Earl Stewart on Cars - 08.13.2022 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Treasure Coast Toyota of Stuart

Episode Date: August 13, 2022

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits a local Toyota dealer and actually buys a new 2022 Toyota RAV4 XLE Hybrid that is on the lot and available for sale. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, his tweets at www.twitter.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. Sign up to become one of Earl's Vigilantes and help others in your community to avoid getting ripped off by a car dealer. Go to www.earlsvigilantes.com for more information. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

Good morning, everybody. Well, we're back on the most fun part of the week for me. I know you get a life, but this is my life. I love it. I'm in the studio here with a team of close associates that have been doing this for a long time together. And where your automotive team is to help you buy a car, at least a car. Actually, we don't want to help you buy a Lisa car today because it's a terrible time to buy a Lisa car. but we can explain that and we can explain when it is a good time and maintaining, repairing, leasing, fixing of the whole nine yards.

We're going to basically in a nutshell, it sounds a little cruel, but how not to get ripped off by a car dealer, for that matter, independent repair shops and things like this. You heard the introduction recorded a minute ago, and we're diversified in here. We've got Nancy Stewart, who is my co-hold. co-founder of the show, actually, many, many years ago. She's our female advocate, speaking pretty much directly to the ladies in the audience.

We're trying to bring the automobile village of the world along to the 21st century with everybody else. And part of that is including women. And to my right, I've got Rick Kearney. I call him a computer auto specialist. He's also an electronics expert. He's a mechanic. There's still some mechanical things going on with cars. He's got that.

He's been doing this for over a quarter century. And we've been together for about that period of time. And he's the best I know. When you call this show, and we encourage you to call Rick at this show, 877-960, 9960, and we're going to give you a bunch of you. bunch of other ways to reach us. But that telephone number is 877-960 and let us know what's wrong with your car. Is something got you worried? We're advising you, by the way, to keep the car a while longer. We've been saying that for a long, long time now because we kept thinking

prices were to come down on new and used cars. Well, they are coming down on use. That's a good news. They're not down far enough, but they're coming down. New cars, eh, a little bit. pricey. So we advise you to keep your old car. Give it a few more months at least and then consider buying to get a much better price. But how do you keep that old clunker

running? And I'm being a little facetious. I hope you don't drive an old clunker. But the car you're driving, you can make it last another six months. You can be comfortable and safe if you have the knowledge as to what needs to be done. Rick Kearney

will diagnose your problem. and you can verbally describe it to him calling the show at 877-960-960 and he monitors the YouTube channel by the way as YouTube.com forward slash earl on cars YouTube.com forward slash roll on cars he monitors that so you can speak directly to him even while I'm yakking

you can talk to him and post on face on YouTube and tell him what's wrong you can actually send him a video clip or an audio clip, and that would really help him give you a specific diagnosis. And it's free. And he's about 99% good on knowing the answers. And the 1% we go to Google. The whole world is going to Google.

In fact, you can go to Google. And amazing answers you'll be able to find there. I've got my son, Stu Stewart, sitting across the aisle for me here. he's in charge of our most famous popular segment of the show and that's a mystery shopping report and boy have we got one for you today I say that almost every week

but we're rarely shocked we were shocked Nancy, Stu and I and Rick I don't know if you knew about it but you'll be shocked when you hear about it but we have a wowser and we're going to A lot of dealers out there and a lot of other people think, why are you even going to talk about this?

Well, we talk about everything. We talk about things that make us look good, things that make us look bad, things that don't make any difference. We just want to tell you the truth. And that's what we're doing. We're going to tell you the truth today about a mystery shopping report that was embarrassing to some members of the group. I'll leave it. I want to be a little bit vague about it. I want to save the excitement for the last part of the show.

That'll be the last half hour of the show that we do the mystery shopping report. Okay, I'm going to interrupt you this morning. Please do. And we are ready to go. Let's hit the phone. Phil. Good morning. Phil's calling us from Jupiter.

Yes, good morning. I'm a long-time listener, and I'm also a customer of yours. And I brought my 2017 Prius in for a problem I've been healing. it was making a squealing noise when I started it up, and it comes and goes, and it's been going on for a month, so I brought it in for diagnostic being done on it Friday, and Anthony's my advisor, and I do what you all said. I took my phone and made a copy of the noise so they can hear it. And then, I'll just read you what they found out on it. The text found that there was an AC blend door making noise during startup due to low battery voltage.

And they replaced the battery. It was under warranty. And everything was fine. So I get yesterday, I started driving it in the afternoon. All of a sudden, it's still making that noise a little bit. And I just wondered, maybe Rick could give me some guidance on what they think that could be now. Hmm. If that sounds coming from an AC blend door, then that is probably going to be the blend door itself. I've never heard of a low voltage issue actually causing a blend door to make noise.

Okay. For a person who is not mechanically inclined, me, what are we talking about here? When you first start the car up, the air conditioning will adjust the doors to determine. to where the airflow is going, and the temperature of the air and all that. There's different doors in the box that it will move by way of little actuators, little motors that will just move in various places. The doors where? In the air conditioning evaporator box under the dash. Did you know any of this, too?

No. I didn't either. Well, I just love listening to Rick. I learn something new every day. Thanks for the question, Phil. I'm the dealer and I'm learning. So go ahead. the fact that they found the battery bad now a bad battery can cause some odd issues and so it's

certainly possible but sometimes what we think is the answer there's sometimes also an underlying answer as well probably one of those blend doors is starting to stick a little bit maybe the wasn't adequately greased from the factory so over to years that grease has worked its way out or maybe some debris got in there, a little bit of dirt or something, and so when the door is trying to move, it's actually making some noise because of that dirt or something. We'd have to actually get in and really dig around to try to figure out what part is causing that noise. And unfortunately, sometimes with intermittent noises like that, that can take quite a while because you've got to actually see or feel what is moving when that noise is occurring. And if the noise isn't happening

right then. Well, let me ask you a question that Phil may be thinking, Phil, are you thinking this, am I going to have to pay again? Or was this covered under warranty? It was covered under warranty? He said the battery was covered under warranty, right? Okay. So, so we, there was no charge. Okay. So we basically misdiagnosed this. I mean, maybe, I mean, that happens, right? Well, yeah. And it may have been, we found an issue that we thought was causing it. And it wasn't. But, I mean, granted, I don't want to say no harm, no foul, because it cost Toyota money because Toyota had to pay for the battery, but because it was underwarning, it didn't cost fill any money. So now it might cost fuel money if we have to go back and do what the problem really was. Right. And of course, obviously his time and effort, you know, for having to drive all the way to the dealership and back, you know, I understand that too. But, you know, sometimes we do make mistakes. We are human, but we. We probably also saved him a hassle too by finding a battery that was getting ready to fail completely on him.

We're going to give you a car to drive so there'll be no charge because we should have done that. But apparently, Rick is saying it was a misdiagnosis, an honest mistake, and now we have to find the real cause. Yeah, if that noise is coming back on you, if it's coming back at a regular point, just come on back in and we'll take a look at it again. Okay, yeah, I was going to make an appointment with Anthony for next week and have him come in because I don't live that far from it. It's not a deal. And have them look at it, and like you said, maybe it's the blend door sticking or something. That's what I'm thinking, too, because it looked different.

This time it came on, and it didn't, usually it was after I pushed the start button, and then it would do it. But now it just came on when I was just driving down the road. So it looks like they touched something on there, so I think you got it. I think that's what it is. Yeah, Phil, by the way, Rick is probably the, you know, I brag on him as buying a great technician, but he is probably the world's greatest, Prius technician. You know, we've been for so long, so he's been that more Prius schools than anybody in the world, I think.

So he really knows how to work on this vehicle. So we'll get it fixed for you. Okay. Hey, Phil, I want to commend you for using your phone. I've told everyone all the time, and so have all of us. here, Hed Earl Stewart on cars. What a great device. Isn't it great that you can record a noise,

and it just makes it a lot easier for that technician? I'm glad you did that. Well, Anthony took it, and he took it on his phone, and he had a ride in there for the technician to hear, so that really worked. Yeah, it definitely works. Whomever did it. Phil, thank you so much for the phone call.

Look forward to talking to you again. Okay, bye-bye. 877-960. And you can definitely take. us at 772-497-6530. Ladies, remember $50 for the first two new lady callers this morning. Remember the cardinal rule when you go into a dealership. Don't forget the cardinal rule. You've got to do your homework. We're going to go to Bob, who is holding from Lake Park and Victoria from Wellington. Please hold on. Good morning, Bob. Good morning. Good morning. How's

everyone this morning? Good. Great. I have a question for Rick. It's an air conditioning question. I've had a car. I bought it new. I've had it for a number of years. I never really used the air conditioning very much. I'm more of the type of person who likes to drive with their windows down. The last couple of years I've been using it, and I noticed, and this has been happening since I bought the car, that in the mornings, when they turn the AC on, it's ice cold. But then if I put it on in the summertime when it's 100 degrees outside, And, you know, 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock in the afternoon, 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the air that comes out is much more muted. Why is that? First of one, which one, what year is the car? What's the vehicle we're talking of? It's a 2015 Mustang.

Okay. And is it the volume of air that seems to be less, or the temperature of the air? No, no, no. The temperature. It's ice cold in the morning. Yeah. it blows ice cold. But if it's 100 degrees outside

and it's 1 o'clock in the afternoon, 2 o'clock in the afternoon and it's really hot, the air that comes out is not at the same temperature. Okay. And it's been doing that ever since I had the car. I mean, but I never really bothered me because I never used, like I said, I didn't really use the AC because like the first five years,

the last couple of years I've been using it in the summertime, July and August. Right. Does it get down to get cold after a while? no it's just it's just more muted it doesn't get cold after all no but it's but if i go the next morning and i put it on the next morning and i put it off i'm going to go to public or something early i like to shop early no it's ice cold well why is that and i've talked to other people they say they've had the same they have the same thing with their vehicles yeah so it has

something to do with the recirculated air it goes through the car the the main thing The major thing here is just the laws of thermodynamics and that is that the air that you have in the morning is usually drier air and it's much easier for the system to remove the heat from that air. You kind of have to picture it as like being light and dark. There's no such thing as turning on the darkness. You're turning on light and you can get a brighter light or a dimmer light. Well the same thing with heat. You can't actually make things cold. You can simply remove heat from them or add heat to it. So that air that's drier air earlier in the morning, it's easier for the system to remove the heat from it and get it much cooler by taking a lot more heat away from it.

But in the afternoons, when it's 95, 100 degrees out, there is so much heat in that air, plus the humidity and moisture that that system really just can't remove all the heat from that air and even in recirculate mode it can take quite a while before it will bring that temperature down by removing the heat from the air

that's just thermodynamics and it's laws of nature yeah I thought it was so I took my car over to get it appraised because I found something I thought I'd like to buy and I walk into this dealership no one's wearing masks

one one the one there was one salesman that totally ignored me i'm standing out there for like seven eight minutes and even when i walked into the showroom and then when i had them look at the car they drove the car and everything uh they low bawled me on the trade on the sale i wasn't trading it in i was just asked them what they would give me to the car they lowballed me not only on the vehicle they told me my air conditioning didn't work after i explained to them what the you how what the system is that it blows cold I happen to go over there three o'clock in the afternoon so it was very hot and it was blowing and it's blowing a muted air it's not real ice cold air and they tell me the AC didn't work and then they

load bold on the on the on the on the on the value of the car yeah yeah so I thought that was odd well there uh the old games no retail business in the world that plays old games like the car dealers and that's old school, you know low ball to trade, tell the customer there's something wrong with the car, there's not really wrong with the car and they call it stealing

the trade and that's what they were trying to do. I know. I've heard you use that term before. Do you want to know who it was? Please, yeah. Tell us. Okay. It was Earl Stewart. Really? Well, you got me there. Can you give me... I'll tell you what,

can give me the names of the people that live and cheated you from my dealership, give it to me after the show, I will take immediate action. I appreciate the call. I have to assume that you're being totally honest with me, and I'm sure you are. Absolutely. Well, there's only one person that works there I think that appraisal. There's only one person that actually does the appraisal. Yeah, we have several people to do appraisals, so if you can tell me the name of the person,

Can you give it to me? I didn't get his name. I got the name of one person, but he wasn't the one that actually, you know, went to the computer and punched it in and took the car for a right. Okay. Okay. Well, you give me all the details. You give me all the details and we'll take immediate action.

You have my sincere apology. And we'll follow up on this, Bob. You can give us a call back. Thank you. Yeah, I have to take it to a couple of the places. I haven't had a chance to do that. You was the first. I took it to it, but I know you said.

I always get three appraisals, so I'm going to actually get four of them. Would you mind giving your contact information to the, Jeremy, in the control room, so I can contact you? That's fine. Okay, well, you do that because I want to be sure you're a real person and not a competitor calling up to make me look bad on the air. And I know that's not the case, but by knowing your name and telephone number, I'll be sure of that. I've called you show a number of times. Yeah, I'm sure you have. Well, thank you, Bob.

And I'll look for your contact information with Jeremy in the control room. Hang on. Don't hang up now. Okay. Thank you, Bob. Thank you, Bob. Okay, folks. Before we go on you further, I'd love to let the audience know that Earl and I had a speaking engagement on Thursday at the Rotary Club in Wellington.

And, gosh, what a great group of people. I can't repeat everyone's name, remember, but there was Susan and Tiffany and Victoria and the guys, Mickey, Scott, all of you. What a great time we had out there, and we'd love to come back out again. And we are getting the wheels turning as far as speaking engagements are concerned for Earl and I. and it includes groups of people, senior citizens, it could be anyone, and you can get in touch with us a number of ways, most of all going to our Facebook and Earl on Cars. That would be a great way to do it. We're going to go to Victoria, who is calling us from Wellington. Good morning, Victoria.

Hi, Victoria. Before we start chatting, I'd like to give a little background. Victoria and I have been conversing by text since January of this year. And she's been going through a lot of efforts with attorneys and staying on top of the Federal Trade Commission. She read my column many months ago and has been thinking about calling the show. And we've talked about it weekend and weekend. out, but she's very well read. She's on top of things in terms of what is happening with

the Federal Trade Commission and some of the predatory tricks and practices of car dealers, very, very educated consumer. She basically dealt with 441 Nissan, and I believe, Victoria, correct me if I'm wrong, and had a really terrible experience. And she's, she's, she's, She's working through the legal system now, and she's not going to give up until she gets a fair settlement for what they did to her. So did I get that generally right, Victoria? You did, and, you know, it's not just for me. It's for everybody else because I can't be the only person that they did this to, from what I can tell. Oh, I'm sure.

my study, you know, and the state of Florida auto vehicle regulatory group did fine and cite after months. They fined and sided 441 Nissan, but it's not their job to get people's money back. That's a legal matter, and that has to be decided in court. So my goal is to try to find other people who bought cars there and who, through electronic signatures and other deceitful practices, had their charges for their cars instead of what they agreed to pay some other higher number that they got hooked into so that we can get together and do something about this legally. Okay, class action. Well, or I would say a mini class action at the very least.

You know, now that the Federal Trade Commission has sued, has fined Napleton $10 million, I think we have a lot of precedent for this kind of action. Yes. If we can just find out who the people are and all of us can get together, we would, you know, us one person can't do anything, but several of us could do something. Well, Victoria, you're absolutely right. One of the, you know, just apathy is one of the biggest problems. Sometimes when people are taking advantage of, they're embarrassed and they don't want to talk about it. They just go home and fume and get angry.

I salute you and I admire you for standing up. You were taken advantage of and you're the car dealer's worst nightmare. You're a consumer that got taken advantage of and you're talking about it and you're not embarrassed. You're looking at what they've done to so many others who are afraid to talk about. So how do you suggest we go about, you've got a pretty good audience out there now. We're talking about Southern 441 Nissan and they're in West Palm Beach or they're off a Southern Boulevard. I believe, and near Wellington, actually. And they've taken advantage, I'm sure, of others besides you.

How can we get the listeners out there to contact you or maybe through the show, and as you accumulate the names, then you can furnish them to your attorneys? Does that sound like the way you want to go? Yes. I actually have an attorney who would handle the case who's pretty good at what he does. The thing is that most attorneys, in fact, all of them that I contacted, including legal aid, they won't take the case because there's not enough money in it for them. And I find that to be very, very unconscionable.

I agree. You know, I was a fraud examiner for many years for a major corporation, and I know how to get details. I know how to find out the documents. I know what to ask for it in a subpoena case, which I would be able to relay to my attorney. I think it would be better if people contacted you, Earl, and we could somehow get a pool of people. And it might not just be 441 Nissan. You know, Terry Taylor is one of the largest car dealers in the country, and it's not just Nissan, the 441 that he has under his wing.

I mean, there could be many people that are out there who could contact you, and we could get some names together. and I will volunteer to talk to everybody and get the details and get things set up. Victoria, do I have your permission to give people that contact the show your number, or would you just prefer to get their number and me give it to you? I'd rather that they gave it to you and then you gave it to me if that would be possible. I'll be happy to do that. So, again, you're listening out there. We've got 20, 30,000 people listening.

We're all over the country. We're talking mainly South Florida, because this is a... South Florida dealership. So if you've done business with a Napleton dealership, Southern 4, well, I say Napleton, this is a Terry Taylor dealership now, right? Well, this is Nissan, but he has other dealers. I think he has other dealerships other than Nissan cars,

but not he's not Napleton, he's Terry Taylor. Terry Taylor, okay. But this is 441 Nissan is a guy by the name of Mike Panachio. Very good. Yes, that's correct. Southern 441. They were formerly owned by Pinsky, and then they sold to Terry Taylor. Terry Taylor, by the way, to a lot of people listening, he is the largest private owner of car dealerships in the United States.

Probably the least familiar name to anyone. He is like a Howard Hughes kind of a personality. He stays underground, quiet. He lives in Palm Beach, I believe. He's one of the wealthiest men, wealthiest auto dealers anywhere. and he goes to extraordinary lengths to hide his name as an owner. I have another attorney that's called me, and I really had to do a lot of detective work. I actually had to go through some associates, friends that actually were limited partners for Terry Taylor

to find out if he had ownership in a particular dealership. But he covers his tracks, and I think by going after him, Victoria, and by using his name, that will be a good lever for your attorney. I think Terry Taylor just may want to settle this if it looks like you're going to be successful and getting enough names for a class action. Because once it hits the class action status, his anonymity will go away

and everybody will know about him. So you folks out there, if you've had a bad dealing with Southern 441 Nissan, they're on Solon Boulevard and West Palm Beach, they're owned by a man named Terry Taylor that you don't know his name because he keeps the secret. Just remember, Southern 441 Nissan. If you'll contact the show and let us know that you're willing to go into a class action suit,

I'll pass your name along to Victoria, who has an attorney ready to go as long as he can get enough people interested, so he'll be able to make a payday. And, you know, I guess you can't blame a lawyer. They can't work for free. so we need some names of people willing to stand up and go after southern 441 Nissan Victoria well let me let me say to you Mike Conacho also has the dealership on I think it's on Lakeworth Road or maybe Forest Hill green acres Nissan but you what you need to do is have all of your papers and you need to I will be able to help you put things together

because I've already done this research for more than a year, and I think it can be successful. I agree with you, Victoria, and you bringing this to the attention of our audience this morning. It just says volumes about the consumer being taken advantage of, and that $10 million that you mentioned that Navelton had to settle for, that's pocket change, and it's certainly indicative of a deeply flawed system. And if we don't all come together, nothing can be done about this ongoing problem, taking advantage of everyone, not just women.

And I thank you for the phone call. Right. Well, one last thing I'd like to point out that there are Florida statutes in place that talk about this specifically that they violated. It's just a matter of getting into court and pointing that out. So maybe people could get their money back. It might be a few thousand and it might be many thousands, but you should be getting your money back. It's the right thing to do.

Exactly, exactly. The right thing to do, Victoria. Thank you so much, and I look forward to working with you. We'll bring this up every week. Victoria, we're not going to let us die, and we'll do our best to get some people to go along with the class action. Thanks so much for your call. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Hey, 7-7-960, or you can text us at 770. 27276530. Don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. We're going to stay with the phones that are very busy this morning. I encourage the first two new female callers to give us a call. You can win yourself $50 this morning. We're going to go to John in Palm City. Good morning, John.

Good morning to everyone. I have very two simple questions to Rick. One is the manufacturer on the brake pads. They don't use, I'm sure. the most expensive material. So when the car gets new brake pads again, does it pay to get a better quality brake pad, one that has a harder lining on it,

or continue with the manufacturer what he had, because it's probably a softer stop when you press to get the brake pedal? What's Rick's opinion? Can you get up, and I know they make better grades, would it pay to get the better grade of brake aligning, brake pad lining? Not necessarily. Break pads actually work by rubbing a softer material against a steel rotor.

So when you buy brake pads that say those semi-metallic or metallic brake pads and they look all, they're incredible because you've got all that metal in them and everything, basically what they're doing is they're wearing down the brake rotor itself. Now, here in South Florida, brake rotors are thick enough from the manufacturer that when you have a break job done, we can grind that rotor on a brake lathe, clean up its surface, and reuse that same rotor multiple times. Break rotors can last 150 to 200,000 miles on the average car, depending on how much wire they get, and still be usable. brake pads however are meant to be worn out and the original factory material is generally a little bit softer because that means less noise and better heat distribution so that it doesn't wear down the rotors the brake pads are expensive the rotors are three times as expensive so i would much rather replace the brake pads a little more often and not have to replace those brake rotors that are much more

expensive. Second part of the question, particularly foreign cars, Mercedes, BMW, it seems like they get more brake dust on the aluminum wheels than the American cars. And what suggestion do you have when this brake dust gets on? It's almost like impossible to remove it. Is there a cleaner, a special cleaner that you recommend that you can clean the wheel to get rid of the brake dust? Not really a cleaner, but my recommendation is when you have your car serviced, ask them to wax the wheels. Break any sort of car wax, the dust won't be able to stick to it as easily, and it'll wash off a lot easier. Waxed the wheel. Okay, what's something about like a brake operator cleaner, would that do a pretty decent job?

It would also eat away at the rims and eat away at your brake rotors, causing corrosion, and could eat away the rubber parts behind on the caliper, so I would recommend avoid any sort of acid or carburetor cleaner, anything like that at all. Never use that on your wheels. Well, your suggestion about waxing it is an excellent suggestion, and I'm going to do that on my car because I get that break, you know, like everybody else does, the brake dust, and it's extremely hard to remove it, and I didn't want to do any chemical until I spoke to you. Do you have to dismount the tire? Nope. You simply take just ordinary wax, car wax, and just like you would on the painted surface, you just put it on the surfaces of the rim that you don't want to have, you know, the dust to stick to, let it dry just like normal and buff it off. How much would that cost?

Hey, if you're having your car detailed, they might charge you an extra $10 or $15. Wow. I tell you what, I wish I'd met you 50 years ago instead of 25. Rick, that's something major that I always have done when I have my car washed or detailed. The tires are so important, and you have to be able to protect everything on your vehicle. And another item, I'm not a big fan of when they put, when they detail your car, of spraying the tire dressing on the tires, the spray they put on there. Oh, it looks so pretty for the first hour or two. It creates problems.

Because it's all black and shining and cleanly. and basically that stuff gets inside on the brakes and it can actually cause a little bit of increased noise from your brakes for a while but also the dirt and dust from the road then sticks to that on the tires and just creates this nasty thick layer on the tires it's like colking on your windows

I mean it just builds up and it's just amazing great advice Rick John do you have any other questions? Excellent suggestion that's where we all listen to Earl Stewart on cars Oh, you're amazing, John. We love you. We love hearing from you. Thank you.

Give us a call again. Thank you. Have a great weekend. Hey, 7-7-960, and you can also text us at 772-497-2-49-3-0. Ladies again, first two new lady callers. Give us a call. You can win yourself $50 this morning. We're going to go to Van.

Who's calling from Jupiter? Good morning, Nancy. Good morning. Welcome. Thank you. Hello, studio. Hey. Quick, quick question.

I have a 2015 Toyota Prius, and how long does a spare car last in the vehicle before it has to be replaced? There's a date code on it, Van, and it's coded. And in a minute I'll let Rick give you that code, secret code. The Department of Transportation says six years is, you shouldn't be buying a tire that's six years old or older. And so I would check the date on it. You can look at, you can look for cracks in the tire and inspect the tire. But if that spare has been there, you said you've got a 2013?

2015. You're right at the time now where you probably have to take a look at that spare. Rick, what do you think? Well, actually, you're unlikely to find... I don't think I've ever noticed the DOT code on a spare. I'm actually going to have to look at that because... Oh, you're talking about a space saver. Right, the space saver donut spare.

Oh, okay, I'll be your... Exactly right. But that's a good question. Yeah. But because that spare is generally enclosed in the trunk, where you're not getting any sort of UV light on it, it's not exposed to the weather, to water, or anything like that. It's very well protected.

So, just inspecting. and physically, have a tire guy, someone look at it, say, does this look okay to you? And the answer is probably is okay. And also checking the tire pressure in it quite often, at least once every couple months. The tire pressure I keep on 65 like they fall for, so I do do that. Yeah. Yes. Well, thank you, man.

That's an interesting question, and a lot of people don't think about their spare. I wasn't thinking about it because when you say tire, I think of a full-sized spare. And they don't have those anymore, so you don't even have a spare. Van, it was great hearing from you. Don't be a stranger. Stay in touch. I've been listening weekly. I appreciate your show very much.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Van. Have a great weekend. We're going to go to Dawn, who's calling from Tampa. Good morning, Don. Yes, good morning. How are you guys doing today? Great.

Good. Listen, we love your show. My wife and I listened to it. it. And I guarantee you we love everything that you have to say. And we set our alarm clock so we don't miss the show. That's how much we like it. So do why. I do have a question for you. Earl, I listened to you. And two years ago, I called in and asked you about buying a van that we could convert to a handicapped van. And you suggested Toyota.

I'm tickled to death that I listened to you. We had a new Toyota convert. two years ago, they've had zero problems with it. Great. I do have a question. When the companies convert these vans into a handicapped wheelchair-accessible van, that van is lowered to the ground. It's lower than it normally would be. And so with a new van, with the new vehicles coming out that are all electric,

and they put the battery stack underneath that vehicle, how are they going to be able to make a conversion van, with all those batteries in the way. Great question. That's one for the engineers. They're going to have to figure something out because like on a normal van right now, such as a Sienna,

I'm guessing the caller purchased a Sienna to have it converted. They actually moved the fuel tank and put it back behind the back bumper so as to be able to have that increased floor space. For an electric, wow. There can, some of the engineers, engineers are going to have to figure that out. That's something they've got to work on.

Yeah, it'd be interesting to see. We're going to try to keep this thing at least 10 years. Yeah. But at some point we'll have to switch off in the future and get probably something that's got some sort of electric power to it somewhere. So I'm just curious as to what they would do and where they put the batteries and how they can make that work. Well, there are companies, there are people thinking about this, though, because I think they're still making but General Motors for a while

was making a vehicle called the MPV and this was actually a four-door vehicle but it was specific actually a five-door I had a hatchback on it was specifically designed as a

wheelchair-accessible mobile vehicle it was the whole design right from the beginning was designed to be able to be accessible for wheelchairs. And I thought it was a fantastic idea and something that every manufacturer should consider

is the idea of producing a vehicle that can handle wheelchairs and make it more accessible for folks that need it. I mean, that's something that would just, to me, would sell extremely well for that niche crowd. I mean, I just don't mean to kind of, you know,

declassified anything, but it just, there is a need for it. And so much should step up and fill it. I just Google this question, and usually I always find the answers. This isn't very encouraging. The

first thing I found was electric vehicles are the future for everyone except disabled people. Electric vehicles with batteries in the floor could be difficult to convert for wheelchair users. and it goes on there. So you've hit on a huge problem that I haven't even thought about.

Hopefully other people listening out there, engineers and manufacturers, if they hear about this, there's a problem that needs a solution, and apparently no one's found it yet. Yeah, I would like to take a second if I could, just to throw out a hint to people that might be looking into a conversion van. And I did a lot of research on the different companies that convert a band to handicapped. And almost all of the companies who want to do an electrical conversion so that one pushes a button and the ramp slides out electronically. I was looking for one that was a manual because we had friends that had it electrically, got out and got stuck, couldn't get the ramp to go in or out of the door, and had to call a record to come and move the vehicle.

Wow. I wanted a manual ramp that I could pull out manually and push back in when I'm finished with it manually. And I found a company in Phoenix, Arizona, which is VMI. And they did a fantastic job. We've been super happy. The van, everything on it works just perfectly like the day we got it two years ago. Great. So if someone is looking for a handicapped vehicle, I would definitely look into VMI in terms of one that's not.

not electric. Don't let's let me go. Do you have the full name there? Let's give it to everyone listening. Yes, it's Vantage, Mobility, International. Okay. And there were? They're in Phoenix, Arizona. Okay, great. All you folks out there that... What made me think, what made me think about this, Earl, was I watched the video of them doing our van, and they go inside and completely cut out the bottom of floor of the van. They're inside the van standing on the concrete. Wow. They completely do the whole floor.

Wow. And so I was talking to Dwight and I said, well, what's going to happen with the battery situation? I guess we'll just have to wait to see. Well, you sure hit on the big problem. I hate to think that the manufacturers could have overlooked this issue. And

as I say, I googled it. Usually you can find just about anything on Google, and it's It's scary to think that no one has thought about this because there's a, you know, a van is something that a handicapped person needs, and pretty soon, I say pretty soon, maybe not real soon, but in 20 years, you're not going to be able to buy a regular van probably. They'll all be EV. Yeah.

So, great question, and I really appreciate the call. And thanks for being such loyal listeners. You and your wife, we appreciate that. Yeah, Don. Thanks so much. And what a great call you brought up. a lot of important issues to our audience, and thank you for the vantage mobility that you mentioned. Give us a call again.

Yeah. We appreciate you guys so much. Thank you. Oh, you're quite welcome. Speaking of EVs, I have a question for everyone. Earl and I were talking this morning, and we thought that you might, you know, weigh in on electric vehicles, and do you all electric vehicle? Do you see yourself purchasing an electric, all-electric vehicle in, say, five years? Give us a call.

Hey, 77-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. Also, you can send a message to you to Rick, get in touch with Stu's taking care of all of the texts. are coming in from Facebook, and I think that we've reached a calm as far as the phone calls are concerned. So who wants to go first? I want to. My Amory wants to go first. Okay. Good morning, Ann Marie. Hi, Amory. Amory says, good morning. Decades ago, all cars came with a full-sized spare tire. Nowadays, a few cars have any kind of spare tire. Since you are a Toyota dealer, or I'll keep my questions limited to Toyota's. Are there any Toytas with a full-size spare? Yes, Rick. they are the trucks correctly forerunners tacomas tundras tundras tacomas forerunners sequoias land cruisers

however not highlanders not highlanders right however bear in mind that they're still meant as a spare therefore they do not have a tire sensor in most of them which i think was a huge failure on the part of toyota because when they first came out with tire pressure sensors in the wheels They had one in the spare and was fantastic because so many people never checked the spare tire. So the light would come on and you could check, oh, if the other four are good, then check the spare. As opposed to finding out on a trip later on down the road. Exactly. We did a flat tire.

That was a mistake for sure. I guess it's a cost savings measure, I assume. They saved them about $30 per car. Well, they sell millions of cars. I don't agree with it, but that's probably why. Okay, second question from Amory, how many models come with the donut spare? I don't even know, because I know it's a mixture of patch kits.

Yeah, not quite all of them anymore. Now, a bunch of them have no spare at all. The Prius Prime, plug-in Prius, a couple others. I'm trying to think. In the day, Rick, in the day, that donut would take you how far? I never used it to go very much. Very far, maybe to a gas station. Donut Spares are rated that at a minimum, they will do up to about 50 to 60 miles at 50 to 60 miles per hour.

This is stated right on the tire, so that is their minimum that they are safe to do. You can get away with a little longer if you need to, but if you do have to use it for that amount, it should then be considered replaced. Will I go 100 miles if you go 100 miles an hour? Probably not. I just You know, my theory is that the donut is there for a reason It's temporary

It's an emergency Get you down to the road At the next gas station And that's what I always did It just doesn't look like a very safe Donut I got some really good donuts That's Jupiter donuts

Are outstanding A good donut Clugin nuts But Amory have several more questions here Of course You go girl Yep so how many How many miles

Just don't have any spare tire at all, or just have the fixaflat. And that's a bunch of them. Can you guess how many? I guess the number doesn't matter. Several models? Yeah, a bunch to. All right, number four.

Before you do that, let me just say one thing. If your car is equipped with that fixaflat stuff and you have a different option to call a tow truck or put some air in that tire to get somewhere safe to take care of it, do that first. Because using that fixaflat, you're done with that. It destroys the tire, but it also destroys the tire pressure sensor, and you're going to have to pay for those. Good advice. Good point, Rick. All right, more. Are there any Toyota does that have run-flat tires?

I know Sienna's offered some of those, right? How many, is it only on the Sienna with the run-flat? Not anymore. Now they've, all the run-flats have gone away because people discovered, oh, yeah, you can actually still drive it. But no matter what, even if you just, you didn't drive when you found the nail in the tire, you have to replace. to tire. You cannot repair a run-flat tire. And they're double the price in most cases. Well, there you go. Number five, what's the best thing to do if you have a flat tire? And I'm listening to you, Rick. If you have a flat tire, what do you do? Don't put the goo in the

tire. Don't squirt that stuff in your tire. Number one thing, which I'm going to guess 50 to 60 percent of people have some sort of a roadside service available, whether it's through a new car purchase, which you might have it. Double check on that information through your insurance company. A lot of them have roadside assistance through your insurance. If you happen to be on I-95

or the turnpike, call Road Rangers, they will come add air to get you down the road, or if it's definitely you must change it, they'll change the tire for you for free. Road Rangers. Road Rangers. I've never heard of them. They're sponsored by State Farm and they run the Turnpike

all the time. Star, F.HP and just tell them you're in need of road ranger assistance and where you are, they will come and change tire and get you back on the road. It's a free service for the state of Florida. That's great advice, Rick. You know, I've seen them on the turnpike. Here's a little Google statistic. 60% of Americans can't change their spare tires. So we're capable of or they don't have a too spare tire. They don't know how to. Oh, okay. So 40% we're speaking to 40% of the American public. A big chunk. Most people, the majority of people, don't know how to change a spare tire.

Well, that's a shame. So you call the auto club. I wonder how many came of age driving cars that didn't have spare tires. You know, I mean, there was not even an opportunity to learn. Yeah, exactly. I know that's how I learned. And I won't even go into the fact that my wife, well, yeah, I will. My wife was one of four sisters.

Their father, before they were allowed to have a driver's license, made them go out in the driveway and change a tire on his car. car and then change it back. And my father's family, you had to know how to shoe a horse before they would let you ride a horse. Smart maneuver. Unfortunately, Rick's father-in-law was injured in a severe accident when his wheels fell off. Where I lived, I had to learn how to milk a cow.

So there you go. I mean, you know, you've got to learn. Okay. Well, let's go to jump over to Rick. He probably has some comments on our YouTube channel. Well, actually, I do have one interesting one here. Let's see, from Don Brown, referring back to an earlier concern about the used car prices. He says, FYI, I priced a 2013 Chevy Malibu with 15,177 miles with online buyers.

His own car, looking to see what quotes he would get. He says he got quotes from $8,639 from Carvana to $14,787, from CarMax. Very interesting. Six thousand dollars and dollar spread. Here's why that's particularly interesting. Stu will remember this. At our last meeting, we asked our wholesale expert, his name is Ted Caboosh, if someone's got

to use car and they want to get bids on it, where should they go? He says, CarMax, number one, and he says, maybe if you want a second, it'd be we buy any car.com, but Carvana is in trouble, and they're losing money. Carvana lost over a billion dollars in the last quarter. So congratulations to all you folks out there who milked Carvana. You put them under. You're selling your car. But they just overloaded it, and now they can't buy any more cars.

But that's very interesting. That's called messing around and then finding out. That's right. They messed around, then they found out. All right, let's step over. We have more. I'll stick with the anonymous feedback. When just came in, we were talking.

I'm sorry if I skipped over. an older one. Some industries have worked hard to maintain product and service delivery during the COVID era in tough economic times. The automobile industry has not. How about putting in excess profits tax on the auto manufacturers and dealers? I think that's a terrible idea. Come on, Earl. You know, I'll be serious for me. I don't think, I don't like government taking money from me. back in the furnace. Well, I'm a car dealer and we're making a ton of money.

This will be the best profit year we've ever had. So, yeah, I like to make money and we are making a lot of money, but we're trying. We like to think we're doing it ethically, honestly, and moral. I can chime in on that. There's been a lot of efforts, you know, from various factions to impose like excess profits tax and some of the sounds appealing and simple and might solve problems. We don't know. Right now, the excess, there's not going to be like a period in time where the excess profits are going to officially stop. A law, I mean, I'm just, I'm taking your, your suggestion seriously, a law, and then next

week inventory fix up, and then there's a profit, next is a profit, it doesn't make sense. But government action in and of itself isn't the problem. It's, the government doesn't think these things through. Now, if you want to get prices down for the consumer, they just tell the government to enforce the laws they've already put on the books. We talk about this on the show every week. We have laws on the books. You heard Victoria, if you were listening earlier,

called in because she was taken advantage of by Southern 441 Nissan. Well, and she said, you know, there's laws on the books in Florida that said what they did to me was illegal. And if they were just in, the regulators need to enforce the laws and the lawmakers need to look,

see that the laws they make are enforced. So there's got to be, You can't make a bunch of laws and just forget about it. And taxing profits, that's ridiculous. I think that's a bad idea. All right. More and on this feedback. Any idea how many people that buy a new car actually need a new car?

And what would happen to prices if they all decided to not buy a car for a year or two years? I can answer that. Greed may be good, but karma sometimes comes for a visit. Everybody that buys a new car doesn't need it, period. You don't need a new car. car if you need transportation and it has to be a car a good use car is a far better value people buy new cars because it makes them feel good it's an emotional thing our mystery shopping report is a letter half hour of this

show will drive home the message that I'm saying here that a motion dictates need motion whatever you want to call it dictates why people buy new cars. And you can be taken advantage of if you let your emotions and your perceived needs overtake your logic. But used car is always a better value. Now, let me correct myself. There are times, and during this COVID crisis, there are times when a used car was a worse value than a new car. We actually see used cars selling for higher prices than new cars. So that's the exception to the rule, but in general, you know, when we're back to normal times, the use cars are far better by.

Yeah, especially if you go back a few years. Like if you get a used 21, 2021 model, you're probably going to be paying over a new car in MSRP. You go back to a 17 or 18 prices are much more closer to Earth. We've got a text here unless we have a call. Yes, we do. We're going to talk to Marty, but I have to remind our listeners. Don't forget, I haven't mentioned this for a while, but you can really get involved by going to Florida Law Protectingcarbuyers.com. That's Florida Law Protectingcarbuyers.com.

Go there. They can be a huge help to you. We're going to go to Marty, who's calling us from West Palm Beach. Good morning. Good morning, Marty. Hi. I've got a couple of tire stories for you. Oh, boy.

Fantastic. A friend of mine in Rochester, New York, bought a car that didn't come with a spare, and he made the dealer put in a donut. I guess, I don't know if there was a space for it or not, but he made the dealer to make the deal, buy a donut and put it in the trunk. Because he felt when he's going anywhere,

if he needs a spare, you got a problem if the blowout or something on your tire is such that to fix a flat can't fix it and you need somebody to change the tire for you you actually need a tire Yeah, exactly, yeah

So that's number one Number two The people now, I was with my daughter and she was driving her Tesla The Tesla needed a had a flat. We called the Tesla

roadside service and they said well they can't fix it. I mean they have to tow the car. Yeah, I'm probably flat by then. Yeah, so then we call AAA. AAA said the same thing. They can't do anything if you don't have

a spare. So I don't know how much a spare donut does really cost but I'm sure they're better off I know they're trying to save weight, but probably they're just trying to save money. Exactly right. You know, it's interesting. Here I am a Tesla driver.

I never thought about that. Because you do rely on Tesla if you have a flat. There's not much you're going to do. It's going to flatbed the car. So, interesting question. I don't know. A lot of Teslas, I mean, I have one of the larger ones that's the S model, a plaid, but the smaller models, you might have a hard time finding where you would put anything.

except a, I don't know, do they make a don't, I guess they do. Tesla has special tires, at least mine does. They all do, yeah. They all do, yeah. So that's a great question, Marty. I don't know. If I get a flat tire, I'm just going to call Tesla and keep my fingers crossed because I wouldn't know what else to do.

Now, let me ask you a question, though. In your dealership, if you have a car that doesn't have a spare, would you make a deal with somebody that said, I'll buy the car, but they need a spare? Yeah, I think so. I think so. I mean, you know, car dealerships have tires laying all over the place. They probably even have donuts and things on the other.

They have used tires. You know, we take, you know, for an emergency purpose, so you don't get stuck in the middle of a snowstorm in nowhere, I wouldn't mind having a used full-size spare, you know, as long as it has some tread left. All you want to do is something will get you to the tire store so you can get the right tire. So, yeah, I think most car dealerships would find something if it was a question of making the deal. And I think from a moral standpoint ethical, I'd feel bad about selling a guy or a woman a car without a spare tire, especially when they asked for it.

I mean, how'd you feel something bad happened? And they got stuck somewhere in the middle of the night without a spare tire. now would you tell somebody when they come in this car doesn't have a spare or you're going to leave it up to the buyer I would tell them I hope my salesman would you know we don't have perfect salespeople nobody does and there's a lot of things about cars you should cover and there are a lot of things you do cover but people don't remember it we talked earlier on the show about car buying being such an emotional experience Part of the big problems that I see is a car dealer. And I'm finishing my second book now.

Maybe my third book will be how to communicate better with customers when they take delivery of their car. Because almost without exception, I think Stu would agree with me. When we deliver a car, we leave questions unanswered. And we don't say things and tell people, cars are so complicated to the day There are a lot of things that don't get through. And we do tell them, we don't tell them, emphasize it enough so that they don't remember. And also, products change all the time.

It's always, like Rick is undergoing constant education to a lesser extent and a much easier extent. Salespeople do also. I remember, here's a quick story when I was selling cars, when I was on the floor selling cars. and it was the year that on the Camry they went from a full-sized spare to a donut spare and I was doing my presentation, my expert presentation to show them, I was showing the car and as I'm lifting the trunk, I go, and it has a full-size, and I lift up the thing, and there's a donut there, and it was very embarrassing, and I didn't get the message. It has a full-size donut.

Yeah, and if I, you know, listen, if I hadn't opened the trunk, I would have said it's got a full-size spare and they would have left, you know, but I opened it up and I learned it. But, yeah, things change, and sales people are not perfect. Yeah, changing. All right, well, you answered some of my questions. Good questions, Marty. Very good questions. Thank you.

I think you need a spare tire. I agree. I agree, Marty. It's nice hearing from you. It's always nice hearing from you. You're definitely. Have a good weekend. Oh, thank you, you too.

You're a great part of the show. Ladies and gentlemen, give us a call at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-4976530 again ladies don't forget $50 for the first two new lady callers give us a call and say hello Rick just a quick thought for anyone that might feel a little more comfortable about this I have a little device sitting in the in my truck behind the seat weighs about seven pounds plugs into the power outlet and it's a little air compressor and it would take it about seven or eight minutes to fill up even a donut spare, but it will put air in a tire and pump that tire up all the way. And there's been a few times that I've stopped alongside the road to help someone that had a flat tire and they wanted to change the tire. And they pulled their spare out and I went plunk because it was flat as could be. And I was able to pull that thing out and fill up their spare

and help him get back on the road just for a simple little $30 or $40 air compressor. that doesn't hardly weighs anything, takes up very little room, and yet it can save your neck. You're driving around saving people on the side. What a great story. Who are you, Tom Cruise? No, I'm a nice guy. Yeah, exactly. I actually have done that several times. I will stop and help people. That's another show. I'm just a nice guy. Rick, what a great story that is, truly. It is a great story. As far as what you're using, I have one in the garage. And Earl and I have had it for only a couple of years. But boy, I'll tell you,

What a great thing to have in your trunk. Simple air compressor, available on Amazon. There you go. And also it blows up the float for the pool. It does. Absolutely. And your basketballs. Okay.

We are going to go to Frank, who's calling us from Jupiter Farms. Good morning, Frank. Well, good morning to you guys. Well, I have a litany of stuff to say. A lot of it came out, but I'll go to the tires eventually. But I decided to do a little mystery shopping last week of your dealership. Oh, boy. I know

I was getting an oil exchange and we sold Randy but it was from my Mercedes Benz which I know you don't get Mercedes Benz in there very often and as long as you had the VIN number they could get the right filter and everything went very well

we've been in there before with Amory with her Lexus over the years but she doesn't have that anymore anyway but it was fun we got to sit down in your coffee area and there was a few bagels still left at one

1.30 in the afternoon and some interesting bruise of coffee and everyone's very nice and they're very polite uh randy especially we got to see matt over because um amri said well let's go look at new car she's thinking about maybe possibly getting uh oh what is it one of your um i can't think of it right now anyway as it was there was not a car on the showroom floor except for your old Pontiac it's not for sale um yeah it's it's amazing So that was an eye opener But all the staff we met was very cordial, very nice We also brought them some thank you gifts

I don't know if you heard about that on Monday morning But the entire backseat in Mercedes Benz was filled donuts bagels Pastries about 100 pounds between the salespeople and the They didn't tell me about that I was just getting back from vacation I got to ask that's really nice Yeah Josh I think was going to

Why didn't we have any cars on the showroom floor? Are you serious? We don't have any cars to sell. Well, I mean, there was not a car on your showroom floor. I guess we could put a used car down there. Yeah, we're one of the few, reasons I asked the question is we're one of the few dealers that from many years ago, we started putting used cars on the showroom floor because people, when they come to a new car dealership, they know that they, back during normal days, they knew you had new cars.

I'm being serious. There's not a used card to show them for it because it's sold. They keep selling. Yeah, yeah. That was the joke that you had. No, no, that's right. No, it was interesting. But I guess the word is on the street, too, that come by your dealership around two

because all magically, all of a sudden, all the bagels went out people's pockets. And it was an interesting concept. But back to the tire thing. On the Mercedes I have, it's a 2012. E350. There's a sport model. And consequently, I didn't know it was a sport model meant anything other than it just looked nice. The tires are staggered. There's 2.45-18s in the front and 265-35s in the rear. And it appears that the rear tires once again are worn out after only 10,000 miles. The inside tread is basically down to the cord. So I guess this is for Rick. That would most

likely be a camber problem they didn't adjust the tires correctly when they balanced did the alignment yeah inside edgeware is going to be an alignment issue pardon me the camber if you were to imagine looking straight down on top of the car say you were floating above the car the tires can be tilted either in at the top or out at the top and if they're tilted in too far at the top that creates an inside edgeware for camber and tilted too far out, of course, would cause outside edgeware. And the reason that they adjust camber a little bit is usually the front tires would be adjusted a little over in order to help compensate for road crown.

But if it's too much, then that could cause wear. Yeah, these are continuals. They're about, you know, $250 to $300 each. and I got 10,000 miles out of the rear ones this time, and I've gotten 12 or 15 before. Obviously, someone's not setting it correctly. We're going to get tires and bring it into your shop because Randy said you actually got some European guy back there

that can do European cars. Frank, thank you very much. We've got a whole bunch of calls backed up here, and we'd like to get to at least a few of them before we get to the mystery shopping report. But thanks very much for spreading the word about the bagels. We appreciate that. You know, Frank, we love you, and we look forward to hearing from you.

Stay in touch. Don't be a stranger. Have a wonderful weekend. Did you see the pictures I sent you from the dealership in Stewart with the peanuts? Today? Just got them now. Just got them now. That was your mystery shopping people up there.

Thank you. Great sense of humor. Thank you. Okay. We're going to go to our next caller. Good morning. Good morning, Dick. Hello?

is it good morning okay good morning welcome okay i'm calling to comment on the tespo's uh flat tire okay discussion uh i had the experience with my uh tesla i've a model s i've talked to you before about it and uh i'm really joined a car but a while back i had flat tire on my tesla and i called tesla road service uh-huh they came out they came out very quickly and what they do they bring out a wheel and a tire all mounted. It's painted red, so you can't listen. And they take the tire back to the shop and fix it

and come back and replace it. Well, that's great. Do they charge you for the call or just a tire? They didn't charge anything. Wow. Fantastic. Goodwill. Yeah.

It was then, you know, Tesla has their own little service trucks to go. Yeah. I've had them come to my house for Viner stuff. a mirror problem or whatever. But anyway, it worked up very well. And I don't know what you do on a trip because they take your tire

and either put a new tire on there. Well, that puts my mind at rest, being a Tesla driver. I wondered about that. So they got to you real quick, change the tire, and that's good news. Yeah, the road service did it. The Tesla Road Service. The other thing I wanted to comment is a company called Ebenex,

and they're located in Florida. They saw a lot of Tesla accessories. They sell a spare tire in a bag so it stays, you know, easy to handle. They sell a whole kit for tire service. What's the name of that again? Evan X, E-V-A-N-E-X. E-V-A-N-E-X-X. Yeah, it's on the, you can get them on, you can Google them on the Internet.

They have a line of Tesla accessories. Well, fantastic. I didn't even know about that. Well, being a Tesla owner, I made a note of that, and I'll be checking them out. Yeah. We can use all the information we can get a hold of, Dick. Yeah. It's a very quality equipment, too. Yeah.

I'm having a great time driving that car. Oh, yeah. I still have trouble in mine. I've had a couple of problems in mine recently, but Tesla stepped up to it. My big battery went out. Oh, boy. What do you already have? 18,000, 35,000 miles.

They replaced it. Give me a loaner, and I kept it a week and a half or so with new battery. in. No charge? No charge. Wow. Elon Musk, you're the best. I'm telling you. They mess up. The biggest problem is service is communication. It's the folks trying to talk to them. I agree. Yes, I agree. Definitely. But if you use the messages, they usually get back to you. But once they get all

with your car, my experience is it did a fine job. Better than most car dealers. Yes. Thank you so much. 85-year-old, I'm an 85-year-old dude. I've run through a lot of cars. Oh, wow. I bet you have. Yeah, we'll have lunch together and bore each other than death. Yeah, I'll have an 80s party, Dick.

I have a, I have a cyber truck on order, and also have a car called Apptera, a little two-seater job. Wow. Go a thousand miles, charged with a solar. I'll talk about that sometime. Look, Google that one up. A-P-T-E-R-A. And it's on YouTube also. I'll check it out.

I got even... Diesel car. It's about to go into production next year. Very good. We'll check that up. I know you're busy. I'll get off the line, and great talking with you. Thanks very much.

Chown in for that mystery shopping report. It's a doozy. Okay, we're going to go to Danny. Ladies, before we go to Danny, $50 for the first two new lady callers. Give us a call. 877-9-60-99-60 good morning Danny good morning how are you guys doing we're doing great it's nice to hear from you it's always glad to call into you guys so going back to the donut tire or the save spare I actually found this out the hard way I had a flat in my BMW on I-95 and when I put the

little donut tire on and I tried to go again my traction control started going crazy. I could not get over about 40 miles an hour. It just wouldn't allow me to do it. I actually had to pull back over, get the open his manual out, and figure out how to turn the traction control off. Wow. Yeah, some models, the computer systems are so sensitive that even having just a slight difference in tread depth would cause that issue. Matter of fact, some cars used to have their tire pressure system, instead of actually reading the pressure with a sensor, it would use ABS wheel speed sensors. And if it determined that one wheel was traveling at a different speed than the others, that

would trigger that light. And we had a customer that came in that they had one tire, that the tread, three tires were relatively worn down. They'd put one new tire on it with fresh, brand new tread, nice and thick. And it actually triggered the light to come on because that tire was a taller tire. Wow. Amazing. Oh, wow. Yeah. Learn something I'll tell you. Yeah, that should be a concern for people that are just wanting to buy a

save a spare fare and throw it in their trunk. Exactly. I realize that it might not work because on some of these vehicles you cannot turn the traction control off. Right. Yeah, I tell you what, this is, I'm learning more on this show than the callers. I mean, I get a complete education every Saturday on the cell. I because I recommended you put an old tire in your truck. Well, if you've got a new car and you've got an old tire in there, you're going to have a problem. It may not work.

May not work. Great information, Danny. All right, you guys have a great weekend. I'll talk you later. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, we are taking a hiatus here, and we're going back to Stu or Rick. All right, well, I was looking at the pictures that Frank sent of the cafe and the M&Ms and the peanuts.

Pretty impressive. I want this. It's like Whole Foods or Publix where they have the self-serve, like the grains and the seeds and all that. You just lift the thing up and pour us into your hands. They have the whole container? It's like a big class two full of M&M's and you just open them up. You pull a little lever there. It's pretty cool. Interesting. This has something about the demographics of their customers and our customers. We have bagels. They have M&M's. Right. They're very different. We should have both.

We have a text from a long-time texter and caller, Steve from New Jersey. He says, our friend's husband, and she's a senior, senior lady, lost her husband recently. He's got a car with a 30-month lease with 20 months remaining. Can the lease car be returned and the lease ended? His wife doesn't drive a car and they have no children who might use it. That's a situation that we run to, you know, too often down here. And at least with our main lender, Southeast Toyota Finance, if a someone who's leasing car and they pass away, they're not going to go after them. The surviving spouse can return the car.

Technically, the lease doesn't end, and the lease would be in default, but they don't go after the surviving spouse. Now, that is going to depend bank to bank, but I imagine it's kind of a humane sort of thing. I would advise them just to check with their Leonard. Let them know what happened and ask them to give you the advice because they can't be humane and kind in these situations. There is a company. It's a long shop, but it's called Swap-A-L-A-E-A-S-W-A-E-A-C, swap-A-L-E-E-S-W-E. I have an app on my phone with Swap-A-L-L-L-E,

because people have asked this question before. And what they do is they will, for a fee, of course, they will try to find someone a buyer and a seller or a lessee and a lessor that would like to take over the lease payments. But as Stu said, when I'm speaking to groups or speaking on the radio when people ask me about leasing, I always say the one thing you need to know about a lease, when you sign a 36-month lease, you are legally obligated to make 36 payments. I mean, you can be, you can have an incapacity, you could die, you can, anything can happen, you owe 36 payments on that lease. According to the letter of the law, the estate would be responsible for making good on the remaining payments, but it has never happened in my 25 years of doing this.

Yeah, car dealers, some salespeople, how do you believe, it's like renting a car, you know, say, why buy it when you can rent it? Well, you're not renting it. You're leasing it, and leasing means a 36-month lease is 36 payments come hell or high water. You've got to make them. Or the estate is due to it if you pass away. That's right. We have another texture here chiming in on the cleaning brake dust off your wheels. He says for cleaning the brake dust off your wheels, when it's really bad, you can use PVC cleaner.

I know everybody is afraid to do that because they're afraid it's going to take the paint off, but I've done it many times on many cars, and it's never touched the paint. So do what you please. I would have to see that one before I did it myself. Okay. What is PVC like for like patio of furniture? No, I'm guessing PVC. Polyvinyl chloride.

It means the cleaner you're using for plastic PVC pipe that cleans it up before you put the glue on there. Okay. Yeah. I don't know. All right. We have another question from Bob in Naples. It says, I love the show. Thank you, ordering a 23rd.

Corolla with a new, I mean, 2023 Corolla, with the, he wrote 2013, I didn't, with a new larger 2.0 liter engine and the Safety Sense 3.0 feature. Question, what is it like driving with all these safety features running in the background? Well, I don't, you don't, you're not aware of it. All the passive safety features are going on. I mean, part of Safety Sense, I believe, is the, is the lane keep assist and all that. So it beeps loudly if you cross into a lane without putting your blanker on. And some people hate that. Some people love that.

It can be rather annoying. Yeah, I do because I don't ever drift into other lanes like other people in my family. However, my car doesn't beep. However, if your car has what's known as lane keep assist. Right, that's where actually pulls you back. Lane Trace assist. Lane Trace. Yeah, the lane trace assist.

That keeps your car centered in the lane. Right. And all you really have to do is just keep your hand on the wheel to give it a little guidance now and then. Oh, wait, I'm sorry. There's two. I don't know if the lane trace is part of Safety Sense 3.0. Let me explain. There's lane departure alert, which beeps when you change the lane.

There's lane keep assist. If you go depart the lane, it kind of nudges you back on the steering wheel turns a little bit. Then there's lane trace, which is almost autonomous driving, which basically drives and turns the car with it. Right. But to answer your question, Bob, these things are happening in the background. unless something happens, you don't, like, swerving out of a lane, you don't know what's going on. His next question is, how good is the parking assist feature? I hate parallel parking myself, thanks in advance.

I hate parallel parking, too. I rarely use it once in a while. I would use it. I did it on the Tesla. I don't know if you've done your automatic parking. I have it, too, because I just don't want, I mean, I don't need to. I started to do it when I was getting criticized by my brother by terrible reverse parking skills. I'm like, well, I'm going to use the computer to help me.

But it's a nifty feature. I don't know very many people who use it. It takes too long. Yeah, it does. Oh, yeah, I can pull in a spot in about a half a second. This thing takes a minute. It's very slow, and you have to control the pedals while you're doing it. Right.

So. I lost that technique, so to speak, a little, leaving Pittsburgh. Parallel parking was just, you know, like having breakfast. I mean, you just did it several times a day. One finger on the steering wheel. I've got one here. Rico West is asking, what is the cutoff date to order a new Highlander with the V6 engine? So we're going to.

We don't know. See, I had a sigh. Highlander is getting rid of the V6 and it's going to be all four cylinders soon. And so there will become a point where you're not going to be able to get one. I can't give you an answer to that. the best thing to say is put an order in for it, and we'll keep communicating with you. Just be sure you can get your money back that you don't want to be locked in on an ordered car. When Nancy and I spoke at the Rotary Club in Wellington the other day, a lot of people ask that question.

You know, when I order my car, when will they build it? And it's a very complicated issue. They don't build the car that you order anymore. They build cars. and then when they build one like the one you ordered or the one you ordered, then you'll be notified, but that could be... That's the best description I've heard when people ask. You're not ordering, they're not building a car to order.

They're building cars. And we're just trying to find the best match. This ain't Burger King. It's not Burma King. You don't have it your way. The car, I mean, I don't want to discourage a lot of people, but the car that you order, the specific car you order, depending on how specific you want to get,

may never be built because by the end of the model year, if they didn't build it, then you'll just have to order another. Like the example Rick brought up from his question with the V6 Highlander. Like at some point they're going to stop making this, and then at some point someone's going to lose that order on the list. Bob, a different Bob text to this also, we were talking about the dust and the rooms. He has an idea that I like better, simple green. Because it works on rims, it's non-corrosive, and it's also biodegradable.

His favorite cleaning fluid. And it smells good, too. Yep. Semi tractor trailers drop off our simple green at the house. We're all cut up right now. I got one other quick comment just from R. Le Mans 1. He says, no, I have no desire to go electric. Expensive to purchase is the reason.

As for Tesla, it is ugly to look at. Well, beauty is nigh of the beholder. Well, you know, I respect it. I mean, you know, there's a lot of reasons not to buy electric today. They're too damn expensive. I mean, you really got to want that electric car badly today, but the prices are going to come down. Exactly. The fact is, if you don't want to buy an electric car today, you will buy one tomorrow

because sooner or later you're not going to have a choice. So it's coming. I was looking at the Wall Street Journal, Nancy, and I were looking at an article about the Genesis, and they have two models out and out of the Genesis. I can't remember the exact model genesis, but the EV version is 75,000. The gas version is 55,000. So, yeah, here's a picture of it. It's the G-A-E-V-S.

And so do you want to pay $20,000 more for the EV? Why do they have a grill on it? I don't know. Anyway, the point is, practically speaking, why would you want to pay $20,000? more. People buy Tesla's and they pay more money for electric vehicles today because they're fun to drive and they want to do it. You don't have to do it. But sooner or later, you're going to have to do it. I'll tell you, I'd like to see some things change with the plaid that we drive. And most people that drive the plaid want to reach autonomy. And by doing so, you have to abide

by the rules that Elon put out there and you it's a different type of driving it's a very you have to be very careful because you're penalized um if you do a you know if you have a heartbreak um anything at all but i'd like to see him change the rules a bit i'd like to see him reinforce some rules because uh it you you get a little lazy uh is what i'm saying so um at any rate back to stew All right. We have had some anonymous feedback. Somebody was listening earlier. He says the issue wasn't clarified with the Terry Taylor dealership. What was the problem that happened with Victoria at Southern 441 Nissan? She was blind to with the pricing and the trade-in. And she took delivery of the car and realized that the, promises they had made verbal promises were totally distorted and wrong and she overpaid a lot of money and she went back right away and they said you took delivery of the car and that's the end of the

conversation matter of fact we have a mystery shopping report come up and and on that particular mystery shopping report right on the vehicle buyers order it says when you take delivery to this car don't bring it back I'm kind of taking a little license here, but they said once you buy the car and drive at home, that's the end of the conversation. You own the car. And that's the way most car dealers

are. So you can mislead a customer, get them in the car, get them to take it home, and they have an ironclad contract that you can't break. That's the way it is. All right. We have more anonymous feedback. It says, I'm

located in Pennsylvania and would like to see you visit a Pennsylvania dealer. And we've done. We have. So we have, oh, and it's a Toyota dealer. Okay.

We have mystery shopped, Jim Shorke, Chrysler, and North Hunting, Pennsylvania. We have been Riverview Chevrolet and Irwin,

Pennsylvania, Greensford, Pennsylvania. So we've been all over there, but we haven't been to a Toyota dealer up there. So we'll do that. And in general,

I believe the shops were much nicer and fair and the dealers, the dealer fees. Much better in Pennsylvania. You're very lucky to be living there. And it's lovely. I just was in Philadelphia last year. You can buy a, you can buy a Toyota at any, at any Toyota dealer in Pennsylvania and get a better deal than you're to get in South Florida. So, agreed. We have another anonymous feedback. It says on your mystery shop, Riverview Chevrolet in Irwin, Pennsylvania, the actual price of the vehicle is $468 over MSRP. The dock fee and additional fee are part of the price. The $1250 rebate does not come from the dealer. It comes to the manufacturer, and it is a $12.50, um,

regardless of the negotiated price. I pulled up to shop, and I'm sorry, I was correct in the reporting. It was below. You're correct that the rebate does come from the manufacturer, but the real price paid by the shopper, by Agent Lightning, was included that rebate. So it was correct. It was below MSRP.

I wonder if that's a dealer in the anonymous feedback. We'll never know. I don't know, but it doesn't really make sense. I mean, yes, the money came from the manufacturer, but you still paid, the price was below MSRP. So it might be confusing, and if you wanted to call, and I could walk you through it, but I was right and you are wrong. Yeah. Yeah, you've got our text number, and you can text us again, 772, be a direct text, 772. Yeah.

And I can get back to you, yeah. And I can send you the buyer's order and show you and all that. last anonymous feedback says good morning what do you all think about the Toyota Crown we all love it we all saw pictures of it do you think Toyota fans will like it as much since it's replacing the Avalon I think so I don't know I think if it's comparable

in size and comfort you know Avalon is not a high volume selling car for Toyota but it's very very popular especially with older customers it's really the only big you know cushy sedan that they had And so if the crown is in a similar price point and is just as comfy, I think it'll do good. I love my Avalon.

We're done. I love that Avalon. And it is cushy and it is big. And it's quite a difference when you climb out of that and get into the Tesla. You have to quickly, you know, make the transition in your mind. Oh, there's another anonymous that didn't get read. I don't know if it was last week or during the week here. And you'll like this one.

Nancy always has the correct grade. Any dealer that has a market value adjustment, taxable fees, and dock fees fails. So you've got a fan out there. Thank you. Yes, it's hard for all of this on the show giving Cs and respectable scores. But I keep reminding everybody

that our duty and the purpose of this show is to help people find car dealers that they can get fair, not perfectly fair but a fair honest price and if we if we didn't grade on the curve we would fail so many car dealerships that there'd just be no place to go so we can't you can't say to the listening public don't buy a car ever for the rest of your life I mean you have to have a place to go and so we have the recommended list and we have the do not buy list just definitely definitely don't buy don't buy a car on the do not buy list. And you can deal with an F. And when you buy one, right, when you buy one from a recommended list, go with caution, look at the grade score, take a C over a D or a B over a C.

And we actually have a couple A's, not very many, but that's about all we got. So we cut them a little slack, we're great on the curve. There are no perfect dealers, including our dealership. I mean, we screw up all the time. People call the radio show and tell us how we screw up. We had one of the earlier part of the show, and he may be correct, he may not be, but there are no perfect dealers. So just listen and go with the higher score dealers. All we can do is go with Kaizen, and it is continuous improvement.

Yes. And you do it day by day. Okay, I think it's time for, what do you think, Stu? Are you finished? I'm all done. And Rick, have anything for us? Okay, we're going to go to the mystery shopping report, and as I say every week, you definitely make the show and we want you to grade the mystery shop.

Mystery Shopping Report is from Treasure Coast Toyota and you can grade this mystery shop and you can text us your grade at 772-4976530. So take advantage of that. We'd love to hear your thoughts on our mystery shop from Treasure Coast Toyota. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Yeah, and I'll just preface this with why this is such an important mystery shopping report. We've talked on the show for a long time about don't buy a car today unless you absolutely need one new or use. Keep your used car, your current car running and maintain it properly and wait until prices come down.

But we get a lot of people that are taking advantage of, and they can. call the show and a lot of them bought a car because they absolutely had to have a car. Now, this is, it's not funny, but it's ironic. A lot of you regular listeners know Agent Lightning by reputation. Very, very, she's a female shopper. Been with us for quite a while. Does a great job, extremely sharp. She got an on-hand job education doing these mystery shopping reports. She's been into car dealerships, Pennsylvania, Florida, Tennessee, where else has she been to? She's been all over. Pennsylvania? Northern Florida. Yeah, week after week after week. And she does report, she listens to the reports. If there's anybody that is

educated on buying a car, it's Asia Lightning. Well, this is a shopping report of Treasure Coast Toyota by Agent Lightning and she actually bought the car took it home and took it home drove it drove it didn't mess around yeah she owns it she put her mouth where her money was

she traded in her own vehicle and then she called me up and told me and apologized and apologized because she was going to buy a car from us and she couldn't wait and we had no cars and she had to order a car and it would take months and months but she had to have a car

She's got a big family And Got five cars in the family Five cars in the family Yeah That's a stressful situation So anyway Here we are

And we had an emotional conversation I don't think it's ever happened before That our mystery shopper Actually bought the car So we'll share this with you now Hang on to your hats Folks hang on to your hats Okay

Stu put this together Reading Stu's report We'll kick off this week's Mystery Shop with a disclaimer about why we are uncomfortable shopping toilet dealerships. I'm a toilet dealer and I do not want to give the impression that I'm taking shots at my main competition.

I mean, that would be too self-serving. When I chop a toilet dealer, I'm giving you the facts the way they happen. Trust me, when I say we all, we conduct all of industry shops without fear or favor, we don't hold back and we don't attack our subjects unfairly. treat a Toyota dealer with the same dispassionate approach we take with a Cadillac dealer. We have several Toyota dealerships on a recommended list, including two of our closest competitors. Palm Beach Toyota and Ed Morris Del Rey Toyota. Those are two of the closest ones. Treasure Coast Toyota currently had a D. Now that's a...

D minus. And they're on the recommended list, but that's as low as score as you can get and be on the recommended list. The other dealers are recommended highly. We last visited them on Treasure Coast Toyota almost two years ago in the beginning of the pandemic. We ding them a bit for extreme pressure tactics and for lying to agent lightning. She was actually in the story before. I remember she bought a car when she went in on this mystery shopping report. She went in as a Mr. Shopper and I, she called us Texas New York. me and said, how about Treasury Coast Toyota?

We said, that's a great idea. Go in there and mystery shop then. We haven't shopped them in a long time. So she did. We've avoided them long enough, and we don't have high hopes for this dealership in the current sellers market. I do have to let you know that this mystery shop is extraordinary. What you are about to hear is as real as it gets, Agent Lightning,

found herself in the same unfortunate situation faced by millions of Americans, immediate needs. for a new car. Now I'll elaborate a little bit on that. Two things happen. When you need a car badly, you tend to pay more and you tend to pay, you tend to your emotions take hold. And I say that because we advise that you don't ever take a car home the day you buy it. When you go into a car dealership, even if you find the car that you want, which is highly unlikely today, but if you find the car you want, you don't drive it home that day. When you drive a car home, you own it in the eyes of the

dealer, whether it's ethically or morally correct. But when you take a car home, even if you find out you made a big mistake, you own it. Now, Victoria, if you really listened to the show for the beginning, who had the terrible experience with Southern 441 Nissan, that was her problem. She got taken advantage of thoroughly, she was misled, deceived, and she took the car home, and they said, you own the car, and I never said that. I didn't tell you we would give you this much for the trade-in. I didn't tell you we would do that. They claimed everything she said wasn't true, but it was in the paperwork, and she has to keep the car.

And here we are Agent Lightning with the same situation. We've been advised in listeners for the last year to avoid buying car until vehicle inventories start building. If possible, prices are too high, the best advice is to wait. Some people, because of various circumstances, can't, just can't wait. Here's a report as if I were Agent Lightning. Three guys were standing out front when my daughter and I arrived. step forward asked me what he could do

for me today. I asked him if he had any rave for hybrids in stock. He smiled and told me that he had one on the showroom floor. Then the guy turned to the other two guys and asked which one of them had been standing outside the longest. Which one's really sweaty?

I mean, this is a real rule. These guys stand out of their sweating in the 95 degree heat. Feels like 107. Yeah. And Kristen raised his and said, I've been out here longer, and then extended it for me to shake. He led me inside, told me the way they do things. Whoever's been outside the longest is up, and that's a car dealer vernacular.

When you walk into a dealership, you're not a human being, you're an up, and everybody's supposed to get a fair amount of ups, although in some car dealerships, like Treasure Coast, the one that stands outside in the heat along as one is the one. They're called lot lizards. Right. So anyway, this is old school. Once inside, Christian, the salesperson, said he believed that they may have two refor hybrids of stock. He left me to look at the one in the showroom while he checked on the other one,

came back quickly and said that the other one is available, but it was out back getting the windows tinted. He said it had been sold, but the buyer backed out the night before. Christian told me to meet him up front he pulled around parked in front of the showroom it was a new 2022 ref or XLE hybrid with an MSRP of $38,030 there was an addendum to

with a $3,800 markup $3,800 markup there and $399 for tent we hopped in for test drive he said I couldn't lower the windows because they just been tinted. On the ride, Christian demonstrated good knowledge of the vehicle. He also explained that the, I wonder how much he was sweating and standing outside.

He explained the Treasure Coast Toyota Store was marking all new vehicles up 10% over MSRP and all hybrid vehicles are marked up 15% over MSRP. Now, they don't advertise that, by the way. You find out when you come in. That would be a great ad. Come down to Treasure Coast. 50% of them for hybrids 15% over MSRP deals you won't believe yeah we return to the dealership and by the way i picked the car out uh me earl stewart i'm taking off my agent lightning at uh because

agent lightning calling me and and when i actually texted her back and i found this is hybrid and i said this is a price they say they sold sell it for us um i'm a co-conspirator here When you turn the deal sheet up, I see the price breakdown. Christian left return in eight minutes with a workout worksheet. The top line was $434.50,000, $5,704 over MSRP. There was a $1,50 discount, which made the adjusted price, $42,2,2,2.302. They added an $8.50 dollar and $0.50, doc fee. Dealer dock, I mean, and $0.50 in taxable fees.

That's a tire tax, I think. The real selling price was $43,137, $5,1017 over MSRP. I told Christian that I needed to talk with my husband and ask for some privacy. I wonder what point in her mind she went from shopper to buyer. I just, she had to have been making, yeah, exactly. She's probably saying, listen, it's going to be six months to a year before the Highlander has an order and she's yeah and we of course we sell our cars at msrp so we're up at 5,1007 listen they say time is money and maybe that six months is equivalent to $5,000 exactly exactly

I'm back I'm now agent lightning he handed me the key suggested I FaceTime him meaning my husband so we could see everything I spoke with my husband we discussed our situation we were a desperate need of a new vehicle and that is true and I could no longer for to wait. And Stu said, time is money. She had to wait six months. This new car... Or longer.

She was waiting for a Highlander hybrid, so that's a long way. The time was more costly to her than the money. We were incredibly lucky to have found the exact vehicle we needed in stock. That was... In fact, according to them, Treasure Ghost, it had been an ordered car, and for some reason the buyer backed out, and it was real fluke that was. Serendipity. Serendipity.

We decided to go. through with a purchase, a bittersweet decision. I told Christian, we were moving forward. He helped get some documents forwarded to my husband, like the credit app, and I had him send me a picture of his driver's license. I asked Christian about including my car and the deal as a trade. It was a 2013 Chevy Camero convertible with 140,000 miles. I had my husband send the pictures of the car, the van, and the odometer. Christian passed everything along to his manager. It took about 40 minutes, and the manager came over to say the best they could do on the Camaro. Trade and allowance was $5,000, maybe $5,200 tops. He gave me all the reasons he couldn't

give me more, citing an accident and some damage. My husband and I agreed to the appraisal. I asked Christian if he could do anything more for me on the price of the big dealer fee. He said he couldn't and told me that even Treasure Coastalty employers had to pay the big dealer fee. when they bought cars there. That's true. The dealers do charge their own employees dealer fees. So I countered back and asking if they could, again, hitting him on the trade end, if they could go to $6,000 instead of $5,200 on the Camaro.

Christian immediately replied to me by asking, if I was signed now, if he could get me the $6,000, I asked if he wanted me to ask his sales manager for him, he said he'd better do it, and he left and asked him. Christian was back in a few minutes to say, we had a deal. I called my husband, told him to bring the Camaro, and we were buying the car. Once my husband got the dealership, we waited only a few minutes before going into Wally. It's my dog. My dog is the F&I manager.

That's the name of my Bernardino. Yeah, a beautiful dog, by the way. I have an I managed dog. We're only like Wally. Everybody likes Wally. He was quick in a vision and covered all of our options, were warranties. Without pressure, we purchased an extended warranty for $2,582,000, a road hazard policy for $925. Wasn't that part of the Toyo Guard?

No, that's just for if you get a flat tire or damage to your rims. And a prepaid maintenance plan for $809. So here is a lot of money. That's, what, $4,000 or $5,000 and added profits. So in addition to $5,000 some odd dollars over sticker, this would increase the over sticker by what, another couple thousand? Well, yeah, I mean the total amount she paid, if it wouldn't be part of the price of the car. Like when she financed it, the bank would look at that differently. And then our advice is you don't, my advice is you don't buy an extent of warranty.

You don't buy a prepaid maintenance plan, and you don't buy a road hazard policy for $925. dollars. So we advise against that. But hey, we also told her that she has 90 days to cancel that. And if she doesn't use any of those products, she can cancel it for 100% refund. Right. But then the other thing, when you're financing, just because we get these questions all the time, if you cancel a finance product, you don't get that cashback. It's like a house. It lowers your pay off on your car. You don't pay it off sooner. It's just, you have to wait. I mean, you pay off soon.

Three or four years or whatever you finance it for before you get it back. Anyway, final paperwork matched the worksheet, except now there was a little more, a $279 electronic filing fee, which was not revealed. That was on the beginning. That was on the worksheet. Yeah, yeah. So that's a no-no. And here's what I don't like.

When we finish, Wally, the F&I manager, handed a service. paperwork on a credit card size thumb drive. That's auto correct. Damn auto correct. And when Agent Lightning called me to apologize for buying the car from our competition, I asked her how much she paid. She said she wasn't sure because they had given her this thumb drive and she didn't know how to use it.

So other dealers are doing this and it's become fairly popular. The dealers are offering this. and I had no problem with offering it, I think too many people rely on paper, and they should be given. I think it should be handed side by side. I would prefer the electronic thing because I'd put it right in my computer and I could access it any time, but give me the paperwork too. Yeah, you need both, and it's too easy to lose the thumb drive. I know you can lose paperwork too, but it's not as likely. And so there we are.

Christian was working on getting my new ref already while my husband and I were in Wally's office. of an I manager. We came out. He was waiting with the keys, books, and manuals. He helped us download the Toyota app on our phones and help set up everything. We thanked him, drove home together in our beautiful new ride,

and it is a beautiful car. There's a picture of it right there. And you can see how you would be emotionally involved with that beautiful Rav4 hybrid that are practically, I mean, they're like, you can't buy them. They're not available. They don't exist.

She got lucky and she found it. Oh, and of course, Toyo Guard was part of the whole product too, so you could bump the profit up a little further. The MSRP, by the way, manufacturer-assisted retail price is a misnomer because the Toyo Guard for $700 is put on by the distributor, not the manufacturer. So there's a, the Toyo Guard.

Guard cost the dealers about $250 and they sell it for $700. Yeah, $6.99. And so we did an analysis. So it was pretty brutal. So she paid a total of including the junk fees $5,380 over MSRP. And then an additional, the finance products were another $4,652. So I'm guessing probably around a $12,000 profit. Yeah, $12,000 profit with the back end.

The other part of this is taking the car home immediately. And on the, I have my magnified last in my briefcase, but they have both the, they have the arbitration agreement. She signed, which most dealers do. We don't, but most dealers do. Arbitration says you can't sue the dealer. You have to take it through the American arbitration agreement procedure, which is the deck is stacked for the seller and not the buyer.

So when you lose your right to take a dealer to court to sue him, you've lost a lot. Also, it has here on the thumb drive that she didn't see or didn't read that when she takes the car home, she can't bring it back. Sale is final. Once you sign the papers, you take the car home. A lot of people think there's a 72-hour right of rescission of the contract. That's only for home solicitation sales, and it does not apply to anything else. And mortgages.

Yeah, exactly. But almost all products, when you buy it and take it home, you own it. And even if you say they misled you or overcharge you, you can't get out of it. So there we are. the most unusual shopping report we've ever had on this show. Exactly. And our mystery shopper succumbed. We took it all the way.

And the bottom line is, if it happened to Agent Lightning, it can happen to you. And you have to be careful because emotion is a very powerful driver of what we do in life. We don't like to admit it, but we all have it. Stu has it, Rick has it, Jonathan has it, I have it, Nancy has it, we make decisions in life on a motion. So don't bring yourself into a position where you're going to let emotion put you in that position. It's hard to anticipate. There's so many things working against you. You've got your emotions and then the fear of embarrassing yourself, you know, wasting people's times, you feel obligated to the people.

So that's a sales training technique. You build obligation. You build commitment. By the long you spend time with somebody, they feel that they owe you something. There's a saying among car salespeople is you continue selling until they buy or they die. So you invest your time. And the longer you keep a person at the car dealership, the longer they feel obligated to you because you're a salesperson, you're paid a commission.

They feel like this poor guy has been out in the hot sun He waited for me for two hours before I got there And he spent another two hours with me So all that figures into your psyche We recommend on this show This radio show that you don't go into car dealerships That you do it online by telephone And make all your decisions, do your research

Before you ever ever You should only actually go into the car dealership to take delivery of the car. Now, we don't, that's totally impractical, but minimize it. Certainly don't do the buying experience there. Go in to look at the car and drive it, but do not go in there to make a decision

of whether or not to buy it. There we are. Well, we have grades coming in, and we have from Frank, unusual mystery shopping report. Obviously, you have to give the dealership a passing grade. It's still a seller's market, C-minus, and that's a very generous grade.

the Audi SQ5 we purchased from Brian at the store dealership was at MSRP. So good job, Frank. Bob gives a C for Treasure Coast Toyota. He says, I bet your dog would do a good job in the box. He would. He's just very, he's not high pressure dog. He's very nice. Mark, too many fees, C minus.

Now, my grade, one thing bothered me more than all of it, and I'm going to give them the lowest, I'm keeping them out of D-minus. It was, yes, they're doing what everybody else is doing, so they should be around the C. They snuck in a $279 junk fee that was never discussed. It was on the final paperwork in F&I. At that point, you know, it's too late to do anything at that point. So that was really sneaky. So D minus for me, I'll probably have the lowest grade.

Well, that's slept by me, too. I'm glad you reminded me about that, Rick. Kirk, in West Buy God, Virginia, generally truthful dealership equals a C. horrible price add-ons and undisclosed e-filing fee Kirk caught that one too but probably the best she could get on an on-the-lot hybrid

and yeah I mean B and as it was there let's see here we have we have another D-minus that came in we have somebody concurring with my D-minus so that's good

there we go Tim Gilliland glad agent well he says agent Thunder. Actually, he meant Agent Lightning is happy, but no car buying for me until market adjustments are in our rear view mirror. The C. Kyle in Pennsylvania,

his comments, he was rather heartbroken that she got stuck with this situation. They had to buy the car. F. went to Treasure Coast looking for treasure and got killed by pirates. Brian said Letko. 12,000 over MSRP, Treasure Coast gets

a D from me. And Kyle actually goes to X's, I'd ride a bike for eight more months if it meant saving $10,000. Mark Ryan, C-minus. As an expert mystery shopper, I was surprised at all the extras she purchased. As her cover has been exposed, are you afraid of Treasure Coast sharing her details with the other dealers now? And I said, I don't think she actually got exposed in this. I think she still can do mystery shops secret. And for myself...

They don't have a radio show, so I don't know how they're going to be. get it out there. I agree with Stu D-minus for my grade. Okay, before we run out of time here, we have two more votes. I, well, I want to take a shower, first of all. Transparency, honesty, it didn't exist. This is old school. And I'll tell you what, folks, as I always say, it's a minefield out there. For Treasure Coast, Toyota, from me, they get an F. boy I knew that was coming I had a few I'm gonna move up to a C minus from a D minus I almost wanted to do

you I agree with two on the D minus part of it is partly the fact that I don't want anyone to say it was sour grapes with us and so I'll do them a favor give him a C minus and again it can't be sour grapes for us because Agent Lightning is still

going to take the Highlander she's ordering So she's going to give the rap for her to her daughter. Okay, folks, thank you for tuning in. You're an important part of the show, as I say, every week. Tune in next week. We'll be right back here Saturday morning at 8 a.m. Have a wonderful weekend.