Earl Stewart on Cars - 12.02.2023 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Sunrise Ford of Ft. Pierce

Episode Date: December 2, 2023

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning travels north to Ft. Pierce, to visit a local Ford dealer and see how much over sticker price they will ask for a new 2023 Ford Bronco Sport 4x4 that is on their lot. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, his tweets at www.twitter.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. 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”

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

And now, on with the show. Good morning, everybody. We're back again right here in the studio in North Palm Beach, Florida. But we kind of encompass the globe. We're on Facebook, we're on YouTube, and streaming and regular. radio. We're all over and we get actually more calls from outside of Florida than we do inside of Florida. We're at the, I'd say probably the peak of the excitement in the auto industry. We're at one of these rare watershed moments in the history of the automobile. You think back with Henry Ford

and that was a historic time. And then the automobile retail business and to some extent the manufacturing business was frozen in time you know like one of these dinosaurs that comes out of the the icebergs they've been frozen and the icebergs are I hate to use that comparison because it's a sad thing about global warming but the fact is the ice is melting and the automobile manufacturers and dealers are coming out and they are changing radically from what they were 100 years ago,

just about 100 years ago. We're going into an amazing technological and consumer awareness revolution. And the consumer awareness is where we come in. We're having to follow the tech changes, which is a challenge with electric vehicles and hybrids exploding and combustion engines becoming obsolete.

20 states have ruled that you cannot sell a combustion engine in their state in 20 years from now. So 20 years from now, it's going to be all electric folks. I mean, prepare for it. But the other exciting thing is that the public is becoming so educated. We like to think we're a part of that. Erlon Cars has been doing this for 20 years, and we've been helping. we're playing our part and educating the consumer.

Well, along with artificial intelligence and all the other incredible availability, Google, good Lord, you can get answers to any question you want, and the American consumer is beginning to do that. Amazon, well, they jumped on that bandwagon a long time ago. Remember when they were just a bookstore?

Now you can buy everything at Amazon. So now they're getting into the car business. It's exciting, it's fun, but it's also dangerous out there. You can make a big mistake because the dealers are, they're coming out slowly. If you're going to buy a car today, it's a little bit like Russian roulette. You can squeeze that trigger and you hope that the shell isn't loaded into that particular chamber, but you can also get a great deal. And I didn't even mention COVID, but you've been there with us,

so you know exactly what I'm talking about. We'd love to hear from you. We'd love to get your input on what you've done, especially if you bought a car or have a friend that bought a car, or maybe you're just thinking about it. We'd love to have you call us. That's the important thing. And I get so excited.

We all love what we do on the show. And sometimes we act too much because it's just, you know, when you're feeling good and you're feeling excited about a project or something, you just keep yakking. Well, I don't want to yak. I want you to yak. I want you to call us at 877-960-99-60. And seriously, if you can write this number down, please write it down because we're going to be on the air for two hours.

We're on from now until 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time every Saturday. and if you write the number down, I promise you, you'll have a question. And that number is 877-960-960. We had a call of last week or a week before that said, you don't give the number out often enough. You know, sometimes I feel like we give it out too often, but better too often than not enough. 877-960-99-60.

Now Nancy Stewart, my co-host, she's been with me for the whole 20 years and been with me longer than that because we're married she has a laptop computer and Jeremy in the control room every time you call they tell Nancy

Jeremy puts it on the computer she sees it on her screen and she will tap me on the shoulder if I'm talking or Stu or Rick and we will take your calls. We prioritize phone calls because the personality of the caller, there's a

There's a visceral excitement kind of a thing about just having a real conversation with a real human and a real voice. And I think we have a caller because she just tapped me on the shoulder. So we'll switch over to Nancy. I could only reach your elbow. Good morning, everyone. Welcome. 877-960-9960. Or you can text us at 772-497-6530.

Don't forget your anonymous feedback. $50 for the first two new lady. callers this morning. Give me a call. Give us a call if you have any questions or if you just want to say hello. We're going to go straight to the phones. We're going to talk to Janet, who is a first-time caller. Good morning, Janet, and welcome. Good morning. You won yourself $50, Janet. And if you stay on the line when we're finished talking and speak to Jeremy, give them your contact information. I'll be able to get you a check. Whoops.

Still there, Janet? Good morning. Yes, I am. Good morning. Good morning. So I was speaking to my neighbor and I was talking about my Volvo and he said, call these people. This woman will advocate for you. I've given Volvos for the past 10 years and I bought one of these new.

X-C-90. X-C-90. X-C-90? Well, it's just, I'm sorry, but it's just junk. I have written to the corporate office. Oh, no. When I first drove it off the lot, water came pouring out of the front top of the vehicle. The leather seats have fallen apart.

I had to replace the second batteries that should have never been replaced. I've just had a lot of problems with this car. You've been driving them for Volvo? How many of them? You've never had a problem before with the Volvo? No, I love my Volvos in the past. I think this is the first year the Chinese

What year is your car, Janet? It's 2016. It's in 2016. Okay. So up in from 2016 until now you've never had a problem? No, I've had all kinds of problems with this particular vehicle. Did you buy it new or you buy it used?

Did you buy it new or used? I bought it used, but it only had 10,000 miles on it. Okay. Well, I'm going to look up here and just see if there were any issues with that car and consumer reports, and then I think, right, well, sometimes a great car manufacturer doesn't have a great year or a great model one year. A lot of times if it's a new one, they have problems,

but the things you're describing are just like all over that car. Like, it's like a lemon. Oh, yes. And when I took it in for, when there's a black box in the front of the windshield, I bought the car, drove it for one day, and it was raining, and water came gushing out of this black box. That's crazy. I wonder if there was, like, an accident and the windshield was replaced or something.

I don't believe so. They said that there's tubes in the top. of the roof of the car and you need to be blown out. Again, I've never heard of that before either. Janet, so what direction do you want to move

in considering, you know, your, sounds like you're ready to get out of your, you know, your Volvo. I am. I mean, listen, I've always loved the Volvo. The car that I had prior to that was wonderful, but

I think I would be much happier with another car. I paid $40,000 to this car. Do you have any idea of what you want? Toyota, Ford, Nissan, something else. Okay. Narrowing down, you know, your options is a good idea, just to, you know, find out in your mind, you know, what your needs are as far as you, your family, what you want to spend.

And it's really important as to how long it will take to get, you know, the model that you want with other, so many other, you know, considerations. Hey, Janet. I just saw, I looked this up. I think you got unlucky. This is unusual because I know Volvo is considered a lot of really good. I think the quality's changed since they were bought out by a Chinese company. They've been built in China for quite a while. Because the 2016 Volvo XC90 has a red score and overall reliability of 5 out of 100 by consumer reports.

And the overall owner satisfaction reported to consumer reports is it 2 out of 5. So there was something going on with that model. And like Earl said, it might have been in one of the, you know, recent ones, they switched their manufacturing location to China and maybe the attention, the volume has gone up. But yeah, absolutely. You're just looking for reliability and stuff like that? I would look at a Japanese car. Yeah, I think, Janet, that, you know, moving forward, we already know about the Volvo, you've had problems. You want to get out of it. And you're considering a long laundry list of vehicles. So you're going to have to narrow that down.

And I'm going to ask you this question. Are you looking for a combustion engine or are you looking for a hybrid or an electric vehicle well have you not made any of those decisions yet I have not made any of those decisions but listen to your husband when I was holding about how all the cars are going to be electric pretty soon I'm thinking well you know with the price of gas maybe I should look at well Jen if you want to buy an electric vehicle the only one to consider, in my opinion, would be Tesla, and they have a wide variety from relatively low-priced. In fact, actually low-priced. With the incentives we have now on electric vehicles, and Tesla qualifies for those federal

incentives, you couldn't go wrong there. So the other thing would be hybrid. Sometimes it's better off to take the first step with a hybrid and your next step with all-electric vehicle, but you check in term reports. You have a large number of highly rated electric vehicles, especially hybrids. And to go completely from a combustion engine and jump into an EV, it might be too big a jump for you. I'd recommend you go with a hybrid first. If you like it, then you can think about an EV later.

And Janet, one other thing, you know, that I always ask the lady, says, you know, have you considered how much it's going to cost you to keep that car on the road? That's an important consideration. And with the, you know, with, well, new cars, used cars, you know, if you're ready to go out and purchase, there's a lot of questions you need to ask yourself. And also, it's really important for you to get your finances in order and pick out your lender. Right. Well, I know that within the year that I bought this Volvo, they only wanted to give me 20 grand for it under a year. I hadn't driven it for even a year. And I'm like, I just paid 40 for it less than a year ago, and it's only worth 20.

Yeah. I mean, oh. Exactly. So anyway, like I said, moving forward, I'll leave you with this is really important for you to, you do not finance with the dealer for sure Janet it's been a it's it's it's it's been a pleasure talking to you and I certainly hope that you stay in touch with us and stay on the line you can get that $50. Thank you. Thank you for your time and I good luck for the information I received thank you you're welcome we're going to go to Lance who is a regular caller he's calling us from Tennessee good morning Lance Well, Earl I'm here

The bad news is I was Maylaid by a turkey last week Say that again, Lance? I was way laid by a turkey last week What did that turkey do to you, Lance? What did it do?

It had the first name Wild. Oh. Yeah, 101 proof. I know wild turkey very well. I used to, I knew better in my younger days, and I had to kind of wean myself off the 101 proof. I can only handle about 80 proof now.

But I did want to bring you a little quick Christmas, too. Okay. Oh, the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me Earl Stewart on cars In a Christmas tree Well, I'll tell you what I want to sign you up I love to be your manager

10% I can make you a fortune And I'll get 10% of it But you're I think you could be the next hot record And I guess they don't do records anymore Do they hot Digital Digital

Yeah, they don't even do CDs anymore I'm open to be signed up for anything. Well, you're a bright part of our show, and I'm so glad you're feeling better. And I hope you can call again next week because we wait for your call. It makes everybody smile. Yeah. It's good to talk to you and keep doing your good work. Well, we love you.

Thank you, Lance. We love you, Lance. Have a great weekend. Bye-bye. We're going to have our dog via video this morning, and you can go to www.Bigdog Ranch Rescue.org And you can take a look at the dog that we're going to feature this morning and so many others. And the dog that we're going to feature this morning is Jimmy. And he is just the cutest.

He's four years old. And I'll give you a little hint. He's looking for, well, adults to live with. He does a whole lot better with adults. He wants to be, well, the attraction. He wants to be the king. He's a Dalmatian. He needs a firehouse.

A fireman would be perfect. I think that he's looking for a home. Either that or the big Budweiser beer truck. I like that. To be with Clydesdale. I like that idea. Okay, folks, that number is 877-960-99-60, and you can also text us at 7-72-49-6-5-30. Take advantage of your anonymous feedback.

Now back to the recovering car dealer. Well, do we have any Facebook post or, I mean, YouTube posts? Well, I did get a couple of quick words from Donovan when, what was her name just called in about her Volvo? Janet? Janet, yeah. he says the XC90 is they've had some issues with those cars he says and he says it is actually a hybrid so she is driving a hybrid now but yeah he says they had some issues with those right from the get-go on the XC-90s first let me say that Donovan is I mean now there's a caller after my own

heart he he can even politely correct us when we miss something like that fact I recommend she looked for a hybrid and she already has hybrid and then he's on top of the game with terms of the Volvo Volvo to me and I think it's partly my age I think of them as a Swedish car

and of course they haven't been built in Sweden in a long time and they were a super safe car at one time and they may still be we had a regular color for a long time that loved his Volvo so I guess maybe the message here is You can't just buy a brand because it's got a reputation.

If you look in any make car, whether it's a Chevrolet or a Volvo or a Tesla, you will have to go to look to specific models, and then you have to see how does that model within that group of cars go. You can have a car that consumer reports within the same manufacturer's group. it can be highly rated and the same manufacturer builds one that's very lowly rated so branding

is just a very dangerous thing if you think all four trucks are good you're wrong if you think all volvos are great you're wrong you've got to go down and get granular as they say and there's the best place to do that is consumer reports

absolutely okay where are we are Okay, we have some anonymous feedback, and I started to talk about it, but Stu was in charge of anonymous feedback. So there are two or three recent ones that came in, and I thought were interesting. Okay, let's see. Well, there's a few of them. We've got the flying Bentley that crashed.

Is that the one? I didn't even see that one. The flying Bentley that crashed to high speed reminded me of cars that have had a stuck gas pedal in the past. Is there any way to stop? Oh, we did that last week, yeah. Oh, we did? That's right. There's a very recent one that we had. Okay.

If Agent Lightning is... What do you have on the 12-year-old that's out stealing Hyundai's in Kias? And now, he's now wearing an ankle bracelet. Any text messages on it? No, that was my nephew, your grand nephew, and I'm kidding. No connection. I don't see that one. If Agent Enlighten is ever back in Pennsylvania, Montrose, Nissan, and Hermitage, Pennsylvania is a great dealer.

They treated this so kindly, and they were. very honest. I just bought a center there last month. All right. Well, we got a shout out for Montrose Nissan in Hermitage, Pennsylvania. And I don't know how close that is to Agent Lightning's her haunts, but if it's somewhere

nearby and not prohibitively far, then yeah, we'll hit them up. It's always getting a good show. This show can be interpreted as a negative attack on dealers. We encourage people to call, tell about their positive experiences with dealers. We need that really more than the

ones that call in about the complaints because there are so few dealers today that are qualified to treat you with courtesy, respect, transparency. If you have a great experience for the dealer, please give us a call and we'll talk about it, name the dealer, and steer some business his way. If you listen to the show for a while, we got excited. We get a good one. Excuse me, Stu. And to what Earl said, this really helps us to build that list.

You know what list it is? Good dealer, bad dealers. And you out there are a part of the show, very important part of the show, and very important part of what Earl, Stu picks up as far as texts are concerned, and also Rick with YouTube. So you're a big help. So stay at it. That's right. Here's one here. I don't know if this is the one that you saw in anonymous feedback.

I went to Sun Toilet in Holiday, Florida, and I mentioned that to you guys, mentioned that you guys don't have a dealer fee. They claim that you jack up the price with add-ons such as low jack, talking about our dealership. Either the salesman is a liar, or he has no clue of what he's talking about. Those are the only two possible conclusions that can come up as well, either intentional ignorance, which is a lie, or ignorance. Well, we hear a lot of that, and actually sometimes it's not the salesperson that is misleading you.

he's misled by his manager or maybe even way up the ladder. I think car dealers are so entrenched in the way they do business and all their competition seems to do business the same way. And suddenly they hear a story about a car dealer that doesn't have any long hidden fees, no junk fees, no dealer install accessories, a firm price that they allow you to shop and compare to try to get another price. And here's what we hear a lot

when we mystery shop a dealer and they talk about our dealership. They'll say something like, now, do you really believe that a car dealer would give you 100% of your money back if you change your mind with no conditions whatsoever?

Or do you really believe that a dealer doesn't have a dealer fee? He actually has a dealer but he hides it in the price of the car. I mean, that's true. It is true. It's not. But we also hide hippopotamuses in the price of the car.

In our phone bill and our advertising and our commissions, when you sell a product, you're supposed to take all your costs, bake them into what you sell that product for, and then mark it up a little further for your profit, and that's what capital is said, but that's selling. But, yeah, any cost that you have is fine, as long as you put it in the advertised, quoted, this is your price, Mr. Customer.

It's when you don't tell the customer the real price, and he gets a surprise when he's signing the paperwork. Maybe he doesn't even know about the surprise. He just signs his name. So that's what we hear a lot of. The dealer fee or the junk fee is a two-part problem. It starts with the advertised price, and then it culminates at the dealership.

Exactly. And so, okay, let's see. I'll never understand how dealers like Sutherland Nissan, Avero Beach can ever sell any cars. Are there actually consumers out there stupid enough to fall for the sales packets? Is that who we shop last week? Yeah, we hear this about a lot of dealers. And there's a, a lot of people are very intelligent, very perceptive,

were very well read. They have that, I call it a lawyer mentality. They're able to negotiate, haggle and hassle. In fact, they enjoy it. And there are a lot of listeners to the show. You can tell from the intelligent comments we get, you have to realize

that we're kind of preaching to the choir on this show. There's a huge number of people out there for a variety of reasons are not prepared to negotiate their way through a typical dealership and buy something. They are trusting, do trusting. Maybe they're not as educated as they should be or might be. Maybe English isn't their primary language. And if you're

buying a car in Florida or in most place states in Florida, you're going to have to be fluent in English. You're going to have to be able to read it, understand it, and speak it. Maybe you're elderly. I'm not as sharp as I was 20 years ago. A lot of people that are out there that are senior citizens, especially widows. As you know, the women outlived men, statistically, by a few years. And if you go back in the 40s, 50s and 60s, the man was making the decisions, making the big purchase like homes and cars. So when he pre-deceases his wife and she has to go out and buy her first car, an 80-year-old

widow walking into Napleton Toyota, or excuse me, Napleton Kia, or Naples Hyundai, is a scary thing to think about because that woman is trusting and she's going to believe just about everything they tell her and she's going to pay way, way too much.

So that's what we have to understand when we talk about it. Michelle, you hear us talking about these things. You say, how could anybody fall for that? Well, I would say over half the population easily falls for. That's the reason to deal is it makes so much money.

Okay. Here's one. This is interesting to read the increase in articles regarding electric vehicles and the rapidly rapid increase in insurance costs and cost to repair if involved in accidents. These are true statements. Condo where I live just

banned the indoor parking of electric vehicles do an extreme increase in building insurance and the risk of the cars catching on fire and destroying the building. That's a good point. You know, there's a lot of accommodations that have not been designed in that will be. And it's a work in progress. Electric vehicles call it everybody by surprise.

And your point about the condominiums, the charging stations, and a lot of other issues needs to be addressed. And certainly, it's not a whole positive about electric cars. The insurance costs from electric cars very high. I can tell you right now that our dealership is investing in the, collision repair, equipment, and space that we need to fix these cars because they're manufactured in a different way. Teslas are, they have this manufacturing process, large panels that are stamped into shape. So when we talked about unibody in the past, these things are aluminum too and very difficult

to repair. You have to have separate facilities. And so that gets passed along to the consumer and the insurance company. So, yeah, that's a negative aspect. steel. Huh? And, yeah, stainless steel in the case of the cyber truck.

That's a perfect example, Stu. Well, right now, we are having to build a new body shop. We're having to build a, we have to buy new equipment, new technicians, and if you, to do a collision repair

on Tesla's, which it dominates the orchard vehicle market, you have to have a whole set of new tools. So costs are going up, and Other costs will go down. You say, hey, I'm saving a fortune on gasoline with my new Tesla. Well, wreck that new Tesla and see how much you save.

Insure that new Tesla. Your insurance and your premiums will go up to. So there's good and there's bad. Okay, guys, we're going to go back to the phones. And Marty's calling us. He's a regular caller. Good morning, Marty. Good morning.

How you doing today? Good morning. Welcome. I got to ask you a question. No, I'm on a three. month wait so far for my rev four limited. This is after

your 13 month wait. Yeah, they told me it's going to be a year to a year and a half. Any word on that? No. I mean, nothing's changed in the currently, but we are looking at, and this is

from real data that we get from Toyota, at the end of every year we look at the next year's rundown, they call it, and they tell us about what kind of production they know that Toyota is putting out there and what kind of share of that production Southeast Toyota is getting, and they further break it down to estimates in month by dealer. So, yeah, we're seeing an increase in available cars, but it's not across the board.

So some cars like Corolla's, it's going to disappoint a lot of dealers because, especially in South Florida where that's a huge selling car, that's not really going to increase very much. For our dealership, we're kind of happy because we happen to do a lot of hybrids and Highlanders and all that. And next year, the Camry is going all hybrid. There's no distinction between gas and the hybrid versions. It varies by a dealer who benefits by the type of our market just happens to benefit. So which one you're ordering right now? I did a Rav4 hybrid.

Yeah, that's going to be... Limited model. Yeah, there's going to be a little bit more of those. I don't know. You still got to talk to Jason about the specific time length because he's looking at a list and he can see how many are ahead of you. You can also see which are the faster moving ones. You might have somebody looking who's trying to get a really tough-to-get-Rap-4-hybrid limited

with some package or something. Well, he might wait longer than you. And Jason's looking at this list. You know, earlier there was an anonymous feedback that, you know, it's a question about, you know, whether you can order cars. You can't order cars from the factory, per se, because Toyota, and I imagine all the other manufacturers, they have such a complex and a huge amount of products to sell.

I mean, you think about any other, like, you have, Toyota has like 20-something models, and each model has something like four trim levels. That's like 80 different cars, basically, and it's very confusing. and that's why you need to sit down with someone who kind of knows what's available. That's why I'm referring Jason. Can kind of kind of see the path through the fastest way. One little item can hold the car up for a year.

I mean, as long as you have that flexibility, as Stu said, you take the color of the interior, you take the color of the exterior, you take the model choice, which is multiple, and then you take the individual accessories, and you do the permutations and combinations and add it up, you're looking at thousands, literally thousands of choices when you go into a car dealership. And just by tweaking two or three of those items in your choice,

you could expedite the car very quickly. Our fault and the dealer's fault is they don't communicate very well with the buyers. And when you bought your car, Marty, I don't know that we did it well ourselves. we may not have if we didn't explain to you. And color is the most common problem. But accessories, also a sunroof or a cruise control or anything that is holding up the production that you can get by without. You say, hey, we'll drop that, and you might get the car through three months earlier.

And what Earl just said is definitely, you know, looking into, give us a call toll for you at 877-960, 9960. Also text us at 772-497-6530. I got a route. If you're not picked up with calls, my wife's car is a CRV, and I intend to buy it when the lease is up in three months.

So Ed Morris keeps calling me, and they want me to buy it through them. But if you buy it through them, they charge you the dealer fee. They charge you $9.99, and they charge you everything else. You pay close to $2,000 more if you buy it through them rather than buy it through Honda credit. Yeah. That's a nut. He's got your back, though.

He does. He's got your greenbacks. That's right. All right. All right. Well, have a good week. And then I'll be waiting for my car. It's only three months.

You're a patient man. Stay in touch, Marty. We love hearing from you. We're going to go to Jersey, Mike. Good morning, Jersey, Mike. Good morning, folks. How are you guys doing? Great.

Welcome. Well, listen, I'd like to know. I'm going to tell you, a personal experience I just had with a dealership that I thought would have been treating me fair because it wasn't in South Florida. It was called Wallace Jeep. up north and i went up there after i spoke with them for a while during the week i had to put it off a couple times when i got there uh they the gentleman i sat down with would not disclose the breakdown of the reduction in the price off the price that was listed

he refused to tell me what was inside that seven thousand eight hundred dollars eight hundred fifty dollars and let me get up i said well Well, thank you very much. I'm not interested in buying anything now, and I was ready. I had to cash for my pocket for the deposit. So I started walking out, and he chased me outside. Heeding with me. Did he tell you what was in the $7,000 then?

No, he refused. He was not itemized because I wanted to see where the junk fees were. Yes, they lumped it all together. They call it fees, or did they call it a markup or an addendum? No, they called it a reduction in the price of the listed price of the car. Oh. That was their discount that they were going to offer on that car, off of what it was advertised to be sold at.

Okay, but they wouldn't tell you how they were getting there. No, he refused. So you know what I did? He kept on going back over to the manager's desk. I went over to the manager's desk before I walked out and he followed me. She pulled up a chair. I said, I told the manager behind the cubicle there, and I say, you know, you people are not really very honest with your customers.

And I don't think this gentleman treated me properly. and so I think you want to talk to him. Good for you. Yeah, I'm glad you did that. How do you respond? Mike, you have some very interesting stories week in and week out. What do you say? We really appreciate you calling.

I know. They wouldn't tell me. But anyway, the question I need to ask you is that was Wallace Jeep and something, whatever, okay? What do you got going on so far as a dealership that you already have investigated that is good off north? I don't care if I got to go to Georgia. A Jeep dealership? You're looking? No, no, no.

So there's where I can get a, kind of like, Escalade used. We always say CarMax, because that is kind of the most consistent good experience that we've seen. Because even when you go to a good dealership, you know, like Earl's talked about, we get a snapshot of time. Who knows what happens in the late shift or the early shift or the next day. And we go back and we get different experiences at the same dealership. Not saying we can't, not name his dealership, I just don't have it. There's rotten apples in every barrel, and when you get to rotten apple, it seems like they're all rotten. I'll say this right now.

With our dealership, I guarantee you, we got a salesman there that I wish wasn't there, but I just don't know who he is. We have 30 salespeople, and you just don't know. And I would, you did, the reason I said congratulations, Mike, is when you told the supervisor, When you have an issue with an employee of any company, especially a salesperson that's selling you a $50,000 product, go to the supervisor and say, listen, here's what happened. I'm not happy. Your company's got a good name.

I'd like to have a different salesperson, or perhaps you personally could handle me in this case here. But, yeah, that's, and I would say including our dealership and any dealership of any size, there's going to be a few people there that leave a little bits to be desired, in the way they deal with customers. I understand. I got a car from you at your dealership with the Kia.

You gave it the car fax. I put 20,000 miles away. I gave it away as a gift to a relative. And I never had to put anything in that I car. I could even turn it up to four in the air condition because you get frostbite. So anyway, I was very satisfied with your dealership. They treated me very fairly.

But what I want to know is you go ahead to investigate these dealership. Do you want to give me a name of a dealership that's up north that would treat me fairly? you can go to our list of good dealers bad dealers but we see the problem is we don't go that far north I mean well how far north you're just up at Fort Pierce like is that what you're talking about just like Treasure Coast area

yeah um Wallace believe it or not has done well on the list that's why I kind of hedged yeah Earl Earl knows uh Bill Wallace and did you know Earl well listen go to Bill Wallace go to Bill Wallace Jeep and is looking for a Jeep builder No, no, no, they're looking for a use Cadillac escalate. Oh, use Cadillac, okay, yeah, go

to use a, try there, but I like Stu's suggestion, the first one, CarMax because, see, they draw on the inventories of the other dealers. That saves you the shoe leather or the gasoline driving around. Go to CarMax, they're honest, they'll treat you fair,

and if you get a good price. And you'd prefer that over AutoNation? Automation would be my second choice. Okay, thank you very much. I appreciate your input. Thank you, Mike. Hope to hear from you again. We are going to, I'm going to give you that number one more time, 877-960, and also the text number is 772-49-6-5-30.

Write that text number done. You're going to need it at the end of the show whenever we vote on our mystery shopping report. We're going to go to John, who patiently was waiting. Good morning, John. Hey, good morning, patiently waiting. Correct. For the gentleman who is waiting three months on his car, he can count his blessings because right now I'm waiting 11 and a half years for my order to come in.

No, no. It's a cyber truck, right? Believe it or not, I'm number 2,9558 in line. There's several websites. You put your order number in. And it tells you roughly, you know, where you fall in place. Uh-huh. And that one of the sites gave, um, with a 30% drop rate for people that are not going to take it or don't have the funding,

it dropped me back to December, 2026. Oh, wow. That's not bad. Well, I'm laughing, but I'm on the waiting list for the Tesla cyber truck. And they won't even tell. They want to, they're shipping, but they're shipping, but they're not. They won't tell me. Oh, no, no, no, that's what he's telling you.

You can put your order number as a website, and it'll tell you how long it's going to take to get it. Oh, that's the cyber truck? Yeah, yeah. Oh, wow. Tell us the website. Well, thank you. We can just Google it. We'll Google it, and we'll find.

You said there's a bunch of science. John, are you, did you buy the beast, the one with the three electric motors? No, I haven't bought it yet. I'm still waiting for the email where they give me the choice to. Okay, okay, yeah, me too. Well, do you plan, I can tell you, don't order the beast, because I can tell you, don't order the beast because I heard the other day that won't be here until 2025

but you'll be able to get the only one you can get is a two electric motors cyber truck right yeah and you and I are in the same boat yeah I know exactly what you're talking about and they're going to build the middle one for I mean you know they're going to supply

all those middle ones first and then the single motor will come later on but you know why that is is how much did you put down for a deposit a hundred dollars there you are okay see if they

required a substantial deposit it wouldn't happen but what's going to happen a lot of people that say for a hundred bucks I'll go ahead and reserve when they change their mind so they'll drop fast when they stop shipping hopefully but the cyber truck

I mean the more I learn about it the cooler it looks Nancy and I were looking at a video the other day that Rick said us a Rick Ernie and it is really an amazingly interesting car. Not necessarily a vehicle or truck. I mean, it's not necessarily something I would want to drive all the time, but it is such a cool, Rick.

I've got a stack of information that Donovan just came out with all on cyber trucks. So when we get in a moment, I'll read through that. Yeah. But anyway, I feel your pain, John, and we'll wait for our cyber truck and see what happens. Well, my last thing is, believe it or not, the gentleman who was, well, he's looking for a Cadillac Escalade, I thought he was looking for a Jeep.

The Model Y, I'm also looking at, because I found out this week, that it has a drive mode for off-road. My 3 has the chill, the standard, and whatever. The Y has an off-road. People thought that it was just like, you know, going on the grass or dirt gravel. Right. If you use them to look it up, the Model Y outperforms Jeep and sand hill climbs and makes it to the top where the jeeps had to turn around because they couldn't make it. I'd want to lift that Model Y up a few inches before I tried that, though. Yes.

The Cyberstruck goes way up. I'm sure it does, yeah. Yeah, so the Model Y is a hill climber and sand and outperforms the four-wheel drives. Yeah, it's got all that, I mean, instant that torque. It's a, yeah, it's like having a little. little rate remote controlled car all right that's awesome thank you John

thank you John let me know as soon as you get approved on that cyber truck and I'll let you know so we'll we'll communicate let's go back to Stu it might be myself because I'm going to be dead by then oh no no there's a they'll drop out you'll make it

we're both going to make it all right there you go see later bye All right. We have a text from Amory that we missed. She's a little late this morning. Amory says, good morning. One of the most disconcerting things is when a car makes a strange noise. One of the most frustrating things is when that noise is intermittent, so it's hard to record or even reproduce it for the auto technician. My 2013 camera is doing just that. Every so often when I hit a bump, I hear something that sounds like plastic hitting plastic. That one thump seems to be coming from the steering column, and it doesn't happen every time. hit a bump either.

Rick, do you have any idea what might be causing the mystery sound? Steering column, plastic on plastic. That's very specific. Yeah. 2013 Camry, there are a couple of plastic gears in the electric

steering column that occasionally start to wear and when it really gets bad when it gets really bad, it causes Rick to start choking. He thinks about it. He can't even breathe. But anyway, he's back.

When they really get bad, you'll hear this rattle almost every bump. But if it's just once in a while, I wouldn't be too concerned right now. It is a bit labor intensive because you've got to drop the entire steering column to get

to it. All right. So unless, in other words, unless it's totally driving her crazy, she should probably avoid the expense. I'm a bit. I'm I'm betting that's what's going to cause that one. She can't do an audio recording. It's hard for intermittent, but you can't do that. That's a tough one.

Unless you just use up all your iPhone space and record the entire time you're driving. Yeah. It is. Oh, Amri, I don't think you have the new iPhone, but if you did get the new iPhone, there is an action button on it, which can launch an application instantly from the phone. And I don't know if you can do like a voice memo, a sign of that. Why don't am I looking? He retired from Apple. Jonathan used to be an Apple associate.

You can push a button, automatically launch it. It's a really quick way to get something to the recording going. Or just have the thing ready to go in the car in case it happens. That's my advice. Okay. We have a, this was a, I didn't see the actual article. Excuse me, sir. Okay, great.

Yes. Howard's calling. Good morning, Howard. Good morning. Hope you all well. Beautiful day today. And here's my question about the 20-24 Camry. It's hybrid, correct?

That's correct. What's the difference between the 20-23 Camry hybrid and a 2024-24 Camry? There is no significant. I don't think there's a body style change or anything like that coming. They're just consolidating, or they're just ceasing the production of gas-only camrys. So it's not, technology is the same, yeah. Yeah, so in other words, it's, what you're saying actually, it's the same car, correct? That is correct.

Okay. Next, if I buy a hybrid, I had a hybrid once, Prius, and unfortunately I was in an accident and it was told. But what innovations have been made since the first hybrid? as far as the battery, as far as the motor. You know, how has it progressed? It's the first time. I defer to Rick on that. Improved fuel economy, improved quality on the engine.

Basically, they've just slowly improved all the way along. Today's Prius, just one of the most technologically advanced cars out there. There's a big article in the automotive news, the current issue that says that Toyota is going head to head with Tesla. And you say, well, how can you do that? I kept saying all along, because I always had so much respect and admiration for Toyota. And when everybody said, aha, you really missed the boat, you didn't build an electric vehicle. Right. Maybe the worm is turning on this thing because right now, the biggest, according to Wall Street, the biggest competition at Tesla, is Toyota because they're pushing their hybrids.

And the hybrids are the transition car. I wasn't even thinking about that. I spoke to a woman called earlier, and I said, who I mistakenly didn't realize she drove a hybrid. I said, before you buy an all-electric vehicle, you should drive a hybrid as a transition. So Toyota, maybe they saw that a long time ago, and they said, hey, we can either devote our major efforts to building a new EV and the batteries and all the other stuff that entails for brand new technology, or we can polish the new technology, the hybrid technology, so we're so good that we have the perfect transition vehicle, and by the time the transition occurs, we'll have an EV2. I was one of the doubters

of Toyota. I thought they're behind and they kept on saying this that this is the strategy. They call it Beyond Zero and they're going to do it like you said the transitional step. I was trying to look for an email here that Toyota sent out to the dealers. It was pretty impressive on the amount of, they called

electrification. How many cars they have? It's pretty big and growing. But right now, the The only electric vehicle that they have is the BZ4X, which isn't the most exciting one in the world. My son likes it. He likes it.

He hasn't looked under the other. I have driven one. I got a chance to get one on the road up in Jacksonville. Right. And I've driven one here around our area. And I got to say, yeah, when you're to stop and you punch that pedal down. You don't go anywhere? That thing will crack your neck a little bit.

Really? It's got a little takeoff. I'm holding this article up, and you can see, it says it's Tesla versus Toyota. That's what Stu and Nancy and I are talking about right now. It could be that your next car is, it probably will be, your next car will be a hybrid. And who's got all the hybrids? Who had the first hybrid? Who knows how to build a hybrid better than anybody?

Toyota. I mean, I say that. and I hate to say it because we have a toilet dealership. It sounds like I'm trying to sell my own product. But the fact of the matter is, I was down on Toyota. I said, I really felt bad because they really missed the boat because they didn't have a viable electric vehicle. Maybe there was a good reason for that.

That's right. And I found the email. It's just kind of bragging about toys, electrified vehicles are surging. But with that strategy of emphasizing hybrid and then introducing electric vehicles, for customers who are ready to make the transition. It kind of slows down the tradition, but it's better than staying all gasoline.

Here's another thing that Nancy just passed this to me. Consumer reports really blasted EV reliability. So when you go out there in the market and you say, oh, boy, I'm going to buy an electric vehicle. Be real careful. Be honest with you, I haven't read that report yet. But Consumer Reports, that's our Bible, of their accuracy

and they're not being influenced by advertisers or companies they tell the truth as they see it. Consumer report says that when they checked the average electric vehicle quality, reliability, it's not very good. So what should you do?

You should go to the interim and buy yourself a hybrid. And so that kind of is what we were just talking about with Toyota. All right. yeah Toyota was just like I was saying before was bragging about their sales but it's up significantly they keep introducing hybrids and they're going to sell them Howard okay my last my last question how long does the hybrid engine last and how long is the battery last and how much does it cost to

replace this and that's my last question the only engines we've actually seen issues with is the third generation Prius Yeah, second and third generation, actually second genie, I beg a pardon. The 04 and 010s. Yeah. They had a few issues with coolant

eventually starting to leak into the cylinders. And I think that was because the gasoline engine was being run so seldom, so lightly that the cylinders just the metal wasn't heating up enough. to really seal the passageways properly. I won't even get into the technical side of it,

but that was really showing up at around like 150,000 miles. All of the rest of our hybrids, which we've had them out for 20 years on everything now, they've just been bulletproof. We have seen almost no problems cropping up with our hybrids. It's not like the engines just keep right on going. The batteries, again, on the older Priuses, we did a lot of batteries on those, and they would run around $4,000 to $5,000 replaced, but again, the Camrys, the Avalon's, the Highlanders that have had a 15 to 20 year track record, almost never replacing the batteries on them. It's very, very seldom. Why don't you say the average, the average, the replacement time was about 200,000 a mile?

I'm going to say $2.250. Yeah, so there's not many cars I can say that about any part. Yeah, I mean, it just, it's these cars, and the quality has improved so much, so fast. That's almost the scary part is how quickly the quality came up on these batteries. And now that we're running the lithium batteries, that quality level has just skyrocketed. I mean, it just, it's almost like there weren't any growing pains when we switched. of those. Yeah, good point. Okay, I believe that we've answered all of Howard's questions, and I'm going to give

that number again. Request from one of our listeners, 877-960, or you can text us at 772-4976530. We have a whole lot to get to, so I hope you're all comfortable, and you'll stay tuned with us until 10 o'clock. You know, while we're still, before we get away from that topic entirely, we really got on the role here with the hybrid versus the electric vehicle and Toyota and so on and so forth,

this is another in the current automotive news. Used EV models hurt by depreciation data. So this is something that, it's a double whammy. You know, when you trade your electric vehicle in, you're not going to get the allowance that you thought you should. Every time Elon cuts the price, now we've got $7,500 credits, it trickles down, folks. Exactly. So the people that get super excited about EVs, be careful.

You know, and I'm one of them. I just, you know, Nancy and I drive a Tesla. We love it, and we talk about it probably too much. But the fact the matter is, it's a big EV market out there, and there's a lot of changes. And right now, the electric vehicles are stacking up an inventory. The good news is you could probably get a good discount, and then you get the federal subsidies, which is even better. But then you've got to trade in an EV, and you get hurt because the depreciation is really great.

Think about it. When technology moves fast, you trade in a car that you've driven for, let's say you drove a Tesla for two or three years, and then you traded it in. That new Tesla is just a night and day technology above the one you just traded in. So the guy that's going to buy the one on the used car lot, why should I buy that? I got to worry about the length of the battery life, and I've got to worry about the technology and so on and so forth. So hybrid, way to go. Great information.

We're going to go back to the phones, and we're going to talk to Bob. Good morning, Bob. Bob's calling us from Lake Worth. Hey, good morning, everybody. I got a really strange situation. went out Black Friday to Wall of Chevrolet and I bought a 2024 blazer

which I love the only issue I'm having is a salesman kept telling me it'll tow 4,500 pounds so I bought it because I've got a small boat right now I found out that he didn't sell me the tow package and I've got a vehicle

that only tow 1,500 pounds and I've got a 2,600 pound boat oh no and this never came up obviously with the salesperson well no it did I mean, he said, I mean, he acknowledged. I mean, he never acknowledged that you had to buy the tow package to accomplish that.

No, no, of course not. He told me this car that you're looking at will tow 4,500 pounds three or four times in our conversation. I said, great, because I've got a small boat that weighs about 26, 27. He goes, oh, yeah, no problem, no problem. Well, here's the problem that you have, Bob, is he said, she said, if the salesperson were to be honest and say, I made a mistake, You should get your money back. But have you confronted him?

Well, the problem is now he has a medical condition and is not working this next couple weeks. I called up the general manager, and he said, I'll call you back. And, of course, he said, I'll check with everything. And he didn't call me back Friday. So I left my message. So I'm going to go back up there Monday and see what I'm sorry, today, and see what I can do. Any suggestions? Yeah, Bill Wallace is, I'm just out of luck.

Yeah, Bill Wallace, who is a friend. I've known him for years and even knew his father. That was the first store of the Bill Wallace Empire was the four store. So in Delaware, if you don't have any luck with a general manager, give me a call, and I will give you Bill Wall's cell phone number. He's an honest guy, and I think he would get to the bottom of it. but clearly you should get your money back on that. You shouldn't be stuck.

Well, like what I really want to do. Yeah. Yeah, make sure that you go in there. Yeah, make sure you have, you know, it's going there professionally and calmly and just and state it. The way you said it to us, I mean, there's not a question at all. That is a complete misrepresentation. Right.

If the people you're dealing with have any integrity, they're going to see that it was wrong to say that car. But like you said, what I really. Oh, do you have a pen handy? I can give you Earl's number. No, I don't. I will just have to call a dealership sometime next week and leave a message, right?

You can do that, or you can go to the web, his phone numbers on our website. Oh. And Bob also put in writing in an email. You might even want to copy me, but put in writing in an email the specifics, just as you described it to us on the show. And send that to, you can send it to the general manager,

maybe copy Bill Wallace, copy me, and it's nice to have something in writing that way. You get to the point when, you know, things happen faster that way. Yeah, exactly. You know, the thing is I really think the man just made an honest mistake because, you know, I don't think he really tried to rip me off. But unfortunately, I've got a, you know, a $40-something,000 vehicle I can't use. And without attitude, your odds of getting things corrected are very great

because when you start a battle and anger involves it, then you've got a problem. You're being a gentleman, and I think you're probably right. It was an honest mistake, and they should make it right. And Bill Wallace, I feel sure, would back you up on that. All right, thank you very much, guys. And ladies, have a great weekend. All right.

Our number is 877-960-99-60. You can also text us at 772. 4976530. Now back to Stu. I got a text from another Bob in North Palm Beach. And he sent me an article about the Attorney General in Massachusetts has just announced a set of regulations and they're going after junk fees in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It seems to be a trend.

His question was he wonders if this is going to affect the car dealers up there. Because I read the article real quick. It mentions the examples they gave were areas. airlines and phone bills. But car dealers have been cited in the federal trade commissions, regulations. It's a common thing. Junk fees is applied to any transaction where you're surprised at the end with fees that were not part of the original posted or discussed or advertised price. So yeah, I hope that's a trend. And I hope because I do know that attorneys general, they meet regularly. There's associations of attorney generals, sometimes they're partisan, sometimes they're

all together and they talk about issues and their states and hopefully this is something is on the agenda because that's going to be the most immediate thing the federal stuff I'm of course there are politicians it's sound I hate to call attorneys general or attorney generals or whatever because it makes them sound like FBI right they're politicians that's an elected office and the reason I I salute the attorney general from Massachusetts but in Florida, the car dealers own the Attorney General's. And I started to say Ashley Moody, but as long as this show has been on the air, 20 years, going back to how many different Attorney Generals in Florida, I don't know.

But the Ford Automobile Dealers Association, the Tampa Automobile Dealers, the Miami Automobile Dealers, the Jacksonville Automobile Dealers, and then all the individual automobile dealers, give hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars to get people elected in Florida that they need. And they elect if the car dealers are against the Attorney General in Florida, they'll never get elected. And also when something like this comes across the legislature and they do these regulations, the car dealers have lobbyists, and they're doing their damn best to make sure car dealers aren't part of that regulation.

So that's why when I read the Massachusetts article, I got a little bit at a wince because I thought I didn't actually read, see the word car dealer. So without that explicitly stated, you know, they're working to make sure to strip that language or be explicitly. Well, again, let me go back to the fact that there's an advantage to being a car dealer on this show. Being a car dealer, I was on the board of directors of the Florida Automobile Dealers Association. I was on the executive committee.

In fact, I was on the executive committee with Larry Morgan, who we've talked about on this show. So I know how it goes. I was given checks as a director, the executive group, to hand-carry checks to important people, like local state attorneys, the attorney generals, all the people that affect car dealers' welfare, we just kept giving them money. and I was part of the problem. So I've been there, I've done that, and now I'm on the other side of the fence.

So when I say the car dealers of Florida own Ashley Moody, I say that from specific personal knowledge. And the only other more powerful lobby, at least in Florida, is the insurance lobby. Because we ran head to head with them, because we tried to do some lobbying on behalf of consumers. But the insurance lobby said no. Yeah.

That would do with crash. It's all about the money, folks. It's all about the money. Indeed. 877-960-9960, or you can text us at 772-4976530. And we're going to have a whole lot of fun with our dog of the week coming up about 930. And no, Jonathan, about 920. Yeah, somewhere around in there. His name is Jimmy. He's a Dalmatian. And you want to stay tuned for this video. He's a real cutie pie. We're going to go back to Stu, or we're going to go to Rick. I got one more. I got one anonymous feedback, and then Rick's probably got some stuff over there building up on YouTube. It says, is it true that the 20, 25, 26, Toyota Corolla's are going to be unibody production.

My insurance agent tells me unibody or higher a premiums because a little fender better can total the car. They already are unibody construction. the remaining body on frame vehicles are going away after 2025, and those are just SUVs and trucks. So we already have enclosed cage-like structures that they call a unibody. And, yeah, it does make it more expensive repair, depending on where it's hit. In some cases, a car will be totaled based on if it's a safety part on the frame.

So we're already dealing with that. What is happening, though, is changes in manufacturing. I don't know if this is a branded title or if this is an actual generic term, but it's called Gigga plants. Tesla calls their battery factory, a gigafactory, a giga plant. Toyota is building a gigafactory, but it's a new production process

where they're stamping larger pieces of metal together. In that case, it's even more unibody. I mean, there are still welds on the unibody and modern unibody cars, and there's, you know, pieces, but this is a much more complex and it will be a more expensive repair. Okay, Rick. Well, one thing to bear in mind with those designs

is that an accident 25 or 30 years ago that would have resulted in serious injury to the driver and passengers or possibly even loss of life. I think they're now getting out of these cars shaken, maybe a little sore, but walking away with a little more than a hangout. I think it's important to say that

because we've been bemoaning the increased insurance, but we think a lot of the legitimate reasons, I know there's some ugliness in there, too, but cars are more expensive, but we're less likely to die in them. So maybe a price is much more likely to walk away uninjured from a crash that 25 years ago would have injured you badly. My daughter was uninjured.

She was in a car accident a couple of days ago, and they're in a crawl, the airbags went off, and nobody was injured, but she's a little freaked out. I mean, it's She wasn't driving. We're one step away, I think, from that movie Demolition Man. Right.

When he crashes the car and it fills with foam instantly to support every, prevents any injury whatsoever. And then it simply crumbles apart so you can get out of the car. That was brilliant. I mean, it's quite a statement. Yeah.

We're going to go back to the phones. We're going to talk to Doug. He's calling us from Fort Lauderdale. Good morning, Doug. Yes, good morning. Good morning. Well, I don't buy a car regularly. I buy a car and run the wheels off it, or in my case the door off it.

I had a Lincoln Town car 2003, and the door wouldn't, you know, I couldn't fix the door without great expense. I love that car, that town car. What a car. What a car. And it had $250,000 on it. Air conditioning worked, everything worked, but the door. want to put the money into it. So I went looking for another Linking Continental, the newer one. And I look up online

and I find a Chevrolet dealership in Pompidot Beach and I'll mention them. The car was listed on the internet at $21,000. And I called and said, is there a dealer fee? And they said

$1,000. So I'm expecting it. So I go and look at the car and drive it and come into the office of the salesperson and 21 became 29 as we sat down with the worksheet and one of one of the reasons is they wouldn't accept my trade and I don't blame them with the door the way it was that added a thousand I wouldn't finance with them that added a thousand of course the dealer fee Then there was a $3,000 equipment seat. And I'm going, I'm going, you know, as I looked at it, I just got up because I talk with my feet.

And she said, here, let me get the manager. And he came in, Doug, dog, this is the way it is everywhere. He's yelling. What's wrong? What's wrong? You'll pay this everywhere. of course I just walked out and he's yelling at me on the way out I just say that's bait and switch at its worst yeah yeah that's illegal that's quite a story 21,000 and go to

29 yeah yeah it's it's unregulated they broke every law in the book if Ashley Moody the Attorney General and any regulatory agency were doing their job that dealer would be in jail. But there's just total, they just, it's an infancy. It's like a bank robber. They're robbing banks, and they're just keep on robbing them. Yeah, they get away with it, Doug. Yeah.

And they can do whatever they want. You know, I have a question. I wonder what would happen if Ashley Moody walked into the dealership. I wonder how they would treat her. Anybody ever think about that? Well, they wouldn't know her. I'm saying that she could walk in. She would announce herself, and she would say what her title is.

And like I said, out of curiosity, I wonder how they would treat her. Well, they didn't get to treat me, and they texted me the next day. Glad you walked out. Yeah, and let me say, I found another town car 2010 with 51,000 miles on it. Wow. And it was at a small little dealer. It's called Palm Auto. They're on Coppins Road in Pompadot, and the dealer fee was $300.

Palm Otto. We will recommend anybody in that area, Palm Auto, and it's in, located where? Pompadow. Pompado. Okay, good. Palmado. Very good. Well, it's amazing what can happen when you take charge, and that's what you do, Doug.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, told them to take a hike. Talk with your feet. There you go. Do you wear taps? No. Dennis shoes. Okay.

I'm showing my age. I used to get taps on my shoes back in the 50s. It was nice talking to you, Doug. Thanks for sharing that story. Okay. Okay, bye. Have a great week. can, hey, 77, 960, 9960, or you can text us at 772-4976530.

Okay, guys, which one of you do you want to take over? It's Rick's turn. This is coming straight from Donovan. He says, Tesla this week started to deliver the cyber truck to consumers. It revealed a ton of details about the car, finally. It's a technological marvel and is a preview of tech that every car will have, shortly. It's the first vehicle to use a 48 volt low voltage system for the entire vehicle. So no more 12 volts, 48 volts on that whole system.

The last time low voltage was changed was in the 1950s. The cyber truck has 70% less wiring because of this. It's also the first production car to use a true steer-by-wire system. There is no physical link between the steering wheel and the tire. and the tires. That one's an interesting one for me. That was coming. It uses two five horsepower electric motors to steer the wheels.

I believe our air bus planes that we fly on are fly-by-wire as well, no hydraulics. It's fully variable steering, and the wheel only turns 170 degrees in each direction. And you barely have to turn the wheel to get that. And then, of course, we discussed that video we told about with the cyber truck racing against a Porsche with pulling a trailer with another Porsche on the trailer. And Donovan says, yes, so he saw that one. He said they also saw videos or he's seen videos where it raced against an R1T 800 plus horsepower quad motor truck and the 1,000 horsepower Homer H2.

and it literally demolished both of those vehicles in the race. That's the one with three electric motors they call the Beast, but that won't be out until 2025. Ah, correction. The single motor cyber truck, which is their base model, and starting at around $60,000 is the one that won't be out until $25. Well, that won't be out, but the article I saw said that the only one you could buy now is a two motor, not the three-border.

The two-motor version, which is starting somewhere around $80,000. And the Cyber Beast, starting at $150,000 is also available as the three-motor tri-motor cyberboasts. I hope you're right. However, I have heard that original specifications called for it to have something in the neighborhood of a 500-mile range. That has been dropped to about 420 miles on the Cyberbeast. but however that's saying something because your Tesla does

0 to 60 in 1.9 seconds 1.9 yeah the cyber beast does 0 to 60 in 2.6 seconds and it's massive I think these things are almost going to look a little intimidating going down the road it also has the world's largest windshield

yep and one of the comments that he also made on this I said he disagrees with the Tesla versus Toyota he thinks it's going to be Tesla versus BYD which I was unfamiliar with that one

it's a Japanese company that is the battery manufacturer and they actually are making batteries for pretty much everybody Tesla is actually using some of them Toyota uses BYD batteries in our BZ

I don't disagree with that Donovan's comment if you look at the timetable I think Donovan you could be right about that in the long run in the intermediate run

I think the hybrid is going to kill electric vehicles and then when the reliability of the hybrid of the EV is there then B.Y.E could come in and give

Tesla a real run for the money. Exactly. Now of course the interesting part also So aren't they standardizing? Most companies are trying to standardize and go to the same charging plug as Tesla uses? Well, if Tesla just open it up, so they say, here's my plug, you can use it. So they're all taking advantage of the world's largest charging network. Because one of the things that I've wondered about is when you buy a Tesla,

if you buy the home charging unit to put on the side of your house or in your garage, I know that's pretty good expense to have it. What do they cost for that one to install that? $2,500 or something like that. Yeah. And then once you've installed it, say if you, you know, your Tesla got crashed in an accident and was totaled, you're kind of stuck with, do I buy another Tesla or can I buy something else? Great. If you spent $2,500 on that charger, it kind of narrows your choice.

Yeah, definitely. A vehicle's there. For sure. point. We're going to interrupt everybody here, and we are going to go to Frank, who's been holding for a while, and he's our last call. And the reason is because we have to get to the big dog ranch dog rescue, and we need time for our mystery shop. So we're going to keep this call short. Good morning. Good morning. Are you there? I'm still here. patiently waiting. But, you know,

I'm glad because they had that saying, you always save the best for laughs. So it made me feel good. I know it's corny. But, yeah, I like the discussions you have every week. And it's amazing some of the things that you bring up will trigger memories in my memory bank. And earlier, not to do with cars specifically yet. But when Earl mentioned about 101, drinking 101, and now he's going down to 80-proof. One of the things I've grown up in.

Growing up in Miami, I had the honor to work for Eastern Airlines, started as a cleaner sweeping floors and scrubbing toilets, and made my way all the way up to find Jumbo jets with them. I realized to Richard Dory. But what I did, when we flew, we go, and you were allowed to bring one bottle back duty-free. And there was this rum called Ray and Nephews, and like a yellow and green bottle, it's overproof.

It's overproof at 151 proof. But there was a dentist in the street there in Prine working on his house that would give his patience the Ray and nephew to numb him up before he start pulling teeth and he was always saying

bring me some bottles up and it made me think of that dentist when you were talking about one-on-one I said well that's nothing try this Ray and nephew boy he'll put some hair on a ball bed but anyway

so that was the trigger of that and then I also had heard this week about the car dealers being rated and it's so refreshing to see that Lexus is number one, Todia's number two, the higher the hold list. And I said, well, maybe for Christmas, instead of getting some coal in your stock, and you'll get a Lexus dealership.

Well, that would be nice. Yeah, well, and it would be very adequate, too. You wouldn't have coal, so you're trying to get rid of also full fuel. So it all comes together. I mean, you see how my brain works. It's a unique experience. But anyway, so I barely let you get to the dogs, big dog rescue ranch, And you all have a happy Christmas and a good new year.

And we'll see you guys again. Take care of you. Call next week. We love you. Thank you so much. Thank you for calling. Okay, folks. We are going to get to the dog of the week.

Okay? Yeah. And Jimmy, you know. Jimmy the dog. Jimmy has come a long, long way. I can't go without reading. Jimmy Bones. Just where he came from.

My name is Jimmy. I was rescued from the meat markets in China and flown all the way to Big Dog Ranch. You know, you have to take a breath. It's just an amazing story with Big Dog Ranch, Laurie Simmons. What they do is just amazing. This is just one of many, many amazing stories. moving on here he's looking for a forever home and also he is a handsome delamation and he's so excited he's so excited to be adopted he says his dream home would be an adult only family

where I can be the king and I would get all of the love and attention I would benefit greatly from an experienced dog owner who can be aware of my little quirks and help me to be the happiest man I can be. I would love a yard to run around in roam in and play with the owners. I am mostly potty trained. I will make a great walking, running partner.

I have plenty of energy to go around. I know a few tricks like paw and sit and I'll do anything for treats. I'm learning leash manners and doing very, very well. And he's very motivated. And that's all about Jimmy. And what a story. You can go to big dog ranch.org and you can take a look at Jimmy and all the other dogs.

And by the way, the dog of the week, we pay the fees. it's very expensive to adopt a dog we're here to pay the fees I think that we're going to Stu do you have anything to add to that other than I'm looking at a picture of a beautiful Dalmatian and I can't wait to watch the video and I can't wait to pay the fees for this

and it's a great video and Jonathan has that all ready for us we'd like to introduce you to Jimmy he is a beautiful four-year-old Dalmatian. Jimmy came to us here at Big Dog Ranch from the meat markets in China. We rescued him and flew him all the way here. He's such a handsome Dalmatian. He's such a sweet dog. He's very friendly, high energy, but loves to cuddle. His dream home would be an adult only family where he could be the king of the castle. Jimmy would greatly benefit from an experienced dog owner that can

give him structure, loads of training, and understand all of the quirks and benefits of having a wonderful, very smart Dalmatian. As you can see, Jimmy loves to run and play, so an owner with a nice yard would be ideal. Jimmy is mostly house trained, and I'm sure as soon as he gets home, it'll be a breeze to finish up the house training. Jimmy has boundless energy and would benefit greatly from an active owner who loves to run or even take long walks with him. He's still learning his leash manners, but as soon as he gets home, I'm sure he's a quick study. He's very food motivated. He loves toys. And a future owner with Dalmatian experience would be amazing. Big Dog Ranch Rescue is open Monday through Saturday from 10 to 5 p.m.

Please go on to BDRR.org for more information about any dog. You can also see more information about Jimmy here. And if you're interested, please go on to the website www.bdrr.org slash adopt. And you can put in an application for not only Jimmy, but for any dog. This is the perfect time to bring a dog home. We want to find every dog at the shelter, a home for the holiday. Yeah.

Okay. He's beautiful. Christmas time. I got to say that Jimmy is, he's a moment. medium-sized dog he's about 32 and he'll get to you know he's only four years old so he's gonna you know he's gonna he's gonna grow some and um he's uh what what a beautiful video what a beautiful dog yeah i picture this dog coming home on or opening up under in the big box christmas morning with the santa claus hat it's a this is a classic domation yeah absolutely this is great

it's our first it's our first damnation as a sponsor sponsored dog, and it's the first time we had a dog take a leak on live streaming video. Well, and then he went and found some salad to chew on. He did. He's like, that's what dogs do, and he just looked like one of my dogs in the backyard having a good old time. So I feel bad that we have, like, you know, radio listeners that don't get to see it, and then we have people who are watching the live stream, but, you know, I hope we're doing a good enough description. But like Nancy said earlier, Jimmy is our sponsored dog, and we're going to pay the adoption fees and make it really, really easy to

take them home. But also, but please look at the website, BDRR.org, and look at all the dogs. Because they got, I don't know how, they got a couple hundred, a few hundred? I'd say probably closer to 500. Yeah, several hundred. How is that much now? They are so big now. I've lost track. They do an amazing job, bringing dogs in from all over the United States and the world.

I mean, Jimmy came from China. Actually, I wanted to emphasize that. Just Jimmy is a special dog because clearly he had a rough time and some trauma. Forget about just traveling across the world and a plane. I mean, that's stressful for a dog, but whatever market he was in or whatever, you know, conditions he lived in prior to that before big dog ranch rescue went out there and took him. I imagine that he probably came back with dozens, if not a hundred dogs. They come back.

They take them in the masks. The owner of Big Dog Ranch has a true love and feeling for dogs. It's real simple. Her name is Lori Simmons. And a lot of the dogs that she rescues, now this was a dog from China. You know, they eat dogs in China. That's a cultural issue. It doesn't make them evil, but it makes them a place you wouldn't want to be if you're a dog.

And she also takes the dogs from all of the United States. They're going to be euthanized. So you can blame China for eating dogs, but the fact of the matter is, in America, we euthanize... We kill them in Bernard. Millions of dogs. So if there's a dog in a shelter in Miami or in Orlando or in Massachusetts, they call Big Dog Ranch, and they bring the dogs in, and Big Dog Ranch does not euthanize dogs. They keep dogs.

We have dogs at Big Dog Ranch that have been there for years and years. And it's a sanctuary. worry. And you just can't keep growing and storing dogs. So we need your help to adopt. And that's the reason we're doing this video is hopefully you'll adopt this dog or some other dogs. And we've got hundreds of dogs, including puppies, all breeds, all mixes, you name it. We have it in Big Dog Grand Rescue. Also, I'm going to mention Earl's book, Confessions of a recovering car dealer. What's special about this book, there's a few things.

I don't have time to mention all, but the purchase of this book is interesting as to where the profits go. 1999 confessions of a recovering car dealer. All proceeds go to Big Dog Ranch. All proceeds go to Big Dog Ranch. And you need to take a look at confessions of a recovering car dealer. 100%. I got angry the other day. I'm watching the commercial on television,

and it was a furniture store or something, and they said, and remember, a percentage of every sale goes to some charity. Well, what percentage? A dime, 20 cents? When you buy Big,

when you buy Confessions of Recovery Card Dealer, everything that Amazon gives us, we sell through Amazon, the proceeds that Amazon collects, that they sent us, we send immediately to Big Dog Grand Rescue. is a dollar-for-dollar transaction. So there you go, folks.

Big Dog Ranch. I've got one last quick one here from Negan 1. Kind of a little twist on it. He says, is it legal? I was starting to answer that on the typing, but go ahead. No, no, go ahead. He says, is it legal to give a price discount if you finance with the dealer? Now, I know it's illegal for them to say,

require. You have to finance with us to get this price, but is it legal for them to say if you finance with us, we'll knock more money off? It's illegal. It's a violation of the truth in lending law. And when you finance a product, whether it's a car or a refrigerator, the finance interest rates and the payments and the terms are as stated for the price. You can't say, I'll lower the interest rate or I'm going to raise the interest rate. unless you pay more money for the car. The only exception is if there is a factory incentives where they give an additional cash incentive for a factory. Yeah, that's a bank. That's not the dealership. And that's the factory issue, which they said, we're going to discount the car.

We're giving you incentive. The incentive can take the form of a lower interest rate or it can take the form of a cash rebate. Or both. So that's not really. Yeah, sometimes they combine them too. But the point is the advertiser. price is what we're talking about it's a violation of truth and lending to

modify the advertised or quoted price because of financing or not financing okay folks I see by the clock we got about four minutes left so we're going to get to the mystery shopping report and our mystery shopping report is of Sunrise Ford in Fort Pierce and our talented mystery shopperer agent lightning did a great job again and yes she left Pennsylvania finally and she went to Fort Pierce so stay tuned

for the mystery shopping report and please jot down the text number where you could vote because you're an important part of the show 772 4976530 back to the recovering car dealer okay and I remember we vote ABCDF

just like in school but that's on the curve so an A is very rare and if it's very rare, we have an average car dealer would be a C. So when you vote, think in terms of the average car dealer and they're better, give them something over a C. If there's something worse, give them lower than a C. And if they are just, should be in jail, you could give them if. Or make up a new grade that might be. Right.

Okay, I always read the Mr. Shopping report that Stu puts together so well. I feel like I'm there. He has a real talent. out to right. So he composes this with the data from Agent Lightning. So I'm going to read Stu's report as if I were Agent Lightning. I arrived in the afternoon as I was walking toward the front door. Salesman approached me. Are you here to see somebody asked? I stopped and paused and said, I didn't call ahead, however, I am looking for a new car. He laughed, replied, great. How can I help you? I mentioned I was looking for an equinox asking if they had any

new ones. He frowned and said, we would have one. We would have only used ones because we're a Ford dealership. So it was, I made a mistake. I mean, I'll tell you, and I can see where. I'm going to tell you, if anybody went to 300 dealerships a year. Yeah. Come on. Give her break. Well, I give her, I give Asian Lightning credit for that, but I also think of the confusion of names. I mean, I just, I'm telling you right now, if I were in charge of marketing at a manufacturer, I could come up with a far better way to name my cars. I mean, it's got to be embarrassing to Ford to have some, be confused with a Chevrolet. I mean, that's like, you know, that's the Atfield of the McCoys.

You should know a Chevrolet name. You should know a Toyota name. You should know a Honda name, but you don't. It's really, really confusing. Okay. Back to the report. I'm the shopper that just made the mistake. Embarrassed, I shook my head, apologize, and corrected myself saying,

I meant an explorer. He said, of course. If we have been to choose from, let's head inside. And if you just tuned in, we're shopping Sunrise Ford in Fort Pierce, Florida. As we walked in the door, they had a powder blue bronco with a big bow on the front that really caught my eye. The salesman excused himself, saying he'd be right back with me. So I decided to go over and check out to Bronco. When they returned, I said, I think I changed my mind.

I love this Bronco. Now, I'll pause here in reading the report. This is, it sounds funny, but it isn't because this is what people buy cars. It happens all the motion. And if you remember nothing else from listening to our show, remember this. Once you decide the ear-make model vehicle option, accessories that you want to buy, stick with it, chop and compare the price. Don't be swayed.

Now, okay, you say, well, I can't not be swayed. Okay, if you're swayed, then go home and start all over again. Do your homework and be sure you know the product, because if you walk into a cordulorship to buy an equinox and then you get switched to an explorer, and I realize they're new and used cars, You haven't had time to research the one you were switched to. You were switched to a product that the salesman is going to make a bigger commission on.

And that's why people get switched. They also are instructed by their managers to switch you because the advertising is for a different vehicle. And that's why we put our shiniest, coolest, most beautiful, awesome cars in the showroom and right up near the doors. So people walk by them and start to draw. Exactly. It's an emotional purchase. So you can't be emotional if you want to get the best price on the vehicle. So anyway, a salesperson came back.

I told him, I changed my mind. I love the Bronco. He replied to whatever you like, my dear. Word to the salesperson, if you're listening. You don't refer to a woman, a female shopper, or a real shopper. Unless you're over a hundred. My dear. I mean, it'd be like calling their sweetie pie.

You know, ma'am, Mrs. So-and-so, or her first name, but you don't talk down to women, especially Nancy, by the way. Unless you're born in the 1800s, and then you can get away with it. He suggested we go for a drive, and I'm sure I'd like to mention that gets 30 plus miles per gallon. I said, oh, really? I didn't think they did that great on mileage. He walked over to the window sticker, pointed to it, and said, the manufacturer says, 28 miles per gallon but a good driver can do even better so he's referring to the EPA testing

on the Monoroni label which tells us the monorny label was on the car where it should be and why do I say that? Because most of the times do not I mean especially in South Florida so at least that's a plus

that they kept their monoroni label onto with a sticker. He said he pulled the car out so we could go for a ride I asked if they had the same one in the lot to which he said they likely did just in a different color. We walked out to look as it turned out they had the same one. On the way he extended

his hand, said, I didn't catch your name, mine's Adam. He then headed the back inside for the keys. I looked at Bronco over while I waited. It was a 2023 Bronco, Sport, 4x4, MSRP, $36,130. There was no addendum. Another plus, Maroni on the window and no addendum to warn of any add-ons, so I relaxed a little bit. Adam came back and we went for a drive up and down to US1, and he pointed out many of the safety features like blindside detectors. I love that, by the way.

I mean, you're going to buy a car. You want to be sure to get those. They're almost standard, I think, on old new cars now. I asked if it had adaptive cruise control, and he said it did. I tried to find it, but I couldn't. When I asked again, he admitted he thought I meant regular cruise control. And so he gets an F for product knowledge and understanding. A lot of salespeople have that issue with product knowledge.

And that's another reason why you need your homework, because you get the real scoop if you do consumer reports and check out some other valid ways to study and do your homework on the car. you should buy. Salesperson, you know, you're going to get what he thinks, or maybe what he wants you to think. Back in the dealership, I said I'd love to see pricing on this vehicle. We headed over to his desk, and he entered my information of the computer.

He remarked, you've been here before. We shop a lot. Agent Lightning shops a lot, and she's on a lot of computers. So I replied, oh, really? I didn't think I'd been here. year before. I didn't think I was. Anyway, long story short, this is a chain dealer and agent lightning, and I'm speaking as if I were agent mining, I was in a Volkswagen dealership owned by the same person that owned this Ford dealership. But I've never been there before.

Adam clarified that they're all under one name and I shrug my shoulders saying I knew I wasn't crazy. The other interesting thing, I digress a little bit here too. is that I keep wondering why when she's in the computer so many places that they see that they don't know she's in a shopper. It's interesting that they just don't know. If you look at our CRM, our computer system for the customers, they have, we have people that have been in the store for years and never bought cars. They're people that they come in and then they buy a car after maybe three years of visiting. Each one's called an opportunity in this system and we have way more opportunities than we have actual sales.

So it's not that unusual. Well, that's great. So she wouldn't get caught for a long time. Right. I'm glad to hear that. He asked if I was going to be trading anything in. I replied, no. I needed a new vehicle so her daughter can have mine.

Adam inquired about my credit score. I responded, it's excellent, and we'll qualify for the best rates, I'm sure. I showed him the picture I took of the running label and asked him if that's what I'll get it for. This is funny. He promised to do his best. He then excused himself and returned a few minutes later with a sales worksheet. So I'm thinking about the fact that Agent Lightning thought it would really be good if she could, if she could buy this new vehicle for MSRP, which today is all, it used to be impossible. So let's see what happens. The top line was MSRP, 36,130.

There was a whopping $5,000 discount off of the MSRP, making the selling price, whatever the hell selling price means today, nothing is what it means. Selling price with $31,130. Then, here we go, they added $1,397 and added equipment indicated to be etch, glass etch, NSD, they called it, lowjack, and an appearance package. Next, came $1,992 in fees,

indicated with Astridh to be $39999, $399, electronic filing fee, a $999.99, documentary fee, $23 tag A fee, why bother? And then $111.30 a dock stamps. all that together the real selling price was $34,061

$1. Quite a convoluted way to get $2,069 off. They went down. They went down.

You got to ask yourself. I walked in there and said, I'd like to buy this. MSRP? Oh my God, even think of that. They gave her

it. So he's not only shame on Cundra. I hope your manager because you had an MSRP deal but you follow the rules so completely they end up giving her a $2,069

discount. That's a big mistake, Adam. I'd like to recommend people to go to visit Adam. That's crazy. I'm glad you got it. There ought to be an asterisk when we put the score here. Say your best chance is they have salespeople that are

not real bright. Or another, yeah, that didn't cat, yeah. I'm being facetious. Now, there is a $1,000 rebate from Ford, so you get, so dealership contribute $1,000 to it. So they are discounting their car, $1,000 at Bronco. So it's a new, it's a watershed moment. We're seeing below MSRP prices out there.

I think it's the first one. And this is on a Ford dealership. Yeah. Stand by. And also, there's something, like, they're not ordering these things. There was a powder blue one on the showroom floor and walked out there. There's another powder

one out there saying, so they got cars. I don't know of them. Yeah. Especially with powder blue. Anyway, back to the first person here. He said if I'm ready to buy he's sure a sales manager will give that to me. He asked if I was ready to talk finance now.

I said my husband was working but at Trees down we're going to dinner and then we'll talk about it. He excused himself again, returned a minute later suggesting, I take the car with me. Here we go. So my husband could check it out and I have some time to drive.

I politely declined, but he sure did try to pressure me into taking it. I mean, that's the age old, you know, the puppy dog, whatever you want to call, get the person to take the car home, get them to park it in their driveway, get them to show their friends, their husband, their relatives, their neighbors, puppy dog. God car. So never, never, never take a car home until you're sure is what you want to buy. And that was pretty much the, I declined, I left and that was the end of the shopping door. Very unusual. The first time I could ever remember, a salesperson passed on a lower price than they gave them after he went to the manager. I kind of did that once. And here's a story from a long time ago. It's probably around 2001. And I was working in our use car department.

I was running the used car department. Is that when we're still evil? We were transitioning. I wasn't evil. I was never evil. This is a story that shows why I'm not evil. She was a tough customer, and there was a trade-in involved. And it was, I still remember, it was a Chevy Avalanche.

And she came in saying, I'm not taking one penny less than $18,000. And she's like, I know how you guys operate. And by the way, when customers do that, it makes me feel bad. But anyway, so I went and I praised the car with Ted Pusher wholesaler and he thought it was worth about $20,000, $2,000 more. So I went ahead and I gave her, you know, at that, normal car dealer would say, you're going to be mad at me. Actually, you won't be mad. Normal car dealer would take that and then say, oh, here's your 18,000, but really bring it in higher. And I gave her, I gave her the 20.

I kept a little, I split the difference with her and gave her more than she asked for because I thought that would help establish my credibility and the dealership's credibility. So I thought if I came right back in with exactly what she wanted, she would think there would be more to be had. But there was more to be had, so I guess I'm just honest. I don't know.

Okay, it's voting time. So remember, we vote on the curve and if it's an average dealer, give them to see. I know average dealers are not what we want, but that's the way it is. So perfect dealers don't exist, so there's practically no A's. And you can text us at 772-4976530. Okay.

Okay. I don't have any grades coming in, but I'm feeling kind of... Oh, there, they're coming in here. I got Jonathan, I'm sorry, Bob gives them B-minus, not the smartest group of folks at Sunrise Ford, but it was below MSRP, Jonathan from Palm Coast, disrespecting customer by calling her sweetie, honey, or a baby.

Missing addendum stickers. Well, yeah, I guess that's a negative. If you have addendum items, but you don't have an addendum sticker, that's a negative. And copious amounts of junk fees and packages. And a hard aff from Jonathan. Frank says, an interesting shopping report, and he's feeling,

in the Christmas spirit, gives him a B. And Bob gives him a B-minus. And so I'm coming in a around a C. That's where I am. They got the addendum items, but they don't have the indemnum, so that knocks it down a little bit. I'm going to have a C minus. There, final grade for me. Right. Okay, then. I've got Negan 1 with an A. He likes them. Joseph Kelleher, a C plus. Johnny Z. Fradley, C. Nice discount, but bad fees. Tim Gilliland, my head spins with all the fees and extra unwanted equipment, C-minus.

Brian said Lacko, the out-the-door price was in line with the sticker. I'll give them a B. Tom Steckle, C-minus. Ask if he can match the out-the-door from Mullinax. Too many fees might be able to get them to reduce that price further. Mark Ryan, a C. Mark Anderson, grade C-minus. You, yo-yo-pricing.

but okay deal. T-cash, a B for beating around the bush to get to the same price. But Lightning never made it to the finance department where the real confusion begins. That is true.

Yeah, we don't know what was going to happen next. It's true. Susan Fogelman with a C and Rocky Blockatiel with a C-minus. Uh, myself, I think I'm going to go with the B

because I think the below MSRP for the out-the-door price, I think that deserves a B. Yeah, that's the bottom line, Nancy. I'm going to give them a D. A D? A D. D is in... D is, don't call me sweetie.

Yes. We have a C for sweetie that just popped in. You know, the thought just occurred to me that with the added fees, car dealers have a policy of not paying salespeople. on the fees. That's true. And so one of the reasons why the fees would be added, in any case, is because of that they don't want to overpay the salesperson.

I have to think about that a little bit longer to see what another effect that would have on the grade, but I think it was a new salesperson. Very, very, it's a good point that Adam and the salespeople might be getting ripped off too. No, they do. I mean, the junk fees... You had a junk fee, and you paid everybody on it, though. But I was the only way... You are unusual. I didn't know, but we don't know for sure.

The average dealer does not pay on the junk fee. And a matter of fact, a lot of dealers make their salespeople, maybe even some managers believe they are legitimate fees. So in this case here, I'm going to give them a C. I'm just going to call them average. However, it was a very unusual. report but I can't give them a real high grader for that nothing jumps out as like extreme so I think C's fair okay what was your vote I'm gonna get them to see we're

all over the place today that was good price I mean we can just because it was a good price I wouldn't say that is you know a high the dealers that hate us and don't like what we do on the show think we don't want car dealers to make money We are car dealers. We make money. We make good money. We're capitalists. We're a business to make a profit. There's nothing wrong with car dealers making money. So I'm not going to give a bad grade to somebody because I didn't like the price. I'm going to give a bad grade because you lied about the price and the customer came in under false pretenses. That's the reason you get a bad grade. Yeah. Well, I was straightforward and I told you guys I was going to give them a D. You know, but I have to say that, I could feel his energy, you know, from the dealership, and we're in North Palm Beach. And from the get-go, he had a bit of an error about him that you could definitely pick up. And all the fees, I'm not into fees.

So that's the reason I gave me a D. All right. Sunrise Ford. That's right. In the books. Yeah. Sunrise Ford. Roland Carr is another one in the books.

Okay. Jonathan, what kind of time to work? We have left two minutes. Oh, okay. Would you like to leave the folks with something profound? Well, the other thing I think we covered so much today, we did a 180 turn on electric vehicles and hybrids, and there's the new information that really surprised me

is with electric vehicle sales slowing down considerably, having too many cars in stock, also with electric vehicles depreciating greater than combustion engine vehicles on the used car lots has put a whole new swing wrinkle in what we recommend.

And a week ago, if you'd asked me, I wouldn't have said you should hesitate to buy an electric vehicle. Today, I'm saying I would hesitate to buy an electric vehicle. I would definitely buy a hybrid. And we've suggested this in the past, but right now, I

think that's the way to go. Agreed. Great information. Folks, we're out of time. We want to say, have a wonderful weekend. And most of all, thank you for joining us here at Erlon Cars. We'll be right back next week at 8 a.m. until 10, stay tuned for another fabulous show. Have a great weekend. Thank you.