Open Letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis

Dear Governor DeSantis,

 
You probably don’t know me, but I’m a native Floridian, born in Ft. Lauderdale in 1940. I’ve owned and operated Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach since 1975, after beginning in the car business as a Pontiac dealer in 1968. For about the last 20 years I’ve evolved into a consumer advocate for car-buyers, advising them how to buy a car in Florida without getting ripped off.

 
I became a consumer advocate for car-buyers because I came to realize that my chosen profession as a car dealer was regarded by the public as the most dishonest and unethical of all other professions. Governor, did you know that the Gallup Annual Poll on Honesty and Ethics in Professions has ranked car dealers at the bottom or next to the bottom for the past 48 years? The honesty and ethics of car dealers in our state, Florida, is the worst of all 50 states. Florida is the beast; South Florida is the “belly of the beast”.

 
Governor DeSantis, I challenge you to find one price advertisement for a new vehicle in Florida that is honest. In other words, one that allows you to buy the car for the ad price (excluding only the government fees of sales tax and license plate). If you can do this, I’ll write an apology to you and the car dealers that advertised those prices.

 
Only car dealers are allowed by Florida’s regulators to get away with this. All other retailers comply with Florida laws to advertise real prices without hidden fees or extra, undisclosed options. The two largest retailers in World, Walmart and Amazon comply. Check Florida Statute 501, section 976, actionable, unfair, or deceptive acts or practices and you’ll confirm that virtually all Florida car dealer price advertisements are illegal. They’re illegal, not only by Florida law but federal law, the FTC. The Federal Trade Commission prohibits any fine print that will serve to increase the advertised price.

 
Your Attorney General, Ashley Moody, should be acting against all car dealers violating Florida and federal laws. Other AGs in many other states are acting, including against Florida car dealers. Why do Floridians need to rely on an Attorney General from Arizona to discipline Ed Napleton, a Florida car dealer?

By the way, Governor, I’m a realist and pragmatist. I understand how politics work and I know what it takes to get elected. I have my problems with politics and politicians, but our system is the greatest on the Planet and every day I’m thankful to be an American. I think you’re missing a huge opportunity by not coming down on dishonest, unethical car dealers. Most voters’ own cars and must do business with car dealers regularly. Most voters also fear and/or despise their experience…” I’d rather have a root canal than buy a car”. If you became a champion for the car buyers of Florida and the nation, you’d garner a lot of admiration and thanks, maybe resulting in the casting of their votes for you for he next President of the United States.

Yours Truly,

Earl Stewart
The Recovering Car Dealer

*Note: This column appears in The Florida Weekly. The Hometown News, who publishes my regular column, refused to print this column, citing my references to politicians and car dealers.

Your Car is Safer to Drive after a Collision When it’s Repaired at a Certified Dealer’s Body Shop

Fewer than 1 out of 5 vehicles involved in crashes are repaired at a dealership certified by the manufacturer of that vehicle. Most insurance owned body shops and independently owned body shops will use the cheapest fenders, bumpers, roof and door panels and other crash parts to repair your car. These parts aren’t made by the manufacturer of your car and are often Imported from other countries. No other countries have as strict and safe requirements regarding the manufacturing of auto parts than the United States.

 

When your car was sold as new, it was required by the NHTSA, National Highway Traffic Safety Association, to use crash parts that have passed safety crash tests. Only original equipment manufacturer, OEM, parts are safety tested. Other non-OEM parts manufacturers and your insurance company will tell you that their parts are “certified”, but that only alludes to quality, not safety. Your insurance company does not require OEM parts because they’re more expensive and therefore insurance company owned body shops and independent body shops use mostly aftermarket, non-safety tested, crash parts.

The dealer for the manufacturer of your car can buy original equipment parts from the manufacturer for about 40% less, than a non-dealership operated body shop. Therefore, he has the motivation to use the best and safest parts to repair your car. Non-dealership body shops must buy the parts to repair your car form dealership of that make. Of course, the dealership marks up the price well above his cost. Therefore, these non-dealership body shops usually buy cheap, non-safety tested parts overseas.

 

Imagine a front-end collision at 40 mph and think how quickly and precisely your airbag must open to keep you safe. The computer that opens your airbag must “know” how fast the bumper, hood, fenders, and doors of your car will collapse to safely deploy your airbag. Deploying your airbag too soon or too late could be fatal. NHTSA testing verifies that all crash parts will collapse at a speed specified by the NHTSA. Crash parts not manufactured to these specifications can collapse too fast or too slow, causing you injury or death.

 

After a collision, most victims are anxious and upset, more likely to be vulnerable to bad advice. Don’t let this happen to you. There are a lot of entities that might “have their fingers in the pie”. That is, have “something to gain” by steering you to a specific body shop. Your insurance company probably has “preferred shops” that they’ll suggest but remember that they’re paying for the repair. The police on the scene may have a suggestion for a body shop they’re familiar with and usually know a towing company. The police’s first concern is getting the wrecked cars out of the street as quickly as possible. The towing companies often have relationships with insurance companies. They’re paid by the insurance company for towing and for storing your car on their lot.

 

Remember that you have the legal right to choose the body shop that repairs your vehicle. You should insist on your right to choose the best and safest place to repair your car. Nobody cares more about your safety and the safety of your family than you.

You Were Overcharged When You Purchased Your Leased Car

Participate in a Class Action Lawsuit to Repay You

Almost one-third of all vehicles on the road are leased. All lease contracts include an option to purchase the vehicle at a price predetermined by the leasing company.

 
Many lessees don’t know about their option to purchase at a specific price. Those who do know are usually unaware that the dealer and leasing company cannot increase the purchase option price included in the lease contract. In fact, this is common practice by almost all car dealers and the leasing companies are almost always complicit in this violation of the federal Consumer Leasing Act of 1976.

 
The violation of the law has been very common, perhaps because few people asked to exercise this option. In the past 2 ½ years, with the advent of the Covid pandemic, more people are leasing, and far more people are exercising their option to purchase. This is because the prices of all used cars have soared!

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the consumer price index for used cars and truck jumped up by 40.5% from January 2021. That means that if you leased a used car in January of 2021, your purchase option price is about 40% lower that the market value. The leasing company that established the purchase option price didn’t foresee the surge in used car prices. Most people driving lease cars have several thousands of dollars in PROFIT baked into today’s market value of the car they’re driving.

Of course, auto dealers and leasing companies are very much aware of the profit opportunity in your lease cars option to purchase. They hope you don’t know about the option because they want the car for themselves. If you do know about and exercise the option, the dealers are adding thousands of dollars on top of your option price. This is illegal and a violation of the federal Consumer Leasing Act of 1976.

If you’ve already been victimized, there’s still hope that you can “be made whole” again. Public awareness is growing. WPLG, Channel 10 in Ft. Lauderdale recently reported on this crime and there are many car dealers being sued. I’ve written several articles about this, and you can access those articles at www.EarlOnCars.com.

 
You also have an opportunity to participate in a national class action suit which may be filed against Ally Financial and Ally Bank Lease Trust. If you leased Chevrolet, Buick, GMC truck, Cadillac, Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge or Mitsubishi, you probably used Ally. If you’ve been told by your car dealer that you must pay a price higher than the purchase option amount on your lease contract or if you’ve already done so, you have a cause for action.

 
A South Florida resident, Moshe Katzburg, will represent the class action, and you can join in. Email Moshe Katzburg at moshekatzburg@hotmail.com with a complete description of how you were taken advantage of…dealer’s name and information on the car you leased and the purchase option price. Describe the extra charges above the option price that the dealer insisted on. Mr. Katzburg would prefer email but will speak to you if you need to call. His cell phone number is 845-323-6143 and you may text him there also.

Punishment Should Fit the Crime... and the Criminal’s Pocket Book

Have you ever wondered why 95% of all drivers routinely exceed the speed limit? Not only do most drivers wantonly exceed most speed limits, but it’s also often dangerous if you don’t speed when everyone else is. According to Bankrate.com, the average speeding fine in most states is only $150. This cost is relatively low to the average car owner, and a driver’s odds of being the one pulled over by the police are miniscule. The result of these low, “slap-on-the-wrist” traffic fines that are rarely administered is that virtually every driver speeds and traffic deaths and injuries are very high.

 
Regular readers of this column know about the recent “slap on the wrist” given a large auto dealer group owned by Ed Napleton. The FTC settled with the Napleton group, 71 franchises in 7 states for $10 million for allegedly cheating his customers out of $70 million. That’s a “pretty good deal” for Napleton…700% return on his “investment”. Oh, and guess what? My EarlOnCars.com mystery shopper went into two of his South Florida dealerships after he was fined and learned that he’s still deceiving his customers for the same things that he settled with the FTC for!

The May 30, 2022, edition of Automotive News (the trade journal for all auto dealers and manufacturers) features an editorial entitled “Weak Fines do little to deter bad behavior”. They mentioned Chrysler Corp., now known as Stellantis, pleading guilty in the federal courthouse over fraudulent emission testing. Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge/Stellantis will pay $300 million in penalties. Now, I know that sounds like lots of money to you and me but compare this to the $2 billion that Volkswagen agreed to pay in 2017 for the same crime. The $300 Million settlement by Chrysler-Jeep/Stellantis represents “29 hours” of their North American first quarter revenue!

There is a concept in our law called “Punitive Damages”. All businesses fear this when they’re sued because the amount of the fine is left up to a jury and the amount of the fine can’t be covered by insurance. The jury is instructed by the court to take into consideration the extent of the crime and the net worth of the company or individual charged. That means that punitive damages for you or me would be far less than those for Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos for the same crime or bad behavior.

 
This principle should be incorporated into all fines and penalties. Why should a working mom, struggling to make ends meet pay the same fine as Warren Buffet? By the way, Warren Buffet, himself, says that his “secretary” pays more income tax than he does. Folks, there’s something seriously wrong without system of laws and fines.

 
As most of my regular readers know, most car dealers have been breaking the same laws on advertising and sales practices repeatedly for nearly 100 years. Their powerful lobbyists protect them from new laws to protect car-buyers, the enforcement of old laws already on the books, and minimize the fines when they are caught.