Drive Radio opens with a full-throttle intro, then jumps straight into the “question of the day”: what cars from the last few years might become tomorrow’s collectible hits. Coming off a Barrett-Jackson weekend, the conversation breaks down how collector markets really move—inventory can stay strong while buyer demographics shift, and prices follow simple supply-and-demand.
From there, the show turns practical: a caller with a classic GM-style no-crank situation gets walked through the difference between battery, starter, and alternator issues (and why a weak starter can feel exactly like a dead battery). The crew also hits modern-day battery reality—new vehicles are
SPEAKER 09 :
It’s 106 miles to Chicago. We’ve got a full tank of gas. It’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hit it. Our lady of blessed acceleration, don’t fail me now.
SPEAKER 12 :
It’s time for Drive Radio, presented by Colorado’s select auto care centers.
SPEAKER 14 :
Ba-ba-da-ba!
SPEAKER 12 :
Whether you need help diagnosing a problem. I want to ask you a bunch of questions, and I want to have them answered immediately. Or just want to learn about all things automotive.
SPEAKER 13 :
Hey, how exactly does a positrack rear end on a Plymouth work?
SPEAKER 12 :
It just does. Then you’ve come to the right place. So start your engines, buckle up, and get ready to ride. Drive Radio starts now on KLZ 560 The Source.
SPEAKER 11 :
And it is Drive Radio, KLZ 560. Thanks for joining us today. We appreciate it very much. Mark Guernsey with me from Accountable up in Broomfield. Good morning, Mark. Good morning. And we’ve got a great show in store for you all. Don’t forget our text line, 307-200-8222. Direct line, call in. Larry’s here answering calls. Larry Unger, 303-477-5600. And, of course, Charlie Grimes, our engineer. All right, question of the day. Which, because of Barrett-Jackson last week, and I’ll talk a little bit about the auction I did this past week on my daily show, but some of you that won’t get a chance to listen to the daily show, I’ll give you an update of Barrett-Jackson here in just a few minutes. It was a good show, by the way. And the one thing I’m always amazed at is just the amount of absolute ridiculous money. Anyway, I’ll talk about that in a moment. But question of the day. This one’s tough. And this one, you’ve got to put your thinking cap on. Because it’s a guess, maybe an educated guess, but this is the question of the day. What will be up-and-coming collectible cars? Because, as you know, most of what’s at Barrett-Jackson is either collectibles or exotics or they’re one-offs or something to that effect. And I did a whole episode of The Extra Mile on collector cars and watching the trends because they can come and go just like art goes up and down and so on. The same thing happens when it comes to collector cars, and it’s a supply and demand thing. And the one thing that people forget, and I mentioned this in The Extra Mile, but the one thing people forget about… collector cars is the amount of cars stays relatively the same in other words in fact it might even grow because more and more cars are getting restored and rebuilt and so on and found barn finds and things like that so typically the collector car market grows the inventory is what i’m trying to get at while the buyers are diminishing For example, my dad and his age group, and he passed here not long ago, as you all know, and reality is that age, those buyers, they’re not as prevalent as they once were. I’m sorry to say this, they’re dying. They’re not able to do the things that they once do. They’re not Mark and I’s age. I mean, they’ve got 25 years on, even more than that on Mark, but 25 years on me, and they’re not able to do the same things they were, meaning… The inventory level stays the same, but the buying group diminishes in its supply, its simple economics, supply and demand. As a supply stays strong, but the demand weakens, well, guess what prices do? It goes down, and that’s what’s happening with some of the collector car market where you have to be careful with what you’re buying. So the question of the day now is, what do we have existing? What kind of cars are coming out and so on that may be collector cars on down the road? That is the question of the day. Eric, you’re first today. Go ahead, sir.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hey, how’s it going, you guys? Great show. Thank you, Eric. I kind of got a weird one. I have a 1979 Pontiac Le Mans, and it’s a 231 V6. And about six months ago, my battery went bad. And I took it in, and they tested it, and they said that it’s no good. They gave me a new one, brand spanking new. And he tested it, too. He said, we always test out new batteries before they go out. And it was fine. And then I put it in the car, and I went to start the car, and the car acts like the battery’s dead.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay, so let’s back up here. So you have a problem where it doesn’t crank, or is it a problem where it cranks and doesn’t start?
SPEAKER 06 :
When I try to crank it, nothing. And then I’ll try it again, nothing. And then I try it again… And healthy, healthy, it just goes to town.
SPEAKER 11 :
Bam! Okay, you might actually have on that vehicle, because the way the starter works and the solenoid is on the starter itself, you could actually have a bad starter, which it sounds like you do. From the description you just gave me, I would look at starter.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay, I’ll think about that. The thing that’s weird is I took off – The alternator, just check the connections, you know, and the one that comes off the back of the alternator, I think it’s the ground, there is some corrosion there, but I don’t see any evidence of any arcing or anything.
SPEAKER 11 :
And that would be your charge wire. There’s no ground on an alternator. It’s grounded through the body itself, so that’s the charge wire going back to the battery, and your alternator is working good or your battery wouldn’t be up.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. See, that’s what I’m wondering. If the old battery went dead, the man said it completely ruined the inside. Would that cause the battery to just completely ruin on the inside?
SPEAKER 11 :
Would what cause that? I’m not following you, Eric.
SPEAKER 06 :
If there was corrosion on the… No. It would not destroy the battery.
SPEAKER 11 :
No, it would not. The only time an alternator destroys a battery is if it’s severely, and I mean severely, overcharging. So a regulator goes bad and it starts pushing out, you know, a constant, you know, I don’t know, they can go all the way up to 16, 18 volts even, Eric. And if that’s the case, yeah, you can fry a battery. And I mean… In all of the years of doing this, you know, I’ve been around cars since the mid-70s. In all of the years of doing this, I could probably count on one hand alternators that get to that point and actually fry a battery. Normally, it’s the opposite. They get to where they don’t charge at all. But, yes, I have seen an alternator over all of the years. Again, I can count on one hand how many times that happened. But, yes, I have seen an alternator fry a battery. It doesn’t happen very often, though.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, okay. So you don’t think that I ruined my brand new one by doing that then, huh?
SPEAKER 11 :
I don’t think so, no. Shouldn’t be a factor. No, and again, the description that you’re describing to us is you have a starter problem. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER 06 :
Because see, I’ve never ever had any problems with that.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, and that’s what starters are doing. There’s brushes in there. And what happens, Eric, is over time, those brushes start to wear down. And one of the old GM hacks, you know, GM cars back in the day, one of the hacks is if they didn’t want to start, you’d take a hammer, wrap on the side of the starter, go hit the button again, or, you know, go hit the key again, and it would fire up and off you’d go. And You could do that for a while, and some guys would even keep a hammer in the car, and they’d crawl underneath and hit it every now and again if it didn’t want to start. But that’s typically what happens is the starters go bad.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay. That was very common on a GM starter, by the way. Oh, you mean what I’m describing to you?
SPEAKER 11 :
Yes, yes. Because what’s happening is as you’re cycling the start, you know, the crank position of the key, what you’re doing is you’re sending juice down, you let it off, you send it down, and that starter might move ever so slightly, just enough to where the brush now makes contact and then it’ll fire up. And that’s what you’re doing when you hit the key like that.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, I see. So you don’t think it’s the switch that’s in the steering column?
SPEAKER 11 :
No, not if it eventually starts, it’s not, no.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, okay. And then also, about the last week or so before the battery went bad, the alternator was real hot. It was getting real hot.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, and again, keep in mind, Eric, and this is for everybody listening, if the battery’s starting to go bad and it’s overloading the alternator, then the alternator’s going to work harder, and yes, it will get hot, and that’s normal. Oh, I see. That’s where folks have to be careful when you start letting a battery, and this is why it’s important to make sure your battery is always up, something Mark and I could even talk about today given the temperatures we had last weekend. Yeah, bad batteries, especially on new modern cars, can wreak all sorts of havoc throughout the rest of the electrical system because as that battery diminishes, that alternator, in this case what you’re talking about, Eric, has to pick up more load, quote-unquote, and it’s working harder than it should be.
SPEAKER 15 :
It’ll shorten the life of that alternator by a lot.
SPEAKER 11 :
Absolutely will. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay, so you think this battery problem just coincidentally happened right when the starter problem happened?
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, I mean, starters, I mean, you know, that’s one of those things where I’m not joking, Eric, especially on the older GM vehicles like you’re driving. All of a sudden, just one day, you’d go out and hit it, and they wouldn’t work. Okay. I mean, no rhyme or reason. Just all of a sudden, one day, you’re done. OK, so that over the years, Eric, I can’t tell you how many, you know, parking lot trips or friends you’d help. And even in the case of you’d show up and you didn’t have a hammer near you. So you’d go find a rock someplace that, you know, out of a meeting or something, you’d crawl under the vehicle and wrap on it a little bit and it’d fire up and you’d get them going. And I can’t tell you how many of those I did over the years. Mark’s laughing at me because back in the day you did that a lot.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, okay. Okay, so that problem, that could mimic a battery that’s dead then, possibly.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yes, very much could. Yes, very much could. And I’ll tell you what, Eric, over the years, just a side note, again, back in the day on those older vehicles like you’re driving, I guarantee you, because I saw it with my own two eyes, lots of batteries replaced, even by shops thinking that that was the problem when, in fact, it needed a starter.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, I see. Okay. Now, could that starter cause the brand new battery I had to be destroyed? No. I don’t think it could.
SPEAKER 11 :
No, it can’t. Two separate things. No, it cannot.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, I see. Now, if I got the alternator out and I try to start the car, if the starter’s good, it should start with no alternator then, correct?
SPEAKER 11 :
They will, yeah. They’ll start and run without the alternator, sure.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. I mean, that’s just more like a troubleshooting thing. I mean, you don’t want to do that.
SPEAKER 11 :
No, it doesn’t even troubleshoot. I mean, they’re two separate things. All the alternator is doing is keeping the battery fully charged, the starter starting the car. They’re two separate things.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. Okay. Well, that makes sense, what you’re saying. Should I just tell them to replace it, call somebody? Because I can’t get down there and do that.
SPEAKER 11 :
The description you’re describing to me, I would put a starter on it, yes. Just put a starter on it.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay, bud. Hey, thanks a lot, man.
SPEAKER 11 :
You’re welcome, Eric. Appreciate it very much. Yeah, going back in time there because in modern vehicles, Mark could tell you, we don’t do the amount of starters and things that we once did. No, we really don’t. They’ve become much more robust. Right. Even alternators. Don’t do the amount of alternators that you once did because they’re more robust as well.
SPEAKER 15 :
And you don’t want to hit them with a hammer anymore because there are more computer components around the inside of the housing instead of just a big motor like the old style.
SPEAKER 11 :
They’ve definitely made huge advancements in all of that. Again, not saying that a new car, newer cars, even cars that are in the fleet that are 14, 15 years of age, don’t have starter, alternator problems. They can, but I will tell you that… From what it used to be, even when I started in the industry in the mid-70s to what it is today, oh, my word, it’s night and day. I mean, Mark, it’s probably, I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say this, it’s 5% to 10% of what it used to be as far as that goes.
SPEAKER 15 :
Right, and we still replace some alternators, but starters are becoming very rare.
SPEAKER 11 :
Exactly. So, again, we’ve got a quick timeout we’ll take. We’ll come back. Lines are open, 303-477-5600. Myself, Mark Guernsey. We’ll be right back. Drive Radio, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 13 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
All right, we are back. Drive Radio, KLZ 560, Bill and Centennial. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hey, guys. How are you doing? I haven’t talked to you in a while. I’m good. How are you? Great. Good, good. Hey, I originally called about wanting to make a comment about… Something I read about how the luxury and car manufacturers, BMW, Audi, Mercedes and stuff, are going back, getting a little bit away from the touchscreen for simple stuff like turning your headlights on, your fan speeds for your heating and cooling and stuff. They’re starting to go back to push buttons.
SPEAKER 11 :
They’re going back to dials and buttons. You are correct.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, because people want that. They don’t want to have to take their eyes off.
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s exactly right. They don’t like trying to search through a screen, trying to figure out what they need to do to turn something on and off. They just want a button.
SPEAKER 05 :
Absolutely. Yeah, that’s what I wanted to comment. But the other thing, the other caller was just on about a battery. I’ll just tell you what happened to me just real quickly. Sure, go ahead. Take time. A couple weeks ago, my son’s 2016 Ford Fusion, he went out to start his car and just nothing. No click. He tried to jump it. He tried to charge it and the whole bit. Yes, they have. I noticed I have a 210 Audi Q5, and that got me thinking. And I noticed the last month, not month, couple months, I’m getting weird electrical gremlins, like my outside mirrors that fold in would quit folding in, or when you turn it on, they wouldn’t fold out. I’d have to wait until your lights would go off and on. Just weird little crap. And I thought, well, I’m going to check my battery. I don’t remember when I put a battery in. John, I went back. Now, my battery is under the spare tire. I went and looked at it. My battery was put in in 2015.
SPEAKER 11 :
Wow, that’s an old battery.
SPEAKER 05 :
And it’s 10 years old. You got your life out of that one. I couldn’t believe how long it lasted. So I put a new battery in, but the maximum amount you can get is three years. I got batteries you could get if you pay a higher end four to five years, but the maximum they’re doing now is three years.
SPEAKER 11 :
And honestly, and I tell this to people all the time, and I mean this sincerely, it doesn’t matter. Don’t buy a battery, and I mean this sincerely, don’t buy a battery based upon its warranty. Buy the battery based upon the manufacturer of said battery. And I don’t care if you buy a three-, four-, five-year battery. The DECA brand of batteries or the Penn batteries, which Napa now sells, in my opinion, Bill, those are the best batteries made. In your case, you may have to go to an AGM with it being mounted inside. Again, at the end of the day, as long as you’re buying a good quality battery, I don’t care how long the warranty is because it’s irrelevant.
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, the NAPA AAA batteries have that five-year warranty if they’re installed in a NAPA auto care shop. And you might get a free battery out of that.
SPEAKER 11 :
Good point.
SPEAKER 15 :
That’s the only value of it is it still probably won’t last five years, but you get a free battery.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, and my point with all that, Bill, and Mark just hit the nail on the head, it really is more marketing by the battery company itself as to how good that battery is. And I’m sorry to say that, but that’s the truth. The reality is a five-year battery doesn’t necessarily mean it’s any better than a three-year battery. It’s just a matter of what that warranty is going to cover for you.
SPEAKER 15 :
New cars are tough on batteries. They beat them up.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, yeah. Well, I had this guy that’s been working on my cars on stuff that I can’t do, and he checked it, and he said my battery was only a quarter charged. It was kind of weird. He said he’s surprised that it didn’t just go out. So it solved all my electrical issues. My outside mirrors work. I don’t get all these little electrical gremlins inside the car. It’s great to watch for those symptoms. But I solved it, you know, so… Anyway, thank you for your help.
SPEAKER 11 :
No, you’re very welcome, Bill. I appreciate it. Yeah, and as a side note, something Mark and I can hit on here the last three or four minutes here before we go to break here at the bottom of the hour is, yeah, batteries. Last weekend’s cold. Extreme heat, extreme cold, always the toughest on batteries, period. And by the way, that’s true whether it’s the flashlight or whether it’s the battery in your car. Just the way battery technology is. Even EVs, they suffer from when it’s really cold out, they diminish in range because it’s cold out. It just is what it is. They don’t work as well in cold weather. It’s also hard on them when you get to hot weather. So the same is true when you go to Arizona, it’s 120 degrees outside, same situation, hard on batteries. So extreme heat, extreme cold, really hard on batteries. And I’m sorry to say, but I really mean what I said a moment ago when it comes to batteries, qualities, and so on. Most people will buy a battery based upon its longevity, quote-unquote warranty, and then typically price. And what I will tell you is just buy a good battery from a good manufacturer. And I don’t care if it’s a three-, four-, five-year battery. If you want to do the AAA battery that Mark just said to get that extra added assurance, the peace of mind, if you would, that comes along with it because you can’t put it in yourself and you’re relying on somebody to do it for you. then by all means, buy that peace of mind. Not a problem at all. I’m all for that. My point, though, is in most cases, this is one of the areas where is there a huge difference from one of those batteries, say a 36-month battery to a 60-month battery? All in all, and Mark can attest to this, not really. The battery itself is pretty much the same. I mean, they might do a little bit of different configuration inside with the plates and a few things like that, but bottom line, and Mark’s right, new cars are hard on batteries. There’s a lot of things that are drawing off that battery at all times. That battery in that car is really never, ever going to sleep. It’s got some sort of a draw on it almost all of the time. It’s why if you park anywhere for any length of time, uh if you’re gone you know say you go to the airport and you park in a remote spot and you’re there for you take a month cruise trip whatever go around the world uh you probably have better have a jump pack with you because chances of that not being up a month later right it’s it’s pretty high because of again the amount of things that are drawing off that battery at any given time so again i’m one where buy a good quality battery from a good quality manufacturer and I shouldn’t say this, but I will. Stay away from the discount chains, guys. I can’t say that enough. Buying your battery from Walmart and so on. I was going to say you don’t want the cheapest battery no matter what. Yeah, don’t buy the cheap battery that the guys at Walmart and other places are selling. I’m not trying to throw those guys under the bus. They serve a purpose. I get that. But are you buying a really high-quality battery when you go there to buy that battery? No, you’re not.
SPEAKER 15 :
In my last six months to nine months, for the first time in five years, I saw a refurbished battery in my shop. Oh, man. It is junk.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 15 :
And it wasn’t good three months later from being new.
SPEAKER 11 :
And, again, back to the conversation we just had with Bill on what these things are doing on the vehicle themselves. I would not skimp. on the battery end of things knowing all of the things that it’s controlling on the car don’t cheap out on your battery that’s my point and if you want to know what a good quality battery is you can always send us a text message and i can tell you there’s really good brands out there and there’s some not so good brands out there and i’ll just tell you that straight up and there’s some great retailers that do a great job selling great batteries Napa being one, again, one of our great sponsors, but right now they’re Penn Batteries, in my opinion, and this is me from the commercial sides of things, they’re the best batteries made right now. They’re better than the X-Sides were. They’re the best batteries made, and it’s coming from somebody like me where we are hard on batteries. When you’re out doing commercial maintenance and plowing snow, and snow plows, Mark knows this, are hard on batteries because of the… Just the sheer everything going on, you know, the constant stopping and starting and running the plow motor. And then on top of that, the jolting of the battery itself because you’re hitting things and so on. I mean, there’s nothing harder on a battery than plowing snow. And through all of the years, me as a commercial operator, we found the Penn batteries. to be the best battery we could buy, period. So I’m telling you that from personal experience. So, yes, that is a battery that I fully believe in because we use it in our fleet, and Napa now sells those, so it’s a fantastic battery. And, again, I’m one where, truthfully, unless you’re wanting to do what Mark said and get that longer-term battery through AAA and have that warranty on it, but if you’re doing something yourself, you can go buy the Napa 48-month battery and save a little bit of money on a 60-month battery, and you’ll be just fine. There’s no issues at all with that battery. So leave it with that. We’ll come back. Lines are open, 303-477-5600. This is Drive Radio, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 03 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
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SPEAKER 08 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
All right, we are back. Drive Radio, KLZ 560. Myself, Mark Guernsey, accountable up in Broomfield. Question of the day, up and coming collectible cars. What do you think cars that we have today that you could buy today? By the way, it doesn’t have to be right today, but maybe cars that have even been around the last four or five years or so. What do you think may be collectible on down the road? That’s the question of the day. 303-477-5600. Okay, I’ve got a minute or two here. Update on Barrett-Jackson, the auction, how did things go, and so on. And some of you probably saw some of the coverage on television, maybe even some of the follow-up. And reality is prices were strong. Yeah, there were still some good deals. Anytime, by the way, just a word to the wise, if you ever want to go down there and buy something, whether you’re a collector or you’re just looking to buy a toy, a car to go to car shows in or whatever, All the way up until Friday morning. They start getting a little bit higher even Thursday night, but all the way up to Friday morning. There’s some pretty decent deals. There’s some cars there that you can make a pretty good deal on. So if you’re really wanting to buy a car, the time to be there is from Monday through Thursday. From Thursday night through Friday, it really starts to pick up. Then, of course, the big day is Saturday, and that’s when all the big-ticket things roll through. Million-dollar-plus cars roll through, typically Saturday evening. And the amount of money that’s there and the amount of… egomaniacs maybe is the way to say it. In other words, you know, I’m going to have this car and you’re not going to have that car. And I read an article this week from another journalist, somebody like me that does some things on, you know, social media. And I don’t know if he’s got radio or TV or whatever, but I read something and I don’t totally agree with this. Now, I understand the premise of where This particular guy is coming from. He basically was criticizing Barrett Jackson and the fact that a lot of the cars that are auctioned off are at an extreme price. It really sets the tone for cars that everybody else thinks is going to be worth that kind of money when they’re not. In other words, he feels like it’s, quote unquote, screwing up the classic car market. I disagree with that. And what he was saying is the reason for that is because a lot of guys that go there aren’t even really car collectors. They just want to outdo the next person, show that they’ve got deeper wallets and it’s more of an egomaniac trip than it is anything else. Now, I disagree with that. And let me give you my opinion as to why I disagree with him. There’s an old saying, something is worth, the real value is what’s somebody willing to pay. Now, I don’t care if somebody wants to buy something because they’re an egomaniac or not. If they’re willing to pay that price, then that’s what that item is worth. So there’s lots of things, and this is where I will differ with this guy. There are lots of things in our world from houses and yachts and even boats and on down the line we go, businesses even, that sell for inflated prices all because somebody wants to own it. Well, does that mean it’s not worth that? Well, if it wasn’t worth it, somebody wouldn’t have paid it. So at the end of the day, yes, it’s worth that because somebody wrote a check for it.
SPEAKER 15 :
Yeah, that really decides the value right there.
SPEAKER 11 :
Thank you, Mark. What the market will bear. Given the fact that somebody wrote a check for that amount of money means that that’s what that value is. So I will differ with this guy. Now, I understand what he’s saying in that it does set a false precedence. For people that might have a similar car. So, for example, there was a 63 split window. They called that a large tank vehicle. In this case, it had a larger fuel tank. Original fuel injection in the car was immaculate. I mean, absolutely perfect. And it sold for over a million dollars. Now, some would say that car is not worth that. Well, this is a car that there’s probably in existence today. less than 20 or 25 left when it’s all said and done so you think about back to what i was saying earlier supply and demand and the fact that corvettes always have high demand it’s just it’s one of those cars that people want to have no matter what no matter the year even Yeah, there are some versions of Corvettes that dip a little, and then eventually they will start to come back. It’s just the way Corvettes have always been. But those early Corvettes, like a 63 split window. Keep in mind, split windows are made one year, one year only. So that particular car, completely redone with the factory fuel injection, with a large tank, given its rarity. And by the way, on top of that, this is a car that probably, from looking at it, I don’t know the exact tally, but I would venture to guess… probably has $300,000 in it on the restoration site. People don’t realize how quickly Mark and I would because the labor hours just add up. For example, there was a fellow there that they’re in Phoenix and they sell, they’re basically new. They find an older blazer, for example. They’ll get a title in a van and they swap everything over to a brand new body and a brand new top. And anyways, they make basically anything. brand new, you know, 1972 Chevy Blazers. And there was a guy that this particular company was there. It was a kind of a dough colored blazer that I looked at and got up close to it. And literally, it was one of the nicest vehicles there. And I’m not exaggerating, as far as the vintage of what it is. Again, it’s a new vehicle. So it’s not vintage, but you get where I’m going with this. I mean, the truck was absolutely perfect. And I’m not exaggerating when I say that. I mean, from the body lines lining up to the paint itself to even how the door jams were painted to the interior to you name it. I mean, the vehicle was absolutely perfect. And the guy was standing next to it. And so I got a chance to just. I got my media badge on, so I’m asking him a few questions. He’s more than willing to talk to me. Super nice guy that built it, and it’s a team of people, but the main guy that built it is the guy that I got a chance to talk to. And I literally asked him, I’m like, okay, A, what do you think this thing’s going to auction off at, and what do you have in it? And his thought was, well, if I get 300K out of it, I’ll make a little bit of money. I’m not going to make a ton of money, but I’ll basically make some money. It’s better than breaking even because I’ve got X amount of hours in this rebuild, plus all the cost of the parts and everything. And, I mean, it’s perfect. So keep in mind, I mean, from every chrome trim piece to the way the interior is done to the seats to the carpet to, you know, the paint itself to the, I mean, this is one of those vehicles where the underside of the inner fenders, look better on the paint on it was better than most cars on the top side are anywhere in any parking lot. I mean, that’s how good this vehicle was restored. My point is, this guy had roughly 300 grand in this particular vehicle. Fortunately, when it went across the auction block Saturday night, it brought 450. So he made out. He did well. And you know what? I don’t fault anybody that does that. For the amount of hours and even some risk that this particular person took in building this vehicle, he could have easily went across the auction block and brought $300,000, and he basically broke even. But they did okay. They made some money. Of course, they’ll go build some others, and they build these things on a one-off basis. If you want to buy one, they’ll build you one exactly the way you want. And amazingly enough, people buy these, meaning – There’s a lot of money out there. That’s the point that I’m getting at here is there’s still a lot of money out there. And to go back and differ with the guy that said Barrett-Jackson screws up the collector car market, I disagree. If anything, I think it brings light to the collector car market and to some of these things that wouldn’t have that same light shed on them. And the other thing about Barrett-Jackson that I noticed, and I was there with great friends of mine, Kent and Julia from up in Sterling went with us and had an opportunity to spend some time with them. And Kent and I were both talking that the plus side of being at the auction and what we noticed this year versus even some of the previous years is how many young people were there. So you guys all know my passion and what I feel about the industry and the trades and so on. And for me, just seeing a lot of young people there with enthusiasm towards the industry, to me, says a lot. Because Mark knows what I mean by this as well. We don’t have enough young people coming into our industry. We need far more. So the exciting thing about the auction was the fact that literally surrounded by folks, and I mean young people, there were people there that had their six, seven, eight-year-old kids, and you could tell that the kids weren’t just being drug along. I mean, they had their own little cameras out and taking pictures and really enjoying what was going on. And you could see their excitement. I mean, it was like, OK, great. We actually have potentially another generation finally that’s going to be back into cars like all of us were at one time. And to me, that was an exciting thing. So, you know, reporting back on the auction. Yes, there’s lots of money. And there always will be. And it always, you know, I always crack up when I hear people calling even to my daily show talking about, you know, the sky’s falling, the economy’s bad, you know, what’s going to happen next? And my feeling on that is you just don’t get out much. Because if you get out and travel and go to an event like I just did last week and you soon realize that, yeah, no, nothing’s falling. There’s plenty of money in the world and it’s going to keep flowing. Sorry, guys, nothing’s stopping that. It’s going to keep flowing. You could see that at Barrett-Jackson last week and you can see it at other things you go to. So at the end of the day, the economy’s fine. Things are rolling along just well. Lots of high-priced cars went through for obvious reasons. And, again, the most exciting part is the fact that there was lots of young people there with true excitement, not there because mom and dad are dry. I mean, Saturday night, for example, I was finally done with people. I mean, I can handle people for X amount of time. But I got there noon Thursday, was there until later Thursday night, all day Friday, into Friday night, Saturday, and about 6 o’clock, my wife and I were like, okay, I’ve had enough. I’m elbow to elbow. There’s no place to walk. The place was jammed with people, and I’m not exaggerating, literally jammed with people. It was worse than a Bronco game. I’m not joking when I say that. Just that many people. And here’s the cool part. As we’re leaving, there’s literally a line of people to get in because they do security. You’ve got to go through metal detectors and so on to get in. And the line to get in is 30 yards long, and I’m not exaggerating, filled, not joking, filled with mostly late teens, early 20s kids. Which, again, that’s the exciting part. Okay, these aren’t old codgers like me and Mark waiting to get in. Yeah, these aren’t old guys like us waiting to get in. These are younger people. And I get it. There’s more of the party atmosphere on Saturday night at Barrett-Jackson and so on. But my point is they can go do that anywhere. They don’t have to go to Barrett-Jackson to find that. They’re in Phoenix. They can go anywhere they want to. They’re in Arizona. They can go wherever they want to. It’s warm. Go wherever you want. But they’re at Barrett-Jackson because they like cars. And you could just see them looking at cars and their eyes lighting up and pointing to different things and talking about different things. And, you know, for me, I get to kind of sit back and listen to a lot of conversations and you overhear a lot of things and so on. And the excitement from the young people was, for me, probably the best thing about the whole auction. Not the cars itself, but just knowing that… We’ve got excitement once again in the industry from young people that we’ve dramatically needed for a long or drastically needed for a long time. And I saw that last weekend. So that’s my synopsis of Barrett Jackson. It was a lot of fun. As I always say, if you ever get a chance to go. It’s well worth going. Nothing against the other auctions that are out there, Mecham and others. But Barrett-Jackson sets the tone, especially the one in Scottsdale. It is the creme de la creme. It is the best of the best. And if you ever get a chance to go, it is well worth the price of admission. So I’ll leave it at that. This is Drive Radio, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 13 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
All right, two text messages that came in. Let me read this first one because this is spot on, too. Somebody said, of course, some of the comments on social media on some of what’s sold at Barrett-Jackson, quote, and yet kids are still hungry and veterans are homeless. This person says, jealous have-nots. Yeah, I mean, you know, here’s the reality, folks. Yeah. You’re right. There’s a lot of money there. And yes, there’s still people that are homeless and there’s kids that are hungry and so on. And yes, that’s a sad thing. And I feel bad for that. But at the end of the day, you know, certain people make certain choices and it’s just where they’re at. And you can’t, you know, even Jesus himself said the poor will always be with you. Okay. And I’m sorry. In some cases, you’re just – you’re not going to fix that. And I know there’s some folks out there that might disagree with me on that, but believe me when I say this. Some people choose that. You’re never going to fix that. It’s just – unfortunately, in some cases, it’s just their life and the choices they’ve made, and you can’t even get them to make better choices to where they get out of that. And so it’s almost a life – that they’ve been destined to, but it is because of them. We live in, literally, the greatest country on planet Earth where you have still the most opportunity you could ever have in any country. And the ability for you to do whatever you want to and make the kind of money you need to to buy the cars that are at Barrett-Jackson still exists to this day. and anybody that wants to can do that. It’s called Drive Gumption. Yeah, you have to have a little bit of smarts, but really it all comes down to can you outwork the next person and be a little bit smarter than they are and do more than they are because we live in a country where you can still make it when it’s all said and done. So, by the way, thank you for that text message. You’re spot on on that because you’re 100% correct. Now, one of the text messages came in and said, I’m looking at Napa, and I don’t see anything that says they’re Penn Batteries, and it’s P-E-N-N. no you won’t because that’s just the vendor or the manufacturer for napa there’s only for those of you listening there’s only gosh mark two three battery manufacturers probably in the united states of america making batteries i think there’s only four in the world four in the world so there’s not that many so pen being the one we’re talking about and then there’s x-site of course And I don’t know what the other ones are. I have to go look it up, use AI or something to look up the others. But, yeah, you will not see Penn on the battery from NAPA. It’s just in our area here in Colorado. I will tell you, if you go buy a battery from NAPA, they’re being made by Penn. That’s the way that works. The other brand that is a Penn battery is DECA. That’s sold outside of NAPA. Sometimes you have to go to them to find a battery because NAPA may not actually carry that particular battery, but that’s not very often that you have to do that. So DECA is D-E-K-A, but rarely do you have to go to them. You can typically find the battery you need inside of the NAPA line, and you’ll frankly find better batteries. service on it, warranty, the ability to handle things down the road with a warranty and things like that through the NAPA system than you would the DECA sides of things. Yeah, but it’s a Penn Battery, P-E-N-N, which I think they’re made in Pennsylvania is why it’s named that, Mark, I believe.
SPEAKER 15 :
I believe you’re right, yes.
SPEAKER 11 :
I’m pretty sure that’s the case. So, yes, I’m sorry. I should have probably explained that a little bit better, but bottom line, I probably should have explained that a little bit better because…
SPEAKER 15 :
But it’s the only battery line that Napa sells in our area.
SPEAKER 11 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 15 :
They’re all going to be Penn.
SPEAKER 11 :
So if you go to Napa and buy that battery, yes, you’re going to find it. So, yeah, I should have explained that better. Sorry, I didn’t do a very good job of that. Some of you are now looking for that particular earmark on the Napa battery. No, you won’t find that. It’s just the manufacturer, the vendor. And I’ve got some time, Mark, and I can talk about this for a moment. Napa, like anybody else, they don’t make their own parts. NAPA is a reseller of parts. They put deals together with all of their vendors, and in some cases, they’ve had vendors for decades or longer. The Eklund brand, for example, that’s an internal brand of NAPA. They source out different parts for their electrical products. sides of things and so on. But then they put deals together with, you know, brake pads and rotors and U-joints and, and, and. I can go down the list of all the different parts that are on a particular vehicle. I mean, Napa carries literally, you know, hundreds of thousands of parts. I don’t know exactly what their SKU number is, Mark, but it is large. And no, they don’t make all of those parts. There are vendors, quote unquote, that are supplying, like, for example, gates on belts. And there’s two main manufacturers of belts, Gates and Goodyear.
SPEAKER 15 :
Honestly, if you think about it, Ford doesn’t make their own parts.
SPEAKER 11 :
No, thank you, Mark.
SPEAKER 15 :
Nobody makes their own parts. No, they’re all using… They’re sourced from professionals in every little industry in every area.
SPEAKER 11 :
And in some cases, to Mark’s point, some of those suppliers are supplying parts to not only Napa, but Ford and GM and Toyota and a lot of others for that matter.
SPEAKER 15 :
Ford has Ford on their belt, but it’s made by Gates or by somebody else.
SPEAKER 11 :
Goodyear or somebody else, exactly. And they don’t make their own oil filters, for example. Right. Oil filters are not made by Motocraft. They’re sourced through someone else. Toyota is the same way. And so at the end of the day, yeah, Napa is no different than anybody else. So going back to this whole conversation on batteries, that’s why in our – and it does change by region. This is where you’ve got to be careful with social media because somebody might get on social media and talk about a particular part by a particular supplier. Be careful with that because that could be true and is true for them and their area of the country. But you may go to a different area of the country and there may be a – completely different vendor for that part through that same supplier it’s just running through things differently because they’re in a different part of the country does that make sense absolutely and we see that even with Napa East Coast versus West Coast correct have different suppliers in some cases that’s right Mark and Denver go ahead morning good afternoon here’s my comment on Bear Jackson I think this market has shifted and I’ve been watching it for many years
SPEAKER 04 :
I saw a disproportionate amount of split window coupes and trucks. They’ve gone over the truck side. I mean, the exotics that showed up on Saturday night were that type. But a lot of trucks, you know, Blazers and such.
SPEAKER 11 :
And really quick, Mark, and for everybody listening, here’s why the trucks are big, I feel. is because there’s really no original numbers-matching truck. Trucks can be built according to whoever that buyer is that likes that truck. It could have an LS motor in it. It could have this. It could have that. And the reality is they can build that truck really however that particular builder wants to build it, and it still has value at the end of the day because they don’t have to worry about all of the numbers-matching stuff like you want on a Z28 Camaro or an LS6 Chevelle or a Mustang.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I had a 74 Blazer K5, and I’ve got to tell you something. I had to go get dental work every time I drove.
SPEAKER 11 :
No, it was a bucket of bolts. And even the guy that built that 72 Blazer I was talking to, we were talking about how when they were new, they were just a bucket of bolts. They weren’t that good of a vehicle, but they’re bringing a boatload of money.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, not at all. But the reason for my call, too, is I focus on Porsche and any air-cooled Porsche Prime, whether it’s a 914, 912, you know, are skyrocketing.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yes, they are.
SPEAKER 04 :
And in my Porsche magazine, there’s three or four buyers that are after my car, the 993 model, the last year.
SPEAKER 11 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s just they are really going up.
SPEAKER 11 :
They are.
SPEAKER 04 :
I don’t think the water-cooled Porsches are going to go to that level. These air-cooled ones are, especially when you’re talking about. Early Speedsters or Carrera Speedsters, those are $2-3 million cars.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yes, you’re right. Absolutely. No, great comments, Mark. We’re at the top of the hour. If you want to call back and talk more, feel free to do so. I’ll let you go for now, though. We’ll take a break. We’ll come right back. Two more hours left of Drive Radio, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 02 :
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.
