your car and you want to

you want to get it fixed but here we are COVID-19 and you say do I really want to go into a service department somewhere and sometimes they're not wearing masks they don't do the social distancing you worry about that you know the guy worked on my car what if he's infected and and then he hands the car back to me, I've got to get in that car. A lot of reasons you don't want to go in. So I'm suggesting to you this morning, call Rick 877-960-99-60. And that's, you could talk directly to Rick Kearney, 877-960, and ask him about it. He might say nothing to worry about. He might say, try this. It's possible it could be something serious, and then he'll tell you to take it in and have someone take a look at him.

repairing and maintaining during a pandemic. I wrote a column on that, by the way, and I think I have it over there somewhere. Yeah, how to repair, maintain your car during a pandemic. That's on the blog, Earleoncars.com, and you can get all my blogs there. I also talk about buying a car during a pandemic. A lot of things change.

I don't need to tell you. Oh, here it is. Maintaining and repairing. Yeah. Maintaining and repairing your car during a pandemic. A lot of things you can do to be risk-free and still have your car taken care of. So there we are, and Nancy Stewart, of course, introduced her, the recorded introduction. And Nancy Stewart has been with me since the get-goat.

She's a founder, a founder of her own cars, been with me from the very beginning. And, you know, when we started out on this show, we had no female listeners, and now we got pretty close to parity. I'd say about 50% every week, and they give us a whole new focus. And let's face it, women and men are different. I discovered that when I was about 13, I think. I'm not sure. But anyway, they are different, and they look at life a little differently than men do. And the fact is, they're half the planet, right?

Half the planet. They buy half the cars. They service and repair half the cars. And it really wouldn't be a very good show if we were only showing the male point of view. Nancy Stewart has a very special walk. I'll just give, you talk about Nancy. What is, what are you going to do for the lady listeners if we can get a few more today? Well, first of all, 13.

Hmm, that's interesting. I like that response. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Earl and Kars. And we want to thank you for joining us this full two hours that we have. of information, mystery shopping report. We've got it all, but most of all, we need you. So give us a call, toll-free at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6530.

And for the first two new lady callers, we offer each of you $50. And, you know, we can all use a little extra cash, especially now during the pandemic and we really appreciate your company and ladies, what you have to say is very important and we'd like you to give us a call

even if you want to say hello or you do have a question 877-960 9960 now back to the recovering car dealer and we have a new access I say we've been doing it actually for a couple of years but we've always had the text number

our text number is 772, 4976530. That's a text. A lot of people like a text. Texting has become part of our lives. A lot of people just don't use telephones anymore. Texting, in my opinion, is more efficient, and it's less invasive. And it also can be kind, it's a little bit more anonymous.

So text said 772-4976530. And then we said, why don't we have something and it's really anonymous. And wow, what a reception we had to that. I expected the only people that would use this, and that's Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. If you use that URL, that web address,

and you put in your comments, criticisms, information, whatever you want to put in there, insults, fine. We thrive on constructive criticism. criticism. We even like some unconstructive, you know, destructive criticism can be entertaining. And so nobody knows who sends this in. So your anonymous Feedback.com love to hear what you had to say. And people do it just because I guess they feel a little bit, I don't know, privacy is a big thing. And I think that you feel a sense of total privacy and you can speak your mind and no one's going to come after you.

So Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Josh Stewart. Excuse me for a moment while I'm thinking about it and we have the audience attention. You know, week in and week out, we expose these car dealers and what they're doing to consumers. But as I say, always say,

we can't do it alone. We really can't. And we would like you to take part in giving the Attorney General a phone call, Ashley Moody. She's here to protect the consumer. And up until now, as far as I can hear and see, we haven't had her cooperation, not at all. So give her a call 850-414-3-300.

Ashley Moody. Ashley, Moody, yeah. Attorney General, she can give us a hand. That's the big gun. She's the chief law enforcement officer in the state of Florida. And when Ashley speaks, people pay attention. And if she were to enforce the laws that are already on the books for the car dealers, we have a rather lengthy statute that covers things like unfair deceptive advertising, dealer fees, and a lot of other

things that we talk about this show week after week. And for some reason, none of our attorney generals, I'm not picking on Ashley, but for the past three or four attorney generals, we've had since the show's been on, rarely is there ever any kind of intervention or control. Josh Stewart, who I mentioned earlier, is my youngest son, and he is a co-general manager of our dealership with Stu Stewart, and he's also part of the cyber team that we use the mystery shopping report. And the mystery shopping report is got to be the most exciting part of the show. I mean, it's just is risky

for the undercoverage that goes into the dealership. It's also risky for me for assassination purposes, I'm only kidding. That's right. Let's kill our vests. I don't really need it, but I just I wear it anyway. Was I supposed to have one of those? Yeah, you do need one.

I give one to Agent Thunder really because the real risk is to our undercoverage at Thunder, and We've actually, years ago, we had one of our earlier agents that was almost physically challenged. There was a tug-of-war between the vehicle buyer's order, and he snatched it out of their hand and ran out of the deal. That would be Agent X. Oh, it was Agent X, yeah, right. Wow.

And Josh was kind enough to, well, bless us with his presence, and what a great guy. We'll see if it's a blessing or a curse. two hours there. We didn't ask him to sign that waiver though. You know, you've got the vest on. How's Josh going to be protected here? I'm starting to get a little nervous. And Josh also has got the

hands-on experience of the dealership. I get a lot of calls. The show gets a lot of calls about specific topical information about new models. And I have more of a strategic view of the car business. And Josh

and Stu a more tactical hands-on day-to-day. So he is the perfect substitute for Stu. And if you have any questions about this sort of thing, you know, mechanical repair maintenance, Rick Kearney. And if you're talking about does the new Honda or the new Toyota or the new Chevrolet have this, what's the horsepower? Of course, we have Google as a backup, but Josh would be the one that could probably get it.

If we can't find it, we go to Google. Josh may well know the answer. Being the spy master, see, he works in a team with Stu. I call Stu the Spymaster General of the Mr. Shopping Report. But Josh is, he writes them up, he chooses the targets with Stu. And this week he chose the target entirely

and wrote the whole thing up entirely. So, Josh, you got any comments at all? I just, I don't think I'm overstating it to say that the mystery shopping report is unique in the whole. whole communications world well I just like to say it's an honor to join the venerated Erlon cars team oh thank you I'm a little nervous a little intimidated I have some pretty big shoes to fill but I hope that I do my

brother justice and I and I am excited about this week's report it's just amazing week after week that the dealers aren't cleaning up their acts after being exposed week after week so yeah I think this week's shop is no different so I look forward to it it's hard to measure our effect. I mean, sometimes we like to give ourselves credit. I don't know whether the dealers are cleaning up their act or they're just getting smarter in the way they cover up their act. I was thinking we've called dealer fees, dealer fees so long that it became a generic term and people and car dealers actually advertise no dealer fees because they changed their name

to electronic filing fee. And the new development, we started talking about, we said, this is the way to tell a hidden profit or a hidden fee is, is sales tax charged on. If Florida or whatever state you're in charges sales tax on a fee, which has the implication of being a governmental thing, then it's not a fee, a governmental thing, it's not a real fee, it's profit, and because it's not tax. So now dealers have caught onto that and they are accumulating their multiple dealer fees under a heading

taxable fees. I mean, very clever, right? I mean, you have your non-taxable fees and you have your taxable fees and it just slips right by the buyer. Sounds harmless. Hey, fees. Good. I like these. They're non-taxable, but these are

taxable fees. I can understand that. Anyway, that's That's where we are now, and 877-960-99-60 is our call-in number, and I want to say we prioritize our calls because you have to hold on the phone. And I think we've only got three or four lines coming into the radio station, so we don't want to lose any caller. So if a caller comes in, we will take that call immediately. 877-960-99-60. Speaking of calls, we are going to go to Palm City, where John is waiting. Good morning, John.

Good morning to everyone. I just want to explain to a lot of younger people that don't really know what the purpose of a consumer advocate. Earl Stewart is the only one on the silent generation. That's 1928 to 45. And there's never been another consumer advocate in history. The one before Earl is Ralph Nader. Now, Ralph Nader was an interesting man in the fact that he criticized the American

auto industry as a purveyors of unsafe products. He used a Corvair, Chevrolet Corvier, as a poster child, but there was a problem in the early Corvette from 60 to 63. So Ralph wrote a book, Unsafe at any speed. It was all the truth in it. That's what a consumer advocate does. They research, and then they reveal the fact. And they really revealed that this car, especially at the beginning,

It was unsafe. It had problems. It had unsafe front end steering. And Ralph Nader was retaliated by General Motors to discredit him. They tried dirt on him. They tried everything they could because of the anger of this book. But it wasn't true. And they wound up with egg on their face.

It all backfired on him. By the way, people know this book in 65, but also in 71, he wrote a book, What to Do With Your Bad Car? familiar? Sounds like Earl Stewart, writing the book, telling you all the different things that you should know about buying an automobile used or new. So I just

want to bring up about him. He was the only one in history that was a consumer advocate, which is what Earl Stewart is, very devoted, very much research, and all they'd want to do is reveal the truth and nothing but the truth. Thank you, John. That's

a real compliment. I don't know if I can fill those shoes of Ralph Nader. He was a pioneer. It's a little easier today. Back in those days, it was tough. General Motors came after Ralph Nader hard and dirty, real, real. They hired private detectives. They tried to embarrass him. They tried to get dirt on him, and they really went after him real tough. He paved the way for me and other consumer advocates. We can speak out, and we feel a little bit easier. Thanks to Ralph Nader. He's quite a guy. well thanks to you and nancy your assistant that you continue to tradition and will continue with it

and that's why we listen to this show on saturdays thank you very much john i appreciate it hey john thanks for the mail that you sent me on the barracuda and the advertisement and all the information so what do you think if i do well purchase a fixer-upper like you suggested do you think i could work on it definitely you're handy you're you're you're you're you You're educated. You've been hanging around the automobile industry now, so you know. You know the sources, and you know the people to fix it right. Oh, I was talking about me personally.

Well, you'll always get assisted. You've got Rick's sitting right next to you there. Yeah, not to mention my prior credentials. I used to take care of my own car in Pittsburgh. But anyway, John, thanks for being an important part of the show, and look forward to hearing from you next week. And thank you guys for being there. Oh, John?

I don't know, John. Last week, she was changed in the oil on Earl's Lexus, and she pulled the drain plug out a little too quick. She's got splashed with oil, and there was oil everywhere. Just kidding, John. You know, I have a confession to make, you know, confessions of a recovered car dealer. Back in the 60s and 70, Ralph Nader of the days of the Corvair, I have to confess that the first car I bought for Josh's mother

when we were first married was a Corvair. I did not know that. Yes. Well, I kind of kept it a secret. I'm only kidding, but it was a, it's hard to believe. It had a front-wheel drive, one of the few cars that had front-wheel drive back in those days, and they hadn't got the technology and design down, Pat. And if you took it out on the turnpike and went over 55 or 60,

the front end just kind of floated like that. It was a very scary feeling. Now I know why he chose the Corvair. just kidding mom wow that was a long time okay how are we doing we got any uh youtubes or we got any text or anything coming in the weekend we've got a few text

messages have come in okay gosh you want to get your feet wet let's do it um this is from anne marie she says good morning Rick you've been a mechanic auto technician for decades she obviously she's seen your face oh boy we have got

a few comedians here this morning you told me to get my feet wet and anyways i'll move on what is the scariest most dangerous potential catastrophic thing that you've seen in your career and how can we avoid that problem thank you uh great question and Marie by the way is one of our most educated articulate yeah she's just a great caller and uh text her and she really comes up some of the coolest stuff that's a great question I've I've seen some wild things with cars I think one of the scariest things is customers that try to do their own modifications or like adding in radio or wiring or lights things like that they add their own wires underneath the cars

and their own stereo work and they don't understand just how dangerous electrical can be in an automobile when all those wires are potentially moving and vibrating and such things like that can cause a fire a major issue in a car but the other one I think really truly is the loose nut behind the wheel. I hate to put it that way, but I think people are the worst component of an automobile. And a driverless car, to me, an autonomous vehicle that takes over the road, if we had all autonomous vehicles, I think we would see a huge reduction in automobile crashes, injuries, deaths, it would just make such a difference in the world to get people out of the equation

when operating automobiles. That brings to mind the sudden acceleration issue that Toyota was focused on a long time ago. And we had a lot of people coming in that said the cars were suddenly accelerating. And it was never proven. In fact, it was kind of proven that there was not an issue in the, electronics or anything like that, and a lot of it had to do with the accelerated pedal and proximity to the brake and people that were just, you know, panicking and pressing the wrong thing. But I think there were some design changes that were made as a result of that issue.

Well, one of the biggest ones, one of the biggest changes that has come from that, and this is something that every single person, when you go out to your car today, before you start driving your car, take a look at the driver's side floor and fix one thing. Make sure that your floor mat is properly secured with the clips so that it cannot move and only have one floor mat. Don't stack multiple floor mats because those floor mats can shift and move, get up and interfere with the pedals. Suddenly you cannot step on the brake maybe because the mat is jammed up under the brake pedal or the mat jams up on top of the accelerator and suddenly your car's out of control just because of a simple floor mat. Good point. And Rick, correct me if I'm wrong,

didn't Toyota start putting in a brake override system? So if you hit the brake and the gas at the same time, the gas kicks off and the brake wins. Oh, great point. If you're driving your car, if you're one of the people that like to use two feet, one on the gas pedal, one on the brake, don't do that. If your foot bumps down on the brake pedal a little too hard just enough that it triggers that stoplight switch your gas pedal suddenly goes

to zero. It just shuts the acceleration down. So you can be driving on the highway and all of a sudden your car just suddenly decelerates because of that safety override. That's a great example of a erroneous complaint. There was no technical error

according to sudden acceleration but the manufacturers, Toyota was the big one, but there were other ones that were charged too, suddenly realized this is human behavior. You said the nut behind the wheel. So the changes were made to make the nut behind the wheel safe by a design change, which is really cool. I mean, you've got to accept the fact there's always going to be nuts behind the wheel. I'm one of them, by the way.

I can attest to that. We all are. We all are. And so if you can make cars accommodate human behavior, and make the car safer, that's the way to go. To protect us from ourselves. You know, talking about human behavior and the floor mats, am I wrong, that Toyota has downsized these mats that they're using

and all of their vehicles, or are they still just as large? You are not. They are shrinking the size a little to help prevent that situation. I've heard from a lot of people about some disasters, getting their foot caught up underneath the place. You know, it can be, it can pose as a danger. Absolutely. Yep.

Well, that's good to hear that they have, I thought it was my imagination. They are downsizing. Okay, we got any more text over there. I'm going to give out that phone number real quick. Yeah, good idea. The lines seem to be a little cold. 877-960-99-60, and you can text us. Josh is right here to take your text at 772.

4976530. And ladies, please, I have $50 in my little hands for each, for the first two of you that will give us a call this morning. You can win yourself $50.877-960. Now back to Josh. I don't have any fresh text, but Rick might. Well, we got, let's see. Good morning. Brian from California. I have a question for you this week. For the longest time I've been interested in car sales. I've watched hundreds of car sales training videos over the years. I listen to the mystery shop every week. I feel like it's something I could do.

I love cars and have 12 years of customer service dealing with people. Kind of shorten us down a little bit. I know car sales right now are pretty decent. Basically, this fellow is asking, do you think it would be a good time for a new person to get into the career of selling cars? Yes, it would. I mean, it's really surprised us who are in the retail car business, how stable it has been actually has been even better than we expected.

And I theorize it's because the vehicle has become a safe spot for people during the pandemic. People feel comfortable and safe in the vehicle, and if they need a vehicle, they go out and buy another one. So, yeah, it's a great opportunity. When we hire people in our dealership, we don't look for people that are expert in the car business. We look for people that have the talents that a good salesperson has. Likeability is very important. You have to be able to handle rejection because you talk to five people. You're only going to sell one or two cars.

And you have to be able to handle technical things to some extent. because you have to explain the product. My main advice to this person is find a dealership that does business honestly, and it's not as easy as it may sound. If you can find a dealer that is a one-price dealer, meaning they put their lowest price on every vehicle they sell, that eliminates a lot of the shenanigans and the deception

when you have a dealer that does not negotiate or raise or lower the price. You know, in the average car dealership, when you walk in and you buy a particular vehicle, three people bought that same vehicle on that day, there would be three different prices. The salespeople are paid on commission, and the more they can raise the price for the vehicle to you, the more money they make. But in a one-price store, the lowest price is there. It's a good price. It's a fair price.

If it's not a fair price, the dealer's going to go out of business. So he has to put his best price on that vehicle. And it's easier in that sense because the deception is gone, you're not afraid of people that walk in the door and say, can I look at that car? If you stay tuned for a mystery shopping report today, you'll find out exactly what I'm talking about. The cars advertised for a monthly payment that we knew was impossible, and sure enough, it was impossible. It was basically the price was understated by $5,000 because those were the hidden fees and the qualifications that we had to get to. You don't want to work for a dealer that tricks people to come in. So keep shopping around, check some references, check some Google ratings, find a dealer that has its lowest price on the car and is honest.

And it's a great profession. You can make a lot of money. For sure. Word or mouth is great. And I would suggest maybe even shopping those dealers himself, you know, send in an Internet inquiry or pick up the phone. Because what we found at our store is like we're getting less foot traffic coming at the door. but we have a high volume of phone calls and internet inquiries because people don't want to go physically

from store to store to store just because of the whole COVID situation. So a store that embraces that end of the business that would be a good store to work for. Here's another thought I just had is that you could mystery shop the dealer yourself and you can do it all by the telephone. If you call a dealership and find

a car and pretend like you'll want to buy it and go through the process by email and by phone and if you feel like you're getting the runaround, that might not be the kind dealership you want to work for exactly yeah yeah it's a great experience and that's a great idea Josh I'll tell you my experience in using the internet and looking for a car I was dealing with three different car dealerships but one in particular I'll tell you the response and the

repercussions of that car dealer it just set my hair on fire I said I don't even want to go in there You know, so it's worth your while. Ladies and gentlemen, again, that phone number is 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. I can't mention enough. Ladies, first two new lady callers, you got yourself $50. And take advantage of www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Now back to the recovering car dealer.

Okay, we're kind of running short of text and YouTube. No, we got YouTube. We got a couple here. Okay, good. Rico West, and this is a comment that Earl, I think you'll find true to heart. Okay. I'm ready to buy a new car and would love to get the silky, smooth Toyota V6. As a tall driver, however, over six feet, the lower sloping roof lines are making it impossible to fit such cars as the Camry and the Avalon.

Is this an issue that you've encountered? Because I know you're 6-1, 6-2? 6-3, yeah. 6-3, and actually, I don't encounter the problem because a lot of my height is not in my upper body there. But I don't, I'm not uncomfortable in any of those cards. Josh, you're in the trenches. What's your opinion on that?

Well, I personally, I'm 6-1. I fit fine in the Camry, especially in the Avalon. The V-6 is also available in a Highlander or a 4-4. runner so maybe a SUV would work better for this person. We have the new Venza coming back now, so very excited about that. However, that's going to be a four-cylinder hybrid. So we're not going to have the silky smooth V6. It'll be a silky smooth hybrid synergy drive. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Great information. I know from a personal point of view, I'm 511, but I'm rather a big guy. And on the average workday, I'm getting in and out of 8 to 10 or 12.

maybe 15 cars and a lot of them very small cars so I'm sometimes having to shove my bulk into a Yaris and well let's just say I don't exactly always get into them as so much as I put them on or it's easy to get in but not so much to get out yeah I can I can't get in I just can't get out like a lobster trap you know you know wouldn't it be great whenever you're purchasing a car that you could a lot of people don't take this into consideration, you know, how tall you are. Do you have back problems? How comfortable the seat is? How many times you're going to be getting in and out of that vehicle? And, you know, if I get into Earl's car, I'm lost. I can't even see over the dash. It's like a tank. But for the Avalon,

I'm pretty comfortable for the seat and for everything else. Okay, I think we know. Are you two, Barbara? Do we? We have a couple, actually, but this one's a follow-up kind of, actually, from one of Stu's contacts. Greetings from San Diego. This is Dave from San Diego, which, a quick update, he's been looking for a Volvo XC-60, and he's really been doing a nationwide search, and he ran into an issue with one in New Jersey that turned into a bad situation. So here he says, I wanted to give you an update on my car search.

After searching all over the country for a particular XC60 that I was looking for, I ran into many unscrupulous dealers. Finally, after much searching, I spotted the car I wanted at Kempthorne Motors in Canton, Ohio. After so much bad service, I was shocked to deal with an honest salesman and a straightforward car dealership. Examples include no additional BS dealer fees beyond the state-allowed $380 dock fee. The sales rep Roger documented the very small number of chips on the body and took numerous pictures to send me. The dealer also allowed me to get a full pre-purchase inspection at an ASC mechanic of my choosing.

When the inspection came back with two tires that had 5.30 seconds of wear, the dealer replaced the two rear tires with OEM tires at no charge. Further, the dealer arranged for shipping the car to San Diego, which I paid for, and gave me a tutorial of the car over the phone. The car arrived as promised in perfect condition. To top it off, the salesman sent me a handwritten thank you note for purchasing the car. This kind of shockingly good service is so hard to come by that I wanted to give a shout out to Roger and the team at Kempthorne Motors in Canton, Ohio. This proves to me that it's possible to buy a used car from across the country

if you find the right dealer and do your due diligence. Thanks for your help along the way. Love the show, Dave and San Diego. Give me the spelling of that name. It is Kempthorne as K-E-M-P-T-H-O-R-N motors. Kemp Thorne. Wow. It's amazing we get excited about it.

And unfortunately it's in Canton, Ohio. I mean, if you're looking for an honest car dealer, I just, and the interesting thing is shipping, you know what I'm hoping with this whole pandemic coronavirus thing that we have a watershed moment in the retail business, online sales is really getting strong. Maybe we will be buying more cars online, and maybe, in this case here, from Canton, Ohio to San Diego, California, and apparently the shipping was affordable based on the pricing, and people will go along, way and pay for honesty yeah so yeah we ought to start a list this sounds to me like a whole new angle of the show finding an extremely honest car dealer

and the first one list we'll start it and we'll add to the list will be a Kempthorne motors and can't know how Kempthorne yeah wow to this topic as a woman i feel much safer online i feel more in control online so uh you know that's that that's a great a great uh youtube that you shared with us absolutely i think if you it's nice to be not to beat this to death but i think that if a person uh were like dave in san diego really had the uh stay stick to it to continue no matter what car you're looking for use car use all or a new vehicle, if you go far enough and you shop far enough away and expand your radius, you will find a savings that will be so substantial that would actually justify the shipping.

And if you can find somebody that will give you an out-the-door price, that's a price you'd write the checkout for, and pick the car up and take it home or have a chip to you. If you can find that, how much time would it really take? I mean, it took Dave a while. We've been talking to him for, you know, I think it's been over several weeks. A couple weeks. But if you're actually at your keyboard and you go around, it might take you two or three hours. And you start close and you expand.

But in this case here, I don't know how far it is. We could Google it. San Diego to Canton. How far is it? Somebody do that. Ask Siri. How far is San Diego from Canton? I'm going to guess 1,800 miles.

Yeah. So shipping for 1,800 miles. miles that's a good number would probably be a thousand dollars yeah to go from here to California it's in the neighborhood of 1500 so from canton probably around 1,000 so they found all right so who's who's got what on the numbers now i'm 1800 1800 what do you say earl 1500 i'm going to say 1700 oh wait is this the prices right rules can jonathan now say one mile Oh, oh, he's already on the Google. Okay, well, I've got 1889 from Canton to San Diego as the cross highways by highways, showing highways there.

So getting back to my point is the fact. Hang on a second. I was within 83 miles. I think that deserves a little. Yeah, let's get Josh. So we're trying to encourage people to use online. And you share your gasoline, your shoe leather, you are really saving a lot of energy and aggravation. And if you use a phony email address, you get a free email address, Yahoo or Outlook or Gmail, yeah. Yeah, and Gmail. And use a fictitious email address that you get the emails from. And don't give me your phone number, make up a phone number.

You can use your real name if you want to. They're not going to have you, and you can do that. You can hit 25 or 30 dealerships and get 25 or 30 conversations and proposals and quotes. Choose the best one, and you'll probably find it'll pay the shipping charges. Yeah, definitely worth the time. Ladies and gentlemen, knowledge is power. Our lines are open. We're waiting for your call.

Yeah, come on, call us. We need some more calls. 877-960-9960. 877. 960 9090. I have some anonymous feedbacks if we're waiting. Oh, great. All right. This one came in. It's a question about some diesel trucks, so this might be in Rick's wheelhouse. If you think of five-year-old diesel trucks are outrageously priced, look at a 15-year-old Dodge pickup with a Cummins Diesel.

Even a Roach sells for $10,000 and one in nice condition sells for 20. There's only one reason for this. Trucks pre-2008 don't have DEF filters, and everyone wants them because of that. DEF filters help the environment by reducing emissions, but man, do they tank the reliability of diesel engines? Do you know anything about that, Rick? I would have to look that up, because unfortunately, it's been 20 years since I worked on a diesel. And right now, Toyota doesn't have any diesels here in the U.S. They make diesels outside of the U.S., but we don't have them. I do know the basics of diesel operation and a few things about them, but yeah, it's those older,

trucks, those are the ones that they'll do that rolling coal. They can tune them up to the point of which they're blowing clouds of black smoke, but you know, it also, that is very hard on an engine when you've got running that rich. Why don't you Google that? And we'll answer it sometimes.

Rick answers $999 out of $1,000. Stumped him because Toyota doesn't build the diesel in the U.S.A. I'm already on it. So let's go to another anonymous feedback and we'll come back and see if we can help that man. I thought, well, I thought Rick just made everything up, but now I'll get to see the research in action here.

Yeah, this is one I actually ran into recently. The DEF is the diesel exhaust fluid. Okay. And without trying to get too technical, when you're trying to reduce emissions in a vehicle, there's a happy point where you get the hydrocarbons and the carbon dioxide way down, and the oxides of nitrogen then start to go up.

So this diesel fluid is actually in bigger trucks. It's meant to be injected into the exhaust right before the final burn portion so that it can help reduce those oxides of nitrogen coming out of the truck. And that being a bigger expense, that's why a lot of people look for the older diesel trucks. Understood. So people disable that on their trucks, or can it be disabled? It can be disabled, but it's going to affect the way the engine runs in such a bad way. that it wouldn't be worth doing it.

Okay, I got you. Understood. All right. Next we have. The anonymous feedback reads, I get the point of comparing out-the-door prices among competitors. But if they're all charging you bogus fees

like dealer fees, electronic filing fees, window etching fees, et cetera, it makes no difference who gives you the lowest price. The goal is not paying any of those made-up charges. Yeah, I read that anonymous feedback, and I see exactly, the thought process. The problem is that because every dealer has different hidden fees

and they have different names and different amounts. I noticed when the day from San Diego, Bottas Volvo, in Ohio they have a state mandated limit on dealer fees of $380. Now if everybody was consistent in Ohio and that was the only hidden fee, then it's easy. It's just a matter of They're allowed to charge it, and they're going to charge it, and everybody charges it. So it's just like the price of the car went up by $380. You just have to shop and compare different dealers that will have the lowest out-the-door price. So that's the reason we go to the out-the-door price.

We go to the outdoor price because you're playing the dealer's game when you get into the, I won't pay this fee, and you also get into a situation where you don't recognize it because they are so clever. electronic filing fee, e-filing fee, doc fee, admin fee, and you have to be an expert on hidden fees to know what's legit and what's not. They even call fees they don't want to call the name. They say taxable fees. Well, if it's taxable, it's not really a government fee. So I like to take away their game and just say, charge all the fees you want to. Just give me your out-the-door, bottom-line price.

I can write a check for that amount, give you the check, and take my car home. If they do that, then you just take their big fat fees compared to somebody else who doesn't have big fat fees, and maybe that's a better deal. So just out-the-door price, you also cannot negotiate to remove the fees, usually. Sometimes they will. But you have to understand this. The Sales Commission usually does not account for the deal.

dealer fee, meaning the salesperson typically gets 25% of the price of the profit on the car. But he doesn't get paid on the dealer fees. So if you're talking to the salesman about taking this hidden fee off by any name, he's going to say, we can't do it. We charge all customers that. You'll probably tell you we have to charge all customers that. Well, he has to charge him that because if he takes it off, he's lowering the commissionable growth. So if there's a thousand dollars in dealer fees and he lowers the price for you by a thousand dollars that takes that dealer fee off it cost him two hundred fifty dollars with commission at 25 percent in so you don't want to play the dealers game and

argue about fees get all the fees you want put it in the lump sum and shop and compare that's the case I like the phrase of like what should I write the check for and drive away I'm going to my bank I'm getting a cashier's check what is that to the penny what's that amount going to be boy what a good feeling that would be you know and there was a time whenever it was just a dealer fee and people knew what it was but the terminology has become a whole lot more elaborate and it's really hard to decipher and as Josh said that's a win-win situation you know what if what is the out-the-door write the check boom you're gone here's a little trick you can try when you're buying a car if there are

hidden fees involved, and you're saying I want an out-the-door price. We've actually done that at our dealership in the past, and you can do it yourself. You ask for the out-the-door price, and you say this is the price I can write the check for, and they give you the price. I said, okay, I'm taking that, as Josh just alluded, to my credit unit. I'm taking it to my bank, and they're going to give me a cashier's check, and I'm going to bring it to you. at our dealership in the past, I don't know if we've done it recently, but Stu said he wanted to start trying it. When the customer comes in and they're convinced that they have an out-the-door price

from another dealer, we say, well, we can verify that for you. You call the salesman up at the dealership and pretend to be Mr. Smith at Wells Fargo Bank and say that my customer wants to buy a car, we're going to issue a check. I'd like to check for the amount that I can give my customer to bring to you to buy the car. And I understand the price is this. And they start hemming and hauling, the salesman is, heming and hauling to Mr. Smith, the loan officer at Wells Fargo, then you know that they're not giving you a legitimate price.

That's the way you don't play the dealer's game, you get to the bottom line. Absolutely. Or you can go to Erlon Cars, and you can pull up my affidavit, the out-the-door price and you can take you've got all the control you know if you're really not well you don't want to duke it out with anybody but sometimes that's a little bit of fun but anyway back to seriously the out-the-door price and you can download that fax it over to the car dealer that you're dealing with they put the price in fax it to a manager whatever and you're guaranteed so take advantage of that, ladies and gentlemen. And we are going to go to Warren. He's a regular caller

from Pompano Beach. Good morning, Warren. Hey, good morning, guys. How are you? Great. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that from this radio show, I helped my cousin out, and I'll tell you exactly what happened to happen yesterday. He's got an avalon. It's about five years old. And we were just talking in general, and I'm here in northern New Jersey, and expecting the big heat wave here tomorrow with temperatures close to 100 degrees. And just in passing he says, you know, I have a recall on my Avalon. I said, really?

And I said, what is it? He said, some airbag thing. I said, airbag, let me see it. It was a Takata airbag. So I said, Tim, Lou, you better go and get that fixed. So he's a busy guy. So I said, look, let me take it in for you. And I just yesterday took it into the

Toyota dealer where he bought it. And I had to say that the all-wearing masks, they look all did the social distancing. Everyone in the place had a mask on. And, you know, there was, you know, I just had to sit ahead. We run very efficiently.

They came out. They grabbed the car. It said two hours. They had it done in 90 minutes. But the fact that I'm listening to your show, he's riding around with this recall on the Takata airbag. The guy knows how long. And he just never took care of it.

So, you know, I want to thank you guys for, you know, telling him, telling me to tell him to get the Takata Airbag fixed, especially now we're going to have this heat wave here in northern New Jersey. Temperatures are supposed to be 95 and above over the next week. And I was telling them what could happen and everything. Of course, a lot of people poo-poo it, but, you know, I got it done for him anyway. So I just wanted to thank you guys for making everybody aware of it.

Yeah. Warren, thanks so much, and thanks for spreading the word on our show. And, boy, I'll tell you what, that heat wave you talk about. Boy, those airbags, the Takata airbag, you know, what a perfect storm with the heat and, you know, as if we needed something else to add to the danger. But thank you for the call. Do you have any other questions? No, I think that's pretty much it, but I think you guys do a great service because, you know, I would never know about it. You don't read, you'll read virtually nothing about it today.

And the fact that you guys have these, you know, keep bringing it up, and the last person in the world, I would think would have been his car that had, and he's, you know, he's been riding around with this, so God knows how long with the recall. He's a busy lawyer, he doesn't have time, and I'm tired, and I'm up here staying at his house. So, you know, he got the thing that said, well, just make the appointment, and I'll bring it in for you. But, like I said, the dealership, they had everybody was wearing a mask. They had all social distancing, and so there was no problem with the masks or anything like that. So I think the fact that you do such a great job in telling people,

about these recalls and stuff is really an important function. Because, you know, like I said, you don't see anything about it anymore. Yes, things have really quieted down as far as that's concerned. And as you know, Earl's been on quite a journey with this terrible, terrible situation. You could drive off a lot and, you know, get into an accident and die on the road. And there's just a lot of really important people who really haven't taken this into consideration. consideration. So thank you, Warren, and your friend, I think he really appreciate you. No, especially, I said, boy, you better get this fixed because, you know, talking about

this heat for the next week to 10 days. I'm talking about brutal heat up here. And I said, you know, these things would explode like a hand grenade. Because when people don't follow it, it's like anything else, they're not paying attention to it. Oh, it's like a light bulb or it's, you know, so when I get around to fix it, I'm fix it. It's not a big deal when I change the oil next time. So he forgot, you know, he just didn't do it. And now it's done. So I'm glad of you guys told them about it. Thank you very much. Thank you, Warren. Give us a call again. Hey, 77-960, or you can text us at 772-4976530. Don't forget, your anonymous feedback. www. www.com. Okay, who are we going to here?

I have another feedback, or... Yeah, I just, this Warren's call prompted me to remind people. We throw a lot of numbers at you and web addresses and things like that. Probably the most important one we can throw you if you're buying a vehicle is safercar.gov. You should write it down and put it somewhere where you can't miss it when you're car shopping. You know, the problem is that there's no conversation about it anymore, especially during the pandemic. And it isn't just the Takada airbag. I mean, there's a lot of dangerous recalls.

One out of every four vehicles on the road has a dangerous recall. One out of four. And 25% of the total number of vehicles on the road, that's a lot of vehicles. When you buy a used car, you've got, it's like Russian roulette. The chances are that car has got a dangerous recall and wasn't fixed. So, safercar.gov. www. www.safercar.gov.

You go there to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association site, you put the VIN in, and it tells you exactly what are the recalls if they're dangerous, if the recall fix is available. The one thing you don't ever want to do is buy a car without the fix available. I mean, you can buy a car with a dangerous recall if you know it's dangerous recall because you can tell the dealer, fix it before I buy it. Or if you want to take some risk, you buy it. and you go straight to the Honda dealer or the Chevrolet dealer who's ever manufacturer

and make them fix it right away. But you can buy a car today legally and have the fix unavailable, and you can have that car for a couple of years before they make the fix available. It's a terrible situation. Safercar.gov. Write it down and check out the vehicle before you buy it. Okay, Josh, you got another one? Yeah, this one appears to be from a employee of a crisis.

Jeep dealership simply says a Chrysler manufacturer extended warranty allows you to keep your car covered this warranty is a genuine MOPAR protection plan that can be purchased at any time during the life of your vehicle the Chrysler Jeep Fiat and Dodge warranty plans offered here are sold without sales pressure yeah we had a discussion last week and I wasn't aware that there are manufacturers out there selling extended warranties Toyota doesn't and so I learned something and I think we talked about Ford last week and now we find out Chrysler also has such a thing.

So my answer on that is if it's a manufacturer selling you the warranty, it's a lot more legitimate and it's a lot less likely to be overpriced with less coverage than it should have than anything else. I don't always believe to buy extended warranty is a good practice. from an economic standpoint. It might be good practice from a peace of mind standpoint, but if you buy a good reliable vehicle, it's just common sense. You're probably going to end up paying more in warranty costs than you do in repair costs.

If you buy an unreliable vehicle, something at Consumer Reports has a high maintenance and repair cost, then you might be a good idea to buy one. But if you buy one, be sure you know what's covered. and what's not covered. And look at the price. These prices that I see from the ones that are advertised on television, you know, $2,000 and more for this extended warnings, all they do is cover the power train. But if it's a manufacturer, it's legitimate.

All right, we have another one. This might take a while. I'll have to absorb that and read a shorter one. This one's for Rick. Rick, what is the deal with nitrogen-filled tires? tires. Is this legit or just another dealer trick? Apparently, not a long-time listener of the show because for many years, this is a hot topic, but, you know, Rick and my dad could easily answer this question for you. Is they on what tires? Nitro, nitrofil-d-d-tyers.

Boy, do we have a lot to say about nitrogen. Take it away. I'm tired to answer that. You go ahead and answer it. I use nitrogen, but I go to the Daytona 500, and it really, really helps me. You get that extra tenth of a second, don't you? Short answer, blue smoke and mirrors. Nitrogen does nothing special for the tires. The air we breathe is 78% nitrogen. And folks, all that's happening is that dealership is trying to make you a captive audience

because they'll say, we'll feel your cars back up with nitrogen free anytime you come in. So every time you come in there to get your tires checked, they can look for something. else to upsell you. And you get those cool green valve step cash. If you have to have nitrogen, then buy your tires at Costco because they give you the nitrogen free, but they have an ulterior motive too because they promise to top off and freshen up your nitrogen, your worthless nitrogen. But I say it's okay to buy worthless nitrogen to the price is zero. So you pay zero, the nitrogen is worth zero. And if you go to Costco, they'll give you more worthless nitrogen. every time they service your car.

And just as a reminder for newer listeners, years ago, we did our own study, filled half of our rental car fleet with regular air, half with nitrogen, drove them for a couple months, measured the tire wear, the gas mileage, and there was no measurable difference between our rental fleet. We have a rental company, put half nitrogen in the tires,

the other half without, drove them for several thousand miles. No difference. Consumer reports, by the way, did a test later on and verified that we were accurate. We thought it was legitimate. It sounded so good. We thought it might be legitimate, so that's the reason we tested it. And Consumer Reports tested it over a full year on every tire manufacturer in the United States or sold in the United States, and they came up to the conclusion,

nitrogen is worthless in a tire. And it is not unheard of, ladies and gentlemen, that you can go into a dealership and they'll charge you for nitrogen. and they'll charge you an obscene amount of money. We've heard of it. We've had our, you know, listeners call us, and it is, well, what a terrible thing to take advantage of the consumer one other way. Okay, 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30.

Before we get to your YouTube, Rick, we're going to go to Gail, who's giving us a call from, well, the print is a little small there, but it is, Gail, and welcome to the show, Gail. Hi, Gail. Good morning. My question is, what Toyota model has the easiest infotainment to operate? I've had trouble in the past with some cars that I've purchased, and wondering what Toyota model would be easiest on the infotainment to operate, please. I can offer my two cents here. This is Josh.

Okay. The newer models, first let me ask you a question. Do you own an iPhone or an Android phone? iPhone. Oh, perfect. In my opinion, my humble opinion, most 2020 models of Toyota and above have Apple CarPlay as a standard feature. And basically what this does is you plug your phone in and it mirrors your iPhone on your screen in your car. and it is as intuitive and easy to use at your iPhone.

In my experience, I mean, they've gotten better over the years, but the factory infotainment systems are just a nightmare. And I think everyone here at this table will agree. They're clunky. They're non-intuitive. But the Apple CarPlay feature, which I said, is standard on most Toyotas now. You plug it in, and it looks just like the home screen on your iPhone.

You make your calls just like you make your calls on your phone. You use the map. You speak to it, and it's as simple. as using your phone. Okay, all the Toyota models would have that feature? Yes, the majority of our 2020 models and above. So if you're buying a used Toyota, you better make sure, but you can be pretty confident that every new Toyota that's a 2020 now is going to have it.

Right. Oh, perfect. That's what I wanted to know. Thank you so much. I'm sorry, go ahead. No, it's an excellent question. I just want to thank Apple for jumping in and helping toy it out. after all these long years.

Exactly. Yeah, for sure. Hey, Gail, are you a first-time caller? I am a first-time caller. Oh, congratulations. You just won yourself $50. Yay. Thank you so much.

Oh, you're welcome. Thank you. Thank you so much. I thank you for the information. It was really important for me to note that before I purchased. I appreciate that. Oh, you're quite welcome, and you can stay on the line, and you can give Mike in our control room your information.

so that I can send you that check. Thank you so much, and thank you for your information. It was very helpful. Have a wonderful weekend. Give us a call again. And don't forget, Gail, spread the word with the ladies. I want to hear from more ladies. Thank you so much.

Okay, I believe a YouTube from Rick. Yeah. Mark Ryan, as a comment, he says, Rick, being from Iowa, our state produces a lot of ethanol. Are you seeing any long-term engine or fuel system problems from the use of ethanol in the gas, the E-10 version? Well, E-10 has been around for many, many years. I mean, we're talking 20 years or more now, and E-10 is actually pretty safe. We haven't seen any real big issues at all.

However, in the past four or five years, six years, cars are now going to E-15, and the cars are designed to handle it. But remember, if you have an older vehicle that's only up to E10 standards, do not use E15 fuel. The other thing to watch out for is that E85. If your car is not flex fuel and cannot handle E85 fuel, definitely do not use that fuel. It can cause major problems and a huge expense. Other than that, the cars that are properly designed for it, we haven't seen any of real major issues with them. It works pretty well.

They're trying to use the ethanol as basically an oxidizer in the fuel to help it burn cleaner and more completely to help reduce emissions. I have a question about that. When they say E10, that means up to 10. It doesn't mean 10% ethanol. Right. It's up to 10%.

What is, maybe you don't know, what is the actual amount of ethanol in E10? It depends on the gas supplier, the actual manufacturer of the fuel. It can be anywhere from 0%, which is unlikely. Most of them are going to be around 8 to 9.5%. Some of them are actually pushing it right up to that full 10%, but they usually try to leave a little bit lower so there's kind of a safety gap in there.

You know what I used to think. The reason they use ethanol, I thought it was to lower the cost of the overall gasoline. It does, but it also is for an emission situation. It does help reduce emissions. So a gallon of ethanol is actually less expensive than a gallon of pure gasoline. Yes. Okay. Does it have any effect on the fuel mileage? It actually lowers it just a tiny bit, but we're talking maybe four or five tenths of a gallon per miles per gallon. You know, you know, instead of getting 45 miles a gallon, you might get 44. 4.3, 44.5.

Okay. All right. I have a couple of texts here or an anonymous feedback if you like. Excuse me, Josh. The lines have just lit up, and we have a phone call from Amy and Luxahatchie. Good morning, Amy. Good morning. How are you guys?

Great. Are you a first-time caller? I am. My dad listens to you all the time. Oh, thank you. Congratulations. You just won yourself $50. Well, thank you.

You're welcome. Whenever we're finished with our conversation, if you'll stay on the line, you can give Mike in our control room your information and I'll get that check out to you. Great. Thank you very much. You're welcome. What can we do for you today? What is the difference between SUVs and the crossovers?

Hmm. Josh? Well, in my uneducated opinion, I would say a crossover is more car. is more car-like. An SUV, I mean, stands for sport utility vehicles. So I think traditionally an SUV will be more of your, you know, your Jeep Cherokee, your forerunner sort of thing. The vehicles that are sort of a hybrid between a passenger car and an SUV fall into the CUC category. And that's the reason they call it a crossover, because it's a crossover from an SUV to a sedan. There you go. It's supposed to incorporate the better features of the

than in the better features of the SUV. Yeah, so you'll have the comfort and the step-in ease of a passenger car, but some of the utility and cargo capacity that you find in your SUVs. Okay. Thank you very much. It sounded good to me, right? Yeah. Yeah.

I think she bought it. I think she bought it. I think she bought it. Oh, that's awesome to hear. It wasn't a complicated response. It was just, you know, Josh made it sound, you know, because you really you have to scratch your head and think, you know, about the whole concept. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, like all of a sudden the crossover kind of came, you know, in the last few years, and I'm like, okay, what exactly is the difference when you're looking at cars? Yeah, especially if you have children, too, so. Yeah, no, they're becoming more popular than passenger cars. I mean, you know, for the longest time, we always sold more cars than SUVs or crossovers. Now it's practically 50-50, and I think some months here and there you sell a few more trucks, and crossovers and you do cars. So you're in good company, though.

Yeah, times are changing. Yeah, popularity there. Yeah, they are. Well, thank you guys very much. You're welcome. Don't forget to leave your information. Thank you, Amy. I will. Thank you. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, you can give us a call. We've got plenty of time. 877-960, or you can text us at 7-7-2-497-6530. and Josh was about to give us a text here.

Yeah, I have a nice person named Jessica from Sea Bering. She says she loves a show, and she has a question for Nancy. She's putting you on the spot, that seems. Nancy, when were the first airbags mandatory in the United States? Holy horse hairs. Yeah, she really put you through the, put you in the cross airs there. So I'm going to turn it over to you and watch you sweat for a few seconds here. It's time for my break.

Okay, so we'll get back to you. I can tell you I'm going to tell you I'm just going to guess I remember I'm going to go back in history a little bit here and I'm showing my age

but boy back in the 40s and the 50s now I remember flopping around in a car all over the place you know but then there was some kind of a cushion that was assembled

and the reason I remember this is because because it was a guy from Pittsburgh, I should say, Pennsylvania. So, you know, gave you my little journey through life. But to answer your question, I'm just going to have to guess. I'm just going to have to guess. I'm going to think, I think that it might have been 1999. Very close. Rick says 1998.

Thanks, Rick. I was close. I think Rick must have Googled it like I did. My answer, I actually have a very specific answer, according to Google. It's September 1st, 1998. Oh, specifics here, Jessica. And also, you know, I remember back then, you know, Ralph Nader in a book that he wrote, unsafe at any speed.

So there you have it. Hence the, well, airbag. Okay, Jessica. Thanks for listening to the show. Weekend and week out. You've become a regular listener. We do appreciate you. Have a wonderful weekend.

I can say that being the son of a car dealer, I was lucky enough to get a pretty new car when I first turned 16, so I can testify that a 1992 Mazda also had an airbag because I tested it out personally. Yes. Well, they actually started making airbags, the first airbags, back as far back as the 50s, they were playing with them.

No kidding. And Rick, that was an engineer that I just spoke about, who was from Pennsylvania. And he was playing around. He was an engineer. And this story just sticks out because, of course, I'm from Pittsburgh. But he assembled his cushion. And it was back in the 50s. And like I said, hence the airbags took.

But it wasn't, and they started installing them in cars in the 80s. But it wasn't until 98 that the government said they're mandatory. You have to have airbags. Yeah, September the 1st. How about seatbelts? Do you know when those were made mandatory? I don't. I'd have to Google that, but I know seatbelts were actually becoming available back in the 50s in a lot of cars for...

If I recall, I had a friend in high school who was restoring an old Mustang. I think it was like a 66, and it did not have seatbelts, if I recall. But I could be wrong about that. They were making them available, but they weren't made. mandatory. Yes. All right. The things we take for granted nowadays.

Honestly. Ninety-nine was when they were first introduced a Swedish inventor, put them into Volvo. Interesting. That makes sense, actually. Yeah, exactly. Okay, we are going to go to Donna, and she is calling us from Palm Beach Gardens. Good morning, Donna. Good morning.

Thank you for taking my call. When I had to trade in my Pontiac-Ramprees, I came to you. came to you at Earl Stewart. So we have two Camrys right now. My latest one, I purchased last July 31st. So it's going to be a year old on the 31st, and your program is to bring it in every six months, which I did at six months. But now we're coming up to the full year.

I only have 3,070 miles on this because of the corona pandemic. And do I still need to bring it in or co-examination? I put it off a month, or do I ruin my tires for life? No, we're being very flexible, and I hope other dealers are, too. We understand certainly why people don't like to bring cars or venture out, really period into retail establishments. And I think you're doing the right thing. If you had a serious safety problem with your car, I'd give you a different answer.

But for routine maintenance, you're not going to hurt your warranty with us, and you're not going to hurt the free tire program with us, we understand. And we're telling everybody for routine maintenance and things that are not safety issues, you really ought to wait until you feel comfortable. Some of the car dealerships are taking extraordinarily good precautions. Some aren't. We do, but I certainly understand your feeling. Wait until you feel comfortable and your warranty is fine and your free tire program is fine.

So my follow-up to that is, though, is this car, Mike Hamry, one of those that has the recall for the fuel pump issue? We'd have to run the VIN number on that, and we will do that. If you want to text me your VIN number, I can get back to you after the show, or you can go to Safercar.gov and put the VIN number in yourself, or call the dealership and give them the VIN number. but you can find out immediately. I don't know what percentage have fuel pump or calls. I'm not sure the exact number, but we can quickly check that for you. Yeah, check it for you any way you like this.

Get that VIN number and communicate it to me or to the dealership. And Nancy wants me to ask you if you are a first-time caller. I am, yes. I've listened to you most times in the car and never stop the car to call. But I'm home right now. The reason she asks is because she has a gift, a surprise for you. Nancy, tell her about her surprise. Donna, I have a surprise for you.

$50. Oh, that's going to be great. Yeah. Thank you so much. You're quite welcome. And before I hang up, I would just like to say that I have worked with John Gormley at your dealership, who has been absolutely wonderful. And for our service, Wilmer has been great.

and I just, and your service area is just so comfortable. The first time we came in there, I came in with my husband, he spent a pass, and then I had to buy this last car on my own. So John made it really easy to do. Well, thank you. He's been in with us a long time. I call him the pericomo of car salespeople because he's so relaxed and pleasant. He is.

Donna, what years are you, Camry? What year? Yes. Last year. Oh, so it's a 19? 2019, yeah. Okay, well, there were 19,000 Camrys involved in that recall. So there's a good chance yours is not one of them, but we still want to check your VIN just to be sure.

So how would I text you? That would be easiest, probably. Yeah, you can just text us at 772-497-6530. I'll give that to you again slowly. Area code 772. four nine seven six five three zero great thank you so much well thank you for the call very much and for the compliments on John Cormley I'll pass that along yeah and Willner and Wilmer in service also Wilmer was wonderful too we'll do thank you so much for the

compliments Donna but for a moment I want to thank you you know I have to say on behalf of the ladies this this platform that I'm building It's not just me, it's all of you that participate on Saturday morning, and you give us a call. And I want to thank you for being part of helping me to build the platform for lady callers. We definitely have a whole lot more than we once did. You have yourself a wonderful weekend, and you can give Mike that information. Okay. Thank you.

You're welcome. 877-960 or you can text us at 772-497-2-4976530 now back to Josh yeah we got a couple of texts here first one's for Rick Rick how reliable would a Toyota T-100 now we're not talking about the Terminator sent from the future here we're speaking of a earlier model pickup truck toy to make but how reliable would a T-100 V6 with 110,000 miles The truck has been well maintained. Well, low mileage, too.

I think I know the answer, but this is definitely your wheelhouse here. Well, they quit making the T-100 in 98, I think, pretty certain. And there were two V6 engines installed in them over the years that they made the T-100. One other time, right? The first one, the 3VZ engine, they were pretty decent engines, but I'd be a little leery of that one. starting about in 95, they started putting in the 5VZ, 3.4-liter V6, and those engines were bulletproof. So with 110,000 miles, I'd snap it up. I would drive that truck all day long. Yeah, I have to agree with them on that.

It's a collector's item. I think it'd be interesting to see what the asking price was because that's a classic. I'd love to see how clean the body is. All right, you heard it from Rick, snatched that baby up. Next, we have one from, I don't believe I have the name on it, but it says, hi, Josh and team. I was reading on, I was reading on jalapnick.com, which is a auto website. And they had an article that recognized that some people end up living in their vehicles. And I guess nowadays in the pandemic, there's not unheard of, tough times.

I was wondering, what would be the best vehicle or vehicles, not a camper, to live in for a small family or an older couple, an animal lover with several animals or a young single person. Hopefully, no one will ever need this information. Thank you. And I agree. I hope no one ever needs this information. And I believe this was from Anne-Marie. Vans, wouldn't you say a van?

I mean, obviously the first thing I would think is something with a lot of space. So a passenger van or a larger SUV would be preferable. Yeah. With the seats that fold down. So if you had a bunch of people and then you could fold all the seats down, and you'd have an old area for sleeping in the back. Kind of a sad thing to be discussing, but you can't close your eyes to the reality of what's going on.

You can't drive a house to work, but you can sleep in a car. And I would look at a sienna because the sienna vans, at once you can make it open up inside by pulling the middle row seats out and flattening the rears and put enough blankets down to make a pretty comfortable bag. Yeah, a lot of vans do that. But I think the Honda Odyssey and a number of other ones do that. And especially if you were considering the idea of a vehicle that, say, you weren't looking to live in a permanent, but drive it to a campground to camp in the van. I mean, you know, it'd make a great little mini home for that.

Yeah. Yeah, there's a big culture out there, you know, van life culture, lots of neat tips and tricks on how to turn your van into a temporary living space. A little happier thought idea of living in it. Maybe she only means for a weekend or a week when you're camping out. somewhere while you're just on a bit of vacation. Absolutely. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. And I think Josh will continue with the text.

Sure, I got actually not a text, but we have one more anonymous feedback I can read. This one says, love the show, as much as I love my 1968 barracuda. And then she says, hi, Nancy. With V6 engines quickly being replaced by four cylinder turbos, not so much at Toyota yet, but coming down the pike apparently, I'm concerned that all the extra pressure on the engines will cause them to wear much sooner. What are your thoughts? That's something that I don't think we're going to see that big an issue because the quality of the engines has changed so much over the years and increased so much that it's insane. As a young kid, I used to always believe in the Chevy V8s. It was... Oh, you had to have a Chevy V8.

But I always learned that when you're disassembling an engine, you had to have a special tool called a ridge reamer, and it would actually cut the metal away at the top of the cylinder so you could get the piston out of the block. And this is because of the wear that it would do. The first Toyota engine that I ever disassembled was on a Toyota Cressida, and when I took it apart,

took it apart, the cylinder was still in perfect condition, and the car had 150,000 miles on it. Did the customer know that was your very first engine? Honestly. No, they didn't. Well, the first Toyota engine. I'd had quite a few other engines apart, but my first Toyota engine. That's like getting on an airplane

and the pilot says, this is my first flight. Yeah, that would be a little scary. How did you do? Did you fix it? Perfectly. The car ran great. I had a lot of help, but the car ran great. But when I looked at that engine and I'm seeing a block that had almost

nowhere, I'm thinking there's something to these Toyota's and that's why I've stuck with this brand for 25 years. Remember, this is not an infomercial and we don't. There are better cars on the road than Toyota's. Every model,

every manufacturer has good models and bad models. We recommend consumer reports. Toyota only has 15% of the market. That means 85% of the population chooses is another car in Toyota every time they buy a car. And yet the cool part is that all these cars competing against each other

means they all have to bump their quality and bring them up. So they're all getting so much better. You're right. That's why these new cars can do three, 400,000 miles. Yeah. Whereas used to be 100,000 miles, it was time to overhaul the engine. Yeah, exactly. Gosh, the Toyota, Cressida, that's really going back in time.

Goodness. We have a caller from Jupiter, and Dick is on the line. Good morning, Dick. How are you? Good morning. How are you all? Welcome to the show. Doing good.

Yeah, well, I've called before a while back. I listen to every week almost, if I'm around. I listened to you this morning. It looked like calls were a little thin, so I thought I called with some comments. That's all right. Sure. I don't have a question. Absolutely.

Number one, I think you're doing a great day program. I really enjoy listening to it, but some of the technical aspects kind of, I'm an engineer, a retired one, and the technical aspects kind of bug me. The comments on the Corvair, Mr. Nader was a hack, let me tell you, from the engineering world, I'm a S-A-E member and mechanical engineer and, et cetera. Is that right? He's a hack. The Corvair, I've owned a number of them, one of the best cars ever owned.

handled well, 64, they had a slight problem with a rear spring. They put a leaf spring in there to keep up the camber from dropping too far. Other than that, the design is based on some very famous cars, the Porsche, and the Volkswagen, the rear engine. And a comment to Earl, Earl said the car was a front-wheel drive that he bought for his mother-in-law or whatever. It's the rear-engine. My ex-wife, yeah.

So it was kind of bugging me, so I thought I'd call in and say hi and comment on that. The other thing I'd like to comment on is one of the best my best experience is in 80-some years of living and buying many cars is with a Tesla.

The Tesla buying experience and service I've had the car at my, I've had one since 18, 2018. I've put 30,000 miles on it. It's a wonderful car. I can't hardly keep myself out of it.

But the buying experience is wonderful the service is great. A couple of occasions, I had a little altercation, had some body work done. I've had the service done and a flat tire. They serviced that and even gave me a new tire because they couldn't repair the leak. So, anyway, I just want to comment on Tesla. They're doing a wonderful job. I think they're going to run the rest of guys out of business. Did you know that the value of Tesla now has risen to the point where they're worth more than the combined value of General Motors and Ford. Oh, yeah.

I know I found it every day. In fact, it's even more than Toyota and Volkswagen combined. And I agree with it totally. The funny thing is, by taking the money, I paid for my Model S in 18 and put it in a stock market, I could have bought two Model S's today. How about that? And let's talk about the Corvair again a minute. Oh, yeah.

I'm an enthusiast of Porsche Club of America for 50 years. the Corvair Club and all that stuff. You brought back some memories that the Corvair was ahead of its time, and the engineering was groundbreaking. It was... Yeah, Ed Cole

was the late engineer at that time. He was wonderful. So it doesn't get the credit of the fact that it was really a design marvel. I will say this, though, and this is from experience. I did drive the Corvare, and I did drive it,

at high speeds. It might have been that particular Corvair that I owned, but I distinctly remember it being unstable at speeds over about 65, 60 or 65. Is there any

recollection on your part, any reason why that would be? No, my first one was a 64 Corvair spider converter with a turbocharged engine. They were one of the first ones out with that. I did that after the first set of cars were out and it was still handling, but I put the next tires, the radio was on it and

made it wonderful even better than what it was before. I did not have any recollection of poor handling. Yeah, it was just only at higher speeds. I love the way the car handled around town, the way, you know, on turns and parking and so on and so forth. But on the Florida Turnpike, I have the recollection of... Well, they're very sensitive to tire pressure. You had to do it. Tires had to be a low pressure, and the rear tires had to be higher pressure was all in the manual. If you didn't do the tire pressure is right, there was a swirling. Oh, that might have been my problem, yeah.

Well, thanks very much for the car. The tire pressure is very sensitive. I hope you can call again. I love to have a guy with technical knowledge and the engineering degree. Absolutely. And Dick, you sound like as if that you're quite experienced and qualified, so I can't let you go unless you give me your opinion of my 1968 barracuda. Well, I'm a Mopar fan, too.

so I love barricotas. I'm also a senior master judge with the AAC, a Antigongolmobile Club of America. I've judged many restored vicas on the show field, and I just like them. I like mobar's.

Oh, wonderful. Well, thank you. But what year was your barracuda? My barracuda was 68. Oh, okay. Yeah, that was a long time ago. Yeah.

Yeah. What then? You had to say the V8 or is six? Six? Yeah, that was a wonderful engine. Yeah, yeah. I really enjoy it. And it was pretty roomy for my three daughters. I used to take them to the drive-in and they'd lay back. They'd go in their PJs and I'd make popcorn and all kind of goodies and we'd go to the drive-in and it was such a, we had such a great time. Yeah, I never owned a barracuda, but I'm a lot of mopards and rest.

stored them, a little red truck. Yeah. I had a Shelby, I was one of the, I'll force, the Shelby Omnic car, that GLSS, that was something else. Anyway, I like the MoFars, and I'm glad to hear you talk about them. It was great talking to you, Dick. Give us a call again. Earl loves talking about that stuff.

Well, you know, your technical thing, I just, I thought out of comment on the Tesla. It don't get enough credit. I agree. I agree with you totally. It's an amazing vehicle. It's a life experience, really. I'll tell you, I bought about 100 cars over the years off and on, and it is the best car I ever bought, period. Well, thank you, Dick. I'll hope you call again, please. Okay, take care. Thank you very much. Have a great weekend.

Well, there was an interesting ride that we took, Earl, whenever we went over and test drove the Tesla. Yeah. Very impressed. I'll tell you, my head... You know, I took a road trip recently. I went up to Tennessee for the safest sort of vacation you can take nowadays, and I was thinking about electric cars and Tesla's, and the term range anxiety, about X number of miles, 200 or 300 miles,

depending on the model you buy. I was just wondering how Tesla sales are going to handle the age of COVID where people might want to consider their car as their main means of transportation on vacations. Well, a Tesla has a device that automatically shows you the nearest charging station. So no matter where you are in the country, you know the nearest charging station. And it also tells you that how much your range is beyond that. So you're really, if you watch your instrument panel, you can go just about anywhere in the country. And you plan your trip ahead of time.

I don't think it's going to be a big hindrance. But range anxiety was huge at the beginning. But now you're looking at over 300-mile range, and so it's not such a bad deal. Not the same as your average gas tank, probably. And the idea that when you stop for that charge up, if it takes 15 or 30 minutes, that's time that you should spend up walking around a little bit, exercising, getting your blood flow, and you go get a snack or hit the bathroom. You know, that time would go by very quickly, and then you'd be ready to go again.

You know, Rick. For those of you who don't know, Rick took a very... a pioneer in hybrid driving. What year was that, Rick? Went to what? Oh, what year did we do that? 06, 07, something like that? Back in the day, the hybrid, it was an unusual thing to have an hybrid car. And Rick drove a Prius from North Palm Beach to Washington, D.C.

Was it three days? It was about that on one tank of fuel. Yeah, one tank. By driving it in a special manner so that the car used almost no gasoline, but was using electric all the way. You did not want to be behind Rick on that road trip. And I still wear your shirt from time to time. That's a cute, that was a cute little shirt.

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, the number is 877-9-60-99-60, and we are going to go to John, who is calling us from Stewart. Good morning, John. Good morning. What can we do for you this morning? Okay, I have a question. My wife and I, I'm retired, and we're just. she's getting ready to retire in a couple years

and we want to get like one more car you know maybe hopefully to last us and we've been looking at some cars and we looked at a Honda Genesis and we kind of like that car but I just wondering if the guys on the show have an opinion about the Genesis you know I don't think we do

people get tired of hearing us say this but John but consumer reports you can go to consumer reports dot org, type in Honda Genesis, and they will give you a complete rundown on the reliability, the cost of maintenance, safety, a good price, so and so forth. My guess is it's probably recommended because Honda builds a great car, and I guess we've got, I see the laptop and the iPhone going over here. We might have somebody that's doing the Googling for you. Actually, I was looking up on the VIN number for Donna's car.

Oh, okay. Me too. Okay. Just go to Consumer Reports.org and put in Hondagenesis. It'll take it and tell you, my guess this is probably a good, reliable car. My opinion on really, I've seen quite a few on the road. I think they're a good looking car. Stylish-wise, they're great.

And there are so many of them on the road. There's a lot. I know a lot of time. I thought it was a Billy at first when I first saw it because it's got those little wings, flying wings. Exactly, yeah. It catches you off guard. I almost wonder if Hyundai is trying to make Genesis into its own separate brand that they may kick off separate from Hyundai soon. I believe they are.

I think it's going to be like analogous to the Lexus and Toyota, you know, like your higher-end line versus your more run-of-the-mill. And Hyundai has come a long way. so you can probably do pretty good with that car yeah yeah there's really come up on their quality i i think you could do really good with that car okay well hey i appreciate you guys show you guys are doing great job thanks a lot oh thanks a lot john keep on listening okay bye bye have a wonderful weekend okay ladies and gentlemen i just want to let everyone know that uh we are going to discontinue the calls because we do have a missed shopping report coming up. And it's real important that you vote on our mystery shop

because we love hearing from you, hearing from you, the listeners. And I believe that Rick has a YouTube. I've got a question on here. I wasn't fast enough. The Hyundai Genesis is a reliable car, has high under-satisfaction 7 to 8% and it shows just a quick glance here. Good mileage, low cost of maintenance, it's a good vehicle. Yeah. Two quick ones. First, for Donna that called in earlier, if you're listening, we got your VIN number. Your car is not under the campaign for a fuel pump.

So you do not need the fuel pump replaced on your car. You're fine on that. And Justin Thomas is asking on YouTube here, my wife and I are in the market for new cars. They want two new cars. What would be the best strategy and what? When do you tell the salesperson that you're looking for two cars versus only one? Well, I think it would be good. I think that they're looking at the commission, and basically they're getting a double commission.

If they're smart, they'll probably give you a better price on both cars if you're a good negotiator, and if you compare those prices with their competition, you'll get typically a little better price on two cars and a little bit of price on three cars. Fleet sales are typical of that. We get, you know, not often, not often enough, but in my dealership will sometimes sell eight or ten enough cars at a time. And to be competitive, you have to have the price shaved real low.

So two cars should get a better unit price than on one. Yeah, I concur. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, are caught up here. Are you all caught up, Rick? Yep. Okay, great. and Josh, you're good to go. Okay. We are going to go to the

Mystery Shopping Report, the highlight of the show, and we've mystery shopped Green Acres, Nissan. And keep your text coming in. We have the telephone line closed during this, but you can still text us

at 772 4976530 at 772 4976530 or Your AnonymousFeedback.com, Your Anonymous Feedback.com. And typically we have some time left at the end of the shopping report,

and we'll get to those texts and anonymous feedbacks at that time. As Nancy said, we shopped Greenacres, Nissan. Before I begin the report, I'd like to do a quick follow-up to last week's Takata shop of Greenway Kia. You recall that they failed the Takata test by neglecting to disclose recall

and for being willing to sell Agent Thunder a dangerous vehicle without making the repairs first. We said that we would run the VIN on safercar.gov, and I mentioned that earlier in the show, everybody should write that down, safercar.gov, and check your van. We just did it for another caller, found out that their Toyota Camry did not have a fuel pump recall. So safercar.gov. So we ran this on the car dealership vehicle from last week, a week later to see if the vehicle still have the open recall. I'm pleased to report that the BMW in question appears to be fixed. So that kind of mitigates the slapping we gave the dealership last week.

They did fix it, but it wasn't in time for Agent Thunder, but it wasn't time for the real buyer when somebody comes up and buys that car. Better late than never. Yeah. Okay, now on to our current shop, we decided to invest in a good old-fashioned, too good to be true advertisement. You know, people just understood that. You know, there's no such thing as a free lunch, all those cliche expressions. Too good to be true. It's just too good to be true.

And when you see that, you see a $40,000 vehicle for $39 a month, something should, you know, the light bulb should go off, something. But, you know, it's amazing that people. flock in. There's got to be a psychological term to describe that. I know. P.T. Barnum is a sucker born every minute. I guess he was right. I don't know. I don't know why people respond, but they do. And that's why we use that as a test as to where we're going to do our mystery shop. We decide to invest. Okay, here we go. These have been the bread and butter of Earl and Carr since the beginning, the unbelievable advertising. The subject of this week's shop to Green Acres, Nissan.

We've only had the pleasure to investigate them once before, about 15 months ago. Green Acres, Nissan opened up just a few years ago in the Lake Worth area, and we believe it's partly owned by the Terry Taylor Auto Group. Well, Terry Taylor is an interesting person. He is the largest private owner of car dealerships in the country, and he owns control. He's the general partner, and the lawyers. out there know about LLCs. So Terry Taylor is a general partner and then he has limited

partners and makes him feel good, but if Terry Taylor wants to do something, the limited partner doesn't have control, he has control. And he's got 40 or 50 dealerships in his private. It doesn't use his name. He tries to remain anonymous and that's the reason I say, Terry Taylor, Terry Taylor, and he doesn't want you to know. I'm not sure why, anyway. Terry Taylor Auto Group, Green Acres, Nissan, is probably a limited partner. It's general manager, limited partner, managing partner. Mike, is that Panaccio?

It's pronounced? I believe so. Panacheo, yeah. Also runs Terry Taylor's Southern 441 Nissan in Royal Palm Beach, and does he also run Southern 441 Toyota? You know what? I believe that is the case. Yeah. Excuse me.

this panachio yeah our resident Italian American Nancy can be the authority on that pronunciation at any rate you may have seen him star in their commercials which been all over TV and I think he has his kids in the commercial is two of the cutest kids are they identical twins if they're not they sure look they're really close they're really cool yeah so Mike Panaccio we love your kids they're really cute you know to let one of them do a commercial. I mean, that would be even better. Yeah.

Anyway, the ad came towards... They're most cuter than your kids, I can say. Yeah, they are. You're not... Well, you used to be cute. Yeah, about 40 years ago. The ad that came to our attention was on the website of Greenegger's Nissan, promising a new 2020 Nissan Rogue Sport S

lease for only $84 a month. Now, yeah, 84. People flock in on these things. I mean, they flock in. It's like if 100 people come in, I'm making up a number, 92, say, you're trying to screw me, I'm out of here,

but eight of them say, hmm, hmm. And a couple of them drive out with the car. So that's, it's a numbers game. You throw enough up against the wall and something sticks, and these car dealers advertise absurdly unbelievable, offers, but there's always somebody that flocks in and ultimately someone buys. I don't

understand that human psychology. An offer this amazing and sure to bring in lots of customers. The ads headline states, saving so low, every Nissan's got to go. That's, you know, so what do they call that? There's a speech term. I know it's rhyme, but

you know, a lot of people use that in their politicians use it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I believe Irv Slossburg, or Let Irv Serve. Let Irv Serve, and then there's You Better Call Saul, but that's a TV show. Which I'd rather watch than. Every time I hear, Let Irv Serve, I think about

You Better Call Saul. Oh, I love that. I love that series. Anyway, it's a clever rhyme, and right below the ad claims that Green Acres, Nissan, is home to the real deal. Really got a flow to home to the real deal. Hey, this is the real deal. Another rhyming tagline, but these are statements

as honest, are these statements as honest as they are lyrical. Also clearly visible are the promised payment of $84 per month along with some red banners that read $0 down $0.0.0 payments. Zero payments, $0.00.

Until 2021 and 0% APR up to 7 years. Here I'll hold this up. You can see the shot of the So it looks pretty good, doesn't it? $84 a month and zero down and You know, I mean, just tell me where to sign. Yeah, where do I sign?

I don't even want to see the card. Where do I sign? Okay, of course, there are several lines of fine print. And, you know, you're not going to be able to read it. I can't read it, and I have this in my hand. And that's probably blown up to bigger than you normally see it. But it's literally unreadable. You can't read it.

And not to mention, on the website, it's a, It's moving across the screen. It stays there for like three seconds and then it disappears. Okay. We blew it up and we have it here. This is what this unreadable, invisible fine print says. Plus tax, title, license, and $999 dealer fee. I mean, they're put in the fine print.

Why do they just make it 1,000? Or 10,000. I mean, if you're hiding it, who cares whether it's $999? $999 dealer fee $3,770, $3,777777 do its signing. Now, here's this $0 down, okay? What's that? There's a bunch more fine print, but that portion seems to be the only part relevant to the lease payment.

Right away, we can see that the $0 down is not referring to the lease. The fine print reveals that the customer will need to come up with tax, title, license, $999 dealer fee on top of $3,77777 do with signing. Yeah, they're all up. You're looking at $5,000. $5,000 and people are flocking in to Green Acres Nissan thinking, I can get in that car and drive it home for $84 a month. www.com.

Yeah, we need to remember to start putting these things on that. You know, what would be great if the Attorney General was listening right now. You know, Ashley Moody, you can, you, it's really, I don't know what to call it out there, but you can enforce the law. Ashley Moody enforces the law

against car dealers and the Florida Automobile Deals Association will no longer make campaign contributions and she will no longer be elected Attorney General. Look out. That's a sad fact. I hate to be cynical. Sad reality. That's the fact. Agent Thunder

was dispatched into the field to investigate. Here's the report. Oh, I brought my wife. I'm speaking in the first person as if I'm major thunder. So my wife and I arrived at Green Acres Nissan in the mid-afternoon and pulled into a spot right in front of the showroom. A couple of salesmen approached our car after an unspoken agreement was made as to who would greet me, flip the coin maybe. One of the salesmen approached us and introduced himself as Akeem. He was wearing a mask and seemed very friendly as we made small talk. My wife showed him the $84 Nissan Rogue advertisement,

and he instantly let us know that the fine print has requirements to get that price. I like the verbiage there. Well, here's Akeem, and he's listened to a sales manager. He's only three days on the job. Well, boss, what do I tell them if they come in and they think they can really buy it? Because the ad says $84 a month. He says, Akeem, listen, you say this. read my lips

we call that looting floating lips the fine print has requirements and Akeem says requirements yeah use requirements the fine print has requirements

to get that price okay boss this is the way they're prepared and everyone would say the exact same thing when you came in but let's go take a look okay we enter the showroom

and I was pleased to see that everyone appeared to be wearing a mask good. You know, it wasn't a month ago that every mystery shop virtually nobody was wearing masks, and it was really scary. And finally, Palm Beach County

County Commission made it a law and I guess that cut everybody's attention. All retail establishments require, have to require the customers to wear masks, I think. Is that right? Yes. Require the customer. Inside publicly accessible spaces.

Customers and salespeople must Matt. Although upon closer look, some of the salespeople customers had them lowered to their chins. And I see this. And frankly, it happened in our dealership. We got caught. We got scolded by a customer. And he texted us and said, you know, I just went in and you're talking about being careful and wearing masks. I was in your dealership and the telephone reception just did this. You know. And that's scary. Josh just keeled over.

But it is scary. At any rate, Akeem led us to a desk. We made more conversation. He was new to the car business, and we've seen that pattern. A lot of people. There was always a lot of fresh blood and car dealerships because the turnover is very high. It's even higher today.

And I think just about every salesperson we've dealt with on mystery shopping reports the past three or four weeks has been new, new to the trade. Having only been there a month, his pleasant demeanor was engaging. He came across his friendly and sincere. We declined his offer for a test drive, stating our concerns over the coronavirus. He handled this well and offered to show us a rogue on the showroom floor. After an informanty presentation, it was time to get into the numbers. My wife and I repeated her desire to get the $84 a month payment

and ask him about the requirements. That was the, you know, shoot. The jargon he is. Yeah, I just, a very good word. I like that. I like that if I were. Euphemism. An evil car deal, yeah, right.

I was trying to think of that, euphemism. And the fine print he had mentioned it before. He said it would be close to $5,000 to get there. I like that, you know, and ask about our credit score. We told him we had an older Hyundai trade and we were willing to use along with $2,000 to $3,000 cash, Also, we said our credit was no issue. We both had scores, bacon scores, over 800.

That's very high. He seemed pleased by that response. He then asked a series of questions. One, are you in the military? Yeah. Well, you know where that's going. And then, what is your job? And I was curious.

I wonder why do, what's my job? I'm a bricklayer. I mean, I didn't, until I read John reported a little further I wasn't sure what that was and then it says we have a few vendors on a list that may qualify for certain specials turned out if you work for Nissan if you're the manufacturer or maybe certain companies that do business with Nissan yeah and lastly does anyone in your household drive of Nissan so what of that all means is those are a fine print and it wasn't even the fine print

normally they put that in the fine print but here if you really wanted to get the price you had to be in the military You had to work for a Nissan supplier or Nissan and you had to have somebody at home that already had a Nissan. Now the odds of those two things happening are about like the odds of winning the lottery or just crazy. And they get away with it.

Ashley Moody, they get away with it. Unfortunately, none of our answers unlocked any special savings. Undeterred, Akeem said he would do what he could do and left to go see his manager. There we go. I've got to check with my manager. Back and forth, back and forth. Hagel Hasel, back and forth. About 10 minutes later returned with a printed proposal.

On the right side of the page was an itemization of the pricing and fees on the lease. Everybody's adopting the new market value selling price. That's simply jacking the MSRP. The manufacturer suggested retail price, which is very high. Nobody's going to pay MSRP. You always get a discount. of MSRP. That's why we have the market selling price so that we can raise it up above the MSRP and then you lower it to the MSRP and you buy it at the jacked up price.

So that's the psychology there. Worksheet all shows for the taxable fees, which is $365.50, which is a way of saying hidden fees because they are not government fees. The only thing they kind of reveal, and they don't call a dealer fee, they call it a dock fee. So they really have, in terms of dealer fees, the generic term, about $1,400 in hidden fees. On the left side of the page was a grid showing different lease payments with various cash down, 24 versus 36 months.

The payments for 36 months with $3,000 down, which is what my wife told them that we would buy it for. our $1,500 in trade. It was $188 a month. Now that's $100 more than the $84 a month that it was advertised for. $100 more. That's huge. That's more than twice as much as you wanted to pay. And the fine print didn't even mention the military and the rest of it. They got to work for Nissan. Okay. Perhaps we would have been closer to the $84 per month If we've been, like I just said that, the military, a Nissan vendor, or a household member had it been. What I find, like, even more puzzling is, like, between their $3,000 down and their trade in a $1,500, that's $4,500 there, which is really close to the, you know, $5,000 or so they mentioned in the fine print.

But despite that, they're still $104 higher than the promised payment. And it doesn't seem like the three bogus qualifications were. would make that big a difference. Yeah, they weren't, and those weren't even in the disclaimer. Exactly, yeah. It's just, it's illegal. It's illegal to have them not conspicuously displayed. So what is it if they're not displayed at all, Ashley Moody?

I mean, it's just, it's illegal. You're breaking the law. You're breaking the law. There's no other way to put it. So here we are. Unapologetically deceptive. Even after we came up with a downpaint. payment, everything. There was no way you get anywhere near the advertised payment. So it's just a bad, bad report. Here we are at voting time, and we need to find out what our audience. Please register your vote and text or post it on Facebook. Love to hear your votes. You too posted. Who's got some votes? Nancy, do you have any votes coming in?

I think I'll wait for the listeners. Okay. I think I know what Linda has already voted, but... I think Linda Vittori. Linda said she gave him an F about an hour and a half ago. Linda saw where this was going, I believe. Anything else? Well, Mr. Hand on YouTube says,

Green Acres might be the place to be, but this dealer gets an F from me. Oh, I like that. Mark Ryan with an F? we got Martha Gillespie Beman came in with an F and Linda Vitori gave us an A plus plus and said good job Josh I couldn't agree more with her

Absolutely Josh I'll tell you In these unfortunate times it's really It saddens me to hear that there's so much going on The shenanigans are unbelievable Can these people sleep at night Do you have a conscience

And without a doubt I do sleep at night? That's what the disturbing part. And I just have to say that I used to sleep at night when I was evil. Cardiolas rationalize their behavior, and they actually have a camaraderie with each other, and it's a reinforcement sort of a thing. Unfortunately, they sleep well. Yeah, I understand what you're saying, but things have changed enormously, you know.

And, well, anyway, I give them an F. That is Green Acres, Nissan. I give them an FF. And we've got F from Karen, RICO West, F, very deceptive, Mark Anderson, D, Mark from St. Louis, and he says, A, for Nancy's Barracuda stories, hey, Tim Gilliland, F, Wayne Veit, Big F, Guy Larrabee, a big fat F. And a real fast one here, John in California, safercar.com, or safercar.gov, cannot let you know. if a car has been in an accident. He's asking if it could.

They can only tell you if there's an open campaign on your car, a safety campaign. You would need to go to Carfax or one of the others like that to determine if an accident has occurred with your vehicle in the past. The two big ones are Carfax and Auto Check. Yep. So there we are. We've got a failure, right?

There's no hope. I've got to go along with that. I think we're on our Do Not Recommend list. And you can go to Earl on Cars.com. We have all our shopping reports. We have recommended and do not buy from this dealer. And so Green Acres, Nissan, do not buy from this dealer. But there's hope.

We will. Your kids are really cute on the advertising, on the TV commercial. We're going to give you another chance. We're going to go back, shop you again. We always do. We follow up. And you can be on the recommended list. All you have to do is treat people honestly.

Just be good. Be good. Be good. Absolutely. Greenmakers, Nissan. First I want to say, Thank you very much, Josh, for joining us today. And it's been a pleasure.

Great asset to the show. And ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us every Saturday morning. We wouldn't be what we are without you. So have a wonderful weekend, and we'll see you right back here next Saturday at 8 a.m. Let's go. Go. Oh, my mother, too. Uh-huh.

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. YouTube.