Nancy Stewart and I did a weekly radio talk show on Seaview Radio in North Palm Beach for 7 years, took a year off, and now we’re back on the radio with a 2 hour weekly talk show, Earl Stewart on Cars, every Tuesday from 4-6 PM. You can tune in this show at “900 AM the Talk of the Palm Beaches” or you can stream it at www.StreamEarlOnCars.com. Every week we send a mystery shopper into a South Florida car dealership that pretends to buy or lease a car. I discuss the results on my radio show every week. This information allows me to build a dealer database of information that is very beneficial to you when you go out to buy or lease a car. Because my information from a year ago is somewhat dated, I’m beginning a new list of dealers I recommend and those that I don’t.I use information in addition to the mystery shopping reports in constructing this list including my personal acquaintance with certain car dealers, Google ratings and other business rating services, and input from customers of these dealers. I get a lot of emails, letters, and phone calls from people that have been taken advantage of. I also get some calls from customers of dealers that received good treatment. I encourage you to contact my with any information about your recent car buying experiences. My email address is earl@estoyota.com and you can call or text me at 561 358-1474. Finally, I look at dealers who are affiliated with TrueCar, www.TrueCar.com. In full disclosure, I’m a TrueCar dealer, stockholder, and a member of their national dealer council. Being a TrueCar dealer doesn’t get a dealer on my Good Dealer List, but it is a positive sign. AutoNation is the dealership group in the USA with about 250 dealerships. There are a large number in South Florida. I admire and respect Michael Jackson, the CEO of AutoNation and believe he encourages his dealerships to do the right thing by their customers, but just like TrueCar, there are AutoNation dealers who don’t qualify for my Good Dealer List. Mike Jackson can’t personally police 250 dealerships.
I also encourage car dealers to contact me with information as to why they should be on the Good Dealer List or why they should be removed from the Bad Dealer List. I have a large following in South Florida and I honestly believe that being on the Good Dealer List would be good for business. In fact, I would be happy to meet with any car dealers who would like to sit down and discuss this with me.
I’m releasing these lists before they are finished because of the large number of requests I’m getting from the public. Please understand that this list is not complete and is a “work in progress”. Dealers that appear on these lists will be supplemented and some will be deleted. I strongly urge you to let me know of any experiences that you’ve had with any dealers on either list, good or bad. Finally, please be advised that being on the Good Dealer List doesn’t mean that you can “let down your guard”. The dealers on this list are the better than others but none have received an A+ rating from our mystery shopper. The 2nd best score on this list was Gunther Volkswagen of Delray with a B+. Some of these dealers have received C and C- scores. I’m hoping to see all the scores improve on this list, but sadly, the average car dealership in South Florida is not nearly as good as it can and should be.
Finally, I debated with myself long and hard about including my dealership on the Good Dealer List. Doing so gives the appearance of being self-serving. In fact, it is self-serving. I admit this but that is not why I included it; I did so because I honestly believe we are a Good Dealership. I give my dealership an A- rating because I know we can improve and we will.
Good Dealer List
- Mullinax Ford in North Palm Beach
- Schumacher Chevrolet in North Palm Beach
- Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach
- Johnson Honda; Stuart
- Delray Nissan (AutoNation) in Delray
- Wallace Hyundai in Stuart
- Delray Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram in Delray
- Gunther Kia in Ft. Lauderdale
- Schumacher GMC in North Palm Beach
- Delray Subaru in Delray
- Vista BMW in Pompano Beach
- Gunther VW in Delray
- Mercedes Benz of Delray in Delray
- Gunther Mazda in Ft. Lauderdale
- JM Lexus in Cocoanut Creek
- Schumacher Buick in North Palm Beach
- Audi of Stuart in Stuart
- Grieco Mazda of North Palm Beach
- Napleton Hyundai of West Palm Beach and North Palm Beach
- West Palm Beach Kia
- Napleton Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram of North Palm Beach
- Napleton Kia in Riviera Beach
- Napleton Nissan in Riviera Beach
- Al Hendrickson Toyota in Coconut Creek
- Lake Park Mitsubishi
- Braman Honda in Greenacres
Good to see the list! It would be also helpful to actually put the grades with the dealerships and maybe a short note of explanation for each. Note that Delray Dodge is on the list several times for some reason?
ReplyDeleteDan, thanks for pointing out the multiple listing for Delray Dodge. This was corrected. I will be listing the actual scores as you suggested. Suffice it to say that all of the dealers on the Bad list scored "D" or "F", but I need to score all of the Good Dealers too. This is a work in progress and I would appreciate your input and that of others.
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