In an intriguing dialogue, Josh and Justin delve into prevalent car buying challenges, focusing on the increase in vehicle prices and the conditions under which it is wise to invest in a new or used car. They shed light on numerous consumer stories and the strategies to safeguard against unplanned expenses and legal entanglements associated with emissions compliance. They underline the exciting comeback of financing incentives and discounts in the current market scene, making it an opportune moment for prospective buyers. As they guide listeners through the maze of modern auto shopping, they intertwine essential insights on maintenance practices,
SPEAKER 10 :
It’s a mighty fancy automobile. Oh, she’s a real road king, all right. Zero to 60 in 7.5. She’ll do a quarter of a mile, 13.40. 390 horsepower, 500 foot-pounds of torque. Whatever that is.
SPEAKER 19 :
Performance and image, that’s what it’s all about.
SPEAKER 03 :
There’s no such thing as a stupid question. This is Drive Radio. All of your automotive questions are just one phone call away. 303-477-5600. Drive Radio is made possible by the member shops of Colorado Select Auto Care Centers. To find one near you, go to drive-radio.com. Now, Drive Radio on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 07 :
And we’re back. It’s Josh and Justin from Ridgeline Auto Brokers and Legacy Automotive. And we’ll go back into the question of the day. What is the worst accessory you’ve ever put on your car?
SPEAKER 04 :
Worst thing you got in that accessory aisle.
SPEAKER 07 :
Worst thing you ordered from J.C. Whitney.
SPEAKER 04 :
What was it? I kind of wanted to segue the last conversation of car buying and tariffs into a couple problems that we’ve seen some of our customers run into recently. I’ve got one customer that bought a Volvo XC90. Didn’t pay very much for this vehicle. Paid $2,000 for this vehicle. Did not get an emissions test from the customer. and didn’t know that he needed that, and then found out that he had a gas tank leak, and that gas tank leak was the same price as the car to repair. So make sure if we’re buying cars from private parties that we are getting and passing a missions inspection. So I understand for some people that you only have $2,000, but you’ve still got to be able to register the vehicle and put plates on the vehicle.
SPEAKER 07 :
And drive the car down the road, yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
And then we ran into another one that bought a vehicle from, I won’t say the name, but a big national used car firm. Higher priced car, kind of in the mid-teens, $20,000. And this was a sports car. This vehicle had been tuned. Those bigger dealers do not pre-emissions their vehicles. They give you an Air Care Colorado coupon so that you can go get the emissions test. On that coupon, you have three business days to get that vehicle through emissions. Well, he did not because this vehicle was tuned and he had some check engine light stuff tuned out of it. It failed the emissions test. He tested it a week or two after he bought the vehicle. This company is not taking back the car. And now these tune shops are going away with all the EPA stuff.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
Who’s going to fix this car for him?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
So he’s dead in the water with a loan on the car, can’t get plates on it, and had to buy another car from us so that he could register a vehicle.
SPEAKER 07 :
A non-compliant car they’re dealing with.
SPEAKER 04 :
There’s not a lot of protections in Colorado for the consumer. Whether you’re buying from a dealership, whether you’re buying from a private party, I mean, 230 seconds on the tires.
SPEAKER 08 :
Great.
SPEAKER 04 :
The windshield cannot be cracked. All the seatbelts need to work. Passes emissions. Is there anything else that we need to do in Colorado to sell a car to somebody?
SPEAKER 07 :
No, other than that, you’re the owner.
SPEAKER 04 :
Again, I know we’ve maybe beaten a dead horse, but we’ve gone over it. If you’re buying a used vehicle, spend $200 or $300 to have one of the select auto care shops look this thing over. And it’s probably going to need a couple things, and that’s okay.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, it’s a used car.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’ll need some things.
SPEAKER 07 :
But then you know what you have.
SPEAKER 04 :
Get a baseline.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, you got a baseline. You know there might be something that needs to be fixed right now, and then things that you can put off six months to a year.
SPEAKER 04 :
And if you’ve got a good mechanic, he can say, yeah, this is an okay car. You need to do this first, do this second. Maybe you get a little negotiation power with that inspection. Right. Maybe not. It all depends. It depends on the dealer that you’re dealing with. But please, please, please get an inspection done on a used car before you purchase it.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, it’s the second most expensive thing you’re going to buy in your lifetime. It’s a car besides your house, so.
SPEAKER 04 :
And once you buy that car and they’ve given you an emissions test or you’ve gotten the emissions test, you’re an owner.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yep, you are.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s not going back.
SPEAKER 07 :
And, you know, we’ve seen it a few times where people, you know, they come to us after they bought the wrong car. And the wrong car has put them in a position in life that they’re in trouble, you know, financially. And they’re still stuck with that car. They gave it back and now they’re having trouble because they gave the car back. Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
And whether or not the tariffs are going to increase the prices of new or used cars, we don’t know yet. We’re just riding the wave right now, too. What I can say is car prices are up 6.6% year over year. The vehicles that are most up are larger trucks. SUVs, luxury is the highest. Luxury vehicles are up over 8% year over year. The cars that have not increased in price are your commuter vehicles. So subcompact cars have gone up about 0.3%. So if you’re looking for a subcompact car, those are still affordable. New car dealerships are sitting on a lot of inventory right now.
SPEAKER 08 :
They are.
SPEAKER 04 :
So if you’re looking at something that’s not, you know, a specialty vehicle, you know, like an SRT or, you know, something like that. Now’s probably a good time to jump on board because there’s some steep discounts. You’re starting to see some finance incentives again that we didn’t see post-COVID. You know, that 0%, 1.9%, 0.9%. That all went away. That is now back.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right, it’s been like almost five years it feels like since we’ve seen that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER 04 :
So now’s a good time, especially if you need to finance, you can get a good deal. You can get cheaper money than what we were able to get before. Or in lieu of the financing, if you’re a cash buyer or you have your own finance company that you want to deal with, there’s some pretty steep discounts on new vehicles right now. So now may be a time to jump on board and maybe pre-tariff if that is going to affect it. Right now you can get a discount.
SPEAKER 11 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
And the tariffs haven’t affected anything yet. Don’t let a dealer tell you that they have. They’re going to try.
SPEAKER 07 :
They will.
SPEAKER 04 :
They’re going to try to tell you that, oh, no, prices have increased because of tariffs. They have not increased yet.
SPEAKER 08 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
So don’t let them play that game. Don’t let them play that game at the parts store yet either.
SPEAKER 07 :
They’ve tried that too.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’m not going to play the game with them yet. If we see that come up and next time we’re on the air, we’ll give you the insight into what we’re seeing there. But do you agree now is probably the time to buy a new or used car if you’re in the market for a car?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, if you need a car, now is the time to get one, you know, before the tariffs come on and the prices come up on it.
SPEAKER 04 :
They’re begging to sell you something right now.
SPEAKER 07 :
They are. And, you know, that’s the good thing with, you know, the dealer financing. They’re beating whatever most banks are giving you on a loan.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, yeah. I mean, our average on a used car right now, interest rate, granted, we saw a little bit older, you know, vehicle than, than, you know, the new car dealerships are going to sell, but we’re seeing customers leave 10, 11, 12% and first time buyers or younger buyers upwards of 21. I mean, almost, almost predatory loans. Um, but they, they’ve got to cover their risk analysis too. I mean, they don’t come up with these, these numbers for nothing, but. Yeah, new car interest rates right now are screaming good if you’re looking for something new.
SPEAKER 07 :
They are. Yeah, because they’re able to write some of that money into the car, you know, on it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Plus you get your warranty. You do. I think you get maintenance packages now, even though they don’t really want to do the oil changes very often, these 10,000 mile oil changes they want to do.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, whatever they wrote the package at is what they’re sticking with. I’ve seen it so many times.
SPEAKER 04 :
Take whatever the dealer is telling you for fluid maintenances and cut it in half.
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, yeah, they all want to go 10,000 miles on it.
SPEAKER 04 :
The one thing we did see go away is the lifetime transmission fluid.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s starting to come back.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, that’s going away now that the transmissions are grenading. They’re backpedaling on that. Subaru said that. Subaru was lifetime fluid on their CVT transmissions. And now they’ve changed it to it needs to be changed every 24,000 because of the problems they’ve had.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right. And that’s where they were with their engines, too. They were, you know, 10,000 miles on their oil changes, and now they’re like 7.5.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, they’re backing those down now, too.
SPEAKER 07 :
They’ve backed those down, too.
SPEAKER 04 :
I remember Nissan was the same way. Nissan, when the CVT came out, they said it’s a lifetime fluid. It’s a sealed unit. You never service it. Well, now they’ve got remanufactured CVT transmissions on the shelf. $2,500? Right.
SPEAKER 1 :
$3,000.
SPEAKER 04 :
I mean, what’s an average transmission cost?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 1 :
$5,000, $6,000, $7,000?
SPEAKER 04 :
It is. Yeah, they’re selling them cheap to keep people happy because they’re already having problems.
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, they are. Yeah, all those CVTs from Nissan have been a lot of trouble.
SPEAKER 04 :
Nissan can’t seem to sell anything other than an EV right now, too. Right. I think they’re selling a lot of the Leafs. I think they’re selling a lot of the Arias. But their other models… They’re not selling them right now. They’re hurting.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, especially the stuff they make money on, you know, like the SUVs, the bigger SUVs and stuff like that. I don’t see a whole lot of those out there running around right now.
SPEAKER 04 :
So if you’re looking for a new car, I think now’s probably the time.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yep, exactly. Well, we’re going to take a little break and we’ll be right back.
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SPEAKER 07 :
legacy automotive boulder where expertise meets excellence and we’re back it’s josh and justin with ridgeline auto brokers and legacy automotive here and uh we were talking to larry off the air and he had some good points about if you are broke down someplace how do you find a good shop to go to
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I mean, you want to find someone reputable.
SPEAKER 07 :
Exactly.
SPEAKER 04 :
So, you know, Larry was saying, you know, you can go to your local Napa, you know, parts store. They’re all over the place. And go to a Napa Auto Care Center.
SPEAKER 08 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, all the Napa Auto Care Centers, a normal Napa Auto Care Center, you’re getting a two-year, 24,000-mile warranty on whatever repair they do. And then they’ve got a gold program.
SPEAKER 07 :
They do. And that puts you due to three years, 36,000 miles. And if you’re not able to get in the auto parts store, you can go to NapaAutoCare.com, and they’ll point you to the nearest one. But the good thing is, I mean, we’ve even had it where people were out on vacation, and we put a good Napa part in it, but it didn’t make it. You know, they got home and all that, but, you know, about a year later, all of a sudden, that water pump that we put in is leaking, and it’s easy. Just call this number and go to your nearest Napa Auto Care, and it’s taken care of.
SPEAKER 04 :
Nationwide warranty.
SPEAKER 07 :
Nationwide, exactly.
SPEAKER 04 :
So no matter where you’re at in the nation, if you had a part installed at a Napa Auto Care center and that part fails, you go to another Napa Auto Care center wherever you’re at, they’re going to fix it parts and labor for free. No deductibles, no cost to the customer at all.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right. That’s it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Kind of stinks to be down for a little while, but usually we put those people as a priority.
SPEAKER 08 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
We always put road trip people as a priority. Our local customers, we put in loaner cars, so they’re usually okay. But if you’re on a road trip and you get stuck and… In Longmont, Fort Collins, Boulder, we’re always happy to help get you on the road in an expedited time. BG also has the BG Fluid. They also have a Find-A-Shop. app on their website so you can type in your zip code your city and state and it will get you to the nearest you know bg site as well and if you’re buying the bg products from a a bg retailer that comes with a warranty and guarantee as well it does So if you do a BG transmission service and the vehicles within, they have mileage stipulations. There’s one program that’s 50,000 miles or less, another program that’s 75,000 miles or less. If that transmission fails, I think if you’re under 50,000 miles, they’ll give you up to $4,000 to replace that transmission. If you’re 75,000 miles or less, they’ll give you up to $2,000 to replace that transmission. Same thing with engine. If you’re doing… an EPR MOA 44K service, and that engine detonates, you know, you have a breakdown because of an internally lubricated part, same thing. They’re going to contribute to the cost of that repair.
SPEAKER 08 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
So I think a lot of people don’t know that. I think a lot of shops…
SPEAKER 07 :
don’t know that too that sell bg that there there are some guarantees from their products they believe in them that much they do and it’s a good thing i mean it doesn’t pay for the whole engine job or transmission job but it makes it where you know you can get back on the road and you’re not out the full you know anymore engines are going through the roof we’re doing ten thousand dollar engine jobs and transmissions are about there too so they’re getting up they’re getting up there so it’s you know it helps cover you know especially at four thousand you’re almost there on some of these transmissions.
SPEAKER 04 :
It feels like that 2020 COVID era where used parts, used engines, used transmissions, which a lot of us need to do, you know, when we lose a major powertrain component, that stuff went up and that stuff has not come back down.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, it has not at all.
SPEAKER 04 :
If anything, it feels like it’s, that is still increasing.
SPEAKER 07 :
And it seems like because what happened there, or at least what I saw was that, you know, in the past we had a lot of parts sitting in the junkyard. Well, during COVID we couldn’t get parts, so we started buying a lot more stuff from the recyclers than we ever did just to put people back on the road because it was the only part to get you back on the road. So we’ve kind of picked the junkyards clean. And that’s why they know that not everybody has these parts lying around, so they’re going to get more money out of them all.
SPEAKER 04 :
And I don’t think reuse and recycle is a bad thing.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, it’s not.
SPEAKER 04 :
So if you can afford a new part, obviously that’s probably going to be the best bang for your buck. But there’s nothing wrong with reusing things that are still good. So recycling is an okay thing. Yeah, exactly. So it’s a good thing. Getting back into our summer road trip thing, any advice with pets?
SPEAKER 07 :
You know, it’s always hard with the hot car thing, especially. And also make sure a lot of states, I know they don’t worry about it as much, but if you’re flying to Alaska or Hawaii, you’re going to have to have a vet certificate, something that you’re aware of with the horses. Most of the states around here don’t monitor it when you’re bringing pets across state lines. But if you are going to Alaska or Hawaii with your pets, you need to see the veterinarian and have them checked out before they go.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s not just livestock.
SPEAKER 07 :
It’s not just livestock. Technically, it’s not.
SPEAKER 04 :
So if you’re going across state lines, so even if you’re taking a trip to Cheyenne.
SPEAKER 07 :
If you’re taking Fluffy to Cheyenne, in theory, but nobody’s monitoring it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Probably not.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, it’s always the ones usually that I’ve seen the most is Alaska and Hawaii because you’re flying in.
SPEAKER 04 :
Now, and I know in New Mexico and Arizona, livestock enforcement can stop you for no reason. They do not have to have a reason to stop you if you have an out-of-state plate. They can pull you over and make sure that you’ve got your vet certificates.
SPEAKER 08 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
So… folks out there that have that horses, make sure you’re getting your vet certificate. A lot of times, if you’re seeing your vet regularly, they’re not going to charge you anyways, right? A lot of times, or they’ll charge you a minimal amount, make sure you have that, or they will confiscate your livestock. They’ll take them. So yeah, very, very important. And the frequent stops as well. You know, don’t you, your dog needs to use the restroom.
SPEAKER 07 :
It does.
SPEAKER 04 :
Horses are only two or three hours. They need to get out. They need to walk. They can’t be cooped up in there. Those trailers are hot. So I think that’s another good thing, too. Take frequent stops for your animals.
SPEAKER 08 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
And leaving your dogs or your kids in a hot car, like, come on.
SPEAKER 1 :
I know.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hopefully we don’t need to talk about that.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, you don’t want to sit in there either, so.
SPEAKER 04 :
Any advice on keeping kids entertained? I guess we’ve all got these iPods and no one reads a book anymore.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, I think it’s a little bit easier maybe than it used to be because they can all stare at the screen the whole time.
SPEAKER 04 :
I think that’s the world that we live in now.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, it’s not like when we were young playing Slugbug all the time.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, I know we were talking about how the newer iPhones have the GPS, newer GPS systems where you can text. I do use an older phone. I use an iPhone mini just because I like the size of the iPhone mini. It fits in my running pack and my hiking pack very well. Well, I do use the Garmin inReach. The nice thing about the newer spots and the newer inReach is you used to not be able to text from those systems. Right. You used to just have preset messages, and sometimes you send those messages and it just scares a family member. Now with those devices, you can actually type a message into your phone and send that message off, and the services are fairly inexpensive. Right. So anyone that’s doing road trips, motorcycle trips, hiking trips, they are a good device to have if you don’t have the newer iPhones. I don’t know what the reliability of the newer iPhones is, but…
SPEAKER 07 :
I don’t either. I haven’t really used mine that much in the backcountry because I have the inReach if I need it.
SPEAKER 04 :
And you know the inReach works well. It does. I use it every other weekend. I send you messages. My wife messages. So the Garmin inReach is a… It’s a safety backup. It’s an emergency messenger. So if you get injured, you can send a notification to emergency services so they can get Flight for Life out to you, get law enforcement out to you, get search and rescue out to you. If you don’t have such a major emergency, maybe you’re running late. Maybe you told your wife you were going to be back by 2 p.m. It’s past two. It’s three. It’s four. You don’t want them calling search and rescue when you can just sit there and send them a message and say, hey, I’m running a little behind. I’m moving slow today, but everything is okay. So good stuff to have while we’re in road trip season.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. That’s coming handy.
SPEAKER 04 :
It is road trip season. It is road trip. I need to take a road trip. My wife is out on a road trip right now. We’re working, but this isn’t really work.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, this is fun.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is a lot more fun than work is.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, it is. But, yeah, being prepared is definitely a big part of the whole road trip thing. And like we were talking earlier, go over your gear before you hit the road.
SPEAKER 04 :
Know how to use the gear.
SPEAKER 07 :
Know how to use it because… This is when it’s going to break down, when you’re the furthest away from everybody. That guy named Murphy always shows up then.
SPEAKER 04 :
He’s got a law or something like that?
SPEAKER 07 :
He does, yeah, a law.
SPEAKER 04 :
We have a lot of areas in our state that are beautiful. They’re great to see, but you don’t have… cell phone service in those areas no you don’t so nice to have some backup plans nice to have emergency equipment make sure that you’ve got a spare tire make sure that spare tire is not expired i can’t tell you how many spares that we see that are are dry rotted dry rotted or flat or I mean, what, tires need to be replaced seven years?
SPEAKER 07 :
Seven years is what? Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
Is that the DOT limit?
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s the date code on it, yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s the limit. Maybe your tires still have tread, but they’re past that seven-year mark. We should probably be replacing them.
SPEAKER 07 :
And, you know, you look at them and they’re all dry rotted on the side and stuff like that, and the second you put them in the car, they blow out because they’re not in good shape.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, how many cars do you see on the side of the road with a flat spare?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, with one donut and another donut that it needs. Yeah, all the time.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s always an Ultima.
SPEAKER 07 :
It is. All right, we’ll take a little break on that one.
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SPEAKER 07 :
And we’re back. It’s Josh and Justin with Ridgeline Auto Brokers and Legacy Automotive here on this nice warm Saturday. Talking about cars and everything. And if you’d like to give us a call, our phone number is 303-477-5600. So give us a call.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, we’re getting into the last 25 minutes of the show here. So if you have any questions about buying cars, selling cars, maintaining your car, fixing your car, So we’re here for you.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, we are.
SPEAKER 04 :
So happy to help. What about EVs? Can an EV be a road trip car? Are we there yet or are we just not there yet?
SPEAKER 07 :
I think we’re getting to that point with some of them, you know, like the Nissan, not the Leaf. Where are we at with mileage on it? It’s like 250 on the upper battery size.
SPEAKER 04 :
And that upper… I mean, if you’re in weather like today and you’re running the AC full blown and doing 75, those cars don’t, they seem to lose a lot of, you know, range at higher speeds.
SPEAKER 07 :
Quickly, they do. Yeah, I mean, I’ve had that happen to me firsthand. You know, I was in a leaf and coming down from Fort Collins and back in the boulder. And, you know, it said I had 100 miles. And by the time I turned on the highway 52, I was down to 300. It gets scary. It gets scary real quick. You start to panic. When you’re moving one mile and watching three or four miles drop off its range, then you know you’re in trouble.
SPEAKER 04 :
If I wanted to take a trip from the Denver area to Moab in a 200-range vehicle… Is that even possible? Are you going to run into a situation where you try to go to a charging station and that charging station is full of cars?
SPEAKER 07 :
And the scary thing is it’s up because, you know, they’ve had a lot of thefts at the charging stations of the cables because the cables have a lot of copper and a lot of expensive metals.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, they’re cutting them off.
SPEAKER 07 :
They’re cutting them off and stealing them. So, you know, I know there are some charging stations kind of in the middle of nowhere. But when you get there, it’s not like gas stations where we have, you know, a plethora of them. You know, it’s kind of still like the early days where you never knew the gas cars. If there’s a gas station there, it’s kind of the same thing with the EVs. It’s like you’ve got to make sure that before you leave one EV charging station that, you know, check the app and make sure the other one’s up and functioning before you get there.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, it’s not like searching for a gas station either. I mean, you’ve got all these, you know, EV chargers are privately owned.
SPEAKER 07 :
Most of them, yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
So you have to have their app. So what are you going to do? Download Electrify America, download the Tesla app.
SPEAKER 07 :
ChargePoint and Tesla and all those and kind of go through them all. I haven’t found a good way yet. Maybe there is. If somebody knows, let me know.
SPEAKER 04 :
Maybe there’s an app that has all of them.
SPEAKER 07 :
All of them combined.
SPEAKER 04 :
Built in together.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’ve tried the Google app. Google is not very reliable when it comes to EV charging stations.
SPEAKER 07 :
Real hit and miss for me every time I’ve tried that, too.
SPEAKER 04 :
I like the EV thing. I think there’s a place for it. You know, we sell some EV cars. I like driving them because when you’re operating a used car dealership, it feels like you’re in a different car every day and you’re at the gas station all the time.
SPEAKER 08 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
So sometimes it’s nice to just jump in an EV for the week and drive it home.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 04 :
Drive it back to work and be able to skip the gas station.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, and I think they’re great for driving home and driving back to work. I think neither one of us are really in a hurry to go on a road trip with the family in an EV.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s just the fear in the back of the head.
SPEAKER 07 :
It is because, you know, you’ve got the kids and the wife and the dog, and all of a sudden the charging station is down or you miscalculated the car miscalculator. You miscalculated the distance between there, and you’re just kind of stuck on the side of the road with everybody.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’m going to put my Harbor Freight predator generator in the back of the Leaf. That’d look funny, huh?
SPEAKER 07 :
You need to get a little trail. Get a teardrop. A little trailer. A little teardrop trailer with your Harbor Freight Predator generator and a gas tank and drive around with that and see.
SPEAKER 04 :
And the plug-in hybrid thing is cool, but the range is still 30 miles. That’s about it. On the electric system before it goes into hybrid mode.
SPEAKER 07 :
But that is the good part of it, though, too, is usually, you know, what’s your commute? You’re right. You can charge it up at home, and you most maybe work as a charger, too. Usually about 20 or 30 miles to work. Yeah, you can do your daily commutes on all electric, but then when you want to go do Mosquito Pass, and you’re in Leadville, and you’ve run out of, you know, your battery charge… You don’t have to go and charge there and fight all the Mach-Es and Teslas for the three charging stations on the main drag in Leadville. You can just go to the gas station and fill it up and then go do Mosquito Pass or whatever you want to do.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’m sure you have the answer to this question. Why can we make a fully electric vehicle go 250, but we can’t make the plug-in hybrid…
SPEAKER 07 :
do 100 or two is it is it lack of space it’s a lack of space is it a weight thing yeah because then we make it a heavier vehicle it’s it’s all battery size i mean we could fill put the same batteries in there but we’re now we have the weight from the ice you know the the gas engine plus the the batteries if we put a full ev size battery it would be a very heavy vehicle so they kind of you know put a smaller battery in there to be able to let you have the hybrid and to have the a little bit of ev range in there but without the full weight or the sheer space of i mean you’ve seen when we’ve done batteries and you’ve helped doing it the size of the battery like most of the time there’s a whole floor pan of a car yeah no they they are large they are very cumbersome to uh have to replace and heavy and and all that that’s for sure so maybe maybe we’re still a ways away from that uh
SPEAKER 04 :
being our road trip car or long distance car, but for commuting back and forth to work, they seem to be good. I have an older Nissan Leaf that me and my wife have. We bought this thing for $5,000. It goes 70 or 80 miles, which is all we need for the day. And we keep the miles off of the diesel truck. Yeah. The maintenance on the diesel truck is so high, it’s nice to just be able to jump in the leaf, take that to work instead.
SPEAKER 07 :
And the diesel fuel bill and all that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, the diesel fuel bill. I’m going to get a big one of those today while my wife is driving to Alamosa. You are. I’m not even going to look. I wouldn’t. I want to see what it’s going to be.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, better not to know on that one. But, you know, the EVs are changing, it feels like, at light speed, you know. But the battery technology, I mean, look at first-gen Priuses and Hondas, how often the batteries weren’t lasting, basically. And now we’re getting well over 100,000, 150,000 miles on most of these batteries.
SPEAKER 04 :
Now they’re talking about those batteries outlasting an ICE engine. They’re saying we are right at that tipping point.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yep, we are.
SPEAKER 04 :
So hard to believe.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, it’s just the amount of tires you’ve got to put on it. All right, we’ll go to Buck and Cheyenne. Good morning, Buck.
SPEAKER 05 :
Good morning. I’m kind of enjoying you guys this morning. It’s hotter than I appreciate outside. Even in Cheyenne, we’re getting up close to 90, and I’m a little more cold-blooded than that. Not much wind, but it’s not a bad day, but hotter than I like, but I kind of wanted to have you guys discuss transmission changes. So to get my transmission oil changed where you could go to a place where you could hook it into the cooler line. And as they pumped the old came out, the new went in. So we got a complete change. Now they don’t want to do that. They just want to stick it down in the dipstick hole and suck what’s there that’s out. To me, that doesn’t get into your converter at all.
SPEAKER 07 :
It doesn’t, no. That’s like kind of doing the same as a drain and fill when you do that. The problem is that we’re having is a lot of the transmissions have thermostats in them. And so it’s become harder to do a flush on it because there’s a thermostat in the actual transmission cooler line. So they want the transmission to kind of come up to its happy temperature. Then the thermostat opens, and then it starts going through the cooler. And I think we have all the tools to do that. It’s kind of a pain because we have to get into what we call the thermostat block and actually put different adapters. And every manufacturer seems like they’ve built a different adapter for every one of these. But we still do it because I believe in the flush because then we’re able to get all the old fluid out of it and not just, you know, three-quarters, if that, of the fluid out. Because, you know, if you don’t do a flush, you’re never going to get all the fluid out of the transfer case and all the other passages in there. You’re just going to get what’s sitting in the bottom of the pan. And if you do a dipstick service, that’s what you’re getting, what’s in the bottom of the pan.
SPEAKER 04 :
What kind of a vehicle, Buck? I just, I’ve got… Hope we’re losing you, Buck.
SPEAKER 07 :
But yeah, that… Can you repeat that?
SPEAKER 05 :
We’re back to a 95 F-250 with a 7.3 diesel. Maybe even got it. My grandkids got some a little older than that. But I went to the local quick change, which used to have the exchanger in it. And they just wanted to suck it out and replace it, and I was not too keen on that. I’m sure there would be in it, but most of you guys with Drive Radio, most of your shops would have the ability to do the flush or whatever you want to call it, exchange, probably be a little more higher priced than Going to the Quickie Lube or whatever, we got one now in Cheyenne that you sit in their car and they supposedly change your engine oil in five minutes. I can’t believe that even gives time to drain well.
SPEAKER 07 :
It doesn’t. No, I don’t really recommend that. Yeah, but everybody in our group, I know pretty much everybody except for, I think, one. Yeah, we all have the flush machines and the top-of-the-line flush machines, too, that can handle the thermostats. All the fittings and everything else on it. I think that’s the only way to do it right. Sucking it out through the fill tube just is not a good service. But that’s why they have guys with not a whole lot of training. They don’t have to spend a lot of money on the machine or training or having a lift to even get it up because it does. It takes a while for us to get in there and get past that thermostat to do a proper flush on this thing.
SPEAKER 04 :
And we have these machines for other fluids, too. Oh, we do, yeah. We’ve got the machines for your brake fluid, your power steering fluid, your cooling system, where we can properly flush all of those systems, not just the transmission fluid.
SPEAKER 05 :
Mm-hmm. I also, well, I got a 2016 Taurus all-wheel drive cop car, and I had it down at Fort Collins, too. them and change the fluids and the guy said, there’s one part, I don’t know, there’s a transfer case or something in that that did not have a drain plug in it. I was wondering at some stage maybe drilling and tapping it, I’d probably have to do it twice and putting a drain or I guess you could tap it high enough maybe that you could stick a hose in and suck it out. What are your thoughts about that?
SPEAKER 07 :
We have a machine that does actually suck a lot of those fluids out of differentials and stuff like that because a lot of times they don’t even have a drain plug or even a spot to put them because if you look at them the way they’re cast, there’s just no flat spot for them to put a drain plug in these things. So we have a device that can actually go in there and pull all the fluid out of it because it has a hose and is able to suck down in there and get all of it out of there. Usually it’s on the Fords, it’s their transfer cases, or what they call the PTO. It’s kind of, it is the same thing as a transfer case. They just call it a PTO, and it only has a fill plug in it. It doesn’t really have a drain plug. So that’s why we have a special machine just to get in there and effectively get that fluid out.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. The RS was essentially designed as a front-wheel drive car.
SPEAKER 07 :
drive car and then they decided to make it an all-wheel drive so that would be what what you’d call a pto case yep it is so it basically has a front wheel drive transmission and then kind of coming off what would be the shaft going over to the right side wheel they took some they put a pto right there behind the engine and that sends the force back to the rear differential to make it all-wheel drive
SPEAKER 05 :
And someplace in there they’ve got to have a cushion, a viscous cushion or something similar, or do they have where they can shift it? The power from front to rear.
SPEAKER 07 :
They do, yeah. And the rear diff on that, when they bought Volvo, they took Volvo’s technology. And even the earlier ones, it even still says Volvo on the back. And they used Volvo’s all-wheel drive technology. They used kind of, it’s a viscous, but electric clutch style viscous in the back. So they used an electric clutch back there to engage and disengage the four-wheel drive. But it works basically the same as a viscous coupling.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. Okay. Okay, well, thanks a lot. I enjoyed you guys this morning, so I gave John a break, but you guys did it.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, thank you very much.
SPEAKER 05 :
Good for me.
SPEAKER 07 :
You have a good day, and we’re going to go to break real quick.
SPEAKER 19 :
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SPEAKER 07 :
And we’re back. It’s Josh and Justin from Ridgeline Auto Brokers and Legacy Automotive, and we’re going to go to Don down in Westcliff. Good afternoon, Don.
SPEAKER 06 :
Good afternoon, gentlemen.
SPEAKER 07 :
How’s the wet valley today?
SPEAKER 06 :
Hi there. Yeah, I’ve got a question for you. I’ve got a 2015 GMC Canyon, and I just hit 127,000 miles on it, and I had my brakes replaced probably a year ago. Well, six months after that, the rotor started to warp pretty bad, so they had to replace them again. And I’ve noticed already probably four months into the brake rotor change that they’re doing it again. Would it be anything in the front end that would be causing that or just bad brake rotors? They get their parts from CarQuest, and I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, it could be. That’s what they use. When the original ones came off, were they warped? When the original brakes from GM, were they warped? Do you remember?
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, I bought the truck probably six years ago. Okay. And this is the first time I’ve had a brake serviced on this. It was about a little over a year ago. Okay. And I’m assuming it was the same one because they were good, but then they started getting warping, so they replaced them. And the shop up here is… We don’t have any Napa shops anywhere close to me, and the shop I have is pretty good. You know, I went to Arvada West Auto for 20 years, and this here is pretty close to what they used to do for me, but they don’t use Napa parts. Okay. They use CarQuest, and I was wondering if CarQuest had a bad… brake rotors or if there’s something else in the front end of the truck that might be causing it to do that.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I would hope after it came in with the rotors roped the second time that they would make sure that, you know, everything’s tight and also do a run out on the hub, you know, to make sure that the the hub one is clean and that it doesn’t have excessive run out. But we also do see, you know, they get different runs at different times. I’ve had pretty much every brake component manufacturer have a set of rotors where they’re, they didn’t have a good metallurgy at the time and they do warp a little too quick. And then make sure they’re putting, you know, there’s at least three different lines with pretty much every manufacturer. Make sure they’re putting, you know, the better rotors on there is what I’d make sure they would.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I’m hoping they do. They seem like the owner, I know him personally, he seemed like a pretty genuine person that would not try to put the cheap stuff on there. He does really good stuff. But yeah, and I live, if you’re familiar with Westcliff, it’s about 60 miles west of Pueblo. And I go down the mountain, which is about 30 miles, but I use the manual shift a lot. I don’t use my brakes very hard, but they work anyway. And I’m not sure what to do about that other than just take them back and let them do it again. But then I’ve got to pay for labor.
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, they don’t do a full warranty on that? Yeah. If it’s, you know, within their warranty, I would think they would be not having to worry about the labor. But, you know, I would make sure… Usually if I have, you know, a set of rotors come back the second time, you know, the first time back we do go through the suspension and go through, you know, making sure the hubs are straight and that everything’s clean and all that. And if it comes back the second time, I usually just… buy from somebody else or change grades or make sure you know it’s a different manufacturer run i don’t just keep you know throwing the same part at it hoping for a better result yeah that’s super super clean hub too i mean that hub needs to be cleaned off it does really well and then also the torque of the lug nuts needs to also be per the manufacturer’s specification as well Okay. And, you know, you guys have a lot of dirt roads down there, so make sure they’re getting that thing cleaned.
SPEAKER 06 :
I live on a dirt road down here. I live on one. I live out west of Westcliff, or north, about six miles.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 06 :
It’s still, you know, and I go to the car wash as often as I can and wash them up really good. But with that, with the spray. And we do have a Napa dealer in here, and I tried to tell him, I’ll take Napa and I’ll pay the extra parts, but they wouldn’t put them on him.
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, really?
SPEAKER 06 :
Maybe I’ll offer them a little more this time, but don’t give me Napa rotors and see if that makes a difference. I bet it’s a parts issue, most likely.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, that’s what it sounds like.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay, well, I’ll just pass along what you just told me and see what they tell me, and we’ll go from there, and hopefully they’ll fix it. But, yeah, like I said, that labor is a couple hundred dollars of labor for putting those back on there again.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, and especially now that it looks like the third time back on this, we need to make some sort of change. So I would think try and see if they’ll buy from Napa or if they got another source just besides CarQuest. I mean, the dealership, there’s a lot of – I mean, I know it’s a run into Pueblo, but maybe it’s worth that run into Pueblo to get some rotors from GMC for that thing too.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I agree. And I’m not sure where they get them at. I thought maybe Canyon City, because no matter where you go, it’s 55 miles where you go to Pueblo, Canyon City, or Salida. So I don’t know where they get them at, but it is CarQuest. And I told them I’d rather have Napa, but they deal with CarQuest. So I can’t fight them on that. I’ll just have to see what I can do. And there’s the only shop in town that I can do that with.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, good luck, Don. We’re at the top of the hour, so we’ve got to end this. But best of luck to you on your breaks.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, thank you. All right, gentlemen. Good show. Thank you. Thank you. And that’s it for us, KLZ 560. Thank you, Justin, for coming in.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’ll see you Monday.
SPEAKER 07 :
I’ll see you Monday.
SPEAKER 03 :
Still haven’t had enough? Go to drive-radio.com. Email your questions and comments. Download previous programs and find lots of useful information, including your nearest Colorado Select Auto Care Center. That’s drive-radio.com. Thanks for listening to Drive Radio, sponsored by the member shops of Colorado Select Auto Care Centers. On KLZ 560.
