Earl Stewart on Cars - 10.30.2021 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Sutherlin Nissan of Fort Pierce

Episode Date: October 30, 2021

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits a local Nissan dealer to see what they have on the lot and how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2022 Nissan Kicks. 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 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. Your automotive team is back live, right here in the studio in North Palm Beach, Florida. Speaking to all ships at sea, all around the world, we're international and we welcome one and all from any country, any place we're focusing quite well in the United States

and even South America doing a little bit even in Bali and we've got listeners gosh all over Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, so we're streaming we're

available to you in many ways and we always talk about you making the show. It's not a cliche or just a saying. It's a fact. We do base our show around your questions and your comments and your criticisms. We're all about the retail automobile industry and how we have a responsibility to treat the consumers fairly and honestly, ethically. This is a capitalist system in the United States. In fact, most of the world is kind of capitalist now, at least the successful countries. One unsuccessful.

I'm a bigger buddy. I'm sorry. One successful country is not. Whatever. So anyway, supply and demand, and we're in a situation now unprecedented in the world where the supply of virtually all products is plummeted. The demand has soared. Very complicated.

History books will look back on this era. Maybe they'll call it the COVID era. I'm not sure what pandemic. But it's created a real challenge for the consumers. And if there ever was a time for an educated consumer, it's today. I'm being distracted here by my son who is, oh, he's loading up my iPhone so he can get his Facebook streaming. So as I say, you can stream us on Facebook.com forward slash Erlon Co. cars, YouTube.com, forward slash earlund cars.

And you can also stream us at just earluncars.com, streamerlingcars.com. W.W.w.com stream earlongcars.com. We're going to find out now if you want to buy a car, use car, new car. I think service to some extent, too. You're going to pay a whole lot more. Nancy and I were having a heated discussion on the way to the studio about the ethics and honesty of what is going on now because dealers are charging sticker price if you're lucky if you find a car below sticker price that's MSRP aka the Monroney label you're really really lucky car dealers that typically will have 200 cars in stock or 300 cars in

stock will have half a dozen or a couple dozen maybe and that's all they're going to get until next month and then how are they going to make a living if they charge the same price they charge you when they were selling 300 cars a month and they only sell 10 well you've got a problem and the dealer has a real problem and it ain't going to happen dot com he's going to raise the price supply and demand so your choice is between the rock and a hard place frankly if you have to buy a car today we're going to tell you how to get that better price we're going to keep you some dealers out there that will treat you honestly and transparently. We consider dealers, if you're a capitalist system, if you're a free enterprise system, we say, oh, it's okay

to charge more. I mean, you remember mad cow disease? Remember when all the cows were dropping dead? And if you wanted to buy a steak, what it cost? It cost you a lot more than when there were too many cows. And the same thing with chickens. The same thing with bread, the same thing cars and oil and oil and so you're going to pay more and that's see that's the system now if you want to live in a communist country I mean a true communist country I don't just mean countries that we say are communists but I mean true socialism to communism where the government requires you to charge what they say then you can probably buy products for much less than you could

somewhere else problem is you'll find those countries there's no products to choose from because because nobody wants to sell products and not make any money. Making money is a good thing in America, and we think it's okay for businesses to make money, but we want you to be, if you're a business, we want you to be honest and transparent. And you're advertising and your quoting of price, etc. So unfortunately, car dealers don't always do that. That's why we're here. www.herl and cars.com. That's our blog. And you can stream this, as I say, stream. Orlancars.com, or you can listen to us.

Because we're on the radio right now, you've got to know that our telephone number, the old-fashioned number I call it, 877-960-9960, 877-960, 960. We love phone calls. Nancy Stewart, my co-host, sitting to my left in the studio. She is monitoring her computer carefully,

and every time a call comes in, bam, comes up there, we can take maybe three or four at a time, and then we have to get to them, or you get a busy signal, or you get a, you know, we can't answer the phone. So we prioritize phone calls, 877-9-60-9960. If you don't want to call and speak to us live, you know, live radio is kind of scary.

I mean, I'm looking at Rick. He's always a little nervous. I'm nervous. Stu's nervous. We're all nervous in here. That's just my normal temperament. Exactly, yeah. But, I mean, let's face it, adrenaline, if you're alive and thousands of thousands of people around the world, I just terrified myself.

I'm only nervous when you put me on the spot and say, okay, I'll turn it over to stew now. And then I'm on the spot. Yeah, and I'll improvise. Yeah, and so it's fun. Adrenaline is, it gets the best out of people. I think athletes perform better when they have that. Excuse me. I'm from the silent generation.

Yes, we are. I'm very calm. Yeah, so always. I don't like that. that label, but we are, we are, we are, we're 1940, Nancy's 1942. Anyway, we're silent. Anyway, so I'm not so silent and I'm going to continue to preach transparency, the honesty and ethics, try to help you out any way we can in the studio, and I've been talking all about buying and selling cars. Rick Kearney, our certified diagnostic master technician,

on the job, ready to explain to you how you can keep. that car you've got now running for a while longer and you know why that's real important now because you don't want to buy a car today and people out there saying what is he a car dealer did he really say that you shouldn't buy a car today yes and actually it's in a way is I'm actually working for myself because I've also learned as a car dealer if I'm honest and transparent you will buy a car from me so if I tell you the truth and say don't buy a car today buy a car in two or three months, maybe you'll come and see me or you'll see another honest

dealer. So in the 21st century, the smart capitalist, the smart businesses have learned that building a brand of integrity and honesty, Apple is an example. Amazon, I mean, I'm not saying Apple's perfect. I'm not saying Amazon's perfect. I'm not saying Costco is perfect. But the companies that out there that you think of as being good companies are the ones you like to patronize. So the more and more of that catches on, the easier it's going to be on you, the consumer, and that's the purpose for the show. And before I continue with my tirade, my, you know, soliloquy, I'm going to turn the show over to Nancy Stewart, my co-host. She's our female advocate. She's been the founder of the show, she was the founder of the show

with me many years ago, and she's got some super ideas and some suggestions for you ladies at the audience. The mic is yours. Thank you so much. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our international, international Earl Stewart on Cars. And I have to thank Jonathan for all of his findings and his curiosity on researching listeners from Jupiter to Rome. And Jonathan wears a lot of hats, and he certainly did investigate this topic, and it certainly made all of us very happy to know that we are helping so many of you everywhere, and we want to continue even more so today in this climate that you're trying to purchase a vehicle in.

Ladies, you win yourself $50 this morning, the first two new female callers, You win yourself $50. Take advantage of that. I know you can use it. We can all use an extra $50. Give us a call toll-free at 877-960. And for everyone else, you can text us by getting in touch with us, or you can take advantage of YouTube.

That text number is 772-4976530. We certainly have an interesting mystery shopping report. And as always, Stu has added his talent and eloquent writing to, in all of his time, to the mystery shopping report. And he is back, and we're happy for that. Also, we are going to go straight to the phones right now because Howard has been waiting since the show started. Good morning, Howard. Welcome. Good morning.

I hope you all are well. And my question for you today is about the Camry and I believe the Ultima and probably other cars have switched to all-wheel drive. I know the Camry is now all-wheel drive. My question is why, and when did this happen? Well, I don't know. Anybody know when the all-wheel drive? How are you saying when Camry and Ultima switched all-wheel drive or when all-wheel drive became an important thing? It's not universal, obviously.

Exactly what's your question? Okay, let me clear it up. If you're going to buy a Camry today, it's going to be all-wheel drive. If you're going to buy an ultimate today, they're all-wheel drive. And this was changed recently. So my question, is Rick there, by the way? Rick is. He sure is.

Yeah, right here. Oh, so he knows the answer. You might know the answer. We're all here, Howard. Stu, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you can get a front-wheel-drive family. Yes, you can. They didn't switch all over. I mean, Toyota and other car range was very interesting introducing all-wheel drives

is because it's an easy. You don't have to switch it in. It's got better traction, all the other benefits for it. But no, they're not, they haven't switched over completely. Okay, so in other words, you can get a, let's say, we'll talk about Toyotas now. You can buy a Camry, that's not all-wheel drive. That is correct? Yes.

Because it's totally possible, but one day you might not be able to. I personally think all-wheel drive is a far superior technology, but they haven't done it yet. Okay, so now my question to you is this. If you live in Florida, why would you want all-wheel-drive? I know if you live in New York State, it's a good thing to have because of the snow. But why would you need all-wheel drive in Florida? Rain. Have you seen our rains?

Yeah, snow is just an extreme example of lack of traction. I mean, there are all sorts of degrees of lack of traction in just about any place you live. So as Rick said, you have rain, you have a slick road. So supposing you have oil on the road, supposing there's a spill of some kind, suppose there's mud. I mean, there's any number of various things that will create a loss of traction.

So the cool thing about all-wheel drive is just that. It keeps all four wheels more securely on whatever you're driving on, be it the dirt roads or the ice or the snow or the rain or whatever it is. It's a super far superior way to, you know, You know, it's just, I wish all-wheel drive were universal right now. Okay, my next question is, what about the gas economy of a two-wheel drive car and an all-wheel drive?

The same car, but one is all-wheel, the other is two-wheels. Well, how does this affect the gas economy? You might see a small dip in economy with an all-wheel drive, but not as much, because most of the time the computer can control whether it's actually in all-wheel drive and it can send the power where it needs to. But that's a great question, Howard. My first impulse and the reaction was exactly what Rick said, but I'm not so sure. I think that a properly designed all-wheel drive, once the technology is really refined,

it would be more efficient. When you have the traction applied to the road, exactly where it should be you were more efficient if you spin a wheel or because it's not well there's also the increased weight factor the the added components yeah let's tell we'll check it out the fact is there on fact I see Stu's over there maybe he's Googling yeah I'm I'm over in Toyota site to see if the difference is by the way I'm looking at and it's a bunch of stuff that breaks down the individual trim levels it looks like there's a difference of one or

two models between all the models so it's it's not a significant difference between all-wheel drive and the front-wheel drive. Pretty close right now. I foresee a day I'm just guessing on this that all-wheel-drive will actually have better fuel economy, but I could be wrong about that. Well, there's also the huge safety factor. I mean, by having better control of the car, you've increased safety to me, which is much more important than saving a few pennies worth of gas.

I agree with you, Rick. It's major. That's my, would be my point. Okay, my last question on this subject is, how many axles does an all-wheel drive have compared to a car with two-wheels ride? Well, right now on a standard gasoline car, you'd have your two front axles, then you would have a transfer case, a drive shaft, a differential in the rear, and two axles out to the rear wheels. Now, however, on a hybrid, all-wheel drive is much more simple to accomplish because you've got your front drive unit with the axles out to those wheels, then you have a rear motor and two axles out to it, but you don't have to have the big transfer case or the drive shaft. So you simply add one extra motor with two axles, and boom, you've got all-wheel drive on a hybrid, and you've got the best of all the worlds. Well, that's a great advantage to buy a hybrid.

That's one of the positives of getting a hybrid. And my next question is, how much more is a hybrid than a regular car now? I'm talking about Camry. I think of an example, about $2,000. L.E. Hybrid is, Camry hybrid, has MSRP, and that's the selling price, 27380, and the L.E. is 25,300. Yeah, Howard, just like all new. technologies when the hybrid first came out, they're a lot more expensive. And then the prices

have dropped by supply, volume, and efficiency. So electric cars will be the same way. And I'll also let you know that it's not just the hybrid system. Usually when you have the hybrid, a lot of times it comes with some other stuff. Just like for the example, the Camry, the non-hybrid doesn't have a smart key system. The hybrid does. So that probably adds a little bit to the price. And And there's some other options that are unavailable on the non-hybridges. So there's other, you know, it kind of justifies the difference in price a little more. With the gas going up now, I guess there's a big demand for hybrids. Am I correct?

Well, it's kind of hard to decipher that because nobody has any cars. So we can't really judge our, you know, our Prius or hybrid sales because nothing's going up. We don't see, you know, with the gas prices going out there, there's a surprisingly little conversation about it. I mean, years past, you know, gas went out three cents a gallon, everybody got hysterical. People just seem to be, you know, one time a little swinging gas prices, they stopped buying trucks and fans and SUVs and started buying smaller cars. It doesn't happen anymore. So people are gravitating toward the larger vehicles, the hybrids, and gas prices almost seem not to matter so much anymore. Very interesting.

Okay, thank you very much for the information. Hey, Howard, before you go, I have a question for you. You still there? Excuse me? Okay, I have a question for you. This is Nancy Stewart. Howard, personally, does your vehicles, are they much different from each other? I believe that you have the best of both worlds where you're in New York and Florida.

That's where I'm not calling you from New York. Yeah, so for the seasons for you, you asked about the four-wheel drive. Would that apply to your lifestyle? Something you would need? Let me say this. The next car that I get will have to be an all-wheel driver, so I'm stuck here. They're doing the work on my condo in the Bronx, New York,

and I have to stay here until it's finished, so I won't be coming down until after Christmas. And believe me, two-wheel drivers is not a good vehicle to be driving in New York, because of a slippery condition. not even the snow, the rain, and the icy conditions, a four-wheel drive would be much better. So therefore, my next car will be a Camry four-wheel drive. I see. Which I think is very happy about this because I never thought the Camry would come into,

would have a four-wheel-drive option. Absolutely. Well, we used to have one back in the 80s. There was an all-wheel-drive Camry. really oh yeah but they they did away with it because at the time it really just didn't sell well and it wasn't really efficient it was the idea was ahead of its time but now they're they're looking at it again yeah right okay it does make a difference as to you know where you live and where your second home is I know when I

was in Pittsburgh a four-wheel drive was very important to me Howard thanks so much for the phone call. We all enjoyed the conversation. And keep well. Keep safe. And I'll be seeing you after Christmas. Good luck with that condo. Okay. Bye-bye. Thank you. 877-960-99-60. And we're going to get back to introductions. Rick definitely is here. You heard him earlier without his expertise and free, free, free advice. I can't emphasize that enough. And Stu, is also back. I'll send it back to Earl. Well, let's get us some text or anonymous feedbacks or something. Oh, I'd love to. We have Amarie's kickoff tax waiting for us.

Good morning. Oh, she sent another one just now. Okay, I got confused. Good morning. Toyota has a well-deserved reputation for building good, reliable vehicles, but good things don't last forever. Rick, at what point, year, do parts on various models start wearing out and becoming less reliable? For example, does a camry start nickel and dimming its owner at 10 12 or maybe 15 years what about corolla's what about ralas what about ralas what parts are the first to wear out the tires tires that's what we think the same way how many years how many years of happy carefree driving can i expect assuming proper maintenance before my vehicle start spending more and more

time in the service department than in my driveway oh i i could go for about four hours on that let's start with really just just in a simple across-the-board statement depending upon your driving style and your driving habits any car can last phenomenal age and miles nowadays except for I'm gonna say the big ones the tires the brakes the air filters the the fluids that you're normally the oil that you're normally gonna change out which is normal maintenance to me wear and tear items believe it or not light bulbs are lasting

way longer than it used to be you replaced a headlight about every 30,000 miles. No, not anymore. Drive felt so we used to replace every 30,000 miles. As usual there are 100,000 now. As usual Ann Marie has hit on a prophetic question because

what we're seeing now is few and fewer moving parts. Replacement parts are replaced because they move. When you don't have any moving parts, you don't have anything to replace. And as we get into all electric autonomous vehicles, essentially you're going to have a car that can last, not literally, but virtually forever. It'll last you. I predict that in the future, cars will last longer than

their owners. I just think that... Like houses. I mean, yeah, exactly, a perfect example. So, yeah, only reason we have to worry about obsolescence and maintenance and repair. Cars might be passed down from generation to generation. Exactly like watches. This is my great granddaddy. hybrid you know the only reason I think that they won't see that sort of dedication and and longevity on it is because the safety features again and the computerized updates are going to come along so quickly that the older cars are going to quickly become very outdated and but the new ones are going to be so much better but the new cars when we have the the um within 10 years the fully autonomous all electric car with a thousand mile range

and you're going to be those cars are going to be like the stew said you're going to be passing down be like passing down your your watch to your son and your son it's just a five years after that you're going to have a car with 2,000 miles range well I mean just I'm just saying I see this great future coming but if you have a watch that is accurate to within one second a year Do you need one that's only an accurate to a half a second? I don't think so.

And if you have a car that will give you a thousand-mile range, what do you need a car for 2,000-mile range? You go to Alaska. I'll say one thing, then I'll shut up on it. Yeah, I'll bet. Ask the people who buy an iPhone every year. Well, thank you. An iPhone.

Yeah, they can give you some new feature. iPhone is just not having a longer battery life. iPhones are having incredible changes in technology. So iPhone is a multiple-faceted, multiple-purpose computer. It's a telephone, it's a camera, it's a flashlight, it's all these things. A car in its purest form, it tells you one thing. It gets you from point A to point B safely and quickly. So all you're doing is it's moving, you're moving you from A to B.

Our iPhones are complex. If you have a car, they will get you safely from Miami to Paducah, Kentucky in 20 minutes on the highway safely. Who wants to get there in 10 minutes? I mean, it's just a matter of, a matter of, you know, how close to perfection do you want to get? Anyway, it's exciting times we live in. It definitely is. Take a look at what we were talking about last week, or you and I may have been talking about it. Consumer Report. They came out with this report that tells you how long tires last now.

You know, they went into detail, 70,000 miles. And that's quite a statement. Well, tires will last the life of the car. Tires won't wear out. There's no reason why a tire should wear out. So it's just a question of technology. If you can imagine it, if you can think about it, it will happen. We're in that most exciting time of human history when our quantum computing, our artificial intelligence, the capacity of our computers is such that we can build anything that we can imagine. So enjoy the ride. I think that also what's important is what Rick pointed out, the driver. It depends on the driver. Who's behind the wheel with that vehicle?

We don't need drivers anymore. cars are autonomous and they will go there without the driver if you want to send your grandmother pumpkin pie you put a pumpkin pie in the car and say this take this to grandma you don't have to be in the car so what we have is transportation

of anything at any time totally safely in an incredible amount of times with no maintenance so we're absolutely ladies and gentlemen you heard it right here all the information we have to share with you is free

can't go wrong with that ladies $50 for the first two new lady callers take advantage of that 877 960 9960 and we are going to get to Linda who's been holding for quite a while and I thank you for your patience Linda good morning good morning thank you and thank you for taking my call I actually have written an email to Earl which I don't even know if I did right so I'm going to read this from my email. And what it says is I'm an older lady with a very upsetting problem I'm going to have to take some action with today. But before I go further, I'm a yesterday person. I don't use a computer well. I just carry a track phone for emergency. My car is the 2016 Honda HRV purchased new at Johnson on the April 2016.

Since that time, I've been going there for service. Any service I've had has been there. Oil changes, tire rotations. The last time I called to make an appointment, my service advisor had left. I'm an old person. I get used to people. I hate change.

So I ask the service manager, who I had never met before, to recommend someone like with the same demeanor to deal with me, and he did. So I made an appointment with the service advisor, took the car in, and I waited while they did the oil change, tires rotated, cabin filter changed. Two hours later, I paid, and I drove off. That day was October 21st of this year.

My mileage was $36,000 to $25. each day since then I've been out in the car doing a few errands, basically around town, et cetera. I always pay attention to the symbols on the dash and had seen no alerts. Yesterday, it's like eight days later, I'm driving on US1. I'm about four miles up the road from my home. I happen to push the knob that changes the information regarding mileage, and so forth. And it read oil life 15%. Well, it had said 20% when I took it for service. Now eight days later, on 1029, it says 15%. So as I was near home, I drove on home and called the service

advisor. He said he'd never seen that, not restored after service, but said most likely it was just the computer thing that wasn't done. So it was now about 6 o'clock at night. I asked him if he'd be there today, Saturday. He said he would. I said, would you please adjust it for me? I'm not comfortable with this. So he said yes. I wasn't really comfortable. I was upset, and I was wondering had my oil really been changed, so I decided to go into the garage and check my own oil, and I had a big surprise because I had no oil. So I rechecked it, to be sure, and I called back. I talked to the service advisor and told them, and I asked to talk to the service manager.

The manager, he said, wait until morning, check it again, because I had been driving. Now, my father was a mechanic and had a garage in the 60s. I pumped gas. I do know how to check the oil, and, I mean, there was no oil. So I was getting more and more upset by the minute. I backed the car slightly out of the garage just a few feet, and it looked like sometimes there's water that comes underneath the car. I touched it.

It felt like it might have a little oil in it. I'm going to say, I'm not sure. If it did, it was maybe a half a quart. No, not very much. And by this time, the little wrench on the icon had appeared on the dash. So the third time I called again, and he's very calm about it. Oh, he says they'll send someone out in the morning with oil, and I can follow them back to the dealership, which is about five miles.

Now, that's today. I don't know what to do. I feel very vulnerable. I don't feel confident. And I'm very upset. Well, Linda, I would recommend that you don't drive the car, that you have the car towed, and certainly they bear up. lot of responsibility here. A lot of things need to be cleared up and you need to, you've

got the service manager's attention. I would even suggest you get the general manager's attention because if they made a mistake, it could be very, very expensive for you and it should be their responsibility. You just have to get to the bottom line, but they should pay for the tow. Do you have AAA or any other road service insurance, anything, road hazard coverage? think through my progressive for my auto insurance, I've never used it, but I think I do have knowing. Even if you end up having to pay for it, they should pay for it, but I wouldn't risk driving it then. Rick, you take over from here. Before Rick says anything, Linda, I want to let you know, this is Nancy Stewart. I'd like to shut some light on the feelings that you just shared

with us. I want to let you know that you are a very knowledgeable female, and you emphasize that you were older, that you were older. It doesn't sound that way to me. It sounds like as if that you know exactly what you want, you know exactly how to get it, and you know whether you have been bamboozled or not. So I want to put that out there for you, and I think that you are going to get this problem taking care of ASAP. Now I'll turn it over to Rick. Thank you so much. Linda, I really can't give you any insight that you haven't already gotten. My opinion, you obviously you know how to check oil. You've got it nailed in. There's no oil showing on the dipstick. They didn't reset the meter, which I can understand sometimes if there's, you know, somebody's in the, they might forget

to reset that maintenance reminder should not happen but you know sometimes that can happen but the fact that there's no oil showing on that dipstick that is a huge red flag for me I would totally agree with Earl have the car demand that they tow it to the dealership I would stick with polite persistence be nice but don't take no for an answer I would make them tow that vehicle to the dealership, I would tell them, I want to see at the minimum, I want you to stand there with a camera and video record while they pull that drain plug and show how much oil comes out, or you stand there yourself with a camera and record it while they pull that drain plug to see how much oil comes out of that engine and get the, go right to the top of the dealership.

Somebody big time goofed up, and this could result in Dan, to your engine if it's not taken and handled in a proper manner I'm sure you're well aware of that from just from your knowledge from your dad so yeah you're doing exactly correct the only thing I can offer is you know polite persistence is the best way I would have for an attitude on it and go right to the top I appreciate that I can't videotape anything I mean I have a have a track phone yeah I mean I'm just a non-tech person I can write everything down, which is what I do.

I'm old, and I'm just not good. Tell the service manager to record it on his phone right there or the service advisor. I guarantee they'll have smartphones with video capability, and you want that recorded. And if you have a friend that has a smart phone, I've sent it to that. But at the minimum, make sure that's taken care of. Linda, I'm going to disagree. You can ask to witness it or something like this. Once you come in with cameras and recorders, you're creating confrontational.

Johnson Honda has a reputation, a good reputation. And we've shopped them before. I think if you look at their Google ratings and some of their other ratings, they're a respectable dealer. And if you can get through to them, you've already talked to the service. manager, general manager, you need to get them involved, but take a positive attitude and non-confrontational, and I don't think you're going to be taking advantage of it. I think someone made a mistake.

We've done the same thing in our dealership. Unfortunately, oil has changed sometimes by the youngest guy in the dealership in terms of the service department. It's a starting position, and oftentimes they're not trained properly. Mistakes happen, and a good dealer like Johnson will probably admit this mistake, but I wouldn't be I wouldn't demand anything be videoed or photographed you know when people are put on guard like that they think lawsuit they think you know and then they stop being friendly and consider but if you're nice they'll probably respond in kindness I think they'll do the right

thing if not you call us let us know you know and I'm going to close by saying your continued care for your 2016 will take you a long way and has and that's proof right there that you're educated and you know how to take care of a vehicle and you want to continue to take care of that vehicle with the help of having the oil changed properly. So with your continued, I'm not going to say aggressiveness, but your continued persistence, thank you, Stu, your continued persistence is certainly going to take you a long way as it has in the past. I commend you. You're my kind of girl. You went out there and you checked your oil. That's exactly

what I would do. No job, too big or small. I don't have a lot of things in my life, and I appreciate the car that I have. I had the last one for 16 years, so I try to take care of what I have. By the way, I do save the old Earl Stewart that comes in our hometown news, and I happen to pull it out, which is why I read your car's oil pan couldn't be an Achilles' eel. And that was from 2015 that Earl wrote, and I saved that and read it this morning. I saved things that I think are worth saving. You're amazing. Thank you.

Should I watch when they? I don't know if they'll let me watch anything. Well, sure, yeah, I think that's valid. I think they should let you. I mean, some dealers will say, no, our insurance doesn't allow you back in the shop. But I would say, please, may I watch you? Please, may I watch my oil being checked? I think they'll say fine.

You know, I think sometimes, you know, part of it's a show. We demonize dealers, and sometimes we don't give credit to the good dealers enough. And there are good car dealers out there more and more, I think, hopefully every day. And Johnson Honda, from the time they came in, when they built their store in Stewart, they're near the toilet dealer. And we watched them for a long time. And we've never had any terrible reports on Johnson. on our recommended dealer list. So hopefully you'll have a positive experience.

I hope to hear from you again, Linda. Thank you. Well, I'm waiting for them to call me and tell me that they're sending someone, but I will ask them if they could please do the towing. Oh, thank you. That's great. All right. You know what you want.

Thank you so much. We'll be right here for you when you do get back to us. Ladies and gentlemen, I forgot to mention earlier, www. W. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Take advantage of it. We'd love to hear from you. Also, text us at 772-497-6530. I have some exciting news via Jonathan. Donovan, Budapest, another. This is YouTube. A YouTube. Spain. Are we an international show? Ladies and gentlemen? We're global. We are global. By the way, Johnson Honda is the highest rated Honda dealership we have on Good Dealer, baddealerlifts.com. So that's a, they count on them. I think they'll come through for you. Also, we have a text that came in from Anne-Marie, a follow-up on Howard's call. She said,

in response to Howard, all-wheel drive is very important if one is in an accident. I know a lady who was driving an all-wheel-drive SUV when her vehicle was clobbered by a hit-and-run driver, leaving her rear passenger tire at a 45-degree angle. Thanks to all-wheel drive, she was able to maintain control of her vehicle and safely get to the side of the road. The hit-and-run driver on the interstate was never caught. She swears by all we'll drive for safety even though she does not live in snow country. Thanks, Amory. All right. I love you, Anne-Marie. I love you, Anne-Marie. Thanks for opening our show every week. We really appreciate your company. All right. How are you doing over there? Oh, we got to call it, don't we? We do. Sorry. What you have is really exciting.

Don't apologize. I'm going to say Spain, Budapath, and everywhere in between. We have Marty who's been holding. Thank you so much for your patients. Marty, good morning. Welcome back. Yo, Marty, you out there? We lost Marty. We've got to go to Budapest.

Really? I got all kind of lights flashing. I never usually have anything like that, which means that we have a lot of callers that are trying to get through. We are going to go to, unless I have to interrupt, Rick, I see another light coming up. Okay. Go ahead, Rick.

Well, Timothy Hernandez is asking, went to look at a 2022 Volkswagen Atlas yesterday, and they wouldn't come down at all on the MSRP, Orange County, California. Is this the new normal? Well, it's not normal, but it's a new temporary, and you will see this probably beginning to decline. I mean, MSRP is actually not a bad deal today by supply and demand standards.

I say wait, 30, 60, 90 days. The longer you wait, the better the price. Supply will catch up with demand. In fact, usually what happens is supply overtakes demand, and then it becomes doggy dog, and you can really get yourself a good price. I mean, you'll be buying that same atlas in six months if you want to wait, probably for close to the dealer cost. So it depends on how bad you want that atlas

and how bad you need the Atlas. I never heard of an Atlas, by the way. Sounds like a big little SUV. Atlas is, yeah, an SUV. A lot of the names are coming up and I just don't stay on top of it. Yeah, like on the mystery shopper and report. You never heard of that car, have you?

I wasn't sure whether it's plural or singular. It's plural. I had to double check that. Okay. Where are we here? We are going to go back to the phones. Yes. Where we have Maryland calling us from.

Marilyn? No. Oh, good morning, Marilyn. You're a first-time caller. You just won yourself $50. Oh, thank you. You're welcome. If you send me your contact information at my email address,

I can get that checkout to you. Okay, perfect. What can we do for you this morning? I've got a 2016 Ford F-150. and we've got the auto start stop and we've already been through like two batteries in that vehicle and I was wondering if that auto start stop affects the battery life yes it does unfortunately it was it seemed like a good idea at the time it's not just about every owner I know of. One of the first things they do when they get in the car with that,

they hit the disable button. And shut it off. Yeah, even the manufacturers have realized, oh boy, that was a goof up. It's, for those who don't know, this is a system that's designed that when you pull up to a traffic light or whatever and you stop the car, the engine will shut off. Then when you release the brake and start to hit the accelerator pedal again, the engine will immediately restart. The problem, the problem, The problem is this is a heavy strain on the battery and the starter motor, because they're constantly being put into operation over and over and over, and they're actually a much more expensive replacement part for both of those, and both of them actually now have a lifespan time. In other words, they're a recommended maintenance when they're supposed to be replaced. Marilyn, did you know you could disable that feature? I know that when I get in, I can shut it off.

And then comes back on, yeah. Oh, come back on, so you can't permanently disable it. Right. Every time you get in, you have to push the button again to shut it off. Maybe that will become a... They replaced the battery. I guess they didn't reset the system. So it's actually not coming on.

It's not doing what it's supposed to do. so it's like I don't have to hit the button so you have to remember each time you get in the car just like starting it to disable that feature wow yeah is there anyway Rick at all to permanently no because it's built into the computer you have to you have to disable it by way of that button each time I see well Marilyn I hope that we answer your question

Yes, you did. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for helping me build this platform for ladies right here, Hed Earl Stewart on Cars. And in case you didn't hear me earlier, we've become an international show, which we're very proud of. And if you continue to listen right now, you'll hear by our YouTube's from Rick that we're all over the world. Thank you.

Have a wonderful weekend. 877-960 or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-3-0-WW Your Anonymous Feedback.com. We'd love to hear you, hear from you. Now back to... Back to me. I was going to say that 2016, and the question was asked, can you disable that, meaning the automatic shut off at the stoplight, the silly idea. Somebody came up with probably when gas prices were very high,

and they said, oh boy, if we come up with something like this, we can advertise it, and it'll sound like it gives you a really, really good fuel economy, and we'll sell more trucks. I'm going to disagree with you. I'm going to say it was an inconvenient, customer-friendly way to meet the CAFE standards. Anyway, my point being that it was a software modification, and Rick says it can't be, you can't put, permanently turn it off because it's built into the computer. And to my point, today's modern cars, software modifications can be done remotely, and things of this nature are done all the time.

In a 2022, I would say probably maybe the F-150, that could be fixed, that could be changed. Well, it could be turned off. Now, I'll qualify what I said. It could be corrected by the manufacturer. I know. But as a consumer, the average driver cannot make it permanently turned off themselves. And the reason they would have to do it, they would have to pay the dealer to do it when you brought it in. They would have to do something.

Whereas, for example, with my Tesla, they make modifications all the time. And, you know, I happen to look at my app, my Tesla app on my iPhone, it will say software modification. I don't even know what it is. I can find out what it is. Yeah, I can find out what it is. But they fix things all the time on my Tesla I don't even know about it. If they made that, it allowed you to turn it off until you wanted to turn it back on, then it would be a great feature. It would, yeah, exactly.

Right now, you have no choice. Exactly. Okay. I'm going to mention what that I did mention earlier about Earl's vigilantes, and we are definitely looking for volunteers, for online assistance. For senior... Do I have to put my head on now? For senior buyers.

We're not all savvy on the Internet, and therefore, you know, if you can share your experience with us, join Earl's Vigilantes. Free hat, free hat. Also, you get a free hat. It's a great looking hat designed by Stu. And also, do you consider yourself, well, you know, let me put it to you this way. You don't have to be an auto expert to join Earl's vigilantes by any means. But if you're tired of this car dealer dishonesty, you could help us out tremendously.

And not only that, you can help people in your community. So go to Earl on Cars where you can sign up for Earl's vigilantes and you can help us with the online assistance for seniors and help others in this auto industry that we're in. Telephone number here that you can reach us is 877-960-99-60 or you can text us at 772-497-60. Marty is yes, Rick. I was just going to say, I just got some information from Negan 1. who says on the F-150s, if you drive in sport mode, it turns off that start-stop feature. Wow. And he says also the dealers can do an IDS reprogramming.

I'm not sure what the IDS stands for, but a dealer-specific thing or for it specific thing. But it says, yes, they can disable the start-stop for you. Well, see, that's the reason I love the input. This is an open forum. we learn as much from our callers as they learned from us. It's a great synergy we got going. Yeah, great. Thank you very much, Marty.

It definitely is great, Rick. We're going to thank you so much, Marty, for your patience. I'm glad you called back. Good morning. Yeah. Hi, how are you? Great. I just wanted to tell you that I want two points,

the first point, now that I just heard this call, my wife has a CRV, and dad has that feature. I personally don't like it. She doesn't mind that when I drive her car, I press the button to eliminate it, but you have to press it every time you start. You know, so I don't like it. I think it doesn't make the car run smooth.

So to me, I don't like it. I agree with you. But the other point, yeah, the other question I had, and I guess I got to ask Rick, since I usually don't sleep with my key fob when I got up this morning I looked out in my driveway and my trunk was up so my question to Rick is

unless I inadvertently when I took it out last night press the button is there any way that that key fob can go up or the trunk can go up on its own? There shouldn't be if something you'd say one of your keys accidentally got pushed against the button in your pocket that's a possibility or if when you set it down something got bumped against it and held against that button but it takes a couple say it takes like one and a half to two

seconds of holding that button before the trunk release will operate I'd keep an eye on that it is possible that a signal from another car might have been on that same frequency but it's very unlikely or an alien from Mars or could it come down and down Yeah, the possibility of those, too. I mean, you'd be grasping his draws. I would just kind of keep an eye out for that, you know, see if it occurs again. But just be careful about things that might press against that remote when you're setting it down or when you have it in your pocket, it's all.

Yeah, when we came in last night, it was, you know, dark already. So it's possible I pressed it inadvertently and never and didn't realize it. but usually it never happens. Okay, okay. Yeah. I would watch see if it occurs again, yeah. Okay, I thought maybe an airplane signal or something could send it up, but if you don't think so, I don't know.

No, we don't want to. All right, we don't want to go that far. No, no. All right, but that CVT transmission that Tonda has, Now, I don't know if Toyota has any of those, but I don't personally don't like it. Oh, you do? Yeah. Oh, thank you.

Okay. All right, have a good day. Thank you, Barney. Thank you, Barney. Thank you. Bye, bye. Look forward to hearing from you again. YouTube, Facebook.

We got stuff. Well, I was going to tell you know that Marty texted to say he was going to be calling in, so we handled that. I don't know if Jonathan has time to put this on the screen. Frank sent us a picture of an addendum from a Mercedes. Mercedes dealership with a $10,000 market adjustment added to a $66,000 MSRP on a new GLE Mercedes. So I don't know if you get it up on the screen. Yeah. So even the luxury dealers are going for the addendums and market adjustments.

Let me jump in. This is controversially even within the studio here in terms of addendums. And normally I'm against addendums because normally addendums are not required. required uh they're used to deceive the the buyer say no more we'll put the adenums up but today no but today today we have a different situation and i'm going to ask you this question now if you're a homeowner or a condo owner and uh you're not in the market to sell your condo or your home but suddenly something happens in the economy and as it did with covid and suddenly uh let me exaggerate to make my point suddenly your condo is worth

twice what it was you paid for it and you know uh would you feel would your now that that would mean that artificial outside conditions your condo's still the same one it's still got three bathrooms and i see where you're going so so do you feel guilty about selling your home or condo for a a whole lot more money than you paid for it because economic conditions will allow you to if so don't beat up the dealer you're not doing the same thing you're not taking a different position because even um well the week before last, we didn't have a problem with the big addendum because it wasn't the problem is if you're advertising a car, then you show up and then you find the addendum and then you find all the other stuff. Exactly. Deception. But if you're out

up front and that's the price, people have the ability to make a decision and walk away or if they have to, they spend the money. I agree with you. I don't think the adenums themselves are evil. They are, they were last year. Well, yeah, it's the use of like anything else. The MSRP can be used against you too because, you know, you can, you know, you You say, well, this is the price of the car, or is the MSRP. That's what everybody pays. That's deception. People don't pay MSRP in normal times.

So, yeah, deception is wrong. Charging a high price is not bad as long as you have full transparency. And disclosure. I can't agree more. I can't agree more. You know, at least be honest. Be honest. The consumer is very thick-skinned, and they can take your honesty.

Deception is, there's no room for it. It's not necessary. Please, it's not necessary. Rick? I did see a picture posted in one of the Facebook groups that I'm in of the addendum label on a Ford Bronco, those new Broncos, that showed a $50,000 market adjustment to the price that was like $70,000 already for the Bronco.

So do you think that's evil? I don't think it's evil. I think they're trying it. they're going to go for it and if someone is that desperate to buy that vehicle and pay that amount well that's that's what it's worth they have a choice it's like the remote control changing your channel on your tv you either want it walk away if you don't yeah normally those addemms are put on there to run up the score to get and not most people probably don't pay that um in this case if you look at it when when a car dealer has to sell a certain amount of

cars just to keep the lights on. And when they're selling 10 cars, half the cars are normally, they're going to have to double what they're making or they have to increase the profit. So some of it is survival. But you're justifying something that doesn't need to be justified. Dealers are not selling cars at the high prices today because they have very few cars and they have to charge more money to keep the lights on. They're charging high prices because they can make a ton of money. I'm saying that's the flip side of it. Yeah, so the capitalism in our system, the free enterprise system, says that business, this purpose in life is to make as much money as they can, but they have to do it in a transparent, honest way, ethical, honesty, legal way. So, you know,

I get beat up all the time by other car dealers. They say, Earl, what's your problem? What's wrong with making a lot of money? And they miss my point. My point, The point isn't, I want you to make a lot of money because the more you make, that's what our system's all about. But if you make it in the darkness instead of the light, if you don't have the transparency and disclosure and give the consumer the right to choose the competition, that's where I have a problem. So I love car dealers to make a lot of money.

I love to make a lot of money myself and our car dealership, and we like to see other dealers bring money. Just do it honestly. Yes, absolutely. A toast to transparency. Ladies and gentlemen, how do you feel about transparency? Give us a call toll free at 877-9-60-90-90-60. Many ways to get in touch with us. Take advantage. Facebook, YouTube, Your Anonymous Feedback.com.

We're going to go to our next female caller, and she is a first-time caller, and she calls us from Boynton, and her name is Sarah. Good morning, Sarah. welcome good morning Nancy and everybody you won yourself $50 Sarah and you can email me your information and I'll get that checkout to you what can we do for you this morning

that's so sweet what I'd really appreciate instead of mailing that checkout to me would be using it for Jackson that would be very I would love that there you go extra a little present for Jackson

I mean, goodness gracious. I was checking out some shoes for him, and $50 will do it. Sarah, thank you so much. That is very generous of you. I truly appreciate that. It's my pleasure. But, again, you did win the $50, and you're sharing your story with us, so, you know, you can email me your contact information. What can we do for you this morning?

Well, I am calling about the catalytic converters. I took my hybrid off of my car because I understand that they're taking the hybrid catalytic converters. They're worth more money. I took my hybrid sign off of my car because of that. Have you heard of that? No, hello. No. Rick?

Oh, that's the new thing. Actually, catalytic converters have been getting stolen quite a bit off cars for the past 30 years. The precious metals that are inside those converters, the recycle yards, the shady ones, the disreputable, dishonest ones, they will pay a lot of money for them. It got so bad that the reputable companies demand proof of ownership, and you have to, show where you got that catalytic converter from before they will buy it from scrappers. We had a bunch of

the cars cut apart and stolen from about 15 years ago, remember. They literally the thieves will simply crawl up underneath the car with what's known as a battery operated saw saw. It's a saw. Just simple saw.

And they can cut through that exhaust pipe in about 30 seconds and boom, they're gone. The catalytic converters used in hybrids are pretty much identical to any other. So there's really no extra draw. It's just that they're on hybrids. They're usually sometimes a little smaller and more compact. And therefore, it's easier to get that little thing out of there and hide it as you're running away,

which is why they like to target some of the hybrids. but it's basically is the thieves will do what they've got to do they're going to steal to make money and I mean that's just the way thieves are it's a better thing I took it off the hybrid sign I think

thank you Sarah I appreciate you all I appreciate you all very much thank you very much thank you for joining us every week hope to hear from you again Sarah spread the word we need more Oh, you're quite welcome. You're very welcome. And we do need more female callers.

So spread the word. I certainly will. Your lady friends know that they can win $50 for the first two new lady callers. Have a wonderful weekend. Thank you. You do as well. Thank you. On the subject of catalytic converters, I haven't heard of a theft of a catalytic converter in a long, long time.

Have we had any... Not at the dealership. I think there's been a change. But we do see them occurring still. Manufacturers have started designing, changing the design a little bit to make it harder to get to them. When was the last theft that you read about or saw? In the last year, I've read something about it. I've seen reports online on Facebook.

I've seen guys talk about it. I wonder if there's been some sort of a change in the metals. It used to be platinum. And I think there may have been a change in the construction of the Cadillac It was epidemic for a while. I think what Rick mentioned was when they started realizing it was an epidemic, then reputable businesses started demanding, you know, proof of actual ownership. So, you know, you couldn't go just hock it or fence it.

You could, you can't walk into a repital scrapyard right now with 12 or 15 catalytic converters. They're not going to buy it. They're going to say, no, no, we're not even touching those because they're obviously going to be stolen. They won't even touch them. Now, if you go in there and you say, hey, I work at this dealership, I've been collecting these for six months, cutting them, you know, where we have to remove them from cars. This shows the proof that I legally own these.

Then they will buy them from you. But otherwise, no. Yeah, I read that information, and that was really great putting that into place, proving, you know, where you got them. But I have a question for you, Rick. So this bilateral knee replacement that I had, are my knees worth more than the catalytic converter today? Pretty much, yeah. I just wanted to narrow that down.

I wouldn't put that out on the Internet, Nancy. Somebody might cut your knees out. Oh, I can protect myself. You wake up one morning with no knees. Well, I sleep with, well, never mind. At any rate, we're going to come back to the phone. and we're going to talk to Frank. Good morning, Frank.

Well, good morning to you all. Good morning. As you saw, I sent in a couple pictures. That one car dealership picture, you can see about the inventory, there's nothing on their entire lot up there. That's in Melbourne, off US 1, Pine Eater. Oh, is that the house?

Okay. Yeah, that was a little baby house. Best deal auto sales, no deal of auto sales. Yeah, really. And then we also. So, Amory and I took a trip up to Orlando this last week. And so when you're in your 70s, what do you do in Orlando? Obviously, it's not Disney or Universal.

Indoor skydiving. Yeah, exactly. So we went around because we're in the market, not heavy in the market, but we're in the market for a new SUV for Amory. So we said, well, this will be fun to just see what's going on in Orlando versus down here. So we went to the Lexus dealer because she has at Lexus RX-350 that you guys take care of with Randy. And so anyway, what a nice dealership, huge, friendly. They had one for its test drive.

They actually had one that looked very nice. And the MSRP was the price, not any add-ons. Very nice. Well, that's interesting. And I mentioned that I'm retired from the military. Oh, yes, we give you $1,000 off for that. Oh, that's interesting. Oh, you're also a loyal customer since you already have it, Lexus, another 1,000.

I go, oh, my goodness, this is unbelievable. Well, how much are your dealer fees? Oh, we don't have dealer fees. What? I said, oh, my goodness, Earl Stewart's going to love you. But they did have some couple hundred dollars for the electronic transfer of the tag, of course. So that's reasonable. Not bad at all.

No, so that was interesting. What was the name of that dealership? Lexus of Orlando. Okay. And it's a huge dealership. I mean, send your people there. That should be on your... Oh, I think, is that a Penske?

No, who owns that one? Do you know? I don't know. Okay. Interesting. Sounds like automation. Audination, maybe, yeah. That's it.

That's it, automation. Okay. And very nice coffee-making machine and stuff like that. So, we took that test drive on the 350, and then it was time. It was getting late. So we said, we'll come back the next day. And we did, and we said, well, let's just test drive the NX 300, because it's a little smaller.

more compact let's see what that's like so brand new the plastic is still on the wheel covers it's on the steering wheel and they had the tag hanging out of the back trunk flopped around and we go for a drive and we go about one block and we said this is too small for us but the lady had a customer

and said well we're in no hurry to get back so we drove down to the Porsche dealership to see what a McCown looks like and we pull in their lot with a brand new Lexus that's being test driven from another dealership to go talk to them and they look and they said we never had this happen in our life and I said well I'm being I'm being up front I'm being very you know very nice big huge Porsche dealership by the way we had like two cars on a whole lot and it didn't it was red interior so anyway I forget what their dealer fees

were about a thousand or something but no markup over MSRP which is pretty refreshing again and rare yeah I'm rare. And then we also went to the Audi dealership. They also had no dealer, no markups over MSRP, but their dealer fees were nearly $2,000. So, and then we took a rule of drive over to Daytona Beach, and that's where we sold a Mercedes-Benz dealership that had the $10,000 just on the SUVs. That's 100, all right. Yes, sir.

And we said, boy, this is a strange area. Then we went to see her brother in the villages. I never been there. there was a Chevy dealership right off 301 and 44 zero inventory this huge lot and cars just lock and everything like anyway and then one last thing on the way home yesterday we stopped in milburn where i you know retired from patrick air force base to see their Porsche and mercedes been dealership okay here's where you're going to really be glad you're sitting down if you want a mercedes s class market value price $100,000

Holy crap What's the MSRP on that? It's in the My goodness gracious 150 or something And then the Porsches are Depending on which Porsches They're also running between 50

to 100,000 over MSRP Because it's just not there Certain models, a sports model But the ones, again with the McCann There's no markup And also that Mercedes dealership with that GLE, like we sold over in Daytona, has no market, no market price. I mean, so it depends on the models.

It's, like you said, it's supply and demand, and if you make it, you know, make it. So it was interesting. Wow. It really is. You know, it's all a matter of percentage. I've always thought that to a billionaire, he wants a Rolls-Royce, and he's going to pay $500,000 for a Rolls-Royce. He's a billionaire.

He could be worth $10 billion. So instead of paying $500,000, if they raise the price of $750,000, that's jump change to him. He didn't care. So I think where it gets painful is when you're trying to buy transportation and you're buying yourself a basic Ford or Chevy because you needed to get to work, when they raise that price on you, that's where the pain really starts. Yeah, I can see Mercedes getting away with bloody murder. If they can get away with it, they do it, and people pay the price. Yeah, that's very true.

It was interesting. Like I said, you know, when you're in your 70s, you aren't going to go to Disney World or anything. So it's fun to see the car dealers and just see how they, and actually everyone in Orlando, each of the employees were most helpful. You didn't even care to go for you with the test drive. And they just, here's the keys, come on back. We're here to 8 o'clock. I go, holy cow.

You're an honorary mystery shopper right now. That's right. And we'll have to come up with a name for you, undercover name. I do have to recommend indoor skydiving if you go back to Orlando, though. You're not too old for that, Frank. Yeah. I did it this summer, and it was great. Well, that sounds good.

And so anyway, you guys have a great weekend, and I was still waiting for my, you know, hat for your... Oh, okay. I'll double check on that. We'll get that out to you. it was a long time ago I signed up in me really long okay we'll get that out to your friend we promise I got about 30 of them in my office okay you have a good one guys have a great weekend can I can I jump in here for a minute I googled catalytic converters because I was trying to figure out why I hadn't heard of me actually and we just

were talking about Orlando in the market there and this is recent this is a 2021. Catalan converter thefts are on the rise across the U.S. Here's why. And there's three precious metals that are used in there, and there's a palladium. You've got platinum is worth $1,243 an ounce. Palladium is worth $2,691 an ounce. And rhodium is worth, ready for this? Are you sitting down? 8,000. Rodium, $25,850 per ounce. And these three are used in catalytic converter so in Orlando

the theft the police they're stealing them off police cars and they have quadrupled because of the spike in the precious metal charge so I was

completely wrong about not having heard of any theft I just haven't checked Orlando but locally of course what I've done now is alert all the thieves in Palm Beach County and all over well it's good get them out of town

get out there and steal deal those catalytic converters, you've got to make a fortune. Got another follow-up also. This came in, a text came and says, from what I read, the criminals prefer the hybrid catalytic converters because the gas engines run less, hence less breakdown of the precious metals. So there's maybe more of usable metal. There you have it, folks, right here.

Less emissions. Earl Stewart on cars. We make for that text. We say dumb things, and we correct ourselves. So much information. We hope that you're enjoying the show. You know, I'm going to take a moment and thank our mystery shots. and what an asset she is to this show and weekend week out she just does a phenomenal job and thank you thank you mystery shopper also you know for the first time I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we do have a new female show producer so boy makes me feel warm and fuzzy at least Roberts is doing a fantastic job so ladies I give you

you all the credit in the world. 877960, or you can text us at 772-4976530, and don't forget your Anonymous Feedback.com. Rick has some YouTube, so he wants to share, but John from Palm City has been holding. So we're going to take your call, John. Just, good morning. Two fast questions.

One is for Earl, one is for Rick. First question is, every use, every car in federal law has to have Monroney sticker with the MSRP But is it a Florida law Or is it a federal law That a used car Next to that

It has to on the window To show it's a used car And it has a sticker that has As is a wind block box And another box That says warranty on it Is that a federal law That the used car has to have that sticker on it

Or is that a federal law? It's a federal law I thought it was Florida law and Stu corrected me a couple of weeks ago. I think Florida started with that, and then it became, I guess, Stu Googled it. It's FTC, yeah. The Federal Trade Commission.

Okay, I think it's a good law. Because right away when you walk up to it, you know it's a used car. You know, it's not brand new, so you know what a way to look for the warranty on it. One sticker says, there's a column that says, as is, another one says warranty on the car. Am I correct?

That's correct. and they're checked. One is checked. Right. And then there's another thing that says whether additional warranties are available and that sort of thing. It is a good thing because it's the one consistent universal thing

that indicates if something is used. And if a car dealer has a used car for sale without it, that's a federal violation and they can get fines. I don't think that's ever enforced. Nobody ever gets fine. I've never seen that. Nobody ever gets fine for the Barone label being missing or for that sticker being missing.

So we've got a lot of laws, John. They just don't enforce them. Well, kudos for Florida for starting that. The second thing is this is for Rick. This is driving me crazy. I don't understand. It's just a city like Stewart, which is not so big. I mean, every type, there's a brand new O'Reilly's just opened up auto parts.

You name the auto parts. It's here in Stewart. There's two Nappas. I mean, other than, I can't even count so many different brands. I never see many people. I don't know whether they're doing retail or business from car repair places. But the one thing that I'm amazed at is that there's so many. And the future is with the electric vehicles, there won't be many moving parts.

What are these people actually think that they're going to be doing in the future? I mean, is it like the new O'Reilly that just opened up? Who are they going to be selling auto parts to? Well, make hay why the sun shines, John. I think everybody sees a handwriting on the wall, but, you know, we're like, you know, we're car dealership, and we realize that we won't be doing what we're doing in 20 years. It'll be something completely different, but what are you going to do? I mean, there'll be internal combustion cars, there'll be older cars, there'll be used cars,

and like everything else, it's not like turn the lights on and off, you know, what we're doing today will fade away. All soldiers never die. They just fade away. It's industries. Never die. They just fade away. Suddenly, something new emerges. Well, what I ask for Rick also, I mean, let's say I own the Honda dealership, and I take a trade-in on a used Honda, and immediately I want to put that car in a lot to make money on it, and it needs a water pump. Am I authorized only if I'm an authorized Honda or Toyota or a Chevrolet dealership to put only the water pump from that manufacturer, or can I call up one of these auto parts places and put the pump on from them?

You can do whatever you want. What basically is it required on that? You can do whatever you want. You could make your own water pump and stick it in there. All right, well, I know naturally, but it's amazing, the competition, because many of these auto parts companies that I talked about, I mean, they don't even have a retail store. see a truck running around and it's cold air distributors.

They don't even have a retail store, and I see that truck delivering everywhere and anywhere. It's like shocking, and then somebody told me they not only sell air-conditioned parts, but they sell all automobile parts that have a discount. And here's the dirty secret, John. Cold-air distributors can get nip-and-denzo air-ac-c compresses. I'm just using this as an example. They can sell a Nippendenzo compressor to our dealership, our parts department, for $100 less,

or more or less than the factory part, but it's the same manufacturer, it's the exact same part, and we can then pass that savings on to the customer, and all of a sudden tell the customer, okay, yeah, you need a compressor, but instead of charging you, $1,500 for the factory compressor. We can get one for $800 from cold air. You save the money. Do you want to fix it? And the customer is going to say, yeah,

because I can get the exact same compressor by the same manufacturer from cold air for less than Toyota will charge for it. Well, competition is a wonderful thing, but isn't cold air just in this area or they throw out Florida? As far as I know, they're pretty much just in South Florida. but they're pretty much wholesale only, but they make a very good living selling those parts. We also think that the competition from all this different auto parts

are from China, they're not American parts, what's your opinion? Some are? That's why you've got to do your homework. Make sure you're getting a quality part. See, it's no longer, say, China, Japan, Taiwan, any place, people are manufacturing parts all over the world. You know, most iPhones are made in China. So you can say that's the cheap Chinese phone, no. It's an iPhone.

It's an Apple designed product by Apple engineers that are manufactured in China. So, yeah, just because a part is manufactured overseas doesn't make it a cheap part anymore, it can be as good a part. In fact, an identical part, as Rick said, And when manufacturers, when manufacturers make a car, they'll make a part, Toyota doesn't make all their own parts. They subcontract it.

They also sell their parts to other people. Toyota can manufacture a part or Honda can manufacture a part and sell it to any company they want to. They won't let you use the brand. They put the brand on there. But Costco does a thing. Kirkland brand. You don't see Publix has their own brand. People brand all their products because they built the brand identity and value, but you give something identical generically and save yourself a ton of money.

That's what Rick's talking about. You've got to be careful and shop around. The manufacturers mark up their brands considerably. Car dealers pay the manufacturers way too much for their parts because we have to buy Toyota parts from the manufacturer. and use them on warranty replacement on on our cars we have to use that to a part but we could find a part that was identical made by Toyota that had a different brand on and buy it and technically we're in violation it has to be an only in part and uh Well, that's only for warranty, for customer pay. Yeah, exactly. Hey.

Exactly. So, yeah, parts are a huge profit. So giving you back to your question, John, the reason you see so many parts departments or parts stores is because the price is very considerably, and they're extremely profitable. They sell the dealers. They sell retail. Rockotto.com, by the way, online.

Rockado.com. They're huge. The prices are amazingly competitive. You can buy OEM parts, you can buy aftermarket part. You can any kind of part you want. If it's not all part, rock auto.com makes it, and the prices are incredibly good. Well, thank you for the information. Thank you, John.

Look forward to hearing from you again. Ladies and gentlemen, don't forget, because of the microchip shortage and inventory shortage, that car you're driving may be worth a lot more money than you think, and going to places like we buy anycar.com or CarMax, Varum, any of these places to check out the price of your vehicle and what it's worth today may be very beneficial to you. Give us a call to a free at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-60. I think that we're going to go to Stu. We've got some texts.

I have a question for Rick, so it's good morning. just ask Rick, where I can get my stock GM radio repaired. I can't hear the show anymore. FM stop working, has DVD and XM2. I bet I know Rick's answer. Go ahead. GM dealer? I'll tell you if I guess mentally.

If the car is still under warranty, go to your dealership. If it isn't, go over to Best Buy. I knew that's the answer. No, you can buy a, it's cheaper to buy a better radio. and you buy a new better radio cheaper than getting the old radio fix so yeah exactly okay we have another one here says uh excuse me we have a call yeah we have a call so we're going to go to mark who's calling us from Palm Beach Gardens welcome good morning Mark good morning all nice to hear from you oh thank you I don't want to beat a dead horse

that I've been trying to get through for about 15 minutes, and finally a lady answered the phone. Anyway, I just want to put my own personal opinion about, you know, the problems with availability of vehicles and the transparency issue, you know, having the standard label that's got to be on there, the Moroni label, and then the addendum labels. I kind of feel as though that,

some of it comes to you know certain dealers want to stick around for a period of time and like your dealers they build up a relationship with the customers by giving a certain rate of service and certain rate of sales a lot of return customers. And I get it, that, you know, with the low supply, the dealer's got to make enough money to be able to pay the light bill and to pay their employees and so forth and so on. But, you know, where is the line drawn between a fair markup on the vehicle in order to be able to make that money. And I think that the dealers that really, you know,

that charge the $5,000 and a $10,000 over a sticker compared to maybe a dealer that just charges, you know, a percentage of what you guys are adding on to your sticker. But if I remember from a couple of shows ago, that the amounts that was being added on was a relatively small amount. We're not adding anything on.

And now you've got value not. Don't we draw the line in MSRP. We've never charged over MSRP for any growth. Anything. Really? Even in these times now

where you're having a low supply. Even in these times now. You're still being able to... Yep. But we're not, we're not, We're not ultra. It isn't as altruistic as it sounds. We could get away with it. We could do it. We could even rationalize it. But we've decided that in terms of the long run, because we are in business for the long run, we feel like by being, you know, what's fair in many people's minds, it's going to build our overall profitability in the long run. So we can make twice as much money today. if we wanted to, but in the long run, we would make less money. And there's another reason that's not purely altruistic is all these customers that are

getting owes now are going to remember this. They're going to have harder time getting out of their trades. The customers that are not overpaying will be able to trade out sooner and they'll suffer less depreciation. It's just better for them. And we think that people have long memories and they will remember who treated them right and didn't try to take advantage of them. That's really my point, and the less scrupulous dealers, the ones that Mercedes or whatever,

and, you know, certain clientele can afford to pay that additional. Exactly. Whereas, you know, the working man, let's say, working man and working women, I just wanted to mention that those dealers that really hack up the customers may find themselves here today. and gone tomorrow and the dealers that treat people fairly and don't hack them up and you know stew makes the perfect point is that if you know you're going to normally you find yourself upside down when you drive off a lot anyway you know you lose a certain amount of or you have there's a certain amount of depreciation but if you're paying 5,000 or 10,000 over sticker like you just said you're

going to find yourself financially upside down for a long time. But anyway, that was just my point. You know, some of these, let's say, Ford Chevy dealers or Kia, whatever, that don't have as much of a clientele basis, Toyota does, the dealers may really be screwing themselves by charging a lot of money. money to make it a big problem. Absolutely, Marty. That's how much money I want to make.

Yeah. And Mark, I do have to emphasize, you know, you brought this up about us. And this is what separates us from the rest, and that is customers for life. And that's what we're striving in that direction to change this climate in the auto industry. So thank you for sharing that with us. you're welcome also you know i do remember uh stew back that 10 15 years ago i remember seeing all the cars being brought from the other lot oh yeah no one in riviera catley converter missing yeah boys uh tell you what they really what in a couple of nights time they took a lot

our tadlet converters and uh then it disappeared that's right just goes to show you it's been like nine years since I've worked there so or since I've worked at all anyway memories and it's the older I get it seems though the time goes flies by quicker and quicker that's because each year is a smaller fraction of your life as time goes by mm-hmm that's right to all have a great weekend thank you Mark and Earl what are you dressing up for for Halloween I'm not sure Yeah, I bought him a costume. Yeah, oh, Stu's got a custom. A surprise.

I was going to dress up as a chicken. Okay. All right, Gavin. And, Lee, you'll have a great week. No, no, no. Thank you, Mark. And Mark, I have Earl's costume at home. I just messed up.

We both have one, and you'll see it on our Facebook page. Are they one that you can wear out in public or no? Yeah, he can wear it in public. you. He can do whatever he wants. Have a great weekend. You're welcome. You're welcome. Thank you. It's going to be a doozy. To our listeners, we've had so many calls this morning, and I wish I could take more of your calls.

But we are freezing up the lines right now. But your input on the mystery shopping report is very important. So grade that mystery shopping report. at 772.4976530. I have to take a picture of Stu. Back to the recovering car dealer. Okay. We have a couple of texts before we get to that, though. Okay. Okay. Stu has some text. Okay. Be careful, Earl. Elon is watching you. Tesla owners can buy the company's full self-driving software for $10,000, but they may have to pay with their privacy. Previous versions of Tesla's owner's manual said that, quote, to protect your privacy, cabin, can't

camera images and video clips transmitted to Tesla servers are not associated with your vehicle identification number. But Tesla's latest manuals for those vehicles delete the reference to protecting driver's privacy by not linking video clips to the vehicle identification number. So he might be watching you. Well, I know. I know he is. In fact, I did pay the extra money for the autonomous, and both of us, you, Stu, and I were

measured. And we don't qualify for fully autonomous because I ended up with a 96 scores who got a 91 score. You have to have a 100 score. There were only something like 200 drivers or a very small number of drivers that qualified to activate the fully autonomous. And they've been driving for a while and zero accident. So, yeah, you have to be very, very careful to authorize a full autonomous. to anyone that someone totally responsible. I have to

have that. And privacy is a sacrifice you have to make. And that's what happens. Okay. Next text says, hey guys, I was having problems with my 2010 Prius. When I would try to put gas in it, the pump

would cut off after a small amount of gas. It would take quite a while to fill up the car. I took it to a toy dealer and the problem was a plugged-up charcoal canister, which they cleaned out. I live on a gravel road. My question is, does anyone know how to clean out the canisters? Can you just use an air hose?

I would appreciate any info. I'm sure running around with a plugged-up canister can't be good for the car. I've never heard of cleaning one out because they're a sealed unit and, I mean, sealed by the point of which the federal law says you cannot have an opening in that charcoal canister system bigger than 0.0002 of an inch. so they have to seal super tight so we generally, in the case of it being plugged up, we would replace it. Okay. Interesting. Well, I brought to mind something Rick taught me

a long time ago. I used to I was one of these people when I put gas in the car back. When I use gas, I love saying that. I would want to I kept a short little squirts. It would kick off and I kept squirting and squirting and I wanted to have it

all the way up the top so I would get maximum number of miles out of tank of gas and Rick informed me that that is not only not necessary it's actually counterproductive and tell them why right because that liquid fuel can get into the vapor lines and go liquid fuel into the charcoal canister and that damages the charcoal canister because you can't get the liquid fuel back out of it so if this person that was calling uh is one of those people like me that could still get another how much you get a half a gallon yeah yeah you want to get an I think to have a gallon, you're hurting yourself, you're not helping yourself, and that feature is built

in to help you get more mileage. Yep. Okay. Stu was making a fool out of himself over there. Can we get them on camera? I did. I took a picture of it. He's on Facebook. He's on Facebook. Oh, yes. Bang out real quick. First one is from Tom. He's one of our vigilantes, and he says, Lexus of Orlando and Winter Park have no dealer fees, also Mullinax and Hyundai of Central Florida. We knew that. Only three dealerships in Orlando that are

recommended. And he also says that on that deal with the Ford the F-150 with the start-stop, he says, I've heard that there's an accessory that plugs into the trailer hitch and if the computer senses that you have a trailer plugged into your trailer

hitch wiring, it will disable the auto start-stop feature. I'll bet you if you Google that, I bet you that's on Google. I bet there is right now. I have to keep telling myself, I rarely ever have a question that Google can't answer. So that's great, yeah. And this one last one, this one's from Donovan. He says, Hertz this week announced they are purchasing 100,000 Teslas.

It will be 20% of their fleet by the end of next year. The crazy part, they didn't even get a discount. They paid full retail price for every car. Uber drivers will be able to rent 50,000 of these cars for a good fixed rate that includes access to the supercharger network. This is going to put a lot of people in electric cars in the US who might otherwise not get in one in the immediate future. And that seems like an interesting thing. It is. Absolutely, fascinating.

You know, I know we're probably overdoing Tesla, but I got to... Nancy and I were talking about this coming in to the studio this morning. studio this morning. To me, it should be front-page news. This is really amazing. Just in the past couple days, the CEO of Volkswagen, Dietrich, I believe his name, Dietrich. Anyway, the CEO of Volkswagen, the largest manufacturer in the world, maybe Toyota was, but Toyota Volkswagen, one of the two of them, the largest manufacturers in the world, invited Elon Musk to speak, and he's spoken, to the top of the top of the top of the top of the world, up 200 executives, worldwide Volkswagen executives, on how to produce and sell electric cars.

Yeah. Now, that would be like, that would be like. James Farley? Yeah, that'd be like, exactly. I was made, you know, I made a point that calling upon James, James Farley calling upon the CEO, Mary Barra. Of GM. Ford would ask GM to come and tell us how to sell cars. But that's what Volkswagen did, asked Elon Musk.

So it's just amazing what's going on with... It's amazing what's going on in Elon's world. And, you know, everybody better catch on electric vehicles. He's on a mission. I'll tell you. You know, I was reading where he was going to be opening an institute of technology and science in Texas and so many other things. And he is in tune with the future without a doubt.

We talk a lot about Tesla, but isn't this kind of a parallel to, if you went back 100-some-odd years to when Henry Ford was producing cars on an assembly line and suddenly making cars available to the public like crazy, isn't this that same parallel where those Fords were the step of the future right then, was getting these cars out on the road? That was his step into the future. Right now, Tesla is that step into the future. Yeah, they're the first ones, but everybody's going to follow with electric cars. In a broad sense... This is our way into the future. In a broad sense, you're right. But the fact of the matter is, the margin, the markup, the price on Tesla is higher than any other car built.

Henry Ford had a lower markup than any other car built. So the reason Henry Ford was successful is because he had the cheapest car in volume. Tesla has the most expensive car in terms of market. Yeah. So, but technology is what made Tesla the breakthrough. Technology in terms of science. Well, but you're all, at this point, though, Tesla is the car, and all the gasoline cars are the horses, is what is my view of it, is what I see. Very well put.

We do need, oh, I'm sorry, we're going to get back to. We have too quick and honest feedback, and I, my slate's clear. You give me the giggles. You brought down my heart rate. It's 941 here, folks. Let's, uh, let's move. move along. I will save them for next week. Okay. Okay.

We're going to get to the Mystery Shopping Report. Please vote on the Mystery Shopping Report at 772-497-6530. We have gone out to Sutherland Nissan. Okay. Sutherland Nissan, Earl Store on Cars, mystery shopping team, making the rounds. South Florida's crazy car market. We're going back to dealerships we last mystery shopped about a year ago and how things have changed in the year.

really it's almost like a year and a half crazy crazy everything's changed doesn't feel right to say the things were normal a year ago after all we're still in the middle of the pandemic and in an economic crisis but the car business in the fall of 2020 despite undergoing unprecedented changes was way closer to normal than it's now in 2021 the never-ending inventory crisis is given car dealers licensed to indulge their darkest impulses, break in profits, they could only dream of a year ago. Week after week, we're stunned by the amount of money being charged by dealers for what few cars remain lost.

Now remember, this isn't just a whole lot of money that they're charging for each car, and they're selling a few cars, and they have to do that to keep the lights on. The money they're charging is making them unprecedented profits. Car dealers are making more money today than they ever have since they've ever been in business. probably maybe since ever will be in business. I don't think profit will ever be as good as 2021 in the car business. That's my prediction.

At least for selling cars. I'm not sure about the rest of the business. Where am I? It's amazing what happens to the value of something when suddenly it ceases to be available. We have a huge shortage, and that's based on a microchip. And again, I hate to keep going back about Tesla, and I'm going to digress the bit here. I want to know why, I know why, but do you know the Tesla doesn't have a microchip shortage? Did you know that Tesla sales are up, that they're selling cars and making more money per car than ever before?

And they don't have a microchip shortage. I want you to chew on that and think about that minute. Everyone's blaming the shortage on something they had no control over. Why did Elon Musk have control, and why does he have plenty of microchips, and why is he building Tesla's as fast as he is and selling him as fast as he is? What does I say? I digress. Ticress.

We last mystery shop, Sutherland Nissan, about a year ago, back when the cars were plentiful, and the prices were too good to be true. Sutherland Nissan is a dealership in Fort Pierce, Florida, that's just north of Palm Ridge County, run by a man named U.S. Marine. You've got to wonder, we talked about this in older shows, and I don't want to get into it. Very interesting. U.S.S. brain.

Can you imagine a baby named U.S. Marine? I think he named himself that. Well, you might, he had to, yeah. Well, you never know. His father might have been a little strange. I don't know. We talked a lot about U.S. Marines origin story when we presented last year's report, and

we can't go into it now because we're on a real short time. So if I said to say, say it's an interesting, unexpected, only inspiring story. I mean, it is inspiring. It's a good story. It's a real, real good story. Sottle and Nissan received an F from us on, for advertising, a bogus, buy one, get one, a free sale, yeah, Bogos. You don't like St. Boca. I don't like St. But it's a thing. Yeah, it is a thing, yeah. Sale and treating Asian lightning to round that to round of old school chicanery. It was bad. We were almost afraid to go back. I did, Stu wrote this. I don't

Agent Lightning is afraid of nothing, so why she would never be afraid. I said we're afraid to go back. Yeah, we're afraid to set her back, but not Agent Lightning. We're not really afraid. I arrived in Sutherland, speaking as if I were Agent Lightning, and I arrived at Sutherland Nissan at noon, nearly had a head-on collision with a careless salesman driving a new Nissan in the parking lot. I was a little rattle, but I was able to find a spot made my way inside.

No one wore mask. We would dwell on this in normal times, but... I will just real quick. St. Lucie County is moderate transmission. It's not recommended that they wear masks now. Interesting. Interesting. Shame on St. Lucy, in my opinion.

I approached the front desk. The woman sitting there did not greet me. Instead, she looked over to a nearby salesman, made eye contact, motioned with her head to start toward me. Salesman stepped up, walked over and greeted me. Okay. He asked how he could help. I told him I was interested in getting one of the new Nissan kicks.

Never heard of kicks. Didn't know whether a single. or plural, but it's singular. Nissan kicks. I give my kick from champagne. Small crossover, the salesman let me know right away that he only had one kicks in stock, and it was gray. I said, I like gray, so I must be in luck.

I asked for his name, he handed me his business card. His name was Shad, with an S. Shad went on to educate me about the global chip shortage, informed me that the dealership was receiving only three to four vehicles per. week. There were only 30 new vehicles of stock. Normally they kept over 300. Shad said that he'd never see anything like it and all of his 24 years of selling cars. Shad asked me to go over the kicks, pull it up front for me and he would meet me. I waited near the entrance while he

ran around back. It was long before Shad pulled up in a new 2021 Nissan kicks. Still wrapped in plastic. It was still wrapped in plastic, not Chad, but he got out, explained that the vehicle hadn't gone through the shop for pre-delection inspection, and some of the features may not work. He said he could get the used one. They were using for test drives so I could feel safe, but the gray one wasn't available. I waited for the kicks while Chad went around back to get the keys to the used one. I walked around the vehicle. The little was covered in white plastic. wheels were wrapped in plastic.

There was no Monaroni label. I assume they put this on before putting it on a lot. Shad pulled up and then used kicks at 2020. We took it out for a test drive. He made small talk about 10 minutes into the ride. He asked me for my name. I apologize for not asking sooner. When we got back, Shad asked me how I liked it.

I said, I did and told him I wanted to see the price on the window sticker. He said, no problem. I took a photo of the Venn, just the case. Back of the desk, you can't put one on the lower Agent Lightning. Shad gathered my information, pulled up an information sheet on the kicks. He pulled up the website and read the specifications to me. Finally, and asked me if I had any questions. I didn't have any, so we left to get the window sticker and my sales figures.

34 minutes, a new record. I waited. 34 minutes. That's a long time. She had returned with a laminated window sticker, consisting of a Monroney label, and an addendum that looked like it was part of it, phony Monroney we call them. The MSRP was $23,055. But the add another, sit down for this one, $6,124, and $129 for three, or was that included?

That's what it's included in. Including $129 for wheel locks and $59,000. $5,995 additional market valuation or whatever. He also had a worksheet. My selling price was $2,050, just $6,000 over MSRP. And they added $105,000 taxable fees and a $799 dock fee, hidden fee. All told, my real selling price was $29,949, $949, $6,894, over MSRP. A lot of money. As I looked the numbers over, Michael the sales manager came over

to explain how crazy the market is now. I told him I'd hope that it would be a good time to buy since all the 2022 models were coming in. Michael said there weren't many, if any, 2022s on dealer lots. There's not many of anything on dealer lots. I said that I was put off by the $59.995 additional market valuation add on to the price. Michael said he wished I had a trade-in because people are getting sick money for their cars and that would offset the additional market valuation. Nancy referred to that earlier. New used cars now are bringing a huge amount of money. And if you don't have that used car, you're really going to get hosed, I'll tell you, because that will almost mitigate the additional deal in Marco. I said that

maybe I would wait until prices came down. And Michael said he didn't see that happening anytime soon. I disagree with that. I think it will happen. He asked me what price I thought I should be paying. I didn't answer. He asked me if I thought fair market value was reasonable. I said, I guess. What else am I going to say?

He asked me to let him see what he could come up with. I chatted with Shad for 11 minutes. I love this OCD with Agent Lerner. landing. Then Michael came back with a sheet of paper with a J.D. Power, a J.D. Power retail breakdown. The J.D. Power retail figure was $25,500. He asked me if I knew what J.D. Power was. I said I did. Quick editorial comment. J.D. Power is a dealer's friend more than your friend. Beware J.D. Power information. he explained that this represented the market retail value of the kicks

and I had said I would pay fair market value it then showed me a second worksheet this time there was a $3,500 discount what I was fast making my price about $25,500 the JD power retail figure so they dropped fast to the $3,500 of course they have the dealer feed of that before I could comment on the price he told me that he's just a sales manager But the man who sits the decks next to him is a general manager and part owner. The man may approve the deal and they will not go lower.

That's the bottom line. I told Michael in Chad that my husband will be getting out of a doctor's appointment in about 20 minutes. I'd have to leave to pick him up. I said I'd go over everything with him and get back ASAP. So there you have it. We have Sutherland Nissan. on, huge price. Even after the discount, there's still a couple thousand over MSRP.

Yeah, they're over MSRP. They were $6,000. They dropped $3,500 on a JD Power suggested retail for rationalizing the price. And it's voting time, I believe. Yeah, we've got. Yeah, no text, I have no text come in yet, but I am leaning towards a better grade that I normally would have,

especially in light of our conversation. and this wasn't an advertising issue, so Agent Lightning didn't see a lower price and was lowered in, and only to be surprised later. She came in. It was presented to price well over MSRP. There was no subterfuge. It was just, like we said, that's them reacting to the inventory situation. Everything else is pretty easy, so I'm going to give them a C. Okay. Any other else coming? Let's see. I've got Mark from St. Louis with a D-plus. far. A big or a D? A D. D. D is in Delta? D is a Delta. Or dog. And for me, I'm, I think I'm going to agree with Stu, but I'm going to go to the C minus because they did have kind of a lot of

fees on it. And that, to me, the wheel locks, $130 for wheel locks that you can buy from O'Reilly's for $30. And, you know, your kid can put them on for you. The real locks are not hard to install. Because you also said that Toyota's selling parts for more than after market people will sell the same part for it. But even in our parts department, a set of wheel locks are about 50 to 60 bucks. Yeah. All right.

We have some more. Frank gives him a D. He remembers the Bogo. And Bob gives him a C. And two, on Facebook, we have Martha gives him a C minus and Tim gives him a C minus. Okay. I got some more coming in. Brian, take it or leave it.

I give him a D. Tom with a D. No advertisement. fraud, but huge markup in dealer fees. Mark Ryan, D-minus unethical pricing, and the time they made the customer wait is unacceptable. Negan 1,

F, F, F, F, F, F, F, happy Halloween, everyone. All right, Nancy? I'm speechless. I do have to give them a passing grade. That's number one, but I do have to fault them on transparency, and that's all we all,

all want transparency all those fees please it was a little rocky the mystery shopping report and for that i give them a d a d as in david yeah i'm lowering mine down to a c minus i forgot about the waiting some of us there was some unprofessionalism in there but um there we go well yeah but it's when you're non-professional you're hurting yourself i guess but on the other hand we're letting the customers know what to expect you're right you're right you're right uh and you're you're you? Well, you know, I, I, I, I, we bandy this world transparency around and, uh, I think there's, there's a, there's different levels, you know, 50 shades of gray, maybe there's 50 shades of transparency. Total transparency, I think is, I don't think we'll see it in a long

time. Um, transparency, uh, you're not being transparent when you tell somebody, this is a better price than my competitor will charge you. how many dealers would you fall to dealer would you give a dealer a below average grade because isn't it a lie to say that you know that this is the best price you're going to get that your competition will not give you better than you can't say that I mean you can't you shouldn't say that because you know one can say that honestly well you're so you're saying that you should tell your customers that this isn't the best price how out there. I think you should tell your customers you should shop around the price.

Exactly. You should. Yeah. And I don't say that would be total transparency. I'm just saying that it'll be a long time before we see total transparency. Right out in the general. I think I'm a little more optimistic on this topic. I really am. I think that there are more and more people who are looking at others asking, please tell me the truth about anything. I don't care if you're buying an orange, please, honesty. When a person's honest with you, you are going to get their business, no matter what. Well, I think we're exciting. We're getting philosophical, and I think that we understand. I think we all agree. I'm just saying there are different degrees. There are 50 shades of

honesty. Yes, that's right. We'll take this up in the Tesla. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us with the international show that we have. It is just an amazing time for us. Thank you so much. You have made it happen. Every single one of you, you're very important. Have a wonderful weekend. Enjoy Halloween.