Earl Stewart on Cars - 12.21.2024 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Coconut Creek Hyundai and Amazon Autos

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning trys out the new Amazon Autos to price a new 2025 Hyundai Cruz, and visits the corresponding Hyundai dealer to see what her experience will be fulfilling her online order Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

Hello, 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 listeners. We also have Rick Carney, 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, this is my son, Stu Stewart. our link to cyberspace through Facebook, YouTube, text messaging, and our encrypted anonymous feedback service. Phil is also the Spymaster Director of our mystery shopping report.

He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting car dealership. And now on with the show. Good morning, everybody. Well, this is Earl Stewart live. You just heard Earl Stewart recording. And for you streaming us, I don't want to shock anybody, but I'm wearing a little knit cap here. It's kind of cold in Florida.

It's cold for us Floridians. It's only probably 55 or 60 degrees, but to me that's cold, and my head gets cold. So I'm going to wear this little cap with my headphones. So that's what you see there. Other than that, that's pretty much me. It's going to be a particularly exciting show this morning

because we don't have us, one of our key people here, Rick Kearney, We're a little concerned about him. He didn't show up at the studio, and we've called him, and we haven't had any answers yet. So we're trying to reach him both his cell number and his home number. Hopefully, we will make him knock, and he will eventually get to the studio. But it could be anything, and we're all wishing him the best, safety and health. And surprises like this can be a little bit worrisome.

and Rick has got a huge team that follows him, mainly his YouTube team, and we'll keep everybody informed because we know how important he is to you and the show. He's a certified diagnostic master technician, and we get a lot of calls about maintaining and repairing cars on this show. And it'll be a huge void this morning if we're not able to have Rick in the studio. but the main concern is we hope he's okay. And Rick, if you're out there somewhere and you hear us,

just drop us a line and give us a call, let us know that you're okay. Now, we would appreciate that. But calls for maintaining and repairing the car. We'll figure it out between Nancy and myself. My son, Stu, is not in the studio now, but he's on the way. And between the three of us and chat, GBT, and Google, we might even get a technician from our dealership

on the line to see if he can help us answer technical questions that Rick would normally handle. Back to normalcy for a second. Things are really exciting now with the Amazon effort to sell cars. And I want to give you a heads up now in the Mystery Shopping Report. And this is something to you, new listeners, that we do every week. We go into a car dealership, unannounced, uninvited, and pretend to buy a lease a car. Undercover work, really exciting, fun, and very informative.

So we decided with Amazon opening up their program, meaning you can buy a new Hyundai Genesis or IKEA online at Amazon. and you go in and you go on Amazon just like you're buying anything else and they give you the full price and they've expended that to 48 states so we shop a dealership in Coconut Creek a Hyundai dealership and they are on the Amazon program we went online on Amazon and agent Lightning did and then went in person to the dealership and compared with what they had online with what the dealership talked about. Very informative, very interesting. So stay tuned.

We do that mystery shopping report at the end of the show, the last half hour, actually. We're on the air between 8 and 10 a.m. every Saturday. That's Eastern Standard Time. So if you can't make anything else in the show, be sure to tune in for that mystery shopping report. In the very near future, I don't know what kind of car you drive, But in the very near future, I feel confident you can buy it on Amazon. And we can talk about that, why it's good, why it's bad, and what the dealers think about it. But it's something that is part of the wave of the future, along with all the other things we are going to be talking about.

Things are happening so fast now that I never know when I wake up in the morning what the headlines of the newspaper are going to be talking about. Because it always involves something about cars right now. I've got an article on the New York Times this morning about how the fact that we know where all the cars are now on the road. I mean, if you listen to the show, and we talk about autonomous driving a lot, and we talk about the fact that your autonomous car knows where all the cars are in your path. You put it in the path of where you want to go, and you put it on autonomous, and the autonomous computer is able to see that you have a traffic jam on 985 between this street and that street. So they divert to another route.

I mean, autonomous has been way ahead. So suddenly, the New York Times has an article for a professor of civil engineering is saying, hey, this is a huge safety factor. We should tell, we should allow people to know where the traffic jams are. Well, duh. I mean, the autonomous cars have been doing this ever since they've been on the road. Lots of stuff to talk about. We rely heavily on you to make this show work.

And it's not just because we have to rely on you, but you know what we need to know to answer. And you know what, well, we don't know oftentimes. We get new information from the listeners on this show. So it's a radio talk show. I mean, we say talk show. It's a site show, too, because we stream the show everywhere. We're all over the country, all over the world, actually. And if you can write this down, if you're not in a car driving or a situation where you

isn't safe to write this down, okay, I understand that. But you probably don't have any questions right now, but you will. I mean, if you listen to 15 minutes of the show, I promise you. You'll say, I wonder what this, what about that? Should I call the show? There's always something that comes up in our conversations, our dialogues, our text, our streaming that raises issues and questions. And we rely on those questions. So, I'm going to give you a telephone number.

This telephone number is 877-960-99-60. That's 877-9-60-9-9-60. It's just an old-fashioned telephone. Not old-fashioned to me because I've been around a long time, but they don't seem old-fashioned, but they are old-fashioned. And people are texting and streaming, you know, emailing. But there's something about a phone call. And if you just write this number down, think of a question.

You can call us later any time between now and 10 a.m. Actually, 9.30, because we'll be doing the mystery shopping report between 9.30 and 10. But that old-fashioned phone number is 877-960-9960, 877-960. And Nancy Stewart, she's right across the table from the here in the studio in North Palm Beach, Florida. And she's hooked up with our control room that gets the calls. they put her on the calls, numbers and names on her laptop computer

and while we're talking in the studio or we're texting or whatever we're doing we stop because we only have five lines last week was crazy. We had so many calls we love it when that happens and we try not to make you wait

so if you write the number down when you have the number we will prioritize the call when it comes in. Again that The phone number is 877-960-960. Of course, we have other areas of the contact that we encourage you to use. Texting is an important one, and that's 772-4976530. That's 772-49765-0.

My son, Suez-Dort, who should be walking in the door momentarily, he receives those texts. Again, that's 772-497-653-0. A lot of people don't want to talk on live radio. It's kind of scary. I mean, I was scared, Nancy was scared, when we first started the show a long time ago. I mean, I had never sat in the radio studio, I don't think, before then.

And here I had thousands of people at that time. And right now there's hundreds of thousands of people listening to me. That's kind of scary. Because if you say something stupid, you're in trouble. And you just have to learn to say things stupid and just not worry about. That's what I've done. If you can laugh at yourself, it's a wonderful thing. So again, that text number is 772-49765-3-0.

And as if I'm not drowning you in numbers, I am drowning you in numbers. We have another source we love. And it's a link, it's a web link. And the web link is Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Y-O-U-R-A-N-O-N-Y-M-O-U-S feedback is like it sounds. Dot com. Your Anonymous Feedback. That comes in, and we don't know who you are or where you are.

You can say anything you want. And it gives you the ultimate privacy. It's guaranteed. It's a company called Incognito that has this online, and they have a lot of blue-chip companies like Adobe and Amazon. A lot of big companies use that for feedback from their customers and their employees. Let's face it, if you didn't have anonymity, people wouldn't be calling to report crimes. People don't like the spotlight. So you want to stay out of the spotlight, and you want to make a comment to Earl and Cars,

You just go to Your Anonymous Feedback.com, and we will read that on the air. You can tell us who you are if you want to, but you don't have to, and most people don't when they use your anonymous feedback. So there I've covered a lot of what we call our sources, our roads of communication, and because I'm talking way too much now, partly because I'm worried because Rick's not here, and he has so many faithful followers that is going to be a void in the future. show. Good news. Rick, if you're out there, I hope you're okay. Rick is on his way.

Yeah, what's that? Good news. Rick is on his way. Oh, he's on his way. Yeah. Oh, fantastic. That's good. I'm glad he's okay.

That voice you heard was my lovely wife and co-founder of Earl Stewart on Cars 20-some-odd years ago. And she is a female advocate. And that is why we have half the callers to the show now, female. And the way she's done it, she'll describe that to you. She has a very special offer for a first-time female callers. So if you're a female, perk up your ears here and listen to Nancy. Nancy, the mic is all yours. Good morning.

I love those sunglasses, by the way. It seems a little... You're a little cute this morning. Seems a little bright in here. I may have to adjust, but until then, I have to keep these glasses on. Jonathan, thank you so much. I love that holiday festive backdrop. It's just lovely, very fitting. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. And I have to thank you, all of us here. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to Erwan cars. I say it every week. You make the show. You're an important part of the show. And you've become so educated. And sometimes you know more than we do. And we love. talking to you. Ladies, I have $50 for the first two new lady callers. Yes, indeed. First two new lady callers, $50. And how about that recall? 700,000 vehicles have been recalled for tire

pressure monitoring system. And that is the cyber truck. The reason I bring this up is because Earl and I were talking about the mystery shop that's going to sort of be linked with this announcement. But think about this. How convenient is it that a recall is announced and you're driving a electric cyber truck? Well, it's all Tesla's, yeah. Yeah, and, you know, you never have to go into the dealership for any service. And it's just one of the many great things in driving, the cyber truck, the plaid, whatever you would choose. You save a lot of money, especially the amount of money it takes to keep the car on the road.

In most cases, a lot of people don't even factor that in when they go out looking for a vehicle. And it can be pretty expensive to keep a combustion engine on the car. It's something to think about, and we are moving fast in the electric vehicle market. Also, I want to share with you the mystery shopping report that Earl talked about. Boy, John in Palm City is going to love this mystery shopping report, and it is an exciting one, one you want to stay tuned for. Also, text us at 772-4976530. Don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. That's your anonymous feedback.com.

And our number tool-free, if you would like to talk to us, is 877-960. I think we're going to get started and we're going to go right to the phones. Okay. Okay, we are going to talk to Howard, and I believe, most likely, Howard is right here in Florida. It is mighty cold up there in New York, Howard. Good morning. Morning, Howard. Thanks for calling us.

Nice to hear from you. You could say that again. Okay. A friend of mine, And my suggestion, a year ago, ordered 2025 Camry, which is a hybrid. And next week, he's going to fly in from New Jersey. He's going to be picked up by me, and I'm going to take him to Earl Stewart, and he's going to get his 2025 Camry.

Then he's going to stay a week, and then he's going to drive back. to New Jersey. So I just want to say, thank you, Earl. Did a beautiful job, and you guaranteed him that he would have the car waiting for him. Thank you, Howard.

You know, the car business, among all the changes, this is one of the changes that people are able now to shop anywhere and find a dealer they like, a dealer they trust, a dealer that will give them a fair price,

and a low price and uh it's a little unusual that your friend would fly all the way from new jersey uh but uh the nice thing about having our dealership in north pond beach florid a lot of people like to come down to our dealership and and spend some time vacationing while they pick their car up but uh i encourage all people uh like your friend our that are looking for a good fair price from a fair dealer don't be afraid to call you know dealers you know a dealer that are 20, 100 or even 1,000 miles away, you'd be surprised how much money you can save them. I probably ought to do this sometime just sit down in my office and start calling as if I were buying your car and call maybe 100 dealers and see what the variation is and prices.

You know, you don't have to have too big a variation price to drive an extra 50 or 100 miles, and especially if you can pick up your car in a nice place where you can spend some time there and make it a vacation instead of just going back and forth or you can truck it. So that's good information, and thanks for letting us know how it. We appreciate it.

Yeah, the only minus is he doesn't get tires to life, but that's a small price. Yeah, we offer that feature and you have to have the car service with us. That is a negative, but he must have overcome that with, he probably overcame at that where he's able to visit you and have a vacation.

Absolutely, yeah, yeah. Okay, great. Okay, have a good day, everybody. Hey, Howard, is that the friend that you've advised through the years and, you know, you've really helped him out? No, it's another friend. Oh, you've got quite a circle. Howard's got lots of friends.

The friend that helped out next door to me. Yeah. And he's the one that he had a problem with his car, and Rick solved the problem, and then he traded the car in. And he got a 2018 Camry X-L-E, and he says he's the best car you ever owned. Well, that's a great story. Yeah. Yeah, you're a good friend. You've really helped a lot of your friends.

Yeah, I know. And you're doing a great job. People have the good word. Happy holidays, Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. And I'll talk to you again. Thanks, Howard. Thanks for tuning in.

Oh, by the way, we got word that Rick is on the way. So to Rick's legions of followers out there, he's okay. We don't know why he wasn't here, but we'll find out. But if he's coming in the studio, he's healthy, wealthy, and wise. So we'll find out. So it's probably just... He just. Overslept.

Yeah. Traffic jam. A accident. He was a... He overslept. Yeah. Or he overslept. That's the answer.

We already figured it out. Jonathan told us. He overslept. Our number here is 877-960. And you can text us at 772-49-3-30. I like that look that you're sporting this morning. Long-shorting. Thank you.

Rapper E. Oh, yeah, it could be a hip-hop thing. I was thinking more like, he's on strike. He's a longshoreman on the docks. Ah. Right, he's on. And that's possible right now. Amazon just went on strike with Starbucks.

That's right. He's joining them. Power to the people. Power to the people. Okay. 877-960. Give us a call. Earl, back to you.

Well, we have stew in the studio. We got Rick on the way. You see, we walked in the studio and it was just Jonathan sitting here behind the control room. Well, I'm always late. Yeah, Stu's always. I don't say anything for like 45 minutes to an hour when I get here. I just sit here. Really?

Usually, usually, because the phones are always blowing up. In the past, you know, we had to get to the text really early, but now I can just sit here and phone call after phone call. Yeah, when Nancy and I started out, you know, back in the day, it was only a 30-minute show. So you could fake it for 30 minutes, but it's hard to fake it for two hours. And we had no callers back in those days. Right. And so it was 30 minutes of, you know, cold sweat.

A couple of times back a long time ago, I had Schills calling in. Yeah. I had a couple of them from the dealership calling. A long time ago. I called Stu. You guys could fake it for two hours now. Seriously, you've been doing it so long. You just start talking, and next thing you know, two hours is up.

Yeah. Isn't that the truth? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Then I'm waiting for, oh, there we have. John from Palm City. Hey, hi, John. Good morning. Did you hear my intro? She mentioned my name. I just want to mention real fast. I know you got a lot of callers. Two fast things. One is a new ad that's on TV, and it's a no-no because consumer reports doesn't allow it. They're recommending Consumer Report says Subaru Outback. It's a no-no. It's a consumer report. It's a consumer report.

It's in a new TV ad. Now, consumer reports, which is very respected, doesn't allow them to use their name on any ads that are run. And it's a no-no. And I guess they didn't realize it, but it's going to probably be corrected. What do they do about that? If somebody, do they sue them for a trademark? I don't think so.

I think they're just going to send them a reprimand that's happened before in the past. The second thing I've got to mention to, the largest of men's, manufacturer in Germany, this reach a big contract settlement with the Union. They have ten plants in Germany. They wanted to close down three of the ten because they're really hurting with Chinese imports, cars, and Korean cars. But they reach a nice settlement with the Union. Not that the Union wanted seven to ten percent increase in wages, and they forfeit that because they're guaranteeing they're going to keep up

all 10 plants and not going to close the three of them and they were very respected 87-year-old manual manual automaker and they not only make Volkswagen but they have Porsche and they have Audi and other cars so I think it's a big settlement

you know with the union and it's it's they guarantee this until the end of 2030 so John, I read that, and the thought that occurred to me was I'm not going to take a pro-union or anti-union or a company position. But if I were one of the 30,000 people that was laid off to make a deal with the union, I wouldn't be that happy. I mean, it might have been a good decision for Volkswagen in view of their entire operation, and I'm sure it was.

But the first time I remember reading union negotiating with a manufacturer to fire people. So basically they fired thousands of people and closed the plans so that they wouldn't have to lay off more people. So I guess you could argue it was a good thing in the long run, but not for the guy that got laid off. Well, they're complaining they're saying that it's all for retirement and attrition that the layoffs will go that way. Yeah, well, that's right. They'll be paid. That's a good point. I forgot about that. You brought up the point about unions, and I don't want to get involved into that. But some of the stuff is nonsense. The one now, especially in Queens, New York, with Amazon, the workers that are on strike, they're not working directly for Amazon. None of the actual Amazon workers are on strike. These are subcontractors that do the driving.

So it gets more complicated, and they say it's not going to affect the delivery. Yeah, exactly. I announced that. I was really surprised, but they said, you know, there's no interruption in deliveries to what you just said about independent contractors or farming things out. Right. Yeah. And it's getting crazy, too. Now it just started with Starbucks.

Exactly. Some of the Starbucks, not all over the country, so I like a coffee, but I don't like Starbucks prices. There you go. Thank you very much for the call. We really appreciate it. John, I was talking about you when we opened up this morning, and you're going to, to reiterate, you're going to love the mystery shopping report. I look forward to it.

It's different and it's exciting, so stay tuned. Thank you, you guys, for always being there. Sometimes we call it, sometimes we call them a doozy. Okay, there you is. All right, guys. Thank you. Okay, thanks, John. Our number here is 877-960-99-6.

We're going to go to Betsy. Betsy, good morning. Good morning, Betsy. Hello, Betsy. Sorry, I could have. Bessie, are you out there in radio land? I am. I'm here.

Oh, God bless you. Good morning, Betsy. Betsy, have you called before? I never have, no. Oh, that's exciting. Congratulations, Betsy. If you'll stay on the line, you can share your contact information with

the control room. Mike is over there and he'll jot everything down for me and he'll give it to me after the show and I'll send you out a check for $50. How about that? Okay.

So why are you calling this morning? And how did you find us? Well, I've known you folks for a really long time. A friend of mine turned me onto the radio show. Years ago, years ago, and I'd been listening on and off and then came time to buy a car, and I'm here in South Florida. I'm actually here in Singer Island, very close. Half the year.

And so we decided we would get our Florida car from you folks, and we've been really happy with it. We got a 22 RAV, and we were so happy with it, actually, I just referred my sister over, and she got a 20, I think it's five. Yeah. She just set the car a few months ago, so I guess it must have been. Beautiful. Yeah, Rave also. So we're good. That's great.

Word of mouth is amazing, isn't it? It really, it's the backbone of everything. My husband used to be a dentist, and it was for him, too. Yeah, exactly. So it's good to hear from you, Betsy. I do have a question that I really would like to know the answer to. So I bought the car, and we love it. And it's two years old now, so we just ran out of our covered service.

agreement. And I'm realizing we are in town six months. For six months, we put the car to sleep, put a solar charger on the battery, and don't use it. So if we haven't used it for six months, how can we come in for service for six months in order to keep our tires for life warranty going? You know? The answer is the oil, Bessie. It's the... the tires. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. There's a car, unbeknownst to most people, when it sits there,

actually in some ways, deteriorates more than it is when it's driven. Rick is getting hooked up to the computer now, and he'll probably tell you that driving your car is the best thing you can do for a car. We get a lot of calls from people like you to let their car sit for several months, and they go back and forth north and south, snowbirds. And with the salt air, with the tires sitting on concrete probably for a long time, and all the instruments in your cars that are intended to move, he says if you could have a, the best thing you could do is have a neighbor, a friend that would drive your car once a week just for, you know, maybe a half hour or an hour, any amount of driving would make that car pretty much fresh and not have the problems. you're describing. But you're taking pretty good care of it. I mean, as long as a trickle charger is another way to keep things fresh with your car. Try not to have salt air. How do you avoid

it in South Florida? It's almost impossible and maybe covered or in a garage is best, but it is a challenge. We do have it covered in a covered space. It stays pretty clean and I've got this solar charger. Actually, my husband comes up north probably once every six weeks to see his mind. And so he gets to drive it for a few days. And on the Tires for Life program, we just mirrored that to the Toyota's required maintenance, and it requires it every six months. So we just took what was in the Toyota's factory maintenance schedule and just said, as long as you do that, that's how we came up with those.

But there's good reasons for that. A lot of people ask that question, yeah. So I'm still a little bit confused, though, because so I've had basic. Basically, no mile is, you know, just some local stuff that my husband does if he comes up maybe two or three times in the six-month fan. So are you going to change my oil even if I only have, like, you know, 200 miles on the car? Or, you know, how does that work? No, you're 10,000 miles or 12 months, so six months is it going to be an issue. Well, so at 12 months, if you only have several hundred miles, it's still recommended to change.

Rick can tell you that. not going to kill you if you're if you delay it but if the car isn't driven much let's say you have a thousand miles and at the first year oil change it's still required on the maintenance schedule so what's the reason for that uh Toyota still recommends it because what happens is you wind up with condensation building up in the engine and that water starts to fill with the oil it mixes in a little bit now I know oil and water don't actually mix but when the engine starts running it can cause issues in there it breaks down the oil over time so oil eventually in an engine will break down its chemical formula starts to break down a bit and it forms sludge

it collects dirt so it's always a good idea to get the old oil out and fresh oil in it's actually a very cheap insurance policy to extend the life of the car itself oh we've seen what happens when customers don't change the oil regularly oh yeah yeah no i know i know that's The most basic maintenance there is. Yeah, I was just wondering because there'd be basically no mileage. But I guess you kind of answered that. Yeah. Okay.

You know, I guess it's not talked about because we get questions like that on that subject a lot. So it's not unusual to wonder about that. Yeah, great question. Excuse me, a question, Betsy. I'll tell you what. It sounds like you take great care of your vehicle. And, boy, I'll tell you, I agree with the guys as far as having, if you possibly can get somebody you know, to take the car for a drive while you're away,

it would be definitely the icing on the cake, I'll say, you know. Well, do you think it's like a four or five day visit every two months is enough? Greg, what do you think? Four or five days to drive it? Like every six weeks, let's say. Every six weeks? That's better than let me sit for six months. Yeah, six weeks is a, uh,

it would be about the max that I would really want to go. And then take the car, if they can, take the car out just for a drive, you know, even on the highway for a while, just to kind of exercise it a bit. Even just that Sunday drive, like, we're in West Palm Beach, Florida. So I usually would recommend to folks, there's a road called the B-Line Highway that it's about like eight or ten miles out to where a place called Indian Town. It actually, it's like, what, 20 miles, I think, out to Indiantown. It's a short drive out there, really, but it's just an easy drive with almost no traffic lights. And I recommend that to folks here. If you want to take a nice little drive, just cruise out there and back, and it gives it a chance for the car to kind of lubricate everything, let everything just kind of get some exercise in it.

The tires get back in shape because as your tires sit still, they develop what's called a floor. flat spot on the bottom. And when you first drive, if they've been sitting for any good length of time, when you first go for a drive, you'll actually feel this thump, thump, thump, thump, that takes a little bit of time for those tires to round back out. So what Rick is saying, you know, is gold. And Betsy, that's key for you to do just that. Take it out for a drive or have a friend.

But like Rick said, a good drive, a long drive. It used to be that, you know, some of our customers and some of our callers believe that, you know, just taking the car out in the neighborhood. But you have to take it really out on the open road. Like a dog. Okay. Yeah. You got to walk your dog. You got to walk your dog.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So just to summarize this for me, then, if my husband comes in, let's say, every six weeks, visits his mom, puts on a couple hundred months. miles on the car. Oh, that's plenty. That's fine. Yeah. Okay.

I think we're cooking. Yeah. Betsy, it was a pleasure talking to you. Spread the word. We're building a platform here for the ladies. Absolutely. I'm amazed that I'm only your first email caller. I was waiting to see who'd show up.

Thank you. Just this morning. I'm looking forward. Have a great weekend. Thank you. You too. 877-9-60-99-60, and our text number is 772-497-6530, and don't forget your anonymous feedback.com.

We're going to go to Michael, who's been holding. Thanks for your patience, Michael. Michael's calling us from Palm Beach Gardens. Yes, good morning. I have a question. I understand they want to remove the AM station radio from vehicles. What will we have to do to, is that a legislative issue with the federal government? Do you know anything about that?

Yeah, we've talked about it. Yeah, that was a while. Yeah, what we could do to prevent it. Right. You can still tune in in most of the new vehicles now. You're able to have streaming audio. So you have a source that gets, that actually streams AM stations. I can think of like tune in app right now.

There's other, a lot of. Iheart radio. Yeah, all the streaming services that have podcasts and things like that, you should be able to find. And the nice thing about it is you can tune in any AM station in the world. So you don't have to just get your local AM station when you do it when you stream it. I don't know why they did it, though. I mean, I don't know if it was legislative or was the FCC or just said it's not used enough.

No one was using it. So it was just a matter of they decided to eliminate it. Yeah, they might need that bandwidth for drones. Here we are talking on AM radio, talking about how no one wants it anymore. We're also in FM, though. Yeah, yeah, I know. Well, we're on FM and AM, so... Well, we're worldwide.

Yeah, right. It doesn't matter. Well, thank you for the info. Appreciate it. Yeah. How did you hear about that? Was that just like in a conversation somewhere and somebody just came up or... Well, no, I heard it about and I said, gee, you know, I don't think it's fair that they would eliminate that programming, you know?

So, anyway. I guess time goes on. Yeah. Merry Christmas. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Michael.

Bye now. Great hearing from you. Okay, that number is 772-497-6530, and you can text us at 772-497-65-3-6-5-0. We're going to go back to the recovering car dealer. You know, I can't stop talking enough about this autonomous. One of the reasons I yak about autonomous cars is because Nancy and I both drive autonomous cars. Nancy drives a Tesla plaid and I'm driving a cyber truck

and continuously they are upgraded and the new software is added and we see the changes and the tweaks but I hope people understand that I'm not selling this product

I'm just telling you that I have a scientific background degrees of physics and mathematics I was a technical guy before I became a car dealer. A lot of people don't know. So I'm fascinated with technology. And I could just say, and Nancy will agree, when we now, when we walk out of our home and into the garage and get into our autonomous cars, it is a pleasant, safe experience

to us. Not a perfect experience, but we both have the feeling now that our Tesla autonomous cars actually drive better than we do. And there's subtleties to it that we appreciate every time. Not to say that, as I say, the autonomous software in the Tesla is not perfect. But the good news is it improves all the time. it's uh we're the point now where uh and there'll be another software update shortly where basically we'll just have to walk from our home into our garage get in the car at that point the autonomy can kick in it will open the garage door for you back your autonomous car out

and take you to the point that you navigate to that you entered in your home in your iPhone and you transfer the information to the car before you ever got in the car. And when it gets to the point you're going, it goes onto the parking lot. For a long time, the software, I could not navigate around a parking lot because it's not part of Google or Google Maps or anything,

but somehow or other, they have mapped these parking lots and they can navigate in the parking lot. And when it goes to the parking lot, it gives you, every time you go buy a parking place, it flashes it on your touchscreen. And when you find a parking place that you like near the Publix or the Walgreens or the radio studio, you reach out and you touch your touchscreen and the autonomous car backs into your parking place.

And it will back into a parking place that I wouldn't be able to back into, or for that matter, I'd be afraid to go into it. Nancy is the same way. But because of the cameras, eight cameras around this cyber truck, and it sees everything that you can see and about 100% more. I mean, imagine having eight eyes in your head, and that's what we have with the autonomous driving. It's like being a spider.

And you have to have a little courage or be a little foolish. I get to you a minute, Rick. You have to be a little foolish or a little crazy like I am, and Nancy is. But I will go, I'll see a parking, but I'll say, we can't get in that. But I say, let's see what happens. And it's never, never let me down. It has, in a couple cases, I had to maneuver too much. And I had people in the driveway area, you know, waiting for me.

And then I would take it off park and go somewhere else. But if I'd given it enough time, that autonomous car would have fit into that parking. about record. Well, imagine in 10 years when all the cars are autonomous or a huge, huge majority of them. And now with your parking lot, instead of the cars being parked four feet apart so you've got room to open doors, they're all basically mirror to mirror. And they're fitting even tighter. And you're filling out for you. But you've got so much more space. Because the cars dropped you off. So the cars are in a much tighter area. You don't need near as much room for the cars to park, you could fit way more cars in there.

And then you could even have cars even double parked. We could fit a thousand cars in our parking garage. Yeah, if one car needs out, the other car just moves a little bit to let the first one out. I mean, that's true. And they're all talking to each other. So if anybody out there that are thinking about this, I would, and again, I'm a Toyota dealer, so here I am driving a Tesla and talking about this, that's because I'm crazy. because I earned my money selling Toyota's.

But I go to a Tesla dealer, and by the way, they're owned directly, but Tesla, you're not dealing with a dealership. But really, you're dealing with the manufacturer and say, I want to try out one of those autonomous cars. And I have a salesperson, and they're very good, and they're not like a car dealership, salesperson at all. And having to go out there, I think you'd be amazed. The other point with Nancy and me is we each just got our driver's license renewed last week. And Nancy turned 82. I turned 84. And I don't mean to be morbid about this, but we're not children anymore.

And we know that at some point had we not been in a situation where we would have something like an autonomous car, we probably would have to stop driving. And I don't know about you, but, you know, to me, driving is like part of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. That's your freedom machine. It's part of our freedom in America is driving a car. And so that is something to think about. A lot of our callers are, you know, a little older.

And, you know, in 10 years, 20 years, you are definitely going to be facing the point where you're not, You're not going to have to hang it up and not have your car. You'll have an autonomous car that will be just almost as good as driving. You're sitting in the driver's seat, and you put your hands with a wheel because you should as a backup, but you're not doing anything. The car is functioning entirely without you. Yeah.

And it was interesting that we found out that we didn't even need a license. Yeah. That was interesting. One state where if you're an unlicensed driver, you can ride an autonomous car. So forget about your driver's license. Hop in the car if you live in Florida. Exactly.

And you know, I can say all I want about autonomous and electric and everything, but just recently, unfortunately, I had a few citations from Tesla. And I just, it wasn't holding the yolk tight enough. And then I had a copper glove on. So it makes you more aware of your driving skills and focusing. So that's a good thing for autonomous. Okay. We're going to go to the phones, and we're going to talk to Tina, who's calling us from West Palm Beach.

Good morning, Tina. Oh, good morning. It's a cold one, isn't it? Yeah, it is. It's very refreshing. Welcome back. Thank you. I just wanted to give the update on the oil.

pan change last week. I'll be recalled. Everything went well, and thanks to your guidance and your information, they did take care of me over at 441, and I was told them I was going to mention it on phone, that

it was a Toyota dealer at 441 office southern. Anyway, the agents spoke with the manager, and they reduced it quite a bit. And did the all change, gave me a new filter, two filters, the cabin and the engine.

And my 2006 Camry Salara is running smoothly. Wonderful. Hey, Tina, did you know that? Rick gets another award. Is owned by a man named Terry Taylor. And he's the largest owner of privately, private owner of car dealerships in the world. And he doesn't put his name on any of the dealerships. When he buys a dealership, he slightly modifies the name, maybe, but he never bar no Terry Taylor dealerships.

But if you ever really get pressed and you have a problem with Southern 441, tell him your friend of Terry Taylor, and they'll hop to it. Excellent. Thank you. That sounds well, I'll keep that in mind. I make notes on everything. And thank you for the Christmas gift I got in the mail this week. You're very welcome. Thank you, Tina.

Thank you for listening and thank you for spreading the word. We definitely appreciate it. Have a wonderful weekend. You also. And a Christmas. Merry Christmas to you too, Tina. 877-960-99-60. No, great, Rick.

Works for me. I'm totally happy. She got her pan taking care of there. Yeah, exactly. We're going to go to Frank. and Frank is a regular caller. He's calling us from Jupiter Farms. Good morning.

Good morning to you all. Merry Christmas, of course. Merry Christmas. And well, it's glad to be back in the country. I was on a cruise. I was going to call you from Barbados. And, you know, it would be one of your, but the phones didn't go through. And it was other dilemmas down there, which won't talk about on air.

But it's not really the place I remember when I used to fly there with Eastern American. But anyway. With that in mind, a couple, every time on the show I hear different people talking about different items and problems that makes me think and realize with the tires in the flat spot, that's very true. It's also true for people that own boats or especially RV trailers that may sit for weeks, months, and even maybe longer than that, they should be rolled out there to get rid of those flat spots. Yep. So that's a word of I said onto just cars.

Yeah. Also about Yeah. I was just going to say they rot. They just sit out there and unless they're maintained. It's like your house. I mean, you can't sit there.

You have to eventually watch the algae of the salt off the windows and mow the lawn. You got to grease those bearings too. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That is very sure. And then a couple weeks ago, one lady was calling about the car wash and stuff like that because of salt and things like that and the undercarriage of the car.

And I go to Mint Echo Car Wash. There's like five dealerships around ours up here on Indian Town. And you're there's an old bowling alley in Home Depot. But they have a great plan. It's an only plan for $25 a month. It starts up. You take your car in and they wash it off the bottom underneath. It's really sprayed.

It comes out crystal clean. And it's a great deal. And it's called Mint. For mine, I got a pickup truck. I mean my it's on there's one on I don't know if there's multiple locations there's one on maplewood drive and jupiter right near where I live there's there's a lot of them okay I didn't I see the one near my house and they are busy all the time there you got cars and they're pumping them out oh yeah and the soap that goes on I mean you go through it's a ride through you just put a neutral on ride through like the good old days and I mean the stoops and stuff but for pickup truck they most other places was like $75 they do it for mine unlimited for $48 a month Not that I drive my truck that much, but it's, um, this night they go through. It's a, it's a very nice, and I think they got some down on Southern and Okeechobe in that area.

That's a great comment because people are procrastinators and they can't, they can't get expensive. That's a hell of a deal. Yeah. Yeah, 25 a month. I mean, I mean, you know, I'm up there getting close in your age too, so it's hard for me to bend around much. But here's one for Rick. Now that he's in, I'm glad to hear you came in. I have a 2012 E350 Mercedes with about 130,000 miles on.

And I found, you know, a place they do my old changes and stuff is a nice, reasonable price. So anyway, they mentioned my engine mounts need to replace them. They're collapsed. And I go, engine mounts, wow. Well, when should we do that? I said, well, if they're not buying, they don't worry. And I feel a little bit of vibration. He says, you drive your car easy.

I mean, actually, I still got the original brake pads. This is how easy I drive that car. Yeah. They're going to probably change on the next oil change. 120,000 miles on the original brakes? Yes. My mom, I know.

My mom was a bus driver. She taught me all her training that they would get her every time. I anticipate the drive. No, I'm not hard. They're amazed. They're really amazed. I just had the hot water heater break while we're on our cruise.

And it was 18 years old. And they go, how do you get a hot water heater to work 18 years nowadays? So I'm easy on my equipment, but anyway. So back to the engine mounts. Is that something that should be done? Because it's going to be a little time-consuming and costly or just drive with them just sitting on the frame, I guess.

It depends on how the mounts are set up. But generally, what's actually going to happen is as they deteriorate further from age and that, they're going to start getting more aggressive. You're going to feel that vibration and the movement. of the engine a lot more and it can cause damage to some of the other components just by it bouncing around a little like when you shift gears the engine's going to move a little more aggressively and it can actually start to cause some wear issues so it's going to depend not really on you know just how severe that vibration is getting but i would recommend once

it really starts to get extremely noticeable i would definitely get it done um okay you you've got obviously a great car that is serving you fantastically and from the way you're driving it you you've got a lot of life left in that car i mean it can go a lot more and for the cost of motor mounts versus the cost of a car payment and having to go through all the deals of getting a newer car um i would i would stick with the older one myself and i'd put the little bit of money into it to keep her going i mean that that would be my thing but you know graham And I'm one of those that I'm totally willing to drive a car until the doors fall off of it. But, you know, it just, yeah, that sounds like a very small investment to keep that car on the road.

Yeah. Okay. No, I appreciate that. Pretty well my conclusion was all as well because I don't see any cars down there really. Unfortunately, I had both knees replaced and so my mobility is an issue now. And, you know, I had a really fancy car called a Jaguar F-type with a V8. It was like flying a jet with Factor Burns that I used to do in the Air Force. Oh, yeah.

But it's hard to get in and out. And the B-line Highway I agree with because I took my girlfriend out for our first date out there. And you had some people on their drag race and the road was closed off. And so we went through trying to catch two motorcycles, which was a losing venture. but as we're passing 165 and still accelerating, I look at her. She said, you're all right? She said, I feel like I'm in your cockpit. It's like Nancy.

She's a keeper, but anyway, that's about it. You all have it great. I did notice she said about a Christmas gift. That is really cool for that lady. That was neat. Hey, Frank, you send me that picture of those cars there? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I meant to tell you.

Daggummit. I'm glad I reminded you. Yeah, thank you. Is that a Vauxhall Ultra Astra? It is somewhere. So you notice how both drivers' doors are so close to each other, you would have seen? Yeah. I'm sorry.

Nobody knows what I'm talking about. Frank sent me a picture of a Hyundai and it looks like an Opel or a Vauxhall car that I've seen in England before. But they're parked very close to each other in front of a building. And it's not America. So what's going on there? Well, I saw that, and I felt you guys immediately, thank you so much. This dementia is sitting in early today. The reason they're so parked so nice and close is because they're both right-hand drive cars.

Oh, okay. That's right. I forgot about that. So where is this? No, that's good or something. I'm actually naming. We flew to London to get on a cruise when they were having them. I guess.

You said the cruise, so I didn't think. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I see these in those apples. I think they're made in Germany, right? Yeah, they're all over the place. All right, thanks, Frank. That's really cool. You guys have a wonderful holiday.

Yes, sir. Mark H. from the YouTube channel, he gave a comment here. It says, for your motor mounts, make sure they use the original equipment, meaning the actual Mercedes motor mounts. He says, otherwise you're very likely to wind up having to redo the job in just two years. So apparently he's had a little experience with some of those aftermarket parts, although they can be a lot cheaper, watch out because sometimes you get what you pay for on aftermarket parts, and the cheaper parts can fail a lot easier than the factory ones.

No, that's a very good advice. In fact, about a month ago, I got my wild hair. I decided to look at 56 Chevy, Bel Air, that was for sale, V8 and all. Went down to Miami Test Grove, and it is a beautiful car. but it doesn't have power steering. So try and turn a car that's just not really moving much. Oh, my goodness. And it doesn't have AC.

And I said, you know what? At this point in my life, it still needs some comforts. But it was a beautiful car. But they said, oh, yeah, you can get the power steering. It can't install like for $1,500. And it's just like you're saying, if you don't get the factory parts, they don't even last a year. So, again, it's a very good advice.

but I'm sure this guy that does it. He works at Mercedes-Benz. Interesting. Frank, you know, I have to commend you on taking care of your vehicle. You know, there's a lot of people on the road that don't think that maybe just, you know, taking the car in for maintenance, you know, does a trick. But I'll tell you what, you get, you hear stories like yours, the example of you, you know, respecting your vehicle.

and that's, you know, the life of your vehicle is much longer when you, you know, just take care of it like you do by driving correctly. Yeah, and I was a little concerned when I first heard that your co-friend was not there quite yet. Because we live in Juplupt Farms and the wrecks out here in the last few weeks is just unbelievable. It's like almost every day. Yeah, I heard that. Yeah. The main attraction. She's the best driver you've ever met.

Thanks so much for. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Thank you, Nancy. Bye, bye, bye. Bye, bye. Okay, we're going to stay with the phones, and we're going to go to, guess who? The Roadrunner.

May it? Hi, Steve. Hey, good morning, everybody. Good morning. Okay, first of all, 82 and 84 is there. a new 65, okay? Okay. And first of all, Earl, you broke a rule, you never give

away a woman's age. Yeah, I get, I get sloppy. I'm in trouble now. Okay, and that other thing, did you say, if you have an auto-thomaccar you don't need a driver's license? In Florida, it's the only state. I've got this, I got the

statute here, I'll read it for you if you like or send your copy, but I was shocked. This is before we had renewed our license, and basically I was just trying to check to see what happens if I don't pass the test. You know, I had cataract surgery, and so did Nancy, and we got to pass an eye test, and so we were, you know, nervous and jerky about what happens if we lose our driver's licenses.

And so I'm playing around on Google, and I went to, you know, subject of autonomous cars, and I found out that Florida is the only state that allows an unlicensed driver to ride in an autonomous car. So they might change the law, but right now you're good to go, no matter who you are. Well, as a police officer asked for your license. What do you tell them? Well, the police officers are probably going to be very confused, but probably the best thing to do would be to carry a copy of that statute. Maybe even had your lawyer give you a letter saying, this is official Florida law.

and then hand that copy to the cop, but it would be really a lot of fun, although scary, but I'm envisioning the video now where the cop pulls you over, and he says, do you know why I pulled you over? I said, I would say, well, you didn't pull me over. I had nothing to do with this. I'm not driving the car. The car pulled over, apparently. I didn't ask it to. Yeah, the car, the car, you know, ran the red light, not me.

and may have your license? I said, no, I don't need a license. And then you hand him the letter from the lawyer. And then you say, cyber truck, go. If I'm in the plaid, what I'm going to do, I'm just going to step on the accelerator, see if they can catch me. Well, now you break the law because they're driving. True.

Let's see if we can get a Florida police officer on the line and to see that's true. Also, I want to wish you, our listeners, Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy new year. Thank you, Steve. Merry Christmas. Okay, enjoy people. Thanks for another great year. Thank you.

Thank you for being part of the show, Steve. We love your company. And happy new year to you also. We're going to go to Bob, who is calling us from Lake Park. Good morning, Bob. Good morning. Happy holidays, everyone. Thank you.

Happy holidays. Welcome back, Sue. Thank you. I have some statistics for you. One in ten cars has a full-size spare. One in four car loans are upside down. 80% of all colors that are produced are either black, white, silver, or 50 shades of gray.

The whole automotive industry is in turmoil. The head of D'Lantis has resigned. the new person said he's going to bring back the hemi. That was his answer. Did you say you're calling to cheer us up? Yeah. Okay. All right, continue with this horrible list that you have.

This is the automobile industry. Yeah, I know. You've got Nissan is telling the dealers that they have to merge with their infinity dealers and that Haunt may take them over. And they get the approval of Renault because Renault owns a big piece of, Nissan, and I guess Mr. Bishy's in on this deal, too. It's very interesting. You know, I meant to ask you, they eliminated a lot of the entry models, manufacturers.

So when you go in to buy a model of a car, you no longer can get in a certain price point. The price points of all going up. Right. And they'll tell you, well, there has this, and it has this feature, and you're getting this other feature. So you're not giving you a choice. Exactly. It's worth beating you this down your throat. And they might officially have that model, but it's not produced and distributed

where you can reasonably just get one. I've seen this even with Toyota and, you know, the other manufacturers. Yeah, the profit margins are bigger on the more expensive vehicles with the more equipment. And so you can't get mad at the manufacturers for that one. It's driving the average price of the vehicles now for new cars. Crazy. Well, I was in on 50. And you think this is a contributing factor along with the adjusted market values and the fees.

Why have so many people are underwater on their car loans? You've got one in four. That's a pretty big number. That is, and I can tell you, this is from firsthand watching this happened here in our market, and that was during the post-pandemic period when everybody went nuts price gouching, and you were putting people in loans at loan-to-value ratios that would have, made people's headspin in the past and so they're in these bloated loans and now the prices have come down and they got stuck and like this is one of the things that we saw this comment

when during the middle of this like what's going to happen in two years from now and that's what you're describing and let me ask you a question somebody comes into your dealership and they want to buy a car and the car that they're driving right now is in this situation where they're you know, if they owe more on the car than the car's work. Yeah. How do you handle that negotiation? Well, we, on the price and also on our trade, we're not going to negotiate. We will try and assist the customer.

Let me interrupt there. Stu will tell you how we handle it. And I just want to interject how, unfortunately, most dealers handle it. They don't want the owner of the trading to know that they're upside down, that they owe more on their car that it's worth or a lot of money. Because when a person realizes that, they might be thinking, well, maybe I really shouldn't buy a car. Maybe I can't afford to.

So they manipulate the numbers by raising the price of the car you're buying and taking that into consideration when they pay your car off. So in essence, you could be upside down, but you never know it. and you think you've made a genuine purchase when you really happen. Now, Stu will tell you the way it should be done, yeah. Right. Is that legal? Yes.

I mean, a lot of, you see it that, that is, you can see that in advertising a lot. You see the, like, I heard the phrase, we'll pay off your trade no matter how much you owe. It's to make that go away because that's a big obstacle to buy in a car, right? You're still paying for another car. So at our dealership, we would repraise it and give you our best value. It's going to be a one-shot deal, but we're also going to advise you and help you. There's other sources, and that's the best way to do is just get a few sources for your vehicle. But the thing is, it's just mathematics and or just up front.

If you have a loan that exceeds the value of your car, there's only one way to take care of that, and that's to come up with with cash and pay off the loan and that's coming from you the consumer and that's that's the only way to do it um appraisals can be reconsidered um especially after making calls we can have somebody call us back um you know with a figure that we're waiting for but it's not really a negotiation um you just it's we just kind of say here's your situation and unfortunately it's up to the customer to just to solve it you know it's some dealerships will, they do wheel and deal, most dealerships wheel and deal, so they can give up. If they're working with enough profit, they could give up that and maybe take a less

profitable deal and to help pay off your loan. But ultimately, it's, you know, you can't get away from that. You're, that's a loan. Well, the loans are given, when someone comes into your dealership, are you working with a number of banks? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what you do, right? Right.

Yeah. Ultimately, they're going to, even if a bank, they're going to look at the open auto loan and, you know, structurally to make the deal work, they have a parameter. They say, we're going to loan X number of dollars over the value of that vehicle. And if it doesn't matter how much you want it. So if it goes past those parameters, the cash has to come from the customer. Right. And the interest on a new call loan now is going to vary depending on your cost. credit score, I guess, right?

What are the interest rates running now? We're starting to see APR specials across all manufacturers now, including Toyota. Well, those are artificial. Yeah, that's not determined by the, right now, like, if you just went to got a car loan, you're probably 6%, 7%, then there's specials they have. And usually it's for shorter terms. So if you're somebody who wants to pay off a car, you can get like a 2.3.9, a 1.9 here and there. but those are subsidized by the manufacturers.

Right. It's interesting because I know that they're talking about not lowering the Federal Reserve and then said that the interest rates are going to stay higher for longer. Yeah. Yeah, they were talking about that on Squawk Box, and I was listening to that, Bob. And I was a little surprised, but a lot of people were waiting until 20, 25 to purchase a vehicle. But as you just said, you know, the interest rates are going to. I think they're going to fluctuate, if you can believe this, between 6.3 and 6.2, something like that.

Is that an accurate statement? Did you hear that? Yeah, it's confusing. I mean, Jerome Powell, to me, is, I think he's living at a bubble, you know. Yeah, a lot of people. You know, the people today, people that are on fixed income of getting clobbid. You know, if you have the ability to work, you could. offset some of this. You can work

two jobs. I mean, I did that before when I was a younger person and you can offset some of this stuff. If you have a fixed income then you're behind the 8-ball. And as far as the driver's licenses are concerned, I think around one out of three drivers

on the road in Florida now don't have licenses anyway. You're right. My doctor, my primary doctor, a couple years ago, he was also a friend. And I I asked him about his elderly patients,

and he said he thought that most of the patients that he had flocked on hearing or eye test or medical reasons in terms of driver's license, he said continue to drive without a driver's license. So it's an unknown situation. It's a dangerous situation, people that are driving cars that are not capable of a driving one should not be on the road. But they know this too, and they just, you know,

they don't drive very much and they drive very carefully. And chances aren't they'll never get caught. So a lot of the drivers out there on the road should not be there. We would be far better off with everybody in an autonomous car. But what you're talking about, and I don't disagree with you, I just think that you're getting way, way ahead of yourself. I don't see that happening. for quite a long time.

Well, that's because you don't leave your house every morning and get it to an autonomous car like Nancy and I do and they take us wherever we want to go. We say take us to Walgreens, take us to publics, take us to the radio station. And I'm telling you, if we got to a new address, we've never been there before, they find it quicker.

The autonomous car also uses the most efficient way. The autonomous car, with its computer, sees a traffic jam three miles ahead that you have no ideas there and diverts you to a route that will take you there and bypass the traffic jam you have to experience it to believe it yeah yeah it sounds wonderful but to me it's just you know like science fiction i know it wants to us too i'm not uh nancy and i are a little bit crazy because the average person would not do what we do And I think you're absolutely right. People are going to be very reluctant to trust a machine.

Yeah, you've got to be a little gutsy and most definitely. And it's an experience. I never thought I'd be sitting here in this chair bragging about autonomous and how much it has helped me. And you know something? Earl and I going up to renew our license, I'll tell you, walking into the attack. collector's office to the

motor vehicles I'm going to tell you you sit back and you look around and these people are on the road and you wonder how did they get to the DMV right how you know I mean Bob no exaggeration

I mean there were people in there that were so well I'll use the word old there were people in there that other helped them in to the Department of Motor Vehicles because they couldn't walk they were on walkers and canes and it was very telling

what do you think about you think Honda's making the right move here of buying Nissan and I think they're saving Nissan's life it's not really a merger I think if you if you were the negotiations

of the actual event when that happened Honda offered to save Nissan and that's what happened it's not really a merger not a merger yeah they're really You mentioned Nissan whenever we first started to talk, Bob, and, you know, they're really trying hard with a new executive

to help this company to help rejuvenate it. Right. Well, I just saw the new Marano that came out with the 2025, and they did a wonderful job on that car, except the drive train. You know, they went to a four-cylinder engine, and a lot of the manufacturers are going to these. four-cylinder engines, but the weight of the vehicles are so heavy, you know, I don't know if this is going to hold up over time, you know, so that's disappointing, but the vehicle itself

is really beautiful what they did with it, and it's not very expensive. The price point on that car is pretty good. So I think, you know, in that respect, Nissan has come out with what I think is going to be a winner, but I don't think their financial situation is going to allow them to continue doing business. Exactly. I mean, they're in a big trouble. I don't want to be the Grinch. We started off as the Grinch.

I just thought it was very interesting. I wanted to ask you last week, Sue, but you, I guess, you must be a Eagles fan. You're in Philadelphia all the time. Yeah, I did watch the game that Sunday night. Okay, cool. All right, well, everybody has a happy holiday. I'll talk to you next week. You know, just to add to that.

That little list you had at the beginning there. Right. What is it with the dude Dodge Charger, an electric car, and they have a speaker so that it can make a rumbling engine sound? I showed it. I showed the review on it. Very interesting. That's something. Having fun, that's all.

Yeah. You should hear the horn on our cyber beast. They have a, they just download the, you know, the greatest horn of all time. I scared the hell out of Nancy the other day. I didn't tell her. I downloaded the horn and she came walking out to the beast and I hit the horn

I startled I saw that I have to go on YouTube and listen to that What's the sound of it? Yeah It's not bad It's the best I can do

I don't know It's not bad It certainly isn't frightening I have I have been seeing more of those trucks in the in the local area

I've seen a number of them And some of silver black mostly I saw a blue one I mean, I have seen some of them around. Very odd looking, but they certainly do grab your attention. They do. Hey, Bob, did you know that the cyber beast, the weight of the cyber beast, 6,843 pounds?

No, don't hit my Mustang, please. That's a lot of stainless steel. Otherwise, I'm done. Hey, Bob, it was great talking to you. We have to run. Have a happy holiday, everyone. Thank you, Merry Christmas. is, okay, we are going to go to Marty.

Patience, you've had a lot of patience this morning, Marty. Welcome. Hi, good morning. Good morning. I have to ask you a question. A couple times Earl said your beast or your regular Tesla missed a light or missed a sign because of the sun or whatever. Yeah. And I can tell you this, the police in Florida are very tough.

And if a cop stops you in one of your autonomous cars, I assume you have to stop the car manually yourself. Sure, yeah. Okay, now I would say, if you don't have a driver's license, you may be getting your car towed away. And I have an update, though, Marty. And it's going to really be disappointing to Earl and Nancy. No. Yeah. And I just had a chat with chat GPT, and I challenged it on that.

I said, are you sure that I go, so you're telling me, and then it went on about the levels of driving, and then it clarified itself. Florida's law allows for level four and five autonomous vehicles that require no human oversight. So they said it does not allow, the Tesla sobri truck, not yet. It's not there until it gets to a level four.

I mean, I would say from the police I've seen down here, you don't want to be without a driver's license. Yeah, we've been down that road, Marty. Yeah, and the thing is this, I think when you're over 80, because I've got to renew my license this year, or in 25. You know, they only renew it for six years instead of eight years. You know, they've had some rule. But I can just tell you this, you don't want to be without a license.

Well, you've got to be crazy if you do. Do you remember the instant where I was, I didn't want to mention that. I was pulled over and my driver's license was taken away. from me by a North Palm Beach policeman? I don't remember that. That is worth telling that story. Well, it's basically, you're asking about the police. Okay, so I'm driving to my dealership, and I'm on U.S. one, and I'm in the middle of

U.S. one, and I'm probably speeding, and I'm probably late to a meeting or something. So a cop is behind me, and there's no place for me to pull over. So I drove all the way to the dealership, and he's behind me with a light going, and I pulled it from the dealership. Of course, everybody, all my employees poured out on the street, and there's this North Palm Beach policeman. His name was Abram Check, by the way. Abram check. You'll never forget that. You said you just pulled into the dealership.

I believe they chased you from one destination. So I got out of the car. And he parked his car, you know, three or four car leaks away from me. All my employees are standing out watching this with the lights. So I go to get out of the car and the police, and Abramschek said, stay in the car. And he had his, you know, a megalorn going on. He had the megalorn out. And he says, get back into the car.

I said, I said, what did I do? It was like a scene from cops. Long story short, I could run this out. We don't have the time. But the bottom line is a few weeks later, I got a letter from the state of Florida saying that I no longer had a driver's license. And it turns out that the North Palm Beach police officer had reported me to the Department of Motor Vehicles as being unable to drive because of, he said I was deaf.

Right, you told him you couldn't hear him. He said I was deaf. And I said you're mentally incapacitated. Because when he pulled the end of it, I said, I didn't hear your siren and I didn't hear this. Well, in Florida, you can be deaf and drive a car. Deaf is not a incapacity that would make you lose your license. To get to the bottom line here, I found out that the reason he had done that to me was because his wife worked for my dealership and I had fired his wife. And when he did that, I was able to find out that he reported me.

Long story short, I got a judgment against the town of North Palm Beach, and Abramcheck is no longer there, and I won the lawsuit. So if you stand up to the police, if you stand up for what's right, or this case maybe for what was wrong, but I was right and wrong. Marty, what a can of worms this was. We're laughing about it now. I just wanted to tell you, when we first came down here, I was in Del Rey in one of these strip malls. And some guy was backing his car out and I blew my horn just so the guy didn't bang into me.

All of a sudden, this cop pulls me over and says, you're not supposed to blow your horn here. I said, well, you know, I mean, I can only say you this. You don't give somebody a ticket for blowing their horn as far as I know. It's freedom speech. He gave me a good balling out. I said, well, this guy was backing up. He said, well, I'll let you go this time. So you got to watch out here in Florida.

Most people don't stand up, but I know why. They said a stop sign, and when I got the ticket, the cops said to me, how long you've been living down here? I said, well, I'm a snowbird. I said, I go back and forth. He said, well, you had your New York licenses on too long. I said, well, as far as I know, you're allowed to go back and forth. He gave me a ticket. Oh, no.

So I say, watch out. Don't drive without a driver's life. Good warning for normal people. If you're crazy like I am, I don't worry about those things. Well, you can go to court. I'm not going to court, and I'm not paying for a lawyer. North Palm Beach Pleach, which no longer exists. The Sheriff's Department is in North Palm Beach.

Now, but the North Palm Beach police had a watch out for me. They called me Bigfoot, and anytime they saw me, they would get behind me and see if I was going one mile over the speed limit. That had to do with another instance where I, again, went to court with the police. That was Lake Park. And you're in. Lake Park, I said to go Lake Park, yeah. Lake Park is where you're the golden boy.

Yeah, Lake Park, and North Palm Beach are side by side. We don't have time to go into all the details, Marty, but it is quite entertaining. But what's more entertaining is the fact that we have a fantastic mystery shopping report. Okay. Well, listen, you have a— I'm going to bid you a Merry Christmas. Have a happy holidays. Happy New Year.

Well, you're going to be on next week, too, right? Yes. Yeah. If we all show up, we'll be on. Yeah. I promise I will be on time next week. I promise, I promise. I promise I'll be here before 830.

Have a great weekend, Marty. Well, somebody noted that you should give Rick a new clock. Rick has not been late once in like 15 years. And he's very faithful. All right. Thank you, Marty. Okay. Speaking of the mystery shopping report, let me go to the automotive news first that you

and I talked about, Earl. Yeah. And that's Amazon. They're expanding their car shopping to over 48 cities in the U.S. Interesting. Now, let's get to the mystery shopping report. We're starting the mystery shopping report just a little. bit early because it's so interesting. And you folks out there, well, I'll tell you what,

your input is extremely important. You can text, you know, your thoughts. Intergrade. That's 772-4976530. That mystery shopping report is from Hyundai. That's Hyundai of Coconut Creek. And they have a Amazon Auto Program, and it is interesting, well-written by Stu and the amazing, our mystery shopper, Agent Lightning. Her field work. She just does a great job weekend, and we got going into these dealerships. So the mic is all yours. Well, if you're interested in a buying a Hyundai or a Genesis or Kia, I guess. Yeah, the Hyundai cars.

You know, that company, you absolutely have to try this. Now, let me explain. Amazon almost a year ago said that they were going to start doing this. It took them a while to finally get going on it. And it is the most difficult thing. I don't know how Jeff Bezos and whoever he dealt with with Hyundai put this thing together. But they did. I don't know how they got to buy their dealers.

But basically, you can go on Amazon. on right now and look and buy yourself a Hyundai, a Kia, or Genesis, any model you want, and they give you the Althador price. They also will handle the financing, and they also will allow you to, I say allow you, you should go to a dealer. It doesn't have to be the one that you're buying from, but you should go into the dealership. The dealers actually can compete with Amazon. So what Amazon is done, it's provided

a good price, but the key is it's a firm price. It's an out-the-door price. The dealer fees are totally disclosed. You know the bottom line number that you write the check for or finance. There's no Mickey Mouse. It's not

come back later and I'll give you a lower price kind of thing. So if the Amazon deal with Hyundai does nothing else, it gives a firm, good, reasonable out-the-door price. Like a starting point that you can use... Oh, like the Costco Auto Program.

It's a good price, but that's not to say you can't beat a Costco price. You can. And we will see in the shopping report that how she uses the price from Amazon. So, for her head, don't ask the dealer, and you'll see this on the mystery shopping report about the Amazon program, because nobody of the dealership knows about it. And, or at least they tell you they don't know about it. But you, the first thing you do is you get your Amazon price and, and you get all the details. Yeah, because it comes up right in like, you know, if you're searching for some toothpaste on Amazon and you put in toothpaste, you put in Hyundai.

And just like the toothpaste, they all come up. And right there in that first search, that result that you see, you'll see the price and you'll see the discount from MSRP. you'll see any additions, like the dealer fees, and then you go in there. So you'll see it. So she did a great job exploring it like a brand new customer would. So here's a mystery shop, Hyundai of Coconut Creek and slash Amazon autos. Now, we know this dealership, and we know that the Page family owns the Coconut Creek Hyundai. And I think I'm not with the word of that.

Yeah, we talked about it. Because we shopped them somewhat recently. Yeah. Just a regular shop. Yeah. Okay. I'm reading the first person, if I were Agent Lightning.

Here we go. I started by looking into purchasing a car through Amazon. Okay. This is the way you should do it too. As per Earl's request, that's me. First thing I noticed was Amazon's limited time offer of $2,300. and gift cards for buying a car through them. Now, again, 70% of the people listening

or maybe more understand Amazon, understand what their gift card thing in. A gift card of Amazon is almost like cash. I mean, it's real money. There's no Mickey Mouse. They sell everything in the world. Yeah. So it's like, it's like,

we use them for as like as prizes at the dealership for things. So you're going to get right away the price that they give you is it discounted by $2,300 in gift cards. So you got that deal locked. Now you can shop and compare that with as many Hyundai dealers

as you want to. It was easy to find the car on Amazon. I just searched new Hyundai Santa Cruz and a bunch of listings turned up. I clicked on the new 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz being sold by Hyundai

of Coconut Creek. The price listed on Amazon was $31,239. It indicated the MSRP was $32,185, extremely important information. And when we mystery shop, both places, we don't know where the Bernrooney label is. It's usually hidden somewhere by the dealer, especially in South Florida. The price of listing indicated excluded, and this is clearly stated, not hidden in the final print. The price soliciting indicated excluded government fees, taxes, and $958 in dealer fees.

Now, we'll talk about that later. So a comment was made to me, well, but they're charged on a dealer fee. A dealer fee is not a bad thing as long as it's included in the out-the-door price. The dealer fee was created, and by a dealer fee, we call them, We call them, you know, hidden fees. They are, the purpose of these junk fees is to add to the advertise or quoted price in a manner that you do not understand entirely or confuse for a government fee that you have to pay. So there is nothing wrong, I bite my tongue as I say it, there's nothing wrong with a junk fee as long as long as it's discreet. closed up front as part of the average. Here's a little cartooned version.

How much for that car is $20,000 plus $1,000? It's a weird way to say it, but that's what we're saying. Yeah. So home delivery was not offered, but free pickup in three days was. Now, meaning Amazon is not going to administrate, administer the delivery of the car to you, but you call the dealership dearest you or any dealer and find out if they'll deliver the card to you, and that can happen. I noticed in a couple of years they might be doing it. So I hear I clicked on purchase card.

I mean, you've all done this on Amazon, most of you, and found a breakdown of the price. It was clear that the $946 discount was negated by the $958 in dealer fees, and those are junk fees. so I wish nobody would ever use the word dealer fee or electronic filing fee it makes people mad it confuses them but once you understand that the only power a junk fee has is to be slipped in on you after you thought you had the bottom line price that is not the case with Amazon and this is not the case here so the price was a little more at MSRP so So after all that, the Amazon price was actually just a little bit more than MSRP, which, you know, may or may not be a good price for this particular Hyundai Seneca Cruz. I don't know.

But you will know because you'll shop and compare that price. Agent Lightning is actually, she's texting me, she says she's watching on YouTube. And she says, Coconut Creek listed a pre-delivery fee, which she thought was a little tricky on their part. What it does is on the Amazon listing, it says a total of $9.58 in dealer fees, then it breaks it down into a pre-delivery fee, and then the tire battery fee, which are legit, but there's very small. Yeah, Amazon, Amazon is probably adopted the generic dealer fee because if you go to a thousand dealers and get their junk fee, there'll be 900 different names. Every dealer, especially in Florida. I was hoping to catch Amazon not catching that. I was hoping to see...

I wish they'd call it a junk fee. Yeah, they probably... That was... But I was hoping to see somewhere labeled as legitimate, like, an electronic filing fee. And it didn't slip past them. They got it, so. There was a place to have F&I products like Gap, Edge, and Maintenance. I declined all of these.

So, so you're, again... No pressure. I can't say this too often. You've got the price from Amazon. You know that's the bottom line price. You know that's what you can write your checkout for. When you go into the dealership, you're back in their clutches again. But all you do is keep repeating it.

It's like a Costco buying program. I'm a Costco member. I'm an Amazon member. This is my price. This is what I'm going to pay. Because the dealers, as you will see, as we go down this report, we'll try tactics. I went through and did it the verification process where I answered questions about past residences

and finance autos, this process where they do a soft credit poll and ask you to corroborate certain information. I stopped where I was asked to complete a credit report and I headed down to Coconut Creek County. My plan was to tell them, my husband wanted to buy the car on Amazon, but I insisted on coming in. When I walked into the showroom, a salesperson, I named Chevoys, C-H-E-V-O-Y, greeted me and asked if I needed any help. I replied, yes, my husband hates coming to dealerships and was looking on Amazon to purchase his car.

I insisted on coming in to see it. He laughed and said, but I was a smart move, okay, first negative comment about the Amazon program. The salespeople and the managers, the guy that made the deal with Amazon, Amazon, I was probably either the dealer or the dealer went along with a manufacturer, wanted it so bad. He signed up. Salesman doesn't know what's going on. He doesn't want.

He signed the agreement. I hear we're doing that now, but we haven't sold any cars through Amazon yet. That may be true, or it may not be true. He's a car salesman. So you know he's lying because his lips are moving. Oh, stop that. It would be a big mess if we did. It would be our first.

If you did buy from Amazon, where would you go for service? Now, there's a, that's a lie, see. Where would you get at service? It's a statement. You go to an now Amazon fulfillment center. Because here's something a lot of people don't realize. It doesn't make any difference where you buy a new car. The dealership is obligated by contract with the manufacturer to service the car.

I can't if somebody bought a new Toyota from my worst enemy and brought that car into our dealership and said I want you to change the oil and rotate the tires because that's to the factory owner's manual and I said no Toyota could cancel my franchise I have a contract that says I'm obligated to maintain and repair according to the manufacturer's recommendations every Toyota on me. the road that comes into my dealership. So this, the same thing is true with Hyundai. So this salesperson is either sadly misinformed or a liar to say something like that. Where am I? Where would you go for service? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Would you receive the car? Someone has to make money besides Amazon. This is just crazy to be. So total negativity on the part of the Hyundai salesperson. Shevois sounds like a very old, like an old-timer. Old school? He's been around, yeah. So the settlement kept rambling about how they hadn't received any training and didn't really understand the process.

Well, if that's true, it's not right. They should have, but they didn't. Things will improve. Is this program continues to remain in existence? All I know is that Amazon supposedly offers a $2,300, this county at it. I showed him the promotion on my phone explaining how it's $2,300. $100 in the Amazon gift cards a few weeks after purchase. He replied, I'll tell you what, let me show you the car, and then we can talk to my

manager to see if we can get you a really good discount to beat Amazon's price. How does that sound? So this is what's good about it. He will beat Amazon's price. And so you are in a better position than you would be. Now, you can also take the price that they beat Amazon's buying. and go to another Hyundai dealer. What this Amazon program does,

it gets you started with a good price, which you can shop and compare. It's like our dealership, our Toyota dealership. We don't have the lowest price all the time, but we have our best price, our lowest price, that we can afford to charge you. And you can take our low price and take it to another Toyota dealer,

and if you get a lower price, you get a really good deal. You get even better than our deal. That's what it is. with Amazon. You'll get a good price from Amazon, and then you go to any Amazon dealer, any Hyundai dealer, and you can negotiate a good price with a fantastic price. That's what life is all about. That's what shopping, bearing, the free market system is all about. I hope they switch from the $2,300 and gift cards to like a natural discount.

Unless you know Amazon, if you said to me, I'll give you $2,300, I'll check for $2300. or $23 and gives a difference, it wouldn't make any difference to me. Well, to you, right, yeah. Because I buy everything on Amazon. You'd spend that this afternoon. Right, but there are, you'd want the check, trust me. You'd want the check. Okay, here, where am I?

Okay. You apply, I'll tell you what. Hey, before you go on. I said, Earl, I wanted to tell our listeners that this, Amazon autos, it's real easy. You can go to the platform. and they really make it easy for you. You can browse, you can order, you can finance, and you can schedule your pickup.

So there's a lot of easy things about this whole process. It's going to take a while to catch on. Yeah. Anyway, so as this conversation with the salesman goes on, he says, tell you what, let me show the card. Then we can talk to my manager to see if we get you a really good discount to beat Amazon's price. And, of course, that sounds good.

I said even better that way I can show my husband I wasn't right to come and today it would be totally now it's totally worth it I gave the stock number of the car I found on Amazon and he pulled it up in the system then he said he grabbed the keys so we could take a look

I asked what's your name again? Chivoy he said before excusing himself to get the keys I decided to wait outside for him wait out front for about eight minutes before heading back inside he wasn't around but the sales manager noticed me and asked are you being helped?

I probably, yes, I believe it's Chivoy. Is that how you pronounce his name? The manager trekkled. That's one way, but I'm not quite sure how he says it, which is strange that a sales manager would know how to pronounce the name of his people that work for him. Yeah. I just wanted to make sure we weren't ignoring you. He walked back into the sales office.

I returned outside, we had another five minutes before Chavoy, the salesman, I finally pulled up at the car. As he walked past me, he said, excuse me, for one minute. My boss is calling me and went right back inside. It was 2025, Hyundai, Santa Cruz, same vehicle with an MSRP of 32,185. That's the one that she got on Amazon. I got the exact car. A few minutes later, he turned with another person walking toward a different car.

As I climbed into the car, he had brought for me. He motioned for me to wait, but I went ahead to get familiar with it. I waited a running car writing this report. Took 18 minutes before Chivore returned, sat in the passenger seat. He apologized for explaining that the person parked next to the Santa Cruz. They bought a car from earlier and needed to grab their sun pass for a few other things. Finally, we went on a test drive. Once back at the dealership, we sat at his desk and he said,

My sales manager will definitely want to hear about your Amazon experience. Yeah, the sales manager probably doesn't know what's going on either. I don't think so. I haven't sold one yet. The program's brand new, so a lot of this is understandable. Then he asked, what's your credit like on the scale 1 to 10? I replied, it's in the low 700s, and I already have a good idea of the financing after being on Amazon. He laughed, Amazon has no way of doing financing.

Now, another law. Jeff Bezos, he's the second birthday. Which is man in the world. He can't loan money. And he can't finance cards. It's amazing that he even offer a rate. I showed him the financing details on my phone. He just shook his head chuckling.

So, again, I know this sounds. He's incredulous. I don't believe that. He chooses himself to speak with the sales office behind the glass walls. A few minutes later, returned with a pricing sheet. The top line was MSRP, 32,185. he took off a $3,200 discount. He added a $949 junk fee and sales tax.

I showed him Amazon's pricing, which he had beaten, and he said, I gave you the absolute best price we can offer. I hope we could make a thing. You know what? It probably is a great price. Well, they matched the discount, but with cash. And so it came out just a little bit, a little better. A little better.

But, okay, it's a good price. It is, yeah. If Agent Lightning were actually buying a car, I would say that I would do like, I would go to two or three other Hyundai dealers. I would do, if you went to two or three other Hyundai dealers on top of this, and in South Florida, she could hit those in one afternoon, you'd probably tweak the price down a little bit. Yeah. Because now you've got two numbers. You got the Amazon number, and you got to cook out of the creek numbers. And it took no energy to get the first number.

So that's the best part. The Amazon car buying program is a perfect channel to begin your shopping compares. I'm not suggesting that you buy your Hyundai on Amazon. I'm suggesting that you get the Amazon price and then you shop and compare with Hyundai dealers and be sure that you're getting the outdoor price. I pointed out that Amazon site showed a 3.98% rate were low 700 credit scores. How soon are you planning to make a decision?

He asked, I need to talk to my husband, but likely the next day or so, I replied. He mentioned he was going out of town for the holidays, hoped it would be soon, and he said the sales manager, Matt, wanted to say hello. I wait a few minutes, Matt came over. I hear you've got a date at the casino, so I won't keep you along.

He said, I just want to make sure Chavoie covered everything. I went through the Amazon process myself to get you the best possible price. And I feel this is as good as we can do. So that's a very, this is a historic moment. It was for them too. Historic moment. And our first mystery shop with the Amazon price. And hopefully, Amazon will be expanding, expanding this to all manufacturers.

and the more people that jump on the Amazon program, the lower the prices are going to come. But no matter how high or low the prices are, you as the American consumer have your precious right of a bottom line out-the-door price that you can shop and compare. That's the way you should buy everything. Eggs, bacon, cars, houses,

shop and compare a real price. And the car dealers of the world had deprived you of that right up until now and Amazon is reassured your right to do this. You know, this is the greatest thing, you know, that I can imagine. But Agent Lightning mentioned she didn't put in the mystery shopping report. The fact that she had gone for a test drive and turned the vehicle off had to be embarrassing. And then they had to jump.

They had to jump to that always sucks. Apparently the battery on the car was no good on a brand new 2025 car. Yeah. Those things happen. That's an embarrassing moment for a salesperson. Yeah. Hopefully he got around it. Between not knowing about the program and giving out, I'm going to call it fake news, it just was, you know, enlightening.

Things have to change and there has to be more education. I can't hear you. Pardon me? Can't hear you. Ah. Okay. I heard you. That was important in the audience heard you.

This whole thing, you know, I was expecting it to be a cluster. I really didn't think I went in looking for how Coconut Creek Hyundai was going to try and gig the system, you know, sneak and fees. So I was, first of all, I was really impressed of how easy on the first go around it was to find a car, get a price. It took no time. As a matter of fact, it'd take less time to find an outdoor price than it does on our website because our website you still have to click through to see it. So it's on the actual bottom lines out there. So that was really good. As far as the experience at the dealership goes, it is embarrassing.

This is Billy Page's fault or somebody's for to put it something that is out there, the world, they're using it. For someone to come in, imagine coming if we had a sale or which we don't, but somebody comes in and the salesperson doesn't know. It's not the salesperson's fault. It's the dealer or whoever signed it up. At least say, tell you, have a meeting, say, tell your people, people might be coming in with these things because that just saves awkward moments and confusion and agent lightning had a mission but if she was just a an innocent consumer she walked in there it would be really off putting what is this is this legit i think i'm you know maybe some would turn around and leave

after they said you yeah a person would have their doubts yeah absolutely i also cut yeah it was telling excuse me it was telling that the uh i believe that agent lightning said that the um jumper was in the back seat. So was the problem? Maybe they knew what something was going on. Like Rex said, it was probably a bad, they need to just change the battery out. But then how they handled it, though,

they looked into it. The sales manager said he went on Amazon. So he went in there. He saw what the price was. He saw the discount that was being given in the form of discards. And he basically matched it. And so that's, you know,

he could have gone in a different way. He could have said, that's not legit. He could have made up a bunch of things. He said, well, drive another. And some advice to the listeners, if you're going to try the program, we'll tell you the same thing we tell Costco program members. If there's any nonsense, if you're told something that isn't according to the program that you suspect is a big sneaky at the dealership, call Amazon. Because Amazon has cut a deal. and if they're not abiding by the program,

then the top dog at that dealership will get a call from Amazon. And in this case, that top dog at that dealership will probably get a call from Hyundai. Because Hyundai has a contractual agreement and the performance and fairness of the dealership in complying with their contract is very important. of contract. So they've got to get along. Costco program, the Amazon program, always report to Amazon or to Costco if there's a funny business in your mind going on at the dealership. T-Cash wants to know, is there an option for nitrogen on Amazon?

I don't know. Somebody do this. Somebody try nitrogen for tires on Amazon. That'd be funny. You know, the funny thing is there probably is on Amazon because, you know, you know, Amazon not only represents everybody of the world, you know, retailers, but even some of their kind of scams. I mean, if you can buy almost anything on Amazon, if it's legal.

I've bought some garbage that didn't work. Yeah, or I'm very disappointed in some things. But usually, you know, watch out if it's cheap. You never heard of the name. All right, so we got some grades coming in. You know, this is, excuse me, Stu, this is interesting. I just noticed from chatGBT that as the program evolves, Amazon plans to introduce in additional, you know, options for the consumer, and that is in leasing and financing.

And they're pretty excited, very excited about this automotive, you know, online buying, and it's going to be easy, peasy. Yeah. Jonathan and Palm Coast, I don't know, well, I'm just going to read it. He has had a miserable experience with this dealership in the past with missing Monroney labels, storage fees, gas fees, dealer fees, dock fees, and other fraudulent fee fees. Yes, they charge you for storing the car in their garage prior to you buying the car. And their out-the-door price was unreasonably high with no room for negotiation.

Automatic F from me based on personal experience. And that's Jonathan and Palm Coast. Bob said he went on Amazon to buy a grade for this mystery shop. and he purchased an F for Coconut Creek Cunday. They included an Amazon gift card with the purchase. That's harsh, Bob. My grade is going to be a lot more, a lot sweeter. It will be, I think I'm going to give them a C plus because the opportunity.

We only, we grade on the actual shop, not prior stuff. So I can't, I can't do what Bob did. So I'm not, I can't consider that. But they did really well as far as, uh, once they have. had the price. They did it and they did the right thing. They matched it. They beat it. And so that's a good thing. It could have gone. It could have gone horribly wrong. So that's mine. C plus for me. Great. Hey, ladies and gentlemen, let me mention the text number. We would love to hear from you. And it would be very interesting to hear from you and how you feel about this Amazon auto platform

that's been introduced. So, text us at 772-4976530. 772-4976530 because our phones are off right now. Rick? I've got Johnny C. Freidly says the dealer taking off 2,300, or 3,200, in that case, is a lot better than 2,300 in gift cards because of the sales tax you save on the 3200 discount.

He did give them a D, though. Brian Sidlatko says It took Amazon to get this Great Deal Amazon A Dealship B Plus B Cash says D D new dog same tricks Tim Gilliland still shading the

truth at times B minus Joseph Kelleher says C plus Grade would be higher without the junk fee Mark H says a B Where are you going to service your car? What a crock Tom Steckle says A for the Amazon program

this forces transparency. I sense the dealership was a bit defensive since this approach forces them to change their sales tactics. And he says, I wonder if the Amazon can buy a new attorney general. Mark Smith says, I'll give the dealership a B. They should try a little harder to earn their sales. Cram says, what a difference. This is a new way to shop for a car. You still need to shop three dealers.

and dealers need to learn the Amazon program and educate their salespeople. He gives them a B. Mark H says, I'm sure the dealer owner would be happy to jettison the sales staff and have Amazon be the salesman. And T-Cash says,

can the car be returned at Coles? For me, I'm going to say A for Amazon because I think that is an excellent way to run a program there. And I'm going to give Hyundai, I'm going to say a C because I think they made her wait around too long and had a few too many games

going on there. Well, I'll copy your C. I think a C for the dealership is fair. They were kept under control by the Amazon program. And of course, Amazon, they're the only game in town.

They get an A. I think their program can improve. I think like Sue Coo, said earlier, I think for them to refer to these fees as dealer fees, there should be more disclosure about the fees that the dealer might add. But, and I, to use a dealer fee is almost misleading. It is misleading. I, I think they should go to junk fee. Junk fee is an acceptable term now. And they should require that, I don't know. Maybe, maybe there was a sticking point negotiations and they said our dealers would not let you call it don't doze.

Okay. So you're great? A C. C. Okay. We have two minutes left. Thanks, Jonathan. I'm going to give Amazon an A.

I love Amazon. As far as the dealership was concerned, I'm going to give, excuse me, I'm going to give them a C minus. Do you have any other votes for us? I expected to hear from more of our audience. We got more, any more over there on YouTube? We are caught up here right now. Okay.

Okay. I love to hear from next week, now that we know about the Amazon program being available, all you Hyundai Genesis, Kia buyers out there, try the Amazon program. Even if you're not going to buy a car, we'd love to hear your experiences because this is a thing coming. It's got to be questioned how much longer before it's accepted by the car dealerships. Yeah, another wave of the future. and it's going to be an amazing time. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for tuning in to Erlan Cars. And we so appreciate you and your company.

You're a big part of the show. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and we'll see you right back here next Saturday morning at 8 a.m. on the oldies channel.