Earl Stewart on Cars - 11.24.2018 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Mercedes Benz of Ft. Pierce, a Coggin Dealership

Episode Date: November 24, 2018

Earl answers various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Agent X visits Mercedes Benz of Ft. Pierce, a Coggin Dealership, to purchase a car with an identified Takata Airbag Recall. Earl Stewart is one of the most successful car dealers in the nation. This podcast gives you the benefit of his 40+ years as a car dealer and helps you turn the terror of buying, leasing, or servicing a car into a triumphant experience. Listen to the Earl Stewart on Cars radio program every Saturday morning live from 8am to 10 am eastern time, or online on http://www.streamearloncars.com. Call in with your questions during the live show toll free at [phone]. You can also send a text to Earl and his expert team during the live show at [phone]. We are now on Facebook Live every Saturday between 8am and 10am. Go to facebook.com/earloncars to also watch it live or to watch a replay in case you missed it. Uncover additional automotive tips and facts at http://www.earlstewartoncars.com and follow Earl's tweets @EarlonCars. Watch Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars. “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”

Welcome to Earl Stewart on Cards with Earl and Nancy Stewart. Reach them with your questions at 877-960. Here's Earl and Nancy. Hey, folks, listen, I apologize for our technical difficulties. We seem to have a lot of them on this radio station, and we're doing our best to correct all of them. Our introduction music wasn't working, and we had some true oldies playing. So quickly, I'm going to tell you who I am.

My name is Earl, Earl Stewart, actually. I'm a recovering car dealer, and I do a show. This is the show. Hopefully we can get through two hours. It's called Erlon Cars. We're on every Saturday from 8 to 10. It's a group of experts in the studio with me right now. We've been doing it for 14 years.

It's how not to get ripped off by car dealers, how not to be taken advantage of when you're buying, leasing, selling, maintaining, repairing, whatever you want to do with cars, we can help you out. 50 years, that's my experience, and we've got a, if you added it up around the room here, we probably have 150 or 200 years experience in not just buying and leasing, but repairing, maintaining, collision repair, insurance, all about cars, that's who we are. Now, I'm hearing a little feedback here. I'm not sure what that is, but as I say, excitement with live radio.

Every Saturday I get excited, and I love the show. we're live radio talk we encourage you to call in and I'm going to give that number to you because we may not be streaming we have a very our bandwidth failed us this morning we normally require at least 25 megabytes of bandwidth we're down to about 8 or 9

we may have enough for Facebook we don't know we hope we have enough for our telephones so let's get to the telephones the old-fashioned way to reach us 877 960 9960 that's 877 960 9960 and well you can text us the text are really cool because we can build a backlog and we always get to the text before the end of the show and if you can text us it's 772 that's the area code 772 4976530 that's 772 4976530 that's 772 497 6530 So we really like to hear from me because I have a sinking feeling that we may not be reaching anybody and there's nothing worse than sitting on a radio studio for two hours talking to yourself. And we'd love to know that there's somebody out there.

So 877-960-99-60, that's 877-9-60. And if you got confused or frustrated at the beginning of the show when you didn't hear our intro music, the theme from the good, bad, and the ugly, then we're here. Earl on cars, Earl Stewart. I got Rick Kearney sitting next to me. He's our technical guy. He used to call him a mechanic.

Then we started to call him a technician. And now we call him an auto-computer scientist. That's because he's got all the answers. That's one of the nicer things I get called. I do call him something. You don't want to hear. And right next to Rick is Nancy Stewart. She's my co-host.

And Nancy is a strong advocate for the women in the audience. and she uh tell the women out there what we'll do for the first two new female callers nancy ladies good morning i feel extremely passionate this morning and i'm waiting to hear from you the first two new lady callers are going to win themselves fifty dollars fifty dollars you know you can use that this time of year for the first two new lady callers 877 960 9960 now back to the recovering car dealer. Well, we love women, and we love women for a very good reason. You buy half the cars.

You have half the problems. You may even have it more than half their problems, but hashtag me too. There's an uprising in this country going on, a uprising in the world going on about women's rights and about being treated fairly and equally. And trust me, it doesn't happen in car dealerships the way it should, and we'll talk about that. And around the table, we've got to go to Earl Stewart III, who is my son,

We call him Stu. Or Stewie. Or Stewie, yeah. Stewie is our cyber guy. And because we got to deal with a lot of folks out there that are not just on the radio, we tell them about it, Stu. Well, we are live streaming the video of the show on Facebook. Well, actually this morning just Facebook, which is fine. We got a lot of viewers on there.

And I'm trying to keep connected with everybody on Twitter and Snapchat and Instagram and all the other social media. And what a great job you do. Oh, you know, you've got to stay connected. Fantastic. We are going to go to Tina, who gives us a call every Saturday. She's an important part of the show. I can't wait to hear what she has to say. Good morning, Tina.

Good morning. How are you all doing this morning? Oh, thank you so much for calling Tina. I was worried that we were talking to ourselves. This happened once about seven or eight years ago. We spent, we only had a one-hour show then. We spent one hour talking to ourselves wondering them why we were. weren't getting any calls, found out that there was something broken at the transmitting.

And it was the greatest show we ever did. That was the greatest show. And no one heard it. So, Tina, you will let us know that we're reaching the world. And Tina, you ask how we're doing? I'll speak for myself. Yeah. I feel very plump.

You don't look at it. I feel clump. I was just reading an article in J-L-O-P-N-I-K. You know, I love J-A-L-N-I-K, for those of you who are wondering how it's spelled. and it appears now this happens more of a specialty vehicles or vehicles that are very high in demand but it appears that the dealership really might not want to sell to you and the reason why is because they're looking and I hate using this term please forgive me for this but they are looking for an uninformed uneducated buyer that just wants to whip out the cash and buy the car

they don't want to bother with people that say hey you know I want to have an inspector They'll argue back, well, we do our own 110-point inspection on these vehicles. They want to sell to a buyer that just wants to buy and get out and leave and be left probably with problems with the vehicle that they just purchased. Larry and then to lay down. They don't like us educated buyers. They're like, no, we don't want to mess with you. We want somebody who doesn't know anything. We're exactly right.

And there's no question about it. And there are car dealerships that thrive on these customers. And it frustrates the good car dealers, because I always focus on the negative on this show. It seems like I, that's because there's more negative. That's because, unfortunately, most of the car dealers don't treat people the right way. But there are some good dealers out there. And it's so frustrating for the honest, transparent, well-meaning dealers to be competing against other dealers that have no rules. It's like going into the price-fighting ring, boxing somebody that has to be.

obey the rules. MMA. Exactly. So, yeah, you're right, Tina. And without these, I call them victims, the people that go in and do not care about the rules or don't understand the rules. Or they do care. They just don't understand. And they can take an advantage of it.

It really makes it difficult on the honest dealers. But what's making it worse, what to me is making it worse, is these salesmen are actually telling the customer, no, we don't want to sell you this car. we are looking for a different buyer. And they don't explain to the client why. So how do they know that this educated buyer might be able to take out a check and write it for any amount they want and maybe you have four or five cars on the lot, you know? Yeah. Well, the salespeople are paid on commission.

They get 25% of the profit they make on the car. See, in the automobile business, as you will know, the prices are all variable. When you walk into a car dealership on a single day, the exact same car will be sold for different prices to as many people as wanted to buy that car. You could sell five of the exact same car. The price is never the same. Can you imagine the chaos, if you did that at Target or Macy's or Publix, that, you know, that prime fillet that you bought, you paid a different price than everybody else, which is what the cashier could negotiate with you to sell the filet mignon for? and that's what happens in car dealership.

So that car salesman, he's getting 25% of how much he can inflate the price of the car. He has an educated consumer. He's probably going to make nothing because they often have a pack in the car. A pack is an extra profit. The card dealer puts on top of the cost of the car. And if the salesman doesn't sell it above the pack, then the salesman makes nothing. And the educated consumer will often buy a car close to the real cost of the car. salespeople can make zero.

That's the reason they don't want to talk to educated consumers. Well, you know what? Some car salesmen deserve to make zero percent. That's just my opinion. But speaking of percentages, I was also reading another article about a car broker. And I was wondering if you could explain to me what a broker does as a liaison for the customer and how that works and whether you should hire a broker or you shouldn't. Funny you should mention that.

I'm talking to a car broker now. I had a call from a car broker. He used to be a general sales manager for a car dealership, and then he moved into business for himself, and he calls himself a car broker. Carbroker's purpose is to be the liaison between you, the normal consumer, and the car dealer. Now, theoretically, the car broker is very knowledgeable about the business.

He has friends of the business. He understands the negotiation process. the cost structure, invoices, MSRPs, and all the advertising and deceptions they go on. He has a full understanding, a little bit like me. I mean, I'd make a great carbroker. And that's what carbrokers do is they make themselves the middleman. So let's say, Tina, you went to a car broker. You don't want to go into that dealership because you know the hassle and the aggravation.

And it's just going to be a terrible experience. So you say, I'll use a car broker. He's going to get a commission. and I understand that, but he's going to make life a lot easier for me. He'll negotiate a good price, and he will eliminate all the negative anxiety and bad experiences that you have in dealing with the car dealership. So in theory, car brokers can do a good job. Typical commission for a car broker would be $500. And that means right away you're going to have to pay an extra $500 because the car dealer is going to add that to his cost structure based on the selling price of the car.

But that isn't necessarily a bad thing because car dealers can make upwards of $5, $10,000 profit on a car if they find, as Stu referred to earlier, Larry Laydown, if you find somebody that's just not aware of what can be done. So if you're the type of person that could be taken advantage of, you would be well served to find a good honest car broker. But that's a big, that's a tall order. I don't know how to tell you to find the right car broker. I would say referrals, people that you know that have dealt with the same broker before, check out his background, his integrity. Be careful when you deal with the car broker. But they do serve a purpose, and there are a lot of them out there. And the thing I would worry about with, like you're mentioning, making sure their integrity,

because you never know some of these car brokers might be taking kickbacks from the dealership. Exactly. And they should disclose their fee. we should ask your car broker I know you work for a fee and he'll say well you don't have to pay the fee the car dealer pays the fee well you're paying the fee anyway

because the fee is being added to the price of the car so directly or indirectly you're paying the fee and then you ask him are there any other fees because you're absolutely right we in our experience over the many years 50 years I've been a car dealer we've dealt

through brokers and broker will come to us say I have a buyer for this car and then we say what is your fee we have paid what would you say to as much as $5,000 that might be on the high end but recently a $1,400

fee I've seen that $1,500, $500, $300,000 that seems kind of like in the range Yeah, so $1,400, that's a lot of money to pay a broker. Get the fee and then you have to decide Tina is that man being honest with transparent or not

I would if you find a good broker, you know someone's got a good broker, and they swear by that broker, and you really have confidence in them, it's a great thing. Yeah, I was wondering about that. Like, hmm, you know, what does he think of car brokers? But I can see, and maybe not for everybody, I mean, if you're an extroverted person, you're educated, and you feel you can handle yourself, you might not need one. But like you said, somebody that's elderly, somebody that's not on the computer that much,

Maybe even a young driver that's never bought a car before, a broker could be a very good thing. Exactly. You know, one thing is occurred to me while you were talking is that one thing you could ask a broker to do is lay out the cost structure, lay out the profit the dealer's making. What is the net invoice cost? Because invoice means nothing. In our business, I will say to Stu, give me the net, net, net invoice, because our dealers often don't know what their own real cost is. There's a piece of paper called an invoice to the manufacturer, sends a car dealer,

and they write out a check of the bank that's floor planning the cars, financing the cars, writes out a check for the amount of that invoice. But that amount of that invoice is packed with thousands of dollars of kickbacks that you get back from the manufacturer. So when I pay Toyota $15,000 for a carola, Toyota will send me $2,000 or $3,000 in kickbacks that I put in the bank, and it's a profit to me, but I can show a customer of my invoice and say, this is my invoice, implied cost, it's not the cost at all.

Back to the broker, let him break that down for you. Say, what's my net net invoice on the car? What's the dealer making? What's your fee and what is my price? If he lays all that out and say, by the way, let's get the dealer fees and the dealer install accessories and all that nonsense out on the table, too, in total transparency. If the broker will agree to do that for you, you're on the,

road to finding yourself a good broker. Yeah, well, the broker should do that. I mean, a good broker should do that, definitely. Exactly. Because I've heard of brokers just doing the basic legwork, well, they'll search for the car for you, but then you're pretty much left on your own to finalize the purchase. They're not there with you every step of the way. Exactly.

And I would think that a decent broker would be there for you every step of the way, even when you're signing the paperwork, that way if something comes up, like a red flag comes up, they can catch it before you make a mistake and sign that piece of paperwork. Well, remember, their allegiances to the dealer. I mean, they can still be honest and be honest with you. But remember, they only deal with you once every four years, assuming you use them all the time. You buy a car maybe every four years.

He deals with that dealer weekly or daily maybe. And his allegiance is to the dealer. And he'll strike a deal with the dealer. I'm getting $500 for every car. And then he will negotiate a good price, hopefully for you. But if he never sees you again, he has to see that dealer every week. So that's really the person that he has to be beholden to. Nancy?

Tina, I like the words that you used, decent and should. Even when you're dealing with a broker, buyer beware. I'll tell you what. The invoice that you're going to get, share that with someone who has dealt with a broker before because this car business is a tricky business, and you can get taken advantage of whether you go into the dealership whether you deal with a broker

it's just buyer beware and get that second opinion definitely definitely definitely caveat emptor never go to a car dealership alone that's for sure and public service announcement before I go because I have to get ready for work

the weather's getting really nice there's more motorcycles and bikes on the road everybody please use your side view there's please check your blind spots and share the road great great i used to be a motorcycle rider and nothing terrified me like people change your lanes in front of me so you're right about that thanks very much seen appreciate the call give us a call again thank you it was a joy it was a joy talking to you oh absolutely i hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving we'll talk to you next week yes it did thank you give us a call toll free at 877 960 9960 or you can text us at 772 4970

Now back to the recovering car dealer. In case you just tuned to Finn, we had kind of a fragmented introduction because of some technical difficulties. And you don't really talk about our justification for being on the air for 14 years. Why are we here? What service do we perform? Service we perform is to try to take the fear and the – I'm going to hold up for those that can see the streaming. This is my latest blog. would you rather have a colonoscopy or buy a car?

And that's not me on the table, although I did have a colonoscopy two weeks ago. And I'm having one next week. And there's nothing more terrifying. To your column, the guys out at Valencia Point, did they love that or what? They laughed at that. We got a big laugh out of that. But, boy, I'll tell you. That's why we're in the air.

That's why we're in the air because it's a very unclosening experience. And then in my introductions, I normally say, the galapeno. poll conducted a poll honesty and ethics and professions they've been doing this every year since 1977 they talk about all the professions honesty and transparency Nancy's holding up the

ranking list and every year since 1977 47 43 44 years whatever that is car dealers here at the bottom I think we're next to last in the last completed poll for 2017 and just below us the only one below

us were I believe is it Congressman or love? Congressman. So there's no one that people are more afraid of and unhappy in dealing with than congressmen except car dealers or vice versa. Car dealing, buying a car is just an unpleasant experience. So that's why we're here. That's our justification.

Absolutely. And we have our first-time lady caller, Sue, from Port Charlotte. Good morning, Sue. Good morning, Nancy and Earl and Dang. Hey. I have a question. I would like to purchase a newer used car, and I have severe mold allergies, and I've had a lot of difficulty not only with new cars, but used cars in Florida in general,

and not being able to find one that's mold-free. Do you, at Surreyota, do anything to check, if you will, cars so that someone like me could purchase again? You know, the technology, Sue, actually has advanced. There's some pretty fancy apparatus that we use. I'm looking at Rick here. Have you been involved in any of the people will come in? There will be mole problems. And, let's face it, South Florida, I humidity, I hate, mole lives in South Florida.

They love, moles love South Florida. So when we have a situation with a person like yourself, and it is serious because we've had customers that have had to deal with this, We have a very sophisticated. Can you lead Sue through the process? We've actually had service pros come in, the company that does fire and mold and water cleanup in houses. Right. And we will remove the entire interior from a vehicle, replace any part of the carpet or the padding underneath that might have gotten wet, and then have Service Pro actually used their, I guess they have like an ozone machine that will kill all the mold in any of those little nooks and crevices. Because unlike a house with a concrete floor that's just flat surface, you know, the inside of a car, once you get the carpet out, there's all kinds of nooks and crannies everywhere.

And all that has to be cleaned out. Yeah, we've had very good success, do you at a point? Yeah. Normally if you think mold and contamination like that, you're thinking about a used car. But we've even had problems with new cars. And some have it had to do with the way they're shrinking components on new vehicles to reduce the weight. So we actually have a Toyota with certain cars. We had moisture that would build up in some of the air conditioner components.

Yep. And what they did to correct that is they, oh, they aimed it at your feet first, and then they've fixed the problem since then. But in a brand new car, you would get a mildew smell, and we had a lot of complaints about it, and it went on for about a year or so before Toyota fixed it. Well, they actually had to reprogram the system to where when you park your car, it would automatically open the fresh air vent and then run the fan for just a couple seconds at high speed to help blow the moisture off of that evaporator core and it would leave that fresh air vent open so that fresh air could circulate then and dry those evaporators down.

And if you don't have that feature in your car, then you should do it manually. And I'm coming back to me now. So don't leave your car on the recirculate, have it bring in the fresh air. air and that will minimize any mold problems. And you really only need to do that for like the last 30 seconds of your drive. So it's kind of like, you know, if you're about a half mile from your house, just switch it over to fresh air for that last little bit just so it can kind of dry it down and get some fresh air circulating and then leave it on fresh air when you park it.

That way it can let the air circulate. And obviously, air circulation is the best thing for mold prevention. And that's a great advice for anybody who suffers from mold allergies. You just do that anyway. And Sue, you know, let me add my two cents. You know, and it sounds like you, you know, how detrimental this can be to your health. And once you purchase that car, it's yours. But there's so many different ways that you can detect.

Pets, mold, there's just a long list of people like yourself who are sensitive to allergies that are completely detrimental to your health. And you can, I'm going to research this, but I believe that there is an app that you can carry with you, just like if you carry your tire gauge, your pressure tire gauge with you. I have one, but there is a app that I believe that you could pick up and you can determine what has been in that car.

It could be moisture from where the car was sitting. It could be a flood car. It could be so many different. things but you'll want to be sure before you drive that car off the lot that you know what's in the car that's fabulous advice from all of you i definitely will go see you guys first and uh yeah i've experienced it unfortunately in a toyota on this west coast of florida brand new off the lot and um they you know didn't give me any kind of help with it and it destroyed my health So I'm in a car now that I purchase in Ohio because of that problem, and it's leather, interior, and so far so good, you know.

But I don't want to have to go to Ohio to purchase a car. Well, thanks, Sue. I empathize totally with you. We've had a number of customers with your problem. And it's not funny. It's extremely serious. And you make that known wherever you buy your car and make it a condition of the purchase and put it in writing and have it. initial by the dealer when you buy, whatever you buy,

that their understanding is this car will be mold-free because sometimes these things don't pop up for maybe a couple of weeks. Make them understand you're real serious about this mole thing, and they'll be real careful to try to pick the right car for you. And thank you very, very much for calling. Sue, I want to thank you for helping us build a platform here for the ladies, and stay on the line and give me your first and last name, and I'll get that $50 out to you.

Have a great weekend. We're going to go to our next. next caller, and Ellen is calling from Greensboro, North Carolina, and she too is a first-time caller. Welcome to the show, Ellen. Good morning. Good morning today. How are you doing today? Great.

Thank you. What can we do for you? I wanted to ask you a question. I have a older Dodge Caravan, 99, has 200,000 miles on it, and it's still running strong, knock on wood. but it has a 3.3-3-liter engine, which seems to be really good. Do you know if they're still making those, or does the Toyota vans have something there compatible? You're interested in, is it a larger engine you're interested in getting, Ellen, or is it just you like the way that engine runs in your 1999?

Yes, I feel very reliable. 1.3 liter. I don't know what size they make now because it's almost 20 years old. Yeah. Ellen, I would say this. You were going to be pleasantly surprised when you buy a newer vehicle. And I don't say you have to buy a 2019 or 2018, but a 1999 vehicle, you'd be surprised how much better the engines are today. I'm really glad you got a really good engine. And not to say, obviously, they did build some good engines in 1999. but you're talking about 18 years, 19 years, 20 years later. The technology, your engines now are much smoother, they're much more reliable, much more fuel efficient.

There's nothing you can say about a tooth, if you check your consumer reports, because there's always exceptions to the rule, but check your consumer reports for cars that have high reliability in their engines, and you're just going to be so happy with whatever brand you buy, whether it's another Dodge product or, You go into a Honda or you go into a General Motors product. Get yourself a two- or three-year-old certified used car,

and you will be very happy with the engine, I promise you. What size are the engines these days? What's the size of the engines, Rick, on the average? On average, three to three and a half liters is about the same engine. They're going to be the 3.0 to 3.5. It depends on the manufacturer. Some have gone a little bit larger to a 4.0 liter engine. Others have actually gone a little bit smaller.

I think they become more efficient. I think that the larger engines yesterday, if you go back far enough, you're talking about, I don't think in leaders, I think, in terms of cubic inches, but the engines arguably were 30 years ago twice as large today. Yeah. But I started to the business. I mean, right now, a six-cylinder camera, from 1999, we get more horsepower in the 2.5 liter than you did.

I don't know it was in 1999, but the four-cylinders now are two and a half liters. Right. And they're getting more horsepower than the six. Four-cylinder engines nowadays outperform the V-6s of 20 years ago, but the V-6s of today outperforms some of those big block V8s from the 70s. And by outperform, we're not just talking about power, we're talking about fuel economy, low repair and maintenance, everything you'll want, and enjoy quiet, you'll be amazed. And as I say, you don't have to put the money out for a brand-new car.

I recommend that you look for something like a 2015-2016 late-model car with maybe, if you get lucky in a little factory warranty left on it, it would be a really good buy for you. And consumer reports, you really ought to check that for the recommended used cars. You could do that online, or you can buy a copy, or go to the library. Some of the hybrids actually have more power than the standard gas engines. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, Ellen, I didn't mean to talk you out of your finding a – I know you love your car. People do fall in love with their cars, and you've got a great one.

That Dodge Caravan has really been good to you. I don't blame you for looking for an engine as reliable, but I'm just saying you're going to be real happy when you go out there and try something that you find recommended consumer reports. It'll be at least as good as that caravan, and it'll be better probably. And, Alan, I just want to let you know that the Consumer Report has the best and worst of cars, SUVs, trucks, all of it, the whole gambit. And the best used cars under $20,000, and just in case you want to switch over. And they have all the recall and safety updates. They have it all. Also, that consumer report, the auto issue for 2018 is really worth picking up.

And also, they have right now the 2019 buying guide is out. So you might want to pick that up, too. I think it will be very helpful to you. Yeah. Do they make hybrid vans? Yes, they do. Yes, they do. Hybrids are a great buy today, and there's going to be more and more hybrids on the market.

you just have to decide whether the increased cost of a hybrid is justified for you. Depending on the model you decide to buy, the mileage could be 10 miles per gallon or 5 miles per gallon or maybe even 20 miles per gallon better than what you would get. So you just have to look at the cost, do the arithmetic. If you put low mileage on a vehicle, if you're only putting 8 or 10,000 miles a year, a hybrid might not be worth the investment for you. If you put 25, 30, 50,000 miles, a year on your vehicle, then it could well be worth the investment.

Rick? Well, bear in mind, too, if most of your driving is in city traffic, that's where a hybrid really shines because they will get phenomenally better fuel economy in the city than they do on the highway. So, yeah, check out the price differential. A lot of my driving is around the city. I only get like 16 miles a gallon now. Well, you're going to double that when you find yourself the right vehicle.

and I think you'll probably find that you want if you do a lot of city driving. How many miles per year do you put on the car? Probably about 15. Because I don't travel that far around my home, but I go 1,500 miles away in the summer. So that's 3,000 up and back for the summer. But probably about 15. How much more is the hybrid than a regular one, you think?

Stu, you handle that question. Well, I couldn't tell you because Toyota does not make a hybrid van. I know that Chrysler does. I think Ford has one. The difference in price between a hybrid and gas version has shrunk over the years. So it used to be that you would pay a pretty big premium over the gas version for a hybrid, and that's come closer and closer over the years. So, I mean, I can speak towards the hybrid vehicles that Toyota sells.

and there's not that big of a price leap when you go to the hybrid anymore. $1,000? Yeah, typically. You can get a RAV-4 hybrid or a Camry hybrid. You might go a couple of thousand more. But it's definitely, when you do the math, it actually works out to the consumer's best interest. Years ago, you'd really have to kind of reach to get the savings

after paying the premium. Right. Well, Alan, thanks for calling us all the way from... Thanks for calling all the way from Greensboro. Okay, thank you so much. Ellen, you're a first-time caller. Remember, you've won $50 to stay on the line. Give us your first and last name and the rest of the information.

And John, who plays a very important part in our show, is right there for you, and he'll take that information. Okay, thank you. Have a nice day. Thank you. Have a great weekend. Alan is calling from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Alan.

Welcome to the show. Yeah, good morning. I think I've called a couple of times, but I've been listening. This week, and what I can't understand is right on your station, on the old station, because I listen to it very often. They had some advertisement. One I remember is Mazza, and maybe a BMW. But part of the ad is that stop driving that piece of, and we'll get you one,

and not only that, we'll pay you $3,000 over the cost of your old one, in addition to which, if you can... get a lesser price within three days or 72 hours, I forgot. We'll match it. Now, I can't understand why you haven't had a secret or your mystery caller. Get these people and the ad is right there. It's not in fine print. They're telling you they will meet anybody else's thing. If you have a, you shop around, you get something less, they'll match it. Now, I know you're talking about dealers, costs, and so forth. But how can they put an ad out where they telling you that they're going to give you more for you use card than 125% or 3,000, I forgot

what it was. I don't know if you listen to those ads, but they're very persuasive or they're very emphatic about what they're going to do, and the bottom line is very much like a lot of the advertising for different products. You know, if you don't like it, we'll get you your money back, no problem. Now, if they're saying that and you do that, and then they don't do that, I mean, And that's up and down misrepresentation. Alan, as Stu is dying to say something, but before he says something, let me make a comment.

You're talking about advertisements on this radio station. Right. We might have had the same thought. Yeah. And we're on this radio station, and we are here because the owners of this station and the management of this station has got a lot of courage. And the courage is to allow us to air a consumer advocacy show. which is extremely critical of car dealers. We do mystery shops.

We tell it like it is. We name names. We name dealerships. And we are allowed to be on the show because they could say we don't want you on the show. If we go back far enough, back when the show was called C-View, this radio station was called C-Vue Radio, the car dealers locally organized, and they called the ownership of the C-Vue Radio station and said, we're going to stop advertising. We're going to boycott the radio station

unless you get rid of Earl Stewart on cars. So the general manager of Chet Tart was the general manager at that time. We still name names. He's no longer the general manager. And he came over to my office and said, Earl, I've got some bad news for you. We've got to cancel your show.

I said, why? Because the car dealers have told us that they will not advertise on the show if you continue to be honest about what is going on in the car industry. So, Alan To answer your question, we have not directly targeted the advertisers on Earl Strait on cars or on this radio station. And we're not, I don't know, I don't listen to the ads. And if I listen to the ad, I would probably not directly target it.

It's kind of like I appreciate the liberty I'm getting from the radio station and the fact that he is trusting us to do what we do. We know we're costing in business from some car dealerships, and the ones you're referring to sounds to me like they're not advertising the way they should. And I appreciate you're pointing that out on the show and calling. But we can't directly target them. Is that what you were saying to do? I was saying my first thought was I can't believe there's any car dealers advertising. Oh, there are.

No, I've caught a little glimpse. Yeah. And we should put a warning out there just because if you advertise in the show, it does not necessarily make you safe. we can shop anybody we we don't want this to be a like an ad selling scale advertise on the station you're safe

but yeah they also advertise another thing no I'm just talking about the I don't know if you heard the airs I think that's true I think BMW does it too that if you're not satisfied or if you can get a cheaper price you come back and we'll give you the difference now that's pretty up and down

I don't know if it's on this station just to check it out I mean I can't believe that they do that and people can take advantage of that or not. I mean, as much you say, with dealers, fees, and all the things, they're always ripping people who are trying to get more than what they're entitled to. That's an old.

People are advertising. That's an old trick. And I think you should be commended for it. They're saying, if you're not satisfied or if you get a cheaper price, we'll match it. You know, so there may be dealers out there that are, you know, according to you that's not honest but he had at least

they're claiming a very concrete example of how you're not getting ripped off because if you go around and get somebody else and give you a cheaper price they will match the difference

I just I just can't believe that if you went in there and somebody with any common sense you don't have to be that much of an advocate hey this is what you said

on the radio or this is what you're advertising at and now you're telling me you have a deal of prices. And, okay, fine, give me the best price. Now you're telling me if I come back with a cheaper price, you're going to make the difference. Alan, I used to target that effort. A lot of car dealers do that years ago. In fact, years ago, I used to have a $500 money-back guarantee if it was to.

We didn't have the lowest price since I've reformed, and I don't do that anymore. How many times did you pay that out? My problem is we never pay that out. The point is that when the car dealers say they will, beat the price or pay you $1,000, or they'll match the price, or they'll refund the difference. They will require, if you read the fine print, and on the radio station, if you can understand the fine print, the fine print says that you have to have a signed contract from the other dealership that beat the price, and you cannot get a signed contract from a dealer on the lowest price they will sell you the car for.

They'll tell you the lowest price, but they'll never give it to you in writing. So it's impossible for you to fulfill the conditions of having them beat, meet the price that they're advertising. It sounds good, but if you have two BMW dealers and you have one that you're buying the car from and you buy the car, you can't go to another dealer and say, give me a lower price in writing, they won't do it. And that's the catch. It just never happens. And to sum it up, I think you've said it best before, and Earl has said this before, basic rule of thumb do not believe any car dealer advertising to get the best price you get you have to do a little bit of work but you're never going to get that price from an ad exactly

Alan thank you very much I appreciate to call you're so right and please call again yeah absolutely Alan and remember these these advertisers these mailers that they send out they're so deceiving and it never never ceases to amaze me. And with that said, you have to do your homework. Knowledge is power. 877960, or you can text us at 772-497-2-497-6530. I think that maybe does Sue have a backup of... Yeah, we have a few texts coming in and some comments on Facebook. The first one is from Andreas.

It's a text. He also watches on the live video stream on Facebook. But he says, auto sales mailers are a nuisance, to your point, Nancy. What about expired warranty coverage or extended coverage offers? These seem just as dangerous due to their official look. Of course, these also have the supposed sense of urgency. Buy it now. Buy it now.

My car has been out of factory warranty for years and nearly 100,000 miles. Where was this company then as my factory warranty was about to run out? And he sent a picture of a solicitation he got. And it says, last attempt to notify, and it's warning him says he's running out a warranty. And we see this all the time. Put him in the recycling bin. Throw them away. The extended warranty offers do not come from the manufacturers.

Manufacturers do not do this. The people out there that are taking advantage of you, they try to impersonate manufacturers and even official dealership mailers and things like that. If you see anything offering you an extended warranty in the mail throw in the trash can, If you want to buy an extended warranty, then you don't need to seek them out and find an honest one. But ignore the direct mail. And I have to give a little attention to John from Palm City. He keeps me in mailers, and one is more deceiving than the other.

Buyer, beware. Please. These mailers are unbelievable. I mean, they will just make you stand back on your heels, And it's all about getting the consumer into that dealership. And when you get in that dealership, you lose, most of us lose complete control. Give us a call. 877960, or you can text us at 772-4976530.

And I know that Stu has more Texas for us, I believe. Yes, we do. Yes, we do. Frank sends us, this is interesting. We don't talk about this. enough on the show. He sent a picture, and I'll show it on the Facebook feed, of an ad for an RV. And he wanted to point out the discount that they're promising, I'll show, I'll show

Earl you guys first, $105,000 off of MSRP. Whoa. And he says, well, please know in the fine print the MSRP, and it is, MSRP is $258,000. Uh-huh. Interesting. I told you we needed a Winnebago. Oh, okay. We're done with the show. We're leaving. Don't take debate, Nancy. It's an ad. Don't believe it. We don't talk about RVs very much. We don't talk about motorcycles. We talk about cars.

We're finding out that the RV industry is even worse than a car. It's terrible. It's all the old car guys that are looking for opportunity to flim flam even more, and they end up in the RV business. And they got a lot bigger margin to work with, and a lot of games are played. Yeah, the car business has been, is, Play it out. They've got to move on to bigger things. Yeah, they're on to fry bigger fish, you might say.

And then the same topic, Andreas, on Facebook says, car dealerships are not the only businesses where customers may just opt for colonoscopy in lieu of getting into the ring with the dealer. An RV dealership in California, Best RV Center in Turlock, is under investigation by the California DMV for charging extra fees under the guise that these are state fees. Other RV dealerships are charging an inspection fee that you may opt out of, but the dealership's claim you can forego your warranty.

This seems to be a scare tactic. I think this is fundamentally not in the consumer's best interest. Why would a dealer look for problems to fix for a fee that will not cover the repair costs? The inspection is bogus, and the fee is pure profit. In California, it does have good regulation. That's the reason this suit can be brought against a dealer, because they have their rules which are enforced. They have a dealer fee they allow.

I think it's $75. It might be $100, but it has to be called. at a dealer fee. They can't make up names. They can't raise the price of the dealer fee. They can't have more than one of the dealer fee. All those things Florida can do. So, Florida, I mean, California, has some great laws, and that's the reason they can.

And, you know, I wonder, what better way to take advantage to prey upon the elderly? Because I think there are more older people that are out there getting a Winnebago. They go in. They're all warm and fuzzy. and they just want to spend most of their life on the road, and they just let down their guard. So buyer beware. There's a good way that many ways that you can get taken advantage of,

so do your homework. And believe me, two heads are better than one. We're going to go to John, one of our favorite callers from Palm City. Good morning, John. Good morning. I heard my name, your name, mentioned me at a call. I want to mention an item, aftermarket item. That's a fabulous item, and nobody even talks about it anymore.

When Earl entered the car business in 1968, two big markup items, and new car dealers were the factory radios, which a lot of people ordered the car, was an ordered car with no radios, and they put after markets in like Pioneer, AudioVox, etc., etc. Because they turned out to be cheaper than what the radio that came from the factory was. Earl remembers that very well, I'm sure And also the second item Was floor mats

Now floor mats Were always a problem Later on it became hooks With the front on a driver's side Because it turned out to be that the floor mats Whether they were from factory or aftermarket They curled up a little bit And they moved

And it would affect the gas pedal And sometimes the gas pedal Would actually jam and it would be very serious to cause an accident but the company that's fantastic today is called WeatherTech

Weather Tech mats are just perfect they're laser cut fit perfectly whether it be for a trunk mat or a bed from a trunk they just nobody can beat them

and you can not only get it directly from the company but there are distributors like there's one here in Stewart they'll charge the same price to be ordered through them that if you order directly from weather tech. But I want to

see what Rick or Earl has a statement. I understand some new car deals even are distributors of weather tech. I've heard the name. What's your opinion of weather tech mats that's fit perfectly and also that's a

liquid item like if you're in a beach or sand or up north with snow it contains it and doesn't go into the other part of your interior what is your opinion on weather tech match i'll ask rick i don't know

john you you basically just sold the commercial for them no weather tech makes them incredibly good quality mats and one of the biggest advantages to them is that they are form fitted to where they will not slide around because they fill

the entire space of the floor and they're formed to where they're formed to where they cannot move to interfere with the pedals. So you get a weather tech for any make-model car? Absolutely. Well, I didn't know that. And they make them for the front seat, the back seat, the rear tailgate areas. They make a wide variety of products.

They're incredibly good quality. Better than factory mats? I would say yes. And simply for the fact that they are designed to catch any sort of debris. So if you accidentally spill your morning coffee, it's going to stay in this weather tech mat because the sides of it are actually raised up by well over an inch and a half. So it makes like a bowl-shaped area. How does it cost compare to factory mats?

Probably actually going to be a little cheaper because I've seen factory mats on the Monroney labels going at $200 for a set of floor mats or more for carpeted mats. Interesting. And the only drawback that I will say with WeatherTech, if you're someone like my wife, her, body chemistry rubber floor mats she will build up a static charge that can throw a spark six inches wow

so be advised I think you're graduating slightly I'm picturing no I'm not the team no I'm not it's occurred I think we're something last night they are only made as rubber

they're not you know they're they're not a very pretty pretty carpeted floor mat it is more of an industrial rubber black rubber appearance but especially in Florida

they're a lot better that way I think she knows Julia Cranes and the one thing just to put a safety announcement out there folks regardless of what

floor mats you use use only one floor mat per position in the car especially in the driver's side do not stack multiple floor mats that's one of the biggest

mistakes you can do because a floor mat on top of another can slide up and interfere with those pedals. So I've got six floor mats, so I should probably take it. Yeah, you might want to shrink it. You know, maybe that's why when you're driving your knees up to your ellers.

That's why your knees are up around your ears when you're right here. John, thank you very much. That is a very educational. I didn't know this. I didn't understand that. That sounds like a really, really good. I've been buying them for 20 years, and I highly recommend them. Ironically, when I first researched them, it was like 20 years ago, I ordered and they were terrible.

But guess what? it's a USA company today but it wasn't at the beginning they were made in China and it didn't fit good and the way I must have really lit up a light one of the vice presidents then apologized to me and said we will no longer have any mat that's not made in the United States

and they had me send them back the mats because they wanted to see you know I told them how bad fit it was I think it was in a Toyota then and they sent me a check actually in an apology And then never again was it any other country made but United States. John, I got to ask you this question.

Do you own stock and the weather tech? I think it's very reliable on what they did at the beginning. Incidentally, just for a follow-up, I mentioned last week the Julian auction company that auctioned off Malamon-Rose 56 T-Bird. Well, guess what? The final price, it sold for $490,000. Oh, boy. I bet $4.50. I just couldn't go over $4.50.

And everything, look them up on a computer. You can't believe some items of a movie store that they wore a coat or a dress or a shoe and what the prices go for just because what's in the name and who wore it. Well, interesting about this record price. What Maryland Monroe wore and what she wore and what she sold. Do you know who bought that car, John? No, I don't know. but I

Earl Stewart What I understand Earl Stewart bought that car John It's just stuff from famous Hollywood

like not wrong or during the summer there was a Jewish prayer book from Elizabeth Taylor when she converted from Christianity

to you know when she married her husband and it sold for some kind of absolute fantastic price just because

it was a prayer book that was used by Elizabeth Taylor so it's It's crazy completely. Yeah, I thought it was their diamonds, but hey, that's another show.

Hey, John, those weather tech that you talk about, did you know that yesterday, Black Friday, you could get those weather tech floor mats, mud flaps, seats, covers, at a discount. Yes. Well, you know who is selling them? Costco. Including Earl would see that, especially dogs for dogs, the bowl for their food. It's made of a special material and has a drip spot. on it and they're just in other things if you're in one of the big cities they have bumper

stops an accessory that you put on your car they're going into many many other items so it's an interesting company thank you very much so i think we bought some stools with those weather tax rate uh at the bottom of the book remember we can't move them around the the granite counter these guys aren't listening to me nobody's listen come on i'm listening come on i'm listening Come on, Lee. Oh, thank you. So, hey. Hey, 87.

Wait, put the camera back on Nancy and then do that again. 877-960. And our text number is 77249-9-7-6530. Ladies and gentlemen, where would the world be without laughter? You got a laugh today, huh? You got a laugh. Okay, Mr. Car Dealer, you're up. Well, we got another text.

This is one of the best text we ever got. of a situation like this before. This is from Anne-Marie. And it's pretty long, so I'm going to summarize it. So she read about this on Jalapnik, which Tina tells us about. A guy took his Audi in for some work at a dealership called Titan Motorsports in Orlando.

And he authorized the repair work. And when they had possession of it, the technician took it for a test drive, made an illegal U-turn and hid another car. And the tech was faulted. When they brought it, they told the customer about it. They said he needed to file the insurance claim for the damage. And he

refused. And then he took it up and it turned into a big brouhaha. He involved a local TV station. And he was told that when he signed to authorize the work, he relieved them of responsibility from any accident that happened to the vehicle in their possession. So Anne-Marie wants to know, whenever you drop a car from maintenance or body work and the customer signs a form authorizing the work to be done, does that form really release the company from the responsibility if the staff has an accident? And where could they sneak in the language releasing the company from responsibility? Well, I don't know that it's in there, but I think it probably is.

The fine print conceals anything that the business and car dealerships in this case want to protect themselves against. And there's something that is almost universal with car dealers is they ask you, when you sign a repair, order, having your car service to repair it, and when you sign a buyer's or leasing contract, you have waived your right to a day in court. You can't hire a lawyer and sue the dealership. You have to go through arbitration. You've agreed when you purchase anything on a car dealership to agree to arbitration.

Now, arbitration is done by the biggest arbitration companies, the American Arbitration Association, and they deal exclusively with businesses. They are a panel of three to five. They can be ex-judges. They can be ex-attorneys. They can be ex-car salesmen, as far as I know. I mean, they're just a group of people that say, I'm an arbitrator.

And you can't hire a lawyer. You can't sue a car dealership. You have to go through the arbitration process. Now, it's been proven statistically that arbitrators lean toward businesses and away from the consumer. Why? Because the businesses give them a lot of business. business. If you're an arbitration company and you deal with businesses, they come back

to you over and over again. If a consumer talks to an arbitrator one time, so where's your allegiance? Your allegiance is with the business. You wave your right when you buy a car, lease a car, repair, or maintain your car. And again, in the fine print, is anything that wants to be there. So if you really want to be a tough negotiator and when you're buying or maintaining a car, you can walk in there and say, listen, I want you to strike out the arbitration clause. When I go anywhere else

to buy something, they don't make me arbitrate. Chances are the guy you're talking to do isn't going to know what you're talking about and you're going to have to show it to him. And you might have to go up the ladder to the general manager to say, I'll buy a car from you today, but I do not want to waive my right to

a day in court. That's a constitutional right is I should be able to go to court if I feel like I have to. That's an American constitutional right, you've asked me to waive that with arbitration agreements. Just say, I won't do it. And if you don't waive that, if you don't restore my

right to a day in court, I won't buy a vehicle from you. That's probably too long an answer, but... That's a great answer. Okay, we have any other text? One just popped in. It's just a follow-up to the extended warranty solicitations. And this is from Frank, and he says the interesting note, the vehicle.

when he got the letter saying the warranties out, he had just purchased a vehicle eight days before the mail arrived. And eight days, his warranty has expired, and that's how you, that's the clue. That would clues you in that it's fraudulent. Yeah, these are, you'll, Nevada is a big state for this. If you can, I get a lot of them. I have, most car dealers don't buy their cars.

I happen to buy my cars. It's a long story. I was an Uber driver, and I had to get insurance. I won't digress too much, but because the car's in my name and not the dealership name, I get all this mail, and I get all this nonsense. I cannot believe it. It even makes, some of the envelopes are so clever, I open them. Usually I just toss them, but they look, this is official, I'm afraid to throw this away.

They're so personal. By the way, I'm going to digress. Is it okay if I digress? Digress all you want. There are, there's a two-way street on official envelopes. People that are sending you checks will make an envelope that looks not as official as it should. I have thrown away checks. I mean, when I get a refund check, people, who wants to send you a refund, right?

I'll get a refund check, and it will come from just a schlucky-looking mailer that it looks like it's second-class or third-class mail. And I say, this is a junk, and I've actually tossed checks away. And that's why you'll find me in the dumpster any given day. No, yeah, exactly. The good news, the check's only for $5.64. Probably. Back to being so personalized, you look at it, you say, hey, listen, and you say, well, maybe I better open it up. And when you open it up, you agree or disagree.

It is so personalized, dear Earl, blah, blah. Well, they get it from public records. I mean, it's not just warranty. So when you buy a car and your vehicle is registered, that's where they get that list from. I refinance my home, and then for months, I'm still getting letters that says, important notice about your mortgage. And for the first few weeks, I'm thinking I got some official business from the bank.

It wasn't. They just know that a lien was recorded and it's public record. Yeah. They get you coming. Okay, we're not getting any phone calls, so we're going to give that number out. Okay, 877-960-9960, or you can text us at 772-497-3530, and I think that Stu may have a few.

You must have read my mind or saw the reflection of my glasses because the text just popped in. My 2016 Rav4 is getting 16 miles per gallon. New air filter, tire pressure good, conservative driver. Why? I'm looking at Rick. 2016 Rav 4 only getting 16.

Well, let me say what Rick probably is afraid to say. And oftentimes, poor mileage is based on the driving habits. And I don't want to be accusatory. But I happen to have a heavy foot. And my gas mileage is terrible. And I don't like it, but I accept it because I know it's my fault. When I go from stoplight to stop light, I go much faster than I have to. If I anticipated, I could go a steady constant speed, but that would mean cars would be passing me.

So I'm one of the, I have a strike. What's so wrong? Why is that bad? Well, I don't know. It's a psychological. It's a defect. Because I'm in the passenger seat. So some people drive that way.

Now, if you, the first thing Rick does, when he checks gas mileage is he drives with your permission. He drives your car home, and he drives it back. He tries to put a few miles on the car, and he measures his fuel account because Rick is a great driver. And he knows, let's put this way, he knows how to be a great driver. So he almost inevitably, when he drives a car, he, he knows. a car home and comes back, he will find the mileage is better than what the customer is complaining about. So, the

first thing being said to this texter is think about your own driving habits and Now, this is a subjective comment, but they says, I'm a conservative driver. Okay, well, we'll give him that. But that's subjective. Now, Rick,

what can he do to get that wrap for? What was the mileage? He's going to get 16. 16. Yeah. Better than 16. That's bad. 16. That actually will improve a little bit, and I make this as a prediction, because I'm willing to bet that this customer is stating that they're only getting 16 right now, and that's going to be over the last couple months, and it's probably fallen, and that's why they're concerned over it.

And the greatest reason for that is we have just come off of the fourth hottest summer that we've ever had in history. Climate change. And our air conditionings are working overtime to try to keep it. relatively comfortable inside the car. And unfortunately, when the air conditioner has to work harder, that uses a lot more gasoline to power the car. Okay.

How about tire inflation? Tire inflation is one of the easiest ways to help improve your tire life and your fuel economy, both at the same time, by raising that tire pressure up to the maximum pressure allowable on the sidewall of the tire. That is the maximum safe pressure. and it's got a safety margin there so it's not like if you set your tire pressure is cold that they're going to explode

because you hit a pothole or so. So that differentiates from the manufacturer of the car's recommendation, the manufacturer of the tires recommendation is the higher one. Right. And I always say there's a range. How many pounds is it? It's going to depend on the tires and the vehicle.

Like on a Tacoma pickup like I drive, it'll say 32 pounds is the recommended pressure. The tires that I have, on my truck now, say 35, but if I get a set of what are called light truck tires, I can put as much as 50 in those tires, and my fuel economy will increase exponentially. Well, give me a number. If this 2016 Rav4 was using the manufacturers recommended, and he had put another

five pounds in there, instead of 16 miles per gallon, what would he get? I would predict at least a 10 to 15 percent increase in fuel economy. But it may be two miles per gallon. Two to three miles per gallon? I asked the texture if they said the tire pressure is good. I asked if they set it to Toyota's recommendations or the tire manufacturer. So we'll see if they answer. And also, I'll add to this, there's so many ways that your gas mileage is affected.

This is an exaggeration, but just to my point, if you're dragging redwood trees on the top of that rad four, let me tell you what. Stop it. No more Redwood trees. I believe you. That's a problem. And there's another thing. So, reduce the weight you're carrying in your car.

Keep a Rav 4 light. So if you've got a lot of extra stuff in the back of the car, it affects your gas. For every 10 pounds you take out of that car, you're going to see another probably a tenth of a mile per gallon. No moonshine on the back of that truck. No, redwoods or moonshine. Well, just drop the moonshine off at my house.

Got that covered for you. Okay. Enough silliness. Do we have anything? We do. We have another text came in from Lou and Tequesta. He asked, well, I get a better price for my used car by going through three used car websites or three local car dealerships. I think he's looking to sell his car and maybe he's talking about independent use lots or new car dealership.

I think it should do both. I think if you want to go to the trouble of retailing your car and put it on eBay or some other form of Craigslist, If you want to go through that aggravation and sell your car retail, you should also shop at wholesale. And you take the three dealerships and throw a car max in there always and get three or four bids on your car. Be sure they understand you don't want to buy another car. You've got to come in there. You're going to downsize. You're getting rid of the car.

How much will you pay me for it? I'm going to two other dealers. I'm going to go to the top bidder is who I will sell it to. That establishes your wholesale value. That helps you go to the retail. So if you're going to go to eBay or Greg's List or some other third party, just try to retail it, you mark it up $1,000 and maybe make an extra $1,000 over wholesale. Yeah, and Lou, there's another thing.

Some new things that are coming out now, they're called instant cash offers. I'm not endorsing it, but you might want to check them out. Kelly Blue Book has an instant cash offer, and so does a true car, and it's called True Trade. And you put in all the information in your vehicle, you submit photographs, and you get an instant trading value, and it's worth putting that into your... This is new, by the way, and the dealers are jumping on this. We do it at our dealership.

A lot of dealers are doing this. It's legitimate, as honest. It isn't the end of the world, and they'll pay you for the car, but they will pay you that for the car if it's as represented. And if you take the pictures of it and you describe the car correctly, they will pay you that for the car. And you might get lucky.

You might get lucky, yeah. Okay, we're going to go to our next caller, and that's Rod who's calling from Lake Park. Good morning, Rod. Good morning, all. You were all talking about the special mats that go down that hold the liquids and all that stuff. A problem that I've seen with them, I've got them. And what happens is you have to get them out of your carpet every once in a while

because if there's any moisture in the ether at all, what it does, it rains up and goes down on the carpet. It rains up and goes down on the carpet. You can, in a short time, rot your carpets if you're not careful. They just don't breathe at all because they are solid rubber, so I thought I'd bring that up.

Well, thank you, Ron. The liquid thing I didn't quite understand is one of the callers said that I think it was around for Palm City, or somebody said they have water for your dog? Well, they make dog dishes. Oh, dog dishes. Right.

But they don't build a dog dish into your floor mat. You're talking about... These mats are real good. These mats are real good if you're up in the muddy slush area or you're up in the ice and snow and stuff like that. I got you.

But down here in South Florida, you can get some bad mildew rot real quick. Oh, yeah. We had a lady talk about mildew. You don't want that. That's a very good point. So you've got to take those things out and clean them off, dry them off, and put them back in periodically. Yes.

Ron, thank you very much for that heads up on the floor match that we got into with Jonathan from Palm City. And please call again. All right. Have a good day. Same to you, Rod. Have a great weekend. Stay in touch. 877-960-90-960, or you can text us at 772-49-60.

I want to take a moment and give a shout out to the Valencia Points. What a delightful crowd. They welcomed us with open arms, and we had a great speaking engagement. And Rick and myself and Earl, we're out there, and I can't say enough about you guys. And thank you again. We look forward to seeing you sometime soon. And thanks for listening to us right here on our radio show. Again, 877-960-99-60, and you can text us at 772.

4976530 I think that Stu might have You can see my notebook from there How do you know when I get texts? That's what I want to know. Your mind melding, yes, exactly, the Great Carnac. There you go. Okay, so one came in, it's a follow-up on the guy with the Rev 4

with the poor fuel economy. He says he did have the tire pressure set to Toyota's recommendations, so he's going to up it up it to the manufacturing. tire manufacturers and see if it works. If it doesn't work, you might want to bring it by a dealership or a mechanic just to see if there's something more serious. And then we have one.

It says, good morning. What do you know about Zachtek paint protection? When I lease my car, I wish Alan was here, Zactek paint protection. When I leased my car, it was put on the car along with a sticker that says it needs to be reapplied every six months. Is this necessary?

And I can address this. I wonder if there is no charge, or if the dealer will charge me for the reapplication. There is a high probability this is a dealer scam to get you to come back to the deal. Well, let's, let's Google that because one of the things that was, that has put on cars now, is a very high price product, which actually, according to Allen, our collision guy, is a very good product. Ceramic coating. So is Zach Tech a ceramic coating?

This is, this is the sticker on the car. This is the dealer thing, yeah. Yeah, okay. And they're telling you that you have to. you bring the car back to the dealer. There's a sticker of the picture. Okay, okay, there's a stamp, yeah. Bring it back on November 25th, 2018.

Exactly, yeah. Yeah, that's a scammer, absolutely. Yeah, this is basically a polymer sealant that is just one of those typical polyasmataz waxes. Overpriced of most car dealers. It's called paint sealant, and it's no better than good wax. and they charge it for many, many times more than what a good Likes would cost you. And, of course, if you wax your car with anything every four months, you're never going to have a problem. There's also a clue here that this dealer is a little bit unethical because right above the Zach Tech sticker,

there is the chemical symbol for nitrogen, which means it's a nitrogen tire dealer. Okay, we are going to go to Ollie and Zinn and Doug from Boca. Allie and Doug. It's Doug. Ollie's on first, Doug. Me, how? Hey. You liked that, didn't you?

I was just going to say that sunset today was on the sunrise. Yeah, it's incredible. Magnificent. Yeah, it was an amazing sunrise. For our listeners that don't understand what Doug is talking about or I'm talking about, we have a sunrise club that we do every morning, and we've got hundreds of even thousands. sometimes of viewers

and we do a live Facebook video of the sunrise every morning and Doug and Ollie and Sam are most devoted members of the International Sunrise Club and I say international because people from all over the world Australia, Egypt, you name it, we have people from all of the world

and Ollie is Doug's kitty cat and Ollie a couple years ago Doug sent me a video of Ollie watching my video of the sunrise and Ollie is a kitty cat and all he watches the sunrise and he's fascinated by the sunrise and what can I tell you it's just an amazing thing so anyway I wanted to explain so everybody didn't think

we were nuts but Doug thank you very much for the call yeah I'd ask a question since got a Honda court 2018 that we leave and we really like it but I'm a little frustrated with this lane control thing yeah and I can't find the way to turn it it off. Oh, boy. Do you advise me? Yeah, Doug, I sent you, did that help? There was a video that came from Honda.

Did you check that out? Oh, no, I didn't. Okay, so I'll check that out. But it seems to me that it overcompensates so that when you're making a turn, it can actually create problems, you know? One thing I do know, if you make sure you use your blinkers. Because if you don't put, I mean, if you don't put your signal on, it'll think that you're drifting.

and give you some resistance. If your blinkers on, it'll override it. Yes. Oh, I didn't. Okay, thank you. Yeah, Lane Keep Assist is literally the car is teaching us to be a more courteous and more effective driver. And it bothers me, too, Doug. Just if you're interested, it's something I can't quite get used to.

You've been driving all your life one way, and suddenly you have this assist. I can see where it's very useful. and if I were going on a long trip and I was worried about getting a little woozy it's nice to have something to keep you in the middle of those lines. But as far as normal driving, sometimes it can be annoying.

You need to find that off and on switch. Yeah, definitely. And the other thing I complain about is the automated tire pressure thing that helps your car. Yeah. I don't believe that thing is accurate. It varies with temperature as one of the problems, Doug.

And if your car is cold, and particularly during warm weather, the variable, all the gauge can do is sense the pressure, and the pressure is a function of the temperature. And so sometimes when you get a cold snap in our car dealership, whenever there's a cold snap, the phones ring off the hook, say, I got low tire pressure. Well, you got a low tire pressure because the temperature dropped to 50 last night, and the average temperature is usually 85 or 90. So it can be a problem. if you don't understand that temperature thing.

Avogadra's law. Avogadra's law. Very good. Mr. physicist. And, Doug, it can be annoying. That happened to me yesterday. And, you know, I just, I was really worried because I had a distance to go. And quite honestly, I was going to jump out of the car because I had caught the bridge.

And I was going to use my tire gauge indicator. And I decided not to because I had. been on the road for a while, and so, as Earl said, it's really important for you to check that pressure whenever your tires are cold. But that constant beeping that I got on my dash was a little annoying, to your point. Well, thank you guys for the answer, and I hope you have an amazing weekend. Thank you for doing all you do, guys. Thank you.

Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Sam. You guys are awesome. Meow, Ollie. See you in tomorrow morning. Bye, see you. Bye, Meow, meow.

Bye, Ollie. Bye, Doug. Stay in touch. 877, 9, 6. Now, what show can you turn on? What radio show can you turn on with a fabulous host, number one, and three experienced. Good looking. Absolutely gorgeous.

Drop-dead gorgeous. Humor, ladies and gentlemen. We're not. 877. Stucan can't contain himself. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. And guess who's calling? Howard from Jupiter. Howard, is Cy with you? No, Si's not with me, but my question is, I have a question that Cy has.

Okay. Cy wants to know, he can't be here today, he's out of town. He wants the best way to buy a car I said get Earl Stewart's book I said okay I have it I looked at my library I couldn't find it So I need to get

Earl Stewart's book As soon as possible How could I do that? Yeah I didn't even I didn't even pay you for this But Amazon You can buy it on Amazon And I'm holding it up

If anybody is streaming us Right now let me tear this off Yeah but I need it immediately Because he needs to buy a car The next couple of weeks Oh okay well you can pick You can come down and see me I'll give you one.

Yeah, we've got a lot of books. Oh, that's great. Absolutely. I'm speaking to Earl? Yeah, you're speaking to Earl right now. And for other people out there, not you, Howard, but anybody else who wants a book you can buy on Amazon, and 100% of the proceeds go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. All proceeds go to charity.

And if you want to buy one for a friend or a daughter, grandson, or somebody that would need help in buying a car, how to do it book on buying a car, 100% of the proceeds go to charity, Big Dog, Ranch Rescue, and you gave me an opportunity to do my doggy commercial. Okay, great. By the way, so I was the secret chaper. We both went into Acura place, and he's not going to buy it, but he wanted to find out how these dealers, you know, scam you. So he got a price for Accura, and then at the end he said,

oh, by the way, do you charge any other fees? and the guy says, you know, and these luxury cars, we have to charge $995. So, So I said, then, goodbye, and he walked out with me. You know, he didn't believe it. He could not believe that they negotiate a price, and they have the price there, and you're ready to buy, and then they say, oh, by the way, we have a deal of you. He said, luxury cars always have a deal of them. So, Cy was the secret shopper.

I'm not going to mention the name of the place that he went to because he's not the official That's amazing that they said that we have to charge a dealer fee Yeah Yeah, that's amazing Yeah, mandatory Well, Howard, thank you very much Definitely, you have to do it

Especially luxury cars, right? You have to charge a dealer fee So that's a little knowledge I wanted impart upon you guys I'm going to say goodbye We're going to have an appointment with Best Buy. And I'll be talking to you next week. All right. Thanks a lot, Howard.

I appreciate the call. Thanks to you. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. For being part of the show. And give us a call, tool-free. 772-497-6530.

What am I thinking, Nancy? What's in my brain? Stu is speaking texts. Yes. We have a few texts. This is a dangerous one because I don't think we have enough time in the show for you to finish your answer, But this is a follow-up to the guy that asked about Zachtek paint sealant. And when we mentioned the nitrogen symbol in the picture he sent, he says,

can you expand on the nitrogen thing? So take it away. I'm going to do a succinct answer on nitrogen. Nitrogen is one of the favorite products for all car dealers. And they will have markups on the addendum label or sometimes on the buyer's order, charging you for nitrogen in the tires. simple and plain consumer reports has tested nitrogen and tires. They did an extensive test a couple of years ago.

They took every tire made in the U.S., or probably every tire sold in the U.S., and there are hundreds of them, and they put nitrogen in one set of tires, and they put air in the other, and over a one-year testing period, they found there to be no difference between the wear, the mileage, the pressure loss or any other criteria that would positively or negatively affect tires between air and nitrogen, which is not surprising when you consider that air

is 78% nitrogen in anyway. So it's a scam. Nitrogen tires is a total scam. Do not pay it. If it's free, take it. If it's not free, forget about it. And if they give it to you free, don't come back and have it put more nitrogen in

because they do that just so they can sell you in other services. And they'll tell you that NASCAR uses it and NASA uses it. And there's a reason for that. Exactly. It's they are working with like a NASCAR racer in fractions of a second in a race. So if it is a tiny advantage, it makes sense then. It's like if you shaved your body, could you swim faster than Olympics? No.

Yeah. So. If you drive your car up over 50,000 feet like an airline, you might need nitrogen. Yeah. And if you're going over 300 miles or 250 miles an hour, you might need nitrogen. Well, some of the NASCAR are approaching almost 300, it seems like. They're well over 200 miles an hour in a lot of the races. Yeah.

So at those speeds, I fully understand the need for very minute control over air pressure. But they're talking about making changes of one-tenth of a pound of air pressure or one pound of air pressure in a tire makes a big difference in a car traveling at those speeds. the average person I could add one pound of air to one tire, take one pound out of another tire, and nobody would be able to tell me which ones I

did that to. I have a little interesting, Tedbitt. Oh, we got a caller here. I won't do it, Ted, but we'd rather do Dennis from Lake Worth. Yeah. Welcome to the show, Dennis. What can we do for you? I was calling about a question someone asked last week. I was listening, but I couldn't

call in, and it was about adaptive headlights, and I think Rick was saying you only could get them on high luxury cars, but there's actually lots of manufacturers now that have adaptive headlights. Mazda has them, I know, Jeep, Volkswagen, there's quite a few places where you can get cars that aren't expensive that have adaptive headlights on them. Well, that's good, and I think I was the one that made the mistake. I thought they were only on the higher ones, and then Stu pointed out that they actually have it on some Toyotas, and you mentioned Mazas, and apparently it's becoming... Hostas, Gets, Volkswagen, and I think there's even some other ones. There's quite a range selection now where you can get adaptive headlights if you want, pretty much any price.

Does adaptive explain the entire function? I know there was a, I would rather a misimpression. It depends upon the design, because the original intent of an adaptive headlight was that it actually has the ability to turn the beam of light to aim around. a corner as you begin cornering the car. But now, actually, they're finding it's much easier simply to have another light source, and when you begin to make the turn, it simply illuminates that auxiliary light source on the side of the car there to light up the corner area where you're turning. Oh, simpler and probably less expensive.

Oh, much more. And now the engineers are finally realizing this is the easier way to go, instead of trying to emulate the old Tucker torpedo where it had that center headlight that when you turned the wheel it actually had a linkage that would turn that single bean to illuminate where you were going.

Now, Dennis, thanks very much for the call. I did. It was my misstatement, and I'm glad you called to... Okay, I didn't know if anybody else would call because, like I said, I was actually right. I learned more from callers than I do, you know, from anything, and I really appreciate you're letting us know about that.

Okay, thank you. Have a good day. You too. Thank you, Dennis. I love to keep listening. Another kind of adaptive headlight, they do the automatic high beams, which takes them getting used to. Basically, you put those on, and when it detects oncoming traffic, it lowers the beams, and when it gets dark, it goes up. Weird.

It works, but it's a little bit unsettling. You're afraid that you're going to blind somebody, but it works. It does work, yeah. Here's a little tidbit I was going to talk about before we get in the mystery shopping report, and we talk all the time about the flim-flam advertising and don't read any advertising, and how victims are taken care of, taken advantage of by unscrupulous car dealers. And this morning I'm reading the Wall Street Journal. And Wall Street Journal, obviously, is for more educated consumers.

And they have a set of steak knives here. We talk about cars all the time, but all advertising is terribly deceptive. And there's a set of steak knives here, Kamikoto, Kamikoto steak knives. I'll hold it up if you're streaming us. And so I'm looking at this in the Wall Street Journal, and I look in the fine print. or that's not the fine print. It says to the top of the ad, the would-be retail price of these is $1,295.

And it says that right here. And they're selling these for $255. So, I mean, it is such a blatantly absurd ad. And yet it's for a sophisticated buyer. What's absurd is it's in the Wall Street Journal, and it says it's a private offer. Yes, private offering, yeah. And people want to believe big discounts, and everybody's a sucker.

I mean, you know, P.T. Barnum, there's a sucker born every minute. The suckers are not just the people that are stupid or not educated, all the other victim type descriptions that we make. Suckers are people that want to believe the advertisement. There's some CEO out there reading the Wall Street Journal, and he sees this, and he wants to say, the steak knives and he says oh Japanese steak knives you know these are custom 1,295 and I can buy these for only 255 but wait you have to buy two pair two sets so he has to spend

$500 but he's saving over $2,000 what much money he saved and what I wonder is our now the name is Kamikoto which sounds Japanese very much so but do they actually certify that yes those were made in Japan and in a high-quality situation? Or are they simply imported over from China? And now they're just selling them under the Comic Code. You know, it says here, it's limited as a Japanese company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. So it's a Japanese scam. So who cares?

It's a Japanese. I mean, the world is the scammers. I mean, they all are. It is. Advertising is to be disregarded. You do your own research. You go to consumer reports or any other source that is related. liable, and you just totally ignore that.

Disapperticements are to get you in the door. Deception. That's all there is to it. Comic Hedo has a nice website. Yeah. It's amazing. You know, I do have to share this text that I received. Ironically, you and I were discussing it, Earl, you and I were discussing it this morning.

And Janet is looking for a free report on the vehicle that she wants to purchase. and first thing comes to mine is Carfax. But as I said to you this morning, I don't think they're 100% full proof. And I think that there are multiple ways to get a history report on a car that you're going to purchase by simply, you know, getting that VIN number. But what do you have to say about Carfax? I think Carfax is pretty reliable.

It's not 100% reliable. You have auto check. You have Carfax. and you should be able to go to any car dealer that you're interested in buying a car from, and they should give you a free report. I would call or go online. Sometimes they post their reports online. Car dealers have to pay for Carfax and auto check,

but they should pass along free to the consumer. You can buy the Carfax directly without even having to call the dealer, but why would you want to pay for it when they should give it to you free? And when they give it to you free, you should get a copy of it, by the way, because if they read it to you, they might not read to you the important part. You'll see in our Mr. Shopping report coming up now. They all say it's got a clean Carfax, but that's why their definition of clean. If you go to a dealer's website or auto trader and you click on the Carfax report or auto check

and it prompts you to pay for it, move on. The dealer is trying to hide something. Go to the next website. But that VIN number or vehicle identification number is real important. You get that off that car. and you can get your report on that particular vehicle that you would have purchased. Okay. Let's move along into the mystery shopping report, and our shop report was a luxury car deal.

We were told that we weren't hitting enough luxury car dealers, so we've hit two or three in the past a few weeks. Mercedes-Benz, Fort Pierce, Coggin dealership. Now, I believe that the Coggin dealerships are owned by Sonic. maybe you can Google that Sonic is a publicly held company one of the smaller publicly held companies but Penske and

Auto Nation are publicly held companies and I mention that because publicly held companies are held to a higher accountability than privately held companies and I think it would be interesting to find out if in fact Cagan Mercedes and Fort Pierce

is a publicly held company and ladies and gentlemen let me remind you that we would really love for you to vote on our mystery shopping report. It's a real big help to us that we all join together as a team if we want to make a difference. Thank you.

772-4976530. Okay, here's a report this morning. If you ventured into Publixie or Whole Foods and try to buy some romaine lettuce, you'd be out of luck. Why? It's all over the media. 32 people in 11 states

were recently sick. and after eating romaine lettuce that was contaminated with E. coli bacteria. The Centers for Disease Control quickly issued a nationwide alert warning the entire country against consuming remain and recommending people check their refrigerators and throw out any remain they might have. Now, you're wondering, is this the mystery shopping report? I'm getting to my point here. Fair with us. Bear with us.

Grocers were advised to remove Remain from the shelves, and they heeded the request immediately. retailers from small produce stands to major supermarket chains all threw out tons upon tons with a potentially contaminated lettuce. Restaurants stopped serving Caesar salads and veggie wraps. Supply lines were hauled in trucks carrying remain across the country, returned to produce distributors, and dumped the tainted greens. This was a nationwide mobilization that took place over just a few days. A public health threat was identified, and federal agencies leapt into action.

The business community responded and worked with regulators to thwart the danger to American consumers doing so. Despite the massive financial losses suffered from throwing out thousands of tons of fresh produce, the great Romaine recall of 2018 was impressive. Now, I want to give credit to my son, Stu, who wrote that. I mean, it really had, I got my, my eyes were moist. I got emotional. It was, it was. Great piece of literature.

Now, creative writing. I continue. Could you imagine, now this is a serious part, because it's really not funny, could you imagine the benefit to public safety if the Takata airbag crisis was given the same treatment? Can you picture the CDC and the Department of Transportation putting out a statement urging consumers to park their vehicles and ordering dealers to immediately clear their lots of these rolling death traps? Now, interestingly enough, perhaps because we're the same flesh and blood, I thought the same thing that Stu did when he saw this remain lettuce thing. I'm sitting there, Nancy and I are in the living room and we're watching television. Lettuce. And the media is hysterical about lettuce.

Now, I'm not trying to minimize this, of course, obviously, E.Colide bacteria is serious stuff. But I'm telling you that the hysteria about this, scaring people, and the total, let me read this. I'll just read it the way Stu wrote it. I don't want to minimize a serious health risk that come from consuming protestated with E. coli. You can really get sick from this stuff. But we're talking about nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, not severe bodily trauma, disfigurement, and likely death. I know you can die. I mean, elderly people can die from this sort of thing, too.

But what all this comes down to is a lack of will. If our federal and state governments have the will to eliminate this clear and present danger to America's public safety, they would find a way, just like they did with Romaine Lettuce. And there's even more to it than that. The media will attack a target that can't fight back, can't hurt the media. Legislators are very brave when it comes to something like E. coli or sex offenders or no-brainer problems that we have. But when you have powerful enemies like the automobile manufacturers, the car dealers, the lobbyists that they spend billions of dollars getting legislators elected and regulators appointed and elected, this is where it takes courage. courage and will. And our

government doesn't have the courage and will and that's the bottom line. This week we found a 2007 Honda cord would not one but two defective to cotter airbags at Mercedes at Mercedes this whole Takata thing

has been going on for two and a half years and we've been doing this on this radio show for two and a half years and that's the reason that we're frustrated a little bit. If you detect that. Mercedes-Benzhenz of Fort Pierce is owned by Kagan, which I believe is publicly held by Sonic.

I'm not sure of that. We're going to try to verify that. I couldn't find it. I couldn't find it. Maybe I'm wrong. I know the Kagan group. I know Luther Kagan and George Kagan. I knew that way back many years ago.

The Kagan's gathered up a whole group of dealerships, and they were sold to somebody. thought it was Sonic. We shopped only one Coggin dealership over the years, Coggin Honda, before it appears back in 2016. The Honda cord had extremely low mileage. Just 72,000 miles is very low for 2007. 2007, yeah, very low. I was listed for sale for $6,900. H&X nervously agreed to investigate.

He's not crazy about getting behind a wheel of an 11-year-old time. mom. Here's the report. Speaking of the first person, as if I were, Agent X, as usual, I called ahead to make sure the accord was still on the lot and available for sale. I was put through to a used car salesman named Mark. I was

told the car came in recently and had just come out of detail that very day. Mark said he'd have it ready for a test drive when I got there. I told him I could be there a little more than half an hour, or I mean an hour. I saw the vehicle parked up front as soon as I pulled in. There was a whole

sign with my name on it. That's a nice touch hanging from the rearview mirror. I walked over to a clutch of salespeople standing by the front door, asked if one of them was Mark, an older man wearing a red polo shirt, stepped forward and said that's me. We even have a picture of Mark

actually. Nice looking older gentleman. Handsome man. Yes. We walked inside and Mark asked if I brought my driver's license with me, and I said yes, and asked if he could make a photocopy it, so he could take a test drive. This is all for insurance purposes.

All car dealers do this. He guided me to his desk, then left to copy my license and get a license plate. Mark returned quickly. Let me outside to the car. It was clean. Mark was truthful, and instead of just been detailed, ran my finger

along the hood, not a speck of dust. I asked him about their process before putting a car on the lot for sale. I want to know about safety and mechanical inspections. This is what we do. typically with these Takata cars. Now, bear in mind, most

car buyers don't do this, but we're going through a process, a careful process, to find out are they selling these cars with premeditation and pre-knowledge of something because we do ask and ask and ask and ask. But if you're buying a car, you should ask these questions.

You should ask all these questions. And then some. You'll see as we go along. I pop the hood. We both walked to the front of the car, looked at the engine compartment, It was clean and shiny. Mark said they put a new battery in and new tires, too. Another nice touch for an older car. I asked if it was mechanically sound.

Okay, here's another probe, mechanically sound. If there were any safety issues, Mark replied that they were meticulous with their used cars. And this one was mechanically sound and that it had no safety issues. Now, the car's got two defective airbags. that can explode in your face and kill you. Is that a safety issue? Technically, those are issues, I would say. I would have an issue with this.

I think I'd have an issue with it. I'd have an issue with that, too. You know, and, okay, I don't want to go on. I asked him if it had ever been in an accident. Mark answered that he had just reviewed the current accident and disclosed. There were two accidents reported. I pointed to the window sticker that displayed a price of $8,000. I asked him why that was higher than what I saw online.

He said that was the lot price, but he would honor the Internet price that brought me in. A little aside here, when you walk into a car lot and you have to go online, you're making a mistake. There are two-tier pricing folks. There's the online price, and there's a price on the lot. There's a price the dealer and the salespeople will quote you, and there's a price that the Internet Department will quote you in this point. posted online. Two-tier pricing.

Never ever buy the lot price or the price this hill's been closed you. $2,000 difference, sir. Yeah, yeah. We drove the car and made small talk, returned to the dealership. I tried my best not to let Mark pick up on my anxiety I had knowing both airbags

with their most unstable and ready to blow. I have to tell you, he's, yeah. Stu and I are both having second thoughts about what are we doing, exposing Agent X repeatedly. Right.

More than anybody in America. He's got the biggest exposure. Just keep rolling the dice. The least we could do is get him a medal. I mean, above and beyond the call duty. He's risking his life. It'd have to be an undercover medal. And what's that?

Well, we could send him in with full tactical, like, combat gear. We're laughing about this, but what if something didn't happen to Agent X? Well, I mean, I'm not picking on him, and he's listening to the show right now. He texted me. and he didn't think of that until you mentioned it. So now he's scared. We may just have lost Asian X. Right.

I mean, you know, we haven't lost him. He's alive, but, I mean, he might retire early. He should be scared, as others should be scared. You're right, it's not funny. As far as anxiety is concerned, I think I showed my anxiety in the car on our way here to this mystery shopping report that's pathetic. Anyway, to continue with the report here, back at Mark's desk, he asked how I would be paying for it. I told him I was getting financed to my credit union.

He gathered some more information from me than excused himself. It's all typical car dealers stuff, you know, back and forth, and how are you going to pay for it? They want to finance it because they make more money financing than anything else. Mark returned in about 10 minutes with a buyer's order. A service department repair order, another nice touch, and a Carfax report. first they review the repair order which detailed the work they had done to the Honda Accord

before putting it on their lot then he reviewed the Carfax Report pointing out the accidents but brushing past both Takata recalls now we have a copy of the Carfax Report there's no way you can miss the Takata recalls

it's just not it's not fine print it is a major issue a major chunk of the page and this ban in your face Takata Airbag recall You cannot miss it Real quick when you look at a Carfax report Some of them can be very long in detail

But the very top there's a summary And any issues appear there If there's an accident that's where it says it If there's a recall it says it right on the top Yeah So here we have Deliberate Deception About

Takata Airbag recalls Two to Katta Airbag recalls I told him I was impressed with how thoroughly he was, especially he's showing me the repair order. I said, I felt pretty good about the car, but asked again about safety. I mean, we're really pushing it. Really

pushing him. He said there were no safety concerns as far as he could see. He's looking at the car factory report. That's a blatant in your face lie. I hate to call people liars.

You call it a liar? I mean, usually you want say if you want to be polite, you must be mistaken. I just don't know how I can say Mark was mistaken. I mean, you got the car facts report. It's in your face, you see it. And a

car fax report with two defective takata airbags that can blow up and kill you is a safety item. I just don't know how I could be polite. Mark's a liar. I told him I was impressed with how thoroughly he was by I said that. I was

amused because the safety concerns were printed on a piece of paper, about 24 inches from his face. Mark pushed the buyer's order out to the center of the desk and made an attempt to get me to finance with him. I declined, and he tried some more back to the sales tactics he wants to finance so we can make more money. But he relented. The selling price was the same as I saw online, $6,900. They added a $799 dealer fee that they called. a pre-delivery service fee.

$7.99. Then a $98 taxable fee, which is another dealer fee, as sales tax and tax. Now, again, a little aside on dealer fees, virtually nobody calls their extra fees, dealer fees anymore. Dealer fee is the cat's out of the bag on dealer fees. Everyone knows what a dealer fee is, so they just don't call it a dealer fee. and car dealers are actually advertised now no dealer fees no they call electronic filing fee

no they call it a tag agency fee popular one is taxable fees you have your taxable fees which are your dealer fees your profit to the dealer the deception taxable fee then you have your other fee the other fee is non-taxable

because it's real and that's the only difference between the two fees I talked about all the fees but he stopped me quickly advised that they would not be changing the fees. He said there was nothing he could do about it. They were pre-printed on the buyer's order. I had the feeling it was used to this kind of objection.

He made one last attempt to get me to finance there, explaining that he had the best finance guy in town. I believe him. You don't want to be going into the box with the best finance guy in down because he's really going to take advantage of you. I said, no, I don't want to finance with you. Mark left to make copies of everything for me, returned with a sales manager, Paul.

ask how my experience was and wanted to know what rate I was getting for my credit union, again, pushing, pushing, pushing on the financing. I said I was changing, I wasn't changing in my mind about financing with them and pivoted to ask him about the recalls. Again, we're pushing about the recalls. I said, Mark had assured me that the car was safe by I had noticed two airbag recalls on their car factory report

had to come out and say, Mark's a liar. there are Takata Airbag recalls right there on that report Paul seemed unconcerned and said I just needed to take it to the Honda dealer for a free repair he then made an attempt to give me to give them a deposit to hold the car by help my ground

I said I would review the deal with my wife that night and let them know my decision the next day Mercedes-Benz of Fort Pierce failed the Takata test miserably I might add maybe if Agent X was trying to buy I love this Stu wrote this by the way if Agent Nick was trying to buy a Caesar salad

they would have done the right thing I love that I love that isn't it amazing you know ABC NBC NBC Fox CNN MSNBC

the world's worried about Caesar salads don't buy a Caesar salad would have remained lettuce but go ahead and get in your Honda cord and drive all over the place. And there's not a problem. That shrapnel that will come flying out in your face over the speed of sound

and disfigure and kill you. That's not a problem, but watch out for that Caesar cell. That's right. We're trying to be funny, but I got tears into my eyes as I'm being funny. It's terrible. I don't know what to do. I mean, here we are on live radio. We got lawyers, we got legislators, we got car dealers.

We have smart people out there. somebody call me and tell us what are we supposed to do how do we get the attention of the world is or am i nuts am i mentally ill it was something i don't see am i in a parallel dimension well i just got through watching man in the high castle maybe i'm in a different dimension you are but not in this situation this situation you're absolutely spot on it's crazy we we were just at valencia point we saw you know i played the video showing that in

flater rupturing, which is right on the government's website. Yes. And the folks in that audience were dead silent. You could see their eyes widening. Those gentlemen just stared dumbfounded.

It's crimson. And I mean, we're almost out of time. I just like one phone call from an informed person that shares our concern. What have we left? What stone have we not turned over? What have we not done that we should

do to get the attention of somebody to save some lives out there? I mean, we're laughing about Remain lettuce and E. Call I, but what can we do to get our legislators and our regulators and somebody out there to do something to stop this? All you have

to do is make a simple rule as illegal to sell a car with a dangerous recall. At the very least, it should be, with a big red sticker on the windshield of the car, danger to cut airbag recall on this car. The notice should be made at the very

least, but you don't even have to tell anybody. Nothing that happened in this presentation, the mystery shopping report, was illegal. Mark didn't do anything illegal. Paul didn't do anything illegal. All they did was try to sell the mystery shopper a car that could kill him.

And that's not illegal. What are we missing, folks? Help us. Okay. Meanwhile, let's score. Let's score this report. How about the textors? What did they have to say? Grades have flown. in. We have Jeff on Facebook's watching the live feed. Gizm

and I quote a big fat F. We have text. We've got broad geographic participation in Anita and Homasassa gives them an F. Jeff in Murfysboro, Tennessee. Wow. Tennessee. Yep. Sheila in the villages gives them an F.

I'm sorry. Did I say C? I said F for Jeff in Tennessee. Jack in West Palm Beach gives him an F. Barbara don't know where you are. Gives him an F. Mark calls in. He says A-plus. I'm just kidding. That was the salesman's name. Okay, we've got three minutes.

Okay. Let's go around the circle here. Okay. I'm going to say that it's cheating, it's double dealing, it's fraud, it's hiding the truth, it's hiding the truth to take advantage of the consumer. They get an F. Rick? F fail. F from me.

Sue? I'm just going to use Frank's Gray that just came in. Three Fs. I don't know how you do it. Triple F, yeah. And let's talk about this dealership. Now, let's try a little peer pressure here. Mercedes-Benz of Fort Pierce, a Coggin dealership.

Mercedes-Benz of Fort Pierce a Coggin dealership. Mercedes-Benz of Fort Pierce, a Coggin dealership. Now, we got 20,000 people out here hearing this. Here is a dealership in Fort Pierce that's lying to the customers about the safety of their cars. Should someone say something to Coggin dealership of Fort Pierce about that? Call them. Yeah.

Mark and Paul, the sales manager and the salesperson, what's up with that? Why would you lie to Agent X? Why would you lie to a customer? You've done it before. You'll do it again. Anybody that didn't ask the question, the subject of the airbag would never come up. We brought the septic of the airbag up over and over again, the safety in the airbag. We have one minute.

I encourage our listeners to give the dealership, Mercedes-Benz, Fort Pierce, a call and ask them, are they still selling? 888-593-1866. That's 888-593-1866, Mercedes-Benz, Fort Pierce. Perfect. There you go. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for tuning in to Earl Stewart-on-Card. and we so enjoy your company and we want to thank you

you could be doing a lot of things but you're listening to us and I want to thank Jonathan and John for the unbelievable they do job they do behind the scenes without them would be in big trouble

this is 95.9106.9 FM and this is the True Old East Channel have a wonderful weekend I'm going to be able to be able to be able to be a good. I'm gonna away Woo!