Earl Stewart on Cars - 08.18.2018 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of West Palm Beach Kia

Episode Date: August 18, 2018

Earl answers various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Agent X visits West Palm Beach Kia to purchase a car identified as having a recalled Takata Airbag. Earl Stewart is one of the most successful car dealers in the nation. This podcast gives you the benefit of his 40+ years as a car dealer and helps you turn the terror of buying, leasing, or servicing a car into a triumphant experience. Listen to the Earl Stewart on Cars radio program every Saturday morning live from 8am to 10 am eastern time, or online on http://www.streamearloncars.com. Call in with your questions during the live show toll free at [phone]. You can also send a text to Earl and his expert team during the live show at [phone]. We are now on Facebook Live every Saturday between 8am and 10am. Go to facebook.com/earloncars to also watch it live or to watch a replay in case you missed it. Uncover additional automotive tips and facts at http://www.earlstewartoncars.com and follow Earl's tweets @EarlonCars. Watch Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars. “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”

Welcome to Earl Stewart on Cars with Earl and Nancy Stewart. Reach them with your questions at 877-960. Here's Earl and Nancy. Good morning, everybody. Boy, that weak flu, didn't it? This is Earl Stewart on Cars. I'm Earl. I'm also known as a recovering car dealer,

and I know I'm on the True Oldie channel, which is a great 60s and 70s music channel, but you're not going to hear any music for two hours. Unless what I tell you is music to your ears, which is going to be trying to help you being a void getting ripped off by a car dealer. Harsh words, and I cringe a little bit when I say ripped off. I don't like the term. I say ripped off because it gets your attention. I probably should say taken advantage of by a car dealer.

But I like to stir it up a little bit. I had a nickname in school. They called me an egg beater because I like to stir things up. car dealers deserve the reputation, I'm sorry to say. Not all, certainly. I mean, all lawyers don't deserve a negative reputation. All congressmen don't deserve a negative reputation. But most car dealers do, and the proof in the pudding is the Gallup annual poll

and honesty and ethics and professions. Now, trust me, or you don't have to trust me, you can Google it. Just Google, put in car dealers. Gallup annual poll, honesty, and ethics and professions. Just Google that. You'll pull up the actual poll, and you'll find out they have data going back to 1977. So what is that? 23, 33, that's 41 years.

41 years car dealers have been measured in public sentiment in the United States, and they have ranked at the bottom of the list in honesty and ethics. That's a sad statement, isn't it? I mean, it's a huge profession, car dealers. I mean, there's tens of thousands of car dealers used and new. And it's one of the most expensive items you buy, second to a home, I presume. The total annual expenditure on automobiles is off the, you can't believe. Would it be billions, Rick?

Like, certainly it would be hundreds of millions, probably billions. I would say billions, too. So here's the second largest expenditure we make is handled by a group of car dealers that aren't treating you're right. So I feel like it's time for us to help, and we've been doing this, by the way, for 10 years. We've got Tina from Bonanilla Springs holding. Tina, let me just say a few more words here. Tina, by the way, is our best female caller. She's one of our best callers.

Let me rephrase that. She's our best caller. She's the most informed. And we really love to hear from Tina. So if you just hang in there for a couple of minutes, I want to get through a couple things here, and then we will move right on to you and our other call us because calling is the name of the game.

Input from people like Tina. You call us at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-60. 772-497-6530, and as I say, the call-in number is 877-960-99-60. Your calls are really cool. We used to have an agenda on the show. I even tried another agenda last week, but we find out your calls really are what's on the moment, on the mind, current that we need to address. And Tina always has a ton of great stuff. and your questions and your experiences that you may have had with car dealers are extremely important. Call in for information, calling for constructive criticism. And before we go to Tina, I want to give out a new thing we've done. It's an anonymous link, a web link that you can go to.

And we're getting very good feedback on this anonymous link. A lot of people would like to make constructive criticism or otherwise, but people don't like to be identified. I mean, if you've got a friend, and let's say he's got bad breath, you don't like to tell your friend, hey, you need to start using more listering. I mean... We've known people who didn't have a problem. We know some people who can do that, but most people can't.

So if you think we've got bad breath, we'd like to hear from you, and you can reach us anonymously at Your Anonymous Feedback.com. www. Your Y-O-U-R-Nonymous, A-N-O-N-Y-M-O-U-S dot com. Your Anonymous Feedback.com And it'll come to us anonymously. You can request a reply, and when we reply to you,

it'll be through this web service. So we still remain anonymous. Your anonymity is never going to be in question. So we love some good constructive criticism, but you may be a little bit too polite to make directly Anonymous, Your Anonymous Feedback.com. So with that said, I think Nancy is our first female caller. Welcome, Tina. How are you today? Hi, how are you guys doing this morning?

Great. Welcome to the show. What can we do for you? Thank you. I need to issue a little bit of a retraction. I made a boobie last week. so I said that GMC trucks were the ones that were affected by the door latch and the trunk latch issue I was wrong about that it's actually a Ford door latch recall automakers who

has him 1.3 million F-150 super duty pickup truck so they're the ones that are affected and the problem with this is that you could be driving one of these vehicles and the door could pop open while you're driving so still a very dangerous situation that needs to be fixed

and the recall affects certain 2015 to 2017 model year F-150 trucks, the nation's best-seller, and certain 2017 Super Duty F-Straised trucks. So I just had to fix my booty there. Well, Tina, thanks for setting the record straight. We've made many mistakes on the show, and that's the reason we like the call-ins. And anyway, set us straight. And you set yourself straight, and that's great. So you folks that were worried about the GM trucks, it's the Ford F-1.

50, and we appreciate you're correcting that. No problem. And the other subject I really want to touch on is we really haven't talked about kids in a while, and you know me the safety clean. So I was reading statistics on the use of child restraint seats and infant restraint seats, and it's scary. Did you know that when parents leave the hospital with their newborn babies, 96% of them are not using the rear-facing car seat correctly?

They are making one critical error. And this is according to the NHTSA. And the NHTSA has great advice on how to properly use car seats and booster seats. The number one killer of children from the ages of infancy to 13 is correct. Well, that's interesting. That's why I got my son, Stu's attention, because he has three babies not too long. Both are not babies anymore.

Another teenagers, but I do remember that day. I remember sweating, stress, out how to get them strapped in properly. I remember the drive of them from the hospital. I was driving like 20 miles an hour. Everybody on the road was a maniac. It was very stressful. And now there's so many options in learning

how to use those car seats, those devices. And you know, all of this testing that is done on seat belts and you know, the airbags, there was a time whenever they didn't even take into consideration.

Well, children maybe a smaller frame person referring to women and so my point here is that the laws have changed tremendously and we are moving in a good direction. Tell me, for an old guy that hasn't had any small kids in a while, some of you that understand this, a baby in a car seat, the current safest spot is in the back seat, I would presume. And are they supposed to be in the seat facing forward? After a certain age, when they're infants, they're rear-facing.

Okay. Yeah. Because I would think rear-facing would always be safer because you would certainly have an easy, you know, absorb the energy. Yeah, when they get too big, they have to turn them around. Well, thanks, Dana. That's a very important advice. We've got a lot of people out there with kids and grandkids that affect.

I appreciate your calling that to our attention. Yeah, I think it's a very important thing because when I was reading the statistic, I thought, wow, I need to talk about this on the radio show because so many listeners have kids or they have grandkids or even great grandkids, and our children are precious. Everybody's life is precious, but especially a young child, and when you hear something to the effect of kids' main cause of death is car accidents, it makes you want to do everything you can to prevent that. Is there a safety standard for pets, especially doggies? I see a lot of dogs running around free inside vehicles. The thing that really chills me is when I see them running free in the back of pickup trucks. I don't know of any laws that affect that there should be, don't you think? Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely. And there are seats, and there are restraint seats for dogs, too, especially small and medium-sized dogs. Larger-sized dogs, I'm not sure, but, you know, it would depend upon the dog because most dogs. I know love riding in the car. They love it. They just think it's the greatest thing ever. Oh, yeah. But a lot of dogs

don't like to be restrained, so I don't like seeing them running around in cars either, but the truck bed, no. I remember, I think it was one of the actresses from MASH. I can't remember her name. She was the limit. Loretta. Loretta. Her name was escaping me.

But she had a public service announcement, and she said, I know that dogs love to be in the back or the pickup truck, but it's not the Yeah, they also like to stick their head out to Wanda, which is not a good idea. But I don't know. Maybe I'm going to probably get some calls from dogs on this because they say, you know, I'm thinking, hey, don't take away my freedom.

Right. They look so happy with their head up with it. Right. You know, the greatest rule and law that I can suggest is, well, adults having pets and keeping those pets under control, whether they're on the beach, on the side, sidewalk or in the car. And they're like a child and you've got to protect them. And for a dog to be in the car loose and fancy free is not my cup of tea. If there's a dog in my car, that dog is in a proper car seat and they have them today. So whether there's a law that's been enforced, I haven't checked on that lately. But for me, it's called being responsible. Rick? Yes, absolutely.

Well, I've found them for my dog, 65-pound dog, that she is a hyper-maniac. The best thing I do is I have one of those barrier, like, it's like a barred wall that I put up along the, right, along the backseat of my pickup, and I actually hook it down with ratcheting tie straps, the ratching straps, so it's solid as a rock. and my dog rides in the back seat where, you know, at least if something happens, she's contained in the back seat. But I've tried those harnesses to hook her to the seatbelt, and she literally just spins and flips until she's choking yourself. Sure, sure, sure. You're listening to Earl Stewart on dogs.

No, wait a minute. This is Earl Stewart on cars. With some restraints, you know, some dogs exceed the weight limit, so you have to make an adult, you know, decision to protect your baby, no matter if it's 20 pounds or 100 pounds, right? Any other questions? Are you there, too? No, that's pretty much all the info. Well, thank you.

Thank you very much. Two very important calls, and I respect you and congratulate you on catching your own error. We probably should have caught it, but we didn't, about the GM trucks versus the Ford trucks being the ones that are on the recall. Thanks for correcting that very much And please, please call again next week You're our very best caller Thank you very much I appreciate hearing that and I love talking to you guys

Thank you Tina Just to let you know there is actually an issue With the GMC and Chevy pickups With their tailgate latches Not securing properly Okay that's what I was talking about last week Yeah so that's probably where that little bit of confusion came in But you definitely brought up two great subjects for us

Thank you very much. You know, something Tina said reminded me is something that I read recently with kids and car seats, and we've talked about it on the show before, and that's the alerts that let you know that you might have left a child in the rear seat for the overheating deaths. And I think Nissan is making an alert system standard in all their cars. And I think it's starting in the next couple of years. So that's pretty good. Great move.

Save a lot of lives. That's lingered. That problem has lingered for a long, long time. And every week you pick up the paper, you'll turn on the news and another tragedy. So I wish all the manufacturers would jump on that bandwagon. Yes, adults being distracted. How do you forget a child in a car? I myself, well, I can't understand it.

At any rate, if you just tuned in, you're listening to Earl Stewart on Cars right here at the Oldies Channel. And we're going to be here for two hours. and I have a few things to share with you. One, very important. First, two new lady callers. Well, excuse me, female callers, as Earl would say. You don't have to be a lady, I mean. Female callers, $50, so give us a call.

Let us know how you feel about the show, or you may have some tips to share with us, or a question, 877-960-99. or you can text us at 772-4976530. Now back to the recovering car dealer. And we had a very interesting anonymous input on the link, Your Anonymous Feedback.com. I mentioned that before from last week's show.

And we talked about premium gasoline a little bit. and the anonymous feedback was from a regular caller who really loyal listener to the show and he was absolutely certain that it was better to use premium gas in cars period whether it was required or recommended and I wanted to clarify first of all thank you very much this is a kind of feedback we need because we know when we hear something like that that we didn't get our message across as clearly as we should. He mentioned on the feedback, I think I sent this to you, Rick, that Rick hesitated about the fact the message that we sent, and Nancy talked about this last week extensively, that if your manufacturer recommends premium gas, it's a big difference between recommending it's a semantics thing almost recommending and requiring okay if your manufacturer requires then you must use that premium gas you must

use it for the performance of your car if he recommends it you don't have to use it and there are a lot of reasons for that we got this information from consumer reports consumer reports extensively tested hundreds of cars using premium and regular and they also talked directly with the engineers at the different manufacturers to discuss this issue and consumer reports I'm not saying they're never wrong but you know I can't remember the last time they were wrong let's put it that way so if you're driving the car right now check to see what your manufacturer's recommendation or requirement is the requirements for premium use it if your

requirement if the recommendation sounds like a nuance it's not recommendation you can feel free to try regular now if you try the regular and you start hearing some painting or you feel a decrease in performance then you can always go back to premium but we don't think it's going to happen Rick pointed out last week that today's cars are so sophisticated before the show started he's telling me again hey the car's a total computer now exactly and so these computerized high-tech cars know what kind of gas you just put in. They adjust the engine to run to accommodate whatever fuel you put in.

You put in regular, whatever octane, the computer in your car knows what you put in the car. And it says, hey, I've got to adjust, you know, whatever they adjust to make a smooth ride and an economical ride. By the way, consumer reports measured fuel economy. No difference between premium and regular in cars where it was just. recommended not required. No difference in performance. So Mr. Anonymous, inputter,

thank you very much. Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous. Thank you very much for input. It was really helpful because if we didn't make it clear to you, we probably didn't make it clear to a lot of people. I would have to ask, this was Nancy's topic, and Rick chimed in.

Rick, do you have anything to add to that? No, actually, you covered it beautifully there. and with just one little add-it thought is that there are some cars that actually run better on regular fuel. I didn't know. Believe it or not, hybrid cars generally run better on regular versus the higher octane of premium fuels. I did not know that. Simply because of the design of the engine.

That's amazing. I, you know, here I've been on the business for 50 years. I love the show because I learned from you, our listeners. I also learned from the folks on the panel. I mean, Rick, he's been doing automotive computer scientists. We used to call him a mechanic when he was much younger. And then as he entered puberty, we started calling him an auto tech. And now we call him an auto computer scientist.

Yeah. Been doing this for 25 years about, right? Yeah. Nancy, how was your topic? What about? Good point. And Rick was very accurate. One thing that I have to add to what Earl just said was that.

was that the information came from a very reliable source and if you think that Rick's got credentials and he's been at this for a long time check out how long Consumer Report has been around so that's something you might want to pick up take a look at there's an extensive article in the Consumer Report. Again, you're listening to Earl Stewart on Cars right here

as a true oldie channel and we'd love for you to give us a call at 877-960 or you can text us at 792-497-6-530 continuing with the conversation about your

anonymous feedback.com my email that I received and I so appreciated first I want to thank that person for emailing me on the topic that they want to to discuss and they wanted to let me know that the boys club well you if you want to fight for women this is i'll read it to you exactly what it said so there's no mistakes here the boys club

you want to fight for women don't call something or label something that doesn't exist no boy has ever a club meeting to open press women. And there may be some typographical errors there that he or she made, but I'm reading what's in front of me. You're giving men power and cause due to you, and cause due to you looking down on them by labeling them collectively as being the boys club. Please, Nancy, change your ways. You are not helping the cause. Please stop using that term. term. Well, Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous, I certainly wish that I could take, well, the credit for the boys' club. But unfortunately, there have been many experts that have referred to the boys' club,

and it's almost like going back and watching Mad Men. So, number one, I apologize to you. If I've offended you, I thank you for the email. You and I are both intelligent. people and we're entitled entitled to our opinions and I hope that I hear from you again and I hope that you continue to listen to Earl Stewart on cars okay it's time to change topics

I think we have a text don't we Sue we have a couple of comments on our live Facebook video and you know the gentleman he's one of your Facebook friends a member of the Sunrise Club John Neal oh John yeah so John has a relative question and a humorous one.

Which one do you want me to go with? No, let's have a little humor. I love humor. Okay, well, so John says, Earl, I was criticized by someone on your Facebook page for having crooked teeth. I'm glad he didn't, my dad didn't see it because he paid a lot of money on my teeth.

So that's funny. But John wanted to know if you looked into the Kia Sorrento catching on fire any further that you had posted on your Facebook page. I think it was a few weeks ago. Yeah, we had another one burst into flame a couple of weeks ago, and I'm not sure whether this

is a trend or a fluke you never know. I mean there are certain vehicles that seem to gather more attention than others when they catch you on fire but I know nothing about a trend. By the way, on his humerus comment, John, we have a as I say, a rogue poster on my Facebook page

and... We call this trolls. Yeah, troll is a troll. And he's starting to get little personal and you're getting personal with John and you go to a person's profile on Facebook and you let a picture and you start

criticizing him when people criticize physical defects you've got to wonder about that person and I told John that I would block him but the reason I haven't blocked him yet is because I want him to get

all of his, he's actually making a fool out of himself so as long as he continues to make a fool out of himself Let him enjoy himself. And you handle that nasty remark beautifully, John, and you laughed at him. So as long as he does that, transparency is an important thing. This radio show, we thrive on transparency, and we try to tell it like it is, even when it's not going to behoove us and our cause.

I intend to talk about later about the recent insurance test on vans, many vans, the Toyota Sienna got a bad rating on safety. the Honda honesty got a good rating on safety and the Chrysler product the Pacifica came up with an in-between rating on safety so we tell it like it is the good the bad and the ugly and that's the reason I allow people

a little bit of leeway on the web, you know, on the radio show and on my website and any way else they want to comment so John you're a good friend, you're a great guy you're a good poster and thank you very much for your input 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6-530.

Now Earl will continue to share the text with our audience. Stu Will. Okay, so we got another text that came in from Frank and Jupiter, and he's just thanking us because he said he wants Earl and Nancy to know. He followed their advice on, and he sent a picture, and I'll show this to the camera, a picture of Consumer Reports. on the best and worst cars, trucks, and SUVs

and he was looking to buy an SUV, I believe. So he followed the advice and used consumer reports. Fantastic. Thank you, Frank. Yeah, I just don't know why Consumer Reports isn't the number one selling magazine in America. I really

don't know why it's not really the most important online website. They're just, I know I carry on about consumer reports. I just can't get over the fact how pristine and how much integrity they have because they will not accept advertising. I mean, almost every other source of information, Kelly Blue Book, Edmonds, you name it. I don't know anyone that doesn't accept advertising. If you accept advertising, you cannot be totally objective.

No. Just can't. And also, they won't even allow. This actually bothers me as a business person. I would love to be able to advertise and say consumer reports says that my product is the best. Consumer reports won't even allow me to do that. And the reason they won't is because that raises the possibility that I go to consumer reports and say, I'll give you a million dollars if you will make my product, number one.

And how many times is that? J.D. Powers allows that. JD powers very prestigious I'm not accusing them of compromising their integrity but I'm just telling you there is absolutely no question the consumer reports is totally accurate

and boy do they test stuff I mean Isn't that the truth? Good point to bring up. Yeah we just our washer died we just flooded the kitchen and it's going to cost more to repair dishwasher than to fix so where did we go

Nancy goes to consumer reports Bosch. I forget the model number. Then we go to Consumer Reports. Where can we buy a Bosch? Consumer Reports had a price on the Bosch. We called Lowe's. Lowe's had the model. And Lowe's had a slightly lower price than the Consumer Reports price. We buy the thing. They're going to install it probably the next couple of days. No-brainer. We got the best dishwasher on the planet, and we trust the source of information.

Absolutely. Consumer reports before you buy anything. Yeah. I really don't think that there are a whole lot of people that realize the length that consumer report goes to, and they do go to great lengths. That testing location for Consumer Report, the details, everything. It's like a Bible. And guess what?

Earl is looking forward to using that dishwasher. So there you go. 877, 960. Not so. Not so. I'm looking forward to not having to wash tissues by hand. We've been doing that for three days. Who?

Well, you have. I rinse my spoons. I always rinse my spoons. Is there an owl in here? Oh, yes. He's great at that. Boy, I'll tell you what. He's a real clean-up guy.

Very meticulous. I think I have a boss. I think I have a boss. I never too. I'm out. We have a, what do we have, a kitchen aid? Yes. Yes, we have a kitchen aid. We had a kitchen aid and it died.

The casket exploded. Back to Consumer Report, free and easy, I'll tell you what. To the point, all the testing, all the perks, all the details, it allows for transparency, honesty, and the best product. And it makes it easy to purchase, just like a car. Stu, we've got another text. Back to Mr. Earl Stewart. No, we've got to cross that out. I wanted to talk about something not related to cars, and we talked about dogs before.

It's easy to lapse into dogs because, you know, I can't help it. A lot of people, particularly Facebook friends, and a lot of you, because it's been a lot of publicity, have heard about the Bruhaha at the Palm Beach County Animal Control and Care Center in West Palm Beach. It's on Belvedere Road. And it was found out WPTV, Channel 5. went in and I believe Channel 12 may have Big Palm Beach Post article and the dogs were being kept in a very heated atmosphere of 95 degrees 90 degrees interestingly enough the Palm Beach County ordinance requires that they be kept in 85 or less I personally think 85 is too warm to keep a dog but they were violating their own ordinance Palm Beach County runs and controls the animal control and so I posted some Facebook criticism I was

pretty harsh and a lot of people saw that and then the Palm Beach Care and Control, Animal Rescue League I used to call them years ago, called Nancy and me, asked us to visit the place and talk to them and we went out there yesterday and we spent an hour and a half and I'm pleased to report that they have made significant changes already. They have opened up more windows, they bought more fans. Most importantly, they have purchased three giant portable air conditioners. Huge. I mean, you see these big generators behind Publix? I mean, these things are 50 feet long, 25 feet high. I mean, huge. And they have them installed. They will install them today. They have three kennels, and those were the kennels in question. When I was out

there yesterday, I looked at the thermometer. We couldn't find the thermometer in one kennel. I don't want to be negative about that. And the other thermometer was located right next to the door where it was cooler and it was 87 degrees but at any rate they will install the air conditioners today they are going to call me and report the temperature

and I will confirm the accurate temperature I promise you and I want you to know that I want to salute the volunteers out at PBCACC Palm Beach County Animal Control and Care these are the innocent people and those are the reason that I feel bad

about my harsh criticism because they work out there and they work in the heat with the dogs and they volunteer their time. My criticism is directed at the Palm Beach County Commission and the administration that runs the Palm Beach County Care and Control. That's who was directed at. And I want to thank the volunteers out there that work really hard. They also have about 75 or 80 employees of the county out there.

It's quite an operation. We definitely were impressed, and again, Earl and I thank the volunteers. What a fabulous organization out there, and it is just amazing. I never realized how many cats they have. They are covered up with the cats. Yeah, they can't find homes for cats. Keene, tiny little cats. They're just babies and big cats.

Sad problem. Yeah, definitely. They have to euthanize a lot of cats. Yeah, so we hope. to be in touch with you this afternoon over there at the Animal Control and Care. So, uh, kudos to all of you. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-4976530.

Now back to the recovering card. Yeah, crank up those phones, folks. Uh, you know, we're getting a few calls here, but you really do make the show and we'd love to hear from you. Uh, text are a little slow right down too. So remember, anonymous text, uh, don't have to dinner. yourself promise we won't track your phone number we will not do that 772 4976530 text us at area code 772 4976530 and of course call us love to

have you call 877 960 9960 877 960 960 and I would love to hear about your experiences with car dealerships. Good, bad, and ugly. And I got a great idea. I think some of the reasons you don't call about negative experiences is because you don't want to criticize a car dealership by name. You don't have to mention the name, but we always ask you too. So that's, now we have the anonymous. Yes, take advantage of that. website so if you have a horror story that you want to talk about a particular card dealership but you you hesitate to name him on on the air use our anonymous tip line which is your w u.r anonymous feedback your anonymous feedback.com you can use that for any comments but

particularly if you have something about another car dealership where you hesitate to name names So you're too polite. People don't like to get people in trouble. I have customers. I'm a toilet dealer, and I have customers that call me up, and they had a bad experience at my dealership. Yes, people do have bad experiences at my dealership.

Sure. We're not perfect, and far from it. And they will call me up, and they'll say, this salesman didn't do the right thing. I say, would you mind mentioning the name of the salesperson? I'd prefer not to. And I can understand why. So use the anonymous tip line.

www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. This is your way, excuse me, our way of not exposing you, but more than anything, learning what we're doing wrong, how we can approve it and move forward with continuous improvement. So help us out. Youranonymous Feedback.com. We're going to go to John, who's holding, Good morning, John.

Good morning to everyone. I want to discuss with on the ABC News on, it's an American milestone, August 18. It was the 10th millionth car that was built. The first came out in 41764 and the New York World's Fair. First day that it was announced, they sold 22,000 of them. In 18 months, they sold over $1 million at that, time. They had three plants, worked 10 hours shifts a day, six days a week. Anybody

care to guess what the car is? You know, I should know the answer because I was at that World's Fair. I think Rick knows. I remember the World's Fair. 18. What was it? I'm going to bet the Ford Mustang. That's what it is. You got it right there. It's a car that you can still buy today. It was so successful from the beginning because it was affordable. The base price on them was only 2350. There was sporty. There was stylish, was just the right size, and it's a very popular car, and today included, and they still make the convertible. Hey, John. What I want to say, just to show you how long it takes to make a million, this was a million in 18 months.

Corvette took 39 years in 1992 to make a million. Cadillac, on the other hand, was trying to think how Cadillac was in 1949, and that's 44 years, to make a million. So this is quite a milestone, an American success car with 10 million of them. And probably only the Model T or Model A were more popular than that. But to sell first day 22,000 cars on announcement is something. And I was at the World's Fair. I worked for corporate America in the beverage industry, and I remember the exhibit, and people were absolutely crazy over the style

and the looks of this car, which is the same today. I mean, at the beginning, they had so many options on it. I mean, there were four V8 engines alone that were like 165 horsepower to 271, air conditioning, you name the accessories, power steering, and the like. And then they got smart, and they came out with limited additions, like the Ford Roush, the Shelby, and those cars today, they bring in the three figures. So this is an American success car, and I just thought it was worth mentioning when you're building 10 million of them. Well, here's one other thought for you, John.

Can you guess what the price is for the retail price on a 2018 Ford Mustang Cobra Jet? 2018, I guess about 100 and some odd thousand? You're very close. This is coming from automotive news. news, and the 2018 Ford Mustang Cobra Jet is going to cost $130,000. Does it have a real jet on it? No, but I think it'll go almost as fast as one. Okay, I got a trivia question for both of you.

What is wrong with the horse, the Mustang, on the front grill of the Mustang? There's a problem where they made a mistake. It has three legs. Do you know, John? It's backwards. Yeah, it's running backwards. Horses just be running from left to right, the horse is running from right to left. Well, even today, they still call us the pulling car, and it's very successful because

I'm sorry, that makes no sense. They can run either way. There's certain models that you could buy of the Mustang collectible, and they'll still go up in value. That's very true, John. And those old Mustangs, they were some beautiful cars. Lee Ayacocca designed one heck of a car there. and I mean look what they did with them

you know when Roush got involved and who's the other one there Shelby Shelby Carol Shelby got Carol Shelby got involved with them they did some incredible things with those cars it put Ford back into the racing car division that car

They got really ugly in the 1980s Yeah The man it was he was behind it And he used to visit All of the three plants in Michigan and New Jersey and California, he visited those plants personally, and my friend was with Ford at the time,

and he was very successful as far as quality and, you know, strictness in the plants. But if you imagine building a car 10-hour shifts in six days a week just to meet the demand for it. Yeah. So this is an American icon, and it's a truly American success car. Exactly.

John, thanks so much. You know, I said earlier, Tina was our best caller. You're tied with Tina, John. I don't want to take away from me. Two of you are great callers. We really appreciate it. And plus, you call regularly, which is important. I hope you can call again next week.

Thank you for the compliment. You deserve it. Thank you so much, John. Keep those mailers coming. I love them. 877-960. Nor are you in Texas? I'll say it's 792, 497.

No, 7-7. 7-7-2. Give the number, 7-7. Go ahead. Give it out. I don't know. 7-7-4-9-7-6-5-30. Before I go on, I'll let you know that you can tune in probably an hour for our Mystery Shopping Report. It's a doozy. Also, you can also listen to Earl Stewart on cars any time, any place, any time, anywhere. I can't stress that enough. By listening to our podcast, you can listen to Earl Stewart on Cars podcast on Apple, SoundCloud, just about anywhere, and take advantage of it. The full list is on Earl on Cars.com. So there you go, no excuse. Listen to the radio show.

Stu, I think we got some text coming in. We do. We have one about the Costco Buying Club from Judy and Stort. She says, I use the Costco Buying Club to try to buy my Marano, and I was grabbed by a regular salesman. When I said I was using the Costco Club, he said he was who I should work with. I left after they put me through the usual ringer. Then I tried True Car, got a great deal on a better experience at another dealership.

Thanks for your advice, Erland, Nancy, Judy, and Stewart. Fantastic. Thank you, Judy. That is so typical. As a matter of fact, that reminds me of the mystery shopping report we have today. We had a mystery shopper, our best agent, Agent X, go into a car dealership. I'm not going to tell you the name of the car dealership because I want you car dealers out there to sweat. You're all listening.

You're all gathered around the radio. And you're all waiting. Or maybe your smartphones. I don't think Card dealers have smartphones. As soon as you're out of the sales meeting this morning. Exactly. We'll gather around the radio. We're not going to tell you, but I will tell you this.

when the mystery shopper called and made an appointment with a particular salesperson, he walked into the car dealership and another salesperson approached him and tried to sell him the car and really, really made it difficult for him to get the salesperson that he wanted to speak to. That's called skating, which is a vernacular in the car lingo, which means stealing one customer away from another salesman. So this happens all the time. And what's the name of our caller? Of our caller?

Judy. Judy, when you went in there and asked for the Costco salesperson, that was the, that's what they were doing. They were trying to skate you, to take you away from the Costco representative. The way to avoid that in the future is to go to the website, get the name, you can even often see a picture of that salesperson. And you can call ahead of time and say, I want to talk to Jim Jones. That's the Costco representative.

And if you go in there and they won't let you talk to Jim Jones, turn around and walk off. Sometimes they'll have multiple salespeople. I think we lost your audio there. Lost my audio. Nobody knows what happened here. Somebody else, give me your microphone. You can hear it? Oh, wait.

Oh, they can hear. Stu couldn't hear me. I don't care if you can hear me. But anyway. I'm okay. it's coming across fine on the air so anyway if you go into a car dealership to speak to a particular person particularly the Costco or true car representative

be sure you get that person because it is common practice for people to take the salesperson skate the salesperson and take the customer away I believe we have another text yes we do this is also from Stewart Lenny and Stewart if I disconnect my recall

to Cotta airbag from its power source have I eliminated the risk of an exploding on its own, or am I still in danger? Lenny and Stuart. If he has done what? If he disconnects his recall Takata airbag from its power source. Yes, I would say yes, but I'll let Rick Kearney be the official on that. Rick, if you disconnect your Takata defective airbag, presumably, because there's no fix available,

if you disconnect it from the source or have someone do the power source, are they safe at that point? uh that's actually a tricky question because and i'm i'm going to bring this out though it's a very rare situation there have been as far as i'm aware and able to find four reported cases of very old hondas one of the first ones to get these takata airbags that have that airbags deploy literally the the inflator explodes with no impact to the car no reason for it okay well no impact wouldn't necessarily mean no power. Well, it's, what's occurring is what they believe is happening, is that that ammonium nitrate propellant is degrading to the point of which it literally, well, I'll compare it to

dynamite. Spontaneous combustion. Very much so. I'll compare it to old dynamite that used to be used in mining. The dynamite was nitroglycerin soaked into sawdust, and it would sweat over time, and that nitroglycerin would start to come to the outside. We'll research that. And it could explode.

I would say unplug it for safety, but there's still a potential. So don't wait if the fix comes available. Okay. We have another text, I believe. Yeah, it's a comment on our live Facebook feed, which you can find at facebook.com

slash Earl On Cars. It's from Keith, and he says, I just purchased a new truck. The salesman was very helpful, and the young lady who handled the banking and all the paperwork was very good. at what she does. I must have had to sign my name 50 or 60 times. My last truck I purchased in 2000, a GMC. I only remember signing my name maybe five times. Well, that's interesting. I'd like to get some more details on that. I'd like to give the name of the dealership. We might

even send a mystery shopper in there to check 50 or 60 times sounds like an awful lot of signatures. Very excessive. And there are things that sometimes you sign that you don't know you're signing. I know that one of the things that I think is really, really deceitful is car dealerships will sometimes have customer rebates available and dealer rebates. Dealer rebates go straight to the dealer. Stu jump in here and correct me if I'm wrong. And so if it's a customer rebate, the customer has to agree to allow that rebate to go back to the dealer. Now, otherwise you're entitled to it.

You buy the car. It's a $1,000 rebate. You should get a $1,000 check, or you should get $1,000 off the price of the car. But if you don't know that there's a customer rebate, one of the papers you might assign was the fact that I hereby will my customer rebate back to you. And you didn't know that you did it. So you should always, I really feel silly when I'm saying this. You should always read everything you sign.

Nobody read. But to make it simpler, if you are signing a rebate for them where you're giving the dealer the right to keep that money, you better see that dollar amount on a line item on the buyer's order. Exactly. Very good point. So that's just one example. If you signed your name 40 times, then you signed your name more than you should. I'd love to know some of those things. One thing you're entitled to is a copy of everything you sign. Bingo. And I would call that car dealership, and I would demand a copy of everything. And if it doesn't look like you got everything, I would contact the dealer principal, the guy that owns the place, or certainly the general manager in control of the entire dealership. If that didn't work, I would call the finance lending institution.

I would really make a big deal out of it. But if you sign your name 40 times, you sign some stuff that you probably shouldn't sign. I would think maybe 10 signatures is probably a 10. There's too many. There's too many signatures, and this goes, I could do a whole show on. how stupid it is to have to sign your name on fine print that many times. Nobody reads those things. I consider myself a fairly sophisticated buyer, and I don't read stuff.

Even if you pay cash, you're still going to be paying it. When I went to Lowe's and I bought that dishwasher the other day, Nancy and I out there, we didn't read that contract. I mean, it would have taken me 20 minutes to read that contract. And if I read it, I wouldn't know what I was reading. The whole idea of disclosure in fine print is one of the biggest jokes of all time. But I'm getting off on a rant, and we should need to get going here. It's copying everything and anything, and I'm a fool for copying.

Take a look at my office, and it's covered up with copies. But they're very important because things move so rapidly when you're purchasing a vehicle, leasing a vehicle, even in service. you must have copies of what you signed. And if you didn't take them with you when you bought the car, by law, they have to retain those records for, what, seven years, I think? Seven years. So you can call the deal that you bought your car and you want copies of everything. You can still do it.

Yeah, exactly. Hey, if Mapleton can keep records for 20 years because they keep emailing me and they keep in the small and fine print, this email is being sent to you, Nancy Stewart, because you either showed interest purchasing, servicing, a vehicle at Napleton. Well,

lo and behold, at my age, I don't remember a whole lot, but Earl brought to my attention that about 20 years ago, I decided, you know, I wanted to have a little bit of fun, and I was going back and forth on the telephone with Napleton,

and they stored that in their memory bank. Yeah, they have to have a contact from a customer in order to enable them, to send you an email but what I didn't know that if it was 20 years ago that they would still have

my information how how does that happen I mean anyway that's a rhetoric question needs some more phone calls 877 960 9960

it's a little quiet here too quiet I like that when John Wayne says that something's coming yeah it's too quiet Mohawks chair call up. That's not politically correct

anymore. I knew. Okay. I'm sorry, I apologize. We learned up last night on Nurse Jackie. Yes. Do you remember that? Yes. Okay. Text number is 772 4976530. Text again is 772

4976530 and the phone number is 877-9-1960. Please call Rick as a... Question. I'm going to throw out just a public service announcement because we did have a text about Takata Airbags www.w.w.safercar.gov. It's the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's website.

There's a yellow box over to the right-hand side of the screen that you click on that and it will let you put in the VIN number from your car and search for any open safety campaigns on your car. do this for all of your cars your family's cars your friends cars check all of them folks you have no idea how many open campaigns there are on these cars it only takes a minute per car just to put that VIN number in and check and see if there are any open campaigns it's safercar.gov and I tell you folks it's I've spent the past three weeks I was doing firefighter training on how to handle hybrid cars for our first responders when they approach

these cars at accident scenes. And I mentioned this website at every one of these classes that I did. And I couldn't believe the number of these firefighters all of a sudden pulling out pens and writing this down this website because even they hadn't thought of it. And it's great information. Yeah, this is probably a stretch. But some folks out there, VIN stands for a vehicle identification number. Years ago, I used to call them serial numbers.

And it's a 17-digit number. So if you find a number, it's got 17-digits, letters, and numbers. And it's usually on the door jam. It'll be in your paperwork when you bought the... It'll be on your insurance card. Registration. Yep, on your registration. The bottom of your windshield, right on the driver's side.

Yeah. It's right there on the car, yep. Or it could be on your dash, stamped on the dash. And my car is stamped on the dash. I have a black dash and it's stamped, and you can't see it outside of that. And if you try to take a picture of it, the windshield, feel the flash reflects in the case. Don't worry, I have your VIN written.

I digress. Yep. Inside of the door jam. There's a sticker on the inside of your driver's side door jam. Okay. Now, I want to mention the mystery shop again. The reason I want to mention it is because it was rather egregious. It was a surprise.

It was a disappointment. I'm not going to give you the name of the dealership, but I'm going to say this. This dealer was on our recommended dealer list. We have a recommended dealer list, and we have a recommended deal list, a deal list and we have a do not buy from this dealer list and you can access that by going to

good dealer, bad dealer list.com. Good dealer, bad dealer, list.com. We sure give out a lot of URLs and I know it's confusing. The easiest is Earl on Cars because they're all right there. You go to Earl on Cars, you get all this stuff. And when you go to Earl on Cars, you go for Good Dealer Bad Deer List, click on that.

We're taking one dealer off that Good Dealer list today and we'll be talking about that. We haven't voted yet. I know we haven't. We know where it's going, though. I'm so embarrassed. That's kind of like I prejudged it.

That's okay. Yeah. But I just know from experience, this is so egregious. It was pretty obvious. So you car dealers out there sweat, okay? I want you to sweat because it might be you. And we had a very good report, didn't we? The last time we shopped.

And I think what this tells us is that car dealerships are made up of a lot of people. And you have good people and bad people. I mean, I've got a car dealership. And if I told you I didn't have any bad people there, I'd be probably lying to you. I have 180 people working at my dealership. And if I didn't have one or two rotten apples, I would be delusional. Everybody. So when you went to car dealership, the individual that you're dealing with can be the corporate, not the owner, the general manager, or even the sales manager. Yeah, exactly. And we're all striving for continuous improvement and we all make mistakes and there isn't anyone who doesn't so as long as you're aware of those mistakes and you try to improve that's three quarters of the

battle we're going to go to frank good morning frank hey good morning earl nancy morning um just to give you a little feedback my girlfriend retired about a month ago and we've been in the market for a car to replace the car she gave to her son she had a Honda cord only three years old, but he needed a better car. So anyway, now we've been in the market looking for cars or possibly even a truck. Our very first stop was your dealership. Very rewarding, very nice.

Unfortunately, the car that she was looking at didn't quite have the visibility that she was hoping for. But it was an interesting time. From there, we'd go on to other dealerships, and I'll tell about yesterday, we went all the way down to almost Miami to a place called H. Greg, where they sell

a lot of used cars. It's a very big dealer, I guess, in Canada, and he's trying to make his mark down here. Frank, spell that, I didn't get the name. H, H is in hotel, Greg. G is in golf, R is a Romo, E is an echo, and just one G. H, Greg.

Never heard of them, yeah. Yeah, they're really quite big. My financial advisor told me to go down there because he gets such great deals. And I guess if you want some really high-end cars, like the Ferraris and the Porsches, and the BMWs, they got, and Maserati's, oh, my goodness, there's more than you shake a stick at.

Wow. I had a thousand down there. Wow. But anyway, the reason we went down there was to look at two different vehicles that was on their website, may still be there, and didn't look this morning. Their Ford F-150 pickups, the 2018 models, specifically saying they were the King Ranch version, and it was very well spelled out that the MSRPs are in the, I-50s, and they're selling for only $28,000 or $29,000.

I said, this seems too good to be true. So, yeah, I mean, you can see where this is going. So, and I was very specific with the representative saying, is this really a king ranch? Because all the items they had listed showed it should have been a king ranch. But to go from MSRP of $57,000 to $29,000, especially on a 6,000 miles used, 2018, seems That's incredible. I'm looking at their listing right now for this truck.

Yeah. See if they still got them in the... They do. This is the one. This is the 2018 Ford F-150 King Ranch for 28798. Wow. Well, okay, here's the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say. Lori and I got up early yesterday morning to make the drive down to Miami in rush hour traffic.

We got there before the dealer opened a little after eight. huge dealership. In fact, that's where I sent you a picture. We saw a Toyota pickup truck from the 1700s. It's really amazing to leave that model. But anyway, as it was, they were just plain old XLTs. They weren't even Lariats. They were XLTs, which obviously was very false advertising.

And I was more than disappointed. But I mentioned it, and they were actually the one manager. I think I got, I should get my glasses. Anyway, Tori Lynn, I believe it is. He understood my frustration. He said, yeah, this is wrong. This is just a computer thing. So anyway, he said, here, let me at least go fill your car with gas.

Well, that was actually kind of, you know, a respectable, nice thing to do. It was. Yeah, so I didn't even ask for it. He offered it. So there are some dealers out there when they make mistakes owe up to it. And he says, yeah, we've got to get it checked. But unfortunately, I guess it's still there this morning. and checked that well.

Yeah, he hasn't got around it. Still listed, yeah, but I got to say, they have a really nice website. Yeah. I mean, this is beautiful. Well, that's interesting. Really interesting there. What, I've never heard of a sales manager or salesman confessing, apologizing, and giving the customer free tank of gas.

It is, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, brilliant deception. I've done that. Not to deceive. Yeah, well. No, no, no, this guy, this guy, this guy. This guy really seemed genuine, remorseful. Well, Frank, you have to remember.

I'm trying to his name is Tori Lynn, Tori Lynn. And I told him about your show. I said, you're going to be on the radio tomorrow, buddy. Because you should listen to this show. And so anyway, it was. And afterwards, he did suggest a restaurant. I think you were threatening him, Frank. And then we went to another Ford dealer down there,

and it's the same malarkey that you talk about. on your show all the time. I mean, it's amazing. I'm not going to make any judgment here, but I will say this, that to get this listing on their website as a King Ranch, it had have been a manual entry because the VIN, I just tried to do an appraisal on it.

The VIN does not reveal whether it's the King Ranch model or not. You have to manually select that. So it could have been a fat finger, so it might have clicked the wrong checkbox, but it's this wasn't an automated mistake, in other words. Oh, huh. Yeah. Well, we saw King Ranch just down

the street from you at um oh let me think the guy mullinacs oh my good yeah thank you and um actually ran across the gentleman i love a dropin um earl's name the response you see can be everything from discord hatred it's actually you know oh yeah he's a nice guy i met a guy you may know scott nichols sounds familiar scott nichols they might have a john nichols who works for us he's listening right now uh-huh oh okay well anyway he's a university of Miami graduate like I am. Of course, he's younger than I am, but such his life.

It seems like everyone's getting to that point now. But in any event, very nice guy. His dealership is nice. He also doesn't have the dealer fees. If they are, they're hidden very well. Very small fees, I recall. $102. Yeah, they call it something else.

They used to have zero. We test drove it. It's an interesting truck. I mean, the interior is lovely. And it's the first actual vehicle my girlfriend now likes. I mean, you know, unfortunately, the sticker price is kind of scary. But, and one quick, after we went to the dealership yesterday, we went to Outback Restaurant down here in Jupiter.

And at the table, these people were coming out, and they were smiling. We got talking about this and that and about car buying it. They said, we just bought a car, a Camry. I said, from Earl Stewart. They said, yes, from Earl Stewart. Just picked it up yesterday, a black or day before yesterday. and they were so happy with your dealership with the exception of one small thing

the salesman I guess being from another country was a little hard to understand it and explaining some of the systems in the car I said well just go back another time they've got other people that can help you out and they go do you work from them? No I just like the company in the show

but anyway but yeah you know Frank I've got to tell you I got to compliment you this is the best call we've had probably ever and you really covered a lot and I'm not you know I'm not saying because of the compliments I'm saying that that helped you know love compliments but but you really you're an astute buyer and Lori's very happy to have you along I'm sure and the idea that this interesting thing that happened at the Luxury car dealer, H. Gregg.

We're going to mystery shop him and go down there and find out the real story. I'd love to give him if it was a sincere gesture they made and they correct the problem. We'll put them on a recommended dealer list. But we'll go down there undercover and see if it was just extremely clever deceit on Torrey's part. But it was a great call, Frank. thank you so much. I hope you keep on calling. I really do. Hey, Frank. We will. And we learn a lot from you guys. I mean, we use some of your suggestions.

That's why she would never go in alone. Yeah. Yeah. And we also try with the Costco price, and we're both military. And I also carried our federal marshal badge at one point in my career. Yeah. Very educated consumers. Hey, Frank, would you stay on the line and give Colin and our... Before we get rid of Frank, can I ask you? Oh, yes. Frank, USA member, you just rang a bell with me.

U.S.S.A. U.S.S.A. You qualify for a special discount from TrueCar, U.S.AA members. So remember that you can, if you're shopping for a new car or used car, you get a special preference with True Car. True Car is the largest single stockholder. I mean, USAA is the largest single stockholder. and True Car. They own 20% of TrueCar. So you're being a veteran and Lori being a veteran, you both qualify. Yeah, great information. Frank, I want to compliment you for going all the

way down to Miami with your girlfriend. You know, you have so much power in numbers. So that was a great effort on your part. And I'd like you to share your phone number, if you wouldn't mind, with Colin, who's in our control room. I'd like to give you a call after the show if you don't mind. I have a couple questions for you that I don't have time to get into right now. Can you do that?

Oh, absolutely. Okay, Frank. Thank you so much to you and Lori and keep calling, keep listening. We enjoy your company. Yeah, you'll be really shocked at where we might be doing it in a few hours. Uh-oh.

We found the truck we're looking for in Daytona. Oh, boy. So we're going to probably drive there. You are very serious. My goodness gracious. That is fantastic. You got to videotape the experience and send it to us. That's another, yeah.

You didn't want to see me last night. I looked like death formed over. I mean, I'm getting too old to make all these drives. Stay behind the camera then. Yeah, exactly. Stay behind the camera. And guess what? I'd love to see the look on the salesperson, the owner, if that's possible, of the dealership.

When you say anything and everything about Earl Stewart. that would be magical I tell you it's like a lightning rod but there's a lot of you know positive stuff but probably more negative unfortunately because they just don't like how you've been exposing them

I don't wear this cavalier vest for nothing I have a couple dead bolts on our front door and we spend a lot of time in the backyard okay listen call us again I'll leave you the information I'll stay by yeah thank you so much

that was Frank boy I'll tell you what a great caller we have so many great callers and you know Earl was talking about Tina earlier and then we had I think Judy as far as the Texas concerned you know what I want to give a shout out to Desiree I have not heard from you young lady in quite a while what a great caller you've been and a few of the ladies have kind of like disappeared and I just want to let you know that any question anything at all that you want discuss. It's all important. Any question and every question. So ladies, remember,

give us a call. I'd love to hear from you. The boys would love to hear from you. 877960 or you can text us at 772-4976530. Now, I believe the recovering card year is going to go over some text messages. The text are pouring in, Stu.

Sorry, Stu. That's right. They're piling up, and I think we get through them pretty quickly. The first one, inspired by our discussion on signatures, says, I signed a power of attorney when I bought my car. Should I be worried that this could be abused by the dealer? The power of attorney is necessary for the dealer to process tag work, but what you need to do is don't ever sign a blank document power of attorney. You need to know specifically what that power attorney will be applied for.

But in and of itself, the power of attorney, it's a limited power of attorney, by the way, it's not a general power of attorney, and it's limited to the specific institution that the, let's say it's the tag agency that the cardio has to deal with. Okay. The next one comes on our live Facebook feed, and it's from Sharon, and she said AAA steered me to a Jupiter business to replace a blown tire. $1,500 later to replace one tire. I made the mistake of not going to my trust mechanic Mike's Auto and Jupiter.

Elder abuse, question mark. The next comment. On the AAA, should I comment on that? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. AAA is a good outfit. They have their approved dealer list. And like anybody else, True Car, Costco, their approved dealer list is only good as the dealer that's approved.

They don't shop, they don't check, they don't follow up. You should complain to AAA because if you complain to AAA, they will at least put a strike against that tire guy, so we won't try to take advantage of somebody else again or else they'll throw them off the team. Yeah. We have a follow-up comment from Keith, who mentioned the last purchase he made where he signed 40 to 50 times. He concedes it might have been a slight exaggeration more like 30 times, so he just wanted to get that on the record.

Yeah, still too many, 30. Too many. Yeah, maybe 10 or 12, but the 30 was a, yes. Exactly. And then also we have, oh, a comment, this is on USAA, who must have been listening a minute ago. I said, USAA gave me a reduced interest rate in 2016, but not an actual discount. Is this new? I don't know.

It varies. USAA programs, it's entirely up to them. They are the most admired insurance company. They have high integrity. They are a great outfit. And you're very fortunate if you are a USAA member, take advantage with their benefits. And anything to do with your car, they can really help you. And as I say, they are partners with true car.

So USAA members, by all means, take advantage of true car. It could be a subsidized interest rate or it could be a discount on the car. car great information uh keith we'll get right to you do we have another text we cleared them out okay keith good morning welcome to earl steward on cars hey good morning how you doing there doing great thanks for the call hey hey i finally picked up my my truck i got from actually i got it from earl the other day last week i'm the one who talked about uh possibly signing close like 30 times it seemed like, it just, it seemed like a whole lot of signatures

and stuff. It's crazy. It's been quite a while, since I purchased a new car. Yeah. It just seemed wild that there were so many things assigned. But the, we end up getting the tundra and

the extra cab. Very, very, very happy with that. Using this, can be using it for traveling. Great. Well, you You bought the car that is recommended by Consumer Reports as the number one truck. And I know I say Consumer Reports too much. I report the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Earlier I said that the Toyota Sienna got a bad crash rating, and the good news is some of their models have good ratings. This case here, Consumer Report ranks the Tundra the number one vehicle. You'll find that no matter what the manufacturer is, The ratings vary from model to model. You can have a manufacturer with a terrible model they build, and another one will be a great model. So you picked one of the best trucks on the market, and congratulations. Yeah, my son got his probably about four years ago, five years ago for me, and he's got about 80,000 miles on it.

And he's been super happy with it, and that's why he came in with me and helped me pick out the one that I got. Great. Well, Keith, thanks so much for my daughter. Let us know. My daughter will probably be the next on the list to get a new car from you. Beautiful. Okay, Keith, thank you very much. Yes, thank you.

Thank you. Call on again anytime, and we'd love to hear from you next week if you have the time. I appreciate. Thanks, Earl. Take care. Bye-bye. 877-960-960, or you can text us at 7-7-2-49-30. Now back to the recovering car dealer.

I brought in something that Nancy will remember because we've been on the show for 10 years. Where's the magnifying glass? I forgot the magnifying glass. Back 10 years ago, this used to be a big part of the show, the Auto Classified. Now there's no more auto classified. Well, except for Roger Dean Chevrolet. They're the last of the bohegans. He did what you did in the 80s.

Yeah, yeah. And this is what used to be. I mean, virtually all the ads, the TV, there was no such thing as Social media, no Facebook, no nothing, and no online to speak of, and everybody advertised, and the fine print, there's a fine print there at the

bottom, and it's kind of nostalgia to go through this. I get a kick out of reading the fine print. Yeah, walking dog memory lane. They have stock numbers with every vehicle, and they give the stock number and the fine print,

and the stock number says I'll give you an example of stock number STK period T18494 Parentheses 7 So that's the code number for a specific car Why do they put these stock numbers in? Because they said there's only one vehicle available

You can't buy that one vehicle Also the Florida law says that you can You must advertise include the dealer fee and the advertised price of every vehicle So when you come in, they have the vehicle with the stock number in the fine print. They have that advertised with a dealer fee in it.

But when you come in, that car is sold. Oops, car is sold. But they find another one just like it, right? Well, the other one just like it is just like it, except it wasn't advertised so they can now add their dealer fee. And the dealer fee is often not even disclosed. In this case here, I think Roger Dean's dealer fee is around $7 or $800. but they don't say it's seven or eight hundred bucks they just say plus dealer fee and the fine print and of course the other fine print game and you can't read this i mean i'll hold it up to the camera you can't read that you need the mic i can do it if i put it up this close to my eyes

uh they say that you must be eligible for all rebates and one of the rebates is the competitive lease or the competitive buyer or the loyalty or a member of the USAA or a member of the Farmer's Credit Union, they can make the rebates anything they want. If you're not eligible, the advertised price does not apply. So a little nostalgia. Fortunately, newspapers are practically gone, and there's only one dealer still advertising, and that's Roger Dean Chardley.

It was amazing how many classified advertisements we brought in on a Saturday morning. It was just amazing. Eight or ten pages, solid, yeah. Just to go through that maze of advertising and then getting out the, you know, magnifying glass because we couldn't read anything. So, folks, give us a call. 877960-9960, or you can text us at 772-497-3530. I believe this too has some more text. Yes, we do.

We got two. We have one from Robert and Stewart. It says, good morning. Why do auto insurance companies now set your rates based on your credit? credit rating rather than just your driving record. This is even if you've been with them for six years with no claims. Robert, it makes me feel bad to read that. And insurance rates are created by actuarials.

It's a algorithm kind of a high-tech data thing. And they go through and sift all the data on everything, even unrelated to driving such as credit scores and apparently in their data mining and analysis and all the rest of it they found that the average person with a low credit rating has more accidents than a person with a high credit rating I'm not sure why it could be a lot of things could be the people with lower credit scores put more miles on their cars could be people with a lower credit scores by older cars that might be more prone to defects or I don't know what it is but

the algorithm does say that and it's a monetary thing some people seem to think it's a discrimination thing I mean why should a man with an 800 beacon have a lower insurance premium than a man or a woman with a 500 beacon doesn't sound right does it but there is an actuarial logical reason behind it sounds kind of cold-blooded I don't like it but that's just the way it is. No text? The next one's from Beverly,

and she is basically describing a fiasco when she tried to buy her Honda. She said she bought a Honda fit at a dealership off I-95 and Blue Heron. She was asking a lot of questions of the salesmen. I had a Honda previously and wanted another. I was very tired. I don't like shopping for cars in the first place.

Night manager came over, said he was taking over. He spoke to me in a manner that I don't usually tolerate, but I thought, well, I'm tired and probably just overreacting. It was an awful experience. About six months after, I was checking through credit things and found that he had worked the paperwork around. So I was paying a very high interest rate that was not warranted with my credit rating of 780, at 12%.

So when I took my card to another Honda dealer at the airbag fix, I was told I would only get the smallest replacement car. Okay, this goes on. Let me address that after we talked to Don. Don's been holding, and I didn't see the caller, and I apologize. We try to take our callers over the textures. Good morning, Don. What can we do for you?

I talked to you last week about that luxury van I bought, and I brought it in now for the fourth time. It had that bump chuggle fish bite. Remember that call? Yep. Okay. I brought it back for the fourth time. Like I said before, the missile was just a good. exactly like if you had pulled a plug wire off of the conventional car.

That's what it acted like. So the fourth time they sent me to this bulletin and claim there is no problem that it's a characteristic of the truck or the car, vehicle, whatever. So now they agree with me that it does this, but they call it the dump, juggle, fish bite. And so that's where we know. Nobody's there at that dealership. a month. I went ahead and contacted a lawyer and he's looking into it. So that's where we're at with this case right now. Wow. Okay, so just to let our audience know what was going on here

with Don, he bought a GMC conversion van, a luxury conversion van, and it had what the GMC people call a chuggle or a fish bite. I don't know where they get these terms. They make it sound so amusing, but basically at certain points when you're accelerating in the van, it begins to shake and shudder as though it's got a misfire. And I looked it up on the internet, and there's a lot of information about this issue and people complaining about it. And apparently GMC is telling Don that this is a normal condition of this van and nothing they can do to fix it. So you say you've got a lawyer involved now, Don. Is that right? I yes I do

I wanted to talk to Chuck Schumacher personally but he was out of town for a month so in all fairness they've been you know telling me okay we know there's a problem

they say characteristic so but now he says the people that are now say well this is a problem with the lemon law and that's like GM problem is out of the dealership's hands

and my come back to that is when I test drove the three-quarter ton van that they had and it did the same thing and I said to the salesperson at that time that you need to

you're not going to be able to sell this truck like this because of this shape it's got a mist like it's a plug-wider or a inject that's what it acts like and salesperson said well we know that we're going to take care of it So I'm assuming it's just a problem with that truck.

I went ahead and bought this new one and ordered all the stuff I wanted on it. But nobody ever told me at that time that was a characteristic of a van or I would not have bought it. Right. Yeah, that sounds very deceptive to me. And that, I think, is a situation, you know, now that your lawyer's involved in this, that's something I'm very interested to hear. I think we all are interested to hear what will eventually come of this because even though it is something...

They referred me to a bulletin that came out about a month ago that they handed me when I got my vehicle back and it pretty much said that, you know, this is a characteristic problem and it listed a bunch of other vehicles that had the same problem. All GM vehicles, you know. Right. They didn't not make me aware of it when I bought this one. Man, they could give me the truck, and I don't want it.

It's that bad. Oh, I don't blame you. Yeah, this sounds like a situation. You're going to need to let that lawyer handle it and let them basically get your money back out of this thing and get out of it. Don, I've only got 400 miles on it right now and I'm not driving it. Don, be sure you get an estimate from your attorney and find out what this is going to cost you.

And I know. Monday, I'm dealing with that. He said he was going to look into the law and we're going to go to this problem on Monday. Yeah, if you can get him to take it on contingency where he gets just a piece of the settlement or the decision, that's good. But you always want to get a lawyer to tell you

what it's going to cost before you go ahead. It could cost you more litigate this than you're going to get from, you know, from Ford. Yeah, right. He said right off the beginning when I talked to him, and he thought the only lawyer's fees could be recovered if we had to go to trial. Yeah.

Sometimes just a letter from the lawyer will be enough. So I think you did the right thing. Just wanted to caution you on the, there's only one thing that can be as bad as a car dealer, and that's a lawyer. So they're both on the bottom of the ethics and honesty. I didn't want to go there, but I didn't want to wait another month. I got back.

Well, Don, thanks very much. I'll keep you informed. Please do. Thank you. I appreciate the call. Yes, thank you for calling. Stay in touch. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. Well, we're getting close to Mystery Shopping Report time, so all you car dealers, get ready. Tune in that?

Get ready. It's a dealer that we're going to move, and I know I'm prejudging, but this mystery shopping report, was so bad I'm confident that the voters you can vote too you know you listeners and Nancy and Rick

and Stu and I will all cast a vote it's so bad that this recommended dealer we had on our list will be moved off so stay tuned now I'm going to do

a little commercial okay but before you do to our listeners to our followers remember that website that Earl began two weeks ago

was it two weeks ago week ago your anonymous feedback dot com. Real important we hear from you. Earl set it up for many reasons and we'd like you to

take advantage of. And also a place to go for recalls that Rick mentioned earlier was safercar.gov. Right? Yep. And we have three or four of those. I just looked at my iPhone

and I'm very personally surprised. So I hopefully we'll have time to get to those. But I promise we will get to them, and we will, if we don't have time during this segment of the show or this show, that we will do it next Saturday. Yes, and one thing that I will get to next Saturday, unless I post it on my Facebook, is some great news about the stereotype and women being taken advantage of. The article appeared in the Money magazine, and it clearly states that men are paying more than women for a lease car. So that is a stereotype that has been squelched. Now for Mr. Stewart's commercial.

Confessions of a recovering car dealer. This is How to Do It Book. It's all you'll ever need to help you buy or lease or maintain or repair your car. It's authored by me. Confessions of Recovering Car Dealer available on Amazon.com. And 100% of the proceeds of the book goes to Big dog ranch rescue. Big Dog Ranch Rescue is the largest no-kill shelter in Florida.

We have found homes last year we found homes for 5,000 dogs and it will be more than 5,000 dogs this year. It is a beautiful facility located in Laxahachia groves west on Okechobe Boulevard and you can't miss it. It's 3,000 acres. We just have the grand opening of our new veterinary clinic day before yesterday. That's right. We have a huge medical facility. We have a lake. We have a swimming pool. We don't keep our dogs in cages.

Our dogs are all in bunk houses or dorm rooms. Four or five dogs to a room. They're hand-painted full-finished rolls. We have mattresses, comfortable, air condition. Beautiful. We're going out through the stick.

Big Dog Ranch is such a nice place. We have to beg the dogs to leave. They don't even want, I'm only kidding. They love to be fostered, and they love to have a new home. We bring a lot of dogs in from all over. We fly them in from the Virgin Islands. We fly them in from Puerto Rico. We even flew them in from Houston.

We have about 500 dogs available. We have big dogs and small dogs. We call it Big Dog Ranch Rescue because we started out with big dogs. Now we branched out into small and medium-sized dogs. And we have every, from Chihuahuas to Great Danes. We have them all. And you buy a book. All the money goes to Big Dog Ranch.

Plus, you have a handbook on how to buy or lease a car, maintain a repair car without being ripped off by car dealer. Confessions of a recovering car dealer, Amazon, Amazon.com. Thank you very much. Yeah. And that's, as you can see, on my business card, that's a big dog and little dog. You know, I've got to take two minutes. I'm not.

My head's spinning my hair. We have all these anonymous things, and we have a mystery shopping report. Okay. I want to tell our listeners about this new program that Kroger is participating in, and it's a new test driverless grocery delivery list in Scottsdale, Arizona. This is going to be something. Supermarket Giant Kroger confirms customers in Scottsdale, Arizona, will soon be able to place their grocery order online if they shop at the subsidiary fries starting Thursday.

orders can be scheduled the same day or the next day delivery by an automated vehicle. Shoppers will have to pay $5.95 flat fee without a minimum order. It's amazing, driverless. Do we have time for anonymous feedback? I think we have time for one. Okay. It's a good one. If a salesperson can so easily help you purchase a car under the guise of being a Costco representative,

could a prospective car buyer simply pretend to be a Costco member and demand the unique and lowest price? I love That's a great phrase I love that anonymous You know what They're trying to deceive you Why not try to deceive them

I guess I should probably Well we've done it on Mr. Shopping reports My attorney My attorney would probably say You can't say that on the air But I'm going to say it on the air anyway If you're not a Costco member Go into the car dealership

Tell him you are a Costco member Demand to see the Costco representative and you can go to the Costco website. I don't think you can get to the Costco website without a membership number. You can borrow a membership number and you can demand to see the Costco representative

and get the Costco price without even being a Costco member. Everybody can just start deceiving each other. And we know from our vast shopping of car dealerships on the Costco they don't ask to see the Costco membership identification. We've never had,

one asked to see the Costco member identification once so thank you anonymous feedback thank you very much okay let's move to the mystery shopping report and if we get through this we might get back and do another anonymous feedback love that anonymous feedback www. www. your anonymous feedback.com y-o-o-u-r-an-o-n-y-m-m-o-us feedback F-E-E-D-B-A-C-K.com. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Tell us what you think we should know,

and maybe you're too polite to tell, or maybe you're a little embarrassed, or maybe you're shy. Anonymous Feedback. Mystery Shopping Report. Okay, car dealers, stand by. West Palm Beach, Kia. That was a sigh of relief from 45 car dealers out there waiting.

It wasn't us. It wasn't us. You can hear it. That thud was the general manager at West Palm Beach, Kia, hitting the floor. It's us. Well, at least he didn't hit the salesman. Yes. Well, maybe he will when he hears the report.

This week, we refocused our attention on the Zaccata Air Bag Recall by revisiting a car dealer who has given us mixed performances in the past. We've mainly investigated West Palm Beach Kia for aggressive sales practices, including high dealer fees, addenda for a dealer-installed options, probably the highest addenda of all time. I believe it was $10,000. That's a Guinness book, a world record for the phony Monroney. Our last two visits to Westbound Beach, Kia, were surprising. We went there several months ago on a two-prong mission, a Costco

auto program, Mr. Shop, as well as a tocata test. That investigation landed them on our recommended dealer list found at good dealer, bad dealer, list.com, despite their pricey addendum, $1,095, that's pretty pricey, but not nearly what it used to be. That was nitrogen and pinstriping.

Two worthless things. Pinstriping, based on pinstripes, cost a dealer about $10 or $12. It costs another maybe $10 to put on, and they're charging $1,095 for that in nitrogen, which is totally worthless, as approved by consumer reports testing and humongous dealer fees a thousand eighteen dollars total

that's right up there at least average or above average West Palm Beach Kia adhered when we shopped it before adhered to the Costco Auto Program process and disclosed the Dakota Recall really impressive and we passed them although we were still willing to sell the car with with the Carter Recall they proactively identified the same safety defect and properly advise their shopper how to go about getting it fixed. So we were impressed. The salesperson even cautioned that he would personally would not buy the vehicle and suggest

with another choice to the shopper. I mean, how could you not pass? We did. I think credit goes to the salesperson. Yes, it does. There's good apples, there's bad apples. There's bad dealerships with good apples and there's good dealerships with bad apples. All good dealerships are going to have at least one bad apple.

This week we searched for Dakota effective vehicles on larger dealer lots since we've been spending a lot of time on small independent. We call them buy-here pay-air lots for the past few weeks. The good news is we're having increasing difficulty finding these death traps in the inventories of large franchise dealers. You know, a few years ago, I said a few years ago, a year and a half ago, two years ago, they were everywhere. They were actively, the big dealers, the name dealers,

were actively selling cars. I think a portion of that is that a lot of the cars are getting fixed, but I think another portion of it is a lot of these dealers are finding them and not selling them. They're putting them to wholesale or whatever, but we're making a difference. Well, when they sell them, when they wholesale them, they go to another dealer. Right. All they're doing is.

A lot of them wind up on a little independent lines, too. They're being pushed down the food chain. Unfortunately, there are far more small dealers, and there are far more cars sold through independent, smaller dealers, than there are large dealers. It's counterintuitive, but anybody can open to use car lot. To open a new car franchise,

you have to invest millions of dollars. Which is why it's a really good thing that we have been focusing on the smaller lots because that's where they're going. Yeah, exactly. Okay. We scoured websites for an hour before finding a 2010

Honda Cord. Honda is the name of the game when it comes to these recalls. More Hondas than anything else out there. By the way, CNBC report live in Miami three or four days ago 95 million

Ticada Airbags unfixed on the road and the USA 95 million on the road unfixed and Phil LeBoe the automotive reporter for CNBC was talking about

that's a huge problem talking about Florida being the worst state for Ticada Airbags because the heat and the humidity. So we found this 2010 Honda Corp, a West Palm Beach, Kia, with a passenger-side Dakota Airbag Recall. Parks were available

for the fix, but repairs had not been made. As usual, we confirm this with multiple sources in HTSA, National Highway Traffic Safety Association, A.K.A.A. Autocheck, Carfax, and Honda's recall website, Owners.honda.com,

forward slash recalls or call the Honda dealer. So there's one, two, three, four sources. And we found, by the way, that each source can be deficient. The most reputable being NHTSA, and that is safercar.gov. Rick gave that number out several times. Safercar.org. The accord was listed for sale for $6,300. Agent X was sent out to investigate.

Before departing, speaking in the first person, his agent X, I called West Palm Beach Kia to confirm the availability of the 2010 And Accord with the Dakota Recall. I spoke with Wilkins on the phone, and he told me he was ready to roll. He asked me when I could come and see it and told him I could head out his way right now. He said to ask for him when I arrived. He'd be my salesperson on the deal. I thanked him and drove to West Palm Beach. Once in the showroom, I was accosted by a salesperson named Juliet. She was very aggressive and had a difficult time, I had a difficult time explaining to her

that I was there to see Wilkins. I couldn't get a word in Edgewise. If I hadn't persisted, I had the feeling she would have been fine skating, Wilkins. I explained that term previously. Skating is one salesperson cheating, another salesperson, and trying to. steal that salesperson's customer. So Juliet was trying to steal me, the shopper, from Wilkins. And that's common practice in cardio ships. Finally, Juliet reluctantly went to get Wilkins for me. When he arrived, I introduced myself as Alan, the name I'd given him on the phone. Wilkins was

ready for me with a key to the accord in his hand. I didn't mention Juliet's skate attempt. he asked me to stay put while he pulled the car up for us to drive it only took a few minutes and wilkins was jogging back my way saying let's go we climbed inside the car and started to drive away but the car died every salesman's fear and nightmare out of gas wilkins cheeks flushed red he apologized i asked him if he was sure it was just gas or there was a mechanical problem i popped the hood got out of the car Wilkins said there were no mechanical problems and assured me the car was thoroughly checked out. I asked him if they checked out the fuel level. They quickly left, let him know I was teasing. Wilkins ran to get a gas can. Put some gas in it.

We were able to get the car engine started. Our first stop was a gas station where Wilkins filled the tank. When we returned to the dealership and went inside, I asked him if the accord had been in any accidents. Wilkins said he would print the car factory. report and go over there with me, which makes me wonder why haven't they printed the Carfax report before. You would think that the car dealership would print a Carfax report on every car. In defense, usually that stays online, so it's on, yeah, so they just, off they do is just click on. My apologies. It saves the paper. We'll give them the benefit of the

doubt. For being environmentally conscious. He showed me to a chair and left to get the Carfax. I studied the Carfax report and told Wilkins, I saw there were accidents. I didn't say anything about the airbag recall I saw. That would come later. He asked me if I was ready to buy the car. I replied by trying to confirm the price I'd seen online. I asked him if 6,300 was firm or if they had some wiggle room. Wilkins bit his lip and said that this, the online listing included a $500 loyalty discount. Wow. It didn't qualify for since I wasn't a current West Palm Beach Kia customer. Now, this is new.

First thing for a youth car ad. This is a scam, but it's always on new cars because the manufacturers originated the idea of the loyalty discount. We've never heard of a loyalty discount on the used car. A great scam. If I was going to give them stars for being bad,

I'd give them five stars. This is something... What a super idea. All you other crooked car dealers out there learn from this. Here's a new way to scam your customers. Loyalty discount on used cars. Who would have thunk?

Super idea. Yeah. Yeah. Super idea time. Too hard to explain. That's an inside joke. We know a bunch of car dealers. We have a 20 group and we have super idea time and usually the crookedest idea wins. And you can

win what? How much? It could be over a thousand dollars. Over a thousand dollars. So this will win super idea time at our next 20 group. I'm not submitting it. So anyway, he said the actual price was $60,800, and so you didn't get the 500 because we scammed you out of 500.

I pretended to be angry. I stood up and said I was sick of all the bait and switch advertising that all the use cardinals try to get away with. And I just learned something about Agent X. When I was praising him as being such an outstanding mystery shopper. And Agent X used to be in acting school. Yes. He was training to be an actor.

So that is one of the reasons why. And so he just feigned anger. He says, I'm getting out of here. He stood up. He stood up. He started yelling. Agent X, you're my hero. I raised my voice when I said this, catching the attention of employees and a few customers.

Wilkins held up his hands in an attempt to lower the tension. I wish I'd been there. I wish we could video these things. He said he needed to get a manager to. help us out. I can see it in the showroom. People turning around, people going like this. It's okay. It's okay. Agent X. Weird. Wulkins was back in a flash with Vince, the manager. His explanation of the loyalty discount was just as weak as Wilkins. He tried to make it sound official. I countered that it was just an arbitrary tactic they used to show a lower price online.

I asked him what kind of a dealer fee, he planted to add. Vince said it would be easier if we put all the numbers on a worksheet. He's just trying to postpone. The next outrage outburst. He excused himself in return with one, a worksheet. It showed a selling price of $6,800 plus $487.50 in government fees, $1,018 in dealer fees, which is just extra profit. And sales tax, out the door, was $8,825. I told him it was outrageous.

I told that even if I could get the $500 loyal discount, I still wouldn't buy the car with that $1,018 dealer fee. I stood up again and said, I'm going. Vince asked me to sit down and say he would take $800 off for me. That would make up for the loyalty discount and take a nice chunk out of the dealer fee. He said he couldn't go any lower. He swore it was his best price. I imagine everybody in the showroom by now has gathered around.

and watching Agent X. I hope they looked at their show. I said, I'm not paying that either. You know, this might actually be on YouTube somewhere, because I bet you some other customer. They probably filmed this and was putting it on like people freak out on YouTube. That happens. Agent X, I'm Agent X.

I took a deep breath trying to act like I was calming myself down. I said, okay, that's much better, thinking about Thucata Recall, listed in the car factory board lying between us on the desk I said before I commit I need to know if there are any safety issues

that could concern me Vince said there were absolutely there are absolutely manager manager Vince the manager there are absolutely no safety concerns with this car I grabbed the Carfax report and the worksheet

and said I would call him on Saturday after I talked to my wife about the deal. Wow. They failed the Takata test. They also employed decepty sale tactics. We checked out the Kelly Blue Book fair market value for this model.

West Palm Beach's Kia price of $6,800 was right in the middle of the fair market range. However, the fake price on line of $6,300 was well below the range. Clear bait and switch. To make matters worse, their website listed pure cars, I don't know what that is, market price for

this car of $10,000. 269. Ever heard of pure cars? It's something that you pay for and it shows favorable values on your website for your cars so you can deceive people. Anyway, stark deception on a safety item

to the car out of back. Stark new level of lying about loyalty rebates. I have a little picture of the disclaimer that says the internet price includes $500 customer loyalty. So again this is West Palm Beach Kia

and West Palm Beach, obviously. And they were on the good dealer list, and we're going to take a vote. You can text us with a vote, if you like. 772-497-65-3-0. That's 772-497-65-3-0. Do you pass or fail, West Palm Beach Qia? I think I know what you're going to say.

And we'll start out with Rick. Um-um. F and F. It just, it's... This ad. It's pathetic. We had one salesman the last time we were there that was so wonderful. And now we've got a salesman that...

All right, he had the little goof with the gas. He overcame that. And then he totally failed with this... And the manager, too. We got Wilkins is a salesman. Vince was the manager. Vince. Vince and Wilkins.

Now, the dealership was approved the last time we shopped him. Now, Vince and Wilkins moved them single-handedly from the approval list until they do not buy from the dealer list. And we had Wilkins saying that he was going to go over the Carfax with H&X, and he never mentioned the Takada issue, which... It was right there in black and white in front of it. Okay, we'll go to Nancy, aka the Black Widow. Yes, and don't forget, Juliet.

There's a few players who participated in this deception. Juliet didn't participate in the crime. She tried to. Juliet was, she tackled Wilkins by his ankles, so that's unnecessary. Juliet gets an F. I'm not proud of you, Juliet. Juliet, Wilkins, the manager, West Palm Beach, Kia, F. Okay. Stu. I already texted our web guide to move them to the Do Not Recommend list.

Clearly enough, we're getting some votes that come. are coming in on our live Facebook video, and I don't think I've seen anything other than F. So, yeah. And, yeah, F, F, we have three Fs. Yeah. Remember, West Palm Beach, Kia, you can vote. They're not on here voting.

Vince. Vince, you could vote. Wilkins, Juliet. We have a text from Frank. F. Thank you, Frank. Now, we're going to go back to West Palm Beach, Kia. You bet your boots.

We're not going to keep them in the Do Not Buy list. By the way, to check the recommended list and the do not buy list, you go to gooddealer, baddealerlist.com. www. www. Good dealer list, good dealer, baddealer, list.com.

And we'll give you another chance. We keep nobody in the cellar or on top permanently. We go back. So, West Palm Beach, Kia, it could have been just a couple of rotten apples in the barrel. Either you coach, Wilkins and Vince or you

replace Wilkins and Vince you get your act together West Palm Beach Kia we'll put you back on the recommended list We have a nice comment here on Facebook says I think local TV station should offer equal time to angry customers That's great

That's a great idea Thanks Craig How about equal dealers You know we offer equal time to you car dealers out there And we welcome you to call the show and I promise if you call the show we will not cut you off or mute you out

you can have your fair share fair say and you just don't call we don't know why we've only got what a couple minutes do we have time for another anonymous? We got four minutes left do we have any more of those anonymous we were very pleasantly surprised to get a few anonymous comments you can go

our anonymous link Your anonymous Feedback.com Y-O-U-R-A-N-O-N-Y-M-O-U-S Feedback, F-E-E-D-B-A-C-K.com. Yeah, we got a great one here. This is probably the best anonymous one we got. He says, Good Morning. I very much enjoy your show, and I love Stu's increased input, involvement, and on-air commentary.

So, thank you very much. That was the best anonymous comment. Is that Jake Stewart, my grandson? It might have been. It's anonymous. We don't know. Okay. There's a couple that are really long.

I think it would probably be best if we read them next week. Okay. But they're good. They're all good stuff. Thank you so much. The anonymous is starting to catch you on now. I think for a while, people thought that. our anonymous feedback number was possibly something that could be penetrated and we would maybe embarrass somebody.

This anonymous website we use is used by blue chip companies, Tesla, Adobe, public broadcasting systems, a whole host of very reputable companies that would never ever allow this privacy issue to be violated. So when you go to your anonymousfeedback.com, your identity is protected. You can also get feedback from us. And a Stuart, me, Earl Stewart, reads this. Stu Stewart reads this. Nancy Stewart reads this. Stewart sees these things.

So they're not going to go to the radio station. They're not going to go. And we share it with Rick. We share it with the people that need to know what you have to say. So you're talking to this group. Great information. You're talking to this group here when you send this anonymous feedback in. And we promise you.

a reply if you want to have a reply. If you don't want a reply, then you don't allow a reply. You just have to say, I ask for a reply, and you'll get one. Total an an anonymity. How do you say a non-animity? Anonymity. Anonymity.

Okay, folks, I am going to mention that I hope I get to a topic that's near and dear to my heart, and that is saving the ladies saving money on their next car purchase. from Money Magazine, a very accurate resource.

Also, to share with you that stereotype that we've been looking at, and that is how women are being taken advantage of. But, hey, guess what? Some of the information that I came on from Money Magazine, well, it sets that, well, stereotype on its head. And that is because men pay more for a lease car, than a woman. So stay tuned for that. This is Earl Stewart on Cars. We want to thank you for joining us right here at the Old East Channel. We'll be back next week. Have a wonderful weekend.