Earl Stewart on Cars - 10.29.2022 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Mike Maroone Chevrolet

Episode Date: October 29, 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 Chevrolet dealer to see what they have on the lot and how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2022 Chevrolet Equinox LT 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 cyber. space through Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Periscope. Stu is also the Spymaster Director of our Mystery Shopping Report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting South Florida dealership. And now, on with the show.

Good morning, everybody. Well, we're back again. And you probably think I have a minimal problem because I say I love doing this so much every week and we've been doing it for 20 years. You'd think it would get old. It doesn't get old. The car business, even the manufacturing end and, of course, the retail in, is very interesting and very exciting. And I happen to be a car dealer.

We bring you this show as consumer advocates. This is not an infomercial. We kind of came to the conclusion a few years ago, quite a few, that automobiles weren't being retailed the way they should be. And as a member of that community, the car dealer community, I started feeling a little guilty. I mean, it just sounds like I make this story up, but it's really true. And so 20-some-odd years ago, I started changing and doing business differently and thinking about it.

And then it became a mission. Some people call it mission impossible, but the mission of this show, Erl on Cars, is to help you navigate the minefield out there when you go into buy or lease a car, have your car maintained or repair. But it's also to bring pressure on the retail auto industry.

Bring pressure to them to get their act in order. The rest of the retail industry has just moved with warp speed. You look at Amazon, you look at Target, you look at Costco, and you see a lot, a lot of 21st century retailers, the mindset of a lot of retailers, the most successful ones, as a matter of fact, I mentioned Costco. I don't know how many of you have been into a Costco store, or how about an Apple store? Have you ever been in an Apple store or a Costco warehouse that wasn't a pleasant experience? in fact it's so enjoyable sometimes you go back in just to look around that's a retailer's dream to have such a pleasant experience for their purchasers and their potential purchasers that

they'll come in and browse you don't browse at a car dealership well I guess you do that's why we're here we browse at a car dealership because we have to and I say we I'm speaking of me as a consumer We need cars. We need transportation, especially in the United States. We don't have mass transit in most places and we're spread out, you know. We got a big country. And to get from here to there, you need transportation. Bicycles just won't cut it all the time and motor scooters and motorcycles are kind of dangerous. So we buy cars and we have to have them in most cases. So here we are to answer your question. questions about buying a car, leasing a car, maintaining or repairing. We do a lot of preparation for the show. We do a lot of reading and we clip articles and we make notes and we think about what we would like to talk about. Then we suddenly realize it's not what we want to talk about.

It's what you want to talk about. And if you're listening, you probably have a question about cars. I mean, it might be a noise your car is making right now, an odor, it's emitting, it might be a rattle, it might be the fact that you're in the market for a car. And, of course, if you are, you're reading all the headlines about the high prices and the microchip shortage and the problems in Ukraine and the precious metal shortage, creating low supply and high demand. I mean, it's a buyer's worst nightmare, low-supply and high-demand, that's what we've got. So, if you would call us, we'd love to have you call us at the show. We have a toll-free number. It's 877-960-99-60.

We're on for two hours, so you probably don't want to call right now. It might not have a question. You might think of something a little later. If you do, drop the number down. If you got a pencil or something, just put this. number down because you might be interested in calling later. It's 877-960-99-60. 877-960-9-60. Think of something. Don't have to have a question. Maybe a comment. You might be a car dealer. You might be employed at a car dealership or a manufacturer. We love to hear from people that are kind of involved.

lawyers out there. You're consumer advocate lawyers. We'd love to hear from you. I mean, especially ones that have dealt with car dealer cases. We get a call occasionally from lawyers. But anybody out there that has a comment, we prioritize this particular means of contacting us, meaning the telephone. We have five lines coming into the studio here in North Palm Beach, Florida. And we, they can light up pretty fast. And if they light up, we want to get to you. So we prioritize it. Nancy Stewart, my co-host, she co-founded this show with me many years ago. She has a laptop. She's looking at it right now. And when the studio sees a call, they put it through with your name and where you're calling from and your number. And whatever we're doing, like me, I'm talking.

I'd stop talking. We jump over and get on the telephone. So we'd love to have you call us by that. I think we might have a call. Yeah, we have a couple of calls. Oh, fantastic. Good morning, everyone. We're off to a great start.

We're going to go to Howard, who's been holding in Jupiter, and for you others, just hang in there, and I'll get right to you. Good morning, Howard. Good morning. I hope all you are fine. Yes. And I just have a couple of questions for Rick. Great.

Okay. Rick, on checking the battery. I have an old method of checking it. I wonder if it's correct. I have a thing that looks like a hydrometer, and I have a battery with cells, six cells, which I open the caps, and I pull up the water, and it says if the black ball is floating up, the cell is good.

So I checked all three cells. All three cells checked great. Is this a good way of checking the battery? of course you have to have the battery that has these cells some some of them completely sealed so am i doing a good job checking my battery yeah it's kind of an old-school method but it does work using the hydrometer like that basically what it's doing is it's looking at the specific gravity of the acid in the battery and it's kind of doing a comparison between that and the the rating of specific gravity for plain water and obviously if the the The certain balls float higher than others than it tells you what the concentration of that battery acid is and thereby telling you, you know, a reasonable idea of the charge of the battery. Granted, it is kind of an old-school method. Electronic testers are more accurate nowadays. They're become a lot more modern.

And because of maintenance-free batteries, you can't use that system on, you know, a lot of the batteries nowadays. But no, it does still work. Okay, another thing. Sorry about that, Siri on my watch. Annoying things, times. Okay, another thing. You want to hear another old school trick? Sure.

To check if an alternator is working, as when the engine is running, disconnect the negative strap, and if the engine is still working, working, the alternative is working. How about that one? Absolutely. As a matter of fact, a lot of people nowadays, a lot of texts nowadays, will say that that's one of the better ways to change a battery. As crazy as this sounds, and you've got to be very, very careful doing this. But modern cars now, with all the computer systems in them, and the way the cars rely on that battery for its power source, if you shut the engine off and disconnect the battery, a lot of those

computers lose their memories. So radio stations on the radio, navigation maps, a lot of that stuff can be lost. Plus the computer that actually controls the engine, it learns how that engine is supposed to run, and sometimes it'll lose that memory and make the car run rough for a little while so what we kind of do is a little shade tree trick we'll leave the engine running disconnect one terminal wrap the positive terminal in a rag change the battery out and have the engine running the whole time that we are changing a battery but yes if you if you disconnect the negative terminal that engine still runs perfectly smooth that tells you your alternators doing just fine

that's great okay another couple of questions What is happening with the next year's Camry? I'm talking about 2024. Will there be many changes, and what will they be? Let's see, Camry, trying to think when they're due for their next reboot. Usually Toyota does their big changeovers about every five years, so it might be about time for them to redecorate and do a bunch of styling

changes. They've recently come out with the newest engines. One of those redecorations will be an electric camry, by the way, so don't forget. I'm thinking here as you two gearheads are yakking back and forth

because both of you love to fix combustion engine cars and you're pretty good at it. And the problem will be that there won't be any combustion engine cars around here. And, you know, it's certainly 20 years and maybe

and you don't know model by model sooner. I mean, Cadillac is going all electric in five years. So in terms of do-it-yourselfers and fixing cars, hurry up and talk about it now because you won't have time to talk about it later. I'm all for electric because there's going to be plenty of cars out there for me to repair for next few years until I retire. It's just a different kind of repair.

And when the electrics get out and the whole idea of the self-drive cars, I am all for it, especially since by the time I hit retirement age, they'll be all over, and I don't have to drive anymore. I just sit back and let the computers drive it for me. Something to look forward to. I'm loving it. Howard, if you don't have any other questions. Just one more fast question.

Okay. The brake system on electric cars will be the exact same brake system as it is on regular cars. Is that correct? Similar. But bear in mind, Electric cars use what's known as regenerative braking, just like hybrids. When you let off the gas, matter of fact, Earl knows this one from his Tesla very well. When you let off the gas, the electric motors reverse themselves into generators,

and the spinning wheels turn the motors and create electricity to send it back to the battery so that you get to reuse that power to drive the car again. but that also puts a drag, an actual physical drag on the wheels, and it will slow the car down quite a bit. So you're actually using electromotive force to slow the car, which means your brakes are going to last a lot longer. Great information. Thank you very much. You're welcome, Howard. I hope we answered all your questions, and we love hearing from you. Have a great weekend. You too. Bye.

And folks, if you want to know more and read more, go to the Consumer Report. That would be for November, and they have a whole lot of information on, you know, if you're not ready to go full electric, you can choose a hybrid. It's a smart decision. We're going to go to John in Palm City. Good morning, John. Good morning. I don't remember the year, but I went to a seminar run by Nancy and Earl Stewart. It was in West Palm Beach, it was at United Methodist Church, and the title was how to be

avoided being ripped off by a car dealer. Everyone that attended had a free copy of Earl's book. And I think the seminar, if I remember, it was a special project at that time, which was run by Ashley Moody, which was Attorney General. He was new at the time. And basically, the topic was seniors versus crime. And they gave an 800 number. I wrote it down 800, 203, 3099.

And that's discussing about seniors that get ripped off at new car dealers. And I just wondered if that seniors versus crime is still an act of awarding a special project that's still in existence today. John it is and that's a great question I I hadn't thought about that in a while I should have I should have brought this subject up they're still active unfortunately they report they're under the attorney general and as you know our attorney generals in Florida even the current one Ashley Moody who was running for re-election as you probably know she is and I hate to use this term it sounds kind of crude but she's in the public pocket of the car dealers. They support her election. They support her campaign. And she doesn't go against car dealers. I have talked to people in seniors versus crime. I won't name any names.

As you said, we speak at their events. They serve a great purpose, by the way. They really help seniors out a lot. But when it comes to problems with car dealers, they're not as effective because they don't have the support of the Attorney General of Florida, Ashley Moody. Now, if they have a problem with a department store or any other kind of problem, it's a great organization. There's a South Florida, and there's a mid-Florida, and I think a northern Florida, maybe a West Coast, and they have meetings and seminars for seniors. So seniors versus crime is a great organization. they just don't get the support from the Florida Attorney General

because the car dealers pretty much call the shots for her. And I'm not picking on Ashley Moody. This has been true of all of our previous Attorney Generals. But that brought back some good memories. I really enjoyed that, John. That was a good seminar. We really appreciated it. Yeah, we had a great time, John.

The most outstanding thing of that seminar was a female that was ripped off by a new car dealer in Stewart, Florida, and she gave her experience. She was a very aggressive woman. She actually marched up and down on the street in front of that dealer with a grievance that she had, and she was at that meeting. And I commend her because it was a female

that said, I'm not going to take it anymore, just like this latest woman that calls you now. This is ridiculous about Naples. and I mean, you've got a brand new car and you're paying $40,000 plus and they're using inferior oil and an aftermarket oil filter in it, how bad can we get with these South Florida dealers? Amazing. Amazing. And that was an amazing time, John. And I'm not really quite sure how long ago that was.

But let me tell you this, seniors against crime, we need to do more of that. I thank you for, you know, bringing the topic up. and we're going to put that on the books. Thank you, guys, for educating the public. Thank you, John. Thank you for listening all these years. Give us a call, tool for you at 877-960, or you can text us at 772-992-976530. Don't forget your anonymous feedback.com.

We're going to stay with the phones, and Warren is with us from New Jersey. and Brenda, I'll get right with you. Good morning, Warren. Good morning, guys. How are you? Well, thank you. Well, I called because I wanted to tell you about it. I had a great experience at a car dealer in New Jersey, and I just wanted to tell you what happened. And how I got there was is sort of a catch-22. You know, you always say you're not going to put money into an old car, which I had. And it started making all kinds of noises. I ended up in a franchise,

repair place and they ended up spending a thousand dollars because i had no car so it's a cash 22 you say you're not going to fix it but you have no choice what was wrong with is immaterial so i ended up looking for cars and i went to this dealership in new jersey called mosda of lodai new jersey it's in new york city and they couldn't have been nicer and learning from what i heard on your your guys shows your shows is that they were so pleasant they gave me all the the prices, MSRP. They said, this is what it is. There's no gimmicks. There's no games. There's no nothing. All you add is sales tax. And it was just a wonderful experience. Now, I didn't buy the car, but, you know, it was a very great experience.

Yeah. Warren, give us that name again. We're, we're nationwide. It was a Mazda dealership in Lodi, New Jersey. Lodi, New Jersey. Mazda of Lodai. A Mazda in Lodai. Mazzda. And they're right outside of New York City. I believe the town is I'm not sure if it's a load-eye load-up. And I went in there just, first of all, one thing, they had a ton of cars. They had a lot of cars. They had, I don't know, 20-30 cars on the lot.

And the guy showed me that's, you know, the cheaper ones, the middle ones, and more expensive ones. He showed me the MSRP sticker price. He said, this is what it is. We don't play any games. He says, all you're going to add a sale. tax, maybe 200, $200, $200, or the other stuff, he says, and that's it. He says, there's no gimmicks. There's no games here.

There's no nothing. And that's the way it is. We didn't sit at a desk. He didn't write up orders. He didn't start writing numbers down. He just said, here it is. You want to take a picture? You want to do whatever.

Call me up. You want the car. Here it is. Here's a different kind of cars. And he spent about an hour with me, no pressure, no nothing. And it was a very great experience. If somebody asked me what I thought the experience at a Mazda dealership in New Jersey would be like I would have said, hell, but you just described heaven.

Well, that's all you folks listening in the New York, New Jersey area, and you want to buy a Mazda or a used car, give this guy, Stuart Howard Warren Redog. Give the name one more time. It's a Mazda of Lodi in Lodi, New Jersey. How do you spell Lodi? I'm L-O-D-I. Hello, D.

It's on Route 46. Right near New York City. It's about 20 minutes from the George Washington Bridge. It's about 20 minutes from the G.W. Bridge. And like I said, listening to your show for all these years, you're always expecting the worst. You're expecting the guy to come in and you sit you at the desk and stuff pounding on you and stuff like that. But the other part I just wanted to say, you always say you're not going to put any money into an old car. But when you fix it, you always say, he said, oh, it's riding great.

Why should I get a new car? That's until the next thing goes wrong. And because I've been doing that. Finally, you know, the car got to the point. It was undrivable. So there was a franchise place in there. I mean, I went in there, and he gave me the price. I had no choice.

He had the part. He put the part in. Three hours later, I drove out and I had a car. But, you know, if it's a catch-22, I couldn't say, don't fix it. What am I going to do? You tow it out and go to the junkyard with it. So you've got to get to that catch-22. If your car is old, do yourself a favor and start looking for one now,

so you're not in a position where I was. They dumped $1,000 on the car I want to get rid of. That's a good tip, Warren. Thank you. Yeah, great hearing from you, Warren. And we want to thank you for staying with us all this time. That's great. And your tips, like I said, like you said, you go into a place

and it's a pleasant experience. Like I said, I didn't buy the car, so I don't know what the final result would have been. They could have the worst F&I department on the East Coast. Well, he said 3.9% interest if you want to get the loan through them. That's pretty good. And he let me, I didn't drive the cars, but he let me set in the set in him.

He showed me the different stuff in each car and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he said, here's the sticker price. We're selling an MSRP. That's what we're doing. No more, no less. No gimmicks. I'll love it. Sounds great one.

And thanks so much for sharing good news with us this morning. That's great. I want to plug Lodi Mazda again. If you live in the New York area, anywhere in New York City, any of the five boroughs, if you live in New Jersey. Even if you're outside of the area, I mean, it might be worth your drive to pick it up there or even have a ship. If a Mazda dealer is going to hit you for $3,000 over a sticker and you can buy it from Mazda Lutie for sticker MSRP, it'd be worth the trip there and back, fly in, buy the car, drive it home or have them ship it to you. Yeah, and he had, what the thing was, he had plenty of cars. He wasn't showing you one car.

He had the three different SUVs that we got the model numbers. He had the cheaper one, the middle one. He told them where they were made. He said the cheaper one is made in Japan. The middle one was made in Mexico. The more expensive one was made in the United States. And, you know, he let me sit in him. He showed me all the different things about the different cars.

And at the end, he just gave me his car. He wrote some numbers down. He said, take a picture, whatever you want. And he said, the only extra you're going to have that is sales tax. And he says, and maybe $100, $200, $200,000, depending on what, you know, the other stuff that you have to get from motor vehicles or whatever. And he says, that's it. That's the whole thing.

There's no high pressure. There's no anything. on it. There's some great stories out there, Warren. Thank you so much for calling us. Thank you. Have a good day. Have a wonderful weekend. We hope to hear from you again. Hey, 7-7-960 or you can text us at 772-4976530. And don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. We are going to go to Brenda, who's been holding from Westbourne Beach, and Bob, I'll be right with you shortly. Bob's calling from Naples.

Good morning, Brenda. Good morning. I have a car that is, my lease is up in 2000, beginning of 20, and 24. So when should I actually start looking and when should I order my next car? You mean a 2023 or 2024? The lease is up in 24. Oh, the lease is up in 24, I see. I don't think you have to worry about anything.

Did you have to do anything at this time? But you have, what about a year and a half left on your lease, I'm guessing? Right, right. Start thinking about it as you're getting closer to maybe six months, because if the situation is the same as it is now, down the road, six months plus the option to extend the lease a few more months, it gives you plenty of time to order a car unless you're looking for something that's really rare or unusual. What kind of car are you driving?

Right now it's a Rav-4. Okay. Are you looking to replace it with something similar or like? Yeah, similar. It's not a hybrid, is it? No, but I would want a hybrid. Okay. So that's, it's a good, I'm glad that you asked. It might be a good idea in the next couple of months to just start inquiring. It takes it much longer to get a hybrid now. In 2024, I hope it doesn't take a long time to get a hybrid. We don't know for sure. So in the next few months, maybe start exploring the options. Because if it takes about a year to maybe even a year and a half to get a vehicle like that, you're right in the pocket right now. Okay. All right.

Brenda, that's a great phone call that you made to us. And I just want to let you know if you're really set on the Rav4, well, you know, it's a good thing. But there's other cars out there that you won't have to wait as long for. And you might want to pick up a consumer report and take a look at all the information that they recently. recently have in their November, October and November edition. And Brenda, you've called us before, right? No, first time. Oh, it is?

Oh, I thought I recognized your voice. Brenda, you are a first time caller, and for that, you win $50 this morning. And if you'll stay on the phone and talk with our control room, that's Jeremy, who can take your information, he'll pass it alone to me, and I'll get that check-up. to you. Oh, thank you very much. Oh, you're quite welcome. Have a wonderful weekend, and please spread the word that we're trying to build a platform here for the ladies. Definitely. Okay, Brandon. Thank you. Have a great weekend. Again, that number is 877-960-99-60, and we're going to go to Bob, who's been waiting patiently from Naples. Good morning, Bob. Good morning, everyone. Good morning, everyone. I figured call in. I've been texting for last

few weeks. Yeah, we saw it. I got the picture of the new Corolla last week. It was at the very end of the show, so I couldn't show it. But thanks for the updates, Bob. Oh, thank you. I mean, it's amazing to be down here. We're lucky our complex is maybe 1,800 feet back from the water. And looking around, everything is perfectly normal. When they take a drive down some of the roads paralleling the beach, it's like you're in World War II.

Wow. High-rise is unenhazzled. Water went into the ground floor and knocked out all the mechanical. Low-rise units were washed right through. You can see from one side to the other. You still see, even today, dozens and dozens of cars all, you know, upside down, scattered everywhere. Yeah. And the people that come down to retrieve them.

Terrible. And one more complex near us, we just heard they lost 800 cars, 800 cars. That's astonishing. Wow, in the garage. You know, it's in the years before those scars are hard to see. I remember after Andrew, you know, for probably 20 years, you'd still see evidence. You could see some mangled trees or a fence or something that wasn't repaired. And there's going to be evidence of Hurricane Ian there for decades as well.

Yeah, it's going to be a long journey, Bob. That's for sure. Rebuilding. But it was so nice to arrive and to have two, like, new. carolers sitting right in my driveway. I mean, that was absolutely phenomenal. That takes the sting off sometimes. Yeah.

Yeah. But I had one technical question. Blindside sensors and the rear traffic alert sensors, where are they on the camera, on the corolla? I couldn't see. They're behind the rear bumper cover on either side. They're kind of on the, almost on the exact corner of the car. but just a little bit in towards the side of the car, actually.

They're totally hidden by the bumper. Yeah, totally hidden because I couldn't see them. I've seen a little round circle. Yeah, I remember in the old days the old parking pilot, the parking sonar, and you had these little disks that were stuck on the outside of the car. It didn't look so great, but I guess now everything's hidden. That's why it's so expensive if somebody bumps into your bumper.

Right, because a very small impact on that corner can actually damage that sensor or even knock it out of alignment and then it gets quite expensive on those they need to get a bumper for those bumper for the bumper I need a bumper for the bumper

I know that's not a bad idea really sorry Bob go ahead I have a little bit of feedback on the purchase experience just some suggestions improve it and these cars

One had 5,000 miles, the other had 15, and I like to stay on top of the factory maintenance. Now, I, as a purchaser, have no idea what's been done so far. So what I'm thinking is, if you ever put the service history, just, you know how you do the printout of the service history of a car? Yeah. Just put that in the other department so people know, ah, the car's already had the 5,000 mile service. I don't need to do it, or it was missed that I do need to do it. That's a great idea. So I actually, I send an email to Ma Solman, yes.

from your place and said, hey, can you print out the service histories for both cars and mail it to me? And you could, sure. Yeah. But I'm thinking going forward, not, I've never heard of anyone doing that, but that could set yourself apart. Yeah. By just going that one more step. Well, that is a great idea. And we're looking for ways right now just to, you know, kind of help things out in our use car department.

And that's a suggestion that we'll do. Yeah. And let's see. The second experience was these are certified used cars, and I saw the whole checklist. which was all completely except for the appearance section. That was blank. For which section? The appearance section of the CPL checklist, you know, that 160 item checklist.

It was in the glove box, which was nice. Both cars, the appearance section was blank. Okay. Now, the car's perfect, but just to let you know. Thank you. And what was the third thing? One of the cars had a Toyo Guard platinum sticker on the windshield. I had no idea what that was until I Google it and said, oh, wow, I get...

You got it for free. Right, but that should have been highlighted because it's, because it does, it does go with the van of the car. Yeah, so somehow, you know, again, a little brochure or something, even though they use cars, they're not new, they use, but just so the person would know. That they're getting someone, yeah. The final thing was the manuals, owners manuals, one car had them. the other card did not, the glove box was empty. Now, if I just bought that by myself and there's nothing in the glove box

Well, that's certified, so it should have that. So just... I'll get that mailed out to you because it should have that in a certified checklist that it needs to have all the manuals. Yeah, because the second car did, and I started reading for those, it's like reading about a spaceship

with all the different controls and features even though it's only a corolla or amazing technology. But for someone who didn't have a second car, maybe up to creep. But that's constructive feedback. No, it's great. Thanks, Bob.

Selling experience is fantastic, and I appreciate everyone's help. We appreciate you, Bob. And we'll get that manual out to you, and thank you so much for the phone call. Yeah, and keep in touch, please. We'll do, and I've been passing your dealership name to everyone I know over here because they are all scrambling. I was lucky to jump on this the day after the hurricane, but there are other folks who are just coming down now.

They've been having to deal with it, yeah. I'll come down for several months. You're probably the first guy. I'm not kidding to jump on this. I mean, you moved fast. Okay, Bob, you're going to be the poster boy for us, and we hope to hear from you again. Thank you.

You take care. You're welcome. We're going to go to David in Palm Beach Gardens. Good morning, David. Hello? Hello? Good morning. We got you.

This is David. Good morning, David. Good morning. I have a question about a deal that I just got through a Subaru dealer, and it's ordered for the end of December, but I got some serious questions about the charges, which I've heard, I've listened to your show all the time, and about some charges that they're trying to,

it comes on almost $2,000 of charge. I'm pretty sure that I heard you say we're bogus, but I wanted to tell you that, one of them is the nitro filled cap program I told him I didn't want it and he told me that it comes in that way and you have to take it because they don't I said look just let the air out of it and I'll take the car and put my own air in because I don't need it and Darwin security I like that Garland security I thought was that was usually coming to the car now I'm not so concerned about that but what I am concerned about is electronic filing fee of three hundred seventy nine dollars

Then I have the electric, a temporary tag, which I already have a tag that's got to 20204 to change it out. And then I got a dealer's dock of $995. And then I got another, it says, license title tag feevers, $5.50. So I'm not, you know, I don't like getting ripped off, really. And I'm usually pretty good at buying a car at like 37 of them. And this is the first time I've actually, because I've learned from your show. that there's a lot of things hidden here. I'm not sure which of these are legitimate.

The only thing that you mentioned was the tag fee, but that sounds like on the high end, because you were transferring a tag. The only time you see a kind of a pricey tag fee is on a new tag, but you had one, like he said, doesn't have to expire as in 2024. So you've got to transfer that for maybe $150. So it sounds like all of that was bogus. Yeah, David, the acid test for fees,

and they always use the word fees, is there a sales tax charged on that. So when you're buying a car, anything that they put down as a fee, see if the Florida State sales tax was calculated. They charge sales tax on any junk fee. And by the way, I'm glad to see the media picking this up and the politicians picking it up. They're not picking it up so much on car dealers,

but they're going after junk fees big time now. It came probably from the federal trade. Trade Commission action, but when you see something that suspicious, if you were charged sales tax on that, it's a junk fee. A real fee is a government fee, and there's no child. You don't charge sales tax on top of sales tax, or you don't charge government fee for a government fee. So if they're arguing with you, look at the calculation when they quoted you the price and see if they charge your sales tax. Well, I got the only thing I got here is the actual tax on it, which is $2,700. 66 to 90 cents so I understand that text but the other things I just what about that nitrogen

fill cap that supposedly on it when it comes in the dealer does that there supposedly there is a machine that produces pure oxygen that pumps it in the tires but we've talked yeah nitrogen and we've talked about a lot in the show and but the air that's we breathe is mainly nitrogen with about 22% oxygen and so but they do that it's just a it became a gimmick about maybe 20 years ago and a lot of

deals are still sticking with it and it's as it costs them nothing and they sell it for $2.99 or $3.99. In the old days there's what when you first wrote your first blog on it they're selling it for what? Over $1,000. Yeah they dazzle people with the fact that NASA you know and race car

NASCAR racing NASCAR they cars are going 250 miles an hour will use nitrogen in the tires because it minimizes the expansion and also airlines you know if your airline tires if you're going to be up at 50,000 feet

then you want to be sure that your tires don't contract and it just they use that to dazzle you with the fact that's going to help you but consumer reports did a complete thorough examination of the benefit benefits of nitrogen in car tires into zero.

Consumer report says there is zero advantage, any way, shape, or form to having pure nitrogen in your tires. And as student said, the air were breathing is 78% nitrogen, so you've already got nitrogen in your tires. You don't need to buy it. And, David, unless you're going out to Daytona 500 with your car, you don't need it. And here's some good news in reference to your call that I was. reading this morning. In the last 10 years alone, the FTC has brought more than 50 law enforcement

actions related to automobiles and helped lead two nationwide law enforcement sweeps that included 181 state-level enforcement actions in the areas. In spite of the actions, complaints from consumers related to automobiles remain in the top 10 complaints received by the FTC with 100,000 more complaints from consumers. And here's the good news. Today, the FTC is taking a first step towards establishing a set of guidelines that would provide consumers with key protection against dealers who unlawfully charge junk fees. Rather than go on, you can pull that up on Google and take a look at it. So it's really good news for us, for you, for everyone. And they're really, the FTC is really joining us here at Earl Stewart on Cars in our journey

to prevent things from happening, as you just mentioned. Right. I'm glad that's at SEM. I appreciate you guys for what you do. And like I said, this stupid nitrogen, I can, you can buy them online for 85 to, you know, 150 bucks. but it's just it's just a shame that even when I mentioned these I didn't mention the other items I only mentioned that one so I got this printout sheet from them I put a $500 deposit and I guarantee you I went to someplace else already and they said I could get this car it's actually a Subaru touring XL CT it's a high

high end car so I actually went back to the place where I bought a car before and said if you can get me the car before they get me the car I'll throw the $500 down the drain just to beat them out of this money that they're trying to get for me for stupid things where they've already made the money way over the MSRP which is about 43 exactly that's a good that's a good point and whether it's five dollars or 500 as you just put it stupid just stupid fees and they got they got good money because it came out to 48,605 for the car that started out at yeah you should say the make value selling price was 44 20 24 24 but

But, you know, I don't mind the price so much as what I want, but when you see these things that just, I wasn't interested in with me last day because I just had been hanging on my head for a week. Yeah. Just thinking about somebody doing this to me. Outrageous. And I'm glad you called and brought it to our attention. David, it was a pleasure talking to you, and we love hearing from you, so stay in touch. We'll do that. I want to ask you one more question.

Now, if I wanted to text you a screenshot or something, do you do that on your texting department there? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You can send it to me. One of us. 877960. No, that's the phone number, sorry. 772.

772-497-6530. Texted to that number. That'll be helpful. That would be real helpful. Did you get it? 772-497-6530. I have it. Okay, great.

I come from old school where, you know, I used to work on all my own cars and had points, plugs, and condensers, and now it's way out of control. It's way out of control, so I'm stuck to like everybody else. Exactly. We have to come together. Thank you for your help, David. Look forward to your texts. Have a wonderful weekend.

We are going to go to Dave who is calling us from West Palm Beach. Mark, hold on in Palm Beach Gardens. We'll be right with you. Good morning, Dave. Good morning, Nancy. Everybody. This is Dog Walker, Dave, by the way. Hey, dog Walker.

Anyway. I haven't... I haven't... I haven't been calling, but I have been listening. I had an experience this last week that I have to share with your folks. We buy used cars, and I've never ever financed any of them, and we just pay for them. And so we were planning on buying a car around January, and so we went window shopping. And the first dealership we went to, we're walking up and down, looking up and down, looking.

at the Camrys, you know, the cheap, good conditions, but cheaper cars. And I ran across a 2019 RAV-4, didn't even have 20,000 miles on it yet. And I looked at my wife and my son, and I said, you know, I'm not leaving here without that car. And I was not prepared. I didn't have that kind of liquid liquidity yet. You know, I was January, I was going to have the kind of money I wanted to spend on a car. Now, I would have rather spent $23,000 than $30,000, you know, $34,000. And so I'm going to have to finance.

Well, I've never financed before. And so we begin the process, and actually, to me, it was quite stressful. but I had a great salesman. He was patient with me. He let me call a couple of my banks to see which one was going to give me the best deal, and I was going to finance through my bank. And as it turns out, I guess it's the used car manager, went and took some paperwork back, and he ran a credit check,

and he came back with exactly the same rates that I would have gotten from my, from either one of my banks, from Chase or Bank of America. And so we proceeded to do the deal, and I'm going to finance it. Well, it was the most stressful couple of hours of my entire life. I mean, sweating bullets, very nervous, what's going to happen? But like I said, I'm not leaving without that car. I don't care what they charge, nothing. You're not going to find a car with 20,000 miles like that every day.

um very very good people they were just fantastic and they they need a shout out uh that's vincent and jason i think and mr success himself julow we know who you're talking about you're following me yeah oh yeah it was it was like earls opened the show with you know your shopping experience listen, that as stressful as it was for me, it couldn't have been any more user-friendly. I've got to tell you, it was an experience, and I like the fish tanks, and I like that old Pontiac, and very nice, very nice. So I just wanted to thank you guys and for doing the show, but you did need to know about this. Now, I've got one more thing quickly. I'll probably try and get one of your guys to call me.

I'm going to text my number into you guys. And if you're interested, I might have a good idea based on a bad experience for a car shop, a mystery shop. Fantastic. Because I know you want to clean up the phone lines. But anyways, good to talk to you guys again. And I'm just going to keep listening. Just going to keep listening. Oh, thanks.

We love hearing that, Dave. You'll get the $100 for paying you for that free commercial. And we'll look for that text you're going to send. Have a wonderful weekend, Dave, and hope to hear from you again. Okay, we are going to go to Mark, who's been holding in Palm Beach Gardens and Roseanne. You hang on. I'll be right with you. Good morning, Mark.

Good morning, Tom. Nice to hear from you. Yeah, nice to talk with you and see you guys on the screen here. I find myself in a very bad situation. Anybody that knows me and maybe over the show years that I'm in the body shop business for all my life. My mangled Camry X-E is holding up your cement back there in the body shop. Our car, our 2017 Camry X-L-E,

was a hit by a guy that turned in front of my daughter, and he was clearly involved, ran a red light, and the car made in total. My scenario is that there were injuries in the accident, but everybody seems to be okay. But the question came up about prior unrelated damage. Now, Stu, this, Stu and Earl is really for you, guys. Now, depending on what the value is in my car, and I deal with the insurance company.

This should be in my wheelhouse, but I'm totally confused. The back of the car was parked in my parking lot at home, and some truck in the middle of the night a couple years ago crafting in the back of the car, and so we weren't driving it, but it had for the extent of damage somewhere around $7,000 and $8,000 and you guys fixed it back to perfectly new they had to replace the rear floor of the car so it was structural damage now this car is now hit in the front massive suspension transmission damage it's probably going to be a total but now when they come to evaluate my car and decide what I'm what they're going to pay me for it as it and they go and they say, okay, well, this thing was hit in the back before, how much do I, should

I expect to lose on the valuation because the car was previously hit? But it was put back to what I consider pre-accident condition. The job was spectacular. And again, I've been 37 years with auto shop business. And the second part of this question is, I'm a double ampute in a wheelchair, here and my daughter and my two granddaughters live with me and this is the only car for the household so we're going to need a car replacement after we get done dealing with the dollars and cents now we can't be without transportation we're a one car family if i decide i want a new car i'm in a really bad way aren't i for a new car yes um there are like like we've talked about the show and I know you listen I mean there's there are cars out there to buy um the the new cars

out there on the lots are definitely overpriced and you've heard the mystery shops um so there there are avenues you know you and if you're going to spend the money you can get a car uh a used car um is something that i would probably consider um it's you're not going to necessarily overpay for it for that and if you do your research listen to what we talk about on the show but you can get one immediately mark and mark double check what your insurance is going to he tells you it's easy to do. We can help your other dealers. It's pretty easy today to get a market value in any vehicle. So when you're settling with the insurance company, be sure that you get a fair allowance because you should, the reason you pay your premium is so that

when this happens, this very thing happens, you can have reimbursement that will allow you to stay whole and get another vehicle that will be as good as the one that you'd that you totaled that you had to replace so right and i and i want to stick with a camry even if it's a used camera um you know that's that's that's that's a car for me until the day uh the good lord takes me that's the kind of car i want so i don't know if we go through you guys to find a used camry or somewhere else but uh yeah my biggest concern is how much you know just because the car was in previous accident fixed I mean, did that say my car, let's say it was worth 20,000, but it's only worth 15,000 now because they had somebody hit you in the back a year and a half ago.

It does, I mean, unfortunately, I mean, and that's, I don't know exactly what kind of calculation, the insurance adjusters use, I mean, for, you know, to retail or to praise a car, you know, in a normal transaction, a prior accident is going to impact the value to some extent just because, you know, In the market of used cars, there's going to be a car just like it that has no damage, and that's going to be worth more. And so it has to be devalued this by some degree. I don't know to what degree a insurance adjuster, you know, they don't get to the same. It's probably more accurate today than ever because we have sources like V Auto and other sources to give the market value of cars based on their condition. If they had previous accidents, it's pretty much a science now. It was an art form 10 years ago. Today, it's a fairer good sign.

So if your insurance company is screwing around with you, you'll find out in a hurry because there are official sources, Mannheim, auction, V-A-A-A-O that can tell you pretty close to within a few hundred dollars with that car is truly worth market value. Yeah, and I don't want to hold up the telephones. But now one last quick question. You can tell me what I'm right or wrong. And, Stu, I left you a message on your office phone.

But you have to declare that, right? You have to declare that even though the car was not in a, the property was damaged at a previous time, even though it was sitting in a parking lot. It wasn't being griven. You have to declare that to the insurance company or whatever. I've already called an attorney. So I'm not, because there's injuries involved, you know.

the best I didn't have an attorney, but I was just wondering, you know, sad pitting more Oh, Mark, I'm sorry this happened to you. This is, what a mess. You know, that I've got to declare and say, hey, yeah, it was damaged. But there wasn't a, and when that happened, when it was, there wasn't, there wasn't a police report or insurance claim then? No. Okay.

No, there was an insurance claim because it was, it was a heavy amount of money. but anyway it is what it is and it will just have to lick our wounds and deal with it but anyway thanks for the info and i'll be able to talk to you guys sorry for your the predicament that you're in we love hearing from you but in this situation you know time and money is uh really a major for you so stay in touch with us and good luck in your search and uh yeah as i said give us a call back Yeah, and Steve, I'll be in to see you guys in the office. Oh, great.

Have a good weekend, oh. Bye, bye, Mark. Thank you, Mark, from all of us. I want to mention the ladies that I have spoken to this week, the ones that have called in the past, and just let all of you know that you've been so instrumental in, you know, us reaching, almost reaching our goal here at Earl Stewart on Cars. We have more ladies calling now than we thought we ever would, and I just want to extend a thank you to all of you. 877-960-9960, and you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30.

We are going to go to Roxanne, who's giving us a call from West Palm Beach. And speaking of first-time callers, Roseanne is a first-time caller. Good morning, Roseanne. Good morning. I'm actually parked at Earl Stewart right now. I'm bringing in my 2017 Rav 4. Well, what a great way to spend your time calling us. I want to extend the $50 to you.

And I'll tell you to stay on the line and speak with Jeremy in our control room. And he'll get me that information. And I'll get the $50 checkout to you. What can we do for you this morning? Well, as I said, I'm parked here at Earl Stewart waiting for my fourth battery on my 2017 round four, and I need to know what I'm doing wrong, that I keep burning up these batteries. Oh, geez. Well, Rick can help you out on that.

Rick's eyes are going or fluttering back and forth. He's the one to answer the question. You tell them you're talking to Earl Strel on the phone right now, and they better take real good care of you, or they're in trouble. Put us on speakerphone, please. They always take real good care of me, which is why I've come back for the fourth one. I love this place, but I just, I've got to be doing something wrong that I'm going through batteries like this, so help. Oh, geez.

Okay. First question, do you have smart key? Yeah. So it's a push-button start smart key system? Yes, sir. Okay. Do you park your car in the garage? All the time.

And do you ever leave the key near the car? The key is in the laundry room usually, and the laundry room is close to the garage. Try putting the key a little farther away to where it's like 40 or 50 feet away. The reason being, a lot of folks don't know this, smart key systems, the computer in your car is going to always look for that. smart key to a certain extent and if the key is nearby they actually will kind of ping back and forth they'll talk to each other just to see if that key is right next to the car ready to unlock the car and if it's close enough to the car 20 10 15 maybe 20 feet that computer will actually constantly be looking for that

key in a in a more active sense and it keeps using back battery power to do that. Putting the key farther away to where the computer cannot detect it, we'll actually let it go into a sleep mode and use less electricity that way, use less battery power. Yeah, if you go out of town sometimes, you really want to be careful because if you leave your key at home near the car, it's going to kill your battery when you come home. Right. And it can actually drain that battery down quite a bit in only a couple of days because that computer is using so much power. And another fact, factor that also can affect it is if your garage door opener is one of the newest models

where it actually has what's known as a smart feature to where your cell phone can open your garage door, those actually will communicate on a similar frequency. And again, the computer in your car will use battery power talking to that garage door opener. It's crazy, I know, but it's the modern world now. All these computers are talking to each other rosian can you believe that is that's unbelievable you know why i left my i left my key in my car and i got home after a week and my battery was dead so we just learned something new this morning from rick okay i'm going to take my cell phone into earl stewart with me so i'm going to shut the car off and talk to you service people thank you oh you're welcome rosan

give us a call again uh we are going to go to kevin who's calling us from buffalo new york good morning thank you kevin for holding on no problem thank you we're taking my call you're welcome emory texts this because emory always does a great job of texting in hers is on deck we're writing to get to it yeah she's great great question she brings up closing what's the advantage or disadvantage to buying a vehicle on a full frame? On a full frame? Like a truck versus a unit body. Well, I'm not like really a truck guy.

I do know that the full frame like trucks and SUVs or like a more recent addition, you know, I don't know what the differences. I mean, or the advantages are. Rick, what do you learn? The real, only the real difference. is that a full-frame vehicle is going to have a higher towing capacity. Other than that, there's really not that big an advantage anywhere.

It's just having that towing ability, which, of course, means having a full frame, much more weight and lower fuel economy. Are trucks going in the direction of cars? Cars used to have frames. Now they're unibodies. Are trucks being unibodies? Only a couple. Most trucks still have a full frame because you need that extra strength of the frame in order to pull heavy loads.

Makes sense, yeah. And in the truck world, towing is one of the biggest factors and the reasons for having a truck is to be able to tow things. But a lot of those popular SUVs, those mid-sized SUVs are unibody. Yes. Like the Toyota Highlander, I can speak to those, but the forerunner is still on a frame, like a truck. but most of the popular, like, family SUVs out there are unibody. Right, but they also have a much lower capacity for towing, so that's the only real change. Okay.

All right. A couple more questions. If I ordered a car now, and let's say three months from now, they come out with incentives on the vehicle. Would I be entitled to the incentives when I accept delivery for the vehicle even though I ordered it? Yes. Yeah, absolutely. And as a matter of fact, if you order a vehicle from, say, dealerships, that's not, you know, make sure that you're priced at the time of that future market. For example, like right now our dealership are selling vehicles at MSRP, but if the vehicle comes in six months from now and the prices have adjusted, we're below, we're going to adjust that price lower and make sure that any dealer that you make a deal with does the same.

And you'll have to have that in writing because they're not going to want to do that. And, but the fact that you have to wait, as Stu said, it's very likely, highly likely that six months from now prices will be much lower. So you don't want to lock yourself in with a big fat deposit at a price over MSRP or even at MSRP, for that matter, because the prices will be coming down. So they don't do that routinely. You have a contract. You buy a car and you sign all the paperwork. It's a contract. So in the contract, you need to say price adjusts.

to market in six months and some people just won't do that all right thank you my last question is what's the wait time if I wanted to order a wrap or a forerunner right now how long we'll take that one delivered probably about six months to six to nine months on a forer now if it's a TRD or if it's anything you know more that makes it more unique then extend that time all right thank you I enjoy Really, really enjoy your show. Thank you. Thank you, Kevin.

Our phone number here is 877-960-99-60, and you can text us at 772-497-6530. And don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. I think it's time for us to take a break and talk to Stu and to Rick. And if there are any phone calls come in, Jonathan, can you let somebody know so we can take it? Nancy's got to take a little break here. All right, let's go over to the text. Anne-Marie has one waiting for us.

He says, good morning. For years, you, I'm talking about you, Earl, you have warned people to watch out for outrageous fees and markups, such as nitrogen and the tires. Apparently, those are not the only fees to watch out for. Beware of loan markups at the dealership. For years, you have urged potential customers to check out the car loan rates at your local credit union before you go shopping.

This is very wise advice. Michelle Singletary's October 21st, 2022 financial column in the Washington Post spotlighted to propose $3.38 million federal trade commission settlement that exposed a business practice of marking up auto loans in an uneven discriminatory manner. The FDC accused a Washington, D.C. area automotive group of deceiving customers consumers by imposing illegal junk fees and discriminating against black and Latino customers through higher financing costs and fees. Dealerships can arrange financing for car buyers by submitting a loan application to one or more lenders.

The lender looks at the credit history, income, and length of loan, improves the loan for a certain annual percentage, known as the buy rate. Now some lenders allow the dealership to add a finance charge to the buy rate. This markup, this is the markup. Amory, this has always been the case. It's not a new thing, and we have talked about it.

if this is the market, the dealer doesn't tell the customer the buy rate, only the final contract rate for the loan. This is true. If the buy rate is not applied evenly to people with equivalent creditworthiness, then the dealership could be open to charges. And she attached the article and has some questions. I do want to say that when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau first opened up, there were some regulations that we had to adhere to.

And our loans, all the car dealers' loans that were arranged by car dealers were examined and they were determined whether or not there were higher markups to certain protected groups, including black customers and Latino customers, and the dealers would get letters. That was ended in the last administration said they don't have to do that right now. But yes, dealers do mark these up. And Amory's question was, do Florida dealers have the option to mark up loans? The answer is yes, and they always have. And I guess the second question, if so, is this common?

This occurs at every car dealership in the United States and every car dealership in Florida. And in some cases, the markups are greasious, and they push into the territory called usury. And there are some caps on the amount of markup you could do on new cars and used cars, but you would vomit when you hear the one on used cars. What's the cap now on a maximum rate in a use car?

Well, it's on 30%. Yeah, 30%. Did you hear that 30%? That's crazy. Yeah, there's a, the banks have what they call direct lending and indirect lending. Direct lending is what you get and what you should get from your bank. You go directly to your bank. You bank there.

You're a good customer. And they give you their best rate when you finance your car. They also, the same bank might even be working through your dealer. And with them, they have an indirect. Now, they have a good rate for the dealer, too, by the way. But the difference is they allow the dealer to mark up the rate. And some banks put a cap on it. Some banks don't put a cap on it.

If the, let's say, for the example, the buy rate, the direct rate, indirect, whatever, the bank actually charged, they might charge, let's say, 4%. Now, the legal limit for a new car fee, financing in Florida, for example, I believe it's 17.17.5%. So if there was a 4% buy rate, that dealer could be making 13% per annum on your loan, which is huge. The only regulation against that is the guy who is when you tell somebody with perfect credit you're giving a 17% loan, then he just turns around and walks out the door. Exactly. But a lot of people don't know. We had a customer called, we had a customer,

we had a listener called in earlier in the show. He'd never financed a car. He was going to buy a used car, and he did, and he financed it. He got a good rate. But he wasn't familiar. He didn't bank. He hadn't borrowed money before to buy a car.

He didn't know what it costs. So the rule, as Anne-Marie said in her text, always check with your credit union or your bank. Your credit union has got a better rate than the bank generally. And check, get those two rates, be armed with that information, then when you go to the dealer, he can show you a rate,

because sometimes the manufacturers, be it Toyota or General Motors or Honda or whatever, they have lending too. Sometimes they have special deals, like 1%, 2%, that's what I was going to say now. Now is those aren't really around right now just because of all incentives have been taken away.

Exactly. But in normal times, that is often the case. Your bank won't be able to beat the dealer, but that's not happening right now. So right now, with the amount of money people are financing on each loan is through the roof, the dealers are making so much money right now. And dealer interest rate markups, that's something you really have to pay attention to that. Normally dealers made a lot more money on financing than the actual pricing of the car, markup.

Today, because it's a seller's market, they're actually making more money on the selling of the car than the other. So now they're making a ton of money on the financing and another ton of money on the sales. So it's fat city for car dealers. They're just getting rich in today's marketing conditions. When I heard, sorry, when I heard Dog Walker Dave describing his experience at our dealership, and he said he was dead set. There was no way he wasn't leaving without that car. And I appreciate that, and that's wonderful and everything.

But that's a very dangerous mindset. But that's what cars do to people. They follow. He was prepared in our finance department to take any bit of abuse that we were going to throw at him. And he's lucky he was at our dealership. But at another dealership, if you have that mindset, you're in trouble. Yeah, absolutely. I'm sure everyone agrees with you.

And Stu mentioned normal times. Do you ever think that would be sitting here referring to normal times that used to be? Things have changed so much in three years, so much. So be careful out there. And as I always say, knowledge is definitely power. And if you don't have to buy right now, don't. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. Don't forget your anonymous feedback.com.

We're going to go back to the phones. is holding from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Marty. Good morning. How you doing, Nancy? Just great. It's nice to hear from you. I have a question when you talk about normal times. In the old days, which is two years ago, if you came in with a lease from another car manufacturer, you could buy that lease out. Now you can't. So my question is, if you order a Toyota and you have, let's say, a Honda, how do you, how can you order the Toyota when it comes in without waiting to your lease is up,

or is there any way around you buying that Honda? Well, when the, depending on the market value, and today it might be a lot easier than it would have been a few years ago before COVID, You can buy out your lease any time. The problem is that the lease residual typically in times past would be too high when you added the extra payments. Let's say you want to buy out your lease and make a deal on another car, and you had 12 payments left. You take the 12 payments, you add it to the purchase option price or the residual value.

that it would make it economically impossible or very difficult to make the deal. But today, with the high market value of the vehicles and the very low relative residual values or purchase option prices, you can actually make a deal and maybe with several months, maybe up to a year due on the car. So if there ever was a time when you want to get out of your lease early, it would be easier today, but I don't think it would be wise. I don't think it would be wise to try today because the prices of the car you're going to buy or too high.

Yeah, so would you say then try to time it so you get the new car when the lease is actually up? Yeah, or even beyond that, if your lease, let's say your lease is up next month, you can go to the leasing company and hopefully get an extension. Sometimes I wonder why they do it because they want the car back.

They probably realize now that you'll exercise that option. So they're still offering extensions. If you can get a three-month or a six-month extension, then you're buying time, and time will hopefully bring down the price of that vehicle that you want to buy. Okay. And the other question is, is when a car, comes in now a new car

if you have a lease on it are you charging a lot more for the lease? Oh yeah the leases are probably you know our cost goes up from we're a Toyota dealer so we have toilet leasing.

They are charging more for leases today they used to give us special residuals that would enhance the lease so that Actually, they were tied, I usually recommend buy over a lease. There were times when they would enhance the residual so high in a lease that it became economically favorable to lease a car.

And they don't do that anymore. The leases are sky high, just like the purchase prices are sky high. So it's six of one, half dozen of the other in today's crazy seller's market. It is strictly a seller's market. Yeah. Well, I ordered a car from you in March. This is now almost November. And the car, there's no insight as to when this car is coming in.

So I'm planning on a 20-24 out of it. You're probably wise. I'm so timid about saying this because I've been wrong for two and a half years. but inventories are going up, and new car inventories are going up. Average day supply, automotive news said two weeks ago, average day supply was 42 days. That's a lot of cars for dealers to have in stock. So we had a mystery, we had a caller in earlier in the show

that went into a Masta dealership, and he had a lot of cars in stock. That was in New Jersey. So we're seeing this. Our mystery shopping report today showed a dealership that had cars in stock. So in the past, the amount of inventory in dealer stock was much lower than it is today. That's a good sign. The more inventory, the more competition, and the more discounting. So I think the light is at the end of the tunnel.

I think you'll be in pretty good shape if you can wait a few months. Yeah. Well, I'm in no rush, but... That's great news, Marty. Really. I've called different Toyota dealerships here in West Palm, and nobody has a new car. If your car came in today, we would charge your MSRP, which is what we're selling our cars for. If it comes in, let's say, three months, and it comes down, we'll discount the car to the market value.

Maybe discount the MSRP $1,000 or $2,000, depending on what the market value is in three months. Yeah, I'm still waiting for the car I've got now. They discounted it at $6,800. Yeah. I don't think those days are coming. Marty, it's just amazing, isn't it? We used to talk about the good old days. Now we're talking about normal times.

The list is getting long, isn't it? Yeah, that was February of 2020. Interesting. I mean, it wasn't that long ago, but it was long enough in the carpet. Exactly. Exactly. Late years. All right.

Marty, thanks so much for the call. We love hearing from you. Okay. Have a good weekend, everybody. Thank you. same to you before hearing from you again February 2020 yeah next the next month the wheels came off interesting 877 960 9960 Texas 772497530 we have a great mystery shopping report coming up from Mike Maruni Chevrolet in West Palm Beach and I got a call from Jackson

and he is leaning towards the RAV-4, and he just wants to let the audience know that whether it's a hybrid or just one of those regular vehicles. He's too young to drive until I'm going to sell in the car. He's going to make his decision very soon. Okay, we're going to go back to the phones, and we're going to talk to Roadrunner, Steve. Welcome back, Roadrunner.

Beep-be. Good morning, everybody. Hope everybody is well. We are. My question is, if you buy a car, let's say car A and car B, the same model, but one is gas and one is electric. Now, when you go to the insurance company, whose premiums are going to be higher because of the fire theft and collision when you get that on the car, whose would be higher on that? I don't know. We haven't insured that many electric vehicles. So in our experience, well, I'll have to look that up. I mean, I know that the factors that insurance companies consider when they're determining, you know, to insurance a vehicle is replacement value is ultimately how expensive are the repairs and things like that. I don't know. I'll look that up. It all has to do with the market value at the time.

So I think electric vehicles are simpler. I think they're probably easier to repair, and there's less maintenance and repairs would be revolved. I don't know. That's an excellent question. We could probably do a little research on that. I did a little. I just called Colonel Google.

Well, the first result just basically confirms, you know, the intuition. Insurance for electric vehicle may cost higher than a regular gas powered because the higher price tag and more complex equipment means it has a higher replacement cost. Well, the reason I asked that, we've seen the cars that were in salt water go on fire, right? So that's why I was wondering about that. Yeah, that isn't, I'm glad you cleared that up. No, the electric cars are on fire getting a lot of press. Combustion engine cars get you on fire, too.

The battery issue is not as bad as it sounds. And batteries are being improved. So by the time it becomes a fact where half the cars or a third of the cars out there are all electric, you're not going to have any issue with battery fires. And I think the real question, like, for example, if you had a, I know you're saying two cars side by side, but a, you know, obviously a very expensive, you know, a $70,000 gas car is going to cost more to insure than a $40,000 electric car. So we're not comparing apples to apples, but it's basically on the cost of replacement. There's nothing special about electric car.

The reason I brought that up, I'm going to go back in time now, maybe before your time, in the 60s and 70s, when we had the horsepower ratings going up and the insurance. insurance companies caught on to that to charge you more because of the horse power. Well, that's a good question. That's an interesting question. I think that the reason they did that is because the people that would spend the extra money on a high horse power car were spending it for that very reason because it would go fast, accelerate fast, high top in, and that type of driver is not the type of driver in an insurance. company wants to insure. An electric vehicle driver, on the other hand, most of them, not me, because I bought my Tesla because it was fast, but most people buy electric vehicles for all the

other good reasons. So I don't think an EV as such would be penalized by an insurance company. Not for virtue of being an EV. As a matter of fact, I'm looking at us. Because it would go fast. Some insurance companies are now beginning to offer discounts for electric vehicles, including Liberty Mutual and travelers so that's dollar for dollar I didn't buy a fast car to go fast I bought a fast car because it was a chick magnet right so uh you didn't even have to you didn't have to go back that's why I still have my roadrunner insurance companies don't like don't like people that cruise around to try to pick up girls either so they probably know they're doing the day time I can't see at night there you go hey uh roadrunner Steve I got to call you

by your title now you know you really pick up our spirits here you really do we love hearing from you and if you want to go out and pick up chicks go do it all right everybody stay safe and well have a good day thank you steve look forward to hearing from you again we are going to stick with the phones and boy have we been busy today i think last week we were just as busy and uh rick has some comments on YouTube to get to, so don't go anywhere, and so does Stu with the text messages on Facebook. Actually, one quick note here from Donovan. He says there was a study done by the insurance industry in the beginning of 2022, and

EVs, electric vehicles, were 61 times less likely to catch on fire versus a gasoline car. Wow. We love Donovan. You give us a murder. Donovan is unbelievable. He's got great information. Every week he's got something for us. Thank you so much, Donovan.

We appreciate, you know, you educating us in all of you out there. Let me take advantage of the moment. I'll tell you what. Everyone is listening that is on Facebook, YouTube, everywhere. We appreciate your company, and we love the fact that you love us. Hey, 77960, text us at 772-4976530, and, And we'll have, we'll look for your anonymous feedback.com. We're going to go to Stewart where John has been holding.

Good morning, John. Good morning. How are you today? I'm doing well. I have a question. I went in, I drove a Nissan Santa Fe, and it was nice and everything. Had a few miles on it. And I asked, I said, does it have that, it was a Hyundai.

So I, however you say it. I said, is it like, got to 110? 10 years, 100,000 miles warranty left on it. He goes, no, but he said, if it was certified, he said it's not, but we can get it certified for $900. Does that sound right or what? That's a factory warranty by Hyundai? Yes, sir, right.

Yeah, the manufacturers warranties for certification are fair. You know, you want to read it carefully, even though it's a manufacturer's warranty and see what it does and does not cover. Warranties insurance companies and a warranty is like an insurance policy. They're very profitable to the insurance company and when the dealers sell them, they're very profitable too.

So, yeah, the peace of mind that you get with buying a warranty, that's why you do it, then do it. Economically, it's not a good idea, but if it makes you feel better when you're driving the car and it's a Hyundai warranty and for the certification it's a good it's it's the best best you can do don't buy one on the phone or don't buy one online and you see the advertisements about these warranties stay away from those manufacturers warranty is not a bad idea okay and then the other thing real quick is what's the big difference between a hybrid and a plug-in hybrid well plug-in hybrid is something that's only going to give you a 20 or 30 miles range without having to use the battery. It's, in my opinion, a regular hybrid is a better value. The plug-in hybrids are kind of rare.

There's not a lot of them out there. People like the idea of the sound, oh, I got a plug-in hybrid. But what do you really buy in yourself? If you live close enough to your job or wherever you go every day, that you can do a round trip on 20 or 30 miles. I just want to show me because he's Earl Hayton on plug-in hybrids. A plug-in hybrid is actually a great thing if you live, if you're mainly commuting locally. I give you a perfect example.

My son drove a plug-in hybrid. I drove one for a little bit. And he never used gasoline. But if you wanted to go on a trip and go a little bit further out of his electric range, and it was closer to 40 miles on a full charge. So he's able to go down to West Palm Beach daily and he never used gas unless he had to drive down to Miami, which he didn't have to worry about finding a charge. But how much more expensive are plug-in hybrids than regular hybrids? Brand new. There is definitely a premium. He got into a 2017, a used one, which was priced very similar to just a regular Prius.

So a used plug-in hybrid is great. And that's just a general thing that we should tell our listeners. like as more and more electric vehicles come on the market a lot of them they are prohibitively expensive for a lot of people but once they're on the use car market the whole the whole key is how much you drive per day right it's first for not for every driver right exactly and most people drive more than 20 or 30 miles a day yeah okay so if you had a hybrid that didn't use any gas I mean can you shut it off some way so you can use some gas so it doesn't get like messed up in your tank or something um yeah well you all you would just don't just don't plug it in again and after a you know after about 30 miles 30 to 40 miles the the charge goes out and the hybrid system kicks in there's not a switch to turn it to turn it off okay so the gas that's where you get to get the old gas out of the car yep yeah and you have to and you have to keep gas in it like if the gas runs out you can't just use it as a straight plug-in EV has to you have to keep fueled normally okay guys guys

Thank you. Thanks a lot, guys. And John, also, there's a lot of great articles in Consumer Report recently. Excuse me. There's a lot of great articles in the Consumer Report recently on a plug-in, as you just called about, on hybrid vehicles. Everything that you want to know before you go out and make a decision to purchase one or the other, so you might want to take advantage of that. Thank you for your call and have a great weekend.

you guys as well thank you bye bye bye bye we're going to go to a Rick who has some comments from you too we've got a few actually first one from John Strine he says my brother's been in the automobile business

for 28 years he tells me that Toyota has historically had a higher dealer holdback built into the MSRP than most other manufacturers is this true I don't think so

I don't know Toyota I remember one point increased holdback maybe 15 years ago I think it's totally Remember we're with the distributor So our holdback is enhanced By southeast Toyota But Toyota the manufacturer

Right the straight holdback that's just in the Invoice is 2% of a vase MSRP I believe that when you add Extra SET There is extra I Yeah, there's accessory holdback and other things that get. Yeah, there's distributors and there's direct manufacturers.

The holdback, I don't believe, is higher today. I don't think we're higher than it was. It might have been even higher before. If there's one accident waiting to happen, if there's one huge expose waiting to happen, is manufacturer, dealer conspiracy on holdback. To me, it's price fixing. When the dealer and the manufacturer get together and say, okay, we're going to add $3,000 to the invoice in your car and then secretly kick it back to you in 30 days. So you can show customers.

So that you can charge more to the customer. To me, that's price fixing. And even if it's definitely walking that shady, it's deception. Because that's the only reason it's used. I mean, there are ostensible reasons it's used, and then there is the effective way it's used in the showroom when a salesperson shows an invoice and claims it's his cost. Yep. Okay. Next one from Kirk and West By God, Virginia.

All right. Earl, what's going on with your next book? When's it coming out? They're not going to let you procrastinate one bit. I'm feeling guilty. I'll tell you how we have. The book is finished. and we're going through the editing, the proofreading, and the publishing, and it just loses it.

You know, I'm a procrastinator. What a journey. And it took, the work, the work, the fun work, the actual writing the book is over with. And now I have to get it out and get the publisher and do all that. You're going to get on that this week. It'll be out by the end of the year, I promise. Yeah. Yeah, we're going to finalize things this week for sure.

Right, Earl? Ask them again next week, Kirk. And from Negan 1 out in Arizona there, he brought up the story of the diesel fuel shortage that is pretty much hitting the entire world, but especially the U.S., Australia, Europe. The thought process is right now that we may actually see a runout situation by the end of November. and of course diesel fuel sounds like a minor thing all these guys are their big rolling coal

diesel trucks but if we run out of diesel fuel that's the entire trucking industry that delivers everything and trains across the nation and trains and boats moving everything around our products

we're going to see prices go up on everything with this crazy I didn't even hear that's the first I've heard we have two weeks I'm sorry 25 days left of diesel in the United States. Yeah, and that's a domino effect, just like everybody just chimed in and mentioned. It is a domino effect. This is going to get serious, folks, so hold on to your hats.

The good news is there are not that many diesel vehicles out there, comparatively speaking. Right, but they're on diesel shipping containers coming to the United States. I find that out this week. Except all those 18 wheelers out there hauling our goods around. I had three people looking for diesel, and they're nowhere to be found. Well, folks, you might want to consider gift cards for Christmas because trying to buy anything right now for Christmas time, prices are going to skyrocket. Do you shopping early. Good advice. Okay. Have we finished up over there, Rick?

Just one other quick note from Jonathan here. He says also the agricultural industry. Tractors and everything that grows our food, they all run on diesel. Good point. We don't think. think about those things. Okay, let's go back to Stu. Yeah, we had, somebody chimed in, and where did I miss it right here? It was, Bob had chimed in about, we were talking about last week the windshield wiper blades and keeping it clean, what are good windshield wiper blades. I can't find his text, but I remember what he said. He said, nobody mentioned actually cleaning the actual blade itself and he said use an alcohol wipe to clean off the edge of the

blade and that can sometimes stop the skipping and the squeaking just be careful not to use too much because that alcohol can also dry out the rubber and might be best just a little bit of windex or other glass cleaner on a paper towel and just gently wipe across the rubber surface of the wiper blade yeah those alcohol pads are great in moderation But they do really have a drying effect. So, you know, you pick and choose. Like Earl says, get a good coat of Rain X on your windows and you won't need the wipers for half the time.

That's right. Exactly. Also, Bob and Naples, who we spoke to earlier, he had just had a question. He saw on YouTube there was a way to turn off a smart key. There was an impressive button to turn it on again. Is that worth commenting on? Some cars, like the Prius, when they first came out with Smart Key,

key. You could actually hit a button to turn it off, but most cars now with smart key don't have that button anymore. Can't you take the battery out? You can, but it's actually quite a process on some of them. You've got to open the actual remote case, and some of them, there's even little tiny screws you've got to take out to get the battery out. And that text about the windshield wipers was from Roy in Denver. Denver, he's not to listen to us in Denver. Mile high. Yeah. Let's see. Oh, here's a question from an anonymous feedback from Don and LaBelle. Very specific. We know who you are and we know where you live.

I was in a rented 22 RAV4 last week in Nevada and noticed a weird unpleasant smell coming from the vents when first starting up using the heater. It went away after a few minutes. Why is there a smell? I'm looking at you, Rick. The heater turned on. House in the AC vents. Don, you cooked a mouse and you smelled a roasting mouse. It could be anything as simple as a little bit of mold or mildew

building up in the evaporator core. Some leaves or dirt had gotten in there and just something making that little odor. Toyota had a problem a few years ago where a smell of mold was coming on every time somebody turned on the air conditioning. And it had to do with the condensation issue. That was resolved.

that wasn't, by 2022, that was no longer an issue. Right, but depending upon the environment where you're at, it could be just something got in there and it's a little wet, messy in there, and at... It's in Nevada. There's a great incentive for you inventors out there, and I always think about why don't they have a little gadget? You could buy on Amazon that would detect odors and tell you exactly what it is.

Odor, your nose does it, your little molecules. and it tells you what it is a sensor and you can use it when the people come to what's that smell? I said wait a minute you turn the meter on I'd love to see that and I'd be an awesome device

my personal sense of smell is diminished as I've gotten older I'd like to have a device and just go push a button and go oh that's delicious pizza you need to call me I can remedy that problem I can just smell things from miles and miles

Let me talk briefly about this before we get into the Mr. Shopping report Jonathan in the studio here shared an article with us, which I first didn't take too seriously because it was from Car and Driver magazine. I always ridiculed car driver and motor train, a lot of these magazines, because they're in the pocket of the manufacturers, and they'll come up and say, oh, the Hyundai is the car of the year, the Honda is the car of the year, and they give the car of the year award

to the people, the manufacturers that spend the most money in advertising. But in this case, Car and Driver did an article, which is stunning. It's the first, it's a breakthrough that is, unfortunately, not a lot of people read Car Driver, but the title is Sympathy for the dealer. New car dealers just clocked their best year ever, and yet their future has never looked shakier. It is an excellent article. I haven't got time to read it. I wouldn't read it if I could.

I don't like to read things along things on the air. But if you can Google it and come up with this car and driver entitled Sympathy for the dealer, it's excellent. And when I read it, I realized how good it was because they gathered the information by talking to manufacturers and dealers who would not be caught. So you know you're getting the truth when the sources say, Please don't quote me. And that's literally true. The fact of the matter is they're predicting the demise of car dealers as we know them today. And why.

And they talk about the love-hate relationship between the manufacturer and the dealer, how the manufacturers would love to sell direct like Elon Musk does with Tesla. I mean, he came in. he broke the mold, he shook up everybody, and now he's one of the most successful auto manufacturers in the world. Number one, luxury manufacturer in the world. And 10 years ago, they were laughing at Elon Musk. They're not laughing at him today.

So, car and driver, sympathy for the dealer, find out what the world's going to look like in 10 or 15 years. If you don't think it shakes us up in the studio, because we're car dealers here. We have a toilet dealership, and we're thinking about what's going to happen in 10, 15, 20 years. We don't think we will have car dealers, and we see them today.

A lot of car dealers out there that have just spent a ton of money for a brand-new car dealership, you know, they bought out somebody else and paid them a huge amount of money because car dealers are making an absolute fortune today. But that's going to drop off a cliff, according to this article, sympathy for the car dealer by car and driver

car and driver magazine. Yeah, it really gets your attention without a doubt and folks take advantage of that. That's the sympathy for the dealer. Sympathy for the dealer. We have our mystery shopping report coming up and we ask you to vote at 772-497-6530 in the mystery shoppern report.

He's from Mike Maruni Chevrolet and West Palm Beach. Your vote is very important. So take advantage of that and join us in talking about the mystery shop and voting on it. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Okay, here's the report. Stu wrote this up, and Agent Lightning did the actual footwork. And I'm going to speak of this week one year ago. We mystery shop Mike Maroney Chevrolet on Oklahoma Boulevard in West Palm Beach.

It was just about a year after Mourney bought out the old Roger Dean Chevrolet, an icon of dealers in our area. And I talk about Roger Dean a lot. We're national now, and people from all over the country and the world listen to the show. But he was a local South Florida icon, originally from Ohio. There's still a Roger Dean Chevrolet, by the way. It's in Cape Coral, Florida. That was Ground Zero for last month's Hurricane Ian. and we check they're okay, which is amazing, the fact that they're okay.

They're open now, so. They're open, yeah. Here's a little bit of trivia. Roger Dean Chevrolet, Kate Carle was recently involved in a viral news story. Chevrolet of Volt driver was quoted $30,000 to replace a battery, a hybrid battery. On the 2012, on the 2012, 2012. How could they do that with a straight face? The dealership who gave the quote was Roger Dean Chevrolet, the customer posted a picture of the estimate on social media, and the story took off.

Roger Dean confirmed the plot, the photo was accurate, and released this statement. This is the official from their PR company. This is an estimate for a 12-year-old vehicle, of warranty, and for a battery that is extremely hard to get due to the older technology of the 12-year-old vehicle. out of warranty and for a battery that is extremely hard to get due to the older technology of the 12-year-old vehicle. The dealership does not set battery prices. In the newer EV or EUV vehicles with newer technology, the batteries do cost less. Think of it like a big screen TV. Remember, when the first big screens came out, they were very expensive.

And as the technology advanced, the prices became lower. This battery is also out of warranty, eight-year, 100,000 miles, whichever comes first. So this is a warm and fuzzy statement. I don't think it's that warm and fuzzy actually. That's my sarcasm. I said warm and fuzzy with very little condescension. Exactly. Back to the mystery shop.

Mike Morny, Chevrolet, did great on our prior mystery shop last October. It was around that time that the new and used car prices were really getting gritty. But Agent Lightning walked out with a price blowing. MSRP and an easy experience. Things in the new car market have been almost the same ever since. Agent Lightning returned to see if Mike Maruni can do that again. Here's a report speaking as if I were Agent Lightning. I arrived mid-afternoon back into a parking spot.

There were a few salesmen wearing blue polos hanging out in front of the dealership. I sat in my car for a minute as I finished a phone call. One of the salesmen headed my way, left my car. car walked to meet him he asked me if the car I just parked was a lease return I love that and lease return folks are hotter than hot today because you have a bargain price to exercise you exercise but option to buy your lease return and this is this is the time now if ever to take advantage of that and the dealers are trying to take advantage and they hope you don't know that you have a super bargain

So I love it, that Mike Maroney is not Mike Peruny, but AutoNation, that's who owns it. No, no, this is, this is separate from AutoNation. Okay. This is actual Mike Maruni. After he sold out to AutoNation, he came around and started buying some individual dealerships. That's right. That's right. I lost, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, there we go. We had Roger Dean, then we had Auto Nation, and we had Mike Bruney again.

He's back in the game. Yeah. I said, no, I purchased it now, and I wanted to buy another car. He probably looked discouraged. He nodded. Then I said, I like the Chevy Equinox and asked if he had any new ones to stock. He said yes. He still hadn't introduced himself,

but he had a name tag. And indicated his name was Alex. Alex told me the following. We made our way around the outside of the building to a lot outback with quite a few cars. Now, that's interesting, isn't it? I circled that on Stewart's report. Alex said he had both 22s and 2023,

and he said he believed it could save me some money if I went with the 2022. So here we are with a Chevrolet dealer with a lot of cars in stock. That means prices could be coming down. They are coming down, I believe. I said that sounded good to me. I picked out a white 2022 EcoNox LT with a tan interior. It was opened by I asked Alex to get the keys. He left me to explore the vehicle.

I got inside. and the MSRP was 30,000, 865. And I couldn't find an addendum. That's another good sign. I was sitting on the driver's seat of the Equinox waiting when suddenly all the doors locked. And the engine started. Alex had they activated the remote start to demonstrate it to me. It was effective in startling, mainly startling.

It would be startling to me, too. That's not good practice, I think, to lock a woman in a car. But especially a few days before Halloween. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Not a good start.

In your car, it could happen. Yes. He jumped to the passage side to him and drive off. At this point, he hadn't asked my name, let alone my driver's license, rather important information. That's unusual. So Agent Lightning killed him. He had yet to actually introduce himself either. We had a nice test drive along the way.

We talked about the car business and how much it had changed. He said he used to work at a toilet. dealership but he had to leave because they had no cars to sell did he work for us yes oh I'll be darned not even I said Alex Lee right he worked for us okay what's wrong with that nothing I just you know I like Alex we drove back and went yeah what's not to like I mean it's just guys got to make a living right this yeah we drove back and went inside Alex if I wanted to see some figures and I said I did we sat down he asked me for my name, phone number address, and my driver's license. He found me in the system, and he said

he saw I was looking at an explorer last year, and I said, yes, we didn't come together on price. Alex excused himself to get the pricing from his sales manager. He was back in five minutes with a worksheet. Well, that was fast. The selling price was MSRP, $30,000, $865. They added $9.95 in government fees, that's way too much money for government fees. And Stu said, what government? And a 9925 processing doc fee, but then they took off a $1,200 Chevrolet customer rebate, which is a manufacturer rebate. My out-the-door price was $33,601, and that's on a $30,865 MSRP.

Alex made a little check mark by the rebate and said, see, we did discount it. He said the $9.95 may come down once they check my credit. I don't know what that means. That's the quote. That was in a... Yeah, that's either stupidity or dishonesty. We don't know which. He went on to say they had other rebates I may qualify for, like the military incentive.

And $1,000 if I lived in the Hurricane Ian, a $1,000. affected area and filed an insurance claim. So, with all that nonsense, I said, I needed to talk with my other half and get back to him. Alex asked me to wait. So a sales manager would come and thank me for coming in. Sales manager came over, took my hand, shook my hand very firmly, and addressed me by my first name.

He did not introduce himself, but he did say that on Saturday and Sunday, they would be taking an additional $500 dollars off. many vehicles including the equinox that may or may not be true I asked why he couldn't give me the deal today he scrunched up his face that admitted a long strain well and then he said he was sure he could work something out if I committed to buying right now old school old school I laughed said thanks and I left so there we have it Roger Dean Sharvett yeah I included the the estimate that

viral, the $30,000 quote for the battery. Hey, on that battery estimate, I love how they got the big price on the battery, and then they've got the dollar 50 fee for the battery disposal on there. It's like, wow, you just

had to make sure you got that buck 50 on there, didn't you? Every penny counts. They don't drop that buck and a half. So here we have it. There we have a shopping report. Price-wise, I'm going to say, be generous and say half of those government fees are junk fees,

and add that to the, so about $1,500 in junk fees, I could be light, and $1,200 rebate. So it still turned out to be a pretty good price. Only a couple hundred dollars over MSRP. And again, we go with a lot of cars and stock. I mean, and I didn't know that the GM was offering rebates on, on, 2022 models. So I think what we're seeing now is the car makes of the lesser popularity, the lesser demand, are starting to build their inventories.

And that's why two weeks ago, there was a 42-day supply, of course, which is a lot of cars compared to weight. It's been for a long time. So the hot cars, the high-demand, low-supply cars, are still going to be high-priced. the lesser demand like Chevrolet and what else will we say fiat or you know Alpha Romeo well you know you could just look at the high demand low supply we all know what they are and and you're going to get so if you like an off-brand car that you could

probably negotiate and get a pretty pretty good price rollably speaking during the high you know during this time a price so it's time to start doing your shopping shopping. It's time, if you want to buy a Chevrolet, for example, start shopping around, getting prices, get competitive prices from several Chevrolet dealers. Six months ago, I'd say, don't buy a Chevrolet. Today I say you might want to feel out some dealers and see what they are. If you want to buy something else, you're still, if you want to buy a high amount of supply, like a Honda or Toyota or a Subaru or something like that, you're going to pay a lot money. I'm thinking there's something stirring here that there's like a there's a change in the

wind and you see that like in the grades usually when it's pretty obviously what's going on you know we get the grades coming in F F minus these are all over the place and my and my grade was nothing like this Jonathan Wellington gives him a D for too many junk fees Bob gives him a B that's a pretty big difference and Mark right up the middle with a and I'm inclined to go higher, I just think that if the purpose of us grading dealerships is to provide a service to the listeners, it looks like you can get a pretty good deal at Mike Rooney, Chevrolet. Yeah, they have the fees, but that's par for the course.

Yeah, the one thing about me was the salesman saying that the $9.95 fee could be negotiated based on, what do you say, once they run the credit? Once they run the credit. So that's totally, makes no sense. I mean, the price, if they did that, it would be illegal. You cannot charge a person with bad credit more than you do a person with good credit. So, as I say, Andy was he was. Maybe he was going to charge her less if she had bad credit.

Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I mean, so it was so stupid. I think it was stupid. I don't think it was dishonest. Well, I'd like, my grade is a B minus. Okay. Okay, Rick.

Got Joseph Kelleher with a D. Mark Anderson, Mark from St. Lewis C-minus, Alex not introducing himself not good. Kirk in West Buy God, Virginia, C-minus, but junk fees were high, although the overall price was reasonable. Negan won, D for junk. Let's see. Tom Steckle, C-minus, a bit deceptive on the fees, no addendums. FYI, Wes Haney, Chevrolet, and Live Oak is a no-fee MSRP dealership. Tim Gilliland, C, Scott Hunter, C, C, Brian Cidlaco, C plus, Mark Ryan, C plus, Michelle S, C, C, unprofessional, and too many BS fees.

Myself, I'm going to go a little above that. I'm going to say a B-minus, didn't like the no introductions, they could have been a little more personable, but I think she actually got a pretty reasonable price on it. You know, it's, for me, you know, I'm on the fence and I tend to be a little more lenient this morning. And I like the couple hundred dollars over MSRP, but here we go again with junk fees and what the hell is a government fee.

I mean, what is that? Please. Anyway, with all that said, everybody hang on to your seat. I'm going to give them a B. Wow. Wow. So highest grade I've heard from you on the entire show. I just have to bend a little more. Well, we have some grades on Facebook, too, that are kind of in line with your grade. Mike Maroonie gives him an A. I'm just kidding.

Andrew, Andrew on Facebook, says, good report from Rooney, gives him an A-minus, and Martha gives him a C. So it's down to you. I'm going to give them a C minus mainly because of what Andy Lee said about the about the $9.95 fee. I mean, it was a suspicious statement, but I won't. I'm not going to give him.

Maybe Agent Lincoln can call back and just ask for clarification on what he meant. And we'll report on that next week. Yeah, Andy, give us a call, man. Yeah. I want to hear from Agent Sprinkle. I like that. And I've got a couple others here to came in. Mark Smith with a C plus.

Wayne Veit with C. Michael says, D, too many dealer fees. And that credit fee is BS, $2,000 in dealer fees. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, well, we all have an opinion, and we have to have a, you know, a good dealer, a bad dealer list. And that's what I base my grade on.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us here at Earl Stewart on cars. We enjoy your company and hope you have a great weekend. We'll be right back here at the same time, 8 a.m. Saturday morning. Let me Go! I'm going to be able to be.