Earl Stewart on Cars - 11.30.2024 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Mercedes-Benz of North Palm Beach

Episode Date: November 29, 2024

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits a local Mercedes-Benz dealer to see what they have on the lot and how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2024 Mercedes Benz GLS-450 SUV on their showroom floor. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. Join us on Zoom during the live show via Meeting ID 926 589 0586. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

Hello, I'm Earl Stewart. I welcome you to Earl Stewart on Cars, a live talk show all about how to buy, lease, maintain, or repair your car without being ripped off by a car dealer. With me in the studio is Nancy Stewart, my wife, co-host, and a strong consumer advocate, especially for our female listeners. We also have Rick Carney, an expert on how to keep your car running right. I dare you to ask a question that Rick can't answer about the mechanics or electronics of your car. Also with us is my son, Stu Stewart, our link to cyberspace through Facebook, YouTube, text messaging, and our encrypted anonymous feedback service. Stu is also the spymaster director of our mystery shopping report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting the car dealership. And now, on with the show.

Good morning, everybody. We're back. Your regular listeners must get tired of hearing me say, boy, is this going to be an exciting show? because things are getting different and changing unexpectedly. Well, I'm going to say it again. I'm sorry. You can't make this stuff up. We talked about this a little bit last week,

but in the current news, we have a new president-elect, and, of course, that was a bitter battle, and divided the country, really, half on one side and half on the other side. This show tries very hard not to be political, but we can't ignore the facts. And you tell me if I'm leaning too far to one side or the other. I really, really don't want to. I frankly, off the record, didn't support either candidate. And I just think what is his.

So we have a new government now. and the thing that I talked about briefly last week that makes it so exciting to me this week, and it's good radio, this is not just educational, this is entertainment, right? So here we have the richest man in the world named Elon Musk, who is at the helm of what could well be,

and a lot of experts say, will be the world's largest automotive manufacturing company, And he also happens to be the head of the world's largest dealership because Tesla sells direct. So you're regulars, you regular listeners, we talk about this all the time. So here he is. And now he gives millions and millions of dollars to the Republican candidate, Donald Trump. And Donald Trump brings him into his government. He's a very, very close advisor.

Some say the closest advisor to the president of the United States. So if that isn't a monkey wrench in the whole automotive world, I don't know what is. We talk about a lot of things on this show. We talk about electric vehicles. We talk about autonomous vehicles. And these are two of Elon Musk pet projects, right? I mean, he leads the world in Autonomous, and he also leads the world in all electric vehicles by a long shot.

He's also the only manufacturer that is welcomed into China. He was in China before China knew anything at all about electric vehicles. He stirred up so much interest in electric vehicles, and now China has a company called BYD that's competing real close with Tesla. The only manufacturer that's really close with Tesla. So Elon Musk has got the ear of the president of the United States. He's got the ear of the head of the Chinese government. And he's got all the money.

So what's that going to do to you and me? There's two me. I drive cars. And I also have a dealership. So what's that going to do to you and me? This is what I hope we can talk about on the show this morning. And it's exciting. Now, every time when Nancy and I, and by the way, my co-host, Nancy Stewart, I'm going to turn the mic over to her very shortly.

And she sits right across the desk for me here in our studio in North Palm Beach, Florida. We're all over the map here. We're on YouTube. We're on Facebook. and, of course, we're on radio. We sometimes forget that, but we really are. And we have podcasts. I mean, we stream it.

I mean, we really get around, and we have calls from all over the United States. And really the world. We have a few from outside of the country, and we love to get these calls. Every different area of the country has a different perspective. The only uniform thing we see, and we talk about on the show more than anything else are the way dealers take advantage of people and they still are

they still are there's been a lot of talk Federal Trade Commission Consumers against Car the cars Consumers against retail scams Automobile scams

Consumers against automobile scams, yeah Consumers against automobile scams and we We've been waiting for some regulation for a long time. So we're doing our small part here because you, the caller, give us your experiences. When you bought a car, you tell us the good, the bad, and the ugly. We have a mystery shopping report that is the highlight of the show.

And we go into a car dealership every week and we pretend to buy a car. We went into a Mercedes dealership this past week. And we'll tell you all about it, but really have to name names. We'll name the salesman, the sales manager, the dealership, and we tell you exactly what happened. But please remember that we always cater to you, our listeners, and our viewers. And please call the show. I'm going to give you this number until you're nuts. You should write it down.

That way you won't have to keep listening to me, say it. it's 877-960-960 that's 877-960 9960 and we've been used that number for years a lot if you have it probably memorized if you don't have it memorized and you might call the show think about it this way we're going to be on the show from now until 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time that's two hours and you're not going to listen to the show or watch the show for two hours.

It'd be nice if you did. We'd love to have you with us for the whole time. But we know you've got lives, you've got business, you've got things to do. Saturday, hey, get out there and have some fun and have some of those Thanksgiving leftovers. Get the family together. A lot of things to do.

But if you listen to us for 15 or 20 minutes, you want to have the number. 877-960-9-9-6-0. 877-9-60-9-9-6-0. Now, Nancy Stewart, and I'm looking at her right now, and she's looking at her laptop computer right now, and the guy in the control room is going to shoot the telephone number and name of anybody that calls in. The real telephone number. Now, we also want you to text us, and I'm going to give you a text number.

I know this is a boring stuff, especially to our regular listeners, but the text number is 772-497-6530. at 772-497-6530. And these texts, we build them up and get to them during the show. If we, the calls slow down, then we go to the text. Sometimes we go to something called our anonymous line, Youranonymous Feedback.com. That's a link, Youranonymousfeedback.com.

You go on that link, and you have access to us with total, anonymity. Don't know who you are, where you are. You can say anything you want. You'd be crude and nasty if you want to. I read the, and we all read these anonymous feedbacks as they are. Now, well, we censor it a little bit. I mean, once in a great while, we get some nasty stuff that we have to use, you know, a bleep for, but that's okay. We value the candid anonymous feedbacks and because it comes from the industry comes from a lot of retail people out there that know for example we may visit or have visited their store on the mystery shopping report so that's the reason we have your anonymous feedback.com but the main number and we will stop the show

nancy has the authority to stop whatever anybody is saying when there is a live caller we promise we will not let you wait for a long time unless we just flat have too many calls. You can't have too many calls, but we have five lines, I think. That doesn't happen too often. It does happen every now and then. So I'm going to introduce you now to your new listeners.

You old listeners know exactly who she is. Nancy Stewart, she co-founded the show with me 20 years ago, and she has got some things to talk to you about right now that you will be interested in. You're on the air. morning everyone and welcome we hope you enjoy the show as much as we do you're a big part of the show because you make the show give us a call tool for you at 877 960 960 your thoughts uh whether it's on sales rental leasing servicing anything at all 877 960 960 90 60 50 dollars for the first two new

lady callers, you can use that this time of year. And you have had a pretty huge impact on the auto industry. Yes, you have influenced all of you, the industry by 85%. And, well, for any car dealer not to recognize you, well, it's a financial disaster. You, like I said, are important part of the auto industry. Again, $50 for the first two new lady callers for you listeners who will be joining us on Zoom. That's an exciting part of, and a detail of the show that we started a couple of months ago. It's a whole lot of fun. We like meeting the callers and you can win yourself $100 this morning by joining us and that phone number on the Zoom meeting is I'm sure you can see it right there on your screen and it is the meeting ID and it's 926-589-0586

and Jonathan is right here to take your calls from Zoom. We'll get your information and as a producer he's going to get the information that I need and pass it along to me. So stay tuned for all of that. We do have Frosty. We have a little dog that came to us from the Texas borders, and he's joined Big Dog Ranch Rescue, and he's waiting for a forever home. We're going to go to the phones, and we are going to start the show off with Kevin,

who's calling us from Lake Park. Good morning, Kevin. You there, Kevin? Yo, Kevin. I hear a clicking, though. Hello. Oh, there you are. I'm here.

I hear you on the radio, but I don't hear you on my phone. Oh, can you hear me now? Huh. Uh-oh. We got a technical issue here. I'm on the radio. but I'm not on this telephone. I've got you now, I think.

Oh, great, great. That's good. What's going on, Kevin? What's your question? Well, I've got a question, but I also wanted to say I just discovered your show a few months ago, and I look forward every Saturday to listening to it. You guys are lots of great information. I'm a car guy.

I love cars, and you've taught me a lot. I even bought Earl's book and learned a lot through that. Thank you. Thank you very much. but and also I am I bought a beautiful car about a year ago Mercedes 2002 CL 600 I love the car but it's you know I'm learning it's a very expensive car to maintain so I'm kind of shopping around trying to decide what my best options are I've looked at hybrids looked at EVs I love the idea of EVs you know listening to you guys talk about your Tesla and um But I don't have the ability, I live in a condo, I don't have the ability to charge at home. And I'm wondering if that would be a big disadvantage. Well, it's definitely a disadvantage.

These issues that come from, EV owners are being kind of resolved by the fact that it's inevitable that EVs are going to grow and grow and grow. And now apartments are actually putting in chargers as business. are putting in chargers, it's become a commercially wise thing to be EV-friendly. Because if EVs take over as much of the market as being a forecast that they will, you want to be able to entertain and sell things to and be a part of the EV community. And one way to do that is have a charger, even a supercharger. Right now, it's not the case. you're still in the evolution of these things.

Here's one thing that you mentioned Nancy and me and our Teslas. We have two Teslas. We have a cyber truck and we have the PAD, the Model S plaid. We have chargers in our garage, but we actually could get by very easily without those chargers. It depends on how much driving you do. And when you, in a Tesla, when you're driving a Tesla on the screen in front of you, you always know where the nearest charger is. You also know whether it's a supercharger, meaning you can electric up, I started to say, gas up, you can charge up in about 20 minutes. And that's, you know, when you stop and think about it, that's pretty good.

And I, as we drive around our Tesla and I glance down there, I'm never more than five. minutes away from a charger. So I wouldn't need to have my garage charger. It's a nice convenience, and I'm glad I have it, but it's not necessary. The entire country is pretty well covered with Tesla-style chargers. To answer your question, I'd recommend you go to a hybrid first. I'd go to a hybrid. They are tested, and they are proven, and they are electric. They give you have a great mileage, and the fuel economy is incredible. And then I'd sit there and watch the EVs and see what comes up. Right now, you're looking at Tesla, but there's also BYD.

There are a lot of manufacturers that are jumping in the EV thing. So I wouldn't play the game of trying to pick the best EV right now. I just go with a tried and proven hybrid. And almost every manufacturer has got one of those. I've used consumer reports. And if you want to the SUV, go to consumer reports and say, what are your best electric hybrid SUVs and pick one that's in the top 10%. Okay.

Just one little caveat. Because of a recent news story I saw, when you're looking on the screen, especially folks for around the nation, if you're in a more rural area where they may not have as many of the charging stations, be careful. Don't let your car get down to such a low charge that you've only got one place that you can access. Make sure you always have a backup. The reason being this recent news story, a charging station in Pennsylvania, a rural area, the next nearest charging station was about 40 minutes away. This one particular spot, 18 of the 19 chargers, someone came along and cut the cables and took the entire length of the cable off of 18 of their superchargers,

presumably for the idea of salvaging the scrap metal inside the copper inside. So just as a word of caution, always have a backup plan in place that if you're using these, make sure you know that there is another one nearby or somewhere and make sure you have enough range that you can still make it to that other one, just in case. That's good advice, yeah. Yeah, that's what that gives me a lot to think about. One of the thing I do want to mention, though, is in the process of looking around it, you know, learning about different vehicles, I've gone to a number of dealerships. And I could be a mystery shopper.

I'll tell you, it's amazing. The combination of listening to your show and my years of experience of shopping for cars, it's incredible some of the things that some of the dealers try to pull. You know, and I add the one dealer added something like $5,200 onto the out-the-door price of the dealer added value-added things like, you know, door protectors, screen protectors. Nitrogen in the tires. Nitrogen and the tires, exactly. The famous drive train warranty. Yeah, yeah. You have been listening to the show, I can tell.

Yeah, you're, you know, in a way it's frustrating because the educated consumer, and you clearly are one, who is thoughtful and looks before he leaps, you listen to the show. And we're trying to reach the people out there that are being taken advantage of, and obviously they probably have. haven't been listening to the show. So thanks very much for your, you might want to consider your volunteering your services as a vigilante. We call it Earl's vigilantees. You got Earl, Earl on Cars.com on our webpage, Earl on Cars.com. And we have a little

place you can sign up and you volunteer basically allow access to people that need advice on buying a car so you can act as, you know, as part of the show. You'll be part of Erlon cars and helping people make intelligent decisions. That's a good idea. I may do that. I appreciate it. I appreciate you guys, and I wish you to help us. Thanks, Kevin.

We should have a blessed weekend, and thanks again for doing what you do. Thank you, Kevin. Give us a call again and let us know what you decided on that new vehicle. 877-960. We're going to go to Jane, who calls. calls us from LaBelle. Good morning, Jane. Are you still there, Jane, and LaBelle?

Yes, hello. Hello, good morning. Good morning, Jane. Good morning to you, sir. And, ma'am. Yes, thank you. What can we do for you this morning? Okay, I have a, first of all, I live in Canada,

where it's quite a bit cooler than here in Florida. I'm down visiting family right now, though, and enjoying it. Okay, Jane, let me interrupt you for a minute. This is Nancy Stewart. Is this the first time that you've called the show? Yes, ma'am. Very good. This morning?

You have won yourself $50 as a female caller in helping me build a platform here for the ladies. If you'll stay on the line, when we're finished speaking, you can give your contact information. to the control room, and they'll give it to me. I'll sign the check and send it to you. Fantastic. Thank you so much. You're quite welcome.

Hope you enjoy your vacation. Thank you, Nancy. So what were you, what were you saying? Okay, I have a 2012 Honda Fit, which I love, and I'm trying to make it last as long as possible. I'm having a problem, however, with the starter. I only have this problem when it's freezing temperatures or below. The noise that it makes is like the car was already running and I've tried to start it grinding noise, you know? I don't know if anyone's ever done that before.

But this only happens if it's freezing or below. that sounds almost like the starter what's called the bendix gear on the starter is hanging up the way a starter motor actually operates is the gear is on a little shaft that's got a spiral section to it on the inside so that when you when you turn the key and the starter motor spins that gear thrusts itself outwards and it engages with the big gear on the transmission called the ring gear and that then spins the engine

so that the engine can start up and if that Bendix gear is not getting that little gear to slide outwards to engage it could be interfering and causing that grinding noise I would be looking in to have a mechanic check it out

for that that noise get a recording of it if you can especially you'll have someone else start the engine while you record it with your phone up under the hood so you can hear the sound really effectively and most likely you're going to wind up needing a new starter motor oh that sounds costly sometimes can be for a Honda fit I'm going to guess that a new starter motor

probably is going to be around $200 to $250 and probably around $200 to $250 labor to replace it. I'd be cautious about it because if the gear is actually trying to engage with the ring gear on the transmission that's actually between the transmission and the engine, if it's hitting that and not engaging properly, it could damage that ring gear and that's a much, much more expensive repair because then the transnexel actually has to be removed from the vehicle and the engine and transmission split apart in order to access that big ring gear.

So, yeah, I would definitely have that checked out very soon just to make sure that it's not a precursor to a much bigger bill. And, Jay, you want to be sure to get three bids on that when you just don't go to the first dealer that you call So get the diagnosis and get a written estimate of what it's going to cost you. And if you do that to two or three dealers, you'll save yourself a lot of money. Okay, good idea. And I'm going to, Rick, can you tell me as far as what we're talking about,

would you say if the gears are not properly engaging with the engines flywheel? you're saying if it isn't addressed properly it can be a more costly situation above and beyond 200 yes because it could potentially damage the teeth on that flywheel or the ring gear and if it damages that that is a very expensive fix that could be several thousand yeah yeah and i think maybe uh you were thinking you know along those lines jane when you said it could be pretty costly so if the problem is addressed you know like you're addressing it you're hearing the grinding noise I'm not sure who you're close to up there and over there in LaBelle if you have you know your own mechanic where you would know they were treating you honestly yeah I'm I'm I

actually flew in I didn't to drive down here um Well, I have another question, though. The car has 285,000 kilometers, which my sister converted for me would be in miles, 178,000 miles. Would, and like I said, I love this car, I hate to, and they don't make them anymore. Would the investment be worthwhile, do you think, with that type of mileage on it, to have the starter fixed if it was? the $400, $500 pick? In my opinion, yes, because the Honda

fit, even though they have stopped that model, that was an extremely popular model for quite a while. And it is, there's a lot of them out there, but the resale value on those is still going to be quite high. I mean, Honda just simply makes

a good car. That's all there is to it. We were smart to buy a Honda. He said it was a great car, and it really is. So there are cars we would recommend that you trade out of or sell, but when you got a Honda and you take care of a three or $400 repair is worth the investment because it will last a lot longer. Okay.

And why is it only, see, I don't have started last winter, the problem, but all summer I didn't have the problem. Now again, it goes down below freezing, and I get that problem. It seems strange to me why it only does it when it's freezing. Temperature-related because the metals are going to heat and expand and contract at different rates. When things are really cold, lubrications don't operate the way they should. The grease in there can get sticky, and things just don't move as smoothly when they're cold. I mean, I'm 56 years old, and the pounding I've taken on my body, I feel it when it's cold in the morning, I don't move as smoothly as I used to.

So, yeah, an older starter motor, when it's cold, things might get a little sticky sometimes, and it takes a little bit of time for it to, shall I say, loosen up. And the warmer temperatures, obviously, can have an effect on that. Okay. So I'm also having, I know, muffler problems, it's going the muffler on it. In Canada, of course, we have lots of salt on our roads. Yeah. It's expected that many years on a salted road that that would go. So due to the starter and due to the fact that I'm sure I'm going to have to do something about the muffler at some point,

I've been looking around at new cars. Have I used up my time as far as talking with you? No, I think before you hang up, I wanted to ask you a question of your reaction to the 20% tariff that the U.S. is talking about assessing as a, what's the feeling? I guess I know what the feeling would be. It's not something you'd like to see happen. No, of course not. No, we're hoping, Canadians are hoping that it doesn't go through with it. From what I hear about your soon-to-be President Trump,

it sounds like he's pretty certain to go through with that. The talk up in Canada is how it's going to affect you and your economy. So I think Justin Trudeau, our prime minister, is in Florida right now, speaking with Mr. Trump. That's the news that I had gotten. So hopefully they'll work out something that's reasonable. For all of us. You probably want to buy your car in the United States and drive it back to Canada

because it will really raise the price of the Canadian cars. It will. But then we get, of course, hit on taxes when we cross into, you know, anything that we purchase in the U.S. and bring a cross. We're allowed $800 tax-free. And after that, we have to pay... multiple taxes. After paying your taxes, we also have to pay ours on top of that.

Well, hopefully, they negotiate a settlement on that. I think both sides would hate to see that happen. Definitely. I don't think it would be helpful for either America or Canada. Yeah, counterproductive. Jane, it's been a pleasure talking to you, and I'm going to remind you to please stay on the air and leave your contact information. and the studio will get that to me. And when I get back to my office, I will write you out of check.

Oh, well, thank you, Nancy. Happy holidays. Thank you. Thank you to you as well. Do you have another question? Oh, I haven't used up all the time allotted for me. I was just wondering if I've been shopping for new cars, but not seriously. and I'm a fairly active person still, even in my old age.

And I like to do camping, and I also bike and kayak. And so I like to fit these things in my car, which, the fit, which was well-named, the Honda Fit, I could do that. And now I'm looking at either the Honda-H-H-1-1-H-1-1-1-H-1-H. RV or I was also looking at the Subaru Cross Trek two good cars you're looking at both we recommend both of those

as being high quality cars and so does consumer reports yes and Jane before you go congratulations on being so active and I can understand the you know accommodations with your

what you do and your vehicle I want to tell you your sitting on top of a knowledge, and it's on your PC, on the Internet, and we can't brag enough about Consumer Report. Earl and I both use Consumer Report so much that he has his own magazine, and I have mine. So that is a great place to go for any information that you may want before you purchase your next vehicle. Okay. That's good to know.

Yes. Thank you, Jane. All right. Thank you. Okay, we're going to go to Diane, who has been holding, and I believe she's calling us from Massachusetts. Good morning. I am. This is Diane from Massachusetts, yes. Good morning, Diane.

Good morning. And welcome. Diane, have you called the show before? No. Great. You just won yourself 50. this morning. And when we're finished speaking, Diane, if you'll leave your information with the control room, they'll pass it alone to me. When I get back to my office, I'll write you out

a check and mail that to you. Thank you. That sounds great. You're very welcome. What can we do for you this morning? Well, I don't live in Canada, but I live in Massachusetts. We just had our for snowfall. I would like to know why. I have to replace the driver's side windshield wiper and not the other. Is possible that one might have deteriorated a little faster than the other? Oh, this is all the time. Really?

Yeah. I mean, you can do two just because they're both be brand. and new, but the one on the driver's side one always goes first. Now, when you say it goes, does it like start streaking or something? Yeah, yeah, starts streaking. The first thing I would check, I know this sounds kind of silly, but the first thing I'd be checking is the wind should itself to see if there's any issue with maybe some sort of buildup in a small area on the driver's side.

that's causing that wiper to have an issue. I'd also look at where the wiper, when they go to what's called the park mode, you know, when you turn the wipers off and they kind of go down a bit, maybe it's hitting something there that might be damaging it or hurting the rubber as it goes into that park mode spot. Okay.

And I'd be looking also at the arms on the wiper, you know, to see are they getting the same reasonably close to the same amount of pressure? Because if one is getting a lot more pressure than the other, say something's bent a little bit and it's pushing too hard against the glass, that could cause that wiper to break down a lot faster. Oh, okay, great. I will do that. That's why I'd be looking first for it.

And, you know, what a great question. How many times I have encountered that? and you just wonder about your windshield blades, your windshield wipers, and, you know, the unevenness of the wear. And it's a mystery, but it sounds like as if you're a consumer that's very educated and you'll find out what is wrong with it. Yeah, I will. That misalignment will really, you know, of the windshield wipers,

is really quite annoying because my windshield would have all these streaks on the one side. Right. So, and then, of course, the elements really play, you know, havoc with everything. I'm not sure whether your car is inside or outside, but that too. The, pardon me? It's in the garage. Oh, that's, that's great. Yeah.

Yeah. And the blades that you choose, the quality, high quality, blades, it's a better choice, I would say. Uh-huh. Okay. Okay, well, I hope you helped you. If you would please spread the word that we are building the female audience here on Erlon cars, and you play a big part in the auto industry, Jane. I'm not sure whether all the ladies know how they impact the,

financial end of the auto industry and where women are very involved and 85% of women they impact finances and if the car dealers ignore that it's a financial disaster so I thank you for helping us build the platform here please spread the word I will thank you so much have a great weekend Okay. We're going to go to Howard, who's been holding patiently. Good morning, Howard. Good morning. I have a question for Rick. Actually, two questions. Rick, when I start the car, it starts okay, but it makes a funny noise, like a squealing noise. Have you ever encountered something like that? Yeah, multiple causes there, possibly a belt when the car first starts up when it's cold. As the pulleys are trying to spin, if one of the pulleys is starting to get a little old,

it may stick or seize a little bit and have to kind of break itself loose a little. You might have a little corrosion or something building up in there, one little spot. And so as that pulle is trying to spin, it has to kind of pop itself loose. loose, and the belt may slip a little bit before that pulley starts to move, and that would obviously cause a squealing type noise. Potentially, the starter could make a little bit of a squealing noise when it's trying to engage the ring gear to spin the engine over. There's a lot of different things, actually, that could cause that noise.

The best way to narrow it down would be to have someone else start the engine and just kind to get your head under the hood and try to listen and figure out where that noise is coming from on the engine and that would help narrow things down as to what's what the cause is okay next question uh when i went into the dealership uh Earl Stewart dealership and they changed the oil and now the oil is not up to that mark that full mark like it's quarter below is that normal oh no no that sounds like somebody might have goofed Yep, not got the proper level in there because it should be right pretty much at that line for full when the car has, when you shut the engine off and let it sit on a good level surface. You want to make sure the surface is at least eyeball level and wait about five to ten minutes, give that oil a chance to drip from the engine back down into the pan and then check your oil level.

and it should be right at that full mark. If not, I would either add a little bit of oil to get it topped up to that full mark or go back to the dealership and say, hey, y'all, I'm a little low here, guys. You know, you did the service and it's a little lower than it should be. And we should correct that. Rick, what would the difference be in the level of the oil if the car was cold? In other words, if you drove the car home, parked it overnight, and sat for almost a day and you checked the oil or you were on I-95 and you came home

and you checked the oil right away. How much difference in terms of level would the heat of the engine cause? Actually, not much. Engine oil really doesn't get that much expansion in it. Oh, okay. Like transmission fluid or water can. Engine oil, it'll expand some, but on the dipstick, we're talking a difference of maybe a 16th of an inch, a very tiny amount on the dipstick.

So when you see your oil is lower, it is, it is lower. It's just not a question of temperature or anything else. Okay. But yeah, if it's down by like a quarter of an inch or the distance between those two marks, if it's a quarter of that distance, then yeah, you're a little short on oil. And it's not a dangerous thing because as long as it's not going below that bottom mark, you've still got plenty of oil for the engine to be safe. but I would go back in and say, hey, this needs to be corrected.

Please adjust this to get it to that top level. Yeah. And that's something we need to educate our, whichever employee did that, or our loop decks. They need to be reeducated because they should be checking the oil level when they finish and fill it up. They should recheck it right there. Brick makes a very good point there. And every dealership, every independent repair facility, for that matter, the starting place for a new technician.

If you want to be a technician and end up like Rick, who's been doing this for 25 years and really knows what he's doing, he's got all of his certifications. They start on the Lubrack, and they might not even have any experience in automotive. That's where they learn. So your oil is being changed often by a student. Let's put it that way. And when the student learns enough, then they promote him to a different level.

And as I say, eventually their goal is to be a certified diagnostic master technician. So you should always be careful. You think of it as being a simple procedure. But when you're fooling around with your oil level, changing your oil, you've got to get the right oil. You know, you get the right amount of oil. And sometimes you've got to worry about it getting any oil because there are cases where young guys have really screwed. it up and a car goes out on the road with no oil in it you're always better to have if you if you can get at least a more experienced apprentice type person that is going to be handling

your oil because you can burn your whole engine up and these young guys are you know they don't need to do it's just a lack of experience yeah they they're young they get caught up in the moment they're trying to move too fast and they forget sometimes to do that double check and one of the biggest lessons I learned as a mechanic very early on always double check yourself because even the best

mechanics can make mistakes I mean we're all human but a mistake is simply something that needs to be corrected and learned from okay another first question for you what if an EV gets stuck

with that when you know with no more electricity power. And they break down on the road. What happens then? Can someone's... They have to be told or

can it be charged with another vehicle? The simplest solution there, and as silly as this sounds, I've actually seen this both on the internet, and I've seen one case in the real world where this happened. A generator.

That home generator that we use when the hurricanes come through and we all lose power, you can load that in a vehicle, take it to the place where the car is, fire up that generator, take it out of the car, obviously, get it out in the open air, fire it up, plug the car in, and just let it charge for a while. It's the basically the same thing is bringing a can of emergency gasoline to get that car back on the road. But once you get a sufficient charge to get that car to a charging station, everything should be fine. That's amazing. Will AAA do that? That I can't speak to, and I kind of

think they would not because of the time involved in that and the fact that AAA may not have those generators available, their option probably their first thought would be to come to you and get the car on a flatbed, tow it to a charging station, drop the car off, and let it recharge there. I don't know if that would be covered, you know, probably be an extra, you know, charge for that. That's something you'd want to check with AAA about, you know, for that sort of situation. Yeah, very interesting. I know like the road rangers would probably be able to arrange for a tow.

They might charge for it a small amount, but they would probably be able to arrange for a toe to like the nearest service station to get you charged up. Okay. I'm going to say to you, thank you very much. And now people don't say that anymore. They say, thank you so much. Yeah. Just think about it.

I have thought about that. Thank you very much. I've thought about all the time it's gone. It's always so much. You are quite welcome, sir. Quite welcome indeed. Okay. You have a great show.

Keep up to good work, guys. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Bye. Rick, I learned something new this morning about belts. And that's the serpentine belt. And then we have the band belt. Well, you can have a single serpentine belt where one belt will run many police.

You can have a system where there are multiple belts. where each one runs only one or two pulleys. And then there are some cars that will have one belt running a bunch of pulleys and another belt running several pulleys. I mean, it's weird what some of these engineers have come up with. What's funny because it's all like very sophisticated, condensed versions of what in the 19th century with like the steam, just the concoctions of all the wheels and they just got it down good. As a matter of fact, there was. Is it more time consuming, whether it.

it's the problem with the squealing is coming from the serpentine belt or the fan belt? Which one is more expensive? Well, serpentine belts can be more expensive because they're bigger, wider. They run a lot more of the pulleys. For a mechanic,

if the car has three different belts that run three separate pulleys, it makes it rather easy for us because you can take off the belts, put one back on at a time, and run the car each time, and whichever one's making noise, you narrow it down that way.

With the serpentine belt, you're kind of stuck. You have to try to zero in because all the pulleys are running, and you can't simply eliminate them one at a time that way. And by that, we simply use a set of stethoscopes. We'll go in and listen very closely and basically try to figure out which piece is making the most noise. Can we get a picture next time we have a team of technicians with their stethoscopes out listening to an engine?

Really? Absolutely. Okay, please do that for us. I've done that quite a few times, yep. Okay. We are going to stay with the phones, and we're going to go to Ellen. Good morning, Ellen. Ellen's calling us from Pompano Beach.

Yes, hi. You've helped me before. Ellen, are you a first-time caller? No, you've helped me before. Oh, great. It's nice to hear from. me again. Yeah, I had bought a 2023 late in the year, but it was new, and they had charged me all these extra fees, and I called a show, and you helped me with that. Oh, great. But, so that

was very good. I had dealt with Al Hendrickson, and, you know, you were really, really good. Now I remember Alick Hendrickson. Okay. But now I've got another issue. Well, great. I'm glad you're bringing it to us. Thank you. The car was like 11 months old, and it wound up with a lot of rust and on its brakes and underneath the underbody. And I know I live like one and a half blocks from the ocean, so I don't know what the cause was. So because they, we couldn't really figure it out, they offered me a deal of a 2025 car and pay $3,000 extra. So I went for it because, you know, the other car was all rusted underneath. They showed me and everything like that.

So this car, I mean, even though I was careful with the other one, I was very on top of this car. I was washing it every week to, you know, get the salt off and using it practically every day. They said you should use it. And now the car's like less than three months old. And I looked underneath for some reason the other day and I'm seeing rust all across the exhaust pipes.

I was so shocked. And, you know, not just a little bit. It was like all across it. and now I don't know what to think. I called them up. I'm going to go in Monday and they're going to put it on the list, I hope, to see, you know, exactly what it is and how far out it is. But I said, can't you, like, put on the undercoding or something?

And they told me on the phone, they said that an exhaust pipe, you can't do that because of the heat. So I don't understand. There's no options or anything. I mean, you're just stuck because you're, live, I'm thinking of moving because I don't want to go through another car. I mean, this is crazy.

And you know, depending upon who you talk to, excuse me, as far as your rush is concerned on your tailpipe, what they're going to say is it's common because of where you live and the environment. I don't know. I don't want to settle for that answer. Rick, what's your solution? Unfortunately, my first thought is that, yeah, they're kind of correct because trying to put any coating on the exhaust pipe, because of catalytic converters, exhaust pipes run at around 6 to 700 degrees Fahrenheit.

So any sort of an undercoating that you might spray on there. I can see your stake on that. is going to burn off very, very quickly. It's going to literally burn and fall apart. And unfortunately, of course, that heat actually causes an increase in the oxidation of the metal, which is what rust is. And that salt landing on the pipe, you know, the salt air, even though you're a block and a half from the ocean, those ocean breezes are blowing that salt right in.

I have a thought. My thought is you were thinking about moving. moving away, and that's, that is, that's an extreme solution, but what year is your car? What, what kind of car is it? No, it's a 2025. It's only two months old. Yeah, you said you had just bought that, right? Okay, but what kind of car is it?

Well, they swap me out for the 2023, which the same thing happens, you know. But what model is it? Oh, I'm sorry. It's a Toyota Camry. Okay, a Camry. Okay. There are other vehicles out there that have recessed tailpipes, and so short of moving to a place away from the ocean,

it would be cheaper to get rid of the new 2025 camera and find a vehicle. Like, I think there's some Lexus and there seems to be like a chrome. Like, you don't see the actual tailpipe. They're recessed and there's exhaust ports. Well, on this one, you don't see it as much as I saw in the other one, but it's not just the tailpipe.

The tailpipe, I understand. This is the whole exhaust pipe when I looked underneath. Right. Ellen, would you say that this is... What's the harm to that? What's the harm to that? Rick. Well, a little bit of surface rust won't hurt anything because it's not going to burn

through, eat through the metal very quickly. It'll take years and years and years to do that. My suggestion would be, do you have a possibility of parking in a garage or parking your car in an area where it's not as exposed to that easterly wind that might be blowing that saltwater towards you? Driving it in there. changing the location of where you park your car. Not where I live. There's a waiting list for the garages and the parking.

Now, there's a big parking lot, and I can't really, you know, I possibly could buy another spot somewhere in it. Car cover, Rick? I don't know if that's going to help. I notice I live in Jupiter, which is a little bit of ways from the beach, and I get new salt built up on my windows. When I park at the dealership at Earl Street, Toyota, which is very close to the intercoastal,

but it's not even on the ocean. It gets coated with salt. We have to spray our cars almost daily. Actually, we spray them daily to get the salt off the windows. Yeah. As far as the rust is concerned, Ellen, would you say that it is advanced rust? Or would you say it's surface rust?

And I'm keeping in mind, this is a brand new car right so when well that's why i'm going to go into them so they could look at it on the list but okay so you're not sure whether it's advanced whether it's really deep rust into the tailpipe and basically the rest of the car it could be either one advanced or surface i mean i mean i don't know but i assume that's cool all called the exhaust yeah i would guess nancy catalytic and all that i bet you guess how new it is it would still be served. What if a regular, can you kind of address that with somebody

can do with some steel wool or something if you regularly address it? Yeah, wire brush. Yeah, wire brush. Well, I'm hoping will the dealer do that? No, Rick is shaking his head. The drawback there is you'd have to get the car in the air because otherwise you're trying to crawl up underneath this vehicle. And trying to clean that, you're talking a lot of elbow grease, a lot of work to try to

scrub that. Well, let me have a brand new car. Let me interrupt and ask a question. At the very beginning, she asked about undercoating, and she was told the heat would not allow to undercoat the exhaust pipe. Why? The pipe itself, the design. Well, what happens if you, if you, I mean, we used to undercoat cars all the time.

We don't anymore back in the day. But if you, it seems to me if you covered an exhaust pipe or with a, with a, Some sort of, it would prevent the running. Well, unfortunately, undercodes aren't meant to be high-temperature coatings, and they would simply melt away. Really? Yeah. And what you're saying?

The extreme temperature of the engine, well, not the engine, but the exhaust itself. And this is caused by the catalytic converter, which its job is any excess fuel and air that's in the exhaust is burned up in the catalytic converter to reduce emissions. Well, Chad, she'd be. Q does recommend undercoding. So it's worth a try. I think you're saying the whole thing and then Rick, you're saying that any kind of coding,

any kind of coding would be detrimental. Well, not detrimental. It just wouldn't last, I don't think. You could try. And this would be something that would have to be done by the customer themselves due to the environment. It's an environmental issue.

You'd have to literally scrub the entire pipe clean to bare metal and then coat it with a high-temperature paint that is meant to design to handle those high temperatures. Chad, CBT says that properly and soil undercoating can last two to five years. High-quality products and proper preparation are key to durability. Follow up and ask, will it adhere to a high-temperature exhaust system? So the answer is to look into that, and that might be your answer. If I'm going to the dealer on Monday, I'm expecting that they would at least clean it. Now, do you think they would? Well, yeah, they'll charge you for it, but if they don't do undercoding,

I would check around and find out who does undercoding, and then I would ask about the guarantee on resistance against heat and the guarantee on how long it will last. And then I would know what I would pay and I'd have that area down there undercoded. I think if they tell you that it's not going to last or there's no warranty on it, then I wouldn't pay any attention.

But I got to believe there's a material that would prevent the rust on a tailpipe. I just got to believe that. So even under a new car with the warranty and everything that still would charge me to lay it off? That's the bad part about it. Let me jump in here. I don't know of any dealers that offers, like, rust removal from your car as a service.

I mean, that would probably be used tools. That would be the body shop, would be, you know, with grinders, like brush grinders and things like that. So it would also make a big mess in the service department. They would make the argument that the rust isn't causing a problem. And they say it's surface rust. Because if you're – I'm driving the car right now, brand new 2004 Tesla cyber truck. you know, I've got rusty hubs on all four of them. And when I called the testifying, said, why is it happening?

He says, we read out of hubcaps and we'll let you know when we get some hubcaps. That's an honest answer, though. Yeah. By the way, I did ask chat GPT, can our vehicle undercoding's work on a hot exhaust system? And chat GPT says, no, vehicle undercoings are not designed to withstand the extreme temperatures of a hot exhaust system. most undercuttings, such as rubberized or asphalt-based coatings or formulas, but it goes on the car, but it doesn't last on that part, but everything else gets protected from because it's not so hot.

And, Ellen, if you can find these rust protectors, I guess that might be what you call them. I don't know, Rick could correct me if I'm wrong, but there's neutralizers out there that you can safely, not you literally, but that you can use it will help. you, you know, from one of these, I'll call it an outbreak, of rust, you'll protect your tailpipe and move on and just wait and see what happens. Yeah, I just have a couple, just two more short questions.

One is that if it is surface rust, is it dangerous, I mean, not dangerous. No, it's not going to cause a problem, no. And there's one other thing here that our AI overlords have told us, there's a strong And I think Earl mentioned earlier, a high-temperature paint. These two things are different than under-coatings. But look into that research, Google search on high-temperature paint, are ceramic coating for an exhaust system. It says it might specifically design for them.

So maybe that could be an option. Okay. And one more thing. If you're in a parking lot like I have, but we have assigned spots. Now, how far out would you say you're safe from the salt air? I mean, I'm thinking if there's wind and everything, even if you're not, you know, you're further into the parking lot or around but warner from it, that it still, you know, can hit it.

So I don't know. Is there an area where it would be safe outside in that parking lot? Anything that gets between your car and the ocean is going to help protect you like other cars, a wall, anything that would keep that salt from being blown directly onto the car will help to reduce that. but one thing you can actually do that can help is about once a week or so go to the local car wash but find one that has an undercar spray so that as you're going through it'll clean the underside of the car and that'll help get the salt off of that exhaust to help reduce it

it won't eliminate it but it will help reduce the the speed of which the corrosion occurs yeah it's really you know it's very helpful to reduce um great word or to maintain as far as the soap and everything else that we just talked about. But it's real tough to run from the elements, that's for sure. Earl and I both keep our cars in the garage. And we have a lot of stainless steel. Let's put it that way. And if you just stand there and you scratch your head

because you see the rust that's, you know, just created by being inside a garage. So it's tough to control the salt because it's everywhere. Nancy, I found a product and it's called sarah coat. And if you have a pen. Sericote. Sericote. It's like Saraje, the facial clothes. Like an exfoliation?

Well, I think the sarah comes from ceramic. So it's called Cerro Coat Ceramic Coding and it's C-E-R-A-K-O-T-E. And it's designed to protect your exhaust system. from the elements. Oh, great. So there you go. And it also claims to have some other things like improved airflow because it's all smooth now.

But that, you know, who knows. So look it up. I don't know. There are authorized applicators around the country. So you'll have to look at it. Also, what about those little underbody sprays that you can buy and you push under your car? Oh, just to wash the salt off?

I think that's fine. Yeah, to get the salt off. Yeah, fresh water is definitely better than a coating of a salt. Oh, yes. And chat GBT has so many suggestions. That might be the answer. It's a great place to go. That might be an answer.

GBT. Constantly. Chat meet GBT. No, Ellen. We're probably going to be replaced by chat GBT. Because if we go back and look at every piece of advice we give. It's used to it already. You know, Chad GPD, if we didn't check it, it's there.

Well, CHAPGPT is probably using our own advice from what stuff online to form its intelligence, yeah. Ellen, it's been a pleasure. Well, thank you so much for your time. Oh, you're quite welcome. Ellen, I'd really appreciate it if you'd give us a call back and tell us the solution that you chose. I bet the sprayer is going to do it. The thing that goes under. The suricote?

No, not saracote. but I think that's going like to a, you know, you're never going to do that, let's be realistic. But the thing where you can push the water sprayer, it's going to keep it off. I bet you that'll make it last long. That's a great idea. Yeah, that's a very idea.

Cerrocoat is going to be an extremely expensive. Yeah, don't, don't, that's a possibility, but. Do car washes offer this? Oh, yeah, they go under. Well, then why? Yeah. Take it to the car wash once a week. Yeah, take it to a car wash.

Yeah. You just got to get fresh water on that sucker. Yep. I have faith. Ellen's going to give us a call, and she's going to tell us what. solution she chose. We are going to go to

Dick and his Dick Pace. Dick Pace is calling us from Jupiter. Good morning. Good morning. How are y'all doing? We're great. Welcome. I've been a long-time listener and called many times. But I thought calling this morning and relate my

experiences with buying a car. All right. Okay. And it went about 20 minutes. and it was done. Wow. That's the best kind of car it was. Guess what kind of car it was? Tesla.

Cyber truck. I was going to say because it was about the same with Earl of Nancy. When they went in there, I'm like, okay, I'm prepared to block out some time to go along with this delivery. No, it was nothing. You were really surprised. You know, I've got a cyber truck. Have you seen, I had mine. polished to a mirror finish.

I know, that's one reason I called. Oh, did you really? Yeah, I love it. I mean, I drove it to the, Nancy and I came here in the cyber truck, and it's just fun. I mean, the mirror finish is unbelievable, and, you know, little things in life make me happy. Every time I walk into the garage and I see my reflection in my cyber truck, I feel better. Yeah, Dick, you're going to love it. You know, the wrap has, you know, twofold for Earl and I walking out into the garage

and looking into the cyber truck, making sure that we're set to go out into the world properly. Yeah, well, I wanted to ask you, I thought it a lot of beautiful when you walk. You walk around last week, you did a walk around? Yeah, yeah. It looked beautiful. I was the one to ask you where you had it done. Well, we did it at our body shop at Errolster Toyota, and I was a guinea pig, because we hadn't ever done one.

And I guess very few people had done one. They had a train. Rick Kearney sitting here next to me happened to mention a couple of months ago. He says, you're not going to believe this, but I saw a cyber truck on the road. And it looked like glass. It looked like a mirror. And they had polished it. He got so excited about it.

So I went and Googled it and checked GBTed it and found out that it was a process that the cyber truck community was using. And so I call my body shop manager, and he hadn't heard of it, but he investigated. Long story short, it took him about four days, and they had to experiment with different types of sandpaper and polishing, and it took a long, long time. So we've got it down now where we can do it in a day, I think. Oh, yeah, it's a big third, yeah. Yeah.

I know I've seen on YouTube half a dozen of them I've been done. Yeah. And also it was admirable. And then here it was right here in River City with you. Well, they just want to let you know the three guys in Body Shop whose shoulders got worn out from all the polishing. They're recovering nicely. So, yeah, they should they should be back to work soon. By the way, they are expert there, black belts and karate now.

Yes. And, Dick, it really gets us a lot of attention. Are you considering? It does. Well, even the truck itself gets you attention, but I can't go to the grocery store without spending a half an hour with the kids. Yeah. You're going to have a ball with that. It's just a lot of fun.

This is my second test. I have an S. I've got 60,000 miles on it. Here's a word thing, here's a word thing, Dick. I've never washed this car and since it has the mirror finish and you know Nancy's got the Tesla plaid and you know she gets hers washed every week

for some reason the stainless steel polished you also have a ceramic coating on that with a ceramic coating right so that's yeah when you get it if you get the mirror finish have and put a ceramic coating on it the only thing you need to worry about are fingerprints because when you

When you touch the car, it's got a fingerprint out of you. You have to, that's the only thing. You wipe that off, but the car doesn't get dirty. Yeah. Yeah, I'm constantly, I use my elbow now to get into the cyber truck so that I don't, you know, put any fingerprints all over. It picks up everything. Get you a little white glass for Christmas.

Yeah, I just, there you go. Is the fingerprint problem any worse with the chrome than it wasn't with a regular stainless? Oh, it is, yeah. All you have to do is touch it. And see, it's so clear and clean that it'll pick up anything. So the fingerprint, you notice it, that's all. Unless you're right on top of it, you don't see it. But we see it because I'm always taking my shirt sleeve and rubbing off a fingerprint.

I come back, I park, I come back, and some curiosity, you know, people are looking at it, and they touch it. You just need a little spray thing and a little microfiber to carry along with you. And, Dick, I'll tell you what a conversation piece. That doesn't matter where you go. Yeah, I don't think it's a problem, though. Yeah. Your social, that's good. You have a, one of the things on you, you've got in the truck now, is they call the sensory mode,

and you put it in sensory mode, and anybody that comes out of the car, it videos them. So the fun thing is, you take it to Publix or Walgreens or, or wherever you're going, and you park your cyber truck. And when you come back out, you've got to show because people are walking around and they're laughing, they're touching it, and then you see all that on the video. Because the cyber truck's got eight cameras, and no matter where they go, they're videoed. You got people doing this, doing their hair in your car. Wow.

Hey, Dick, do you have any other questions? I've got a bunch of calls. I've been there and done that. I just wanted to relate that I got one. and I was going to go ahead with the experience of picking it up, but if you're in a hurry, I'll call back again. I had an unusual experience. You did have an unusual experience?

Yeah. Okay, well, the car was delivered down in Delray. I picked it up, and lucked us out. I'm familiar with Tesla because I've got the S and $60,000 on it. And when I picked it up, it worked fine. It looked beautiful. The people were great. I drove at home, parked in the next to the garage.

I just pulled my out charger out to plug it in. Well, it plugged in, it's charged off and on. It went off, went on. And then it came off on the day, he said, do not drive the car, the battery system can't support their electrical needs. So it turned out, I called Tesla about it. You know, I just got home. It was just like Saturday morning.

Well, you know, send a truck out, and it was in a half an hour. There was a tow truck there and put it on the back of it. Wow. And picked it up and took it, took it down to West Palm Beach, Tesla, and worked all day Sunday. He got it fixed. It had a bad inverter. Wow. The car supply and burger was gone bad.

And they said, he's been having a few of them. Anyway, they fixed it on Sunday and picked it up Monday, and it was all over. Oh, good. Kudos to Elon Musk. Yeah, and also, I hear a lot of bad crap about the Tesla dealer. My experience with him over the last five years is good. They are good. We've had a couple of issues, but overall, they're very, very good.

The only problem they have is it got more people, more than they can get done. Yeah. Absolutely. Hey, Dick. And the other problem is the shop rate is $300 an hour. Oh, boy. Wow. Okay, we got some calls waiting.

Okay. Thank you, Dick. Stay in touch. We're going to go right to Marty, who has been patiently holding. Thank you, Marty. Good morning. Hi, good morning. How's that Crown treating you?

Yeah, so far, so good. I put it on the eco mode to see if I'm getting better mileage because I was only getting about 36 or 37, and it says you're supposed to get over 40. So this is my first tank on the economy mode, but I can tell it is definitely getting better. mileage. Oh, great. So that part is good.

Yeah. Good information. So you changed your driving mode and everything has improved. Yeah, definitely. Great. But I got to ask her all a question. Okay. I took my wife's 2021 CRV over to Edmore's Honda, and I see on their addendums, they've got like

4,995 add-ons to the MSRP just a just a slight charge and they have it discounted by a thousand so they so the 4,995 they got it down to 3,995 and that's without going into the finance office I mean there that is so obviously

I didn't, the guy gave me a good deal where he discounted it, but it still wasn't enough. Well, I thought Ed has your back. Yeah, well, he does. Way back. He said, well, a banger in it, right? That's a, no, it's

amazing, I said earlier in the show, you know, we're preaching to the choir. You're obviously an educated consumer, and, you know, you caught him in the act. The sad part about it, and the thing that really disturbs us on the show is most of the people out there don't listen to the show.

They don't read consumer reports. They don't go to chat GBT. And they're taking advantage of. 99% of the retailers that they deal with by the way we are in a civilized society in the 21st century, if you go into Target,

you go into Apple, you go in the Walmart, no one's going to lie, cheat, and steal from you. But you buy a car once every four or five years or six or seven years, not prepared. You walk in there and they take it. And, you know, Ed Morris Honda, they had $5,000 to the car for no reason. Some people say, okay, and they sign in. That's how they make their money. You and I and other people listening to the show that we laugh at these things. How could that happen? But there are a lot of victims out there, and they're keeping

the retail automobile dealer alive and well. Yeah. Well, the funny part is when the guy started writing up the contract, which I obviously didn't sign. They had the sticker. They took 3,000 off the sticker, and then they added on the

3,000-9-95. Yeah. So, basically they were giving you nothing off the sticker. And it's just ridiculous. But my point is, yeah. What that law is worthless?

Honestly, another worthless law. I mean, another set of rules for us to, you know, follow. Nobody's following them. Yeah, we need, we don't need new laws. We need new regulators or we need fewer regulators. I'm not sure which. Whatever they're doing, they're not enforcing the law. That's what they're job.

The laws on the book. Let's enforce them. And then just one other quick question that either you or Stu can answer, the crown is made totally in Japan. That is correct. So my question is, people wanted the price of eggs to go down, so they voted for Trump. But they didn't want the price of cars to go up.

So my question is, if it's made in Japan and he puts through a, all these tariffs, is that going to affect, even though it's a Toyota, but because it's from Japan. Yeah, the tariffs. Yeah, I mean, Toyota makes most of their fast selling their big volume vehicles in the United States, but there are still a few, like the crown that, you know, they're manufactured Japan. When I started in the business back in the 70s, there were huge tariffs on Toyotas. And at one time, their tariffs on all Toyota cars was so high that we couldn't afford, you couldn't bring them in. It wasn't, you couldn't sell them.

So all we had for two or three years when I was first starting a business were trucks. They didn't put a tariff on the trucks. So it's just they finally broke down and had a reciprocity agreement. Of course, now it's not an issue because Toyota and most of the manufacturers of the world have manufacturing plants in the United States. So tariffs are only a short-term fix for something that needs a long-term solution. Yeah, and I can only tell you this. Obviously, the crown is not like a cyber truck. But I've had a lot of people compliment the looks of the car.

Yeah. Which I've never had a car before. It's nice looking. People come up to you and say, oh, it's a very nice looking car. I think the biggest effect of the tariffs will be that you will be one of few driving that beautiful car around. And you're not going to have like a very common car. So enjoy it. You got it before the tariffs.

Yeah, what a great vehicle you have, Marty. I'll tell you the short time that I drove the crowd, I got nothing but compliments and a whole lot of conversation. It's amazing. and I don't want to look underneath it for any rust. No. So I don't really care if it's got any rust, but I hate to tell this lady that's involved. Out of sight of mine.

El Hendrickson is not going to do anything for her rust. No. I hate to tell her that. Right, yeah. Yeah, that's why we think so much for the call. All right. Have a good weekend. Thank you, you too.

Let's go to the Roadrunner. Beep, beep. Hey, Roadrunner, Boynton Beach. Oh, good morning, everybody. How are we doing? Yeah, finally got you on. How's your Thanksgiving? Hi, baby.

You too. I want to do a follow-up on that electric charger. Okay, that we talked about last week. That pragmatic exhaust system is the company name that makes it. And I went on YouTube to listen to it, and I'm kind of surprised. It sounds very good. Also, the car will shake to give the driver and the passengers

the feeling of a gas muscle car. So it was pretty interesting. Wait, so it shakes, too? Yeah, it does a little vibrate in the car. Oh, okay. It's like a massage seat. But if you go on YouTube, you can hear how it sounds, and it sounds really good.

I figured it was, you could full summary with a good speaker. yeah yeah i mean i was shocked when i heard it that's funny with the rumbling thing well because you know i don't know if you guys probably i don't know if you guys know about this but gamers play video games it's a huge like a cultural thing

and uh and driving games have people get very customized seats that have that rumble and tilt to simulate you know in the steering wheel that rumbles so the cars are turning into that the real cars on the road are turning into video games. Yeah. Yeah.

And the other thing is with the serpentine belts, they call it a serpentine because that's the way a snake moves. Yeah, like Peter Falk and Alan Arkin. Serpentine. That's right. Serpentine. Serpentine. The other thing is you're polished your cyber truck.

Now, if the sun hits that, will it cause an accident because people are blinded? Not if people have good reflexes. Well, no, that's a good question, and it worried me. And the only valid criticism of that mere finish was exactly what you say. Now, I will say this. I haven't driven the cyber truck at night. So maybe at night... You can't see it.

Maybe it can't be seen it. Maybe it can't be seen it. I don't know. But during the day, I've had zero complaints about reflection. I don't think the angle of the angles don't cause a problem. I mean, it could. Okay. I've seen cyber trucks in colors.

Are they getting, what's the one would call it? They're getting, they're not painted. No, they're getting wrapped. They're getting wrapped with a plastic type of material. Yeah, because I've seen a red one and a blue one. Yeah. Like that. I saw a bright orange one the other day.

Really? Yeah. And the leg would be exhaust. Don't worry about that. Worry about major problems. That's a incy-bitching problem. Yeah. With that, you brought up the heat paint,

you stole my thunder on that. The ceramic coating like the head is used to get so they don't burn. But what about she goes stainless steel? I mean, she's going to pay a lot of money for nothing with that. It's a waste of time. Well, not if someone's shooting out,

because it'll stop a 9-millimeter brood. True. It will. But I wouldn't worry about it. About 357. Without looking at claws now. He all got busted tailpikes down here. I mean, Walmart parking lot.

I know. But, you know, it can be worrisome. You don't know where it's going to go. So I understand. I think Steve was talking about for the lady with the camera with the rusted exhaust, he was talking about replacing the pipe with stainless steel. Oh, yeah. Only that would be extremely extremely.

And not only extremely expensive, but let me share with the world about our stainless steel everywhere. We live on the beach. Guess what? Yeah. It's all rusting. You got rusty steak nuts. Thank you. There you go.

I know. I'm looking at a Ford pickup truck. You've got a 12-inch exhaust pipe coming out on the side. It's rusty. I mean, you can't do nothing about it. You can buy marine grade. stainless steel with a high nickel content, but that costs a fortune.

The boats that you see have the marine grade stainless steel, they don't rust, and they're right into salt water. Stainless steel everywhere. That's it for me. Have a good day and safe weekend, everybody. Thank you, Steve. Okay. Bob had texted

for the Rust Solution to run open headers. What? Rick didn't hear that. Rick, a little extreme solution, run open headers for the rush problem on the exhaust. Rick is wondering. Well, you're not going to pass emissions that way, though. Well, they don't do that in Florida anymore.

Oh, who cares? I guarantee the local law enforcement officers would have a very big issue with the sound. Your car would be making at that point. Crazy. For sure. Okay. We're going to hear from Stu. And then we're going to get to Rick.

Cool. I have something from Anne-Marie. Good morning, Ann-Marie. Welcome. Anne-Marie says, good morning. I checked out your dealership's website because I was interested in seeing what the latest safety features are on new vehicles. I was gratified to see backup cameras listed on every vehicle I looked at. I realized that all-wheel drive is not as popular down here as it is in snow country.

So I didn't see many vehicles with it, even though it comes in handy with our torrential downpours. That's a very astute observation. You know, recently they started offering a lot of the vehicles and all-wheel drive. But the way they get a portion in allocations, they tend to go where the demand is higher. So, yeah, up in the northern states with snow, there's more. But we can't get them down here. The one thing that struck me that is only a few vehicles come with blind spot monitoring. That feature strikes me as important as a backup camera.

Why do only a relative few vehicles looks like XLE models? have blind spot monitoring well um i'm not sure i most we have the 2025s 2025s and i think it was on the 2024 is it standard um that's part of the Toyota safety sense a 3.0 so it has um blind spot monitoring it also um lane train lane trace assist and also a lane departure assist so it will actually make a noise vibrant and nudge you back so maybe it's possible maybe it's on in 2024, that wasn't, even though I think it was. I don't know, but I thought they all had it. Yeah, they do.

That's part of it. So maybe take another look. Maybe there was there an issue with microchips where they had to build them without me? Nope. No, no, we got it. It's all on there. So anyway, the next question is if I wanted a new vehicle with a backup camera, blind spot monitoring, all-wheel drive, and without that annoying stop-start technology, but I have

to special order the vehicle. you're going to get the blind spot monitoring without special ordering all-wheel drive might take a little while to do a located vehicle because you're right they're not that common down here and the start stops technology i don't think you can do anything about that right that's that's on the cars that's you can't do it now you do have the option although you usually have to do this every time you get in the car there's usually a button that you can access easily just to turn it on off that start stop. Yeah, but as for that ride, once you turn off the engine and start again, you got to redo it. Yeah. If you get habitual about it. Also, the next question, is there a safety feature that you think should be on all the new vehicles that isn't yet?

Yeah, there's a bunch. A lot of them are like the drive, the stuff that are on the Tesla's that Earl and Nancy get to use, the self-driving features. And the other one is the camera, the camera rearview mirror to me is so superior to the old traditional one i mean you're never having to crane your head to get a better view it's a wider field of you at night it's like night vision everything like lights up you get a really good view so i'd like to see things like that rick's got something automatic high beams on the headlights yeah that's good to turn the beams down when you have approaching traffic or you're

coming up behind another vehicle automatic headlights is real nice it takes a little getting used to because you think that your car is going to blind somebody because you see a car coming around the corner but it sees it before you and it dims the headlights. That's it for Anne-Marie's. But I said... Do you have your anonymous feedback? I'll get that.

But Bob also pointed out that although most Toyotas are made here in the United States, a lot of parts are sourced from overseas and come in and would be subjected to incoming terrorists, unless there are exemptions. And we also found out the last time around exemptions, you know, people that's play. It's, hey, it's the game. And so big corporations will be looking for concessions and they were made like an Apple's case. I know that Toyota isn't just sitting by, you know, worrying and none of the manufacturers are. They're lobbying intensely to make sure it doesn't affect them.

The last one is where this come from, but it's just a text. Backup comes remanded by federal law almost a decade ago. I don't remember when the implementation date was. we might be getting we might be there i think backup cameras were actually federally mandated something like eight 10 years ago right that's what and all cars now have a backup camera which by the way folks christmas is coming if you're looking for a gift for somebody uh someone that drives their car and drives their car a lot if unless they own a tesla consider a backup camera or not a dash cam for their car one that you've got many models one that does just the

front view a lot of them have a second camera in the back to record out the back of the car these are very important you get a good view all the way around the car and you even have something to have a third camera that records inside the car to record the passengers now Florida our highways are dangerous people are distracted all the time and a dash cam can mean the difference between your insurance company charging you for the accident and them going after the other person's insurance saying yeah if camera shows they were at fault and therefore they have to pay for it we totally endorse that and if the other insurance company has to pay for it your rates are not likely to go up theirs will that's a good suggestion do we

have a dog or something? Absolutely. No, we have finished with our callers with Facebook and we are going to move to Big Dog Ranch episode. Okay. What can we say about Big Dog Ranch? Wow. No dealer fleas. Wow. There you had. Their quote from Rick, no dealer fleas. No dealer ticks either. You don't know if we're being honest. Big Dog Ranch Rescue. I'm sure you've heard us speak about it. And well, a fabulous organization. And in tradition, we will go to our dog of the week, which is Frosty. Frosty.

Wow, what a great name for this time of year. Okay, Frosty came to the Big Dog Ranch from the Yikes, Texas border. And he's looking for a forever home. And he is enjoying his stay out at Big Dog Ranch. you can go to their website and you can check out Frosty and all the other dogs. You can also fill out an application that will save some time because they do a background check. And you can go to www.bdrr.org. And you can read all about Frosty and you can take a look at the end.

Let me interrupt myself by saying the weather is great. It's just a great place to take, you know, someone that's visiting you or take the kids. Spend the day out there. Yeah, take the kids out there. And Frosty is two years old. He's so cute. Wait till you see the video. He's a mixed breed.

And he's considered a large dog between 60 and 99 pounds. Although he looks quite small. What do you think, Rick? What do you think his? And he's a male. To me, he looks more like he's 45 to 50 pounds. Yeah, he didn't. 60 is kind of big.

Yes. He has very short hair. So he's in a size group that Big Dog Ranch has established, you know, as a medium dog, which fits 60 to 99 pounds. Okay, Jonathan, would you roll the video? Hi, my name is Nick. I work here at Big Dog Ranch, and this is Frosty. He's been here since January.

he's a really sweet boy pretty slow moving uh likes to enjoy the pets and the slow times with with his humans um he really needs a good home and he'd love to go home with you that's not frosty barking by the way frosty is chill and frosty is the guy that curls up at your feet while you got your hands cupped around your coffee in the morning and he's like your loyal dog love him i love him I had the whole image right there with them, you know, sunrises by the beach. You saw, oh, you guys should adopt it. You say that with such passion. I love him.

I spend my, I spend my early mornings with my dogs, and we'd kind of do that. I'd drink hot tea. How therapeutic is that? It is. It's like a meditation. I mean, you're saving a lot of money. Saving a lot of money on psychiatry, medication. Right.

Midlife crises. You know, I'm not skydiving or doing anything stupid like that. You can skydive inside, Nell. Do you know that? Inside my mind. No, no, no. Oh, yeah, I've done that. Go to a location.

I did that. I went into Orlando. I did the indoor skydiving with my daughters and my wife. Indoor skydiving. It's a, it's a ride, like a ride. No, you're in. A big fan in the floor. They have a DC-10.

And you float on it. Fan prop. You know, it's like blowing. Is that right? And it's blowing a hundred and something on the wind. Oh, wow. in getting a suit with a helmet and you go in there and they tell you

what to do. You'll be like a silver man. You fly for about two minutes. Exactly. You just got to do it. Yeah, it really is very interesting. The most interesting thing that I did was I went and Earl would never ever do this but I had this plane take me way up in the sky

and I was in a glider and I think that's what it's called. Right. And they turned the the motor off and I was just in motion. That's beautiful. I want to do that. Because those, that's safer than skydiving, I think. Because you're in a plan.

They can control that. I think so. It's quiet. Yeah. And it was a great time. Okay. I think that it's time for us to get to the Rick. I was told we didn't have time. So anyway, we're going to move into the

mystery shop. Were you going to sing something? No. Okay. I wouldn't put you through that. Maybe next Saturday. I wouldn't do that to y'all. The mystery shop took Agent Lightning to Mercedes-Benz of North Palm Beach. And, well, you be the judge. You can grade the mystery shop by going to 772-497-6530.

A, B, C, D, or F, and we go short on the A's and shorts on the F's. This is South Florida. Take that out of consideration. So, as Nancy said, Mercedes-Benz of North Palm Beach. They own the other two stores in this area. I'll speak of the first person. It's if I were Agent Lightning, or Crack Agent, who has been doing this for two or three years now.

She does a great job. I walked into the show around lunch, I was greeted by a salesman who introduced himself with a firm handshake. I am Mike, he said. Mike asked, are you here to see anyone specifically? No, I'm just looking to get a price on a new car, I replied, great. Be happy to help you out.

What exactly are you looking for? I explained my husband and I do a lot of traveling and are looking for comfort and good gas mileage. He went over the options of oil, electric, gas, hybrid, and explained each one in detail. He also pointed out how the front grill design, I just learned something here, I didn't know this, the front grill design indicates a trim level of each Mercedes-Benz.

I did not know that. I had no idea. And I'm, you know, it's hard for me to identify cars today, and I'll keep that in mind. So we used the cars on the show of them as an example of this. We even have a special deal on a car available for $499 a month, it's a lease he added it's a demo car we use for customers who come in for all changes or warranty work I pointed to a car out front that it caught my eye what about that one it's a hundred and seventy one thousand dollars

I'll take two right 171,000 you got you got a hand it to the brades I mean without blinking right and it's not even made a stainless steel and drives itself that's right that's a high performance electric car he replied but since the 2024 model, I could get you a really good deal. Remember, folks, I mean, 2004, that's calendar. We're in 2024 calendar year. We are in a position now where you're buying last year's car because this is November and this is December coming up pretty quick. So don't buy a used car.

You're buying a 2,024, you're buying a used car. And the salesperson, to, you know, to credit, he says it's a 2024 model. The subdulips, you go in there and he just say, well, here's a new car. But it's a year old. I could get you a really good deal. They're not going to have that conversation with you. No. It's new.

Yeah, right. I can prove it. Yeah, right. Hey, a new car is a new car. I got a title right here, untitled right here. Okay, how much I asked a salesperson? Well, we could take off around 25. to $30,000, guy that you're in a Mercedes deal with $25,000 to $30,000.

And you think about $25,000 or $30,000,000 just doesn't make any difference. I mean, it's just a lot of money. I shook my head. That's still a little too high for me. After reviewing all my options, I decided I was most interested in a particular SUV, 2024-GLS-450 formatic park to the showroom. The MSRP was 96,535. I knew this because it was on the Bernroti label,

and it was right where it belonged and properly a fix. You knew listeners, you don't hear that in Florida very often. In fact, we just, genuinely speaking, every dealer in Florida takes the Bernroney label off in violation of federal law. So kudos to Mercedes dealership at North Palm Beach for not doing that. So this car is one of the few 2,024 models left, Mike said.

We're willing to make a deal on it. I'd love to see the pricing for this while I told him. I like it a lot. Okay, so I'd say over to my desk. Once at his desk, he pulled up the information on the system. I'm glad to see you're back. I get nervous every time I see that in a mystery shopping report. You think someone would remember.

And everyone takes for granted, you know, that Agent Lightning just, you know, finds her way in and out of these dealership unscathed. But if you think about it, it is a dangerous job. Someone turns to you and says, last time you were here, 2022. And she had a comeback. She didn't skip a beat, you know, whenever he said this with a smile. and he, you know, was teasing her. So, anyway, it was interesting how she handled that. He remembered, or didn't remember, so the computer, they looked at, no, I meant.

It looked at the same car back then, so let's make it happen for you today. Well, I'm glad my taste hasn't changed. She said, laughing, like Nancy said, the number blinked an eye. Mike pulled up the car in the system and said, I'll be right back with a price for you. About three minutes later, he returned. we're having issues with the system, he said, but my manager authorized a 10% discount on any of the cars, any of the 2024s, I presume.

I asked, can you do a detailed breakdown for me? He tried, but no matter what he did, the computer system wouldn't print. We've all been there and done that. We're highly reliant on technology these days when it breaks were in trouble. I write it down for, he said, so you'll have the dealer fees and tag costs.

So immediately just called what he had was a dealer fee. I say that because most dealers in Florida anyway come up with these exotic names for their junk fees. We stopped calling them dealer fees because dealers are now saying, I don't have a dealer fee. It's an electronic filing fee or it's some other kind of fee because they make up a name for it. But in this case here, they call it as a dealer fee. $995, $995, and then the license was $223.75, and that is a legitimate taxable fee, non-taxable fee, and $200 title is, again, no tax.

And there's a 7% sales tax, which is obviously a government fee. I looked at over, doing the math in my head, decided it was time to go. Before leaving, and I asked, could you email me a printout? if the system comes back online. We do this because most South Florida dealers won't give you a price unless you promise to buy the car right then and there. Getting that business card, when I first read that, I was really disappointed thinking it might not be true

that the computer system's down because the business card didn't give a whole lot of detail. Oh, good. I never, do you think? I was cynical. You're more cynical than I am. I didn't think about that. But as you read on, it will be, you know.

Yeah. Could you email up a proponent? Yeah, let me check one more time, he said, a technician is working on. He returned a few minutes with a frownout. The top line was MSRP. Oh, I just, I did that. Yeah.

No, 96,535. Took off a 10% discount for 9,0635. I had the junk fees. Yeah, what did he call it, a dealer fee. And the real fees are the tax making the total. $93,962 As you walk back to the door, he asked

Are you sure you don't want to sit in this car before you go? I like that. He's not pushy, but, you know, he's thorough. Have you thought this thorough? Sitting in the car as a magical experience,

buying cars are an emotional experience. I get you a great deal on it, $25,000 to $30,000 off. Why not it'll sit in it? Mike pointed out many of the car's features. They then realized he didn't have the keys. I'll be right back. Returned shortly and said,

I just found out someone bought it after all that, right? I believe it. I do. I do, I do, too. They're working with finance right now, but I can show you something else. Not today, I said. I'll be in touch.

So there you have it. South Florida, Mercedes dealership in North Palm Beach. And your regular listeners are probably, probably pretty impressed with this because it's, as I said, we grade on the curve. Yeah, definitely. I think as I'm waiting for some grades to come in here, I think that the overall in South Florida, they did better than most. There was a few errors.

I could think of something that the salesperson could have done to avoid the embarrassment of finding out that the car was sold. and that was a touching base with his managers. I don't think they have a one person through the process process. So he does have a desk with sales managers who are working deals. And he could have said, I'm looking at this GLS in the showroom. And they said, no, we got somebody going in and to finance right now on it. So you could have saved some time. But that's just, that's me being a critical manager.

Well, they have a firm price, be it high, lower, and between. A firm price is a good thing. Good thing. Yeah, it might not be the best. You could go look at another dealership and find a better price, but it was, they did discount it. And so, yeah, I think they get a B for me. Bob gives them a B plus, and Jonathan and Palm Coast says a dealer fee is a junk fee, but the rest of the fees appeared legitimate. Emailing the info when the system is up is positive.

All and all not a horrible experience, actually rather typical. They get a B plus from me. Okay, so B plus from the guys. Now, remember, they own two Mercedes dealerships adjacent to each other. The third dealership in this area is in Del Rey. I don't think they own that one. The problem with owning all the dealerships and one owner is that are the, is there going to be a price fixing another? We should do that.

We should do a, we should do a mystery shop of two dealerships. that don't buy the same owner and get prices on the same model year, make a car, and see if they vary. I think they're going to vary. If they're doing like a traditional back and forth negotiating thing, so who knows where the... I think they're right, yeah.

But they're not really... Agent Lightning's not doing a lot in negotiating. She's really just kind of getting their first offer. True. And then sometimes she'll say, can you do better? And then the manager will come out and what if them. And so... Well, she has a firm price, though.

Yeah. She could have done the same thing twice. Yes. And walked down and see whether it was. Right. Okay. That could be, that's a future, future mission for Agent Lightning. We got any grades coming in? We do. We've got Tom Steckle says B minus. Luxury car dealers should not be charging $1,300 in junk fees compared to J.M. Lexus. T-cash says C. Oh, that one on special is sold.

But this one over here. I mean, you know, Sponsored. Yeah. Tim Gilliland says, Not terrible, but a healthy dealer fee. B.

Neo Shazam. B. I can't handle the price, but relatively straightforward if the computer was out. Johnny C. Fradley. C. Based on the price of the car,

the fees weren't too bad. Brian said Latko. This dealership wants to sell their vehicles. A. Uh, myself. The junk fees keep them from getting much more than a B minus out of me. Yeah, they discounted the car that's been sitting around. I think they've got it.

They're trying to sell another 24. They could have discounted that one a little better, I think. But again, just put the junk fees in the price of the car where they belong and not added on afterwards. So B minus. Okay. I got Joseph Kelleher says C plus

don't like the nearly 1,300 in junk fees yeah junk fees do you have anything else that's it right now I have a feeling I have a feeling

I know where the grades I have a feeling where you're going to say do you have a crystal ball no it's just that's a sense of things and I think I kind of know where the where the grade's going to go

but I you are you're a variable but I sense I sense where you're going. Okay. All right. Would you write it down and pass it to me? I'll text you right now. Okay, folks.

Don't say it yet. No more fun in games. What can I say? You know, by now, I'm not into jump fees. And the fact that the car was already being looked at or it was gone or whatever, move somebody into another, you know, vehicle. That's some strategy that's always been used. I didn't like that. I was very happy that the Moroni label was, well, properly, properly. It was properly a fixed and where it belonged.

That was great. So they probably would have got a B plus for me, but this morning I give them a C minus. Now look at your texts. da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-no I got it Stu predicted my I kind of cheated I sat in the beginning and then she started to say something negative and I went I mean C-minus and then they went that way folks right here are on cars Stu can read my mind Earl, what's your thoughts? I'm going to go with a B.

I'm going to give them a high grade. To me, the important thing, the important thing is that they got a price, a fixed price. The thing I hate the most is when, if you don't, if you don't buy the car today, you won't get my best price. That is so childish and insulting. It's insulting. I mean, so a firm price goes a long way with. me. And the dealer fees were brought out right away. In fact, the funny thing is he used the word dealer fee when in fact they didn't call it on

their dock sheet. They called a dock fee, I think. So they call it a dock fee. No, you know he's not going to call it a junk fee. That's the reason we call it a junk fee is because all the other names are taken up. So we call them all collectively. But we would give an A to somebody who called their dealer fee of junk fee. Yeah. But the fact that dealers are actually now advertising, we have no dealer fees. And then you go in there and they have a dock fee and an electronic filing fee. I mean, they ought to take those dealers out and put them in front of a firing squad. And a dealer is that say no hidden fees because they go, well, it's not hidden if they're on the document.

They can defend it. I'll tell you something funny is that in the – still, you'll enjoy this also because of the fact that the headlines of the current automotive news on September – on November 25th was that the Attorney General of the state of Florida had decided to enforce the laws on the books that they had for 20 years. now uh wasn't it where how that was three we even talk about it for three months and it just was bulletin in their automotive dues I'm not sure the significance of that

but why would why would they come out with something on August on November 25th that had been in the news for three months I guess I will have to ponder that I don't know I think so alternative yeah it's yeah right here three three days ago okay well maybe she put it aside because there's a lot of campaigning it was political season she's going all sorts of fundraisers with everybody and now it's time to get back to business well she's her only hope now

okay okay how much time we got left we have three minutes okay um i'll go back to what i said at the beginning of the show that we're in for a wild ride here with we have two presidents now Elon Musk and Donald Trump and if that isn't going to put a crimp in what's going on the good news is because personally I'm nuts about

autonomous cars Nancy and I we rely on our car when we're going somewhere we always put it in the destination And we live with the little glitches every now and then. But you can be sure that the government of the United States will be dropping any kind of extra safety rules and regulations. They are going to expedite autonomous driving. It's going to come sooner rather than later.

So, yeah, it depends on your personal desires. It's going to go at the speed of Musk. Yes, exactly. Well, I mean, it's going to be scary and fun at the same time. Wear your seatbelts, folks. Buckle up. All drivers out there. Get some helmets on.

Buckle up, baby. Okay. You, Jonathan, we have two minutes. Two minutes left. I got one last question on YouTube here from George Petrillo. He says, do dealers sell a lot of cars on Black Friday? Yeah, probably. a lot of dealerships advertise do big backflatty sales but guess what they're not really sales

yeah and let me tell you what if you think black friday is the answer it really is and they want to get you in the door and you can buy a car any day of the week if you do your homework protect yourself and just go in with all the information you possibly can take advantage of them don't let them and take advantage of you. You're listening to Earl Stewart on Cars, and I want to thank everyone for tuning in. We'll be back here next Saturday morning, 8 a.m. So stay tuned.

Have a beautiful weekend, everyone.