Earl Stewart on Cars - 09.26.2020 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Wallace Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram of Stuart

Episode Date: September 26, 2020

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

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

This is Earl Stewart, the recovering car dealer back live. You heard my recorded intro. And we've been doing this radio show to help you. avoid being ripped up by a car dealer for about 17 years. We welcome all the newbies, all the new folks that haven't heard of us before. Please spread the word. I think we have something special here. I think our regular listeners, I'm going to say 20,000.

I keep thinking about getting the Nielsen rating, and I forget to ask the station management here to give us a copy of the Leaslin rating. But we're pretty popular. In fact, we've grown exponentially because of the industry. internet. And we're now on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, literally all over the globe. We get as many calls from out of state now, I think, as we do in-state. I don't know if that's exactly accurate, but we're close. Feels like it. And so anywhere in the world, if you can find us on the internet, we'd love to talk to you, hear your comments, criticisms. We'd love to hear your questions. This is what we do best is answer questions. We've got just not

about buying and leasing. It's also about maintaining and repairing. You've heard of my introduction. Rick Kearney is sitting to my right here. And I expect Rick probably ought to get more calls than anybody. You only buy a car every four or five, six years. You maintain your car two or three times a year. Hopefully you don't have to repair it that many times, but you should maintain your car. And we got this pandemic thing. Have you heard about it? Yeah. There's a pandemic out there and a lot of people are just nervous about driving any place to do anything. You don't want to go to a restaurant. You don't want to go to a movie. And a lot of you don't want to go to a service department and a car dealer with ship. Maybe Rick can help you out.

You might have something that he can advise you on, something you can fix yourself. Or maybe you don't fix it. You just leave it alone because it doesn't need to be fixed. And wait until this thing calms down a little bit until you do feel comfortable. So, Rick Kearney, certified diagnostic master technician. You can call on 877-9-60-99-60. This is a radio show, and that used to be the only way you got hold of us. 877-9-60-960, call in, you know, talk, and then it was time passed, and the 21st century got into high gear.

Suddenly, we added text, it was the first. Remember, our text number is 772-4976530. We said, hey, that's really high-tech. We've got a text line. Wow. I mean, we're cool now. A text line, 772-4976530. But, hey, Facebook.

Facebook.com slash Erlund Cars. We have a whole bunch of Facebook followers, and then YouTube, same thing. YouTube.com. forward slash hurl on cars Twitter I mean you know the formula you folks that are cyber savvy so I love to hear from all of you we relish and and treasure your personal experiences and we get a lot of calls and text and and postings on what happened when you went to a car dealer ship to have your car serviced or repaired and I don't talk about the body shop as much as I used to we used to have a guy out

Alan Napier. He's part of my dealership, been for many, many years. He is a body shop manager. He knows all about insurance companies. So you folks out there that have issues with insurance companies, damage to your car, worried about the right estimate, worried about where to take it, where to get a first-class repair job. We'll wing it, and we'll get Alan on the line. We'll get Alan back in here. Yeah, we'll get Alan back in. But we're not trying to neglect body shots. We're just, Alan's a little shy. Now, you'd never know it when he's here.

Let's send him an Uber right now. There we go. So I forgot one of our ways to reach us, I always do. I don't know why it's probably the most popular. It's Your Anonymous Feedback.com. I stumbled across this three years ago. There was a company called Incognito, and they had the great idea that a lot of companies out there, some blue chips, Adobe and I think Amazon, I'm not sure of all the companies that used

this incognito, but it's an anonymous feedback for your employees. And I said, hey, let's have anonymous feedback for our followers on Facebook and our listeners to the radio, Youranonymousfeedback.com. www.orgononymousfeetback.com. You can say anything you'd like. We'd like productive, helpful criticism. You know, there's nothing like constructive criticism, but we'll take any kind of input you want to give us,

and you're totally anonymous. Can't be traced, can't find you, you're a shadow. All we know is what you said, and we try to respond. And 99% of the feedback we get on anonymousfeedback.com, your anonymousfeedback.com is quite helpful. And as I say, it's become our number one source. of input, maybe second phone calls or Facebook post on my day. It's right up there. So here we are waiting for your calls. I'm going to go around the studio here. And to my left

is Nancy Stewart. She's a co-founder of the show back when we were just a half an hour. And something I didn't mention earlier, I should have. Not only have we evolved technologically, but we've evolved in terms of equality, meaning we're now at female-male parity. We have about as many female callers as we do male callers. In fact, we've also evolved to have a full-time female mystery shopper. And, you know, I give credit to Nancy Stewart for all of this. She started with me, as I say, 17 years ago, and thanks to her and some special incentives and focus that she brings to the show.

We're now doing what we should have done a long time ago, making an equal show for men and women, and why not the women buy half the cars, women's service half the cars. What were we thinking 17 years ago when it was like an old boy's club and just the guys called in? So Mrs. Sunrise, Nancy Stewart.

Good morning, everyone. Yeah, like Earl said, things have changed a little bit. And, well, it's been a slow pace, but we're getting there, ladies, and I need you to help me build this platform. It's going to take a while, but our voices must be heard. So we offer you $50 to the first two new lady callers, and take advantage of that and give us a call. When you're yourself, $50 this morning, and it doesn't matter.

You have something to say? Say it. We'll listen. If you'd like to just say hello, that'd be fantastic too. So 877-9-60-99-60, I'm sitting here, and I'm waiting and anticipating your phone call. Again, 877-9-60-99-60, we can't mention that number enough. You're a huge part of the show. Ladies and gentlemen, we can't thank you enough for tuning in.

And don't forget, www. Your Honor's Feedback.com. Okay, Stu, Sue Stewart, my son. He is a general manager of my car dealership, and I have to say that in total transparency and disclosure, I am a car dealer. And I always say right after that, in total transparency, this is not an infomercial.

This is truly a consumer advocate show, and I promise you no one's going to try to sell your car. But think of it. A lot of people give you advice, and they've never done it. Well, we give you advice, and we've done it, and we do it, and we are doing it. So we can tell you what the car business, or I can tell you what the car business was like in the 60s and the 70s and the 80s and the 80s. And Stu came along in the 90s, and he's been with us as a general manager of the dealership, as I say. So he's also our cyber space master and our mystery shopping, what do we call you the spy master general?

Spymaster general, exactly. He runs a mystery shopping report, which is the highlight of a show. So still, what's on your mind? Yeah, well, yeah, I came into the business right at the beginning of, like the real beginning of all these changes with the Internet. Like when I started at the dealership, I think I've been online for about four years, four or five, years. And then we kind of opened it up. We started our first internet sales department buying leads from Microsoft and they just grew from there. So I've kind of seen the whole spectrum of change in the last couple of decades. So it's pretty cool and amazing where the

car business is now. It doesn't even look, I mean, I know it looks absolutely nothing like when you started back in 1968, the year I was born, but there's been a whole sea change in the last two decades. It's unrecognizable practically. But as our mystery shopping report reveals, there's still a lot of things that were happening in the 50s and 60s that are still happening here in 2020, which is just insane. I'm really excited this week because we have a big stable of mystery shopping agents right now. We have Agent Lightning. And this week, we went back and we did a mystery shop with Agent Thunder, our veteran shopper. So it was always good to see his perspective on his experience.

So we're going to get to that around 930 today, but it's a good report. It's like an old school report. And we're not giving up on what we've been doing the last few weeks with Agent Lightning. She's great. We just gave her a week off. We've been doing it with her. It's a neat tack. We've been using her mystery shopping reports to show the right way to go by buying a car.

And we're finding out that even when you do it right, it's still really tough. Very good. You know, Rick Kernie's at my right here. I have, everybody knows you, and I introduced you earlier about you're the go-to-go-to guy for repairing and maintenance. Probably the most common question I get, and partly because I recommend people, don't ever buy a used car until you take it to your independent mechanic and then say, I don't, and then they tell me, well, I don't have an independent mechanic, and how do I find a good mechanic? So I always tell them an ASC certified, just give us a brief description of what ASC certification means and what you as an ASC certified technician have to do to maintain your rating. Well, ASC is a nationwide organization.

It's the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence, and they shorten it down to just ASE. and they are an independent source that they create testing guidelines and auto mechanics go in every five years you have to recertify in various different areas. Every three years? Every five years. Whether it's an auto mechanic like myself

where there are basically there are eight basic tests and then a couple of advanced tests, there's tests for all the way up to heavy trucks, school buses, all the different levels. So the best thing that you want to look for is someone that is certified in at least the eight basic areas of auto mechanics, and if they have the certification for advanced, which is the L1, that's even better. Okay, so I got a problem with my air conditioner.

Number one, you'd be darn sure they have the air conditioning certification. Exactly. I mean, you can have a big sign of them, say, hey, I'm ASC certified, but he doesn't know the first thing about air conditions he could tell you a whole lot about a transmission but you might have been certified in brakes yeah right and not in air conditioning and it's nationwide so wherever he are that's a starting place I mean you know you don't just because the guy's got all his ASE certifications and the L1 that's the top of the line yeah that doesn't mean that he's got it all together you want to check he's got all the certifications how long as he worked at this service department. How long has he been in the business? And how long has he been

certified for? Yeah. Because he may have only passed that test last week. Yesterday, right? Versus he may have been in the business. You may have another guy that's been in the business for 35 years and knows the system's inside and out. Every time I get on an airplane, I keep thinking, you know, one day that pilot sat in that left seat for the first time. Absolutely. I wonder how many times I've been on a plane where the guy got on the plane, and he says, boy, I'm really scared. Rick, can you answer this question for me back to, you know, looking for a mechanic, a good mechanic, and I'm sure the need is still there.

And the need also just takes you to the spectrum of not only where you live, but maybe somewhere else to get that good mechanic. How long does it take for you to be, for you to have become certified in ASE certification? Well, for a mechanic to be certified, he has to have at least two years' experience in the field as a mechanic and then pass the ASE test. And for finding a good mechanic, as silly as this sounds, I would pick what your favorite type of car is. Say you like the Ford Mustang. go on the internet and look for Ford Mustang forums find the section where it's the guys in your neighborhood

the people in your neighborhood you're say South Florida Fort Lauderdale West Palm Beach and go on and ask them hey who are the top mechanics in this area that you know of these are people that love their cars so much that the cars are their children Yeah. So they're not going to take that car to just anybody.

They're going to know who is the absolute best mechanic, and they're going to know who to recommend and who to send you to so you can always find a great mechanic that way. Great information. Reminds me another thought that I have. My joke, you probably heard it six times the regulars, but I'm going to tell you that way because I laugh at myself. What do they call a doctor who graduated last in his class? too

doctor a doctor absolutely you know mechanic is a mechanic as a mechanic so you got great ones and you got terrible ones

and even ASC certified you know so exactly you talk to a guy that is on the Honda Civic Forum and he loves Hondas and he's an expert of Hondas and he tells you a mechanic is really good he's really good so great I

it's kind of like the consumer a report's way of doing things because they've got no dog in that fight. They're going to recommend who they think really is best for an independent viewpoint. Nothing like word of mouth that travels real fast. We're going to go to our first-time caller, and that is Flossie in Atlanta. Good morning, Flossie. Good morning, Nancy. I'm calling from Atlanta, not Atlanta, just south of you.

on the first-time caller. And I'm so glad to have a new answer this question because I've had a lot of anxiety about it. First of all, I had a small little Lexus for years, and I loved it. The only reason I got rid of it is because I didn't have Bluetooth or a navigation system. And the thing, it didn't even have 50,000 miles on it,

and it was 98. and I sold it in 2013. So I got, in 2013, I got a beautiful Avalon, four-door sedan, and I love it. However, I want to upgrade the navigation system and the contacts in my phones that aren't all in there. Is there any way to upgrade instead of buying a new car? what year is your car it's 2013 oh you okay you did say that

okay are any headsets Rick that you can buy aftermarket that works with because I think there was an Apple car play before the manufacturer started adding Apple CarPlay to the vehicles you like Pioneer I think had a headset that fit into the area where your radio was in your car

absolutely because that's what I did yeah I'm driving a 2013 Tacoma and it actually makes so much better sense if your car is a young car, low miles, and it's in great shape, and you're happy with it, I would recommend go over to like Best Buy or some other good stereo shop and look at some of the different radio replacements, and for less than $1,000, they can set up a brand new 2021 technology because the 21 technology is what's coming

out now that will give you the top of the line navigation and it'll all work through your phone with the car play or if you have an Android phone it works through the Android car system. You better to stick with an outside navigation or

an installed in the dash navigation is that? I would stick with the one that's in your phone simply because your phone is constantly being updated and the other nice part It's like the Apple Maps that I have, because I use an Apple phone, and the maps on my phone, when I'm running the navigation on the screen of my pickup, it shows me where traffic tie-ups are, which an in-dash-located navigation system cannot do that because it's not getting the real-time information. And the Best Buy, they have the Geek Squad, right? Absolutely.

And they'll install it for you, Flossi. You can find it. They can explain it to you. They can look at your car. Best Buy, I think, is a perfect place. And then they really know what they're doing. I've used the Geek Squad. And they're technically savvy guys.

Most stores, you walk in and try to buy electronics, the guy can sell it to you, but they don't know anything about it. Different story at Best Buy. And if you don't have an iPhone, they also have sets for the Android Auto. Absolutely. So if you have a different Android phone, it works too. And if they're going to put it in my car, the Geeks Squad, I think I'm going to ruin my dashboard.

Is it going to be sticking out? Absolutely not. My car is absolutely gorgeous. No, because there are special kits that are available that they have, most of them they keep them in stock to where when they install it, it looks almost better than the factory version. And as a matter of fact, they even have special adapters so that your steering wheel controls for the volume and all that,

not only will they still work the same way, but there will be added functionality. Like if you press and hold the one mode button on mine right now, it'll activate Siri and let me have full voice communication with Siri without ever taking my hands off the wheel. Flossie, you've got so many options, and that'll allow you to hang on to your 2013 Avalon. I drive an Avalon.

It's a fantastic car. I recommend Consumer Reports, start to, there and take a look and the guys have really giving you some well free great information. I thought I'd have to go to a dealership to get that done. No.

No. We overcharge. Yeah. Yeah. No, car dealers will sell it to you and they'll install it. I'm just being honest with you that... Yeah. That's what Tony said. Yeah. He'd be afraid. Yeah. Take all this free information and utilize it to the best

of your interest and everything that you want and Flossi, you won yourself $50 and I thank you for calling and you have a wonderful day. Thank you for the great information. You're quite welcome. 877-960-9960

or you can text us at 772-4976530. We have a fantastic mystery shopping report coming up so stay tuned for that. And well, a whole lot of free information where can you go for that where free information 877 960 9960 i see i got your attention there mr recovering car dealer were you going to say something to me i was just going to say

i thought that was a perfect call not only was it a first time female caller she asked a very intelligent question that about 100 000 people had in the back of their heads and and rick was able to give a very good answer and we also just, I think we saved her probably a lot of pain and aggravation and money. And I feel good when we do something like that. I mean, she was seriously considering getting another vehicle. Yeah. That's unnecessary.

Yeah, and a lot of people are getting upgrades to vehicles. And the nice thing about that question, there are certain things you can have installed aftermarket very efficiently, effectively, and this is one of them. That makes your car a whole lot newer. Exactly. And there are other things you can't. I mean, there are things that are built in and designed in a car that you would be foolish to try to match. And so you have to know what you can do after a market

and what you can't do after a market. If you can do it after a market and you can do it well with quality, you save yourself a ton of money. Car dealers do charge a lot of money for that, and they charge all they can get away with. That's why it doesn't do that. That's a good point. that there are some things you can do

and some that you simply just can't because you really mess up your vehicle. Okay, we got any text coming in or anonymous feedbacks? We have a whole bank of them ready to go for the whole show. Let's do it.

Start with anonymous feedback. It's for Rick. Rick, it's starting to get a little cooler up here in Maryland. Hey, I was just in Maryland a couple of days ago. In preparation for the winter is swapping the battery poles around all I need to do to convert

from AC to heat. It gets so cold here, and my fingers are like popsicles clinging onto the steering wheel. Now, I don't know if you can see Rick now. Jonathan might switch the camera. Rick is hanging his head down and shaking it. I have a feeling the answer is no. He's crying. Rick, are you okay?

It's all right. Sorry, but, yeah, they tried for the old joke there. Folks, don't do that. Do not switch the battery terminals around on your car. It'll cost you thousands of dollars in destroyed computers. Well, I never heard that one. Is that an old wife's tale? It's a new joke that's been popping up.

Oh, it's a joke. Okay. Your air conditioning, you want to reverse it to heat. So you take the positive terminal and negative terminal and swap them. You've got to be careful about some. People believe that stuff. There is a very real portion of the population that does not understand cars well enough, especially our young millennials nowadays that just don't have

that knowledge about auto mechanics and there are some that will believe that and they'll try it. As a matter of fact it's very easy to convince people nowadays that they need to swap out the summer air for the winter air in their tires. Okay, let's move along here.

A little quick joke when we first started I first started in the carbon business It was a trick to play on a brand new salesperson. He'd have them go out there and check the headlight pressure of the used cars, and they'd go out there and you'd see them pushing on the headlights. I'm not kidding. Anyway, that was mean. All right, another text.

This is from Linda. Linda says, good news for Palm Beach Gardens. Costco gas station is now open. Yeah. And she tried it. And real savings. $1.89 a gallon for regular. Wow.

Definitely worth the ride. Yeah, we went by. Nancy and I went by the other day. We got so excited, but that is really cool. that's on North Lake Boulevard in North Palm Lake Park area Costco gas station what do you save the bucks

our dealership I'd love to be able to buy gas it's a little far to run back and forth and back and forth can we use thousands of gallons but we could save money and we buy it with a big discount and Costco's cheaper than that so great not bad at all thanks Linda

okay this is another one for for Rick it's from Joe just as Rick I have a 2011 Infinity G-37 convertible. The low-tire pressure warning came on, and it's a large pop-up which blocks the outside temperature. It's very annoying, and I know there's a way to turn it off. Do you happen to know how it's done?

I am back in Ohio, and sometimes I miss your show, so could you text me an answer? So we'll answer it on the air, and then I'll text whatever your responses, and maybe you might need to research it because I know that you don't work on a lot of things. Right off the bat, my first thought is being in Ohio, you've probably had some low temperatures, bump your tire pressures up by about six pounds each tire, and I think you'll see that light go off. What happens, folks, is when it gets cold, air pressure actually goes down, you know, temperature and pressure, physics.

And so when those pressures go down in the tires, because they've been sitting in that cold air overnight, it triggers that light to come on first thing in the morning. So just for the wintertime, add a couple extra pounds of air in your tires, and you'll be fine. Now, believe it or not, most people are driving around on tires that are about 10 to 15% underinflated anyways. So you should always check your tire pressures at least once every two weeks, if not more. I always have the, you know, again, I overthink things, but I keep the, when I'm inflating a tire, which is very rare, but when someone inflates their tire for me, I mean, it would be a terrible thing of that tire blew up.

What would happen? It would be loud. It scared the crap out of you. What would happen if you were, if someone just said, let's try to blow this thing up and they put on an armor suit and they stuck that thing on there, could you explode a tire if he just kept on putting the pressure in or would the pressure stop because it reached a certain point where it couldn't make it anymore? Hold on. This is the way I'd handle it. It would.

It would indeed explode. Who would do that? Folks, do not try this at home, but there are videos on YouTube, as you can see, where people have overinflated tires. Sometimes it's simply a defective tire that once it hit its normal operating pressure, it blew out. But a lot of tractor truck tires are meant to run at 90 to 100 PSI and more. And in some cases, there have been tractor truck tires that are damaged. and when it's at 100 PSI and that thing blows up

you see somebody flying across the room that's the reason I love Rick so much is because he can answer my dumb questions as well as the intelligent questions and nobody else would have thought about that but now I got to follow up I'm so excited because he told me something I never knew if I have a tire that's rated for

on the high end in other words it's the tire manufacturer's rating 50 PSI, 50 pounds per square inch. Very common nowadays. If I did what I just said earlier, and I'm going to keep on pushing that in, about what pressure would that tire explode? I know it would go to 60s, 70.

If that tire was in perfect condition, probably somewhere around 120 to 150 PSI, that tire would rupture, and you would get your little harp and halo because I doubt very much even with a bomb suit on the average person the impact of it would be enough

that it'd be horrible anybody else here did this on the show I'd get mad at it but I've lost control I gotta follow that up with one more question if you're popping it with a gas station pump

isn't there some sort of a valve in the pump that won't let you do 100 pounds or I mean, why, there's no tire in the world that has to have over 100 pounds, is there? Right. So, why wouldn't they just stop pumping and just not do it? Why don't they put a safety? Well, most of the air fills that you'll use that are available to the general public will only go up to about 75 to 80 pounds.

Okay, good. And the reason they'll go that high is so that you can fill a donut spare that has to be at 60 pounds. However, such as in our dealership where we're using heavy air tools and a lot of, of them there we actually have a running pressure of around 150 is our maximum wow so there is a potential yeah that if one of our guys wasn't paying attention yeah when you're done with those videos watch the ones the guys sitting on top of airbag inflators yeah oh those are okay let's come back to earth here and yeah let's let's let's let's kind of an intelligent question perfect intelligent question from anne-marry

Good morning. A recent Jelopnik article suggests a tactic on how to deal with finance managers trying to give a customer the hard sell and additional options and warranties. The article suggests saying, no thanks, I'm not interested. If the finance manager persists, the article suggests the following tactic. Just say something like, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I am only interested in buying the car and not any other products. If you can move through the paperwork quickly and get me out of here, I will give you a good score on your survey. one, how effective do you think this tactic can be? Two, how important is that survey that the manufacturer send out after a customer buys a vehicle?

Thank you. That's from Ann Marie. Before we answer that question, I want to emphasize J-A-L-O-P-N-I-K, is that correct? And that's one of the most useful sites on auto information in general. Anne-Marie quotes it a lot, and it is excellent. It's relatively new. I think it's been around a little while. I hadn't heard. I think Anne-Marie, the first time I, was aware of it.

But, yeah, I'll take a stab at the answer. I don't think it'll work. I think in today's climate of the way we buy cars and the mindset of the average car sales person, he'll have an answer for that. And, you know, there are a lot of things that are installed on cars pre-installed, and you'll get an answer like, I'm sorry, all of our cars have nitrogen in the tires. And then you get into it back and forth, and you would say,

I know Anne-Marie would say, well, if you don't have any cars here without nitrogen the tires, can you get me a car from another dealer that doesn't have nitrate? Or can you take the nitrogen out and just put air around? I mean, not what you're playing their game. So if you've got a dealership that's trying to slip in pre-installed accessories, they're going to give me an argument. It's not a bad line that you would... I think it depends on the dealership. Yeah.

Like, pretty much any dealership and the good ones are going to try and sell you a warranty or something. A good dealership, they might not even have to threaten the survey. Say, hey, can we just do the pay? I'm not buying it. The survey doesn't really... No. You know, it's not... It worries people a little bit, but not.

that much anymore. Yeah, but I think if you're at a typical or a high-pressure dealership, they're going to get in trouble if they don't keep pushing. They're going to tell you I'm required to present everything. I can't stop. I'm going to keep going. And it still might be an uncomfortable situation. Okay. Folks, if you didn't write that number, Don, 877-960-90, and you can text us at 772-497-6-530 and put your thoughts to the www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Remain anonymous. Would love to hear from you.

We'd love to hear your opinion. So we have a text here. This is from Andreas. And Andreas texts us all the time. He says, good morning, Earl. This is Andreas. You mentioned that you might consider a Tesla again. I'd like to suggest another cool car for the recovering car dealer.

it's the Karma Rivera and I don't know if Jonathan can get it up on the feed I have a he sent a picture of it and it's a hybrid and it is a pretty cool looking car I'm going to I'll jump and I'm going to say the Earl probably wouldn't want to get that if he's going to go

electric he's going all electric you're beyond hybrids at this point I think absolutely I mean Tesla is just sounding better and better and better and I'm probably going to buy a Tesla I mean I says you know we almost do you regulars to the show heard Nancy and I went out there and came

this close to buying one and they're better than ever and they're a player. This weekend, well, this weekend, yesterday I was chanting, Tesla, Tesla, Tesla. We've got to get a Tesla.

Okay, we are going to go to John, and John's calling us from Palm City. You must have read my mind. The governor of California just issued legislature banning all gasoline cars, new cars, in 2035. Then it gets worse.

Yuba also made an announcement by 2030. All their Yuba cars in UBOR, and Europe will be zero emission, meaning either electric or hybrid in 2030. Now, I make a statement about it. I want to see if you agree with me. I don't think that you don't create new technology by banning existing technology. I want to see if anybody agrees with that. I'll ask, girl.

I kind of agree with that, John. I will say this, though. I used to feel that way really strongly, and I thought California was a bunch of flakes and nuts, is that the joke, in California. But I'll say what, they've led the way in a lot of things, and I think because it's such a big state, and they got away with it.

with it, the manufacturers follow them. And they, the manufacturers, when California makes a new emissions rule, all the, a lot of the manufacturers say it's crazy, you can't do that, they cost more money, you have to build a special car for California. And they do build a special car for California. But the whole country follows and all the manufacturers. So whether we like it or not, California has been a leader in what we see today with electric vehicles. I would say, John, I think if this was in effect now, I think that would be really, really problematic. Could you imagine somebody said we couldn't sell a single new Toyota? That would be a problem.

In 2035, I think we'll be pleasantly surprised. I think it probably would be the main form, I think, 15 years from now. I can't imagine that they wouldn't be the dominant power train. Yeah. Well, the scariest part about it is they may start picking on gasoline and raise the gasoline prices so much that people that have their used car with gasoline engines are going to pay through the nose and they'll think that they'll ban those cars off the road. That's really scary because they might just be picking on gasoline after that

date forcing people to get an electric car. And some people keep their car 10-15 years and they will just be so hard to buy the gas. I would imagine that the gas prices would naturally go up as the demand goes down as 90% of the people have electric cars, you know, the remaining 10%. the oil companies are going to have to raise the prices at simple economics. Yeah, Rick, you got a point. Well, it just goes to show that there are still horses and horse and buggies that get around various places. So, I mean, it's a changing economy.

It's a changing world. How about the price or how old is that going up? It is. I guarantee you it's a lot more expensive to own a horse nowadays than it comparatively was 150 years ago, even considering inflation. Well, I've got another topic. It's very pleasant. I had the experience of going to a tag agency to renew my plates in Martin County. Very, very great experience. Maybe it's open now as a Friday fully, but they only allowed two at the time, and they were very, very nice. They check you, and they have to make sure you're a Mon County resident because that motor vehicle is so, you know, small, and people were coming in the past of other counties. counties. So I think that was a good rule. Everything once moved. And I saw they issued a brand new plate now in Florida that you can buy as an option. It's a PBA new plate. And right on it

it has, it's like a black plate support Florida law enforcement, which I think is a great plate. I'm not much for vanity plates. But if anybody's interested in it, I think that makes a lot of sense. And then some of the proceeds from that extra plate go to the PBA. And then I met there was only two people out in there. The guy moved from the state of New York, so glad to get away, told me a story that's true. The governor of New York purchased hundreds of thousands of brand new plates in May to change the symbol on it called Excelsior. Okay? They would deliver to the motor vehicles and they found out they cannot be used. What happens is they don't photograph on cameras.

They're void. So they're completely useless. You talk about a governor wasting money completely, why it wasn't experimented when they had one or two, and it will not read the reader on it from red light cameras and turnpikes and everything, so they're completely useless. But here's what the gentleman told me he was so pleased the way it went smooth. he wasn't doing it now.

But when he came down to change from over from New York with a choice of in God we trust his county could get Martin County on it or he could get the third one is just to have

Sunshine State. And then it goes further. There was somebody in there every 10 years in Florida they require you to change. the plate at no charge. In other words, it'll be a new number unless you have a special plate. And in New York, the governor a year ago wanted to make a $25 extra fee, because they have a rule 10 years too, to change the plate. And the people objected it so bad that he knocked that off.

I mean, it was almost a riot, charging extra. You're forcing me to make a new plate, and then you charge me 25. 25. But Florida does it every 10 years, and there's no additional charge to change the plate. You know, in other words, with the sun in Florida, it fades, and it's not readable. That's why everybody's moving in Florida, John. Our laws are good compared to specialty to some of the other states. Come on down. Come on down to Florida. Well, some of the figures I heard, and a moving agent told me it used to be 1,000 a day.

now it is up to 2,000 people per day that are coming into the state of Florida. Wow. So it's the place to live. Be sure you tell them about Earl Sherrodh and cars and we need as many listeners as we can get. Well, it's going to help deal as that's for sure. Thank you, though.

Appreciate it. Thank you, John. You know, John, like the rule that they excluded all, everybody except for Martin County residents from the DMV up there. I'm not a fan of that rule because that was the one place You can go, go up to Stewart or Hope Sound and get a replacement, take care of your DMV business, that you weren't in line for two hours. But now I can't go up there.

Now I'm forced to go to Palm Beach Gardens. I'm very unhappy. Well, that's only temporary from what they said. The reason it's temporary is because of the coronavirus and only letting two people in at a time. No, I know that. And they don't want to have a weight outside, a long wait. Palm Beach County doesn't seem to care about that. I showed up at the DMV in Palm Beach Gardens, and there's a line wrapped around the building.

I might come out of here. Yeah. Anyway, thanks, John. Okay. Okay, let's move along. Let's give out those contact numbers again, Nancy. Okay, that sounds good. Give us a call at 877960, where you can text us at 772-49-30.

We're all here to answer your questions, and we do definitely enjoy your company. Now back to Stu. Sure. Before I get to the next anonymous feedback, I do need the fact-check, John. I did Google the license plate embrillo that he mentioned. There's a lot of news about the new license plate, and there was controversy. People didn't like to be forced to change their plates, but I couldn't find anything referencing that they couldn't be photographed,

and there's a lot of news articles on it. So just check in, and I'll keep looking. Okay, incognito. Someone please tell Earl to secure his mask over his ears or get another mask. Looking at him online, constantly adjusting his mask during the show is annoying. You have something to report. Well, see, we listen to these things, and I do realize I was fiddling with my mask. It was distracting, so I tried something different.

I'm going to spin around my chair, and if you're Googling, if I don't hang myself with the mic wire. And I'll describe it as for our terrestrial radio people. Can you see? He's got a strap that goes over. It's a strap. I have a special strap. Right on the crown. And it goes right here around the top of my head.

See, my problem is I have hearing aids. And, of course, classes, and it's not easy. And trust me, everybody in the studio knows how I fiddle. But so far, it's been pretty good. And I don't think I've been rubbing my nose or pulling my mask up as much as I did before. Thank you very much, Mr. Anonymous. You're right, and you help me. And keep those anonymous feedbacks coming.

Yeah, definitely. Okay, we're going to go to Al, who's holding, and he calls us from Orlando. Good morning, Al. Yeah, how's it going? Great. I've got a question, girl. Well, anybody actually, my sister just bought a new frears up in this area. And when she got home, she called me and I went over and looked at it and everything.

The first thing I looked at was in the trunk. I was looking, you know, how the base was and everything. And then I noticed that there was no spare tire. Now these patch kits that they put in there, is that any problem when you call a road service? you call a road service and they come out? Are all road services familiar with these things now? Rick has answered that, and he's got

some, he's got an answer, he's also got a warning about what you should not do, what you should do, but what you should not do because of the fact that there's no spare. Many, many cars today are eliminating a spare. Weight consideration,

a space consideration, and it's just a way of it. I heard you last week on that. I've got a follow-up question after that. But go ahead. My recommendation is use just the air compressor to refill the tire, and if it will hold air long enough to get somewhere to have the tire repaired, do that first. Because otherwise, if you use the chemical additives,

not only are you going to have to replace the tire, but you may likely also have to replace the sensor inside the wheel as well. Big money. Oh, my daughter, I mean, my sister is not going to do that. She's going to immediately call road service. So my question is, are all these road service people familiar with this patch kit? Yes, but they should have a compressor on their truck anyways. And just ask them to please refill the tire to let you know,

is it safe enough to get to a service plaza to have the tire repaired? Right. Okay, I assume if the tire is not inflate about it, they got a tow it, I guess. Right. At that point, it would have to be towed. Al, on the roadside assistance, it's just one editorial comment. A lot of car dealers sell you this when you buy your car, and some of these roadside assistance programs are not worth the paper they're written on, and they have telephone numbers that don't answer,

and if they do answer, they say they'll be there in an hour and they're there in four hours. AAA, roadside assistance, an annual membership in AAA, is what we recommend for anybody that wants roadside assistance. With a new car, though, she would be calling Toyota to, you know, come out and... Well, we've had complaints on Toyota's roadside assistance. And unfortunately, you know, they've gone unanswered. I'm not saying in all cases, but we in the past have checked for the roadside assistance, and it's just not as quality. I mean, AAA, you rarely hear a complaint.

They're very, very strict of their standards about who they sign up to be a member, you know, for the roadside assistance. Okay, okay. Well, thank you very much. Yeah, hold on I got another question. Oh, great. Yeah, the last two times I've leased a car And I've always used a one-pay lease And it seems like

The last two times I've had the same problem When I start telling them I want a one-pay lease They look at me like I'm talking in a foreign language or something Well, it's unusual I mean If you feel good about it and you're comfortable doing that There's nothing wrong with it. There's some risk there.

There's some risk there. Yeah. Yeah. Your risk is it's just like if you're made all your lease payments in advance, once you have made, paid that one pay lease, what if you can't drive the car? I mean, you're stuck with a car that, you know, you're not going to get any money back if you had bought the car. It's just the same least a risk you get when you lease a car versus a buy car. My other thought on one-paid leases, Al, is that a lot of people don't invest in stocks and bonds.

In fact, bonds aren't going to give you much of return either, but you can borrow money for very little for the one-paid lease. On the other hand, if you took that money and invest it, you make more money. But I hear you, and I think there's nothing wrong with the one-pay lease other than the obvious, which is older people when they lease a car, they have to risk the fact that one day the doctor's going to say, you shouldn't be driving that car anymore. And then you're stuck. You don't get any money back.

Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Okay, well, I just wanted if you had any problems down there with people that want to pay, you have a one-pay lease. Seems like up here the last two times they've, they've screwed up the paperwork. I have to come back in and sign new paperwork because they don't put the numbers in the right. Oh, boy. I mean, it's not that complicated about a lease in my estimation, but for some reason, when you say a one-pay lease, they kind of, you know.

They probably don't do one every three months. It's unusual, and I hear you. I probably do it myself. I just, but, yeah, it's... Yeah, the reason I'm doing it's because, you know, I'm not even save on the interest and I've got the money to put out there, so it's not a burden on me. I got you.

Okay. Thank you. for a much role. Enjoy your program. Thank you, Al. All right. Bye-bye. Give us a call. 877-960. We'd love to hear from you.

I believe we are going to go to Rick. He's got a YouTube to share with us. We do. Newk Norway is asking. I love the names on YouTube. Awesome. I know Earl has probably been asked this thousands of times, but when

going into a dealership and making an office, on a used car how much less than the sticker price should you offer to negotiate to begin your negotiations well you're you're playing the dealer's game at that point and every dealer marks his cars up differently and based on the car sometimes some are marked up higher and lower you know the age of the car on the lot has to do with it we recommend that you just don't negotiate on the used car, that what you do is you go on AutoTrader, Autotrater.com, probably the single best source for inventories, availability, selections of used cars. You can sort by price,

keeping in mind that there will be hidden fees. But you start out that way. You can sort by the car you want and the price you want to pay in the zip code that you want to buy it. And how good is that? I mean, you start there. And then you have some idea. And you're doing all this online. And then you go online and you say, now I found the car that I want, mileage, equipment, your make model, and that's your price.

Please give me the out-the-door price. And that's got to include all your hidden fees and all your dealer installed accessories. I want to be able to write a checkout for that and bring it to you. And you do all this again online. Then you go in, you know, to go in there and start haggling and hassling in person

means you're going to have to go to probably two or three or four more stores, you're going to wear yourself out. And they say, like, use cars are unique, but I would probably guess 90% of the used cars bought and sold are fairly common. I mean, I can tell you, at our dealership, we sell more use Camrys than anything. And they are a dime a dozen,

and there are so many to choose from, you can actually do that. The dealer will say, well, you're never going to find another one like this. And in some cases, that's true, something with extraordinarily low miles. But most, you know, if you take a 20, 2017 Camry with average miles, you're going to find a million of them. And you can sort by mileage on Auto Trader, too.

So you can, the more pickier you are, the higher the price is going to be. And that's true, a new car, used car. My advice, when you buy a used car, be flexible. Three, four, five colors acceptable to you. A mileage range, you're not a, you know, don't be too greedy about the mileage. You know, sometimes a car with 100,000 miles is a mile. much better car than one with 25,000 miles. So, you know, be flexible.

The older, the later amount of college today, 100,000 miles is nothing to worry about if it was care for it and maintained. So, yeah, don't play the dealer's game. You write the rules, you stay in control, and you offer a price, and if they won't accept it, you go to another dealer. You know, there's so many choices. I mean, the consumer has, you know, a lot of options. Gather that knowledge.

you're in the driver's seat definitely so negotiating this is supposed to be a great experience so follow those rules and I think you'll have a great experience okay we can jump over some more text this is from Bob and Stewart

Bob wants to know what we know about a Michigan company building the Rivian that has a 400 mile range and also where is Toyota and producing an all electric vehicle for the public. What I know about, Rivian is the truck company, isn't it? To compete with Tesla, it's in all.

I think they just be trucks. Yeah, the ones are being indicted or something. They faked a video? Yeah, there's some controversy. Lawsuits involved. Yeah, they took a truck, electric truck, all electric truck, and pushed it up to the top of the hill and made it roll down the hill and video that made a commercial

about how quiet it was and how powerful it was. Didn't the CEO resign? And there was no motor. It was just coasting, and they got exposed. They ran out the CEO. Did he quit? He quit, the CEO quit. General Motors was embarrassed.

Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors, was embarrassed, and they're talking about backing out of the deal. Rick? Actually, the Rivian is not the one you're thinking of. Oh, okay. I just pulled it up on car and driver, and it's talking about an all-electric pickup truck with a range of 400 miles.

The revealed vehicle is not a concept vehicle. It says this was the production vehicle they're looking to build. Crew cab only, so it's a four-door cab pickup. And rather futuristic looking and rather interesting. What was the one that we made the mistake about? I'm going to look that up now. It's a very similar name. Well, Stu's looking at Nicola.

He'll go on sale. Was it Nicola? Yeah, the Nicola was the one. Okay, well, you guys are looking that up and getting the information. Let's go to Del Rey. Arthur's been holding. Good morning, Arthur. Good morning.

Good morning. I have a 2013 Toyota Avalon, and I had new tires put in the automobile. When they put the tires on, they replace the stem. Now, does that stem screw into the sensor that's inside the tire? No, they should have. reused the original sensors because there's nothing to replace on it. If they charged you for valve steps, then I'd be going back saying, hey, how can you put valve stems in a car with tire sensors? That's, uh, somebody ripped you off on that one. Or that's for stupid.

Yeah. Oh, well, uh, then I went back because the light went on my dashboard and he'd come out and he would engage, you went around to all the tires, you went to the rear tires, the sensor was gone. I had a buyer. I went to the dealer and bought a new sensor, and he said he'd put it in for me.

I just don't understand why, after having a new tires, all of a sudden one tire, I just thought maybe that the sensor got disconnected from the stem if they screw it in. I don't know. No, what probably happened is a damn, damaged one of the sensors when they were mounting and balancing the tire.

Now let me ask you, when the light came on for you, did it come on and blink for about 20 seconds and then go solid? Yes. Yeah, that's an indication for that model year. That's an indication that one of the sensors had gone bad, which they probably damaged it. The problem is that for it to be installed, it's going to have to be done at the dealer because the dealer's going to have to use a special computer to reprogram it to accept that new sensor. Well, the time place said they could do it if I got the sensor.

They can put it in, but they can't program it. Oh, my God. So I have to go back to, I have to go to a dealer for them to program it? Yes. How much should that cost, right? We normally get about one hour's labor, so about $100 to $150, depending upon the dealership but remember this they're going to need the number there's a number on that sensor and the dealership is going to need to know that number otherwise they're going to have

to break the tire down to get the number off of that sensor in order to program it in see each sensor has it's own identification i have it in a bubble pack with all of the pot numbers and everything else should i save that bubble pack because that has the number on it actually the best thing you can do is take that sensor out of the package and take pictures of it with your cell phone and make sure all the numbers are nice and clear so when you go to the dealership you can say look here it's the numbers off of the new sensor and they can program it in oh I see okay well I would make sure that that tire shop pays for the sensor and actually tell them when you take that sensor out I want to see that sensor and it should look identical to the

new one. And if it's got any sort of marks or damage on it, then they broke it and they should pay for the sensor and the reprogramming. Okay, so then I should ask for the pod back when I put the new sensor in. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you very much. You're welcome, Arthur. You're welcome, Arthur. Thank you. Good luck. Rick, I'm so happy you're on this show. Do you answer a question? Sensors. I would have had no idea. I mean, that's really, it really is interesting and it just God only knows what he would have been told

if you had not explained it to him. Thank you very much. You know, great information. Ladies and gentlemen, give us a call to Free at 877-960-960. Do you have a question? Give us a little help on some guidance on what you think

we should be doing here. We're going to go to Stu. I think Stu's got some text messages. I also got the second part for Bob's question about Toyota producing an all-electric vehicle. There's good news and bad news. Starting this year, over the next five years,

Toyota's introducing six all-electric models. The bad news is they're all going to be introduced in China, where I guess the government is really controlling the emissions there. And it's going to be pretty cool. Eventually, we'll see them here. They're doing a small car. They're doing like a small crossover SUV, a mid-size SUV, and it's really frustrating.

for me because I'm such a geek. I want these things here now. But eventually, I'd say by the end of the decade, and maybe even sooner, in the United States. By the way, that Rivian truck, apparently it has three levels, trim levels for the battery, which the size of the battery available on it, and the price on it is going to be somewhere starting at around $72,000 for the low end, up to over $80,000 for the high-end battery system on it. Wow. Not for most people. Interesting. We're going to go to Lake Park where Dave is holding. Good morning, Dave. We'll help him to the show. Hi, good morning. How you doing?

Great. Yeah, I was just, I had a quick question. 677 and I kept promising myself I was going to drive it at least once a quarter, and I didn't. It's been like three and a half years. I was wondering what Rick might think I need to do to get it up and running again. As far as expensive stuff, by looking at a new fuel pumper. Start off right off the bat with a battery, fill up the tires, oil change, and completely fresh fuel. You're going to need to completely drain the fuel tank, flush out the tank in lines, and cross your fingers and try to start it and see what happens. Odds are you're going to get some use back out of it.

but it may take a while to get enough fresh fuel to flush through and get any debris out of your fuel lines. Okay, right. And then when you say drain out or flush the gasoline tank, I'm not quite sure how to go up on if I need to bring it to you guys. It's going to do that? This was a Chevy S-10, you said? Yeah, it's a Chevy S-10. It's just, yeah, it's a little bit older, of course, and I don't know if I'm throwing good money after that kind of thing. If you really want to save it, I would find an independent mechanic.

They're going to be a lot less expensive. Let them know the situation and ask them right up front what they're going to run you for the battery oil change and flushing the fuel system really well to try to get it running. Bear in mind, he's not going to be able to give you a price that's going to include everything because stuff is going to show up after he gets it running. But ask him for a ballpark figure to just try to get it running. and see what they say and make a decision from there whether it's worth it to go ahead and continue.

Gotcha, yeah. Okay, one last quick question. I gave a call about a year ago, and I was wondering if I could just get a little walking through a new dealership. Is that still possible with Earl or his wife or anything? You know, are you sent you guys remodeled? Oh, absolutely. You know, we're open for business.

Now, Earl and Nancy have been quarantining to a degree They come to the radio shows So they haven't become the dealership But you're welcome to come by and get a tour anytime you'd like Yeah, I just want to see what you guys got going and everything And who should I speak to on that? Yeah, you can ask for me, Stu, or Josh, we're always there And we're happy to show you everything we did

We worked on it for about 18 months And we're pretty proud with the final result Yeah, absolutely That's why I can go by there a lot, and I was like, I don't go in there and just check it all out, you know? You should. I'll ask me, Stu, I appreciate your time on, man. I'll give a call this week. All right, great.

Thanks. Thank you, Dave. Thank you. Okay, let's get some more text here. Okay. This one is for probably Rick. Maybe I'll take a swing at it. I'm just kidding.

Why do automatic headlights not work when you want them to? For example, when it rains, the headlights don't turn on, or when it's dust, they don't turn on. or when it's dusk, they don't turn on early enough. I leave my headlights on all the time because automatic is useless, and I believe people can see me better during the day. So how much quicker will my headlights burn out? I have xenon bulbs in my headlights. Yeah, I don't like automatic headlights.

They're supposed to turn off at certain times to turn on, and I just don't think they're accurate enough. And myself, I personally, I run my headlights all the time while I'm driving my vehicle. It's a visibility factor that other drivers are much more able to see my vehicle when I'm coming down the road. It may

shorten the life of the bulbs a little bit, but, you know, for the cost of a bulb, what, every six or eight, 10 years? I have no idea. I would consider it a whole lot safer versus the idea of being in a collision because somebody didn't

see you. Yeah, absolutely. Run those headlights all the time, folks. On low beam, not high beam, keep them on low beam, but run your headlights even during the day, it improves the visibility of other cars seeing you coming down the road. Exactly. You know, I drive with my

lights on. How many times have you heard, Rick? I've got to replace my lights. I've had my lights on. I've got to replace my lights. They're just worn out. Modern bulbs are so much better quality. Yeah, check the headlight pressure. You have to check the headlight pressure.

There you go. Amory sent us another text. We got to the moon in 10 years. Why can't we engineer no emission vehicles in 15 years? California is the fifth biggest economy in the world. When that market speaks, companies listen. And she's absolutely right about California. Earl mentioned earlier, you know, about how they are trendsetters.

It's not an engineering problem. We have zero-emission vehicles right now. It's a demand and a production and a lot of other factors. Yeah, the reason we move so slowly is simply. the lobbying power of the auto manufacturers and the dealers and nobody likes to have to spend more money on a car. And the oil companies.

And the oil companies, exactly. So you fight the lobbyist and now when being green is cool, it used to be if you believed in a clean planet, you're a moron. And so now people are suddenly and realize that it's important.

And so it's far less friction and opposition to developing electric cars. Everybody I talk to, I mean, the cool thing about electric cars is the fact that even for the gearhead that loves the zero to 60 thing and a quarter mile elapsed time, he has his cake and eats it too. He's got a super fast, powerful car, high speed, a lot of torque, and it's perfectly clean.

So it's the answer to everything. Yeah, my thoughts are, I think, when they get the range, up a little bit higher and the price comes down until you're in that 30,000 range, more people will. Because right now, realistically, you got to buy a Tesla and I don't think you can get one less than 70 grand, and most people can't afford that. And for the real morons out there, they love these real loud cars, they'll have something. You can turn a switch on and it will make a lot of noise. I mean, you're going to have a perfectly quiet car and make it sound terrible.

You can make it sound like an old Stanley steamer, like to-to-to-to-to-to-ch. They actually have that, by the way, on the hybrid cards. Just a quick little tangent In New York, I almost killed a pigeon Because it didn't hear I was in all-electric mode in this hybrid Rav-4 And I'm driving, I go, is that thing going to move? It's going to move, and it didn't

I had to honk the horn The sound that this thing makes It has like this very strong It generates a sound so people can hear it coming But apparently the pigeon Didn't recognize the sound And that reminds me of a funny Seinfeld episode I've got to send you the video

All right, we have an anonymous feedback question for Earl says, can you dealer swap for a used car at another dealer location for one of your used cars? Not normally. It is not impossible. The one company, fortunately, the largest used car

seller in the country is CarMax. CarMax does that routinely. Another reason we recommend CarMax, you go into a CarMax, and they look at the computer, depending of how long you're on the wait, they literally have thousands and thousands of cars to choose from. But the average

dealer is not going to steal or swap with another dealer on a used car. It would be a very cumbersome procedure if he did. It'd take too long and wouldn't be worth it. Technically it's possible, but it's probably never going to happen. Unless it's a dealer with multiple locations and we used to do that. Automation, I should have mentioned automation. And Penske Auto Group, Sonic Automotive, you know, the chain operations, but it would probably be less easy than it would. CarMax is a standard operating procedure. I don't know about automation. It may be. It's worth a try. Yeah. Okay, this looks complicated. Anonymous feedback. Would a rocker arm under the camshaft be considered an item covered under a lifetime

power train warranty? It is lubricated. In the Chrysler Pentastar 3.6 liter v6, they fail frequently causing damage to the camshaft, and it also creates a ticking house, or noise maybe. Supposedly, this happens to these engines, which were made in a Mexican factory. I had to replace two on mine, one at 80,000 miles, and went at 92,000 miles. Needless to say, I no longer own that vehicle. Yes, that's an internal component of the engine. That should be right under that lifetime power train. Yeah, I've always said all the lubricated portions are covered under a power chain warranty,

but, you know, I don't know all the lubricated, so thanks for confirming that, Rick. Okay, Earl, you got an anonymous D. You were graded. Earl, I give you a D for suggesting haggling with the buyer and playing games on the mystery shopping report of easy-owned car sales. I'm trying to think. When did you do that? Yeah, I don't know.

I saw that anonymous feedback myself. It came in a little while ago, and I don't remember doing that. If I did, the shame on me, I might have had just. just a mental breakdown, but I don't want anyone to try to haggle with a, you know, with a car dealer, car salesperson. I think you've, you have, in the past you might have mentioned, like, if a used car dealer claims to be one price to try them out and see if they'll do that to find out if they truly are sticking to their policy. But, I mean, you weren't suggesting getting into a haggling back and forth because that's just one of our big no-noes. No, years ago when I guess maybe, well, this show's been on. in the air for 17 years, we did talk about how to haggle and how to negotiate.

And now we're saying... It evolves. We evolve. We don't have to do that anymore. That's right. All right. Anonymous feedback. I have never gotten a good price from Mullinex.

95% of the time they have the highest price. And I have purchased five Ford Transit Connects, and Mullinex Ford is typically higher by $3,000 or more. Now, that wasn't our experience last week. Was that signed less acres? No, it's not less. Less would never do that. Oh, it's signed not less. I read that.

You know, that's a cool thing about anonymous feedback because you don't know who sends them in. And in my opinion, I don't know this. In my opinion, that is a salesperson or a manager from another Ford dealership. Probably someone close by. If I really want to narrow it down, I'd say Al Packard. I think an Alpacker salesman sent that in,

it would be impossible for Molynex to have the higher price 95% of the time. And if he's overpricing vehicles in competition by $3,000, Malnex wouldn't be in business anymore. There's an important distinction to point out. A Pontiac Transit, that's a commercial van. So this is like a fleet purchase. So quite possibly they are out of their minds when it comes to their fleet sales. But I don't think that applies to the Ford F-150s.

Yeah, on fleet sales, It's even more price sensitive, and I don't think if you're a Ford dealer, you can be out of your mind on fleet sales because they do a lot, they all do a lot of fleet sales. And anyway, that's, maybe I'm wrong. But we recommend Mullinx Ford. We shopped them last week, and they're a good outfit to do business with, and you should always compare the price. The nice thing we found out about Mullinx last week is we got an out of the door price. and if you get an out-the-door price you don't have to buy from that dealer

take it to another Ford dealer which we did before we went to Mullinix and Malinix gave us the lowest price and it was a good price because we compared it with True Car Great tool you can use 877-960 or you can text us at

772497-6530 and ladies and gentlemen help us get to Attorney General Ashley Moody she's out there to protect us. She's out there to advertise honest car prices and we so need her help and we can't do it alone right here.

So we ask you every week if you'll please send her a caller, send her a letter any way at all that you feel would be effective for you to get in touch with Attorney General Ashley Moody and you can give her a call at 850-414. 3300 now back to Stu you know Nancy says that every week and every week we pass that advice along and I think we should do something this this between now and next Saturday let's a mystery shop Ashley Moody and let's call the line and

see what happens okay and you can do that yeah yeah yeah you think she'd recognize my voice probably not we want to try a falsetto okay I'll try it Hello, is Ashley Moody there? Okay, let's move along here. Okay, more anonymous feedback. I just jumped over and lost my spot. Don't want me forget to do that. Well, we have another criticism on your mask wearing,

but we've addressed that issue, and Earl's mask will never bother anybody ever again. Thank you. It might bother him. It's not going to bother anybody else. Hi, this is more anonymous feedback. Hi, I may have missed the answer to my question on your show. Rick, is there a warning,

car gives before the water pump stops working. I have a 2009 Kia Optima with a 108,000 miles, original water pump and serpentine belt. I've kept up the maintenance according to the owner's manual. Thank you. I love the show and keep up the great work. Thanks. Oftentimes you'll hear a growling or a rumbling noise will start up from the engine. Odd noises are one of the first indicators that something bad is starting to occur. the other thing you can look for is shine a flashlight down on the front of your engine and if you see anything that's the same color as your coolant that appears to be wet or dripping I'm getting checked by a mechanic okay I didn't even know that I just thought it was something just it just went

well why kind of like Ann Marie we put a man on the moon in 10 years why can't the manufacturers come out with an electronic warning when your water pump is about ready to fail because what usually starts to fail is the bearing the spinning and as that bearing starts to go it starts getting rough and it will start making noise a little hard to just for a computer sensor to actually isolate a specific noise they get hot it gets hot whether it's that they get hotter too i mean they could have a temperature sensor it could increase temperature but your coolant temperature is already cycling anywhere from about 205 degrees down to as low as 160 during normal normal operation use.

I'm not on an auto engineer. You know, it's amazing. The amount of information that Rick has shared with us this morning, things that we didn't even know. And, well, I'm sure everyone out there is very thankful you're here, Rick. 877-960, if you have any other questions for Rick or any of us. And you can also text us if you're a little shy at 772-497-6530. Don't forget that Mystery Shopping Report is going to be coming up shortly.

By the way, I have a surprise. We have theme song for Mystery Shopping Report. So when we introduce it, Mike is going to play our new Mystery Shopping Report theme song. Oh. Uh-huh. Rick, do you have any comments on YouTube over there? We're clear right now. You're caught up?

Yeah. Okay, I'll jump back over to anonymous feedback. Secret agent, man. Well, you'll like it. You'll like it. It's good. good evening this came in during the evening last night what is the difference between a refresh and a redesign is there a specific time this is done i'm thinking about buying a new highlander in about two or three years but not sure if it will be a refresh redesign will be coming next year and keep up the great job on the show i can address that i'll start with the highlander the highlander was just completely redesigned in 2020 so it's in the the 2021s are about to come out a redesign is where you're where they actually change the body, sometimes the power train,

lots of, you know, features, safety features, interior, all over the whole car. A refresh keeps everything about the same, but there's minor changes. Like they might change the configuration on the dashboard or trim pieces. It's more cosmetic typically. Sometimes there have been refreshes with some more substantial changes, but for the most part, we see these mid-product cycle. So if a car is going to be redesigned every five years, Every two years or so, you might see a refresh in that mid-product cycle to answer your question.

Stu, could you answer this question for me? What can I expect in the Highlander, the new one, that I don't have in the 2020? What are the safety features that are going to blow me away? Oh, for the most recent one, Toyota, they call it the Star Safety System, and all that means is rewind back about 10 years ago or maybe a little bit more safety features, believe it or not were optional features. I remember side airbags was an expensive upgrade. You had at about $750 to upgrade to side airbags. And now it's almost unthinkable that these wouldn't be standard. So for the most part, 99% of the

high-tech safety features are now being made available on manufacturers on all their models. They're not skimping on the safety. And then you can get a little, you know, a little bit more sophisticated and have, you know, lane keep assist, which would actually steer your back into the lane. So on the new, on the Highlander, it's pretty much everything that any modern manufacturer is putting in their cars right now. It's the whole, it's the whole, the whole of Kate Caboodle. Is there, is there anything that comes to mind as far as the backseat is concerned? Because in the Consumer Report, they're really addressing that where, you know, the backseat just wasn't that important to change as far as safety, as far as

comfort. Can I find a better backseat in the Highlander? than the previous model I can't answer that question I don't know well go to your consumer report Linda is giving us a call she too is a first time caller from North Carolina good morning Linda welcome to the show Good morning how are you

very well thank you thanks for helping us build a platform here for the ladies what can we do for you this morning okay I've got a couple questions One of the questions is, when is the best time to give the affidavit, when you're at a dealership, when's the best time to give the affidavit for the final out-the-door price? Well, you're referring to Nancy's affidavit. Yes.

I would say at the time you take delivery, you're up to that point you would have insisted on the out-the-door price, and you would have described it as what you will write a check for and be able to get in the car and take it home. And when you're getting ready to do that and get in the car and take it home, you could ask them to sign it. I think in some cases it would maybe delay your departure because salespeople typically are not allowed to sign anything.

It would have to be a manager in a dealership. In some dealerships, nobody's allowed to sign anything away of a legal paper other than a typical buyer's order or something like that. Linda, excuse me, I'll tell you what, Linda, the minute you start tossing around words like out-the-door price, they're going to know you're very serious about that out-the-door price with no shenanigans, so it's definitely worth its weight in gold to use that, that affidavit that gives you the out-the-door price and you can you can fax that over to the dealership hand-deliver it or whatever but you can just be sure that you're going to get the out-the-door price

no add-ons at all okay so should i if i'm at a dealership and i'm talking about a certain vehicle should i indicate beforehand that i'm looking for the out-the-door price and then at the in before we do the final. At that point, give them the affidate to actually sign. Well, if you've done your due diligence in out-to-door price, meaning you started out shopping online, you communicated by email or text, and you explained to them that you have selected their dealership for the lowest price after looking at three or four others, and you would like to confirm that the price that they gave you is a price that you can write your checkout for and bring it in, give it to the salesperson, and go home. If they confirm that that is the

case, then you would actually not even need the affidavit because you would give them a check and then you would get in the car and take it home. So it's an extra tool in your arsenal. you can discuss it, but the best thing to do is to be sure that they'll accept your check. Absolutely. And that, Linda, you're not going to be paying, you're not going to be paying any hidden fees. No dealer installed accessories. I could take up a lot of time here and just give you a whole list, but it's just real important that they know how serious you are

and that you have probably done your homework, and they'll step back and reason with you and take that affidavit, seriously? Okay, and then I've got one other question, and that question is pretty much, you know, on a certified vehicle, what I'm wanting is I want to get one that's, you know, a couple years old, but I don't want the certification on it. And if they would, if a dealership would say they could take off that certification fee, how would I know that they've actually taken off the price that they've added to, you know,

what I'm saying, what they say it's $2,000 that they have added for the certification, but then whenever I tell them to take it off, they're only wanting to take off $1,500, knowing that I wouldn't know the difference. Well, make your deal on the best price that you got. based on the fact that it is certified, and then tell them that you change your mind, that you don't require the certification, they have a warranty on a certified car. They would remove the warranty, and if they remove the warranty, they should remove the cost of the certification. Now, they do have a check sheet that they have to go through, but they should do that on all their cars anyway,

and then if you certify it, it has a factory warranty on the used car. So, you would buy the car or tell them you're ready to take delivery on the car based on the price that it was certified. And then when they confer that's the price out of the door, you say, okay, I don't want the warranty. And how much will you reduce the price by? It should be what's due, $3, $500, $500, $500. Exactly. Yeah. So you should be able to get a few hundred dollars off the price when you say you don't want the warranty.

Okay, perfect. Okay, well, thank you all so much for answering my questions. I appreciate that. Oh, thank you, Linda. Thanks for tuning in, Earl Stewart on Cars. Spread the word. We'd love to hear from more of the ladies. 877-960-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6-530.

All right. Anonymous feedback for Rick. Are there any issues to be concerned about in replacing the front driver's seat in a 2007, Corolla, airbag, etc. Would salvage yard be a good source to find seats? Thanks. I'm always a little nervous with salvage yards with airbag components because of the safety factor. The easiest way to tell, though, as silly as this sounds, take out your original seat, put the other seat in place, and just plug in the electrical connectors and start the car up. If the lights come on, for the normal bulb check and then go out, you should be pretty safe.

But again, like I say, I'm always a bit nervous using airbag components of any sort from a salvage yard type system. You use the word salvage yard, and I think junkyard, and I'm thinking 20th century, 21st century, some of these quote-unquote salvage yards are very sophisticated. They have good warranties. They have good Google ratings. They have, they're national. Yep. And most car dealers deal with these. We do. And most car dealers do. So it's like anything else. If you're going to replace something that has been rebuilt, you want to be sure to deal with a very reliable company.

You might call the dealer of the make car that you have. And if you've got a Honda call the Honda deal with and say to the parts department, Who do you deal with when you install salvage or rebuild parts? And they'll have someone reliable that they can trust. And there will be typically a warranty, like a one-year warranty. Most of them are six months. Six months. Okay. Like if you're doing an, say you're putting in an edge,

and they'll have an option for an increased price to give you a one-year warranty. Yeah. It's a huge market out there for these rebuild. And when we call them junkyards, we don't do them proper service or salvage. they are really sophisticated they take these recycle units they'll take them apart

put them back together again they test them they warrant them and you always have to look at that alternative before you buy a new part from a dealer you go into a dealer and you buy a new seat you get hosed I mean in simple vernacular terms the manufacturer overcharges

the dealer for the seat and the dealer overcharges you for the seat if you get a good remanufactured ones which isn't easy because you got a lot you know, trim and color and everything else. But who knows, you might get exactly what you want and have what you have to pay the dealer. Okay, we're going to go out to Jupiter Farms

and talk to Frank. Hi, Frank. How are you? Hey, Frank. Hey, good morning. Nice to hear from you. Likewise. This is going to be a very quick, because I know you're getting ready,

mystery shopping report, and I just had some friends come up for breakfast. Oh, thank you. Unfortunately, you know what? for the other issue, but the gentleman that just called about how the new cars are changing and stuff for 2021, there's an excellent source right now that just came out, the Motor Trend 20-21 car SUV and truck buying guide. It has 230 vehicles in there, and it'll show anything from no change to minor change to major change, and what they did, it seems like almost all

the cars, Toyota included, are providing all the lane assists and the backups. and the cameras at standard equipment. That's great. But it's a great source for that one person to call it in to see what's going to be happening next year. Oh, thank you, Frank. I'm looking it up right now, Frank. Yeah, it may have been because I was a subscriber

because I was looking to see what the month was. There's no real month, but it's just called it. It's like it comes out once a year, I guess, kind of like Consumer Reports does too, which is an excellent source also. But this magazine with 230 different cars, it's interesting reading in a rank in different things. We need all the help we can get. Thanks, Frank.

I found it. Okay, that gives you a little something, X. But thank you guys, and we'll stay in touch, and we really do enjoy your show. Oh, thank you so much, Frank. I'm getting a little jealous, though. My girlfriend wakes up to Earl Stewart on Saturday mornings every morning. Oh, look out. You've got a little competition going on.

There you go. I thought you might enjoy a little. sense of humor there we always do especially from you you have a wonderful week and enjoy that breakfast yes sir i mean i'm getting old and seen out by-bye aren't we all okay uh i believe that stews got some taxes to get to i think we're all caught up i'm i'm searching all our various channels they're coming in are we are we caught up on youtube comments we are all right Keep them coming. That's the nice thing about text and YouTube's and Facebook posts.

We can accumulate them, and we'll probably get through the Mystery Shopping Report with time to address new calls, text, YouTube, Facebook, whatever. And we'd love to hear from you, folks. We'd love you to rate that Mystery Shopping Report that is definitely, while heart and soul put into this, I can't tell you enough. I don't think we mention that part of the Mystery Shopping Report. and what Agent Lightning and Stu, how hard he works on it, putting it all together.

And we so appreciate making it so interesting, so knowledgeable, so helpful. I'm sorry, I forgot the creative writing. I forgot the YouTube. Look at those. RICO West says, what comes first, the mentioning that you want to lease the vehicle or negotiating the out-to-door price. Thanks all.

Well, Stu and I differentiated, I differed on this a couple weeks ago. The capitalized cost of a lease is what you would typically pay pretty close to what you typically pay if you had the best price on the car. One of the ways dealers can make more money on a lease is by inflating the capital cost of the car typically leasing companies limit that to about 10% inflation, but they can get

around that by undervaluing the trade in and other ways. So I believe, my personal belief is whether you lease or buy a car, you should always find the best price on the car. I have a compromise for our disagreement, which is

get the out-the-door cash price and then insist that that selling price that they use to get that out it becomes the capitalized price and the cost in the, uh, in the, exactly, exactly. So yeah, uh, you're, if you go, if you just play the payment game and you don't know what you paid for the car, uh, you pay for a car with you lease it, you pay for a car with you buy it, uh, you just pay over time and only for the amount of time, the car that you used depreciation when you lease it. But it's, it's

in principle. You want to, you want to get the lowest price on the car, make that to capitalize cost and then release it and shop the least famous yeah okay all right before you get going yeah I'd like Mike to play our new theme song for the mystery shopping report okay Mike if you're listening oh I call him I caught him off guard okay okay we'll get started anyway mystery shop oh here we go It's got lightning and thunder. It's perfect. Oh, okay.

You didn't like it. Hold on a second. Hold on. I'm not done dancing. Come on. Get that camera over here. Very good. Okay.

This is interesting. We've entered a new era here with Earl Stewart and Carr's Mr. Shopping Report. And if you were listening last week, and if you look at our blog our template for buying a used car online is worth reading and you'll see more of these and we're gonna juxtapose them with the old-fashioned responding to too good-to-be-true ads and this was a mystery shopping report and I put it as I made it the blog because it is a template for the way you should buy a car so substitute whatever make you want to buy this was for Ford's we talked to

online to four different four dealers in the same market and we chose one and we started out online only visited one and that's the way cars are bought in the 21st century so you'll see these about every other week or every so often and then the one we did this week was of the old-fashioned way responding to an ad that was too good to be true it was a mystery shop of Wallace Chrysler Jeep Dodge Bram and Stewart. Had we done it the other way, we would probably go on to Napleton Jeep, we'll call it Wallace Jeep and Napleton Jeep and Rigo Jeep and I guess Del Rey Jeep. And that would be four in the market. All over the place. Yeah. So three or four dealers online and you

go through the process of getting the best price you can out the door. And you will go through a lot of nonsense and you select the one with the least nonsense before you actually go in and that's what we did with this particular blog so you really ought to read it go to earluncars.com earl oncars.com

it's in the archives there's also the blog because I want to be sure that everybody sees this and did we boost this on Facebook too? I got to check with Josh I think you asked them to us I'm sure we did we'll be sure we will I want as many eyeballs on this and you'll see many more like them and so here we go

back to Wallace Jeep and Martin County, Stuart, and I'll just get into the report. For the last few weeks, we took a new direction on our mystery shops. Instead of our shoppers playing the role of a naive consumer lured into a dealership with a tantalizing ad, who had Agent Lightning, and with a female shopper, do it the right way, ignoring ads, and that's one of my blogs, never pay any attention to any, dealer advertising or manufacturer advertising. Everything they tell you about the price of the car is discounted in the fine print, which you can't read. So forget about advertising and don't respond. Anyway, as I say, agent lining did it the

right way and this time we're going to do it the wrong way with Agent Thunder. Even when you do it the right way, getting out-the-door price from a car It was no easy task. Getting this information was, in many cases, Stu mixes metaphors here. I'll just get, I'll make it right. It's like pulling teeth. That's not mixing metaphors.

It's rare, as rare as hints teeth, because hints don't have teeth. I know, but I actually looked that up, and that was a play on the two metaphors. Okay. Because you can't, you can't do it. Still, our recent exercise show that with a minor investment of time, a prepared consumer can avoid many of the hassles involving slipping around to a bunch of car dealerships and playing the car dealers game on their turf.

In the last two weeks, Agent Lightning was able to get prices from about a dozen dealerships, but physically visited only two. Her total time investment was just a couple of hours, and she was able to get some pretty good deals. And for the most part, she was able to avoid the back and forth and the other nonsense we usually see from our Mr. Chops. But as promised, we're going to keep mixing it up for you. And this week, we went back, returned our car dealer to car dealer advertising, you know the stuff we tell you to ignore all together. We ask Agent Thunder to dust off his shopping shoes and pretend to fall prey to a very familiar sort of ad that are really low payment.

You know, I just, I guess I'm in the business, so I can't really give an opinion on this. but how do people respond to absurdly low payments? I mean, if I saw a sandwich advertised for 29 cents. Yeah, I don't want to eat that sandwich. I wouldn't respond to the ad. Why do people go in on a $99 payment on a new car? I don't know. I don't know.

This type of ad usually involves an eye-catching loan payment, and they're not always clear whether the payment is for a lease or a purchase. loan. You know, when they're trying to lure you on a lease, they'll say, drive this car for only, yeah. That's the key. If they say drive the car, that means you don't owe the car. They can't say buy, so they say drive the car. So that's the lease bait and switch. Always, of course, there's a catch, or multiple catches, low mileage allowances. This particular mystery shop was only 10,000 miles. I've seen them down as low. It's 7,500 miles a year. I mean, if you drive 20,000 miles a year and you buy a car with a 10,000

mile allowance for four years, you can't look at thousands of thousands of dollars, and mileage charges, it happens. Significant percentage of the calls I get after the fact, you know, because my number is everywhere, our text or whatever it may be, is I've only had this lease car for two years, and I've reached my mileage limit. what do I do well you know you park the car you're screwed you know right park the car and you're literally you could probably take a uber or a lift for less money that's going to cost you yeah to have to pay for the over people people are really doing that we deal with that you know frequently yeah always of course

there's a catch or multiple catches there's a low mileage I'll ask we big down payment that's always if you see a lease ad payment There's a big down payment. You just haven't seen it yet. It's in the fine print. Other poorly disclosed charges, rebates available to only a few customers. That ought to be illegal. That happened in this mystery shopping report.

Ashley Moody, maybe we're going to mystery shop Ashley Moody. So when we do that, maybe that will be the theme about what they're doing. Because too many dealers are jumping on that bandwagon. You come in, you want to buy at the advertised price, And they say, well, are you a member of this credit union? No. Do you already own a Chrysler? No.

Are you an active duty in the military? No. Are you a farmer? And are you a member of the, I mean, they come up with these obscure requirements that are program somewhere, and they say, are you able to say yes to all these questions? And nobody can. Ours would be one on a million. Anyway.

But I digress. The ad agent Thunder of Visco this week was from Wallace. Crisley Jeep Dodge, we'll call it Wallace Jeep for this report. And Wallace Jeep is on our recommended dealers. As a matter of fact, all Wallace dealerships are on the recommended dealers with exception of the Chevrolet store. And I have to give the transparency advice that I know Bill Wallace. I won't say we're good friends, but we've known each other for a long long time. long time. I consider him an honest

man, honest dealer, but he's got too many dealerships to watch as closely as he should. His dad has a good name? And I bet you Bill would agree with me on that. Anyway. Earl, you share a name with his dad? Yeah, yeah, that's right. Bill's dad's name was Earl.

My mother worked for Earl Wallace years ago. I digressing again. Wallace, his Jeep's ad was for a 2000 new, 2020 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo. with $180 payment. Now, $189 is a great payment for a big expensive SUV like that

to put in perspective a smaller less expensive vehicle like a Honda CRV leases for $289 with zero-down payment. So it's $100 cheaper than a vehicle that should lease for far less. As discussed earlier, we usually know what the catches are before setting foot in the dealership. We know what we're dealing with. but when it comes to the bait, it's always a switch that's really interesting. Beat and switch. SOP and all car dealerships. Okay, the report speaking as if I were Agent Thunder,

I arrived at Wallace Jeep and Martin County Stewart. Just after lunchtime, the showroom looked a little dated, and the staff gave off an old-school vibe. You ain't seen nothing yet. This is really old-school. Some employees were wearing masks, others were not. This is the first time that we've seen. that happened, everybody jumped on the mask band wagon, apparently, except for Wallace Jeep.

There were large bottles of hand sanitizer on the reception desk, but other than that, there didn't seem to be a noticeable anti-COVID effort. I was approached and readed by a mask wearer, Frank. Frank asked how he could help me. I told him that my wife, lease was expiring, and we're looking to get into a new SUV with a low payment. I said she found their ad for a new grand cheap Cherokee for $189 a month. Perfect, replied Frank. Never blinked. It's a real pro. You know, when they come in there,

I often wonder, you know, what the salespeople think. When they come in a pro, they don't even blink. A newbie would be shaking in his shoes. That's deer in the headlights. And what am I going to say? I mean, I know that's, I can't, at least in my, what am I going to say? I'll ask the manager.

I'll ask the manager. It's got to be scary being a new salesperson with a really mean, and switch ad of the paper, the TV, or online. Anyway, we went to sit down in Frank's office at his desk, and right away Frank is closed that the payment and the ad was for the Laredo trim level, the lowest of 12.

Yeah, there's 12 trim level, and that was the cheapest. And I said, I wasn't surprised, I said, yeah, I know. So that kind of deflated, that was his first attempt to the switch because a lot of people would say, oh, no, I want something a little bit nicer than that. Yeah, I like something like that. See, that's good. Now he can switch. See, the bait, and now you have, let me have something a little nicer. It'll just be a few more dollars. But it doesn't work, because I said, I know. Frank asked me if he could make a copy of my driver's license. I handed it over to him. Waited for 10 minutes before he came back.

I know the testimony to the old school in dealerships that we were visiting now. They take a scan. with your phone. Let me have your license, scan, bam. You move along. Life goes on. The old school tactics, you get the customer to invest their time. The longer you spend there, it's this sunken cost fallacy. I spend all this time already. Why am I going to leave now? Yeah, I'm shopping for a car. I've been shopping for a car. I've been shopping for a car. I'm run out of the patience. I want to buy. I want to buy. And you just, you hold their feet to the fire. You keep it and you keep them. And they say, okay, I can't be shopping for a car the rest of my life. And you sign. And it's old school.

he returned informing that the Grand Cherokee and the ad wasn't available anymore. Oh, oh, but he should be able to find a pretty close match. I like a pretty close. It would be almost the same crash. That sounds good, yeah, as long as it's pretty close. So there's the second,

second switch attempt. We've had two switch attempts. This time, I showed some frustration and said, you're kidding me. And I asked him if he, I asked him if I just got suckered by a bait and switch ad. Frank said, no, if I'd read the disclosure, I would have seen it was for a specific vehicle,

not all vehicles, and that the stock number was listed. Switch attempt number three. But he's telling the truth. It was there in the fine print. Yeah, bam, bam, bam, okay. He went on to say that to get the payment in the end, I'd have to qualify for all the rebate. And this is what I just said that Ashley Moody should really crack down on. They advertised this particular vehicle, factored in multiple,

listen to these now, I'm going to read them to you, multiple qualifications. He said the rebates include a military rebate. Okay, now, what are the odds in South Florida that a guy walking into a dealership is on active duty in the military? If this was in Pensacola, it would be a different case. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so, you know, I took courses in statistics and probability

when I was college and there's a way you could calculate the thing so the odds of somebody coming in in South Florida there'd be active duty military one in five thousand am I being too generous probably I'll ask my daughter that's her favorite class you know okay good so of course not then he says are you a member of the Realtors Association that's my favorite one that's about that's about one and five thousand too and i'm being generous there's more realtors in south florida than there are uh you know current military what about the llama club and i nobody ever mentions the llama club anymore

it's the alpaca and i would have to currently own a jeep now uh jeep has probably got about uh what uh five percent of the market right so that's one and 20 car owners anyway you multiply right it's yeah it doesn't think it too mathematical you keep multiplying the probabilities and it becomes astronomically small. It's one in a, I'm a, I'm a billion. One in a million. Probably. One in a million that anybody walking in that door qualified for all those rebates.

Ashley Moody, are you listening? Okay. It is a rampant deception. It's just not the right thing to do. Anyway. Where am I? Ashley, can you hear me? I got emotionally involved.

we need a song for that a listener write a jingle and maybe they'll get someone's attention I agree to consider another grand Cherokee oh no no okay okay you're currently on a jeep

right he said he felt suckered oh yeah I said I did feel suckered by the ad oh yeah Frank said I had me you haven't been suckered the ad brought me in

and the ad brought you in and you're going to, I'm going to be giving you a good deal. Right. You're going to, what does that mean? Right. You lied to me. And I came in. What he's saying is the ends justify the means.

Yeah, if I hadn't lied to you, you wouldn't have come in, and I couldn't give you this great deal. Right. What are you talking about? Yeah. And, you know, there are people. It makes perfect sense. Yeah. And there are people that say, oh, yeah, I guess you're right.

You wouldn't be able to give me the good deal. Because I'd never come in if you've told me the truth. So you're doing me. a favor. He's so honest. I don't know. He said I'd be happy when it was all over. So I agreed to consider another grand Cherokee. We settled on another little, a radial model. I told Frank

that I still need to be as close to the $189 payment. Otherwise, my wife will be very unhappy. I said I was already anticipating a tough time explaining the qualifications that I missed in the ad. Yeah, I missed. That everybody missed. Franklin responded by asking me

if I was ready to make a deal today, old school, today you're going to buy? You're going to buy the day? Otherwise, don't bother me. Don't waste my time. You got to buy today? I said I would be ready if he could show me something I could take to my wife that

wouldn't get me killed. He laughed, went to see his manager. When he returned, he told me that in order to get to $1.89 a month, without the rebates, I didn't qualify for it. and nobody qualifies for i would need to put nine thousand dollars you know i just had a thought back up we are there it is we need to do it we need to do one mystery shopping report when you say uh yeah i'm a marine active duty right i'm

shipping out the next week right and i'm also and i got to show a house in about two hours let's exactly i got a house and i'm in the military and what was the other one uh i got jeep at home and I'm a farmer I'm a farmer I'm a farmer yeah throw on some other ones I go I get some other qualifications

if you need them I'm an astronaut and do a dead fan do a dead fan just like yeah I am yeah I'm a volunteer you know what's going to happen

he'd go back to the man's goes you're not going to believe this Anthony we found the one we do have fun we laugh but it's really not funny and we cry

Yeah, but people are victimized, and they fall into this trap. Wallace, Jeep, is doing well, they're prospering, and making a lot of money. And that's not the way you should be making money. He laughed, once he said his manager, when he turned telling me that in order to get a okay, we got that, I would need to put $9,000 down. Geez, $9,000. But the good news was I could be somewhere. in the 300s.

Now, after all this, I'm putting $9,000 down, and I'm not even close to the 189 pain. You double it. No, I think he was saying to get the $1,000 and he needs $9,000 down, but good news, he has a deal for him in the 300s. Okay. As we spoke to Benadger, Anthony walked over,

Anthony thanked me. Anthony's a tough guy, by the way. Anthony thanked me for coming in. I said I was disappointed with the ad situation, and I'd like to see a deal. Frank mentioned in writing. So Anthony reached into his pocket, pulled out a business card, and then started writing numbers

on the back of the business card. I stopped him and asked, seriously? He's got his business card. And I'm asking him to put the details down, and he's going to put it on his business card. I guess maybe he writes in fine print. Probably on a business card. Do you have to? That'd be great. Wouldn't it be funny if you had a dealership where everything

was in fine print? And they Yeah, they write out of everything. They sign things and... Everything. Yeah. I stopped him, asking me as serious, as he said he was, and then I asked him if I was serious about taking the vehicle today. See, that's...

He flipped it right around. Are you serious? Hey, are you serious? I said it first, no. I'm here. Yeah. I asked him why that mattered, and why he couldn't just give me the best price in payment.

He must have thought that was hysterical. Anthony said something to the fact, well, if you're not sure you're going to buy the car, I could text you some numbers, but it won't have our name on it. Now, this is, we didn't make this up. This is true. Anthony said something, the effect of it. If you're not sure you're going to buy the car, I could text you some numbers, but I won't have, it won't have our name on it. We don't give out numbers if you're not buying today. We also haven't run your credit.

Okay. I told him I couldn't believe what I'm hearing and asked him again why they were being so difficult about giving me something in writing. Anthony said it was because I could be shopping around and I would use his numbers at prices to work a better deal somewhere else and that is treasonous.

That's how it's supposed to work. You would lie and you would take my good faith price and you would go to my competition and you would actually show him my price and then he would give you a lower price that is treasonous should be punished by a hanging. I think that's anti-American. That's anti-American.

Shopping and comparing a price should be illegal, right? Outlawed. Old school, folks. By the way, I didn't have it in the report. I did just text if you want to. I just sent you what Anthony did text Agent Thunder. And true to his. his word, there is no identifying

information on it. So I don't even understand that. So Agent Thunder went to Napleton Jeep and showed them those numbers. I mean, clearly this came from a car dealer. It wasn't like something he whipped it up on his phone. If it was a salesman, I'd say just so he couldn't be

accused of doing the... But it's the manager. Or maybe he doesn't want the general manager to jump on him. Anyway, I told him I couldn't believe what I was here. and I said again why they were being blah blah blah. I said, okay. I decided to end the shop at this point.

I told Frank and Anthony they seemed to trust their customers. They need to trust their customers more and put their best foot forward. Neither one seemed impressed with my speech. And there you go. Probably the most 20th century backward, old school experience we've had a long time. Bill Wallace, my friend, I hope that you're going to be. I hope you're listening. I know you wouldn't tolerate this,

and there'll probably be some conversation about it at your dealership, and you'll upgrade, and that's the purpose of our Mystery Shopping Report, is to help well-meaning dealers like Bill Wallace, who most of the stores are a recommended list, to bring all the stores on the recommended list. Hard to keep everybody happy when you have a dozen stores, and that's about how many Bill has. Yeah, I have a feeling we're adding another one to the do-not-recommended list,

but we'll let the voting proceed. We have Mark and Palm Beach Gardens with an F. Linda with a big fat F and the masks or the inconsistent use of masks helped her. I'm going to give them an F too. There was nothing good about this.

Massey. Okay. If Rick? I've got Guy Larrabee with an F, a big fat F. Cow go down the trail with an F. Tim Gilliland says sorry, an A is no longer available.

but this D is with $9,000 down. And from me, it's a big old D minus. You're going to face the music folks, but hey. I fail to and Bill, I'm sorry, but I've got to be honest. You've got to get that store

turned around. Absolutely. And let's give some air time to the Attorney General, Ashley Moody. Remember, each state designates an agency. They designate an agency. so that they can protect us from deception and unfair business and fraud and everything in between. Give her a call. Ask for her help to protect us.

Her number 850-414-3300. Stay tuned. Next week, we'll be right back here. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone. You know, Momu'Awe. Thank you.