Earl Stewart on Cars - 12.31.2022 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Southern 441 Nissan

Episode Date: December 31, 2022

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits a local Nissan dealer to see what they have on the lot and how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2023 Nissan Rogue SUV Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, his tweets at www.twitter.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. Sign up to become one of Earl's Vigilantes and help others in your community to avoid getting ripped off by a car dealer. Go to www.earlsvigilantes.com for more information. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

Welcome to Earl Stewart on Cars. So here we are on the last show of a two thousand. 2022. And New Year's Eve. Boy, we've been on the air for a long time. We've got some folks out there listening to us that's been with us for decades, literally, almost two decades anyway. We started out many years ago for a half an hour. And we've expanded through a new owner of a radio station. Now we're two hours. And we recently expanded into South Florida. I'm reaching down to Broward County and even Dade. We're streaming, we're streaming on YouTube. Erl on Cars is YouTube.com forward slash earl on cars. We're also on Facebook, facebook.com forward slash rolling cars. So we're all over the world.

We focused basically in the Florida area. We do a lot of mystery shopping reports that a lot of folks have never heard before, never seen. We do something very unusual. We visit a car dealership unannounced with an undercover agent who goes in to pretend to buy a car. And what you read about or what you hear is really quite startling. We find out and we confirm that car dealers just haven't joined the 21st century. And that we'll be talking in the 2003. They're still just about the same.

We're saying gradual progress. And we take a little bit of credit. We'd like to think we're somewhat responsible for the turning over of the new leaf very slowly by car dealers. We're getting more and more dealers coming into conformance on disclosure, but we're still the majority are not doing it right. By the way, if you want to check to see a car dealership that is doing it right, you can go to earluncars.com, and we have the good dealer, bad dealer list. It's something we compile from actual data.

We don't just guess. We hear you vote every week on our mystery shopping report, and then we vote, and we put the passing grades on a recommended dealer list. And we have the better dealers with A's, very, very few. And we have the very bad dealers. Fortunately, there's very few of those, too. Very bad. A lot of bad ones, but the very bad. are minimal and they're on the do not buy list if you if you get an F if you fail

we won't recommend you about on the list we're there I recommend by the way if you're thinking about buying any car stay away from the do not buy list because these these car dealers really really did a bad job the ones that are on the recommended list we score from A to D and if you can get an A take an A not a D but they're still on the recommended list we're great on the curve because because car dealers are just lagging in the way they do their job. And therefore, if we did a straight ABCD and if you made a mistake, then we would fail you, you wouldn't have any place to buy a car.

So the purpose of the show is to enable you to be able to buy that newer used car. And in the United States, if you want to buy a car, you've got to buy it from a dealer. You can't buy it from the manufacturer except for Tesla. That's the one exception. So here we are, I'm out ready to head into 2023, looking forward to a great show closing out 2022, and great shows come from you, our listening audience, not from us. And we humbly accept the fact that your ideas are what make the show. We've got some amazing callers out there that call regularly, and we have some amazing new folks

that call. We particularly are looking for lady callers, females. And Nancy Stewart, who is sitting to my left here in the studio, she's the champion of you ladies out there, and she has brought you together. You've always been there for us,

but you haven't been verbal, you haven't called the show. And Nancy Stewart has been able to rally the female troops so that we're now at parity, 50-50, about half her callers, texters, YouTubers, posters, our ladies, and we appreciate your input.

You have a unique spin and view of life, and males have a unique view and spend. You put them together, and that's what brings the world together, and that's what brings the economy together and the entire car industry, retail and wholesale. To reach the show, we have a old-fashioned telephone. I don't mean, you know, the kind you see in the pictures, you know, on the wall or you put your receiver up to your ear with your hand. That's not what I'm talking about. People don't use the phone much anymore. They text and they post, you know, social media.

This, the past 20, 30 years has really turned everybody into, you know, the chat rooms and all the modern way of communication. But there's something about a phone call. There's something about the, you feel the person's pain, you feel the person's happiness through their voice. And our telephone number, I'd love for you to write this down, 877-960-99-60. That's 877-960-99-60. You don't, maybe I have a question right now. You might have a thought, maybe the material. later on the show.

And when you do decide, have the number handy. 877-960-99-60. Now, Nancy Stewart, he's got a laptop, and when the phone calls come in, the producer will shoot the call up with the name and the location of the caller. And we prioritize that. So if I'm speaking, a Rick Kearney,

who is our certified diagnostic master technician, answer anything about cars, mechanically, electronically. If you have a call for any of us, we will take that call. We have five lines coming in. We don't want you have to wait a long time. Sometimes you do.

We try not to have that happen. So Nancy will wave at me or punch me in the arm or say something. We will get to your calls, ASAP. So we want you to call, but we know some people, a little bit timid, you know. Some people don't want to be on the radio,

We probably have 20, 30,000 people listening to us or watching us, maybe more. So if you'd like to text us, we have a text number. That text number is 772-4976530. Text number, 772-4976530. And that way, if we miss your text right away, we will gather them. and before the end of the show we'll get to him. Normally, Stu Stewart, my son, he's out ill.

He has some issues with his back that he's getting fixed. And when he gets fixed, he'll be back in that chair right across from me. But right now, Rick Kearney is doing double duty, or triple duty,

because he's watching the YouTube, he's watching the Facebook, and he's watching the text. So he's got his hands full, plus he's a mechanical genius on cars. So if you have a question about why our car's not running right. Instead of going into a car dealership

and getting hosed and taking advantage of and overcharged, you might have nothing that you can fix yourself or he can tell you how to fix it or he can tell you, hey, maybe don't worry about it. So just call in 877960-9960 and ask her Rick and he'll answer your questions for you. Now, I'm going to turn the mic over to Nancy Stewart, my co-vost.

She founded this show with me many, many years ago and she's been with me ever since and she has a very special unbelievable. You know, if it's too good to be true, it's not true, here we have something that's too good to be true that is true. She has an offer

for you lady listeners and also a very, very special one for our new audience that we just started a couple weeks ago. We've opened up the true oldie stations in South Florida in Dave and Broward and we're in Delray,

Boyne, Pompano, Port Lauderdale, all the way down to Miami. So if you're down there, she has a special super offer for you, Lady Listeners. Nancy, the mic is all yours. Well, good morning, recovering car dealer. Thank you. I have an offer for you. Okay. Would you like to hear it?

I love. I would like to move over beside you or come over and sit in your lap. Do you know why? Why? You have a beautiful backdrop behind your chair. oh i'm jealous i can't see it jonathan all of our viewers can see that right jonathan's responsible for that that is spectacular

okay enough of this teasing good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to our last show in 2022 i have to say first and foremost you definitely have motivated us for sure you've inspired us I could go on with the adjectives, but you get my point, and we have a bit of a restriction here with time. So a big thank you to everyone, and looking forward to 2023 with all of you. And, of course, the platform here, I work amongst some great people, great men, I should say, and they all add to the show. They know who they are.

and a big hello to Stu and wishing him a speedy recovery. Now, the offer that Earl was speaking of earlier is we've expanded our viewing audience, and it's just been amazing the number of counties that we're reaching now, which is Broward Martin, St. Lucy, Glaise, Hendry, Indian. River, Okachobe. So this morning again, we're going to continue from last week, and we're going to offer the ladies, the first two new lady callers from Broward, from Broward. $100 give us a call toll free at 877-960-99-60. And of course, as usual, I have $50 for the first two. female callers. And that could be Palm Beach County. It is Palm Beach County. Again, that number is

877-9-60-960. Fantastic mystery shopping report we have. You definitely, I have been saying this for the last 52 weeks. 52 weeks, yes. Has so many mystery shopping reports have been done. But this morning, I say it with passion. Stay tuned for our mystery shopping report. You don't want to miss this one. So that's the big teaser for this show. Also, again, the impact that women have on this industry is not to be shrugged off, that's for sure, because it means financial disaster.

Financial disaster for the car dealer. So, with all of that said, stay tuned and relax and stay with us for the next two hours. You're going to enjoy this show. A77-960-99-60, Texas at 772-497-6530, and don't forget, your anonymous feedback.com. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Oh, excuse me, we have a phone call. We're going to go to Mail in Boca. good morning hello good morning morning welcome to the show mill yeah good morning thank you for taking

my call and happy new year to everybody here thank you thank you we're ready for you what's your question well i have two questions and basically the first question is um i have a potter who's in college she's 20 years old she's looking to buy a car so i just wanted to find out maybe there the best way to go by note nowadays there's shortages with everything and it's uh it's not easy to find any i guess deals out there but uh if any pointers that anybody would have uh be it'll be all open ears for it well no um the way to buy a car and a college uh person or anybody a younger people today are very, very good online, and we recommend that you do your shopping. In fact, if you've got that ability all the way to buy a car online a few years ago, that wasn't possible. It saves

you a lot of aggravation. The fact that you found this show will give you some advantages too. We have a good dealer, bad dealer list that we add to and, and and update every week on the show. And you can access that at earl-on-cars.com, just the way it sounds. E-A-R-L-O-N-C-R-S dot com, Earl-on-Cars.com. And right on that home page,

you will see a link that takes you to of the car dealers that we've mystery shopped who did well or bad or medium. We have a list of good dealers graded from A's all the way down, down to D's. Now we have a list that you should positively not buy a car from and those are the do not buy list and those are the ones that failed. That's one way to start. Then choose a dealer that is selling, they make a car that you want to buy and go from there.

Then get online and try to get the best out-the-door price on the car. Out-the-door price definition is a price that you write a check for. If you were paying cash, you might of finance, but if you were going to pay cash, the amount that you'd write the check for and hand to the dealer and drive the car home, that's what you've got to shop and compare with the good dealers, the better dealers. You're in Boynton, so you've got a large number in the Boynton Delway. Oh, Bocca, yeah. The whole South Florida area, we have a good list of choices.

So if you're looking for a new or used car, you have a wide choice and do your shopping online. Right. Well, you think it's online. Yeah, I also have to go in and test drive some of these cars too. But I think we were narrowing it down to actually two cars either. There's a Corolla Cross, as it's a new vehicle, just came out. It's like a SUV, I guess. And then, of course, the old standard drive four, you know, either one of those, I was thinking that would be, or more or less diota people, you know.

Yeah, they're both good cars. You know, I hesitate to recommend a particular model over another model. I always defer. I call it my Bible Consumer Reports. And you can check that out online, too. Or you can get a hard copy, go to the library, pick up a Consumer Reports, and their annual auto issue is valuable. But every month, consumer report comes out with a new update on their car dealership recommendations in the make of car. So each car offers different people, different things.

And if you're, you know, if you're looking for a particular type of car, I would go with consumer reports. They don't tell you just one car. They gave you recommended. And, you know, I kind of would say the same thing I do about car dealers. I would never buy a car from a car dealer on our do not buy list, and I would never buy a car, period, that was on the consumer reports not recommended list. Because when they recommend a car, they take into consideration, price, maintenance, reliability, safety, all the important factors. And you can't go wrong with a recommended car. Now, if you really want to fine-tune it, they grade the car, too.

So if you're looking for a Nissan Rogue, you might want to go to the one that had the highest rating. But anything on the recommended list with Consumer Reports, you can't get hurt. Is there any discounts for college kids now, or they don't do that anymore? Very little. The discounts are. We're seeing discounts coming back. if you we've had this conversation three or four months ago you'd be paying five six seven thousand dollars over MSRP and maybe even higher today the prices are coming down

the prices are approaching MSRP sticker price the Moroney label matter of fact of the car dealership that we mystery shop and we'll review that mystery shop at the end of the show between 9.30 and 10 Eastern time, we go through the mystery shop. That car dealership was advertising that they would sell cars below MSRP. Now, I'm not going to give away the mystery shopping report, but that's become the goalpost, the guideline as to how much over you can buy a car over MSRP. If you can buy a car for MSRP, is really a great bargain. If you can buy one a few hundred dollars over MSRP is still a bargain. But most of the cars today are being sold for $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 over MSRP and some of them are still way up there

on the 5 and 6,000. So the target you have when you're shopping is to find the price closest to MSRP. You probably won't find any below MSRP, new cars. And if you can get one close to it, that'll be a good buy today. Even better, if you can wait, prices are coming down. If 30 days, 60 days from now, prices will be a little bit better than they are today. Right. Now, I'm on your website. It says, that's Earl Stewart.

Is that where? Yeah, Earl Stewart, Toyota. And it says, new, pre-owned, where do you go to get that list of dealers or good and bad dealers? Yeah. We sell all of our cars at MSRP. The only thing that when you see a price on our website, the only thing you pay in addition is Florida sales tax and a license plate. We have no dealer-installed accessories,

and we have no hidden fees, no electronic filing fees and things of that nature. I think he's looking for the... You don't have any dealer fees, you're saying. No dealer fees. I think you may be looking for the good dealer, baddealer list.com. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, good dealer, bad dealer, list is at earl on cars.com. I misunderstood you.

My website doesn't have that on there. That's my dealership. But the Earl on Cars, if you go to www. www. Earle-E-A-R-L-O-N-Cars, C-A-R-S, www. earl-oncars.com. And you look toward the top of the home page,

you'll see a good-dealer-bad-dealer list. You click on that land. and you will go to the recommended dealers and the ones that you definitely should not buy from. Okay, and if somebody came into your dealer and they say, hey, you know what, I've got cash. Would I be able to negotiate something better? No, if the President of the United States or the Queen of England came in, or the King of England, I should say, came in to buy a car, we would charge them the same price we would charge you. We don't defer to prestige or importance or anything else.

We treat everybody the same. So whether it's you or anyone else, the price you pay for a car today will be the same price. Your next-door neighbor pays when he comes in. Now, we lower prices and we raise prices based on, you know, whether we're talking about a new car, a used car, and what the MSRP is because we price all of our new cars at MSRP. RP. But when we change the price, everybody pays that price that we change it to. We don't make any

exceptions. No, you don't. Okay. All right. So basically, so I know that you guys are not charging any dealer fees, just tax and license, whatever, if you're getting a new price. Government fees. Government fees, we don't get that money. It goes to the state of Florida. So we don't count that. So what the other dealers do is they have things they call fees. that money on those fees they charge you go to that dealer and its profit is not really a fee it's just hidden profit to the dealer so basically do you have inventory for cars now that somebody can actually go in and you know look at cars and test drive cars or is there is a real if you'd ask me that question 60 days ago I would have said no we probably got 50 or 60 cars on the ground

now two months ago we had zero we have over 2,000 cars in our order bank because fifth or 60 cars sounds like a lot of new cars, but when you consider all the different types of combinations of colors and equipment and models, it's a very small inventory. But we do have a small inventory of cars now. Chances are to get the car you want, it would have to be ordered today,

but we do have a few. Right, okay. Hey, Mel, I don't, I want to, this is Nancy Stewart, and I'd like to thank you for calling. And there was one thing that I did hear you say, that was really important and that you said that you needed you had to go into the dealership

to test drive the vehicle that you want you know something Mel that's the only reason you need to go to the dealership because today there is so much information in front of you at your PC I'm sure you have one for our listeners right now if you don't have one you can just simply go to the library but there's so many avenues that you can explore

to purchase that vehicle that you're talking about, that Corolla you mentioned. I love it. It's beautiful. They have changed the dynamics of it. Also, I'm not sure if you know how important consumer report is. We talk about it every single week. Do you know that they test, they test drive 50 cars per year on about 327 acres in Connecticut, and they put these cars through such a test you wouldn't even,

imagine you would have to take and look at that information on your PC, but Consumer Report is just amazing. And of course, our show is definitely, we don't want to pat ourselves on the back, but we do give out amazing information. So with all of that said, Mel, like I said, thank you so much for your phone call. Keep on listening. And give us a call back and let us know how your purchase went right I well I have one more question do you guys have certainly or you don't know this is a not a question about car about buying a car but I have an older car that I've had for long long time for 20 years or so and this is a tooth this is not a Toyota but it's a it's a moral of some mechanic question if that's

okay it's a does a check in light that comes on I have no idea what it could be it's called a P0106 because I do have a check light indicated myself and I change the map sensor and it still keeps on coming on it's it's what it is it's a it's a Mazda MPV 2001 and it has 235,000 miles it runs good it's looks brand new because it's garage kept all these years but it's just it's called it's a P0106 and that's what's coming up correct well a map sensor code pardon my voice here I'm getting over a flu or something. Map sensor code can come on for a variety of reasons if the sensor

itself has gone bad or the wiring to it or possibly an air leak letting air into the engine elsewhere. That causes the system to get confused because it's seeing more air than the belief should be there. Most likely the cause is going to be either a wiring, if you've already replaced a sensor, I would have the wiring checked because you may be getting some resistance in the wiring, and that can cause that code to pop up like that. Okay. Yeah, it was checked. It was fine, but I used the original map sensor from Mazda, so that was something I was

told to do, not the aftermarket, and the middle comes up. But it might be a throttle body, I was thinking, or an EGR valve, cleaning or replacement. That's what somebody else asked, told me to do that. too? It could be. Mazda's may have some issues where that can cause it, where it's leaking too much, if the EGR valve is leaking pressure into the engine, that it's getting extra air. The map valve, actually, what it does is it tells the computer how much air is coming into the engine so the computer knows how much fuel to put in so that it gets the right ratio of fuel and air. and if you're getting an extra air that it can't account for then it's not going to know how much fuel to put in

and things are going to get confused right okay well anyway I thank you so much for all the help I know it took in a lot of time and you've got a show to run so you guys have a great new year and thank you for you know taking time to put this show up so we can all listen and enjoy

you're welcome mill happy new year we hope to hear from you in 2023. 877-960-9960 and you can text us at 772-497-6530 and don't forget ladies in the Broward County area give us a call this morning you can win yourself a hundred dollars that's for the first two new lady callers and for the ladies in Palm Beach County it is the usual dollars first two lady callers i want to give a shout out to chuck who's uh watching us in oklahoma and welcome to the show chuck now back to the recovery well let me let me say this

real quick um ladies if you want to give a call about your service uh your purchase uh your lease you can give us a call and uh we can talk about it if not just give us a call if you're the first two new callers and say hello now back to the recovering car dealer. I'm going to grab anonymous feedback. I just noticed on my iPhone, and I've got to answer this because I haven't thought about people's reaction,

the fact that we haven't had Josh Stewart on. The anonymous feedback said, did you excommunicate Josh? Why hasn't he stepped in for Stu? Well, I should have mentioned that because we normally do have my youngest son, Josh, fill in for Stu and Stu, as I said earlier, has some back issues, which he's working on now, and hopefully he'll be back shortly.

Josh also works in the dealership with Stu, and Josh is on paternity leave. Now, for you guys, my age, you don't know what paternity leave is, but maternity leave, you know what that is. Josh is home with our granddaughter, Maisie, and Nancy and I, she visited us yesterday, as a matter of fact, Maysy's one-month birthday was yesterday, and Josh is going back in early this coming week. He'll be back in the dealership. But, yeah, he took a month off with his wife and Chrissy to take care of M-A-I-S-I-E, in case for M-A-I-S-I-E, in case you want to rhymes with Daisy, and M-E-E is one-month-month-all. So he's changing diapers, he's feeding, he's doing all the stuff that poppas didn't use to do when I was a Papa, but the world's changing for the better. Welcome to the 21st century.

Exactly. One other thing I want to mention because we haven't mentioned, you're auto advocate, YAA, your auto advocate in a while. And this is a great organization, that national organization, they kind of do what we do. They take care of folks that are looking to buy lease and maintain a repair car. And if you go to join y-a-a-a-com, that's J-O-I-N-Y-A-A-A, as in your auto advocate, join y-A-A-com. Check it out. but you really have a vast source of information because there are a lot of folks that give input

about experiences buying cars and as far as where you should go to buy a car. And it's nationwide. It was founded by Ray and Zach Shefka and his father and son. Really cool. These guys are really sharp. They know everything there is to know

about buying and maintaining and repairing cars. but they take the sum total of the input of all of the members of YAA. So if you want to jot this down, join J-O-I-N-YAA as in Your Auto Advocate.com. You can join YAA.com and if you've got a question, not only will you get Zach and Ray's opinion, you'll get thousands of people that have been there and done that. They've had experiences repairing their cars, maintaining their cars. They chat back and forth. They message back and forth.

And it is a vast source of knowledge, unlike anything. It's, we're kind of like partners. We support ya.com and Zach and Ray support us here at earl and cars.com. So you might check that out. Okay. We are going to go back to the phones. where I'm going to introduce a first-time female caller from Palm Beach County

and I love her name. It's beautiful. I could say it over and over again. Forever Young. Forever Young? Welcome. Hello. Hello.

Thank you for waiting. You have won yourself $50 this morning. This is Nancy Stewart. And if you'll stay on the line after we're finished talking, you can talk to Mike in the control room. He'll take your contact information where I can mail that $50 check.

All right, great. Sounds good. Thank you, Nancy. You're welcome. What can we do for you for every young? I'm not entirely sure. This is my first time calling in. Oh, yeah? So you just want to do you want to chat? I'm being facetious. We don't have time to chat.

But I will ask you, have you had an experience you'd like to share with us in the auto industry servicing leasing purchasing my first time purchasing a car um i did it off craigslist i didn't know anything about purchasing a car and i didn't really consult anyone and i'd say those are probably all the wrong things to do so well um you know in that case there's there's there's always you know your time to come into the dealership to have your vehicle serviced whatever the case may be

but there's so much information at your fingertips for every young and you can really prepare yourself for the next time you walk into the service department or the dealership so that's my advice to you and that is the information is overwhelming

you can also go to Consumer Report every single month they have something well that will inform you and lead you in the right direction. I want to thank you for your call and extend an invitation to you to continue to listen to Erlon Cars. All right, awesome. Thank you. Happy New Year. Happy New Year to you for every young. Have a great day. 877-960 or you can text us at 772-497-6530.

and don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. And also we're going to talk a little bit later about Earl's vigilantes. But right now, we are going to stay with the phones and we have a caller from Broward County and her name is Mariana. Welcome. Is that your, is that, did I pronounce your name correctly?

Salava. Yes, welcome. Welcome to the show. You won yourself $100 this morning. Oh, wonderful. Thank you so much. If you stay on the phone and after we're finished talking, you must give your information, contact information to Mike in the control room. That's the only way I can send you a check. Can you do that? We'll do. All right, very good. So what is your call in reference to? I'm calling in reference to the Earl Stewart Show, where you're giving $100 to first two females who hold. And regarding the dealership that I went to a few days ago, and I saw no warranty sticker on cars.

Oh, that's great. That's great. I'm glad to hear you that you wanted to share that with us. And the dealership that you're speaking of that you went to? Hyundai, Hyundai. Okay. And that was down in Broward. In Broward and 441. Uh-huh. Okay. All right, recovering car dealer. What was the question? She wanted to share her story of Earl Stewart Toyota and the fact that she had gone down to, that she lives in Broward County and she wanted to go, she went to Hyundai on 441.

Oh, okay. What was your experience so Earl can. he can elaborate on that well I was shopping for a car and I saw few on the lot outside and most of them had no price stickers on them

and it says as is no warranty so I just turned so let me understand you went to you went to a dealership excuse me and what you found on the lot were vehicles and they had no stickers on them and they said sold as is correct no warranty correct with no

warranty okay were they used cars or new cars they were they looked like they were new cars 23 uh-huh okay yeah this federal law says you have to have a maroni label on all new cars and unfortunately this isn't enforced by anyone uh it's not uncommon to see that this. Sometimes they put the Mononi labels in the glove box or on the front seat. It's just careless because there's no enforcement. I can't remember

the last time I've heard of any dealer being fined. It's supposed to be a $10,000 fine. As far as used cars go, as is, that is a, again it's a state law that you have to either have a warranty

which would be specifically explained on the used car. If you don't have warranty, then you have to state this car is being sold as is with all defects. That way you know you're not going to get any help if you buy that car. It's a car that could have some serious problems and you should be very careful. If you ever buy a car that is being sold as is, you need to take it to your independent mechanic, not the mechanic at the dealership, but an independent mechanic, have them check it over carefully because there's an awful lot of things that could really make a car just not worth buying at all, but you always have a used car checked

by a mechanic. And I would shop around until I found, if you're looking for a Hyundai, I would certainly shop around in more than one dealership, and I would try to do it online first. You can save yourself a lot of time. Once you get inside of a dealership, they have control to a large extent they control you when you are on your laptop or in your smartphone and or even the telephone for that matter you have the ability you can just leave hang up uh stop the communication at will but once you're in the dealership you're kind of uh at their mercy in terms of your time but keep on looking uh and uh i would check consumer reports uh also before i decided on the model Hyundai I wanted to buy.

Hyundai, by the way, does build some good cars. You just want to be sure you get the right model. Of course. The reason I stopped by is I was just, I lived basically walking distance, and I was walking around that dealership, and I saw nice cars in a lot, and that's the reason I just stopped by and look at them. And most of them did not have the moronists, most of them.

They were brand-new cars, 2023. Yeah, that's not good. That's a kind of surprise. That's a violation. I would probably try to find a Hyundai dealership that was a little bit more careful about obeying the law. And you should not see any new cars without a minority label on there.

And if the dealer has any extra charges that's supposed to be in the form of an addendum label, which we don't like, but the fact that they have it on there at least is full disclosure. But in your market down there, there's got to be probably four or five Hyundai dealers within a half an hour drive, and I would check out the other ones.

But as I say, do it online first, and then if it sounds good to you, what you see on their website, then do some email communication. And if it looks good in terms of price based on email communication, then choose one of those other dealers. But always get at least two, preferably three, competitive prices before you. decide. Of course, that sounds reasonable. Thank you very much for the call. Yes, definitely. As Nancy said, stay on the line so you can give your contact information to Mike in the control room, and Nancy will send you a check for $100. Thank you so much, really

appreciate it, and happy holidays and happy new year to all of you. Thank you so much, and please give us a call back and let us know, you know, at what point you decided to purchase your vehicle and thank you for building a platform here that has become huge for the female audience have a great weekend we're going to go to Doug i believe in Boca and Patricia please hang on we will get right to you good morning bug hello good morning girl good morning everyone happy new year. Thank you. Happy New Year. And Sim and Ella say hello too. So I

basically did something like about five months ago. I put a deposit on a carology or at Toyota of Hollywood and that car has just been the weirdest

thing. So so I've been researching the GR and a couple of them came in and one of them came into a dealership in Tampa and a friend of mine who lives there went there to see the dealer and the sticker price I think was 30 39 or 38 and and they did a thing called market something market values thing market adjustment yeah and the market adjustment are you sitting down

was $16,700 yeah that's going on a lot now it's a highway robbery they're basically saying that we think the prices should be a whole lot higher and here it is

and they put any number they choose it can be thousands of dollars and the good news is those market adjustments are coming down slowly, but too slowly as far as I'm concerned. Wow. Well, the thing is

you know, Honda's doing the same thing with their type are. Yeah. It just seems like this started a few years ago. It's not like it started this year. It's been going on for a little while.

But the thing is, it's Honda or Toyota, why is it that Honda and Toyota won't do anything about this? And, you know, they say to me, well, you know, it's up to the dealership. Okay, I get it, but it's still... I feel the same way. I think the manufacturers are remiss and not exercising more effort to control their dealers.

The excuse the manufacturers give is that car dealers are independent businessmen. There's a contract that a manufacturer has with a car dealer. They call a franchise agreement. And if you read it, they're long. There are a lot of fine print, a lot of legalese, and somewhat open to interpretation. But they basically say that you are a businessman,

you make the decisions as to how you conduct your business, conduct your business and we're the manufacturer, we build cars, and we sell the cars to you, and after that, they're pretty much hands off. I think they're copping out on that. I think they can, in fact, they used to exert more control than they do now. They let the dealers get away with things that are bad not only for the dealer's reputation, but for the manufacturer's reputation. and I'm with you.

I think the manufacturer should intervene. Okay, so, so obvious, if I came to your dealership, you don't do that. But unfortunately, that particular car that I want, they're just not really available yet. I mean, it could take another six months or maybe even a year. Who knows? Yeah, yeah, it's a, they will, On the manufacturers will, on the air, they'll go on television, they'll go online, and they will say,

we don't want our car dealers to sell cars at prices over MSRP, but they don't say we're going to do anything about it. They say if you corner a manufacturer and you just ask him directly, I do it, I talk to Toyota, and they say, we can't do anything. We can't tell a car dealer what to sell a car for. And legally, technically that's true. But I know, and a lot of other car dealers know, that if the manufacturers wanted to, they can subtly influence the dealers

to comply with reasonable behavior. Because the manufacturer is being injured, whether it's Honda or Toyota or Hyundai, when a car dealer really offends a lot of customers, they also hurt the brand. They're hurting the Hyundai, they're hurting the Honda, the Toyota brand. Because if we have another brand, I give you an example, Subaru dealers tend to treat their customers quite well.

They get a very high score from their customers. And so the Subaru car and manufacturer benefits from that reputation, their dealers. So if the manufacturers had any sense, they do what Subaru does and encourage dealers to treat their customers with some civility. I agree.

Doug, thank you so much for the call. I can't. We can't thank you enough. And this market adjustment, as you said, it's been going on for quite a while. It's just another way of a car dealer taking advantage of a situation. And that is

shortage of inventory, the microch, all the chip situation. I don't have time to even mention it all. But thank you for the call, and we all want to wish you a very happy New Year, and thank you for spending 2022 with us. Hey, thank you, guys. We watch you just about every morning with our coffee. Thank you. Thank you, International Sunrise Club.

We love you guys. Okay, we are going to go to Patricia, who is a first-time caller from, is it Palm Beach County, Jonathan, or is it Palm Beach? Okay, Patricia, you won yourself $50 this morning as a first-time caller from Palm Beach County. And if you stay on the line and talk to Mike in our control room, if you give him your contact information, I can send you a child. check. Welcome. Of course. Thank you. You're welcome. What can we do for you this morning? Yeah, I have a question. I am a member from Costco and I need to buy a car and I would like to know if it is a good deal to buy a car to Costco. Great question. Earl, she's a member of Costco and she wants to know about purchasing a vehicle. Well, Patricia, you've got the best car buying.

arm, a third-party source available. Costco is by far the best way to go about buying a car with their Costco auto buying program. And they contract with the dealers that qualify to be Costco car dealers. The qualification is that the cars that they sell to Costco members has to be at a lower price than they sell that car to anybody else. So, If they comply with their contract, as a Costco member, you simply get the lowest price that that dealer will sell that car for. Now, that doesn't say that you shouldn't maybe shop to other Costco dealer. If you're buying a Honda, you might want to go to another Honda dealer that's also Costco qualified, and his price could be better than the first Costco dealer.

But you're never going to be taken advantage of when you buy through a Costco. member dealer if they adhere to the program. Now the problem, that's a big if. You want to be sure to do this. Go through Costco online. You go Costco Auto Buying Program

website, and you go through their process. They will give you the dealers in your zip code area that are approved. They will also give you the name of the Costco approved salespeople that are in that

dealership. And they're there on the program. They've been trained on the program. And they will tell you to always look at the Costco member price sheet. They have a price sheet that Costco inspects, and they say, when they look at their prices of all the models of cars, they verify that that is the lowest price that they will sell that car to anyone for, lower than they do their regular customers. So if you get a Costco member, and you're talking to, let's say his name is Bill. Jones, and he's on the Costco approved salespeople. You know he's qualified.

And then you look at the Costco price sheet. You know that price has been approved by Costco. You got yourself one low price, lower than you'll pay just about anywhere else. Oh, great. That's great news. Thank you

so much. Thank you for the goal. You're welcome. Remember that contact information. Thanks for helping the ladies build a platform. in this auto industry. We're going to go to our next caller, and that is Paul, and he's calling from Lake Worth. Good afternoon, Paul.

Welcome. Hi, Paul. You're there? Okay, I think Paul ran out of time. Give us a call back, Paul. Our number is 877-9-60-99-60. You can text us at 772-497. 6530. Now back to the recovering car dealer. There's a piece of information I picked up in the Wall Street Journal this week.

And we've always advocated when you're financing your car that you check with your bank and check with your credit union before you go through the dealership financing. We have a phone call, and that's more important, and we will get that back to the subject of just a second. Okay, thank you. Marty's calling us from Westbourne Beach. Good afternoon. Good morning. I wanted to be afternoon. I'm rushing this day. Good morning, Marty. Welcome. Good morning. How's everybody doing today? Great. That's a familiar voice. I just wanted to tell you last last week a couple days ago I was driving down Lakeworth Road and drove by Brayman Honda and I said, well, just for the heck of it, I want to see if they have any Sierra New South CRVs in the lot. And I stopped in there.

I didn't talk to any salesman. I just looked around myself. They had about four or five CRVs sitting there. EXL models. The sticker on the model was $35,000. Then they had

their addendum sticker. Everything on the addendum sticker plus their market adjustment added another $4,000 to the car. Yeah. And what a lot of, so now it was up to $39,000. And what a lot of people don't realize,

even if you went in there and wanted it, they'd also have a dealer fee, which is not on the addendum sticker. Right. It's on the order itself. So you're probably talking $5,000 over sticker. Yeah, you're right. Whether or not those cars were promised to somebody else or not,

I don't know. But it's, to me, if you buy, buy a car at that price and then the prices start coming down, you're going to be underwater in their car. I guess if you want to keep it for 10 years, you're getting your money's worth. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Even though you consider it a good price by the day's standards because everybody else is

marketing up the cars, you said it very well, Marty. That doesn't make any difference a year from now when prices come down to normal levels. You are going to have to hang on to that car. to that car another couple of years just to break even on equity, you're going to be upside down, as they say, for a year or two longer than you normally would. So you have to make that decision. Some people have to have a car, and they have to pay extra, and all we can say is that's just the way it is. But if you don't have to, don't do it. Wait a little bit, and prices are coming down slowly, too slowly, but coming down.

One other question I have, which you probably can't answer, I ordered a loaded-up camera, from you in March. It's now almost January tomorrow. Embarrassing, embarrassing. That car, now, it's loaded. I agree. It's not the basic Camry. But every time I check, there's no real input on when it's being built or what's happening. That's terrible.

So am I going to get like a 25? Yeah. A lot of people think when you order a car. I know you don't, because we've explained it to you, Marty, but I'm saying this for the listening audience. When you order a car through a dealer from a manufacturer, they don't build the car you ordered. They build the car that is in greater demand, so they see a pool of thousands of orders, and they only have so many plants and so many assembly lines. So they will find a car that is of that model that is the most ordered. And they build that.

And they don't get around to the other cars that don't have as many orders until they get around to it. They might never get around to it. When you consider the permutation and combination of all the colors and equipments and options and accessory of all the... different cars and models. There's thousands of them. So if you wanted to, you could order a car that had such a weird color, interior, exterior, and strange combination of equipment that they would literally never build that car. So I tell my customers, you know, I know you like purple. I know you like that. I know you want a green seat and a purple roof. Now, I'm making that up.

I haven't had one to say anybody say that. But theoretically, someone can say, this is what I want. And I would say, you know, you're the only person I've ever sold a car to that wanted that color. And I'll order it for you, but don't hold your breath because it'll take a long while before Toyota gets around to building that car. So try to order a car today that is make some compromises and equipment and color interior and exterior. And if you try to get something that's more readily bought by more people, you'll get it a lot quicker. Yeah, see, I got spoiled because the car I got now was on the lot. And it had the parking sensors.

It has the rear automatic brake if somebody pulls them back here. So I ordered all that again on this Camry. So the whole problem is they'll probably never going to build it. that. You're probably right, yeah. Right now I've got a shade under 36,000 miles and if I have to, I'll just keep that

car because when I bought it, Earl, you know I'm a hard person to sell to on price. And when I ordered it in March, my car was worth a lot more. My trading was worth a lot more

than it is now. Use car prices and down. Yeah, so now going to pay even more, so there's no sense for me, because I don't need it, to buy the car that doesn't have the equipment I want. Oh, I hear you. So I'll see what happens if it ever comes in. I'm planning on 25.

Well, I hope we surprise you, Marty, but I can't make any problems. Thanks for the call. I really appreciate it. All right. Thank you, Marty. From all of us, we wish you a happy New Year. Talk to you next year. we are going to go to

I think Paul has called back I believe that he called earlier yeah oh thank you Paul thanks for calling back welcome to the show

yeah somehow my call dropped out first of all I brought my 14 year old Lexus in to your dealership for its 30,000 miles service of all things and I just want to say first of all I want to say thank you

your service advisor Richard King, did an excellent job. The car was in and out within about two and a half hours and the price was fair. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Well, thank you, well, I appreciate that. Thank you. And you took the time to call back. We appreciate that. Happy New Year, Paul. I do have a question, though. Certainly. There was an article in automotive news a couple of weeks ago where Toyota was looking to increase its leasing portfolio to possibly improve the future inventory. abuse card. Now, the way I see it in this marketplace, that might not be the worst option to go to. Now, in my case, 10 months ago, I ordered from you a new Toyota Corolla Cross

that isn't here yet. I'm yet to test drive one. But what I'm noticing is the Toyota corporate is advertising a lease price for an LEA model only. I ordered an XLE.E. Now, aside from the $3,000 difference in MSRP, why wouldn't the lease price be similar or readily available to find for an XLE? Nobody seems to give me that answer. The lease prices, when the manufacturer comes up with a lease program, it's to push that particular model. They prefer leasing. The manufacturer very much would rather the dealer lease the car than sell it. The dealers would much rather lease the car than sell it. The one thing that

the dealers and the manufacturers have in common on that subject is that you're about 50% more likely to lease or buy another car if you lease it because they have that contact and control. They know, first of all, they own the car and you're driving it.

They know where you are. They know that you're making this payment. They know when the lease will be up. So they've got a lot of control. And they find that lease buyer, or at least less ease, we'll either lease another car or buy another car about 50% more often than they buy. So lease programs are a selfish thing. And that's exactly the case.

But, you know, and I'm in that group. However, why can I not get an approximate lease price on the X-L-E that I ordered so I have an idea what it's going to cost? Well, it would be that. It would be approximate because anything can happen between now and the time the car comes in. One of the biggest factors in the monthly lease payment is a residual value. And, of course, the residual value is what that car is worth, 36-month hints or how far down the road you lease the car. And when the car is not here, you can't establish a residual value until the car is delivered. No, no, I totally understand that.

But, for example, if the Toyota Corolla Cross LE model is being quoted at $259 a month with $3,600 down, why can I not get at least a guesstimate of what the lease price will be on the XLE? Well, you can't get a definite price until the car is on the ground and you're ready to take it. If they can't deliver the car, the lease car, they can't establish the residual value. In fact, the other factor in the lease payment is they call it the lease factor, which is really the interest rate. Interest rates are going up now, and they've gone up considerably in the past few months, and they're probably going to go up considerably more in the next few months. So if the lease rate goes higher and the residual goes lower, the monthly lease payment will get much higher.

Right. Yeah, I understand that. I'm just, I was just curious why I couldn't get, you know, a guesstimate based on today's number. I mean, you know, no one's asking for a guarantee, and my car should be here in about a month. So, you know, I think I'm close enough to get kind of a guess. You know, there are other sources of leasing. Now, if Toyota doesn't establish a lease rate, you can lease a car through other leasing companies.

And if you, we can check with other leasing companies to see what they would say. But Toyota offers, typically, they offer us a lease option on a car. Toyota leasing company, they offer the dealer that option. and they make an exception usually to move more cars of a particular model. They have a, if they have a lease program on this car, they might not have a lease program on that car. So if you want to have us go to Wells Fargo or Bank America or somebody else to see what we can get in the way of a lease rate on the car,

we can do that for you. Or you could do it yourself. Okay. Thank you. Well, appreciate the call. Sorry for the aggravation, but we're living at some strange times. Now, nothing is normal anymore. No, I understand that.

Thank you, Paul. Happy New Year. You too. Give us a call toll free at 877-960-99-60, and you can also text us at 772-497-6530. Don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. We're going to stay with the phones. We have Frank from Jupiter Farms. Welcome, Frank.

Well, good morning to you all. For the last day of this year of 2022, it's so nice to be able to hear you guys on the radio and say hi. Thank you. I was in your area yesterday. I saw dermatologist up the street from you, Dr. Kamenester, and it was about an hour I was in there and they were removing stuff. And so I headed down south and said, I'll stop by Earl Stewart and get a cup of coffee. And it was so refreshing to see some cars on the lot that weren't used. Isn't it?

Yeah, it was very refreshing. And the coffee was good, too. But here's my question about my particular car. I have a 2012 Mercedes E350 gas model, of course. I drive the car for maybe 10 miles. I get out and I smell gasoline. I go, I bet that's not good. and it's not a real strong smell.

It actually seems to come more from the driver's side of the car, not the gas tank that's on the right side. So I go, you know, I've seen this in the old years going by where if you put too much gas in your car and you don't drive too much and it's out in the sun, they'll start expanding and it actually can bubble out through your gas cap. But this is with like a half tank of gas. This has been going on for a couple weeks.

So I guess the best thing I can bring it into your dealership and you guys can check it out. Yeah, what do you got any theories on that, Rick? My first thing that I'd be looking for is an evap leak. One of the hoses that contains the evaporative emissions for the charcoal canister. I mean, we can take a look at it, but Mercedes is going to have such a specific system that we really don't have anybody very experienced with Mercedes at our job. dealership we could give you the best you know the best we can do but we might be just kind of

guessing at it um again i i would suspect it's something to do with the emissions okay no that's to be honest i kind of thought of that myself but i said you know i don't know how look at it i mean i was just sniffing around and but um you guys did do an alignment for me one of the guys in your shop is good about European cars. Yeah, well, you should get checked out right away. When you're smelling gasoline, you never know what's going to happen. So you can bring it in

to us. We'll be able to give you maybe a good idea. Maybe refer you to somebody that will treat you right. Mercedes dealerships are notoriously expensive, so we can probably recommend an independent

company that does foreign cars like Mercedes that we'll treat you right and fairly. Frank? Yeah, actually, you're right. There's that shop down the street from me before near Broadway, European Auto, so I'll give them a holler.

Frank, I want to thank you for calling and we want to help you. And if you bring your car in, we can do just that or at least attempt to. Frank, thanks for being part of 2022 and we look forward to, well, talking to you. many more times in 2023. Happy New Year to you and your family.

I'm sorry. Before I go, I got one corny joke. This one, the old will be like, and you won't have to beat me off the air. What do we call a bear that doesn't have teeth? I give up. Gummy bear. Well, thank you for that.

Beat him off the air. Thanks for that, Frank. Take care, guys. Thank you. Little humor. Have a wonderful, have a wonderful New Year's Eve, Frank. Thank you.

877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-49765-30. Remember we have that mystery shop coming up and you can vote on the mystery shop. Don't forget that. Week in and week out. 52 weeks, as a matter of fact. And you can text us your vote at 772. 4976530. We are going to go back to the recovering car dealer where, well, Earl was attempting to talk about the credit union.

Was it the finance fee? Is that what it was? Okay. Yeah, the Wall Street Journal reminded me to remind you that if you're financing a car, and if you're financing a car, you probably shouldn't go through the dealer. You probably should go through your own bank or credit union. Now, I had no idea that credit unions were actually getting lower interest rates now. It just sounds, you know, it surprised me.

It's got to surprise you, too. And the spread between the bank rates and the credit union rates are getting wider. So definitely check with your credit union when you're thinking of financing your car. If you're not a member of a credit union, join a credit union. It's kind of like joining Costco. You can join a credit union for very little money. You don't have to have a job that has a credit union, the company furnishing the credit union. You can be working anywhere, and you can join an independent credit union.

The reason credit unions have lower interest rates than banks is they don't have to pay the taxes. Did you know that a credit union does not pay federal income tax? And a bank does. Now, think of the cost advantage that gives the credit union. There are also other advantages that they have in the way they handle the loans that they make. And they have a huge cost advantage. The banks hate credit unions. They have banks have lobbyists in Congress trying to do something to make it fair. But the credit unions hang in there because they've got some pretty strong lobbyists too. According to the recent Wall Street Journal article, this is like two days ago, the average interest rate now for used cars financing is 5.94% compared to banks 8.36.

And that's the average. If you read this article, you will see some incredibly low rates that have been given. There's a new car, 2.99% on an 84-month loan for a credit union. Carolina Cooperative Federal Credit Union. So look around, find the credit union that you can join for a reasonable fee and get a quote from them before you finance your car. And if you don't use a credit, you definitely use your bank. But when you go through the car dealership, you're going to be paying a premium.

The one exception, and I have to say this, banks or manufacturers sometime offer what they call subvented rates, special low rates for their dealers to the customers that buy the cars. They're not doing that now so much, and so you really don't have that situation. But normally when you finance for the dealer, the dealer is buying the money from the bank and they're marking the money up and selling it to you in just general terms. So they might charge you 3% more than they paid for the rate from the bank. bank. You can go directly to the bank and buy it for 3% less. Why give them that 3% markup? And now you have the third alternative is a credit union. Check with a credit union before you

finance your card. You know, Earl, that was an amazing article that you pointed out to me this week. And I always knew that the credit union was the better place to go. It was the place to go. But now, with this information, I really hope that everybody was listening right now. You can go to Earl on cars, I believe, and you can read this article, or you can pull it up, Wall Street Journal. I'm not sure which day I read that, but I'll tell you what, the credit union is definitely, well, they're definitely, the lenders out there are running scared because they're really on it for the consumer and credit union, I can't say anymore.

877-960 and you can text us at 772-4976530 you know one of the people that I want to mention that had an impact on our show in 2022 was Lurig and I'm not sure if all of you out there remember who she was but she filed a she came to us and talked and we discussed her well unfair treatment at Edmour's Cadillac. And what Loric did was she filed a case against Ed Morris, and she went to the Attorney General, and they heard her voice. Definitely, I couldn't explain it any better.

They heard her voice. They recognized that there was a problem here, and she won the case, and therefore we're really thankful, She had a complaint with Ashley Moody, the Attorney General, and she really made an impact on all of the callers that have been mistreated for many years and gave them hope that they too can go to the Attorney General and file a complaint. Thank you, Lord. And we're going to go back to the recovering car dealer that certainly has made a huge impact on all the years that we have been on the air. his knowledge is incredible and his advice incredible he is incredible now back to the recovering car dealer we've had a lot of comments today phone calls talking about the price of new cars and I'm always asked

when will car prices come down I hesitate to say anything because I've been predicting that they would come down now for the past two years and I've been off they haven't they haven't haven't been coming. And now they are starting to come down a little bit. Toyota, in automotive news, this weekly automotive news, Toyota had the largest production year a month in November that they've ever had. Now that's saying something. So a lot of that's playing catch-up, but that's really good news. So hopefully for you Toyota dealers out there, including us, the fact that Toyota just had their record November. production month is very good news for you car buyers out there.

So waiting is not such a bad thing. If you waited this long, now you might be able to find prices coming down even sooner. Use car prices are coming down steadily, especially for Tesla. It's very interesting. Tesla has been the hero. Tesla prices have been very high on new end use cars. Now, Tesla is actually the use car price. the used car prices are down 17% recently on Tesla.

New car prices, they're actually cutting prices on new Teslas now. So Tesla is a huge player, and they're the number one selling luxury car, hard to believe that they are. And they have 30% more Teslas on the road in 2022 than, last year. So they are growing rapidly and their prices are coming down. So there is good

news on the horizon. You folks have been waiting and waiting there's hope and I would wait a little longer if I were you unless you have to buy a car. So if you've got to use car, then that's a different story. We had Marty called earlier

and he's ordered a car a long time ago from my dealership and he's waited since March and he hasn't been able to get that specific car. He ordered and he admits an unusual equipped car and it's taking a long long time.

This is expected to happen but his problem is his used car is coming down in value so his trade in is dropping so here he is maybe he's getting the better price on the new car when it comes in he probably will but will

it all set the loss that he's had in the depreciation of his trade in. So it's tough out there, folks. I really empathize with you car buyers. You're caught between a rock and a hard place. And I feel so guilty when I, I don't promise you, but I suggest things are to get better. But I have to tell you what I believe. I believe things will get better. And if I'm still saying the same thing, six months from now, shame on me. But I'm trying my best. Yeah, but to your point here, Tesla is definitely making it more affordable.

and more available if that's possible, but the more affordable for you to drive an electric vehicle, you can get a whole lot of information from Consumer Report, or you can go to many more sites on your PC. We have some calls that are backed up here, and we thank Dick and Charles and Bob. We'll get to you one at a time. First, let's go to Dick Pace,

and he's calling from, I believe, the Tailwinds Airport. Good morning, Dick, and welcome. Good morning. How are y'all doing? We're great. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Yeah, I'm calling in. A girl mentioned a couple of Saturdays ago. We want to talk to somebody about Tesla self-driving.

And I'm a Tesla owner, and I've called in before to talk to about it. And I'll give you my opinion about the self-driving thing. You tried it. and my opinion is a little bit too aggressive. Needs to be calmed down some. It takes too long to stop and whatever. On the street

road is beautiful and all that. I use a lot. Anyhow, that's my thoughts. I'm sorry, you broke up, I wasn't able to hear. What specifically is your question? Well, it wasn't a question. I was calling in to

a couple of Saturdays ago. You wanted to talk to somebody about Tesla hood. driven me full self-driving. And I'm a Model S owner. Oh, as far as the autonomous? Autonomous driving? Yeah.

Right. Yeah, it's a great experience. It's overall a positive experience. And it is definitely not perfected with that said. So I would, if you enjoy technology and you enjoy, and I use the word thrill on purpose, It is a thrill to drive a car that is actually driving itself, and you're sitting in the driver's seat with your handle the steering one. I just wanted to talk to somebody else that had driven it,

and I have a model. I'm up to 40,000 miles on my model left. Oh. How many miles? And 40,000. Yeah. And I used it, you know, so I just, you wanted to be indicated you like to talk somebody else to try the full self-driving. My opinion is about like yours.

It's a heck of a heck of a, ride but it's a little too aggressive right now and you have to watch it when you use it yeah so dick what you're saying is you're giving your opinion of being behind the wheel or the yoke of of your Tesla and how you feel about autonomous driving and right now for you it really hasn't well it hasn't had an impact on the other drivers around you which leaves you in a dangerous situation is that what you're saying. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Yeah, I just wanted to agree with it. We talked about it a couple of Saturdays ago. Yeah, definitely a couple weeks ago. In my opinion, I have, I really, I love the car. The best car I ever bought. I'm 85 years old. I bought a lot of cars. Well, we love the Tesla also.

And I drive it and Earl drives it, but it is, I agree with you to a certain degree about the safety of it right now being out on these roads that are really high traffic. It's just a better time to take it out on the open road where there's, you know, less traffic. Earl, what do you have to say? Well, I'm not, I was actually more positive about the autonomous concept until we actually got the autonomous software clicked in on our car. And after driving it, I think that Elon Musk and Tesla were overstating the state of advancement of autonomous. As Nancy said, what he's not talking about is the effect of the other drivers on the road.

The cars today that are being put out with the beta, with the test program on autonomous cell truck. driving are, they're not conducive to being driven on the road with other drivers, especially in high traffic situations. And the autonomous car is designed now by Tesla to be extremely careful. And when you're extremely careful, you can go beyond what would be normal behavior on the highway. When you do that, you create problems for other drivers. And the biggest problem I talked about this a couple weeks ago

is that when a Tesla, a totally autonomous Tesla, comes upon a caution light, the car will sometimes stop. And it'll stop right in the middle of the road with cars behind you. This is totally disturbing to me and to the other driver and to people around us. So autonomy is not ready to go public now, especially in heavy traffic situations.

So I just support your opinion I agree with that I'm a retired engineer So I know the car I'm a techie So that's I want to pin the other thing

I wanted to have a couple Experiences recently with the Tesla service and it's been great Yeah it is yeah Yeah it's Whether you'd just screw for you or not I had a case where the mice got into My air suspension

Yeah Cabling and 8th of installation And they've taken care of it the communications is better, they're getting better all the time. Yes, I definitely agree. We can't thank you enough for your call and share your opinion. Can I ask one more question?

Sure. Okay, we have some calls backed up, so we'll have to make it brief. Okay, it probably won't be brief. I'll call again. Thank you so much from Tailwind's Airport. Give us a call again, Dick. We're going to go to Charles, and he's calling for me. North Palm Beach. Good morning, Charles. Good morning, all. Let me get right to the point. I know

you're running out of time. Last week, Earl touched on the issue of Holbecks, and I was astounded to hear that those can average around $4,000. Yes. It seems to me this would be almost like a chapter in your new book, which I'm anxiously looking forward to. But can you spend a little bit more time talking about that? Was it really $4,000 on average? Yeah, it's true. How does that work? I think, and I hope there's some lawyers listening out there, because I consider it price fixing.

I think that it's a silent conspiracy between the dealers and the manufacturers, unspoken, maybe, but if I were an attorney and every manufacturer does the same thing, an invoice is, and you go to Webster's Diction, and you look up invoice, and what's it say? It says the cost of a product.

Now, an invoice on a car is not the cost of the product. Right away, I'll use a legal term, prima facie evidence, to defraud. Why would the manufacturer and the car dealer join together to tell you the buyer that this is the invoice that the car dealer paid when he bought the car from the manufacturer, when it's not? Why would they not reveal the fact that there's on the average $4,000 extra profit baked in that you don't know about? So it's one of these things that exist, and I guess everybody else says, well, it's always been that way. And it has been that way since I've been a dealer. I've been a dealer since 1968, and we had wholebacks then.

The only difference in holdback is it's growing. It's growing faster than hidden fees. I mean, hidden fees have gone from, you know, maybe a few dollars to $1,000, whereas the holdbacks are gone from a few dollars to $4,000, $6,000. Wow. I mean, lawyer, I wish a lawyer would call the show. What am I missing here? How is that not price fixing?

Well, I was always scratching my head thinking about the fact that we offer X number of dollars below invoice. I thought to myself, well, that seems like a way to become a bankrupt business. Yeah, the dealers, there are a lot of dealers that used to do this. They would say, I'm selling my cars at cost. I'm going to put the factory invoice on the window right next to the Monroe label. So they would put the, they would actually put the dealer invoice next to the, and Roney label and they would gladly sell you the car at the invoice because they're making $4,000 when they sell you the car. Most cars are sold below invoice. I mean, that's not now,

but before COVID, before this whole crazy microchip shortage thing happened. But for all these years, up until the past two and a half three years, most cars are sold below invoice because it's still a good price. It's still a good profit to the dealer. Well, one final quick question, and that is, when I go buy a place that's selling RVs, it looks like they have hundreds of RVs that are ready to be sold, and I'm wondering if there's any parallel with your business and RV sellers. Do they seem to have an extra, I don't know, access to chips and all of the other stuff that supposedly driving up these costs?

Why are so many RVs for sale? I don't know. I mean, that's just not in my expertise. but I see ads like you do. I just don't think that the supply to man thing has changed

that much. I think the RVs are a very small percentage of the total market when you look at motor vehicles, but I can't give you a good answer. I'm sorry. Okay, thanks a lot. Take care of 23 and Rick

go home and do something about that. Yeah. Yeah, he's working. on it. He's working on it. I'm sitting next to him. I want him to go home right now. Hey, Charles, thank you for your call. And gosh, what a, what a sensitive subject. And we, you know, we talked about it again. And I'm sure we'll be talking about it much more in 2023. The auto industry has just taken advantage of the fact that we were in a COVID, you know, the pandemic. And, you know, Any chance that they have to take advantage of the consumer, they do so. And thank you. We're all working on this together to eliminate all of this.

Happy New Year. Thank you. Same to you. Make sure you conclude it in your new book. Absolutely. I'll make a note right now for Earl. Thank you. 877.

Well, actually, I'm not going to give out that number. What I'm going to say is that before we get to the Mystery Shopping Report, you know, I can't end the show. without talking about Jeff, and if you don't know who I'm talking about, I'm talking about the investigative reporter, Jeff Weinsere, and what he did to step up and go forth and tell everyone about these car dealers and the truth about South Florida car dealers. I can't put it any better. Thank you, Jeff, and we continue to all work together in the right direction. going to go to the mystery shopping report, and it is from mystery shop of Southern 441 Nissan.

Please sit down for this one. Again, you can vote. So vote at 772-4976530. That's 772-497-6530. Well, Nancy said this is Southern 441 Nissan and West Palm Beach. And that's a Terry Taylor store, by the way. You'll hear us mention his name frequently because Terry Taylor is the largest private owner of car dealerships in the world, I guess. There's public companies like the Penske Auto Group and Sonic and AutoNation, and they're publicly traded on the stock exchange.

And those are large groups of dealerships do. But in this case here, this is a privately owned, a Terry Taylor, an individual, and he owns pretty close to 200 dealerships, I think. And he owns Southern 441 Nissan. You don't know that is owned by Terry Taylor because he keeps the name of the dealership typically that he buys. And he seems to have quite, he started in Florida in Miami a long time ago with a Mazza dealership. then he's acquired a huge number of dealerships. Again, I'm going to read this report as if I were the mystery shopper we call for Agent Lightning, and I'll speak in the first person.

I pulled into the dealership mid-morning in part. I walked around for about 10 minutes, observing window washers, clean the front of the show of them, and hoping to attract the attention of a salesperson. No one came out, so I went inside. nearly ran into a small group of men who were congregated on the other side of the glass doors. No one said anything for a moment. Then one of the men said, can I help you with something. I replied that I was just outside.

I wanted to see that black 2003 Nissan Rogue parked right near the front. I asked if it was available. The man said all the cars on the lot are available and told me to follow him. He didn't say his name, but according to the tag on his shirt, it was jewelry. I followed him inside, or perhaps Julio. We walked up to the car, the MSRP was $32,650. There's also an addendum, added the MSRP was on $1,973 for an appearance package, popular term they use, a thousand almost $2,000 to improve the appearance.

That included door-edge guards, window tent. window tent, leather guard, and the famous $4,995 market adjustment. Now we're looking at nearly, well, $6,968. Can we call that $7,000? $7,000 over MSRP. Julio questioned my choice, asking if I was sure I needed an all-wheel drive model. I said, I was quite sure I needed an all-wheel drive. He replied by telling me that this one had a new smaller engine,

only one and a half liters, but it was quicker than the old model. He also said it got great mileage. Julio got the keys. We took a short, quiet test drive, and then returned to the dealership. I waited until we were seated at his desk before I hit him with the addendum stuff. I asked him about the extra equipment and the $5,000 market adjustment. Julio said, all cars are MSRP plus plus, plus,

but we're here to sell cars and we'll work with you. Now, before I go any further report, if you're in this area in South Florida, this car dealership advertises on television. That's the Nissan Southern Royal Palm Nissan, Southern 441 Nissan. they go buy both names. And this particular car dealer

is advertising now for the past several weeks that he sells below MSRP. That's the TV ad. And if you've seen the ad, he has his two sons there. They're like twins. Adorable little guys. They're about eight or nine years old

and they do the TV ad with their father. And he says that they sell cars below MSRP. Now, so far, all we've seen is $7,000 over MSRP, so keep that picture of the TV ad in mind as if you're agent lightning

and you're talking to these salespeople. I continue with a report. I asked him about his advertisement that claimed they were selling cars below MSRP. He replied, well, that's hard to do and it's based on credit. Now, I had to scratch my head and read that about six times.

Based on credit, you know, the price is the price, right? Credit is when you finance the car. And if the price is high, you finance more. If the price is low, you finance less. But the credit is financing, and that's all there is to it. Why would the price be based on credit? I don't know. As a matter of fact, it's illegal to base price on credit.

It's a federal violation if you raise price to someone that has bad credit. and lower the price to someone that has good credit, you can't do that. That's illegal. But anyway, that's what Julio said. Julio asked me for my driver's license and personal information. Then he won't know if I plan to finance or pay cash. I gave him the standard answer, probably cash. Interest rates are too high.

Julio excused himself, said he'd be right back with my price. He returned shortly with the sales manager, Charlie. Charlie shook my hand and sat down and presented a worksheet for me. The top line labeled Market Value Selling Price was MSRP $32,650. Then he added $1973 for the appearance package. Under that the line was labeled TV ad. He spelled it wrong, ADD. TV ad under MSRP and he took off 900.

$179. Now, I don't get that. The TV ads said they were selling the cars below MSRP. They didn't say anything if they were adjusting the MSRP and then raised the price that they sold it for it. I'm totally confused. I'm sure that any buyer would be if they saw the TV ad. Then he added $285 in taxable fees. We all know what a taxable fee is. It's dealer profit. Then he added $999 doc fee. That's also a taxable fee, but they decided to call that one a dock fee. And it's suspiciously high. $781 for non-tax fees on that. It's supposed to be for tax and tag, but 781 sounds awfully high. We didn't do the math on that, but it is too high. The real price, including the under MSRP discount, was $34,

$24,927, which is $2,277 over MSRP. Okay, now we're not under MSRP, we're over, right? I raised the issue of the add-ons and the fees. Charlie told me they sell all of their cars with it and went on to try to sell me on the benefits of Leather Guard. Besides, he says, it's already been installed and can't be taken off. off. Don't you love that? Already been installed. I pointed out if it's already been installed and put it in the price you advertise and put it in the TV ad. If it's already been installed, don't advertise a price and then sneakily add a lot of stuff you say can't be

taken off. I pointed out that the miles on the worksheet read four miles with the odometer was over 90 miles. Charlie laughed. He thought that was really funny and asked me if that was going to cost him. Not going to cost him. It's going to cost me. I'm buying the car. So, Charlie asked me if we had a deal.

Right, yeah, we got a deal. I said, not quite and told him he needs to take off the appearance package. Charlie replied, done. I mean, this is really old school stuff. I mean, he dropped, what was the appearance? He dropped thousands of dollars and one quick wink.

Done. Off, okay. Now how do we have a deal? Did you see the old movie used cars? I mean, that goes back 30 years. What a classic. This sounds like the classic old used car. I mean, I haven't heard of salesmen talk like that

since I watched that movie used cars. I replied that I would need something in writing I could show my spouse before I agreed to anything. Now, you got to sit down for this. this one. Sit down for this one. I can show, I'll repeat this. I replied that I need something in writing. I can show my spouse before I agreed to anything. Charlie remarks, well, you're the one here. Why can't you make the decision yourself? I mean, talk about an abusive, offensive statement to me, a female. I'm speaking as if I were Agent Lightning, a female. I came my back at him,

said, would you spend $40,000 without informing your wife? Charlie answered, yes, I would. Now we've got an argument going on between a customer and the salesman. That's a great way to sell a car. You're making snide remarks at each other, and I'm a mystery shopper, and I'm having an argument with a salesman. And if I were a real customer, would I be buying a car? No.

You don't answer. Then he says, here comes the final comeback. He says, then you must not be married. I mean, anybody at that point would flee. They would run, they wouldn't walk out of that dealership. But Agent Lightning held her ground and stayed there. Charlie said he was married, so I challenged him to call his wife so we could see how she would feel about our hypothetical situation.

I said I was calling BS Charlie said he couldn't because his wife only spoke Spanish I suggested Julio could translate he spoke with a Spanish accent okay this is the silliest thing I've ever seen in a mystery shopping report but I'm reading to you exactly what happened in that moment I stopped I said I had enough

this wasn't going anywhere Charlie dropped the combative expression, too late, in my opinion, and told me not to go. No, no, please don't go. I didn't mean that. I didn't mean that. He said today was basically the last day of the year,

and he really wanted to sell me a car. He asked me to let him go talk to a salesman. I said, wait, I thought you were the sales bench. He said he was a salesman. Charlie says, I am, but there are three of us. And we all have to agree. As a jury, I'm going to the jury, and we have to get a verdict as to whether we'll sell you the car at this price. I'm not making this stuff up, folks.

This really happened. You have two minutes or I'm leaving. He was away for about 45 seconds with a new worksheet. He took $1773 of the $19173 appearance package off. That was it. Charlie asked if I was ready to move forward. They go with the finance. I still need to talk with my husband

and reach for the worksheet. Charlie gave it to Julio and said, hold on to this. No way they're going to let me have that worksheet. I was incredulous and asked why I couldn't show my husband. Julio held on to the worksheet. I couldn't even take a picture of it.

I told them how ridiculous I thought they were and left. So, I wouldn't believe you if you didn't believe me. I don't believe this. I'm going to hold this up, this is the advertisement, which says, who says you can't sell under MSRP from the TV screen? So that's what we, we win on that premise

because we couldn't believe there was actually a Nissan dealer in West Palm Beach advertising that they were selling a Nissan's below MSRP. And we were right. There isn't a Nissan dealer that selling cars below MSRP. They're just advertising. advertising that. And of course, why isn't someone doing something about that? You knew what I was going to say next. You knew I was going to use the word Ashley Moody. And Ashley Moody, why is she allowing this to happen? She's got the video clips. You get right off the internet and find out that this dealer, Southern 441 Nissan, Royal Palm, Nissan, in West Palm Beach, is a advertising they're selling new cars below MSRP and they're not even coming

close so you can't advertise something that's not true it's violation of the unfair deceptic trade practices act you can't do that it's illegal Ashley Moody do something about it so here we are we're getting up to voting time and we have to decide whether we grade that an A B C D or F If it's an A, B, C, or D, it goes on a recommended list with the grade, with a grade. So on the recommended list, you can see the A's and the B's and the C's and the D's. If it's an F, it goes on the do not buy list. So F means that's it.

We recommend you don't buy from this dealer. So we'll wait for the votes to come in. We'll find out what the votes are. And we'll let you know and please do vote. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's 772-497-6530. And for all of you who know me out there, the old-timers that have been listening, did you notice how quiet I was? Didn't make a comment.

Anyway, let's get the votes in. Well, I've got Sue Fogelman with an F. Oh, thank you, Sue. Joseph Keller F. We invite liars. Want someone to read out for you? coming. I'll let you read the text messages coming in. Scott Hunter with an F. Tom Steckle, give them a big D minus, addendum is worthless, bogus taxable fees,

outrageous dealer fees, and overstated tag fees. Mr. Haney from Green Acres runs this dealership. John Strime, F. Rocky Blockadele, F is for false advertising. Mark Smith with an F Tim Gilliland Too many red flags Run do not walk away Arguing with customers

There's no way to sell cars Gynormous F Brian said Lacko Too many fees and false advertisement Give them an F Igor F minus Okay let's see here Jonathan and Wellington

7,000 over MSRP 441 one's a long road full of respectable dealerships, keep driving. This one's an F. Tom, strong, oh, okay, we already got that his in. That's a D from Tom. Agent Sprinkle here. F for fake TV ad fees and foolish conversation. Bob would have been a D, but the F for Southern 441 has already been installed. That's a good one. Mark and Palm Beach Gardens FFF

and Marie totally disgusting performance by a car salesman F is too good for him and that dealership rating and for me I'm saying an F

I mean they just when you start arguing the customer and you lie I'm the sales manager but obviously you're not nah too many games stay away from there absolutely I'm going to go ahead and would you like to put your vote in Earl

F okay and Rick voted and it's my turn and I've kept quiet but it is my turn and you know I'm simply appalled in this 21st century that there would be such superior attitude the demeaning behavior the condescending sending I just don't know how to put this in one word and my goodness gracious what an embarrassment I have no vote I have no vote I couldn't I don't even want to be part of that

what I want to do is take a shower thank you well this might be the lowest vote of all time So we'll put this. I'm sure you're going on the do not buy list. And if anyone from Royal Palm Nissan, Southern 441 Nissan is listening, we'll be back. I mean, we're going to give you a chance to redeem yourselves. But whoever the salesperson was shouldn't be working there, in my opinion.

And maybe you've got some good salesmen. But the advertisement is totally deceptive. And you're going to get in trouble unless you change it. narrowing down to one person, uh-uh, I don't. It's the whole dealership. I have to say thank you, thank you to our Agent Lightning. Agent Sprinkles, Agent Lightning, what a job you have done this past year. You never cease to amaze us. Thank you for everything, Agent Lightning, your expertise. And standing up to these guys, boy, you did a hell of a job. I'm proud of you. Stay tuned next week.

We'll be right back here next year, 2023. Happy New Year, everyone, and God bless. Go! Go! Back go! Back! Go! Take go!