Earl Stewart on Cars - 08.29.2020 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Schumacher Chevrolet

Episode Date: August 29, 2020

Earl answers various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl's new female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits Schumacher Chevrolet in West Palm Beach to see if she can purchase a 2020 Chevrolet Malibu at the special price advertised on the dealers' website. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, his tweets at www.twitter.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

Good morning. I'm Earl Stewart. I welcome you to Earl Stewart on Cars, a live talk show all about how to buy, lease, maintain, or repair your car without being ripped off by a car dealer. With me in the studio is Nancy Stewart, my wife, co-host, and a strong consumer advocate, especially for our female business. We also have Rick Kearney, an expert on how to keep your car running right. I dare you to ask a question that Rick can't answer about the mechanics or electronics of your car. Also with us as my son, Stu Stewart, our LinkedIn's side. through Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Periscope. Stu is also the Spymaster Director of our Mystery Shopping Report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting South Florida dealership. And now, on with the show.

Good morning, everybody. I hope I don't sound too muffled if you're not streaming us. We've all got masks on, and here we are in the land of COVID. Interesting thing, phenomenon that has happened with. the COVID is car sales are going bananas. A lot of car dealers are selling a lot of cars and a lot of customers are buying them, obviously. And, of course, I'm the recovering car dealer.

My name is Earl, and we've been doing this show for 17 years. So our mission in life at Earl Stewart on Cars is to help you go through the process of buying, leasing, maintaining, repairing your car. I know you heard some of this on the recorded introduction, but I just want you to be sure that this is live. We're here in the studios in North Palm Beach, Florida.

We're talking to folks all over the world, certainly the USA, and we are streaming on YouTube, and we're on Twitter. We're on Facebook. You can post on Facebook, post on YouTube. You can call us on our text line, and that text line is 772-4976530. Text us at 772. 4976530, we have anonymous feedback. This is unique. I don't know anybody that does this. We don't care whether you tell us who you are or not. We have a lot of folks that prefer

to remain anonymous. Youranonymousfeedback.com. Simply the way it sounds, youranonymousfeetback.com. And it'll come to us. We don't know who you are. And we find out we get an amazing, actually more, text type inputs that way. And most of them are in good spirit and good taste. We do get some criticism. We also get some real rough criticism, but if we didn't get that, we wouldn't be pure and honest to when we say it is anonymous. So if you really want to take a swing at me, Earl Stewart, you might be a car dealer, a car salesman. I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to say whatever you want to say. If it's printable or if it's not against FCC regulations, we'll even say it on the air, but we might do a bleak. But your anonymousfeedback.com

as I say, text 772-4976530. It's particularly, our show is particularly important now because of how busy things are. And everybody styles a little bit of cramped. with the COVID issue, you know, wearing a mask. Every time I put mine on, my eyeglasses fall off and one of my hearing aids fall out. This whole mask thing is difficult, and, you know, buying things and going into stores is scary. And the car dealers are still doing extremely well.

I'm a car dealer. We have a dealership. We've been in the business a long time. In total transparency, I say this. This is not an infomercial. consumer advocacy show trying to help you buy a car without being taken advantage of. So that's all you'll hear. You won't hear about our dealership. You won't hear anything about our product. We want you to buy the car that you want, at the car dealership that does the

best job, the best price, and that's why we're here. So we also have a phone line. I almost mention that. Almost sounds old-fashioned now, doesn't it? The telephone, well, it's not old-fashioned because we look at it as our most important and we wash our telephone lines carefully. That phone number is 877-960-99-60. Again, that's 877-9-60-9-960, and we prioritize phone lines. Nancy Stewart, my co-host, sitting next to me,

she's watching the TV screen, or the PC screen, I should say, and she sees the calls come in, the caller, and she waves her hand. So no matter what we're doing, we try to stop and take calls. We only got three or four phone lines coming in for the radio station. And so we don't want people to have to wait a long, long time. You might be driving, and you don't want to have to wait and wait and wait. So 877 960, 9960, and then we'll have a text that we'll get to a little later,

or YouTube that we'll get together a little later. Going around to introduce the folks that you already know we're here, you regulars. I'm going to start out with Rick Kearney this morning, because, you know, the service departments of car dealerships and the maintenance and repair of your car is not the glory. It's the every car dealership, the new car guys get all the glory, and it's all about the new car advertising and the excitement and the emotion. And taking care of your car is kind of put, you know, car dealer's called where Rick works, the back end.

That's kind of a nasty thing to say, right? I mean, at least they don't say the rear end. I mean, I've never thought about that. The back end. And you know what, like all the new car salespeople, they call them the front end. So you're at the back end. I'm sorry, Rick. But the fact of the matter is, this is tongue and gee, because Rick's department,

the service department and car dealerships is the most important and usually the most profitable and usually requires the highest skilled labor, the people that are more educated, and versed in what they do are the people in the service department. So if you have a question about your car and any, whether it's a Chevrolet or a Rolls-Royce, Rick Kearney's sitting here with over a quarter century of experience is the guy that can answer a question.

And if you don't want to go into a dealership because of the COVID thing and you've got a squeak rattle or a roll, you want to call Rick and say, maybe I can do something myself, or maybe it's not so serious, I can postpone it, and so I don't have to go in. So Rick Kearney, if you need to call them.

Rick, just briefly, what is your take on people that are coming in now and the COVID thing? When they're coming in to having a car repaired, what sort of things are they most concerned about? Pretty much they're looking for the normal services, normal maintenance, special service campaigns. and it's almost business as usual, although we're taking the special precautions

with masks and gloves and trying to keep things as clean as possible and offering those microbial sprays. You get many calls or people or maybe a service advisor who says, look, I've got a call from Mr. Jones. He's got a problem with the car, but he doesn't want to bring it in unless it's serious. I mean, are people trying to.

trying to get questions answered from you as to whether or not something can be delayed and postponed for a month or two? That happens occasionally, but usually those are handled by our service riders and our service manager. We do see a little more an increase in what we call the concierge. We're picking up the cars to bring them. People are nervous about that. Exactly. For the most part, I think most of the folks are adapting and just kind of learning the role with the flow. and just, you know, it's a big change in society,

but it's a change that we're all just adapting to. Well, if you want a free opinion on what is wrong with your car, they can call us and call Rick Kearney at 877-960-9-60. That's 877-960-9-1960, or text us at 772-497-6530. That's 772-497-6530. Rick is monitoring YouTube directly on his laptop there. So if you're a YouTuber, you can go straight to Rick,

and he can help you maybe avoid making an unnecessary trip to see your independent mechanic or your dealership mechanic. He might tell you what you have is something you can take care of yourself. So give Rick Kernier call. And then to Rick's right is Stu Stewart. He's my son. He is the guy that handles our mystery shopping reports. He is actively in the car business.

He sees the day-to-day activities have happened with our dealership and other dealerships around. But by far the most exciting thing he does is the mystery shopping report. So, Stu, what's going on with Mr. Shopping? Well, it's funny when you mentioned the back-end. I guess that's a common phrase in car dealership. They refer to the finance department also as the back-end, too. It's a subsection of the sales department. That's right.

The money made on a car in the finance department is called the back end. Oh, yeah, in the back end. And when you sell the car, it's the front end. Yeah, the F-9 department itself is called the box. Yeah. So as your dealership language, you walk in, you say, which way is the back end? They'll send you to the service department. And you say, where's the box?

They'll say it's over there. And on the window, it says finance department. But in the box, that's where they make all the back end. that's right anyway back to Mr. Shopping I am still to borrow a phrase from my grandfather tickled pink to have a brand new mystery shopper

and it's kind of like this is a weird analogy and I know if anybody's going to pick up on it it's like I have I play guitar and guitar is a guitar it's six strings same shape, same number of frets for the most part but when I pick up a different guitar for some reason I play different

things with a different mystery shopper there's a whole new style it just feels different and it feels new. I think the reports are more interesting. And it's really exciting. It also opens up a whole new, a lot of new opportunities to visit places. What you'll see in the shopping report today, that we're returning to a dealership that, for various reasons, we couldn't mystery shop a whole lot.

And we can go back and it opens a whole new field again. So it's really exciting. And this is Agent Lightning. And she is our first permanent, hopefully, female mystery shopper that we've been. ever had. Yeah. It's tough out there. We sure hope she can stay with us. It's a high pressure job. And of course, Nancy Stewart's sending to Stewart's right. I said, Stu's right. We don't call them Stu. Some people do. Yeah, some people do. Nancy can take a lot of credit for Agent Lightning. She's our female advocate on the show, and she's been with me from the get-go. Nancy is

a founder of the show with me. And for a long, long time, we were just a bunch of guys talking, and then people calling in, mainly males, and she worked the female audience up to 50-50, and she

pushed and pushed and pushed until we finally got ourselves Agent Lightning. And so congratulations, Nancy. You're almost at parity here in the old boys club that we've had 7,000. years ago. Thank you very much. I think I could say that I'm these cliches that you were using

earlier or the back end and Stu I say he wears many many hats so I don't even know which title to give him but for me I'm I'm sometimes behind the scenes and doing and coming in contact with a lot of people and I I I find it very exciting. I just love it. And I've learned a lot during my time, you know, here on the show. So to the ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for tuning in this morning. You are a big part of the show, and we are thankful that you enjoy what we do and what we share with you.

And all this amazing information is free. So, number one, for the ladies, we offer you $50 for the first two new lady callers, and we ask you to give us a call at 877-960, and you can text us at 772-497-60, and we do have an exciting mystery shop, and we have a whole lot to get to. and there are some other items on the schedule that I'll share with you momentarily. But right now, oh, also, www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com, real important. You can share anything and everything with us right there and remain anonymous. But for now, we're going to go to John in Palm City. Good morning, John. Good morning to everyone.

I have in front of me an automotive book that should be in every, every household. It was printed in 2012. Fabulous book. Nobody should be without it. Very familiar to you, people. It's called Confessions of a car dealer by Earl Stewart. Unbelievable amount of information in it. The greatest thing about it is the book, when you buy it, the entire proceeds goes to Big Dog Ranch and Rescue. Now, let me tell you something. On the news this week, I think it's in many, hundreds and hundreds of dogs were just rescued

from the hurricane ravaged area, and they were going to be euthanized, and those dogs are going to be adopted to get them ready now. So it's a fabulous amount of money that's needed for this to keep this

operating. I think it's the biggest in Southern Florida, but the book itself is a must in every household. I would only tell people I think it's earlbook.com to order it but nancy or earl could give you more information on it and it was printed in 2012 incidentally not only on the cover is a picture of earl but inside is an interesting photo of earl when he was a high school graduate unbelievable a lot of old pictures in there I recommend this book for every household a must

reading. I don't think it ever made New York Times a number one list, but it's just a must to read. You know, we're talking to the publisher again about doing an updated revision, a 2020 or 2021 revision, so that's in the works right now.

That's me when I was evil. It isn't correct, I think you can order it through www.orghul's book.com. Yep, and also Amazon.com. If you just search confessions of recovering card dealer on Amazon.com, you can buy it right there. And you're absolutely

right, John, that all the proceeds 100% go to our favorite charity, Big Dog Ranch. Well, I have my personal copy. It's signed by Earl. Thank you, Rover. I'm proud to keep that original. But I just

question, Earl, when you entered the car business, 1968, do you remember the major major advertising that said think small? You know, being honest, with you, I recall the phrase. I didn't know it was about that time,

but it was that when the imports became whispering around or things small, like Volkswagen. Yeah. Volkswagen. Volkswagen. And nobody mentions that in July 2019, the last Beetle, Volkswagen was made. But I didn't see anybody running right out to grab that car.

And I don't even see them around much today even on car. And then they used to advertise for years down in our area, Volkswagen, German engineering. Well, every Volkswagen I used to see was made in Mexico. I don't know where the German engineering came in, but I don't see them around. Do you get much of a call? Do you see them on call lots? Or do you get any call for people getting rid of the last one that's, you know, the last few years? I have not heard or seen one request for one of those.

You mean the bug, yeah, right, you know. There's a lot of old players, but, you know. I actually owned a 1971 Super Beetle convertible, and it was the first car I bought on my own. I had the same car. I bought a brand-new 71. They were very popular, Earl will tell you. Mine was 30 years old when I bought it.

Oh, okay. Well, not really, maybe 20. Well, I just want to mention this book. It's a must in every household. Thanks for the blog. Appreciate it, John. Thank you very much. Thank you, John. Okay, you're welcome.

Talk to you next week. Give us a call toll free at 877960 or you can text us at 772-497-39-0. And while I have the opportunity, I am going to share with you Earl's blog and his column. We're going to show you the Florida Weekly News edition, and there you will find. find don't tell car dealers you're paying cash so you'll find that very very interesting and I think about yeah there I am on camera so enjoy that so interesting read always a whole lot of information and also you might take advantage of the blog that Earl wrote I I found it very interesting don't let

the car dealer dictate the game plan Take control. Take control and make him play by your rules. Take control. How do you like that? If you don't read all the blogs, you ought to check that one now. Nancy's absolutely right. That's kind of a concise five or six points. I forget that if you watch those five or six points, you'll get yourself a good price on a car and without the aggravation. There's a, you know, definitely a summary of. well, the things that you should keep in mind and focus on

and don't let them change your mind and tap dance around you. So there you go. 877-960 or you can text us at 772-497-6530. Now back to the recovering card. Do you know? Well, sir, let's get started on some texts. And while you're doing the text, I'm going to try to get my face mask so it doesn't fall on. Okay, I'll take it over for a second.

Thank you. We'll start with a text from Anne-Marie came in just when we started the show. Anne-Marie, a longtime text, says, good morning. It seems that when one reads the fine print on anything nowadays, there's a non-disclosure agreement tucked in there. Do dealers include non-disclosure agreements, NDAs in the paperwork when selling or leasing a car? And if so, why? And the answer to that question is, I don't know. I know we don't, but a non-disclosure agreement, an NDA.

On the buyer's order? Yeah, it's somewhere in the car dealer paperwork. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if I was told that dealers were using that, because they have arbitration agreements that take away your right to sue them in a court. There's requirements that require you to send a letter before you can initiate any kind of legal. I tell you, Ann, Marie, you are amazing. We have to get a copy of that. If you would...

No, she's just asking, she doesn't know. Oh, doesn't know. Yeah, she says they're just out, you know, you're hearing a lot about them. You might have just given a lot of dealers an idea, Because there are a lot of dealers that just hate the idea. You know, there are a lot of dealerships, or maybe, let me say some dealerships, that if a salesperson gives the customer, the vehicle buyer's order with their out-the-door price, they fire him. In other words, it is a sin in most car dealerships to give a car shop or someone shopping per car their best price and let them walk out.

out the door. The whole idea of car dealerships is to keep the price, the final price until they're ready. You're ready to sign and get on the car and drive it home. You're not going to get the final price over the car dealer typically until you do that. And so maybe there is a non-disclosure. You say, okay, I'm going to give you the price. But if you disclose it, I'm going to sue you. Yeah. Or maybe it's part of like the arbitration thing. If there's a dispute, you're not allowed to speak about it publicly or posted online or something like that. But honestly, Amory, I would be too surprised if there were some car dealers already using that. We've got to look into that a little bit more for you. We'll look carefully. Yeah. We've got

another text from Brian in California. He says, hey, Stu, Brian from California. On last week's show, you guys were talking about if Earl and Nancy could get in a car and drive a manual transmission. Some modern cars can still come with manuals like the Mustangs, Camaros, Challenger, chargers is an option. My 2018 Mustang GT has a six-speed manual. I tried a power shift at one time like Rick was talking about. Let's just say I'll never do that again. Also, some new corolla can be ordered with a manual transmission, right? How much convincing would it take for me to have you order one or two and see if it sells? Very good point. Toida does make the corolla and the corolla hatchback in a six-speed manual and no we don't sell very many of them

and no we don't have one currently in stock i had a call yesterday from the customer looking for a stick-shirt carola now he uh he'll not take an automatic now oh we don't yeah we had we had a good old ted talk to i was dealing with someone who also ironically wanted a stick shift and it's an impossibility yeah there's more out there more people that like the idea than than not and i think in our area with the demographics of South Florida. We'd had more older people. More older people know how to drive a stick shoes.

You take a young person a day, a 16, 17-year-old start now, they've never even seen a stick ship. I have no idea how to drive ones. Anti-car theft device. The only person stealing is going to be a senior citizen. Wait, I'm in that category.

All right, we have anonymous feedback here. It's your favorite kind. Boy, Earl, you are out of touch on the issue of using auto brokers. The fact is you've got to research the broker just like a dealership and car deal. If you don't get the time, you're going to get your head ripped off regardless. I'd say you probably would get slightly ripped off through a decent auto broker. Maybe if you're in the solid position of financial strength and not stranded without a current

ride, then a great deal is just a matter of time and energy. I probably didn't make myself clear if I said auto brokers are a bad idea. Yeah, I think that it depends on the auto broker, just depends on the car dealer. Auto brokers have a place, and if you have an honest, knowledgeable auto broker, and you are one that doesn't like to hagglin, hassle, and negotiate, that's a great idea. Just be aware, if you haven't used a broker before, that broker works for the dealer. He makes his money from the dealership, and you don't know how much he's going to make, and he probably won't tell you.

But we deal with brokers in our dealership. That's a nice thing about being a car dealer. We know exactly what's going on with car dealers because we are a car dealer. Brokers can make anywhere from a minimum of, what would you say, $500,000 to as much as... A couple thousand. And sometimes it's a negotiable thing.

We know a lot of brokers that have a cadre, a whole army of people out there that rely on them for cars. And we love those brokers because we even have one working for us that is almost like a broker. And they have people that trust them. So it's all about trust and it's all about disclosure.

If you know that your broker is getting a reasonable fee and 500 is about standard, so you're going to pay at least $500 more when you deal with a broker if you were able to negotiate the best price without the broker. But it's pretty hard to negotiate the best price. So that $500 could be well spent. If they're paying the broker $5,000, you've got a problem.

Because you're going to have to pay at least $5,000 more for that vehicle and you might have been able to negotiate. Brokers are like car dealers. They're good ones, they're bad ones, they're honest ones, they're dishonest ones. Absolutely. The good, the bad and ugly. That phone number is 877-960-99-60, and you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. Our lines are open, give us a call, and we are going to go back to Stu, I believe.

Yeah, let's jump over to some more anonymous feedback. I saw your YouTube video with Rick about loose steering wheels. It seems like when my car turned really smooth with no resistance, it was easier. it was until I got it changed and okay I'm having a hard time following the sentence structure here it was easier until I got it changed and it fixed the wheel

it feels more so let me just kind of jump to the end we have a video on YouTube that Rick did about three years ago it has 806,000 views and it's how to free a lot of steering one and Rick maybe expound on a little bit but the comments that we get on that video warm my heart almost on a daily

basis I'm not kidding almost every day someone says you saved my life if I was in the Walmart parking lot. I couldn't turn my thing. I saw your video. I looked it up online and your video came up and you saved me. And I don't tell you enough about it. I'm literally maybe every other day.

But there's tons of comments and I feel really good to have probably the most helpful video we've ever put out there. Rick and talk, what happens when the steering wheel is locked? You can probably explain that. Well, it's a security feature that when you park your car, there's what's called an interlock that if you turn the steering wheel one direction or the other, it will lock in that spot. It'll hit a point where it will click and it will lock tight. Now if the wheel is,

say your wheels are up against a curb or a stock parking block and you turn that wheel to where it hits that lock position, it binds up and you may not be able to get the key to turn in the ignition to release it. Now if you have a new smart key car that is just the remote and you have push button start, it doesn't matter because the electric motor is going to release that steering wheel, no problem. If you have the old put the key in the ignition cylinder and turn it, you're actually using that mechanical force of turning the key to try to get it to release and it'll actually bind up so tight that you can't turn the key. So what you have to do is grab the wheel and actually force it one direction to the other and you'll feel that one way is solidly

locked and the other way has just a little bit of spring tension. It'll move just a little bit of the direction in that way with some spring tension on it so you simply pull it and turn the key at the same time you can kind of jiggle the wheel right and it'll it will release it yeah but that's really cool what we should do is pay more attention to the YouTube activity oh I respond to them I come they come and get a notification and on the show I mean oh yeah yeah those are that's what's on people's mind what is what is Rick's most popular YouTube this one that's the one

right there now the second best it used to be one that was titled and Jonathan came up with the title was, what's my squealing break noise mean? And Rick was explaining that it was, I think it meant as it was getting close to the point where you need to start replacing the brakes, you know, start to squeal. And that one, let me see if I can really quickly, that one has 337,000 views. Wow. And that was a little bit older. So he's headed toward a million views on that alignment?

Well, Rick's views in total with all those videos are well over a million views. But on that particular one, on freeing a locked steering wheel, has 807,000 views in three years. Wow, you're a very popular man. Congratulations, right? Hey. You're a YouTube star. Oh, I don't know about that. How exciting, you know, to get all that out there to, you know, a viewer watching that. You're just watching that video, and it's so exciting.

It's good to know that we can help people. Yeah, that's exactly, you know, what I would. I mean, you're sitting there, you're watching this on YouTube, and that person is being helped. They don't have to drive somewhere. You got a guy that's more famous than Earl Stewart sitting at this day. That's right. By far.

If you imagine the average person, you know, someone walks out of the store. You've got a bunch of bags, frozen stuff maybe, foods. They put it all in their car, and say it was yesterday afternoon at 4 or 5 in the afternoon, and it's 95 degrees out brutal heat you get in your car you've been in the store for 35, 40 minutes or an hour and the inside of your car

is literally an oven and you cannot turn the key to start your car you're already exhausted from all the shopping and working and now suddenly you've got this your day is ruined absolutely that analogy

the parking lot thing happens a lot and there has been numerous I would say dozens of comments saying that exact thing, exact same thing happened to them. I got in my car, I was at Costco, and I thought I was screwed. And I can say that in the radio, right? Yeah. Okay, good. I'll tell you what, Rick. I wish you would have been with me when I was on North Lake Boulevard many, many years ago, and I was in route, and I lost my steering wheel. Anyway, to be continued. Do you have any YouTube questions or comments, Rick?

Not so far. Mr. YouTube star? Hey, guys, we're going to go to Dog Walker, Dave. Good morning, Dave. Good morning, you guys. Been a little while since we've had a chat, but I hope everybody's doing well. I had a couple little things just for some morning levity. My three kids joke all the time because they grew up on ranchers and farms that they don't know how to drive an automatic. okay

but there is the added benefit that the standard transmission cars in general can be gotten cheaper than the automatics and so they all choose not only to get that choice of power band

but also economically it's kind of a smart thing to do and my daughter has a, because I heard you mentioned the anti-theft as an anti-theft device. My daughter actually has a window sticker

on her. She's got a 2018 Camaro and she has a window sticker on it that shows the shift pattern and underneath it says antithep device for millennials. That's really clever.

That's a real thing. Yeah. Hey guys, it was real nice talking to you again. Thanks a day, dude. healthy and safe. Oh, thanks, Dave. Are you going to go walk your dog now? Oh, yeah. Well, I'm done. I'm not walking on the beach.

That dog's been walking it. Yeah, looking at it for seashells and sea glass. There you go. Well, call again, Dave. We love talking to you, so please call again. Yeah, great hearing from you again. Beat the heat. Give us a call. 877-960. Yeah, and I think that we're going to go to. to Rick. Rick has got some YouTube. We've got one just came in and I, the username here is fantastic. This is from Calgo down the trail. Calgo?

Cow go down the trail. How the cow go? They're asking, when will use car prices begin to drop back to normal levels? Well, I wish I had a crystal ball. They're coming down now. They peaked about two, three weeks ago. too yeah and they're still up there it's a function I think of the economy and with all the cash being pumped in with a COVID rescue efforts by the Federal Reserve and the government a lot of cash out there available for down payments and so you had more supply or more demand than supply that'll equal out and they'll come down to everything else it always goes in cycles we go through these cycles almost every year it's just accentuated

because of the COVID issue. But, yeah, if you're thinking about buying the used car and you're not in a hurry, I'd wait for a few more weeks. And I think prices will be down to normal, Rick. I would be watching for one other thing, though, say in the next beginning in about a month and for about the next six months to a year, they just had Louisiana get hit again with just a couple days ago

a nine to 20 foot storm surge that traveled saltwater many miles inland, I think we're going to see a whole bunch of used cars start traveling throughout the U.S. with high water marks in them, flood cars. Great point. So folks, be on the watch for a new shift of flood cars, especially to the states like you've mentioned,

Earl, like New Jersey, where it's easy to wash a title. But if you remember Earl's rule number one when you buy a used car, is always have it checked out by an independent, you're a mechanic, one you trust and you have to pay them. I mean, don't be cheap. You might have to pay $150,200. That qualified technician will be able to tell you if the car has been in a flood and a lot of

other things. I mean, he's going to check the car out from top to bottom and you'll find out is it a been in bad accidents. I know Carfax will do that. You'll find out if they're mechanical problems. And if you can only do one thing before you buy his car, have a mechanic check it out first. A couple of years ago when Hurricane Maria, hit the Houston area. We had Alan Napier, our collision expert on the show, and he gave out a lot of helpful tips on how you can, signs you can tell if there was any flood damage, just as a consumer. And as these start coming back into the market, let's maybe get Alan on the show to be a very relevant topic. Yeah. Well, the car dealers, in fact, a lot of these, depending on

the people that are selling these cars on the market, they are not stupid. They are good at how they lie, cheat, and steel. And one of the things, they do is they wash the title and they take a flood car and they'll go to a state like Mississippi where you can get a title on any car. There's no regulation in Mississippi whatsoever and you can get a fresh title for a car and you do not have any disclosure on there. And most states that have good rules, they have to say this car was totaled or damaged in a flood.

So they also know what you look for when you're looking at a flood car. They'll look in the, you're supposed to look in the trunk and you're supposed to look in the trunk and look under the trunk mat and there's a series of things you can check to see water lines and water marks but a really good crook is trying to get you to buy it they can take care of a car and clean it up pretty darn good but they can't clean it up good enough to get by a good technician that knows exactly what to look for yeah they can camouflage that the mold odor I have good news I just looked this up in 2018 Mississippi passed a law that made it more difficult to wash titles, so they cracked down on it. I didn't know that, thank you. I didn't know that either.

I'm like, I'm thinking, at this point in 2020, you know, they need to wake up and pass some decent regulations. Yeah, New Jersey is another bad one. Yeah. Something good happened. We're going to go to Grace who's been holding. Good morning, Grace. Good morning. How are y'all? We're well. Thank you. Welcome to the show. Thank you. My question is, have the new 2021 Toyota's come out yet? Yes, they have. Well, not all of them. Not all of them. Yeah. What's the difference from the 20s to the 21? What are the new features?

Well, the ones that are out right now is right now it's just the corollas, and it's the Supras. Super, okay. Yeah, every year there's some change that Toyota and the other manufacturers do a new model year. And most of the time they're superficial, cosmetic things. They might be a little styling difference on the inside or a small feature. then more like every three to five years, they'll do a redesign on the body. So in this case, for the Toyota's, it's one of those incremental changes. It's very small, and it's just a slightly different version of the same thing.

Is it a cosmetic or? Yes, yeah, nothing major. Correct. There's no change to the engine or the transmission or the overall styling. It just might be a little trim, or they might make something. and I can't give any details, but maybe something that wasn't available in a package in the 2020 model would be available in a package in the 2021. So there are pretty small differences. It's still important to research it and find out because sometimes there are changes that can surprise you.

I mean, we've had things, for example, when they made the switch to not having a spare tire in a car, I have actually messed up in giving bad information before. So it's still important to do research. It's not identical, but it's pretty close. Yeah. Sometimes the changes are so dramatic. You're driving down the road, and you look at the car, and you go, wow, is that a so-and-so? Yeah, what is that? Yeah, it's just a car that you've never seen before, and then other times they're, well, minute.

Minute. Yes, minute. What's the big difference between the Subaru and the Corolla? Is there much difference? Oh. Oh, between this, the Supra with the Toys, yeah, yeah, a completely different car. The Super is a sports car that was, had Toyota made a long time ago, and it took them about 23 years before they re-released it in 2020. It's a fast little sports car, and Toyota dealers probably sell one every three months.

Yeah, and they're expensive. Yeah, that MSRP is around $50,000. Oh, my. And then you have the Corolla. It's gone through, you know, quite a few changes, and, well, you can soup that up and, you know, you can, you know, really hit the road with it. It's a great little car, but it's definitely very different, two different apples and oranges, two different cars. I know my son had a crolla, and he got fantastic gas mileage. Yes, you definitely do.

My grandson had one. And that's still true today with the crue? Yes. The gas mileage. That's awesome. Stu can tell you all about it. Yeah. Oh, it's got great gas mileage.

It's also available in a hybrid, but we're veering into commercial territory for Toyota's here. But it's a great car. I think it's one of the top selling cars in history, so it is a great car. All right. And how much are the new corollas going for this year? The corollas around $20,000. Okay.

That's not bad. No, they're pretty reasonable. Yeah. Great gas mileage, great car. Well, Grace, can we answer any other questions? No, that's it. Thank you so much for being part of the show. We just love it.

We love it whenever the ladies call. You have a wonderful weekend. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Enjoy talking to you. Thank you. Our number here is 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497.

6530 and don't forget www. your anonymous feedback.com Before we get to Rick's YouTube, I have to do by disclosure that I am an automobile dealer and I always get a little embarrassed when customers call in and ask about the product we sell. We do sell Toyotas and Grace was talking a lot about

Corolla, the Supra. This is not an infomercial. We're not trying to sell vehicles. Honda. I think Toyota is a good car, Honda is also a good car, Nissan makes a good car, Subaru makes a good car. There are a lot of really, really good cars out there, and Toyota doesn't make all the good cars. I recommend people shop and compare. I recommend, as you've heard, regular listeners know, consumer reports. And sometimes you'll find out Nissan builds a better model than the Toyota, and sometimes Honda builds a better model than Nissan for a particular model.

Well, rely entirely on consumer reports. Or a year. One year could have it just a, it could be a bad batch. Yeah, exactly. No manufacturer builds all the good models. You can find in the best, highest quality line. There's some rotten apples in every barrel. Toyota's had its share of rotten apples, and so has Honda, and so has Nissan.

So you just can't go in blindly if you're buying a Honda and say that every Honda, the model they build is great. Do your research, check out consumer reports, report and if you're looking for a subcompact or you're looking for an SUV consumer reports will tell you who makes the best medium-sized SUV and you can pretty well go to the bank on their information so use that don't take the word of the dealer or the car salesman do your own independent research okay okay now we have a text here

unless wait we're going to jump over to Rick I just I just stepped on his toes that's all right I wear steel toes Josh Goldstein is asking, can you speak to the dealer process for grounding leased vehicles? Does the financing company pay the receiving dealer an admin fee for accepting the return and staff time it imposes? Well, I think that question goes into one of the probably most disorganized, badly managed processes of most dealers. It's something that is not organized by the, it's not organized by the lender. The lenders have a process for inspecting and getting the vehicles back to them. When it comes to the dealer's actual intake of the cars, most of the time it's left up to a salesperson

who's not trained in the process, who doesn't really care about getting the car back on time, undamaged. I'm not saying that they don't care about the customer, but it's not their job, and I'm making air quotes here. Some dealerships do have an organized process. Some dealerships will even have a lease return manager. And it's kind of silly when you do see dealerships that mismanage it because it is a great opportunity for them to resell a car. Somebody brings their lease car in to turn it in. Most of the time they're releasing even though there are other options that they can do. But it is a process that's fraught with problems for the consumer.

You turn it in, that cars can get driven by salespeople, taking on joy rides, damage done the lot. And sometimes the lender is not even contacted. they don't even know the car was returned, and then you get a bill or late payments. I had a call last week from Lessee, and she had taken her lease car to another dealer to return it other than the one she leased it from, and it was actually a dealer of another make, and she left the car with the dealer of the other make, and he said, yes, we can take your lease in. And so you're at the risk when you return a car that wherever you go to buy your car, that dealer is going to say, oh yeah, we'll take your lease turn in, because they don't want you to go back to the

dealer that built the car, especially the one that sold to the car. And so that happened. And she got a huge fix. She got a huge bill from the leasing company because the car was damaged. And she claimed, and I believe her, that she was not responsible for the damage. So if you leave your car with somebody that's not going to be responsible, they can drive the car, put miles on it, wear the tires out, they can wreck it, they can do any number of things. And you're totally responsible.

So remember this. If you're a lessee, if you have a lease car, return it to a dealer of the make that you lease from. Be sure they do an inspection. Be sure that you corroborate that inspection. Take pictures. With pictures. Take your smartphone. Pictures. Videos. Interior. Video is even better. And make a note of everything. There should be a... Miles, take a picture of the odometer. Yeah, exactly. There should be an odometer, the tread, the interior, exterior, and then... sign off on the inspection report, be very careful because if you don't, you can get a huge bill. The leasing company that's at least you that vehicle is going to hold you responsible for it unless you can disprove that you did not do that damage to the car, put that miles on the car, so be very careful. Funny story, it's not always the dealer's fault. I can remember about 20 years ago, there was an old Toyota Motor Corporation back when they called it TMCC lease return

that sat in an empty lot that we had behind the dealership. We spent probably two years trying to get them to come get their car. Literally weeds grew up through the engine compartment, and eventually I think we just, it was considered abandoned, and we just told it for scrap. And ladies and gentlemen, this has definitely happened, and I'm sure all of you by now have probably watched Ferris Puehl who stay off. Those odometers, boy, anything can happen to them

when your car is sitting on a lot. So take note, and remember to take those pictures and be very careful. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. We're going to go to John in West Pone Beach. Good morning, John. Good morning. Can you hear me okay? We can. Okay, great.

Just going back a little bit to what you guys were just talking about. I didn't hear the whole story. My son just purchased a 1991 Toyota, South York, and it has the original paint on it, 50,000 miles. It is right-hand drive, and we just got done replacing the starter. Now, to get to the starter was quite a work, because we had to take the whole top end of the engine off to get to the start, because it's not like today where it's on the bottom. And I was just wondering, with that 50,000 miles, what else should be looking for as far as maintenance of new pair that may be coming up? I don't even know if you guys have serviced many of them, but I do plan on bringing it up to show it to you guys, because it is an extremely rare car being right-hand drive and still has its original thing and being a 1991.

Now, what model was that, sir? It's in 1991, Toyota, Self-C-E-L... Oh, I forgot how to spell. Hold on. Self-E-1, 1991. It's the same as the Lexus 400. Ah, okay. It had the V-8.

Yeah, Self-E-L-S-I-O-R. Wow. Was that something that was primarily sold in Japan? I don't think we had an Excelsior. It wouldn't be sold. Right-hand drive, it wouldn't be sold in Japan. I didn't hear that part. Right, yeah. It came up through Mexico.

It started in Texas. I mean, it came up through Texas and then ended up here in Florida. And I think this is the only one registered in Florida, I'm not sure. I think you just stumped the team, John. I, none of us have heard of that model, and I don't know about it. It's the version, I think it's a, like, a North American version of the Toyota Crown. And I've seen this, and that's the big luxury vehicle that you see in Japan. It's only sold over there, I think.

Yeah. Why should I have a right-hand driver? Hey, John. Europe, I don't know. John, how'd you come upon that vehicle? My son is 17, and he started selling shoes and bicycles on Opera, and now he's on his, this is now his seventh car that he's bought and sold. his last car was Mercedes 2001 AMG that car went to Texas and one of the things he did

because I told him because we listened to you about videotaping the guy that bought that Mercedes my son videotates everything when he buys themselves a car he videos when the people drive off with the car he videotates it leaving so what happened was when they put the car on the car He videotaped it of the car. When it got to Texas, the back windshield was broken out, and it had some dink in the guy called it, saying, hey, listen, this is how the car showed off on the carrier. My son said, that's not how it left the driver. And some of the videos, and the guy says, thank you, because that's going to help the insurance

company when he goes at the car car. We'd love to see that car, John. If your son could bring it by sometime, we'd love to look at it. Yeah, I told them, I said, hey, if they like it, maybe they put it in their showroom for a week. I said, I want to drive the car. I don't want to fiddle somewhere. Boy, that's a real, that's real gym. Yeah, it's, I'm not to say it's ahead of its time, but it's, even the back feet, you're inclined.

They're elicit seats, and they're inclined, and they also have the fiber and massage, and even the headwrests are electric, it can go up and down, and you can control the air, they have the air conditioning control in the back. story. Can't wait to see that. I'd love to see that. Thank you, John. Yeah, I'll bring it by. I'm always, I bought a car for me. And so, anyway, yeah, I'm going to bring it by sometime. Very cool. Thank you. Yeah. So I wanted to do this theater, or the service department, because I'm telling my son, he has services up there, but he likes to do everything himself.

And I said, well, let's just go up there and have them clean the oil. So I don't, probably have to do that part. But like I said, we have to get the new starter. Like I said, you have to take the top half of the engine back. Yeah. Yeah, Rick would look at it with all of the, you'll have a crowd around that car when you're coming in. Yeah, absolutely, especially me. John, we're having a little bit of a hard time hearing you.

Okay, is that, okay. That's why I'd ask the first time. So anyways, yeah, we're going to, I'm going to be bringing it by. Okay. Thank you. Maybe even, yeah, I've just got to figure out when I can get it out of his hands. But, yeah, I'll let them know that you guys would love to see that car. What's a good day to bring it by?

A weekday or, like, today? Oh, I would say, today would be fine. Anytime you can. Just give us a heads up so we know you're coming. Yeah, I think actually, let me. Okay, we have a, no, we have a guy who does, like, all of our social media and the photography. Oh, yeah. And he's there during the week.

So I think any time Monday through Friday would be probably preferable because he's there then. Yeah, we want to get some video. We'll do a YouTube on that with your permission. Oh, yeah. Okay, very good. Okay, John. We're going to be looking for you. Okay, great.

Thanks for calling. Bye. Thank you. Very cool. I love this show. 1991 Celsius. Wow. We'd never hear something like this if we weren't on Celsius.

On 1991, Toyota, we've never heard of. It's a right-hand drive. I mean, 50,000 miles, I mean, if I didn't know about it, Sir John was drinking. Is it true that the last time you drove a right-hand-drive car, you've gotten to a wreck in Jamaica? That's true. I didn't remember that, huh? That's an old story from my childhood. I think that was here. Okay. Thanks, John.

And it's basically the... L.S. 400? Like the Lexus. But with Toyota badges. And I think what they did here for the U.S. was they planned on bringing out the Avalon in 95, so they didn't bring the Celsior to the U.S. because they didn't want to kill the Avalon, which became the flagship for Toyota. Makes sense, yeah. Interesting.

Thanks, Rick. Okay. I got a text here from Robbie and Stewart. It says, good morning. Tesla seems to be doing very well. It is. I think it's like $2,200 of share. Absolutely fabulous.

My question is, how does a Tesla do in resale? And do all dealers take them as trades or shy away? from them. That's from Robbie, like I said. Tesla does incredible on resale, and I think the Model 3 is like in the top of the resale value. I don't think any deals would shy away from them. I mean, they are expensive. I just don't see a whole lot. Once in a while, we'll see win in on trade. But I think Tesla has a buyback program, there's some program with Tesla. But we don't see a whole lot of them. It's almost counterintuitive that they do well in resale because you've got to remember that the life of the battery is not where it's sure.

should be they're aiming. Elon Musk is aiming toward a million mile battery. And when he says he's getting close, meaning, in the next few years. But right now when you buy a Tesla, depending on how long that, how old the Tesla is. Double all of Elon Musk estimates. Yes. So you want to be, remember, if you ever have to replace the battery in a Tesla, you're talking about half the value of the Tesla. Because it's half the mass of the car. Yeah, I think Tesla owners typically don't drive it very much, and they have low mileage, and they probably turn them over more often. So maybe that's the reason why they are, you know, high price. I still want to work on you and Nancy to get one. I think you're turned off from them, but. I think I think of Elon and Elon Musk, and I just say to myself, you know, everybody's poking fun at them,

and, you know, we're talking about the stock market and everything in between, and I'll tell you. I'll tell you what, he's laughing all the way to the bank. That'll be the richest guy in the world pretty soon. Another wonderful idea at the end of the road. How are we doing over there with YouTube, Rick? We've actually got a couple of them right now. Josh Goldstein actually and Denzel Thompson have both kind of come in with similar questions. Josh Goldstein continuing with his comment on the lease returns.

He says, thank you. That's crazy. they didn't take the car for two years from your lot, if the leasing companies are relying on dealer network, they should level set expectations and compensate for the time and resources this imposes on the business. Is there justification that as a participating dealer,

this is a cost of doing business? Well, that was a long time ago, and they've cleaned up their act. They're much more careful now. And that was also, in that situation, there's two parts to the question, that was unusual because in the southeast, we've talked about

this a lot, there's a captive lender for Toyota and that's Southeast Toyota Finance. The Toyota Motor Credit Corporation was outside of the region, and so there was a, I think this car was returned from California, but the manufacturers do not compensate the dealers to handle that.

They look at it as an opportunity that the dealers get to re-interact with the customer and sell them another car, and some dealers recognize that as a value in some stuff. It's a huge opportunity, and that's the whole reason for leasing because if you lease a car, the manufacturer's got about a 50% better chance of selling or leasing you another car and the same thing to the dealer. So the dealer

love the leases, the manufacturers love the leases, and just don't love them too much. Because if you're, if you, if you go into buy a car and the dealer's pushing you to change to a lease, beware. There's an ulterior motive. A lease or a buy is usually a 50-50 proposition, meaning it's about as good a deal. If you buy it right, or lease it right. Sometimes there's advantages to one of the other, but there is no inherent advantage for leasing or buying. But you'll believe there's an inherent advantage to leasing if you listen to the manufacturer or you listen to the dealer. They love to lease cars. They make more money when they lease it. They make more money up front, and they also

get you back to buy another vehicle or lease. Think about it. When you lease a car, they know who you are, where you are, and you have to bring the car back to them. And that really enhances their chances of getting you again. No matter what you do, if you buy it, if you turn it in, you trade it in some way, you have to go back to the dealer. Yeah. Well, yeah, if you lease the car, if it's a trade in, you take it anywhere you want. I mean, if you buy it, you can trade a Honda into a toilet dealer or Chevrolet

into a Buick dealer or whatever you want to do. But you can't, don't have that advantage when you lease. And Denzel Thompson is asking, how often do dealers penalize early payoffs on financing. Good question. Well, I mean, how often does it happen or do, how is it common practice for a manufacturer, like a lender to, uh, to have a penalty? If there's an incentivized financing program, um, where you got a break, say on the price

of the car, the penalty is more substantial on a, uh, on a, uh, uh, subvented finance, like an incentivized financing program where you don't get a break on the price, it's pretty nominal. I think it's like $175. $125, $125, it's pretty small. But if you make, for example, let's say they advertise a car at a lower price if you finance with Ford Motor Credit and you save $2,000. If you pay that off a month later and now you've gotten the advantage of the lower price,

they're going to make that up and you're going to get a substantial penalty. And also when you pay a car off early, you have other products that, like a dealer may have sold on there, like maintenance agreements and gap insurance and extended warranties and things like this. After, was it 60 or 90 days, do? Yeah. I think it's 90 days. Yeah. After 90 days, you are an owner of that extended service contract and you will be paying, you're not going to get that money back.

You get prorated. Yeah, it's prorated. So you're going to have to pay for it whether you used it or not. Okay. I got another... I got one last one. Rasheed Rabhabib is asking, hi and Earl, Nancy and all. question, we have a one-month-old tundra, lots of fun, with one issue so far. The driver's side window squeaks periodically. What can be done to solve the problem? Take it into Rick. You can you spray something on there? The first question I have is if they've added

window tint. If you've had window tint added, quite often that window tint is what starts causing that squeak because the cleaners that they'll use can dry out the rubber just a little bit on the window channel and what I would recommend is a little bit of a simple like a grease pencil type lubricant a silicon lubricant but in a hard form that you can get from the other parts stores and just rub it on the window channel just a little bit and then run the window up and down I do not recommend spraying any sort of sprays down into the window channel or down in the door because Toyota has actually told us that silicone spray sprayed inside the door can kill the door lock actuator motor oh goodness wow I did not know that

it's something you got to really watch for I didn't know that thing about window tent that's the reason I love the show too because I learned things from Rick that I don't know and I've been doing this for 50 years a window tent they actually use some sort of a drying thing that Well, the soapy water that they'll use when they're putting the window tint on, and also the tent makes it just a little bit thicker because they will work the tent in behind the rubber a little. So now the thickness of your glass has just been increased a little bit by the thickness of the tent. And sometimes that'll make some noise that you just can't get rid of because of that added window tent. Boy, that's great advice. I'll know not to grab.

I have a lot of these lubricants at home, Houdini, and this J.C. silicone. and then I have the liquid, but I would have grabbed any one of those. Thanks for great information. Ladies and gentlemen, you must have a question or an opinion. Give us a call. You're a big part of the show, 877960, or you can text us at 772-49-30. And we have a great mystery shopping report coming up this morning at the 930. and it's from Schumacher Chevrolet

so we'll go back to Stu I believe that he has a whole lot of I got plenty I got questions coming out of my ears Oh I got to interrupt you Okay We're gonna Well we're gonna go to Frank

Who's holding in Jupiter Farms And I'm glad he's calling Because he probably has a continuation Of the saga from last week Good morning Frank I hope you got good news Well, hey, good morning, Earl and Nancy. Hey, Frank.

We're still working on my dilemma from last weekend, so we'll leave that set for now. Okay. But one thing I keep noticing at different people, and it's so refreshing, I was getting gas at Sam's week or so ago, and there was a car right next to me with the Western Sun shining on the paint job. It was just looking beautiful, like a purple, green, metallic. And it was like alive. And the owner was bought the car at you five years ago. It was 2015, I believe, Camry.

He was excited with the car, excited with the dealership. He said, I get free tires. I'm there I to buy tires again. And it was a really nice looking color. I said, wow, this is kind of cool. And then just a few days ago, I'm at Costco because of you guys. I like going to Costco. You guys do a great thing for every you.

stores around here. But anyway, there was another camera out there with the same paint job, and I said, look at that, this is. What color was I really looking at? I don't know. That sounds kind of, so it changed colors, or

was it just? No, no. It wasn't like 20 years ago that Mustangs had that mystic black that went from purple to green to blue. This was just a lot of metallic reflection. Like, It seemed like a darkish purple, but with a little bit of green speckles, maybe, or maybe my...

Sounds like a little psychedelic. Yeah. When you first started describing it, I was thinking of, because there was a law firm that bought cars from us called Federman and Associates, and they painted their cars with this. It was called interference. So it was, you put a color on one angle, it dried, then they painted another, and as the sun hit it, it literally kind of changed colors. And I don't know which one you're talking about. I mean, when the sun hits some of the paint with the pearl finish and the, metallic finish. It does refract light

and gives it a pretty neat thing effect. I'm going to try and look it up, Frank. Yeah, I wish I had gotten the owner's name because he was a very happy, satisfied older gentleman and just ecstatic about your dealership and like a lot of people. I mean, I find a lot

of positive things from people that bought from you as opposed to other dealerships and obviously your mystery shopping brings that to light every week. Thanks, Frank. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for mentioning it. Yeah, and the big dog ranch thing, I'm always very happy to hear about that. Fantastic.

Well, Frank, thanks very much for calling us. Anything else on your mind while they got you on the phone? We love you to call. Yeah, no, no. I'm just looking forward to the call that your son's going to give me early this week. That's right. Fantastic. Take care yourself, my friend.

Call in your, please. Good luck with your continuing saga. And I give us a call. You'll hear about it when it comes to a happy ending. When it escalates. Oh, happy ending. That's nice. Very nice. Okay, Frank. Thanks for tuning in. Have a nice weekend. Bye-bye.

Thank you. The same to you. I think we'll go back to Stu. He was about to share something with us. We got a quick question from Bob and Maryland. He just wants to know, is there a hatchback version of the Camry or Carla hybrid? And there is not. Crolla does make a hybrid, I mean a hatchback, but it's not. And the hybrid version doesn't. And Camry doesn't have a hatchback version at all.

they did have a wagon back in the 90s though yeah and I remember those I think 96 was the last year they made it here's a question for Rick I think it says we have a 2010 Prius it's five years old we've had the fan for the AC replaced and we just had to replace it

again is this common that was five years ago they replaced the fan is this problem common it could be that it would just we just turned 190,000 miles it's a lot of hours of use and that's from Jim in Riviera Beach unfortunately Toyota fans it's one of their

big failings lately the blower motors seem to die very easily they'll get clicks and noises when they're running and otherwise they just quit and it's uh and this is 2010 this is a 10 year old car it's not a it's not like it's a across the board they're dying once a year

but they don't seem to have the longevity that they should have. My opinion, a fan should last at least eight or ten years, and a replacement should be at least another eight or ten years. So, I mean, five years out of each fan, well, unfortunately, I think he should have gotten a little more than that, but like I say, they seem to be a little bit of just a weak point in the chain on the cars. Yeah, it's the shame. All right, here we have we're going to jump over to anonymous feedback, and it's another critical one of Mr. Stewart. Oh, good. Okay. As a financially secure person under 50 years old, I've got a pet peeve with you, Earl. You're talking about U.S. indebtedness. Then you start criticizing a solid down payment being required for a low monthly payment. How else you're going to make it happen? You're going to have to put skin in the game at some point. Come on. At least it's not a huge balloon back-end payment. Well, there's, you know, there's two things or three things that they call them the three Cs, lenders credit, collateral, and something collectibility or something.

You have to look at your overall picture before you determine down payment. There are people, if Warren Buffett were to come in to a car dealership and he wanted to finance a car, I don't think they'd ask him for a large down payment because if he wanted to finance the whole thing, They know that his credit is solid gold, and he's totally collectible. He has a collateral. If you, lenders make their decisions on down payment based on all your credit worthiness. And sometimes if you have 850 beacon score and you can say, I don't want to put any money down, they say no problem because they know you're going to make your payments. On the other hand, if you've got a 500 beacon score, you might have to put maybe 20% down.

The lower your score, the higher the down payment. The other factor is just the incredibly low interest rates we got right now. If you're getting 0% and 0.9 on an incentivized thing or even a non-incentivized pay in 3%, you know, keep your money, you're earning more on your money than you are paying an interest rate. So it's just a calculation you've got to make depending on your personal situation.

If you can borrow money to finance your car for 3%, well, it's a zero, but that's manufacturer. subsidized, captive financing. A normal bank, I'll loan your money for 3% if you have really good credit to finance the car. You can take that money that you would have otherwise paid or used as a down payment, and you can put it in... Earn 10%.

You can reasonably conservatively invest it. And if you look at the stock market over the past 50, 60, 70 years, you're going to earn an average rate of return somewhere around 8%. And if you can borrow the money at 3%, and earn 8% on your money when you invest it, why would you want to pay cash? Throw it away. Yeah, or make a big down payment.

Okay. More anonymous feedback? I saw your mystery shopping report on Fucilo Kia of Cape Coral. And holy sheep dip, those finance terms, head hurting. I reach from my credit card and purchased the entire car with it since the interest rate is lower. No wonder people are poor SMH, which means shaking my head. And there was an F in there, too, which I will not.

Oh, boy. I will not expect. Is that for Chillo or for Chio? He got me off guard. I think it's Fusilo. Yeah. That could be wrong. You know, this is, I'm going to interrupt.

This is just amazing that we're sitting here, and we are just giving out so much information. Mr. Anonymous, did he really expect all that information that you gave him? Kudos to you, to all of us, and to you who sent in the text message. And ladies and gentlemen, I just want to thank everyone for joining us and being part of the show. You just don't realize, you know, how important you really are. It's not us, it's you. So we want to take a moment and thank all of you. And to Mr. Anonymous, take a look at Earl's columns.

I mean, at Earl on cars. I mean, there's so much talked about paying cash, not paying cash. and I just can't thank everybody enough. 877-960-99-60. All right. You made a comment on car buying and you got sound financial advice. I'm telling you.

We took them for a walk to Wall Street. You asked me what time it was and I told you how to build a watch. That's okay. That's all right. The call volume's a little bit lower today, so we got some time to fill. All right, here's another anonymous feedback submission.

Why can't buying a car be as easy? as when I bought my new cell phone. Price was within reason, and that's it. And Anonymous gave his name, that's Eddie. But that's our whole point. Why can't it be as easy as buying a cell phone? We usually say, why can't it be as easy as buying a refrigerator or a lawnmower? It's a long-sorted history, rooted back in probably horse sales.

I'll give you the Reader's Digest version is that car dealers are unique in the fact that they are protected. are protected. They're a protected species. They're protected by state laws. And they can get away with just about anything. And that's what they do. And the reason you can't buy a car like you buy a loaf of bread is because the car dealers can flam-flam you and they're protected. And there should be laws that are enforced. There should be regulations that are enforced. But car dealers get away with bloody murder. And it's a shame. Every advertisement you see by car dealers, virtually got to throw that in

but 99.9% of the car advertisement you see are illegal they violate the Federal Trade Commission rule or the unfair and deceptive trade practices and if the laws of the land were enforced it wouldn't happen

they are protected species absolutely and this leads me to well who's supposed to be protecting us and that is the Attorney General and the Attorney General is supposed to be protected the consumer against these frauds and scams and just everything. But I think she's busy.

Attorney General Ashley Moody, please give her a call. You can help us up. You can just really, well, help us out. And her phone number is 850-44-414-3-300. and that is 850-414-3-300. That is Attorney General, Ashley Moody. Okay. Anonymous feedback.

With the apparent shortage of used vehicles, what do you guys think about the possibility of using where you return your current lease as a bargaining ship in the negotiation for leasing a new vehicle from the same manufacturer? I'm guessing the dealer who receives the lease return has the first opportunity to purchase it from the capital leasing arm of the manufacturer before. the auction. That is true. I am also assuming that the dealer would be able to buy the vehicle

at a reduced cost versus the buyout cost, since it would save the leasing company, the trouble and expense of transporting and auctioning the vehicle. That is also true in most cases. In the current used car market, I'll clarify that a little bit. In other words, right, so when you lease a vehicle from a dealership, there is an established residual value, the amount that you can buy the car from the leasing company at the end of your lease. That's established when you sign the contract. Let's say you buy a $30,000 a Camry. You might be able to buy that car for $17,000 after three years, and I'm just making

that up. However, at the end of the lease term, if you do not exercise the option to buy, which most people don't, in most cases, it's higher than you can buy for a comparable vehicle the same year-make model and miles, the lease company has a dealer buyout that they can buy out for those very same reasons because it is less expensive for them to do that. There's no disposition fee, for example. And because if the leasing company takes the vehicle back and the dealer doesn't buy it, it goes to auction like you pointed out in your comments, and it's a roll with the dice.

Now, right now it probably benefits the manufacturers because the used vehicle prices on the auction market is very high, but sometimes they can lose. So they want to sell that car to the dealer or to the lessee. they have most manufacturers have a sophisticated network it's like an online auction the dealer who leased the car gets first crack they at the first say whether they want to buy it or not if they refuse to buy it it goes on to an online network and it's usually bought by a dealer somewhere and that's that happens every single day and in high volumes and that is one of the one of the best sources of used cars at dealers and the bottom line is you should establish independently the value of your

lease return. You cannot look at the residual because that is too said it's usually higher than what you want to pay for the vehicle. But with a little bit of effort, you can get bids on your lease car from used car buyers. And you can find out, they don't have to know you're leasing it. Just say, what's the value of this 2017, whatever? And you can check and get the actual cash value known as the wholesale value of the vehicle and compared to residual. You might get lucky and find out that you can buy this for $2,000 below the wholesale value, which case you should buy the car, even if you don't want to keep it, because you can flip it and probably sell it to the dealer

that you lease the car from and make a $2,000 profit. Vehicles that have really high resale value sometimes work out to the, you get the best of both worlds. So when you have a high residual, it means it's pretty expensive to buy at the end of the lease, but the trade-off is you get a lower payment because you're paying for less of the car. But on these vehicles, if we're talking about the Tesla, I don't know if that's a good example or not, but a super high resale value might be worth more than the residual at the end of the lease. You can even take some cash out of the deal if you...

A lot of cars that were at least three years ago that are coming due during this issue we have with the COVID and the skyrocketing used car prices, they might find out that the residuals of car leased three years ago, not anticipating this low supply, high demand of used cars. You might be able to make a profit. So if a car's coming back in today's market at the end of the lease, be sure you check the whole. sale value before you do not make the decision, not the exercise there, your right to buy it. Absolutely. Be real careful, ladies and gentlemen. We got this Labor Day weekend coming up soon, and boy, there's a lot going on out there. You may be able to get yourself a great deal, and then again, not. So just a word to the wise. Be careful of the mailers, the advertisement.

There's a lot going on. Like I said, back to school. All direct mail put it in a recycling bin. There you go. Put it in the shredder. Here's a good question from an anonymous questioner in North Carolina. In negotiating the price of a new car, the salesperson agrees to lower the price and the amount of the $699 dock fee.

Before signing the buy, the bill of sale lists the sales price as agreed, but the dock fee is also listed. What should I do? And that's from someone in North Carolina. Well, I recommend my blog, Take Control. It's the current blog. It addresses that issue exactly. And what you don't want to do is, you know, it's funny.

My phone's ringing in my ear, and I got it on mute and everything. Anyway, what you want to do is to be sure. I forgot what I was saying. You got distracted by a phone call on your ear. Yeah, I got a phone call. The question was about when they lower the price. You're telling about your blog about taking control. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You don't play the dealer's game, and you don't get into the, the dealer fee game, you say, give me your best out-the-door price. Take away all of their deceptive and unfair negotiating tactics. Once you start playing the dealer installed accessory argument, once you start arguing about hidden fees like electronic filing fee and disposition fee, they got a name for 25 or 30 names for a hidden fee. And you don't want to play their game. You go in and you say, I'm going to buy a Chevrolet from you or one of the other three Chevrolet dealers that I'm dealing with.

I'd like to buy from you if you have the best out-the-door price. And the out-the-door price is the price that I can write a check for, hand you the check and get under the car, and drive it home. That simplifies things, takes away their, you know, smoke and mirrors, and you do that three times, and you take the guy that gives you the best out-the-door price. head to the chase, you get through all this stuff. Our big problem with the dealer fees is how it's used in advertising. It understates the value of an advertised car.

You get through all that smoke, get to the very bottom line, what am I writing the check for? And I said earlier, it's against the law to advertise a car without including the dealer fees, the hidden fees, and the price of the car. The dealer we shopped this afternoon had $13 or $1,400 in hidden

fees. Three fees, $1,400. Yet he advertises those cars without the hidden fees. that's against the law. And if that bothers you, listen to Nancy and call Ashley Moody if you live in Florida and get them to pay attention to this. Absolutely, thanks, too.

And if all that doesn't work, you can download an affidavit from Erwin Cars, and that's a tool for an honest price from a car dealer at last. And you can take that, and you can use it. It takes you a long, long

way. If they won't sign that, leave. You can get all the details that are on cars about that affidavit. If you want to see a confused and frightened look on a sales manager's face, whip that thing out. You won't have to leave. He will. Exactly. Good morning. This is anonymous feedback. Good morning. Longtime listener. A little bit of criticism. You mentioned a lot about the lifetime power train warranties saying that they're useless because newer car motors and transmissions never fail with correct maintenance. That is not true. I've been a mechanic for Ford for 25 years and my brother's a mechanic for Toyota. We've seen blow motors, blown motors more often than you would think with very

little miles on them that all we do and all the maintenance is done according to the specs. Also, my brother at his dealership has replaced a few meters a year. It can happen. These are machines. Anything can happen. I just don't think it's all right when you say newer motor or transmissions will never fail. That's just not true. Well, let's put this way. I don't think I ever said that an engine or transmission would never fail that was properly maintained. Highly improbable. Yeah, a low-quality car that's going to happen.

You can get struck by lightning. I will say this. In our dealership, we have out of self-defense because so many people think that the power train warnings are good we give them away and you we I was a dealer many years ago we're self-insured we're self-insured too yeah you know we don't have a warrant we just we pay out a pocket if there's a claim you know we haven't played out of claim so will we be giving away power train warranties if if if they were going to be claims to be paid there one there are no claims not one so far one and I did that many many

years ago Valvaline used to give a free power chain warranty if you use valve lean oil in the car. Now, I did it for years and years and years. Never had a claim. So, yes, you're right. Lightning does strike, but it does strike for you up, and it's not worth being lured to buy a car because of it or pay any money for it whatsoever. It's nice if you get it, but don't let that be a factor. Sure. It's not going to hurt you. Okay. Hello, is it possible to have the alignment check before accepting delivery? I bought a new 2009 Kia Optima, and the alignment was not correct. Great question. Can I tell my story?

Yes, you can. You have five minutes. Cars coming from the factory make a long trip. Some of them come from Japan, Mexico. They get on planes, trains, and on automobiles, and they get on on all trains, planes on automobiles, trucks. And when you do this, you can easily knock a vehicle out of alignment. So knowing this, we began years ago checking the alignment.

on our new vehicles because we thought about one out of ten was out of alignment. Toyota, I'm a Toyota dealer, they got angry at me and said, you can't do that. I said, well, this is why I'm doing it. I have to do it to protect my customers. They didn't like it because I was charging them for the check on the warranty. So they were saying we should only do an alignment check when the customer complains about my car being out of alignment. I said, why should I do that?

When I can check the alignment. And if it's out, I'll do it. To punish me, they came in and did a massive warranty audit and found nothing out of line with the alignments that are doing. So it's a great idea, and you should insist on buying a newer used car, insist that the dealer checked the alignment, and that you see the print of the checkout, to be sure he really did it, and it's a new car or a car you haven't bought yet.

If it's out of alignment, make him alignment, and make him align it and pay for it so yes that's uh i told you how to build a watch you asked me what time it was that's okay it's very important go ahead rick can i just throw one quick note in here oh yeah sure years ago when we got as technicians we would be able to go to the uh jacksonville port for training i saw the result of one of the ships that had transported cars from japan and in a violent storm in the Pacific, one car had broken loose of its chains and tumbled through the hold. Destroyed. And they had 50 cars.

But was it out of alignment? I think it was incredibly out of alignment. 50 cars lined up that were just demolished. So, yeah, transport, things can happen. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Let's see. Jumping over to Anonymous Feet.

feedback. Please explain state and federal rebates on Prius. Is there a push button open the hatch? Also appears to be a bit heavy. First part of that question. A long time ago, there was available on, well, I think it still exists for some manufacturers. There's a federal tax credit that was offered to purchasers of electric and hybrid vehicles, and it was based on the number of vehicles sold. The Prius, being an early hybrid, that ran out years ago. So there isn't. I think there's still a some untrue. I could be wrong, and maybe some other manufacturers. That's a federal tax credit. Is there a push button to open the hatch on the new 2020s? Yes, there is. And also, I think that's a little insulting that, you know, calling a Prius heavy. You've got to be a little bit more sensitive than that. Yeah, I think what they may mean is that the hatch feels heavy.

Oh. Opening the back hatch. They're talking about the overall. Yeah, and Prius actually does not have a power hatch per se. You have an electric button that will release it. yeah but then you lift the hatch with yeah it's not a motorized thing like like your truck but it it does open it with the push button okay um the next anonymous feedback and i think we're going to get to these in time and we'll have the mystery shop report

oh this is a great idea hi good morning uh would earl make an audio book version of his book available in audible what about an ebook version on kindle i would really enjoy an audio version and especially read by Earl himself or even Stu. Wow, thank you. Let me just say something real quick. Earl is the guy with the radio voice. I feel like, especially with this mask on, that I'm a mumbling fool.

Well, you got me on the procrastination. How long have I been talking about that? Yeah, we're sitting here in a studio. There's mics all around us with professional sound recording equipment. It could be done. You'd have to spend just like, what, a couple of weeks in here reading that. Oh, Lord. I mean, you know, if someone could get me to record,

equipment that I could do it comfortably I would do it yeah well you know maybe you could do it after commit to doing this next year after every show you said you read one chapter record it yeah I don't know I'm not gonna read it all right the last anonymous feedback is similar to the prior one says how the state and federal rebakes work on the Prius I did just answer that and the answer is there aren't any federal credits or rebates tax wise or otherwise for any Toyota hybrid or electric vehicles at this time. Okay, Rick, you got a YouTube over here.

Got one quick one left here. Geo is asking, my wife has a 2017 Civic with 25,000 miles. She owes $3,500. Should she trade it in now or wait until it's paid off to trade in? Well, it depends on the ACV. That's the actual cash value or wholesale value. And you want to be sure that, you know, you'd like to trade. a car in or buy another car when you have positive equity in the car.

What do you think,'s too? I'm embarrassed to say I was reading the text that just popped in when that question was read. $3,500 a payoff left on 2000. What year? It's a 17 Civic with 25,000 miles. So we just need to know the ACV of that, and he owes $3,500 on. I think you've got equity in there, a break-even. Yeah, if it's a good condition, $4,17.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Okay. And that's good. I mean, nice to be aware of this because too many people, a very high percentage, unfortunately, are trading cars in and even lease cars that are being paid off. And they go into the next vehicle. We call it upside down, meaning negative equity. And you buy a car for $25,000. You've got $5,000 negative equity in the car you traded in. So you're paying $30,000 to the car. And the car dealer, won't tell you that. You know, smoke and mirror and flim flam you. Often, I love these advertisements that say, we'll pay your car off. We'll pay any car off. Well, they will. They're paying your car off with your money because they are asking you to pay $5,000 more or whether the payoff is on the next car you're buying. Yeah, they're folding up to check. Yeah, they're putting it in the envelope and licking a stamp, but the money's coming out of your bank account.

You're taking the money out of your pocket and mail it to the client lender, and you think that they're paying it off for you. Well, as Sue said, they're paying for the stamp. Exactly. But you're paying for the payoff. Rick, how many miles did you say was on that? 25,000? That was a 2017?

2017. Wow. Unless the car's wrecked. Is Kelly Blue Book still a good way to get a reasonable idea of the value of your car? Yeah, but I'd still be careful just because the volatility of the use car market lately has been kind of unprecedented. So but Kelly Blue Book is a good starting point and it gets you right in the ballpark. You know, we use it a lot of just I mean just as a quick thing. I mean, we have a lot more. Kelly, they probably get their information for Mannheim, which is the ultimate source.

Manheim is virtually a monopoly auto auctions over the whole USA and there's an auction on Manheim going on almost 24 hours a day and it's all online. We've been buying all of our used cars online for how many months? Oh, I mean, since the beginning of the pandemic. Yeah, and even before that, even before that, so it's an online world, a real-time world. So if a Chevrolet Camero goes to an auction in Sacramento, 20 minutes ago, we know about it. Every dealer in the USA knows about it.

It's all online, real data, mileage, conditions. The way it used to be was, I mean, literally books were published monthly and so much changes. So, and Kelly Blue Book would get these, would publish this, physical book, you know, a little booklet, and now everything is instant. So with instant data, you know exactly what the values are, and online you get it. There was new company came out the other day. We Paymore.com, and I asked our wholesale buyer about that, and they're advertising to pay more for your used car, and they're buying your used car, and they're taking a used car,

and they're taking it through the option. And another dealer buys it, meaning they're buying your used car for below wholesale, take it into the auction and making a profit. So a lot of these companies that are buying your used cars are actually wholesaling them. They're not retailing them, and they're making a big profit. So don't take one buyer's offer. If you go to We Buy Anycar.com, if you go to CarMax,

if you go to automation or whatever your source, Carvana, be sure you get several sources because you're going to find out that one is going to be much higher and one's going to be much lower than the rest of them. We got one last text before you hit the mystery shopper.

This is from Jay and Jupiter. He says, I was raised with good old cars like a 53 Buick, but dad had a crappy Chevette that overheated on I-95. I turned off the key and the steering locked

and it went off towards the buttress of Blue Heron with me jerking on the steering wheel. Stopped in time, was able to drive home, cheated death again, and that's from Jay. Oh, boy.

That is a scary story. What is Chevette? I remember it well. It sure is. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the time that we have our mystery shopping report, and that mystery shopping report is from Schumacher Chevrolet. We ask you to vote on our mystery shop. Your vote is very important.

You can text us at 772-497-6530. Okay. Shop Schumacher-Chevillet. I don't know if any of our listeners have noticed, but we haven't done a mystery shop on any show. Schumacher dealership in a long time. Without getting into specifics, this could lower the cover of our mystery shopper. The reason of this may be that this mystery shopper may have been employed, but we're not

saying it was. Some association. We're just suggesting it might be the reason. Although we protected the identity of this agent for very good reasons, it was a disservice to our listeners to stay away from the Schumacher auto group. Schumacher is one of the older dealership groups in South Florida. established over 50 years ago. The television advertising is well known with owner Chuck Schumacher. The slogan, you've heard it, join the family. I like the way he says it.

It's slightly creepy. Join our family. Does he say our family? Join the family. We welcome you to join the family. And it's a good spot. That's a good commercial. And talking about Schumacher, I was buddies. I won't say I was buddies. I knew his father, Dick Schumacher, who started the Buick dealership on Oak Church, Boulevard many years ago. Was it Chuck or Dick who bought our Pontiac dealership. No, no. Didn't we sell the Schumacher?

No, no, he never had. Oh, oh, no, that was, yeah, well, Sturt Ponyack. Oh, yeah, Sir Ponyak, yeah. Yeah, he bought. Sorry about that, yeah. Yeah, he made a mistake. Don't want to chuckle about that.

But anyway, they're, they're one of the oldest and consistently one of the better car dealerships in this area. And say that he's got a lot of dealerships. I think, 13. Yeah, 13. they're a mainstay, family. We like that kind of thing. Schumacher projects an image of sophistication, a refined customer experience, their marketing focuses on their reputation, and a calmer buying process.

Their online reputation, which is not truly foolproof because engaging a dealer's customer treatment, they supported their marketing claims. They generally do it with Google reviews. You know, I used to love Google reviews, and I still prefer them to other reviews, but everything can be manipulated, folks. They're in the game. Generally, a Google review is a good indicator. Sometimes it's not so good. So I would take multiple reviews and go through other sources of confirming a dealer to be what he represents himself to be.

Read the three-star reviews. Yeah, yeah. The last time we shopped the Schumacher dealership, they failed our decata test. We also know that they have $1,372 in dealer fees. That's pretty hefty. I would say that might be above average. Above average. Above average, which makes all of their advertised prices

understated by this amount. Now, I repeat this. And we talk about Ashley Moody, Attorney General. $1,372 in fees. And I use the word dealer fee, but they don't call them dealer fees. They call them different things. And they advertise their price excluding this. Now, sometimes in the fine print, which you can't read, they might say plus this fee.

They rarely say plus all the fees. I'm just saying, car dealers get away with it. Shoemaker's just one. And at the end of the shopping report, we're not going to say, do you fail them because he charges these dealer fees? No, because everybody charges dealer fees, and it's just not right, and that's the way it is. We grade on the curve. The last time, okay, we talked about that. Schumacher has three dealer fees.

One of them, he calls billing and handling, and that's $1,000, okay? $995. So $995 is billing and handling. And then here's another one. This is his electronic registration filing fee. $279, and then he's got something called a $98 private tag agency fee. They all sound pretty legitimate, don't they? But you know, you have to pay tax on these folks.

And if you have to pay tax, Florida sales tax, on a fee, it's not a legitimate fee. It's not a government fee. So this is added profit, $1,372 added to the price of the vehicle. He quotes you by the salesperson online or advertises. You have to pay another $1,372. So this week, with the help of Agent Lightning, we decided it was time to rejoin the family. And, of course, Agent Lightning is our new female shopper

that we have sought to have a regular female shopper for years and years. Thanks to Mrs. Sunrise, I should start to call it Mrs. Sunrise, Mrs. Stewart, my co-host, thanks to Nancy, we finally have a permanent, regular female shopper. And that way we know that half the people buying cars are going to be represented. Half the people are females. So, Agent Lightning. So she's kind of a bright spark? That's right.

Oh, sparky. It's very illuminating. I like that. She's electric. You guys are sharp. Anyway, Lightning did so well last week on her debut solo mission, we asked her to wing it this week. Her only instructions were, go to Schumacher Chevrolet, where they're in West Palm Beach, no, North Palm, North Lake.

North Lake Boulevard. Where to go to Schumacher Chevrolet, pick out a car, told the sales staff that she's buying today. That's what a salesman loves to hear. Hey, boss, I got a live one. Got to buy today. And everybody gets excited. Okay, here's Agent Lightning's report. speak as if I were Agent Lightning.

It's not anything like it. My husband dropped me off at Schumacher Buick. I'm sorry, Schumacher Chevrolet at 6.30 p.m. I ended the show and walked around hoping to be noticed and greeted quickly. This did not happen. Despite not being busy at all, I saw two other customers and several other idle salespeople. I was ignored. The good news is everyone wore a mask.

I went outside, strolled around a lot, thinking it may be seen by salesperson. I may be seen by a salesperson. After 10 minutes of this, I went back inside again. I observed four or five salespeople interacting with their phones and occasionally with each other, but no one said hello. At 6.52 p.m., remember that she went on at 6.30. At 652 p.m. a couple into the showroom and were immediately greeted by a salesperson.

This was frustrating. I still had not been approached. Finally, at 6.56 p.m., nearly 30 months after arriving, I was approached. Now, let me rewind the tape here. Chuck, if you're listening, I know your blood pressure just went up 20 points. No dealer or general manager, no supervisor in a car dealership likes to hear this. We've had that complaint.

And we've had the complaint. And it is so maddening to think that you've got all this money invested in this dealership and you spend all this money in advertising and you're paying your people good money. to do what you ask him to do and somehow you can walk into a car dealership and be ignored. It's one thing if you're busy. If you're not busy, oh my God.

But it happens to the best and I hope this isn't a standard operating procedure. If it were, I don't think Schumacher would be successfully as he as he is. Finally, in 656, I was approached by Alex

a greeter. Now, it's interesting that It actually adds a little bit. The greeter is supposed to be sure. You had one job. Oh, I'm supposed to greet. That's why we call you a greeter. But this, a greeter apparently was a...

By the way, a greeter, and I know we've had big feelings about this, that can actually sometimes be a problem. You've got one person, and the salespeople just wait for the greeter. Alex had to go to the bathroom. Alex had to do something. but the point is it's not right and there should be a backup and I'm sure that Chuck Schumacher

will hear about this and there will be some conversations with the people responsible. You don't let somebody wait for a half an hour before you let them buy a car. Hey, I'd love to talk to Chuck. You know why? Where I come from?

You want to join the family? Just a kiss. There's a whole different meeting. I knew it was you, Chuck. Anyway, Alex wanted to know if I'd been help, now I'm Agent Lightning, and I told him I hadn't complained that I'd been ignored for almost half an hour. Alex looked shocked and actually responded by saying, oh, S-H, asterisk, exclamation point.

Oh, boy. That was a genuine response, though. I felt for that. Yeah, I felt bad for him. Yeah, yeah. It was real. But you don't say that in front of the lady, but anyway. Maybe, am I old-fashioned?

You don't say it in front of anything. I say it. Not the professional. Let's be honest. We say, you know, a guy will save another guy, but she don't like to say a little lady. Certainly not a prospective customer. Customers, you shouldn't say. He apologized, explained that it was his job to read customers, and he clearly failed to do this.

I told him that I was there because of Schumacher's reputation, and I wasn't impressed so far. No harsh. And she should not have been. Alex apologized and introduced me to Chris, the salesperson. Chris got right to business to ask me what I was currently driving. and if I planned to trade it in, I told him I didn't have a car. I came in a night in an Uber. That was brilliant, by the way.

Yeah, we needed to get it to alternate with lift, so I don't get suspicious. Yeah, but the Uber thing, like the guy's like, you have no ride. You're leaving in one of my cars. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. I said I need a car in the mid-20s. I needed to buy it tonight. I told him I had been getting around by bombing rides from friends and occasionally running cars. Chris suggested some Chevy's for me to consider.

I like to combat Equinox, and that was too small. then he suggests a new Malibu. He said he had a 2020 model and possibly a demo for me to consider. So now we're off to the races and we see what's going to happen and I can't lick my finger because I got my mask on and I'll turn on the page.

Okay, I got it. I told him that I liked the Malibu and had ridden one recently. Chris said, great. It led me to the car. It was a 2020 Malibu LS with an MSRP of 24,195. There was no addendum. That's good. No addendum. No phony. on Roney, something to confuse the buyers.

And Schumacher doesn't do that at the Chevrolet dealership, at least on this car. He suggested we take it for a test drive. I declined by explaining I knew all about the car, and was familiar with how it drove from my renting experience. Plus, the fact, she probably feels uneasy by getting into a car during COVID-19. You don't want to like to be in a closed area. Even with a mask, you'd be a little bit nervous. We don't insist on that anymore. They used to be a requirement.

And one of the reasons why Uber isn't doing too well. You don't want to be getting in a car with somebody you don't know and a closed environment. We went back inside, sat down, Chris asked me for my personal information to enter in his computer. They pulled up a Malibu on the screen to show me. It was the same new 2020 Malibu LS, MSRP, 24-195. The online price was indicated as 21-256. Oh, that's good. Chris printed a document that was labeled preferred customer plan, a worksheet that showed

my personal information, the vehicle, basic information like stock number, VIN, and Miles. It was a blank where the price was handwritten. Chris wrote the MS. You know, that would be a signal right there when I hand write the price. I thought that was not. I mean, everything else is printed and it kind of like in stone kind of a, you know, here it is. Which is unusual because... What's the price?

The conventional wisdom is when something's printed. something's printed, it looks official, it's more convincing to the customer. That tells you that they don't know what the price is because they don't know how much they're going to be able to persuade you to pay. Interesting. So a handwritten price, 24-195, and then a discount of 20,000, 939, the price was written as 21,000, 256 with the classical plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus. We used to do that. We used to do that. It used to be plus plus plus, then we dropped the dealer fee and it just became plus plus plus plus. And some dealerships is plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus plus $1,000, put that's what he wrote down on the worksheet.

He wrote down. See it wasn't the name was actually billing and handling fee and he called a dealer fee. They call anything they want to. Yeah, the billing and handling, that was from the last shopping report we did. Yeah. So $279 private tag agency fee, that's a clever name for profit. And then a rose is a rose is a rose. Profit is profit is profit. So profit is billing fee, dealer fee, private tag agency, and profit is also a $98 electronic filing fee.

That's dealer profit, dealer profit, dealer profit. The only thing that's not dealer profit is $250 to transfer the plate to tag in registration. Assuming that's accurate. Well, maybe that was just a mistake. She did tell him that she didn't have a card to trade in, and so there should be a new plate being charged. I've got to believe that's an accident. Carelessness.

Oh, yeah. I excuse myself to make a phone call. I told Chris I need to get the final okay from my husband, and I'm sure Chris was downfalling. I returned to Chris and said to my husband reminded me that we had to pick up our son. He was coming to get me now. I said I would need to think about the deal and discuss it with him. I thanked him and turned to leave.

Chris called out and asked me what I did for a living. This is new. I really, this is, okay, we'll talk about it after I get finished. He said, what do you do for a living? I told him I was a nurse. Chris said he could check with his manager to see if I qualified for an additional first responder discount. I agreed to wait until he checked. Now, what if I said, I wonder if she had said, I'm a fireman, or what if he said I'm a farmer?

What if she said I'm a carpenter? What if she said I'm a, you know, anything? You don't suppose that. You don't suppose that there's a... Well, there is a pastry chef rebate. A what? A pastry chef rebate. Oh, pastry chef rebate.

Anyway, I don't know, and I'm picking on Schumacher. I don't think he does that. But you other deers listening out there, if you really want to screw a customer, that's a great way to keep them from going out the door. Oh, that's too much money. I'm not going to pay it. I've got to think about it.

I've got to get my wife. Wait a minute. What do you do for a living? I'm a pastry chef. A pastry chef? I'm a sous chef. Oh, yeah. We have a pastry chef.

I would think that if these rebates really exist and they're real, that it would be the responsibility or a salesperson to establish this in the beginning. Well, let's check. Let's do it. Let's find out if Chevrolet has a first responder discount. How am I going to do that? Okay, I'll continue. After five minutes, I ventured into the area where the manager sat.

Chris was sitting with about five other men. This is a little strange, too. I go back I'm Agent Lightning and I wait and I wait and he doesn't come back and there's Chris with five guys when he saw him, he turned said

he was waiting for his turn to speak with the manager. General Motors does have a first responder discount Ah! Is a nurse a first responder? Yes, eligible health care professionals are included in that. Okay, so

I apologize to Schumacher. That was not a flim plan. I probably shouldn't let the cat out of the bag because a lot of dealers listening on that side was still a good idea. He should have thought of that when she came in and they worked out the price, though. At any rate, all these guys are sitting around

and they're waiting to see the manager. I said I was out of time. They had to leave. Boy, is Chuck going to be mad when he hears this. She had to wait a half an hour to get someone to ask her what she wanted. And then when she's trying to get, find out what a price she could get,

you got five salesmen sit around, waiting for the manager. Now, what is the manager doing? I got the impression there were five managers sitting around. Manager? Anyway, this is not this is not deception and this is not, you know,

this is just floppiness. And when you have 13 dealerships, you can't be everywhere, and Chuck has got to stay on top of things. So he'll be on top of this. I can almost guarantee it. Okay, here's the epilogue. Other than the long wait at the beginning of the mission,

The shop was pretty uneventful, without any major surprises, sort of like Schumacher's commercial, a little bland. I'm sorry. Chuck, my son said that. Yeah, that's all me. Don't get mad at all right. I like your commercial. I fall asleep in your commercials. I like, well, yeah, they're good, they're quality.

We checked the price on truecar.com. The best price we could find, which was exceeding and difficult with TrueCard's current format, was just about $300 more than Chewriters' price. So he had a good price. This price came from Boniface, Ears, Chevrolet, and Melbourne. Their price was also included $200 for a pre-installed winter tent. Yeah, so you took out the tent, it would be right in line with the checks. It wasn't a slam dunk. It was not a bad price.

So there we are. How much time we got? Okay, we got that. Votes, any votes yet in on Schumacher? I'm looking here. How much you work? Yes, here we go. Okay.

Come on, Linda. Linda gives him a big, fat, Oh, you're losing your credibility, Linda. Come on. These are a little bit better than that. Jack gives them a C. I'm going to give them a B. Maybe even a B plus. There was, it was a good price. There wasn't back and forth. You know, too, Agent Lightning didn't push hard. Maybe she even gotten a better deal. And the treatment was good. The main screw-up was in the beginning with the weight. And the greeter, it was a good apology. They said, I failed. Yeah, what we're trying to, people that are maybe newer to the show, what we're trying to do is establish a list of recommended and do not buy from dealers. We have to give an avenue for people that want to buy a car. So if you want to buy a Chevrolet, we're going to put Schumacher Chevrolet on the recommended list. Now, does that say they're perfect? Obviously not.

As a matter of fact, Mr. Schumacher is extremely angry about the shopping report, but it was sloppiness. It was carelessness. It was lack of professionalism. it was not more deceptiveness than you would find in the average car dealer. It was about average, and Stu said maybe a little above average, gave them a B. You can do a lot worse. It could do a lot worse, yeah. If we're grading on the curve, they're on the right side of that hump.

Mark and Pumption's Garters gives them a D-minus, says lazy salespeople, sales manager should be replaced. And then we have who sent this in. And that may be true, but we're not talking about. capability of salespeople. We're talking about deception and the ability to buy a car without being lied and cheated and stolen from. And the Schumacher dealerships are above average on that and they're a safer place to go. And I think this one, sloppiness does not give you enough. No. Bob and Maryland gives a bait. Okay. I've got Mr. Hand with a C for I am feeling charitable and had my coffee. Karen with a reluctant C. Donovan Lewis, they get a Total F, a horrible experience, that is. I had a similar experience there. It's just frustrating. Tim Gilliland, waiting for the manager for the grade C.

Wayne Vite, a B-minus. Guy Larrabee won't join the family, but I'll give him a C-minus. Ernesto, a C, Mark Ryan, a B. Cow go down the trail, C. Too many blinker fluid fees. Nice to see? Well, I'm a little bit of real. Reluctant.

Steve's like looking at me. Seriously, I'm a little bit reluctant. I'm reluctant because of transparency, you know, up front, you know, to let a person know, I won't elaborate on the weight. That's number one. I'll just let that go. The show's not long enough. Number two, first responder, upfront.

You know, you know, that you're eligible for, you know, being a, first responder the other you don't have your own tag it's going to cost you $250 up front letting them know that with all of that said joining the family is really really difficult

it's you know got to have a lot of time but as Earl and I had a productive constructive conversation on our way into the show I am going to give them a C hey

pretty good and I think In total transparency, our discussion was, was she ignored because she was female? And I think the answer is no. I think that the dealers today, especially shoe market, are smart enough to know that you better take good care of those ladies when they come in, treat them with courtesy and respect, because they'll go buy somewhere else. They're pretty sensitive to being ignored. And you ignore a woman in today's retail market, you're going to lose their business. You know, it's interesting you say that because Michelle N came in with C plus for not thinking a woman was there to buy a vehicle.

So Michelle may have gotten the impression that... Exactly, and that's the way women feel, and they are right. Understandable. They are their right to be sensitive. And not only do you have to be nice and courteous to women today in retail, you have to be nicer than you are to a man because they are anticipating the opposite. There's a phenomenon that we see in restaurants and card dealerships. When it's slower, sometimes you have less attentive salespeople, less attentive.

There's something when there's an energy in sales people get greeted faster. When you're sitting around, it's a slow night, they're playing, well, they don't play cards anymore. They play on their phones. And it's harder. Maybe that could have been the reason. Yeah. Well, like I said, you know, we just don't have enough time for me to go into it, man, woman, etc. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us.

That was our mystery shop from Schumacher. Chevrolet and we'll be right here next weekend same time same channel have a wonderful weekend Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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