Earl Stewart on Cars - 12.09.2023 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Bev Smith Kia of Ft. Pierce

Episode Date: December 9, 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 visits a local Kia dealer with a bad reputation to see if they have any of the hot 2024 Kia Telluride SUV's on their lot and how much over sticker they will want for it. 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. The Rick can't answer about the mechanics or electronics of your car. Also with us as my son, Stu Stewart, our LinkedIn CyberSiber. space through Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Periscope. Stu is also the Spymaster Director of our mystery shopping report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting South Florida dealership. And now, on with the show.

Good morning, everybody. Here we are again. I feel like I'm on a jet plane or a rocket ship. This whole auto industry, retail and wholesale, is on fire and on the way to Mars. I don't know. It's exciting, this show that started 20 years ago when it was night and day compared to the industry today. Of course, this is true for almost all industries, and I think the whole world is in the most rapid time of change ever in all of its history. So buckle your seatbelts, and I think we still use seatbelts, should, and give us a call.

What we try to do here is prepare you for the very unpleasant experience, unfortunately, in most cases, of buying or leasing a car or repairing or maintaining your car. I was reading in automotive news just today, actually, that the independent mechanics now have a greater share of the market than the franchise dealers. This has never happened before. if you've listened to the show for 20 years for 20 years we've told you if you can find a good independent mechanic you'll use them you'll probably have a better experience for most maintenance and repairs in your car sometimes you have to go to the dealer of course

but it was always the they were always like the third party you know you take it to an independent mechanic now they rule the roost percentage wise more and more people are finding it more convenient, less money. And we have a mechanic in the room here. I hate to call them. It's kind of like a dirty word now because he's truly a computer technician.

Mechadroid. His name is Rick Kearney. And I urge you to call the show if you have a question about the repair, maintenance of your car. You probably do. One of my main criticisms of the manufacturers and the dealers, of course, is because, because they don't make it clear to you when you buy your car how complicated it can be. Now, don't get me wrong, they run better today. They run easier today.

They're more fun to drive today than ever before, but they're also more complicated. So you might not have as many problems when you do, it's a doozy. And it's hard sometimes to correct, fine. You know how it is when you go to the doctor and something hurts. The doctor says, where is it here? It says, well, it doesn't hurt now. And then it's very difficult for the doctor to diagnose something that's not occurring at the time. Same thing with the car.

But you probably have an issue like that. If you do, his name is Rick Kern. He's sitting to my right. And you could call the show. And that number is 877-9-60-99-60. 877-9-60. You know what I'm talking about? You've got a squeak, rattle, a roll.

You've got an unusual smell. Maybe there's something dripping in your garage or underneath your car. You're not sure what it is. Or maybe you're driving on the road and you hear a noise. You're not sure where it's coming from. It's awfully hard when you're driving the car to figure out where that noise is coming from. So if you go into a franchise car dealer, or for that matter, to end up a mechanic, you're kind of their mercy.

They know the product and you don't. And it's like going to a doctor. Trust is the thing. When a doctor or a mechanic tells you what's wrong, diagnoses it and what's going to cost, where are you? You're not going to argue with it because you're not trained in that particular field. So you want some free advice from an extremely knowledgeable person. You could either call Rick at 877 960-9960 or maybe better yet.

He monitors our YouTube channel. That's Earl on Cars at, I'm sorry, YouTube.com or slash Earl on Cars. YouTube.com forward slash Earl on Cars on Cars. So the YouTube channel, you could actually post something, an audio clip or a video clip, and you can ask him a question. If he can't get to it right away, he will over the two hours of the show. We're on, of course, from 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time every Saturday until 10 a.m.

Eastern standard time. So you've got a long time to think about it and get some free diagnostic advice. Maybe a suggestion or an estimate of what the cost may be, what your actions should be, so on and so forth. So we get most of our calls

about buying cars and leasing cars. There's been a tremendous amount of activity lately by the Federal Trade Commission. Oh, by the way, I'm very excited that I got a call from the Federal Trade Commission. I missed the call, but attorneys from the Federal Trade Commission called me yesterday. That's great.

And they asked me if I'd be willing to talk to them about the problem they're having with card dealers. And, of course, I said, are you kidding? You got the right guy. I gave my cell phone number and I'm waiting for the call. So if you, you attorneys out there for the Federal Trade Commission want to hear the straight scoop from someone who's been there and done that. In fact, you're probably going to put me in the slammer 20 years ago if you had caught some of the stuff. I've changed a lot. And now I'm a consumer African.

So Federal Trade Commission heads up. Call the show. That'd be a killer, wouldn't it? To call the show, Federal Trade Commission, we could start name and names. I'm on too much of a role here because I love what I do and I talk too much. I know that. But I want to give out the numbers here, all of them. and then turn the mic over to Nancy Stewart by co-os.

I didn't give the text number out. The text number is 772-497-6530. We've got more channels to reach the show than you can shake a stick at. We have the text 772, 4976530. I've already mentioned YouTube.com forward slash Erlon Cars. And we have in a really interesting line that we love, our anonymous feedback line,

and that's your, while you are, anonymousfeedback.com. Your anonymousfeedback.com. And the cool thing about that is you're totally anonymous. We don't know who you are, where you call from, we can't track you down. You have total privacy, and so you can speak your mind. If you think we're nuts, tell us so. If you have some suggestions, you have some questions, things you'd rather not go public with, or either way,

Your Anonymous Feedback.com. So that's all the different ways. We're on Facebook. I almost forgot Facebook. Facebook.com for slash earl on cars. Stu monitors the text, which is 772-4976530.

And Rick Kearney, or auto expert on, from a technical standpoint, monitors, YouTube.com forward slash earlun cars. And Nancy Stewart, my co-host, co-founder of the show, by the way, 20 years ago, she's the phone expert. And we actually love the phones best because of the personality.

I mean, a personality comes through with the audio. And when you're live, personal talking back and forth, it's really cool. So we'd love to have you call us at 877-960-99-60 because we only have five incoming lines. we prioritize that 877-960-960 we also prioritize women because Nancy Stewart has been a female advocate on this show and built single-handedly I give her all the credit for building the number of female callers we've up up to parity we now have about 50-50 on male versus female callers and she has a special offer that will knock your socks off you're not going to believe it it's going to be too good to be be true, but a very special offer, and you have my solemn, sacred word, it is, it is not a bogus thing. The offer for ladies calling the show for the first time is something that will really get your attention. And I'm going to turn the mic over at Nancy, and she will explain that to you right now. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. Welcome to Erlon Cars. Here we are

again, and you're an important part of the show. We enjoy your company. You make the show. Give us a call tool free at 877960 and you can text us at 772-4976530 and don't forget to take advantage of your anonymous feedback.com you know earl opened with talking about mechanics grease monkeys computer scientists I wonder how many computer scientists could live up to that reputation and you know I have to share some facts with you And that is that the Automotive Service Excellence, as the ASE, this society was formed 53 years ago. And you know what sets these computer scientists apart from the Greece Monkey or the mechanic, as some call them, is the fact that they never stop attending school. They go for training.

And as I said, it sets them apart. So if you have any questions concerning your vehicle, Rick definitely is here, and he will help you with the answers. Also, we have a great mystery shopping report from Bev Smith Kia in Fort Pierce. You remember that we were at Fort Pierce Sunrise Ford in Fort Pierce. I'll mention, too, for the ladies, that, you know, I thank you so much for supporting, you know, and being there for all of us, especially me. And you've played an instrumental part in getting us where we are today for that. You could win yourself $50 today for the first two new lady callers.

That's $50. You can call, give us some advice, or you can share maybe your experience in purchasing, a vehicle, or maybe having your vehicle serviced. We're going to go straight to the phones, and we are going to talk to Kendall. Thank you for your patience from Boynton Beach. Good morning, Kendall. Good morning, everybody. How are you doing today?

Great. I have a question for Rick. I have a 2019 Subaru Forrester, 72,000 miles on it. I change oil every 6,000 with mobile one, but I have never changed my transmission fluid. It's running fine, and I believe or don't change something. It's not, you know, not working right. So what is your opinion on that? I would check your owner's manual, and if it does not recommend,

if the owner's manual says change the fluid at X interim. I would follow that. If it does not, if it says leave it be, I would leave it be. Subaru has made, they are the quiet heroes. You don't hear

about them anymore. They're the quiet un-sun car dealer and yet their quality is top-notch. And they are a fantastic car. I wouldn't mess with it. Okay. I'll take a

look at the manual, because I'm driving right now in my 2004 Subaru Outback, and I just, I love these cars. They're, they're great. My friend just got one. He got to use one down in Bower County. You know, he loves it. Yeah. Okay. Well, I thank you very much. I'm glad I got through a couple weeks ago. I tried to get through, but I'm on my way to work. And, uh, you got to start early, I think. Yeah, I did. All right, everyone. Have a wonderful weekend. We'll call us again, please. Yeah, Kendall, thanks for giving us a second chance.

As long as we still got you on the line, I just Google that. And for Forrest, their transmission fluid change, it says for older cars, about 30,000 miles, and for newer vehicles, about 100,000 miles. So that gives you a rule of thumb there. But as Rick says, check the hunters' mantle. But you're good to go. I like your attitude, Kendall. You said if it's not broken.

You know how the saying goes. Thanks for listening. All right, gang. Take care of yourselves. Happy holidays. You too. Bye-bye. Happy holidays.

7-7-877-960. 9960. And you can text us at 772-497-3530. We're going to go back to the recovering car dealer. Well, I'm going to just check with Rick and check with Stu and see if we have any text. I know we have some anonymous feedbacks. I've got a couple of interesting ones, so maybe Steele wants to start out with those.

Excuse me, Stu. We're going to go right back to the phones. We sure our intentions are to, you know, let you guys just hold. So please take that into consideration. We'll take your calls as soon as I'll take your call as soon as I can. 877-960. Welcome, John. Good morning.

Good morning, John. Oh, good morning. All right, great. Welcome. Thanks. Thanks. I want to start off with, in the past you talked about, which talked about the air conditioner in the car.

And like when you're driving and to keep it from getting that musty smell, you turn the car off. I mean, you turn the AC off before you get to your destination. nation and helps or you open up the outer vent. How does that work again? The best thing you can do is if you're starting to have that issue, when you're, say, about a half mile from home, you hit the button that says AC, but leave the blower fan running, so it's still blowing air across it, and then open up the recirculate so you're getting the outside fresh air coming in. that fresh air will be blown across the evaporator and hopefully knock a lot of the moisture off of it.

What if it's raining outside? Yeah, then you might want to consider leaving it recirculate, but what you're trying to do is get a little bit drier air across that evaporator to get rid of some of the excess moisture on it and let it blow off of there, and that way it will reduce the moisture that can, you know, cause mold and building to build up and leaving it open to fresh air

when you shut the car down will let air circulate and that way it's less likely to you know just sit and let the road tell John how you feel about dampred one of my favorite products is you always hear people all my cell phone

fell in the water and people are like put it in rice no rice is horrible you go to You go to Home Depot, Walgreens, any place, and get a simple thing of dampred. Put dampred in your car that you could buy it in a bag that you can put under the seat even. I learned something.

Oh, you can buy it in a bag, you put it in the seat? Right. I see, I put the little bucket thing because I was thinking. No, that's old question. I know, listen to this. I have to lift all the windows, sunroof on the car. It rained in there. And then I just saw Nancy's face, a vision of Nancy going dampred.

So I went to Walgreens and I got to think, but I got the bucket. And it was great, completely work, except for it fell over and spilled. I was just going to ask you what happened. Yes, Bill, and I got this. It still looks like it's wet in the back of my all-weather mats, but it smells really good. Yes. Yeah. It'll just suck the moisture out of the air.

And, of course, all that moisture that got down in the carpet and in the padding underneath, it will absorb every bit of that out of there. You got it out of my seats. John, the bottom line is that everybody's got a great solution for curing the musty smell in your car at air conditioner and if you want to really have fun google musty smell in my car ac and you'll see 8 million 200,000 there was a big it was a big issue now when did they start doing the um they made a change the air conditioning where it starts off blowing down um before it hits the face vent so it's blowing the stinky smell at your feet first is that the idea about

seven or eight years ago right yeah and john if you're sensitive to you know um Odors, you can get the damp red just straight up rather than the lavender that they, you know, they sell in the bags. Hope we help you. Well, the reason why I called was the, I was reading this week and found out that Tesla has gone ahead and made that whole situation easier for the owner. if you take and put your destination in on the computer no matter where you're driving the onboard computer and everything calculates that and automatically does all those steps for you for the evaporators in that but you have to have a set destination in of where you're going it goes ahead and it cleans it all out for you before you get there interesting we love our callers they're thinking ahead Computers can do anything. But my question is do regular, you know, regular ice cars that have destinations, do they do the same thing as well as far as, you know, you put your destination in? No.

I don't know of any cars that hooks the navigation to the, to the AC station to prevent that problem from happening. I bet you they probably could. I mean, the cars are probably the infrastructure is there, but only Tesla thought to do that. Okay. And then my last question is, last week I brought up the cyber truck calculator to find out where you're at in line. Did you guys ever find out where it was? Did you look? No, I keep looking every day. Their first deliveries were last week. I think they delivered, you know, a few. I am getting solicitations now because I have my cyber truck on order. They're going to give me $3,000 if I buy an X or Y. So they're using me to try to sell me some more Tesla's, but no word on my cyber truck.

I'll figure it out. I got you. I got you, John. I'm going to pull this up, and I'm going to get his order a number. See, mine, they're only giving me $1,000 if I buy a Y. So I'm wondering how far down the, you know, I wonder depending on where you're at in line. Give me your phone. I'm going to figure it.

You got to unlock it for me. So, yeah, I'm glad to see that you got one on order because if you've, I'm sure you've done the research. And even if you think it's ugly, a lot of people think it's ugly, if you've done your research, it's a quantum leap in technology over even the Tesla planet. They have really, really packed a lot of incredible new technology because they started, they kind of been working on it for a long time. because they were supposed to introduce it two years ago. So I think it's being in tweaked so much that it's going to be a really state-of-yard car when it finally comes out. And it's getting a lot of press, John. It's getting a whole lot of press, so that's a good sign.

And Elon Musk is delivering on his promise, that's for sure. And the science fiction-inspired cyber truck has come to life despite, you know, all the negative stuff. Well, on the website, you can order the truck, and I was at Tesla Service Center yesterday, and they're showing that it's like only, you know, there's a weight, but there's, but it's misleading. And there's things that when you put your truck and it says, like, two-year weight, but it's going to be longer than that. Because, like I said, I'm number two million, 850,000 in line. and they're showing me that I've got like a three-year weight. So I don't know how.

I probably do too. It's interesting, John. I'm not going to hold my breath. The facts will keep changing. I thank you for the call. We all do. We have a whole lot of calls holding. Have a great weekend.

Bye. Okay, we're going to go to Pompano Beach, I believe it is, and we're going to talk to Ellen. Good morning, Ellen. Hi. I've already called once before, and you were very helpful, and I bought my new car with Al Hendrickson. Anyway, what was said this morning, kind of I related to,

and I've always wondered, I had a 2008 Toyota-Cilera convertible with like 48,000 miles on it, and I loved that car, and all of a sudden it was like surging or slowing down, but it didn't happen all the time like you had talked about this morning. And so I brought it into a few mechanics, and they all said, well, when it happens, bring it back in. And, of course, it was very hard to do that. And then I finally went to a Toyota dealer figuring, well, they have to know. And I paid for the diagnostic and everything, and they wound up returning my money.

They said, we don't know what's wrong with it. Just keep driving it. And, you know, maybe whatever, it'll probably break down. And that's what happened. Luckily, it was where I lived, and it didn't turn over one day. but this had gone on for like four or five months. If I could go weeks where everything was good. Interesting.

Yeah, so, I mean, maybe this will help somebody else. It's also my choice. What could I have done differently? Thanks for calling back on that issue. Rick, what do you think? Also, I just want to add one thing. Also, when I finally, it did break down and I brought it in, it took, they wanted $7,000 to fix it,

which I thought, you know, I wasn't going to do that, and I bought a new car. Anyway, okay. What did they say was wrong with it? It was the big part of the money was computers. That was about maybe two-thirds of the $7,000. Okay. Then something with the fuel, maybe.

I forgot, you know, I'm sorry. It was just, I just thought it was just odd that, you know, that nobody could figure it out unless, you know, it was happening. Well, unfortunately, a lot of times when a car comes in and the problem isn't occurring, it can be something really hard to find because, I mean, as silly as it sounds, a simple wire rubbing against a bit of metal and wearing in, if it's not touching at that exact moment, there's no problem. And then when it just suddenly catches the right moment, you know, that the wire will rub against that spot again,

that's when the problem occurs. And sometimes it takes a while just to, to track down what's causing that problem. So, you know, the nice part is that nobody was willing to, shall we say, you know, rake you over the coals and take your money without, and say, oh, yeah, we solved something and never fix anything. I was afraid of that, so I appreciated the honesty, especially with the Toyota dealer. Yeah. Yeah.

And also the AC, if I put the AC, if I put the AC, on it totally shut down the car yeah because that makes sense because when you turn the AC on that compressor coming on puts a big drain on the engine so if it's fuel related yeah that

that could shut it down well so I guess there really was nothing more I could do then right like what they said it's unfortunately if it had been a reasonable amount I would have fixed it it just you know it just didn't seem you know worth it to put it in

in that age car. Yeah. I just feel bad every time I see a Salara, you know, convertible around. I said, well, they're still alive. And they're getting rare and rare. You know, that's a beautiful car, Ellen. It really is a beautiful car. One of my favorites, unfortunately, you know, they quit making them.

But I wish we could give you more answers. You know, I have a question for you. When you have taken your Salera into the dealership to be serviced, uh do you ask uh did you ask the uh mechanic uh whether he was a s e well um right i you know i always see the signs and everything oh great okay good that's a great sign yeah okay well keep stay in touch ellen and uh good luck and uh i i hope your search you know is successful well i have a new car now so that's good thanks to you know

thanks to you to helping me with the you know the course and everything that's the silver lining great Ellen have a great weekend and thank you for calling us back

okay thank you you're welcome 877 960 or you can text us at 772 4976530 and we're going to stay with the phones

and we are going to talk to Howard I believe he's up next Good morning, Howard. Good morning. Hope you all doing well. Happy holidays to you all. Happy holidays. Okay.

I just got an email about the Toyota prepaid maintenance. Earl, do you think it's worthwhile doing that prepaying for maintenance from Toyota? Any other, you know, car deal I wouldn't even bother with. But with Toyota, I know Toyota is on. honest? Yeah. I mean, I will consider it. Depends. The answer is easy for you to calculate. It depends on the dealer and what he charged for maintenance. So you simply look at your owner's manual, see what the maintenance required, ask the dealer, what do you charge for this? And then you look at the prepaid maintenance and see how much you pay for that. So it's a simple matter

of arithmetic. In five minutes, you can answer it for yourself. But some dealers charge more and some dealers charge less. And the only thing you should be paying for is the factory recommended maintenance. I would say, off the top of my head, it does not pay for the prepaid maintenance. The maintenance today, particularly on a new vehicle that when you buy the day is nominal.

I mean, yeah, you can almost... You also get usually, well, some manufacturers offer, like a B&W to it offers free maintenance for the first couple of years. Yeah, exactly. So we don't recommend extended warranties either, and we don't recommend prepaid maintenance except for special circumstances. And there are exceptions to the rules.

And where you're buying it from. But the rule of thumb is don't do it. Yeah, just the dealer sold prepaid maintenance is definitely not worth it because they find, first of all, people don't have their maintenance. So they prepay for the maintenance, and they don't even come and have it done. So the dealer pockets all that prepaid maintenance money. He gave them up front three, four years ago. That's where they make most of their money.

Okay. My next question is, when I drive the car, I leave the air on recirculation or pressure air. Depends how it smells outside. If you're driving by the dump, you want to put it on recirculate. if it's a nice day I'll put it on fresh really what's the reason

is just a personal preference is it just is it for that reason if there's a bad smell outside or smoke or something you can pretty much to seal yourself up a little bit

the fresh air is to help you get rid of that stuffy air inside clean things up a bit yeah you can do that with the windows too the air condition works better when it's on research it's correct yeah it gets colder

faster and stays colder and it uses less the air conditioner just work less to do that when you're when it's on a plus if it's raining outside fresh air will let you'll get less condensation on the inside of your windshield what's your next question Howard and we have and then we're going to have to go

okay last one manuals a lot of people don't realize that their car is automatic and manuals and people just don't realize that Now, a question for Rick, when would you use the manual mode on a car that has both modes? If you were in the mountains, you're coming down the side of the mountain, shift into a lower gear so that you use engine braking to slow the car, and you're not using up your brakes. If you're in a hybrid, that's going to do it for you. You're probably in a mountain, right? Or no, there's the B.

You have B mode, which is engine braking. That's right. Here's what Google. Here's what Google has to say, Howard. it's best to use the recirculation mode during the warmer months while you're using air conditioning because your vehicle won't have to cool down.

You're going to train people not to call the show anymore. Well, I've got to train myself. Let me see goodbye because I know you guys are fast up. Bye. Thank you, Howard. Hi, Howard. We tapped into warranties on this call and I have to mention

this past Monday, Earl's column was just that. All about warranty. And I'll tell you what, it's definitely worth going to Earl on Cars and reading all about warranty. Extended warranties, actually, regular warranties. Are good. Identify extended car warranties, cams is the title of it. So go to Erlon Cars, and you can read all about it, or you can go to, if you picked up the hometown news, you'll notice that that column is there. and also in the Florida weekly. We're going to go to

I believe who's, I think Warren's up next. Good morning, Warren. Warren's calling us from Jersey. Hey, guys. How are you? Hey, in a long time. Anyway, I just wanted to, you know,

happy holidays and all of that. And this was to tell you, I bought a new car, actually, at least a new car on Black Friday, but I used a lot of what information that you give on the show and dealing with getting the car. Plus the fact I went with somebody who knew the owner of the dealership.

That helps. And always thing, and that helps. And, you know, and I think the most important thing is always to go with somebody. When you go with somebody, you don't have to take in every bit of information. The person with you always can help you. And I think that's so important if you're going to spend $40,000 for a car. And you have the person next to you getting some of the information. And, you know, and I know you've gone over this a million times about leasing and buying.

I leased the car. I had $10,000 put away to say if I wanted to put down on it. But when they went over the numbers in my lease me, if I put the $10,000 down, I wouldn't even gotten close to the monthly payment I was paying on the lease, plus the fact that I was getting 5% in the fund, but I said I'll have $12,000 in three years instead of $10,000. I know that works for me. I know leasing doesn't work for everybody. But I just thought I'd tell you that, and I thought that was an interesting point why I leased the car.

Well, that's very interesting. And you did your homework and you did the calculation. I've never understood why people put huge down payments down on cars unless they have to. If they have a good investment advisor or they're good investors themselves, you can always get a better investment, a better return than what you're going to get by putting into a car, which is a depreciating asset. nothing depreciates much faster than the average car. So take, keep your money, and if you can get a good interest rate, which is tough today, go ahead and invest that money. Well, let me give a shout out to that.

You know, the person knew the sales manager and the owner, and haven't given me my daughter's father and more, and he knows them very well. So anyway, I saw the car with a Chevy Equino, Chevrolet and Cherry Hill, New Jersey. I don't know if that's the exact time. I live in northern New Jersey, which is my... many miles away. Anyway, he said to me, I'm going to give you the figures for a buy and a lease. And he said, these are the figures. He says, you know, I'm giving you the best possible deal and really, there's nothing to negotiate because I know Eric was, you know, my daughter's father won.

He said, we're going to do it this way. So he gave me all the figures. And he said, I'm giving you the car at cost. And he said, I'm not altruistic. He was right up front. He says, I'm going to make money because I'm going to meet my quota. I'm going to make money on the interest rate and I'm going to make money on the gap insurance. So he says, this is how I'm making my money on the car, but I can give it to you a cost. And he said, he offers to show me, but I said, fine, I believe. He worked out the numbers. But I just want to let people know that, you know, your help too. And over the years, leasing and buying cars really helped me and taking somebody with me also really helped. Warren, you hit on a lot of great points. Major is what you said,

take someone with you. We really appreciate your call. You have educated our listeners, everyone on Facebook and YouTube. Thank you for that. Have a wonderful weekend. You too, guys. Have a good weekend. Okay. We are going to go to

Jersey Mike. Good morning. Good morning, Mike. Yeah, this is Jersey Mike calling. How you doing? I'm doing real well. I want to say something about Big Dog Ranch. I went out there and I had adopted a dog. I didn't use your incentive. Because I'm a veteran, a Vietnam era, I got 50% off. And I don't know if people know that. If they're veterans, then you go out there, they do a wonderful

job. I donated $1,000 to Evan Nader out there who runs the VA Center. There's a small building there. Thank you very much for them. Thank you. And I'll say, they do a great thing out there. They really do it. I adopted this dog for my roommate. But let's get the cars, okay? I got a car. I think you remember me talking about this, Earl. From you, it was a 2018 Kia. And I'll tell you why, I never had a problem with that car. I put it 32,000 miles on it.

If you remember that. I mean, he gave me the car fax. I mean, it was straightforward. Everything worked out perfect. That's great. I bought a 2016 Cadillac AST from Napleton. And then... Boy, you're a brave guy.

No, well, I didn't know. I didn't know. And the stupid thing, and I want to advise your listeners to do this. Make sure if you're going to get a car off of a dealer that you take it to your own ASE mechanic, whoever that might be and have them go through thoroughly before you buy it. Because if you don't do that, you make it a big, big mistake. Like, it costs me a lot of money getting that car out of Ableton. First of all, what would happen is the heating systems wouldn't work.

And then the, it was just overheat. It was like weird. And then I'd get hot and air out of one blower and cold air out of the other one. When it got warmer in the, you know, spring and summer, I've had this thing for two years. I still have it, unfortunately, but I'm going to unload it. However, I had to replace the whole cooling system in the car. That's how bad it was.

But you know what I don't understand? And maybe you can tell me about this. Why is it that what looks like leather is not, and it just cracks and falls off on the seats? What is that? Well, you know, a simulated leather can be a good product or a lousy product. It sounds like you've got a lousy one. The newer cars with the simulated leather, the leather in a lot of ways is superior leather. Stop and think about it.

Leather is just the hide off of a cow. And when you take the hide off of a cow and you put it on. on a car, it's in an unnatural environment, but they have a softer, even smells the same, feels same, maybe better, and it actually is superior. You know, it used to be the day that genuine leather was something to really, really seek. I personally would always choose a good simulated leather or real leather. Well, all my past Cadillacs had real leather, okay? So, you know, I had never had a problem with that.

I went through a whole lot of those Cadillacs since 75 because I'd put about 70,000 miles every year on it. And about three years later, I'd have to go get another one, okay? But today, this one that I have here, there's nothing left of the seating area in the back of the car. It just fell off, and I tried to glue back on with crazy glue. Yeah, it would stay, but then it would stay. Then that would even crack and fall off. It's like crazy. Can you give me an explanation of why that might be?

Well, you had the Napleton experience completely, it sounds like. Oh, my goodness. You paid for it. You know, Jersey, Mike, I mean, interrupt you for a second and ask you, you know, I thought it was telling when you mentioned one word, you wondered. And everyone sitting here will agree, and everyone that's listening is wondering, Why is Napleton still in business?

I really hope you went in with your bulletproof fest, and I'm sorry for your experience and all the problems. Yeah, I'll tell you, it's a bad, bad. I mean, and you know, you have this, your person who goes out and checks out dealers, well, I went ahead and went up north because you suggested, don't buy a car in South Florida. Well, I'm going up there, and I'm buying an escalate up there. and it's up near New Smyrna.

And at least, I was even thinking about going to Georgia, because Georgia's got a better sale. We have a whole list. Don't rule out Canada. When you get to the North Pole, Santa Claus gives you a car. Jersey, Mike, you do that mystery shop for us and get back with us. We really appreciate your call. Have a wonderful weekend.

Yeah, you too. We have a great holiday. Thank you. Thank you. 7-960-99-60 and you can text us at 772-49-7-6-5-30 and remember

Jersey Mike mentioned Big Dog Ranch. Today we have no video and they're very busy out there. They have a huge event and I do have to mention at this time of the year you know what a great time to adopt a dog and you can go to Big Dog Ranch

that's WWWBDRRR org. You can go there and you can look at all the dogs. And it might, you know, encourage you to go out there because it is an event out there. And it's a very interesting how they take, you know, care of their dogs. And I can't say enough. So, www. BDRR.org. We are going to go to Lance, who's been holding our regular caller from Tennessee. Good morning, Lance Good morning, Al Hey Lance Got a song for me You know That fella called in about

Seating, you know, we've got a new innovation about seating materials up here What's that? We've done away with leather and fake leather And we're strictly sitting on a squirrel pelt How many squirrels does it take to do like a SUV? It's a tongue squirrel, but just think of what good evening you have after they get the shelter.

Hey, Lance, Lance, I heard there was a company up near you that was doing genuine porcupine quill seat covers. Can you get me a line on a set of those? I can feel what you're saying now. I feel your pain. You got the point of that one, huh? Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Well, good.

Well, Earl, I couldn't let the day pass with that a little quick, too. All right. Well, it's almost Christmas days. Earl Nancy, Rick, and Sue have got a whole lot to say. I just remember wherever you go, make sure you do not miss the Earl Stewart on call. radio show I like that We need to get a snippet

of that and we can use it and just put it in for the commercial You should just go around Christmas caroling and knocking your neighbor's doors and sing that. I'd love to have those audio clips. Lance is always a pleasure talking to you. Have a good week. Thank you, Lance.

Have a great weekend. 877-960-9960 or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-3-0s. I really hope that we get some response on Your Anonymous Feedback.com. We're going to stay with the phones, and we are going to go to Jeline, and she's calling us from Fort Lauderdale. Good morning.

Good morning. I'm not sure. I'm having some problems with my Nissan Ultima 2015. I just discovered that I need a new transmission. Yeah, I headed into the... auto repair yesterday and he said you know you can keep driving it

he goes you can probably drive it for a long time so I'm just wondering if that is the case it's sort of chugging chugging but when I'm on the highway it doesn't have that problem describe the symptoms to Rick Kearney here and he can probably give you something specific

okay chug-a-ch-ch-a-ch-well there's been times where I had I started out and then I took my foot off the gas and it would go to like 30 miles an hour without even having my foot on the gas

and then now it's like chugging, chugging sort of not not you know like it's like it's like it's going to stall like it's going to stall yeah

yeah yeah their CVTs have had some issues in the past what's for CVT? A CVT is a continuously variable transmission versus the old school transmissions at first, second, third, fourth gears. Now they're using a lot of what's called these CVT continuously variable transmission.

And unfortunately, Nissan really put a lot of effort into them in the early teams, and they did get a few of them had some problems. So, yeah, I, for the cost of the car, for a 15 Nissan, I would almost consider it worthwhile to put a remanufactured transmission in it because it would be less expensive than trying to get into a brand new car right now. Well, didn't she say, didn't the technician say you could continue to drive it? I can continue to drive it like that, but, you know, I drive up to West Palm on the weekends, you know, usually I'd like to. I, you know, I don't really, you know, I would just be concerned about that because, I mean, if it were to break down and quit on you, it's going to leave you stuck by the side of the road. And, you know, let's be honest, it's not going to do that on a, you know, a bright, sunny, comfortable day.

Yeah, it's going to do what's possible. Well, here's what I would recommend. Take it to another dealer and get a second or a third opinion. Because I would hate to see you put a used transmission in the car. If a technician told you you could continue to drive it, if he's wrong, then you definitely should look at a rebuilt or used transmission. But let's give a second or third opinion. There may be something that could be tweaked in six, not too expensively.

Yeah, that would be my recommendation to what Earl just said. And what year is your car? It's 2015. I mean, and, you know, I'm just that in the, I'm not able to buy a brand new car right now. So, but a transmission I've heard costs like $6,000. I'm not sure what a rebuilt one would be. Yeah, and, you know, also let me say this, that the CVT transmission, you know, they're supposed to last, you know, quite a while, at least more than five years.

so and that was a good choice on your part but I can't I just can't say it enough that you need to go and get three different opinions and prices. This guy is pretty honest I was heard by my neighbor he's known for like 30 some years they've been there and

oh fabulous yeah yeah I feel pretty confident at the end I in explaining to other people yeah that sounded like the transmission there was another guy that drove it. Here's something I just Googled. Nissan extended the warranty on the CVT transmission

to seven years, right, 84,000 miles. So you're really not too far out of warranty on the extended warranty. I think it would also be worth a phone call to Nissan. And if you give a Nissan dealer that'll go to bat for you, there's a remote chance you might get some goodwill or some assistance on that transmission.

It's an acknowledged issue. Nissan has confessed they build a bad transmission, and they've extended the warranty. So go to another dealer and then contact the manufacturer and see if they will give you some help if you have to do something. It's got 119,000 miles on it. Does that make a difference? You're over the extension. But the fact that they extended it to the seven years and 84,000 miles, we've had situations with Toyota. a toilet dealer where Toyota will stretch once they say yeah we messed up well it's a bad design

we made a mistake they always put a limit on it but they will move past the limit uh if you if you contact them directly if you're a good customer if they know that you're maintaining your car it's worth a try okay all right i'll try it thanks for calling us stay in touch show let us know how it turned out um all right this is amazing isn't it you heard this information from Earl Stewart, and boy, does he have a lot to say, and most of it is priceless. Our number is 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6-9-0. 497-6530. Now I'm going to switch it over to Stu and Rick, and I'm going to take a break.

This is important. And Anne-Marie prompted it. I don't think I don't not going to have the time to read the whole text. I'm just going to say she has reported on the Federal Trade Commission's rulemaking on the rule on unfair and deceptive practices on the junk fees and all the stuff we've been talking about. There are still public comments until January 8th, 2024 for these rulemaking. The FTC is publishing and I don't know if Amory caught this, but they are publishing updates on the comments and we're, it's going with the rulemaking so um right now as of december 9th 2023 there are 1,500 comments about 1500 comments um so there's there as so this report is as as of november 9th and as of

november 9th i'm scrolling through this thing and they get down to transportation fees they you know they cover live ticket events airline fees rose restaurant fees now when they get to transportation fees um this is very disheartened It says industry comments related to auto sales, including ancillary goods and services. Don't be Googling, Dad, you've got to listen to this. Ancillary good services did not support a rulemaking. Repe the comments did not support a rulemaking. These comments stated that the definition of junk fees is too vague and question whether fees that are not mandatory because they relate to voluntary ancillary products offered as a part of the auto sales transactions would be covered by the definition.

of junk fees. The comment stated fees for ancillary goods and services provide value to consumers. So what this means is their car dealers and lobbies are having a campaign to leave comments. What I'm saying is we have one month to have 1,500 comments to overwhelm the car dealer fees and say, no, these are not vague. It's very clear. I got ripped off. These are terrible. These need to be included in the rulemaking because right now it's not going that way. And I had a feeling. You know, I have to check, we have to check the Florida Automobile Dealers Association. Stu, would you do that? We're, we're, I don't mean right now, I'm saying, I think you hit it on the head.

I think that the dealers are, are covertly lobbying the Federal Trade Commission by asking their dealers. I think that they, that the dealer associations are asking their dealers to write letters. They do this all the time to congressmen and senators and people in power to write letters. And that's what they're doing in the Federal Trade Commission. You all need to do it. It says right here, the commenters, in other words, card dealers state that total cost often varies in negotiated sales transactions. And there's no clear reason why the disclosure of fees later in purchasing transactions should be deemed categorically deceptive. That did not come from a car.

this car consumer. Another one, they said, they said, they said, the problem is they overlap with state already existing regulations, and therefore it's going to be confusing on it. And so they're winning right now, folks. You've got to make comments. If you're listening, I mentioned this when we started the show. I'm reading from my smartphone mail. This is an email from Federal Trade Commission to me, personally. The subject gives conversation about auto-purchase financing issues. Hello, Mr. Stewart, and Mr. Stewart, said to my son, Josh, and to me.

My name is Lisa Rothfarb, my colleague Sally 2, T-I-E-U, and I are attorneys at the Federal Trade Commission, and we work on auto-financing issues. Would you be willing and have time to speak with us about your experience in the industry? sincerely Lisa and where I answered her back and said that I would be delighted and gave her my personal cell phone number this was just Friday

so afternoon that I responded so I expect to call we will probably speak on Monday I think they probably are reacting to some extent on the comments because Stu hit it on the head that these comments that are in Ann Marie hit it on the head

that these comments are not legitimate so the federal Commission. That's very encouraging to think they would call someone like me directly because they know I'm going to tell them the truth as I see it. I might not be right, but they know I'm telling the truth. Anyone who listens to this show knows we speak the truth, even if it's going to get us in trouble sometimes, but we haven't been sued yet. Knock on wood. Here's how you get there, folks, please. You basically go to www.orgulations.gov, and then there's a box showing federal trade commission

trade regulation rule on unfair or deceptive fees. And then it's going to bring up the rule and there's a place where you can comment. So comment on there and tell the truth about the fees. That it is deceptive. It does cause people to spend money that they didn't

anticipate to spend. It's a bait and switch. It's all of that. Come down on them hard. That's true. What is the website that they can go to again? Yes, please go to www. That's www.regulations.gov. That's

www.orghum. Dotgov. That's great. Let's put that up on Earl and Carr's website, too. We'll put it up there in the very top. As soon as you get there, it'll be on the top of the page. Yeah. Actually, I'll have a link directly to the rule. That way you can click on it because that way you don't have to click around and find

things. Just go directly to it. Read it and find the comic section. Yeah, absolutely. Before Stu continues, I want to remind the ladies, We've had female callers this morning, but I'm looking for some new callers, female callers. So give us a call. You can win yourself $50 this morning for your part.

Excuse me. So first two new lady callers, $50. Now back to Stu. Okay, so thank you, Mary. And I will get back to reading your full text later. I'm sorry for hijacking that and taking over, but it was amazing. We have a texture from Ohio, and he sent us a picture, and this is I thought it was interesting. Jonathan has a picture of the addendum.

We were saying how the farther north you go, the more likely you're going to get a better deal or not run these tactics. But in Brunswick, Ohio, which I think is in the Akron area, and I recognized it because it's from a 3-3 area because another friend lives in Akron. Ohio they have a $2,197 addendum on it and if you read the it's for at a Ford dealership up there has Ford bed liner on it wheel liner surface care and then an OEM windshield for $699 that you get there's a little explanation he did text the dealership and asked him about that and they said to answer your question about the add-ons we offer windshield care for 699 which is coverage for your windshield in the instance it's damaged due the chips or cracks

you will receive a brand new OEM windshield and recalibrations to cameras and sensors. And so at least they gave them the breakdown. But that was from Brunswick, Ohio. Of course, chips and cracks are covered with your insurance. Comprehensive insurance, so it's a total waste of money. Unless he's on to something with the OEM stuff and maybe the, who does those, the mobile windshield repairs, if they're doing aftermarket, which is safe light. Okay. Okay. Over to anonymous feedback. Wow, it's like the stars are aligning. Here's a question about OEM parts. Why would our leaders allow OEM parts that are not up to USA standards? Seems to me that many politicians are allowing USA companies to be fraudulent. Well, they are, and they allow a lot of things that are wrong, even illegal, because of lobbying. I mean, let's face it, we live in the greatest country in the world. We have a democracy, and we have politicians that,

know how to manipulate and get reelected. But it works. We're not perfect, but we're much better than anyone else. But, yeah, how do you get elected? You tell the potential voters what they want to hear. And how do you tell them? You have to have money. You have to be financed.

Where do you get the money? You get the money from the manufacturers, the retailers, the people that make the money have the money. they give it to the politicians and then the politicians will tell the voting people what they want to hear. So that's the United States of America.

And that's why you can get away with, that's why the Federal Trade Commission is having a problem in forcing the laws we already have on the books. Okay. Another

anonymous feedback says Carfax had an accident on my car. I gave them all the evidence that my car was never in an accident and they refused to take it off. They were a scam. I, you know, well, not knowing the details, I know Carfax will rectify a report. Yeah. But they also have to be very careful about rectifying reports because they need to be sure you're not an unscrupulous, used car dealer that's trying to get a clean Carfax so we can sell a car that has been wrecked as not being wrecked. So I would suggest you re-contact Carfax and ask what you need to authenticate your complaint.

Yeah, I would want to know why does Carfax think you ever accident? Was there a police report? Yeah. What was the agency contact the police department? But I would do it in writing because Carfax is obligated. They're a good company. They provide a great service. Yeah, not a scam.

They have to be careful what they listen to when you call them on the phone. Not a scam. Okay. Hey, more anonymous feedback. Australia is concerned that multi-level parking garages will not be able to handle the increased weight of electric cars. Yeah. Since construction has been a favorite way, we have a parking garage. Yeah, no, that's exactly.

You know, electric vehicle weighs about a third more than a combustion engine vehicle. Oh, yeah. It will be fine. Yeah. We'll be fine. Okay. It will not be able to handle electric cars since construction has been a favorite business of people, you don't want to meet in a dark alley.

Who knows if the parking garages were built to code? Well, I can tell you ours was. Well, I was involved in that. I could tell you, I could tell you that that is an amazing observation. It really has to be looked at by everybody. And who doesn't have a multi-level garage now? And they're all over the world. And the fact that the electric vehicles,

you're going to be looking at the tumbling down. of garages. That's very scary. Very much so. That's a lot of concrete. We're going to go back to the phones, and we're going to talk to John, and he's a regular caller. He calls us from Palm City.

Welcome, John. Good morning to everyone. I have a question. We asked on this show about the replacement for the auto websites. Bring a trailer is one of them that I looked up. Bring a trailer is 800 cars for sale. They charge a 5% commission or a minimum of $250 and a maximum of $5,000 on the high-end cars. It's 800 cars, which is a tremendous amount.

Does Earl have any comment about them? I'm also dry trying that you make the terms. It sounds like nonsense, and it says it doesn't hurt your credit scores. Carvana lately has been advertised like crazy. sell your car to Kavana that make it look like a stock market oh the price is this bingo I'll make a hit on that and I'll sell it I mean some of it actually

with advertising could drive you crazy but I just want to ask Earl what his opinion is on this bring the trailer is that a tremendous website yeah I'm not familiar with which one which one is it now bring a trailer is called

800 cars for sale it's on the internet and it's 5% commission or a $250 minimum and a $5,000 maximum. I'll check it out. I really appreciate that. As far as drive time, it's funny you should mention that because I was discussing that at my last management meeting

and the information that we have from our people that deal with the used car part of the business. They're kind of a struggling company. they are they don't buy cars at good prices and my guess is that because you're right about the commercial I saw the same commercial you did it says buy a car online all you have to do is is agree to a price the price that you agree to online is a price you pay when you go to the dealership we had intended to shop them john and we will shop them. I asked my wholesale use car manager, his name is Ted Kibush. I said, shop them for me and see what happens. So you're right on.

It's just a totally misleading, and I add, a lie. I can almost promise you without the mystery shop that they are not going to agree to a deal online and then have them give you that out-the-door price when you go to pick it up. They're going to hit you with the dealer-install access. are going to hit you with the junk fees and the addendums and all the other garbage. But it was such an audacious, bold ad, and it got my attention because I said, boy, you know, I even thought it's a good advertisement because that's the way we deal. The price that we advertise is the price you pay and see how the door price.

And it was such a good ad. I suggested to my managers of the meeting, maybe we should copy the ad and come up with something that gets people's attention, got my attention. So we'll have a mystery shop on drive time and we'll report back next week. Okay, well, thanks for that information. One first thing I won't hold you, as far as

dealer shopping, I would love to see because it's not that far away. Sebring, Florida, all the dealers up there, they were all that one family owns every one of the car dealership. So I think in the future, we consider to go into Sebring, which is like

the center part of Florida, and do dealers shop. What's that dealer's name, John? I don't know the name, but it's all owned by one at this town of Sieber. The reason I asked is that I've met the guy, and it's very unusual. He has all the dealerships in Sebron. He was the Florida Time Magazine dealer of the year about Florida Automobile Dealers Association and voted him as the dealer of the ear. And you're right. When one guy owns all the stores in one market,

you better be careful. So we'll check that out. We may have to do a mystery shop over there. Thank you. He must be doing something right to own all of them. Exactly, John. And the person you're talking about it, I believe, is Alan J. That's it.

And my sister lives over there in Sebring, and she talks about him a lot. You know, you can find all these dealers it's almost like as if you've gone to Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard where you see them all lined up and all owned by Alan Jay

okay we'll do it in the future yes absolutely thank you guys John thanks for being part of the show and always filling us with new information 877 960 9960 ladies you still have time to give us a call first two new lady callers

you win yourself $877, 960, 9960. Don't forget to text us at 772-4976530. Now back to, I believe, Stu. I think we could jump over to Rick and YouTube. I've got a couple of interesting ones here. The first one here from, and these are actually both going to come from Donovan. First one is Florida lawmakers are at it again.

They want to add a $200 registration fee for electric vehicles, $50 for hybrids, and $25 for electric motorcycles. These fees would go up in 2029 by $50 each. It's not that EV owners are against the fee for infrastructure. It's the amount of the fee that is almost double what an average person would pay in state gasoline tax. Plus, EV owners are already paying taxes on the electricity that they use at home and their public chargers. So, therefore, this becomes double taxation. The bill sponsor is Bill's sponsor Ed Hooper of Clearwater, and he needs to be made aware of this that it's not such a good idea. Well, I agree.

And, of course, all taxes, you know, it's, we could do a show on that. But I agree with you. People don't study the issue. They get emotional. Electric vehicles are a, it's like being a Republican or a Democrat. Either you hate electric vehicles or you love electric vehicles. And then you get irrational to make your point on both sides of the issue. So the people that hate electric vehicles think we should tax them to death.

And the people that love electric vehicles don't think you should. And there's no logic on either argument, to be honest with you. I have an opinion on taxes. If our politicians didn't spend money recklessly the way they did, I wouldn't have a problem with taxes. But every time I see tax and a decreased tax, I think about where they're spending the money and how they're spending the money and why they're spending the money.

Why are they doing the tax? It's not just the money, but there's other reasons there. Yeah. Okay. He goes on to say here, a properly designed EV weighs about the same as a comparable ice vehicle. Tesla Model 3 and Tesla Model Y, for example, weigh the same or less than a BMW 3 series or X3. Most EVs today are ice platforms that they shoved a giant battery in, which is not a great way to design it. It causes it to weigh a lot more, which I can understand.

understand that. If you simply swap out a normal internal combustion drive line for the electric battery, yeah, you're not designing it in a manner efficient for the vehicle. He says a Hyundai Iionique 5, which is a decided, dedicated EV platform, weighs 3,968 pounds, whereas the Mustang Mach E, which is a modified internal combustion platform, weighs over 500 pounds more. You can cite specific cars and models, but the fact the matter is there was a survey and a study done,

and the average electric vehicle weighs one third more than the average combustion engine car. So the point was made about parking garages, but I'm sure there are a lot of electric vehicle models that weigh less than another model. It's a combustion engine car. but when the time comes, we're all EV in 30 years or 20 years or whatever it may be, we're going to have some problems with our garages.

How much do you, that Sequoia I'm driving, do you think it weighs as much as Earl's Tesla? Probably more. I would say your Sequoia is a lot more. It's big. The Sequoia is a heavy-duty vehicle. Yeah, it's a heavy vehicle. There's a lot of stuff here. Yeah, absolutely.

And one other quick one here is. This is for Deborah Cook. A question here, she says, Rick, what would cause one of my key fobs to not set my comfort settings? It still opens the door, but it won't adjust my preset comfort settings. And this is on a 2020 Accura MDX. Deborah, the key fobs may actually be connected to your comfort settings by basically being named. So in the customizable features, you may need to go to the dealer to have them check this, but one key fob, say, is going to be fob number one.

And when you connect those comfort settings to fob number one, if you use number two, it doesn't know that you're asking, it thinks that that's a second driver. So you would need to set those comfort settings and basically pair them to the other key fob, just like if you're using your smartphone and it would recognize that your phone you want these settings versus say your husband's phone would want to have a different set of settings. So if you want them all set together, you'd need to check with the dealership and they should

be able to adjust that for you. I mean, these cars are getting so sophisticated now that they know who's going to drive it before you even get to the car. What's the point? Technology, when you buy something. today. The technology is so advanced that there are fewer people that can tell you how to get it fixed. And I was talking before the show started, I've got one of these new sunglasses made a joint venture by Rayban and Facebook, and I think, yeah, so it's called their metaglasses.

And it's a technological marvel, it'll text, it'll video, it'll, it'll, it'll, it'll, it'll take pictures. I could put my glasses. In fact, I got them right here. So if I put my glasses on right here, these are my meadow glasses. You should put them on. They look good. And there are problems with them.

And the technology is incredible. And there's no one out there that can answer me questions. So it applies to all the new cars today. It's just, it's hopefully guys like Rick can stay up with the technology.

I don't envy anybody that's charged with being responsible for fixing a car today. The engineers and the scientists building these cars are going crazy. And here I'll give you an example with my Tesla. They can't even fix my windshield washer in my Tesla. God knows how they got that thing configured. and they're with some sort of a computer software issue, but my windshield washer, not my wiper, my windshield washers, they had a technician come out and theoretically they replaced the motor,

the whole motor, and the thing is still not working. So now they want me to take it in, and I don't want to take it, and I just Nancy Hoses the windshield down for me. Yeah, it's been a full-time job. And you're talking about replacement, so on, and so forth. And I believe that I'm going to have to have my arm replaced. So we'll have to find someone else to do that.

But the car's in pretty good condition. Yeah. You know, it's in great condition. We're going to go back to the phones. If you didn't jot that number down, 877, 960, 9960, and ladies, you still have time to give us a call, $50 for the first two new lady callers. And remember, jot down the text number because you're going to need it later when we do the mystery shopping report and we went back to Fort Pierce and you want

to stay tuned for that. That's for sure. The number 772-497-6530. We're going to go to Bob who is calling us from Lake Worth, I believe. Good morning, Bob. Hey, good morning. I kind of have a general question.

That was this summer when I was back up north. I went to a car show saw a car that I liked and went online was tracking to see where I could find when it was on the passport and they're kind of hard to find

so I talked, had searched found one, I liked the price the mileage, the color, everything called the dealer to make an appointment with the sales person and have a good credit score of 820

what would you say the time to complete the deal would be on that? What was the last part of the question? What would be the time that it should take from the time I walked in the door with the appointment until the time I walked out with a car? Well, I wasn't attempted to negotiate price or anything like that. Yeah, the dealers are famous for keeping you around forever. There's an old sales philosophy that the longer you work the customer, the more his resistance drops and the more likely you are to sell him the car and make a lot of money.

So the old style car dealing was to keep them in there, keep them, wear them down, and finally out of desperation, they sign here and go home and don't realize what a mistake they made until the following day. But I don't know. How long do they keep you in there? about five and a half hours oh man it says to me

you must have a lot of stamina wow I traveled out of town to get there so it wasn't like I could go home and come back to the next day well they

they probably didn't have that many customers and you were the one that they were going to work and they probably how many people did you talk to besides the salesperson that you managers get involved No.

It was just a salesperson and the finance manager. Wow. Well, that's hard to believe. Yeah, the enlightened dealers realize it's not the way to go. And there's a push from the manufacturers and the enlightened dealers, so to speak, that the way to have customers come to your door is know that they can get in and out in a reasonable amount of time. It should be no more than, certainly no more than, certainly no more. than an hour to two hours, even if you buy the car.

And I think of an hour would make far more sense. This adds fuel to my argument about don't go to the dealership, do it all online. And I know that doesn't apply to some people don't like to deal online. Some people are not educated, I don't mean the word educated, they're not familiar or comfortable online. But if you are comfortable and you know how to work your sponsor, smartphone and your computer you'd never have to walk into a car dealership you can do everything you can buy the vehicle you can finance the vehicle you can sign the paperwork you can do everything online and have the car delivered this is what amazon will be doing when they start selling hundas and kiya's uh in january next month so uh yeah i i i i feel sorry for guys like you bob that gets that uh marathon uh work over and you've got to be strong and tough to deal with it but a lot of people are strong and tough like you they they cave in in a short period of time and pay too much money for the car

okay thank you thank you bob you're welcome bob have a great weekend we're going to go to kelly who's calling us from jupiter good morning kelly good morning hi how are you um i'm great thank you How are you? Great. Kelly, have you called before? No, I have not. Okay. This morning, you win yourself, $50.

And if you stay on the line when we're finished speaking, you can talk to our control room, and that's Mike that's over there. He'll get your contact information, and he'll pass it along to me, and I'll write you a check for $50 for calling Earl on Cars for the first time. Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much. recently found out about you from a friend in Jupiter Farms.

And his name is Frank. I bet we know who he is. We know Frank. I think everybody knows Frank. He's a great guy. He is. He is, definitely. And I just wanted to let you know because I am so grateful to you all.

I have a Toyota Avalon. Oh, beautiful. Yes. Unfortunately, I did not, yes. Unfortunately, I did not purchase it from you, but I have always always had its service for you. The car is 2006, and it

runs beautifully. It is a fantastic car, Kelly. I have one. It is. I love it. And I'm so sorry they're not making them anymore. I know. They are not. No. But my service

manager is Josh. He takes such excellent care of me. And in the past, when I first moved to Florida, I would take my car to dealerships with maybe like an alternator problem and they would fix it and then they would tell me

oh and your air conditioners broke or something else and there was never any a problem with it and I had this everywhere I went and I had a friend at the time and she told me about your dealership and she said Kelly that's where you need to buy your cars

and that's where you need to have them service even if you don't have a Toyota they'll service your car and she said you can trust them and they're wonderful for women. And I've never had a chance to speak to Earl. When I've been in there, I've seen him, you know, mosing around and things like that. He's wonderful, very approachable, but everybody was always going up to him.

Well, Kelly, when you get the $50, don't tell him you did it because you did a commercial for us on the show. Tell him you did it because you were the first time female caller. Right. Oh, my gosh. Thank you. And Kelly. It's not a commercial, it's just my gratitude. Absolutely.

Kelly, you know, every once in a while I just don't even talk about my Avalon. And I drive the Tesla most of the time, but I've hung on to my Avalon for security reasons. And it's a great car. You have a beautiful car. It is, and it's so funny you said you hung on to it because that has always been in the back of my mind. Even if I get another car, I'm hanging on to this car because I love it so much. Yeah, it's definitely, you know, something you can rely on. It is, yes.

Kelly? And I feel safe in it. Yes. Thank you so much for the phone call. We appreciate it. And as I said, as a first time caller, stay on the line. Talk to Mike in the studio. And remember, give him your contact information as to where I can send that check.

Thank you so very, very much. much you're welcome so incredibly kind spread the word helie uh and uh you're helping us uh build a platform here for the ladies thank you uh 877 960 960 and you can text us at 7 722 497 665 3 0 okay guys uh what do you have well not much um but here's a question good morning if a 24 vehicle the person wanted is at a different dealership in your area are you able to swap with them. Thanks. Well, that's called a dealer trade, and that's how dealers do exchange inventory with each other. You can do it for vehicles when they're on route, and you can change the destinations, or you can actually drive the vehicles or transport them with a truck between

different dealerships. Now, I will say that went away with the inventory crunch after the post-pandemic to where that was virtually a extinct way of doing business. other dealers because cars were gone and they were just people scrambled to have any car on their lot and people just didn't want to mess with that so that kind of went away it's coming back now some slowly but there's never in the old days you could you know give two for one or just send a one way trade but now if that's going to happen you both better have cars you really really want can I tell an old story you just reminded me something one of my favorite one of my favorite You were talking about trading cars back and forth, and very common, as students said, except for the past a couple of years with the COVID thing going on.

But, yeah, about half the cars are dealer sells. He usually sells from another car dealer's inventory. The only thing that competing dealers do that helps each other is trade cars back and forth, because if that didn't happen, there's such a huge amount of different permutations and guys. combinations of colors, equipment, and models, you couldn't possibly have enough cars in normal times to sell cars competitively. So all the Honda dealers, all the Toyota dealers, all the Ford dealers, they cooperate us. But the only way they do cooperate because they're vicious competitors, but they swap cars back and forth. Well, going back when Earl Stewart, Toyota first became enlightened and we stopped charging dealer fees and junk fees and things like that, all the toy dealers in south florida got together and refused to deal or trade cars with my dealership

and i i had to call an attorney and the attorney got me in touch with the attorney in new york one of the leading antitrust attorneys but i went to toyota and they said they couldn't help me and i tried to reason with the dealers so basically they were trying to put me out of business Long story short, the dealer in New York wrote a letter to Toyota and to all the Toyota dealers in South Florida and said, what you're doing is a violation of federal law, restraint of trade, punishable by fine and imprisonment and or imprisonment. So suddenly, they all started dealer trading with me again, and now we still go back and forth. We're all friends now. Right.

I'll let an old guy tell a war story every down that. It was a serious war story because it really did shut down our new car department for a period of weeks. It really crippled us. Wow. It's amazing what a amazing one collusion can do. And what an attorney can do? A good attorney can do some amazing things. Right.

I'm all caught up. I have no new communications. Here's just a warning. We talk electric vehicles and we talk. prices and we've had Tesla slashing prices of their Teslas, and there is becoming a real competition. You've got the great credits, the special credits on electric vehicles in effect now. So what's happened is people are starting to buy electric vehicles because it's a real bargain. I caution you with one thing.

The electric vehicles that are traded in have dropped precipitously in price. largely because of price cutting and competition and also because of the fact that only a small percentage of the buying public buys electric vehicles. So if a car dealer has electric vehicles in their car inventory, they've depreciated 30 or 40 percent more than the combustion engine cars. That means that when you trade your electric vehicle in, if you're an electric vehicle, a vixionado, be prepared. to get nothing, a slight exaggeration there, but very little for a trade-in allowance. So, when you're buying your new vehicle,

keep in mind that when you go to trade it in, it's likely that that might be the same case when you go to trade it in. So the depreciation of the vehicle you're buying is something to put into the cost calculation when you say electric vehicles are affordable or maybe equal to combustion engine cars. ain't necessarily so it's still it's still a combustion car market if you look at the full picture in terms of price

yeah that's great information you know i think we should do another we should do another a different type of show where earl shares all of his past stories have a special and i'm not going to say old stories i'm not going to mention old because earl will be 83 years old on monday and you would never, never, ever know it. So I would call it Earls of wise stories, very wise stories. And I'll elaborate on that later. We're going to go to Donna, who has been holding in Fort Lauderdale. Good morning, Donna.

Good morning. Donna, have you called before? No, I haven't. Oh, great. You know, not only is this the last call of the show this morning because we have to get to some other things, but you have won yourself as a first-time caller, $50, and if you stay on the line, you can talk to Mike. He's over in the studio, the control room, and you can give them your contact information, and I'll write out a check for you and get it out to you

for $50. Wow, that's wonderful, especially this time of year. Absolutely, absolutely. Donna, what can we do for you this morning? Well, I have a problem, but I have a 2015 board explorer, and my brakes, when I apply them and I'm slowing down, coming to a stoplight or a stop sign, they'll slow down, and then all of a sudden it'll do like a little freak wheel, if you understand what I mean, where it's gliding and, you know, where it's, you know, it's, I mean, it doesn't speed up or anything, but it just, it's like it, the brakes quit or whatever, and then it'll catch again. I keep the brakes on, and then it'll stop it. But it, like, free wheels before it actually stops.

Does that make sense? It's scary. I whole brick has an idea. It is scary. Now, is this under, like, light braking or kind of moderate to medium? hard braking. It's light breaking. It is light breaking because I start breaking before, you know, before I don't, I'm very seldom

ever have to jam on the brake. I, you know. Okay. By any chance, is this a hybrid? Yes, it is. Okay. What I think you're experiencing is when you're stepping on the break, the initially, the brakes themselves, the hydraulic brakes.

are not being applied. What's happening is the computer reverses the electric motors into generators and you're getting what's called electromotive drag to slow the car down. And that's the regenerative

braking. It uses that force to slow the car and create a much greater amount of electricity to help recharge the batteries. What's probably happening here is that right when does that freewheel point, the regenerative braking may be stopping for a moment, and it's,

for some reason, there's a bit of a lag before your hydraulic brakes are actually kicking in for that last little part of the light braking. I would definitely be having this checked out by a qualified mechanic, someone that knows the Ford system, and describe to them exactly what you're feeling. Take them for a drive and show them, you know, know, that's under the light braking, and it may just be that this regenerative braking is not, shall we say, not continuing right up to the point when the hydraulic brakes are actually being applied and kicking in. But the key is, as Rick said, I'll repeat it, is go for a test drive with the technician

that will be working on your car and simulate the exact thing that happened, say, Now, did you feel that? And be sure he says yes, because once they experience themselves, he'll be able to say, well, there's nothing we can do. That's normal. I know what it is. We can fix it. And the next question is, how much you're going to charge me?

Right. Yeah, and it doesn't do it all the time. Yeah, well, that makes it even more difficult. Yeah, anything affecting the brakes, you really need to give it priority attention because you never know when that is going to create a real problem. So I would, with the diagnostic tools, they might be able to check and see what's a glitch. Even if you can't, you should try if it's one of those times

where it won't perform for you and the technician. Just have them get an estimate of what the diagnosis is going to be. and if you maybe get another estimate from another dealer, you probably should be going to a Cadillac dealer. It should be going to a Ford dealer and maybe go to another Ford dealer if the diagnostic charges would fare. A typical diagnostic charge would be, what, $75, $100? Yeah.

Yeah. $200, okay, okay. Okay, well, that's good to know. Good to know. Yeah, it does have me concern because it's scary. It is scary. Yeah, definitely. it's definitely

you know I would look into it as quickly as I possibly could because as you said dangerous a dangerous situation right okay Donna

you have one more question I know I thank you so much oh you're welcome Donna remember that contact information that's the only way I can get that check to you and please Donna spread the word to your lady friends

that we're building a platform here for the ladies they are and they have become a very important part of Erlon cars right

right I love that you know I'm so glad you do yeah I'll definitely pass it on and I thank you so much you're welcome Don I hope to hear from you soon

and your report on your situation okay all right super have a great weekend okay I think that

We're running a little short on time, first of all, and Rick, we didn't do too much with you. Okay, we're going to go to the recovering car dealer. Okay, Mr. Shop, Mr. Shop, of Best Smith, Kia. Let me mention one more time that it's real important for you to jot this number down. 772. Let me see if I can. 772-4976530 every once in a while. I forget that number.

it's important because that's the way you're going to vote you're going to vote on the mystery shopping report that we did again in Fort Pierce can also vote on YouTube oh there you go and FaceTime everything where you have all kind of options now back to the recovering car dealer so Ms. Smith Kia in Fort Pierce if you're not from the Florida area that's in southern Florida but it's a little far north it's kind of like on the fringe of the Solomon Gamera

era, although I must say that Frank Hernandez, the owner up there, does a good job of being rough and tumble like some of the South, real South Florida, Miami, and Fort Lauderdale dealers. Beth Smith Kia, Fort Pierce, Florida. Speaking of the first person, as if I were Agent Lightning, are amazing undercover agent that goes in every week and visits a car dealership in South Florida or Pennsylvania or Tennessee. She gets around. Yeah, she's all over the place. I arrived late afternoon and was greeted by a salesman who was conquering out front with several others.

This is, we call them a wolf pack. And you can almost spot a rough and tough dealership when they have a gang of salespeople out there smoking cigarettes and with their sleeves rolled up. That's something called the up system. and the person that's supposed to get the next customer runs out and greets you. And so that's what happened at Best Smithke and Fort Pierce. The Wolfpack was out front. One salesman jumped out. He welcomed me, asked if there was anything he could help me.

Fine today, I said. I've been looking for a new telluride for a while now, but between having a hard time finding one and the ridiculous markups, I haven't pulled the trigger yet. He introduced himself as Roy, asked my name. all while telling me, it's his birthday month. He was very friendly. We went to a table where he gathered some information from me,

which he wrote on a sheet of paper, also had a credit application that I noticed. He asked me for my license. As I was pulling it out, I stopped and said, I don't want my credit run, just seeing if the tellerides have come down in price and we might be able to get one. He smiled and said, of course not.

I'm not going to run your credit. Sure would be that he'd need my social security number, anyway, if he was going to do that. Now, he then went through a series of questions to determine the best model for me inquiring if I wanted a sunroof and about my preferences for interior and exterior colors. I made a note to myself in the margin

of the mystery shopperic word that Stu wrote up very well, by the way. And that is, don't ever go into a cardiol ship like Agent Lightning, or in this case, I'm Agent Lightning. not knowing exactly what you want. See, when the salesperson is able to control the MSRP, control the bottle of options, color equipment, the combination of factors,

when you don't have a specific vehicle in mind, it opens the door for shenanigans, monkey business, whatever you want to call it. They have the advantage of you not knowing the basis, the goal that you set for your pricing. they can manipulate so many things that will vary the price that they're in control at that point. Rory explained

now let me tell you how this is going to work. I need you to trust me. I had to laugh at that. I mean, that's the old joke, right? Trust me. I mean, you know. I'm going to take this info sheet over there to that desk and they'll help me find the car

that's best for you. Do you have a color preference? This is a real old school. he's I'm on your side and it's you and me against them and you trust me

we're partners and we're going to go out to the mean old guy over there at the desk and between you and me we're going to win and get you a real low price so that's real old school

I responded anyway I like that white one on the floor there that's a tell you right that I like color wise he replied okay i'll be right back and we'll go for a test drive i wait there for a few minutes and then decided to walk outside wait for him he pulled up a dark gray car for me to drive he jumped out and said that he's butterflying it's so i can check everything out haven't heard

that expression uh and go over all the features with me it was a new 20 20 24 keithel Right, SX, White, with an MSRP of $48,910. There was a Ben Smith addendum label. Okay, there we are. Boom. No surprise. Addendum label. They wanted another $4,995 for front and rear mud guards.

Carpet mats, natural-filled tires, pen stripes, a tag bracket. that's gutsy a clean-up before delivery maybe they're going to actually wash the car and charge me for it buying the car they're going to wash it the first oil change which is probably three they get reimbursed for that probably

either reimbursed or there's no charge window tent pocket guards storage guards I mean this is really best bit for it ought to be in Miami I mean that's really really

the Sodom and Gamora of car dealership but this is really rough stuff tough stuff rough stuff tough it's hard to say three times fast he was very familiar with this brand and quite enthusiastic he was going a little overboard so I said I've been researching for quite some time now and I'm very comfortable

with the telly ride I said I've been looking and not buying at them since they had upwards of $8,000 to $10,000 in market adjustments. He said, yeah, most places are higher than what we are right now. They all say that, right? I mean, what are they going to say? Oh, we're higher than that. No, they're going to claim that the competition's higher, all right?

I jumped in the driver's seat. We went for a short test drive due to low gas. That's not very professional. Happens a lot, though. Once again, back at the dealership, we headed back inside to a different. for desk. I let Roy know that as much as I wanted to tell you ride, I refused to pay almost $5,000 above the window sticker. You ain't seen nothing yet. That's me. That's not the salesman. He asked me how much I would be putting down. I said $5,000 to $10,000. He leaned down. This is good, too. I like this. Trauma.

Even then he says, I'm going to only put, I'm only going to put five to $7,000 down. Trust me. I mean, I mean, come on. This is not good. You and me against him. We're going to go get that mean old wolf over there, and we're going to trick him and to give him a lower price. This is so amateurish.

I guess it works in Fort Pierce. I don't know. I mean, he's been there for a while. As far as I know, he sells a lot of cars. I'm going to interrupt you. Was this guy's name Helen Reddy? No, Frank Hernandez, basically. You know the you and me against the world kind of a deal.

Oh, no, I'm sorry. His name is Roy. Okay. A few months later, he returned over the worksheet that had my cash transaction as well as some finance options. I wasn't really interested in. The top line labeled selling price was $55,905,000, which was about $7,000 over MSRP. Then they had $8.95. There's more?

Pre-delivery. That's a junk fee. they added sales tax attack. Now we're up to $8,000 over MSRB. And the guy just said, oh, yeah, we're all the other dealers are higher than that. Well, I can tell you they're not. He asked what I thought.

I said, I'm not budging on the markup. I know my husband will agree. He said he understands and leaned in again, saying in a low voice. Listen close. This is how it's going to work. I know you could get this car much close. for the MSRP, my manager's gonna come over

and talk to you before you leave, okay? So the team, the team is there to fool the mean old wolf that's gonna come and take advantage of us. Manager came over and asked if I was gonna buy now. No, I've just talked to my husband, I replied. Can we call him? He asked, no, he's in a meeting. And besides, either one of us is gonna buy a car

Priced over, overpriced by $5,000. He said without looking at least bit embarrassed that they have to make money. A straight face. He's charged $7,000 over sticker. And I object and he says, hey, hey, listen, babe, we've got to make money. I like your response to that. I mean, that's, that's Napleton. That's Mapleton.

That's, yeah. Actually, it's worse than Naples. They're polite in Naples. Yeah, Napleson does that, but they don't have salespeople that have bandagers that throw it in your face. So I retort, well, isn't that, he just said that I got to make money when I sell the car at $7,000 that are in his RP. And then Agent Lightning came back and said, well, isn't that what you do when you sell a car at MSRP? Yes. He didn't say anything and walked away, quite rudely.

Boy said, hold on a minute. Mr. Carlos is on the job. I don't know who Mr. Carlos. Okay, this is probably, okay, in every car dealership, there's a nice sales manager and there's a tough sales manager. Nice sales manager is Mr. Carlos. All the salespeople want to go to him because he puts the deals together, and he's not as hard as the other guy.

So he wants to see Mr. Carlos to make it happen. Not Frank Carlos or Juan Carlos, but Mr. Carlos working his manager. Okay. I waited. I was getting antsy, so I got up and found Roy. I told him I needed to get going to pick up my kids. Just then another sales manager named Shane. Oh, Shane came over and asked if I was ready to do business.

With you putting $10,000 down, I'll sell it to you at MSRP. No markup. You have my word, he said. Done. And, of course, his word is his bond. And you know. They spit in their hands and shook. I say only if you give me a pinky promise.

If we do a pinky promise, I'll believe you. I replied, can you do a worksheet saying that or put it in writing so that my husband will believe me? And we'll come back here. He said that if I gave them a minute, he can sign the paper saying you'll do it at MSRP. Now, I wish Asian Lightning had stayed for that paper. Anyway, I didn't stay.

I laughed at him and asked, what time are you here until day? Roy, the sales replied, we're here until 8 p.m. tonight. I said, no. What time is Shane personally here tonight so that I can make sure I get the deal at MSRP? If we decided to move forward, Shane said, I'm here as well until 8 p.m. You come back and I will sell it to you at MSRP, I promise. I was there long enough, so I think about it. I believe them.

Well, you know, no, no. Let me tell you, let me tell you something. It's possible. Of course it is. It's possible. So, well, I can say so much about this. We run out of time, so I'll shut up. We need you to vote, and we need you to vote using the curve.

And I know you're tired, you're worried listeners are tired of hearing this, but the curve is if they are the best dealer in the area, this area, then you give them a high grade. If they're the terrible dealer in the dealers that we deal with, you give them a very low grade. So there are no perfect dealers, and I hesitate to say they're no absolutely terrible dealers. There are, but they're really got to be terrible to get it out. So understand the curve, vote, and we will see how best with Kia and Fort Pierce there. Start your texts and coming in, 772-497-6530.

also you too. Yeah, Bob's all over it. He says, I want you to trust me on getting a grade from you. It's an F. It's the only grade I have. So thinking about this in terms of the curve,

I would say they're average in terms of South Florida. But then it's not just the addendum and the equipment. It's the overall experience. And having the high pressure and rudeness from a sales manager It doesn't rise to us.

I think that's worse than a lot of the South Florida dealerships that we've seen. It does, yeah. I don't want to fail them, but I want to give them a D. And I got another F, by the way. It says, trust this, F. Who is this from? Move on, I'm sure Rick's got some very entertaining grades over there. Well, we'll start off with T-Cash, who says,

I disagree on wolf packs. Wolves are a noble beast. They're more like a pack of hyenas. Yeah, that's good. Very well said. Very well said. And he says, my score is B.S.N.S. for Bev Smith sucks.

Joseph Kelleherd, just a simple F. Tom Steckle, F. This is a Napleton disciple. Had him found an ethical Kia dealer in Florida. Central Florida Hyundai is an alternative and owned by Mullenax. Kirk in West Buy God, Virginia, says Bev Smith, Fort Pierce Kia, addendum with nitro mud flaps, and guarded guards, I guardedly award you a solid F minus.

Man, maybe we should have bought those Kia dealerships in Jacksonville and just like give a little hope to the world. Guy Laramie says, Bev Smith gets a big fat F because of the addendum and their sales method. Yeah. Johnny Z. Fradley? Whoa, doggy. Shenanigans galore.

Trust me. F. You know what occurred to me with Amazon going on day in Kia. Can you imagine, would you rather buy a car, a Kia on Amazon, or from Best Smith Kia? Yeah, I think that's a pretty pretty pretty nice question there. By the way, Amory jumped in. She says, this is all routine, not illegal, but deserves a D. and she wants to remind everybody, please comment to the FTC.

It is posted on Earl on Cards. The link's right there. So if you need to... Yeah, it's already did that. Oh, you work fast. I did it from here. And then we have another text, capitalism at its best. I give them a B.

And that was from Frank Gonzalez in Fort Pierce, Florida. Just kidding. You see there really was a B? It says capitalism at its best. I give them a B. Oh, wow. Man, man. That's one way to look at it.

I got a bunch more just came in. That's capitalism at its worst. Worse for EGELining. Okay, where are we? We got a bunch more just came in. Cliff's Picks, I would say a G for greed. Mark Anderson, what a joke, great F. All the amateur tactics, I wouldn't buy a telitubby from them.

Tim Gilliland, throw out the addendum and markups, and we can talk. A big fat D. Is nitrophil still a thing there? Yes, it is. Would love to have seen the worksheet. Pop Hartley says, I can't believe their tactics. My grade is a D. Ernesto Ortega, F?

Brian said, let go. Ridiculous. Come on, Roy. F. I'm going to say D minus. They're almost at the bottom level on that curve. But I think we've seen worse around the area. I hear you.

What say you, Nancy? well i was going to save my vote for last but i will vote right now and you know of course or maybe you don't that we we shopped sunrise ford in fort pierce and today is bev smith kea in fort pierce so i ask is there something in the water in fort pierce because i truly fond. If you listen to last week's show, the mystery shop I found very condescending. I found it rude. I just found it patronizing. And this is the attitude that I pick up in the Best Smith Kia, Fort Pierce mystery shopping report. And I know, without even asking Agent Lightning, she would feel the exact same way. You know, they want to make you feel like an

inferior idiot. And, you know, that's no way to sell cars, that's for sure. And treat men and women the same. I give Port Pierce, Beth Smith-Kee, I give them an F. You know, people that listen to the show know that I hardly ever give an F. I'm going to fail. I don't, I think that not only are they rough and tough, but they're also, they're not even smooth.

I mean, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they match the deception of the Miami Fort Lauderdale dealers, but they do it in a very crude and aggressive manner. And old school. And I agree with Nancy's comment is that they, they insult your intelligence. And I think, and what's that in the same breath, that means that they take advantage of a lot of people that are not educated and haven't bought cars before because anybody that buys a car for Best Smith Kia and goes for that BS is going to get really screwed bad. And those people can't afford to get screwed bad.

Not at all. I think we're out of time. We are. We have two minutes left. And, you know, I just want to mention in the automotive news that listen to this as far as women in the car industry, especially F&I, women make honest, organized and skilled finance managers who boost profits for dealerships. Again, ladies, we're boosting profits all the way around. Listen, thank you so much for tuning in to Earl Stewart on cars.

Tune in next week, same time, and we will be right here. The Oldies Channel.