Earl Stewart on Cars - 08.31.2019 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Wayne Akers Ford

Episode Date: August 31, 2019

Earl answers various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Agent Thunder visits Wayne Akers Ford to see if he can purchase an advertised Ford EcoSport at a very special online price. 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 are linked to cyberspace 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. Hi folks, this is Earl, the recovering car dealer. And we're very excited to be in the studio this morning. A lot of excitement around us. We've got Dorian brewing in the Atlantic. Got some good news the other day. Maybe it will miss the Palm Beach County area. And maybe not Martin in St. Lucie counties. And we got folks from all over the world.

Last week we had a call from Bali, if you can believe that. But we have callers from all over. So I hope it doesn't put a damper on our callers this morning. A lot of folks in South Florida are worried about the storm. We're worried about the storm, and be honest with you. I am a recovering car dealer, but I also have a car dealership in full transparency, and we're quite concerned. We've seen our customers drop off quite a bit. People are more worried about getting plywood and batteries and water and gasoline, of course, a lot of long gasoline lines.

So we'd really like to have your call 877-9-60-99-60. That's the call-in number. 960 9960 You might want to write the number down Because sometimes you're driving and you can't call Or sometimes you just haven't thought of a question I promise if you listen to the show for a few minutes Things will occur to you

We're all about cars How not to be ripped off by car dealers How to have your car maintain, repaired We've got Rick Kearney As I introduced earlier in my previous recorded introduction Who can answer any question About any car And I'll make that 90%

99%. You always hasn't got the answers, but we do have Google. And we have not really a guess, but we have someone monitoring the show in our studio this morning, and I'm excited about that. Her name is Jackie Charniga, and she's a reporter for the automotive news. You might not be familiar with automotive news, but it's the Trade Journal, the national, probably international trade journal, for auto manufacturers and automobile dealers. There's not an automobile dealer in the world or an automobile. manufacturer in the world. There doesn't read that weekly journal. That's the automotive news.

And she flew in from Detroit, down from Detroit. Didn't realize at the time she was getting into a hurricane and she might not be able to fly back to Detroit on Sunday as she planned, but she won't be actively participating in the show, but she'll be watching and listening to

your calls and to what we have to say. So any questions that you have, we also have a text number, and that's 772-497-653-0. That's 772-497-6530. Every week we seem to get more text than calls, and that's fine. Text actually are kind of cooler because we can get to them at the time when we have to, and you don't have to wait, but we'd rather hear your voice and have your call 877-960-99-60. Now, we also stream the show, and we're streaming on Facebook. We're streaming on

on YouTube, Twitter, and Periscope. And you can see us in living color. We're right here in the studio. And we have a, not another, he's not a guest. Alan Napier is not a guest. You regulars know Alan very well. Alan is our collision repair expert, a body shop manager, aka, and he's been on the show

for many years. He doesn't come on every week. And he is coming on this week to answer your questions about collision repair. He's really especially knowledgeable about insurance companies. And insurance companies can be devilish to deal with and complicated. And Alan truly has all the answers. And Alan, I'll start going on. I'll do around the table here. Just tell us a little bit about yourself and what the folks can expect from you. Well, I have been in the industry for

39 years. I've never done anything except work at car dealers. And I, I've worked for Earl for 13 years now, and we've had some epic battles together against the insurance companies, trying to do the right thing for our customers, and not always on repairs we even have in a shop. Sometimes people just reach out to Earl, and they need help, they need advice. They've been done wrong in another body shop or buy an insurance company, and because of the role that Earl has in the community as a consumer advocate, you know, he might get a call from somebody that fix their car in Miami

and they just can't get a good result or they can't get it paid for properly. Is there an insurance company we have not sued? No. Maybe one of you billionaires can open a new insurance company so I have somebody else to sue. No, but we work real hard to do the right thing and help our customers, and sometimes not even our customers. We just want to help people.

That's what this shows about, and that's what we're about. You know, we're running a business, but we're also a really good team and a rare. We're a rare team because we care and we want to help people, and that's what we're here for and take advantage of it. We've got a lot of knowledge. Put Allen to the test. 877-960-90-90-60. If you have a question about your insurance coverage, we've got a hurricane coming, right?

You probably have questions. There's flying and debris and things of this nature. So any questions, 877-960-99-60, or text it. It might be easier for you. Area code 772-497-6530. And sitting to my left is my co-host. Nancy Stewart, and Nancy has, she really has special attention paid to our female listeners. And we try to build our female audience.

And since Nancy has been part of the show, we almost, we reached 50% female callers at one point, and then it kind of dweened off. But Nancy, tell us about the special offer we have. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our show. I want to thank you for tuning in this morning. I know you have a whole lot to do out there. So thank you. As far as the ladies are concerned, I'm here to help you in a way to ease your pain as far as leasing, purchasing, servicing, and women play a big part in all of the automotive industry. And this morning, I offer you $50, first two new lady callers. I have $50 for you. No conditions. This is not a gimmick. $50 cash. You don't even have to ask a question, do you? No, you definitely don't. Give us a call. Let us know you're listening. I'm here to try to build a

platform, and the only way I can do that is with you. So give me a call. Win yourself, $50, the first two new female callers and ladies if you don't know it you play a huge part in the auto industry you play even a bigger part in servicing vehicles i would say that 50% of the female well ownership they may own the car someone else may own the car they bring the car in for service and we really appreciate you listening this morning and joining us That number is 877-960-99-60, or you can text us 772-497-6-5-30. You know, I almost forgot to explain why Stu Stewart isn't here. Stu, my son, he's kind of our cyber guy, and we're all kind of filling in.

He had a little minor surgery, and he's recuperating, and he'll be back in the studio next Saturday. And he's doing fine, by the way. He's listening to the show right now, I believe, and he may even. call in, you never know. But Stu is our cyber guy that connects with Periscope and Twitter and YouTube. And he's also our Spymaster, we call him, because he normally supervised the mystery shopping report. And the mystery shopping report is one of our most exciting elements of the show. We'll do that. In the second half of the show, we shop a different car dealer somewhere in South Florida every week. And it's unique. And do we have a call, Nancy?

We do. Tina is calling us from Benita Springs, and she's one of our regular callers, and we enjoy her company every Saturday morning. She has a lot of knowledge to share with us. Good morning, Tina. Good morning. Oh, good. The music stopped. I thought I was losing my mind. Hi, Dana. There was y'all talking, and then there was music playing, and that's great, but it's like, oh, my poor brain this morning. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. I found a really interesting question on Jolopnik this morning that someone had submitted, and they said, I'm just going to paraphrase it. I'm shopping for a used car, and I went to my credit union to get pre-approved for a loan.

When they submitted the application, the bankrupt said they had a list of dealers I can buy from if I want to use this money, and they said the list was pretty long. and the prospective buyer said I thought the purpose of getting credit union financing is so you can buy from whoever you want and then the kicker is the person, the buyer said I asked them what would happen if I didn't buy from the list

or bought a car from a private party and the credit union didn't provide a clear answer for that so the moral of the story is sometimes these credit unions get kickbacks from the dealers and they will have you go to a dealer or give you a list of dealers that maybe doesn't have your best interest at heart and may charge extra fees or higher prices or whatever they want. So, you know, you have to be careful of those credit union lists

and maybe you might not want to get financing necessarily from a credit union for that reason. Well, Tina, let me say this. That's very astute observation you have there. It isn't very widespread credit unions are normally a very good source of funds. I think it's possible this credit union you refer to may have gone to the extra effort to try

to find safe dealers to deal with. Typically the credit unions have their members at heart. They want to take care of them. They want to give them a good rate. They almost always have a better rate than a bank. And they also want to be sure that the

customer or the client, actually the member they call them, is not taking advantage of. Some dealers will take advantage of buyers, as you know. I'd go back to that credit union, and I would investigate a little bit and say, why is it? I think they probably have good intentions as to why they have a list of recommended dealers. What they should do, as you said, they should loan the money anyway, but let the buyer beware, say, you know, we can't protect you if you deal with someone we haven't vetted and gone through and being sure.

A lot of times credit unions will call my dealership. I have a Toyota dealership and they will ask about our after our F&I products like extended warranties and maintenance contracts. They want to be sure that the F&I products and the treatment of their customer is good and they want to know what we sell cars for. Typically a dealer that wants to be recommended by a credit union will have a special deal for that credit union. They'll offer to sell it for a certain amount of money over invoice or a certain discount from MSRP. Yeah, that's good to know. But the answer that the editor, the person over at Jolopnik said was you still need to make sure the price, get all the prices in writing, make sure you get an independent inspection before

buying. You need to see the numbers in black and white on the dotted line before signing anything. So even as you said, most credit unions are up and up. If they're really looking for the best interests of their members, then hopefully they don't send them to a questionable dealer. Hopefully they have dealers on their list that have been pre-approved, I guess you can say, or that they've had a good experience with before they send their members there. Exactly. You're absolutely right. There's always a rotten apple in the barrel, and that includes credit unions.

You should be aware of that. Yeah, and I don't know if your reviews on Google or Yelp would help, but sometimes those are kind of good things to look at before even dealing with a credit union when trying to get a car. Yeah, typically the bigger credit unions, Gold Coast Credit Union and Teachers Credit Union and the ones that have been around for a long time are pretty safe. Smaller credit unions I would be a little bit wary of, but you're right. You should investigate, absolutely.

well take care you all and have a really good hurricane hopefully this thing will stay offshore oh thanks tina you're our best female caller and we love you and please call again next week thanks tina thank you stay safe have a safe weekend we're going to go straight to rosemary who has been holding from stewart good morning rosemary morning how are you we're well thank you are you a first time caller i am a first time caller and i am a first time caller and i I'm a very recent listener. Wow. Thank you very much.

You've just won yourself $50. If you stay on the line, you can share your contact information with Michael. Oh, wow. How exciting. Yeah, everyone can use $50. What can we do for you this morning? Well, I was just, I mean, I'm a recent listener, so, I mean, other than what you just did for me, not a whole lot, but I really like listening to the show.

My girlfriend, Lori, just turned me on to it like a week ago. Great. Thank you. Well, thank you very much. If you don't have a question for us, you stay on the line, and we will get your contact information, so you don't have to give it out over the air, and we will get that checkout to you right away.

$50, and please call again. Oh, I certainly will, and I will keep on listening. I really appreciate it. that you guys have an excellent day thank you rosemary spread the word we're trying to build a platform here for the females who are listening some of them don't have well as much courage as you do to give us a call a lot of them text us have a wonderful weekend that telephone number is 877960 or you can text us 7724976530 and don't forget your anonymous feedback.com Your Anonymous Feedback.com.

And you definitely remain anonymous. So share your ideas, how we can improve this show, anything at all. Youranonymous Feedback.com. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Rick, how are we doing on text over there? We've got a couple in so far. Well, let's hear the first one. Steve from New Jersey is asking about an article that came out in the New York Times

where apparently he says Truecar is possibly aiming towards being dealer-directed where they're trying to direct buyers to certain dealers. So I looked up the article on here, and it looks like that's a, I don't know, they're almost saying that True Car seems to be trying to push you to certain dealers that are connected to True Car. and so he was wondering if that might be a possibility. Well, that's the whole function of true car was to have certified dealers

that they checked out and vetted, and one of the requirements of being a true car dealer is that you agree to put your price, your best price, on the cars that you sell, and that you do not add any hidden fees, also known as dealer fees, and also that you don't add dealer-installed accessories that were not included in the,

price. So there is, there are about 10,000 dealers, maybe 12,000 dealers, mainly new car dealers, but also independent used car dealers that are members of true car. Unless there's some new information that came out that I'm not aware of, it's an excellent way to get a good price on a car. Okay. And the next one we have is from NCR disabled submarine vet. That's a name that's very worthwhile. And thank you for your service. sir. He says, what do we know about dealers scrubbing car titles and actually being able to do so so that Carfax lists it as a clean title? Let me read the full thing out here. Let's see. It says, what do you think of a car dealer scrubbing the title and getting it clean?

I checked out a lot of things about the car. Even the Carfax said it was okay. I got lucky because a good mechanic found rust underneath the carpeting way up under the dash. Someone had removed the carpet and put in new. So apparently he wound up looking at a flood car. The problem is not with Carfax and it really is

of course with a dealer that would do something dishonest like that but the biggest fault lies with the state laws and regulations on titles. There are about six states that are terribly loose. You Floridians listening, Florida has some very good and tight

title laws. Mississippi, New Jersey, not so. And there are four or five other states that are very lax. And what car dealers will do, they'll buy cars at auctions that are totals that are flood cars with branded titles. And they will take them to a state and they wash the title. And they start out with a fresh, clean title. And I think the main thing you have to do is just be very careful anytime you buy a used car. Sometimes new cars, new cars can be also titles can be scrubbed, but

it should be very suspicious if you had a used car title on a new car. Blood cars are notoriously dangerous, and the thing to do is take it to an independent mechanic. I have them check it out carefully.

Even with a clean title, the car could have some trouble, but a good mechanic might have to pay them $150, $175 could go over that car with a fine tooth comb. And if a good mechanic gives it a clean bill of health, he can pretty much rely on it. I wonder why the texter thinks that the title was scrubbed, though. It could have just been a car that got wet.

The owner repaired it, replaced the carpet. Nobody paid attention to the moisture up in a weld seam or something, and it rusted later. I wish he would elaborate on why he thinks the title was scrubbed. Because if you're still listening, if you're still listening, if you could give us some more details, as Alan says. But even if the car wasn't in a flood, you want to always have a car checked out. The Carfax Report is a great idea, and it's a good idea to see the title, but it's an even better idea to take it to a qualified technician. Put it up on a lift, lift up the carpet.

Rick Kearney sitting next to me here, he could look at the car for a few minutes and tell you, was a safe buy or not. Pretty close, yeah. And the next one we have is from Anne-Marie. How do dealerships prep for hurricanes to make sure that they don't have to have a massive scratch and dent sale afterwards? Well, that's an interesting question

because we're doing that right now. And a lot of it's psychological. We have to deal with the psychology of our customers and the psychology of our employees. Everybody's different. Some people can take it. a hurricane, no problem, you know, they're not even thinking about it, they're thinking about other things. Other people get panicky. And I'd say most people get a little panicky. If not

for yourself, for your family, for your dog, for your home. There's a whole lot being involved. And as you know, the media can tend to hype these things a little bit. And if you watch too much television, you can really be terrified. I try not to watch the television very much during hurricanes like this. I try to look at the updates every, what, five hours we're getting an update, something like that. And if you just look at every five

hours, you can stay on top of things. But if you watch the news all day long, and that's all they have now, is the news you get panicking. We don't have a lot of business right now as a dealership. A lot of our customers that are tending to buy cars are just not

coming in. And our service customers are coming in, but they're coming in for the reason to prepare their cars or see what, you know, I need to be sure this is taken care of before the storm hit. So if I need my car, I'll be able to go where I have to go. But it's interesting. It's a challenge. And in our dealership to answer a specific question, we will close when there is a hurricane warning issued. In South Florida, there hasn't even been a hurricane watch issued yet, but it will be the next day or two, we think, and probably a warning also.

And the mechanics of getting the dealership ready for a hurricane, though, is pretty much the same thing that people would do at home. We try to get our customers to pick up their cars if they're ready. A lot of people, if their car is repaired and sitting on a lot, they don't have a garage at home. So they'll call and say, hey, can I just go ahead and leave my car there through the hurricane? We discourage that because we have people who don't have a choice but leave their car because they're not repaired. So we try to get all those cars inside that. we can. We get our customer cars in first, and then we start trying to get our inventory in, some of our inventory in, to take up the rest of the space. And with all that said, I have to say

I have been through 78 hurricanes. With no damage. I've been here for 78 years. I've been the car dealer for 50 years, and we've never, and I've always been near the intercoastal. I've been near the coast. In fact, I've been, of the area that my dealership now in, is a, uh, a few hundred yards from the intercoastal, and we're in the area that would be evacuated, could be, ordered evacuation. 47 years of this location, I've never had any serious damage,

no injuries, no nothing. Just take one time, Earl. That's right. Ladies and gentlemen, you're listening to Earl Stewart on cars, and give us a call. We'd love to hear from you. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-9-7-6-5-3. And I have a text from Mary Louise from Texas, and she asks, how do you tell if a car has been flooded?

And also, the second part of the question, are they repairable? So I think Rick could answer that question. I think also Alan can. They can both answer in. Rick? For the most part, if it's mechanical damage, like in the engine, yes. A lot of cars can be repaired. The major issue that you have is water intrusion in the car.

And one of the rule of thumbs that insurance companies will go by is how deep the water actually got inside the car. Usually they kind of go with the idea that if the water got to the bottom of the dash, then it's probably done enough damage to enough computers that they're going to total the car out. So because of how many computers that are in these cars nowadays and the chance that that water and the dirt and the other contaminants to get in there can cause corrosion that can show up later, it's probably a best idea to let that car go to the junkyard. Alan, would you agree that the insurance companies are cooperative and totaling cars that have been in floods? Yes, it's in their best interest because it's a financial decision for them. and the kind of total Rick is talking about is an economic total loss. But they'll also total them, depending on the capacity of the area repair facilities to get these cars repaired,

everybody's supposed to do the best they can to minimize their damage. But if you get 10,000 cars in a county that have water damage, only so many of them can be fixed in a timely manner. So some of these cars will sit a week or two. with flood water in them and all the biologicals that come with that, anything that's running down the street into a storm drain now is in your car. So that's pesticides and this and that from lawns, animal waste, all that is in your car. What if you have damaged to your car electronic, but you don't know it?

I've heard that sometimes electronic, especially to computers, can remain hidden for up to a year or longer. I mean, are you going to have to argue with your insurance company if they don't total, and then a year later your CPU fails in the car and they say well that didn't have anything to do with a hurricane it's most of the adjusters we deal with are reasonable people and they have some common sense because corrosion can get in those little electrodes and everything and just like corrosion between two metal seams and body panels it as it grows it expands and it separates things so those little diodes and everything in a printed circuit board just because they work today if corrosion is started there, that corrosion is just like rust, and it's going to expand

and it's going to separate that. There's no connection. The computer is no longer functioning as designed. Yeah, most insurance companies get it. And if they don't, then you have to have your repair shop advocate for you and fight that. You know, the bottom line, if it was flooded, you really ought to hold out for a total. Yeah, and if your car sits with all that. flood water in it for more than a week or two in the Florida sun you're never

going to get rid of that stench it's it's even if they replace everything inside of it that car is going to stink forever and this is a danger we incur and we will have two months from now we don't know what Dorian is going to do but wherever it hits it's going to float some cars and it probably if it gets a cat four it's probably going to flood a lot of cars and you might not be seeing that car until you buy it off a used car lot in six months and that car could have been through Mississippi where they watched it idle and you have no knowledge the car was ever flooded so it's something to be go back to

what I said a half an hour ago is always have a qualified technician check your car out carefully if you're buying a used car Mary Louise back to your question about purchasing a flooded car as you heard the panel talk about flooded cars I'll add my opinion. There's so many used cars out there. You can go to Consumer Report that just came out and you can find a used car for $12,000 or less. And to play with a flooded car, all you're going to have is problems. If there is an inkling that that car has been flooded, stay away from it. It's nothing but problems. I hope we've answered your question. Give us a call toll free at 877-960 or you can text us at 772-497-60 and we're going to go to our next female caller

who has been holding and I'd like to tell you her name but I can't see our laptop we're going to hello well okay we have a female caller if you'd like to give us a call back we would appreciate it. 877-960-90-9-60. We're going to go to Ken if he's still holding. You there, Ken? Hello, Ken. Well, I guess our technical problems are still honing us.

Yeah, we're having a few issues, and I'm not quite sure what they are, so I'm not going to say. But if you would, give us a call back at 877-9-6. 60-9960, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. Is it too soon to blame Dorian? Yeah, maybe it's Dorian. We have an exciting show ahead.

We have a whole lot to get to, and we have a whole lot of information to share with all of you. Now back to the recovering car dealer. While we're struggling to find why our phones aren't working, let me remind you of a challenge that I haven't talked about in a while, and I'll hold my blog up to the camera. It's the $100,000 challenge to all the car dealers that are within the sound of my voice. $100,000 fee challenge. And I'm asking any car dealer to come on the air with me

and debate me on the legality of the dealer fee, also known as hidden fees. We have them in Florida. We have them in Florida, which are really totally unregulatory. A car dealer in Florida can add any quote-unquote fee to the price of the car. It can be any amount by any name. They call them electronic filing fees.

They call them notary fees, documentary fees, administration fees, tag agency fees. I could go on and on. It's left up to the imagination of the car dealer. It can be $100, it can be $1,000. It could even be $10,000. And yet, it's legal for car dealers to charge. these fees, hidden fees. Now, car dealers aren't the only ones. They're just

the biggest fees, and the amount of a dealer fee can be as much as $3,000. I've seen over $3,000 dealer fees in Florida. The average dealer fee in Florida and South Florida is over $1,000. So,

I know you dealers are watching. I hear from you occasionally. You don't call. We welcome you to call. But I would really like to debate you if you honestly believe that the dealer fee is a good thing. Come on the show. The challenge amount is negotiable. That's a lot of money. If you

want to make it half that or 10%, I'll debate you for anything. All my winnings will go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue by the way, and I will have two charity. The donations will go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. They don't write. They don't

call. I don't feel the love out there, dealers. We know you listen. We know you listen every week. So, take Earl up on his offer, and while we're at it, we were talking about Big Dog Ranch and making contributions. You can pick up Earl's Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer at Earlsbook.com. It's very easy, and 100% of the purchase of this book, I'll show it to, I have it up to the camera, goes to Big Dog Ranch, 100%. Buy it on Amazon, Amazon.com. Okay.

877960-9960, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. And we have a young lady this is giving us a call back, and I can't quite see my screen, so I'll just say good morning to you. Welcome. Do we have a caller on Hulk? Can you hear us? This is really frustrating. I'm very sorry folks I apologize and I'm starting to sound like a fool because I'm apologizing every week for the past how many weeks four or five and you would think that

somehow we could get the phones working at uh I'll be right back yeah but Nancy's going to go out and talk to our control person people it's not their fault we had equipment failure I was told and we completely replaced the phone system on Wednesday and apparently the replacement isn't working. So my apologies, let's resort to the texting. And, of course, you can also post your comments on Facebook or YouTube, and we have Rick monitoring that. Our text number, that's easy. Erico 772-4976530. That's 772-4976530.

And we're on YouTube, just, and Facebook. Facebook.com 4. slash Erlon Cars. Facebook.com for slash Erl on Cars. Okay. We're going to try to, excuse me, we're going to try to get to Talisia, and I want to thank you, Talisia, for giving us a call back. You're calling from Palm Beach Gardens. Are you still there?

I'm here. Good morning, Delisa. Good morning. Good morning again. Thank you for your patience. Are you a first-time caller? I am. Oh, congratulations.

You just won yourself $50. If you stay on the line, you can give Michael your contact information, and I'll get that check out to you. What can we do for you this morning? Awesome. So I have a question. So recently, they just passed a law here in Florida that you're not allowed to text and drive. But I've never heard in regards to, like, is it phone calls as well?

Like, am I still allowed to use my phone? my phone allowed to be on my ear, does it have to be a hand-free device, or I'm just curious. To later, I think, and anybody can jump in here, my belief that it is a texting only, I don't think there's

a law against using your phone, certainly not to use it hands-free, and we would advise anyone to use it hands-free. If you're talking on your phone, actually, in my feeling, it's also distracting. But the law, the Florida law, as it stands now, is just

against texting right okay and I do typically use hands free I have my blue soup set up I was just curious because like I thought I only heard you know I know some space is completely hands free I was just I was just curious how far the extent of that well went you know it's a it's a long time coming and I think we have a lot of problems dealing with distractions and driving today a lot of them have to be introduced you know ironically the more technically advanced our cars are getting the more distractions You'd think that technology will allow us to have fewer distractions,

but it's actually adding to the distractions, even with Apple Play or some of your other sophisticated components in the car that we have. There's so many gadgets that people find themselves focusing more on the gadgets than they do the road. And it's pretty dangerous. Rick has a point. Yeah, according to what I've found on the Internet recently, police are only allowed to stop you. if they see you texting on your phone only while the car is in motion.

And as a side note to it also, you cannot have your phone in your hand in a school zone or a work construction area where workers are present. Oh, I didn't know that. Oh, okay. Wow. That's great information, Rick. My phone actually disabled, so, I mean, I completely agree. It is very distracting.

Yeah. Talisha, I'm totally. against texting. There are so many distractions today. Drivers, all of us, are not keeping an eye on the road. And that's the way most, if you look up the statistics, that's how most accidents happen. So as I agree with Earl also, our cars today,

even if you're not on your phone, there's so many distractions, it's really unacceptable. So I hope we answered your question. Yes, you definitely did. Thank you so much for your time. Please stay on the line so we can get your contact information and get your 50 bucks to you. And Talisia, spread the word. We'd love to build a platform here that supports women, and we'd like to get 50% of our callers, our texters, our listeners,

rate up to 50%. Give us a call toll-free at 877960-9960, or you can text us at 772-49765. 3-0. Rick, we have a text. We do from Anne-Marie. She's asking, if you don't have a garage to put your car in, what's the best way to protect your car in a hurricane or other big storm like we're having? Well, you know, you can take your car to a covered parking garage.

We had a car dealer a couple years ago by the name of Napleton that put his entire inventory in the city-place parking garages, and then he was sued for that because not only didn't he pay for it, but he kept other people that could have used the parking garage for cover because he filled it up with his inventory. He's a PR genius, that one, isn't he? That was on a news for like a week.

Yeah. Also, Anne Marie, the amount of damage that's done to vehicles by flying debris is exaggerated. Right after I say this, your car will have a coconut go through the windshield, but again, I can't get over the fact that nobody's got more cars than I do

I'm exaggerating, but being a car dealer is what I mean, and I've got probably a thousand cars if you have the new and used than customer cars and I've been down here for 78 years, I've been a car dealer for 50 years, and the amount of damage, and I've got

a lot of cars outside, there's no way car dealers can find cover for all their cars, and when the wind blows over and the hurricane's gone, you go and check your cars, and there's very little damage, and most of us insured. So I'd worry more about myself and my kids and my dogs and the cars aren't going to take too bad a beating. She's also asking, would a car cover help those canvas car

covers? Sure. Yeah. My opinion, yeah, that would help prevent from a lot of those small scratches like rocks or debris or small tree branches. Shingles. Shingles especially, yep. It's like sandpaper going across your car. Exactly. One time I tried to get real clever about protecting in my inventory, and so I moved them all up against the dealership close, because I calculated where the wind was coming from, and I parked them all up right near the dealership. At that time, I had a gravel roof, and the wind blew the gravel. Wow.

If I left the cars where they were, I'd have been fine, but I tried to out-think the hurricane. Must have looked like the results of a BB Gatling gun. I just had a gravel-dense sale and made a fortune. Rick, we got any more? We are caught up for the moment. We are definitely, although Mr. Hand on YouTube says that our video and phone issues, he says it's all part of SkyNet Judgment Day, the Apocalypse, and that artificial intelligence is going to get us all. Give us a call tool free at 877960-9960, or you can text us at 772-497-30. Rick, back to your information that you gave our audience about the covers on your car.

If someone were to go away on vacation, leave that car covered outside, what happens with the moisture that accumulates under that cover? Is it detrimental to the car? Not really anymore because I'm sure Alan can back me on this one, but the modern technology on these car covers, it's like some of the clothes we wear. They've got materials now that even if you're outside, you get hot and sweaty, the moisture just pulls instantly away. and at the same time it protects. And these car covers are made with a lot of those similar materials to where moisture can actually be released out into the air quickly and easily, but it'll also protect your car from the UV rays coming from the sun,

the wind, and anything else coming down at it. So they're actually, because of the newer technology, they're becoming a lot more effective. Great. Okay. Alan, I have a question for you. Mary Louise text me back, and she wanted to know if she would have to have insurance before she purchased her vehicle. You mean flood damage? Auto insurance.

Well, yeah, you get that at the same time. You get that at the same time that you make the purchase. But is she actually considering buying a flood damaged car? I think after I said, I made the statement that I made earlier, I think that she's going to Consumer Report, and that's the latest edition where you can find used cars for under $12,000. Yeah, well, like any other car purchase, if you don't have insurance, you're going to need to get insurance on it before you leave the dealership. Yeah, you don't need collusion insurance unless you finance it, and you were required to have

personal injury protection liability insurance. Yeah, but you get a binder before you even leave the lot. If you have another car that you're trading in or selling, you transfer the, the insurance but yes you absolutely have to have at least the minimum liability insurance before you drive away thank you allan give us a call toll free at 877 960 960 and i'd like to remind all of you on you know from time to time we are having difficulties with the phones so keep trying and if you can't get through give us a text 772 49760 now back to the recovering car dealer And here's another way to get through.

We have an anonymous feedback line, and we have a few of those now. I'll read one in a moment. But go to Your AnonymousFeedback.com, www. www.youranonymousfeetback.com. Total anonymity, guaranteed, and for whatever reason you prefer not to be identified, we'd love to hear from you. You know, criticism. If you've got a problem with the show, if you have a problem with me, a problem with anybody or whatever, sometimes people don't like to hurt other people's feelings.

but you can do it adamantly, and we'd like to try to improve. Now, this one here was aimed at me. Excuse me for a second. If I have a problem with you, who do I... AnonymousFeedback.com. Your anonymousfeedback.com. This one came in this morning. This was after the show last week.

I've noticed that Earl has mispronounced the Florida governor's last name on several occasions. For the record, his last name is DeSantis, with an S at the end, not DeSanti. And Earl has said, please make note of this. I apologize to the governor. I apologize to you, Mr. Anonymous. And that was kind of stupid to me. It's DeSantis. I wouldn't go quite that for it.

Governor DeSantis. And while I'm talking to Governor DeSantis, let me say this. Why don't you issue an executive order, Governor, to make it illegal to sell, use cars with dangerous recall? doesn't it make sense that the manufacturers and it's against the law to sell a new car with a dangerous recall why isn't against the law to sell a used car with a dangerous recall with a stroke of a pen you could issue an executive order governor dissentis for the mess if you issued an executive order we could save thousands of lives of Florida citizens and I think that's one of your duties as governor right to protect the safety and welfare of the people of Florida.

So, Rick. Well, we have another text in from George Lindsay on YouTube. He's saying, I'm in the market for a late model SUV and trying to decide between a 2016 GL 550 Mercedes and a 2016 Range Rover full size. Which, in your professional opinion, is the better buy? I don't know. But what I would do is I would go to Consumer Reports.org,

and I would look it up and they would give you a specific actual answer both of those vehicles sound like they're pretty reliable but if you go to consumer reports and I'm going to hold up for the camera the annual auto issue I love this

the annual auto issue this is something you keep you can get it online it's very inexpensive to subscribe to online or for the hard copies of consumer reports they give you a list of the The maintenance costs, the estimate of maintenance costs, the repair costs, the insurance costs, the safety, the gas mileage, the resale value, all these things that so many people don't think about when they buy an SUV or anything else.

People buy emotionally. And I'll give you an example. The Jeep is probably one of the most popular vehicles on earth. And Jeep is keeping the Chrysler Corporation alive. Fiat Chrysler is alive today. and liquid and not bankrupt because of the Jeep. And if you check consumer reports or you talk to an owner of a Jeep, they're not very good cars.

They cost a lot to repair and maintain. They are unsafe in a lot of ways. About every ranking that you have per Jeep is bad. Now, there's one good thing about a Jeep. A Jeep has a high resale value, which is even stranger. But because of the, they're sexy. Jeeps are sexy. And people buy them because,

they're beautiful vehicles and they're fun they're fun to drive it's quite a culture exactly but consumer reports i know people get tired of nancy and me talking about consumer reports nancy always says we subscribe to twice as consumer reports because we fight there's a fight over the issue when we only have one but check it out i usually win i have my own for uh you know just for information i'll put out there i have my own consumer report to comes to the house okay enough fun we are going to go to Michigan yeah Michigan good morning Ken good morning thank you for holding did you have a problem getting through I did but being persistent you just keep calling back and you get through thank you and hello to Jackie

from automotive news thank you I I'm kind of glad that she's listening in today because she should be somewhat familiar with the area. Let me refresh the listeners with what happened, and Rick Kearney checked into this. I bought a new 2016 Toyota Prius and thought I would be able to drive it into Canada. When I bought my new 2016 Toyota Prius, Trim Style 4, the speedometer was unable to convert to kilometers per hour. So when you drive into Canada, which is only two miles away from the Detroit Auto Show, you have incorrect speeds on your speedometer, and you also have incorrect information coming through the NAV system

because everything's in miles per hour instead of kilometers per hour. Canada has the same problem. Now, Toyota, and I hope Jackie will check into this. Earl and Rick Kearney checked into this and the only remedy was for me to buy a new Toyota to replace my new Toyota at a cost to me of $15,000. Amazing.

It's unsafe. Yeah, the car should be just like Takata Airbag. It should be scrapped. Sure. There is no remedy on a new 2016 Toyota Prius. And when I contacted NHTSA, they basically need people to die on the road before it reaches a level of concern.

Contacted the government of Canada. They had the same problem where people there, when they drive into the United States, their speedometer cannot change. But they don't care because it meets the standards there and it meets the standards here. Also, the Michigan dealers and Toyota dealers were told that they couldn't write up.

up the problem because there is no remedy and the reason for them not writing it up is they said if we write it up four times and you could use the lemon law so Toyota is trying to sell safety but they're skirting around the issue by just kind of screwing the customers and that's why Earl is so important because he can cut through the problems and make it visible to the entire country, just like the Takeda airbag, without Earl, people wouldn't know, and they're going to die. So Earl's program is helping to save lives, and I hope automotive news can do the same thing by exposing what's really going on in the industry, because it's wrong, and Earl's correcting the problem. Well, thank you, Ken, and I thank you for calling it in the first place. I was

embarrassed to be a Toyota dealer, and as you know, I talked to Toyota about it. They corrected the problem and later models of the Prius now flip back and forth between kilometers and miles but it was really a stupid thing they did and it wasn't a big enough problem because they could easily have

you know taken care of it financially they should have given you another car or given you a change the speedometer whatever it took there were few enough cars out there where they could have remedied but to consider it a small problem for them yes it was a

small problem for them, but it was a huge problem for you, and it was a dangerous problem for you and all the other owners of cars to live in that part of the country. Absolutely. I mean, it's just like, similar to the deadly unintended acceleration issue that Toyota had to pay $1.2 billion to avoid prosecution. And I would think Toyota would want to step up and do the right thing and fix these vehicles. If it's a small handful of vehicles, like under 5,000, why wouldn't they want to fix it before waiting for people to die on the road? Sounds like a great class action suit. If there are some Michigan attorneys listening or even Canadian attorneys,

that sounds to me like if you've got 5,000 members of the class, get that certified as a class action suit, that's some big bucks for the attorneys and get some recompensation for the owners of those cars. Absolutely. So if you have attorneys that you recommend, I'm all ears. You'd probably be better off with a Michigan attorney. I can recommend some local, but I think a Michigan attorney would be far better. I could even talk to some local attorneys and see if they know some Michigan attorneys.

I would certainly appreciate that. Okay, Ken. The problem has not gone away, and these cars are now going back into the used market, and customers are going to be blissfully unaware. Exactly. It's analogous in the way that's a copy airbag. I think the manufacturers, including Toyota, tend to look at a, they sell a car new, and then they clean their, they wash their hands of responsibility. And now it's a used car. It's like it suddenly became a different animal. A Toyota is a Toyota, whether it's a 2019 or a 2010. A used Toyota is still the responsibility. The manufacturer used Honda is a responsibility. and the Takata Airbag issue is a perfect example. The manufacturers could require their dealers not to sell cars with defective, not just Takata airbags,

but any sort of a dangerous recall. It's amazing to me that the manufacturers will allow their dealers to sell their cars with a dangerous recall and not fix it. And there's no law and nothing requirement. They have a franchise agreement with every dealer. all they have to do is change their franchise agreement, which is a contractual agreement that every car dealer has with the manufacturer and say that we prohibit you from selling our Honda or our Chevrolet or our Toyota

with a dangerous recall, whether it's new or used. Absolutely. Ken, great call. Thank you very much. Your timing is perfect with Jackie in the studio, and I'm sure she appreciated that. I hope she calls me. So please forward my number to the day.

Thank you, Ken. Thank you, Ken. Thank you for giving us a call and being part of the show, not just today, but in the past. Okay, we're going to give out that phone number, 877960-9960 and the text. And that number is 772-497-6530. And I think that we're going to go to Rick. We've got a couple more text, Sid. Tim in Florida, Earl, do you ever have customers that don't want to negotiate and just say, I want that car, I'll take it? Well, we do because we put our lowest price on all cars. Before I became a one-price dealer, I don't like the word one-price. Most retailers put their best price, their lowest price, whether you're buying refrigerators or TV sets or a loaf or bread. You wouldn't want to go into publics and negotiate to buy a bottle of milk. Most people don't think twice about it when they buy a car.

So we became a low-price dealer 10 or 15 years ago. So we do put our lowest price on the car. Interestingly, we actually have people that will present that. They want to negotiate. People have become so accustomed to haggling and hassling, particularly older people. That's the way they always bought cars and they come in. They've never encountered a dealer that would actually put their best price. price on the car and not negotiate because it was their best price.

And from Roger on YouTube, good morning to you all. My question, as my wife and I are retired, how hard is it to finance a new car on fixed income? Our credit scores are excellent, so what should we be on the lookout for? If your credit scores are excellent and your fixed income is adequate, there's a formula that all the lenders have and they will look at your expenses and you'll look at your expenses and have a mortgage and you have what you want to buy the car, you have what other expenses they will look at, and then they'll say what percentage of your income you would have to rely upon to buy that car.

And based on your fixed income, with an excellent credit score, you can buy any car you want based on the amount of that income. And that's got us caught up right now for text. Okay, I've got an email here that is an interesting one, and Rick and Allen can help me with this. I'll read it to you. Thank you and your family for educating us on vehicle issues. Feel free to use this question on your Saturday radio show.

My 2017 Subaru Forrester has a problem whereby ignition key is hard to remove. I called a dealer and said there's a TSB on this issue and to bring the vehicle to the service department. The dealer said there's a TSB. That stands for Technical Service Bulletin. This incident tells me that I should review TSBs, technical service bulletins, should any symptom develop, and if a technical service bulletin is seen to bring vehicle to the service of the dealer. The website I found for a list of all TSBs, and I didn't know about this, by the way, for this vehicle, is carcomplaints.com.

www. www.courcomplaints.com. The site looks legitimate, but are you aware of this site? and are there other sites with this information? Now, that's Joe from Texas. Joe, we have a lot of listeners in Texas. Interesting. Joe, here's what I know about technical service bulletins, and I'll defer to Alan and Rick on this.

A technical service bulletin is something that all manufacturers issue when a problem first comes up with a car. If it becomes a chronic problem, certainly a dangerous problem, it goes from a technical service bulletin into a recall. Manufacturers don't like recalls because they're public.

It hurts their reputation to think they build a car with a defect, especially a safety defect, and they would rather remedy the problems quietly off the radar screen, so to speak, and hence the technical service bulletin. Technical service bullets have been called hidden warranties because sometimes manufacturers will keep it a technical service bulletin when it really hits the amount of problem that they should have called NHTSA National Highway Traffic Safety Association

and made it a public issue and make it a mandatory recall. Technical service bulletins also are hidden from the customers, which is what has always annoyed me. You might own a Subaru Forrester, 2017, and you might have a little problem with your ignition getting the key out, as you did, but you might not really worry about it too much. Maybe you wiggle a little bit

and you get it out and you say that's just the way these foresters are. So you don't bring it up. When you come into a Subaru dealership, Subaru, and I'm assuming Subaru does this, I don't have specific knowledge. I know Toyota does it, and I know Pontiac did it when I was a Pontiac

dealer. I know that Mazda did it when I was a Mazda dealer and Pujo and Fiat, all dealerships I've ever owned have always had this rule that you do not bring up a technical service bullet unless the customer brings it up. So you're absolutely right when you go into a dealership and you have a problem, you should ask them if there's a technical service bullet on the product problem. If you don't ask them, the service advisor and the service manager dealer has been advised don't bring it up. Rick, can you add to that issue? That's actually

about 90% true. However, as a technician, when a car comes in and a customer says, I have this problem going on, one of the first things that I do, one of the first weapons of my arsenal is I get on the computer and I look for technical service bulletins because the original intent of them was to help the technician solve a problem with the car. But that's because the customer did bring it up with the service advisor. And so once the customer brings it up, then the dealership can refer to the technical service bullet. And that is actually their little trick, because what the manufacturer tells me, what Toyota has told all the technicians is, if the customer is not experiencing this problem or they're not complaining about it, then you don't do anything. In other words, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Well, sometimes it's broke, but the customer don't know it. Exactly. You know, sometimes you have a problem with a car and you just don't realize it or doesn't seem important to you or it hasn't occurred. But the intelligent thing to do, if you have a 2017 Subaru Forrester and the customer comes in the service drive, you should say, ma'am or Mr. have you had experience a problem getting your key out of the ignition? If they say no, that's fine. If they say yes, then you go to the technical service bolt and take care of it. Well, one of the most common ones, and this not really what I would call a safety issue, but this is something that I think should not be a technical service bulletin, but should be just a straightforward Toyota should be covering this and having it done on every car.

And I think every manufacturer is probably experiencing this. One of the biggest issues is customers want their cell phones to work properly with the radios for navigation, music and all that. and the software update for the radio, 90 times out of 100, the customer doesn't know that there's an update for their radio that will make it function better with the new phones as the technology and the phones increases. So the service advisors should advise the customer. They should say, hey,

and I don't think there's any prohibition. We should be checking on that. I don't think there's any prohibition against notifying them. Because it doesn't cost manufacture anything to do the software update. It costs a dealer something to do it, but, you know, I understand. I just think that's one of the technical service bulletins that should definitely be covered. So the software update is a technical service.

It is. Oh, okay, absolutely. I understand. You're right. We have two people that want to talk. Well, on technical service bulletins, for me, they're a huge time saver. We had, what, Avalon's four or five years ago that had this just little tick that some people that don't listen to radio. and drive their windows down, you'd just hear it tick when a car twisted a certain way.

Now, a technical service bulletin saved me on that because somebody, somewhere along the line, had experienced it, and somebody had figured out there was a little weld in the back window opening. You had to pull the back glass and fix this one little weld. But if we would have, without the technical service bulletin, we probably would have looked for that little tick for a week. And may not have fixed it properly. technical service bulletins aren't a great thing. What we're saying and the point is technical service bullets kept a secret or a bad thing. Yeah. And does anybody know a site other than car complaints, what was that, car complaints.com that, let's see, that was, yeah,

car complaints.com. Any other sources of technical service bulletins that anybody knows about? Unfortunately, other than Googling them, no. However, car complaints.com is one of the sites that Tina, our good friend from Benita there, has brought up so many times. What I would do is I would go to the chat room for your car. There's probably a Subaru Forrester chat room. And if you go in the chat room, you will find about technical service bulletins. That's exactly the type of thing that they'd like to chit-chat about and Google it.

But chat rooms of owners, it's amazing how much information you have about what really is going on with your model car. when you get into a chat room of those people that own that car. Great information. Ellen, this text is for you, and it's from Pittsburgh, and Jennifer was in a car accident, and she feels that because of all the stress, she just didn't do the right thing.

And she said that before she knew it, a tow truck showed up, not of her choice. And there began back and forth of, she used the word bullying her. she wanted her own tow truck and she wanted her car taken to the dealership of her choice what should she have done this was at the scene of the accident i assume yes um there are tow companies that have arrangements with every town county whatever there's always somebody on rotation to to pick up your call so uh when the responding officer after all the reports are written up to

pictures are taken, the measurements are done depending on the severity of the accident, the main thing that the police officer has to do is worry about the safety of everybody else and the inconvenience of them. They've got to get your car out of there. If

most people don't have a tow company in mind, nobody thinks they're ever going to need one. So if the cops waited for everybody to make up their mind, call their mom, call their cousin, call their dealer, hey, hey, do you recommend?

I mean, you'd tie traffic up for hours and hours and hours unnecessarily. So letting the rotation tow company pick your car up is really about all you can do, but you can be very specific with that tow company where you want your car to go. They don't get to just take it to whoever is giving them $100 for a job. you tell them you want it to go to your dealer you want it to go to your home whatever but fighting the cops about the rotation tow company picking up your car is just going to make the cop really angry with you because he's got a responsibility to get that road opened up thank you allan great answer the other part of her question is she wanted to know about insurance she wanted to know

someone else was driving her car and if she was covered that varies from state to state here locally. If somebody lives in your home and you don't have them on your policy and they're using your car regularly and they wreck it, say my daughter that has the same address as me, if she goes out driving in my car and I'm not paying for her to be insured in that car, then it's not covered. But if I... That's in Florida. Right. If I lend my car to a buddy because his is broke down and he lives five miles away from me and he crashes my car, that crash is covered. Thank you.

Give us a call tool free at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. We're going to go to our next caller, and that's Frank, who's calling from Jupiter. Good morning, Frank. Well, good morning to you all. How are you? I figured I got some, oh, we're a real good thing. Thank you. I'm just underwater out here in the farms. I'm in the Jupiter Farms. Just a lot of rain, a lot of rain.

A lot of what? Yeah, that's true. I got some, how can I say, time-appropriate question and information for, since it's a hurricane and stuff, trying to find gasoline is almost impossible. Yesterday I was at a gas station, and I have a Mercedes that needs high tests. The only feel they had was regular. I said, I got to put it in. I had like a gallon left.

And the lady behind me is in a BMW. She said, they don't have the high test. They don't have mid-grade. They don't have regular. I can't put this in my car. And this is why I told her, and you can verify if I think incorrectly. I said, you can put it in. It's not what you use regularly.

But your computers in your car will adjust the timing to accept the regular fuel. You may not get quite the mileage and stuff you would normally. So was I telling her the right information? Exactly, yeah, you're correct. And it might even run just fine on the regular. You'll find out if it doesn't run so well, you lose a little bit of a pep, perhaps, maybe even get a ping. If you get that, then you go back to the next grade up toward premium. But, you know, when you're trying to find gas during a hurricane, I wouldn't put diesel in, but I certainly would put regular.

Just about anything by diesel. It'll burn. You know, the thing to remember also to remember is that if the storm does hit this, we're really not going to feel it much until Monday. And this is a Saturday, and those gas trucks are coming down fast, and they're filling these tanks up, and the station that was dry today might have gas tomorrow, because they're making money because they're pumping gas like crazy. I saw on the news the other day a lady saw a tank, you know, tank truck going,

and she just followed the tank truck to the gas station. Exactly. So I don't think anyone's really going to have any problem to find gas if they're a little bit patient. Rick, you have a point? Also, GasBuddy app, I've been told, has a way that they will track the different stations to see when they have fuel or are out.

Gas? What's that? Just gas. You can download it on Android and iPhone. It's Gas Buddy. Gas buddy. It's also there for finding your fuel prices, But right now, they've apparently been able to get it to where they can tell whether or not there's fuel available. I love gas, buddy. I have one comment on the gas hoarding, which there's a lot of gas hoarding going on right now, which is dangerous, for one thing,

to store all that gas at your home. If you've lived here in Florida for a long time and you've experienced a week or two weeks without power, that was a real problem for getting gas because the gas stations couldn't pump the gas because they didn't have generators. Most of your major gas stations now have generators. Good point. So a day after the storm, two days after the storm, you can go buy gas. You don't have to hoard 100 gallons of gas and five-gallon gas cans in your shed and pray that it doesn't catch on fire.

You're a limit room. Yeah, you're going to be able to get gas next week. Yeah, why? Why? That's what I keep saying. Don't play with fire. There you go. A little play on words.

Thanks for the call. Frank that was a very timely give us a call again and I I like you said about hoarding the gas I'm watching people pull in their cars and all they're put they're all they can squeeze in is another three gallons so they wait in line for an hour to get three gallons it's incredible yes it's insanity but people are scared yeah yeah do crazy things hey again thanks for what you guys do on the radio we appreciate it thank you for again next week please Rick and folks As a public service announcement, due to a picture that I have seen that has gone nuts on the internet,

please do not put gasoline in anything except an actual approved gasoline fuel can or your car. There's a picture out there where some guy is filling up five-gallon Home Depot buckets and putting the lids on them to try to transport fuel in these five-gallon, Homer buckets. Folks, don't, don't do that. Gasoline only belongs in an approved gasoline can. Rick, there's no cure for stupidity. That's so true, and unfortunately, we're going to see it.

But, wow. And don't store your grills with your propane tanks in your house or your garage. Keep those propane tanks outside. Not to mention, keep your generator away from your wind. if you wind up needing to use it. Absolutely. Ellen? Last thing on a gas.

And I see this a lot, even when we're not in a hurricane watch situation. Don't fill your gas can up in your trunk. You have to put your container on the ground. You have to make contact with the opening of that with the nozzle so you don't get static buildup. That's how people catch their cars on foot. their cars on fire, leaving a gas can in their trunk, ungrounded, and filling them up that way. If you have some kind of a physical limitation to where you can't lift it back in, surely somebody is going to be at that gas station that can lift that back in there for you.

Just ask for help. Somebody will help you. But that does happen. It builds static and boom, you lose your car. Yeah, we're all Floridians. If you need help lifting a gas can and somebody's definitely going to help you lift it back in your car for you yes absolutely great information and folks we do have the mystery shopping report that's going to be coming up and that is from wayne acres forward so stay tuned from for that um i have a text believe it or not i had one last week about nitrogen and i i can't i can't believe i can't digest the fact that some people are still paying for nitrogen Last week, it was $499, and this week I was just asked a question,

is nitrogen important to put in your tires? And, you know, I'll let the panel chime in on this, but my thoughts are, unless you're a race car driver, you're a NASCAR driver, you need nitrogen. Guys, what do you say? Well, let's make this real fast. nitrogen is worthless in tires. Consumer Reports has come up with a study. You can Google it, go to consumer reports.org, and it is totally useless. It is nothing to improve the longevity of the tire, fuel economy. There's absolutely no valuable value to having nitrogen and tires. Car dealers sell it to make a profit, and they fool people. Sometimes they pre-install it and have it as an addendum sticker on the car. times they tell you if you bring your car back in for service we'll fill up the top it off

with the nitrogen and that's just a way to get you back in the service department to sell you another car do some more service so nitrogen is worthless in cars if you're going to go over to Costco and get it free that's another you know that's another topic I have another anonymous feedback here we're talking about Costco it says dear team I've listened to the show for at least of the last couple of years I could like to find an answer to this question I'm shopping for a new car and I qualify for Ford's X plan

would I get a better deal with the X plan or using Costco auto buying program also can you explain how the X plan is calculated thanks love the show I don't know how the X plan is calculated we can Google that for you and we can get the answer I know a lot of the manufacturers

have special plans for employees, and my guess would be that the X plan is a good deal. I do know this, that the X plan and the other manufacturers plan does not provide for the dealer not adding a dealer

fee, and this is almost comical. Dealers have dealer fees in South Florida, as I said earlier, that average over $1,000. One dealer I know has a dealer fee over $3,000. I say, dealer fee, multiple fees, three and four fees by different names.

So you can come in with a great price on the X plan, and then he'll put on $1,000 or $2,000 on top of that price. So don't feel like you're getting a good price on any plan if you do not control the dealer and have him include his hidden fees in the out-the-door price. Costco, you asked about Costco, Costco has the best plan of any of the third party sources. Costco's rule is this. If you're a certified Costco dealer, you must have the lowest price for a Costco member that you will sell that car or have sold that car to any person for. The car dealers don't like the Costco program because of that reason. The Costco program

oftentimes is a losing proposition for the dealer, but there are certified Costco dealers. With that said, when you buy from a certified Costco dealer, be very careful and be sure that the dealer installed accessories and the hidden fees, dealer fees, are included in the Costco price. Because even though Costco says they should be, you have to verify this. Always go online with Costco, register as a Costco member, and deal with the Costco represented at the dealership, Costco salespeople, but have one or more salespeople with name and sometimes their pictures and deal with them. And I apologize for not knowing the answer about

the X plan for Ford. We'll Google that and we will get back to you later probably next week. And Nancy just handed me her iPhone with a whole bunch of information on it and I'm not going to read it. One was highlighted. Exactly. Ladies and gentlemen, give us a call toll free at 877-960

or you can Texas, 772-4976530. We're having a whole lot of fun here this morning, being a little silly, sharing some great information with you and receiving information from our callers, and we want to take a moment and thank you for that. We're going to go to Adriana, and she's calling from Jupiter. Welcome to the show. Hi, thank you. Hey, Susan. Susan told me to call, so she's listening to. Thank you. How are you? Okay, so I'm good, I'm good.

I'm staying safe. I'm still going to finish putting out my shutters, better safe and sorry. But I do have a question about my car. I actually bought my car with you guys and used car lot as the Kia Sportage, 2011. And I drive a lot for work. So what I noticed, this is right before the hurricane, what I noticed that my car is kind of wobbling a little bit. And the steering seems ever so slightly loose, but not, you know, but it's just weird, and it just started happening. So I wonder if you have any feedback on that.

Yeah, that's a worrisome symptom, and I can't diagnose it, but I bet you Rick has got a better idea than I do. Okay, I'd like to hear it. The first thing I would do is I would get to a mechanic and have that checked. It sounds like you might have a loose steering component, something may have worn or broken. And if one of those linkages gets damaged enough that it breaks totally loose, you could lose steering. So this is something that's very important. I would get it checked by a mechanic. It's possible also that it may simply be something known as a bubble in the tire where a damage to a tire.

If you hit a pothole or something or hit a curb, it can damage the steel belts in the tire, and it'll actually make like a bubble in the tread of the tire, and you'll feel that every time it hits the ground. But I would get to a mechanic and have that checked out as soon as you can. Okay, and with that, I mean, I don't have a lot of cash flowing around. Is that an expensive fix, generally speaking? If it's just the tire, you'd be looking at the cost of a new tire, which we're really not. too bad. Most cars, you're looking at about $150 to $200.

Steering components, that would be, that's something would need to be looked at to figure out what's going on there. Some parts are relatively inexpensive, others like the power steering rack itself, which that one's pretty unlikely. That can be kind of

pricey. Okay. Well, we'll help you out with that. We'll help you out with that by giving you $50 for calling Earl Stewart on cars. How would you like that? Hey, I would love that. Okay.

Stay on the line and share your contact information with Michael, and I'll get that checkout to you and give us a call again. Definitely. Well, thank you guys. Thank you. Bye-bye. How are we doing on text? We just got a new one in.

Actually, two in now. Mel in New York is asking, which is the fastest way to remove fog from the windshield, warm or cold air, and should the airflow be set to recirculate or vent air from the outside? And one of the best ways actually is make sure you have the AC actually turned on the air conditioning. What that does is it helps dry the air that's coming across the evaporator before it flows upwards. As for the temperature, I would set whatever's really comfortable for you. Warm and cold really won't make that huge a difference.

It's putting that drier air against that condensation on the inside of the windshield. That's what will help clear it out. And the vented air from the outside is usually best because it's usually not going to be quite as moist as the air inside. Another text. And we do. Let's see. This is from, well, it's just from an anonymous number. So let's say, if you do research, you will find both the Mercedes and Range Rover.

I believe he's speaking to George's question we had earlier are far down on the reliability rankings. Ooh, I agree. I knew Range Rover was, I should have pointed that out but Mercedes, that surprises me. And he goes on to

say they become money pits very quickly. And I'm guessing this person's also making a comment for our caller from Michigan with the Prius. I recommend a lawyer named Steve Leto, L-E-H-O. He's in Michigan Lemon Law and Consumer Law Attorney.

Well, let's send that to Ken. That's fantastic. We'll forward that to Ken that called in. Absolutely. So, Ken, if you're still listening, Steve Leto, L-E-H-T-O. Very good. And we'll talk about a class action suit against Toyota. where they have about 5,000 vehicles there in Michigan and Canada

that they cannot change from the kilometer to the mile per hour and they just told them to take a walk, take a hike. There's nothing I can do about it. Bought a car in the United States that had kilometers per hour and kilometer odometer and just said that's too bad. If you want to get the miles per hour, buy another Prius. Actually, it was in miles per hour and he wants to take it to Canada for kilometers. Exactly, exactly. Okay, very good.

Of course, playing devil's advocate, if the U.S. would just go to the metric system, well... That ain't going to happen. Yeah, tell me about it. www.com. Ain't going to happen.com, yep. You love saying that, don't you? I was just waiting for an opportunity. Honestly, it sounds great.

Real quick, I have a text that's, well, from Pittsburgh again, and they're asking about their tires, and they're asking whether they should check the PSA, whether you know the tires are cold or hot and I can give you that answer the tires must be cold and also you really need to check the pressure in your tires every 30 days it's amazing a lot of people just don't realize how important your tire maintenance is it means everything it affects your gas it affect Rick we got another one coming in but yeah keep keep going you're giving great advice there Oh, thank you. And that's really about it. Take care of those tires. They'll take care of you.

Absolutely. Hey, in reference to our earlier question on texting in Florida, texting while driving, Patrick says, good morning. The law in Florida recently changed regarding texting and driving. The new law allows police to stop a driver who is texting as a primary offense. Therefore, it's not something they need to pull you over for something else. They can pull you over if they see you texting. I'm a lawyer in real life, and I don't play one on TV. Great show, Patrick. Very good, yeah. Yeah, it's kind of hard for the cops to spot that. They have to see you texting, and, you know, through ten and glass, it's awfully difficult. But hopefully, implied threat is enough to get people to behave themselves. Well, and the simple fact that most newer cars now have hands-free systems, I mean, even in my own vehicle, I put a hands-free radio in there.

where I can just talk to my radio, and it works. I agree. I have an email from a person. Rick and Nancy, you remember last week we talked about what happens if you go into a canal and breaking the window, and we found out that the laminated glass is now being installed on the side windows and cars, and you can't break the laminated glass with your old hammer that you had that you used to be able to break the glass to get out in case you're the canal. And so we had a call, I had an email from Diane Hennessy. And Diane Hennessy

is with an outfit called Drowning Prevention Coalition of Palm Beach County. And it's very interesting. Apparently this is a much bigger problem than we realized, especially in West Palm Beach County. Western Palm Beach County has a lot of canals. And she's informing me that Palm Beach County goes from school to school giving courses and lessons to the kids so they can talk to their parents about this and she advises people a lot of things we talked about on the show last week which basically we all agreed is if you go into the water and I hope this doesn't happen anybody but we're talking hurricane time and I suppose if there was a time where that danger exists it's now if you go into the water you want to put your side windows down as quickly as possible

And the other thing that came out is you put your sunroof or moonroof open that. That's actually more desirable to get that moon roof open than your sunroof. Now, another interesting thing that was pointed out to me in this conversation I had with Diane Hennessy is that she thinks that you should not try to open your door. But there are other people that think you should try. If you open the door, the car's going to flood quickly, and that's an issue. She thinks that you're better off to leave the door closed, but get your windows down ASAP. And, of course, the sunroof or the moon roof. And she also told me about something I didn't know about, but Rick did.

And it's a little tool, much smaller than a hammer we talked about last week. It's called, one brand is called Rescue Me, R-E-S-Q, letter Q-N-E. And you can buy that on Amazon for about $10. bucks and it's a little spring-loaded pin that you put in the lower right hand or left-hand the corner of the glass it pops that glass if it's not laminated and it shatters the glass and you can hang it from your rearview mirror you can put on your keychain Rick I was just going to say that even on these newer cars with the laminated side windows I wonder if they're laminating the moon roof glass because if not

which and most cars have a the roof glass is a tempered glass that little rescue me tool or a spring loaded center punch is kind of a generic term for it or even those rescue hammers would pop that moonroof glass

into pebbles and give you a nice big escape hatch above your head could the moon roofs be plastic I don't think so most of them I'm pretty certain are glass yeah I don't know do you know Alan I have never seen a plastic or Lexan

sunroof or moon roof? I think they used to do that many years ago, but not anymore. The other issue that came up in my conversation with Diane Hennessy, the Drowning Prevention Coalition of Palm Beach County. In fact, if you have an interest in that group, you can contact

me. It's free. You call the Drowning Prevention Coalition, Palmish County. They'll appear at your organization wherever and put on a presentation on how to survive when your car goes in the water. an issue is with people being able to fit out of the window. I mean, you go, they put the window down, and, you know, some of the kids were saying, and the classes say, well, my mommy couldn't fit out of the side window, and that is an issue.

And maybe the moon roof, the sunroof, might be easier, but I'm not even sure. I mean, I'm a big guy. I'm not sure I could fit out of the window, but something to think about. Absolutely. I think that at one of our AED classes, I was given, you know, one of those little gadgets that, you know, I'm now thinking about. And boy, I'll tell you what, everyone should have them. The name escapes me. Rick, what is that little, not hammer, but what's that?

The rescue me tool? Yes, Q, not rescue, R-E-S-E-E-R-E-S-Q-M-E. It's on Amazon for about $10. Yes, something. someone, everyone should have in their car. Otherwise, the generic term for it is a spring-loaded center punch. Oh, that's what I was after.

Very good. Okay, folks, we're getting close to Mystery Shopping Report time, but we can still take some calls. 877-960-99-60. Again, that's 877-960-99-60, or text us at 772-497-6530. And Rick? Al Shukri on YouTube just popped up, said, good morning, guys.

Does BJ's Wholesale Club have a buying program? Yes, they do. I'm not familiar with it. I believe the Costco is a better program, but then again, I'm not familiar with the BJs. Costco is such a good program that the dealers don't like it because it keeps the dealer too honest. It prohibits the hidden fees. It prohibits the dealer-unsold accessories. And think about this for a minute.

The requirement, I'm a certified Costco dealer, so I speak from experience. If I sell the car to Rick right now, and I gave them a really, really low price, and you're a Costco member, I'm contractually obligated as a Costco dealer to sell the Costco member for less than I sold the car to Rick. So that's pretty strong. and you can see whether those don't like it because it actually can be a losing situation for a card dealer. So they'll try to mickey mouse it, and that's where you want to be careful. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, what we're going to do right now

is we're not going to be taking any more calls. We're going to go to the Mystery Shopping Report. That, as always, I encourage you to be part of that mystery shopping report and I'll vote on it, and you can do so at 772-497-65-30, now back to the recovering car dealer. Okay, our mystery shopping report this week was of Wayne Acres Ford. And let me remind all of you that if you're looking to buy a car, we have a list called good dealer, bad dealer, list.com.

And you can access that on our blog, Erloncars.com. And we use the feedback from the mystery shopping reports largely to populate these two lists. Now, with that said, on our recommended list, we recommend with a caveat that there are no perfect car dealers, and you should always be buyer beware. We have this conversation every time we issue a score because after I read the Mystery Shopping Report, Pro Wayne Acres Ford, we'll ask you to vote, failing road, either an A, B, C, D, or F. If you fail them, then we put them on our do not buy list. There's a tendency sometimes to want to fail a lot of dealers, sometimes all dealers, because they usually have something that happens that irritates the listeners. And we have to remind you we grade on the curve.

Because if we grade it strictly, absolutely, and we had nobody on the recommended list, then there'd be no place to buy a car in Florida. So on the recommended list, buyer beware. And I just want to be sure you understand that. Okay. mystery shopping report Wayne Eggers Ford we intended to investigate

our old friends the Arrigo brothers originally to see if they could they would sell our mystery shop used vehicle with a deadly decadier bag recall however I'm pleased to report that after a thorough scouring

of their used inventories our team could find not a single vehicle afflicted with the stage of recall now the reason we say that about Arrigo Arrigo is the largest Chrysler Jeep Dodge a ram dealer in Florida. They have three extremely large

dealerships, one in Weston near Fort Lauderdale, one in West Palm Beach, and one in Fort Pierce. Very large, high volume, very visual. You see the Arrigo brothers advertise a lot. And I sued the Arrigo brothers a couple of years ago.

We litigated. And I sued them for selling cars with defective to cut airbags. During the litigation process, Arrigo agreed not to sell any cars. They stopped selling. Actually, they were interviewed on Channel 5, WPTV,

and John Arrigo said, or Jim Arrigo, said that we do not any longer sell cars with defective to cut airbags. And so we'd like to say that this is true not only of the Rigo, but a lot of the car dealers are not selling cars, and we find out that the amount of vehicles that we're able to find with defective tecotta airbags is novel. That's not to say these cars aren't being sold. They are being sold somewhere.

They don't disappear. I think some are being exported, and I think a whole lot of them are being sold by independence, like CarMax, offleysonly.com, what is some of the other? There's H. Gregg. There are a lot of new names out there. Well, and not to mention, all these little car lots that are all over, U.S. 1 and all over military trains,

So, a buyer beware when you buy you a used car and you can protect yourself, job, just by going to safercar.org, S-A-F-E-R-C-A-R-C-R-O-R, not gov. I always say, or safercar.gov, G-O-V. And you can put your VIN number in, protect yourself when you buy used car, because you won't be protected by law and you won't be protected by the manufacturer. So kudos to the RIGOs for not having any... Taked Airbags for sale in their inventory at this time, and that's in all three of their dealerships. I'd like to think we've done our part in helping to clean up Dodge, so to speak, with respect to the

Takata vehicles. The expenses of these cars has been noticeably less prevalent in recent months. So we turn our attention back to our show routes, exposing the dirty tricks of old-school bait-and-switch deception and advertising and sales. It didn't take too long for, our analysts to discover an advertisement that appeared too good to be true. The adding question was from Wayne Acres Ford, there in Lake Worth, Lake Worth Road. It listed a handful of vehicles with incredibly low prices. What caught our eye was a special offer for a new 2019 Ford EcoSport for only 14,995. It's a good price.

This is a tempting offer. As always, we send in the venerable Agent Thunder to have a very time. investigate. We don't use the real names because, you know, they could be dangerous. It'd be dangerous, yeah. A report, and I read in the first person as if I were the shopper. I arrived around 3 o'clock

and was pleasantly surprised by the showroom. It was clean, modern, staff seemed warm and friendly. I was introduced to a salesperson named Rolanda. I told him I was interested in a small SUV, particularly the Ford Echo Sport. I saw online advertised for

14,995. I mean, that's a low price for a new car today. He told me, I have some bad news. There was only one vehicle in stock at that price, and it's on hold for a customer. However, they hadn't taken delivery yet, he said, and there was a chance that may become available. Explain that he could show it to me, but I wouldn't be allowed to drive it, naturally, if it was pre-sold. It was beginning to appear that this was a classic bait-and-switch. But surprisingly, Rolanda said that he could order another one for me just like it. Oh, that's refreshing.

So maybe they sold a bunch of them at that price. Maybe. He walked me over to the vehicle, and he did a quick presentation. I checked out the window sticker and saw that the MSRP was $20,290. As a selling price online was listed at $14,995,000, this would represent a $6,000 discount off MSRP. Now remember that was MSRP, that's good, that's the Monroney label, not D-List or an addendum label, just a Monroney label. I was incredulous about being able to buy the car at that number. I truly was.

I gently pressed the issue by asking to see a purchase order for that EcoSport at the advertised price. I told them, I was very curious to see how they got the price so low. He replied by saying there are several reasons. rebates on this model. Apparently Ford was doing their best to move these ecosports. Now, I'll tell you, when I got this far, the thought that entered my mind was, ah, unattainable rebates like loyalty rebate, I'm a farmer rebate, I'm the active military rebate, I'm a college graduate in the last six months from a four-year accredited college rebate, all these rebates that you can't qualify for. Yeah, that's what I thought. The selling price, well, he returned with a completed buyer's order, and the selling price was $19,910, and that was a discount of $1,0.80 off the $20,000.99 MSRP. Well, that's not much.

To this, they added their dealer services charge. Okay. They all got them, right? Dealer services charged with $799. and something called an EFS, which was defined as their e-filing fee in the fine print. And that was $99. And there was $6.50 for a tire battery fee. That's legitimate.

And there was $1,299 in sales tax. That's legitimate. And $400 for registration. They deducted, here's the big one, they deducted $4,915 in rebates. This left me with a drive-up price of 17,638, which is, what do I say, the 14995 was the advertised price. So that is lower than the advertised price. Before I left, Rolanda's manager came by to thank me for the visit and assured me they would honor the advertised price if that vehicle became available or if they had to locate another car for me. This is truly, truly amazing, astonishing.

Agent Thunders' report was a bit surprising. We were curious to see how they came up with a $4,915 in rebase. We had him contact Rolando, the salesman, the next day, to see if he could itemize these. He sent a picture of an incentives bulletin that listed $915 in summer sales event, retail bonus, customer cash. That's legitimate. $3,500 retail bonus customer cash and $500 select inventory retail customer cash. Now this all sounds legitimate and I don't see any qualifications here. The total $4,950 just as he told me.

So if you subtract that from the 19,910, that equals the advertised price of $14,995. So, now this doesn't include the 898 and their other dealer fees. When I looked at their vehicle buyers order, I saw something that was not shown into the description, and that was another electronic filing fee, but that was a small amount. So we have here almost a pristine shopping report. Now, in full transparency and disclosure, you know I'm a recovering car dealer, and I do have a car dealership. I also have to say that the owner of Waintinger's Ford is a friend of mine, a colleague

I've known for many years, his name is Les Acres. Now he has a partner who is the active partner in this dealership. Les has the toilet dealership in Tallahassee, and that's how I know him. And he's in what's something called a toileting group, and everybody knows what a toilet group is to our listeners, car dealers join these groups for reasons that are improving their business. And they form a group of members. They exchange financial statements, ideas, and they go to meetings three times a year. And we become friends and colleagues. So Les Acres, I thought I was being daring to Mystery Shop Les. And what a pleasant surprise that he came off

what I consider a really good report. So, Les, if you're listening, I love you, by the Thank you. Thanks for not embarrassing me having to tell the world that you're my friend. I miss talking to that guy. Absolutely. Now you're still doing the dealer fees and the hidden fees, and I don't like that. But you're really a class act to be able to advertise a car

at a low price and agree not only to sell it at that price, but to order one at the same price and get it for the customer. So before we even do the grading, I'm going to recommend all the listeners. If you want to buy a Ford and you're in South Florida, Wayne Acres Ford. They treat your right, but you can argue with them about the dealer fees anyway.

Now, do we have any votes from our listeners? We're waiting for techs to come in for the votes. Well, let's go around to the panel. I'll start with you, Rick. How do you want? I'm kind of shocked here, but I'm going to go with an A-minus. if they let go of the dealer fees, it would be an A-plus. But I'm only going to hit them just a tiniest bit for the dealer fee.

But I would say if you're looking for a Ford, Wade Acres is the place to be. Yeah. How about you, Alan? Well, I really, really, really like less. And Al. Oh, you know, Les, I forgot. Because he came into our dealership.

Yeah. Well, my wife worked for him for years, too. Oh, I forgot about that. Oh, I like his Christmas parties. Yeah. Okay, we're not taking your vote. Your bites. I really, really like less.

This doesn't seem like a setup, isn't? Al Young, the managing partner, he's a great guy. It's good to his people. This particular shop, I would give them a B-plus. But that being said, because I've bought cars there, and I've walked his lot, and they have a lot of addendum labels. They preload cards with stripes and wind of tent and this and that. And as an overall, I'm going to give them a C-plus

because those addendum labels still bother me. I didn't know about the denim labels, but we didn't see that in the shopping report. Yeah, not on a special. You know, I didn't know what an eco-boost was. I had you Google it. I still know. It is a freaking cute little SUV. It's a four-door SUV, kind of like a RAV-4, cool spare cover on the back.

That's a lot of car for $14,000, even if it is a stripped-down version. It is. If it's a first car or just a weekend go to the beach car, what a great deal. Well, you notice they didn't have a lot on the stock, but the fact that they ordered a lot of dealers said, I'm sorry we sold that car, but he agreed to order the car, which is almost unheard of in our Mr. Shopping reports. Yeah, that's a heck of a deal. Nancy?

I just have to go with my gut feeling, and that is, gosh, I just hate that dirty little word, and a.k.a. the dealers fee, it isn't necessary. Therefore, even though I do have a relationship with less, I do have to give them a B. Rarely am I the high grader. I'm going to give Wayne Ingers for an A. And the reason I do that, I go back to my curve, all the dealers charge the hidden fees, all the dealers charge dealer fees, I don't like them. But if everybody does it and you're grading on the curve, you really can't follow them. And I'm telling you, I don't think we've ever shopped a dealer that had a low-price car

advertised, that they agreed to sell the car, and if they didn't sell the car, they would order one just like it at the same price. I've never seen that. Rick? Well, we did get Mark from Iowa, came in with a B-plus-plus. Yeah. It's refreshing, isn't it? Usually what happens is the call-in votes, the ones on Facebook, and the rest of them, and the techs are very, very low. But I think anybody that's ever shops and bought a car in Florida would agree this is an outstanding report.

And I'm going to send a copy of the report to less, and maybe we'll give them a plaque or something. Okay, well, don't tell them how I voted it. Rick, is that all the votes that came in? At the moment. I think folks may be... There's a storm out there. Yeah. That's very unusual. They're kind of keeping their eyes open for this situation. We're in kind of a tight situation right now with this Boring. Absolutely. Folks talking about dealer fees, that dirty little wild secret that I shared with you earlier, let me share with you, Earl's latest column. And that's dealing with hidden fees, a.k.a. dealer fee. And you can, excuse me, the mayor's calling. Here's the hometown or the Florida Weekly. That's appearing in this week's Florida weekly.

Yeah, exactly. I was about to get to that. And it's really, it's, it's profits to the dealer. So buyer beware, knowledge is power. And you can also read Earl's column, The Box, and that's in the hometown news. or you can go to Erlon Cars and pull those columns up. Yeah, the box is dealer vernacular for the F&I department. And dealers have a lot of interesting vernacular. That's one of the few I can say on the air. Some of the vernacular I couldn't repeat. That's absolutely right.

Okay. If we're running low on text, I would like to renew my challenge to all the dealers out there. I think it would be so much fun that someone, how about less, Les Acres, you're my buddy, do you want to debate me about the dealer fee? And we could do it just for you know, 20 bucks or something.

I'd like someone to sit in the studio with me and it would be set up by the rules of debate that they have where each party gets to state their case and then they have a rebuttal and we go back and forth. And the premise would be in Florida, the dealer fee, should be made illegal.

And I'd love to have someone at a car dealer, preferably at least a general manager, and hopefully the dealer themselves, they could tell me what they have. Tell me the purpose of the dealer fee and the fact that they believe it should not be made illegal. I think that'd be fun.

And I'd be willing to bet we could probably find someone from like Palm Beach State College or something that would come in, And as a guest judge, someone that would have absolutely no dog in that fight, but simply be here as an impartial judge. Exactly. My premise and my argument, I'll tell you my argument before you come on, is if the dealer fee, a lot of dealers say that we have to have fees because we have to make a profit and we have to be able to sell our cars and make money into car business, especially new car business, is so competitive today. without the dealer fees, we would lose money. I agree with you.

But put the dealer fee in the advertised price of your car. And when you quote a price on the phone or by email or put it on a billboard or television or online, include all of your costs. If you have extra fees like some of the hidden fees that rental car companies have, some of the hidden fees that airlines have, you know, baggage fees,

things like that. All fees, all costs, should be included in the price. And that's my premise. So if you have something out there that you feel is legitimate that I missed, debate me. That's all I'm saying. We can take a call. 877-960-9960. We still have a few minutes. And we also have our text number for you those two timid to call. and that's 772 497-6530. That's 772-497-6530. And I'm going to ask Nancy

to talk about her form that she invented. It's called an out-the-door price affidavit.com. Tell us about that, Nancy, will you? Okay, but there is something I want to mention before we get to that real quick. I'm holding it up. The Attorney General can definitely

help us out on these dangerous recalls, these Takata bags that, how many deaths does there have to be? Please, Ashley Moody, help us, please. Now we'll get to the tool for an honest price that I invented. And, you know, I was just sitting and I was just wondering, how can we insure an out-the-door price? It's so easy. So I decided to put this form together, and you can take it. that and you can fax it or you can email it to whatever dealership that you're dealing with and you can insure an out-the-door price the price that you either saw in an advertisement no matter

what it is and also here's a bonus no dealer fees no fees of any kind added on to the price that you're quoted so go to earl on cars and download that form a tool for an honest price from a car dealer at last. The acid test, by the way, for an off-the-door price on fees is the fact that the fees that they do, there are legitimate fees, are government fees.

If they're government fees, if you're in Florida, sales tax is a government fee, registration, license plates of government fee. If the dealer pays that fee to the government, it's legitimate. Anything else that he calls a fee, if it's not government, it's added a profit. We have a text.

And I also forgot to mention dealer accessories. I mean, they add so much on to the price of the car. And our text here is from Steve in New Jersey. He says, I have a 2011 outback with black body side plastic, the trim panels. The plastic side panels are weathered. How can I remove this? Alan, that one's right up your alley, boss. There are several products available, the most common be an armor all, which is kind of messy and slimy. I think

you're going to want to look for a product called Black Magic because what happens is those start getting that bleached white, gray look and Armourall will just stay on there for a couple days, but the Black Magic, a lot of used car reconditioning guys.

That old Black Magic. Look for a product called Black Magic. It's good stuff. It'll stay on there for quite some time. And it almost makes it, well, it does make it look new for at least a month, six weeks, two months, then you're going to have to reapply it. Does that work on when you're waxing the car and you get wax onto those plastic panels? Does it get the wax off there?

Because that, it's tough to get it back off this. I don't think so. You're always better off spending an extra minute or two masking that off like you were going to paint because it's tough getting wax out of a textured black plastic like the. So take an extra 10 minutes in your wax job and just run a piece of tape over that and then wax up to the tape and pull it back off. Great advice. Okay, how many more time? Great information.

We have about three minutes. Okay, well, let me put a plug in for automotive news. This is the current issue of automotive news. You know, and even if you're not, a car dealer or a manufacturer, there's a whole lot of excellent information. You can subscribe online. I've been getting it for 50 years. I read it cover to cover. And it's inside information.

So even though you're not a car dealer or a manufacturer, you can really find out what's going on. Interesting stuff, you can't find out. Insider is really good to have. And help you buy a car, maybe. Maybe help you decide which is a good car and which is not so good. Find out all the good gossip that's going on inside. And if you have any questions, just give us a call.

Tina from Bonita Springs, one of our best female callers, she subscribes to the automotive news. Yeah, a lot of great information in there. And some of the ladies that I've spoken to are now receiving automotive news, because like I said, there's a whole lot of great information in there. Ladies and gentlemen, I just want to thank all of you for tuning in to Earl Stewart on cars, and I hope we have kept you entertained and informed. and from all of us here at Earl Stewart on Cars. I want to thank Jonathan for his participation and Mike

and what a great job these guys do. And we're a team and we wouldn't be able to do it without you. So I have to stay safe and we will be right back here next Saturday morning. Thank you.