Earl Stewart on Cars - 11.02.2024 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Coconut Creek Genesis of Coconut Creek, FL.

Episode Date: November 1, 2024

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning travels to the Fort Lauderdale area to visit a local Genesis dealer to see what they will charge for a new 2025 Genesis G70 sedan on the car lot. 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, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. Join us on Zoom during the live show via Meeting ID 926 589 0586. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

Hello, 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 listeners. We also have Rick Carney, 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, this is my son, Stu Stewart. our link to cyberspace through Facebook, YouTube, text messaging, and our encrypted anonymous feedback service. Stu is also the Spymaster Director of our mystery shopping report.

He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting the car dealership. And now, on with the show. Good morning, everybody. Well, we're back. This is Earl Stewart Live, and my apologies for missing last week, show. We did a re-win. I always feel a bit guilty. I had a little illness going.

on there and we had to cancel the show and we really don't give enough advance notice and so it's confusing if I were if I were a listener to this show I would be annoyed if I want to participate particularly at all you regulars but we are back live and we plan on being here every weekend as long as we can and we're here for a very special purpose to make your life a little simpler, a little less terrifying when you're buying or selling a car. The good news about what we're doing now is that we're seeing change on speed.

We're seeing change in the industry, meaning retail and wholesale auto industry, the manufacturers and the dealers. Every week, there's another breaking news headline. And I'll talk about it later on the show, but Nancy and I, my co-host here on Earl Stewart on cars, were startled at the Automotive News report that Volkswagen is now going directly sell cars to you. Volkswagen is copying Tesla, and they will be selling cars directly, eliminating the dealer, and going, you know, it'll be a while before they get production up,

and they get worldwide, but they're not even talking to the dealers about it, which has really got the dealers angry. So that's the kind of stuff that's going on, and you can bet Volkswagen, which is they see-saw with Toyota to be the world's largest auto manufacturer. So you're talking about the 800-pound gorilla here. There are very few manufacturers that can stand up to the whole world and do what they want to do,

And if there are any that can do that, one of them is Volkswagen, the other one is Toyota. So here we go. Let's see what happens. We can talk about big things like this, or we can talk about probably what you're more interested in than that, is what do I do with the car I got right now. I mean, I got a internal combustion engine, an old-fashioned car from what you're saying, and I have problems with it. What do I do? Well, you call 877-960-99-60. That's 877-9-960-9-6-0.

And that rings the phone in our studio here, North Palm Beach, Florida. And Nancy Stewart, who I'm looking at right now, has got her headphones on, her laptop, and that call pops up on her laptop. And we take your call, and we take your call, ASAP, because we've only got five lines. We don't want you to wait.

Sometimes you have to. I'm not bragging, but this is a pretty popular show. A lot of people listen to this because we tell it like it is. You're not going to find another show, whether it's a streaming show, it's a broadcast show, television, radio, digital, wherever you want to go, that will actually mystery shop a car dealership or whatever industry they're exposing, because that's what we're doing. We're exposing the shenanigans of car dealers all over the world.

We will go into a car dealership, and we have a report for you in the last half hour of this show, where we visited a car dealership, pretended to buy a car, and went through the exercise to find out if they were being honest. And you regular listeners, though, most of the time, the dealers aren't honest. We're in South Florida, and they're really not honest in South Florida. Florida so it's entertainment we have to entertain you or you won't come back we

can't turn this into a classroom so we have to be part you know entertainer and part educator and speaking of education we love your calls not just to ask questions and I'll give you I'll give that number again 877 960 960 877 960 960 960 we hear from from people out there that are unexpectedly educated and informed on the automobile business. We have a YouTube channel that we're streaming right now, Erlon Cars, YouTube.com forward slash Erlon Cars.

So you go to YouTube.com, and then you go to Erlon Cars, ford slash Earl and Cars. And they, you can make a post. Now, Rick Kearney, for you new people, is our certified diagnostic master technician, he knows it all about automobiles whether you're talking electric vehicles hybrids combustion engines I've been in the business for over 25 years with me in our dealership for that period of time so that's really the nuts and bolts of this show is to help you with that kind of stuff

that is just this week and next week it's fun to talk about the future the future is here now and you can see how excited we get about autonomous driving and I was talking about that in the studio before the show started. We're driving a cyber beast with fully autonomous and it's an exciting experience. We can talk about that if you want to. But we'd rather talk about what you'd like to say

and you can also text us. I know I'm getting you dizzy with contact numbers, but you can text us at 772-497.3. 6530. That's 772-4976530. So I'm going to turn the microphone over to Nancy Stewart, who is my co-host here, and it was responsible for building our female audience up to 50-50. And we would really like you ladies to listen carefully, and the men too, to Nancy right now, because she has a very special offer for the ladies, and your regular listeners know what it is, but a lot of people don't. Nancy, the mic, the mic,

all yours. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us this morning. Earl mentioned our popularity as he opened the show, and we can thank all of you. There's quite a few team members and audience that's responsible for making our show so popular, and we want to thank you because you are an important part of the show. So we have a whole lot to get to. We have a a very interesting mystery shopper report and it is from Coconut Creek Genesis and the last time we were on the air I believe that our mystery shop came to us from Rick Case Genesis so we're gonna follow up on that and I have a question for you give me a call give all of us a call you know in the I believe it's the December

November, December Consumer Report, there's an interesting article in here and Rick probably knows all about it and they talk about top tier gas and, you know, whether it's a good thing or a bad thing

and according to the study that they did with AAA, Consumer Report says that the top tier gas is the best way to go, top-tier gas, which contains extra detergent additives for cleaning this and

for a whole lot of other things. But did you know that not all gas stations carry the top-tier gas? Did you know that, Rick? Yes. And that the pumps are labeled as to whether they are top-tier? The stations usually will tell you if it's top-tier. They'll have a label. somewhere. But bear in mind, this isn't talking about the grades of gasoline, the octane level. This is actually the quality of all the fuel that that station is getting. Apparently, there are some refineries that when they produce the gasoline, they are producing fuel that's at a lower quality level. And usually the places that are buying that lower-tier fuel the lower quality fuel are going to be some of the little out of the way mom and pop

places that you know they're having a harder time making the profits that the other big conglomerate fuel companies like shell and mobile and chevron are enjoying because they can they can live off a smaller profit off each car because they get such a volume versus these smaller stations that need a bigger profit on each vehicle. Even so, the lower-tier fuels that do make it to those stations, it'll run just fine in your car. It's just not a good idea to run it for a long time. It can increase carbon deposits and eventually cause issues with the engine. Over a period of time.

And as for the octane level, where you've got the 87, 89, and 93, My recommendation there is if your car says that you're fine to run on 87 octane fuel, run it and enjoy that discounted price. Just once again, one of my favorite things is try to stick with the same gas station each time, especially then if they do have a problem like they had the issue with Shell several years ago. They had contaminated fuel, made it into their stations, and a lot of the vehicles started breaking down. their fuel pumps were dying because of it and Shell as a corporation stood up, took it on the chin and they paid for those repairs when people came back

and said, I've got a receipt that I bought a full tank of your Shell fuel and an hour later my fuel pump burned out because of that. So the big companies will stand behind it. Yeah, great information Rick and you know while Rick was talking I came across that list of gas stations

and there's quite a few of them rather than go through that list pick up that consumer report I'll tell you it's got some great stuff in it and if you're looking for a new car take and pick up your November December issue

our number here is 877 960 9960 and you can also text us at 772-4976530 ladies I have $50 for you. $50 for the first two new lady callers. We appreciate, and that is our way of showing our appreciation. You're a very important part of the show. And don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. And you want to stay tuned for our dog of the week, and it will touch your heart.

It will pull your heartstrings. It's quite a story. So you want to stay tuned. for that also. Again, our number here is 877-960-99-60, and you can give us a call. We're ready to take your calls. And Jonathan, are we live on Zoom this morning? Yes, we are. We are? Okay. And if you're joining us on via Zoom and you have a question, please use the chat function. And by clicking on the icon at the bottom of your Zoom screen. screen so that Jonathan, well, he's the producer, he can take your call, he can get your information, and Jonathan will chat with you, and he'll put you through to us.

So take advantage of that, and if you don't have the Zoom number, you can jot this number down, and it is the meeting ID number 926-589-05086. Now back to the recovering car dealer. You know, when I was reading the mystery shopping report this morning, it reminded me of something that is really kind of silly. Nobody can, there's not really a definition of what a new car is, and our mystery shopper was shopping to buy a new car. In fact, the shopping report, Stu, Stuart, my son, who wrote the report up from Agent Lightning after she gave Stu the notes on the thing, said the salesperson that she was looking for a 2025 model. And then later in the text of the Mr. Shopping Report,

they showed her a 2024 model. And there was no comment as to fact that she says she was looking for 2025. So not to be critical of Agent Lightning or to be critical of Stu who wrote the report. How do you even catch it? It adds to the, if we're confused and we're experts, and we don't think about it. But there is no legal definition. Your point is completely valid and completely true. But guess what?

It is a 2025. I just went on the assumption because that's what we're seeing. So I just said 2024 because news is attached to that. It's a 2025 already. Yeah. So that's it could be at 2023. I mean, we don't know because there's not a good definition of a new car. Here's the thing you have to remember, there might not be a good definition in Webster's for a new car or by your state or by your Attorney General's office.

But there's a good realistic definition because a new car is a car really that is built in the year that you, you bought it and in five years from now or six years from now or seven years from now if you decide to sell the car or trade the car people aren't going to be thinking about what it was when you bought it so so they're going to think if you bought a car in 19 in 2024 they're going to think that and you 10 years later you sell it they're going to think that's a 10-year-old car yes it is a 10-year-old car but it might have been a five-year-old car when you bought it because it sat on a lot for five years

so I'm exaggerating a little bit to simplify to make it easier on you if you can buy the calendar year car that you want you're safer in fact if you can buy next year's calendar year car

in the previous calendar year you're even better off because then the confusion works in your direction You've got a one-year newer car because you bought it because they said so. And the interesting thing is that manufacturers, it's not uncommon, we'll skip a year. You know, they'll have a 2021 and 2022. They'll skip 2023, and they'll build 2024 and 2023.

So if I haven't confused you, I probably got you confused now. Just remember the simple thing. If you really want a new car, which, you know, if you want a new car, you should get into that. car buy one that that's new in your calendar year or even newer in your calendar year don't be buying last year's car and thinking you should get in a new car because you've already you're by the baggage you back have with that transaction is a full year of depreciation you're going to get surprised in a few years when you go to trade it in yeah and they're treating it as such so uh yeah a lot of people get fooled this type of year and i don't think the

manufacturers do it on purpose, but we're in the industry, we're confused, so I know you're confused, and you're talking thousands of dollars difference between a one-year-old car and a zero-year car or a two-year-old car. I mean, it's just you don't take the hit until you get ready to trade in their shelves, as I said before. So again... So let me ask you this question. What I read from a couple of dealers is that they're saying that there's such a huge savings in purchasing, rather purchasing last year's car instead of, you know, the newer cars that are available. Is that, would you say that's an accurate statement? It can be if the dealer will sell you the car with respect to the actual cost of the car to him. There are incentives and most manufacturers will incentivize older cars to

help the dealer clear the cars out that are on the lot and now we actually have inventories that are being cleared out for the past three years we didn't so they'll be a special incentive to get rid of last year's model so they could sell the new year's model otherwise the dealer won't order the new car until he gets rid of the old car so helps the manufacturer helps the dealer and it helps the customer problem is sometimes that incentive that they receive from the manufacturer the sale the dealer wants to put it in his pocket and if if I've got a if I've got a new 2024 on the lot and I've got a new 2025 on the lot if I've been

incentivized on the 2024 to the two and say a thousand dollars am I gonna pass that along to you when you come in buy the car if you don't know there's a 2025 and you think you're buying a two thousand a new car when you buy the 2024 no I'm going to keep it and try to build my profits so better safe and sorry try to stay with the calendar of your car or newer if you want the new car yeah things are still a bit complicated and it really pays to do your homework for sure you can get taken advantage of in so many ways give us a call how was your experience have you purchased a vehicle recently have you rented a car leased a car

Have you bought a used car? Would love to hear from you. We'd love to hear your stories. 877-960-99-60. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Okay. Another breaking news thing that has really got the industry stirred up is the advent of the electric car like no one believed.

And the electric car is, it used to be, well, maybe it's going to make it, maybe it's not going to make it. The range factor, the fact that range anxiety, if I can't go at least 200 miles or 250 miles or 300 miles. So what's happened is that the manufacturers and the dealers are all saying, okay, we give up electric vehicles. That's the name of the game. And we have a situation where Tesla has kind of owns that market if you're talking about the United States. And there's a company nobody ever heard of before in China called B.YD that is challenging Tesla in terms of being the largest EV manufacturer and seller. In fact, last month, BYD had another record month. So it's all about electric vehicles now, and the manufacturers that aren't in the game, I think I said earlier in the show, we have a car dealership.

The folks in this room here have a toilet dealership in North Palm Beach, Florida. We've been there since 1975, and we see both sides of the story. We see your side because we do this show, Earl and cars, and we're dealers. We got to make a buck, too. So we see Toyota made a big mistake, seemingly, by not getting serious about electric vehicles. And all of a sudden, all the other manufacturers are working feverishly building electric vehicles, and Toyota dragged their feet. Well, if you're a giant, you can drag your feet because when you're ready to pick up your feet,

you start stepping on people. So that's what happened to Toyota. Now they are going very heavy in the electric vehicle direction. We still don't have electric vehicles in Toyota to sell you, but we have hybrids. And the transition car to the electric vehicle is the hybrid because it's a 50-50. You know, you could drive it as a combustion engine car,

and you can drive it as an electric vehicle, and it has phenomenal gas mileage. and it's tried and proven. That's the key. I mean, you buy a new, oops, hand up, that means we have a phone call, and I'll stop yacking. It means I'm leaving. You have to go to the bathroom?

Do you have a question? No, yes, I do have a question. Thank you, Stu. We're going to go to the phones, and we're going to talk to a regular caller, and she always keeps us laughing and informed as to what's going on. well before it was her tires but I'm not sure what she's calling about this morning but you can

bet your boots it'll be interesting good morning Trisha thank you like that yeah no tires but look I'm glad you're all okay because I did try to call last week and I didn't know that you were off the air I just kept calling and calling and no one was answering I said what's going on until I finally heard the message you know that it wasn't live um so because the week before you told me to call in the following week to give you my update about you know all the four lights that were on right remember this yes ago i had all four lights on yes and we didn't know what was going on i've got it tested well this this is a real story here um So I go to my, I got two guys.

I got a West Boko guy. He puts the scanner in. Okay, he says, look, I'm going to clean out the computer totally. Reset the whole car computer, sets it out. The lights. Oh, no, no, he tested out. Sorry, let me back up here. He tested it out, and he says it's the mass airflow sensor.

Oh, yeah. Okay. All right. Okay. Okay. That's going to cost me about $350, $128 for labor. The part is 207 because supposedly, Rick, this is an expensive part from... Rick's head is twisting off his neck right now.

Yeah, that's a lot of cabbage, Trisha. Well, let me tell you. I called up the auto parts store across the way. They said this is the $60 part. When I called him back, I said across the street, they sell it for $60. How come, you know, well, ours cost is $160 because it's a high-end. It's called a Hotanshi part, and we only buy, you know, the high-end parts. Does that make sense, right?

Wow. And then they're marking it up on you. they're hitting you with they're adding on to the price of it i mean see normally uh when a parts department or a uh an established shop that deals with different part stores when they buy parts they get them at a discount so and then they will market up usually like 10 or 20 percent to give them a little profit to help cover the cost of going and getting the the part and you know having it available or having it delivered whatever and the labor time usually will include the diagnostic that the time that they'll spend figuring out okay

yes this is what's wrong and the replacement of it now replacing a mass airflow sensor on most cars is one electrical connector and two small screws And it's not difficult at all. The only difficulty there is making sure that your hands are in good shape that day to be able to get those little screws because they can drop very easily and most of them are not magnetic. So if they fall, they're gone. But yeah, it is just a matter of being careful. And what this thing actually does is it plugs into the air hose.

that goes to the engine, and it tells the computer how much air is being drawn into the engine so the computer can calculate how much fuel to inject so that you got the proper ratio so that it'll burn properly in the engine. And yeah, if it comes down to the old computer term, gigo, garbage in, garbage out, if you get a bad reading and the computer gets the wrong signal and thinks it's got the wrong amount of air going, in, it's going to put the wrong amount of fuel, and the car won't run right. So, okay. Yeah, that definitely can cause a...

But my car's been running right. But is it true that the Hattachi is a better made part, and that's why he charged me $100 more than usual? Well, there are some parts. Companies obviously produce a better quality part than others, but... Yeah. I would check the name brand of the one you found for $60. And then I would check the reviews on it.

And if it's a decent quality, I think you kind of, you got took a little bit on that one. But, yeah. A lot. Yeah. This is already done. I was stupid. I didn't check before. Usually I checked before.

You know, I already did this because he's a guy I use and trust. So, but then I went back to, you know, look. And I said, hey, the people across the street are $60 while you charge you so much. And his answer was, we always buy very high-end parts. Mm-hmm. Right? That was his answer. Okay.

So, but anyway, $350. I got it done. Well, guess what? Well, guess what comes on again a week, five days later? Wow. The lights again. Okay? The lights come on again.

All right. So, of course, I'm screaming. I'm very upset. I call my East Coast Boca guy. He says, come right over. I'll put it in the computer. Let me see if I can find out what's going on. All right?

So he plugs it in. He says he finds out some sort of sensor on the right side, some impact sensor, blah, blah, blah. In the meantime, he shuts the lights off. By doing the diagnostic, it shuts the lights off. Okay. Okay. Let me know what happens. Well, wouldn't you know at the end of the day the lights come on again, all right? Now, this is the weekend and both of them are not available. So I'm driving around last weekend, all with the lights on, call in my West Coast guy. Okay, the lights are on again. I've paid $350 for you to fix it. The lights are on again. Look, you've got to come over there. He goes, let me reset the computer. He plugs it in. He says he totally resets the whole car computer. The lights go off. But guess what comes on again two days later?

Yep. How many times have that happened, Trish? In the last two weeks, like three or four times. That's why I'm telling you the story. I had a story of you last weekend, but now I have more of a story since a whole week, another week passed. So, okay, that didn't work. The lights come on. again. He goes, look, you got to let me keep the call for a few hours. I have to take things apart and really see what's going on. I can't just plug it in by that. I got to take it apart. What's going on? I drop it off for a few hours. Guess what he tells me. Now, after a few hours, he cleaned out the throttle, Rick. The throttle, he says, was very dirty. So he totally cleaned out the throttle.

I said to him, well, why didn't the computer tell you that the throttle was dirty? Well, the computer doesn't do that. It's part of elimination. I said, why didn't you figure this out initially? He said, well, it's part of elimination. First you go by the computer if that doesn't work, then you go by the process of elimination. And he cleaned out the throttle, okay? he says that should do the trick.

Now, I just had it done on Thursday. Okay. The lights haven't gone on again. I just wanted it. And, of course, he didn't charge me for all this labor because darn it, he already charged me $350 for something that didn't work, didn't work. Who knows if that was a problem? Sounds like you got yourself a good technician there, Tricia.

We got some calls back and up here, but congratulations. on finding a guy that is going to do the right thing and not charge her when it's a difficult diagnosis. A lot of automotive places would not do that. He got yourself a good guy. But, Rick, he did charge me, already $350 for maybe something that wasn't even true. Right. Yeah.

You know, your story is encouraging, and it's encouraging for all of our listeners, but most of all, for the ladies, and thanks for sharing your story, Trisha. Trisha, one quick thing. Would you like to tell us who the mechanic is or what his chop name is? I got a couple folks on YouTube channel are asking. Yes, all-American auto off of State Road 7 and Boka. Ah, okay, yeah.

That's all-American? All-American auto. One of my YouTube listeners, Kim appreciates life. She actually asked if that was All-American Auto on 441. So, yep. Oh, you're in good hamstrish. Oh, wow. What made her ask that?

Apparently, she's familiar with them. Yeah, good reputation gets around. Yeah, so, yeah, I mean, he did do the right thing by going back in and finding it. And, yes, sometimes you can have multiple problems, and they'll disguise, one problem will disguise another problem. and that's modern cars. They are so complicated that even the best technicians it could take us a while

to narrow down to the root cause. Okay, well, I wanted to give you that story because hopefully I'm keeping my fingers crossed now that the lights don't come on again. I hope so. We're pulling for you. We definitely are pulling for you. Hey, Trish, thanks for making us part of your morning. We really appreciate your call.

Thank you. And don't forget to spread the word to the ladies that they can win themselves $50 for the first two new lady callers. I just say here's a hedge up on All-American Auto. There are 424 Google ratings 4.3. That's extremely good. So you folks in the Boca Raton area, that's South Florida, if he needs an honest place, they're not perfect,

but they're good, they're very good, All-American Auto in Boca Raton. You got a gem down there. Okay, thanks again, Trish. Thanks so much, Trish. Look forward to hearing from you again. Give us a call toll free at 877-960-9960, Texas, 772-497-6-5-30. Rick, do you have anything from you, too?

As a matter of fact, I do have an interesting one here. Let's see, let me get this back to here. Mark H says, Earl, would you care to comment on the plumbing resale value of electric cars? And Donovan got in pretty quick here. He says, it's all about the tech and the cars getting cheaper and the falling price of batteries, which causes new EVs to be cheaper. Battery prices have fallen 15% in the last 18 months. A new Model Y two years ago was $60,000. Now it's $43,000, and the same goes for many other brands.

And he says, resale value obviously has to go down if new versions of the car are cheaper. And he says Ford this week announced the updated 2025 Mustang Mock-E and the car will be $3,500 cheaper than the 2024. They're also going to bring battery production to the U.S. next year to make it even cheaper. So that's an interesting thing. Yeah, electric vehicles, as a used vehicle, are a good buy now, and I'm speaking generally. I mean, obviously, if you listen to the show, a good buy is something you've got to earn by being an educated consumer. But in general, the electric vehicle prices have plummeted.

Do you recall about a year ago, I think that it hurts really, really got nuts and crazy, and they went out about a whole bunch of EVs. They were going to be a little car company that cornered the EV market. And they got into the top of the market, and then they practically, I think they did go bankrupt. They sold what they had at a huge loss, and so that started the prices on used EVs crashing. So today, I don't have the exact numbers. If you're looking at a particular vehicle and used vehicle, comparing the EV model with the, the combustion engine the EV model is two or three thousand dollars cheaper so like any other shopper you have to be careful but you can generally buy I would

recommend a used EV over combustion engine EV as long as you nail down the price as meeting the low demand for used EVs we uh then this can change overnight so uh an EV today is a safe vehicle to to to to drive. Not an autonomous, by the way, but a EV. And Nancy and I almost crashed in our autonomous cyberbeast coming in this morning because of a malfunction of the autonomous. So it's a love of a relationship we have with our autonomous vehicles. For sure. I decided to take a break from driving the platt and Earl got behind the wheel. Is it a wheel? I'm not sure if it's a It's a yoke.

It's a whole yoke. The yoke's on you. I have a half a yoke. But any way, Mr. Earl leaves a lot to be desired. You have to really be brave to be in. Yeah, we named our cars. My cyber beast is Mr. Earl and Nancy's Tesla plant is Ms. Nancy. I knew about that.

I didn't know that you named the cyber truck, Mr. Earl. It's a good one. Yeah. Bad or boss man? Really. I think, Mr. Yeah, more appropriate. But at any rate, as far as autonomous was concerned, let me tell you, that cyber truck needs a little discipline because he is crazy.

This morning. Heading down, heading north, heading north in a south lane. Oh, God. Crossing over four lanes. I'm not so much worried about. It's the day of the dead today. We should, I don't want to celebrate you guys. Be careful in that beast.

I suppose. Okay. Frank is holding on and then we're going to get to Stu. I'm sure there's a whole lot for him to share with the audience. And Frank is calling us from Jupiter Farms. How are you holding up out there, Frank? Hey, good morning, guys. Good morning. This will be a quick one, actually. We came back from Connecticut a couple weeks ago. And the Nissan dealer up there has, I mean, it has three lots. And there had it be a quick one. over a quarter mile's worth of cars in about four or five rows deep. Is Nissan having an issue with being able to sell their cars? I don't know what their current market share is right now. It's one of the lower imports that people know about. They're better than Mitsubishi. But I do know that the way they do the dealers out there,

they like to have a single owner owning multiple dealerships in a market in a market. So is this just one dealership on, or is you said he's got four different lines? No, no, it was a Nissan only, but they had like... Oh, the size of the property. Oh, it sounds like he stumbled on a mega Nissan dealer. There are not very many of those. Right, yeah. I mean, usually we see smaller ones are grouped up in like an auto mall or something like that.

No, what's the name of the dealership? I don't know right now. I'll look at Texas to you. And Nissan is one of the most hostile... dealer networks with respect to the manufacturer. There's always a tension between auto manufacturers and their dealers. And with Nissan, it's almost like a war because the dealers hate the manufacturers and the manufacturers hate the dealers.

Sue and I talked at length about buying a couple of Nissan dealerships a while back. And even then, we were talking with one of the top Nissan. executives and he thought very little of the dealers yeah and we also met executives that had left Nissan to join Toyota yeah and they didn't have good things to say about Nissan either so yeah well one other quick thing since you guys are always into dogs big dog ranch home we got a perfect dog joke for you this morning we were on a cruise we went flew over to London picked up a cruise came back to New York, but we stopped in Ireland

in a few places. And of course, the sheep were all running up the hills, and the dogs are chasing and doing their thing. And I see him going through a gate there, and the farmer looks at the dog and says, how many sheep? And the dog says, 40. And the farmer goes, well, you know, we only have 38.

Why did you say that? It's where the dog's reply was. Woof. No, no. Oh, that's good. You're going to really like this. He says I'm a roundup dog Oh That's a dad joke

Oh my I figured we'd make you laugh One time It did That's hysterical We love hearing from you Frank Thanks Frank As all you too guys

Thanks bye bye Have a great weekend 877-960 Now we're going to talk to Stu Hi Nancy Hi how are you I'm doing good Happy Day of the Day

great you want to have a cup of coffee okay all right we have some we have some incognito anonymous feedback responses that came in and I'm going to get to the to the first one here the opinions reflected in the mystery shopping reports do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the people in the studio but this is the the message Joey O'Cardy Chrysler Jeep Dodge is a corrupt organization they sold me a 2020 Chrysler Pacifica that I saw online. I never went to the dealership. They did not disclose the car was in an accident and owned by a rental car company. I filed complaints with every agency. I'm in arbitration with them because states on the contract that you have to do arbitration first and they have to

pay for it. They have so many lawsuits on them. Their attorney, Kenneth Peretti, they hide behind and try to intimidate consumers when they file arbitration complaint to sue them. They changed my buyer's order. They sent it to the bank with added fees I was not aware of. This is why none of the paperwork was in the car when it was delivered to me. If you would like to contact me for my information, I can be reached at, and we have an email address. So it sounds like a pretty nasty situation where you got lawyers involved, or at least the arbitration. It's a shame that you have to go to arbitration, and you can't just file a –

a claim in you know in the court system but that's uh that's probably on everybody's contract um for arbitration yeah that's a that's a dirty little secret uh you know we this is not an infomercial we have a car dealership uh as far as i know we're the only car dealer that does not have an arbitration clause uh on our contract because uh we feel that one of your rights is an american citizen is the right to you to a day in court and if you're a someone does you wrong, you have a right to take that in front of a jury and a judge and get a third opinion. With the car dealers, everyone that I know of, except for our dealership, in the fine print, when you sign the contract, the buyer's order, the vehicle buyer's order,

you're agreeing to have your disputes arbitrated by a panel. Now, these panels are business. They're arbitration companies and they make their money by arbitrating disputes and guess who they favor when there's a dispute the people that hire them the most right I mean if you have a particular arbitration company under contract and every time you have a dispute you pay them to do the arbitration they only they only face the customer that you arbitrating with one time, they face you many, many times and you pay, you make their paycheck. So it's clearly a biased way to get a decision. And if I were, when you're buying a car,

here's a tip for you, ask about the arbitration clause in the vehicle buyer's order and say you will not sign that, cross it out, have an initial by a manager at the dealership so that you can have your day in court. You're not anticipating and you're hoping that won't happen, but arbitration is biased in favor of the dealer. Yep. And our attorneys, when we ran that by them, strenuously objected. Yes. Eric. And folks, please remember, even if you're buying a car that they say it's only a few months old, only has a tiny amount of mileage, take it to your own mechanic, take it to someone you trust, and have it thoroughly inspected, and make sure that if they tell you you can't have it inspected until after you buy

it, make sure there's a money back clause. Like CarMax has this. You cannot take the car to your own mechanic to have it inspected, but you've got a certain amount of time afterwards that you can return that car and get all of your money back. Take advantage of that. Sometimes they give your money back. Yeah, this is crazy. You've got to look at a Carfax, too. And by the way, all lemon laws are arbitrated.

So if you have a new car, I'll shut up because I think we have a phone call. Yeah, we suddenly have a lot of calls. So we're going to go to Mark, who's been holding, he's calling us from New York, and for everyone else, I'll get right with you.

Good morning, Mark. Good morning. I got a question. for Rick just where about what really constitutes a new car and you buy a two-year-old car that's been sitting on the lot and it's getting what they call a lot rot the tires are now two years old yeah the battery years old and what else other problems you could have and then I have a comment about the lady with a parts the $60 or in the $160 part yeah the independent shops it's a minefield for after market parts out there.

Oh, yes. And they make it fix thousands and thousands of cars with the same problems. And they've known from what they've bought, what parts are going to work, a quality part is going to work, and they're not going to have a comeback. And a lot of times, an oxygen sensor or a map sensor, you'd like to get an OEM part. It's not available. It's on back order from the dealer. So what can they buy that they can give to their customer?

They know what's going to work. Yes, it's more expensive than a white box part, but they don't want to have their customer breakdown. They don't want to have it to come back. So if you establish that relationship with an independent technician, that's something that you're paying for there, too, is they know what's going to work, and you've got to get that trust thing going. Yes. And as a matter of fact, on that note, Toyota, our air conditioning compressors were always made by a company called Nippendenzo. and we would buy them from Toyota and they'd cost a fortune

we'd sell to the customer with that high price and suddenly we found out that there was a local company called Cold Air Distributors that you could buy an air conditioning compressor not just the compressor but with the clutch and pulley on it mounted up already made by Nippendenzo for half the price and we could pass that savings along

to the customer, and we went with them all the time. My point is, check the manufacturer of that part and find out who manufactures that part for the factory for the original dealer, because quite often, parts like Nippendenzo, companies like Nipendenzzo, others, they will sell parts the exact same quality to the parts stores for much less, and they're cutting out some of the middlemen, and you could save a fortune, and you get the exact same part. So just check who the manufacturer is. Now, on the idea of the car that has sat on that dealership lot for two years, yes, there are other environmental issues that can happen with it. Some of the common things, roughs build up on the brake

rotors. That can be devastating. It can cause massive pulsations, and you might have to replace the brake rotors to get rid of it. Other odd things I've heard of, insect and rodent intrusion into vehicles that are parked outside. Toyota, actually, for a while, had issues with spiders crawling up the drain hose for the air conditioning box. They would make a nest an egg sack there. And the next thing, you know, as you're driving down the road, you've got water flooding in the car. It's the condensation from the AC box that is simply overflowing because the drain hose was pulled up by spiders. And as weird as that sounds, their fix was actually to make a drain hose that had an insecticide built into it so the spiders would stay away

from it. I mean, there's so many odd things that can happen. So it's always good to look look at the manufacturer date of the car and try to get one as young as possible. Did I get your question for you? Are you still there, Mark? That was great. I appreciate you guys' advice. I have great day. Thank you, Mark.

Give us a call again. 877-960-99-60. I want to ask Karen and Dawn to please call back, especially Karen. Please give me a call back. I was waiting for your call. 877-960-99-60. Our text number is 772-497-6530. Don't forget, your anonymous feedback.com.

We're going to go to Doug. Doug's a regular caller, and how are you today? Good morning, Doug. Yeah, good morning. I have two questions. One for Rick, one for Earl. Okay. Rick, I have a 2010 town car, and I'm able to use the E85.

I bought it today for $2.35 a gallon. Am I doing the right thing? If your car is running properly on the E85, then yes, you're okay. The biggest issue with E85 is folks that have cars that are not designed to use it. And because of the extremely high ethanol content, the fuel would actually degrade the fuel lines and the fuel pumps and cost a fortune. But as long as the car was properly designed to run E85, you're totally safe to run it. And the computer will handle any concentration issues, like if you fill up with normal gasoline and you run that for a while, you get a 50-50 mix, the computer will handle calculating the readings. and make sure your car is going to run properly.

Good. Now, my question for Earl. Earl, if these two were equivalent, if I go to an American dealer and buy a $50,000 electric car, or I could get the Chinese imported for $25,000, what would be better for our country? because the other 25,000 I could use to educate my children

I could use it to save the money I could use it in a million different ways Well, that's almost a political question I believe what's best for our country Is to follow what has made America different And why we are who we are today The greatest country in the world And we have a system, which is based on capitalism.

And capitalism is something that is both the manufacturers' best tool, and also it's the consumer's best tool. Supply and demand, these things that you hear about, you don't hear about in China, you don't hear them about in India, and you don't hear about many places of the world. But this show, for example, this show provides information to educate consumers to get the best vehicle at the best price. So I think adhering to what the, I guess the rules

and what made America a different country are capitalism. capitalism says find the best product at the lowest price and buy it so in the short run one can make a really good argument that you're better off to pay too much for a car because it was built in America but in the long run you're going to put America at a disadvantage because the manufacturers around the world that build the best product at the best price are the ones that will prevail and the ones that are being subsidized by their government are the ones that will perish in the long run. So that's my opinion.

I understand both sides of that equation, but in the long run, I think you just adhere to the supply and demand, get the best quality product at the lowest price you can find and for a goodabout where the car was manufactured. Well, they don't let us buy the Chinese cars. Well, that's true. And again, this gets back into politics. For a politician, there are a lot of people out there. And I love these people. They mean well. And they think they're doing an American company of favor by paying more money for an American product when they can get a better quality product overseas for less money. And they are in the short run, as I said, they are doing that because you can make the argument, if everybody boycotted this particular American company, then the company couldn't pay their workers as much. They might have to lay people off.

The company might not even make it, but that's capitalism. You know, the strong survivor in the weak parish, and you ended up with strong manufacturers building good products at low prices. Supply and demand does that. But so I'm against. Earl, but what we end up with $800 a month average payments.

Well, look at, look at Toyota. I bought the Toyota dealership in North Bond Beach, Florida in 1975. Prior to that, in the 60s, the toilet was a joke. The car was junkie. They were unsafe. and it made no sense to buy Toyota. Toyota, when they came in the United States, they changed the way they built their cars

and they caused the entire industry, the entire American industry, to change the way they build cars. If you can remember back into the 50s or 60s and 70s, American cars were gas guzzlers. They were too expensive to repair. I know because I had a Pontiac dealership in 1968 and 1970. And the Pontiac was a piece of junk compared to the Toyota.

And when Toyota was allowed in this country to sell cars, the American manufacturers had to change their ways. And their ways were to build a higher quality, a safer car and a lower price. So right now, they are model by model. They are American cars that are better than Toyota. And of course, there are Toyota cars that are better than American cars.

And you, the consumer, have a choice. You can choose your price and choose your vehicle. It's a global economy. I mean, 40 years ago, Toyotas, Hondas, and Nissan's were made in Japan. Now, Toyota's Hondas and nizons are made in America. Well, those American plants are providing jobs for Americans. So in the short run, you might be helping a plant in America by buying from that manufacturer,

but in the long run, you're hurting that plant because they don't have the competition to keep them sharp and build a high-quality product at a competitive price. Earl it was good to talk to you well Doug thanks for the question that's on a lot of people's minds and it's a old guys like me that I've seen both sides of it I remember

driving a Mazda R-100 with a wankle engine the rotary engine and they got 12 miles a gallon and really yeah I thought it was like some futuristic engine that was yeah now 12 miles to gallon

but it was really fast and the engine would blow up after about 8,000 miles. And then Mazda would give me a lot of money to put a new engine in. And I'd get that money for Mazda. And I'd sell the car again. The engine would blow up again, and I would sell the car again. And so, you know, in the short run, I was really happy that I was selling a junkie product. And because Mazda saw the handwriting on the wall, they dropped the Wankle engine.

They dropped the rotary engine. They started building combustion engines, which were a better product. Interesting conversation, Doug. We really appreciate your call. We're going to have to run. Thank you. Do you have another question? Okay.

I believe that we're going to go to Palm Beach Gardens. I believe we're going to go to John from Palm City. We're going to talk to John. Okay, we're going to go to John at Palm City. He's a regular caller. Good morning, John. Hang on, Tiffany, and Don, I'll be right with you. How are you?

I'm fine. That's good. I want to discuss the greatest issue that ever come out. Consumer reports, November, December, okay? Unbelievable amount of information, all the cars, SUVs, fastbacks. And I got to tell you some. We've discussed this car many times. I got it in front of me.

Page 92. Okay. There it appears, the Jeep Wrangler 3.6L engine. And if you go to the end of the issue, the last page talks about a naughty list. They issue eight items. There it is the Jeep Wrangler, 2024, the lowest overall score of any vehicle that consumer reports ever tested, a number 25 on the list. tells you something right there we've talked about many times

and it's even though people love the jeeps this tells you something right there by the authority consumer reports which was the Bible of the industry and I want to point that out to the people that are considering

buying a wrangler I think the wrangler came out if I remember correctly I think it came out in 1987 but this is how it and the 2024 is overrated, underrated, with a test score of 25. That's a great question, you know, trivia question in the bar, say, okay, who knows who builds the worst car ever manufactured?

And the answer is the Jeep Ringer. Right, but you have to provide proof. You can't just say it. Yeah, well, 24. I've never heard of it. Typically, when you're looking at consumer reports, it'll be in the low 70s, or mid-70s, and if you see something really, really good, it'll be like at 85 or an 88, but at 24, that sounds like it should be illegal to sell a car with a

Ford Bronco instead. And you know what? People will still buy them. Oh, they will, yeah. They're rabid for those cheeses. It's a cult. Okay, we're going to have to shorten our conversation. My ex-green is lit up like a Christmas tree.

All right, buy it be well Thank you John Great call Thank you That was John And he is a regular caller We're going to go to Tiffany Tiffany's calling us from West Palm Beach

And guess what She is a first-time caller Welcome Tiffany Hi, good morning Good morning You just won yourself $50 Oh wow Great

Could use $50 I'll stay on the line and give us your contact information, and I'll send that checkout to you. What can we do for you this morning, Tiffany? My son just purchased this truck, and it takes fuel and E85 gas. I was just wondering what the difference is between regular gas and the E85. Absolutely. E85 is simply 85% ethanol. opposed to the E15, which is being sold nowadays, which is the 15% ethanol, and you can only run

E85 fuel in a car that was designed to run that fuel. If you put it in a car that was not designed for it, you're going to damage the car. And be aware that E85 also has a few drawbacks because it's so much ethanol in there it does reduce the what's known as the power per gallon so you won't get as good a fuel mileage on it and it does cause a bit more increase in emissions but yeah it's a lot cheaper but you have to have a car that's designed to run it properly okay well thank you thank you for answer my question you're welcome Tiffany and stay on the line and give me your contact information, okay? Okay, thank you.

Have a great weekend. We are going to go to Phil, who's calling us from Jupiter. Hi, Phil. Good morning. Oh, hey, I got a question for you. I've got my name down on a 25th Camry on two different Toyota dealers. And they've got a fee that says delivery, processing, and handling. $1,135.

Does all the dealers charge that now because of the resulting of what happened with the district attorney up in Tallahassee? No, that sounds like a, where did you see that fee appear? Was that on a buyer's order? Yeah, it's on the buyer's order. That's a junk fee. Yeah, it was on yours too, though. No. then if it's on the part of the MSRP is the manufacturer's delivery charge, that's legit.

If it's something added on after the fact, that is a check. Oh, no, no, this is the main sheet that's got the model number. Okay. Okay, this is the consumer sheet. No, the manufacturer's delivery charge is legitimate and it is charged on, and it's part of the price of every car. We see the same term being, I don't. on a buyer's order often when we mystery shop people where it's charged again and that's double

dipping and oh okay so so so so that's legitimate then to what I'm looking at correct but if you see that appear on a or something else called delivery fee or delivery services fee oh no no it's not that it's not that it's the first sheet you're talking about worth it yeah no that's that's okay and that's legit but it does get confusing because um to get a long time ago maybe 20 years ago the term dealer fee, dealers actually wrote that phrase on the buyers or a dealer fee, and then that got around, and consumers realized that was a bad thing. So they started calling it other names, and they started calling it delivery fee, which was probably illegal because that's a legal term that was, I believe, that's a, right?

It's a legal term. You can't. Yeah, exactly, yeah. So to call another fee, that's just the way they disguise it to make it look more legitimate. Yeah, and I can't believe it. I'm actually going to be able to buy a car from you guys now. I'm actually, I got my name down it, and it's going to be here in about a month. That's exciting. That's exciting.

Well, welcome to the family. I appreciate it. Yeah, like we said, it's not infomercial, but there is not one single penny that we charge to a customer that is not legit if it's, we make a profit, and that's in the price that we show you. and any fee that's added is going to a government agency of some sort. So those junk fees are gone now because of Moody's action in the state, right? No, I don't think so. They ignored her. We've mystery shop, we've been, I don't know how many mystery shops we've done since it went to effect September, probably eight,

and not one of them has complied. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, and it's pretty sad because, You know, we talk about Ashley Moody a whole lot and how much we need her help. And she's had our help. And that's why she's sitting in the seat that she's sitting in. But let me tell you something, nothing has changed, and it's extremely upsetting. It sure is.

They make laws, and there are laws, and they're making more laws. Let's enforce them. Yes. And she came out and admitted publicly that the law that she was going to, began to enforce has been on the books for 20 years. Well, she's been an attorney general for several years, so she should have known those laws were on the books a long time ago. So she made a big thing about starting to enforce a 20-year-old law,

and what happened? She's not going to enforce that either. So it's all a matter of politics and money. You know, I mean, you can have all laws in the world if you don't enforce the law. What's the point to happen to law? So are all Camrys hybrid now? Yes.

I mean, not all Camry is coming forward. There's lots of non-Camry hybrids out there in the world right now. They didn't all become hybrids. But, yeah, Toyota's Camrys. They don't call them Camry hybrids. They're just Camrys and their hybrids. Same with a Ravrefour. Yeah, I cannot believe how that car drives.

It blew my mind. I mean, the thing runs like a sports car. I mean, it's crazy the amount of PEP that's got now. Yeah. So, okay. Well, thanks a lot. I just saw that charge on two different, three different dealers, and I said, whoops, I better talk to you guys about that before.

We'll call us any time. Thank you so much. Okay. We appreciate your call. Okay, we're going to go to the patient, patiently holding Roadrunner, Steve. Me, meet me. He's still hanging in there? Good morning.

Hey, man. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Good morning. My game question is about batteries. Now, we have the cards that start with a key, and then we have the push button start. Is there a difference in batteries with that? Nope.

It's just the same thing. It's just contact has made. Well, like I said, I've seen on my friend's battery when I test it a clear little plastic box on top. Is that relayed to the key fob? No, that's usually a set of fusible link. They're basically, they're fuses, but instead of having an individual fuse for each of the circuits that are mounted in there, it'll have all of the links side by side. Oh, okay, because I always thought there'd be a difference between the push-button start and the key start. No, the only real difference is the type of battery is based on the location.

A lot of cars now are putting the battery in the trunk or the very back of the car inside the car. So, of course, you can't have a standard lead acid battery there because they produce hydrogen gas as the battery is being used. So they have to have a special gel-type sealed battery that doesn't create that gas. Because otherwise, you know, for our smoking population that lights up a cigarette in the car and all of a sudden, Hindenberg. You've got the Hennonberg. You've got a question, though, really. So I know that we use, we use those old-fashioned batteries to start our car, the 12-volt batteries. Yep.

Why can't they do a smaller lithium battery? It doesn't have to be like the giant EV battery, but just, I mean, it looks like battery pack. You know, you used to charge your phone, smaller, easier to maintain. Well, again, it's the cost of lithium, and the fact, again, that lithium, again, that lithium, batteries can be extremely dangerous overheating batteries I mean we saw it with cell phones yeah you can't pack them on your suitcase

and all that so yeah I get it's and all that yeah they they can overheat and catch fire so lead acid batteries have been tried and proven for almost 100 years now or more yep it ain't broke don't fix it the other thing was the guy who wants to buy a call

from China would he have to go over there and buy the car the tariffs it depends on what's being imported yeah because he couldn't get in it doesn't matter how he gets it once he brings it into a US port of entry you'll have to pay a tariff you know he could probably he could buy a Chinese car in Mexico too because the manufacturers are building there's a there's a plant in Mexico that's half in Mexico and half of the United States now I guess I guess that was done on purpose but to probably bypass some export import laws and things like that but

It's a game. It's a global economy, and pretty soon there won't be any tariffs. I say pretty soon in the grand scale of things. In a hundred years, I could say there won't be any tariffs. It's a global economy we're dealing with now in China and India and the United States and Europe. I mean, it's all one big ballgame. I know, but the way he phrased the question is, like, he's going to go to China, buy the car, then pay to have it shipped over here.

And the thing I started when I said, when he said that, I mean, suppose you've got to do maintenance and try to call. What are you going to do, ship the call back to China? Right. He's also, I mean, you're going to get, the price of the car is going to be, he's not going to save anything because you're going to ship it, which God knows how much that is. And then, then you're going to pay the tax. You'll pay the tariffs. Right. All right.

Everybody, have a good and safe weekend. All right, beep, beep. Bye, bye. Thank you. Great hearing from you. I got a question for Rick Rule. quick. It's a technical question. In my truck, when I've gone to start it lately, every time I put foot on the brake and push the start button, it says I've got to hold the key up to it.

Is that mean my key battery is running dead? First thing to start with is that little $3 battery in your key fob? Because if it's getting weak enough, then the signal doesn't, it's degraded by the time it gets to the computer in the car. It detects it, but it's not. It recognizes it's pretty weak and it's just weak and it's it's hearing it staticy and it's not sure what it's saying well i have maintenance coming up so if i bring it into a toy to dealership and i tell them about that they'll uh take care of it for me yeah because they'll or if if you happen to be at the dealership you walk right up to the parts department and say hey can you pop a new battery in this and the guy to parts wouldn't take a screwdriver pop it open take out that little watch battery pop a new

one in boom you're back on the road five minutes i'll just tell Travis there you go He'll take care of it. Yeah. All right. Make sure, though, bring all the keys with you. Replace. All the keys. We only get one with these things.

Oh, now that you get the second key. I have my second one. Yeah. But bring them both. Get both them replaced at the same time. Keeps them both good and strong that way. Yeah. Okay.

I think it's time to go to Ann Marie. Okay. Well, actually, I had another quick little interesting anecdote. I went camping recently. And one morning, you know, our mom. My camping neighbors came where we're looking at the tundra. And they're asking questions about it because I have a rack on it. And really nice folks.

And he started telling me the story. He goes, you know this, because they have a tundra too. He goes, you know, these trucks have a defect. And I'm like, well, I know they do because they have this big recall thing. And I didn't want to get talking. So I did not identify myself as a Toyota dealer at that moment. But it wasn't the problem. They told me about something, aware and terror thing that happened just due to

the kind of the design of the seat, and they had to come out of pocket to replace the cover on the side of the seat. That plastic trim. Right. And he was a real nice guy. He goes, and I was sitting there wondering, do I dare tell Toyota that they got a design defect? And I said, you just did. And I go, he goes, what? And I go, I'm a Toyota dealer, but I didn't know about this. I thought you're going to mention something else, a little more catastrophic. And anyway, so I told them what to do, how to go to a dealership and talk about goodwill, and because he said he was out on miles on the warranty. So hopefully it worked out for him, but I thought that was kind of

cute. Yeah, great story. I can't count the number of those that I personally have replaced, and for the rest of the shop altogether, that number is times 25. Well, that's good, because I did tell them I would tell our technicians, which I'm doing right now, and that we could

give a report. It's called a DPR that we could provide back to Toyota. We sent in dozens of them. They finally came back, so enough enough, stop, we know. So Carol and Rob, if you're listening. Toyota is aware of it. Yep.

I always tell people I'm a shepherd when they ask me what I do for a living. A shepherd. If I saw my cart deal, they start complaining about everything. They don't even ask you if you're a shepherd. What do you... You have sheep?

That's a real, real old joke. Oh, my gosh. All right, let me go to... Amory had her initial text was just an acknowledgement of the election coming up, and to think of politicians as car dealerships that are advertising to you and they try to stir up emotions and allow yourself to kind of get past the emotions

to make an intelligent decision besides any, you know, passions. And I think that's wise advice. Very much so. Yep. Let's go to the next anonymous feedback. Have you ever thought of doing a hidden camera on a mystery shop? We have thought about it. there are there's problems with it in our state you have to you can't secretly do it

and then I think if you announced it I think I think that you can have the video right but you can't have the audio and I'm serious about this I have a pair of the meta glasses yeah which you can wear so I could I could loan Agent Lightning my meta glasses yeah and she could go in and she would be able to video aren't they prescription for you aren't they prescription for you You have perfect eyes. I deliberately got the clear glass non-prescription so she could wear my metaglasses and we could do the video of the whole thing.

That's a good suggestion. I'll have to double-check the law on that, but you can't do the audio and the video. Well, here's an interesting question that raises. So if we can do the video without the audio, could we have a lip reader translate after the fact and we can get a transcript? How long ago did we video a mystery shop attempted to? And what was it that someone was wearing? Well, that was a...

That was very interesting. We had a GoPro. GoPro, yeah. And it had a headstrap, so, you know, it's for surfing. You put it on... And we had a mystery shopper. I almost remember her name. But she had a son with her.

Her son was about five years old. And so we thought the, you know, the store. was he just he's don't worry he's playing with that right he's just he got that for Christmas he won't take it off his head and so he was there with her while she was shopping the problem was you know he's a very energetic kid so he's

just all over the place and you didn't see much of anything other than blurry we saw a lot of the ceiling yeah a lot of the ceiling the table hands and and then but I'm wondering if

just an open recording thing? I don't know. I mean, that would definitely affect behavior, so I don't think we should try it. I mean, it would be entertainment anyway, and we could play the video for people that could stream us or when we did the mystery shopping

report, and they'd see the dealership, they'd see who the salespeople are, and all that kind of stuff. My question, there's another question. Here's a legal question for you. So you can't record without the other person, audio without them knowing.

Is it you can't record? What if you record something and nobody ever knew and nobody, it was never shown? Is there a crime committed? That's an excellent question. Like if we used it for our own edification, to get more information and then typed it up. I can't go into detail, but that came up in a situation. I remember that situation. Yeah.

I think it's kind of like if there's no awareness of what you did, it's not a crime. Johnny Z. Freidley is asking, what about the news investigation teams that do undercover with video and audio? And then they show that video and audio on. It varies by states, and they can't do that in Florida. Oh, okay. There's two-party states and one-party states. And, like, New York is one-party state. A lot of stuff is filmed there.

You don't have to tell the person that you're recording them. Oh, okay. That's kind of nuts. Anyway, that's off the topic. Let's get to the next anonymous feedback. Here's another question about mystery shops. It says you should publish the specific phone number to call in during your mystery shopping report for Ashley Moody when there's no Munrooney label located on the vehicle or on the window. Yeah, and also anything, if there's something that triggers something, it brings something to mind during the mystery shopping report, we'll give the number and you guys can make a report.

Of course, then one could argue you can call that number, but Ashley Moody either won't answer or she won't do anything about itself. Well, that's what we're saying. When you have an attorney general that was elected by the Florida Automobile Dealers Association, and you wonder why she doesn't enforce laws that could hurt dealers, it's kind of like, you know, duh. I mean, she won't get reelected, that's all. It's all politics. One handwashes the other. Yeah, and by the way, folks, sorry to interrupt you, that toll-free number for Ashley Moody,

I didn't mention that earlier, I'll mention it a few times before we're off the air, but that number is 866-966-9-66-7-226. That's Attorney General Ashley Moody. Okay. One last anonymous feedback. I always thought it would be a good idea to do a mystery shop with two people. The first shopper would come in, like the educational. shopper the show always stresses

shopping multiple dealerships and Costco to see what the absolute lowest price he could get and then compare that to the second shopper is your typical Larry Laydown. I think it would be quite, it would show quite a drastic difference and give testimony to the quality of the advice the show gives. And we've

done that. It's been a long time since we did that. We did it in two phases. The last one was actually with Agent Lightning. I don't know if any of our listeners remember our prior mystery shopper that was Agent Thunder. And the lightning followed. They did a team mystery shop where he was Larry Laydown

and she was, I think it was brutal barber or something. We made jokes about it. Anyway, so they did that. And strangely enough, and it wasn't a big enough, you know, sample size to really get a scientific result. But I think that Larry Laydown got a better deal or something. But there's other factors because, you know, one... Like who the salesman is? Yeah, yeah.

But before this. that when we had Agent X was our mystery shopper before he moved away, and we did series of that where he did Larry Laydowns and brutal, was it brutal brutus or something like that that he called himself. And, no, the proof was when he pushed and fought back, he got better deals, and when he just accepted everything, he got laid away. Brutality. Yeah, it was dealership brutality.

All right, we're caught up on those. Okay. Hey, folks, do you know the percentage of cars that do not come with a spare tire? 60%. I thought it would be more than that, actually. I mean, what a surprise when you don't think about it. How many people buy a car and just assume it's a spare tire? I mean, you better.

Well, this is what is what is put in the vehicle now, and it's a sealant kit, it's called, and that's from Consumer Report. That's pretty interesting. And the lack of a spare may be due to regulatory pressure to make cars lighter, which means better fuel economy. Makes sense. And as a PSA, folks, if you wind up using that gunk or the tire sealant that you put into your tire. Total last resort.

Yeah, it's a last resort. that tire cannot be, even if it's just a screw right in the center of the tread, if you use that tire sealant stuff, that tire cannot be repaired. You need a new tire. You cannot do an internal patch because that sealant stuff cannot be cleaned off of the rubber, and you are very likely going to have to replace the tire pressure sensor because the gunk gets in them and kills them.

So you just went from... Go roadside. a patch that's maybe $35 to maybe $150 for a new tire and another couple hundred dollars for a new sensor, plus the labor to install it and reprogram it. The sealant that they're putting in these vehicles, is that the same as the fix-a-flat that I used to use back in the 80s? Same basic chemical stuff.

Oh, it is? And it's the same stuff that kills those sensors. Not to mention the poor technician, when he takes the tire off the rim, then has to sit there and scrub this stuff off of the rim. And this is all for better fuel economy. Does that make any sense? It is a double-edged sword.

Yeah, I could think of how much is a full-side? A tire is pretty heavy. I know that. But a spare tire is not that heavy. I want them to find weight somewhere else in the car. Multiply it by a million miles. I know. I just wish to find something else that weighs that much on the car

Well, but for the cost of it, I keep one of these in my vehicle. It weighs a couple pounds. It's simply one of those little air compressors that plugs into the power outlet. And it may take five minutes for it to pump a tire back up, but it'll do it. And the nice part about it is most flat tires is just a small puncture in a place that can safely be repaired. So if you can pump that tire up and it'll hold air long enough for you to get to a service station, you just saved yourself a couple hundred dollars exactly you know I'm sitting here scratching my head you know it reminds me of Starbucks who came up with the olive oil in the coffee I don't know

I thought it was a real Italian thing it wasn't oh please it seemed like a good idea of the time I can't imagine anybody saying I gotta not I gotta have olive oil on the coffee I ordered one thinking maybe I'm missing something and it was a taste of what I thought it was going to taste like It tasted like a, your first sip tastes like olive oil. It's gross. It wasn't good. Okay. Hey, any?

Yeah, I got one from Amory, another one. She's sneaking another one in on this. Okay, and we're going to go right to the dog of the week. Okay. Jonathan's giving me a. His tails wagon? Yeah, he's going crazy. Why don't manufacturers include a tire inflator, she asked.

You know what? I have, when I have weighs less than a spare tire, I have a DeWalt, it's $39, and you can plugged it into whatever, and it weighs way less than a spare tire. The answer is cost. I mean, you're right. It's another little electric thing. I was thinking, well, here's another cost thing. I know a lot of them are providing roadside assistance, but they need to extend that to be like maybe a much longer period because that's just the way to go for most people.

Because most people aren't going to go on the chain. Nobody's going to buy a car or not buy a car because it doesn't have a tire inflator. Yeah. Yeah. But again, you can buy them very inexpensive, and they take up almost no room. Okay. I think the last time I picked up that little donut, it was quite light. Yeah.

It wasn't. So I'm not sure with the, you know, a fuel economy heavy, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, we don't have time. By the way, folks, when you take your car for service, ask them to check the air in your spare. You'd be amazed how many people are driving around with the spare tire that do have it, and there's no air because it all leaked out over time. Exactly. We are going to talk about Buddy, and Buddy is our dog of the week. And I'll tell you, what a story he has. He's a retriever, a Labrador, about two years old. And he came to Big Dog Ranch from the Bahamas. And Buddy, well, he has a scar on his back. You'll notice it when you look at the video that we're going to run. And that, that, That's a permanent mark on his body, and it definitely hasn't affected his spirit, that's for sure. And what a terrible thing that happened to him.

But I'll tell the young lady from, we'll have the young lady from Big Dog Ranch explain it all to you. Jonathan, do you want to run the video? Hi, I'm Jen from Big Dog Ranch Rescue, and I'm here with Buddy today. But he's been with us for a couple of weeks and he's had a pretty sad start in his life. He was found and rescued from the Bahamas where he was located tied to a fence and light on fire. He was soaked in gasoline and some horrible person lit this sweet guy on fire. He's a beautiful chocolate lab. He's really funny.

He loves being outside. He's very playful. He's got these burns on his body, which now he'll have forever. But he, thanks to the medical treatment here at Big Dog Ranch and our team that did lots of extensive work with him, He's now no longer in pain, which is amazing, and he's made a full recovery. He's got some weight to gain, but dogs like these that have such a sad start really just need a good home to be in. They need to be shown love, but he is very sweet. He's a very pretty chocolate lab.

He's got a little burn on his neck too. But as you can see, he is very happy to play and be touched and loved and scratched, and he likes to jump and run just like any lab does. He's a good boy, and he needs a home. Look how calm he is. Oh, he's getting all the rubs now, all the loving. How precious. Oh, hoops. What a story.

It still breaks my heart, though. He's so resilient, and then he's like that you can do that and not hate people. You know, dogs are awesome. They just all love. Yeah. What happened, I mean, he could end up hating people, but then he was taken in, and the people that found him and got him to the big dog ranch rescue. And then he's had a whole different experience. He's just like, petting, loving food.

Excuse me, Stu, but the only thing that he doesn't like is kitties, little kittens and cats, but he loves people. He loves food, and he has a whole lot of spirit, and that scar on his back, it isn't setting him back at all. There are marauding gangs of cats in the Bahamas, and they're not nice to dogs. If you're a puppy and you're going to run into a bunch of cats out there. It's amazing. Wow. So Big Dog Ranch has a buddy out there. go out and you can take a look at them and, you know, we pay the adoption fee. It's $200. It saves

you, you know, a whole lot. It's pretty expensive to adopt a dog. And we make it affordable and so does Big Dog Ranch. And don't forget Earl's book, Confessions of a recovering car dealer, all proceeds go to Big Dog Ranch when you go to Amazon and purchase that book, which is timeless. It doesn't matter. You know, you probably ask yourself, when was the book written? The book has so much information. It's one of those things that you just put on the shelf and you can refer to it a lot. There's a whole lot of information in it. So take a look at Buddy and go to the website Big Dog Ranch Rescue and take a look at Buddy and all the other dogs that are out there for adoption.

And my favorite place to go is puppy land. So if you want to, now that the weather's getting, well, a whole lot more comfortable, you can go out to Big Dog Ranch and kind of make an afternoon of it. It's a whole lot of fun. It is fun. Okay. I think Jonathan wants us to get to the mystery shopping report.

Well, before we have the mystery shopping group, John, I'll put that picture off that, you didn't want to put up. Oh boy. And the article in Automotive News this week's Automotive News, the editorial is head of the editorial industry may need to think about Musk-Trump relations. And this is not meant to be any kind of a political statement, but it's pretty important.

I've always thought that Elon Musk he is a genius I've read his biography he clearly is a very smart guy and this whole thing that we don't talk about on the show because it's

political the country's divided now, you know that half the country is for Trump and half the country is for Harris and people that are going to vote for Harris or hated by people that are going to vote for Trump and people that are vice versa. Meanwhile, you have a man by the name of Elon Musk that has decided to support one candidate.

And the picture that you see on your screen is in the automotive news. It's even got the car dealers upset about it. because he is, as I say, he's a richest man in the world. And he didn't get that way by being stupid. And what he's going to do now is support a presidential candidate. And he's actually paying a million dollars in New York to people that signed a petition. Pennsylvania and Michigan. Pennsylvania and Michigan, yeah. So that's what you can do when you literally have money to burn, and he has money to burn.

It's, I put the picture up also because, first of all, I think it's funny. It's, to see, to see, something about, to see a genius, the smartest man I've ever heard of, make an absolute fool of himself on the stage, if you look at this. But there are people out there that are eating this up. But it's really got the cardio is concerned, because they're suddenly realizing that, what if Trump gets elected and what if Elon Musk got him elected, which it looks like he's got a chance to do that anyway, what sort of a situation would that put the other car dealers

and the other car manufacturers that aren't selling desksless? So this is really going to, to have a friend who was the President of the United States. In high places. I guess I'm the highest place. The reason Jonathan hesitated to do this is because this is not a political show, but what we do try to do on the show is bringing you all the information in the world. We consider ourselves journalists, and a journalist should bring you the facts that can help you make decisions and buy products, make decisions, and live your life better. that journalists should not make, should not take sides.

It takes size, obviously. But they also shouldn't withhold information that you could use. So if it hurts our ratings because I tell you the truth about what I think is going on here with the musket board of Trump, then so be it. If you don't want to watch the show anymore because I showed that picture, then don't watch the show anymore. We're journalists and we're honest and we tell you the good, the bad, the ugly, even when some of the times the good, the bad, the ugly can hurt the ratings of the show. So that was important enough for the automotive news to put in their main editorial for this week. It was important enough for us to put in the show.

So you are, the people were trying to protect. So we protected you. It definitely isn't anything, you know, political. The automotive news, you know, they pointed out that these two, shall we say, are going to make good music together. Okay, we have the mystery shop to get to, and we went to Coconut Creek, Genesis, again. And if you remember, we were at Rick Case's dealership in, I think that was in October or something like that. So anyway, we have the Coconut Creek Genesis Mystery Shopping Report, and I do have to say that Agent Lightning, you know, she does such a great job. We don't mention her a whole lot, and she does need the recognition.

It's amazing how time has marched on. It seems like yesterday she came to our front door, and she was a shopper for Publix, and her and I, we just clicked. You know, her maturity, because she is much, much younger than I am, was amazing. And you could just see that she would make a great mystery shopper, and she has. So with all of that said, it's going to be an interesting read. please join us in grading the mystery shopping report. You can do so at 772-497-6-5-30. Now back to the recovering car dealer.

Okay, I'm speaking in the first person, just like I'm Agent Lightning. I arrived later in the day. It was greeted by two guys who asked, are you already speaking with someone? I replied, no, but I'd like to see a salesperson about a new 2025 Genesis G70 2.5T sedan. They seemed surprised that I had a specific model in mind and asked, have you been shopping around? Not wanting to lie, I said yes. As a matter of fact, I have,

and hopefully you can make me a customer today. Excuse me. They laughed and said, okay, you've got a deal. Let's make it happen. They asked which other dealerships have you visited. I mean, you give them credit for being somewhat aggressive and trying to get information that's going to help them sell you a car. I replied, I'd rather not answer that, J. Shad, and they said they understood. They promised to get a salesperson and just needed, they had to find Charlie.

A few minutes later, Charlie came over, introduced himself, offered me a beverage and a snack, and asked, which car are you interested in today? I showed them the model online, a new 2024 Genesis G7702.5T. And earlier in the show, if you were tuned in, I talked about confusion on year models, what's a new car and what's not a new car. And we talked about a 2025 Genesis is a new car, and a 2024 genesis is a new car. But they're both hugely different in value. So be careful that you know the calendar year of the car you're buying it when you're buying it.

So we got a look at this, 2004 Genesis, and the MSRP is $48,630, which is, to me, that's a relatively low number. You know, Genesis is a luxury car, and it's a Hyundai, and for a while there, the Hyundai dealers sold Genesis on their, out of their Hyundai dealerships. Now, if you want to be a Genesis dealer, you have to build a whole new showroom, kind of like, you know, separate. to give it that image of luxury. Salesman went to get the key. I waited, and then saw I'm walking outside, so I went out to meet him, and we walked to the car together. The federally mandated a Munrooney label was where it was supposed to be.

Now, this is unusual in South Florida, to say the least. We've seen this. Out of 10 South Florida shops, we'll find the Munrooney label on the window sticker window, was supposed to be maybe one time. The NSRP matched what I saw on their website, $48,630. They didn't try to Mickey Mouse the Menoni label with an addendum. As you know, I said, I've already test driven the same model elsewhere, so I'm more interested in seeing a price right now and wouldn't want to waste any time. He said he understood, we went to the car, I sat in the driver's seat and started it up, and I noted it seems almost identical.

to the one I saw elsewhere with just a few different accessories. So we're good. Charlie mentioned, I want to be up front with you. Once we run the numbers, and if everything looks good, we'd still like you to drive it before heading back to finance, just to be sure. And this is something that made me feel good about Charlie. Too many salespeople out there don't think about that.

And you can take two new vehicles, same year, make model and identical in all respects, they all drive a little differently. And Rick's nodding his head because you'd think that two new cars coming off the assembly line that have the exact same equipment would drive identically, they don't. There's a lot of stuff in a car and a lot of systems and a lot of complication. And there's always some little things a little bit different in every new car. So be sure you always, always drive the new work. use car before you buy it. Don't drive one like it and don't say that you've already driven is another dealer. You didn't drive it at the other dealer. The one you're buying

is at the dealership now so drive the car. Of course I agreed that I definitely would do that. We headed back inside and he again offered me a drink and a snack. He didn't politely ask for my license and phone number and had me take a seat promising he'd be right back. I waited about nine minutes before a return and said, you're in our system now. My manage will run some numbers. Are you looking to lease or finance? I replied cash. And this is something I made a note on Mystery Shopping Report. This is something they don't want to hear because you regular listeners know this is where the big money is made, financing cars. Sell in the car, you make some good money, but you make more money by finance. They want you to

So when you say cash, it takes away some of their profit. I said it cash, but it never hurts to look at some finance terms. It left lingering hope that they could get the financing. Thank you so much, Charlie. I said that sounds perfect. When I came in and spoke with the two guys up front, I'd ask if they were the sales managers. They confirmed they were and were already aware

I'd shop the competitor. I was hoping they'd give me their best price of the bat and we'll see after about five minutes the sales manager came over and asked do you live near the devastation in Jupiter I replied yes the farm that sustained all the damage or where the tornado touchdown is less than a mile from my house he then asked do you have any vehicles total or damaged in the incident I said thankfully no explained they were offering incentives to those affected and was just checking are you planning to lease buy or

maybe write a check today, he asked. I said, likely cash. He asked if I wanted to see different options to which Charlie quickly responded, like Charlie, the salesman, zero, $5,000 and $10,000 down. The different payments with the different down payments. And the manager said, perfect, let me get the numbers for you.

About seven minutes later, Charlie presented me with the numbers. The top line labeled market value selling price was MSRP, And as I said before, that was $48,630. They discounted that by $4,000 before adding a $9.49.50 pre-delivery, and that's a junk fee. And they added the sales tax. So that's almost $1,000 of junk fees. I was $48,7.98 out the door.

When he finished the sales manager, who I learned was called Eddie, came over and asked, how do we do with the numbers? He then added, I already know you have a specific price in mine and my goal is to beat it and earn your business right now. I replied, well, that's quite impressive. You did beat your competitor's offer.

I had to make it feel good. And he then asked, would you mind sharing me the previous quote in dealership? A little nervy of it, but smart, trying to get information on the competition that he could use in the next sale and also and determining the pricing of their products.

So Eddie is using the customer as a source of competitive information, which is a great way to go. I replied, you beat Rick Case Genesis price by almost $2,000. Now, isn't that interesting? Very good. Yeah. Two Genesis dealers in the same market

and $2,000 difference in the price, that the customer pays. In this case here, it was the same customer. So that tells you about the Russian roulette that you play when you buy a car. And I don't care if you feel like you got a good price. If you feel like you got a bad price, chances are there's another price you've got.

Worse or better, the more you shop, the more you compare, the lower the price you're going to get. Absolutely. Very simple. Eddie was polite, appreciated my willingness to share. He said, I hope our dealership met your expectations today, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to provide a quote. Let us know if you have any other questions

or want to move forward with a purchase. He assured me that if I decided to proceed, they could have me out within two hours. That's a long time, you know. I mean, probably wouldn't be two hours anyway. Probably be three hours, but it's just the time you spend trying to get a decent

price on a vehicle is obscene. Probably have you out within two hours. We're quite busy today, but once the process starts, we'll work quickly to get everything completed. I thank both Eddie and Charlie saying I'll talk to my husband and let you know

my decision. So, there you have it. That's a luxury car and Coconut Creek, the Genesis, and And it's something we want your score on, A, B, C, D, or F, very few A's, very few Fs. And South Florida, as I always say, is probably about the most difficult and the most deceptive, unfair, nasty way to buy a car. So when you're, if you gave everybody an F, we wouldn't have an approved dealers list that we could have. So you kind of look at the curve.

It kind of look at C is being the average Florida dealer and then try to give them a greater validity to a C. Either a B or a D or an F, F would be highly unusual. What kind of a response do you think you would have had yesterday? yesterday if we would have walked into Best Buy and, I don't know, say walked out two and a half, three hours later. Yeah. We have to send the cops out looking for you. I, you know, this is Coconut Creek. There you go.

There's not, I mean, that's the belly of the beast. That's like Fort Lauderdale. I mean, for people that don't know us out for it. You're right, yeah. It sounds like a little tiny, cute little town. but if you picture south Florida there is no space between the towns it's just you're driving through

it's just a dense highly populated area and so you get in the coconut creek and you're a little bit west of the Lauderdale area but there's a lot of huge dealerships out there as a matter of fact the second biggest or third biggest in the world Al Hendrickson Toyota

biggest Toyota dealership that is is right there and the biggest Lexington dealership of the world yeah and it's just a big big fat market and this is where the worst ideas for the card lures are born and so for them to do what they did I'm going to give them an A. I mean they have a dealer fee but they didn't have an addendum there wasn't any BS there was no disconnect between what they saw online and what happened in the showroom that I think the you know the year thing you know that was my fault I said

2024 so I don't think that was an issue when she was there um so yeah i mean coconut creek uh genesis um i'm giving them an a wow you don't see too many of those given out stew is like i am he doesn't award uh high grades or real low grades yeah but in this case here there's some listeners that uh gave some grades here just just popped in jonathan and palm coast uh monorone label a properly placed check a tennis salesperson check Are there junk fees? Check. Overall dealership experiences garnerers a B. The junk fees cost this dealership in A.

Okay. That's fair. From Bob, we have a B for Coconut Creek Genesis. And Amory dropped, wanted to give him an A, but dropped to a B for the fee. And Frank wants to let us know he enjoys every shopping report every week. And he gives Genesis of Coconut Creek a B. Very good. Okay, I've got Joseph Kelleher, a B, without the junk fee, would have been an A.

Tom Steckle, great B, no addendums. They should have included the 949 dealer fee in their advertised price. Tim Gilliland, B plus, Brian Sedaco, B. Mark Smith, I give them a B, remove that junk fee. Mark H, B, I like the test drive recommendation. Cram 1624, D. Get rid of that dealer fee, and you have a good deal. Again, let Ashley Moody know.

T-cash, D, I still call them half-off-priced Hyundai's, just wait a year. Johnny Z. Freidly, C, not too bad on the fees. Kim appreciates life, C for Coconut Creek. And myself, I like Charlie and I liked Eddie. I thought they were polite. I thought they did a very nice job. They weren't pushy. They just did it right.

And I'm agreeing with Stu. I'm going to say that I know there's a junk fee there, but it was put straight out. Plus, they gave a nice discount, which you don't see a lot of right now. Yeah, the price was good, yeah. And her out-the-door price, including sales tax, was below the MSRP. So, in my opinion, I'm saying A. Good. Yeah.

And it just, I see, I see a dealership that is working to earn a customer for life. I agree with you, Rick, and for the junk fee and for the MSRP. I mean, this is rough territory. And, you know, my hat's off to them. I'm going to give them a B. I feel very close to you. You know, I was being dissuade by Rick, by Stu and I was going to give them actually like a C plus or a B I almost want to give them an A

after listening to Rick and and Stu I think what I'm gonna do a B plus I just can't bring myself to say A and but I am impressed with the dealership I like the sales manager I like the salesman and the fact that they would actually give them a good price. Somehow I can't say A, when they are openly breaking the law. You know, we know that family. We know the Pages. That's... Oh, it's at the

Pages. That's the Pages. I didn't know that. Stu and I, when they were kids, they went down to Colorado River with them. But we also did some, they came down and visited us here in Florida. We hung out. Yeah. Bill Page. You recall that? Stoo?

Yeah, I wasn't that young. The Colorado River? Oh, yeah. That's why what a time that was I came with age on the Colorado River I believe that your dad maybe beat your brother because he took his beach towel

He might have He might have done Earl could have done anything back then Okay folks We have all of the We have all of the grades in We had a great show And we're glad that you could join us this morning

And we'll be right back here next Saturday morning and the same time, so stay tuned for Errol On Cars. Have a great weekend, everyone, and thank you again for joining us here at Erlon Cars.