Earl Stewart on Cars - 10.05.2019 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Pompano Ford

Episode Date: October 5, 2019

Earl answers various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Agent Thunder visits Pompano Ford in Fort Lauderdale to shop for a F-150 pickup using the Costco Auto Buying Program. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, his tweets at www.twitter.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

Good morning. I'm Earl Stewart. I welcome you to Earl Stewart on Cars, a live talk show all about how to buy, lease, maintain, or repair your car without being ripped off by a car dealer. With me in the studio is Nancy Stewart, my wife, a co-host, and a strong consumer advocate, especially for our female business. We also have Rick Kearney and 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 LinkedIn site. through Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Periscope. Stu is also the Spymaster Director of our Mystery Shopping Report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting South Florida dealership. And now, on with the show.

Good morning. We're here, folks. We're here. Good morning, everybody. I almost missed it. I was chit-sham with the crew here. My name is Earl. I'm a recovering car dealer, and I didn't even hear my own introduction. My apologies. Great day for all of us here in the studio. I hope it's a great day for you folks too. We really truly love this, getting together once a week for two hours, Saturday mornings, and talking about helping you avoid being ripped off by your car dealer when you're buying or leasing a car.

Also, when you're maintaining a repairing a car. and I'm hearing a little background noise there I'm not really sure what it is can you hear it? I think I hear the air conditioning that's about all you see AAC going yeah anyway I hope I'm coming through a loud and clear the show is unique on the air on the radio and for that matter TV I guess digitally also

it's a little unusual to have candid actual in some cases almost real-life disclosures of an industry that has been corrupt for many, many years. The auto retail industry has been corrupt for many, many years. And by many, many, I'm talking, gosh, since the early part of the 20th century. I'm hearing music in my earphones. Doesn't bother me as long as it's not going out over the air. so somebody might want to take a look

and see if everything is okay I've got a control board here I'm not sure what it is but the point is that if you have a friend who has interest in buying or maintaining or leasing a car then maybe you should tell them

to tune in right here on Truelties we do this as I say every Saturday for two hours it's a live radio talk show we love to have you call in and that's one of the most important things about the show is listening to you your comments we have multiple ways to contact it's back in the day and we've been doing the show for about 15 years it was just a call in and we didn't even have a text and we added a text

the call in by the way is 877 960 9960 I suggest you write that down because you probably don't have anything to say now, or you may, if you do call us, but you will later on, if you listen to us, 877-960-99-60, or you can text us as 772, that's here we go, 772-497-6530. You might want to write this one down, too. Text is often preferred. I think we're getting more text now than we are audio calls, and that's area code 772-497-3530. And believe it or not, we're live and in color. I'm looking at a camera right here with my ugly face, looking back at me, and we're streaming. Streaming digitally.

I mean, for old guys like me, that's a magical thing. But we are streaming all over the Earth. And for that matter, I suppose, into interplanetary space. We're streaming all over the place. Facebook.com forward slash Erl on Cars. Facebook.com forward slash Erlong Cars. And we're on Periscope. and we're on Twitter, and we're on YouTube.

I mean, we're everywhere. We have calls from all over the globe. We've had calls from Far Away's Bali. Have we had, what else? I know we've had Canada. I almost want to say Australia, but I can't say it. I started to say Australia. I think maybe we did.

Anyway, worldwide, because people buy cars all over the world, right? And that's why we're here. The highlight of the show, and I hesitate to say that, because a lot of the calls and suggestions you make are sometimes the highlight of the show. But we do a mystery shopping report. Very exciting, daring. I mean, I'll pat myself on the back. I'm daring.

I believe strongly that if you're truthful and transparent in your life, you're bulletproof. And I hope that's true because I'm being overly truthful and transparent. Some people say by naming names, instances, places in our mystery shopping. report. We send a secret undercover agent pretending to buy or release a car every week into some South Florida dealership. They'll go in there under a pretense of an advertisement. This week we did a Costco auto buying program shop. Sometimes we go in and try to buy a car that we know has a dangerous recall and we see if they disclose it, agree to sell it. So we have a lot of reasons we go. We visit some dealerships

more than once, and we reach out as far as Miami, as far north as, gosh, we've gone to northern Florida. But we typically specialize or focus on South Florida. South Florida auto dealers are kind of like the Wild Wild West.

The further south you go, Broward County, Dade County, it really gets dangerous down there. Dade County's like Dodge City. They need Matt Dillon down there, and maybe I am the Matt Dillon, but I don't want to get carried away. What we do when we go into the dealership is

tell you exactly what happens. We tell you if the dealership is breaking the law, violating the statutes, the Florida statutes, for example, on dealer fee disclosure, patent switch advertising. We tell it all. We name the name of the salesperson,

the name of the sales manager, and above all, the name of the dealership. And if you say a company is breaking the law and the company is not breaking the law, then you are legally toast. They could come after me personally, and hopefully not the radio station.

I think they have a disclosure saying that they disassociated from... The opinions are all... Anything I represent us. So, that kind of tells the story of what we do, and please call 877-9-60-99-60. That's 877-9-60-9-9-60, or text us as 7-7.

772-497-6-5-3-0. That's 772-497-65-30. And I almost forgot this last week, AnonymousFeedback.com. I'm sorry, Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Y-O-U-R Anonymous, A-N-O-N-Y, M-U-U-S, Feedback. You're-N-Spelled Feedback.com. W-W-W-W-NonymousFeedback.com. What makes this unique

is that we don't know where it came from. So if you're a car dealer or a car salesman, if you are just a car buyer, or whatever your status, and you'd like to say something that we will read on the air as long as it's, you know, no profanity or vulgarity,

you know what I'm talking about. But if it's a car thing about buying, maintaining, repairing, whatever it is about a car, and you just don't want anybody to know who you are, that's okay. I mean, we have a law. A lot of talk about whistleblowers now.

There's a whistleblower law because our government feels it's important that if you have something that you want to say about your company, you should be protected. So we're protecting you, what you might want to say about a car dealer. www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com.

This company that puts this anonymous feedback makes it available. It's called Incognito. and they are hosting anonymous feedbacks for a lot of blue chip companies all over the United States. It is absolutely reliable. Your anonymity

why I must fell on that one. Your anonymity is protected. For sure. We know that. I'm going to go around the room now. We're in the studio together. And to my left is Nancy Stewart, my co-host, and partner and co. She's a ladies advocate on the show.

So, Nancy, tell us how the ladies can contact us and why that's so important. The ladies can contact us this morning at 877-960, and you will win yourself $50. The first two new lady callers, you find that you will win $50 this morning. And Mr. Recovering Car Dealer, I have to commend you, your energy is contagious. And it's felt not just in the studio, but our listeners, our callers and your passion to help so many people in this industry that are being taken advantage of. Ladies and gentlemen, youranonymousfeedback.com. I can't stress it enough.

Take advantage of it. Your anonymousfeedback.com. We have so much to get to. But first, we are going to talk to Tina, who is a regular caller and filled with a lot of information. Good morning, Tina. Good morning, everybody. How are y'all doing? Good morning.

Well, let's talk about Tesla again. That smart summon feature, it's a fail. There's been a few YouTube videos that have been posted with people that have tried to smart some on their cars out of a parking lot, and it's almost such a fail. It's funny. There was a gentleman that was standing in front of a big box store. He had his car parked. He could have easily walked to it within maybe a minute. and he decides to enable the smart summon feature.

The thing backed up and started up forward again about four times. Then it finally got into the main area, the two lanes, and it backed up again and then almost left without him. It took him probably about at least five or six minutes to get his car to stop in the correct spot. And if he had not have even used the smart summon feature, He probably could have walked to his car in less than a minute. So, yeah, this thing's not working, and it's already caused a few little tender bender accidents. It's just, you know, for a smart car, this feature is not very smart.

Insert, the, oh, what's the name of that game? Show the Price is Right, failed music right here. Great example. Yeah, wot, wah, wah. I like the sound effects. Great information, Tina. I think technology is moving, in some cases, too fast. I think a lot of people are just trying to come up with something to sound good

and get attention and get people to be aware of their product. But to be the first on the block with some of this technology is asking for trouble. Well, you would think they would test it a little bit first And make sure it works before you bring it out and get egg all over your face. Sure. Well, you get a lot of press, and then you pray, I guess. The operative word, test. Well, thank you.

Well, the operative thing is that this autonomous car or semi-autonomous car thing is not ready for prime time just yet. No, no. There's still a lot that needs to be done. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And I think that people are afraid of it. And there are a lot of industries out there that are going to be really shaken up. Truckers, you look at Uber and Lyft and the normal transit companies, everything that moves with a human in it,

whether you're talking to train, a truck, or a car, is thinking about, you know, I'm not going to have to find a job. I mean, right now there's a shortage of truckers because I think some people are just leaving the trucking business. Maybe you're saying, I don't want to be a trucker, because, you know, 10 years from now, there won't be any truckers. It'll be all computers. The good news is, and you hear this all the time,

that the increased technology actually provides more jobs in the long run than the people that lose their jobs. But those that do lose their jobs, try telling it to them. They're out, you know, on unemployment, looking for jobs. So it's a scary thing, the whole autonomous car thing. Oh, and speaking of jobs, I'm glad you brought that up. I was reading a few articles this weekend, as I always love to read, about the auto repair industry, that there is a great need for auto repair technicians because the baby boomers are starting to age out a little bit from being auto repair technicians.

And even my generation, Generation X, we're starting to kind of get up there a little bit. And people, like, I'm in my 50s, and a lot of, especially men and some women in their 50s that have been working on cars, 20, 25 years, they're ready just to be at the service desk or to take a managerial position. So anybody out there that's looking for a solid career that there is going to be a need for and the pay is getting to be a lot more competitive, consider being an auto technician because you're not going to have a problem finding a job. I remember a few weeks ago I had to get one of my tires repaired, so I went to the local tire at a place that has the warranty on my tire.

and I remember the manager of the shop saying, oh, you know, I'm sorry, but we're not going to be able to get to you for three days. All I have is one technician working at my shop. I was flabbergasted. Yeah, it's a great opportunity for young people and for you people out there listening. I have a living example of a technician that started out, I'll say at the dark ages, because he really, he was doing this during the years of the car. carburetor and the coil in the, you know, all the stuff that's not on the car anymore, right? I can still set points.

Yeah. And I know how to use a Dwell meter. So today it's all computers, and we call them an auto computer scientist, and that's not a joke. It's a fact. And people today that like a career as an auto technician, be prepared. I mean, you really will have to do a whole lot more schooling than Rick had to do when he started. Rick got his experience, correct me if I'm wrong, with your father fixing engines and cars and working on things,

just doing it and learning. Yeah. That was my beginning, playing with lawnmower engines and old cars. Almost self-taught. And suddenly you find half the time you're in front of your computer, taking a computer course or going away to school somewhere and staying up on top of the technology. Well, let's not mischaracterize Rick.

He was in my AP physics class in 12th grade. So he already has a pretty strong science background. I forget about that. Yeah, he was ready for that. Was he a smart kid in school? He's very smart, yeah. If someone is a good skilled mechanic, and if they're honest,

especially if they're honest, they can pretty much write their own ticket. So those are rare people, and my hat goes off to them because a good honest mechanic, they're worth their weight in platinum. You better believe that, I'll tell you, and they're hard to find.

Yeah, you said an awful. on, hang on to them, and use them because you need them. You need a second opinion. I get calls all the time from people on Facebook and Twitter and email and text on the rest of it. And they get in trouble under the repair and they say, I'm looking at a $2,000 repair. What do I do? First word out of my mouth, second opinion, just like surgery. You go to the doctor, he says, I want to operate.

What do you do? You get a second opinion. And the same thing is true. So if you can find an honest mechanic, boy, that is what. That's worth us weight in platinum, as you said. Definitely. Well, Tina, thanks very much for the call. We really appreciate it.

Your inspiration for the women listeners. And in fact, you're an inspiration for all the listeners because you're one of the most knowledgeable people. I know you're well-read. You stay on top of it. You're the only caller I know that reads the automotive news. So you cover the whole spectrum. Yeah, and Tina, thank you for opening the show as you do,

almost every single Saturday, and you encourage the women that are listening to give us a call, and we appreciate you. Y'all are giving me the feels this morning. Ladies, I can't do this by myself. The $50, if you call the first time, this is a thing, and I promise you, we don't bite. Please call. Thank you, Tina. Awesome.

Thank you. Thank you, Tina. I'll tell you what, Rick, you could write a book. What an amazing journey in your field. what you've seen, what's going on today, and what you have to look forward to tomorrow. 877960, 9960, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. And I think according to Stu's facial expression, he is covered up with texts. I'll have some texts, but I wanted to make just a quick announcement.

We are right now having some troubles with our software that we used to stream live video to Facebook and Twitter and YouTube and Periscope and all that. So bear with us. We're working to get it fixed. In the meantime, to stream the show, just the audio, just go to stream earloncars.com. www. www. You can listen to the show, and we should have it up in a few minutes.

The only problem with technology is it breaks a lot. And every day of my life, I sometimes yearn for the old days when you have the little black phone and the party line and didn't even have a TV set. But life is so much more convenient and interesting. Yeah. You know, I read an article. I think Coca-Cola is doing a promotion. They're paying a woman $100,000 if she can go an entire year without using a smartphone, hers or anybody else's. So she's a little flip phone. And she's, I think, several months into it. And she says it's changed her life for the better. So the better, yeah, I might think about that. Okay. Let's talk to Nancy about the offer. Tina alluded to it, but we have a special cash offer to lure and incentivize. lady callers. We do. And as we do every Saturday, we want to encourage you to give us a call. Ladies, first two new lady callers. You can win yourself $50 this morning. Share some knowledge with us. Give us a call just to say hello. 877960. Or you can text us at 772-49760. Now back to Stu.

Yeah, Stu's got a text over there. Well, I got a few, but I want to talk about what I do. Right. Nothing this morning because our streams down. I'm just kidding. Typically, along with Rick, too. And by the way, none of this happens without Jonathan who gets us online. And it's not his fault.

You know, like you said, we have 18 million different systems that we work with and one of them's down. But, yeah, we try to keep the communications open with everybody who's watching on social media. And also, I am the mystery shop Wranglers, so I set up the shops and do all that. But I also like to, I mean, I have some experience in the car business. I've been doing it for 23 years, and so I'm kind of here as a backup sorts of information. I got a few years to go before I got to Earl's level of experience, but I can help out here and there. But back to the text, yeah, we have many channels of communication. We have our text line, which is 772-4976530, and we also have Your Anonymous Feedback.com,

and I'm going to start with those. So we had some came in over the past week. the first few was just from Anonymous person Oh, Nancy Yeah, hey, hi, how you doing? Excuse me, Stu, but we're going to go to Susie Fisher Who's been holding. Good morning, Susie.

Susie Fisher, are you there? Wake up, little Susie? Well, Susie, give us a call back. 877-960. I believe you are our first new lady caller. Now back to Stu. That was Phil Everly over there saying. Anyway.

We're fishing for Susie, but it didn't work. We have a website out there. It's called www. www. Ain't going to happen.com. And we don't use it enough. I think we need to pay more attention to it. And it is a clearinghouse for ads for car dealerships that ain't going to happen. Ain't going to happen. And the phrase struck me so funny.

one of our employees of the dealership used the phrase and it cracked me up and it stuck in my head and I couldn't stop thinking about it and every time Nancy said something outrageous I'd say ain't going to happen.com we've used it a lot lately excuse me guys we got Susie back we have Joni who's giving us a call I believe from Minnesota good morning Joni it looks we got two systems down two systems down this morning I if you can hear us I apologize just when we thought we were clear sailing on our phone system we're having a problem now we are and Tony if you can hear me I think that we have two

new lady callers so I extend an invitation to both of you to continue to try to reach us at 877960 9960 and if you're talking to Nick in the control room and he can't transfer you to us give them give Nick your contact information we will send you a check for $50 This is not a BS saying this is not, you know, no conditions. This is simply we're trying to encourage more lady callers.

And I feel very frustrated when we encourage you and you do call and then you can't talk to us. But that's our technological problem. We've got the manager of the station here today. As a matter of fact, and it worked well last week and we thought we had some smooth sailing. But apparently there's a glitch somewhere. Please give your contact information to Nick in the control room. And you might try again in a little while, and we have the text number. The text numbers are working pretty well.

772-4976530. That's 772-49-765-30. As I said, Susie and... Joni. Johnny. Joanie. Susie and Joni, and Joni, please try again. We'll listen to a text from Stu.

Yes, we have a few anonymous feedbacks that came in with example. of at card dealer ads that need to go on ain't going to happen.com. And just a few examples, a new 2019 Chevy Cruise with an MSRP of 23-390 offered for sale for 15,826. They said, ain't going to happen.com. That's at Miami Lakes Auto Mall. We have University Mitsubishi in Davie, Florida. It is a Black Islander sport with a sticker of 23390.

Sale price, $15,000 ain't going to happen. I'm glad people are listening, and we'll get those ads up on Ain't Gonna Happen.com. Yeah, we can build a whole library. It'd be a lot of fun, and then we can talk to the dealers that are on there. Congratulations, of the ones that are not on there. Yeah. Okay, well, listen, guys, we have Minnesota on the line. All right.

And I want to send a thank you to Susie for calling. And Joanne, can you hear us? Yes. Oh, great. Welcome to the show. Hey. You've already given your contact information? Yes, I did.

All right, thank you. What can we do for you? Okay, I really enjoy listening to both of you on the radio. Thank you. Thank you. My question is, I'm planning on buying a new car. And you think it's a good idea to have it rustproof? You live in Minnesota.

Yes. I, you know, I'm not as familiar with driving in salt conditions. I lived in New York, Troy, New York for a while, in Lafayette, Indiana, and I had a little bit of experience. The salt on the roads and so on and so forth. My feeling is no, that you don't need to have it restproof. We talked about this last week or maybe the week before. Rick had a really good point that it's a good idea to keep your vehicle washed. washed the undercarriage just like you'd wash the top of your car.

But the car manufacturers today have made miraculous gains in protecting your car against environment, especially soft conditions and rust. And we see very, in Florida, we have salt in the air, not on the road so much as Minnesota, but there's salt in the air. And we see a lot of rust here for cars that sit and are not washed and protected. but I would say don't spend the money on rust-proofing at a car dealership, just wash your car more frequently.

What would you say, once a week? Yeah, I would definitely do once a week. And it seems that the northern states have car washes that a lot of them are specially designed to do an underbody and wheel well wash down to get that salt out of there. We don't have those here, and it's kind of a bad thing because a lot of folks that live near the inner coastal or near the ocean would, that would be a great advantage for them to help keep their cars up.

Yeah, save your money and spend it on the car wash. And that way you get a nice, shiny car too, and you protect it, and you don't pay the dealer. I don't think the rust-proofing, the undercoating dealers do. I think that's superfluous with the Tays' modern cars. And, Joanne, I think that it would be, you know, beneficial, as the guys just said, in keeping your car clean. You've got as many elements to deal with in Minnesota as we have here in Florida. and that's the culprit for the deterioration of your vehicle,

whether it be the undercarriage or so many other things. Rick? Well, thank you so very much. You're quite welcome. Call again, Joanne. We love out-of-state calls and we love female calls. We have double reason for you to call back next week or the week after. And Joanne, thank you for your persistence.

I certainly will, and I enjoy listening to you. Thank you very much. Spread the word. Hey, 7-7-9-60. Bye-bye. 9960, or you can text us at 772-49765-30. Well, we're going to go back to Stu, who is sharing some information with us. Yeah.

Back to the anonymous feedback. Here's a good one. It says, hello, Earl and Earl family. I have a question about daytime running lights. How come I see some cars with lights below the headlights that are yellow, and then I see lights below the headlights that are white? Some are called daytime running lights. Sometimes they're called auxiliary lights.

And back in the day, I thought they used to call those lights fog lights. And then I see some cars that have yellow lights right next to the white lights of the headlight. With no lights at all below the headlights, what are the purposes of these lights, these extra lights, and why are they different colors? Rick? To bring it down very simple. Yellow lights in the fog, which we sometimes do see fog here in Florida, but the white lights will reflect back quite a bit. That's why you don't want to use your high beams in the fog. So yellow lights are best for the fog.

The clear lights, the white lights, are best for normal driving and any time at night. And for daytime running lights, all the manufacturers put their own little spin on it, whichever lights they want to have on. The whole idea of it is simply to have some sort of illuminated lights on the front of your car lit up to make it easier to see your car from a distance during the day. daytime. And you got to admit when you see a car with lights on any color, it's you

can see that car from a greater distance than a car that has no lights whatsoever. Yeah, especially if it's hazy or rainy or something like that. Exactly. You see a lot of these kids out there that do it just because they look cool and they have neon. I think it's distracting to me. I think

you know, just stick with it. The decorative ones are definitely, yeah. Right. Now, one thing to remember, folks, especially here in Florida, When it's raining, hazard lights off, do not use your four-way flashers, and your regular headlights on. And also remember, daytime running lights on most cars do not turn on your tail lights in the back. So make sure when it gets dark that you turn on your regular headlights. Great information, Rick.

We're going to go to Susie, who is calling us from Hope Soon. Good morning, Susie. Susie's back. Good morning. Good morning. Is this the same, Susie, that called earlier? Yes, yes. Oh, thank you for calling back.

Errol's going to sing for you now. He's just kidding. She's waiting. What's up, Susie? That's all right. The only question I really have is, why do our lights get that, they turn foggy,

the plastic covers, they fog up and you have to get a product to clean them off every now and then. What can you do to avoid that? Well, Rex, I can answer that. There's a kit you can buy and do it yourself where you can take it to the mechanic or service department of your choice. It'll give you a price range on what it should cost you, but there is a fix for that.

Can you prevent it? Well, there's, what happens is it's the UV radiation from the sun, the ultraviolet, sunlight, the plastic polymers that they're using now on those lights instead of using glass, it degrades because of the sunlight. There's two ways that I've heard of for helping prevent that. One is a company that makes these clear laminate

that goes on almost like window tint on your window, but it's totally clear that helps to reduce that fog degradation of that plastic. And the other one, McGuire, makes a product that I've actually used on my wife's new car, I'm kind of watching it to see how it works, you know, how good it's going to do over the next six, eight months to a year. And it's basically like a wax

that you put on those headlights that is supposed to reduce that ultraviolet degradation. So when we come back in about two years from now, I'll let you know how they're doing. What's that cost? I found it on Amazon for like $9. And you do it yourself. Yeah, and it took like 10 minutes to apply.

What do you think, Joanne? Wow. I mean, Susie. Susie. Yeah. See how quick you forget. All men are alike. You sound like Nancy.

Rick and always come up with so much information, Susie. Yes. I do enjoy listening to the show. I listen every Saturday because I have a Saturday job I drive. and live in Hope Sound, it's kind of way far away from everything. So I do listen to your phone every Saturday morning. Well, thank you. Please spread the word.

We love to have female callers, and it's nice to have folks from close up. You say you're in Hope Sound? Yes. Right down the street from where you are. Is that right? Wonderful. Yeah, don't you all live on a juvenile colony? That's right.

Juvenile colony. Great. That's great. Well, Susie, thanks so much for calling. Spread the word. And we'll talk with you soon. Okay, thank you. You're quite welcome.

All right. A77-960-9960, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. We're going to go to Mark, who's holding, and Mike Worth. Hey, Mark. Hi, how are you? Good morning. Good morning. Yeah, I got a question for Rick.

I had a new AC compressor, thermostat, and water pump put in the end of July, and it at Toyota. And it cost me a pretty penny, but my car is 2010. I got about 78,000 miles on it, and I've never had to really put in any money. and you can't live without an air conditioner or a car, let alone I have a fat chance to sell it down here in Florida. But the interesting thing is in the last couple of days, when I shut the car off, I get this high-pitched whistle sound

that stays for like 10 to 15 seconds. You have any idea what it could be, or is it related to this work that was done? Now, that's a new one on me. I've never heard a car of the whistles when you shut them off. Is it like a screech, or is it a, what frequency, high-pitched frequency? Yeah, it's a whistle. Like, you know, you'd blow into a kid's whistle.

Yeah, it's, well, I can tell you it's a whistle sound. I heard it once just for a few seconds when I was stopped at a light, too. but last night I went out to pick something up I came home put the car in the garage shut it off and there's this whistle sound and then it goes away is this is this all since you had the work done on your vehicle yeah hey mark what what model car is this please oh yeah it's uh corolla le corolla 2010 with 78000 miles on it okay because those don't have any sort of air pumps or anything for the emissions.

And it's not a beep or anything. It's like an air whistling sound? Yep. Yeah, most definitely. You know, Mark, you just touched on one of the most interesting, challenging problems we have

repairing cars, and my suggestion to you is to take it to service department, Toyota otherwise, with a mechanic that you trust to know and have him ride in the car with you, sometimes these things are

so intermittent, they're not going to occur when you want it to occur, and you might have to leave... I know, yeah, that's... You might want to leave the car and have somebody listen to it. You might want to try to catch it on a recording. That would be if you could record the sound and play it to a good technician

it would mean... I guarantee if Rick heard it or a good technician like Rick heard it, they would probably be able to make a pretty good educated guest, but But it's unusual that Rick would be. It almost sounds like this air, you know, trying to leak through something maybe. Yeah. Yeah, that almost sounds to me like maybe a vacuum line has gotten loose.

And the emission system is letting the air pressure escape. And that's something you definitely want to get somebody to get a look at and figure out where that's coming from. Does it only happen when you turn the engine off? like I said I heard it happen when I was like sitting at a light too

okay yeah interesting it was very brief then and then it gone and went away and I hadn't heard it in days and then last night I shut the car off and I hear it Rick would you would you think that maybe if they hooked it up to a diagnostic

tester the first thing we'd have to do is actually hear it and try to figure out where it's coming from because that that sounds to me like maybe one of the emission systems like a hose has come loose or maybe it's got a little crack somewhere and

it's actually sucking or blowing air through it and causing that whistle sound so that that's what I would be looking for all right emission system hose yeah looking for that yeah and the vacuum line also

yes you could call Rick at the dealership and and he you could swing in there. He'd be glad to listen to it for you. And you're in Lake Worth, so that's not that far. And let him listen to it. I think once you hear

it, he can nail it down, tell you what it is. All right. Where are you again, please? North Palm Beach, US One. Earl Stewart Toyota. Okay. Yeah. All right. All right, Mark. Thanks for the car. I'm sorry we couldn't identify. This is the first time I've ever

seen Nick stumped, but he won't be stumped when he sees the car and here's Here's the noise. Okay. Thanks for joining us, Mark. Have a good one. Thanks for the call, Mark. We'll talk to you soon.

877-960. That's right. And do we have any more text? Yes, we do. We have a text from Ann Murray, a long-time listener, long-time texter. Oh, boy. She just texted us at 772-49765-30.

And Marie says, good morning. I have great hopes for autonomous cars. What a great idea. Cars that drive themselves. They'd be a blessing for distracted drivers with squabbling kids, rambunctious dogs, or seniors with declining eyesight. Unfortunately, I'll second

Tina's suggestion to watch the online videos of Tesla's smart summon. The videos are both funny and terrifying. It is clear that they are not ready for prime time yet. Auto manufacturers, please keep working on it. The need is great. Thank you. That's so true. I mean, right now it's such

a novelty, and it's kind of a neat thing. One day, and not in the too distant future, we're going to be bored by it because it's the way cars are going to be. You know, the thing that attracts me most of autonomous cars. Maybe it's just my personality, but I don't like to waste time. And if you want to see me get cranky, put me. Put a bridge up in front of you. Yeah, put a bridge up in front of me. I would like to be able, I don't have a chauffeur or a Bentley. I suppose. I guess it's a nice thing about being a billionaire. You know, Jeeves comes up and you're Bentley. You get in the back seat. They already have autonomous cars. And he's got an autonomous car. So think of it this way. You're all become, become, become, billionaires. You'll have your own limo and all you do is tell Jeeves, who happens to be your car, say, take me to the library, take me to the doctor's office, take me to work. You don't even have to go. Jeeves, go to the grocery store and come back with some apples. People are afraid

to take a job that's too long. I know people that are looking at driving half an hour to work and back and they say that's too much. In New York, you know, a lot of people commute an hour, two hours. The commuting time of the American population to and from work is huge. Think of the productivity increase when you can sit in your vehicle autonomously taking you to work and you can have your laptop and your smartphone or your or just a real old fashion book or you can be watching television or you can be playing a monopoly. You can at least use your time instead of sitting there like a fool and looking at the road and screaming at people

anything you do in the privacy of your own home you can do on the road now I just pray that I will live long enough to have my own autonomous car you will you'll get one of the first ones I like Frank's expression they're making fun of me folks

but that's okay hey can everyone see our faces do we look good this morning or what we're back up yeah I was just, I was feeling relaxed there for a minute. Now everybody can see me. Hi, everybody.

All right, well, that's good news. Put your hairpiece back on, Stu. Okay, that's good news. We have an anonymous feedback here, and I think this might have been the one we got it Sunday. Last Sunday, this might have been inspired your blog article this week on Costco. Says, Hi, Earl, can you go over the Costco car buying program again? Do they give you a price that includes all fees,

and what fees are not included that we should be aware of when getting the Costco price? If the dealer includes an extra fee, what do we do? And that's a great question. And it's very topical because Earl's blog article this week is all about the Costco auto buying program and our mystery shop report this week. Yeah, I was looking for it. I was trying to find it. There we go.

So he's got a tutorial on that. It's a tutorial. Yeah, I just made a simple 10 points that if you cover all those 10 points in the blog, you will have an incredibly low price and you will have a roll. lovely pleasant experience buying a car from a Costco certified dealer. I had a friend the other day that called me up, and she was buying a Mercedes. And I told her, hey to try the Costco auto buying program? No, first I said, are you a Costco member? She said, yeah. I said, great. And a lot of Costco members don't even know about the auto buying program. And I told her how to

go about it, and I warned her to be careful. And then I saw her again. I said, did you do it? She said, I put my zip code in, and there wasn't a certified dealer. I should have told her, that some manufacturers, like we shopped a Ford dealer for this show, and there were seven four dealers that shop popped up as being Costco approved certified. She put in Mercedes and none in her zip code. So I said, put in another zip code. You know, go further south and north, east and west,

and you'll find a Costco certified dealer. Okay. Well, I just want to let everyone know that Ollie is very happy that we are up and running and he can see us. Oh, that's good. Give us a call at 870. I love Lally.

Give us a call at, excuse me, 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6-530. Or you can join our live stream and start making comments and questions because we're up. It's really nice. Yeah, exactly. And don't forget, your anonymous feedback, that's www., youranonymous feedback.com. Now back to Stu. Yep. On your anonymous feedback, we have a question for Rick.

If I lose my fob, my new Toyota, they're talking about their key remote, let's say I lose it at work, and I don't want whoever finds it to just keep clicking it until they find my car and steal it. So, can I take my car to a Toyota dealership and buy a new fob and have the car and new fob reprogrammed so the old fob no longer works for my push-start Toyota? And second part to my question, how many fobs do you get with a new push-start Toyota? Yes, you can. And it used to be most cars came with two fobs, although I think now they're cutting it to one for some of them. Is fob the word that we're using?

I knew there used to be a watch fob, but I didn't know that it called keys fobs. I think it's commonly called it, and I don't think it's a industry. I hear customers call it fobs all the time too, yeah. Fobb seems to be the default term that everybody's using, but otherwise it could be the wireless or the keyless remote. Yeah. Now, Rick was referring to some cars only coming with one.

The ones I'm familiar with, at least for Toyota, I don't think those are the smart keys, push starts. I think that's the actual key. So some keys have, like, the door opener remotes and alarm built into the key, and there's actual metal key sticking out there. And some of the newer cars, different manufacturers, are offering one of those, and then a regular key without the buttons on it.

Without the remote. I think if you have the push-button start, which is very common cars, I think you're getting two. Most of those still come. two? Yeah, because there's no actual physical key. I've got a great suggestion. You're ready? I just got this, and I don't think Stu has

one of these. I'm a tech nut, and I bought one of these new. A tile. Yeah. And you take a tile, it's a device that is amazing. This is like a second or third generation tile, and it's a little thing, I've got it on my keys, and

you can put it on your fob, your remote. The nice thing about it is, wherever my keys are I can find it with my app on my phone anywhere in the world Until the battery dies Well until the battery dies

But this has a replaceable battery And it warns you on your iPhone Your battery's getting low And you replace the battery The old tiles, you're right Did not have replaceable batteries Now Apple's coming out with one of those things too

And the other thing is If you lose your iPhone All you do is you push this little button On the tile twice and your iPhone, even if you turned it off, will ring. That's incredible. It's amazing. Your watch does that, too.

Absolutely. So no matter, and then I, you can also, if you leave your key somewhere, for example, I have a program, so if I leave my key home, it will alert me on my iPhone. You forgot your keys. Or if I leave my key at work, it says, you lift your keys in the office. I turn around and go get my key. Anyway, fobs now are very good. expensive. Some of them in the luxury cars are up in like six, seven hundred dollars. And even in the regular cars are like two or three hundred dollars, uh, you get yourself

with tile and you'll never lose your fob. See, that's, that's part of your love part of your love-hate relationship with technology. You encourage technology, but then they just, it just comes back and saves your life. Totally. Little Yang and Yang. Exactly. Yeah. Technology City here, folks. Give us a call toll-free. Be part of the show at 877-9-60-99. or you can text us at 772-4976530. And I see that the guys have texts and also some, well, response on YouTube.

Yeah, we can do it. We can do either. Okay. Well, the first one I've got here is from Mark Ryan in Iowa. Not to be confused with Mark Smith in Iowa, who both are on YouTube right now. Welcome to both of you. Mark's asking about the new GF6A motor oil standard that has come out basically this is a new service industry standard

it's a backwards compatible motor oil that will handle all the viscosity except for the newest 0W16 motor oil and my thoughts basically it's just the continuing evolution of making oil better and more processed and more refined. So first off, it helps improve fuel economy a little bit, reduce emissions, and, of course, unfortunately, so the oil companies can charge us more. Now, what is that standard again? Repeat that.

It's the new GF6A. Okay. And this is a new oil. George Frank. Yes. And it's supposedly the main motivating, factor behind it is it's for the direct injection diesel engines that are in a lot of cars and it's supposed to help improve fuel economy and reduce emissions while at the same time being better all

around so we'll have to wait and see how well it performs but there is also a gf6b which is for the newest cars using zero w-16 motor oil which is an incredibly thin thin low viscosity oil used in the newest cars coming out. You know, I'll just interject here briefly. I read an interesting article. Actually, it was an advertisement from mobile oil, and they were targeting fleet customers, rental car companies and trucking companies.

And it's very interesting that you, they are able to stretch the time between oil changes out in trucking and leasing and rental companies, I guess, by testing the oil in the fleet and by detecting the need of, to change the oil based from the chemistry of the oil itself. So instead of going by the factory recommendations and a heads-up warning to anybody that wants to try this,

don't do this at home because if you exceed, if you don't obey the manufacturers' recommendations, you can void your warranty. But if you're a multimillion-dollar fleet hurts or, you know, big trucking company, then you can do this and you can afford to do it. If you miss a little warranty, it's not going to hurt you. But you might, instead of having to change your oil every 10,000 miles, you might change it every 15. Imagine what that would do to a fleet with thousands of vehicles on the road.

It would save time, it would save cost, and so and so forth. Not to mention it's better for our environment because you're not using as much oil, and it doesn't have to be recycled or disposed of later. And I predict this may happen too that we will have an inside internal check on the chemistry of the oil. And instead of saying blindly, change your oil every 10,000 miles or six months, whichever first occurs, which is one size fits all, everybody's driving habits are different. Environment is different. Temperatures, the whole, nine yards. So your car and your unique driving, it will tell you, you might change your oil in 7,000 miles, or you might change your oil in 17,000 miles.

And the chemistry check internally, and the car would do that. I'm going to patent that. But by them, we're going to have electric cars that don't need oil changes. Great. So, Rick, we're saving the environment. We're improving fuel economy. And from what I understood that you said, it enhances the engine capabilities. So it's really a win-win situation.

Not to mention, if your engine doesn't work as hard, it's going to last longer. Okay, we got some more tax? Great information. We do. Let's see here. this one's for Stu probably Wayne is asking when do the 2020 CHRs come out

I don't know I think you're probably looking at probably December or possibly early next year CHR is like a little Toyota kind of crossover really cool looking but it's not selling very quickly I can't predict this

well I can't I'm predicting this but they'll probably discontinue them I think that's my guess but they're cool little car and not trying to sell them or anything like that. But usually we'll see those new models coming out probably around wintertime. Well, Wayne, that's so interesting that – be careful if you're thinking – if you love the CHR, go ahead and buy it.

But bear in mind if they discontinue it, it hurts the resale value. No, I'm not a professional industry. No, it's your opinion. I agree with – I happen to agree with you. If they're selling – if dealers are selling a handful a month, that's not a good sign. And the last one I've got is from JR. He's asking, what about buying a car from a rental company? I think depending on the rental company, it's a good idea.

The rental companies, Enterprise is a good example. Hertz is another. They have fair pricing. They have one price. It's not a haggle hassle thing. They maintain their cars well. Used to be, rental car was a red flag. You bought a car, oh, this was a rental car.

They never took care of it. Hertz, Enterprise, any good rental company. takes really good care of their cars, and they have fair pricing. I think a rental company is a really good place to buy a car. As a matter of fact, just got one more quick one in. Ernesto is asking, I've heard that if you over-service your car, you void your warranty. Is that true? And is there such a thing as overservicing your car?

I don't think it's true, and I think you can overservice your car, meaning you can waste money. You could change oil every day, and that would not be the right thing to do. It wouldn't hurt the car. It would just take a lot of time and money. It put some extra wear and tear on your oil pan cap and all that sort of stuff. You're exposing your car to more risk, more things can go wrong. No, I think, let's put this way. Rule of thumb, you should service your car more frequently rather than less frequently.

But don't go crazy. And at the minimum, follow the manufacturing. Manufacturers recommended maintenance schedule, that way you don't void the warranty. But doing oil changes and services too often cannot void your warranty. No. Yeah. And also, Rick, the manufacturers recommend and not the dealers. If you're servicing at a dealer, and if they tell you you need to do it, it's part of the warrant maintenance schedule,

ask, is that the factory recommended maintenance schedule or is that the dealerships recommend? Very important. And if they say it is manufacturers, if you can't, yeah. If you don't have your owner's manual handy, and a lot of us don't, or if we have it, we can't find it. Or how does ask that service advisor, show me in the maintenance manual. And if he, humahamas, then, you know, there's something going on. Oh, Google it. They're online.

They're online. So you could go to honda.com. Honda Accord, Maintenance, 2019, and it would be there. Owners manual. You would find the exact same book. as a PDF file that you could download, you could look at it online at any time. I don't know that. Same thing with your

owner's manual. They're all out there. Wow, that's great. God, technology. It's going too fast. You keep forgetting about the Google thing. An amazing show to the ladies and gentlemen. Be part of the show at 877-960-9960 or again, you can text us at 77249-9-7-6530. If Sue

Sue? Sue? You can call me Sue. If Stu has any more text, I'll let you get to that, and then I have a text to share with the folks. Yeah, I'll just want one and flip over to you. Good afternoon, love the radio show. I'm in Central Time, so I miss your shows, but I listen on YouTube. Great thing that you're all doing. Just wanted to say you push ASE mechanics basically saying they're the only people to bring your car to, which is false. There's plenty of good techs like myself with over 20 years experience that are more knowledgeable than any ASE tech. ASC means is that they passed a written test. I know many ASE techs who are not good mechanics,

but somehow passed the test. Anyways, just wanted to state that just because someone is not ASC doesn't mean they're not good. Now factory trainer certified is different, and they're taught tips and tricks about new car manufacturers specific to the cars, which is very good. Anyways, love the show, keep up the good work. I know Rick's wheels are turning there too. I agree with that to some extent. Book learning is one thing. Experience is another thing. Intelligence is another thing. And not one of those by itself is going to make a good technician. But you have to have someone who's smart. He has experience. But I really think the ASC certifications are good because especially for an experienced, a experienced technician like Rick, he knows

what to listen to and read and absorb and and without the ASA studying I don't think you would be as good a technician I also think it's a standard like you're absolutely right and the commenter is also absolutely right it's not the defining thing that that tells you that but it gives you you know if you don't know anybody if you don't know who is a reputable mechanic it gives you a starting point to look for you know in our dealership we pay technicians based on the number of their AAS certification so that people have, if they get, if they get, isn't that right, Rick? Yeah.

So, you know, Rick is a little skeptical about that, and it may not be the best way, but it encourages people. You take a person and they don't have any ASC certifications, and he comes in and say, I've been a technician for 10 years, hire me, and you hire him. But you still don't know exactly what he does know. You know what he says he knows. and to pass the test. They're not easy to pass.

I mean, you have to study. You can't just take the test and pass it. You have to study to pass it. And so that means you'll learn something. Yeah, something. I do a pretty good job running a business. I don't have an MBA, so. True.

Good point. You do, though. True. It's the reason I'm better than you are. Of course. Just to throw my two cents worth in here, and this is the new thing coming from Toyota. in order to have a technician that can do service campaigns, the new, all the recalls,

the safety campaigns on your car, that technician has to be certified in the area for whichever that recall is calling for. And ASC certification is only the first step in that certification if they are not. Or hybrid certification. Right. Certified to be a hybrid. But if they're not ASE certified in certain areas, They cannot do the recalls on those cars.

And the next step that Toyota's coming out with, and I guarantee every manufacturer is going to follow this, is they're not going to be certified to do warranty work. So if a technician does not have ASC certifications and wants to work at a dealership, you're not going to be able to do recalls or warranty work, which is about 60 to 70% of the work that a dealership does. tells you how important Toyota considers ASE certification.

And not just Toyota. All the manufacturers are going to follow that. Yeah, exactly. What one does all do. And Toyota is probably not the first. Yeah, but to the competitor's point, it's hard to find one, but he's absolutely right. I'm sure there's some incredibly talented technicians out there. Sure.

All right, so the next one says, my mother is leasing a 2019 Rav4. She's 20,000 miles on the car in two years into the lease. The front two tires are wearing. uneven and the dealer wants $1,000 for tires for two tires. I refuse to pay for tire treads. They're good and they're just wearing uneven on the sides. I know the company's warranty, there's tires, I guess the tire warranties is for 30, 40, 50, 50, 60,000 miles, but the tire company won't cover them. They're saying the tires were not rotated, but they were. The dealer does them every oil change. The dealership is telling me there's nothing they can do.

I'm not happy. I want to be called, I want to call Toyota. They should, cover this any thoughts i would pursue that i think that uh and rick can correct me if i'm wrong here if these car if these tires have been rotated according to the manufacturer's recommendation and they still have severe inside where someone didn't check their alignment or somebody didn't do their job checking the car uh she's how many miles on it uh 20 000 20 000 rick 2019 ravs only just came out the beginning of this year right Right, Stu? About January was when we first got them. It was, yeah, early spring, probably February, March, yeah.

So if she's been following the manufacturers' recommended maintenance each time, which Toyota pays for them, so I see no reason for them not to, that means the tire pressures would have been checked each time, and the tires would have been rotated. If they're getting edgeware on both edges, there's a problem with those tires because that's an issue with, inflation, well, it would be inflation, but since they would have been checked each time, obviously it's not going to be an inflation issue. That's a problem with the tire.

If it's an alignment issue, then she should have the alignment checked. And if the alignment specs showed that the car is in specification for alignment, hey, tire company's responsible all day long. Unfortunately, you've got yourself a real challenge here. You're going to be caught between the dealer and the manufacturer of the tires. and both of them are going to be claimant and they're innocent. But you're not guilty. You just don't know which one is guilty.

Either the dealer did not properly check your alignment or the tire company has got, as Rick said, an issue. It's awfully hard to win an argument with the tire company on inside wear on tires. I'm leaning toward the dealer being responsible. And if you did your maintenance according to Toyota's recommended time schedule and mileage schedule, and as Rick said, It's free for the first two years.

You should have done it. And if that's the case, go back and talk to the dealer. Yeah, you'll have all the records, get an alignment check, and you've got all the ammunition you need, and the dealership should come down on your side to try to help you. Yeah, you got your bases covered. All right, we got a joke. Uh-huh.

I like jokes. Joe came in on your anonymous Feedback.com. If you own a Tesla and it's stolen, would it then be called in Edison? I don't get it. Well, if you recall, back in the late 19th century, there was a battle between D.C. direct current and A.C. alternating current. And Edison was the big promoter of D.C. current, which was much more dangerous. Tesla's idea was the alternating current, which is what we use now and much safer. And Tesla, I think, was accused of stealing some of Edison's ideas. So very technical, very, very narrow audience on that way. You're very smart. Did you research that? Or did you know it right away? I'm an educated man. Your knowledge is overwhelming. As you can see, I had to take my headphones off because my ears are sweating.

Sorry about that. That is a nerd joke. That's why I laughed at it. I mean, that was a totally nerd joke. I didn't realize you were such a nerd. You Googled that, didn't you? No, Nikolai Tesla. Wow.

He's going to beat it out of you. Did you know that? All right, let me tell you the truth. Oh, man, two nerds in here. In fifth grade. Mr. Smarty Pants over there in a corner. You got, oh. Oh, I love Tesla.

The man, the original Tesla. We did a musical play in fifth grade. about Thomas Edison, and I learned some of that. I'm not going to sing the songs, but I still remember them for some reason. No way. And 1877. Oh, there you go. Nancy's got a text, right?

Yeah, I do. And this is from Sylvia, and she's texting us from Pittsburgh, and she's not looking for a used car, and she wants to know how important a, well, a vehicle history report is in her purchase of the pre-owned certified car. Well, Sylvia, at the end of the day, it's extremely important because you can find out things that maybe the dealership hasn't shared with you. And that's everything from, you know, how many accidents has been in. It can give you a mileage history.

There are a lot of things, and it certainly is worth its weight in gold. So you want to go to a reputable source, and I suggest Carfax. dot com to obtain all that history i hope i answered your question the dealer should give you that uh if you're buying it from a car dealer they should pull the car factory report for you and show it to you well she has uh she's exploring two different avenues and that is a private owner and it is a dealership and as i said she is out shopping so i hope i help you sylvia uh to all of you that are listening give us a call toll free we'd love to hear from you We have a great mystery shopping report coming up from Pompano Ford, 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6530.

I just back on Sylvia's question. The vehicle history report is important, but more important is having a car checked by an independent mechanic. And sometimes there are issues with a car that wouldn't show up. up on the history report and a good mechanic for 100 bucks or 150 bucks can pretty well give you ironclad guarantee the car's okay great advice very good advice you know you there's a lot of people that have driven that car so there are a lot of things to look into and it'll save you definitely save you money down the road okay do we have any more text or youtube yes we do okay let's go on. Hello, what is the best way to change a salesperson if you don't get along with the one

you're currently working with? If you do change sales reps during the process, which sales rep gets the credit for the sale? It's a great question. I don't think we've had that before, and that's something that we think about a lot. Yeah, it's a, it's a human thing. It's, car dealers wrestle with this, salespeople wrestle with this in an ideal world for a car dealer, and I'm a car dealer in full transparency, and I think about this, Stu thinks about it all the time, because you have a person who comes into buy a car and you have a car salesperson. What about the chemistry and the psychologies of those two people? When you meet a person, you have a first impression. Ideally, as car dealers, we would like to have the perfect match

for every person that walked in the door who was interested in buying a car. And you as a customer, when you go in, you'd like to have that match too. But now you get into personalities and humanity and hurt feelings and so and so forth. So it's really hard. I get myself in a lot of trouble as a car dealer if I had some sort of a profiling, stereotyping way to match salespeople with customers. Somebody would get offended, and probably somebody would sue me. They'd say you can't do that. But you as a customer, you can do anything you want to.

And what you should do is try to overcome your shyness about asking for another salesperson. And you should try to do it with a smile and pleasantly. And if you feel uncomfortable with that salesperson, you should politely ask to speak to his manager and whisper to him, if you want to, say, George is a fine young man. And I mean nothing negative about this. I would feel more comfortable if I could speak with another salesperson, maybe a woman, if you're a woman, or maybe somebody that, maybe you have difficulty with accents. You might have someone that has an accent, speaking English, but he has a Hispanic or Creole or French or whatever it may be. And you have a hard time understanding him.

You're going to spend $40,000 or $50,000. You want to understand everything that salesperson says. So you see what I'm saying. talk to the sales manager respectfully and explain why you'd like to have a different salesperson. And to put your mind at ease also, I mean, this is something that car dealers deal with. I don't know how many take it that seriously,

but we do. And we talk about it with our salespeople. It doesn't mean it's a personal insult. And as far as who gets credit for the sale, that would depend on the dealership. And a lot of dealerships, a situation like that, the commission would be split.

In some cases, it wouldn't be. But the important thing to remember is the salesman's commission should be the least of your concerns because if you deal with someone that you can't understand or feel comfortable with, you're not going to do the right thing and picking the right car at the right price. Exactly. Yeah, remember that, you know, that salesperson, it's not your friend. And when you walk into that dealership, you have full control. So gently, let your voice be heard and express.

what you need to make that sale and like girls said you know if you're not getting along with that you know or personalities clash sometimes go to the manager and again express yourself and let them know you'd like someone else to take care of you remember they want to make a sale 877 960 or you can text us at 772 4960 we have anonymous comments from a car dealer Hello, Earl and Company. I'm a car dealer. I'm so excited. Yeah, well, it's not that exciting.

That's a good question, but it's not as provocative as you thought. We've never had someone come out and say that. Come on, Rick, sound to fix. There's no, this is not an attack. There's no fight here. Okay. Hello, Earl. Hello, Rowling company.

I'm a car dealer, and I buy cars at many different Manhattan auctions via Simulcast. By the way, for the listener, Simulcast is just an online way to buy cars. You see pictures, videos of the cars going through. And let me continue. High tech, very cool. And our dealership, we do the same thing. The whole world has changed by the way cars are bought wholesale. Yeah, that's right.

As you might know, and we do, I can bid on cars at a lot of dealer auctions just like I was there in person. I can see a detailed condition report of each vehicle. And I can also see what dealership is bidding on each vehicle as it passes through the lane. My question is, and this may be rhetorical, is that I see Carvana and Vroom sometimes buying lower quality vehicles than I would ever consider. How do they get away with shipping to a customer a less than acceptable vehicle? Is that people only look at price and convenience? Is it that people only look at price and convenience? My customers would never buy a lower quality vehicles such as these.

I'm curious as to your opinion on these two firms, Carvana and Vroom. Also, along the same lines, if there is a structural damage vehicle going through the auction, you can bet that off-lease only is bidding and buying it. I even see them buying lemon-law cars at the Mercedes Financial Auction. My dealer friends and I have a standing joke that if you are behind a vehicle with an off-lease-only license plate frame, you can see the wavy body panels. Keep doing what you're doing. You're doing the public a great service. Thank you very much from a car dealer.

Just real quick before you get into it. Carvana, you've probably seen the commercials on TV because they're all over the place. And it's a way to buy a used car, but it's also a way to sell your car. and they're trying to get established and they are paying a lot of money right now. We tested it ourselves. They're buying cars from people and they're paying top dollar for them.

This might be a way to cede their business. It might not always last like that. And Vroom's another online service to buy cars online, use cars. And you can also do a trade-in or sell your car directly to them. And I'll turn it over to you now. Well, the attitude, Mr. Deal,

that you have is typical of the attitude of most dealers, car dealers, because Carvana is a threat to our businesses. Offleash only is a threat. Vroom is a threat. It's a independent, large, soon-to-be IPO, could be a giant company like Uber, and we're all afraid of the way the car business is changing. So car dealers are afraid of car, of off-lease only, because they buy lesser quality

cars. Remember, the lesser quality cars that they buy, they buy for less money. And it's supply and demand. It's the marketplace that sets the online price. The Mannheim auction, online auction, is about as fair a wholesale price. In matter of fact, the Mannheim online auction defines wholesale price. So when a car with structural damage sells for $3,000 or $4,000 less than one without, and often, lease only buys that car, yes, that car is not as high quality as someone you bought and paid $3,000 more for. But what off lease only does is they pass along the savings to the buyer. And they will make anywhere from $1,000 to $1,200 on that car. You will make as much as you

possibly can on the car you bought. So there's a huge difference in price between the off lease only. Now, true, that car may have a problem that the buyer is unaware of. Buyer beware at off-lease-only. You should have the car checked by your mechanic. Now, if it's

damaged that is not going to affect the safety of the vehicle or the appearance, you mentioned wavy panels. Or driveability. Or driveability. Then it's a real bargain. And I cannot not say, no, don't buy a car from off-le-

only. I say, buy a car from off place only. You'll get a great price. Take it to a mechanic that you trust and get it checked out carefully. You are buying a car in a substantially reduced price. And that's just the truth. I hate

to say it because I'm in competition with off lease only. But they are eating my lunch, frankly, and they are selling far more used cars than I can. And we're trying to emulate them in some fact. We're sticking our toe in the water

and actually going out and buying cars that are safe but discounted if the auctions because of what they call frame damage but not remember frames today are not like they were 20 years ago they are unibodies and you

can have damage to a vehicle today that they call structural damage that is not going to make the car unsafe so but like you said you got to emphasize it needs to be checked out needs to be checked out needs to be checked on. I mean, some things is not even safety. You might have a car that's just off-kilter, and for the rest of your time of ownership, it will never stay in alignment, and you'll grind through tires left and right, and that might not be a pressing safety thing, but it could cost you

more money than you saved it in the long run. Exactly. And Carvana, the rest of them, same thing. They're buying these cars, and it's a good, it's a bargain, I think, for the buyers, if they're careful and have the vehicles checked out, Carvana's losing money hand over fist. I don't know about Vroom, but I do know that Offleash only is making money hand over a fist. So Carvana might not be around with this unless they have a successful IPO. And when they do, they're allowed to raise their prices. They're able to be able not to offer you as much when they buy your car. That's right, but make hay while the sun shines.

Exactly. Have you heard, this is anonymous feedback, have you all heard of dealers offering tires for life programs? And what are your thoughts on it? And then it says, Tires for Life is a program where, as long as you own your car and you follow their maintenance schedule, they offer you free tires when you need them. So what are your thoughts, Cyril? Well, we have that program in our dealership. We're one of the few that do it.

It's a very controversial program. It's a very expensive program. The requirements at our dealership is that you have all your factory recommended maintenance done with us, with my business. dealership and we do it because there's a business reason for doing it. Statistically, when you buy a car from a dealer and you bring that car back to that dealer for service, you're twice as likely to buy your next car from that dealer. So we have a selfish motivation. The motivation is not in having the car service with our dealership because, first of all, your Toyota, you get two years free service. Some Toyota

with Toyota Guard, you get virtually four years free service, and the amount of service and maintenance done on today's cars is nominal. The motivation, the selfish motivation we have is if you're twice as likely to buy a car from me, because you're bringing back to service, that makes up

for the huge costs that we have of supplying free tires for as long as you're on the car. There you go. We have another one here. It says, good morning. I hear you say change conventional oil every 5,000 miles. I hear others say 3,000 miles. My owner's manual for my 09 Kia Optima says change every 7,000 miles or 12 months.

So who's correct? Also, I've had different dealership service and independents tell me not to follow the mileage or time in my owner's manual because the oil would be bad and sludgy. Thank you and I apologize for the long question. I'll answer, but Rick will give you the better answer. My answer is simple and short. Always follow the manufacturer's oil change recommendations. recommendation. And the only thing that I can add to that is sometimes there are environmental factors that can make you want to change a little more often, but I would simply do it by every once in a mile, pull that div stick. If the oil's looking relatively normal, I wouldn't do it any more often than the factory recommends.

Sounds good. There you go. And it also sounds like the mechanic who told you that if you've did that, it's sludgy, is just, trying to get your business and in doing so in an unethical way. Yes. Here's a good one. Tesla, Tesla, Tesla. I've actually heard about the Tesla's crashing in parking lots when the summoned feature is used. Here's some details. The crash rate is very, very low, less than 100 and thousands of uses.

One crash was caused by another driver, not the Tesla. This is, by the way, from Elon Musk, just kidding. Not the Tesla. I made phone calls to five insurance companies yesterday asking about whether they are not. insure Tesla owners who have the Tesla with this feature and whether they'd cover an accident using this feature. Three insurance companies will insure Teslas and owners, but one mentioned outright that an accident caused by this feature would be an at-fault accident. One insurance company could not deduce from their underwriter whether such an accident or car with such a

feature would be covered. One insurance company denied coverage, not for the car and owner, but for an accident where this feature is used. I didn't know that. That's a really good way to figure out if it is a safe thing because you know the underwriters are studying, you know, the actuarial likelihood of accidents. So the fact that insurance company will cover this is pretty neat. And also it just makes sense that they would consider an at-fault accident if the car did it. Yeah. Interesting.

Pretty cool. Okay. Any more text? Yeah, we do. Okay. A really short one. How about mystery shopping Carvana? Well, we've done that.

We'll put together a report for next week and tell you what happened when we did it. Yeah, they come to your house. We had actually our used car wholesale manager pretend to buy that. Yeah, we did it for our internal purposes, but we can definitely share it on the radio next week. Yeah, they're a legitimate outfit, and I would have no qualms about people trying to buy a car from them. I can't tell you that I was speaking with a Toyota executive who I won't mention the name because typically they want to do their business with Toyota dealers, had to sell his car and he tried Carvana and you could say he was doing research but they showed up at his house a rep came in with paperwork ready to go he had given begin a figure online

for his Toyota Tacoma came in they gave him a really good price like we're talking about more than he expected to get showed up didn't even look at the car had him sign a few things and towed the car away from him and he got a check that day and it was a pretty impressive seamless 21st century experience. And he was a little bit concerned because he says, I don't know very many dealers who could pull that off. And especially without a secondary inspection of the car, I mean, he got the number online, they showed up, went right to the kitchen table, and left with the car. You know, I suspect, I think like so many startups, Carvana is trying to build their revenue and their sales. And the cool thing about these startups, dot com kind of startups, is the fact that

they can lose money and it's okay because they start out with the private investors private equity that gives them a huge amount of capital and then they do the IPO and when an IPO comes out now a high-tech IPO by carvana the questions they ask isn't are you making money they say how much we only lost a billion last year wow that they can still it's like shark tank yeah then they raise six billion and now they got now eventually they have to get profitable but not for another five years. So take advantage of Carvana. And I don't say don't get another bid on your car,

but if you want to trade your car in or sell your car, let Carvana come out to your house and give you a number. Meanwhile, you've already shopped it, and if it's a great number, grab it. Take advantage of them. That's right. Nancy's got a text, right? I do.

Rick, you do have some. We got one quick one here. Okay, you can go ahead. This is from Mark and St. Louis. I've got three marks on YouTube today. That's pretty cool. Cool. Mark, 3.

Stu, you'd probably be the best one on this one. He's asking, good morning. Can I negotiate a remote starter add-on as part of a new car deal since the manufacturer does not install this feature on this vehicle? Everything can be negotiated. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. As a matter of fact, you might want to start with a cliche. Can you throw it in? But make sure all the advice that we give on this show has to be followed. So you have to get different bids, different prices from different dealers because they might throw in, give you free, give you a discount on a remote start package, something they'd install at the dealership. But you could be paying too much for the car anyway. You could be getting too little for your trade. They could be building in a lot of interest rate. So the same rules still apply. So, yeah, you can try and get it thrown in.

I'd save it for last. I'd do what you said. Exactly. Negotiate a really slam-dang-diam-dusy of a price, the best price you've ever seen. And when you're ready to buy, throw in the remote. The only thing I need now is a free remote start. Free remote, yeah. Now, this is not a Toyota commercial because I'm thinking all manufacturers are getting into this.

A lot of the cars are now coming connected with cellular technology. built into the car. It gives telemetrics to the dealership and the manufacturer on the health of your car. And what used to be a pretty, not terribly expensive, but an add-on, dealer-installed option, remote start, is now kind of part of the car with an app that you have on your smartphone. And I have it on my car. A lot of the cars have it, and you don't have to have it installed. It's just part of the car now. So that's coming for probably most manufacturers. Interesting. I still was just text me there.

Oh, Frank and Jupiter Farms texted that to us. He says he saw this at a tire dealer yesterday, and it's a sign. I love it. We're all holding it up right now. It says, warning airbag recall, and it's about Toyotas, and it's identifying affected Toyotas with the Takata Airbag recall and a number that you can call to, I guess it's, oh, it's going directly to the Toyota Customer Experience number.

It's just some information letting you know that you need to get your car checked and take care of those recalls if it's affected. Yeah, just in case you've been living under Iraq, Florida has the highest number of Takata airbags on the road of any other state, and they have the highest rate of instances of exploding airbags, injuries, accidents. We're a high heat, a high humidity state, and we have a whole lot of cars, and we have a lot of Dodge City when it comes to the way these cars are sold. So just a heads up to you out there. If you're buying a used car, just remember, There's no law in federally or in the state of Florida that makes it required to disclose. Just disclose the fact there's a dangerous recall or it took out of airbag on your car. And also, there's no law saying that it can't sell the car.

So in Florida, and I guess almost all the other states, you can sell a dangerous product and it's okay. Outrageous, stupid. So what do you do about it? Safercar.gov. and it's the only way you're going to find out buyer beware protect yourself go to www.safercar.gov put your vent in

and find out if that car you're getting ready to sign on the dotted line and give them a check for be sure it does not have a dangerous recall Yeah, and knowledge is power folks that shrapnel kills and to drive a car off the lot with a takata recall

I don't know why it's happening but it continues to happen. And make sure you do multiple sources. We just, a couple of weeks ago, we did one, didn't even show up on safercar.gov. It was on the Mercedes website, and it was on the Carfax report, but it wasn't on the recall, because the manufacturer has to report that to the NHTSA,

and if they don't, or if there is a delay, you might miss it. Right. We have to do our homework, folks. Give us a call to all free at 877-9-60-99-60, and you can text us at 7-7-2-4-9-6. Sylvia's back about her shopping for a used car, and she wants to know, Earl, why is it so difficult for me to get a final price on the phone from a salesperson or a manager? That's the car business, Sylvia. That's, unfortunately, the way business was done in the early

19th century, or I should say 20th century, and it might have been 19th century, horse trading, you know. and when you get the 20th century, car dealers, haggle, and hassle, they do not want to give you your right to be able to shop and compare prices. If you get a firm price over the phone, you can take that firm price if it's legitimate, and that's another reason you don't get an honest price. But if you get an honest, low price on the phone, what would you do? You do what you're supposed to do. When you buy anything, go to another source and shop and compare the price.

That's your right in America to buy the... product, the best product at the lowest price. Car dealers deprive you of that right, and that's the reason whether you go in, call on the phone, or oftentimes even online, cannot get the real price. They'll give you a price, but

it won't be an out-the-door price. It'll be a price with dealer accessories added after you go in or hidden fees added after you sign on the dotted line. Yeah, and recently I invented a tool and you can go to Erlon cars and you can obtain that affidavit.

and that will ensure that you do get that final price and it will avoid any dealer installed accessories, dealer fees, and it's really worth its weight in gold. Again, it's a tool for an honest price and finally from a car dealer. And you can email that, have them sign it, have the manager sign it, have the salesperson sign it, and if they don't, leave.

We are going to go to Paul, who's holding from Jupiter. Good morning, Paul. Hello, good morning, everyone. How are you today? Good morning, Paul. Good. I'm a regular listener. A couple of things.

You guys were talking about oil changes this morning on a couple of occasions. How do you feel about going from a conventional oil and then possibly changing to a synthetic blend or a fully synthetic, and then maybe switching back to conventional. How do you feel about that? Rick? It really can't hurt anything to do that. I know there was this old saw a while back about if you switch to synthetic and you switch back to conventional, it'll blow your engine up.

No, that's not going to happen. Whatever oil you choose to use is up to you. However, even if you do switch to, synthetic oil. I would still stick with the manufacturer's recommended interval. I know they've got mobile one says, oh yeah, it's good for $10,000, $15,000. They've got all these wild claims. Those are the type of claims that, unfortunately, they may not stand behind it and repair your engine if you have a problem. Whereas Ford or Chevy, if you can show that you've done your oil changes, as they recommend from the manufacturer, they will cover it under warranty.

But switching to synthetic is not going to cause a problem, and switching back from synthetic to regular is not going to cause an issue. But stick with what is recommended for the weight for your car as well. If your car says it needs synthetic oil, stick with synthetic. Does that answer your question, Paul? Yeah, it sure does. One thing I'll add that will make you maybe. feel a little better about that.

Synthetic oil is not really synthetic oil. Synthetic oil is actually fossil fuel oil. It's made from the same dinosaur remains that, what they call regular oil. It's just refined to a different degree.

So it's not like mixing oil and water. Synthetic oil and fossil oil are really pretty much the same thing, except one is refined to a greater degree. All right. I appreciate the information. I would like to say hello to my grandson, Joseph, out there listening right now.

He's only six years old. He's a future car guy. Hey, Joseph. Hey, Joseph. Good morning, Joseph, and I want him to be an avid listener as well. All right. Ask Joseph to call in sometime. He could set a record as being our youngest caller, and if he would call the show, we'd really love it. Maybe he'll call about recommended PSIs for his bicycle tires.

Perfect. Great. Rick get on that. Make sure you learn about that. Good morning, Joseph. A new listener. Fantastic. That's right.

The next generation of Erlon cars' listeners. Rick, when would you recommend UB40 oil? UB40 oil? That's a jerk. That's a nerd joke. That's a band. It's a band. Right, we got a text that came in.

Says, what happened to Isuzu? Why did they fail in the U.S.? I used to see a lot of SUVs in the 90s, and that's from Jack in Temakula, California. And I think they stopped selling cars here about 10 years ago, right? Still got the trucks. I see them on the road, occasionally. Now, I sent you a picture because I could have sworn there was a local Esuzu dealer.

So I Googled it, and I Googled an Asuzu dealer near me. And that was the image that came up if you want to show the, I'm not kidding. This is the put on camera, right? It's a, it looks like a country road and a field. So I guess the answer to the question. know if there's any active Asuzu dealers right now. What I remember the most was, I think in the 80s, because I was a child of the 80s, was Joe Asuzu, the commercials, the liar, and he was great.

Great commercial, yeah. Yeah, it was someone who tapped into the, you know, the reputation of car dealers back then that they were, you know, dishonest and all that. Probably helped further those stereotypes for a long time, but it was really funny. They probably conspired to get the Zuzu out of town. Yeah, but he was on there for a while. I think they also, the revive the Joe Assoo thing in the early 2000s. He had aged a lot.

The same actor did those commercials, but that was before they kind of slowed down. They still sell, I think, trucks. I mean, cars, you know, in the European market, I think in China, and also in Japan. It's a tough market in the United States. It's just bloody competition. And it's good for the consumers. I mean, it would be good if you were careful. Yeah, I saw a ton in Japan.

A lot of weird cars, the Japanese, are really like to, the small cars, and they're all over the place there. So I'm all caught up on my end. Okay, guys, I see by the clock that we are no longer taking calls. Audio goals. And it's time for everyone to vote on our mystery shopping report. It's a great mystery shopping report from Pompano Ford. So you want to stay tuned for that, and you can vote on the mystery shopping report at 772-497-6530.

and I see by Rick's voice, he has, excuse me, his face, and you'll hear his voice in a minute. I can hear that voice right through that face. My voice is visible. He's saying something to us. Well, we've got George is asking. He says, good morning. My daughter and I are going out today and search for her new car, a 2020. Is it true that we negotiate from the invoice price, or do we start at the Internet price?

You really don't pay any attention to the invoice. And actually, the MSRP is a more reliable tool to start from because it remains constant among all dealers. What car are they buying? They didn't say a make-a-model. George, what make-a-model? I'll wait for them to reply. But anyway, the important thing is, whatever maker model it is,

to take an MSRP that constitutes the car you want to buy in terms of equipment, accessories, whatever, and negotiate a discount from that MSRP with at least three dealers, competing dealers. And, of course, you have to take into consideration your financing cost and your trade-in cost. But the invoice is meaningless. The invoice contains a lot of profit to the dealer. And when a dealer tells you that he's going to sell your car at invoice, he's implying he'll sell

to you at his cost. It is far from his cost. a lot of car dealers would kill to be able to sell all their cars at invoice. I can only speak for Toyota, but I can tell you this, if you get to see the actual physical copy of the Toyota new vehicle invoice, and they can get it for you, it's right there on the computer. They don't have to go back to the office and pull down of a file. It's on the computer, and you actually look at it.

There's a paragraph. You'll see the actual invoice price of the options. They'll show you what the invoice price is, with the retail prices, and then there's a little paragraph at the bottom and that's where it lists what Earl was referring to the holdback and it will show you it'll say this vehicle has $574 and holdback

$250 and financial assistance this and that a few things you add that all up that's the extra profit there again and if there's dealer cash that actually essentially reduced the invoice the thing that my problem with calling it an invoice is it's not an invoice I mean if you go to Webster and you look up

invoice. That's the price that somebody pays for a product. And the dealer doesn't pay that price. Dealer does not pay the invoice price. Well, he sends the money and he sends the money and they kick back. The invoice has kickbacks, thousands of dollars of kickbacks with dealer cash and whole banks and advertising money and floor plan reimbursement, et cetera. If you try that with doing your taxes, you would go to jail. You'd go to jail. Really? So I can sell you a card invoice and I make $4,000.

That's what I call a deal. I would say with Toyota's, about half the cars are sold below invoice. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. They have to be advertised no lower than invoice, but the transaction prices. That's a Toyota rule, and Honda has the same rule, which is another show, and something that irritates me. That's right.

Where are we here? We're ready for the mystery shot. Okay. folks let me remind you of Earl's column which pairs very well with our mystery shopping report today and take a look at it you can go to Earl on cars and Stu mentioned it earlier but I'll reiterate earl's Costco auto buying program tutorial and boy is it loaded with information so you want to take a look at that and real quick before you get started we did say last week that we would have a female mystery shopper this week and the groundwork was done.

I had a situation this week that took my attention away from it, so we sent in Agent Thunders just for efficiency I didn't have time to train the new shopper, but next week, I promise we will have a female mystery shopper. Wow, great.

Wonderful. Mystery shop of Pompano Ford, Costco style. This week, we're refocusing on the Costco Auto Program, one of the best ways to get a great low price on a new car. But if we've discussed over the years, car buyers must be wary of the many pitfalls that are associated with the Costco program.

We feel the program doesn't do enough to prevent dealers from freely using some of their most insidious tactics, charging surprise dealer fees at the last minute in adding dealer-installed equipment, or maybe the dealer equipment's already been installed, they just don't tell you about it. We've also discussed how many, if not most, Costco members sometimes do not follow the rules of the program. They expose themselves to the risk of being taken advantage of. This happens when the Costco member doesn't go through the official process of submitting their purchase inquiry on the Costco Auto Program website. Got to do that. Very, very important.

Despite these problems, Costco members generally have a better time buying a car than most. They certainly get a good price. That's why I've confidently endorsed the Costco Auto Program over the year. years. However, it needs to get better. The Costco brand is so respected and admired that its name deserves a process that is representative of the member experience at the Costco warehouse. After this show, in a few minutes, after 10 o'clock, Nancy and I are going by the Costco warehouse in Palm Beach Gardens and buying 30 chickens. And buying 30 chickens on North Lake Road. We're going by because Earl's buying more cookies.

Why do we like Costco? We like Costco because we trust Costco. We walk into a Costco warehouse, and I know that any product I buy will have a maximum markup of 15%. I also know that Costco negotiates like Walmart and all the big stores, and they buy products extraordinarily low, and they pass the savings along to you. We know that if we buy a product that we make a mistake on, we can bring it back for any reason. We know that people treat you with respect and courtesy in Costco. And we love Costco. It has the strongest brand.

And hot dogs. And hot dogs. And chickens for $4.99. And free samples. Roasted chicken. But we jest here, but the fact of the matter is the Costco auto buying program, the Costco auto buying program is using the Costco name. and because the Costco name is so trusted, it's a disservice to Costco that they don't tighten up on the rules. Yeah, you suggested in the car on our way over here that I shouldn't start my rant, and I won't.

But that brand is invincible in its transparency, and it just tells you, it's so telling, it's so honest, and you don't expect to be taken advantage of. I want you to rant. I want to see the rant. All right, let's go back to the report. Now, here's the change that Costco could make, and you'll be able to find that at www.org, ain't going to happen.com, because we've tried. We've tried.

We think that you should be able to email a Costco certified dealer or call a Costco certified dealer, get the Costco out-the-door price, including the dealer-installed accessories and all hidden fees. Get it on the phone or get it by email. If you're a Costco member, now that's what you can do with Costco.

You can get that online price and you don't have any hidden fees and you don't have any Costco installed accessories. So if Costco were to make that one change... Right there on the website. On their website. As soon as you submit, the price, everything.

You get the price. www. Ain't going to happen.com. The dealers would flee from Costco in the tens of thousands because they would attack the Costco auto bike program, they would boycott the auto prime program, and it would not happen. That's what they did to true car. When true car, the car dealers almost put true car out of business when they first started.

So what can we do? Well, we do what I did with a blog. Earl's Costco Auto Buying Program tutorial I'm holding it up to the camera you can go to earlancars.com go to earlancars.com It's my current blog and it's a tutorial

and if you follow my tutorial at Costco you will come out with one heck of a price a lowest price you can possibly buy that car for just go to earlancars.com and read my blog it's called

Earl's Costco auto buying program tutorial. I will continue with a Mr. Shopping report. There's nothing more telling about if you walk away and you don't get

the good deal that you should get to register and write a review of your visit to the dealership. Well, I'll tell you what. You'll get some attention. Back in June of 2018, we mystery shop

pomp on those Ford's Costco sales process. Agent Eck, played it straight, all the proper Costco auto program procedure. We're happy to see the popping a Ford mostly followed the rules too. Their biggest failure came when Agent X

asked to see a copy of the vehicle invoice. Now this is your right under the Costco program. The salesperson said he couldn't get the invoice because his manager was on a meeting. Right. Yeah. We passed them anyway, but with reservations. We said

we'd be back and here we are. This time the mystery shopper was Agent Thunder. Ring the Thunder. Speaking as if I were Agent Thunder, the first person, I began my mission at www.com. And you go there yourself, always use this website, Costcoauto.com. Where I selected a new 2019 Ford F150 and entered a Pompano Beach zip code. I filled in my contact information and Costco member card number, then clicked Select Dealer. It's pretty easy.

Yeah, very easy. Popano Ford was revealed as a participating Costco dealer and I'll repeat as I said earlier in the show if you don't see a dealer pop up just move your zip code around there will be a Costco certified dealer you might have to drive a few miles

but just because one doesn't pop up and your zip code move south north east west you know until you find one I checked my email and found an automated response from the Costco auto program the email confirmed my request and showed me a list of eight

Wow. Eight authorized Costco representatives at Papineau Ford. We have 30. I'm just kidding. It seems like a lot. Usually there's a handful of it. There's nothing wrong with as long as they actually did the training. No.

The email indicated that I would be contacted by my authorized dealer contact, and I was expected to make an appointment with him or her. A moment later, I received a nice email from John, my authorized dealer contact at Papineau Ford. had a large Costco logo on top and a note from John that said he was informed I was interested in a new F-150 and they had attached several documents

this shocked me when I read this to send me the report attached documents the window sticker nice touch vehicle invoice wow and the Costco price sheets he asked that I review the documents and let him know if the vehicle and price presented was

suit my needs. At this point, as I was revering the shop, and Stu put the shop together. I felt warm and fuzzy. Yeah, I felt very warm and fuzzy. However, there were no documents attached. We'll talk about this later. We'll talk about this later. As I pondered this, my phone rang it with John. Now, by the way, we re-mailed and asked to see the documents. That was last night, so I'll check and we'll report back next week. John introduced himself as the Costco rep from Pompano Ford. He wanted to set an appointment to see me. I didn't mention the missing attachments to his email, and I agreed to meet him at 1 p.m. that day.

I drove down to the dealership in Pompano, tried to park in the crowd a lot, couldn't find a parking place, had a park on Sight Street. Pompano Ford's doing a lot of business, apparently. I looked at, I Google image them. It looked like a lot of inventory cars. They might have been busy. I don't know. I went inside, saw our receptionist,

seated behind a big curb desk. She was talking on the phone. I'll wait for a few seconds, walked over to a row of workspaces on my right. I said hello to a man seated there, asked him if he knew where I could find John. The man asked, what I needed. I told him I was a Costco member and that John was the Costco rep. He gave him my name. He said, oh, I can help you with that.

I replied that I had an appointment with John at 1 p.m. The man asked if I spoke to John directly. and I said that I had. Then he said, let's go get John. Now, Stu's chuckling and I'm chuckling because what happens. Skate attempt. Exactly. A skating, and that's an internal term

cardio, that means you seal another person's... I smell a shark in water there. We steal another person's customer. And you try to steal Costco customers, and then you just give them the best price you can't, and you get 25% of however much you can raise the

price, and that's what car salesman will do in Costco dealerships. So we went in being adamant about what we were going to do. And what's funny is this salesperson who tried to skate was familiar enough with the program knowing that this Agent Thunder had seen John's name, and he wanted to, did you actually speak with him? Because if he hadn't spoken with them, then he would have taken over. Yeah, yeah. John would have been out. That's exactly right. So you have to be aggressive, you have to be very firm, stick to your guns, and get that Costco-certified salesperson's name. If they're not working that day, if they say they're on vacation, they either ask for another name on the list, or if there isn't another name, say,

I'll come back when he's back from vacation. Don't speak to a non-C Costco. But there's eight. You can say, listen, I know you've got eight of them. Let me talk to one of them. Yeah, exactly, exactly. after insisting he took me to an office

where John was seated he had a broken leg didn't happen just then did it no I don't think so that's a little joke and apologize for not getting up he was nice John was we chatted for a few minutes before

John got to business he thanked me for choosing popping it forward asked me if I was familiar with how the Costco Auto program worked I said I knew a little bit about it began to explain the program there was no haggle

and they sold the car at invoice price, which is not what they do. As I say, you want to be careful to buying a car at invoice price. Likely, you're paying way too much. And sometimes there are special incentives. John then pulled up my information on his computer, said he already had the F-150 I'd selected ready to show. He said, unfortunately, I won't be able to help you today because I'm having a hard time walking.

You'll be working with Nick. And by the way, Nick is one of the listed Costco games. Yes, Nick was already at the door. He said, this is John, here's Nick. I got up, walked over to Nick, shook his hand. Nick seemed a little stressed and preoccupied. Interesting. He held his fingers up, said he'd be right back and left.

John said he may have someone in finance. Nick came back with a woman. He introduced her as Christina. Now, this really sounds silly, right? It's goofy. We're going from this person to this person. to this person. Let me explain. Happens all the time. Yeah, happens all the time.

Car sales payable are paid 25% of the profit. A real Costco price has virtually no profit. Certainly for the salesperson, there's no commission. On a Costco deal, you're probably not going to make a commission. If you're a certified

Costco salesperson, there will be a commission, but it would be a mona, and it would be a very small commission. Nothing to get excited about. Nothing to get excited about. So, this is explained. Nick's frustration and stress and why the Costco I interpreted it that he might when he said he had somebody in finance he might have been juggling too many customers and John said hey you got to help this person and he's like what are you

talking about these guys will be out in ten minutes but nobody other than a certified Costco salesman wants to sell a car Costco if it's going to be a legitimate price from Costco if they can bump the price because they get 25% of whatever they can raise the price for. Nick came back with a woman, Christina. She said he'd be helping me. John interrupted. Christina wasn't an authorized Costco rip.

We're seeing a lot of flip-flops here, and Stu and I are both scratching our heads on this. We think that up the line, maybe the dealer himself or the general manager, someone there wants the Costco program to work. But unless you inspect what you expect, Unless you, I've just got a red phone call, then you have to be very leery of the fact that you're going to be taken advantage of in a Costco. Yeah.

I've got a problem here. Hey, Stu, you have to come back in. Anyway, I'm going to continue with it. I'll explain this if I have time after I've finished the job report. at any rate Christina was taking over for this shop Nick responded by telling John

that it was okay Christina would show me the truck and do the test drive but they would take care of the paperwork John said fine Christina was nice, efficient she asked for my driver's license explained she didn't make a copy of it

she offered me a seat and said she would pull the truck around she returned about 10 minutes and walked me to the truck It was a big, beautiful, gray pickup, $62,490 MSRP. She said she had filled up the tank with gas, washed it, and had the AC cranking. There was a bottle of water and a couple of real nice touch. Christina made a pleasant conversation on the test drive and talked about all the truck's features.

We returned to the lot and went inside. Christina led me to her workstation and offered me a cup of coffee. Very nice touch. Water, coffee, fill the tank up with. gas, everything good is happening. I accept it. We sat down. She asked me if electric enough to take it home. I said I loved it. I was looking forward to seeing my price. I remember this is a Costco auto buying program and we ended up with Christina, who was not a member of the Costco auto buying program. She asked me how I planned to pay for it. I said I

wanted to finance it. I had $15,000 to put down, but wanted to see the cash price first. She said, get that for me. I stopped her and said I understood that John and or Nick would be taking care of the paperwork. That's what they told me earlier. Christina replied, she was getting the price from John. Now this is getting to be flim flammy. You know, this whole shopping report was very interesting to me and I hope to you. She returned with a copy of the Monroney label in a sales worksheet. MSRP 62,400490. Discounts and incentives, $5,718. Rebates, $3,500.

See how complicated these things get. Selling price, $53.722. I'm sorry, $53,272. Salesex, $3,513. And this is in bold type, crazy. Tag fees. Ready for this? $1,381.

Ain't going to happen. com. Tag fees. No way you're going to pay $1,381 for tag fees. Now this whole Costco concept is crashing and burning. We had such high hopes, and now we're in the weeds. In fine print below the figures, tag fees was defined as $425 estimated tag fee, $799, $799 dealer fee, confession in fine print, And then they have a little tire fee for a buck and a half battery fee for two bucks.

And then the $149, $149, $149, electronic filing fee. Rick. Maybe I'm just being real picky about this one, but $2 lemon law fee? Is there an actual lemon law fee in Florida? There is, yes. Okay. I pretended to be enthusiastic about the price, and Christina asked if I want to move forward. I said, I did, but I need my wife to come in and sign.

I say we could both return Saturday morning. Christina replied with, let me go get my manager. She left and returned right away with William. He introduced himself, shook my hand. Then he complimented the great deal I was able to get. Man, you got hooked up today, didn't you? He asked if I wanted to sign my portion and had my wife sign it when it was convenient. I said, we needed to stick with the plan.

I thanked him for the great service and said, I see him Saturday. Now, we're running a little short on time here. Let me sum this up. We started out on a right track. I think that the original Costco person had good intentions. I think it got away from him and got into the hands of a sales manager and a man and a salesman that both were trying to take advantage of me as the mystery shopper. The price that we ended up being quoted, we checked.

And it was not a really, really good price. It was the price that they have online, posted online. Costco Auto Buying Program rule is the price must be lower than you will sell that vehicle to any other customer. So it could not have been a legitimate Costco price. And they added back in the fees and the dealer install options. and it was a flim flam, a manipulation, a scam, an abortion of the Costco auto buying program, and shame on Pompano. And I just got to say quickly, I apologize. Stu ran out because I got a red phone call, and I stream my phone calls and my hearing aids.

I figured that out quickly. And he was talking out there, and that's what. So my apologies for my panic during the mystery shopping report. But we do need to vote on Pompano Ford on the Costco auto buying program. Oh, you're already finished? I missed the whole thing. You missed the whole thing. Well, I know how it ends.

The butler did it. Stu, your vote, because you're most familiar with it. Okay, well, they get an F, and they get an F for just kind of, well, they started off great, and then it all disintegrated from there. The fees were ridiculous. I've never seen that before on a buyer's order or a worksheet where they, number one, mislabel all the dealer fees as tag fees, which is unconscionable. And then down in the fine print, it breaks it down to a bunch of dealer fees and stuff you shouldn't be paying. Nothing was followed.

No member-only price sheet. Now, we did email, I don't know if you mentioned this, we did email them to ask them to send the missing attachments. And maybe it's there. So anyway, I give them an F. They're coming on Facebook right now. Linda gives them a big fat F, off-the-wall F, and Steve Ward is being very, very charitable, gives him a D, and those are the ones that came in so far.

Well, they've got about a minute and a half, Rick. Mark Smith, F, Ernesto F, Abel, F, and myself, F. Me, F, Nancy. Okay, so many rules broken, disappointing on so many levels. Remember, folks, this is a Costco brand. I give it an F. I'm sending this report to Costco Auto Buying Program and to Costco itself.

They need to clean up the rack. Rich gives them a D-Minus. So there you go. Yeah, there we go. Off the list. So go to Earl on Cars, look at Earl's Costco Auto Buying Program tutorial. We still recommend Costco to buy a car,

but be sure to use the Earl's Costco Auto Buying Program tutorial at EarlandCars.com. I'm holding it up right there. Okay, folks. We've got one minute left. I want to take the moment to thank all of you for tuning in to Earl Stewart on cars. We so enjoy your company.

And to thank everyone involved here, Stu, Rick, Jonathan for all of their help in putting the show together. And this mystery shopping report that Stu certainly shines on. And thanks to Agent Thunder, everyone have a wonderful weekend. We'll be right back here next session. Saturday morning at 8 a.m. See you next week. That was so terrible. I didn't hear him like.

Let's go.