Earl Stewart on Cars - 10.06.2018 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of King Hyundai

Episode Date: October 6, 2018

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

Welcome to Earl Stewart on Cars with Earl and Nancy Stewart. Reach them with your questions at 877-960. Here's Earl and Nancy. Well, good morning, everybody. We're back. Time flies, doesn't it? I can't believe it's Saturday again. My name is Earl, and I'm a recovering car dealer.

I hope that's the old audience back, and I hope we've got some new folks out there. If you're new, as I say, I'm a recovering car dealer. and this is a unique show. If you're just tuning into true oldies and expecting music, well, you got me instead. I'm not going to sing to you. But what I'm going to try to do for the next two hours is answer any of your questions you may have about cars.

The purpose of the show is not just a car talk thing, you know, a lot of shows on cars. This is a show about how not to be ripped off by your car dealer. I really don't care for that expression ripped off. but it's a sound bite that sticks with you make some people angry other people understand what i'm talking about the car buying and leasing experience is just not a happy one it hasn't been for your lifetime and uh it hasn't been really for my lifetime i started in the business in 1968 um as a young car dealer and uh i've been at it ever since almost half a century so you do

think that times would change. You know, they always say times they're changing. Everything else has changed in the way things are retailed, sold to you, except for automobiles. And for some reason, and there is a reason, by the way, just on a mystery, car dealers have been stuck in a time warp, and they're still doing business the way I say they, we, I'm a car dealer in full disclosure. Car dealers, we're doing business the way we did 50 years ago. If you bought a car in 1958 or 68 or 78, hey, walk into a dealership today, 2018, almost 2019. It's going to be the same thing. They won't give you a price unless you're ready to buy today, and when they do give you a price,

it won't be the out-the-door price. You're going to have all sorts of prizes when you sign in in what they call the business office. They're going to charge your fee after fee after fee, and then they're going to rake you over the coals with an exorbitant entry. trade and a lot of what they call products extended warranties maintenance contracts gap insurance you name it they'll try to sell it to you the price that you thought you can buy the car for is going to be raised by thousands of dollars and they get away with it so that's why we're here Earl Stewart on

cars and I'm not alone in the studio here I've got a team I couldn't do this by myself we've got a Rick Kearney who has to my right Rick is a certified diagnostic master technician and I call them an auto computer scientist cars are complicated today the good news is even though cars are far more complicated today than they ever were they're better and they're computers and they're kind of hard to fix sometimes and you know when your computer goes a little bit off today every time there's a recall it's a computer problem. Rick and I were just talking about that before we went on the air. Toyota has another

recall. It's a software update that didn't work the first time. Now they got to redo it. Very complicated. So Rick has to go to school all the time and he has to continually study to keep up with technology. If you bought a car five years ago, it's obsolete today. I hate to tell you that. Now, I don't mean the fact that it won't run well. Runs better than the one you bought before that one it's a great car except for the fact that there are a huge amount of safety features and other features electronic computerized that are coming out at the speed of light it seems like every time you see a new model they have something else Rick has to stay on top of that so if you have any questions about your car mechanically electronically computer-wise

what kind of car should you buy or if you have a button that you don't know what it does or or you'll wonder about some of the things you read with the blind side warners, the blind spot warnings and other things. The gadget that keeps you in the lane when you're going on the road, the backup cameras. Hey, that's old now, backup cameras. And sitting to Rick's right is Nancy Stewart. She's my co-host, and Nancy has a very special place on the show

because she represents half the audience. she is a strong female advocate and you can't pick up a newspaper turn on the TV, go online it's all about women today finally the world is waking up to the fact that women are half the equation it's kind of strange

they buy half the cars you think the auto manufacturers and the auto dealers would figure out that they're equally important to men but the car dealers as I say, living in the last century. Nancy and I are re-watching Mad Men. If you watch Mad Men, you'll understand what I'm talking about, what I'm saying about women being treated with respect and courtesy.

And they haven't been. And when you go into a car dealership today, too many times that doesn't happen. So Nancy is on the warpath, and she has understood this for a long time, and she is talking about it, and she's trying to help you ladies out there. and Nancy, you've got a little special something for the ladies when they call the show.

I do. Good morning to everyone. Ladies, first two new lady callers. I have $50 for each one of you. Please stay tuned. Give us some information. Share your thoughts with us, and we have a wonderful mystery shopping report, and I would like you to be part of that and to grade it by texting us? Well, you know, it's important. The reason we want to hear from you ladies, and Rick Kearney has talked about this too, he says that when he speaks to a customer in the service drive, the one cool thing about the females is they're not afraid to ask questions. And men, I don't know what it is about us men, the macho, I know it all.

You know, the common criticism men when they're driving. car traveling. They won't stop and ask directions. They'd rather drive around lost for half an hour that admit they don't know where they're going. Women are intelligent enough and candid enough when they come into a car dealership to tell it like it is. Say, this is my problem. Can you explain this to me? And this is a reason we love female callers because you will be honest with us on the air and tell us exactly what some of the difficulties you have when you're buying, maintaining, or repairing your car. So, as Nancy just said, $50 coal cash, no conditions, no strings attached.

You call the show, you can give us a suggestion or comment or not, but when you call the show the first two, female callers, $50 cash. And to Nancy's right, we have my son. He's Earl Stewart III, but he's also Stu. We call him Stu. And, you know, he's a little bit past millennial, but he's up there into the the cyber world, cyberspace, and he's our communication. Like, radio is old-fashioned.

I hate to say this because I'm on the radio, but radio is kind of old-fashioned. I mean, you've got a lot of other media out there that is far more popular, and he's trying to keep us up to the time. So we're on Snapchat, we're on Instagram. We're streaming this live right now on live Facebook video. So you can get us on Google search. You're going to get us anywhere in cyberspace. We'd love to have text from you.

We have a text number, which is area code 772-4976530. That's 772-4976530. Text come through to Stu, and if you're streaming us online, that's Facebook.com for slash earl-oncars.com. Facebook.com, www. www.com, www.org slash earl-oncars.com. You don't need the extra.com. Huh? You don't need the extra. Oh, I'm sorry.

See, that's me. That's the reason we have, Stu. I do that all the time. Too many dot coms, and I say pound instead of hashtag. So, Stu keeps me straight. So we got Facebook.com, 4 slash Erlon Cars. And you can stream us live. You can post.

And we will read your post on the air, and we'll answer them. And you get texts us, as I just said. And you can call us. You know, telephones are kind of old-fashioned. But you can call us at 877. 960 9960 that's 877

960 9090 60 and I see we have Tina holding Tina I got one more thing I want to say Tina is one of our very best callers she's female and she has got

amazing insight from her side of the street the female side of the street and let me tell you someone boys she knows more than a lot of you on the boy side of the street so I can't wait to get to the end in just a second.

I want to give out my justification for you naysayers out there that say, what are you doing, mainly in the automobile industry. We've got some people, manufacturers, people from Toyota, Honda, Mazda, General Motors, Chrysner, Ford, people in the industry saying, you're giving the, car dealer is a bad name. And I say, to answer that, I'm not going. give them a bad name. I'm just saying the emperor has no clothes. I'm calling attention to the bad name. And my proof, my justification for this is a Gallup poll on honesty and ethics and professions. It is the perfect proof that car dealers are treating people unethically and

dishonestly. And they've been doing it since at least 1977, because that's how long the Gallup poll has been out. In 1977, and the question there just simply says, which businesses do you consider the most and least honest and ethical? And car dealers are at the bottom of the barrel. The bottom. We're down there with congressmen, lobbyists, lawyers,

down there with people, with professions and business that people hold in disdain. We're not looked up to, and we shouldn't be looked up to. shouldn't be looked up to. I say we, because as I said earlier, in full transparent, you're listening to a car dealer right now, but I'm a recovering card dealer. So that's my justification, the Gallup, poll, and honesty, and ethics and professions. Now, let's get to one of our very best callers. Good morning, Tina. Welcome to Earl Stewart on course. Hi. How are you? Good morning. Good morning, everybody. Hey, Rick, I owe you an apology. I was teasing you last

week, and I think you took it a little bit wrong, so I'm sorry about that. No, not. Not. I at all. I felt about it. I'm like, oh, no, I think I made him mad. Nope. But anyway, I just wanted, I was doing a little looking at statistics yesterday, and guess what? Florida is number one, number one for economic fraud, and unfortunately, seniors are the

target, and among all the different categorizations of fraud, auto fraud was in the top 10 so Florida we're number one wow yeah so the bottom line is that this just underscores how much a show like earl stewart on cars is needed any of you out there if you have a mother or a grandmother a father or grandfather that's looking for a car this weekend please hold off your shopping trip listen to the archives on sound cloud or stitcher and listen to the show show before you make any kind of decisions because sometimes when you look online or look in the newspaper or whatever and see a car you really want, you kind of get that emotional excitement that you need to reel yourself back in and listen to the facts first and come

armed and ready when you go to the car dealership. So true. Earl is nodding along. Yeah. Yeah, it's, Tina, I get a lot of calls, as you want to imagine, text, emails. I get people communicate with me from all of the United States. States, YouTube has been an amazing source of calls when they see the YouTube's. And Jonathan Cantor in the control room there, and I'm waving at him, does a fantastic job

by exerting interesting points during the show and putting them on YouTube. And people call me, I'm going to say 50 to 60 percent of the calls are from seniors. And in Florida, Tina, as you so pointed out so accurately, we're number one. an economic fraud and what is a better target than the seniors and they're just it's easy to find demographically all you have to do if you're a if you're a liar cheating thief that wants to take advantage of somebody you can get you can get a database real simply you can buy email list a telephone list whatever you want people over 65 or whatever you want and you call those people and you count them and we come i say we because i'm a senior i'm 77

And I was born in 1940. We're targeted. And it's just so sad that we don't have a better defense. There are some agencies out there. There's the seniors against crime. And they do a great job. They're all volunteers. We have a South Florida division.

There's a middle Florida. They come under Pam Bondi in the Attorney General's office. Sadly, Pam Bondi gives them zero. support. And when they go to the Attorney General's office with a complaint, they're ignored, which is a sad thing. And there's some laws on the books about this, and those two are not looked at as carefully as they should. When you commit a crime against a senior in Florida, there is extra penalties, but there's not extra emphasis when the police enforcement and the Attorney General group goes out after it. So you hit on a real Achilles Heard.

in our legal system Tina we need more emphasis on protecting our seniors I don't mean to go on and on about this but I had one of the calls I had I'm keeping the name of the dealership confidential woman's 80-year-old husband with dementia was taken advantage of in a service department with a car dealership on the Treasure Coast and she's going in I'm working with her and she has an appointment with the service manager and I've given her the cell phone number of the owner of the dealership to be used as a last resort. But I will not mention the name of the dealership.

You've already given me enough information. Stu knows who I'm talking about. But this woman will be going in on Monday to try to resolve the issue. She got an estimate for the repairs, asked for an estimate, or the husband did, and was never given an estimate. Instead of an oil chain, she ended up with $1,000 worth of repairs. So hopefully this will be resolved on Monday. this will be resolved on Monday.

If not, then we're going to have to go to the mattresses on this and fight it. And Tina, you know, throughout the week, there's not a day that goes by that there isn't a senior citizen that contacts me. And it's after the fact. And most of the time, you know, we really, well, some of the time, we can't do anything about it. But there really has to be more protection for senior citizens. there's women that are left, you know, without a husband. They're widows.

They never, well, service the car, bought a car. Well, they're back in the mad men culture, and they go out there and they're prey and they get taken advantage of. So I would like to see more protection for the senior citizen. Yes, but we have to remember that the auto dealer's lobby, in the state of Florida, and throughout the country, especially in the state of Florida, is really strong, and they're going to fight to deregulate, not fight to regulate, unfortunately.

Yes, sure. So there's that whole issue as well. Well, we don't have a lot of cooperation from the, you know, people that can change things, the Gallup poll, for one, change so much about car buying, and it's unfortunate that we're still fighting, and we hope that there's going to be some people that will join us. Tina, you mentioned the lobbying agencies,

and I used to be a director many years ago for the Florida Automobile Dealers Association. In fact, I was on their executive committee, and I tried to work with the dealers to form sub-internal policing. Even the lawyers have internal policing. Most industries have some sort of internal controls. The car dealers, at least in Florida, reject this. and I told the Florida Automobile Deals Association

one day if you don't regulate yourselves then you're going to have the regulators come and get you that hasn't happened because sometimes money is more powerful than what is right and the long run what is right will prevail but right now the thing the Florida

in fact all the automobile dealers need is internal controls and regulation even the manufacturers will not step in They could regulate the dealers, but frankly, they're afraid to overregulate their own dealers because it's costing them sales volume. And the number one thing to a car manufacturer, Ford or General Motors or anybody, if the dealers sell a lot of cars, they're happy. How they sell them, they don't really care, which is a sad statement on the morals and ethics of the auto manufacturers. But, yeah, our laws are hamstrung right now, and the enforcement of those laws are hamstrung. strong by the strong lobbying.

Tina, you've got to hit it right on the head. You've got to figure it out. And thank you very much for a great call. Oh, thank you. And another thing that I wanted to mention, she, before I go, and we've talked about this before, but one of the things that dealers bait and switch senior citizens with is making them think that they are buying a vehicle, but they're actually getting them to sign leaf papers.

Be so aware of that. And if you are over the age of 65, if you're any age, like you said before, Earl, do not go to a car dealership by yourself. Make sure you take somebody with you that can read the fine print and decipher it and know what it is. Even if you have to pay that person, it's worth it to have that second person there. Great advice. Great advice. Thanks so much, Dana.

And I hope a lot of seniors out there are listening. Very important. Thank you so much. Oh, you're welcome. Power and numbers. Never go to a dealership alone. Give us a call toll free at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. Remember, we'd like you to be part of the Mystery Shopping Report by voting.

Let us know how you feel about the Mystery Shopping Report, and you can text us with your grade at 772-4976533. We're going to go to John. He, too, is a regular caller. Good morning, John. Good morning to everyone. I have what I say my answer to the recall problem. New York State has a mandate on their annual car inspections, which must be done once a year. If you don't have that sticker and you're not in the computer, you don't get your license renewed. Their mandate says, quote, any car that has a mechanical recall, on it. No matter what brand, they're plugged into the national computer, does not pass the New York State inspection. So naturally, no license renewal, no nothing. You don't get the car on the road. Now, we don't have, in Florida, state inspections. We really don't want it. And Rick will agree with me, Earl agree with me. We did in the past. Many states have stopped it completely, like New Jersey two years ago, okay? But here's the whole catch that we can do. we'd renew our car every year in the Motor Vehicle Bureau. It goes into a computer.

Actually, now it's so easy you don't even have to show proof of insurance because they know that right away. Okay, when the car has a safety or a mechanical, recall on it, you don't get your license plates. That's where I propose, and I think it could work. Now, another thing, I checked into New York first, other, okay? Not only that's a mandate, but why do I, there's a catch to the New York law, it's mechanical defect, not safety. In other words, Takata doesn't fall underneath that

because it's presently working when you bring the car in for inspection, and it's not, you know, on their list that it's considered mechanical. But here's the whole thing once I found out, and I can't be confirmed. I'm getting double talk when I called. New York law says a New York car dealer, a new car dealer, cannot sell new or use car with a recall on it. Now, I've tried to verify this. Use car, for sure. Wasted my time, double talk.

Call dealers, press 1, 01, nobody. I just got to run around. So what did I do? I call the under national hotline. What a mistake. Let me tell you. I think it's an outsource because the guy didn't speak English very much. well, all right? And what he tried to tell me is, I mentioned to him after he said, well, we have

little control over the deal of franchises. I said, what do you mean by that? He said, well, we can control the ones that a direct operation. I said, wait a minute, don't give me this direct operation. In Florida, there's no such thing. Everything is franchises. It's illegal to have a direct operation. So he hesitated for a minute. And he said, well, again, I've got to say we still have little control over what we can tell our dealers and what they can sell and this and that I said well let me give you for instance and that you don't tell me you didn't get complaints Paragon Honda in Queens New York City has had fines against them for you name it back then schemes I mean the Department of Consumer Affairs find them for literally millions so I said

now you're saying you don't have control over the dealer he said well we've had our problems with that dealer, all right? Yeah, he's added problems, but here's the story that's still in business, the dealer, and I said to him, again, you say little control over what you can do with your franchises. What about in Stewart, where I live here, that the Toyota franchise was totally taken away from him? Well, I thought I heard him drop to the floor then over there, and he didn't say anything, but I still don't know exactly. If that's a New York state law that no new car dealer can sell any car on the lot, new or used, with a recall on it. I haven't found that out 100% yet.

John, I think it points. But my proposal, again, is on your renewal, okay? In a state of Florida, it goes into the computer, national, you know, computer for the government. And if there's a recall on it, guess what? You don't get your license plate. that's my proposal well john i totally agree with you as far as new york goes the manufacturers don't allow a dealer to sell a new car with a with a recall so if they have a new car in the inventory the manufacturers prohibit so we don't need a law on that

manufacturers are pretty strict on that they watch it carefully my gripe with the manufacturers is they will allow you to sell a used car their mate car so if you're a honda dealer they say no no you can't sell that new car with a recall But if you have a current model used car, just because it's been titled on your lot, it's okay to sell. They won't even allow a person to rent a car with a recall. So you can't rent a car with a recall. You can't sell a new car with a recall, but you can sell as many used cars as you want with a recall. I totally agree with you, John, that there should be a law that the registration and tag should not be issued if there's an outstanding safety recall.

It's so simple, it's got to be embarrassing to the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles and every department of motor vehicles in the country. Why they don't do that? The why is the economic power of the manufacturers and the dealers. Now, in Australia, they just came up with a brand new law that goes into effect in December that makes it very, very difficult to sell a car. I won't go into the details of the law, but it is a very, very strong law. to slow down the sale of vehicles with defectives with recalls the auto manufacturers are up in arms the dealers are up in arms and they're fighting it problem being John there are so many cars out there without fixes so they're

looking at this as okay if I cannot if it's against the law for my dealer to sell a used car with a dangerous recall I have to tell him to hold the car if he holds a car I'm gonna have to compensate the dealer. If he holds a car there's not a fix, I'm going to have to compensate the customer that was driving that car. So you have these compensations up multiplied by tens of millions, and that's the reason the economic impact on the auto manufacturers and the dealers is so huge. They're stopping it from happening. They're hamstringing our government. They're lobbying heavily to stop something because of economic reasons, and they're costing the lives of American

drivers. That's a sad fact. And there are a lot of people out there listening to this show that know I'm right. There are a lot of politicians out there that are running for office right now that know I'm right. Democrats and Republicans. I'm an equal opportunity

hater of politicians. I hate the Republicans and I hate the Democrats. And I don't mean that literally. I don't like all politicians because they will ignore an issue that will not buy them more votes. They'll advocate an issue

that'll get them more votes. And the money from the auto industry, dealers and manufacturers, is so powerful they got the gags and the mouths of both parties, Republicans and Democrats, and it's a shame.

John, thanks for a great call. Just one question I want to ask you, do agree with me that we don't need a state inspection in the state of Florida? Would you agree with me on that? I agree with you on that. I don't think that the cars are so there was a time 25 30 years ago when it was necessary maybe longer today's cars are far far safer very few accidents are caused today by defects in cars the problem is

the safety recalls so we should have you're having the same thing you're having once a year you're going to have your car inspected it's going to be inspected when they put your VIN number in the computer and say you have a safety recall and no I'm not going to give you your license plate until you get that safety recall fixed and that would be an inspection and your idea is brilliant and that's what we should do but how are you going to overpower big auto and big dealer those those two groups are hundreds and millions of dollars in the pockets of our politicians and that's the reason they're staying moot on the subject they're afraid to lose that money to get them elected.

The answer is, like you say, you're not going to overcome them. Just like you're not going to overcome the dealer fee in the state of Florida. In the short room. You're making millions. If you take a $3,000 dealer fee and you multiply that times the cause that that dealer will sell in a year, boy, we are talking about a lot of money. You got that right, John. Did you know the first year, just to guess that we had state inspection in the state of Florida?

Would you care to guess? 1950. It ended in the 80s, and it started in 1969, and it was really a hassle because it was done only by the state, not by private dealers. Well, I sold Pontiacs in 1969, and they were a junkie, and a lot of cars were junky, and cars needed inspections because of mechanical problems. But today, I don't think you need that anymore, but you sure need control on the safety recalls. John, thanks for a great call. Please call again next week. Okay, have a good day Thank you, John

Look forward to hearing from you again Give us a call toll free at 877-9-960 Or you can text us We'd love to hear from me if you're a little shy At 772-4976530 Remember ladies First two new lady callers You can win yourself $50

I think we might have some text we need to read Yes, we do We have a few coming in. Actually, we have a nice little discussion going on on our live Facebook feed, our video, and it's relevant to our last conversation. So we have Craig is saying caveat emptor. He says people depend on the government to protect them too often. Andrea says, if I can find a comment again, she says inspections are only going to work,

making a license plate or a contingent on it passing an inspection for recalls can only work if the fix is available by the dealer and everyone has equal opportunity to have his or her car fixed. Exactly, or perhaps a rental car provided at the expense of the dealer or the manufacturer. Correct. Craig answers that inspections are horrible and unfair. And that's the conversation going on on Facebook right now. Yeah, I remember the inspections when they were a real pain, and they're not needed today. We just need control on the recalls. And we have Ammarie, who has texted us, and she says, good morning.

she's talking about our last caller Tina or a previous caller Tina Tina makes a good point about Florida being number one for fraud and then she said that makes me wonder have you ever heard of any car dealers in Florida ever sent to jail for fraud I've heard of a case in Arizona and another case

in Utah where a small dealer was thrown in jail but I've never heard of any dealers in Florida have you yes we have we have one and John from Palm City has pointed that out to us he went away for quite a while But it's an anomaly.

Very few dealers who are ever called out, prosecuted. Department of Motor Vehicles can take away their licenses. That rarely ever happens. And it's amazing how the Attorney General is always focusing on something that doesn't involve the automotive industry. If you look at the ranking, I'm not talking about the Gallup poll, but if you look at any of the ranking from the County Office of Consumer Affairs,

the violations by car dealers are very, very high. One of the most common complaints to the Better Business Bureau are about car dealers. Obviously, one of the big problems we have in Florida in all states are car dealers, but they're never prosecuted. Economic power, follow the money, follow Pam Bondi's campaign contributions

and follow the governor's campaign contributions. It's all about how much, can I get from the Florida Automobile Dealers Association to get elected, but you don't see anybody called out by the local media for any kind of a scam by car dealerships. It's amazing.

You sure don't. All right, we have another one. This is from April, and this is a sweet one. April says Earl, my husband loves your show, as do I. And she has a request. She wants to know if you can give him a happy birthday shout out to him. His name is Cable. He turned 71 yesterday.

Wow. Cable. Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear cable, happy birthday to you. And you said you wouldn't get any music this morning. There you go, happy birthday cable. And that's it for the text. We're all caught up. Fantastic.

772-4976530. We seem to be able to mind the text minds better. 772-4976530. Rick's sitting over here on my right. Rick Kearney, are certified diagnostic master technician. He's waiting for some goals. I know you've got some problems out there. Who doesn't have

a question about their car? Before the radio show started, we were talking about Stu's car, and Nancy was talking about her car. And I was talking about my car, and we were all talking about Rick. Everybody's got mechanical questions. So if you got a squeak or a rattle, or

you smell something funny, or you feel something funny with your car, talk to Rick Kearney, he's our auto computer scientist. He can answer any question. Try to stump Rick. Yeah, let's give him a call. If you can stump Rick, I'll pay you $50.

Uh-oh. Ask him, now, in full transparency, he's got his laptop here. So he's got fast fingers and a fast brain. So he might have to be, you know, keying in Google, but I'm going to allow that because Google is part of our life. By the way, you've lit up

Facebook. You broke Facebook with your singing. I want a big, big hit. And we have another text. Oh, fantastic. Text says, just to give a heads up, Fiat Chrysler has issued a recall to owners of some 2018 and 2019. Jeep Wranglers, your favorite vehicle, because of a weldment to hold the track bar bracket to the frame might fail.

Jalaphnick.com has pictures of a Jeep Wrangler, jail with missing wells. scary. That is scary. And again, I have to do my Jeep, the schick that I do, which is the 12th Wonder of the World or whatever. Jeeps are amazingly popular. And you said Fiat Chrysler, they should call themselves a Jeep. They don't sell any Fiats and they don't sell any Chrysler. All they sell is Jeeps. Jeep is keeping Chrysler alive. Jeep is keeping Fiat alive because Fiat owns Chrysler. It's a strong. strange automotive world we live in.

And jeeps are a piece of junk. I mean, there I said it. I know a lot of Jeep owners out there are going to, emotionally, they feel terrible about that. They're mad at me. But I love jeeps. I mean, I'm telling you that they are

amazingly stylish. I see a Jeep going down the road. I can see myself, you know, with the open doors and the open top, and I can think of myself rolling over and dying. I used to think that. That was cool when I was young.

I still think it's cool. I don't. I do. I think it's terribly irresponsible. You need doors. Something that I think is really amazing with the Jeeps is how many companies out there are making what they call modifications for the dress-up kits, ways just to change the appearance and make them more personalized for the owner. And, I mean, it's incredible what they can do on these vehicles. I'm probably being jealous because I wish I had a Jeep franchise.

I could just sell more jeeps than they can manufacture. I mean, people buy them, and they have a high resale value because they're so popular. But I look at consumer reports, they have terrible repair histories, safety histories, and everything else. You're probably, you're probably jealous because you see these jeeps and you're figuring, well, they just got back from the Grand Canyon. You're right. They have a much more exciting life than me. My life's so boring. Ladies and gentlemen, you heard Earl Stewart.

He's offering you $50 if you can stump Rick. Give us a call toll free at 877-9-6-0-99-60. And you can text us. Text us, yes, if you're a little shy. 772-497-6530, and our lines are open, and we have Nick on the line from Stewart. Good morning, Nick. Good morning.

Good morning. Well, I wouldn't even try and stump Rick, but I have a question and an observation. Question, I recently got, looked into a car at Schumacher, and they gave me a true car price. He emailed me, and it included a dealer fee and a couple of extra extraneous fees that came like $1,200. Is that a little on the high side? $1,200 is about standard in South Florida for gotchas, or a.k.a. dealer fees, electronic filing fees, tag agency fees, et cetera, et cetera. The good thing about TrueCar is the fact they forced a dealer to include that in the True Car price.

In other words, Schumacher gave you a price through True Car. And True Car said to Schumacher, look, if you're going to quote a true car price include all your phony fees, and that's what these fees are. $1,200. where the fees, unfortunately, in South Florida anyway, is about standard. So the sin of a dealer fee, Nick, is not the fact that it exists, it's the fact that they hide it from you. So when you buy the car at the advertised price, they add it on after the fact. Usually, when you're in the business office and you probably don't even see it. And if you do see it, you think it's a government fee and it's a legitimate fee.

But that's the reason I recommend people buy cars through true car. at least they forced a dealer to put it in to the advertised price. Okay, and just something I want to let you know about. Yesterday in my mailbox, I got one of the big, fancy flyers with a little box with a key in it, and it seems to be the same group that was down three or four months ago. They're setting up a big tent sale at downtown Stewart Public, and people assume it's a group of local dealers or something, but I think it's the same at a state consortium there.

Yeah, yeah, that's, it always amazes me. And we actually, at our dealership, Stu and I were in a meeting with an advertising group. And this advisor was advising us that we should try lotteries and raffles and win this this and win of that. And I sometimes wonder, are we being too conservative? I think most people realize that the chances that are going to win $25,000 or a car or rather low. But I guess we all think about, I mean, let's face it, people buy lottery tickets. You know your odds against winning the lottery are astronomical. I mean, one in hundreds of millions of millions, but people do it anyway.

So it's a numbers gate, Nick. If you can get 500 people to come into your car dealership on a wing and a prayer that they're going to win the lotto, then out of those 500 people that come in, you're going to sell maybe 1% of them cars. And that's a lot of cars. One out of 100, you'll be able to convert over. So it's a numbers game. And the rest of them, they come in and they don't win. And that's the way it's played.

But, yeah, those direct mail lotos. Raffles and free cars, it really gets him in the door, and it works very well for car dealers. I think the people that are, I hate to use the word sucker, you know, P.T. Barnum is a sucker born every minute, but the suckers are the ones. If you go in just for the fond of seeing if you want, that's fine. But if you're one of the suckers, be careful. They're going to take advantage of you. So, Nick, thanks for a great call.

They're giving away a free Camero, and then it says limit two cars for a household. Yeah, unbelievable. But there's no guarantee that that winner of a Camaro could even be in Florida. It could be from any one of a number of states, right? Did I hear you right? Wait a minute, now. Did you say they're giving away a Camaro and they say limit two cars per household? That's what it says.

That's great. I love it. I mean, the guy's got a sense of humor. I love it. But you know, Nick, there's some people. No, no, no, that's a psychological ploy. Isn't it? Yeah, he's not being fun.

He's trying to trick. You think so? He's trying to make it seem like it's more likely that you're going to win. What, people are winning more than one car? I'm going. But the bad thing is you think you're dealing with local dealers, and these guys are from out of state somewhere. You don't even know who you're dealing with.

I love it. Hey, can you fax me that? I need that for my file. Yeah, I've got a fax. I was asking what is a fax. Or mail it to me. Scan it. Okay, I can mail it.

Yeah, I'd love it. That'd be great. I'm going to put that in my file. I'm always looking for new stupid things that car dealers do to get people in, and I've never heard that. Two cars, you know, you're going to win a car probably, but you can't win more than two. If you win three cars, sorry.

You're looking for mystery shoppers? I'm always looking for mystery shoppers. You'll give me your contact. Oh, what do you have to do to be a mystery shopper? Give us your contact information, not on the air, but you can give it to the control room, and then we'll contact you. and we'll talk to you about doing a mystery shop for us.

We're always looking for good mystery shoppers. Sounds good. Thanks, Nick. Thank you, Nick. Get you that bulletproof. Hang on and give you contact information. Thank you. All I could think of was with the mailer is an attraction for a distraction.

So you said you were always looking for something that a car dealer did that was stupid. It must be a magnificently easy. job. They have fertile imaginations. They come, and I can see the brainstorming session. I got it. We say, limit two cars per family. I love it.

Why stop it there? Limit five cars per family. Oh, goodness gracious. We got some text now. Ladies and gentlemen, you're listening to Earl Stewart on Cars right here at the True Oldies channel, and you're going to hear things here that you have not heard before. Join us.

And all the fun and information, 877. 960, or you can text us at 772-497-6-530, and we do have another lady caller, and she is a first-time caller from Michigan. Good morning, Diane. Good morning, Nancy. How are you? Well, thank you. Congratulations. You won yourself $50 today. Well, thank you so much. What can we do for you this morning? I was calling because I had told Earl that I would call in and tell him and his listeners about my experience I had with a car dealership in Panama City.

Diane, can you turn off your radio, please? I think you had your radio, and I'm hearing an echo in the background is a little distracting. I have an echo in the background. I hear maybe it's not your radio. I hear an echo. So if your radio is not on, just go ahead. I'm sorry. Okay, I don't have a radio line.

Okay. It's probably an echo. Anyway, so I had bought an Alzheimer at Panama City, and I lived in Sarasota County. And I was driving back and forth each week. I worked a couple days in Panama City and a couple days down in Northport. And I went in and bought these Alzheimer's. and they wanted to charge me $795 for some special clear coat that they put on

that was supposed to retract the car and I told them I didn't want to pay $7.95 because stuff don't work. And they told me, oh, it had already been applied to the car. I had to pay it. And so before I bought the car, I clarified with him.

I said, but this means that if my car is ruined from bugs or anything like that, you're going to fix my car. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. so like three weeks later I go in there and say look at the front of my car

where the bugs have ate my bumper you told me the stuff would protect my car so I quit washing my car every week as soon as I got to Panama City because it was my practice as soon as I got to Panama City

I went straight to the car wash before I even went to my hotel and once I got this car that supposedly had this stuff that was going to protect it I quit doing that and I had little spots all over my front box

bumper. They told me they would file the claim to me. A couple weeks later, I still hadn't heard anything. I called him again. They said, oh, they're still waiting to hear back from the company of the Clear Code. So it was about a month later. They finally called me, and they said, you finally heard back from the company, and you have to file the claim yourself. Go to this website to file your claim. So I go to the website, and I file the claim, and they respond back that it's no longer covered because it's been more than 30 days since the date I noticed the damage. So I contact the dealership back and explain to them that it's their fault

that the claim wasn't filed within 30 days and that they were responsible for fixing my car. And they said, oh, no, we're not doing that. We're not going to fix your car. And I said, yeah, you are going to fix my car. So since I lived in Sarasota County, I filed a small claim against them to have. my car painted.

It cost me $10 to file the form and $35 to have the suit filed at the dealership, delivered at the dealership, and at the owner's home. I've gone to fundbiz.org and got the owner's name and address and actually served him with the suit at his house. Wow, you're persistent, Diane. Wow. That's fantastic, Diane. Congratulations.

I received a call the very name. next day wanting to know what could they do to take care of me. They ended up giving me a loaner car for an entire week while they repainted my car. They reimbursed me the $45 that I spent on the lawsuit, and the owner and the manager both came in to personally apologize to me. Wonderful. Congratulations. Wow, that is amazing.

I tell you what, I haven't heard a success story like that in a long time. and you really are a woman that knows how to take care of herself. And what an amazing story. It makes me want to do a blog on that of the victory of persistence against the car dealer. This shield thing they put on your cars, such a common scam, and the warranty claims are practically never paid. But you really took it all the way to the dealer and had him served at his home and really got his attention.

I'm telling you, you're 1 in 1,000, Diane. Congratulations on a great job. That's a home run, Diana. Yeah. It worked out very well, and it was so easy to do that there's a website called LegalZoom.com. Yes. You go in there, and all you've got to do is put in your information,

and it puts everything in the form where it needs to be. Yes, it's a great website. It costs $9.99 to print it. Get the form to file it. Yeah, it's worth every penny. Well, you are an example for all the women listeners out there. In fact, you're an example for the men listeners out there. If you're persistent and you know you're right, which you did, you can prevail ultimately.

Unfortunately, a lot of people just don't have that persistence, and you do, and you're one in a thousand. and I thank you so much for the call, Diana. I would love it if you could call the show regularly because you're the type of woman that Nancy looks up to, and she's trying to create more Dianas in our audience, and your example is going to make it a lot easier for Nancy to do that. So you've got 50 bucks that we're going to mail you for being a first-time female caller,

and we hope that we can count on you. We'd like to have you like Tina call on the show every week. Diane. work a lot of Saturdays early, like I told you the last few weeks, I was in a trying call, and I had to work every week, but I finally had today off. So any day that I'm off, I will be listening. My husband listens to you all the time. That's great news, Diane.

And thank you for helping me build this platform for ladies. What a fantastic story. And as I said earlier, what a home run. Congratulations. And congratulations. Thank you. You won yourself $50. Give us a call again.

Thank you. You're welcome. Have a wonderful day. Ladies and gentlemen, we have got a whole lot of time left here, a whole lot to get to. Give us a call toll-free. 877-960-99-60. Remember, we have that mystery shopping report coming up, and we'd like you to be part of it by voting on what you think about the mystery shopping report at 772-496.

676530, and we are going to Georgia, and Linda is on the line from Locust Grove. Good morning, Linda. Good morning, Nancy and Earl and everybody else there. Are you a... Yeah, I decided to get brave and call. Do you listen to the show every week? Oh, of course. Yeah, I watch... I'm Linda Vittoria, and I listen to the... Oh, yeah. Yeah, or I'm there for the ICSC, too.

Yeah, you know who I am. Fantastic. I know Linda, because she watches our Facebook feed every week. Oh, fantastic. Is you a member of the Sunrise Club? Anyway, I wanted to stay is we bought a Highlander, 2017 Highlander up here in Georgia, and we took it down to Florida. And the good husband I had, he went and took me to the Bell's department store,

and I was shopping around. And when I got out of there, we started down US1. Well, I'm telling you what, what a racket that car was making, the SUV was making. I mean, it was clunking and all sorts of noises. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, we can be able to get back to the condo. So I thought, hmm, so we pulled off the road, you know, because it was just making such a racket noise. What, did we have a flat tire? You know, he went and bumped back in tires to see if they were flat, and nothing was flat.

It was all good, you know. So then he decided, what do we do different? Well, apparently when he was putting my wheelchair in the car and the SUV, the door, the back gate didn't close all the way. And it was trying to tell us that something was wrong. And, you know, we didn't know what it was until he finally closed it back. down and the noise quits. But I'll tell you, that scared the mm-hmm out of me.

Yeah. Because it's like, you know. Yeah. Nothing worse than a noise on the highway that you don't know what it is. You're waiting for transmission to drop out or the engine to stop. I thought the thing was going to blow up, to be honest with you. It was a horrible noise. Yeah, it's scary.

So glad we figured it out before, you know, really was anything bad. We didn't want to continue traveling on it, you know, with it because it was like, it was just horrendous noise. I have never, you know, had that happen before. Well, lucky it was something that could fix yourself because when you have a real bad noise, usually they're expensive to fix at the cardiolarship. So at least that's a good news.

And I thank you very much for sharing that. The experience is a terrible experience, but it worked out positively for you. Yes, it did. And I was going to, if there was a problem, I said, we're going to take it to Earl, see if they can figure it out. But we got it okay.

It was good. I would have charged you, Linda. I'd probably, I got to pay Rick, and I would have, man, I'm only kidding. That's not right. Anyways, when we bought the 2017 in 2017, we really wanted the 2018. But they told us, the dealer told us, that they aren't out yet. And then they said, well, they need to sell more of the 2017s. before they release the 2018.

So it was well into the time that it should have been out to be able to get the 2018, but they wouldn't sell it to us. Well, that's a shame. It's amazing. Sounds like the pay plan of the car salesman you were talking to was talking, because at the end of the year, the dealers typically put bonuses, and the manufacturers put extra bonuses on the old model to clear them out.

I always advise people to buy the current model. I'm advising people to buy 2019s now. They're almost all available, but people think they get a really good discount on a 2018, and they do get a big discount. The problem is the discount doesn't equal the depreciation that you suffer when you buy last year's model car. So I'm sorry that they gave you the runaround on that, Linda.

You always try to buy the current model if you can, and when you're ready to buy another car, you'll remember it, I'm sure. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's what we wanted to buy the 2018, but they didn't, they wouldn't sell them to us. They weren't supposedly they need to sell more in the 2017's first before they would put out the other ones.

But it was that time of year. You know, the other cars were out, you know what I'm saying? I understand. You got a good car, and I know you like it. And I thank you for calling the show. And we've got $50 for lunch. Linda, right? Yes, we definitely do.

And Linda, congratulations for being an educated consumer. And I'll get you that $50 if you leave your information. Thanks, Nancy. Look forward to hearing from you again. Give us a call toll free at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-49-30. And I have a text from Pittsburgh, and it's about a... Chevy Cruise. I was telling you yesterday about it, but I see we have a caller, so I'll hold off on the text, and Jerry is calling from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Jerry.

Hi, good morning. I've got an 07 Prius that I bought new from Earl way back then, and I've had the extended warranty coverage on it, which the original expired. but we just discovered recently that the emergency parking break ceases to function. It does not ratchet. And to repair it would cost, they estimated, about $2,500. Wow. There's a lot of work to be done. I'm just wondering if there's a better fix or just leave it alone. So who needs a parking break anyway?

Concrete block. I want to look at it again, and I'm glad you're called. I can't imagine. I'm talking about my own car dealership now, and I could easily be wrong. I can't imagine it costs $2,500 to fix a parking brake. That was the estimate. That actually could be possible if it's the parking brake assembly, the pedal assembly, because that part could be a very expensive part.

Gary, do me a favor and text me your contact information. And I'm going to talk. I don't have one of those phones I can call in. Okay. Well, yeah, you can just call me. You got a pencil, Andy? Yes. Okay, my cell phone number is 561.

358 14774. 1474. And after the show, after 10 o'clock, or any time this weekend or Monday, whenever you want to call me, give me your information. I'll check with my service manager. And Rick says he thinks that's entirely possible

that repairing an emergency break it costs $2500. And we'll check into it and see if we can help you on that. But I'm surprised. Even the owner of the dealership sometimes is surprised with how much it costs to fix a car. Yes. Thank you very much. Anybody out there listening that's had an experience repairing an emergency break

or anybody with knowledge on that subject, I'd love to hear from you. But that sounds like too much money to me. I'd have to get a look at it myself if you wanted to verify it. But that part, it certainly could be quite expensive because just an odd comparison here. I just worked on a C in the band yesterday. I got a great idea. Text, the dealership. I've already done that.

Okay. I'm three steps ahead of all. We're going to have an answer for you and we'll have it on the air. So, Gary, thank you very much. I'll hear from you later. And we're also going to try to get an answer right on the air for you. This is what we do at Earl's to Run Cars. But I just worked on a CNN van yesterday that had the drop-down TV screen for the rear-seat DVD player.

And the TV screen, Factory Toyota Part, is $10,000 just for that TV screen. Well, if that was my car, you'd be talking to a guy that no longer had a TV screen in the back seat. Yeah, the customer said, no, I'm not interested in that. That's obscene. Gary, thanks very much for calling. and we'll get that handled for you. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Jerry.

Keep listening. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-49-65-30. And as I was saying earlier, I was text about a 2011 cruise. And this question is for Rick. This young lady is having a problem shifting her vehicle. Can you help her? She thinks it might be the transmission, but she's not sure. Well, I'd need to know a little more information on what is actually happening.

Is it that the shifter doesn't move or? No, we need some more details. Ask her to text some more details on like that. When does it happen? Does it happen when she starts the car in the morning and exactly does it stick? We need a little more detail on that. I'll do that while Stu reads the upcoming text. Yeah, we have a, well, we have Joao in Acre, Brazil, says hi.

So we have international listeners on our Facebook food. Fantastic, Brazil. Brazil. And Joe Al, I just, I do have to admit, I googled how to pronounce your name, but it's Joe Al, so hi, thank you for watching. And I, let me, let me, Joe Al, Bomm dia. Bomm dia. Very good, Bomdia. Now we have Facebook, on my Sunnrise Club, we have Brazilian Facebook Sunrise Club members.

And when you say hello, it's not Buenos Aires in Spanish. Portuguese, BOMDIIA. BOMDIA. Thank you. Like you said, we always learn something new. There's two words of Portuguese right there. That's it. And then we have a, there's a question for Rick, a little tongue-and-cheek, says,

Rick, if you can't repair my brakes, could you just make my horn louder? Yes, we can. Yes, you can't. You put a boat horn on there. Well, they have those big air-powered train horns. Yeah. Okay, so here's a good one. Hey, Earl Stewart, I just made 100,000 miles on my 12A engine,

and I'm getting overheating problems. I check the heads of the motor, and it looks like water is leaking through. Is it time to change my head gasket? 12A motor? I don't know. 12A engine? 12A engine? I'm not familiar with that one.

Maybe it means a V12? Could be. I'm wondering what vehicle that's in. I don't know. We need more information, Textor. In the meantime, we'll go to the next one. And this one says, I went into the dealership. By the way, this is Mark from Boynton.

It says, I went into the dealership with my wife and kids. When we went on the test drive, the salesman insisted that I take my family with me. I wanted to go alone, but he insisted. Is this a common ploy among car dealers to use my family to get me to buy the car? It might be. It probably is. I mean, let's face it. uh the family new cars are bought on a motion and it shouldn't be that way second most expensive

purchase of your life but they bought on emotion and typically they're bought too fast without enough homework so why not get the kids and the wife involved in the test drive to get everybody emotionally involved and then if you say let me think about it then you're oh daddy we want the car buy the car please daddy and yes sales tactic okay and we hit the last text we have is from Don and LaBelle, good old Don. And this is a puzzler for Rick. Oh, boy. I'm waiting for Rick to start paying attention again.

It could be 50 bucks for Don. It could be, yeah. On a 2012 Camry-Leh hybrid, Rick knows his stuff here. Does the owner's manual explain how to use the button with the iPhone icon on the left-hand side of the dashboard? Don from LeBelle. The left side of the dashboard, iPhone icon. I'm sorry, just the phone icon. My brain saw iPhone.

Ah, the phone icon. It'll talk button. Yes, the owner's manual will explain how to use that Bluetooth. But what page is it on? Oh, well, then I'll be pulling that up. Page 713, Don. Look at that. And we have one more test.

Let me jump in there. I know Don and LaBelle as being an extremely smart guy, and he's also probably a little tricky. He knows. He wants to stop Rick and read the question again. Okay. The question says on a 2012 Camry-L-E hybrid, does the owner's manual explain how to use the button with the phone icon on the left-hand side of the dashboard?

And the correct answer is no. Rick said yes. I don't know. I don't know. I'm guessing it's no. But I know Don LaBelle, I'm guessing the answer it doesn't have it there. So Don knew that it wasn't in there. and he was asking Rick

so Rick would get it wrong and I think we owe Don 50 bucks Let's find out Because I think it is Oh okay I think it is Now his question is Does it explain how to use the button

I think you're thinking on all sorts of levels here Well I'm just I'm just wondering Because 2012 Camry Should have But wait a minute There shouldn't be a button on the dash It might not have a button at all There shouldn't be a button on the dash

You've got us doubting ourselves now. Not me. I got him. There is no button on the dash for a phone button. Rick's got to pay the 50 bucks, not me. Because the button for using your Bluetooth is actually going to have a person speaking, and it's going to be mounted on the steering wheel with steering wheel controls. There is no button with any phone icon that I know of on the dash.

Too late. You said yes. Too late. We'll verify afterwards. Let's move along. We're going to get to the bottom of this, I promise. But we also have a text from Mr. Z from Seaford, New York. From where?

Seaford, New York. Seaford. He says, morning, I have spent so much money trying to repair the paint bubbling on a 2006 Mustang hood. The Mustang hood still comes back. Bubbling paint. Okay. What year was it? 2006, Mustang.

Oh, 2006 bubbling paint. We don't have Alan Napier or collision. your guy used to be on the show. You got any thoughts on that, Rick? Yeah, that's going to be that paint adhesion, the paint separation like we've talked about. Elamination? Delamination.

Delamination. Yeah. Just defective paint. Unfortunately, Mr. Z, I like that. Mr. Lee. It sounds like one of our mystery shopping. Yeah, Mr. Z. Unfortunately, paint is only awarded for the length of the mechanical awardee,

which is really silly. and three years is a typical paint warranty should be longer but it's not and then they tapped in some out of coverage by saying environmental conditions caused it what causes it is defective paint or not enough paint typically or no clear coat so I think you just stuck on that mr. Z that you're going to have to pay for that repair and you can always try but 2006 2006 Ford Bustang Yeah I mean that's that car is 12 years old You're going to have to pay for that

Repair yourself I'm sorry Okay and the techs keep coming in This is a question for Rick from Steve in New Jersey I own a 2011 Subaru Outback when I depress the accelerator A rattling sound is generated for a second or two I think it's one of the muffler heat shields What can I do to fix

A lot of people people would say just pull it off, but my recommendation is find out which shield it is. If you can get up under the car and just tap each of the shields. After the car cools off. Oh, yeah, yeah. You don't want it hot. Take the bolt loose and just put a big fender washer on there, and it will secure that and cost you 20 or 30 cents. Wow. That's the reason we got Rick here.

I had no idea. And finally, we have Don from Label, who has chimed in. and he didn't exactly say so, but I think he agrees with me that we're overthinking this thing. Don says he's going to give Rick time to research that one. He says he's read the manual, he doesn't see it, and the car does have a button for the phone. So he's not trying to trick us.

He's letting them off the hook. Yeah, so he can't find that. A button for the phone located on the left side of the dash to the left of the steering wheel. I'm going to guess it's on the steering wheel because that's the only place I've ever seen that button. Yeah, it would have to be. Yeah, it would have to be. All right. Well, we're caught up.

Yeah, it's addressing the technology on cars. The cars today are simply over-technologized. Give me a word. Over, you know, they're just too technical. And the average person, I'm a high-tech guy. And Nancy will tell you, we got gadgets, we got electronics, we got computer stuff all over the place. And I don't know 10% of what makes my car work.

And I've got a manual this thick. I don't know why they do it. It is really, I'll bet you, even Rick, well, now he's got a Tacoma. He knows inside now. But I bet if I put you into a 2019 Toyota something, you would have to go to the owner's manual to figure out some of the stuff. Absolutely. Absolutely.

So if a guy like Rick that knows at all about a car has to read up every time they push a button, I got buttons on my car I'm afraid to push. You know what I tell our customers? ejection seat i don't know what i tell our customers you don't have to know everything it's it there's a little bit there's a little bit there for everybody and you find out what you like to use and don't don't stress out but you pay for it all right and maybe that's me i'm this it's it's a scottish in me you pay for a car you pay for all the bells and whistles is it and you can't find the bells and this is a scottish thing

yeah scottish thing i didn't know that you never heard that oh i'm scottish too yeah by birth yeah all right and i have an answer for don Oh, boy. The system that he has probably installed in his car and his 2012 Camry is going to be a blue logic add-in cell phone system. It's actually a dealer-installed port-installed option. And yes, that button would be located on the dash. I had almost forgotten about those.

As I'm looking through my Toyota information here, all of a sudden, I remember that. and there will be a separate owner's manual for how to operate that Blue Logic Bluetooth cell phone system. And if you lost that, you're out of luck. Actually not, because we have this wonderful thing called the Internet, and all he would have to do is Google Blue Logic, B-L-U-L-U-Logic, and it'll get them an order's manual. Don't tell them to use Google, they'll stop calling the show. People just start Googling things. I do it all the time.

All right, we have a, by the way, I'm laughing because of the text that I just got, this is the question about the 12A engine that stumped Rick. You're what I just said, that stumped Rick? He says it's a motor made by Mazda back in the 70s, and he was just testing us. Wow. So, hey, I'm going to let him know to send me some contact information. I think that qualifies for Rick stumping right there. Well, that's fine.

I was a Mazda dealer. He's glowering at me right now. don't remind us well if he's got a 70s Mazda with only 100,000 miles on it I'll bet it's got more issues than just a leaking head gasket 100,000 miles he just hit 100,000 he didn't say what model Mazza it was I'll get some more information but yeah

okay 772 772-4976530 okay and we need some more text from you 772, 4976530. And we have the mystery shopping report coming up, and you want to stay tuned for that. I'll go back to the information that I just received from Maria about her 2011 cruise. And what she described to me was her cruise just not moving like it should the way she described it. It's almost like she's got to jump out of the cruise and push it whenever she is putting it in different.

gears it has uh i'm going to use a word lag it has a lag on it and she's having some other difficulties with it also but we'll address this one can you answer that rick i i would this is something that i would have to actually see the car and test drive it to verify what's going on unfortunately just really not enough information there it's something i'd need to actually drive the car to try to get an idea of it what should do you do She was taken into her dealer and ask him to give her an estimate and test drive the vehicle with her and then give her a written estimate. Hopefully in Pennsylvania they have a law like we have in Florida, which allows you to ask for a written estimate, and they cannot exceed that written estimate by more than 10% when they repair your car.

And then to be sure that when you get the estimate, that that will fix the car. The understanding, of course, is that's the estimate. it might be okay cost-wise, but do you guarantee if you do this, it will fix my problem? And that's what she needs to do. Great information. And then she's probably get three estimates. Yeah. And it sounds like a possibly expensive repair.

So get at least three estimates before she allows someone to fix it. That sounds good. I hope we helped you out. Maria, I have a suggestion for you before you venture into any dealerships. Go to a great website. and that's Car Complaints.com. See what you're up against. See if something is going on with a recall

and do a little homework there and then go ahead and take girls' advice and get those three estimates. Give us a call tool free at 877-960-9960 or you can text us at 77249-9-7-6530. And, Stu, do you have any... Oh, yes, we do. boy. It's blowing up this morning. Okay. All right. Well, I was going to say something about safety features, but you go ahead.

Okay. Because our lines are lit up also. Okay. I'll try and beat the caller. Angelou from Hanover, Pennsylvania. It says, I recently bought a 2018 Chevy Camaro, and it's great. However, there is some serious construction happening on a main road. When I drove over a part of the road, there was a huge bump. Now the car is pulling to the left. I'm thinking this is possibly the alignment, but is this an expensive fix, or is it covered under warranty? well the final part first unfortunately road hazard things like that are generally not covered under warranty but the first thing i would do is get very quickly to a dealership and have them check the alignment because it sounds like something might have gotten bent in the suspension and without trying to get too technical i will make one statement that is pretty much true for most cars to have what's called a McPherson strut suspension, which probably 99% of the cars, not trucks,

but cars on the road today have McPherson struts. The alignment generally cannot cause a pull unless something is bent or if something is really knocked out of whack. But I would definitely have your alignment checked to see if anything is bent and have the tire and wheels on that side of the car inspected because it's possible that you may have damage the tire. And don't pay for the alignment check. They may try to charge you for it. You should get a free alignment check. And when they do the alignment check, it should be computerized printout that they should show you. They will tell you exactly what the machine

showed. And it'll show like red, green, yellow for each wheel. And you'll find out if it's truly in or out of alignment. And as Rick said, if it's something bent, it's going to be expensive and you might want to get another couple estimates or even possibly if it's very expensive get your insurance company involved because sometimes that can be covered under insurance comprehensive insurance exactly but definitely have your tires inspected because it could have damaged a belt in one of the tires and that could cause a pull and start to cause a very serious vibration but it can also be very dangerous because that tire could potentially blow out well thank you rick got another text here? Yeah, we've got a few here. Let's see. Okay, Paul and Jupiter says, good morning. I'd like to ask

a question, how important is it to use the oil viscosity indicated in the owner's manual rather than a different weight of oil? Rick? I'm sorry, one more time there. How important is it to use the oil viscosity specified in your owner's manual? That one I call very important. Each engine is designed for a specific weight of oil or a range of weights and some of them can have a couple different weights that you can use in it and it's fine to switch back and forth but if your engine calls for a specific weight of oil viscosity I would definitely stick with that it's what it was designed for

and using too thick in oil or too thin in oil can cause damage and could definitely void your warranties. Thank you Rick. Another text. Moving on. Cliff and Coral Springs It says on my 97 F-150, there is a button at the end of the stem coming from the steering column to engage the cruise control. It's now flashing and never did that before. Why? Sounds to me, if the light is flashing on it, you have a malfunction.

And generally, the blinking light is usually indicating that the computer for it is seeing a malfunction somewhere, and you need to get that checked by your dealership. Okay. Moving on, we have Steve Case. Sorry, well, that's okay. Steve in Pittsburgh, North Carolina, says, Good Morning, Earl, Nancy, and all. I have a 2002 suburban.

Occasionally, when you apply pressure to the brake, there is a short click. What might that be? My wife has wanted me to get rid of my beloved beach car for years. By the way, I love the Sunrise Club. Oh, well, thank you, Steve. Older cars, sometimes the bushings on the brake pedals will start to wear. and you'll get a little bit of extra free play.

And when you step on the brake, you'll hear a little click. If you're hearing it inside, that's where I would start looking. The other thing, and this is actually very completely normal on cars, when you're first stepping on the brake the first time after you have changed direction, you'll sometimes hear a little click noise because it's what's called pad shift. The brake pads in their holders, when you're driving, say you put your car in reverse and then step on the brake, move one direction just a little bit and then when you go forward to step on the break the first

time you'll hear them shift just a little bit and it can make a little tiny clicking sound that may be noticeable enough on older cars. Thank you Rick. I learned something too. I had no idea about that. How are we doing on text? We're caught up. We're all caught up. Rick, amazing. If you have any questions at all for Rick or any of us, give us a call tool free at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-49765-30. And we have Bobby on the line from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Bobby. Hello, thank you for taking my call.

We've talked before about car dealers being lying, cheating thieves. And I was calling today about the service areas in car. dealers. I'm starting to have trouble there also, either misdiagnosing, or when they do diagnose the problem, the repair manual calls for a certain amount of time for the repair. And it's not even close to accurate to what's going on in the service facility. For a particular example. I had a problem with a water pump, and the story was that it was going to be $2,000 to have the water pump replaced, which is astronomical, but that's a service manual estimate of time. And when you go and look on the Internet, the people that fix these things either in their

backyard or actual mechanics that write in on the Internet say that the actual time it takes to do that repair is is 20% of the time of that's required by the service manual which is put out by the manufacturers so as a consumer how do you deal with that when when body uh you and most of the world is confused by that one of the things that i have to explain as a car dealer most often is what the uh flat rate we call it a flat rate manual and they call they put the uh uh the time and hours it's you can even buy different flat rate manuals car dealers you can go out and buy a manual that gives you more time and more money to do a repair than another one the manufacturer's factory flat rate manual is the only legitimate manual they have other manuals

as i say that can make the dealer charge more and of course make more money when they say two and a half hours or three hours or five hours. They're not clock hours actually. Those are units. You could call them whatever you want to call them. But they are a combination of the amount of time it takes to fix and the skill of the technician that's doing it. And you're absolutely right. You could have something that's showed a two-hour time. In reality, a technician like Rick, who's been doing the same thing for 20 years, he could do it in a one hour. He could beat what we call the flat rate by half. And a lot of really skilled technicians do that. You take an apprentice technician

that's only been on the job for six months and you give them the same job. It might take him three hours, though the flat rate says it's two hours. So it's misleading to the customer. I've often said that they should change the name of it. Take the word hours out of it. Call it frisbees. I don't care what you call it. Don't call it an hour. It's not a time clock. hour. That's 1.7 Frisbee's. Exactly, yeah. And oftentimes you have your higher skilled technicians that will do the same job as an unskilled technician, and they get, they get, the unskilled technician actually is underpaid in a way because he doesn't know how to do it fast and good. He might have to redo it, and there's another thing. If you have to redo it, you don't get paid for it.

So it's confusing to the customers. It's confusing to the technicians. The best thing you can do is get estimates, and you take that water pump, forget about the hours they show in the manual, talk to two or three different repair facilities, and say, what are you going to cost me? Charge me, bottom line, to fix my water pump, and that's what you can hang your hat on instead of something out of a manual, which is pretty meaningless. I'm becoming less confused, but more convinced that the time, whatever you called that manual, it's fictional with the intent of increasing the profit for the dealers, and that is being done by, as I understand it, by the manufacturer. So, and I understand this is just one specific instance, but for instance, the repair manual for, and this happens to be at Toyota, it says to replace the water pump, you have to lift the engine off its mounts, which is not accurate.

It's inaccurate. So it doesn't matter whether it's a six-month technician or a 20-year technician, what they're prescribing for the fix is wrong, and the fact that it is wrong is costing the consumer an exceptionally large amount of money. In addition, and sticking to this one particular example, just for illustration, if it truly was a $2,000 job to replace a water pump on an engine, that's bad engineering. That's General Motors engineering on a Toyota. If they stick the water pump in a spot where you've got to pull the engine out to get to the water pump,

that's just horrendous engineering, and there's no reason for it. But the worst part is their prescription for the repair is wrong. And Bobby, let me ask you one. I may know a little something about it to question it. But, you know, my grandmother goes in and they tell her she needs a water pump, she's going to give them the $2,000. And I'm sure it happens over and over again. Let me ask you a quick question. Are you talking about a specific make car?

Is this a Toyota or a general motor? Yeah, it's a Toyota, it's a six-cylinder. It's a six-cylinder engine on a minivan. Okay. But it's also happened. A similar thing happened with a starter on a 2006 Lexus. LS 430. They're claiming that the positioning of certain parts are such that you have to tear the engine apart to get to them, and the mechanics know that it's not true, and they don't tear

the engines apart. Let me just say one thing to clarify something. You said something earlier about the is a plot by the manufacturers to make more money. It might be a plot by the dealers to make more money, but the manufacturers if you're using the factory flat rate manual it is not a plot by them and I'll tell you why the manufacturers use the factory flat rate manual to pay the dealers for warranty work so it's an expense to them to fix a car under the warranty and therefore they want to be at least fair or maybe less than fair when they assign a flat rate time to a warranty repair the way they arrive at it is they have a laboratory where they have technicians and they have repairs and they time the technicians when they do the repair and they will have not a technician that's been doing the same repair for 20 years they'll just have an average technician doing an average repair purportedly they're trying to be fair to the dealer if you talk to a car dealer he'll say the

manufacturers are not being fair in the flat rate time they allow me to pay my technicians Rick has a point. Bobby, I'm assuming you're talking about a Sienna van. Yes. What year is that one? 2015. 15? Okay. I'm looking up the...

And so, back to what's Earl saying, though. And again, this is just one particular problem, but it's sort of a fairly... It's a fairly unusual part to go bad early on with a car. So the water pump in a Toyota doesn't go bad very often for 100,000 miles. You're right. So the dealer on a warranty job isn't going to suffer much on that, but my point is their prescription for fixing it, whether they're in the manufacturer is testing out the mechanics doing the job.

The way they're doing the job is wrong. and it's just wrong and the mechanics know about it and the beauty of today is that you can now go out on the internet for just the shade tree mechanics or oftentimes what happens is in this case like a Toyota mechanical write in and say no here's how you do the job so you don't have to take the engine off its mount Bobby let Rick comment on the fact that you have to lift the engine off up to get the water pump out Do you have to lift the engine up? Well, I'm looking that up right now, but the one thing I did look already is the Toyota warranty time. In other words, this is how much Toyota would pay for me to replace that water pump under warranty is three hours labor.

So Toyota only gives. Right. But first of all, again, you wouldn't expect a water pump to be a warranty issue. That would be an unusual occurrence. Well, I got your points. to be a, and I don't want to be too technical, specific for the people listening, but the water pumps don't go bad under warranty very often. Yeah, you're right about that, yes.

Your point is Wollick and Bobby, and I totally agree with you, they should scrap the whole flat rate system. We've got to move along here. But how do, as consumers, I mean, besides going to the Internet, I mean, what does my grandmother do when they tell her? That's one question. And the other problem is once they start telling me things like that, then I doubt everything they say. Hey, Bobby, Bobby, Bobby, Bobby, Bobby, we're running.

Occasionally, they'll tell me something that's true that needs to be replaced and I'll say, nope. Get a grip on you. And I'll say, nope, it's just trying to get me again. Bobby, listen, we've got to go. Okay. I understand your ire and your anger is justified. I'll wrap it up by saying, tell your grandmother to get three bids on the repair. because the one thing that will keep a car dealer honest is competition.

And if she gives three bids on what it's going to cost to repair her water pump, she'll get the lowest possible price. Now we've got to move along. Thanks for calling, Bobby. You're very knowledgeable on mechanics, and we'd love to have you call back in next week. 877-960-99-60. Text number is 772-497-6530 at 772. And I see by the clock that it's 934, I think we should go to the mystery shopping report. And ladies and gentlemen, would love you to vote on that mystery shopping report.

And you can do so by texting us at 772-4976530. Our mystery shop is from King Hyundai. Now back to the recovering car dealer. King Hyundai, you know, it's funny when Stu and I were talking about shopping this car dealership. I had a flashback about the fact that the King family has been in the business longer than my family or any family that I know. Lewis King going way back to the 30s has been the business. They used to own a huge number of dealerships, and now they're down to the two dealerships. We did happen to shop one of them, as coincidentally, not because we were going for nostalgia here.

I know Clay King, the third-generation dealer, and I knew Lewis King, his grandfather, and his father. At any rate, our search for used cars for the Takata Airbag issue took us to King Automotive, and he's got the Mississippi store as well in US One and Deerfield Beach. This mystery shop is the first time we've investigated the King dealership, went in without any prejudice or expectations. We found 2008. Now that's a 10 or 11 year old vehicle.

2008 Dodge Magnum with just 48,000 miles. That's amazing. That's great. Yeah. Very low mileage for a 10-year-old car. 4,800 miles a year. Listed for sale on King's website for $5,991.

A quick check of the van on safercar.gov alluded to us to a passenger side takata recall. We confirm this information with both Carfax and Chrysler's own website. Agent X volunteered for the mission. He volunteers for all the missions. He loves what he does. He loves being out in the field. Speaking of the first person as Agent X, I called King Hyundai to make sure the 2008 Dodge Magnum was there. Dennis told me it was, but before trying to set up an appointment, he suggested he actually go find it first.

That was a nice touch. Very, very nice touch. I underlined that. I thought that it was a nice touch and gave him my phone number so he could call me back. I waited less than 10 minutes before Dennis called me. He said he touched the car and it was there. We agreed to an 8 o'clock, 8 p.m. actually, appointment. Dennis said he would wait for me and I rushed out to my car for the long drive on 995 hour.

hour long. About halfway there, Dennis called and sounded stressed. He said another customer was working on a deal on this old magnum. He said he thought the deal was happening. I was mad at myself for not finding a backup to kind of car. I decided quickly to improvise when I got there, so I told Dennis I was still coming and directed him to find some suitable alternatives for me. It happens so often that we go for one car and the car's not there. It's rare, I think, when it's there. It is rare. Or at least we're batting 500.

I continued my drive just as I was exiting I-95, Dennis called again. The other customer blew out, he said, no deal. Dennis said he would hold the keys and not let anyone else go near that magnum. It's very personal. The whole thing is a really good salesman here. I found King Hyundai on US1, parked, got out of my car, made immediate eye contact with Dennis, who was walking my way. I was the only customer there from what I could see.

I found King Gun, oh, I just did that. We shook hands, and Dennis pointed to the Magnum, parked right up front, it was ready for presentation. Dennis had already opened the doors, the hood, and the rear latch on the big wagon. Didn't even know the Magnum was a wagon. Dennis showed me how clean the car was. He started the engine and asked me to listen to the hum. He showed me how cold the air was. I told him I thought I smelled something burning, actually oil, and asked if it had been checked out by his service department.

He said it was, and there were no worries, no mechanical issues. He said, no. I asked him about the burn oil smell. Dennis told me they probably just spilled some oil when they changed the oil. He asked me if I wanted a test drive. I said I would take a shorter one. He hit it north on US1. I asked why the miles were so low on the.

this 2008. That is suspicious, isn't it? He said it was garage kept by a snowbird who hardly drove it. I nodded in approval. You know, interestingly enough in this South Florida area, there are a lot of cars like that. That's got to be a real find when you find a 4,800-mile car that's 10 years old. I asked Dennis the first or the second of my three questions as we pull back into the lot. Has this car ever been in an accident? He is, me the standard answer we'll check car fax when we're back in the office we sat down got right back to business then i said the list price of the car was seven thousand nine hundred ninety one dollars which he said was kelly blue book's fair purchase price now we check

7991 is not the kelly blue book fair purchase price even with extremely low miles the kelly blue book price is $5,872. You know, I'm going to editorialize a little bit here. I don't think that, correct me if I'm wrong, is too, that the Kelly Blue Book actually goes down that low in mileage. They say low mileage, right? That is true. Well, you'll put the mileage in there and it'll come with the value.

I do believe, I think I know where you're going. When you have something that low, you kind of have to ignore the books, because you're not going to find another one. It's unique. So, 5,000 miles on a 10-year-old car. 50,000 miles. I mean, yeah, 50,000 miles on a 10-year-old car. That is, the thing pops to me is fraud.

But we have a good odometer law in Florida. And if you have a certified odometer statement that says it's the mileage and the title says that, then you can count on it in Florida. So that's a very low mileage car. It might be worth the asking. price probably probably is and i and it's not that unusual down here with the snowbirds i mean you get people that leave a car here but it's been only driving part of the year exactly uh my price then said was the internet price of 5991 there was no negotiating he said they had

held firm to the internet priced and pivoted to ask how i was paying for the car i said i was using my credit union she just tuned in we're doing king hunde in deerfield beach king hunday and Deerfield Beach. And I needed a buyer's order because I'm going to my credit union. I'm going to be essentially as far as they're concerned paying cash. Dennis said this may be a problem. Neither he nor his manager could print a buyer's order, only the business manager. Now, the business manager is the F&I manager, and this is a ruse the car dealers use to, frankly, hit you with the extra fees you're talking to the salesman there is no buyers order so you don't have a final out-the-door price and he uses the excuse that I can't give

you the only the business manager can so that means you basically commit to the deal with the salesman you shake hands you typically sign something called a work order it's an internal document it's not a legal document so you feel like you bought the car then you go to the F&I manager and that's where the fees come at you so this is what's going on here he says I can't give you a buyer's order and that's where we are Dennis suggested that he could email it to me later I said I would wait for the business manager to become available stuck to my guns as we talk of Fergus there's an unusual name

Fergus Ferguson if he yeah Fergie F-U-R-G-U-S the manager came over Fergus wanted to know why I couldn't take the Magnum home tonight. I said I had a 9 a.m. appointment of the credit union to get my loan and I needed to get a buyer's order. I have it with me to get my, my check. Fergus said he'd get me good financing and you're going after me again for the financing. If you're new to the show, I've said this many times, dealers make most of their money in the finance department. You can get a great deal on the car. Good price. But boy, when they take you to the business office, hang on to your wallet, that's where they're going for it.

They're going to make $2,000, $4,000 in the business. They get you in the box. They get you in the box. So the guy in the box is the only one that could generate the legal document. I fought him off by telling him my credit was terrible, and he'd be wasting his time. He looked at his phone for the time. it was nine o'clock he said he would go check he's they don't want to be there that late at night i'm in the i'm mystery shopping at nine o'clock at night everybody wants to go home at nine o'clock

at night he came back said it'd be 10 minutes i hung out with dennis the desk i were waiting for the finance manager the business manager wait did it quite a while i asked dennis about safety and he said if there were any any issues that the car should be he said dennis the car It's fine. I ask them if there are any issues. There are none. So they're stonewalling on this Takata airbag. I almost forgot. That's why we're here because of the Takata airbag. They stonewalled, stonewalled, no safety problems. At 945, boy, are they going to be mad at us? He got hazard pay for this. Is King Hyundai going to be mad at us when they found out we kept these guys there until 945 to get to see the business manager? I wonder what the business. manager was doing eating dinner he was home right he's busy he had to come back to the dealership right he's watching walking dead i told fergus we were talking about safety and asked if he thought

we're still pumping him we're begging him is there a safety issue we know the car has got a bad to cut airbag we're begging him to tell us the truth no problems car is safe okay we finally got the business manager to come out with the paper they charged me the internet price of 5991 they added 798 dollar 50 cent dealer fee a 79 dollar 50 cent electronic filing fee a 25 dollar private tag agency fee he added all together is nine hundred and three dollars now the dealer fee is nine hundred three dollars and I have to tell you and I'm doing a a blog on this even though I do many blogs on dealer fees it's not funny the car dealers of florida have zoned in on the word dealer

fee i wonder what and they're believe it believe it or not they're saying we don't charge deal of fees and they're stopping charging dealer fee by name only and they're charging other fees dealer fee is a legal term that is in the florida statutes a generic term to describe all the phony charges so they can charge a dealer fee by calling a different name now my latest blog and here it is in Florida Weekly if you if you can find the Florida weekly the blog says open letter to Florida Cardinals I list some of the different names for the dealer fee and some of them are documentary fee dealer prep fee electronic filing fee notary fee closing fee tag agency fee e-filing fee do you see what I'm

saying fee that's the only continuity there fee they say fee because they want you to think is a government fee so in this case here we have three dealer fees they would say the dealer fee is only 798 only 790 dollars and 50 cents but the ad at 7,950, another dealer fee, and $25 for $993. That's the bottom line. That's what happened. The condi airbag was hidden from the shopper, the Mr. Shopper. And that Carfax report never materialized.

Never showed us the Carfax report. They could have found it by calling the Hyundai dealer. They could have found it by going to safercar.org. Or they could have gone to their own website because there's a lot of, a link to the Carfax report yes yes and by the way if you have a dealer that puts the carfax reports next to the cars they're selling you can verify the information yourself because you will go to the Carfax report and it's best to do that because 30% of the time Carfax is wrong and there are other ways to get that information so there you have it

we've got the mystery shopping report we encourage you via live Facebook streaming by text to let us know what your score would be we score these every week a to F and we take the passing scores above anything above failing and we put them on our recommended dealer list and we take the other ones we put on do not buy from this dealer list you can access at least by list by going to gooddealer, baddealer, list.com, plural, or is it singular? W.W.W.Baddealerlist.com. Singular.

www. www.W.W.Baddealer, baddealerlist.com. Or you can go to Erlancars.com and you can check it out there. And you're going to vote now. We'd like you to vote by posting online, Facebook.com, for slash Earl on Cars. or by texting us is 772-497-6530. The text number is 772-497-6530. And we'll do our internal scoring here. Who wants to go first?

Stu. Well, I've got some listeners who are chiming in right now. Okay, do that. Linda says at least they were polite to Agent X by calling them back, but she's still going to give them a D. D. I have to say this about the salesperson. that was one of the most conscientious salespeople that I've known

because you don't want a guy to drive 50 miles and come in and say, I'm sorry the car is gone and it happens very often. Usually, it's premeditated. This particular salesperson, what was his name? Dennis. Dennis. Dennis, kudos to Dennis.

Yeah, yeah. We have a, just a, there's no name on this. It just says C-minus came in. Okay, you have a D and a C-minus. We have a dick says F, Mary says D. Okay. So we have some pretty low scores here so far. Well, thank you very much for your scores.

And as I say, you could continue to text us or put it on Facebook. Facebook.com port slash Erlon Karnes or text us at 772-497-60. Let's see. Rick, give us a score. I'm actually going to go with a C-plus because I think Dennis brought the score up with his conscientious. some thoughts there. Granted, he didn't produce the Carfax and the, you know, didn't look at it for the Takata airbag.

But I don't think Fergus really did too crazy. It doesn't sound like he got too abusive on him about trying to get him in the box on financing. So I'm going to say a C plus. I think a passing score for now, but with the caveat that, you know, you always have to do your homework and check for those recalls yourself, you know. Okay. Unfortunately, just not going to tell us.

Nancy, what do you say? For the consumer that just doesn't do their homework sometimes, it's an unfortunate situation, and certainly Dennis was nice, but so were Boy Scouts. And this consumer was going in to purchase a vehicle, and it just doesn't lie well with me. And I give them a failing score. Failing score. Stu? Okay, before I give him my take, we have some more text coming in.

Greg in Tallahasse, he says, sounds typical. A C. We're on the curve, right? And then, let's see, we have Ed, and he's on Facebook Live. He says, I'm going with a C. Also on Facebook Live, we have Andrea, says, does it matter if the car has one or three safety issues? Safety is safety.

reviewing the Carfx NHTSA is not hard. Know your product. All things considered C. And that brings me to my score. I'm going to go with the C too. I agree with a lot of the listeners. It is all too typical.

We are on a curve. It's not to me to say if they actively concealed it or not, but they certainly didn't make it easy on Agent X. Okay. I was swayed by, and this is what I love, a democracy.

because I was going to go for a failing score, and I was going to go for a failing score because the either premeditated deception about the repair. Here is a car with Takata Airbag inflator. Ten years old, it's on the verge of exploding right now, maybe 11-year-old car, high humidity, high heat for 11 years. and the steel can explode and kill somebody. And they were asked multiple times if this was safe. I'm recanting my grade. I lost sight of the whole purpose while we were here. Yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to, but you know, I'm going to, I'm going to do this.

I'm going to, I'm going to go with a passing score, minimum passing score, and I'm going to let sentiment come in a little bit of this, because I know Clay King. And Clay King is one of the most honest people I know. And I think he's lost touch with this particular situation. And if I can hear from Clay King, if I can hear from him by text or phone and have a discussion with him, I will pass him. I'll put a pass on there. Because I think that it is a possibility they, may have just missed that car

and assumed all the cars they had did not have a recall. But I know he will hear about this and he will call me and he knows how to reach me. And if he will tell me and say, it was a fluke earl, we didn't mean to do it. I talked to the manager

and it won't happen again. It was late at night. Everybody was tired. It could have been, yeah. And thank you for your input. But I was swayed because of the I was swayed because of the seas that were passed, and that's another reason I was going to give them a passing grade. Oh, quickly, Anonymousrecall.com, www.W.W. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. You can reach this anonymously. Jonathan, remind me earlier, I'm probably too late, but you could comment on the show or anything else at www.w. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for tuning in, and we want to thank you.

right here at 95.9, 106.9 FM, the True Oldies Channel. We'll be back next week.