Earl Stewart on Cars - 12.16.2023 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Braman BMW of Jupiter

Episode Date: December 16, 2023

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits a local BMW dealer to see what they have in stock and how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2024 BMW 230i sedan on their showroom floor. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

And now, on with the show. Good morning, everybody. Well, we're back. We're live. We're in North Palm Beach, Florida, and we're streaming all over the world. We're here to tell you, hell you, how to avoid being ripped off by your car. car dealer. And we're very excited. We're very happy. Things are starting to go our way. I mean, we've been plugging away at this show for 20 years and frustrated. And I did a blog

just recently where I sent an open letter to all car dealers and asking them, please, you know, get your act in order and because you're doing this, this, and this wrong. And then it suddenly occurred to me, deja vu, I went back and I'd set the same letter out 15 years ago and nothing had changed. So it's funny how change comes about. It's almost like this digital revolution. We're having this artificial intelligence, crazy, crazy scientific explosion. This is happening now with a retail business for cardulars. The Federal Trade Commission has finally I mean, I thought maybe there wasn't really a Federal Trade Commission. It could be a figment of my imagination.

But sure enough, and I've been online, I've talked with the Federal Trade Commission. I've been contacted two or three times. I had a 45-minute interview with the Federal Trade Commission because they have come out now with some regulations, and they're going to come out. And unfortunately, July, it won't be as quick as we'd like it, but after so many, many years of no regulation or enforcement, they have some specific regulations, and the dealers are hysterical about it. I mean, the groundswell of complaints, too late now, because it's passed, and it will be law in July. I hope you've read some of this.

It's Google Federal Trade Commission. I love their acronym for their name is C. Cars, which is combating auto retail scams. How about that? So we've got some backdrops. I know Jonathan put some things together for you, but I love this. Federal Trade Commission, Cars, C-A-R-S,

combating auto retail scams. And this is going to make life so much easier for you. Hey, we might be out of a job here on Earl Store. By the way, we need to change our Earl Stewart on Cars to that acronym. I'm sure the Federal Trade Commission wouldn't mind if we borrowed it. So now we're on Earl Stewart on combating auto retail scams. It's a natural. Earl Stewart on Cars, combating auto retail scams.

scams. The outline, and I'm not going to read all this to you, the Federal Trade Commission ruling is very long. Number one, prohibits misrepresentation about material information. And there's a lot of detail of that that really grabs the dealers by the lapels and shakes them. Secondly, requires dealers to clearly disclose the offering price. If you're a regular Listen to the show, how many times have we, after mystery shopping report, after mystery shopping report, hundreds of thousands of those mystery shopping reports, they don't disclose the real offering price. The actual price, anyone can pay to get the car excluding only required government charges, excluding only government fees. That's the second major criteria. Third, it makes it illegal for dealers to charge consumers for add-ons that don't provide a benefit.

well hey dealer installed accessories nitrogen in the tires I'll give a little bit away about our mystery shopping report nitrogen in the tires and of course consumer reports has said that nitrogen the tires is totally worthless it's not going to hurt your tires any hey your tires are 78% nitrogen anyway they're selling you they're selling you something you already have and the fourth thing is requires dealers to get consumers express informed consent be charging before charging them for anything. That's kind of a legal term, but what it really means is you're really got to make it real clear to the dealer, I mean to the customer, about every single penny that is charged on that car.

And if it's not the advertised price plus government fees only, then you have to tell the customer that this is going to be added, but you don't have to take it. That's informed consent. So that's it in a nutshell. Love to hear your reaction. I would really love to hear from some car dealers out there. There's going to be a groundswell. And by the way, it's a double-team effort.

With this Amazon going to sell new cars in January, starting out with Hyundai and Kia and Genesis, Amazon, and that is really rocked the auto dealer world. they are in a state of confusion. I hate to say it. I hate to see it because I'm a car dealer. I have a toilet dealership. But I think the value of car dealerships is going to plunge.

I think that right now it's a ticket to a Fat City. We can sell cars for any price we want. We're selling them for thousands of dollars over a sticker. And we're taking advantage of the customer and the financing. but when they pull out all that you can get away with murder type of thing I think the value of cardinalships is going to plunge I hadn't thought about that

until I started yakking anyway this is this is the exciting news but to us the most exciting news is what you want to talk about so forget everything I just said if you have something you will call us about

we'd love to talk to you and our call-in number is 877-960 9960. That's 877-960. We will give priority to your phone calls. I'll love to hear your opinion on the Federal Trade Commission New Rules or anything else you want to suggest. I would love to hear some car dealers or car salespeople or car sales managers call. You can be anonymous if you want to. We have an anonymous link. You go to Earl. I'm sorry. You go to Your Anonymous Feedback. Your Anonymous Feedback.com.

So you can be a competitor of mine in this market, you can be a manufacturer, a manufacturer, you can be, you know, there are a lot of people out there don't want to, they don't want the publicity of talking on live radio. So go to Your Anonymous Feedback.com and tell us what's on your mind. We have a text number, and that text number is a favorite, a lot of people. We have one texture who is just incredible, Ann Marie, and we have a lot of other textures too that really have some extremely informed questions, intelligent questions.

A lot of them are on Facebook, but most of them are on YouTube. And Rick Kearney, our certified diagnostic master technician, monitors our YouTube channel, which is YouTube.com forward slash Erwin Cars. YouTube.com or slash roll. Of course, our text number I know I'm throwing a lot of numbers out of at you,

but if I don't and I forget to do it, then we lose because people that have things they want to say can't get through. So our text number is 772-497-6530. That text number is 772-497-6530.

My son, Stu Stewart, sitting right across from me right now. He monitors those texts, and we usually get to almost every one of them. The YouTube's, we get to also. We get to pretty much everything. So if you have a comment and criticism, especially if you're a car dealer or a manufacturer, we love attorneys. Why don't you attorneys call?

I mean, you've got some, this new ruling by the Federal Trade Commission is a meal ticket for you guys. this has got the new rules for the Trill Trade Commission come under the Unfair and DeSepi Trade Practices Act on the Unfair DeSepi Trade Practices Act gives you, you attorneys the right to run up your attorney's fees as high as you can

and then you get reimbursed by the prevailing party So if you would like to get some good revenue going, you attorneys out there, read the new Federal Trade Commission and be ready in July when they go into effect because you really are going to have an opportunity to sue a lot of dealers out there, make a lot of money. At any rate, it's going to be smooth sailing

for the educated consumer after July 24. next year in July when this Federal Trade Commission that goes in to effect. I'm going to give you the telephone number one more time, then I'm going to turn the mic over to Nancy Stewart, my co-host here. That telephone number is 877-960-9960, 877-960-90-1960. Nancy has a laptop computer. She monitors all the calls.

Jeremy in the studio here at the radio station he flags the calls to Nancy and if I'm talking or Rick's talking or Stu's talking whatever's going on we stop and we answer your phone call so please call and she has a very

special offer by the way for you ladies out there if you haven't called the show before Nancy's going to tell you pretty quickly now what is in store for you of a reward if you haven't called the show before and you call today Nancy, the mic's all yours.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome. Thanks for joining us here. We enjoy your company. I want to give a shout out to Mark, who is watching us on YouTube from Northeast, Iowa. I bet it's pretty chilly, Mark. Thanks for tuning in. Earl mentioned an offer that I had, and I do, for the ladies. $50 for the first two new lady callers.

So give us a call toll-free at 877-960-99-60. And Earl opened the show talking about the FTC. And boy, oh, boy, that hit the fan. I want to tell you, last week, Earl, our Stu mentioned something. And he was so excited about this news, it was unbelievable. You know, what's more disappointing, I guess, for me, is the NADA. and how they reacted to all of this. And they simply said that it's a heavy-handed bureaucratic overreach

and redundancy at its worse. And that's how they feel about it. And they say it's going to needlessly lengthen the car sales process by forcing layers. They said layers of disclosure. So I think that we're prepared for a bumpy ride. and it's always been a bumpy ride for us here because we have been at this long time fighting for you.

And, you know, I want to thank Anne-Marie. I'll tell you what, she is phenomenal, and she is just a big part of the show, and we really enjoy her company and all the information she has to share with us. As far as last week and the female winners, Ladies, I want to apologize to you, Joe Ellen from Fort Lauderdale, who called, Kelly, who called from Jupiter and Donna from Tamarack. I promise you, I will get those checks out to you first thing Monday morning.

For you other ladies, give us a call toll-free at 877-960-9960, and you can text us at 772-497-6-5-3-7-6-5-3. And we have Scooby. That's Scooby, the dog, who is going to be visiting us. Visiting us via video. So you want to stay tuned for that. And he is out at the Big Dog Ranch. And what a place it is. It is a no-kill shelter. I say it week in and week out, but just in case you missed no-kill shelter. in the United States so stay tuned for Scooby we are going to go straight to the phones and we are going to talk

to we're going to talk to Dana who's been holding she's a first time caller and she's calling us from Palm Beach Gardens good morning Dana good morning how are you welcome we're fine thank you for calling

thank you for answering I'm glad I got through. I am too. You won yourself $50 this morning, Dana, for being a first-time caller. If you stay on the line when we're finished talking, you can talk to Jeremy and give him your information. And I'll get that checkout to you. Okay, sounds great. Thank you.

What can we do for you this morning? So I've just had a second baby back in November, so just recently. and now I'm looking for a bigger family vehicle and I'm kind of between the Highlander and the Toyota Sienna so I want some information about what you guys think is a better family vehicle and I'm basically, I know I need a third seat at this point. Okay. It's really, it's so important, as you pointed out,

that you're sure, you know, about the comfort of the vehicle, vehicle and what fits your needs, you know, not only financially, but the type of vehicle that you, you know, purchase, whether it be new or used. And you're going to spend a lot of time in that vehicle, so the comfort inside is very, very important. Do you have any specific questions? So I have specific questions about car seats. I don't know if they'll really know the specifics on it but like the two car seats that have specific models I want to see which one would fit better inside the vehicle and if you go for a test drive are you allowed to put your your car seats and your children in a vehicle to go test drive at the dealership

Dana where did you get your information about a safe you know car seat that would you know be fitting to the vehicle that you're interested in did you go to consumer report no I have a car sheets that I've been using now in the vehicle that I have owned since prior to kids but when I went to when I installed the car seats in my vehicle now they were done at the fire station in Palm Beach Gardens and they were checked by a specialist that's excellent an excellent thing to do one of the first things that I recommend as a technician, when customers ask me about car seats, go to the fire station. The firefighters, especially Palm Beach County Fire Rescue, have all had special training

for installing car seats properly across all models of cars, and they know them inside and out. For putting a seat in a new car to go for a test drive, Stu, I think that would be your best answer on that but i i would assume that's totally okay we um during a test drive situation we the customer asked them to secure the their the car seat in their car um now if there's an like when vehicles come out and if somebody buys a car and they're not familiar to say the latch system um we can point out where the latch is but it's just it's just a you know kind of a liability thing that you know we're not involved you know we train people to sell vehicles right but

But they would be allowed to do it. Of course, yes. Obviously. Oh, yes, of course. Yeah, I'm just saying that we want the customer to make sure and give the final say and put it in the... Liability is a good point. You probably remind me about this fire departments for people being trained on that. And that is a great...

That's something we should probably talk about more often. And, you know, you can buy the world's greatest car seat, but if you don't know how to put it in the car right, you've got a problem. So, and the fire departments, I know, everybody's got to... fire department fairly close to them and you call first and I would think you go in there yeah Dana they've been doing that for for quite a long time the fire stations do a fabulous job and you're not going to leave there unless that that car seat is secured and the latches you know the belts everything and you know you wouldn't want it any other way Dana right I personally have three different firefighters in my family and

All of them are with Palm Beach County, and so I can say unequivocally, when someone comes in and asks for assistance with installing a car seat, you're going to have tons of volunteers, because when they're in between calls, they're getting bored, and they love being able to assist you with getting those car seats set up. Yeah, probably like 10 of them, you know. It's entertaining. It's fun. Now, for the proper vehicle for you, what do you think is to? So a Sienna really is going to be a more open vehicle with a little more room inside. It's definitely easier to get in and out and to maneuver like a car seat, which, by the way, as parents know, isn't just a car seat. It's also a baby carrier.

So you pop it out and that car seat goes on the table. It goes with you in the restaurant. So that's good. And basically any of the SUVs, any of the vans, they're family vehicles. And they're just really easy. You know, Dana, Stu said that Siena seems to be a very. popular vehicle, you know, for your needs. But it is a personal decision, and it's definitely up to you.

Dana, I hope that we've answered all your questions this morning. Do you have any other? I have. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to get through. I'm actually kind of shocked. I'm excited. The first one.

Sometimes it's pretty difficult, but you pursued and you got on. So stay tuned for Jeremy. and give him your information Dana give us a call and let us know what you decided to choose what vehicle we can share that news with others who are listening and watching the show okay thank you so much have a great weekend 877 960 9960

or you can text us at 772-4976530 don't forget your anonymous feed back.com. We are going to talk with John. John is, he's been holding. Thank you so much, John, for your patience. Thank you. Good to talk with you this morning. Thank you. I'm a regular listener and I also read your column in the Florida Weekly. And I've been a year customer since 2016 when I bought a brand new Carolla and now also have a Rav4. And I have all my work done at your place. I always get there when you have a sticker.

It says, come in. I'm right there to get the maintenance. I'm very happy with the maintenance. I just had one problem recently on my 2016 Corolla. I came in and they said, well, you need a new water pump. And I said, well, you know, that was a little unusual. I hadn't had much problem. But I said, go ahead.

And then the guy said, well, it's going to cost you a bit. about $1,200. I said, hey, that's a little pricey to me, but if you're in my garage, go ahead with it. And when I finally got the bill, the bill was that what got me was that the labor, well, the whole thing was $774. So the technician says, well, I'm going to knock $50 off of that. And I thought to myself, it sounds like some kind of fees here, if you can knock, $50 off, there might be more fat in that somewhere, and it just kind of didn't sit

right with me. So I was just a little... Well, no, there's no fees in there, and I can assure you. John, let me voice my opinion. This is Earl Stewart. First of all, on any repair, this is not an infomercial. We happen to have a card dealership and the fact that you had a perceived bad experience with us. I apologize. I don't know the facts. You've told me the way you saw it. If we made a mistake, then we would correct it. Whenever you are having a major repair done, whether you're using my dealership or another dealership, you should always get a second opinion, just like when you're shopping for a doctor,

or if you're buying an expensive product or you're buying an expensive service, I recently had to get a second opinion on an air conditioning. Air conditioning was recommended that it be replaced. I had to go get a second opinion to find out if it really did or if it gets to be repaired. But for something as expensive as you did, I would have. have recommended, if you've talked to me before, is go to another toilet dealer or an independent repair shop and say, does my water pump really need to be replaced? And if so, what would the charge be? So with that said, we don't have extra fees in our service department. We don't have extra fees, junk fees, we call them now, in the sales department either. Most

the dealers do have junk fees in the service department. And they add that to, you know, to the bottom of the ticket when you cash out of the cashier, pay your bill. And it's something we don't do. We don't have any junk fees at all. As far as whether your water pump needs to be replaced and what else was done, that's something we should study and look at. If oftentimes when customers are unhappy, we will adjust bills if we feel that it's It's a good customer that it was sincerely misinformed, either accidentally or on purpose.

If it's on purpose, we take far more severe corrective action. But if it's an accident, we try to make it right. So the $50 was something we did to try to accommodate you because you were unhappy. And a good customer. I'd have to see more details. And if you want to call me after the show, I'll be glad to review the file, talk to the service advisor, service manager and we'll find out if we did something wrong we will certainly correct it immediately if if we didn't do anything wrong we'll make it clear to

you why the charge was what the charge was but I really appreciate your calling the show and this is a very common complaint with all car dealers I like to think we don't get as many complaints like this but we do get complaints like this from time to time and we love to share them with our audience just to let let them know if it can happen to us, it can happen to anybody. Well, I appreciate that. Really, my gut feeling was when I

started out, then maybe I should do that. But I was there. You'd always done my maintenance. I said, go ahead with it. But I didn't listen to my gut, I guess, is what the thing. That's very normal. I'm not the

person consumed either. I mean, I buy things all the time, and I don't get second opinions. You trust somebody, you deal with them for a long time, and you just go with that. So sometimes, even with a doctor, I mean, insurance companies require a second opinion on surgery, not because they care about you so much, because they don't want to spend the money on the surgery. It was an insurance company. So I know a lot of people, I have good friends and people aren't close to that have doctors

that recommend things and they get nervous about their recommendation. It could be for surgery or it could be for some medication and I always say to them you should get a second opinion. But people, particularly if you're friendly with a doctor and you've been

going to a doctor for 10 or 20 years, you feel like you say I'm going to get a second opinion. It's a slap in the face to the doctor and if he's a professional, and he's a good doctor, he should encourage you to get a second opinion. And that's what we do at our dealership.

We encourage people to get a second opinion. And if you find someone looking at you sideways because you ask for a second opinion, you need to switch companies and switch doctors. No, I'm going to continue to come there, but I've got to tell you, I'm going to take your advice about the second opinion. Good for you.

The element just, that just threw me off. Yeah. When they said, well, we're just, I really hadn't complained up to the time about that. And he said, well, I'm just going to give you $50 off. I said, wow, okay. John, call me. Do you have my direct line, my personal number? I don't think so.

Got a pencil? Yes. Okay, it's 5-6-1, 358, 1474. 1474. Yeah, that's my personal cell phone. So call me after the show. I'll check with the service manager, and we'll go through the event and see what needs to be adjusted, and I'll call you and let you know what it was.

That'll be wonderful. Okay. I'm going to continue to bring my cars there when the services are required, and I'm really not disappointed, but I just felt a little off for this. I don't want to bring that up. I'm glad you called. Thank you very much, John. Thanks, John.

Thank you. You're welcome. Have a great weekend. Ladies, $50 for the next female caller, new female caller. And, you know, it's amazing that we give advice to everyone, not just the ladies, and that is doing your homework. Doing your homework is extremely important. It kind of narrows things down and it more or less protects you.

And lifestyle, driving habits, financial. situations narrowing down the your your favorite vehicle so keep all that in mind and that's powerful information and it really allows the salesperson to know guess what you mean business 877 960 9960 or you can text us at 772-497-60 don't forget your anonymous feedback dot com going to go to Bob, who is holding in Lake Park. Good morning, Bob. Good morning. So how big was that cake? Were you able to get all 83 candles on that cake? He put the whole sunrise on that cake. Well, you got a nice birthday present from the FTC. Oh, man, I'll tell you. And I think that the one thing

that surprised me was that some of the manufacturers also came out against it. And I have a question, do you think they're going to enforce it, considering you've always talked about how a lot of these local dealers don't enforce the laws that are on the books now, you know, with the Moroni labels and all these other things. So how are they going to enforce this, you think? Well, yeah, that's a great question. You actually raise something that's my greatest fear that our government is great about making laws, but they're terrible about enforcing them. And in my introduction to the show, I talked to attorneys out there. The attorneys have really got some meat here.

They've got, by definition, the Unfair, Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The nickname All the attorneys called Fudupta. It's Unfair Deceptive Trade Practices Act. And it provides attorney's fees to the attorney of when you are right. In other words, let's say you go after ABC Toyota, a card dealership ABC Toyota. And they violate this new Federal Trade Commission Act. And the Federal Trade Commission, they're just too busy and they don't get around to it. But the attorney, he's got a piece of paper in his hand that says,

hey this qualifies for my attorney's fees and my the dealership or the complaintant the customer doesn't have to pay him so you can hire the best attorney in the United States who charges a thousand dollars an hour as long as a judge says that's fair whatever the charge may be now the violation by the dealer might cost the dealer $2,000 he took advantage of you he had hidden fees junk fees he overcharged about two thousand dollars but under the federal trade commission and the fact that this qualifies for unfair deceptive trade practices a lawyer that you hire could cost the dealer the $2,000 what he screwed you out of plus two hundred thousand dollars in

attorneys fees so that dealer knows that and he says oh oh I'm not gonna argue you about that. Here's the $2,000 because if you get an attorney, I'm going to have to pay your attorney's fees and my attorney's fees. So that's the reason this Federal Trade Commission thing is so important. But you're absolutely right. Don't be looking for the Federal Trade Commission to be running around South Florida or North New Jersey or Midwest, slapping dealers down in the finding. In fact, the fines that the Federal Trade Commission hands out are nowhere near the cost that a good attorney can run up

his attorney's fees if you decide to find him. Okay, so what are going to be the, when the dealers look at this situation, they can still charge their deal of fees. They could double their deal of fees in order to make up some of this money that they won't be able to put on the sale.

And I'm sure they're going to try to find some type of loopholes in there to get around it. They're going to hire people. They're going to be able to figure out a way of, you know, they may have to disclose it to you, but... No, here, well, see, you hit that too lately.

They do have to disclose it. See, here's what it is. You know, a dealer can charge you a million dollars for a car with an MSRP of 45,000. There's no rules saying what a dealer can charge you for a car. Charge what the market will bear. But what that dealer now does with Federal Trade commissioner they're going to have to they have to clearly give you in their advertising and their

quotation email text phone conversation they have to give you the out-the-door price when they advertise on tv will that still be in the fine print what you can't read no no no no more fine print uh they actually actually have to have it all in the advertised price now so yeah if they want to ask a million dollars for that in a honda course They can ask a million dollars, but you go to the next Honda dealer and say, could you beat this? And see, it puts competition back into buying a car. Because when I go into a Honda dealer and I get a price on a new accord, now I can take that price on that new accord from dealer A to dealer B, dealer C, dealer D, dealer E, I get 20 prices. Now you have competition working in your favor, and you're going to buy a Honda cord real cheap.

keep uh trust me and it that that's it's going to the the profit and the price of cars is going to plummet when this thing goes into effect no i hope you're right but i i have i have to see it to believe it i know i don't blame you i don't blame you i have a thought i mean for like some of these dealers think about this right now their their profits are still at an all-time high i mean they're making and a lot of these big dealers they've they've structured to they to support the structure they've built they need to make those profits yeah i wouldn't be surprised if we saw some dealers going going out of business i mean that because they've that's all they've known is how to support that you know big piece of land all that lot with all those fees and relearn it i did see

something else on one they asked you about on the amazon deal uh this 800 Hyundai deal is in the united states but only 18 have signed up to the amazon yeah john that's you that you that you that you How is that? I mean, you know, if you're dealing, if you're buying the car to Amazon and the dealer you're dealing with has the car and he's in Arizona, how is that going to work?

John, I'm going to answer that question. We've got six people holding on the phone. But the answer to that question is the 18 were not people who decide they wanted to sign up. They were chosen by Amazon and they located those dealers in markets where Amazon has employees, a lot of employees.

a lot of employees, and those employees will be buying cars from these dealers and going through the process, kind of like mystery shoppers, so they're going to know exactly how this thing is working. So, John, great call. Appreciate it. We've got to get back to the phones now. Thank you. Happy birthday.

Thank you. Give us a call again. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-9-60. of Your Anonymous Feedback.com. I'll tell you, there's rough waters ahead, and we'll see where the cards fall. We're going to go to our next caller, and that would be Dave in Palm Beach Gardens.

Yes, good morning. Good morning. I bought a RAB4 from you a used RAP-4 a couple months ago, maybe two months, and since I bought it, I've decided to put some leather interior in it. It's the cloth interior. It's present.

And I was just wondering if you guys can provide that service, or do you recommend someone? Well, right now we don't do it at the dealership. And it takes a lot of training, a lot of equipment, and a long time to train. We use a company that is local. It's called S-A-T, and there's also another one called Classic Trim. Right. S-A-T is Sun Auto-Trim. Well, they changed that.

Now it's something accessories. It used to be Sun Autotops, and now they don't do sunroofs anymore. So that's why they called it that. What we can do for you is we do for our customers is we give you the price that we pay when we have it done as a sublet. So you'll pay our price to the leather install company, and it's a lot less than you'd have to pay. Yep.

All you got to do is call us, and we can arrange that. Okay, so to do that, should I go through you, or should I write down the names that you just mentioned? Oh, just go through us. It's easier. I was getting to that. Earl was getting impatient because I was telling too long of a story. But I was going to get to that.

The best thing is just call the dealership and ask for the new car department, and say you're interested in putting 11 in your car, and that'll be arranged for you. And, you know, just for the fun of it, if you call that company up yourself as a regular customer and ask them what they would quote you for that, it'll be a lot more. See what the difference is. That'd be interesting to find out. Okay, and that was, did you say F-A-P as in Paul?

No, S as in Sam, A as an Apple, T as in Tahoe. Oh, T, okay, S-A-T, and you mentioned another one? It was classic auto trim. Okay. Do you prefer one or the other? Both are very good. It's mainly a convenience thing for us whenever we need to use either one. But it's probably easier to do it because they're not really set up for like walking the door retail.

I mean, they will, but it's probably not the best customer service because they usually deal with dealers. And Dave, when you do it, be sure you see an example of the installation because the, the sublet installations are not exactly like the factory. So if you're basing the leather by what you see on a factory installation, there are certain things that are not covered. They're a little different. So just be sure you know what the difference is before you have it done. Okay.

As far as difference goes, Earl, does that include appearance or just? No, not appearance. The appearance is great, but they won't have it on certain portions of the car. and my memory doesn't serve well enough to tell you exactly what it is. The safest bet is just to do a factory match. That way you don't even have to think about the correct color. They have swatches of millions of colors, and you can go, I like that gray, I like that gray.

Best bet is just to go with the what originally was select for the car when it was made. And there are some areas in the cars like girls were flying to, like there might be some door trim panels that doesn't get the leather that might have been on the original factory car. if you follow my drift yeah but it's right there but it is when you get it you have a leather interior car it's it's um it's you know the differences are minor yeah they're doing a great job yeah okay well that's really good to know and i really appreciate it i definitely so i should call your new car department and go from there too yeah ask for jason lady he can he can point you

in the right direction he's super friendly and um and there's his stuff okay is jason what was his last name? Lady. Luck be a lady. L-A-D-Y. Yeah, like look be a lady. Oh, lady. Okay. Great. Hey, thanks a lot, guys. I appreciate the information. You're welcome, Dave. Give us a call. Let us know how it went. That's a great addition to your vehicle.

We are going to go to Alicia, who has been waiting a long time. She comes to us from Palm Beach Gardens. She's a first-time caller. Good morning. How are you, Alicia? Good morning. How are you? I'm very well. And you? If you stay on the line, you can give Jeremy, he's in our control room, your information, and he'll pass it alone to me. I'll write that check out and get it out to you. Well, thank you very much.

You're welcome. What can we do for you? So this is a matter of an opinion call. I've always purchased outright larger vehicles such as Suburban's Yukons. My husband and I finally bit the bullet, and we leased a vehicle for the first time. It is a 2023 Grand Jeep 4x E. Mm-hmm. So we were granted $11,000 off because there was some sort of a program for doing a 4-by-E.

So what is your opinion on these hybrid 4-E's? Well, I think we all have opinion generally on hybrids in here, and it's a very positive opinion. On the jeeps, I'm not really familiar with that one. So that's a hybrid. I thought when you said the 4xE, it was like an all-eV Jeep with 4-wheel drive. So it's a hybrid Jeep? Yep, so it's a hybrid. It's 4x4.

But it's called the 4xE because of its electric capability. Come on it. Okay. Have you never driven a hybrid before? No, never a hybrid. And this is a 4-cylinder. Yes. And I've always had an 8.

Right. Okay. I can tell you this. And I have an expert next to me, but just from like more like layman talk about this, hybrids can actually produce more power with a smaller engine because it has an electric motor with it. For example, I'm driving a big Sequoia. It's the new 2023 one. And it is a, it's a hybrid, but it's a six-cylinder hybrid. They used to come in the big V8s. This has got more get-up and go. than the gas ones, it also gets significantly better gas mileage than the, those big Tahos that you were driving, what were you getting on miles per gallon? Oh, geez, probably 20, 20 to 20.

I was good, much better than I thought it was going to be. I was going to guess around 10. But anyway, back to the hybrids, they are, I would consider a mature technology now. They were new 25 years ago. but right now they have been used by all the manufacturers and I wouldn't say perfected but this isn't a radical new innovation so it's been going on for years the gas mileage is better and they are very reliable the initial concerns about the batteries because there is a hybrid battery that can die they typically go a couple of hundred thousand miles before going which is right in line with with a vehicle that you might start having big problems with so I would say now I don't I don't necessarily indulge jeep, I'm just saying I'm endorsing hybrid technology. So that shouldn't drive you away. But check consumer reports and other resources on the particulars. Because there might be another hybrid. I'm not recommended in Toyota because it'll take a year and a half to get the Sequoia.

And Alicia, it sounds like as if you know what you want. And I'll tell you, there's a lot of great reasons for your choice and they are financially beneficial if you're looking to save money a year. Well, we drove the vehicle from Boston up to North Palm and we were concerned about the four cylinder. It just didn't seem to have much pep. You know, coming out of any cylinder, you know, we did. And, you know, you think about that lithium battery that's underneath your car, you know, you see things on the news. It's a little scary, but I'll tell you, it had a lot of pep and it was able to get out of its own way. That's great.

I've been driving them, and we've been selling, the first hybrid that came out was the Toyota Prius, and we've been selling that since 2001, I think, or 2000. It came out. 2001. Yeah. And the problems that we have had with hybrids are no more, you know, they're nothing different than other cars. nothing we haven't dealt with fires we haven't some of the scary stuff that you've that you might have seen about electric cars um like i said it's it's it's a mature technology the new

EVs i think it's uh it's a valid concern you know because you see fires that can't get put out and all that but um but the hybrids uh they won't steer you wrong okay definitely and as stew said consumer report is a great place to go and uh you know the last couple of months, boy, they've had some great articles in the Consumer Report, and I think that if you picked one up, you would see it's very helpful.

And they're pushing it. You know, they're offering great deals on the hybrids and on the electric vehicles. Because they've got too many of them right now. On the electric vehicles. We were talking about that last week. They made too many too fast.

It's kind of fun when you pull into your driveway and you just plug your car in. It is cool. Also, when you don't hear it running, it's kind of nice. Yeah, it's different. Well, thank you. Well, good luck to you, Alicia.

Give us a call. Let us know how your, well, car shopping went. Absolutely. I appreciate it. Thank you. Have a great weekend. We are going to go to Jersey Mike, I believe. Jersey, Mike, are you there?

Yes, I am. Thanks for holding. Thank you, my call. Yes. I want to say, I got a question about a 2016 AST Cadillac I have. But before I get to that, let me say something about Big Dog Ranch. They may not know this people out there, but if you're a veteran, you get 50% discount on any dog that you adopt.

And I adopt a dog for a roommate that I have here. And when you get that dog, it's chipped, got a chip in it. It gets manicured. It's checked out by the veteran. Everything is needed. The nails are cut. There's groomed, and they're ready to go with that dog. So they do a great thing out there, and I gave them a very sizable donation to the,

because they have a veteran center out there in the rear of the place. There's lots of buildings there. But they do great work, and I want to let everybody know that if they want a partner in life, one that doesn't aggravate, it doesn't tell you what to do or not to do, and just loves you all the time, then that's where you want to go get a partner in life, that dog that you might have out there waiting for your home. Yes. Thank you, Mike. Thanks for that big donation too.

Great advice, Mike. Thanks for sharing. And let me just say one thing about the car, okay? Before I forget it, you got a 2016 AST Cadillac. Worst Cadillac I ever owned in my life. I started buying Cadillac from 1970. I put 60,000 miles on them every year after about 160,000 170,000 miles. I would turn it in and get another one because that's what was required for my business that I was operating at the time for many years. And the last car I had was in 1992. They were all black, always, and Krupp de Vils. And that one, I put $324,000 miles on.

I bought it new. And I never had a problem with any of those cars. Because I am a motorhead, and I made sure I followed the manufacturer's manual to the T, including the transmission change at 100,000 miles. The oil, the fluid change. So anyway, my point is this AST I have now I bought, believe it or not, from Mapleton, or at the end of North Lake Boulevard and North Lake and it's been a nightmare ever since I got it.

I want to know this fake leather, which is hardly ever sat on at all. I even have a cover in the back so my door can be between that and the seat cover. This fake leather has just disintegrated and has fallen off the seats. The door panels on both sides have fallen off. I've had the crazy glue them.

It's got a turbo in it, It's pretty quick, but it only gets about 20 miles per gallon on the highway. So this car has become a torture chamber just getting in and out of it. And by the way, you take a magnet and go around the car. The only thing that's metal is the hood because otherwise would melt. Everything else is plastic on that car. Now, the question I'm going to ask about that car is, by the way, it's my big mistake. I'm going to forewarn all your people out there listening to you.

if you're going to go buy a car, don't take it without having the car fax, number one, in your hand, and number two, tell the dealer or whoever you're buying it from, you want to have a check by your mechanic. So that way you won't get stuck in a jam like I got stuck in. They cost me $16,000 a year ago, that car. You have to say that with emphasis,

and that people have to hear the pain that you experienced in your voice because, like we just heard with one of our customers, have called that, you know, faced with a service thing that he wasn't sure about. He knew the right thing to do was to go and check it out, but, you know, out of convenience and trust. And people do the same thing. They're out of use car a lot. And it's kind of a big deal, it seems like, to do that.

Like, you're asking, like, for too much. It's not dealers, we want to sell the car. We're happy to let you take the car. You don't even have to tell us your take it to a mechanic. Just take it. Drive it so you want to take it home. But it is important to do that because, I, you know, you know, you know, you're not. He said you lived it, you lived it, and now you wish you had done it the other way.

And by the way, let me say one of the things about people that are motorheads out there and do a lot of their own repair. My friend has a BMW. He's put $6,800. It's a 2018. Wow. So it's only three years old. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. A 2020, so it's three years old. He's put that much of repair. It's still sitting in the shop. They first told him, as first. Well, his big mistake was he bought it here in South Florida, which he shouldn't have.

He should have went up north, you know, maybe through a reasonable deal or up there, Carnation, or something like that, a little nation. But he didn't. Against my advice. He just put a water pump in there as one of the items. They had to wait three weeks to get it shipped from Germany. Believe it or not, that's what they had to do. Oh, it's unbelievable.

And let me tell me, I told him, I showed him. He paid for a plastic water pump, not steel, plastic, $860, that's just the cost of the item, not the labor, and I showed him on Rock Auto. I'm telling you, I'm telling your audience, if you are a motorhead, you probably already notice, you go to Rock Auto, which I did, and I showed him a picture of this. After he went through and made the mistake, you can get it for $375, the same exact thing, and it's made out of steel instead of plastic. Yeah, that's amazing, Mike. You know, that's great, that you were able to, you know, give the advice and direct him.

And I'm only pointed out to your audience. If you got some guys out there to, you know, do their own oil change or something like, I don't do that anymore, but I used to. I got the roll about it. I get under the car. But anyway, my point simply is there's no reason why you got to go to a dealer and get it with $875 for a water pump that's plastic. And how long it takes to put that thing in? Exactly.

It's not a big deal, really. There's no reason to go to a dealership. Mike, thank you so much for the call. I got everything backed up here. Oh, by the way, one last thing, one last thing. If a veteran goes there and takes a dog on at Big Dog Ranch, there's a 50% cut in the price. Half off. On any dog they pick it, they shouldn't know that.

Half off, all U.S. vets. That's right. Absolutely. You're quite welcome. U.S. vets. We actually had somebody to try to collect on a British Army rebate once. I'm like, we can't, we're military.

I'm like, it's the U.S. military. Hey, before I go to the next call, Alicia, if you're listening, I did not mention January's edition of Consumer Report. And guess what? All the information that you need is right here.

Right here in this January edition. And did you know that hybrids are 26% more reliable? Yeah, there are 26% more reliable than the combustion engine. And to your statement about Jeep, I'm sorry, but here's how the brands stack up. And Jeep comes in pretty low, 26 on the list.

And they've looked at 30 vehicles, 30 brands, and they looked at how they stack up. Jeep is way down there. So anyway, Alicia, pick up that January edition of Consumer Report. 877960, or you can text us at 772-4976530. And don't forget, your anonymous feedback.com. Phil, thank you so much for waiting. Phil's calling us from Jupiter. Good morning, Phil.

Hey, listen, I just want to let you all know something. and I got a 2024 Prius, and it took forever, but I got one. And I just wondered, it's so different than the other ones. I mean, I have a 20,013 and 17 now, but it's like night and day different. Are there any special nuances with this 2024 that I should know about as far as maybe different kind of service requirements or stuff like that? I mean, if you all have any experience with them yet. Well, there's no, as far as I know, unless Rick interrupts and corrects me right now,

as far as I know, there's nothing different between the prior models as far as your responsibilities as an owner. Yes, change has been made against better gas mileage, it is up to date with all the newest safety features that the prior version didn't get. So it's a lot, just, there's a lot to learn. And we've talked about this on the show all the time, especially as

technology keeps growing. A lot of it is kind of under the hood, though. So some of the stuff that's facing you has remained pretty much the same, but definitely with different layout. Or have you had it, how long have you had it so far? Have you had a chance to play with it? Two weeks?

Yeah, two weeks. And it's almost like a spaceship. Yeah, it looks like one for sure. I haven't even been able to figure out most of the features yet. Well, it's incredible. Here's something if you want, and this is available to you, you can come in and somebody who very knowledgeable can sit down and just answer any questions. You've driven them before, so you probably, like, 90% of it, you probably do have down pat,

but, you know, the new stuff, it's always useful to have somebody to go over with it. And if that's not possible, YouTube is a great resource for going over your car. So if you can put in, you can even say, 2024 pre-easurer. entertainment system and you're going to find everything on that or just 24 Prius how to and there's going to be people thousands of them I'm sure already have made the videos that are informative and so there's two good ways you could you could do to get to know it better yeah I think I'm going to take you up on that because I've always offered to have my cars the other two I bought from you

but this one I had to go to a different dealer just to get one I mean it's like unbelievable but anyway I'll do that I'll call the service guy See if I'll come down there and have somebody sit with me for a while and show me how to work some of the stuff. Probably actually somebody I can give you, if you just, if you plan on just, if you head and ask for the, at the front desk, ask her reception and just say what you need to do. It will probably be somebody from our sales department that, because they train on more of the, they didn't learn how to fix it. They learn how to use it. Oh, okay. Yeah.

All right. Well, I'll do that. Because I'm certainly going to have it service there and everything. Okay. All right. Okay. Thanks for calling. Well, I appreciate it.

You got it. Thanks, Phil. 877-9-60. Give us a call. We're going to go to Howard, who has been patiently waiting from Jupiter. Welcome, Howard. Thanks for taking my call. You guys are great.

I just want to say one thing. Stay away from the Jeep, period. That's it. Exclamation points. A friend of mine had one who's in the shop most of the time. And finally, he gave it back and he got his money back

here. What was that yellow thing that was happening? You can if he had so many service calls and it wasn't fixed, he was able to give it back to the Jeep. Lemon law. I say yellow. Okay, he used the lemon law

and he got it back, so stay away from his Jeep. My question is this. I'm tending to get a new Toyota in 2024. I'm considering the Camry versus the Prius. Can you give me the differences between the two and the gas mileage and what will be the difference between me getting a Prius or me getting a Camry in 2024? The difference is real quick on time frame. The Prius is a year plus wait right now.

And we've just done a very hard look at all the wait times of all the vehicles of the new vehicles. out there how long it takes to order and those still remain we're able to kind of reassess with the size of our list and see what's available out there right now but the Prius unfortunately and I know this because I'm in competition with you because I'm trying to get a Prius but I don't get special treatment it works the same way I'm in line just like you and when the the production is just not there it says one year plus is in our most recent evaluation And the plug-ins, the prime versions, like the Rav-4 Prime and the Prius Prime, we can't give an estimate because they're not even making them for the southeastern United States.

They're not shipping them there. Toyota's sending them all to the West Coast United States. Okay, one other first question. Yeah. If the battery goes on a Prius or the new Camry, and it's a different battery, right? What happens? Can you buy a new one?

Okay, you can you have the battery bill? How does that work? Well, it's warranted until, at, 200,000 miles or 150? I think it's 10 years, 150,000 right? It was 8,100. Now it's 10, 150. So if you're within eight years, 150,000 miles, total replaces it for free.

If it's beyond that, the price of a hybrid, batteries have come down and there's also used options which might be problematic Rick's looking at me like don't do that yeah so but they're they're still expensive but they're not $4,000 which they I think they were back you know 20 years ago no it's like 3,500 installed installed so it's still expensive what about the hybrid motor of the motor part yeah that's that's warranted like the rest of the car

so five years, 60,000 miles, but there hasn't been, Rick, seen any problems with the gas portion. The interesting thing about a hybrid is that the computer controls the gas engine, so it's like... We're talking too much about Toyota. It's always going to drive it very gently. We're talking about Hyundai hybrids right now. Okay, thank you, Wolf, and you know, if you guys are great and have a good day and keep dry today, okay? Thanks. Thank you.

Thanks, Eric. It's always great hearing from you, Howard. We're going to go to Fort Lauderdale, and we're going to talk to Bob. Good morning, Bob. Good morning, and thanks for having me on. You're welcome. Thank you for calling. So here's my situation.

Four months ago in August, I purchased a Mercedes-Venz certified, 2023 AMG GLE 53 it's a high end Mercedes SUV at a dealership

is a Mercedes dealership up in Pennsylvania the car had been used by the manager of the dealership it had about 7,500 miles on it they sold it as you know obviously Mercedes certified it had a

clean Carfax, and four months later, just a couple weeks ago, I was at Coconut Creek Mercedes-Benz getting some work done on another car, which was, by the way, a big mistake. That's another story, but I went into the sales area, and they had a 2024 AMGGGLE, just like mine, but, you know, nicer and newer, and I looked at it and decided to take a look at trade. trading my car in on it, and my AMG, you know, GLE, and they looked at the car, and they said, well, your car has a bad Carfax. I said, how could that be? I just bought it four months ago, and it had a good Carfax.

Well, they, you know, brought the Carfax out to me, and sure enough, it had a, you know, I guess it was called a small damage report, you know, like a minor damage. So I called the dealership that I bought the car from, and they said, oh, yeah, when we had the, when we bought the car in initially, it was in our lot, and somebody backed into it, and there was some small damage done to the front grill of the car, and a little bit of paintwork was necessary on the front end of the car. so we did that work and you know it just so happens that when we sold the car to you carfax didn't know about it yet evidently you know the insurance people reported it to them after we sold the car to you so they're very sorry but they're not really they're offering you know allow me to trade the car in and they're giving me you know a value on the car here it is four months later

they want to give me about 20 grand less than I paid for the car or actually about 10 grand less than I paid for the car so I'm just wondering what kind of recourse do I have when I get a car Mercedes certified as a good Carfax and four months later I find out you know the Carfax has been updated

and there was actually damage that the dealership knew about it happened when they owned the carfax Well, chances are the damage was not insured. Chances are dealers don't insure for minor damage. If they damaged the car, they were just fixed it or had it to sublet it, and they would have had to pay for it. Now, dealers can register with Carfax so that that damage is reported, but you don't have to. Carfax gets all the information from the insurance company database, but they only get the information from dealers who sign up to say, okay, if I repair a car, either collision or

mechanical-wise, you get the information, and then they tap into that dealer's database. They have permission. So apparently that dealer in Pennsylvania had given Carfax permission to tap into their database. When you sell a used car, the law does not say you have to disclose that damage. so they abided by the law but you do have to disclose the damage if you asked about it this is almost like a semantics issue

if you had said to the dealer and maybe you did if you said to the dealer has this car they said this dealer this car's got a clean car fax when you say that why would you ask but had you asked

has there been any damage to the car and if they said no then that's a violation and they would be liable to you in a lawsuit but I can sell the used car or any dealer can sell the used car and if as long as we

don't tell them that the car has never been damaged if it has been damaged we haven't violated anything unless we're asked and we say something that's incorrect So it's a legal technicality. Have you called the dealer in Pennsylvania and asked for any kind of consideration? Yeah, I have.

And what they offered is they said, we'll give you the trade in value on the car that reflects it as not having had the bad Carfax. You know, so a higher trade in value, which they did offer. Yeah. And, you know, we'll sell you a car at below invoice. Well, that sounds like they're trying to be. helpful to you and uh but i i i wouldn't i wouldn't condemn that dealer in pennsylvania as far as a dealer down here have you shopped uh your your uh certified 23 uh SUV around to see what i mean you've got a it's really sellers market these days on cars i get on uh you know carvana we buy any

car dot com vroom car max and then i take it to another couple of mercedes dealers and i'd say i want to sell this car, what will you pay me for? That way, you're going to get top dollar for the car, bearing in mind that when you trade it in, if you do decide to trade it in, you're going to lose that 6% Florida sales tax because that's their credit when you trade the car in. But I think you've got all you're going to get out of the Pennsylvania dealer. I'd shop that car around, and you could probably get more for that car than, and when you go in, you say, this is how the Carfax issue happened. It's minor damage and disclose that or let the dealer figure it out.

I asked him for a complete report on all the repair that had been done, and it really is minor. It was $2,100 worth of a new piece for the grill and a little bit of, you know, minor work on some paint on the front. Take it. But it was, you know, a $2,100 repair. And by the way, it turns out that there was insurance involved. The customer who hit the car had insurance.

Oh, okay, okay, okay. To pay for it. So, you know, I've got a very good record of what happened. So here's my next question. How much impact, you know, given that I have the whole story and I have the details on exactly what happened, and it was very minor, how much impact should that have on the resale value of my car? It shouldn't have much. I mean, when you say minor damage, did anybody give you a number?

Is it $100 or $1,000 or $2,000? Well, it was $2,100 to repair the front of the car. Yeah. I think you would be pleasantly, so rather than focus on that, are you familiar with CarVill? Hey, is there a CarMax near you? Yes. Yes or no?

Yes, there is. I'm right in Fort Lauderdale. Okay, well, good. You probably got a couple of CarMax. Go to CarMax, the nearest one, and get a bid on the car. And then get online and go to Carvana, go to Webeani Car.com, and go to Vroom, V-R-O-O-O-M.com. And then if you really got the time and you want to check with the used car department in a different Mercedes dealer than you're dealing with.

You've got a hot product there. A Mercedes SUV certified car, even with a previous $2,000 damage, is a great product. And I think you'll probably get a couple thousand, maybe more than that, over what this one dealer is offering you. I got you. Okay. We'll try. Call back next week, please. I'd love to hear your experience because I give this advice out, and some people don't believe what a seller is.

market it is for used car. I think you're going to call back with a big smile on your face. I will give you a call next week. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks, Paul. I think we're going to go over to visit Rick. What do you think, Rick? We can do that. I got a couple of questions going

way back on YouTube here. Let me scroll back to these. By the way, one of the first ones, Earl, from James Fronte. Happy birthday. Oh, thank you. He says, you don't don't look a day over 65. And he continues on with,

God bless these new FTC rules for July 30th next year. I should get off my fanny and go to work for the FTC on the enforcement side. Perfect job for me. They won't hire you. They don't like enforcers. He says, as of July 30, the dealer

will have to put his egregious dock fee and any other accessories and junk items in plain font for the buyer. As inventory goes up, dealers will not be able to gouge. The end of fine print. I mean, if this thing works, it is going to be a miracle. But can you imagine that? No fine print?

It's getting interesting. Yeah. Well, here's one from Cliff. He says, what are the rules in Florida for a salvage vehicle title as far as disclosure goes? Well, you have to obviously disclose it. your title, you know, flood cars, salvage cars. You know, don't ever buy a car from a dealer or anybody else until you see the title. A lot of people don't do that, but you've got to do that.

Or the vehicle history checks. Yeah. And Florida is good about that, by the way. If you buy a car with a Florida title, it will have any kind of bad news on that title. And other states don't do that. So be sure you see the real title. like Louisiana. I could be wrong.

I just malign Louisiana. I suspect they don't brand their titles. New Jersey is one of them. Oh, that's right. Jersey. Everything's legal in Jersey. Something interesting that I saw recently. This is coming from one of the automotive magazines.

Apparently General Motors has decided to drop Apple CarPlay and Android Google CarPlay. On their radio systems in the near future, their reasoning is that the wireless connection and sometimes even the wired connection to the radio from the phone can lose connection, which would encourage a driver to pick up their phone to try to figure it out, obviously causing a distraction while driving. And they want to switch back to the archaic system of having navigation. I want to buy a GM now. Located in the radio itself

Rather than having it run through the cell phones. Let's all run out to GM dealerships and buy cars now. I don't believe that might have been what they said the reason was, but I don't believe that was the reason. There's probably something else involved. Well, here's where the back story comes. And now this may be just conspiracy theory, but one of the factors that we're well aware of,

Apple CarPlay and Google CarPlay, track your phone's locations, and they use this for the map data, traffic data, all this. But GM wants that data. But all that tracking data is very valuable. This is one of the things that's a hot commodity in today's market, and they sell that data anonymously to other sources. Apparently the- Apple doesn't. Well, the conspiracy theory is that GM wants to be able to track. your cars using their own systems and thereby you develop that data and be able to sell that data to outside sources or maybe use that data themselves so they can build an autonomous

car like Tesla does see but it's silly that you don't need that data General Motors just laid off 50% of their workforce if their autonomous car subsidiary and that's because they've been running over pedestrians or dogs but they already have all the everybody has 5G connected cars right now so you don't need the the phone there they're already tracking the cars with 5G I mean that's how the connected services work for Toyota and the other manufacturers so they they can track it anyway they just don't want us to have the pleasure of using Apple car play well maybe yeah but anyways and the only other one we had here and I'd already answered this

This one was, Wasif Rahman, he asked, I have a question, when we cancel our booking due to personal reasons at Earl's Toyota dealership, do we get the $500 deposit back? Yes. And I said, absolutely. It will be in pennies, though, but just kidding there, we'll see. Jars of pennies. Check cash, whatever you prefer. But yeah, any dealership, if you've put a deposit down on a car, you better make sure it's worth. 99.9% of them are going to be refundable.

But getting in writing when you put your deposit. Okay, well, you're getting out of your field of expertise now. I'll leave this to your side then. Yeah, in Florida, the dealer has to put on the receipt for the deposit that the deposit is non-refundable. So if they do that, it is non-refundable. So the thing you've got to do is be sure you get a receipt. be sure it's not the salesman's card it's an official receipt on the company letterhead type receipt and then read the receipt and if the receipt

doesn't say anything then the deposit is refundable if the receipt says this deposit is non-refundable then it's not refundable and you're screwed and post it notes don't count I got Amory's got a text here do we have a phone call okay okay we have memory says good morning there's a new rule in town to stop or reduce the junk fees that many dealers inflict on their customers. It's called the FTC Cars Rule Combat Auto Retail Scams, and it will take effect on July 30, 24. Warning, Amory's editorial comment is ahead.

Hallelujah! May this rule be vigorously enforced, so the car buying public will be treated fairly by all dealers and not just the exceptional few. Agent Lightning shows that all too often buying the car is one of the most odious things one has to do. If all dealers treated their customers better than their customers might buy cars more often. Now, the FTC is still seeking comments until January 8th on junk surprise fees like resort fees or excessive fees to book tickets, to concerts, et cetera, that people encounter.

If you feel that consumers could use more protections, please go to regulations.gov, regulations.gov. Click on the FTC box, which will bring you to the proposed rule where you can leave your comments on junk fees. and what kind of rules you'd like to see. Thank you and happy holidays. Thanks, Anne-Marie. So it's still important. I guess there's always they could amend rules. They could add to it.

We don't want all the car dealers to do a last-minute campaign and try and squash it. It's pretty clear. The only rules that I'm looking for is transparency, you know, honesty. And that's it. So it should be pretty easy. But it's not going to be. It's going to be a rough road for the FTC. here's something interesting I got a text from Bob and he said he sent me a link to a story

it was about Ashley Moody our Attorney General in the state of Florida and it's a link to her she's starting a antitrust probe into the college football because Florida State University didn't make it to the championships and so she started an antitrust probe because that's one of the most important issues the state of Florida is facing right now. But Bob says, tell her all this is why she won't pursue automotive issues. Her priority is football. Just saying. You know, of all the things, political stunts, there's no stakes, low stakes, and it's a big show.

And I just, come on, spend your time better. We need the feds to come in and take care of things. Yeah, the Attorney General is in the pocket of the Florida Automobile Dealers Association. And, I mean, that's true. I mean, it is true. I was on the executive committee back in my evil days. I was on the board of directors in the executive committee, and we're the ones that bribed all the politicians.

I'd get, the president would give me a check, and I would have lunch with politicians, and we'd have lunch, and I'd give them as $1,000 and $500 or $2,000. and I was part of the I was part of the problem I mean I we were bribed in all the all the politicians to to keep the car dealers safe from allegedly the manufacturers but literally the attorney general and the regulator so it's I've been there done that and I know how the game is played yep it's all it's follow the money that's what they say

Follow the donations. There was one. I thought we were backed up, but I want to get into it. It's one of our customers. And it's a long text, but basically it says that she got a price from our dealership online for 2024 Corolla Cross hybrid. But then she got a quote from a dealer in Miami. I'm assuming because she says 77 miles south. And it says the quote is lower than ours.

and she's what should she do and she's followed the show for a long time and I just said to just be very very careful you can make the drive but we've just seen in the mystery shops things change if you're listening here's a little tip I say

you don't want to drive 75 miles and be flimflamed which you probably will so call the dealer get a manager someone you can speak to say you want to buy the car and your price is excellent and you beat Earl Stewart Toyota's price by a thousand dollars whatever it is so I'm I'm at my bank now I'm at Bank

America and I borrowed the money and the bank and the banker wants to know the amount of the check to pay payable to you and I'll bring that check down there and I'm gonna give you this check and what is the amount please now if they give you if they give you an amount which equals the price that they gave you the first place that was supposed to be so good, plus tax and tag only, government fees only, then by all means, go down there and buy the car. But what you'll probably find out is they will, they gave you a bait and switch price, and they're going to hit you with dock fees and admin fees and dealer installed accessories and junk fees coming out of your

ears, especially down in Miami. The average dealer fees in the Miami area are two or $3,000. So you're probably going to pay $2,000 or $3,000 more than you were quoted. And rather than drive that far and have the aggravation, in fact, sometimes they count on you driving that far because you've been shopping, you're tired, you're wearing all your shoe leather, you've been driving all over the place, you just want to buy the damn car and go home and be happy. So you go down there, fight to traffic, I-95, you're in Miami, and they spring it on you, and you say, the hell with it, where do I sign? That actually works for a lot of people, so

don't take the drive. In fact, if you really want to be cool, had your husband impersonate the banker. Say, I'm Mr. Jones from Chase Bank, and I'm giving your wife check here to pick up her car. How much should

that check be for? And that'll verify whether or not he's telling you the truth. All right. Our calls are... Oh, we're all right. No more calls. No more calls. Okay. I want to go to Jonathan, if it takes a second, I have a visual aid from Gary, and he sent us a picture of a, it's a Tesla charger at home. You can basically use any of your, any charging plug from an electric vehicle, and it will go into a Tesla supercharger. So Jonathan's putting that up on the screen right there. So it's an adapt. So if you have a Hyundai and you want to charge it a Tesla supercharger, you can adapt into that. Oh, cool.

It looks like, do I see a price on it? I don't see the price, but it's called Electron Vortex Plug. It's a CCS adapter for Tesla chargers. Pretty cool. Looks like an old-time camera. It looks like an old-time camera. Yes, it doesn't it? And then there's another cool one because this is a show on cars, and we have a lot of car fix in autos,

think we might disappoint people because we don't talk a lot about classic cars that often unless it's the barracuda which is a plymouth right okay so here we got i got a he sent a picture of from a car show this is d in west pond beach and um i'll put i'll just show you a person he sent this picture and i correctly guessed that this was a 1959 imperial plymouth belvedere well belvedere belvedere it's not an imperial i don't know if i'm right or not i i did the google lens where you take a picture and you upload it to Google and it searches it for you. And I found a picture. It looked just like this.

And they said it was a 59 Buick Belvedere. That's a beauty. Yeah, sure it is. So, hey, we were able to get that on the deep. Yeah, we got that on the screen for you. Yeah. And I'm all cut up. I think my dad used to drive us around in that very car.

Really? Yeah. It's like a lot. He was big on cars. You know, folks, I've just been reminded that I'd like to share. an anonymous feedback with you. And that anonymous feedback, here

it says, our mystery shopping report for Ed Morris Delray, Toyota, I give them an F. Once again, Nancy is the only one I agree with. How can anyone get a passing grade when they add junk fees?

They'll never get me as a customer. I just keep buying from you guys. You know, as far as this FTC, is concerned and everything that's going on, these dealers claim that they're not doing anything wrong. Nothing, nothing at all. So, you know, I really can't understand why they can't go along with the FTC

if they're doing nothing wrong and they're being honest and transparent. You know, we could just wrap this whole thing up and move forward and, you know, put this cars rolled fight into place. And that'd be the end of the story. but we know that's not true. Thanks for reminding me about anonymous feedback because there are some more here. Oh, great.

I was just focusing on texts. This is a very simple one here. I have a locked steering wheel, Rick. I have a locked steering wheel, Rick. And I keep hearing something like a half-click. Half-click. I've been playing with the thing for days, gently turning the wheel like your video shows,

and it's still stuck. Is there anything else I should try? So he's watching the video. which by the way is like a million views on YouTube yeah might need to put just a million and a half they don't say whether it's a key or a smart start

okay right a push button start because yours where that video is kind of oh that's with a key that's turning the key however even with even with the push button start if there's enough of a bind on that steering wheel. It can overpower the motor and not allowed to release. So you might need to try

to put a little extra pressure. Look to see which direction the wheels are turned and see which way you want to go in that direction. You need to get more movement out of and try to go in the direction that you get the most amount of movement from the steering wheel. Okay. And try that to see if it were release. Okay. And if not, then it could be that that electric motor or the mechanism It may be seized up and stuck. You might have to have to have flatbedded in or something. Yes. So I hope you're listening.

And it did say in your message that you've been gently. So try a little bit more pressure like Rick said. Try to get some play in it. And if it is the motor, it might involve a toe and a repair. And by the way, on anonymous feedback, if you want to, you can get a reply on anonymous feedback, but you have to ask for a reply. We can't reply to them on his feedback unless you say, yes, I want to reply. And that does not change the anonymity of it at all.

We're just filling in a box, and then the system finds it, finds you, because I guess you put your email in. It's got your secret code name. Here's something that is an area that we have not gone in, and it's a big rough and tumble car market, and that's Jacksonville. This is a mystery shopper wants to know if any chance we'll go up there. Yeah, there's a chance we'll go up there. I mean, we want to go up there. it's definitely on the list we've done the Tampa area

we've done the South Florida metro area we've done the Orlando area the last Florida metro area because I don't consider Tallahassee is not one Jacksonville is and it's the biggest city in America and they got a lot of car dealerships there

by land area right Yeah we talked last week if I'm going to Sebring Yeah, Sebring I think a long time ago I think we did in Alan Jay Yeah Alan Jay a long time ago He's got a bunch of dealerships there

Okay I got one more. You have one more? Well, maybe two more. Nice to see auto insurance companies are starting to charge $1,000 per month for electric cars due to fire risk and cost to repair.

Several are no longer insuring electric cars. I haven't heard anything about that. Have you heard about that? Yeah, I mean, I saw the other's feedback. You know, certainly cost more money to insure electric car. But it's just

fodder for the electric car haters. I just, I didn't know. The first part, the first part, I mean, there's a little sarcasm but the second part I says, I assume homeowner and rental insurances will also increase a lot as the four-wheeled fire bombs continue to blow up. Reminds me of the saying there's a sucker born

every day. Yeah. It's amazing that people that hate Tesla. There was just a guy, they just arrested a guy in Miami because he tried to firebom a Tesla dealership or something. He had driving a pickup truck.

I can't remember where he was from. But there's this political, it's almost like a politically inspired animosity toward electric vehicles. And they look for every little loophole. And listen, whether you like it or not, you're going to be driving an electric vehicle in 25 years. You won't be able to buy anything else. It's going to be illegal to sell combustion injured cars in 25 years. or so it's inevitable right you know you know it's kind of sad as I'm on Reddit and in the Tesla group and electric vehicle groups the amount of people that have posted videos of their Teslas they show

just a random person walking up and taking a key or some of the jagged amount and just dragging it along the car vandalizing cars because it's an electric vehicle yeah how's your car it looks like people have like just hate you it's like people come on i think i was talking about that last year people is coming up messing your car up man one more and this is uh you're like this is this is the perfect use for anonymous feedback um it says everyone in the industry says everyone in industry says the last day of the year is the best day to get a good deal on a new car because the dealership might hit a year-end bonus but with your dealership specifically you never charge more than MSRP during the inventory shortages, and you're still not discounting from MSRP.

If someone comes in looking for a deal at the end of the year, would you guys give a discount, a new car, and would you give much more on a trade than you would like? I know that the MSRP on a new toy is still a good deal, but the trade values have gone way down and I'm not going to buy a new Toyota if my trade isn't high enough. I'm not going to shop the trade in anywhere else because I don't want to pay sales tax. I understand that your used car department doesn't want to break even on cars, if you're getting full pop, as Earl would say, on the new car, would you pay more than you really want for the trade?

Well, you know, we might lower our prices at the end of the year, but if we did, we lower our prices for everybody. We charge everybody the same price. We put our market price, our lowest price, on every car. If the President of the United States or the Prime Minister of England came in, they pay the same price you would. So, yeah, prices are coming down, and by the end of the year, there may be some adjustments, but it will be, it might be above MSRP or below them.

Right now, we're using MSRP, but at the end of the year, it might change. I don't know. The only reason is MSRP, it's an easy to communicate number, and it happens to be the lowest price in the market right now. And like Earl says, that's not going to last for long. We see things here and there, but right now we're priced because we know that we are the lowest. We don't, we're not, you know, we're, we want to make sure that we continue growing our customers and also servicing that our system. And we do the same thing with used cars, by the way.

We put our market price, competitive market price on the used cars, and we do adjust them downward when they don't sell. But everybody pays on a particular used car. Everybody pays the same little price for that used car. And no, if you have a car that's extremely, we want that used car really bad. We're just going to give you as much money as we can possibly afford. The new car price is not going to change. And the use car price stands on its own legs. New car price stands on its own legs.

And the trade-in that you're talking about is also when we appraise a car, we're appraising it towards the market value the best that we can. And so we don't play games with the number there. that's another form of discounting other dealerships do it's part of the flim-flam negotiating it's a shell game and you should shop and compare the used car appraisal we give you

with all the other places that you have time to do go to a couple toilet dealers I'll go to car max go to room go to we buy any car dot com get the best price you can on your trade in and if we can match that then trade it in if not sell it on your own one important caveat

you have to make sure you get a price from the dealer that you're talking about what they would buy your car for in cash, not in a trade-in allowance, because that's another number to play with them. And since the percent of the share, it'll lose on the trade-out. Great information, as usual, Stu has informed the audience, along with the recovering car dealer.

We have a mystery shopping report to get to from Braeman in Jupiter. We also have to get to our dog, our dog of the week from Big Dog Ranch. You can go to Big Dog Ranch, and you can view Dog. of the week you can go to wwwbdrr.org and you can see all the dogs that they have there this morning we've got Scooby Scooby's coming to us via video he's a mixed breed he's a pointer and he is just about two years old and he's looking he's really looking to get adopted and he's been on the streets in Redland and and that's near Miami and he ended up in a good place that's Big Dog Ranch and you know

that they are a no kill no kill and they there is an amazing place and well here you go put up Scooby hi I'm Natalie from Big Dog Ranch Rescue and today we have Scooby Scooby was rescued from the Redlands in Florida he's about two years old. He was found as a stray, kind of roaming the streets. It's a big dumping area for dogs down in Florida, which is one of the reasons why we rescue a lot from the Redlands. But as you can see, Scooby is a really great boy. We love him here because he does love to give hugs. He's great with other dogs, which makes them a great companion. We have other dogs barking out here, as you can see. So he's pretty curious, but he's really a sweetheart. I actually

really hope that he finds a forever home this holiday season. And he's noticing a whole lot of ruckus going on out there. Hi, buddy. Want to give hugs? Come here. Come on. I know. He's such a sweetheart.

I really think he would be great for any family that has a nice yard because he does like to run around. He's great with, like I said, other dogs. He's sweet. He's more of a playful, still a young dog, but he is absolutely adorable and loves to play. with his toys, loves to run around, and is great with people as well. So please visit our website at BDRR.org slash adopt to come here and meet Scooby and hopefully find a forever home for him this holiday

season. It makes me want to stay away from his tail. I love his tail. Yeah, that's Scooby. Ladies and gentlemen, and we do pay the adoption fees. And when you're finished listening and watching that video, click on the bottom of the video and share it with everyone because there may be somebody out there who hasn't seen it and are interested in Scooby who is two years old

and look at him isn't he beautiful yeah it looks like is he part lab right it's got to be he's a pointer mixed breed yeah there's some lab in there yeah he's uh for the for our radio listeners um i want you to close your eyes not if you're driving um imagine a uh what he's about 60 pounds that looked like 60 pound you know about a you know a you know a three-foot-tall lab like dog, but with spots, like a big, like a tan spot with a lighter color coat. Really young, puppy-ish-looking, very cute. Scooby-Doo.

Scooby-Doo. Scooby-Doo. Go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue and look at the dog of the week. As I said, we do pay the adoption fees. We best get going here. We've got to get to our mystery shopping report. And Agent Lightning went to Jupiter and visited Brayman. BMW. Now back to the recovering car dealer.

Yeah, there's two Brayman BNWs real close to each other. This is the one in Jupiter, Florida. Speaking of the first person, as if I were, Agent Lightning. I arrived early in the afternoon, and when no one approached me, I went to the customer service desk. The young lady welcomed me just as a salesman walked up and introduced himself as Stephen. I started the conversation by expressing my interest in their finance deals.

I was trying to figure out what finance specials she had. going on right now, but I found your website a bit unfriendly. Hmm. Steven responded with enthusiasm. Why don't you follow me to my desk? I'll be glad to pull it up on my computer, show exactly what we have. As we walked, he shared some information. I'm not allowed to quote any type of interest rates to you.

It's against the law in Florida. Well, this simply isn't true, and I think he's a new salesperson, and I don't think it was meant with any. with any malice. But he says it's against the law unless it's black and white on my computer screen. I'm not sure what that means either. But, again, I think that's innocent. At his desk, he even attempted to show me the available cars on their website.

He seemed surprised to see Seed dealer for details. So he didn't know that was there. Excuseing himself, he went to speak with a finance officer. It's one of the reasons, so I'm pretty sure he's new. returned a few minutes later. We just had a class on this. There he goes. He's being trained as he works.

Without running your credit, I won't be able to give you any finance rates. Well, that makes sense. I mean, that's what he should have said in the first place. You give him an estimate. Yeah. I acknowledge this. I understand. I'd like to move forward with seeing the different models available. Stephen then explained

the inventory situation. As far as new vehicles go, we don't have a lot of inventory. Our The West Palm Beach location is also selling our inventory, and it's moving pretty fast. For you folks in this area, this is BMW City, Palm Beach County. Yes. They're all over the place. And it's, I think, the world's largest and second largest BMW dealers are in South Florida.

BN, Vista, I think, is one. And B.M.A.M.R.M.A.M. And Brayman is the other. I explained interest in one of the models on the showroom floor. It was at Beauty. to 2,024 BMW 230I with a big green bow on the hood, wrapped like a gift under the tree for me. The Monroney label had been removed, no surprise, from the side window, but it was laminated and lying on the windshield, securely firmly, expertly in place with the windshield wiper. The MSRP of the vehicle was 46,395, you know, that's not a very expensive BMW, is it? No.

$46,395. The average car today is about that. By the way, it was 44,000. Oh, 44,000. Well, no one of it was. Oh, wait a minute. Hold on a second. I'm going to screwed everything up.

It is 46,395. Yeah. And then, yes. Okay, so when you get down there, lower, there was more of a discount. So just keep that on. I told them it was right in my price range.

I asked what I'm going to collect to buy it for. I said, I'm probably going to do cash. but I am a little curious about financing. Steven offered to do the price sheet for me. I could do a price sheet for you, but I won't be able to give you the finance details. That'd be great. Rates are probably too high now anyway, I replied.

Steve, and I briefly left, returned with a worksheet. It was different than most worksheets. The less-side summarized the purchase vehicle price was MSRP, 44. It was 46, but it was just a typ of it. Everything else was right. Okay. So the real MSRP was 46, 395. There were $988 in optional items

and $4,861.59 in taxes and fees. Now we get into the smoke. The smoke is beginning to circulate. The absolute terms listed below is $199 for nitrogen. Now, we were talking earlier with the FTC, you can't charge people for BS. and that's what it is. $199 for that should.

And listen to this. $7.99 for perma plate. So they waxed your car. The taxed fees including a $9.89 free delivery service charge, junk fee, BS, $4 and $14 for tag title processing, which we found out is a private tag agency, which Brayman probably owns.

And so he makes the profit on his private tag agency and charges you for it. you can't make this stuff up. Bramond's real price was what, 48,000? No, that's right. This is correct. 46,000. Yeah, I'm sorry, yeah, 48, yeah.

48,000. So, then we got the... So it's $2,401 over MSRP. Is that right? Yes. Okay. $2,401 over MSRP. He then discussed additional options,

but with an electric twist, he pointed out, I don't have to buy the extra equipment Well, that's nice. We have optional items on the worksheet that you can decline if you don't see value in them. But we do offer them to all of our customers on use and new vehicles. When the FTC thing goes into a fact that would have to have been stated clearly and conspicuously at the very beginning of the transaction. On the car.

Yeah, it's on the car. At this point here, he may or may not have told you if you said I'm going to buy it. In fact, he would not have told you if you said you were going to buy it. He's coming off the price by admitting that some of this other stuff doesn't have to be bought. But it was nice that he proactively did it. Yeah, yeah, he did. He could probably see the look. Right, we don't know.

Right. But what the body language was. He suggests I research the value of nitrogen-filled tires, and which space ancient lightning will have said, I did. In consumer reports, they say it's worthless. but that would have ruined Stephen's day. Right. I've never run into somebody brandishing a consumer court. I like this.

We empty all our tires that come from the manufacturers and refill them with nitrogen. Wow. What a waste of labor. They have this assembly line and they got some guy emptying the tires. I think it's the machine. When you buy the nitruthil machine,

I think it has a sucking and pumping action, right? You can't possibly empty a tire, can you? With the machines. Even with that machine, you'd have to destroy the sidewalk. You're not going to create a right, empty, a vacuum. What would happen is if you actually got a full 100% vacuum in there, it would pop the beads. Okay, guys.

Come on. You guys, you know for sure that they're doing that and they're able to do it. They're not popping the beads. Everybody's talking. I'm supposed to be the mystery shopping report. My comment. I'm getting ready for my vote. I mentioned having to get my husband on board before making a move.

I need to try to sell my husband buying a new car versus fixing my car that's in the garage right now. Stephen was just acting quickly. You might want to call him. They always do that. Call the husband or take the car to the husband or we will go talk to your husband. Every week. I'll interrupt his business meeting. They always want to get both decision makers there.

Our inventory is moving really fast, may not be available for very long. I thanked him but explained that my husband was extremely busy. I need to talk to my husband first, and he's not available right now. Stephen concluded our meeting courteously. Thank you for coming in today, please make sure you have my business card. Call me if you decide to move forward as soon as possible. All our prices are negotiable. Ain't going to be pretty soon, July.

They ain't got to be negotiable. You're going to have a price, and that's going to be the price. I'm happy to go to see my sales manager with an offer. It's the end of the year, and we're trying to make deals. So too little, too late. Now we vote, and we vote on the curve. So please don't give somebody an F because you don't like them, but I give them an F because they're the worst dealer you heard of,

the worst BMW or whatever dealer. Average dealer is pretty bad. So the C, it can be for an average dealer. Give an A if they're incredibly, incredibly good. Okay, folks, you can vote at 772.4. 976530 would love to hear from you how do you feel how do you feel about all these junk fees and focus fees and everything in between that's mystery shop of Bramon BMW in Jupiter okay they're coming in I got Bob C for Brayman BMW typical of most

dealers I'm I'm starting I think that's how I feel but I'm gonna I'm gonna read the other grades. Jonathan and Palm Coast. He's pretty tough. This dealership charges $500 for air in their tires. That's all I need to hear to give them an F and avoid them at all costs. The other fraudulent fees are icing on the overpriced cake, cake that I will not be eating. No, he's a cake I will not be paying for. John could feel my heat from there. Yeah, wow, because he did change, he changed my mind, not change my mind, he changed my feeling. It's the, it's the, it's the nitrogen thing because it's such an insult. But I have to keep in mind, it's the same thing.

It might as well be a door edge guard. It's not a real thing. It's just, it's all the same thing. And it's all typical. I'm sticking with the C. Okay. Tom Stickle says, C minus, bring my wallet to pay for junk fees.

Nitrogen is to major downgrade. Why can't upscale car dealers be respectful to their customers like J.M. Lexus? Joseph Kelleher D Let's see here Waiting for grades to come in But James Fronte did say I can go to my local Costco

At St. Augustine and get nitrogen for free What jerks these Florida New Car dealers are? July 30th can't come past enough Guy Larraby says Because of the junk fees, I give him an F For me

I'm C minus because I think they're playing a little bit of games there, but he did say that the nitrogen is optional, and you can tell them, take that fee away. It still feels like it's done backwards. I mean, we hate addems, but if you're going to do that, add that to your buyer's order,

then there should be an addendum. So, hello. What if Agent Lightning decided to walk in the showroom, saw the addendum on the car and the showroom, and decided to turn around and walk right out? She had no knowledge what was going to happen until she was already engaged in a sitting down with a salesperson. So I'm readjusted in mind too.

I want to match C-minus. I think this was an example of a dealership owned by the same party a few miles apart that are different. It seems to me our previous experiences with Brayman in Palm Beach Gardens. Is that where they are? West Palm Beach. The other Brayman BMW seems to be a little smoother and by that in a positive sense.

than the one of Jupiter. That was a little rough around the edges, but that could be because of a new salesperson. Okay, nice. Yeah, we're running out of time here. You know, I want to be perfectly clear. My vote, Saturday in Saturday out, is not because maybe aesthetically,

I really like the dealership or maybe the salesperson's name, so on and so forth. My vote is because, you know, of all of the shenanigans. that is going on. And FTC, boy, I'll tell you what, I'm right in your lane. And, you know, for instance, it's against the law. It's against the law in Florida, you know, to even talk about interest rates. Another thing, who believes that they're emptying, they're emptying nitrogen from the tires? I mean, are we idiots?

For that, I'm very honest, they get an F from me. Google just glitched, but it gave me a whole bunch of grades. I'm going to read through them real fast. Tim Gilliland, C-minus. Brian Siddletco, BMW, broke my wallet. Lower the fees, D. Johnny Z. Fradley, looks like a new BMW and has nitrogen in the tires, D for me. T-cash-F for no free air.

Mark Smith, I give him a D. Cliff Big Fat F extra fees a joke James Fronte D is my vote too many hidden fees negotiated on the phone with the GSM people before stepping foot in any new car dealer T-cash says Bavarian money waster Mark Smith definitely a D and Cliff says you rock Nancy and that's what we've got well that's reassuring you know because Like I said, we did and we got. She got a compliment from the anonymous feedback. I'm looked on as, you know, the person that votes on these outrageous mystery shopping reports.

Oh, we've had some great ones. There's some great dealers out there. But there's way too many dealers that are just not transparent at this point. They're not honest in any way. And they're looking to take advantage of you. C-minus. Ladies and gentlemen. we are out of time

I want to thank you for joining Earl Stewart on cars. Stay tuned next week at the same time 8 a.m. We'll be right here on Saturday morning. Have a great weekend, everyone.