Earl Stewart on Cars - 08.20.2022 - The Best of Earl on Cars with Mystery Shop of Al Packer Ford

Episode Date: August 20, 2022

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

I'm Earl Stewart. I welcome you to Earl Stewart on Cars, a live talk show all about how to buy, lease, maintain, or repair your car without being ripped off by a car dealer. With me in the studio is Nancy Stewart, my wife, co-host, and a strong consumer advocate, especially for our female business. We also have Rick Kearney, an expert on how to keep your car running right. I dare you to ask a question that Rick can't answer about the mechanics or electronics of your car. Also with us as my son, Stu Stewart, are linked to cyberspace through four.

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Periscope. Stu is also the Spymaster Director of our Mystery Shopping Report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting South Florida dealership. And now, on with the show. Good morning, everybody. Well, here we are back again, in action, where your automotive, how not to get ripped off by your car dealer team. And we're here.

It's a good morning. It's a rainy morning here in South Florida. cloudy and weather doesn't look good. Temperature is okay, but I'm excited because we're having some breakthroughs in enforcement of laws in Florida, possibly people are reaching the stage now and maybe even the regulators. The media is starting to stick their nose out. That's my excitement, really exciting, exciting investigative reporting done on some local South Florida car dealers doing what we've been talking about on the show for many, many

years, but nobody seemed to care. So I think I'm seeing the worm turn a little bit. We hope so. Your support, I'm sure has had a lot to do with this, because our websites are popping up, and we're seeing a lot of social media conversation about the shabby treatment that car dealers are focusing on you, the car buyers. prices have risen to an outrageous level, profits for car dealers and manufacturers, although some will have you think that they're suffering a bit.

They're not really. I mean, the prices are so high today. I mean, by a quantum leap, they leap forward with a low supply, high demand, the supply chain thing you hear about ad nauseum, it's always something going on to justify extraordinarily high car prices. I think we've reached the point where we're going to say, I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. I think that's the attitude out there. And you're part of this. We're Erlon cars and you callers out there, you amazing callers out there, that report back on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.

We're hearing from you more and more and more. And as I say, the resistance level is rising. this whole pricing could be a good thing in disguise because it could be the thing that pushes us out into the face of the media, into the face of the regulators, into the face of the legislators who so far it pretended, what's the problem of the car dealers? Oh, they're just a bunch of nice guys.

Well, ain't true. It's not true, not all of them. Some of them are. We have a Mr. Shopping Report coming up. It'll be a surprise. Don't want to reveal too much, but we visited another South Florida dealer and went through the process and I think you'll enjoy this report a lot. It's going to be a surprise to a lot of you.

As I say before, you, we're a team here in the studio, Rick Kearney, Stu Stewart, Nancy Stewart, myself, but you're the most important part of the team because without your calls and your feedback and your comments and your constructive criticism or You know, as I always say, we'll take the destructive along with the constructive because we are totally transparent. If you have a problem, we will air that problem, even if the problem is with us. You could call us, and I'm sorry I have to repeat this number so many times. I can imagine being out there listening or watching and have us repeat this number 877-960-99-60 over and over. 877-960-9960 I do that for the new listeners and I do that for people that may be a little bit timid about calling the show

calls are number one priority Nancy Stewart sitting to my left in the studio as a laptop open in front of her and the person in the control room when the call comes in pops that name and number right up in front of Nancy and Nancy calls a halt to whatever is going on even when I'm yapping or Stu or Rick. We stop. We take our calls. Prioritize the phone call. 877-960-99-60. 877-960-99-60. Now, for those that aren't extroverse, for those who are not nervous about speaking on live radio, we have a text number, 772-497-6530. Steve is the one that watches those and when they come in, we archive them, we got them in the smartphone and we get to them during the show. Whenever there's a break or pause on phone calls or YouTube or whatever, we get to the text.

772-4976530, 772-4976530. And my favorite source of... source of contact is our anonymous feedback line. Your Y-O-U-R-N-O-N-Y-M-O-U-S Feedback.com. That's a URL. That's a website. And you go there, through there, and Your AnonymousFeedback.com reaches us and we don't know who you are. We don't know where you are. We know when you sent the message, but we don't know anything else. You could be a car dealer. You could be in the FBI. You could be a criminal. You could be a dealer. Oh, I just said that. I'm only kidding. I'm only kidding. We got some honest dealers out there. We salute you and we praise you when we shop, mystery shop you, and we put you on our recommended dealers list. All you dealers and salespeople and other employees are car dealerships. Listing right now, here's a chance to be on our recommended dealer list. Just behave yourself when our mystery shopping goes out. Usually we're in Florida, but we can. to other states too. We are all over the USA, Canada. We're all over the world, really. And we get callers, especially on YouTube and Facebook. Facebook.com, ford slash Earl and Cars. Go there, Facebook.com, port slash Rollin Cars, and we're live streaming, and you can see us.

You can see my beautiful handsome face. Uh-huh. And we've got all of us here live. and YouTube the same way, YouTube.com forward slash rolling cars. Rick Kearney, who is our certified diagnostic master technician, answer any question you have about any car, 99% of the time, and we always get the answer one way the other, even if we have to resort to Google or other research. We get your answer. You got a squeak, rattle, or roll in your car.

You don't want to take it to a car dealer and get a host with a huge bill that isn't justifiable. Call us. Hey, send us an audio file or a video file. We can actually look at that, and Rick Crenney can make a diagnosis for you. He's probably right. Always want to confirm it. You know, in real, you have to bring it in. I mean, physically, you need to inspect a car, but he can give you a pretty good idea.

Save you a ton of money. And he's on YouTube.com. Port slash Erl on Cars. You'll see that right away. So if you can call us, give us a call. if not, we give you those other sources. And I'm going to turn the mic over to Nancy Stewart. She's my co-host.

She's a co-founder of the show with me many years ago when we were only on for half an hour. And she's a female advocate. She is really, really out there for the ladies. And you know, you ladies know, you just don't always get treated the way a man does. I mean, I'm sorry, but it's still looked at too much of it as a man's world. There's a lot of conversation about it not being the right thing.

But it still happens. and Nancy Stewart is here to help put a stop to that and arm you with the knowledge you need to go into a car dealership and be treated with respect and courtesy. And I will turn the mic over to Nancy right now. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. First, I'd like to remind you

that you can subscribe to Earl Stewart on Cars. You can subscribe to Earl Stewart on Cars podcast using any of the following podcast apps from your iPhone or your Android. And you can sign up for Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts. You can go to Amazon Music, Stitcher Radio, and SoundCloud app. So there's so many ways that you can get in touch with us. This morning, I'd like to extend $50 for the first two new lady callers.

$50 to the first two new lady callers. And ladies, did you have a car purchase? experience this week, servicing experience, anything at all. Did you learn something? Did you teach, you know, the salesperson something? I'd like you to share with us exactly, you know, what your encounter was, and you can do so, and you can also win $50 for the first two new lady callers at 877-9-60-960. Also, you can text us at 772-4976530.

And don't forget, your anonymous feedback.com. Now, back to the recovering card dealer. You cover the first-time caller, right? The first two new female callers? Yes, she did. You did. And we can do that again. Well, I think the first two new female callers, you and yourself, $50.

And in the climate we're living in, that $50. Get you some gas. Well, it'll go a short way. Right, yeah. And there's no strings attached. The reason I'm always hammering on that is because I think a lot of people, you see so much, you hear so much, you read so much about unrealistic golfers. They always do that to get your attention. And then there's fine print, and it's not really true.

So when we say $50 to the first two new female callers, there are no strings attached. There's no fine print. We just want you to call the show. You don't even have to say anything. We like you to say something. We like you to mention, you know, what experiences you've had in the car buying or leasing world or car repairing world. But there are no strings. I would think that this would, I think we'd have two new female calls right now.

$50, kaching. No strings attached. Yeah. Big bucks, like Stu said, maybe you can get yourself some gas. I don't know. Like half a tank. Yeah. But let me emphasize here

You don't have to call and share an experience with us You can just call and say hello So take advantage of that offer this morning Now back to the recovering car dealer Before I was going to ask too To mention the mystery shopping report Process And before I do that

I just want to say that We have A special clip coming up on the show It's a news clip from WPLG Channel 10 in Fort Lauderdale. Very exciting news, and we'll key it up later on. I'll give Jonathan the heads up and the countdown. And some of you may have seen that if you're in the Miami, Fort Lauderdale area, Southern Florida, Far South Florida, WPLG Channel 10.

Investigative reporter did a great expose and put it on television. called me and did a Zoom interview. So if any of you saw that on TVWPLG two or three days ago, you might want to call a show and talk about it. And if you are a person that is driving a lease car, did you know one on the three of you today is driving a lease car? And if you're driving a lease car,

you have a decision to make. What do you do when lease is up? Do you buy the car? That's what this expose is all about with Channel 10. they've exposed the fact that car dealers are taking advantage, surprise, surprise, surprise, taking advantage of people

when they come in to exercise their option to purchase their off-lease vehicle. And a lot of you out there, if you're driving an off-lease vehicle, heads up, you're going to want to see this video clip that will play in a little while about exposing the fact that

virtually every, virtually every car dealer in Florida, in fact, the country probably, but we see the Florida once more often, or breaking the law by adding cost, hidden fees, profit to themselves to the option price of the lease car. You have a right to purchase that lease car at a really, really good price, thousands of dollars less than the current market value. And boy, you don't want to pass up that opportunity. You either want to buy it and drive it, or you want to buy it and trade it back in to offset the extremely high price

of the new car you might want to lease or buy. So stay tuned for that. And I'm going to turn the mic over this too, and you'll give us a little heads up on the mystery shopping report. Oh, I thought you wanted to hear just a general idea of the process. Well, yeah, both. I can't. No, I want to hear the general idea of the process first. on then. Yeah. So every week on Monday, I have a conversation by phone with Agent Lightning. I almost said the real name there

for a second. With Agent Lightning. And it's on Monday while Saturday's show is still fresh in our mind. Agent Lightning also listens to the show. Hi, Agent Lightning. And so kind of based on what we discussed on the show, sometimes we pledge to Mystery Shop a different

type of dealership, or it might just be on the theme that we're on. Like right now, we're on the theme of family-owned dealership. and how they're handling the inventory crisis, and whether they're as tempted as the other dealers to go in there and do some gouging. Once we decide on the dealership, she heads out.

She does the footwork, goes in there, pretends to buy the car, and as soon as the report's over, she starts taking notes, contemporaneous notes, keep everything fresh in her head. Got a great memory. It got a great retention.

Yeah. Well, we talk about these. She's detail. We say things like, you know, remember quotes. You know, anything that sounds funny. If you put it in quotes, I'm assuming they said that exactly, and then I'm going to put it in the report like that.

Any new phraseology that she hears is, you know, any kind of car dealership lingo. Anything that makes it interesting. Pictures of anything that might be significant, even if she's not sure if it is. She would take a lot of pictures. She used to away with taking a lot of pictures. I guess everybody does. That's the whole world with her camera. Yeah.

I mean, it used to be we had to sneak the pictures. and then before the past few years, they would bust you. Why are you taking a picture of the Maroni label? Everybody, customers go to car dealerships and everywhere, and they take pictures of the car, and they send them their friends. I'm looking at this one. Hey, look at this guy, and they're taking pictures. Documents, buyers, orders.

If this was 20 years ago, you'd only like a tourist, you would think if they're walking around with a big snap camera. And then after she writes all the notes, she'll put it all in a narrative, and she sends it to me. and then I will take a write up an introduction trying to kind of

establish the setting and the relevant information if it's an unusual place or if there's any unusual stories that might be entertaining I try and do a little research and put that together and then I take

Agent Lightning's narrative and I put it in a more of a like a I guess more of a story type of form that's easy to read and there you have it that's the report and this week

we did Al Packer Ford and who I thought by the way had been around here as long as you had I thought that Al Packer was here in the 30s but he hasn't he's the whole all the stores started up in the 6th, 19601 so it's not a young group but

it was McCulley Ford before it was Alpaccar Ford. Okay yeah so you know Dick McCulley yeah so that's the story and I can't wait until we get to read the report today yeah it's it's to me the reason nobody does it

and we do it and we name names and dealerships and we even cite breaking of the law you know violation to the Federal Trade Commission Act or the fine print or the fact that they break the Florida statute which they do all

the time the advertised price is supposed to be the price you pay and it never is the price you pay so we do that and we say this dealership broke the law and we don't get sued. And we've been doing it for almost 20 years. And that's the reason we're so convinced that we're being accurate. The dealers out there are afraid to sue us because they know they'll

lose. You know, the truth is a perfect defense against libel and slander. You're attorneys in the audience. I know there's some of you out there listening. You know that. You can say anything about anybody as long as it's the truth. So that's all we do is tell the truth. I get nervous because I think sometimes we might make a mistake. We probably have, but we haven't been caught yet, so nobody sued us. I think about that a lot, and the mistakes I think we made are inconsequential, like someone's name or maybe a small dollar figure, but all of the crimes that we uncover, there's nothing fake about that.

Everything the salesperson says, there's nothing fake about that. So we take great pains to make sure it's accurate, and then if somebody has a problem with it, Well, like you said, and then call us out and we'll have a conversation. And I've always had in my mind, you know, I always have a backup plan. So if we do get sued, and, you know, actually I hope we get sued. Because my plan is to have a lawyer that will be able to get us a jury trial. Because I want a jury trial, and I want cameras in there. Maybe court TV.

Yeah, like the Amber heard Johnny Depp trial. Yeah. You want it live streamed on TikTok. Right. So that would actually get us more PR. for you, the consumer, and against the dealer. So that's the reason. Secretly, I hope we get sued.

I shouldn't say that, should I. Be careful what you asked for. Well, because I think, you know, something. I mean, the only thing I don't want about that is it's a dragon. Yeah, and the time, because depositions and all that stuff. Okay. Be careful what you wish for. You know, I want to remind the ladies that last week we aired a video,

and what an interesting video. If you don't recall, it was about crash dummies and how women were left out. And ladies, if you need an idea to work with this morning to call for the first time of which you're going to win $50, two female callers, if you can wrap your head around this, like I said, women have not even been considered when it comes to testing these crash dummies. There's 79% more likely to be injured because of that. You're stepping on me. Hey, so back to the statistics, I want to tell you that the chances of you being killed in that car as a passenger killed in the car is pretty, pretty high. And Earl, you were saying? Well, the injury is 79%.

I think something like 17% or something like that more likely to die. But it's because these male crash dummies. I mean, it's a chauvinist world, male chauvinist. People think about people as being men, not men and women. And a woman, as you know, from a construction standpoint, not just smaller, but they're constructed differently. I mean, thank God for that. I love the fact that women are constructed differently. But they also injure a lot more easily in a car that is designed for a man to drive

and to make a man survive the crash. And what makes the man survive can be a negative thing for a woman. So you ladies out there give us a call and tell us what you think about that. And communicate it to your legislators and say, what's going on? Let's pass a law saying the National Highway Traffic Safety Association needs to change that so that when they do the crash test to certify a car as being safe, use women and men dummies in the crash. so that way they can build the cars, safer, for ladies. Yeah, and that information that broke about being seriously hurt in a crash,

can you even imagine 20 to 28 percent, 20 to 28 percent, you could be killed? And why? I mean, there are... Greater risk than a man, yeah. I mean, it is just incredible statistics. So, ladies, I think you can view that. video, Jonathan can give me a nod. If you go to Earl on Cars, I think that video is still there for them to take a look at. So ladies, give us a call. First two, new lady callers,

$50, $877-960. Well, let's get to some text. Rick, as a matter of fact, I got one from Mark Ryan. He says, is a dealer's franchise agreement an open-ended contract? with the factory with no expiration date and also what type of actions by the dealer could they could possibly terminate the contract great question very few there the it isn't so much what the contract says is what state law says the dealer franchise agreements often have a limit and they started out to be one-year agreements and they went to two years then they went to six years a lot of the franchise agreements have limits but the

state law has overridden the limit. So in Florida, for example, it's a perpetual contract, even though the contract from General Motors or Ford or Toyota says six years, the state law says you cannot terminate a dealer without cause. And then they specify the cause and the cause is, the cause is the murder. Yeah, murder, rape. No, maybe not rape. Terrorism. I'm only kidding. I don't know, but let's put this way I don't know and I don't think Stu knows of a dealer

that has been terminated we don't know any in Florida there every now and then one we read about usually a lot of pressure to sell comes to bear you know there's a whole lot dealer might get pushed out offers to buy the dealership but

they can't force them to yeah and they it's hard to push a dealer out too it's not easy so and the other what was the other part of the question And what type of actions by the dealer could possibly terminate the contract? Yeah, it just depends on the state. And, you know, if it would have to be so embarrassing to everybody that they could terminate it or the manufacturer. See, the manufacturers just don't want to be sued.

They, the state franchise laws are so strong that the manufacturers can be tied up in court for years and years and years. Here's an example, Napleton dealer, one of the largest dealers in the country, has dealerships all over the USA. He has had such serious problems. And Nissan and Hyundai and Kia and the rest, all the other franchises have, nobody, to my knowledge, is terminated any of the Naples of franchises. he has done some really outrageous things that have been a matter of reporting in the press and they have not terminated. So it's almost unheard of. That's the problem.

The dealers are invulnerable, and therefore they feel like, what have I got to lose? The regulators are not going to come after me, and the factory, the manufacturer, won't come after me. The consumers are still being gullible, and I'm fooling them. making a ton of money. So why should I change? Okay. Okay, excuse me, but Jonathan just gave me the heads up and he wanted to let me know that you can, as far as the video I was talking about on crash dummies, you can go to Earl Stewart on cars and you can still view that on Facebook page. And we are going to go to the phones. Good. We have Dave Holding from Tequesta. Good morning, Dave.

Good morning. How's everybody? Great. What can we do for you this morning? Well, I have two. And one is I have a 2021 Toyota Tundra. I was wondering if that came from the factory with synthetic oil. And my other question was, when you order a car from your dealership, do you wait until you get like 50 cars and send the order in, or do you order it immediately? Well, we order the cars immediately. It takes a long time to get here. Yeah. I can tell the process. The order goes into a bank that's just internal. Every two weeks we get an allocation of cars from Toyota. They're a smaller one in the middle of the month and a big one at the month end allocation. And that's based on how fast we're selling the cars in stock that we have, which aren't very many. So we get allocated cars. Basically, it's a list of cars that are about to be built. They haven't even been built yet. They have interim VIN numbers. So we can identify. them and we can track them as they actually get to the point where they're built at the factory. We fill the oldest orders first, and we try and assign the vins that we get from the allocation

directly to customers, and the ones we don't, we will do their dealer trades, but we're trading vins, actually we're trading preliminary vins, weeks before the car is actually built, so we get the right car for the customers. And a reason it takes a long time is, well, there's about a thousand orders, and it takes time to ship away at that, and that's how it works. And, David, it does have synthetic oil. All the cars today are requiring synthetic oil virtually. I have to throw virtually in there, but do you know any of that aren't requiring synthetic oil?

No. It's pretty standard. They've been doing that for, what, 10 years now? At least, yeah. Yeah. Oh, okay. All right, well, thank you very much. That was very interesting.

Thanks for going on. Thank you, Dave. 877-9-60-99-60, or you can text. us at 772, 4976530. And, you know, while I'm thinking about it, take advantage of a column that Earl wrote on how to know if a Florida car dealer is breaking the law. And he was quite detailed, and he even broke it down for all the listeners, the consumers, everyone to understand.

You can go to www. Florida Protectingcarbuyers.com. Now back to, well, we're going to go to go. to back to the phones and we have a first time female caller and her name is Mindy and she's calling from Lake Worth. Good morning, Mindy. Good morning. How can we help you this morning? Oh, okay. So I'm a little nervous because it's my first time on the air. I had two things and I I told the lady that answered the phone

everything but I'll say it again number one the issue that you're talking about I don't understand I didn't watch the video I don't understand As far as a crash testing Mindy

Mindy are you still there Okay we may have lost Mindy I'm assuming that you're listening Mindy if If not, if you got to call, God, drop, please call back in. But I'll answer your question about, we're talking about the crash testing. The National Highway Traffic Safety Association for years and years and years test cars to let the manufacturers and the buying public know about safety issues, and they rank them. And certain cars have to have a certain minimum amount of safety.

The bad news. Excuse me. Mindy, do we have you back? Hi. Okay, great. We lost you there for a minute. Mindy, let me, Earl was addressing the video that aired last week and what you were speaking of, but I want to remind you that you did win $50 this morning as a first-time female caller.

And I want to thank you for supporting our platform. Okay, thank you. I listened to it on the way to work on Saturdays when I go and every other Saturday. and I am a patron of Earl Stewart and I bought my car there 10 years ago to 2010 Sion and I love it. I love the service, everything, so I just want to put that out there. But so two questions.

Number one, regarding the video, I didn't see it. I just have a question is, why, how could they ever test the fact that women die in crashes more than men. I know that I've seen the videos where they test cars and there's a dummy in the driver's seat. I've never seen a dummy in the passenger seat. But as far as you're assuming that women are, I don't understand you're assuming that women are always in the passenger seat

or are they dying as drivers as well? And then if they are, why would they be dying faster? than men is that I know their weight is lower, but as far as their, you know, reproductive organs, I don't think that has a bearing on the issue here. So I'm kind of confused about that aspect of it. And also the other aspect is, yeah, because that would be important in as much as how they're coming up with that evidence because there's so many lawsuits today with gender and ethnicity and this and that.

I just can't imagine one more, you know, lawsuit unless they have terrific, like, substantial evidence as to why. Well, Mindy, let me jump in here and let me jump in here and answer your first question. The reason women are killed to a greater percentage and injured to a greater percentage is because of their physiological construction difference. I mean, think about it, you know, if you look at a, skeleton of a woman and a skeleton of a man, you will see structural differences there. Women also, they sit differently than men.

If you see a typical group picture, the men and the women, you'll always see different postures. There is a critical difference in the physiology and the size, which is part of the physiology, but it goes beyond that. So they've actually found out statistically that women are dying at a greater extent and an accident, whether in the passenger side or the driver's side, either side, women die something like 17% more of the time, and they're injured like 70% more of the time. So it's only because men were so, the manufacturers in the National Highway Traffic Association,

which are run by men, just went to, it's just to got them a male-sovenous thing. I don't know one's suggesting that this was a conspiracy to just to shut out women from safety. It was just an assumption of what's normal. When you design a car, the engineers are men for the most part. The guys doing the testing are men. And so they're just thinking in terms of that that's the chauvinism that you're speaking of. It's not that designers want women to get hurt. Remember one, well, you probably aren't that old, but women used to.

They just got the vote in the 20s, and there's so many other things that we've talked about, and you see it every day in the media. Women are waking up today to the fact that they have been discriminated against, and this is just one of the more serious things that hasn't been exposed. And, again, I don't understand other than the scientists and the engineers, which women are making their way into those fields more and more I'm seeing anyway, and I hope that continues and increases. but based on, you know, and as that continues and increases, the field and the construction

and the tests and everything will evolve as well. Well, that's what we're hoping for. Oh, absolutely. And that's what we're hoping and pushing for, yeah. And Mindy. Other than, yes, ma'am. Mindy, let me add to this that there's no confusion as far as these crash dummies are concerned in the testing.

It is passenger and driver. Women are in a dangerous place because the restraints, you know, the safety belts are not what they should be. And women drive closer to the steering wheel. So, Mindy, take a look at the video. There's all kind of information that you can Google that will clear things up. And I really, we really appreciate your phone call this morning and hope that you'll spread the word and you will let your friends know that they too can call 877-960 and win $50. Thank you.

Now, can I address one more question with you? Sure. Which I've been trying to call for many weeks, and I always miss that number, but this time I had my phone out and ready. I drive a manual Zion, and I will be needing to get a car soon in the near future, hopefully not now. I was wondering if you have any insights on another other manuals that are coming out or any manuals or if there are going to be any manuals coming out.

The only manual Toyota I know of is the Corolla GR. The new supra. Oh, the new super. Okay. Let me say something. Why do you want to drive a manual transmission? I love a manual. I've always driven a manual.

I have control of it on the road. I can dip in and out. The gas mileage is great. It's one of the lowest. And mainly I can control the thing really well. Well, let me say this. If you want a manual because you just like the idea of shipping gears, that's fine. The resale value, of course, if you keep a car as long as you keep it, that's not an issue.

but the resale value of a manual transmission is very low. Your selection is very low. The new automatic transmissions, since you bought that cyan many years ago, are far superior on gas mileage than a stick shift. You can't drive a stick shift with as good a fuel economy as you can get with a modern automatic transmission. So I suggest that you try an automatic transmission

and you'll have a better selection of cars, you'll have a better price, and you'll have a better resale value and you'll have better fuel economy. The only possible reason for buying a stick shift today is because people just have fun driving. I accept that.

I used to like to drive stick shifts, but it's only a pleasure thing. It isn't a practical thing. That's my suggestion. And you're right not to buy a car today. Car prices are extremely high. Wait a few months and the prices will come down. But meanwhile, test drives.

drive an automatic transmission somewhere and I think you'll see what I mean by it being far superior to a stick shift well I have test drive test driven them in a couple years ago and I wasn't really satisfied unless it unless it's like a BMW or some kind of high-end car which I'm not I can't I'm not in that you know you know you know Mindy you know I definitely I drove a stick shift so get the stick shift. Get it. Don't let anyone talk you out of it. Get the stick shift but do not buy a car. Now

if you don't have to. Mindy, we're going to have to wrap this up. I've got some callers holding. I so appreciate your phone call this morning and remember to get that information to me. Can you just repeat the two names that that gentleman said was the

manual? It was a Supra and what else? It's the Corolla GR. But they're impossible to get. you know everything's impossible to get right now if you have any other questions please give me a call on my cell phone Mindy have a wonderful weekend thank you're welcome

bye bye bye we are going to go to our second caller and that is Amy who's calling us from Hypolyxa good morning Amy good morning to you I just was saying that I had a new start put in my 1998 Chevy Blazer which has got $120,000 miles on it. Nice. And it turns over, fine now.

But every now and then I hear a grinding when I turn the key. And I don't know what that is. It's not all the time. It's just. Recommends you that for you. You had a new starter installed? I wonder, the starter in order to turn the engine over and start it, It has a small gear that pushes out and engages what's called the ring gear.

And the ring gear is a nice big gear that's about 18 inches across attached to the back of the engine. It's possible that some of the teeth on that ring gear have got some damage on them. And when the starter's trying to engage, it's hitting those damaged teeth. And that would make a noise like that. Unfortunately, replacing that ring gear can be quite expensive because the engine or transatlantic. transmission one has to be removed from the car in order to change that gear. It looks like a flywheel. Yes, it actually is.

The flywheel is there if you have a manual transmission, and it's a ring gear if you have an automatic transmission. So what are we talking money-wise do you think? Probably I'm going to say about probably $1,500 to $1,500 to replace that, because like I say, usually it's easier to remove the transmission and then the cost of the part. But in order to verify that, tech would have to remove the starter or the access panel. If she doesn't do that. If she doesn't want to spend $1,500, what will happen if she does nothing other than it will continue to grind?

It could damage the teeth on the starter over time, but the teeth on the ring gear would actually just continue to get a little bit worse. each time the starter gear hit those particular teeth so it's not something i have to run out and do tomorrow no no no i'm the one that called it had the broken door in the back mm-hmm oh that they couldn't replace that they couldn't find it and you said don't bother with it yeah well now you had two things you don't need to bother with okay well i was i'm just very concerned that I was going to take it in and have them due service

and you know darn well once you get in there they start ripping things apart and next you know it's $2,000 later. You always want to be sure if you're going to do that get a written estimate and then get a second or a third opinion.

You never want to take the car in and just say fix it because you'll end up you're right with a huge bill. Get a written estimate and then take it or two or three or at least one or two other repair shops and get another opinion. Well, I'm at the stage where it's, you know, it's in 1998. I'm at the stage where I really need not be putting more money in. No, you don't want to.

And to buy a new car is silly. To buy a used car is silly. Yes. So I'm in between a rock and a hard place. Well, you just keep on trucking with what you're driving. and keep your fingers crossed and with a little bit of luck you won't have any problems and you won't have to spend thousands of dollars you just now's not a good time to have to spend a whole lot of money no it isn't so you think i'll be okay then i think you'll be okay yeah

well i appreciate your advice and i'm glad i call you i listen to your show every saturday morning and i have been i drove toyotas all my life and i don't know why I bought this chubby blazer. I must have not been in my right mind. Sometimes we're just ready for a change, you know. Oh, no. I wanted to buy a forerunner, but that wasn't in my budget, so I settled for something I really didn't want, and I regret it.

And I will definitely go back to a Toyota. But for now, hang on to that car. It's not a real good time, as Earl said. And, Amy, I want to thank you for listening. I want to thank you for calling. And please, spread the word that we're here for the ladies. I tell everybody, and my women friends don't want to believe me. Well, seeing is believing, hearing is believing.

So you just tell them to give me a call personally on my cell phone. We'll chat. That's the one that I have on your little business card, right? That's right, the one you have on my business card. I think that was you that just called me on my cell phone. But, Amy, we're going to get to our next caller. And we can talk later. I appreciate your help.

Thank you so much and take care and have a blessed day. Thank you. A blessed day to you, too. We're going to go to Marty, who has been patiently holding. Good morning, Marty. Hi, how are you? We're well, thank you. I have a question for Earl and or Sue.

Assuming the chip shortage ever gets over, I think half of it is make believe anyway, but that's just me. how long do they think it would take to get back to normal car with the car business, where you got cars in the lot and you sell under MSRP and under invoice? I haven't got a crystal ball and divot us too, Marty. We just, we're like you. I used to think it was going to be last year, and then I'm saying this year, and now I'm wondering about this year.

It's a lot of uncertainties out there. I wish I could be more specific, but I was too specific before, so now I don't know what's going to happen. The only thing I can say is it's not an industry-wide problem. Certain manufacturers have much serious, more serious problems. For example, Tesla, they still have a problem in deliveries, but it's not because of the microchip shortage. It's just purely demand and production capability in the war in Ukraine and a lot of of other things. So everybody's got problems. The world's topsy-turvy, and I can't make a prediction for you. No, what I'm saying, the world is assuming the chips were all back,

and that was not the problem. How long would it take to have the manufacturers, like Toyota, build so many cars that you'd be flooded again in the car dealership? Pretty quick, right, true? I don't know. I mean... If suddenly all the microchips and toilet and... Toil and Eden, how long would it take them to start, you know, crank it out of the reduction? One of those other factors that are causing the supply chain issues, too, not just the microchips. Like the big one that hit us earlier just a couple of months ago was Southeast Asia got hit hard with COVID,

and a lot of parts suppliers went down. There's some other issue that. Wiring on, this is. Yeah, and also, and I'm looking now, but I do think that the war in Ukraine is impacting, and it might not just be Toyota, but. Yeah, there's a lot of things going on. But if there's a magically every micro-ship shortage, and that was the only problem, I would think it would be pretty quick if they're just cars sitting around.

But there's also a huge amount of demand that's pent up. So to fill those orders, I'd say it'd take a few months probably. I think their cars already built that weren't shipped because of the microchips. So I think it would probably be faster than you thought because they'd be picking up the slack. They'd be cars sitting in a lot. They run out there, pop the microchips in, and I'm exaggerating a little bit, and ship the car. So if we had everything we needed in the terms of rare earth elements, wiring harnesses, microchips, and all the other supply chain issues, it suddenly dropped out of the sky, all of the manufacturers.

I think probably in 60 days it would be life as normal again, but that's not going to happen. All right. I appreciate your opinion, so. We appreciate your conversation, Marty. I put it in order at your place in March. great they told me three to six months so I still got to wait yeah definitely thanks so much morning so much is surfacing it's just the way it is today it's the new normal thank you for your phone call we love hearing from you every Saturday we're going to go to Ann who's been

holding in Jupiter good morning Ann good morning how are you oh great welcome good thank you well I had called in two weeks ago and I want to thank you for my check. I got my check. Oh, you're quite welcome. And it was extra because it was Mother's Day, so thank you for that. And you did say to follow up with you with my concern about my 2018 Hyundai Sonata, the paint is peeling off of the roof. Yes.

And I have been, it's almost three months now, I've been with, you suggested I go to the different dealer. Mm-hmm. And I did that. They took pictures. send it to the warranty and they're saying that it's five years old that I've had it five years I bought it new and it's an 18 so it's four years old in my books but they're saying it's five years and they will not cover my warranty was it a demo or did it have miles on it when you bought it no sir it was brand new no miles well it's from

the date of delivery of that yeah it's when they did delivery I was saying it but if it starts did a first use and if there was a demo that would count against it what you say you had several dealers in September of 17 and that counts as another year but I've been 19 years in Hyundai but

no more. Which dealers did you go to and? The one on North Lake. And did you try any other Hyundai dealers? Yes I said the same thing. I went I did I went to the one in Stewart and I also have been in touch with the manufacturer

directly, and they've even told me no, they're not going to cover it. So I said, well, and now for 19 years I've been happy with Hyundai, but not anymore. I'm going to a different car. Well, I'm sorry, Anna. You know, it was a bad

business decision on Hyundai's part and the dealer's part, and right now we have thousands of people on the air listening to this, watching it, and it's just a bad rap for Hyundai. It's just not good business. business, you're only slightly out of warranty at best, and they should handle that under what

they call goodwill, and just a darn shame. Any Hyundai dealers out there, if you, a few folks listening, if you know of any Hyundai dealers that would help Ann that are anywhere remotely near South Florida, let us know, it will pass it along to Ann. Because I know a dealer, if he pushed it with Hyundai, could get that bought under Goodwill. will. And you just haven't found a dealer that would do that for you. I'm sorry. Well, thank you. And I've even had some, I'm starting to get estimates on my own, and it's too much. I told Hyundai, I'm going to ride around with it like this. Is this good advertisement for you? Exactly. Exactly. And you're calling the show, you know,

it's amazing the number of people who are listening to this show right now. And that includes car dealers, salespeople, everybody, so there's nothing like free advertisement, and I'll tell you what, it travels like wildfire. And I'm so glad that you follow it up on this issue that should have been taken care of. I think it should have them. Absolutely. Help me with it. They could, I'm willing to, you know, to give a little bit. Absolutely. And the $1,000 that they save by not doing what they should have done for you is going to cost them probably over $100,000 in negative attitude and publicity for Hyundai and the local dealer.

So it's a bad business decision, and a bad decision for you, too. And hopefully we'll hear from a Hyundai dealer somewhere, someone who knows a Hyundai dealer, and we can get back and give it another try for you. We'll see. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Stewart. And thank you for helping us expose all this negative publicity, and it's definitely going to help you.

us. Have a great weekend. All right. Well, thank you. You're welcome. All right. Stay well. Okay, we're going to go to Tracy, who's a first time caller. She's calling us from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Tracy. Hi, good morning. I love your program. Oh, thank you. You've won yourself $50 this morning. That's really generous. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Really, I have, my son had bought a truck. It was his first time going to a car dealership, you know, not a buy here, pay here, but, you know, a big car dealership. And he wanted to get the truck for $60,000, and he was going to leave over the five.

They had a per 65, and he was going to leave over the $5,000. And then they finagled it where he signed on a computer, like there was no kind of bottom line paperwork and then he just found out at the when he got his first bill a month later that they sold it to him for 65 also they said there's months or a 60 day return policy you know because they're seeing that you know this it's not it's not what they said it was and then they called about that and said that that is not correct it's not Walmart you can't return it and uh and then they they they just um you know the salesman just said whatever came to mind to get the sale done but then the truth of the matter was entirely something different and they didn't even give him any paperwork to walk out the door with

they gave him a zip drive okay I've heard of that any chance this was a Lexus dealership no I don't know if I can say you're not oh absolutely it's a Bev Smith Kia in Fort Pierce

okay yeah we know the the general manager That paperless signing thing is just kind of getting started off. I never really thought about how it could be abused by a dealership. We just thought it would be a really cool way to get into the 21st century. But if you're not getting, what was on the zip drive? Was there any, all the proper documentation? Well, I didn't.

It's kind of a sore subject with my son. I can see he's really, you know, he feels like he got ripped off. He probably did get ripped off. and, you know, he just, so I don't, I don't know, but I'm sure, I'm sure that it does say, you know, what it was, because he said, he said that, you know, what they said verbally and what he signed was 60, but then when he saw the zip drive, he said, yeah, so the fact of the matter was on the zip drive, but he didn't see that. He didn't even have a computer to go home to put it on. I had to give him a laptop, that was his, you know, whatever, but. Listen, I mean, I don't know if this would, if it had helped, but, you know, your son, what happened and he shouldn't be embarrassed about especially with younger people car dealership especially like that dealership that he went to specialize. I don't

think it's legal to give a zip drive. It is. Are you sure? I think a JM Lexus does it and we've talked to with JM and A and all that. You can give paper, I think you have to give the option. I don't think you have to. Well, yeah I would

I would be amazed and any lawyers out there listening. I'd love to We'll get an opinion on this, but I would think... Electronic receipts are pretty common, yeah. Well, if you ask for it, I'm just saying the way the law reads. Let's talk about people that are maybe English language challenged or maybe education challenge or maybe a lot of other ways.

It's hard enough to know what you bought and understand the rules when you have it in your hand in a piece of paper. But that's how online sales are going to be done. I know that. I know that. I'm just saying that I think at some point a written document is required, but I don't know that for sure. And I don't think Rick does either. And I was just going to say that Raymond Honda on Lakeworth Road has actually been doing that for a couple of years now. I mean, dealers do a lot of things that aren't legal. But I just, let's, we have discussed it with the JMNA. And it is, it is. The person you need to discuss it with is an attorney. because we trust them to use their attorneys yeah okay well you raised a very interesting question

and unfortunately once you've committed to a purchase and taken delivery of the vehicle and you sign the papers and I'm saying papers now now we're talking a zip drive I will do a little exploration on that lately because this is something that never occurred to me I thought I knew we were cars online and I knew we had digital documents, but I never thought that the law would make it legal for someone to be processed and delivered any product with nothing on a piece of paper. And it might be true. I could be wrong. If it is, I think it's a great injustice because it's hard enough for people to, as I say, read a piece of paper as opposed to have a zip drive if they got to plug into their PC before they know what they did.

Gotcha. Tracy, what a great call and a great question in bringing all of this to our attention. And I certainly hope that you'll stay in touch with us as we uncover this situation, as you will. Okay. I appreciate you guys being there to answer. I was thinking about that Florida Protectingcarbuyers.com looking into that website, Is that what was Florida protesting carbuyers.com? Yeah, they don't address digital or online purchasing, and I don't think.

The Florida statutes, the latest Florida statutes are probably 10 years old. There needs to be, someone needs to address purchasing things digitally because you know who's going to be taken advantage of, be the young people, the old people, the people that are not sophisticated. You know, you're, I know Amazon has stores right now that you drive up to the store and you go in and you put the products you want to buy into a shopping cart and you run it out of the store and you throw it into your car. And you never talk to a human being. You never have a piece of paper. You never see a credit card.

So we're in a fast-track digital world that will exploit, not I don't suggest Amazon would, but. but car dealers sure would, they would exploit that digitalization to their advantage. So you brought up a very interesting point, and we will pursue this, as Nancy said, and see what the bottom line is. We'll be talking to some lawyers. I will be calling the attorney for the Florida Automobile Dealers Association. His name is Alex Kirkin, and I'll see what he has to say about it. Then I'll talk to some other people, too.

But you asked a great question, Tracy. Thank you. This is great, Tracy. you really added to our show this morning and I wish it wasn't what happens honestly I feel so bad for them yeah yeah definitely okay Tracy again thank you and please stay in touch and enjoy that $50 that you won this morning that's so nice thank you thank you thank you you're welcome I'll make him feel it a little better yeah there you go bye guys have a great weekend our number here is 870 97960 and you can text us at 772-4976530 and you know I haven't mentioned for a while but to Earl's comment about this digital age that we're in we're not moving into it we are in it well we really need some volunteers not only for Earl's vigilantes but we need I lost my hat oh no I need another hat I don't know what happened I got a box of them oh good I'm a

An investigator, as you know, will uncover that theft. Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, if you want to volunteer, you can help out, certainly. And we need help with, you know, helping, you know, home ever. I used to say seniors, but it's everybody maneuvering their way around the computer, you know, into this digital age. a lot of us are going to our PC to purchase a vehicle to do many, many things. So you can volunteer and you can go to Earl on Cars and you can volunteer for Earl's vigilantes and you can help people in your neighborhood.

You don't have to know how to take a vehicle, I mean an engine apart. So there's two ways that you can help out and you can go to Earl on Cars. We are going to go to Kurt, who's giving us a call from from Virginia. Kurt? Oh, good. Good morning, Kurt. Hi, it's Burke in West by God, Virginia.

How are you? Oh, yeah. Oh, I forgot to mention that. That's right on my computer. Kurt from my God, Virginia. What can we do for you? My question really refers mostly to Rick, I think. It has to do with manufacturers' recommended maintenance schedules.

schedules, and in particular for folks that drive between 5,000 and 7,000 miles per year on their cars that are beyond their warranty periods. For example, the manufacturer recommends oil changes every six months for 6,000 miles. Is it reasonable to stretch this to eight or more months for synthetic oil changes? I'm also interested or I'm thinking about using black stuff. in laboratories for an oil analysis to sample my next oil change just to see a chemical analysis of my oil. $30 seems reasonable to check the overall functioning of my engine. I've actually never done or had done a chemical analysis on oil. I just never really saw

the real need for it. But stretching the time a little bit, if you're going a couple of months over two or three, that's really not going to hurt anything, but I'd avoid going too much more than just a couple months beyond what your manufacturer says. The reason being that even just the natural moisture condensation in the air that gets into your engine can cause issues in there. So even on cars that don't get driven a whole lot, it still needs to follow the recommendations on how often to change the oil. Okay, and what about coolant and break fluids? I use Phoenix systems, coolant and break fluid test strips to have chemical or scientific proof of the quality of my coolant and brake fluid.

What do you think? Again, I would just follow what the manufacturer says for its recommended interval changes. Most of them that I know of don't have a recommended maintenance for, break fluid. So using your test strips would definitely be a good idea there. That would certainly tell you when the water content of it has reached a critical point or if the fluid is just getting too dirty and it's reaching a point when it might be detrimental to the system, it might start to allow the brake lines to corrode or something. Okay, Rick, I thank you for your answers. And one last question for oral. When can I order

your second book well that's a good question we're we're getting to the wrap-up station now there's still a couple interviews and a few more chapters we've got 10 chapters and probably have three or four more and uh i would say by the end of the year outstanding thank you for your assistance thank you kirk enjoy your show from west by god virginia all right and kurt is going to be a real page turner um dear is going to be a an amazing book and it's going to be exciting. You won't be able to put it down.

Redemptions of a car dealer. If you want to pick up Earl's confessions of a recovering car dealer, you can do so. You can just order it online. All proceeds go to Big Dog Ranch. All proceeds,

if you didn't hear me, go to Big Dog Ranch. Booh! Yep. There you go. I like that one. I'm expecting a how. That's part of the full moon thing. Oh, yeah.

And also to Tracy, who we were speaking to earlier, I'm going to repeat that website for you. WWW Florida Law Protecting Car Buyers.com. And I'll repeat that as we go through the show. It's only 906 right now. That will come in handy for you and what you want to do. We're going to go to John, who's been holding in Palm City. Good morning, John.

Good morning to everyone. The topic came up about manufacturers' revolting franchise of dealerships. It seems like it, especially in Florida, its complement of it lies in the hand to the Attorney General. But it seems like a no-no completely because of the lawsuits, especially a certain lawyer. He's right here in Stewart. He sued Anahezer Bush.

He's the only one that successfully won a case with them from a franchise in Orlando. He sued Coca-Cola. And he sued the second-largest funeral chain in the United States, and he won with them. So it seems like they're hesitant. The case will be in court. It'll cost a lot of money.

It's not worth them here in Florida, especially with the past history that we had, but you had a state like New York just currently now successfully sued three used car dealers in Woodside, New York, luxury motors, world auto and automania and sued them tremendously. They had 10,000 violations, you name it, for everything that we discussed at the show,

violations, especially with the Hispanic market, abusing the people, taking care of it, It's a large settlement. There's 16 consumer complaints against them, and it'll probably succeed because look at the history in New York. General Motors was not hesitant to take the franchise away from Vic Fatankan of Miami, the Cadillac dealership and gave it to Roger Penske. They revoked it from Pontiac dealer on Long Island. It seems like it depends a lot about the state, and they seem to – well, in New York, city, you got to, does New York City consumer protection law, which they go by that and they

succeed just using that law alone? So it seems like a hesitant completely, especially here in Florida. And by the way, people observed that they revoked the franchise of Toyota or Stewart. That wasn't Toyota that took his franchise away. That was the Toyota distributorship. And then for some reason, it seems like the person that bought that dealership even got rewarded later on, and they gave him a Lexus dealership, so I don't know what the politics that's involved

in there, but that revoking of the franchise was not done by Toyota, but manufacturer. It was done by the Toyota distributor. So I just thought I'd mention that there's a no-no of manufacturers going against individuals like Napleton. You're right.

You're right. It's a sad thing, because if they're not going to terminate Napleson, they're not going to terminate anybody. And that's probably the truth. Manufacturers are helpless because of the state franchise laws. Agreed 100%. Thank you, John.

Thank you. John, it was great hearing from you. Give us a call again. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-49-30. Don't forget. anonymous feedback.com. Now back to the recovering car dealer. I'm still thinking about Tracy's call about the zip drive and I reflect back on my evil days when I was doing bad things just like all the other car dealers. And one little trick we used to have back, you know, 25, 30 years

ago, 40 years ago, when we sold a car, we didn't want, we called it we, we didn't want to have to face the fact that the customer in the vernacular of the car dealer would come out of the ether when they got home, when they were basically anesthetized in the dealership and they were lulled into complicity and we would sign them up an outrageous profit on a car. And one of the ways we really made money like the car dealers today was with financing. And we have the installment sale contract, which is the contract where we could charge seven. 17.5% on a new car. It's still in Florida, the legal limit to finance a new car is 17.5%. And there are a lot of people that, you know, the victims we call them, never bought a car before.

English is not their primary language. They are just not sophisticated enough to understand the laws and things like that. A lot of people, they don't know that's 17%, they don't know that they're paying 17%. They don't read the fine print. So what we use. used to do is we would take the installment sales contract and if you're streaming this all I'll simulate this a little bit we take the installment sales contract and we would fold it up like this and before we gave it to the customer then we would take a stapler and we would staple it like this and then we would say now take this and put this in your glove compartment so you

don't ever lose it and I had about 40 staples in there and you you don't want to unstable, you tear the contract apart when you did that. The reason, we didn't want them to see that they were charged 17%. So disclosure is important. Transparency is important. And we talked to Tracy about the fact that her son bought a car from Bessmith, Kea, and there was no paper. He was given no paper.

He was given a zip drive. Now, one of the chances that he still has that zip drive, or he can find it, and if he found that he'd know what to do with it. It's just, maybe he would because he's a young person. But how about a senior citizen? How about a young person that never bought a car before? Someone that doesn't speak English, didn't understand. What was this thing they gave me?

You put it in your pocket. You stick it in your purse. So I'm, again, I'm fascinated by the fact that we may have a huge new problem that I didn't think about, student about it. that people are now just buying cars online, and there's no paper changing hands. They get no paper disclosure. Rick? That fits right in with the question I have here.

Patricia Soto is asking. She says, I'm stationed at Fort Hood, and I want to buy the 2023 Toyota Sequoia when it comes out. How do I navigate getting a good price? Dealers seem to take advantage of military service members. Well, they do, and they've been caught a number of times. I forget the acronym of the, do you remember Stu? There's a governmental agency that specializes, federal agency that specializes in this,

and they go to bases around the country, and you're absolutely right, a lot of these young people in the service are being taken advantage of by car dealers. They've never bought a car before. They're in the service, they got some money, and I guess you have good credit when you're in the service because your paycheck is coming in.

paycheck is coming in, you have probably have a credit union and a lot of easy ways to buy a car. You're absolutely right. CFPB, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau? That's it, yeah, CFPB. It was formed after the greater session. So that's who I would report or I would contact and say that I'm in the process of buying a car. Go online to CFPB and they will probably give you some guidance as to. However, if you're looking to buy a new security.

now it's everybody's going to get overcharged for oh yeah yeah sure so now is not the time created by the sequoia when it comes out exactly okay okay uh we are going to go to john and he's calling us from stewart good morning john good morning welcome what can we do for you well i have a 2003 mercedes bens uh c230 compressor and it's causing me a bunch of problems so My guide next door to me, he's assistant service manager. And so I started up, and he listened to it. He said, no, he said, because it wasn't taking gas. I mentioned he's kind of weak.

And he said, that's a coil. So I said, okay. He said, but you need to go somewhere and you have him check it out. Well, I thought, instead of doing that, I just put in all new coils. So I got a coil pack, and I put it in, and I started it up, and it ran really good. I went out on the, it wasn't I'd win perfectly, but I rode it, drove it, took it out on the highway, got up to some speed a couple, three times, came back, and I said, well, I brought it put some gas in it, some good gas, so I went to a mobile, put in the 93, I drove it about a mile, and it starts jumping again.

So I don't know what's going on with it. I was one of Rick might know, but one other caveat is, so I let it set for two days, because I got an appointment I was going to put it on a computer and see what he thinks is wrong with it or what the computer says. But now it's running really good, except for it just wants to idle a little bit low. It's got a rough idle. So I googled it and said it could be a EG exhaust, no, yeah, exhaust. the exhaust gas recirculation valve yeah that's it that's it

so what do you think first question when you put the coils in it did you put in new spark plugs I did yes sir I did okay still possible you might have some carbon buildup in there what happens when you're not getting a good

complete burn in the engine it'll leave carbon deposits and sometimes those can foul out the spark plugs or too much fuel getting in and not getting burned properly can foul the spark plugs, but the new plugs usually will take care of that. The low idle and slightly rough idle, quite often that's caused by a dirty throttle plate. I would have the throttle body serviced and cleaned properly and try that first before you start putting any other parts on it just yet. But if they have a chance you can get it on a scan tool, that would be a good

way to tell if you've got a misfire on just one cylinder or multiple cylinders or see what's going on there. Okay, yeah, I think I do it because I had to take it to the same guy before he's really good here and Stuart a local guy. His computer takes and

goes into the one in Germany and so he can tell me exactly because I took it at another place and they threw parts on it. This was a previous situation I had with it. So he put in the two different fuel pumps, they put in the fuel filter, they put in everything in the world,

and all it was was a sensor, an oxygen sensor. And I put in like almost $2,000 to get all that tough to time. They just threw parts at it, and I don't want anybody to do that, so I'm going to take it to this guy here. Yeah, definitely, because just throwing parts of the cars, a very bad idea. Do you want to try to have them find out what, you know, what's actually causing the issue? Okay, yeah, because this guy, and I'll just give him a little plug, he's name. It's Ryan from Church Street Automotive down in Stewart, and he's really an honest guy, and he knows what he's doing.

The other guy's sitting, so I'll take him there and let you know what's going on in, buddy. But it could be, you said, like, the throttle plate? Yes, that's one I see quite often, because carbon build up on that throttle plate, it starts to block off the air passage, and you don't get enough air getting into the engine. and that'll cause it to give a low idol okay all right buddy thanks a lot guys appreciate your show thank you so much John we are going to stay with the phones and we're going to talk to Douglas from Wilming Wellington good morning Douglas hi good morning welcome thank you what can we do for you this morning I've been reading Earl's

articles in the Florida weekly off and on for several years and I've always found them very enlightening and very informative thank you um and the basic premise that I take away from you know some of the articles about buying a new car is you know out of the war price and then you know all the things about the add-ons that they add and stuff um which the average person like me wouldn't even think of. But my question is, you know, when you buy a new car, you're, you can compare apples and apples.

You know, a new Toyota, Corolla, the same model, trim, et cetera, is going to be the same comparison at different dealers. But if you're buying a used car, you know, I found it to be much more subjective. And I just wanted if you could comment on that,

you know, what's the difference between a Nissan Center 2017 with you know 50,000 versus the 19 with fewer or more it's just I found that process a little bit more difficult to navigate and what if you could you know maybe comment on how to make comparisons buying used cars well yes that's a good question I happen to have the current June issue of the consumer reports open to the page 52 that says most reliable brand for five-year-old vehicles. And actually, you're better off doing a consumer reports check on a used car because they've got a history. They list the 2017s here, and you can get it for any year, but the 2017 brand reliability,

they go all the way. The top three, I'll read the top three are the Lexus, Toyota, and Accura, 2017 used cars, cars. And the bottom three, the worst that you want to stay away from, are Chevrolet, Ram, and GMC. So they really have, if you've got a car that's five years old or four years old, there's a lot of history out there. And Consumer Reports really does the research. And they know when they say that if you're going to buy a 2017 Lexus RX, you're going to get a great vehicle. It's got a rating of 91. And if you can find one at a reasonable price, which you probably can't today, but if you could,

it would be a far better buy than a new car. Consumer reports, they have great information on used cars. No, I have used those, but the consumer reports, but, like, you know, when actually going out to hit the streets and going to a couple of different car dealers, I mean, everybody's inventory varies because it's used cars. You know, it's not like they can order a brand new one from the factory, and you're getting the same comparison between this dealership and that dealership.

So it's really, you know, it's really hard to know if I'm getting a good deal, and, you know, I could, no pun intended, spin my wheels running around to 10 different dealerships and finding 100 different places in a fairly similar. Do you have a computer or smartphone? Yeah. Probably the best thing to do is just it saves you a lot of time is search online and start off at like a clearinghouse site like AutoTrader.com for the used cars. And then I would narrow it down to dealerships. I don't know if Roel's going to would agree with me on this, but you also have private sellers out there.

Small lots. There's lots of crap to kind of just weed out some of the most like the worst possibilities, narrow. it down to reputable dealerships and look online that saves you the shoe leather of running around town and then there's other online sources that you can use just to get the pricing like to make sure you know you're in the ballpark everything's ranges but look at kelly blue book what their fair value is and and there's some other sources those are not written in stone but at least you know you're in the ballpark and the gold standard is to have the car checked by your own mechanic Pay them $100, $150, have them go of the car carefully.

And get your Carfax report. If you get a Carfax report and had your own mechanic, check the car, no one's going to pull the wool over your eyes. Either the car is right or it's not right. And that's the final test, the acid test. One other thing you can do is stopping at the dealership for that particular car and ask the service department if they will run a national history for the service report

to see what maintenance and repairs have been done on the car. What about buying, what's your take on like a CarMax and off lease only? CarMax is a great place to buy you's car. Carfax is where you want to check the car, you bought a CarMax

on Carfax. And off lease only, look over the car extremely, carefully because as a technician, I have seen a lot of people come in with relatively new cars that were totaled in accidents and then rebuilt and sold by off lease only. Yeah, I've heard that, but wouldn't those accidents show up on the Carfax before? Normally they will, and sometimes they just slip by it because sometimes say your car gets damaged in an accident, And instead of going through your insurance company, you simply go to a body shop and have it repaired yourself.

It never makes it to Carfax. They don't know about it. Right, exactly. I know I'm trying to. Here's another question. What about, you know, buying some private individuals, like on offer-off or next door or Craigslist or whatever? You have such a few protections when you do that? Not a good idea.

Don't do it. Don't buy from a private individual. It's a more problem than it's worth. Unless it's your brother, you know, a friend, the good friend. Yeah, but if you don't know the guy or the gal, don't buy a car from him. Yeah, like last month we did, I found something, and a woman was saying that she had a, for $2,000, whatever the car was. And then once he expressed interest, she did the old scam about,

oh, well, I'm in the military up and forth the Velvador. Virginia, but if you send $2,000 here, you'll ship it directly to you, you know, the whole run around, you know. Okay, well, that's you're, I still gave you the right idea. One more question about buying

its cars, so you know, as far as the trims and the prices, just identified two or three maker models that are interested and just shop around, huh? Yeah, get your consumer reports, or get to June issue, the current issue. And I start looking for Alexis Toyota Accura, Infinity, Mercedes-Benz.

Those are all the top ones. Stay away from Hyundai, Jeep, Chevrolet, RAM, and GMC. And you just start out with the good ones and find one that's got a high rating and then have your mechanic check it out. Carfax Report, Bada Bing. You're going to pay a lot of money today because the used cars are very high price. But you won't get a lemon if you go through that process. And how about, and again, tell me a little bit more about Autotrader, if you could. It's just a used car listing site. It's used by dealers. It's used by independent lots.

Every dealer in the world is on AutoTrader. You have a huge selection. You go buy zip code and you put it your zip code. How far away do you want to travel? And you get the good, the bad. And the other thing is you're basically getting virtually ever used car that's for sale anywhere is on Autotrader.com. But that is the good, the bad, and the ugly,

got to narrow it down, refine it, as I said before, with your... You can refine it to dealers only, and it also changed the miles. You want to look at 10 miles, 20 miles, 100 miles, or no limit. Douglas, it is a pleasure to speak to you. We wish you good luck. And, you know, you have so many options right there in your home, right in front of that PC.

The world is yours. Thank you so much for your phone call. There are too many options. Thank you very much. Yeah, it can be confusing. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, we need to get this video clip, and I have to give a heads up first on this, but we have a video clip on the WPLG, Channel 10 in Fort Lauderdale, Expoise, Investigated

Reporter, Jeff Weinseer, did an amazing job. Jeff Weinstein, the investigative reporter for Channel 10 in Fort Lauderdale, WPLG. There's some lawsuits going on. We've got two lawyers, Jonathan Kane, Joshua Fagan, and they're going after 20 or 30 dealers for taking advantage of customers trying to buy their leases back. You have an option to buy if you have a lease car. One out of three cars on the road right now are lease cars.

You have an option on your lease car to buy it. That price is really good. Thousands of dollars below market, you should exercise that option, And you should avoid being taken advantage of because dealers are adding hidden fees, profits, and everything else they can think of on top of your purchase option price. This is illegal. So we're going to go to our video. Five, four, three, one, fire. You should not be charged any dealer fees when buying out your car lease.

That's been the focus of two recent local 10 news investigations. But despite the laws in place and consumers trying to fight back, complaints continue to come in. And tonight some state lawmakers say it has to stop. Local Ted Investigator, Jeff Fein-Seer, is back on the case. I'd like to see the consumer not get screwed. State Representative Dan Daly talking about consumers like Adonai de Silva, who claims he's unexpectedly being charged close to $1,500 in dealer fees to buy out his current lease, even though his contract clearly says he'd pay $0,000.

zero in fees if he purchased his SUV. It's in writing. It's on paper. And they were able to tell you, point blank, we're not going to honor this. That was exactly their words. I just give it back. Stefano Danielo was hit with $2,500 in dealer fees, but showed a manager at Alexis dealership a previous story we did showing those undisclosed fees were not allowed. All the fees gone.

All the fees gone. It's mind-boggling how much dealerships completely disregard what they are allowed to do and what the law requires of them. Attorney Joshua Fagan has or is about to file a demand for arbitration against 25 different dealerships. He says he can't sue because of an arbitration clause in the contracts. But even so, it could be quite a hefty burden on the dealership. Those dealerships are charging dealer fees or $4.4. endorsing consumers to certify their lease buyouts, which also adds a cost. The dealership has no obligation to make any sort of inspection of the vehicle, do any sort

of inspection, nor certify that it's road worthy at the end of the day. Fagan says there is federal law. The Consumer Leasing Act clearly states all fees charged on the back end must be disclosed in the contract at the beginning. After we first exposed this issue in March, some consumers challenged past fees. A few dealers have made refunds. Unfortunately, there's still consumers that are being taken advantage of to this day. On top of a $992 dealer fee, the Coral Springs Auto Mall charges its customers a $449 electronic filing fee to the state? What does that cost you as a dealer? It cost me $10.8,9, 10? Only $10? Earl Stewart has been a dealer since 1968. He owns Earl Stewart Toyota in northern

Palm Beach County and he's the only dealer who would talk to us. He charges no fees and he has the same questions we do. Why is this malpractice the dealers going so largely ignored? I salute Channel 10 WPLG for bringing this out. I can't remember the last time I've seen a state attorney general or go after a car dealer. I think that there are different state agencies that are passing the buck to each other and not really trying to get down to the bottom of how we solve an issue like this. State Senator Lauren Book was vice chairman of regulated industries last year and she too wants to know which state agency enforces this. The system that is in place isn't working. We've got to make sure that the consumer again is being cared for. And so if that

means we have to craft other policies to make sure that that is the case, then we do that. the first time that we can actually file legislation on this would be in March. A spokesperson for Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody says 40 complaints relating to lease buyouts have been received. They're investigating to see if they fall under deceptive and unfair trade practices. For consumers today, all of that means nothing. I feel very disrespected by them, very, very disrespected. Jeff Weinzer, Local 10 News. Well, the chief operating officer of the Coral Springs Auto Mall refused comment.

And the Florida Automobile Dealers Association represents more than a thousand dealership statewide and provides legislative representation as well. Local 10 News reached out for comment on this issue. And so far, we have not heard back. Wow. That was very refreshing. And I have the contact information of the two attorneys that were mentioned. Jonathan Kane and Joshua Fagan. They're both in the Fort Lauderdale area. So if you need to contact these attorneys, they are going after these dealers based on the Consumer Leasing Act. The Consumer Leasing Act is enacted in 1976 by the Federal Trade Commission. And the Consumer Leasing Act simply says you cannot modify the purchase option price unless it's described.

closed in writing in your lease. If the price you were given to purchase your lease car for is given to you, the dealer or the leasing company or no one can modify that price. They have to honor the purchase option price in your lease. They can't add a dealer fee. All the dealers in South Florida are adding dealer fees, electronic filing fees, certification fees, and anything they will, else they want. And they're violating. a federal law. So finally, and I, you know, kudos to Channel 10, Jeff Weinseer, and WPLG for having the nerve to do this. They're going to lose

some advertising because of this. Matter of fact, the owner of the Coconut Creek Auto Mall called up Jeff Weinseer and made some rather implied threats about him not going after car dealers for what they're doing. So I really salute WPLG, Channel 10. I wish Some of the TV channels in Palm Beach County and Martin County and some other areas would have the nerve that Channel 10 did to go after this obvious violation of the law. So if you need the number for Jonathan Kane, I'll give it to it quickly. We have to get to the mystery shopping report pretty quickly.

But Jonathan Kane's direct line is area code 954-523-5123. Jonathan Cain attorney 954 523 5123 and Josh Fagan Joshua Fagan Fagan Fiji Y GEN 954

69703357 Joshua Fagan attorney they'll go after these dealers on the Consumer Leasing Act for adding fees to your purchase option Joshua Fagan area code 954

697 0357 954 657 So we'll talk about that more next week And Earl you did say Coral Springs Coral Springs Auto Mall

Coral Springs Auto Mall Was guilty of some of this And they called up and raised out with Jeff Weins here at Channel 10 Okay Our hats are off to Channel 10 for sure It's a new day Ladies and gentlemen

I think that we may have a moment to get to some texts. Yeah, I'd like to read Amory's text before we get to the mystery shopper report. Oh, great. Good morning, Ann Marie. Good morning. It's been a while. We had a lot of phone calls today. Amory says, good morning. I've noticed an increase in ads for cars and trucks lately. Yet from what I read in the papers and on the Internet and this show, inventory is still quite limited. I'm hoping you can answer these questions about advertising. One, why would dealers increase their advertising when inventory is limited or already completely sold out?

Because they can afford it now. Two, I have noticed various car ads popping up when I play video games like words with friends. And I can understand how a dealer can place an ad in the newspaper, but how do, or local radio, how is a car dealer advertised on the Internet? I'll answer question one and why they're advertising and I'll answer a question two. Well, answering them both because you're right on top of them. It's right now a car dealers' profits are so massive right now that they're not even feeling big expenses like advertising anymore. And we've continued to advertise, but not it's the type of advertising we're doing. We're not saying come in, there's a big sale, and we're going to save a bunch of money on cars.

We're just letting people know that it makes sense to put an order in early, and we're letting people know that we don't charge over MSRP. But right now, there's, you know, dealers are governed by percentages and numbers right now. And right now they get spent millions of dollars in advertising and it's not even going to register as a percentage of their total profit they're making. And also they are still competing for customers. I mean, even though there's not a lot of cars there, there are dealers that are bringing cars in stock and people are coming in and buying them on the lot for ungodly sums of money. And they are competing for those customers right now. The key really is a turn rate and remit and it's a technical thing. normally you'd be right people would just sit back and take orders and not spend a nickel on advertising

but with car dealers you have to earn cars and the fast you sell them the more cars they ship you if you sat on your haunches and didn't advertise and your competitor did advertise you might make a few more bucks in the beginning but when the smoke settled and things return to normal he would have had his turn rate so high because of the advertising that the car cars would be coming to him and not you, and he'd be selling far more cars than you could. And so the second question is, how do you advertise on the Internet? That's a neat question. So we advertise on the Internet.

We have a Google ad account, and we also have a Facebook ad account, and there might be some others. When you have a Google ad account, businesses can bid on pay for search terms, and you pay money when a customer or somebody on the Internet. it clicks on your ad on the internet, but it also goes into the Google Ad Network. So it appears on things they call it display. So if you're on an app, maybe reading the news on a CNN app, you'll see an ad for a car dealer. That's part of the Google Ad Network. Yeah, I'm talking about geo-fencing. Oh, yeah, yeah.

And then also, but that also goes to video games. And also, and there's, if you've seen on, if you stream any TV or you stream anything, YouTube, that's called pre-roll. And it's really cool. there's a lot of targeting that you can do with it you can select like a specific geographical area you can select a dealership I won't I'd be lying if I said we've never done that where we've targeted an ad that would only appear

at a competitor's dealership and so there's and there's other ways you can target We could geo fence Anne Marie's house We could geofinch well I think the smallest radius Or the block than a zip code It may be like a mile or so around your house, but that's true. You can do that with, say, Facebook where only people in the city of Stewart will see the ad. And you can have a modified ad in the city of Jupiter.

And then so it's really, you can craft your message by the people that you're trying to reach and by where they live and also by demographic information such as income and age and all that. And it gets very, very interesting. older community, like Nancy and I, we wonder why all we see is hospitals, nursing homes, pharmaceuticals, and all the stuff that old people think about all your time. And that's because they know that we're old and we're... Yeah, advertisers have been doing this for a long time. And if you're watching TV and you start seeing a lot of ads for catheters and you start going,

am I really in this, am I in this Democratic category? But with Internet, you can go, like, it's not... you're not going by hundreds of thousands of people watching one channel, you can go down to individual neighborhoods and all that. So it's really cool, and we could probably do a whole show on it. Absolutely. Okay, folks, we're going to get to the mystery shopping report, and we want you to join us in rating that report. You're very important to this part of the show. We shopped Al Packer Ford. Now, here is the Mystery Shopping Report. Yeah, Alpacker. Been around for a while. Stu didn't even realize, but I knew the guy before, and it was McCauley Ford.

Some of you old-timers out there will remember McCulley Ford. The Alpaccar Automotive Group was established by Albert Octavius Packer. I made that up. It's just Alpaccair. See, you fooled me. Back in 1961 in Maryland. Over the years, Al ran a bunch of dealerships, but today this group consists of just three locations. Alpacres, White Marsh Ford, and Middle River, Maryland, Alpacar Ford, and Royal Pond.

Beach, Florida, and Alpacar Ford, and West Palm Beach. Some of the folks that went around town for a long time, remember his original ads was Granny Packer. And they had somebody with a wig, an old lady with a wig, and it was Granny Packer. It was hysterical, really cool advertising. Now it's before you buy, Pricebacker. Alpacar's son, Mark, took over after Al died in 1996. It wasn't too long when we last mystery shopped Alpaca for just six months ago back in December, 2021. Back then, we were just just getting deep into the inventory crisis as we are today, prices had already skyrocketed, and dealers were asking and getting thousands over MSRP, and of course, not much has changed since.

Alpaca Ford, however, surprised us six months ago on that last mystery shop. Although their price was technically over MSRP, it was just because of their dealer fee. Using a $500 rebate, Alpaca Ford actually priced their vehicle below MSRP. And the days in last December's retail climate, it was a great deal. Everything is well, we agreed on the curve, remember. A lot can change in six months, and we went back. Maybe Alpac or Ford decided that they were squandering profit opportunities by drawing the line in MSRP and then join the rest of the animals with their market adjustments.

And, you know, frankly, I'm laughing because Stu and I feel the same way. I mean, we're selling our cars at our dealership at MSRP, not a nickel over, just sales tax and license plate. And it bothers us to think that our competition out there is selling some cases more cars than we are, and they're selling for thousands of dollars more on each car. And it just makes us mad that they're profiting and yet, and legally profiting. So we thought maybe Al Packer felt the same way and saw the other Ford dealers like, you know, what's our buddy, Wayne Acres, Ford, or McCauley, for.

for. Actually, McKellie's sticking pretty close to MSRP too. Anyway, hopefully they'll stick with it, resist the sweet call of all that easy money, and continue to do the right thing. The only way to know is to go there and find out for ourselves, so we send in Agent Lightning. And here's the report, as if I were Agent Lightning. I walked into the showroom around lunchtime, reserved a group of men, gather around what I assumed to be a sales manager tower. Yes, they actually have towers, you know, in car dealerships. One of them saw me and approached and asked what he could do to help me. I told him I was in the market for a new SUV.

He asked if I had any specific models in mind, and I told him that so far, I really like the RAV-4. Now, listen to this. The salesman interrupted to tell me the RAV-4 was a Toyota product, not a Ford product. And I thought to myself, as I read the report, Agent Light's just turned around and walked away. and got in the car. She should have. If she was a real customer, she had a job to do that.

So biting my lip to contain my irritation, I told him, I realized that. I said I was curious to see what Ford had that was comparable to the Toyota R.F. 4. He replied by saying, probably an explorer? Like he didn't know. I asked if he was sure

and he, if they had anything smaller, like an edge or an escape. He replied, they did a suggestion we go to his computer and see what they had an inventory. We went inside, talked about what I wanted a vehicle. I told him I didn't want some base model. I wanted some nice features like power seats. Finally, at this point, I asked his name. It was Justin. I mean, pretty rough around the edges. You would introduce yourself with your name and you don't tell somebody that's looking for a competitor's model that you don't

have one. I mean, you're a salesman. Anyway, I'm passing pre-judgment on Justin. We'll see how he does. We spent some time looking at pictures of cars and inventory on his computer before I asked if we could go outside on the lot. I said I was hands-on type person, so we had it outside. We couldn't find any edges or escapes on his computer anyway, so he had two Explorer Timberlines. He also had a 2021 Bronco that was loaded. Outside, we found one on the explore. That was a used one, by the way. I forgot. Oh, okay.

And it'd be interesting to compare the prices. Outside, we found one of the explorers of Justin went over with me. The MSRP was 49, 545, 49,000, 545 bucks MSRP. No addendum was visible. That's always a good sign. Then we took it for a short test drive. Back at his desk, Justin asked for my license and some other information to enter into his computer. He told me they was going to work very hard during my business, and he'd be back shortly with some numbers for me.

came back with a buyer's order. Second week and roll. I mean, it's so rare. It's so rare. The buyer's order is a legal document, and dealers typically guard it with their life. They don't even want you to take a picture of it or give you a copy of it.

They want to staple it up. Exactly, like I used to do. The selling price was MSRP, 49, 545. There was no market adjustment or dealer installed equipment. Really, really good. But there were a couple of hefty junk fees, $199 for electronic filing fee, that is just a dealer fee, that is just a hidden fee. That is what, when I was interviewed by WPLG, Channel 10, they asked me about, and they asked me what I paid for that service.

Ten bucks, we pay a company $10, and they do the process of tag work, and so I'm sure Alpacar Ford probably pays the same thing. but they pass along the cost to you except it's 200 bucks 199 bucks instead of 10 and they shouldn't even cost pass along the 10 we don't and a 699 dealer fee which is a low fee

dealer for South Florida so basically with no name though yeah there's no name on it which is absurd I mean just do they just say fee no it says 699 to the left it says this charge represents cost and profits to the seller dealer for its items

which is inspecting, blah, blah, blah. Strange. So basically around $900 in dealer profit added to the MSRP, which, by other standards, to comparison, is not so shabby. Not so bad. I asked Justin if I could take the buyer's order with me

so I could review it at home with my family. And Justin said, sure. I mean, we've had people tackled going out the door. Metaphorical taxes. We actually had a mystery shopper, Scott Cadmus, years ago. It might have been, who was a public store? Pompey's Toyota. Yeah. He took

a buyer's order. He walked into the F&I office. Walked to the F&I office, took the buyer's order off the desk and they chased him out to his car. Right. This was a very long time ago, Pompey's Toyota. Scott Kabbas has passed away since. Rest and peace. I asked

Justin if I could take the buyer's order with you, blah, blah. So anyway, that's a real plus. A real plus there for Alpaccar Ford. I've got a copy of the Monroe Neely here that was on the car, and I have a copy of buyer's order and it was all just as we just closed in the mystery shopping report so here we are i'm not going to you know i don't want to influence the voting but i'm dying to see what the

votes are going to be yeah they're coming in uh well actually got one mark uh you guys we know mark marcos all the time gives them a b um we have another b we have a c plus a i am inclined i think i'm going to go up uh my grade is going to be a b the only thing other than the junk fees which i know is not insignificant. The kind of the, I don't want to say sexist, but it appeared rude. The way she wrote in the report interrupting about the Ravre 4 seemed a little bit rude. Either rude or stupid, one or the other. Or maybe nervous.

I don't know. People do, you know, too awkward things sometimes. Maybe he was, I don't know, I'll give him benefit of the doubt, but it wasn't, wasn't good, wasn't a good look. I'm going to give him a B. B, okay. And that goes on our recommended deal list, so he got a Ford dealer with a B. think we have another good Ford dealer we got Mullinix yeah they might even be an A so in this area Rick what do you got over there we've got Mark from St. Louis with a B

very surprising report Tim Gilliland B Mark Ryan B plus Tom Steckle B just a step below Mullinax Ernesto with a B Negan one with a B minus and for me I'm gonna say the B that's they've done well Good scores. Nancy? I'm not ready. Nancy? I'm not ready. Okay.

I'm going to give them a B plus. I was going to do an A. I was thinking about that. But I think we gave Molonex an A. And I want to keep them a little below Mullinx. Mollinx is the gold standard. And Alpacr is coming up well. I mean, maybe we shop them again in a few months,

and maybe they get up to tie Mollinix. But how nice to have. have two Ford dealers in Palm Beach County. Who are the other four dealers? We've got the Del Rey. Yeah, Wayne Acres? Wayne Acres, yeah. Advantage. Ford. Yeah. Bev Smith? Beth Smith, yeah. Coons Ford. Yeah, and Fort Pierce, yeah. Okay. There we are. Are you ready here for a grades? What's your vote? B plus. B plus? Okay. Well, my vote would be a C, and everyone should be treated equal and no interrupting, disrespectful, and the junk fees. I'm just going to call them

junk fees. Give them a C. That's for Al Packer. All right, so what's the official? Well, B plus. Yours is the official, yeah. This is like the Supreme Court. These are, we have dissenting opinions and then. Yeah, but I'm influenced by all of those. I'm influenced by all of those. Supreme Court. Now, we've got a couple of minutes here, so I'm going to go back about. the video we showed and about the investigative reporting done by Jeff Weinseer the investigative reporter for WPLG in Fort Lauderdale I wish we got that channel in Palm Beach County is a great channel and I will say that it's a courageous channel I hope they stick to their guns actually there was a

Fort Lauderdale channel that interviewed me a few years ago that I was really disappointed because the editor chopped the story and it was because of the pressure from advertisers and Channel 10 in Fort Laudeau stood up to the pressure and ran this. There's two attorneys and we have a hard time finding attorneys that will handle cases against car dealers. Joshua Fagan I believe is a special he specializes in car dealers and Jonathan Kane I believe his motivation in getting into this his daughter actually got taken to the manager by a car dealer having to do with a lease buying the lease back so all you folks out there I know one out of

three of you are driving a lease car and if your lease comes up you need to buy that car and you need to exercise your option and now you know that it is illegal to charge anything above that purchase option price and up until now No. Every dealer was charging at lease their dealer fee. So we're talking an average of over $1,000 tacking on to that car option price that you have. So we're at a watershed moment here, folks. And also try and find out if you can buy it directly from the leasing company. And you can buy it because we know Toyota. Yeah. So we know it legally can. It's up to the company, I guess. Yeah, the law, I wasn't even familiar with law. And Jeff Wines.

investigation revealed this. I think it was Joshua Fagan, the attorney, that said in Florida, you can sell a car even if you're a company, but you only sell three in a year. So, but somehow the leasing companies are able to go around this law. And they are actually able to sell you the car. So, because we know Southeast Toyota leasing does that. So if you're driving a lease car, look at your option price, check the market value. You could do that very easily by shopping around. Use car price are sky high and see what the market value is. You will probably find that the market value of your used car, your purchase lease car,

is thousands of dollars higher than your option price. Now you know you can buy it and you can can only pay what was on the lease contract. The Consumer Leasing Act says that cannot be modified. And if they get screwed, if they try to take advantage of you, you can call Jonathan Cain at 954-523-5123. Or you can call Joshua Fagan, F-E-Y-G-E-N, at 954-6-9703-357. And they're suing between them, 20 or 30 dealers right now.

Now, they're not actually, they're having to go after their, because they signed the arbitration agreements, too. And the arbitration agreement prevents them from suing. So they first have to attack the arbitration agreement and penetrate that, and then they sue. So nothing easy about suing a car. That's a whole other topic. We went over those arbitration agreements. We're the only deal that we know. We don't do one.

We take our, there is no clause. take us to court yeah we have no we we say please sue us if we're wrong you have the right to do it all the other car dealers and most businesses for that matter have an arbitration clause that you didn't know you sign it's in the fine print but you can penetrate that apparently and that's being done now by Joshua and Jonathan ladies and gentlemen we hope with it we have helped you in many ways this morning I know that your calls have been important to us and you keep us informed. And Stu, did I step on you?

Did you want to say something? No, well, actually I did. I have some car trivia that I just learned when I was Googling on the show. Did you know that last year, Governor DeSantis signed a law making it legal to use your flashers in the rain? As long as you're on a highway

with the speed limit of 55 or greater, like I-95, and visibility is low, you're allowed to put your hazards on. That's the law now. Great information. Why would I spread that? Well, no, why would they do that? Why would he do that? Because so many drivers, I think, maybe it came from all the confusion because people do it,

and then most of us, driver can go, that's illegal. Exactly. But apparently, it's not a rule. The reason that's illegal is because you think, no, you think the vehicle is stopped. Oh, yeah, yeah. And if you think the vehicle is stopped, you're going to slam on your brakes. Yeah. Or confuse it with another light, but that's the case.

It's raining, so Rick's shaking his head. He didn't like this at all. We got two minutes left, ladies and gentlemen, if you didn't jot down that website that I sent, or excuse me, that I shared with you this morning about how to know if a Florida car dealer is breaking the law, that you can go to www.W.W. Florida Law Protectingcarbuyers.com. Take advantage of that. We're here to help you. We share every single Saturday morning, and you can be right back here if you so choose to. morning at 8 a.m. We look forward to talking with you. Have a great weekend.