Earl Stewart on Cars - 07.27.2024 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Rick Case Hyundai of Ft. Lauderdale

Episode Date: July 27, 2024

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning travels to the "belly of the beast" in rough, tough Ft. Lauderdale to visit a local Hyundai dealer to see how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2024 Hyundai Elantra on their car lot. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

Hello, I'm Earl Stewart. I welcome you to Earl Stewart on Cars, a live talk show all about how to buy, lease, maintain, or repair your car without being ripped off by a car dealer. With me in the studio is Nancy Stewart, my wife, co-host, and a strong consumer advocate, especially for our female listeners. We also have Rick Carney, 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, this is my son, Stu Stewart. our link to cyberspace through Facebook, YouTube, text messaging, and our encrypted anonymous feedback service. Phil is also the Spymaster Director of our mystery shopping report.

He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting the car dealership. And now, on with the show. Good morning, everybody. Back again. Here we be a group on the studio here in North Palm Beach, Florida. We're videoing and we're also radioing all over the world. We're YouTube and Facebooking, streaming everywhere. And we're the show that's going to tell you how to avoid being ripped off by your car dealer.

That's kind of a crude term, but I use it because I'm in South Florida right now, which is the Sodom and Gomorrah of car dealers. Some of you folks that are lucky enough to be around the world in different locations, Midwest or anywhere except South Florida, don't experience nearly the fear and dread when you go into buying a new or use car that people in this part of the world do. But it's a good place to be.

And we wander out of our Sodom and Gamor up into the civilized world. And we do mystery shopping reports. So if you don't hang around for any other reason on this show, and of course we're on for two hours, 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., Eastern Standard. time. That's a long time. Nobody listens to the radio or watches the radio in this case for that period of time. But tune back in the last half hour. Now, I have to be honest with you,

we're going to do a rerun of a mystery shopping report. It is one of the, well, it's one of the best or worst, depending on how you want to look at it. It's iconic shopping report. So we're going to do this again. Also, our agent lightning, our undercover agent, I had some health issues in the family, and was not able to complete a mystery shopping report for us for this live shopping report today. But we have one you're really going to enjoy, and it's from a South Florida dealer. You'll learn from it. Might get a little angry, but maybe you'll get happy. It depends on how you like buying a car.

And we know the answer is that, don't we? I'm going to turn the mic over in just a minute to my wife, Nancy Stewart, my co-host here. I think that she mans the phones. And I guess she woman's the phones. And we have a good

female following now, thanks to Nancy. I urge all you ladies out there to listen carefully. We have a special offer for you. She'll explain it to you. And we know you're listening. And thanks to Nancy, who has been working on that for 20 years now.

She found the show with me 20 years ago. So, ladies, I know sometimes you're not as aggressive and vocal as the men, but we want you to be. We want you to stand up and be heard and call Earl Stewart on cars, and we want to hear directly from you. Now I will turn over the mic to Nancy Stewart. Hey, good morning, everyone, and welcome. We have an exciting show this morning.

I'm not going to tell you what it is. is going to keep it a secret. What do you think? You're going to stay with us? You're right here. Erwin Cars. Number is 877-960-99-60. Or you can text us at 772-4976530.

Ladies, I have $50 for you. $50 for the first two new lady callers. Give us a call. Anything. Say hello. Share your experience, whether it was, you know, renting a car, leasing a car, purchasing a car, servicing a car. Do you know how many women go through service a lot?

And I would say it's upwards in 55% as far as coming through to get the vehicle service for the family. Okay, we are going to, we're going to go to our Zoom caller, and you too can do the same thing. by jotting down this telephone number, it's a meeting ID number, and it's a special Zoom account. That number is 926-589-0586. 926-9-26-589-0589-0586. And now I believe, with Jonathan's help, we are going to go to our first. Zoom caller. Good morning.

Good morning. Hi, Nancy. Earl, Rick, Stu. I have to admit that this call is from Jenny, who is part of the family here. She's behind the scenes, but she's Jonathan's Jenny. And she's working too hard to help us get Zoom picked off. But we're about ready to hang ourselves because of the technical challenges. And Jenny and Jonathan working as a team, as I just wanted to you see Jenny in living color

because she and Jonathan were behind. Yeah. We now have Zoom. We know Jonathan's around, but that is the real Jenny that you just saw. There she is. Can you hear me? That is the main thing. And all her color and her lovely voice.

Your lovely voice. Okay. Jonathan has been on this 24-7. so I'm happy my life will be so much better isn't that isn't that the truth yeah I can't tell you how much we appreciate you helping out on this endeavor and Jonathan's really put his heart and soul into it

and now yours is in it always always okay thank you well you have a great day Jeremy and thanks again you're welcome well you're welcome just tell everybody calling and zoom in now because it's working just and I don't have earbuds in either all right I don't need my the I am clear of the earpiece okay thank you

great you're welcome have a great weekend okay all right get back on back on we're on here now folks this is it we did it Jonathan thank you so much Jen Thank you so much. We have Zoom perfected. So now, let's go ahead. Let's go ahead and let's pay $100 to the first new, the next Zoom callers. By the way, we'll get Jimmy $100, too. She deserves more than that.

And if you're a Zoom caller, this is a new dimension to the Earl Sterer-on-Cars show. So as you explain to you by Nancy, you need a... meeting ID you have to be sign up with Zoom and many many people are already signed up with Zoom and you have an ID number that number is 926-589-0-586 so using that meeting ID number for Zoom if you want to be seen and some people don't some people do we have some people out there that were dying to see I mean we we have some contributors to the show and I don't want to put any pressure on you but you know who you are.

So the regulars, there's some people out there that make us laugh until we cry. There's some people out there whose knowledge about cars is greater than ours. These are a lot of YouTubers. Rick's group is, there's some people in there we'd love to talk to and see. Some of you have tried, but now we're Zoom capable. And the meeting ID number is 926-589-0-586. bucks to the first next to zoom callers and again congratulations to all who work so hard mainly jonathan jennie to get this thing zoom capable yeah can thank you enough i know what you mean

by peace jennie same at my house it's a girl thing okay uh we have sapphire uh in case you're wondering who sapphire is she's came coming to us from big dog rants and she's a mixed breed. She's only a little over a year old, and she's as cute as a button. So you want to stay tuned for her just about 9.30. We do have our mystery shopping report. It's a little bit of a surprise. And ladies, again, $50 for the first two new lady callers.

$50 for the first two new lady callers. Give us a call at 877-960-99-60. And don't forget your anonymous feedback, you can also take advantage of that. Okay, we are going to go right to the phones. John from Palm City has been patiently waiting. Good morning, John. Good morning. Just recovered from COVID-19, and as Earl in my age, it can be even more serious.

But thank God it passed. Thank God for the medicine. Well, I'm happy to hear that, John. I'm so glad. I'm so glad to hear that. My wife, yes. I gave it to my wife, and I gave it to my daughter who came to visit me from New York. No.

But, yeah. Wow. That could be serious at all rage. What I want to talk about is Earl mentioned about Jeep and a possibility that Toyota could possibly in the future maybe take over the Jeep. I don't think so, and I'll tell you why. I'm referring to a July 12 article in a local newspaper and a letter to editor of a man. And just use the initial BM of Viro Beach. I have no idea what it's a nightmare.

He bought a brand new Jeep, Grand Cherokee Limited. 30 days later, the car quit completely. He towed it to a regal Dodge and Fort Pierce. They had no idea what the problem was. They analyzed and said, eventually it's, they said it's a transmission problem. It took one month to get the parts for that. This is the same man that in 2019,

had a Jeep also that was under warranty. A Rigo, again, didn't know what was wrong with it, had to put a new engine in it, and it was three months in the shop. The man stated exactly, he's been jeeps all his life, no more jeeps, and also stay away from a regal, Jeep, and Dodge, he says. And it was in the local newspaper on July 12th. So it tells you about, not only about Jeep, but Stalantis, which is the fourth largest manufacturer in the world, and it's the thing that keeps

the fire underneath them that keeps them going in America, still in the jeeps. That's for sure. Hey, John, did you see where that stock was? I'll tell you what. I think it was on Friday. It went down 48 percent. Absolutely. Unbelievable.

Very scary. They can't give them one. Ford Motors net profits have dropped by 50 percent. And that's hard to believe a company like Ford could go in the doldrums like that. Yeah, hard to believe. Absolutely. But people used to say, you know, what a mobile industry that stocks was so great, it doesn't turn out to be in that way anymore. No, it's a whole new ballgame out there.

The world's a changing, and like it or not electric vehicles are part of that change. So you either get the technology and the software and get on. board or else you're going to be left behind like Stalantis. Absolutely. I agree with you 100%. And regular Chryslers, not the Chrysler name, not the Dodge, but you don't hardly see any of them on the road, brand new colors. Yeah, exactly right.

I don't know why they don't drop a few of the models. I mean, there have got to be some of these models out there. You mentioned Chrysler. I haven't seen a Chrysler in a year or two. Absolutely, I agree with you. Well, anyhow, I thought I'd bring that up about Jeep, and not too good about the Jeep, but it's O'Rigo Dodge and Chrysler in, you know, footpair. And notice, Arrigo used to be, when it was the old owners, there were tremendous advertising.

You don't even see an ad anymore from Arrigo. It's Morgan Auto Group now, and they bought out all of the stores. O'Rigo did stay on. Maybe their contract to do the advertising. advertising is expiring. I'm not sure, but you're right. A lot of people still think Regal owns those stories, but it's the Morgan Auto Group. All right. Well, guys, I'm glad I'm able to talk again. I was pretty doubted out. Well, I'm glad you feel better, and I'm glad that your wife and everybody's okay.

This COVID came back. Call us all by surprise, and we don't want anything to happen to you. You're our best caller. Okay. Well, thank you, guys. Thank you, very much. Bye, bye. Back on this Stalantis thing is for you folks out there thinking about buying a Jeep. The Jeep has always had a bad rap if you were to do your research. You look up any consumer report going back to 10 years, 20 years, or last month, and the Jeep has always had bad quality.

They have bad safety. They have bad quality. performance, repair costs, but any practical measurement about the Jeep is not good. They have something that you can't buy. It's magical. It's got to be related to World War II, and I guess maybe World War I.

Oh, there's two. Hi, everybody. And we have a full crew this morning. And I think Frozen in our mind's eye is the Jeep about World War II. And it elicits emotion or desire or patriotism. Patriotism, that's the best word. And that's why they sell.

And now they're faltering. And you're not seeing, you're not seeing the devotion to the Jeep. So jeeps are backing up. Now, I don't want to, I don't want to bear the crime, but I would say I feel bad about urging you to buy a Jeep. But if you do want to buy a Jeep and you want to buy a Jeep and you want to buy one cheap cheap cheap cheap cheap cheap if you want to buy a cheap jeep now's the time uh you go to almost any uh stalantis that's christ for dear i'm going to stop myself i'm on the rent nancy gave

me the telephone signal yeah definitely that number is 877 960 9060 ladies 50 dollars for the first two new lady callers uh i want to say hello to john from west palm beach and dog i'll be right with you Good morning, John. Thank you for waiting. Oh, good morning. Hey, the gentleman that called about his tires on the new car. Yes. And he had to replace one. I remember Earl mentioning that, you know, new cars come with tires from the manufacturers,

and those tend to be different than what you buy as far as composition. You're exactly right. Exactly right. And I'm just wondering if that one tire is going to catch up to the other three. Yeah, that's something I don't talk about often enough, but you basically have got tires that were chosen for a smooth ride and the composite of the material of the tire very, very soft, and so you're going to think about buying a new car, you take a demonstration ride, smooth as silk, but also your range is limited because you get about half the range on a tire with soft rubber that you do with one with harder rubber. And the smooth ride is going to cost you a lot of money.

So, yeah, be careful. And when you replace those tires, which will be pretty quickly on a new car, replace them with a higher index. How does that index work, Rick? About 600 would be a good one. Yeah, it's a treadware rating that is three-digit number, usually like 180, 190 or the low end. and like I've seen

Michelin's with an 800 rating so 5 or 600 would get a good long mileage and to me the slightly increased bumpy ride is well worth it. Yep. Okay. Well that's it for me and you have a great week. Oh thank you John appreciate your call. Thanks for thinking of us

we're going to go to Doug good morning Doug Hello, good morning welcome Well, that was an amazing sunrise, amazing the colors. Oh, it was fabulous. And for you folks who don't know what Doug's referring to Nancy and I video, the sunrise live every morning before we, well, this morning before we came to the radio show, of course.

And sometimes you're out there in the rain and the lightning and the darkness and the Sahara dust. Every now and then, it's like heaven moved down. down to earth and you have a spectacular view. And Doug's talking about this morning sunrise for what it's worth was just absolutely... It was pretty good in the Hintralands, too. Oh, was it? Out West, yeah. A slam-bang-duzzi, we call them.

So I wanted to give a little spam warning. I got a letter in the mail and it said that my Toyota service contract hadn't been activated. And it's a spam warning. letter, but it looked real. So what I did is I called them up and I said if they were from Toyota and they hung up on me.

Very clever. You can't have said the FBI, they'd have hung up on you too. Oh man, I'll tell you. If these, you know, Doug's talking about these constant ads now they're telephone calls and their emails, text all over the TV.

Everybody's selling these fabulous extended service contracts for thousands of dollars that won't fix anything if your car breaks down. And ice tea, the famous ice tea, is pushing one. How can a guy with a reputation destroy it by selling a product like that, Doug? I don't know. Oh, one more thing. I did get an email from you guys saying it wasn't too late to get a, extended warranty service contract.

Yeah. And I know you said to me that you don't really need it, right? No, I mean, it's a matter of choice. I mean, I'm one of these high-risk tolerance people, and maybe my tolerance for, you know, pain is greater than a lot of other people's. But I look at this way. If I'm buying a product and I can't afford to fix it if it breaks, then I might consider buying an extended warranty

or an extended service contract. But if I can afford it without too much pain, I'd rather take the money that the warranty company wants to charge me, put it in the bank or put it in the stock market, and then lift that increase in value. And what usually happens, obviously, nine times out of ten, you end up with a lot more money than if he had bought the extended contract. But that's a, I'm a mathematician physicist by education,

and I'm probably over-analytical, but if buying an extended warranty, as long as you get a good one, and I recommend going to the manufacturer's warranty, or at least being careful to read the one you do buy, if you get a good one and it gives you peace of mind, then go ahead and buy it. We sell extended service contracts. Our dealership has an extended service contract contract company, and we like to believe these are good, valuable extended service contract. If you asked me, would I buy what? No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I wouldn't buy my own service country.

I don't need that. Because you don't need it. Yeah. I don't need it. Okay. Thank you guys for everything you do. I appreciate all of you. Thank you, Doug.

You're welcome. You're welcome, Doug. You and Sim, have a great weekend. And, uh... Meow. Meow. Wait a minute. That didn't sound like a cat back there.

Our number here is 877-9-60-99. And ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers. $50 for the first two new lady callers. And you can also take advantage of our Zoom account. Yes, it is up and working. Zones working. Zones working. I was all excited.

If you didn't notice this morning, we had our first time caller. Anyway, that Zoom meeting ID is 926-589. 0.586, 926, 589, 0586. And you can also take advantage your anonymous feedback.com. Okay. Wouldn't it be terrible if we got the Zoom fixed and nobody called in on Zoom? We'll start a Zoom. A hundred bucks, folks.

I don't care if you called in before. Don't let Jonathan hear you say that. We're so excited. We're so excited. We want to have the Zoom caller. So, you know, we have that account meeting ID number, 926-589-0-586. Again, the Zoom meeting ID number that you're going to need, if you have a Zoom account and want to call the show, 926-589-089-0-586, 100 bucks for the next two Zoom callers.

And this is just another dimension of the show. I'm not expecting this to become Zoom City. I'm just saying that it's another dimension and we can have a reach further out to help all the folks that need help when they're trying to buy a car without being ripped off by a car. And it's fun.

It is fun. And here's an interesting article. You may want to give the show a call and tell us how you feel. Did you know that new vehicle buying? Do you know what a monthly payment is? A record monthly payment? $740.

That was replayed. reported where did this article come from that we looked at oh that was automotive news okay and as much as a thousand dollars a month pretty outrageous is crazy it's more than doubled well it's almost tripled since I've been in the in the business outrageous truly outrageous it makes me think about car payments that I used to make for um 175 dollars a month That was like rent back when I was in college. Not 175,000 or 750. 175.

Okay, guys, again, that meeting ID number for your Zoom account, you can call 926-589-0586. That's 926-589-0-586. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Okay. I have a confession to make. Confessions of recovering car dealer, get it. And it was, I have not given credit to somebody in my life that really enough credit. I gave some credit to change me from what I am. You don't have to. Dad, you don't have to. It's not necessary. I'm going to hold up a book here that many of you, most of you, have no idea. uh you know they just this is uh what is it uh customers for life by carl sull what is that okay uh 30 years ago or so i ran across this book it was 1990 40 years i mean a long time ago and this is when i was evolving from an evil car dealer into a good car dealer and the evolution had just begun and uh this man uh karl sewell wrote this book customers for life life. And that and some other things that I have talked about entered my life. And, you know,

for example, my son coming into the business with me, Stu said, I don't want any part of this business. I don't like the way to do business. And I said, what if we change? And he is an inspiration and was and is now to keep me on the straight and narrow. But Carl Sewell, Customers for Life, I'm going to read you some of the chapter headings, and you can't get an audio book, by the way. You can still buy it on Amazon. There are only 10 bucks now. But here's some of the chapters. And listen to this.

I know we have car dealers and car salespeople, manufacturers, lawyers, a lot of people listening. So everybody listen up. Here's Carl Schult, Customers for a Live, Chapter 2. If the customer asks, the answer is always yes. Now, this was written in 1990, folks. 1990, okay? Chapter 6, fire your inspectors, chapter 7, fire your customer relations manager. And we did.

And we did. Well, we didn't fire them. We just, we eliminated the position. We did it kindly. We just didn't have one for it. He retired. He did, yeah. Chapter 12, good enough, never is.

And there goes, there it goes to my saying, Kaisen. Nancy is waving at me because she sees me. I'm ranting and I'm going to turn the mic over to Nancy. We're going to go to David, who's calling us from Jersey Shore. Good morning, David. Jersey Shore. You can start bringing the mulch. I'm sorry.

Pardon me? We missed the first. We miss that. Say that again, please. Are we cutting in and out again? Oh, hello? Am I on the air now? There we hear you.

Yes, David. This is Nancy. Welcome. Okay. Thank you. I had a comment and a question for Rick. My question would be on a Prius, it's 12 years old, $180,000, and I'm the original owner. You've helped me quite a bit with some of the little issues I had.

But I had the battery, the little battery, it's 12 years. Usually I'm used to changing them every five, six years on a regular car. What do you think about the 12 years and it's still fine? Is it something I should just change or wait until it gets rid? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. There you go. Okay. Is there a reason that a 12-volt battery and the price it gets less use than a regular car?

Why does it last, does it last and longer for Steve? Its only purpose is to boot up the computer at the beginning. Okay. Also, it's not to start the car. No, the high voltage system actually is used to crank the engine and do everything. okay so that 12-volt it doesn't that's not a lot of draw right you mean as soon as uh right okay it simply turns on the relays boots up the computers and that's what we see all the time anyway right yeah and that's it's it longer lasting so that's what you see too that it lasts that long that's great

uh you have the the the unicorn you you have the the mythical it's lasted 12 years um if i were you I would throw some salt over my shoulder, knock on wood. Yeah, he doesn't see a lot of 12-year-old batteries. No, they don't, they usually don't last that long. I would simply, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But, you know, be advised, it could start getting weak. How does it look? Is it, like, spewing out, like, stuff?

It looks good, and the dealer says they tested every time when I bring in for an oil change and that it's fine, but I was just wondering because I have a GMC that's 20 years old. I have to change it every five years ago. bad. Maybe your neighbor's sneaking in your garage and putting new batteries in just to play practical joke on you. He might have a secret admirer. I would just go with it. Hey. That's right. Never look a gift horse in the mouth. No. Okay. And then I have a comment about what happened to me on my last oil change at my local Toyota dealer. Okay. So I was doing some other work that I had talked about on the to use before i had to change the ABS and the um master cylinder so while i was doing it

i told them to change the oil they charged me seventy one dollars and you figured that the oil change was done so i always changed the oil before and after when i gave it to them i knew what level it was and it was very dirty because they had put a treatment in the time before the second time I've done it I put the BNG hybrid cleaner in it seems to make it I actually feel the car has

more power after they do it too and plus it seems to have cut the oil consumption however when I got home I checked the oil and I could see they didn't change it so hold them up they said it's impossible and stuff

send them an email sent them an email they investigate it, and they said, you know something, the mechanic forgot to do it. What if I wouldn't have checked it? And is that something that you have to check all the time after you get an oil change?

And this is a Toyota dealer, a Penske dealer. I complained to the service to the main manager, the general manager. He didn't seem to bother him. It sits in the States. It's a rare thing that happens, but it happens, I mean, in some places it could happen

more frequently, but at a good place it could happen, very rarely, but... The thing to remember that the lub oil filter guy, we call him, the person that changes your oil at Cardiola Shipson in most repair shops is an apprentice.

He's brand new. A kid comes in off the street, needs a job, a good resume, he doesn't know how to do anything, and they put him under somebody who knows, supposedly knows how to change your oil and rotate and balance tires, etc. So that's a starting position.

And when you're dealing with a starting position, things like this happen. My advice to people would be ask for a qualified experienced person to do that oil change. Now, you might have typically in a medium or a larger dealership, four or five, six people that do the oil changes. Get the senior man. Maybe he's been doing it for a year and a half. You don't want the one that's been doing it for a week and a half. And it's a safety issue, so very, very important. the fact is we are all human

and even the best mechanic in the world is going to make mistakes now and then but mistakes are simply handled in the best way you own up to it you're honest hey I made a mistake the general manager's reaction please give me the chance to correct it and let let's fix it but the general manager should have been hey look I'm sorry we made a mistake what can we do to make this right for you

how can we correct this to make you have the caller right anyway i just thought i'd comment on it we appreciate that david and we all we're all in agreement uh with you and with rick thanks so much for the call all thank you and have a good good thank you have a great weekend uh we are going to uh we're going to go to a couple of different uh directions here uh but uh first i think i am going to call upon sharon Sharon, are you out there? Hello? Hello.

Oh, sorry. Okay, who is this? Is this Sharon? Sharon. Hello, Sharon. You're there? Got an audio issue. Okay.

How about Barry? Barry has been holding for a while. Hello, Barry. Hi. Hi. Good morning and welcome. Thank you. It's a pleasure to talk to you, folks.

I've read an awful lot of good things about you. My question is about various car buying services and what you think of them from like a dealer perspective. You've got Costco out there. You've got true car, which I guess a lot of organizations latch into like AAA and AARP. They're really true car, I guess, a ride shop or things like that. And then you have the car conciergees that

if you pay them $1,000 and supposedly they get you the best deal. I'm just wondering if somebody came into a dealership through, you know, multiple angles like that, are they going to, like, be shooting themselves in the flick? You've got the same guy coming back with all these services and just get your

general thoughts on these services. My opinion is that you, like, especially for the concierge service, and we even thought of doing that ourselves, like using our expertise to try and help people buy cars, it was too logistically difficult for us to finish, to do, but,

But anybody who charges you with, there's $1,000, that's a middleman that is keeping you farther away from the best deal. I'm not saying that in the time where prices are high, they might help out. I could see maybe that happening. But, you know, these days, I think using a broker or using somebody like that, you're just wasting money when you can use the Internet and not leave your house and shop as many dealers as you want. And in like no time at all, you can find the best price. That's probably what a concierge is doing anyway. They're just doing the same thing that consumers have the ability to do and maybe, but might not know about the tools out there.

Yeah, if you've got a friend or a son or a daughter, granddaughter, whatever, that's really good online and sharp as a tack, a lot of us are, the young folks are sharper and sharper. Give your grand kid 100 bucks and say, get me the best deal. Yeah, exactly. I mean, as strange as it may seem, because now it is set up, where you can, if you're fast with your fingers and you know how to use a computer and a smartphone, you can have the lowest price in the market.

It takes you maybe an hour and, as I say, give your grandson a hundred bucks and they'll be happy. Okay, would you say, though, that something like a true car or a Costco or a ride chap or would be a good starting point for that? Oh, okay. Costco is the holy grail. If you, you'll get the lowest price if you will implement the program. My only problem with Costco is that the dealers try to sabotage the program. So what you have to do is you have to go to the Costco website. You have to follow their instructions verbatim. And that means that you have to identify the dealers that are approved by them in your zip code area or wherever you're searching.

You also have to meet that person at the dealership. that's approved by Costco that's the Costco salesperson and then you also have to insist and see the official Costco invoice price sheet for their auto buying program and if you do all those things then you will get a lower price than that car dealer sold that car for to anyone else that's what the contract with Costco and if they don't say you call in and ask us to take a look at your purchase order and they messed around with you, you can call Costco and get, um, follow your complaint with them and they will take it up with the dealer. And they do, they do get that fixed.

We know many, many buyers that have done that. Costco and if, if they don't play the game with Costco, honestly, Costco canceled as a dealer and they get a lot of business from Costco. That's how we picked up Costco stores. Yes. All right. Thank you very much. You're welcome, Barry.

Thanks for calling. Thanks for thinking of us and calling the show. Talk to you next week. Okay, we're going to go back to the Zoom meeting account, and that ID number is 926-589-0-586. And ladies, again, $50 for the first two new lady callers. We're going to go to Raymond, who's calling us on Zoom. Good morning, Raymond.

Good morning. Welcome. Thank you. Good listen to it. I've got a question. I heard you talking earlier about the jeeps. Yep. Hang on second.

Earl wants to get a look at you. Good look at you. I'm so excited. Oh, there is. There is. You're on the screen. We're just trying to get a phone over to Earl. It's our little hack so we can see you in the studio.

There we go. I'll wait to ask my question then. Okay. Oh, smile. Okay. All right. I heard you talking about the Jeeps with a gentleman I called earlier. And I was considering when I trade in my Honda Ridge Line pickup,

my lease ends now at the end of the year. I was considering getting a Jeep pickup truck. But now I got concerns after hearing what I heard. Can you tell me a little bit more about what's going on with Jeeps? Yeah, you'd be going from one of the highest quality, well-made vehicles on the market right now into one of the lowest-quality, worst-built vehicles on the market. And you know what, Raymond, I'll tell you what, Rick couldn't have put it any better because they have definitely been in the news for quite a while,

and he defined it perfectly. Thanks, Rick. Well, I'm glad I heard that this morning because I was considering it. Yes, my Honda Ridge Line is excellent. I have no complaints about it, and I was thinking about getting another way. It just is kind of like, you know, not really my style because I've usually had the F-150s or silver autos. But when I looked into it, it was a great truck and all the features, the right size. It's not huge.

But I still had that inkling to maybe go to Jeep because it looks a little bit more aggressive, nicer, but I guess I just got my answer. They're sexy as all get out. It's just they only work about half the time. When you look at all the concerns. reports, the J.D. Power lists. And I, I, JD Power I take with a huge grain of salt. And there's, there's a reason. I'll get to that some, somewhere in today's show. But, uh, but all of the consumer lists when they show like the number of problems that have

been, uh, reported in, Toyota and Honda are always at the top of the list for being the best quality, and Jeep is always right down, right near the very bottom, with the most problems reported by consumers, by their customers. And

as a matter of fact, I'm going to say this right now. Donovan, one of our one of my YouTube guys, he is, this guy is awesome. He comes in, he's reporting today, he says, JD powers out with their latest overall satisfaction study, and both Rivian,

and Tesla topped the study. Rivian scored 900 out of a thousand being number one, except J.D. Power excludes them from the actual list because they only sell EVs. It shows that maybe these Consumer Insight Studies are not all they're really up to, you know, not really as great as they say because they don't show all the brands when they should.

So it's all about the money with some of them. like GD Power and that. Consumer Reports is our, that's our Bible, that's our go-to. And if you really want the best advice, just pick up the latest consumer reports on vehicles and it will show you, you know,

what cars have the best ratings. I mean, you know, if you're dead set on the Jeep because of the looks at sexiness, which yeah, it's there, it just be prepared for the increased costs in the long run and the fact that it's going to cost you more, you know, for maintenance, it's going to cost you more for repairs. You're going to see issues and you're very likely to wind up with your car, broke down and waiting for it in service a lot more than you will see with like a Toyota, a Honda, Lexus Accura.

They just, they've got it. And Honda Ridgeline to me is. waiting around for repair. Yeah, Honda Ridgeline to me is, is, that's a fantastic truck. A good, very good friend of mine.

He just got a new one recently, and he loves that rich line. So, well, I got no complaints on mine. It's got everything I need. It's all wheel drives, got a sunroof,

it's got that container in the back and supposedly a cooler. I keep a bunch of junk instead of keeping the cab, so I'll probably just go back to another one. I was just curious from what I heard this morning. And so thank you very much for that answer. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Anytime. And another thing, I know you offered $100 for the call. I'm not interested in $100. Just donate it to one of your charities, and that'll be fine with me. Well, thank you very much. You're a real classy guy. I appreciate that. Big Dog, Ranch Rescue. Here you come. Give us a call again. Thank you. You might change your mind about that purchase. We'd like to hear from you. Have a great weekend. 877960 or you can text us at 772-497-6530 Is Sharon still holding Okay

Sharon if you can hear me Say something Okay how about Rob Rob Are you still holding Sharon Robb you are out there? Good morning Rob

This is Bob and Bob Question. I have a 2014 Corvette Stingray. The C-51 package has about 12,000 miles on it. I use it, you know, probably twice a month. It deactivates the eight cylinder to the four cylinder, and there's something they have.

It's called the range, and you plug it in, and it disables that deactivation. First of all, those are deactivation. the activation, you have my charm. Second of all, I read on the someone's package, I got it. And if you leave the car from one in five days, you shouldn't leave the range

plugged in. What are your comments? I never heard one of those. It keeps it in four cylinders, so it doesn't switch into eight? Is that why? No, it keeps it to eight. So you don't want to go into four. I thought it gave you more range.

It's not just the corvette. It's some of the other Chevronerner. products she have products don't know that's that's one on me that I really can't speak to I mean Corvette has finally finally taken its place among the elite supercars it's they've they've stepped out of the realm of they'll being just a simple Chevy sports car I so yeah unfortunately I just don't really have any knowledge on that my advice on this one would be to go to the corvette forum groups online and i would talk to

the folks in there it's that's actually one of my good go-toes the as local forums you get car clubs and people that just are dedicated to these cars and various different models i got something for you i asked an a i this is called perplexity it's a search engine here are the problems reported It's called an AFM-D-FM disabler. Is that correct? I suppose so. Here are the problems reported by users of it. Transmission surging.

Some users with 10-speed transmissions have reported transmitting when using certain AFM-D-FM disablers. Potential lifter failure. These are concerns that disabling the AFM-D-FM system for long periods and then re-enabling it could potentially lead to lifter failure. I don't know if you have emissions testing, but it can lead to emissions test failures and warranty concerns.

I only looked at the problems. I didn't look up, you know, what good things people say about it. Maledition, not the Benedict. Yeah, but these are potential things that have been reported online. It's not just the Corvette. It's the lot of GM products have that. It's just disabled. In fact, I ordered a new car about two years ago,

and they just came out the C-8, I think they bought from the C-7, and straighted this in. and I went to drive it before I actually heard it finally came in, and I couldn't see out of it very well. It's a big disappointment, and the engine is in the back, which is kind of, I guess they try to be sued. But it's a great car to, it's a Chevrolet. I mean, it's not a Ferrari or I've had them,

and it's, believe me, it's not, it's a good car for the money. Yeah, the car, it's a Corvette. in my opinion, is one of the best cars ever made in terms of overall. I mean, it's got... For the money. Yeah, it looks great. It's fast. It's just a super cool car.

Yeah, but I... Another thing, too, I have a Cadillac, Mercedes 550. It's 550. I wanted to trade in, but I'll tell you, I went to a dealership. I got so aggravated. I just walked out, and I still have it, 2016. It has a low mileage. I think I had 35,000 miles.

You do a good service to tell these dealerships have gone in the road, put a price in the car, and forget the shenanigans because a lot of people like myself, I would go and trade it in every four or five years. I'll just walk away. Just keep the old one. We're going to keep them on their toes.

Hey, this just came in from Donovan again. Yeah. He says GM has never figured out how to make cylinder deactivation not cause wear in the long run, and they never will. Turn it off if you can. He says, I would personally turn it off and take the miles per gallon hit. So, yeah, and Donovan, this guy knows the supercars.

He knows the higher brands. I agree with, by the way, I agree with Donovan. I think the benefits outweigh the problems you might have. Yeah. But the thing on the package, it says, I've seen the package. side. It says if you're going to leave the car for more than five days, take it, you know, unplug it. Yeah, that may be an issue with it being a battery drain.

Yeah. And that's something I would definitely take into account. So, yeah, if it recommends unplugging, I would do it. Yeah, the only thing I'm 85 years old and get under there and unplug it is a pain in the neck. So I don't know. Oof. Yeah. 12,000 miles after 10, what is it, 10 years now?

don't think of me a problem. Listen, you have a great show, by the way. I appreciate it and keep going going. Thanks, Rob. Enjoy that bet. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

877-960-9960. Or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. Take advantage of your anonymous feedback.com. We are going to go, we're going to stay with the phones, and we're going to talk to our regular. caller, Tricia. Hi, Trish. Good morning, you beautiful people.

Thank you for taking my call. Nice to hear from you. Okay, I got an interesting question for you. Okay, my girl now has 105,300 miles. I was due for an oil change at 105,300 miles. 500 miles. But my tire rotation, I did at 102,000 miles. So I guess I could wait to 107. Now, I want to do everything all at once, so I don't have to make several trips. As you know, I want to have my alignment check because I have problems with my tires. So I want to know what my priority should be, should it be

oh, go get the oil change now and get your tires rotated even before they do, or can I wait with 107 and push that oil change? Well, you're only pushing it a couple thousand. It's fine. I would say you'll be just fine. Yeah. And what model car is this? That 2016 Honda Fit.

Oh, you're fine. Yeah. Yeah, Honda. you can wait until the oil change and do everything at once yeah that's a Honda you're not going to hurt that okay that I've never waited I usually always get it done right at the time they recommend but I was a good girl and I did check my oil and you know it is up there it's full it might be you know a little dirty but it is full it is not down you're doing better than 99% of car owners out there already um there's wiggle room on all those things and the fact that up till now you're you've

stuck to it on the like right on the dot that's incredible and but now you allow yourself a couple thousand miles or a couple you know just little time it's it's a once-in-a-while thing it's not like you're doing this you're stretching it every single time no that that that honda's going to do just fine and that car your great-grandchildren could probably still be driving that car I mean Honda is just such a great product. Yeah, if I were so blessed for my son and his wife to have kids, but no. But thank you, yes, I want to keep this going. I've never had a car this long.

You know, I do want to keep it going, but, you know, eventually, you know, you've supported me in quite a few ways, and eventually when I'm ready for a car, I want to come back to, you know, your dealership. and buy something from you. It would be nice, thanks. Sounds like a plan. Yeah, thank you. Right. This is a plan.

All right. You take very good care of your cars, Trish. Yeah, well, I've only, before in the past, you know, I still have, and if, you know, and if something breaks down and the transmission, it's not worth saving. but, you know, but I'm trying to go to this, but I'll only change it because maybe I just want, you know, another car. Yeah. Well, you're doing a great job, Trish.

You know what? You can do me a favor, and you can tell your lady friends just where they can call on Saturday mornings to win $50 for the first two new lady callers. Spread the word. Help me build the platform. I do. I do. My headdress.

It says sometimes she listens to you guys. She even hears me sometimes. Oh, that's great. That's great. Okay, I've got to get to another caller. Okay, go ahead. Have a great day. Thanks, Terush.

We'll hear from you again. 877-960-99-60. Or you can text us at 772-497-6530. Now back to the recovering car dealer. I think we've got probably anonymous feedbacks. We've got YouTube. We've got something. Yeah, I got Ann Marie's guy.

a kind of cool one for us. I want, y'all have to pay attention because this is kind of an unusual question. Sure, they're always unusual. I know. I don't mean unusual in a bad way. Extraordinary. Good morning.

Sad to say it's wildfire, sorry, sad to say it's wildfire season again. The videos of smoking ruins of houses and cars out west in Jasper, Alberta up in Canada are heartbreaking. A survivor who sheltered in a cinder block building mentioned he had heard explosions as the wildfire race through Jasper. I know you're an auto dealer and not a firefighter,

but I'm going to ask these questions anyway in hopes that you or Rick knows the answer is or perhaps a firefighter is listening and can answer these questions. First question. Rick kind of knows because Rick is kind of like a firefighter. He has association with the firefighters. Yeah, he's put some fires on this day.

Yeah. Yeah. That's for sure. I had that car in my Bay caught fire. That's right. So because I think I used up at least four extinguishers. Wow. But I personally ran the entire scene, which is trying to get that thing to go. Gosh.

All right. Well, here's, this sounds a little bit more crazy than that day. What happens to vehicles that are left behind that are consumed by wire fires? Do they just burn down to bare metal and ash after releasing hazardous materials during combustion? Do they explode? If so, what kind of types of vehicles are more likely to explode? Vehicles with gas tanks and internal combustion engines or hybrids with gas tanks and nickel metal hydride or a lithium ion battery? or electric vehicles with lithium ion batteries.

Do airbags explode in a fire? What do you think is more likely to explode in a wildfire? A car or propane tank that you have connected to the barbecue grill. Thanks. P.S. may everyone stay safe. And then she sent me a link to the fire of Jasper. Did she mention that the latest huge fire that started out there? The guy was arrested.

Right. Because his car caught a fire and he pushed it over into the ravine. Right. I wonder if that's what's in the article here. that's in California. It's the park fire. I think they call it the park fire. It was a huge fire.

I, you know, I'm wondering if I had a car that was on fire and it was around some other cars and I was on the road, maybe it was my car or not, I can see myself pushing the car off the road. And if it went down to the ravine and started a fire, that's terrible, but that's not why I did it. You're going to jail now. You're going to jail. Yeah, I'm going to jail. That'll be up to a jury.

to decide. Yeah, that sounds like a thing that's a intention versus effect. That's a pretty big fire in California. Huge. Yeah, I'm glad that we, little ones. I can say that the propane tanks are your big bombs. Okay. Because when that thing sets off, when it first blows its pressure valve,

you've got a huge explosion going there. Wow. Gasoline generally is not going to be the big. big boom bomb. Right. It's going to simply burn fiercely. And as soon as the tank ruptures, which nowadays are mostly plastic tanks. So when it's that plastic melts enough and the gas goes out, as it evaporated, now you might

get a small fireball. Yeah, a nearly empty gasoline tank will explode more than a full gasoline tank. Right, because you've got more vapor action. But yeah, cars, car fires, when the car burns down completely. there's little left the metal will literally the sheet metal melts away

it's so thin sheet metal anymore and all the plastic everything just burns away you're left with basically just the subframe of the body and that's about it

the block of the engine you know things like that but just the hard so much of the metal yeah it just goes away and the photos that I have seen online of electric cars Teslas that

when they had their issues, a couple issues with fires, the battery catching fire. Again, those batteries burn so incredibly hot when they do catch fire that it just, the entire car goes away. There's a little left but ash. And the final analysis, it's not a problem because a car that's been burned or wrecked or just totally, you know, beat the hell and burn. they're going to take that and sell it for the scrap metal. The metal will still be there. You can't burn the steel. So they'll take the steel and they sell it and it gets processed.

So cars, in that sense, are not a hazard to the environment. So Anne-Marie, little did you know that we know a lot about burning cars. We made all that up, Anne-Mor. We don't know. No, I think it all was legit unless Rick is really, really good. He was looking at me in the eye when he told me that. Give me a call, Ann-Marie. That's what happens.

Well, I already said it was really, really good. I didn't, you know. I'm in the recycling department. I studied into, and especially when I saw some of the various issues with cars catching fire. And it just, you know, one, I'll brag it out a little bit. Several years ago, now it's going back quite a while, when hybrids were first really getting popular. One of the things that we did here for Palm Beach County, West Palm Beach Fire Department, and several others, is I got together enough training that I could for myself.

And I went to the various fire departments and did sessions teaching them how to handle hybrids in an accident. We had them out the dealership too. Yeah, we had them at the dealership. And eventually we even had one of the Palm Beach County Fire Rescue captains bring a film crew in. And they made videos showing them what to look for. and a lot of this information is still true today. They're still using a day. How not to be electrocuted.

Right. Yeah, how to handle these cars. Cutting into a car. Caller. We have a caller. That's a great story, Rick. Thank you. And thanks to Ann Marie. We're going to go to Lane, who's calling us from Southwest Florida.

Good morning, Lane. Good morning. Thank you for waiting. It's not a problem. I've called before. I've been trying to buy a forerunner, and I've been getting meaning my experiences with some dealers. And I got some new updates.

If you're interested in, I could write a book, tale of a car buyer. Confessions of a recovering car buyer. That would be great. You've hurt our interest. Well, I went to one dealer, and you know how they have that new? They're going to start enforcing the ADMs

or putting ADMs, stuff like that? Well, they're really terrified. I mean, they're very, very terrified. Every single car in your showroom had an ATM on it, of $7,000 to $10,000. And I looked at them and I'm going, oh, my God, what a place. Wow.

But I also went into a Costco dealer, and they ran up some numbers for me. And I didn't realize with the Costco program that they can also add a dock fee to the vehicle that you're buying. That surprised me. Yes, it bothers us. It's true, but it's fully disclosed.

And when Costco allows that dealer to be a part of their property, program, they take into account that doc fee. And the rule says that a Costco car dealer member will sell a car at a lower price than they sell that same car to anyone else. And that includes the dock fees and the junk fees. So a lot of dealers don't want to eliminate it because they charge it on an all car, so they lower the price.

But the net net price at a Costco dealer and Costco's rule, is that including dock and junk fees, it's lower than the price they sell to anyone else. Well, my experience is it's basically about the same or a little bit more from going to different dealers, so they're not playing by the rules. But that hasn't been said. Yeah, that could be true. The thing is you should always shop your Costco price at other dealers, too, if you know how you're shopping and then you're a good shopper. because all the Costco program says to the dealer,

you can't sell this car for more than you sell it to any, you have to sell it for less than you sell it to anyone of your customers. Now, his competition down the street, he might always sell his cars lower than all the cars that this dealer sells for. Just because he's a Costco dealer isn't going to give you the lowest price in the market, it'll give you the lowest price from that dealer to anybody. Right. Well, you're exactly right because I found another deal, and I said, oh, I've already gotten so many thousand off just online with this guy.

And so I went into the dealership, and there was the vehicle. The Moroni label was not on the windshield. And they kept saying to me, we do not do any additional dealer markups or add-ons or anything else like that. But the label was they had it laying on the floor. on the side of the seat, and attached to it was a dealer added ceramic coating for $799, and interior something or other for $600 and something dollars. So I said to the dealer, I said to the dealer, I said, hey, listen, you all said that this car, you had no, no add-ons to it.

And they said, no, these are not add-ons. We do this to every car. And I'm looking at the guy, I'm going, this is some sort of joke? I said, well, I've been on the computer with you all, and I have a price from you all, and I ask you to prepare for me a final out-the-door price with the best absolute price you could give me.

So the salesman kept saying, this is the best place, blah, blah, blah. So we go inside to the showroom. I sit there for 10, 15 minutes. He comes out with a piece of paper, and it was $5,000 more than I had negotiated on the computer with them. And so I said, well, hey, what gives here? Well, you have to talk to the sales manager.

But what do you mean? I talk to the sales manager. And so the upshot was, I said, this is not working. Thank you very much. I'm just going to, I just got to go. And so he goes, the salesman goes, he goes, if you leave, I'll get in trouble with my salesman. Oh, no. And I'm going, well, you know, I said, I'm sorry to hear that, but I really got to go, you know,

because it reached a ridiculous point. This salesman was going, he's not my customer to another salesman. He's my friend. I don't know this guy from Adam, and I'm already his best pal. But the other thing, I mean, I could go on. There were more aspects to it. They had the dock fee for this odd dealer. The reason why they don't have add-ons is because he told me they have a dock fee.

Well, I can understand why. The dock fee was almost $1,200. Oh, geez. And I'm standing there. I'm going, I've lost my mind. The first car I bought in 1975, I paid out the door $5,030. And I'm looking at these prices today, and I'm going, this is crazy. But that all having been said, and this is, you know, you get so frustrated because the only time

I want to go in a dealer is a due-to-deal or test drive a car. Otherwise, I don't want to go in there at all. You're a great mystery shopper. I'll tell you what. I wish you were closer to the East Coast. We'd like to have you do some mystery shops. You're keeping the dealers in the West Coast now on their toes. And it's unbelievable how they can look at the eye and lighty it like that and smile at the same time.

That's a real professional. Well, I do have two questions. One is they never seem to have the color that I want, the interior or exterior. And I said that deal is, can you order it? They said no. But the one dealer did say to me is he goes, if we can find it in another dealership, we can do an allocation trade with the other dealer. Yeah.

And it would be, I said, would there be an extra charge? He said, no. Well, you're the key, so you bring up another very important point for our listeners, is if you're going to, if you're going to have a specific, like a sunroof or a special color, something like that. The salespeople don't like to sell you a car that they have to order. The main reason is they're paid on the commission. Typically, 99% of all car salespeople will get 25% of the profit,

the markup that they can get from you on that new car. Now, if they sell you the car they have on the floor, out on the lot, they get paid today. if they have to order that car for you they might not get paid for four months they don't get paid until the car is delivered so you might not want that white car

but that white car is there you might want a blue car and it's going to take him a week or two or a month or two to get the blue car he's going to tell you you can't get it he'd rather force you into a corner make you buy the color you don't want or take the car with the sunroof

or without the sunroof he gets paid today on it. So that's why you can't believe what they're saying. Well, that's exactly what he was doing to me yesterday. I said, I don't like the interior of color's car. I just don't want. Oh, no, it's fine. You're going to like it.

You're going to like it. You know, and this is the best deal. This is the best deal you're ever going to get from anyone. And no, and the, and he goes to me, this one deal. And you cannot trade with a lot of dealers. They just won't do it or you can't, you know, he went on and on. I just said, thanks, you know, goodbye. But the one, so I can at least go to a dealer and ask them if they can find me an allocation in another dealer and maybe they can make a trade.

Yeah, that's a, everybody does it. We do it at our dealership. You operate out of a pool of thousands of cars instead of hundreds of cars. And all the dealers cooperate. Oftentimes we give other dealers cars that we like that we like to sell, but they have a car that we need because the customer wants it. now and so it's called dealer trading. We have a full-time person that we've employed for many years who does nothing but facilitate dealer trades. And this woman, a full-time job. We need a camry, but we don't have a beige camry. Okay, I can get one here. I'll have it for you

tomorrow. What can we give them in return? Well, we got five blue cameras. Okay, I'll see if you can They'll take one of my blue cameras. So it's a trading deal going on. It's common in the industry. All coal dealers in the U.S. do it. Okay. Okay. I may call your dealership down the road.

I can't figure out what I'm doing. Okay. Anytime. Thanks so much. Thank you so much. Give us a call again. All right. Our number here is 877-960-99-60,

and you can also text us at 772-497-65. We are going to go to Marty who's been holding. Thank you, Marty. Been very patient. You're still there, Marty? Yeah, good morning. Hey. Good morning.

I got a question for Rick, and then I got a question for Earl. Okay. I'll go to Rick first. My wife came home yesterday, and she's got a 21 Honda, C-R-V-E-E-X-L. So she came in the driveway, excuse me, and said their bells are ringing in the car, and the screen is saying the radio is not working and everything. So she shut off the car, came in the house, and I said, well, let me take a look at it. Of course, when I went out to the driveway five minutes later, everything worked.

Yeah. And that's how it usually is. So should you just wait on something like that? that until it happens and you can drive it over as doing it. Is it possible she hit the start button without hitting the break and it just lit up all the lights and chimed? That is a possibility. However, here's one thing that I would definitely, definitely recommend.

If it occurs, I would wait to see if it occurs again, but tell her, if it occurs again, while she's right there sitting in the car, pull out her cell phone. and take a video recording of the instrument cluster showing any lights, the radio screen, showing any messages, anything that's odd that's different. Get a video recording of that. And then when you do go to the dealership, show them or even pass that video to them, you know, transfer to them. But that way the mechanic can actually see what lights are on and what messages you're getting.

and it will increase the chances that they'll be able to solve that problem exponentially. Ever camera ready to go. Yeah, the number of... Every camera ready to go every time she starts the car. Yeah, well, but there have been cases that I've had a customer come into the shop

and said, hey, my car started doing this weird thing and here is the video of what it did and they couldn't really describe it very well, but when they showed me the video, I was able to figure out, out just from that it gave me the the knowledge that i needed so you know we're all walking around with these cell phones that have the camera they have the video capability it's like everybody's got it make use of that i get a get a recording of what it's doing and trust me the mechanic will be super super

happy because that makes it easier and faster for him to solve the problem and get his paycheck out of it so He's going to love you forever for that. All right. All right, I'll do that. Now, is there anybody? Can I talk to Earl for a second? Certainly. He's right there.

All right. Earl or Stu, I disagree with both of you as far as going on the Internet to buy a car. Hang up on him. Nobody disagrees. I have to disagree. Get his address. Oh, wait a minute. I have his address.

Go on, Marty. I just feel you can't make a deal until you are there and then you can get the right price when you're ready to buy because all dealerships except for Earl Stewart Toyota, they will try some kind of finagling and say, well, we left this off or they say, we can't really give you a price without seeing your, especially if you. as a trade in, but that's for sure they've got to see your car. It's my fault for making it sound like it's super easy. I mean, it's easy in the sense that you don't have to leave your home, but you start going to encounter dealers that

are not going to want to be up front. The best thing you can do is arm yourself with a price that you got and then go from there. And it's not, you're right, it's not a pleasure walk, but it's definitely way better than drive into the dealer. And Marty, you've got to realize that you are a good negotiator. I mean,

you listen to the show. You know, I say, almost every week on the show we're preaching to the choir you and a lot of other people like you know that our youtube are just no more than we do so yeah you can go in and you can go head to head with just about anybody and get a good price and they're we're trying to reach the people that you know that can't do that and so you're you're right it's uh why should qualify that that if you're going to talk to the dealer or whoever you're talking to, you better know what you're talking about

because that's their profession, not yours. Yeah, because I can just tell you this. And the last car I bought, I had four prices even going into the dealership before I made the deal. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, these... And you enjoyed every minute of it, didn't you?

Yes. Yeah. Except I still don't enjoy to make a payment. See, the average... The average person, you carry them out on a stretcher, if they had to go through what you go through, but you are, you're laughing all the way home. I love listening to Marty Laugh, do hear him laughing. Well, I do enjoy it, but, you know, I'm not as experienced. I've only, you know, been buying cars for, let's see, I was 22.

So it's been about 57 years. Yeah, you're, oh, boy. you're part of the old guard you know not too many people enjoy it anymore yeah no everybody that I talk to hates it yeah yeah well you should have gone to work you should have been a car dealer yeah you can do it every day I would have known what Earl was going to do I would have asked him to adopt me I will say this though I had a colonoscopy about three years about three months ago and I changed my mind I'd rather go into a car dealership than have another colonoscopy Yeah, the prep's so fun. All right, well, listen, you have a good weekend, and I like Rick's answer, and if it happens again, that's what we'll do. Okay.

It was great talking to you, Marty. Thanks for helping us laugh. Have a great weekend. I think that what we're going to do is we are going to get ready for Sapphire. Hey, can I do one quick shout out? Sure. I just had Restoration Archive as a YouTuber who just came in on the Earl Stewart Toyota channel and says, good day from Australia. Oh, wow, down under.

What time is it and what day is it there? I am just, I'm loving it. Apparently, right now, we have someone literally on the other side of the world. Honestly, literally. Watching our show. Yeah. This is cool. Isn't it?

It probably's tomorrow over there, I think. How about Paris? We're talking to the future. Anybody? We've got to ask them for the lottery numbers. Right. Lottery pull tonight. We can forget Australia and a lottery numbers.

Anybody hear from Paris? No, they're busy right now. I drove through Paris, Kentucky. Does that count? Did that one time. How were the opening ceremonies? Yeah. Okay.

Hey, Jonathan, should we just go ahead to the Sapphire or just hit YouTube and Facebook? Well, I do have some anonymous feedback if we have time for that. Oh, sure. Yeah, we definitely. We had a lot that came in this morning. Is that right? I'll go to the first one. Yeah.

Hi, everyone. The following questions are for Rick. I have a Chevy Equinox, which is a turbo on it. I heard two things online to extend the life of a turbo. Wanted to hear your thoughts. first change the oil change or change the oil every six months and not the once a year per owner's manual to use a higher grade of gasoline like premium and no less than mid instead of manual like regular like the manual says and also would you recommend to change the coolant and how often after the first change I try to check the owner manual but it didn't see a time frame or mileage it keeps me in a loop well one part says to refer the maintenance the other section says refer to the cooling jobs system second But anyway, thanks for your help, love the show, and keep up to the great work. Well, most turbos that I know of are not going to be affected by the gasoline because a turbocharger basically what it does,

it uses a flow from the exhaust to spin an impeller that then pressurizes the air that is being forced into the engine. So instead of it simply being drawing the air and just by normal suction of the engine, shooting it in there it's pressurizing it um it is uh lubricated by oil so changing the oil more often is obviously going to help extend the life so that that i would call a good one uh the gasoline is introduced to the air in the engine and really is not going to have that much of an effect on the turbo i would stick with what the manufacturer recommends or the gasoline rating for that car And for coolant, most... Is it a separate coolant for turbo system, or is he talking about the...

Some cars have what's known as an intercooler, where there is actually a cooler for the turbocharger, but most do not. So, again, coolant I don't think would have that big in effect. Okay. All right. Next one. This is a suggestion for Nancy. The recommendation that when you say the Zoom number, don't say, oh, say zero. because it might confuse some people oh well thank you good idea uh i'm moving on on okay

this is probably for rick hi i have an automatic front wheel drive SUV is there a differential fluid that needs to be changed and at what time mileage i see information about all wheel drive uh and changing it uh for that type but not the for the front wheel drive most front wheel drive cars the transmission and a differential are one solid unit. They use the same fluid for both sections. There are a very few that do have a separate differential. I think Subaru makes one like that. One of our Highlanders, I believe, was that way. But most of them, if it's front wheel drive, then it's the same unit together. Would that show up in a car that has a separate differential? Would that show up as in the maintenance

guide as um yes so and you'll be able to find that in your owner's manual under recommended maintenance as to when you should have that fluid changed and how often there's the answer but also um uh you can check your governor's manual all right last one um good morning i just got i just got a new to me 2023 SUV with the which has the auto start stop feature has a button to disable the feature i've heard different feedback about disabling or not do you recommend to disable it every time I drive? Should I leave it on? Does it really make that big a difference in the fuel efficiency?

My main concern is that leaving it on will wear out the starter sooner. I need to replace the battery more often and most of the wear and most of all the wear on the engine. I remember hearing that the most wear for an engine is on startup. I know that's not true anymore. Has technology improved so much now from when it first started that there isn't that many concerns with these issues. All right, with the engine where not a worry because the oil is not going to have time to drip all back down. The oil is still good. Lots of oil will be up in that engine.

The starter and the battery on most cars with a start stop, they have a special long life type starter, a special starter, a special battery. But they actually, most of them have a lifespan when it is recommended to replace those, even if they're still working. and they are also usually about 50 to 70% more expensive so I don't like start stop I think it's I don't think it's gonna it doesn't give you the what it should what it's supposed to do incremental improvements and if you're like you're asking about should you leave it on or on it's a pain in the butt if you don't like it to turn it off and but if you if you can deal with the the noise and the annoyance it's not it's not going to hurt anything.

So there you go. My recommendation is look at a car for, look at a car with a hybrid, especially the newer hybrids that have where the high voltage system starts and shuts off the engine. Yeah. And it's like that. You'll love that much better because there's no worry about the battery or there's no starter motor even where. We're good. We got it off.

Okay. Are we ready for the dog? I'm ready for the dog. for us, so? I know. We're good. Okay. We are going to,

we're going to introduce Sapphire. And Sapphire is just as cute as she could be. And she's a mixed breed. And she's a little over a year old. And she's out there at Big Dog Ranch just waiting, waiting for you to take a look at this video and go out there. scratch her on the head and take her home. Scratch your ears.

She just looks like as if that she needs to be scratched on the head. So anyway, I also want to mention, while I'm talking about Big Dog Ranch, they have a big foster program out there, and they're starting it today. They are just swamped. They're overwhelmed with so many dogs, and they need someone. And if you can't adopt, foster, that's the answer. And also, if you adopt a dog this week from us, we will be paying your $200 registration fees. And it's expensive to adopt a dog.

So at any rate, take a look at this video of Sapphire, and she's as cute as a button. Hi, my name is Jaden, and this is my friend Sapphire. I work at the Big Dog Ranch, and I want to tell you guys, someone who's good and lovely dog eat. She's honestly very cuddly, like to explore a lot, and very friendly, much to walk around, and don't get curious of other dogs, but she's just playing with everyone, honestly, very emotional.

Oh, boy. There are a lot of dogs. And as you can see, he's a little, uh, retracting spots. Sapphire hair stripes. Oh, we'll get around. He gets more people all the time. This must be a new volunteer. He should, you know, don't bring the dog by the dorm rugs.

She raised her home. She raised this. It's already outside. Oh, she is something else. I'm not kidding. This is, I don't want they call that, that pattern on the dog, is Brindle or something like that. The razor. Yeah.

Oh, I know you're talking to think about the ridge. Ridgeback. I don't, this might have some ridgeback in it, but he has, uh, like, almost like tiger stripes or she, I'm sorry, it's Sapphire. Yeah, they, they do that call that brindling. Brindling, okay. I can barely see it. Brindle stripes. You know, so that seems to, all his dog stuff is rubbed off a man. I'm learning a lot about dogs too. Yeah. Oh, Sapphire, you're so cute. Yeah. So, um, like Nancy said, you know, it's a really, uh, simple thing. Uh, you got to do is go out there, mention you heard about Sapphire from us and they take, we'll take care of the adoption fees. They will contact us and

we take care of it for you. And like you said, and for some reason you're not a match with Sapphire. I mean, walk over by the doggy dorms, you're going to match with somebody I did. Yes. A big husky jumped up and fell in love with me and I had to fight myself from not taking at home. Really? I can't deal with the shedding on a husky. That's even more fun when you've got to fight it. Or the yelling. They yell. Have you ever seen the videos of huskies they sing they sing and yell at you and amazing you got to be the right owner for that so at any rate you can go to wwwbdrr.org and you can uh ahead of time fill out fill out in application uh for adoption uh they do uh a background check pardon me uh also uh as i said there's

uh two two hundred dollars that we pay for your attention adoption fee. Also, if that isn't enough, you know, you can purchase our confessions of a recovering car dealer. Yes. On that $200 adoption fee that we pay, every time we say that, I hear people out there thinking, oh, I can get one of the local pound for nothing. Why should I have to pay $200? There's a good reason that we have the adoption fee, and I say we, the big dollar, Grants Rescue, we screen the people that adopt our dogs. If too many dogs, people like buying a car, people get emotional and they wake up one morning and say, I think I want a dog and they take the family out and somebody picks out a beautiful looking dog and they take their dog home and then

you know how things go. Maybe the dog nips somebody or maybe the dog. Or they get bored of the dog. Isn't what they want. So sometimes they just leave the dog on the street a high percentage of the people people I think dogs like people high high percentage of the dogs that we have in Big Dog Ranch are found abandoned

west of in Palm Beach County and people haven't got the courage I guess they don't want people to know they don't want the dog so they just drop it off and say somebody will take care of that dog and Big Dog Ranch Rescue

does and they go they take these dogs in. So when they put this dog back out again with another family, they want a more responsible family. So if you ask someone to pay the adoption fee, first of all, that adoption fee is not profit to Big Dog Ranch. It covers a lot. It goes into warming and heartworm and they fully reconditioned that dog for you. Yeah, yeah. And the fee is just like a donation when we do it. So not only do you have to pay the fee, but you have to pass a background check, yes.

The humans, we want to find out, why do you want to adopt the dog? Do you have children in the family? Do you have cats in the family? Do you have, where do you live? Do you have a backyard? Do you have a fence? So it isn't easy to adopt a dog from Big Dog Ranch.

If you love dogs, it's easy. If you're not a good parent, it's not easy. It works out well. The charge, and it's not just 200, it varies on the age of the dog and what they had to do for the dog. But it also just serves a natural deterrent from making an impulse decision. Exactly. I've had people call me and say, I want to adopt a dog to Big Dog Grinch. And I put them in touch with somebody out there, and then maybe a couple weeks later, they call me back.

And, I mean, it's embarrassing to me sometimes. They won't let this person adopt the dog. There's a record of them. Nothing. Well, no, no, they find they do look into it. It could be like, sorry, you have a small apartment. This dog is going to drive you, it's too big and it's going to drive you crazy. There's no way it's going to work out.

There's a whole lot of reasons. And what we're trying to say here is big dog ranch is pretty thorough. They're going to do a background check. If you're not going to just walk off with the dog. voice or video, and you know dogs that need help, or if there's people in the local dog pound, they call it, animal shelter, they're going to euthanize those dogs. And we get calls from all over the world about, will you take our dogs? Why? Because we don't euthanize the dogs, and we keep them forever until we find them a loving home. And so even if you don't want a dog, and you know

a dog that's getting ready to be euthanized have that location contact big dog range and we fly out and bring dogs in we bring them in by trucks and every other way and that's the reason we're a huge facility hundreds and hundreds of dogs out there absolutely and you know what a veterans program that they have out there you know it's it's just it's really amazing you know where they're matching up a veteran you know with a dog and it takes weeks and weeks, you know, of training and pairing that dog with the veterans. So there, too, is another program. And they could puppy land out there, and it's just an all-and-all great place.

And I was mentioning Earl's book just a couple minutes ago. That's Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer. And you can purchase that book on Amazon for 1995. All proceeds go. to Big Dog Ranch, so I'll keep that in mind. Have a great day out at Big Dog Ranch. You can go out there, and if you're walking around and you're looking to adopt a dog, and, you know, all of a sudden it just comes to you and says, you know, I don't know, maybe I just can't keep this dog. Hey, guess what? This program for you? Fostering. You could foster a dog, and you keep the dog

with you until it gets adopted. Yeah, so there's a whole lot of good stuff going on out there. So take advantage of Sapphire. She's waiting for you, and isn't it a pretty name? We had Sapphire this week, and we had Anastasia

last week. They got some good names. Yeah, that's a really pretty creative. Okay, we have the mystery shopping report to get to, and you can vote on the mystery shopping report by texting us at 772-4976530.

And we're doing a special kind of mystery shop report today. Yeah, we did. We're doing a Goldie-Oldie, and this is, Agent Lightning, had a health issue in the family, wasn't able to do the shop this week, and I asked Jonathan to look through the archives, and he picked out a slam-bang-duzzi. We got one that I'm glad I would, I think we're going to run this one again, even if we hadn't had to do it because it's a classic South Florida car dealer, classic South Florida car dealer shopping report. I'm curious to see how we all react to it this time and our, in our callers on the grades we give it to see if we're consistent. That'd be interesting.

Because I've gotten harder. I've gotten harder in the last six months. Yeah. And it wasn't that long ago. It was January 18th this year. Yeah, and we'll take a moment to let Agent Lightning know that we're thinking of her and her husband, and we hope that things went well for him. And we thank you for all the other mystery shopping reports.

You do a fantastic job. Again, you can vote on the mystery shopping report, and that number is 772-497. 6530. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Okay, it's a mystery shop of Rick Case Hyundai in Fort Lauderdale. Rick Case, you've all heard that name. He passed away back in 2020. And his wife, who was, they were partners in their dealerships. They have a large, large group of dealerships. And a lot of them are in South Florida.

And she's in charge now. again agent lightning did this report and i'm speaking in the first person is if i were agent lightning i arrived mid-afternoon started looking at a car that was open in front of the dealership before i could get in a very energetic salesman hollered out to me if you sit on it you have to buy it And it made me laugh. I guarantee it made Agent Lightning laugh and Stu's laughing. It's funny. I mean, and think about this.

What a way to disarm a potential customer is to make them laugh. If you're really good, whether you're selling shoes or television sets or cars, if you can make your potential customer laugh with you about something, psychologically you're halfway home this guy was a pro okay just i could just tell from that if you sit in it you have to buy it i mean that is truly funny uh of course i laughed replied glad you caught me before i sat down he extended his hand for a handshake my name's donnie barnes how can it help you today man donnie i wonder if you're still out there donnie barnes i think you probably are because you've been with uh rick case for a while and i want you to hear

this report. If anybody knows, Donnie Barnes at Rick Case Hyundai in Fort Lauderdale, let him know that he's being talked about right now on live radio. That's your ears itching. Right. So, Donnie's, how can I help you today, ma'am?

Well, I'm in the market for a new car for my daughter. Something new for a good value I explain. Donnie responded with enthusiasm. Well, the Alonterus are great cars. And here at Rick Case Hyundai, we double our warranty. You get we double it now this is a list of what's doubled 20 year 200,000 mile brick case doubles

a warranty on the transmission and engine that's a k a power train worthless warranty that's a clever way to brand this and five years uh 60,000 limited basic uh three years 36,000 70 500 mile all changes free car all this is doubled according to uh was that donnie yeah Donnie Barnes, and the five-year unlimited miles for roadside assistance. So that's doubled. So that's, you know, fluff. That's double. Double the fluff?

What do you got? You got fluff. He continued. We sell about 500 cars a month there. That might be true. I mean, South Florida, they are huge dealers down there. He's probably exaggerating, just like his life is an exaggeration, right? Some puffery.

Yeah, right, puffery. We have a lot of inventory. How about taking a walk with me? Now, let me back up a little bit. This shopping report was in January of 2024 during pretty much the height of the supply chain issue. And inventories were very, very low. So, again, I think that's double puffery if he really had 500 cars back then. But maybe.

I'm not saying it's impossible. Pretty big dealership. Yeah. It is a big dealership. How about taking a walk with me to the back lot, and I'll show you. He mentioned he's been here for over 15 years and loves it. Curious, I ask, what's the best deal and the best vehicle you think you have for me today? And a guy like this, I know I'm digressing from the shopping report again,

a guy like this at a high-volume dealership in South Florida, where the price is whatever they say it is during these days of what, wine and roses that we had, correct me if I'm wrong, Stu. But this guy could be making 300, maybe more, 300,000 or more a year. Oh, easily. Oh, yeah, the salespeople were at those. I mean, I don't know how many dealerships, you know, cheated their salespeople out of the big profits, but everybody got rich. Because when you stop and think about it, this is the pay plan.

This is the generic pay plan for car salesman, 25% of the profit. Now, if you can sell a car and mark it up, including the market that's already there, say, to $10,000, $25% of $10,000 is $2,500. If a good salesman will sell 30 or 40 cars a month, and the arithmetic, I'm getting, simply multiply that out. What's $4,500? I think it's $10,000. $8,000. No, $80,000. $100,000.

$100,000. 40 times 2,500 yeah 100,000 okay so they could if they saw 40 cars at $2,500 in one month they could make that much money so like 25% of that yeah 25% of that so this is big five grand in a month easily so that's uh 25 grand yeah that's the type of guy that's been working there for 15 years curious I asked what so well okay here we go the next page he laughed now you know everyone pays a different price every car I sell I can't I can't tell you that now it's the truth but the fact that he laughed about it

shows you how immersed in his trade he is that for all I know he believes that's the way the car business should be and and I was stupid as Agent Lightning to even ask the question that everybody pays a different price.

That's what's wrong with the car business today. That's why people hate car dealers, because you go in and you pay $27,000 for a car, and your neighbor goes in the next day and pays $22,000, and the guy across the street buys one the next day for $19,000, and you all got the same car. Now, that's insanity, and that's what he's laughing about, and that's what's true, and that's what's sad.

Playing dumb, I asked, well, isn't this, Windows, well, isn't this window sticker the price? And, you know, what is Donnie Barnes thinking? Now, I got a real sucker here. I mean, she thinks the window sticker is the price. I was pulling the Monroe label on a new 24-Hundi, Alontera S.L. MSRP was 26,825. Donnie replied, well, we have fees.

And then we can work from there, okay? I said, let me calm the girl down here. And we have fees. We'll work from there. Yeah, I'm here. I'm here for you. This is old school. This is what they all say.

I'm here for you and we'll do whatever I can to get you into a car. How soon are you looking to buy? Warning sign. How soon are you looking to buy? If the price is right, right now, I said, he liked my answer. That's the right answer for a salesperson. If you don't say you're going to buy today, you're going to get nowhere near a price of any kind of realistic value to you from them. You have to lead them to believe that they're going to get their big fat commission today.

So we suggest we head inside for him to work up a price. Once inside his desk, Donnie mentioned again this long tenure at the dealership, he was having problems logging into the computer and complained about the systems. After about seven minutes, they walked away, came back, apology. that someone must have been using as PC. Finally, he asked for my contact information. I'll be back with the price, he said, excusing himself. Come with me for a minute. I forgot to show you something, he said,

leading me to another vehicle, a new sonata in the shore. Oops, all our vehicles have this additional sticker on them. And, of course, we know the infamous addendum. It was an addendum label for root case benefit. Rick Case Benefits. And that's ironically true, is this, too. These are huge benefits for Rick Case. Right.

I don't think they really looked at it hard enough. Right. This is Rick Case's yacht. Rick Case is a private airplane. His villa in the Amptons and another villa in Vail, Colorado. So this is the Rick Gase benefit plan. Rest in peace, Rick Case. He gets a lifetime, Mrs.

RID case. The lifetime car washes is $17.95, I'm sure, for a protection package, new diesel sales listed, $5.95 decor package, and so on and so forth. So that's the RICase benefit. He had to confuse about what the car we'd seen earlier didn't have one. Well, he was probably, oh, he probably, he's probably angry because, well, maybe not. I don't know I don't know what I'm saying. I expressed my disappointment about over-sticker prices. Back at his desk, he asked, what was the window sticker on the launcher?

Didn't you take a picture of it? Now, he's asking me what the city was. She had got a really good deal at that point. Yes, I confirmed, and it was 26,825. He showed me the price on his worksheet and tried to justify the markup. He was selling it for 28,825. I don't know what it means that he was selling it. He wasn't selling it for $28,000, 825, starting $2,000 over MSRP.

He added a junk fee, dealer fee, $799, and then he added a 132 junk fee, electronic filing fee. And this is the killer. $1,295 for inland freight. Now, that's a federal violation of federal law. the freight by law, all manufacturers must include the freight in the invoice and the MSRP is already included in the price to the dealer. It's already included the price on the sticker. And when you add it back again on an addendum, you're double dipping.

You're charging twice for the exact same thing. So Uncle Sam doesn't like it that you are charging the customer and putting the $1,295 for inland freight in your pocket when it's already been charged the customer wants to go into the manufacturer's pocket and that's where it should go because they disclosed it and then you added it twice so that's that's larceny right there my real price once the smoke cleared a lot of smoke here folks was 31,051,4,226 over an SRP and as I said earlier Donnie Barnes here gets 25% of that, plus the other underneath the MSRP that he gets paid on too.

Donnie said, the price we pay for a car versus the window sticker isn't much less. Now, I can't think of a bigger lie. The price we pay for a car versus the window sticker isn't much less. Maybe not much less to Donnie, but it's a lot less. And the average markup on a car, what would you say, Stu, $4,000 or $5,000 would be a... Just between, yeah, just the cost and MSRP and then you get the markups and all the other stuff.

Yeah. Frustrated, I replied, I'm not here to play games. I've been up front about looking for a good deal today. You said you got me, but this... I said the good deal you got me, but this above MSRP isn't acceptable. And again, as I say, this is a rerun, a repeat. of a mystery shopping report we did during the COVID thing back in January of this year, 2024. So I said, as a shopper, I'm done here.

Donnie, take that bad question. What do you mean? You want my best price, but you're not even buying a vehicle today? Now he's trying, he's trying the laughter and the love, and now he's trying the intimidation. and that's what this is. Pushing and shoving and intimidating a customer. I told you the price was right. I was buying now, I retorted,

which is a damn good retort. He offered to speak with his manager, but I was skeptical. After a brief wait, I decided to leave frustrated with the experience. And that ends the shopping shopper. Now, normally we ask you to vote, but this is a repeat.

If you miss this, we'd love to have you to vote I don't think well I'm not going to change the the vote or the grade we have on Rick Kay Sunday because

Right We don't know what they're doing now It is what it was It is what it is what it was We're going to find out Yeah You always want to vote I get it because I know what the grade was

last time So just for Showcase purpose says, let's hear, if you haven't heard it before, how would you score it? And again, remember, we're right on the curve. Largillister's remember, though. They remember, so. All right.

South Florida is just the side of and Gomorrah. So cut them a little bit of slack, but slack might not help. Right. You just got to keep that in mind. Yeah. So Jonathan Palm Coast, risk case benefits and add-ons, fraudulent, and illegal fees show that they want to take. The customer, for as much as they can get, I'll give this dealership an F. Run, is in all caps.

Run, do not walk away from brick case dealerships. Here's Bob. I'll give it away. It's okay. This is all, this is for demonstration purposes only. It was an F in January, and it's an F in July. Double counting of the Fs just like they're double charged for inland freight. Yeah.

Amory, lying, cheating, breaking federal law, double dipping, intimidation, easy F. So, yeah, now I can give it away because Bob did. It was an F in January, and it's an F for me in July. Okay, I've got Doug Tesler says, double F. He should go to jail and do not pass go, says Ella, meow. Over here, we've got Mark Smith. No way this dealership gets anything but a D-minus for me. He's pretty nice this week.

Tom Steckle F-plus. No, knife for you. but addendum fees and illegally charging second delivery fee. Please compare Central Florida Honda Claremont. No addendums or dealer fees. That's one for the list. Johnny Z. Fradley, F for me, I bought my first new car at Rick Case Honda in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1980.

No fees. Before being a car dealer, he was a motorcycle and bicycle dealer. Interesting little note there. Joseph Kelleher, high fee. and breaking a federal law, I give them an F. Mark H, F minus, no addendum on the car but charged anyways, double freight charges, fees galore, and aggressive jerk. Brian Zedlato says, this one is a no-brainer.

Too many addendums gets an F. And Cramm 1624 says F, where's my benefit package? Run away. For me, I'm going to, I'll give him the benefit. I'll say a D. Oh, we'll give him a D. The nicest guy in here. All right.

I want to know if Donnie has proof of employment. I hear somebody say that he's been around for a long, long time. Hmm. Interesting. You mean he might have been posing as this else person there? This isn't even funny. I was going to make some jokes, but this is ridiculous. As it was in January, I give it enough for Rick Case, Hyundai, Fort Lauderdale.

Here's something that you think about this, folks. We didn't get a chance to talk about this on the show, but those footsteps that Rick Case hears are is Amazon's heavy feet, and Hyundai has joined up with Amazon. And any day now, Rick Case, Hyundai, is going to be, well, they're going to be put to the test because anybody that wants to buy a Hyundai can go to Amazon and have it delivered through the dealership of their choice. Now, they're not going to get screwed at Amazon. They're going to get it out-the-door price, and they're going to get a good price.

And how are the Donnie Barnes of the world and how are the Rick Case Hyundai's of the world going to survive? Amazon's coming. We've also got the Combat Auto Retail. scams coming. And we also have, in Florida, we have the September 1 deadline where even the Florida Automobile Dealers Association is getting behind stopping the screwings of the customers right now. So this kind of thing is a thing of the past. It is going to be so much fun to, once Amazon gets cranking, to go back to Rick Case Hyundai and see, are they still there? And if they are, What are they doing?

Right. So it's also going to be fun as we watch the scramble of all the dealers to try and get compliant in the next, down here, at least in the next month, if they really do. And I believe they will because that webinar was pretty clear. Clean up or you're getting in trouble. You got two deadlines. We got the FTC deadline, and we got the Florida Automobile Dealers Association. All the associations are jumping on the bandwagon. So, you know, this kind of shopping report hopefully will be a thing of the past.

Yeah, we certainly hope so. Give me a little extra time on Friday. Yeah, there you go. This car is rolling this update that you got this morning from the automotive news. Yeah. It's still in the making, so we're going to keep our fingers crossed that Ashley Moody can help us along here. We'll be singing her praises. We'll stop haranguing her and we'll be singing her praises as one of the brave.

in the country. There you go. If it happens. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us this morning at Erlon Cars right here on the Old East Channel.

We'll be right back here next Saturday morning and a special thank you to Jonathan for all your help. Appreciate it. And Jenny. Thank you.