Earl Stewart on Cars - 09.01.2018 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Palm Beach Motors

Episode Date: September 1, 2018

Earl answers various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Agent X visits Palm Beach Motors to purchase a Ford Ranger pickup that has a Takata airbag recall. Earl Stewart is one of the most successful car dealers in the nation. This podcast gives you the benefit of his 40+ years as a car dealer and helps you turn the terror of buying, leasing, or servicing a car into a triumphant experience. Listen to the Earl Stewart on Cars radio program every Saturday morning live from 8am to 10 am eastern time, or online on http://www.streamearloncars.com. Call in with your questions during the live show toll free at [phone]. You can also send a text to Earl and his expert team during the live show at [phone]. We are now on Facebook Live every Saturday between 8am and 10am. Go to facebook.com/earloncars to also watch it live or to watch a replay in case you missed it. Uncover additional automotive tips and facts at http://www.earlstewartoncars.com and follow Earl's tweets @EarlonCars. Watch Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

I guess we cut the introduction off. Now, if you stayed with me for these chaotic first five minutes of the show, your true devotees. And I thank you very, very much. I have to start all over again. I hate to be redundant. But for those of you who are listening, this is a show all about how not to be ripped off by your car dealer.

We've been on the air for over 10 years. Start out with a half-hour show, evolved to an hour, and then two hours finally here. every Saturday morning from 8 to 10. I'm not alone. I'm in the studio here with some other auto experts. I've got Rick Kearney sitting to my right. Rick is what we call an auto computer scientist.

Back in the day, they used to call Rick a mechanic. And then as time passed, they started calling him an auto technician. Now he's even more than that. He's an auto computer scientist because what you're driving is a computer on four wheels, maybe two wheels, or maybe three wheels, but probably. four wheels and Rick can answer any question that you've got about problems with your car maintenance repairs even sticks in he can talk about collision repair we have Alan Napier who appears periodically on the show who normally does collision repair but Rick is capable to answer any

question that you might have about cars and next to his right is Nancy Stewart she's my co-host now Nancy if you're video streaming us looks uh like like she's had some eye work done, and I don't mean cosmetic, I mean cataracts. She had cataract surgery, so she has heavy glasses on, and she's a real trooper because she probably ought to be home recuperating, but she insisted on coming back to the show because that's the kind of person she is. She's our female advocate. She's the one that speaks to the women in our audience who seem to be discriminated against more than men when they go into what we call the old boys club of car dealerships. We have some tips for everybody, but we have special

tips for women. And Nancy will give you the details, but we're willing to pay the first-time lady callers if they call the show. We love female callers. We have some excellent female callers, and Nancy has been able to increase the percentage of our female callers substantially, just in the past six months to a year, and we're very happy. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome. Thank you, Nancy. And then to Nancy's right is Stu Stewart. He's actually Earl Stewart III.

He's my son. He's a general manager of my dealership, and full transparency, I am a car dealer. I said that before. But I don't want you to think that Earl Stewart on cars is any kind of an infomercial. Car dealers do that. They pretend to be communicating.

In fact, a lot of retailers do. that they have infomercials try to trick you and to think they're trying to help you out really they're trying to sell their product you will not hear me try to sell my product i'm not going to tell you what my product is it's cars but we are totally non-commercial and informative as i say i'm a consumer advocate stew's rule mainly other than the fact that he knows almost as much about the car business as i do notice the almost uh he's uh he's a cyber guy you know He's not a millennial. He's a little bit past a millennial thing.

Gen X. Generation X. Yeah, Generation X. So he really understands the social media digital. And thanks to Stu, we are streaming live, Facebook video. We're doing podcasts. We're doing Instagram. We're doing Facebook, Google, Snapchat.

We have callers on the voice. We have callers on the text. We can reach you anywhere. anywhere anyway, and you can reach us anywhere anyway. We literally have callers all over the United States. Textors, people are streaming us. I don't know how far away, probably, out of the country. So he's our cyber contact.

And by the way, cars are bought online today, so it's very important. The day will come in the very near future when virtually all cars will be sold online. So you really got to be cyber smart if you want to stay on top of things. You want to get the best price and the best treatment. Now, I forgot to mention that a lot of folks out there on True Oldies channel, which is 95.9, and we are right here on this channel, and we are not going to sing to you. And I apologize if you just tuned in for some music. I hope you stuck with us, especially through the chaos of the first five minutes when we were out of control in the control room.

Correct. I want to congratulate Stu, first off. Okay. For, well, he has a 16-year-old son. That's right. That's right. And that's going to require a lot of energy. It does.

He's a post-millennial. Generation Z, I think, they're calling him. I'm not sure. But, yes, he's 16 now. He's not driving for a few more days, but. Congratulations. Yeah, please. Congratulations.

Wish me well. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. Again, give us a call tool free at 877-9-60-99-60. Or, you know that you can text us if you're a little shy at 772-497-6530. And as Earl mentioned earlier, ladies, we're building a platform here for you, a place that you can come and there's complete transparency. And we'd like to share a whole lot of information with you. We'd also like to hear from you. would like you to share with us your car buying experience or leasing or service.

And also, we would like to reward you with $50 for the first two new lady callers. You can win yourself $50 this morning. So be part of the show. And enjoy sharing your information with us by calling 877-9-60-99-60. again that text number is 772-4976530 now back to the recovering car dealer I really appreciate you giving that number out Nancy

because I get carried away and I sometimes forget it's probably the most important thing we can do for the next two hours is remind people we say this that you make the show and I know that sounds like a nice thing to make the audience feel good the fact is you really do make the show and we honestly learn things

every week from folks. I mean, we're car experts, we really are, and we might know more about most of the people that are listening to the show. But think of this, the cumulative knowledge of maybe 20,000 people listening. That's about the size of our radio audience. Cumulately of knowledge of 20,000 people is huge,

and there's far more knowledge that we have collectively in this room because there's only four of us, and I promise you, you'll hear a caller this morning. We have a few that are particularly, good, but we have a lot of people that have never called the show before, and they come up with some real nuggets. Yes, and also let me remind our audience that you can go to the new website that Earl has created, and that is Your Anonymous Feedback.com, and what a website it is, it has proven

to be quite beneficial, so take advantage of that, and it is, well, anonymous, so you can go there and you can view your opinion, you can say anything at all, and that is your anonymous feedback.com. Again, that number is 877-960-99-60, so let's get started. We've got a fantastic show ahead of us. We've got a fantastic mystery shopping report, the second hour of the show, and we have a whole lot to get to the first hour. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Yeah, speaking of the anonymous link, this anonymous link, by the way, Y-O-U-R-A-N-O-N-Y-M-O-U-S, feedback, F-E-E-D, P-A-C-K, Your Anonymous Feedback.com is totally protected, anonymous, guaranteed. I know some folks just like to give feedback. They just don't want the hassle of being identified by email addresses or phone numbers and calling in. We don't fault you for that, and we have got some extremely valuable, extremely interesting feedback on Your AnonymousFeedback.com.

Yeah, absolutely. And what a fabulous idea that was, you know, and I'm sure that everyone that's gone to that website feels very comfortable and takes you at your word, Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Let's go to Kathy, who is calling us from Jupiter. Good morning, Kathy. Hi, good morning. How are you? Well, thank you. What can we do for you? Well, I actually wanted to call because I've been a customer of Earl Stewart's for a very, very long time.

Thank you. Number one, and I want to say how happy I am with the service, mostly the technicians and the staff. I was actually just there just last week and had the pleasure of walking up to Dr. I mean, Earl Stewart and saying to him that I, totally respected his staff and said that they he should be very proud that they had he has an excellent staff there yes we are very fortunate and also i wanted to say that i just happened to have to call this morning this was purely by accident but um i found out something i never knew and i thought i wanted to share this with other people who might be in the same position as me but what happened is um i woke up and went to go get in my car my and my car key wouldn't work

my pod my little keypad and and um i called earl stewart and immediately they put me with a technician and immediately they said well on your little key pad is a little side button and if you push it there's a key in it i said i had no idea and and voila i was able to get into my car And I thought I was going to have to call locksmith and do all this stuff. And instead, I was able to, was just a phone call, and get some excellent help. And I just wanted to tell everyone, thank you for that. Well, Kathy, that's very kind of you. We really appreciate the call.

And your information, by the way, is spreading to about 20,000 listeners who may one day have the same problem. So that's what I say about callers being so valuable, that little tidbit of information. And it would have been really nice if we told you that when you bought the car. Yes. Well, the fact of the matter is. But I'm not going to say, I'm not going to say you didn't. I'm going to say I might not have remembered. Possible.

Well, you're very kind. I think Nancy has a... Kathy, thanks for bringing that to our attention. Every once in a while, you know, that gets by us at the dealership. But thank you for sharing it with our audience. And Kathy, as a first-time caller, I would like to get your information and send you out of check for $50. How do you like that?

Awesome. I love that, but I honestly call because I really have a lot of respect for Earl Stewart and because of how I feel about your company. I would not go anywhere off. I would not go anywhere off. Earl is beaming right now. We definitely appreciate your compliments. And I'll take a moment and thank everyone that is associated with

Earl Stewart, Toyota. The guy who, the service manager who took care of me, his name was Randy. His first name was Randy. Randy. And unbelievable how wonderful he was. Just wonderful. He was having a very hairy day, and he kept his composure and was so kind to me. And I could tell.

I work in an office myself, and I could tell he had it coming from every direction, and he looked right at me, right in my eyes, and really just took it. care of me and I was I was very impressed well a special thank you to Randy and Kathy if you stay on the line of John who's in the control room will get your information and I'll get the check mailed out to you and thank you so much for the phone call and thank you for sharing your information about your remote and that little key that's inside there yes that's very important. I kept telling the lady, I said, I don't think a key would fit in there. She was right. A hundred percent.

It could have turned out much differently. All right, thank you so much. You're welcome. Give us a call toll free at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. Boy, how do you like the sound effects? Is it beautiful? Yeah. Boy, the thunder. Just want to remind everybody out there in Radio Land that this. This is not an infomercial, although the last 10 minutes did sound like an infomercial.

And we're not here to boost the dealership that we're affiliated with. We're here to help you. We're consumer advocates. And we thank Kathy very much for the accolades. I can't tell you that it didn't make me feel real good to hear those words. But as I say, this is not an infomercial. We're not trying to boost the dealership that we haven't been involved with. I've been in the car business since 1968.

I've been affiliated with a lot of dealerships. over the years and that's what really has educated me to I'm kind of like, do you remember the jewel thief years ago that went to jail and then the FBI I think hired him after he got out of jail

to help find other jewel fees? Well I'm the recovering car dealer who is I kind of hired myself and that's what I do. It's like the hackers that now work with the FBI. Exactly. I know the tricks of the trade, Rick. Well, I just think it's interesting with what Kathy

brought out the idea that such a simple little thing but our cars now all cars are so complex and so complicated that when you are going from say you're driving a car that's five or six years old and now you step into a brand new car the learning curve on those new cars is incredible because there's so much new technology and so much to learn it's overwhelming no one can take it It literally takes the average person a year to learn even the most basic parts about their car, about operating everything in their car. It's like having an iPhone, and years later you figure out new stuff you didn't even know exists. Well, that's absolutely true.

And I think the message there, the purpose of this show is to convey information. And the message there is that the cars are extremely complex. We probably drop the ball in this situation. not explaining it clearly to Kathy about the hidden key in her keyless remote. But that's only one of hundreds of things, as Rick alluded to. So if you're buying a car, a later model car, new or used, you should insist on thorough tutoring before you leave that car dealership. When you're in the buying process, you are very important to car dealers, and they will pretty

much abide by anything you ask them, except maybe lowering the price. But, seriously, you should go through the owner's manual with them. You should sit in the car, drive the car before you sign on the dotted line, and be sure you know every button and switch and everything in that cockpit of the car. It's like you're sitting in a supersonic jet. That's what these cockpits look like now, and they have amazing capabilities. I'll be the first to admit, I don't know all the buttons in my car. You need to know the important ones.

probably never will understand everything in the car, but never take the car home unless you have had a thorough tutoring by that car salespeople. And car dealerships and notorious lacks in that, so beware. And you can always go back and go over all of the features in your new car. You don't have to be in, feel embarrassed about that because, as they're all said, there's so much to take in. You can't absorb it all at one time. We're going to go to Bob, who's calling us from West Palm Beach.

Good morning, Bob. Yes, good morning. Earl, I would like to have your opinion about something here. I'm a little bit in a quandary. I have a 2003 Honda Odyssey, and it was only 72,000 miles on it. Now, recently a engine light came on, and I bought it to my mechanic, and he gave me a diagnostic here. Speed, check engine light, okay.

Speed sensor code came up, and speed ratio error code. Test speed sensor, they are working improperly. Customer will need transmission overhaul. in the near future well he gave me an estimate well he has a special he doesn't do this thing himself he has a guy he worked together currently he's a specialist in transmission they gave me an estimate of three thousand dollars to fix that the transmission now it's a two thousand and three model car you know so i don't Well, you're right to be concerned, and you're right to observe the age of your vehicle,

even though the mileage isn't very high. I'm going to let Rick answer the question ultimately, but I think what you need to be concerned about is can you continue to drive the vehicle, or is this just an emission-related? Oh, no, it's drivable. But I'm very, you know, I'd be very hesitant. My mechanic tells me, well, you can drive it, but, you know, there's a reason that light came on. Sure. There is a reason, and 90% of the reasons your light comes on is because of emission-related problems.

And emissions have two problems. They pollute the air, and sometimes they can, the emission-related also could be serious enough to cause your vehicle to... No, it's transmission. Transmission. Or the transmission. Anyway, we need to decide if you have to spend $3,000, no matter what happens, you want to get

more than one estimate, not just the one technician. Yeah, I also told him. That's why he gave me a print out here. I said, you know, I'm going to get a second estimate. And he said, well, I warn you, If you bring it to any Not all They're going to say

Okay, we can do it for $1,000 And then when they take it apart They said, oh gee, we didn't see that Or blah blah, blah, you know And then all of a sudden that $1,000 becomes $4,000. Yeah, that can happen, Bob And you need to choose a reputable dealer

I would take it to a Honda dealer because Honda dealers, technicians are more trained than the independent dealers. But the same thing can happen. Car dealers typically charge more. So I just got a note from Stu that your vehicle is worth less than $10,000. So you're looking right at less than $1,000. So you're looking at paying three times the value of your vehicle. Less than $1,000.

Less than $1,000, yeah. So Rick, talk about this. technically, but I think we just about ruled out the fact that he should spend a thousand dollars or more on this repair. It was my reasoning. Yeah, because the speed sensors that they're talking about are sensors that go in the transaxil that help tell the engine how fast the car is running. And so if it's starting to have internal electrical problems like that in the transaxil, if they're trying to sell an overhaul that I don't know I mean if you're really desperate

if you definitely want to keep this vehicle I would look into the idea of a used transmission I don't think he's desperate to keep it he just wants to know if it's economic to repair it no if you're looking for that question I wouldn't repair it I would actually swing into one of those little AutoZone places and you're just ask them to clear the code, erase the code, and put it up for sale. See how long it takes for that code to stay gone because sometimes that light will stay off for a couple of months and sometimes it'll come right back on. But if it's one of those things that it just comes right back on and the car still runs pretty good, I would just go ahead and trade it in or sell it

somewhere. Either that or keep driving it. Yeah, or keep driving it until it dies. Yes. Well, the thing is, you know, if I was playing with the idea of buying a used car, you know, something under $10,000. Now, like I did here previously, you know, these new, another, I don't know, whatever, you know, it's so damn complicated, you know, everything. Sure. What I like about this car, it's very simple. Yeah, I keep the car, Bob, if I were you, how many miles, you don't put a lot of miles on the car, how many miles do you drive a year? Well, less than 10,000, well, maybe, I don't know, 7,000.

Yeah, keep on driving the car. This car might drive on for another 50,000 miles. You never know. Continue to maintain it the way you should, according to the factory recommended maintenance. Yeah, I have all the paperwork. I don't want to sell it to it. I know I can get more money from a private person. Yeah.

But I don't want to sell it to a private person. Then six months later, he has to put a new transmission in it. Bob, keep driving the car and then keep us posted. If you have some more symptoms, let us know. If you don't, we'd love to hear from you. Call us and say, hey, I've been driving that car. We talked about six months ago, and it's just driving fine. And so that's six months that you didn't have to spend any money,

and you got yourself a good car, you enjoy it. Well, I can buy a car, but buying the car, it's not a problem, you know. Well, you say it's not a problem. It's a hassle, you know, to find the right car and honest dealer. Yeah. If you like the car, you're comfortable driving it, gives you good service. Continue to drive it and keep your fingers crossed. Okay.

Okay. All right. I like that advice. Okay. Thank you. Bob, thank you for the great call. It truly was a good call. Bob, I'll take two aspirins and give us a call in the morning.

Okay, all right. All right. Thanks, Bob. We appreciate your phone call. Give us a call again. That number is 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-30. Now back to the recovering car dealer. You know, that was kind of an unorthodox answer, but I feel good about it.

I mean, how many times can you say you take your car in to have someone give you advice and you have a check engine light on with a code that you don't quite understand that they're going to tell you forget about it? Yeah. So many times that check engine light comes on, and it's just something very inconsequential. Like you need to tighten your gas cap? It's unbelievable. That's 99% of the time is the fuel cap is loose.

One of the worst things that I can say about our modern cars is with all the technology we have to keep the owner of the car, the driver of the car, so in the dark when it comes to a problem. The only people that know how to fix your car are the dealers, and then you have to worry are the dealers going to be honest with me, or are they going to be competent? So what we should have is, and we have the technology to do it, we should have the technology to tell you exactly what's wrong with the car. And Rigg is raising his hand, but I know what he's going to say,

that the technology is there now in the newer cars and coming even more so in the even newer cars where the dealership and technician will know before you know or when you know exactly what's wrong with your car for the diagnosis and what needs to be done. That technology could have been had five years ago or ten years ago. The check engine light is an idiot light. It's stupid. It was done for, I suppose, economic. purposes. It gets you, you have to come into the dealership. They want you to come

into the dealership so you can spend money and maybe buy another car or buy parts from the manufacturer through the dealer. So you should have the independence of knowing what's wrong with your car. So you have the option to take it to an independent repair shop or to another dealer if you want to. Or in this case, forget about it. You got a six-year-old car that's worth $1,000. The repair costs $3,000. Your car is running. and good, but the light came on. Turn the light off. Forget about it. Enjoy. And keep your fingers crossed.

Yeah. Thank you very much. Don't you agree that there, excuse me, there are a lot of consumers now that, you know, they take advantage of knowledge, and that's going to the Internet and finding out, you know, different things about this, the lights on the dash. For instance, I'm driving a brand new Avalon. I've got all kind of lights on my dash that are lit up. Do I care about it?

Not really, but you can take care of it yourself. I think you'd better take it to the dealer in essay. Well, I got a bone to pick with him. Anyway, that's another show. Back to the gas cap. You know, I learned early on that by adjusting that, it light goes off. So a little bit of information there. Ladies and gentlemen, you're an important part of the show.

Give us a call tool-free. At 877-960-99-60. or you can text us at 772-4976530. You know, speaking of gas caps and tanks, wasn't that an interesting story that was in the Palm Beach Post on Friday about the tainted gas that affected about 20 people? And it was quite expensive, the outcome.

They were drinking the gas? And, yes, they were drinking it, and they were putting it in their vehicle. Ha, ha, ha. Okay. It's your... No, it is, it is something

we should talk about. You got Stu giggling. Yeah. I'm going to come over there and slap you. Sorry. Well, it is, there is a good message to be learned from that, and it was a lot of people being affected from gas, from one

particular gas station. We have the article, but Nancy can't read it because of her cataract surgery. I'm not laughing at it, too. I'm laughing at this morning. You can be slapped also. Ladies and gentlemen, that article appeared in the Palm Beach Post. That was Friday's newspaper, and that was out at Jupiter Farms Mobile in Jupiter Farms.

And there was one particular situation where it cost this woman $1,300 because of the water that affected her gas. And she realized that there was something wrong whenever the... the gas was going into her tank, and it was moving so slow. And she finally just said, I don't have enough time to fill up my tank. So I don't know. She might have been replacing her whole engine if she would have filled her tank. A lesson to be learned when you're choosing your gas station is choose a brand name gas. Choose one in a high traffic area.

Price, of course, is a consideration. But when you use off-brand and you use gas stations that are not used frequently, you have, first of all, off-brand gas that you're not quite as sure about the reliability of how long that gas was sitting in the distillery or the storage tanks or in the tank at the gas station. And you also have the fact that if you don't use the gas in the gas station a lot, you don't have fresh gas frequently. So the last part of that lesson is always keep your gas receipts. Use one gas station, name brand glass, in a high traffic area, so the gas turns over frequently. And if you do have a problem, we've experienced this in years past with our customers when they have problems with contaminated gas. If they have the receipt and they know the station they bought it from, the gas company will take care of it. they'll take care of the repair.

I think they have insurance for that, as a matter of fact. But if you can't remember where you bought the gas, well, you've got a problem, Rick. Well, as a matter of fact, one of the big ones that comes to mind was Shell. Probably about 12 years ago had a problem with their stations. The fuel they shipped out had excessive sulfur content. And when they realized it, they announced it almost statewide and said, if anyone has issues with Shell gasoline and you show the receipts saying that you had repairs and that you had bought Shell gasoline, they stepped up and they covered it.

And it was an amazing corporate decision on their part. But they took care of it. Yeah. So all these gas stations have insurance to reimburse you for whatever. Especially the big name brands like Shell, Exxon, Mobile. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I have my list of favorite places to go and people to see my mechanic, a favorite person, someone that I always see. A gas station where I always get gas. Who's your favorite mechanic? Rick Kearney. Oh, okay. No, I'm sorry, Glenn Ballard. Yeah, I like Glenn better.

You notice. Wow. Usually, it won't be as easy as Rick described usually, and they normally don't get on TV. That must have been a widespread problem. It was, yeah. Usually when you go to your gas station, they'll give you a little bit of static. And they have to contact the supplier because these gas station operators, if they own the gas station, they don't know what's going on. But you have to contact Sonoco or Texaco or Chell or whoever you're talking to. And when you get up there, you have your receipt.

They usually pick up the tab for the repair without an argument. Yep. 877-960-9960 is our call-in number, and 772-497-6530 is our text. The text is 772-497-6530, and we have two texts, and Stu's going to read these. That's right. The first one was a comment on the caller with The Odyssey. He said, it's more of a comment than a question. Rick, clear code to sell it quick.

L.O.L. Maybe clear that up on air. Rick is probably too embarrassed to do that, but I'll do it because this is, unless you want to tell us, Ruth. I'm not too embarrassed. It's a very common thing. Frank, hold on. Rick's going to explain something for a second, then we're going to take your call. It's a very common thing to let the buyer beware, but I will clarify one thing. My intention would be sell it to someone like CarMax or the local Honda dealer.

and let them be the ones to worry. I would not recommend selling that private sale to someone else on the street. Can you sell it to an enemy? I mean, I know some people that I don't like very well. Can I sell it to them? Yeah, I think we'll help you. I think we're getting in the weeds. I'll clear the code right before we sell it to them.

Okay. Our number is 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-60. Hope I didn't repeat those numbers too quickly for you. I'll be repeating them again. We're going to go to Frank in Jupiter Farms. Welcome to the show, Frank. Hey, good morning, Earl and Nancy. Morning.

Good morning, Frank. Welcome. Well, your show always triggers so many things to think about to call in. The most recent one with a gas station mobile, since I live in Jupiter Farms, I've passed by that station every day. And I don't shop there, so I guess I was lucky. Uh-huh. But in regards to the gasoline, just the other day, I was at one of the Sams or Costco, and one of the ladies who said she worked at a gas station, she said, it's all the same gas.

The high tests and regular are always the same, and it doesn't. And I said, well, you know, since you all talked about before, if it was recommended or advised about high tests, you know, the two cars I have that require high tests, I'm sure they wouldn't run very well in regular. But in regards to like you were saying about this last gas station, I do get a receipt each time. Smart printed paper and stuff. Just in the event that something does go wrong with the gas, you have the proof that you did buy there. Because a lot of times when you self-fill, they say, see, you want a receipt, yes or no. I just say yes and keep in the glove box for the next few weeks I'm making sure.

So there's that. But here we go back to buying cars. Oh, my goodness. You're going to love this part. We spoke two weeks, excuse me, two weeks ago, I was the one that went down to H. Greg about a Ford pickup, King Ranch, they advertised. It was not at all the same truck. And then your mystery shopping was amazing, thank you.

So in my question to find a good Fort King Ranch, I was going almost as far as Daytona because Molomax down here didn't have the particular one I wanted, but one their dealerships up there did, and they couldn't bring it down here for whatever reason, so I had a drive up there. On my way there last week to actually buy the truck, we passed another Ford dealer in Palm Bay. It's called Palm Bay Ford. So we gave them a quick call, and they said, oh, we're going to save you $10,000 off the MSRP on that truck. Turn around and come back.

So I said, okay, we turned around and came back. And by the line, they actually had the truck I was looking for with even one more package. I added a few thousand dollars, but it was a safety stuff about automatic brake. And if you got too close and people across, anyway, it was a nice package. We worked the deal out, and I mentioned the fact that my daughter is looking for a car because her husband's car just died. He said, oh, we got cars. Well, they don't have much money.

They're in college. and he says, well, we got plenty of them. They're going to go out to wholesale lots and we can get you one for $3,000 or $4,000 and da-da-da-da. So they drove me up the following week to pick up my truck. They were getting ready. And they wanted to look at the $3,000 or $4,000 car. Well, they had one.

Oh. You open the door, the stench of the previous owner smoking was better than a tear gas. It's awful. So we looked around the lot, and there was some other ones. in particular, 2014, I believe, Fusion, that was listed around 14, or 12,000, 12 to 14. They test drove the car, they loved it down their price range. So the salesman took me aside, said, look, why don't you just put something down on your credit

cards, like 5,000, and we'll pretend that the price went down and they can buy the car at a reasonable rate. And I said, no, I offered to my daughter, would I like to put some. money down. She said, no, I don't want any of your money. No, it's okay. No, I don't. She was very adamant about that. Sorry. Oh, no, that's okay. So at which point, we went to have a lot of time, I'm still waiting to get my papers and get the walk around all my pickup truck that I paid a good amount

for. And he said, no, no, we'll get to that. That's like you talked earlier about all the buttons and switches in your new vehicle. Yeah. So I was waiting for that, you know, pre-flight of my truck. yet he text me and says oh the dealer the general manager and the owner said you did such a great service buying that truck we're going to give you $5,000 off your purchase price so that was in writing and the text messages to my phone and my daughter saw it while I was in the bathroom and they go wow now instead of being $12,000 it's down to $7,000 it's in their price range and they bid and then we got there by the way at 915 that more and pick up my truck. This is now after lunch, and they're still working the deal on their car. And so, anyway, it was not until 8.15 that evening.

We finally left that dealership. Oh, my. Here's how they all came in. They kept postponing, postponing her going into signing the papers, waiting until the very end of the night. They didn't give me the owner's manual or the key to my truck yet because he was wanting to show me parts about it. Anyway, long story short, we did like that one guy.

I couldn't believe, 38 to 40 pages of signatures, unbelievable. Yeah, incredible. And the very last one is where she called it. She said, the sales tax doesn't add up for, you know, a $7,000 vehicle versus $12,000. Good for her. And they put it right on the very bottom cash deposit. Oh, my. When she realized that what happened, she was furious.

she's still mad she's not talking to me terrible here's a secret that we learned from your show we did not take delivery of the car it was still there they asked them earlier to pull it out there we're going to be closing the gates can you put it just outside because we're going to be closing the gates and so they said that's where they took delivery

by moving the car from the parking lot to outside the gates on that night she gave the papers back She wouldn't take the car. They drove home in their car. They drove us up in. I was driving home in the new truck trying to figure out all the buttons and switches that they never told me. They never did show me.

He said, just come back in two weeks. We'll do it then. And we'll fill your tank of gas for your trouble. No manual, no key. So anyway, we're home the next day. What had transpired, the salesman said, your dad is going to lose his $5,000 deposit if you don't take delivery of this car. Oh, my. and put stress on him.

So that I called the guy back on Saturday morning. It's all transpired last Friday night. And actually, Saturday morning, I'm calling the guy. He says, nope, you sign the papers. Loan was authorized. It's your car. Then they got so to the point. They said, I said, no, it's still there.

No, we're going to put it on a flatbed and deliver it to your driveway. And now you've got the delivery. And I said, don't send the truck down here. I'm not going to take the car. We went round and around. and I did speak to one of your sons, Jason. And he said, you didn't take delivery. Florida, Aloha. End the story.

So all week we've been back and forth, bottom line. They still got the car, and I finally got my $5,000 back just last night. Well, I'm glad it had a happy end of it. But that is, I thank you for an extremely benefiting story to a lot of people listening from your lesson. and also the fact you've given us new shopping target. So, mystery, we'll be going in. I hope they're listening because they're never going to know when we come in, but we're going to hit Palm Bay forward, I assure you.

And what they did is just about the worst we've heard in a while. That is really harsh. That is something that somebody could go to jail for lying to a customer like that and trying to, they pull out all the tricks and the stops, keeping you there the whole time, not putting anything in writing that you could attack them for, and then threatening to keep the deposit. That is just cold-blooded and terrible. So thank you for sharing that with us, Frank.

Thank you, Frank. All the details, fantastic. It was not mind-boggling and numbing. I mean, it was like, again, if I haven't been listening to a show for all these years and also being a very, you know, how should I say, senior citizen for shopping all these years in my lifetime, it was like books from, you know, 20, 30 years ago, the playbook of all their, all their done.

Yeah. Oh, by the way, I still don't have my owner's manual. They gave it to another person, and I'm still waiting for my keys of my owner's manual. Yeah. Just for fun, you probably had a call forward on the 800 number and register a formal complaint with Palm City Ford.

That'll go on the record. And for that matter, you could also call, you know, the Better Business Bureau and report them on that consequence. It'll get their attention. Sometimes the dealers don't know what's going on in the trenches. This could be just a rogue sales manager, salesman, or both doing this. And the owner of Palm Bay Ford,

if you could get hold of him, it would be interesting. But at least you got the King Ranch you were looking for at a good price. and I'm sorry they had to try to take advantage of you and your daughter that way. That was terrible. Yes, well, thank you again for you guys being on the air, and we really appreciated it. Well, Frank, let me tell you, they didn't know who they were dealing with because, you know, we appreciate your call every week. You know, you always have something fantastic to share with us,

and your credentials speak for themselves. So shame on them. And, you know, we talk about the Gallup poll every week, and it's really very unfortunate that the honesty and ethics and so many other things that go on today in the 21st century. You alluded to the fact that, you know, many years ago, you know, 20, 30 years ago, you know, in the 40s and 50s, we expected this kind of, well, we didn't even know we were being treated that way. But thank you so much for the phone call and sharing your experience with us. Yeah, it's going to be interesting when you do a mystery shopping there for sure. We'll have fun with that one, yeah. They pulled every trick possible.

I mean, every time we called, I mean, it was a different line, a different malarkey. It was just amazing. But thanks again, y'all have a good, great day. Thank you. Thanks, Frank. Hey, we're looking at these online reviews right now. They got a lot of bad ones. Mainly on their service department.

But there's some similar stories I'm seeing online here. So, Frank, maybe give them a review or two, you know, let them help warn other people. Yeah, if you're still listening, Frank, a Google review, a, you got dealer reader review, you got Yelp reviews, Cars.com, Cars.com. You can really keep them busy, yeah. Yeah, hit them where it hurts. Ladies and gentlemen, give us a call toll-free at 877-960-99. or you can text us at 772-4976530. And Tamara, if you're still listening, give us a call back.

I'd love to hear from you. Back to the recovering car dealer. Well, we have a text, too. What's the next text? Yes, we do. Anonymous text, but it says, I have two questions. First one is, what are electronic filing fees? And the second question, if a car is noted for having transmission problems like the Ford Fiesta,

are dealers required to let people know? Well, let's do with the electronic filing fee. A great question because it's one of the most common scams that car dealers have come up with. It started many years ago when there was just a dealer fee, and most dealers called it a dealer fee or a dealer prep charge. And then they got more creative, and they started coming up with different names for this dealer fee, which is defined as additional profit to the dealer.

in Florida, unfortunately, because of the lack of regulation and good legislation in Florida, car dealers are allowed to call dealer fees, adding additional profit to the car after they advertise or quote the price. They were able to call it anything they want to. One of the things they call it is electronic filing fee. Now, what better way to describe something you want to confuse. To disguise something. It even confuses me. Electronic filing fee sounds so good.

and valid and governmental, but electronic filing fee is additional profit to the dealer. It sounds official. Yeah. And the second part of the question. If a vehicle has like a known issue, say a transmission, they side of the Ford Fiesta, are dealers required to inform the customers of that? No, they are not. And one of the problems, when there is a chronic problem with a car, it can become a recall.

That's only if the National Highway Traffic Safety Association says so. There can be something called technical service bulletin, which goes only to the dealers. And frankly, car dealers get so many of these bulletins, a lot of car dealers don't even know about the technical service bulletins. Before I continue with that answer, let me say that Dan from Jupiter is holding, and I'll be right with you, Dan. As soon as we complete that answer, thanks for the call, be right there. Technical service bulletins are something that you can research online. You can even call the dealer and insist that they check if you have a symptom with your car. If you come into a dealership, it's always a good question to ask the service manager.

Is there anything out from the manufacturer, a technical service bulletin? They call them TSB, technical service bulletin, that would address this problem. Rick, you're looking my way, so jump in. I would go to the old friend Google. One of the interesting things is, and this actually isn't known by a lot of people, but all those technical service bulletins that wind up at the dealerships, every single one of them is also available online as well. And sometimes before they become technical service bulletins, they appear on Google.

A lot of that information gets out on Google. Bing, the other search sites, but one of the best places that I've found good information is on the forum sites for various models of cars. Just about every single car that has been made, there's a group of people out there that have a forum site online. And you can find that through Google, right? Yep. You Google it and just look for the forums for that particular model of car, and you'd be amazed at the number of people that when you search through the threads, the conversations on there, the number of people that will have had the exact same issues that you might have seen, and also they'll be more than happy to talk to you about common

issues that they've seen with their own cars. I love Google. So it's a great way to find information. I love Google. Dan, thank you for holding, and welcome to the show. What can we do for you? you there dan yeah yep yep i'm here how can we help you i'm here good morning well i don't my service visit at a recent mazah dealership that i went for service um i took my car in and it's

in it's in pretty good shape i do most of the uh maintenance myself and um i took it in for a recall and the service advisor came back and he said well i've got two issues for you and you got to take care of one you've got to take care of one of them right now. And he says that he did a load test on my battery, and he said it's showing that it's failing. And he's saying that your battery needs 775 cold cranking amps, and we tested it, and it's only got $5.96, so you fail. And I thought, well, gee, that's odd.

775 seems pretty high to me, but I didn't really think about it because the battery's under warranty. It was only three months old, and I said, you see the sticker? It says 518. It's brand new. I'm not replacing the battery. and he said, oh, okay, no problem.

He said, well, your brakes are getting pretty low. You should probably think about doing that next time. And I thought, hmm, well, that's weird because I replaced my break to myself three months ago. So when I talked to this, and I showed him the picture on my phone because I take pictures of everything. That's my service records. You know, I just take pictures that, you know, the oil, the receipt, you know, when I put in a set of breaks, take a picture, take a picture of the receipt for the breaks. Great idea.

That's what I do. I showed him the picture, and the service manager's answer was, well, we made a set of, you. mistake on the battery, um, we, we put in the wrong value. And on the brakes, they said, well, the tech that, that inspected your brakes, he wasn't the one that filled out the form. So that was, that was the answer for that one. Oh, boy. Uh, you know, uh, Dan, I know you don't want to, and I thought, well, who filled out the board then? Yeah, it's, uh, are you, do you not want to mention the dealer's name? Uh, well, that's okay. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I don't want to appreciate it.

They did offer, I'm going to leave them out of it. They did offer me a free oil change as a response. You know, they said that they were sorry and everything. But I wanted to get your opinion on the battery thing most of all, because to me, I've had this happen like twice now at different dealerships. Is this like a common thing where they just set the, they set the requirements so high so that every battery failed automatically? because 775 seems way too high for a Mazda four-cylinder.

Well, before Rick addresses that issue, let me just say that every person in the service drive when you come into a cartilage ship, in fact, independent repair also are paid on commission. And they have quotas, they have bonuses, and sometimes they'll have emphasis on certain items. Tires, batteries, they'll have contests. So you're not talking to a service advisor. They call themselves service advisors. They're commissioned salespeople. And if you have a commissioned salesperson that's honest,

there's nothing wrong with commission, but it's a temptation to a dishonest person that you have to watch out for. This one person you were talking to was just not honest, and he's on commission, and he was trying to sell you a battery. And whether he needed a battery or not, he was going to try to sell you a battery.

Unfortunately, he ran into a sharp, guy like you that does his own work and he couldn't he couldn't trick you but you have to be very careful um the person that works into an intercar dealership be a car salesman or a service advisor slash salesman is is probably more important than the dealership itself when you find a good salesperson to buy cars from stick with them when you find a good service advisor that you have a relationship with you the right kind of chemistry and you feel that is honest then you stick with them too but when you get a guy like this, ask to speak to another person immediately

or go to another dealership. Rick wants to address the 775 amp requirement versus 596. First quick question. You say you've got a four-cylinder Mazda. What model is it? It's a Mazda 6 with the two and a half liter. Okay.

Yeah, that car really should have, I'm going to compare it to being like the same basic thing as a four-cylinder camera. and I'm going to say that the battery that would work best in that car should be about 575 cold cranking amps. Now that's measured the, there's two measurements. One will say cranking amps measured at 32 degrees and the other one is the cold cranking amps measured at zero.

We always go with the cold cranking amps. That way we're always comparing apples to apples. And 575 would be more than adequate for that car on a brand new battery and you would have no problems with that battery lasting three to five years minimum if not a lot longer yeah so 775 what they did

somebody goofed up and they just they just set a high because they were trying to rip you off basically that's all there is to it yeah and I think that's what it is I've got I actually like I said I take photos of everything when I do my work and the original Mazda 6 battery says 550 on the front of it The battery that I have, again, which I took a picture of, and showed in the picture, I said it's a 575, so 596 is great.

And 775, I mean, I can't even think of any Mazda that would come through that dealership that wouldn't require 775. So I just don't see that as an oversight. I see that as like, yeah, set it really high, so everything fails. Now, that was pretty much, I'll call it what I see it as. To me, that sounds like a rip-off. somebody was getting a spiff they were having a contest if you sell X number

of batteries we're going to give you an extra commission on each of those batteries so if you can sell 30 batteries in a month you're going to get an extra $3 per battery and those things add up so they will do that

okay well thanks very much very educational call I'd love to hear back from you because you've got that mechanical savvy, and when you go to the service department, you'll probably have some other interesting stories. Yeah, Dan, I like your style.

Taking all those pictures. I got a pile of them, man. Yeah, that's a great idea. Very great idea. Will you call next week? Stay in touch. Yeah, sure. I'll think of another one. I'll give you a call next week. Appreciate it. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-30.

And we're going to go to Kelly, who's holding. She's calling from Broward. Welcome to the show, Kelly. Good morning. How are you guys? We're great. Good morning. It's nice to hear from you.

Thank you. So I wanted to call in because I actually am in the business myself, but I'm on the BDC side. So I basically wanted to ask, I went through my last car actually through a broker. So that broker was a friend of a friend. And if I can say semi-trusted, I believe that would probably be the business. pretense for how I felt about working with them. And I know, well, of course, when you trust a friend of a friend, you kind of want to have that defense in your mind.

Everything was super easy. I love my car. The issue is that at the time of signing, I didn't really ask why, but, you know, I had a certain amount on my paperwork as to what my, I believe my Inceptions would be, I guess in this case, because it's a lease. So I did pay that to my brand. I'll say that it was Lexus that I bought with. And that was the written amount in text on my contract, okay?

But following that, my broker had me pay the first month payment in cash to them. So I never really brought that up again, but it's always kind of been in the back of my head as maybe I had gotten ripped off. I never really wanted to come at them like that. I would never want to, you know, offend my friend. But I wanted to ask, is that something normal to see? If you have a broker who's doing leasing, because that's huge in South Florida now,

is that something common to see? Are they ripping people off? Kelly, you know, it's just like a lot of other things, car salesmen, they're good brokers and there's bad brokers, dishonest and otherwise brokers of course get paid a commission that's how they make a living and the amount of the commission can be substantial

I'm a car dealer and I've been one for a long time we've dealt with brokers over the years some of the brokerage commissions are extremely high and I would say a common commission would probably be $500 I've seen them as high as $5,000

and so one single lease yes and you you have to remember that you're paying this middleman which is going into the price of the car because the car dealer cannot afford to pay the broker you don't pay the broker the car dealer does so whatever he pays a broker is added to the purchase price of the car now that's okay as long as it's fair what I would recommend people that are inclined to use brokers is to have the understanding upfront clarified in writing preferably how much is the

car dealership paying you. And then what is the deal that you're going to get me from the car dealer? And does that include your fee? And so what is the, you know, what is the net effect? Am I getting a fair price or not? Brokers do one thing for you. They help you avoid the hassle and hopefully get you a better price. I prefer, which you could almost call them online brokers. You can use someone like Truecar that has an arrangement with the car dealers and they will post a price and it will not have any extras and extra fees. True Car, Costco Auto Program is another broker.

Consumer Reports, which is affiliated with TrueCar, they have an auto buying program too. But the old-fashioned broker still exists. Some of them are good. Some of them are honest. Some of them are dishonest. I've talked to people that have used the same broker for years and years, bought five, six, seven cars from the same broker,

feel very comfortable with them and feel like they do a good job. job. So this is your first experience. I really had no other complaints. I mean, it was a pretty easy experience, but I just kind of wanted to ask someone with expertise only because it kind of left a sour

taste in my mouth, because you know, the cash part, obviously, was $500. When you say it. That's why, you know, obviously I had a negative equity, so I rolled that into a lease, and I do have a $500 favorite. Yeah. But

you know, that was equal to my first payment, but it just, it kind of rubbed me the wrong way, and my lease is coming to an end, and I'm just wondering, I mean, if I actually goes through the same broker, I mean, I know that true car is great, but as far as leasing, you know, I didn't know that they covered leasing and stuff like that. They do. They do cover leasing. Kelly, when you say cash, you're talking U.S. currency, greenbacks, they wouldn't take a check

or a credit card? No, it was actual cash. That's suspicious. That's highly suspicious. You never want to give a car salesman a cash deposit, and you never want to give a broker cash either. Cash is you can't trace it, and if it comes up later on, it's his word against yours.

So you need a paper trail. You get that with a check. You get that with a credit card. But I'm not saying that he swindled to you, but I share your concern that asking for it in coal cash. That's a red flag. Yeah. There's a red flag.

Gotcha. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Thanks for what you're doing. Kelly, really helping out consumers. Kelly, are you a, is this your first call to Earl Stewart on cars? It is. Okay. My mom watches every single. Oh, well, thank you. You know, thank you for sharing that story with us. There's so many ways that the brokers, the dealers can deceive you and getting all the details up front in this whole cash. thing is such a red flag. And again, I want to thank you for sharing that with Earl Stewart on cars. And please give us a call again. And because you're a first-time caller, I would like you to stay on the line and give John in our control room your contact information so that I can

million out a check for $50. Awesome. Thank you guys. Oh, you're welcome. And please spread the word. Let's all wave at Kelly's mom. She's watching right now. Wave with the camera. Hey, Kelly's mom. Hi, Kelly's mom. Okay, well, give us a call again, and please spread the word. We're trying to create a platform right here for the ladies to come to us for, well, advice, and also their opinion on so many different things that they can share with us. Awesome, thank you. You're welcome.

We're going to go to North Palm Beach, where Davy is been holding. Thank you for your patience. Good morning. Good morning. I called last week about a problem with a dash on my O-4 Salara, and Mr. Stewart told me to be persistent, but I didn't get too far. I talked to Randy in your service department. He looked it up.

He looked at up the serial number and all, said the car was too old. And then he said, well, try calling Toyota. He gave me a number for Toyota. They gave me a case number, talked to somebody. They asked me if I was the original owner. I told him no. And they said, how long has it been cracking? and I said, well, I've only had the car two years.

It started, and they asked me miles, which was 65,000 miles. And she said, I'm sorry, I really can't help you. I said, can I speak to a supervisor? I got the supervisor's name. The recall was a Z-E-6 number they had. They gave me a case number. She talked to me for a while. Everybody was very nice.

And they said, because I'm the second owner, and the car is that old, they can't help me. Am I done? I wouldn't say so, David. I'm going to get personally involved in this See if I can't help you It's a shame that it has to be this way And a lot of you folks out there It's kind of like what's you've seen these old things

Never never never never never give up You just have to keep plugging Getting manufacturers to repair Defective products is like pulling teeth sometimes They just don't like it And you have to push and push and push So what I will do is I will get involved and if you'll call the show

well actually I'll call you and we'll let you know what we can do but I'll give it another shot you have to take it up the line sometimes it shouldn't be this way manufacturers with the defective products should belly up to the bar take care of it

fix the problems but they don't but this is old too it's an 04 car so I can understand that part of it it is but the point is but the point is they've acknowledged the defect the dash was made out of material that was cracking and melting and pitting in high heat conditions. So they know that.

The fact that dash is old, the fresher dashes were cracking too. So they spent millions and millions of dollars and maybe another thousand dollars isn't going to kill them. I'm going to give it a try. I'm not promising anything, but I'll give it my best shot, and I'll call you. Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Call me, Earl. 877. Okay. Thank you. Bye-bye.

877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. We're going to go to Bob, who's calling from Lake Park. Good morning, Bob. Hi, how you doing? I wanted to talk about spare tires or the lack thereof. If someone's lucky enough to have a spare tire, they should always check it periodically because over time you could lose air pressure in a spare tire. Most people probably just let it sit back there and they never look at it. Secondly, a lot of the cars they sell today do not have spare tires.

They give you this little kit to inflate your tire if you have a problem. And I give a warning to all your listeners, do not. use that kit and the reason being is it destroys the uh the sensor the tire pressure monitor sensor that's in the tire good point and you're going to be on hook to replace that so the simplest thing to do is to go on amazon or something and just buy one of these small little uh inflators uh that you can run it off your cigarette lighter and you 25 to 30 dollars you buy it you keep it in there and if you have a problem, use that to get your tire filled up until you can take it to wherever you're going to get the tire looked at.

Well, thank you very much. That's good advice. Rick has a point he wants to make. That's actually excellent advice because what a lot of folks don't know is those cans of Fixa Flat that you can buy in the stores can very easily damage sensors. And also, when you use Fixa Flat, it makes it to wear a simple puncture on that tire that could have been repaired cannot be repaired.

If fix-a-flats-in-a-tire, it cannot be patched, and plugs are not a safe repair. So that makes that tire worthless anyways. I'm talking about the kit that the manufacturer puts in the car. Exactly. They sell cars now a lot of cars without spare tires to reduce the weight so they can get better fuel economy on these cars. And so in place of the spare tire, they give you this kit. And if you read, a lot of people don't read, I read everything. You know, it's like that fellow said he didn't get his own's manual.

How many people you actually sit down and read the owner's manual? Nobody. Probably maybe 1% of everybody that buys a car. Right. I mean, but if you look at the fine print on that can, it'll tell you, it ruins, you're going to have to replace this, the tire pressure, on that so you go in if you have a problem you might you might not all you might be able to patch the tire but now you have to pay for a new sensor so you know just it's always something

you know that they come up with these things and people are unaware of what the situation is and it always winds up course you more money if you don't do your due diligence well that's a great call and those those kits actually contain two parts usually quite often there is an air pump included with it so if you check your car if you if you do have one of those kits if you've got that air pump just use just the air pump and refill the tire with just air and you'll be safe to get you back on the road at least to get to where you can safely get somewhere and get that tire repaired right well it's the one that they provide in the Ford cars uh just doesn't have that option ah okay yep you just you got one

option and it puts the sealant in there and it mixes it in and the next thing you're in know you're on the hook for a new tire pressure sensor well bob thanks for being part of the show this kind of this kind of information is invaluable a lot of folks out there didn't understand that and now they do so thank you so very much for taking the time to call the show with that very valuable information for the one other thing do you think at some point in time the owner's manual will become obsolete and there'll be a different way of people getting information right through the car system. In other words, you could talk to the car if you have a question about how something works and it would just give you the explanation on your screen and you wouldn't

really need the manual. That's a great idea. I hope so. My owner's manual is like a Webster's dictionary. Most of them today, the cars are so complex, to put that in text and print and expect someone to read it is silly. And then when you don't read it and you have a problem, they'll say, well, it was in your owner's manual

so you're responsible. That's like the fine print. When you sign a contract, all the fine print, you're responsible of reading it, nobody reads it. There's got to be a better way. I love your idea. Talk to your car. Voice recognition. That's got to be inevitable. That's going to happen. Yeah. Some luxury

correct that happens but i want to ask you about the uh everything i've been reading about the the cars that are coming out with the issue with the tariffs and so forth it appears to me and also the transportation course on new cars is going to go through the roof because they can't find drivers for these trucks and everything uh i know you advise somebody to wait for the two 2019's because he was interested in buying a car. But in lieu of what's going to happen here, and from everything I've been reading, wouldn't you, if you're in that market to buy a car,

wouldn't it behoove you to do it now and not wait for the new cars where you're going to get sacked with this extra money? Bob, this is only my opinion. I think that there's a lot of hype. I think there's a lot of strategizing. a lot of lobbying by auto manufacturers. This whole tariff thing, I think, is being blown out of proportion.

I saw an article in the paper from Toyota the other day, and it was during their record earning quarter, and they were talking about what the tariffs would mean to them over the full course of the year with all the models that they sold, and you're talking like $100 a car. Most of the manufacturers are screaming a bloody murder and trying to frighten the public and to frighten the politicians and not doing the tariff thing.

But this is just my opinion. I could be wrong. Nobody knows what's going to happen with the tariffs. But I still stick with my recommendation to buy the new model car and not the last year model car. And if you have to wait a month or two... What I read was the RAP 4 was going to be

approximately $6 to $700 more due to the pending legislation with the taps. And I also read that if you were in the market for an Audi A4, that was going to be $10,000 more, which is a big number when you think about it. So depending on the type of car you're going to buy, you could really get whacked with this thing. And, you know, the other thing they're discussing is also the content. So they're discussing that the pots that are used in the car is going to have to contain more parts that are made in this country.

So in order to help boost the manufacturing in this country, which is also going to add to the price of the costs. Well, remember the manufacturers have a lot to say with the prices. Just because the tariff, it goes up and they have additional costs, doesn't mean they're going to charge you. competition is a huge thing. And if you're selling RAP-4s and somebody else is selling another model, Toyota has to take that in consideration, especially when it comes to trucks. The manufacturers make a huge amount of money on trucks.

When it comes to cars, it's a different thing. The profit margin on cars is very low. But on a Silverado truck, General Motors makes about $10,000 on a silver auto truck. And then when the dealer sells it, he's got a $10,000 markup to you. Not that he's going to get the markup, but the manufacturer always gets their markup when they sell it to the dealer. So if you've got a $10,000 markup when you sell it to the dealer and they have a $4,000 tariff, you can absorb the tariff if you want to be competitive with Ford and some of the other truck sellers. So we won't know what's going to happen to prices.

Just because tariffs go up, they won't necessarily be passed along consumers. So I still stick with my recommendation by a current model car. And if you have to wait a month or two, do it, I'd risk it on the tariffs. I don't think it's going to be as bad as people make it out. Right. Do you know how much they make on a Ferrari when they sell a Ferrari? No, I don't. I have no idea.

80,000. Wow. And on a Porsche, 15,000. Oh, man. Mercedes, Audi's, around 10,000. You know, those people, they're dealing with a certain market and probably will not affect them as much, but for some of the other manufacturers that are dealing with people that are not spending that kind of money,

between that and the transportation costs now, how much is delivery costs on a Toyota? About $1,000. Bob, you're a great caller, but we've got a bunch of people stacked up here, and we've got to get to our mystery shopping report. Would you please call again next week? Yes, I will.

I appreciate you. You're a great caller. Thank you very much. much we're going to go to john who's holding john is calling from palm city good morning john good morning uh congratulations to nancy coming back so soon um i just want to mention something about nancy i'm following cars closely as a hobby mostly and interest in them for by 56 years and i never never remember any female consumer advocate i would say nancy is the first and probably only. I mean, there were men before. People know the name, Ralph Nader, probably Tom McCall,

but Nancy has to be congratulated as the consumer advocate number one that I remember ever. Now, address the problem of dashboards that people talk about, and they leave like a dog or even a child sometime. According to Professor Jennifer Vanos, she's family medicine at University of California and San Diego School of Medicine. She did extensive research on heat, and the summer heat in the car goes to 116 degrees in one hour. The dashboard goes up to 165 degrees also in an hour. Even parked in the shade, the inside of the car goes in that shade.

People think I'm fine. I'm parked in the shade. It's going to be real cool inside. the temperature still goes to 100 degrees in one hour inside the car, and in the shade, the dash goes to 118 degrees. So that's the caution of people that just may forget, leave a dog or a baby, even within a short amount of time, that just shows you the temperature.

Now, the gentleman that called about Ferraris, it's interesting to know last weekend the world red record was set on that 250 GT of they expected 60 million however it did set a world record of 48 million dollars for one automobile just picture that what's a salesman the world would spend that kind of money I mean just for instance the way the stock market is climbing you imagine spending I mean investing that in the market and rather than buy a car So, astonishing real record of 48 million. And then also, we discussed buttons with cars like Kavana. Just an interesting thing about it, right here in Stewart,

are the buttons in the Elliott Museum. You press a button and the cars that are stored in there, the old cars, it's the biggest Model A collection in the United States. You press a button and bingo. There it comes down on a rack, and there's the car that, well, you can't do it yourself. There's an attendant, usually a volunteer. But they have that system in there.

Very cool. I'd like to see that. Nothing new. I mean, it's right in the area over here. And it's an interesting place. It's in Hutchison Island that people want to go to. And it has the button system. And it breaks down from time to time, I heard.

But it's interesting to see how to cause all of a sudden just election from up on top stories that it comes down and it's right in front of you to look at. Yeah, that's amazing. So I just want to mention those things. Well, thank you, John. That'd be interesting to see. John, let me take a moment and tell you that I'm humbled by your compliments. You are such an important part of our show from the very beginning.

John has been with us forever. Thank you so much, John. And, John, keep those mailers coming. Okay. Thank you and congratulations and welcome back again. Oh, thank you so much. I look forward to hearing from you again. We are going to New Jersey, and we're going to be talking to Steve.

Hello? Hey, Steve. Hi, I've got to try and figure out how to get it off speaker. Okay, I'm in good shape. Great. Good morning. How are you? Good morning.

We're so happy to hear from you. I've been watching you on Facebook for a while. It wasn't working so well. Oh, so I do have a question. We'll have to smile. We're on video, too. Thank you. Don't forget.

Well, it's hard to get you when I'm in New Jersey. Now, we're in Florida, we're in Jensen Beach. Oh, okay. Well, thank you. Now, here's my question, and this is, it's uncommon. I mean, we have a 2016 accurate, R-DX, and we also have a 2008 Ford, Edge. both of them are all-wheel drive now mind you when I was shopping in Florida

I said all-wheel drives are not common there no but the the Accura is throwing codes out that say change the differential oil this dual pump system fluid at 15,000 miles

and it's approximately on the car and I'm wondering how important is that and why is it that Ford has never asked us to do that. Well, it sounds pretty important. Rick is furring his brows. We might be in trouble. 15,000 miles?

That almost sounds like, that was on your Ford or you're accurate? Well, the Ford has about 90-some-odd thousand miles on it. And we've never changed this differential fluid in it. Mind you, I mean, I usually do all my own fluid changes. So I was starting to investigate what this is, as I say, because I've done, I also have an old 944 turbo sitting in my garage, and I've changed the transaxil gear oil on it. And it's not a very difficult job to do. But with this car, it's a little, getting underneath it is a little trickier.

But it's a question. The question is, why would one manufacturer tell us about this and another knot? And are the cars that different from one another, or should I be doing both cars? Well, the cars can be very different, and the fluids that are put in them can be very different. That's why we always recommend go with the owner's manual, the maintenance recommendation that comes from the factory that's normally in the glove box. What's the year and model of that ACRA? I'm just curious.

2016. It's a 2016. Okay. It's three years old. We don't drive it a lot. It's got 15,000 some odd miles on it, including at least one trip to Florida from Jersey. What model is it? RDX.

The RDX. Okay, because that just seems a little weird. That's the reason it called. We've got to do some more research on that. Exactly. You know, I think the thing to do on that, rather than look this up on the air, let us look it up and get back with you you can text us and we can answer the text

as a matter of fact how about that can we do that Steve Steve's a texter yeah yeah we got we got actually I had that text waiting from Steve to read okay okay we'll look at it and get back to you because we're running out of time here

and Rick's having a coffin spasm so we'll get back to you on that via text and I thank you very much for the call, Steve, all the way from New Jersey. I'm thrilled that we're in live color and Facebook video in New Jersey. That's really... Steve, did you say you have a problem tuning in whenever you are in Jersey? You can only get us on your agency?

Well, I didn't know how. I found... I did find one of the radio stations and live stream it through the iPad. Uh-huh. Oh, very good. But there's... I'm not aware that you're on any of the Sirius XM channels. No, we're not. No, you're not. Okay. But I was able to find one of the radio stations and live stream your show when Facebook went down. We're not waiting for the answer, Nancy. Very good.

We're going to text it to Steve. Okay, Steve, thanks for the phone call. You're very welcome. Enjoy the rest of your day. Stay in touch. I think that we are going to go to our mystery shopping report. No, I think we've got some text here. We have a little bit of time.

It's 925. Text are backing up here. Well, it's kind of good Steve called so I can knock his text off the list. Exactly. But we have a couple of comments on our live Facebook video. And actually, we had, I think, a question, and it was answered by another viewer. So that helps us out here. So Steve on our Facebook feed says, I sold a car years ago using Classifieds.

Two years later, that car was abandoned and impounded down in Miami. The impound lot called me for payment. The car was never titled appropriately by the buyer. Wow. Yes. So then somebody else asked him what happened. He says he went and got the car and tracked down the buyer. He still wanted it, so I had to meet me at the courthouse.

We completed all the correct paperwork, and it cleared him from the title, and he got his money back. But we had another list of viewer who commented and said that she's seen a, this is Andreas, or that might be a gentleman, he says, I've seen a podcast by an attorney that recommends that you sign paperwork such as the title at the DMV and then go with that person into the DMV for proper titling that vehicle in his or name, so you don't get in that trick back. That's a great idea. I read another horror story about that on the same subject, and the bottom line is when you sell a car personally, you need to be sure that car is going to be titled,

whose name that car will be titled in. Just because someone pays you for the car and drives the car away, doesn't mean they're going to transfer the title to themselves. They could sell it to a third party and get paid and be totally out of the picture. It could be used in the commission of a crime, I mean, they're going to come after you. I guess where I learned that? From me?

No. Judge Judy. Judge Judy. That's a great resource. Okay, then Andreas also had a question on Facebook live video. It says, is a dealer required to disclose that a new car was damaged, let's say, during transport? Of course, the car is fixed and placed on the lot for sale. There's a state law on that, I believe.

I don't think it's a federal law. I believe it's 1% of the MSRP. If you have a $50,000 car, then if you have $500 worth of damage, you have to report it or more. And that is something you should be careful of because sometimes it's not reported. The dealer might not even be aware of it. Yes, new cars do get damage. If it's a used car, on the other hand, there's no requirement that you report it. The Florida law says that if there's damage on a used car,

and the prospective customer ask you about it you're required to tell the truth but if they don't ask about it mom's the word mom's the word exactly

buyer beware see no evil hear no evil speak no evil all right we have a text from Anne Marie not my sister-in-law but Anne-Marie Dogato

says good morning could you please explain why car manufacturer or switch from keys to keyless fobs I may be an old foge but at least with a key you know the car is shut off.

Fobbs can do a bunch of things you don't realize that they're doing. I know of a case where a lady put the fob in her purse, dropped her purse on the counter. Turns out that the fob was pressed against something in the purse, and the fob opened the car windows. Unfortunately, a heavy rainstorm came up. Lady didn't find out to the next day when she went out to her car and found it quite wet.

Her mechanic dried out the car. Bottom line, the fob is no longer just dropped in her purse. By the way, are there any cars that come with keys anymore? Thanks, Anne Marie. Great text. Great text. If there's one thing I hear more often, that's it. From our customers, our average customers probably 55 plus.

Many people feel the same way. You wonder how far should technology go? With all the great technology, there are foibles and foilbacks and problems. And these keyless remotes are huge. Some of these keyless remotes can cost as much as $1,000. If you lose one. Yours, I don't even want to know what yours is. The cheapest ones are probably 100 bucks, and the average is probably 200 bucks.

You lose your key, you're gone. We actually sell our customers key loss insurance. Why do you have to insure your key? It's almost embarrassing to have to sell that. Exactly. But if you lose it, you're talking hundreds of dollars, and is it worth the convenience? I don't know the answer, but I do know that we get a lot of requests on that. I think it should be optional.

I think they should have the regular key and their keyless remote if you want it. but why would you want I have to pay an extra $300 for key? Unfortunately, the answer to Ann Marie's question is can I do any cars come with that? Yes, older use cars. It's about it now. Well, thanks for that great text, Ann Marie.

Thanks for being a member of the Sunrise Club. Yeah, definitely. Thank you so much, Ann Marie. It was nice hearing from you. And I think we've cleared out the text. Rapid Fire. I think it's time we moved along to the mystery shopping report.

Things have been so busy so I didn't even talk about the mystery Shopping Report. It's a highlight of our show. We do it every day, I mean, every Saturday. It feels like every day. It feels like every day. We do it every Saturday. And we've been doing it for 10 years. We have a backlog of hundreds of mystery shopping reports. We do. Excuse me, I'm going to let our audience know that they too can be part of the what's the word? I just lost the word.

Our assessment of the shopping targets. I like the way you put that. You didn't want me to put it into words. Anyway, you can text us with your, you know, thoughts on our mystery shopping report at 772-4976530. Now, the mystery shopping report this week is from Palm Beach Motors. And before I start on that report, I had another mystery shopping report.

The folks in the studio didn't even. I saw that. Yes. This was sent in from your anonymous. Feedback.com. And we had a listener in North Carolina who voluntarily went in and did a mystery shopping report for the dealership, Toyota of Greer in Greer, South Carolina. And I won't probably have time to do that, but I want to thank the anonymous listener who sent the anonymous mystery shopping report. And we'll go over that later. Great. Meanwhile, with Mystery Shop of Palm Beach Motors, we continue to look at

for used cars that are subject to the deadly Takata Airbag Recall and identify the dealers who sell them or refuse to sell them. Last week at H. Gregg, we found two Chrysler 300s. H. Gregg is a used car company with about 19 outlets that we found out. Thanks to Frank, one of our good callers, he went down there to buy a vehicle, and we heard about them, and they're starting to spring up around Florida. You know, it's funny is I mentioned that to somebody else. I go, oh, I've heard of them, H.H.

I go, no, it's just HGreg. It's just H.H., and that's an appliance salesman. Very clever. Yeah, they climbed on that band. Very clever. That's the reason they sounded. Okay, yeah. So H. Greg, we found two crash, their 300s.

They're down in Pompano. I think they have another one in Miami. There might be a third one they're putting up, but that when we checked them, just before Agent X arrived and investigate, they apparently, They were sold, and we didn't get to find out. But they probably were sold, and they probably kept the Dakota airbags and probably didn't fix them. We just can't confirm that.

We've been using a new more time-efficient method. I love this. Stu came up with this. Congratulations to Stu. Necessity is the mother invention. Yes. Very labor-intensive to find these Takata cars, because you've got a cross-reference, vent-dumbers, and HTSA,

car inventories and it's really time-consuming so we have a great new system and thanks to Stu first we find a model likely to be affected on the NHTSA website and that's safercar.gov safercar.gov check it out before you buy a car put your VIN number in so they have the models that are just terribly affected and the ones that you hardly ever find a problem on so we look for the high frequency to cut airbag problem models on the NHTSA website. Then we searched this model on AutoTrader. Just about every car dealer in America lists his cars used and new on the auto trader inventory. Huge, huge database.

And so by taking the Safercar.gov to find the chronic offenders going to AutoTrader, we can look at the vents. And then we take the Carfax or other check report for a quick check to see if those vans on AutoTrader are affected. And then, of course, we have to go to the safercar.gov, which is the ultimate check. And finally, we can go to the manufacturers and verify. And we found through experience over years, two years anyway, that we've been doing this, that one of these individual sources can be wrong. Carfax, we knew, was about 30% off. We find out also that

auto check can be off. About the same. Yeah. And even the manufacturer, as it may seem, can be off. So you should check all four, because it's something pretty serious. You're going to have an airbag blow up in your face, and that's not good. That's worth your time. Exactly. Worth your time. This method It helps us find both major franchise car dealers and smaller independents alike, and also introduce to dealers we've never a mystery shopped or heard of before. I love this system because we're, you know, we're just not, every week we say, who are we going to shop? We sit there, beat our heads on the table.

Now we just go to where the action is. This is how we found this week's target, and that to be Palm Beach Motors in Lake Worth, hadn't heard of them. They had a 2007 Ford Ranger pickup truck for sale for just, 11,995. You're supposed to read that like the deal, man. Yeah, exactly. Just 11.9.95.

It's also afflicted with the passenger side to kind of recall. We sent Agent Eck down to the medium-sized lot, about 72 cars on Dixie Highway and Lake Worth to check it out. That might be the old Steve Bore used car lot. US1. His old dealership was down there. It looks really old. I looked at the Google image.

Here's a report. I called ahead to Palm Beach Mothers to make sure that 2007 Ranger was still there, not already sold, seeing in our past experience, we've been burned two or three times. I spoke with a man named Juan who told me it was available. I told Juan to be double sure it was available. I said I had two cars sold out from under me twice, and he was speaking to the truth. This is Agent X. Two sold out from under me during my current car search. Juan promised to me it was that it would be there.

I stressed that I had a long drive in the rain ahead of me, and I was not in the mood for a surprise. Juan said it was there, and it wouldn't go anywhere before I got there. Okay. It was still raining when I parked in front of the square yellow building that was Palm Beach Motors. I waited for a few minutes before making a run on the entrance. Once inside, I met Andy.

Andy, who greeted me with an extended hand. I said, I was there to see Juan. a Ford Ranger and he told me that Juan was busy with a customer that he would assist. He said that he would get the key and he ran off and he was back in a minute we headed outside the rain had stopped but it was dark out we didn't have much time before it resumed storming we walked out to the red pickup truck and I circled it checking out the exterior there were some dinged scratches but it had new tires overall look pretty good and he popped the hood we looked at the engine compartment, I asked him if he had any mechanical issues to disclose.

First of the three questions. He replied, there were none. He said that he had three mechanics that worked for him and checked out all his cars. That's a lot of mechanics for a little bitty car lot, but that's what he said. He pointed out over to a storage lot with a car port and said the shop's right over there. I asked if he was a salesman or the owner, Andy laughed and said he was the general manager. We climbed inside and started the engine, the air blew cold, and it smelled nice and natural, neutral. Not like perfume.

Yes. That's a red flag. Exactly. Hey, good thought. Perfume is not good. Covering up something. Cars and women, and I just said that, I'm sorry. And men.

I'm in trouble now. Okay. I ask Andy if it had ever been in an accident. It's funny how your mouth gets ahead of your brain sometimes. some of us that happens fortunately for you it doesn't happen that's true

you stay out of trouble he said and he said let me check auto check and took out his phone a few seconds later he said yep see right there

a minor left rear impact interesting he showed me his screen and he didn't seem phased or apologetic well minor we got out of the cab of the truck

and walked to the area that was hit there was still some visible damage, but it was minor. There was also some light surface rust, but this too was minor. And we're talking about an older car. I got hit by a big fat drain rob.

That's a poetic license there. I got hit by a big fat drain drop, I should say. And within seconds, it really began to come down. NDI made a mad dash to the office and hurt inside. I sat at his desk, and we began to discuss the truck and the numbers. He asked how else paying for it. They always asked that. And I told him I was paying cash.

He was pleasant and applied zero pressure the entire time. I pivoted back to the truck. I told Andy I liked it, but I had more questions. I said, I wanted to know if there were any safety issues. He said there were no safety issues. I said he seemed pretty sure. And he suggested looking at auto check again. He pulled it up on his computer.

this time, scroll to the report, no recall. I checked again. There were no recalls reported. Now, there we are. Perfect example. It's supposed to be reliable source, auto check, not Carfax, not. And even the dealer or safercar.gov can make mistakes with respect to dangerous recalls. And he went back to the numbers.

11-995 was his best price. I said I thought it was high and he needed to work with me if we wanted a deal. I let him know I lived in Palm Beach Gardens and once I left I probably would not be driving back down

to Lake Worth. He asked me what it would take and I said you need to take a thousand dollars off and he extended his hand and said done. I shook his hand and printed up a buyer's order. Now a little aside here is a car dealer

Andy did the wrong thing. The negotiator and hagglers are taught when you're haggling and negotiating you never drop a lot of money in the same in one lump sum. Back in the day when I was evil, I would say to a salesman, you did the wrong thing. And you never drop an even amount.

$334. Andy should say, I can come up and you take your pencil up and you go like this. You say, I can come down $330.92. two cents right now that looks like they're really cutting to the quick they're getting down to the basics near the cost but when you'll drop a lot of thousand dollars it scares buyers away so we did the wrong thing but this buyer didn't get scared away and but he should have been scared

away and if they try that on you now that you know just laugh and say that's not working on me come on take a thousand dollars a selling price was 10 995 plus a 499 pre-delivery fee about the lowest of liberty, and $43.5 for dock stamps. Now, this is a cash sale. Yeah. Where are the dock stamps? Ah, no dock stamps. But there was no e-filing or private tag agency fee.

He had a sales to action tag, and it was COD. Can I chime on something real quick, and not to disparage Palm Beach Motors, but I saw something very clever. As a matter of fact, I'm afraid to say this out loud because it might give other dealers a bad idea. Oh, go ahead. Okay, so on their buyer's order, there is a line that says dealer fee slash loan processing fee, and it says $0 there. Then there's another line that says electronic filing fee, and there's a $0 there.

Then a little bit farther down, it says plus pre-delivery service charge for $4.99. So people who are accustomed to the terms dealer fee or even electronic filing fee are going to see a zero there and think they're not charging a dealer fee. Yes. So you're going to see when this reward is over, that this wasn't addressed and it wasn't discussed, but we did get a copy of the buyer's order. And that's how we found out about it. So there was potential deception on their buyer's order, but we didn't see this deception verbally as we negotiated H&X negotiated the price. Bomb Beach Motors was willing to sell as a car with the Takata Airbag recall.

But it's likely they didn't know about it, and I believe that. they use auto check question is Nancy and I talked about this in the car are they bad people are they good people I say no they're dumb people they weren't evil I don't think but car dealers should know you can't rely on Carfax alone or Autocheck alone it is time-consuming to check safercar.gov the manufacturer's website and dollar check and Carfax to be sure the cars you're selling do not have dangerous recalls

but they don't take the time and so they're lazy so they're not evil they're not crooked well I think it's being irresponsible and careless and irresponsible it is irresponsible this is why we stress the importance of checking multiple sources

as I just said Palm Beach mother seemed like a pretty nice place to buy a car very engaged professional general manager relatively small dealer fees and of course there's the potential as I said because of the multiple opportunities for dealer fees and the dock fee which didn't exist but it was only $49 so there's a lot of factors here now let me address the price which I alluded to earlier they were asking for 120,000

mile 2007 Ford Ranger they were asking $11,000 10995 let's call it 11,000 plus a $500 dealer fee. Kelly's Blue Book fair market range is from $6,000 to $8,000. So when we said, how about $1,000 off, they said, done. And that's the reason it would have alerted a wary buyer. Agent X didn't want to be wary. He wanted to find out what they were going to do. So this isn't a lesson in deception, unless it depends on how you define deception.

But when you're negotiating a price, and I advise you not to negotiate prices, I advise you to use consumer reports, truecar.com, Costco Auto Buying Program. But if you're going to negotiate, remember, you go back and forth, you're going to have to fight, play the game. And when you have a large drop in price for an even number, it's a red flag. That means there's a lot more to go. I'm saying that's for another large drop after that. Exactly. So, it's a confusing vote. And I remind everybody, including our radio audience, that we grade on the curve.

There are no perfect dealers. There are no near perfect dealers. So we just have to grade on the more honest ones and the less honest ones. So I'll start out with Nancy. Nancy, how do you rate Palm Beach Motor Cars on Lake Worth? Well I guess I give them a pass A what?

A pass A pass You want to give us a letter great call it a C C minus? I'm kind of up in the air You know It just This is proof that you

You really have to do your homework You've really got to go to the internet You've got to, you know explore the Took out a recall Situation You know by going to Autocheck and safercar.gov

the manufacturer because you can be easily sold a death trap and that's it I'm going to go with a sea because I know where this place is I know the neighborhood down there it's an area that I used to kind of hang it a little bit

but I think they're kind of taking advantage of people on their prices but on the Takata thing I'll still give them a C and put them on the recommended with the caveat that people should definitely keep their eyes open and do their homework on what vehicle they're looking at. I'm going to give them a C too. I don't think they're just honest people.

I think they're just doing business like most car dealers. I'm too confused to give an easy grade. I don't know. I mean, I'm definitely going to pass them. Some of the things that were relatively minor offenses, but you can see where they tried the customer on here and there. But it's, like you said, it's par for the course, and we are grading on a curve. So, yeah, a C for Palm Beach Motors.

Fire beware. Yeah, they're old school, and they're negotiating, and a lot of people still like to do that. And if you're going to buy a car from Palm Beach Motor Cars, go in there and negotiate. And negotiate smart and long and hard. And no, they're not going to beat you up, but they're not going to high pressure yet. It's not going to be an unpleasant experience. Just be educated. before you show up and go to Kelly Blue Book first and get a car value before you show up, you know.

That's a great place to use as some sort of, in other words, you're just not talking out of your head when you're saying, I want a good price. I have Kelly Blue Book recommended retail price. Why you're $3,000 above that? And then that gives you some. If you forget to do that, pull out your smartphone because you all got smartphones and pull it up on your phone, show the salesman right then and there. Yep. Very good. we got a little bit of time left here Rick you got a point yes I do because one other thing you should be checking on any car whether you own it your friends or family on it www.safercar.gov run those VIN numbers look for any open recalls especially those

dakata recalls but every car that you even if you're thinking about buying it or if you already own it your friends or family are in it www. www.safeater Forcar.gov. Well said, Rick. Well said. And there is power in numbers. So remember that. Always take someone with you.

And knowledge is power. It really is. The Internet is your friend. We are at, well, actually it's... We've got a couple of minutes. I want to sell my book. And so we're going to do a commercial. Excellent idea.

So, Confessions of Recovering Car Dealer. I alluded to this early in the show. that's me and even got my blue shirt on. This is a book I wrote that is kind of a handbook on how not to get a ripped off by cardiore. It also contains some of my confession because I've been in the business since 1968 and I've only been recovering for about the past 15 or 20 years.

There's a brilliant foreword that was written in the beginning of the book. My son wrote a brilliant forward in the book. We've got some of lot of pictures in here too. But just about any question you have about buying or leasing or maintaining or repairing your car is in this book. It's a how to do it book. Now, before you get mad at me for trying to make money, and I told you this wasn't an infomercial show earlier,

100% of the proceeds of this book sale go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. Big Dog Ranch Rescue is my favorite charity. Very good. Thank you. And Big Dog Ranch Rescue is located in Laxahatchee. Groves. Groves, and out on Okechobee Boulevard, a beautiful 3,000-acre facility with pools and lakes, and we don't even keep our dogs in cages, no cages.

Dorm rooms. Dorm rooms there. We call them bunk houses. We just had a grand opening of our brand-opening of our brand-new veterinarian clinic. We find homes for hundreds of dogs, thousands of dogs. We'll find homes for 5,000 dogs this year. And no dealer flees. No dealer fleas.

Of course not. So go out there. We have dogs, of all descriptions, about 500 dogs that you can choose from, from pedigrees. A lot of people don't know. We have pedigree dogs. We have a lot of mixed breeds. We have from Chihuahuas up to Great Danes. We've got Puerto Rican dogs.

Yes. Virgin Island dogs, Texas dogs. Yeah. All over the world. You can go to Amazon. Amazon.com to buy this book. it's a twofer remember you can give it to your friends

you can give it to your kids you can use it yourself when you buy your next car and you're helping a dog find a home and we find thousands of loving homes for our dog's big dog ranch rescue and the website if you want to check out our inventory of doggies

is BDRR as in big dog ranch rescue BDRR dot org www BDRRR dot org. Big Dog Ranch Rescue. R.R. is like rough, rough. Right. Big dog

rough rough. Big dog, ranchrescue dot org. And please buy the book because it'll save you a lot of pain and aggravation next time you try to buy a lease a car. Definitely. Or repair or maintain. You know my fondest memories of confessions of a recovering car dealer

is sitting at home proofreading that book over and over and over again before it went to press. The fond memory? It was, but I think back now, you know, it really was. It's time for a revision. You better start writing.

Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for tuning in. I know that you have a lot to do this weekend, and we appreciate you very much. Stay dry today. I always say, you make the show. Have a wonderful weekend, and again, we will see you next week. Wrecked Wrecked

Wra Wrecked Dump T'n T'n Thank you.