Earl Stewart on Cars - 12.10.2022 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Mercedes-Benz of North Palm Beach

Episode Date: December 10, 2022

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits a local Mercedes-Benz dealer to see what they have on the lot and how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2023 Mercedes Benz GLA-250 SUV. 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. Sign up to become one of Earl's Vigilantes and help others in your community to avoid getting ripped off by a car dealer. Go to www.earlsvigilantes.com for more information. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

Good morning. I'm Earl Stewart. I welcome you to Earl Stewart on Cars, a live talk show all about how to buy, lease, maintain, or repair your car without being ripped off by a car dealer. With me in the studio is Nancy Stewart, my wife, co-host, and a strong consumer advocate, especially for our female business. We also have Rick Kearney, an expert on how to keep your car running right. I dare you to ask a question that Rick can't answer about the mechanics or electronics of your car. Also with us is my son, Stu Stewart, our LinkedIn's. cyberspace 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. Well, this is Earl Stewart Live. That was my recorded introduction. But it's particularly important that I talk to you about something new today that is very exciting. I mean, this whole automotive show we do, I always say it's exciting, and it is. But what's so exciting now is we've got a whole new audience. And we're out of North Palm Beach, Florida. We're actually worldwide because we stream on Twitter and YouTube and Facebook. I mean, we're all over the globe, really. But it's exciting in Florida. This is kind of our hometown,

Florida. And we're way down south now in Florida. We're all the way down to like Hollywood, almost Miami. Typically, we've been in the Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens, Martin County, you know, kind of like the Middle East Coast. But now we're all the way down. Pompano and Broward County. Very exciting. Four million. All of Fort Lauderdale. All of Fort Lauderdale. I mean, wow. And we got four million new ears. I guess that would be eight million, whether two years per. Yeah, right. So, if you've never heard this show,

if you're down there in the New Land, South Florida, you're going to be particularly interested in this show. We are a show about how not to get ripped off by a car dealer. Now, that's pretty crude. I mean, I know it's insulting to a lot of car dealers, but I use it for emphasis to get your attention. cars have been sold differently than any other retail product I mean you know that you walk into Publix you're going to Target you go into an Apple store it's a whole

different experience from going into a car dealership car dealerships are like walking through a minefield and you know that you're used to it that's one of the problems so this show if you haven't heard us before and if you're down there in Fort Lauderdale area Pompanoe Hollywood you know Coconut Creek, that area, south of North Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens area. If you're down there, you're in, we call it on this show, South Florida is of Sodom and Gomorra. It is the belly of the beast.

I could probably come up with a few other those comparisons. But car dealers, the further south in Florida you go, the rougher it gets. so boy you found you found something that's really going to be helpful to you and if we're new to you just give us a few minutes and in the studio with me to my left is my wife my co-host Nancy Stewart who helped found this show about 20 years ago we started out of half an hour and now we're up to two hours and our audience as I just said is growing like crazy She is a female advocate for you ladies out there. Nobody is out there to defend you more when you're buying a car than Nancy Stewart. She has a special offer for first time on new callers if you're female.

But you're going to love what Nancy has to say. It will be on until 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. So if you haven't heard us before, please listen a little bit. And here's another thing that you're not going to, you're not going to. to believe. Sitting to my right is Rick Kearney. Rick Kearney is a certified diagnostic master technician. This guy knows more about cars than just about anybody you know. He knows more about cars than anybody I know, and I've been in the business since 1968. Mechanically, robotically, electronically, computer-wise, whether you're talking electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles,

combustion engine Rick Kearney has got all the answers and you can get the answer you know what's gonna cost it cost you if you go to a car dealer down there in Fort Lauderdale to get an idea what's wrong with your car well it's gonna be either an arm or a leg or maybe both free right here on this station true oldies true oldies yeah we're we're all over there a whole bunch of true oldies stations and down south us, we got 95.9, 106, that's north, south of us, we got 96.9, 95.3, and we've got an AM station, 1470 a.m. That's in the Hollywood area, Hollywood, Florida. But if you want to get

a free diagnosis on a car, you can call the show right now. 877-960-99-60. You got a problem with your car. Ask for Rick. Call the show. 9609960. Now Nancy Stewart is monitoring the telephones. We have a little technical glitch this morning. The laptop broke. So she's working on a text basis with her iPhone. And the man, Jeremy, in the computer control area, when you call the show, say, hey, I want to talk to Rick, or I want to talk to Nancy, or I want to talk to Earl. That's me. He'll shoot a text in. Rick will be alerted. or Nancy B alerted, and we will get to your phone calls immediately. I promise you. 877-9-60-99-68. Love to hear from you if this is new. If you're in a true oldies station in South Florida,

love to hear from you. I love to have you dial 877-9-60-99-60. Write it down because you probably don't have a question right now, but write it down. And when you get back to the show, We'll be on for two hours. We'll be on until 10 a.m. this morning, this Saturday morning. So make a note, and you might think, hey, I got a question for Rick Kearney.

My car's making a funny noise. And then you call, call Rick, describe it. You'll tell you what's wrong with it. No charge. Now, we also have a text line. And I hope you're not writing this down while you're driving, but we have a text line. That's Eric Code 772, 49766,

3530. That's 772-49760. That's for me, Earl, Nancy, Rick, we're all here to help you. We can talk about how to buy a car without being ripped off by a car dealer, maintain, repair your car safely. We've got some really good information about financing, how to finance your car safe, So the new dawn is risen in South Florida. Fort Lauderdale, we got Pompano, we've got coconut tricca, we got Hollywood, we got Boynton, we got Boeh-Rotone, all the true old these stations. You're hearing us for the first time, Earl on Cars,

how not to get ripped off by a car dealer. So stay tuned. We're going to let the folks here, especially you new folks from further south, in Florida, meet some of our folks here in the studio. I'm going to start out with Nancy Stewart, and ladies don't get a fair shake when they buy a car. Ladies don't get fair shake from the manufacturers or from the dealers. If you haven't heard, we've been talking about it on the show for a long time. Did you know that the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, dummies that they use in those tests,

you see them on television all the time, cargoes running on around, rale smashes into a wall and then they go inside and they have the dummy inside and they say how that dummy was injured does you know those are all male dummies and as you as you all know that females are built differently than males I can promise you that and if you're built differently you react differently in accidents and that's why more women are injured and killed in accidents than men because the National Highway Traffic Safety Association and their head in the sand and for the past what 30 years

since they've been doing these crash tests they've been using men like who cares about the women well I'll tell you who cares about women on this show it's Nancy Stewart and I'm going to turn the mic over to her and she'll tell you about a very special offer we have for you female callers

if you haven't called the show before good morning everyone and welcome So, yes, we're right back here in the studio live, waiting for your calls, your texts, and you may want to go over to YouTube where you'll find Errol and Cars. Also, there are so many other ways to get in touch with us, 877960, or you can text us at 772-4976530. And ladies, I have $50,000. for the first two new lady callers this morning.

The first two new lady callers. And I just let me, I'm going to interrupt you just briefly. You hear so much crap on the radio and false promises and stuff like that. We're talking $50 cash, no conditions other than the fact that you're female and you haven't called the show before. And we'll send you a check for $50. It's the first two new female callers. and I'm speaking directly to Pompano, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Boynton, Bocarton. We've got a whole bunch of new, true oldie stations that we're reaching.

Four million people down there. You ladies, hop on that, and you call 877-960-99-60. And if you haven't called before, you're female, 877-9-60-99-60. You know, ladies and gentlemen, As far as what Earl mentioned earlier about these crash tests and the statistics, they are troubling, most definitely, and women are 20% to 28% more likely than men to be killed, and 37% to 73% more likely to be seriously injured. And that's because the cars are designed for men. For all these years, the cars have been designed safety-wise to protect men, not women. And that's really startling.

I mean, when you go back that far, you would think that things would have changed by now. So for women, things are going in the right direction, most definitely, but we still have some work to do. And that's the reason I invite you to give us a call. were you treated fairly, were you treated with the highest respect? Any information at all that you can share with us would be most appreciated. And you receive $50 for the first two female callers, $50. And for the ladies that have been with us and helped me build this platform, we thank you for spreading the word and staying with us all these years.

9960, Texas at 772-497-6-530. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Yeah, I almost forgot about the most exciting part of the show. And I'm so excited about talking to the newbies down there in South Florida. The 4 million folks on True Oldies, if you haven't tuned us in, we have something on radio that you won't see here anywhere other than this station. And True oldies, Earl Owned Cars, Mystery Shopping Report. You heard me right.

Undercover Agent Lightning is dispatched to different dealerships all over Florida and the United States. But Agent Lightning will be striking, I promise you, because I dispatch Agent Lightning, and she will be headed south. And she's going down to Hollywood and Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale. and we're going to hit those dealers down there and she goes in she pretends she's going to the process leasing a car buying a car maybe servicing a car we don't do enough servicing but we will we will so agent lightning every week for 20 years has been doing this well not not agent lightning but someone like agent lighting she's our current undercover agent boy is she good by the way sure is She was quoted in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. I was interviewed in the Wall Street Journal, and it was on the front page of the finance section. And the reporter, Nora Eckhart, of the Wall Street Journal,

Nora says she would like to do a complete article on Agent Lightning. Very exciting. So this undercover agent is... I'm not surprised. She is hot. Absolutely. She goes into all these hot spots. She knows what you're talking about.

And she knows exactly what she wants. Once she knows exactly how to talk the talk. Agent Lightning, and she did it again this week with our mystery shopping report. I'm going to go to our first caller. Okay. And that's Bob from Lake Park. Good morning, Bob. Good morning, everyone.

How's everyone this morning? We're great. How is the traffic going down to south? You had to drive down there, I guess, right? Pardon me? the traffic did you have to drive all the way down south oh it is horrendous

yeah getting worse it's a different world when you head that way I guess listen I wanted to first of all I wanted to ask Carl

if I get a sex change operation would I be eligible for that $50 I should well Well, I don't want to be politically incorrect here, but I think you're, I think you're, you're on the edge right there, Bob. Let's talk about something else, but let's put this way. Here's how you can get your $50. You just have a lady friend call, and then you could cut a deal with her.

You know, it can go 50-50. About one of my cats. About one of my cats, get out of my cats. Okay, listen, I wanted to tell you, there was enough. another takata airbag fatality did you see this i missed it i'm glad you called bob where was it uh i'm not sure but it was the person was driving a honda and uh and i know you were doing the uh you were doing that uh quite a bit and then you kind of got away from doing it uh you know car max was fined uh for selling unsafe vehicles did you know that they just paid a fairly fairly substantial

fine. There was an investigation about CarMax selling and they didn't mention exactly what the problems were, but I got to imagine some of them were probably those Takata airbags. Yeah, Bob, that is accurate and it disappointed me a little bit in CarMax because

we recommend CarMax. They're a good outfit. They, CarMax hung their hat. Their defense on that lawsuit and they're fine was the fact that they they disclose that these cars have recalls or other issues,

and they instruct you to take it to the dealer to have it repaired. I don't think that's going far enough, and I agree they should have been fine. I think a dealer that has a car on his used car lot that he knows has a dangerous recall should be responsible himself for having that recall fixed. Now, if it's another make car, if he's a Honda dealer, and it's a Chevrolet recall, he's got to go to a Chevrolet dealer to get the recall done. But that comes with the territory. It's an expense, and it's time-consuming.

But when you're talking life and death, it should be required. But Carmack says, hey, I told the people about it. I said, as soon as you buy this car, it has a Ticcada airbag recall, take it to a, you know, Toyota dealer, Honda dealer, whichever. was appropriate and had a fix. But I agree with you. They were not going far enough. They should have done it themselves.

I get another question. I just happened on the bar site. I put in the filters. I was looking at cars from 2020 to the current ton to 22 with 10,000 miles or less. And there was one particular model that they seemed to have a lot of. And I was wondering if you would like to try to guess as to which vehicle that is. on Tesla yes

and they even had one that you drive you drive the plaid yes they had one of those yes they had one of those on there but they had a lot of Tesla's and I was wondering why do you think that's all about why would people be getting rid of those cars after a year or two with low mileage

any particular thoughts on that I think there's a lot of reasons I think Tesla is a curiosity and say people are interested in my case for example as you why I started to say as you know we got a whole new audience in full transparency folks I am a toilet dealer I've had a toilet dealership at North Palm Beach Florida since 1975 so I wear both hats I'm a consumer advocate so I'm on your side Bob and all the other listeners to the show to help you avoid being ripped off, but I'm also a car dealer.

So we've been doing it for a long time. So I look at it as a positive because I see both sides of the story. And at any rate, a long way of going is saying I bought a Tesla, even though I love Toyota's. I bought the Tesla because I was curious. And I've learned a lot about it.

It's a just absolutely incredible technology. Fun to drive. A lot of problems. I don't I don't think the quality of the Tesla is as good as the quality of a Honda or a Toyota. I think that the doors sound a little tinny. There's a lot of little issues that I have with my Tesla. So I think that people buy the Tesla say, boy, this is cool.

It's really fast. Acceleration is wild. Speed is off the chart. So they have that experience. I said, well, I can't be having fun. I need something to get me back and forth to work, and I'm tired of the fun, and they trade it back in. Another reason, Bob, is that...

There's no way of knowing. No. But do you think they traded in for another electric vehicle, or do you think they go back to an internal combustion motor? Internal combustion. When they traded in, they've had the EV experience. They know what it's like, and it's either for them, it's not for them.

In most cases, people are still going to go with, the combustion engine, if no other reason availability and cost. By the way, let's go back to Teslas, I could sell my Tesla for a huge profit right now because of the availability, you mentioned the Tesla plan. So a lot of people bought Teslas at the right time, had the fun experience, said, I've had enough fun, and I can also make $3,000 above what I paid for it, so they take it and the car max and they sell it. So that's one of the reasons they have.

The one I saw on the website was going for a buck 20. Yeah, yeah. That's what it was selling for. I have no idea what they sell for. I'm not really in that market, but... The reason price was $120,000. Yeah, you know. But there was a lot of them.

I just thought it was odd. Yeah. What do the people do with their charges that they put in their homes then? If they go back to an internal combustion engine, they made an investment, and you had to pay for it. charging system to put in your house in your garage or whatever you can i i i don't think i don't think that most of those i don't think i don't think they have to have chargers they they have independent hey bob we got a whole bunch of people holding here thank you for the call very much

and i and call again next uh saturday i'd love to i'd love for you to give a call back and i'll talk to you about tesla but right now we're out of time and uh please uh as i said call back again 877-960 or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30 we're going to go to I thank everyone for your hanging on and we're going to try to get to you guys one at a time here we're going to go to Surrey and she's in Deerfield Beach good morning good morning welcome what was the name I didn't get the name I've been on for about 11 minutes Oh, I'm terribly... What's the name? No, no, I understand. Surrey. S-U-R-R-I-E.

Pardon me, Surrey. I was talking to the recovering car dealer. First, I want to apologize for you hanging on so long. We're really covered up with calls. We also have another female caller who's holding. But more importantly, this morning, you won yourself $50. And if you stay on the line, when we're finished, please give your contact information.

to Jeremy, that will be the only way I'll be able to get you your check. Happy to do so. Okay. Thank you. What can we help you with this morning? I'm a first-time caller, by the way. Pardon me? I'm a first-time caller, by the way.

That's why you get the $50. I enjoy listening about the automobile information, so I'm happy that I tuned you in. Oh, I'm really glad you did, too, and as a first-time caller, As I said, you won yourself $50, and the auto industry is not a new world for ladies. It's only, you know, lately that we've been, you know, recognized, you might say. And the reason for that is because we're quite knowledgeable. We know what we want, and we know how to get it. And when you walk into a dealership, even today in the 21st century,

women aren't respected as they should be all the time. things are getting much better for sure yep you're right so as i said i'm hanging on i'm hanging on thank you oh great thanks for calling okay uh we're going to stay in deerfield beach and we're going to talk to connie good morning connie oh hi welcome thank you thank you thank you um connie you won yourself $50 this morning for being a first-time caller. And if you stay on the line when we're finished, you can talk to Jeremy and give him your contact information, and I will get a checkout to you, but I can't send it to you unless you give him the contact information.

Thank you. Okay. Can I ask my question? Yes. Oh, good, good, good. My question is, is I got a warranty when I bought a car two years ago in 2020. And I bought the warranty, and I've never had to use it. And people have said that wasn't your smartest move.

Being that you're talking about car dealership, was that a smart, I've never done that before. I bought a 2017 Honda in 2020. Connie, what was a warranty you bought from the dealer, or was it, are you referring to a factory warranty? No, no, no, dealer, because it was a used car. I bought the dealer one. Oh, okay, yeah. No, my Honda. It was Honda.

Yeah, this is one of the most common problems and questions we get is with these extended warranties. And a warranty is only as good as what it covers and does not cover. Too often, car dealers, in many cases, if not in most cases, the car dealers design the warranty. They have a warranty company. They decide what it's going to cover on your car and what it's not going to cover, and they decide how much they're going to charge you for it. So my recommendation in general, and for the regular listeners of Earl and cars, I say, don't buy extended warranties. They'll try like heck to sell it to you because they're very profitable.

If they sell you a warranty, and I'll just use a round number here for $2,000, in most cases, they won't have any charges or repairs or cost against that. It's like $2,000 pure profit right away. I always recommend that if you're going to buy even a used car, buy the manufacturer's extended warranty. They have certified warranties. They call them certified used cars, and a certified used car has a warranty of different descriptions. You could get an extensive one or a moderate one or one was relatively inexpensive, but it covers less. Stick with the manufacturers' extended warranties. don't buy them from the dealer dealers at warranty because typically they have too little coverage and too high cost.

So if it's Honda, then is that the manufacturers or is that the dealer? Well, the manufacturer is legitimate. I also say this. You're talking about a real quality car. Honda is just an excellent car. Consumer reports gives them very high marks. You take care of a Honda, you do your factory recommended maintenance, and you're going to have very few problems. So you don't need anything other than if it's a new car.

Of course, you get a warranty whether you want it or not. But if you buy a used car, I wouldn't even buy the manufacturer's warranty. But if I had to buy one, a lot of people buy warranties like they buy insurance. It's for peace of mind. They sleep better at night. Okay, I've got fire insurance on my car. I got collision insurance on my car, and I have a mechanical extended warranty contract. You feel better.

If you have to have that good feeling, buy the manufacturer's warranty, not the dealer's warranty. Thank you. You're very welcome. Connie, thank you for calling. And I just wanted to share with you that warranties are big business, and you really have to be careful, as Earl said. and you know my my question is what doesn't it cover so that's my experience thank you so much for calling and stay on the line 877 960 or you can text us at 772-4976530 and don't forget your anonymous feedback we love hearing from you

from anonymous feedback you can say whatever you want nobody can trace you and find you. Honestly, they can't. So that's www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Yeah, our new folks in South Florida, the new 4 million listeners all the way down to Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale area. Welcome aboard. If you're listening to a true oldie station in South Florida, you're listening to our own cars right now. How not to get ripped off by a car dealer. And I want to remind you that we have in the studio here, Rick Kearney, who is actually one of our most popular receivers of calls. Everybody has got a question about a car. If you're driving a car, even if you're not driving a car, you probably have

some questions about it. I typically say mechanically, but it doesn't apply anymore. You've got a squeak or a rattle or a roll or a smell. You've got a vibration. You've got something with a car that's got you worried. Maybe you're getting ready to take a trip. You're going to drive over the Carolinas or New York or maybe California. You're going to be taking a long trip. You don't want to be out there on some turnpike

in the middle of the night on Sunday and have your car stop or the red light come on and you have no idea why. So if you have a little something going with your car and you want to have it right for the trip or whatever reason, call Rick Kearney and you can just call.

on the old-fashioned telephone. We have 877-960-99-60. That's 877-960-9960. Now, if you're a YouTuber, if you got your smartphone or your PC, we're on YouTube.com for slash Erlon Cars, and Rick monitors that channel. In fact, we're on Facebook.com

for slash Erlon Cars. And I'm monitoring that one too today. And monitoring, both of those, yeah. Multitasking. So Rick Kearney, if you would call him or text him or YouTube him or Facebook him, describe a problem. I get nervous. I mean, anytime I get in a car, I'm a car dealer. If I hear something or smell something in my car, I get nervous.

If you're nervous, call Rick and describe as much as you can. Hey, if you really want to be high-tech, shoot him an audio or a video clip. on the YouTube channel. Rick will open it and you'll look at it. It'll be just like you've got the car in the garage and he's there looking at it. It'll be great. It'll help you diagnose, save yourself a ton of money.

And as I say, we prioritize our phone calls. Yes, absolutely. You know, while you're mentioning Rick, I have to tell our audience that if you go to YouTube, you'll see that Rick shines pretty bright. And I'll tell you what, the YouTube's that he has done will get your attention, questions that you just ask yourself, and you say, am I the only one asking that question? And it would probably be pretty difficult for somebody to answer this question.

Uh-uh, not Rick. He goes into great detail. YouTube. I mean, it's just amazing. Go over there and check Rick out. We're going to go back to the phones, and we are going to talk to Kirtley in Boynton Beach. Did I pronounce your name correctly? Yes, that is correct.

Oh, well, good morning and welcome. Good morning. My first time, at least calling in, I listened to a show, so this is great. Wonderful. Thank you for listening. What can we do for you this morning? Yeah. I have a 2019 Volkswagen T-Gone.

It was on a 39-month lease, and it's got about 16,000 miles on now. The lease is coming to do in a couple of weeks. and I can purchase it for about 15,000 or a little less, including sales tax, so I think I'm going to buy it. And really my question is, I understand there have been a lawsuit to some of the dealers that are trying to overcharge when you turn it back in, and I just wonder what you're all thoughts on this and what extra charges might I run into once I get into the dealership. Well, I can't tell you how much I appreciate that question. That was on my topic of getting to our new audience, and you're part of our new audience. down south in Boynton.

Yeah, there was a lawsuit, multiple lawsuits, and the good news is that the dealers and the actual manufacturer finance arms, leasing companies, are settling. They were wrong. They

were definitely breaking the law. There's the Consumer Leasing Act of 1976. And I reporter, a great reporter for WPLG, Channel 10, you probably get that where you

are. Jeff Winesier, he did an investigative reporting expose of what's going on. He had a lot of complaints calling him, people like you would have a lease car, the lease would come up, and they

decided they want to exercise their option to purchase the lease car. And when they go into the car dealership, Gunther Volkswagen, by the way. You mentioned you had a Volkswagen. Gunther is one of the big offenders. They settled out of court, and I believe Volkswagen lending was also sued, and they settled out of court.

They were adding thousands of dollars in extra fees, which were profit to Gunther, in violation of the Federal Consumer Act, Leasing Act of 1976. So they got caught. They were exposed by Jeff Wants here at WPLG. He interviewed a lot of people. And the problem in those areas where the dealers were sued of the leasing companies were sued has been fixed. But a lot of folks, and there are a lot of dealers still doing it. And you are now helping me alert all of our new audience, the 4 million new listeners south of us down the way, all the way to Hollywood,

in Fort Lauderdale area, that if you have a purchase option on your lease card today, chances are you have equity in that. That means that the market value is much higher than your contractual right to purchase it. So you exercise your purchase option. The Consumer Leasing Act protects you against the dealer adding anything to that purchase option price.

On your lease contract, that price is your, right to buy at that number, and you should stick to that. If they give you a hard time, Chrissy, then call Jeff Weinseer, or I'll give you the name of two or three attorneys that love to hear from you. Very good. So really, except for the sales tax, they shouldn't tack on much of anything. Is that correct? Yeah, only government fees.

You have to have a license plate. You have to pay sales tax. but there is nothing that goes to the dealer, only the state of Florida, just like when you buy any car. But you get your lease contract, and on that lease contract, you'll see the purchase option price. That is all you should pay. Only thing can be added are government fees for sales tax and a license plate. Okay. I find it interesting.

I talked to my dealer the other day, and when I first did the lease, they say, they don't own anymore. Volkswagen of America owns it, but now that it comes to Volkswagen of America says, you take it to your dealer, and I went over there because we had to get something serviced on another car. And when I took it over there, they told me you have to go through a salesperson, and they have to inspect the car

to make sure it doesn't need brakes or tires, and if it did, you'd have to put it on. Well, they're breaking the law, and there's two or three lawyers that I can, Give you the name of it. If you call Jeff Winesseer at WPLG Channel 10, he'd love to go in and interview that salesman in that dealership that's trying to charge you more

because this is red-hot. I'm amazed that the dealership doesn't know about it, but there's always somebody lasts to get the message. I appreciate it, yeah. It's, you know, the carcores were $16,000 I've serviced it regularly through them. It doesn't need tires. If it doesn't need brakes, and they know it. You just can't go directly to finance on that.

And we've got, I think my wife's got one more question. Okay. Yeah, the warranty on this was originally six years, a limited warranty on PowerTrain. And, of course, my understanding, Volkswagen, now if you bought a new T-Gon, they drop that down somewhat. That's not really a very good question.

But, you know, it's an interesting fact that they've reduced, and maybe some other manufacturers have to. Yeah, here's a, if you got a pencil in, to you or your wife, if you want to write down Jeff's cell phone number, he's the investigative reporter for WPLG. It's area code 954-364-2823, 954-9-5-4-364-2823, 954-364, 28-23. Jeff, Wein-Sayer, W-E-I-N-S-E-I-R, Investigated Reporter, W-P-L-L-G, Channel 10. Yeah, and again, if you buy, this general, I guess, but if you buy a lease out, which I've never done before, the warranties continues on just like to say it was on the sticker, correct? Yeah, the warranty goes with the car, so you've got whatever warranty left sticks with it and you still have that coverage.

Very good, Earl, I appreciate your time and the help on this. Please call again and spread the word. This is Nancy Stewart. Let me share some information with you. You can go to Erdogan Cars, and you can read his column on the topic that he just discussed with you, and that's a salute to WPLG TV, South Florida, and investigative reporting by Jeff Weins here. It's just an amazing column, and it's been a lot of hard work,

and it's been a long journey, and we've gotten a few people's attention, and Ashley Moody, the Attorney General, and we're looking to get Governor DeSantis' attention. But it's a great read, so go to Earl on Cars, and you'll find it right there. Okay? Thank you, Nancy. I sure will, and I go in Tuesday to see how the thing works out.

I might be calling me next weekend. Calls back, yeah, please. Give your wife my best, and thank you for calling. Thank you so much. You're quite welcome. Thank you for the questions. Thank you. Y'all have a good holiday season.

The same to you. Happy holidays. Hey, 77-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. We are going to stay with the phones. Howard has been holding from Jupiter, but I want to give a shout out to Chuck, who's calling us from Oklahoma. Please hold and be just a little bit more patient. Oklahoma. Good morning, Howard.

Good morning, everybody, and Earl, can you explain exactly what the power train covers, and how long is the warranty? Let's talk about Toyotas now. First of all, what is the power train? Do you explain that? Well, Howard's okay if I flip that over to Rick. The only answer I have, and then he'll extrapolate on that, is the power trainers are the lubricated parts of the car from the front to the back, but I probably mess that up.

Rick, you to give them the effort. Yep. Basically, to use the Toyota, for an example, it's a five-year 60,000-mile warranty. It covers all internally lubricated parts, including such things as the drive axles and the transmission and the engine, and it will even cover the wheel bearings

if they are on a drive axle. So if it's a front-wheel-drive car, even your front wheel bearings and the axles are all covered five-year-60,000 miles. The rear wheels, however, if they don't have drive axles, those are only three-year-36,000. If it's an all-wheel-drive vehicle, then all for the wheel bearings, the axles, and everything that is internally lubricated is covered under that warranty. Okay. Now, I have another question for you. Why did the automotive industry mostly do away with shock absorbers? Say that again, Howard. Yeah. Why did the automotive industry, I would say, about 60 percent, did away with shock absorbers are no longer in the drivetrain in most cars. Is that correct? Right. They're now three, three, three, three, three.

36, three or 36,000 miles a mile. Okay, so that's, okay. Next question. Did anybody ever shop, Canada and see what's happening up there? Canada? Because I have a question. What's the story? Are they doing the same thing that the dealers are doing down here,

which is robbing the people? Oh, sure. Probably not as bad. The Canadians seem to be a little bit more gentlemanly in their ripping off of their customers. But I know a lot of Canadian dealers, and interestingly enough, they send a lot of their managers and dealer principal trainees to Northwood University in Michigan and also Palm Beach County. But, yeah, they're usually not as rough in Canada as they are. are in the United States from some reason. I guess it's a cultural difference,

but they basically do the same thing. You have to be careful when you're buying the car in Canada. They apologize while they're kidding you with the dealer fees. Okay, one other question. I remember years ago that after two or three years, I had it with just the headlights because the suspension changed a little bit. So what happened is that I would drive into a garage, and I would aim my headlights and there would be a screen and a guy would be adjusting them.

That's gone. Is that correct? It no longer happens, Rick. Yeah, we don't really do much in a way of headlight adjustments. Most of the suspension now on the cars, they don't get that same sag like you used to get on the older cars. The springs hold up a whole lot better. the struts and the shock absorbers eventually will start to break down and you'll get a little more bounce out of the car but you don't get that that loss of ride height or that change of the angle that would require your headlights to be re-aimed often. The only ones that I wish would do some serious aiming are these guys that take pickup trucks, raise them up and jack the

suspension way up and then of course their headlights now become a lethal weapon into your eyeballs some of those need to be yeah that would be my my next question why are they doing things like that because they can a lot of people just they they see a car as something that they've got to make it personalized so they'll raise them way up in the air and until they practically need a step ladder to get in and out of them As a matter of fact, there was a trend for a while on what was called the Carolina Squat where they would lower the suspension in the back and raise the front so the back end of the truck sat super low, the front sat super high, and that actually was made illegal in a lot of states because it made it to where you literally could not see things directly in front of the vehicle. and it made it incredibly dangerous to drive so a lot of states have now made that completely illegal

that's good to hear yeah I was in California last month and they have low riders yeah I don't understand that either yeah it's all very amazing no you should go on YouTube and look at the videos of the guys to have the hydraulics and they literally they'll have competitions where they have the cars

leaping into the air exactly Howard, I want to thank you for calling. We have so many calls backed up. Okay, yes, I understand. If there's one more question? Yeah, just one more question. If you're going to get an extended warranty, get it from the dealership.

Don't get it from, you know, like Toyota, get it from Earl. Don't go to these companies that advertise on television. I don't know what, I forget the names, but am I correct? Oh, yeah, just like the email, television, a direct mail solicitation, everybody's going crazy selling auto warranties, and most of them are not worth the paper they're printed on, their rip-off scams, never ever buy anything online or over the television or the telephone. If you have to buy a warranty, use the manufacturers off.

warranty, but don't buy it from the dealer or from one of these other companies. A lot of these companies are out of Las Vegas. For some reason, they don't seem to have many laws in Las Vegas as far as ripping people off by telephone or any other way. So if you look, most of these solicitations are coming out of some sort of a boiler room in Las Vegas, but don't buy these warranties. They should be outlawed, most definitely, and there's so many vulnerable people out there they get ripped off and Howard we want to thank you for your call and we'll talk to you next week

okay thank you have a good day thank you uh we're going to talk to chuck who's calling us from oklahoma and um mike and adventura please hold on good morning good morning chuck oh good morning nancy oh thank you for holding happy belated birthday and happy holidays oh thank you I've got a Excuse me And we're covered up We have a birthday tomorrow Guess who that is

The one and only Earl Stewart Happy birthday Good time December Oh yeah Fantastic I've got a 2006 Chrysler

Can you hear me? Yes Locken clear Chrysler 113,000 miles just got the lightning bolt light come on the dash a couple days ago, and a car just dies completely no matter where you are. Luckily, it is able to restart.

So what happened, got it home, and I think it went one more time at a light, it died and restarted and got it home. Anyhow, I called because of the questions. I always go on YouTube to try to see what, what's going on with this dashboard lights. It's a red light that's got a lightning bolt that comes in the middle of it. And so the ones I saw said that, well, when it comes on, it has something to do with the throttle control

and also the computers that control, you know, your gas going into your, what we used to call carburetors. Now it's probably fuel injectors. But anyhow, it said, well, what you can do is, turn your key to the on position don't turn your car on but turn it to the on position depress your gas pedal all the way to the floor then let it all the way up

then turn the key off and then start your car again and that might reset the computer what you might know that I don't know is they said well the problem people have is that unless your check engine light comes on with your lightning bolt light they can't even diagnose what the problem would be, whether it's a throttle replacement part

or whether it's the computer and the dashboard part that has to be replaced. So I was going to ask, is it possible that maybe that light just came on and because I did the on and off thing, that would completely fix the problem? Or how would you go about getting that resolved if it happened to you? That certainly sounds like a possibility to me. Unfortunately, I'm not very familiar with Chrysler's anymore. I know they used to have it where you could cycle the key a certain number of times, and the check engine light would blink as a Morse code to tell you any diagnostic trouble codes.

But now even that system has become severely outdated. Chuck, you've done a lot of research. Sounds like online. probably looked in the chat rooms and the Google and the rest of it. And apparently nobody knows the answer. Yeah, I would have to check with the Chrysler mechanic on that one. And he probably doesn't know either. It's possible.

What you'd really have to do is have a Chrysler technician from the factory, and the chances of him knowing are probably better than anybody else, but they might not know either. me, this whole diagnostic alert that in all cars, Chryslers, Toyotas, it's like trying to read Chinese. And why don't they just say in plain English or Spanish or whatever your language is in plain written language, this is what's wrong with your car. They give you a code or they give you a symbol or a combination of codes and symbols. They try to make it difficult. so you have to go to the dealer and pay a lot of money.

I just wonder why they would have a warning light that doesn't record any information about why the light came on. That seems crazy to me. Well, that's the thing that the one guy said, well, don't let the guy try to sell you a computer when it's not the computer problem. It could be a small minor thing that only costs us a little amount of money. But I just kind of wanted to call it let people know that just because you're a red lightning bowl. light comes on, they have a phoenix called limp mode, so you could actually restart the car and drive it off the side of the road or get to the next exit. Right, yeah.

Most cars will try to have a limp mode for if something fails like that, it'll still give you the chance to at least drive at a slower speed to get the car out of a danger situation. I have a limp mode. But without causing damage in the car. When I get out of bed in the morning, I have a lump mode. No, we've all got that one. Yeah. Well, I appreciate your information.

I'm sure I'm going to end up going to the mechanic and having to plug it in to see if you could find anything. They say if it keeps happening, some people say, well, it could actually clear it with that key thing, and you might be good to go and not have to worry about it. But I just thought maybe you guys had seen that happen and people had cleared it and never had to get a part replaced or something like that. Yeah. Well, thanks, Chuck. I love to hear from you in Oklahoma.

You call us back and give us a, you know, fill us in on what took place. I will. Thank you very much and have a good holidays. Thank you. Happy holidays. Have a great weekend. We are going to talk to Mike down in Aventura. Aventura.

Good morning. You're way south. I'll tell you, this coverage map that I'm looking at, Mike, it's just amazing. the number of people that we're reaching in that area. Thank you so much for calling. This is a voice from out of the past. I don't know if you remember me or not. I used to listen to you back when you're on WSWN.

Oh, wow. That was 15 years ago. The blind guy that was interested in... We were all going to get together. I remember now. Yeah. Yeah. What I was wondering is, are they making any new laws where the cars have to have some sound to it so you'll hear it coming by?

You know, that's an interesting question. They jumped on that big time with a hybrids in the Prius, and now they don't. I'm driving a Tesla, which I have, you mind if I digress back? because I do remember you very well. I was very excited about the fact you're blind, sight impaired, and, you know,

you're just a dynamic, bright guy, and you contribute, and you've got a real niche in society because you can't drive a car. And I was talking about autonomous cars, and we were going to try to get someone pick you up in this autonomous car

so you could say, take me to, you know, True Old East Station and North Lake Boulevard in North Palm Beach. And it would be so cool that that would happen. Well, we never did it. But now, Mike, I am driving a fully autonomous Tesla. Self-driving, Nancy and I came to the studio this morning, and that car have a sign on the back because when I'm doing full autonomy, I want other people to know that, you know, that I'm not driving the car.

so it would make me comfortable with someone told me this guy isn't driving the car. So maybe, maybe we'll figure out a way to do what we talked about. Would you be game to coming all the way to the studio in a fully autonomous car? I sure am. Wow, we'll talk. We'll have to give us your contact information,

and we'll talk about this for another show. Yeah. Mike, do you know how to get in touch with me? No, how do I get in touch with you? Okay, Mike, I'll tell you what. Why don't you just drop my number down? 561. 5-6-1-386-6-6-4-9-8. And this autonomous driving is another world.

I can't even explain it to you. You know, there are no words until you get into the car. It's just amazing when I drive or Earl drives, there's something new to learn. every single time and you must remember i do i must remember that i am not in my avalon okay the number one more time is five six one three eight six three eight six six four nine eight and your name is now as your your name is um i'm nancy i'm earle's wife oh yeah i remember you i remember you uh-huh yeah we talked we talked a lot by the way i have a friend of mine who may be interested in buying a car, either a used car or a new car.

Okay, great. You can use that phone number. Okay. All right. Okay, this will be exciting, Mike. We'll follow through on this and get you into an autonomous car. All right. Autonomous car.

Okay, do you have any other questions? No, that's about it. I just want to say, how many stations are you on now? Are you still on? We're on 95. We're on 95.9. FM, 106.9 FM, 103.1, HD3. We're also on 96.9 FM, 95.3 FM, and 1470 AM.

We're everywhere. We're everywhere. We're in Palm Beach. We're in Broward. We're in Martin. We're in St. Lucie. We're in Glades, Hendry. we're in Indian River Okachovie and guess what Mike we reach over four million listeners

in South Florida that's great can you believe that Mike I mean this is a real flashback we just walked on memory lane I can't believe that it's been as long as it's been since we spoke with you right five six one three eight four three eight six six six four nine six four Yes. Okay. All right. I'll have my friend I'll call you too.

Okay, great, Mike. Happy holidays. You too. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. 877-960-90-60 or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. I have a feeling that Rick has got a whole lot of Facebook messages.

We've got some texts come in. YouTube, everything. Let's do them. All right. Well, we'll start right off with Anne-Marie. I know Stu loves to have Anne-Marie's first one every day. Good morning, Anne-Marie. Thank you. And she says, good morning.

And this fits right in. I'm looking forward to the day when autonomous vehicles are totally reliable, and all a person needs to do is input the destination, and the vehicle will safely deliver you to that location using the best route as dictated by geography, weather, traffic conditions. One, how close do you think engineers and programmers are to achieving that level of sophistication? And two, when do you predict that totally reliable autonomous vehicles will be available at a price that the average family can afford? Thanks. P.S., I hope Stu is

feeling better. Oh, thank you. Thanks, Amory. That's a great question. Your questions are always great, Amber, you're the best caller, texter. And you hit the heart of the matter, which is the reliability of the current autonomous and then the time span when it will become safer than humans driving. It isn't, I don't think, safer today. Nancy and I drive in it, fully autonomous, and I feel more nervous, to be honest with you. I love my Tesla. I'm a Tesla devotee devotee, I love Elon Musk, and I know a lot of people out there hate him and they hate Tesla's. I mean, it's really kind of cool. It's like, you know, it's, either you love Elon or you hate him. And, but this Tesla is not ready to be released as an autonomous car. And I find

myself, I always worry about my own driving. I mean, I try to be careful. So you're thinking about yourself. And then, if you're a good driver, you think about the other drivers on the road. That's a lot to think about. You haven't got time to text or drink coffee. If you think about those two things, seriously. Now there's a third thing you think about, the car. Because I can't help when I'm in a Tesla with full autonomy turned on. I can't help but be my own driver. I know how close I would follow that car ahead of me. I know if I'd begin breaking for that caution light. I know that I see that dog on a leash over there started across the street. That's the way my mind goes. I don't think it'll be a long time before we are cured

of thinking how we would do it. And then you have to watch the other drivers. This is where the autonomous cars, I don't think, quite, are there yet. Think about this. When you're in traffic, don't you try to make eye contact. You come to a four-way stop. You want to make eye contact. I try to wave and smile at people because I know that if they smile at me, they see me. We communicate. We communicate visually.

And the autonomous car doesn't get that. My autonomous Tesla is too careful. And we go through a construction area, and they're just too careful. By that, they break too often, too much. and if they see a human being on the side of the road that is standing a little bit too far off the curb, they'll stop. Yeah, it's an obstacle course, of course, for them right now, autonomous.

It's definitely an obstacle course, and you have to be more aware of the drivers around you because you're driving altogether different than the, you know, an everyday driver. And the autonomous vehicle is enforcing the laws that most of us have broken all this time we've been driving. So it's a delicate situation. Imagine the day that's coming when there are so many autonomous cars on the road, it's 99% of them. And they all are communicating with each other over the air, communication,

instantaneous communication way faster than the... If you answer the Annery's question right there, that will be the day. And Marie, when everybody is danced into the same sound, same music,

and every car talks to every other car, it'll be so much safer. I look forward to that day. Yeah. Everything will be in rhythm. You know, it'll be in sync. It'll be much easier. Yeah, 7-7-960, or you can text us at 772.

497-6530. Now back to Rick. And this one is from Kyle S. Good morning, everyone. I hope Stu's back is improving because back pain can be debilitating. My dad needs to walk with a walker because of a spinal fusion surgery. And he says, my question is, if Toyota still gives dealers end of month and end-of-year bonuses for hitting sales numbers with the inventories being so very low still? Before the shortages, people have said that the last day of the month, and especially the last day of the year, a dealer would be willing to lose thousands on a new car deal if it means they might hit a $100,000 bonus from the manufacturer. Is that still the case this year? No. I mean, they still have bonuses, but they've been reduced considerably. There's incentives. The big incentive that car dealers have today is to earn more cars.

By that, sell your cars faster because the faster you sell the cars, the more production, the more higher percentage of that particular manufacturer's production. If you're an accurate dealer and you sell cars twice as fast as your competitor down the street, you'll get twice as many cars. And when the smoke settles and the huge demand, low supply situation evaporates, you'll be ahead of the game. But incentives are about half of what they were before the COVID issue and the shortage issue. And this next one from Jay says,

Thank you to Earl and Rick for responding to my text regarding my 2004 Corolla with the P.O.420 trouble code last week. Unfortunately, ignoring the check engine light is not an option for me since I live in Illinois, which requires emission testing. Do you recommend taking the aftermarket route as an alternative to spending $2,500 for an OEM catalytic converter? Thanks for producing a show that is valuable resource to the consumer, and I hope Stu is recovering and feeling better soon. I would get the lowest price converter I could find. I would absolutely go that route, and I would even investigate, talk to a part supplier about LKQ. LKQ is a company called Like Kind Quality, and they actually are a salvage company. They get parts for cars from junkyards all around the nation, and they may very well be able to find you a manifold with that catalytic converter in it at a much lower price that while it's not brand new, it may still have quite a bit of life left in it and could save you a fortune on that.

Great information. But I would definitely look at other options, aftermarket, or a used part, and try that and see what you can find on that source. Boy, I love that. I just Googled it. LKQ, online auto parts searched by make, model, and year. Comprehensive selection of affordable used auto parts, inventory of 200-plus parts facilities. They have 200 facilities all over the United States. LKQ, like kind quality. Very good. Great idea. Thanks.

We actually get at the shop, we get quite a few engines and transmissions and other items like that from LKQ because of how much it can save the customer cost-wise. Yeah, absolutely. The old junkyard, for you old guys out there like me, junkyards don't exist anymore. They might call them junkyards, but they're high-time tech. They're digitalized, computerized. They sort by quality your bank model. It is a huge source of saving a ton of money. Never buy an OEM part new if you can get the good quality, like kind quality of a... Recycling. Recycling. The greatest feeling in the world back in the day was going to the junkyard and it saved me

so much money. It was unbelievable. Good place to hide a body. Rick, I'm going to have to interrupt you. We've got a bunch of calls backed up. All right. Have you wrapped that last text up? Yes. We've got some others, but they can hold.

Okay. We are going to go to, we are going to go to Denise. And Denise is calling us from Singer Island. Good morning, Denise. Good morning. Welcome. How are you? Thank you.

How did you find out about our show, Denise? Well, I found out a few weeks ago from a friend of mine that listens all the time. And I actually called in two weeks ago to tell you about an experience I had with Napleson on North Lake Boulevard about my fires and a blowout and how their customer service never really fixed the problem and lied to me. and I had a confrontation with their manager. But in the meantime, I took the car where I bought it to Wallace and Stewart to see if the service was going to be any different. And actually, it was a little better, but the first time I brought it in to see if they said they had to inspect the wheel

and see if the insurance would pay for it. While they were inspecting for two hours, I was called into the new car place so they could tell me a new car or convince me that they had these great deals, which they did. It was amazing how the price kept fluctuating down. But I did want to buy a car, and it turns out I had to go back a second time because they didn't really, you know, look at the tire well enough to submit a claim. and I was there two hours, and the final result was they were going to submit the claim but didn't think that it would be paid for because I had wearing hair on the tire. So anyway, I just walked, I came away thinking, well, they're all the same, and the guy told me,

if you want us, we have a guy that can fix everything, and he doesn't charge that much. So going through all of that hours with Ballas and then Napleton, I'm really discouraged You know, I don't think I'd go back and buy another Hounde for sure Boy, exhausting Yeah, it was attracting And yeah, so I just, you know, I don't know

If they, you know, well, they don't give you the right information And their goal is to sell you a new car Pretty much, but I, you know Were you alone, Denise? Yeah, I was, I was alone. Okay, is that usually how you operate if you go into a... Unfortunately, yes, I'm a single person, and I, you know, I think I thought I was able to do it. I realized, you know, you need to go with someone, especially a man.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, I suppose, you know, it could be either or, but it's a, it's a, as my husband refers to it a real minefield out there and just when you think you've got complete control the show goes sideways and it's just not for a woman it could apply to anyone and everyone so just don't discount yourself because you just said as a single woman and it sounds like as if you're pretty knowledgeable I thought I was and then you know I couldn't believe like you know And the salesperson sat me down because I looked at a car. I said, oh, I would love that if you could do an even trade.

And he said, we can't do that, but I'm sure we can do a good deal. So, you know, work up the numbers, go out, talk to the manager. He came back. I said, I can't do it. Then another manager, I guess the general manager, came to talk to me. And he made me so many offers. If I wanted a new car, I wouldn't have refused. But I was like, why are they doing this?

He's so willing, you know. And at the end, I said, listen, I'm not interested. I like my car. I don't want, you know, a new car where I live on Singapore Island. And he's like, well, that was like a waste of time. And I said, okay. Honestly. So, anyway, that's, I wanted to tell you, you know, how I followed it up on bad and how, you know, it's really difficult.

Like you said, I have to go with someone. Absolutely. There's, you know, all the time that they spent, you know, we're in desperate times. Everybody wants to sell a car. And even if you don't need it or you're not financially ready for it, Denise, I can't thank you enough for calling back and following up. We certainly appreciate it. Well, thank you. Thank you for listening to me. Oh, we'll listen to you any time. Thank you for doing this. Yes. You're quite welcome. us a call again. Okay. I'll give you another follow-up. Okay. Yeah, that'd be great. There's so, we can't have enough follow-ups. Well, thank you so much. You're welcome. You too. Have a great weekend. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-60. John, thank you so much for holding.

John's calling us from Palm City. Good morning, John. to everyone. I'll be brief with all the backup for phone calls. Oh, thank you. The first important call that was made of the day was involved with the Honda Tocata airbag. The incident happened in February 22nd, 2020 this year, and it happened in Bowley, Green, Kentucky, and the driver was killed immediately. What happens is the ammonium nitrate, which sets off the airbag, is inside a metal canister, and it ruptured, and the shrapnel killed. him. It's sad, but people are not looking into the recalls. They can get it done free at the dealer, and this is one of the cars that had the recall on it. And government statistics so far show

33 worldwide people have been killed with the Takata airbag problem. 24 of those alone were in the USA, so we stress the importance of checking out any recall, whether it's Takata or anything. on any car that you own or you tend to buy. So that's briefly what I want to mention. This happens in this year in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and the driver was killed instantly. Amazing. And this whole topic of, you know, the airbags,

it's been kind of, so to speak, silent. You know, not as many consumers are paying attention. But thank you so much for bringing it to our attention. That's what this show is all about. Thank you, guys. Thank you for listening. We're going to have our mystery shopping report, John, from, I believe, Mercedes of Palm Beach. So stay tuned for that.

We are going to stay on the phones, or we're going to go to Bob, who's calling from Pompano. Good morning, Bob. Good morning. How you doing? Good to see you guys on the air. I have a question. I'm looking at trading in my S-Class Mercedes Renewan, and they have something called. four-wheel steering. What is the, is the skinny on that, is that a recommended thing or

problematic? It's apparently relatively new for that car. There's been a few other models of cars that have tried this in the past and due to various reasons, those cars just didn't really take off very well. Four-wheel steering, I can see it being a fun functional thing as electronic steering, electric steering has now become a main thing over the old hydraulic power steering. So who knows, this feature maybe its time has come. But imagine a car that literally when you turn the steering wheel, all four wheels are moving in conjunction, and it's going to cut down the radius of your turns, the amount of space needed dramatically. I mean... We're talking about performance cars, basically.

I mean, for our computer car, going point A to point B. But if you're looking for a fancy sports car type of feeling and a racing type of a car, four-wheel steering is the ultimate. It's safer, it's more flexible, but it's also a lot more expensive to buy and a lot more expensive to repair. I'm not sure that you're going to see a whole lot of them on the road. road but if they if they perfect it my guess would be Mercedes would would probably be a you know a really cool experience to drive as far as the

expenses concerns another issue I want to bring up briefly I want to trade this car I have a 2016 Mercedes the Zino series it's fully equipped I went to trade in it and we a decent trade in price but they depreciate a lot and to anew and then at the very end of the deal I said they wanted to add $15,000 onto the list price for a new car bringing the new Mercedes up to $140, $1.60, something like that. And

how is it now when you buy these cars? I used to negotiate now. They control negotiation. That was about two years ago, a year and a half ago maybe. So we just kept the always, it was fine, no problem. I'll use that one. But I'm 82 years

old, new is new, and I have the ability to to buy, the expenses to buy that much, but it bothers me if they would add $15,000 over the list, over the sticker price.

Yeah. They get what they can, and that's what the market's like these days, but if you can afford it and you want it, God bless you. Yeah, but the thing is, you know, I'm saying, are they still doing that, you know?

They're still doing it, but it's coming down as mitigating a bit it'll probably be several more months before the market is anywhere near back to normal but yeah they're still getting a premium on the average over MSRP

you mentioned that you would help in buying a car or helping and find one something I heard it I was half listening to it this morning is that something you could assist in I think he's referring to your vigilante program

oh the vigilantes oh yeah That's what it was, right? Yeah, I've got my vigilante hand right here. I'm glad you gave me a chance to put it on. Yeah, thank you. All you're all you streamers out there. There you go. We have on Erlandcars.com, we have an application for folks that have that ability to help their neighbor buy, lease, maintain, or repair a car.

A lot of you folks out there are extremely schooled in how to negotiate a good price or maybe how to find the right repair person. So if you've got that ability, you like to help people, go to earluncars.com, fill out an application. We'll send you a hat, cool little hat with a nice little vigilante symbol on the top, and we'll put your name and contact information with your permission. And folks around the country will be able to call you. If they're not tuning in Erlon Car's on Saturday with us, they can call you and get a little bit of help. Help your fellow man buy a car. Yeah, and Marty is the leader of the pack.

I guess you listen to Golden Hands in the same spot years ago, and he had a very good show on about cars. I like that you're on this spot. I'll be using it frequently. Hey, Bob. One of my great resources, Donovan on YouTube, this guy, he's got a lot of knowledge on the luxury car end. And he says he would recommend staying away from the four-wheel

steering on Mercedes. He says, from his experience, they're not very reliable. And so far, Porsche is the only company that's actually been able to get a four-wheel steering that works quite reliably. Is Donovan a vigil on me? I don't know if he is. I was just going to ask that. He should be.

If I were going to be in the market for a car, I would want him by my side. Yes. He'd probably get me below their invoice price even nowadays. Definitely. So we have Marty, and we have Donovan on what? I'm sorry, what was that, Bob? How do I contact him? Donovan, what?

He's one of our listeners on the YouTube channel. I don't know if he's a vigilante or not. We need to try to recruit him. That's good. Most definitely. Thank you guys very much. I'll let you go and I'll have more calls. Yeah, well, Bob, go to Earl on Cars and take a look at Earl's vigilantes.

It's a win-win situation. Sign up. Okay. Thank you so much. Have a good day. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. We're going to go to Gary, who's calling us from Naples. Good morning, Gary. Good morning, everyone. Nice to hear from you. Nice to hear from you. I've called a couple times, and you guys do a great job on the show,

and I've been in the car business 43 years, but with all that being said, I think this may go to Rick. Rick, I have a Hyundai that I use as a computer car, and I put you know, should I, I'm getting tires. Should I get

the factory tires or should I get the Porelli P0 rated tires? Because I put out about 100 miles round trip a day and I don't mind the price point. I'm just looking for a better tire, because I think tires are the first thing when I commute.

Well, judging by the idea that you've got a very small contact patch of the tires that actually keep your car on the road and keep you in control, I would go for the highest quality tires I could find, and I would go on to, like, consumer reports, check what their recommendations are, and I would go with that, and if the P-0s are rated highly and they're good tires, I would go with it, but I would, you know, just make sure you sick with the same size tire, but I would get the highest quality I could get because, I mean, when you come right down to it, you've got a little tiny square on each tire that is actually touching the ground, and that's the only contact you have with keeping that car under control

and all the various speeds that you're traveling, and all the weather conditions and the road conditions. So, yeah, the tires are the most important thing on the car, in my opinion. Great. I just want to say one thing. The way you guys operate your radio show is terrific. Now, I can just imagine the way you operate your dealership, but you must just be a top-notch organization, and I think you do a great job. Gosh, with all your experience, we really appreciate that. that is quite a compliment well you guys i listen to yeah i listen i really live i really live on the i'm from naples but i live here on the east coast and i'm still in the automotive high-end automotive business in the pre-owned business but i listen to you guys on the way into the office

on saturdays and i think the problem with today is no one complements people they do a great job i think you guys do a great job and my hat goes off to you thank you very much thank you thank you very much and thank you for tuning in be safe guys and have a happy holiday happy holidays and again thank you for tuning in we hope to hear from you again uh we're gonna go back to rick i think you've got a whole lot for us down there okay uh let's see here um i'm actually gonna go with a youtube comment here um donovan says ladies uses hydraulics to do the rear steering when you've got electric steering. Why? And they do up to 10 degrees of movement left and right. Porsche uses an electric motor to turn the rear wheels, but only up to about four degrees and it puts a lot less stress on things doing a lower degree of

movement and using an electric motor is far more reliable. Very true. Steve Mags is commenting here, he says, in my opinion in general, Mercedes-Benz isn't noted for reliability. As such, four-wheel steering only adds to an already very complex car. Buyer beware. I got to agree with that one. Oh, and on our other channel here, Kyle in Pennsylvania had asked, if our dealer gets a trade-in, a Honda, for example, with a Takata recall, can our shop fix it or does it need to be sent to a a Honda dealer. Honda dealer. And that is the case where each car has to go to its specific dealer.

As a matter of fact, as a Toyota dealer, we can't even do Lexus recalls. Even though Toyota and Lexus are basically the same company owned by the same top end, Lexus has to go to Lexus, Honda has to go to Honda, Audi to Audi, and so on. The only exception I know of is large national. rental companies are able to have warranty certified technicians under their employ for the different manufacturers. So Hertz, for example, would be able to do a Takata recall as an exception to the rule. Right.

Okay. Now, this one is from Bob. He sent in a photo of a newspaper clipping here. And in it, I'll go just for this little short section. Earl Stewart, who owns a Toyota dealership in North Palm Beach, Florida, recently expanded training sessions for his workers, pushing them to response to customers quickly and ranking them in comparison to their peers.

He even dispatched undercover shoppers with code names like Agent Lightning to test staffers. I'm very disturbed because my salespeople have become order takers, he said. and that is from Bob and he says Keep up the good work and I hope Stu is feeling better Yeah that was in the Wall Street Journal and I'm not going to be real popular

I'm kind of afraid to go back into the dealership now But I'm not blaming my sales force For this I'm blaming it on the situation We have a radical change In our culture environment the pandemic, the microchip shortages, the war in Ukraine. The world is topsy-turvy, and the car business went upside down. Not enough cars to sell, prices off the chart, and there was no more salesmanship involved.

Salespeople, frankly, now, we have over 2,000 cars on order at our dealership. And if you walk into my showroom, you'll see very few people walking around because if you want a car, you do it online or you do it by the telephone or text. So the art of salesmanship, the art of what you normally experience from an honest, good, quality salesperson doesn't happen anymore. And we need to get smart, get retrained, and get back to way things will be

because they will come back to normal one day. Yeah, absolutely. You know, I'm going to interrupt Rick for a minute, and this Wall Street Journal, this is a very, very interesting and Earl will share with you in just a couple of minutes. We're going to go back to Rick. Okay. This one is from Wes.

I have a lease that matures in February. Why slash how am I getting mailings from various dealers, manufacturers that know my payment amount, etc.? Unfortunately, it's a matter of public record that's able to, I guess, depending on state laws, there's a surprising amount of information on consumers for what they buy, drive, and so on and so forth. Okay.

And sometimes they guess. I mean, the warranty companies I notice will say, okay, the average mileage is this per year. You bought the car at this time, do the arithmetic. You probably got about this amount of miles, so sometimes it's a guess. and this one is from Johnny he says according to this you may not have to go to the dealer if you're buying out a lease

now let's see here depends on the on the make some some leasing companies and some manufacturers allow you to go directly to the manufacturer others are still requiring you to go through a dealer

if you have to go through a dealer dealer be aware they will try to jack the price up and we We had a caller from Billy Pompano earlier in the show that was talking about that very thing. And, well, this one is from Volksw – he's got an article here, or I guess it's a clip from a website from Volkswagen Credit, where they're asking what are the steps to complete the purchase of a vehicle, and it shows how to get the agreement package and make a check payable and send all this in to the Volkswagen credit,

and that would take care of your lease. Yeah, coincidentally, I say tug-in-cheek, Volkswagen Credit was a subject of the lawsuit in South Florida. Volkswagen Credit was exposed on Channel 10, WPLG TV by Jeff Weinseer, and they settled for an undisclosed amount because they were screwing the customers, just like the Volkswagen dealers were. So if you have a lease car today and you go to a dealer or a leasing company,

the Consumer Leasing Act of 1976, a federal law says you must be able to buy that vehicle for the purchase option price in your lease contract, not one penny more. Now, you do have to pay state fees like sales tax, and you do have to pay for a license plate. But the dealership, the leasing company, gets nothing. You have that purchase option price and not one penny more. And this one from Mark and Palm Beach Gardens, he says, to the young lady from Singer Island, you should have been encouraged to use Earl's vigilantes. Thank you.

Mark, we got to agree with you there, buddy. Thank you, Mark. You know, we've got to, let me mention something I haven't got around to that I should. talking about used cars, and we're talking about lease cars and options to purchase now. The good news for you lease owners will continue, according to the automotive news forecast, up until 2023. The positive equity in car leases will continue into 2023. So if you had a 2020 car and lease ended in 2022, your positive equity, believe it or not, on the average would be $8,536.

So if you lease a car in 2020 and you lease was up in 2022, you could make almost $9,000 profit over your purchase option price. That's why the dealers are trying to take advantage of you And it hits you with a lot of fees to they want a piece of the pie Because you're getting a big piece of the pie with that equity So be careful if you have a lease car now And you should be able to make a nice profit If you turn it in in 2003 Okay

Where are we? We are ready for the mystery shopping report Mystery Shopping Report. My apologies in advance. You've heard a couple callers. My son, Stu, a regular member of this show here, is the guy in charge of Mystery Shopping Reports. He coordinates directly with Agent Lightning,

who was quoted in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. And she's very happy about that. And I am, too. She does a great job. Fantastic job. But we don't have the expertise with Stu. He's got a back issue and he's working to get that fixed. You'll be back shortly, I hope, and we'll be able to have a more intelligible, more classy, Mr. Shopping Report.

So I'm holding it in my hands. I will fumble and stumble a little bit because it isn't put together neatly and cleanly the way Stu always does. We shopped Mercedes Benz of Palm Beach, and once again, I address all you know. new listeners for true oldies in South Florida all the way from Aventura and Pompinil in Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood and Boynton and Boker-Rotone. I mean, South Florida, we got you covered and we are doing the mystery shopping reports. You can rest assured we will be sending Agent Lightning down to Hollywood and Aventura and Pompano all over. We're going to be hitting all those dealers down there. In Florida,

the further south you go, the worst the treatment by the dealer gets. We call it the belly of the beast or the, what do I say before, the, uh, something. Oh, Sodom and Gomor. We're going to hit Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale. They're rough on you down there, folks.

And Agent Lightning is going down there. So you true all these listeners, stay tuned next Saturday and every Saturday between 8 and 10, We're live on the radio in South Florida, and I promise you lots of mystery shopping reports. And you dealers down there, I know you're listening,

well, you're going to send Agent Lightning in, and she's going to go to the whole car buying or leasing process, and she's going to tell it like it is. If your salesman tries to light, cheat, and steel, it's going to be on the air, your name, the name of your dealership, the name of the salespeople, the name of the sales manager. So clean up your act, South Florida.

Yeah, and let me tell you something. Nobody has sued the recovering car dealer. And these mystery shops have been going on for 20, 21 years. Yeah, sue me, I dare you. Because truth is a perfect defense against libel and slander. I dare you to find one lie, one distortion, a misstatement of truth in any of my mystery shopping reports. We're very careful. And here we go.

Mercedes Benz of Palm Beach we shopped Agent Lightning did I'll speak in the first person as if I were Agent Lightning I arrived at lunchtime and I was greeted by a salesman named Vivlin

Vivlin V-I-V-L-A-N V-V-L-A-N He was very friendly asked what brings me in today I showed him this picture of a car and Agent Lightning takes her smartphone and she takes pictures of everything

I mean, she's a really good spy and she does a great job. I was looking at this picture of this Mercedes online, pointed to the showroom floor and asked, is that the car? He took a look and agreed that it was.

Okay. So, Mercedes vans of Palm Beach are actually in North Palm Beach and we mystery shopped them this week. Okay, again, I am now Agent Lightning. He asked me if I had mind following him to his desk. I said, I'd really like to look at the car first. He then asked

for my license so he could put me in the system while I looked and then asked me to text in my phone number. So that's interesting. That's a neat way to do it. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Reluctantly, she didn't like that. I wouldn't like it either, I guess, but I text in my phone number. I continued looking at the car and taking pictures before going over to where his desk was. He never said a word to me about the features of the car or taking it for a test drive.

Well, that's not good. Just let me to look while he went to his desk. Now, it made sense I figured out why he wasn't that into showing me the car. Are you sitting down for this one? I mean, hang on to your seats. Here's why he didn't look too interested.

He was watching the world, World Cup soccer game on his computer. Now, I'm a customer. I'm in there to buy a Mercedes at Mercedes in North Palm Beach and this guy's watching television. He's watching the soccer game.

Hard to believe, right? I mean, you'd think he'd at least turn it off or mute it or something, but, I mean, he wasn't ashamed of it. Maybe he had a big bet on it? Probably. I don't know what it was. I figured he wasn't showing me the car. He was watching the World Cup soccer on his computer.

Volume was up loud. He could use headphones or earphones. I could barely hear him when he was talking. It's a live picture too. I mean, this is a new. I mean, every now and then we get something we've never seen before. Here it is a salesman so complacent and so casual and could care less about the customer

that he's got the soccer game blaring out at the same time he's trying to talk to the customer. I could barely hear him. Vivalent asked me if I was planning on financing or leasing then and how much I was planning on putting down before excusing himself to go get the numbers. So there's a first. I got confused.

On that last sheet, you can look for Croatia and Brazil. Okay, I saw that. We're in the final minutes. Okay, Croatia and Brazil. Oh, the reason I got confused is Agent Lightning was talking about the soccer game. And I'm reading the report. the report and says Croatia and Brazil. I said, what the hell

is Croatia and Brazil got to do with this? Anyway, that's what it is. Croatia and Brazil were the final minutes. He actually walked away to go give me the numbers when Brazil missed hit the cross park and lost. He left

the live streaming on while he went for numbers. A few minutes later, he turned with his workstead. Here, here I'm making a purchase. second largest purchase of my life and I'm in a Mercedes dealership so you know I'm paying all the money that might be the first largest purchase

and I'm nervous and this guy's watching the damn soccer game you get more attention at McDonald's unbelievable okay I hope the owners of Mercedes of North Palm Beach are listening because Vivlin is not treating your customers right

Okay, back to Agent Lightning again. He asked me how soon I was planning on buying and what I thought about the price. I said, well, soon, and is that the best price you can do? He smiled and said, times are a bit different now. He said that there aren't as many cars available. He then asked me if I had a number in mine. I said, well, of course, everyone wants the best price.

I love to be able to get below MSRP. Do you think that's possible? He then said that if he goes to his sales manager now and just says she wants the best possible price, he's going to say, well, that's it. He suggested that if I'm ready to sign papers now, to give him a number, I want a number. This is old school, man, old school. I'm willing to buy at my number, he'll see what he can do. I thanked him for his vice, and I'll have to think about it. He highlighted his phone number and said I could either have the card or take a picture of it.

So there we are now. He came back with a worksheet. This worksheet showed that the price, asking price was above MSRP. They said the market value of selling price was $42,510, and that was the MSRP. but they added $295 in taxable fees and $1,000, $9.95, a dock fee, which is hidden fees. So they added $1,300 over MSRP, which is really not too crazy on a new Mercedes, but it's still over MSRP. That's pretty much the story.

I mean, I don't know what we have a precedent said, for someone watching a soccer game with a volume turned up, at the same time, he's trying to sell a $43,000 vehicle. I don't get it. Interesting. Actually, I do get it. And this fits in perfectly with a few comments

we've had earlier. And my comment about my Wall Street Journal article, salespeople and cardiolips are complacent. They're making too much money. They're not having to sell because there's a shortage of the supply of the vehicles that they're selling. And they can ask just about any price they want and get it. And they're making big money. Car dealership salespeople are making, a good salesman used to make $10,000 a month.

That's pretty good, right? 10,000. Now a good salesman's making $30,000 or $40,000 a month. So everybody's getting rich. The dealer's getting rich. The salespeople are getting rich, and they're complacent. So what's this guy doing? He's watching soccer.

He comes to work, he turns on the soccer game. And if a customer comes in to Mercedes and North Palm Beach, they're bothering him. You know, that's the reason he's got the volume turned all the way up. Hey, I can't hear the game. You're talking about this car. I can't hear the game. And that's literally... He wasn't even interested in taking Agent Lightning for a test drive.

No. They didn't want to leave the show room. He was watching the soccer game. Exactly. Probably had a bet on the game. Anyway, there we are. We vote on these shopping reports. And you folks down there and two oldies that are listening in South Florida, four million of you, four million of you have been added to our audience. I'm so excited if you're listening to 96.9 FM or 95.3 FM, 1470 a.m. if you're in Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Pompano, Boca Raton, Point Beach, Wellington, West Palm Beach.

I mean, we cover all of South Florida. Now, if you're listening and you want to vote, you can text us at 772. I forgot this text number. Yes, folks, I forgot to mention before the mystery shop. Your vote is very important, and you can vote. It's 772-497-6530. 772 497676530

vote on the mystery shop It is Mercedes-Benz of Palm Beach And we vote A to F, just like in school But we vote on the curb Because we don't have any perfect car dealers Just like there's no perfect anybody And particularly with car dealers So if there was a good experience

comparatively speaking with other car dealers then you give them a B or a C plus, maybe an A, they're very rare. But we don't look for perfection. We grade on the curve. So please text us, phone us, YouTube us, and we'll start with Rick. Okay. We've got Jonathan and Wellington. World Cup takes precedence over a car sale.

Automatic F. Walk out now. Mark and Palmish Gardens. Dear sales manager, time for a new salesman, D-minus. Let's see here. Oh, they are just coming in. Tom Steckle, F for the salesman, C for hidden fees that they'll soccer for. Wow.

Wayne White with an F. Tim Gilliland, Doc fee still gets a D. Scott Hunter, C, fees weren't too bad, but soccer game watching, F. Rocky Blocketeel, the price wasn't all that bad, but having the game on is a deal breaker. I give him a D. Brian said Lacko, F for the salesman, C for the dealership. Mark Ryan, D on the deal, and an F for the sales rep, the dealership should terminate the salesperson, so he has all the free time he needs to watch soccer and look for a different job.

Mark Smith says, I concur, D minus. Lance Cavett says Earl Stewart for Congress. I think you're too honest for that. I couldn't pass back that. No, I was evil in my younger days. They dig up a lot of dirt on me. I'd never make it. Mark Anderson, Mark from St. Louis, pathetic salesman.

I would give him a yellow card, D plus. Joseph Kelleher, F. Negan 1, F, F, F, F, F, no. Oh, and our buddy Donovan. Donovan, I would have just walked away at this point, total F. For me, I'm, salesman obviously gets an F on that one, and the dealership, I would say, well, they didn't really do anything egregious there,

so I would give the dealership a C, but the salesman, he gets an F on that one. Yeah, I think the salesman's in trouble. The way I feel bad, because we exposed it, but maybe he deserved it. I have a feeling that he's going to be disciplined for his behavior. So, Nancy, what's your language? I'm going to give the salesperson an F, and I'm going to give the dealership a D.

That's reasonable. I'm going to go a little higher with a dealership. I'm going to give them a C. But I give Vivalen an F as a salesperson. They shouldn't be selling cars. you have to have a little respect for the customer. Even if it's easy to sell a car, you know, if you want to take a break and watch a soccer game,

maybe that's okay. I don't think it's a good idea. If you walked into an Apple store or if you walked into Costco and you're looking for help and you saw the salespeople watching, you know, the soap operas or the football games, I mean, it would leave a negative impression. So I think Vivalent needs a leave of absence to get his mind right.

But I'm going to give Mercedes of Palm Beach. I'll give them a C-minus. Okay. And Kirk in West by God, Virginia, Mercedes of Palm Beach, red card on the World Cup. This Joker earns a solid F. Okay, there you are. And let me remind you, we're going south. We're going down to Hollywood, Fort Laud.

Lauderdale, Bok, there's no dealers in Boker atone. They don't like car dealers in Bocardone, but they have some on Boyden, I believe,

and Pompano, maybe not Pompano. Del Rey? One or two. Delray, absolutely. But definitely Hollywood in that real Southwood area.

How about Fort Lauderdale? We mentioned them again. Yeah, Fort Lauderdale, absolutely, yeah. So, we're ready for us. We're coming. Agent Lightning has been dispatched. Absolutely.

And one last grade just came in from Martha Gillespie Beeman, Salesperson F, dealership C-minus. Yeah. There you go. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for joining in to Earl Stewart on Cars and for our new listeners. We just love you having a board, being a board, and I think that you're going to love us.

And we try to entertain and educate weekend and week. out, but we also depend upon you to educate us. We'll be right back here Saturday morning at 8 a.m. So stay tuned next week, Saturday morning. Have a wonderful weekend.