Earl Stewart On Cars

OPEN LETTER TO AUTO MANUFACTURERS:

FROM: EARL STEWART

Dear Auto Manufacturer,

I’ve owned and operated a Toyota dealership in Lake Park (near North Palm Beach), Florida since 1975. If you wonder who I am and why I’m writing you, Google “Earl Stewart” and “dealer fee”, click on www.EarlOnCars.com, and buy a copy of Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealeron Amazon.

I have a solution to the image problem the car buying public has with most of your dealers. As you know, the way your dealers retail the vehicles you manufacture has caused them to be distrusted and disliked by most of their customers. The Gallup Company has polled U.S. vehicle buyers every year since 1977 in a survey entitled Honesty and Ethics in Professions. For all 41 of those years, car salespeople have ranked last, or near last, among all the professions. Click onhttp://news.gallup.com/poll/1654/honesty-ethics-professions.aspx.

I understand why you’ve been unable improve the honesty and ethics in the way your dealers retail your vehicles. Over many years car dealers, the National Auto Dealers Association (NADA) and their state organizations have lobbied “franchise protection” laws in all 50 states into effect that protect car dealers from their manufacturers. These state franchise laws make it difficult or impossible to terminate a franchise agreement or add another franchised dealer near an established dealer, despite “bad behavior” by the established dealer. The franchise laws require you to treat each of your dealers as an “independent businessmen” that can make their own decisions with respect to advertising and sales practices.

I’ve been a car dealer since 1968 and I know that many car dealers would rather sell cars in an honest, ethical, and transparent way; however, they hesitate for fear of losing sales to those among their competitors that employ dishonest advertising and deceptive sales practices. They see that bait and switch advertising and deceptive sales practices “work” (especially on the less educated and vulnerable members of our society). I, too, was one of those dealers I've been criticizing now for many years. However, I changed. I changed for many reasons but the best reason for me and for why other dealers might also change is this: The knowledge and sophistication of the American consumers, especially millennials, has soared since the beginning of the 21st century. Car buyers are much smarter, more demanding, and have access via the Internet, Google, and the social media to the knowledge explosion.

My proposition to you is to employ the Earl Stewart brand and way of retailing cars to the vehicles you manufacture. Check out my dealership, www.EarlStewartToyota.com. I outsell all your dealers between Orlando and Cocoanut Creek (near Ft. Lauderdale) on the East coast of Florida while maintaining extremely high customer satisfaction. I do this by posting and advertising my lowest price on every new and used car. I offer a 100% unconditional money back guarantee on every car sold. Every customer has my personal cell phone number (561 358-1474) and the cell phone numbers of all of my managers. Every department in my dealership has a red hotline phone hardwired to my cellphone which reaches me 7 days a week. I employ a rigid code of behavior for all my employees. You can read the Earl Stewart Code by clicking on www.EarlStewartCode.com. When I sell or service a car my customers return to me at a higher percentage than virtually every Toyota dealer in the Southeast and the USA... you know this as "customer retention."

Mr. Auto Manufacturer, verify my claims, call me, visit my dealership and if I speak the truth, let me do what I do for your brand of vehicle. Putting the Earl Stewart brand on your make will result in an immediate and significant increase in sales, customer satisfaction and your dealer’s image, especially in the South Florida market.

Sincerely,

Earl Stewart

561 358-1474