Earl Stewart on Cars - 11.23.2019 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Advantage Ford

Episode Date: November 23, 2019

Earl answers various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Agent Thunder visits Advantage Ford to see if the salesman will disclose that a 2015 Jeep Wrangler has a fixable Takata Airbag Recall. 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. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

Hey, folks. This is Earl Live now. Good morning. That's also Earl with an echo, but I can deal with that. I hope you're not having to deal with it. if the folks in the control room and elsewhere can figure out how to eliminate the echo

it would probably be handy I'm going to take my headphones off right now so I don't hear my own echo anyway for all you newbies I've got to tell you that you're going to have some fun if you stay tuned this is a show unlike any show radio show or otherwise that you've ever listened to

it's as I said in the introduction which was recorded how not to be ripped off or taking advantage of when you're buying leasing or maintaining a car. This is candid. This is live. This is honest. I am a car dealer in full disclosure. I've been a car dealer since 1968. That's a long time. Over 50 years, over half a century. And I started out doing it the wrong way. I started out taking advantage of people, patent switch advertising, all the things that I rail about or rail against today. And because I've been there and done that, I'm kind of like

a jewel thief that got caught and did his time and then was released and now he's working for the FBI. I am able to go into a dealership, and I do this on my mystery shopping report, this is the highlight of the show. I can go into a dealership and pretend to buy a car and tell you all the tricks, everything that was done that was not right. And sometimes they're illegal. So this is an exciting show, and you'll learn something, I promise you. Chances are you drive a car. If you're in Florida, you almost have to drive a car. And it's kind of like having a root canal.

I wrote a blog article, which would you rather do? Have a root canal or a colonoscopy, maybe, or whatever it was. It's preferable to buying a car, leasing a car. In fact, even maintaining and repairing a car, because the service department is a minefield too. And I could go into why this has happened and why this one industry, the retail auto industry, has fallen into this type of trap of deceiving and lying and cheating

and so on and so forth to take advantage. We've got the control guy in here now trying to figure out why I'm getting an echo. I've got about a one second, maybe a two-second delay. That would drive me crazy. It's about ready to drive me nuts. But I've got my headphones off, so I can deal with it. And we'll play around with the control panel here.

this radio station is an excitement in terms of technology because we're moving fast in technology and we're trying to keep up so please excuse a little anything because we're live we are live anyway

besides the excitement of the mystery shopping report which will be later in the show we have a unique individual in the studio here Rick Kearney introduced earlier Rick Kearney is an expert on all, I start to say

the mechanics, but it's really the electronics, the technicalities of cars. He knows everything there is to know. I know that's a slight exaggeration, but he knows 99% of what you need to know about cars, mechanics, technology. They're really computers. They're rolling computers today. And if you have a problem, and who doesn't

have a problem with the car, I challenge anyone out there driving a car to look me in the eye and say, there's not something on that car, you don't understand. Now, 30 years ago, I wouldn't have said that. 30 years ago, 40 years ago, you knew everything about the car. A lot of the folks knew what would, under the hood. They could even identify the components. And when you're driving the car, you knew how to work the radio and the heater. And, you know, it was pretty basic back in those days. Today, there are buttons you've never pushed. Tina will be right with you. Oh, I'm glad that Tina's holding,

because she is our leading caller. And she is a female. caller, which makes it even more exciting. It's also an indicator that my laptop is working. Yeah. And I'm going to ask you to please call Rick Lady or in the show because he's going to be on vacation in December sometime, right? You're going to take a week off? 16th of December. Yeah. So

take full advantage of Rick today and up until December 16th because we miss Rick very much. He's a very integral, important part of the show. Now, we've got to get to Tina. Yes, we do. Good morning, Tina. Welcome. Uh-oh. Oh, there she is.

Hey, Tina. Hi, how are you? I'm on speakerphone. Can you hear me all right? Yeah, I can hear you. I don't know if Earl can. He looks concerned. I've got the satellite delay as well.

Oh, okay. I can hear you, Tina. This is me with the satellite delay you. No, it's bad. It's bad. I'm still getting me. Don't let you. Go ahead, Tina.

So, Tina, it's great to hear from you. Thanks for opening up the show Oh, thank you I appreciate the honor We need to talk about the man The crazy person Elon Musk I think

I think he is playing An early April Fool's day joke on us I really can't believe he came out At that horrific Cybertruck We were just talking about that before the show The cyber truck. Oh, boy.

So you like it, then? You bought one. No. He makes some of the most beautiful vehicles that have ever been produced. Those testes are gorgeous parts. And you know that you've seen them in person. But this truck, I don't know. I think he's laughing to himself.

You're going to be really weird. I think he fooled everyone for his own sales promotion. I mean, you got to admit the guy is a genius at marketing himself. Absolutely. He's a modern-day P.T. Barnum and Bailey. So what we were saying earlier was we thought that it looked like he built that himself in his garage. It looks like stolen wheels and cardboard and a lot of duct tape. Exactly.

It kind of reminds me of the starship that just blew up recently. It kind of looks like a do-it-yourself like a D.Y. I agree. Project. Now maybe it's just a prototype, right? It's just a prototype, I think, right? I believe so. I'm not sure when you're going to be able to purchase that.

I think you can order now. Oh, that's unfortunate. Yeah. What did he say, $100 deposit? I don't think, no. Well, if it's $100, I'll do it. I don't know if I'll ever take delivery of it. And I wouldn't, and I don't say throw away, but if I'm going to, let's say, give away or use $100, it's going to go to Big Dog Ranch.

That's much better. I'm sorry, I didn't think of that. But, I mean, the specs on it are pretty impressive. If it works, that would be the world's fastest truck, I think. You just don't hit a bug because it might come through the window. That's right. Oh, yeah, that window breaking. That was a complete fail.

Could you drive that thing with no mirrors and no windshield wipers? I mean, you know, and that whole presentation that they did, you know, I mean, that was crazy. And you got a giggle out of everybody. So when I read the, before I saw the video, I read it, and it said that he was promoting the, that the windows were bulletproof, but it failed during the demonstration. So I imagine him taking out a 9mm and opening fire on the truck. No, I saw it later they threw the steel balls. The steel balls.

It was beautiful. Yeah, it was just to watch that, the steel balls. And then he said, hey, well, listen, hit the back window. Right. And he hit the back window. And it cracked too. Exactly. I think he used Elon.

Those were Elon's steel balls. I'm back without the echo. Hey, welcome back. I'll join the conversation. I'm sure you have an opinion about this. I'm going to make that my new screen saver, the truck with the smashed windows on it. Let's stop picking on Elon. He's a genius. Well, you know, it's like they say to a lawyer, you never ask a question you don't know the answer to.

They've got to say to Elon, don't ever make a demonstration unless you know what's going to happen. Bill, two prototypes. And no partying before the demonstration. Yeah, I still don't believe it. I'm still 100% convinced it's all a ruse. I'm convinced it's a joke. Are you? It could be.

Yeah. It might be. Who knows? He does have a strange sense of humor. I mean, you know. I think the one thing that Elon does a lot of is announce things prematurely. You know, he announced the whole hyperloop thing. I thought you were going to say drugs.

He does that as well. Maybe that's why he announces things prematurely. But, you know, listen, he's a creative genius. And like Tina said, he is an incredible promoter, incredible marketer. So you've got to give them that. And they're having a good year. Tesla is it, right? Do you see it?

Yeah, they are. They're making some money. With the turn signals and with the brake lights, I don't know where any of it is. Do you, Rick, when you saw the subvert truck? I don't know if it even has them. They may be like. I think they're under the bumper. Maybe it's installed in the aluminum or something.

It's transparent aluminum or something. Uh-huh. Tina, do you know? I didn't really look that too far into it. I was just looking at the general overview of the article I read and just shaking my head, like, oh, my goodness. Yeah, I took a look at the steering wheel, and it reminded me of a race car, you know, at NASCAR. The wheel is very unusual, the steering wheel. Yeah, I don't know.

I'm going for a hundred percent joke until I'm told otherwise, but. I still think he probably spent a good part of his night after he got away from the crowd, just laughing until he was sore, you know? Yeah. Well, I'm questioning the safety aspects of it all. So to be continued. That's right. Let's keep an eye on this thing.

I am. Keep an eye on it. We're counting on you. Is there anything else we can do for you this morning, Tina? No, that's pretty much that we've spent about seven. minutes on this, so I think I want to get some other leave the return. Yeah, we better go to our next caller.

Yeah. Ladies, the 50 bucks is a thing. So if you're a first-time caller, please call in and get you $50. Thanks, Tina. Thank you so much, Tina. Remember what Tina is reminding our listeners, lady listeners, give us a call toll-free at 877-960

or you can text us at 772-497-3530. And ladies, you can win yourself $50 for the first two new lady callers. And we're going to go straight to John from Palm City. Hello, John. Good morning to everyone. Now we see the Super Bowl of 2019, Ford versus Tesla. Why Ford involved?

Well, last week we announced a Ford Mustang, which is an SUV, total electric. A little history on Mustang, jealousy of everybody, the number one selling car ever in 64 when it came out 1 million cars was sold in 18 months their 40th anniversary which was 204 they sold 300 million

and in August of last year they sold 500 million now keep in mind with Ford the F-150 truck is number one selling in America for 40 years straight so I guess Tesla's sake we better get in on that

but I'll tell you what they got egg in their face said yesterday, especially with not rehearsing properly. And they should just learn maybe from the General Motors. I think it's the coach company that builds it for the president, the limos. I think it's Peterson that has totally bulletproof limousines. I think they build it for Ford also. So it's an interesting thing. But right now, the way it stands for every total electric car that's sold,

one out of two is sold by Tesla. but they're having their problems. But like everything else, it's the car of the future. It'll get straightened out. If everybody knew what was going on, there was a California couple that were rear-ended on the interstate in California, and the car was not able to be used. So they ordered the body shop, ordered the parts,

a trunk and the whole back, and Tesla said you're going to have to wait two months for the parts to repair it. their insurance company, the person that hit them, they got a hold of the government, even the DOT, and they said, we're not paying for two months for a rental. So they put pressure on Tesla, and within two weeks, the parts were delivered, but they wanted the repair shop to wait a full two months to get the cars for the Tesla. And also, you're reading about the batteries. They do go on fire, even when the car is not on. But they'll get all. all these things straighten out, and eventually these are the cars to the future.

Here they are today, and a guy like Chuck Sumer in Washington even has a bill proposed by 2014 that all the automobiles that were built will be total electric cars, so we'll take it from here, but it was a very embarrassing thing for Tesla on Thursday night, and people won't forget that. It was all over the news and I'm sure there's everybody saw that. So I just want to mention why there's a race against Tesla and Ford

and Ford has taken a big chance with the Mustang, especially that model because everybody remembers Ford in the past with the Ford Oh God, how come I can't think of that out of time now.

They're Ford. Thunderbird. The Edsel? diesel. But Ford won all out announcing a week ago that this total electric Mustang, by the way, it's an SUV. So we'll see what happens, but there really trucks now, total electric

they're talking about, all the manufacturers, so we'll see what the oil goes, but there's a lot of things that have to be straightened out, including the states that are punishing people that registered as electric car, and they're punishing by charging extra fees on a registration because they're losing their gas taxes on it. Well, John, I tell you got a good scope on the industry there. You're absolutely right about Ford and Tesla.

Interestingly enough, as a question, if you talk to Wall Street, whether either one of those companies will be around in 10 years, but they're in the race. And it could be some obscure company that wins the race. It'll be a software company. Google might be a dominate. the auto industry goes. Or Apple.

Yeah, or Apple, yeah. So it's all about software. It's all about technology. And Ford struggling financially. And, of course, we all know that Tesla is struggling financially. And it's anybody against, I think if you go to Las Vegas and check the odds, it's probably less than 50-50 that either company is going to survive. Absolutely.

But we have to credit Ford. We're the only one that didn't ask for the bailout. when we had the recession in 2,008. Exactly, exactly, yeah. GM took the bill out, and now it looks like they might be going down for the count again. So a lot of taxpayer dollars that were wasted on that one. A lot of problems in the auto industry. Yeah, exciting, exciting.

Exciting to be a part of it. Well, thanks so much, John. Facing your seat belts. We're going to be watching. Exactly. Thank you so much. Have a great weekend. Happy Thanksgiving.

You too. Thank you. Bye. Rick, I have a question for you with the exterior of that cyber truck that's built from stainless steel of aluminum. How does that affect the crash worthiness of this vehicle? Depends on what their structure is underneath. I mean, we've got cars out there now with the body panels are plastic. So the big drawback you're going to see that I would think is the same thing you had with the Dolorean back in the 80s. one little dent and it's

replace a panel because you can't straighten it back out and make it look right. What was it truck? Was it stained and steel or was it aluminum? I think it's aluminum skin on that. Yeah, the F-150 is aluminum and they were talking a lot

about that being a dud because of the fact that they switched to aluminum. Yeah, there's a whole, like in our body shop, there's a whole, you have to get trained on aluminum body repair. It's totally different from the traditional body repair. The thing is the difference with the Ford F-150 is it's painted. So at least you can do some Bondo filler or paint, but stainless steel or just bare aluminum.

You could still do a bit of shade tree body work and smooth it out with a body filler and get rid of little dense and imperfections. But when it first came out, everybody was laughing at them saying, nobody's going to buy an aluminum truck. And they do. It's still the best selling truck in the world. You've cut down the weight on their basic body panels on the outside. side of a vehicle are more decoration and anything else. Yeah, but a truck is a, it's a little bit like a Jeep. It's an emotional macho thing.

It is. You don't think of an attractive young lady driving a truck. You think of a macho guy with a bunch of tattoos. I'd picture you driving a truck. I'd picture you driving a car on his face. He's, you know, he's a rough guy. And aluminum is kind of almost a feminine metal and steel. You know, you've got to add the steel.

And though they were wrong. So the tough guys were buying the aluminum. F-150s, still number one. That's right. Because you couldn't see. Back to the Cybertruck, in the reviews that I read, they were questioning the underlying materials that it was made out of. So there's a whole lot of questions. At any rate, that's our thoughts on the Cybertruck.

Ladies and gentlemen, give us a call toll-free at 877-960-960, or you can text us at 772530. And please, WWW, anonymous, Your... anonymous feedback.com take advantage of it we'd love to hear from you and you remain anonymous Howard give me a call back and we're going to go to Michael who's calling from Pennsylvania good morning Michael hey Michael we got you there morning thanks for taking good morning good morning good morning what can we do for you this morning Michael oh boy well we got through with the echo satellite echo now we got the we dropped the callers problem but we'll attack that too this is what makes this show so

interesting you never know what's going to happen next very true uh Howard I apologize I think you were on hold just a little longer than I wanted you to be and Michael we apologize for dropping that call give us a call back um like I said earlier the show is live anything can happen 877 960 99 Well, this must be a really great show because if I were out in the radio land, I wouldn't listen to this damn show. I mean, it's like a comedy corner. Every week we swear we're going to get the technology fixed. We came in the studio this morning.

Poor Jonathan was running around here. I thought he was going to have a heart attack because nothing was working. And then we start the show, and I'm hearing a satellite delay, and the guy from the control of them comes running in. And now we're dropping callers. I mean, we must be amazing for you to continue to try to watch and listen to this show. I had to give, I had to ask Jonathan to change his shirt right here in the studio. I mean, I don't know if you guys saw this on live camera, but I had an extra shirt for him because he was perspiring. Jonathan is normally unflappable, and he was flapping this morning.

Do we have any texts? Do we have any texts? Anybody have anything to say about the auto industry? Let's get back to business. We got some texts. here. All right. Well, first, before I read the text, I do want to implore everybody. Please, if you're having a hard time with the phones, text us at 772-497-6530, or you can ask questions on Facebook.com or, like Nancy already mentioned, Your Anonymous Feedback.com. It comes right to us. We answer the

questions on the air, and that way you don't have to deal with some of the technical issues. And we're going to go straight to Michael. Michael, thank you so much for calling. back from Pennsylvania. I hope it warmed up a little bit. You don't really think... Yeah, I knew that wasn't going to work. You don't really think Michael's there, do you? Are you there, Michael? Of course not. Hey, I'm here. Hi, Michael. Hey. I've taken my call last week.

We're a little crazy here this morning. That's okay. Yeah, but it's pretty cold where you are. It's very cold. It's 25 degrees right now. Yeah. Okay. What's up, Michael? Question about my 2019 Camry, L.A, if you don't mind. I bought it six months ago, and I've noticed ever since maybe two weeks after purchasing it,

and I was on vacation for the first two weeks, so I didn't really get to drive it much. But I noticed that it seemed like, and this is my first time with a Camry, but it felt like the car fishes for gears a lot. and it feels like sometimes it upshifts or downshifts in kind of a jerky way. And when I took it back to the dealership and had this senior technician go on a test drive with me, with him driving, he said that that's normal for what they consider, it's considered normal for the 8-speed transmission that they said the Camry put in, the Toyota put in the Camry in 18. and they did hook it up to a computer and test it and check it,

and they said there were no issues. But what I was feeling is just because of the 8-speed transmission and getting better fuel economy and better performance. And I just wanted to see if you thought that was true or if you thought maybe they're kind of selling you a bill of goods. Well, we got Rick sitting right beside me, Michael, and he is an expert. He's also a senior technician,

and I'm sure he has a lot of experience with exactly what you're referring to. Thank you. Hi, Michael. I'm guessing that part of what you're feeling is when you're coming to a stop and you get down to where you're almost at a dead stop or even just hit a dead stop and then suddenly you need to hit the gas and go again, the car feels like it just suddenly bucks and jerks, right? You're describing the car like you're sitting next to them.

As a matter of fact, I just got a 19 Rav4 from, my wife that actually has the same transmission and we had the same issue going on and my wife kept looking at me in horror thinking that I was going to blame her driving for it. There is an update that just came out November 1st. It's a reflash for the computer. They had it out for early October for the RAVs and it has just now November 1st come out for the Camry with that same transmission. it makes a world of difference, a huge difference. Believe it or not, probably a quarter of the time now that we repair cars, most of the repairs are being done with a computer.

We go in, it changes the way the car operates and makes a big, huge difference. But this one, I can assure you, you're going to feel it almost immediately when you start driving the car again. Just swing in at your dealership. you're going to need to give them about two, two and a half hours of time to perform this update and test drive the car to make sure everything's gone in properly. But they're going to reprogram the computer and you're going to see a big, big difference on the way the car operates. Just let them know that you saw the technical service bulletin on the reflash for the Camry transmissions and they'll be able to get you taken care of. Thank you, Rick. Does that answer your question, Michael? It definitely does. A real quick question, follow-up. I wrote down everything you just said,

but a real quick question, for the six months or so that I've had the vehicle in the 5,000 miles that I put on it with some of those jerky sensations and weird shifts, do you think it could have done any damage to the transmission? No, because the transmissions themselves are extremely bulletproof. And I kind of hesitate to use that word, seeing as what Tesla just did. But it is incredibly rare that we actually wind up replacing a transmission in Toyotas lately. And I've been a Toyota technician for 25 years. We almost never replace transmissions. The few times that we get these updates, and actually it's a lot more now, we do a lot of updates.

But it seems like the mechanical side of itself works great. It's the software computer programming where they need to get the. those adjustments in there, but almost never do we replace the transmission. So I don't think you're going to see any worries with that at all. And I'm one of those that I don't consider getting rid of a vehicle until it's at least 200,000 miles, and we've gotten at least 10 or 12 years use out of it. So I feel very confident that that reflash, you're going to love this car again, and everything's going to be right for you. Thank you, Rick. Yeah, it's annoying to me that all the manufacturers, including

Toyota, put these cars out on the road. They sell them new, and they haven't gotten the bugs out. I've seen more of this. I've been a dealer for over 50 years, and I've seen more of this selling cars premeditatively knowing their issues with them, and then only reacting when the

customers complain to come up with a fix. But fortunately, as Rick said, these fixes are a lot easier now because they're mostly software related, and they say, you just plug it in, and the computer automatically changes the computer in your car and you're good to go. So it won't be a long repair and I'm glad that there was a fix for it. It's annoying to me because a car dealer, because I am a dealer today, when we have

to say to a customer, this is the way they all behave. It's like saying you bought a product and all the products are bad so there's nothing you can do about it. Well, there's something I can do. A Toyota owner can buy a Honda and a Honda owner can buy a Subaru. So when you do this, you lose business and I don't like the way Toyota operates or the other manufacturers. They should get the bugs out before they sell the car. Absolutely. Dave and Howard, if you're listening, please call back, back to Earl. So, Michael, I hope we answered your question, and love to have you call back next week after you take it to the dealer and see if you're satisfied and happy with the way that

Toyota Cameron 2019 runs. I would love to, and thanks for putting my mind at ease. I was definitely worried about it. Thanks for the call, Michael. Take care. Thank you, Michael. Give us a call again. Let us know what's going on again to Dave and Howard. Sorry for the wait and the interruptions.

Give us a call back. Please, I'd love to hear from you. The number is 877-960-9960, or you can text us at 772-497-39-30. We have a whole lot to get to, and as you can hear, we're having a whole lot of fun this morning, and we're getting through, well, a few little things that are going on in the studio, and we hope you'll bear with us now back to, oh, Howard, good morning. Howard, did you get back successfully? Howard tried to get back, but I guess we lost it again.

Good morning, Howard. Good morning. Oh, wonderful. It's good to hear from you. I thought I'd never get through. Oh, thank you. Okay. I hope you all doing well.

We are, in spite of the technical circus that we're enduring here at true oldies. I think my question was answered, but I'll ask Rick again. Rick, when do you think the internal combustion engine will see its last days? December 17, 2008. actually um no that sounds that sounds plausible yes it's as odd as that sounds i would say probably within the next two decades internal combustion engines will go the way of the horse and buggy yes they will go down to the point where they'll they'll still be around forever we're never going to see them go away just like there are still steam locomotives you know coal-fired steam locomotives and wood-burning

steam locomotives out there. You're never going to see them go totally away because people will always want that for the nostalgia and there will be those that want them forever. But you're going to see a dramatic decrease within the next couple decades. And I think we're going to start seeing electric is going to be one of the number one forms of propulsion. And I think the biggest difference we're going to see is the world infrastructure for creating electricity is going to have to step up and make changes because you're going to see some big differences, such things as electric roads, where the vehicle can actually be charged and powered while it's driving on the road.

So I'm looking at the future with a big, optimistic open mind, but hopefully it's not just a Pollyanna dream, but I think we're going to see some cool stuff. I think Earl and I will not see that day, but I don't know how old you are, but I think you You may see it, but, I know, Nancy's definitely going to see it. Yeah, Rick will see it. Earl and I are just about the same age, so. Howard, there was an article in the paper today about, or yesterday, I think, about a gas station owner, and this was in the, I think it was an AP article, that actually quit selling gas and changed over

entirely the battery charging. He's got to be in California or someplace like that, but he literally did it. He says he was fed up with gasoline and all the problems, and now he's probably the only multi-plug charger station anywhere in his area. It'd be interesting to see how it works out for him. Okay, another question I have to ask you. I got a call

from a young lady that says she was from Earl Stewart and she asked me why I didn't do my service. I said I did and I also got a postcard saying to do it and I already had done it. Then

she said to me, she wanted my email. I said, why? Toyota has my email. I didn't send you coupons. She sounded like she knew what she was doing. She didn't ask me for my Social Security number. Did she ask you for a date? I hope so. That's called bad business and it's very annoying. If it happened to me, I'd be annoyed. You know, we get desperate. I mean, I say we as I'm speaking cumulatively as a businessman. And we say, how's the service business? And our service business has been off. And so we take steps, and I'm not in the detail, the day-to-day management of the company.

I'm more of a strategic overseer. But apparently somebody made a decision to try to beef up our service business, and they must have either hired some people or employed an outside company to make phone calls. And to call a customer like you who has already been in for service and saying, when you come in for service. We knew you were in service in our computer, but we just didn't have the ability to check, and it was just an annoying mistake. Thanks for telling me, Ard, because feedback is what helps us improve, and I apologize for the annoyance, and thanks for the feedback. That's quite all right, and it's a pleasure to talk to you guys, and guys have a good day.

Well, thanks for being so persistent. I can't believe you tried as hard as you did to get back. You call us two or three times, and you're a real loyal. listener and the average listener would have given up a long time ago and we're going to keep on trying to get the phones fixed at true oldies and the streaming fixed and the microphones fixed and the everything else fixed but it's a work in progress but I hope I stay alive long enough to see it happen kind of like the all-electric car happy Thanksgiving Howard same to you happy Thanksgiving okay bye bye bye you next week.

Sounds good, Howard. Absolutely. Dave, if you're listening, give us a call back. I'd love to hear from you. And remember, we have that mystery shopping report coming up from Advantage Ford in Stewart. And again, I'll remind the ladies, give us a call toll free. This time of year, you can use the $50. First, two, new lady callers, you win yourself $50.

That number, again, is $1.00. 877, 960, 9960, or you can text us at 772-4976530. Remember, your anonymous feedback.com. We'd love to hear from you. You do remain anonymous. Now back to the recovering car dealer. I think Rick has a YouTube, don't you ever there, Rick? As a matter of fact, we do.

And this one, you're going to love this one. Fred Durham is asking $16,000 out the door, on a brand new 2020 Corolla at Sun Toyota. Do you think they're being truthful? Nope. There's a website for that. You know, it was a YouTube, Fred was his name? Fred Durham.

Fred, yeah, Fred. Thanks very much. Rich Bright, I love that. You know, here's a sad fact, and this is for all you listeners, there is not an automobile dealer advertisement that you can believe. And it's an interesting phenomenon. all the cars cost the same price to the dealer. I don't care if you sell 1,000 cars a month or 10 cars a month.

All car dealers buy their cars from the manufacturer at the same price. All the cars are the same. 2019 Camry, L.E. is the same. If you buy it in Kansas or Florida or California or any place else, not technically speaking about California. But anyway. Unless it's a used car. Uh-oh.

My point being, my point being that there is no way, for a car dealer to sell a car based on price unless he lies to you. Think about it. If a car dealer told you his true price, his competition would beat that price by a few dollars, and then that dealer's competition would beat his price by a few dollars, and these honest prices would drive the selling price down to the point where the dealer would lose money. So there's only one way to sell this product, these automobiles that are all the same and bought at the same cost to lie about the advertised price. So any car dealer is advertising a new corolla for $16,000 is a liar. Out the door. Exactly. Okay. That's a... Yeah. So sue me, all you dealers out there,

and we got some local dealers advertising it for the same price. So you local dealers that are advertising new corollas for $16,000, I'm calling you a liar on live radio. And if I'm, and if I'm libeling or slandering you, then you can sue me. Thank you so much. Roberto, Hopefully you're still there Roberto Roberto Russo from Jupiter Good morning Roberto can you hear us

Are you there Sorry for the wait Roberto give us a call back please We'd love to hear from you Yeah we don't know whether they get disconnected Or sometimes we can't always get to the callers And there's a little bit of a delay And sometimes we go on just a little bit

too long. So give us a call. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-65-3-0. Yeah, I'm almost the point now where I'm going to say, forget about the telephone calls. We'll see what happens, but we're losing more callers than we're gaining the text is the way to get through. And Stu's got a whole bunch of texts. And the text number one more time is there you code 772-497-6530. So that's 772-497-6-5-30, and now we can get to some of those texts. Stu, I'm going to interrupt you for a second because I have a text that's very unusual. And it is from a young lady in South Carolina who took her vehicle into service. What she decided to do was to put a recording device in her glove box.

And she says, although that's a bit unconventional, she decided to. to do it anyway. So after getting her car back, she realized that the techs were trying to get her to pay for a new clutch, and they had taken the car out for a drive. She also adds to that that there are a lot of great mechanics out there, and you really have to do your homework, unlike her. She did not do her homework. She was visiting another state, and she decided just to walk in with her car. Thank you so much, Sally, for the text. Much appreciated.

We're going to go to Roberto, who's calling back. Roberto from Jupiter. Good morning. Hi, good morning. Hey. Doesn't sound like Roberto. Oh, Roberta. We have Roberta.

Roberta. Roberto Russo. Hi. Yes. Okay. Good morning. Are you a first-time caller? Yeah.

Oh, great. Would you please? send me your contact information by text 772-4976530 and I'll get that checkout to you thank you so much I love your show I've learned a lot and I recently bought a used SUV which I love and it's black inside and black leather seats and now I'm wondering it might be pretty hot in the summers or certain brand will the seat covers help if I buy cloth seat covers well sure I mean if you put lighter seat covers on make it actually more visible inside my

I have an all black interior and I can't see anything in there I have to use my iPhone flashlight to read the information on the dials but black is a popular color on SUV and it's good for resale value they are definitely warmer during the summer, but I don't think it's going to hurt your resale value. I think the lighter seat covers will certainly help. Oh, good. Any certain brand or just any good quality? Rick, I've got a point.

I would look into a company called Wet O'Cole. It's W-E-T, and then the second word is O-K-O-L-E. And they make seat covers for cars that are a neoprene, almost like wet-suit material, But with a fabric cover, they're extremely durable. They look awesome, and they fit so snug on the seat, and they're extremely comfortable. Let's give us that name again. Wet O'C-O-C-O-L-E. Spell it.

Okay. O-L-E. Okay. O-L-E. And wet. Wet, like as in wet material. Yeah. And they are also very hydrophobic.

So if you accidentally spill water on them, the water. will almost bead up on the material to where it can be easily wiped up with towels and not sink in or stain very easily. So it's their incredible quality. Sounds comfortable too. Oh, I'm so glad I asked.

So glad. I'm glad we answered. And congratulations on getting through the switchboard because I know you tried multiple times, Roberta. It ain't easy. Well, please call it again. Okay, thank you so much. And don't forget to give your

contact information to us by text, and that text number is 772-497-6530-7-7-4-97-6-5-30, and then Nancy will send you a check for 50 bucks. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. You're very welcome. Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 877-960-9960, where you can text us at 772-497-7-7-4-9-7.

6530. We're going to go straight to John, who's holding, and he's calling, I believe, from Stewart. Good morning, John. Good morning. Welcome. What can we do for you? Well, I have a question about my, in 2004, I bought a brand new Toyota Matrix, XRS, and I put like four clutches. in the thing. So I was wondering if there was something with that model or something, you know, the stick and everything, it's got that veritable valve timing thing

and all that stuff. But was there any issues with those cars or not? Rick Kearney should answer that one. Actually, I've not heard of any major problems with the clutches on the matrix. We don't see a lot of stick shift cars anymore.

I know going back, backaways for it, but I hate to be the kind of point in a finger type, but I would almost wonder it may be the driving operation, you know, as to how you're driving the car. I know some folks can get a lot of life out of a clutch and others, well, sometimes not so much. Well, yeah, that's, okay, that's part of the story that I left out at first. I gave it. My daughter went off to college in 2009, and I gave her that car because it's bright yellow. I figure well, she's coming down the road, people will see her, and the whole thing like this. And so she picked me up to San Diego Airport, and it's kind of like sea level there, and then you go up to get on the five, and you go up this hill.

And I didn't think she was ever going to let out on the clutch. She was smoking it pretty bad. So that was the first one, and then I think she let a girl. from drive it once, but still since then we've put in, she wasn't driving it anymore. It's kind of hard, really. I've never driven a, I've had like a

67, I had a SS-396 Chevelle and I've had some other stick cars, a bunch of old wagons and things. But this one is so hard to get it, you take off from a stoplight or something, to get it to feather out in Joe, it's just it's either like all or

nothing, I don't know. Is that, could you adjust the clutch or or something like that to make it a little bit better? Unfortunately, no, because the clutch is a hydraulically operated control to it, and there's really no adjustment on it. And, I mean, just for the sake of argument, I'm going to throw this out there. I am not the best driver with a stick shift. I'm usually pretty rough on clutches, and yet my wife, this woman could drive a stick shift,

and I bet she could probably get 300,000 miles out of a clutch in a stick shift. She is phenomenal with a stick. So it just comes down to the driver, really. Yeah. Yeah, okay. This is the only car I've ever had that is like that that is just really difficult to get it out all the way.

But okay, that's my question. I hope you guys have better fortune with your technology and everything today. Thank you for your persistence. I appreciate that. I'll tell you what, back in the old days, you know, I'd be screaming at my daughters. You're going to strip the gears. You're going to strip the gears because there was four of us that were, you know, driving this vehicle.

And, well, maybe two of us that were driving it correctly. So, anyway, interesting story, John. Please call again. We'll make it easier for you next week, I think. Yes, sir. Okay, bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

877960 or you can text us at 772-4976530 Sally has just text me again and if you all here sitting with me recall she was talking about the clutch that you know a mechanic wanted to replace and she didn't know them okay she texts me back she wants to know from you Rick she wants to know when she gets home to her state, she wants to know what questions she should ask the mechanic that would reassure her she's chosen the right mechanic? The first thing I would do is ask for ASC certification, and then I would ask for... Tell them what the ASC stands for. It's the automotive, actually it's the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence, and we kind of shorten it down to ASE, and, And basically, these are certification tests that are open for any mechanic to take.

And if you can pass these tests, it shows that you do know your craft a bit. And then ask him how long he's been in business, how long he's been a mechanic. And if he says anything less than the year, then you might have moved on. But ASC certified in transmissions because it's a clutch problem. And also, I'd say, if he's been in the business five years, He probably knows what he's doing. And I'd also ask for some references, other customers that he's worked on, and give him a call. And, of course, although it's not a good resource, you can check him with the Better Business Bureau.

Unfortunately, there's really not a lot of resources for checking on mechanics anymore. Hit the Internet, though, and Google his business name and look and see if there are anybody out there that's made complaints. Okay. Good idea. It's not unheard of for a mechanic to explain what that problem is. No, and a good mechanic should be able to put it in terms that you'll understand and should be very happy and willing to do so, because the best customer is an educated customer.

Absolutely. Okay, we've got a bunch of text over here, it's too, and we need to get to those as quickly as we can. Okay, don't forget, ladies and gentlemen, 877-960-99-60. We're here to take your call and to thank you for being. part of Earl Stewart on cars. You're an important part of the show. Now we're going to get some texts from Stu and get the party going. I feel so neglected. I know. I know. All right, here we go. We've got a bunch of good ones. All right, first one, window tent. What is legal and what isn't?

If I'm looking to buy a used car that already has window tint, how can I be sure that it's legal? I don't want to get pulled over and find. I've never had that question here before. It's a great question. There is a number on the window tent and we actually discovered that a few years ago when Toyota was selling southeast Toyota was distributing cars that had illegal window tent. And we told them about that and they stopped. And mainly because the tent varies from state to state. How many people in Florida go to other states regularly? Sometimes they live half their lives in another state. So when you buy a car, you need to find out what the law is for each state that you drive the car in.

And there's a number, and that number is in state law. And I can't tell you the number in Florida. Maybe we can Google it. I don't know what it is, but I just had an idea. I do know that police officers have a gauge where actually measures the amount of light that's let through. So maybe a friendly police officer could come by and put the sensor on the window to see if it is.

You don't want to get yourself into a trick bag like that. Yeah. Okay. Next one. Earl, what can you report about the? the giant Jeep recall that's in the news right now. 700,000 are affected. Well, I actually

don't know the technical details of the giant Jeep recall. I just know that the jeeps have a lot of recalls and a lot of problems, and they're at the bottom of the list on the reliability and safety and just about every other criteria.

They lead the pack on resale value and popularity. I saw one on the road the other day that I wanted to buy myself. I mean, it was really the coolest Jeep. The gladiator. Is that what it was? It looks like a pickup truck.

Yeah, it could have been. It looks like something from the 40s. So, yeah, you buy a Jeep at your own risk, and the recalls and the maintenance and the cost of repair and the safety and all the other negativity doesn't cause any problems for the Jeep dealers at all. They just keep on selling. That's right. Call ahead first.

Make sure parts are available for any recall and get an appointment and hope that they don't run out of parts before you get in there. Now, safercar.gov, you can go online www.w.safefercar.gov. That goes right to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association website. Put the VIN in of a Jeep that you have, that you're concerned about, and they'll give you all the details. Can you believe all this great information, folks?

Boy, I'll tell you what. We're on a roll this morning. 877-960-99-60, and I'll tell you what. Stu and Rick are ready. They have a lot of texts, a lot of YouTube, so don't go away. Rick? By the way, those numbers on the window tint, for the front windows, it has to be 28% light transmission. For the side windows and the back windows, 15% light transmission. And that's in Florida. So that is for the state of Florida. And according to the state of Florida, you are not allowed to have any tint on the front windshield, except for the first. The first couple inches at the very top.

But just remember, the tent rules are differ from state to state, which, by the way, you legislators listening out there, that's just plain stupid to allow that, and you should have a federal standard. There should be a federal standard for all 50 states. Because otherwise, you buy a car in Georgia and you drive to Florida, and you get arrested, or you get a ticket. Or you got to drive through the state with your windows down. Yeah.

It might be cold. But the legislators don't care about this kind of stuff. Politicians just want to get reelected. You don't care about the important issues like Dakota Airbags or veering laws and states that affect people with safety. That's immaterial. Pardon my cynicism. Let's move along to the next text. That's right.

This is a political show. Yes. Actually, it is in some ways. Back on the recall, I did read it this morning. I don't think anybody's been hurt by it. I think it has to do with ignition starter switches. And so it could stall or not start or something like that. Okay.

the next one. Earl, what do you think about Toyota and California emissions? The governor in California announced California will not buy Toyotas. Do you think Toyota will fold? Is a question, do I think Toyota will give in? I think, yeah, I think will they give in to the, I guess they're going along with the removing California from having their own emission standards. Yeah. And several auto manufacturers, including Toyota are complying with the federal regulations and not doing a special emissions for California. I can only guess. My guess would be the Toyota Woodfold because California is 20% of the United States.

Did you know that? It is. Yeah. It's a huge state. And whatever they do, whether it's wacky or the correct thing, the rest of the United States has to kind of follow. And California is very influential on all the other. other states. It's a sad statement that one state should have that much power, but my guess is Toyota would give in. Well, Gavin Newsom is the governor. I guess all they can restrict

is government purchases. So let's see how much that is if that's an impact. And that would probably help Toyota make their decision. Okay. I was listening to you guys mocking Elon Musk. How easy is it for those of us not putting our necks out there, challenging the conventional and busting norms to point her fingers and laugh. They laughed at Edison, Henry Ford, and Werner von Braun, Brown, too, you know. Oh, Werner von Braun was kind of humorous. No, we laugh, we laugh.

We laugh, it's love. We laugh with love. As a matter of fact, I will say this. I admire and respect Elon Musk. I love smart guys. He's about the smartest guy that there is. He's so smart that he's so smart that he's stupid. meaning he's so smart he doesn't care about the little things I you know

standing up on the national stage yesterday and throwing a steel ball at his new truck and it broke the glass I don't think he cared I thought you know he said he laughed when it happened and he said I guess that tells you we should test these things better and only Elon could say that man let's look at let's look at SpaceX he has got a company that is sending satellites in orbit it's going send a people to Mars. He has a Tesla roadster orbiting the sun folks. So he

is a, he's like an Einstein, he's like a Werner von Braun, he's like an Edison, and we laugh at all these guys, but we laugh with love. I mean, Einstein's hysterical. I mean, some of the things that Einstein did, if you dig into his personal life, he was a

male chauvinist pig. He treated his wife terribly. And that's not funny, but you respect the genius. You can respect the genius. and she'll laugh at the man. Exactly. You know, folks, here we sit, you know, Saturday to Saturday, and who are we laughing at sometimes?

Cardiolis. The smartest man that I know. In fact, Earl Stewart just said that Elon Musk was the smartest man, and I go, whoa, I thought Earl Stewart was the smartest man. And so to the text that Stu just read, we sit here with love, making fun. of the smartest man in the world, and that's Earl Stewart. She's looking for something.

I don't know what it is, but she's set me up. It's going to be interesting. I'll let you know what it was next week after the show. She wants the new Tesla truck. Cybernancy. There you go. Folks, you know me. You know what a big heart I have.

You know I meant that with all my heart. Okay, we've got some more text. They keep coming. Literally, they're popping in one after another. Okay, next one. If Takata airbags are so dangerous, why do you make Mr. Thunder sit in front of them next week after week? Well, it's Agent Thunder, folks. Yeah.

You know, you know. Let's get this straight. You hit a nerve, and I think about it. I really do. I think about that, and whether we really should be. I mean, not only that, it's this car salesperson that's out there. with his life being threatened. I guess you could, I can rationalize

why we do it. We do it for the greater good. The odds against that happening, and during that 20-minute test drive are very small. When you own a car and drive it every day, the odds are much greater. So I rationalize saying Agent

Thunder or the salesperson, whoever is sitting in the front seat, even though it exposed, the danger is minimized. But by doing that and broadcast, it as we do and publicizing it. Hopefully we can save millions of lives by getting the legislatures and the regulators' attention. The lives of the many outweigh the lives of the people. Well, I mean, I know it sounds terrible. And I was going to say I probably have driven cars

with dangerous airbags and not even realized it because this Takata threat came out before a lot of people even knew about it. I mean, nobody, when they discovered the problem, they had already been millions of cars built, and people are driving them with no warning whatsoever. But that's a good question. Thank you. Okay. The next text, Jonathan from Wellington. Why was the Toyota Solarra convertible discontinued?

Yes, I'll second. Why? Why? And are there currently any Toyota convertibles available with automatic transmission? And I can address the second part of the question, which is, unfortunately, no, there are no Toyota convertibles. automatic or standard transmission. Yeah.

Sad. The first part of the question is, you know, I tell customers, I just say jokingly, it was the biggest mistake Toyota ever made because we have a huge demand for solar convertables in Florida and all the Sun Belt states it's a heck of a popular car. Convertibles in general are not as popular as they were. Convertible is a less safe car than a hard top. And it's a business decision. Toyota is a worldwide business.

I'm not sure whether convertibles are popular in Europe or Asia. I don't know. But Toyota is a business, and they're in business to make a profit, and they see proliferation of models and make different types of cars, and they have to decide. All the manufacturers are trying to minimize the number of models. And unfortunately, Salara bit the bullet and had to go down because of economics. Yeah, look at the celica.

I mean, please bring the celica back. but Earl hit all the points, and it was logical. We're going to go to Victoria, who I believe is a first-time caller from West Palm Beach. Good morning. Hello. Hello. Hello. Good morning.

I have a question. Are you a first-time caller, Victoria? Yes, I've never called before because the friend of mine told me that I could ask a question. You can, Victoria, but first I'm going to tell you. to leave your information, your contact information, at 772-497-6530 so I can send you a $50 check. Oh, nice. Okay. What's your question?

Let me write that number again. Well, my question is, the tire monitor system on a 2014 GM, Z71, we changed the tire. reason or another, the tire system light doesn't want to turn off. How do you turn off the warning lights like that? Rick? Normally, all you have to do is get the tire pressure set high enough. However, the sensor itself may have been damaged during the tire replacement, and if that's the case, then that sensor would have to be replaced. You might wind up having to go see a GMC dealership to have that light turned off or to double check to make sure that. sure that that sensor's reading properly.

Oh, okay. All righty. I didn't know if it was that, you know, that big of a thing that changed it's higher. But all right. That answers my question. You might even try Googling it, Victoria. Sometimes these answers are right there, maybe with a chat room for your particular main model GMC.

And most of the cars also, they'll have a button on the dash. that you may need to press and hold that button in order to set it off to turn that light back off also. Check your owner's manual for that and you should be able to find information or the easy way again, just Google it. Oh, okay. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you, Victoria. If you'll text your contact information to 772, 4976530. Oh, that's 772. 497 297

6530 772 972 4976530 Nancy will send you a check for 50 bucks Oh wow How nice Victoria? Spread the word

please We need more We need more lady callers We're trying to build a platform here for the ladies Okay Wonderful Happy Thanksgiving

Oh happy Thanksgiving to YouTube. Be safe. Bye-bye. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-30. I think we're going to go back to Stu because he has a lot of text to catch up to. Indeed. Next one. Saturn's.

What is the material on the Saturn bodies that made it undetectable? Were we talking about Saturn's when I went to the bathroom? No, I don't know about what is meant by Saturn's. being undetectable. Maybe by radar from police? I don't know. They're stealth. I don't think they were stealth vehicles.

But there's a second part to the question. It just adds good quality sheepskin covers are the best way to reduce hot seats during the summer and cold seats during the winter. The sheep will verify that. That's right. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry, that was the information from Roberta.

And the next one is, my name is, Earl? No, I'm sorry. Okay, what additional expense is there to a four-wheel-drive vehicle, including tires? Burke? Depending upon the usage about the only thing would be around 100,000 miles, changing the fluid in the front differential in the transfer cases. How about fuel economy?

Fuel economy is, of course, going to go a little bit down because obviously you've got more moving parts and heavier components on there. And four-wheel drive vehicles are usually built a bit heavier duty in order to handle off-road. Of course, if you're off-driving in the mud and sand a lot going off-road, that can have an effect on the front brakes and other components

because of the additional wear and tear from the sand and mud getting up in there. And I guess in the old days, or the older four-wheel drives, probably maintenance and repair was a little higher. Maybe not today. Some of the older ones it was, but modern, they're pretty much the same as the others. It's just the stuff like the environmental issues that hit it. Gotcha.

Okay, so what's next to? Moving along. I have a question. Not me. This is the texter says, I have a question. Why is it that EVs, electric vehicles, such as the Tesla, have much more responsive acceleration than ICE vehicles, otherwise internal combustion engine vehicles. It's the electric motor.

Absolutely. The simple answer there is that electric motors, the instant they get power applied to them, they have 100% full torque, and that torque is applied immediately to the ground. Well, the combustion engine, internal combustion engine, there's a lot of things that have to happen before the power is delivered to the wheels, and you have to have a, uh, uh, uh, A little spark and you have to have an explosion and you have to have the pistons driven and you have the camshafts and you got all kinds of stuff going on. But with electric motor, an electric motor, it's a picture a coil of copper wire inside of a magnet or with magnets on both sides. And so as soon as you turn the copper wire, it's instantaneous power.

It's just, and it's continuous, and it's like no transmission is even needed. It's the most amazing phenomenon. The electric motor has been around for a long, long time, and it is just the best motor that you can possibly have. Well, that's why locomotives, trains, basically the diesel engine is simply a generator to create electricity. Trains are driven by electricity. It's simple, clean, powerful. It's like the obvious answer to transportation anywhere. So it's almost like a miracle beast.

Exactly. It reminds me when I was a kid, I would have these remote control cars. They're battery powered. And when you accelerated them, they took off like a rocket ship. And I used to always wonder why, yeah, we're like, you know, why doesn't daddy's car go that fast? But anyway, so, you know, flash forward 30, 40 years, we have Teslas, and that's what's happening. They're like a little RC cars. Yeah.

Pretty cool. All right. Next text. Good morning, Earl. She actually wrote girl and then corrected it to Earl. I don't think that was... When I was a kid, I would say, Earl is a girl with a pretty little curl right in the middle of his four and not get into a fight. Right, exactly.

That's why your nose is busted. Okay, any recommendations on a cardiolorship in San Diego, California? Thank you, kind of regards. Well, I'll do a little plug for the only cardiolorship in the San Diego area that I know, and that is Toad of Carlsbad and Lexus of Carlsbad. And we happen to know the owner and the general manager there very well, and they're a pretty good dealership. And just tell them, Stu Stewart or Earl Stewart recommended it as you go in there, and they'll give you the red carpet treatment. Exactly. The general manager's name is Ivan Mendelsso, and he is a great guy, and he knows us well.

So tell him that we told you that you could get a great deal from him. Yeah. All right. And we're caught up with text, but we also have some comments on Facebook. And Carl says, my 2018 Chrysler 300 has firestorm. Stone Firehawk GTV tires with regular rotations. I only got 18,000 plus miles on them. The dealership will not rotate them due to low tread.

Sounds unacceptable to me. Your thoughts? Well, first of all, when you wear tires that fast, assuming it was even where it's probably because it had a very low tread wear index. And that's marked on the side of your tire. And the lower it is, the softer your rubber in the tire is, and the faster it wears. So you can have a treadwear index of 200, and those babies will wear out overnight.

You can get a treadwear index as high as what, Rick, 600, 800 treadware index? I've seen 800 as the maximum. Yeah. They ride a little rougher, a little harder, but those treads will go. You can get 60, 70,000 miles on a set of tires, but you'd be bouncing a lot. So I recommend something in the middle, like a 400 or 500 treadwear index, and that way you get pretty good wear, 35, 45,000. thousand miles and uh that's what i would ask for uh to replace those tires was that the question

what he should ask for just or just the thoughts uh yeah and you you you delivered yes thank you uh the next one is uh from steve on facebook he says when you get to the dealer fee we learn that new york limits the dealer fee to seventy five dollars we looked at infinity and stewart the dealer fee was like eight ninety nine typical fee in new jersey of six hundred so it came as a surprise um at New York are restricting the dealer fee to $75. That's like California. That is just because they have some good oversight by the legislature, some good oversight by their consumer groups,

and they did something very intelligent. You know, you talked about the dealer in Stewart with an $899 dealer fee. That was just a dealer fee you could identify. Most car dealers in Florida have multiple dealer fees by different names. I've tried to stop calling them dealer fees because the dealers are jumping on that bandwagon and advertising no dealer fee. That means he's calling his dealer fee something else, like a notary fee or a dock fee or a tech agency fee. So I bet you the dealer in Stewart with a $899 dealer fee has got another hidden fee that he named something else. Yeah, we are caught up a text.

Okay. How about you, Rick? Any more YouTube's? well we've got a couple here one I'm trying to decipher just a little bit but we'll get the first one in here sung Sam he texted us

earlier a couple weeks ago about a lease that he was looking at I couldn't possibly be the real son of Sam sung uh... sung S-U-N-G It's an amalgamation of Samsung He just kind of reversed him there No

Or maybe he's in jail It could still be in prison I'm not sure Anyway, I'm just... That's a real knee slapper. Thank you. He just recently leased a 2000-2020 Accura RX, and this is in Texas, and he got it $17,000 for a three-year, 36,000-mile lease with extra wear and tear protection and extra wheel and tire protection on the car. and he wants to know, how can he double check to make sure that he didn't get cheated or ripped off in that deal?

Well, I can tell you, you did get ripped off. They should have disclosed this to you up front in the lease. Was that a one-pay lease? Is that $17,000? Sounds like it. I think that's what he was looking at. Yeah. One-pay lease, obviously, for those who haven't heard of them, you just pay all your lease payments up front.

And I'm very dubious about that. I don't think that's a good idea. I would rather make my lease payments monthly. But anyway, if there's something included in the lease that you didn't ask for, you were ripped off. And a lot of car dealers do that. You need to read these things carefully. And installment sales contracts and lease contracts are huge. You know, it'll take you 20 minutes to read one of them.

But be careful, deals with somebody that you trust, and be sure there's no extras that you didn't know about. All right. We got another text that popped in. Okay. It's from Steve in New Jersey. If I were to replace a factory order with a new car dealer, I want to an order Mercedes-Benz, what are the potential cost savings for the dealer knowing this could help me and my negotiations? So in other words, if he wants to do a special order from the factory, does that reduce the cost to the dealer and should it be passed along to him in terms of savings?

No, there's no cost savings to the dealer or to you when you special order a vehicle. there's a much longer weight and there's also the fact that there could be a price change and you need to find out when you special order vehicle what is going to be the effect if the manufacturer decides to have a dealer cash incentive or a customer cash incentive

or maybe even a price increase so be sure that you when you're a special order vehicle it might take you know a month or two to get firm the price up but you're negotiating and you have the power at that point. Say if there's a price reduction, it'll be passed along to you.

And if there's a price increase, it won't be passed along to you. I think you could probably negotiate that. But do that any time you order a vehicle. Okay. Okay, excuse me. We're going to go to Henry, who's holding. Henry's calling from Jupiter. Good morning, Henry.

Hey, Henry. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. How are you? Great. A couple questions. Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of the Tundra pickup truck, but I am in the market for a new pickup truck, and I stopped into your dealership to see if you had any type of depiction of what a bad car purchase contract would look like, and by that I mean someone who has a variety of dealer fees camouflaged under different names.

I did find that you had one Palm Beach Toyota depiction in the used car showroom, and it only showed, I think, the dealer fee, which was obvious. It didn't really, it didn't have any of the, you know, the license plate that cost $500 or the notary fee that costs, you know, whatever, $300. I was wondering if you have one of your contracts depicted that, you know, that's, you know, It shows what should be there, what you call it, and how much it generally should be. Well, yeah, the contracts, Stu. Well, I can, on the Palm Beach Toyota Barrage Order, we do have two of those displayed at the dealership as an example of the type of fees that you need to watch out for.

It does have a, I believe, an electronic filing fee or private aid. I forgot what they refer to. I'm looking for the file on my computer. it's not just the actual the $999.99.95 dealer fee. We should put our buyer's orders up in a show them, even though we do have them in physical form. I'm being very careful not to make this a commercial, but there are zero fees itemized on our buyer's order, so there's none of that. But on the Palm Beach Toyota and most car dealers, they typically have more than one. One's a big, large one that they're going to call a dock fee or dealer prep or just went through.

this with a text question, but the other ones, what we call the mini-dealer fees, other hidden fees, there's private tag agency fee, electronic filing fee, sometimes we even see dock stamps or a small amount, like $10 or $20. And the new popular term is taxable fees. A lot of the car dealers, instead of even naming them, they just call them taxable fees, and that could be one, two, three, or four, whatever they decide, and it's profit. You know, a hidden fee is pure profit. to the dealer. It's a fee to nobody. It's just profit to the dealer.

And they do it any way they can disguise it to add to the quoted price that you see. Right. Well, I was actually looking for one of yours, and I had a little difficulty into one of your used car selling showed me his purchase contract for his wife's vehicle and let me copy your definitive seven or eight. seven or eight bullet points of fees that are required. Well, I'm glad you told me that, Henry. That was, we should have given you a copy of our vehicle buyer's order.

And if you want to, we'll, I'll be able to email you one right after the show. If you'll give your contact information to me, you can text it to me to keep it private. And if you'll, if you give me your contact information, text it to 772. 4976530, that's 772, 4976530, and as soon as the show's over, which is over at 10 o'clock, between 10 and 11, I'll text you a copy of our vehicle buyer's order. I apologize that I used car salesman did not give it to you. You should have. We're very proud of our buyersman. In the new car showroom, I started on the north end of the building. There's a circular desk there.

started there and I ended up in use cars. But anyway, next question is that I'm going for a GMC pickup truck and I see that there's quite a bit of a variance from the manufacturers suggested, I love that word, suggested retail to the actual cost of the car.

So looking at a $60,000 vehicle, what might be a true and accurate bottom line price on something that has a manufacturer's suggested retail for $60,000? Henry, unfortunately, there's no simple answer to that because the markup varies tremendously from truck to truck car to truck

SUV a MSRP can be marked up as little as 10 percent it can be marked up as much as 50 percent so what you have to do is you need to pick the truck that you want to buy go to schumacher GMC truck and then you go to del Rey GMC truck then you go to the GMC truck dealer in Stewart, get at least three prices on the exact same your-make model truck and take the lowest one. That is the only way you can't play the dealer's game of

how much is the discount percentage or how much is the markup they can outwit you with that. One thing they can't out with you on is competitive pricing and that'll get you your best deal. Yeah, and one last thing about true car, some cars are not available on true car.

that's true there are certain manufacturers that are prohibiting the dealers by contractual order they say Toyota is one of them they said the Toyota's told the Toyota dealers

that we cannot advertise or put on true car a price below dealer invoice is against the rules Honda does the same thing and what that means is two thirds of the cars we price below invoice

so we're prohibited by Toyota which I think is terrible and I think it's terrible for Honda and the other dealers that do that manufacturers that do that we should be able to put any price we want in an advertisement they're artificially raising the price of the cars when they do that

but that's an excellent observation true car does not have all the accurate pricing they should have well the Denali for one is not even available as a You know, when you search on Truecar for a GMC Denali, you can't build that car. You could build a Sierra truck, but you can't do the Denali. If the dealer doesn't choose to put it on True Car, then it won't be on True Car.

True Car exists when they have an arrangement with a dealer, and the dealers have to participate. Stu's got a point. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm going back. I've been frantically searching for copies of Buy Resorters. Oh, okay. But I can jump back to it on the Palm Beach Toil. at a buyer's order, they break out a $99 and $95 pre-delivery service charge, and then $129.95

cent electronic registration filing fee. So those are the two what we call the hidden fees on the Bombay Shots buyer's order. Okay, Henry. You sound like you're doing your homework. You're an educated consumer, and I think you're going to get a good deal on that GMC pickup. Thank you. Good luck. Call us back. Let us know how it went. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Okay, give us a call. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6-530.

Remember, we have that mystery shopping report coming up, and you can also take advantage of www.com Your Anonymous Feedback.com. And I want to share a text from Sarah Jane from Pittsburgh. She's not looking for a new car, and she says that she knows. knows that there are a lot of options installed at the factory. But Earl, can you tell her how many options are installed to boost a dealer profit? Every dealer has, I say, virtually every dealer has a dealer addendum and they put on as many as they feel like they can get away with. We had a Kia dealer one time that had a, was it a $10,000 dealer?

addendum I think that's the world's record thousand is common 1500,000 2,000 they'll put in nitrogen in the tires pinstripes window tent flora mats road hazard insurance you know just whatever your imagination you come up with they will add dealer installed accessories to pump the price up okay Sarah Jane thanks for the text and keep listening all right we got a bunch okay let's go let's go rapid fire we don't want to miss it Excuse me, we have Bobby Holding from Jupiter. Hello, Bobby. Hey, Bobby, we still got you there?

Hi, yes. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. I just had an idea while you were talking about True Car and Denali and the prices being available. Maybe on your website, you could start having a what I paid for my car sort of section. They used to have that on Edmonds, but. I've noticed in the last year or two, it's significantly fewer entries. And I'm not sure why that is, but I have a feeling it has to do with the auto manufacturers. Used to be you could go almost any car and find people posting from all over the country

what they paid for a Honda Accord, for example, or something. It's gotten a lot harder. I love that idea. And you could just do that sort of regionally, or or nationally, and you might be able to make money on it. You know, you could sell ads once it got a good following, but I think that might be something for one of your

websites, and it could drive traffic. Stu, do you think we could get away with this with Toyota? We're prohibited by advertising a car below invoice, but if Charlie Jones bought a Camry Ali at such and such a price, could Charlie

Jones write us a letter and say this is what he paid for the car? How could we control that? Well, we'd have to have... No, no, I'm saying. How could they get mad at us for somebody's... Exactly. I have a feeling they'll figure out a way

it would be interpreted, but we could always try it. We're going to try it, Bobby, I guarantee. A little slap on the hand and a little slap on the wrist. I love the idea. Love the idea. We'll look into that. Yeah. Like that, Bobby.

Great. There's a lot like Elon Musk sometimes. Thank you, Bob. Thank you. Thank you, Bob. Thank you. Thank you so much. Hey, we're going to go straight.

to Mark and Palm Beach Gardens. Good morning, Mark. Hey, Mark, you there? Good morning. How are y'all doing? Good. Good. Hey, I just really have kind of a comment. I'm sitting here on my patio listening to the show. I haven't had many opportunities. I always think about it after you guys are off the air, but I haven't touched early. But I'm just amazed at some of the broad differences

between different manufacturers and how that you guys approach the show and having consumers calling in and the broad information that you give out, it's such a service that nobody else seems to do. And kudos. The consumers should, if they had more knowledge or more advertising

maybe to know what you guys do and the information they can get, you know, I hear you talking about so many you know, talking about GMC trucks and not pushing Toyota so much. I myself of one manufacturer buyer, but

anyway, I hear so much good information for making much well, Marka, you're fading out, but thank you very much for those accolades and, you know, it's kind of fun

to being totally transparent and honest. We We are able to get away with it with the car dealers because we tell the truth, and we get away with it with the manufacturers because we tell the truth. So I'm a Toyota dealer. I've been a Toyota dealer for almost 50 years, and Toyota lets me do what I do because I tell the truth. They let us say things that they're not comfortable with. So I respect them for that.

I mean, they could squeeze me, but they don't. Been around too long to squeeze, I guess. but thank you very much for the compliment. Yes, Mark, thank you. Well, you know, I don't really have any questions other than just a comment. I don't have any real car problems because I owner of a 2017 Camry X-L-E and there's nothing wrong, so I don't have any questions for it. Just want to say hi and keep going, keep it up, okay?

Thank you, Martin. Have a nice day. You too. Thank you so much for that call, Mark. We appreciate it. We appreciate all of our listeners. back to stew okay the next one

we have some incognito otherwise known as your anonymous feedback.com came in and we'll start with the first one well we're just going to read it as it is I hope it doesn't offend anybody electric Jesus is added again and I approve the ruin of Tesla

the reveal of the cyber truck sends shares plummeting into a new low crap really does roll downhill from the mountain of plug-in Scientology cult better get out of the way. Coincidentally, that cyber truck looks exactly like the one I drew as a child. I probably

can't sue Musk for stealing that design as it belongs to all children who draw vehicles. It's not a knock on the design. I'd rather like it. But I want it to be made into reality by a different company, thanks. And that's from an anonymous person. The cool thing about

Elon Musk and Tesla is that you can laugh at him, you can get mad at him, but he's there. and you know no one can question his intelligence whether he survives or not we don't know he will survive Mark I'm talking about his

I mean as a you know the company as far as SpaceX is already success so even if Tesla goes down SpaceX will be a success he's a genius okay next one and this is from not Stu Stu should be given a

spin-off show he's funny and he has the nicest voice Thank you very much. You really come a long way. When you were first on the show, you were afraid that, you were afraid to talk. I was terrified. We have another guy, Alan Napier is afraid to talk, but he overcomes his stage fright. And by the way, Alan will be coming in on December 18th, 14th, actually, December 14th, when Rick's on vacation.

Yay. You Alan fans, but, Rick, I mean, Stu, you've come a long way. Well, Alan is funnier than I am, and he has a nicer voice than I do. I don't know. So, Earl has a versatile. group around him. Speaking for myself, he can't get me to shut up. That's true.

That's true. Yeah, Alan's got that Midwest, that Missouri. Yeah. The Missouri draw. Yeah. Okay. Oh, good one. I love attacks on Earl.

They're fun. Oh, geez. How is it that you claim to be so customer-friendly? I was in your store willing to spend over $40,000 of my hard-earned money, and neither your sales lady nor your sales manager. know your son would accept my offer. Avalon's aren't exactly selling like hotcakes. The fact that you refuse to give me and my wife a discount

proves that you are all talk and don't really care about your customers. I love that. And I mean that sincerely because the haggle hassle, the negotiation forum of selling cars, is dying slowly. And there's some hardcore people that love to negotiate. And they're good negotiators. And I know how they feel. If I was really good negotiator,

By the way, I'm not, as strange as it may seem, and I don't like to negotiate. I like to have the lowest price on the product I buy and trust the person that's selling it to me. That's just me. But there are a lot of people like you, and I'm speaking to the texture here, that I like to negotiate. I saw a cartoon the other day of a, it was a car dealership advertisement, I think, and said, for those of you who like to negotiate, we'll be glad to raise the price of our vehicles so that we can come down and sell it to you. That sounds like an idea that I had

to accommodate those like the texter or the anonymous feedbacker who really like to negotiate and saying we can do it the easy way one price in a negotiation or you can sit in the office with Bruno and Bruno would crack his knuckles the sense of humor.

But maybe we put a point-and-sale thing up and say for those who like to negotiate and just do the cartoon. Do you think they get the humor? I think we should actually have a Bruno sitting in, wait, we used to have a Bruno. We had a Martin Bruno. We had a Bruno sitting in an office with jacked arms, tattoos, gold chains,

and he just cracks his knuckles when you walk in and goes, let's go. And, of course, we start well over MSRP. But the serious answer to this is we honestly put our lowest price on every vehicle we sell. And I tell customers that come to me and say, kind of like what you said, why won't I come down $25? I said, if I sold you the car for $25 less, then I'd say, I'd be lying to all my other customers when I say I put my lowest price on the car. So we take it very seriously, and we wouldn't come one penny off to make a sale because it would destroy our credibility.

Next. That's one of my favorite things. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. That's right. And I am the negotiator of the family. It's very, very intimidating when you say that. Okay, hello, Erlintin. What is the best guide to determine fair pricing for buying a use?

car to give the buyer the best advantage before going to the dealer. Is it KBB or Edmonds or another? Thanks for all you do, and we love the show. You know, it's awfully hard because of the hidden fees. I can answer that based on buyer beware, hidden fees. Because no matter what price you get on a used car, you can get a good price from Edmonds or almost any auto trader. But the problem is they're understated.

You can go to AutoTrader and you can take any used car and can sort it by price and you will have the lowest price car at the top and you could go there or anywhere down the line. But when you go into that dealer, there can be one, two, three, multiple dealer fees. You can pay $2,000 in additional profit to the dealer because of hidden fees. So all I can tell you is where to go to get what should be the price and then you have to figure the dealer fee thing out on your own. Yeah. I think the best use for KB and admins, it puts you in the ballpark. It gives you a rough idea of where a price should be, you know, in the low 20s, high teens or something like that. But the fees ruin everything. Oh, I just thought of something. CarMax, Carvana, they don't have dealer fees. Go to CarMax. They don't have a dealer fee. Well, they do have a dealer fee. CarMax has a what? $2.99. $2.99 dealer fee. Carvana, I don't believe it has a dealer fee. So find a dealership that does not have a dealer fee And use that price on the model you're looking for when you shop and compare

That's about the only thing I can think of that'll eliminate the dealer fee issue There we go Next text, this came in on our 772-4976530 text line I am almost 85 years old and I remember when I was in my 20s and 30s I would go to the dealer and order my car whatever options I wanted and waiting 60 six to eight weeks from the car. Yep. Can you still do that?

And that's from Joe. Yes, you can, Joe. And so not a bad way to go. And I had a text earlier that said, just be sure you lock in the price when you order it, because the price can go up or it can come down. You want to lock in the price you have. But with a caveat, if there's a price reduction, you benefit.

Price increase, you don't benefit. But, yeah, go order your car. You can order it anywhere. Yeah. We must have really hit a nerve or just an interest with the special order. Here's another one. It's a follow-up from Steve in New Jersey. He says, I have a follow-up question.

How does Costco Auto Program pricing work with a special order of a new car? Is the price locked down at the time the order is placed or upon eventual delivery? Thanks. Costco Auto Buying Program does not apply to order cars. It has to do with the cars that are in their inventory at that time. And Costco will be sure that you have a price sheet, a buyer's price sheet, that shows the Costco price on all the cars that you have in your inventory. But if they're not in your inventory, then there is no Costco price.

Well, actually, I'm just to correct you, it's not with cars or your inventory. It's just what you've listed by model. So conceivably a special order car could show up. But then in that case, the advice you just gave stands, which is, no, they can't because there are things beyond the dealer's control, such as incentives and things like that. The Costco auto prices by the dealer are prices today. because they can be changed anytime, and Costco will sometimes tell the dealer to change them,

and sometimes the dealer will change them. So the prices on the Costco auto buying program are for today and not on ordered cars. It would that be up to the dealer to have to agree with that? Because, as I say, the Costco price on today on a car could be one thing. Six weeks later, there could be incentive changes, and it would be a different price. Yeah, like usually, because it can go both ways.

like there can be at a price increase. Typically, when manufacturers give a price increase, it's pretty small. It might be a tiny percentage. So it could go up a few hundred dollars, a couple hundred dollars. But where you could get, where you can get screwed is if a big incentive comes out on that car. Actually, I'm sorry. I'm confused.

Actually, that would help you. It's a low risk thing. It's very unlikely that you're going to have a huge increase in price other than if the dealer just decides to... If the dealer passed along the incentive. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. There could be something they don't, they don't tell you about. Okay. Are we all caught up?

Yeah, one more. Okay. It's a question for Rick, but I think it might be more of an Earl question. Regarding Hyundai, what does the lifetime drive-train warranty cover? I'm looking at Hyundai. Is this a sales gimmick? It's a sales gimmick. Power train warranty is just on the lubricated parts of the cars. The car parts that do not fail, if the car,

cars maintained. If you take a car in for the recommended maintenance by the manufacturer, the power train just doesn't fail. Power train warnings are typically free. Car dealers give them away, or sometimes they'll charge 25 or 30 bucks. Power train warnings are worthless. Okay. We are caught up a text. Okay. I'm down the feedback and everything else. Great. Ladies and gentlemen, don't forget to go to Earl on Cars where you can read his hidden fees and accessory charges. That's his column for this past week. And you can also read Thanksgiving Week.

No Haggle pricing, they're both fantastic. And there's so many other things that you can find at a row on cars. Okay. A highlight of the show, drum roll, the mystery shopping report. We send Agent Thunder into some dealer in South Florida, and we try to buy a car, release a car. And this time, the target mystery shop of Advantage Ford of Stewart in Martin County. And we call it a Takata test.

Advantage Ford of Stewart is a single point for a dealership in the middle of car row on US One in Stewart, Florida. The owner, Irving Matthews, operates two other dealerships in Florida, Daytona, Lincoln Mercury, and Prestige Ford in Mount Dora. Mr. Matthews stands out as one of the most successful African-American. car dealers in the United States. As a matter of fact, the Matthews Auto Group is the fourth largest minority-owned auto group in Florida. Mr. Matthews is a very engaged and charitable member of the community and made the headline several years ago when he was a victim of what appeared to be a random shooting in Orlando. You know, I think you can't call a random shooting. He's a car dealer. So, it was a random shooting of a car dealer. Correct. It might have been because he was a

dealer. It could have been. Exactly. I digress. He recovered quickly, thank heavens, and the suspect was never apprehended. Earl Stewart on cars has mystery shopped Advantage Ford on three prior occasions. The first time was back in 2015 for a bait-and-switch-style new car-in. We followed up two years later with an investigation of a similar advertisement. In July 2018, we investigated Advantage Ford of Stewart for selling used cars with Takata Airbag inflator recalls. They failed our Takata test. but in the least egregious way the salesperson disclosed the recall to Agent X and gave accurate information about how to go about fixing the defect. Although Advantage Ford was still willing to sell a used car with an open and dangerous recall, we put them on the recommended list for the atypical level of disclosure they gave.

It's now been almost a year and a half since our last visit. During that time, more but not enough attention has been given to the Takata problem. a new national awareness campaign starring Morgan Freeman. I hope you've seen that commercial. I love it. I love Morgan Freeman. Great commercial about heads-up on Takada Airbags

and how to find out if you have a problem with your car. Also, there was a CBS news piece that I was featured in and it really got me pumped up because I thought at last the national news media is interested again

in Takada Airbags and I haven't seen any further on this so I hope I'm not going to be disappointed this time. Our questions are have dealers been paying attention? As Irving Matthews noticed, will advantage Ford

take it one step further and stop the sale of one of its cars that are under recall? You know when you buy a car at the auction when dealers acquire cars on trade ends, it's so easy. It's as easy as you can do with your car, but

they're professionals. Every time they buy a car for the used car a lot or trade a car in for the used car lot all you do is go to safercar.gov Haywood will take it over for you. Exactly, yeah. I mean, literally in one minute. You all need to get a haywood is what you need.

Exactly. That's the guy that checks all our cars out. Only one man could get us answers to this question about advantage for, and that's Agent Thunder. Thunder was sent in to try to buy a 2015 Jeep Wrangler with an unfixed, but fixable to cut airbag recall.

home. He brought his whole family with him, his wife, who's six months pregnant, and his two-year-old daughter. If there was ever a reason not to sell a defective used car, that was a picture perfect family. A picture of that walking in, a pregnant woman, a little little girl, cute as a bug, and then Agent Thunder. He's cute as a bug too. I had a hard time reconciling that. A guy with a nice family like that would want to buy a Jeep Wrangler, but, you know, to each. Well, he covered that up nice. He does. But when I first saw that, I'm like, eh.

Yeah. I'm speaking, the first person is if I were Agent Thunder, here we go. Here's the report. Before driving to Stewart, I called Advantage for it to get confirmation. The Jeep was there and available for sale. It was. I loaded the family into the car and drove north. When we arrived, we saw a busy service department and slow sales department.

The service drive was a beehive activity, but once inside, we found a morgue-like showroom. that's a tough adjective to use I don't like that that was mine sorry yeah sleepy sleepy showroom more I don't like the receptionist was very cheerful

and greeted us right away he asked for a salesperson within a minute we were approached by Brandon I told them we were there to see the Jeep I said we needed something cool as a counterbalance to the lame minivan in our driveway Brandon laughed

I asked if I was the one who called earlier I said it was Brandon said we could start by looking at the vehicle. Then he asked for my driver's license as an auto insurance card. My wife advised him that she and my daughter would wait outside and look around while I drove the Jeep. We found the Jeep and Brandon did a pretty good job explaining all the features. I told them that I had to work pretty hard to convince my wife that the Wrangler would be safe to drive. I like that because you're right.

Why would you buy a Jeep if you had a pregnant wife and a two-year-old kid? I think Agent Thunder is just an immature manchild who he's listening right now. Brevet said it wasn't a Volvo, but he would consider a safe vehicle. Well, we call that puffery. Some people would call it a lie. Puffery. Puffery, okay. Does that date me?

The government lets it drive the highways of America. You Google it. Puffery. Puffery is something that business people can use when advertising. their products and it's basically saying it's legal a lie because just because you puff up your product to a greater than life size it's okay they're puffing some hot air in there exactly yeah so in court when they sue you say puffery and the judge says case dismissed I have a trivia question if we have time a trivia point okay

the term originated puffery originated in 1892 in the English Court of Appeal case Carlil versus the Carbolic smokeball company that's true folks they were puffing smokeballs anyway we're talking about the safety

and now we get back to the report I asked about this one in particular were there any safety issues with this Jeep Brandon said it was a great car and the no safety problems that cannot come up during inspection now think about yourself

you're going in here and most people when they buy a vehicle they don't keep pumping and pumping and pumping and push it about safety but we do when we shop so we asked and these are no safety problems during the inspection well that's technical true

that's technically true he said we would look at the auto check report which is like a carfax later and that should put my mind at ease okay you gotta assume that they looked at at some point when they bought the car

or traded the car in I enjoyed the test drive with Brandon. He made easy conversation. Came across as an honest and straightforward. The Jeep was fun to drive and ran smoothly. We returned to the dealership and went inside. We found my wife and daughter, then sat down at Brandon's desk. My wife asked if there were any mechanical problems.

She had relented to my desire to get a Jeep, but she wouldn't tolerate sinking money into repairs. Brandon reported that it had passed inspection with flying dollars. more okay it's the cheap's fine puffery yeah puffery my wife pressed on what about accidents wives do press on sometimes brandon said that was a chauvinous so husbands husbands press on a lot that was totally i saved you on that one i apologize brandon said he would print a copy of the other check report he began to explain and what old check was but my wife interrupted and mice are prone to interruption so our husbands sometimes not to let him know she was familiar with it brandon pointed out

that there were no accidents reported and there were no accident reported and there was one open recall okay kind of like oh by the way there's a recall he thumbed his way to the page with the recall and explained he said it was a Ticada airbag recall

that still needed to be fixed he said it was not a major deal to get it taken care of it he said he would take it right across the street to Wallace why didn't you take it across the street to Wallace on your bottom or traded in okay I'm that's you know that's not in the text here

he said the repairs could only be done by the manufacturing dealer and that it was 100% free that's true I looked at my wife for approval and she nodded I suggested to review the numbers I told me I wanted to finance that I had great credit

and was thinking about putting $5,000 down I could go up to $7,000 if I had to I wanted to be under $500 a month Brandon excused himself went to the buyer order worksheet the price was the same as I'd seen online that's good 2498 they added a 599 dock fee hidden fee okay and a $706 non-tax fee hidden fee BS added profit to the dealer yeah and I just want to add in there when we say hidden fee when they show them the buyers order

obviously it's not hidden but where it was hidden was when Agent Thunder was online looking at this great price for a Jeep, and that fee was hidden somewhere down in some fine print at the bottom of the webpage. That's hidden because you only see it on the paperwork, and sometimes you don't even see it on the worksheet. Sometimes you don't see it until you go into the finance department, aka the box, and then you have about a slim chance or none of ever seeing the hidden fees. The payments were presented in grid form with $5,000 down.

My payment would be between $533 and $500. $43 for 60 months between $4.68 and $4.78 for 72 months. I asked about the $599 doc fee. Brandon said it was a dealer fee, just a standard charge. Real quick on those payment ranges. Yeah. Another term, I don't know if we used on the air before. That's called a little leg. When they have a leg, there's a little room for the finance guy to say something. Yeah, yeah. Little leg. That's a dealer vernacular. That might be my next book. I keep thinking about a little leg. Another book, but I could do dealer vernacular, hidden

and in, we have that in your current book, we have a glossary. Yeah, no, we need more. We had updated. But I wouldn't I don't think we have a little leg in there. No, we don't. Yeah. We have a new revision coming out. Earl, that would be a very sick book. It would be. I mean, there has been a tome. A tome. It'd be a

dictionary. Okay, moving right along. My wife said that if I was happy with the Jeep, she was happy with the number. She thanked Brandon. and said we need to take our kid to get something to eat. And I bet she didn't say kids. She probably said our child. Our beautiful.

Guy said kid and ladies say child. Yeah. We were returning an hour and a half. Could he hold the Jeep for us? Brandon said yes. So there you have it. Technical failure on the Takata test. We can vote on this.

We'd love to hear your votes. Facebook. You can text us 772-497. 530 and let us know whether Advantage Ford should be passed, A, B, C, D, F, whether or not they failed, we'll go around the room here and we'll take the test. What do you say, Rick, what do you think about Advantage Ford and Stewart? I'm going to give them a B. Yeah.

Because I think they should have had it taken care of, but he did let them know what it was. He didn't try to hide it or anything. Exactly. So I'll give them, on the curb, I'll give them the B. I agree. Nancy, what do you think? Well, I'm with Rick. I think that I'm going to give them a B.

You know, there was some communication. And I'm a little hesitant, you know, but I guess at this point I've got to bend a little bit. You should be. The average buyer would have bought the car. Wouldn't have asked the question about the other bag. And that's bad. but you've got to grade on the curve, too. Yeah, I'm grading on the curve, too, along with our listeners.

Grades are coming in. Dean gives him a C-minus. Maria gives him a B. Elgin gives him a C-plus. Linda, who is our online Black Widow, who gives the Big Fat S, gives him a C, which is pretty impressive. I'm going to give them a C also. Yeah.

You know, the sad thing about this is kind of, you know, The sad thing is that we can pass and give grades as high as a B to somebody that did not repair fixable to cartier bag and who likely would have sold the car without even revealing it had the customer not persisted in questioning. So it says to me something about the attitude of the auto industry, the attitude of the retail and the manufacturer's auto industry, and even the customers. And we have become, what's the word, used to? It's so complacent. Complacent, that's a better word. Mark from Iowa gives them a B. You have to.

But our standards are so low, folks, that we now have to give good grades to dealers that will sell you a car with a dangerous recall. And that's just life in the big city. We can't fail a dealer because if we did, there'd be no place that we would recommend you buy. car, that's not realistic.

There we have it. Our standards are low. Our standards have to be low. I mean, you know, it was like when I was in school, I remember sometimes they grade on the curb, and I didn't know a thing about the subject, and I wouldn't answer very many questions, but everybody else was so dumb

that I would end up passing the test. I mean, I'd get a passing grade. When I knew myself, I didn't deserve to. and a lot of you car dealers out there, let me just implore you to, I mean, even as you're not going to cost you any cars to sell, why don't you just make it part of your policy?

Tell your used car manager, you cannot put a car on my used car lot until you do the safercar.gov check and the airbag or any other dangerous recall has been fixed. Don't put it on the lot per sale. If you do put it on the lot for sale, your salesman's not going to tell the buyer about it.

So I'm employing to you as good people out there is people that care about your fellow man and fellow woman. You don't want to hurt people. I get an idea for him. What? Take the little extra time and expense to get that fixed and then start promoting the fact that you're not selling any used vehicles with Takata Airbags. Exactly. You might sell some more used vehicles. But the challenge will be to get your salespeople to tell your customers that because even the salespeople, now I'm going to get a little commercial.

here I've got we we will not sell a car at our dealership that has a dangerous recall and we're the only dealer I know that won't and we tell our salespeople this and we advertise this we also mystery shop our own dealership and do you know what my salespeople often forget to tell the customer about the recall policy about the recall policy so it's an it's complacency as Nancy said earlier it has just become like okay you You got a live grenade in the front seat of your car, and it may go off and may not, but roll the dice.

Probably won't. I mean, what the heck? Bad things don't happen to me. Put your kid in the child's seat, and you just go ahead and drive that car, and that live hand grenade probably won't blow up. They think about statistics and odds, and I'll tell you one thing. I used to have a fear of flying. I was consciously aware of the odds of getting killed in a plane crash for nothing,

but the idea of going through that, that ruined it for me. So, yes, it's low odds you're going to get blown up by your airbag. I go, but if it happened to you, damn, that would suck. I'll add a little more to your commercial. Toyota actually has a program for mobile repairs on airbags where a technician can be sent to a customer's house, to a used car lot, to a rental agency, or any place with a fleet of vehicles that has one,

or more vehicles that need to be repaired, and Toyota will even reimburse extra pay to cover that technician's time to go to that location and fix the airbags on site and come back. Will they do that for an individual, or does it have to be a fleet or multiple? I believe I also saw for an individual as well to actually, because we, when Takata airbags were, we couldn't get them at the time. We actually had a lot of customers in rental cars, and because we had no place to store their cars we would have them keep their car at home and then we would actually tow their car to the dealership

repair it, charge up their battery and then return it back to them. Well, I would like to ask all our listeners to check with their manufacturers of the car they own and I'd like to hear me if you could call in next week let's find out how many manufacturers are actually offering that service. Kudos to Toyota and I know I'm a Toyota dealer

but I usually say other things about Toyota. I'm going to say kudos to Toyota that they will actually send a technician out to repair airbags anywhere, replace airbags, inflators, I should say. You know, it took everything I had to give advantage for a B. And advantage. What did you say, Steve? I'm sorry, Honda's doing it too. So at any rate, here we have Agent Thunder, you know, and his wife.

Might I add, she was pregnant, and they had their child with them. And so, hey, listen, you can take and you can do whatever. But the fact remains that Takata Airbag, it kills. That shrapnel will kill. And if anyone has listened to Morgan Freeman, you can see that he has hit the social media. And this here should not be ignored. And a lot of used car dealers are ignoring it. So, with all that said, we want to wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving, and thank you for tuning in to Earl Stewart on Cars. We'll be right back here next Saturday.

Pek-go. Pett-go-to-do. Pett-go-tun-tun-tok. Welcome! Welcome! Oh! No. No.

Thank you.