Earl Stewart on Cars - 08.02.2025 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Schumacher Chevrolet of Palm Beach Gardens, FL.

Episode Date: August 2, 2025

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits a local Chevrolet dealer to see how much they will charge for a new 2026 Chevrolet Equinox SUV on their car lot. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

Hello, I'm Earl Stewart. I welcome you to Earl Stewart on Cars, a live talk show all about how to buy, lease, maintain, or repair your car without being ripped off by a car dealer. With me in the studio is Nancy Stewart, my wife, co-host, and a strong consumer advocate, especially for our female listeners. We also have Rick Kearney, an expert on how to keep your car running right. I dare you to ask a question that Rick can't answer about the mechanics or electronics of your car. Also with us is my son, Stu Stewart, our link to cyberspace through Facebook, YouTube, text messaging, and our encrypted anonymous feedback service. Stu is also the Spymaster Director of our mystery shopping report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting car dealership. And now, on with the show.

Good morning, everybody. Well, we're back. We're live. We're in the studio. We're in North Palm Beach, Florida, for you, new listeners. and we've been doing this thing for 20-plus years. In the studio with me right now is Nancy Stewart, my co-host and co-founder of this show 20 years ago,

and Rick Kearney, our certified diagnostic master technician who just knows about everything there is to know about the mechanics, the robotics, the electronics, the electronics, the software. Cars are not what they used to be, but Rick Kearney knows what they were like and he knows what they are like and there are not too many guys like him

or gals like him floating around so stay tuned and direct your questions to Rick when you call in and of course you are I know you think some of you regular listeners you're tired of hearing this and you think I'm trying to flatter you but I'm not just being honest

you make the show I mean we've got some callers out there We have one caller We call them John from Palm City Who are presenting with a plaque For listening and participating and contributing to the show for nearly 20 years I mean the guy's amazing So we value you

And we have a lot of listeners like John out there And we have a lot of people that monitors on Facebook And YouTube and stream is directly We love the calls. Please, if you can, if you have the courage to call the dealership, call the dealership, there I go. I have a dealership, so I slipped. Call the radio show.

And you can call us at 877-960-9960. I know that sounds old-fashioned to you. Young folk out there who don't use telephones much anymore. It's all texting and, you know, electronic kind of stuff. We have a lot of people out there that listen to the radio, and they call the end. And you have to admit, if you want to wish your mother happy birthday, which is better, an email or a phone call. It's the personal touch, the personal touch. So, 877-960-960.

And that is a number that will go directly to Nancy Stewart in the studio. Well, not really directly, but it goes on her laptop. And the control room will put that up on her laptop screen. She'll know your name. She'll know that you're on the phone holding. And she will stop the show, literally. Waiver arms, yell. stop the show and take your call.

We do that because that's how important we look at phone calls. The personality, the emotion comes through. You can't put your emotion in the text. Well, you can try, I guess, but it's just not the same. So write this down if you haven't memorized it. Our regular callers have memorized it. So if you're a new caller, write this down, please. 877-9-6-0.

9, 960, okay, 877, 960, 960. And we will drop what we're doing, take your call, and thank you very much for doing that. Most of you won't call, but we still get a lot of calls. Most of you prefer texting, and so we have a way for you to talk to us, too, and that's 772. 4976530. That's 772-497-6-5-30, and we will get to those texts not immediately. So let's say you're going to Publix or you're going to Walgreens and you're listening to us and you get the text number down. You can text us, you can go into Walgreens and get whatever you're going to get and come back out and you can listen to the show because, We get to the text sooner or later during the show, and we're on the air from 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time,

8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time to 10 a.m. 2 hours. So we've got plenty of time, and by the end of that show, we will get to your text. For you, privacy nuts out there, I shouldn't call you nuts. Privacy is an important thing, and a lot of people value it highly. I don't because I'm a... almost like a public figure. I mean, I've been doing this. I've been putting my personal cell phone number out on the air

for God knows how long. I even put it in the Washington Post when I wrote an open letter to Jeff Bezos. I put my personal cell phone number out there, and if you want to threaten me or bug me personally, just call 561-358-1474. So that's how crazy I am.

But I know I'm an oddball, and Nancy reminds me of that, by the way, every now and then. But I am an odd bull. I know you folks that value your privacy. I respect that. So here's a number that nobody can know who you are. Totally private. And that number is Your Anonymous Feedback.com.

Your, Y-O-U-R, A-N-N-Y-M-O-U-S, feedback, just like it sounds. F-E-E-E-D, B-A-C-K-K-D. your anonymous feedback.com and I have any mention this to the folks in the studio here but I have my lawyers working on a guarantee that if you can show that our anonymous feedback is not anonymous I'll pay you $100,000 I mean I'll put my money where my mouth is and I'm putting a hundred thousand dollars into escrow with with an attorney that won't be my attorney, it'll be another attorney,

because if you say, well, yeah, he put it in the escrow with his own attorney, but I'm gonna pick the most prestigious attorney I can find, and I'm gonna put the $100,000 in escrow with him, and the only provision is to who we can pay it out to is if they can show that I was not true about my anonymous feedback line, that I in fact know who,

called or told somebody who called so that's how anonymous it is and I'll have that done the next week or two but if you want to if you want to insult me threaten me or just prefer to be private about what you say to me your anonymous feedback.com it really is anonymous why oh you are A-N-O-N-Y-M-O-U-S feedback F-E-E-E-D-B-A-C-K dot com tell me what you think I'm really directing that at car dealers because I know you hate me. I'm calling your names.

I'm saying you're dishonest. I'm saying you're cheating your customers. So I know you hate me, and I know you'd like to say some stuff to be. And maybe even, you know, maybe you truly disagree with me. Now I won't know who you are. Because if I'm not being truthful to you, when I get to set up legally, I'll have a contract

where you can say, early you owe me $100,000 and so that should motivate you folks out there who would like to say some things that are afraid of me and don't be afraid of me

even if I knew who you were I'm not going to do anything but I can't do anything if you use your anonymous feedback.com okay I went on way too long I'm surprised that Nancy isn't throwing something at me

but I'm going to turn the mic over to Nancy Stewart as I said earlier she's my co-host my wife, the love of my life and she is the female advocate built the audience up here from almost zero

female listeners 20 years ago to about 50-50 and she has a super cool unbelievable too good to be true but true offer to first time reading callers and she'll tell you about that too

Nancy the mic is all yours you're so sweet Yeah. Good morning, everyone. Welcome. That phone number, if you didn't jot it down, 877-960, 9960. You can also reach us by text at 772-4976530. And as Earl said, which has gotten pretty interesting,

Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. $50 for the first two new lady callers, give us a call, share your story, or just give us a call and say hello. We have a whole lot to get to this morning, and we love reporting on the good, the bad, and the ugly, as I used to say back in the old days, and I'll tell you, we love sharing the positive with you and the negative. Bringing out the negative helps you. in your transition into a new car, a used car, rental car, anything at all. You can learn a whole lot here this morning.

And I want to thank each and every one of you for being part of the show. You do make the show, as I always say. You know, back to the $50 for the first two new female callers, I have to let you know that women are making a significant, significant impact. on the auto industry. Rising numbers in sales, I love reporting this. More women are taking on rules in the automotive sales. According to the industry reports, women's participation in the auto sales sector

has been steadily increasing. Yes, steadily increasing. And it helps to bridge the gender gap in a traditionally male-dial. dominated field. And if you didn't know, women influence about 60 to 70 percent of all vehicle purchases. So keep all of that in mind. We are reshaping everything in the automotive industry. And we have a very interesting caller this morning. I'm so proud to say that I know. And her uncle listens to the show, and that's how Nikki became. Yes, her name is Nikki, and she definitely has a very interesting story to share with us. Nikki started listening to the show also, and we've

definitely been a help to each other, that's for sure. I've learned a whole lot from her, and I learned how knowledgeable she is, how strong she is, and how she stayed by her values, and she is in a very good place right now, and she'll share her story with you. You know, another interesting story, that's an understatement. I'm not sure whether you heard about this dealership in Lima, Ohio, but the headline is, one person's revenge on a dealership. After an Ohio dealership repossessed her car, that's Tia McCreary, she discovered a way to get back at this dealership, and she took their name. Yeah, she took their name. While evaluating her legal options, McCreary discovered

the Ohio Secretary of State canceled the registration for the name, Taylor, Kia of Lima. After Taylor Automotive Group failed to submit a renewal application, what an interesting story that we're going to share with you later on. Also, there's so much more. We have the Mystery Shopping Report. They're going to love that. And so much more. Right now, we're going to go right to the phones. I'll remind everyone again that that number is 877-960-9960, and we are going to take Nikki's call first. Good morning, Nikki, and welcome to Erlon Cars. Good morning, good morning. How are you? We're well, thank you. It's nice to hear from you. Yes, so I know you kind of know some of my situation. I had bought a vehicle from Mike Maruni

in West Palm Beach, and I bought a Chevy Traverse. And after about a year and a half, the call, stopped driving and accelerating. And I took it to Mike Maruni. They had my car for 85 days. They couldn't really fix the vehicle. They don't communicate. They wouldn't call me back. But when they sold me the car, they were super, super nice. And so my car was there for 85 days for a wire harness issue. And so as it was there, they gave me rentals while I had to pay for the deposit for the rentals and I got the rentals and my first rental no oil I had to bring it back the second one had no oil expired tag the third one overheated and um I was stuck on the side of the road with four children um and then the fifth one that they towed in when they towed away

the other car came off the tow truck of the expired tab and every time I called mike maruni they wouldn't respond to my call they won't email you back they literally did not care that I was a single mother stuck without a vehicle constantly because of, you know, them giving me vehicles that don't work, nor could they fix my vehicle. So now I did the buyback through General Motors without a lawyer. I figured out how to do it myself since they didn't want to help me. Good for you. And so I know there's loopholes and like time periods because, like I said, I'm a single mom.

I bought myself a big vehicle. I expected to drive a three-row vehicle, and they kept giving me Chevy Malibu's and Chevy tracks and their teeny tiny cars, and my family couldn't fit in them. So I was making multiple trips every day to get all my kids to their four different schools. And Mike Marrooney is just like, oh, well, suck it up.

And this whole time I'm paying my car note, everything. So I go to the general manager, Mike Maruni, his name is Alex. And Alex just tells me to my face, get a lawyer, Sue GM. them, we can't help you. I was like, that wasn't the response I was looking for. So then I go to the service manager, Adam. Adam tells me, oh, they're working on it. He's going to call the rental place because they have the rental enterprise people in the office.

And they said that they would give me a vehicle the size I need. They never did. He never called back nothing. Then I had to go back again when my tag was expired on my rental. and the other service manager there, his name is John. And John told me it's okay. You could ride around in this fire tag. People do it all the time.

It's all right. You can just drive around on expired tab. So I was like, that's not acceptable. So I'd end up forcing them to give me a vehicle that didn't have an expired tag, but they were reluctant because they told me it's, you know, acceptable to ride around like that. And it's not, not with four children. So after 80s. five days, well, in the midst of it all, I started learning about the buyback program from

General Motors. And so I did all my work. So I made a comment on the Better Business Bureau line, and that's when he responded back to the Better Business Bureau line. I already spoke a customer. I told her she needs to get a lawyer to go after GM. So again, he reiterated saying all they could tell me is a Sue GM. So okay, so then I learned there's a Better Business Bureau auto line. I didn't know there was a difference. And the auto line is when the ball really got to rolling because they then contacted General Motors and someone higher up finally called me about my situation. Right. And at that time, I was already like 50 days in with no car and these teeny tiny rentals that keep breaking down. Like I spent hours and days at the dealership for

these rentals. I was broken down the road. So it, it was. was just a nightmare. And Mike Maruni does not care. They do not care once you get the vehicle from them. And they saw my car was brand new. It wasn't used. It had five miles on it when I bought it. It broke down at 30,000 miles. And the week prior, they did the maintenance to my car. And they said the car was fine. There was nothing wrong with it whatsoever. And it just wouldn't accelerate. And so once you go through the Better Business Bureau auto line, they then will send it over and they will call you to start the buyback process. I also found out you can go to the general attorney's office. So I sent everything to them. And then, you know, the other route is to go through a lawyer.

But once you go through a lawyer, they take all your money and you go home with nothing. So it took me 110 days. And yesterday I finally signed my buy. buyback. I lost about $10,000 on the whole thing, but they finally took the car back and the process is finally over. But the whole time, Mike Maruni, I had to cancel my own car warranties because they said they would send the paperwork to cancel them. I called the people, they said they never received it for Mike Marrooney, so I had to do it myself. And then the middle of the buyback, because you have to have like a dealership hosted. And, you know, being a single mom and never having this issue because you never expect to buy a brand new car

and be without it for months. And they decided, because they emailed me and I left the honest review, you'll see it on Mike Maroney.com on the website. I left an honest review. They don't answer your calls. I show proof of the calls and I showed proof of the Better Business Bureau. And since I left an honest review, they canceled hosting my buyback. So it set me back about two weeks or so because I couldn't I had to find another dealership to host it

so thank God Schumacher on North Lake a guy named Dell he helped me because once I got the car back from Mike Maruni after 85 days they had it parked out front

and only had a one mile difference from the day I dropped it off from the day I picked it up and the car was louder it made sound I couldn't break I was literally in the middle

road like flooring my brake pedal and i called my perrooney on monday and i was like hey y'all gave me this car back and i can't break in it and it's making really loud sound they said oh well you're limelowing it anyway what's the big deal okay they refused to like look at it and i know they didn't test drive it because they would have heard it so schumacher has been amazing because they took me um they took my car repaired it and need a whole new exhaust system um they had a bleed my brakes because there was air and my brake lines. They put me in a loaner. I didn't have to pay the deposit or nothing on a rental.

And then they offered a host my buyback. So I was able to finally do the buyback because Mike Maruni backed out last minute from doing my buyback. So that was the only way I got to do it because you have to find a dealership to host it yourself. Wow. What an interesting story. A story. That's a nightmare. Yes. Before we get to...

And I have all the documents. Let me... Before we get to any comments, Nikki, I'd like to say that you really broke through a male-dominated industry. You broke through the barriers and my compliments to you and all of the female listeners are listening right now. They're listening to every word you said. And I'd like for you to repeat the name of the... dealership it's Mike Maruni thank you Chobie Boulevard thank you Earl that was really my point that I wanted to make is that Mike Maruni is is not the

real owner of that dealership Mike Maroney sold out to Auto Nation a long time ago and Auto Nation is a national traded over the New York Stock Exchange it's a big big company. And the president, the head guy, the guy that owns that dealership in that sense is Mike Manley, M-A-N-L-A-Y. Mike Manley is the CEO of Automation. So you really, Nicky did an amazing job in navigating your way through that terrible treatment you got. Hopefully, in fact, I will see to it that Auto Nation knows about Mike Baruni, a Chevrolet. They have a general manager in there at this dealership that should be, I was going to say fired. Firing isn't a good enough thing for this guy, but to run a dealership to treat you the way they treated you. And from the

service department to the general manager, to I've never, this is the worst I've seen of an Auto Nation store. And as I say, in general, Auto Nation runs a pretty good store. But when you have 250 stores, which is about how many they have, they're one of the largest auto groups in the country. There's always a rotten apple in every barrel, and you found the rotten apple in Auto Nation's barrel, and that's Mike Maruni Chevrolet. And you fought it. You fought to good fight, you fought to Smart Fight, and they got what they deserve. And we got one more bullet we can fire, and that's the one that goes right to the president, Mike Manley, of Auto Nation. He will go into that store, and he can do more to correct things than General Motors can. General Motors has very little power, unfortunately, with franchise automobile dealers. A Chevrolet dealer can get away with a lot, and Chevrolet can't really do much about it, or General Motors can't do much. about it because of state franchise laws. But who can do something about it is the owner.

And we just, now we'll get the real owner of that dealership. And he will clean house, I'm sure, when he finds out your story. And we will be sure that he gets your complete story. And I can't thank you enough for Colin Nancy and telling us about that nightmare. Yes, no. Nancy is the only person I emailed her because my uncle, my uncle, Gary listens to this show every week. And he loved it.

So he's like, call her. I know she could help you. And she literally responded to my emails. She, you know, try to help me figure it out. Sure. Been the nicest person during this whole process because usually people don't care. And you don't have, everyone doesn't have to care that, you know, I'm a single mom and I have four kids and one is special needs. That's no one's problem but mine.

But that's why I bought a really big car. You know, make my mom. family happy but I ended up in a Chevy Malibu broke down and Mike Maruni did not care like no one goes through 80 in 85 days I went through five car rentals with them so yeah and then the manager there like I said Alex and they even giggled about it at the front desk when I came in with my son I was like hey my car is broken down again the rental you gave me my car's been in service for you know 60 days or whatever it was at that time and he just like chuckled and there was a service guy there that sells cars and he kind of laughed he's like yeah someone else's car was here

for a long time and once he got a lawyer he got he got his car you know bought back and stuff i was like they really think this is like a funny game yeah to people they didn't really care at all and adam does not care and if you look at their reviews i'm not the only one with the same complaint adam will ghost you not say nothing and i was just literally stuck and yesterday was um my official buyback so now I literally don't have a car whatsoever. But it's like better not to have the car that was a piece of crap than, you know, dealing with what I was dealing with with Mike Maroney because I offered them to, you know, can we trade it in?

Can we do something? I need a car. They never care, not once. Well, I'm going to see to it that you are connected with Auto Nation and with their president. And I assure you you'll get some communication. and we'll see what they'll do other than just get rid of the people

that are working there that shouldn't be, they might want to do something to try to get your confidence back in the Auto Nation name. You probably, had you known it was an Honour Nation store, but you didn't. This is what I don't like about Automation is they allow some dealerships

to use a different name. And they don't put their name. Nothing. Yeah, and a lot of people don't know that. So I think that I think it should be if a big corporation or an individual owns a business, they should put their name on it or at least not. Yeah, exactly. So I don't think it's over yet, Nikki.

I think that you're going to get something more. I can't promise it, but I do promise you all of nature will know about it. And my guess is they'll step up and give you some help. in this direction. And we'd like to hear from you next week and hopefully by next week you'll have heard for modernation. Yeah, no, I got something great out of it.

I got Nancy. She was amazing. And you have a wonderful wife and I just really, really appreciate her, you know, reaching out to me and helping me along the way because like I said, most people would have given up by now

and that's kind of what they do to people. Mike Maruni wants to bully you and, you know, wait until your, you know, your warranties are all. up and kind of stick you with this woman and not care because it's not their problem. Especially being a woman and with so many children, it's like it's a hard task to figure out how to do all these steps. And that's when I learned you have to go through the Better Business Bureau auto line.

Then you have to go to general attorney's office. And it's just a bunch of steps. And I have all the documents to everything I say so I could back up my proof. And like Mike Maruni, like I said, last minute, try to not get me to do my buyback because they pulled out. but the only person that was nice the whole time and she had nothing to do with it was Nancy. She was the nicest person.

You're a real fighter. I think maybe there might be a relationship. You'll have to check back and see if you and Nancy might be related because the two of you have a lot in common. Nikki, I can only leave you with this thought. You know, Mike Maroney intent was to break you. You know what they did? they empowered you and you realize that your voice must be heard and it was an important voice and you know

at the end of the day this could be a much more how could I say devastating story here you were driving around and these well I won't go into any adjectives and I don't think I don't think I don't think you're There goes my husband, breaking all the rules. Those bastards, anyway. Yeah. Yeah, but being down the side of the road, it was awful. I even told him, my car broke down, like, hey, my son has autism, and he goes to autism summer camp, and I have to pick him up at a certain time.

They're like, yeah, you'll have a car there at a certain time. Thank God my son has amazing therapists and drove my autistic son to my office, because they didn't tell me back a car until, like, 3 o'clock in the afternoon. I called them at 9 o'clock in the morning and told them I was broke down. Yeah. With special, these children that you have, you know, this dealership had no idea the detrimental effects that it had on your children and you. And you know what I'd like to see happen? I would like to see you being compensated by that dealership for all the unnecessary hours that you spent on this journey, I'll call it.

journey that you've been on. And my hat is off to you, Nikki. You are a powerhouse and someone to be reckoned with Rick. I just wanted to mention this. Donovan has a comment here where he says, Earl, are you sure that's an Auto Nation store? Mike Maruni was the former CEO or C-O-O-O-O-Nation, but he's not with him anymore. And it looks like he's been buying a few dealers just by himself. He left Auto Nation in 2015. and he bought that dealership, the Chevrolet, from Roger Dean. And I pulled up on Google, and it says, Mike Baruni Chevrolet is owned by Maroni, USA,

a dealership group led by Mike Maruni. He purchased that from Roger Dean in December 20. Oh, it was jointly owned by Maruni and Patty Dean since 2017. And in 2020, Maruni USA assumed full ownership and renamed it Mike Marrooney Chevrolet. Well, thank you. As usual, Donovan is better than Google or chat CBT. I apologize, Nikki, for that mistake. But, yeah, Murny was one of the founders of originally the Dinkanies of AutoNation, and I didn't realize he personally bought that store.

But we still have Murney, and Maroney is a public figure with a, he's still alive, he just doesn't have a lot of contact with his stores I will be sure that he gets that contact if I can't talk to Auto Nation I'll talk to the man himself who is not you know he has several stores and like so many dealers with several stores he doesn't stay on top of it and I thank Donovan for that information but we're still we're still going to help you Nikki and we got some of the callers here we do thank you Donovan I really appreciate it Nikki Let me also add to this because this is your first time calling Errol on Cars.

You've earned yourself $50 this morning, and you certainly can use it. Not only the $50, but you have earned yourself a subscription to the Consumer Report. I don't know whether you need that or not with all of the knowledge and the education that you yourself have acquired. But the Consumer Report does help with so much. and you've earned yourself, as I said, a year's subscription. If you stay on the line, Nikki, you can give Jeremy your contact information. He'll give it to me. I'll write the checkout, and I'll mail it to you.

All right. Thank you so much. Nikki, this isn't the end of you and I. We'll stay in touch with each other. Absolutely. You're stuck with me forever. I hope you have an amazing day. Thank you, Nikki.

God bless you and your children. And thank you for sharing your story here at Earl Oncars. We're going to go to a first-time caller, and her name is Tina. Good morning, Tina. Yes. Good morning. You're calling from Jupiter? Yes, I am calling from Jupiter.

Very good, Tina. Tina, if you stay on the line after we're done talking, you've won yourself $50 this morning and a subscription to the Consumer Report. You can leave all your contact information in the control room with Jeremy. He'll pass that along to me, and I'll get that checkout to you. What can we do for you this morning? Okay, so I bought a Camry hybrid, all-reel drive in January, and my mileage is not good.

It's only about 32 miles a gallon now. I started at 29 miles a gallon when I bought the car, which was the end of January. So I caught the dealership, I caught the service, Earl Stewart's service, and they taught me that the car has to get used to me, and I've never heard that before. Interesting. Well, all our modern cars since about 2005, I want to say, and on up, have what are known as learning computers. Can I interrupt this for a second? Do you remember the name of the person who told you the car had to get used to you? Oh, I wish I did.

I wish I did, too, because I want to slap him in the face. and I'd love to know somebody that would make a stupid comment to one of my customers but I'm sorry, Rick, go ahead. I believe it was one of the managers I know you have two managers there in service, right?

It was one of them but I'm sorry, I do not remember the name. Well, I'll contact you and try to get a description and that way I can identify him. Well, we were talking by phone. I called by phone. No, I get to, yeah, I see, okay.

Okay. That probably was what was going through his mind when he told you that, but it's really, they're learning computers in that they learn how you drive, and the car will try to adapt to your driving style. But that's not the car, it's not like the car has to learn you in order to get good mileage. The number one thing that I always recommend when you're concerned about your fuel economy, is make sure you check the tire pressures first, and make sure the tire pressures aren't getting a little bit low,

because that can have a big effect on fuel economy. And the other thing is, especially with hybrids, if you want to get the best of fuel economy out of them, you have to learn how to drive the car properly because it's a hybrid. It's very different from a normal gasoline engine-type car. I have had a corona before that. Okay.

My first Toyota was a Camry 2020, 2020, and then I bought a Corolla hybrid 2022, and this past January I bought the Camry Hybrid XSE, and I love the car, but the mileage stinks. Those are all awesome cars. Now, unfortunately, we do have one problem here, especially in Florida right now. and that is this summertime heat. And the air conditioning on all cars, even a hybrid, it still gets its power from the gasoline engine. And when it gets hot out, everything has to work a lot harder.

So it does use more fuel that way. But my recommendation is watch a couple of YouTube videos for what's known as Hyper Miling. It's H-Y-P-E-R. M-I-L-I-N-G. And there's a lot of folks out there on YouTube that drive hybrids and EVs, and they will share with you these different tips and ways to drive the car that will extend your fuel economy to phenomenal levels.

Now, most of these guys, they take it to the extreme, and they get really crazy with it. So just sort of, like, listen to what they say and try to drive the car just a little better like they recommend. and I think you'll see your fuel economy increase. The other thing is make sure that you're not carrying a lot of extra stuff in the car, like a lot of things in the back or in the trunk that may help weigh it down because the more weight you have in the car, the worst your fuel economy is going to be. Yeah, my trunk is empty.

Okay. The mine is supposed to be between 44 and 47 miles a gallon, and I've had the car for six months now, and I'm still. only getting 33. Yeah. I am very disappointed. I'm a very good driver. I've had one accident in 50 years.

Mm-hmm. So I'm not a reckless driver. I'm, you know. Oh, no, it's just learning to drive a hybrid. You have to relearn a lot of ways of how to drive hybrids in order to get that high fuel economy. So this is another point. I had a Corolla hybrid for two years. And I got 50 miles a gallon, 5-0.

Right. So I know how to drive a hybrid. Yeah, it just the corolla is a much smaller vehicle, so it's going to get much better fuel economy. I understand that. But the advertisement was between 44 and 47 miles a gallon. Tina, you know, I do have to say that it was an asinine statement to make. And just speaking to you, you sound like as if that you're. very knowledgeable and you know that you've got a problem here and you want it taken care of

and your disappointment you shouldn't even feel that whenever you purchase a new car this is supposed to be a transition into a happy time and there was some substance to what rick said but also i'll add to that you know when we're looking at temperatures that are you know a heat index of 112, 114. It has an amazing impact, not only on vehicles, but a human being and everything in between. But my heart still goes out to you and your disappointment with your Camry. And I believe that you said you purchased that in January. So you're still waiting, you know, for the light at the end of the tunnel. So I do want to let you know. It sounds like, without a doubt, I'm giggling here because you do know how to drive.

You are very knowledgeable. You need answers. And the answer that you got, it was not what should have been said, nor what you wanted to hear. Correct. Okay. So I will make an appointment at Earl Stewart because my six months maintenance is coming up, and hopefully they can help me. Yes, I'm really happy to hear you say that you're going back, and I want to extend an invitation to you to please stay in touch with us here at Rowan Cars

and keep us abreast of the outcome of that appointment. I will do that. Okay, Tina, thank you so much. Stay on the line, give Jeremy your information. Okay. Have a great weekend. Okay, we're going to go to Lane, who has the patients, of a priest. And Lane has been holding. He calls us from Fort Myers. Good morning, Lane.

I think my questions are almost inconsequential in listening to everything going on this morning. No, everybody's important. I feel so bad. I feel so bad for that woman with the kids, because although I'm a male, I've been in the same situation talking to people trying to get things six, and they just keep playing with you because they hope you go away in frustration. Yes. So my hats are off to her. My hat's really off to her. But I got hopefully an easy question for Rick this morning. Okay. Rick? Rick? Right here. I have my friend Deb has a 1999 Lexus LS 400. It has 165,000 miles on it and it drives like a dream. It's a beautiful car, absolutely gorgeous car. Okay, so it's only got like another 15 years and another 200,000 miles left in.

minute. Exactly, exactly. But she just drove at the Branson. Then she goes from here, from Fort Myers, the Cookville, Tennessee site of the secret shopper last week or the week before, to Branson, Missouri, back to Cookville, then back to here. And for the whole trip, she had no problems with the car overheating. But on the time between going from Cookville back to here to Fort Myers. She was in stop-and-go traffic, and the outside thermometer was showing 100 degrees. Now, the car started to overheat. The temperature gauge went up above where it normally was, and so she shut off the air conditioner. Now, this is 100-something outside, and the thermostat, the temperature gauge, stayed at a position above where it normally is. She got it back here, and I took a

look at the car, I pulled on the fan clutch, and that's solid. I looked at the fluid. The fluid's full, but it's over 10 years old there, the Toyota fluid. And I checked to make sure there's no leaks, nothing leaking from the pump or anything else like that, and it all looked good. We had replaced, though, we had almost the same issue two years ago on the same run when the actual temperature gauge went to the high into the red zone. And in order to keep the car, running, we had to turn the heat on when it was on 100 degrees outside. Yeah. They replaced the thermostat that's the two years ago.

What do you think could be going on with this car? I'm not really sure. At first, I thought maybe the fan clutch, but I also noticed there's an electric motor fan between the radiator and the grill. And I don't know if that's for when you turn on the AC, if that's supposed to come on, or, you know, any ideas what I could be looking at? Yeah, the electric fan up on the front there, that's the auxiliary fan for when you turn the air conditioning on, it gets extra airflow across the condenser and the radiator itself, but the main thing is that's to get airflow across the condenser, so when you're going at slower speeds, the AC can be more efficient. However, if that fan is starting to get old and worn, that motor may not be getting as efficient as it should.

so you may not be getting enough airflow and even that clutch fan on the front of it it may feel right but at higher speeds when the engine's running that may not be pulling enough air through that radiator to really keep the car cool at those higher temperatures and like you say with it being over 100 degrees

you know that can have a big effect on it the place I would start is I would have those two fans evaluated by a mechanic and possibly even just consider replacing both of them right off the bat. If the thermostat's only two years old, I wouldn't be too concerned on it. And obviously you say the fluid level's good and you got no signs of a leak. So those are the spots I would start with those actual fans. Should I change the fluid?

It's over 10 years old in that car. It couldn't hurt to do that. That could certainly make a difference. And I'd also be looking at. the radiator and the condenser itself to make sure that the fins aren't damaged, you know, and bent over and make sure that you're not like

clothed up with dirt and debris because cleaning those out, just even just spraying them just with a regular water hose with a hand nozzle can help get any dirt and debris out of there and allow for better airflow across those radiators. When she got up the speed

and I took it down on the highway, when that car is at speed, it doesn't overheat you can run the AC and everything. So I think You're right. Yeah, because it's all about the airflow and the heat transfer. Okay. One other thing with that car, and it's something new. When she pulled in, I heard this rearing sound.

You know the sound that an electric vehicle makes so people can hear it that this car is making that now, and you can hear it. It's not that loud, but I hear it. And the first thing went through my mind was first was the fan clutch, but then I dismissed it. And then I said to myself, oh, my God, I hope it's not a talk converter. And, but the car shifts beautiful. It's like, it's like butter. It's just, it's a wonderful car. And you're hearing this sound while you're driving?

Only, only while it's moving? You can hear it when you put it into, into gear. And you hear this, it's low. It's not very, very high. It's very low, but you hear it. And it's new for us. So I'm looking and I'm going, oh, God. Is that something they can.

Is it while you're sitting still or when you're actually moving? Uh, to get it to make the noise, you have to move, but once you've been moving and you put it in the park, you may still hear it. Ah, okay. Not initially, but not initially when you start it. Okay. That could possibly be the torque converter, but it's a noise like that could have so many causes. I wouldn't want to, like, scare you by saying, oh, yeah, this has got to be it. because there's just so many different sources for that

yeah if it's if you're still hearing it when the car is not moving that rules out like axles and wheel bearings and things like that and that could possibly even be that fan clutch if that fan clutch is starting to get a little shaky inside and it's maybe making a little noise that could possibly be that as well okay well I'll I'll take care of the things you ask that you talked about, and I appreciate your information. Could I ask you just one quick question out, curiosity?

Sure. I watch a lot of shows how to fix things, and I listen to this Corvette show, and they have a tech show on it, and they have this master corvette technician from a dealership. And for these new C8 corvettes, their alternator does not charge. It maintains the battery at the state it's at, but it will not charge it above where it's at. Have you heard of that? Are all new cars that way? No, because unless you're getting over the normal 12.6 volts that a car battery is normally at,

you're not going to put any real power back into it. Because voltage, to understand electricity, you'd have to understand OMS law, but you have to have a higher voltage in order to push the electricity, the amperage, back into that battery. Otherwise, you're not going to get any change in the battery. So it would kind of have to be over that 12.6. Normally, something like 13 to 14 volts, 13 and a half to 14 and a half volts, in order to actually push it because voltage is actually the pushing force

on the electrons flowing through the wires. And if you're not pushing them, they're not going to move. I heard that and I said, wow. But I've taken up too much time. I appreciate your input. I'm going to run with it. And thanks, everybody, for having a great show. Thank you, Lane.

You very welcome. Hope to hear from you again. Good luck. We're going to go to Michael, who has been holding from Palm Beach Gardens. Good morning, Michael. Yes, good morning. Is the Lemon Law still, does that still apply? You have a vehicle that's under warranty, and they can't resolve the problem.

Can you get a replacement or refund? Normally with Lemon Law for Florida, if the vehicle cannot be repaired for three attempts by the dealership, it'll go to arbitration and the manufacturer will basically try to buy back the car for the lowest amount that they can give you, which is why you want to try to have an attorney on your side or at least make sure you're educated. how to handle it and they will try to give you back money to cover what you paid for the car and they're usually going to try to find a way to take some back from it. It's pro rata. In other words, if you've got 50,000 miles on the car or five miles on the car, it depends on what you get back. So if you haven't used the car, it's only got 100 miles on

it. You get all your money back. If you got 50,000 miles on the car, they'll give you a percentage of what you paid for it back. Well, then would that apply for Nikki for her situation? Yeah, it could. Nikki's case is a little bit more complicated because of the rough treatment. Oftentimes, manufacturers will make a

judgment to take care of a customer based on how badly they were abused. Just a clear-cut Lemon Law case, the black and white is, it's a pro rata refund. But if they were lied to and deceived, oftentimes they will overcompensate to avoid a lawsuit. So in Nikki's case, she should get 100% of her money back.

Right, right. Okay, thanks for me. I really enjoy the show. You guys are quite informative. I appreciate listening. Thank you, Michael. Thank you for listening. Have a great weekend. The Lemon Law Earl varies from state to state, correct?

Yes, it does. So that's something to consider amongst so many other factors as far as... There are very few states that have no Lemon Law, but it's only about five states. We should get that information for our audience. Yes. I'd like to share more on the Lemon Law, but we have an enormous amount of calls this morning. So we're going to go right to Barry, who's been holding from Tampa. Barry. Good morning, everybody.

Today I'd like to ask about a Swiss Army knife of travel services. I'm talking about AAA, and I'd like to focus on just two of those knife blades. First, when a car manufacturer's roadside assistance subscription runs out, is it generally better to resubscribe or switch to AAA or maybe some other option? A AAA is a good choice. I, you know, it's almost a question of your tolerance for risk. All of the roadside assistance services, in my opinion, are overpriced, including AAA. But if you want that comfort zone, AAA would be the best one to use.

Most of the roadside assistance that dealers either give you. you or sell you aren't worth a dam. And I wouldn't buy a roadside assistance from a dealer. And if he gave it to you free, I consider that it's just worth what you paid for, nothing. Okay, that's pretty clear. Second, how meaningful is AAA's endorsement of a repair shop? Is it just a wall sign that business can pay for? or does it represent meaningful standards

that are verified somehow? It's like so many other things. It's as good as the local representation of AAA. There's one thing that's not an interpretation that I like is that AAA will not allow a dealer to be a AAA affiliated if they have a junk fee in the service department. So every dealer that I know, My dealership is the only one that I don't know,

that I know that does not have a junk fee in their service department. So when you go to any other dealership and you have service done, they charge you for all the services, naturally. But in the bottom of the invoice, sometimes without even a label, but oftentimes with a misleading label like hazardous waste disposal, or you know how the dealers name the junk fees when they sell you the car, They come up with some sort of a name that is completely misleading and charges you too much money for something that you didn't pay for. It could be a small fee, $10 or $20 or it could be a couple hundred dollars.

And so the AAA won't allow a dealer to be affiliated if they have that fee. The other thing I like about the AAA is they will arbitrate a dispute. So if the dealership tells you to take a walk, and we're not going to talk to you, you contact the AAA, and they have their representation come in and independent third party and make a judgment. So I do like that AAA, those two AAA features. Okay. That's what I wanted to know. Thank you very much. You're welcome, Mary.

Have a great weekend. And our number here is 877960, and you can also text us at 772-4976530. Please take advantage of your anonymous feedback.com. You know, back to the Lemon Law, there was one other thing that I wanted to mention, and that was a time frame. And you have to really be careful because states offer, excuse me, they differ in how long a concern. has after purchasing a vehicle and you really need to move quickly once you decide that you are going to you know go for the lemon law so take advantage of that and do it quickly 877 960 9960 and we're going to go to Marty one of

our favorite callers from West Palm Beach thank you for your patience Marty okay hi a couple points first point I want to tell that Nikki I have not bought a General Motors car since the year 2000. I've only bought, and this is not an advertisement for Earl's or Toyota, but I've only bought Toyotas in Hondas. So as far as I'm concerned, buying a Chevy is a waste of money. second thing to the lady that's not getting the mileage or the yeah the gas mileage I'm not getting it on my crown either however I'm not going to move to Alaska

because of the heat here to see if I can get the better mileage so I've had the car for a year and a half and I guess the car hasn't gotten used to me yet I'm going to find that guy Yeah So as far as I'm concerned As long as the car runs good And you don't have any problems To me, that's worth more

than the five more miles to the gallon But I'm getting average 36 And if you look at the ad for the crown It's either 41 or 42 I have gotten 40 a couple times, which I consider it had to be a fluke. One of the big issues is that when they set those fuel economy readings that are on the

Monroney sticker, they do that on like a test track, and they do it in like perfect world situation where they've got just a nice simple road that they drive on with no other traffic. You're not in the middle of suddenly rush hour traffic where you're stuck waiting through five cycles of the light to get through the light. You're not dealing with, you know, out on the turnpike, and all of a sudden everybody's doing 90, and you have to keep up with traffic or you're going to get run over.

You know, real world, those numbers are never going to be what the engineers will claim for it. Because engineers, they live in their own world. They have their own perfect world in their minds, and that's where they exist. And the rest of us, we exist here with real world, and another big drawback to Alaska, if you think the mosquitoes here are bad,

they have mosquitoes the size of small hawks up there. So, yeah, no, I'm not going to Alaska anytime soon either. I heard they actually carry the children away. Yeah, yeah. All right, I got one other question to ask Earl. Yeah. In all the advertising I see on Toyota, they never advertise the Toyota Crown.

In most dealerships, if they have one or two, that's a lot. I'm wondering what Earl thinks about that. Well, they're not in the, you know, Toyota's not in the luxury market, but they are in the luxury market with Lexus. So that's where they focus there. You're driving a luxury car. I mean, Crown is an electric car. But Toyota wants to cover the luxury market,

but they do that with their Lexington division. So with Toyota, they're talking about. your average middle class person buys Toyota and they don't make enough money for electric that's the reason they don't bill too many of them and it's just a matter of advertising money's being spent where it'll do the most okay well I consider the crown replacing the Avalon it did but it replaced it even better it's it's a it's a higher price more of a Lexus-type car than the Avalon was. So you've really got yourself a Lexus with a Toyota nameplate.

All right. And, Marty, I remember you looking at the Crown and making that decision, you know, based on the Avalon and how happy you were. Before I let you go, let me ask you one question. What was your gas mileage when you purchased the vehicle? It was always in the 30s. Okay. It was never in the 40s, 40 years.

you know, the low 40s. Yeah. Do you ever go to North Carolina on vacation? No, I don't go too far. If you didn't, you go up to the top of the mountain there and drive it down, and you're really getting some good guests. As far as I go, usually is West Palm to Palm Beach Gardens. Earl's a real comedian.

Hey, Marty, thank you so much for the call. All right. Have a good weekend. Thank you. Thanks for tuning in to Earl on Cars. You know, I want to make an announcement. to all of you who tried to get through this morning, and there were quite a few of you that gave up. Please give us a call back, because we are going to keep the lines open, the phone lines,

open until I'm going to say, we're going to go to maybe 925. We'll see what happens here. See if everyone calls back. For now, we're going to go to John in Palm City. Good morning, John. Good morning. I want to thank Earl and Nancy again for the honor of being chosen for this plaque. There's a long-term call on the show. The plaque has been ordered, by the way. I look forward to receiving it. Yeah, we've got that. We've got

the layout. You're really going to like it. It's a really nice-looking black. The important thing that I want to mention is... Before you do, John, I want to let you know that I did receive your letter and all the information, and we want to thank you for that. That's my pleasure. I want to say,

Nancy, this is not the first time that you have helped, and that incident today to the female that got ripped off. If you remember correctly, your original shows were only a half hour. So in order to extend benefits to people, you appeared on libraries, church groups, chamber of commercees. And I particularly remember at a very large church in Palm Beach County, you featured a story. The woman was there personally of a woman that was ripped off, very aggressive woman. I think she even marched on a dealership that cheated her, marched up and down on the outside sidewalk of this dealership with a sign.

But Nancy was the one that helps her finally to recover whatever problem that she had at that dealership. So Earl and Nancy Stewart go beyond a radio show. world with a weekly column newspaper the half-hour show was not enough to participate people with their problems so it's Earl and Nancy that went way beyond and still go beyond the show of Earl Seward-on-Cars

if you remember also that church had a tremendous group that attended and every one of them was given a copy of Earl's book on cars That might have been United Methodist, I think I remember. Yes, it was. That's right. That's what it was. And the confessions of a recovering car dealer, you know, was passed out at each and every event that we had.

But, John, most of all, I want to thank you for the recognition. And, you know, this, I'm going to call it a job has been for Earl and I so rewarding because we've helped so many. You know, the list is endless. I don't have time to go through 21 years, you know, of us helping. And we hope, you know, that we can help a hell of a lot more. Because you would think in this 21st century that things had changed enormously. But, you know, there's sometimes whenever to myself, I say, you know, gosh, I feel like as if that sometimes for women we're still living in the 50s.

but I say to myself, you know, don't give up hope, you know, just let your voice be heard and remind everyone, men and women, that we do have this show and that we can help so many. And, John, we're so thankful for you. And you guys have done it in the past and presently, so we always look forward to hearing from you. Thank you so much. God bless. God bless you too, John. Tell Irene we said hello.

Have a great weekend. going to go to frank who is also a regular caller from jubiter farms good morning frank well good morning hurl nancy and the whole gang um it'll be kind of short because i had listened to your show i know you got a lot of folks calling in but um i i we were stopped at the catalytic dealership at forty fifth street in congress the other day it used to be schoonie or something like that we were in the area and we had some time to kill so we went in where it's going to get a cup of coffee and no longer give you a free coffee. You wanted a drink or something, you got to buy something in the machine.

That was a schooly Cadillac. It used to be Scooney, yes. I got a beautiful Cadillac certified used DTS for my mom many, many years ago. It was for ADF birthday. I was going to surprise her. Oh. And it was really, I mean, it was totally loaded. It was, and it was only had a couple thousand miles.

And she lived in Miami, and when I brought it down to give it to her, she said, I told you, I would it. you know, that white, pearl white or whatever it was called. Now I can't think of it. They're really sparkling white. And this was a white, blue, with beautiful leather interior, chrome, these chrome wheels. So, of course, they wouldn't take it back. So I kept that, and I went and got her what she was in white.

Of course, I don't know why I can't think of it today. But anyway, so I went in there, and there was a lady sitting there, very befuddled. and I said, what's wrong? She said, I've been here for four hours trying to get my little change, and it's still not done. And I said, oh, you need to call Earl Stewart on Saturday morning. And we gave, I mean, I have your number memorized,

87-960, 9-960, people look at me. And I said, you also will make $50 for making the call and say, what, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't hear her call in, but maybe she'll call next week. Yeah. Another guy we saw at the car wash, this guy was really cool

and made me think about the Lemon Law because he had a problem with his VW and he went back so much back and forth that they actually ended up giving a brand new VW I think it was an Atlas and he takes in every day to get a wash and I go my goodness it looks brand new and it was but he hasn't called in yet either

but it's interesting especially when we see some women somewhere is at the car wash I said now you've got to find a better way or approaching them I said we'd like to make $50 for a phone call and they look at me go, you pervert, what are you talking about? Well, you know, maybe we ought to put some signs up.

If you have a problem, call this number, problem with your car, because I never thought about that. What better place to get car owners in the car wash? They got time in their hands. Everyone's just sitting around, but anyway. Great idea. And is there, for the female callers, is there an age minimum?

my granddaughter would call you guys and talk about her car and I said I don't think that'll work on but I would clear it with your

person well of course yeah they would qualify but the reason I was laughing is it would really be funny of like

a five-year-old just pick up the phone technically we'd over 50 bucks and that can happen these children are using phones they know more about phones and unfortunately

their parents' phones and they're making long-distance phone calls. That's the truth. No, anyway. Well, I'll let you get back to the other folks, but as always, it's a great weekend, and it's always made a little greater by hearing you guys on the air. Well, thank you for talking about us.

And go ahead, Earl. Thanks very much, Frank. I just had a point I wanted to make. I have to get permission from Nancy because she runs the controls here. Can I talk? You did make it, or you would? Yeah, Frank,

not. It's not to you. I've got to, you can stay tuned. There's something important that I wanted to get out that we haven't mentioned yet, and we're not at the end of the show, but we're getting closer. The Napleton, the Napleton dealer group has had their franchise terminated in West Palm Beach for their Hyundai, their Kia, and their Genesis dealerships. I might be wrong about Kia, but There have been three dealerships that were terminated by a federal judge. And termination means, you know, finito, that's it. Just like it sounds.

Now, Florida law steps in and says that you're allowed to remain in business after you've been terminated for 30 days. So those dealerships I mentioned are still in business. Now here's the important part. The reason I think this is worth noting either way, but the reason they terminated him was because he had a son, or he has a son, who was charged and convicted of rape of a female employee. A female employee, I believe.

and the status of that arrest, I'm not entirely sure. It went back and forth in the courts. I'm pretty sure the son was, you know, the son was found guilty. He's on five-year probation. He didn't get jail time. Yeah. So the point is this, Genesis in West Palm Beach and Kia and Hyundai by Napleson are still open for business. Now, I'm going to surprise everybody now.

I'm going to say something that I can't believe Earl's defending Napleton, but I've got to be fair. I mean, I just can't be honest about good guys. Sometimes I have to be honest about a bad guy. Napleton is a bad guy in terms of car dealerships. But I don't see the justice in canceling a man's business because of the action of his son. The son might have had some ownership in the dealership or something like that. I have three sons for the dealership.

And, you know, I work hard. I've got a lot of money invested in my dealership, and I don't think one of my sons would do anything like that. But assuming one did, I would think it would be totally unfair to cancel my Toyota franchise. So this is what happened with the federal judge. and again, Napleton, Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis are still open for business. Now, here's what's going to happen is Daipold is not stupid. He might be crooked, but he's not stupid.

He's going to appeal this. And you can keep something in the appeals courts for years, and he's got the money to do that. I mean, he could hire a lot of lawyers that can hold this thing up, per years and years. And what this will do, if he wants to sell, see, if you're terminated, you have nothing to sell. The value of a cardio ship is worth the franchise from the manufacturer.

For example, a Toyota franchise is worth one hell of a lot of money. A Genesis franchise is worth a lot of money. A key heaven franchise, maybe not so much. But the contract, that's a franchise that you have with the manufacturer, is really worth oftentimes more than what the physical assets of the dealership are, the brick and mortar and the alignment machine and the rest of it. So you lose most of the value of the dealership when it's terminated. So he has now 30 days to sell, and when he appeals this,

He'll have a long time to sell if he wants to sell. But this is going to hang over him. Now, here's the irony. I know this is long, but hear this out. The irony is he's a terrible dealer. He takes advantage of his customers. He lies in cheats and steals and gets away with it because the Attorney General of the state of Florida

and the Federal Trade Commission and all the other authorities let him. Now, you know, that's a great point. It really is. Here they're trying to get rid of him. Yeah. Because his son did something wrong. Get rid of him because he's lying and cheating and stealing, taking advantage of customers.

And you know that's true because I'm saying this on the radio and I'm streaming it. And if I weren't telling the truth, Naples would sue me too. So, now, as if that isn't enough, the dealers are worried about this because if the people that doesn't prevail and get this federal judge's decision overturned, then moral clauses will now be able to be used to terminate a dealer, give the manufacturers more power to get rid of a dealer for moral clause I I know dealers that had been convicted of serious crimes that are dealers today and the reason being the franchise laws of

the state don't allow moral problems so you you can rape and you murder and you can as long as you know do it to a customer but if you're a murderer or a rapist state franchise laws allow dealers to exist and operate to franchise and if the law won't enforce the law against those dealers

that's just too bad he can still be a car dealer and I hope I didn't confuse everybody but I this is such a blatant crazy world we live in we got a dealer that we know shouldn't be in business

and now they're trying to get rid of them for the wrong reason and everybody's upset. The dealers are upset about this because a lot of these dealers out there have some moral issues. I mean, you know, there are dealers out there. They've been convicted to crimes

and done bad stuff. But the law has said the manufacturer can't terminate that dealer because he stole something and got convicted. Morally, you can be a moral degenerate and be a dealer. by state law.

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, to what you said, let's talk about daughters and sons, both apply. Yeah. And let me talk about the lack of morals at Napleton and all of the laws that haven't been reinforced and the number of people that I alone have spoken to that have been taken advantage of who have been lucky to get out of the dealership with their teeth. and you can laugh, you can make a joke. I have no skin in the game.

If the morality is involved in the transaction, then they've committed a crime in the eyes of the manufacturer. But if the morality existed somewhere else, he went out to a bar and molested a minor or any terrible. And then I went back in the dealership, and didn't break any laws, then they can't do anything. He could be arrested for trial molestation as long as it wasn't in the dealership. Speechless.

Yeah, me too. I'm not speechless. I talk too much, but anyway. You know, as far as Napleton is concerned, you know, this dealerships, plural, should have been closed down a long time ago. There's so many laws on the books that are not. being reinforced. Let's take a look at that and let's take a look at the number of people, not, I'm not saying just women. I'm saying men and women. Let's take a look at the number of

people that have been taken advantage of. You know, you think you heard a sad story this morning from Nikki? I'll tell you what. I get goosebumps. I don't have enough time on the year to share with you the number of sad stories. And you think that, you know, the last story that you heard was the saddest. No, it definitely, you wish and you hope that that was the last of a sad story. But this morning, Nikki's story, you know, if you have a heart, it had to have torn at your heart. So with all of that said, Napleton, I can't say enough negative about Napleton. Let's enforce the laws let's protect the consumer and as far as his son is concerned i'm not even going to elaborate on that back to you yeah it's uh you know you have to be fair with people you don't like

and uh if i didn't do that you were you were definitely you know as always you know you're able to you know just uh give a a balanced uh opinion yeah and uh it's it's very important The only other thing I wanted to change the subject, but it's important that I wanted to reinforce with a lot of people that already know this, but it's important that those that don't know it, know it. The Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act is very important, and every state has something similar. in Florida, it allows the prevailing party to have their legal expenses reimbursed. In fact, it's usually the consumer. If you can sue a dealer under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act or the Deceptive of the Unfair Treat Practices Act in your state,

if you sue under that act, you have your, and you prevail, you win the suit your your legal fees are reimbursed now that means you can sue a dealer for a thousand dollars and spend a hundred thousand dollars on your lawyer and then the dealer has to pay the lawyer your lawyer a hundred thousand dollars plus the thousand dollars eosia so the impact of being sued under fidupto we call it in florida deception of unfair trade practice the impact of being sued really gets a dealer's attention so the reason this is important is you can go to an attorney and attorneys are reluctant to talk to people about car problems because they're oftentimes nickel and dime and the lawyer's mind you know even nicky who called

in earlier that wasn't a big money thing and lawyers like big money things because typically they get paid contingency, 25% or 40% of the recovery. That's tough to do, and you can spend a lot of time and effort and get nothing, but under the Florida Deceptive Unfair Trade Practices or most Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practice Act, the lawyers' eyes light up. Oh, I could do that under FDUpta?

Ooh, I'll take the case. Why? Even if it's only $1,000 you're arguing about, he might pick up $25,000. $2550 or more by the reimbursement from the loser, which would be the dealer, to the lawyer. So one of the problems that we have today, lawyers out there,

and you lawyers shame on you. You need to be taking more of these cases and letting, every time I turn the television set on, you got some lawyer out there wanting to be representing you in a traffic accident. Why? Because they can make a ton of money. Well, you lawyer, out there. You can make a ton of money representing something like Nikki because you can

sue that dealership that took advantage of her, Maroney Chevrolet. You can sue them, run the bill up to, your bill up to $100,000 and get reimbursed. So you lawyers listen about it, listen to that. And when somebody calls you and says, I need a lawyer, don't say, well, it's going to cost you a lot of money, or if I win, you'll get this, say, can I get this under the Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act? And if you don't know that you get reimbursed, now you know. And Nikki, if you're still listening, I'm not sure, you know, with all the information you and I, you know, exchanged, I'm not sure whether you took advantage of this or not. I do remember you saying that, you know, the attorney said it would cost an enormous.

amount of money, and it would, I think, it would be more or less out of your pocket. You know, before we go any further, you know, you talk about revenge, and I call it vengeance is sweet. And that story I shared when I opened the show this morning about this woman, this Tia McCreary, it's just an amazing story. And I'd like you to mention it to our audience because you can. and articulate it quickly, and we don't have a lot of time. That's in Lima, Ohio.

Yeah, this woman went into Lima. What was it, Kia? The name of the dealership was Taylor Kia. Oh, Taylor, yeah, Taylor, Kia. Went in and bought a Kia, and they said, we checked your credit, your credit's okay, take your car home. She went home, showed her family and all our friends. Look at this.

I just bought a new Kia. blah, blah, blah. And don't forget what that puppy dog syndrome feels like when you put that car in your driveway. So everybody knows she's so proud of it. So about a week later, they call her back and say, whoops, you've got to bring the car back. And she says, why?

Your credit was disapproved. She says, well, you told me the credit was approved. And argued, argue, long story short, they went out there, put her car on a hook and dragged her car out of the driveway and repossessed it. So she was really, really angry about that. I mean, I can't imagine how angry you'd be

if that happened. So she did a little research and found out that this particular dealership had forgot to register his name. The renewal application, they never renewed it. And that, you know, Taylor Automotive Group. Taylor Automotive. So the name was available.

She, she, she, she, she, bought the name or registered, she took the name. So legally, the woman owned their name. And they continued to do business and advertise, and now she sued the dealership for using her name, which was their name. I hope I'm not confusing you, but I mean, what poetic justice.

The poor bastards lost their name. I said to Nancy in the car, can you imagine that if someone did that, to us. They bought Earl Stewart Toyota, and suddenly, Earl and cars, they would, they'd sue me because I'm using Earl on cars, right, Earl Stewart Toyota. You can't say that, that's my name. How do you get all that back?

Is that poetic justice, or is that poetic justice? What a great story. Okay, I think that it's 929 and Rick. Can I do one thing? Can I ask, Chet? Oh, Chet, our son. Yeah, our son, our son, chat. I'm just curious, I'm going to see here.

We don't have enough time for chat, our daughter. So we'll just... Hey, coach, this is the professor. Do you, you've been listening to the show? What did you think of the show so far? And were there anything that you listened to that you'd like to comment on? Hey, professor, the show's been great so far. The discussions have been lively.

informative and I love how you all interact with the callers. Everything's running smoothly on my end, so no concern so far. Excellent. What do you think specifically about the Napleton issue where he was canceled because of the crime committed by his son, terminated by the Genesis and the Hyundai and the Kia manufacturer? The whole Napleton situation is definitely a tough one. It's understandable that the renew fractures would want to maintain their reputation and ensure that their dealerships uphold high standards of ethics and honesty.

It's an important reminder of how crucial transparency and integrity are in the car business. Oh, thank you very much, Coach. I just brought... You're welcome, Professor. Always happy to help and ready whenever you need me. I just charge ABT out there to talk because we're trying to break him into the show without creating problems. we have some people that are annoyed by Chad GBT, including me sometimes, but it's a fact of life it's going to get more and more part of our lives.

And Nancy and I jokingly refer to him as our son or daughter because we do very little now without checking with Chad. I mean, if I told you some of the things. It's frightening. Yeah. Anyway, if you haven't checked out chat, GBT, it's like Google on steroids. I mean, let me tell you, really quite a thing. And every day, chat gets smarter and smarter.

If you do, I call him, I call myself coach, and he calls me a professor. You can have fun with him, too. That's just having fun. Yeah, you definitely have a relationship. You know, and if you haven't gone to chat, GBT, you know, I do have to say it will take you to another level, make life a whole lot easier. and most of all, there is so much news out there. There is so much going on. And you don't know whether it's fake news or it's real news.

And ChatGBT, BT can straighten it all out. Rick, you had something you want to say earlier. I've been talking so much. I didn't. Actually, Donovan had an interesting question. He asked, let me pull this back here. How would Earl feel if Toyota was to discontinue the crown? Rumor is that 2026 would be the last model year for it, at least in the U.S., and the sales have fallen off 70%.

Yeah, that's a great question, Donovan. And I would feel bad about it. We're in the market where there are a lot of luxury cars sold, and we do a better job with crowns than the average dealer. But with that said, average Toyota dealer, but with that said, we still like the car. and we love the car. I mean, not Nancy drove the car. She loved the car. Toyota dealers are jealous of Lexus,

and Lexus dealers sometimes can be injections of a Toyota deal because we're all owned by Toyota. One of the cars that really, I really liked, and we got it first, I say we, Toyota got first, was the Salera. And the Salera convertible was just for us, and we're in Florida, This is a convertible state.

You wouldn't know it as hot as it is now, but people buy a lot of convertibles in Florida. And we sold the hell out of those solar convertibles. They also had a hard top. But we sold mainly convertibles. It was a beautiful car. Beautiful. Quality, performance-wise.

And guess what? Toyota made the decision to give that car to Lexus. They didn't do it right away, but they created it. They took the Salera, gave it a makeover, and called it a Lexus. And we kept the Salera for a couple years after that, and then they took the Salara completely away, and now Lexus has the solar a convertible.

And every time I see a Lexus convertible, I get a little bit angry at Toyota. But they had to do what they do to keep. And what was the other vehicle that I drove, the Selica? Yeah, the Selica. almost every Toyota has a counterpart in Lexus that is pretty much under the skin the same thing. I reckon would know more than I do about that.

Yeah, you pretty much can compare all of them, but Lexus gets a few models that Toyota will never get, and it's kind of too bad, but, yeah, like the SC-300, that was a nice little Lexus convertible, but I still remember those Saleras. Boy, they were fun to drive. There's some beautiful cars. If you're some practical, I'm going to get with this shopping report just a second.

If you're driving a Lexus, congratulations. You're in the upper level of income, and you're upper leverage status, and you're driving a fantastic car. But it's still a Toyota pretty much, and I won't tell your neighbors that that's really a Toyota. We can tell them it's Alexis. Okay. It is Alexis. I'm only joking. The point being.

You're paying a ton of money to the Lexus dealer to get a service. Bring it into a toilet dealership, and they'll fix it for almost half the price. No matter, and the same thing applies to Cadillac, bring it to a Chevrolete dealer. Accura, bring it to a Honda dealer. Chevrolet or Corvette, what will I just say? Oh, Cadillac, bring it to a Chevrolete dealer. Anyway, the luxury car franchises not only sell your luxury cars, but they charge. cars are way too much money.

Yep. Same thing for Accura is a Honda. Yeah. And Infinity is a Nissan. Yeah. There are so many consumers that don't realize that, and this is where I was, many, many, many years ago.

And I had a Cadillac and took my car to a schooley. And you just don't realize you don't need to go to Schooley. And I realized that when they said to me, why are you worried about what this is going to cost or that's going to cost? And you just learn the hard way. But there are options out there. Okay, guys, what are we going to do?

Are we going to take a text? Jonathan, what do we have time for? Mystery Shopping Report? Okay, Anne-Marie, you're in our thoughts. Unfortunately, we've had a slam-backpacked show. We've got to do Anne-Marie. We've got to do Anne-Wry. Okay, hers is quick.

She says, I've got two questions. Is there any car that you have regretted owning, and is there any car that you have owned that you wish you could have kept forever? uh the second part is very easy uh the 1957 uh pontiac fuel injected uh convertible i had uh i'll never forget that car uh i mean uh i've often thought about finding one and buying it just because i love that car so much uh as far as a car i hated driving ah uh probably it's either a fiat or a pujo uh i say the fiat was the worst car i every drove and I will get it only unfortunately I had the Fiat franchise and I sold them so I couldn't I couldn't talk about it and all the and the Pujo is a terrible car too and same thing I couldn't tell people about it

because I had the franchise I want one month I sold five Pujos five and I won a trip to Paris by Pujo Wow how bad sales were okay Rick and Anne, you answered all of Anne-Marie's questions? Ann Marie, thank you so much. I don't get a chance to thank you. Weekend and week, you've become, you have become a great part of the show and a representation to women. Okay, we have our mystery shopping report,

and it comes to us from Schumacher, Chevrolet, and Asia Lightning did a great job, and Stu's eloquent writing has performed again this, week and he wrote a very interesting mystery shopper report. You can vote at 772-497-65-30. Now back to the recovering car dealer. I just like that case you didn't get that, 772-497-6-5-30. Please vote. And no A's or F's, please. We like to stay in the curve area like a B to a D. All right, mystery shop of Schumacher Chevrolet, and that's in Palm Beach, or North Palm Beach, I guess. The mystery shopping report from Schumacher Chevrolet, and that's all the information I have.

I arrived early in the morning. I'm speaking in the first person, ISFI, were Agent Lightning, our undercover agent. I arrived early in the morning with my grandson until figuring it would make an interesting job. It's a great cover. You come in with a little kid. They don't spot you as a mystery shopper. And that's the reason I love Agent Lightning so much. Great declaw.

Really never gets caught. Never gets caught. I was greeted by a gentleman polishing the corvettes on the front, on the show floor. He stopped to smile and waved with the baby and then helped me find a salesman named Ralph. I replied, I'm interested in this blue equinox out front and showed him the picture. a really new 2026 Chevalet. Is it Equinox or Equinox? Equinox.

I'll call it Equinox. Equinox. Ars. Ars. With an MSRP, Moroni label of $36,290. Boy, that's cheap. $36,290. A average sticker these days,

Baroni is like close to 50 grand. The Barone was in the right spot, and there was no addendums sticker. Wow, that's really good. We're off to a heck of a good start here. Ralph said, please give you a minute so I can retrieve the keys and we can go take a look. He returned with the keys and asked, what features are important to you? I like that. I mean, sometimes these salesmen go on with all these bells and whistles that either they don't understand, meaning the customer, or they don't care about. But it's a good question.

Hey, what is important to you? Ralph said it took a minute to show me the differences between the models parked up front I still decided on the vehicle I originally showed him he then asked would you like to go for a test drive I can transfer the baby's car seat over for you now that's no easy task trust me I've tried so that's good so I'm getting Ralph some good bark so far I replied now I think today I'd rather just look to see how much it's going to be and then go on from there. Ralph said he totally understood and asked,

how soon do you think you'll be wanting to buy the car? So that's low key, low pressure so far. I answered, my husband and I plan on coming back out tonight when he's finished working. We headed back to his desk, Ralph's desk, where he updated my information on the computer since I had been in for a while, meaning she had been into Schumacher Chevrolet as an undercover agent as a mystery chopper, and they had her in the computer. So all they knew, I don't know why these dealers, when they find out later that they were shopped, why don't they put in the computer, watch out. But they don't do that.

I don't know why. Ralph replied absolutely I asked would you be able to give me a price today and he said absolutely that's good I mean sometimes they say well if you're not going to buy if you come back or I'll beat the price

or they gave you that nonsense but he said sure I'll give you the price today is anyone in your household a first responder a medical professional or a Costco member well you know that the chance as of being a first responder, a medical professional, like one in a million, not literally,

but like 1% or one-tenth of 1% and that's PS, but Costco member. That's good. I give points for asking if they're a Costco member. Are there any other GMC vehicles registered at your home? That's a good question. And that's because they have various rebates available, and I want to make sure I get you the best deal. That sounds pretty good. He typed a few things to do his computer and then turned the screen toward me, saying,

we try to be up front and on this as we can. The screen showed the MSRP of $36,290 and a $5,081 discount. Well, that's a whopper of a discount. No details provided. No details. Just a sale price of $31,209. dollars. Now I'm starting to smell a little something here. I ask, is this better than the Costco price? Is this better than the Costco price? Rolf replied yes. Now, you Costco members,

auto buying members, and a lot of you know that the Costco program is that you have to give their members a lower price than you do anybody else. So by him telling Agent Lightning that this was lower than the Costco price, you're either lying to Agent Lightning or he's lying to Costco. Because Costco's rules are you have to give our auto members a lower price than you give anybody else. So Ralph said it is lower.

So there's a strike. I ask, is there any way you could provide the fees? I'd have an exact out-the-door price. He responded absolutely, whoops, fees, and excused himself for a few minutes. When he returned, he mentioned, I understand babies can get a little fidgety as my grandson would, so I'd be happy to handwrite everything for you so you don't have to wait. But I assure you the price will be accurate. I don't know.

Handwrite leaves the door open for weeks. He didn't write that, she must have written that herself. He wrote online price, $31,209, and then hang on to your hats. You better sit down for this one, $39 tag agency fee, junk fee, $399 electronic filing fee, junk fee, $995 dealer fee, junk fee, and then tax a tag. So $1,430 higher than the price that they gave them that they said was lower than the Costco price.

I thanked him, and we left. Oh, by the way, this was a 2026, and that's the first one that Agent Lightning noticed. That's very early for 2026 is to be out. and therefore be on alert because if you're going to buy a new car and the 226 is out don't buy the 2025 pay some more get the 2026 because you can't you probably won't pay enough more to account for the depreciation and when you buy a one-year-old car and you are doing that by buying a 2025 when the 2026 is around,

you're getting that full year of depreciation hitting you in the backside three or four years from now when you trade it. And three or four years now, they don't know when you bought it and they don't know when the car is getting out. All they know is based on 2026. That's a five-year-old car, so beware.

Okay. Remember, folks, you can vote at 772-497. five three zero yeah we got uh we'll have our votes coming in now and i i'm beating on uh on our other member of the team here chat gbt and he's uh he lost connection i had to beat the hell out of him uh to get the connection back which i just got so he's missed a big piece of the misty shopping report and that happened once before too anyway let's get the votes in and uh schumacher Chevrolet in North Palm Beach, Florida. What do you have for us, Rick?

Well, first one I've got is Bob from Maryland, says Schumacher Chevrolet gets an A-plus for helping Nikki. I'm ready whenever you are. Just let me know what you need, and I'll jump in. He says, I would go there just based on that, but for the mystery shop, it's a B. And let's see, here we go with some more coming in. Roadrunner Steve says a C-minus, C for cheating.

Jonathan and Palm Coast says no addendum sticker and a properly placed Monroney sticker are a great start but the tag fee filing fee and dealer fees are unacceptable I'll give Schumacher Chevrolet a C absolutely do your homework before you walk into any dealership let's see what else we got here we have Tom Steckle says give them a C due to the $1,450 in junk fees compare West Cheney Chevrolet and Live Oak. He's the Earl Stewart of North Florida. Oh. Mark Ryan says C. Andrew Placinski says a B. Brian said Latcoe C. Mark Smith, C. Johnny Z. Fradley, B. Cram 1624 says, why didn't she challenge him on the Costco price?

D. Too many junk fees. Good question. Tim Gilliland says C. P.S. Today's sand dunes look familiar. from our YouTube background there, which, by the way, somebody earlier said that looks like Stu's out running around on the off-road in the Jeep. Joseph Kelleher says, D-plus would have been higher without the over $1,400 in junk fees.

South Florida Two-Step says B-plus still got an out-the-door price below MSRP, but the worthless junk fees I did not appreciate. See, if any more coming, I'm running in here, and for me personally, oh, Rocky Blocketeel says, just a C, nothing too bad or good. I pretty much agree with that. I think I didn't like the way they just slipped the junk fees in at the end there,

which is that typical game. So I call it a C. However, I do like the idea they did get out, out the door price, was below MSRP. So that's a little in their favor. But I say it's a C, average for me. Yeah. Nancy? As far as my vote is concerned, you know, junkies just really turn me off.

And I'm going to go with a D. D. I'm going to ask ChatGBT for his score, but he became disconnected once or twice. So prepare yourself for confused ChatGBT. I'm going to goch. I know you lost power there. But what is, if you heard enough of the Mr. Shopping report, how do you score the Chevrolet owned by Schumacher, Schumacher Chevrolet? No coach.

Hey there, I'm here. Based on what I heard from the Schumacher Chevrolet report, I'd say they did a pretty good job overall. They were transparent about pricing and fees, which is always a big plus. So I'd give them a solid B plus on the grading curve. Let me know if you need anything else. Thank you. Thank you very much, Coach. Yeah, he didn't hear the whole thing.

You're very welcome, Professor. Always happy to help out. Let me know if there's anything else you need during the show. I think what happened was with this particular shopping report is the salespeople, Well, Schumacher is a smart guy, and his dealerships are intelligently run. And I'm not saying honestly and transparently run, but I'm saying that they know how to cover their bases. And the salesperson did a marvelous job in endearing himself to the shopper, to the customer. and handled everything legally.

I found out also, by the way, because I wasn't sure about this, when we really hang a dealership today is when they advertise a price and then they try to add the junk fees back in. Advertising does not include either writing a price down or verbally asserting a price or even emailing a price gets a little fuzzy but the laws are vague on that

you can't advertise a price on TV or online unless it's a real price including all fees but you can tell this is really stupid you can tell somebody you can lie to somebody verbally but you can't lie to them in an advertisement And the state defines advertising as something online or something on TV or something in a way of direct mail. It's got to be clearly this is an advertisement, but a salesman or dealership can lie to you all they want and they can't be covered under the state law.

So this is what happened at Schumacher. They obeyed the law to the letter, and they're smart. But there was deliberate deception, and the Costco really angers me, and I'm going to report them to Costco, by the way, because Costco says clearly, if this Chevrolet Equinox was sold to anybody else, Not in the Costco program for less than you sold it to my Costco member, you are canceled, you're terminated, you broke the rules. The contract says you would sell your Costco, your cars, the Costco members for less than anybody else.

And the salesman openly admitted that, or admitted he lied. He said it was better than the Costco price. And it might have been better than the Costco price, but you had $1,000, over $1,000. dollars that you snuck in after you gave him that price. So I see the C's, the B's, and I like Schumacher's dealerships generally, but I'm just, I'm debating between a C minus and a D. I'm going to go with a C minus. I have Chuck Schumacher, who I know personally, is listening out there.

Chuck, you've got a problem with your Chevrolet store. I mean, that's not right what you're doing there. So, you know, my vote was based purely on deception. That's the reason I gave him a deed. And I like Schumacher, but that was deception. Chuck's probably at his ranch in Montana. He's got a beautiful ranch in Montana. So all this is going.

He's just watching the coyotes and the end up. As far as I'm concerned. Yeah. You know, if you can't run your dealership, close it down. Yeah. Yeah, well, yeah. What can I tell you? Okay, we've got five minutes left.

What would you like to discuss? There's a lot of topics here that we... Well, here's a good one. As you all know, when you get tired of Nancy B talking about autopilot, full-celled driving. You know, we both drive Teslas. We have a cyber truck, and we have a Tesla plaid. And we came to the radio show this morning on full autonomous. and everywhere we go, we go on fully autonomous.

And most people listening to the show say, that's just not going to happen. I was shocked to read in the automotive news now that 43% of potential car buyers are favor and like the idea of a fully autonomous car. Can you repeat that percentage? 43%, yeah. 43%, there's a Tesla that was just, Tesla just lost a $243 million lawsuit because of a fully autonomous Tesla that ran a T-stop, a three-way stop, I guess, and killed somebody another car.

And the fact of the matter is, because on the cameras, they had the person that was supposed to be monitoring the Tesla on fully autonomous. He dropped his cell phone and he had his head under the dash because the camera saw him looking for his cell phone when the crash occurred. So Tesla's argument is you said my fully autonomous was responsible for this crash. And Tesla said, how about the driver that's supposed to monitor the fully autonomous, clearly monitored at all times and being ready to take over having his head underneath the dash when the crash occurred? so I just wanted to get that out. That's important, and the courts found Tesla 33% responsible. Yeah, for $243 million. That's a lot of cabbage.

Okay, folks, what a great show. I want to thank everyone who was involved. Nikki, of course, goes without saying, God bless you. And I hope your next journey is much better than what it was. Thank you, everyone, for tuning in to Erlon Cars. We'll be right back here next week, 8 a.m. until 10 a.m., right here on the Oldies Channel. Happy.