Earl Stewart on Cars - 10.17.2020 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Treasure Coast Toyota

Episode Date: October 17, 2020

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

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

Your auto team is back, a group sitting around the table here in the studio at the radio station, and we're here to help you. avoid being ripped off by your local car dealer. Whether you're buying a car or leasing one, more and more people are leasing these days, and that's a whole new show there leasing. And, of course, maintaining and repairing your car, there's got to be a challenge. It's always a challenge, but how about a COVID pandemic? And unfortunately, it looks like things are coming in for the second wave. people are nervous about going into any sort of a retail establishment with a lot of other folks and possibly contracting COVID-19.

What do you do when you have a problem with your car when you check engine light comes on? We have a whole lot of expertise in this room. I haven't added it all up, but I think most everybody's been doing this at least close to 20, 25 years. I've been at it for over 50 years. we've got a lot of knowledge here and when all that fails we have Colonel Google and we're coming pretty close to

100% answers we never hit 100 but we answer a high percentage of them one thing that we can do in this show is we are an active car dealership and I give that information out not infrequently because we want to be totally

transparent The team here is part of a relatively large car dealership, and we've been in business for a long time. And speaking for myself, I started in the business, and I did business just like everybody else does today. One of the interesting things about the retail car business is it's operating today pretty much like it did 50 years ago. There's not too many other retail businesses can make that statement.

It's kind of a sad statement, and the reason being lack of regulation and a lot of the there's special circumstances that make car dealerships unique in the way they operate. It's not a nice way. Most people don't like to buy a car. If you look at the Gallup annual poll on honesty and ethics and profession, you know, I haven't mentioned that in a while. The Gallup annual poll, honesty and ethics and professions, you can Google it, and they give you a large survey that's been conducted every year since 1977 about which businesses

do you consider the most honest? And you rank it, very honest or not so honest. And they've got 50 or 60 of these businesses that are most commonly utilized retail and professions and otherwise, even politicians and lawyers. And I gave away my closing line here. At the bottom of the list, at the very bottom of the list, you have politicians, you have lobbyists, you have car dealers.

Car dealers usually eke out the politicians and lobbyists as being the dead last. So people would rather engage in a business anywhere on any subject other than car dealer. And that's been going on, as I said, since 1977. That's a reason really why this show exists, because we're going to make it far less dangerous for you. And love to hear from you. It's all about you. It's about your calls. 877 960.9960 is our calling number. You might want to write that down unless you're driving, of course. Your regulars already have it memorized, but it's 877-960-99-60. You can text us at 772, area code, 497-6530. Text us at 772, 497-6530. And we even have a really

really cool anonymous feedback we call it, where you can go on a link, a website, and that's your anonymousfeedback.com. And it is just what it says it is. It's anonymous. We don't know who you are, where you are. We don't know if you're serious or not. We don't know if you're the enemy. We don't know if you just don't like us. And I'm going to shut up because we have a female caller holding, and that's the most important thing to this show, our callers, and we will drop what we're doing to go to our callers. Nancy, introduce our caller.

We're going to talk to Linda, and she's calling with an update from Georgia. Good morning, Linda. Welcome back. Good morning. Good morning, Nancy. How is we? Great. What can we do for you this morning?

Well, I just want to let you know that the Highlanders, is no longer have a boo-boo. He's all fixed up. Awesome. Really pretty. So, and I was very happy with what they did all right. That's good to hear. I just want to let you know.

Thanks, Linda. Sure. Thank you very much. Thanks for the update. You're welcome. And you all have a great weekend. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Have a great weekend. Give us a call to all free at 877. 960-99-60 or you can text us at 772-497-6530 now back to the recovering car dealer I'll just get around some of the avenues that you can reach us and

we've expanded internationally largely because of the cyberspace the internet, we're on Facebook it's earlancars.com or Facebook.com forward slash earlancars Facebook.com or slash Earlong Cars

YouTube, YouTube YouTube.com forward slash Erwin Cars and Twitter we are available to you live in color and we'd love to have you tuning in. Facebook is probably

our most popular and YouTube is our second most popular phone calls or as I say prioritize. We only got I think three or four or maybe five lines coming into the radio station so if we get busy sometimes you can't

get through. So we try to grab the phone calls first. And the phone calls are more personal, too. So we love, we love phone calls. Before I introduce everybody around the table here, let them say what's on their mind, I want to mention something new and exciting that I just put in my blog this week. And it has to do with a request for volunteers. Now that we're international literally, and we have, we're reaching all 50 states and even beyond, we're looking for some help out there. We get a lot of calls to the show, but we have a lot of people that listen to the show that are pretty educated consumers, and they're concerned consumers that would like to help.

And so my blog this week is Erlon Cars volunteers, assisting car buyers. So what we've decided to do is ask you, if you're one of the more knowledgeable listeners, and we have so many of them, that would like to volunteer your time and we would put your contact information on Erloncars.com, the blog, and make you available to others in your vicinity. So if you happen to be in Texas,

you would be a volunteer, Erlon Cars volunteer, and of course you can contest directly anytime, and if it's a problem that stumps you, you can call Rick Kearney, you can call Stoo, you could call Nancy or me, but we will assist you in assisting the person in your region. And we have callers from Canada.

We have callers in California. We have callers all over Florida. So please consider volunteering, throwing cars, volunteer. You can text us at 772-4976530 and say, I'd like to volunteer. We'll screen you. We may know you. We have a few out there that we would sign up right away

because we know you're knowledgeable. If we don't know you, we'll give you a little bit of a test and see if you're qualified to be a volunteer to help people, and if you're not, we'll show you how you can become qualified. Basically, Nancy, hold up the book. I know you've got the book over there. A good handbook to train yourself is my handbook is my book called Earl Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer, and you can buy that book on Amazon, and all proceeds, by the way, go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. Or you can go to the blog and read our blogs we've got hundreds and hundreds of blogs

that you can use to educate yourself and become a volunteer so that you can help the world avoid being ripped off by car dealers. When you call the show, I might ask you. Would you consider volunteering? I'm not going to put any pressure on you. It would be a responsibility. It would take some of your time to be fair.

I envision people maybe that are retired or semi-retired that are faithful listeners to the show that might want to volunteer some other time. Sounds excited. Yeah, it does. Forming a posse. We need all the help we can get. Well, Nancy, you're the first person, I'll introduce.

I've already introduced you in the introduction, of course. But let's talk about that special offer for first-time female callers and why the ladies are so important to the show. Yeah, it's really important. And to the ladies, to the first two nude ladies, we offer you $50 to get. us a call share some of your stories with us or just to say hello how was your what did what negotiating skill did you use on if you purchased if you leased if you had service anything at all to add to our list of really important things that women need to do to take charge and you have

until 915, 915, so give us a call at 877, 960, 9960, and I want to thank Lorraine from last week, who was a winner, and she was just in awe of the out-the-door price that she took advantage of, that she went to Earl and Cars and downloaded, and it was just amazing. The information that she gathered from last year. She's been listening to us for quite some time and so was her husband who recently passed away

and this really bought her a lot of leverage. And I want to thank Lorraine for taking and downloading that affidavit and passing it on to her girlfriends. Just to clarify the show runs till 10 o'clock and we say 9.15 for these calls

because we have a mystery shopping report and we want to be sure to take other calls and also complete that. But anytime up 9.15, and for the ladies to call and you could call pretty much any time. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but just to make sure that your call gets in

and you win that $50. So give us a call, ladies. First two new lady callers. You have got yourself $50. I'm going to interrupt the introductions and I'll go to Marty, who's been holding in West Palm Beach. Good morning, Marty. Hi, how are you?

Well, thank you. What can we do for you today? I've got a lease that has another year to go. My question is, I have a residual in the contract. Southeast Toyota, one of their representatives, told me he'd probably get fired if they know he told me that. this, but they said that the residual that they show me is actually less for a dealer. If a dealer takes your car, they actually pay less than what the residual is for a consumer. So my question is, when will you buy the car?

Let's say Kelly Blue Book, let's say the residual 17,000, and let's say the Kelly Blue Book trade in value is 185. Of course, it's probably not going to be the number, but anyways, would you give me the $1,500 difference? Well, Marty, you were misinformed by the dealer. The residual is typically an estimate of what the leasing company thought your car would be worth in 36 months or whatever the length of your lease. Sometimes it's affected by what the leasing company would like to do in terms of promote the lease. that actually will give a higher residual if they want to promote the car. But it's typically a lease the residual is what the part of the formula, a lease the company goes through. They take the rate, the term, and they create a residual from the historical information

of the value of the resale value of the car that you lease. Now, sometimes the residual, which is your option to buy at the end of the lease, It can be more than what the dealer would pay, or it can be less than what the dealer would pay. The used car market can vary considerably. In recent months, it's made some very sharp corrections that no one could have foreseen three years ago. Who foresaw the COVID virus, and that caused real fluctuations in car values, and particularly used cars. So the best thing for you to do is to your aware. your residual, that's important. You know that. And when you get close to the end of the lease,

you want to determine the actual cash value, the market wholesale value of the vehicle. You do that just like you would if you own the car. If you're driving a Toyota, you take it to a Toyota dealer's used car manager. You don't have to tell him you're leasing the car. He doesn't know. He doesn't, well, I guess he does care, but he doesn't know. And you say, I want you to tell me what you'd buy my car for today. And then you take it maybe to another Toyota dealer used car manager. I'm downsizing. I don't need three cars in the family. I'm going to sell this. What would you pay? And you say, I'll sell the car to the highest bidder. That determines your real actual wholesale value. And then you compare that to the residual. If the value, your real

wholesale value is higher than the residual, you might want to exercise your option to buy and turn it around and sell it to the guy that said he'd pay $1,000 more. So that's a real story. I don't know why the salesman told you that, but Marty, you were misinformed by the salesman. Okay. Let me just ask you the question, Earl. Yeah. If you sell it to the dealer, do you actually have to sell it yourself? I mean, do you have to go to the leasing company and say, I want to buy it?

And then, or can the dealer buy it directly from Southeast Toyota? Well, it's a paper thing. the whole transaction would take place in about the same amount of time as if you did buy it and sold it to the dealer, but you do it at the dealership. You basically, on paper, would buy the car, and then in turn, still go ahead. The dealer can contact Southeast Toa finance directly and to buy the vehicle. You have to go through a grounding process, and the difference between just turning it and yourself and buying it. Technically, you're still responsible for the disposition fee and all that.

there's some incidental costs. If you turn it in, if there's any wear and tear, remaining payments, so there could be a charge at the end of the lease. If the dealer buys it, he's just buying it strictly from the SET. So maybe that's what he was implying that would be less because there wouldn't be any incidental charges. But you can just tell the dealer that you want to try that. But in most cases, the actual value of the car, except for in rare cases, the actual value is going to be less than what the residual is. Like Earl mentioned earlier, the original residual that they established is kind of a prognostication of what the vehicle will be in three years. And they try to get close, but like Earl said, they'll artificially raise the residual to get a really low payment to promote it like an incentive.

So I think the best way just going on with what Earl told you is just like explore the various options. You don't know if it's worth more than the residual or close to the residual until you get it appraised. So go through those steps that he outlined earlier and just talk to the dealer and see if you can get three scenarios, you know, turning it in, getting a new car, buying the car, and one of those will work out best for you. Yeah, I was just wondering if, like, when you say you have to, when you're buying it, obviously you pay sales tax. Yes. But if you're dealing with a dealer, what I'm saying is I don't want to pay the sales tax, buy the car, and then say, you're dealing with a dealer, what I'm saying is I don't want to pay the sales tax, buy the car, and then, sell it because it's another 7% added on to the deal. In any case, you'll have to pay sales tax if you buy it, even if you buy your own lease,

you will have to pay sales tax on the purchase, even if you bought it. Even if the residual was, or the purchase price, the buyout was in line with the current market value, you're still going to go through the whole thing, you have to still register it because the registration on the lease right now is it's technically registered to Southeast Toyota Finance and you, and if you bought it, it's going to be registered, so you're going to pay sales tax, the tag fee and all that, just like you were buying a car from the used car department. And, Marty, the important thing you want to watch out for also, if you're going to buy it from the dealer, he's going to charge you his dealer fee. And I don't think that's right. I don't think dealers should charge you a dealer fee when you're buying your own lease. I mean, it's not a car that was on as lot as your car, and you exercise your purchase option.

And if he won't agree to that, then I'd go to, I try to find another dealer, another Toyota dealer that would agree to handle a transaction for you without charging you his dealer fee. Yeah, well, like I'm saying, I personally don't want to say I don't want the car. So all I want to do is just get rid of it, but I don't want to pay sales tax to get rid of it just to a dealer. So what I'm saying is normally when you trade in a car, like to you, if it's your car, they deduct the value of that car, so you're only paying sales tax on the difference. Yeah, right. Yeah, so like Earl said, if you treat it that way, let's use just fake numbers here. Let's say the residual on your car is $18,000.

And you want to go through that you're describing here. The use car department of the dealer that you're trading is going to appraise that car, and they might have. appraise it for $15,000. You could, you go through a purchase process, buy it, trade it in another car, and you're just, you're going to end up spending way too much money. First of all, you're buying a car. Yeah, no, I'm going the other way. Yeah, turn, just turn in the car and, and here's the thing, though, if you're, if you don't want to go into another, if you go into another lease or another finance or another finance, then they'll waive, you know, the disposition fee, and they'll save you some money. If you want to get out of the leasing cycle, you're just going to have to turn it

in, you know, pay what you owe at the end of term and start all over. Yeah, okay. So the odds are you're not going to make any money. Yeah, there's very few opportunities to come out ahead when it comes to these things. Unfortunately, that's the reason the system is designed. It benefits the dealer. It gets you coming back. I mean, here's what you're, listen to what you're talking about.

You know, a lot of people, you've got to go back to that dealer, basically. So you're kind of caught in a cycle. Well, this car is from you. Okay. So, you know, like I said, I got another year to go on the lease. Yeah. I'll just tell you one other thing. My wife wanted to, we've had Camrys now, Avalon's and Camrys for years.

So now what she wanted to look at was like a RAV-4 type car. Well, you know how the screen is? They put the screen, it looks like an iPad sticking up. Yeah. She didn't like that. She didn't like that. So anyways, we looked at a high. Honda CRV.

Well, just so happens, the Honda CRV, the screen is still in the dash. So it's not sticking up. That's probably one of the last cars you're going to see without that. That seems to be the trend now. So grab the CRV before they start putting iPads, because that's happening on all the cars now. Yeah, I think Toyota, I think the new camera's got an iPad type thing now. Marty, thanks very much for the call. I really appreciate it.

Your problem was probably in the mind. of a lot of people, a lot of listeners, and you answer a lot of questions for them. So please call again, Anna. I appreciate your input. Thank you, Marty. Leasing is always, well, you've got to look into it, do your homework, especially at the end when you're getting ready to turn it in. 877960-99-60.

We love your questions, and we love when you inform us. And let me take a moment and thank all of you for tuning in to Earl Stewart on Cars. We certainly appreciate your money. and if you'd like to text us, we're at 772-4976530, and don't forget, www.W.W. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Okay, let's go over here. On the other. There's a YouTube. I've been waiting for a while. Yeah, we've got a couple of them. I'm going to kind of combine two of them. Bizzle is asking, is it better to buy at the end of the model year or at the end of the fiscal year?

and Mark Decker is asking, has Toyota started the end of the year deals yet? I believe that you should always buy the newest car you can. And the only caveat there is when a new model comes out, particularly a new model, total change, possibly low supply, high demand, you might want to wait a couple of months. But you're better off to wait a couple months on the newest car. For example, the 2020s, I've got a lot of them. 2,021's, there are not too many of them.

When the 2021 comes out, if it's a low supply, high demand, wait a couple of months and buy that. You can negotiate and you can use your buying skills to get with competitive comparison a low and up price on the current model that offsets any of the advantages and the rebates and the discounts that you have on last year's model. And I have a YouTube on this that says, basically, if you're going to be a new discounts, you have If I have a 2020 and a 2021 sitting on the lot and I choose to buy the 2020 because I got a really good discount more so than the 2021.

Three years from now when I trade that 2020 and nobody knows that I bought it in 2021. They just know that it's three years old or four years old, whatever the time is. And it depreciates just like a new car depreciates just like a used car. So, you see, 2020 and 2021 sitting on a lot, even though you can't tell by looking at them, that 2020 is already depreciated $2,000 or $3,000. That's the reason that you get the manufacturer's incentives and the sales and the dealerships discounts. And the dealerships, you will be surprised, can often make a lot more money on last year's model because of the rebates because they under allow you discount on the car that you should buy.

always buy the current model, but get the best price from competitive comparison. And you've always said that the best time to buy is at the end of the calendar year when the deals are going on because they're trying to make their quotas, right? No, no. I have a thought on that, because here's a pattern that we notice. Like, this year, 2020, the current model is the 2020, the 2021s are coming in. There's big incentives on the 2020s. don't be tempted by that.

After the first of the year, they're going to start putting incentives maybe not as great on the 2021s, but there will be something. For example, you might have a 2021 launched in December. You get all excited about it, but there's no incentives on it. They might have $3,000 of rebates on the 2020.

Wait three weeks. Rick's right at one point. I said, I misspoke. You said, the best time is the end of the year. Yeah, the best time is the end of the year. For the old bottom. Yeah, taking the, well, Well, unless you've got a 20-21 came out early, you know, how many 20-21s are out now?

About a third of our inventory. Yeah, so by the end of the year, that 2021 is not going to be a hot new model anymore. It's been sitting on the lot for a couple, three, four months. So at the end of the year, there is a huge push by the manufacturers and the dealers to hit their quotas. You're absolutely right. But don't buy the 20-20 at the end of 2020. By the 21 in the middle of January. Yeah, exactly.

So that way you have your cake and eat it too. And Rico West is saying, good morning, everyone. In many places, using a cell phone while driving is illegal. Yet here we are driving new cars with large entertainment screens, taking our eyes off the road. Safety? You're totally right. I think about that all the time.

Cars are so, like you're looking at a, you're in Times Square. And you've got lights blinking at you, and you've got really cool stuff going on. You've got a map. I love my Google map. I've got a great big Google map, and I feel like I'm playing in an airplane. I love to watch the bridges. It terrifies us. Yeah.

Yeah, it's very scary. And so it is so entertaining, looking at all the stuff on your dash. you're not paying attention to the road. So autonomous cars cannot be here soon enough. Oh, for sure. And I don't know why the manufacturers and the consumer advocates and the safety people don't understand that. You get in the cockpit of a new car and you drive it

and there are distractions all over the place. As a matter of fact, today I drove my wife's RAV because she needs a service. I'm going to take it to the shop after the show. but the difference between driving my 2013 Tacoma that doesn't have the features that her brand new RAV has, the lane keep assist, the radar cruise, I'm driving this car on the turnpike,

and it literally felt like the car wanted to drive itself. It does. And it wanted me to get in the back seat and shut up and leave it me and let it drive the car. And it was amazing. It's amazing, like Earl said, autonomous can't get. get here soon enough.

Absolutely. But it's unfortunate that 99% of the drivers on the road feel that they are, well, okay, with throwing caution to the wind and studying the interior of the vehicle. You're putting a lot of lives at risk. And the person that's driving with you, she also is at risk. So with that, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to go to Howard, who's calling us. He's a regular caller from Jupiter. Good morning, Howard.

Good morning. Thanks for taking my call. It's a pleasure to talk to all of you guys. Thank you. And here's my question. I purchased your dealership, no windshield wipers. They're working fine, and now they're squeaking. So a couple of people have told me different things.

They said I should use Rainex on the windshield. Another person said you should compound the windshield. another person said you should use alcohol on the blades. So, Rick, what do you suggest? Doing all of them or one of them or what? No alcohol. No alcohol. Alcohol and cars don't mix ever.

The first thing, Raynex is a fantastic product if it's applied properly. It takes some elbow grease to get it applied properly because you have to do a couple coats and buff it in properly. And it's a fantastic product. The other one is just a simple good glass cleaner, clean your windshield very, very well with that, and then spray some on a paper towel and wipe your windshield wiper blades. That normally will take care of 90% of the issue. Most of the time when your blades start to squeak or chatter, it's because they're dirty and the glass is dirty.

Clean the glass really well and clean those wiper blades, and you'll see a huge difference. okay i cleaned the glass with windex all the time and that didn't seem to help yeah windex is great yeah then i also cleaned the wiper blades with windex that didn't help and then you know and then again someone told me to compound the glass but that's ridiculous so uh all right uh i get you okay one other question um when will the 19 2021 camrys come up they're already out okay and how are they different from the 2020 same same body style um there's going to be um they're change the the safety system is on there they're adding some more safety features um they're using more of this uh like we're talking about kind of dabbling the toe into autonomous driving um a full automatic braking to a complete stop

it detects oncoming if you're making a left turn against traffic like at a light it'll detect oncoming cars and actually you know slow you down or stop the car other things where like if you're entering a curve and the cars think you're going too fast it'll apply the brakes and slow you down so there's some safety stuff coming out but it's going to look the same and i was on my son-in-law's bmw two years ago yeah so i guess so i guess it comes down to the camera okay another thing if i'm driving straight and then I veer off and get close to another vehicle would it pull me over to the center of the road yes that's the lane keep assist now that's not on all the models like some of them will have the lane departure alert and then you have to there's you know for the lane keep

assist or actually steers you back in I think you have to go to a like a higher model like an SC or an XLE the XLE right so in other words the you get an XLE you get all this stuff on correct yeah pretty much everything the XLEs are pretty loaded up. Okay, great. Hey, Howard, how'd you like to volunteer? Be one of Earl's volunteers to help people that need assistance and buying or servicing.

Put your name and contact information on Earl and Carr's blog website. I'll do that. Fantastic. Can you get me all that information? How do I do that? Yes, send the information to Stu on our text number, 772-497-6-5-30 and you'll be our first volunteer and we'll go on Earl and blog so when somebody in the in your area needs a question if they can't get hold of one of us they can call

you and if you need help you call one of us that's great okay thank you Howard appreciate that okay the first volunteer guys and it's always a pleasure talking to you thanks Howard thanks Howard 877 960 9960 And you can text us at 772-497-6-5-3-0. Stu, is the 2021 Sienna out? That's coming out pretty soon. It's launching, I think, later this month or early next month, and it's all hybrid. Let's not turn this into a Toyota commercial truck.

It is an amazing vehicle. There were so many people this past week who asked me about the Sienna. move out of your home and into your sienna. That's all I can say. It's an amazing revamp of the sienna. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, remember, www.W.W. Your anonymous feedback.com.

We'd love to hear from you. Now back to the recovering card. Let's get on to some text. And see you got some backlog there. Yeah, but before I get into the new text, I want to let everybody know. We have something in store for a treat, mainly for next show.

We've got a lot of requests for us to do a mystery shop of a service department. We've been talking, you know, Earl had a blog on how to safely get your car service during a pandemic. And there's also a ton of questions, and we do focus on the sales mystery shop. But we have initiated an investigation. I cannot reveal the name of the dealership yet or the type of car because we're going back to the dealership with the vehicle on next week. and we just don't want to blow our cover. Basically, we created a defect, a simple correction that would correct it, and we went in with the diagnosis being up to the dealership.

The dealership can either honestly diagnose it if he has the competence and give us a very reasonable charge, or he can charge us too much, or he can miss it entirely. It'll be interesting to see what happens. Air signs. Oh, I'm sorry. Dead air is something we don't. Well, yeah, sorry about that.

I thought you dozed off. I did. So we brought it in and basically got some information, very interesting information on the initial approach and we'll find out exactly what happens next week and we'll report to you back next Saturday. We can jump over to our text. We have one from Brian in California. He says, last week I told you guys about how successfully got out of at least 21 months early. 21 months early. I wanted to thank Earl for his genuinely nice response saying how impressed it was

to pull that off successfully. You guys got my question on the day before my birthday. It was just really cool for me. You guys are such an important part of the automotive industry and I never miss an episode, even if I watch it later in the day because of our time zone differences. Thank you, Earl, Nancy, Stu, and Rick and everyone involved. Looking forward to the show, as always, and thanks for everything you guys do for us. Hey, let's text Brian back and ask him to volunteer. He is a very knowledgeable. he'd be a perfect representative in California yeah sure I would I'm sure he's listening right now cool now here's this one's a little bit harder to

describe I'm gonna interrupt you sure we have Meg who's holding and she's calling us from Wellington good morning Meg good morning so I have a question and my thoughts on 20 versus 21 like Earl had said as far as buying the 21 because you make get a better deal. But if you buy a 20 or a later vehicle, you can have less miles on it. So isn't that car valuable when you buy an older vehicle and say you put 20,000 miles on a year that now you have less miles on a car? Is that offset? Yeah, Meg, I'm not quite sure I understand your question. If you buy a 20, for example, a 20 or 21 Honda cord right now, and they're both on the lot, and they both have no miles on them,

You know, they probably have six or something like that. But they have a new car, a very low mileage. One's a 20, once to 21. If you buy the 20, the 2020, in three years, you're going to have the same amount of miles on it as the 2021 three years from now. The amount of miles on a car does not come anywhere near devaluing the car to the extent that the year of the car does.

When you go to buy a car three years from now, and you're looking at 2021 cars four years from now, the difference on the lot of the 2024 car that you bought here and a year earlier or a year later is huge. One year depreciation three or four years from now has a much greater differential in the value of car the asking price than the amount of miles you have on it okay all right that answered my question always go with the current model and just be sure that you get at least three or four competitive bids and get the best price you can it will probably be higher it should be higher than the than the last year's model the the best price you're going to get at 2021 should be higher than the price that you get on the 2020 but what you're saving and avoiding

that you don't see is the current depreciation on that 2020. The 2020 on a new car dealer's lot today, 2020 Honda cord at Brayman Honda is worth $2,000 less than the 2021, at least. And if you don't take that into consideration, when you get your price to the 2021, you make the wrong choice. okay because typically when we buy a car we'll buy one that's three years old say if I was looking at a car right now and we're looking at 2016 versus 2017 we would usually look at the vehicle that has less miles on it like say a Lexus or Toyota you know whatever vehicle we're looking at sure yeah the mileage definitely the lower mileage the higher the value and you're very wise to do that I will say this, that when you're thinking mileage now, if you're looking for a bargain, sometimes you look at a higher mileage car because the cars are so reliable now compared to 25 or 30 years ago.

If you could save enough money on a car with 100,000 miles, 25 years ago, you wouldn't touch your car with 100,000 miles. Today, if a car's been well-maintained, has a good service record, 100,000 miles is a piece of cake. you can drive that car another 200,000 miles if you take care of it, which wasn't the case a few years back. So sometimes cars are, if you're going to keep a car for a while, sometimes the higher mileage car might be the better value. Okay. All right. That makes sense. And, and Meg. Well, thank you very much. Meg, it is real important for you to get three prices.

Absolutely get three prices. Keep an eye on the mileage, but get three. crisis. It's important. So there's a little more work, but it's worth your while. Thank you so much for the call. Right, because we're looking for a car for our son now. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thanks, Meg. 877960. Where you can text us at 772-49760. And I think we're going to go back to Stu. Yeah, this is this one's really interesting. It's a text, and somebody sent us some information about there's a guy who does car sales training on YouTube and his name's Steve Richards and he trains cars

it's very old school but he tries to he doctors it up and makes it look like it's like modern sophisticated car selling he always responds to the comments on his YouTube channel and this guy was going over how to overcome

the dealer fee for a salespeople and so our texter texted him says Steve you can have the lowest advertised price but include a high dealer fee of $500 to $2,000 to compensate for the lower price. If that's a taxable fee, it's profit to the dealer. This guy listens to the show.

There may be one to five fees listed depending on the dealer. Suddenly, Steve Richards is not responding to that comment at all and has nothing to say. Maybe he will eventually, but that's kind of interesting because the guy says he responds is pretty, pretty right. Well, the greatest sins out there in advertising and car buying because there's a huge amount of cars bought online. So many people are going to AutoTrack, they're going to Cars.com, they're going, everybody's searching online, car guru, and almost without exception, auto trader is the biggest. Auto trader adds all the hidden fees, Elisper this way. They allow the dealers to advertise the price without the hidden fees, and the dealer adds them,

and you're probably paying at least $1,000 to $3,000 more. than the advertised price. And the online is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. That's right. Go ahead. Okay, we are going to go to Mark, who is holding from Palm Beach Gardens. Good morning, Mark. Good morning, too, everyone there.

Hey, Earl, I may be the confused one here, but, you know, you touched on the point of having a 2020, a new one buying it off the lot. Is you going to be worth less money when you drive it off a lot? Now, when you buy the 2021, you're saying that you have, you know, a newer car. But when you drive that one off a lot, you have the same amount of depreciation, correct? No. But yet you bought it at a higher price than you would have bought the 2020 for a lower price, correct? No, Mark, you have inherently a lot more depreciation at 2020.

Think about it. Let's say it's January 1st, 2021. Easier to think in terms of maybe the calendar year. And you have a 2020 Honda cord, a 2021 honda cord. You buy the 2021, and it's a brand new car. You could take it back to the dealer, and if they had entitled it and registered it, and they gave you your money back,

in fact, you know, we have 100% unconditional money, back guaranteed our dealership, somebody who buys a car and returns it in a few days, we get all their money back. That car is still worth the same thing it was three days ago. But if it's a 2021, I mean 2020, the person buying that in 2021, they're not thinking in terms of January, February, March, and they're not thinking in terms of even 2021 and 2022. I was just thinking in terms of the car is got in 2020, so when it's 2022, it's two years old, even though you bought it in 2021. Yeah, a good way to look at it is you don't realize that depreciation until you sell the car or trade it in.

So five years down the road, three years down, two years around, they're going to look at the car, they're going to look at the year. They're not going to say, well, it was it late in the year? They're going to look at the book, and they're going to say it's a 2020. It's worse less than the 2021. The only question is, how big is the incentive they put on it? If a $10,000 incentive, then maybe it makes sense to buy the older one, but usually you don't see incentives like that.

Right. But I guess my point is that when you go ahead and buy that 2020 brand new off a lot, although it's January 2021, you're still paying, you would still be paying a lesser price for the 2020 than you would the 2021. Yes, you would. On the same day, right? Absolutely, yeah, yeah. And what Earl is saying is the depreciation is going to exceed those savings.

Yeah, you can say, more than the depreciation that you're talking about. Depreciation is hidden. People don't think about it when they buy a brand new car. Right, right. And yet, I guarantee you that there is an inherent extra $2,000 or $3,000 depreciation, depending on how long you keep that last year's model, that you don't have on the current model.

Right. Well, you know, I just kind of assumed, like what Rick said, is, you know, you go in at the end of the model year and try to buy, then you're going to get that 2020 at a better price. The consumer would get at a better price. Well, I think, yes, you would. At the end of the year, you get a better price on the 2020 and the 2021. The point being that you are not going to get enough of a discount on the 2020 to justify that, you're not going to get enough of a discount on the 2020 to justify that. hidden depreciation that is not in the 2021 it's a little it's a little

complicated but yes they will both appreciate roughly at the same rate but when it comes time to sell the car when they look at the book you're gonna have a newer car and you're gonna get more money for you the total depreciation yeah I call it hidden depreciation you don't see it but it becomes a rudely apparent when you when you go three years later to trade it in yeah that true. I'm just thinking that either one, when you go to trade in, obviously you're going to get less

for one, but you're... Think about when you're buying a used car, how many times do you know the delivery date of that car? If you're buying a used car and it says it's a... Production date. Production date, exactly. You don't know when the car was sold. You can find out. It's not a bad idea to find out.

But all you see is what it says on the registration, oh, this is 2019. You don't know that the car was manufactured in late 2019 or whether it was in early 2019. That's what

you don't understand. You can see the calendar. And your warranty date and so forth starts on the purchase date, not the manufacturer's date. Exactly. Exactly. All right. Well, it sounded a little confusing there, but I'm kind of familiar with it. But I'm going back and forth

trying to listen to the radio and I just I didn't want to waste the time if you had already touched on that. Mark, you want to be one of Earl's volunteers, be able to answer questions? Yeah, I already sent in a note to Steve and I would volunteer. Thank you. I appreciate that. You're one of our most knowledgeable callers, and I appreciate that very much. You're welcome, sir. Have a nice weekend. You too. Thank you, Mark. Give us a call, tool-free at 877-960, and as Earl mentioned,

and his latest column is Erlon Carr's Volunteers, Assisting Car Buyers, and he'd love to hear from you. This is an announcement that he made earlier, and it's pretty exciting. We can all join together, all of you, and, well, help us out. If you'd like to text us, you can do so at 772-497-6530. Now back to Stu. Okay, let's jump over again another text here. It's on the same topic. This is from Mary Ann.

She says, what if there is a rebate of, say, $3,000 or even higher? Is it still better to buy the newer one? The 2020-Cami Hybrid has the $3,500 cash rebate. It's dealer cash. Are you saying I should pay more for the 2021? Well, remember, the rebate is not necessarily the only discount you get on a buying a car. And so, yes, the manufacturer does give rebates on last year's model. And they have to do that.

And I can just tell you from being in the business for as many years as I have, I typically make more money when the big rebates come on cars because I can sell them for more profit. Dealers, when they have a car with a big rebate, oftentimes they tell the customer about it, but the discount beyond the rebate doesn't have to happen to the extent. It takes the pressure off a car dealer having to discount his profit when the manufacturer says, hey, I'm going to give you $2,000 if you sell this last year's model so I can sell you more new models.

I take that $2,000, say, oh, now I don't have to discount this car so much because the manufacturer's giving me some extra money. And that's the behind-the-scenes activity that you don't see. Okay Why does Apple CarPlay require tethering with USB cord? Why can't a Bluetooth connection work? I read that BMW works wirelessly, but they charge a subscription for wireless carplay. Just real quick, wireless Apple CarPlay is just a way to connect your phone to your car and use the apps on your phone like navigation and your music and stuff like that.

It's pretty cool. And, yeah, you have to plug it in with a USB plug. BMW does offer wireless. They do charge for it. I think it's $80 a year. And I think you get a couple of years free before they start charging you an annual subscription so you don't have to plug it in.

I got to say, just from my personal opinion, that seems pretty petty. You're going to spend $70,000 on a BMW and they're going to charge you $80 a year so you don't have to use a plug. But it is coming. I'm told that most other manufacturers within the next couple of years

are going to start offering at wireless Apple CarPlay. And I assume that's going to also apply to the Google car connection as well. Rick? There is an adapter available that you can plug in that will let your car play go wireless. 9 to 5 Mac.com has a review on that. Oh, cool. We should try and do a little test on one of our cars. Next one.

This is from Dan and Stewart. He says, I don't know if you're aware, but on Tuesday, in a three, to two vote, Martin County repealed their mask mandate. Almost immediately businesses up here have stopped requiring masks even though we're entering a second wave. Stay safe people, wear a mask. Well, I tell you, is that a timely comment? When we get to the mystery shopping report without spoiling it, we were shocked by what happened with the lack of mask wearing in Martin County. And I say this to all you folks in Martin County. You should say, something to the dealers, to the retailers.

It's recommended. Their cop out is the Martin County Commission saying, it's not required anymore, it's recommended. I think it's absolutely criminal that with this COVID wave coming back now and with the exposing that the mask wearing is so important that any retailer would not require their customers and their employees to wear a mask. And to say we recommend it as BS.

You don't recommend something that you know can kill somebody. You enforce it and you make it the law. So Martin County, shame on you, shame on the commission and shame on the regulators and shame on the retailers for taking their masks off and endangering their customers and their employees. Sorry about the rant. I couldn't know myself.

Are any of them scientists up there? Probably the opposite. That's rhetoric. We're going to go to John in Palm City. Good morning, John. Good morning. It gets worse than that. Tuesday night I went to a car show in Hutchison Island.

It usually be held regularly, but it's been postponed, and now it's back again. I will never go again. At least half of the people, including the car owners, did not have. the mess on. I'm against that. And at my age, I don't want to take any chances. So guess what? I won't go there again. So just a comment on that. But Earl mentioned the car business 50 years ago. Have a question to Rick. Fifty-four years ago, Osmobile Tornado was the first American car that came out in front-wheel drive. I want to know Rick's opinion if he had a choice, especially on trucks, which he likes. One had front wheel drive and the other one had real wheel drive. What is Rick's

preference as an expert mechanic of an automobile one versus the other? Personally, I think that rear wheel drive is almost required for a truck because the ability to get the torque to push a load if you're going to carry any sort of load in a truck. I mean, that's the whole purpose of it. If I didn't need a truck at times to carry heavy loads for around my home or whatever, I just have a regular car front wheel drive because it's, they're safer, they're actually a little more economical, they control better and handle better, especially in adverse conditions, rain, snow, whatever. But when you need to get a heavy load hauled, a front wheel drive car just really isn't up to it. Are they safer? Because the front wheels pull you around the curve. In other

They do. When I drive a front wheel car, I feel so much more in control because I'm not being pushed and you're not going to get the sliding and the, you know, swerving. Absolutely. And you're pulled around the corner, yeah. Well, the proof of what you're saying now, snow has started in the northern states, and there's no question about it. In the snow territory, you want to have a front wheel drive for control and traction.

Absolutely. But the ideal is, correct me if I'm wrong, Eric. The ideal is all-wheel drive, that way you have your cake and eat it too, and you've got the total control, and you've got, you know, just the perfect situation. That's why Subaru is so great popular up in the Northern States. Well, one disadvantage, mechanically, it costs more to maintain wheel alignment and everything, front-wheel drive, shocks, replacement, et cetera, et cetera, than it does on a real wheel drive. That's a factor also. Well, I can always earn more money, but my life and my health and safety and that of my family, yeah, you can't just go out and work a little more to earn that. To me, that's a whole lot more important than a few pennies in the bank account.

Well, here's another good news. Girl mentioned 50 years ago. I'm looking at a 1978 car ad, full-page ad from Tough Coat, five-year warranty. There's a warning on it. One month, you buy your car. It has the rust starts under the hood. 13 months, rust builds up between the fender and fenderwell braces. 18 months.

Rust is halfway through the door seams and rocket panels. And 36 months, this says the car was worth $400 less in resale because of the rust. Three companies made it, then. Tough coat, Z-Bart. Rusty Jones Earl was in the business then I'm sure he remembered we don't have to worry about that

thank God today the cars are coded from the factory even if you live in South Florida or up in Maine and thank God we don't have to do

anymore so we came a long way in the car business and this ad was from 1978 I don't think any company today even does if you want to do it undercoding

am I correct I maybe up north somewhere I'm not sure. I haven't seen one, but it used to be commonplace, yeah. Well, thank God we don't have to worry about that anymore. Hey, John, are you a volunteer? Are you willing to volunteer? I can't. I have a signed a disclaimer that I was involved in private security business, and I'm not allowed to reveal. There's some people, I hate to say it, but they're in federal prison. Oh, boy.

And they weren't too happy over myself and a group of us. So I can't do it. I would love to volunteer if I could. Well, thank you, John. I appreciate your hands now. Well, thank you. You guys, I'm late waiting for the report. It'll be a good one.

Hang on. Okay. Thanks, John. You know what? I have a question for you, Rick, about front-wheel drive. This takes me back to Pittsburgh. How often do you have your tires rotated on a front real drive. I used to do it like every six months. Every 5,000 miles or every six months,

you should rotate the tires. And are they rotated differently than not side to side? Front to back. Front to back. We don't recommend side to side because it can, if your tires aren't perfectly flat smooth, which even brand new tires are not, you can actually create a pull to one side of the other. Interesting. Well, that's where our listeners up north. Now back to do? Or do you have another YouTube? A couple quick ones here. Tom Holmes is asking for trucks what accessories are typically

installed at the dealer versus at the factory and are there accessories available beyond what is offered on the Toyota website like lift kits, etc. Well you know we recommend that you go strictly with your

factory accessories. That's not to say there are not good dealer-installed accessories or after market accessories. In fact, some of the other products can be even better than the manufacturer. But because of the taking advantage of dealer-install accessories, I use a rule of thumb and say, don't take a car with dealer-installed accessories. If you want, whatever it is, get it on the car that came from the manufacturer. If for no other reason, you have a reliable guarantee. You know, your warranty on a new car covers whatever was on the car when you bought it if it was installed by the manufacturer.

If it was installed by the dealer, he's got his own warranty or there's no warranty. And typically, dealer-installed accessories on trucks and cars are inferior, and sometimes they're grossly inferior because they're only added to the car to check the price up. You check the price up, you can show more trade and allowance, you can show a bigger discount, or you can put it in your car. pocket and call it a profit. Virtually every car you buy in South Florida now has dealer-installed accessories, worthless things like nitrogen and the tires.

Alternatively, buy the car without the stuff that's pre-installed and you can have a conversation, they have access to good accessories, but you'll have to pay for it. You don't get something for nothing. So if you're going to get, oh, I'm sorry, that's the opposite. In this case, you're getting nothing for something for a

dealer installed, pre-installed accessories. Buy the car and then buy the accessories. and shop and compare price on the accessory. Shop the quality on the accessory. Enrico West is asking, with new cars having so many computers on board, is it still safe to boost a battery with cables, or do you think the new portable charging packs are a safer option?

Well, in my opinion, both of those work identically. Connecting up to jumpstart off another car, if it's done properly, you'll have no worries whatsoever. and those charging packs are a fantastic idea. They're just a great option to where you don't need the hassle of a second vehicle. They simply connect right up to the battery and start the car right up. But they're both perfectly safe. Just make sure you do it properly.

All right. All right. We got a text here. Whatever happened to Lou Backrope, the guy with the big nose on his billboard at 995. I know the billboard. I don't know what happened to Lou Backrott, though. No, I knew Lou Backrod. He was one of the first guys to do the One Price, and this is 30, 40 years ago,

and I had a Pontiac dealership back then, and I tried one price and almost went broke. Lou Bachrod and I sat up on the stage at the National Automobile Dealers Association meeting because J.D. Power invited the one-price dealers in the country, you know, 40 years ago or whatever it was, and we told all the dealers how we did it and how wonderful it was. We didn't tell them how we almost went broke, and then we quit it. And there was no more one price for, you know, a long, long time, decades. And finally, we're back, and we are back where we started, you know, there's nothing new into the sun, someone once said. Yeah.

More anonymous feedback. You know what I think would be a great accessory in a car? Filtered and chilled water dispensers. Imagine being thirsty while you're driving and having the ability to dispense cold, clean water to drink. I believe most people would agree that the first car to offer this will be an enormous sales success. Earl, can you suggest this to Toyota?

I know Nancy would buy it, right? Yes. I think it's kind of a cool idea. No pun intended. Well, here's a thought for you. They have water coolers now that take moisture from the air by using a small condenser like a that's basically the evaporator core from an AC system. I don't like that.

And it condenses the water. NASA does it. They do the same thing with urine, but I'm not, I'm not a fan of it. Okay. I like water that comes from the sky. Exactly. You appreciate the hydrologic cycle. Yes.

Unless you have a dehumidifier and I'm taking everyone back 25 years maybe and we had a dehumidifier in our apartment and during the hurricane season we lost our electricity and the only water that we had was from the dehumidifier and we used it well i didn't know we were using it she was making your coffee with it what's it now you're talking with it uh it came in handy trust me everyone i won't go into detail as to why we used it or where we it, but trust me, it came in handy. As long as I didn't drink it, I don't mind. You didn't drink it.

Oh, good. You flushed the commode. Oh, thank you. I had to spill the beans. 877-960-9960. How do you feel about that, folks? Give us a call. I think that's funny.

We want everyone's opinion on everything. Or you can text us at 772-497-6530. Now back to Stu. Yeah, this is part car show and parts science. All right. Here's more anonymous question on anonymous feedback. Do high-volume dealers pay the same for their stock as low-volume dealers? Yes. Yeah, they do. And I don't want to complicate it. There's some nuances there. But the thing to remember is that in the car business, whether you sell 1,000 cars a month, and yes, there are car dealers that sell 1,000 cars a month. Or whether you sell 10 cars a month, and yes, car dealers sell 10 cars a month. If you're a Chevrolet dealer and you're selling 1,000, you pay the same price as the guy selling 10. There is no advantage to being a high-volume dealer other than your expenses in terms of allocating expenses are probably lower.

Yeah. Here's a great question here. When a dealership orders new cars, do they order all of their stock of a certain model all at once or many times during the model year? and I can address that. There are differences amongst manufacturers, but it's ordered throughout the year, and most of them have gone to what's called a turn and earn. So every two weeks there's an allocation of new vehicles,

and it's based on how many you sold since the prior allocation. Assuming you have a car that you sell a lot of and other cars manufacturers like Nissan, they can't sell cars, they try to shove them down the dealer's throat. In other words, it's not a question of ordering cars. is a question of, please don't send me any more cars. But high-demand, low supply, dealers fight for the amount of cars they could get, and the faster they sell them, the faster the manufacturer ships them.

Okay. Anonymous feedback. Good morning, y'all. My wife and mother both have 2020 RAV-4 LEs. My wife's has had no issues. However, my mother's had a dead battery two days in a row. It's only three weeks old, 1,200 miles. brought it to the dealership and they said it needed a module update.

They said it's a big issue on the 2020 RAV-4s, but not a recall yet. My question is, why isn't Toyota contacting RAV-4 owners to have them get this update done so they're not stranded with a dead battery somewhere? Also, should I bring my wife's end to have the update done? Lastly, have you all had any RAV-4s with this issue at your dealership? Great show. Unfortunately, I cannot listen where I live, but I listen to the replay. And that's from, well, it's anonymous, but he signed it Joseph. I don't know if we've seen the RAV-4s with that specific thing,

but we have had several Camrys. Exactly the same thing as the SOS safety call button that you have and you're installed in the car. And there's an issue with the programming in it where it stays turned on and drains the battery. And drains the battery when you shut the car off. So there's an update to the programming. Prevents that.

Colonel Google just answered it for Earl. I asked Mark Feldman, a service manager, about that very issue. And he said regarding this Ravre 4 question, there is a firmware update that fixes this concern. So that answers that. Yes, there is a fix, and there should be a notification to the owners. It's related to a draw that on occasion, electrical draw can occur. It's not on everyday event, but we do see a few.

related component causing the concern is a safety connect option, it should go in a sleep mode, but does not. That's what Rick just said. Okay, excuse me, guys, but we're going to go to Frank, who's calling us from Jupiter Farms. Good morning, Frank.

Well, good morning, Nancy and Earl and the rest of the gang. It was a pleasure to say hi. Hi. As always, your show draws memories from days going by, and there's two quick things for you today. when you were talking about the windshield wipers it was cool when they asked about the aqua

and I immediately said no and I'll you all verify that but Ranex I'll give you a quick Ranex story many many years ago I bought a used 9-11 Porsche and I was just at the time just a cleaner at Eastern Airlines so it wasn't really a big paycheck

but enough to get a Porsche and the windshield wipers stopped working $400 for a wiper motor and one of my buddies the mechanic there, said, you don't need to buy a wiper motor, get Ranex. We put the Ranex on, and I never needed those wiper motor again until I traded the car in several months later. Yeah, I love Ranex.

It's magic, especially with the windshield that has a nice rake to it. Like Ritch said, you have to put it on right, and it takes a lot of elbow grease. Yeah, luckily, I had that back in those years. Now, back to you when you were mystery shopping with, in the service department, looking forward to that next week. You may have recall. Years ago, they had some

TV shows where they at truck stops and people traveling across the Interstate 95 would stop and have a small little problem and they had video cameras and seeing how the deception that was going on

and they really busted a lot of the I should say repair shops at that time frame. So it should be interesting when it comes up. The other thing that in my particular case I was taking my car back to a Mercedes dealer, and all of a sudden the shop fees went from just a few dollars to like 10% of the bill.

That was their new thing. Shop fees, $500 service charge, and now you've got a $50 shop fee. And it's going to be interesting to see what comes up in your mystery shop, or that's still the case on some of the dealers. Wow. Yeah, we can't wait to see what we're going to find out. Yeah, hopefully this is educational. We should probably make it a regular part of the show because, people who get their car service a lot more than they buy a car,

and we should be able to point out the same pitfalls and things to watch out for to our service customers. Yeah, well, again, I just want to say thank you. We enjoy listening to each Saturday morning, and it's nice what you do for the public. Frank, how about volunteering for us? Do you want to be on our volunteer list, Errol on cars?

It's a thought. I've got a lot on my plate right now. Okay, well, think about it. Yeah, the good news is I probably got a lot more experience than some of the listeners, but it just comes with each and the love of the cars. I mean, it's been, I actually was watching some of the auctions going down on Meek on the other night and seeing some of the cars where they're going for today. It's amazing.

Okay, thanks. Thank you. No pressure on the volunteer, but let us know if you can. Thank you, Frank. Okay. Take care. Bye-bye. Thank you.

We didn't have one question on YouTube or Alight. Ernesto was asking, is there a minimum age to be a volunteer? Four. Four. Three years old. Okay. Four. No, anybody with knowledge.

You got old folks with knowledge, you got young folks with knowledge. If you know a lot, and then we're, we've asked the people that we know, because they've called the show and we know about their abilities, if we don't know you, we'd like to do a brief interview. And then if you pass the test on the fundamentals, and we'd love to have you join up. If not, we'll give you some reference materials to bring yourself up to speed if you want to volunteer. But I'd love to have a nationwide pool of volunteers in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, Connecticut, New York, California. We want volunteers spread out all over. Yeah, we could have some volunteers from New York. too.

Stu and I both know. Definitely. New York. Yes, we do. Residents in New York. That's right. Okay. Back to anonymous feedback.

This is just a comment. Buying a new car at a dealership is like being sucked into a timeshare presentation. Oh, boy. You know, you're absolutely right. And I don't want to spoil anything in the Mystery Shopping Report, but that's kind of how the Agent Lightning's experience started when they got to the dealership. It became like a kind of like an unwanted presentation. so it reminded me of that

a very good comment. Let's see here. What am I missing here? Okay. If you have a set car price and then tell the dealer you have a trade-in, will they take the trade-in price

off the price you've negotiated or will they try to re-negotiate the price all over again? Now, the simple answer is yeah, because that's what we advise, but who knows what they're going to try and do? But the best way to do is get that price and don't let them know you have a trade-in

because that's how they monkey around with the number. Find out how you could buy the car without a trade, the lowest out-the-door price you can get, and then say, oh, by the way, I got this car, and then that way they can't play around with the numbers. But there's no guarantee that they won't try. The car you're purchasing, the car you're trading, and the financing is three separate financial transactions. You don't let the salesman, the dealer, no. You go to your bank or your credit union, and you get the best deal you can on financing. You go to three used car dealers of the same make or the brand the car you're driving and get bids on your trade in, a car you're driving. That's a separate transaction. And then you go to three different car dealerships to get the best price in the car you're buying. And then you put them all together and you've got the best of all worlds.

Because if you don't do that, the car dealer that is handling all three, he can make you think you're getting a great deal on the new car by screwing you on the used car and the finance. Or he can give you a great deal on the financing by screwing you on the new car. So you take away his ability to maneuver and do the smoke and mirrors when you separate all three transactions. That's right. It's the way to go. All right. More anonymous feedback. This is a reference to a conversation we had last week.

I disagree with Rick's answer on BMW brakes. I've never seen cross-drilled rotors on a stock BMW. X5. The reason that break jobs are so expensive is BMW upcharges on labor. Don't get me wrong. BMW, OEM rotors are very good quality. However, OEM4X rotors

for that X5 can be purchased, I'm saying four of them can be purchased for $500, pads $150, and the rest is markup. Four rotors for $500 and the pads are

$150? Yep. the rotors are less expensive than the pads. Well, I don't know if they meant per pad or per total. Well, front brake pads. I'm just going by Toyota, by what I know for Toyota, front brake pads are about $70 factory, and the rotors are about $150 to $170 factory, which makes sense.

The rotors are usually more expensive than the pads. So if the rotors for BMW are less expensive than the pads, sounds to me like somebody might have their numbers a little mixed up there. It's my thoughts. Okay. All right. Good morning. This is from Mark Ryan.

Longtime YouTube listener from the show from Iowa. I would be willing to volunteer for Earl's initiative to assist car buyers for Iowa. I have 20 years of corporate sales, marketing experience with a Fortune 500 organization. I have taught marketing, business, finance courses, and community colleges for the past 15 years. This guy sounds perfect. If you recall, I use Earl's book in my personal finance course. I'm happy to further discuss the opportunity with you as time permits. Hey, thanks, Mark.

That's great. Iowa. Will you contact him, too, and get the information? Maybe we can get pictures, too, to put on the website. I mean, if they want to, I mean. If they present well. If they're not wanted. Okay.

This is to John. who was listening to John earlier, says to John, all removable car parts are dipped in anti-corrosion material and the welded body or main cabin assembly is also dipped in the same material. Thus, it seeps into body seams. Corrosion is nearly non-existent

in today's cars. No need for further rust-proofing unless to appease the consumer for, let's say, northern construction business. You know, what I see, and Rick, you see it too, is the metal, underneath the skin, the metal internal, like brakes particularly.

And you take a brand new car and you put it in a condominium garage on Palm Beach or anywhere on the Florida coastline, and you let us sit there for three or four years, you got yourself some serious corrosion. We see cars that come from people that live right on the ocean, and we can tell which side of the car faces the ocean. by where the rust is more prevalent versus the other side. Yeah, that's unbelievable. You would think with the high-tech and the technology we got with cars,

they could make a corrosion-proof car, but they haven't done it yet. Well, but if you made a car that lasted forever, nobody'd ever buy a new car. Well, I know that's an argument. I mean, I'm just saying it's... There's a conspiracy theory that the auto manufacturers had pre-existing... um, uh, you know, uh, obsolescence that they sold your car knowing it be wouldn't last or you need more. I mean, competition, that's a beauty thing about competition. If you build a car that'll last twice as long as your competitor, uh, you're going to make so much money in the

short run that you can worry about the fact that it'll last twice as long later. And that's kind of what's happened today. 50 years ago, if a car lasted three years and, uh, and 50,000 miles you were doing good yeah today that same car will last what 15 years and 500,000 miles easily yeah it's great so yeah one day they will have a car that will probably how about the how about Elon Musk a battery million mile electric battery for electric car who would have thought that's that's a lifetime battery you you would lose me as a customer for Hey, just to change the subject, why can't I buy a barbecue grill? It's rustproof.

How about a wing nut? How about a screw? You need to get a plastic grill. Sorry. This one's really interesting. The text that just came in. There's no name. Did you read about the study that shows that hackers or other mischievous individuals can flash an image of a sign or a pedestrian on the road to fool autonomous cars and to reacting?

the driver can't even notice it and I did read that article and it was really interesting if you guys remember a few years back there was a tragic incident where a Tesla driver drove underneath a truck and it the white it was like the white side of a semi truck

it fooled it into thinking it was like bright sky the study I think it might have been an Israeli study and what they did they tested on like on Teslas and things like that in a split second they could they would flash a turn something or something that made the vehicle think it had to behave a certain way and it reacted but the human

driver couldn't even notice it suddenly their car veered off the road or slammed on the brakes and so that's a huge vulnerability not to scare people we want autonomous driving to come but it was a good study to alert the manufacturers of you know maybe unforeseen ways these things

could you know can misbehave hackers will be around forever and hack you're going to have the good hackers and the bad hackers that's basically what you got and then progress goes on yeah that's right but it's good to know that they're they're doing this incrementally there's tomorrow they're not gonna no one's gonna unveil a hundred percent autonomous vehicle it's it's gonna get you know

overtime and we're gonna get closer and closer to fully autonomous eventually okay um you got me over there Rick I do actually I've got Justin Thomas says I'm looking to buy a car and online asked for the Carfax it showed nice 19,000 miles. The car dealership said 5,000 miles on that car. The salesman said it was only 5,000. They said it was a mistake by Carfax. He says he didn't get to see the odometer himself.

He hasn't gone to the place because he's looking at him online. And he's worried that it might be a bait and switch. Have you ever heard of Carfax having the wrong mileage listed on it? Yes. It happens and you should notify Carfax and they will make a correction or not. maybe they won't. I mean, it's going to tell the truth. If Carfax didn't make a mistake, then somebody is pulling a fast one.

Now, things are changing. I do think, like, the connected, the way the cars are connected now, mileage is read electronically, but that's not commonplace yet. So when a car goes to a service department, it's manually entered by a person on a keyboard, and mistakes can be made. But fortunately, there are avenues to correct the mistakes. It is kind of cool right now. For example, on my car, I have an app.

It tells me exactly how many miles are. When it goes to the service department, they plug it in. It tells the accurate miles, so it eliminates that type of error. But Carfax is not infallible, nor is auto check. And if a human... Yeah, we've seen some serious problems. We've seen Takati Airbag recalls that were not picked up. And so, yeah, nothing's perfect.

You've got data gathering and data publishing, and you've got mistakes, and it'll be that way forever. I think they're rare enough that you can have a high level of confidence in Carfax and Novichick, but it's very good. But it's not perfect. And Tom Holmes is asking, to what Earl just said, isn't it possible for SET financing to beat any deal you're likely to get from a credit union with 1.9% depending on the months available incentives?

Yeah, they call them captive lenders, you know, Chrysler's got them, General Motors has got them, Toyota's got them, Southeast Toyota, and the lenders in collusion, I hate that word, because the captive lenders aren't supposed to collude with the manufacturers, but they do, and so basically they offer these incredibly low interest rates, 0%, 1.9, and it's legitimate. But it's part of the pricing of the car and typically they'll offer an alternative cash rebate, then you have to do the arithmetic because one or the other is better for you based on a number of other variables. But yeah, if you're going to get a super interest rate, don't take the dealer's word for it. Be sure it's from Southeast Toyota financing, Honda financing, ally financing, I think that's what General Motors uses and the other captive lenders and they do come up with the super good deals, better than a credit union.

Well, tagging under that, Anonymous Febeck says, I'm wondering why the interest rates varies depending on the model, all Toyotas, when leasing, shouldn't the interest rate be constant? And the answer is, well, just exactly where else is, it works as part of the incentive program. So if Toyota wants to sell a whole bunch of corollas, they might offer 0% and if they're having no problem selling the Camry, they might offer 2.9% of it's just part of the incentive program.

And just remember, also, the super low incentive interest are good, but they're not that good compared to the way used to be. I mean, when the average lending amount was like 6 or 7%, 5 or 6 or 7%, 0% was huge, and they would have a few of those. Today, if you've got really good credit, you can borrow money below 3% anyway with really good credit. and if you get 1.9% and you can borrow money for 2.5% it's no big whoop. So you might want to take the rebate as the alternative if you have good credit and you've got a really good deal

at the bank or credit union. We have a text from Anne-Marie. Oh, hi, Ann Marie. I love Anne-Marie's text. She is so smart. Yep. Good morning. Does Toyota have an app

where people can personally download software updates to their cars it's just handled through the Toyota Dealer Service Department. These questions are prompted by a story about the Tesla app that I read in Jolopnik. The story mentioned that several people downloaded the Tesla app and had a credit card on file with the app. It seems they accidentally butt dialed the app, which resulted in several thousand dollars of unwanted butt upgrades to their Teslas. We're allowed to say that, I think. The app was automated in such a way that reportedly with one click, the server got instructions,

the data was sent over the cell network, automatically downloaded into the car, and the code was executed to add the additional software option. Often it's the $4,000 plus enhanced autopilot feature. Reportedly, no password was needed to complete the transaction. No additional labor was needed to activate the upgrade. Tesla's policy is that they don't give refunds on software. CNBC now reports that the app has been changed to require more user input before purchases go through. I guess the takeaway is to be careful about what apps you download to your phone

and be careful with your phone to avoid butt dialing problems. Take care and have a great day. I would fact-check that, Anne-Marie. I will. It sounds like it's certainly possible. I read that, but I don't know about the details. And it sounds like it maybe did happen, but I can't imagine Tesla saying too bad.

You own the software. You own the software. But it's interesting. It's scary. Technology is really scary. I mean, the things that can happen. I mean, we all do things. The other day, Nancy and I were streaming something,

and there was a glitch in my Apple TV, from one Apple TV to the other. I ended up buying a season that I'd already bought, and now I've got to figure out how to unbuy it. So, you know, it's technology. You've got to be careful. You hit the wrong button, and you're costing a lot of money. I have a thing, because I know you can downgrade, like,

an update on the phone. I would imagine to be able to, they could downgrade the thing and refund your money. The only thing that Toyota has for that is certain updates can be done on your radio or on the Intune appellate apps. And it's a pain in the butt because they always prompt you for these updates. Time to update, time to update. Yep. But there's no way to update your car right now through your cell phone.

Right now, but down the road with this telemetry, they'll be able to push updates to you where it doesn't require you to go to the dealership to do that. And Toyota will just automatically push these updates. like they're doing right not not yet you know i'm going to take a moment right now um which i forgot to do earlier in the show and that is to talk about attorney ashley moody and uh you know week in week out we expose uh these uh tactics that these car dealers use and we can't do this alone we really need you and we need you to give attorney ashley moody a call and support us and change the way business is done by these unscrupulous car dealers. And you can do that by calling 850-414-3300. That is 850-4-1-4-3-300. That is 850-4-3-0. That is Attorney Ashley Moody.

She's supposed to protect us. She's supposed to protect us from all the scams that go on day in and day out. All right, anonymous feedback. Mr. Earle is right about the waiting game. When I first met my wife, her car was dying, and she needed a new one. So we go to the dealership to get her a good car, and I request a bid.

The salesman give us a good price, but the interest rate was too high for me. So I said, I would buy the car at that price, but the interest rate raises the cost, so that's a bad value, no deal, and we left. She was very upset and says, I'll never get a car, which I love saying, saying today when she gets into one of her nice vehicles.

So we patiently waited and about two weeks later the salesman calls us and says they are having a quote, loan sale as if there is such a thing. She bought the car the next day, the waiting game works. It's only it's the customer that was waiting this time. That's good. You'll wait them out. Yeah. Psychology is part of the game and they're pretty good at it.

It's their game and they're pretty good at what they do. All right, we're rounding them up. We're almost done here. currently driving a 2013 Highlander, is there any way to improve radio reception? No external antenna, only rear a driver's side window wire pattern. Near Forestall in Congress, there's no way to hear your show. They're not going to hear the answer, but watch the replay on YouTube. Unfortunately, there's no way to change that.

Car radio antennas are subject to some really crazy interference buildings, tall buildings and the like. atmospheric issues things like that aluminum foil and a hanger there's a need there's a need and an opportunity and somebody out there i mean this is the information explosion this is uh... you know this is uh... we're on steroids technologically

there's somebody out there it might be a a ten-year-old kid and he's going to come up with an answer and some manufacturer it'll be autonomous uh... you know car will have an antenna that can reach anywhere in the world, and that's what it's going to happen.

Well, we've already got our workaround. You just simply stream everything right through your phone, right through your Apple Carpay. That's probably part of the solution, yeah, right there. Well, that is the answer. They need to get just a, you know, a Bluetooth sort of set up in the car if they don't already have it. 2013 Highlander probably does and use your phone. As a matter of fact, if you're traveling, you're going to go for a long drive. you can download radio stations and play the radio station the entire trip

and not even worry that you're 200, 300 miles away from it. That's right. Here's a great question, and this might round out our audience responses. Do you recommend any products sold in F&I or are they scams? What are fair prices or where can I find them to compare for those products, light gap, extended warranty, life insurance, tire, wheel, etc. and that's from art. And that's a great question

because it's hard to compare those prices. Yeah, I would say, I hate to use a Google cop-out, but I'd go on Google and I'd do some careful checking about companies I do this. I assure you, if you look at dealer reviews, if you look at product reviews,

you go to Consumer Reports and do your homework, but buying a product, the dealers call them products in the box in the finance department is like Russian roulette. I mean, some of them are virtually worthless. Some of them are okay. Some of them are values. I could give you advice on maintenance contracts.

A simple way to look at maintenance is looking at what does the dealers charge or wherever you want to take your car for maintenance. What do they charge to do all of the factory recommended maintenance? and then see what the cost of the maintenance package is that gives you free maintenance. You pay up front, okay, if I can pay $300 over a period of three years and my maintenance is only going to cost me $200, it's not a good deal. If it's vice versa, then it is a good deal. Same thing with GAAP insurance.

Gap insurance is easy to shop. There are a number of insurance companies that offer that. Life insurance, probably easy to shop. not too many dealers are selling my insurance. Yeah, most of them would drop-line. So, but again, one of Earl's rule of thumbs. Don't buy anything in the finance department. And if you're going to, be sure you read it carefully

and be sure that you know all the ins and outs and they've shopped it competitive. Don't, if they tell you you have to buy it today you can't buy it tomorrow, don't buy it. There's nothing you should be offered to purchase in the finance department that shouldn't be available of the next day.

Leath. And finding a dealer that actually post their prices on the line for these products is extremely rare. But the problem is, see, if you're in Florida, I know we're listening to all over in Florida, and some other states, they regulate the price, but it doesn't regulate it between dealers.

So a dealer will establish a price for a warranty, and he has to sell at that price no matter what in Florida. But the guy down the street, the same coverage could be $500,000 more or less. So there's not regulation in that sense so it's very difficult to compare prices sure we're all caught up with texts and anonymous feedback okay well let's get to the mystery

shopping report and I want to let the audience know that they too can vote on the mystery shopping report and we really appreciate hearing from you and how you feel each week about the mystery shopping report a lot of work put into it that's Treasure Coast Toyota 772 4 976530. Vote. Okay, Trader Coast Toyota. We don't like mystery shopping, Toyota dealerships here at Earl Strowdon Cars. It's a Toyota dealer, and it disclosed out about every week. I'm very sensitive to the possible impression I can give by doing this. I risk look like I'm bashing in my competition if we give a Toyota dealership a bad grade.

I also risk offending Toyota, the manufacturer. very adverse to public squabbles between competing dealers. They worry about these disagreements, tarnishing the brand. And I could do another show on that. I don't like that policy, but that's their policy. They can punish a dealer pretty severely by saying something unkind about another toilet dealer. And I'm sure Honda and some of the other manufacturers have similar rules. Despite these obstacles, we push it anyway knowing that the service where,

is providing to the consumers in our listing area far outweighs the downside. Toyota has a very high share of the new car market, about 15%, actually the number one in Florida and probably the southeast United States. So it's a biggest selling, most popular car in the market. A lot of people are affected by the sales and advertising tactics of their local Toyota dealers, so we've got to do it. I do hope that our I do hope that the trust our list has put in me will see that these investigations for what they are are honest assessments of the behavior of local cardios

with no ulterior motives. In matter of fact, if I have an ulterior motive is probably to be so totally honest that you'll say, hey, this guy is so honest that he's telling the truth and putting toilet dealers on the recommended list when he's a toilet dealer. So we're trying to help you

and we can't do it without shopping Toyota dealership. And the proof in that is our sizable recommended dealer list. I mean, we're recommending people left and right. We're not, yeah. We're great on the curve. In no way would I ever bash another car dealer to benefit my own dealership. I just don't do that kind of thing.

That said, we turn our attention this week to a Toyota dealership and that's Treasure Coast Toyota in Stewart, Florida. Treasure Coast is on our recommended list. We last investigated them in February 2019, hoping to learn more about what their online purchase process was. What we discovered were old school tactics that were a far cry from real online buying. However, everything in our investigator experience fell within the normal range of South Florida cardio behavior. And since we trade on a curve, grade, I mean on a curve, Treasure Coast Toyota received a passing grade. So they're there, they're on their recommended list.

I also have to disclose to the listeners that I've been friends with the owner, Sandy Woods, for many years. I mean, we're not close friends. I've been to his office. I've talked to him on the phone many times. Tried to buy his dealership one time, as a matter of fact. And I consider him to be an honest person, and he's a very, very good businessman.

As I've said before about owners, I know a lot of dealership owners, but owners are not on site. They're not hands-on. Most of them are very wealthy people that have multiple dealerships and they have people that manage their dealership. His daughter, Amber, you know, operates more hands-on.

Yeah, but I believe even Amber has a general manager that really does the hands-on stuff. Recently, Treasure Coast has been on a sort of sales volume roller coaster. We know there have been some significant changes in the senior management. After the departure of the general manager not too long ago, we noticed a change in their advertising becoming cleaner and more straightforward. In the last few weeks, we've seen a rise in their sales rate, a sharp rise. We're curious as to, if the improvement in image is correlating to the improvement in sales, what about the in store

experience? How would a showroom visit today compare with the last report on record? If they did improve their sales process and offer a better experience, we'd have more evidence that doing it the right way is a better way for business. Essentially, the main message of this show. To answer our questions, we sent in Agent Lightning, our female shopper, mystery shopper. Here's a report. We'll speak in the first person as if I were Agent Lightning. Adam, the maskless salesman, was standing behind my car and waiting for me to greet me as I climbed down. And I won't do another rant, but you'll see as this mystery shop

progresses, nobody's wearing a mask at Treasure Coast Toyota. And come to find out that apparently no one's wear a mask and other retail establishments or car dealerships in Martin County. Martin County has gone from, we recommend you wear a mask to

but you don't really have to. You have to, it might be a nice idea. You have to, yeah. I said they recommend it, but they don't say you have to do it, and so nobody's doing it, apparently. Before I could even take in my surroundings, I was already bombarded with questions from Adam. What was I looking for?

When I needed an appraisal of my car, etc. I cut him off, stated I wanted to be completely transparent with him and that I expected the same in return. I said, I was planning to purchase a new 2020 Camry, LE, by the end of the month. Adam interrupted to ask why I wasn't buying it. buying today. This little sign of aggression when you interrupt your customer and ask them why they don't buy today. I replied that I would be visiting two more dealerships before

making my final decision. Sounds familiar? Sounds like... Our advice. Yes. Earl Stewart, Toyota, Best Smith Toyota. Oh, okay. So I'm telling Adam, the maskless salesman, though I'm going to check with Earl Stewart Toyota and Best Smith Toyota, immediately sought to discredit Earl Stewart Toyota. Listen to this something. How could anyone discredit Earl Stewart Toyota? Just joking.

Survival. I don't usually do this, but I'm speaking as if I'm Adam, the Treasure Coast salesman. I don't usually do this, but I feel compelled to warn you that Earl Stewart hides all his fees in the price of his vehicles, even though he claims not to have any hidden fees. And of course, we've heard this multiple times.

that where they belong? Well, it's funny, but it's said at the same time, because it's actually, it's actually confusing enough to overcome the objection. And that's the reason

a lot of dealers have used that. Dealers are not stupid, and their sales tactics and advertising is studied carefully. And I guarantee you, in the sales meeting this is the training session all right what do i do you know we got this big hidden fee that we're slapping on the customers and mr sales manager i'm a treasurer co salesman what do i say and earl stewart is he doesn't have any hidden fees what am i supposed to say

and here it is here's what you say say earl stewart does have hidden fees and where he hides them this is very clever he's hiding them in the price of the car and a lot of them just go oh if someone says but isn't

aren't you supposed to have all your cost in the car shut up Charlie I'm telling you what to say it sounds good it sounds good okay anyway I didn't digress too much I didn't respond

there was agent lightning I didn't respond Adam proceeded to sell the dealership by explaining how important and Treasure Coast customers were, and their goal is to keep them coming back. He said, that's the reason all their cars come with a lifetime warranty for the original owner. In the course of this dialogue, the lifetime warranty is mentioned, and in case I forget to get to it at the end, the lifetime warrant is a power train warranty. It is totally worthless. It is free.

and you get what you pay for. The power train warranties are not worth to pay for their printed on. He said that the owner's daughter, Amber Woods, just spent $22 million on a new facility for their customers. He began to walk to the door and asked me to join him on a tour. I didn't want a tour, and I was annoyed by his presumption that I did. I didn't object and I followed him. After our 20-some-minute stroll to the dealership,

Adam led me to his desk and asked more questions, name, contact information. Three color choices for the Camry. I said I would only consider white. He left to get the keys to the white camera, he turned, and led me to the vehicle. It was a 2020 LE, like I requested, had an MSRP of 26-697. It also had an add-dum phony Monroney. Here we go. $1,600 in worthless add-on products. Pre-install. I can't take it off. There's some new stuff here. I've never seen this before. Yeah, it's good stuff. It's good because it isn't something that you would be aware of because it's new. The extra $6,900 was, well, we've heard of nitrogen, $399 for nitrogen.

For life. For life, yeah. 399 door cups for life. That's new. What do that mean? I don't know. I'm thinking that they're cup holders or something, and that if you lose one. At the end of the three years, we don't come out. and snatch your car, your cup holders on your car. We'll leave the cup holders that you're paying for and for as long as you own the car.

Yes, then there's $3.99 for doorage guards. And we'll let's strip them off the car. Right. Do they fall off a lot, Rick? Doorage guards? No. No. Yeah.

And $399 for carpet mats. Okay. So that's $6,900. It's probably got an actual value of around $250. And that's... Oh. Door cups are those things that go behind the door handle, so when you're reaching in to open your door handle, your rings don't scratch the paint behind the door handle. Oh, there you go.

Lifetime. I'm there for life. Okay. Adam went over the car, folks, we're exclusively on a safety features. We took the car for a short test drive, went back inside, he left me alone to the desk for 10 minutes, and then returned with a worksheet. A bunch of these worksheets are not legal documents, says so in the fine print. So they don't have to tell you everything on the worksheet. If they leave it off the worksheet, it's not against the law.

You don't sign the legal stuff until you've already signed in and committed to buy the car, and that's when you're in the box of the finance department. Okay, the top line was the inflated market value selling price, 2827. He showed me a $2.69-discount, which made the adjusted price $25,528. Then he added $286 and taxable fees. those are bogus hidden fees. And a $8.98 dock, which is another hidden dealer fee. Dealer doc.

Dealer dock. I was picturing a doctor. I was a picture a guy, yeah. With a, like a reflector on his forehead. Next came sales tax and $464 in non-tax fees. Those are okay, sales tax license plate. The out-the-door price with all fees of taxes was 28-804. While Adam was reviewing the numbers, his manager,

also maskless. Bobby, Bobby was the manager. Bobby was there to close a deal. He pressured me to take the car now. He said, if I want other quotes from Earl Stewart and Beth Smith, I should call him now. He said, there was no way either would beat the price, and I would say a lot of time

on not making two trips. No way. Anybody can beat my price. I asked what he would do if the other dealers came in lower, Bobby said, can't happen. Not going to happen. However, hedging on his statement, he said, if, you know, if someone does show me a lower price, we'll beat it. Very high pressure.

And then he said, you know what, I'll be right back. You're going to hang on to your heads, folks. I'll be right back. Bobby left me with Adam then returned a few minutes later with what he called an even sweeter deal. Very sweet. They explained that because they were having a good day and sold vehicles for higher than normal profits.

they were able to take advantage of some other people to give me a good deal. They had a kid and a little old lady and someone that didn't speak English, and they were rather really make a big profit on them. So we made so much profit on these other victims that we're going to get some of that profit back to you in a super discount. It's probably the only honest thing he said. Yeah, it is true. I mean, sadly, it's honest.

He could afford to do something crazy for me. He also said he needed to get rid of his 20-20, Camry's and he was able to find some other rebates for him in. He had a new worksheet. The top line market value selling price was the same, 28, 297. But this one showed an 8,000, holy matter. He went from 20, what it was before 20. Instead of 20-some on 100, an $8,000 discount and a $20,297 adjusted price. The same piece were added making the new off-the-door price.

$23, $254, that's about $5,000. less than the first price. The one that he said, nobody could beat, nobody can beat the price that was $5,000 higher. He doesn't see that. Bobby pointed out, the northern toilet ship would have been giving me a four-year free maintenance and roadside assistance plus a free lifetime warranty.

Not true. And that's not true. Everybody had to do it. Well, you get two years free anyway, but this car had Toyogard on it, which gives you two more. For $699. Toyota's have Toyota Guard on them pre-installed by the toilet dealer and so that's for free four years free maintenance and then the warranty is maybe he meant

the combination new one does the combination of all of those things anyway but I don't believe that oh he pressured me more look at this amazing deal what do I have to do to get you to buy it today pressure pressure pressure Adam stared at me body stared at me I conceded that the second deal look good but I need to go and talk with my husband. Bobby said, I should take car home to show him. Take the car. Show it to hubby. I said he was working. Bobby said, we should take it to his work. Yeah, go to the workplace. I said, I can't interrupt him at work. High, high pressure. Bobby kept pushing me to take the car home. No obligation to buy here. Here are the keys. Take the car home. Take the car home. I kept

refusing and eventually stood up and thanked them for their time. As I walked out, I asked an employee why almost no one was wearing a mask. And if they took the situation, situation seriously. He told me that Martin County's mass mandate had expired. It's now just recommended. And that's very sad. I did a rant earlier in the show. I think that's despicable. We have a few minutes for another rant. Another rant, yeah. Epilogue. Georgia Coast new clean image belies a high pressure game-playing sure of reality. Agent lightning felt uncomfortable, pressured from the moment she parked her car. The first deal presented was not very good at all about $5,000 higher than a good deal for this

vehicle 5,000 think about it it would represent a profit of a 40094,000 exactly almost a lot off on that yeah but profit's right yeah true treasure coast Toyota and probably a thousand dollar commission for Adam that's about right or the second deal is obviously much better I'd represent a very small profit maybe even a hundred dollars now we don't don't know that that really will be the final price because you haven't seen anything but a worksheet which in the fine print says this is not a legal document you will go into the finance

department it's mandatory and there could be some more hidden fees added but we can say this is about five thousand dollars less very unusual to see that sort of a fast drop in price and it does explain to us why the sales have gone up considerably. It also, and I'm glad I do have a little bit of time here, because it draws me to one of the saddest, worst things about the way cars are sold today. And this Treasure Coe shop is in spades. It's a perfect example. You can't trust the advertised prices.

you can't trust the salespeople. And when you go in there, they're going to try to make as much money on each customer that comes in as they can. And so when this customer came in, Agent Lightning, walked in, they went for the jugular, we call it, in the car business. They tried for the slam dunk. They wanted to make a $5,000 profit. And they did everything they could to pressure her into making the decision today, tonight, take the car home, take it to your husband's office, buy the car today, because when you buy the car today,

and if you follow her along calls, you know, you never buy the car today, you take a long time to study and shop and compare prices. But if you do, if you do, then you pay $5,000 profit. And then they knew that when they weren't going to sell the car today, the truth would come out, so they had to drop the price to, we think it was a very good price and they do that

so two people buy that same car from that same dealership Treasure Coast Toyota one would pay a $5,000 higher profit than the other person and that's just not right and that's what happens and not just Treasure Coast

but a lot of car dealerships all over the country I also didn't like how justifying the saying something I found some other rebates he didn't find rebates there's no this ain't in Ableton there's no real

rebate or farmer rebate. There's one cash incentive. It's all dealer profit. He knows what it is. He didn't undercover something. The only thing he did is I got to cut my profit because they're going home and I'll never see them again. By the way, those door cups, I found them on Amazon by 3M, which is a top quality brand, less than $20. There you go. So folks, now do we still have a little bit of time? I want to go back and do the rent. I just want to alert Martin County and people in that area, if you're going to buy a car, come south, or maybe go north. I don't know what's going on farther north, but you're closer to come south because we've been shopping a lot of dealers in Palm Beach County and almost without exception that dealers in Palm Beach County are wearing mass. Receptionists, the salesman, the sales managers.

If you want a safe experience in the service of drive, you'll find the service advisors, the technicians, in Palm Beach County, the dealers are wearing masks. If you want to buy a Chevrolet, if you want to buy a Cadillac, you want to buy any make car, and you live in the Margin County, and you fear for your safety of the COVID-19. Don't buy it from a Martin County dealer. Or service it.

Or service it. If Porter pulls up in your car, he's breathing in your car without a mask on, you're going to get in it. Now, when they hear that, and when people talk to them, and when you go into one, if you walk into a dealership or whether it's a grocery store or a shoe store or a cardio ship, you say to them, put your damn mask on, or you'll never see me again. You need to put the pressure on these retailers.

Otherwise, I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is. But it should be made illegal to do that and shame on Martin County Commission. It was. It's legal. Now it's legal. We have some grades. Linda gives them a big fat F.

Mark gives them an F with three minuses. And this is a tough one. I'm going to pass them again because it was par for the course. But they get a D from me. And we've got Tim Gilliland, D minus, Mark Anderson, D. Donovan Lewis, F, Kit Kat, F, Ernesto, F. we got to take we got to give some weight to our to our listeners and we tend we overrule them a lot i know how i feel i know how you feel but uh i don't know yeah nasty uh i'm going to go

uh ashley moody i want her to vote on this mystery shopper report scams scams this is what we're talking about this is the reason i'm asking you to call the attorney general ashley moody 850 414-3300 give her a call let her know about all these scams weekend and we've got migrate as a D. Yeah, I'm going to copy you. Go with a D. I'm disappointed in a lot of things but you have to grade on the curve and we'll keep them on the recommended list. But I recommend that you don't buy a car from any Martin County dealer as long as the salespeople and the personnel don't wear face masks. Absolutely. And barring that, if you're going to go there, just Just play the waiting game.

I'll wait a 10 minutes and you'll get a better deal. Exactly. And from YouTube, we've got three more Fs and my own. I would give them a D-minus. So you're keeping them on the good dealer? Reluctantly. Reluctantly. We'll give them an asterisk.

Very reluctant. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us this morning. We really appreciate your company, as always. And have a wonderful weekend and a safe weekend. Don't forget wear those masks.