Earl Stewart on Cars - 09.28.2024 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Essential Ford of Stuart, FL.

Episode Date: September 28, 2024

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning returns to a local Ford dealer to purchase a used RAM 1500 Pickup on their car lot for her son. 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, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. Join us on Zoom during the live show via Meeting ID 926 589 0586. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “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”

Hello, I'm Earl Stewart. I welcome you to Earl Stewart on Cars, a live talk show all about how to buy, lease, maintain, or repair your car without being ripped off by a car dealer. With me in the studio is Nancy Stewart, my wife, co-host, and a strong consumer advocate, especially for our female listeners. We also have Rick Kearney, an expert on how to keep your car running right. I dare you to ask a question that Rick can't answer about the mechanics or electronics of your car. Also with us is my son, Stu Stewart, our link to cyberspace through Facebook, YouTube, text messaging, and our encrypted anonymous feedback service. Stu is also the spymaster director of our mystery shopping report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting the car dealership. And now, on with the show.

Good morning, everybody. Well, we're back again. We're live here in the studio in North Palm Beach, Florida. We're going to be on for a while, two hours. standard time 10 a.m. We're over. We start at 8 a.m., which is right about now, 8 to 10, and we stream. We're all over the place. You can get us on, well, I'll say you can get us on YouTube. YouTube.com forward slash Earl on Cars. We have a huge following there. You can also zoom us, and Nancy Stewart and the co-host here will explain to you the details of this new technology. It's new to us.

Will you be able to zoom us and see us and we see you? Chit chat, you know, face to face. That's a lot of fun. A lot of folks just like to text us and we welcome text. Some of our most intelligent, informative, just entertaining also, communications are text. So write this number down. If you haven't got time to text us now,

Texas later. We'll get to the text before the end of the show. So I say we're on from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Eastern Standard time, and that's a long time. So sometimes we don't get to the text right away, but by the end of the show, we usually do. So that text number, 772-797-6530. 7-7-2-497-6530. I also have an unusual number that regulars know all about are anonymous feedback number. And this is hopefully to get information, comments, criticisms, whatever you wanna say from everybody. Some people don't like to be identified. Some people value their privacy, a lot of people. There's nothing wrong with that.

Privacy is important, very important to a lot of people. So if you just don't want, if you just don't want people bugging you, and you would like be able to make a comment, you can use Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Y-O-U-R, A-N-O-N-Y-M-O-U-S, you know, just like it sounds, your Anonymous Feedback.com.

Write that down, and we can't find you. You can attack us. You can even use profanity and obscenity. I'm not going to read the profanity and the insentity, but I'll allude to it on the anonymous feedback. But, seriously, I know a lot of people just like to comment. 90% of our anonymous feedbacks are not stuff like that. But, you know, car dealers, listen, car salespeople, listen.

Funny story. Nancy and I took delivery of a cyber truck last week, the Tesla cyber truck. And we went to the Tesla dealership in West Palm Beach. I say Tesla dealership, it's owned by Tesla. It's not a regular car dealership. It's owned by the manufacturer. So we went in there to take delivery.

And sure enough, the salesperson, young lady we spoke to, we had mystery shopped. And she said, oh, I know who you are. She said, I was scared to death. She says, oh, I'm so happy you gave me a good report. So we did give them a good report when we mystery shopped them two or three years ago. She's been there for about five years, and she does do a great job. We'll talk about that, by the way. Nancy and I both were in the Tesla dealership and taking delivery of a new cyber truck.

And it's a different experience, totally different than what you would experience when you buy from a normal car dealer. I'm starting to digress and wander now. I'm going to give you the main telephone number that I'm going to introduce, Dei. that main telephone number. This is the heart of the show. The heart of the show is the old-fashioned telephone. I don't care. I know. You got Zoom. I know you got the digital, you got anonymous feedback, but the old telephone. There's something about it. The personality comes through. We have some regular callers that we really love and value, and we also have a lot of new callers that use the old-fashioned telephone. And that number is 877.

960-9960-877-9-9-60-960 and if you please write that number down and I promise you if you just listen a little bit you'll think of a few things that you'd like to comment about and if you're brave enough to be on live radio which is only the only drawback about this number is you're live on the radio first few shows that Nancy and I did 20 years ago we were terrified I mean when you think about thousands and tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of people listening to your every word you say something stupid you're in serious trouble so if you if you get overcome that write this number down 877 960 960 and Nancy will prioritize your call and whatever we're doing Rick Kearney by the way who I didn't mention I mentioned now Rick Kearney is our certified diagnostic Master Technician, he can answer anything on your vehicle, anything.

I mean, if you've got a high-tech truck, you've got an old-fashioned 25-year-old car, you've got something with carburetors, or you've got something with computers. He covers the spectrum. He's been doing what he does, a certified diagnostic master technician, for over 25 years. So he knows it all. If you've got a problem, you want to be diagnosed that you don't want to pay a lot of money for, get a free diagnosis from Rick. And again, that number is 877-9-60-9-69-60, and now I'm turning the microphone over to my co-host, Nancy Stewart,

a very, very strong female advocate, and she will tell you why I say that in just a second. Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. You're an important part of the show, and we truly mean that you make the show. So give us a call toll free at 877-960. And ladies for you this morning, our way of thanking you is offering you $50 for the first two new lady callers.

That's $50 for the first two new lady callers. And you can also text us at 772-4976530. And this morning, if you are joining us, via Zoom and you have a question. Please use the chat function by clicking on the icon at the bottom of your screen, your Zoom screen, so that Jonathan, our producer, can get your name and your location, all that information.

Jonathan will chat with you and let you know when it will be your turn to ask a question. And the first two new Zoom callers, you too can and yourself $100. That zoom number, 926-589-0586. That's 926-586. That's 926-589-0-5-8-6. We have our mystery shopping report to get to, and we also are excited about our dog of the week from Big Dog Branch. Major will be with us. Well, via video, now back to the recovering car dealer. The dog used to be in the studio for you regular listeners. I've been listening for a while, and every now and then we get a very large dart,

and this is a very small studio, and every now and then we get a rambunctious dog, so it was kind of chaotic, and I guess for safety's sake. Large, big tails, big tails and a lot of tripods and wires don't mix. You know, tails are a lot more powerful than you give them credit for. They can knock stuff all over the place. It's my life at home. Coffee table is you can't put anything on there. Yeah.

So anyway, you dog lovers out there, stay tuned because Big Dog Ranch Rescue is the largest no-kill shelter anywhere. I could go on and on and on. I got to be careful because I get so emotional about what a Big Dog Ranch Rescue does for dogs that I get carried away. This is a show about cars, but we do this because it's such a special place, Big Dog Ranch Rescue. And again, the Zoom factor that we have here

is Nancy just covered that. Did you talk about the female callers? I did. Yeah, that's a pretty good deal. We're up to 50-50 now on female callers. I'll tell them again, $50 for the first two new female callers. And no strings attached. No strings attached.

Nancy will personally write your check and send it to you for the first two female callers. And we love to see the lady's perspective on buying cars. Our mystery shopper, the Agent Lightning, by the way, is a woman. And this mystery shopping report coming up that Stu is in charge of, you know, our cyber shopper. And this mystery shopping report coming up, Agent Lightning actually bought a car. We kept talking about this because when you do a mystery shop,

we typically go up to the point of buying the car. But some of the atrocities that occur during buying a car occur in the F&I office, in the financial insurance department. This is where you really get zonk sometimes if you're not careful. So a lot of times we don't get the nitty gritty what happens And what we call the box That's where you think you bought the car You think you've signed everything

You think you're you're just thinking about going home Yeah I think she spent three and a half hours Purchasing It was a long time It was approaching, yeah it was over three It wasn't and that wasn't like bid three Like you know Sometimes you can have a lot of

good time and it could stretch out but not in this case but I might I don't want to spoil anything yeah but it's true it's good that we did this obviously we can't do it every week because we'd be buying a lot of cars and and so but we actually or agent lightning actually bought the car so we'll tell you that much and then then you'll hear more about the what happened and then we vote on the mystery shopping report at the end of the at the end of the reports we've got a lot of other interesting stuff on the show today and I always bring my consumer reports Nancy and I get two consumer reports

we like it so much because we fight over the one issue so we decide to have two and the current report is on safety buying a safe car and I always say buy the car that you want the cars aren't all about practicality buy a car that you enjoy but you can't ignore safety

if there's one thing that I would do if I were a real buyer being a car dealer which I am I'm not a real buyer but if I were a real buyer I would positively check the safest cars and the current consumer reports list the safest

cars and just to give you a little idea of the cars they tested some cars will stop 25 feet sooner than other cars now think about that for a minute.

So 25 feet. Think about railroad tracks. Think about hand-on collisions. I mean, is it amazing to you as it is to me that you can buy a car, a new car that's legitimately the government says it's okay to buy, but the car stops 25 further down the road

than another car. Now, I don't know about you, I'd want my child or my spouse or my friend, whoever is driving the car that I'm buying, I'd want them to be able to stop a little faster than 25 feet other than the car maybe that I should have bought. So if you look at the October Consumer Reports, you'll find something that at least you should, you'll find the cars you should not buy. where are we now on text or anybody got any yeah i can jump over to anne marie's text um i was texting somebody myself um anne marie um has a very topical question and uh point to make she says good morning hurricane helene just dumped and pushed a lot of water all over the place that's to say

the least uh fema says six inches of water will reach the bottom uh six inches of water will reach the will reach the bottom of most passenger cars, causing loss of control and potential stalling. One foot of water will float many vehicles, and two feet of rushing water can sweep most vehicles away. Yes, SUVs and trucks too. The U.S. Geological Survey says that water, one foot deep, typically exerts 500 pounds of lateral force on a vehicle.

If you're caught in rushing water, that will take control of your vehicle. That's where the staff, the National Weather Service, in the weather channel say turn around don't drown and by the way I've seen some videos up in the Carolinas it is apocalyptic

I'm not exaggerating and there's a one of these towns that I've been to it's just filled with dirt there's no roads it's just crazy sorry about that these observations prompt the following questions

about water and vehicles number one and these are all Rick questions number one what's the worst that can happen to the mechanical I know the answer to this what's the worst that can happen to the mechanical and electrical systems of a vehicle if one drives through very deep water and manages not to get swept away.

And then there's only two questions, so remember that one. Number two, what can happen to a parked vehicle that gets inundated by saltwater storm surge? Can that vehicle be saved? And the last one is can saltwater storm surge inundating vehicles caused batteries and EVs and hybrids to catch fire? Okay, well, with the first one, being washed away, the idea of the water actually hitting a vehicle that hard. Imagine your car is now moving 30, 40 miles an hour sideways in that water. You have no brakes, no steering, no control, spinning around whatever, and you impact the side of a bridge or something.

Oh, yeah. Or a tree. I mean, you're... I think she said, what if one drives through very deep water and, man. It's not to get swept away. One of the first things that can easily happen is water gets sucked up into the engine through the air intake. And as we all know, water does not compress. And an engine is basically just a big compressor.

So when that piston is coming up trying to compress it, the air mixture, and now it's full of water, it doesn't compress. And something's got to give. And metal parts break. So your engine's destroyed. and normally, if you get that much damage on most cars, it's totaled. Right. What about if it's inundated with saltwater? Salt water even worse because the saltwater gets into the electrical connectors

immediately starts corroding things, and one of the rule of thumbs that we had with the cars going back to about 95 was if the water touches the bottom of the dash, it has already hit enough computers and electronics that forget about. it's going to the junkyard and a little bit more particular question and by the way Don from LaBelle has a very similar question he said it sent it in yesterday before the show but Amory's last question is can saltwater storm surge and ending vehicles cause the batteries and EVs and hybrids to catch fire I have heard one anecdote already that a car a high Tesla that was parked in a garage where the saltwater got in and flooded the car

As the salt water started going back down, the salt corrosion left in the lithium battery caused it to short circuit, catch fire, and it burned the entire house. Okay. So, yeah, because that corrosion is not actually the water, it's the residue that's left over, all the impurities that can shore to cross the connector. Gotcha. But the general thing is whether it's a hybrid gas powered or anything, do not let your vehicle get inundated with. saltwater, and if you're living up in the Big Bend area, and then the Carolina's in the south, I hope you protected your car. Let me jump in there and remind people also.

The danger is beyond what happens to your car and during these floods and hurricanes. What happens is opportunists out there that will buy these cars up. Yep. And there are a number of states that allow people to what we call wash the title. So you can buy a car that's been totaled, a car that's been in the flood, been in salt water, all these horrible things we were just talking about. You can buy that car for next to nothing, because it's worth nothing, it should be scrapped. Then they take these cars, they wash them up, they detail them, and they take them to a state.

Now, these are the states that allow people to convert the title into a real title as if the car were fine. New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Mississippi, and Washington. So there are six states. Did you repeat those again? Yes, it's New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Mississippi, and Washington. Most of those got hit by Hurricane and Helene. Four of those states had serious impact from Elaine. Boy, that list got just a little longer.

Yeah, I remember it being shorter. It was, definitely. And bear in mind folks also that say you've got, somebody has a car that is off the road for some reason, it's, or they don't bother going through the insurance company because it's just not worth the hassle. Maybe they didn't have insurance on it. And now suddenly that car is full of water,

so they clean it all up, and then they sell it, and suddenly you've got a car that is going to just, be a nightmare. So the important thing to do, remember every time you are considering a used car, have it inspected by an independent mechanic, someone of your choosing, not the seller's choice, and have them inspect that car properly to make sure that they, you know, and ask questions, make sure they know what to look for, to look in various places to see are there any evidence of flood damage. Another thing I'll point out because this show is listening to and watched by people from all over, not just the United States,

but, you know, from other countries. And we're in South Florida here. The studio for this show is in North Palm Beach, Florida. There's a whole lot of exporting going on South Florida out of the port of Miami and Fort Lauderdale. So the wholesalers buy up these flood cars that they can't sell in Florida because Florida does have a good title law.

And if you buy a car with the Florida title you could be confident that the car has not been in a flood or a hurricane or something like that so they take these cars that have been in floods and hurricanes and salt water and the rest of it and they export them so they go down to south america they go anywhere and uh they sell the car as if it was a a good car just like new jersey north carolina tennessee virginia mississippi and washington so that's what you have to be careful of in rick's advice there's one thing you can't Defeat is a good mechanic that knows what he's doing to inspect a car. A good mechanic will be able to tell you, yes, it's safe.

It has not been exposed to salt water, floods, et cetera. And even if you weren't worried about that, you should have a mechanic check your car out anyway. You know, there's one thing you can't deny, and Rick will agree, if you smell some. If there's an odor, there's an odor, bring somebody else in on, you know, your visit. like low tide. Low tide. It's like. Seriously, folks.

By the way, her granny Tesla says, congratulations on the cyber truck. Thank you very much. And Kim appreciates. Life says she is jealous because she would love to get one, but her daughter's yelling at her and says, Mom, it won't fit in the garage. She might be surprised.

Nancy and Earl didn't think it was going to fit in the garage. They took a chance and they ran it in there. It works. Okay, we're having a whole lot of fun here. I'm going to give out the, my interrupting. No, no, no. We have some callers backed up in.

I'm going to mention that Zoom announcement we talked about this morning. If you weren't listening, if you're joining us via Zoom and you have a question, please use the chat function by clicking on the icon at the bottom of your Zoom screen. that Jonathan, our producer, he can get your name and the location and information. Jonathan will chat with you and let you know when it will be your turn to ask the question. And for that, you win yourself the first two Zoom callers. $100, $100. Jot down the Zoom number, 926-589-09-0586. that's 926

589 05886 we are going to go to the phones where we have a few callers and hang in there guys and be patient we're going to take Roadrunner Steve's call first he's a regular from Boyton Beach

good morning everybody I hope all our listeners are safe and well hey Steve hey Steve I hope all our listeners are safe and well Road back, Steve. Two articles. Tesla suggests that if one of its cars becomes submerged, it should be told,

hello, I'm on the phone. We've got you. I'm on the phone. You got me? We got you. Okay, Tesla suggests that if one of its cars does become submerged, it should be towed at least 50 feet away

from the structure or anything combustible until a mechanic can inspect it. That's good advice. Good advice. Okay. Now we're going to go back in time a little. I came across this article in Haggety magazine about old guys that have old cars like me. Yeah.

Gates makes a fuel line hose called Gates Barricade MPI with 225 PSI. It's about the ethanol gas. uh they can the the fuel hose might look good on the outside but in the inside the ethanol is wearing everything away on the inside so that could cause problems going into the fuel pump and into the carburetor with that so are you saying ethanol ethanol gas with ethanol the gases on these on these older cars are causing these problems right but gait has a fuel line that prevents that they have a chemical or something on well you never

know where you can believe oh it's like an additive or something oh it doesn't say but it says if you flex the hose and if you hear cracking the line is bad and should be replaced otherwise if it looks good on the outside the inside

is wearing out you want to have a supple line always yeah right so you got a check for that it's called gates barricade two line. It's level also. Gates Barricade. Yeah, it's

MCI and it has a 225 PSI. Did you try it? Well, the funny thing is, I just changed my fuel line. Oh, you got to wait. How long is that going to be? You have to wait like six years or something. No, I don't know, but I just changed

the one fuel line from the fuel line into the intake on my fuel pump. I couldn't do it. I had to take it to my guy. He did it, and it took him like a half hour. Oh, boy. So I said, I'm going to, I said, the hose is, I'll wait a while to change that fuel line. It's like 12 inches long.

But that's the update on that hole. Hey, well, that's some good information because, I mean, there's a lot of guys, old car guys out there like you. So thanks for putting that out there for them. Yeah, it also says cars from the 1980s and 1990s, because of the rubber and plastic parts and the fuel system. Well, I think like our 1937 Pontiac that we have, that takes leaded fuel, right? You can't put unleaded in it or? Actually, I believe that was when they re-did the engine when we had it restored. They put in hardened valve seats so that it could use unleaded fuel.

However, it's very, very highly recommended. Any old cars, you want to use a fuel called Rec 90, which is a non-ethanol fuel, has no ethanol. I've seen that at the pumps before it's also recommended for marine engines Should we check the fuel line for how you know for cracky sounds on the in the Pontiac? It hasn't been driven as long as that car has been sitting on the line there's a lot it needs Yeah, you and Rick are having a little jitch out here, but it's what what this comes down to is When they first started putting ethanol in fuel it was 10% now they've increased it to 15% and of course we have that E85 fuel available. And folks, if you see a low price on fuel, make sure that it's not E85.

If you put that fuel in a car that's not meant for it, it will, not only will the car not run properly on it, but that ethanol over a short time can damage the fuel pump, the fuel lines and hoses, and the injectors. So it can cost you a lot of money in the future. So always avoid that be very careful which fuel you're putting in your car. All right, thanks, Rick. Thanks, Steve. There you go. Okay. Roadrunner, Steve.

Pointe Beach. Thanks for joining us every weekend. Have a great weekend, Steve. Thanks, Steve. We're going to go to Lantana where Dan has been patiently waiting. Thanks, Dan. Good morning. Good morning.

I have a question on the E-150 F-154 pickup that I have that has an intermittent air conditioning cooling problem and I took it to my mechanic and they put Fri-on in it which only means there's a leak and it's a slow leak been there for about a year yeah and the last two times I went he mentioned that he was out of the 1234 Friant and asked if it'd be okay to put the 134 in and I said he said other customers are dealing with it and they don't have any problems. I was in a hurry the last time to go to North Carolina the next morning, and I said yes. So on the way to North Carolina, I was having problems the whole way up,

the whole way back. It just does it whenever it wants to on the highway, at the red light, or whatever, not for any long periods of time. So I got home, I took it to the dealer that it came from, and they did a two-hour check on it. And what they wrote up on the report was, and the AC system has contamination with 134 and 1234 needs system replaced due to contamination oil due to incorrect FRION being added to the system. Yeah, somebody did you wrong, and they did you wrong badly. There's been many types of refrigerant that's been used in the cars over the years, and I will use the name Fri-on, but it's actually, that's actually a brand name.

Fri-on was originally R-12, and that's on the older cars going back to 19, around 92 to 93 and older, we used R-12. And, of course, it worked phenomenal well. It was incredible. The drawback to it was that when it leaked out, so much R-12 in the atmosphere was eating holes in the ozone layer. So they said, no, you can't use that anymore, and everybody switched to R134. It's R134A actually. And you could not mix the two of them. You could retrofit a system, an R12 system, by totally flushing it out and then changing

certain fittings and then re-installing the R134, but it ran at a higher pressure, so usually it would cause damage after years of use. And the oils that were being used could not be mixed. They would coagulate and destroy the system. Now in the newer cars, they've gone to this YF1234A. And again, you cannot mix that with the old R134A systems. The chemicals are not compatible together. The oil that is used will again start to coagulate and it will plug up the system and destroy

the thing. Why is this stuff on the market, Rick? I mean, if it's illegal, where do you buy it? Well, you can't really get R12 anymore at all. Okay. It's outdated. It's gone. It was the original history.

But the reason I mentioned is because... North Korea ships it all over the world, I'm sure. You couldn't simply mix them. Yeah. It's not like if you go to the store, say you have the oil changed in your car, and you put mobile 0W30 oil in it, and then you have to put some oil in so you go get pens oil, 0W30, as long as the weights of the oil are the same, it's fine. But with refrigerate, you can't mix the two different types of chemical.

It will ruin the system, and it'll cost you a fortune. So, yeah, what years are you forward? 18, 2018. Okay, at 2018, right on the edge, but I'm going to go on a limb and say that it was probably intended to have R134A, and if they put the other chemical in, the YF, 1234, they did you wrong, and unfortunately, you're going to have to have pretty much the entire system's got to be replaced. Well, you should file a complaint, really.

I mean, you can start out with the Consumer Affairs Office or the Better Business Bureau or something like that, but you can also, if you got a friend who's a lawyer, I just write them a letter because they're dead wrong, and they've caused damage to your system. them and they should be held liable. Yeah, they owe you a replacement. Yeah, that's almost like saying we ran out of gasoline, so here's a couple gallons of diesel to get

you down the road. It's not going to work. You can't do that. Yeah, so yeah, they definitely did you wrong. Okay, I'll take part of the responsibility because he explained it to me and I gave him permission to do it, but that's needed here and there.

I'm just calling to make sure the dealer's telling me the right thing. And I went to him and met an AC mechanic after that, and he said he had never heard of that. And he would call me, and he hadn't called me back. So, yeah. Okay. Hey, I just, donovan just corrected me here. He says in 2018 F-150 will most likely have the YF-1234, but if you open the hood of your truck, look around for a yellow sticker, and you might need a flashlight to find it and read it because it's good.

to be small fine print, but it will say on there what type of refrigerant should be in that truck. That'll verify it for sure for you. Okay, I appreciate that. I'm sure it does, but I'll double check. Thanks for the call, Dan. Okay, thank you for the information. It was pretty interesting. Thank you, Dan. Our number is 877-960. You can also text us at 772-4976530. Remember ladies, first two new lady callers you can win yourself $50 this morning and out as far as our zoom number is concerned you too can win yourself $100 the first two new zoom callers and that number is 926-589 0586 that's 926 589 oh 5886 and jonison's right here and he's waiting for your calls.

So take advantage of that number and the fact that you can win yourself $100. Now back to Stu. Okay, I got a text here. Don't have a name. I don't have a name. Earl, you talk about, well, they didn't say Earl. You talk about Costco's auto programs.

I took these photos on two different days and have seen similar every time they change cars. Now, I forgot to send him to Jonathan, but they are pictures of new vehicles, It looks like Toyota's displayed at a Costco warehouse, and he's pointing to the fact that the Monroney labels are buried on one car, and the other one is neatly attached to the driver's side rear window. Costco doesn't sell cars just range discounts?

Correct. Can you comment on the show today? And I can. The Costco Auto Program asked the dealers that participate to display new vehicles at the Costco warehouses as eye candy or just for the display for the Costco Auto Program, and they asked the dealers to rotate the cars out. Unless Josh surprised me, ever since the inventory crash and the need to have every car we have to sell,

we have declined to display cars, and I believe we are still not displaying cars at Costco. But what you're seeing is evidence of what we talk about on the show a lot is that in the course of test driving and all that people at most dealerships that we see and our mystery shops the Minroni labels

which are required by law to be on the car until taken off by the actual purchaser is usually taken off and it's on the front seat or the back seat or the glove compartment and sometimes they're laminated and left there

explanation for that maybe they're demos but the point of the matter is that evidence is also seen here at Costco But I think technically, legally, the law says that a dealer must display the MSRP. Yes. Costco is not a dealer. But it has the cars.

You're right. I don't think anybody is going to get you there because it's not on the – I bet you that's a thing. But what I think is, like, when that car goes back to the dealership, no one's putting that monorone label back up. It's just going to – it'll be there and it's there. The Costco program is just the best of the best. The only problem with the Costco program, because there's a lot of people. are new or listening to the show now is that it's complicated and you have to follow the rules

Costco members auto buying club or whatever you want to call it if you're a Costco member and you and you want to buy a car through the Costco program you got to follow the rules you have to go online you have to find the car dealers that are approved by Costco then you have to learn the people in the dealership that are approved by Costco to sell you the car the salespeople, and then you have to look at the Costco invoice, which is the agreement between the dealer and Costco of the price they will sell you the car for. If you do all those things, you will buy a car, a new car from Costco for less than you can buy the car from anywhere else. It's the best program. Problem is people just go into a car dealership and say,

I'm a Costco member. Are you approved to sell me a car? And, of course, the salesman lies and says, oh, sure, and that's okay, they get screwed. And then, but you've got to follow the rules if you're going to buy a Costco. Just real simple. All you have to do is when you sign up, you have to read all of the terms of the agreement. Yeah. Before you hit agree. No, I'm just kidding.

You know, it's amazing. And folks, give us a call. Do you think the Costco buying program has gotten a little more complicated? Do you mind following all the rules? Number here is 877960. 9060. We'd love to hear from you. If you're a little bashful, you can take advantage of your anonymousfeedback.com. Your anonymous feedback.com. Again, our number is 877-960. And I know I'm bogging you down with all these numbers, but I've got to give you the Zoom number also. And

the Zoom number, that's how you can chat with Jonathan. He's waiting to hear from you, and that number is 926-589-0586. Okay, I want to go back to... Yeah, I got one more. Yeah, I got one more from Jonathan over up in Palm Coast. City Kia in Orlando advertises on your station, our station here. Okay. Have you had an opportunity to do a mystery shopping report from this dealership?

They might be as pure as the wind-driven snow. but their commercials lead me to believe that their deals are too good to be true. I'm sorry, Jonathan, we're forbidden by the station. No, I'm just kidding. Well, that raises an interesting, ethical question. We love this station, and I flashed back to our earlier station called Cview Radio when we first started. And your regular listeners know what I'm going to say now, but after a few years of talking about car dealers,

the car dealers in South Florida boycotted C-Vue Radio and said, if you don't get rid of Nancy and Earl Stewart, we're never going to advertise on your show again. So we were off the air for over a year until a new owner came in and bought the C-Vue Radio. And the new owner, before we even agreed to be on the show again, We had to say, now, beware that you're not going to have a lot of car dealers who's going to advertise on the station because we tell it like it is.

And he said, no problem. So they have a lot of courage. Would we go after CityCab because we mystery shopped them and they're advertising on the station? I guess we would. But I feel kind of bad about it. I wonder if just the fact that there is a built-in, conflict of interest that maybe it wouldn't be the most credible report in the world. I mean, we have no connection to anybody else, but here we have, there is definitely a disclosure

that we are kind of like, I don't think it's a good idea. Well, not to scratch your head about that. No, I'm not saying we wouldn't mystery shop them. I think we probably should think about it. I think we definitely should think about it. I think I'm all caught up with. all this and I even checked your anonymous feedback responses and we don't have any oh boo-hoo I know okay Rick what do you have for us right now we're actually a little caught up

because uh well let's talk about buying the cyber truck because we got stew here now and we had an interesting thing uh Nancy and I bought a cyber truck at the key at the dealership I keep calling dealership is owned by Tesla on Okeechobee Boulevard in West Palm Beach Florida and And we've had that cyber truck on order for over a year, and we were so excited. And Stu came over because he had to see the cyber truck, and we all were excited about this really cool Statlin's deal. He was kind enough. He was brave enough. It was quite an event.

Let's just be specific on one thing. You didn't buy a cyber truck. You bought a cyber beast. That's true. Because Earl got the beast. Not the little one, that big one. But here, the interesting thing. Thanks, Rick.

The interesting thing is that we were all surprised because we had shopped Tesla before, and we gave them a good score. I can't remember the details. But they weren't unethical or anything like that, and there was no bait and switch, there was no normal things, but it was a little sloppy. And we, first of all, we were told to pay for everything and provide. the insurance online and it was literally impossible I'm fairly sophisticated in terms of online stuff and I even had the controller at my car dealership try to work the insurance and try to work the transfer of the funds their online would not accept payment and it would not accept insurance and then you called upon me I was

really impressed but that we we became even more frustrated it was just complicated Then they told us that we should be there to take the liver at 1 o'clock, and I got to notice that don't be early. Don't be that. Now, isn't that unusual that you would think a person wants to buy a new vehicle, and you tell them, don't be early? No, it's like a monsoon. So we got to early anyway. It's like a monsoon, and we wanted to leave early so that we could get there alive. Well, how busy was the store?

Not when. I mean, were there a lot of people in there? No. No. No, they were delivering cars, but there were not more people. I saw cars like going in and out of the dealership coming from the back. I think maybe those were service cars getting delivered. We had to wait for quite a while.

And a salesperson, after what, half an hour, 1.30 or we'd been waiting a long time and brought the cyber truck around. And that was an excitement. I mean, we were really, we're happy. I'm not trying to say we were actually trying to about it. Here's a cool part was it made me feel like we were behind the curve

in the way they did the delivery paperwork. So there was no box. We were standing out in the showroom, a big glass area, and he walked out and asked Earl to open his Tesla app where he had already added the cyber truck and it was really neat.

The cyber truck was in a status that hadn't been delivered to him. him but it was kind of like there and he began this process and then it's kind of like well I don't know if this is good or bad you know something we tell people to read people don't but in the finance office but you basically it's like getting an app you Earl's just agreeing to I agree I agree I agree to all the terms and then I'm not exaggerating in 30 seconds the delivery was done right and I he handed them a the certified check which because we couldn't do the online thing before and the insurance binder but we were done

And then he goes, all right, you want to take the truck now? And we walk out, and it was very fast. And Nancy, what did you notice? You said something when we're looking at the truck over. You said something about the hubcaps. Yeah. Oh, the hubcaps. And what?

It was all rusty. All the humpcaps were all rusty. There were no upcaps either. Before we even get to that, we had just taken ownership of the cyber, quote unquote, from Rick, the cyber beast. I didn't feel any excitement. Any fluff, any... No love.

And love. There you go. And you said it. It was a very dry... The sales... You know, and I took... What did you say? 30 seconds.

30 seconds. I would say... You know how doctors have a bedside manner? Yeah. Well, see, car dealerships, traditional car dealerships, have spent, you know, 100 years trying to be the schmoozyest, the whole thing as a show. And Tesla is kind of like getting a burrito at three natives. You know, you get it on the app on the phone and you press pay.

I don't even think I could take it that far. It could be taco. Well, I don't want to mention any vendors. Well, hold on a second. There's more. You started talking about the rust on the hubcaps that you caught, and then you contacted Tesla about it. Yeah, and there was a couple of different.

They said, we don't have any hubcaps. We'll supply those later We'll send them to you So in a few weeks or a few months For a few years I don't know when they get the hubcaps They're going to send up to me I like the fact that I said to them

What is the most Asked question When someone comes in And they're getting ready to drive away In the cyber beast He said It's what's the deal with those rusty hubcaps No I'm kidding

In case you want to call the show by the way, so you hear about our cyber truck. 877-960-99-60. That's 877-9-60-9-9-60. Nancy will stop what she's doing, stop what we're doing, and take their call immediately. Rick? Donovan wants to know, how do you compare driving the cyber truck

to your Model S? Oh, it's apples and oranges. Well, yeah. I'll hear you. I'm glad Donovan mentioned that. I guess Donovan knew this. I should have asked Donovan before we bought it. I thought that the full self-driving, the autonomous feature, was available in the cyber truck. And I found out it wasn't because it's classified as an off-road vehicle.

And it'll even float. It'll run through three or four feet of water. So a lot of nuts will take these cyber trucks and drive them to the swamps and the woods. And the plot of course. And the autonomous won't work in this. swamp so it's the new amphica car oh my god and this is uh i i hope donovan is this is listening this is the one i just don't get um one of my favorite features and whether i'm driving a toyota or i'm drawing the tespa or anything is the safety features for example the proximity indicator

how many of you pull into your garage and you don't want to run into the to the wall at the into your garage and you get a beep, beep, and then you have either a visual or a audio indicator of how close you are to the wall. No such thing on the cyber truck. Really? Yeah, and so I pull into the garage and I got 11 people there go,

oh, a little further, a little further, a little further. And wherever I park, the cyber truck is flat in front, so if you hit something, you hit it. There's no bumper. Is this your head? Hey, Stu, you think that it was an event leaving Tesla on Okotobie Boulevard and getting to North Lake Boulevard?

It was an event. You should have come home with us. Get the tape measure. Measure letting in. Pull the car out. Put the beast in. That's one for the books. Donovan says the full self-drive

and the proximity alert will be coming with the updates at the end of October. I love you, Dawn. I think you guys should exchange personal numbers right now. And just text Donovan whenever you ever question. Yeah, exactly. And one of my questions, when do we turn the autonomous on?

And then I thought to myself, well, we, because it was a monsoon, the cameras weren't going to be working. Oh, yeah. Because it's, the view is deteriorated. Right. So you were all manual. So were you driving manually? Yes. Yeah.

We're going to have a contest between Google, chat, GBT, and Donovan. Yeah. And my money's on Donovan. Well, we're not even sure. We've never met Donovan. Donovan might be an AI. He might be, yeah. He could be a computer bot. It's possible. One other thing I want to add to the cyber truck delivery, to our listeners, was Hurricane Helene was just grazing us at the time. So it was heading up to, and really had some damage. But we got feeder bands. And a big fat feeder band came over right when you got the truck, literally right when you sat in and ready to leave. Nancy got locked out in the ring. finally made it back in the car and I followed them most of the way home and it was

coming in sideways like a fire hose I couldn't believe it. It was one of the worst, I couldn't see anything and it was challenging. The eight cameras weren't working on the plowed and as far as your cameras what do you have, what's on that Rick? Is that six cameras

on the beast? Yeah, that's Donovan. Donovan. How many cameras are on the cyber beast, Donovan? Oh, Kim appreciates life, says, Rusty Hubcaps, that's crazy. She's, I know a lot of Tesla Cybertruck owners and Tesla investors on X.

I'll have to ask them if it happened to them. Yeah. And they're not available. They'll ship them, but they have them available. Okay. Well, looks like they have three front-facing cameras, two side cameras, that's five, one rear-view camera, that's six, and one cabin camera.

Oh, one short. One short. One short. Yeah. So, Rick, what is the difference? CyberTruck, Cyber Beast. Cyberbeast has the bigger battery and is faster. Faster acceleration and faster vehicle.

Uh-huh. Oh, and... I hit the accelerator. I was going pretty fast. But it just doesn't have that draw, that impact that the plaid has, that just plays havoc with your neck. And it's the position of the, and the comfort of the seats and the headrest in the cyberbeast, for sure. Okay. I think Marty just texted me, so he's waiting on hold.

Marty went around the system. Hey, I'm talking. Hey, Marty, I apologize. I got carried away. How are you doing today? Good. How are you? Oh, thank you for waiting.

Seriously. I apologize. That's all right. That's all right. Listen, I have a perfect way to get car dealers to do what they advertised. First of all, Palm Beach Toyota is advertising on TV for $99 a month

for a Corolla, with a lot of underneath, you know, what the Attorney General should do is make them sell it for the $99 a month. I like that. And I guarantee you the advertising will change very fast.

Right. Well, you bring that up, Marty. I'm glad you did because Nancy and I were talking on the way into the show. There's absolutely no indication that Ashley Moody even made the comments about enforcing a law on September 1st.

We've heard nothing. And I'm even talking to my friend Jeff Winsire at WPLG and Channel 10. I think they shut him up too. They exposed a lot of the crap that was going on that caused Ashley Moody

to claim that they started forcing the law. In September. 20-year-old law on September 1st. We've heard nothing about it. I smell a rat. The last mystery shopping report, I believe, included an advantage package of a bunch of that same stuff

added to the car sale. It was the... I'm sure they could figure out a way to sell that car at $99 a month once they get the proper loan set up at 130 months. I mean that 130 payments That violates the law

Or $10,000 down Yeah Well that's in there I mean that's what's in that fine print That you can't read Yeah But I mean to me All the advertising that goes on in Florida

Is ridiculous Without a doubt I want someone's hand to get slapped real hard And let's and then see what I think I think about maybe I should do this I have these fantasies about running a full-page ad in the, what's the name of the newspaper in Tallahassee? Tallahassee Democrat.

Tallahassee Democrat. And attention to Ashley Moody. You know, call Ashley Moody a liar on the full page ad. Come down to Palm Beach County, come down to Broward and Dade. And then you're going to have some, it's like shooting fish in a barrel. I mean, what's that? We just have to go head to head face to face with Ashley. and say, why did you say this?

I was only talking about Tallahassee dealers. It's really ridiculous, because now I've noticed you don't do any TV ads anymore. We do on digital TV right now, but we're not doing any cable or broadcast. Yeah, well, you're too honest. Well, no, we could go on there. It's just there's really, it's a whole different topic. I don't want to bore you. Yeah. All right. Well, I think Ashley Moody should make the card deal and sell it.

I agree. Make them do it, but they can't use any of the disclaimers. Yeah, right. Yeah. We need to play fire with fire. Thanks for your comment, Marty. All right. Have a good weekend. Thank you. Thanks, Marty. Do the same. Give us a call if you'd like to join us on our Zoom telephone number. You know, maybe it's this, I mean, getting a print out of that, doing a screenshot and mailing those and maybe certified to the Attorney General and to say, what's the deal with it?

Agent Lightning actually bought the car, this mystery shopping report, so maybe what we should do is have her file a complaint. Yeah, it would be. Yeah, I mean, they added this recon, well, spoiler alert, sorry. We have a mystery shot report coming up in about 35, 40 minutes, so I'm not going to give it away. Hey, Donovan says the cyber truck has nine cameras as a total, and the Cyber Beast, the reason it's the beast, the upgrade is that it has three motors as well versus just the normal two or one for the cyber truck. Like the planet has three motors. Yep. And he says it's zero to, Johnny Z. Freidly was asking, Was it 0 to 60 and 2.9?

Donovan says, no, it's 2.6. But he says also, you have to switch the truck into beast mode. Apparently there's some setting that you change that puts it into beast mode, and that will give you the power. I got to get the owner's manual on. That's why your neck didn't crack. Right. Owners manual. And Mark H says,

Earl, just go old school, hang a tennis ball from the rafters, and when your windshield touches the ball, stop. I bought one. There you go. It will be here today coming by Amazon. We've been talking about that for 19 years. Yeah. 19. Ladies and gentlemen, 877-960-99-60, give us a call.

We're having a real good time. Text us, if you'd like. You'll need the text number when we do the... Mystery Shopper Report. That's 772-4976530. And there's got to be somebody out there in a Zoom Club. I do have some intel that came, and I can't reveal the source. But somebody used to work with the GM for City Kia, who's advertising on the station,

is an old partner GM from Napleton. So it's from the Napleton family of... And he says he's pretty sure he rents it like an old school dealership. So like we said, we're going to think about whether or not we're going to shop them or not. We'll talk about it. I sure hate to be throwing off the radio show for another year. I know. We have to balance, you know, there's good and bad.

Yeah, we're doing so well. We're going to go to, excuse me, Stu, we're going to go back to the phones. We're going to talk to Henry, who's calling us from Jupiter. Hi, Henry. Good morning. everybody you're talking about the cyber truck yeah yes I understand the

attributes could be impressive one practically practicality wise I don't know that I need a beast but let's talk about the looks the looks of this thing now

that's something you know I look at a cobra a Ford cobra and I go that's a hot car or I look at an old 69 Camaro and you know it does something to me. But I look at this cyber truck and I go for free, what I want one. So that's just another

man's opinion. Now it's either hate it or you love it. Now think about this and Rick Kearney put me onto this and I'm seriously thinking about will Nancy and I'll do this with our cyber truck. You can put a mirror finish on that stainless steel. You can polish that stainless steel to the point well it will actually like a mirror and that to me would be startling and uh sure would

to your fellow drivers remember the sylons from Battlestar Galactica yes that's what it would look like so that is something you know you have a lot of options you know the cyber truck

the cyber beasts you know they're both pretty unique and you know Henry it just looks it depends on what you're looking for you know and what is going to satisfy that need that you have

yeah right No, no, that's why there's so many manufacturers, because everybody has a different taste. But, yeah, I'm one guy that would vote. No, thank you. Only on the looks, based on the look, along. Well, thanks very much, Andrea. We're having fun with it.

But if they don't get that proximity indicator pretty soon, we might have to go head-to-head. But Donovan says it'll be available of the software update in October. Yeah, I can really say, Henry, that the inside of that beast is really comfort, and I look for comfort a lot, and I don't really have it in the plaid unless I am behind the yoke. It really gives me the support that I need, but the beast is very, very comfortable. And, you know, it took me a while to warm up. I just looked at it, and maybe a little like you, and said, hmm, really?

And, you know, I did see a review where somebody went through the entire clock. Something about the rear mirror. What's up with that? Oh, the rear view of mirror is a joke. What is up? Yeah, I think if the back is closed, you can't see out the back. Yeah, there is actually, but there's a camera. There's a camera that functions as a rearview mirror.

And if you're driving a car that's close to autonomous, which the cyber truck hopefully will be soon, But the cameras are, your side view mirror, your rear view mirror are really obsolete. The cameras are the name of the game. You get a much better picture, and it's much safer by looking at your cameras and looking at your mirrors. Yeah. It took me a while to break the habit of boosting myself up and trying to look through the rear view mirror. And then finally, when I broke the habit, it was pretty comfortable eye view, both you know the upper and the lower screen have you looked at it at night did you use the mirror at night

because on my truck i used that camera mirror at night i have to turn it off during the day i can use it i haven't done it really we haven't been out at night that's interesting you said you had to turn the screen off right if it's a cloudy rainy day and you're looking through the camera and for the rear view mirror. It doesn't work like it should because everything is not as defined, and it's the same at night with my rear view camera. But during the day, when it's sunny out, I turn that on, and you get a wider parameter of view.

Well, thanks for that input. We'll be careful. Yeah, there's a lot to learn. Yeah. All right, well, have a good day. Thanks, Henry. have a great weekend our number here is our on zoom number here is 926 589 0586 did you jot that down 926 589 0586 we'd love to chat with you we have someone on

zoom correct jonathan yes i don't have his name or his Okay, if you're on Zoom, can you hear me? Scratch your head if you can hear me. Can you hear, this is Nancy Stewart or on Cars. Can you hear me? He has his mute on. Scratch your head if you can hear me. He has his mute on.

He needs to take his mute on. Well, let's move along to something else here. I, you folks that are regular listeners, we talked last week about the chairman of Stalantis. Now, for you that don't follow automotive closely, Stalantis is, oh, we have a, I saw a zoomer. Yeah, there's a Zimmer. Okay, he's gone. Hey, good morning and welcome.

Is this the first time that you've called? Oh, boy. He zoomed away. Zoomed away. He zoomed out. As I was saying, we talked about the chairman, Elkan, of Stalantis, and that's Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, as a Pujo, Fiat, It's actually one of the largest total worldwide there.

They're one of the largest automotive manufacturers. But anyway, he was targeted at $84 million seizure over tax fraud. And I just, this is just to be a curiosity because there's also Carlos G-H-O-S-N. Now, Carlos G-G-O-S-N was the previous chairman of Stalantis, Chrysley Jeep Dodge. I mean, five years ago, they're the largest manufacturer in the world. Now, he's hiding in Lebanon right now. He might have to find a new hiding place. He's wanted by France.

He's wanted France. He's wanted in Italy. Japan. Where? And Japan. And Japan. Right. Oh, he was in jail in Japan.

Right. And Carlos Gohn. And then the thing that just cracks me up, he hid in a trunk. Somehow he got from the Japanese jail into a trunk And they shipped him to Lebanon Yeah, that's cargo And now he's in Lebanon And he's still free

Right Maybe Israel might cooperate with France And send IDF to get him He elicite Siphoned millions of dollars from carmakers And guess what he did with that money he bought a 121 foot pleasure cruiser he's got five bathrooms wow five bathrooms on his yacht he can't use it though I mean but I doesn't I mean am I the only one that wonders how

someone could ride it's like to some with that character um that could get that high yeah with poor character like that yeah to rise and then and then two in a row because you go from from gone to Elkan and they're both groups There must be some sort of a, the interview process, and Stalantis needs to be revised. Or it could be, you know, personality over substance, and he just bullshaded his way all the way up to the top. Rick? Donovan says the UAW is actually about to vote to strike at Stalantus plants in the U.S. And Stalantus is looking for a new CEO when the current one's contract expires in 2006.

Yeah, they're in trouble. They're also pausing production at several plants. for both Jeep and RAM here because they have such a massive inventory that is just not selling. They've got to stop in the machine. Yeah, they raise the prices of the jeeps to the sky because they were so hot. It was a year ago we were talking about why people are buying somebody jeeps. And they kept raising the prices now. They stopped by and they saw signs of it.

We had a mystery shop report. They were giving them away. Remember every time they'd say, oh, we got four of these. We got five of these. Exactly. Not too long ago. Okay, we have a Zoom caller. So with that said, we are going to go to Don, who's joining us on Zoom. I think you might call him a regular. Right, Jonathan? Actually, go ahead, Don. You're on. Is that you, Don? You're frozen on the screen right now for some reason. He is becoming an irregular.

Yeah. Hi, Don. You can hear me. I can hear you. Can you hear me? Yeah, wow. Thanks for joining us. Okay, so I guess I'm an irregular.

I listen to you guys in the car driving, and so it's kind of hard to zoom or talk. Oh, you're zooming in the car. Wow. Well, right now I'm McDonald's, So I go out every Saturday and I end up at McDonald's for breakfast and I listen to you guys. But I'm the gentleman who, two things, who was in Spain for six weeks and you guys sent me $100 because we couldn't communicate. And then I just sent you the thing about Costco on the text.

Right, okay. Yeah, we talked about that. Yeah, so we're sort of up to date. Actually, I was going to, hold on. see if I can find this on my, on my phone here. I had, I buy car, well, I'm a Mercedes guy, okay? And for the last three or four cars, I've special ordered them. So when they come in, there's no junk added on like running boards or extra lights or

or whatever it is. But where they get me is in the leasing. And if I can find my lease, I can ask you, uh, documents, here we go. Thank you. So they tack on fees like, I think it was like $250. And here, I got it open.

Okay, so a title fee. Now, my title was changed. It wasn't changed. It was the plates were switched from one car to the new car, and I lease. So, and they charged me 250 bucks. which seems way out of whack. Well, Don, one way you could check that

is to see if they charge any sales tax on that $250. The true test of a junk fee, a phony fee, is sales tax. If there's no tax paid to the state on the vehicle, then that fee is a legitimate government fee because you don't charge tax on a government fee. So you can double check them on that. Okay. What would you think of Florida fee of $6650 is?

and a tag agency fee of $199 is. The tag agency fee is not legitimate. That is something that they pay a private company to do the paperwork for them. So they pay them just like you pay a salesman's commission.

It's just an expense to the dealership but it is not a government fee. So that's a phony right there. They hit you with a junk fee. It's actually illegal in Florida because of the law, the Florida law, that you cannot sell a car and quote a price on anything that is not included in the Althodore price advertised or quoted.

How much was that, Don, was that a Florida fee? Florida fee was $1.99. Oh, Florida fee, I'm sorry, it was $66.50. I don't know. It sounds like some dealers calculate dock stamps for some reason, even on cash deals, and they added in there as a junk fee? Well, for the reason is they're cheating because as a doc fee is legally,

the definition of a dock fee is something you have to pay a financial institution and that's a legal term. And it's a Mercedes lease. It's not an outside lease. Well, there is, Florida doesn't, there is no fee in the state of Florida that's labeled,

well, there's no legitimate fee in the state of Florida that's labeled a Florida fee. And if it was legitimate, it would have to be. called the same thing at every dealership. So if that dealership has a Florida fee, well, they just invented something brand new. That's what I thought.

I mean, I'm going to, the finance guy, I've had him twice in a row, and I'm never going to go back to the same guy again. He's just a weasel. On radio, I suppose I could sell him something else. But the salesman I've dealt with for since two thousand two or three something like that and i like him he's a good guy he lies to me he says he only makes a hundred dollars on a car which i know isn't true which i know isn't true

but he's a good guy and uh he orders the cars i want and uh we get along real well and what having the service people they're pretty good too for this dealership yeah but my other question was if i buy a car okay i bought it special ordered it's him in and if they'd if i don't want that car they'll just put it into their inventory and sell it there's no big deal sure but if i if i go can i go go to a toyota dealer and and say what would you lease this car for or somebody else or another dealer and then come back and say here's my leasing um and i want that car if i if you follow me so you're saying taking the uh mean what is the a quote that you have it on. Is it on a Toyota?

No, no, no. It's on a Mercedes. Oh, that's right, that's right. No, another dealership wouldn't have access to unless you had every, you know, all the terms like the money factor and the residual, everything

lined up. Another dealership could plug that in, you know, into their little program and tell you what would come up. But I could shop leasing at another Mercedes dealer. Yeah, that's the But that's, as a matter of fact, that's, it's a little, it can be time consuming, but if you can get multiple lease quotes from, you know, there's not a Mercedes dealership on every corner, but there are several in South Florida that you could email, go to their website and try and get a quote on the same vehicle. That's the way to do it.

I mean, all these guys can look up my car, well, no, my car, because I haven't walked out the door with it. No, but they can still lease on, they can build the car, so to speak. in other words they know the MSRP the make model and everything yeah it's interesting okay well i i appreciate the information in about a year and a half i'll turn this one in and get another one another thought is i don't know if this applies to Mercedes i just know that generally right now the leasing programs are are pretty weak right now there's not a lot of incentives in general you might find that at a jeep you might be able to able to lease a Jeep pretty cheaply, but I don't think a Mercedes is going to have a great

program, nor would, you know, Toytas don't either. And every time they have an incentive, it's not the car. Right, it's the one that they can't sell. It's not the one you want. Exactly. Hey, Don. I like this one. It has, it's not as autonomous as the Tesla's, but it's pretty darn good.

Is it the electric one? no it's gas okay it's gas I wish it was gas diesel well it's it's gas they have an electric one and then there is a big I think I don't know the Mercedes qualified but there's a EV tax credits that would be about applied to the lease

man there's a lot of stuff looking to Don yeah but I was talking about I went to Fort Lauderdale I dropped my daughter off in the rain not yesterday day before I mean it was torrential yeah and I had the autonomous on follow

the car in front of you, et cetera. And it worked. And as Nancy said, if the cameras go black, it won't work. But it swore through the rain, and it was pretty sunny. It picks up the white lines and does a good job and keeps a distance from the car. I think it's kind of cool how car manufacturers are kind of slowly introducing autonomous kind of under the radar. The cars are doing a little bit more and more. Each year it gets better.

Don. I've had it three years. You know, I want to thank you for bringing some excitement to the show and encouraging others to give us a call. We have some Zoom callers waiting right now. So, again, thank you so much for your contact. Try a fish sandwich. McDonald's fish sandwiches are really good.

Oh, fly a fish? That's my favorite. I get one every Saturday afternoon. You do? I do. There you go. I've been doing this for more years than I'm alive almost, but thank you for taking my call. I'll talk to you again.

Thank you. We do have a Zoom caller, and his name is Dick. And I'm not sure whether Dick can hear me or not. Yes, for you. Oh, yeah. Oh, great. Welcome. Yeah, I hear you.

Welcome. We're excited to talk to you, Dick. What's going on today? I've been an occasional caller in the past, and I was one of your maybe the first Zoom caller back when you're having echo problems. Oh, yeah. Thanks to the $100. Exciting times. Yeah.

And I can do you all through that agony. And this morning, you spurred me because you got your cyber truck, and I had one on order, and I think he may have mine. Uh-oh. It's possible. Let me tell you why. They called me last week And said your truck will be here on the 26 And you got to come at 1 o'clock

Or something like that Sounds just like girls I couldn't be there So I couldn't have to be negotiated with them I had it delayed a month So if yours is a beast And the gray interior with the road wheels I think that might be in the one I don't get

Uh huh Wow They're pretty loosey goosey What color did you order? I ordered the gray interior there's a new option on them I think you guys have black

I'm not sure that's why Earl went 15 minutes early he knew he'd get there before you and he'd grab the truck no mine's been delayed until the last week in October timing's everything I thought it was quite a coincidence so when you

when you first got the notification had you gotten anything else because I know that Earl and Nancy have been waiting checking over a year yeah but there was no indication that out of the blue it's like boom one o'clock be there on Wednesday go I reserved more than a year ago okay oh really wow they called me up and said if you'd like early rather than waiting I said yes so I ordered I ordered the beast and all that uh-huh hey dick what colors have you seen on the road and and what's where's the location there's a lot of wraps on the all kind of colors

especially if you go on YouTube and look at someone at Tesla. Yeah. But I hope you all enjoy it. I'm looking forward to mine. Well, you'll love it. It's a lot of fun. I have a Model S also, which I've had. You guys are Twensies?

Yeah. And I'm sure there will be updates every week because there's something new to learn every time you get in it. Exactly. On the auto drive, it's working great. It gets better all the time. and I use it all the time and encourage others to use it. Have you heard anything on when the full self-driving update might be released?

Is there rumors out there? Yeah, the rumors are October. Really? It's not a rumor. It's a fact. Donovan speaks facts. I'm so happy for you right now. I'm very happy for you because I was, when I heard him say that, I didn't react, but I know how you felt the moment. You're like, damn, I thought I was getting some FSD on the way home.

Oh, we've got to stop talking about Tesla so much. This is going to be, we'll have to change the name of the show. I'll get off. I just wanted to touch the face with you and tell you I'm an S-owner and a 2B cyber truck owner. And I have a girlfriend named Julie, and she loved it. She's called in before. All right. Thank you very much.

How nice. That's awesome. That's great. Hey, thanks for joining us, Dick. And the other thing, I'm a retired engineer. I'm 87 years old. I'm not young chicken, but I love the cars. Eighty-seven years old?

Wow. Yeah. Awesome. You sound like you're 45. Well, I'll try. I'm hot rod and around. That's pretty neat. Anyway, take care.

All right, thanks for calling. Thanks, Dick. Give us a call again. All right, Will. Nice talking to these guys. I'll call you when I get my truck. Yeah, there you go. I'm sure we'll have a lot of stories.

Well, that's really cool. We've had two successful, very interesting, technically perfect Zoom callers. We need to celebrate. All right. Yay, Jonathan. I have water. Hey, Jonathan. There you go.

And on a day we were reminded of the beginning of Zoom, and can I hear you? Can you hear me? Dawn took us down memory lane. That's right. Okay. I think that we're going to go ahead and go to, I'd like to spend a little extra time on that mystery shopper report. That's for sure, you know. So we're going to go to Big Dog Ranch.

where everyone is going to watch a video of Major. And Major is just so cute, a year old. And they call Major a dynamic canine, a dynamic canine companion. And you want to take a look at the video that we have to share with you. And also, for the dog of the week, we pay the fees adoption fees for you and we put a whole lot into this and make it you know available for you to adopt a dog and right now there are so many dogs they're so overloaded

with dogs that they really need your help so excuse me take a look at major who they say is just about a year old and is a mixed breed. Mixed breed. He's so cute. Okay, let's go with the video. Hi, I'm the I work at Big Dog Ranch. This year is major. He's been at the ranch for about a year. He knows all his basic commands. He loves to go on walks. He loves to cuddle. He loves to go in the pool. And he is a little bit dog selective, but nothing that proper introduction can't fix. interesting okay so how old in in my records it shows a year old then further done I like the way he mentioned young adult they see between one and three folks here's something real important as I said earlier we pay the adoption fees that is a huge

help for you and it's two hundred dollars and also you can go out to big dog ranch dot org and you can fill out an application because they do a background check and fill that out and that'll save some time once you finally get out there and meet major also with earl's book confessions of a recovering car dealer you can go to wwwsbook.com and you can purchase earl's book for $19.95 and guess where that goes All proceeds. It goes to Big Dog Ranch. We try to help out as much out there as we possibly can.

So go to bigdog ranch.org. You can take a look at all of the dogs that they have up for adoption, and it's even more of a thrill. It's starting to get a little cooler kind of weather-wise. Spent a little more time out there, yeah. And you can go ahead out there, and you can take a look at my picture. favorite place, puppy land. And just looking at a picture

of Major here, he has got such a cute face. He's got sad puppy eyes, and he posed for his picture on the website here because it's a take-me-home face. He knows. The other thing I want to say is, like, you know, all the

dogs, if you adopt from Big Dog Ranch Rescue, you get it. The dog is microchipped, so if you lose the dog, it is found, it can find you. and they're all fixed, paid and neutered before you get them, and every health issue is taken care of before you get them.

It's not like getting a dog from a shelter in the old days. In old days, you go to the pound, and you'd pick up a dog, and every problem that comes with it. So this is a better way to get a dog. Yeah, it's been to quarantine for a week or two before they even let them. You're not going to have issues. You're not going to have a dog that, I mean,

I remember we had a tragedy. It was a cat, but when we were we adopted a cat when I was young and it had a disease and we found out and it was it was heartbreaking for the kids and you don't have that risk with big dog ranch rescue and Major Major needs at home I'm just looking at them and I'm getting tempted so I'm going to close this picture and hope our listeners adopt them so go ahead out there and take a look at Major and all of the other dogs out there and Major's favorite pastime snuggling he just loves to snuggle so you're going to have a whole lot of fun out there

with big dog ranch dot org okay we are going to go ahead with a mystery shopper report we went back to essential ford in Stewart if you remember correctly we were out there last week and we haven't done that before yeah well it's because uh agent lightning decides you want to really buy a car. And we've been talking about this. We've been talking too long. If you really, really want to get everything that can happen to you when you go into a car dealership, you've got to go to the finance process. And the very clever, sneaky car dealers, they could give you a pretty much clean-looking kind of a presentation until you get into the box. And the box is the finance department. And when you get in there, that's where they really,

pull out the screws and they really can nail you bad. But to get into the finance department on the mystery shop, you've got to buy the car. I mean, you can't just go in there. I suppose you could run and say, I changed my mind the last minute. But we've been talking about this

and so finally we were able to do it because Agent Lightning really, really decides she wanted to buy a car for her son. And this is what happened. So this is real. Now, I might as well say this on the air. Nancy and I were talking about this coming in.

This constitutes a legitimate purchase. And so, therefore, she has a right under floral law to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office. And if there, I won't give away the mystery shopping report, which you'll hear in just a few couple minutes here. But if, in fact, there are violations, then Ashley Moody, the Attorney General, would be obligated

to honor her word that she would prosecute. So if, I'm just saying if, agent might have decided to file the complaint, maybe that would be interesting to everybody to see what happened. That's a great idea. Yeah. So this is Central Ford and Stewart Florida.

Did we find out last week? I was gonna say, in case you didn't jot that number done, folks, you can vote on the mystery shopping report at 772-497-67-653. zero. You were saying? Did we say last week that we found out John Stalupi was a silent owner of the

Central Ford? And a lot of people don't know who John Stalupy is, but we know because we go way back when John was a local car dealer. He had the toilet dealership on military trail many, many years ago. He has multiple dealerships up in New York.

His son has dealerships in the Las Vegas area, but the Stalupi Auto Group is a large group, and oftentimes the individuals don't put their names on dealerships, and you have to dig sometimes to find out who the real owner is. So essential for it, we believe, is owned by John Stalupi. I just thought I'd throw that out there for what it's worth. Now, I'm speaking in the first person, if I were Agent Lightning. My son had been looking for a used truck for several months.

Finally, my husband found a 2018 Dodge Ram 2x4 with 97,000 miles online at a central Ford in Stewart, Florida. Folks from out of the area, Stewart is my name, but it's also the name of the city, about 20 miles to the north of us, maybe 30, and it's on the southeast coast of Florida. We have to be in the area today and stop by around 3.30 in the afternoon in hopes of seeing it before we let us. son, though, and get his hopes up too high. I walked in by myself, noticed right away three salesmen and a woman wearing a name tag that said, Anna, sitting in a row near the front doors. I walked straight over to Anna, said hi, and showed her their ad, Central Ford's ad, on my smartphone.

I explained that it was the truck I was hoping to see, and Anna excused herself to go find the keys, and saying she really hoped it was. still there for us. A few minutes later, she returned saying she found the keys and would pull it around for me to see. My husband who had been waiting in the car jumped out and looked and we looked it over before calling our son. So this is real, folks. This is real. It's really happening. Agent Lightning is really going through this process to buy this car. So it's kind of cool. You remember how excited you were when you were 16 or 17 years old if you were fortunate enough to have a car at that age.

I mean, you talk about excitement. You got a call from your mom saying, I think we found the truck for you. Better than a girlfriend. I mean, you know, get your first car. They last longer. Yeah. According to what was advertised...

Cars what got me, my girlfriend. According to what was advertised on their website, the truck had just arrived, and the price was $13,988. So, Ashley Moody, Attorney General, the state of Florida, are you listening? Pay attention. Would it be funny if she was, but anybody know, Ashley Moody,

we're doing a mystery shopping report. Just text her. And the advertised price, advertised price, is $13,988. And I think the Florida law says when you advertise a new car, in fact, Florida law for 20 years has said that. When you advertise a car, you've got to sell it at the advertised price. So anyway, I'm digressing a little bit here, but we're going to work on that. While we were waiting for my son, I asked Anna if she could start the process and give me a price.

She agreed and went to speak with her sales manager, Austin. My son arrived just as he was talking to Austin, so I mentioned to her that I'd like to get the keys. As my son was here now, and it was about 420 in the afternoon. she handed me the keys and she said she'd be right out. My son looked it over, popped the hood and said he really liked it and thought it was a good price. However, he decided to let me handle the negotiation part since, as he put it, that's what I'm best at.

Now, listen to this carefully, this whole report, because remember, she's doing a mystery shopping report, but by the same token, she's really buying a car for her son. how exciting your first car, emotion folks, emotions are taken over. Even though she's a professional mystery shopper, Agent Lightning is being encompassed with emotion. Their son, forget about it, he's already encompassed. He's in a state of euphoria. And when people are like that, they do stupid things.

And you can take advantage of it. So this is real. this is really happening really buying a car so we headed inside to talk numbers oh let me skip the paragraph my son looked it over

popped the hood yeah my son looked it over popped the hood so he even liked it and thought it was a good price I'm sorry you read that I apologize okay apology accepted so we headed inside to talk to the numbers

my husband followed saying he was just going to watch me in action but he wasn't going to allow the monthly payment to exceed $330 to $350.50. I was also planning to trade in my 2008 Dodge Challenger to save a little on taxes and reduce my insurance costs. I'd already given them all that information and they appraised that they gave us $1,000 for the 2008 Dodge Challenger.

Ada bought over the first set of numbers first. The top line was the advertised price of $13,977. Ashley Moody, are you listening? This is the advertised price, $13,97. That's what you're supposed to sell the car for. Okay? Then they added $1,595 for recon. $1,595 added to the advertised price.

By the way, that's about, you know, triple. with the advertised recon. Average recond is maybe $5 or $600, and you'll find out later this isn't really recon conditioning is what we're using the abbreviation for. Then they added to the $1,5.1595 recon $80090, $890 a dock fee. That's a flat lie. Dock fee has a legal definition.

And those are doc stamps, documentary stamps, paid to the state on a financed car. This car hasn't even been financed yet or established that it will be financed. And so they charge something that's not really a dock fee and they added it to the advertised price. And by the way, when you see doc stamps in a car deal, it appears on the contract and it's in the payment.

It's not a line item thing on your buyer's order. It's not even being subtle. Now there's also $99, $1,000, electronic. filing fee, another junk fee. So, wham-b-bam, we got three of them now in a row, and $54 and $60.60 in dock stamps.

So they doubled down on the dock stamps. They got the doc fee, and then they got the dock stamps. Anyway, they're almost $3,000 in add-ons. Yeah, yeah. $2,700, to be exact. The payment they proposed

was $415 per month for 60 months. Oh, here's an important part. The title, tag title registration was not included in the other price. That's another. Tag title registration was not included. That's the only thing that should be included and you can include government fees, but they didn't include it. They included the junk fees instead. The payment they proposed was $450 per month for 60 months. Now that's a lot of months for an old car. And that's a lot of months to be financing a use car of that age. I told her that wouldn't work and she asked me where I

wanted to be. I said I wanted to be much closer to the $14,000 they were asking online advertising out the door. My husband chimed in that the monthly payment shouldn't exceed $350 which made me mad because he said he wasn't going to speak. I bet so that made Nancy mad too because she doesn't like it when there's conflicts there between spouses, which made me bad a cut. I told the monthly payment wasn't as important as the final price and I didn't like the offer at all.

On a call for Austin to come over, my husband's a numbers guy, he's a numbers guy. He estimated that a reasonable interest rate of 11 to 13% for a used car, that is, I guess for an old car, that is reasonable today. and financing $15,000 would bring us to about $350 a month. Doable for him. He was getting frustrated.

This is real life that are really buying the car. I repeat myself, I know. My husband walked away but soon returned and sternly told Austin that he knows interest rates are high, but with our son's mid-600 credit score, he expects the rate to be lower, not a monthly payment of $415.15. That's a lot of money per month for a 16-year-old kid.

for anybody. We explained to our son that you date the rate, I like that, you date the rate, not marry it, meaning you could either pay it sooner or refinanced later with no penalty. Anna was oppressed and how we were teaching our son while still negotiating a good monthly payment. She mentioned that she'd only been working there a few weeks and had only sold one other car. Meanwhile, we were helping our son get insurance through his Geico app, making sure the coverage wouldn't be too high. Anna agreed it was a great idea since they needed proof of insurance before we can leave with the truck. Unfortunately, the app timed out, so we had to start all over again. Earlier, Anna had gone over the charges, and I asked what recon was.

She explained that it covered window tent. Now, well, this is out of being brand new or being, you know, naïve. I don't know, probably brand new. She's planned to cover window tent, wheel locks, and paint protection. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, but which they put on all their vehicles. I asked if these, I asked if these were already on the trucks that said it just arrived. She said she believed so, but would double check.

Again, we give her a pass. She's only been there three weeks. When I asked about the dealer fee, she explained that it's how she gets paid since she works on commission. Now, again, is this naivety, stupidity, or deception? That's what she was told. I don't know, yeah. What she was told, exactly. And that's right.

A lot of times, salespeople, they don't want them to know anything. The more they know, some dealers will tell you, the more a salesman knows, the worst. salesman is they just have to go and like a robot you program them tell the customer this tell the customer that and if you got a robot then you can really take advantage to the customer so it sounds like this is kind of what's going on that's why new salespeople if they pick that up they usually not usually but can sometimes become a superstar if they just start doing doing what their the boss tells them to say and then they start thinking well then they get worse because they start thinking about what they're saying and they start learning how the deal

really is and then they stopped doing it yeah exactly also I had a new worksheet this time the recount was 595 not 1,5195 again who knows naivety stupidity or you know deception the manager explained that the recon fee cover the process used vehicles go through to ensure that's is the proper definition use vehicles go through to ensure there's nothing majorly with them average recount fee is about 500 bucks he said they had offered the recone they had lowered the recone fee and increased our trade-in offer to help offset the interest rate smoke and mirrors folks smoke and mirrors by this

point it was after 530 p.m. and we were still waiting to speak with finance the box so they've been over two hours already yeah Brian the finance manager had been walking back and forth between his office to the sales manager's area, probably thinking dinner's getting cold at home, mentioning that he was almost ready for us. He said he needed proof of insurance, which we had sent to Anna at 5.56 p.m. My husband left to go home. I stayed with our son.

I was getting agitated at Brian still wasn't ready, F&I guy. He eventually came out and said my husband needed to sign off on the sale gift of the Dodge. I asked why, since my other son's name is on the title. Brian said he would need to come in, but I explained that my other son works out of state and travels a lot. Brian said, no worries. They could FedEx the paperwork, 2M. I suggested scanning and emailing it,

but Brian insisted on FedEx. Which is true. That is accurate. That is accurate. First accurate thing in the past three pages, I think. You've got to sign the title itself. he also asked for a picture of my other son's photo ID and proof of insurance from the Dodge

which I immediately sent to Anna there weren't any other customers in the building except a few people in for parts the salesman even mentioned how slow Fridays typically are I was getting angry and looking at the Dan was saying would you mind checking with Brian because this is taking forever if you don't I will and it won't be pretty

she agreed and both she and the salesman said they weren't sure why was taking so long. At 6.24 p.m., it is getting late. Brian finally said he was ready for us. They explained that the payment would be $373.98, including New Place Gap insurance. Boy, they slip that in there, gap, and registration through December 2025. Once in his office, we just wanted to be done and leave. I mean, this is reality. They're buying the car. They're really buying the car.

We were both angry and tired. After we finished, Anna was nowhere to be found, so I texted her at 642. She might be home. Where are you? She didn't respond, but one of the salesmen said she was likely getting the truck. She pulled up around 7 p.m.

and we started transferring my son's work tools and other items into the truck. I opened the pasture door and said, I thought this was big detail and filled with gas. Anna replied that she had cleaned it herself And that used cars only get $20 worth of gas That's not a lot of gas No

Not a full tank Not on a truck Now we're near a full tank I wasn't impressed with a cleaning job But at that point I just wanted to leave I know I'm repeating myself But they're really buying the car

I mean I'm a little surprised that Agent Lightning because she's you know I'm saying the same thing why did she put up with this she put up with this

because it was for her son it was so important to him she's really buying the car and you too but can I also tell you about Agent Lightning she knows what's going on so when they

when she sees that 1398 she knows better than anybody else that she does She's not going to wind up there, but she knows where, so she wouldn't start on a $15,000 truck if she wanted to be there. That's how they're pricing it is because she knows what the deal is. But what it happened to her family and her, she rolled over. I mean, it's just, it's sad. She did what she had to do.

Yeah. You know? Yeah. Did what she had to do. Well, she did what she felt. Well, she felt she had to do. And that's why car dealers could take advantage of you, folks. don't care how smart you are how educated i don't care when you go into a new car dealership

a motion usually overtakes uh practicality and logic and this is what happens we finally finished up and i texted my husband at 7 10 p.m how many hours is that now it's been uh four hours hours three and a half almost four hours uh and there we are text by us 710 saying we're on our way home and we're going to stop at the gas station She had a lot of patience over that period of time. And you know what, ladies and gentlemen, does this number sound familiar to you? 866, 866, 966, 7226, Attorney General Ashley Moody. Is this, you know, ridiculous, all these junk fees, all of this just, it's not necessary.

It totally isn't necessary. And Attorney General, Ashley Moody, you could really get the ball rolling, you know. Let's fight fire with fire. So, ladies and gentlemen, let your voice be heard. Give Ashley Moody a call. That number is 866-966-7-226. And thanks, Jonathan, for putting that up on the screen. Okay, back to the recovering card.

Well, we've got to have the votes. You know, this is a special report. If you just tuned in, we actually bought the car. Agent Lightning, our undercover agent, actually bought the car for her son. And we talked earlier in the show about the possibility. I can only ask Agent Lightning if she would agree to do this. But she could file a complaint with the Attorney General, Ashley Moody,

because she was lied to. She was deceived. The advertised price was not the price she bought the car for. and so she has legitimate legal claim and Ashley Moody has gone on record saying as September 1st of this year, 2004, she was going to enforce the law that's been on the books in Florida for 20 years.

So it would be a perfect opportunity to take her to task for this if Agent Lighting would agree to file a formal complaint. Yeah, and Marie has a suggestion. She says, FYI filing a complaint with a government agency makes it a public record. If Agent Lightning files a complaint with Ashley Moody, it might make Agent Lightning's real identity public

under Florida Public Records Law. I just want to throw that out. Well, it's a good point. Yeah, she's, the funny thing is she is on the records of a lot of car dealerships that she goes back in second and third time and they haven't caught her yet. Yeah, that's, it'd be a motivated card dealer

could do that, but maybe most of them. probably don't. Maybe Ashley Moody would send her name out to all the car dealers say, be careful of this woman. Right. She's going to shop itself. Anyway, Amory says the lengthy delay, going back to the mystery shoppering report, the lengthy

delay sounds like a kidnapping. Deal sounds like a grand theft auto. Forget Ashley Moody. Call the sheriff. And Henry gives him an F. You know, it's kind of hard because in the face of the new expectations that we've had. I'm really disappointed.

It doesn't sound like a, you know, on the curve, much worse than any other car dealership that we, you know, it's kind of... We're getting ourselves whipped into a frenzy here, so we don't want to... I'm going to be realistic here. We got so emotional. We don't want to fail somebody

just because we got emotional because... Yeah, I want to... I mean, just for the shop, I'll give them a C-minus. And, but for... having, for the grade for having a sense of self-preservation, an F, because at least, you know, they said you don't want to be the one doing it, just back off. Maybe she's really not going to crack down, but why would you be so soon in the month of September doing this?

But C-minus. Okay. I'm over here on YouTube. We've got T-Cash says F-F-F, 430 times 60 months, double the already inflated price. We're going down here. We have Mark Smith says I give this dealership a big D minus. Johnny Fradley says, F, for file that complaint with Ashley Moody.

Cram 1624 says F. I'm surprised a smart lady like this gave in. File that report. Brian said Latco, junk fees. Gets an F for me. Kim appreciates life says F for fraudulent behavior and for myself I don't like the recon being added on

after the advertised price because I know for a fact that when you're inspecting a used car every single one is different and going to get different things whether it's oil change filters tires brakes windshield wipers whatever so that number is always going to be different therefore that needs to be in the actual actual price of the car because you can't say it's like the tax or the the a document fee

or something so I'm saying D minus because the price should be the total cost of that car I agree I agree Nancy okay do we have any other votes that we need to let me refresh my screen discuss No, it stands the same. C minus, what are you giving? D minus. D minus. And I give them an F.

Oof. I would expect nothing less. There you go. I'll go with the D minus. I think that's, you know, it's, part of my score is the fact that I was disappointed in Agent Lightning. But you can't, you can't take it out on the. dealer. I know. You give Agent Lightning a...

Yeah. Give her a... Yeah. I just... I just... But I... But I, she made a point that we couldn't make any other way that a motion can

take control of anyone. Exactly. It's not... No matter how prepared you are, you go in there and like whether they... Some of the plans, like the best plans or whatever, best laid plans and it comes apart when you're in the thick of it. You go through a, you go

through an emotional kind of a thing where I'm not going to make my son who this is one of the most important moments of his life I'm not going to turn it into a screaming match I'm not I'm not going to walk out of here I'd rather I'd rather be taken advantage of than hurt my son right and I think the child I'm sorry I don't he's not a child young man I know he is a responsible young man and he's got a job and all that but as a youth he's sitting there he's going just come on just buy the truck

just sign it mom just sign and you know yeah exactly yeah she's a good mother okay so but she rolled over because she loves her son a lot you're being tough on agent lightning

how often do you think that happens a lot okay we need some laws on the book books and guess what folks we need them enforced give attorney general a call please 866 966 7226

let your voice be heard ladies and gentlemen I want to thank you for joining us this morning we certainly had a great time with all of you we enjoyed our Zoom callers our regular callers everybody involved

you can see us right back here next week, 8 a.m. Earl Stewart on Cars. Have a great weekend, everyone, and thank you.