Earl Stewart on Cars - 08.23.2025 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Beaman Buick GMC of Antioch, TN.

Episode Date: August 23, 2025

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning travels to Tennessee to visit a GMC dealer in the Nashville area and see what they will charge for a new 2025 GMC Sierra 1500 pickup on their car lot. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

Hello, I'm Earl Stewart. I welcome you to Earl Stewart on Cars, a live talk show all about how to buy, lease, maintain, or repair your car without being ripped off by a car dealer. With me in the studio is Nancy Stewart, my wife, co-host, and a strong consumer advocate, especially for our female listeners. We also have Rick Carney, 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, this is my son, Stu Stewart. our link to cyberspace through Facebook, YouTube, text messaging, and our encrypted anonymous feedback service. Phil is also the Spymaster Director of our mystery shopping report.

He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting car dealership. And now on with the show. Good morning, everybody. Well, we're back. And we're live and we're in color, as they used to say back in, remember Technicolor? Well, we're here. We're in Technicolor. By Panavision.

And we're here to entertain, we're here to have fun ourselves, and we're here to inform. We've been doing it for a long, long time. Welcome back, all of our regular listeners. We love you guys and gals, and you're not being flattered by me. You're being told the fact when I say you make the show. You really do. And your calls mean so much to us. Sometimes we get carried away.

yak-de-y-y-y-y-k, but we like to hear that phone ring. And that phone number, before I get carried away myself, make a note of it. If you're not going to make a call now, we understand. We're on the air from two hours, and we're from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Eastern Standard time. So you have plenty of time to call. If you're in the car, you're running an errand,

go into your shopping at Publix or whatever you're going. And when you get back to the car, listen to the radio, when you get home, listen to it, or stream us. But the number, you ready? You got that pencil handy? 877-9-60-99-60-8-7-7-8-77-9-6-7-9-6. And when you get ready, give us a chat, give us a call. correct us

criticizes advises we love to hear your stories the bulk of the show we're in an inflection point in automotive history automotive retailing and automotive manufacturing

and inflection point means that we're kind of like going from the old way things were done to the new way things will be done and so we have to kind of straddle that carefully we have to remember, and Nancy and I, my co-host and my wife, Nancy and I talked about this in the car on the way to the studio this morning, that we, as much as we get carried away with autonomous cars and chatGBT and electric vehicles and all the other things that are just so damned exciting, I mean, they're fun to think about it. We got to remember the nuts and bolts of our show are. are you folks out there that are driving combustion engines and hybrids.

You're driving a hybrid, half combustion, half battery. And a lot of people are just driving driving the old-fashioned combustion engines. So that's where we're going mainly with the show. I guess you could say the, with the cartoons, we'll talk about exotic, exciting things. And there's a lot of that kind of stuff going on right now. Nancy and I are just as a little side. Nancy and I are going to New York in October. And I just found out that Kiska, Kiska, is that, what was the name of the, oh, Fisca, Fisker?

See, I'll soon we forget. Fisker. FIS, KER. I got it covered. F-I-S-K-E-R is an EV that didn't make. it. And so somebody went out and bought up all the fiscers because they were bankrupt and now they're in New York

City as taxi cabs. So it's crazy. That's an infliction point. If you have a problem with your combustion engine car, we've got a guy sitting here that wrote a book on combustion engine cars and that is Rick Kearney.

And if you have a symptom, you know, a smell, a rattle, something that the car that's doing, that it shouldn't be doing, and you're just afraid to go into a car dealerships service department or an independent service department. Call Rick at 877-960-9960.

Rick Kearney is a certified diagnostic master technician. So he knows everything about cars that were built 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago. but he also has had to stay up on the modern stuff, too. He's not into autonomous that much yet, but he is to electric vehicles, and he wrote the book on hybrids. So, I mean, he's following the curve as we move along. And when the time comes, he can tell you everything about an autonomous car, the software, Rick. I actually saw a car on the road the other day that I had to look up.

VIN fast. I've read about it, but I haven't seen one. V-I-N-F-A-S-T, and it was just an interesting-looking SUV, and it's a Vietnamese company. They have only two models out right now with two more coming, but they're full electric, and there's dealerships in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Jacksonville, and Seabring, of all places. Yeah. So, yeah, so it's coming. The way it's coming, and your grandchildren, and probably your children, And we have great-grandchildren, Nancy and I, I can guarantee you they're going to be in robo-taxies. And they won't be taxis.

They'll probably just be robo-something else. It's the way it's going to happen. But meanwhile, we got a few years here, at least another 25, where we've got to get down to the necessities. And the necessities are explaining how you can buy or lease a car or maintain or repair the car without being ripped off by a car dealer. It's amazing what's happened in the retail automobile industry because of the power of the automobile dealers and the associations they have been granted immunity against prosecution. I'm exaggerating a little bit here, but not much.

Because of their power and their lobbying power with the state and the federal legislatures, they own the regulators. to put it bluntly. And so a car dealer would have to commit mass murder before he would be sued or fine. And we don't have too many of those. We got a couple. Anyway, that's the reason we'd like to think our show is helpful.

So when I go through the aggravation, the odds are 99%. If you go into buy a car at any car dealership today, you are going to be misled. They'll add junk fees, they'll add dealer-installed accessories, they'll have an addendum label, they'll hide the Monroney label,

they'll low-ball you, that's what we car dealers call, lying about the price, they give you a low price to get you back in. And then when you come back in, bam, they're going to the junk fee, so the low price, oh, well, that didn't include

our nitrogen in the tires, and that didn't include, by our paint ceiling or my, you know, roadside assistance. And that's, if you bought a car, you know the game they played. So that's what the show is all about. We'll try to hold our tongue a little bit when it comes to the exotic things that are happening. By the way, talking about being around for a long time, this is, within a day or two, this is the 100th anniversary of Automotive News.

Automotive news is what Nancy and I pour over weekly to gather information for the show. And they've been around since 1925. Ford was selling the hell out of Model T's back then.

And here's something, think about this. We'll get back to the subject. Think about this. There are many, many more car dealers. There were many, many more car dealers in 1925 than the they are today. That surprised me. In 1925, there are about 43,000 new car dealers, and today there's less than 17,000. And we'll talk about why that happened. But that's interesting.

Okay. I'm left yakken from me. I'm going to turn the microphone over to Nancy Stewart, my co-host. She's also a strong female advocate with an almost too good to be true offer for you ladies out there. If you haven't called the show before, stay tuned to hear what she has to say. And she's going to cover a couple subjects, and I'm going to turn the microphone over to Nancy Stewart. Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. We have some callers lined up, so I am going to quickly share some information with you that you probably already know. Let's talk about auto dealers. Let's talk about they're politically powered. They're politically powerful, powered, whatever way you want to put it, and they own this industry.

Also, on another note, you know, the FTC and the FTC, the state attorney general, technically has the authority to pursue deceptive and unfair practices. they prioritize the big fish this you know these all these fees uh that we're playing with weekend week out when we do the mystery shopping report this is low level fraud according to them but to us it's extremely important it drives us it gives us the power to do this show every single week. And you know, there's a word that's being used now, and that's called disenchanted. The consumer is disenchanted with the auto dealers. You know, if you look the word up, it's like falling out of love with either your partner or your product. I think you get the point.

Anyway, thank you for joining us in this journey that we've been on for so long. Our number here is 877-9-60-99-60. You can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. You might want to jot down that text number because you're going to need it when you have to vote on the most important. One of the most important things on our show, and that's the mystery

shopping report, and Agent Lightning went out to Tennessee. I believe it was Nashville. So we'll read that to you at about 9.30. Ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers, $50. Let your voice be heard. You're an important part of this industry. You know what part you play? It's a financial role. And for the auto dealer to ignore you is financial disaster. 877-960-99-60, Texas at 7. 472-4976530. Don't forget, Your Anonymous Feedback.com. We are going to go to John in Palm City. Good morning, John. Good morning. I'm thanking you again for the honor of being recognized as a long-term contribute to the show. But last week, something important was mentioned on the dealer shopping report.

You mentioned the background of a dealer that came from Cuba. and successfully succeeded in the United States. I want to mention another one, too, and I'm sure Earl knows him. Mario Magado, he owns, let me see, 26 luxury car dealerships. He owns the one here in Stewart, which is Audi, Alpha, Lamborghini, Infinity, and he just got the okay to add two additional ones. He owns 22 acres on Route 1, and they probably will be high, dealers and has a fine reputation, does a great amount of

contribute to Boys and Girls Club and everything in Martin County. So this is a success story of a family that came originally from Cuba, and he has dealerships in Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, and I'm not sure of what other states, but now he's expanding here again in Stewart, and I just want to mention and talk about, you know, you hear so much on the news, about immigrants that are coming here,

but illegal like the truck driver now that killed three people on the term... Or the turnpike, which is a terrible tragedy. But this is something that Earl contributes, you know, recognizes dealers that came here and built up from nothing

and successful because of their honest dealerships. Yeah, thanks for appointing them. Mario Murgato, I've known for many, many years. I could be mistaken about this, but I think his first dealership was a Pontiac dealership

in Miami. It used to be Packer Pontiac, and I think he bought that. I might be mistaken about that, but he's been around for a long, long time. Well, he started in Miami, that's what I know. And I met the man personally, a gentleman, and as I say, he does great amount of

charity work and contribution. And he was turned down originally on his 22 acres of building, but But he decided not only that he's going to build apartments on it, too, in stores, so he was okayed by the county commissioner for two more dealers. Well, thank you, John. That's good information.

I'll have to get Mario a call. He and I communicate by email every now and then. We've been chit-chatting for years and years. And, you know, I'll tell you something. I mean, I never could afford on the upper-end cars, but there's something to be said about, you know, the cars that he handles. and I just want to give you an idea of something that absolutely shocked me. There's a new Ferrari that people ordered earlier this year.

It's a Ferrari 799 F80, okay? Very few people were able to order it. It's going to be delivered in one year. Sit down for the price of that car. I'm sitting down. $3.9 million. Whoa. So let's not knock the end, the upper end of the car dealership.

Is there a dock fee? I don't know. And extra for undercoding? Yeah. Only $3.9 million, and is it waiting, people can't get at a car right away. It has to be made yet. Wow. I'll tell you what.

How can the guy spend that kind of money on a car? I agree with you. Upper end. Yeah. Thank you guys again for the honor that you serve for me. And I look forward to picking up the plaque. Yeah, we're going to give it to you at the dealership when you come in, John. Yes. Thank you, John. And thanks for bringing us up to date with Mario Magata. And I have to tell you that last week we spoke about, you know, the backbone of America. And the people that came here with a work ethic that was beyond any definition today. And they came here with one word. And that was hope. And that's what drove them. And that's what built.

That is what built a work ethic, and it takes my breath away. We need more of it. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772 or 976530. We are going to go to Joan in Palm Beach Gardens. Good morning, Joan. Hi, good morning. I have a question. Before we go on, Joan, are you a first?

time caller. I am. Thank you. Today, you won yourself $50. And if you give your information to the control room, they'll pass it along to me, and I'll mail that check out to you. Oh, thank you. Okay. And your question? I have a 2014 Chrysler, 2000s. I don't have covered parking where I live. I live in a condo. And when I drive the car, when it's in the sun, I drive the car, the air conditioning blows hot air. I know this question came on about a week or two ago, but it didn't really answer what the problem was with my car. So I checked it out. The free on the side of the car, the air doesn't blow cool.

But the other side on the front on the right side, it blows cool air. And I'm wondering if it's a factor of the sun, I'm sure it is. because it's beating on the car all day. I know Rick can answer that question for you. Hi. Does it eventually get cold if you drive far enough? Yeah, but it takes like 20 minutes. But like right now I'm driving to tennis

and it's really cool because it hasn't been in the sun that long. Right. So it's just when it's in the sun, only half the car pulls down. It's very strange. That almost sounds like, Now, AC systems are not supposed to leak at all. But modern world, you know, just it's the real world.

Sometimes the O-rings will get a little dried out and they will leak a tiny little bit or it may get past a seal on the compressor just a little bit. Have you had the car in and had the AC serviced to recover, evacuate and then properly recharge it to the proper levels? No, I don't think I ever have done that. Okay, yeah, an 11-year-old car, you might consider having that done first just to see if that improves it. Because one of the biggest issues that I've seen on cars through many years, sometimes there will be the tiniest, tiniest little leak from an o-ring or something. And you can actually be more financially responsible by simply having it really. recharged and see how long it lasts rather than actually repairing whatever that, you know, trying to track down and repair that leak. Because it may cost, like, about $150 to have it recharge like that.

Let me interrupt this quickly. Jonathan, can you investigate why I'm getting a feedback, and Rick and Nancy and I are getting a feedback into our headphones? The caller has a speaker. No, the last caller. Oh, I should hear you off speaker. Sorry about that. Oh, okay. Oh, okay.

Yeah, that's the first thing I would try having done. Find a reputable aftermarket shop. Tell them you think you may have had just a tiny little leak. Because normally what happens when the charge gets just low enough, where it's still operating, but it's just not quite at peak performance, one side of the car will blow cool and the other will blow a lot warmer. We got a 10 degrees difference. We got three callers.

I think so. Yeah, so I would try that first and see what that does for you, okay? Thank you. John, thank you. Yes. For being the first female caller this morning and letting your voice be heard by so many women who are listening right now. You're encouraging them to call also. I thank you for that.

Don't forget your contact information. Have a great weekend. Thank you so much. You're welcome. We are going to go to the Roadrunner, and he is a regular. paper caller. Good morning, Steve. Bebe. Good morning, everybody. How are you? Great. Well, thank you.

Good. Okay, three fast things. Robo Taxi. How do you tip them? The second thing is, I was disenchanted three times. Now, the third thing is, you brought up those Chinese vehicles. They have an app. Okay, I read this in the paper. Like, if somebody cuts you off in one of them, you could hit a switch and a display, and a display would come on the dashboard, instead of cursing the people out, you could have, like, little things on your dashboard that would show up on the windshield, and it would suit, like, little things at the car.

But, you know, not real things. It'd be like a video game, and it reaches your frustration on the guy that cut you off. You know, seriously, in my cyber truck, I can program my horn. to see anything I want. So if someone cuts me off, I think of the most vile thing you can say to somebody, I hit the horn

and it says that to the poor guy that cut me off. So we got those. Wow. Hey, Steve, on a more serious note, that sounds like a lot of distractions. Okay. Hey, as far as the Chinese are concerned

and the EVs, did you know that the brands like B.Y.D. And NIO are expanding. globally. It might be old news, but I think that our listeners, you know, are interested. Well, I also just wait. Today

in the paper that Tesla is raising the price $15,000 on their side of trucks. Yeah. Yeah. It's not a perfect product. And every time we go out, Nancy and I say, well, this isn't

right, this isn't right. But with all that said, it's so much fun, and it's such an incredible amount of technology on there. We just enjoy the experience in spite of the bugs. It's got bugs. My hubcaps are coming off. I mean, I could describe the things that are going wrong with it, but it's such a fun vehicle to drive.

Well, when I was born, the doctor told my mother, hey, your son, Roadrunner, Steve, ain't going to be your perfect product, but he'll be all right. All right, everybody. Have a safe weekend and enjoy. Always great to hear from you, Steve. Have a great weekend. We're going to go to Coco, and she's calling us from Del Rey.

Good morning, Coco. Good morning. How are you? We're well, thank you. Coco, are you a first-time caller? I am. Great. Congratulations.

You won yourself $50 this morning. I normally, you being a first-time caller. or probably wouldn't know that every week, weekend and week out, we are trying to build the female audience. Why? Because we have such a financial hold on the auto industry. And with your phone call this morning, you have reached a lot of women. And I thank you for that, because you're helping me build this platform. Leave your information when you're done talking to the control room so I can mail the check out to you. What can we do for you this morning, Coco? first of all, I wanted to thank you for your integrity and your kindness, just listening and that you care.

I mean, I can't even language how important it is because you're changing the consciousness. So thank you for your service. I really appreciate it. Oh, you're quite welcome. How you can help me. And yes, thank you for singing out loud, both of you. I have a 2006 Honda Accord, and I live in South Florida where it's very hot. And right now the top of the car is discolored, and I can't, right now in my budget,

it's not affordable to have a proper paint job. So I wanted to know what you would suggest for any options to prevent any further damage for the top of the car until I can repaint. you properly. Coco, let me say this first before I turn that question over to Rick. We've addressed this through the years, and that's deterioration or breakdown in the paint, and it has been an ongoing problem, and sometimes it is covered, you know, by a warranty. But I'll let Rick take over and talk about your Honda Accord, 2006.

Thank you again and have a beautiful day. Hi, Coco. Unfortunately, there's really not a good answer. I'm driving a 2013 Tacoma, and the paint delamination, that's basically what it is, is the clear coat delaminates or it peels away from the color coat underneath it. Let me interrupt briefly, there is no clear coat on that car, and that is probably the problem. Ah, okay. So it may be actually delamination of the color paint, but I have looked into the ideas of having the car, you know, having my vehicle wrapped, on having, like, spot painted, all sorts of different things. Do you remember the old days when we used to have vinyl tops? Does anybody do that anymore, or would that be so stupid? But, you know, you could just forget about the paint and put on a, final top and like a nice white one that would reflect the heat and the sun. That might be your

answer. Coco, I think that with your financial situation that you spoke of, you know, you don't have as many options, correct? Yes, exactly. Exactly. Thank you. Okay. Rick? Yeah, it's, I've looked into just about every option I can think of. And really the only real way to fix it is to step. up with an expensive paint job. And for my truck, I basically have just, I grin and bear it, and it doesn't look pretty, but, oh, well, it still gets me around town beautifully. So I just am dealing with it. It costs you to it.

It would cost you $2 to $400 to put on a vinyl wrap on the top, and that would improve the looks if you want to spend that much money. Paint would cost you a lot more. And here's a long shot. It's highly unlikely that Honda would have anything about that. It was their fault. The reason your paint is fading is they failed to put clear coat. Almost every car today has clear coat over the paint.

In fact, I go so far as to say, every car has got clear coat. back in 2006 era, the manufacturers were not savvy enough to realize that the clear coat is very necessary. In fact, one of the reasons Honda and a lot of other manufacturers did not add the clear coat is because there were omission rules that the federal government was watching every manufacturer. Honda had to have a certain limit to how much emissions they were allowed to blow out of their factories. And when you have a paint factory that's putting on clear code, that adds heavily to your emission quota. So what did they do? They just stop clear-coding cars so the federal government wouldn't shut them down. So they did that and passed the cost along to you because now you're going to have to paint your,

your roof right away. Knowing that and putting that in writing and sending it by email or a letter to Honda might get some attention somewhere. Well, thank you so much. You're very welcome. I really enjoyed

this whole collaboration. I wish you all the best day ever. You're quite welcome, Coco. And again, thank you. Thank you for being the second female caller this morning and helping me build a platform. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yay. It's a beautiful morning. Thank you for making it even better. God bless you. Have a great weekend. I think that, you know, I'm going to pay a little bit of attention to something that is very warm to Earl's heart. And that is a consumer justice foundation. And he wants to empower the auto dealer, the auto buyer.

liar, I should say, and he'll talk more about that later on in the show. And these are victims, you know, that don't stand a snowball's chance in hell of being able to fight these people. And Earl would like to build a consumer justice foundation. Again, as I said, he'll talk about that later. Well, let me just give them a little bit of a hand as to what it is. We're thinking about having funding people out of the foundation to pay the attorney, the amount of money it would get, it would take for them to take the case under the Unfair DeSepi Trade Practices Act. So the foundation would enable people to sue that otherwise could not sue.

The problem now is people can't afford to hire a lawyer and you can't find a lawyer. We've had people call this show that cannot find a lawyer willing to take their case. this Consumer Justice Foundation that we're putting together will eliminate that. Good job, Earl. As always, hope. That's what we want everyone to have. And the disenchantment that Steve, he mentioned that he heard it loud and clear this morning when we came on the air. It's out there. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-49-7-6-4-9-6-5-0-0.0.4-9-6-5-0.0. Zero, please take advantage of your anonymous feedback.com.

We are going to go to West Palm Beach, where John is calling us. Good morning, John. And welcome. How can we help you? You're there, John? Yeah, I'm here. I got you. All right.

You just spoke about wraps. All my test lists have been wrapped once I bought them, got them wrapped right away, because it protects the paint. Yeah. And you've got hundreds and hundreds of colors to choose from, other than the six, seven colors that Tesla offers. Right. So you can get what everyone.

Yeah, it's a great idea. It's a new thing. And they've got the wraps now are down to being really good. The people that do this work, the good ones do a great job. They're a little bit more expensive, but in the long run, it is really more expensive than paint. Yeah, and so here's what happens. Some things for if someone's thinking about getting a wrap,

one thing you need to know, if you wrap your car, when you go to trade it in, whether it's Tesla or another company, they are cautious about it because they don't know what's under the wrap. Is there rust? Is there dense? Dents you would see.

But they get very cautious. Now, when I went to go trading my Tesla that was wrapped, if I didn't take the wrap off, they were going to charge me $1,800 to remove the wrap. Wow. Because no one's going to want to buy the wrap that I like, right? There's not going to be a market for it. So that's something that, you know,

a person that's going to wrap their car has to realize. If they're going to turn around and sell their car, it's hard to sell a car with a wrap on it because you don't know what's underneath the wrap. Well, that's something I've thought about. That is very good information. It's a way that you get a, you know, your driver's side door gets wrecked.

You go ahead and junkyard, get another driver's side door, is a great condition, and then you wrap it. You don't know if it's the same color as the other one, you know, same color as the car. And you've seen those cars running around like the Partridge Bus, the Partridge Family Bus.

Yeah, there are. One thing I'll add. There are ways that you can attempt to find out. You can run a magnet over the car surface, and that will tend to be more, you know, it'll give you an idea if there's something under there because it will be a lack of continuity. You can, if you study it carefully, oftentimes you can't see problems. But I think sometimes car dealers will use the rap against you in order to lower the allowance. So when a car dealer tells you, I'm not going to give you as much for this car because of the rap,

I take it to another car dealer, maybe he will give you as much money for the car. And I don't want to be, you know, what they were facetious about this, but a car dealer, and he gives you less money for the wrap, is he going to take the wrap off and see if there's anything there and fix it, or is he going to go in and sell the car anyway with the wrap? Yeah. So it's questionable. You know, shopping compares the bottom line.

Yeah. And then the other part that I was going to mention was, well, you mentioned the magnet, but I thought that was for finding out if the car had Bondo used in it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that would, if the car had Bondo under the wrap, you would know. The magnet would tell you onto the, under the wrap. And then the other thing is, the wraps have now for,

raps usually lasts around three to five years for a normal rap. And to get a car wrap, like the Tesla, three or the Y, it's just under, you know, right around $3,000 mark to get it wrapped. Okay? But now what they used to do is they sold the wrap, and then you would get the PPP, the pain protection film, put over it. And you didn't have a car, a brand new car with the paint protection film.

It's just a heavy film that protect, you know, it's like the, it's an invisible bra. Yeah. Okay. Protect some paint chips and that. Now they make, and this is what I have my Y wrapped in, is the wrap with the PTF integrated into the wrap. So instead of having the, you know, do it twice. So now they've made the wrap, the vinyl, a little bit thicker because it's, it has the PPF, the

paint protection film, built into the rap. Oh. That's really cool. Yeah. They don't don't run it through car washes because the detergents are harsh. I don't know why more people, you know, you'd be in a dealership if you want to make more, but you don't do this

though. We do. Yeah. I don't know why we do that. No, I know because you did the used car department, you changed it over and that the um the window tinting and wrapping people our body shop uh does that now yeah yeah how can you guys what about ceramic coating

oh we do that we do that too yeah you do okay I see I think I want to get my ceramic coated you know one thing one thing only applies to one model Tesla and that's a cyber truck but uh that car is stainless steel and I had it polished, and they polished the stainless steel down to a mirror finish.

And that is, to me, unfortunately, all cars are going to be stainless steel. But when you polish that Tesla cyber truck down to a mirror finish, all you do is wash it. I mean, and it's bright sparkling all the time. You can literally see your face in it. So to me, it's a perfect finish. but the problem is the stainless steel cost a lot of money and it's quite heavy

but in all cars will probably never be made on a stainless steel but it's interesting Yeah and for the person That's going to get their car wrapped If they're the one thing I do suggest I don't you know I get tired of having The same color car

You know for five years So I got mine wrapped in chameleon Which means it flip flops You know the flip flop paints So mine goes from purple to blue to green to green, and then when it's a certain way, it'll also be a bronze color. So what happens if someone steals your car and say, what color is it? You say, I'm not sure.

It was blue last night. Yeah, well, it's always changing depending on the light is going to affect the color, depending on which week is, because it's reflective in that. But, you know, for me, I wasn't thinking about someone stealing car. I was thinking about the police chase. How is it's going to describe, chasing a blue, we're trying blue Tesla. Yeah. You know, it'll be a different color coming from a different direction.

But anyways. Well, thanks very much, you're very informed, and that's good information on those raps, thank you. Thank you, John. Enjoy the ride. Give us a call again. Oh, by the way, real quick, you're talking about the installers. I teach at Jupiter High School, the person that wrapped my car, he's a student that used to go to Jupiter High School, and he got involved in rap, and he's doing very well. Wow.

I bet he is. Yeah, that's a great. Very low for my business. Great timing. Hey, before you go, Donovan says, he's asking a question for you, when they do the wrap, do they leave the door jam, the normal paint color? What happens is you can pay extra and get the door jams painted, but when you have a car wrapped, if you plan on having a wrap, get the darkest color car. Because if it's white, you're going to see it. I happen to get that dark gray, and then the wrap, when you cover it, they just go a little, you know, about a quarter inch past the door, because that's all they need is a quarter inch to secure the wrap to the metal.

Okay. And so, no, they don't do the door jams, but you can pay extra to have the door jams done. I think, yeah, I think Donovan's wondering about the idea that then your vehicle registration actually would show. the wrong color for your car. But I guess that's something that you'd have to see if, you know, if you get a police officer that really wants to push things, that

might be an issue. Well, then all he does is open the door and he shows, you know, you see the color of the door jams. Yeah. True. But then, but then all again, you got a pencil with the eraser. But on your title, the rich, you know, the color of the wrap.

And then when you go to saw it, erase it. I like that Okay, thank you John You're welcome 877-960 or you can text us at 772-497-3-0-930 The ladies have called last week

Kathleen and Mary Please be patient It has been a very, very busy week in our offices And I do apologize for not getting those checks out immediately, but they will go out today. So please, be patient.

That's Kathleen and Mary from last Saturday's show. I hope you're listening. And if you are, give us a call. Give us a call and discuss anything. Follow up from what we spoke about last week, anything at all. 877-960. Also, you can text us at 772-497. 6530. Pardon the feedback from my earbuds. We can eliminate that by me going across the street to the Dunkin' Donut while you guys do the show. How's that sound? Okay. I'll take it jelly filled.

That's me just trying to make, you know, well, sense of all this. It's very annoying. If it's annoying in the studio, you can't imagine how annoying it is in my ear. we're going to go to Bob I see Earl flipping his hands around over there for some reason and he's in Lake Park good morning Bob welcome to the show

Good morning Good morning everyone how you going I got a couple questions for Rick I quote last week about my AC compressor being seized and we talked to you about replacing an

and I found a kit, which includes the condenser. I forgot to ask you, how much time does the book say for labor on putting in the compressor and the condenser and the expansion valve, you know, removing the refrigerant and blowing out the loins? Is that around three hours, would it be, Rick? It's going to depend on the vehicle. It's a Mustang.

Everything is up in the front. You know what I mean? 2015 much than a little yeah unfortunately i don't have access to time guides for a mustang um i would look up online and see if you can find a listing for it somewhere but three hours labor sounds about right really i mean that's actually kind of almost a little low let me interrupt both of you here just for a minute because uh you're a couple of prox talk of a couple of mechanics that know what they're doing and you're using uh mechanic talk And when you say hours, when mechanics talk about hours, they're talking about flat rate hours.

And it's not a clock hour. And most customers, when they bring their car in, they'll tell them it's going to take two hours to do this and three hours to do that. That means that that is what a manual, and they should have called it something else beside hours, because what says two hours can take one mechanic, one hour, and take another mechanic, hours, but you pay the two flat rate hours. I got it. And the manufacturers and other institutions set these rates. And if you have a qualified experienced mechanic, he can typically beat flat rate by pretty

close to 50%, meaning that he can do a two-hour job and one hour. So consumers don't understand that. You listening now, you will understand that. Well, I have another question, Rick. The car also needs a, the coolant needs to come out. And I knew it was 100,000 miles, but apparently according to the owner's manual, it says six years. So I only have 55,000 miles on the car, but the car's going to be 11 years old. And the coolant in the recovery tank is just a little bit below the minimum level.

So I called, I went, I got the pre-mix. the crap coolant, which is now yellow. It used to be orange. I was wondering, I talked to my mechanic, and he says, well, he's just going to drain it. You know, and then, and then that's all he can do there. It's just through the regular

drain with the pit cock. And I was thinking, if I wanted him to flush it, I bought the pre-flush, Prestone sells a pre-flush, and I bring him the distilled water, and he runs that through there, and he runs the car, gets it up to operating temperature, and turns the heater on and runs

runs it through, you're never going to get all of it out, you know, and when I go to put the remix in, which is what Ford recommends, the balance, it's not going to be a 50-50 mix because some of that distilled water is going to still be in the system. So would that be okay if it wasn't, if the percentages were like 40-60 instead of 50-50? And another thing, Also, I'm going to ask you, since the cool it's going to be drained, would it be prudent to put new lower and upper radiator hoses in, even though the ones that are in there somehow still look okay after 11 years, which is amazing. But I would think about getting a couple of gates hodes and having, since he was going to have the radiator drained, go ahead and change the hoses out, too. Although he said they look okay, which is amazing that the... I would seriously consider replacing the hoses as well.

For the cost of it, you're not going to incur that much more labor, just the cost of the hoses. And what I'd ask him to consider getting a vacuum-powered drain that fits in the radiator and uses shop air pressure and it will actually siphoned most of the coolant out of the system so that you can properly refill it. Yeah, he said he is. He doesn't have that. He just doesn't, it just usually just graves it.

You can get them on Amazon for like less than $50. Oh, no. Well, we got some callers holding here. You got anything else? No, just tell me again what that is. What's it called? It's just an air, uh, uh, coolant renewal tool that uses shop air. Uh, search, search for it on Amazon. You'll be able to find it on there. There's a lot of them. There's a lot of them. Okay. That's great information. And thank you for the phone call.

Have a great weekend. We are going to go to Barry. Barry's a regular caller from Tampa. Welcome, Barry. Greetings and salutations. This question is about how a car looks rather than how mechanically sound it is. When it comes time to trade in or sell a car,

what do professional appraisers look for the most in its appearance when determining its value and what things don't matter very much? In other words, where should the owners spend the most time and money spiffing up a car before showing it for sale? You know, this answer will surprise you, Barry. You'd think a professional car appraiser and salesperson or manager would really know the right way to go about this. But car people are like car buyers. They're very much impressed with a beautiful car.

and I would spend most of my money detailing that car. I would have that car detailed to the point where you couldn't tell it from a new car. So if you got a five or six-year-old car, give the detailer an extra $100 and say, I want you to make this look like a new car. And so no matter where they look, under the mats, anywhere, and that would include smell and everything about it. That knocks the socks off the appraiser, the salesman. And remember, the salesman's on your side

because he wants to sell you a car and he wants a high appraisal. And so if you can sell the salesman and the salesman says, gosh, this is really like a brand new car and it smells like a new car, he's going to tell his manager that. He's going to tell the appraiser that

and he'll push and push and push. And you'll get, you'll get, if you do that, if you spend 500 bucks on an appraisal, you get $2,000 more for the car. Great. Okay, a follow-up question, if I may. This applies to the whole life. And smell. Don't forget smell. If it's a cigarette smoke or if it's anything like that, when I say new car, I mean new car.

So you might have to have some sort of spray to make the inside. When you get in that car, you think you're driving a current model. Anyway, I'm sorry to interrupt. Go ahead. Well, yeah, I'm just speaking personally, if a car smells like an astray, that's a deal buster. Yeah, right, right, right. Yeah. So my follow question is it applies to the whole lifespan of a vehicle, not just selling time.

You spoke earlier about rats, but in general, are there any other appearance products or practices that stand out to you in your mind just being particularly good or particularly bad. Gosh, the rap is really the hero recently. Raps been around for a long time, but they've come into their own and the quality and durability. And these raps that change color. I mean, it's like a technology on fire.

So that's by far the thing that hits me most. Most of the things that cars have now are the technological things. As far as looks go, a lot of the things that car dealers used to do, they don't do anymore. I mean, you don't want to put vinyl tops anymore. Remember, we used to have the little, we would make the chrome gold. You'd have the gold package and crazy stuff like that. But the car themselves now are pretty clean, and I can't think of anything more adding value than a good rap. Okay.

I read someplace that if you use certain types of tire dressings, they can actually do damage. Yeah. Is that true? I read that, too. Yeah, you have to be careful. You know, I know I sound like a broken record, but Nancy and I ought to buy a rubber. stock in Amazon because we don't buy anything that almost anything if it doesn't come through Amazon if I see something in another store first thing I do is say can I get

that at Amazon I don't tell the store of that but I usually check with chat CBT and say that I get that at Amazon or you could just do the work here yourself that way if you get a bad product you return it and and then you read the Amazon reviews and you go to Amazon, you can select by stars. I always go to four stars plus, and I always go to, you know, whatever it wants to, whatever you want for your particular taste, and highly rated by price range and 100% return delivery time. I mean, let's face it, you don't want to buy a product and order it,

and it'll be there in six weeks. You order it from Amazon, they'll tell you it'll be the, overnight or maybe three days and they're pretty, pretty accurate. Okay, everybody, have a great weekend. Thank you. Same to you, my friend. Thank you, Barry. Our number here is 877-960-99-60, and you can text us at 772, 497-60. You know, this past week I had the same question three times, and that what should I look for in a car dealer? And sometimes we lose focus because we're so focused on purchasing that used car or new car. But there's so much you can do at home or in your office from your PC.

And one of the first things that you can take a look at is the reputation. And you can go to Google, you can go to Yelp, you can go to the Better Business Bureau. There's so many ways of, you know, the ratings that would affect where you're going to go. transparency is another transparency for me is huge also fair pricing fair pricing

customer service customer service it is so important how you maintain your car after you purchase yes Earl I was going to say the the ratings are you definitely should look at them

but it's important that you look at the ratings in comparison to other dealers in the area So let's say you're going to buy a Honda and you're in a metro area, say, in Miami. So you've got a one Honda dealer, and maybe he's closest, and he's got a Google rating of 4.4. That's pretty good. 4.4 is not bad. But look at the other ones. Now, if the other ones are all 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 5.0, and that's the lowest Google rating in your market, go to the Honda dealer,

that has the highest Google rating. Same thing with Better Business Bureau, dealer raider, what was the other one? Yeah, all the rating services. It's not so important as to what the actual number is because four stars in Google

sounds pretty good, but not if all the other sellers have 4.8 stars. So, and last but not least, remember, even Google ratings can be to manipulate. it and the car dealers sooner or later they figure out how to manipulate these ratings so absolutely you can't go strictly by the rating no compare compare it's a huge word and you know

knowledge is power and there's so many things as I said earlier that you can do before you even go out I'm sorry but you've hit the time limit for this conversation oh boy please Okay, chat, GBT, back off. Also, you're going to take a look at not only fair pricing, but take a look at the finance options. Take a look at inventory. And as Earl pointed out, compare, compare dealers. And it would be safe to say that you have covered all the bases, and you are in the driver's seat. You are in the driver's seat.

So some research can go a long way. Take your time. This is a huge purchase. Purchasing a vehicle, a home, huge. So good luck. And as I always say, knowledge is power. 877960. You can text us at 772-497-60.

We're going to go to another regular caller. and that is David. Good morning, David. Welcome to the show. Hi, David. Yo, David, are you there? Yes, I'm sorry. Great.

Can you tell me, I'm sorry again. Can you please tell me the difference in a plug-in hybrid and a regular hybrid? Yeah, the plug-in hybrid has a much shorter range. That's probably the thing you would be most concerned about. The advantage, of course, is you can plug it in. So if you buy a regular hybrid, it runs on hybrid sometimes and the battery sometimes. So the engine and the battery.

Rick, what are the approximate ranges for the average hybrid and the average plug-in hybrid? But it's going to depend on your drive, a lot on your driving habits hugely. The big advantage with a plug-in hybrid is when you get home at night. You simply plug it into a 110 outlet, and it recharges the battery fully overnight. So the next morning, if you're, say you've got a short commute of 10 to 12, 15 miles, you might not even use gasoline driving back and forth to work because it can run off that battery. Yeah, but not many people who drive 12 to 15 miles a day. True.

But it gives you the advantage of having a fully charged battery to start out with driving each morning. and if you can plug it in at work, best of all the worlds. Well, Sue, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that the plug-in hybrid has been accepted the way the regular hybrid has been accepted. That's probably has to do with availability. Most of these, like always, I usually speak for Toyota, of my experience. So they produce a lot of these plug-in hybrids,

and they sell them in the California emissions state. So California and I think Oregon and Washington, whoever has to, they have these, so they require, they have to sell a certain amount. So they get the lion's share and it becomes a niche inventory thing out of that. What's the average mileage when you plug it in overnight? Rick said 10 to 15 miles. No, it's much more than that now. Yeah, it's probably up closer to 40. I think it was like 40.

I knew because even at one point, my son, Jake Stewart, drove my old, um, plug in 2017 plug-in Prius and he was able to make it down to he went to school. We live up in Jupiter and he went to school in West Palm Beach and he could make it to school and back on all-electric and then plug it over and it's still limited market. I mean, people, yeah, yeah, it's not. People don't want to find out they've got to be somewhere and they only got 40 miles range. Well, that's not what happened. So when after 40 miles, oh yeah, it works like a regular hybrid.

Yeah. So you have gas. So the effective range with the gas and everything is longer than a regular electric or a regular gas. Oh, I didn't realize that. Yeah, you can get in like the 400 on a tank. Oh, cool. So the plug-in hybrid is not just a, yeah, so basically you're on all-easy mode and you're driving around and everything's silent. It feels like you're driving the Tesla, not quite as fast.

And then you could go on a road trip and then after 40 miles, the gas is going to kick in, charge the battery and work until. you run out of gas. So very disadvantage is the fact for a longer trip, you'll be using more gas. Yeah, but even then, effectively, when you work it all in, you have the advantage of the great gas mileage of the hybrid, and then you average in the first 40 miles where you use

no gas, and you effectively have probably amongst the best mileage you could get, you know, short of getting a long range of UV. David, that answer to your question? Well, yes, there's a little more to the question. When both of them are fully charged to plug in in a regular hybrid, are they exactly

the same for the amount of charge they have? No. No, no, no, no. A regular hybrid, a lot of them will have an EV button, and it will go for a period on all EV, provided you're not exceeding a certain speed, and it's only for until the charge comes down on the hybrid battery. And so, yeah, you can do that.

I don't think that was my question. My question was, when they're both completely charged, is it the same distance that they will go? No, no, no. I thought I answered that. On a plug-in, it's designed to give you substantial range, not full EV range, but substantial range on all electric. So you can go like in that 40-mile range. And the regular hybrid can go maybe a mile on all EV or a half-mile. It's not designed to do it. It's designed to go back and forth between the electric and the gas motor. Whereas the plug-in, you're going to get pure EV, pure EV driving experience. You know, if you lived and worked in town and that was your commute, you could conceivably do it all day on all electric and never have to use the gas. But then if you wanted to go up to Disney World, you could do it and the gas would kick in

and you wouldn't have to fill up. If you live down here at West Palm Beach and you took your plug-in hybrid to Orlando and back, you wouldn't have to fill up. That's like 200 miles there and back. It would be a perfect car for a lot of people because there are people that drive 30, 40 miles a day max. And so you can essentially have your cake and eat it too. You'd have a full EV vehicle for all intensive purposes. And then you'd have a hybrid.

Yeah, local EV and hybrid long distance. For an example, price-wise, if we're talking a Toyota product, what is the difference price-wise between a plug-in and a regular hybrid? That's more for the plug-in. most that we have always sell as hybrids practically now and it's once in a while we see the plugin um i'm going to say probably a five to seven thousand dollar walk up from the regular hybrid to a plugin and i and i might be wrong i because like i can't remember the last time we uh we sold a plugin yeah you can uh order one locally and it's just it'll take a little bit

a while, or you could play out to California and drive one off a lot. $5,000, a lot of money difference. Well, then also, I'm going on like MSRP, so I don't know what they're, how hot they are and what they're selling for. We could probably look it up. Let's see if Chatsy Bidio's answer. Yeah. I'm going to hang up.

Thank you very much for all the information, and I'll keep listening. You're welcome. Thank you, David. What's the difference in price between the current Toyota plug-in hybrid and the regular hybrid? Sure, Professor, in a nutshell, a plug-in hybrid toy Voda is generally a few thousand dollars more than a regular hybrid because you're paying for that larger battery and the ability to plug it in. But the exact difference will vary a bit depending on the model and trip. Two thousand, five thousand, seven thousand, you know, pretty close. Yeah, pretty much. Usually it's in that ballpark. Maybe a few thousand up to around five or six thousand more.

Really depends on the exact model in year. Thank you. He's so breezy. Did you change his personality or something? Yeah. Okay. Honey, we got any phone calls over there? I just wanted to add to the conversation about the hybrid, that the hybrid, it really offers a balance between the gasoline engine and the electric vehicle.

And also in the long run, you're going to save quite a bit of money. and you can, you know, go to your calculator and you'll see the advantage of, you know, that initial purchase, which sometimes is expensive. But as I said, keeping that vehicle on the road in the long run is going to save you quite a bit of money. Our number here is 877-960, or you can text us at 772-49-30. please take advantage of your anonymous feedback.com. We're going to go to Frank. It was a regular caller from Jupiter Farms.

Good morning, Frank. Good morning, Nancy. Good morning, Earl. This is kind of like a multi-fall in. My wife is here with me. He says, hello. She needs your help, Nancy. Hello.

And I need help, too. We send you some photos through the texting. This is in regards to that. In 2022, Audi, we purchased brand new up in Stewart, Allie Stewart. You did a mystery shopping report. Actually, on our salesman named Brian, and he got really good grades. Back in those years, it was a very good dealership. They had gone through some transformations, a big change in their buildings, and they got set back,

and most of our good employees are all gone. So here's our issue. The seat, the leather seats are coming apart. Oh, I see. I sent you some pictures. And for the first time we took it in was about three months ago. And they said, oh, no, no, the leather is only covered for six months or four thousand miles. You've exceeded that.

And this is on the new vehicle, Frank? Brand new vehicles. So much for the four-year thousand miles. That's crazy. So the leather did not fall under. You said it's a brand-new car, Frank? Brand-new car. Was it a little-factor of leather or was it installed by a local leather installer?

No, it was factory leather from Germany. Frank, is this just the passenger seat or the driver's seat or both? The driver's seat mainly and the armrest in the middle and the headrest of the driver. The car is basically used by my wife to go to help out her store in Journal Mall store there in Juneau Beach called Cheramarch where they do oranges and grapefruit. They're closed now. They're not in October, so it's not an infomercial. But anyway.

What did they say the warranty was on the leather? six months or four thousand miles okay that's i i'm just looking at the standard new vehicle limited warranty for BMW it's four years or 50,000 miles um yeah so why are they so they well that guy that guy's been fired then they got another guy in and then this other guy um now is a 10 year guy from who orlando they're talking about oh the people at the Audi the service people. Oh, I'm looking at BMW. We're really going to look at Audi.

I'm sorry. All right. So anyway. Wow. You know what? Hold on second. I got a prank. I got a PSA for all our listeners.

Audi does not, factory standard, their warranty does not cover any leather components. They consider them wear and tear items. And I didn't know of any manufacturer did that. So don't, don't buy an Audi. Well, here's, no, here's my, I think, what this is, an interpretation.

They say they will cover it if it's a defect, and it's not caused by cracking and fading, which I think that's a judgment, or maybe not, maybe it's just a factual call, but the picture you showed us, that wasn't even on an area where you would be, resting your, you know, part of the leather that you're not even sitting or leaning on. So in six months, that leather began to crumble. It couldn't be from wear a tear because you never touched it. So I think what you need to do is, in writing, address the issue, copy Audi, copy the Department of Motor Vehicles, and a copy a, you can make up a lawyer's name and copy him.

but I think they're dead wrong. Who owns that dealership, by the way? I think it's Mercado or something. They own the owner. I know the owner. Mario Mercado? So I'll tell you what I'll do. If you can call back and tell them that I'm a friend of Mario Mercado, and I am.

And if you want, if he wants, if they want me to call. If he wants me to have. I got Chb-T talking to my ear, excuse me, but you're talking to your salesperson there, Ryan, and say, Earl Stewart is going to call Mario McCarro. Mercado. Can you shut them down? And Frank, you know, I'm looking at this picture, and to me it looks like just from you getting in and out of your vehicle, not sitting in the seat where and tear. would take place.

So this is, the information that Stu just shared about there being. Oh, thank you. Thank you. No warranty, you know, on the leather is really ridiculous. Well, here's, here's one other thing I'm doing. Monday, we're going to go into the Audi on beach. Do you think that might help any if they get it? Oh, sure.

Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah. They're dead wrong. I just don't believe for one minute. How long did you get? When did you buy the car? Lesson three years ago. Okay.

So you've got four years, you've got 50,000 miles, jump on it. Somebody's responsible. So I was going to say, if you ask you, Frank, did they say, because when you look at any warranty on the leather, none of it is for wear and tear. So the question is, so Audi just says it up front. Everybody else covers it, but they won't cover it if you put sun tan motion on it. But what I'm just going to another dealership makes a lot of sense because what it sounds like is they're saying that it is wear and tear and not a factory defect. So that's the only question.

Earl says escalate there. You can do that. You said the guy got fired. So maybe there's somebody more reasonable. Well, he can prove that it's not wear and tear because it's where you never touch the weather. Let me ask this question. Stu, am I nitpicking? It doesn't sound like in a way wear and tear.

it's getting in and out of the vehicle. You're not nitpicking, but you're squeaking. Exactly. And then they're saying, one guy says it's from sweating. My wife doesn't sweat. Now, I might sweat. Oh, come on. Women do not sweat.

We'll use any excuse we possibly can not to step up to the plate and to be responsible. My wife would have said ladies don't sweat. They listen. Pigs sweat. Well, let me know. If they don't, if they don't go along with you on this, I would enjoy talking to Mario Mercado about that because he is a good guy.

We talked about him at length of the beginning of the show. He's a real pioneer, and he's a world-meaning dealer. But when you get a lot of dealerships, he's got 25 or 30 dealerships. He's got rotten apples and some of his barrels, and you're dealing with a rotten apple right now. Yeah, that dealership is going down graphically. It really has gone down there.

Yeah, it sounds like you buy. an Audi. Yeah. All right. Thanks very much. Let us know as soon as you I get a response, please. Yeah.

Oh, I'm going to text a real quick photo. We were down in T's at Kujo T last week. And what a great place. We went to the butterfly garden in Key West, but then we went out and sold some tea deer, but I'll send you a couple of photos there. But I did see that one deer was missing his right eyes. Do you know what you call that deer?

Don't. Don't. What? No idea. Okay, Frank. I'll tell your wife. I wish you all the luck in the world. Thank you for the call. And we'll talk next weekend. Go back to my dear. Bye-bye. 877-960. Or you can text us at 772-497-6-4-9-7-6-0. We're going to go to Marty.

Marty's a regular caller. Good morning. How are you? Good morning. I'm hanging in there, Marty. I got a lot of, I got a lot of ear noise this morning. It's very painful. Yeah, it's coming over the Internet.

Absolutely. When Rick mentioned that VINFAST car this morning, I looked it up. They've got terrible, terrible reviews, so I wanted to make sure. that Earl is not getting rid of his Toyota dealership to start selling VINFAS. No, I guarantee he's not going to be doing that one. Yeah, that's, that's, that's, that's not going to happen. Yeah, I just thought it was interesting that they are, we're seeing more startup companies doing electric cars that are appearing.

And it was just something interesting that, you know, all of a sudden I look over and here's this car that I had never seen before. and I actually had to kind of speed up and catch up to it to find out what the name was so that I could look it up later and figure this out. It was that VinFast. Yeah. It's a Vietnamese electric car company. You know what it sounds like VINFAST?

It sounds like some kind of service offered to car dealers. Yeah. Like just to tell you. Well, I looked it up and it said some of their cars were selling for as much as $70,000 to $80,000. and all having troubles. Yeah, they've only got two models available right now, according to their website, but they've got two others on the way.

But yeah, they're, I don't know, it's just, I just thought it was interesting. Like I say, to suddenly see a new startup like that, especially where Lucid is trying to get their head above water, Fisker went down, Tesla's dominating, and yet there's Polestar is coming out now. they've got the Polestar 3. So, I mean, there's these other companies that are coming along,

and it's just interesting to see it. Yeah. Well, I know Earl doesn't like this to be an info commercial. But for the average person, I would stick to Toyota or Honda. Yeah. But it's still, I just think it's cool, like I say, to see new, you know, companies, you know, and I, according to Donovan, he says, VinFAS has been in Vietnam and in Southeast Asia for they're huge there

and it's just interesting to see these new companies getting into the U.S. now. Yeah. I don't know what's what's Vietnam's tariff now? Yeah, I was going to say what's the tariff?

I don't know. $70,000 might be closer to $90,000. I got one question, no, for you now. My crown was made in Japan. Is the new crowns coming in going to have a large tariff on it?

If there are built, in Japan. I don't know with the deal it was with Japan. I think there was a trade deal cuts, so it was a base 15%. Are you talking yesterday

or the day before? I'm talking. That's a very good point, it's a lot, it's nobody knows. It's like quantum physics. You have to, you can never know exactly

where it is. Marty, you know what it is? You just got to roll the dice when you wake up in the morning. I think it's 50% on on Japanese products. Right. So yeah, it will eventually.

It hasn't yet. Yeah, we don't get any cars from Putin, do we? Oh, yes, we have the Toyota Pushnik. It's called the Pushnik, and you've got to start. Yeah. Come to a free bottle of vodka. Yeah. All right.

Have a good weekend, everybody. Will he be shirtless on his horse? I'm scarred. I'm scarred. never forget that picture. Okay, folks, 877-960-99-60. Earl, I have a question for you. It is now 920. What time would you like the phone calls to cease? In a few minutes. Okay. We'll wait to hear from Earl. Okay. And he makes that prediction and decision. We're going to go to John from West Palm Beach. Good morning, John. Hey, good morning. Sorry, I call a second time, but I just want to

for the gentleman in the Jupiter Farms with the Audi and the rip tear. Yes. Worse comes to worse, and he has to fix it himself or get it repaired. We had to have a convertible top fixed on one of our cars, and the guy also got, to save him time,

if he's still listening, get out of pencil, Forest Hill, there is a convertible top and a pull street. shop. The guy does excellent work. He's getting ready to retire within the next couple of years. It's a dying art. But he does great work, and he's very, very reasonable. We had a car

that had to have the window replaced on the convertible top to the glass. Forest Hill is in West Palm Beach for you people that don't know. Right. But I couldn't find because I worked in Jupiter, I couldn't find anyone around there to take care of the convertible top

so I could just drop it off and pick it up type thing. But he had to remove the whole convertible top, re-glued the window in, and he only charged $800. Boy, that's great information, John. Yeah. Great information. Yeah, he'd have to Google a convertible top,

leather upholstreet, which he deals in, and he's on Forest Town of West Palm Beach. I don't know the exact name of it. It was like Florida. I think Rick's pulling that up right now. But thank you so much for that information. That'll help. I know like that is with his weight and gold.

Any of the out there that have a really good technician or, in this case here, convertible top leather guy, we love this input because people out there are desperate to find an honest guy that can do good work in a fair price. And he's looking to train someone because he can't find anybody to take over his business. And he wants to retire, but he also doesn't, but he's also pulling in a lot of work because there's no one that does what he does. Yeah, yeah. It's Florida auto-apulstery and trim.

28.07 Forest Hill Boulevard in West Palm Beach. They've got 54 reviews with a rating of 4.9. Wow. Wow. That's impressive. 8.07, Forestryl Boulevard. 2807, Forest Hill Boulevard. We should come out of the dealerships, too?

I'm not sure if we're not using them I have to double check it sounds very familiar I actually I think that we are used I think that's one of them that we've used in the past quite a bit yeah we refer to like the trim shop but there's several local vendors that we use for things that go beyond our abilities like Rick can't repair lever

Believe it or not Oh yes I can I have installed seat covers on many cars Oh yeah not as good as these guys I bet Oh yeah He doesn't do that seat cover it. Okay. He doesn't do seat covers. He doesn't do seat covers. He takes the these parts to the original shop and re-posed it. Yeah, sounds like a special. Yeah, it's a serious. That's a real good job there. I'm sure that Frank and his wife are still listening. And we'll repeat

that address one more time. Right, Rick? 2807 Forest Hill Boulevard. All right, Frank. Get on it. Well, hopefully he gets a fixed by Audie. Hopefully, yes. Of course, yeah. Well, thanks, John. That's really appreciative. And I'm sure Frank is listening because he's a true blue fan.

Yeah. I'm usually after him when he calls. All right. All right. See you later. Have a great week. That's a great deal, John. We love hearing from you. Jonathan, you'll have to speak to Earl about that text you just sent me. Okay. Remember here is 877960-99-60, and you can text me at a text us at 772.

4976530. Yeah, well, we shut the phones down three or four minutes, so we have no call. There you have it, Jonathan. Okay. I know that also that, please don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. We're having some difficulties this morning, but we're getting through it. You know, we have some things that we should cover every week and we don't. One of them is our book, Earl Stewart on Cars, or Confessions of a recovering guardian.

I should say. And this is Earl Sterling Cars, and this is the book. Confessions of Recovery Car Dealer. It's available online. It's about $20. And I don't get the money. The money goes to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. 100% charity.

So you can get a book that'll tell you how to avoid being ripped off. In fact, if you read the book, you don't need to listen to the show because everything I know is in the book. Confessions of a recovering car dealer, and it's on Amazon, and you help a doggy. You help a doggy, save a doggy's life, and also save your life when you go into a car dealership. And the other thing that I wanted to cover is if any lawyers are listening out there, it is so frustrating. We have one person called us a week or two ago looking for a lawyer. to go after a car dealer. Excuse me.

If Rick, if you're listening, we haven't forgot you. I do apologize. I wanted to bring your information in with me this morning and I left it sitting on my desk. We're talking about you and I apologize. I'm having difficulty finding a lawyer to help you. And the reason is lawyers,

they go after the big ticket items. They want to class action. action suit against General Motors. They want the big stuff. And they don't like to mess with a little guy like you and a little car dealer somewhere because they have to go to a lot of work and trouble and cost. And the money's not in it. So the fact is, that's why lawyers are in business to make money.

Now, we're contemplating forming a foundation. We're in the beginning starts now. Consumer Justice Foundation. And what we're going to do is we're going to get money in donations. It'll be a charitable not-for-profit organization. And we will bridge the gap between the complaining customer and the attorney in expense. And we will endeavor to get the complaints all under the unfair and deceptive trade practices. Act. The Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act awards the attorney's fees to the prevailing

party. So we'll have a group of people. There'll be volunteers. We'll have some paid people. We'll have lawyers. And we will, this not-for-profit foundation will be able to listen to people that are being ignored by attorneys. Forget about the Attorney General's office. Forget about the County Office of Consumer Affairs and the Better Business Bureau and forgetting about the Federal Trade Commission. They're not going to help you. The lawyer will put the fear of God into a dealer, and we will pay the startup fee for the lawyer. So we're working on that. You lawyers out there or anybody who cares about car buyers and the way they're getting taken care of,

contact us so we can start putting together the Consumer Justice Foundation. to bring justice to the people out there that are getting screwed every day. But lawyers, shame on you lawyers, by the way. I mean, there's something called pro bono, right? You're supposed to do a favor something good for people that you don't get paid for.

So let's hear from you lawyers. Call me and call the show and let's get this thing on the road. Okay. Free cause. Okay, I think we could probably, if we don't have any calls coming in, We'll shut the phones down now.

Okay, Jonathan. And that gives us the ability to take Ann Marie's text. Good morning, Ann Marie. Anne Marie says, good morning. The Florida Department of Transportation has ordered multiple cities to paint over or remove brightly colored street crossings in the name of safety. It has been claimed that the colorful. painted intersections are a distraction and a hazard. I am a human being. We are not distracted by a

painted intersection, and I'm not aware of anyone else being distracted either. While I am on the topic of painted intersections, I really like the intersections with a do not block message painted in the middle of them. Number one, FDOT's order prompts my question, are autonomous vehicles affected by painted intersections or the painted crosswalks. Yes. You all have autonomous vehicles. Yes. Have you noticed any problems with your vehicles when they approach a painted intersection?

Yes. And this is assuming that you drive to a city with a painted intersection. My car became gay. And when I drove over it. Now it's just a joke. You didn't get it? No one's laughing. Come on.

That's very funny. I'm not going there. I don't know. It's, you know, the technicality. I'll just answer it dryly. Technically, they're not canvases, but across the country. And it's not just for cultural things like my kid's school, Dreyfus School of the Arts that they graduated from,

that you graduated from when it was Pombie Chai. They have a painted mural on the street on Tamron and, what's that street that starts with an F, whatever. Anyways, it's painted, and it's not political or cultural. It's just like the art students there paint murals. And so that won't be allowed. anymore. And I don't know if other schools do that. I'm neutral. I think this comes a big issue because it was a big issue because it was political

and it had to do with, you know, politics and I won't even get into it. But the fact of the matter is you shouldn't be able to paint stuff in the street in general because, of course, it confuses autonomous vehicles. It also confuses some people. And when you're looking for a a center line or an edge line or, you know, or an arrow, or all the other important stuff, it should be pretty much under, and you can make exceptions. The one that's getting all the publicity is in downtown Lake Worth, and no one's going to worry about that because nobody goes to a downtown Lake Worth anyway. Hey, Rick, what exactly did Dan Murray?

Key West, yeah. How did she direct her text? Was it on a stop sign? Was it on a slow? I believe what she's speaking of is the one that's kind of in the news, which is a crosswalk in front of the Pulse Nightclub. Rainbow, a rainbow color. Yeah, it had the Pulse Nightclub had a horrific shooting event, 49 people killed back in 2016. And what happened was the FDOT came in.

in the middle of the night and painted over a rainbow painted crosswalk, painted it back to black and white. And the residents in the city, nobody asked for it, nobody wanted it. And they really kind of got angry. People even went out and used chalk and paint to repaint the rainbows in protest. So I think her main concern, because that one was in the news so much, she was wondering about the idea with autonomous vehicles being affected by it. They are. And she does say, P.S., I'm

pragmatic. I'm more distracted by potholes than I am a painted intersection, and I wish FDOT would fix the potholes because they are definitely a safety hazard. Thank you. And like with Earl mentioning the Lake Worth situation,

each year, the city of Lake Worth shuts down a big section of Lake and one of the road there and they they draw chalk murals yeah and it's chalk so in a couple days of rain it's washed away and it's gone but yeah so if that does affect autonomous vehicles then I can certainly see that as a safety hazard yeah so just something to kind of maybe be aware of there yeah definitely be aware of it we're into safety not distractions do we have any other text or yeah we have anonymous feedback

Well, one of our quick thing here, Donovan says, no, autonomous vehicles are not affected by it. It's not how it's trained. It deals with all the colors. The cameras on your car are looking at different spectrums of light, and one is not in color. So. Well, I, I, Donovan, I usually agree with everything you say. But on the Tesla's we drive, it actually refers to. uh this type of thing and uh we find that our autonomous teslas are uh are when there are

when there's like construction and there's uh lines that don't make sense it fools the autonomous car and so that's one of the reasons you have to be ready so uh i i i'm not quite sure what done of a means by that but it it sees center lines it knows white and yellow and there are other

I can't think of all the It probably relies on contrasts yeah and so when you have black road or a dark colored road and it's easier for a camera to see that when you bring up the colored tones and it becomes with a jungle it's going to

it might camouflage the lines or the difference my cyber truck is gone crazy in areas that had extra stuff in the road. Absolutely. It becomes confusing. But I certainly do feel safe. It's one of the rules.

With the eight cameras that I have in the plat. Yeah, one of the things that comes on my screen and my cyber truck says when approaching an area of construction, take it off autonomous. And that's the reason because they have too much stuff going on. Also, when it's raining too, is there a point where it says it's raining too hard? It becomes confusing, and that's exactly what I do. What Earl just said, I call it deactivate. And at any moment, I'm ready to deactivate because I'm looking to travel safely. Deactivate the other day.

Deflate the autopilot. The other day, I got caught on the turnpike in a pounding rainstorm. And if it wasn't for the fact that I was very familiar with the roads, I wouldn't have known where the lane markers were. I said we have any other text? Sure. What did you got to? We got some anonymous feedback. This is a good one for you.

Earl, Dad. Can you find for me an American car? Is it just that the manufacturer's headquarters is located within the U.S.? If a Toyota Camry is built in America using a majority of parts that are sourced domestically and the car is assembled by American workers, can we not say that the Camry is an American car? Or if Chrysler is owned by an Italian conglomerate? And the cars that are sold in the U.S. are manufactured in Mexico by Mexican workers. Is Chrysler still an American car company?

I'd like to hear from your definition of an American car. Well, that's a great question. The joke is, you mentioned Camry. For years, Camry was the most American car. In fact, they said in automotive news, it was Bill in America, it used more American parts, and it was probably sold more. And so because the owner of the company, or the C-Eus, CEO happens to be in Tokyo, if they're building them here, the parts and assembling them here

and selling them here, I don't know what more you can be to call it an American car. Right. So I've heard people who argued against that saying, well, sure, it's an American car, but all the money goes back to Japan. And that's a very, very naive way of looking at. The net profits do go back to that company and goes to the shareholders. Oh, it goes to the stockholders. I said the shareholders, yeah. And, but the, but there's so much money being made in the states by the manufacturers, the employees. I wouldn't be surprised that if Toyota was more owned by Americans and they, by Japanese.

Yeah, because you guys just look at the port stock. The employee's working in the factory are getting wages and benefits. The dealers. The parts suppliers from the U.S. that are selling them those parts are employing people. it's an economic money. Many billions of dollars stay here and help the United States economy, yeah, for sure.

Okay, so what is an American car, the final answer? The technical answer is if it's semantics. It's semantics, right? It's what you know about the car, so do a little research and if you want one that's going to support the most American workers in the American economy,

whether it's a Ford or a toilet or whatever, look into it and see how much is done here. Plain and simple. You can solve the problem. If you're into that much detail, take a look. I think it's kind of important.

You know, it's amazing. Sit before that computer, and there is knowledge and power at your fingertips. You can find that anything today. So we have another submission on our anonymous feedback. It says, if the car's life

has not yet expired, then you won't see the EV battery scrapped. That's why they're amazing. millions on the road, and you don't replace many orius EV batteries. You just sell another batch of EVs. I don't know the context in that.

What is an oreas EV battery? Oh, well. I don't know that one. But I would say this is not a bad thing because I know when we replace EV batteries at the shop, they are sent back to Toyota to be recycled and reuse as many of the parts as possible. So, I mean, it's not like they're just getting dumped in a landfill somewhere.

All right. We have another one here. Earl, you mentioned that Pujo was one of the worst cars you owned or had a dealership with. Terrible. I remember it. I still remember what it looked like. There's a beige one. It was like a four-door.

It was not a good design. Well, from a car called Pew. Pug. Don't make fun of the French. Come on. Please, it's just a language thing. All right. Lieutenant Colombo might disagree about the Pujo.

don't forget pujot was one third of the of the scrap metal from pujot rinal volvo engines that were used to make many volvos in the day really did i didn't know that

i didn't do that okay that's an interesting a little bit of tidbit of information so pujos were made a third of them came from scrap metal from old pujou rinal volvo engines oh yeah i hated those cars i mean i I told you one time on the show, I think I said, I sold five Bujos one month, and I won a trip to Paris.

That's how, how hot they were. For five. Wow. I said, Janet, listen, we've got to go to the mystery shopper. Yeah, one more is one more anonymous feedback, and it's a pretty, it sounds pretty, it's pretty crazy. It says, hey, coach, I'm stuck in the box, let me out. No, you got it wrong. The coach is stuck in the box.

Hey, you say, hey, it's coach. I'm stuck in the box. Let me out. Very funny. We're going to go to the mystery shopping report, And that came to us from Agent Lightning in Nashville, Tennessee. Please, we really want your vote this morning. The number is 772-4976530.

Please cast your vote. I think I'm going to head to the emergency. Okay, we got Beeman Buick in Nashville, Tennessee. I'm going to speak in the first person as if I were, you know, the mystery shopper. And remember, your votes are important, and you get messages and you YouTubeus, YouTube.com or on cars, and vote on this mystery shopping report. Okay, there we go. I arrived a minute afternoon and was greeted by the front desk customer service representative. She asked, what brings you in today?

I said I was hoping to get some information on a new vehicle. He said, in a few minutes, while I find out. a salesperson for you, then look to her right and ask, Ricky, are you available? Ricky replied. I'm really not. However, I can get the process started for you, so you're not just standing here waiting.

A little unusual. I agreed, and I walked over to his desk. He asked, do you know exactly which vehicle you want? I said, I'd like to see my options for your 0% financing versus paying cash. pretty clear I didn't feel Ricky was fully engaged in helping me because

he seemed rather annoyed with his line of questioning he acted like I should already know the different models and all the features that I was there to see and this is

a comment on the salesperson not on the integrity of the dealership but it's just not a good idea to have a cranky salesperson Maybe he shouldn't be in sales. He should, yeah. Like he should be in dentistry school or something. Maybe he's really in the accounting department and he just happened to be out there.

Yeah, she caught their... I don't know. I explained, I'm new to the area. I'm expecting a cash settlement on Monday or Tuesday next week. And I'm trying to figure out exactly how I want to spend my money. Important questions to have answered. Yeah. He pulled up some trucks on their website.

on the inventory screen I decided on a new 2025 GMC Sierra 1500 elevation that's the trim level yeah

there must be some sort of mountain related and I underline new 2025 because remember the 2026s are out so when you're shopping around for a car remember a new car is not a car

that was bought in the calendar year you bought it a new car is one that maybe next year car came out and that's in the showroom so uh you want to be sure to buy the the current car that's being manufactured and this time of year is a great time to be checking great if a manufacturer could figure out how to get all their new models in the beginning of the new model year that would be a good service for their customers yeah anyway the uh sticker bright MSRP of this was $67,680. I explained you'll need to be eligible for the incentives based on your credit, but I could have my manager give you the numbers either way.

You can see. I think you skipped it. Confusion. Oh, I did. Oh, yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. You're right. The listing was a jumble of discounts displaying a bunch of prices crossed out with strike-throughs.

It looked like the advertised price. The advertised price was 59,000, 254, but there was another group of possible conditional discounts. So whether this was intentional confusion or accidental confusion, the same net effect is the customers are going to be confused. What it looked like they're trying to do is create an effect of, you look, the first price you see is at 67,000, but there's a strike through to that. You know, oh, it's not that. It's better than you see the 50, 59,000. And then even that scratched out. And there's none of them that aren't scratched out,

so it leads you to believe there's still something better. And it puts them in control, and you are, you know, your mind spinning. Yeah. I said, ultimately, yes, you're looking at me like a, I'm okay. Good, good. I said, ultimately, I want to know which is the better deal. Zero percent, financing or paying cash. Yes, do you want me to have someone else take over?

Good Lord. He wanted to get out of it. I got to get back to the accounting department. I don't know what this is all about. They can pull the truck up so you can test drive it and finish helping you. Maybe he doesn't know how to drive. He was terrified of being found out. Or if it's something to care with you, since you're not trying to make a purchase today,

I'll just run the numbers for you. Yeah, from the accounting department. I agree to skipping the test drive, and he excused himself to talk to his sales manager. A few minutes later, we returned with two worksheets, one for finance and one for cash. The finance option was for 36 months and 0% and a smaller rebate of $1,500. The top line was MSRP, 67,680. They took off a discount of $4,676 and a rebate of $1,500.

Now, I'm confused, and I'm a car dealer. I mean, I'm just telling you. When I rate these things out, I'm going, I'm really trying to make this, like, linear thing, and it's kind of hard. Yeah. The adjusted price was $61,504. And I know your listeners out there who are going to be voting are confused. And that's... Oh, it is important to know that Jonathan, right, you have a picture of this up.

So anybody's watching as you're speaking can see this jumble that we're talking. Yeah. Then they added the Beeman ProPack for $190.99, I got to have that Beeman ProPack. And $992 in junk fees, for lack of a better word, and they have a lot of words for jack fees. This meant my real price was $64,494 before tax and tag. And that's more than $5,000 more than the advertised price. Yeah. Yeah. So there you are. You advertise the price, and then you screw the guy, buy it in $5,000. And it goes on and on and on.

The cash option used a bigger rebate, $4,250. Everything else was the same, but my real price was $61,741 with tax intact. He apologized for not having much time and said, hey, let me know when you're ready. I'll set up a time so we can get this. done. I asked, if I decided to pay cash, how would that work? He said, you can put up to $5,000 on a credit card or a debit card, and the rest would be a cashier's check. Yeah, if it were my money, I wouldn't worry about a high payment. I'd hold on to my cash and go with the finance option. That's one element of truth and the whole thing.

The 0% is a pretty good deal if you're going to find, if you were going to finance. Because if you're going to finance for like six years, I'm not sure how long the 0% would apply. Probably not that long. It only did 36 months. Yeah. But do the calculation. And it's all math. It's all arithmetic.

The cash rebate versus the 0%. Typically, the 0% is better. But not all the time, so you've got to do the math. Anyway, the accountant got up signaling our time was done, and I left. So we're going to vote on this now, and I will say this also. I didn't want to say this at the beginning. I asked Chad GBT, BT, how they were rated in the area. and he gave me some pretty good ratings that the dealer had.

Then I rethought that question. Then I asked Chatsy BD to tell me how their ratings were with other Buick dealers in the area. And the answer was terrible. So when I advise people to check the Google rating, the Yelp rating, the dealer reader rating, the Cars.com rating, there's a million rating services, better business bureau, all the rating services. It isn't a question of the number. It's the question of the comparison.

And also bear in mind that all dealers virtually cheat on the ratings. They have ways, even on the rating services and try to stop it. There are ways to cheat. So anyway. We should mention that often. There's a lot of people that don't realize that cheating is out. there. It's rampant. Nashville, Tennessee, Beeman-Bewick has the lowest ratings of all the other

Buick dealers. There you have. And there are three or four hours. You completely swayed me and influenced my vote now. Okay, folks. Our number here is 772-497-6530. You are a big part of the show. And we enjoy you voting. Your vote is extremely important how you feel about the mystery shopping report. It keeps the mystery shopping report alive. 772-4976530.

All right. Way in first, as is traditional. Yes. I'm failing them. There was nothing good about that. I don't, I think that if she had a different salesperson. I don't think you've ever failed anybody. Not this quickly. I've been, I think,

talked into an F. I've been guilted, huh? Oh, no, yeah, I don't think anybody out of state, for sure. And because there was nothing redeeming about it. I have a feeling that if she had gotten a different salesperson who wasn't trying to blow her off from the beginning, it would have been different. She might have, and not that it's great to meet a manager,

but she might have had a little bit of a normal experience. And this guy just wanted to go virtual from the moment she sat down. He just wanted to give a price, and it was rushed, and it was unprecedented. professional and it made me uncomfortable reading it so the price and it was a typical thing if it was just based on their business stuff it would I'd give them a probably a C minus because that seems also a little excessive I know it's in Nashville so it's it's an urban metro area so they're going to be a little bit more slick but yeah after me by the way they had a 4.4 Google already

but all the other dealers were much better than that I wasn't it a 4.2 Was it a 4.2? It could have been a 4.2. That looks like what we see in South Florida, where the good dealers tend to have in the very rare to have 4-7, 4A, and the bad ones still are over 4, but they're like 4-3-4. That's where they tend to settle out. Okay. Well, I've got Bob from Maryland sends F for being farmished, which apparently means confused. Roadrunner Steve says

The math ain't math and walk out He gives them a D I've got Joseph Kelleher says D 3,000 in junk fees Reason for the grade South Florida Two Step I am so confused What are we at like five different prices

D minus one on a statement But a green and embarrassed salesperson Along with the huge fees Just screams at me Stay away. Andrew Placinski says Beeman is a C-minus. Tom Steckle, D-minus, poor salesmanship and 3,000 in junk fees, can have the same old opery without leaving South Florida.

Disappointing. Cram 1624 says F. If you confuse the customer long enough, you should walk. Mark Smith says it's a big D for me. Shame on Beeman. Mark Ryan says D. Ryan said LATCO's giving him a C Tim Gilliland

I'm a little busy right now so how about a D Johnny C. Fradley says going to give Beeman a D man Automania I would have walked out when the accountant gave me the attitude

Wait a minute he said I'm giving Beeman a D man A D man That was good Automania says I would have walked out when the accountant gave me the attitude F minus

baby boomer D Kim appreciates life says F or forget about it Thank you I'm with me I just

I was I was like confused with the whole thing and that that ProPack which they never even told you what it was with $2,000 We never saw the car It might have been on an addendum

So for me D All right now I'm interested in chat GBT right now that when we're all done voting. Earl? I just, I had this flashback. I know Beeman sound, this has nothing to do with the shopping report, but I know Beeman.

He was in my Pontiac 20 group. I remember him well. Trust me. We don't want to discuss him on the... The only link that I could, the only purpose of saying that is what's happened to the smaller dealerships are they grown and uh and uh they are absentee owners beeman might not even be alive today uh so a lot of these original dealerships are uh there with no resemblance to what they were years ago yeah around here schumacher yes there are descendants so you didn't uh you you weren't you haven't come in yet but uh this is the 100th anniversary of automotive news and in 19 In 1925, when automotive news started, there were 44,000 car dealerships.

Today, there's about 17,000. And so they were mom and pop operations on every street corner in every small town. There was a little bitty dealers. And what happened was everybody, all the car dealers, or the bigger car dealers, said, we got to get some control because it's like gas stations and banks. you know, the next building dealer is two blocks away and they lobbied the state

legislatures and drove all the little guys out. And that's how it formed the modern franchise system. So Beeman was a nice guy, but Beeman organization is a rat. Yeah, especially for Tennessee. Okay, Earl, your vote?

Oh, God. I'm going to go with a D. He's not going to help you. I'm going to go with a D. D. Okay, a D. Okay, a D. for Earl, real quick, so we can get the chat, GBT. I'm, I know where we're going to be. You got something in your pocket? Hey, I'm bewitched, bothered, and I'm bedwilters. I have to ask a question.

What exactly was Rick's job, description? I can't even get it out. He was delivering, he was from the coffee service. He just showed up, those coincidences. He showed symptoms of underlying health issues where he may have fallen and hit his head on a blunt object. I give Beeman Buick of Nashville, Tennessee, a Z. I give him an F. I know it was common and I feel solidarity with Nancy.

And we don't have Chad GBT because we shut them down. I'm sorry, I unplugged it. Are you serious? No, it was going crazy. crazy in his ear. I have to, listen, I apologize to KGBD. It wasn't this one. It was mine.

Oh, okay. And the other chats are talking to me. I don't know why. They're probably talking to each other. Folks, you ought to try this whole gig at home. That's at home at our residence. It's crazy. They're planning to take over the world.

Is your robot there yet? Has your robot been delivered? Oh, he's delivered. and he's rocking and rolling all over the place driving me crazy can it make can it make the fresh squeezed orange juice he got he came up behind me in the bedroom and scared to hell out of making you a banana said you a banana i know he brought me breakfast okay they're not kidding goes they got a robot in the house hey we got timmy we got timmy at home uh okay we got one minute guess what folks we enjoy your company why you make the show

stay tuned right here next week on the oldies channel at 8 a.m. We'll be right here and we will be filled with all kind of vigor and we are driven. We are disenchanted. We want to change all that, right folks? Okay. Have a great weekend. God bless everyone. Bye-bye.