Join us on Drive Radio as we dive deep into the automotive world, tackling pressing issues and sharing expert advice. In this episode, we address the recent concerns surrounding contaminated fuel and explore practical solutions to avoid costly repairs. With insights from industry veterans, we debunk common misconceptions and offer tips for maintaining your vehicle’s performance. Whether you’re a seasoned auto aficionado or a curious car owner, our discussion is packed with valuable information on how to handle unexpected vehicle challenges with confidence.
SPEAKER 17 :
Being an expert on general automotive knowledge, what would the correct ignition timing be on a 1955 Bel Air Chevrolet with a 327 cubic inch engine and a four-barrel carburetor?
SPEAKER 15 :
It is a trick question.
SPEAKER 17 :
Watch this.
SPEAKER 15 :
Because Chevy didn’t make a 327 in 55. The 327 didn’t come out until 62. And it wasn’t offered in the Bel Air with a four-barrel carb until 64. However, in 1964, the correct ignition timing would be four degrees before top dead center.
SPEAKER 19 :
Get ready for another hour of Drive Radio, brought to you by Colorado’s select auto care centers. Got a question for the experts? Then give them a call, 303-477-5600. Now it’s time to pop the hood and get our hands dirty. Drive Radio on KLZ 560 The Source.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay, we are back. Drive Radio, KLZ 560, Steve Horvath and myself, Larry Unger, answering phones. We’ve got lines open, by the way. Give us a call. We’ll get you right on air. 303-477-5600. A couple text messages that I want to get to. One, somebody said on the question of the day, if you could buy anything at all, you had the means to do so, what would it be? Early Jaguar came up. And then somebody said, you know, ZRX1 or ZR1X, I should say, which is their new super fast car, I believe currently the fastest production car made, I believe. I think I saw videos this past week on it being the fastest production car made. Yeah, you know, very cool. Yes. Can’t argue with that one. Somebody also said that, hey, guys, I see that there’s these pre-made tool rolls that I like to keep in each one of my vehicles. Do you see a value proposition in buying them like this? And in this case, he sent me a link to Ford. Ford has an actual, you know, kind of a roll-up tool kit that you could throw in each one of your vehicles. Or do you feel like going to Harbor Freight or someplace else and cobbling something together is even better? And then my question back is, you know, what do you really need it for? The answer back was, I do a lot of little repairs to our equipment on the farm and out and about and like to certain things on hand i think if it were me then in that case if you’re if you know what you’re doing and you know you’re fixing you know certain little things here and there and you’re looking to have the right tool kit on hand i would piece that together myself because personally uh if you’re doing enough of that and things have gotten cheap enough now on the even the electric power tool side that you know i would have a a power ratchet or even maybe a little impact and some things along those lines with me. I would add some things to what you would typically get in one of these roll-up toolkits. So personally speaking, I would cobble together something myself and not pay, in this case, for a Ford-branded toolkit because you know you’re going to pay more money doing it that way than if you were to piece some things together. And as far as piecing together goes, by the way, keep in mind, Because I follow this stuff because I’ve inherited a bunch of stuff from my dad when it comes to used tools and so on. And there is always, always, always somebody on like Facebook Marketplace selling used tools to the point where you could probably go buy somebody’s tool kit and box. Take out of it what you want to make your kit, quote-unquote, function, and no offense, sell off everything else and be far money ahead and probably not spend any money doing what I just said other than the time it takes to do it because you can pick that stuff up all day long. Unfortunately, and this is true in every industry, unfortunately, used tools don’t bring a lot of money.
SPEAKER 03 :
They don’t.
SPEAKER 11 :
And I’m sorry to say that because at one time they kind of did, but the way that the new tool end of things has gotten and the fact that there’s so many tools on the market now, and by the way, fairly good quality tools on the secondary market. What I mean by secondary market is off of the tool truck, so not Snap-on. The amount of tools that are out there now that give you the ability to to put some things together that you wouldn’t be able to do otherwise, it is far better now than it’s ever been in the past. So reality is, unfortunately, because of what I just said, it’s made used tools almost worthless.
SPEAKER 03 :
And even like Napa sells a wonderful line of tools. They do. The Carlisle line and lower lines. They do. stuff, even there.
SPEAKER 11 :
Apple’s got Gear Ranch and all sorts of brands, by the way. They sell Milwaukee and on down the line you go. So the reality is, yeah, you can pretty much now buy whatever you want to. So would I buy a pre-made kit from anyone? If it were dirt cheap and you were able to get your hands on it because of that, sure, I might look at it that way. But it would have to be the right price for me to mess with that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Only if you’re buying some special kind of car that would add to the value. That’s different. That might be kind of cool.
SPEAKER 11 :
That would be different, yeah. So if you’ve got an exotic and they’ve got a toolkit that goes with it and adds to the value of the car, by all means. In this case, where you’re just putting a toolkit together because you’re working on some stuff on the farm and so on, yeah, I wouldn’t necessarily buy any brand name of anything unless it’s a really, really swinging deal that would make that worthwhile. Otherwise, no, I would not mess with that. Mike, you’re next.
SPEAKER 05 :
John. Hey, Mike. Thank you very much. My question is kind of a general open-end question, and I suspect you guys will be able to address it easily. We’ve had a batch of, in the last several weeks, contaminated fuels.
SPEAKER 11 :
Right.
SPEAKER 05 :
And one of the things that I thought might be interesting is for you guys to address, what do you deal with, how do you deal with it, When you got a batch of it, how does it affect your car? Do you have filters, et cetera? What do you guys think about how you would…
SPEAKER 11 :
uh get it out not that it that that it’s going to hurt your motor i just don’t know no it’s a great i talked a little bit about this last week but it’s worth covering again with the extra now uh service stations that were affected by that i think i read something yesterday mike where it’s upwards of almost 30 gas stations were affected by that so first things first a lot of this comes down to a You know, what did you fill up? How much? How low were you when you did? I don’t know that all of the contamination was equal. In other words, Mike, that particular station may have had more of a load than maybe the other station did, meaning maybe you didn’t get as heavy of a mix as the next guy. And I don’t think these are blanket statements. I think every one of these is going to have to be analyzed individually. Now, if you’re driving a vehicle and all of a sudden it died because of this contaminated fuel, A, it’s got to get towed in. And if I were the shop, and I said this last week, first things first, I would be a shop that would either, A, depending upon the vehicle, try to drain as much fuel out as possible. We’ve got devices at shops where you don’t even have to take the tank out to get the majority of the fuel out. And if you get the majority out, I mean – Let’s say you get all but a gallon out. Okay. You go then fill it up full. That facility is probably going to charge you because they’re going to have to run and get most repair shops don’t have 30 or 40 gallons of gasoline just kicking around the shop. So they’re going to run down, and they’re going to get premium unleaded fuel. they’re going to fill that tank up with premium the reason i say premium is because it’s got more additives in it than your regular fuel would have so they’re going to use premium i said last week that i would change any fuel filter if applicable some don’t have fuel filters but if they do i would change that i would then add a can of bg 44k and as a shop owner and if i were the technician mike i would then fire up the vehicle and see how it runs If it runs okay, we don’t have check engine lights, and or we did, but I clear them and nothing comes back, and I go on a nice long road test and everything is functioning properly, I’d give it to the customer, and there you go. That’s what I would do.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you, John. That makes way too much sense, and I appreciate that. I was just curious. I didn’t know that you addressed it last week.
SPEAKER 11 :
No, but it’s a great question, Mike, because it’s still out there. I still see so much. Now, I will say this. In defense of some of the news organizations, last week, prior to me coming on air on Saturday, oh, I mean, the sky was falling, and they interviewed some folks that were talking about it being a minimum $5,000 repair and as much as $10,000 or $20,000, and it was so blown out of proportion, Mike. It was just ridiculous. And there was even guys in the industry that I don’t know where they find these guys from, but I don’t consider them to be industry experts because unless you said what I just said, you’re not an expert. Right. You’re winging it. You’re hoping that, you know, these vehicles are going to need that much in repairs. Man heard everything last week, Mike, from, you know, you’re going to need a whole new fuel system to a fuel pump to injectors and so on. And the reality is diesel fuel and gasoline is not as harmful as what a lot of these guys were saying that it was. And it’s not as – I mean, it’s a big deal because people have, you know – They’re losing time. The vehicle stalled. They’re not me. They don’t know what happened. They’re nervous now. It’s now a crisis. And, Mike, I’m very sympathetic, and I understand all of that. But let’s not make a mountain out of a molehill when it’s all said and done.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, I think that’s sound thinking. And I’ve been of the same opinion that, you know, you put diesel in a gas motor or you put – there are ways that you’re not going to ruin the whole thing.
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s correct.
SPEAKER 05 :
But thank you very much for your response.
SPEAKER 11 :
And I said last week, Mike, and I want to make sure I reiterate this again today, the reverse, if this had been the opposite and there were a bunch of guys running around with diesel where gas had been put in diesel, now we have a whole different problem because, for all of you listening, diesel fuel is very lubricant-related. In other words, it’s got lubricity to it, meaning that in a gas engine, again, to your point, Mike, not really going to do a lot of harm and foul – I mean, I heard everything last week, even Mike, where it’s going to kill the Cadillac converter. No, it won’t. So at the end of the day, all of those things are literally they’re just false statements from a bunch of people that are trying to hype things up and make things worse than what they really are. Now, the opposite, though, if it happens and this had been the reverse and you’d had gasoline in the diesel end of things. Oh, my word, Mike.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’d be bad.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, that’s a bad deal because now, yes, you can ruin everything. injector pumps and injectors and the fuel system and so on. And yes, the opposite is very true on the diesel side, but that’s not what happened.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think the other thing too, it also depends on the car too. Good point. Go ahead, Steve. Just, you know, like if it’s direct injection and if it’s not direct, it’s carbureted and fuel injected. So it depends on the vehicle, too, because we had the one that we had, the one or two we had, we had to replace the spark plugs. Oh. Which I thought was interesting. Oh, yeah. Because they all fouled up. Yeah, that would make sense. Sure, sure, sure. That would make sense. Depends on how long it ran. So, you know, I don’t think every one is the same, which is interesting.
SPEAKER 11 :
No, and Mike, Steve’s making a great point, kind of what I said a moment ago. Each one of these, you know, that’s why I was saying I would do my method, and if it didn’t want to run correctly at that point, now you’ve got to figure out why. In the case of Steve’s, okay, spark plugs need to replace, so then you put spark plugs in it, and off you go. But I would venture to guess, and I don’t think I’m wrong in saying this. I’m just going to throw this out there. For all of these technicians and supposed experts that said we’re going to be putting fuel pumps and injectors in, Mike, If any of those get done, it’s because somebody is being paranoid about something they don’t need to be, and they’re overselling is my take on it. Padding it. Yeah, they’re padding it is what they’re doing.
SPEAKER 03 :
Because it’s going to be an insurance company that’s paying.
SPEAKER 05 :
And I must tell you that I think that that happens, in my opinion.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, I agree with you.
SPEAKER 05 :
A lot more on other things, too. I agree with you. Oh, no, we’ve got a huge problem. We’ve got to do yada, yada. You know, I understand the upselling. But what I also appreciate about Napa and the stores is the candor and honesty that you get from genuinely… concern mechanics that want repeat business. Right.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, and I think for me, Mike, and you know me, and you guys all listening to me know my background and how long I’ve done this and so on. And for me, at the end of the day, Mike, it was okay. And by the way, I had experienced some of these things back in my shops back in the day because things happen. Sometimes somebody would inadvertently put diesel fuel in the gas tank or you’d have a mix-up at the station. I mean, by the way, what just happened isn’t the only time that’s ever happened in the history of filling up cars with fuel so the reality is these things have happened i’ve dealt with some of these things as a technician and a shop owner in the past and again my point mike is is is unfortunately i think even the first week now it got better this last week in fact to the credit of even i think there was a ford dealer that was interviewed and was on on one of the news stations and so on and that guy’s explanation whoever i should have mentioned the name and the dealership but i’ll tell you mike His explanation is exactly what I just said on air to their credit at a dealership. They gave the right answer, and I was very happy with that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh my gosh, wait a minute. We must have a bad connection.
SPEAKER 11 :
I know, I know. And somebody just texted me that it’s now up to 46 filling stations that were contaminated. And again, and here’s where, you know, all of you listening, a lot of it’s going to come down to, you know, how low was that particular fuel station’s tanks when they filled? Because as you know, you know, Mike, they could have been a half load. They could have been a three quarter load, could have been a quarter load. I mean, it really depends. And that would have a really big bearing on how much actual diesel fuel ended up in your gas tank did you just have a running problem uh you know drivability issue did it completely stall out somebody asked me a moment ago if i’ll explain the rental car sides of this when i come back which i would be happy to do because that’s a whole nother facet of things and how low your tank was too yes and how low your tank was yes i would tell you that when you have a tanker truck that comes in there and in fills of course you get uh they have filters but
SPEAKER 05 :
Unless the tanker truck is well-maintained, you’re going to get some sediment in the bottom of the tanker truck.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, that’s why I’ve always told everybody, if you see a tanker there filling the tanks while you’re going to fill up with fuel, move on to the next station, don’t fill up then, because they’re stirring up the contaminants that are inside the tank.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s correct. I couldn’t agree more. Well, listen, great show. Thank you very much. Thanks, Mike.
SPEAKER 11 :
No, thank you for the question. I’m going to cover the rental car side of it because that came up this last week. I mentioned it on my daily show even because I had some direct questions on the rental car sides of things and even comments like, you know, if that was you and you had a rental car and you turn that in, they’re going to screw you. I always hate to say the word screw you coming out of the rental car company because I don’t know that that’s necessarily the right terminology. I’ll explain that as soon as we come back. Don’t go anywhere. Drive Radio KLZ 560. Attention Fort Collins drivers.
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SPEAKER 11 :
All right, I’m going to talk about the rental car end of bad fuel and all of that, but what I want to do is we’ve got a car review coming up here in a moment. I’m going to take David from Loveland’s call first. When I come back from this bottom-of-the-hour commercial break, then I’ll go ahead and do the rental car thing and explain it, because I want to have plenty of time to do that. So, David and Loveland, go ahead. You’re next. Good morning, John. Good morning.
SPEAKER 09 :
My wife has a Hyundai Ioniq 5. Okay. And mid-December, she had a breakdown at work. She couldn’t start the car, and she needed a new battery. So they replaced that, and then this last weekend, the axle broke. Is that common?
SPEAKER 11 :
No? That’s a full EV, right, the Ioniq 5?
SPEAKER 09 :
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s what I thought. No, it is not. Although, as you know, the EVs put out a tremendous amount of power and torque, and my gut feeling is that was probably just a bad axle. That is, I mean, I have not heard of there being a plethora of issues along those lines in any way, shape, or form.
SPEAKER 03 :
So when you say the axle broke, so the half shaft, the CV joint snapped, or do you know kind of what happened? Yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
um she had it towed in and that’s what they told her i i wasn’t i was there but it just there was a loud bang and it the car just stopped and wouldn’t move sure sounds like that that’s interesting afterwards we’re looking at a 2026 tucson do you have any recommendations on that uh
SPEAKER 03 :
Not that I, on the 2026, no, I haven’t really seen anything like that yet.
SPEAKER 11 :
No, I mean, I would say that, and we talk about this all the time, even in the car reviews, David. I mean, on new cars, new car’s a new car, has full warranty and so on. Look at how long the warranty is, et cetera. And I will say that, you know, even across the board, Hyundai, Kia, et cetera, I mean, they’re all using similar components. None of the manufacturers make any of their own components outside of maybe the engine, sheet metal. that’s about it anymore i mean they’re not even making their own transmissions and cv axles and wiring harnesses and alternators and starters and batteries and interior and all of that is coming from other sources and that’s with every manufacturer out there so really what it comes down to is how good is your local dealer how good is the manufacturer and backing up that warranty that has more to do with the car you buy and and do you like it and fit in it and feel good and so on those are the important factors david
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. Well, I appreciate it. Thank you.
SPEAKER 11 :
You’re very welcome, David. I appreciate it. We’re going to play the review that we just did on a Mazda, which, by the way, they make a great vehicle as well. We’ll play that. We’ll come back. And then I’m going to talk about the rental car sides of things, if you had bad gas and turned in a rental car, and how that works in a moment as well. So don’t go anywhere. Drive Radio KLZ 560. And it’s that time of the week where we do our car reviews. We replay these on Saturdays for Drive Radio as well. So it’s our combination Rush to Reason slash Drive Radio segment. Richard, what have you driven lately?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, Dad. So I drove, actually driving it right now. And it’s a nice little, I guess, kind of, I’m going to call it a compact SUV. It might be slightly above that. So forgive me if I’m wrong here. 2026 Mazda CX-50. This is the Turbo S. Or the Turbo Premium Plus model, which is kind of the top level trim that you can get. It’s got advanced safety aids, you know, 360 degree camera system. It’s got some different interior options if you want it. However you want to do this, you know, however you kind of want to make this vehicle out, you have the ability to do so. What’s new for 2026? is a new trim structure, which includes a base 2.5 turbo trim. You have a Meridian Edition, which kind of gives you some different options, as we always talk about. You’ve got some gloss black Mazda emblems and badges, and a new white interior option on this Turbo Premium Plus that I have. Unfortunately, we don’t have that. We just have kind of your, I guess, prototypical black, but it still looks great. And, Dad, as you and I have talked about multiple times on the Mazda side of things, These vehicles really are phenomenal, right? They look and feel like a luxury SUV without the associated price tag. Which, speaking of price, let’s kind of get to it, Dad. This actually has a very rare, at least from the information I can gather, price decrease from 2025 to 2026. Now, that may be depending on a lot of different factors, so don’t hold me true to that in every case. But I think it’s down about $600, at least from my research, that’s kind of what it indicates. And so, again, some people are going to say, all I say is this, folks, very rarely are you seeing prices staying the same or decreasing. And so if that happens, we’re going to kind of make note of it. As far as vehicles, Dad, again, we’ve kind of talked about this with a lot of other models, but the CX-50 ranges anywhere from just under $30,000, Dad, to this Turbo Premium Plus. which is about $42,900. And depending on, with some of the options on this, this is about $45,000. Fuel economy, $23,000 and $29,000 for an average of $25,000. And like I said, this has got the two and a half liter twin scroll turbocharger, 227 horsepower. 310 pound feet of torque in it’s got 20 inch wheels i could kind of sit here and talk about it all day it does have an all-wheel drive system on it which does matter here in colorado dad with it being kind of this mid i guess this compact suv mid-size suv depending on where you want to kind of put it in that scale, I think that matters because, honestly, Dad, you can pretty much go anywhere with this vehicle. It’s not overly large that you have trouble kind of parking it or fitting it into a garage space or whatever it might be. But I do like its size in that it’s not, I guess, kind of a mini SUV, if that makes sense, right? It’s not the super small SUVs out there where it feels like you’re kind of driving just a taller sedan. This one actually has a little bit of muscle, a little bit of oomph behind it. It does lack a little bit of cargo space just in terms of metrics, right, kind of a specification and that side of things. It does lack that a little bit. But for the most part, it’s a really, really, I think, kind of spacious interior, at least on the second row and the first row. I was able to fit two booster seats in this, able to get three kids depending on how you kind of apportion it. It’s not going to get three seats. in the second row, right? It’s going to have a little bit of, I guess, more flexibility or not as much flexibility in that as some larger SUVs. But again, it’s kind of in that segment. That’s that mid-sized.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, I think they call it a crossover. And really quick, I want to add for folks listening and for you listening to a review on down the road, this is, of course, we’re doing this review in the early part of January. Right now, they have got 0.9 financing for 72 months on that car, which makes it a really good deal.
SPEAKER 04 :
a fantastic do that. And that’s a great point. And again, folks, we kind of talked about this at the end of reviews, but I’m going to note it really quick, kind of in the middle of this, which is, if you have not been in a Mazda in a while, I would highly encourage you to do so just because of the buttons, the apportionments, that how they lay out their infotainment screen, how they lay out their steering wheel control. There’s subtle things. We actually kind of talked about, you know, subtle things in the last segment, but in terms of a car, dad, there’s some subtle things that you probably don’t even think of in a car. But if I were to take away the badging of this, which you inside of it, I don’t know how many of, anyone, Dad, would be able to say, hey, well, this is a Mazda for sure, right? Unless your car guys, like us, drive lots of cars. It just has a lot of great features for the money, in our opinion, and I think it looks great. And like you said, Dad, mazda has some great financing i think i’m trying to pull up here as far as their warranty and stuff goes i actually think they have some really great warranties on their vehicle right now which again is kind of something that you need to do in today’s day and age is trust people so outside of that though i will say driving and that’s what in our altitude dad we’ve talked about it before that turbo is a really nice feature right it helps you get up into traffic without you know feeling like you’re lagging you’re not having to put the the pedal to the floor all the time. And folks, you understand what I’m talking about, especially if you’ve got maybe a vehicle that’s heavy or whatever it might be. Maybe you kind of get in traffic at times. Man, I just need to get up and go. Otherwise, I feel like I’m going to get run over. This does not have that. Drives well. Again, all of those advanced safety features, the 360-degree camera system, that especially, again, with kids, being able to see those bikes that are in front of you to the side of you that maybe your kid dropped on the way in, whatever it is. a great vehicle, great value. And honestly, I would say, as we just talked about, encourage people to get out and test drive these vehicles, Dad. Like you say, early January of 2026 right now, encourage you to get to the lot, test drive this, because this may be a vehicle that you say, wow, I can see myself in this. Maybe not now, but maybe even a few years from now, as we always say. And when you do that, when you head to your local Mazda dealer, let them know that John and Richard Rush from Drive Radio and Rush to Reason sent you.
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SPEAKER 11 :
Do you know that your windshield is getting more expensive to replace? Most vehicles have options that help keep the vehicles from avoiding accidents or even keep it in the traffic lane. These windshields require more than just a replacement of the glass. They also require a calibration of the computer system to make sure everything is operational to the specifications the manufacturer set when the vehicle was built you can’t trust the traveling glass replacement shop to do these necessary calibrations as they require special equipment and in most cases an indoor shop to perform the calibrations we have two novus locations that can replace your windshield and also do these calibrations novus fort collins and novus sterling both are fully equipped with the latest technology to service your vehicle properly find either location by going to any of our websites ready-radio.com, drive-radio.com, or fixitradio.com. Just click on the Novus link. That’s Novus Autoglass.
SPEAKER 12 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
And we are back. Thank you for listening. Myself, Steve Horvath, Geno’s Auto Service. Of course, Charlie Grimes, our engineer, and Larry Unger answering phones with us as well today. Which, by the way, we’ve got lines open. 303-477-5600. 303-477-5600. About an hour and a half of the show left, so if you’ve got any questions at all, please… Get those calls in. We’ll get out of here right at 1 o’clock. Bronco game starts at 2.30, which a lot of you will be watching probably. Not everybody, but a lot of you will because it’s a big game. It’s a playoff game. Bills. And we want to win and move on to next week and hopefully win then and then go to the Super Bowl. That’s how close we are to actually being there, believe it or not, which who would have thought? So anyway, side note. on all of that. Going back to the whole rental car end of things, and again, I’m always careful to use the term screw you because rental car companies are businesses just like anybody else. Yes, I get it. They can be very difficult to deal with, and what they’re always going to come back on is we’re going to go through the scenario. I had somebody this past week that messaged me, and I think there’s even some, there have been a few other folks affected by this, so I had several messages on if you were affected by bad gas, this whole snafu and you were driving a rental car at the time maybe you’re in a rental car because of an accident that you had and now all of a sudden you’re being provided a rental car or or or okay all sorts of things can happen but you got bad gas and you turned that car in to the rental car company and now they all of a sudden discover that this thing has bad fuel OK, it’s a process because if you didn’t buy their insurance, which hardly anybody does, I don’t. I’ll be the first to admit I don’t buy the rental car insurance. I self-insure. So I’ve got either the proper credit card or my own insurance. And if there’s an accident, I’m going to get it covered in that regard. Now, I’ll give you another tip here in a second. There’s a reason why I don’t rent high-end cars. And I’m not trying to be braggadocious here at all, but I typically rent cars that, frankly, if I had to write the check on a full total and then fight with my own insurance company afterwards, I can do that. So I rent really cheap, low-end, compact. I don’t rent luxury cars, anything along those lines. I mean, I’m renting cars that probably have a value of $15,000 to $20,000, and I’m not exaggerating. I’m not renting cars that are super expensive for this reason alone. And number two, I don’t need to rent high-end cars because they’re just a rental car anyways, and I really don’t care what somebody sees me in because I don’t care. At the end of the day, that’s not what I’m renting a car for. I’m renting the car to go from A to B. A to B, yeah. A to B, and it doesn’t have luggage space. That’s all I care about. And will it run and get me there? That’s all I care about. I am not renting fancy cars. Those days of me, not that I ever did that, but especially today at my age, I’m not renting high-end cars. So get that out of the way. But here’s how this works. If, in fact, you have an accident, or in this case, you turn the rental car in and it’s got bad fuel, and there is loss of use on said car, yes, you’re paying. Your insurance company’s probably not going to pay that. You are going to end up paying the bill for loss of use. It’s in the contract. It’s very enforceable. You can cancel your credit card. You can do all sorts of things to keep the rental company from charging you. But let me tell you what. They’re going to get a judgment against you. And you’re going to end up paying that bill or have credit problems or both if you don’t. So here’s my suggestion. If that’s something that you’re not able to tackle on your own and handle loss of use for, then buy their insurance. Pay the $15 a day or whatever it is for their all-inclusive insurance. Sometimes I think it’s as much as $25 a day. And buy their insurance, and then you’re covered. But if you’re like me and you’re a cheapskate and you don’t want to spend that money, which I am, I don’t want to spend that money. But I have other methods of handling things in this regard. And I know that if something happens, yes, I’m going to get charged loss of use. And they’ve got a formula for that. It’s going to be their average daily rental price over X amount of days that it’s out of service. And that’s where sometimes it can get very dicey and negotiable is how long is that car really out of service? And did they drag their feet or did they push to get the car done? And in other words, is it out of service for a month or three? Because they’re going to charge you. Because keep in mind, there’s no incentive for them at that point to get the car back on the road because it’s now a daily rental where it could have just been sitting in the rental car lot, not being rented. So, yeah, their incentive is to charge you as much as they can on loss of use because that’s how they make money. So my point is, are you going to get out of loss of use? No, you’re not. You might think you’re going to get out of loss of use. You’re not going to get out of loss of use. They will charge you. If you don’t pay, they will sue you. They will win. They will affect your credit and or you will be paying one way or the other. So you might as well figure out on the front side how to get them handled and paid because you’re going to pay anyways, canceling your credit card. and thinking that you’re somehow going to get out of it because you just did, you’re going to pay one way or the other, folks. Trust me when I say that. They have higher-powered lawyers than you could ever think of hiring, so there is no sense in trying to fight them. I don’t care who you are. They will win at the end of the day because they have ironclad contracts that you are signing when you sign up to rent that car. So bottom line, if there is loss of use, you’re going to pay. There is no sense trying to get out of it. There is no sense hiring your own attorney. It doesn’t matter that you got fuel from King Soopers and it’s now not your fault. It is your fault. You put the fuel in the car, you turn the car in, it’s on you. You can try to get out of that all you want and blame it on somebody else, and I get it. It’s not directly your fault, but it is because the car was in your possession when you put said fuel in, and the rental car company doesn’t care that King Soopers screwed up. And no offense, if I was a rental car company, I wouldn’t care either. It’s now on you because you had possession of the car when you were renting it from me. This is on you. So here’s where it bugs me with some of this. I have a pretty conservative audience. Conservatives typically believe in personal responsibility. So it always bugs me when I get text messages, especially from conservatives, basically being mad because a rental car company wants to charge you for loss of use. But you know what? That is personal responsibility. And if you don’t like it, then buy their insurance. And in a way, I’m defending the rental car companies because it’s not their fault. You put bad fuel in. That’s on you. How is that their fault? True. So I’m on my soapbox. I’m sorry. I’ll get off of it now. But those messages really do chat my hide because you guys as conservatives, for the most part, that’s my audience, are supposed to have personal responsibility until something like this happens. And now you want to pass the buck. It doesn’t work that way. Speaking of Buck, he’s next from Cheyenne. Go ahead, Buck. Good morning, John. Good morning, Buck.
SPEAKER 08 :
First of all, I was hoping to make it to Barrett Jackson this year. But I had a slight accident with a knee, and so I’m kind of rehabbing that.
SPEAKER 11 :
Sorry to hear that, Buck.
SPEAKER 08 :
It’s life. You don’t get to choose what happens all the time, as you’re well aware. But I hope you have a good time down there.
SPEAKER 11 :
I will, and I’ll bring some good reports back on it for sure, Buck.
SPEAKER 08 :
And I don’t know whether I’ve talked to you since, but we did manage to get in a 15… state tour last fall before I ended up this way. So it’s all good. But you talked about what car I’d like to have. I had a 59 Plymouth Belvedere with the wings, you know, and all of that. And back at that time, I really would have liked to have had a Chrysler 300 with I think they had a 413 engine in them, 300 to 400 horsepower. If you remember, they had the push buttons on the dash for the transmission.
SPEAKER 11 :
Right, I remember that.
SPEAKER 08 :
And I don’t know, Chrysler about that time had those seats that swiveled in the front where you’d swivel to get in and out. And I don’t know whether that had them or not. But that was a highway cruiser par none, except I imagine the gas bill.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, there you go. That’s a pretty cool looking, I’m just looking at pictures of it. That’s a pretty cool looking car. I like that car with those big wings in the back and big grill.
SPEAKER 08 :
And they didn’t float. Some of the big cars back then would float. They had such soft suspensions. and those 300s did not float. They had a little tougher suspension. Okay. I wonder, John, do you ever remember the automotive guy called Tom Cahill?
SPEAKER 11 :
Yes, I do remember the name, yes.
SPEAKER 08 :
In Mechanics Illustrated or something like that.
SPEAKER 11 :
I think that’s right, something along those lines, yes.
SPEAKER 08 :
I just wondered. Those Chrysler 300s were always one of his favorite cars. I don’t know what. Whatever happened to him. But anyhow, I hope you have a good time down there at Barrett-Jackson.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, I appreciate that, Buck. I’ll bring back a good report. Like I say, if I have time next Saturday, I’ll even call in. I’ll do my best to try to find a quiet spot and do that if I can.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, and I might want to tell you, I can’t brag about the weather up here today. It’s about 20 degrees and 30-mile-an-hour winds. There’s a chill factor somewhere around four or five.
SPEAKER 11 :
Burr. Burr. Yeah, that is no fun. Buck, man, I appreciate it. Thank you very much, and sorry you’re not able to go to the auction. Let’s take a break. We’ll come back on another segment of this hour, then another full hour coming up after that. Drive Radio, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 14 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
We are back. Drive Radio, KLC 560. Rob Incentennial, you are next. Go ahead, Rob.
SPEAKER 10 :
Good morning, gentlemen. Good to talk to you, Steve. Good to talk to John.
SPEAKER 11 :
You too.
SPEAKER 10 :
My mother died in 2021, and she left me a Dodge Charger with a 5.7 and an all-wheel drive.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right.
SPEAKER 10 :
It’s a real beautiful machine, and it’s a real fun thing to drive. One of the most pleasant experiences you can have is submerging that thing from a zero to a 75-mile-per-hour freeway because it has no problem. It’s kind of fun passing all the other cars on the hills. I don’t drive it very often because it’s thirsty, although gas is cheap these days, relatively speaking. So I have a tank full of fuel stabilizer. I have the battery tender. Your advice on that, John, with tending the battery? It’s got that damn AGM in it, but it’s in the trunk. And I put things like coolant stabilizer into the cooling system. Okay. And the stable and the gasoline, as I said. I haven’t driven in a year. What should I be alert to?
SPEAKER 11 :
What should you what? That last part I missed. What should you do what?
SPEAKER 10 :
I haven’t driven it in a year. Okay. I’m going to look it over and make sure the fluids are up and everything on that. But I thought I’d ask you guys if you had any advice.
SPEAKER 11 :
No. If you’ve kept everything else up, you’ve done the other things stabilizing-wise and so on, Rob, I’ve got similar vehicles to what you’re talking about that sit that long, and I don’t do a single thing to them other than what you’re doing. Hop in them and drive it, and when you’re done driving it, just put it back to where it was and off you go. I think the only thing would be tires, just to make sure they didn’t get weather checked.
SPEAKER 03 :
And full of air.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, full of air. Because they’ll be down on air, so we’ve got to fill them up.
SPEAKER 10 :
He’s in a carport. I’m going to take him down and wash him. Perfect. That was the other thing. It’s one of the reasons I was asking you about car covers, because I left him without the cover on him, and he’s pretty grungy, but I’ll take him, wash him, get that cleaned, and I thought I might even put some Rain-X. I’ve got it. That’s why I’m using it instead of the other brand.
SPEAKER 11 :
Sure, that’s fine.
SPEAKER 10 :
On the windshield. Nothing wrong with that. Well, they’re supposed to be good, and it’s a good-weather car anyway with all that all-wheel drive and that old Mercedes-Benz torque control. Yeah. So if you’re ever going to talk about that long show, the afternoon show, which I do enjoy listening to. We’re going to talk about car covers. I would love to have you do that.
SPEAKER 11 :
I will do that. It’s actually on my list. Today I talked about somebody else had asked, okay, what do you do at the end of a lease when it comes to turning the car in and so on? And somebody asked me earlier today, was I going to talk about that today? No, that will be. I did an entire list. almost hours. That’ll be on the extra mile today between 3 and 4 p.m. That plays again. So some of you watching the Bronco game, that will play again on Tuesday between 2 and 3 as well. So if you missed that today and you want to listen again on Tuesday from 2 to 3, I go through the whole process of what to do on a lease turn back in, Rob. But no, I’ve got the car cover thing in my topics of what to do here coming up.
SPEAKER 10 :
My biggest problem I’ve had with car covers, I put the, do I have my, I still have my beloved 70 Dart, which gets rid of the, unless I’m a charger these days, that’s going to change. I’m hoping one thing straight out of a couple of the fronts I’ve got, they’re going up at the moment. But anyway, the cat, the neighborhood cats would claw at the car cover.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh yeah, really?
SPEAKER 10 :
It’s amazing the amount of havoc they little fuzzy things can wreak. So I hope to find a car cover that, if you, I know you have metallic strands and something like that, but the cats can’t stand it. It does something to their claws. But anyway, that’s been my biggest issue with the car covers.
SPEAKER 11 :
I can cover that because there are some covers that wouldn’t be as susceptible to that. I’ll talk about that. I’ll mention that. So, good one.
SPEAKER 10 :
Got the VW all cleaned up at a real good place and fixed the scratches on it that I picked up on the construction site. Very nice. It’s kind of like a watch. Good. It’s funny to think with a low-power engine, you drive it like you’ve got a low-power engine and you’re going to be reasonably happy. You’re just not going to be able to do things other people are doing with their Volcanoes. But knowing what you have and appreciating it is a very good part of wisdom. Take care, guys.
SPEAKER 11 :
Thank you very much, Rob. Always a joy to talk to you. Thank you very much. Jeff and Steamboat, go ahead.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey, guys. Hi, Steve. Hi, how are you? Happy New Year to both of you.
SPEAKER 11 :
Thank you, sir.
SPEAKER 07 :
How are you guys? Yeah. Well, I was listening to you last week, but we had just gotten back from Australia and barely back in our bodies now. I hear you.
SPEAKER 11 :
I hear you. That’s a huge change.
SPEAKER 07 :
Anyway. Yeah, and anyway, about all the bad fuel in these cars, and when that happened, you’re so right about the condition and how much it was in there and what it’s going to do. That’s right. People just got to realize, and all the naysayers and everybody made such a panic out of it. But I was telling Larry back in the 60s when I was a teenager working in a full-service gas station, These two old farmers would come in every once in a while, and two old bachelor German farmers, and they’d fill up their car with premium, or ethyl as we called it in those days. And the first time they came in, they stuck a quart of 20-weight oil in the gas tank. I go, whoa, whoa, what are you doing? How come you’re doing that? And they looked at me like, you don’t know anything, punk. Shut up. So I went to the owner of the station, and he says, oh, that’s it. Jeff, those are just old German farmers like us. He said, they’ve been doing this ever since I’ve had the station. He said, it doesn’t do anything to it. I said, well, doesn’t it screw up the spark plugs? Of course, it was a carbureted engine. And he says, no. And they said, they’ll tell you that it lubricates the valves and everything else. I said, boy, I don’t know if I’m going to do it to my car. He goes, no, we won’t do that. If that didn’t do anything to the engines, I don’t know. So depending on how much diesel went in these cars, it’s not going to be a big issue, I don’t think.
SPEAKER 11 :
You’re right. No, you’re right. And, again, there was a lot of hype even last weekend from a lot of different individuals, and unfortunately, Jeff, inside of the industry that I just cringe at. It’s like, guys, be honest. I mean, either you’re A, ignorant, which I hope isn’t the case given the fact that you’re, quote, unquote, now an automotive expert, so I hope you’re not ignorant. So either you’re ignorant or you’re lying. It’s one of the two.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right.
SPEAKER 11 :
And by the way, neither one is good, Jeff. Neither one is good. I mean, either you’re so ignorant, you don’t know the real answer, which means you shouldn’t be an expert and, or B, you’re just lying to people. Neither one of those is good.
SPEAKER 07 :
No. And it was, they were doing the, you know, it was like you said, the TV stations were doing a disservice to everybody making a panic out of this thing. That really wasn’t the case. And so I just, uh, um, thought that was pretty, pretty crazy that all these things would happen. And, uh, Back in the day, it was a common thing to throw a little oil in the engines, but not that common, I guess, but some guys did.
SPEAKER 11 :
No, no, when I was a kid, that was very common to do. The other thing guys would do is throw ATF into a, you know, they put a quarter ATF in a full load of fuel to try to lubricate things and clean things out and so on, and no, all that stuff was very common back in the day, Jeff.
SPEAKER 03 :
There was actually an oil, like Moto, something with an M that we used to put in. Yeah, it was very similar to that. Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
Absolutely. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah, Steve, I got your flyer. Thank you. Our next trip down there, I owe you a visit. Oh, okay. So we’ll have to get one of the vehicles in. But, yeah, you guys always have a great show. John, and I appreciate hearing you again after being gone for so long.
SPEAKER 11 :
I appreciate it, Jeff. Nope, thank you. Glad you had a good trip and got home safely. I appreciate it very much. Yeah, thank you. You’re very welcome, Jeff. Appreciate it. One thing, too, really quick, back to the rental car thing, and I was just reading through, in this case, American Express, because it’s typically what I use when I rent cars. And so far, and I’m trying to find the exact wording, it looks like if you’ve got an American Express, the Platinum card, that’s the one I’m looking at right now, and you use that for your rental, I think… From what I’m – the overarching – I’m trying to find the fine print, but the overarching thing says they will cover loss of use. So I’m going to see if I can’t, through the top of the hour break here, find the exact wording for that. But if that’s the case, I will let you know. And, yes, there are certain credit cards where I think it will actually cover loss of use on that particular rental. So we’ll be back. Bill and Longmont, hang tight. We’ve got a couple of lines open. Hour 3 is next. Drive Radio, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 13 :
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.
