Earl Stewart on Cars - 12.23.2023 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Essential Ford of Stuart, FL.

Episode Date: December 23, 2023

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits a local Ford dealer in Stuart to how much they will charge for a used 2023 Ford Explorer XLT SUV on their lot. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

Good morning, everybody. We're back. Getting toward the end of the year. It's getting to feel a lot like Christmas. And it's going to be an exciting wind-up for 2023. We've been doing this show for about 20 years for you. New folks, we're a show all about how to avoid being ripped off by a car dealer. Now, the exciting thing about this time in our history is we've reached a tipping point in that war, I believe.

And I believe we're winning. You, the car buyers and us, Earl and Cars, we're an advocate for you. And we've actually got some legislation pending, actually rules from the federal trade commission pending that when they kick in in July of 2024, we hope they kick in. We believe they'll kick in, but it's going to be a fight. And I think we're leading the charge right here at Errol Encarus. We've been telling you for all these years how to avoid being taken advantage of. The Federal Trade Commission has heard but they've really got everybody's attention now

because they've written some rules that when they go into effect and are in, well, they're in effect now, but they haven't been applied. They won't officially be polite until July of this year. I mean, next year, 2004, we're almost there. Basically, it'll avoid the junk fees and the dealer-installed accessories and the bait-and-switch advertising,

all the things that we fought for on their own cars for all of these years. So be prepared. I think what we're going to have to do from between now and July, 2012, is call that the politicians. Because the only way the Federal Trade Commission can be defeated, and you can be defeated, and we can be defeated, is if the Congress or the courts choose to cancel

what the Federal Trade Commission has done. So we need to ask all of our... congressmen, our senators, in our House of Representatives to stand up and be counted. Are they for the consumer? Are they for you and me when we buy a car? Or are they for Big Auto? Are they for the National Automobile Association? Automobile Dealers Association? Or the thousands and thousands of car dealers that have been lining the pockets of politicians for many, many years to remain where they have been for all this time? When we get into 2004, we hope that you'll be asking your representatives, your senators, where they stand?

Are they for the car buyer? Because remember, car buyers also vote. You need to remind them about that. Are they for the car buyers? Are they for the National Automobile Dealers Association and your car dealers who are trying to maintain the status quo? And boy, I'll tell you what. Talk about status quo. That status quo has been in effect for 100 years.

ever since Henry Ford and the first dealers came up. It is a one-sided way to cause you to pay thousands of dollars more for a new car, or a used car, for that matter, than you should. So there we are, an exciting show, and we'd love to hear from you. That's what makes the show. We're focused so much on car sales right now. I can't not mention Rick Curney, our certified diagnostic master technician. And whether we win or lose this battle, there's going to be a lot of cars out there need to be fixed and maintained. And that's the reason that a lot of people listen to the show, in fact, probably the majority.

So Rick Carney is a guy that knows everything about your car. And if you have a question, if you like a free diagnosis and opinion about that squeak, rattler role you got in your car, that strange smell, that vibration, and you don't know what to do, and you're afraid to take it into a service department because you know what happens oftentimes. They tell you you have to have something fix that doesn't need fixing, or they charge you too much for what does need to be fixed. Just call us at 877-9-60-99-60. That's 877-9-60. And you can ask Rick, and he'll give you his opinion. Now, if you're streaming us, Go to YouTube.com forward slash roll and cars. And Rick actually, he's monitoring that right now as we speak here in the studio.

It's YouTube.com forward slash rolling cars. You can make a posting there. And you can even send us a video clip or an audio clip. That helps Rick diagnose problems. It'd be kind of cool. We have a text number. And that is, we try to get to all our texts before the end of the show. We answer our phones immediately.

So it's 877-960, and our text number is 772-4976530. Now, we also have a Facebook number. YouTube's our biggest streamer, and we have Facebook.com for slash roll on cars, and you could also follow the show on that. And one of my favorites, I love my, Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Privacy is a big issue for a lot of people. And you don't want to be on live radio talking with name, address, the telephone number or whatever.

You just sometimes like to express your opinion. So we have one that will respect your total privacy. And it's called Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Y-O-U-R-A-N-O-N-Y-M-O-U-S, feedback. Just the way it sounds. Feedback.com. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. And say your mind.

You know, it can be as direct and can't. did you like because we don't know who you are, where you are. If you do want a response, by the way, you have to ask for a response on your non-feedback. Now, we'll give you a public response, but if you'd like a private response, because we see it on our web browser, and it's just like it's like an email that comes through, except through the web, and we'll respond directly to you if you like, but you have to say, yes, you would like a response, because we don't, we can't respond unless you ask us to.

other than in public, which we're speaking on live radio right now. We're at North Palm Beach, Florida, by the way, and we're in the heart of the, really probably the most egregious bait and switch. I don't know. I hate to call people dishonest, but it's just the way the industry has been. The retail automobile dealer has been walking that fine type, tightrope between dishonesty and honesty for a long time. And, as I say, the Federal Trade Commission,

cars is what they call it. It stands for acronym. Combating auto retail scams, combating auto retail scams, cars. And the Federal Trade Commission legislation, I keep calling legislation, is a rule, is what we're so excited about this morning. And we'll be talking about until July, at least.

Let me introduce Nancy Stewart. She's my wife, she's my co-host, she helped found this show about 20 years ago when we're just a little half-hour show. And now we're two hours every Saturday, Eastern Standard Time, 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. every Saturday morning. So she's been with me on this whole long ride. She is not just my co-host, but she's also a very strong female advocate. The ladies that listen to the show and call into the show have, well, We had none 20 years ago. It was kind of like an old boys' club.

And now we're about 50-50. And thanks to Nancy. And she has a very special incentive for you ladies out there. If you haven't listened to the show before and you're a female, listen carefully. Nancy has a very special offer. She's going to make to you right now, and I'm going to turn the mic over to her. Good morning, everyone. Welcome.

Our number is 877-960-99-60, and you can text us at 770. 2727-497-6530. Don't forget youranonymous feedback.com. I want to wish Ashley Moody a Merry Christmas. What do you think? You think that'll make a difference? Do you think that it'll tug at her, you know, heartstrings? Does she have a heart?

I love you, Rick. There you go. Okay. What do you think? You think Jeff Bezo and the FTC is putting eventually the squeeze on the auto industry? I think it's going to help a little. We talk about Amazon selling cars. That's probably going to make a huge difference.

Yeah, exactly. And at any rate, ladies, gosh, I love you guys. I love you ladies and I love you guys. $50 for the first two new lady callers, $50 for the first two new lady callers, $50 for. for the first two new lady callers. That number is 877-960-99-60, and you can text us at 772-497-6-5-3-0. We have our Dog of the Week from Big Dog Ranch this morning,

and we'll have a video to show you of our dog named Dream. We're going to go straight to the phones and thank John from Palm City for holding. Good morning, John. Good morning to everybody. I have a technical question to Rick in air conditioning Fri-on. The original air-conditioning Fri-on used to be R-12. That was replaced by R-134. Is that still used in all cars today?

Nope. As a matter of fact, the new standard is R-1234-YF, and it's even more expensive than the R-134 and it's the machines to use it have gotten ridiculous so the newer automobiles now when you go in for AC work be prepared to drop it for a while

because with the machine for R-134 we could evacuate, recover and recharge a system in about 15 to 20 minutes, 30 minutes maybe. The new one, two to three hours minimum. Really? It's, the machine is so complicated and goes through so many steps and it just has made it just kind of ridiculous. Why is that? I don't know. Why does it take? I don't know. It's, it has something to do with, um, it will only work if there is, uh, the system has been

tested. It has to do its own self tests on the entire system. They've just put a lot of safeguards in them now. It's right from the manufacturers. And as a matter of fact, if it detects that the AC system is leaking, it will not recharge that system. Platt refuses. The machine will shut down. So hence the price to the consumer goes

up because your technician is being time is being taken up and time is money. Yeah, exactly. Wow. Great question, John. See, I learn more on the show than our audience does. didn't know that either. Thank you very much. Myself, I'm learning it, too. But what I want to say was when our first came out, it was called HFO-1234YF.

It was produced by DuPont Chemical and Honeywell, and another one, too, I forget. But Mercedes-Benz was dead against it. The reason is they must have been improved then because they tested it, and they said, no way will we use this in our car. The reason was, in a front-end collision, they claimed when the line became damage, it could cause the fire. That's exactly what I read about it. It was more environmentally friendly, but the fact of that damage of a front-end collision and the line breaking open, it could be actually going on fire. Has Rick ever heard anything like that?

I've heard some rumors of it, but there were so many. different systems that they've tried over the years. At one point, they actually used a propane derivative, and they very quickly discovered how dangerous that was because if someone were smoking in their car and the AC system were to have just the right amount of gas leaking, it could actually create combustion inside the car just from a cigarette, or lighting a cigarette.

So there have been so many different gases that they've tried, and basically they're trying to find some chemical that will act as a refrigerant that has the right properties but it's not destructive to the environment and at the same time is safe enough to use in these cars and is effective and the chemists are still working on. They're trying very hard. Here's a Google. I just Google that is AC gas flammable.

The answer is AC, gas link's are flammable, and usually if gas is leaking, okay, they're talking about AC in general, not automotive necessarily. But apparently that's on, I wasn't even aware of that. Well, we've proved one thing from Rick. Nobody should be fooling around with their air conditioning. Wow. These cans that they sell at an auto store, that's all non-laws.

Because specialized equipment has to work on a system and blow every air out of the line and everything. That's an important factor. One first thing, not to hold up, I did some investigation, and I see now this show exposed the MSRP, which is Moroni sticker. A lot of dealers are federally against the federal law, not attaching it. Well, the manufacturers now have beat the whole system. They're putting it on, and I checked this out with several dealers, they're putting the sticker on when the car is delivered from the fact. factory, but the lid window is so tinted that you can't even read the sticker.

And I thought when I first saw it that it was a trick of the individual dealer that was doing it, so you just can't read it. The tint is so dark on the window. But I saw yesterday, and I won't mention where, but not in this area. It was a Cadillac dealer. The truck just delivered them to them from Factory New. It was from Spring Hill, Tennessee, the assembly plant. and the windows was so dark in the rear was an SUV that you could absolutely not read the MSRP sticker.

Any comment on that? Yeah, it's been so abused for so long, John. It's funny that the Federal Trade Commission hasn't mentioned that in the ruling. But, yeah, it's kind of silly to think we have a law that's been on the book since 1958 that's virtually been totally ignored. and I can walk out of the studio now to the wherever the closest car dealership is and I guarantee you half the cars or all the cars

will not have the MSRP properly displayed so on the list of to do for the Federal Trade Commission that should be one of them I guarantee that because the closest dealership as the crow flies to us is Napleton no we just don't we just don't pay much attention to it anymore more, it's like you go into a car dealer.

Actually, what happens when we do a mystery shop and we find a car dealer with the MSRP on the window, we say, wow, look at that. He's actually obeying the law. It's more disabed than obeyed. Well, when in doubt, tell the salesman that you're dealing with, I want to see a copy. And actually, he can do it on a computer, print it out, and I want to see the actual copy in front of me of that MSRP window. Absolutely.

Maybe they think that that absolves them of the law because you can print out a copy, but it doesn't. It might be a silly technicality, but it's got to be stuck to that windshield. All right. Well, thank you guys again. Great call, John. Thank you very much. Merry Christmas, John. Thank you.

You too. We enjoy your company. 877960-9960, or you can text us at 772-49-30-30. Don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. Isn't a new location for the addendum in the backseat of the car? At any rate, you know, I mentioned our dog of the week, and you can go to www.bidog ranch.org. Big dog ranch rescue, yeah.

B-D-R-R-D-R-D-R.org. And you can check out all the dogs on their website. Big Dog Ranch Rescue. And you can see our dog of the week this morning that we're going to feature, and that's Dream. And Dreams from Tennessee, which leads me to our next caller. Oh, I was going to say maybe Dream knows Lance. Exactly.

So good morning, Lance. Well, I'm so happy to hear you saying something good about Tennessee dogs. the best dogs come from Tennessee everybody knows that well Earl we've looks like

the FTC's about to step up to the plate I'm just not so sure that this fight is over I have a feeling by the time it gets ground up in the legislative process they'll weaken this they'll weaken it

well you know I I fear you might be right, Lance. Involvement is the only way the voters are going to get what they want. Americans are kind of casual. I mean, you hear from the vocal ones and the people like us, really. But the average person, America's a great place.

You live your life, and the politicians, unfortunately, lead their lives, and they get their way. So we're going to try to rally the troops. I know you'll be on our side, Lance. Maybe with you and us and the other involved people, we can get the politicians' attention and see if we can't win this fight. Oral, I would be amiss if I did not provide you with a little holiday tune. And believe me, I've worked on this tomb for days and days and days and days. and the only thing that pulled me through

that all they're thinking is the early time do you want me to count it off for you? Are you ready? Yeah, ready. Yeah. Well, it's almost Christmas Day. Earl 19th records, who have got a lot to say.

They'll tell you a lot about staying away trophy. But the one great advice they have especially around the holiday time is going to be trying to climb Christmas please. Wow. That's a Tony winner. That's an Academy Award winner. Thank you, Lance. Merry Christmas. Thanks, thanks. Merry Christmas. You keep her smiling.

We're going to have to have Stu bring his guitar in on Saturday mornings. I don't know. So he can assist you. Ladies, if you're out there and you're listening and you're a first-time listener, give us a call. You can win yourself $50 this morning, $50 for the first two new lady callers. Give us a call at 877-960-99-60. That's 877-960.

Let's go to William, who's calling us from West Palm Beach. Good morning, William. Good morning. I have a question for Earl. Your thoughts on the recent news in the last couple of days of a fairly large proportion of Buick dealers and a fairly large proportion of

Ford dealers have decided they don't want to deal with the electric vehicles, repairs, charging and all that, and have either lost their franchises or giving them up. I'll hang up and listen on the radio, thanks. The Buick dealers? Yeah, the Buick dealers.

That's shocked me, basically. When I saw that, about half the Buick dealers have agreed to sell back their dealers to General Motors. And it says a lot that isn't being actually publicized right now. It says something about the future of the retail automobile dealership. And it's a little scary. I mean, we have a car dealership. We have Earl and Cars.com. We have a Toyota dealership.

It's a family business. We've been in it for many, many years. And so it's, we don't want car dealerships to cease being, you know, in existence. We want to see car dealerships remain. We want to remain. And we'd like them to just follow the rules and not trying to take advantage of people. But to answer your question, I was surprised. that half the Buick dealers

when I say it, I can't believe that I'm saying this, half the Buick dealers said to General Motors, here, give me some money, I'll give you my dealership back, I don't want to be in business anymore. And I think that that's an unspoken sentiment to a lot of dealerships

and manufacturers, dealers that we don't know yet. This Federal Trade Commission ruling cars combating auto retail scams which goes into effect in July basically is going to say either the majority of dealers

have to change radically the way they sell cars or else they're going to be put out of business because they'll be violating all the rules. Half of Ford dealers opted out of Ford's request to get them on board selling. Oh yeah, exactly. Okay, the Ford, yeah.

That's what I thought he said was Ford. Yeah, the indirect message there from the Ford dealers is that not only do they have to spend a lot of money to become an electric all-ev dealer, according to Ford, but they also realize that the electric vehicle status has been a kind of a loophole for the manufacturers to avoid having to go through dealerships, and that's what Tesla did. Tesla now sells cars directly.

You can't, there's no such thing as a Tesla dealer. If you have a location in a city that's selling Tesla, that's owned by Tesla, that's owned by the manufacturers. It's not an independent dealership. And they got, the reason they did that is because it's a new technology, all electric vehicles, and the law has been interpreted not to cover that only combustion injures. So the Ford dealers say, hey, I not only don't want to spend, investment to have you called me an electric vehicle dealer i don't want to uh i don't want to determine my destiny with a situation where i might not be the dealer anymore that ford will be selling cars

directly all electric vehicles well he hung up to hear the answer yeah well it's good i mean i mean that's a very good answer i was shocked about ford too what's the what's going to happen with Ford though are they going to be asked to sell out or they're just going to continue to sell regular internal combustion engine vehicles well I think Ford is going to I think Ford will probably struggle to be electric vehicle dealer like Tesla yeah I just I mean since all the half the dealers are not doing it are they going to jump in and do like direct they'll do it themselves yeah I think that's half the fear and why the Ford dealers agreed they said I don't want to spend the money right but in their in their

mind's eye, they were saying, also, I don't want to be any of you deal. See, if you spend the money today in your Ford dealer to be, to get qualified by Ford to sell electric vehicles 20 years from now, you're not going to have anything but electric vehicles to sell. And that means that for it could say, hey, I think we're going to sell these cars ourselves because the law doesn't support the deal. It's getting yourself in a much less secure position. So that's why they're doing it. It's the breaking of the dam, possibly. Do we have another callers? I have a text from Anne-Marie. I'm going to go to Bob, but I'll tell you what, things are changing.

And the new world ahead of us in the auto industry, and it's out there. It's going to happen. 877960-9960, or you can text us at 772-497-3530. We're going to go to Bob, who's calling us from Lake Park. Good morning, Bob. Good morning. holidays everyone thank you all right good morning

that situation with Ford and Buick is all about money they don't want to sell electric cars those dealers and the Ford dealers said that they'll still sell the internal combustion engines but they don't sell electric vehicles so they turned down Ford's offer

to redo their dealerships and the Buick dealers that was the same thing they don't want to sell electric vehicles they had nothing to do with this new ruling that's coming out. It's all to do with, it all has to do with them having to reinvest a lot of money in their dealerships.

And I guess they don't want to do it. They took the buyouts. Yeah. So I want to ask you a question. Automobile Alliance of Innovation, which represents the manufacturers, has come out against this new cause legislation. Of course.

And I was wondering, yes, I was wondering why are the manufacturers, not the dealers? I know why they're against it. Why are the manufacturers coming out against the new legislation that supposedly will take effect on July 30th? Well, this group does represent

the manufacturers, but it's the independent manufacturers. It's not like the National Automobile Dealers Association. And often the public posture taking by dealers associations has to do with politics with their dealers.

You have to understand that even though the manufacturers build the car, the dealers also control the selling, the retailing of the car now. They, the manufacturers need

the dealers. When a manufacturer alienates dealers, if they were to go out and support the Federal Trade Commission rules, then there would be a there would be a open rift between the manufacturers and the dealers. And behind closed doors, the manufacturers are high-fiving each other, saying, finally, we're going to be able to get our cars sold directly to the public like Tesla,

and look how successful Tesla has been. We want to do this, and that's behind closed doors. But they cannot telegraph to the dealers that they are against them. because once the dealers look at the manufacturer is their enemy, then the dealers have tremendous lobbying power through the National Automobile Dealers Association, and they can go back against the manufacturers. Matter of fact, the reason the dealers are so entrenched today

and you can't get rid of them, a dealer can't be canceled by an auto manufacturer like they used to be, the reason so entrenched is because the dealers did the lobbying with the state government. So Florida and Georgia and Massachusetts and all 50 states have powerful state laws that make the car dealer immune both from the manufacturer

and from the Federal Trade Commission and laws that restrict their activities. All right. So I just thought it was odd because they said that this alliance represents Toyota, General Motors, all the major manufacturers, and they publicly came out, you know, they were lobbying against it from what I heard. So, you know, I just thought it would behoove the

manufacturers actually. I know some of them were sending letters to some of the deals about these markups on the cars, but they have really no power to enforce it. At the Toyota National meeting in September, they had a break in the middle of their presentation to address it. But like you said, it's more of like, hey, guys, watch out. You're going to get yourselves in trouble, sort of an attitude as opposed to you have to stop doing this. Right. And the other thing is a lot of the manufacturers reach out to their dealers often to lobby for their political goals. Toyota has asked us to go and go to Washington, D.C. and speak out against tariff proposals. And so when the dealers are going to look to the manufacturers

in this quest for them to support them. So it's a partnership, and they're going to help each other either way. See, when you look at dealerships, you forget these are wealthy people. These are people that employ a lot of people. If you take all the employees of all the car dealers in the United States, you're talking about a significant voting block. And so the manufacturers need the dealers to support them, and the dealers need the manufacturers to support them.

So it's kind of an unholy alliance, but in the heart of the manufacturers, they have to want to be able to go direct to the market. They don't want to go back through this convoluted crazy network that has evolved over 100 years. It is so anti-consumer and unfriendly toward the consumer that it's embarrassing the manufacturers. And that's something they can only talk about behind closed doors. publicly, they'll be supporting the car dealers right up to the point where their car dealers have to tow the line and obey the law or else. So if you had to look into your crystal ball, would you say that this is going to wind up in the courts?

Oh, if the men, if the dealers have their way, yes. And that's what I, at the beginning of the show, I said, what we need to do is rally the troops now. And we need for the car buyers who also happen to be voters. I mean, the manufacturers or the dealers, they forget that the car buyers are voters. And I think sometimes the voters forget their voters. But if you're a car buyer, then if there ever was a time when you let your senators and your congressmen, the people that represents you in your state and the United States,

let them know listen I'm tired of having to go buy a car and fear for my life I mean you know the old joke I'd rather have a root canal or a colonoscopy than go see a car dealer to buy a car it's a sad truth

you wrote that 20 years ago I did yeah it hadn't gotten better so so now we need to go see the only thing that'll get the politician's attention is the voters

and until the car buyers realize that they're voters, then we'll be stuck right where we've been for the past hundred years. So it'll be an interesting, 2024. Right. And I'm going to ask you a question about the old guy that was a charge of Toyota that they booted him out. Yeah. Occo.

Yeah. In my age, you weren't that old. Well, it looks to me like he was right all along because he wanted to go just with the hybrids and not go fully electric right away. And there's a lot of pushback. Bob, that's interesting. You know, you're really sharp. I thought, you know, when they booted Akia, that surprised me.

And now I'm even more surprised because it looks like Toyota has taken attack back toward EV. And the industry is looking, I mean, hybrid. and the industry is looking at the same way. So maybe they made a mistake. I always thought Akia Toyota was a super sharp guy with his eye on the future like Toyota always had. And I kept saying, you know, Toyota is in this for the long run. And sometimes they make decisions in the short run

that sound stupid or confusing, but they've been proven right for so many years are the world's largest auto manufacturer. And you don't get to that point by being stupid. So the courts are still out as to, you know, the jury's still out, I should say, as to whether Toyota's read or wrong. But you're right. They fired at Akio, and now they're doing what he said that we should do,

Toyota should do. Well, he's not unemployed. I think he's the chief driver right now. He's like a chairman. He's still on the board, and I think he has to sign off on any. Well, he's part of a family, sure. And he has to sign off any new vehicle. Well, what I've read, though, is the only people that are buying EVs are what they call early adopters.

Yeah, exactly. And in order to move to the next phase of the cycle, they really have to change. They change too much at once, and people are too uncomfortable with all the changes to go to an EV, not to mention the charging station. Absolutely, Bob. And your input is well taken. We have a few calls holding. Well, thank you very much, and have a happy holiday. Thank you, Bob.

Thank you so much. We, you know, Stu mentioned about a column that Earl wrote 20 years ago. I'd rather have a Rue Canal than to purchase a vehicle. You know, Ashley Moody, she really, and if you don't know who she is, she is the Attorney General. for Florida Attorney General of Florida and you know you could do so much

by writing her and talking to her about the junk fees about consumers being ripped off it's really very very important we all need to play a part in this

so Attorney Ashley Moody Attorney of Florida Ashley Moody let's go to Trisha she's called before and we look forward to speaking to her good morning Tricia

Good morning and happy holidays to you all I also want to tell you you have I thank you very much for sending me my $50 like ASAP

that was wonderful thank you and also you are now my go-to-more station every Saturday morning, so I want to tell you that. Hey, that's great. Thank you. So I actually got two-part question.

I forgot to mention it to the guy who answered the phone. My first part, I want to confirm that you told call us not to buy, like, car shield and warranty things like that, right? Is that true? You don't recommend that. Especially those ones that you see on television. Okay, fine. All right.

Obviously, they make it enough money to put an ad on there. Obviously, people are buying it, but I just wanted to make sure you recommend it not to do that. That is correct. All right. My second question is, well, the first time I called is because I did get turned off to buying a hybrid by all the extra. fees, we talked about that. I got so turned off about all the junk fees, I just gave up in buying

a hybrid. Instead, I decided I'm putting in spark plugs in my car, a 2016 Honda Fit at 93,000 miles. I spent money to put in new spark plugs and what was called a serpentine belt, which in all my years of driving, I've never heard of a serpentine belt, but whatever. So I want to talk to you about what I was charged. I know you mentioned, you know, a lot of comparisons to, like, you know, to teeth. I want to give you an example. Here I went to a guy who's been taking care of my car for a long time. I want to know if these prices are...

fair because I've learned recently that my dentist who I've been going to for 10 years was telling me I needed work on some teeth and two other dentists looked at the x-rays and said no you don't need work on this teeth so now see the comparison here a dentist who I trusted is making BS work on on the teeth I don't need. So now I want to know if this car shop that I'm working with is charging me, you know, unnecessary and fair face. So I want to read off.

Probably. Probably because it's just a common practice. Do you keep the copies of your customer invoices when you see this? Yes, I have it right in front of me. That's why I. Okay, good. So on these repair, it's going to list the work that was done and probably any parts that they used. Down at the bottom, it's going to have a total, and there will be sales taxed.

Do you see any lines that say miscellaneous or shop fees or environmental fees? Yes, yes. Okay, how much is that? Actually, not the shop supplies. Yes. Actually weren't that bad. It's only $15. Okay.

usually there it's a small percentage of the total bill it doesn't seem like a whole lot it just adds up because they they collect these fees in a large volume about 10% typically yeah so um there's not going to be anything on a repair shop or they're going to hit you with like several hundred dollars or a thousand dollar fee like if you were buying a car but on the um repairing your car yeah they will nickel and dime you and get little fees we call it the service dealer fee service junk fee is a new term but yeah almost Every dealer does that. You can call the, if you're a member of the American automobile dealers, AAA, you can get a list of dealers that don't charge that. AAA-approved dealers are not allowed to charge those fees. But, yeah, it's typical. I'd say 95% of car dealers charge those junk fees and service. But this is not a dealership. This is a little mom-and-hop shop.

Any repair shop, it's common in that business of repairing cars. but it's common but is it wrong is what you're saying it's unethical but it's legal so you can find dealers that don't do i'm sorry are the repair shops that don't do that um it's hard to do um like every business does the same thing treasure uh if you if you stay in a hotel if you fly if you rent a car they're called junk fees and the dealers had rented the junk fee many years ago and the independent repair shops followed suit. So whether you're going to buy a car

or are you going to rent a car or are you going to buy a hotel room or you're going to buy an airplane ticket, read your invoice and find out if there's something suspicious, junk fees are just part of life and they're wrong, they're immoral, they're unethical, and they should be illegal.

How should they... That's when I asked him, because I knew him for so long, I said, come on, you need to put these these shop fees in there? Isn't it in the price of the pair? Well, everyone does it. Every single place does it. That was his retort to me. Well, that was the truth. Tricia, this is Nancy Stewart. You know, this conversation that we're having right now, we've had so many times, and you can help us by writing your Florida Attorney General. That's Ashley Moody. She can do so much for us on this topic. It's illegal, and these junk fees are completely out of control.

So please help us. I got the name from your last caller. Thank you. Can I read off to you what I was charged, and if you could tell me if that was appropriate or not? Sure. Do you have time for that? Real quick. Okay.

Okay. The AC compressor, drive belts, remember, place, $70, spark plugs removed out of place, $141, CarQuest, Daco, Serpentine Belt, $44, Denso, Ural Parks. There we get, $7, but then labor. Labor and Park. Trescia, can you call the show, call us after the show, because we really got a bunch of callers here, and we can't spend a whole lot more time. So please call after the show, and we'll try to steer you in the right direction.

Until then, Tricia, the Florida Attorney General send her a real nice letter, letter here from you. We are going to go to... Thank you. You're welcome. We're going to go to Frank, who's calling us from Jupiter Farms. Morning, Frank. Hello. Hello.

Hey, good morning, guys. Thank you. Good morning, Frank. Yeah, good morning. I got a short list because every time I call, I forget what to say until I hang up. First and foremost, a couple weeks ago, happy birthday, Earl. Well, thank you. I actually called your phone and you see your get back to me, but I'm sure you are inundated with so many phone calls.

that I didn't feel that depressed that being called back. And yesterday, I took a drive up to Stewart to treat my wife to some fresh lobsters. And while I was up there, I noticed the car dealerships are loaded with cars once again. Yeah. I guess the inventory was coming back. Yeah, especially on the domestic lots. They're at, what's their day supply now? they're back to close to pre pre uh pre levels yeah yeah it was interesting to see that

instead of looking like a ghost town um did you notice that little cartoon i sent you about the tesla extended range version hold on a second i actually forgot my computer today so i'm looking at these things on my phone uh oh yeah i got to send this to jonathan we'll put it on the screen And I'll describe it. It's a Tesla Model Y, dragging a bunch of solar panels behind it. It says, getting ready for my road trip and my Tesla. That's funny. I know how you guys like humor, so I always like to sort of something.

Now, back to some stuff I saw on the news, are you familiar to Palm Beach Auto Group? Have you heard of them? Yes. It's a used car group, I'm pretty sure. The reason I've heard of them is because they came up on the the Palm Beach County, the Best of Palm Beach County Awards for the Best Businesses, and I think they were nominated in one of the categories. Palm Beach One?

Palm Beach Auto Group. Oh. Yeah. Their owner, Stephen Neary, took advantage of a lot of investors, saying he was buying these Chrysler minivans for Amazon Prime and was going to give them back an 8% to 10% return on their money. Unfortunately, he took their money and bought new cars, paid off his loans and stuff. So he's been indicted for like millions of dollars at that.

So much for their orders. Yeah. That came out. Let's see, there was one more thing. Oh, yeah, the other day I had to drive down a homestead Air Force base to get an ID card for my wife. And I drove around the base little show where I used to fly. I guess I picked up a nail, and I heard this pump, thump, and of course, my tires are going low. Went to Costco.

They, what, three hours to fix a flat, and we pumped it up and drove up, and she was saying, well, maybe we'll only go to buy Earl Stewart. You know, you know those guys, and I said, well, I didn't do that, but anyway. Did you give any free nitrogen while you're at Costco? Oh, of course. Did you really? Do they do that automatically? Like, just give it to you?

Yes. Okay. It's a nice touch. There's actually, like, you actually got like an air place, so you just go self-serve and you dial in your amount of air pressure and you just fill your own tires, keep them from having to do it. You go to, like the Tire Kingdom for air, they'll actually come out there and they'll do it for you.

That's just not working. It is a nice touch. It's nice touch like a chocolate on your pillow at a hotel. It doesn't do much, but it's nice. Thanks, Frank. You all have a great Christmas and New Year's, and we'll enjoy your show, and I guess one of the callers a couple weeks ago,

a couple weeks ago, first female caller mentioned I had told her about your show. And I said, yeah, when I meet females, I go, hey, you know, it's really great. You can call in, and I used to start out. You want to make a phone call, make $50, and they looked at me like, you know, you're pervert, what you're talking about? And then when I tell them about your show. That's a rough way to approach it. You want to make $50?

I know. Hey, we got your, we have your meme up on. on the screen for our streaming audience. You can see the Tesla with the solar panels. Thanks for sharing that, Frank. You all have a good day. I'll let you get back to the call. Thank you, Frank.

Our mystery shopper report comes to us from a central Ford in Stewart, so you want to stay tuned for that. Also, take advantage of your anonymous feedback.com, and you can call us at 877960-960, or you can text us at 772. 4976530. Now, we're going to go to Stu. All right.

Anne-Marie has a text for us. She says, good morning. I hope everyone is well and having a safe and happy holiday season. I've encountered a mystery I'm hoping that Rick can solve. Why do break squeal? Number one reason. We're not done.

We're not done with the question. Oh, okay. I have an idea, too, because I've watched Rick's videos, but I'll let Rick handle it. Why do break squeal? specifically why would a 2013 Ford F-150 have squeaking brakes when you first start out hit the brake then drive off and never hear the brakes squeak or squeal the rest of the drive no matter how many stoplights you may encounter the truck had a break job less than six months ago

do you have any idea what's going on yeah he does amory if you're listening get ready Florida environment it's when you park your car overnight you get a light layer of dew gets on the brake rotors causes just a little bit of corrosion to appear and when you first step on it in the morning the pads are cleaning that corrosion off the first one or two applications of the brakes makes a little bit of an odd noise then it goes away because it's cleaned it away and you won't hear it again until the next morning okay that's a very simple answer very common in florida yeah to a common question what about the squealing that occurs when the the brakes start to wear it down.

Isn't that a design to alert you to? There is. There's a, we actually call it by the technical term, the squealer, and it's simply a little metal tab that is bent over, that protrudes on the brake pad. And when it gets close enough, when the pad surface is worn down, it starts to rub against the rotor and makes a squealing sound to say, hey, these brakes are worn out.

Time for new ones. Okay. And that's when they get to that point. They're at the point where they've got to be changed. Now, we do have one other situation in Florida here that a lot of folks run into is where they live very close to the ocean or very close to the inner coastal, you'll wind up with salt corrosion on the brakes. And I've seen a lot of folks that you could literally determine which side of their car is parked towards the ocean because one side the rotors will be rusted all up and the other side they're relatively clean. and it's because of that salt corrosion. And again, it's nothing that you can really do about it.

But it's not a harmful thing. Except try to keep your car in a garage. Right. And if you park along the water we've seen, one half of the car, get the corrosion treatment and the other side fare a lot better because it's out of the wind. Exactly. Would you recommend rotating your car in the wind so it grows equally? If you can.

Okay. And the other thing is to wash your car frequently. But find a car wash, if you can, that has an under car wash that washes the bottom of the car really well. These are actually very popular up north because of road salt when they salt the roads in the winter. So up north, they'll wash the cars in the wintertime. And that hot water will wash that salt off the underside and helps the suspension last a lot longer in your car. That's very important because I've seen some nasty looking rusty cars up north. Oh, yes.

I'll tell you through the years, Earl and I, you know, just keeping our cars clean because we're so close to the ocean, really slows down the erosion, and it's big time. That's right. The closer to the salt water you are. The ocean is a killer. The worst you have. Here's an interesting question. The Honda recall on their 2023, 2024, HRV, and Accord, did it have anything to do with where it was manufactured?

Do you think they will give deep discounts on their inventory? Well, if there's a defect that gets built into a lot of cars that result in a recall, oftentimes they do come from a specific area or there could be a specific part supplier where the problem is. As far as discounts on inventory for recalls, no, they won't be doing that for that reason. The manufacturer repairs the vehicles in inventory. Sometimes they have a stop sale, which you can't, basically, around the cars. They have to fix them all. Cars come out like a brand new car. Follow-up question says the same thing applied to the Toyota Recall on the 2023 Corolla Cross for the defect

on airbag deployment. Will discounts be given on those your models? And the answer to that is no, not for that reason, because they will be repaired and ready to sell once the recall is complete. Okay, we're going to go back to the phones and we're going to talk to Margaret from Deerfield Beach. Good morning, Margaret. Thank you for holding. Hey, Margaret. You're there? Yes, I'm here. Thank you. Good morning.

It's a lovely name. Good morning. I have a question. I have a Hyundai Alonja of 2008, and my, on the light lit up where it says transmission. So I have to bring it in to be checked. What do you think the problem could be? It could be so many different things. Unfortunately, the car is trying to communicate to you that it does have a problem, but the only way it can do that is by turning on that light. What will happen is you go to the technician, they'll plug in a scan tool, find out what the trouble code is, and from there they'll be able to diagnose the car. Most likely it's going to be just a solenoil,

or one of the actuators in the what's called the valve body of the transmission, probably a solenoid. They're electronic and they do wear out with age. So that's most likely the cause is one of them is starting to get weak. It's not operating properly. And so the car is giving you the light to say, hey, need to go in and get this repaired. So do you think that would be a big expense? Depending on what it is, it can be anywhere for.

from $3 to $500 to $1,500 to $2,000 if there's a real problem in the transmission. Without knowing for sure what it is, there's no way to accurately predict it right now. Oh, okay. I can understand that. Do you have a regular place that you take your... Yeah, I take it to the King Hyundai in Deerfield Beach, federal. Remember, you've got an older car, and when you look at pricing, you don't want to be spending too big a percentage of the value of your car. Your car today is worth

maybe $3,000 or $4,000. So you don't want to be spending $2,000. You don't replace the transmission on that time. You're right. You're right. Yes. Okay. I appreciate that. Thanks for calling, Margaret. I've called before and I listen every morning. I enjoy it. We appreciate that very much. Thanks. My older daughter, the name is Margaret. Have a great weekend. Happy holidays. Our number here is 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-49-6-5-30.

Your anonymous feedback is something you can take advantage of, your anonymous feedback.com. Let's go to Howard, who is a regular caller. Good morning, Howard. Good morning. Merry Christmas, you all. Merry Christmas. And just talking about airbags, questions. Number one, if you have a car

older than 10 years, usually is your airbag compromise? In other words, should you have a change or should you get rid of the car? No. There was a concern

basically only with the Takata airbags. That's where we had the biggest issue. And those airbags were not manufactured the way they should have been. But the rest of all the modern airbags, they have no problem, and I honestly am not aware of anyone anywhere having had an issue with an airbag that is deteriorated because of age.

So I would say... Okay, let me just jump in there, Rick. This is where I would disagree. And we've talked about this on the show in years past, and there is no expiration date on airbag, but there should be, and because they're made out of materials and electronic and things deteriorate. And so, just like tires, you know, it's a, there's nothing you can build but when it's directly related to your safety.

But the answer is probably there's nothing wrong with your airbag because it's an older airbag. But the fact is somebody out there should be looking at that and doing some testing because people are keeping their cars longer and longer now. So I can't believe that airbags are immortal and that at some point in time an airbag is going to have a problem. And because your life depends on it, there should be an expiration date on your airbag.

There is on my cereal. Well, the only difficult part there, some cars have, like I think one of the last years of Avalon's, had as many as 12 or 15 different airbags and at a cost of almost $1,000 each to replace all those on a 10 or 12-year-old car or 15-year-old car. Better than dying.

You'd be better to get rid of the car at that point. Well, yeah, but somebody's going to be a buyer of the car. Yeah. I'm speaking about our legislators. I'm talking about our government and the NHTSA and the people that are supposed to be protecting us, us car drivers. So if you can't talk to a rational human being and saying, will an airbag last forever? No, it won't. We know that.

How long will last? Well, we don't know. Well, you should know because you're the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, and there should be a rule on that, and there is no rules. So that's my point. I agree with that. Okay, so let me put my two cents in. If you have a very old card, get rid of it. Don't wait until something happens.

You know, let some other sucker buy it. Well, maybe, or maybe I'll get sold at an auction and get sent to the Bahamas. I'm being positions, but I'm being serious at the same time because that's what people do. If you have a car that's unsafe, what do you do? You get rid of it. Well, you don't get rid of it. You don't take it to the scrapper. You take it to a dealer.

The dealer sells it to somebody else. So that's the reason. That's why we have a government to protect us from ourselves sometimes, and the government dropped the ball here. That was my point. Okay. Next question. Recalls on Mike Hamry.

I heard there's a recall on some Toyotas. 2017 Camry, there were a recall, and I have there been recalls recently on Toyotas. What does your notification say, is it telling you, is it just the heads-up one, or is it telling you to go ahead and get the repair taken care of? No, I don't even know if there's a need to repair. Oh, okay. Well, you can put your fan, if you want to get a jump on it,

because if you're paying attention, they will send you, a letter of notice of the recall. But if you want to get ahead, just put your VIN in safercar.gov and just see if it's, yeah, put that in there. No, when I'm into dealership, I'm going next week. Would they tell me? No, we can't, yeah. If there's any cars in inventory, we get a notification of stop sale. So we heard up all the keys, and then we get them over the service department, and we take care of the prescribed fix.

And every car that comes into our service drive, when we print a repair order on it, we automatically run the VIN number to see if there are any open recalls. Yeah, we do the same with used vehicles, customer vehicles, everything. Every car. Okay, so if I have service in my car, it's checked and I don't have to worry about it. Is that correct? We are checking, yes. As soon as we open up the repair order and we pull it up, our system will identify recalls and we take care of it. Yeah, you'll be notified. But you also get notified, and this is the big problem that we talk about on the show, is letters get sent out, maybe emails get sent out, but most people ignore them or miss them. They don't see it. So there's got to be a multi-prong, multifaceted approach to get everybody to be aware of potentially dangerous recalls.

Not all recalls are horrendous, but some are pretty bad. Let me read you something from Artificial Intelligence Chat, GBT. The estimated life in the auto airbag is typically around 10 to 15 years. However, this can vary depending on the manufacturer, the environment in which the vehicle is used and how all the vehicles maintain. It's important to refer to the vehicle's owner's manual or consult with the manufacturer for specific guidance on airbag lifespan for your particular vehicle model.

So the point is, as far as we know, there is no problem. Well, there's something you read there. We learned a lot about airbags when we are. doing the Takata campaigns. And in states like Florida and areas where it's hotter and more humid that they decayed faster, so that would logically be applied to all airbags. All airbags might have a longer lifespan in a dryer or cooler place. And down here in the hot and humidity, they might degrade a little bit faster.

So that 10 or 15 years might be 12 or 13. Well, when I first got airbags, a car with airbags, I looked at the visor, and it said, check the airbag every 10 years. So in other words, considering that, I figured after 10 years, airbags are not good anymore. Well, it's funny because they can check them, so what they're checking for, technician can look at the connections and contacts and things like that. but what they can't see, like in the case of the takata is what was going on in the case of the propellant. And I think that is the more concerning thing, is how long does that stay stable and useful? Obviously, any part of the airbag, you know, you've got wires and wires are making contact. So you can't, you're not going to stop the explosive device from degrading.

I just check with Toyota, and they have no recommendation on the life of an airbag. So Toyota and the other manufacturers are to blame. and so is the National Highway Traffic Safety Association and, of course, our politicians that make the laws. So, yeah, that's a loophole that nobody seems to care much about as far as reliability of airbags. And just we talk about airbag recalls too all the time, Takata, the biggest of them all. And only one out of four cars are brought back for replacement and repair. So you call the car back and people don't bring it in. And so it should be, there should be some way to force repairs of life-threatening defects.

Right. We thought that it would be neat if police officers, nobody liked this idea. But they could get your plate, run your van from the plate and let you know if you've got a recall, they can pull you over, go get this fixed, like a windshield. You know, they can stop you for a faulty equipment that they can see, but they can't stop you for faulty equipment that they can't see. Exactly. Okay. Great, Howard. Great question, Howard.

It made us think about something. You know, we cover a lot of stuff on the show. We probably covered this 20 years ago. But nothing changes. It's just we still have the same situation. But like I say, if you're worried about your airbag, just trade it in with salt a car or somebody else. Okay, great. Thanks, Howard.

Bye. Thanks, have a great weekend. We're going to go to Jersey, Mike. From West Palm Beach. Good morning, Jersey, Mike. Hi, there. I got two questions for you. The first one is this year, Cadlock I've talked to you about before.

It's a 2016. Right. It's been a disaster from the beginning. I should have never bought it from Napleton, and I was so stupid. I advise your listeners, please, if you're going to buy a car, take it to your own mechanic that you trust, and get it reviewed because I didn't do that, and it just was horrible. It's happened with this car. Now, the question about that car, because I did a lot of repairs to it, thousands of dollars, which I didn't have had to do. In any case, I did put mileage on it, so it didn't fail mechanically from that standpoint. but right now I can't sell it because

I don't think I'm going to be able to sell it for very much because all the interior that's supposed to be leather is fake leather and it's all falling apart it's all just coming off and just flakes up and falls up in big chunks and you can't crazy glue it back together again because it still falls off

so what am I going to do about that if anything if we get a car like that we use a trim shop what's the name of the trim shop we use north palm classic auto trim or son auto trim we we use each of them over the years yeah i think um sun off trim is farther away um there are shops that do leather and interiors they do headliners things like that and that's what was the name that you gave that you had in one's classic auto trim and that's in north palm beach or in rivair i think so right there right near the around the dealership, and then there's S-A-T, which is, you messed me up,

because last week we talked about it. It's, anyway, it's S-A-T as Sam Alpha Tango. Sun Auto Tribus down in Fort Lauderdale. So anyway, there's... Now I don't want to go down here. I can't take that ride. I would just get your Googler out and search for auto-trov near, closer to you. Yeah, well, Rivier Beach is close to.

Yeah, so it's classic auto. Trim would be good. Yeah, classic auto trim and Google that and just describe the situation. Let me get on to the other more important thing. I stopped at a local dealership here along military

trail that's selling used cars and he has so many cars he's parking along the street. I mean, it's just like this is drive time. No, I forget the name. It was something. Anyway, it may come to me, but let me just say this. There was a Jeep there. The top

the line jeep and it was in excellent condition exterior wise and you know i looked around and you know the gentleman here there was already honest with me about it he showed me that he was selling it for twenty five dollars over auction costs he wanted nine thousand nine hundred and ninety and seventy five dollars for the car he said he bought it for twenty five dollars less than that. $25 or $2,500? No, $25. So he's basically

he wanted to get rid of the car. Oh, okay. And I could see the motive about getting out of the car because I think he's getting probably ticketed by the city or something because these cars are just overflowing onto the street.

Yeah, when you have a used car lot, you have to pay attention to how long you have the car is because they keep depreciating. So if you get in trouble on a car, $25 over, That's people sell them for a loss. But then you've got to ask, is that really the price?

Well, first of all, it takes more than $25 to get that Jeep from the auction to the dealership. He told me it on his phone, and he pulled it up on his phone. See what the is. Just say, write it up for me so that all you have to do is write the checkout for that amount. Because when a car dealer, you know how to tell when a car dealer's lying, his lips are moving. And so he told you the price, but he's probably lying to you. Oh, he's typing on his computer. Yeah.

Well, usually I look them in the eye, and if they don't want to look you in the eye, that tells me that they're pretty deceptive, you know? I haven't tried that one in a long time. Well, I'm at worst. It's violent. But anyway, let me go back to the car, okay, the Jeep. I looked at it very carefully, and it was, I mean, just spotless. It had a nice gray tone to it, with a metal flake in it.

It was really, the pot. It was just beautiful. I looked at the engine. I turned it all. I see, you want to go take it for a ride, take it for a ride. I said, no, I don't need to take it for a ride. Not right at this moment. I want to look into it because I want to go to see what Neda

and Kelly's Blue Book wants for that particular vehicle. I wrote down the VIN number on it and all that stuff. So I want to look into it and see just what the real value on that car is. Because if he is, in fact, selling it to me close to auction value, I'd be stupid about the bike because, first of all, I need a car to go up north. I'm from Jersey, and I'm going back up everywhere. There's a dimension that he's not mentioning.

It's like, what I bought it from the auction, the question is when. If you bought it the auction six months ago, so it's a lot more money. He bought it in auction in 73. Hey, Joe Zermake, I have a question for you. Where'd you buy that car? Would I buy it? I think I'm going to buy it. Pardon me?

The only thing is, wait, right there, let me finish it. You advise don't ever buy a car in South Florida, so that's what I really hasn't about, remember? Yeah, but take that with a great. Are you saying never buy a car at Napleton? Yes, absolutely. You've got yourself. Did you say, never buy a car at Napleton? Yes, I said that.

Great commercial for Napleton. Stay away from Napleton. Jersey, Mike, it's great talking to you. We've got a bunch of calls lined up here. Thank you very much for your info. Appreciate it. Keep up the good work, folks. Thank you.

Have a great weekend. We're going to go to Marty in West Palm Beach. Good morning, Marty. Hey, Marty. Hey, how you doing? Good. How are you? Hey, Marty.

Hey, I got a question on the two or three days ago, notice from Toyota. This was just in the, you know, on TV, it said the 2020's in 2020, Avalon, Camry, Carolla, and RAF4, and some Lexus ones, that the airbag sensor might be defective and they might have to recall it. Yes. So my question for Rick is, how do you know, I mean, do you just look at it or do you have to smash the car into a wall to see if it's the fact of them? Well, we ask you to do that for us, and then you report to us what happened. Well, no, actually. They know if it's effective. They know which vins.

Each vign that's affected, we're notified of for any in-stock and any that's already been sold. The owners are notified, and hopefully they get the notification in response. to it. In other words, you're going to know which one. We get a list of vins. I'm looking at several of these. Every time we get these, it comes from a from a QC, do not reply, safety recall.

And then we'll have an attached file with any vins that we have in stock with it. And immediately, when we get this, those keys are corralled. We had another caller on this. And we get them to the service department and they're fixed. We can't sell them.

They have a stock. Most people that have those problems don't ever come in. Right. And they're just so, every recall, three out of four of the cars that are recalled are still in the road. So if I put my VIN in that website. Safercar.gov. Yeah. What's the name of it again?

Safercar.com. Okay. So if I put my VIN in there, if it comes up, there's nothing wrong, then just forget about it. Exactly. For now. because the situation could change. Yeah, there's only about 700,000 cars nationwide involved in that. Yeah, they said 1.1 million.

Yeah. But it includes the Lexus ones. Right. Yeah. If you've been paying attention to the news lately, there's not a day goes by when there's not a few million more cars recalled. So it's getting to be a circus. And the joke is on us because,

They know how to recall a car, but they don't know how to get the car back in. It's like, oh, the old Jerry Feinfeld, you know, you can take the reservation. You just don't know how to hold the reservation. They don't know how to fix the cars. They can recall them, but they can't fix them. The dealers don't do a good job of getting their customers back in, and the customers don't do a job of getting themselves back in. And, of course, a lot of times you're driving a car that's changed hands three times or four times, and you never get to notice that the car has been recalled.

So the whole recall thing is kind of a joke. Good point. And I got one other quick question to ask you. I was driving my grandson's RA4 hybrid, and I noticed, like, if you take your foot off the accelerator, the brake doesn't work like it does in a Tesla where the Tesla really stops you. Right. So is that brake really working?

Yes. You still have regenerative braking, but it's just, in the case of the Toyota hybrids, it's designed just to recapture some of that fuel that's, I'm sorry, the energy that's dissipated in heat. It's not designed to really stop the car. But it does have a braking effect, and that's why we see in hybrids,

brake pads just don't go down because the engine braking plays a big role. and slowing the car down. But it's not like a Tesla where you take it off and you stop, you know, it's not as dramatic. Well, my new car is supposed to be in next week, so I'll have to try it out. All right, yeah.

And if you want to try out the airbag thing, just look for a very solid concrete wall, Rick. Maybe my trade-in, I'll bring in to you and see if the thing, if the sensors work. Okay. There you go. Hey, Marty, it's always great talking to you. Thanks for being part of the show.

Thanks, Marty. Have a great weekend. We're going to go to our last caller, and that is John and Stewart. Good morning, John. Good morning. I have a question. So I live in Stewart, and this Wallace guy has, like, I know, five or six dealerships, and every one of them is just packed full of cars on the front,

and behind the Honda places. It's just like they've got a big field. They've got two fields, actually. So all along the side of one road and then down commerce, they're packed. So, I mean, what's going to, what is real thing going to happen with this stuff? I mean, I just tuned in, so I don't know if you already talked about it, but all these dealerships have all these cars. Something's got to give.

I mean, you guys talk about that footprint thing, and they're paying on those cars. So you see something happen like in the spring if they don't start selling more or what? Well, are you referring to, what was it? Wallace up in Stewart having a huge inventory. Yeah, I think that what we have been talked about is the inventories in general are going up. And yes, they are paying interest on those cars. It's higher than it's been in many years. And it's not a good thing.

So their car dealers' days of wine and roses are coming to an end. uh two thousand twenty two record profit year two thousand twenty three the profits are down in the third quarter for the first time i've ever seen profits down for the auto business and what you're seeing is the beginning of a trend back to what we call the the normal condition so all i can tell you is uh two thousand twenty four is going to be a real real tough trial for a lot for the consumer, for the manufacturer, and the car dealers, because things are going crazy. When we have a 60 or 90-day supply of cars

and they're having to pay 10% interest to finance those cars, car dealers are really going to be hurt badly. And it'll be good for the consumer because they're going to have to sell those cars that they used to hang on to and hose you for and take advantage of you. So it's good for the consumers in 2024. That's why I thought.

I'm waiting until something that comes down. Let me just ask you one more quick question. So if I came to your dealership and I looked over your used cars and I saw one that I like and because I'm kind of leery about cars that I bought in the past that I had to fix like put thousands of dollars that I'm after I bought those different things, if I said, okay, I'll pay you the exact sticker price that you're asking, but I need an extended warranty. Would you, would you sell that car? I, or you wouldn't bring it down any?

No. Or would you give me the warranty? No, that would be the same as a discount. Would it be? Okay. Yeah. Are those usually like $500 or more? It depends on the, it depends on the term.

But like, do some research on that. We don't typically recommend those. It's more of a comfort thing for the customer. Your best bet is, you know, like you're doing, doing your research and making sure you're getting a good car and getting it from a trustworthy source. And if you're getting a late model car with, especially if you get some with some existing factory warranty, just think about that hard, and it's not always the best bet. We try to add our dealership, make sure that the warranties that we have, that the coverage

is good, and we do set our prices because we own the warranty company, and that's all registered with the state of Florida, so that's all a one-priced thing. But we just encourage everybody to do their research and make decisions based on that and not what we're trying to sell. Okay, so then if you guys do it, so if I got a three-year warranty that would cover it, would that be like a certified used car, or what would that be? A certified use car is going to have whatever remainder of the factory warranty, plus it comes from Toyota, and it's a nice hefty power train warranty,

which probably will not ever be used because the... Yeah, well. But, and then there's a discounted, extended warranty that covers, it mirrors the comprehensive warranty of the manufacturer, and it brings up. Those are cheaper than your typical warranty for a non-certified car because it's sold directly by the, through the manufacturer, and they have a, it's not a dealer program.

Okay, so $1,000? you're probably just short of that I think the wrap was back when I was selling on Trackley was around 800 and I think it's a little bit more but still not quite a thousand Okay all right thanks so much guys Have a great day. Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, thanks Thank you. Merry Christmas John Okay, I think that we're going to go to Stu See what we got over here? Check with Rick Yeah, I got a couple I answered the airbag recall question here's a question from Lee

which tire pressure reading is the most accurate the one in my 2020 Avalon or the one the tire store uses to inflate the tires so in other words the reading he's getting on his display I don't know whether you want comfort or a tire life well if he's asking for your accuracy the reading on the screen

is going to be pretty accurate those sensors are they're pretty good Well, that would be a good thing just to keep the guy at the tire store honest. Go there, tell me what my pressure is, then look at your multi-information display, and if he matches, you know, he's telling you the truth. Lots of manufacturers, I was thinking in terms of the tire manufacturer versus the auto manufacturer. What the fellas actually seems to be asking is how accurate are the sensors when you, you know, when you set your tire pressures and you have the display on the screen. they're pretty accurate. Is that accurate versus, say, the, a typical pencil gauge?

And I have found that most, pretty much any manufacturer now, those sensors are within one PSI of being dead accurate as compared to a pencil gauge. But, I mean, none of them are an actual 100% scientifically calibrated for perfection. Yeah, but if you're driving around, if your car says you have 38 PSI, all four tires and the guy comes in and goes, hey, I need to change this tire. It's low in air. You know he's lying to you.

They should be smart enough to know that if they're reading right, then you're okay. Here's a simple question from Nile Ramirez, I think, as I'm getting better with mechanics. Good morning, all. I have a 2010 Prius that just recently starts drifting off to the right while going straight. I have to hold the wheel.

What could cause the problem? They're tire. 99 times out of 100. Or maybe if they're on the crown of the road or left side or right side of you. It can be road crowned, but otherwise, if you're on a relatively flat road and your car normally runs straight and smooth on that road, but now it's starting to drift a little bit, check your tire pressures, and it could also be that the tire has worn just enough

that has changed the rolling resistance of that tire, and at your next tire rotation, just ask them to cross the front tires as they go to the back or whichever, so that they go to the opposite side of the car and that usually will correct it and it doesn't cost you anything extra the techs are usually have no problem with that so it'll cost you the same prices of normal tire rotation and it's basically doing the same job as an alignment there you go save you about 150 bucks there you go lee um here's one i think you might have seen this in anonymous feedback um it wasn't funny sorry whoever it was but i think it's one of the anti-electric um people. It says a severe storm Thursday in Maine cut power, forcing the cancellation of the vote to force people to move to electric vehicles.

It was an attempt at literary irony. Well, there's a lot of political, you know, the irrational passion that sometimes comes out is from a political position. So they take a actual position like electric vehicles or, you know, or all the other issues and, and, translate it back into who they want to vote for. So, yeah, it's, electric vehicles are inevitable. It's going to happen probably later than, rather than sooner. But in 20 years, everybody's going to be buying electric vehicles. Yeah.

And then I'm not going to read all these, but there was, it's interesting. We had two anonymous feedbacks about Lance in Tennessee. One was somebody who's not a fan, and then somebody who was definitely a fan, was very concerned about Lance because the tornadoes, they hit Tennessee. Tennessee last week. And he's okay. He caught in and sang for us this morning. Well, I said, that shows you. That's it. It speaks to Lance because if you have nothing but friends or nothing in enemies, I'm suspicious. But anybody that is worth their assault, I say, is going to offend some people and have friends that are other people. If you please everybody,

you're trying to be a politician. Lance is not a politician. Exactly. Right. Lance sings in a genre of music that makes him. and all of us happy. And if you don't like it, that says it's too bad. I'm all caught up over here with messages. Rick, you haven't had too much over there today? We've got some interesting ones here. First off, I'm going to go right with Donovan.

He says, I was in New York City this week and took a few Uber rides. I was in a RAV-4 hybrid that had just under 300,000 miles with the original HV battery in it. What? Impressive. He says another ride was in a Tesla Model X with 225,000 miles

also on the original EV battery. Far too many people still think EV batteries do not last long, but the proof is out there that they really can. They think of them like their phones. You get your phone and the battery life works good and then

pretty soon it gets worse and worse. Well, and it may also be a matter of maintenance and the constant charging and recharging of the batteries if it's done in a manner where you know most people they say if you let your battery run mostly way down then recharge it you'll find that that's going to give you the best option all the way around yeah wow 300,000 miles yeah here let me make a point here just to interrupt Rick for a second on we we talk a lot about recalls and I jumped on everybody about the fact that only one out of four or maybe one out of three cars ever gets in to get fixed. Here's something good to say about electric vehicles

and something good to say about 21st century technology. More and more vehicles can be repaired now via Wi-Fi by Internet software recalls. My Tesla was just recalled again. This one was for the autonomous issue, well, I don't have to go to the Tesla dealer, I mean, to the Tesla manufacturer who is a dealer, and get fixed, because I'm like everybody else. I don't like to have to have my car in the shop. I'd rather drive it, so that's the reason recalls will get fixed. But while my Tesla is parked in my garage at night, they're going to fix it. The recall will happen, it'll be fixed.

So a good thing about high technology and especially electric vehicles is, mostly problems are software related, and they can all be fixed by Wi-Fi. You don't have to go see the dealer. So instead of one out of four cars being fixed, you'll have maybe three or four out of four cars fixed. Rick? And we are down on YouTube right now. That's really interesting, I think.

When things are over-the-air updates, I mean, I would think you would have 100% at recall. Yeah, yeah. Then the only things you have to work, other kind of recalls are like just mechanical things, like the wheel might fall off. Or your Wi-Fi is working too well. Right. Well, I'm saying they can do that. Oh, yeah, if your Wi-Fi is not working, you can't do it.

Yeah. They can't fix the wheel that falls off, though, over the air. All right. When are we going to the Mystery Shopping Report? Oh, we know, we have a dog, don't we? We do. That's right. What's our dog's name again?

Dream. Dream. Dream. That's right. And from what I saw of the picture, that's one big dream. That's a big dog. I'm accessing this picture right now. Oh my gosh

Marmaduke Is it Marmaduke I don't know I can't see the picture Get the page right over there Earl There he is Oh yeah Yeah right on

Can't tell his size Although he's got a big head Yeah You can talk about the proportions right there Yeah Back up Huh We're back up on the air

Okay Oh where we were off there Oh I didn't know we were off there That was some of the greatest radio That we ever produced in the studio And you're telling me nobody heard that oh my god they heard rick sing and me in perfect harmony ero was beatboxing and that was off the air oh my goodness all right nancy's back are we

going to do a dog yes we are we're going to do the dogs thank you for waiting no that's okay we kept the show going to um show a video of dream this morning and a dream is two months old and she's a female. She's 72 pounds. Oh, she is a big gorgie. And let me read a little bit about Dream. A dream story is a poignant reminder of the resilience of the canine spirit. Hailing from Tennessee, the sweet girl endured the heartbreak of abandonment by her previous owners,

leaving her in a state of confusion and sadness. Let's take a look at the video, Jonathan, and... Oh, before we go to the video, let me remind everyone that we do pay the adoption fee. And it makes a big difference. The fee could be anywhere from $200 to $100, and it just depends on how long the dogs have been at the ranch. Okay, let's take a look at a video. Hi, this is Dream. Dream has been with us for over 450 days.

Dream's a real sweetheart. She loves going on walks. She probably would get along with older children and only because of her size. Big girl. She is very lovable. She right now knows the basic command sit, but we just started working on that,

so she's probably very easily trainable. She was very treat-motivated. And this girl deserves a home. She's been here, like I said, for over 40-50 days, and she would make a great addition to any family. She does have some storm anxiety, so somebody that would be home with her would be best. She does seem to get along with other dogs.

She just wants to find a couch of her own. As we just discovered, she really likes couches and don't want it to make herself at home. So please think about coming in to meet with her. We are open seven days a week from 10 to 5, and this girl would love nothing more than a family of her own for the holidays. Hope to meet you. So does she. Well, that was Sue. Thank you, Sue, from Big Dog Ranch Rescue.

you that makes me so sad the idea i can't even conceive of like someone abandoning their their dog and and then the effect it has on her because she's you know obviously got some anxiety uh we're watching the video uh you guys listening who can't see the video it's a pretty big dog it's like a mix i don't know what's in that thing 75 pounds 75 pounds and uh she's only 72 that's very important for a female whether she's 75 i'm sorry so she's 69 pounds 69 pounds and uh and she just looks just sweet just like a little kind of move a little slow little cautious and um they said she's probably not going to be do good in a um like a multi dog house but a family and it's quiet and i think she's going to do great beautiful dog absolutely

and she does she'll do real well in a home environment and a big backyard also you can go to a big dog ranch rescue dot org you can take a little at Dream and so many other animals that they have for adoption, including cats. So go to big dog ranch rescue.org. We are going to go to our... Before we go to that, I just want to say one thing about Big Dog Ranch Rescue. We're talking about Dream here, and the dogs being abandoned and found by the side of the road and other terrible situations.

One great thing about Big Dog Ranch Rescue is they do. have an adoption fee. Part of that is to, of course, support and provide for Big Dog Ranch to grow larger and be able to save more dogs. But part of that is also to show responsibility on part of the foster parents or the permanent parents that adopt the dogs. And you actually are screened if you adopt a dog at Big Dog Ranch Rescue. They check to see who you are, where you are and they try to get an idea whether you will take care of the dog and not leave the dog out on the street because you got tired of it oftentimes people will go into a rescue place a public rescue place pick up a dog and in a month later two months later they decide

they don't want the dog so they leave the dog by the side of the road there's big dog ranch rescue prevents that by you if you're not a serious adopting parent don't go to big dog grants rescue because they don't want to be sure that this is a proper home, Rick. I remember signing an affidavit there that if it didn't work out with Harley Quinn, I would not take her anywhere else. They want them back. But only back to big dog. They're very serious about it.

And it is a serious thing, especially I'm not taking shots at younger people, but younger people. Often don't know what's involved when they get into pet ownership or parent-parenthood. and they get the dog and it's too much and um well and some places that you go my mother-in-law went to the animal care and control and they tried to give her a dog that was just super hyper and insane

for an elderly lady right that's set up for disaster you gotta match the dog to the person probably sometimes yeah absolutely so a big dog wrench they're they're pretty serious out there very serious they're going to do a background check and uh so many other things to ensure that the dog that you're interested in adopting gets a good home.

And as I often mention every week, it is a no-kill shelter, the only one in the United States. We are going to go to our mystery shopping report, and our mystery shopping report is from Central Ford in Stewart. and, as usual, Agent Lightning. Didn't it used to be advantage? Yeah, I didn't know who Essential Ford was, but apparently recently changed hands. It was advantage for many years. Thank you, Agent Lightning.

You did another great job. Okay, I'm speaking in the first person. As I read Stu's report, he took the information from Agent Lightning and put it into this format, which is particularly good. and I'll speak as if I were Agent Lightning. I arrived late afternoon,

made it all the way into the showroom before a salesman greeted me. He seemed to be in a bit of a hurry and asked if you've been helped yet. I replied, no. He asked me to follow him over to his desk, and he'd be with me in just a moment. As promised, he returned less than two minutes later

and asked, what are you looking to do today? I said I was looking online, trying to see what vehicles I have the best deals and incentives and was hoping to surprise my son with a new vehicle for Christmas. He introduced himself as Scott mentioned that he just leased a new explorer

for himself because of the deals they had. I asked, are the finance deals just as good because I'm not interested in leasing? They are, in my opinion, the explorer deals are the best right now. Scott suggested we go outside, look at the different models, to see which one I like the best.

After going over all of them, I decide on a new 2003 Explorer XLT in red. Of course, that's a one-year-old car, and remember that, folks. Time flies. And a week, it's going to be. We're in calendar year 223 now, but the 223 Explorer was out.

Right now it's zero years old, and one week it'll be a year. The MSRP was $44,280, which would indicate that it was on the window, which is unusual. There was no addendum. That's good news that I could see. I casually searched for the same vehicle on Essential Ford's website and saw they were offering it for sale for $41,488.

Hmm. That sure sounds good, doesn't it? Salesman offered for me to take it on a spin, so we went on a short test drive. When we returned, I let them know I was very interested in, his special pricing, which he mentioned earlier. So we went back inside. Scott gathered some information and headed off to speak with the sales manager.

The games began, you know, the back and forth, the way of buying a car we've been doing for 100 years now. A few minutes later, he returned with a sales worksheet. His top line market value selling price was MSRP, $44,280. He added etch for $199. That's a glass edge. They put on there, too, as a theft deterrent. Resist all for $399.

That sounds like a paid protection. $1,595 for an essential package. Only God knows what that is. It was essential. And an $899 dock fee. These are all junk fees, folks. The real price, the real price, maybe, was $4.4.5. was $47,372, $3,092 over MSRP.

I frown and said, I thought you said he had some great deals going on. He only said he did, but he also said he just bought one because of the great deals himself. So does he speak with fork and tongue? I don't know, maybe. Or maybe he just paid too much. You know, car dealers do host their employees also.

I mean, it's not unusual. for car sales people to have to pay the junk fees along with everybody else. He replied, said, I'd love to earn your business today. I'll go talk to my sales manager again. So round two of the games. I expressed by concern. Well, I thought we'd be much better off with the price. This is MSRP plus.

So she thought she was going to get, I thought I was going to get the MSRP, but it's going to be plus plus plus. plus plus what happened to your online pricing I pulled it up on my phone showed him the essential pricing I also pointed out it's a 2023 and as a customer I'd expect some sort of discount as I said earlier this is a year old car excuse himself and went to speak with Jason the manager and he returned with a new sheet okay got a lot of sheets back here folks as long as you can last they got sheets you want to play the game, you can be there all day. And some people do. This one started off with a $2,792 discount

from an MSRP, but all the add-ons were still there. This proposal made it out a real price of $44,980, which was still $700 over MSRP. That was a pretty good drop, though. I said, well, this is a better price of the first one. I still don't think it's going to work. There are too many additional fees for things I don't even want or need. He sure'd be, this is the breast price that can do an order for him to get paid. The dealership would get paid, fill up with gas, and have the car detailed. I mean, that's ludicrous. Even I had to pay the add-ons and crap, he said, as well.

Wow, he acknowledged it was crap. That's good. As I say that, I think about the FTC ruling in July and, That is certainly the promised land. Everything that just happened here would be illegal by the Federal Trade Commission Act, which is going into effect in July of 2024. To remember that, folks, when you're talking to your representatives in Congress. I thanked him but said, I was hoping for better out-the-door price,

especially with it being a 2003. Of course, that's the way you should feel. got understood shook my hand said let me know if you change your mind he made no attempt to turn me over to a manager that's he probably got scolded for that you will if they're listening today yeah i couldn't resist asking about the almost uh 2019 4 gt i don't know why it says almost almost that about the 2019 4 gt that's a real hot rod looking car uh and they're asking I thought this was a misprint, but I guess not a million, $99,988, interesting amount. Well, they still use the $988 like they do with their regular pricing.

This must be like a collector or something. I don't know. I don't know. If you look online, there's several of them listed online right now for that much. Or about that price. Wow. They're a supercar. To concentrate, they actually had it sold, but they're,

guy who was buying it and wanted a warranty. Not true. File that under things that never happened. Let me tell you, if I sold a car for over a million dollars, I don't think, I think I'd take care of it for you. Not only that, the guy doesn't want, the warranty. The guy doesn't want a warranty. If you buy a car for a million dollars, you're not buying

warranties. So, anyway, that's a, I don't want to prejudice the voting on this, but that's a classic, let me use the word classic auto shop for 2020. hopefully things will change next year. You vote, please vote on that on the curve,

knowing there's no A's out there unless there are one out of a million, and we don't flunk people too easily either. We kind of steer toward the middle of the spectrum, so if it's an average car dealer, which is not a compliment, by the way, but if it's an average car dealer, you give them a C. So please vote, and you can vote us,

you can do your votes at 7-72, 4976530 or rolls rolling cars for us slash I'm sorry Facebook.com for slash rolling cars or YouTube.com for us slash rolling cars your votes will be counted and we'll announce them on the air

here they come we have from Roadrunner beep beep a C for sweetie he says have a safe and happy holiday beep beep oh thanks roadrunner from Jonathan in Palm Coast. Merry Christmas. To all the wonderful people at Earl Stewart, Toyota,

while they're all in cars. Too many sheets, too many add-ons, all the crap. Will this dealership? Well, this dealership gets a C, which is, like we said, is not a compliment. Bob gives them a C for classic crap from Essential. And I'm in their neighborhood. I'm leaning towards the C, but I'm going for a C-minus.

I don't like the justifications with, That's how I get paid. That's how we keep the lights on. And they had add-ons without an addendum. So that was a surprise at the desk. Agent Lightning should have been the afforded the opportunity to turn around, get in her car, and leave if she saw an addendum on the lot. Instead, she was lured in.

But she can't do that because she's a mystery shopper. But, you know, a regular customer should be able to see an addendum and see it as a warning and leave. I've got Joseph Keller, D-Minus grading on the curve. Mark Anderson, grade C minus. Probably could keep working for a lower price. Just make sure you're not hungry when you get there. Pardon me. Tom Steggle, D minus.

The Grinch that stole money. They're running out of the clock for the next seven months. That's Rick doing his Grinch impersonation. The salesman didn't tell her that he bought his explorer at Mullinax. But there's no fees at Mono. And Johnny Z. Fradley, ho, ho, ho, oh no. No deal for me. C-minus for coal in this dealer's stocking. Oh, gosh. Brian said Latko, I'll give Ford an essential F.

Very good. Guy Letter B, I'm a consistent. I hate junk fees. Again, a big fat F. Okay. Tim Gilliland, essential package. Please tell me it has nitrogen. C-minus. Probably. I'm on his side. I like the C minus. Mark Smith, I give him a D. Mark Ryan, F. And that's not for Felice Navidad. T-cash, F for Ford, fraud.

Why don't we just average all the YouTube grades, and that will be the official? I think there's enough data there to come up with a real thing. For me, D. D? Okay. I feel like giving tougher grades out about it. out with this CARS legislation combating auto retail scams that we're talking about. I mean, we're pretty close. July is almost here, July 24.

And so a couple weeks ago, I probably said a C. I'm going to do a C minus, I even considering a D, but I'll say a C minus would be my score. Mrs. Ms. Nancy is addressed appropriately for the. the role of Grader right now. Thank you, Stu. By the way, that's really cool, by the way. Folks, I'll tell you what, as everyone knows,

there's a lot of money to be made in the auto industry. I'm sure everyone will agree. But the junk fees, all the fees, I'm a little surprised there's not a nitrogen fee thrown in here. But what was more disgusting is the fact, fact that quote unquote, even I had to pay for the add-ons and crap as well. And for that, they deserve an F. That's very true because we, at our dealership, we sell cars to other salespeople from other dealerships because the other dealerships charge their own employees,

salespeople, the junk fees. So they buy a car from us because we will give them the car at our out-the-door price without the junk fees. He could have been lying about that. He could have been lying about it. Yeah, it could be. They might have a great employee.

So, you know, we haven't got any time, but one thing I did want to talk about quickly was I think maybe the theme of the show as we go forth into 2024 should be to call out politicians and find out whose side you're on. Do you support the cars, the combating

auto retail scam, FTC, rules or not? And we'll start taking the legislating people from each state. We'll keep a record, maybe put it on our website and keep counts. So you folks listening, we'll be talking to you as we approached July 24 to who you're, uh, you're, uh, representatives in Congress are supporting. Are they going with the Federal Trade Commission, or are you going with National Automobile Dealers Association? Our website will come up with something on that. Yeah.

We could send a, like they do to candidates, just a position letter, questionnaire. Exactly. Great idea. Okay, folks. Well, Rick, did you have something real quick? No, we're caught up and good. Okay, great.

Folks, thanks for joining us. as you do every week. We'll be right back here next week at 8 a.m. Have a wonderful weekend, and happy holidays to everyone.