Earl Stewart on Cars - 11.13.2021 - The Best of Earl on Cars - Mystery Shop of Jim Shorkey CDJ of North Huntington, PA

Episode Date: November 7, 2021

This episode is a re-broadcast of a previously aired segment of the Earl Stewart on Cars program. Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent travels to Pennsylvania to visit Jim Shorkey Chrysler Jeep to test the shopping experience on a 2021 Jeep Gladiator. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, his tweets at www.twitter.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. Sign up to become one of Earl's Vigilantes and help others in your community to avoid getting ripped off by a car dealer. Go to www.earlsvigilantes.com for more information. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

Well, good morning, everybody. We're back. We're alive. We're in color. We're in the studio here in North Palm Beach, Florida. And we're here to help you. We're here to maybe even entertain you a little bit. We'd like to get a few chuckles.

out of you. We chuckle a lot, and I hope you can join the party because that's the way we look at the show as an informative, definitely not an infomercial, by the way. This is all about helping you buy a car, lease a car, without being taken advantage of, and maintain and repair your car. I think when people are going through historical changes, exciting times in history, I'm not sure they realize it. I think, you know, when they invented the printing press and then they have the other. bomb and electricity and you know the people just kind of roll with it I think we're going through that right now where I think the world counterintuitively by the pandemic has actually been accelerated forward in a lot of ways it was a painful time and it still is going on it's not over by any means but the past year and a half to two years and the automobile business have been truly transformative watershed moment

in transportation. I mean, you know, when they invented the steam engine, when they invented I guess the horse, we domesticated the horse, so that was kind of an invention. Moments of history like this are rare. And I try to join the excitement.

I'm starting to get excited about what's going on. And hopefully you will too. This isn't all a negative show about how not to be taken advantage of. It's how to exercise your mind and your actions and your transportation commensurate with what we have available to us

in the 21st century. So we're here to help you do that. What is the old? It was the best of times. It's the worst of times. But the car business is truly the best of times. For the consumers, it might be the worst of times. Car dealers, I have a copy of automotive news here. with me in the studio, and this is the trade journal for automobile dealers and manufacturers. And headline is the fact that the car retail business is better than it's ever been profitably for the dealers.

The profits on cars are obscenely high. In the first, well, in May of 2021, that's last month, the profit per car, was it an all-time record for car dealers. You heard me right. All-time record. It was actually almost 70% higher than it was a year ago. So a year ago, it wasn't that bad in May, by the way.

We were just coming out of the pandemic or just the car business was just coming out. Nobody else was coming out a year ago. and today it's like printing money to be a car dealer and it's somewhat the same for the auto manufacturers but not as much so the message to you is just be aware

if you need a car you need to buy a car but you need to be more careful than ever when you're leasing or buying or maintaining or repairing your car why because well think about it think about it as a game you know you're

you're entering into a competition with a car That's the way life is. That's the way autos are retailed in America and probably the world pretty much. So the car dealer is just having a heck of a game. He's making money hand over a fist. What does that mean for you?

Well, that means you're paying money hand over fist because you're paying more for a car today new or used than you ever have. So almost 70% of every vehicle sold

in May of this year was at or over sticker price you could pick yourself off the floor you heard what I said nobody pays sticker for a car you don't pay retail you get a discount you haggle you hassle well

69% actually of all the transactions in May in the United States for new cars were at or above sticker And that doesn't even reflect what the dealer did to you after you bought the car. It doesn't reflect what happens, for example, with the addendum labels and the dealer-installed accessories.

So it's buyer-beware like never before. Caviad Emptor. Be careful out there, folks. And if you don't need to buy a car, I promise you, in six months, you're going to get a better deal. If you have to buy a car, then just listen carefully. carefully and we have the blog, we have our text lines, our phone lines, you can call the show, we'll answer any questions we can. But it just, there's never been a time in the history of transportation that the sellers

of the transportation were doing better and the buyers of the transportation weren't doing as well. So listen carefully, spread the word and spread the number. Our call-in number, the audio call-in number, is 877-960-99-60. That's 877-960. Write the number down. Nancy Stewart, my co-host, co-founder of this show 20 years ago, is watching that laptop of hers. And when the phone call comes through, it appears with your name, and then she waves at everybody.

And she says, we have a phone call, and we take our phone calls. We prioritize our phone calls for a couple of reasons. First of all, our switchboard is not that big here at the studio, and we have, I think, three or four lines coming in. So if you get backed up, we don't want that to happen. So we try to get a flow. If you can't get through there, we have a text line. And I guarantee you, 99% of the time, all texts are answered at least by the end of the show. And that text number is 772-497-6530.

Again, write it down. 772-497-6530. I'm taking this time to tell you this because you do make the show. I mean, if you've listened to the show before, you'll know what I'm talking about. We have some amazing regular callers that absolutely are better callers. contributors than we are. We have some people smart people out there and texters too. So we want you

to communicate and we will share your knowledge and your questions and your constructive criticism or for that matter any kind of criticism we share it. Hey, live radio, we're having fun here folks. You would be surprised what we say and do on this show. But it's all

honest, it's all transparent. We don't pull any punches. Mystery Shopping Report, forget about it. Your car dealer, be on guard. Matter of fact, if you're 1,000 miles away, it wouldn't work because last week we went to Nancy's hometown and mystery shopped, a dealer very near Pittsburgh. So car dealers, beware. Listeners, never more important to hear what we're saying in a show and what each other has to say. I'd love to hear your experiences. I'd love to hear someone that bought a car within the past 30. days. I'd love to hear how much

you paid for it, how much you think you paid for it, or you leased it for. If you traded the car, I'd love to hear what you got for your trade-in. I forgot to mention earlier, trade-ins. Use cars, you can sell your used car today and make a bigger profit than you would have ever

made on that car, except maybe the day you bought it. And maybe even make more. I mean, it's crazy. What's happening to use car values are going up to the sky. So, get on the train, enjoy the ride, and call us with your suggestions, your ideas. And I'm going to go to Nancy Stewart first, my co-host, because one of the most important things about our show is we do recognize the fact that the females of the world are by and half the cars. And they're very important to this whole transportation thing we're talking about.

and we need full participation from you ladies out there. And Nancy has got an offer you can't refuse. You regular listeners know about it, but the new listeners, you need to hear what we do special to encourage our female callers to call the show. And Nancy, tell them all about it. Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

I want to let the ladies know how important, as Earl said, you are to the show by offering you $50, for the first two new lady callers and you know just in case you did tune in you've tuned in to Earl Stewart on cars here you're going to find a very very unusual for them and the reason for that is transparency we've been fighting the fight and no we're not tired yet we're just tired of the dishonesty there still exists out there in the auto industry and we're here to advise. We're here to take your opinion. We're here to listen to you because, as Earl said, you are an important part of the show. So give us a call toll-free. Be part of the show. Hey, 77-960. And ladies, as I said, $50 for the first two. New lady callers. Now back to the recovering car dealer.

Well, Rick Kearney, am I right? Certified Diagnostic Master Technician, the guy that's got all the answers as far as problems with your car. It's a software problem. It's a mechanical problem. It's an electronic problem. It's an electrical problem. You got a hybrid. You got an all-electric. You got a combustion engine. You name it. Rick Kearney is the man. And he monitors YouTube. I forgot to mention that we're streaming. You know, we're 21st century here, folks. We're Facebook. We're Instagram. We're Twitter and we are YouTube and the YouTube's go strictly to Rick. He sees those first. So if you have the mechanical question, as I said, electronic or computer, what do you order? Cars are computers today, right? You got a computer question about your car. You call Rick and he will

have the answer for you. And you'll actually have more transactions and connections with car dealers when you're maintaining and repairing your car today than ever before. So, Next, we want to talk to Stu Stewart, and Stu is our spymaster general. He's out there in the, well, he's not out there in the field, but he runs the field agents, and he's got dispatched one record distance today. And our Mr. Shopping Report is, I don't know if it's the most educational, but certainly the most entertaining part of our show. Total transparency, excitement.

I mean, this would get a high rating. on any media. It's a shame we can't do it video. In Florida, you can't do video on car dealers. You can do... You can do video. You can't do audio. Audio, is that what it is?

Unless you have permission from both parties being recorded. So we could go in with a camera just on if we didn't. So maybe we'll get Agent Lightning or Agent Thunder to put a camera on. We did that once. And we strapped a, this is years ago. We strapped a GoPro camera to the head of a five-year-old, a very active five-year-old. just to get video and, you know, the excuse was, oh, he got this for his birthday, so he won't take it off.

And anyway, so we got video, but it was pretty herky-jurkey. You couldn't really focus on anything because it was on a five-year-old. So maybe we'll try it with an old kid next to him. Put it on a dog. You couldn't conceal it. It can't be concealed. We thought we figured that hiding it in plain sight was the best strategy, so we just strapped it right to his head and, like, nobody questioned it.

It was a few days after Christmas. I'm like, ah, the kid got a present. I'd like to, I'm going to interrupt you, I'd love to change the law on that topic, the two of you just discussed. Anyway, I'm going to interrupt everyone because we do have a first-time caller. She is a young lady. Her name is Dina, and she is from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Dina. Hi, good morning, Nancy.

Welcome to Earl Stewart on Cars. You won yourself $50. if you'll email me your information. I'll get that out to you. What can we do for you today? I'm not only calling to say hi and appreciate what you do and the work you do with the big dog ranch rescue and how Earl and yourself host adoption events and help them in all kinds of ways, but I run a pet transportation, a pet taxi in Palm Beach County,

and we're always looking for newer and better vehicles to accommodate different sized pets. And I'm really calling to see if you have any insight into the transport world and what flexible vehicles might be out there that we should be looking at that we're not aware of yet. Who works for a very? Hmm. It sounds almost so minivans might be your best option because you'd be able to maybe put dividers or crates that would give you the ability to have, you know, various different sizes and keep them. somewhat separated. I would be watching also for hybrids that would improve your fuel economy, lower the maintenance costs, and lower your operational costs on it.

I love that. Well, we always could use that, that's for sure. We like the minivan. Just double check the model, because some of them will have removable seats, and that's what you're going to want to do, especially if you're going to put any crates in there. Yes. So double check that they have the center row and the rear. Sometimes you can clear out the back of a little.

a minivan that's designed for kids and soccer moms and turn it into like kind of a cargo van or a delivery sort of thing so make sure that you can do that some of them actually have the seats that stowed down into the floor Honda Odyssey does it to a sienna does that and you could do the same thing if they still in the floorboard Chrysler I think also has that feature they can stow totally flat in the floor Deanna you have a lot of options with the van and as Stu pointed out You know, you can just empty out that van and, you know, conform it to your needs and the dogs. But it is a great way to go. Well, dogs and cats.

Dogs and cats and ponds and lizards. All right. Dogs and cats. Yeah. Well, thank you so much, you guys. I really appreciate all you do, like I said. Thanks for the insight. You're welcome.

Thank you, Dan. You might also consider Dodge, actually, I think, are one. Well, what's left of Dodge? They make those sprinter vans. That's a wholehearted endorsement right there. You might want to consider. But they do make Mercedes-Benz is actually the manufacturer. What's the Dodge?

That's what you do when that guy pulls out in front of you. You almost get hit by a van. They make that big sprinter van. It's like a Pontiac or an old-mobile. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, a lot of these Mercedes will have these commercial truck departments. Yes. I don't know what the price range is for that.

But you can definitely go much bigger than a mini-com. And also, Ford, does there transit vans that are good-sized? We have Ford Transit. Okay, good. Nice. How does that serve you? Oh, it's excellent. We use the passenger vehicle, the passenger transit,

so that it has three rows of air conditioning. Right. Oh, that's good for the dogs. Yeah, I didn't even consider that. Oh, Florida. Yeah, Florida, you have to have a climate control. You have to have air conditioning for the dogs. Yeah, most definitely.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you. I do have a lot of options. Yes, definitely. Thank you for all you do. We appreciate what you do. Yes, definitely. Hey, can I do a commercial for Big Dog Ranch

because Dina was nice enough to compliment us on the work we do to get doggy's homes? And you can do it too for this book I'm holding up for you people streaming. It's called Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer and it's available on Amazon. and if you will buy this book, you will not only never be taken advantage of by a car dealer,

but you'll also help provide a home for a homeless doggie. And all the proceeds, 100% of what you pay, us, doesn't go to us, it goes to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. That's our latest dog. We're trying to find a home for Rick. Hi, yeah, please. So if you buy the book, you learn how to be an educational, educated car buyer, and you help a doggy because we do this for thousands of dogs.

And it's amazing what Big Dog Ranch has done. The largest no-kill shelter in Florida. And when we take a doggy in, he's going no place except to find a nice home somewhere. We euthanize none of our dogs. Absolutely. Thanks for mentioning that. Dina gave me excuse to do a commercial. And you know, Deanna, whenever we go out there, you know, it never fails.

You know, I'm impressed each time. It's just an amazing place in what they have done. And I'm reluctant to even refer to dogs and cats because it's like they're human and they're treated as such out there because they come from a background that, for lack of another word, you know, what a terrible background they come from all over the country. and they're usually abused and in so many different ways. So Big Dog Ranch is doing an amazing job. And again, we thank you for the amazing job that you do. Please give us a call again.

Thank you. I will. Thank you. Have a great weekend. Okay. We were talking to us too before and we were talking about our mystery shopping report and the fact that there's a new land distance record for shoppers. Yeah, and my job is so easy now with Agent Lightning. Part of my weekly stress that I go through is trying to pick a target, a dealership that we're going to investigate.

Earl stopped helping me years ago. He used to send me, shop this dealership, shop. Now it's all up to me. But now, it's hard, but Agent Lightning will just surprise me. I just got a text on Monday because, hey, I'm going to be up in Pennsylvania, want me to do a mystery shop up there. Like, what am I going to say? I'm like, yeah.

Any preference? I'm like, no, you go. ahead and pick one. You do a good job with that. So she picked, it was Jim Shorky, Chrysler, Judge, Jeep, Ram. We just shortened it to Jim Shorky Chrysler because it's easier to say.

And so she went up there. I'm not going to spoil anything. It was not what I expected. I don't think it was anything what anybody expected. And if we have any listeners out there that maybe has the personal experience with this dealer, just give the details

about the location and spell the name. If anybody in Pennsylvania, because we have a lot of listeners in Pennsylvania, if you know anything about this particular dealership, what is spelled again, Jim? It's Jim Shorky, and it's S-H-O-R-K-E-Y, Jim Shorky. And he actually have 13 dealerships in Pennsylvania and in eastern Ohio. I think he's got, has one in Youngstown. And the dealership we shopped was Jim Shorke Chrysler,

and that's a North Huntingdon, North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, just on the outskirts of picture. Nancy, do you know where North Huntington is? Is it just outside of Pittsburgh? I've never been there. Yeah. But thank you for asking. I long for Pittsburgh in those days.

Things certainly have changed where I'm sitting right now. We won't go into that, though. 877-960, or you can text us, 772-497-6-5-30. We're going to go to Dog Walker Dave, and he is a regular caller from West Palm Beach. we enjoy speaking with him. Good morning. Good morning, guys. What a beautiful morning now that it quit raining. Listen, the previous caller was talking about, you know, transportation for dogs, pets. And I have a little experience with that. And for the last 14 years, we've had a

pet services business that's all-inclusive. It's a concierge service that includes transportation from time to time with a picket of the groomer, take them to, you know, here and there, the vet. And we found that the minivan is probably the best overall transportation vehicle. Now, we tried other vehicles, like such as SUVs. And one of the problems with an SUV is how high the vehicle sits off the ground. And not only getting the larger dogs in, but getting the larger dogs out because they want to jump. And if you let them jump, there have been a lot of injuries to dogs coming off that higher platform. You're got docks from.

Yeah. But there is a vehicle that we've been looking at, and I can't tell you what the model is, but you guys will probably recognize it when I try and describe it. It's a Ford, and the Automobile Club, the AAA service, road service guys, use this vehicle, and it's a miniature work van. And I can't remember what it's called, but it looks to be ideal, has wide opening door on the side and has a double open door on the side, in the back, nice and low to the ground, and can be configured however you like.

You know, you could put crates, even just, you know, if you're only transporting a couple, put a couple of dog beds down. And, but, yeah, be careful about getting an SUV to transport your pets in it. We unfortunately found out the hard way. Thank you, Dave. You know, the commercial vans also are far less expensive. And if you could get a good late model used van, these commercial vans for car dealers. And we're, you know, advantage of being a car dealer as we are.

We know that oftentimes we'll just wholesale those cars. Commercial vans have a limited market. Certain dealers, for dealers largely, and Chevy, they do a lot of commercial work. but it's volume works so the cost of value is much greater than if you pay retail for a passenger van. So I think

that's a great suggestion and you should be able to get a better deal plus the fact that it's got all the advantage that Dave just described for the dogs. Rick, you were going to say something. Yeah, I drive a four-door Tacoma pickup and my dog, I have to take her to the vet every so often so I

put her in the back seat and I have to watch carefully with her for leaping in and out of the truck because it's it's a high high jump for her yeah good point yeah but and they always want you know even if they are too scared to do it they still stand at the door and they act like they want to jump out yes they do so it's good to talk to you guys again have a beautiful day all right thanks Dave you too thank thank you very much you know what a horrible story you know I think back at my daughter's uh Yorkie. And, you know, it's almost like as if somebody gives you a baby and you're

responsible. And God forbid, if anything would happen. Well, here's my story. I'll try to make it short. I'm barely moving in my car. I'm driving so slow. It was incredible. Thank God. Charlie, the Yorkie, is in my lap. Everyone knows how small Yorkies are. for some reason he spotted something from the driver's side and the window was down and he jumped out oh wow you know you just stated how far that drop is for a and he's a yorky we're talking 10 pounds there wasn't another car coming thank god so at any rate if you can believe it he didn't even get hurt I think that I was the one who was ready for the emergency room because I wouldn't have been able to face my daughter

because it would have been like telling her her firstborn was dead you know but there are so many safety features for dogs today that we need to take advantage of because things happen so quickly well the other thing to that make sure you put your window lock on because if the puppies in the back seat another thing my dog will get she'll put her paws up the door and all of a sudden i had the window start coming down one day yeah oh boy and harley quinn is um she's not the brightest bulb she might have jumped out that window so i had to make sure i i always put the window lock when she's on yeah i mean she's in the car with me yeah so the

seat belt um whatever safety feature you can provide for your dog for your cat is imperative it is really to be able to initiate that and keep them safe just like a child yep 877 9 6 6 6099-60 or you can tax us at 772-497-6530. Don't forget, Your Anonymous Feedback.com. I believe we're going to go back to Stu. Well, we'll jump over to some text messages. We'll kick it off with Amariz, who, that's our tradition. So Amory sent us a message this morning. She also sent us a cartoon, a Marmaduke cartoon, that I hope Jonathan can get up on the screen if you guys are watching the show. So it's Marmaduke walking back from the mailbox, and his owner says,

When did you get a car that needs an extended warranty? So he got this junk mail. Anyway, Emery says, at the risk of sounding like a crotchety old curmudgeon like the late Andy Rudy, why is it that it seems as if everybody and their dog gets offers for extended warranties in the mail, yet automobile manufacturers seem unable to send recall notices out to every owner, even though the cars are registered through the DMV. We'll get to that in a second, but she goes on. There was a big, a lot of recalls that were announced,

and Amory lists a lot of them, but they recently announced well over 600,000 vehicles being recalled. A ton of RAM units, Ford's are getting recalled. I mean, I'm reading this list. It's got everything in there. Chevy HDs, Ford Transit, transits, Nissan, Armadas, Porsche Takans, even Tesla's. She's got Tesla's recalling some 2019 and 2020,

21 Tesla Model 3s and Model Y's. So Amory says since not all recall notices, make it to the owners, please check yourself. Go to safercar.gov and put your VIN number, your identification number for your car in. It's really easy, and you'll find out if there's any dangerous recalls that you've got to address. And remember, fixing them is free.

It doesn't cost you anything. Absolutely. It stirs up the anger in me when we talk about recalls. the manufacturers have gotten a lot better I mean they couldn't have gotten any worse I think statistically 25% of every car on the road has a dangerous recall and that hasn't been fixed

and that's inexcusable when you consider how many millions of cars are out there and every one of those is a potential time bomb so you can say well we can't get hold of the owners change your sands three four times how are we supposed to find the owners Well, I promise you you'd find the owner if he was going to pay you money.

Sometimes when you have to find someone that you have to pay them money, you don't look that hard. They're hard to find. And we all know if somebody really wants to find you, they can find you today. I mean, it's just, you know, you can call it lack of privacy and lack of transparency, whatever you want to call it. But if someone really wants to find you, a bill collector's find you, right? If you don't make your car payment, they find you.

you, but if you have an airbag that'll blow up in your face with a shrapnel, like a hand grenade and kill you, they have a hard time finding those. Why? Because they have to put a new airbag in the car, and that's going to cost them, what, $1,000? What's the cost on completely replacing an airbag? It ain't cheap. I mean, it costs them billions of dollars to do this. Per car, yeah. So that is the reason that, and that's my cynical reason, Anne-Marie, you're listening. But I have to say, largely because of calls like yours, text like yours, and the public relations, and I think we're a small part of that on the show, exposing the fact that there's so few recalls that are actually fixed, that they're getting better.

This Takata Airbag thing, as bad as it is today, it was a lot worse. A lot of the manufacturers, I give Honda credit in a pat on the back. Honda did more than I can think of any car dealer is ever done to try to find their defective airbags and fix them. And they had the biggest problem with the most Tocati airbags, but they, you know, they tightened their belt. They said, we're going to do this. And they really went out there and proactively found a lot of vehicles. They were going to insurance companies and anybody that had heard about a defective airbag and fixing the airbags. Kudos to Honda.

All right, some more texts. All right, we'll jump over to anonymous feedback. Oh, it logged me out. Give me one second. Will you sing something as I log back in? Oh. Yeah, I'll say something. Anne-Marie, we can't thank you enough.

You know, Saturday in, Saturday out, you're right there for us. And the questions, your advice, everything and anything, you have definitely, I want to let you No, you've become an important part of the show. And every one of us here appreciate you. And I'd love to talk to you, but this is your choice. And we just look for, I open up the PC, Earl, everybody here, and we're looking for Anne-Marie. So thank you. I get nervous if I don't see it.

I sat down. It was eight o'clock. She didn't have a text. Is Anne-Marie okay? What am I going to do? Yeah. So we're getting a seat. ready right here at the table for you.

So one day we'll have you in here. Let's do that. So prepare yourself for that, Ann Marie. That's proof. You are an important part of the show. 877-960-99-60. www.W.W. Your anonymous feedback.com.

All right. Anonymous feedback, and we love it because it gives us a chance to maybe set the record straight sometimes, like with this next anonymous feedback. It says, hey, Stu, I was listening to your radio, show and hearing you and your dad dismiss well it's his radio show i'm on his show hearing you and your dad dismiss Toyota and Honda as the most reliable cars um and dismiss it as people who believe in this are fanboys and discounts the concerns of hardworking middle class and poor folks who can't afford

a new car every few years or an expensive fix having a reliable car is the only way some of us can keep a roof of our heads and feed our family um it's important that we get the best chance by acquiring information from trusted sources. Have you heard of Scottie Kilmer? Yes. I bet Rick has. And Scott is a 50-year-old mechanic who also believes Toyota and Honda are still the way to go for reliability. Unless you're millionaires like your family, then brand reliability is optional. By the way, what brand of cars does Rick own? And I know you want to jump on that, but I'd like to answer it. And Honda's and and toys are incredibly reliable cars and amongst the best. And we've professed that for awful, awful, long time. Yeah, the point that that Earl was making,

I remember this was we used to be able to say that exclusively and say, if you want a reliable car, get Honda or Toyota, end of sentence. But so many more manufacturers have jumped into the quality game. They realize that's how you're going to maintain a long customer base for years and years. And Hyundai and Kia are getting there. Subaru. Subaru. Yeah, we just say there's more that have joined the party.

And we also acknowledge that the reason that's why we do this show is because how important cars are. We recognize that cars are part of everybody's livelihoods, their families. It's part of our culture. And so that's the whole reason we have a show devoted to cars because they are that important to people's lives. And it's so important for us to not walk in here on Saturday mornings and say, hey, listen, if you don't have a Toyota, forget about it. That isn't the kind of show that we have.

We're letting you know what our options are out there. and there are so many great cars out there today, it's amazing. And guess what? You referred to the millionaires. Hey, here I am sitting right here doing a radio show. I'm just a little girl from Pittsburgh. Uh-huh. Yeah.

And guess what? Everybody's out there struggling, and we understand it, we know it, and we recognize it. So we have everyone in mind when we do this show. And I hope that you understand what. I just said. All right. And also Rick, the partner for Rick, wanted to know, what kind of car does Rick drive? I know what Rick drives.

I drive a Toyota. My wife drives a Toyota. Her three sisters drive Toyotas. Two brothers-in-law drive Toyotas. And one drives an old Chrysler. You're not going to do the entire history of the Kearney clan, are you? That's it. Okay.

Okay, well, you guys straighten all that out. Great Uncle Barney Kearney, he drove a Corolla Corona. I'm going to go to John, who calls us from Palm City. Good morning, John. I hope I didn't cut you off. Good morning to everyone. In regard to just what you say, that's the feature of this show, recommending not only Honda and Toyota, but every good car, whether it be used or new, to recommend because there are others in the market.

and what we do say is Nancy says it to consumer reports. That's the key. It changes, but it talks about use and new cars. Let me mention one that didn't come up. That's a fantastic car, and it's rated number one by consumer reports, the most reliable vehicle, and it only has 2% of the market, but it's a Mazda. Mazda is a fantastic car.

tends to get the younger people's market. Research says mostly single college graduates buy it. Their top car that they sell is a max five. That's a meada roadster. But young people love that car because it's affordable. It's a two-seater sports car. It has a market sewed up. And last year was the 100th anniversary of Mazda.

they had a special edition of that model, and that sports car, Mazda Roaster, only starts at 26, 830, which is very reasonable for any type of roaster or convertible. Mazda was founded in 1920 in Hiroshima, Japan, right now in the process of an MX30, which is a total electric car with a onboard generator. and if people remember, by the way, they're building a plant in Alabama, and if Rick will go into it, that was the first car that invented the Wankle rotary engine. So last year, increase in sales in the United States, there was only three cars that showed an increase in sales, three only.

One was Tesla, two was Volvo, and three was Mazda. So I just want to mention that this show acknowledges that other cars exist out there. Many of them that are affordable and reliable, and one of it specifically, I want to talk about the Mazda. Well, thank you very much. You know, I have to comment that I was the first monster dealer in the eastern United States, east of the Mississippi, August 1970. That's how long ago that was. That was back during the rotary engine, the Wankle engine days. And I was always impressed with Mazda.

They're a family organization-like. Sounds strange to say that anything is family today, but particularly large manufacturers, Toyota's family. The chairman of the board, Toyota, is a grandson of the founder. And Mazda, the founder, was a man named Kohai Matsuda. And just like the founder of Toyota, Toyota. It's here at Toyota. Yeah, so they can't, it's illegal in Japan to name a company after the name of the person.

So you have to have a separate name. So they spell it differently. So Matsuda became Mazda and Toyada became Toyota, where they spelled differently. So interesting. But family organizations, it's good. Our business is a family business. You're seeing the family sitting here in the studio. And so we're prejudiced.

We feel family businesses can be better, but for a manufacturer the size of Toyota and Mazda to be family and still have the quality, really makes me feel good. Thanks for pointing that out, John. That was something I haven't thought about in a long time. I think they're here to stay with a hunger anniversary that they celebrated last year. So again, kudos to this show recommending and pointing out that other great vehicles are out there, even though it's like I said the only own 2% of the market but there are good cars out there

and this show has proven it Thank you. John I can't thank you enough for what you just said. It's really important to us to come in here on Saturday morning and to reach out to everyone and let them know we are in their corner

that's why we're here on Saturday mornings it doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter what you're driving, we're here for you and what you're going to find here transparency there's no lying about anything and we can back up what we're saying so again thank you for the compliment okay we're gonna go to Tampa and Donald is calling us he's a first-time caller good morning Donald good morning and thank you for taking my call you're welcome what can we do for you

well i first of all would like to thank you for the beautiful work that you do i follow you on youtube and i have read earl's book it is greatly helpful to me and i enjoyed the read and i just appreciate you guys i do have a question for someone and it's a hypothetically technical question and it's as follows if one is in an automobile and you're setting in an intersection and let's say it's a six lane intersection

you're sitting in the left-hand turn lane with your blinker on, your family in your vehicle, and you're waiting for your turn to make your left-hand turn. You look in your rearview mirror and somebody in this huge truck is about to plow into the back

of your vehicle. At that point you have a couple options. One can sit there and keep your foot on the brake or you can take your foot off of the brake and maybe ricochet forward and not have as much damage to your body and your vehicle or you could quickly put your vehicle in park and just go ahead and take whatever comes which of those scenarios would cost you the least damage to your body and your vehicle and be the smartest thing to do you know i love

questions like that. Let me throw something. Yeah, it looks like everybody's got an answer. I'm going to throw something. I don't have the answer but I'm going to throw a third criteria into the equation. So you take your foot off the break you put it in park

you put your foot on the brake. Here's the other thing. You said you're going to be making a left turn. Should you have your wheel turned to the left with a car approaching you when you when he's going straight at you.

So should you head your wheel straight or turn? I'll add up the equation, and then Rick, you were going to jump in there. In my opinion, if you have the opportunity, if there's enough safe space to either go left, right, or straight ahead, I would floor it, and I would do anything I had to do legal or illegal to get out of the way of that vehicle. Yeah, that's what I would do. Yeah, great advice. That's what I would do.

I'd rather side swipe a guy coming, going back in the traffic. Primary concern is the safety of the people in your car. That is the number one primary concern. I think you copped out on the answer there because I can easily see. I don't think putting in break is not going to help you. I completely believe that there is a best way, even though it's not the safest way. And I think that's the point of the caller. or if you're going to make a turn and you can't go straight

because the traffic is preventing it from going straight. But if you're in the left-hand turn range, you get back into the straightway. But what if you can? What if you can? You need a split second to assess it and make your move. And avoid the amount of energy transfer. That's the clue.

Just do not let the energy come into your car. Reflexes are very important at that moment. Well, what's the answer? So even if one has to pull, forward into the opposing traffic and be struck by another vehicle. It's better than being slammed into the rear? No, no, no.

I don't think so. No, no. Opposing impact is going to be much greater. A strike from behind, you do have a better chance of less injury with a strike from behind. However, I would get on the break as hard as you can

simply for the point that cars today are designed to collapse and create an energy absorption from the impact so but being on the break is a break better than the park position yes why because foot hard on park puts two wheels stopped the two drive wheels break locks all four wheels okay great answer which creates more friction to slow the car and prevents you from being shoved forwards as far into any oncoming traffic and i think you want to have your wheels my point was you want to have your wheels straight because if they're curved to the line

left and you're hit from the rear it'll push you into the oncoming traffic yes so anyway well i love questions like that that's a great question i don't know if we answered it but we certainly gave it a lot of thought i uh it's i i didn't think anybody thought about stuff like that except me i have i go through these uh mental games with myself a lot well as crazy as it sounds i i used to ride a motorcycle quite often and i actually had one occasion when as i pulled up in a line of traffic everybody stopped at the red light i just happened to look behind me glanced in the rearview and a car was coming up way too fast i knew this guy was not going to stop in time and i basically i shot up between the rows of cars yeah we had a motorcycle right i had that

option it was you know a small view i could zip right up but i surprised the heck out of the guy that was in one of the cars what was it what was his name i don't know oh okay but it's His eyes went wide, and I just pointed at this car that was literally sliding to a stop. And the guy, the speeding car, stopped where I would have been. I mean, he would have hit me. But it just, it's situational awareness. Be aware of your surroundings at all times. Absolutely.

If anybody is familiar with Reddit, these type of questions are asked, and then there are literally miles of answers. So I googled it, and this is the case here. The question is you're about to be rear-ended at a traffic light. Do you press the break or do you roll with the impact? And there are 17 miles of answers. So we can all Google that ourselves and find out. Okay.

That was an initial conversation. Thank you very much for the call. Yeah, Donald. Thank you. Donald, give us a call again. We love hearing from you. That was a great question. We all had different answers.

Some of us. Well, anyway, that was great, Stu, that you Googled that. and came up with the 17 miles of answers. Opinions. I'm going to go back to our female callers, and I'm going to remind you that we have $50 for the next female caller because we give $50 to the first two new lady callers, and you could just give us a call just to say hello.

Or you may want to answer my question. How do you feel about this? the electric cars. You know, they're doing all kind of surveys now and asking who's interested, who's not interested, who's on board, who's signed up, are you ready for an electric car? There's a very strong interest,

and it's growing as we speak. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. And as I said earlier, www. www. Your Anonymous Feedback. Don't forget, Earl's vigilantes, because we want to help everyone. We truly do, but we do need your help.

And you can sign up for Earl's vigilantes, and you can help us, well, to sort out these dealers that are so dishonest and taking advantage of your neighbors, whomever you know, whomever we know, and we can't do this alone. So I'll go to Earl on Cars, sign up for Earl's vigilantes. You don't have to know how to take an engine apart, but just get out there and volunteer earl on Cars.com. We're going to go to Frank, who's calling us from Jupiter Farms. He is a regular caller. Good morning, Frank. Good morning.

Good morning to you all. I'm kind of going to fill in a little bit for Anne-Marie since she doesn't seem to call you today. A little humor. The last question, that guy from Tampa, was very intriguing. And I like how you all had your ways of answering. And it brings back memories. Of course, we always have memories of our childhood and stuff. My in particular, my mother was a school bus driver down a day counting in the 50s and 60s.

And every few months, she would have to go back to a training course throughout this driving year. And that evening at home, you discussed what they learned that day. and one of the things like Earl was alluding to and also his son is at all possible to avoid head-on collisions because their energy is transferred twice by your car in their car. So that was a really an intriguing question and obviously you want to keep your wheel.

I guess a lot of people are taught not to even begin turning your wheels when you get in the turn lane until you can actually turn that you keep straight on that you go through the intersection set into oncoming cars. But anyway, that was that was kind of neat. And then I like to fill in on a recent shopping adventure and how the car dealers are really, really, I'm sure you're, you guys, too, to a degree, don't have the inventory. And it's a seller's market for sure. The buyer's beware is a very good Earl Stewart, you know, motto.

Last Saturday, after we spoke to you, we were told, well, let me back up a little bit. A few weeks ago, my friend, Amory, my few weeks ago, my friend, Amory, my few. Beyonce, actually, wanted to look at a new SUV. And so anyway, we decided to look at the BMW, X3 in particular, and had a test drive in one of the M models. Oh, my goodness, it was a brilliant experience. The sticker price is a little over 82,000, and there was no negotiation. And all the fees they had on was about another 2,000 by the time they were done. So anyway, they were really trying to say, why don't you just lease it?

They're zero down in about 1,600 a month. And that way, after three years, if you don't like it, otherwise you can buy it out, and the buyout price was pretty high to begin with. So anyway, and I said, well, we were like to own cars. He said, you know, it would be nice. He said, yeah, they take such a big depreciation because we also had seen that week earlier, an AMG SUV at the Mercedes dealership just off North Lake. and they had a beautiful two-year-old SUV that took about a $40,000 hit from, you know, for two years of use.

And so we were thinking about that. And he said, oh, yeah, these cars are horrible. First year or two, there's a big loss. You don't want to buy one because it would be better just to lease it. So I said, no, we moved on it. So that was a few weeks ago. And then last Saturday, he calls us, they got it one of these X-3 M models in back from a lease. and it has 10,000 miles and you're going to save a lot of money.

So we went in and see what kind of money we're going to save. It was $2,000. Yeah, I sense where this was going. Amazing. Oh, my goodness. And you lost all the free service that came with with with the car originally for three years and that you could get the extra year of warranty up to 100,000 miles. And I said, well, you know, by the time,

you're all done, it's like, really only about $1,000 cheaper than a brand new car. And the warranty would actually expire sooner because it was put in service in 19, and the new cars today are obviously being put in service at 21. And I did the math with the leasing at $1,600 and then buyout, instead of the car costing $82,000 today, by the time you're all done, it's over $100,000. Yeah, it's the same. There doesn't seem to be like a good, like, way to go because like intuitively I would say, well, since we don't know where the, you know, the used car market's going to settle

when all this is over with, maybe it makes more sense to lease because you're kind, you know what the depreciation is going to be. But you don't get any help if they're getting kind of, if you're getting gouged on the selling price or the cap cost in the lease. So it's like, it's a catch. There's no, there's no way to get around it unless you just, you know, the only people who are taking advantage of the situation, really, are car dealers and people who have a used car to sell, but they don't need to buy another one.

so it's kind of it's kind of tough that's the reason we're saying like if you don't have to just wait it'll be it's going to get better in a few months oh yeah no we're definitely because i'm amory's SUV is one that randy knows very familiar is uh lexas where we were we're one of the brayman dealerships oh yeah it's the one on on indian town okay we've had us i mean mixed you know mixed mystery shopping reports always had some good ones and some some bad ones um it's the only car dealership in jupiter I will admit that the salesman Steve was very nice, very friendly. That's good.

The first time he walked in there, he actually left because no one came to office. We walked around for five or ten minutes. And maybe they thought you were a mirage. Maybe they probably were a little short, but anyway, no, he was very nice. But at the same day we were there looking at this trade in, and we couldn't even test drive it because it's a trade, and then they haven't gone through the service. It had only 10,000 miles on it, but it would have a new set of tires.

And I said, wow, what happened? Oh, well, you're lucky to get 10,000 miles on the road. So the tires on the M models, you know, well, that's interesting. It is a mother factor. But while we're there, there was a lady, and I would now regret that I didn't step up and try and help her to go there by herself in her 70s, trading in one of her cars for a new X-1. and she said, well, if they give me enough for my trade and did you tell them how much

it first of it? I said, well, I bet you the trading will be that fine, but no, the rest of the stuff. The only I had, I could have promised. Right. I just stepped in with authority. Excuse me, man. That's great. Well, Frank, thanks for the call. I love hearing from me, or one of our most informative. Regular call us, please call again next week. And Frank, to you and Anne-Marie, thank you very much for being part of the show. As I tell everyone, you know, every week, you are an important part of the show.

We would be, you know, for lack of another word, I'm going to say, a little bit helpless here with all the input from our audience, 877-9-60-99-60. Now back to Stu. All right, we got a text from Brian, California, an early morning one, came in at 4.59 a.m. Hey, guys, Brian from California, a quick question for Rick today. I have a family member with the 2018 Honda Accord. They got a code saying to replace the brake fluid on the car a few days ago. It's got 17,500 miles on it. I did some research on Honda forums, and the computer has a timer that spits out the replacement break fluid code

about three years after the car was produced, not by how many miles were on it. About half of the members blow off the message and do nothing, and the other half get the brake fluid changed. What do you think of this? Is Honda being strict on maintenance, or is there more to it? Have a good day, guys, and thanks for everything. I would check the owner's manual for the factory recommended maintenance. If it's listed in there that it should be done,

then, yeah, I would go ahead and do it. But if it's not in that book, I wouldn't do it. Yeah, that's kind of an ongoing advice. Also, he didn't specify. He just said that the dealer suggested. No, it popped up on the, a light came on the dash telling it to do it. If it popped up on the dash, then it would be a factory recommended. That would seem to be, yeah.

His point was, and this is, like, that's the reason you wanted to know from Rick is because he found out through the forums that it's not based on mileage, it's based on time, and this has very low mileage. So the brakes haven't been used as much. Is it still necessary? Like we talk about the way. Probably their reason for recommending it is break fluid is, how? hydroscopic, which means it absorbs moisture.

It absorbs oil. Same thing with oil. Very similar, yes. And that's to prevent water from being able to build up on the brake components and cause corrosion on the inside. So that might be a very reasonable thing to do. Even though the mileage doesn't say it's the time. I'm going to go with that.

And being exposed to the atmosphere. Change the brake fluid if the car tells you to. Yeah. That's what I can. Okay. Okay. This is from Steve in New Jersey. So hi, Earl. Great show. Steve from New Jersey. Regarding the rear collision question, another solution is to buy a car that has whiplash mitigation technology.

My 2020 Volvo has rear bumper sensors that can detect an imminent rear end collision. Just before impact, my car will increase the seatbelt tension and preset the brake system, I think. Some other cars do that too. I think some toilets do that. Just before, so it increases the seatbelt tension. It presets the brake system. At the time of the collision, the front seat bottom will slide forward slightly, and the back of the seat will fall back slightly. This is all done to mitigate whiplash injury, which occurs approximately 75% in all traffic accidents.

And Volvo's whiplash mitigation system is called whips. Ooh. Wow. Which, by the way, Nagan 1 mentioned on the YouTube channel here. It's Negan. Your head. Okay. It's Negan.

It's my walking dead. Okay. Your headrest should be set to where the main body of the headrest is directly behind the back of your head so that your head in a rear-in collision will hit the head rest and prevent your head from snapping backwards. So what I would say, what I would say, that if you're aware of a approaching rear-end collision, you have time to adjust your position of your body and your head. and you want to be sitting low on the seat with the headrest where Rick just mentioned we're going to be right behind your head to keep the neck from plopping back. So, yeah, I think I'd scoot down, put my head up against headrest.

I'm going to train you. What you're going to do, you're going to go into plaid mode as soon as you're about rear-ended and you take off at the speed of light. Yeah, that's insider knowledge. Nobody knows what that is. It's just amazing, ladies and gentlemen, when we talk about whiplash,

it's just when you get when you put someone put the numbers right in front of you and how many people are in an accident and what happens is a whiplash occurs is just amazing and I believe that the texter said 75% the accidents involve whiplash yeah yeah and that's just totally amazing that's because 75% of the attorneys are trying to make a lot of money whiplash is real very very real we are going to go back to to the phone's heard what I said out there come and get me we're going to go back to the phones and we're going to talk to Marty from Boynton good morning Marty what can we do for you this morning hello hey Marty hey Marty we can hear you okay yeah I'm sure you're from Boynton Beach actually we're in Maryland right now we're on the way my mother-in-law is in a hospital so we

We, I just want to tell you about our experience, we went into your dealership, I guess, about a week and a half ago or so. We were looking to buy a car. We were looking at a route for a Highlander, and we looked at them. We had a nice Highlander, and we decided we didn't want to spend that much money. And we went and we ended up buying a Subaru. And I just wanted to tell you what happened to us. We bought the Subaru. We signed the contract.

We were out ready to put the money down and come and collected, and he called us and said, sorry, we sold somebody else to come. So that was retailing about 27 new cars, and this is the first time anything like that happened. So we thought, well, we've been listening to your program for a few months now, and we're fairly new to Florida. So we came back to your place and we looked at a Highlander, which we bought the same day and picked up the same day. And we recruited great and very, very happy. The only problem, my wife had called you called Nancy about two months ago, which you really wanted to meet her, but we weren't able to do that. but we're in maryland now we put a thousand miles on the car and it's been running great and we're really happy with it but other than that um we're very happy you guys treated us great and i'd recommend you to anybody

marty we love you thank you very much i'll send you that 50 bucks i promised have you called uh tomorrow thank you so much just kidding give us a call again you're welcome 877 960 9960 where you can text us 772 49977 727 And if you didn't hear earlier, I want to tell you, what a time, what a time for used cars and the prices have soared. And if you're holding on to a used car, I'll tell you what, when you sell that, independently, that is, you can retire. At any rate, wholesale prices are up 54.3%. If you can even imagine the time that we're in right now, the times they are a change in. We are going to go to Doug, who is a regular caller, from Boca. Good morning, Doug.

Good morning. How are you guys? We're well, thank you. Hey, Doug, I just sent you a cat emoji on Facebook. I was going to say that there's no delay on your broadcast, so I just want to. you to be aware of that. Okay. No profanity, guys. I promise I'll be nice.

So I wanted to ask a question about the gas prices and the fact that I might be doing an electric car because it just seems to me like it seems like gas is just going to keep going up and I can see it being at. um four dollars maybe someday soon unless i'm wrong but um what do you guys think of um of that i know this summer compared to last summer it's on average nationally about a dollar five more a gallon um i i'd like earl's opinion because you're watching more cnbc than i than i watch when is the uh the pressure on gas prices going to get better well it's you know the only thing say I gave up trying to figure that out a long time ago because there's no rational

connection between a supply gasoline for that matter even the cost of the manufacturer it's such a it's changing all the time I I just say gas prices will always fluctuate possibly when everything is all electric and gas prices will come way down you know actually you say CNBC they say remember you need energy to generate power to build electric cars and you need energy to make cars you need energy to make batteries you need energy to generate electricity that you're going to drive the car with so it's going to be no one has got the crystal ball to say when gas prices are going to come down or go back up and they seem to do so irrationally when there's plenty of gas

maybe more gas or oil in the ground than we're going to need then prices go up and then it's kind of it's the other way there's so much speculation and there's so many people with with oil futures are playing the games out there today that you might as well forget about trying to predict gas prices yeah it's very unpredictable uh Doug and it's such a gray area and as they're all stated up and down up and down so uh I hope we answered your question yes and you guys have a nice day and I'll see you tomorrow morning Sounds good, Doug. Thanks, Doug. 877960. Or you can text us at 772-497-60. Now back to... No, we're going to go to Rick.

He's got some YouTube's done there. We've got a couple of them up. First one, this came in a few minutes ago, from Guy Larrabee. He says he recently tried to trade a clean Kia SUV for an equivalent Lexus, and the dealer lowballed my trade and asked for all the money on the Lexus. He says, I walked out. Times change, and I will wait to trade. You're an educated consumer. You listen to this show, and maybe that has something to do with it.

Maybe not, but that's exactly what you've got to do. You got to walk out. And remember, this is the way car dealers make their money. If you're sophisticated, if you're informed, you come in there. They can't lay you away, and you walk away. And right behind you, somebody walked in there and did exactly what they asked you to do, but they weren't informed. Dealers will make $10,000 when they sell the same car to an informed consumer that they make $1,000 on. Let me give you a statistic out here from the automotive news, current automotive news.

This is from JD Power. and the total profit per car now on new cars in May per car. Now, hang on your hats. If you're in the car business, think about this. This is the average, all-time high record, profit per new car, $3,245. And more than double the $1,567 earned a year earlier. So car dealers are making more than twice. the amount per car and that's most of those are at or over sticker so if you walk in and

you're and you're educated uh you're not going to get taken advantage of and if you aren't if you aren't that way they will lay you away and remember this 3,400 3245 dollars per car that's an average you know what that means there's as many above that price a profit as below it So people out there paying $10,000 profits to car dealers and they're fat and happy and having a good time. Unreal. Yeah. Knowledge is power, folks.

Knowledge is power. Stay in control if you do have to go into a dealership. And most of all, don't go in a loan. We are going to go. You probably have more YouTube's, right, Rick? Okay, well, we're going to go to Barbara, and she is a first-time caller. Good morning from Plant City.

Welcome, Barbara, you just won yourself $50. Oh, well, thank you. You're quite welcome. Email me your contact information, please. What can we do for you this morning? Well, I've heard that the electric cars are having a problem with their batteries in the back, catching on fire. And I heard that the fire department can't put that fire out when the batteries are on fire. Is that true?

Rick can answer to that. He actually gives classes to fire departments on fire. on battery fire. So he's the right guy to ask. Yep. As a matter of fact, most full electric cars, the battery, the lithium ion battery, is located under the car on the outside,

and it's completely in a sealed contained unit. So that's why the fire departments have issues with them, because it's not so much that the fire can't be put out. It's because it's actually sealed in a box, so they have a hard time getting any water to it. now as counterintuitive as it sounds water is the number one thing that is recommended for dealing with those fires and they simply have to cool the battery using tons and tons of water to the point that the fire actually goes out just from the loss of the heat but the fire issues

that you mentioned cars catching on fire Tesla had an issue years back when they had quite a few their cars actually had a short circuit would occur but i haven't heard of any cases like that lately except in cases where the car crashed like out in texas just recently that car that they crashed basically they slammed into a tree at a very high rate of speed and that car oh it it burned right to a shell it was a horrible but that was a case where you know people that was driver caused It was the drivers that caused that accident. And for the most part, electric cars are actually almost safer than normal cars, really, at this point. Yeah, absolutely.

And there's a lot of human error out there. Yes. Human error. Yeah. Barb, I hope we answered your question. Yes, you did. You gave me information I didn't know, so thank you so much. Oh, you're quite welcome.

It was a pleasure talking to you, and I hope you call again. Spread the word. I sure will. Thank you. Thank you so much. Have a great weekend. Now back to Rick. Okay. Well, as a matter of fact, just an instant little thing here that Don from LaBelle had mentioned, he said he accidentally put his Camry hybrid remote, which is a smart key remote. He had left in his pocket and it went through the washing machine. He got so lucky because it survived and it still works. Amazing.

Folks, try to avoid this. It's kind of like your iPhone, your cell phones. That happened to me. They say they're water resistant. It works. For a splash of water, you're fine. But be very, very cautious because getting those remotes in water can kill those remotes and they can be several hundred dollars to replace and have them reprogrammed.

So be careful with that, folks. Now we've got Donovan Lewis says, how do you go about being a cash buyer today? I'm in the market for a used car and I want to pay cash and not pay a dealer fee. I'm finding it rather difficult to pay cash. Two dealers so far have wanted to charge an extra $1,000 for not financing the car and will not budge on the extra cost. Well, it's illegal to tie the financing to the purchase of the car. The one exception is manufacturers often have specially low interest rates or a discount. And you get to take your pick.

But typically you cannot, if you're buying a used car, I think you said, and they say unless you finance it, we're going to charge you more. That's a violation. That's a criminal violation, I think it's a truth in lending, federal, breaking a loan. So you should report it. The problem is you don't want to deal with a dealer like that anyway because they can manipulate the numbers to make you think that they're not charged anymore, and they probably will if you threaten them

with any kind of a lawsuit or a legal action. But it's complicated today because interest rates are so low that oftentimes the low interest rate that they're offering by the manufacturer is only good if you're going to be able to finance the car for enough money with a lower-down. payment to take advantage of the interest savings, especially if you don't keep the car. But cash buyer, I'll say one more thing about this and I'll shut up, when you are a cash buyer, don't confront the dealer with that fact, let the dealer believe you're going to finance

the car with them, and then negotiate the best price of the car you can, and that'll probably be the best price you're going to get on the car, then springing on them that you're going to pay cash and that way they really have to be bold and nasty to tell you they're going to charge you more money and not to say that won't happen but it's far less likely yeah and Donovan goes on to say it apparently has some interest in Tesla's here I'm finding it rather difficult how could you not be interested in an electric car if you can charge at home for $2 or fill up a normal car at the gas station for 40 plus. A tip for Tesla owners in our area who use supercharging.

The supercharger in West Delray Beach is the best one so far. It's got a fixed cost of 17 cents per kilowatt hour. The charger in Riviera Beach and in Deerfield Beach is 34 cents per kilowatt hour from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Then it goes to 17 cents during the night. They're making money on that. 17 cents is only 5 cents more per kilowatt hour, then you pay it home, and you can find out the cost in the car. Tesla shows the current cost and a number of spaces open when you check charger on the map. Let's rewind the tape. He says it costs you $2 to charge your car at night in your garage, and it costs you $40 to fill the tank.

I mean, that's apples and oranges. If you fill your tank, God knows how far you can drive, depending on the size of your tank and the size of your car. you charge your car overnight you have one-night charge and so what does that tell you if you're driving a prime you got 50 miles to drive if you're driving a tesley you got 350 miles to drive so you're not comparing apples and oranges it's going to be clearly less expensive for you to have an electric car forget about plugging it in the cost of the charge it's going to be less expensive for you to drive electric car with respect to fuel your fuel is electricity, it's not going to cost you as much.

Exactly. And I've got one other here from Larry R who says, the average profit $3,000 per car, is that the front end only, or does that include the profit from F&I? That's front and back end, but it's a world's record. Yeah, the front and back end profit per unit, including grosses and F&I income, is on pace to reach an all-time high of 3,245.

dollars so uh usually we look at the f and i separately but uh they're both outrageous they're they're not only soaking you in the finance department in interest rates and and uh gap insurance and the rest of it uh but they're soaking you on the price of the car why because they can you know you want to buy a honda cord you want a white one now you walk over to the honda dealer you drive over take Uber. He's got one white one. And they got one white one. Maybe. And you say how much? Now, what do you think they're going to say? And you're going to say, oh, that's too much money. I say, oh, okay. Well, then go buy a white Honda cord somewhere else because I got the only one in Georgia or I got the only one in Florida. And that's the way it is. If you want to wait six weeks, which you should,

you should order the car you want, negotiate the best price, and buy the car you want. There's one other thing that I just learned, and Nancy told me about this. There was an article in USA Today that says, when you buy these cars now, not only did you have to worry about getting hosed on the price because it's blind demand, but the manufacturers are deleting computer modules because they can't get the microchip on the car. The Ford F-150 has a computer module that moderates, that improves the gas mileage when you drive it, because it recognizes, the computer recognizes the fact that you're going

faster, you don't need a much torque, and it adjust, Rick knows what I'm talking about, it gives you better mileage. Well, they ran out of the microchips to make that mileage adjustment. So if you buy an F-150 now of this particular description, it doesn't have that in there. Now, did they reduce the price? Yeah. They reduced the price by the cost of the module,

which I think was $1,000, and the fuel economy that you lose as a result of that, if you keep the car for five years, is way more than $1,000. They asked the dealer, when they went in to buy this Ford, if they get the module later, will they install it in my car for me? He says, I don't know.

Well, it turned out they would. anyway bottom line you're buying a car today microchip shortage asked this simple question are there any parts on my car that you decided not to include because you couldn't get the microchip guess what just tell me the salesperson's not gonna know there he's not gonna know no of course not yeah yeah and if they do they would lie to you through their teeth and guess well then put it I haven't put it in writing so okay as long as I'm getting a whole car here just put it in writing initial here that whole car yeah 100% car hey I was speaking

of getting hosed, I'm beginning to like that word. Thank you. I'll tell you what, the auto industry, what a world, what a world I've been introduced to. And ladies and gentlemen, I'll tell you what, these dealers, there's a lot of money for them to make, even more now than there used to be. So please, knowledge is power. You know, it's interesting real quick. Sorry, it's on the F&I, I like the thing, well, how does F&I get worse with the inventory situation? and I figured it out.

Normally, there's always a danger of if F&I manager is too aggressive, it's called blowing out of the box. You know, you push too hard. They leave, you lose. They don't care if there's more customers than there are cars. They can be more aggressive because, like you said, it's that one white car they have in stock. They've searched around.

They know it's the only one that they can get. And so they're going to try pull out all stops to boost that profit even more, even on the back end. So that's happening right now. Yeah, very true. You know, I used to think that if I watch, to the dealership the only question with part of the

whole transaction, you know, whether it be a warranty that I might need or anything else. But how many people walk in and say, what doesn't the warranty cover? It's just like everything else with the color of the car.

It's become a complicated situation unless you have really done your homework. We are going to go to Mark in Palm Beach Gardens, who's been holding. Thanks, Mark. Thanks for your patience.

No problems whatsoever. Good morning to all once again. I needed a little bit more clarification. I believe it was on last Saturday's show. When it came to, we're an avid Toyota owner. And I need to clarify on this Tires for Life program. me if I speak a little slow. I'm a little under the weather. Anyway, it seems it's at least twice a week. We have an issue with our air pressure indicator lights coming on in the dash, saying that we got

low tire pressure, and it's usually first thing in the morning. And I do know that when you drive because of the heat of the tire it raises the air pressure and the opposite happens to the pressure the other direction but there seemed to have been an answer or explanation

last week that it was because of the tire type or tire that was being used that was causing this low air pressure situation constantly is there any better clarification on that?

Well, Mark, the tires are a lot more complicated than they seem. Every tire suits a different person in a different season. I mean, maybe that's the reason the good year in Firestone, Michigan makes so much money, is there's a tire for every household tire for every climate, and all-weather tire, winter tires, summer tires. People also have different personal preferences. Some people like a soft ride. And that's the reason the manufacturers, when they deliver a new car to a dealer that's going to be bought by somebody,

they like to have soft tires on the car. Because when you have soft tires, you have a smooth ride. I wouldn't sell soft tires on a car to a friend of mine or a customer. I would rather put a tire of the firmness that suited his comfort level, but also maximize the life of the tire. So you need We look at If someone wants a soft ride

Then you have to give them on with a treadware index That'll give them that But the tire's going to wear out a lot faster So there's no perfect tire It depends on individuals and where you live And how you drive, Rick I believe he's asking about the tire pressure sensors The lights coming on

What's the year and model of your car? 2017 Camry X-O-E I believe that the 17, I'd have to double check my TIS, my information source for Toyota, but I'm pretty certain that those have what's called an adjustable threshold level. In other words, the sensor is set to where the light comes on when the tires go down to a certain pressure level. So say if it's set at 26 pounds and you're running normally at 28 to 30 and a tire gets close to that. 26 it may trigger that light to come on but what you can do is when you get to go into the next dealership for I asked them to set that threshold to a lower

point say around 22 to 24 pounds per square inch and then when you bring your tires up to their normal pressure of 32 to 35 where they should be it'll take it a little longer before that light will come on so you'll still know if you lose tire pressure but you won't have that daily fluctuation causing the light to come on. And I've got an idea that might even be easier is use the manufacturer recommended, I mean, use the tire manufacturer recommended tire pressure, and then go to, whatever they say that pressure is,

use that and then back off a few pounds per square inch until you find a comfortable ride. Because that's going to do two things for you. It's going to give you your maximum tire wear. also going to give you maximum comfort. It's tailored to you. If you do that, you're never going to have your tire pressure light come on unless you have a very low threshold of pain when it comes to a bumpy ride,

and you have to go so soft that the manufacturer's specifications are going to cause the indicator light to come on. Excuse me for interrupting you. I want to take up all your time, but I see we're running out of time before the mystery car shopping report. But, you know, I'm talking about major differences here, not minor differences. I mean, you can walk outside and see the tire half flat. It's not a minimal amount.

I mean, it's not 28 or 30 pounds versus 24 pounds. And slipping to the gas station two or three times a week to fill the tire up and then for it to pressure up. Well, Mark, you've got a leak in your tire. You've got a leak in your tire because you're not going to, you've got to. don't have a normal condition of a tire doing that. It jumps all the way around the car. It jumps all the way around the car. It can be several tires. There'll be two tires.

Well, all I can... You're the only guys we deal with. You know, it's under the tires, tires, tires. Then we've dropped the ball and not finding your leak because you're not going to have a car, a tire that's deflated

where you can see the car sitting, the rim sitting on the ground unless there's a leak in the tire. so we need to find it we drop the ball you need to bring it back in we'll hook you up with our service manager and we'll get it fixed for you yeah I didn't mean to implicate it was

you know the rim on the ground but you know eyes wise visually what model you're driving Mark again it's a 2017 Camry X-L-E and like I said my daughter does most of that because I'm handicapped

yeah we'll check it out So it becomes, I didn't know if it was the type of thing where the tire required to be taken off the wheel, remounted, that maybe there's when it was originally the tires we got were just, got it from Josh Scott and the service department got just a couple of months ago. And I didn't know that, you know, it can be the left front one day and the right rear of the next. Well, like you just said, we're running short on time. We're getting near the mystery shopping report, and we can't diagnose it on. on the air but we will certainly diagnose it at the dealership thank you very much for the call

mark and please call again yeah thank you mark we're here for you and we'll get to the bottom of the problem and thank you for the phone call as earl said we're going to be going coming up to the mystery shopping report but there's one thing i want to mention real quick uh now that there are so many of us that are going to the internet uh to purchase a vehicle not all of us are savvy. And we need a few volunteers to help some of the seniors get, you know, through the process of maneuvering their way around and getting the information that they need. And you can help us. You can help us by volunteering and assisting some of the seniors who want to purchase a car, lease a car, whatever. And you can go to Erlon cars and you can get the rest of the

information that you need to become a volunteer 877 960 960 and actually what we're going to do is we're going to close the phone lines and you can text us with your grade for the mystery shopping report and you are an important part of the show so stay tuned for that we're going to go to stew i believe yeah got a bunch of text bob texas says we purchased a new mazda this week I learned from you, and I think I got a fair price. I went to three dealers after researching on consumer reports, as you recommended. One was for Costco pricing. Another dealer matched it, as we hadn't take the worksheet from Costco dealer.

We didn't tell the second dealer it was a Costco pricing, and they matched it. Thank you for educating me. We also read Earl's book as part of our learning process. We love to hear that. Boy, I love that kind of important. It makes me feel life is worthwhile. Yeah. Thank you.

All right. I did a little, since these were coming in, I was able to do some research and get quick answers. So this one says, I'm looking to buy a small, used car for my 17-year-old daughter. We want to stay around $10,000 or under. What car is the best combination of reliability, safety, and value? So I went over to Consumer Reports. And Consumer Reports has the good choices for teens cars. It's right there on the website.

So here they are, around $10,000 and under. There's four of them. The Mazda 3 sedan, between the U.S. years 2012 and 2013 Toyota Prius 2011 to 2013 the Honda Civic sedan 2012 to 2015 and Toyota Corolla sedan 2014 or newer they have prices I don't know how accurate these are reflecting market prices now but those are the ones that in terms of reliability safety and all that and just traditionally a good value look at those cars yeah I love a great information and you know ladies and gentlemen don't forget consumer report it has

so much information in it about what Stu just spoke of, but so many other subjects that are interesting about your tires, about your car, about your comfort, everything. Pick up Consumer Report. You can't go wrong. Okay. Next one, he says, oh, consumer, another consumer reports one. Consumer Reports put out their article on how to save on gas this summer.

Some of their ideas are great. your tank half full at all times in case there's a shortage use gas buddy.com to find the cheapest stations don't speed be careful with aerodynamics think roof racks with luggage Rick what other suggestions do you have for listeners who may be doing summer driving this year clear all that extra stuff out of your car get it out of the trunk get the weight out of there and consider cost if you're a Costco member look at Costco for fuel and over inflate your tires. I have an even better idea than any of that, and I'm going to replace consumer reports suggestion. When you think there's going to be a gas shortage, don't pay any attention to

it, and don't fill your tank up, and if everybody, this is a little bit tongue and cheap, and the point is, and then I will say to the media, quit talking about gas lines and shortages because you panic everybody, just like you do with hurricanes, and people go out and buy all the duct tape and all the water and they're lined up at Home Depot and Walmart and the media spooks people into doing stupid things. There was no gas shortage. The only shortage was the mass hysteria created by television, digital, Facebook, and everybody talking about it. And I shame on you consumer reports. Yeah, yeah, right. If everybody goes out and wants to top their tank off or have at least a half a tank, we will have a game.

gas shortage and then there'll be lines and you won't be able to buy gas. Hey, I have a question for you. Do you remember it being on the news? A woman at a gas station with a bucket. Do you remember that? I do. I saw videos of people with plastic bags filling them with gasoline and a guy with a tarp in the bed of a pickup filling it with gasoline. The videos are out there. We're doomed. It actually happened. It's just unbelievable. And folks, all of you who filled up those red gas cans with gasoline and they're sitting in your shed, unless you're 100% certain that that gas is still fresh and clean,

you put that in your car, and you're going to be paying me and my fellow mechanics a whole lot of money. You clean out your fuel system. You get your car running right again. Okay, we've got a few more over here. But back to the question about gas mileage and everything. You know, it's amazing how you can control everything. in your car by emptying out your trunk by being careful as to how you're driving i mean your driving affects the gas the tire everything and loading your car up with things that have been there for

i don't know how long get rid of them okay back to stew all right uh earl this is for you do believe toyda's claims that there come from behind approach with regard to ev production was by design or do you think they were actually caught sleeping when demand for EVs surged? I think they were caught sleeping. Here's an interesting take. I'm glad you asked that question. I mentioned earlier that the chairman of the board of Toyota is a member of the Toyota family, the founder. And the current Toyota chairman is Akio.

And Akio loves to race cars and he loves combustion engines and he likes the idea of the roar and the power. and you know all you He's like a formula derricker Like I did when I was a kid And I think I thought that was last week That's true And so

We were roaring And you were Roaring Filled with power So I think Akia Toyota's let his Personal beliefs Throw the ship off

course a little bit And now they're trying to make up for it But there's some truth for the makeup They did pioneer Electric Cars Let's not forget that they pioneered the hybrid which is an electric car it's just not totally electric and in terms of battery technology and a whole lot of other things with

respect to electrifying cars Toyota got in the ground floor when everybody thought they were being silly General Motors laughed at them they said you're crazy this Prius is going nowhere and look where they are today but they did get hung up on combustion engines and that's the reason that they are playing catch-up They also like hydrogen a lot. They're building a hydrogen city in Fukushima. You can remember what that was? And that's another big mistake because we don't have the infrastructure.

Hydrogen is a perfect fuel. It's totally clean, but you cannot practically do the infrastructure to provide hydrogen to the world. Well, that's why the story is kind of funny is because in order to get it done, they're building an entire city based on hydrogen. That doesn't happen every day. Some people don't like to admit when they make a mistake. Amory's got one for us? She's another one.

She says, By the way, I'd like to say add a boy to you. Last week, you mentioned that Sun Pass now has the Sun Pass Pro

that covers tolls in 16 different states. Sun Sentinel posted the story on Thursday. You beat the newspaper by five days. Thanks for the timely news. Hey, it's not hard

to beat the newspaper by five days. I mean, I can't believe the stuff I read in the Palm Beach Post. I mean, I almost, you know,

if I weren't local, I mean, I do it because in case my neighbor attack somebody if I can see what the neighborhood news is, but for national news, who needs newspapers? They get

it three, four, five days a week late. All right, we can plow through really quick. We have some anonymous feedback. They're quick. Hey, Earl, I heard Elon Musk announced delays in the first Plaid model S is. How much longer do you have to wait is for yours? And I'll answer, they announce a week delay.

Hello, I remember my high school physics teacher mentioned if you know you're about to get rear-ended, do the following. If you can't avoid it, keep the wheel straight. If possible, place the card neutral, if you're on a flat service and won't roll. And take the foot off the break. The reason is the impact won't be as bad because the energy transfer will be less. He is the item with the metal balls on the string, you know, the thing, click-clack thing where you lift one, let it go to demonstrate how the energy is transferred through all these things. I agree with that, and I'm also a physics major. So he's totally right, and that's a good

answer. And here's the last one. Our dealer is equally willing to negotiate on the price of an ordered car as with one on the lot. Normal times, yes, not now. You're paying full pop. Everything's relative. You're going to get laid away on the orange car, just like you will

on the white car. They'll just lay away more on the white car. And it's all a matter of supply and demand. If they got a car that you've got to have and they only got one, you're going to pay through the nose. You have no leverage. Yeah. All right, we're done.

We're going on. Ladies and gentlemen, I have to take a moment to thank, for lack of another word, I'll tell you what, Agent Lightning, what a job she has done and continues to do. And every mystery shopping report that she has done, the proof is in the put-in right there. So we are going to go to our mystery shopping report that takes us to, Jim Sharkey Chrysler of North Huntington, Pennsylvania. Now, back to the recovering car dealer. So we set a new record.

Stu fell into it, got a lucky break, and we decided to grab it and shop somebody 1,091 miles away. New record. So here we go. Jim Shorke Chrysler, located in North Huntington, PA, township on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, Nancy's hometown. 562 miles further than our last record breaker in Nashville. So we're on a roll.

Car dealers, you aren't safe anywhere. I don't care where you are. The long arm of the Earl. We'll find you. We will find you. We will hunt you down, and we are coming to your dealership. Coming to your hometown. Okay.

Why are we picking on Jim Shorky? Well, his dealership is just a target of opportunity. Agent Lightning had to travel to the Pittsburgh area and personal business. and couldn't pass on the chance to set a new long-distance Mr. Shop record. Little Googling revealed that Jim Shorky, S-H-O-R-K-E-Y, interesting name. Jim Shorky, he ain't no small-town dealer. He has 13 locations in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The group is comprised of three Chrysler Jeep stores, three Kia dealerships, four Mitsubishi, two Chevys, and a part-trich and a P-R-Trad. I heard that in my head, as I thought. and affords. Anyway, usually, and that prejudiced me when I read that and when I was first, I read the report for the first time, because usually large dealers with multiple franchises, they don't have the control,

and so they're just not nice places to deal with compared to small hometown type dealers, and I'm not just saying that because I'm not small, but I am hometown down. Anyway, I was surprised, and you'll see what I mean, pleasantly surprised. The Jim Shore, and I like this too, the Jim Shorty Auto Group is run by Jim's children. Jim handed the company over to his kids a few years ago to pursue a new interest, a success coaching startup. That's very interesting.

I need to talk to that guy. A success coaching startup called Results from Thinking. Well, that tells you it all right there. If you want to be successful, you should think. I agree with that. Oh, thank you. I don't have to read the book now. teach his clients how to be as successful as Jim Sharkley.

Well, okay. He's pretty successful. Sharkie. Jim Shorky's Chrysler's website has indicated they have a small, just 70 cars, a new car inventory, and a very large, used car inventory. This is amazing. 226 vehicles, that's a lot of used cars. My guess is, I just guessing, because Chrysler dealerships haven't typically been high volume,

and it's called a marginal franchise, a secondary franchise, and these dealers have to learn how to sell used cars, and they do a pretty good job off it, because they have to survive. So I think typically this dealership has sold more used cars than new, and that's unusual. Without knowing what they normally stock, it's impossible to tell how severely the nationwide inventory crunches affected them. For all we know, Jim Shorkley, I keep going, yeah, Shurkey, not Shorkley.

as Jim Shorkeke, Chrysler, used to stock 400 used cars. Same thing for new cars. We don't know how many they are normally keeping an inventory, but my gut says 70 cars seems light for a new Chrysler dealership. Later on, that proved to be true. Agent Lightning's approach would be a direct hit straight to the dealership without picking a car first online. Now, don't do that at home.

That's not the way we want you to do it, but we do it because some people do it that way. and you get in a lot of trouble when you don't do your homework online and get your price determined online. Here's the report. I'm speaking as if I'm Agent Lightning. I arrived at the dealership at 9.30 a.m. walked toward the showroom. The lot seems sparse.

I guess they were filling the inventory bench up here too. The showroom was small with two vehicles, that's small, smattering of workstations, a giant inflatable rubber ducky. I love it. Maybe we can get a rubber ducky. Giant inflatable rubber. It was first on top of a shiny blue Jeep compass. There were no other customers, but then again, it was early. I walked over to a bright red Jeep gladiator, stood a while, admiring in.

A man walked over and sat at a desk nearby. I turned to him and asked if there was anyone available to tell me about the gladiator. The man said, how about me? and he laughed. That's kind of refreshing. I mean, no pack of wolves waiting for you at the door and didn't even jump on you when you looked at the car. It was pleasant, interesting. He walked over and used himself, Jesse. Jesse. I hope his last name wasn't James. Just kidding. Jesse James. I told him I'd been reaching, researching new gladiators and felt I was ready to make my move and buy one. I asked if they had any in stock besides the red one. Jesse said they just got a

fresh delivery of them and suggested we take a walk. We walked through a light drizzle up a rocky driveway dotted with mud puddles. You're so poetic, do I like that. You have a very... Prozaic. You know, you do. Found the gladiators. I poked around 10 or so models there and decided on a black one. MSRP, 52,000, 640. Jesse asked me, to wait for him to go fetch the keys and I watched his jog back down the drive. It only took him five minutes and he was back

with key in hand and dealer plate in five minutes. That's, you know, she's... That's a record. Yeah, Agent Lightning is very, very time conscious and she's got the stopwatch out on you when you're... And she's standing in the rain waiting for you. Exactly. You better hurry up. Jesse said he'd get out of the

parking lot. He gives us out of the parking lot and then turn over driving duties to me. Once we're out of the lot we switched places we took an epic 15 minute mile 15 mile yeah 15 mile test drive all over the hilly winding back roads of suburban Pennsylvania I could tell Nancy was thinking fondly of my heart is pounding yeah oh I am way overdue for a trip to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania your ancestral homelands yeah Jesse was a very knowledgeable about was very knowledgeable about the vehicle and was also impressed with how much I knew about it.

He told a few funny stories along the way. Oh, very foxy. Jesse even, I love this. We have a picture, but now we'll hold it up. Well, Jonathan can put it on the screen. Okay. Jesse even moved the confused cardinal. Now, that's an unusual term.

I thought he was injured, but confused. I like it better because I don't feel as torn. I did that because I don't know if it was injured or not. It was in the middle of the road. There was a bird in trouble. in the road. I didn't know if it was bad to say that they just moved her off to the side and let it die. No, they were standing. Oh, geez.

He was standing. Anyway, Jesse got out of the car. Stop the car and got and saved the bird. It took care of the bird. Yeah. He described the current car business. The current car business is crazy.

He said he'd never seen anything like it. He told me they normally stock over 300 new cars and they only had 68. Now, we return to the dealership and Jesse directed me to park inside the service area so we could get out of the rain. A very thoughtful guy, not only with birds, but with customers. There, he demonstrated more features like how to retract and put up the soft convertible top.

We walked back to the showroom, found Jesse's desk. He offered me a choice of water, coffee, tea. That's nice. I declined. He asked me if I'd be paying cash for financing. I said, I planned to finance, and he would be. responded by asking me how my credit was. I said it was excellent.

This is all standard operating procedure. Jesse asked me if I was 100% sure of this gladiator was the one I wanted, and if there was any other vehicle I'd like to see. I like that, too. The phraseology, typical, if you're in South Florida, they say, if I get the right price on that gladiator, will you take it home today? Yeah.

If you say, are you sure there's any other vehicles you want to consider, the customer will offer whether or not that's the one they want. Yeah, you know, so this is really unusual, and this is very, very friendly, and it's very customer-friendly, so enjoy the ride. This is going to be a fun shop. I said this was the one. He went on to gather my personal information and my driver's license and insurance card. Jesse asked me to give him about five minutes to get the numbers together. He was back in five minutes.

Look, I told you earlier, he's good at that. She's good at that. He presented a worksheet that had a finance grid in a cash price. break even breakdown on breakdown I'm sorry I was I was given a $500 discount in MSRP off MSRP he added 394 for a document prep so there's there's the hidden fee but you know $394 that's like a gift if you're in South Florida try $3,000 I mean we have dealers with thousands of dollars and hidden fees and 394 so it's it's still happened it's

It's a pandemic, but it's less of a problem in the Pittsburgh area. 251 for a license title and $5.00 for tire battery, and that's all standard operating procedure. And he's got 13 stores. My guess is it's standard in all the short, what do I say, shirky? Chorkey. Yeah. Stores in Pennsylvania. Out the door was $56,439.

Jesse said he could have. gap insurance for 899 if I chose I declined and I said I planned to put a lot of money down now also this case here where it's a one person looking at the finance and the products that's not to say they would have come at you again if you were going to go financing the car we don't know but it's pleasant to deal with one person I think this is what was going on as I studied the worksheet just he told me that everything I saw was exactly what the final paperwork would be. There wouldn't mean anything else at it, anticipating what Agent Lightning was thinking. He said there were

no, they were a no-Haggle dealership, and everyone liked it better that way, and customers and the salespeople. I can testify most do, but everybody doesn't. Some people still want to, you know. Yeah, most do that. Yeah. He asked me if I had any questions. I looked up from the worksheet and asked him what the deal was with a giant rubber ducky. I don't know, maybe he thought I wanted to buy the rubber ducky, I don't know. Jesse Laugh told me a story about a customer of theirs whose Jeep was vandalized. Rather than let herself be consumed with anger, and sometimes we do this, and it's not healthy. The customer began to leave rubber duckeys, I love this, on every jeep she saw.

Right. An act of love. I don't get it, but it's really sweet somehow. Yeah. It's either sweet or mentally a mental problem. I mean, I want to believe it. I want to believe that she's wandering around Pittsburgh. Well, they're scary crazy, and they're sweet crazy, and she's sweet crazy.

When the dealership found out about this, they honored her, this is the woman that had the issue, with a giant rubber ducky in the showroom. They also gave every customer a free rubber ducky. So if you're in Pittsburgh area and you go to the Shorky Chrysler Jeep Dodge dealership, you get a free rubber ducky. Do you have to buy the car to get the free ducky? If you read the next sentence, you'll find out. Yeah. Oh, okay. Jesse reached the drawer, pulled out a rubber ducky.

Am I a rubber ducky? I thanked him, and I said I'd be in debt. Maybe she has to return the rubber ducky. I don't know. She has a rubber ducky and she did not buy the jeep. She ain't coming back. I can tell you. Okay.

It must be something about folks from Pittsburgh. This was the nicest mystery shop ever. There was none of the expected car dealer bad behavior. And we never see salespeople as genuine as Jesse. Jim Shorke-Kresler did have a cute little dealer fee of $364. I mean, you know, coming from South Florida, $364 is cute. I did. It was adorable.

Yeah, you thank them. You thank somebody for a small dealer fee. Anyway, I think we should love a slide. That's Agent Lightning's opinion. And a great report, and Nancy was very emotionally taken with this whole experience. It's a culture thing in Pittsburgh. And we shopped other dealers in the area. And Pittsburgh is a, I don't know what the word is.

It's more of a trusting, transparent. It seems to be Pennsylvania. It seems to be a heartland kind of a thing. Yeah, and also Pittsburgh, that's over in the western part, right of the state, like southwestern. And out there near eastern Ohio, Youngstown, I've been out there, friends out there. It's different. People are nicer. I'll often hold the picture up anyway.

I know that Jonathan put it up. It's so cute. A little Robin Redbreast, and there's Jesse coming to help the little Robin Redbreast get out of the road. no. Kirk Farrell on YouTube says Pennsylvania regulates the document fees, the dealer fees. Maximum is

$394, but it is still negotiable, of course. I love callers. And they're less than the maximum. And they're right. 394. Okay, kudos. Not so much to Shorky crash the Jeep, but to the

state of Pennsylvania for putting some sanity on the So they're not, say, when the Attorney General or whatever the law says, maximum $394, then you know that's baked into the price because every dealer is a $394. And so that, kudos to Pennsylvania state government.

That's really good. Yeah, if we had a show in Pennsylvania, we'd just say, hey, just mentally add $394 at every single price, you say. Yeah, and it makes it easy. And if you made it $1,000, it wouldn't make any difference because at least in Pennsylvania, you're going to know where you stand. The danger in buying a car is every dealer is going to wham you to a different degree. Here, 394, 394, they're always going to get you for 394, so you buy the car, and you don't worry about it.

It's great that there are so many car dealers that have followed suit. And, excuse me, so many states, and there's a cap on the dealer fee, not as many as we would like, but they're following suit. Yeah, we have grades coming in, and on Facebook, I'm going to start with Linda's. She gives them an A, a beautiful A, and she loves it. Martha gives them an A, Best Mystery Shopping Report, South Florida Dealers, take note. Also, oh, I'm sorry, Linda gives them an A plus. Linda graded him twice.

And then we have Jonathan Wellington, a little tougher. Agent Lightning strikes again. She's amazing. I'll give this dealer a C. It would have been a higher grade, but that, The hidden fees killed it for him. Amory gives him an A-plus for the cool duck, getting keys quickly, 15-mile test drive and helping the bird. Good, friendly customer service, very refreshing.

Bob gives him an A. And Frank, oops, they're popping in left and right. Everybody was moved by this. Yeah, I was in tears. Yeah, Frank gives him an A-plus. Anne gives me a duck emoji. And Mark gives him an A too. So I'm going with the crowd.

Hey. Rick? I've got Andrew with an A-plus for Shorky. Ernesto A-plus, Mark, even with the dealer fee, I'll give them an A. Brian, I would grade them a B. I would never buy a Jeep. I would buy a Toyota because they last longer. Guy, I'm giving them an A.

Let's see, another channel. Nobody yet there. But for me, I'm going with the A-plus. I think they did a great job. Best partner, what do you say? do you say? Well, I can definitely say it's a different world. It's a different world in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Now, enough about me and this rubber ducky, I think that we should erect something at the dealership like a lightning bolt, something along that nature. Agent Lightning has done

such a magnificent job. Let's forget Shorky, but she has done a fantastic job at which She does. Her heart, her soul is in, and the passion, it's just an amazing job that she does. And let's get to Jim Shorky. His children, his children are there. What a warm and fuzzy feeling when you think about that. And, well, Earl won't like it. We're not a lot of talk about Earl Stewart, Toyota, but he too has three sons. and I want to tell you what, what a magnificent job they are doing in carrying on his reputation, his legacy, his honesty, his transparency, and in this day, in this world that we're in, I want to tell you what, we need it. So kudos to not only Jim Shorke, but Earl Stewart, Toyota, and I give them an A-plus.

well I think for my grade I don't think there's any way if we don't give them an a plus who we're going to give an a plus and that is arguably the best shopping report we've ever had we had the buy here pay here lot the wallace store and Stewart what's the name of it against too easy pay cars yeah easy pay and they did a remarkable job too they were close But in this case here, you couldn't get any better than Shorke, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge. And I think we should recognize the area and the state and start doing that more, too, because we are nationwide now. I think sometimes we get caught up in the fact that we're in South Florida and Dodd City, and we're scaring everybody. But we go to California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey.

Australia. Australia. We're all over. But so far, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has won our hearts. There's a punch up on the corner. And never mind. There you go. Hey, go Steelers.

Boy, oh, boy, oh, boy. I can't wait until football season. I still have faith in you guys. Listen, thank you for tuning in to Earl Stewart Toyota. Excuse me. I speak out you're just doing a commercial. Yeah, exactly. I could do a great one.

Thanks for tuning in. And we certainly enjoy your company. Stay tuned next week. Same time. same station, 8 a.m. We're looking for you. Have a great weekend.