Earl Stewart on Cars - 10.07.2023 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Cox Chevrolet of Bradenton FL

Episode Date: October 7, 2023

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning travels to the west coast of Florida to visit a Chevrolet dealer in Bradenton. She wants to see how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2024 Chevrolet Malibu sedan. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, his tweets at www.twitter.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

And now, on with the show. Good morning, everybody. Well, we're back in the saddle again. Full fully staffed here at the North Palm Beach Radio Studio. We have all hands on deck, and we're prepared for another, uh, challenging, exciting show. I can't come up with enough superlatives to describe the state of the affairs

of the auto industry, retail, and wholesale. Of course, the whole world is going through topsy-turvy time. It's exciting. It's like a roller coaster ride. And it's hard on you, the consumer, because the way you buy things is changing so far. fast. And I don't just mean cars. I'm talking about everything. New companies, new ways of obtaining your services. I just read the other day that Amazon gets $40 of every $100 you spend. Think about that. Did you ever think there would be one company founded by a strange guy by the name of Jeff Bezos who started out selling books? not too long ago and suddenly 40 cents out of every dollar that you spend goes to amazon and uh i used to

joke about one day they'll start selling cars i'm not joking anymore um there's not sort to say a day but there's certainly not a month that goes by that i don't get shocked by something that i read or find out and i usually try to validate it because there's a lot of crazy stuff out there's a lot of crazy stuff out but I looked at the source, reliable sources, come up with them of exciting but also scary. If artificial intelligence doesn't scare you, nothing will because it's growing like I'd never, nobody ever anticipated. It's actually growing because of itself, because artificial intelligence is a source of rapid development. and it can rapidly develop itself and there you go so uh and meanwhile we got most of us out there just driving normal cars no autonomy not electric combustion engine mechanical uh you know high tech

we used to think they were high tech and uh you want to get it fixed at a fair price and you probably want to buy a car at a fair price and that's why we're here so we can be talking about all sorts of crazy things but what we need to do is deal with your problems today with your car give you suggestions uh Rick Kearney sitting to my right uh kudos to Ricky he's got he's not feeling as well as he would like to but he's a soldier he's here today and I congratulate him for that um if you have an issue with your car and you want to know uh is it is it serious Do I need to think about trading this thing in? Is it going to cost me thousands of dollars?

Or can I ignore it? Can I fix it myself? If I want to fix it somewhere else, where do I take it? Or maybe I don't know what's wrong with my car. It's making this noise. It smells like this. It's pulling to the left. It's pulling to the right.

Describe the symptoms. And Rick Kearney, if you call us at 877-9-60-99-60. That's 877-960-99-60. Rick can answer the question. In fact, if you're a little bit of a cyber type of person, if you're comfortable online, go to YouTube.com forward slash earl on cars. YouTube.com forward slash earl and cars. And that's Rick's channel right there, really.

He monitors it. He's got a following of extremely intelligent listeners and viewers, I might add. A good chunk of the show comes from the postings of the very perceptive and clever suggestions and questions that come through the YouTube channel. So YouTube.com, 4.slash Erlon Cars, Rick Kearney, right there. And if you want to use the telephone, we'd love to hear you on the phone. We like the personal touch with the phone calls. This calls at 877-960-9960. That's 877-9-60-9-960.

Now, Nancy Stewart, my co-host, to my left here at the studio, she's our female advocate, and she's the one that single-handedly has raised our show to 50-50 female callers. And she does that by a very special offer that she'll be telling you about herself in just a couple of minutes. And also we have, she's also the walking wounded. She's had a nasty issue with her chin on her leg,

and she's had some outpatient surgery on that, and she wasn't feeling too foxy this morning, but she came in because she knew how important she is to the show and how important she is to the female listeners. So I salute Rick. I salute Nancy for coming in when they might have rather been in home in bed with some chicken soup. I'm not sure. But thank you with Nancy for coming in. I'm going to turn the mic over to you so you can tell the ladies out there about that too good to be tree offer that you make every week. Absolutely. Good morning, everyone. And welcome. Thanks for joining us. We do appreciate you because you make the show. And this morning we have $50 for the first two new lady callers.

Yes, the first two new lady callers. And you can just give us a call and let us know, well, how your transaction went. Did you have to negotiate? And did you look for exactly what you wanted on the Internet before you went in to the dealership to take that test drive? It's really important that, you know, you do all that, you know, because you won't, well, I use that word loosely. Sometimes you won't get trapped. The number is 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6530, and we have our video from Big Dog Ranch this morning, and that's going to be a whole lot of fun. have Stewie. No, not Stu Stewart. We have Stewie. I objected to that.

Stewie is, he's a one year, one year six months and two weeks old. And he's really a cute dog. He's a mixed breed. With all of that, don't forget your anonymous feedback. Your anonymous feedback.com take advantage of it. We have a whole lot to get to. So we're going to go right to the phones and all the lines are lit up. And we're going to go to Darren in Ohio. Good morning, Darren, and welcome to Earl on Cars. Good morning. I was calling the question for Rick. We have a 2014 Chevy Equinox and the little history of it. We had the timing chain went around 80,000 miles. We had it replaced. It went again around 101,000. And of course, it was during COVID. and the second time it went and launched the motor.

So instead of paying the dealer markups and cars, we're going to put a new engine in it at about $15,000 on a new engine. We're looking for a new truck. If they end up putting out a recall for the timing change, because I think up to like 2012, they knew their problems with them and the engines, will that affect the money I put into it? Or if I go to trade in the vehicle, do I still have to, is there any difference in the trade because it's a new engine in it

or are they still going to base it on the total miles on the car and the transmission itself? Save all your paperwork, the receipts, because one of the things that I've seen car companies do when they come out with a recall that is retroactive to cover older cars, if you've already had those repairs done, they will reimburse you the cost of those repairs. Sometimes they do limit it, but in most cases they will cover the full amount,

especially if it was done at a dealership. Fortunately, I didn't do it at a dealership. I did a local shop. So that's why I was sure. They very likely will still cover compensation for it. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Not a problem.

Thank you, Derek. Give us a call again. We're going to go to Marty, who calls us from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Marty. Marty. Hi. Hope you start. feeling better. Thank you. I got another question

for Rick. For the past several months I'd say maybe every five or six times my electric parking brake wouldn't disconnect so I just pressed the button and you know I was able to move the car. Two weeks ago I got a new battery and it has not happened again. I went on the internet and it said the electronic parking brake does have something to do with the battery. And I just wanted to confirm this with Rick that just changing the battery fix the problem.

That's actually very likely. The electronic parking brake uses two small motors, one in each of the rear brake calipers. And being electric motors, they're going to draw a lot of electricity to actually thread in and tighten those brake pads up mechanically. So, yeah, that can, a weak battery could definitely cause those to bind up by not having enough power to release and getting a brand new battery in there. Now you've got full power back, and those motors can take advantage of that. I never knew that.

All right. Well, I didn't know it either, so it was, unfortunately, there was an easy fix. as a matter of fact a lot of folks when they first brought that system out they were shocked at the noise that it would make because when you put the car in the park a couple seconds they'd hear this little from the back of the car and people are like what is that what is that and that's simply those electric motors spinning up so it locks up those rear brakes and that way you don't have the car trying to roll on you. So if you live in the city of San Francisco, you want to be sure you've got a fully charged battery and want to be sure that emergency breaks work if you park. Yeah, well, let's put it this way. I was, I complained about it once when it was still under warranty, but I never really

brought it in for that. But anyways, the battery thing helps. If anybody else is listening to the show and anybody else has their problem, you've got to check the battery first. Yeah. Great idea, Marty. All right. Have a good weekend, everybody.

Thanks, Marty. Thank you, Marty. Okay, bye-bye. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-49-7-60. We're going to go to Carl Springs, where Elaine is waiting to talk to us, and she is a first-time caller. Welcome to the show, Elaine. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

You're welcome. You've won yourself $50. this morning. And after we're finished talking, if you'll stay on the line, Jeremy, who is in the control room, he'll take your information and he'll pass it along to me and I'll get you that check out. Thank you, Nancy. You're welcome. So what can we do for you this morning, Elaine? Okay, I have a 1981, Siott-Spita convertible, Pinn and Farina 2000. Wow. Wow. Whoa. Now, where do you live? I'm on my way over there. Oh, really? That's a beauty.

Yeah, it is. I've had it all these years, and we've kept it, you know, in good shape and running and all. And it's getting, I'm getting older, and it's hard for me to drive it because getting in and out of it, I'm going to be eight and one in a couple of weeks. Anyway, I was wondering, how would I get at a price, and where was the best place to sell it? Well, that's a... Classic. That's a John from Palm City, when a regular callers could probably help you on that. I think your vehicle is worth a whole lot of money, and it sounds to me like you took really good care of it,

and there's nothing that's been ridden the crest of values more, whether you're talking to the stock market or anything, then antique vehicles that are well cared for. So you've got yourself a real prize. I would take my time as a seller's market for that product. And there's probably a few really good Google sites. I wish, you know, if John from Palm City, if you're listening, we'd love to hear your advice on this because you stay on top.

of antique car auctions there's yeah every time you every time you uh turn on the radio turn on the TV or go online there's a antique car auction somewhere and the values are mind-boggling as to what people are being paying for classic cars so I wish I could give you a more precise answer well I googled it and you got all sorts coming up on so if you just Google antique car auction you'll see Meekam auctions, Barrett Jackson, and a whole bunch of more. Hey, Stu, could

Ellen, Elaine, could Elaine go to Hemmings.com? I don't know. Never heard of it. That's classified, you know, vehicles. Rick shaking his head. Hemings Motor News.

They've been around for Hemings is the largest. 78 years, yeah. There you go, Elaine. That's something that starts to search. You're in a beautiful position. I'd love to follow and hear how you do and if you need any more

guidance, you can contact us again. If you're listening to the show now, I'm pretty sure John from Palm City who was a real buff on these type of cars, he can give you something more specific, and then you can call us after the show

and we would be happy to give you that specific advice, but you're going to have a lot of fun. Nothing like having a product that people want to pay too much money for, and and you're going to be having a lot of fun. If you would share that with us and call us back maybe next week and let us know how you did, we'd appreciate it.

And, Elaine, I want to spell that out for you. H-E-M-M-I-N-G-S dot com. Hemmings.com. And they specialize in classic car ads. And they're the largest, and that's a good place to start. thank you I really appreciate that you're welcome

and as I said stay on the line Rick has some information for you Helene yeah Johnny Z. Freidley from my YouTube channel is recommending to

look into the Barrett Jackson auto auction and rocket scientist says cars and bids cars andbersand it bids I'm guessing that that's a like an auction

site maybe or cars and bids.com I would look into that and the other one that I would consider looking into is check around for some of the local car clubs and see what like asphalt angels and some of the others like that they may have some good knowledge of automobile auctions. The car club is a real that's a great idea. As you can see you have a lot of options Elaine Yeah. So, God bless you. Give us a call next week and let us know how it went, okay? I don't know if I'd be able to call as soon as next week

because I've got a whole bunch of things coming up this week, but I'll try to do it the following week. Oh, perfect. Any time at all. Can I ask one other favor? Sure. Could you text us some pictures of the car? I would love to see it.

Our text number of 772-497-6530, I would just love to see some pictures of that car. Yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you, Rick. That sounds like a real beauty. Yeah, definitely. Elena, I can't thank you enough for calling as a first-time caller because, you know, I need help in building this platform for the ladies. there, shall we say, a bit neglected, and unfortunately still taken advantage of. And if you're able to stay on for the Mystery Shopping Report, we shopped Al Hendricks, Toyota.

And the reason I mentioned that is because we had a lady call, no, I think she got in touch with Stu, I believe. Wasn't it on Facebook about her being overcharged by $7,000? at Al Hendricks. That's right. Yes. And I was in touch with her this week to listen and, well, give her some empathy and sympathy. It was a very terrible situation. So back to my, you know, point here, ladies are still being taken advantage of.

And I want to thank you again and spread the word that, you know, ladies are very important. And if they call the show, it would be a great room. reward to the other ladies that are listening right thank you okay thank you 877 960 9960 or you can text us at 772-497-2-4976530 we're going to talk to Howard he's a regular caller from Jupiter and everyone else just hang on I'll be right with you good morning I hope you all feeling well yeah Howard okay great I have a question about flooded cars There's a big problem with flooded cars

I don't know how some of them get through and are being sold again When they barely run or they run and a month later They you know Something happens and they die So can you explain number one If you have a flooded car And it's a regular water

Not salt water I know forget it But if a car is flooded out in salt water and it's completely done. But, Rick, can you explain when a car gets bad from a flood and why some cars don't get bad from a flood? Okay? Then I have another question, and I'll answer that. Well, the first thing is how the car is handled immediately after the water immersion.

If it's relatively clean water, you've got a much better chance of not having such issues with mold and the dirt that gets into the connectors or salt water would be terrible. Yeah, salt water is the worst, the absolute worst because of how much corrosion happens so quickly with it. Fresh water, especially if it's cleaner fresh water, like just rainwater,

if it can be cleaned up quickly and the car is dried out very quickly, you can generally save a car that has only gotten a reasonable amount of water in it. But once the water level starts getting up above where the computers are, it's pretty much considered totaled. And unfortunately, some states allow a flood car to be retitled, and they can do what's called washing the title. So they get a clean title now that doesn't show that it was ever totaled by the insurance company. And then you suddenly find this nightmare car.

but the corrosion that builds up can take days or weeks even before it will start to affect different circuits and once it does now you've got a nightmare situation going on because you've got to replace a lot of those wire harnesses what states are they that allow us do you know i know earl knows the list on the states where titles can be washed yeah on top of my head New Jersey, Mississippi, there's about four or five of them. But Florida is very good about titles.

If you see a title to a vehicle, you think about buying, and it's titled in a state you're not familiar with, then I would go to the trouble to Google the title laws in that state if in fact you're able to buy a fresh title for a car without having stayed the condition of the car when the car was retitled. So there's about five states now, New Jersey and Mississippi are the only two that come to mind.

I did a blog on that not too long ago, so if you go, yeah, Nancy's got a copy of it. How to avoid buying a flood car after a hurricane. And Howard Earl has some pretty detailed information in that column. And there are other states besides Mississippi and New Jersey. So if you pull that up, if you go to Earl on cars, you can pull up that. This was written a while ago. I guess you might say during the last hurricane season in tropical storms.

But there are so many flood cars out there. Do you have any other questions, Howard? My niece bought a car in New Jersey, and it was a flood car. Yeah, there we go. One fast question. Toyota Camry, the new ones, do they have the battery up front instead of in the rear? Is that a fact? Let's see.

I think the new Camry has now moved back up to the front. I'm not sure. I'd have to double check on that. but yeah for a while they moved it back into the trunk in the right rear corner okay because that gives you more room that's where you could fit things more rectangular things in the trunk you know what I mean the two rectangular things that you could put in the trunk on the Camry which in the hybrid you couldn't do that but now you probably could do that if that's so that's another advantage

Oh, yeah. Hey, if you want to see a trunk, you ought to check out the new Crown. Howard? Toyota Crown. Howard, I've got the states now that wash titles. And if you see, if you're buying a car and the car is titled in any of these states, be very, very careful. Texas, California, Washington, Tennessee, Mississippi, Illinois, New Jersey, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Virginia, Georgia, and as I said, Mississippi. Okay, you got to buy your car in Florida.

Yeah, yeah, right? Yeah, Florida, but see, if you buy the car in Florida, you won't see where the car was last titled. Oh, I go. Because Florida will require all this. If you have a car that was titled one time, title in Florida, then you'd be completely safe against hail, you know, hail damage cars, flood cars, wrecked cars.

I mean, they take cars. cut them in half and and weld them back together again and sell them so if you if take a car for one of these states how many where did I say one two three four five six eight nine eleven states you know almost 20% of the states are cars that wash titles wow that's good now thank you very much you're welcome Howard thanks for calling the show we're going to go to Lance who calls us in Tennessee Good morning, Lance. Good morning.

Now, our old dog, don't wash titles up here. We don't hardly watch clothes. We don't wash anything up here. Anything at all. Well, you're a chamber commerce is going to come looking for you. I hope you got a lock on your door. I'm Vancy and Rick. Sorry to hear it.

You know, I'm feeling poor. We make a cure up here. but the problem with it is if it doesn't cure you you can also use it to take off paint on your head outside of your hat is it something starts with sour mash we're not going to go into all that

what it starts with you got rich attention though it's good to talk to y'all I've got a little quick tune for you to hopefully enliven your spirit and see you off to a victorious week. Well, it's Saturday morning, and you've got no place to go.

Listen to Earl Stewart on cars on the radio. That's great. I like that deep voice. I can't wait. I'm going to go to the podcast on some of your songs, and we can dub some music again. I'm going to start a company, and if you'll give me a piece of it, we'll market your songs.

Well, I don't know. Let's wait to our Christmas album comes out. That's good. That's good. Have a good day. Thanks, Lance. Thanks, Lance. We love hearing from you.

877-960-9960, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. We are going to go to, you know, let me tell all of you out there that we're listening and maybe couldn't jot down those states that Earl was talking about. I'll mention that later on in the show. We're going to go to Michael, who is calling us from Boynton Beach. Good morning, Michael. Good morning. I have a really quick question.

I have a lease car, and there's been a couple of things that happen intermittently with it. It's a Camry, 2020, Toyota XLE Camry. Really nice car and everything. But if you bring it to a Toyota dealer, you know, unfortunately, I live so far from where Earl Stewart is, otherwise I'd be bringing it there. And it's an intermittent problem. There's a dealership. I don't want to say it on the air. I could tell you afterwards after the call off the air, which it is.

But if it's an intermittent problem and you bring it in and they don't find anything, this particular dealership is going to charge you $135. For nothing, huh? for just looking at it and that they don't find that. Is that a standard practice with car dealerships? No, certainly on a recurrent problem, when it's obvious that you bring it back, the first time you come in, if they have to work on the car and they find nothing, there may be a diagnosis charge.

A lot of dealers won't charge you for something like that. It depends on how much work the tech has to put in on the car. But when you bring back again for the exact same problem, they should cut you some slack and realize they missed it. My advice is on any time you have a car that doesn't actually manifest the problem, you know, smell-wise, vibration-wise, audio-wise, or visibly, if your senses can't detect the problem, it's very difficult for the tech to know where to start. They could put the machine, they could put the diagnostic machinery on there,

but when they're looking at a possibility that anything in the entire car could have a problem, it's very difficult for them to diagnose. The best thing to do is what year at Cambering is the 2020? Rick, wouldn't that later model wouldn't that have the ability to capture that incident and the diagnostic? Depending on what the situation is, it should be able to save a lot of data in what's called the record of behavior. The ROB, this is actually not a diagnostic trouble code, but it's actually a separate section where it will record like odd occurrences, say hard acceleration, the brake pedal and gas pedal hit at the same time, hard cornering, things like that. A lot of that data is saved in there now, and you'd be surprised at how much I can actually see about how people are driving their cars. I take it to a different dealer.

I would also request if it's a chronic problem that they can't find the solution to, they should bring in a factory representative. They have factory technicians. They can contact them online. They can actually have a technician online with them while they're diagnosing your car. Or push comes to shove. The technician can actually come into the dealership and personally look at the car. Rick has another point.

Well, the procedure, the way it's supposed to work is if you bring your car in the first time, the technician checks it all over and cannot duplicate the situation. That's the first visit. The second visit, when you have a second thing for the same exact situation, we're supposed to open a tech case with Toyota. That information gets sent to the field tech specialist. and then if we cannot get a solution, the FTS is supposed to become personally involved

and can visit the dealership. That's what's supposed to do. He went to the dealer. They didn't do that. So it's my recommendation to go to a different dealer who follows Toyota procedure. This dealer that you're dealing with is not following Toyota procedure,

so you need to go to a different dealer. Exactly. Okay, that's what I needed to find out. Thank you so much. Well, thank you, Michael. You're welcome. Give us a call again, Michael. Okay, I sure will. Thank you. Thank you for calling.

877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. Again, ladies, I have $50 for one more female, new female caller. You can give us a call and talk about just about anything, and I just want to let you know how important you are. I'll tell you, these dealers don't get it. They don't realize what an asset you are to this industry. And even when you go in for service, you know, you just want to be treated male or female equally. And you want to ensure that you get high quality, you know, service and also respect, respectful service.

They're not talking down to you. and a fair price 877960 or you can text us at 772-4976530 we're going to go to jersey mike who gives us a call from west palm beach good morning good morning thank you for taking the call i hope everybody's feeling better there yes i want to say something i've mentioned it before a lot people may not be aware of this but i adopted a dog from a big dog ranch i happen to be a veteran, and when you do that, they'll give you a 50% deduction if you're going to purchase the dog. I would also say that when you get that dog from a big dog rash, it is completely taken care of. It has a chip in it. It's been manicured. It's been brushed. It doesn't have fleas. It's been

inspected by a veterinarian, and it's very thorough. And you get a full report on all of that. So that is very, very important. It's amazing, Mike, isn't it? They spend, I'm sure you know a whole lot about this, but they have these service dogs, and they spend quite a bit of time training them and matching them up with the adopter. And it's just an amazing program. That's exactly what I have. I have a service dog.

Yeah. And you've been a major player as far as Big Dog Ranch is concerned. Do you know all about it? And let me just say this about cars now, okay? Okay. And darken of the day, because I'm 77 years old. I had 55 Chevy, 60s, you know, 58 or so forth. They didn't have air conditioning back there.

So you could actually buy a portable unit and put it underneath the dashboard. And I have a 55 Chevy Bell Air here that I happen to be able to pick up. It's a classic car. But, of course, they've got no power steering, you know, no power wind. You know, back in the day, they didn't have any of those things. And it would be nice in the summer. It would have a little bit of cold air on me when I take it down on the show. So is there a place where I can buy such a thing?

I was going to say Amazon. That's where I'd be looking. I didn't even know. First, I thought you meant that they had, like, available portable air conditions back in 1955 when you bought your bell air. No, back then they didn't have that, did they? Oh, yeah. Really?

They did. Oh, wow. We had mounted underneath the dashboard, and you just had vents. You'd point them towards you, and you can point one towards the passenger, and you had air conditioning going. on in the summer. I come from Jersey and end up there in the summer that you get 90 degree day, you know. All right. Well, this is prompting an internet search. I'm not seeing it on Amazon yet, but Rick, did you find it? Searching. Rick is searching right now. Well, yeah, I would

start there, or maybe even ask a auto parts store or somebody who deals in classic cars. And where do you hear this one? I had a 95, I have a 95 Caliq Coopterville. That's how talax all my life and uh it's a sedan de ville and it was in the shop and they had three different people come over to attempt to program the new key that came with the steering column because i had to have the steering column replaced because somebody tried to steal the car by breaking into it and they screwed up the steering column after they put the new steering column in they had three gentlemen come over there that were professionals to try and program that chip in that key that went to the new column because the car would not be able to be shifted into gear once it was started.

So after having done all of that, somebody told me, I think it was Earl, go to a Cadillac car. And I did, and after doing that, I found out that it is as simple as taking, and I have, I'm a motorhead. I have an all I had to do is find is resist her on the ignition line and find out. and find out what the resistance was in the car and do the same thing with the key, so you can go ahead and check the resistance of that chip on the key and just replace the resistor to match the key's resistance, and it worked. So if you, wait, if you went to the wire in the car,

you got the resistance there, and if it matches the key, that's how you can do it. Yeah, but it didn't because this is a new column, and the resistor that's originally in the car is still there, so you've got to find out what the resistance is on the new key for the new column and then put a new resistor in to match. Oh, yeah, right, to match it. That's an awesome hack. You take a little sod of iron, take a little sodder to it,

and bingo bagel of an electric paper on, and it's done, and it works. Rick's over there a nod, and that's an excellent hack, look it. It's because back then they didn't actually have an actual microchip. They used a resistor in the key, and they just had multiple different resistors. So it's kind of like how the key code is one mystery that has to be solved in order to start the car, but then you've got a second one with a resistor.

So you've literally got two versions of the key. It's like the dual password that we have now on computer. Two-factor authentication. Yes, exactly. By the way, portable AC units on Amazon, I'm seeing them anywhere from $30 to $50 to $100, but yeah, these are, here's one listing for $30, and it's a 500-millimeter liter, portable AC evaporative air cooler for your small room or a car. Great. I'm looking to. I appreciate that info. And one last question real quick. The 55 Chevy I have, it's a mystery to figure out how to pop the hood on that car. You can go all through that grill and try and look for a lever.

There is no such a thing that I can find. Inside the car, all you got is a pull break for the emergency, but there's no lever there to pull, as you do have on all other cars, to open that hood. How do you open that hood? Plunger. A what? A plunger.

I'm going to Google that because I honestly don't know. What's a plunger? What's a plunger? Oh, like a toilet plunger. Plummers are a plunger. Stick it to the hood and yank up. That's a good one. I like that one.

It might actually work if the hens is, I mean, if the latch isn't locked. Because you would think that you could pop it or something by pushing down on it or something, but you should be able to find a lever somewhere within that grill, but there's no lever there in a pole to open the bed and pop-ball. Rick's on to something, though. Yeah, I'm watching a video on YouTube right now, and it's showing the guy coming in, and he's reaching, into the grill, directly below the Chevy emblem, and apparently there is a latch.

They're really? After I went over, the whole thing, but really, right underneath the emblem, huh? Yeah, right under the Chevy emblem, he's reaching in that top little square of the grill. John, this is, this is Nancy. I just wanted to let you know, you know, those latches are really hard to find. I'm driving a 2020 from time to time. and I was charging my battery in the home garage. And what I did was pop the hood, and, you know, it's obvious that the hood has been popped.

But you have to, and I have a small hand, and I was able to slide my hand under the hood back and forth and find the latch. And I've done that several times. So, you know, the reason I mention that is because the latches are really hard to find. She's mentioning that because I couldn't find it, and she found it. She's taken the fall for you. Earl said, how do I open up that hood on the Avalon? And I said, you know, it's difficult. I said, I'll go out and I'll take care of it.

So, you know, I said, oh, geez, here I go again. I've got to find where that latch is exactly. Well, once you get your fingers wrapped around it, it's, you know, win-win. Thank Google for YouTube. And folks out there, remember, big dog, it's a great place, and they don't kill dogs there. They will not do that. That's true. They take dogs in from all over the country.

I'm not as like from outside of the country sometimes. Yeah, definitely outside of the country. And also, you know, that veteran program that they have, they're going to, they do so much as far as the vaccinations and microchipping and the, the, The veteran receives reduced costs for up to a year. There's a V8 guy right there. There's a guy there in the back. They got a lot of buildings. You've got to go hunt and look for this to have somebody tell you where it is.

But there's an actual veterans building back there, and I gave them $1,000 because I think they do what they do, and I'm going to give them more as we go along. And I'm going to say this. Once you get a dog from there, you don't have to go to a veterinarian. You go back there, and you're going to pay a minimum. minuscule amount compared to what you'd be paying for a veterinarian you're going to a medical doctor for a human being yeah they're at their vet it's not a for-profit thing it's a they're

supported by the donations definitely stew it's a it's a great healing center uh jersey mike uh we're going to run and we love talking to you i hope you get your hood open and we'll talk to you next week thank you're welcome thanks mike bye 877 960 99 or you can text us at 772-497-6-530 and ladies I have $50 for the next new female caller give us a call it's a win-win situation just call to say hello or share your story with us whether you went through service whether you purchased a vehicle maybe you leased a vehicle let me know how your negotiating skills went. 877-960-99-60.

That's all I have over here on the X-Screen guys. I got Anne-Marie has an interesting text for us this morning. Good morning, Ann-Murie. And we have a visual aid that John can put up when it's appropriate. Anne-M-Rae says, good morning. A short while ago, I encountered a bit of automotive serendipity. The hotel I chose to stay at just happen to be hosting a lot of owners of the street rods and classic cars had come into town for the 29th annual northeast street rod nationals.

The parking lot was filled with gorgeous cars. The antique cars dated from the 30s to the 70s. They're designed to run on leaded gas, and most of the cars were driven rather than trailered in. The question didn't occur to me until everyone had gone their separate ways. Thankfully, you guys have a renovated classic car. We do. We have a 1937 Pontiac. We keep at the dealership that was restored. about 20 years ago? Chiefton. Honak Chieftain. They don't put the model name on the outside of the car back then.

So can I ask you, what kind of fuel do these restored cars use? Would they all have been modified to run on unleaded gas? Or is there an additive that can be used so they can use unleaded fuel? Thanks, and that's a blast from the past. And hopefully Jonathan got these pictures.

They're really cool cars. They just look like, it just looks like American graffiti outside this hotel. Rick? The number one issue that you have is the leaded gas, the lead that was in there was actually a lubricant for the valves and the valve seats. So a lot of these cars have been rebuilt and they use a hardened valve seat. Yeah, but this hasn't been rebuilt.

She's talking about a real antique car. Most of them, though, they do rebuild to put a hardened valve seat so you can run unleaded fuel. you can simply get a leaded additive that does the same job as the lead would do, but it's not polluting the atmosphere with lead anymore. The purists don't modify antique cars at all. Right. So once you modify it, that it's not, you know, it's like either you're a virgin or you're not a virgin. Yeah.

What do you get leaded gas then? Well, that's a good question. I think that's a better. That's a better question. It's the fuel that you add into the fuel that makes it safe to run. There you go. So it's either they, they've either converted the engine to a modification if they're not a purist and it runs on regular unleaded fuel or they put an additive in the unleaded fuel so it works with the untouched pristine unmodified engine. Yeah, with our 1937 Bonniac, we wanted to be 100% original.

So when we had it restored, even the emblems and everything in the car, it took a long time and a lot of money, but everything is absolutely original. right difference between that and while all we changed was this right and we have a lot of money we have a 1999 Cadillac engine in it yeah yeah but we don't no oh I thought you're waiting do we have a call no okay so that's pretty cool so I hope everybody gets to see the pictures I have another text from Bob and this is a great question he says good morning with all the wet weather we have in Florida and it looks like getting wetter in years going forward and And we are here with the El Nino, we're going to have a cooler, wetter winter down here in the south. So we could have some of this flooding we've been getting.

Anyway, it says going, it looks like it's getting wetter in the years going forward. Is it wise to buy an electric vehicle? My concern is that it appears the batteries are located low in the vehicles, and even without driving through standing water, a lot of water is constantly being thrown up underneath. It's from Bob. Well, I can say that the vehicles are designed to, with, say in any water, you can even, they can be submerged, and there's no electrocution where it's hybrids, battery electric vehicles, and the like.

There's even videos online of people driving. Not Teslas. Teslas are videos of Tesla being driving through floodwaters over the hood because there's no air intake and everything. Elon says it could be used as a boat for short distance. Well, no, he actually, in the, in the Tesla. when he first hit the volume production on the model of three. They were putting plugs in the holes of the vehicle,

and it was slowing down in production. He had to get production up to $5,000 a month, and he told the engineers, why did you put that there? He says, well, if there's a flood that's high enough to go in to the car, it'll go through this hole. He says, you get a flood like that once every 12 years, don't put the plugs in the hole. So that's a little known fact that the Tesla 3 doesn't have the...

It's not floodproof, yeah. Well, they do say, you know, don't do it because you're going to ruin the car anyway, but it's not going to get hydrolock like an internal combustion engine and draw water into the engine, but it can't operate. But to answer the question, no, it's designed to not electrocute you if it gets wet. Right. And those batteries from the studying I did for them for firefighter training, those are so well sealed that the battery itself you can't even get air really into it

so they are incredibly well sealed except for those model 3s how do you how does the you know person to purchase of electric vehicle how do they know it's amphibious well they're not technically they're not designed that's an off-brand use of the of the electric vehicles. It's the same way like internal combustion engine vehicles are designed to be safe for the drivers in water. It's not going to, there's a lot of electrical components and high voltage systems in regular cars now. So they're just designed not to do that because that's a regular occurrence. You know, it rains and there are, and there are, you know, it's puddles. So that's how they're designed. Great information.

Mm-hmm. Got another one here, and this is, oh, do we have a call coming in? We have a call, Steve. Here it is. And it's John from Palm City. Good morning, John. Good morning. I think I have some good news for people. I redo my license plate this weekend, and at the motor vehicle, brew, is a sheriff deputy, which they have from occasionally, when people are registering their cars from out of state, they check the ID serial numbers to make sure it matches what it says on a registration.

That's been done for years, and it's a good system, but some of them require not the motor vehicle employee, but the actual sheriff deputy to inspect the numbers, which I guess is a good system. But here was the problem, and the state that's involved has cracked down now on issuing title certificates because, as Earl mentions, they wash out tiles on floodcars. So I don't say this was a flood car, but people were registering a Vermont vehicle and they told them that the papers were not proper. They needed additional backup as to where the car was registered before, whether it be a Vermont address or what, and they told them everything that they needed. But there's a lot of cooperation from what I heard at the motor vehicle now between Vermont and Florida,

because Vermont was very negligent in issuing titles for cars without even people going in person, mail orders, et cetera. So that's some good news that I'm hearing. And maybe they can stop some of these washed out titles, especially a flood car with all the rain that we've been having. I mean, we usually see it down here because we get all that nasty weather. But in New York right now, my daughter's up there. It's crazy.

I mean, there's flooding in the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn. And, I mean, there's pictures of, usually you see after a hurricane, you know, down here in the south, but there's cars submerged up to the hoods, all lining down the streets of Williamsburg and down in the East Village. It's a, my daughter has water pouring into her apartment right now. Oh, my goodness. And in Central Park, did you see the flooding in Central Park? Yeah, the sea lion got away. Yeah, it's just a...

My daughter lives in Brooklyn. It was actually in the subways. It was coming through the walls at a subway. Yes, right through the word she's ever seen. The tiles is squirting out of the grouting in the tiles. I saw the video. They showed a video, John, and it was just, I was in awe. Definitely.

And that's a good point that you bring up about the washed out cars. Yes, the washed out title, which Earl has mentioned several times, and it's an actual fraud. So the second thing real fast, I want to mention. We never bought up again safety recalls. Last year, 932 safety recalls were issued. That's like 30.8 million cars. A lot of people don't get, even if they get their notice, they don't get it taken care of.

Very simple. The website is nhtsa.gov. Put in your 17-digit serial code, and you'll find out on any car that's made or existence. existence if there's been a safety recall on it so again it's n h t s a dot go on that website which is 17 digit code in there and find out if there's any recalls that were made on your automobile and safety recalls never expire in it free to get fixed yes very good point you know that's great information john we need to remind people that every week i mean we got

discouraged leading the crusade over them, but it's still good information. Every week, if somebody picks up on it and runs their VIN, you know, it'll be a help. Very important, and it's so easy to find out. Yeah, so, John, it's N-H-T-S-A.org. N-H-T-S-A.org. Yeah, N-H-T-S-A.org, and you enter the 17 digits in it. Oh, dot-gov. Dot-gov. Dot-gov. Thank you.

and your 17-digit code goes right and that's easy to find it's right on your dashboard or your registration yeah it's easy to find not easy to write down but it's easy to find right also savercar.gov yeah okay guys keep on doing a good work oh thank you john have a great weekend thank you hey 77 960 9960 and that number is for you ladies if you want to win yourself a $50 this morning I need to hear from another new female caller and she wins herself fifty dollars eight seven seven nine six oh nine sixty Texas you'll need that text number when you vote on our mystery shopping report this morning and is from Al Hendricks and it is a doozy you want to stay tuned for that but you can use the text number seven seven seven two four nine seven six five three zero to grade the mystery shopping report we're gonna go back to Stu or maybe we're gonna talk Dr. Rick?

Oh, we've got a few YouTube comments here. Okay. I'll get back here to the beginning a little bit. One early one here was Bizzle who said, do you think it's true that Sun Toyota has over 600 new vehicles in stock? No. I check that. I'm glad somebody else asked that question.

They're using the old in-transit and on-order trick. that so many dealers do. In fact, as a matter of fact, Toyota is guilty in this too. The clear implication is when you say you have something in stock that it's on the ground available for sale.

But that means that these cars have been allocated to some Toyota and some of them might be in transit, but they are not on the ground. He can have 10 cars on the ground and then another 300 or 200 that

are allocated, but they haven't come yet. So it takes weeks for the cars to come in. And also, a lot of those cars could be sold, pre-sold, before they came in. So the dealers, including Toyota, and I hope Toyota's listening now. They hate it when a car dealer speaks ill of them, but I'm speaking ill of Toyota for their system that deliberately distorts the dealer inventories, and people will go into the inventory expecting to see 600 cars, it's on Toyota, and I guarantee you he doesn't have 600 cars in stock. He might have 100, but he hasn't got 600, and it's confusing, and it's biased information to sell more cars by deceiving your customers.

That is right. I was looking for a little trick. Sometimes when you go to a dealer's website and they show a large amount of cars, If you look in the filter where you filter the results on the inventory page, they can have multiple locations. And there will be a tab for location, and you might be surprised to see the one you're looking at might only have 120 cars,

but there's four other locations, and it totals up to the amount. In this case, Sun Toyota only has the one location down there in southwest Florida. But like Earl said, highly incredibly improbable that they have anywhere near that number of cars physically on the lot that are available if he's charging a million dollar addendum on every vehicle maybe he does yeah yeah there are there are some very you know small circumstances um where that could be true but it's the probability is very small um Ali has a question this is a good question

for everybody who's wondering what to do when that maintenance light comes on in your car at least is good morning I'm a new new owner of a 2020 Avalon which is a fine car There's a message appearing, it says to perform maintenance soon. How do I know what to do next? I need a clue. My mileage is at $34,000. Well, for Toyota's, the mileage intervals are every 5,000 miles or twice a year. So what you do is make sure that you're keeping up this.

Go to a Toyota dealer and do your 35,000 miles service. Which most likely will be just a tire rotation. Right. I think you are just out of the Toyota Care, which goes with the car, I assume. So if he's a new owner of a 2020, and he's bought it, it used. The first five services would have been given for free. Right. So at $35,000, he'll be out on that.

He's done, yeah. So I shouldn't have excited you. Unless he has Toyota Care, which can give several other services after that. Toy Guard. Toy Guard, that's it. That's another thing. But don't worry about that. Just all you have to do is it's a very interesting.

inexpensive service. All of them are pretty inexpensive, just tire rotations and oil changes, but at 35,000 miles, all I got to do is swap those tires from front to back. Okay. Also, this was from Jersey Mike talking about his air conditioning and his, his Cadillacs or his old cars there. Gary sent it in any final listing on eBay. It's a full-on air conditioning system, classic car AC for 1899, 8,000, 8,000, 8,000,000. It looks a lot more involved in the picture I'm looking at than one of those little portable units. But it looks like you can just rig this thing up and cool off your old Cadillac.

And also, lastly, to catch me up and we'll jump over to you is we have from Paul, he says, in South Florida, King Tides, or we got them this weekend. The highest tides are 9-17 this morning, 10 a.m. tomorrow morning and 11 a.m. and he adds, and I do want to emphasize this, saltwater is a huge no-no to drive-through. Yeah, that's not something you want to do. Yeah, as a matter of fact, certain roads like on Palm Beach, Lake Shore Drive in Lake Park,

the intercoastal will literally... Come up through the ground. Go over the road, and you are literally driving in saltwater from the intercoastal. Down in Miami, Miami Beach, they have these king tides, and they're pretty regular. And if you're down there, like on Collins

or if you're familiar with the Miami Beach area, it seeps up through the ground. It's really freaky. Let me jump in there and go back to the question about Suntoyota. Another person complained about that several weeks ago. So I asked our new car inventory, a manager, who is a real whiz. And I said they're advertising. They have 369.

cars in stock and our inventory manager did some inside investigation and they actually had 69 on the ground so they only allowed lied by 300 cars no no by a lot more than that it was uh well this was back on uh august uh the 31st now they say they have 685 cars in stock and they have 69 oh no this was on august 31st when they did have they advertised 369 and they had 69 on the ground Now they've doubled the claim. They probably have 100. All right, I'm all caught up. Well, this one from Guy Larrabee, he says,

Earl, have you calculated the energy savings compared to your previous vehicle as to what you're getting with the Tesla? You know, I can do it. The Tesla does it for me, and I haven't done that comparison, but I will do that. It'll be an easy comparison. I can look at my Tesla app any time and I see what my what normal savings is based on normal gas and the cost of electricity in my particular neighborhood. Let me, there's something that I got out of this book for guys, particularly your followers, Rick, who are really on top of things and any Tesla owners out there.

This is breaking news because the biography I read, just a benefit of the fact. I just finished it this week on Elon Musk. The very end, we kidded them a lot, and Nancy and I have a Tesla, and we said, I wouldn't drive the car, let autonomous mode go on this car and feel safe. We kept trying it every time there was a software upgrade, we would try it. And it was scary, and we just stopped trying it. And, but mostly after that kind of came out that even Musk was having second thoughts, well, there's been a breakthrough, and I kind of believe this. He has a company called Neurrelink among SpaceX, and NeuroLink has taken the film,

the video from all the Tesla's. Tesla's been around for what, 10 or 15 years, and millions of miles, hundreds of thousands, the Teslas and the cameras are recording and they have taken the good or the best drivers and they've taken the video and they feed it into their supercomputer through this neuralink process and what they're doing is they're now programming the autonomous to way humans actually drive the cars the instructions are that would be good yeah well it's actually been tested. They take only the best drivers and like a five-star Uber driver and they use that and see a human being and this is what worried Nancy and me, we do things that sometimes

are illegal to avoid an accident. I mean you'll do just about anything, you know, to avoid an action. You'll run a red light, you'll go over a double line and only a human can make that decision. Sometimes it's the best way to avoid an accident. That's what Neuralink does. We do that to get out of the way of a fire truck. Yeah, exactly. There's reason. So the very end of the biography, he had one of these cars that was programmed by Neurrelink,

not conventional programming, but the way, and he said I deliberately took my hands off the wheel, and I was instinctively wanted to change things, but I didn't do it. They came across a road while he was driving it that was littered with, you know, bumpers and, you know, like a dump truck had actually dumped a bunch of crap on the road. And the Tesla is trying to navigate the Tesla to avoid a high-speed collision switched over across the double line on the highway because there were no cars coming because the camera didn't see any cars coming to avoid something that would certainly have been a blowout and maybe even a fatal accident. So Elon Musk went on to say that he normally doesn't see even what he calls was a safety autonomous car driving as well as he does. He says this car drives better than he does and that it drives better than most drivers.

So that could be the breakthrough, but I never thought of that. They were trying to program Tesla's by anticipating everything by a rule. Like, don't go over the, you don't run a red light, don't go over the double line, don't follow too close. But there's not enough rules in the world to be human. So now you have human, you have human neuralinks the way the great drivers, five-star Uber driver, isn't perfect, but he's the best we got. That's the way the new autonomous cars will be programmed. Skynet is coming. You know, you mentioned savings on electric vehicles.

Last week from Automotive News, I reported on the electric vehicles, and they were comparing them to the gasoline-powered cars. And there's $3,000 a year in fuel that you can save. And the reduced cost on maintenance, It's just amazing. It's really worth Googling and check that out on electric vehicles. Okay, Rick, do you have anything else for us? Oh, we do.

This one from Curvin Pan, aka the dude. He says he's got a... A.k.a. what? The dude. Oh, the dude. Oh, I thought he said something else. The dude. That's one of Elon most favorite expressions.

Dude. So he says he's got a 2018 Lexus RX. 350 F Sport and unfortunately was involved in a hit-and-run accident in Houston. State Farm did not want to repair it with OEM parts to the manufacturer's specs, and he's nervous about it and asking, should he sell the car after it gets repaired? I give him a quick reply back here, basically saying he should consult a lawyer, especially for the loss of compensation for the loss of value of the car, and also to see if the lawyer getting involved,

maybe they can get them to actually do a proper repair with OEM parts that have been safety tested and are proper for the vehicle. Well, that's one of the worst conspiratorial issues that I have with the industry. There's some sort of an unholy alliance between insurance companies and manufacturers. I hate to say it, but even lawyers. Here is a fact, and listen to this carefully for those that don't already know it. Aftermarket, non-OEM parts are not safety tested. In case you didn't hear me clearly.

a hood, a fender, a bumper. If it's not manufactured by the OEM, the original equipment manufacturer or that vehicle, it's not safety tested. NHTSA test cars, and they put a rank on the car. You know, this is really safe, it's not so safe, and you can get to all that information in consumer reports. And the insurance companies, oftentimes, in fact,

more often than not, will not use OEM, parts on crash parts, a hood, a fender, a bumper, and the absorption of the energy and the timing of the compression, if you see a slow motion compression of an accident, and you see how the hood, the bumper, the fenders, it's like an accordion, they come in and that's absorbing energy, but it's also on a timer as to when your airbag goes off or your airbags, You've got airbags all over the place. If you buy a car that's repaired with a bumper and fenders from Taiwan and you save some money, or I say your insurance company saves the money,

you don't save any money, the insurance company saves a lot of money, then you put those fenders on there, and you're in accident, your life's a danger. Exactly. So somebody telling me, lawyers, auto manufacturers, regulators, politicians, I say, Tonga and Chiak, you don't care, you want to get elected, that's all you care about, but how can we have cars being repaired by State Farm, Allstate, and all the GEICO and these prestigious, respected insurance companies, and how can they be putting on unsafe crash parts? I don't care, you know, what kind of door handle they put on. I care about when I'm in an accident something that's going to save my life

Exactly And the lawyers don't seem to be excited about I think this should be the greatest class action suit Against manufacturers of automobiles And insurance companies ever And I know there are some attorneys out there That watch and listen to the show here I'd love to have an attorney calling me

And say, why do you let that happen? I mean, you can make a lot of money if you were to get enough people to participate in a class action suit. And this one from Donovan, what does Earl think of the status of the UAW strike? It looks like it's not going to end anytime soon as the strike is expanding. 7,000 more workers walked off from two plants yesterday. Well, it's great television. The President of the United States is getting a lot of camera time off it, and the candidates are getting a lot of camera time off of it,

the head of the UAW, and, of course, the big three manufacturers are all getting a lot of camera time, and they're playing poker, and they're on stage. It's a big act. I think that it's going to be tough on the UAW, you because the manufacturers, and I'm speaking, most of them, are prepared. They saw the strike coming. I mean, they know in advance when the times for the talks are going to come up.

They anticipate strikes always. They build up their inventories. The dealers have built their inventories up. Right now, the new car inventory is greater than it's been in three years. So it's going to get settled when it has to do. be settled and also the public doesn't know what's going on it's behind the closed doors and everybody that knows what's going on is keep it quiet about it i was reading about the employees and uh you know they they're getting 500 a week i believe but uh they may go elsewhere for a job and when this

strike is over they're not going back to their job and that's another fear uh in this terrible half the manufacturer of cars out there are non-union so half the you know the Tesla is not union there are there are other manufacturers out there so uh you're if you want to give Elon Musk a big start then go on strike and I'm talking about the big three you know Ford GM and Stalantis and the UAW if all you guys want to give Elon Musk a huge start then just keep on drain the dealers they won't have any cars and you'll make the conversion to electric vehicles happen a lot faster than you want it to be because when the manufacturers are building nothing about EVs, all you auto workers out there

that know how to assemble a combustion engine car where are you going to find a job? So it's going to be the strike, I think everybody really knows it's a bad thing. They can handle it for a time, which they're handling it now, but it's not going to last because it's just going to hurt the industry really bad help Elon Musk and hurt the industry exactly we're going to go back to the phones and we're going to talk to uh roadrunner steve good morning roadrunner steve peep beep good morning everybody hey well i got a little story to tell last week i went to get my oil change on my roadrunner so i told the guy there that i know i'll bring my own oil filter this way you don't have a hard time finding one so he said no problem I get

the car there we get it up on the lift the manager comes out we can't do the oil change I said why not well computer shows you don't know what pipe for oil so I started laughing I said what are you talking about I said what am I getting he goes in oil change well there's the word oil so he goes all vendor don't carry that oil so i looked at him again what do you mean a vendor well will we get our parts home we don't carry that oil i said all right get that car off the lift i closed the hood i left absolutely i go to o'realeigh's they got the oil i go to walmart they got the oil I went to get a cup of coffee at Dunkin' Donuts.

They had the oil. And I wanted to go to the dollar tree. Stay back to the oil. So I went back to me, guys, what are you talking about? Yeah, he got the oil. Right? So the guy that I know was coming the next day that was on my car. I said, yeah, you know, I got the oil filter.

I'll bring my own oil. He goes, yeah, no problem. I'll just charge you a lift charge. I said, great. What is it with this? computers where you don't know what to do for a car I mean an oil

change the simplest thing in the world it sounded like the first shop just had a too cozy of a relationship with his vendor and he just he gets one kind of oil one kind of this and that and one kind of yeah because I noticed a lot of oil now was synthetic and something

something like carbon gas oil or something whatever I'm just like reading this stuff but everybody had the oil except this guy's The oil companies are clever. They will go to a dealership, I know, because it's happened to me, and they'll come and say, listen, if you buy nothing but valvaline oil, we will loan you a million dollars to bill your new service department for 2% interest.

I mean, they lock themselves in. It's kind of like some of the soft trade companies do to the grocery stores. You know, they bribe them to carry only their brand. And when I had a Pontiac dealership for years and years and years, all I ever had was Evolvlin oil. Well, like with a racing company, NASCAR, they only use a no-go fuel for all NASCAR, and they get a big kickback on that.

Yes. Well, I go back to NASCAR when they had door handles on the car. But my thing is, if that was my business, that I owned it, I would have sent the guy out to go get the oil, okay? Yes, very good. You're losing business, plus the guy that does the oil chain, I always get the guy five bucks. So now the guy that does it also loses out.

I don't understand, you know, take care of the customer. Steve, do you use any specific type of oil or just... Yeah, 10W30. That's just a 10W30. I know oil? Five quarts. Five quarts. That's it.

Yeah, that's available everywhere. Yeah. That's ridiculous. I got it at Dunkin' Donuts. His vendor said, my vendor don't carry that oil. Unbelievable. I mean, it is.

But like I said, that was my business. I'd sense one of my workers out here. Steve said the oil is over here or drive Steve to the store to get the five quarts, bring it back, and we charge them a lift charge. and we still make money, and the guy doing the oil chains gets a $5 tip. Yeah. What's so hard about that?

I don't know. What's the big deal? But the place that you went to, so they just charge you just a lift fee that you can change your own oil? Yes. Yeah, it's the same thing. They're $25 a lift fee. The same in New York.

Okay. You know, with that. So I said I got no problem with that. But this way, I go under the call, and I inspect it to, until they come out, the boil. Oh, insurance regulations, you can't go under there. I said, I'm already done looking. Don't worry about it.

They're letting you change your oil, but they wouldn't let you go under your car? No, they change the oil, but I always inspect under the car. The one guy I'm with friends with, he knows me, so he doesn't say anything because he's a car guy also. But, you know, he says, oh, the big boss is here, you know, you've got to get out for him. I said, yeah, no problem. I'm done looking. I wanted to see how the dual exhaust was hanging out, you know, of everything was secure and all that. That was it.

I work at a dealership, and our service department, which has all the OSHA and insurance companies, everybody else checking it, our rule is the customer is perfectly allowed to come out and inspect the car, look it over. The only rule is we do ask that they are escorted by a service rider or a service technician so as to keep the customer safe while they're looking under the car. and I'm very likely to hand them a pair of safety glasses to put on and, you know, hand them a flashlight too if they want. And Fairless, our insurance got to say, we can't even do that, but we do it anyway, so. Well, but we want to take care of our customers. Sometimes you have to break the roll. At least if the car falls off and hits the customer in the head, they won't pay.

Screwed, yeah. By the way, if I come to you when we go under the car, while I'm by Earl Stewart and the car starts to fall, are you going to jump on me to save me? Yes, I'm going to be, yes. Oh, boy. The cost us will be much less. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Steve. We love hearing from you. Okay, we are going to be going soon to our video for Big Dog Ranch, so stay tuned for that. Rick has, Rick and Stu have some messages. I got one last one here. This is from Pop Hartley, and he says, He has a Toyota Sienna with 17,000 miles, and he says every time he goes into his local dealer for a regular service, such as an oil change tire rotation, the service advisor also says to him, you need the tire balance and alignment. Pretty much every time he goes in, he says, the tires look fine as far as wear and tear.

He says, the ride is smooth, so I know I don't need the tires balanced. is the advisor trying to oversell me on something I don't need? And I think in this case, yes. Tire balance, if you're driving at highway speeds, say, 50 to 70 miles an hour, and the vehicle runs smooth, and your tires look to be in good condition, and you run your hand over it, you don't feel any odd lumpiness or anything, your tires are in good shape. You don't need to pay for a tire balance every single time you go in.

and if the vehicle rides in the lane, if you have a vehicle that rise smooth, then you don't have a problem with your tires. And if it stays pretty well centered in the lane and it doesn't fight you, you don't need to worry about an alignment. And they should check your alignment free anyway and show you the printout as to what your alignment is.

If they say you need a four-wheel alignment, then show me. Show me on paper, and they should not charge you for that. And if they're good, they'll show you when you don't need an alignment. And just show right there, everything's good. Yeah, they're just taking advantage of you at that point. Nicklin diving you. Just remember that these people that call themselves service advisors

and they call themselves assistant, service managers, they got a lot of names. What they are, they're salesmen. They are service salespeople. They're paid on commission. And the more alignments they sell, the more tire rotations, the more flushes, the more everything, and that's how they feed their families.

So if you come in there and they check your car out and they say there's nothing wrong with it, they made nothing. And they spent a half an hour or whatever it was, they made nothing. So I blame the pay plans. You know, the dealers that are paying everybody in their dealerships, and we're guilty to a large extent. Our salesmen don't get paid commissions on profit. but in other departments they do so pay plans are to blame and if nothing else they they even

an honest service advisor is going to be see the glass half empty instead of half full when he's thinking about if if i do this i'm going to make 50 bucks if i don't do it i'm going to make nothing he's going to look real hard at why he should do it and not so hard as to why he shouldn't do it and save you all the money so you know get a second opinion if you're nervous about any estimate and always get the estimate first before they touch your car yeah anonymous feedback um this comes from somebody who had recently got into a car accident says after watching your video on youtube on oem parts all i can say is wow that is horrible how do you keep an insurance company from putting junkyard and or aftermarket parts on a car and a third party claim.

State Farm is telling me that I would have to pay for the OEM parts since their driver is 100% at fault. You don't have a whole lot of control. I just talked about this earlier on the show, and it's one of the most frightening. I hate these conspiracy nuts that always say there's this vast conspiracy going on, but it makes me feel like one when I say, I really believe there is some sort of conspiracy between the auto manufacturers and the insurance companies, parts manufacturers, somebody is doing something drastically wrong to allow an unsafe part to be put on a car

and a repair. And if you want a safe part, you have to pay extra for a safe part. It is somehow morally and outrage so I don't know lawyers you heard me appeal to you an hour ago I'm appealing to you again call the show and tell me while I'm crazy why am I crazy to think it should be illegal to put an unsafe part on a car I think you're crazy you tell you tell very educated people and very powerful people this information and they shrug yeah remember when you made me go to our former state attorney general's fundraiser a long time time ago. Oh, yeah. I actually got an opportunity. It was Pam Bondi. Now, she's a big

monkey muck in Republican politics now. But back then, I told her the whole story about how you get an accident, these untested parts that can affect the safety. And she seemed to be very interested in it. I forgot about that. Yeah. She listened with, you know, open ears, this whole story and nothing ever came out of that. Yeah. That was quite a conversation that you had with her, too. Oh, yeah, yeah. You shared with us. Yeah, it was an interesting. And it was almost like as if that you walked away and thought to yourself, boy, she's in my corner. I did feel pretty good when I left.

She should have got an Oscar for that performance. I was like, wow, I think I just took care of that for us, for everybody. Problem solved. That was my first and last political fundraiser. I don't blame you. I feel the same way. None for me. Maybe she should have got an Oscar for that performance.

She should have, I should have awarded to her. Point taken, absolutely. Okay, Rick, do you have anything else? Well, we actually have a couple comments from Donovan. One of the things that Mark Smith had mentioned for the antique cars is that a lot of airports, you can buy leaded fuel still, that is 100 octane leaded fuel in small amounts, a couple of gallons at a time, that you can then run in various cars. Let's see.

said that the FAA is actually going to be stopping that very soon, so that's going to have an impact on that and on a lot of these smaller aircraft. They're going to have to come up with some alternate fuel source for it. And Donovan says, the problem is really is where do you think the lead goes after it exits the exhaust? Most of it does go to the ground in a particulate matter, but no amount of lead is good for the people or the animals. It's something we should have never used, and it's a matter of fact. I just Googled where can I buy a little school, and then offered me the choice. North Korea.

Near me. So I said near me. So here we are in North Palm Beach, ABS fuel gas station. That's 300 feet away. Shell gas station, that's 290 feet, 95 feet, and Chevron gas station, a tenth of a mile. and there are more places. So there's a whole lot of places that I can buy lead as fuel.

According to Google. And it's something else that a lot of folks don't realize every time you have your tires balanced, the technician usually is playing with lead weights that we are pounding into place on those tires. So, I mean, we're constantly exposed to it.

How about all those fishermen? Yep. And one other quick note, Donovan says, hey Earl with the insurance company he says maybe you shouldn't make it quite as loud as you do this is Florida they might drop you

I you know it is scary if I wasn't nuts I probably would keep my mouth shut but big big big people they got that much money they can do just about anything it's just it is scary

I mean I know I'm starting to sound like one of these nuts but I'm asking anybody to say, Earl, listen, you're off track on this whole thing. Here's why it's okay to put a hood that has never been safety tested. You've never had that. No one's ever come back with that and gave you a logical explanation.

No, no, any explanation. You know, the song and dance, the insurance companies, oh, these are checked by, they have an in-house insurance. Yeah, Alan told us about it. There's some kind of sham. Yeah. And this is a cafe or some name.

They test all the, they're all tested. Okay, okay, they're all tested. And they test the quality of the steel. They test the paint finish. They test, I say, do they crash test them? No. But they song and dance here. These are tested and certified.

This is a certified hood. Oh, is it certified for a crash testing? No. Okay. I want to mention my battery tender. This is just amazing, ladies and gentlemen. This is a commercial. This is what I use at home. This is one of our most common questions is if I'm going to be out of town for six months, what can I do? So my car will start when I get back. And so because of this, Nancy is, you know, the battery tender.

And this here is just, it's worth all the money that you spend for it, which is, I think, only $29. And you got it, Jonathan? Okay, over. Okay, great. There you go. So you can use this. It includes the alligator clips and the ring, the terminal cables. And you can put this right on your battery, and this will ensure that when you come back from vacation,

wherever you've gone, that you have a full charge on your battery, it's really easy. And I'm having a whole lot of fun with it. And as you call it, $59.95 on Amazon. 5999 on Amazon. Oh, it was 59? Oh, I was way off. Amazon recommended.

It's top-rated. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, before we run out of time, I want to let you know that the dog of the week is Stewie. Hey there. And Stewie is one year, six months, and two weeks old.

And he is a mixed breed, and he weighs 41.4 pounds. Huge tongue. And he's just the cutest dog, and we have a video. He looks like a happy dog.

Okay, I think Jonathan will roll this for us. I want to see Stui. I want to see my doppelganger. This is Stewie. He is a one-year-old mixed breed bully that was rescued and brought to Big Dog Ranch from the streets of Miami. As you can see, he's short and stout like a little teapot. Stewie is great with people. He's great with other dogs.

He loves cuddles. He loves to be around his owners. So he's great on the leash. He does pull a little bit, but, and he's great. little bit of training but here at big dog branch we do offer training he is um he will make a great a great addition to any family he's like i said he's great with other dogs he's small so he would be good in an apartment if you take him on a walk um but really he's so sweet and just would love a new home he would love a new family a forever family and just he's food motivated love streets don't we all

I always laugh at that about being food motivated. I haven't met a dog that wasn't food motivated. Yeah. How cute is that? And Stu, tell the audience about the savings when they adopt. Yeah, so whenever you adopt a dog, it is an adoption, but there's always a, there's costs incurred. The big dog ranch rescue or some of the, you know, the other local ones, there's a cost incurred. we take a dog every week and our sponsor a dog.

All that means is that we pay the adoption fees for you, so it's a free dog. That's what we do. We're giving away dogs every Saturday. And we highlight these dogs, but we also hope that it just kind of brings exposure to big dog ranch rescue in general. And people go out there and see all the dogs out there. And so if Stewie isn't your cup of tea, which, you know, if you think about it, that's just insane. saying of course stewie is your cup of tea he looks like he's still got some growing to do though he well he's two years old right no one year one year you don't want his tongue to grow any

yeah he's one year six months he'll be tripping on his tongue yeah he's got probably got a little bit more I was looking at us pause and I agree with you Rick yeah he looks like he's going to get a little bigger yeah he's a bully and so he might get he might get stouter he'll get wider and fill out a little bit more and um but yeah The other thing about pit bulls and the American bulls and all that, they get a bad rap. I am of the firm belief that I think it's more the way they're treated and raised than it is an inherent genetic predisposition towards, you know, violence.

And any dog that has been, you know, treated with love and care returns it. They raise humans bad too. Exactly. Just like humans, you raise a good baby bad and becomes a bad person. They said don't adopt an American. They're more likely to kill you. Exactly. And ladies and gentlemen,

Big Dog Ranch is the largest cage-free, no-kill shelter in the United States. They don't cages. They have dorm rooms. Pardon me? They don't have cages. They have dorm rooms for the dogs. Isn't it amazing?

Yes. Okay. I am being told that we need to get to the mystery shopping report. So take advantage of Big Dog Ranch Stewies out there. and I'll go to www.bdrr.org. That's Big Dog Ranch Rescue. Okay, we have the mystery shopping report this morning,

and it is from Al Hendricks Toyota. Hendrick's son. Hanrik Sun. I didn't hear you. Hendrick's son. Ah, Hendrick's son. Okay, maybe it's best they don't know. There is a big chain of dealers named Hendricks.

Which is Morgan now, right, Stu? It's owned by the Morgan Automotive Group. Automotive Group, yeah. So you want to listen to this mystery shopper report. Ellen, she reported last week how terribly she was treated and how she spent, I believe, it was $7,000. I think that that was an adjusted market fee. There was some, it was just terrible.

And I hope that you're listening, Ellen. This is for you. Go ahead. I'm choking. Okay. And another reason this is an interesting report for all of us is this is a Costco approved auto dealer. And on the show, we recommend that you use a Costco auto buying program, True Car, and the Costco Auto Buying Program and Consumer Reports are our holy grails that we say go to to get a good price on a car. And Al Hendrickson, Toyota, is an approved Costco auto buying program dealership so that's a real good reason and absolutely

you were we want you to vote on this so if you didn't jot that number down you can text us with your vote at 772 4976530 772 4976530 okay okay here I am at Al Hendrickson Toyota by down in Coconut Creek Fort Lauderdale area, and I'm speaking as if I were Agent Lightning. I began my shop at CostcoAto.com when I entered the zip code. This is what we recommend you do. CostcoAta.com, go to that website, enter your zip code. I was provided the site directed me to Edmorest Delray Toyota.

Not sure what was going on, I called El Hendrickson, because we wanted the shop to go to Al Hendrickson, they showed the nearest one, which was Ed Morse Del Rey Toyota. So I called Al Hendrickson and Toyota to see if they were still participated in the Costco auto buying program, but I couldn't get a clear response. So this is a little unusual that they don't know. You can't get a clear response. I decided to call the 800 number for the Costco auto buying program. I spoke with Susie, who was extremely helpful.

She emphasized the importance of working with me, working with an authorized salesperson who had been appropriately trained. So any of you are thinking of using the Costco auto buying program, I'm speaking as myself now, not Agent Lightning, go to Costco.com, Costcoauto.com, and you need to be a member of Costco. For 50 bucks or 60 bucks, you could join, worth every penny and then some. and you enter your zip code, they tell you the dealers in the area, and if you want to go further out,

you can push them and say, well, I'm going to be out of the area, give me the Costco recommended dealers in this zip code, and they'll do that for you too. Back to the shopping report. So here I am, and got advice from Susie at Costco to be sure I spoke with a Costco-authorized salesperson

at L. Hedickson, Toyota. Just two minutes after entering your car. to call, Anna from Al Hendrickson, Toyota called me. I informed her that I was nearby and would be arriving shortly. Shortly after, Juan sent me a text message. So Al Hendon was on the job. A text message says, hello, my name, Agent Lightning. Good morning. My name is Juan from Al Hendrickson Toyota. Anna shares your information with me. She said that you want to see the cameras today. I'll be the person that will show you the car. So when you get here, ask for a wand.

That's me. What time would you like to come in just so you know? I replied, I'm pulling in now. She was actually already there. I was actually already there at Coconut Creek, El Hedookson, Toyota. She says, I'm pulling in now. However, Costco was very specific in saying there are only certain authorized sales reps that I'm allowed to work with, and they've listed them on my voucher that I have.

Now, that's one of the reasons why, I'm going back to being Earl Stewart now, that we recommend you use Costco because they tell you which dealership and which salesperson have the dealership to use to be sure you're safe and get the deal that they're guaranteeing. Well, I got no response. Oh, you're afraid to say. She goes, I'm sorry to tell you this, but your name isn't listed on there. Oh, that's right. I'm sorry to tell you this, but your name isn't listed on there, so no response. That's, you know, that's worrisome, but we pressed forward. I arrived to the dealership, and I was met by three eager salespeople, Steph,

this TEPH, Steph, approached me first, offering a handshake, and the other two stepped out of the way, allowing us to proceed inside. I mentioned the Costco voucher, and that, according to Susie from Costco, only six individuals were available to assist me today. That's what Costco said. I also told him that Anna and Juan had been in touch with me. Steph reassured me it was all right and guided me to a desk. So misinformation.

That's not all right, but that's the information that Agent Mike Newell was given. Immediately, he requested my license, holding my handwritten notes and printed emails from Costco Auto. I reiterated my preference for an authorized Costco's salesperson. I then showed him the email containing the names of those six. individuals he clearly was not authorized now here is agent lightning doing precisely what she should be doing to get the cost authorized price and she is being uh resisted at every turn every comment most people aren't careful like uh agent lightning was being and as persistent as agent lightning people go with the flow and therefore 99 out of 100 people would just

be sucked into the system and you could kiss the Costco price goodbye and that's what's that's what's happening right now but she's sticking by our guns i said i hadn't i hadn't even seen the car okay yeah after a brief glance staff remarked that those were their online reps so that's a lie he makes that up uh and uh he's gonna he's gonna substitute himself uh for the certified Costco salesperson and he's going to make up a story about why he's doing it and the real Costco sales people are not doing it He said he could handle the sale and been asking for my personal information to begin my application for credit He said it would speed up the process for me I said I hadn't even seen the car I'd like to do that first and then I'd like to see my Costco pricing

Key word Costco pricing and part of the information that you get from Costco is you have to see the Costco pricing sheet. You've got to do that. You've got to have a certified Costco salesperson take care of you, and you have to have the Costco pricing sheet. Steph appeared to downshift, calm down a little bit, agreed to get a car for me. He showed up to ask me what color I wanted.

I told him I wanted to go with him, pick out the same car. I told Costco I wanted. He led me out a lot. A lot of people wouldn't have been that. aggressive but it's not like he was going to pull up pick a car for a finger this is the car you're gonna buy yes how this is nicer than the one you want Costco let's go stick with a car you chose and stick with a certified salesman and be sure you see the Costco members only pricing sheet I

selected a new white 2023 Camry S C the laminated laminated menorney labels in the back seat that seems to be a favorite spot for dealers in South Florida put the burning label that by federal law has to remain affixed to the window and put it in the backseat and laminated. Alongside that, it was a laminated addendum. They like to laminate. So we got laminated addendum and the laminated MSA. Murning label, the MSRP, was $32,049. The addendum added a whopping $4,995. Market adjustment. That was a market adjustment. And then there was a $1995 for the Al Hendrickson and Fantage package.

Remember, this is a Larry Morgan dealership, but they're calling it Al Hendrickson, the Morgan Auto Group, about several months ago. The package contains 15 items like nitrophil. You've got to love nitrogen. It's never going away. Worthless. Reservous report, nitrogen in the tires is worthless. And then all the fees, you know, fitted the job.

junk fee category, and they're being eyeballed by the Federal Trade Commission, and they're going after the dealers because of these junk fees right now. It's interesting to note that the Allen Hendrickson Advantage package, it's essentially the same thing as the Arrigal Advantage package, another big group that Larry Morgan, Morgan Auto Group bought out, at the store, Arrigo Dodge in West Palm Beach. staff had to go inside to get the keys. That's a salesperson who was not a Costco authorized salesperson. Steph wanted to get the keys and a dealer plate.

I waited to came back after approximately five minutes and began showcasing its features like the speed limit, sign, camera, and a dashboard recording. I humorously mentioned that my current Ravre 4 possess the same stuff. He laughed and said he was due to the dealership, apologize, and I apologize, allowed him to. continue. During our conversation, my phone rang a call from the dealership. I showed him. Steph told me, don't answer it. You can't make this stuff up. He's telling her not.

Now, the dealership apparently was probably trying to call, to give him the real appointment with the Costco member or something like that, but Steph, who was the imposter, said don't answer it. The skater. So I didn't answer it. We then I proceeded with a test drive where I continued to listen to him, describe the camera features. Back at the dealership, Steph led me back to his desk and told me he was sending me into finance now. We're going into the box. They're going to take a bit of finance.

I said, well, you haven't even joined me by Costco price yet. I'm going to finance. She didn't say that. I said that. But this is getting into the twilight zone of bizarre behavior. I don't want to talk finance again, I don't have a price. I asked Steph if their huge market adjustment was going to be part of my Costco pricing.

He said he wasn't sure. That's because he doesn't even know what the Costco pricing is. He wasn't sure. He's heard about that. And he'd have to ask. He excused himself, left for a couple of minutes in return looking lost. I let him Dawes annoyed and said

this is why Costco is so specific about working with a certain. certified authorized person. I said that Susie from Costco Auto said this is supposed to be a hassle, free process. Making loose, Susie look bad. Steph said he understood. It reminded me that he was still new and said he was beginning to feel nervous. He tapped a few things into his computer, left again. I waited for 10 minutes. He returned to say he was still waiting on that price, and it would be only a few more minutes. He left again. Now, keep in mind, folks. I digress. as Earl Stewart, to let you know that this is the second largest Toyota dealership in the world.

Yeah, on planet Earth. Yes, the second largest Toyota dealership of the world. Now, Toyota manufacturing people listening, Toyota distributor people listening, everybody. They have a high profile, folks. I mean, they represent Toyota Second largest in the world And this is what's happening It's your dealership

We're not going to have time for votes I went for 10 minutes He was still waiting on that price It'd be only a few more minutes He left again At 1022 a man Without listen to this At 1022 a man without saying word to me

sat at the cubicle where I was sitting and began to work on the computer So I just sat and wait. The man was watching videos. I couldn't see what was on the screen, but I heard people talking about snipers on trails and following and trashed. At 1042, Steph returned to see the man working at his computer.

He asked the man to move, but the man ignored him. He asked the man again. He groaned and begrudently and slowly got out of the seat. He stopped his short distance away. He stood facing again, arms folded, waiting for his chance to use the computer again. Steph got some info from the computer and left again. The man

sat right back down, started playing the videos at 10507, the man left at Steph returned with the Costco pricing sales worksheet. I didn't think it was going to happen. Finally got the worksheet. The Costco member only worksheet looked legit and it was. We have a picture of it.

It had the correct MSRP 3289. They should have discounted of 1140, 100,000,000, $1040 and $0.00 charges for their market adjustment, zero, and Al Hendrickson Advantage package, so they didn't charge for any of that. The Costco member-only price was $30,000, $949. But then it was indicated, and it was disclosed on the Costco member price that they did charge the $99.95 dock fee, the $5.59 filing fee, and the $189 private tag fee. Those junk fees, they were allowed, But Costco will allow it, but it's disclosed.

And the Costco price was $32,0692, which is only $604 over MSRP, a very good price. Except for Costco is trying to get Toyota dealers to be $650 behind MSRP for their Costco dealers. So it was an $8,090 discount off of the market value selling price. The rest of the worksheet did contain any more surprises. They added the three or four million junk fees. step returned his push to get me an event i told him i need to discuss all this with my husband they fought me on this i'm rushing because we're out of time i agreed and continued to sit as soon as step around the corner again the guy came back and started watching the same

video again step and the manager can return the video guy left uh so then can put the pressure on uh can respond saying runs their business the way they do he says basically in a nutshell we don't paying attention to what Costco tells us to do we do what we want to do the good news is because she was so diligent agent lightning and you won't be you won't have the nerve of the aggressiveness to do this you will get screwed and she was able to push it and get the Costco price which was a damn good price but it's a miracle she got it that's right so i'm going to wrap it up we did wrap up that was a good quick wrap up okay everybody you can vote at 777-4976530 that's how the mystery shop of Al Hendrickson, Toyota, Costco Auto Program.

The Fs are coming in, so I want to just give credit. Jonathan Dahl Theray, who had his own personal experience there, gives him an F. Bob gives him an F for Al Hendrickson. I'm not sure the authorite person in our house gives a grade. Sorry, Mark, no worries, not worth the effort trip. Another F. I'm giving him an F too. I got Kirk in West By God, Virginia, with a solid F. And I've got, let's see, Guy Larrabee, a big fat F, Tim Gilliland, F, Johnny Z. Fradley, F.

Brian said Latco, I'm impressed with a Costco car plan, a C, wow. Me, that's an F. Yeah, I give them an F, and I'm sending a copy of this to Larry Morgan, who owns Al Hendricks and Toyota. It's a shame that a second largest dealer of the USA runs their dealership this way. Okay, folks, we had a great show, great mystery shopping report. This puts everybody on alert for Al Hendrickson Toyota. We had a great time, and I hope you did too. We all learned something this morning.

Have a great weekend, and we'll see you right here next week at 8 a.m. Let's do you.