Earl Stewart on Cars - 09.14.2024 - The Best of Earl on Cars with Mystery Shop of Wallace Kia of Stuart, FL.

Episode Date: September 14, 2024

This is a replay of one of our past Earl Stewart on Cars live shows. If you have a question for our auto expert team, you can text it to [phone], or online at youranonymousfeedback.com, and we’ll answer it during our next live program. Join us during our live show via Zoom Meeting ID 928 589 0586 “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”

You're listening to the best of the Earl Stewart on Cars program. If you have a question for our auto expert team, you can text it to 772-497-6530 or online at Your Anonymous Feedback.com and we'll answer it during our next live program. Hello, I'm Earl Stewart. I welcome you to Earl Stewart on Cars, a live talk show all about how to buy, lease, maintain, or repair your car without being ripped off by a car dealer. With me in the studio is Nancy Stewart, my wife, co-host, and a strong consumer advocate, especially for our female listeners. We also have Rick Kearney, an expert on how to keep your car running right. I dare you to ask a question that Rick can't answer about the mechanics or electronics of your car. Also with us is my son, Stu Stewart, our link to cyberspace through Facebook, YouTube, text messaging, and our encrypted anonymous feedback service.

Stu is also the spymaster director of our mystery shopping report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting the car dealership. And now, on with the show. Good morning, everybody. We're back. Well, we're not completely. One missing person, my son, Stu, is not feeling well this morning,

so he'll miss a show. But we got the rest of the group, Rick Kearney, our certified diagnostic master technician, and my co-host, Nancy Stewart. We've got a... This is a very special show because this will be the first Earl Sturon Cars show that we have broadcast and televised and zoomed

where the Attorney General for the State of Florida, and that's where we're located for you folks out of state, the Attorney General Ashley Moody, the State of Florida Attorney General, has committed to enforce the law that's been on the books for 20 years. I mean, I got to laugh when I say it, but those were her words, not mine.

She is committed to enforce the law unfair deceptive trade practices. The lawyers call that FDUpta. Fraud is a commonly understood word. When dealers are fraudulent in the sales of their vehicles and their advertising and the bait and switch of the rest of it, well, if you're a listener to the show, you know what I'm talking about.

But on September 1st, on September 1st, that law will into effect. So it's going to be up to us. And by us, I mean you and the folks on this show to get the word out, because think about it, you've been buying and selling cars, or you've just been buying cars for a long time, and you know what the dealers do,

and you know that there's no punishment, there's no fines, there's no lawsuits to speak of. Dealers get away with a bloody murder. They can do just about anything, advertise any way they want to, and nobody seems to have done anything. But now we have a commitment from the number one law enforcement officer in the state of Florida. Ashley Moody, she's in charge of all the law folks in Florida.

So she's gone on record, we have it in writing, that if car dealers violate the Florida statute, on unfair, deceptive trade practices, bait and switch advertising, junk fees, dealer-installed accessories that are not as closed, any deception of this nature, they are going to be, well, they're going to be fined, they can actually have their motor vehicle retail license revoke. So exciting times. This show is the first show that we've done where we can state that maybe we can really

clean up Dodge, especially South Florida, which is the Saddam Gamora of all car dealers in the country of the world, for that matter. Now, we're going to offer to pay you for your time if you are legitimately buying a car and you're in the market and you go into a car dealership and either if you buy a car or if you decide not to buy the car, but if you legitimately are buying a car and you are subject to these unfair and deceptive trade practices, bait and switch, junk fees, dealer-installed accessories, if the advertised price of the car

or the price that the salesperson accorded you, if you called on the telephone, if you went in person, if they led you to believe that the price of the car was much less or any less than the actual advertised price, They violated Florida law. You can file a complaint with Ashley Moody's office by calling this number, and Nancy Stewart will be mentioning this. Rick Kearney will be, everybody's going to be mentioning this.

We want you to hear this number. It's a fraud line for the Attorney General Ashley Moody, and that number is 866-966-966-226. 866 966 9667-226 you might want to make a note of that and even if you're not in the market for a car if you have a friend or a neighbor

someone is thinking about it equip them and prepare them for this we will pay $100 for a buyer of a car intended buyer you don't have to buy the car but you must intend to buy the car

at some point and then if they treat you in a manner that you feel is unfair or deceptive. If they misled you, if they gave you a price, they wouldn't honor. If they advertise the price, but the real price, excluded government fees, to the real price

when you add the junk fees back in was higher than the advertised price, then you can file a complaint with Ashley Moody, Florida Attorney General's office, by calling 866, 966, 7226.

And if you're streaming us, That number is up on the screen now, along with Ashley Moody's photograph. And I think we can get something going here, folks. I've never been more positive about making a change, and we've been doing this show for over 20 years. So that's my main message. I'm going to turn the mic over to Nancy Stewart. She's my co-host.

Most of you folks know her, regular listeners. 20-some-odd years ago, we founded 30-some-odd years ago. We founded a 30-minute show on Thursdays on the C-Vue radio, a little station, C-Vue Radio. And since then, the station has changed owners. We're now on for two hours every Saturday, and we're on from 8 to 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, 8 to 10, Eastern Standard Time.

And she co-founded the show with me, has been with me all the way, and she is a very strong female advocate who has built the audience in this show from practically zero females to just about 50-50. Nancy, the mic is all yours. Thank you. Boy, I'll tell you what an exciting day.

I think we got some traction, Earl. What do you think, Rick? How about you, Jonathan? Everybody excited? I think I feel some energy in this room. Just a little bit different. I say that it's, well, hopefully the roof

is not going to come off this building because we really are excited. And Earl has worked hard to get to this day. And we've joined him. We've joined him in this crusade. And Ashley Moody is finally, finally giving us some attention, the attention that we need and the job that she should be getting done. With all of that said, you're not going to, well, you're going to hear this number a lot. And this is a number that you can reach an attorney general Ashley Moody's office

8669667226 without you folks we're nowhere we appreciate you anything that you can do for us taking advantage of the phone number making that call letting your voice be heard

we need more than one voice and we're here for you to fight this, these dealers that take advantage of everyone and have been, hey, take a look at our ratings. You can help us, you know, just get our ratings out of the same spot it has been in for how long, Earl, 20 years? 22, 23, probably. Yeah, and we've been stuck, yeah, stuck at the bottom.

So help us. On another note, we've got a great mystery shopping report from Stewart. And also, you know, ladies tell you weekend and we got how important you are, and we show it by giving you $50 for the first two new female callers. $50 for the first two female callers. Give us a call toll free at 877. 960. And don't forget, you can text us at 772-4976530. But don't forget that number for Ashley Moody. It's very important. And Earl's going to talk more about this during the show. So jot that number down. Like I said, we'll be mentioning it throughout the show. And that number is 866. 866. 966-7-2-2-6.

Give us a call and let us know what you think about this fight that we have been part of. My husband has, he's put his blood, sweat, and tears into this, and it's all for the consumer. And he has done one hell of a job. So there you go. We have a show to do. Give us a call. Be part of the show. You are an important part of the show.

Again, that number, 877-960-99-60. Don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. Now back to the recovering car dealer. You know, I just was remembering when you were talking about this Ashley Moody thing, the Attorney General's office, many years ago, I had a senator from, Miami state senator who invited me to Tallahassee to speak to the group to the Senate in Tallahassee about enforcing the relatively new law at that time the Florida statutes on unfair deceptive trade practices act so I never I think I might have

been no it was my first trip to Tallahassee I was there many many years ago I went to Florida State University for a visit but this is probably my second time in Tallahassee and I walked into the state capitol all by myself and I stood in front of the group the legislature the Florida legislature and they also had the Attorney General there that was like three or four Attorney General's ago the name will come to me it was a main attorney general and I made my presentation the state senator that invited me to speak about the car dealers misbehavior was with me and I made my

presentation I thought I did a pretty good job and wasn't a standing ovation or anything but everybody was nodding their head like they understood what I was talking about and then the Attorney General came up and made his side he was he was the thing that shot me down was, you know, your honor, or whoever he was talking to, all the, all the politicals there in the legislative room arena, they have practically no complaints from the consumer. So that was the problem. That was the excuse that the Attorney General used for not going after the car dealers. We don't get very many complaints. I can't

remember the exact number but I think he said in the past six months I've had two complaints so we got to complain folks you know we have our opportunity now you probably got tired of complain and if you're 20 years ago because they probably would ignore it today they won't ignore it and we're not going to let them ignore it so you heard the number and if you can just call 866 966 7226 That's Ashley Moody, the Attorney General, and file the complaint, the fraudulent complaint, you'll have to do it in writing,

and we're going to give you a hundred bucks. I mean, I'm not trying to bribe anybody to complain. I don't want anybody who's mad at a dealer but has no evidence, has no reason to be bad. This isn't a personality contest. This is a legal situation where when they break the law, when they're trying to sell you a car,

they need to be taken into a responsibility. They need to be warned, fined, or perhaps they even have their license suspended. So if you'll call that number 866-966-7-226, give us the information. We'll confirm that it's a legitimate, you made a legitimate complaint, and we'll pay you $100 for your time. How long ago was that we were both in Tallahassee and was the Attorney General, his last name? Butterworth. Bob Butterworth. It was Bob Butterworth. Yeah, he was the Attorney General at the time. That's right. It was about, probably about, about 20 years ago. I mean, the law. Back in 1982? The law was relatively fresh, about 1982. The law was relatively fresh. Now,

we've given the number out so many times. We haven't given out a number that's arguably as important, almost is our number and that number is 877-960-9-9-60 877-9-60-9-6-0 and we have a call already. Yeah, we do. We have a couple of callers and I would like to welcome

Dawn to the show. He's calling us from Coconut Creek. Marty, we'll be right with you. Good morning, Dawn. Good morning. Welcome. Thank you. Good to be with you. I live in South Florida. I moved here about 40 years ago and got into the car business, started selling cars, and after about a little bit less than two years, I was put into F&I. And as you know, 40 years ago, it was a lot worse than it is now. And I've seen F&I evolve in those 40 years. an F&I trainer and traveled all over the country to dealerships, training them how to do F&I ethically.

And I'm very proud of that. One thing that I'd like to talk about is that you discuss what you call extended warranties frequently. And I learned a long, long time ago, that calling it an extended warranty is not the proper way to call what a service contract is. An extended warranty insinuates that you are extending the manufacturer's warranty, and that's not what you're doing when you sell a service contract. So we were taught very early on not to call it extended warranty, but to call it a service contract.

So first of all, I wanted to get that out. Secondly, I wanted to let people know because a lot of people have, really bad vibes about service contracts. And there are a lot of finance managers that try to stuff service contracts into your contract. And there are a lot that do it legitimately. And I believe that a service contract is valuable if you're going to keep the car longer than the three-year manufacturer's warranty. If you're going to keep the car five, six, seven years or more, I think a service contract is extremely important. I purchased a used vehicle not too long ago,

and I intend to keep the car for a very long time, and so I purchased a service contract, and I've used it already, and it saved me a lot of money. So if you're keeping the car longer than three years, and you don't want to put out any kind of money out of your pocket, that could be very expensive for what repairs cost today, I just wanted to say that I think it's a good idea. Well, Don, I appreciate that.

And coming from a professional, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your calling the show. We get very few people with experience in the retail automobile business or the finance business as your experience, you're in both. So I really appreciate you taking the time to call the show. I agree in general with what you said. And you'll know this because you were in the business, that all service contracts are not created equal.

And a lot of service contracts are created by the car dealers, and they form companies, and they put them in offshore companies, for tax reasons, and they decide what components will be covered and how completely on the contract. On the other hand, that's one end of the spectrum. On the other end of the spectrum are the manufacturers.

They have extended service contracts, Honda, Ford, General Motors vehicles, they offer these. These are legitimate service contracts, and they do cover a reasonable amount of components on the car. And one other thing, so I say to people, service contracts, if it gives you peace of mind, if you feel better about owning the car and not as much fear of what happens if it breaks down and I can't afford to fix it, If that's going to make you feel better about owning the car, buy one. But be sure that you get a legitimate service contract, and I always point to the manufacturers because those are virtually all legitimate, not one that's designed by the dealer to maximize his earnings.

And also, it depends on what kind of car you buy. If you buy a car with a very low maintenance requirement and very high reliability history, I'll say Alexis is an example. Or if you buy a different car, let's say a Jeep. Now, the Jeep has a high percentage of breakdowns and high maintenance and a lot of other things are wrong with it. I'm quoting consumer reports for that. So if you've got a good quality car,

you might think less about buying an extended service contract than if you have a high-quality car, which if you maintain it properly, according to the factor, so no amount. You're probably not going to have very many problems. But I agree with everything you said. I just want to be a little bit more specific. You're listening to the best of the Earl Stewart on Cars program.

If you have a question for our auto expert team, you can text it to 772-497-6530 or online at Your Anonymous Feedback.com and we'll answer it during our next live program. Well, I think three important words that you just said are peace of mind. Yes. You know, if you want the peace of mind and knowing that you're not going to have to put out a ton of money in the future if your car breaks down. And I'd also like to say, and I'm sure you're aware of this, you're familiar with Car Shield that advertises a lot on TV. Yes.

Are you aware that they were fined and had to pay $10 million a fine for deceptive advertising? I was, and I wasn't at all surprised, but yes, I'm glad to see someone would take that step. And for every car shield that gets fine, there's other extended warranties out there. See, they were above the radar. They were on TV. They were in your face, and people saw what was going on and checked them out. The extended warranty companies that get away with it are the ones that fly under the radar. They get your name on a mailing list.

They send you a mail solicitation. email, text, phone call. There's a huge number of boiler rooms around the country calling people and saying, we have a special opportunity for you to extend your factory warranty. And so those are the ones that don't get caught. Carsield got too arrogant and got on television, and someone probably in a position of authority said, we've got to go after this company.

You know, Dawn, we talked about Car Shield. This is Nancy Stewart. We talked about Car Shield for months. and even became more irritated when we saw them on TV as long as we did. Ice tea was doing the commercial. Pardon me? Ice tea, isn't that the guy that was doing the commercial? Yeah, exactly, exactly.

I'm too old to know who iced tea is. He could have been Clara Bell, I don't know. But at any rate, they really took advantage of a lot of people. But rather than give them any air time, let me move on to something, important, that I think is important. How long ago did you work in F&I? 38 years ago I started in F&I. Okay. How long would you say you were in the office with the customer finalizing the transaction? I say that I probably did that for actually in a dealership full-time, probably for three or four.

years until I was promoted to a regional F&I director where I went in, I worked for a group that had several dealerships and went into training em in an FNI regional director capacity. Yeah. And you know, this is, it's really a shame that there are a lot of consumers out there right now. I never thought I'd hear this and even announce it on the air, but they're financing. they have to finance their service. I can't afford to get their cars fixed. So anyway, and there's ways of, you know, solving that problem, you know, by getting a finance. But I see where Earl has something he might want to add to the conversation.

We got some other calls waiting here, but I had to ask you this one question. Back 38 years ago, have you heard of the Wang machine, W-A-N-G? Absolutely. I used it. I had the first Wang machine in Florida. I had a Pontiac dealership in West Palm Beach. And when Dr. Wang, the inventor, came out with that, I had the first F&I machine in South Florida. So the Wang became the name of the game back in all the dealers bought them.

I went from Wang to UCS. Yeah. Yeah, that was the system we used after Wang, it was UCS. Well, listen, it was a pleasure talking to you, folks. I enjoy your show and keep up the great work. Thanks, Don. Thanks, Don. We're going to go.

One more time, I'll give out that number for Attorney General Ashley Moody, and that telephone number is 8669667-226. that is 866-966-7226 you can win yourself $100 this morning by helping us here at Earl Stewart on Cars to let all of our voices be heard and you can also you get rewarded with $100 so it's a win-win situation call Ashley. Yeah, I know her. I'm on a first name basis with Ashley. Her number again is 866-966-7-2-26. Now we're going to go to Morty. Good morning, Marty. Welcome. Good morning. I have a couple questions for Earl. Okay. If a car dealer has his two or three junk fees in his price, as long as he tells you that price up front, he's not vise. violating the law, is that correct?

That's correct. Yeah, it's, you know, it's called profit. I mean, you don't have to make up a fee and put an amount there to increase your profit if you just put the profit into the advertised price. The whole purpose of the junk fee is so you can advertise a lower price than your competition and make the customer believe they're going to pay

a couple thousand dollars less than they really can pay. So, yeah, if you. you want to put in on nitrogen and tires and pinstripes and all the other crap, the mudflaps, you know, they charge your $500,000, $2,000 for something that the dealer probably paid to have installed, you know, $500. I mean, they mark these things up 1,000 percent, and that's just to conceal the profit. So, yeah, if you want to put a bunch of junk in your price and advertise the price and quote the price, when someone asks you what is the out-the-door price, go ahead and put as many junk fees on there as you want,

and dealer fees and dock fees and the resident. We don't care what you want to name your profit as long as you admit it is profit and not something we need to have or have to buy. Right. Okay, my next question is, up until this past week, a lot of dealership put in market adjustment. Now, for me personally, I get rid of that, so I don't even bother with that number.

But does that have to be in their price if they're going to charge you that? Or can you say it's not something that they have to put in there? They have to. The market adjustment, I have no problem. Well, I have a slight problem with market adjustment. the MSRP is not the price, the maximum price, that a car dealer can sell the car for. The manufacturer suggested retail price, the Munrooney label, is the suggested retail price. But if a car dealer wants to charge a million dollars for a car that he paid $50,000 for, that's okay.

As long as he advertises that price, he might not sell too money, but as long as he advertise a full price. So the market adjustment is nothing more than marking up the NSRP. And you see this a lot with dealers when a limited edition car comes out. The Toyota Super was a great example. When the new Super came out a few years ago, dealers were charging hundreds of thousands of dollars more. I mean, literally, it was crazy. Collectors will pay, wealthy collectors will pay a lot of money for a classic car. And first off the assembly line, a guy by the...

the name of John Stalupi, who is a big car dealer, he paid a million dollars for a Supra off the assembly line. And so, yeah, it's no law against charging a lot of money as long as you tell the buyer upfront, this is all the money to pay. And if they say yes, it's perfectly legal. And you know, Marty, that market adjustment that you mentioned, do you remember the first time

you saw it, you heard it, it was right after COVID and everybody these dealers jumped on the chance to take advantage of the consumer why how because of market adjustment and they're still using it

right the other thing I just wanted to say is for when you go to the finance guy I get out of there very fast personally because I tell them I want nothing smart

And that said, and I sign all the either knows or, and I know they don't like it, but I don't buy anything extra, and I've been buying a lot of cars. So I think that, and you're the finance guy that called you, I don't care how long you keep the car, you're better off saving your money, and if you have to repair it, use the money for that. Now, I never kept the car for 15, 20 years. years, so I don't know how they works out, but keeping a car

four, five, six years, usually you'll be ahead of the game by not buying the warranties. Well, thanks, Marty. I'll, Rick had a comment. I recently saw a post on Reddit that was the Monroney sticker and the market adjustment on a 23

Dodge Challenger demon. The sticker price on the car was $121,000. The market adjustment was $150,000. That's one hell of a market adjustment. Absolutely ridiculous. And I can tell you from personal experience, if you find a car that's a reliable vehicle,

there's nothing wrong with keeping a car well into double digits. My first Tacoma that I had, I kept it for 17 years, and I never experienced any major problems with it. My wife's Highlander was 13 years old when we traded it in for her RAV-4. And certain cars, Hondas and Toyotas, Subaru's, Accura, and Lexus, with basic good maintenance and just reasonable driving habits,

they'll last 15, 20 years easily and still be worth a fortune when you go to trade them in. Absolutely. I guess if you really get a lemon, you know, you could always have a problem. And you'll know that quickly. Most cars, if there's a major problem with that car, you're going to find out within the first eight months to a year

if there's really a problem with that car. Otherwise, with routine maintenance, modern cars will just keep right on going. I mean, you know, I used to make a fortune when I was a lot younger off of drive belts. Drive belts, most our guys would forget to look at them. You'd see big cracks in it. You'd take a picture. The customer would buy new drive belts, and that was it three years. now the drive belt on my pickup is 13 years old

and it's still perfectly brand new there's no cracks in it everything just lasts forever well it'll be very interesting to see how many people you know what dealerships really change well we're going to find out yeah you're right

Marty once you go out and buy a car and if you have any problems file a complaint with Ashley Mooney and let me give you a hundred bucks Yeah, the problem is I bought the car six months ago So if I buy another one now I want you to buy the whole car

A hundred's not enough, Hey Marty, did you see the You're still driving your crown, correct? Right, right. Oh yeah, I better be. I hear where you're coming from Okay, the reason I ask is because in the road report for the consumer report You know, they have the Toyota Crown Signia, and the Crownsignia SUV offers improvements over the Crown sedan.

I believe the sedan is the one you have, correct? Yeah, yeah. I don't know whether you need this feature or not, if you have a lot of tall people in your family, but that is something that has changed on the Crown that's come out. one of the many things that have changed if you can believe that my grandson six four and he sat in the back of my crown and he was hitting his head on the top there well he's going to like the new crown it has definitely it's very visible that it that is it can hold your grandson hey marty we're going to roll okay have a good weekend thank you help us out

Call the Attorney General. Okay, folks, I'm going to give you the meeting number for Zoom. And I want to thank Jonathan last week for calling us from Orlando. And what an informative call. And he was really great. I hope he spread the word to his circle because it's going to make for really great calls. But the Zoom ID number is 9-2-7. 56, 589, 0586.

That's 926, 589, 0586. When yourself $100, first two, new, Zoom callers. We're just giving away money left and right. Why? You deserve it, and you deserve to be compensated for your time. And you are giving to this fight, this March, this, what we want to achieve what Earl has been working towards. So we're just not giving out money frivolously.

We're just, you know, we just want to give you an incentive. Okay, Earl. You know, we've been talking about service contracts and buying cars and attorney generals. I sometimes overlook the most important part of the show, which is, how do you keep your car maintained and repaired without being ripped off by a car dealer? and you've heard from Rick Kearney he comes in and talks about the sales process too because he's part of the business

but what he is uniquely qualified to diagnose a problem you might have with your car and you know what it feels like when you suddenly notice that symptom of your car there's a noise you can't quite positively I can't tell where it's coming from but it's a tick tick or a boom boom boom Or maybe it's the smell, and then you start to sweat,

or maybe that infamous check engine light comes on, and you wonder, what's going to happen? So in an article of the automotive news this week, that the average cost when a check engine light comes on is about between $4 and $500, $450 or something like that. So here you're on a dark road in the middle of night, and you don't know exactly where you are. That check engine light comes on.

Maybe the family's in the car with you. I mean, that's scary. So if you have something that's really worrying you about your car, ask Rick Kearney, if you're on YouTube.com forward slash earl on cars, he has a huge following on YouTube.com forward slash Earl on Cars. You can post and ask him a question.

Rick has worked for me for over 25 years. He's a certified. diagnostic master technician in all categories, whether you're talking about transmission, air conditioning, the engine, every part of a car, and you don't just get a badge that calls you a certified diagnostic master technician. What is it, every two years, Rick? Every five years. Every five years, he has to go back and graduate again because the technology is moving so fast that a technician that took the test 20 years ago, he's on a date.

Every five years, he's got to go back and pass another test. And as a tip to you, when you're choosing a technician from wherever you do, independent or a car dealership, ask what he's qualified then on ASC. ASE is... The Automotive Service Excellence. Automotive Service Excellence. So you want a free diagnosis? Give us a call at 877-960-996-0.

That's 877-9-60-9-6-0. Asked for Rick, and Rick will listen to what you had to say. What's really cool, if you want to do this, if you happen to Zoom us or if you want to be online, you can send him a video clip or even an audio clip. That's really cool, because oftentimes that'll give them that little extra information that he needs to make an accurate diagnosis. But 877-960-99-60, and Rick Kearney can answer any question you have about your car.

And I actually have had it happen that someone has sent a clip to me, a short video clip where customers come in and said, hey, I've got this sound, but it only happens once in a while, and they play the clip, and I can hear it, and it gave me a way to help me duplicate it and solve the problem. And it's, it makes it so much easier because cars are so complicated nowadays and trying to communicate to a mechanic what you're hearing and when you're hearing it. So, but folks, if you really want to, a quick word of advice, if you've got something odd happening with your car and you're really not sure what's going on,

you know, you want to go to where the mechanic is, get the, the mechanic, ask them to go for a ride with you, and do your best to duplicate what that sound or noise is for them. And if you can show it to them, 99 times out of 100, they can fix it. You're listening to the best of the Earl Stewart on Cars program. If you have a question for our auto expert team, you can text it to 772-497-6530 or online at Your Anonymous Feedback.com and we'll answer it during our next live program. And let me jump into it because I've been in the business a long time, and I get a lot of calls.

I'm pretty much open to all of our customers. And if you didn't know this, we have a car dealership. And that's why I say that. I always say, this is not an infomercial. But we have a car dealership in North Palm Beach, toilet dealership. And I've been there since 1975. Customers call me all the time.

and I get complaints on our service department like all car dealers do and one of the complaints that I get is my car was making a noise and I took it in and they looked and they couldn't find anything wrong and they gave me the car back

and on the way home I still heard the noise the same thing replied to shake, rattle, a roll and odor symptoms that you observe with your senses now we all know know, some people can't hear as well as other people. And that includes mechanics.

I would think technicians, because you're around engines and you're probably around some loud noises, I would think some technicians suffer some amount of hearing loss. Oh, yeah. Yep. So if you've got good ears and you hear a noise that really worries you, and the technician that rotests the car with you, you should ride with him. If he can't hear it, you're not going crazy. He just can't hear it.

ask for verification, ask for another person to go with you. And the same thing with the smell. Some of these things are subtle. And I won't say that sometimes, you know, my joke is, you know, something hurts until you go to the doctor and then it doesn't bother you anymore. This can happen with a car. You know, it makes a noise all the time, but when I take it into the repair shop, it stops making the noise.

I know that happens. But more often than not, it doesn't happen that way. It happens if the person can't smell it, feel it, hear it, see it. It's, it's, the five senses are not sharp enough, so don't give up. Well, and the other side of that is the, when you're driving your car, you get so used to what it feels like. You know the instant, something odd is there.

You can feel that oddity. You smell it, you hear it, you see it, you know something's wrong because it's something that changed in your environment that you're in all the time, whereas the mechanic is driving 20 or 30 cars a day maybe and every one of those is different so he's never really sure you know now he may get in your car

and hear your noise and be able to say oh okay yeah I know exactly what that is but it's you know it's maybe it's not something you want to mess with and while we're on that subject maybe something so tiny you'll be like look you don't want to spend money on this

while we're on that subject ask the person here's a comment I get complaint. They told me that this is the way the car is supposed to sound or smell or feel, and they all do it that way. So now that excuse really bothers me. So I tell my customers, and I'm telling you, asked for another car, or maybe more than another car, and see if, in fact, that has that same problem. Yes. If the manufacturer is building these cars where there's Toyota, General Motors, or Honda, and it's making a noise or it's pulling or shaking or smelling,

then the factory should be advised, and there should be a recall campaign on the thing. So don't let they all do it. All the cars do that. Why are you complaining? Because everybody that bought that model has the same problem. Somebody needs to be responsible for that problem, and you need to find out if it is, in fact, and all the cars have that made. Well, just a funny story on that was when cars first came out with electronic parking brake for the rear, when you put the car in park, you would hear this, and all of us were like, what in the world is that?

And it wasn't until we actually thought and realized that that sound is actually the electric motors on the rear calipers engaging those brakes. So that is a noise that every one of is going to make. And sometimes it's a little louder than others. if you have your windows up and you're sitting in a quiet room, a quiet area, you'll hear that noise a lot louder than if there's a lot of traffic around you or your windows are down, the air is blowing, whatever. So we had customers come in and say, hey, this, making this weird noise. And we'd explain what it was.

And said, nope, this is a normal sound. You're going to hear this. And that's another reason why you should always test drive the car that you buy. Exactly. You'd be surprised how many people buying a used car or a new car. car, do not take it on a thorough test drive. But they got you if you didn't do that. But when you hear it and you say, I'll buy it if you'll fix that noise, and they say,

I'm sorry, I can't fix it, you're going to save a lot of money. And Rick is here to answer all your questions, and he can answer all of your questions. I said that last week, and he just looked at me. He knows all the answers. You know, he may not know one or two answers. I know where to find them. But he knows all the answers. answer. That telephone number is 877-960. Let me point on to the ladies if you're listening.

Did you know that 85% of ladies, 85% you influence a purchase of a vehicle. You influence. You are a huge part of this industry, a real moneymaker. And if the dealerships don't get that by now, financial disaster for them. Okay, and I have $50 for the first two new lady callers, which brings me back to the phones, and I'm going to talk to Joan from Stewart, who is a first-time female caller. Good morning.

Morning. Thank you for holding, Joan. Okay. How are you? What can we do for you? I'm good. Well, I was told to call this number by a first. friend of mine, and I found the conversation interesting.

I don't know what radio station it is. I could tune to to to hear this more often. True oldies. We're in North Palm Beach, Florida, and we have several through oldies station all over South Florida. Oh, okay. It's a great station. If you like the Goldie Oldies,

I do. I mean, I love in the 60s and 70s music. You ought to try this station out. It is all talk show. We have some talk shows, but a lot of times, they just play the goal of the oldies. It's a great station. Very informative.

What's the number of the station? Number? 877-960-99-60. 95-9 FM. Oh, you're looking for the... 95-9 FM. Okay. And it's true oldies.

True oldies, okay. I'll look for it. TRU. TRU-Oldies, yes. Oh, T-R-U-oldies, okay. Well, thank you very much, Joan. I'm spread the word, and if you've got any friends that are female that haven't called the show before and like to pick up $100 like you did, tell them to give us a call.

Okay, I definitely will do that. Thank you, John. We're building the female audience, Nancy Stewart, my wife, and co-os. We founded the show 20 years ago, and she has been able to bring our female listing audience up to 50%. And that's one of the ways we do it is introduce the prize of $100 to folks who haven't called before. So we hope you'll call again, especially if you have any questions about buying or leasing or maintaining your car. That's great. I'm glad I can do that.

That would be very helpful. What else you could do, Joan, is to leave your contact information so that I can send that check out to you. Oh, okay, sure. Have a great weekend. Thank you. You too. You too. Spread the word. We're building a platform here for the ladies. Okay, we're going to go to Roadrunner, Steve. He's a regular caller from Pointe Beach.

Good morning, Roadrunner, Steve. Good morning, everybody. It's good to be back talking to everybody. Where'd you go? I was in New York. I got COVID somewhere, so I was aggravated for two and a half weeks. Oh, boy. So with that. Okay, last week I was listening to the show about the hammer and the cart and not the glass out. Uh-huh.

Okay. Well, if you've got a dollar tree, you can pick up four hammers for five bucks. Keep two in the front, two in the back. It's where you ain't got to go searching everywhere. Yeah, you don't want to have to do any searching when you're under water. I know, I know. It's hard to find a pen sometimes in a call when you've got to write something. I'm going to work on my road on in a few minutes

What is the best way to find a vacuum week? Old school like yours I would actually go with a simple can of starting fluid And go very Or deputy 40 actually might be a little safer for you Go very, very careful and gentle with it And if you have an RPM gauge that you can put on it outside to watch under the hood.

Spray a little bit of WD40 around where you suspect the vacuum leak is, and when those RPMs jump, you know you found it. Okay, well, I would hear the motor rev up, right? You'll hear a little rev up, yeah, but depending on your engine, you know, depending on the sound of how it's built, you know, your idle may not be perfectly smooth anyways. If you're running a good cam in there, you might have a little bit of lope. so your idol may be adjusting up and down anyways. What's lope?

Lope in the engine is when you have a big cam shop, you hear a brum, brum, brum, brum, brum, brum, Oh, okay, yeah. No, the lope is on the bottom of your ear where you put the ear in. For folks that are wondering what we're talking about here, engines, of course, are basically just a big air pump

is what the engine really is, and they're sealed to a certain point in area, is so that it knows exactly how much air is coming into the engine. Now, if you have a leak somewhere that a hose is not as disconnected or the hose is split or something and is sucking extra air in, that's called a vacuum leak. With newer cars, there's ways we can easily track that down by using different sensors on it.

But in older cars like Steve's old Roadrunner, you get the old school mechanic style. you spray a little bit of W-D-40 where you think that vacuum leak is and when it sucks that extra hydrocarbon into the engine the engine will actually speed up because you're giving it extra gas

so you'll see a change in the RPMs of the engine when you find where that leak is okay the other thing is I talked about with my transmission I heard noises and all this stuff like that well I went down to my guy performance transmission in Delray on Congress.

He put the car up on a lift, called me the next day. He told me all I did was drop the pan, cleaned it up, put new tranny fluid in it, and new filter. He went from the front to the back. He said everything was good. Nothing leaking, how good. I was expecting the bill for like $5,000.

You know, all I got charged was 200, and I was like, oh, I was happy as L. Steve, what is the name of that transmission company again? Performance transmission. In Del Rey? Yeah. Well, let's give my plug. When you find an honest repair shop, they're worth their weight and goal.

So you folks in South Florida, you got a transmission problem. We have a positive testimonial from Roadrunner, Steve. Performance transmission. He does not show the cars, because I've seen all the cars there. Very good. Hey, Steve, what? What's you running in that for a transmission? 727 or a 904?

Yes, the talk flight. You got the 727? Yes. Nice. With that. And that was about it. I was going to say something else. I forgot now.

Well, thanks for calling you. I'm glad you're okay. COVID is scary, so I'm glad you're back in action. Yeah, some of them are. I was getting aggravated sitting in the house, not doing nothing. Yeah. Yeah. Terrible.

Drive you crazy. Okay. Everybody's safe and well. Have a great weekend. Me too. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. We are going to go to, let's see,

we're going to go to Susan. She is a first-time caller. And she's calling us from Stewart. Good morning, Susan. Hi. Welcome. Yes, I just have a question about a Toyota truck, and my husband was asking me to ask you.

If you take it, if he takes it in to buy it like another new Toyota, can the dealership tell what, and he did not buy it from Toyota because you did buy it used, can they tell how much you paid for it? No. Unless it's listed, it would be almost impossible to find out that. If he bought it from a used car a lot or another dealership, that's not. The price that he paid is not going to be listed. It won't be listed.

No. I wouldn't be able to know how much we bought it for, if I was trading it in. No, if you got a killer deal on it and you really saved a bunch of money when you bought it there, and you didn't buy it from that dealership, they won't be able to even track that down ever. Susan, what you can do is I get an accurate description of the vehicle and the Venn number. would be good but the exact year-making model and mileage and you can go back in the database of a number of sources like Mannheim auction there's a lot of sources accessible to you and the general public on a particular year-make model car as to what the wholesale

value was is now and what the retail value is now so it would be a kind of a a general way to get an idea of what the person paid for it. The average retail for that vehicle would be a number that would be close to what he paid for it. And actually, what you're going to want to do now, if you're planning to trade it in or to sell it to them, go to at least three other good places and tell them that you've got an extra vehicle, you know, somebody retired, they can't drive, whatever, but you've got an extra vehicle, and you want to sell this vehicle and ask them what is their best price

that they will give you someplace like CarMax maybe talk to Carvana or one of those and I would pick if it's a Toyota pickup I would go to another dealership entirely and let them give you their best price because a Toyota dealer

would normally give you a little more than like a Honda dealer might That's a great idea I should have said that that's exactly right that's better than checking with the Manheim auction numbers, but that's a real localized, accurate number if you do what Rick just

suggested. And Suzanne, you're in the driver's seat. You know, you can really get a good price for your car. And as Rick said, CarMax Carvana, we buy any car. So it's definitely worth, you know, the time that you're going to have

to put into it. And remember, too, that use car prices right now are really, really high. everywhere so don't let them lowball you yeah you're you're in the driver's seat Suzanne and you can get a good price for that vehicle trust me you really can you're going to be shocked and what was the name of that website again manhunt a banheim mannheim is almost a monopoly on wholesale auto auctions they are largely online now but they

actually have physical locations every car dealer virtually every car dealer will sell to Mannheim auctions and they also buy cars. They make the market in cars. And if you go M-A-N-H-E-I-M, if you Google that, you can check prices on from California to Florida as to what your make-model cars are. And it used to be that pricing a car telling a person with the wholesale value,

the actual cash value, car dealers called, what that number was was more of an art. of an art now it's a science because you can look at the Mannheim and you know exactly real time you know at 859 on this Saturday this is what a uh 2014 2022 Chevrolet uh you know Corvette sells for so it's uh M-A-N-H-E-I-M and uh the data is available to everybody okay thank you for the info you're very welcome to the next is all I wanted to know Hey, Suzanne, before you go, remember to leave your contact information so I can get that $50 checkout to you as a first-time female caller. Please spread the word. We want to build a female audience here at Erlon Cars.

Yeah. Thank you. Okay. I think that we are going to go to Dawn. Is Dawn holding stuff? No, he's just watching. He's just watching. Hey, Dawn, thanks for tuning in on Zoom.

Dawn is one of our Zoom callers from weeks past and... Hey, Don, I can see you. Can't hear you, though. Okay, let's go to Rick. I bet he has... You're listening to the best of the Earl Stewart on Cars program. If you have a question for our auto expert team, you can text it to 772-497-6-5-3. or online at Your Anonymous Feedback.com and we'll answer it during our next live program. Well, I've got. You've got FaceTime.

I got one quick one to read from Donovan here. He says, Hyundai this week showed off the refreshed 2025 Ionique 5. It has several updates, including a bigger battery for a range of up to 310 miles, and it'll be made in a U.S. factory in Georgia, a brand new factory in Georgia. But most importantly, this is the first non-Tesla EV to have the NACS, which is the Tesla's name for their charging port, natively on the car. So from the factory, the charging port for it will be the Tesla-style charger. if you have access to the Tesla Supercharger Network and all non-Tesla networks.

So basically you could charge this car any charging port. He says a lot of people are waiting on the sidelines for vehicles to start to show up with the NACS port natively on the car and on the vehicles, and they're going to start to roll out within the next year and into 2026. How are we doing on the Zoom? Did we ever figure out what the audio problem was? No, Don isn't speaking, so we need to have Don, we need to get Don to speak.

I think we, do we have two Zoom callers out there? Well, actually, we have three Zoom callers that are watching. Yeah, so we've got three people, and we can't hear any of them. Oh. Well, I've asked them if they want to, you know, ask the question, and nobody's responded, so they're just watching. Oh, okay, you're just watching. If any of you watching would like to speak, let us know. I thought our audio wasn't working,

but Jonathan told me that you're just watching. And Donovan, I hear somebody. You hear them? I heard it, yeah. Yes, I'm a little looking at you and hearing. I hear you. Can you turn off your microphone, please, on Zoom? Turn it all.

Are not your microphone? Which is that they need to turn off, Jonathan? We're getting the echo effect. No, we should be working. Go ahead. Can you hear me? Oh, I think, Dawn, is that you? Yes, that's me.

Now we got you. Excuse me. Okay, now I see. We see you know. You see me? Can you hear me? That's the question. Yep.

I can hear you. Finally, because when I received your $100 the last time six weeks ago, you could hear me, but I could hear you, but you couldn't hear me. Well, thanks for coming back. That's great. Well, thank you for the hundred. You're welcome. Yeah, I had a real exciting vacation. I drove an electric car, both R2, which was very interesting.

The car itself is, uh-oh, you lose me again? No, we still got you. We have another Zoom caller holding, and when he makes a noise, it knocks you off. The car itself is very, very unusual. It's fast, for sure. Hey, Don, did you use autonomous on your trip? No. You said you drove an electric car

I drove an electric car So what happened was I picked it up at the airport And I think I put around 300 U.S. miles Something like that on it I had enough juice when I got back That there was about 62% less Something like that

The interior and the way it works I have a Mercedes GSL, 23 And with all the whips and whistles and the whips and whistles in this car are very similar and act almost identical. It was easy to drive for me at least. It was fast, like I said.

What was a model? What model and make a model? Yeah, it was a, I think it was a 23 or maybe there was a 22, Pulsar 2. Well, I'm not familiar with that, but that's very interesting. Well, it's a car made by Volvo, which is China, really.

But it's interesting. It's similar, I guess, a lot to your Tesla in the interior and stuff. But it was interesting. The biggest problem I had was the rental car company, Hertz, gave me a little dongle to use on a shell gas station. So I just pull up, use this dongle, and fill up electricity. Well, there was no shell station within the air station. airport area. Oh, boy. So I couldn't use it. So I had to go back to the dealership, to the rental car. I paid 43, no, 42 euros, which is $46 or something like that, maybe more, to fill up from

68% to, they said 100%, but I don't believe them. So I got hose there. But that is great. That's so interesting. And I'm so happy you're on Zoom. I don't think about people renting electric vehicles. You must be a gutsy guy. When I used to travel more, I think I'd be scared to death to rent a brand new technology car. But you did it and you lived. The price for the car was a special, $85 as opposed to $220, $225 for gas. So I said, what the hell?

Might as well give it a shot. I was happy, like I said, coming back, we were worried about, we went out of electricity and where do we fill up. Because in Europe, although there are a lot of stations, when you get out into the countryside, there's nothing. Zero. Are you, did you, did you accelerate? Have you driven an EV before? Weren't you impressed with the acceleration of an electric vehicle? Yeah, the acceleration is unbelievable. I mean, it was, it puts you back in your seat. Yeah, yeah.

And my daughter, who drove with me, said, what the hell is that? She thought she was in an airplane. That's what Nancy says when I accelerate the Tesla. Don't tell her about it. Hey, Don, where in Europe did you rent the Polestar? What year? Where? I'm sorry, say it again.

What country? Where did you rent it? It was Italy. In Italy. Okay. Kim, Kim appreciates life on our YouTube channel was asking where you rented it from? Where in Italy?

Airport. I don't ask me. It was outside of Boulon somewhere. Cool. Yeah. And that was the Polestar 2? Paulsar 2. Yeah.

Interesting. Interesting. car but I like my Mercedes I'm sticking with I wish Volkswagen hadn't screwed up because the ideal car for me would be a diesel electric hybrid you get all the benefits of the diesel economy on top of that you get electric hybrid and of course the fuel course is different but it it it would work good but I I had diesel rabbits for three years. One year when my wife was alive, she said, I have a car I've been looking at.

Well, from there on in, it was Mercedes all the way. But this 23 that I have is very nice. There's been problems reported with it. But the only problem I've had with it was the running lights. They had to replace them because the air would come on. But I had nothing but praise about it. So anyway. So would you go electric again?

I go hybrid, hybrid electric, but not all electric. That's where to go, yeah. I just don't like, yeah. I mean, why did you guys, why did you guys, when you're a Toyota dealer, have a Tesla for a primary car? I've listened to the show a number of times. I've never heard you talk about that. Well, we'll be talking about our cyber truck pretty soon.

You can blame that on me. I'm a tech freak, and I started out as an electronics engineer, again, during physics and mathematics, and anything technical is always fascinated me, and I've never been more blown away than by the technology of electric vehicles, the autonomous, Nancy and I have a Tesla plaid, and we use the full autonomous function everywhere we go. This morning we left the house.

I pushed the button. I put true oldies radio, and that's the last time I had to drive. I just sat there. You got to keep your hands on the wheel, and it took us from our home right to the radio station. And so the answer is anything that's new and exciting, I can't resist. So that's why a toilet dealer is driving a Tesla. Yeah, that's interesting.

I'm gadget freak too. I'm not an engineer by any means. But the autonomous driving for the Pulsar and the Mercedes is very, very similar. It'll follow the car at wherever you said it. and it'll stop when it has to. It'll start when it has to and what have you. But it's not as sophisticated, I don't think, as Tesla. Because although I can, you know, I mean, right now, I just programmed the car because I hadn't done.

I could close and open my garage door with the car with MyQ. I don't know if you know of MyQ, but it's a garage door. Oh, yeah, yeah. and I can put that into my Mercedes. They had problems with it maybe a year and a half ago and now it's fixed, and it's working now. So that's one of the tech things

that is pretty neat. Well, Don, listen, we got some other calls holding. Now that we got this Zoom thing figured out, I'd love to hear from you again next week. And other Zoom people hearing about a successful Zoom conversation and will promote that. I look forward to doing a good percentage of our show on Zoom.

So thanks again, and please call on. Thank you. The next time I'll call or talk about leasing. Sounds good. We would definitely love to hear from you. Thank you so much. Have a great weekend, you and your daughter. We're going to go to John in Palm City.

Morning, John. Good morning. I'm just anxious to see about this reinforcement of this existing law and what gets done about it. And the example I want to give you is, like seatbelts, seatbelts came into effect. You don't hear of anybody anymore that's getting a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt. They came in effect, August 15, 1973, that they were made mandatory. There was a problem right away.

Your car wouldn't start until you adjusted or put your seatbelt. They had so much flack over it that in 1974, October, due to a car, complaints they had to stop that law because you can option to put them on, but the car could start again, but then they put the blinking lights on your dashboard to remind you to set the seatbelt. There's one law after the other. The Montroney's law, 1958, it was so strict. When I went with my sister to buy a first car, the dealer handed you a razor blade, and only you could Take the sticker off. Now go to dealer after dealer, and you won't even find a sticker attached.

It's in the glove compartment. It's in the backseat or whatever. And the federal law says it must be attached. But how many dealers are getting fined for not attaching that to the window? I could go on and on and on. Dark windows on cars. There's a law, especially in some states like Florida, that it can only be a certain amount. I've never heard of anybody that got stopped.

for having too dark windshield or driver's window. So these laws are all great if they're enforced. So let's see now how Ashley Moody is going to enforce the complaints of this existing law that's been on the books for a long time. Thank you, John. I'll say you really said it, John. You know, we've got all kinds of laws. Let's enforce them.

John, I agree with you. John, I got some information for you because I know you're, a buff on older cars and you're an old guy like me and we think with a great sentiment about the way the cars were 25, 30, 40 years ago or even further years ago. And I just found out this is an automotive news. There's become an overwhelming number of old used cars being imported. And the reason being that the federal law on emission control and safety, if you, if you bring a car from Japan or Europe that's 25 years old or older, then it's legal.

You can take a car that has no emissions suppression and that has safety, never been safety checked, and you can bring it and buy it in the United States. I'm not suggesting people do that. Of course, it would be illegal to drive it on the road, but you can buy the car now. There's a guy named Gary Duncan, D-U-N-C-A-N, and he's in Tennessee, and he is selling a lot of thousands of these cars are being sold. And think of a goldy, oldie model that you like to have either European or Japanese car. You can buy one.

He'll even put the emissions on it so you can drive it on the road for about $10,000, but that's a lot of money. But if you drive it off-road or you just have it because you're a collector, just think it's a treasure drove of all these old cars. I'm thinking about buying. I want to buy a 1975 Toyota because that's the year I started in business as a Toyota dealer. I'm going to call this guy Duncan and see what he has available in the 1975 toilets. Put it on my showroom floor. One of the guys that works in our...

our detail department has a Toyota arrestee. Yeah. This is a, it's a Japanese Toyota with a right-hand drive. Yeah. But it's the same as the GS-300 Lexus. Yeah, this guy sells him there. He has these on his lot. He's got several hundred used cars, 25 years and older,

European and Japanese on his lot in Tennessee. And you ought to check him out, John, because I know you love all cars. Yes. They've been doing this for a while, different dealers, distributors, but you have to be careful of what state it comes into because some of the states, we're okay in Florida because there's basically no inspection in Florida, but when it comes into certain states, it's checked very thoroughly,

and if it doesn't meet their standards, it's rejected, and you won't be able to register it. So that's an important thing as to what state that it's brought into of the United States. Yeah, exactly. a tag for it unless you have to, I don't believe they'd issue a registration a tag on a card that didn't meet safety qualification, so that would be a problem there as to buying a license plate. Yes, good point, though.

Thank you, John. Appreciate the call. Great hearing from you. Thank you. Great hearing from you, John. Stay tuned for our mystery shopper report that's going to come to our audience from Wallace. Wallace Kea, Wallace Kea in Stewart. Hey, have you, all of you out there,

have you signed up, have you signed up for Earl's Vigilantes? It would be a great help to, you know, your neighbor, anyone else that you may know, a relative, and if you know anything, you know, about cars, and you don't have to know how to take an engine apart, but you can sign up and you can help a friend you can help a friend buy a car

so go to www.werelsvigilantes.com you can get all the information right there most of the people often say we're preaching to the choir here at Earl on Cars literally we have callers that know more than we do about a lot of things especially on YouTube and so we're kind of like preaching to the choir

Most of you don't need our advice on being ripped off. But if you're knowledgeable and you have some time to help other people, go to Earl's Vigil and he sign up, we'll put your name and contact information with your permission on our website. So let's say you're in Louisiana, you're in Tennessee, or wherever you are, and someone in that area has an issue with a car dealer, be it repair, maintenance, or buying, or selling. they could call you for advice.

It's kind of like giving back a little bit. And if you're really car savvy, like so many of our callers are, we'd love to have you join the vigilantes. Yeah, you can share your expertise with, you know, as I said, your neighbor, your relatives. And guess what? We'll send you a vigilante cap. It has a logo on it.

It's a real neat-looking hat. I believe we lost our. I think I was stolen my hat. I'm looking at your briefcase. I think it's among the missing. Anyway, take advantage of that, earlsvigilantes.com. Okay, let's take, let's share some texts. I got a couple here.

Donovan wants to know, he says, Earl, when you get your cyber truck, are you going to install Tesla PowerShare? It allows you to power your house from your cyber truck. He says, I think it should be included with your order. And he goes on to say that he's installing a transfer switch this weekend so that he can power his house using his EV-9. Well, I'm glad I didn't know. I thought my cyber beast had everything.

So I have to add that to the car. I've got my notification that my car is being built. I'll contact Tesla, because I did not put that power share. Actually, I don't need the power share because... You've probably got a backup generator, I'm sure. I do. But I think it would enhance their resale value

because when I eventually sell the car, I think that's a really cool option. So I'll see if I, not too late for me to add it. Well, that also would depend if the power shares, something goes in the truck over something that just goes on your charger in the house. Oh. So that it can back feed to power your house.

if you need it. Okay. Interesting. Let's go for Anne-Marie's text. And you know, the cyber trucks that we've been seeing lately were seeing more colors. I mean, in the beginning, it was just the silver. Well, they're wrapping them.

A lot of people are getting them wrapped. And now we're seeing black. But they look so nice and silver. We saw a white one, a black one. I meant to send Earl the link for the TikTok I saw where they polished it to a mirror finish. Oh, yeah.

like to say that. Oh, yeah. Total mirror chrome finish on the stainless steel. I mean, as reflective as any mirror. How long does it take to keep that clean? I wouldn't even want to imagine. So, good morning. Oh, I'm sorry. Frank's, Frank is on the line and we'll get back to Rick. Good morning, Frank. Well, good morning, you guys. Just so I say hi, has been down the country for a Yeah, we haven't heard from you. Frank, what do you think about this time that we're in now with the Attorney General committing to penalize fine, maybe even suspend dealers that are not following the Florida laws? Does it give you any thoughts about possibly letting the Attorney General know about possibly letting the Attorney General know about? some of these dealers that are still flaunting her promise to treat people with honesty when they sell them a car.

You're listening to the best of the Earl Stewart on Cars program. If you have a question for our auto expert team, you can text it to 772-497-6530 or online at Your Anonymous Feedback.com, and we'll answer it during our next live program. Well, absolutely. I'm, unfortunately, I'm going to wait to see if this really going to happen with Moody. But, yeah, by far, people should be aware. I mean, that's like a little, like I said, sometimes before I called you guys, I feel like a little mystery shopper on my own with my free time. I might just go in a dealership and drive a car and pretend I'm thinking about buying it and see their reactions and all the add-ons.

In fact, a couple months ago, I heard you guys talking about the Crown, and I went up to Beth Smith, Toyota, way up north, and they had one, and I drove it. It wasn't that impressed with all their add-ons of almost $8,000. It was a black one, and a few weeks later, I saw the exact same car in your lot. You were selling it. I guess you got it from them, and, of course, you didn't have their add-ons, and that's why they probably had bought it from you. But it was interesting to see the exact car that I had driven a couple weeks earlier.

Yeah, there's a lot of work for Ashley Moody to do. And as I said earlier in the show, they were bragging about the fact that there were no complaints made to the Attorney General, and that was one of the reasons they weren't clamping down on car dealers. So we're trying to stir up the action, especially in South Florida, to get some complaints in to Ashley Moody's office. That number is 866-966-27-226. If you dial 866, 966, 966, 7226, and you have a complaint against a car dealer, she has vowed after September 1st to go in, investigate, and punish the dealer as necessary. Well, that's good. I actually just wrote that number down.

I'll put it in my speed dial, because when I come across, I'll be one of the first ones to call Ashley. Thank you. We would really appreciate that. Okay. Not to worry. Appreciate the call, Frank. One quick thing. It made me think back when he was talking about listening to noises.

When I start first working at gas stations in the 60s, the mechanics had like an extra long screw dryer. They would put down on an engine nuts to their ear to hear tapping noises or noises like that. I was wondering if Rick remember those days or that was too long ago. That was probably a week and a half ago. yeah that old school technique it's still we do that all the time it's a long pry bar you reach down in you get it right near the pulley that you think is making noise you put your

ear on it and the sound will transmit through that solid shaft and you know you just move it till you find the spot where it's loudest and that tells you where the noise is that's that's old school diagnosis and there are certain techniques that just they will never die because they work. You know, you got these new chassis ears and all these things where you can clamp microphones all over the vehicle and it sends a signal back to a controller and you watch the little tits on the screen. But even those are not as accurate sometimes as the guy that looks like a little monkey crawling around inside the car listening to each spot to try to figure out where the sound is loudest while you're going down the road yeah well one last thing and then i get off

you but when you were speaking of road run this morning asked about his transmission and i had them in my barracudas the 727 and it was um ironically because later my career when i became a pilot at eastern and american i flew the 727 from all seats this is the reminiscent of why i like that airplane so much. With that, let me let you guys get back to your other callers and you have a great weekend. Hey, Frank. Thanks, Frank. Great hearing from you.

Okay, back to Rick. Okay, we have got Anne Marie's text. She says, Good morning. Good morning, Annery. It seems there's an app for everything nowadays. Artificial intelligence is becoming more efficient and auto

manufacturers can't seem to resist cramming technology into vehicles whether the customers want or not. Passenger side screens, subscription heated seats, for example. What happens if auto companies apply excessive technology to dealerships? Is it possible that car buying will go totally digital in the future? I'm thinking of those touch screens at McDonald's now. That's what I'm seeing in my head. The app, for example, each dealership would have the manufacturers app, with the total buying experience built in.

The app with artificial intelligence would handle the would-be buyer's questions, provide a virtual test drive, take the order, automatically set up the financing, and apply for the vehicle registration, all the while eliminating the human sales and financing staff and the fancy showrooms. Fewer staff equals lower cost equals higher profits for the dealer. The only humans the dealer would need would be in the service department, until reliable robots are routine, and the body shop, if the dealer chooses to have one.

Number one, from your viewpoint as a dealer right now, is this scenario a realistic dream or a nightmare? Number two, if it's a nightmare, how would one counteract it? Thanks. Boy, Ann Marie, I know I say this every week, but I really mean it, you're a genius. a genius. You're also a mind reader. You can foresee the future. What you describe is being pursued by some manufacturers. Toyota, our dealership, they have a system and AI is part of it already so that when you want to buy the car, you can do it entirely online. You can finance it. Other manufacturers are beginning to pursue this.

It's in the very early stages, as you might guess. So you dealers out there listening, I mean, this is going to put the fear of God into all the dealers that are not playing by the rules that are bait and switch advertising and unethical and dishonest, outright dishonest. But, yeah, all the manufacturers that really understand the situation, I think most of them do. Most manufacturers are not vocal about their dealers. If you're a Ford CEO or General Motors CEO and you get up on stage somewhere and you say, I got a bunch of dishonest dealers, that's not going to work too well. First of all, you'll be sued.

Second of all, you'll lose a huge amount of business. Dealers are your retail outlet. And by law, you can't sell cars like Tesla can. Tesla built it got around the law because it's an electric vehicle. And so when you buy a Tesla, you buy it directly from Tesla, the manufacturer. General Motors, Ford, Honda, Toyota, all the manufacturers would love to sell you cars directly. But unfortunately, they set up tens of thousands of dealers with contracts, and they're locked in by state law. Only a dealer can sell a car.

So one way to combat that without selling direct is to come up with the system, Anne-Marie, as you suggested, and make this app readily available. And what you're going to do is you're going to equip all the savvy people, all the intelligent, aware people and consumers to have this app. But we'll still have the problem of those that don't even have a smartphone, Those that can't deal online, that they don't know how to contact somebody on the website. People that are English language is not their first language, people that are maybe high school dropouts, people that, you know, for whatever reason, the very elderly, I refer to them as victims. They're still going to be victimized by car dealers.

But the aware manufacturers like Toyota, they're already doing, which you suggest. So, Anne Marie, thanks for the great comment. Thank you, Ann Mary. Okay. All righty. Let's see. I think, yeah, we were pretty well caught up. I've got a, I've got a, I didn't mention, I'll let Nancy do it.

The battle of the Consumer Report. What are you looking at? Well, I said that the current issue of Consumer Reports has a list of the safest and the least safe. car. I'll address the car less safe and then I'll let Nancy address the cars that are safe. I'm going to hold

that. That's what I was going to do. I was looking at the unsafe cars because we're always talking about the safe cars. No, you go ahead. This is what it looks like. Hey, we're live, Jonathan. And a lot of people a lot of people

say I'm not going to waste my time with consumer reports. I know this car is a good car. I'm not telling you to look in consumer reports to buy the car they recommend. I'm suggesting to you consider not buying a car if they tell you it's not safe and why. And I'm looking at the page here. These are the cars that are in writing by consumer reports dangerous. So if they're not dangerous, someone's going to be suing consumer reports but they got their facts and figures down so don't buy a Dodge Durango don't buy a Jeep Wrangler a Chevrolet Tahoe a GMC Yukon a Toyota

Sequoia I did say Toyota yeah I was really surprised to see that on the list Toyota Sequoia a land rover defender Lincoln Navigator GM Sierra 150 Missibishi Mirage and the Chevrolet Silverado 1500. Now I notice most of these are large vehicles and that's inherently the comment they make on most of these is low scores and consumer reports emergency handling test AEB with pedestrian direction unavailable. Here's a Jeep Wrangler low breaking and emergency handling scores AEB with pedestrian detection unavailable so do yourself a favor in your family whoever's going to be

riding in this car. If you're going to buy a new car, go to Consumer Report. Don't buy one of these. There's one, two, three, there's ten of them. Don't buy one of those ten cars. Buy something else. Buy a safe vehicle. And this here is what Earl is looking at is the October 2024 Consumer Report. And, you know, I was really surprised to see this Toyota Sequo. And it just came in short for breaking emergency handling the test they just came in very low

I'm not surprised to see Jeep Wrangler on the list without a doubt so anyway I figure Jeep Wrangler they sit high They're top heavy The center gravity is very high and they have such a short wheelbase

That they are easy to flip over Yeah and what about What about their pedestrian detection. Automatic emergency braking. They don't have one. Yeah, it just, well, they're dropping the ball there, but that's... But this here, yeah, this here is a great magazine that you might want to pick up.

It has everything in it, and they have a great road report, and the safest cars. I'm not going to go over the list. We're getting into the time where we need to get to the mystery shopping report, so pick up the consumer report. October edition. We're going to go back to Rick. I know he's sitting on a lot of call. No? We're actually pretty well caught up right now, except, let's see, yeah. There was one question that came in. Automania asked, he says, I was told by a Cadillac dealership that the $7,500 EV credit on a lease is tacked onto the buyout at the end of the lease. Is that true? And Donovan came back to say,

automania, if you lease an EV, the credit is passed to you by the leasing company, it does not get tacked on to the buyout. He continues to say, if you lease, you don't own the vehicle. The leasing company does. So you would not get the credit, but they can choose to pass it to you in the form of a capital cost reduction when you take the lease. Boy, isn't that interesting. I never thought about that.

But that's absolutely true that the leasing company owns the car. I think that's been worked out. I'll do a little research on that, but my guess is you probably don't get that $7,500 rebate right away because you're not buying the car. You're only using the car for three years. So the owner of the car is entitled to the rebate. He'll pass it along, and he'll pass along the benefits. I'm not sure the entire benefit, because,

The benefit is buying the car, and that means you bought the car. It's permanent. Leasing means you can use it for three years. So maybe they give you 50% of the $7,500. But I don't know. Well, we'll research that. I bet you Donovan knows. Oh, he was the one who gave that answer.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Texas smacker, calls back, or whatever, if I got it right or if I got it wrong. He says, you do get the credit right away when you lease the car. The whole $7,500. Because he just leased the EV-9, so I'm pretty certain he said he leased it. That's interesting.

That makes a leasing even more attractive. We've always thought that leasing an EV was a better way to go. But with this, with these tax credit, it's just, it's a no-brainer. Well, and especially when, for the average person, when that 7,500 might be the money that you need to put the charging station on your house. so that she'd be able to charge it at home. There you go. There you go. Okay, we're getting close to the mystery shopping report,

and that mystery shopping report was done by no other than Agent Lightning. Boy, I'll tell you what a great asset she has been. She's maneuvered her way in and out of a lot of dealerships, and let me tell you what, she's done it with sophistication. She has really kept herself together, and there are times when it was pretty rough, a real knockdown. Okay, Wallace Kia in Stewart, if you want to, you know, give us your rating on this dealership, you can do so at 772-497-6530.

Yeah, vote for ABC, D or F. Are they doing a great job or are they doing a terrible job? Great on the curve. remember you do that i have to interrupt you for something very important please ladies and gentlemen use this week to take advantage of this number is really important it's important to us it's a report it's important to you give ashley moody a call the attorney general she's going to work with us we have to work with her she has to hear our voice you can do so by calling 866-966-7-2-66.

No, 7-2-26. That is 866-9-66-7-2-2-6, and that is attorney Ashley Moody. Back to the recovering car dealer. You're listening to the best of the Earl Stewart on Cars program. If you have a question for our auto expert team, you can text it to 772-497-6530 or online at Your Anonymous Feedback.com, and we'll answer it during our next live program. Okay, now remember this mystery shopping report of Wallace, Kia, and Stewartford. That's just a little bit north of North Palm Beach area.

It's only about a 20-minute drive from New Jersey. I live in Jupiter, and it's about a 20-minute right. So it's all part of the big South Florida, Sodom and Gamora complex. When you buy a car here, expect to have a tough situation. going for you. And remember, this was done on September the 5th, this mystery shopping report, and that was after September the 1st,

which is when Ashley Moody vowed to enforce the law. So as you listen to this mystery shopping report, think, is this somebody that Ashley Moody should have a discussion with him, possibly fine or suspend or penalize in some fashion? The commitment from the Florida Attorney General is if you do not put the complete price on your advertiser quoted price and you do anything else that falls under the Florida Unfair Disempty Trade Practice Act, I'm coming after you.

And she's committed to do that in writing. So here we are. How does Wallace Kia in Stewart, Florida, stack up? Ashley, I hope you're listening. I'm speaking in the first person that's up. I were Agent Lightning, the undercover shopper. We arrived mid-afternoon and were greeted by a salesman named Effie, EFE. He greeted my daughter and made by asking,

Is there anything I can help you with today? My doll is smiled really big, and I replied, she has a job now and she's looking to buy her first car. Hopefully, Kia Forte, a little aside here, speaking again about Agent Lightning. It's really cool because she takes her family long, at least mystery shopping. Here's her 16-year-old daughter. She held last week she took her husband.

So it really is difficult to spot Kia, I mean spot a mystery shopper when they come in with the family. Yeah, all these characters that, you know, join in this crusade. Effie matched her excitement and asked, which one do you like? My daughter asked if the forte hatchbacks are the same price as the Forte cars. Salesman replied, no, the Forte's are. our cheapest line, I wouldn't have used that word if I were trying to sell something, I'd say less expensive. But assured us that all their cars have amazing safety features. He then

asked us to come inside and warned us our AC runs very cold, a little too cold, in my opinion. Once in his desk, he asked my daughter what color she likes and also took my license and scanned it into their system on his iPad. My daughter says she loves the white. We finalized our search and landed on a new 2004 Kia 40 GT. The MSRP Monroney label was $24,115

in snow white pearl. Effie excused himself to go get the keys. I disappeared for about five minutes and then returned to take us to see the car. Once outside, he popped the hood and showed us how it has a breakaway

engine and a fire retardant type protector out of the hood. I've heard a breakaway engine, and I guess that's just the fact that when you're in an accident, the engine will break free and not crush the occupant of the car or catch on fire or something like that. He then insisted that he needed to drive it off the lot to show us his safety features before we could drive it. Customers are not allowed to drive the cars off our lot, he said. But he also refused to show me any numbers before I drive. wouldn't tell me anything about prices. Effie and my daughter both knew I was annoyed at this point

and I challenged him about me driving it versus him. He wanted to go through all the features and offers, but I told him we have a lane assist and are familiar with that. The car was on empty, which added an element of anxiety to the adventure. I can't stand driving a car that's on empty. And he drove from their lot all the way to PDQ, I wonder what that is.

I should have asked... Pre-de-delivery quality? Actually, at PDQ, I think it's that chicken place, isn't it? Oh, that's probably what it is. It's a PDQ chicken place, okay? They pulled over for me to drive. I adjusted the seat and made a U-turn and then headed back to the dealership. Being a bit of a smart-ass, I asked,

am I allowed to drive it back onto the lot? He left and said, yes. I don't make these rules. I just have to follow them now. That's an insurance regulation. that they're worried about, of all the things they do to worry about a customer driving the car back in a lot. That ought to be at the bottom of the list. I parked at Forte, and then he tried to get my 16-year-old daughter to drive, but she declined.

We headed back inside, and Effie said he'd be right back. He returned with a printout of the Monroney label. He highlighted the safety features on the copy of the Monroney label, and then I asked, what are we looking for, what are we going to do today? I said, hopefully, buy a car. He cheerfully said, oh, let's do it then and grabbed his pen, flip the sheet of paper over. He wrote, MSRP, $24,115, $950 dealer discount, $1,000 $1,000 financing through Kia, and the bottom line being $22,465, and he put plus, plus, and that's what bothers me

is the plus, plus. I asked him if he's going to be able to show me the price in writing with the fees. He pointed to what he was writing on the back of the minority elbow, said, this is what I'm doing. Once we agree on a number, I will then get all your info

for finance. So he dodged the bullet here. She wants to know what the junk fees are, what the additional fees are. She wants to know the whole price. She wants to know the whole price. He wants to know the out-the-door price, but he won't give it to her. I said, I don't like that.

I want to see the sales tax, the dealers fees, the plates, or whatever. He replied, at this dealership, we don't really do that. But let me see if I could get my manager to make an exception. He walked off. So, Ashley Moody, are you listening? F.E. returned and asked us to follow him. is finance manager David needed to go over a few things with us. So the salesman basically refused to give the delivered price to the Mr. Shopper.

You come in to buy something, the salesman gives you a price, but it doesn't give you the out-the-door price. It doesn't give you the real price. He went to David's office and he said, Well, I don't really have anything to print for you. I can give you a pretty good idea of your total price and monthly payments. He showed me his computer screen. Now, this is the F&I manager in the F&I office.

You can imagine you're sitting there and there's the computer screen. And you've got numbers on top of numbers. And you can't possibly identify junk fees or anything else. it's important to you there was also a payment of $433.85 based on financing $25,527 for 72 months at 6.79 percent I asked him about the pricing and the fees. He said thankfully I don't have to do anything to I don't have anything to do with the numbers. David then said we are all transparent with everything here at Wallace look at this invoice of ours. Then he showed them the factory invoice, a printout from on this particular

car. Now, if you're a regular listener to this car, to this show, you've heard me say dozens of times, the factory invoice from a manufacturer to a car dealer is packed with around $4,000 as profit on the average. Of course, the lower price cars have less, but this key forte does have kickbacks, holdbacks, and other refunds of hidden profit on the invoice. It should not be called an invoice. It is not an invoice. So showing this invoice was just another act of deception. I asked him about the pricing and fees.

He said, okay, okay. He asked if I had any other questions, I did not. So we excused himself to find Effie. We waited for a few minutes and then snuck out the door before they know Now, I had my son, Josh Stewart, who also works at our Toyota dealership, to back it out and find out what the junk fees were, what the hidden profits were that neither the salesperson nor the NFF and I manager at Kea, Wallace Kia, would give him. And he said there are about $1,000 in junk fees. and he did that by calculating what the courted price was and what the sales tax was because the way to identify a junk fee is the fact that they have to pay sales tax on it.

If it's a government fee, you don't tax a tax, so government fees are legitimate. They paint all the, with one paintbrush, they say all fees are okay, but only a government fee, tax and tag is all you should pay. The prices, there was an $849 electronic filing fee and $159 and dealer and stole options that he could find. But there were other fees to tune to about $1,000, which we had to do because of our knowledge of cars and doing a mathematical backup to find out what the junk fees are, which were not disclosed. So that wraps it up. September 1st, laws are being enforced. What happened here would not be considered legitimate in today's Florida statute that has unfair and deceptive advertising,

that the quoted price, the advertised price has got to be the price you pay to take it out the door plus government fees only. And we would welcome your votes. remind you that there are no A's. They're like hen's teeth, black swans or whatever we want to call them. We have a couple, but that's about it. And F is pretty harsh because that means that the dealers are doing something illegal. Now, illegal has a new meaning now with the Attorney General's commitment to enforce the law in Florida that's been here for 20 years.

And again, that number, if you want to let Ashley Nudy know, if you happen to have been into Wallace Gia or another dealership that violated the Florida law, you give Ashley a call at 866-9667-226. That's 8669667-226. And we'd like to hear your votes. Okay. Okay. I see nothing coming in on text just yet.

go here to one of the YouTube channels. We got T-Cash says D-Minus. Welcome to the evil world of Steelership's new driver. So much for our new Florida law and junk fees. Earl? Questermark, question mark, question mark, question. Donovan says F. It was not a single thing transparent about that place. Tom Steckle, F. Failure to provide a detailed out-the-door price. I'd be a breakaway customer. Andrew Placinski says F. Johnny Z. Fradley, F, for Find Me, Ashley Moody, fast. Cramm 1624. Have Agent Lightning call Ashley Moody now, F, enforce the law. Joseph Kelleher, F. Zero transparency at that dealership.

Mark Smith, Wallace Kia gets an F for me. Brian said, let go, fees, fees, fees, F for me. Mark H says D. old school pricing policy won't fly nowadays and Captain Mike whoop no that was he wasn't put a great in

I know pardon me folks for me I know Ashley's supposed to be getting in there but I'm going to say a D because they're playing games like all the rest but with proper assistance

I think you could probably beat them up and make them give you a proper deal if you get in there and work on them I'm not going to go F right now because I don't see anything there that was like really outside the norm for South Florida and until Ashley Moody gets down there

and really starts putting the spurs to them they're all just going to sit and wait to see, is she going to do it or not? Well, there's some truth to that. We'll see. Nancy, what's your score? Well, my score for Wallace-Kia Stewart

is Ashley Moody, the Attorney General. I'm going to give you her phone number. Write this down. You're going to need it. You can help us. We're going to help you 866-966-7-226. and my grade, you know, without a doubt, you know, I know someday I'm not going to be giving out these type of grades

because I know things are going to change. And we have Ashley Moody in our back pocket now. So my grade today is a F. Okay. Yeah, our whole scoring is going to have to be reflected of the new intent by our Attorney General. and if you tuned in late, remember, if you have a legitimate complaint against a car dealer, if you've been shopping for a new used car, and you realize that you've been victimized because the price that you were told was not the price

that were going to ask you to pay plus government fees only. That's allowable. If you have that experience, and you follow that complaint, we're going to pay you $100. and we'll see how that goes it has to be a legitimate complaint you have to have visit in the dealership and you have to have had the intent

to buy and if you experience what we just experienced here with our mystery shopper that would certainly be a complaint. I mean if I was really going to buy a car and they wouldn't give me the price until I went into the financing

They basically said, you've got to buy the car. And then when you go into the financing officer office, you'll get the breakdown in the fees. Well, they refused to give the delivered price to me, if I were in Wallets, Kia, in Stewart, Florida. And that's a violation of the law. So what's your grade? You know, I'm teetering between a D and an F. I think I'm going to stick with you. It's too soon.

It's too soon now to eliminate all the dealers. from consideration if Ashley Moody is not going to fulfill her promise then I would say we had to keep on a conservative curve basis though I'm going to stick with a D

and I'll match your D and of course Mrs. Sunrise I was going to say Nancy said an F I see the perfect movie quote for this is from my cousin Vinnie when he looks over and says you were serious about that.

And that I see as the dealerships in South Florida when Ashley Moody if she comes in and starts swinging the bat around and doing some damage down there, I can see them looking at you are serious about that?

Yeah, I just put... Here's what I'm serious about. The email that we received and I'll read it word for word. The car's rule case has been scheduled for oral argument for October the 9th in New Orleans and the attorney ends the sentence with saying progress and it definitely is.

Yeah, that's the argument you could call it in Texas where the Texas Auto Association joined the NADA National Automobiles Association to block the FTC Cars Act, which is combat auto retail scams. It was supposed to go to the effect in July. And our attorney, because we filed an amicus brief to the Texas Circuit Court to support the Federal Trade Commission, the judge has agreed to hear the oral arguments in October. Now, the bad news is that's October 10th, I think. And they've held it up because it's supposed to go in effect of July.

but my attorney tells me the fact that the judge agreed to hear the oral argument is encouraging to us because he could have thrown it out without even allowing that argument so we've got to wait till October to find out and that's October the 9th in New Orleans so October the 9th in New Orleans okay I think we're we got about wrapped it up here didn't we Nancy I believe that we have Jonathan just said I was off camera probably where I should be what I just said what do we get okay well Rick's checking okay says Don on Zoom has a question do we know if the Attorney General will have a scorecard for the new law compliance that's a good idea

you know it would be nice if she would join forces with us have her on the show even if we're only Zoom and we really work together just think I think what, this group in this room here, through all these Earl and Cars, if we worked in conjunction with the State Attorney General, I mean the Attorney General's office, Ashley Moody, could we ever turn things around or what? Have we, I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention.

I think we're, I'm trying to fill in so we can, don't have dead air. So I was talking and you and blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, hey folks, thanks for joining us this morning. We definitely enjoy your company, and you can see how, and hear, how excited we are. And we have a good dealer, bad dealer list. We're going to have a better list than that. Stay tuned for all the excitement.

We'll be back here next week. Same time, 8 a.m. Have a wonderful weekend. Let's come.