Earl Stewart on Cars - 09.15.2018 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Napleton’s Palm Beach Acura

Episode Date: September 15, 2018

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

Welcome to Earl Stewart on Cars with Earl and Nancy Stewart. Reach them with your questions at 877-960. Here's Earl and Nancy. Good morning, everybody. Well, we're back, and we're glad we're back. We, by the way, this is the Earl Stewart on Cars show, and we're kind of unique. We're on the True Oldie station, which you're listening to right now,

95.9 and 106.9. But we're not really a musical show. We're not oldies. Well, I'm an oldie, but this is a show all about cars. We're going to talk to you this morning about how to buy, lease, repair, maintain your car without being ripped off by your car dealer. It's a consumer advocacy show that we do every Saturday at this time. Been on the air for a long time. Started over a decade ago.

And we are not an infomercial. I want to make that clear. We're not, I am a car dealer, I have to admit that, but we're consumer advocates. And I say we, we have others in the studio with me, sitting to my immediate right, is Rick Kearney. Rick is a, depending on your age, you would either call him a mechanic, an auto technician or an auto computer scientist. Millennials would probably refer to him as an auto computer scientist because our cars are now computers on wheels. But he's been through the evolution of the automobile pretty much in the past 20 to 25 years. It has really made some amazing changes.

And he's here to answer any and all of your questions, any of your comments about the mechanics or the electronics or the computer ability of a car. So, Rick, I know you'll be getting a lot of calls this morning. Good morning, everybody. And then to his right is Nancy Stewart. She's also my wife. she's my co-host she's been doing the show with me

for all these years and it's hard to give a specific description because she kind of does it all. She's been on the show for a long time and she's learned a lot about from Rick but she's probably more focused in the buying and leasing just like

I am. But more importantly she's the woman's spokesperson. She's the female advocate. She advocates for all of the consumers, all of the car buyers, but she especially has a tender spot in her heart for women. And we acknowledge, and this is a revolution we're going through, hashtag me too. You can't turn on the news without seeing another man going down in flames.

And the world's a changing, and the world's changing with car dealers too, and the worlds are changing with the way females are treated when they come into a car dealership. Now, Nancy had this figured out a long time ago, and she's very gratified to see things are changing for the better for females. We are moving forward. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. And then we have Tina for Bonita Springs on the line. Tina will be with you momentarily. Let's get through this introduction. Speaking of females, by the way, Tina is one of our most intelligent, articulate, car-sabby females, and we love her calls for the show.

we always learn something from Tina. And we also have $50 this morning for the first two new lady callers. Exactly. And then next in the studio, filling out our automotive team here, is Stu Stewart. He's actually Earl Stewart III. We call him Stu, because I'm Earl too. And Stu is, he's not a millennial, he's past that, but he's barely. Barely, yeah.

But he's very computer savvy. And the social media deluge that we live in today, the Snapchat and the Instagram and the Facebook and the Google and the Yelp and the, you name it, it's out there. He understands all that quite well. And we realized a few months ago that we could enhance this radio show by going live video. And that's where we are now. We're doing live video. We're doing podcasts. We've really joined the 21st century in terms of communications.

We take text. You can text us at Area Code 772-4976530. And, of course, you can stream us live on Facebook. Just by going to facebook.com. 4. slash Earl Stewart on Cars. Earl on Cars. What happens if they go to Earl Stewart on Cars?

I'll try it in a second. We need to be sure that it works both ways. But let's try Earl on Cars to be. be on the safe side www. www. Facebook.com forage slash

Erl on Cars. And you'll see me in my blue shirt. You'll see Nancy in her. Is that Fuchsia? Fuchsia. Fuchsia shirt.

And two handsome guys beside me. Not as handsome as I am, but anyway, they're beside me. So we're a live, Facebook streaming video. You can talk to us

on the Facebook by posting. And as I said before, you can text us. You could email us. Or you can call us the old-fashioned way, 877-960-960. We're very candid. What sets us apart from other shows of this type, and I don't know of any,

but if there were other shows of this type, chances are they wouldn't be as candid as we are. We do a mystery shopping report. We visit a car dealership every week. We go in undercover secretly to pretend to buy or lease a car. Nobody does that. No one dares do that. And then we announced the results on the air. We named the dealership, the salesman, the sales manager,

and we tell you exactly what happened. If we have a good experience, we put that dealership on our recommended dealer list. If we have a bad experience, we tell it like it is, the good, the bad, the ugly, and we put them on do not buy from this dealer list. We have never been sued in over a decade of doing these mystery shopping reports. Never been sued. Now, that tells you something, right? It tells you we're being honest.

Because there's a lot of lawyers listening, and there are a lot of listeners that know lawyers, and every car dealer, trust me, knows a lot of lawyers. And when you call a lawyer and say, I want to sue Earl on Cars because he said this about me on this mystery, Jean-Bingham part, the first question the lawyer is going to ask is, was he telling the truth?

And if you tell the truth, it's a perfect defense against libel and slander. And so we've never been sued. So I think you can rest assured to the mystery shopping report that you'll hear in the second half of the show is the truth. I'm not going to tell you who the dealer is. We like them to be on pins and needles. Got a lot of dealers listening to the show. Car dealers all over.

In South Florida, they're really nervous because we may visit them next. We visited most of the dealers in our market area. We stretch as far south as Fort Lauderdale. As far north is a bureau. And we now have such a thing as, what we call them, satellite shoppers. Yeah, we're deputizing people. Yeah, we're deputizing people. We have a deputy in North Carolina.

We have a deputy now on the west coast of Florida, John Neal. And as a matter of fact, Diana Neal, his wife will be telling you. You just outed your mystery shopper. Oh. That's okay. We'll use a special code word for that. John, I'm sorry. Oh, boy.

We'll have to, yeah. Anyway, John's a brave guy. He's a tough guy. Oh, yeah. He's not going to work. Exactly. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we've got a great show in store for you. Packed with a lot of information.

Give us a call, tool-free at 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. And remember, ladies, first two new lady callers, $50 for you. So we're going to go to Tina, who is a regular caller. Good morning, Tina. You don't mind me not to rob the bank with you. Good morning, everybody. How you doing? Hey, Tina.

Great. I have a concern because the last few weeks I've been talking about recalls, and there's yet another recall from GM with their trucks, and it has to do with the power steering. The power steering can temporarily fail and cause loss of control with the vehicle. So they just issued that this weekend. But, you know, the recall situation has,

kind of irritated because I feel like in general auto makers have dropped the ball. It's not quality anymore. The quality is really lacking. I don't know if it's cost cutting or what, but I read all the time about brand new or fairly new cars that have engine failures, that have transmission failures, and this shouldn't be happening in a car that has less than 50,000 miles if the cars maintain. It's ridiculous. Well, Tina, you know, I agree with you and I disagree to some extent. I think the quality in general has been going up markedly over the past, say, 20 years. But I think I know what you're talking about in the shorter run.

And I think part of the problem is there change is both a good thing and the bad thing. When you change things, especially when you change things quickly, you are inviting glitches. Every new design is typically, got a few glitches in it for the first couple of years. I advise people on the show not to buy a new major change vehicle. A car comes out brand new, stem to stern, new inside and new outside. Give it a year to work out the glitches.

Still has a point. Do you think it's fair to say that manufacturers are more gun-shy now, especially after that huge Toyota sudden acceleration, recall about eight years ago, that they're just not going to take chances and they just rather get it out there and not be accused of hiding a problem. Exactly. I think they found out that announcing a recall is not bad for business. Where they get in trouble is to cover up when they don't announce a recall and people start dying and people start asking them, why don't you recall these vehicles? So I think both the fact that Stu said that there's a lot

more transparency in admitting problems today. And there's also the warp speed change we're going through. I've been in the business since 1968, and I've never seen more changes in the last five years than I have in that 50 years that we've had before. Rick, as a technician, you see the changes even better than I do. I don't know how you stay on top of it. I have a real challenge. It's something we have to really work at just to keep up with all the technology going in the cars.

But some of the biggest changes in engines and transmissions like Tina's referring to is the federal government keeps wanting emission standards to become lower and lower and lower to where the cars cannot produce nearly as many emissions. you know, they have to achieve these lower levels. At the same time, they want the fuel economy standards across the board raised higher and higher. And at the same time, you've got the public who says, well, it's all nice and well and good to have low emissions. And yeah, we love the great fuel economy, but we want the power and speed as well. And the engineers are just, I got a feel for the engineers in some cases, they're having a hard time actually getting these engines. engines and transmissions to produce what everybody wants and please everybody. And it's difficult.

I think we would agree that we see fewer mechanical, electronic, whatever you want to call it, problems today in the day-by-day than we did 10 years ago. We're doing a whole lot of oil changes and tire rotations. And I think another big change, too, I think, is that a lot of these problems that we're seeing, they were occurring 20 years ago, but you didn't see them. because we didn't have the internet, you know, that instantaneous, all the information is out there on the internet in milliseconds, and everyone knows about it that quickly.

It was still occurring. It just, you know, nobody really heard about it that much. And now it's just, you know, the news just pops right out into your face in an instant. Yeah. And there was a time whenever you woke up and turned the TV on, and there was a, you know, a recall and you'd say, oh, no. Well, now everyone has become accustomed to seeing those recalls, and they're glad to see them because there's transparency. They feel more comfortable with the auto industry, with the manufacturers, and we're moving in the right direction.

Things are changing. Tina, thanks for that observation. I think a lot of people feel the same way you do, that there's just a whole lot of problems. you can't turn on the television. You can't go online. You can't read a newspaper without saying another recall. It's amazing. Millions and millions of cigars.

And the danger there is that the really serious ones, like the Takadi Airbag, are being taken for granted. People are, you know, a big deal, another recall. The fact is, some of these recalls are big deals, and they don't seem to differentiate like they should between the more important ones and the less important. well it all falls back to the consumer because like we were talking before quite a while ago some consumers like no big deal i'll take care of it tomorrow and no big deal i'll take care of it

next month they never do and then they put in their lives in jeopardy along with all other drivers that come in contact with in jeopardy so if it please people if there's a recall on your vehicle that is a really good for the love of everybody you know it's so important that first owner it's crucial because if they don't do it and it goes on to the used car market forget about it it's all over that recall's not getting done exactly it's usually more dangerous for the second and third owner than it is the first owner uh the the hard sad fact is 75% of all recalls are never done so uh it's just it's almost uh crazy yeah when you have a new car with a recall you're not just fixing it for yourself you're doing a civic duty by getting it done we need two things we need to

make the current owners more aware and take their cars in for recalls and we need to find a better way to find the second, third, fourth owners. As a dealership, I told you that I have a car dealership in full disclosure and transparency. And when we get a list from Toyota to

contact for recalls, the list is 90% obsolete. I was going to say about 10% hit rate. Yeah. So we of the, if we get a thousand names, we can only find a hundred people. And that's Toyota giving us a list. That's their freshest list. So that's crazy. This should be able to go to the department motor vehicles in every state and get a current list of owners of all the cars. But we don't have that

information. So the system needs to fix as much as the cars. We announced and disclosed the retolds, we just don't get the people in to fix the car. wouldn't it be neat if there was a barcode inside each vehicle all you had to do is scan it and the recall came right up well you know that's not a bad idea that the VIN number is really all need to need to do if you could scan the VIN number you could link it with the NHTSA site safergar.gov it would be so simple just absolutely idiot simple to be able to automatically notify everybody with recall. Your idea is a great one, Tina, because we're talking now about communication

between the manufacturer and the dealer and communication between the manufacturer and the customer. So the manufacturers are and will soon be notifying customers that you're due for your 5,000-mile inspection. Well, if they could tell the customer, they're due for 5,000-mile inspection, why can't they tell them there's a recall.

And how about this? They could do anything they want to. They could say, you know, you will, I don't recommend this. They could even stop their car from moving if they didn't do the recall. I don't advocate that at all. That'd be crazy. But we have the controls technologically to enforce recalls. It's there.

And somebody out there in position of authority, the legislators and the states and the federal government, do something about it. You know, we harp and harp and harp on recalls and decad airbag and the apathy, not just on the legislators and regulators parts, but on the driver's parts. But your idea, Tina, of having an immediate way technologically to notify every driver whether or not that vehicle is under recall is a great idea. I thank you very much for that suggestion. Thank you. Oh, you're welcome.

And another thing I was thinking of, this is not a recall, but when I had my Miata many years ago, I remember I had to have a full break job done on it. And the axle bolts were not in good shape. They needed to be replaced. And the gentleman that repaired my car would not let me have my car back until those actual bolts and brand new axle bolts are put in. So I think it also kind of rests with a little bit with the person that's repairing your car or the garage. They can say, hey, until you let us report. pair of this recall, we are not going to let you have your heart back. Bottom line.

Well, we just need to get the rules for us and execute them. There are a lot of, that's a great idea, another great idea, and I think everybody understands how to fix it, but someone needs to take the lead. Somebody in the state or somebody in the federal government, ideally the auto manufacturers, but I don't think they're going to do that. It costs them millions and millions and millions of dollars. So if they sit on their hands, they're actually ahead of the game. The next financial statement,

the next stockholders report, is going to look real good. So someone has to enforce this outside the auto manufacturers. Tina, thanks for a great call. We've got another female caller holding right now. We're on a roll. Hey, maybe we can have a day,

a morning of all female callers. You started it out just right. Yeah, definitely. Thank you. Thank you again, Tina. We're going to go to Eileen, who's calling from Stewart. Good morning and welcome, Eileen. Good morning.

It's Aileen, but that's okay. Hey, Aline. Hi, on the same level with the recalls. I have a GM that is an 09. It is a white torrent. And all the paint started flying off the back of it and sheets. After I posted a picture of this, I had several other people posting the picture that the same thing had happened to them. I called GM. I contacted them. I spent a lot of time contacting.

They said paint is only covered for 36,000 miles. I did find out this is a problem with the primer. And I'm just wondering, do they not care as much because. it is exterior and not engine, why would they not have a recall on this? It would cost them a couple hundred hours to solve a problem for somebody and not have somebody like me going a radio show calling them out on it. Aline, that's a great question. I know you hear that all the time on these interviews.

Everybody says that's a great question. But this really is a great question. The reason I say so is I've been fighting this battle for years and years. and I win most of my battles. I haven't won this one. I've won it for my customers. I haven't won it for the population at large. White paint is an interesting color because all white cars tend to fade more than non-white cars.

I always wondered why that was. One of the reasons is they've chosen for some reason the manufacturers not to put clear coat on white cars. paint. Toyota had the thing. Clear coat is simply like a lacquer kind of a finish you put over the top of the paint and on all other colors, most all the colors, they put this clear coat on. The clear coat that goes over the white paint emits fumes into the air. And of course we have an environmental protection agency. Every manufacturer is regulated and they measure the fumes that you exude into the atmosphere. and they put regs on how many you may exude or you will shut the plants down.

So some of the manufacturers made the choice because the clear coat really blows the fumes out a lot. They said, we're just going to stop putting clear coat on white cars. Now, white cars are the most popular color, and they use more white paint than any other paint. So what a quick, easy fix to solve the problem of having the federal. environmental protection agency on your back. So they put all these cars out there with clear coat. They give you a three-year warranty, and the paint fades, and they knew it was going to fade.

And they say, sorry, your car's out of warranty. So what do we do? Are any lawyers listening out there? I mean, this is a doozy of a class action suit. It is, and now I saw that Ford is having the problem, and there is a class action suit. Good. for Ford, but not for General Motors.

And also, it's not the whole entire vehicle. And the vehicles that I have seen that are like mine, it's the same thing. It starts from above the back door and goes to the back. But the front is all fine. And the funny thing is they wanted me to bring it to, I brought it to a couple paint shops, and they pointed out that the front of the vehicle is absolutely fine. It was just the back. And you could see where it was bubbling, where it was inferior.

And GM said, well, I want you to get a report for me. But you can't go to a third-party shop. You have to go to a GM shop, and you have to pay for it. It's like I'm going to give you more money after this. Well, it usually fades quicker on the flat surfaces where it's directly exposed to the sun. And the only thing you can do, and this is too late. for you, Aileen, because you've had the car for nine years, but you folks out there that just bought a white car, you should wax that car more often than you would wax a normal car.

You should keep it, if at all, possible, undercover out of the sun. If you do that, you can preserve the paint. It's a shame to put that burden. If you bought a blue or green car, you wouldn't have to worry about it. And if you bought a white car, someone should have told you. someone should have said, Eileen, this white car, I know it's your favorite color,

you want to consider this tan or this blue car, what's your second favorite color? And giving you the option. Instead, if you buy this, your paint warranty is three years, and after that, the paint's going to fade and we can't fix it.

That would be transparency. They should have told you this. They don't tell you this. And here you are. So thank you very much. That was a great call. Stu has a point you'd like to make. And if you really love white, a lot of manufacturers will have, like, an option for, like, a pearl finish that does have the clear coat.

But it's more money. Exactly. Usually about a couple hundred dollars more to buy a pearl finish, but you won't have a problem with that. Exactly. Good point. Oh, yeah, I won't buy white anymore. I learned my... The only thing was, it was not a Florida car.

For five years I had it in New York. I see. Well, that's a great call, Aileen. Thank you so much. Aileen, you won yourself $50, and I want to thank you for calling you. Earl Stewart on cars. Oh, thank you. Give us a call again.

Okay. Rick, one of the things that I've noticed, you know, being a car guy and a mechanic, I look at cars when I'm driving. I notice other cars. And I have noticed a lot of General Motors cars that the paint literally peels off in like giant sheets,

leaving that gray primer exposed. lamination, they call it. Exactly. And it's so obvious the General Motors and a lot of other manufacturers are having problems with these paint surfaces. Maybe they're not prepped properly. Maybe they're not the proper chemicals. I don't know. But something's happening where this paint is literally, it looks like you could peel it off in a big sheet and leaving just that gray property. I was a Pontiac dealer many years ago. And some of the biggest money I ever made in the car business was painting Pontiacs. Relaminating.

Relaminating. You probably won't believe this, and only if you're in the business, can you fully appreciate this, but I had a body shop as a Pontiac dealer. I was on South Dixie Highway and West Palm Beach. And we aggressively went out and told our customers that this is called paint delamination when the paint just literally peels off, falls on the garage floor, blows off in the wind. And so we said we can fix that for you.

bringing in the body shop and we get paid a couple thousand dollars back then to paint the car and it was just such good money i bought another body shop and then i filled that body shop up and then i bought another body shop uh at the at the peak of the general motor's biggest delamination i was running four body shops i had wow i had three i had one in lake worth I can't remember where they all were And then when it dried up I didn't know what to do with the body jobs I finally had a zealum

But it was fun while it lasted And I want to thank General Motors For the lousy paint jobs They usually get I just learned something about you We'll talk about it after the show Haven't we discussed in the past About depreciation

And the color that you choose Whenever you purchase a car And the recommendations of buying a white car, you know, compared to driving off a lot with a purple car, the depreciation is amazing. And the popular colors were white, black, silver. Isn't it sad that the white car that's got a high resale value also has no clear code, the paint fade.

Exactly. The high resale value only applies if your paint doesn't fade on the car. Yeah, that's true. That's a bad catch to get in. you think you're going to get high resale value, then they hit you because you get a bad paint job. Exactly. Exactly. Give us a call, ladies and gentlemen, 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-3530. And remember that mystery shopping report is coming up just about 930 this morning.

Well, we have a text. I'll give that text number out before Stu reads the text. Again, it's 772-497-6530. 772-497-6530. Please text us, and we have one right now. This is a great question. This is from Anne-Marie. Good morning. I've been watching all the hurricane coverage on TV, the Weather Channel, and all the news reporters clearly tell people turn around, don't drown. So don't drive through standing water because you don't know how deep it is.

Now, say you stay home and you hunker down and you don't go out driving in a flooding rate event like Hurricane Florence. How high does the water have to get before a car? or truck, say, 10 years old or newer, gets totaled. I realize a big truck can sit in higher water than a corolla before the electronics take a hit. I know old mechanical vehicles while computers could survive deeper waters for a short time, but how deep does it have to get before a new or relatively new vehicle is in danger of being totaled by floodwaters? Just wondering, thanks, Ann Marie. Well, yeah, Rick can answer that better than I.

The one thing I would say is it really doesn't make a lot of difference how deep the water is if you're going too fast. so you could have four inches of water that could really damage your engine if you went through it too fast so Rick can speak more directly to the actual depth of the water and I believe he'll tell you that certain models are designed better

meaning protecting the engine from the water than other models well believe it or not it's not so much the engine what happens in most cases is these cars are sitting still and the water rises up into them because they're in a low-lying area. And one of the rules of thumb that we heard from insurance companies,

and this was kind of not a set-fast rule, anything set in concrete, this is just their kind of general rule of thumb. If the water level inside the car touched the bottom of the dashboard, they would pretty much consider the car was totaled because there were too many components had gotten water inside the car and all those electronic computer-controlled components are what adds up that big bill and costs the most. If the engine simply gets full of water, say you're driving through a puddle, you're going nice and easy, suddenly your engine stalls out.

Don't try to restart it, get the car towed, and generally all that happens to happen is we remove the spark plugs, crank the engine to get the water out and change all the fluids. Just interrupting this briefly because I can see, me now, I'm going through the water, and I'm on major US1 wherever. Yep. And my car stalls. I've got a line of traffic a mile long behind me, and the horns are blowing at me, and I'm going to sit there and wait and not try to start my car to get out of the way.

I know that's the right thing to do, but I just kind of wonder. It's a difficult thing, but if you do try to start it, if it starts back up, okay, but if you turn the key and you hear just a clunk, stop there. You have water in the engine. so much that it's not going to spin the engine. You're going to damage it. But what really happens is folks will go into those puddles and they're racing the engine at a really high RPM

and when that big wave of water gets sucked in, especially when that guy in the big giant 4x4 suddenly blazes past you in the deepest part and throws a typhoon wave over the top of you, a tsunami over the top of your car, that water gets sucked into your engine. and if your engine is revving too hard when that cylinder fills up

with water, well, water doesn't compress and suddenly things bend and break, and that's where you get the big expense. Aren't there designs in the engines today in different model cars and make cars to protect the intake?

There are. How do you find out about that? In other words, I'm buying a car car shopping. Would consumer reports, if anybody would have that information, they would, is there a question as a car buyer that I could ask and say, does this car have fill in the blank?

It's a great question for your salesman and look at him and stare at you back blankly because they won't know. They won't know. Yeah. I won't know. The best way is just with a little bit of just eyeballing, open the hood, and look at the big tube. You can see the tube that comes from the air cleaner.

And if it looks like that tube has a bunch of extra boxes on it and different tubes coming out, they're actually designed. to where when that wave of water goes in, it has somewhere to go at lower points. I think we need a better idea, Rick. I mean, you're in the business. Yeah, it's tough to tell, really. I can't even open on my hood of my car.

Inflatable pontoons. Let's do a little research on that. I like the idea just to avoid the puddles. I think you're absolutely right. But I think it's not a bad idea. I know there are cars, and I've read and I can't remember, we can Google this, probably get a good answer. I know there are vehicles out there that are designed to go through water.

I would tell you probably that the off-road type cars that are true off-road, the four-wheel drives that are real off-road vehicles would have that designed then. And there's probably a specific terminology for it, and I think it's something we probably... Well, they have snorkels that actually get the air intake so high up and are so protected from any water splashing that there's no chance they're going to get water. in the engine that way. Well, I want to snorkel in my car. It would look very, very unattractive on your car. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yes. Okay. 877-960 or you can text us at 772-497-6530. And Alicia called me this past week and asked me about the certified master diagnostic technician and how important it is for her to find one to work on her car. And if she didn't, what would happen.

Rick, this is for you. I'm looking at one right now. Well, believe it or not, we're becoming a rare bird. Are you endangered? Are you an endangered species? We're actually on the threatened list. We are on the threatened list. We are not yet endangered.

So if you kill Rick, you could go to jail. Yes, you might. You might for the threatened list. Yeah. When we do get on the endangered list, then if you kill me, yeah, you would. go to jail for at least five years I believe but yeah seriously right now we're actually threatened because a lot of this industry really is not getting the the people we need in

that are willing to put forth the effort to try to learn all these new systems and so it's become a very difficult thing like so many other things in high tech we got a lot of jobs available but we don't have the trained people exactly exactly yeah exactly Exactly. Well, Alicia, keep looking and stay in touch. Wish you a lot of luck. Give us a call tool-free at 877-9-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. Now back to the recovering car dealer. We love those texts.

I like to get a little backlog here. It's nice to have three or four texts in the hopper to go back to. We always try to get to everyone, and worst-case scenario, we might have to answer. through one offline maybe by email or text back to you or the following week but we do try very hard to answer all the text so please text us at 772 4976530 that's 772 area code 4976530 texting is so cool I just you know it's it's it's far less intrusive it keeps you have a record of it you can always get back to it 772

497-6-530 I brought in a classified talking about endangered species the auto-classified section you need the magnify the last this is the last of the mohiggins what is that Roger Dean Chevrolet Roger Dean Chevrolet has been in business

locally before I was in business now that's old and Roger Dean you have the Roger Dean Stadium and so apparently Roger Dean never got the message that nobody advertises in the newspapers anymore, especially the Palm Beach

Post. New York? Rick doesn't know what this is. What is this stuff? This could be worth a lot of money. This is possibly the last auto classified newspaper ad. But the real reason I brought it in

and I do it because we visual now, we have my Facebook video. If you look closely, you'll see these special lease rates and they say sign and drive, sign and drive. That's one of my pet peeves is the fact that nobody, the Attorney General, the Federal Trade Commission, none of our regulators enforce the rules.

And when you say something implying that you don't have to put any money out of your pocket to drive one of these Chevrolet's home, it's just not right. I'm picking on Roger Dean, not because he's worse than other dealers. I'm picking on Roger Dean because he made himself an easy target,

by being in the dinosaur newspaper classified section so I can show the fine print and the fine print is down there at the bottom I won't ask you to read it but that's the fine print that discloses what a real sign and drive means now what the sign and drive really means and I think I can read this without them oh I've got the magnified by it if you can't see that on Facebook video don't worry you wouldn't see it in person either so this is why you need one of these to read this down here so what it really says is says is sign and drive means you also have to come up with the sales tax, title and registration fees, the dealer fees, and the acquisition fees. A couple thousand dollars. A couple thousand dollars. And your first payment. Exactly. And your first payment.

So you're looking at least for $0 down sign and drive. That really means $2,000 down sign and drive. So I want to ask Pam Bondi, our state attorney general, why do you allow this to happen? Don't you care what happens to the car buyers of Florida? I heard, and this was third party, and I'm not going to say you really said this, but you said in kind of a third party conversation that you didn't want to pick on the businessman because they were big contributors and the car dealers are the biggest contributors. And if that's the case, shame on you, Pam Bondi, but this is a violation.

It should not be. Oh, I'm sorry. I got it in the wrong. I was looking at myself there. Web can mirror. You're so handsome as frightening. That's true. Anyway, that's just a little aside to mention that you want to know that sign and drive means $2,000 down.

Translated into auto dealers speak, zero means $2,000. And two, you're classified. When I get a phone call from a woman who asked me if she should count on walking out of the dealership, with a car, should she? And I say that that's the first thing on your mind that you should walk out without a car. Don't make any hasty decisions. That's a good rule of thumb you just came up with.

Basically add $2,000 to anything you see in a newspaper and you might be pretty good. By the way, just to be even more, let me go after Pam Bondi just one more time here, Attorney General for the state of Florida. Yes. the Florida law statute the law on the Florida books and she's the highest ranking law enforcement officer in the state Florida law says you must include the dealer fee and the

advertised price of the car and the fine print here it just says dealer fee it doesn't have the first of all it doesn't include it and it also doesn't tell you the amount so that's a double whammy this dealer is breaking the law. And again, sorry about picking on Roger Dane because they all do it. All the car dealers in Florida do not include the real dealer fee into their advertised price. First of all, the dealer fee should be illegal anyway. It is a joke. It is a travesty. It is a hidden profit to the dealer that sprung on the customer at the last minute. After he's been quoted the price, advertised the price, they add the profit on. And it's in the thousands of dollars.

And it's hidden by different names. It's confusing. It's impossible to figure out what you're paying for. There's probably 100 names. And you can be the shrewdest, you know, consumer on earth. But, you know, when you walk into a dealership, these car sales people, this is what they do. This is what they're educated to do. And they know how to get around things and slip things by you.

So buyer beware. 877-960-99-60 or you can text us at 772-497-6530. I'm going to go to one of my favorite call, one of our favorite callers, and that's John from Palm City. Good morning, John. Good morning to everyone. Today I have on my mind automatic transmissions. Rick said himself, follow to change the transmission fluid. Follow your manufacturer recommendations.

with some exceptions, one that I can think of, if you trailer, you pull a motor home or even a heavy boat trailer, change it more often. But the interesting thing about it is Carl Acorn, Icon, who we know who he is a billionaire, similar to like Warren Buffett, who's in the car business, owns a lot of new car dealerships. Warren Buffett has 4,000 repair shops throughout the country. He's in-use cars for one reason. He's selling relatively newer cars to Uber and Lyft that have bad transmissions. How can he do it? He owns Amicoe. He owns Pep Boys.

He owns 15% of Hertz, which, by the way, brings in a lot of cars with bad transmissions, newer cars that's been abused. And he's making quite a business out of this later cars that have bad transmissions. And what I want to say is he's also ownership of federal mogul, which is an engine rebuilding, the large engine manufacturer. He's going to sell that to Toneko for about $5.4 billion, providing, here's the term, that they sell the engine parts to him at lower prices than they do to the general public. So, Crever, you know, it's a saying that the rich get richer, and it shows people like Icon and Warren Buffett are heavily into the automobile business.

Yeah, Warren made all his money in insurance, and we know that your premiums are always more than your claims. It's a simple formula. incidentally while we're on automatic transmissions i just started high school a little nostalgia and one of the largest uh automobile industrial fires took place in lavonia michigan general motors hydromatic plant it burned completely to the ground it was like 35 million dollars worth of damage and three employees were killed but if you remember hydramatic was so popular not only on General Motors cars. They made them for other cars like Lincoln and Rolls Royce and other

manufacturers. So it put them out of business on that about 90 days. And they, it was crazy. My brother, at the time, had an Oldsmobile, and there was no hydromatic, so they put dinah flow in it. And he only kept that car for about two months because he had nothing but problems, leakage, et cetera, et cetera. But what they did with the people, when the hydramatic was back, fixed again, the plan, then they would automatically put the right transmission back in the car. So just a little nostalgia, $35 million damage to a hydromatic plant, burning to the ground. And here we are at the point of our automotive development

where there won't be any transmissions anymore because everything will be electric. Well, I agree with you, but the thing that upsets me, as Rick pointed out, There are some new cars that you can't even. I'm the old-fashioned way. I want to check my dipstick. I want to make sure my oil levels exactly what it should be. And I want to just check the fluid that it doesn't smell burnt or dark color or anything. And if I did see anything in it, I would change it more often than what the manufacturer recommended.

Yeah, yeah. So that to me is important to see the dipstick and check the level. And they say on some of the new cars, you can't even do that. Yeah. Never see a dipstick again. Yep. It's sad. Gone with the wind. Yeah.

I'm going to miss those dips sticks. John. Yeah. Old-timers like you and me, John, I know what you mean. It is kind of sad. I don't even open my hood anymore. I can't understand. It's too scary.

I just don't know what it is. I don't like staring at things I don't know and understand. So I just call Rick, and he tells me. I agree with you. All right. Thanks, John. I'm looking forward to the shopping report. Thank you very much.

You know, it was an amazing time back then. You know, on Saturday morning, you know, you just went out, you took care of your car. And dipstick was, you know, part of the routine, you know, putting in your windshield wiper fluid, checking the dipstick, so many things, the pressure in your tires, you know, you wash your car, the old days. Thank you, Rosie, the Riveter. Only the old-timers got that one. Even Jonathan is not laughing. Oh, we got it. Okay. I miss those days, you know.

Rosie, I think we have a caller. Yes, we do. All right. He's cutting me off. All righty. We're going to go to Jeff, and he's calling from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Jeff. Good morning, guys.

How are you? Well, thank you. I got a call. First of all, I appreciate your show. I happen to find you accidentally one Saturday morning, and now you got me hooked. I listen every Saturday. I do enjoy the show.

Oh, great. I got a question. I bought a 2007 Jeep Wrangler from a car lot, and I don't have any history on it. It's got 125,000 miles. It drives good. The little engine icon is on, but that seems to come and go. My question is, since I don't know what the service history is on it, what should I do to it other than I've already changed the oil, but is there anything else that be recommended? With the VIN number, you may be able to see what service history occurred with a Jeep dealer.

If you went to the dealership, and there is a database. If the maintenance was done with a dealer, Chrysler Jeep would have it in their database. If it was done somewhere else, then, of course, there would be no record of it. You can find the previous owner. It depends on how hard you want to work on this, Jeff. if you could find the previous owner, sometimes just a phone call would be the way to go. There is on the title chain. You can research that.

You say you bought it from a, did you buy it from a Jeep dealer? Did you buy it from a used car dealer? Used car dealer. Yeah. I take it into a Rigo Jeep. Where do you live? In West Palm. I'm not close to Riego.

I take it into Naples and Rigo and go in there and just explain your dilemma. and say you'd like to find out what the maintenance has been to the vehicle. Can you check to see if there's been maintenance done at Jeep dealerships? It should be in their computer. He could tell you that right away. Even Carfax has reports if the dealership agrees to report the maintenance. Carfax is famous for their knowing the wreck history, the flood history, and they get that data from the insurance companies.

But they also have data from dealers. Most dealers subscribe to that now. So you can pull a Carfax report on that 2007 Wrangler, number one, number two, go to the Jeep dealer, and then ask if they will tell you who the previous owner was and call the previous owner. And, Jeff, for that check engine light, my recommendation on that, swing it at your local auto zone or discount auto parts, they have those little code pullers, and usually what they have is they've got one behind the counter. that they will come out and pull the code for you and tell you what that diagnostic trouble code is for. Free? For free?

It's AutoZone especially, I know for a fact, we'll do it for free. They will pull the code for you, tell you what it is. Usually they're going to then try to sell you the part that they think will correct it. And once they tell you that code, go ahead and Google that just to double check and check on, like, Jeep forums. and all it really takes is just a little bit of time. It doesn't cost you anything at that point to find out what that code is and whether it's something that you definitely want to get taken care of

or if it's something that you can pretty much ignore. And the only other thing that I'd recommend is I would actually, just for, if you're planning on keeping it for a while, go ahead and have all the fluids change. The transmission fluid and the differential fluids, power steering fluid, and the coolant, And it probably would give you some pretty good service because some of those older Wranglers, they've got a mystique.

And there's some people out there that will really, really give you too much information on how wonderful those things are that they like to play with them. That's kind of what I was figuring, but I do appreciate the advice. Excuse me, the advice. Yeah. Good thing about Jeeps, Jeff, is they have good resale value. And so when you are ready to sell it or trade it, surprisingly, I mean, they don't have that great of a maintenance and repair rating from consumer reports and things like that. But the mystique is so great, and they design and they peel so high that they maintain their resale value.

So it's a good investment as long as you are prepared for the maintenance. Yeah, I bought it for my 9-year-old son, and he enjoys it probably more than I do. That's a little young to be driving it. Oh, he's not driving it yet. Ah, yes. Jeff, thanks very much for decide to be a regular. I hope you listen every Saturday, and I hope you call every Saturday. Really appreciate it.

Thanks, guys. Have a great weekend. You too. Thank you, Jeff. You do the same. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-99-30. And I'm going to give that text number. because we've got two texts now,

and we're starting to build a backlog, which is good. So you texters out there, 772-497-6530, 7-72 area code, 497-6530. And Stuke, can you read us those? Yes, sweet. I got a couple of texts.

Actually, one's from our life Facebook feed. One is there from the text line. The text line question says, I'm thinking about purchasing an aftermarket pioneer car play console device referring to the Apple CarPlay. How does that attach and how does that attach and function within my existing dashboard console, Garrett and Lakeworth? Ah ha. Believe it or not, I just recently about a little less than a year ago put a Kenwood CarPlay radio into my Tacoma pickup. They have the all the trim panels are available aftermarket through Amazon. It's one of the

greatest places and they have the what they call an interface device available as well so that your steering wheel controls will work perfectly with the radio they even have them designed so that you can program those steering wheel controls to where just pressing the button once will do one thing and a double tap on it will do other features i'm going to have an earl style question even though i know the answer what is apple car play apple car play apple car play is the absolute top-line generation. This makes your cell phone work with your radio in such a manner that your radio actually is a mirror for certain apps on your cell phone. The ones that are safe to use while you're driving, things like your music, your phone calls.

Podcasts so you can listen to this show. And one of the best features that I love on it is text. Audio books. Texting. Believe it or not, driving along, I get a text in my truck. I take my hand off the wheel for a moment, just touch the screen one time. You're under a restroom. And then my hands are back on the wheel. My hands are off the wheel less time that it takes me to scratch my nose. And everything else is done verbally between me and the radio. It reads the text. I then respond and it takes everything is done verbally at that point. CarPlay is one of the greatest systems. Almost every single manufacturer out there is now going to car play simply because it works. So the answer to the texture here is, yes, the pioneer system. Yes.

And you know, to hear Rick explain that, when I hear the word aftermarket now, I get a shutter. But for so many years, after market was junk, all of it. And we would have more complaints. I've been in the business since 1968, in the 70s, the 80s, the 80s. in the 90s, I want a customer say, I'm having a problem with this, and we would say, is aftermarket, his junk, you should have bought a factory, fill in the blank.

And we always recommended the factory. Now, the after markets are so good, you still have to be careful, you still have to be selective. The quality name brand, and I can actually answer it about Pioneer, the texture wasn't about Pioneer. A guy in our parts department, he put that in his car,

and he just swore by it. Now, there is one other factor here. Up until just recently, in order to use CarPlay with your Apple phone or with the Google Android phone, which it's same thing, but it's by the Google Car apps. But your phone had to be plugged into the radio by way of a USB cable, physically connected to the radio. However, there are now radios coming out primarily for Apple. The Google Android system will follow very quickly that has,

wireless car play and you simply pair the phone by Bluetooth and the Apple CarPlay works directly from your phone without being plugged in. The phone is already to do it. The software is ready. The car manufacturer has to catch up. And the latest aftermarket

radios now have that availability and especially if you've got one of those key wireless chargers in your car your phone never even gets plugged in. You simply drop it on the charger and you're there. We may have to sedate these two techies here. I'm sorry, I'm so excited about it.

I'm drooling a bit here because I get so excited by these. It's awesome. I saw Stu's eyes light up whenever he asked a question, and these little horns came out of his head. Seriously, ladies and women. Thank you, Garrett, for a great, incredibly insightful question. Keep them coming. I love it, love it.

Absolutely. What a group of experts right here in the studio at 95.9 and 106.9 FM. You are listening to Earl Stewart on Cars. Be part of the show. Give us a call. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us. Stu's reading the texts. We're getting a lot.

772-497-65-30. You texters are really doing a great job. Thank you. 772-497-6530. Stu, we've got two more text? Yeah, actually, these are questions coming in on our live Facebook feed. on Facebook. It comes from Craig, who is a weekly listener. He's on, or watcher, I should say, he's on every week. And Craig asks, if these car ads are illegal, why do the newspapers allow

them to be run? Why are they even taking the money for it? Craig, I've had so many fights with the newspapers back when they were still newspapers about this. And the answer I get from the marketing department, it's not their job, it's not their responsibility. Most, television, radio, newspaper, online, all those sources of advertisement have a separation generally from their content, their editorial, their news, and their advertising departments. The advertising departments keeps the ship afloat, and the advertising managers and editors have huge power. So even the publisher of the newspaper defers to the advertising marketing departments,

and they try to protect them. So a car dealer comes in, I'll use an example, Napleton. Napleton back in the day, and they're one of the dealers that we go after most in this market. We have every Napleton dealership up until today has been on the do not buy list. And we have gone after them because of their dishonest advertising, and their lack of transparency, lack of ethics. and about 10 years ago, Mr. Napleton got himself in a little bit of trouble, and they put his mugshot in the Palm Beach Post.

And the Palm Beach Post ran a big, and no, mugshots never look good. No. I mean, if I ever get arrested, I'm going to make it a point to smile. Tom DeLay. Pleasantly. I'm going to. Exactly. I'm going to smile when they take.

But Napleton did not do that. And it was just very unflattering. Anyway, he boycotted the Palm Beach Post for like three or four years. And it really hurt him because he was their single largest advertiser. So back on your point, the media is very hesitant to correct ads, even though they know they're illegal. And they don't want to know they're illegal. Another answer you'll get from the marketing department is, oh, I don't know the rules. I've called the TV stations

about the dealer fee and I've raised heck with the TV station and finally I actually had to get the dealership I had to call the manufacturer to call the dealer to get the ad change the TV station knowing it was illegal wouldn't take it off the air

the person I blame is Pam Bondi she's a top law enforcement officer in the state of Florida and she ignores all this She has a lot of power exactly attorney general has a whole lot of power you know there was a time say 10 years ago when we came into the studio together and we had a shopping bag full of classified it was just an amazing time and how many this morning how many how many one in the whole paper exactly saturday paper yeah and shall i take time to talk about the poem beach post no if i got the newspaper i would have known that

of newspapers and they see me go out. They call you the forest killer. She's being off the morning, I'm picking up all my papers. What's he doing? Somebody keeps littering his driveway. He has a lot of parrots. Earl goes out the front door with a wheelbarrow, goes down the driveway and puts all the newspapers in. He says, honey, I got the newspapers. I said, oh, let me help you. Yeah, you know you can get those online. All right, sorry about it. That's another show. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497. 6530. Be part of the show. You are an important part of the show. Without you, we have no show. And I want to take a moment and thank John and Jonathan, who helps us out so much in the control room.

A great group of guys. Now back to the recovering car dealer. We've got another text, but I'm going to give that text number out because our backlog is reduced a little bit. We only have one text waiting. That number is 772-497-6530. Text us. at 772-497-653. Oh, now, still read our text. Steve is watching our live video on Facebook, and he says, I heard you mentioned changing all the fluids in a Jeep. Were you able to learn anything about the fluids change requirements

and a 2016 Accura RDX? I'm looking at Rick. Or a 2008 Ford Edge, very specific vehicles. You're on the spot now, Rick. Okay, the RDX, I did find that they recommend the fluid changes all basically around 60,000 miles

believe it or not. Accura has some very low mileage maintenance recommendations there. So for your RDX, plan on 60,000 miles. I wonder what Honda. Of course, Accura is made by Honda.

I wonder if Honda has the same requirement. I mean, that wouldn't be right, would it? Because Accura is a Honda, and a Honda is an Accura, just like infinity is a Nissan and Nissan and Nissan is a Toyota does and Lexus

get the same treatment right? Very much so, yes. Well, we'll find out about that but that is an awful tight maintenance requirement. It doesn't sound right. If it's not the same

for Honda, we'll let you know and then we'll find out if we can't do a little undercover investigation. That's right. It could be a scam to provide more maintenance for the dealers.

Well, and that's actually coming directly from Accura Factory website so that's their recommendation which you know maybe they're airing on the side of caution they're simply deciding that they can't hurt their dealers

they like their dealers to have more service business yeah there more times people come in for service the more cars the more accuracy so how about that 2008 edge what was the rule anybody Google that I'm looking that up right now and I've got a PDF file coming up right now. Let's see what it says

for me. I love PDFs. They're usually very basic and easy to read so. What does PDF stand for? Something document format, Photoshop document format. Ah, yes. Never knew that. Maybe. Close.

Earl Stewart on what? I don't know what it is. 772-4976530 but we're getting more messages now on our live Facebook stream which is facebook.com forward slash earl on cars. 877-960-99-60 if you'd like to call and talk to us directly. Any question is an important question. And also, ladies, $50 for one more female, new female caller.

So give us a call. 877-960-9960. I just got a text on my personal cell phone that said, what is to show phone number? 877 960 9960 I'll reply I use your phone okay

but we do have we just got a text that came in that I don't know the answer to but maybe Rick does it's another question about the new Supra that everybody's excited about yeah it says well I'd be able to order the 2019 Toyota Super with a stick shift

I'm going to guess yeah because it's a sports car and they're going to push the performance but Rick I have not yet heard anything on that yet they haven't given us anything specific on the specs on that car, but again, I would pretty much agree that being a sports car and their Toyota is finally going after that market, I think they probably will have a manual transmission in that

vehicle. Well, maybe someone can tell us and call the show, Akio Toyota, if you're tuned in to Erlon cars. Now, hey, we're international. We're worldwide. Akio Toyota is a chairman of the board of Toyota, and he can stream us. Yes. And we know Akio Toyo.

Yeah, he's a personal good guy. Yeah, he's a really great guy. Akio took over. His grandfather was the founder of Toyota, or was his great-grandfather? Right, right. It was his grandfather. Grandfather. And so he is the chairman of the board.

He's a racing guy. Ichiro Toyota. Yeah. Switching gears a bit, but talking about grandfathers, there was a gentleman who got in touch with me, who inherited a 2,000. 2009 Camry, and he, well, was so happy that his grandfather left him this car, because he didn't have a car. But he says that the oil just keeps disappearing.

There's no oil under his car. There's no sign that the oil is, it's just evaporated. It's actually being burned by the engine. Alien abduction. 2009 Camry's, he needs to go to a dealership. and have that engine inspected for excessive oil consumption. There was an extended warranty for those for excessive oil consumption. Okay.

And he'll need to double check to find out if his car is covered under that. And if it is, Toyota will step up and make the repairs for him, no charge. There you go. Rick always has the answers. Give us a call toll free at 877-960-99-60, or we're taking a lot of A lot of texts. Take Advantage, 772-4976530. And I think that we are going to go to Brittany, who is in Jupiter. Good morning, Brittany. Hi, good morning.

Hey, good morning. Welcome. Hi, I'm so excited that I got through. I'm a long-time listener. Okay. Well, I've got a question. I've got a two-part question regarding my, 2010 Honda Accord. Okay. Well, the first question is,

I'm coming up on 115,000 miles on my accord, I purchased it used here in West Palm Beach, paid 17 out the door for my used Honda that had 35,000 miles on it. Can you tell I was a woman who walked in without a man to purchase the vehicle? I did not bring my own finance. and I still owe $4,000 on this vehicle after paying a big, fat, lump, teemant, $5,000.

I'm kind of confused as to how I'm still upside down in this vehicle. With all of that being said, I'm thinking about trading in my Honda. I don't have any major issues with it, but I wanted some advice. I'm coming up on 115,000 miles. commute 20 miles a day and I feel as though this would be the time to trade it in and wanted your opinion on that just a personal opinion well Brittany my advice to you is to treat the value of your Honda accord your 2010 separately from the transaction of whatever vehicle you decide to buy you want to pretend just like you were selling your Honda Accord directly and you want to

get as much money as you can. The best way to get the most money for a Honda use Honda is from a Honda dealer. Carfax is a possibility too. They're in Boynton Beach just off of I-95 and it's worth the drive from Jupiter because they buy cars over the curb all the time. But I'd get that 2010 Honda Corr all dolled up. I'd have a nice detail done on it. Engine detail too. Strangely enough, car dealers can be swayed by good smelling, good cleaning. you know, if you've got the tires all detailed in the whole nine yards, take it into Edmores Honda, take it into Delray Honda, take it into Johnson Honda, and Martin County.

You can go to three or four and into CarMax in Boynton, and you call ahead of time to save your time, and you ask to speak to the used car manager, and you tell them what you want to do. The thing you want to be sure is you don't tell them you want to buy another car because then they will change the price that they offer you on your Honda Corp. You won't get a realistic value. Just tell them you want to sell it.

And just say you're downsizing. You've got three cars in the family. Whatever store you want to make up, you're downsizing to two. And you're going to take it to two other Honda dealers besides them. And you're going to sell your car to the highest dealer. So I'd like to bring the car in, let you take a look at it, drive it, and do that. and when you get three bids on your vehicle or four bids then you decide what car you want to buy and you mention financing this time when you buy your next car by yourself go to your bank

hopefully you have a credit union if you don't you can join a credit union very inexpensively and get a quote from a bank and a credit union on what they would finance your vehicle for That way you're armed with what you're trade in is really worth maximum, and you also know the best transaction or interest rate and terms for your financing. Then you pick the deal that you want to buy the car from, and that's a whole new story there with researching the car and so on and so forth. But you can maximize your price for your 2010 Honda Accord by doing the process I just described. Thank you so much.

And Brittany, I have something to add to that this time around. Really make sure that you, well, research the vehicle that you want, you know, the make, the model, and the equipment, all of that before you even go into the dealership. And whenever you go in, you sound like a pretty confident woman, you go in with that confidence. And you just go in with the knowledge. and it's extremely helpful, and I can't stress enough keeping that vehicle that you have right now separate, absolutely separate, in getting two other prices on your Honda, and you'll get a great price for your car. And also, you know, I always tell the ladies, don't go in with the aspect,

the idea that you're going to purchase that car today. It's not necessary. You can take all that information the information that you got before you went to the dealership some of the information that the salesperson well shared with you take it home and digest it and then go back so by letting them know that you're not anxious and that you are a knowledgeable female consumer you've got the edge very important i hope you guys so much i just really uh enjoy listening to your show every week And it's helped me form an opinion on what I should be doing, and I just mustered up the courage to give you guys a call. I just sincerely thank you for having this show.

We're sending you $50, too. Remember that. Thank you so much. And courage, confidence. You sound like as if you've got a lot of courage and a lot of confidence, and I hope that you give us a call again. And I have $50 for you as a first-time caller. towards the car thank you yeah so give us a call again thank you and good luck with your purchase

whether it's used or new yeah thank you thank you you're welcome give us a call for you at 877 960 9960 or you can text us at 772 4976530 and jim's calling us from boynton welcome to the show Jim Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Good morning. So I was texting Earl the other day about some, requesting some help about a pre-delivery service charge that we were getting put on, or that was on our contract that I wanted

to dispute. So I was getting some advice and everything. I said I would call in to explain my experience with this particular dealership. Thanks very much, you know. Thank you. You can name the dealership if you like. We usually do, but we don't want to press your age you to rather not. No, I don't mind because it ended up being a bad experience anyway.

We went to Cog and Accura in Fort Pierce, and this is the second time we were actually purchasing a car from them, and the first time wasn't a great experience, except for the salesperson, was a great salesperson, and that's the only reason we went back for it. and so anyway this time we're looking at the car and everything and we had to have the car shipped over from their other store over in Tampa and in the midst of getting that shipped over and everything I noticed the different fees on the contract that the registration was going to be nearly $700 and I said as far as I understand a transfer fee you know it should be about $100 or so and they were in insisting that that was the transfer fee. Then I requested about not having to pay the pre-service fee. And the way it was worded in an email to me was that it was because our credit was bad, they had to buy the loan in order to us get a good rate. And so therefore, there was no more profit available on the vehicle itself. So they didn't have room to, in the profits,

to waive that free service fee. So I took that as, well, because you have bad credit, we're going to still charge you the fee to cover our cost of paying the loan, which I found out from Earl was illegal. And I sure enough mentioned that to them and everything, and they totally covered up saying the same thing. No, it's because they have no profit in the car. So the argument went on and everything, and I says,

you know, I'm going to walk out because I'm not going to pay that fee. sure enough, they shook hands and said, have a great day. So I'm like, okay. So we're trying to call each other's bluff, I guess, at this point. And so I went to the manager's office just to say, you know, my displeasure in the service, because here's the day I was supposed to pick up the vehicle, and I waited in their lobby for over an hour for them to even show me the car because, again, they were just coming over from Tampa,

but they wanted to sign the first prior to seeing the car and everything, even test driving it. And so as I mentioned to the manager that, you know, I was displeased with their service. And he told me the car's been sitting out there for two hours. Why am I having an attitude? And I just really got on top of me. And then I told him, you know, this is what your salespeople were telling me. And he basically called me a liar and that I was defaming his business because I'm saying that his

salespeople were a bunch of liars. And I said, you know, we end up getting an argument. And, you know, so, and then at one point I said, look, I know I'm not, like, probably your best customer because I know I do have bad credit, but I'm still a customer to you, which I'm going to refer you or, you know, or not refer you to other customers. He said, well, this business has been doing so well for so long that we do not need customers like you anyway. Wow. And having, yeah, and having the credit issues you do just goes to show what kind of character. of a person you are. I was like, wow, okay.

That's terrible. That's the worst of the worst. Yeah, that is as bad as it gets. Yeah. Jim, I'm really sorry. Yeah, I didn't mention you. Go ahead. No, I was going to say, I real sorry you had that experience.

I didn't mean interrupt you. Go ahead and finish because I want to be sure we get the exact location, repeat the name, and we've got 20,000 listeners, a lot of them in the market where Kagan Akra is located. But I want to be sure everyone understands what sort of a dealership this is. and we will be mystery shopping them to document it, by the way. But I interrupted you. Please go ahead. No, no.

I was just going to mention that I did mention your name and that I was going to be calling the show to mention my experience with their dealership, and that's when the both managed to kind of looked at each other, but it still ensued in everything. And then I also sent a message to, I guess, their corporate office. Good. And they were supposed to have their CEO was going to contact me back, and I sent that on Tuesday night.

Great. Well, I sent another message yesterday, and they still haven't called me back, but I'm going to make sure I address it with them also. I mean, in the end, though, we did end up getting the car anyway because we were sort of in a time crunch, and my wife had a necessity for it and had to be out of town the very next day. So, I mean, we did purse it, but just the experience of it and just the way they handled it was still not an appropriate way. Well, Jim, they're in the way they won. Yeah, they didn't really. I think they lost because this is one of the more serious violations.

I don't think they fully appreciate. It is a federal law that says that you cannot pass along a finance fee and the price of the car. You cannot increase the price of the car. Uh, there's a, first of all, there shouldn't even be finance fees, but for people that have marginal credit, the special lending companies, um, like a capital bank does it, uh, name a few other ones, too, that, that are out there. Oh, Capital One does a lot of these pre-approval mailers and things like that. Some, some lending institutions specialize in, and, uh, people with poor credit. And they have a fee. It can be, I guess, anything.

$2,000, there's no limit what they can charge. And it has to be paid, included in the... In the price of the car? No, no. It has to be paid by the dealer. Right, by the dealer, right. Yeah, it cannot be included in the price of the car. I mean, you can't negotiate a price in them, they can't charge you that.

Exactly. Well, you don't know if the person coming in to buy the car, you don't know what the fee's going to be. So you basically, and what dealers do is they advertise the price of the car. And they sell the car for whatever price they can negotiate. In your case, they're telling you that they added this amount because of your bad credit. So they admitted to violating a federal crime. Now, I wish you'd had someone with you there, and I wish you'd recorded this. They may even be careless enough to admit it again.

But Sonic is the owner of Coggin Acre. Strangely enough, Luther Coggin, the founder of the company, was a friend of mine. I knew Luther Coggin for many years and his brother George, and they sold out to the Sonic Automotive Group many years ago. But the Sonic Automotive Group is a publicly traded company on the stock exchange, I believe NASDAQ, and they're regulated by the Security Exchange Commission. Of all the companies out there, they don't want to be breaking laws, it is the Sonic Automotive Group.

So be sure and get through to the CEO and tell them that they have violated a federal lending regulation, truth and lending regulation, by charging you for the fee that they had to pay the finance company that they claim they had to pay to get you finance. Very serious violation. And I believe you will be able to get somebody's attention very seriously, may even make an adjustment of some kind for you. Sure. Sure. I, you know, and I did bring up also when we were talking about that service fee, I said, you know, that is a, it's not a mandatory fee. There's no law state that you have to charge that.

And then finally they said, you're right. You know, it's strictly profit for us, you know. And that, but because of all this other stuff that we can't waive it, and it's a corporate mandatory fee. Again, you can't say it's mandatory because it's already not mandatory. You know, it's not, it's not, it's not, of law, you have to charge it. It might just be something you want, but you can't make it a mandatory fee. Is Cogginaccarry in Fort Pierce? Correct, the one on US One. Okay, well, all you folks out there listening in the Treasure Coast and North,

Cogginaccair, you don't want to stay away from that dealership. Absolutely. And we will mystery shop them and probably add them to the do not buy list. We've got another caller, Jim. Thanks so much for calling. Please call again. And I'd love to hear whether you do or do not hear back from the CEO of Sonic. I'd love to hear that.

Thank you for calling your show. And there's just no reason to attack your character. And it says volumes about the dealership that you're dealing with. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. And we're going to take this call from Frank and Jupiter Farms because we're going to take one or two more calls because we're getting close to the mystery shopping report. Good morning, Frank. Welcome to the show.

Well, good morning to you all. As always, it's a great way to start your Saturday morning listening to your show. Oh, thank you. Yeah. I'll be very quick since you're getting near the mystery shopping, which everyone loves to hear. Thank you. One or two quick things.

The young lady that called from Jupiter about her Honda, and your advice is excellent going to the Honda dealers and the CarMax, which my girlfriend did a few weeks ago in regards to her son's Honda, 2002, they had in the family since New. Honda was only going to give them $500. CarMax was going to do $1,000. Since that ladies in the Jupor area, another alternative is putting it out on the street with a sign

since we have a segment of the population that really likes that cars that don't have a lot of money. And that thing could flip for $3,000 in like less than a week. So that's another option. Of course, then you're dealing with the public and things like that. Yeah. It's a different way. Great information.

Yeah, that's a good idea. You've got eBay and other traders, some other sources out there, even the Craigslist. You know, the further out you get to the public, the more risk you take, especially if you're a woman living alone. A lot of people, you know, would not, don't want to deal with strangers when they're trying to sell their car. But if it's something you know, That's a good way. If you can find someone you know that wants to buy the car,

you can really make them a good deal, get a good deal for yourself. And on a whole total of different note, just last Friday, which I guess was yesterday, I've been toying with the idea of maybe getting an RV. So we wanted for La Mesa RV. You talk about the sales people up there a while. Anyway, we were toying with the idea of getting a class A brand new Winnebago.

almost 300,000 so we took over a test drive the first time we made a right turn the engine kind of stalled oh boy because I believe there was contamination of the fuel and we went through some rain no one knew how to turn on the wipers even the sailsen didn't know what it were as we're driving down the road 95 you hear the squeaks and rattles I mean it sound like 10 lizzie he said oh yeah what you do you just get some star from and stick it between the doors and you stick it on the drawers and you stick it over i'm going to have a you know an expensive vehicle star from sticking over there's the um the stair one of the stairs fell up on the steps coming up into a brand new this is a brand new brand new wow and so anyway thank goodness it did not fit in my garage i got a 30 by 60

barn with 12 foot door and it was too too tall to go in there and so there was a easy way out of that transaction. But anyway, it was just not that you're ever going to miss your shop on Mesa, but it's a unique. The only good thing is, for your public that they like, on Friday, Saturdays, and Sundays, they have a free barbecue

when it comes in there, hamburgers, and cheeseburgers and hot dogs and pizza and chips and cookies and sodas. And they were even telling me, they said they got a certain bunch of people in the wintertime that they just come in there and have their free food every day because it's

at least some you can tell something they can get a free lunch up there and last but not least yeah a lot of Mesa up near Port St. Losey but and as they say

you can learn something new every day I did not know about the white paint until I heard on your show today so as always you guys do great I appreciate and I'll get off for the next people if you get to mystery shopping

Well great call as usual Frank we count on you now be sure to call next week we really do appreciate your calls okay thank you guys thanks for a nice day we look forward to hearing from you next week

877 960 9960 and we have a text number 772-49765 we got four text back down brick okay two quick quick answers to our previous texters

the Ford Edge the SUV they were asking about 2008 their maintenance schedule is an oil change every 7,500 miles, and transmission fluid change every 30,000 miles, and included on that 30,000 mile service, they want a cabin air filter changed, the engine air filter changed, the fuel filter changed, and I've never even heard of this, a climate controlled seat filter. That's a nine-year-old car, so that tells you.

of the newer cars are really having far-lived maintenance. So keep that in mind when you get a bargain on an older car on the used car lot, you're also getting an unbargained, a non-bargain on your maintenance requirements if you want to take care of the car. And one other quick one for that Toyota Supra that the gentleman asked about. Supras will be available with two choices of engine, either the in-line six-cylinder turbo-powered or the four-cylinder turbo-powered engine but it is very unlikely to have a manual transmission.

This is coming from Road and Track Magazine's website that the Supra will not have a stick shift. I don't believe it. They say it may be offered in the future, but for right now they can find no evidence of a stick shift transmission for the new Supra. I'll take the odds and bet they're on. I'm on your side.

Okay, we got some ticks. I'm going to get through these rapid fire. Here we go. Johnny from Riviera Beach says, A.G. Pam Bondi said, and the state of Florida price gouging will not be tolerated, and she prosecuted a couple of businesses for price gouging after Hurricane Irma. Well, dealer fees should be considered price gouging, and someone should bring this to her attention so she can prosecute these dealers.

Here, here. We applaud. I think that doesn't really require response, except. We agree with you all hard to do. Absolutely, absolutely. Okay, so we have, as you know, we are international, and so we have a Canadian viewer on our Facebook. feed. Guy says, hi, I winter in Jansen Beach, as winters in Canada can be brutal, no getting.

My question, can you take a Canadian car in on trade? And I think it means, in general, dealers, will they take a Canadian car in on trade? Yes, we do. And we take them in not infrequently, because there are a lot of Canadian, we have some difficulties issues with the odometers, and some odometers can be switched back and forth between kilometers and miles per hour. But outside of that, they're just great for trades. Okay. Moving on. Steve asked. Is auto trader in Florida? By the way, Steve is in New Jersey. He's a regular listener and text her. He says, his auto trader in Florida. They gave me $2,000 for a Mercury Sable that the Accurdealer

bid $500 for. In New Jersey, the dealers all seem to lowball the value of a trade. And the answer to that is, yes, auto trader is global, and you can find listings and list your own car anywhere in the world. It's really a great thing for the consumer. with the buyer beware caveat, obviously, but almost every car in the world, used car in the world, is listed on another trader.

And Steve has a follow-up question. He said, oh, actually, you know what? I think that might have been a voice-detex or an autocorrect problem because I think it's clear here. It says, Steve says, Coggin, we were talking about Accraaccagna. Cogman was where I found out

that all-wheel drive is unobtainable in Florida. That's part of why I bought the car in New Jersey. And that is true. It is harder to find an all-wheel. drive vehicle down here, but not impossible. Yeah. Hey, briefly, before we go there, let's tell our audience that may have been listening last week, remember the fellow

with the truck that could not be fixed because the truck was too big? Oh, yeah. And then he called Ford Motor Company, and Ford said there are no dealers in Florida. What do we find out? We found out that Palmetto Ford in Miami is capable of handling these big rigs, even much bigger than the caller called about.

So we called a friend of ours who's got a four dealership locally, and he got on the horn and found that found the location for us. And sawgrass Ford? No, Palmetto. Palmetto Ford. If you got a big Ford truck, they'll fix it.

Ford did not know the answer to that because our caller actually called corporate Ford Motor Company, and they didn't know. So a Ford Motor Company, if you do have a dealer in Miami, Palmetto Ford that can fix big trucks, so you can tell all the executives at Ford. That's right. And we're getting through these things quickly. So the last text is also on our Facebook feed, and it's a time-honored question. It says, when is the best time of the month to buy a car beginning or end of the month and why?

End of the month. It sounds like an old wives tale, urban legend or something like that. It is true. And the end of the year is really a great time to buy the car. We don't mean literally the 31st or New Year's Day. We need within two or three days of the end of the month or the end of the year. And the manufacturers go crazy with big incentives, the dealers go crazy, the salesmen go crazy, the salesman go crazy, the advertising, it's like a selling frenzy.

So you get your, do your homework before you buy the car, get your best price in the middle of the month, and then hold it, even though they'll tell you it won't be good tomorrow, it will be, hold it until the end of the month and go back. You might save yourself $1,000. Yeah, another bit of good advice is as we get towards the end of the year, it's highly unlikely that manufacturers make the incentives worse. So the salesperson or the manager might say,

this incentive is going away at the end of the month. when you're down in October, November, it could, but it's highly unlikely. So those incentives are likely to get better as you get closer to December. Exactly. Great information right here with our team of experts. Now, we've got a... We have the mystery shop. Yeah, we have a mystery shop.

We have a special caller, and I don't know whether she's going to be able to call in. Diana Neal, West Coast of Florida, a Facebook friend of mine, John Neal, bought a vehicle in her market over there on the West Coast, and really got ripped off pretty bad. And she, on her own, independently, after fighting it out with the dealer and losing, hired an attorney, had the dealer served at his home with the papers, took the dealer to court, and prevailed the court. So, Diana, Neil, you are our hero. And John Neal, you're lucky to have a wife like that.

I'm telling you, this is priceless. Diane, if you can't call the show, we're getting in to the mystery shopping report that we do now this week, please call again. Because Nancy, especially. Yes, I was really looking forward to hearing from you, Diane. Like I said, this kind of information is priceless for you to share with the team that's right here in the studio and so many women who are listening to the show. So give us a call next week.

One more thing before we get to the Mystery Shopper Report, I want to remind you about that fabulous website that Earl created, and that is your. anonymousfeedback.com. Your anonymous feedback.com. It has been an amazing invention because we've heard from so many for anything

that you want to write about. Yeah, your anonymity is guaranteed. Your anonymity is guaranteed. I said that twice because I'm so proud that I can say anonymity without having... Amen, miny, miny, miny, miny.

And this particular website is called Well, the company is incognito, N-E-A-O, incog, but they're spelled N-C-O-N-C-O-G, N-E-A-T-O. That's a company. This company for anonymous feedback is used by blue-chip companies all over like Adobe and Tesla and public broadcasting service, so people that really want to guarantee their employees and their customers anonymity use this. So if you go to www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com,

youranonymousfeedback.com, you can speak to us about anything. We'd like to have constructive criticism about the show. Yes, I mean, if you think I talk to much, tell me. If you think that we don't take enough callers, if you think that we talk too fast, too slow, we love some constructive criticism because we want to make our show better.

www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Now, for the highlight of the show, our mystery shopping report, still I get asked all the time, how do we access the mystery shopping reports? We post them online. That's correct.

You go to earlongcars.com on the right hand of the page that has all of our important links, and one of them is mystery shopping reports. So you can catch some of the oldies. And you dealers out there, you dealers go to, Earl and Cars.com and go to Mystery Shopping Reports link. You might

find, you probably will, if you're a South Florida dealer, you probably will find your dealerships shopping report. And if you want to sue me and you miss the show, you can find it in writing. Right. And you can show that. Just email to your lawyer. Send that to your attorney. It's easy.

Yeah. Yeah. Excuse me for one moment. Ladies, I can't stress to you enough. Youranonymous Feedback.com. We would love to hear from you. How do you feel about the show? Do you feel that the ladies are getting enough attention, maybe too much attention? Would you like to change the show in some way about ladies?

Your anonymous feedback.com. Remember, ladies, we just want a buying experience that's transparent and straightforward. So take advantage of that website. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Shopping Target? mystery shop of Napleton, the infamous Napleton, Palm Beach Accura. Now, bear in mind, we have no Naples stores on our recommended list. This may be the first, or maybe it's not.

It's been 18 months since Earl Strow and Carr's Mystery Shop, Napleton's Palm Beach, Acura, on Okotobie Boulevard and West Palm Beach. That investigation put them on the Do Not Recommend list for an old-school beaten down of Agent Exodus. It was on the worst we'd seen. I can still remember that report. It was brutal. And we were shocked because Accurray is an upscale car, Lexus and Kennedy kind of a thing. And usually your luxury car dealerships have a higher type clientele and a higher type sales force.

But this was old school. This is Napleton School. Napleton School, right. Sorry. Napleton School of Hart. No more old school. Napleton School of Hart Knox. High pressure back in.

forth, every trick in the book from enormous addendum sticker to multiple large dealer vs, and wait, there's more. The time we investigated them before, that was back in October 2016, it was a two-part mission involving a too-good-to-be-true new car ad and a Takata ad for sale. That's when we started the Takata investigation. It seems like yesterday, but it's been over two years. The results were split with Naples and Spawn Beach Accura, failing the new car portion and passing the Takata portion. reject, I want to apologize, because we've been giving credit to Wallace and Easy Pay Cars is the only one to pass it. This was in the archives here.

I pulled this up. I saw this picture. You can maybe put it on the screen, but they passed it. And I apologize to Ed Napleton for not mentioned that the last few weeks. Yeah, it was actually a nice sticker, too. This was on the cars that have the defective airbags, and it's a good thing. So the time we investigated them before. that was about okay the results were split with naval okay that's right they

passed the ticotta test we had to double check the archives to be sure and there it was actually disclosed it but the old school napleton style buy-sale kind of a thing deceptive and everything else was so bad we failed them at the time we followed them on advertising the Dakota cars online and for failing to tell our shopper about the recall when he called to confirm availability but we were were pleased they chose not to sell them. So when we went Takada hunting this week, we were happily surprised to find a 2008 Chrysler 300 listed for sale on Naples Palm Beach Accura website for $6,471. This vehicle has an incomplete passenger side, Takata recall. Parts are available,

but the prepares have not yet been done. We searched the rest of our inventory for a backup, but the Chrysler was the only one with the Takata recall. We put H&X, our very best. on the case speaking as if i'm agent x and i'm not i'm too recognizable i call first and spoke to maria she told me she was a vip specialist and asked how she could help me it's something you'd see in a luxury car dealership we only are nice if you're a vipe there's so many different names and titles it's a beautiful show on it i asked her about the Chrysler 300 i found on their website and she offered to check see if it was available I listened to her hum and tap on the keyboard for a few seconds before she reported that they had

the car there I asked her to be sure I didn't want to waste time she said she would have it waiting for me and asked when I'd be there I said I'd be there at 6 p.m. Maria instructed me to ask for Amy now we've got Maria and we've got Amy I was about to pull into the dealership and I received a text from Maria she said she just learned that the Chrysler 300 had been sent to the auction today because of mechanical problems. I texted back that I'd arrived and I'd talk that I had arrived and I'd talk about it with them with Amy. I was angry. Should be angry.

I asked the receptionist for Amy but was told she was with customers. Instead of Amy, I could stand. Now we got Maria and we got Amy and we got Stan. Stan was nice but green. I wasn't feeling well. Come on. He said it was the first week in the car business, and he was the former chef. That's a strange change from chef to car salesman.

It was a chef in a French restaurant. I omitted that. Is that right? I told Stan how unhappy I was that I called to make sure the car I wanted was there, and I was told it was unavailable, only be told otherwise at the last minute. I asked him if he had a similar car in the same. price range I said price was more important and I would consider a different style Stan seemed a little more overwhelmed and said he would get the used car

manager to help before he left he asked me my price range I told him no more than $9,000 he left for 10 minutes to return with Natalie so now we got Maria Amy Stan and Natalie who shook my hand and introduced herself to me as the used car manager so I got to give a kudos Nancy will with this, a used car manager, female. I don't think I know of a female use car manager. Now I do. This is the first for me. So congratulations on the Naples organization. I beat you up, I beat you down. I say bad things about Naples stores. I said two good things now. They were careful on a Takata shop before, yet to be determined for this one. But who goes for having a female

Absolutely. Congratulations, Natalie. Natalie began by apologizing for not telling me about the 300 being wholesale. That's the Chrysler 300 being wholesale in time and took the blame herself. I like that. She said she'd inadvertently told Maria that it was here, and when she realized her mistake, she called Maria immediately and told her let me know. I said, thanks, but I was already at the dealership when Maria told me. I asked her what was wrong with the 300, and she said the air conditioning blower motor was bad.

had, one of the motor mounts was cracked, and it had an airbag recall. She said, she had two other cars in mine who would work for me, a Hyundai, Azera, and a Nissan Ultima. I chose to Hyundai. My first love was named Azara. Really? Yeah. It's an exact name. I was 17 years old, Azera.

I'm sure there's no relation. Natalie asked, that was her last name, not her. Was she Korean? Mary Azera. Natalie asked Stan to take it from there. That was really a digression, wasn't it? That's okay. You're entitled. I think I need a check up.

You're the only one who doesn't digress in here. But I digress. Yes. Stan got the keys to the Azera. This is going to haunt me. Your heart rate's kind of... She was really pretty sure. Yeah, you're altating.

Blue eyes, black hair. You seem smitten right now. Sorry, Nancy. You're blushing. As we approached the car, I asked him if it had been checked out in their service department, and he said it had any issues, I asked. He replied that it shouldn't have any problems. He sat inside, tried to start the engine.

It wouldn't start. No issues. When I first started selling cars with my father, this was one of my, I started on the used car lot. And the terror, I mean, the fear that the car wouldn't start. You know, when cars selling a lot for a long time. Yeah, you can't blame. This is okay.

Stan was embarrassed and ran to get a jumper. jumper cable i won't i got a corny joke i wouldn't say that i looked the car over for a while while he was gone it had an unusual window sticker on it it listed the vehicle information on it but there where the price would normally go there was a kbb standing for kelly blue book 10 000 for 79 will line through it and uh i don't know that was that's unusual why would that be there like that when stan came back i asked him about it. He said this car was one of the ones on Falls Special. The used car manager would supply the price. We have to ask for the price. He hooked up on the jump box

to the battery, hooked up the jump box to the battery, started the car. After our test drive, we returned to the office and said it stands desk. He asked me how I was paying for the car. I said I was paying cash because I had terrible credit. It wouldn't want to pay a high interest rate even if I could get approved. My answer seemed to satisfy. this green pea and he said he'd go get the price from the Natalie from Natalie Stan returned with Natalie at his side she sat down explained that the price was originally 10,000 479 but she would apply the fall special discount before she told me what that would be she asked if I wanted to add the Napleton experience

that sounds like a band in the 60s yeah it's I I shrug my soul This is a luxury car version of the gotcha. I mean, this is the addendum label, the infamous, but here it's called the Napleton experience. Right. I think before our show, they were playing something from the Napleton experience on the Troulties. So we didn't know what it was.

So for an additional, $1,395, here's what you get. Free car washes for life. Oh, boy. One week, or one year. That's better. maintenance. One week would be terrible. That would be a true Napleson experience.

This is the Napleson experience. Unlimited multi-point inspections. This is my favorite because a multi-point inspection is something the dealers do to find something wrong with a car so they can charge you for it. So we'll come in and find something wrong with your car that we can charge you for for free. And that's unlimited. You can come in every day. Say well.

They get a multi-point inspection. Found something else. Find something new every day. Pre-vacation check-up. Who's vacation? That's for the car. Service managers. Loner vehicle program.

They don't tell you what the loaner vehicle program is, but you have that. Probably loan your vehicle. Feth coverage. I have $45 a day. Future traded bonus of $1,000 over Kelly Boo Book if I did all my maintenance with Napleton, if you came in every day for a multi-point inspection. VIP waiting area with snacks and Wi-Fi.

Now, where do they put the non-VIPs? I don't know, but if I bought a car from them, I would definitely eat $1,395 of snacks. And if you don't sign up for this, no bagels. When you walk up to get a bagel, if you don't have your VIP card, they grab it. Salteen crackers and water for you. Free professional auto appraisals. That's great. We will lowball your trading.

Come on in. At no charge. You missed the local towing service. Local towing service. Exactly. That's a guy named Eddie. Yeah. Edie Stowing Service.

Enrollments and Naples Rewards Programs Program. This is hysterical. You know, the funny thing about this is that everybody gets the same thing. But they want to charge a $13.95 for it.

I guarantee you, if you pass on that, or they reduce the price, you're still getting it. You still get it. Everybody is. Because everything they put here is to sell you more products. Get you in the door.

No thanks, I said. Natalie didn't press the issue. Kudos to Natalie. And, you know, I didn't mention we have Maria, who's female. We have Natalie, who's female, the used car manager and the salesperson. They got a lot of females out there

at Naples and Acura. Kudos. Before she did, she asked if I had any questions. I asked her if the car had been in an accident. She said you get the Carfax report for me. She came back with a Carfax report in a worksheet buyer's order. She said,

she wanted to give me a great deal to make up for my inconvenience of having the car I want wholesale. She reviewed the Carfax first. It showed that the Hyundai had been in a rear end collision. She noted that the report indicated the vehicle was functional after the incident. Now, I've got to tell you something about Carfax that I kind of learned recently. We've had a couple of incidences lately at our dealership and full transparency. I am still car dealer, albeit a recovering car dealer. So I haven't got time to book the book right now, but confessions of recovering car dealer.

We have found out that sometimes clean Carfax can be said. The Carfax has no accidents, but there has, in fact, been an accident. So do not take the Carfax, clean Carfax, no action report is anything other than the fact that they don't know about it. Timing is everything. Timing is everything. We actually had a car that we sold that was in a late model demonstrator that had been hit in the back in the bumper so lightly that there was no damage. It was just a tip-tap, and our employee who was driving the vehicle did the very conscientious thing to report. You should report all access.

You never know when someone's going to claim they got whiplash, they're going to sue you. you should always report an accident and this was just a tap so six months ago we sold this car and found out that when he bought it there was no accidents there had been an accident but there was no damage don't take carfax for the gospel carfax is not the gospel and be very careful with that at any rate in the process here after the clean car fax she added an $899 dealer fee a $1.29 e-filing fee. I have $99 tag agency fee, a $199-dollar dock fee. I think this is a tie for the record.

Four dealer fees. The dealer fee is a dealer fee, $8.99. The e-filing fee is a dealer fee. The tag agency fee is a dealer fee. And the dock fee is a dealer fee. $1,326 in dealer fees. At any rate, that's the story. That's what happened.

no napland stores are on the recommended list. Should they be on the recommended list? Let's take a quick vote because we're probably down to about two minutes, too. This is one of these buyer-beware things that Natalie's was very professional. I think she was great. They didn't sell the Dakot car, whether or not that was because of the recall or it was because the other issues. But if you're prepared and you know what to look out for, these dealer fees, the addenda,

you might have a good time. I'm going to, I want to pass them. I want to give them a C. We're on the curve. We've got a score on the curve. Nancy. Excuse me. To Natalie, Amy and Maria, congratulations.

As far as Stu talking about buyer beware, knowledge is power. And there's a lot of ups and downs here, ins and outs, and a lot of things offered that are, you know, offered every day. Give us a score. And the Napleton experience, I give it a C. Okay. Rick? I'm agreeing with the C.

I say put them on the recommended list for now. I'm going to give them a B. I know that's crazy. Maybe I'm getting emotional, but I think we should. They've got three women working there, a woman used car manager. That we know. They've got too many dealer fees. I'm going to give you a B.

Congratulations, Ed Napleton. The only one of your dealerships on the list. You've got one. one down you've got five or six or seven to go Ed Napleton if Accura can do it so can the rest of your dealerships so we'd like to see all of your other dealerships moved from the do not buy list to the recommended list but

congratulations again Ed Napleton he has a home here by the way that's the mystery shop from Napleton and Palm Beach Accura and ladies and gentlemen thank you for joining us this morning and we do appreciate you have a wonderful weekend and we will see you next week.