Earl Stewart on Cars - 12.18.2021 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Napleton Kia

Episode Date: December 18, 2021

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning revisits the local "bad boy" Kia dealer to see how much over MSRP they will charge a new 2022 Kia Forte XLE. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, his tweets at www.twitter.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. Sign up to become one of Earl's Vigilantes and help others in your community to avoid getting ripped off by a car dealer. Go to www.earlsvigilantes.com for more information. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting South Florida dealership. And now, on with the show. Good morning, everybody. We're back for your auto protect you and the clinches team. We're out here to navigate you, help you navigate through that minefield called car dealerships. You know, we've been calling the minefield for 15 or 20 years. I don't know what you call it today. Call it a double minefield or something like that.

But it's hazardous out there to buy a newer used car. Matter of fact, it's a seller's market. And I've been a car dealer for over 50 years, believe it or not. And I've never seen a more negative market for you, the consumer. The deck is stacked against you. And it isn't like you can go to a different city or state or country. It's a worldwide, never seen this before, a worldwide car shortage and a lot of other shortages too, but we're talking about cars on this show.

And you literally are paying thousands of dollars over what you would have paid a year ago for the same car, new car, used car. I believe that the new car prices are starting to stabilize. We've seen that in this market, I know in some markets, they haven't, but in general, I believe the new car prices have peaked that are coming down a little bit. The used car prices are continuing to spike. And we have a caller, happens to be a friend, and former radio host on this station or the studio, wasn't the same station. Barry O'Brien will be calling in around 9.30. to relate a real-life experience that he had with an off-lease car.

I want to hear it from the horse's mouth because a real-life experience to tell you what has happened to the cost to you to buy a new or used car. And, of course, on this show, for a long time, we've been saying, don't buy a car. Now, don't buy a used car. Don't buy a new car. it isn't a good time to buy and a lot of people say

I can't believe he's saying that he's a car dealer well yes we do have a car dealership but we also have a conscience and we believe in telling the truth and wait a while if you have to buy a car and you can listen to the show

and we'll tell you the best of the worst we'll tell you the best way to buy a car in a terrible, terrible seller's mind. market. I think we'll see a buyer's market again. It might be a year before it's a buyer's market, but it'll come. It's everything goes in cycles. For you folks that watch the sack market and been watching it for a long time, it's true. It goes up, it goes down. It sometimes seems like it's never going to go down again, and then it seems like it's never going to go up again. But everything, including the price of cars, goes in cycles. So if you can wait the cycle out. Everything, there is a season. There is a season. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So we're not going to talk just about selling and buying.

We're going to talk about repairing, maintaining. We've got Rick Kearney in the studio sitting to my right, a certified diagnostic master technician. We have entertainment that is combined with education, and it's our famous. I say that with, you know, I'm not being, I'm not being braggadocio. It's true. are famous for a mystery shopping report because nobody else does this.

We name names, we name dealerships, we go in, we pretend to buy or lease a car, and we tell you exactly what happened. If the dealer broke the law, we tell you, if the dealer lied, we tell you, we tell you who it is, where it is. This is kind of unheard of on live talk radio because I'm open to huge libel slander suits if I don't tell the truth. But I learned a long time ago when we started this show, I was nervous. So it was the radio station.

I thought I got fired one time because the car dealers ran me off the station and wouldn't advertise, boycott of the station. And then about a year later, the station changed hands. And then the new owners came and said, hey, you know, we believe what you say. We believe in you. And they gave me another chance. And here we are. And I say, we. I'm talking largely about Nancy Stewart.

My co-host, Nancy is a female advocate person. you folks that listen all the time I know what I'm talking about she's built our female audience up to about 50-50 and then of course my son who is also the general manager of our Toyota dealership

or a family-owned Toyota dealership family-owned mom and pop stores is what they call us we're dying out rapidly the auto nations and the Sonics and the Pinsky's the huge auto groups are buying up everything and during this

pandemic situation where it's a seller's market, huge number of car dealers like me are selling out to the big guys. Auto Nation is scooping up stores and a Penske Auto Group is scooping up stores. They're paying crazy money for dealerships. Why? Because the dealerships today are making crazy money. I have to tell you, I'm embarrassed to tell you, but this will be the best profit year we've ever had at our Toyota dealership, the best. And so I say it unashamedly, and it's even better profit year for everybody else. Car dealers are all, I would say, almost without exception, having record profit. And the manufacturers are having record profits, and it's all at your expense.

So, if you're one of these people that are going to buy a car just because you want to, and you can afford to do it, listen to the show. We'll tell you how to save a few bucks. If you have to have a car, it's even more important that you listen carefully because if you have to have a car, you have to have a car. I mean, there are a lot of places in this country and around the world where you don't have the mass transit, you don't have the ability to be able to get to work or to the drugstore or to the school or to the hospital or wherever you have to go unless you have a car. So if you have to buy one, listen carefully. Let me introduce my co-host, Nancy Stewart.

She's sitting next to me here. And before we get into the show, too much, I want you to hear about her incredible offer to you females out there, you ladies, who've never called the show. First time female callers, we have got a show. And there's no strings attached. This is unconditional.

You're going to hear an offer. It sounds like it's too good to be true. My father always said there's no such thing as a free lunch. Folks, this is a free lunch. A free offer. It's a nice free lunch. It's a really nice lunch. Yeah, exactly.

Matthew? Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome. I do indeed have an offer, and it's a fabulous offer is $50 for the first two new female callers. Ladies, give me a call, give all of us a call. We can answer your questions, but most of all, we'd love to hear from you and your car purchasing experience, your servicing experience. Did you go into the dealership, turn around, and leave? Share it with us. Or just call and say hello.

That way you can win yourself $50 for the first two new lady callers. We have a fabulous show ahead of us, and we hope that you will be able to stay with us for the next two hours. That telephone number is 877-960-99-60. And you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. And as the rule said, we do have our panel with us this morning. We wouldn't be able to do it without them. We've got the Spymaster General. We've got the certified technician.

We have the famous vice president of digital operations, Jonathan. Without him? Well, you wouldn't hear much. So, A77-960-99-60-772-49-49-7-2-497-6-5-30. Give us a call. Text us, and don't forget, www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. We'd love for you to share everything with us.

Everything. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Before I introduce Stu Stewart, the Spymaster General for the Mystery Shopping Report, Let me ask you folks out there and say you're calling to show us what it's all about. 877-960-99-60, that's 877-960, or text us at 772-497-6-530. I'd like to hear what you've been quoted on a newer used car. You know, we're kind of tracking this. It helps us tell you about the trend.

And if you try to buy used car or new car, and you've got to, either did or didn't, I'd like to hear the prices that you're being quoted out there. We've heard outrageous prices on markups on new cars, $40,000 and higher over sticker price. And the price that you paid on a used car today is almost 50%, 40% to 50% more than you would have paid a year ago. So thousands of dollars increase in prices. Let's hear where you shop and what the price was. A mystery shopping report will be one example, but we'd like to hear from you.

Stu, what's going on in the mystery shopping world? Well, it's kind of like we're on a new mission. Sometimes it gets tedious if we're on the same topic for a while, and we've done that before, you know, with the Cotta Airbags and now with the inventory crisis. But we have discovered that there are some dealers out there that are selling for MSRP. And so that's kind of the mission we're on right now is uncovering those for you. Because right now there's a lot of dealers that are still believe that they can

get thousands and thousands of dollars over MSRP and they can. The fact is that they can, but we have uncovered a handful of dealers that are doing it for just MSRP, albeit with some extra fees tacked on at the end, but it's a whole lot better than $40,000 over Sterep. So it'd be within $2,300 if you're lucky, or $400 or $500.00 to $1,000 over MSRP is probably your best bet in reality. If it's under $1,000, it's probably going to be about the best deal. Yeah, I guess. So that's what we're doing. doing right now. So I try to make him as entertaining as possible. So even

though we're on the same subject, each one is brand new in its own way. And I also, I always try to make Earl laugh and I always hide linguistic Easter eggs in there to see if he catches them. So that's just a little bit of interesting trivia about the mystery shopping report. Okay.

All right, so do you want to kick it off some texts? Because we have Anne Reis. Yeah, let's do a touch. Excuse me, everyone. We're going to go straight to the phones where Howard's been holding since before we went on the air. and I want to thank you. Merry Christmas, Howard, and welcome. Merry Christmas, and happy New Year to you and all. I hope you're all fine, and I know you are, and I spoke to Earl, and he's great.

Earl, let me ask you this question. You've been driving a Tesla, and I want to know that next year you told me that Toyota's coming out with a car like the Tesla. Is that correct? All-electric goes. Stu's got the specifics on that, the date. It's coming. It's called the BZ4X, and it's going to be released in March, a very limited release. It's going to be probably each dealer will get one this year in total. And God help, the first buyer, because people are going to pay unbelievable sums for that car,

and they did the same thing with the super. So if you want to buy one of these things, wait a few months unless you want to pay way over a sticker. Or get on a list because it's going to take you three years to get one anyway. Yes. I was thinking about $80,000. No. It's not going to be anywhere in there. I believe it's going to be in that $45,000 price range.

MSRP. MSRP, yeah. Yeah, the markup might be $40,000 on top of that. Who knows? Yeah, okay. Okay, I have a question for Rick. Rick, a friend of mine lives in Deerfield Beach. and he left his

I think he had some kind of Plymouth or something oh he had a Chevy Bolt that's what he had 2002 Chevy Bolt he left it for two years in Deerfield Beach four miles from the beach

when he came back the car started but guess what happened to it can you guess what happens to a car when it starts two years old what the problem was. It exploded. I would say there was enough corrosion in that engine

from being near the salt water that it probably locked up after a short time or the brakes were locked up from being salt corroded. Actually, what happened was the gas line rusted out and was shooting out gas. Yep, that's too. That's dangerous. How could the gas line run the rust out?

It sounds to me like Chevy, didn't properly coat those fuel lines didn't protect them properly because even salt corrosion from being near the beach that shouldn't have happened he called me up he said my gas line is leaking and you know and I have to put in a complete new gas line for him wow what is it made is it copper no they're there's steel lines but they're generally coated with something, you know, with anodized or with a corrosion protectant. I have actually never seen a gas line or even a brake line rust out in anything less than like 20 or 30 years. That's crazy. And I've seen a lot of cars that literally live right at the ocean. I mean,

you can see where one side of the car faces the ocean all the time because the brake rotors and everything's all rusted on that side, and the other side is relatively clear. I wonder if there's any electrical effect. I don't know. I mean, because, you know, electricity, you can create corrosion with... Right, electrolysis.

Maybe there's some sort of phenomena happening there with the electrical fields. It's possible. It's possible. I don't know. Or what might also be possible, if you've ever noticed when we have our king tides, some parking lots and roads literally go underwater with salt water.

and so if that car was sitting in a spot where that salt water was literally coming right up onto the vehicle then that's a possibility too if it got soaked in salt water and then the water went down away from it that could possibly accelerate that corrosion so you've never seen that before not in the gas line nope not in a fuel line it's crazy yeah fuel line I should say fuel line that's frightening I mean how old is the car he said he's it's 2007 Chevy Bolt. Okay, so that's pretty old. I was going to say that could be bringing it to the attention of the manufacturing.

Forget about that. Wow. Wow. One other comment. I heard that Tesla can idle for 18 hours before it runs out of electricity. Is that true? I'm not sure, but I'm never quite sure if my car is always idling or not. I just get out and I just trust that it turns off somehow.

I've actually walked back out and heard the radio playing through the car, and I wasn't sure if it was the key that activated the radio or not, so I just go back inside and ignore it. I haven't drained the better yet. Okay. Thank you, guys, all the information. Thank you, Howard. Thank you, Howard.

Have Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all. You too. Merry Christmas, Howard. Let me piggyback on Howard's question. Happy New Year. We have another. Okay. We're going to go to our first.

first time caller jennie from jupiter welcome to the show jenny thank you how are you i'm doing well how about everybody there fantastic we're so happy to hear from you what can we do for you this morning well i have i've been here for about 46 years from originally from pennsylvania and i bought my first car in 78, I think it was. I had that only for two years, and I sold it and got another car, and I had that for 21 years. Then I, it finally wanted to cop out on me, and I got another car. I got a, 22 years I had that one.

And I know I did it because I, I towed a lot of water and stuff like that. When I go to the store, I buy like 10 cases. And the transmission finally went out on me. So I had to go out. I needed a car. I can't just sit idle with no car. So I went out and went searching around and had a very difficult time with the prices and all. But I finally went to a car dealer, and I found a car.

And it was marked, it was a 2018 Chevy Equinox. and it was mark 27 something and reduced down to 24 and I wasn't crazy about it but it was probably the best by that I could possibly see there it's a little bit too small for me

but anyhow I went in and I offered them 22 no more nothing and the car wouldn't start so I wanted a new battery in it and I wanted a regular tire for a spare I don't like the donut right well they gave me a hard time you know no no no can't do that we'll give you the best deal for what we can sell it

for and I said look I'm going to explain something to you I'm 78 years old I'm not looking to invest in a future in a car you know I just need something and I don't drive that much but I do want it dependable so anyhow the salesperson sends a manager in and sells me and they can't do that and I said look I told the salesperson which was a very nice guy I told him 22 out the door or nothing and he said well I can't do that and I said well I'm going to tell you goodbye I told him I would leave and and evidently he did you didn't believe it so I left and they called me back and I think it was next day or that night and the salesperson he goes, why did you leave? And I said, what did I tell you? 22 and that's it. Or I'm walking.

I said, you need me. I don't need you. But I did need a car. But I couldn't find any other car. I was coming to your place because my daughter-in-law bought a car from there. But from what I was hearing, you didn't have any used cars. I can't afford a new car.

Well, Jenny, I just want to I want to let you know that, wow, we're all proud of you here, that you were in complete control. And I'm guessing you have children that are grown? I have three grandchildren, and nine grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. Okay. The reason I made a statement like that is because it sounds like as if that you use some discipline. And it sounds like as if that you have definitely used discipline for quite a long time.

time. So you treated these people, I'll call them these people, like children. And you were in full control because you left and you didn't show them your hand. Congratulations. I'll turn the mic over to Earl. Well, just, I echo what Nancy said, you are, you have the perfect mindset and the courage. You're not intimidated at all. And you stick to your guns and we We've said on this show many times that you haven't listened, or maybe you've listened that you haven't called before, but one of the hardest things to do is to say no to anybody and especially an aggressive car salesperson. And then when you say you're not going to buy the car and you turn around and walk out

the door, you did the ultimate. I always say they'll, when you turn around and walk out the door, they'll come out and get you. In your case, you actually walked out the door, got in your car, and drove away. I mean, you played your hand all the way, and sure enough, they called, and you won, and they lost, and you were a good negotiator. I wouldn't want to be in a poker game with you. I don't know about playing poker. That would probably be any good, but when I first bought my Cadillac from Miami, the second car I bought, I also did the same thing.

When you walked in the door, they wanted $100 in order to talk to you and show. you their line of car. Oh, my. So I gave it to them, you know, because I figured if I buy it, they're going to give it back to me or whatever. They're not going to tell me I'm going to put credit in there. No, you're going to put it back in my hand, then I'm going to take care of my business. But anyhow, I turn around, and the salesperson, I turned around and offered them $18,000

for this El Dorado, 864 engines. And they laughed at me because there was no question. cars out. You could find no cars in 1981. And it was that 864 engine. And I said, I wanted a triple black. So I told the salesperson, I would pay $18,000 out the door, done. And he said, there's no way. They're going to give you that car for $18,000. And he said, I can't do it. And I said, okay, give me my $100 back and I'm leaving. So he said, oh, I can't do that. you know, I got to bring the manager in first. And I said, look, I don't have time to spend here.

And you're getting paid to be here. I'm not. So he turns around and brings the manager in. The manager starts trying to go up with me. And I said, look, I'll either call 911 or you'll give me $100 back because you don't want to take my offer for a car. So don't sit here and try to talk to me. And you're not going to change my mind. Hey, Jenny, did you say we can.

do this the easy way or the hard way. No, I didn't say that. I just said 911. Well, the 911 works. But they gave it to me. Exactly. They gave me that car. And then the manager offered me a job, and I said, why would I work for you?

I didn't make any money. They want you on their side. They don't want you on our side. Would you mind mentioning the name of the dealer if you don't want to, I understand? Which one? The Cadillac dealer. I've never heard of charging a customer $100. What the heck was the name?

Brayman. Brayman. Wow. Yeah, he was one of the earliest Cadillac dealers down there. He was also one of the early Toyota dealers down there. And that is amazing. I love that story. And we might even contact you at the show to do a mystery shop for us.

We'd love to say. We'd love to. When we really have a tough nut of a dealer, we'll send in Jenny. Kaching, Kaching, more than just $50. I used the story both times, which was very true that I was a single woman, and I spend my money. I don't let anybody else spend my money. Good for you. Well, you're delightful.

Thank you for calling so much. You put a smile on my face. Nancy's going to get $50 to you. I love your show. I just told my daughter-in-law because she bought her car from you guys, but she got a little scratch on it, And the deal, when they brought it into Toyota, she brought it back to your place, they wanted an arm and a leg. And it's only a scratch to touch it up.

Unbelievable. Unbelievable. I said to her, call this number. I said, because Nancy and Al Stewart get on the phone. And I said, they will tell you whether you're being used or you're not. I said, don't do it, you know. It's only a little scratch. Yes, it could turn into something more, but the fact remains is don't go to the first call

where they say, oh, it's got to be this couple hundred dollars or a thousand dollars or whatever. It's crazy. Yes, absolutely. You need to take your show on the road, Jenny. Hey, Jenny, thank you so much for calling. And most of all, thank you for spreading the word about the platform. And your contact information. I'm trying to build here.

And please, your contact information, send it to my email. Nancy S at E S-Toyota.com and have... I don't know if I can... I know how to do the email thing. Oh, really? Okay, well, if you can maybe send me a text message, you can send it to my phone number, which the world has.

Okay, hold on. I'll do you that way. And... 561? Mm-hmm. 386-6-4-98. Say that again. 5-6-1. 386, 6-4-6-4-8.

98 and I'll get that I'll get the check out to you yeah repeat it 5-6-1-386-6-4-9-8 correct and I'll get the check-out to you on Monday and I too am from Pennsylvania so are you what part pardon me Pittsburgh I was from Chester Pennsylvania right outside of Philadelphia you're You watching a Titan game tomorrow? No. Okay, that's another show. Have a wonderful week on Merry Christmas. Thank you very much, you guys. Happy holidays, and please be safe, and thank you for being such honest people.

Thank you. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. And you know, folks, I mention every single week about how we have grown here at Earl Stewart on Cars. And guess what? Since 2018, since 2018, since we began posting our podcast, we have people watching and listening to our show all over the country, all over the world, beyond Bali. So you can take a look at all those statistics at Earl.

on cars. Take advantage of that. Rick? Well, you know, two days ago, the 16th marked seven years since we came back on the air. Seven years since you brought me on board for the... Wow. Time flies. Lucky seven.

I think Stu's in Vegas. Stu just left for Vegas. Okay, Earl. What do you have? What are you two over here on Rick's? We do. Kyle, in Pennsylvania. Good.

He says, good morning. With your seven-day return policy, what do you have to do with the car if someone returns it? Do you put it in used cars, or can you still sell it as new? Oh, it depends on the car. We have a, their title laws. Previously sold. It's got to be indicated. It was previously sold.

It's sold with a new title, but it was indicated on the buyers that happened. I just talk about our seven-day unconditional money back here. When we resell the car. Yeah, the new car, a new car can generally be, you know, It's not titled. Yeah. It's not titled. Yeah, yeah.

Hang on, I'll just say, if you buy a new car and you return it, we haven't titled at that point. But when we resell it, we have to announce that it had been previously delivered. Any car that you buy that has been delivered to a previous owner, and a lot of car dealers do this, and people will just, they'll give them the car to try out for two or three days. And the law says that you have to indicate in writing, this car was previously driven on the streets of Florida. Florida, but it hasn't been titled. It's still a used car in my estimation, but it hasn't been driven so legally is it's not a used car when it hasn't been titled. Okay, I'm going to go to Mike in the control room. Yeah, I had a question for you guys, and I didn't want to call in. I never heard you guys discuss leasing agents before, and I just had to use one, and I wanted to know your thoughts on it. My wife, we both actually happened to have leases coming up in the last three months. It was a bad time. We put a hold on a GMC terrain at shooting.

Mocker. They said four weeks, and after 10 weeks, my wife was like, I can't do this anymore. So we hired a leasing agent. It cost $500, and supposedly he'll have a car for us in two weeks. So we're wondering what your thoughts on that. Oh, like a broker. Yes, a broker. Yeah. Great topic.

Yeah, we do a lot of business with brokers, but it's not going to help you get a car any faster unless he's got a buddy at a dealership who's going to sneak in line. Well, it might because brokers the brokers get paid a fee and sometimes it can be a significant fee. So there's internal

That's why I said unless he's got a buddy or something else is going on. Exactly. And that happens a lot because if I'm giving a dealer $5,000 and sometimes dealers will get as much as that, you can kick back half that to, you know, the salesman that's giving you the car. You could theoretically get somebody else's car because the broker was getting enough money to make it financially worthwhile to both sides. So I would get it in writing if he said he could deliver the car in a certain number of days. Mike, I'd be very suspect of that. He did get it. He got us a VIN number, so I guess the car does exist. He said January 4th, and this was like four days ago.

Yeah, so about three weeks. Getting you to your front door is another, well, leap. And right now, everything, boy, everything is moving slow. Good luck, Mike. be sure to report back if he does meet the deadline. Good luck. And thanks for the question. That's a great question.

Thank you. Give us a call, 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-49-7-2-49-2-49-7-6-5-30. We're going to go back to Rick, where he has some YouTube for us. I do have one other here from Mark Ryan. He says, did Toyota make any significant promotional changes to this year's Toyotathon with such limited inventory. You know, because normally they have huge commercials and everything about the Toyotathon.

Could you repeat the question again? I think all the manufacturers, I heard it, I think all the manufacturers have cut way back on their advertising, and it makes sense because they can't produce the cars. They have a demand, they can't meet the demand supply, so most all car dealers and manufacturers have cut back drastically on the amount of money spend. And in terms of specials, in spite of what they advertise, there's no such thing as a special. There's no such thing as a real discount. You can discount a car by marking

it up first and then discounting it again. So the discounts are phony from the manufacturers, the discounts are phony from the dealers. You're paying all the money and then some if you buy a new or used car today. and that's got me caught up okay great let's jump over to amory's a kickoff text it's amory says good morning i'm sure you've answered these questions in the past but i'd appreciate it very much if you would answer them again one the owner's manual recommends that the

tires on my camry should be inflated to 35 pounds per square inch the tire itself indicates that the maximum inflation is 51 PSI why is there such a range in the numbers two how can an underinflated tire adversely impact fuel economy? For example, if my tires are at 30 PSI, roughly how many miles per gallon might I lose? Three, how low does the tire pressure have to go before the low pressure light glares at me from the dashboard? And four, how can I find out when my tires were manufactured? Thank you very much.

P.S., happy holidays to everyone, and may we see a healthier and happier new year. Can you remember all our questions? Yeah. For number one, the pressure listed on the sticker, usually on the door jam, is the lowest pressure you want to run. Always stay at that or above. The pressure listed on the sidewall of the tire is the maximum safe pressure you can run in that tire. Can I jump in there? It's interesting.

You say why? Well, the manufacturer wants a low pressure because you get a soft ride. And if you go below that, you'll wear your tires excessively, but if you're trying to buy a new car and you're going to demonstrate it, take it for a ride around the block, the lower the pressure, the smoother the ride. The tire manufacturer doesn't want to get sued for liable, so he wants to be sure you don't overinflate your tire, in which case it would wear out quickly and possibly even, if you inflated it too much, but even self-destruct. So neither tire recommendation is genuine to you, the consumer. Now Rick will tell you the best pressure. It's not the low one and it's not the high one, which is it? It's somewhere in the middle, whatever's comfortable for you

that gets you the best fuel economy. As a matter of fact, as a dirty little secret, tire manufacturers make special tires that are a very soft compound that are the first set of tires that come on a brand new car. You can't buy them in the stores. So that when you drive out. They're proprietary by the manufacturer. And so that is something that when you say, I want to have the same tires on my car when

you replace them that came with a tire, came with a car. You might get Firestones, you might get Michelin's, but it's not going to be the same model because only Ford or Honda, wherever you bought the car, buys those tires and they're built to the specification of the car manufacturer because they want you to think you have a super soft ride. And they ride so smooth for that first set of tires. All right. Second question, how much can an underinflated tire adversely impact economy? That's going to be a mathematical equation that I won't even try to figure out. But bear in mind that a softer tire increases the rolling resistance and makes it harder to push that tire

down the road. So it's going to affect your fuel economy for that reason. Plus, It can also wear out the tire a whole lot faster on the edges of the tread and cost you the big money that way as well. They have more rubber on the road when you have a soft tire, so you have more rubber on the road, and so more rubber comes off the tire. Yep. And so also the tire itself, the center tread comes out. They'll start to bow upwards a little bit and lose contact with the road while the outer edges are being pressed harder on the road. Oh, I forgot about that, yeah. And, yeah, and Marie, that's why I'll tell you what, that's my favorite topic, Tires.

And Stu's not finished reading your text yet, but as a sidebar, make sure that you take care of those valves, because those valves hold the air in your tires. It's very important, and tires affect, the pressure in the tires affect everything. Third question, how low does the pressure have to be before the light comes on? Is it relative? That actually can be adjusted on some cars, but it's, generally about whatever the threshold level has been set is generally about six pounds below that so if the threshold is set at 30 PSI what is the threshold you

talk about the manufacturer's recommendation well the threshold is the the level the pressure level that is programmed into the computer at which the light will turn on when the pressure goes below that level and it varies by a manufacturer yes you can as a matter of fact on some cars you can even change that threshold level if your car has a button under the dash say you want to have that threshold at 30 pounds you set your tire pressures all at 36 pounds and then press and hold that button for a certain amount of time until it blinks the light at you a few times and it will set that threshold down at 30

when your tires are at 36 it subtracts six pounds that's good enough all right and then the last question and I'm gonna let Earl answer this one how can I find out when my tires were manufactured. Where are my tires? When? When were they? It's a coded date that no one can interpret it except Rick. And it's one of these dumb bureaucratic government, NHTSA. You take a picture of it and you text it to Rich.

Instead of putting a date on the tire, they coded by the number of weeks in the year and the last two digits of the year. How is that put on the tire, Rick? there's a DOT number that will be on both sides of the tire. The Department of Transportation. But on one side, it's actually going to be a little bit longer, and instead of having the numbers raised up from the rubber, they'll be embossed in, and there will be four digits there.

The last two are going to be the year the tire was produced. So 19 would be 2019, 20, 2020, and so on. The first two digits of that four digit correspond to 0.0.0.000. 0-1 up to 52, and that's the week number of that year that it was produced. So if it was 0-3, it's the third week of the year. So as stupid and as absurd as that sounds, I think it was a premeditated idea for the tire manufacturers, maybe even the tire dealers, and the lobbyist in Congress for them to go to the federal government and say, this is the way we want to display the date.

And nobody had the courage to say, listen, if the tire was manufactured December 15th, 2019, put that date on the tire, December 15th, 2019, or at least put in the numbers the way we have the code that everybody recognized 12, 15, 19, and said they came up with a code because I don't want you to know when the tire was manufactured. If you build a tire and it doesn't sell for six years, theoretically, you're not supposed to sell the tire. You're not supposed to drive on that tire. I mean, if they did that on a carton of milk. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You have an expired tire, but you don't know it because you can't read the code.

You pick up a seven-year-old carton of milk and you go, looks good to me. Yeah. Okay, I'm going to shut some light on this. Anne-Marie, back in the day, here's a visual for you. What I would do is I would go out into the driveway, lay on the driveway. lay on the driveway with my high-powered flashlight and my phone so I could take a picture of that almighty long, long, long number and alphabet and everything else that was confusing.

So there's my visual for the day. Back to Stu. Okay. I'd say thank you, Emery, for a great text. I hear something I knew was going to come up, and there's been several texts about, and anonymous feedback, and it has to do with a story that was in Ars Technica about Toyota charging to use Remote Start on your remote.

And Earl asked me about that, because I think you've got some questions from some people as well. And I'll give my take on it, and then Earl can editorialize. But I think the article should have been headline, Toyota salespeople fail to explain the subscription service to their customers. So remote start, since that was ever available, was always a paid option to make your remote work. Then about three years ago, Toyota came out with Toyota Connected Services, which connects your car through cellular to the dealership into an app, so you can start your car, you can see how much fuel is in a bunch of stuff. It came with a free subscription in the beginning that expired.

They're starting to expire now, and the remotes are not working. But prior to that, to have a remote, you would have paid $400 or $500 to install a remote start. So I think it's a communications failure, and because right now the word on the street is that they just decided out of the blue to start charging for it. But it's not, it's a little bit more nuanced than that. Back to you, Earl. Yeah, as Stu hasn't seen the current article in automotive news. And the headline is automakers see gold in over-the-air software upgrades. So I think, you know, I think what's happening.

is the Toyota and all the manufacturers in the 21st century with, and I see a lot of these in Tesla. I get a lot of software upgrades on my Tesla. Stu does too, but they're free. The manufacturers are starting to charge for software upgrades. So this issue that we're talking about with a remote start is a feature that's available. It's a software matter. It's an option. It's an option.

But, you know, a software upgrade costs the manufacturer. or nothing. If you have the software, it's a matter of pushing a button on your PC, sending it out to the receiver in the cars, and you can upgrade people, you can upgrade things all the time. We've been doing software upgrades for a long time in our dealership. All the manufacturers and dealers do, and it's good for the consumer in the sense that if it's wireless, you can do it in your garage. You don't even have to go into the dealership. If you do go in the dealership they just run it in and do this but the issue is the um the additional features that could be charged like somebody on the their question was like could you imagine getting a six

400 horsepower car and then finding out that it was 150 three years later yeah they misread the the intent the but i don't like the intent of charging for software upgrades anyway uh so uh stew is right uh the remote start was part of a package like uh uh uh serious radio. You know, and they give it to you free for six months free, and after that you have to buy it. So the same thing that Sue's talking about

with the Toyota issue with a remote start. I just don't like the idea of having to pay anything on a car. If it's an upgrade, it's an upgrade, you bought the car, you should get the upgrade free. Your iPhone, you get upgrades all the time, right? They don't charge you for it. How would you like it if every time

there was another upgrade on your smartphone you had to pay for it. So that's, that's, I think, I know, the answer is I think, I think explaining what the connected services would be to somebody, nobody would buy it until you let them play with it for a year and then then they go, oh, I can't live without it, and then they want to pay for it. I agree. It's kind of like what a druggler does.

They first, they give you a little sample, and then they get you hooked, and you keep coming back. I have a, it's not illegal, but I have a moral issue with charging somebody, something for something that costs you nothing. Well, that's not entirely true. It costs years and years of development to make software and paying, you know, it costs. Which they recouped in the first, and then, in the first software version. I can't believe I'm going to have to explain how capitalism works to you.

Yeah. No, there's a big difference. The tables have turned, father. There's a big difference. Stu is the funny one today. Unfortunately, there are conflicts in capitalism and moral code and ethics. I've been telling you that since I was four years ago. Hey, speaking of Tesla.

Hey, here's a great Christmas gift idea for your children. I think it's like from 8 to 16, but Tesla has put out a, it isn't for sale yet, I believe, a couple of weeks, but it's called this Cyber Squad. Oh. Has anyone seen that? And it'll cost you. It's a personal vehicle. It'll guarantee you to kill your children in the first six months. It's for your children.

I mean, it's an ATV. It's a four-wheel ATV for children. Not for my children. And it's called the new Cybersquot. It looks really cool. It does. It resembles. Okay, let's get moving here. What do we got?

Okay, chop, chop, 87-960. 9960. That's 877-960-9960. And you can text us at 772-497-6530. And don't forget, www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. I think Stu is rolling a lot. along with some texts? Well, I have a really interesting and a tough anonymous feedback to answer,

and I'm just going to try and answer it the best I can. It says, if I bought a new car from your dealership a few months ago for MSRP, if the trade end values were higher than the original MSRP, would Earl Stewart buy the car from me more than what I paid, how aggressive are you getting. So I guess what I was saying, if you bought a car from us before and now use car prices are surging, are you going to pay more? The answer is, is yes with some qualifications. We have a delicate situation. It's kind of hard to have a used car lot, a hundred feet away from a new car lot with the new car for the same model costing more than the new, the used car costing more than a new car. But we will help place that

car with you wherever, whether it's Carvana, whether it's an auction, we're going to give you the maximum the value for your car. But if it's a Toyota, we might find an outlet for it. Yeah, like anything else, it's market. We'll pay market. Every dealer has its own market value. We will pay maybe sometimes more than Carvana, but sometimes Carvona will pay more than us. More often than not, they pay more than us.

So we recommend people that are trading in a car. Go to Carvana first and go to the room. We buy any car.com. Go to CarMax. It's a seller's market, and that includes you. Not just to use car salespeople, and the new car salespeople, but if you have a car, it's a used car, it's a seller's market for you. And you can have a ball just by shopping that car around. And Barry O'Brien, I don't know if he's listening now, but he's a former radio host from this studio many years ago.

And he's a friend. And he has a story he's going to tell us, kind of call it 930, about an off-lease car that will really make my point in spades as far as what market value means. And it's what we see in our market today in the 21st century right now in 2021 is something that has never before been seen. So we're having to come up with new definitions. And Stu mentioned capitalism before. At what point, you know, capitalism is the best system on the planet. And that's the reason America is the greatest country on Earth. And it's because of capitalism. But is capitalism something that needs to be looked at again in terms of limits and controls? Do you think it's okay? This is a question for you, all you folks listening.

Do you think it's okay for car dealers or any other seller to charge you anything they want because they can sell that price because of the supply and demand equation? We had a Toyota dealer from Oakland, California that was selling Toyotas, um, around fours for $40,000 over a sticker. Is that okay? We, uh, we've seen Supras trade for as much as, uh, $100,000 over a sticker. Is that okay? Uh, it's, it's a fair question. Some people can defend it and it's accurate to say, capitalism says you sell any product for as much as you can get. And everybody has to live with their own conscience. Is that okay? Should there be limits? My personal feeling, this is my personal feeling, is that the smart capitalist will not

take advantage of the situation. They will put a limit on their prices because they have to exist and do business in the long run. If you're going to be in business for more than a few years, you don't want to offend a lot of customers. The people that paid $40,000 over ticker for a Rav 4, may never want to go back to that dealer again. They may go to another dealer who treated them more fairly. My dad used to say to me, pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered. Yeah, that's right. Sock market's saying.

Great. Hey, what's your opinion? We'd love to hear from you. You heard Earl's question. 877-960, or you can text your answer at 772-497-3-0. Now back to Stu. Well, we're all cut up with texts. Well, we have one from Frank.

I want to know if you have any Corolla's. No, we don't. That's about it. You can get on the list, though. There is someone who texts us a very cryptic message without a whole lot of background. It says, hello, I have a problem with my dealer, and I want to know if you can help me.

And we would love it if you could call in to the show. 877, I don't even know the number. 877-960. I only focus on the text number. So thanks for texting, but please call in. but if you don't want to call on the phone, you can text back and give us a little bit more details, and we would love to help you out. Yeah, 772-497-6530.

Take advantage of both. We'd love to hear from you. All right. Back to the barracuda lady. No, I, uh. The what? The barracuda lady. Her old car.

Barakula. Hey, guys, I hope you're having such a great time listening to this show. And we know it's two hours ago. It's pretty fast for us. But let me tell you what, to accumulate all this free, free, free information. Isn't it amazing? Amazing. You just can't go anywhere for something that's free and legitimate. And I have $50 for one more female caller. Give us a call at 877-9-60, and win yourself, $50. You can use it at this time of year. Earl? In the current Automotive News In the current automotive news There was a blurb about

A company called MobileI A lot of you haven't heard of MobileI But Intel, who you may have heard of, they were, I think they still may be the largest chip manufacturer They bought MobileI back in 2017 And you think he haven't heard of Mobile Eye today.

Nobody had heard of it in 2017, but they paid $15.3 billion. And everybody laughed at them. But here it is 2021, and they're spending off MobileI, and they're going to go public with it. MobileI just may be the most important element factor in the whole autonomous car situation, the auto revolution, and we all know we're headed there real fast, faster than we thought. MobileEye is actually a head on driverless technology.

In other words, on the technological equipment and software that you need to get into a car with no steering wheel and go 120 miles an hour on the expressway and not worry about it. And go through intersections without traffic lights. Exactly. And they have a mixture of technology. Right now, Tesla leads the world in autonomous technology and on electric cars, too. They have put all their cards in the camera basket. So when you drive a Tesla, and they have fully autonomous now, the car I'm driving is fully autonomous.

Unfortunately, Elon Musk won't let me do it because I'm not a safe enough driver. But he has full autonomy in my Tesla. And they use all cameras. Mobile Eye that has technology has been sold and leased and is available to a number of manufacturers has both what they call LiDAR and cameras. LiDAR is a combination of radar and lasers. And you put the two together and you have sensitivity to, your environment as you drive night or day, rain or shine, far superior to the human being.

So when you put those two together, you have a true, much, much safer vehicle than you are when you're driving your own vehicle today. So look for that mobile eye availability and when you're shopping for autonomous vehicles. I believe that Tesla will move into the LIDAR, but right now they're relying strictly on cameras. It's really cool the way the cameras. do that. I have cameras in my and my Tesla that are 360 degrees and they see everything that's coming behind on both sides and front of me and but they don't they're not using the way the the lasers and they're not using the radar combination is optimum so if you want to talk about autonomous driving

give us a call at 877 960 9960 and a text us at 772-497 6530, I'm really surprised we haven't had more anonymous feedbacks. That used to be the hottest input we had more so than Facebook, YouTube, or the regular. I miss one. We have one here. Oh, great. It says when I watched your radio program on YouTube today, the speech to text is turned on. Several times when the word Toyota was mentioned, it showed the word toilet instead of Toyota. Interesting.

That came in. Thank you. Was it a toto toilet, or was it a... I don't know. Maybe that's what I wonder. It was probably a toto, and they left off the rest of the spelling. Are you talking about the mystery shopping report for today when you said toilet? Don't give it away.

We're going to go to, back to the phones, we're going to talk to Marty from West Palm Beach. Hey, Marty. Good morning, Marty. Hi, good morning. How are you? Well, thank you. I have a hypothetical question for Stuart Earle. If you come into your dealership and you give a person, let's say, a quote on their used car trade, but they bring in their offer from, let's say, we buy any car or whatever,

one of these other ones are car makes and it's a lot higher, will you give them that price or will you stick to just your price? and the reason why I ask obviously the higher price is a trade-in on a $30,000 car is going to save you the sales tax versus all cash.

Right, we can place it with any buyer and it doesn't any you can buy a higher price, Marty. And then as Sue said, we place it. We actually have already done that probably when you come in. We're using

we're using Carvon ourselves. We buy any car, room, car max. The market is so volatile and so out of sync with anything we've ever seen that we cannot rely on our own appraisers. As Stu said earlier, we have a market that we've established. We have customers that anticipate prices. We try to price our cars at where we think we can sell a trade-in on the used car lot. if we feel like we can't sell it at the price that we have to allow, we let Carvana hopefully make the mistake. I'll say this, Carvana, CarMax, some of these national companies have an advantage.

We're looking at a fairly local market, so if we want to retail a car, we're in North Palm Beach, and there's a unique market in North Palm Beach. If I'm Carvada, I have a market in Indiana, I have a market in San Diego, I have a market all over the country. So they are more flexible in being able to pay more money. And, of course, they can make mistakes, too. A lot of these third-party use car buying companies are IPOs, meaning they have a wealth of cash,

and a lot of them are paying too much for them. So take advantage of it. And that's their business model. They set out saying we're going to take losses and much smaller margins to grow their share, the market, and get people to pay. To hold the customer base. Yeah.

Exactly. So that's what we do. So in other words, when the person makes the deal with you, will you give them the higher price? Yes. Yes. Yes. Because we have an outlet for it. We don't have to keep it and suffer the consequences of it.

So that's the only way to be successful in selling used cars is to go by the market. So if the market is saying this car is worth $20,000 and we think it's $15, but there's a buyer for it, and it's going to find its way to that buyer. Marty, that's a good point because it's one of the huge differences in the markets today in buying a car, is that usually it's the appraiser at the car dealership you go to that determines the price of the car no longer. And so if you're not getting that service from the deal you choose, you need to do it yourself. And that's the reason we give out the names over and over again.

Carvana, we buy any car.com, varum, a carman. If you don't check with those sources and you just go to the dealer, they're going to take it either take advantage of you and give you too little for the car, or they may not be taking advantage in their mind. They may be paying you what they think is a fair price, but Carvana will pay a higher price. So they owe it to you to check with Carvana on your behalf. If they don't, you be sure you check with Carvana or Varum or we buy any car or Carman

it is a delight today to have a used car to trade. If you do have a used car, you can afford to pay pretty much the exorbitant price you're going to charge you for the new car. You should get an exorbitant price for the trade end, which should offset largely the exorbitant price for the new car. If you do not have a trade end, you're really going to get hosed by paying too much for that new car. Yeah.

Now, also, when you make the deal, say, with you and the new car, but it had to be ordered, you get that price? Sure, absolutely. Most of our cars are ordered. When a truck of cars pulled up on our lot a year ago, they used to go into the inventory. Today, a truck of cars pulled up. We know in advance, we call the customers. Your car is on the truck. It'll be here in three days.

Most of the cars that we sell now have been sold a month, two months, three months ago. Stu? Here's another thing. If somebody doesn't need to drive their trade, we get creative sometimes. We can take the trade in earlier and actually have that credit on the books and you get the sales tax. And that way you get the current thing. It will be appraised at the time of delivery because the market changes over time. But we consult with you and where we think it's going to be down the road when your car comes in,

give you an idea what to expect. You put you in the ballpark. But that's an example on your part. In other words, it's not fixed. We can't fix the repraisal 90 days ahead of the actual transaction. Use cars have been going up in price every month for over a year. So if you're a gambler, I would hold on to my use car and watch the market and then sell it if I didn't have to trade it in.

Some people want to lock it in. Exactly. But they're not very adventurous. All right. Well, right now I'm not in the market, so I'm going to wait. You're lucky. Good idea. You're lucky.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Don't be in this market. market, Marty, stay away from this market. No. I've got a 20-20, so I don't need a car now, so I can wait. Oh, that's already obsolete, Marty. You need to come get one. Make yourself rich, Marty. Sell that car. We buy anycar.com.

Thank you. All right. Have a good holiday and everything. Thank you. Thanks for the call. We're going to stick with the phones, and we're going to talk to Gina, who's been holding from Jupiter Farms, a first caller. Good morning, Gina, and welcome. You just won yourself $50. And if you get me your information, email it to me or text it to me. Do you have that information, that availability? I think he said Nancy S. at E S.Toyota.com. I emailed already.

Wow, you're really on top of things. I can't wait to hear why you call. Okay, so I purchased a car from Earl Stewart, and I've been very pleased. but I got a scratch on the car and when I took my car in for servicing the quote I thought was a little high and then so I went to a local body shop and got a quote so my question would be if I don't do it through you guys

do they does the body shop have the same kind of pain is it going to be anything that's noticeable will it depreciate the value of the car well generally speaking a lot of people do get um sticker shock when they hear a quote for like a small damage like a like a scratch um to properly or to completely repair it that involves usually painting the panel so um and that involves a very removing parts taping up properly you can get a cheaper quote there are a lot of discount um body shops all over town and the price has to do with basically the amount the thoroughness of the job.

You can tape things off and get an okay paint job for a very inexpensive price, but a real professional thorough job does take more time. If it doesn't matter to you, on a brand new car, I might be inclined to do a better job. If it's a car that has some other damage on or an older car, then it might not be that big a deal. Gina, we should have explained it to you because, as Stu said, But if you're going to make a late model car look new again and the repair look new, you have to pay more money.

We can always do a lesser repair, but we should prepare you for it. And your original observation is actually true. Yeah, it's going to depreciate the car more if you have a not first quality repair. If it's a really good repair, it'll depreciate your car less and a not so good quality repair. And, Gina, it may not seem important now with the money, maybe your money situation, but, boy, I'll tell you what, there's nothing like a bad pain job that depreciate your car, and you don't realize it until you're ready to sell that car. Yeah, it's not an old car.

I've only had it for a couple years, so it's a high lender. Wow, that's worth a good paint job. Okay, all right, I appreciate the advice. Thank you, Gina. Give us a call again. Spread the word. We have a platform here for the ladies. They can win themselves $50. Have a wonderful weekend. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. I think we're going to go back to Stu.

I think we're all caught up right now. Let me double check. Oh, no, we got one just popped in. All right, good morning. After hearing Mr. Stewart say he's not allowed to use the autonomous feature. Don't you think a refund for that feature is due back? Seems unfair to charge it for it and then not allow you to use it, just a thought. He paid, to make it sound really obnoxious, you paid $10,000 for the full self-driving capability, which is in beta mode, so it's constantly being updated.

The newest update, since it is a, it delves into the area where you can possibly take a nap where you're driving the car and take your hands off the wheel, even you're not supposed to. They wanted to make sure only the safest drivers, so they're rolling it out in this incomplete beta form to only the safest drivers in the country. Apparently, that's only about 100 people, and Earl's not one of them. You have a 95 score, and I don't qualify.

You have to have a 100%, and that's not the way I drive. I'm not a reckless driver. I have a better score than Stu, my son, but you have to be a 100 to qualify for, full autonomy and yeah I'm in 85 you're right I did I did pay a lot of money for it and I the thought has occurred to me but you pay but you got what you pay for then they enhanced it yeah well at one point everybody will have it I'll have it it it's just a question when they even let medium skilled drivers like me yeah I'm I'm currently oh I drop further

like I'm in 84 84 you're way down there I'm never going to stay away from this guy on the on the highway. Let me mention something. We're going to go back to the phones, where we have David Holding from North Palm Beach. Good morning, David. Good morning. Welcome.

Retain to a call that you just received. I don't think he answered the question directly. If I ordered a car from Earl Stewart, Toyota, they called and said the car is going to be in on Wednesday, and Tuesday I call up Carvanner and a couple of different people, and I get a price on my trade. When I go in Wednesday to pick up my car, if Earl Stewart appraises my car for $10,000 and I have an offer for $11,000, will they match the higher offer if it's current? Well, it depends on who made the offer.

If it's your brother-in-law, no. No, I'm talking about a man or of a room or a major company. If somebody we can verify Carvana, Caramac, you say, Carvana will pay me this much, then we would call. So, and if Carvana would pay, they'll pay, if they'll pay you, they'll pay us. So, yeah, and in fact, we'll even say if you want to go ahead and make the deal and get the cash for your car and pay us that cash instead of it's ready to get in, that's fine, too. So that wouldn't be an advantage if you'd lose the difference in the sales tax. Well, yeah, you'd have to establish. No, we could get to get the sales tax.

As long as we're in contact with the buyer, we buy it from you and we sell it to them as long as we have a firm commitment for them to buy it. exactly thank you thank you you answered my question i appreciate it you got it and that's a great question by the way and what you're doing and thinking about should be on everybody's mind you are driving a pot of gold your car that you're driving now is worth more than you think it is and as i say i mentioned this at the earlier part of the show we have a caller in about 20 minutes this is going to describe the situation with you exactly what we're talking about how somebody just got blown away and what the car he was driving was worth. So don't go into a car dealer today with your trade-in

or even your off-lease car and just take their word or take what's the lease option to purchase word for what that car's worth. It's worth a lot more. So good question. Don't ever take a dealer's word for what your trade is worth.

Very good question. And stay in touch with us. Let us know how things went. We're going to go, we're going to stick with the phone so we're going out to Jupiter Farm. go to talk to Frank, who's a regular caller. Good morning, Frank. Well, good morning to you all.

And I guess happy New Year since the guys probably be set down for the next few weeks. With that in mind, I was the one that texted to you guys about a friend of mine up in Georgia that needed a car. Her daughter had a bad wreck and had to be replaced. So they started looking for a used car and they were shocked at high expensive used car. it would be. And they said, well, you guess we're going to buy a new one. And it just has to feel a lot. And I almost knew the answer was going to be not for a few months. But in an event, if there was any dealers, because she said, why am I going to come all the way down to Jupiter if you get a car? They said, well, we're going to save a lot more money than you're buying from

the dealer up there where they have it above MSRP, plus the dealer piece, plus this, plus that. So anyway, I was hoping to get you guys to help around. it's still tough uh yeah it's also heartbreaking my my brother josh is one of his best friends that he grew up with um he's up in georgia and he wanted he needed a car actually wanted to get a big SUV for his wife you know something she'd been hoping to get and and and i were both saying just don't do it now what do you wait you wait and he says uh this is important to her he wants to do it he didn't want to drive down here to uh down to florida so he um end up you know overpaying but he understood what he was getting into he knew what he says hey it is what it is and uh now she's

happy with a with her with her present but yeah it's it's it is crazy frank yeah no it's um it's interesting like i i still go around people once in a while with their approaches and it's just we did just like that lady on the first part of your show just walk away it's the best um way of not fighting with them and just enough is enough yeah well it's also it's great to know that like you know even though know, you're not like, I mean, you're a part of the show, Frank, but you're not technically a part of the show, and that you're spreading the information and giving really good advice the same that we would give. So I guess we're doing something right around here. Right, guys? Yeah, I did look on your list good cars, better cars, or however that goes.

And there is that dealership, like I mentioned a week or two ago, that Lexus dealership, Orlando Lexus, there was no dealer fees. Yeah. So you may be able to call them and verify, but it's true. I've spoken from a couple times. And like I said, if you even have a Lexus, they're going to give you another $1,000 credit this day and age. They don't go in any of those that I must have a fee. Well, it's certainly hard to know

that there are dealers out there that are doing that. And it's our job. We're going to find them all for you guys. There you go. And thanks for helping out. Merry Christmas. Happy.

You too, Frank. All right. Bye-bye. Thank you, Frank. 877-960-99-60. Texas at 772-497-6-5-30. And you can also also take advantage of Your Anonymous Feedback.com.

We've got a great mystery shopping report coming up shortly, and you want to stay tuned for that. And, you know, I didn't mention earlier, it's time for Earl to put his hat on, and it's time for whomever didn't join the vigilantes. You can go to Earl-owned cars, and there you can sign up, and you can help everyone,

Even in your community. Get a free hand. And protect those who are being taken advantage of, Hezorl's vigilantes, and Stu designed at the top of that hat right there. It's so pretty. Anyway. Got a text? Yeah.

We got a text? A wonderful. Yeah. It says, I don't know if you're going to remember this. I don't have no idea what this is, but the old guys might figure it out. For car repainting, if you remember this, Dad? In the old days, you could get your whole car painted for $29. $0.95 cents at Earl Shib.

Yeah, that's true. Have you heard of Earl Shib? Oh, sure, yeah. Yeah, never heard of that. And to this day, they have a cheap, shoddy paint. I mean, they paint over the trim, the chrome, the license plate, wind shield. I mean, you know, they use a brush and sit down. Right.

You know, they paint the inside of the car? I mean, if the ad says, well, I'll paint your car for $100. I mean, I'll paint your car for $100. if you don't care what it looks like when I get through. Yeah, that's a nightmare. That's a video going through my head right now. I'm in Pittsburgh, and I'm looking at all these really bad pain jobs. It's just unbelievable that it's legal for that that would be done.

Anyway. Yeah, here's some Earl Shibb trivia for you. Earl Shib was founded in 1937 in Los Angeles, California. Went out of business 11 years ago. That's the year my father started business. That's right. Yeah, we're a lot of the street back, don't we? Let me double check, but the last night, we are caught up.

If you don't, we do, I got it. Yeah, I got one. I was going to see. Here we go. We're going to go, before Stu continues, we're going to go to the roadrunner, Steve. We haven't heard from him for a while, and he's calling us from Boynton Beach. Good morning. Good morning, everybody.

How are we doing? We're great. We're great. That's right. I just spent $1,500 on my roadrunner. Oh, excellent. Okay, listen, I'm up on Nissan, I'm up at Nissan dealership on Lake Worth Road. Uh-huh.

My friend wanted to look at the frontier. No, thank you. I'm in their used vehicle lot here, and I'm looking at these prices here. Here, I'll give you an example. We are broadcasting live from the car level with our correspondent in the field roadrunner, Steve. 2014 Ford 106,000 miles They won 27,195 dollars

You're lying You're lying I was about to give I was like that car is worth about $6,000 I know Get the hell out of that It's more than that, but wow

That's insane And then they got a 2020 Nissan Titan For $52,000 We're 40,000 miles on it. That's a big truck, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then they got a, they got another Ford here, the FX Ford, four-wheel drive, 75, 2018, Ford Lariat, 75,000 miles.

They want 53,000 dollars. Are sure you're not on Worth Avenue right now? Where are you? Yes, I am. Yes, I am. Those people should be arrested. Wouldn't it be funny if somebody in Switzerland. showroom was listening to the radio and said hey there's a guy out of the

use car lot and he's talking live on the radio and he's laughing at us and he's telling us what all the high prices are yeah bring the phone to the uscar manager we want to ask him about his pricing you're better than the guy that's screaming 999 they're going to come and get you steve hey and i remember ear old shod commercials yeah we're not going to make it out of there live that's a whole new format live mr shopping reports a guy with a baseball and the other commercial i remember that other commercial, the tie commercial, you go in snow, or we pay the

tow. If you Google those and you go on YouTube, you can find a lot of those old commercials, and it's an entire evening's entertainment. Some of these old car dealers invented the Circus Act, and

they said, a lot of it censored. A lot of it, they said some terrible thing, because it was live TV back then, and they would get carried away. And there was tremendous entertainment. YouTube is all over YouTube. Are they passing up popcorn and peanuts over there?

Hot dogs. No, no, no. And then they get the nerves to charge a $6,000 fee for a surcharge. Of course, it's a new vehicle. Market adjustment, exactly, yeah. You better be quiet.

You're going to throw you out of there. The manufacturer's sticker price starts off at $34,000 and change. Then it goes up to $42,000. Huh. Do they have any nitrogen? I would love it if every week you get a car dealership and call us from me and just describe what you're looking at. But ain't that price gouging?

If you go to a gas station during a hurricane, they're charging $10 a gallon of gas. Ain't that price gouging? That's legal price gouging, but this is different price gouging in spirit. Well, how is that legal what they're doing? And we need a law. Well, you have raised an interesting point because if you have to have a car... the Better Business Bureau or anything about this?

They're worthless. You're better off to call the Attorney General's office, but they're not too good either. The Better Business Bureau is in the pocket of the businessmen. Yeah, that's true. That's true. That's what happens with small government. Okay, that's my report for the day. Everybody have a happy

holiday, happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanza. Happy everything. And enjoy yourself. Okay. Talk to you next year. Okay, be careful. They're coming out of you, Steve. Run. I can't run. He's a roadrunner. I don't run. I just walk away. All right, everybody. Stay safe and well. Thank you. Oh, Steve, you've been good for my heart. Okay. Okay, back to... Anonymous feedback, yeah. So here's a... I'm sorry, I've got to take that away from you.

We're going to go to Palm Beach Gardens where Vince is waiting to speak to us. Good morning, Vince. Good morning. Give me a second. I'm breathing in a brown paper bag. about hot talk too. You can't be exhausted. Oh my God. Hey, we said we had entertainment. You just heard it. Yeah, you do. Good for you guys. Hey, I'm sure you have answered this question a zillion times, but it's the first time I'm listening into your show. But I just want to know the impact, literally of an impact to the car on

your resale value. I got in, somebody was nice enough to run into my back. of my car while I was sitting at a red light and um you know fixed and everything like that and yeah I'm not sure about trading in the car exactly right now but what's the impact of having one accident not caused by myself to a car vehicle it depends entirely on location it depends on the car it's a variable best thing for you to do is is to get an estimate and and to check use car values. I'll say this, even with a bump on the rear end, you're going to get more for that car than you did. You're going to get 40% more for that car than you would a year ago. Now that's saying a lot. So, yeah, but it does depreciate. Sometimes even if you get it fixed, Vince, it's going

to cost you because I'll use a paint meter. They'll check the car. They know the car's been in an accident, especially if you have insurance. It's on the Carfax. And even if you don't have insurance, they scan the car with a meter, and they see that it's been repainted, and they gig the car for a certain amount. But it'll be gigged less in today's on-fire used car market than ever before. I wouldn't worry about it. I wouldn't, yeah. And also, it depends on if it's a bumper thing where they had to, you know, rehang a bumper or something like that, is a lot different than a hit in the fender or the rear quarter panel or something like that.

Yeah, they had to replay my whole, you know, back in, for that matter. You know, it's a smaller SUV, but, I mean, I took it to the dealer, et cetera. So it's all on their books and things. I mean, I wouldn't hide the back. What Earl recommend is a really good idea is to get an estimate on the repair and then take about 30% or 40% off that because the dealer can do it. It will charge himself, which sounds weird, a lot less than a retail quote. and then you can have an honest idea of how much it really would cost.

So if they ding your appraisal by that amount, then you know they're being honest. If they're trying to take advantage of it, then you'll know also. But like Earl said, you're going to, you're getting it more even with a dinged appraisal in this market than you would of the year. You know, going after the insurance of the guy that ram me, of course, he was texting on his phone and, you know, on and on. So, I mean, the repair has already been done, but, you know, I was already shopping my car as a trade-in right before it happened. And, of course, it happened, you know. Oh, boy.

You're still in good shape, though. I wouldn't worry about it. That's just the diminished value that they're looking at, and if it was a good job, dealers are desperate for use cars right now to sell, and so they're not going to care about your repaired car, and you're still going to get top dollar for it. And you can back it down to the parking place, maybe they won't see the dent. Well, he fixed it. There you go. We buy anycar.com.

Good deal, Vince. Thank you, Vince. Appreciate the call. Yeah, thanks. Stay in touch. Real life situation. Okay. YouTube's?

We do have one. Ernesto is asking, when is Stu going to start reading the mystery shopping report? Ernest what are you doing, man? I thought it was said a few weeks ago Stu would be reading them. Also, now this is a good one,

will there be an audio book version of Earl's book? It's going to be. Yeah, I should have done an audio version of the first one. And I've recently, Stu has always listened to audio books, and he talked me into trying it. And now that I'm hooked on it, I think audiobooks are the way of the future. So my new book, Redemption of a Recovering Car Dealer, when that goes to press, we'll have an audio version. I'm going to have a professional guy do it.

It narrated by the author is so much better. Yeah. I'm on board. I thought about it. I thought about it. We'll try it. I'm going to do the same thing. Speaking of books, let's do Earl's Confessions of a recovering car dealer.

You see that on camera? Isn't it a great looking book? Wow, what a great Christmas gift. A great Christmas gift, 1999. And all proceeds go to Big Dog Ranch. This is a kind of book that you. We have a big dog in the studio. Want to hear him again?

Okay. We call him Kearney. He's very passionate about what he does. Ladies and gentlemen, Confessions of a recovering car dealer. This is the kind of book that you purchase and you read and you can just pass it along to anybody in your family, any of your friends. It never goes out of style. It never expires. It is filled with so much information you'll want it on your bookshelf.

Recovering confessions of a recovering car dealer. Okay. Who are we going to? We got a text? Let's say. It says, they need warranty advice. I have a Jeep 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited. I did not realize that my extended warranty had expired.

I've been receiving numerous robocalls telling me to buy another extended warranty. From your experience, are these additional extended warranties really worth the cost? Please advise, thank you. Definitely don't listen to any of the robocalls. And getting a service contract on a 2014 Jeep Cherokee just sounds really expensive to me. But I would call the Jeep dealer. Maybe you got some advice roll. But don't answer the robocalls.

No, no, they're terrible. You got robocalls, you get emails, you get a text. I mean, they must be making a ton of money on these bogus extended warranties. And people fall for it. They're all over TV now. I've never seen as much TV as, and it gives it a legitimacy when you see it on television. The robocalls, you know, is BS, but now they're doing it on television, and they do it so much. It almost sounds like they're legitimate.

I see them on TV telling you to do this. Yeah. Just don't buy any extended warranties, period. Forget about it. And these robocalls that you're talking about, you know, they give you the option. to not be called again and you can press two well how many

a thousand times have I done that I've got warranty calls coming out of my ears and they make it sound very authentic stay away from it folks back to Stu I forgot we had this anonymous feedback

and then we're going to do the YouTube oh I can look that's okay go ahead I have blinders on my blurry spot right here Peripheral vision's gone I know Errolung Carr's

anonymous feedback six months ago, Earl was saying, you never get more for your trade than you will right now. Then use car values went up thousands more on average. Now Earl thinks you should hold a used car for a few more months. I know it's difficult to protect, but if predictions are wrong, that hurts more than it helps. Before he jumps in, I want to say, I go, yes, predictions are difficult to make and no one is psychic. But the point is, when you're describing a surging surging prices in the car market, no one has a true crystal ball, but we know it's going to go

up for a while, and then we know it's going to go down. It's just a question of when. And you'll answer. Well, you're going to hear something you rarely hear on the radio or television anywhere. I was wrong. When I said, I thought that you'd never get a higher price a few months ago on a used car. I was wrong. I made a mistake, and you do. But what I should have said is in the past, you could never have gotten a better price. In the future, you did get a better price. And if you buy a car today, you might get a better price next month. I learned from my mistakes.

I said earlier in the show, if you weren't listening, I said to somebody, you might want to consider holding on that used car instead of getting your money up front from the dealer because it might be worth more than the next month or the month later. Then you're gambling. So it's like anything else, the stock market, it's a gamble. You just have to take a calculated risk, and as I say, I pride myself on admitting when I'm wrong. We're not giving out investment advice on the show anyway.

We're trying to keep you from getting ripped off. We've got a YouTube over here. Well, this one actually kind of fits right in. John Strine is asking, I got in here late, can you crystal ball when your dealership might have near normal inventory? Yes. I'd planned on buying a car this year, but have held back for obvious reasons. We anticipate having carrying about 50% of our normal stock by the end of this year, which means

there will be available inventory, which means prices will be lower, but it won't be as plentiful. We won't have 500 new cars in stock next December. We'll have 250 compared to the 17 we have right now. So that kind of puts it in perspective. Meaning December of 22. Yes. And I think we have Barry O'Brien going to be called for a caller, so I think that's being

handled in the control room. It definitely is, and he's probably going to be put through at 9.30. Okay. We've got a text. We can get before Barry calls. Sure. Earl, it's for Earl. It's from Johnny and Riviera Beach.

He says, you always mention the high prices of new and used cars these days, but my daughter experienced a high price for an auto part. She needed a cooling fan for her 2014 Kia Forte. Her friend has a Toyota mechanic that lives next door, and he agreed to replace her cooling fan for $100. So she goes online to Rock Auto to check out the price of a cooling fan. They only wanted $60 for the fan, but $200 to ship it. She thought that was absolutely ridiculous.

Are you serious? Yeah. She goes to Amazon, who only charged her $60 for the fan and $5 to ship it. By the way, the Kiev dealership on Military Trail wanted $800 to replace the cooling fan. She thought that was awfully high for a part that didn't cost us. We need to try. Rock Auto is one of our icons, one of our recommendations, and for them to try to screw around, like that on shipping costs we're going to shop them and see what's going on that's insane i mean

i don't want to be i think there was a mistake somewhere made there i don't believe that rocato is a dishonest company but we're going to find out that's that's just being dishonest okay well stay tuned for that folks i'm going to find it i'm going to find a coley fan on okay we are going to go to our call we've been waiting for barry o'brien and he's going to share a phenomenal story with us thanks for calling barry i apologize for last week, he tried to call in and couldn't get through the switchboard. Welcome back to. Oh, he's so popular, you know.

That's right. Tell us about, you know, I rarely get surprised, particularly because I talk about crazy used car prices, crazy new car prices. But Barry emailed me about 10 days ago and told me about his personal experience, and I'll just throw it in your core, Barry. Tell us about that lease car that you had. well what was what was really interesting i've been following all of the prices of used cars i had leased i've owned and leased over 60 cars in my life really kind of kind of sad but as i'm as i'm almost

as old as you are okay i'm realizing wait a minute how much how much can i be putting into cars that makes sense okay uh so i had a least 2020 Honda Accord a very nice car I was very happy with it I don't put that many miles on so I was way under on the miles

and you know I start looking and it's like well okay if I sold this car how much am I going to get out of it and then what am I going to replace it with and then of course you have the whole situation with the manufacturers who changed the game plan

and oh you can't sell the somebody else can't buy out the lease you can't go into carvana or we buy any car or whatever they can't buy the car i have to buy the car from honda and then sell it to them and get the title and everything so they you know and i understand they they they want their dealers to get the cars so i have a friend of mine a dear friend of mine from new york who was a client for years. He passed away a few weeks ago, and he had an old Lincoln town car. And I had said to him for years, if you ever want to sell that car, let me know. And my late wife would just roll her eyes.

Like, I don't know. Well, the poor guy died, 93 years old a few weeks ago. And it turns out they're selling the car. And I go, wait a minute, maybe the timing is right here. So I went online. I go to car max online i go to we buy any card dot com and i'm pretty sure i did carvana they all come up with a price for my honda accord which was at the time i i was 20 21 months into the lease the car so the cars of 2020 uh they all came up with a with a offer of 30 thousand dollars now understand the residual on that car at the end of of my lease was going to be like 17, 18, but that's another 14 or 15 months later. We don't know what's going to, we don't know what's going to go on in the next, you know.

Exactly. You could be cute about it and wait and then go, okay, the prices came back to normal, okay? So I went on to the Honda website and I, you know, find out what the payout is in your car. Well, the payout on my car, at that point, 22 months into my 36-month lease, was $22,000, and that included the sales tax. That included the Florida sales tax, okay? So what I did was, first of all, I bought the Lincoln, okay? I just paid cash for it because it was such short money,

and the guy took great care of it. I'm driving my old friend's car, and it's wonderful, okay? I paid off the Honda Accord lease for 22,000. and then, of course, I waited and waited and waited to get the title. That was the big problem. Now, I drove out to CarMax in Royal Palm Beach, and they actually gave me a written offer of $30,000, okay? All right, but we can't do anything until we have the title.

Okay, all right. Now I'm driving the Honda. I'm scared to death somebody's going to rear in me. I don't miss up the deal, right? Well, about two weeks after that, I send these, I send in other requests to the same people. They're like, okay, what is the car worth now? Well, the CarMax value that they gave me online, that was down about $800. It was down to $292.

Okay, all right. So, you know, I understand that their offer was good for seven days and beyond seven days. So I'm calling Honda, you know, come on. Come on, come on, get the lease there. What I paid for Federal Express? I'm sorry, not the list of the title, okay? I then go on to the website for We Buy Anycar.com, which I heard you mentioned. And, of course, we've seen the TV commercials.

Their offer, their online offer had gone from $30,000 to $32,000. Whoa, okay. So I walk, so I'm now on. I'm going through all the stuff with getting the title and everything and going to the registry, registering, registering the old Lincoln and everything, and I go over to We Buy Anycar.com. They had a little place over off of Florida Mango Road right off of downtown. Very nice people over there. They're very small office. And they go look at the car, and they gave me an actual, and they go, well, you know, you have a little fraction.

You know, they're going to find something. This is a pretty nice car, but I couldn't argue. Yeah, there was a little something here. The final offer was $30,862. Basically, $31,000. Okay? Bam. Well, Mr. O'Brien, you can leave the car here, right?

We'll give you the check right. I can't do it. I don't hear the title, right? Well, finally, I got the title, and it was within seven days of that. So I went over, and this week, we buy any cars. They were very good. They were very professional. I dealt with two guys there.

And they did make me go home once to get, I needed to make sure I had the registration. They were very careful to make sure that I really, truly was the owner of that car. And once they did, I walked out of there with a check, but $30,000, $180,000, and the guy who was running the place, he looks at, he hands me the check, and he looks, and he goes, I don't know. They don't sell cars, they only buy them. He goes, who's going to pay $32, $33,000 for a two-year-old Honda? Okay? It's like, but here's the key to this, Earl, and that is, if you want to make money selling your used car, you've got to have a game plan.

You can't just do it, and then find out it's going to cost you a far fortune to replace it. Exactly. You've got a car that you don't need. Exactly. Okay? Or you got a situation. I had this situation. I had that Lincoln in the back of my mind five years. But my lease wasn't up. I can't do it now. Boom. Everything all came together. And it worked fine. So you really can make money on this. And you're right. I realize this is never going to happen in my lifetime again. Yeah, exactly.

How am I going to? I made $9,000 on the deal. I drove that Honda for free. for 22 months. That's amazing. They paid you to drive it. What a great story. Barry, I tell you what, you're my hero. You are the educated consumer of all educated consumers

and people should know we're friends and we've been talking for a long time back and forth, email mainly but Barry is a I call him a car nut. He loves cars. He's always leasing or buying or trading and I go to him for advice.

because he is a hands-on car buyer-seller, and he knows the market, and boy, I'll tell you what, you got the deal of the century. Nobody will ever make a lease, purchase, combination, profit like you just did. That'll be in the Guinness Book of World's Records, and it's a perfect example for our listeners. Right now, you're listening to a true success story. A guy made thousands of dollars, drove a car free for over two years,

got paid for driving it and got the car of his dreams in the bargain so thanks Barry Earl I don't know if that Lincoln would be the car of my dreams because I always looked at it as being an old man's car well now I'm an old man I don't know if I would have bought

this car if it did not buy it belonged to my friend I mean he had a I don't know if he ever drove the car we love the town cars Nancy and I when we traveled, we got, if there was a town car anywhere in the town we traveled to, we got it. The only, it was the only car you could put the luggage in at one time, and I think they made a big mistake by just continuing it. Yeah, absolutely. And Barry, because of our, because of our mystery shopping report that's coming up, I have one more thing to share with you.

Not only was this the deal of the century, but what a great Christmas story. You're driving your friend's car. Oops, we lost them. Thank you so much, Barry. Thanks again, Barry. We are going to get right to the Mystery Shopping Report, and it is coming to you from Napleton, Kia. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Okay, here we go. Mystery Shop, Napin, North Lake, Kia.

It's crazy that our first mystery shop about the inventory shortage crashes was all the way back in May. And like now, we had no idea how long the shortage would be, and we still don't. We're guessing, and I've been wrong, but I guess, again, I keep on guessing. I'm sure we would all have been surprised if we could have known then that we'd still be reporting on the crisis this week before Christmas. Here's how we described the situation in May, and Stu wrote this, and this is beautiful. In May, last May, we said, like wild animals fighting for the last paps of meat, I love that. Car dealers have grown increasingly aggressive. His inventories continue to dwindle to historic lives.

I love the picture in my mind, wild animals. And that's the way it is. I mean, it's crazy out there. Little did we know how much worse they would get. The deal that we shopped back in the beginning of the crisis was none other than Napleton, North Lake Kia. A perennial bad boy in the South Florida business, prior to the pandemic and deceptive car advertising

and renaissance that followed, Napleton, was already a pro. at the bait and switch game he almost wrote the book you know his father was in business in 1930 before my father was in business 33 and so i mean you're talking about writing the book bait and switch even though we were already calling it a crisis back in may napleton was still advertising discounted prices like most dealers uh no conscience and just as we expected agent lightning uncovered a bait and switch scheme napleton tried to get five thousand dollars over MSRP back then.

But when Lightning, Agent Lightning, resisted, they lowered the price, just $1,300 over MSRP. Lots changed in the last seven months and dealers are now unlikely to offer any sort of discount. Even if you're diligent enough to find a dealer who's charging just MSRP, the odds are they'll tack on hidden dealer fees.

Let's not be disingenuous and pretend that we didn't know what to expect from Naples, North Lake Kia this week. I mean, if we need a juicy, really, really exciting report, we can always go to Napleson. It's like putting on a lively number. Yeah, if we're getting too many good reports in a row, we can always break up the monotony. The audience is getting kind of getting sleepy, so let's put a key a shot there. As soon as Agent Lightning suggested she returned, we knew there would be carnage.

Ed Daibleton was made for the automotive apocalypse. He was prepared for day one with a supply of closet, supply call. closet. What's this for? Okay, we're on the radio. Oh, I'm not to move fast. Fast. We're running out of time.

And a sales force addendum accustomed to selling market adjustments. Yeah, this is a live radio. You just talk to me. You don't have to send me a note. Operation report. I do I was in trouble before I even walked through the front door in Bableton, North Lake Kia.

There was a piece of paper taped to the glass door, a photocopy of a photocopy. And this is just, I'll have to read it twice, even though we're almost out of time, because you're not going to believe you heard it the first time. Here's a sign on the window. Please remember, the car

you're looking at today and want to think about until tomorrow is the same car someone else looked at yesterday and will buy today. That's the most arrogant. You can't. Please remember, the car you're looking at today and want to think about

until tomorrow is the same car someone else looked at yesterday and we'll buy today how could you walk in the door with a sign like that's an old phrase I've heard before but I've never seen a dealership post it on their front entrance I'm agent lightning and I'm speaking in the first person I brought my son along again to help with my cover story we entered the showwoman we're greeted by a receptionist I told it we were finding we're there to find my son's first car the steps and said we were in luck because they just had gotten a new truckload salesman approached me

the reception desk eating an energy bar. He walked behind the desk, stood next to the receptionist as we talked. When he finished chewing and then motioned for me, my son to follow, he said his name was Winsley. He led us to a desk, then we asked for my driver's license,

told him I didn't have it with me, and gave him my made-up name. Last time I was there, he held onto my license. That's the reason I didn't give it to him. He was trying to keep me in the store. So I kept my license. I wouldn't give it to him. There were two addendum labels displayed in a plastic stand on his desk. One was for new cars, and I give

him credit for putting them in a stand. The other ones for use. The addendum for new cars, I did $2,710 for things like nitrogen, shadow mark, wheel locks, splash guards, and one for use cars added 2282 for the same stuff. I told Lensley we were interested in the Kia Forte. He acknowledged this and continued to work on his computer. He said he, he found an FE trim and described the difference between the trims. I said, we'd like to see the FE. He asked us to meet him up front. We went it for 14 minutes before he finally came out. Winsley had the keys, let us out on the lot. He pushed the remote to make the car beep, even though there was only four car, seven cars on the lot. He thought it was cool. The MSRP

was 19,335. Remember, MSRP, 19335. As we stood by the car, a woman came running out on the lot yelling to Winsley that the Forte was sold. Winsley asked us to wait. Boy, went inside to sort this out. He was back in five minutes, confirmed that it was indeed sold. He said

the other one was an LXS trim level, about $2,000 more. I said, I guess I don't have any choice, so Winsley said he'd go back, get the LXS, and he'd be right back. Seven minutes later, he pulled up in a new great 22 Kia Forte

LXS with an MSRP of 21,240. Winsley used a Monroney label as a guide, as he pointed out some of the specs, standard equipment options on the forte. Then we took an uneventful test drive. Back at the desk, I told Wensley, I was believing at the idea that things were not business as usual and commented on the empty lot. I told them I was very curious to know how their pricing worked. Wednesday asked me if I was familiar with new car markups.

I pretended to be confused. Winsley said that he'd be honest with me. That's right. And then he could not tell me how much this forte was going to cost. I can't tell you. But he will do his best to work with me. It sounds like gibberish, which it is. Before he left with his manager, he warned that he'd seen markups over $10,000.

Here we go, on some models. Once they came back with a worksheet, 10 minutes later, the selling price was $26,2.40, $5,000 over the MSRP. To that, he added $399 for something called Shadowmark, $1199 for Wheel Lox, $199 for nitrogen, got to have that nitrogen, $3.49 for Splash Guards, $195 for Xylon, Silver Level. That's not platinum level. I'm only paying that much for the platinum level. Then they added 1098,00098 for dealer dock service fee, 129 for e-tag file, and finally, 149 for private tag agency fee. They really moked it, didn't they?

And all these are nonsense. Profit to the dealer, hidden fees. All told Winsley's offer was 9,238 over MSRP. The look of shock on my face must have been obvious because Winsley launched into a justification of pricing. He said that the market was crazy, and I could buy this car today and Carvana would buy it for me tomorrow. You just heard Barry O'Brien talking about Carvana. Hey, they might do that for at least $26,000. Hey, you never know.

Crazy market, you can't predict it. Winsley tried to turn the tables, asked me what kind of payment I wanted. I said, I didn't want to discuss payments until I'd nailed down my out-the-door price. I said, I was going to pay for, I wasn't going to pay for all those add-ons. Astonishingly, Winsley said that it would not be a problem to take them off. He hopped up, trotted over to the manager. He came back in five months with a new worksheet. This time, the selling price was $25, $2.40, just $4,000 over MSRP.

He dropped five grand. Bam. No, he dropped, uh, 1,000. 1,000. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, the other add-ons.

He had taken all the endem items, but they had the same dealer fees. The deal had improved. The real price was 53, 76 over MSRP. Oh, you're right. 5,000. I'm sorry. Yeah.

I told him I felt we would be paying way too much for a new car at that price. I explained I didn't want my son's first car buying experience to go this way. Can you imagine if it was really or really or son and this really his first car. What a terrible thing to do to a kid. It'd be traumatized for the rest of his life. Most people are. He'll never trust Cardiolis. Wait, maybe that's a good idea.

That's what's going on. Once he said that everyone was marking up cars like this. That's true. I said, I didn't believe that, and he assured me it was true. Then he said he'd try to give as a manager, Diego, to come down some more. He left to return in about 30 seconds with Diego. Diego pressed me to give him another. I hate it when they say that, so we can make up, make the deal happen.

Give you a number, I'll make it happen. Man, I'll tell you. I don't care why I said this. I don't know why I said this, but I told him that my husband did not, said not to go more than 2,000 over MSRP. Diego paused, pressed his lips together, then said, almost to himself. The only reason I may be able to do this is because I have five or six in stock, and today's been pretty slow.

You read a few one of the books today says, I love this. All right, hang tight. I mean, the language. Diego and Winsley left and returned with another worksheet. Then came the selling price, $23,240, $2,000 over MSRP. Of course, there's more. The dealer fees, hidden fees, were added, making the real selling price $3,376 over MSRP. I told Diego that my son and I

would need to discuss this with my husband that we'd be in touch Diego did not seem to like this and warn me like the sign said that the forte wouldn't sell before the end of the day but my son said and I were already standing to leave

and we ran and we ran and that's it and we did get through in plenty of time and this is so bad I don't even we don't even need to vote but we got a vote because

it's going to be be fun because our regular voters will have some real words from Napleton Kia on Northlake Boulevard in North Palm Beach for truly a bizarre performance. Okay. I don't have any grades coming in yet. Too fast. I read it too fast. That's okay.

But I'm inclined. I'm inclined to give them a poor grade. Gosh, I don't want to go first. I always go first. I got it. I want to be in full. Okay. I know why I confuse

because it was so razzle-dazzle old school but we're asking ourselves how bad was it compared and how they illegal and we have the grade on the curve and all those other questions you've got some scores YouTube's coming in Mark Anderson F

Mark Smith F so unfortunate Wayne Vite huge F Mark Ryan F Brian Siddlaco I would never buy Akea F. Tim from Yuma Da Humbug F. Ernesto F. Boltlighter says, is Kia a bad

idea? It's not so much the car. It's just the sales tactics there, Bolt Lighter. And that's what we've got so far. Myself, I'm going to go a little bit nicer. I'm going to say D, only because it was a destructive

event. It's clearly not. I mean, when we're looking at the curve, it's not in the middle of that curve. It's worse, that's for sure. And wave grades coming, and Amarie says, looks like they're permanently on Santa's naughty list, and she gives them an F. Bob gives them an F, and Frank gives him an F.

I think I'm going to go with Rick. I'm going to do a D-minus. It was bad, but we've seen worse. Yeah, you know, it's funny because I wonder before the pandemic and before the situation, you know, the thing about Naples, and he's always been bad, all their stores are bad,

and so he's been consistent. I mean, he's probably no worse today than he was before the pandemic. No, he's like I said, he was already prepared for this. And we had him on the do not buy list until all the other dealers got outrageous, justifiably so because of supply and the amount. I'm still confused. Nancy, what do you think? I'd like to share a little trivia with everyone quickly.

I'm calling this highway robbery. But folks, do you know that it was back in the 1800s when this term was more or less established? And in order to get control of this highway robbery that was going on, incidentally, that's excessive profit. They executed people back then. And that was their way of abolishing in the 1820s highway robbery. I give them an F. So this is kind of funny. I just got a text from, I won't reveal the person

somebody on good authority. He said, who works for us, says that one of the managers from Naples and Kia called to get a quote, wanted to buy a car from us a few months ago because he didn't want to pay the dealer fees and the addendums at his own employer. Oh, I love it.

No, we have that from a lot of dealers. Oh, yeah, that's true. But Kia is funny because it was very appropriate. Okay, we got three minutes ago. what do you got okay i i i definitely think that they they deserve i'm a d minus because don't forget the sign that was on the front door they just set the tone for the whole thing we basically said we don't care about how you feel about this you're gonna do it our way okay uh the recovering car dealer voted i'm going to d minus i i i'm not going to put them on the you don't buy list

because they're traditionally a bad place to buy a car and and there are a lot of dealers like that so i think they should go on the highway robbery a list Make a new one. You're probably right. Folks, we have... Finished the year. We just finished the year. There you go.

Exciting, isn't it? Wow. We are so blessed and so lucky. And that brings me to saying to all of you, we are so thankful for you. And Merry Christmas to each and every one of you that join us every Saturday morning right here at the Old East Channel. Have a wonderful weekend.

Merry Christmas. And a happy New Year.