Earl Stewart on Cars - 08.03.2019 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Off Lease Only

Episode Date: August 3, 2019

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

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

Hi, folks. Boy, we're here again, our second time, I guess, in our new studio. And, boy, it's very different in here. When you're doing the same place for 15 years and suddenly you're in a new place. so excuse me if I act a little funny or knock something over or don't know what to say but we're trying I'd like to say that a lot of people don't know about the show for you newbies

let me just say that this is a very different show something you've never heard before stay tuned if you were looking for some golly oldie music stay tuned anyway because I think you'll find this interesting we are a very candid tell it like it is talk show live talk about how not get ripped off by a car dealer. Now, I did one introduction, but I want you to know that if you'll just listen, if nothing else to the mystery shopping report, and that's it toward the

end of the show, our mystery shopping report is absolutely unique on the air. Whether you talk about online or television or radio, you'll never hear anything like this. We actually visit car dealerships every week. We go into a different car dealership. I'll give you a little hint. We went into CARMAX, which is the largest used car retailer in this area. They're second, I think, to CarMax, off-leaseonly.com I'm talking about. CarMax is the largest, and off-lease-only.com is the second largest in this area. So it was an exciting report. We named names of the salespeople, the sales managers, and we've been doing this, as I say,

for 15 years without being sued. It came close a few times, but we have never had any. anybody sue us for telling the truth. And of course the law protects me. And Earl Stewart on cars, if we tell the truth, we can say anything we want to. And we do that on the air. It's very exciting, it's candid, and instructive. So if for no other reason, please stay tuned for our mystery shopping report. As I say, we're in a new studio. We're all a little bit trying to get used to things, like when the calls come in, where do we see them? We get text. We're online, so we have Facebook, we have YouTube, we have Twitter, we have Periscope.

A lot of you folks out there are streaming us live. My son Stu is taking note of that. And Rick Kearney is online also to watch the YouTube. So watch us live. You can go to Earl Stewart on Facebook.com. Forrest slash Earl on Cars. Facebook.com. Forrestle on Cars.

You can do the same thing with YouTube. You can do the same thing with Periscope and Twitter. It's kind of cool to look inside and see what we look like. I'm particularly handsome. You really ought to take a look at me. The rest of them, I don't know. Well, Nancy's pretty, too. We can't work on the lighting in here.

Exactly. Also, I want to introduce in person. We'll go around. I'll start to the left ladies first. Nancy Stewart, you know she's my co-host, and you know that she's on the air. she's a particularly strong advocate for the ladies and she is the reason we have almost 50-50 lady callers and Nancy tell the audience out there what's in it for those ladies out there

if they call the show good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the show ladies let's support each other let's build this platform together I have $50 for the first two new lady call So give us a call at 877-960-99-60. And for the rest of you, you can text us at 772-497-65-30. You were right. Unashamedly, we're bribing, we're begging. We love the female callers. $50 cash, no conditions, no strings.

If you haven't called the show before and you're a female, we'd love to hear from you. Why? Because in the past, we had dominated by male callers. and cars and men. Macho. Yeah, macho thing. You know, the old hashtag me too thing is starting to really build a groundswell of interest.

And you ladies out there deserve to take half of everything. And we want you to be 50% of the callers on the show. Absolutely. Tina, we know that you're on the line and we'll be right with you. Speaking of female callers, she's one of the best. Let me go to Stu Stewart, my son. He is a partner in the business,

with me and full transparency. I am a car dealer. I've been a car dealer since 1968 and this is not an infomercial. I want you to know that. But Stu knows a whole lot about the car business and being a younger guy than I am, he is also very familiar with cyberspace and Twitter and YouTube and Facebook and all that sort of thing. So Stu, what are you doing? Well I'm answering all the texts. I'm checking all our live video streams making sure that we're communicating on multiple channels worldwide. making sure that you know what people are asking you.

Very good. And he's very knowledgeable on selling and leasing and buying of cars. And we don't know a whole lot, Stu and I, about the repair and maintenance of cars. But we've got a guy in the audience, in the audience, we do have guys. But in the studio, we have Rick Kearney. Rick, been with me for 25 years? Yes, sir. And tell us about your expertise.

25 years of working on Toyota's almost exclusively, Toyota and Lexus, and yet I've got a good general knowledge of pretty much all the cars. Most of the systems are pretty much the same when you get right down to the nuts and bolts. Well, you work more on Toyotas, obviously, because we're a Toyota dealership, but you work on a lot of cars. I mean, when a car comes in, a customer comes in with a car, you're going to work on unless there's a warranty work on another model. How do you stay on top of technology?

Now, that's the hardest part, and that is basically spending every minute I can, breeding up on all the new tech on the cars, figuring out all the new systems. It seems like it used to be everyone was concerned about whether or not the air was cold and their brakes at work, and now everybody wants to know how well my cell phone integrate with my car. So it's a new challenge, a new world. Yeah, technology actually has reached a point with, ownership that it's become a challenge. The manufacturers are worried and the owners are even more worried car drivers because the technology is so complex now that

there's some talk about it affecting the safety of driving. I have Apple car play in my car and Nancy gets nervous when I drive because I'm looking at my little screen there and all those icons and you got a little mouse kind of a thing going and it can distract you from the road. You talk about texting being distracting. A lot of the technology in itself counterintuitably can be distracting. Well, I think we've introduced ourselves, and I think we need to talk to our first female caller. Yes. Let me remind the listeners that you can reach us at 877-960-99-60, and you can text us at 772-497-6-530. Now, on with the show. Our most popular female caller, boy, I'll tell you, she has been a huge part of building this platform here at Earl-on-Car.

Good morning, Tina. You want there, Tina? Yes. Oh, good. Hi, how are you guys doing this morning? We're good, but we're stressed. We're not sure everything's going to work, right? We're here.

Oh, it sounds like y'all are doing just fine. What did I want to bring up today? I sent you a text message regarding an affordability formula for people to buy. cars. Whenever most people look to buy a vehicle, they forget about the price and they're like, oh, I really want that. But then when you crunch the numbers, reality kind of hits you in the face. So I think rather than looking for a particular car that you might want, it's best to really crunch the numbers and see if it can work for you or not. And I was wondering what you thought about that affordability formula that I sent you. I think it's very important. And

You're absolutely right. Most people, Tina, rely on a motion too much when buying a car. Fortunately for us car dealers, a motion causes people to buy cars, but it's really not prudent. You can allow a motion to guide you toward a general type of car. But affordability and reliability and safety, how can you ignore that? There's so much data available to us today, and we should take advantage of it online. Google, you know, that's the other half of my brain today. Consumer Reports is one of the most valuable tools.

In fact, consumer reports in and of itself is probably the single most valuable tool. In a few minutes, maybe a half hour, 45 minutes, you can decide which vehicle is the safest, the most reliable, the most economical, affordable, and that's the way you have to go. If you love a car, here's a good example. is an extremely popular vehicle. People come to me and say, I want to buy a Jeep, I want to buy a Cherokee, I want to buy a Wrangler. And we sell them on our use car lot, but I have to be honest with you, there are a lot of vehicles out there that are more reliable, that are safer, lower maintenance costs, and consumer reports

gives you all that information. I have to be, I have to say this, sometimes people normally buy a car, and they know that something is better in a way of safety, reliability, maintenance, but they buy on emotions. Very difficult for us to overcome one of our basic driving forces, which is emotion and caring and, you know, things that look pretty to us and exciting. You know, sometimes that even affects people getting married, but sometimes we just can't control ourselves. Yeah, well, I dodged a little in that regard a few years ago, but that's a whole other show.

Anyway, I like the order, I like the order that she listed everything, safety, reliability, and maintenance. And honestly, when it comes to cost, I think if you have to spend a little bit more to get a safer vehicle, it's worth it because it may mean your life someday. Sure. And you're right, safety number one, because, you know, if you can afford it, I know people that drive cars and they know they consume too much gas, they know they cost a lot in maintenance. But they can afford it. You know, that's great. They get a lot of money that they can afford it. But one thing they can't afford to lose is their life.

And I know they want to protect their family. They don't want to be injured. But don't buy a car that you know that's not safe. And one of the big things we talk about on the show are dangerous recalls and cars that are being sold every day. Safety, our mystery shopping report today addresses that issue. But please, you know, I don't care how much money you have or how exciting and sexy that.

car is, be sure it's not dangerous. At least be sure it doesn't have a dangerous recall that cannot be fixed. Cars are being sold today with dangerous recalls that are unfixable. You're being foolish and you're being selfish and thoughtless if you buy that car. If anybody rides in that car with your friend or family, you should definitely not do that. Which safe safety. That brings to mind an issue that I just went through recently. I got the recall notice and Jermaine Toyota over at Naples, they were really good to me, and they got my side curtain airbags all fixed up. How important, Rick, how important are those side curtain airbags? Well, you know, the airbags today, I don't know how many lives, I'd like to see an

estimate of that. I can't believe that I drove cars for so many years without airbags, and we have a collision repair shop at our dealership, and Alan Napier was on the show last Saturday. when Stu was on vacation. And if you want to get an idea of how many lives those side airbags save, just talk to Alan or any body shop manager, they see the cars that come in. And the conversation every day is, I can't believe no one was hurt. I can't believe that no one was injured in that accident. We see accidents that 35, 40 years ago would have been absolutely fatal.

And the cars today are amazingly safe. save, and those airbags will save lives they do every day. Yeah, I was just, I mean, the site carton airbags thing that's been around for what, like, maybe less than 10 years, that's a fairly new safety feature. You know, the side airbags, do you remember, Rick, maybe 15 years? I'm going to say closer to 15 years. Yeah, they came out and they were like excess, you didn't have to have them, but they would be in certain models, and then gradually they, they became prevalent, and they're in

models now. Well, as a matter of fact, some of the newest cars coming out right now can have as much as 12 to 15 airbags. Yeah, they're putting airbags on. There's even talking about putting them in the roof of the car. And I believe there's some models that actually have them in the door, yeah, the door, which is absolutely, you know, you don't think about that, but you get a lot of teabones, you know, where they hit you from the side and they have the airbag in the side and even the roof. So eventually, our car will be one giant airbag and the matter where you get hit

or where the impact comes from you're going to be safe and Tina all right yes ma'am to the topic about and this airbag disaster you know the legislators if they could just cooperate with us

you know it would you know save so many lives and we really need every one's support, you know, and this terrible train wreck, I'm going to call it, that's been going on for so long, and the number of cars that are sold, unbeknownst to the consumer, that they do have a problem with that vehicle. And they're never told, and they drive right off the lot. Okay. Well, call again, please, Jenny. You are our best caller, certainly our best email caller, and I just fell off the bench.

You're watching Facebook. I'm okay. Let me give you a hand. But the camera is now photographing the ceiling. But you're not missing much. Put it on Nancy. It looks better anyway. Okay.

I'm back. We are going to go to Sandy, who's been holding. And she's calling from Palm Beach Gardens. Good morning, Sandy. Sandy, I thought I heard. and I thought I heard Jerry. I think you're there. Could you repeat what you just said?

Oh, I just said good morning. Oh, okay. Yeah, we're having. Go ahead. I hope you can answer it for me. Okay. I have a 2010 SUV. I used to drive 10,000 plus a year going to work and back.

I no longer do that. I'll drive maybe 20 miles a week. and my question is regarding an oil change my car has you know of course it's got the digital fossil fuel regular oil change yeah

and it's been 30% for many many months it hasn't gone down because I don't drive my car very much so my question is how often should I change it well Sandy that's one of the most common problems people have. They don't understand. It's hard for me to understand. Rick

explained it to me. But oil needs to be changed on time basis as well as mileage basis. And oil, I don't know if the word deteriorates is the right word, but oil becomes less effective due to humidity and heat and other conditions just by sitting in your car, even though you don't drive it and people don't understand that and it is a subtle fact of life that you should change your oil on your manufacturers recommended cycle regardless of mileage and all manufacturers will have a time and they're typically six months so counterintuitively if you sit if your car sits from the garage for six months and you don't drive it at all zero miles you still need to get that

oil changed and that will protect your engine when you do drive the car actually there's some truth of the fact that sitting still and not driving the car is worse for your car than driving it so my guess is your manufacturer says change that oil every six months regardless of mileage double-check your owner's manual to be sure but my guess is that's probably what it is and you should follow that advice Okay, Sandy. Sandy, are you a first-time caller? Well, we're having...

I think we're having technical difficulties. Sandy, if you can hear us, we cannot hear you, but I believe you are a first-time caller, and we have a $50 check. We'll send to you if you can call back. Okay, and if I move much close to the microphone, I'm going to be making love to it. So at least I'll be getting saliva on the thing here.

So I'm sorry I can't do much more. At any rate, we will send you the check. Call back 87-960-99-60, Sandy. That's 877-9-60, and give Rudy in our control room your contact information. And because you're a first-time female caller, we're going to give you $50 cash. So we still have another $50 for the next first-time female caller. 877-960-90-60 and our text is 772-497-4976530 and I believe we do have some text over there. Yeah, we've had a few that have come in this morning.

We have one from Jordan and he says, good morning, Earl and Nancy Stewart. My name's Jordan, and I'm reaching out to you because I was mailed a fake advertising flyer from the same dealership called Pat Fisher Nissan saying he has a sale event in the outlet Dunlinton Square Mall. just trying to see what your thoughts are on that. I think I can, I know what your answer is going to be. Yeah, you've heard before. Totally ignore all car dealer advertising, all of it. The lowest form is your direct mail. If you have something that comes in the snail mail,

it is typically the most deceptive. The reason being that you can direct snail mail to a particular mailbox and the regulators are far less like. You don't see too many car dealers dumb enough to send direct mail to the Attorney General's office or to the county office consumer affairs so they can target all the people and It is really terrible, but all car dealer advertising is deceptive They never advertise a vehicle as a price you can buy it for and I would love to hear from anybody in our audience on YouTube or Periscope or radio or Facebook anybody that can hear my voice, have you ever bought a car

at the advertised price for the advertised price plus tax and tag only? We'll give them that much. If you ever bought a car, what it was advertised for, and then only had to pay sales tax and license plate.

If you have, call the show 877-960960, and we will say good things about the car dealer that did that because it just doesn't happen. Okay. Okay, excuse me, Stu. Sandy's back, and she's on the line one.

Sandy? Yes. Hey, I don't know what happened. We missed you. Yes. Yeah. Well, you just stay on the line, Sandy. We're going to have Rudy.

He'll pick up the phone. He will get your contact information. And because you're a first-time female caller, we're going to send you $50 cash, so we don't want you to have to give us your address and everything over the air. So Rudy will speak to you, get your information. and within a few days you'll have 50 bucks and thank you very much and please call again next week yes and a special thank you from me sandy okay stay in touch i'll get to our text and stew has

another text i just came in yes i do this came in from well there's not a name on it um it's a picture and i'll try and get this jonathan and we could probably get it up on on on facebook or on youtube later it's a picture of a crolla and a car dealer's inventory listing on their website and the question is what's up with selling or advertising new cars without hubcaps are these wheel covers? Is this a new trend? I've noticed it from different dealers. And honestly, I'm kind of, I don't have an answer for you because I don't know, well, I can only speak for Toyota. I don't think there's any that come in without wheel covers or hubcaps. But I'm looking at a picture of what looks like to be a Toyota Corolla without hubcaps. So I don't know. My assumption is there's a thing called a pre-delivery

inspection. And that's when these hubcaps are supposed to be installed in the car. Some have their distributorship do it. Some do it at the dealership, so maybe they took the picture of the car before they put the hubcaps on. Sounds like a goof-up. And kind of silly. I mean, it's not a good way to sell cars.

They don't look as good without the... Not at all. Shame on them. And the last one, this kind of made me feel good, and I want you to take this to heart, Mr. Stewart. Guys, relax, and don't worry about the technical glitches. What's important is the show. We don't need perfection.

The show and information speaks for itself. That's very nice. very nice thank you we're getting grounded a little bit here let's just take a little there we go cleansing breath there we go okay I see here where we have Daryl he has been holding thank you Daryl and Daryl's calling us from Pennsylvania my hometown good morning morning what can we do for you this morning this morning this is Daryl calling from Pennsylvania good morning Daryl I have yeah I I'm not in the market for Toyota or anything, but I'm in the market for Ford F-450.

And there's several dealerships in Florida that I'm considering. One is Mullinex Ford? Do you know them? We do, yes. We have a mystery shop, them. In fact, we know the Mullinx family, and we've spoken to the sons recently, and we know them to be. There are several locations, and they were the origin of, they originated,

the one price and no dealer fee years and years ago since they've varied from that policy but generally speaking they have a good reputation yeah they have a lot of reviews online I mean hundreds

that are five star the thing the other one is tropical for it in Orlando do you know them is that owned by Molanex or is that a different this is a different board I don't know

Tropical Ford. I don't know Tropical Ford in Orlando. And before we get off Mullinx, let me say this. We found out that Mullinx Ford is expanding by adding partners. And they have partners that operate a little differently from the Malnick's philosophy. So when you buy from Malnick's Ford, find out who the owner of the Malnix Ford is. The Malnick's family, there's, I believe, two brothers and a father, and they have other owners out there. But generally speaking, the Molinick's name is a good name. And sometimes the partners we found through a mystery shop were deviating from the dealer fee policy that Mullinix was supposed to have. In this particular case, it was Mullinix Ford on North Lake Boulevard in North Palm Beach. And they were advertising

cars with no dealer fee. And we mystery shopped them, found out that they did have a dealer fee. And that's when we contacted the real Mullinix and discussed it with him. He was going to do something about his partner changing that. And shame on us, I don't believe we've gone back and re-mystery shop them back with Stu. Not then. We wanted to give enough time to let him relax for a little while. We've given them too much time. But anyway, that's the story on Molinac.

And Tropical, as I say, Daryl, we don't know about it. Okay. Well, thanks a lot for the information. Well, thank you. And check with us before you buy. be happy to give you any advice. Watch out for the hidden fees. The biggest thing you have to watch out for

when you're buying a car in Florida is hidden fees and dealer-installed accessories. Be sure you get an out-the-door price without any surprises and you'll do just fine. I've been listening to your show for a long time now, so I know exactly

what to look for. Good for you. Thanks for being a regular listening. Thank you. You're welcome. Give us a call toll-free at 877, 960-9960 or you can text us at 772-4976530. I have a text from a widow and she points out that she is a recent widow and what's happened recently is that she had to go out and purchase a vehicle

and she had a direct mailer and with that she thought you know all of her problems would be answered. She goes to the dealership, and in mind she wants to purchase a vehicle, and the monthly payment was way too high for her, and she just didn't know what she could do. It was out of her budget. And the salesperson suggested that she lease, and she was very nervous about that. And what she did was that she told him that she would have to go home and digest leasing a vehicle. The payment was much, lower, the purchasing payment was about $600 and the lease was about $400 and she wants to know if she should go back to the dealership and sign on the dotted line for the lease. It sounds like this person has not gone car shopping alone and our sympathies certainly to her husband who passed away recently. But she should go in whether you're a widow or or whether you're anybody, a man, a woman, car shopping alone is not a good idea. You should go in with someone that can take notes, make suggestions.

Two sets of ears, two sets of eyes are better than one. As far as a lease versus a purchase, rule of thumb, I always recommend purchase because it's simpler, easier to understand. Car dealers today do push leasing. Manufactures push leasing because it's simply more profitable to the manufacturer, and to the dealer. Car dealers on the average will make at least a thousand dollars more when they lease a car than when they sell your car. And there are a lot of reasons for that. And the complexity and deception is probably the single biggest reason. So I'd recommend you stick

to purchasing. I think that you want to have a companion come in with you, a friend, or someone that maybe is experienced in buying cars. And I also recommend that you get three competitive prices, never buy from only one dealership quoted price. Competition is your best friend. Car dealers are furiously competitive. I'm a car dealer and I'm fiercely competitive. They send our blood when we become car dealers. And when they know that you're going to another competitor and you say I'm going to two other competitors, they're really going to get serious about giving you the lowest price. Just be sure it's the lowest out-the-door price, meaning there's no hidden surprises, hidden fees, or dealer-installed accessories.

And Nancy Stewart, my co-host here, has come up with a great idea. It's called an Althodore Price Affidavit, and you can get that on ErlandCars.com. If you just go to EarlandCars.com, there's a little link there you can click on on the home page of ErlandCars.com, and there will be Althadur Price Affidavit. You can click on that. fact you can go to www. Althadorprice affidavit.com. You can download that, print it out,

and you can have the car dealership sign it before you sign anything for the guard dealer. That's his guarantee that he's not gonna be sneaking some dealer fees on, hidden fees, or adding window tent or nitrogen in the tires and all these other dirty little tricks in the way of dealer install accessories. You'll be getting in a clean Althodore price

and you'll be in a competitive shop. That is my advice. Rosalie, I hope we answered your question, and when I was rereading your text, I didn't see anywhere where you were talking about negotiating, remember everything is negotiable, everything. And it can be utilized in such a way that you could purchase a car and have a lower car payment. Stay in touch. Okay. We've got some text over here, Stu.

What's up? We have one from Deborah and Boca. Debra says, I bought a new Nissan Maximum in March. Less than a week later, I had a flat tire. How is that possible? They said the puncture was too close to the side to patch, and I had to buy a new tire. I told the dealership manager that I wanted him to pay for it because the car was so new, and I couldn't imagine how it could get flat so soon after I bought it.

He said I probably drove over something sharp and refused to pay for the tire, and the new tire. Which did I do, Deborah in Boca? Debra, that's one of the most common complaints. One good thing about being a car dealer myself, I live this every day, and I know about road hazards like nails and screws on the road. South Florida has got construction all over the place. There's all sorts of crazy stuff lying out in the road. You see it.

I don't drive down 95 without seeing something that I know if I drove over it is going to probably damage my tires. So it's just a fact of life. And, Stu? Yeah, I'm going to say, Deborah, technically the dealership manager was right, but I'm not sure if that was the smartest business decision. You know, you just bought a car. It's not going to cost them that much money. I think it's possible he could have done that just to make you happy. I know there's lots of companies. I bought a pair of glasses from Warby Parker, plugging them on the air right now, and I ordered the wrong frames.

I complained about it. Well, I didn't complain about it. I brought it to their attention. They sent me new frames. They didn't have to do it. That's kind of a nice thing to do. but you know everybody's different great example yeah I think that I think there is something called road hazard insurance and you want to shop and compare the prices there I

normally don't buy recommend buying insurance a car dealer's hell but all the tire stores and all the car dealers usually have this available it's a matter of where you live really I mean if road hazards are something you see in construction in your area you might want to consider road hazard insurance, you're never going to find a car dealer that's going to be a nice guy likes too, she just said, and say, don't worry, I'm going to buy a new tire because you just bought a car from me two weeks ago. It ain't going to happen. So, I'm talking about Utopia. Yeah, Utopia. And Utopia, Utopia, and Utopia, Uphobia Ford would probably take care of it for you. Any more text?

I know, we're all cut up right now. Okay, 877, 960, 9960, and I'll give that out twice because some of you folks can't write it down that fast. And don't write it down, by the way, if you're driving, 877-960-90-960, and you can text us at 772-497-65-3-0. 772-497-65-30. And Rick has got some YouTube postings here. Let's see if I... I think this mic is working, isn't it?

Okay, we had a little issue earlier with my other mic. actually we have an anonymous sex first where a fellow asking he says I'm considering the purchase of a mint condition 1985 American-made automobile knowing that this was a time before airbags were standard equipment is it possible to add an aftermarket airbag so I can be driving in a safer vehicle the unfortunate answer there is no airbags are so integrated into the design of the vehicle and they need to be driving in a safe vehicle and they need to be designed to work with each individual vehicle, including the sensors that detect the impact. There's actually a great video on YouTube that Honda produced that basically shows what happens

if your airbag is one one hundredth of a second late, and they drop a watermelon onto an airbag that catches it, and then one one hundredth of a second late, it's watermelon Armageddon. Yeah, we've got a green screen behind this. you know what we have to do next week or the week after it'd be really cool to project that video it's most dramatic oh that demonstrated video about what airbags do and we'll try to do that maybe next week or the week after especially how powerful they really are and why it is so crucial that they be designed to operate at the timing that they need yeah you can't you can't put your own airbag on wish you could but you can't do that no and our other one here is a guy from

Ottawa, Canada. He's a snowbird, but he's up in Canada right now. And he says, how come Toyota has not brought in the high ace or light ace delivery vans to Canada and the U.S.? He said they seem to dominate the world market? And I equate this also with the Toyota high-lux pickup truck that is available in other markets, but not in the U.S. And I bet Stu would probably have a better answer on that than me, but I think it's due mostly to emissions. I think it is. I know that they make a lot of vehicles. Well, they have diesels out there in the world. So I know the highlights comes in a diesel and a gas version.

I don't really know. It's kind of like a modified Toyota Tacoma. I know. You know. Yeah. It isn't the airbag or the safety thing because if Toyota wanted to, they could build any vehicle with American qualifications of safety and airbags and emissions and the rest of it.

But there are so many proliferation and combinations of models of vehicles. that Toyota and all the manufacturers have a problem with optimizing their mix. Imagine if there were a thousand different models for one manufacturer being sold in the same market, it would be impossible to stock the representative sample of those models. The car dealers would not be able to offer the customer a car in every model. So they have to peer it down. They have to reduce the number and combinations. and models and equipment in a market.

They don't do a very good job of it. Even now, with all the manufacturers, there are so many different models and combinations of equipment. It's almost impossible for a car dealer to stock those. So you're right. There are cars as a Toyota dealer

that we say, boy, we sure wish we had this. And we have people say, why don't you have this? And the answer is, you just can't have everything in every market. You can't always get what you want. Yeah. Okay.

Well, we also just have one other that just came in from Tim on YouTube here. He says, Earl, which vehicle does your dealership make the most profit on consistently? That would be the probably right now, I can tell you what would be. It would be the Supra 2020. And we sell that at suggested retail price. And that's the most profit we make on a car. Yeah, I don't know if you can call that consistently, though. We're going to have maybe one month.

Well, that's true. Yeah, typically, every dealer, including us, the Highlander, in our case here, it's a matter of supply and demand, and we sell the car that has the highest demand, the lowest supply, the super is an extreme example, is too set, because we've only sold one, and we have one that we're not selling because we want to have a car to show when people come in, and we'll get about one a month, and we will sell it at full MSR. What is that, what's the profit at full MSRP do we make? Probably around $4,000. So we make about $4,000 when we sell Super, but we only get one a month. And then when we sell something like a Highlander, what do we make? Maybe around 1800. $1,800.

So that's supply and demand. We sell the other cars. We'll sell cars closer to our actual cost and supply and demand. If you have too many models or too many cars or particular make, you sell, or whatever you can get. And hadn't we just seen a Super advertised at another dealership for a $40,000 markup over MSRP? Yeah, that was...

I love that one. That's Al Hendrickson, Toyota, and Coconut Creek. And there was a newspaper article about that marking up their super's. So there's a $4,000 profit in MSRP, but they want to make $44,000, so they market it up $40,000. And heads up to you folks out there. Be very careful when you're buying a car. Be sure that the sticker price is the Monroney label.

The manufacturers are just retail price. Deals will add something we call a phony Monroney, which is an addendum label that looks official, but they market it up additionally, and cars with a high-demand low supply are typically ones that they do that too. Our wholesaler guy told us there's one that actually sold at auction last week for $75,000. It's already made it onto the used car market. Over a sticker. Oh, $75,000 was the sale price.

Oh, the sale price? Yeah, so that's still over $20,000 over the sticker price. Yeah, so that's like the wholesale value because only car dealers buy cars at auction. So that'll give you an idea of what these cars are selling for. If a car dealer paid $20,000 over sticker, what is he going to charge you? And we said Al Hendricks and Toyota is charging $40,000. Let's not pick on Al. I mean, they're all doing it.

They're all doing it. Toyota Viro Beach, I think it had one over $100,000 online. Really? Somebody must have leaned on them because it's back to MSRP online. Oh, great. Okay, Jackie texts, she's confused. She wants to know what dealer fees she has to pay. Jackie, you don't have to pay any dealer fee.

Dealer fee is simply profit to the dealer. And they will tell you that they have to charge it. That's a lie. They'll tell you that everybody charges it. That's a lie too, but it's almost true because very few dealers don't charge dealer fees. I know of none right now. Really, my dealership doesn't charge a dealer fee, but I don't know of any others that don't. Some of them charge nominal dealer fees, and Carfax, CarMax has, what, a $199 dealer fee?

399. Yeah, they raised it. But it's not a dealer fee. It's a CarMax processing fee. Offlease only has a small dealer fee. They don't charge, what, $100 or $200? Offlease, $1.99, yeah. Maybe $2.9.

It's confusing. Yeah. The average dealer fee in South Florida is well over $1,000, and you do not have to pay it. But let me be a little bit more specific. If they're going to charge a dealer fee and they say if they have to do, say, okay, just give me your out-the-door price. including your dealer fee and let me shop and compare that price with your competition because the dealer fee is not required by anybody to charge they do it because the dealer wants to do it and because it's profit to the dealer so

let them charge it if they want to but just be sure you can shop and compare it because competition will eliminate the dealer fee for you competition will reduce the price of the car for you and then reducing the price you're reducing or eliminating the dealer fee but to ask them to voluntarily eliminate it, it can happen sometimes, but usually it doesn't. Okay, Jackie, I hope we've answered your question. If you have a question and you'd like to text it, you can do so at 772-497-65-30, or you can give us a call at 877-960.

We're going to go to Palm City, where we have our most favorite caller, and that is John. Good morning, John. Johnny out there in Radio Lairn? Yes, good morning. Good morning. Thank you all for being there and educating the consumers. Thank you. I want to, the Bible of the industry, everybody should have it, pick it up in a library

or even read it in the, you know, the, you know, the, it was July consumer report, page 12, very small article, and this is a question I'm going to have for Rick. top tier gas, okay, they mentioned, Rick said it in the past, all gasoline, no matter what brands, they do have government-mandated additives, okay? That's standard on all the gas. But consumers mention top-tier gas, namely what that means is Chevron, Exxon, Shell, Mobile, they have additional additives. For instance, I know for a fact Chevron puts Textron in it, Shell has a new additive that they put in, and this is for all grades. This is nothing to do with Octane now. This is across the board when you go to these stations. And on average, it costs three cents more than it does on your regular stations, which is Wawa, BJ, Sam's Club, Marathon, Speedway, et cetera.

Now, what I want to ask you, they do recommend it because it's cleaner valves and it's better performance in any one of your automobiles. any grade. What does Rick's opinion about spending two to three sometimes five cents even more to go to these name brand stations like Chevron or Shell to put it in a car? What does Rick statement say about it? I think the only reason to go to a name brand station is the fact that if there is a problem with their fuel, they're more likely to stand behind it. and take care of the issue. The reason I say this is a few years back,

Shell gasoline had an issue where a lot of their fuels came out with an extremely high sulfur content that wound up damaging fuel pumps in a lot of cars. And if you had a receipt showing that you had filled up with Shell gasoline recently and your car suffered an issue with the fuel pump, Shell was paying for the repairs 100% no questions asked. Well, Rick, did I understand John's question? His question was that the name brand gas stations have specific additives that can benefit.

Do name brand gas stations have specific attitudes that the off-brand independence don't have? They do claim to, and I'm sure they put something in there. But truth be told, with modern automobiles and the modern fuels, just about any of them, if you're driving the car a reasonable amount and the car is basically you're exercising the car cars need exercise just like people do and if you're getting a reasonable amount of driving in time in to let the car heat up get the engine up to operating temperature good it'll clean itself out for the most part all by itself with any good quality fuel available at any gas station like I say even using Marathon or even some of these newer names popping up their fuels are regulated by the government they have to beat certain quality standards and those fuels are just fine to run in your car the only change I see that I would recommend sticking with a good name brand fuel again is because that company you know will stick behind their fuel plus the fact they turn their gas more frequently as less likely to get in the gas to sit in the sediment to collect them to the bottom of

Right. You're less likely to get sediment or water mixed into the fuel. Because, you know, even though gas and water don't mix, once that water's down in the bottom of the tank, as it's getting stirred up, there will be some amounts of that water that stays mixed in with the fuel until it can settle back out. So that water can wind up being in your tank sometimes. Does that answer to your course with John? Yes, that answers.

I'm going to stick to on my Wawa or racetrack. And the reason I like them, not only because the price and cleanliness, but regularly, regularly, they come in and they clean their tanks. I spoke to the company that was doing it in a racetrack, and boy, I'm telling you, it's a regular basis. There's absolutely no water ever in any of their tanks, or they'll shut the entire station down until this maintenance coming. The company comes in and takes care of it.

Now, another second question I got. People are going crazy. The new Corvette is out with a mid-engine. this Crapey Supra Dealer's with 55,000 What I, and I'm a lot of years following, especially new cars or collector cars I think anybody that pays anything above list price

On any car, I don't care what it is Is out of their mind They're going to get burnt I'll go back as far as when I started high school The Corvette came out in 53 People were going crazy Until they saw basically what the car was It was a bomb

Corvette almost went out of business A sports car with a six-cylinder engine, quality B.R. So bad, you can't believe it. The Chevrolet deal had to fix the fiberglass and repaint actually the cars. But, I mean, I'm going, Pontiac came out with a mid-engine. It was a bomb that fell apart. People were going crazy. They were paying above list. And if anything that I saw that came out, and it was supposed to be the hottest number, T-Bird and Camero at the beginning of the 2000s, came out with a model. People were paying five. and 10,000 above the list. Sure. And, you know, it was like nothing. People want an investment in the car, and should they have the money.

Buy so-called collector car, especially some of them at auction now. They're going for prices that you could not restore the car or half of it. And I just got, for instance, an interesting car is coming up Tuesday on the 6th. Guernsey, an auction company in New York City, is auctioning Liz Taylor's 60 Rolls-Royceoff. I saw that. on it. An interesting car for one reason. Or was that Queen Elizabeth? Shella had seven, I think, at least seven

husbands. The first one, Eddie Fisher, Liz Taylor got married in a beautiful wedding dress. This is, you know, a little off the topic. And it was the most gorgeous color of green. What did Liz Taylor do? She went with Rose Royce and contracted for the same color green.

You can see the car on a computer. Auctions at gurneys.com. It's the most gorgeous green I've ever seen. I mean, there's an example. or somebody that has any money and burn a hole in their pocket to buy something in the automobile field, this is the type of cars that's worth something. I mean, for instance, the record of a New York auction, the United States was a 35 Duesenberg was owned by Gary Cooper. That said in all-time, a record for American car of $22 million.

Now, I'm not saying for people to go and injure something like that, but forget about buying any car, any new car, especially, and paying above lindo price on it. You're absolutely right about that. You're right. The manufacturers and the dealers often will hype the scarcity. I have no reason to think that the super is going to be available in any supply. But who knows? The controls with the manufacturer, and you know that a manufacturer or a car dealer is going to tell you,

this is high-demand, low supply to justify the high price. But who knows? Maybe super's will be available in, large supply in two years. Toyota says no, but it's up to them. Well, the manufacturers hype it up. Sure. I mean, they're pushing this Chevro with the Bid engine now. It doesn't sound so exciting. Pontiac with the Fierro felt flat on their back with it. I sure did. John, thank you very much. You're always a fountain of information, particularly when it comes to antique cars, and those are interesting. Keep an eye on that Rolls' voice. It sounds interesting, but just look at

the color on a computer. Yeah, I'll do that. It does sound... Burntcy auctions. Sounds good. Thank you, John. Thank you. Okay, bye.

Bye, John. Thank you for the call. Our number here is 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. And Jackie is still in touch with me. And I have some information for you, Jackie. This is going to, you know, protect you when you go in to purchase your vehicle. you can go to consumer report consumer reports.com and there's a protect yourself from hidden fees that I was reading from May 29th, 2019. So take a read and let us know how things turned out for you.

Protect yourself from hidden fees, the Consumer Report. Stu's got a bunch of text over there. I do, but John reminded me of something, this thing with the new Corvette and the mid-engine, there seems to be some war brewing. out there on social media between Super fans and Corvette fans. I mean, it's getting ugly online. I've seen these posts on Facebook, and they're battling back and forth which one's the better car. And

it's kind of funny because we are in the car business. I just, I don't get into that. I don't understand how emotional people get about these cars, but they do. It's an important... Well, somebody asked me the other day if I had driven our new Super. And I said, no. He said, why not? How could you? I said, well, for

one reason, it's very hard for me to get in and out. And I, and Stu said he bumped his head the other guys up. So you've got to love this kind of thing. And I love our new super because when we sell it, we make $4,000. And we sell it an MSRP. I appreciate the design. I think it's a beautiful car, but it's a little too small for me.

It is true. I love the 1993 Supra. Yeah, there's one park right next to it. Okay, our text. So this came in from Edgar. And Edgar says, Earl, you mentioned texting the show while driving. This is now illegal in Florida. What is the chance that the auto manufacturers have lobbied state legislature to force consumers to buy more expensive cars with hands-free features like Bluetooth?

And that's from Edgar. Well, in the manufacturers, I think everybody now is taking another look at this technology. You know, texting while driving is certainly the wrong thing to do. But think about this for a minute. The reason texting while driving is the wrong thing to do is because of two reasons. You take your eyes off the road, you also take your brain off the road. And what I mean by that is your mind is about as important as your eyesight when you're driving. If you're not thinking, it's just like closing your eyes.

So with Bluetooth or cell phones or your Apple Play TV, anytime your brain is engaged on texting or talking or anything and you're not thinking about driving, it's dangerous. And I think that our manufacturers and car dealers need to think real hard about simplifying the functions on our vehicles so that we don't have to think about driving. If we have to think about or think about texting or emailing or anything else, Rick, you have a point. I was just going to mention MythBusters actually did an episode on that where they tested their own people to see how they could do using a total hands-free system where all they were doing. doing was talking on a radio and it interfered with their concentration enough that on the test course they did horrible driving triple a to the study and you just reminded it's been proven yeah

triple a did the study and they found out that the younger people uh and i'm going to make these numbers up but they're close it takes them three or four seconds to navigate or perform functions with their instrument panel and it takes folks my age about twice as long. So there's always a time lapse of focus concentration off the road when you're working with your Apple Play or whatever Bluetooth or whatever else texting by voice recognition. All these things are done much simpler and faster by younger people. But folks, my age are taking way too long. And Nancy will testify to that because she says, stop doing that, Earl, and I'll be looking at my apple play, and I'm not looking at the road. So this whole thing needs to be

readdressed by the manufacturers. Well, it's a proven fact that in a split second, I don't care how old you are, or how young you are, in a split second, your life can change. With that said, ladies and gentlemen, you're a very important part of the show, so give us a call at 877960, or you can text us at 772-4976530 and remember your anonymous feedback.com we'd love to hear from you we're going to go to john in west palm beach who's been holding and a dog we will get right to you good morning john hey good morning a lot of static i don't know if it's on my end um we hear you clearly john go ahead oh you can hear me clearly okay very good yeah uh i just want to to comment on the Fierro, the reason why it fell flat was, first of all, the bad rep about plastic body panels that were attached to the rolling roll case, one of the safest cars, because it was all metal underneath. It just had plastic body panels that were easy to

replace. But the one thing that heard it was it was underpowered. They were using the old iron dupe or pushrod motor, and it was also the same time that's good. came out with their MR2 two-seater mid-engine but that had the overhead camp so if you were as an enthusiast you were going to go with the MR2 because of its peppiness and quickness

for 1984 the deer was under underpowered and that's for lost I'm actually old enough to remember that well it's interesting today that all the cars are so unprofitable that that's the reason

you don't see as many sports cars on the road and you just can't make as much money when you saw a car as a SUV or van or something. I remember the display in the Pontiac showroom years ago when they were featuring the plastic exterior and there was a big pole with a bowling ball hanging from it and it was for the customers could swing it back and let it slam into the panel, it would dent in

and then pop out a few seconds later. I'd forgotten about that. I guess people didn't like that. And then I was the one that was called back speaking about the Corvette and the values of the other Corvette and the gentleman from the other guy named John before me if he's interested

all the dealerships have all their orders are done with for the Corvette, they're all gone. Oh really? Yeah, that's how fast they sold out. I believe it. You know, if you got the money, you know, I know people are feeling sorry for these guys that pay too much, but a lot of people just

they don't care what it costs. If I got the first one the block is worth it to me. They've impressed their friends. Yes. Very good. All right. Have a great day. Thank you, John. Thanks, John. We're going to go to Doug, who's holding in Boca. Good morning, Doug. Hello, how are you? Hey, Doug. Good morning. Good. I wanted to ask a question about the Super again, and I guess the way it looks is there's a two-year waiting period, which is like, wow, that's crazy. So I guess I'm going to give up on this until two years from now. You might get a good deal two years from now.

Yeah. It's worth the weight. Certainly if you're going to be paying $50,000 over MSRP. Exactly. The exploitation is the recognition by car dealers that a motion takes over. And whether you're buying a mid-agent Corvette or you're buying a Supra, You're so excited about being the guy that's got one. And I say guy, probably because the gal's got more common sense.

The guy just wants to have that thing about, you know, in that really cool car. And it's okay. I mean, hey, life is short. If it makes you feel that good, you want to pay an extra $40,000 over MSRP or an extra $100,000, and you got the money. You know, people do crazy things. They've got too much the money. Wow. well to me it's a little silly

and I'll just give what I have now wait two years you get a really good deal you have a big selection that you use from too maybe all right well you guys have a great day and thanks for being on

thanks for having the show okay say hi to Ali yeah say hi to Ali for it's scratching behind the ear okay I will meow thanks Doug 877 960 99 Or you can text us at 772-4976530.

And don't forget the mystery shopping reports coming up, and that'll be from off-lease only in West Palm Beach. So stay tuned for that, the last half hour of the show. Text her backing up over there, Stu. They're coming in. We have a question from Barbara on Facebook. She says, hi, what is a CO2 sensor on a car? Looking at you, Rick. A CO2 sensor?

It says a CO2 sensor. I have not heard of a CO2 sensor. I know of an O2 sensor. A2 sensor, yep. That's an oxygen sensor that's in the exhaust pipe, and it helps determine, tells the computer, how well the engine is burning the fuel and whether it needs to adjust the amount of fuel or air coming into the engine. Okay. Let me ask you this.

I know that's right, but it just occurred to me that one of the problems we have in our atmosphere is carbon dioxide, which is CO2. and cars do you know we exhale carbon dioxide and so and so forth and plants eat it and exhale oxygen but with all that said is there any regulation on cars in terms of emission of carbon dioxide I know carbon monoxide is but there's no regulation on carbon dioxide no there actually is not a regulation on carbon dioxide because actually they kind of go with the lesser of the evils if in an absolute perfect perfect world if an engine were able to burn the hydrocarbons in the fuel and the oxygen in the air absolutely perfectly the only thing coming out of the tailpipe would be carbon dioxide and water h2O unfortunately not in a perfect world so we still have the hydrocarbons the hc coming out

nitrogen there's a whole bunch of different things that come out of the tailpipe but the safest ones to have coming out of the tailpipe the lesser of the evils is the carbon dioxide and water now in a hydrogen car it's just water or is there also some carbon dioxide there's also carbon dioxide and there's also hydrocarbons because the hydrogen is a hydrocarbon at that point very interesting I actually saw a few of those Toyota Marais, the fuel cell ones, not in California. You can only get them out in the West Coast. Yeah. Pretty cool.

I'm not sure if we got to this one. This came in on our anonymous feedback website, which is Your Anonymous Feedback.com. We have a few coming in on that. It says, good morning and all. I have a question for Rick. Some mechanics have advised me that 0W20 motor oil is meant for colder climates, and that in the heat of South Florida, motor oil should have a thicker viscosity to better protect the engine.

What do you recommend? In the older days, the older engines did need that thicker oil in warmer climates. But with 0W20 in engines that are designed for 0W20, it's completely fine in just about every environment on the earth. With the exception of the extreme cases of, say, the middle of the Sahara Desert or up in the Far Arctic Circle where you would need to make adjustments because of an extreme. climate. How about the Gobi Desert? There again, yeah. It's a cold desert. Well, but it's also not quite as hot as the Sahara or

that Middle East region where we're seeing temperatures now. They're seeing daily temperatures over 130 degrees Fahrenheit. There's a number on the oil like 20 and 30 and 40. Does that correlate with temperature? It actually correlates

with the thickness of the oil, but generally thicker oil in the heat will run thin And as it gets colder, of course, it feels thicker. So the lower the number, the thicker the oil. Actually, the lower the number, the thinner, the oil. Okay. So you want to go.

Okay. So you can recognize. So one of the numbers, 10, 20, 30, 40, how high does it go? It starts at zero and you can get as high, used to be as high as 70 weight oil. And gear lube actually goes as high as 95 on a viscosity scale. Interesting. Okay. We have another anonymous feedback.

I was watching a past video where you mentioned Ford and the faulty transmissions they knowingly sold. Are you going to mention the Corolla hatchback and there are transmission problems that Toyota is trying to hide? And what about all those infotainment systems that are going out after four years that Toyota is trying not to fix? I do know that there was a recall on the Toyota hatchback, I think, in December for the transmission.

I checked it out while you're on vacation with Mark, our service manager. and the transmission issue was a it was a technical issue. What do you call it? A computer reflash. Yeah, computer reflash. And there were only a few cars. About 4,000, I think.

Yeah, and that was caught immediately, and there were very few that got on the road, and actually the reflash was done on a lot of new cars before they were ever flown. That refill came out shortly as soon as they came out. It was in December last year. And so it was a total different issue. And that sounds to me like an anonymous feedback from a Ford dealer, which is okay.

I mean, I'm not saying that Toyota's without sin, Toyota's done things that I never liked. I've never known, we've never known of Toyota to do something in the way of premeditated concealment of a problem. They were accused of that back during the sudden acceleration, but they were exonerated because NASA and some other. officials checked, there really was no sudden acceleration in terms of an electronic or computer issue. It had to do with formats and so on and so forth. But I don't know of any premeditated things like Ford got in trouble with by Toyota. Unless they're really good at concealing stuff. Well, and they may be. They never know. That's just speculation.

As a matter of fact, because we are not a commercial for Toyota, I'm going to throw one thing right out. Right now, the 2019 RAV-4s, which I own one, has an issue with the transmission with a shifting situation, and Toyota's aware of it, and they're working on a fix. But sometimes these things take a little bit of time for them to find them, and for them, they might not have realized it was out there, and it takes time before they can figure out how to get it straight. The key is if it's a safety issue. And the manufacturers, like it or not, if it's just a drivability problem, as they consider not to be a safety issue, they'll keep them on the road.

And there'll be technical bulletins that go out. And I don't like the technical bullets because oftentimes they're secret in the sense that they're not publicized. So you don't know. Until you get to the dealers. And they even tell the dealers don't discuss it with the customer unless the customer brings it up. I don't like that for Toyota or any manufacturer. But the unconscionable thing, unforgivable thing, is to know there's a safety problem. And Ford in this case knew there was a safety problem.

They have emails and conversations. They have people that have confessed to knowing. And so it's like Volkswagen did with the emissions. It's not quite as bad because the emission isn't as serious as a safety issue. But to lie to the customers and the lie of the federal government is unconscionable. And a manufacturer, I think, should be prosecuted for that. And I think the CEO ought to go to the slammer. There you go.

Yeah. Okay. We're going to go to Barbara who's been holding, and she's calling about her engine light that stays on. I think Rick can take care of that one. Good morning, Barbara. Hello? Hi, Barbara. Good morning, Barbara.

Hi. Hi. I've been listening now for about a month on my way to work. It's a long drive. that's right yeah my my GSA

like in Toronto like a dealer and they said they couldn't find out what was wrong recently my

starter went out and I had that replay and then the gentleman said something about CO2

sensor being out causing that oh okay Barbara asked on Facebook yeah okay so the starter

went out and he mentioned a CO2 sensor to her okay yeah I think think he might have been talking about that O2 sensor and if the O2 sensor is starting to have an

issue it will turn on the check engine light however even if those sensors completely quit working your car will not stop running because those it'll actually do what's called go into a safety mode where instead of the computer adjusting the fuel trim based on how it's running it simply will use a set of charts that it has in its memory and it will just go with a straight signal. So your car will still run pretty normally. It'll just have that check engine light on. I would suggest when the light comes on, go straight to somewhere and have them pull the codes on it and write down what codes you're seeing and then take that to the dealership or to your mechanic and they should be able to straighten it out from there.

you often 2005 Toyota Highlander. It is an older car, but it runs very well. He's still something about I have four sensors. Would that be correct? Yes, it is. Rick, tell of the independent places that don't charge for pulling the codes.

Places like AutoZone, I believe discount auto parts, most auto parts stores, the big name brand part stores, will have these little generic code pullers, they can come out and plug it into your car, and they'll tell you what trouble code it's detecting, and they usually would do that for free. It only takes a few minutes to connect one

in, and it just plugs in right under the dash, takes about five minutes to do it. Okay. I have an older lady, and sometimes I feel like these places are older. They like they can like Yeah, they don't know We don't know much about cars We've got to throw them off Yeah, well that's why we're here And to make sure that people are aware of the

The pitfalls I think we're listening to I think we're in a bad cell area, Barbara It's kind of hard you're breaking up a little bit I can't understand so I thought it was our technical thing No, it sounds like a cell phone reception problem. Yeah, I think we're only getting about every other word.

But Barbara, the best option is when you find what that code is, just send us a quick text on Facebook, and we can help you define just what you need to have that fixed. And then just call a couple places and tell them you have that specific code and ask them, how much would they charge to install that sensor? And call like a couple different pet boys, a couple different auto shops. and go with the as long as it's a good reputable shop just go with whoever's the cheapest price

thank you I appreciate quite welcome thank you Barbara Barbara are you a first time caller okay like I said listening for about a month now this time I talk

okay Barbara stay on the line and pass your contact information to me and I'll get a check out to you for $50 Thank you for listening to Earl Stewart on cars. I'll don't make that money. Okay. Thank you.

877-960, 9960, or Texas is 772-497-2-497-3-0. And Sue's got some more text over there. Yeah, let's get caught up. This is from Mark. It says, I kind of agree with Mark. Hydrogen cars do not produce hydrocarbons. They burn H2 and O2. There is no carbon in the fuel.

Gasoline has carbon and hydrogen. That's why gas cars produce hydrocarbons from Mark. And I said, that's what I thought. I'll smack Rick in the face with this. Bap. He is completely correct. Okay. I was wondering about that.

I just didn't want to say anything. Okay, the next one we have, this is from our anonymous feedback, your anonymous feedback.com. Hi, Rick. I once dated a woman who told me that using the air conditioner while being closed off from the outside air was bad for the engine. Is there any truth to this? Also, I think I remember you saying a while back

that before turning off the car, it's a good idea to allow the outside air in and turn the fan on high to eliminate the chance of mold. Is this true? And that's from Brit and Los Angeles. The first part, no. You can run that AC on recirculate as much as you want to keep it nice and cold.

Won't hurt the engine at all. Won't hurt anything at all. The second part, if you have an issue where you're in a humid area and you notice you're starting to get kind of a musty smell. That's the easiest thing to try is about two or three minutes before you get home. Switch over to that fresh air intake and put that fan on high and it will help to get some of the condensation off of the evaporator core and leave it on fresh air so that the air can circulate a little bit

and it will reduce that moisture and reduce any mold or mildo buildup. All right. And our last one on Your Anonymous Feedback. com. Hi, I love your show. I'm considering buying a new car from your dealership, but I live about 250 miles away. Is there still a break-in period for the first 1,000 miles? Don't do something for new cars. I don't want to cause damage to the new car while driving highway on the highway to get home. Thank you. And keep up the great work. Break-in period. And the answer there is no, because the engine companies now, when they build the engines, they actually put them on a dynamometer and they do the break-in for you. So those cars are, as soon as you get in that new car, you're ready to drive along in a nice, safe manner. Okay, great. We're going to keep Rick busy. Here's another one.

What would be a good additive to add to gas to keep the engine running clean? And that's from, no name on that. That's from, I'm sorry, that's from Bob and Stewart. none in my opinion i would stick with a good name brand fuel company and i really wouldn't put any additives i don't use any additives in my own personal vehicles at all well think about it it's a very competitive market place out there if there were an additive that would put in gas it would do something significant like better fuel economy less pollution greater power anything the oil companies would own that in a heartbeat. If somebody was selling it in a store,

they'd buy it from them for $100 million, and they would put it in their gasoline. So there is no additive that you can buy in the store that's going to make your gasoline any better. Okay, great. Hey, by the way, Mr. Hand says hi on our other YouTube channel. Oh, good morning, Mr. Hand. Okay, Jerry in West Palm Beach has texted us.

He says, I plan on buying a use car next. month, and I'm going to use the information I've learned on this show. I'm going to negotiate online. In the original email, is that when I should mention that I'm shopping multiple dealerships? Also, is that when I should include the out-the-door price affidavit? I would say you can. I think that you probably should wait until you get a price. I think if you tell them ahead of time that you're going to be shopping multiple dealerships, it's going to be more difficult for you to get the price. Car dealers don't like, if they think you're going to buy a car from them, at least you'll get a price.

It'll be a high price, but you will get a price. And I would start out, and then I would say, I'm going to take this price and shop and compare it. I want to be sure this is your best Althador price plus government fees only, and then I will shop and you. compare it. What do you think, Stu? I think that's the best way to do it. I mean, there's nothing wrong with letting the dealers know right up front that you're shopping and comparing. I think the out-the-door price have it, David, is maybe comes a little bit later in when you actually get to the dealership. But actually, you know, I mean, you can download it. You can send it as a PDF and an email.

It's really up to you. As long as they know that you're serious about looking, that you're comparing other dealers, that's probably going to the best, the most effective weapon that you have. I'm thinking about, you know, typically, let's go back to the old days, you'll walk into a car dealership and you want to buy a car and say, I like that one there, how much is it? And the dealer says, or the salesman says, are you going to buy the day? And if you say, yes, I'm going to buy the day, then things start to roll and the deception begins, but you get a price. If you say to a salesman, I'm not ready to buy yet, you might get this answer. Well, when you're ready to buy, come back and see me, or go out and shop around, get your best price, and bring it in, and I'll beat it. And that's the game that likes to be played by the car salespeople.

And that's the only reason I say that you might be better off to play the game with them up to the point where you get a price and then hit them with the fact that you'll be shopping and comparing this price. At least you've got one price. They might say then, well, if you get a better price, come back and see me. and you have to say then if you don't give me your best price now you'll never hear from me again yeah well it definitely works yeah okay we're all called up

okay folks this is from Christina who is texting me about her tires and she wants to extend the life of her tires and I think that Rick can probably address this but I can tell you Christina I learned that going to a gas station

the gas gauges They are really abused and sometimes unreliable, so I just check my own air pressure on my tires. But we'll send it over to Rick and let him explain a few things to you. Number one thing I'd recommend, put your car on a diet. If you're carrying a lot of stuff around in the backseat or the trunk or the back of your vehicle, stuff that you don't really need all the need at that time, take it out. less weight in the car, less weight on the tires, less wear and tear. Keep your tire pressures where they're supposed to be, and buy a good quality tire pressure gauge so to check your tire pressures at least once a month, if not a little more often.

And other than that, just try to avoid hard starts and hard stops and hard cornering. Gentle driving will make your tires last a whole lot longer. Thanks so much, Rick. We're going to go to Dave in Lake Park. Good morning, Dave. Hello, David. Yes, sir. How you doing? We're doing good. What's up?

That's great. I'm from Lake Park, but I'm on a work trip out of state at the moment. And a friend of mine asked me a question. I told her I'd go to the expert and get back to her. She's got a Chevy Coalult, 2006, and she wants to sell it to a relative. She was wondering what approximate value that might be. Anything? Can you give me a rough idea? I'll get back. We can Google that for you. There's a couple of companies out there buying cars directly.

One of them is we buy anycar.com, just the way it sounds. And we buy anycar.com. And there's also, what's the other one? Carvana. Carvana. Carvana.com. Carvana.com.

And we buy anycar.com. Are two places. You can get a pretty good idea there. We actually check with those companies ourselves. when we're buying cars or sometimes trading in cars. The other way is to take it to a dealer, the best way probably, take it to maybe three dealers of that make vehicle, go to the used car department and say, I want to sell the car.

What will you give me for it? I'm going to go to two other dealers and get their price, and that's the best way to get the best price. That would be Chevy, of course, right? Yeah, go to Chevy. Don't let them think you're buying a used car or a new car. Just say, I've got too many cars in the family. I want to downsize, give me your best price, take it out, drive it, give me your best cash price, and do it twice.

And then you got CarMax in Boynton, if you want to drive the car down there. They do this routinely, and they'll give you a price that's good for five days, and you can shop and compare it around. And that gives you the exact market value of the car. Okay, well, I'm in Ohio. Is CarMax in Ohio, too, or just Florida? They're all over the United States. Oh, Boynton, in this area, there's probably three or four. Wee shop, mystery shop, to the most of them in this area. But, yeah, they're all over the USA.

Gotcha. All right, well, thanks so much for your time. Mr. Stewart, have a great day. Well, Sam Dio, thanks for going. Thanks, Dave. We're going to go to Marv. Okay, ma'am. Take care.

Thank you. We're going to go to Marv in Loxahatchee. Good morning, Marv. Good morning. Thank you for taking my call. You're welcome. I have one for Rick. My wife has a 2007 Honda Civic, and yesterday the malfunction indicator lamp came on.

I'm looking in the manual. It says that this indicator comes on while driving. It means one of the engines' emissions control systems may have a problem. Even though you may feel no difference in your vehicle's performance, it can reduce your fuel economy and cause increased emissions. continued operation may cause serious damage now my wife drives this car very very slightly she doesn't drive much at all and I was wondering and our mechanic happens to be out of town and and I was wondering if we could wait a couple of weeks before

bringing it over to him well the first first question I have did you recently fuel up the tank I'm sorry yeah yeah it went on to say that to it went on to stay that checked check the fuel cap and we we did check it and we we we tightened it and we heard a couple of clicks so we know we know it's tight okay so the fuel cap was on nice and tight yeah yeah uh the next thing i would do if i would stop in at local auto zone or discount auto parts any good parts store and just ask them to pull the trouble codes they have a little scanner they'll come out and they'll plug it in and they'll tell you what that trouble code is and if it's something like just a simple gas cap code i would ignore it i wouldn't

worry about it at all odds are it might it's going to be that uh potentially it could be one of the other sensors on the engine but even then you'll be just fine for a week or two until your train mechanic gets back into town i'm assuming this is someone that you trust really well and You'll be just fine waiting until he gets back in to get that checked out and solved. But for peace of mind, AutoZone will pull that code and tell you what it is. I appreciate that we have a couple of weeks. I was very concerned about it. I'm surprised about the language Honda used.

Would you read that again, the part where they said something bad would happen if you didn't do something? Well, it said at the end of the paragraph it said, continued operation may cause serious damage. Yeah, I'm really surprised. at that. I agree with Rick, and I've never heard that language from a manufacturer before about a sensor indicating an emissions problem. We know of no emissions problem that can damage the car. Well, if it were a misfire in the engine, say the coil had gone bad or a spark plug had quit working, and the car was misfiring, that could potentially cause damage to the catalytic converter

by getting too much fuel in it, or cause other parts to fail. But that's in a very rare case. I could tell you that the car is running fine as far as we're concerned. It's running fine. We don't see any problem with the running of the car. But the light is on. You see that idiot light on, you know, you get scared. You don't know what it is.

Right. That's a 2007 what? Honda Civic. Yeah, I'm going to look into that because, you know, we hear this all the time. one of the standard things we advise people when they call about emission problems is that fixing an emission problem is a matter of conscience on your part because you know you're polluting more and it's not good for our environment but in terms of affecting the cars from a safety or I'm going to damage my car kind of a thing

we've never heard this language so I'm going to investigate this thing with Honda and see what I can find out but thank you very much that's a very interesting call just to point something out to you the paragraph goes on if the indicator comes on repeatedly even though it may turn off as you continue driving have the vehicle checked by your dealer as soon as possible

that's what it said well you should get a check as soon as possible from the mission standpoint but what bothers me is the implication that your your car's going to blow up and you're going to be looking at yeah and I I think if that's not true

I think a Honda should have answer for that because they're trying to scare you into having that emissions fixed by the dealer. I don't like that. But we want to investigate anyway. But thank you very much for that call. Right. And we thank you for the peace of mind you've given us. Have a wonderful day.

You're very welcome, Marf. Ladies and gentlemen, I just want to thank all of you for tuning in to Earl Stewart on Cars. You're a very, very important part of the show. And you can give us a call at 877916. 909060 or you can text us at 772-4976530 and I believe Stu has some text that he has to get to. Let's jump over to Rick because I think he's got some piling up over there. Yeah, we do. From YouTube, Ernesto is asking, he has a 2014 Camry and he's asking, when does the coolant need its first change and how often after the first change for engine coolant?

and Toyota specifies 150,000 miles and every 50,000 after that for most of our cars now for engine coolant. Let's see, who we got next year? I saw almost like never. Yeah, 150,000 miles is, well, actually on modern cars, that's just a little past teenage getting to where the car is adult level. So, yeah, because now these engines are lasting 200, 300,000 miles easily. so people are kicking their teenagers out of the house earlier and earlier true very true sometimes I want to and he also Ernesto also brought up a little issue where he says whoop and I just lost my page there he has an 04 Mustang he says back in 06 he saw an issue

with the fuel causing a problem and he said Ford was able to solve this under warranty for him. He said, but he wound up, they sent him a technical service bulletin recommending that he use either Chevron or Texaco fuels. And I'm kind of surprised by that that they would specify a specific brand of fuel that they wanted him to use. But hey, sometimes car manufacturers like to say this is what we want. Well, you know, that's amazing. We have back-to-back calls that worry me a little bit about our knowledge. And I'm, this Honda thing, I'm going to have to investigate, but this thing here was Chevron and Texaco fuel.

We need to Google that and do a deep diet as to why that was. I don't believe a manufacturer would recommend two specific oil companies, gasoline companies, without a reason. Could be that they own stock in their Chevron and Texaco. that's not I'm being facetious, but let's find out. That's certainly possible. There has to be a reason. It's either a good reason or a bad reason, but there is a reason, and we want to investigate that.

And Donovan has pointed out that Mullinax Ford in Lake Park has no dealer fee, although did they come up with a small one, or have they gotten rid of that again now? Well, they said they had no dealer fee. We missed reach out to him, and they did have a dealer fee. Yes. And then we called Molinex himself in northern Florida. We talked to him. He was a little surprised by that.

He talked to their general manager, who was also a partner. And I spoke to the general manager, who was a partner. And we had a conversation, which was never quite satisfying to me, that he accepted the fact that it was a dealer fee, and we told him we were going to mystery shop him again, and we dropped the ball. So we will go back and find out But they were advertising That they had no dealer fee

And it was not true They did have a dealer fee Albeit not a large one It's $53 It's printed on their bar's order And it's called a dealer delivery fee Yes Dealer delivery fee by any other name

Is a dealer fee A dealer fee is just additional profit To the dealer By adding to the price of the car charging the customer For things that they should be paying for themselves call profit. And Donovan also points out, off-lease-only sells a lot of cars with major damage having been

done to the car. And that we have found is true in the past that cars that have been in severe accidents and then repaired, you might find them on that off-lease-only lot. So keep your eyes open. And you'll find that our Mr. Shopping Report coming up very shortly, because we did shop off-lease-only.com, that they fully disclose that to their customers. And they say, these cars have been in accidents, and we buy a lot of cars that have been in accidents, and you'll hear the rest of it. That's right.

And the last one I have is from Patrick, and he's saying the Toyota Rav4 hybrid versus gas models, properly maintained, which do you think has a better chance of longevity, 10 years plus? I would say the hybrid, you've got the battery issue, which we all know that I think there are, They're guaranteed for 100,000 miles or six years. Eight years, 100,000 miles. So in terms of the vehicle itself, the battery has to be replaced at a certain point. And, of course, the gasoline model doesn't have a hybrid battery. I would pretty much agree with you on that. And, of course, as the technology is getting better and better on these hybrid batteries,

they're going to be lasting a lot longer. Yep. All right. You all caught up, Rick? we are okay great we have a text here from Everett and Everett is referencing our earlier conversation about the RAV4 transmission technical service bulletin good morning is the issue with the RAV4 transmission

something that toy dealers have to disclose to customers before purchase answer is no toy does not require them to disclose them I use them when there's a recall they'll do a stop sale but this doesn't rise to that level so no actually it's not really being disclosed I don't like that I don't like that I don't like it either. But at this point right now, Toyota doesn't really have a fix for it.

I've been watching for this. And that's what the disclosure would say, this car's got a problem, and we don't have a fix for it. And they're not requiring the dealers to do that, and they should. And just for full disclosure as to what we're actually talking about, in a 2019 RAV-4, the four-cylinder, I know specifically, because that's what I have. My wife is driving it. if you're coming to a stop

and you get almost to a dead stop but then traffic starts moving and you step over and hit the gas pedal the vehicle will actually jerk and shudder a little bit before it finds its gear and it's almost like it's hunting for the gear and it'll shift a couple times

before it gets in the proper gear to take off and you'll feel it actually shake and jerk the vehicle a bit. Okay, we have a good thing. I can't help but say that we try to be transparent and equal and we have to say Toyota is doing the wrong thing by doing that you know if you want to sell a car with a jerky transmission

and you're going to fix it later that's good you can't fix it now that's good that's okay just tell the customer about it and and I'll ask you a question Rick had you known that when you bought this car for your wife would you have bought that model or a different model Hmm. Be honest. Total honesty.

I think I probably would still have bought that car because we had really researched them. Yeah. And I'm kind of, I'm throwing a bit of trust at Toyota hoping that, yes, they'll come out with a fix very soon. Yeah. Because I've seen them fix other models. It takes a little bit of time sometimes until they get the proper programming. But once they know there's a problem, they do jump on it. They do try to get it as quickly as possible.

But you wish you'd known about that before you bought it, right? I do. And as a matter of fact, my wife, when it had occurred to her several times, and the first time that happened that I was in the car, she actually got a little nervous thinking that I would get angry that it was her driving. And I'm like, no, this is something with the car. And so it, you know, I caught on pretty quickly that I knew it was the problem with the car and not with her driving. Okay. Still, we got some more text? Yes, we do.

We have a question from Steve who's watching us on live Facebook. video. Steve wants to know to do the code readers from Harbor Freight. Do they work? Are you familiar with those? Actually, I let's see, I've got a little generic one that I purchased it like AutoZone or something, but yeah, if you get it from Harbor Freight, because all it really is is just reading the information. So it's not going to hurt your car to plug it into. Plug in and test it. If it doesn't work, tell them you want your money back. But yeah, it's all right. They will work just fine. All right. Thanks, Rick. We have one. There's no name. name on this one came in on our text line. It says, it's funny the way trends and technology

converged to points where seemingly unrelated systems suddenly become symbiotic. Consider the explosion vehicle infotainment systems. While this trend steadily makes vehicles less safe, a parallel trend in autonomous vehicles is getting to the point where it will mitigate and then eliminate the danger posed by distracting infotainment communication systems. Crazy how things work out that way. interesting. Very intellectual and intelligent question there. We have a very varied audience. I like that. That's great. Autonomous is the name of the game and it eliminates everything we're talking about of the show now. There's no more problem once you have that totally all-electric and autonomous car and as long as you don't like to drive cars, it'll be a lot of fun. We have one last text and it's a

quick answer and then we could probably get to the Mr. Shopping Report. Good morning, Earl. When do you expect the new Toyota Super will come out and won't be the expected price range. It's out and anywhere from $58,000 to $300,000. Yeah, we sold one for $58,000 and the other dealer, that was the sticker price and we sold it to the restaurant owner at Cotton Caper. That's right. And North Palm Beach and he says he loves it. He paid sicker. We made $4,000 approximately on the car, 58,000 sticker price. That's right. And we wholly endorse Cotton Caper. North Palm Beach for a delicious seafood meal. Exactly.

There you go. Ladies and gentlemen, I wanted to bring to your attention, Earl's column in the Florida Weekly. That is the top 10 car ad scams. And also in the hometown news, car dealers make more money financing your car than selling it. And if you didn't pick up those issues, you can go to earl-oncars.com. And you can find those columns and so much more. Also, I wanted to let you know our lines are, well, we're not taking any more calls right now. We're going to address this mystery shopping report, and the mystery shopping report comes to us from off-lease, well, off-lease only in West Palm Beach.

Now, back to the recovering car dealer. Now, Rick just handed me this device. Where did you buy this? This is from, I believe, AutoZone or Pep Boys, and I think this one was around $30. And you can see the little plug. There's a connector under the dash on every car. It's identical on all modern cars since about 2000. Actually, I think about 97 even.

And you simply plug that in and the little tool will light up and it will just say, read the code. You just push that and it will come up with a code. And you can Google that code and it will tell you what your engine is seeing. and from there you can solve a lot of your problems with your car. Save yourself a lot of money. Save yourself a lot of money. Exactly.

Absolutely. I got an idea real quick. Why don't you take that with you when you go to the dealership and say, no, use this. Don't charge me. That's a great idea. I'd like to let you know about the USA Today in the money section. It's the Weekender. Earl and I were both looking at this, and here are the 20 most stolen new cars.

So take a look at that. it's very interesting. Okay, and you car thieves. I'll take a look of that too because apparently these are the ones that are easiest to steal. Okay, mystery shopping report. Mr. Shop of all lease only

in West Palm Beach. Takata Test. Last Saturday, we received a question from a listener in Cambridge, Massachusetts through our anonymous feedback website. Youranonymousfeetback.com. The listener pointed out that it had been over a year since we mystery shop

off lease only, the chain of used car super stores here in Florida. He suggested we send an Agent Thunder to check them out. Ask and he shall receive. We dispatched Agent Thunder yesterday to the West Palm Beach location of off lease only before getting into the report little history. Earl Sturt on Cars is mystery shop off lease only maybe a half dozen times, but we've had mixed results. Currently they hold the coveted spot on our.

recommended list we have good dealer bad dealer list.com we recommend folks dealers you can deal with but you still have to be careful and then we have the ones that you don't deal with don't even try to be careful on those and off lease only has been on our coveted spot recently um i've repeatedly endorsed them is a great place to buy a use car however i have also advised caution when shopping in off lease only because the type of vehicles they purchase for resale Now, when a car's been wrecked, it's devalued. People don't want to buy a car that's been wrecked, even though it's been fixed just fine. Sometimes when the car's been wrecked, it's been wrecked too bad, and it's not even safe, and you shouldn't even buy one.

Offleash only says that they only sell the ones that are safe to drive. But in full fairness, they do disclose that fact, and that is essentially what you have to be aware of. However, if you buy a car that's been in a wreck, say a big one, several thousand dollars, and it's been fixed, and it literally looks good. Cosmetically, it's just fine. And you believe it's safe. When you go to trade that car in, it will be worth significantly less. They call that diminished value.

And that's another show that you need to talk to insurance companies about and maybe your lawyer. So it's a little bit of a dangerous thing when you buy a car that's been. and the significant wreck. But the reason that's okay, they say off-lease, because they sell cars for less, and they do. They sell cars for less, and we do recommend them. I've also advised caution because they failed a couple of Takata tests we subjected them to in the past

because of this incidentally a minor legal matter arose between me and off-lease only, and they basically sent me a cease and desist letter, which is a threatened to sue. And we wrote them back, our attorney wrote them back and said, we told the truth that this was a case that your salesperson did not disclose the Takada Airbag. And I'm not gonna see since desist, I mean,

from telling the truth. So once again, we maintain our perfect record, knock on the wood, after 15 years, I've never been sued. We've been threatened, but we haven't been sued yet. So you folks out there, think we're not telling the truth, you can make a lot of money if you sue us. They tried us on.

Yeah, try us on. At any rate, that was four months ago, and we've not been sued by all police only. So this week, in the spirit of our renewed focus on the Takata Airbag issue crisis, we went back and we were prompted by a loyal listener to return, and we have done this. It wasn't hard to find her target vehicle. 2017, Mercedes-Benz E-Class AMG, Coop, with a no-fix, took out an airbag recall. I repeat, no-fix. Inflator, a device that goes into the dash or wherever in the event of an accident, the inflator blows the airbag up.

And these inflators are in short supply, and they can't build them fast enough. And a lot of secure, took out of airbag recalls, they don't have inflators. So that's a no-fix situation. And if you buy one of these cars, you're just out of luck. You either park it and don't drive it, or you risk your life, and drive it until the inflator becomes available. I arrived around, I'm going into the, all police only now, I arrived around lunchtime to a very busy dealership. They are busy. They sell a lot of cars.

largest retailer of use cars in Florida may be second only to CarMax. Oh, yeah. I mean, in our area, I know that the local Offleys only outsells CarMax. I fill over 1,000 used cars a month. And if you look at the nameplace to the back of these cars on the road, you see a lot of off lease only. They're a very big factor in our market. I was quickly greeted by Javon or Javon. I think Javan.

Javan. I was quickly greeted by J-A-V-O-N, a plight. very young salesperson. Javan shook my hand, said he would be assisting me today. He led me over to a cluster of computers that were currently being used by other salespeople with customers. We waited for one to become available. That is busy. I can see this. Wow. We talked a little while we waited. Javan asked me, told me he was a brand new to the business and it had only been an off lease a very short time. A computer became available. We claimed it. Javon asked me for my vital statistics and I type my answers on his keyboard.

Oh, I actually had me, oh, he typed it on. I told him about the Mercedes I saw online and he pulled it up on the computer screen. Javon went on to describe the off-lease only process. The price was a price. There was no negotiation. That's refreshing, really. I mean, who likes the haggle and hassle some people do some people and uh javon explained they do buy vehicles for resale with accidents

but all of them are fully repaired and safe prior to sale now that's uh I don't think they used to do that but now they do because there's a lot of conversation about them buying these wreck cars they owned it

they stood up to the plate and they owned it they stood up to it he said they do not sell flood cars or cars with major issues. Now, a major issue is a relative term. Pretty vague. Yeah, pretty vague. And you'll see why we're worried about that later in the report.

He also explained they sell them as they get them, meaning that if there is a scratch or damage to a leather interior, they won't fix it. If they get a car with only one key, that's the way it is. In other words, everything is sold as is. and that is a very common car term as is means what you see is what you get

and the disclosure is refreshing and if every awfully salesperson or if every car salesperson did what Javon did that would be a great thing for car buyers everywhere they don't do that but

Javon did so far they're doing great so far it looks real good but stay tuned Javon said the benefits of all this means if their cars are cheaper than anyone else's. And that's why they sell more cars than anyone else.

Another true statement. Almost true. Well, CarMax does sell more cars, but none of this market. Then he asked me if I was comfortable with all of that. Boy, this really sounds professional. I said I was, and I said, let's get started. Svon said that before looking at the Mercedes, we would review the Carfax report.

Everything really looks good. this is one like low ominous music should start playing yeah yeah you hear me rudy exactly right away he pointed out the accident that appeared on the first page of the report that's good look at this an accident he said there had been one with just minor damage now we get into verbiage here that it had been completely repaired note the carfax report did not specifically indicate minor damage giovon said minor but not the carfax report the carfax report the carfax report the carfax report indicated that vehicle was functional and airbags did not deploy. Estimated the cost of the damage was in excess of $1,000. Now one could argue that if the damage

was in excess of $1,000, it might not be considered minor. But that's again, you know, a judgment. Furthermore, the summary section of the report indicated structural, now I worry a little bit. Structural damage. Right on the Carfax report. Exactly. Javon moved on and commented about the service history, emphasizing that the previous owner took good

care of it. As he read, I noticed the recall on the Carfax. I noticed it, but remained silent. Javon finished and said, it was time to see the car. I asked him if that was it? Were there any other issues?

No. We give Javon another chance. Javon said, no. I wanted to give him another chance and ask him, so nothing, no recalls. Specifically asked about recalls. Exactly. Yeah. I debriefed Agent Thunder. I'm like, wait, you asked about recalls and he says, yeah, it was right in front of you. And there Javon saw it. I, as a shopper, saw it, asked him twice, and Javon said, no recalls. This is really bad. you know it's really sad I gave him every opportunity to catch what was obviously missing

but he clearly said there were no recalls John asked me to wait he said he'd get the car for me and after maybe five minutes they returned led me outside gave me a great presentation of the features and benefits and we took it for a test drive

on the drive he'd tell me a little bit about life at off lease lease only he said he enjoyed it but it was tough and the hours were long he said there was a lot of salespers and turnover and we hear that in most car dealerships he said that he'd only been there a short while but was already feeling a little burned out that's a term we hear often at car dealerships i sympathized with him and told him to hang in there i asked it was okay if we could get the

numbers right away and i'd be back this afternoon to buy the car givon said that was okay but he couldn't hold the car, and they don't. I said it would only be a half an hour, or an hour or so, Javon, so that shouldn't be a problem, and the car would probably still be there. Back at the store, we went inside, and Javon

asked me to wait for him to get my purchase order. He came back in a few minutes and had me the buyer's order, which, by the way, was not really a buyer's order. It was a worksheet. Big difference. Biers order is a legal document. A worksheet is a worksheet. Selling tool.

on purpose, they do not want it to be legal. By the way, the price was just like Javon said, but they added a $299 pre-delivery service charge and a $79 tag agency fee. And these are other names for dealer fees, the generic term, which is additional profit. So CarMax does add additional profit after the quoted price. Offlays only.

Offly only. But so does Carmack's. They all do it. They all do it. Yeah, they all do it. CarMax didn't used to, and then they went back and did it. Off lease only does it. And that's a violation of state law, by the way.

Because the advertised price must include the dealer fees, and they didn't. They're too small dealer fees, albeit $378. Epilogue, they failed. And it's very sad. And as I go through the... mystery shopping documentation, I look at all three of the test that prove that they do have an open recall that's unfixable. The Carfax report clearly states that, and I can show that to the camera there. And then we go to the next page, which I believe is the NHTSA, which clearly says,

no, this is Mercedes-Benz website, says remedy, not a available airbag recall and of course then there is the NHTSA which is safercar.gov and it says here that the recall is there and it's not fixable so this car car fax this off lease only car salesperson I have to say deliberately misrepresented this car is being safe is having no recalls and in fact it has a recall and the worst part is you can't fix it he would have sold this Mercedes to me as a shopper and I would have in good faith thinking he was telling me the truth driven it off the lot so car off lease only attorneys off lease only if you want to sue me let's go I'm telling you

that you did something terrible something dangerous you misrepresented you lied to a potential buyer you thought was a potential buyer Sue me. Yeah. And this was a much more egregious incident than last time. And we pushed. We pushed and we did everything impossible to get Javan, Javon Jones, last name, in full disclosure, and off-lease only in full disclosure, lied to a customer, tried to get them to buy a dangerous car that could kill him.

And you are a very large retailer, and I would have to speculate that, If it happened once with Javon Jones and the mystery shopper on the Mercedes-Benz, it has happened before and will happen again. Is it true that Offleys Only is looking to go public? I've heard the rumor. I don't know. I've heard that they were possibly for sale, and I heard that they were going public. And it's a moneymaker. They saw a lot of cars.

And that's another thing that makes it scary because when a large retailer does something this bad, you wonder how many of these cars are being delivered. Correct. Yeah. So we got some grades coming in. We do. From listeners, yeah, we quite a few. We have a, so we have a no name, gives him an F, another no name, a D.

Sandy gives him an F, Linda, hi, Linda, gives him a huge F and a shame on you. Gil gives him an F, Mary D, gives him a D, and Doug, and Olli, gives him two Fs. Two F and F. There we go. How about our online over here for you, Rick? Frank says F for the salesperson and more importantly the dealership for even putting this car up for sale. Yeah. And Mr. Hand says, count is full.

Pitcher winds up. Fastball to off lease. Only strike three. You're out, you bums. It is. I mean, it's a black and white issue. Let's go around the staff here. Okay.

You know, you think it might be helpful if we'd be. just pass all these mystery shop reports on to the Attorney General, Ashley Moody. At any rate, it's kind of a rhetoric question. Guys, don't forget Earl did a column, deaths from dangerous recalls are the fault of the legislators. So read that, and I give them an F. It's true. I got to concur.

I mean, everything was going so good with the disclosure on the accident, even though it was a little iffy, but it was really good and then boom and listen when I was talking to Agent Thunder about was he being deceptive

Agent Thunder's got a big heart and I do too he thinks that Javan just didn't know how to read the Carfax report I think he was

trained well on the whole accident disclosure thing and he said he kind of looked like he was fumbling through his benefit of the doubt

I just think was more poor training and ignorance on Javin's part but they got to do better than that back when

they wrote that letter, the attorneys, their argument was, well, we gave a Carfax report or we had a Carfax report online, that's a disclosure. And we say, no, that is not a disclosure. It's a confusing document to a lot of people. And if it just handed it across a desk, it's not going to, it doesn't emphasize the danger that the consumer is going to face. Exactly. And whether Javon was being honest or not, the fault lies with the company. And it is your responsibility, especially in a life and death issue, to train your people. They should have the maturity in the training

to know, to tell someone that they're buying a car that can kill them. And it goes higher than that. How about the used car manager? How about the general manager? When you put that car on your lot, before it was deemed safe for sale, you should have not put that car on your lot.

If the car had a fixable recall, then you can make an argument about disclosure. And it's not a good argument, but it's some argument to say, okay, we disclosed in writing that this car had a recall and you should take it to the Mercedes dealer to get fixed. But this car did not have a fix. So you bought the car, you can't take it to the Mercedes dealer. There is no disclosure you could have possibly made that would have made anybody buy that car.

Nobody would have bought that car knowing the car could not be fixed and could kill them by driving it. Nancy? Two minutes. Yeah, you can't be careless with this. Everybody fails them, right? Mark and Ernesto both agree F and F and myself, I got to go with the F. Yeah. We're almost out of time. And I just want to say to the legislators listening, the lawyers listening, are you hearing what we're saying here? Someone get excited about this, will you?

Governor DeSanti of the state of Florida, Attorney General of the state of Florida, Attorney General of the state of Florida. the regulators. Folks, this is going on right now. I know all you care about is getting elected and getting reelected, but think about the lives of the Florida citizens that are buying these cars. And this is real life. This really happened, and offleys only won't sue me because I told the truth. So there's some responsible people out there. Politicians, legislators, regulators, do something about it, will you? Help us out. Please help us save lives. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for tuning in to Earl Stewart on Cars.

We're at the end of our show, and we truly appreciate you and your dedication to us. We'll see you next week. Let's go. Oh, Oh, Oh, more Oh,

uh, Welcome.