Earl Stewart on Cars - 10.22.2022 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Essential Ford of Stuart

Episode Date: October 22, 2022

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits a local Ford dealer to see what they have on the lot and how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2022 Ford Edge SUV. 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. Sign up to become one of Earl's Vigilantes and help others in your community to avoid getting ripped off by a car dealer. Go to www.earlsvigilantes.com for more information. “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 is my son, Stu Stewart, our LinkedIn's side. space through Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Periscope. Stu is also the Spymaster Director of our Mystery Shopping Report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting South Florida dealership. And now, on with the show. Good morning, everybody. Well, it feels like I should say I'm back, but Nancy and I took a little vacation in Key West

this past several days, but we weren't really missing the show, and we were, here again. So here we are. Your auto, how not to get ripped off by a car dealer team. In the studio, we've got Rick Kearney sitting to my right. And a lot of you folks out there, I know, are thinking about keeping your cars because cars are so darned expensive today. And you're waiting for prices to come down. That's not a bad idea. I want to keep that car going without having to go and shell out a bunch of money for a new or late model used car called Rick Kearney, right?

here at 877 960 9960 that's our call-in number and we do prioritize that call a number we've got about I think five lines coming into the studio here in North Palm Beach Florida and we get a whole lot more communications other ways like on Facebook and YouTube and Twitter and we even have an anonymous feedback line your anonymous feedback.com they have a text line 772 4976530, but our favorite, and it's just personality. I mean, you know, telephones, I know, were not used as much as telephones. They're used as texters and Facebook and the rest of it.

It's a computer you carry in your hand. But the old-fashioned telephone, you know, ring, ring, ring, hello. We don't use that as much as we used to. It's not as efficient. But it's a warmer. It's more fun. When we get calls from all over the world and certainly all over the United States, you get a, I mean, we have some calls that are just funny people, and we love to laugh.

So if you're one of those folks that isn't afraid to speak in front of 20 or 30,000 people live, I probably just terrified you, the ones that are getting ready to call. give us a call. Well, Howard's not afraid. No. And he's calling us from Jupiter. Holy mackle. That's great, Howard.

Thank you. Good morning, Howard. Actually, I'm calling you from the Bronx. What's up, Howard? Okay. Here's what happened. I got the fuel line in. The mechanic was able to get a fuel line, put it in,

but the battery was depleted. Because when the fuel line was broken, for some reason, I left the, not the engine running, but I probably hit something so the battery got depleted. The mechanic says he charged up the battery and there's no problem.

But I just purchased the battery in May. So I went over to AutoZone and they checked it. I said the battery is good but the alternator is good. The guy says, I'm not a mechanic. So I said, how is it possible? The car runs.

It starts up great. I don't have those telltale signs of the bad battery with the light dimming and things. And I check the level with hydrometer. It's not a hydrometer. It checks the battery water levels on each cell, and the cells are great.

So I don't know how the alternator could be bad. Good question. Rick's got the answer, I bet. Well, the simplest way, do you have a volt meter? That's my question. I don't have a volt meter, cars used to have amp meters, and they disappeared. Right.

Would an amp meter tell me anything? Now, the best way that I have found to test an alternator, without actually having a specialized machine to do a load test on it, is a simple $10 volt meter. You can get them from Amazon. I used to say radio shack, but they're not around anymore. And basically, you just turn it to DC volts and put the two leads right to the battery terminals,

and you should see, with the engine off, you should see somewhere around 12.5 volts. With the engine running, you should see anywhere from 13.5 to 14 volts, which tells you that the alternator is working and it's charging, and it's pushing voltage into the battery. And that's really just the simplest quick check. The only thing you really need is, like I say,

a $10 volt meter. I didn't think anything cost $10 today. Is that right? $10 for a volt meter? Well, that's for a halfway decent one. A really expensive one, several hundred dollars. A really cheap one,

$8, $9 around there. I'll take the cheap one. Okay, here's what I've been doing. I've been lending it costs it for two days, and I have my, it's not a hydrometer, checks the cells in the battery. I pull up the acid,

and it shows that it's, the battery is in great condition. Your battery probably came back just fine, but if the alternator's getting a little weak, you may want to stop somewhere and just have them put a machine on the alternator to make sure your alternator's testing right. But you said you could do that with a voltmeter

because it'll show a couple of volts more when the engine is running. So Howard, you can check it. You can check your alternator, just checking the battery with the motor running and with a rotor, motor not running. And it should be like 12 volts or 13 or 14 with motor running. And as a matter of fact, I'm looking just on Amazon here.

They've got a digital multimeter, which is a voltmeter, for $13. Oh, digital multimeter. Yeah. Great. Okay. Thanks for the information. I'll be seeing you guys. I'll be seeing you guys, I'll be seeing you guys, the second week of November.

Sounds good. We'll be looking for you, Howard. Thanks for the call, Howard. And good luck finding your multimeter. And give us a call again. I will. Bye. 877-960, or you can text us 772-497-272-497-9-30. We're going to stay with the phones because we have Richard calling us from Westbone Beach.

Good morning, Richard. Good morning. How are you doing? We're well, thank you. So in May, I bought a new car from Napleton, Accura, MDX. All right, great car, have no problem with it. Now comes time for my oil change. Went there, made an appointment. Took a reasonable length of time, not a problem.

I come home, and I read the bill, and it says, semi synthetic oil say that again the bill said semi synthetic oil semi synthetic oil

semi what is semi synthetic synthetic rick usually it's a mix between the synthetic and the dino oil or fossil oil I didn't know why that makes sense but why do they is that just like

a way to get a bit cheaper synthetic oil. It may be just their wording for it. The oil that they used, is it from Accura? No. Oh, absolutely not. Nothing from there. Not even the oil filter was Accura. It's all knockoff stuff. Wow. You had that done at the Accura dealership and they used that? So I called up Accura of America or whatever name they used. And I asked them if they recommend semi-synthetic oil. They said no. Oh, boy.

So I called back Accura. I didn't call them. They ended up calling me because I put a complaint in. Sure. And I told them that I wanted them. I was afraid to drive the car, because who knows, you know, what would happen. And I don't want them to blame me if the engine goes bad to pick up the car. And I want five quarts of real oil.

and I want to see the containers, and that was it. They never called me back. Well, Richard, you just touched on one of the long-standing disputes between car dealers and between the manufacturers. And it's very unusual to see a car dealer violate that today because there are very few things that a manufacturer can terminate a car dealer for or to actually control a car dealer. But one thing they really have not given up on is when you have a car, you buy a new Accra or a Ford or whatever it is the manufacturer builds, they want you to use genuine parts in the vehicle, at least during the warranty period.

And if you don't, if you use a aftermarket, we call it, if the manufacturer doesn't make it or brand it, then it's called aftermarket. So you get a cheap oil filter that's not doing the job. You can have some serious problems with the engine. And then, of course, the manufacturer will deny the warranty. So Napleton, according to this report, you've given us, is not only using the oil that's not specified by Honda, which is Accura, a Honda Accura, but they're also not using the oil filters.

Those are two of the most important things that you need to be careful of having quality parts if you want to call oil apart but otherwise you burn the engine up I mean there's not much more expensive on a car than having to put a whole new engine and so yeah that's uh you did exactly the right thing you call the manufacturer

and I'm sure they really lit in to Napleton Accura now of course the reason Naplesa Accura does that is you can buy a cheap or an after-money market oil filter for half the price or less than what the manufacturer charges. You know, to stick up for the dealers a little bit, I believe that the prices charge to the dealer by the manufacturers are quite high. And then when they turn around and sell you, the consumer, the driver of the car, the dealer

sells you, they market up by at least 40%. Sometimes they double the price of the cost. So it's economics, it's inflation, it's a lot of things weighing in there. But it's unusual, and you've exposed something unusual, fortunately, for a dealer to be using on a new car, non-factory parts. Rick? Now, doesn't Accura have a maintenance program where, like, the first several services are paid for by the manufacturer?

I bought it, but it's not from accurate. Then I since found out that the warrant key that I bought is not an accurate warranty. It's a Napleton warrant. I said, yeah. That doesn't. I really need a lawyer. I really need a lawyer if you have

one. The reason the reason Rick asked that question is most of the make cars today, most of the manufacturers provide some amount of no-charge maintenance, partly because there's not a whole lot of maintenance required.

You get your oil change every 10,000 miles or once a year, and that's not much. And so it's interesting to learn that Accra doesn't have it. I thought they did. Let's Google that and be absolutely sure that Accura doesn't provide you with some maintenance for the first one or two years. Well, I think he might have bought the car. any difference. A used car. Oh, okay.

This is a used accurate. The first 5,000 miles service. Okay. Is this a used car, Richard? No, brand new. Brand new. Absolutely brand new. Yeah. So, I think we'll Google this for you and maybe we can find out that you do have free maintenance.

If you have free maintenance, you're really you're really getting Mapleton, Accura, because if Accura is giving free maintenance, and they're using cheap oil and cheap oil filters and charging Accura, you've got a violation of their franchise agreement that would probably allow Honda slash Accura to cancel Napleton in that franchise. So it's a pretty serious accusation and pretty serious offense. And I don't see my Googlers coming up with anything yet, but we'll continue.

I can tell you one thing, Richard, while they look for that information. I'm telling you, it's callers like you that make our show, and it's just one more way to expose what's going on out there. And there's just another new event and how you have to protect yourself. And even if you do protect yourself when you go into a dealership, I'm listening. We are listening to your call. And do you know how many people are listening to you? And for that, you're a great caller. Great caller. Lawyer, I think that comes into the subject, most definitely.

And they just didn't expect you to be as educated, you know, and knowledgeable as you are. So did anybody get that information for Richard? Yeah, it says Accura Maintenance Package covers certain factory-scheduled maintenance on select eligible vehicles for two years or 24,000 miles. So apparently Accura only gives free maintenance. on select eligible vehicles. I think that's a broad term. I think they do.

I'm almost sure, Richard, that you should not have been charged for that. Oh, no, they didn't charge me. No, no, no. Oh, they did not charge you. Okay. Now, so there you go. That's even a more egregious offense by Napleton, Accura, because they're being reimbursed by Honda, Accura,

for the maintenance that they perform. and they make the requirement and they assume that they're meeting their requirement of the dealer that the dealer is buying the oil and the oil filters from Honda Accura because they're giving you that free. Now Honda Accura is paying for a third party aftermarket oil filter and oil. So a very serious violation of Napleton Accura's franchise agreement. and you've exposed that. So I don't think you need a lawyer. I think you probably put the fear of God into Naples and Acura

when you called Accura and reported them. Well, I told them that I wanted them to pick up my car with a flat bag, bring it there, change the oil, and I want to see the old quart cans. I want Accura oil, and then I want the car brought back. Good for you. Good for you. Well, you've not only got their attention, but you've got Naples as attention. And I tell you, somebody's calling a lawyer now.

It might be Accrae Honda to see, how can we get rid of this guy? If he's doing this, he's probably doing it in a deeper manner, probably using buying cheap Taiwanese parts or Chinese parts or whatever, and then charging Honda for them. Not good. Well, I also bought an extended warrant. but evidently it's probably an Napleton extended warrant.

Yeah, that's not uncommon. I'm a car dealer. We have a toilet dealership, and we have our own warranty company. A lot of dealers do that. I always recommend that if you're going to buy an extended warranty, buy the manufacturers

extended warranty. That way you don't have to worry about the fine print. You'll get a legitimate warranty. When we bought the car, they did not tell it. They did not tell you. You know, they didn't say, oh, this is our warranty. You know, I assume I went to an accurate dealer. I was trying an accurate warranty.

A lot of people do. Yeah, sure. Well, you bought a car from one of the most infamous car dealers in the United States. He's the target of the Federal Trade Commission. He settled a very large lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission for charging hidden fees to customers. There's been a lot of, he's always in the news. Napleton, never a dull moment with Napleton. You can always find something in automotive news or even the Wall Street Journal.

You think by now he'd be exhausted, but he definitely isn't. He's just getting warmed up, and there's a lot of people that are, you know, a lot of consumers that are being taken advantage of. Richard, we can't thank you enough for this call. This is a very important call that exposes, well, them for. whom they are. Well, dishonesty.

I don't have a solution. You have not given me a solution if you can do that. You want to know whether you need a lawyer or not. Well, temporarily, I mean, I would recommend you find another accurate dealer, and I think that it's very unusual. For people to do that, that's really extreme, and for dealers to do that. I don't even think that Ed Napleton, the owner, knows a lot of this is going on. He has too many dealerships.

He doesn't pay too much attention to what's going on. And you put people in charge and they do the wrong thing and they get you in trouble. So he's in trouble now with Accura Honda and you did the best thing you could do. You exposed to the manufacturer and he can, the manufacturer can cause Napleton more misery than anyone else. even the Federal Trade Commission. Okay, well, sounds good, but I still don't have a solution. Well, your solution is go to a different dealer. There's a, this is a North Lake Boulevard, or is it West Palm Beach area?

There's one, Okochobie, yeah. There's a... The one on Okiechobie. Yeah, there's probably, I know there's an Accur dealer in Delray. That's a long way to go. So that might be a problem. That's Stalupis. Yeah, Stalupi, yeah.

Thanks, too. Okay. Well, Richard, thanks a lot, and keep us posted on that. Great call. You should be getting some communication from Accura on your complaint, and they should tell you that from now on, the Napleton Accura dealer will be providing you of the Accura parts and not putting in cheap aftermarket parts.

And Richard, please give us a call again. Let us know what's going on. on because, you know, I'm listening to you say, you know, you weren't given a solution. Well, you know, we may have to, us here, Hed Earl Stewart on cars, have to move forward with you, giving you other information, other alternatives that's going to get somebody's attention. Give us a call again, Richard. Okay, great. Thank you.

Have a nice day. Thank you. You too. We are going to stay with the phones, and we're going to go to New Jersey, and we are going to talk to Steve. Hi, Steve. Good morning, Steve. Good morning, everyone.

Steve from New Jersey. I'm a long-time listener and frequent texter. I do have a question, though, for Rick this morning. I have a 2007 Lexus ES 350 that I bought new years ago and I've had maintained by the dealer since. And in the last week or so, I started to get a message on my screen when I, start the car and it stays on it's it's called a check VSC and then I have two light indicators that come on check engine and I think it's the ABS indicator mm-hmm what

could that be well the VSC is your visit vehicle stability control which that's a system that works along with the ABS system the antelac brakes So that when you're driving, if you get into a skid situation or too much body roll, the car will try to correct that by controlling the brakes and the throttle to try to get you back under control. If you've got lights coming on for that, I would immediately get into a dealership or a good reputable shop that you can trust to have them hook up a scan tool to see what codes they're getting and why. most likely it might be something as simple as a wheel speed sensor

being in the New Jersey area I would suspect a very good chance that you've got some corrosion, little bits of rust that get on the magnetic tip of those wheel speed sensors and sometimes they don't read accurately and so it thinks your wheel is doing one speed when it's actually doing another and one wheel will seem out of spec with the other three

so the computer sees there's something that it thinks is a problem and it will turn those lights on. And stay, be careful because you're talking about a 15-year-old vehicle and you don't want to be spending a ton of money on it. And I'd get, if you get an opinion that it's going to cost you a lot of money, I'd get another one or two estimates. As Rick said, it could be just something minor, but because it's a safety item, you don't want to just assume it's something minor. and you certainly want to get it fixed, but it's not worth spending $1,000 or $2,000 on a 15- or 16-year-old vehicle, and especially today with used vehicle prices very high. Well, this happened about two weeks ago, because I have two cars, I haven't been using that car, really, and I have an appointment with the dealer for this Monday.

Yeah. So, yeah, I was really trying to me cautious about that. I also used it a little bit just to see around town what would happen in. For the most part, the lights stayed on every time I used the car. But a few times, the lights didn't come on at all. So it seems like it's also sporadic. And I do have a follow-up, though. I know that my car battery, I had to change the car battery between every four or five years or so.

And I know it's coming up in about that time frame. Could a car battery that's a little weak cause this as well? That's always a possibility. Because of the amount of computers that are in most cars, if the battery system, the electrical system gets really low on voltage, it can cause all kinds of weird issues with the computers. And that's one of the things that they should be checking when they pull the codes and check your car out for you.

Okay. Okay. And one last question. Could my gas cap have anything to do with this at all if it doesn't seal properly? No. The gas cap could cause a check engine light if it's not sealing properly, but it definitely would not cause any ABS or vehicle stability control issues. Okay. Well, I appreciate the information. And like I said, I've been listening to you guys for a very long time. A year or two ago, when I bought my Volvo, I went through the whole experience with my delivery with the wrong wheels on, and it was, you guys, helped me a lot, and I appreciate that. So, have a nice day, guys. I appreciate it. We appreciate you, Steve, and thank you for listening to Earl Stewart on Cars.

Give us a call again. 877960, Texas at 772-497-3530. And don't forget, ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers. $50, give us a call and your question or just to introduce yourself. Also, don't forget your anonymous feedback. That's your anonymous feedback. Take advantage of that. Now back to the recovering car dealer.

You know, I've got to compliment, Rick. I tell you, he's been on the show with us for years, and he just knows a lot. lot of stuff. I mean, it's really amazing. If I were in your seat, meaning you at home, listening to the show, boy, take advantage of Rick's knowledge. He really, you know, Stu and Nancy and I, I mean, we're all, you know, doing this every week. We learn from Rick. I mean, if I do this show long enough, maybe I can be a certified master diagnostic. Nah, I couldn't be an apprentice. I'm an apprentice. I am an apprentice where, you know, Stu and Nancy and I are apprentices and even Jonathan I mean we've never gotten actual

I learned stuff and just amazed me and he did Rick never hesitates and I check him sometimes you know sometimes I check him I check him yeah you uh Google predict them sometimes anyway Rick Kearney certified diagnostic master technician and if you've got a car that's got a squeak rattle a roll you smell something I mean let's face it we all everybody's car. I mean, has some little thing. And Rick knows what it is. You'll tell you what it is. Just tell them the ear Macbottle and he'll tell you what it is. I got a question for Rick. Yeah. I would drive a 22 four-runner and I have everything's factory

on it. You've seen the car. My windshield wipers are terrible and it's all. The car is only eight months old and they skip and rattle and make noises and squeak on my windshield. And I hate that. And that's a Toyota genuine windshield wiper blade. What's going on? first thing I would do is make sure you got the windshield squeaky clean all right it's not clean yeah a lot 90% of the issues with windshield wipers are

the residue that gets on your windshield so good cleaning especially here in Florida it just for some reason the glass seems to pick up stuff and those wipers just bounce and skip on it scrubbing the windshield best thing I'm gonna correct Rick

I was on consumer reports this morning no excuse me I'm going to tell you, I just had that problem, and I solved it. So Nancy was complaining about her windshield wipers, and one knows if they'd been changed or, you know, and it turns out they did change the windshield wipers. They put on factory Toyota windshield wipers, and Nancy still having the same problem.

So I said something to our service manager, Mark Feldman, and Mark said, I'm going to put on the kind of windshield wipers I like. So I don't even know what they are. So go see Mark. He used aftermarket. After market. Here I am. Lambasting Honda Accura for using Aftermark.

But our own service manager at our dealership put on the windshield wipers he liked, and Nancy loves them, right? I love him. I love him. So now we've got to find out. Rick was getting today. He says, and if the windshield is not the problem, maybe try some silicon or some fancy aftermarket ones, right? Absolutely. If anybody knows what windshield?

Wipers, Mark Feldman, the service manager that Earl Stewart-Torota uses or likes better than Toyota windshield wipers, please let me know. I'm going to ask him about that. No, absolutely. I want to know. He's going to get to the bottom of this. No, I'm going to get in trouble with Toyota because I just said that Napleson is going to get in trouble with Honda, and now I'm doing the same thing.

No, no, no, you're not. you're not telling someone that you put in factory parts and then put in cheap after market parts to save a bunch of money. You're simply recommending a product that actually performs better than the factory product. You're going to be my lawyer when they come after me. I will do. I'll be a witness. But I want to find out what he uses because I'm going to use them on mine and my wife's cars.

And we have such a problem in our neighborhood with keeping the windshield clean. that it's with your neighborhood in stews up it's a salt air it's a lot of construction that too they're tearing things down putting things up and it is the salt air ladies and gentlemen we're having a great time here this saturday morning but again as i always say you make the show give us a call toll free at 877 960 9960 or you can text us at 772-49760 and One quick opinion from Negan 1. I'm going to interrupt you for a minute, Rick. Everybody that's holding right now, I will be right with you.

Negan 1, who's out in Arizona, deals with a lot of dust and dirt. He says PIA, P-I-A, silicone wipers work very well. Is that right? Say that again. P-I-A? It's P-I-A-A-A-A-A. The company name, I'm guessing, silicone wipers. Silicon Wipers.

And N-G-N-N-E-N-E-N-E-N-I-A-A. know for effect, does a lot of off-road driving out there in sandy, dusty, dirty conditions. So if he's recommending them, I'd bet there's some good quality there. Yeah, I'd like to try those. I'm going to look for them, P-I-A-A-Silicon, windshield wipers, wipes. Okay, we're going to get back to the phones, and we have Millie, who's calling us from Jupiter. Everybody else just hold on. Good morning, Millie.

Good morning Have you called us before? I have not Millie I've actually tried to get your number but usually I'm driving and I can't get the number quick enough

so this morning I'm home and I turned the radio on and got the number Oh great I'm glad you tuned in you won yourself $50 this morning Millie for being the first female new caller

congratulations if you stay on the line and talk to Jeremy in the control room, he can get your information, your contact information, and I can get you that check ASAP. Okay. Okay. So what can we do for you this morning?

Actually, I basically just wanted to let you guys know how happy I am with Earl Stewart. I started going to Earl Stewart in 2011. I had a Salera that I bought. Oh, boy. Hang on to that. Toyota up in Stewart, and actually Mark Feldman at the time worked there, and I always had, you know, like a good outcome whenever I took the car there for service. And then I, after 11 years, the Salera was still a good car, but I thought I kept seeing

the camera, so I went with the camera, and I went to Earl Stewart, you know, your dealership. And I think I got a 2011, 2014, I always got a black car, and I bought a great car, and I bought a green beautiful camry and everybody was like you're not going to be happy but i did and i wasn't so i went back to the black part and i just recently in july bought a 2002 rap four wow well you are a good customer well thanks yeah and actually i have to ask back when i was a kid in 74 or five my dad worked for Stuart Pontiac. Was that also part of your... Yeah, what's your dad's name?

My dad was, he passed away John Applegate, and I bought from your dealership, or that dealership, a 68 Pontiac Firebird. My dad called one day and said... That is so cool. Yeah, my father started that dealership in

37, and I came in to business with him in 1968, so So I worked there with your dad, and that was when we just had the Pontiac dealership, and then we added some other dealerships. Now we sold the Pontiac Palak, obviously, because they don't exist anymore, and we're just a Toyota dealership. Well, that was really cool.

That's some great history, Millie. Thank you very much. Yeah, like we didn't have cell phones back then, so he called my mom. You said, your dad wants you to come down to where he works. They have a nice little firebird, and, of course, it was beautiful. So I ended up, at the time, I worked at a bank, and I, you know, got the car and loved that. But anyway, I just basically wanted to let you guys know that, you know, I love your dealership. Well, thank you.

Thanks, Millie. And thanks for that walked on memory lane. You know, you went from, you said that you had the Salera. I have to ask you this. Was it a convertible? No. No, because I don't have a garage, and I just, you know, with my dad and my brother, they were, you don't want a convertible in the Florida sun.

You have no way of getting it out of the sun. So I just put it out of my head. A friend of mine got one. It was red with a white convertible. And I was a little envious, but that was okay. I still had this salerra. Yeah, I used to love that. I still do, the salera.

What a great car. Unfortunately, there are none. They quit making them. Yeah, every once in a while when I see them, it's still, you know, it was a beautiful car, but that was probably the only car that I kept for more than two or three years. Oh, really? Yeah, I kept it for 11 years. Oh, wow.

It was a 2000. The old days. Okay, Millie, I want to thank you for the call, and don't forget to leave your contact information, and I hope to hear from you. from you again and spread the word to the ladies. Oh, actually I have. My daughter bought a Highlander from you guys, and then a friend of mine, her and her daughter, and she's talking about getting a new one, too, so I say, well, you know where to go,

which she already does. Yeah. Let your lady friends know that first two new lady callers can win themselves $50. Okay. Have a wonderful weekend. Thank you. You too. Bye-bye.

Okay. that number is 877-960-99-60 and you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30 your anonymous feedback take advantage of that rick's here stews here youtube text to facebook we're all ready for you and we're going to go to our next caller and i believe that is uh nancy calling from palm springs Hello. Good morning, Nancy. Hi, Nancy. It's nice speaking with you. It's nice to hear from you.

Uh-huh. My concern is I have a son that's a Toyota driver, and he lives in Texas, and he was looking to replace his Toyota truck, so he went down to San Antonio from where he lives for an advertised on the Internet Toyota pickup truck. And when he got there, he called right before he left to go down, and they said, The truck is still on the lot. And when he got there, they told him, oh, it just sold.

And so my concern is, do a lot of dealerships do that, bait with a vehicle that's never been on the lot, and then when the person gets there, they'll try to sell them something else. Of course, my son in total disgust just drove off and left. Oh, that's good. That happens a lot. That happens a lot. It does. Okay, Earl.

What's the best procedure, too? One of the best things to do is to, if you know you have that, that's the vehicle you want, and you've researched it online, you can actually ask them to say you'd like to buy it online. That way you don't have to drive all the way down there. And you're going to be asking them for information, a VIN number, and other legal things that they would have to furnish two. you, it might not prevent them from baiting and switching or trying to bait and switch, but when someone starts asking those probing questions, and I say ask, I would just do it online,

but if you're on the phone and have to do it that way, that's better than driving 20 miles or 100 miles finding out they bait and switched you, and they never had the vehicle in the first place. But when you find a vehicle that you want, the VIN number specifically, identifies that vehicle. And if you confirm in writing, texting or email and they tell you it's there, it's a pretty serious offense. You have them lying in writing and that most car dealers won't go that far. They'll say, oh, you must have misunderstood me. And then they will go through the effort to try to switch you to another car. But unfortunately, as you say, bait and switch is alive and well, especially among car dealers.

Okay, I appreciate that information. That'll help him follow up with that, and I'll call and let him know to see if he did that, because he's looking for a pretty old truck, and I really think he should look for something newer. He has a 2006 Toyota Tacoma with an extended cab, and he loves it, and he just wants to get another one with less miles. But I don't think he's going to have much luck finding that on a Toyota dealership lot, would he? Well, you'll probably find it, but the prices are going to be very high. Use car prices start to come down a little bit. The big thing I wanted to have you advise your son about is if you're shopping online,

he's probably using AutoTrader or Cars.com or a number of other third-party sources that list vehicles in dealer inventories. Auto-trader is by far the biggest. The common offense of all these third-party sources for finding, cars on dealer lots is the fact that they do not disclose the hidden fees. So they'll tell you there's a specific, could be a, you know, a 2016 Toyota Tacoma truck for a certain amount of money, X number of thousands of dollars. What they don't tell you is they have $2,000 or $3,000 in hidden fees.

So advise your son, if he does find the vehicle, the truck that he wants, get the out, the door price, and the definition of an out-the-door price, well, the literal definition is literally out-the-door, including government fees. Most dealers should be able to give you the price that they would only add government fees to, government fees being sales tax and license plate. Those are the only two legitimate after-the-fact charges that you should have on a new or used vehicle. So almost every deal with you. dealer in the United States has multiple fees. They call them the generic term as dealer fees, but they call them doc fees, tag agency fees, electronic filing fee, administrative fee, just any

number of different fees. So before you drive a long way into the dealership, they tell you, we have your car, be sure he gets the Althador price. Write it down, confirm it in writing. Good. I'll advise him to do that. I really appreciate your advice. life on that. Are you a first-time caller? I am, Nancy. Oh, fantastic. You can stay on the line and talk to Jeremy in the control room.

Let him, you know, jot down your contact information. He'll pass that along to me, and I'll send you out a check for $50. I have to add to what Earl said. This right now is the climate that we're living in. it's a great time to hang on to your old vehicle. You can tell your son to, you can pass this information along to him, go to Earl on cars. Earl has so many columns right there that will help him decide whether or not, you know, he wants or has to buy a new car, a new truck.

And there's an amazing amount of information that will definitely, you know, guide him in the right direction. Okay, thank you so much. I appreciate that. You're welcome, Nancy. Spread the word. I'd love to hear from you again, or some of your lady friends. Have a wonderful Saturday. You too. Bye now. Bye-bye. 877-960, 99060, Texas at 772-497-3-0. We are still going to stay with the phones. We're pretty busy this morning. We're going to go to Bob and West Palm Beach, and Bobby, I will be right with you just as soon as you're next in line. Good morning, Bob. Good morning. How are you doing today?

We're great. Welcome. Thank you. I got a question for Rick. Very good. My 2015 Mustang is throwing off a code for the gas cap, and I was wondering how I can resolve that. pretty much the simplest method pop a new gas cap on there I had no gas cap on that car didn't come with one

wasn't an accessory I don't have an option I'm sorry I'm not familiar with their systems I'm guessing what car is it it's a 15 Mustang oh no gas cap no gas cap you stick now I haven't used those for years

something. Is that right? Oh, okay, so they must have like a flap ceiling system? Yes. But what you've got then is a code for an evap leak? I'm pretty sure it's the cap. I was going to attempt, I bought some silicone spray, clear silicone spray, and I was going to clean it in there, and they give you a little plastic thing that comes with the car to, if you ever have to put gas in there. You know, to push in the flap. Okay. I was going to work that in a little bit. I did see a YouTube video on it.

It's not done uncommon. I was just wondering if you ever ran across it before. No, because Toyota's sticking with the old tried and true gas cap that can seal. And when the seals break down and the gas cap starts not functioning properly, it's about a, well, after market, you can get one for around $15 to $20. Dealership, they're 35 to 40. but we learned something Bob we didn't know I never heard of a car without a gas cap

so I just heard about one there are some yeah and besides Ford who else does that I would have to research on that to find out who else go on that route but for the long run what you're actually looking at is

you've got a code coming up that's actually for an emissions leak it means the emission system is seeing a leak somewhere and if it is at that gas entry point since you don't have a cap obviously it would have to be that flapper valve once you get that to seal properly I would not worry about the code let it go and drive the car for a while normally what happens is after the car has the engine has run the diagnostic sequence itself itself tests the evap system of Usually once every couple of days, it's when the car has been sitting for a couple hours.

Then it will run a self-test on the evap system. And as long as it passes, then it will turn the light off. And usually after it has seen a passing score on it, say 20 or 30 times in a row, then it completely erases all the old codes that it had stored in history and memory. Oh, yeah. Okay, because that car didn't come with a spare tire either. No spare tire and no gas cap Well, I'm just Googling that

I'm learning something new, thanks to you Bob There's a whole lot of cars out there That are going gas capless Your car went gas capless Is it? Yeah, you're on gas capless Yeah, there's an electric car

Yeah, there's a gas cap That's good, thank you Anyway Earl, I did Mr. Seward Yeah I was able to After I went over to your dealership

I was able to go ahead and go to two other dealerships to get trading values on the Mustang. I just wanted to let you know I got substantially higher trade in offers. How much higher? That's always interesting. Much higher. Okay. Well, your place was 14-5.

And I went to Molinix. They offered me 17. Plus they were trying to get me to buy something on the lot, which I really didn't want. Right. So if I had agreed, it wouldn't worth another 6% of the sales tax. So that offer would have been worth 18. And Comax offered me 17. Wow, that's great.

Yeah, substantially higher. But, you know, it's a very time-consuming endeavor. It is, yeah. But for $3,000, for $3,000, it's almost worth the time. No, it's a seller's market today with used cars and all you folks out there with trade-ins. no matter what the dealer that you're thinking about buying from gives you shop yourself and you got

room V-R-O-O-O-M you got Carvana you got We Buy Anycar.com You got CarMax and this is what Bob did he went to he went to the Ford dealer

a Ford dealer will usually pay a little more for Ford than a Pontiac a Pontiac than a Toyota dealer or a Honda dealer so yeah shop the make the use car department of the make a car you want to trade in and you'd be surprised how much more you could

give, congratulations. I think we dinged them for not having a gas cap. Yeah, right. The only thing I found that was a little bit unsettling is by the time you go around, you shop it to a number of places because of the shortage of vehicles

by the time you get back to get the vehicle, it could be gone because the cars are not sitting that long, especially certain vehicles if they're packaged a certain way. they'll only be on the lot for a day or two. True. So by the time you go around shopping a trade-in value at three, four places,

you get back to buy the car, you might not be there. Well, that's why we're advising not to buy a car now, because it's just crazy. I mean, if you can just, you know, using the buying the phone, but dealers that are keeping cars on their lots are charging way too much. And Bob, Bob, you'd be surprised. I'm amazed. I'm an old guy.

And I would never, I used to always yell at my used car managers, praising cars. You know, you've got to look at the car, you've got to touch it, smell it, feel it, drive it. You just can't be guessing about car prices. But the fact of the matter is today, you can go online. You can go to Carvana, we buy any car.com, car max, and you'll get on the telephone, online, email, you'll get quotes that are legitimate quotes. Now, they will ask you specifics about the car. But if you give them an accurate description, you tell them about the dings and the dents, the true mileage, and everything they'll say, ask you, they will give you a buying figure online.

So this is an answer to your question about how time consuming it is to drive around, drive to CarMax, drive to Carvana, blah, blah, you can do it online, and that will say, you know, in an hour and a half, you can probably get a half a dozen prices, and then you go into the dealer where you want to buy the car. That way you're not going to lose the car You'll want to buy you I tried that When my sister passed away I had her car shipped down From Cambridge Mass And I was the executive of the estate

And I had to sell the car Obviously And I tried that route Doing the car vaughan And you know we buy any car That was a nightmare And the prices they were offering Were ridiculously low

Because what they did was They're basically just middlemen they're going to turn around and sell that car to a dealer or somebody. So their prices, if I wind up just selling it on my own. Well, that's not accurate, Bob. You know, a lot of these Carvana sells cars directly to the public, Carmack sells cars with the public, and you will get Mickey Mouse around sometimes.

But the whole point of what, when you're shopping a car, you are going to see large variances. They won't all be high, some of them will be low. And, but if you go out and get an appraisal from a dealer, and they say, this is what we're going to allow you on your car. And you go online, I almost guarantee you, you'll be able to find a better price. I mean, I, you know.

This wasn't money. Anyway, thanks for sharing your experience with us, Bob. Yeah, interesting, Bob. It can be a nightmare. And I recall buying, excuse me, selling my own car. and you really have to be prepared to do something like that. It takes up a whole lot of your time. I think for you, I think that it would be a very successful.

So, Bob, thanks for calling. Give us a call again. Thanks, Rick. My pleasure. Okay. Have a great. We're going to go. You're welcome.

We're going to go to Bobby in West Palm Beach. And Julie, just hang on. We'll get right with you. Good morning, Bobby. Hi, good morning, everybody. Welcome. First, I want to clear up a misunderstanding from a call I made a couple of weeks ago. I called to tell the boss that Rick is very timely on answering emails and things like that,

and that was a good compliment. But Earl jumped in and took the call, and I said I wanted to talk to the boss, so I was calling to talk to Nancy. Well, I sincerely apologize. Excuse me. I was calling today because I don't know much about leasing cars, but I've learned quite a bit on your show, and I learned something new this week, and I thought I'd share it. A friend of ours was having some medical issues, and her lease on her Audi SUV was coming due, and I'm telling her about it's a 2019, so the residual value, as you've been saying, is quite a bit lower than the actual retail price of the car right now.

So I encourage her to buy it and also told her about if she had to buy a new car or lease a new car, she'd be paying substantially more. And so she was considering doing that, but the lease was coming up. And what I found out was, if you call the leasing company, in this case, VW leasing is the leasing company for Audi. If you ask for an extension of your lease, they'll give it to you for up to like six months. And really all you have to do is ask. Yeah, that's true.

That's certainly an option. Some leasing companies won't do it. Some will do it. Some will give you 30 days. Six months is really a good deal. I'm surprised that you got that good extension. but if you don't ask, you're not going to receive, so that's a very good suggestion. And that's with no, there's no additional, there's no additional paperwork.

There's no, it's the same price, you pay the same price you've been paying, which I was surprised by. I thought for sure they'd try to add something on, but they didn't. So I think that's an interesting thing for people that are sort of right at the end of a lease. if they call the leasing company, they can get that option oftentimes. Now, I will say, Audi of West Palm Beach,

which apparently is a Brayman dealer, is no help at all. And that's not surprising. They want the car. Yeah, they don't want you to get an extension because they want to try to get your car for the residual value, which certainly is.

isn't going to happen to an educated consumer like you, but there are a lot of people out there that have been asleep for the past two or three years. They're leasing cars. They have a huge bargain. They have a residual value that is thousands of dollars below the market value, and they just wander in and give the dealer the car. The dealer high-fives each other, and they run out and make $5,000, $7,000 on the car that you could have made that money on yourself had you known that.

was a bargain. So, and just to give, I like it when people give the numbers of what's going on. In this particular case, it was at 2019 Q5, and the residual value was $25,000. And just a quick look online, sort of the retail price of a car like that seems to be somewhere in the $35,000 to $40,000 range right now. So that's substantial. It is, yeah, it's huge. It is unprecedented.

It'll probably never happen again that we'll see a market like this. I think every leasing company has probably learned something. I think lease contracts may be rewritten as a result of this phenomenon because the leasing companies, see, they get burned either way. Back in the day when leasing was really getting popular, the leasing company used to make mistakes the other way around. They would try to lease cars so hard, they'd give you a very high residual, so when the car came back, they had to take the car back, and they would sell the loss. Southeast Toyota, because I've been a Toyota dealer for so long, they got themselves into big trouble.

I'm going back maybe 30 years, and they had thousands of thousands of cars out there with extremely high residuals, and if they took them back, they were going to go broke. So they actually, as a consequence, the Toyota leasing got on the phones, called the leasing customers and say, how do you like your carola? How do you like your camera? Oh, I love it. Would you like to keep it a little while longer? You could keep on driving it at the same monthly payment.

They were calling my customers as a Toyota dealer and encouraging my customers not to bring the car back because if the car came back, world-domy, that was the name of the leasing company for Toyota then, would have to sell the car at auction and lose thousands of dollars. So, you know, it's interesting, this COVID thing. That is interesting. I'm curious about one other thing now that you brought it up.

So if you come in to lease a car today, so what are they doing with the residual value right now? Is it higher than it has been? Or is it about the same? Well, they're kind of caught between a rock and a hard place because no one's got a crystal ball, so they don't know exactly what to do. If they make it too high, then their formula will make the lease price too low.

Well, the problems like now, these people that are coming out, are getting out of their leases now, they lease them three years ago or maybe some cases four years ago. And so obviously they didn't three years ago, nobody knew about the pandemic or what was going to happen down the road. I imagine the residual, it's kind of hard. I imagine there are coming. There's no special residual residual residual.

enhancements anymore and that was a common thing that car companies did you've got you've got you've got to be if you want to be competitive but you want to make a profit and you're a leasing company you have to set your residual at a real value in your mind's eye which three years from now might not be real so you just have to gang leasing is a gamble I mean think about it you know you have to guess if you're a leasing company what is this you know Chevrolet Corvette going to be worth in three years. And, you know, history has told us that sometimes you don't know. So it's a gamble, and that's what business is all about.

That's always been pretty stable. Do I have time to talk about windshield wipers for a minute? Yeah. So, interesting, you were talking about windshield wipers, and I had noticed over, the windshield wipers Costco used to sell, they were a Michelin brand, and what they were kind of a curved, plastic, windshield wiper and as the windshields got bigger 24 26 inch windshield wipers they'd lose contact with the windshield sort of at the top and the bottom and they never really worked that

well and i've noticed that recently the same michelin wiper that they sell there now is sort of the older style with the metal prongs that push it down onto the windshield again so they've switched away from those older curved plastic is that something you've noticed Rick or he's nodding oh yeah that's it's it unfortunately sometimes they get it right the first time and they keep trying improvements improvements and the improvements aren't an improvement and sometimes the old the simple old design they had just works best all the way around you know yep and I've done one one last thing my daughter owns a Honda Accord, and she gets the dealer to just change the refill, which you can't

even buy, you can't buy at the store anymore. You used to be able to buy refills and just stick them back into the clips. But at the Honda dealer, they don't replace the blade. They'll just replace the refill, and she's found that that's the best way. Right. It's just the rubber insert. but it's about a third the price to replace a rubber insert as to replace the entire blade. Right, right. And it works fine. As long as the blade is in good condition, the refill will work fine. So that's what she does.

And yes, and she saves money. Well, thanks very much. As I said, we'll always learn a lot. Thank you, Bobby. Give us a call again. Sure. Okay, we're going to go to Julie. We're busy, busy, busy on these phones this morning.

welcome julie thanks for waiting oh good morning um i just wanted to say i don't know if you saw today's pom beach post but they endorsed aramis ayala for attorney general oh yeah i think i did see that oh i i missed it that's that's interesting i unfortunately i don't think it's going to make any difference but pompe's post always endorses the democrat you see yeah yeah sure yeah it's uh she's Ashley Moody is paid for her post and she'll get it. So she'll be the next Attorney General, unfortunately. But it's just, it's politics, hey.

Right. She'll continue to be the Attorney General. And, well, we'll keep our fingers crossed and hope that along the way she may find time to help us and help the consumer. One of the things they said about Moody was that Steve filed frivolous lawsuits to curry partisan favor. Not surprising.

Which I found interesting. You know, I have to, you know, just kind of slap myself in the face every now and then because I get so negative on politicians. Then I have to say, wait a minute, we live in America. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. And even England, look at the joke England is today, the Great Britain. The Prime Minister, she was there. for three days. They've had three prime ministers in two years. So, you know, politics all over the

world is pretty silly. Ours is silly, but it's not as silly as every place else. So I'm glad I'm here. Okay. Well, good morning. Bye. Bye. Thank you, Julie. We enjoyed your company. Have a wonderful weekend. We're going to go to Frank, who's calling us from Jupiter Farms. And Hank, hang on. I'll be right with you. Good morning. How you doing, Frank? Thank you. Good morning, Nancy. I got two quick, one remark

and the other is a question. Several years ago, I too fell trapped to drive and all the way to Pahoki for a supposed car they had there waiting for us. And as we got there, they said, of course, we just sold it.

I'm looking around, well, can you show me what I drove, you know, this 100 miles for it? No, they drove it away. But we got other ones. we can show you, and I said, I don't think so. And what we were supposed to do just got in the car and left. But what my real question is, I sent you guys a picture from the TV news the other day. Yes, I got that.

Jonathan is going to be going to put that on. Okay. Yeah. And again, Nancy, I got to say, you told me so, and I think about that like every single month with the payments that Toyota I co-signed from my son. But I got a 2020 Toyota. truck. And I noticed on the news, that truck is losing its cataly converters because Koyo is nice to put a lot more precious metals

in than the other dealers, and it's up high. So here's my question. Is there something, and something maybe even your dealership might be able to install kind of like a prevention, the guy's getting and cutting it off? Well, Frank, interestingly, and also, unfortunately, this week, our dealership was the victim of a catalytic converter theft on Monday we got hit earlier than we quite hit with tundra and a forerunner and then we got hit again just the other day. So when we looked at the they go into the high-lit vehicles like the four like the SUVs and the and the tundas because number one it's easier to get

under there and do the and saw the thing out and also there's a lot more platinum and precious metals and in a larger vehicles catalytic converter. But they use these very high power saws. Like when we examine the area under the vehicle, there's not even shavings of metal. I mean, it's like a diamond cutter. And so we had discussed like cages or things like that that could be, but that type of thing could be sawed through with the equipment. What we're doing is just, we're now we're corraling all the vehicles to interior portions of the dealership

and maintaining as much vigilance as we can. But it's out of control now. Wow. Okay. The interesting thing about this, there was a big wave of this back about 95, 96, when thousands of cars got hit with their catalytic converters being stolen and the authorities, the government came down and said, okay, well, all these scrapyards and the metal recyclers, when they received catalytic converters, they were told you had to have proof of where this came from or you weren't allowed to buy it. And for many years, that whole theft ring dried up. And apparently now something has happened where somebody found an avenue, a place to sell these. And now all of a sudden it's become a big business again, stealing these catalytic converters for resale. It's probably more the cost of the rare earth metals that's probably caused the run now because they peaked all time high now.

Right. But you've got to find someone that can do the refining. You get those metals out of those catalytic converters. Yeah, I understand what you're saying. And so you've got all these guys who just run around there. They pull out a simple battery-powered saws-all that now are super compact. These saws are tiny, and they can roll up underneath a vehicle and cut through those exhaust pipes in two spots in about a minute to two minutes. And that cat is in their hands, and they're out of there.

I heard that they get about, the thief gets about 3,000 per catalytic. converter and they can do about 10 in a night and so that's a pretty hefty uh three thousand dollars per yeah okay thanks frank that's uh that's interesting information it's not that's one last question does the insurance cover that yes uh but what we have found lately is a lot of the insurance companies are not directing you to the dealership to replace the actual full pipe They're usually trying to send you to the smaller muffler shops where they will simply install a weld-in after-market catalytic converter that oftentimes is not the best quality. So you may want to be really pushing, if you're the victim of it, push your insurance company that they've got to replace it with a doctory part. What is you consider not a good catalytic converter?

One that doesn't get all pollution out of the air? Well, one that will all of a sudden fail in about six to eight months, maybe a year. What happens if they fail? And suddenly you've got check engine lights coming on in your car. Hey, here is interestingly the same phenomenon that has led to the demand by thieves to seal these things is also causing a bigger problem on the other side after it's stolen because you can't replace these things now. So we were quoted two years originally on the replacement of these catalytic converters.

And that means we had two cars. Wow. We made, Mark made a bunch of noise. and we got up there. We got one replaced right away, and we have another one that's coming in next month. But the supply chain issue is if somebody steals your catalate converter, it's going to take a long time before you can find a replacement for one.

And Stu, you mentioned $3,000, catalytic converter. That was just in conversation, yeah. How about two? Two? Because that's what they're taken, two. So that's $6,000 a night if they're only hitting one truck. No, they're hitting about $10 a night. That's what the cops told us.

Yeah. But I mean, even if they were. Slow moving. Let's talk about Begles next. They're more interesting than Cadillac. Bagles. They're more interesting than Cadillac converters. I'm changing my job description.

Okay, guys, you got the number. I know that. So I don't know whether I should repeat it again or not. Thanks, Frank. Chow, Frank. 877-960. Texas at 772-497-6530. Your anonymous feedback, I know that Stu's got a bunch of.

and Rick's got some YouTube's for us, but we're staying with the phones, and we're going to talk to Hank and Jerry out there in West Palm Beach. Hang on. Hi, good morning. Hey, good morning, Hank. Hey, is this Hank who we were talking to earlier this week?

Yes, it is. How are you? Okay, great. Our phones have been so busy. We didn't have a chance to kind of read the preview, but since we got you on the phone, I wouldn't mind just giving a little summary to our listeners if you hang on a second. So Hank contact us.

to our radio show recently and he contacted us because he had a terrible experience with getting his 72 Cadillac Eldorado restored so he brought it to a body shop in Boynton Beach and I'll just summarize it real quick

but he wanted to get in there had rust he wanted to take care of the rust get the motor running overall just get it in tip top shape so over several attempts to get this done more problems were created by this body shop the car is almost destroyed

almost to the point of vandalism he says the convertible top which is floss was torn they put in mismatch carpet they flooded the trunk painted over existing rust instead of properly removing it the seat belt ends were tucked into the seat they didn't even attach the

the rear seat to the floor of the car and he's had no luck of getting legal help tell about the two by four to keep the battery in this is insane this is crazy so they secured the battery in the engine compartment with wood two by fours painted black. And so I haven't heard anything this outrageous.

I think the entire time that we've done the show. And so that was your introduction, Hank. And I know that you're concerned about identifying the body shop on this show. We name names, the company names, the employee names. So feel free to speak freely. Just don't curse. Thank you very much for all of your attention. And the name of the body shop is J&S Automotive in Boynton Beach, owned by Tom McCord.

And like you said, I took the car into him, and without repeating the things you just mentioned. In addition, when they worked on the motor, the project also was to get the motor running, like you said, in top shape. I don't know how they got the car back to my house, but I couldn't even get the car started. and Tom came over personally to try to start the car. He couldn't get it started, and he had to tow it back for phase two of the repairs. And long story short, when he brought it back after the second time, there was a horizontal slit in the convertible top and more issues than there were going in.

For example, I had one of those mobile repair guys come out to my house to try to at least get the engine running, and he took the filter lid off the top of the engine there. And there's a valve, I guess, or something in the carburetor. He said they were held open by it with twisties, you know, that you use on your bread package. And so at any rate, I spent probably two days calling at least 15 different lawyers, and I just got passed on and passed on and finally the last lawyer in Fort Lauderdale. So he gave me some advice, and he said, thanks to the lobbyist in Tallahassee, representing the car dealerships and the big car repair shops,

they've made it such that the consumer has absolutely zero, zero, zero recourse in getting anything fixed that happened at the repair shop. And so here I am high and dry. I'm out over $13,000, and the car literally, like Stu said, is in one. shape than when it went in. They stored the parts in the car on the floor of the car, you know, on the carpet. There was nothing wrong with the carpet, and they tore out the old carpet, okay, which was in perfect shape, and I've got pictures of before and after, and they put in new carpeting that doesn't match the same color as the original carpeting, because on those

cars, the carpeting comes up on the door at the bottom, like about eight inches or so. They'll have two different colors of carpeting in the car, and the texture's different, the colors different, everything else. And without repeating what Stu said, they never refastened the seatbelts down to the floor. They never refastened the back seat down to the floor. And had the guy's lucky, and Tom McCourt is lucky, because had he brought the car back running, the first time he worked on the car, if it was drivable, he would have put myself and any passenger's life in danger by us not knowing that the front seatbelts were never fastened back to the floor,

neither were the back seat belts, and neither was the whole backseat at all. Or getting back to representation, I'm just, I'm so well, you know, I have no recourse, I don't know who to talk, turn to, I don't know what to do. Hank, you mentioned, like I said, I'm out $13,000. You mentioned you had some pictures. I need help. Yeah, if you've taken a lot of pictures, I mean, just to document the, you know, hopefully some before an after stuff. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I had this feeling going in. You know, you hear all these consumer

problems with other issues, you know, in life. So I took pictures of the car inside and out, front to back, top to bottom, and everything I'm saying is documented. Good. So, I mean, it's true that, you know, the car dealer lobby in Florida has enormous power, and we see that a lot in the lack of enforcement of laws. But I don't know if that, if it's true that you have no recourse. I mean, you clearly have a well-documented case of damage to your property. If you took the vehicle home, like if we repair a car improperly and we cause and they get into an accident and somebody gets injured severely or died, we're on the, we're on the hook. There's definitely there's definitely recourse. Now, I mentioned to you in my message, we have an attorney that

we've worked for for decades and he's out of town. He was in Portugal. But he's back this weekend. I'm talking to him on Monday, and I'm going to go over this with him and see if he can't refer somebody for me, for you, that I can tell you. Because I can't believe something like this is that, I mean, maybe it's because the amount of damages relatively isn't that large in this grand scheme of things. But it does, it does exceed, I think, the small claims court value. So you could get an actual, besides arbitration, if you wanted to push it. Hank, what was the, what was the television station you call the consumer investigation? reporter. Which one?

That was Channel 12. I called Channel 12 here at West Palm Beach. Have you tried Channel 5 or Channel I'm sorry? Have you tried Channel 5, the NBC affiliate? They're pretty good. Another one, Channel 10,

WPLG. They're a Fort Lauderdale area, but that might be too far. To me, it's an interesting case. I think that what they've done, it isn't just like you had a car that you took of the body shop and they messed it up. You had a cherished vehicle.

Your first, you bought that new, didn't you, Hank? No, no, I bought the car used. The person who had it before me was a Shriner, and he used it in Shriner parades and stuff. Yeah, that was special. And I bought the car about 30 years ago. Okay. And to this day, the car has only 88,000 miles on it.

It was basically, you know, inside it was flawless. The convertible top was flawless. I let the cars sit for two years. So we got a little bit of rust on it, you know, around the edges, and the engine wouldn't start. And one additional thing is Tom McCord at JNS Automotive. He charged me over $300 to travel to the Carolinas, supposedly, to get a new trunk lid, okay? He brings back this new trunk lid.

Okay, he puts it on the car and he paints the car. The new trunk lid that he installed had a slanted karate chop-like, dent in it about eight inches long. And that's the way he hands me this new trunk lid that I had to pay for, in addition to over $300 in fuel for him to supposedly go get the trunk lid in the Carolinas. I mean, this is just, you know, I've been used and abused and taken advantage of. Well, Hank, thank you. Thank you.

Now on live radio, you're talking about the company, and we are too. Please repeat the name. Our attorney will be back shortly, and he will call you, and you can talk to him about legal action. I also suggest that you try WPTV Channel 5. It is a very... To me, it's interesting.

I mean, let's face it, the TV stations, they like stuff that's going to make their station popular. And I think you have a very interesting story. So try them. We'll have our attorney call you in just a few days. And next week, hopefully we'll have some positive

resolution. Resolution to this for you but I agree with it's a terrible thing they did thank you very much sorry I took so long but this has been a two-year ordeal oh yeah no Hank we're here at Earl Stewart on cars we thank you for calling in for sharing this with us because you just don't know how many people we reach every Saturday morning and you've helped so many and I do have to tell you whenever Earl and I both sat down and read this message from you, I had to read it twice. I just, I couldn't wrap my head around every single thing that happened to you. And what you said, used, abused, whatever adjective, you know,

you want to use. But where there's a will, there's a way. And this is going to take patience, and you are going to be the winner. I hope so. And thank you very much for all of your help and your time. You're quite welcome. And I'm going to give you a call on Monday after I talk to our lawyer. Thank you, everybody. Take care. You're welcome. Every great weekend. We are going to go to Fritz in West Palm Beach, and Steve, hang on. We'll be right with you.

Good morning, Fritz. Yes, good morning. I have a question. If I want to, I'm trying to, thinking about purchasing a vehicle, private sale from someone. And I want to know how do I go about getting the car? driven legally on the road from point A to point B without having, you know, the cops stop me because the DMV in the past they used to give you like a temporary tag. If you show them insurance, it would give you a temporary tag so you can, you know, drive a car

on the road. They don't do that anymore and basically I want to know how do I go about doing that if I purchase a car from someone's private sale. Okay. I can tell you what to do there. Well, first of all, temporary tags, dealers do that, and they print them right there at the dealership. But he's talking about a private individual. Oh, I know. Private sellers don't have the ability to do that. If they give you a temporary tag, you're in trouble because they're not supposed to have it. So you're being worse trouble getting a temporary tag from a private individual. Right. So you're allowed to, when you purchase a car, make sure you get insured right away. So you'll have the VIN number and the information from the vehicle and get in touch with the insurance company and get the insurance transfer to that vehicle before you drive it away.

So you do that on your cell phone from the place where you're buying it. And then you have to have a bill of sale, just something showing that you purchased the vehicle from the owner, make sure all the relevant information is on it. If you get pulled over on the way to the tag collector's office to register it, you can show them that and show them that the vehicle is insured and you'll have documentation. And, of course, the most important thing is a paid off title to the car. So you might have more trouble than just the police stopping you because you don't have an registration. But you won't find out that no later. Yeah, you might find out that the guy that sold to the car didn't own it. So be sure that you have a legitimate title before you give him any money.

Right, exactly. So either proof that there's no liens on the car or a physical title. They can have a copy of that to hand to you when you purchase it and it signed over to you. But to answer the main question, as you're driving, across town to get the vehicle registered you shouldn't don't worry about that as long as you have a proof they just purchased it some documentation and have it insured okay so so the so the car is not going to have any tag in it so if i god forbid i get stopped if i show the cops you know the proof of the purchase and all that will they is that okay yes as long as you're

not driving around it for for months you're going to the tag the tag agency um the tax collector's office to to register the vehicle. Yeah, but yeah, exactly. I'm just trying to get it from. Basically, I wouldn't even go to the task place of collective office. I'll just try to get it home in my yard and go from there. But anyway, thanks for the advice, it's good advice, and I'll keep that in mind, and I think that that can work.

All right. Thanks, you're welcome. Give us a call again. We're going to go straight to Steve, who's holding in Jupiter. Good morning, Steve. Good morning. Quick question for you guys. You felt in the past.

On our cars, a fog forms on the inside of the front windshield. And we've tried to clean it off with wind decks, with just paper, with vinegar. And it's on all three of our vehicles. A Ford, a Honda, and a Mercury. And when the sun hits it early in the morning, especially, you can't even see where you're going. It's like a film on the inside of the front windshield. Any suggestions as to getting that film off, what to use? I'm guessing

you mean it's condensation no film I know exactly I have the same thing sometimes it has to do with dust and salt and

and it forms of film like a grime on the inside oh yeah I know exactly and it looks it looks like it's fogged it is a bit of condensation and film

here's the only thing it looks like it has an oily right I could be It could be residue from a cleaning, like maybe a poor cleaning. That happened in my car. It was driving me crazy. It looked like it was fogging up, and I just took a paper towel, and I just rubbed it, and it rubbed clean.

You know, it took a little elbow grease. But I suspect it's maybe it's a combination of humidity, dust, dirt, and it just builds up. This is Colonel Google just called me. And Colonel Google said, how do I get to film off the inside of my windshield? And they say, what's happening and why vehicle interiors create the ideal atmosphere for building up film on the inside of windows. Cigarette smoke, condensation, and dust blend in a closed hot interior to form a cloud that eventually coasts the windows. The hotter the weather, the quicker the film builds up. So that's basically what you have.

And a quality glass cleaner, they say, will do away with spots. some film. We have tried Honda glass cleaner, regular wind deck, vinegar, all different kinds of paper cleaning product. It doesn't come off. It moves around and it gets streaky, but my wife and I have both, you know, but anyway, I've seen it on all three of our cars and for years. It's been a battle with it. But I thought, I didn't think you'd probably have. get this call solved it's a weird thing but it's we've tried all that stuff you said but i will we'll just keep working on yeah if you spend the we've spent like some days 30 minutes cleaned it like going through like this gobs of paper towels and cleaning agents i experienced the same thing

it did seem to like smear it around but i was able to get clear spots with the with the elbow grease and a dry paper towel i didn't squirt anything because i didn't have anything there And Steve, I have the same thing. I have, every morning I have the same thing. My car's parked in a garage. So there's a whole lot that you can apply to that problem. And it has a heck of a lot to do with your location. It has a heck of a lot to do with the weather.

It has a lot to do with if you're living around a lot of construction. The list is endless. Yeah. Well, we'll just keep working on it. If you go to Google, you can spend 20, minutes reading solutions by the way and we're not even talking to the Saharan dust yeah so that's one we haven't tried

rubbing alcohol yeah okay or scotch don't wait your scotch yeah I don't think that's going to happen I do have one suggestion just came in on YouTube Robert Prophet says

try using car polish on the inside of the windows like wax yeah like a normal car wax yeah let's go with the alcohol first yeah yeah I like this because that polish would be hard to get off

but that's something I have not thought of is the polish so anyway I appreciate it we'll try that'll give it two more things to try alcohol and let us know and if the polish doesn't work and if the polish doesn't work we'll get out the good alcohol

or let's either way please Or maybe vinegar and water. Mark Smith is recommending vinegar and water a weak mix. A gray goose goes a long way. That's what I'd call that. Hey, Steve, thank you. If you tried the vinegar thing, that didn't work. But, okay, we'll try alcohol and then the polish.

I like the idea of that polish, maybe. Thanks for the call, Steve. Thank you. Bye, no. Okay, dokey. We're going to stay with the phones. What do you think of that? 877-960-99-60.

us 772-4976530. We are going to get to the text sooner or later and to YouTube. Right now we're going to go to Boca where Doug is waiting. Good morning, Doug. Good morning. I'm drinking my coffee and I feel a little foggy too. What do I do for that? Vizene. Use the Vizene. A little less alcohol last night. So I have a question. I called the Toyota representative about the deposit I put on the Toyota GR circuit and I have some, you know, the status of it. He says, well, he says, you probably won't be even hearing from it until next year, maybe March or April. And he says that they've been, they're not going to make them anymore. So they made 1,500 of this particular model, and he said, that'll be it.

And I go, what? I don't know if you guys heard anything about that. Yeah, we know it was, I didn't actually hear the official that it wasn't going to be produced, but we always knew it was a very low production, you know, model. And didn't expect it to last as long as it did. The car first came out as a cyan FRS, and then they switched it to the, oh, you're talking about the Krola, right? Yeah, Corolla G.R. I thought you said G.R. 86. That doesn't surprise me at all. Okay, I'm sorry, I was talking about the wrong model, which is also a very limited sort of thing. The G.R. 86, the G.R. Corolla, that's for the listeners. That's kind of like that rally car that they put out. It's a fast corolla, 50,000, three-cylinder little, right? Isn't that what it is? A three-cylid? Yeah, Randy Deppins at our shop has got one on order. He's trying to get hold of.

Yeah, so they take so long to get in. And that's news to me that they're just making this one run and stopping. Yeah, but anyhow, I know one of my best friends is best friends with the owner of Tonyo of Hollywood. And I said, Zach, can you make sure that he doesn't, you know, give me a sticker shock and mark it up by $10,000 or whatever? And he says, yeah, I'll talk. him and make sure he doesn't do that. Right. Oh, really?

Craig's in is not going to mark up your car? That's great news. Well, one of my best friends has been friends with him for a long time and his father, too. Yeah. Well, I knew his father. His father was, you know, he was the original dealer. There used to be on the board directors of a bank in Miami. So, yeah, the whole Zen family, we know them.

Very cool. Well, I hope you guys have a great day. Thanks for your show. Thank you, Doug. And thanks for the sunrise. I wasn't able to see it today, but I can watch it now. Because you were foggy. Thank you, Doug.

Thank you, guys. Hello to the family. Okay. I think that we are going to get to, we're going to go to Stu. We're going to go to Rick. Yeah, go to me. Because I've been wanting to read Amory's text, and she's probably been waiting all morning.

Amory says, good morning. Vehicles are still in short supply. If dealers don't have any inventory on the lot, how can potential customers take a test drive to see if a vehicle is a good fit before they make the decision to buy a vehicle? I want to know if the vehicle provides enough headroom and legroom or the seat's comfortable.

I want to know if the driver's seat has enough adjustments so short drivers can see over the hood or they need a cushion or two. Consumer reports can tell me if a vehicle, Vehicle specifications will meet my needs for cargo capacity, fuel efficiency, and reliability, but only a test drive can tell me if the vehicle actually fits me. How does a wannabe customer get a test drive nowadays? I get an idea.

Here's some breaking news. In the current automotive news, believe it or not, you won't believe it's new. The day supply now nationally for new cars is 45 days. So you'd never know it to look at Arlott or a lot of lots around here. but it is good news for the consumer. I think what's happening, again, it's not localized because we don't see it locally, but locally, I mean, South Florida. Well, I can completely because I know it's not that they're getting a supply of cars.

They're just holding on to them and selling them. But they're holding onto more. So the point being, if they're holding on to more, then maybe the cars aren't as high-priced. It's an indicator what's coming down the road for sure, yeah. So we're saying typical day supply. is like 60 days, so 45 days is almost normal. And that's... We always ran around a 40 days.

45 days supply. But to answer Amory's question, find it... There are cars on lots, like Errol just mentioned. So that 45-day supply is car speak for saying there's more cars on lots. And find the car on the lot, but don't buy it, and drive it, drive it, and then do your... And then you come to this side. No, this is really where you do it. You're absolutely right about driving the car, drive the car, if at all possible, and then shop around for the best price, and you're going to be paying more than you will six months from now.

Yeah, and, you know, I've been asked that question a lot, Ann Murray, and there's a number of reasons that you want to go out. You think you're just going to waste your time? Mm-mm, not going to waste your time. Drive around and see if you can find that vehicle. Well, maybe you can call. Maybe they'll tell you the truth. I don't know. But I'll tell you what, the main complaint that I hear from the calls that I get is, geez, I should have driven that car.

The front seat is killing my back. Can you believe that? It's the truth. Rick? Just an oddball thought, but you might check with some local rental car companies and see if they have that model of car as one of their available vehicles. Great idea. Rent it for a day and drive it for a whole day. I mean, the problem is they'll get you on the rental.

Everybody's short of cars. Rental car companies are short. Leasing companies, car dealers, used car dealers, everything's short. And, you know, you're going to pay for the convenience. You know, I talked about this on the show a month ago. Our mystery shopper, a very intelligent, very sharp lady, she had to have a car. And she wanted to buy a Toyota.

and she needed it right away. So we gave her our price, which is the lowest price because we sell our cars at MSRP out the door, plus tax and tag. And she had to have the car, so she couldn't wait. She wanted to order the car through us. It would take her six months or longer. So she went to another trailer dealer.

They had one stock, and she made several thousand dollars over sticker. And that was a choice we all have to make. How bad do you need that new car? How bad did you use car? car and of course what's your net worth can you afford to do it we'll have to pay her more for mystery shops

now yeah Bob came in with a couple of comments here going all the way back to the beginning of the show when I came in we were talking about the oil change question that was called Bob suggested it's possible the tech keyed in the wrong code for the type of oil I didn't hear the most

of that story but that's a Rick is grimacing so Bob no that's not the case I find that unlikely because at our shop we have three choices of oil. One is our conventional 5W30 fossil oil. And there's a 0W20 synthetic and 0W16 synthetic. And that's it.

But all of those oils are supplied by Toyota to our dealership. In bulk. Okay, on squeaky wiper blades, Bob solved his issue by an application, and you're going to love this dad, Ranex, no more squeaking. Love Renex. I started to say before. I think that windshield wipers should be obsolete. There's got to be a better way.

I mean, stop and think about it. You have a visibility problem. It's foggy, it's rainy. Such a primitive. And so what do you do? You have this black thing that goes back and forth in front of you. You might as well have your arm outside the window. Yeah, yeah.

There's got to be a better way to clear a windshield in snow and slew and brain. What if you superheated windshields? What if they superheated the windshield? Well, there's got to be an answer. I mean, just like tires. Tires are stupid. I mean, there's got to become up something better than tires, something better than windshield wipers. So all you geniuses out there come up with an invention, become a billionaire.

Bob also contributed this. The film on the windshields are mostly, and now you Google this, but he says they're mostly caused by the sun radiating down on the vinyl dashes. Chemical reactions of sun, UV, and heat on vinyl causes an outgassing, which deposits on the glass. And that makes me feel very, very uncomfortable in my car. Well, I'll tell you one thing, whoever knows how to fix it, Stu's got the problem, Nancy's got the problem, I got a problem, and Rick and Jonathan, I think everybody has that problem with a film. Well, I don't have the problem. I solved the problem. I'm going to patent it, and I clean my windshield inside and outside every single morning.

We'll talk about the trade market. Pardon me? But you never drive your car. Well, I don't think that. That's an accurate statement. She wants to drive your car. Wait for Nancy's Tesla to get here. Wait a minute. Whoa. Whoa. Who's car? Miss Nancy's car.

We have one text from Jonathan Walton, quick before we get to the mystery shoppern report. He says, Toyota's making cars as they are ordered. Are the cars the same quality as always, or is the rush to make cars creating less than perfect automobiles? That's a misperception. Toyota hasn't changed the way they're making cars. They're just making less. When we say we're ordering cars, those aren't orders going directly to the factory being made to order. It's basically kind of like a handraiser when the car that's produced with your, to your specifications because we match that to the order

so they're not making custom orders. I say something going on in general about car manufacturer as the car has become more and more complex and more and more requirements on emissions and safety and also huge competition trying to make my car cooler

than your car. They'll come more complicated the more problems you have. And so if you look at the, I look at the J.D. Power a hundred-day survey the other day I was shocked in some of the quality cars they were having a lot of complaints on cars

and the complaints a lot of times are just I don't know how to do this I can't turn this on I mean complication causes problems I have one more text I want to get to comes in from and I don't have a name this the Goodyear Tire official store

always sells this is Miami by the way the Goodyear Tire store in Miami always sells people other brand tires telling them It's a Goodyear sister company. Same price as Goodyear. I caught them, and I left a review on Google. Should I report to Goodyear directly? Now, I don't know Google of Goodyear has sub-brands.

Do you know this, Rick? If you went to a Goodyear tire store, do they sell other brands other than Goodyear? I don't think so. I can't see how you would get away with that. And we used to have a guy that tells, oh, yeah, these Petritelli tires, they're made by Michelin, but they're just the... It's like, well, if they were made by Michelin,

They'd be Michelin Tires. Okay, so to answer your question, Mr. Texter, yeah, if you want to take the time to go ahead and contact the Goodyear Company and let them know that there's a store that might be breaking the rules, that would be a nice thing to do. And that's it. Okay. Mr. Shopping Report. We have a mystery shopping report to get to, and that is from Central Ford. That's in Stewart, Florida. And as I always say, you are an important part of the mystery shopping report.

You can text your grade for this mystery shopping report at 772-497-6-5-30. Now, back to the recovering car dealer. Well, for people not familiar with Florida, Stewart, Florida is north of, way north of Miami. It's north of Palm Beach County and Martin County on the east coast of Florida. Stewart, S-U-A-R-T. No relation. No relation. Sometime during the pandemic, John Stalupi,

Jr. bought Advantage Ford of Stewart. John Salupey Sr., been around for a long time. He had dealerships in Palm Beach County 30 years ago, 40 years ago, junior, and now is kind of run on the show. He's my age. He's my age. Yeah, yeah. Bought Advantage Ford Stewart and renamed it Essential Ford and Stewart.

We think the changeover occurred sometime between December 2020 and March 2021, There's a huge amount of changing hands of car dealerships. Car dealerships are being bought and sold at a record pace, and possibly because the profits to car dealers are at a record pace. John Sluppi Jr. is a very rich son of a very rich guy, very colorful, long-time sort of acquaintance of mine. As I say, I knew him when he had Palm Beach Toyota in Okachobi Boulevard, I believe it was, and then out on military trail.

and he's been around a long time, based in New York. He started out many, many years ago in New York in a Honda motorcycle place. I think he did a... He started out. He was an auto mechanic, yeah. So anyway, John Slopey has been around a long, long time. Didn't even know he bought this dealership in Stewart, Florida, the Ford dealership. The Superstore Auto Group, that's the name of his group, a large auto group, by the way,

I think in their top 10, maybe at least the top 20, auto groups in the country. He had the biggest, when he went into the Vegas market, I think it was the biggest Hyundai store in the world. He built it as that before he even opened, but then he became very quickly. Yeah. In Las Vegas? In Las Vegas. He sold it, I think, last year. There are an acquisition fee picking up dealerships in South East Florida at a rapid clip.

In addition to advantage for it, sometimes in 2020, Stilipi's group bought Del Rey Hyundai Genesis. I didn't know that. And Del Rey Accura, I didn't know that, in January of this year. Stilipi's expansion plans hit a snack a couple of months ago when the city of Delaware Beach voted not to rezone parcels. He planned to develop into a dealership, and it's unusual for Del Rey not to do it. they have a lot of dealerships. It was a split decision. I was reading the report about it.

Some of the commissioner were saying, well, yeah, we know that there's lots of car dealerships here. We know that the residents, when they moved here, they knew they were moving right next to a commercial zone district, but we don't need anymore. Well, Bunk of Retoan won't allow car dealerships. Jupiter only has one, so there are communities just don't like car dealers. I mean, a lot of people don't like car dealers. I'm glad there's no car dealers.

I'm glad there's none in Jupiter. A common theme in our mystery shopping reports is the phenomenon of dealership change and ownership. Change in ownership means huge changes in all aspects of a dealership. Sometimes a new owner cleans house replaces a large number of employees with his own people. Sometimes they keep almost everyone except senior management. I guess it's hard to say. I mean, we have a situation of the Arrigo dealerships where the Morgan Group bought out the Arrigo dealerships what two years ago yeah and nothing's changed we thought it

changed but apparently they've each even kept the Arrigo brothers doing the commercials and we mystery shopped them it doesn't seem any difference so it depends on who's buying and who's selling when Advantage Ford became a central Ford we mystery shop them and they did terribly we had them a D plus a D minus but we said we'd be back under after the new management had time to settle in and get comfortable. So we did. We sent Agent Lightning back to Essential Ford to give them a shot at redemption and a better grade. Here's a report as if I were Agent Lightning. I arrived around dinner times or three salespeople sitting on high chairs. Like babies with Sippy Cups. That's what

I pictured when she wrote there. Just inside the front door. That's where you can see the lot, I guess. That's not a bad idea. Usually the boss sits up in a high stool, high chair, so he can see everything going on. Looks like they were sheltering from the cold while they waited for customer to show up. For the edification of our listeners outside of Florida, we had a front come in this week and temperatures dropped.

You're going to get this to the 60s. We're shivering. We're freezing of death in here. So it's just funny. I've lived here all my life and people laugh at me from up north because it drops to 50 and I wear in a jacket and a sweater. I was wearing a sweater to work this week. Exactly, yeah. One of the salesman stood up and met me halfway,

and asked if there was something he could help me with, Major Lightning. I asked if he had any new four edges in stock. He said, he believed some. So then walked over to other salespeople and said something, I couldn't make out. One of the other salesmen stood up, approached me, and asked me to follow him to the desk. I followed him, and he said he needed to get my information

before we could do anything else. He also explained that the man who greeted me was waiting on a sales appointment, so that's why he couldn't help me. We sat at a desk on the side of the showroom and asked me questions and entered my answers in his computer. He offered to show me an edge in the showroom to see if it's the one I like.

We walked over there. It sounds like they have some cars, so it kind of goes to what I said earlier. Surprisingly, inventories are starting to build. The Monroney label, the MSRP, the official federal mandated sticker, and the addendum were both laminated and lying on the front seat. The MSRP was 42,895.

The addendum added a $1,59 essential protection package. I love that. That gives you wheel locks. Mud guards. Mud guards. I mean, isn't that old-fashioned? I mean mud guards.

door edge and what's a cup guard okay that's not for the cup holder that's in the handle or where the depression behind the handle like if you wear rings happens a lot with ladies if they scratches the plate never so it protects that in the area and window tent it also added resist hall for 399 dollars and then edge boy that's old is one of the oldest it's been around for a long time vintage for a hundred nine That's where you take a little mask and then you paint some acid on the window and it costs max. The salesperson does it. Yeah, the salesperson can do it for, you don't even pay the salesperson to anything.

That's the affin. I goes, all right, go etch the car. Yeah, right. Okay, Sto Libby Jr's list price for all this was $45,092 after you added the extras that we just talked about. I told him I like this model. The salesman excused themselves to get the key. asked me if I minded driving a burgundy one. He had outside, said, no, that was fine.

We walked out to the vehicle. I got a decent presentation, and we took it for a test drive. Came back to the dealership, parked. Salesman asked me what I thought. I said, I liked the car, but I didn't like the hand-ons. I saw the addendum. He replied by telling me, the VIN standing for vehicle identification number, the VIN Edge, would save me money on my car insurance.

I don't believe that. I don't think so. I know that when you sign up for car insurance, they want to know of any anti-theft protection so that you can tell them that. I think, you know, a long time ago, I think it did because when I was evil, we used to do the same thing. A long time ago, but I don't know if it still qualifies. I think engine immobilizers, actual security systems will get you a discount. I said I'd be, you know, there is actually, ironically, I have to say something good about Vintage. If you're going to steal a car and you see a car that's got the VINF.

number etched on all the glass, you're probably less likely to steal it if the one next to it doesn't have it because if you're really a pro, you're going to have to get rid of the windshields, that's going to know, the windows, and that's going to cost you a lot of money. So the mere fact that they have it, I mean, no one is going to, a cop isn't going to go driving by, look at the glass edge and say, oh, that's a stolen car. That's not going to happen. And that was part of the F&I pitch. They said, you know, they said 90% of car thefts for professionals, and they go through things. I did look it up, by the way, real quick,

and a number of insurance companies still do offer a gift off the comprehensive person. So it's not all about it. It's just cheap. I mean, it does have some value, but it costs a dealer virtually nothing. I mean, what do you pay for the kit? 10 bucks for the kit? And then the salesman puts it on.

Yeah, that's it. I mean, the only cost is it's an insurance product, so they, you know. Anyway, set down the desk way of him to get a work. worksheet, market value selling price was MSRP, 42895. There was $500 discount labeled savings. Then he added etch for $199, resist all for $399. That's I guess the polish, essential package for $1595, $1,0595, and $899. He added it all up $45,487.

You could see, I wasn't smiling. He asked me what he could get me to buy this car, what it would take for me to buy this car right now today. I said that even with a discount, I was $2,500 over MSRP. The salesman challenged me and said it was only $1,000 over. I opened the calculator on my phone, add up all the extras, including the junk feed, and showed him.

You know, he might have believed it. I mean, I think he wasn't counting the dock fees. Yeah. And that's what it was. Probably, yeah. I asked me if they participated in the Costco auto program. I like this. He said he would check.

Now, he probably didn't even know there was a Costco auto buying program, but they could ask for anything. The farmer program, you know, the abused housewife program, there would always be a problem, a program. Then he asked me again, how soon I was buying, and I told him I planned to buy in the next week.

Sales people hate to hear that. And I was close to buying a new Chevy Traverse. this seemed to peak his interest. He began to criticize the traverse, okay? He left to speak with the manager again. I looked around. I was the only customer in the showroom. I couldn't see any other employees around either.

It's very lonely. The salesman was back in five minutes with a new sheet of paper. He said that if it will keep me from leaving, he'll take an additional thousand dollars off. He said the $500 discount, he already gave me, was the Costco discount. See, that's the reason, folks.

This is where all breaks down. Yeah, this is, if you're a Costco member and you want to buy the Costco program, don't ever ask the salesman just walk in and say, do you have a Costco program? Because everybody's got a Costco program, which means that they're going to tell you they have one so they can make you believe that they got a Costco discount and they don't. So identify the Costco member, approved dealer, identify the Costco salesperson. because that's all on the Costco website. Okay.

Then he walked me over to the edge in the showroom and asked me to open and close the door. He asked me to remember how solid that film. Well, that's old school. You hear that? And by the way, my Tesla, which I won't tell you how much money I spent on it because it was way too much. When I slammed the door, it sounds tinny and terrible. Because it only weighs 400 pounds. Yes.

Let me tell you about the doors. I don't know. I'll tell you about the doors. when he slammed the trunk. We don't have time. He asked me in America and then suggested we go and try the same thing with used Chevy Traverse he had in stock.

I love this. The experience will not be the same. He assured me, I thanked him for his time and ran out the door. That's a great last-minute attempt here on the selling. I like that. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, Steve was trying. He's got to make a living, right? Yeah, he got to put food on the table. He was trying. Okay, there we are. Time to vote, I think. Quick. Mystery shop of essential Ford,

Stewart, and Florida. What do you give them? I remember, we grade on the curve, so there's no such thing as a real A. 100%. Nobody's 100%. But if someone is better than all the other dealers,

we'll give them an A. If they're worse than all the other dealers, we'll give them a F. And usually we're somewhere in between. Okay. Jonathan and Wellington. Hey, Jonathan, you surprised me. The protection package is a scam, correct.

I don't want it, and too many additional fraudulent fees, which Mr. Stewart taught us how to navigate around. Other than that, not a hard experience, I'll give them a B. And it was better than last time, and I'm not going to get the details. It was. But I was almost going to ding him on the edge thing because I didn't think that was still a discount until I looked it up. So he was telling the truth.

As a matter of fact, I can expect between 5% and a 15% discount on your premiums for etch? You know, the argument is if you don't have any other theft deterrent, it would pay you to buy an etch kit and etch your own car. Exactly. And save 5% on your insurance. Except for you don't get the recovery thing. I think that's the insurance aspect of the car stolen and not recovered. Then you get money, $5,000. But it is somewhat of a deterrent. I mean, I don't want to, yeah. Of all the crap they put on the cars and charge you for, I would have to say the vintech is one of the few that has some value. As long as they're in that under $200 range.

I mean, they're charged $600 for X. That's what Toya Guard from Toyota does. They etched the vent also, and that was part of the $700. Bob gives them a C, and I'm going to agree with Bob. This was typical in 2022 car dealer behavior. I've got Mark Anderson, Mark from St. Louis, a perfectly etched D. Kirk in West By God, Virginia. Essential Ford earns the essential grade of D-minus.

Essentially, the dealer addendum was way overpriced, was to downfall. Plus, I love those that knock other manufacturers. Bad form. Ah, let's see. Scott Hunter, a D. Tom Stuckel, I'd give them a D. $2,500 junk fees plus old school tactics. If you want to Ford, go to Mullinax, A grade.

Tim Gilliland, nothing essential here about that protection. package or the Costco program lie d mark smith d ryan said that go way too much money for a forward edge d mark ryan d wayne white big d donovan lewis complete fail give them an f are we averaging when are these dealers going to learn we also have um from ella you get a lot of grace he does yeah that's my youtube crowd man but he doesn't have any cats i have a cat that gives them a c plus from Ella. Sue Foglum gives them a C minus. Martha Gillespie gives

them a C minus, and we have one more over here. Anne-Marie gives him a C-minus for high fees, but no legal behavior. And Nigan, one, D for don't fall for the scam. There you go. Okay, folks. I'm going to agree with, I say D because that just was, all right?

You got to watch yourself walking in that place. I'm going to say C. C. Okay, good for you. I'm going to give them an F, and they're reinstall that kit you can pick it up on Amazon 18 bucks that's just an example of all these fees and that's the reason for my grade folks I'm going to run you for attorney general okay I will vote for you anyway I wear too many hats as it is ladies and gentlemen thank you so much for joining us this Saturday morning.

You're a huge part of the show. We appreciate your company. And good at Amazon. Amazon.com to get your etch kit for $18.50. There you go. It's on Amazon. You heard it right here. Earl Stewart on cars. And you save that right away on your insurance premium, depending on your insurance company.

We're here to save you money. Folks, we'll be right back here Saturday morning 8 a.m. Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the cool weather and football. I'm going to be able to be.