Earl Stewart on Cars - 11.20.2021 - The Best of Earl on Cars - Mystery Shop Toyota of Vero Beach

Episode Date: November 20, 2021

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

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

He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting South Florida dealership. And now, on with the show. Good morning, everybody. Here we are again to help you buy your next car or lease it, maybe have it repaired or maintained. You've heard the recorded introduction, and here we are live and in color. change, we are going for, this is our fourth week with Josh Stewart or third week? It feels like the 59th straight week.

Anyway, my oldest son, Stu Stewart, who is our cyber spy master and in charge of mystery shops, we'll be back next week, and we've got Josh Stewart, an outstanding job, and he's monitoring our incognito, anonymous feedback. If you have anonymous input, it comes through, he monitors that. And, of course, we've got Rick Kearney, certified master diagnostic technician. He's with us, and he's here every week. He does an outstanding job helping you figure out the little, what would it be, unusual things about your car. Today, if you buy a car, if it's a newer car, there's a lot of unusual things about your car.

I've been in the business a long, long time, and because of the technology explosion in the digital age, the automa manufacturers are trying to stay on top of, you know, what's cool and what's on time. You know, you got Apple and you got everything going on the cars and technology. So if you bought a car a year ago, it's almost obsolete. I mean, I'm exaggerating. But seriously, if you bought a car five years ago, you might not think twice about checking out what's available. Not now because there's a shortage, but in a couple of months go out there and shop around. you'd be surprised what's happened in the past five years, especially with safety-related items.

So we'll answer all your questions, especially the, Rick Kearney here, he monitors YouTube. So if you are on smartphone or your PC now and you want to go to YouTube.com for slash Erlon Cars, you can chit-chat with Rick Kearney. And if you're a grease monkey or if you're a, what's another nicknames for people that like cars? Morons? Morons. Okay, if you're a moron? Gearhead. Gearhead. That's what I was looking for.

So if you're a gearhead and you have an interest in cars, YouTube, go to YouTube.com, porflash, your own cars. Rick is looking at his laptop as we speak, and they'll come popping through on YouTube. Of course, we have a regular old-fashioned text line,

and that is 772 4976530. It's funny how we don't get very many text, We get actually more anonymous feedbacks, but if you're a texter like I am, I mean, I try not to make loan calls these days. I try to make, do text because they're succinct to the point in case you get a hold of somebody that likes to chit-chat a lot. It limits the amount of chit-chat. And if you're busy, text is a great way to go. So text number, if you want to write it down, might not have a question or comment now.

you might later 772 4976530 and of course the old-fashioned telephone [phone] and that line goes through

and Nancy Stewart my co-host and one of the original founders of this show 20 years ago she is monitoring the phone calls and we prioritize your phone calls what if phone calls might be old-fashioned

but they're personal. And we know you when you're on the phone. We know your voice. We know your attitude. We know your... It's just a whole lot more that you get on the phone call. So, this is talk radio.

So, hey, how can we have a talk radio show without the phone? 877-960-9960. I think we only got three or four phone lines, so what we do as soon as one pops up on Nancy's laptop, she waves at us, tells me to shut up. I have a tendency to run on at the mouth, and we say, we have a phone call.

Oh, yeah, I want to mention this, too, something a little different. If you're looking at us on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter, or whatever you're watching it on, we're all wearing masks this morning. And we didn't wear masks for a while. Of course, we were, originally we wore masks, then we stopped wearing mask, and now we're back wearing masks. The reason being, if you're listening out of the area of Florida, is one of the the epicenters of the COVID explosion. A Palm Beach County happens to be an epicenter within an epicenter, and we're having an explosion of COVID in Palm Beach County. And so we thought in an

abundance of caution, as the attorneys like to say, we decided we would wear our mask in the studio. And it's an annoyance, but is something that is beneficial to our health in each other's go off. And so we do it anyway. So if I'm a little muffled and you can't see my beautiful face or Nancy's or Rick's or Josh's face, we'll be back with a mask off. I think things are going to rectify in the next few weeks and we'll be back barefaced. You look good in your mask though. Yeah. And at any rate, I want to introduce Nancy Stewart. She is, I said earlier my co-host. And you're not missing anything with my mask on, you're missing a lot because she's my beautiful wife. And she is here. You must have done something bad this morning.

She's here for a lot of reasons, but one of her primary reasons is the fact that she is a strong female advocate. And she is a spokesperson for a lot of the women in the audience. And she's done an outstanding job over the many, many years of building up our female listenership, and I'll turn the mic over to her, and she's going to tell you about a special offer. We do have a special offer, and it is for the ladies' first two new lady callers. You can win yourself $50 this morning. First two new lady callers. I have an idea.

Do you want to talk to me about cordless tire inflators? Who does it? Is that exciting? Hold yourself back, Josh. Breaking news. Hey, I think that Josh deserves a purple heart. Absolutely. We're going to take a vote.

Okay, as I said, ladies, the first two new lady callers, you win yourself $50. You always have something important to say. And we've got to keep ourselves connected, and we have to keep, there's such power in numbers. So ladies, let's stick together. Let's build this platform together and give me a call at 877-960-99-60. And I was being a little facetious earlier, but we can't talk about anything, anything at all, whether it's cordless, you know, in laders or whatever, or your recent car purchase. So, and you can also text us, as Earl said, 772-497-6530.

Don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. Absolutely. And speaking of the ladies, we are going to go right to the telephone, and Geraldine has called before, but she is a lady caller from Stewart. Good morning. How are you, Geraldine? Good morning. I have a question for Rick this morning.

Okay. Okay. I have a 2020 corolla, and on August the 6th, I took it in for routine maintenance, at which time they rotated the tires. The first time I drove it or went to drive it after this was done, I now hear a thumping noise every time the tires rotate. What do you think is wrong? One of two things.

Either you've got a loose wheel. or there's something in the tire, like a nail or a big rock or something stuck in the tire. I would immediately get that checked out by a mechanic very, very quickly. Either one of those, if it's just a rock stuck in the tread, that could just be pop it out and you're done. But it could be a large nail or something. I've seen that happen to make a horrible noise, but if it's a loose wheel, you definitely want that taken care of. Would it be safe to drive it back to the dealership? Or should it be towed?

I wouldn't drive it. No, I think it's probably a 99 out of 100 chances. It's not that, but that one chance you don't want to take and you don't want to have a wheel coming off on 995. So you should have the car towed. Your insurance might cover that. I'm not sure about that. Possibility, but I guarantee that if it's the dealership,

if they left the wheel loose, then they should have better cover. that though. Probably not, but just be careful. Anything safety-wise, especially with tires, wheels, you don't want to take any chances. Geraldine, did you have your car serviced recently? Yes, it was routine, it was the routine regular maintenance. Is that when the rotate the time? Because it's still under warranty. Is that when the problem started? The first time I went to drive it after I had that done, it started doing this. So I haven't driven it because I didn't know what was wrong with it. Yeah, that's a good idea.

Those tires are unbelievable. You don't want to cause any more damage than possibly. I would have to move back to the dealership where the service was done. Absolutely. Yeah, definitely. Geraldine? Okay. Thank you very much for the information. Oh, you're quite welcome.

I was very happy to take your call this morning. I was a first-time call or we get the contact information, right? Geraldine is called before, but Geraldine, spread the word that I'm looking for two new lady callers this morning, and they can win themselves $50. Thank you for supporting us. Okay. Thank you for the information. You're welcome. Have a good day.

Thank you. Bye. Ladies and gentlemen, don't forget that your anonymous feedback.com, and we have a whole lot to get to, so I'll give it back to you. recovering car dealer? Yeah, absolutely. You're anonymous feedback.com. We've already got some of those piling up. Now let's shoot the mic over to Josh Stewart, who is our

cybermaster now and substituting for Stu Stewart, my son, both sons of mine, and both in the business and told transparently we have a dealership. And this is not an infomercial and we're not trying to sell your cars. We're trying to sell you,

well, we're trying to give you information. We're trying to give you information. Josh, if you've got some text, anonymous feedback, so you'd like to make any comments about our mystery shopping report? Go to it. I am excited to get to the mystery shopping report, but we have a little backlog of anonymous feedback, so why don't I just hit the ground run in and start with those.

All right, this one is from last week after the last week's show. Hello, Earl. I've been dealing with a 2021 RAM-2500 repair issue. I purchased a truck back in March, and at 2,600 miles, I started having 8,000. engine issues. Long story short, I'm now almost two months without a truck. The dealer said they could not offer me a loaner, and Ram has now decided they will buy back this truck. After talking with a company called FCA Stalantist, in parentheses, by far the worst company

I've ever worked with. Today they talked about negotiating compensation of the buyback. I have never had a deal with a buyback and looking for some insight. Any help with this mess will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time. Signed Glenn. a new truck that he bought? He was a brand new 21, and he bought it less than five months ago. Yeah. Boy, that's a heck of a problem. I'm really shocked, Rick. Are there lawyers who specialize in assisting folks and stuff like this? Because it seems like you've got one man going up against Fiat Chrysler Corporation. It seems like there should be a lawyer, you know, some legal assistance out there, somebody to be in this guy's corner.

He just sounds like he does he get an advocate. Rick, we have too many lawyers that you probably haven't realized that. No, I realize that. I mean, there's, there's a 25 or 30 lawyers that would love to jump on something like this. But it's an awful situation. Boy, can you imagine your truck sitting in front of your house? You just bought it just a few months ago. Would they say just do, in March?

In March, yeah. Less than 3,000 miles they have on it. Jeez. Okay, I'd like to give some advice to write. exactly what you just told us to Chrysler Corporation, also write the dealership managers, owner preferably, and make it certified mail, or you can email or, you know, certified letters are really good, they're a lot of trouble,

and email will suffice. But be, go into excruciating detail about exactly what happened, because the way you stated, Chrysler is, violation of your warranty and the dealer is in violation of your contractual agreement you bought a car. I can think of a million legal precedence as to why there would be in serious trouble. My guess is that you don't have to hire a lawyer once you let the owner or the general manager of the dealership and Chrysler Corporation know exactly what happened. But it can be verbal. It's got to be in writing. Once that letter hits Chrysler, once that letter hits the dealer's

desk, then your next step would be the Department of Motor Vehicles and probably the state attorney general's office, but you've got a lemon law, if nothing else. And it's just they have no legal case. But to go out there and start hiring lawyers, you'll allowably get one that's going to start charging you, and you don't want that to happen. So try what I suggested. Formalize your complaint in riding, Chrysler, and the dealership. And then if that doesn't work, send us another feedback or call us or texts us or whatever. I think he might be there because they said they agreed to buy back the truck, but now they're negotiating with them. To me, what's the negotiation about? You have to make this man whole. Whatever he paid for the vehicle, including sales tax and everything

else, he should get a check for you. My guess is there's nothing in writing at this point, and you'd be surprised how things change when you put something in writing. You go to a court and you've heard hearsay, he said, she said, but when you have an email that came from a complaining customer to Chrysler or to the dealer, that becomes evidence. Exhibit A, Exhibit B, exhibit C. You've got to get some exhibit A's, B's, and C. The nice thing about having exhibit A, B, and C is you never probably going to have to use them, but they know you got them and lawyers just jump on the case like that. But I have a feeling everything is verbal now. Yeah, you got to go on the record.

If you have a conversation, follow up with an email or a certified letter. I agree, Josh. Create a paper trail for sure. And what Rick said, we all said, what a situation to feel so alone. But stay in touch with us, please, and let us know where this went. Our phone number is 877-960-9960. And, of course, you can text us at 772-497-6530, and we're going to go. back to Josh. He's got a whole lot to share with us. Yeah, and shame on me for for ignoring

Anne Marie's inaugural kickoff text. Oh, good morning, Ann Marie. It just wouldn't be a Saturday morning without this. No, definitely. And Anne Marie writes, good morning. Stop and go driving dramatically lowers the mileage in a conventional internal combustion vehicle. I'll get better mileage driving to Jacksonville if I take I-95 than if I take US one. She has three questions. One, the stop and go driving also impair mileage or range of an electric vehicle? Two, what impairs or limits the range of an electric vehicle? And three, when do you think the manufacturers will get an electric battery with a range just suitable enough for long-haul truckers? Thanks. P.S., I hope you finally received your Tesla. Sorry about your love. I agree with you, Henry.

Yeah, Rick has explained that. The electric hybrids and the electric cars, are really good for a stop and go, Rick. You can't explain that better than I can, Rick. Well, it's the way the hybrid operates, because a hybrid car, when you're accelerating, it'll use the gasoline engine to create electricity to push you up there. But once you get cruising,

it can use just the barest amount of electricity needed to keep you there. And as soon as you let off the accelerator, and the car starts to coast, it actually uses the spinning wheels to turn those motors into generators, and regenerate electricity back into the battery. And that's why that stop and go is perfect for maximizing fuel economy.

On the highway, however, where you're constantly traveling along at a steady rate of speed, it's got to constantly run the gasoline engine to create electricity to keep the car going. So that's why they're opposite. Yeah, and the Tesla that I've ordered that I'll probably never receive. Are you listening to Elon? Business must be awfully good for Elon Musk because he doesn't care about my Tesla. Anyway, it was very interesting. A lot of people never used a brake in their Tesla.

They take their foot off the accelerator and automatically brakes. You get a brake to a stop, break to a stop. Will you promise me that you'll use the brakes when you finally get yours? Well, actually, even when you're using the brakes, when you first step on it, instead of actually pushing mechanical pieces together to slow the car, we all remember when the blue roofs were here and everybody had a generator running, when you plugged in your refrigerator on your generator you could hear it bogged down and that's called the electromotive drag and that's what these cars use is they actually make the generators produce more electricity and that drag slows the

car so if you drive an electric car or a hybrid if you drive it really perfectly careful with the brakes you could almost make the brakes last the life of the car almost I mean it's I've seen Priuses with a hundred 120,000 miles, and the original factory pads are still in good shape. A wise man once said drive like there's an egg between your foot and the pedal. Do you know who that man was, Rick? I think I might have heard of hell once and twice. And back to Ann Marie's question about how long it will it take before they build an electric car that has a acceptable range.

And I think they already have my Tesla coming in will have a range over, I think 400 miles, 450 miles. And I rarely have to worry about that amount of mileage, no matter where I drive. I mean, I go to Miami and back. I can go to almost Orlando and back. That's almost as much as a tank of gas get you. Yeah, and I would charge you in the garage. So you charge it overnight, automatically, don't even think about it. And the car is there, the electric cars now for most people.

And as far as truckers, you mentioned truckers, Amory specifically, I don't think that's going to be a problem. The truckers are natural for all-electric, and a lot of new truck companies are jumping and manufacturing. And that is because the size of the battery is not a problem in the truck. If you've got a tractor-trailer and you've got these giant, way too big, in my opinion, these trucks on the road, you can put a battery in there that even in spite of the size of the truck proportionally is much greater power per whatever you want to call than a car. Great point. You could probably go, and the trucks you're building today, I'm going to say, I'm pulling the number out of the air,

a thousand miles or more without having to recharge. I don't doubt it. And the other big advantage is these trucks with their heavy loads, the electric motors can get that load moving much easier. Yeah. I mean, that's why locomotives. Use electric motors. Lots of torque with those electric motors.

As I sit here and I think back of my childhood, well, not childhood. maybe 20-some years old. Young adulthood. Learning how to drive. And, yeah, isn't that amazing? I didn't learn how to drive until I'm 20-some years old. But I can still hear my dad saying,

and to your conversation, you know, and about the gas and the break and how it's utilized today, my dad would say, you're burning gas. Get off that break. Stop and go, stop and go. You're burning gas. I think someone here had a different time.

a teacher yeah 20 21st century here we are well and there's a second part to her question and I think this will be good for Rick what will impair or limit the range of an all-electric vehicle I have a guess but I want the expert to answer really it's going to be the availability of charging stations on right now there are stories of people that trying to find a charging station that's compatible with their particular electric vehicle which that obviously is going to change very quickly because they'll come out with a universal coupler. Yeah, standardize it.

But certain areas of the nation, when you go to them, you're going to have a harder time. Like, say, if you want to go to Yellowstone Park and wander through there for a couple of days, finding charging stations in Yellowstone might be a little trickier. What about weather? Do you think really hot or cold climates might affect the battery range? Cold climate, I think, is going to be the bigger issue. And even then for the continental U.S., I don't think you'll see that big an issue. If you lived in Alaska, now you've got another story, but continental U.S., I don't think you're going to see that massive a change in the cold affecting

it, especially when you consider Europe, so much of Europe, their climate is so much colder for the northern Europe, and yet electric cars are booming over there. Yeah, Scandinavian. And, Rick, to your point about charging stations and the cold and the heat, The article that I was reading about the cold in Michigan really affected a lot of the charging stations. So I guess that's something that they're going to have to fine-tune. Right, but it's a learning thing as you go along. I mean, gas stations didn't just pop up in the United States like mushrooms in the early 1900s.

It took some time before they were able to get them out there and get the technology and all the pumps and everything. Yeah. We don't want to leave the impression that charging. stations are a problem because almost all the cars, electric cars on the road, are Tesla's. And Tesla doesn't have a charging problem. So I suppose when Chevrolet Bolt and some of the other, they're minuscule in terms of volume of cars on the road. So if you buy a Tesla, you don't have a charging problem.

You go anywhere in the United States and the car will lead you to the next charging station. They have the rapid chargers. They have the chargers in your garages. So one of the reasons that people are buying Teslas as opposed to other electric, other than the superiority of the quality and of the range, is a charging ability. And if you buy, as you say, if you buy an off-brand electric car, like I believe Volvo has one now, every different manufacturer has a different charger. and it's kind of like the old days

when nobody, the industry never consolidated and cooperated. Like VHS and beta tapes. Yeah, exactly. But they will. They'll be forced into finding the universal standard. Maybe they won't. I mean, who's to tell Elon Musk

that he has to change his charger? If he's got 90% of the electric cars on the road and he's got his charger, he'll say, if you want to use my charger, I'll let you, but you're going to pay me royalties for my charger. Absolutely. He more likely will simply say, okay, guess what? Here's an adapter that'll let you use my charger.

By the way, it's going to cost you $2,000. Tell it to you. The man's a genius. I was just going to say a genius, you know. He's got a plan. He just has that long-term vision. He's amazing. Give me a call.

Give us a call. I didn't get a chance this morning to let everyone know how thankful we are that you join us every Saturday morning you definitely are an important part of the show but give us a call anything we'll discuss anything how do you feel about Elon

how do you feel about these charging stations ladies you're a majority in the buying market so give me give us a call and when you're sell $50 callers, first two new lady callers. That's 877-9-60-99-60. Josh has a whole lot. He has to share with us. Yeah, and thank you, Anne-Marie, for what a great conversation starter that was. Yeah.

And on this topic, here's another anonymous feedback. Breaking news. Electric vehicle registrations in the U.S. have more than doubled since last year. That sounds amazing. Tesla is number one, of course, with Chevy and Ford far behind. Earl, is Toyota going to be able to be able to play catch-up or are they missing the boat? They kind of miss the boat, but yes, they can play catch-up because they've got all the money in the world. And Toyota is, I guess along with Volkswagen, has got enough money to last a long long time. So when you got that much money, you can play catch-up and they will. But they're going to be an Elon Musk dust for a while.

Yeah, it's a shame. You know, they've always been on the cutting edge. on the cutting edge. They were the first to come out with the hybrids to shame they're behind the eight ball on the all-electric. Really surprised. I have YouTube here. Yeah, we do. Justin says, good morning. He says, if you want a 21-4 runner, would you do an oil change at 1,000 miles to get out any break-in metal particles or is this outdated? I know the manual says 10,000 miles and he says, when you change most oil at 10,000 miles, is it black or is it still a amber honey colored most of the time.

The old break-in rules on cars have gone away because the companies that make the engines now actually do the break-in when they build the engine. They set them up on a dynamometer basically and run that engine and clean it out fresh oil.

So no, you don't need to change the oil at 1,000 miles anymore. That's outdated. I go right to 10,000 miles and follow the owner's manual. with that. And yes, when we change oil at 10,000, it comes out quite black. Now, the reason for this is that it's picking up all the carbon and dirt from the engine, keeping it suspended. The larger particles are trapped by the oil filter, which, of course, gets changed out, and all that dirty

oil gets flushed out with the oil change, and fresh new oil goes in. I'd be more suspicious of seeing clean oil come out of a car at 10,000 miles than to see a nice, dark, dark, and black oil. Are you being a facieous or is that? No, I'd be wondering what's going on. If I'd pull a drain plug on a car with 10,000 miles and that oil comes out clear, crystal colored. Have you ever seen it? I have. Really? On cars where they've got an engine problem and somebody keeps putting

oil in or something happened and the oil all came out and they dumped all fresh oil in. That's why I love you, Rick. I always learned something from Rick. Really cool. I had no idea. You know, if I changed my oil on 10,000 miles and it was clean, I'd say, boy, that's really cool. I'm lucky. Maybe I don't have to change it for 20. Rick is saying, you probably have a problem. I'd be scared.

I'd be wondering who did what to that engine. Well, you heard right here, ladies and gentlemen, that's all this free information. That's what's fantastic. Give us a call. Join in the conversation at 877-9-60-9960, where you can text us at 772-496. 67, 6530, and we have the anonymous feedback that you can take advantage of. We also have Earl's vigilantes, which you can go to Earl and cars and get all that information. We're looking for volunteers for the Earl's vigilantes, and I think I covered it all.

Okay. I think you need to choose between the hat or the mask. We can't do both. I'm ringless. I got my hearing it. I got my mask. Only so many accessories we can have at once. I just had a great idea. I'm an inventor at heart. A mask that doubles as a hat. So when you need the mask, you wear it. And when you go outside, you don't need it. You slip it up on top of your head. Make it fashionable.

Yeah, an entire head covering. Okay. If anybody takes that, I want a piece of the action. Remember, you got to put it in writing. Excuse me, Josh. Our phone line's just. lit up and we have a call from Hope Sound and it's Rick. Oh, Rick's on the studio.

Hey, good morning, Rick. Welcome. Hey, good morning. How are you guys doing? We're great. Thank you for calling. Yeah, good. I like to show a lot. Thank you. I was just wondering if you can handle a question about a radio. Oh, Rick can answer anything. Oh, you're Rick.

I'm getting silly. I just bought a 2004 Cadillac CTS, and I bought her off my mom, I bought her off my mom and wins up by Dayton. She gets all the A.M. stations, you know? I bring it down here, and I can't get an A.m. station to come in on it. Is there anything that I'm doing wrong or what? AM stations in South Florida are almost a rarity like Hens Teeth. There's still a few of them down around Miami area going, but FM is really the majority. And now, of course, everybody's going to XM and satellite.

Are you getting FM stations in normally, or just see, is beautiful? And the car I just got rid of was a mercury Grand Marquis 2001. Had no problem with that I won't mention the main station, I guess. Came in beautiful. I had a thought, and I'm going to ask, Rick, I'm going to ask this to Rick for you. Many years ago, when we had older cars and older technology, we had post antennas, that's a kind you see, you stick up on the car.

The post antennas were able to receive AM radio signals better, whereas the windshield antennas that we have now were more directional. So my question for Rick is if he were to put, if Rick were to put a post antenna on his car, would it improve his receptionability problem with AM stations? That's certainly possible, yeah. Now, I don't know about the O4 Cadillac, but there is a possibility that it may actually have dual antennas. I know we used to have back in the late 90s, they had an antenna for, for FM and a separate antenna for AM, and the cables actually ran different, there's a possibility

maybe that AM antenna is not working properly. It may not be connected properly in the radio. Might have popped loose or something. So yeah, if you're not getting AM stations that another car is able to get right there, then I would have that antenna checked on the back of it. See if it's connected properly. Could they go into a dealership or go into any of repair site, say I want to buy a post antenna?

You could get those just about any auto parts store. Now wiring it in is a whole other story and getting it mounted. Yeah, of course. How about having the dealership? See, my antenna's on the back windshield. Right.

So, you think somehow they could just check that? I think I believe both of us you know, AMFs in that antenna is it? Yes. Do you have window tenting? No, I don't

Okay, because I have seen cases where window tint can cause reception issues, especially on AM. Right, it even says that in the book, too, but it tells you to make sure you don't scrub the backwinds you'll screw up the antenna either, you know, but you can help the time. You could get a post-antana and not install it, just connect it, and then you could maybe, you know, the suction cup or just do something temporary, or have somebody hold it off the window for you.

You can even like a magnetic mount, like they'll see the antenna is going back in the 70s. And then I see, back in the day, what I found, if my post antenna broke or I didn't have it up far enough, I could be going east and west, I couldn't get the station, but when my right hand turn, I would be able to get the station fine. So that's the reason when the post is up in the air, it doesn't make any difference which direction.

direction you're going. But if you have a windshield antenna, if you're going east, then you're not going to get the signal of it's coming out of the south. So worth a try, I think. How about that aluminum foil? Remember those days? Yeah, with the rabbit ears? Yeah, I had that on my car. Otherwise, I would have a... I remember the base, everybody that's ripping your antennas off the call. Yeah. Yeah, otherwise, I would have it checked out by one of the local audio shops.

They should be able to use a meter to test that antenna array in the back window to make sure there's no brakes in the connections on it. They can check that, huh? Yep. All right. You wouldn't get out up for another question, right? Sure. Go for it.

Okay. I just got rid of my Mercury Marquis 2001. And about two months before I sold, I just sold it a couple days ago. But a couple of months ago, it started pulling a little bit to the left. I don't know for me to worry about too much, but... And then, once one day, it just started kind of rocking back and forth a little bit. So I had this guy that knows quite a bit about cars. He's not a license or can he, but that's what he works on, you know, at home.

And he had won his hand over the left tire and told me, oh, it's the car. And I'm like, okay, so I put the spare arm. and it took care of that pretty much wasn't pulling anymore or anything so about a week later I'm driving back home from about a mile away and I guess it started while I'm getting left and right and so I went and got two new tires put on on the front took care of it beautiful I know pro wasn't pulling anymore it wasn't wobble and it wasn't bouncing, no problem. I sold it to my steps on him while.

He had to drive about 40 miles home, no problem. They take it out the next day, and all of a sudden he's saying it's up wobbling a little bit again, and he can't figure it out. He's got any idea what that might be. That sounds to me like one of the suspension components, possibly a ball joint, as things feed up. He just checked the ball joint. He said they look like they're almost brand new. Okay.

Okay. Possibility maybe of a tie rod end, one of the steering tie rod ends. Any suspension component that, especially, you know, as things heat up and they expand and contract with the temperature changes, that can cause things to start get a little extra free play and start to move a little bit. But I would have the suspension checked out, the suspension and steering check by a good mechanic. and make sure that everything is nice and tight and solid there. It sounds like something is, as they're driving and it's heating up, something's starting to expand a little bit,

and it's starting to cause another part to move, and that's your free play in there. Okay. You don't want you drive it, the hotter it'll get, huh? Basically. All right, well, thanks a lot, Rick. You guys have a good one, huh? Well, thank you, Rick.

You too, Rick. Thanks for tuning in. Have a great weekend. 877960 or you can text us at 772-497-60. We're going to go back to Josh, and he's got a lot to share with us. All right, Rick, you're on deck. Here we go. What is the best way to clean wheel studs and lubricate them

so the wheel and nut can tread easily onto the stud. I know I can wire brush the studs, but I'm unsure of what type of lubricant to use. Is WD40 okay? Nope. Nope. What I would use is a chemical available at any auto shop called anti-sease. Anti-sease. And it's usually either silver or copper-colored.

It comes in a jar and it's like paste. Anti-C-C-E-E-I-Z-E. Okay. With a mask on, it's hard. Yeah, and it's going to be in a little plastic jar, either silver or copper-colored. And there will be a brush in the cap. and you want to put just the tiniest, tiniest little bit on those threads after you clean them up with a wire brush. And even after you clean them, if the lug nut doesn't want to go in nice and smooth,

you should get what's called a tap or a dye and run it down over the threads of the lug stud. And the tap will go inside the lug nut and clean it up and cleans those threads up. So if there's any little burrs that have started to form, it'll make those threads to move nice and smooth. I thought WD40 did everything. Exactly. Yeah, but it can be washed off of those lugs studs because they're right out in the environment. So it might work initially, but you're down the road is going to not be the solution for you. You know, when I started using so much of the WD40, like you just said, I started using some Houdini.

There's so many sprays out there, it's unbelievable. But this here was a silicone, and I really felt bad that I wasn't using my WD40. You're betraying WD40. My WD. All the do-it-yourself or needs is some duct tape and WD-40, and you can fix anything. There you go. You can put a rick out of business. Don't forget aluminum foil.

Is that to protect from the alien signals going to your brain? All right. Thank you very much. I think I handled that question. All right. I got one from Jim. Jim here. I have a 2010 Prius with 198,000

miles. Way to go, Jim. Every once in a while, the radio comes on by itself scares the life out of me. Sounds like a short, is it something that could cause a fire? The radio coming on spontaneously. I haven't heard that one. There's definitely a short somewhere. The 2010 Prius had steering wheel controls that could activate the radio. So turning the wheel, if there's an issue in what's called the spiral cable that is in there and lets those wires move in a nice circle back and forth when you're turning the wheel back and forth, that could cause an issue or it could be something in the radio itself. I would want to get that checked out. I'd be a little nervous about that one because yes, there's a possibility. Yeah, but it's not

going to cause a fire, isn't it? Well, not necessarily a fire, but it could start to burn some of the electrical wiring. So if you start to smell anything that smells a little bit like sulfurous or like burned toast, that's the time to be very concerned. Got it. Very good answer there. Okay. All right. Another one just popped in as I was reading that one. Please discuss the impact of an accident or damage repairs on the car's value when reported on Carfax and the probability of getting reimbursed for diminished value if someone else was responsible for the accident. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. It really depends on the on the on the car. Obviously I think a later model higher end car with a bad Carfax the the dollar amount will be a greater impact. And

Today's market with a low supply, high demand, and car prices used and new, you know, used car prices have come down a little bit, but not much. And I'd be nervous if I had a car and I had it totaled in an accident. I'd be nervous about accepting my insurance company's first offer because they might be honest and they might be trying to take care of you, but the market is so volatile, I'd want to get a double check can be sure that I was getting adequate replacement for the car. Well, in this case, he's asking about not a total loss, but just diminished value from the accident. Yeah, demandage value, yeah, exactly, yeah.

So if he's not at fault in the accident, can he sue the at-fault party's insurance carrier for diminished value because he's driving a car to work less now, even when it's fixed perfectly? That's a good question. Yeah, I think he can. And it's a little known fact of life that you have that diminished value when you have an accident. They trade that car in. Typically, it's going to cost you around $2,000 even though you have a perfect repair job. Is it worth calling an attorney?

Yeah, you want to call any time you call any attorney, the first thing to ask him is, can I discuss the issue with you without any charge? You know, 99% of the time they'll hang up on you. they'll say yes, and then they will hear what the case is, and then you say, will you take that on contingency, and then you ask them what that contingency percentage is, contingencies typically vary from maybe as low as 30 percent to as high as 50, and if you get a 30 or 40 percent contingency with the other thing you want to have an attorney do is agree to cover the cost, because the advertisement you see on TV now say that, you know, we don't get anything

unless you get something, what they're saying is we don't get anything except you have to pay us for our costs. So to me, that's something. And they're saying we're not really getting anything because it's money out of their pocket. So better money out of their pocket than your pocket. So the deal you want to strike whatever attorney is, you pay my costs, I pay you on contingency, and you've got a deal. Otherwise, I'll find an attorney will take the deal. If you have a good case, there'll be three or four guys out there want to take the deal.

Jumping right on that. We're going to go back to the phones where Marty's waiting. He's calling from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Marty. Hi, how are you? Welcome back. Morning. Hi.

I just have a question. Now that they're getting rid of the, or I should say the last year for the Avalon is the 22 model. On my Camry, XLE, it has every option that doesn't have a memory seat. Do you think that they will put a memory seat finally on a Camry, once they're through with the Avalon. I always felt they said if you really want a memory seat, you had to buy an Avalon, and also you had to buy the Avalon Limited to get the memory seat.

So do you think that they will pull out a memory seat finally in a Camry? That's a great question. It's a feature that a lot of people love, especially when they have more than one driver in the home. Your guess is as good as mine. Unfortunately, you won't see any change until at least 2023. The 2022s are already coming out, so that change hasn't been made yet, so we'll keep our fingers crossed. Yeah, I know Honda Chords and Hyundai Sonatas, they've had memory seats in there, so Toyota has just been stubborn, in my opinion.

Yeah. They wanted you to buy the more expensive car. I agree. They've been stingy with that feature, so let's hope they see the air of their ways and the wisdom of putting a memory. in the Camry. You think I should call Mr. Toyota? It couldn't hurt. And we can, every once in a while, Toyota ask us for some feedback on products.

You'd be surprised. When you go to the top guy, you'd be surprised. Sometimes, in fact, usually they won't respond, but somebody will. And Ahkio, Toyota, T-O-Y-O-D-A, you could probably get his email address. In fact, I could probably get that for you. And you send an email to the V-T-T-T-T-T-O-D-A. it to the the top guy, it's always interesting. You always get a response,

whether it's General Motors or Apple, or if you go to the top guy, they won't answer you, but they'll give it to somebody who really has some power and some, you might get what you're asking for, you never know. You know, when we, Earl and I met Akeo, and

I have his business card sitting on my desk, and every time there's a problem, I say, gee, what would Aki-O-Doo. But I'm not sure. And the funny part is, on the Toyota Forum, about a year, year and a half ago, somebody put down the sales of Avalon's compared to Camry's and everything. And I wrote in saying that I'm sure they're going to do away with Avalon's eventually. And this other guy wrote back and said, no, they'll never get rid of Avalon.

But, you know, and I used to buy Avalon's. I bought three Avalon before I switched back to Camry's, because the only feature that I was getting was the memory seat for $10,000. I guess I could fix it myself for $10,000. Well, Marty, my advice to you is find something with a memory seed and take real good care of it because cars are a vanishing species. I mean, they're, you know, SUVs and are taken over, and the sedan, eventually, they'll be, if they exist, which they may, it'll be just in an eco-co, kind of, you know, people that are trying to build a very, very low-price vehicle, but, you know, I don't, I, I love cars, I drive a sedan, and what I hate the fact I can't see, and again, I'm jealous for these guys and the big trucks and the big vans, and the big SUVs, they can see, and I can't see over them.

Here's a stoplight. You can't see the stoplight if you're behind the SUV. So it's going to be a matter of self-defense after a while. You'll have to have an SUV before you can get your visibility back. And you can get the memory seat in the SUV. Did you get your Tesla? You had to bring that up, didn't you? Every morning I look at my smartphone, I look at Tesla.com,

And they go down. And they keep moving the date up. I mean, it's between now, what is today? Now it's between the 14th and the 18th. And then tomorrow. Let me ask you to us. Yeah. Does that test might have a memory seat?

Probably. Marty, Marty. I don't know that. All right. Oh, geez. All right. Have a good weekend. Thanks, Marty.

Thanks for calling in. Okay. Bye. Thank you for calling in. Rick? I have a YouTube comment that I want to say right now from Regina. She says, good morning, and thank you for the $50 check, Nancy. I enjoy watching and listening to your show.

Oh, thank you. She was from last week. I remember her. She was. Yeah, I remembered Regina. Thanks, Regina. And that is going to help me build this platform here because there is power in numbers, and we've got to stay connected.

So thank you for that, Regina. Now, Regina is one of our past lady callers, and she won $50 because she was a first-time caller. So take advantage of that today, ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers. And remember, we are a majority in this crazy buying market that we're going through right now. You must have a story you can share with us. 877-960-99-60 or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30 we have a great mystery shopping report coming up speaking of females and she is our mystery shopping person lady and she does a fantastic job and she is not to be trifled with no I like her style yeah she's a tough one I have a some more

feedback here let's do it all right did you guys read about the highway in Germany where trucks driving in the far right lane can hook to an overhead line and go for diesel to electric power like a street car amazing but I think way too impractical here okay I didn't understand how they did it what they apparently there must be some overhead power lines in the right lane of German of some German highways and the the long-haul truckers they can hook up to the they can go from a diesel truck and hook to the overhead power line to draw power from and turn off the diesel engine like the old street cars with the overhead

power cable why would it only be diesel one with there well i think that's just the primary diesel hybrid truck yeah so it's got you got to have a hybrid truck that has electrical capabilities yeah interesting amazing how about electric how about a gasoline hybrid truck that's a good that would work yeah that's reason i'd ask the question yeah there's that yeah well most of the trucks are diesel here right right Yeah, most of, yeah. Most, for hybrids here, pickup trucks, of course, are going to be gasoline hybrids, but most of the bigger trucks are all diesel hybrid. Yeah, like the big Mac trucks and stuff like that.

Those are mostly diesel. I believe they still have natural gas trucks, I think. I mean, run on gas? A few, a few. Yeah, they've been moving away from those. I've seen a lot of buses that say powered by natural gas. Yep. Okay.

Excuse me, Josh. We have to go back to the phones where John's waiting. John is a regular caller of hours from Palm City. Good morning, John. Good morning to everyone. Speaking of European, I read where the diesel vehicles are reduced by almost half since the emission scandal that was first noted in United States. But finally, the European Union caught up with the German manufacturers at the beginning

of July, and they find Volkswagen $500 million, $500 million. dollars, $590, and BMW 442 million. They didn't, Dame LeBenz, they didn't find them anything. It was supposed to find them, but they were the whistleblower that turned the other two in. So finally, it took them a long time. We did in the United States early. That was over $20 billion in fines for them. But definitely and positively, whether it's people are waiting for the electric vehicle,

but the sales of diesels are way, way lower than what they were a few years ago. And my question to Rick is, I have a friend that wants to buy, he can get a pretty good deal on a used Mercedes with a diesel engine in it.

I told him, don't go near it, mainly because it's out of warranty. What's Rick's opinion of anybody buying a use a passenger truck or car with a diesel in it? I think if you can find the maintenance history and it shows that the vehicle was properly maintained, go for it. Okay, that answers that question.

John, I bet you're thinking about the Oldsmobile diesel when General Motors first came out with the diesel. And you're old enough to remember that. And it almost put Oldsmobile out of business. General Motors Diesel when they came out with it was just the people. a piece of junk. And they were, they would blow, the engines were blowing up faster than they could build the cars. And we had a dealership in Palm Beach County, Clark Oldsmobile, going way back. And they were the number one diesel seller of Oldsmobiles, in fact, diesels in the country, almost put them out of business. Here's the funny thing, and I, you know,

as a car dealer, I appreciated this very much. General Motors Acceptance Corporation, finances cars for General Motors dealers. They used to. They don't have General Motors Acceptance Corporation doing that anymore. They changed their name to Alian, a long story. But General Motors Acceptance Corporation, the financing arm for General Motors refused to finance someone that bought an automobile diesel.

Now, you can, if you think I'm lying, you can look it up, but they actually would not finance a diesel. Pontiac had diesels too, and they would not finance a diesel, because they knew the engine was going to blow up. So General Motors is building diesel cars, selling them to customers, and General Motors Acceptance Corporation won't finance it

because it's a piece of junk. True story. My friend had one of those diesels in an Oldsmobile, and it was such from a headache. They actually had no charge, converted it back to a gas engine. It was unbelievable. And by the way, in that 80s, I think it was 85,

it was actually stranded on one of the models of Cadillac, and it was nothing but a revisit. gasoline engine, which was just a nightmare, and just a disgrace, the General Motors were even trying an attempt like that. John, I got one more old war story. You get me wound up on these. Back in the day, I was back in the 70s when I was evil, and I was the master of deceptive advertising, and I had the Pontiac dealership, and my competition was Oldsmobile, and the word

broke out about how terrible these General Motors' diesels were. And these poor people that bought the old, the General Motors Diesel's holes in Pontiac, they were going from place to place to try to get out of it before the engine blew up, and they were worth nothing. I mean, you had a diesel, it was like the plague. Don't talk to me. I don't want that car as a train-in. So one of my most successful advertisements in the Palm Beach Post,

I'd run top dollar paid for any diesel-engine trade-ins. and I did that just to give them in and by the time they came in when I didn't give them anything from the trade end they were so beat to death because they'd been to everybody else they'd say oh I give up I'll take anything you give me

I'll take anything you give me and they would buy the poni yet so there's another confession of a recovery card deal sounds like our mystery do you also notice today I get gas at race track or wow wow and they have on the end they have the pump for diesel

I have never seen a passenger car gas, you know, diesel it up on those stations, so there are not many of them on the road. Well, today, you know, I don't want to paint them all. Back in the day, they were junk. Today, a diesel is a good engine. I mean, if it's a marine diesel engines, I've got a diesel engine in my boat, you know, they last forever, you take care of them, but back then, General Motors just didn't have

to build them, so anyway. I agree. Thank you. Thank you, John. Okay. John, it was great talking to you. We're going to go back to Josh. All right, I got a text here.

This person says, I bought a new Tacoma from a dealer in Miami and was only given one key. I was told this was because of the chip shortage, and I'll be getting my second key soon. Is this BS or the real deal? It's the real deal. I didn't know that. I've encountered two of these occasions here. So apparently, and it's not every single Tacoma, but in the last couple months, they started shipping out a handful of trucks here and there with one key and a letter saying, We'll mail you your second key as soon as the part is available.

What if you lose your first key? Then you are on the side of the road, out of luck. Are you serious? I'm serious. What if I buy a Tacoma? Don't I get one key with a... Yeah, you're supposed to get two keys? Yeah, I know.

But they were shipping these brand-new Tacomas out to some customers, and they'd only get one key, and then a letter promising their second key within a month or so. So I buy a new Tacoma. They only give me one key. I lose that key, and I've got to park my truck. Tacoma until they give me another case. I suppose you could probably pay for a key somewhere. I want to, you lawyers out there, attention attorneys, there's one for you, class action

suit against Toyota, all the people you're screwing on the keys. Okay. I thought you were against attorneys. That one was pretty funny. We're going to go back to the phones. Okay. And Frank is a regular caller. he's calling us from Jupiter Farms. Good morning, Frank.

Well, good morning, Nancy and Earl and all the rest of the gang. Welcome. Yeah, thank you. Actually, today I'm up in Middleton, Connecticut, and I have a mystery shopping report for you. Ooh. Oh, boy. I took it upon myself to go to the local Toyota dealer with my fiancé Amory and look at this is in a new car. We're not allowed.

They will not sell a non-resident, a new car up here. You have to be a resident and prove it with your virus license, title to your house, something like that. No Toyota is sold to out-of-towners. I imagine that's because of the inventory situation they're saying? It is. I send you guys a few pictures on the cell number. I think their total inventory is about 12 cars at the stewardship.

It's amazing. and they would sell me a used Rav4 if you saw the paper I said in about 42,000 that has 7,000 miles on it which I thought was a little bit high That sounds a lot high actually Yeah, I'm looking at these pictures now Frank

It's a ghost town there That is crazy He sent these photographs of a completely empty parking lot In front of a brand new toy store It's amazing They're nice people I spoke to a gentleman I never went to sales people

Corey, I mean, when we walked in, it was like, you know, 12 guys all looked like wolves with their eyes gleaming and going, wow, we got a customer. Too bad you're from out of town. Yeah, well, I mentioned, they sold a tan. I didn't look like, you know, one of the normal people there that's kind of like so tanned. But in any event, the dealer fees are $4.95. There's nothing to get around that.

And it was a pleasant experience. Oh, are you thirsty? You go, yes, we have water, we have coffee, come over here. Vending machines, $2 bottle of water, no free water. I mean, it's a unique experience, it's a unique experience to say the least. But, yeah, and they were nice enough people, but I just thought I mentioned how it is up here. Although a Nissan dealer, about a mile down the street, I've probably 100 cars, so. I'll tell you a little bit about Nissan's problems.

A car dealer's got a hundred cars, there's something wrong today. Oh, I know that's not really like a quarter mile length of new cars, but, you know, the Toyota only had a few used cars, or a lot of the use cars, but there's no new ones. But anyway, yeah, that's about it. I'll let you guys get going, and while I was up here, though, but I did mention I sent to your dad a picture of Bob Nichols. Do you remember him from the Channel 12 News days? Bob Nichols. Oh, yeah, right, Frank, yeah.

I didn't even recognize it, to be honest with you. I posted it on Bob Nichols' Facebook page, and he hasn't answered yet, but, yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, he was talking about your dot-potting act dealership with his brother Doug, and as always, we bring up the real store's name. If they're not a dealer, they've got a lot of nice things to say. Yeah.

I think of it's not quite so nice, but that's okay. But it's been fun up here in I was thinking you guys, especially seeing the Toyota dealership work, you know. You have an ice day. I'll let you get back to the other people. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for the call. 877-960-90-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. Ladies, don't forget, $20.50. I just reduced it. $50 for the first two lady callers. going once going twice now back to Josh all right here's one for Rick I have a 2018 better take notes it's a long one I have a 2018 Ford Escape with 44,000 miles I went to change to spark plugs

this is the first change three of them came right out with zero issues the last one would not move I sprayed penetrating oil and slowly worked it for over two hours finally it came loose to my horror the top half of the spark club spark plug came out the threads are still inside and stuck. If you look at the spark plug hole, it looks just like a hole. However, the threads from the spark plug are still there on the sides. Is it possible this was a cross-threaded from the factory? What are my options? Will the dealership charge me an arm and a leg? I don't know much about cars, but this doesn't sound good. This sounds very, very, very bad. Obviously, this would have to be an issue from the factory because the first time changing the plugs. But the fact that that was, one was jammed in there so solid and the way it's been described it sounds like the cylinder head is going to have to be removed from the vehicle in order to have that those threads recut to get it properly reformed if it can be saved at all wow big bucks what would that cost thousands thousands this is a 2018 with only 44,000 miles if it's a factory defect which

you say it might be would this be under the pad train the my first step really for me is i would be going like earl says i'd be going right to the service manager at your local ford dealer wherever you bought it and i'd be saying hey you know take a bunch of pictures first pictures video show what's going on first go in there and say hey look yo all i was trying to do is get a spark plug out and this happened what can you do for me and we'll start working with them there and work your way up the ladder till you get some assistance on this and then get the vehicle towed in there to have it repaired because obviously it's undriveable I mean you can't drive with that thing blowing compression power right out through the hole there um yeah what's the

lesson here if you don't if you can't get that plug out don't keep trying after an hour and a half if it were me if it didn't move yeah if I'm doing a job but on the side not as a mechanic at a dealership If I'm working on the side, I'm doing a job, and it doesn't move, I'm going to stop. And I'm going to say, no, take this to the dealership simply because if the dealership mechanic breaks it, then the dealership is responsible for getting warranty involved. And you sit back and munch on some popcorn wall, they do all the battle, and get that cylinder head replaced. DIY one thing, but you've got to know when to hold them. Right, exactly.

Don't want to walk away I knew that would inspire a singing along Kenny Rogers are you listening All right Got another one here I'll just keep rolling

There's a clunking noise In the rear of my Yukon Alley Well, duh, right We're doing a lot of clunks Shugging and clugging All right But listen to this

So far I've replaced The shocks The compressor The sway bar bushings And links Spring insulators Pan hard bar. I've checked the brakes, the rear window and latch, both rear seats, check the lug nuts,

hitch and cover. I've crawled under and lubed every moving point. I've zipped tied the three aluminum lines that run underneath from front to back. It's driving me bonkers. Please help. I don't think there's a part left on that car. No, not much. Any ideas? My first thought, right off the back. I'd say ear blocks, you know, to block the noise. Actually, I would actually have somebody sit back there in the back of the vehicle and drive a little bit, you know, go to an open parking lot, some more quiet, and have someone sit back there and try to narrow down where that noise is coming from. I've actually seen some weird stuff where even from the factory, something gets dropped in the frame of the vehicle, down in the body. Would it be a disgruntled auto-warfare? More just maybe an accident.

something you know somebody dropped the socket yeah uh now i there there was an old story of a car that every time they went around a corner they'd hear or like a bumble bloop bloop noise and they finally found a glass soda bottle in a frame panel and a note inside saying i bet you had a hard time finding this didn't you that that should be a capital offense yeah that's um yeah that's that one if you're seriously that you have to keep that vehicle and it's bugging you that bad, you're gonna need to get some assistance to try to figure out, narrow that down. And you might consider looking into, if you can rent or maybe purchase,

a set of what are known as chassis ears. These are little boxes that clamp on to various components. And then they send a radio signal picking up vibrations and noises and they'll send it to a base station that you're holding with headphones and it will tell you which one of those sensors is getting the loudest sound to help you narrow down to the area where that noise is coming from. Chassy ears. Chassy ears. C-H-A-S-S-S-S-S-I-S, chassis, like the chassis of the car, and then ears like on the side of your head.

Imagine that. I know a hunt-down noises, squeaks, rattles is probably the most difficult things for you to do. Hate them. It can be so critical. And how's your hearing? Do you have a good hearing? It's gone down over the year. but I have seen cases where a noise that sounds like it's down by your feet was being caused by a roof rail on the roof rack being loose. It reminds me of like when you have a smoke detector at your house that's going along

batteries and you're trying to chase down the beep. Uh-huh. You back it into a corner and then it's 40 feet behind the office. And it's the one your kid hid in the couch. Well, you can shed some light on that. That drove you crazy. All right. We're going to go back to the phone.

Josh, and we're going to talk to Bill, who's calling from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Bill. Good morning. It's been a long time. Thank you for waiting. Welcome back. Thank you. Thank you.

I'm also an all-time car dealer. I used to work for Millardodge in Del Rey. I'll be darned. How long ago was that, Bill? You want to talk about a tiny dealership. If we would do 15 cars a month, everybody was happy. Wow. The question is, with all these new electric cars,

I have a pacemaker, and I'm 100% pacemaker dependent. My pacemaker stops, so do I. Has anybody ran any tests or any information on if it's safe for pacemaker patients to drive those? Yes, they have checked, that's one of the areas that they have checked over and over again, and nobody's found any sort of interference that might affect a pacemaker. I think we have a little echo chamber here. You still there, Bill? You still there, Bill? You just have to turn your radio off.

Yeah, that's probably it. Bill, I think you got your radio on. Nancy says, can you turn it down or turn it off? I think we might have lost Bill. Yeah, I hope not permanently. Bill, give us a call back if you get a chance. would like to talk to you. I couldn't help myself. That was a little hanging.

I apologize. You're there? You're there, Bill? Oh, I thought I heard, Bill. Okay, let's move along. Bill, call back in. We're sorry if we dropped the call, and Nancy will red flag it

as soon as you call back in, and we apologize for that. We had some technical problems here. Okay, let's get back. We've got a YouTube over here. Actually, here's a really good one, Earl. Does Earl Stewart Toyota take electronic checks for buying a car,

and that's from Robert. And then Kit Kat says, good question. Can I send my family member to your dealership, have them pick out a car, and then have my credit union wire transfer the money to pay for it? Absolutely. We take anything. We take cattle.

We take trees. We take gold bullion. Bitcoin. We take wire funds. Goats. Yeah, you'll find that most of all car dealerships will accept wired funds today. I have a customer one time offered to trade diamonds for a car.

Yeah. And one from Charles, he says, good morning, please help. First time car buyer, best value for my dollars, Subaru Forrester 2017 to 2021, new or used with about 40,000 miles. Which one would you pick, Earl? You know, today I wouldn't pick either one. I might wait about two months and save a couple thousand dollars on either one. I would I've always thought a good used car

is a better value than a new car so all things being equal I would take a well cared for well checked over maybe certified manufacturer certified used car over the new car but wait wait until the fourth quarter of this year November October November

December you'll save a lot of money on that Subaru used or new and any other car you want to buy Earl, what do you think? You've talked about saving money. How big of a savings are you talking about in October, November, December? It depends on the car. It depends on the individual car, the manufacturer. I say $2,000 or $3,000 as a round number. You could probably save $5,000 or $6,000 sometimes and maybe only $1,000. But average, $3,000. It's going to be pretty significant, because by then, will the microchip shortage be over? I think it'll be 98% over. I mean, it's spotty.

When the microchip shortage ends, it won't be worldwide universal for all products. Yeah. And it'll be, but for all intents and purposes, cars will be plentiful in the fourth quarter. So the inventory is going to increase. Well, that's something to look forward to for sure. All right, I got a feedback here. I just got a phone call. Oh, we go to the phones.

Yeah, thanks, Josh. We're going to go to John, who's calling from West Palm Beach. Good morning, John. Good morning. Welcome. Good morning. Thank you. Repeat caller.

But I first want to start off that I've called several times, and sometimes I may say the same story over again that I forgot I'd done. If I ever do that, just let me know. what I'll stop. But anyways, as far as noises in the car and that, I used to work for Ford Motor Company and Wixom, putting the Lincoln together back in 79, and we had to go to training because we were, we had to be trained, and we have to be careful what we do around those brand new cars going down the line, because a lot of Lincoln's were going back to the dealership because of a rattling noise, we say, couldn't find. Well, what had occurred was, was one of the guys on the line that was installing something on the door. He was drinking beer and destroying his beer cans in the door before the plastic cover went on and the door panel. And so the, you know, they did, you know, the people that were buying the car said, yeah, there's this rally. We don't know what it is.

And it was, you know, it was very faint because it was stuck down in there. And finally they had the track all the way back to the factory to figure out, you know, what was happening. But here's my question for Rick. 1999, L.S. 400, the V8, my son's car, it's gone into LIMP mode, and he went ahead and had the ECU rebuilt, redone, and it didn't fix the problem. What are some other things that he can work? The next thing we're doing is the fuel pump, and we're going to have to take a look at that. And, but what are some other things other than the ECU and the fuel pump that we can run through to get it out of limped mode?

It'd be a shorter list to tell you what, does it? Do you have any trouble codes showing up from the computer? Yeah, but they're in Japanese. Because we're talking about it's 1999 Celsius. Send it to Akio-Toyoto for translation. Nancy has his card. Unfortunately, at that point, I would have to recommend you to Google Translate. But now, first thing you need to do is find out what trouble codes the computer is seeing

and then get into the data list on the computer. I got a backup to this in Japanese. You're telling me, your son's got a Lexus, L.S. 400. What year is it? 99. 99. And when you put it on the machine, to, you know, the computers

to read and diagnose the problems with the checked engine light or whatever. It comes out in Japanese? No. Rick, you saw the car. Earl, you were there, told him him bring it in and you weren't there. It's the 1999 Celsius from Japan. Oh, okay.

I'm second. I thought L.S. 400, too. Yeah, L.S. 400, yeah. But they're the same engine. Oh, I see. We just do the L.S. 400. Okay. And that, you know, so, but the codes read out in Japanese.

Is it a right-hand drive? Wow. Do we have any Japanese speaking on technique? Oh, cool. We don't. We don't. You featured the car on your website in the video. You took video of it.

And interviewed my shot. I got it. Google Translate. That's right. All you need to do is take a picture of the Japanese diagnosis and put it into Google Translate and tell you exactly what's wrong. Yeah, use your phone. It does it in real time.

time. It's like magic. I'll have them do that. Hopefully he doesn't say you're out of luck. Do you say Ruck? John, it was great hearing from you. All right, very good. Don't be a stranger. All right. See you later.

I about it's rolled. John had some fun. Thank you, Josh. We've had to hit the sensor button on Earl a few times here. Oh, boy. Okay, we're going to go back to. Josh. All right. This one's for you, Dad. Keep it clean.

Yeah, this is a softball. I think you can, you can answer this one without offending a big segment of the population. Maybe. Earl, have you ever actually had to go to an automotive dealership and buy a car on your own? You know, I haven't. I really, I've, you know, my father had a Pontiac dealership when I was a kid. And I grew up with that advantage. So I never, I've, you know, I've never had to buy.

car. I bought cars, but never, you know, in a normal thing. And walked in the door and had to go through the whole process. Yeah, I'm driving a Lexus now, and I bought that at J.M. Lexus in Fort Lauderdale, but it's because I don't have a Lexus franchise. But, yeah, I'm a very lucky guy. Yeah, yeah, very lucky. Comes the family perk. Yep. All right.

I've bought a car. And how did that go? But they want to know that, Earl. Would it be a barracuda, by any chance? We're not going to hear the barracuda story, Irving. Oh, boy. funny I've never actually heard this story but apparently it was told many many times I'm thinking definitely many that's putting it mildly the best stories are

often retold I'm telling you refined and polished okay we are going to go to Robert Robert are you there yes oh how are you oh we're great welcome Robert's calling us from West Palm Beach what can we do for you I was just calling in from my accident from last week's conversation about electric cars. Okay. I just wanted to make some points on that. Like, you know, in California, when they're having those wildfires that they cut

electricity to people's houses, they're unable to charge their cars and they have to evacuate. They can't. And the same thing with South Florida, like with major hurricanes, a lot of people lose power and we don't have powerful two days. You know, how are you going to get out? Or drug your car, charge it. At least with gasoline, you know, people have gas cans. you can hort gas and, you know, you can get out.

But I think that's a major problem with electric cars. Robert Nellon, I would beg to differ on that. I think you're better off if you've got a good electric car during a hurricane than if you have a gasoline car. It's harder to get gas for your car during a hurricane because everybody sucks up all the gas. A whole week before the hurricane gets there. There's gas lines. You can't get gas.

Now, if you've got a, if you've got an electric car, vehicle with 400 you know range of 400 you got 400 miles on your battery and you can use it when you want to so you've got stations in your house you put it right in yeah if you can get power in the house yeah i i understand what you know last year's wild fires in california where they were actually showing that people could not evacuate their houses because their cars were dead you know the only thing if they had a gas car were able to get out i mean that's the only thing negative thing I wanted to bring up about electric cars. I'm sure they're much better for the environment and stuff.

Yeah. That's a good point. That's really what I wanted to tell you. That's all. Well, it's good observation. You guys have some good information. I always listen to you guys. I always listen to you guys are doing.

Thank you for all of us, Robert. The answer is, Robert. You have one gasoline car and one electric car. There you go. That way you go. And have a horse. Keep a horse. electric car, the gas car, and cover your bases.

You're right. Oh, boy. We're out of control. I appreciate. I'm sure there's big hay and oat lines before a hurricane gets here for all the horse owners. All right. All right. Well, thank you very much.

Thank you, Robert. By we can humor you, Robert. Thank you so much. 877-960-99-60. We certainly have our. mystery shopping report coming up it is from Vero Beach Toyota and we're gonna go back to Josh and he's got some text messages and your anonymous feedback all sorts of stuff here hi I'm looking into buying a Mercedes E class with low miles on it the

car effect says it was a corporate owned vehicle should I be worried about this actually you know rental cars used to have a bad rap police cars the funny thing is with the, if you maintain a car, it's fine. And I know rental companies today maintain their cars probably better than the average owner. They want to maximize a return on their investment and have their cars last as long as possible. So, yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't hesitate to buy a corporate car. It depends on the corporation. I mean, if you had a, if it was a solid corporation, like a gentleman. My gentleman is like an apple or, you know, you know what I'm talking about. If it's just ABC, you don't know who they are.

And then it's more of an individual issue. But, you know, I just had the car checked out by mechanic. Who owned it is almost immaterial. You know, a little old lady owner in a car can be worse than a corporation. It was maybe the little old lady never bought it in for maintenance. And I just, I'm politically incorrect again. you can't call them little ladies little old men little old there I go I'm getting myself with trouble Rick we're gonna tie you up one one big advantage now is I'm already gagged

maintenance records are all online so you can basically just take the VIN number call up the local service department for Mercedes and say hey can you tell me yeah yeah yeah was this contained properly I'll finish right there on the Carfax too yeah very good point there you go all right we got another one here um Once for Rick, I had the oil-filter housing assembly replaced my 2014 Jeep Grand Prix. This was due to oil leaking for months. Friday morning and today, there were some oil drops on the garage floor. Do I need to take the Jeep back to the mechanic to diagnose? Could these drops just be overflow or residue from the repair? Get back there. Now.

All right. A short answer, but a very emphatic answer. An oil filter housing like that when they replace it, what should have been done, the proper repairs, you make sure everything's solid and you take some brake clean and you wash it all down and break clean that basically this chemical washes all the oil off and leaves everything spotless and dry as a bone so that you can then run the car for a while look at it and make sure that nothing's leaking to make sure all the parts and everything was assembled properly if you've got a leak afterwards go back there now and say whoa I just paid to have this done why is it still leaking take some pictures of the leak of the puddle on the floor too absolutely that way there's no

argument. And they should pay the cleaner driveway. Yes. Yeah, oh boy, isn't that the truth? Can't remove that. Yeah, the wonderful thing about the digital age. Everybody's got a smartphone. Take pictures of everything. I mean, you take pictures, do audio. Use the technology that you have.

When you're cardio ship, pictures are, you know, a thousand words, cliche. And audio, audio, you can really, really get a and the nice thing about it, the diagnosis is now on record. They know you have it on your phone. So it isn't a descriptive issue.

We had a customer one time with a car that just, every time he came in, the noise wouldn't happen. Yeah. He brought us a video when it happened first thing in the morning. And myself and the other Master Tech in the shop, we looked at and listened, it's like, oh, we know exactly what that is. It just by the sound, unfortunately, the fellow just wasn't describing it well. But once we saw the video, boom, we had it diagnosed immediately. That should be in the owner's manual of every automobile. If you have a problem, record the audio and or video,

because intermittent problems are the worst things in the world. Drives Rick crazy, drives everybody crazy, drives the customers crazy. It's like going to a doctor, you know. When you go in there, suddenly whatever is wrong doesn't hurt anymore. So cars are the same way. They won't click. They won't rattle. when you go into the dealership, when you go home, they start again.

So record it, video it. Pictures, boy, they're really worth the weight and gold for so many reasons. I mean, look at turning in your lease. You know how long possibly your car could sit on the lot? Take pictures of your vehicle and any damage or anything at all. It's really very worthwhile. We're going to go back to the phone where Bill's waiting. He's calling us from West Palm Beach.

Good morning, Bill. Good morning. Thank you. My phone got messed up. Oh, we were worried about you, Bill. I'm glad you're okay. It's great to hear from you, Bill. Yeah.

It was my phone. It wasn't my pacemaker. Oh, thank God. But I missed the answer on electric cars with paymakers. Rick said, don't worry about it. Yeah. Yeah, they've done extensive testing. Bill, let me tell you this about manufacturers.

The one thing they can't afford. to do is have something dangerous in a car driven, some of the car's been told to, because the lawyers would own General Motors or owned Honda. If they put a car out that had radiation that would affect your pacemaker, it would no longer be, it would no longer be owned by the, you know, the manufacturer. So you're perfectly safe with that pacemaker in a modern car. I don't know about, you know, antique cars, but the modern cars, they would be perfectly safe. I know the mine core has been a bit concerned.

I remember when the smart keys first came out, there was some concern about smart keys and pacemakers. And practically every car on the road now has a smart key, so I don't think it's an issue. No. All right. Okay. But to give you an idea how far back in the core business I go, do you remember the old Florida Christ deployment? Water Christ of Plymouth, AMC, Chief Reno. Oh, sure, absolutely, yeah.

And that was... That's more... Renno. Reno. I was Bob Quillow and Roger Dean. Yeah, Bob Grillo. I, I knew him well, and we used to be competitors. And back of the old days, John Staloupie, Bill Chamberlain, Bob Quillo.

I worked for John also. Oh, is that right? Wow. So you, you knew some real interesting guys. They were, that was very colorful back in those days. A lot of things we'll have to talk about but off the air. Absolutely. Yes. Off the records.

He knew the cold bliss. Wise guys. Yeah. Thank you, Bill. I'm glad you're okay and come back in again. I've got to call back next week. That'd be great. I'd love to hear from you.

Okay, the phone lines are frozen, and that leaves Josh and Rick wide open for YouTube's and for texting. I do have one from Kit Kat here and says, does Josh prefer an electric or gas-powered car? Well, the old Josh preferred electric. I used to be a Prius driver, and I'm a forerunner, four-runner driver. I'll tell you what, though, you know, driving my brother's Tesla once or twice. It's changing my mind. Oh, really? Oh, really?

That acceleration you get is so smooth and so quiet. I feel like sometimes I'm driving antique technology. Well, I'll say this is a potential. One day I may have a Tesla, but as I look at the videos and I study the, I mean, it is so cool, but the technology is so different from a combustion engine car. I really get nervous about, I'm taking Nancy to... western Florida next week and I said I'm not going to if the Tesla does come in I'm not going to drive the Tesla because I would be

afraid of the you have to learn the controls you have to have a very very thorough knowledge of a new technology like a Tesla and I wouldn't feel confident on the highway until I really learned it will so if you're going to make that huge jump from combustion engine to full electric you've got a lot of learning and understanding to do. Yeah, it's not just the drive train because there's a lot of toys, a lot of gadgets, the instrumentation is all different. So you've got to make sure that you're comfortable with that before you take it to a strange place,

especially Weston. Was there really a big difference between, you know, I think you're driving a forerunner and then driving the Tesla? That's night and day. Night and day. The smooth, quick, quiet acceleration of that electric vehicle is really a sensation. Yeah. I think once people, once they get hold and more people start letting their friends drive it, it's just going to take off. It's something else. All right. I got a feedback here. This one's, I don't know if they're serious or not. The AC and my car broke and the shop wants almost $2,000 to fix it. This might sound crazy, but why can't I just buy a portable AC unit on Amazon for a few hundred bucks? I guess they're referring to those little stand-up R2D2 things we put in your house.

Rick, you want to handle this one? Nope. I love it when people think out of the box. I mean, that's, you know, $2,000 versus $200. Yeah, you could buy one for $200. You'd have to get the converter and have an AC, and then you're going to have a, it's going to be sitting in your lap when you're driving. No, you strap it in the back seat with a shoulder belt.

I've actually seen plenty of photos on the Internet. A car driving down a road with a window AC unit. Really? Duct taped into one of the rear windows. Okay. It's hanging a couple feet out from the side of the car. So it's not as crazy as the size. And you have the condesant line and it's a source of fresh drinking water for you.

It's called Redneck Engineering and it's been done. Now Rick wants to offend some of the population here. He doesn't want Earl to get the monopoly. Well, no, proper redneck engineering, it would be going through the back window onto the truck box in your pickup. There you go. The old Ford F-150. You can do that because you're part of a truck and you do all that kind of stuff.

I am. I'm an old country boy from way back. Yes, you are. I've got a text just popped in here and this guy's asking for help. Help. When talking about waiting for the fourth quarter to buy a new car, are you referring to 21s, 22s? Won't the 222s be coming out in the fall?

And you're absolutely right. I am referring to 222s. But 2021's also. I always recommend that when you have both models on the road or on the showrooms, that you buy the current model. You pay more for the current model than you do the last year's model, but it more than is compensated for by your gain and not having that instant depreciation or as much instant depreciation. You buy a 2,021 car in December, and you drive that car. for three years, it's going to be a four-year-old car instead of a three-year-old car. So you save, get to negotiate, and you've got to use true car and Costco and all the other

tools that you get on the show. It's the best deal you can on the 2022, the best deal you can on a 2021 by the 2022. You might not have a choice either because most of the 21s are already pretty sold practically. Good point. So it's a good question, and it's a strange time to be in. I have a couple more, or do you want to jump to the Mystery Shopping Report? No, I think we've got time. Let's go ahead.

Okay. I went to put my 2020 Honda Pilot in the driveway, close the driver's side door, and the rear window exploded. The vehicle has less than 3,500 miles parked on the street. Wow. What do you think happened there? What vehicle was that? It was a 2020 brand-new or almost brand-new Honda Pilot. Wow.

You ever heard that one? That had to be a stress crack in the glass, had to be a stress fracture. Yeah, well, I think that's a fluke. I don't think there's anything you can do to avoid that. It's a one-and-a-million shot. Right. Literally, I don't, it cracked. I mean, you can't.

I imagine it's spider-wives, you know. Right, but remember, side windows, on some cars are laminated to where there's a plastic coating on the inside and outside of the side windows. But side windows on cars traditionally are a temperament. glass that is designed not to break into shards but to crumble into all those little tiny little crumbles pieces so that you don't have you you may get some little nicks and cuts from it when it breaks but you won't get like you know razor it into your neck or something so it's designed to literally break apart into multiple tiny little pieces so yeah if you have a

when they were drilling the holes in it for the mounting points If something was wrong there, a small stress crack or something, and then, you know, it was time when that went and just slamming the door a little hard, the air pressure. What year was that? It would just 2020, practically new. Yeah, I certainly would, again, I'd go in writing to the manufacturer, probably covered by your comprehensive insurance, I would think. But the issue would be more danger to the drivers. That's a pretty serious problem to have your window explode. The insurance point is curious.

I know the front windshield is covered in Florida, at least, covered with no deductible by your insurance company. I wonder what the back wind screen. It should be warranty. I mean, you said 2021? Yeah, 2020. 30-500 miles. Yeah, it should be, I ought to definitely be covered under warning

unless they give you an argument, say somebody threw a rock through it, and you'd have to prove that didn't happen, unfortunately. I wonder if they have any enemies like yeah crazy wow crazy all right I got one more here this one's kind of technical please post the residual and money factor for the higher Islander hybrid XLE I can text them back those those specifics later but the the last part is also curious how the residual changes for an 18,000 mile per year lease I can tell you at least with Toyota when you go from 12,000 to 15,000 it's a 2% drop in the residual, which is equal to about 15 to 20 bucks a month. So it's just another $15 to $20 a month

to go from 15,000 to 18,000 miles. And I'll get back to this person with those specifics later. There you go. You know, real quick, I'm going to mention Earl's book. And if you want to take a look inside what really goes on in the car buying and the service business, you want to pick yourself up a book, it's Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer. And what's amazing about this is that the proceeds go to Big Dog Ranch, Big Dog Ranch. And can you hear me now, John? No, the book. No. Okay. There we go. Big Dog Ranch, all the proceeds go right there. So what a book. This is something of an investment, I would say, because you can refer to it all the time. Of 1999, and like I said, the proceeds go to Big Dog Ranch.

Confessions of a recovering car dealer. It's your copy today. Yes, Amazon.com. We're going to go to the Mystery Shopping Report, which is from Averro Beach. Vero Beach, Toyota, as a matter of fact. Okay. Toyota, Avera Beach, is a dealership on the rise. Historically, it's been a relatively low-volume store.

It's up on the Treasure Coast. southeast Florida for those folks out of state, a beautiful area up there, Treasure Coast, Martin County. Florida natives will know this area to be less dense, sleepier part of the state, frankly, a more beautiful part of the state, a far cry from the urban pressure cooker of Miami-Dade and Broward counties. But lately things haven't been so sleepy at Virobeach's Toyota. Through July, and listen to this, this is not a typo, they have nearly tripled the amount of cars sold at the same time a year ago. Tripled. Now that's huge, unheard of for any car dealership.

This quantum leap can be explained by two factors. Inventory and lucky timing. I said I'd rather be lucky than smart. You see, Viro Beach Toyota recently completed a major dealership renovation. This is kind of like inside stuff. Your dealers know about this, and it's an interesting little perk dealers have Toyota rewards dealers who upgrade their facilities with what's called supplemental allocation. That means a lot more cars. So they say to you, look, Earl, if you'll build a new dealership for us and you'll build a Toyota sign and you'll do exactly the way we tell you

and put it exactly where we tell you, we'll give you a whole bunch more cars and that'll help you pay for the cost of the building. Well, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. In this case here, it did. This wouldn't be a game changer in normal times, but during an historic worldwide vehicle shortage, it's like winning the retail lottery. Pen-up demand is far-out-wings and blind.

Customers are flocking to whom ever has the cars to sell. Those extra cars are worth their weight and goal, and that's not much of an exaggeration. Car dealers are having record profit months, auto manufacturers are having record profit months because the pandemic has bought on unprecedented demand for new and used cars, and of course we have an unprecedented low supply. That translates into huge prices, high prices, and huge profits. Not surprisingly, Bureau Beach Toyota is looking to further capitalize on this good fortune

by doing some enticing marketing on social media. Facebook post of theirs caught the attention none other than Agent Lightning. That's her female shopper. And this is a Facebook ad and you get them. I get them. If you have a smartphone and you're on Facebook, you get these. And they know who you are, where you are, what kind of car you own is called targeted advertising. So they knew that Agent Lightning was in the market or could be in the market for a Toyota. So here's what it said in the ad.

If you can push it, pull it, drag it, or tow it, we'll take it and give you $5,000 minimum. Not $3,000, not $4,000, $5,000 guaranteed. No games, no gimmicks, just cold hard cash for your trade. I've kind of getting into this.

I know, it's exciting. I think I used to do these commercials for real. You might have written this one. I might have, yeah. If your trade is worth more, we'll give you $5,000 plus what your trade is worth. Don't be misled or fooled by other

cardio ships, up to trade in the mouths. Only Toyota and Vero Beach pays you $5,000 minimum guaranteed during the push-pull drag tow event. Now through August 15th, get $5,000 minimum or more for your trade, regardless of condition or credit history.

Toe it in. We'll pick it up and give you $5,000. It's $5,000 over and over again. I can't stand it. I can't do anything. And I've got to give you a $25 public gift certificate, and it's just outrageous. And every time I hear one of these ads or read them or see them on television, I say, who believes this stuff? You know?

And before the show started, I read an email I just got them from Nigeria, where I was going to get $5 million if I gave them $20,000. good faith money or something like that. Now, I laughed. We all laughed to the studio, but you know something? They sent out 5 million of those and I'll bet you two or three people.

P.T. Barnum, there's a sucker born every minute. And people fall for these things and they come in and they buy cars and it's so sad. That's why Earl and Cars exist and that's why this show exists. Exactly. It's been a while since We've seen a good old-fashioned push, pull, drag, tow it in offered.

I mean, that's really old school. I mean, even the crooked dealers out there put that on the shelf because they wore it out. Well, it's back. $5,000 millim trade-in is simply too good to ignore. Agent Lightning had no choice but to investigate. Before heading into the field, she followed the advertisement's instructions

and sent them a message through Facebook. Should you receive this reply? Don't say your name. All right, I won't say her name, yeah. Agent Lightning. Good afternoon, Agent Lightning. Thank you for your interest in our huge event. I have reserved a $5,000 voucher for you.

This event is going on now for a week. Are you available to come in Friday, Saturday, or Sunday? What time works best for you? Additionally, you'll receive a $25 target or public's gift card after a test drive. our sales managers have been putting together some amazing deals this week and the sale this weekend is one of our biggest ones of the year. Please let me know thanks Kathy name of the salesperson. The $5,000 voucher was reserved

and the $25 gift card was promised. The stage was set time for Agent Lightning to head out on her mission. I'm having a little problem to turn the pages here because I can't lick my fingers because I got my mask on it. Here's a report. I arrived with a dealership in the mid-morning and was greeted by a young salesman named Zach. I showed him a Facebook message and explained

I was here for the $5,000 voucher and the gift card, etc. He brought me to his desk, went through the standard ritual of gathering my personal information. He then asked what vehicle I was interested in and what payment. What payment I'd like? They always want to know the payment because he gives them a lot of flexibility

to jack the price up with the payment. If they give you a price, it's hard to fool around. With the payment, you can fool around a lot. I said I want a top-of-the-line Highlander, and I tried to explain that the monthly payment didn't matter to me as much as the out-the-door price. I also repeated my request to get my $5,000 trade-in voucher. He took a few minutes to explain to me,

you've got to sit down for this one. He took a few minutes to explain to me that the discount voucher is technically, a way to drive business in the door. In other words, we're lying to you. It worked. You're here.

You didn't think we were late in a minute, did you? I mean, it's amazing. And I made a little notation when I was reading this morning. Confrontation. People, human beings, don't like confrontation. And you go into a place, you know, You're going to a place and you're doing this kind of business. You don't want to get into a fight with the guy or the girl that is trying to sell you something.

And apparently this works with a lot of people. You just say to the person, you look at him in the eye and say, no, that's not really. We just did that to get you to come out of the door. You defuse the bomb before it goes off. And so he goes on to say, he says, to drive business to the door, while offering the customer is substantial. savings, we're in the end everyone wins. We lie to you, you come in, you buy the car, and everyone wins.

Something wrong with that picture. And then Agent Lightning nodded, and she said she was unsure of what to say. I mean, I would be too. How do you respond to that? The only thing you can say is, are you serious? You're admitting, you lied to me? And then you have a confrontation. And human beings, most people, we have people.

you have people that like confrontation, but most people don't. He then asked about the vehicle I plan to trade in for the $5,000 voucher. I smiled, handed over the registration to my 2007 Hyundai with 200,000 miles. Now there's a, well, how old is that? 14, 15 years old? 14 year old car. Definitely not worth $5,000. He then asked me to sign a paper stating that I'm going to buy the bank. Now that's real old school.

Sign this that you're going to buy the day. Who in the right mind would go into any place of business and sign a paper or contract that you're going to buy today when you haven't even seen the car yet? You know, with frightening, there are a few people that would. There's so much going on today in the auto industry that you just have to step back and ask yourself, is this really the 21st century?

We should shop a car dealership in nice. because we're talking cowboys yeah and reply I asked where is this so-called voucher that was promised me on Facebook messenger I told him I don't feel comfortable signing anything without getting something showing I'm going to get the $5,000 trade in voucher and gift card that was you promised me Zach pushed me harder to sign the paper I'm not budging agent lightning no I want to say it in writing first And like Nancy just said, sadly, some people don't want to see it in writing first.

Some people get intimidated. Some people just don't want the confrontation. So that's the way these high-pressure dealers make a lot of money. In a lot of cases, this is the favorite line whenever someone asked you, you know, the person will come back. Really, this happens. Are you sure it's okay? Oh, definitely. Go ahead and sign that.

So now, Zach is showing frustration and says the vouchers are here to help us sell cars. And the ultimate goal is to sell you a car today. Again, he confesses to deception. I said, believe me, I want that as well, but I don't feel comfortable signing that paper. I said, maybe give me a paper for your sales manager to sign stating, I'm getting my $5,000 trade in and my $25 public or target card. Good for her. Yeah. And that's, you know, and Agent Lightning is one out of a thousand that is, you know,

he's got that kind of a moxie, a test drive. He laughed, said that every single customer signs his paper, I believe that, right? Every single customer trying to really continue to intimidator, and then excused himself and went for his sales manager, Tyler. So we got Zach and Tyler, totally of Viro Beach surprisingly Tata continued to get me to sign the paper after arguing for what felt like 30 minutes Tyler agreed to write 5K $5,000 guaranteed

on the paper and I signed it I don't know what that would mean in a court of law okay it could mean guaranteed anything Jack had left during this process and returned to the keys to a new limited highlighter We walked outside so that he could show me the vehicle.

I took a pick of the window sticker. The MSRP was 47-8-28. Next to this was another sticker listing dealer-added equipment. You're going to love this. Doorage guards? That's common. I don't know what a door pocket protector is to you, Josh. I think you wore that when you were in college, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I have a door procket. I don't know. Maybe those are the things that go in behind the door handle. That's what it is. Yeah, yeah. All nerves always have the pocket protector.

With your slide rule on your hip. Exactly, yeah. So we got the doorage guard, we've got the door pocket protector. We don't know what that is. We've got a painted pinstripe. Painter, well, at least it's not the paste on. Nitrogen-filled tires. You've got to love that nitrogen.

Absolutely. And one-year free key replacement, except we don't have any microchips. And that's an inside joke. At any rate, you know what you get for that pack. of value, you're going to have to pay them $2,395 for the worthless list I just read. And he had that to the MSRP, and you come up with $50,000.223. He briefly went over the vehicle's features, and we went on a quick test drive. While driving, he told me the dealership had just undergone a $13 million renovation,

I believe that, and has received hundreds of extra vehicles from toilet and returned. I believe that, too. he said they have more vehicles of stock than any other Toyota dealership, well that's not true well you never know. It could be close to true he could be close you know I mean hard to believe these giant dealers like Al Hendrickson have very few cars on their lives so what a huge advantage

he got lucky Toyota of Vera Beach agreed to this building thing probably two years ago and then here comes the pandemic and they open up and they have a new facility and here come these cars and it is a winning a lot of and they're making money

at Toyota Viro hand over fist because they're the only one in South Florida's got that many cars probably and they're hosing the customers when they come in and you just read part of the stream of the hose there we've got an $80099 dealer fee a $540 dealer fee, which they call an electronic filing fee,

and not to mention the addendum sticker of the nonsense, the nitrogen and the tires. Oh, yeah, below that is the breakdown there. It kind of got, yeah, so it starts with vehicle price underneath the... I'm looking my mask from the inside, trying to get my fingers here, run another time. I can't stand the pressure. Well, here, I'll... Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah.

The vehicle price is on the previous page, is 49,823, And then on the next page, it continues on right there. Okay. And then it has accessories at the top. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I got it, yeah. So anyway, do on delivery, 51,863 with all the nonsense.

I challenged Tyler and the MSRP as you're higher than the window sticker. He said to the market value, there we go. Another gotcha, 1995 over sticker. I then pointed out the fact that the trade was 4750, not $5,000, which they promised me, even put in writing. Oh, and I love this. I was told that it added up to $5,000 with the sales tax savings,

so they take the Florida sales tax discount on that, and that is new, right? I mean, it's clever, right? I hadn't seen that before. I have not either. I mean, if you're going to lie, you might as well lie cleverly. Squeeze an extra $250 bucks. Yeah, I mean, and I use

the word, Nancy, when we're driving in, I said, I forgot. It was just unconscious. despicable one of the worst deceptions I've seen a long time and there we go we got a vote and what can I tell you I think it's clear yeah we got the let's see what you say you could do the YouTube votes to Rick you come in with I got Jonathan Wallington I give this dealership a big F F is for $5,000 fraud Bob says sign here and you get an F today. Mark says, liar, liar, pants on fire, big solid F. You got anything over there, Rick?

So far, I've got Guy with a big fat D-minus. And let's see, we got any others coming in. Bro Scientist actually came in quite early saying, my psych vibes are telling me the mystery shopping report will be an F. Let's see what we got here. Mark from St. Louis. F. No games, no gimmicks. Kit Kat, too much scamming. F. Mark Ryan, F. Brian with an F. Mark Smith with an F. Tom, F.

And Wayne Wright with a big F. Well, Nancy, I think I know what you're going to say, but confirm. I think that the dealership deserves an F. Zach deserves an F. Tyler deserves an F. And that voucher, I can't say on the air. or what you should do with that. Does it start with an F?

I give them an F too, and I think it's a shame with all those cars. They could make a lot of money the honest way, and they just couldn't help themselves. I give them an F that's terrible. I hate to do it. I hate to give a toilet dealer an F because I'm a toilet dealer, and I feel like I'm picking on them when I do that,

but I'm tongue-tied. It's got to be an F for me. Same over here with an F for me. Straight up, Eurobeach, but I'll say this, if you're looking for cars, they got for cars. So I've got to be honest with you, go down there, just don't get screwed. Good luck. Okay, folks, thank you so much for tuning in to Earl on cars.

We certainly enjoys your company. We'll be right back here next Saturday morning. Same time, 8 a.m. Have a blessed weekend. Thank you.