Earl Stewart on Cars - 08.09.2025 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Gunther Mazda of Plantation, FL.

Episode Date: August 9, 2025

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning travels to the Ft. Lauderdale area to visit a local Mazda dealer and see how much they will charge for a new 2025 Mazda CX-5 on their showroom floor. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

Good morning, everybody. Well, we're back. Rainy day in South Florida. And I hope it's nicer for you folks around the world. don't quite have our full staff today. We've got my son, Stu, off. He's in Germany, as a matter of fact. But Nancy and Rick, Jonathan and I are here to help entertain you, educate you, probably aggravate you a little bit.

But it's fun, you know, a little aggravation. Hey, it gets the mind ticking. You start thinking about things. I've got a lot of things to think about. It's, I can't think of a industry, the retail or the wholesale of manufacturing, that's in more turmoil than car dealerships and auto manufacturers. I mean, it used to be that, you know, car dealerships came and went, you know, there's thousands of them, but one would go broke, another one would go back in business. But it didn't happen all that much with the manufacturers. Now, the manufacturers are, well, what's the word, they're panicking.

They don't know where to go, electric. Front page automotive news, they're going to stop trying to build hydrogen cars. It's almost laughable that the manufacturers would have to announce that. I mean, listen to this. There's 53 hydrogen filling stations, if you want to call it that. 53 in the United States. I mean, there's 50 states.

And most of those are in California. So the manufacturer's front page automotive news. Maybe we're not going to be building hydrogen cars after all. So it's crazy. And now the same thing

as being the hybrid versus all electric vehicle. And you know, the combustion engine folks are not dead. They're They're still talking. Where there's life, there's hope. Let me think about it. There's a huge market out there for a car.

You know, you buy a car, and it's got an engine, and it's got a carburetor, and it's got a coil in addition. I mean, there's a lot of people my age and not quite my age, but I mean, if you're 50 or 60 years old, when you think car, truck, you think of combustion, and most of the cars on the road now are combustion. The truck drivers, boy, they're hardcore. I just, these guys, and they're mostly guys.

I'm not sliding the females. Certainly females drive pickup drugs, but it's a macho thing with a guy, and we see them all the time. Nancy and I drive around in Tesla's, and the guys in the trucks just don't like us. I mean, there's a, it's a political state, but we're not political about it.

We're just interested in technology, and we're learning a lot every day about our electric vehicles. They're a lot of fun. So anyway, that's the exotic stuff. Now, let's get down to what most of you are really interested in. Hey, I got a car. It's squeaking or it's rattling. Hope it's not rolling, but it's making noises, smell. Something happens.

And I've got to get it fixed. I just don't want to go and get ripped off again. I don't want to go into a car dealership or I don't want to go even an independent repair shop and have them say, well, let's see. Yeah, we can eliminate that squeak. It's only going to cost you $3,500. You don't want that, and I don't blame you.

But you don't have a degree in mechanical engineering and you're not a technician. So what are you going to do? call Rick at 877-960-9960. Rick Kearney are a certified diagnostic master technician. I walked into the studio this morning. What's the first thing I did? I asked Rick about what I'm driving.

I had an issue with my tires. And he explained it to me. So I've been a car dealer for, it's been so long I forgot, over 50 years and this is what you want to question before you go in and be or take an advantage of it or sometimes you just live with it you know that smell that noise and and then you take a trip and then you worry about it all the way on the trip what if it's something breaks and I'm on the side of the road and it's Sunday night at 2 a.m. I guess that would be Sunday morning right

you don't want that to happen so write this number down please and And Rick will answer your question. He won't charge you for it. He may tell you, hey, you've got nothing to worry about. You're going to be fine. Or you might say, you can buy this part on Amazon or if you're going into a dealership or an independent, tell them this is exactly what's wrong,

and this is what I should pay. Lord it with that information, you're going to save a ton of money. So write this number down. 877-9609. 9960. Got that? 877-960-960. And you texters that don't like to call radio shows or streaming shows or whatever we are and be live on the air with tens of thousands of people listening to you, ooh, I got scared just talking about it. I'm only kidding. I love it. I don't worry about it. I just try to speak the truth sometimes I give out misinformation but it's not on purpose so I you know I feel like I've got nothing to fear with live radio but some people value their

privacy more than I do and again that text number write this down please if you haven't got a if you do have a minute 772 area code 772 4997676530 772-497-65-0-0 text number and the call-in number is 877-960-960 now my co-host and my wife my female advocate friend is Nancy Stewart she watches her laptop and when the call comes in we prioritize phone calls so we'll try our best not to keep you waiting we have complained still that we called in all the lines were busy we got five lines so we try to get them out as quickly as we can every now and then we get a really interesting or critical caller and they stay

on the line longer than average and then sometimes the calls back up but we try our best to turn those calls over and Nancy will answer the phone and again if you are a female out there When Nancy answers the phone, she will give you, if you haven't called the show before, and you're female, she has a surprise for you, a real pleasant surprise, and she'll tell you about that. So, 877-960-960, and I'm always looking at her.

I mean, not just because she's pretty, but I'm looking at it, I'm looking at it, because she waves at me, because I get, you know, I can talk for two hours all by myself, And that's what happened if I did that. I'd be all by myself. You'd go home or whatever you do. You turn off your headphones or radios

or streaming or whatever you got. Anyway, we have about a 50-50 female audience. We're very proud of that. And women are coming into their own finally. And they got all, still got a long way to go. Or I should say, we have got a long way to go, meaning the men that have, that have created this issue with not allowing women all their rights.

And it's a very sad thing. It isn't something that should happen in 21st century, but it still is, so let's call it Spade to Spade, and it is happening. So Nancy is a female advocate, and if you guys are gonna go to battle with her, you better be careful, she's tough, I know. And I've learned the hard way.

You don't wanna cross Nancy, okay? So I'm gonna turn the microphone over, Nancy and she will tell you about this special offer she has and how to get in touch with all that kind of stuff. I'm going to come across this desk and give you a big hug. Rick was scared there for a second. Okay folks, seriously, 877-960-99-60. I have a question for you from the Consumer Report, Road Report.

Hopefully everyone has one in their hand. Should I buy a used electric vehicle? Here's some information for you. Used EVs tend to depreciate sharply marketing. Excuse me, making them a better value for the second owner. We'll talk more about that later on in the show. Our mystery shopper report from Gunther Mazda Plantation. Stay tuned for that, about 9.30.

And for the ladies, as they're all stated, I think that, I think for the auto industry, you know, there's a one and only word that I can think of, and that's better education. They need to be educated. The auto industry is something that the female has their claws into. And we've made a huge impact on that industry financially. So you just don't want to ignore, you know, the female buyer. With that said, I want to introduce our first caller, and she is a first time female caller. Her name is Marilyn. Good morning, Marilyn, and welcome to Earl on Cars.

Good morning. Can you hear me? And you're spot on. I can. Education. Okay. Absolutely, professing. Education is key.

We had a slight interruption. Hold on a second, Maryland. We good? Sure. We good? Absolutely. We had a little slip there, but no worries at all. We're right back on track, and I'm here if you need anything else.

Can you want to hit that mute button? I hit the mute button. This is our chat, GVT, that's running wild, totally out of control, and I don't know what to do. we are hi Marilyn can you hear us now I can I can hear you can you hear me absolutely what's on your mind today

hey Marilyn before we get started I just want to remind you to stay on the line once we're done talking and you can speak to Jeremy give him your contact information he'll give that to me it'll make it just a little easier for me

to get that check out to you for $50 and I want to thank you on behalf of all the ladies that are listening. What can we do for you this morning? I owe you 50 if you've got an answer. Oh, boy, it sounds pretty serious. Okay, we're listening. Okay, it's not serious, and that's one of the reasons why. Staying quiet until I hear that came.

One moment, Errolin. We have a chat CBT that's completely out of control this morning. Okay, I think we got them under control now. All right, go ahead. Okay. Um, yes, I have, uh, this has been something that has alluded me, answer to this problem for a long, long time. And it isn't terribly serious, but it bothers me. And so I'm going to bring it to you. It sounds like you guys, well, could have an answer. Um, I need the cap for my tire

on the back door, um, to either be repaired or replaced. Now, I've had earnest, people tell me replacing probably not a good plan. You have a 2012 Toyota Rav4 and it won't match probably. And I said, I'd be surprised if they even still have this particular color, but I digress. I'm trying to find if you know someone who would repair it for me or just turn it into a pillow slip kind of thing, you know, instead of with the zip. For the zipper, I've had it repaired once at a marine shop, and it just doesn't lend itself to. We'll turn this over to Rick. He has all the answers.

Okay, so you're talking about the spare tire cover? I am. Oh, okay, yeah. My advice on that one, because a spare tire cover, really, they're going to deteriorate just because of the environment over time. Right. Especially here in Florida. Yeah, they, my advice there, I would go on Amazon and look to see, find a reasonably priced, just something that's got some good ratings to it, but it's an economically priced cover.

And I would go with that. And it's fun because you can find some of them that have, you know, the various different colors. So you can pick a color that'll be like, if not matching, get a complementary color. that would just kind of be like a fashion statement or even some that you can even find ones that have like a decorative scene on it maybe a painting or something or you know if you even have a family member

or yourself if you're artistic get one that's just a simple black or a simple white color and some paints and paint it up and spray some clear code on it and put your own thing to it you know it might be a way to have some fun okay um i like your suggestion though uh checking on amazon i don't know why that didn't occur to me um so do you how do i describe it do i give the year or do i just say um tire cover for rave for yeah i well it's it's a

2012 you said yes yeah i would just put as a matter of fact uh one of our uh you tubers donovan who is, the man is in an encyclopedic knowledge. He is awesome. I'd love to meet him. Oh, there you go. He even says on Amazon, 2012 spare tire covers, Amazon or eBay are about $250. And you might even find something that are a little more economical than that

so that you could get just that vinyl cover. And I would just go like that. I would put in 2012 RAV-4 spare tire cover. and I guarantee you will see so many options pop up that because they're going to be a generic fit because you know the tire yeah that same size tire is used on hundreds of other vehicles so it's going to be a beautiful thing to find and I don't think you'll have much problem at all I'm glad to hear you say that they a lot of people will say why don't you just get that off there, and I say, because it's how I find myself when I come out of the store.

Exactly. As a matter of fact, I'm looking at one right now on a cell phone on Amazon, and I'm seeing them for as low as $20. And then even some, here's one that's $20 that you can have your own design put on it by the factory. They'll paint your own design on it. You can customize it right through it and order it that way. And heck put your favorite flower on there and then when you come out you know exactly what to look for thank you so much you've been a great help you've given me some a lead i haven't had before so i'm glad i could do that for you hey how many miles do you have on that rave um you know i know it's over a hundred thousand but i haven't i haven't looked lately so i'm guessing like 115 at this point

Oh, that's, it's still a baby. Yeah, you have a long way to go. With a little bit of just normal maintenance on it and a little tender care here and there, you can get a lot of life out of that car yet. That's what I'm told by the mechanic. He said, he's offered to buy it from me twice. I bet. I bet he did.

My wife drives a rev. I mean, they're just great vehicles. I put on that tire cover. Actually, ours is one of the compacts. spare this down underneath it's hidden away so yeah we don't have that option okay thank you thank you both very much Marilyn let me add to this you mentioned earlier that it wasn't really a serious situation and it isn't it wasn't but aesthetically you know what was going on it bothered you and it's going to be an easy fix but you know more importantly the impact that you just

made by calling Erlan Cars. You've really opened the door for all the women that are listening that don't want to call the show, that they would rather use, you know, Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Not everyone is comfortable in calling the show. So you open the door, and also I want to add to it, thank you for supporting my platform here at Erlan Cars. Women play a huge part in this industry.

Unfortunately, they haven't reached the 21st century, and it's still, well, male-dominated, so thank you for your help. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Nancy, for your platform as well. You're welcome. Stay on the line.

Bye-bye. Okay. Our number here is 877960-99-60. You can also text us at 772 4976530. Don't forget, your anonymous feedback.com. We're going to go to Howard, who is a regular caller from Jupiter. Good morning, Howard. Good morning. I'm under Poconos now, and it's a little cold here today. Oh, is it? Wow. What's the temperature? It's 62. Oh, I'll take that. I'm sure you know the area. You're from that area.

Yes, yes. So, okay. But I'll be back in Florida pretty soon. My question for Rick is, when I check my oil, when the car is cold, I notice it's in between the full mark and the other mark that shows that I need to put oil in between. So my question is, should I add oil then? Because when I do, after about 50 miles, it goes back down to the same level. So am I just wasting oil? What's the story with that? If it's using a, because now where is it between those two marks? Is it closer to the bottom or is it relatively near the top?

Right in between the head and the fold. So right in the middle? Yes. Yeah, that should be, on most cars, that should be about a half a quart. If you're using a half a quart of oil in 50 miles, I would want to have that checked out. You've either got a leak or you're burning some oil there. No, no.

What happens is that when I put it on the full mark, it goes down to half, but it stays that way for like hundreds of miles after that. So it's not losing. It just goes down to that half mark and it stays there. And I could go 100, 2, or 300. It'll still stay in that. So I assume I'm not losing.

oil. Now, that is an odd one. I would I would almost wonder if maybe the PCB for some reason is starting to suck it in, but that's weird that it's only dropping that much.

Right, right. I don't know. When I get back to Florida, I have you guys check it out. Let's try chat, GBT, see if he can answer. I've never,

seen Rick stumped on something like that. Yeah. Hey, Coach, what should the person do if he has a driving a car and he puts the oil in it and it's up to the full measure and then it comes down halfway between the full and the ad oil and it stays that way for hundreds of miles? That's exactly what's happening. Absolutely, Professor. Happy to jump in.

So if someone's driving and they've topped off their oil, but then notice it's settled about halfway between full and ad, and it just stays there for a long time, that's usually not something to worry about. Some cars just have a sweet spot on the divstick where the oil level likes to hang out. As long as it's within the safe range and not actively dropping,

they're good to go. So basically they can just keep an eye on it, but not stress. Thank you very much, George. That answers my question. There you have it, Howard. You're very welcome, Professor. Thank you very much.

Just let me know if you'd hang out there. Okay. Okay, have a good day. Very good. You too. Yeah. Bye. Well, I hope he's right.

I, uh, you know, it's an interesting. I don't understand it, but, uh, far be it from me to question. It happens. And, um, maybe there is some sort of a, uh, scientific explanation for that. I don't like the hang out part, but, you know, who am I to question? So, C-O-A-C-H. So what you're saying is you hate to question chat. Yeah, I do question them, but...

Oh, good, good. I do that often. Yeah. Yeah, I need more confirmation. Our number here is 877-960-9960. You can also text us at 772-497-6530. Maryland opened the show this morning by being the first female caller. So please, ladies, give me a call. At 877-960, I have $50 for the next new female caller.

We're going to go to Rick in Tampa. Good morning, Rick. Hey. Welcome. Thank you. Hi, Rick, what can we do for you today? Well, I have a, I had a Toyota Highlander, 2012, I always kept it up limited, so it was a better model.

I got it used up in New York and stuff and moved to Florida. Everything was fine on it. You know, just all the work. I mean, I kept it up the way it should be. And I had some work done on it, and when I got over there, the guys called me back to the shop and said, your car is going to have to be. we're going to have to look at it more closely.

They wound up really going through it and taking the whole engine out, sitting on the floor, hanging from whatever it was still connected to, the picture that I have that they sent me, and wound up charging me $9,300 on this repair. I thought, you know, I go, well, you could have put a new engine in for that, I'm sure. Yes.

And so after all that work was done, they said, well, we're going to do the work. But I really wasn't aware of what it was going to cost. And they might have told me, and I thought, well, if the guy said it's going to go for, you know, between 4,000 and 500,000 miles, it's going to be worth for me to put that money into it to keep it running, because I like to do that old school, I guess. And I was on my way. Well, I wanted to go up for Thanksgiving, and I went in to get the oil changed.

And, of course, I'm looking for a dealership that I can trust and people that I, you know, could call friends. and so when I went in to do that, they called me back again. They said, well, listen, you've got a problem with your rear-end differential that it's leaking, and we're not sure we can get parts for this. And I thought, well, you know, another dealer a few years before that offered because of the rust from up north said we'd like, you know, it will change this for you to get rid of this rusted area here um and so then they you know i got into a frenzy and they said well we'll just get you a new

vehicle and so it kind of ushered me off and i'm thinking whoa you know i'm getting my my brain is like going into neutral i think it was you know i'm sure it was all me on me but i wound up leasing a Toyota Tacoma uh after that uh you know whatever everything was said and done, they gave me, they said they were going to give me $3,500 for my car. And I thought, what? I just paid nine grand for it to have it repaired, and this is all you're going to give me on this. And so that's what they insisted on. Well, I don't get to see my kids a lot and grad kids, but I thought, you know, I guess my brain again went into neutral, and I followed through with the lease and wound up leasing the vehicle. But then when I, you know,

when I was up there, my knees have been going out, you know, I'm old enough to have my knees done and stuff. So my son said, Dad, you've got to get your knees done. You're going to be in a wheelchair before long. So I came back. I thought, well, maybe, you know, it was hard to get in and out of the vehicle. And I thought, well, maybe I can just trade it back in and, you know, and get something else. Well, it just seems like every time I went in to talk to them, I had to give them more money. And I, you know, wound up getting a rap four, which would, you know, was a 2017. And I'm saying all of this because, you know, I could have.

probably said, well, just put the tires on the car. In the very beginning, I'm just going to go find somebody to fix it. But if I would have, I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't be able to hardly walk through an airport at that point. I just, you know, so I went ahead and went through a deal. What kind of recourse would I have? Rick, let me jump in here.

You were, you know, taking advantage of over and over again, and that's why this show exists because there are a lot of people like you that have been taken advantage of. You're not alone. And we've been doing the show for 20 years. Your experience is probably one of the worst I've heard. And it's very difficult.

We refer to people like you. I mean, you're elderly. uh you're you've got a physical disability and uh you're in no mood to wheel and deal and uh and uh you haven't got the energy uh or the wherewithal to do that and you're you're you're one of the victims of the auto deals as they stand today you could be a symbol of why this show exists um furthermore it's difficult to even find attorneys these days uh to take uh your case uh you're Everything you described on this show this morning is a terrible violation of at least the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. If there are any attorneys listening, I'd love to put you in touch with one that would take your case free.

Fair Trade Practices Act allows the victor, meaning hopefully you, to have your attorneys paid by the person you're suing. In this case, it would be two or three car dealerships. The attorney's fees would be humongous, and most of the car dealerships would say, I'm not going to fight this. In court, I'm going to take care of whatever it is, I'll settle this, because otherwise it could cost me even more. So if you know any attorneys in Tampa, and as I say, I'm speaking now to any attorney out there,

you've got a juicy case, and I mean that in the sense of there's a lot of money to be made by an attorney, and let's face it, that's why attorneys are in business to make money. So if you would let us know or let, Rick and Tampa now we'll you'll call us and we will contact Rick and Tampa if you'll leave us his information that we can contact him and try to go after these dealers company you were you were flim flammed over and over you know there's a law in Florida

that says that when you have your car repaired you have the right to ask for an estimate and the the dealership or the independent repair company whoever cannot deviate from that estimate by more than 10%. So they all did that. They all let you think it wasn't going to be too bad. Got your car taken apart and then said, it'll cost you this much to put it together. And then they sold you a couple cars on top of that.

So you have got, for the right attorney out there, six months of a very, very good income. And you might just find out they don't even want to fight it. And maybe in a month or two, you could have some substantial reimbursement. those dealers if you don't want to give your number and name I got your first name but you can remain on the line after you get off the phone and give your contact information to our producer Jeremy and then we will try to find you an attorney to help you that's something a good idea because I gave them enough money

yeah what all was said and done and I got the new car now I have to you know The money I had set aside for a vehicle sometime when I needed one, I now have a car loan for the same amount of money that I already paid out. I'm thinking, I'm paying for this car twice. Well, stay on the line, Rick. I would like to talk with someone. Yeah, stay on the line, Rick, and give your name and address, the telephone number to Jeremy in the control room. And then we will get on this right away. we'll contact you

and we'll let you know how we do with finding an attorney to take your case. Thanks for calling, Rick. Thank you very welcome. Thank you. Good luck. 877-960-99-60. Well, I'll tell you, you hear a lot of stories and this is proof with Rick

that it's just not women. It's across the board. The elderly, the disabled, you take somebody... Language is also a disadvantage. But this is the victim and the car dealer see them coming a mile away. Hey, I got one now, and they just take it back. There are elderly women I know personally in Martin County that were involved in leasing cars, and they added over $10,000 to the profit of the car.

It's unconscionable what a dealer will do if you could get away with it. It's endless, and that's why we encourage you to give us a car. call here at Earl Long Cars. You're a very important part of the show. Please jot the number down. 877-9-60-99-60. We are going to stay with the phones, and we're going to talk to Nikki, who you heard from last week. Good morning, Nikki. Good morning. Welcome. Yes, I was just calling back to, I guess, give everyone a little update. So I bought a brand new car from Earl Stewart yesterday. And Mike Maroonie's never contacted me.

The dealerships never said anything to me. I'm actually still paying the car loan from my previous car because they still haven't paid off my car loan even though my buyback is completed. But I was calling in to let everybody know, yes, I finally have a car. I bought a 2025 Grand Highlander yesterday from your dealership. it was a way better experience than my previous time buying a car and y'all have an amazing staff and everyone was so nice and kind even though I brought my child with me as well

it was amazing experience and I want to say thank you so much well Nikki I apologize I personally spoke to Mike Maroney two or three times and I was under the impression that he was going to handle it with that dealership of Mike Moroney Chevrolet and I gave him in detail the issues you had

so you received no call even from the manager at Mike Maroney Chevrolet I have never received a call an email a text I also learned because someone messaged me on Facebook because they heard and I had

posted the podcast on my page They were like, the guy that told me to call the lawyer's office, the guy named Alex, that's actually Mike Maroney's nephew. So I don't know. I haven't heard anything. I'm still, I finished my buyback process. I still have an open car note for the car I don't even own anymore. Thank God for my parents because they lend me the money to buy a car yesterday from y'all. Or I wouldn't have a car.

I still haven't had a car since April. So now, Nick, I'll call him again. I think Mike is a good guy. As a matter of fact, right now he's devoting a lot of his time to Cleveland Clinic, which is also the institution I use for my health problems. He's a spokesman for Cleveland Clinic, and he's also the vice chairman of a philanthropy. for a Cleveland Clinic.

So he's a good fellow, and somebody at his dealership has dropped the ball. But when he tells me someone would contact you, he intended to. But I'll call him, and I'll let you know what they had to say. Nikki, let me ask you this question. Did you receive my email telling you to expect a call? Yes, ma'am, I did on Saturday. other question that I have is there's a possibility this happens to me often that something might go to your junk or to your clutter or you know the it could the call could

have been classified spam so that's a number of things so you don't screen your calls you take everything no ma'am okay well Earl will follow up on you know the information he just shared with you and we'll get to the bottom of it. Yeah, no, I'm happy now. I have a car. My car is beautiful. It's wonderful. My kids and my family are very happy and you just mentioned the Cleveland clinic. My mom's also a breast cancer patient at the Cleveland Clinic and she has bone cancer as well. So we're regular at the Cleveland Clinic. Oh, great. It's a beautiful place. But yes, I just want to call and tell you, you have amazing staff, and they were all so super nice. Everything went so smoothly.

They had the car on hold for me because I know how hard it is to get a Grand Highlander because I had to have such a big car. But like I said, it was seamless. It was awesome. Your whole staff from A to D was amazing. The fish tank, my son adored it. And I just want to say thank you so much for having such a great dealership. You know, the feedback with, and we didn't realize, how many people were listening to your story last week, but it was just amazing, you know, the response and the replies, and including the dealership.

And we had no idea you were going to the dealership for a vehicle. But a lot of our employees do have children, and also they have special needs. So there was so many moving parts here. And as I said, it really got their attention, and they certainly wanted to make your experience flawless. And it was very important to them that they recognized your children and the special needs and the interior of the vehicle to be conducive to their health needs. So I'm glad your experience went as it did. yes no it went seamless like i said everything was awesome because i called it advanced to tell him exactly what i was looking for he held a vehicle for me until my check cleared with my buyback

because that took forever with them as well um and you know when i went there they had everything ready to go he even set in a car showed me all the stuff i think his name was heywood yes um yes yes and he showed me everything on the car how to work everything even when i was driving away i was having a little bit issues. He ran out there and fixed everything. So I just want to say thank you so much for a great experience with buying a car. Thank you so much, Nikki. It's been a pleasure. Yes, y'all have a great day and thank you for being amazing. Thank you so much for that. Have a great weekend. Sounds to me like that was a nomination for Haywood for the above and beyond. Yes, absolutely. And he has

received on several different occasions. He's an outstanding. person that I have dealt with. Okay, folks, 877-960-960. That's 877-960. And you can text us at 772-497-6530. And also from the road report, I have some interesting information for you that you may take into consideration and may want to skip when you purchase your next car. So hopefully I'll be able to to that but right now our lines are lit up and we're going to go back to uh let's see who's holding we're going to go to barry in tampa who's a regular caller good morning barry good morning all after those first few calls i feel like a lightweight um before before i ask my question i'd like to mention to earl that i read confessions of a recovering car dealer this week and enjoyed it oh thank you

And, yeah, it was good. In case you ever want to make a movie version of the book, I asked Chat GPT, which mainstream actors should play you? And it said that Stan Elliott is the natural first choice. Oh, boy. I'm even going to hold a book up. You know, if you buy this book, and when you bought my book, Barry,

the proceeds that you paid for it went to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. So we love to sell a book, not only to help people avoid being ripped off by the guard dealer, but we help the doggies at the same time. And Big Dog Ranch Rescue has several locations now, and the largest no-kill shelter, a lot of these shelters euthanized their dogs. Big Dog does not. So they have to find homes for them, and they have to find a lot of homes,

and they do that. So you helped a little bit there, and anybody buys the book, you can learn how to avoid being ripped off and maybe save a doggy's life at the same time. I agree. I do have a service question that I've already taken the liberty

of asking chat GPT, so I'm interested to see how your answers compare. You've talked about the superiority of OEM parts to aftermarket ones, with some exceptions like tires, but what about fluid? What is it better to use the

manufacturer's brand versus something else well i'll i'll i'll answer it but rick you know uh we'll have a better idea than i because i want to i want to say this uh i don't believe that it's with blanket that oem parts are better than aftermarket parts the one that i hammer on this show are crash parts now crash parts are the name given to uh fenders and bumpers and and doors when you get into a an accident and the crash impacts that door or that hood there are some very very stringent criteria of how that that should fold actually is you don't want a offender or you don't want a door that won't buckle at all the buckling of

the door at a certain rate is what protects you it's like a sponge if you have a rigidly hard hood and you hit something very fast, you're going to snap your neck right off. So the compression, Rick? Energy absorbing. Yeah, energy absorbing. So that's the main thing I'm talking about. Now, as far as most other things, there are probably aftermarket parts, fluids. There's certainly some good aftermarket parts in any part. As a matter of fact, you'd be surprised the number of aftermarket parts that are also the same manufacturer sells the manufacturer of the car and sells to you. So you're really buying

an OEM part with a different label on it. But don't ever accept from your insurance company, and they will push you on this. Don't ever accept a body repair part that is a crash part that is, they'll even say, but this is certified.

Well, it's certified, but not by the government safety regulators. It'll be certified because it's shiny and as a certain width and depth and There's a lot of criteria you can certify something for, but not in an accident. If that hood buckles too fast or doesn't buckle fast enough, you're dead. So that's to clear up my recommendation on OEM versus aftermarket.

Yeah. For fluids, my recommendation check consumer reports and also talk, maybe talk to some few technicians or one of the my resources that I love are local car clubs will do forums on the internet where you can talk to a lot of people that they just they are fanatical about the care of their cars and they can give you some great recommendations on brands of oil transmission fluid coolant that are actually perhaps even better quality than what you would get from a dealership and can be at a much lower price because, well, dealerships are rather proud of their products and they tend to mark them up quite a bit. As a matter of fact, like Earl mentioned, for a lot of parts for the

cars, Toyota uses Nippendenzo as one of their main suppliers for automotive parts, specifically for air conditioning compressors. But did you know that for an air conditioning compressor for, say, like a 20-20 Camry, you can buy that exact same compressor after market made by Nippendenzo, and it comes with the clutch on it for two-thirds the price of the factory unit, but it's the exact same part, made by the same company. And you can save 20, 30, 40 percent on the price of parts. As long as you make sure that it is that same manufacturer, you'll have no problem with that part. Okay.

Well, I think in this particular man versus machine John Henry type contest, I think the Flushing Blood wins this time, and I thank you for your answers, and I've never know fatalities like that. Barry, what did you say to you ask Chad GBT? What did Chad GBT say? Well, in a nutshell, it was very strong

on using OEM fluid for coolant and for transmission. fluid. It gave more wiggle room on engine oil and brake fluid, as long as you're meeting the proper specs. And it said, don't waste your money on OEM fluid for a window washer fluid. Oh, no, window washer fluid. No, you can buy that much less expensive and in bulk from other places. So, Chad, GBT, actually, it was accurate. That's what I wanted to know. Yeah, and then just for fun, I asked about blinker fluid and it correctly identified it as a joke. Thank you, Barry.

Hey, Barry, before you go, did chat GPT give you a long answer or was it, you know, short? It was quite detailed and then it summed it up with a nifty little chart with column OEM versus aftermarket with the check mark in each column. So it was pretty good. Yeah, interesting. Sometimes, you know, if I don't have a lot of time. which is often, I more or less have to just shorten, you know, chat GBT's version of the right answer. And it's, well, chat GBT is a great place to go. That's all I'll say.

Barry, thanks so much for the call. Please stay in touch. We enjoy your conversation. Our number here is 877-960-9960. You can also text us at 772-4976530. and don't forget, your anonymous feedback.com. You know, back to the, it was great that Barry talked about the Consumer Report, and there are so many of our callers, our listeners, everybody,

who is involved in our show going to Consumer Report. It's something Earl and I often go to, and we, Earl has his copy, I have my copy, so we don't fight over it any longer. But back to the Road Report that I spoke to. two when we opened the show. Let me share something with you about the options on your next new car. You know, it can be really costly, very costly when you start adding extras to a new car purchase. And there's things that you really don't need. One of the things that they talk about, the Consumer Report talks about, being a waste of money, is the matte paint. And they say

that it's so prone to scratches. And there's a whole lot more information. If you pick up the edition of the Consumer Report, that's the September and October edition. You're going to find a lot of information. Matt, that's the one that's kind of a dull-looking. Yes, yeah. We see a lot of that on the road. Also, Earl, this would be interesting to you. Large wheels, they're easy to damage.

We find that out, and costly to repair. And they usually hurt the ride as far as the comfort. I'm a world champion wheel damager. Oh, you should have brought your rubber, what is that? Rubber mallet that you bought? Rubber mallet, yeah. Yeah, it's huge. It looks like you're going to be involved in something very interesting this afternoon.

Yeah, my wish. And I'll be by your side and under the vehicle. Okay. Okay, moving along, self-parking. This finicky, and I agree it is finicky, because I'm still trying to adjust to my self-parking. and a finicky feature operates slowly and often requires the driver to take over anyway. And, you know, what's telling about that feature is when we use that, it's not the self-parking that concerns me, but I'm on the look.

I'm on the lookout for the cars around us that are in such a hurry, and they're like tapping on their driving combustion, they're tapping on their steering wheel. because they want us to move it. And it is a slow process, and I think Earl will agree with that, but there's a lot more positive to say about self-parking. Well, that's because you're a good person, and I don't care if people are waiting. I just go ahead and do it anyway. Okay, we'll discuss that later. Dealer installed window tint or paint protection.

You know, here again, you can save yourself a lot of money. Compare prices from a reputable, specialty shop first before you decide on that feature, fabric protector. In most cases, a $10 fabric spray from auto parts can achieve the same effect. So there you go, folks. And again, that is the consumer report from September and October. A77-960-90-50 for the next new female caller. Yes, Earl. One thing that we don't mention about consumers, reports that we should and I'm we're correcting that right now but this is the issue of the current consumer reports and inside the front cover is something

to remind me when I picked it up today I mean they've always done this but they have a very good car buying service we talk about Costco we talk about true car consumer reports has an outstanding car buying service you you are if you consumer report member or you're online you can use this you pay for it but they get basically give you a very good price on what kind of kind of a car you want to buy so you know Costco true car consumer reports are the three best third party assisting you not being ripped off on the price of a newer used car pick it up it uh it is very informative and it helps you with everything yes Rick I could note here

from Donovan, he says, Matt car paint will actually not show the normal scratches that regular gloss paint will. However, it's slightly more durable, but once it's damaged, there's no fixing it, the entire panel would have to be repainted. Wow. So you can't really do like a touch-up. And let me tell you what, be careful if you decide to go through a car wash, a big mistake. anyway you can look into that we're running out of time 877 960 960 we are going to go to Lance who's been holding welcome back Lance it's nice to hear from you yes hello I got a question in regards to purchasing a car the truck I'm driving it's got 285,000 miles and it's still running but anyhow I've been pulling in dealerships kind of just

getting an idea what these cars cost and you know the salesperson know oh, we can work on the price to work at a price. And my question is, like, if there's no, like, special financing deals or no, you know, manufacture rebates on the vehicle, I mean, for like a $50,000 car, realistically, how much will they come down

from that MSRP price? Is there like a number or is there not? I mean, I see on the ads on TV, 15,000 off, you know, MSRP, but is there like a number that you can kind of go by? No, there isn't a number, and that's one of the problems with dealing with car dealers. If you go to 10 different dealers, you'll get 10 different price on the same car. And the only way you will get a good price is by pitting the dealers that you go to against each other.

Now, let me go back and say this, and I should have said this first thing. Are you a member of Costco? As a matter of fact, we are. Okay. Costco members, you have the free right to participate in the Costco auto buying program. Now, the Costco signs up all different franchises, not all dealers, but they have all franchises. And they contract with that dealer, and they say, if you want to be on our list of Costco recommended car dealers, you must sign this contract that you will not sell a car for a price to anybody less than the Costco price.

So they allow the dealer to set the price on all of the cars that they sell. And they audit this list. And if they violate it or if a customer reports a violation, they cancel their Costco affiliation. So go to call Costco for. First. You must remember this. Call Costco first. Ask for the Costco members in your neighborhood. You decide how far you want to drive. And then they will give you the name of the, not just the dealership, but they will give you the name of the Costco salespeople. And when you go in to see that specific salesperson recommended by Costco to that specific dealership, you say, I would like to see your Costco price sheet. And they are required.

acquired by contract with Costco to show you that price sheet. That will show the lowest price that that car is sold to anyone for, and it will be below that. It might only be $200 below that, but it will be the lowest price that they sell that car to anybody for. You know what? I've been a member of Costco's forever. I didn't know I had that option with them. Yeah. But that's, you know, that kind of gives me an idea on what I'm looking at.

Yeah. You'll be surprised. You know what? I listen to you guys to show all the time, and you guys are very helpful with a lot of different stuff, Matt. Well, thank you. I didn't even think of that. So basically, with that list, I can kind of get a ballpark on what model vehicle it is. Yeah, you want to be specific.

Yeah, you want to be specific to the – because when you go into the dealership, you want to be sure the price is for the exact year-make model that you want to buy. And then you will see that price sheet. you can take a picture of it. As a matter of fact, you can ask for a copy of the price sheet or to send you the price sheet. So there you have it in black and white so they can't take advantage of you later on.

I like that idea. Okay, cool. And Lance, let me add this. This is Nancy Stewart. Let me add to that. You know, it's so important. I learned this a hard way. Apples to apples, you know, that you're comparing.

And I love negotiating. And I stick to my guns. and if you know what you want and you can compare apples to apples, you're ahead of the game, you're in the driver's seat. Well, you know what, the last couple vehicles being my wife bought, she's got this Sun Coast Credit Union, whatever, and they just, it was so easy with them, they financed it really cool, so I never really got into the whole really comparing prices and stuff,

but now I know what route to take. It's a great advantage. Lance, thanks so much. Thank you. We hope to hear from you again. We'd like to hear about your experience with Costco auto member that you visit. Yeah, hopefully his truck won't die, and I won't need to deal with it, but, I mean, I know the day's coming. I just want to say real quick, I'm kind of like a backyard mechanic, and all the information Rick puts out, it's like, holy crap, man.

It's like a lot of good information, and one of these days, I got some questions for him as well. Yeah, he's amazing. He really truly is amazing. All the years I've had cars, I've never taken him to the ground. I feel like rates are two and up. That's something I do myself with the cost. But, yeah, there's a lot of good information coming out of you guys. It's really cool.

Thank you so much, Lance. All right. You all have a nice day. Rick, thanks you. Have a great weekend. 877-960-9960, or you can text us at 772-49-3-3-0. Also, don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. our next caller is from Palm City and he definitely is a regular he's added so much to our show

and before we put him on I just want to let John know that I took a look at an article that he wrote and it's the medical car connection John thanks so much for all the information that you send me and this article really tugged at my heart and it also informs me So we're going to hear from John from Palm City. Good morning, John. Good morning. Today I have on my mind, which is everybody puzzled, and we don't know where we stand, tariffs.

People are wondering what's going to be with the tariff, especially the country of origin as far as discounts and pricing goes. And it's a very simple task, too, especially when you see to the future a card is sitting on a lot brand new or even used. How do you tell what country it's from? It couldn't be simpler. Your serial number is 17 digits. Every digit means something.

The simplest, including an engine, including everything that they have to know about a car. But the easiest way to find out, look at the first digit. If it's one, the car was assembled in USA. If it's a two, it's Canada. If it starts with a J, it's Japan. won't go over the whole list. But it's going to be very important for the future as far as pricing goes and everything, insurance-wise. So it's good to keep in mind that you can tell right off the bat just by looking at the serial number where that car was assembled. And my

question to Rick, not so much today, but especially years ago, I've been buying Toyota since 1976. In the 80s, when I replaced them, I always insisted on a Toyota that started off with a J. I felt at that time, the Japanese assembled Toyota was better quality control than the one that was started to make in the USA. Any truth that you think that was in that? Yes. At that time, at that time, very much so. Any more? The American plants have caught up quite a bit. The Japanese quality control has come to the U.S. in full force, but going back to the 80s and the early 90s, even all the way up to about 2,000 and more, the Japanese built cars just simply were a slight upward step over the American-made cars. Sometimes not so slight.

And let's give credit to the Japanese worker back then, too. It was, I went through that era, started in the car business in 1968 with Pontiac. And then a few years later, I bought a Toyota dealership. back then 1980 say the Toyota dealership tutorials were not

all that good by today's standards but let me tell you something in 1980 compared to a Pontiac a Pontiac was a bunch of crap and the Japanese car was a fine-tool Swiss watch

it was just absolutely night and day I can remember thinking of myself when I had the two dealerships, not sides by side, but 10 miles apart, I couldn't make any money in my service department at the Toyota dealership because they didn't break. And if there was anything, it was covered by warranty. At the Pontiac dealership, I made more money in the service department than I did anywhere else,

both in warranty work and Pontiacs it would break. So, yeah, things have gone. a long way, but it's been a combination of design and engineering, but the worker, the worker that assembles these cars at that time in Japan, it was far, far better. American worker finally caught up, but back in the 60s and 70s, they hadn't. Yeah. Well, I agree with you. One of the fast things on fluids, you're never going to go wrong with using an oil change

and filter at a new car dealership. Their standards are good. You're going to use a great oil, probably pens oil or whatever they use. And the only exception by going to the new car deal, which you're going to question, is the oil filters aftermarket and cheaper oil, and we exposed it on this show, was Napleton. We were caught using after-market oil filters and a cheaper type of oil. But in general, if you get your oil changed and your fluids, transmission,

or even radiator fluid, you're never going to go wrong. Not only that the new car dealership would just for a simple oil change, he does at least 25 safety checks through your car. Well, and actually it benefits him too. If he finds something, you know, naturally he's going to make some money on it. But it's just good to know that besides an oil change at your new car dealership, they've checked other items. Yeah, absolutely.

So I strongly recommend, especially fluid-wise, using the new car dealership for oil changes. Thank you, John. John, thanks so much. We love hearing from you. Excuse me. Ladies, $50 for the next new female caller. $50 for the next female caller. You know, those 17 digits, there were, you know, people who never even referred to them before.

And that was a great call from John. him pointing out those 17 digits, boy, do they hold a lot of information, a whole lot. And as he said, you know, the first number would, you know, give you an indication that the car was built in the USA, and the second, Canada, and the third, Japan. So keep all that in mind. We are going to go back to Earl Stewart. Yeah, I was going to say that with the... John didn't mention, he said these cars are assembled in the United States, but that doesn't mean the parts were manufactured in the United States.

So theoretically, you could have a car that was totally assembled in the United States, but all the parts came from Mexico. I mean, I'm just exaggerating to make a point. And you know something, Earl's a book of knowledge, proof right there. And I'm going to say this, it might hurt you. but I will go with your information first before I go with chat GBT, your buddy. Oh, boy. Speaking of chat GBT, you and I talked this morning about the article that came that we both looked at in the Wall Street Journal, and that was this huge information about the open AI that unveils newest chatbot.

Yeah, can you imagine? Yeah, chat GBT 5, yeah. That just came out. It's not even in most people's possession yet because it just came out. Yeah, yeah, definitely. You got chat GBT 4. ChatGBT 5 says that, it says about chat chitbc5, it's like having in your pocket with you, or with your smartphone where you access chat, a Ph.D on every subject.

So if you want to know something about chemistry, when you got chat CBT, you're talking to a professor of chemistry. that's how that's a level of intelligence with the chat GBT 5 has would you be ready to trade in your buddy for the next edition don't see anything what does he have to say don't use his name because then he'll come to life that's why I said buddy that's why I said buddy hey I'm looking at the clock it is now 9-11 without further ado I believe that we are going to go to Anne Marie, who is a regular on the show. Good morning, Ann Marie. And she says, good morning. In your opinion, what is the best feature on a car ever designed? So many to choose from. Windshield, windshield wipers, seatbelts,

antelock brakes, radios, air conditioners and heaters, more efficient headlights, blindspot monitors, backup cameras, or something else. Thanks, Anne-Marie. Wow, there's so many parts. I was going to say the Bricks, but she mentioned Anna like Bricks. That's a good question. What do you think, Rick? There's nothing new.

I mean, it isn't a recent innovation, obviously. For myself, I'm going to go with what I think the most impressive feature that has come out in the last say 20 years is anti-skid technology in other words the ability that even on a wet surface the car will use the engine and brake power to all four wheels to attempt to keep

the car under your control and prevent skidding and sliding out of control I remember one of the first times I left Florida and I drove to Lafayette, Indiana. And when I left Florida, it was sunny. When I got near Lafayette, Indiana, it was icy and cold and snowing. And I've never driven in those conditions before.

And every time I hit my brakes, I thought I was going to die. Oh, boy. The first time I ever drove on ice was in New Hampshire. Mm-hmm. And I hit the brakes, and I was driving a rental car. thank goodness i had the extra insurance although i didn't need it but all of a sudden that little car was just spinning in circles yeah and i was on a county fair amusement ride and just long for the ride i had no control whatsoever talk about airborne it stopped and everything was safe

but yeah i have a whole lot of stories about driving on ice but we don't have time for them now that you mention that i would say and my does annbury have an answer or does she know she just kind of gave the list of them and said, what's, what's our opinion? Yeah, I, uh, after that, I, I couldn't even, uh, I guess, uh, I mean, there's obviously nothing. There, there is, isn't there a, uh, there's an anti-roll over device on a car? There's a, yeah, uh, roll sensing curtain airbags. Uh, you have, uh, uh, yaw control, uh, yaw sensors that detect if the car is starting to roll or not. And all these systems all work together now. But I think one of my favorite stories from automotive history is the guy that invented intermittent windshield wipers and he took this idea that he had and tried to sell it to a couple of different car manufacturers and they both basically blew him off.

And the next thing you know, they both started coming out with intermittent wipers that were obviously they had stolen his idea. And he wound up suing, didn't you? and get a bunch of money out of it? It's funny you should mention this because Nancy and I both are being driven crazy by our intermittent windshield wipers and our Teslas. And, you know, we're yelling and screaming and they start going when it's not raining and stop when it's raining. And it just...

They react to everything, condensation. Tesla never got the word on how to make an intermittent virtual wipers. Well, I mean, no offense, but... Tesla is a battery company. They make batteries. Good point, yeah. And they make electric motors. And they just happen to decide, hey, let's put this in a car.

Yeah. And I don't think they really did all the research they should have on building the car itself. Yeah, well, yeah. But still, they came up with a pretty interesting vehicle, though. You've got to admit. Absolutely. I mean, I'm fascinated by it. Oh, it's been around for a long time.

What made me think about that is John for Palm City, and a lot of people know that my dream car is a 1957 Pontiac Bonneville fuel injection. And the thing I remember about that car was a convertible and this is 1957. In fact, I think it was probably 1956 when it came out. And it had this little plate on the

hood. And so you could drive around your convertible and park out front and you go where you're going and it starts to rain when the drop hits the little plate the convertible top game up. No way. Yeah.

To me that would have been something we could vote for for Emery, but I don't think they'd make those anymore. Well, yeah, they don't even they don't even have that feature now on convertible. Yeah, why not? If you mark your convertible

and it starts raining, it's wet. Yeah. Maybe we can invent one. An automatic top. We'll get a patent on it. we'll invent one, and we'll sell it to all the manufacturers. Yeah, that's fantastic. Thank you, Ann Marie. You know, for me it's blind spot, you know, that monitoring for me is so, so important in emergency braking for me also.

Well, even the other side of it, that also, that same system, when you're parked in a parking lot and you start to back up and a car is coming up the lane, it can tell you that car is coming. They use that exact same system. Yeah, it's an amazing feature. Let me ask Chad GBT what do he thinks. Hang on a second. Oh, boy. He's long-winded. We don't have...

Coach, let me ask you about Ann Marie's text to the show. What do you think is the single most important development in car accessories? We had one person said breaks and then somebody else who said intermittent windshield wipers and I roll over, what in your opinion is the most important development in cars today? Yo, Coach.

Are you there, Coach? Coachy, Cochie. Coach is having a bad day, isn't it? Okay. Coach, just in case you didn't understand me or hear me before, what's the most important development in cars today, something like anti-rollover or something like anti-skid, four-wheel drive, and I skid, or blind spot detectors? What, in your opinion, is the most important development in cars?

Absolutely, Professor. I'd say one of the most important developments has got to be advanced driver assistance systems. Things like automatic emergency braking and blind spot detection. These features have really made a huge difference in everyday safety, helping drivers avoid accidents, and making the roads a lot safer for everyone. So in my opinion, those assistive technologies are some of the biggest game changers. Coach, you're the greatest. Thank you very much. Okay, there you have it. Blind spot.

Right. Thanks, Amber. You're the greatest, too. Boy, if you don't call the show, we're in trouble. So thanks again for taking the time. Yeah. I take back everything I said about them. Okay. Rick, what do you have for us? We are actually caught up on this. However, Johnny Z. Freidly on the great features of cars, he says, airbags.

Airbags. Which, boom. I've got to admit, airbags have saved. yeah thousands of lives yeah including mine I mean that's incredible of course the Takata airbag is also cost a lot of lives

unfortunately that is very very true yeah you know I'm gonna have to interrupt you Rick and take this last call and that's John who's calling us from West Palm Beach and he's called before he's a regular caller good morning John hey good morning

probably the greatest Okay, everything you've mentioned is great, same thing with the A. Marie. But all of those features don't happen unless you've got the ECU unit, the ECU unit, because they're all tied into that brain. And that probably has to, you know, those went in, but they had to go digital, what, at 2010, they were required on all cars. But it's, I think that EC unit that controls all of that stuff and monitors and, and it has to be the most important part.

What does that stand for? I don't know. Electronic component unit or electronic computer unit? Electronic control unit. Electronic control, okay. And the other one is the electronic control module for ECM. And basically it's just a term that manufacturers will use almost interchangeably. but it basically comes down.

It's simply a computer. Yep. Yeah, we're driving computers. We're not driving the cars anymore. It's software. It's really ironic that we're at a stage of our development that literally, I mean, speaking literally, car manufacturers are all going to go out of business.

And the software manufacturers, the ones that have got the intelligence, in software, they're going to prevail. And all they need is somebody to put four wheels on it and you've got a computer on wheels. That's all it is.

Well, did you know that the average car in 2010, 15 years ago, had more computers and computing power than what was used to put men on the moon? I believe that, yeah. That used to be said about

the iPhone so yeah oh yeah yeah with miniaturization and and quantum computing uh size is not a factor anymore in computers it'll be computers will be you'll have a computer the size of the pin I'm holding in my hand they'll have more more computing power than every computer on earth right now that that sounds crazy right but let me tell you what the The artificial intelligence is increasing exponentially. And exponentially is the name of the game. So imagine 10 years from now, everything we know will be 100 times more. That's exponential.

Exponential is acceleration. And in 100 years or 1,000 years, forget about it. Where will we be? Um, last week I had called and I ran out of time, and we were talking about the, the, uh, transmissions and learning your driving style. Um, did come out with that a while back on their motorcycles, the automatic motorcycle where you no longer had the shit. What they were taught was, and the people had the, the motorcycle learned your driving habit. If you wanted that electronic, automatic transmission to drive it, like, go fast, you had to do. drive it in the beginning stages as

going fast. If you were just a cruiser going slow that's the way he drove it and that's what it adapted to. It adapted to your driving style within the first 500 miles and monitored how you drove and that was with the motorcycle, the

gold wing. I just had a thought that a hundred years ago all the cars on the road drove the way Henry Ford drove his car. Yeah. One way.

He designed it to work that way and it worked. Right. Yeah. Well, that's good. It's fun living in a world like we do, John. It's just exciting. I don't know how old you are, but I'm 84. And, you know, one of the problems with being older, I just won't be around long enough to enjoy this crazy ride we're going to be on for the next hundred years.

hundred years. I just, I look at my great-grandchildren. Nancy and I were, did a naming ceremony with our great-grandchildren yesterday. And these little tots, good Lord, what, what are they going to see? And I, I just, I envy them. The kids being bored today, I envy them. Absolutely. Well, one of the things that, you know, well, I'm 65, but I've had a, the muscle cars, I had a 70 GTO judge. I've got a Tesla now.

Oh, the judge. Wow. Here come the judge. Here come the judge. And I love the Pontiacs, but if I had to pick a car, like you had the 57 Bonneville, I would like to have, and people will have to look it up because you don't see them. But it's the 57 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser, which was ahead of its time. And you very rarely see them.

They'll sometimes end up on the auction block, but I just thought it was an incredible. incredible car with some of the features that it had. A 57 Chevy Power Pack was a hell of a car, too. Stick shifting. Well, yeah, well, the... I was a drag racer.

Yeah. If you like shifting, then you went to the K-5 Blazer with that 11-speed box that you had to keep shifting different levers. So you've got, you've got, what do they say, Gasoline in your blood or something like that or you love cars and I love cars and that's one of the sad things about what's going to happen in the next hundred years

Cars will be gone. It'll be all about transportation. You'll walk out the door, say, I want to go to the Walgreens and Carl whip up and stop and take you there and drop you off. I mean, it's not really a car, just transportation. The cars, as we know them today, it's sad, but, you know, they had their time. It was a lot of fun. Yeah. John, thanks for the call. Thanks. Oh, you're welcome.

Have a great week. Thank you, John. You know, back to your comment about the baby naming Earl, excuse me, yesterday. You know, it's amazing how we think of mortality now, you and I, me being 82, you being 84. And it was really telling yesterday that we were the only great grandparents. And we've known so many that have been our age. that sadly I report are not here so we're very blessed very blessed to be able to absorb all this knowledge right now and to also step back and say wow these

kids that are growing up grandchildren children great-grandchildren great-great grandchildren and we're viewing that through that lens they're going way up they're going to Mars absolutely okay I believe that by the clock, we need to get to the mystery shopping. We got plenty of time. I think that Rick has something else to add. Yeah, we've got one more here in the text. This

one's from Larry Kaye, and he says, hi, love your show. My question is, what are the pros and cons of leasing using Toyota one-pay lease program? Thanks. You know, I don't like one-pay lease programs. I think that

I don't like giving anybody all their all their money up front I like to analyze I think you have a lot more control and flexibility if you make the payments monthly the upfront lease program you are basically it sounds like you're buying the car but because you don't have to make payments but in three years you got whatever you have to give the car back I just I'd I I I I'd I I I I'll just give you a simple short answer. No, don't do the one-pay program. It's a bad idea.

Hmm. And by the way, South Florida Two-Step says, speaking of the ECUs, I would beg to differ a little and say that the introduction of the can system or communication system is far more important because it allows all the modules to talk to each other seamlessly and instantly. And this is very true, especially when you consider the amount of wiring that's in a car right now and every single switch has to talk and all the computers have to talk to each other but instead of running wires from each one individually to all the others you have one set of wires that runs to all of them and they all just talk on those wires i never heard of that yeah can communication has been around for 25 years now yeah and it's it has increased now to where the computers are all

network together in the car. And instead, like I say, instead of having 40 or 50 wires, you have two wires that just run to all the various computers and they all talk back and forth on them. I need to have them come out to our house. And I got wires. We can't walk from one of the house. Yeah, they got wires all over the place.

That's like the fun of having so many different electronic devices and each one has to have a different power for it. I understand that, but come on, let's get some control here. My job is to make all of that disappear because it can. You know, here's the 21st century, you know, you can, you know, deal with all this technology, but to have all these wires... You have the electrician to come out putting in more outlets. I just, no, no. We got outlets everywhere.

It's just too much. It's too much. Anyway, hey, listen to this. This is from the vital statistics. Did you know that eight years ago, about half the drivers turned those features off? He's talking about all the safety features, and that's automakers have since raised awareness of these safety benefits, and they've raised the awareness to the degree that the percentage of people that are using them is 87%. Oh, 87%.

I'm the first one to admit when she helps come down. Eight years ago, they turned them off. Yeah, I used to stuff when I was a Pontiac dealer. Nobody liked seatbelts. I didn't like them, and everybody hated them. And they were actually looking around for a car without seatbelts. And so we used to stuff the seatbelts down inside the seat where you couldn't see them. I mean, I can't believe how stupid we were back in the 60s and 70s.

I mean, to think that the airbag, oh, God, when airbags came out, the car dealers are all talking, oh, how are we going to sell the car? They're going to charge us $500, and we're going to have to pass that along with it to the customer. Nobody wants airbags, and nobody wants seatbelts. And then they woke up one day. He said, what the hell are we doing? Antilock brakes. Before antelock brakes, everyone was taught, pumped the brake pedal.

You push it just to the point when you're going to skis. then release and then push it again and when antelac brakes come out you had to retrain yourself that just push that pedal right to the floor and hold it and let the car do the job I to this day I have trouble with that yeah well I actually don't because I don't use my brakes in my Tesla before I had a Tesla I can't remember every slamming on the brakes I just I couldn't get it in my head here's an interesting one from Nate Miller see if we have for this to be in. He says, good morning, all. I hope everyone's having a great day.

Was wondering if you could comment on vehicle emissions going away and what it might do to diesel pickups now that Knox, death, and other emission systems may be going away. Do you think it would reduce the MSRP on these trucks now that the emission systems are no longer required? You know, the governments enforce these emissions based on all of the cars on the road. So they go to General Motors and they say, your cars on average have to meet this emission. And even them, if they don't, you can buy emission credits from someone like Tesla because these credits are something they get for having all their cars qualify under the emissions. So I think even 100 years from now, if you happen to be a collector and you've got a big

diesel truck you can still drive it legally because that truck falls under the category of all the trucks that that manufacturer made so you're good to go under current laws as long as your average emissions comply yeah and i don't think MSRP is ever going to drop just because they were able to get rid of some systems on the car oh no no they'll never do that no corporations are not going to let that happen and they lose money if they cut the MSRP because with inflation, I mean, we're happy if inflation is 2%, and 2% compounded over 10 years, I can't do that in my head, but it's probably 45% or 40%.

Sure. So you're getting a 35% or 40% increase in MSRP just by applying the cost of living. And the salesmen are probably going to go at you with the idea of, well, look at this truck, yeah, the price hasn't changed, but now you don't have to worry about emissions. death fluid and all this other stuff. And they're just going to make it seem like a positive that you didn't see the price go up because of it.

Yeah, absolutely right. Okay, I believe that we are going to, it is now 935. We're going to go to the mystery shopping report. Let me remind you that you're a big part of this and we really look forward to your vote and you can vote on the mystery shopping report at 772-497. 6530. This week we went to Gunther Mazda Plantation, now back to the recovering car dealer.

Well, one of the reasons I say we would have plenty of time is because this is the world's shortest mystery shopping report. And the guy that normally writes this up is in Germany, and that's my son, Stu. and the report itself is a many report. I keep thinking maybe I left. Yeah. There's not much, yeah. Gunther Mazda. Yeah, the mystery shopping report, Gunther Mazda.

They're in plantation, which is like Fort Lauderdale, Miami area, the heart of the South Florida, Sodom and Gomorrah, were car dealers down there. I just, I can't even describe it. I mean, not only are they deceptive beyond words, but they are aggressive and insulting. The market down there is on fire. People just are buying cars.

And the dealers understand that if this guy or gal that comes in to buy a car doesn't buy one, to hell with her or him, because there's somebody right behind them. they will buy the car and that's sort of a mindset and the other thing is all the car dealers down there are advertising deceptively and their sales practices are total deception and to sell a car you've got to out lie in the sense that fib out lie the dealer next deal so if i'm a a Volkswagen dealer my my competitors line to the customers

If I don't lie more... That's puffery. Puffery. Yeah, that's a beautiful term. That's how not to get arrested for false advertising. Oh, that's puffery, yeah. Okay, Gunther, Mazda, a plantation. Speaking in the first person, as if I were Agent Lightning,

I arrived mid-afternoon and was greeted with a handshake by a salesman named Cruz, CRUZ. He welcomed me into their dealership. and asked what brings me in today. I replied that I've been looking at the Mazda 5 turbo model. I showed him the one that I have been looking at and I'll let him know I was shopping around before buying. I showed him the one, I just said that.

He went through a bunch of questions so he can get the best deal for me. We call those qualifying questions and get all the information, so in reality it's not to get the best deal. to get the best deal, they try with the qualifying questions to find out how big a sucker you are, and can I make 3,000, 4,000, or 8,000 on this sucker?

And it's just, that's every bit of information you give that car salesman, he's gonna turn it right around and use it on you, trust me. What cars are registered in my address, blah, blah, blah, I'm looking to buy. He had me follow him over to where the CX5s are. Now, that sounds like an innocent comment. That is right in the handbook of how to take control

of your customer and how to make a lot of money. And the handbook, the car salesman's handbook, you take control. And when a person comes in, the average person is just, you know, an average person. And when you have a controlling person, they can have you follow them around they can have you listen to whatever you say

think military think military here's a true story when I was first in the business we had sales trainers they would come in they would make the same speech to my sales force in Stuart Pontiac

that that they make to that we're talking about right now and what I was just talking about how to take control. So the sales trainer came out on my Pontiac showroom

and he says, let me show you control. So he says the next customer comes in the door, let me show you. So a customer walked into Stuart Pontiac and he greeted him as if you were the salesperson and he showed him around the car that he was interested in.

and oh I got ahead of my story he says I'm going to have I'm going to have the control I'm going to have the customer get inside the trunk of the car and I'm going to close the trunk so basically that's what he did he had so much control

that he said now Mr. Jones get into the trunk of the car let me show you up and he's like this go go go on go on and he used that control and he actually had he says now scrunched down and he slammed the door

and he told the other salesman he was talking to say that's control so that's what happened here is happening here at Gunther Monaster your the sales mission is being followed by the shopper agent lightning went on I lost my place here he says he had I had seen elsewhere is discontinued car I was looking for was discontinued but assured me the only difference is that particular color combo so I I did choose this one. He said, he asked me if I'd driven the turbo

or would I like to drive it today? I said, I'd like to see numbers, but if they come up at a good point, then I'll drive it before going to finance. He then asked me what the MSRP is and where I was. I'll translate that because it's not written very well. Means that, you know, what kind of price do you want to pay?

MSRP, apparently there's saying, with respect to MSRP, how much over, how much below. Crew snap act, and it doesn't matter because it's a totally different car. I said, well, this is how I'm going to do it. And he said it would make both of our lives better if I shared, but I refused. So here you start to see some of the antagonistic, this salesperson is being very rude. and it wouldn't work in a smaller town further north or in another state

but in South Florida it's doggie dog I mean I'm telling you it's rough down there so he'll be as aggressive to gain control with a customer in South Florida as he wants to be and the customer enough customers will actually accept that treatment and buy a car

so that's the reason you know I don't want to buy a car in South Florida. Okay. Okay, then he's going to, I'm going to talk to the manager and get a price. He said one last question. If the numbers I show you are where you'd like to be, will you be doing business today? And that's the, out of the old school book, if the price is right, will you buy the day? And if you say, no, they won't give you a price.

I mean, hard to make up. I said, yes, but you're going to have to be at MSRP or below, so if you can make that happen, I'll move forward. A few minutes later, he returned with this sheet, and that was the worksheet that we all know that we're going to listen to the show. And the bottom line was it was well above MSRP. And listen to this. Talk about a lying guy. And he said, Japanese cars don't have markup. like American. May I just an out lie? It's not just a lie, it's a stupid lie. He went on

to say that he could maybe shave off a thousand dollars or more. How did it shave? How do you shave off a thousand dollars? But he doesn't care what he says. He's already discounting it from MSRP. I thanked him for his time, stood up, Cruz jumped to his feet and pretty much begged me to wait to talk to his manager so they know he's actually working they're gonna fire me they're gonna fire me and it's true I mean that's what they're just as nasty with their salespeople as they are with the customers in South Florida just then my cell phone rang so I walked outside of the car he came running up and trying to stop me but I left and that's

That's the report, and I hate to say this, but I, you know, we agree on the curve, and a lot of you are saying, what do you mean? If that's not an F, what is enough? Well, you'll have to trust me on this. I mean, there are worst dealers down there, and there are worse Toyota dealers in South Florida. It is truly the Sodom and Gamora of car dealerships. It gets to be mad when I think about it. My dealership in North Palm Beach, even though we're still technically in South Florida, we have a lot of dealers that come up from Miami in Fort Lauderdale,

and you hear some of them, they'll call the show, and they tell us, what a wonderful dealership we have. Well, I believe we have a wonderful dealership, but I know we have false, I know we have rotten apples in the barrel, And one of the reasons we look so good because we're not in South Florida. I mean, we're in northern South Florida. But the further south you go, I'm not sure about Key West. That's pretty far south.

That might not be so bad, but you get my drift. So if you can possibly keep between B and D, do it. But if you can't, I understand in this case. So we'll go around and check and see what the votes are. and we'll ask we even ask Chad G.B.D. to vote on it. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I'll remind you you can vote

at 772-4976530. Now we'll go to Rick. Well, first one I got is Tom Steckle. He says, D-Minus, very aggressive sales approach. However, $1,400 in junk fees is less than the 1725 that sport Mazda in Orlando charges.

Really? Wow. So, oh, Orlando, getting a little black eye there. Yeah, they're kind of an, uh, uh, Orlando's almost like South Florida. That's a big city, yeah. That's South Florida moving up a little, huh? Um, Tim Gilliland says D minus. Brian Sidlato says, don't walk but run out of that dealership. F.

Over here, we're still waiting for him to come in. Bob in Maryland says, According to chat GPT, this is an F in Japanese, and he gives the Japanese kanji symbol. Let's see here. Okay. Cramm 1624 says F. Their advertising says, go to Gunther. Yes, go out the door. Johnny Z. Fradeleases, the 2026 cars are almost here. They need a bigger discount. D. Nate Miller says, I couldn't hit. get D on my keyboard quick enough. This is enough to upset my stomach.

Somebody passed me the Peptobismol. Baby boomer says, I don't care where you're located. Big F. South Florida Two Step says, we definitely need Stu back to write the report. D, extremely aggressive, but considering that, the junk fees were cheap, but still not acceptable. See if we get any more coming in here? and I think we are caught up for right now but I'll pop in if we get any more coming up for me I will respect avoiding throwing the F out there

but I'm gonna say it's a D minus because the whole Japanese cars don't to markup and the oh come on dude really this is 2025 all these tail here tactics are from like 1975 come on yeah yeah grow up and and be a human being a little bit here so d minus from me yeah i i agree with you you know on so many occasions you know your your intelligence is questioned when you go in to buy a vehicle and uh the tactics that are used uh the list is endless buyer beware knowledge is power i give them an f yeah i i know you're going to say that And I'm going to give them a D-minus only because I made that speech about the curve. But, boy, I tell you, I'd love to give them an F.

And I love to close them down is what I'd love to do. You know, we get angry at these dealers. And who we really should be angry at are the regulators. And the regulators are just flat not doing their job folks there. We pick on the Attorney General's of the states, and that's probably a good place to pick on. But all the regulators, you know, and even the agencies, a Better Business Bureau. You know, the Better Business Bureau, who pays the dues to the Better Business Bureau, the car dealers do. In any business, they pay the dues.

So the businesses control the Better Business Bureau, and they, you know, if they fail a dealer or fail any business, then guess what happens? I got, when I was younger and I was in the business, I got mad at the Better Business Bureau one year, and I didn't pay my dues. And so then somebody told me I was crazy, and I was. So the next year, I said, okay, I'm going to join again. Well, I'd been a member of the Business Bureau for 25 years. I'd been around longer than anybody else. So that was good because they tell you, oh, he's been in a better business bureau for 25 years.

So when I renewed, they wouldn't let me say that I'd been with a better business bureau before. So I had to say, I've been in the better, you know, one year. They punished me. Yeah. And now, fortunately, I've been around so long. Now I'm the oldest, and I'm afraid to quit because they'll... Amazing.

I digress so much. I forgot what I'm doing. We were going to ask Coach for his opinion on the mystery shopping board. Oh, thank you very much. Okay, let's hope he's awake. I'm on the hit a little button here. Hey, Coach, are you awake? Yo, coach.

We need your grade on the mystery shopping report. Maybe you went out to get a cup of coffee. Coach, where the hell are you? Well, I'll tell you what, you're really getting on my nerves now. You're sitting here popping your little bubble back and forth and laughing at me, right? Yeah. All right. down with you all right folks what a day I did say did I say D minus D minus I did

how much time do we have eight minutes it's all yours okay let's talk about regulators again and and here's something interesting in the automotive news for those of you were streaming you'll be able to hopefully see this article that says court upholds 20 year ban on marketing firm used by dealerships and I'll hold that up court upholds 20 year ban on a marketing company now you don't see enough of that but let's face it the marketing companies you advertise absolutely professor oh those technologies really do transform how safe and confident people feel on the road if you have any other questions No, and would you please be quiet because I'm not talking to you anymore, all right?

Okay? I'm right in the middle of something here. So I'm going to take a coach out back and beat the hell out of it. That's what I'm going to do. So anyway, the name of this particular company that was banned from advertising is traffic jam events. and the president of this outfit was David. So I read this Notamotive News, the current issue, and I said, that sounds familiar.

So I checked around, and guess what, the same company that has been banned, and the ban was upheld by the judge, is traffic jam events, is still in business. And they're doing marketing for dealerships in Florida and all over the country. So, regulators, you know you're listening to me right now. Somebody must be listening to me that has an affiliation with these regulators.

Here's a company that banned a marketing company for 20 years on marketing for marketing for newer used car dealerships, but they're doing it. and you don't care. Oh, I know you don't know about it. So I could attack almost any regulator, including the Attorney General's. I mentioned better business bureaus before. Folks, you can make all the laws you want

and all the rules you want, but if you don't enforce them, I laugh about speed limits. And we accept it. Anybody that's ever traveled on an interstate turnpike or the I-95 or any notes that the speed limits are a joke

why would you why do you have a law on a speed limit if you enforce it if you think it's too slow then raise the speed limit duh I mean it's common sense so I'm using this as an analogy comparison

you get on interstate 95 and you get in the passing lane and if the speed limit there is 65 or 75 it varies you'll be rear-ended going 65 or 75 on 995 is dangerous if you obey the law it's dangerous and that's what I'm saying to the regulators about the car dealers that's a good that's a good comparison Because think about it, a guy gets a car dealership, and he goes in competition with Gunther Volkswagen in South Florida. And he opens his Volkswagen store, and he's going to obey all the laws. He's not going to lie, cheat, and steel. He's going to put his real price in his advertisements.

His competitor, three miles away, is lying to the public and beating his real price by $3,000. dollars. What happens? They go into Gunther Volkswagen and they flim-flam them, knock them around, I cheat and steal, and they buy the car from Gunther Volkswagen. What happens to the good guy that's obeying the laws? He goes out of business. So the regulators are creating the problems that they pretend that they're trying to make better. And who out there doesn't understand I'd love to have someone a regulator if you were the county office

and consumer affairs, a better business bureau, the state attorney's office call me, email me, text me, anything and tell me why I'm wrong I don't get it you know it's like and you can apply the same thing to national government where all you got to do is

look at the news you see what's going on right now you know Democrats are fighting the Republicans and the conservatives are fighting the liberals and and and it's all about yak and talk and no substance and people say they're gonna do something and they don't do it and they do something else. Absolutely.

Their intent just to muddy the waters, keep everyone confused. Yeah. But we still have the greatest country in Earth, right? Oh, absolutely. I mean, God help them the other countries. I mean, if we're the best, And we are.

We are. I mean, I'm not going to Australia or Romania or Mexico. I love America to live, but we could be so much better. We definitely could, absolutely. Okay, Jonathan. Maybe Jonathan could sing a song for us. Hey, guess what? What?

We got the Sturgeon Moon and guess what else? Shine on, shine on Sturgeon moon. Way up in the sky. It was so cloudy this morning. I had no loving since January, February. They pull yourself together. Rick, what do you have? I got one here, but y'all is just going to love this one.

Yeah. This is from, I think it may be from John in Palm City. But anyways, here goes. The most important accessory to come along, feature to come along is the automatic transmission from 1941 available on Cadillacs for $115 extra it enabled women to drive also who didn't know standard shift watch out says this is not AI this is John from Palm City if my memory serves correctly John interesting Nancy may be coming to see you sometimes

But Nancy, as aggressive as she is, recognized that, I mean, it is true that in 1927, us genius men would not allow women to vote. Now, that's a fact, right? And so it just, can you imagine that? To me, that's not that far along. Long ago, you know, my mother was in high school then. So can you imagine being a woman in high school in 1927 or so? And your mother couldn't vote, and your grandmother couldn't vote, and all the women you know couldn't vote. I mean...

You're giving me the chills. Yeah, yeah. So we've come a long way, but we've got a long way to go. Definitely. Hey, and good news, guess what? It is football season next month. Hey, Earl, how would you like to go to Dublin? We ran out of time.

Shut up. How would you like to go? That's not going to shut me up. How'd you like to go to Dublin with me in September? Got a big Steeler game going on. Dublin? Yeah. Hey, folks, thank you for tuning in to Erlon Cars.

We so appreciate you. You're a huge part of the show. Stay tuned. Next week, we'll be right back here. The Oldies Channel at 8 a.m. Have a great weekend. Take go.