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?
It is a trick question.
Watch this.
The Chevy didn’t make a 327 in 55, the 327 didn’t come out till 62, and it wasn’t offered in the Bel Air with a four barrel carb till 64. However, in 1964, the correct ignition timing would be four degrees before tap dead center.
Get ready for another hour of Drive Radio, brought to you by Colorado 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.
All right, we are back, Drive Radio, KLZ 560. Myself, Mark Guernsey from Accountable Auto Care with us today up in Broomfield. Larry Unger, of course, answering phones.
If you’re calling in now, you get to talk to Larry like you once did. Larry’s been back with us now for several weeks. And of course, Charlie Grimes, our engineer.
Lines are open, 303-477-5600. Give us a call. And by the way, all of our sponsors, everybody that we work with, and know they’re not all automotive shops, as we were just talking to Kurt Rogers, our mortgage guy.
We have lots of different businesses that help make this program happen each and every week. I encourage you to use each and every one of them. I do.
I know them all on a first name basis, and use their products and services. In a lot of the repair shops, I either coach or talk to on a weekly basis as well. So again, I believe highly in the different people that we have as a part of what we do.
And I wouldn’t vouch for them. If I couldn’t, I wouldn’t. They wouldn’t be a part of what we do.
So I do, I highly recommend them. Somebody texted in, can I speak to why car manufacturers are doing away with spare tires? Sure.
Several factors. One, I think if you do a study on how many people actually change a spare, it’s minimal. In other words, how many can.
That’s becoming less and less. Two, it’s weight. If they can reduce weight, it helps them out fuel economy wise.
It helps their cafe, their corporate average fuel economy standards. It helps that end of things out. And it’s a space saving thing as well.
They now have the ability to place things in the vehicle much better because they don’t have this big, either a full tire and wheel package that they’ve got as a spare or even the compact mini spares. They’re no longer having to make room for that like they once were. And it gives them the ability to sort of fit cargo area, trunk area and so on.
It gives them the ability to fit things in much more readily and give you more cargo space than you once had because you’re no longer having to have a jack and a spare and all of the things that go with it. Now, a lot of them are running in contrast, I guess you could say, to that they run run flat tires. So they’ll go no spare and do run flat tires.
Now, while that sounds great and run flats are, they’re super expensive to either buy and or maintain because you need a special tire machine to even mess with run flats in the first place. So run flats aren’t for the faint of heart, Mark, I guess is what I should say.
They don’t make for a good ride either. They’re just a harder tire. Most people that have them trade away from them and go to something else.
So it’s an option, but it’s not great. Right. And they have no spare.
But spares are very rarely used unless you’re out in the country, up in the mountains where there aren’t people. On the side of the road, you’re not going to change a tire. You’re going to call a tow truck anyway.
I don’t want you changing a tire on the side.
I say it all the time when it’s broken. It’s not safe.
And I did see this. I was going to mention this today. So I’m glad Mark brought this up because he just triggered something.
I saw somebody this past week. I was going down I-225 and there was somebody over on the shoulder that you could see. They had a flat right rear, plain as day, flopping around.
To their credit, they weren’t stopped on the side of the road trying to change it. They had their hazards on, very low speed, going to the next exit. I almost wanted to get out and pat them on the back because that’s exactly what you should be doing.
You by no means want to be out on the side of I-225 changing a tire. That’s how you get hit and killed.
Yeah, no. No cost is worth that ever.
Tire and wheel aren’t.
No, absolutely not.
The car is not, Mark.
That’s $200.
The whole car is not worth your life. I mean, at the end of the day, yeah, I am not going to risk my life for a tire and wheel to not go to the next exit and pull over. And by the way, if you go slow enough, in this particular case, I could see the tire and the wheel of the tire was gone.
And it was probably gone the minute it went flat anyways. So reality is you’re going to replace the tire. If you go slow enough, you’re probably not going to damage the wheel.
You just got to go super slow. This particular individual was doing that.
And a short distance.
And they weren’t going very far. You know, the next exit was, I don’t know, eighth of a mile down the road or so. So they weren’t going a long, long way.
And they did it exactly the way you should do it. Do not change that tire on the side of the road. Get completely off and out of the road.
It is not worth risking life and limb over a tire. Now, is that why manufacturers aren’t putting spares in? No, I think it’s for the other reasons I just said.
It’s more of a space weight issue. I think they also, to Mark’s point, know the statistics as to how many people actually change spare tires anymore. Reality is very few do.
They usually call someone, AAA, their insurance company, the local tow truck, whatever the case may be. They’re getting something handled that way. They’re towing it to the local tire store, whatever they need to do.
Very, very, very few people are actually changing a tire. I see less and less mini spares, I guess you could say, because I try to pay attention to these things as I’m driving, and I put a lot of miles on them. I drive all the way down here from Golden and back six days a week.
Get to see a lot of different vehicles on the road, and I will tell you that the amount of mini spares even that you see on a car is diminishing from what it once was, meaning there’s just less people messing with that end of it.
Well, there’s two problems with tires. They’re made out of rubber, so they wear out, but they get old. They break down just with age, and most spare tires get too old to use before they ever get used.
So there’s a limit of 12 to 15 years, and they’re not going to work for you anyway. They’ve broken down already.
Correct. Question of the day. Again, for those of you listening, and we didn’t get to a lot of this during the first hour, what’s the best add-on quote unquote gadget accessory that you’ve done on your vehicle?
Now, in some cases, it could be something that is now currently built into vehicles. I’ve got one, by the way, that I really like. Steve Horovath from Gino’s got me on to this.
For those of you that have older vehicles, or even newer vehicles, but maybe don’t have all of the fancy features, there is a cell phone mount called ProClip. ProClip makes cell phone mounts specific to the vehicle that you’re driving. Let me explain why this is important.
Number one, the fit and finish is great. It doesn’t look like you’ve added some stupid thing onto the front dash of your car. Number two, they make a modular system whereby if you want a mount that includes the wireless charging, where you’re not running the cable in and out of the phone every single time you want it to charge, they have multiple mounts to where if you just want to lay the phone in the cradle, hide all the wires going up to it, make it all nice and neat, you never have to have anything exposed on the dash.
It’s a really nice, clean, and you can put that in an area where it’s literally right in front of your face where you’re not fumbling around, because even a lot of the cars that have charge pads and so on, they put the phone in such a place that you can’t really even see what’s going on and did you just get an emergency text message. I get it, people that have carplay and so on, some of those messages will come up on the screen, but not always. Sometimes you miss some of those things.
The nice thing about the ProClip cell phone holder is literally it puts it right in front of your eyes. It’s not a distraction. It’s no different than looking at the speedometer.
I mean, it’s literally right at eye level. You place it exactly where you want and it charges your phone while you’re at it. I’ve got one in my old Dodge, for example, because they didn’t have any of these things back in 2004.
They didn’t make them then. Even though it’s got other features, it doesn’t have that. And for me, plowing snow, for example, I’ve now got a wireless charger holding my phone.
I can directly look at it. If anybody’s trying to communicate with me while I’m pushing snow, it’s literally right in front of my eyes. It is one of the best quote unquote gadgets, thanks to Steve Horvath at Genos, one of the best gadgets I think I’ve ever added.
In fact, it’s such a convenient holder that even some of the newer cars that have some of these things built in, this holder device works so much better than any of the ones that come from the factory. You almost want to put this in other vehicles, even these vehicles that have the ability to do the charging and so on. This thing works so slick, and the one that I’ve got, it’s a motorized clamping system.
So the minute that I set the phone in the cradle, I hit a little button on the side and it squeezes the phone together and it’s not popping out. Even pushing snow, and Mark knows what I mean by that. Nothing goes flying around.
Nothing worse than, you know, you hit a snowbank and stuff goes flying, because it happens. Or that pothole pops up in the middle of the parking lot you didn’t know was there, Mark, and things start shaking around. This holder is sufficient to where your phone doesn’t even go flying around when you hit a bump like that.
So for a lot of you guys that are in construction, or you do some off-roading, or camping, or whatever the case may be, this particular, and I’m doing an ad for them, I know, but it’s called ProClip. It’s proclipusa.com is the website. Should probably get one of their folks on here at some point and have them talk about the product and so on.
But I’m not exaggerating. It is some of the best made high quality product that I think I’ve ever seen. And everything is built per vehicle, year make model.
So you’re buying something that is specific for your vehicle that somebody’s thought all the way through as to how it would work. And I’m here to tell you at the end of the day, it does. So that for me has been one of the best gadgets I think I’ve ever bought over time.
What’s your favorite gadget? 303-477-5600. We’ll come right back.
Drive Radio, Klz560.
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All right, Drive Radio Klz 560. Myself, Mark Guernsey, Accountable Auto Care up in Broomfield. Somebody texted in and said, Last week saw a jeep on fire.
This is up towards Wellington and Cheyenne. People had the hood open, and they’re right next to the jeep. Yeah, and this text said, Get away from the vehicle, don’t even try to put it out.
Yeah, pour more gas on. Now, I’m being facetious, but you don’t want to own a vehicle after it’s burned. In fact, if you have time, get out of it whatever you possibly can, run away, let it burn, then call 911.
Wait till that thing’s half burned before you call anybody. Now, granted, other people probably are as they pass by.
Yeah, somebody will help you out.
No offense, I don’t want that thing put out. It can go all the way to the ground for all I care, because I don’t want that vehicle back, because it will be totaled no matter how you look at it.
I would say it’s very rare for a newer vehicle to catch on fire, so somebody dinked with something, added an accessory that wasn’t right for that to happen. Right, that’s not normal.
But they do happen, and again, I’ve said this for years on this program, I am one when it comes to car fires that yeah, I don’t want that fire put out. Mark knows what I mean by that, especially electrical fires. If it’s been something to where your whole main harness is burned up by any stretch of the imagination, in my opinion, that car is totaled.
I’m not fixing that car. I don’t want to touch that car. That car is gonna smell.
It’ll smell forever. There’s no way you’re gonna ever make it the way it once was.
It’s like a car that got hit by lightning. You can’t fix it. It’s gonna have gremlins for life.
I’m running away from that car. I do not want to own that car. So yeah, that’s a great example.
Whoever texted that in. Yeah, I do not want to own a vehicle that’s been on fire ever. And I say that sincerely.
So those of you that have ever had a situation like that and or in the future may have a situation. I see things, Mark, on YouTube and such where RVs will catch on fire. Or the tow vehicle will catch on fire.
And then that catches the camper on fire. And before you know it, the whole thing’s engulfed in flames. Yeah, just run away.
I’m going to say it’s no different than a flooded car. You’ve destroyed the electrical. You cannot fix that.
In fact, on the used car side, I’m glad Mark brought that up, that’s one of those things that as we go through hurricane season and different things, the used car market, pardon the pun, will get flooded with those flood prone cars because they will make it to areas even like Colorado where we don’t have much flooding here at all, but they’ll make it here because it’s a way for them to get rid of those cars out of those areas. They’ll do their best to clean them up to where it looks like there’s been no damage to the car. They’ll even shove those things off to auction.
Nobody’s in any wiser, but I don’t want to own that car, Mark.
Colorado also does not require a salvage title for under $5,000, so cars get sent here that won’t go to other states because the laws are looser. So they are going to show up. They are always here.
You got it. Somebody also sent me a magnetic cell phone holder, again, right along the lines of what I was just talking about a moment ago. Yeah, you do whatever works for you.
I, plowing snow, didn’t want just a magnetic holder by itself because when you’re plowing snow, and again, if you’ve done that, you know what I mean. There’s times where you’ll be jostled and things happen and so on, and the last thing I wanted was for things to go flying around. So, I want more of a permanent type mount.
So, in my case, this one that ProClip sells actually squeezes the phone in, in a clamping system whereby it’s not going to fly around no matter what, and I actually prefer that. So, what’s your favorite car gadget? 303-477-5600, 303-477-5600.
Somebody also just asked us, what would I recommend doing, or when would I recommend doing the first oil change on a 2024 Ford Maverick EcoBoost? On that one, you do want that, they put some quote unquote break-in oil in the engine and they tell you to vary the engine RPM and not drive at a standard speed and so on. I still would change that one at 4,000 to 5,000 miles.
I wouldn’t go anything over that, even on a Brent. Even though they’ll tell you to go much further, even the oil monitoring system will probably tell you to go further. I would be changing that new car in that particular case on that Maverick, 4,000 to 5,000 miles.
And again, thereafter doing the exact same thing. Mark and I were talking about this this last week and I’ll kind of close out with this before we go to our car review. We switched back, folks.
At one time in the old days, we changed oil three months, 3,000 miles. It was the standard back in the day. Three months, 3,000 miles.
Well, we kind of got away from that because, you know, as we got into the late 90s, early 2000s even, all the way up until direct-injection engines, you could extend that to about 5,000 miles, because those vehicles didn’t really need much more oil maintenance than that. The oils had improved greatly. The filters were fabulous.
The engines weren’t direct-injection. They did really well at just sort of maintaining, if you would, and you could run 5,000 miles or so on those vehicles at that time with no problem. Well, now we’ve switched back.
We’ve kind of reverted back to where in some cases, you need to go back to that 3,000 or 4,000-mile interval again. In a lot of cases, no more than 4,000 miles. So it’s almost like we’ve done this pendulum swing where the old cars, we were at 3,000, 3 and 3.
We then kind of went up 5 and 5 or so. And now we’ve swung back to where it’s about 4 and 4, 4 months, 4,000 miles. So you should be changing oil about three times a year on a newer vehicle.
That’s going to be in opposition to what a lot of the manufacturers and dealers tell you.
Yeah the oils have gotten better. They have, but the engine designs have changed. The tolerances are tighter.
They still get the same contaminants in them. They get the gas, the partially burned fuel, the carbon, the gunk, all builds up.
The carbon build up in a direct injection is huge as we were talking about earlier.
And the new engines can’t handle that. They don’t have room for junk in the oil.
Correct. So point being, to keep the inside of that direct injection engine clean, you need to be going through and doing these services. So the pendulum has now swung back to where you need to be at about 4,000 miles.
And this is outside of the oil indicator. Because a lot of the indicators, you’re going to be changing oil at 4,000 miles. That’s going to tell you that you probably still have 40% left.
According to it, you probably do. Remember, none of these oil monitors are monitoring the oil itself.
Oh, not at all.
All the algorithms that they have built into the computer based upon temperature, driving temperature, how far you drive, how you drive, all of these things are getting plugged into quote unquote the software of the computer, and then spitting out, here’s how much mileage life I have left on the oil. There’s nothing in the oil monitoring its contaminants. It’s all doing it based upon a software program that, by the way, is based upon probably a 7,500 or so mile interval.
So when it says there’s 40% left, you’re probably going to be at about that 4,000, 4,500 mark, meaning it’s due.
Right, and it’s based on that ideal driving situation, which we don’t have.
No, we do not have. Especially here in Colorado, we do not. We have some of those extremes.
But at any rate, oil monitoring systems are not monitoring the oil itself. It’s based on a software algorithm that they’ve built in, pre-done on the front side. And it is not a direct indicator of what your vehicle needs, despite what that thing might actually say.
All right, we did a car review on Monday. My son Richard did stay tuned for that. We’ll come right back after that.
Drive Radio Klz 560. All right, Rush Turees and Denver’s Afternoon Rush Klz 560. Richard, you have driven a car of late.
I did as well. Let’s start with yours though. 2024 Toyota Camry Hybrid XSE.
And I’ll just say really quick, I’ll add my own two cents. One of my favorite cars, by the way. For the money, one of the best cars you can buy.
I figured you’re going to say that. And actually, I have to correct because I messed up. It’s actually a 2025, which is actually significant.
Oh, wow. OK.
2025, there is no longer a just a combustion engine only option. It is a hybrid only powertrain, which makes easier selections for buyers. Right.
They don’t necessarily have to choose anymore.
Right.
There’s also new exterior styling and updated interior, which is fantastic. You can also get an optional all-wheel drive, so you can get an all-wheel drive hybrid Camry, and it can range anywhere, Dad, from about 20, I don’t know, $29,000 or so to about $43,000.
OK.
All just depends on what you’re looking for, what the options that you are. And I’ll just get into, like you said, it is one of yours and I’s personal favorite cars just because of the value, right? The pure, simple value that this car brings is just phenomenal and they’ve only made it better.
Again, they’ve enhanced the styling, they’ve made it look better than ever before. This car is not something that you’d expect Camrys of old to look. It’s got some nice sharp, sleek edges on it, which make it look great.
It’s got a lot of nice features on it. We drove an XSE version, which is, and that one is about $43,000, dad, but depending on how you option it, like you said, you can actually get this car with a hybrid, dad, that’s going to give you, let me pull it up here really quick, between 44 and 43 miles per gallon, so 43 and 44 miles per gallon with that hybrid powertrain. You can get, essentially, it’s really hard to beat that amount of money, to be honest, dad, and to find an all-wheel drive hybrid, which I know they’re becoming a little bit more common, but to actually find that as an option, dad, on a sedan, you typically find those more on the front-wheel drive variety, it’s fantastic.
But you’ve driven a Camry before. What do you love most about it?
Well, just as far as every day drivability, room inside, trunk is spacious. I mean, it’s just one of those cars that when you look at it for the dollars and cents that you pay, one of the best vehicles out there, in my opinion, I mean, they have been a solid core staple of Toyota for years. And there’s a reason for that.
The other thing that I was noticing on the 2025 version is the front end is looking more Lexus.
It is. They’ve really, again, there’s a little bit more sharp features on the front end that sort of give it that luxury look.
I’ll just say it.
Yeah.
And so it looks, this car looks fancier than a $43,000 car. And some of you are going to say, well, it should look fancy. I’m just telling you folks that you get into this car and you get driving it and it looks and feels different than a $43,000 car.
And I’ll just say this. The hybrid powertrain that Toyota and Lexus are known for, but specifically Toyota, is still second to none. And that is the exact case in this situation in that you do not feel, you can’t hardly feel the difference.
It’s got some really nice features. I think they’ve added some optional, you know, low speed automatic driving as far as, you know, the car will slow down and speed up and such for you. Ultimately, dad, one of my favorite, one of mine and your favorite cars, I should say.
And I encourage folks, get out, test drive it again, 2025 Toyota Camry. This was the XSE version and all of them are hybrids. So if you want to learn more about this, head to your local dealer, dad, and let them know that John and Richard Rush from Drive Radio and Rush to Reason sent you.
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All right, we are back, Drive Radio Klz 560. Somebody else said, for the gadget, every vehicle that I get, I first, or the first thing I order is Tux mats. I’ll look that one up, because I’m not familiar with that.
They say they’re better than the WeatherTech mats. Also love the console vaults. And so those of you that have consoles in the vehicle and you’re looking for a more secure way of storing guns, things along those lines.
Yeah, the console vault, I used to sell a ton of those back in the day when I had my stores. Second to none. You don’t know, in fact, this person says the only way you’re going to get in that thing is with a chainsaw.
I can’t argue with that. They are very, very secure. They work fabulous.
If you want something really secure in your vehicle, get a console vault. And I cannot disagree with that at all. Mike, you’re next.
Go ahead.
Hi.
Good morning, John.
Morning, Mike.
Good morning.
I caught a little bit running errands of fluid in cars. I’ve had an experience with that. I own a…
I’ve told you about it, but it’s a German car that came from the factory with an electronic dipstick. One of the worst things they ever did. Now, the other side of that coin is it says in the manual, do not under any circumstances overfill this car.
The oil in it, this is exactly how much oil you put in, less, no more. And so, it’s extremely precise about that. And it talks about it in the manual about, you know, how you can destroy the motor, you certainly will void the warranty, etc.
When I first had it serviced at the dealership, they said, oh, that’s no big deal. You don’t have to worry about that, you know, because I noticed when I picked it up, I checked the oil, which you have to do on the computer, on the car, because there’s no dipstick. And it was over full.
And it was over full by two tenths of a quart. That’s how precise the numbers were. So I walked in and I said, this is the problem.
They said, no, no. I said, well, here’s what it says in the manual. They said, don’t worry about that.
I said, good. Put that in writing.
Right.
Let’s put it down right here.
Right.
And you write that down, that if there’s a problem, that you signed off on it. Boy, they got that car in so fast.
I’m sure they did.
Anyway, your point about when it says 5.7, that’s what they mean.
Yep.
Don’t mess around with that, particularly with the way these cars are today and the engineering that goes into the cars and the fluids.
And really quick, Mike, I’ve always said, they don’t pay these guys collectively millions of dollars a year to design some of the things that they designed to then go put that in the owner’s manual and say, oh yeah, no, you can vary from that however you feel like it. No, they don’t do it that way, Mike, as you know.
Yes, well, and these cars, all these cars, every manufacturer is competing on the latest engineering. And they are pushing the engineering envelope. And we’ve got better cars because of it.
The cars today are so much better than they were 20 years ago, 10 years ago, whatever. Yep. Anyway, I also heard something about run flats.
I recently had a friend of mine that just bought a BMW X5 all-wheel drive. And one of the interesting things was that there’s been a lot of stuff out there about if you get a flat and you have to replace that tire, you’re going to have to replace all four of them, or at least two of them, barely because the computer systems in some of these high-end cars that maintain the all-wheel drive or that sense it, are very sensitive to tire diameter. So if some of your tires are worn out, or some of your tires have 10,000 miles, and you just had a flat on your run flat and you put one back on, that diameter is going to throw off the computer that deals with the differential, that how it transfers power from wheel to wheel, et cetera, et cetera, and you’re going to have problems later.
Yep.
I talked to a mechanic that I trusted immensely. He said, you’re going to have the same issue with those all-wheel drive systems without running flat tires. He says, you get a flat tire on one on your right front, you’re going to, you put a brand new one on there, you’re still going to have this diameter differential, albeit it may be, he said the front, the new one may be eight millimeters of tread depth, while the rest of them are four.
He said, that’s still going to throw off some of these sensitive systems, particularly in the German cars, the high-end Lexuses, the Porsches, the all-wheel drives in those kinds of cars. I don’t think it makes a huge difference in an all-wheel drive Buick, but I don’t know. You guys probably know.
No, I think in a lot of cases, and we’ve had even listeners that have called in here where similar things have happened, Mike, where they’ve replaced one tire or two, and then they’ve got drivetrain problems after, and people are trying to figure out exactly what’s wrong and what’s going on and so on, and reality is there is a lot of vehicles on the road today. In fact, I would tell you more than not that if you have one tire go bad, you’re going to put four on it.
That’s what I thought.
You’re correct.
I just wanted to confirm that. And thank you for doing that. And when I talked to my friend, she says, Oh, my gosh, that’s expensive.
I said, Yes, it is expensive. And correct me if I’m wrong. Run flats are more expensive than their not.
Oh, yes, counterparts. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, because the sidewalls are made heavy.
I mean, it’s a different, as you know, Mike and Mark, it’s just a different constructed tire than what you’re normally getting. So, yes, it’s more expensive. Absolutely.
And you mentioned, I thought I heard, I think they ride a little bit harsher.
Yeah, it’s a tougher sidewall. And the flexibility of a sidewall makes all the difference for a ride. You’ll notice a difference if you switch back and forth.
They’re not flexible is the key. They’re not moving. That sidewall doesn’t move.
Which is why, Mike, as you know, a lot of performance cars and so on, they run that because they don’t want any sidewall flex. They want that thing held to the ground and so on. That’s why a lot of performance tires are run flats as well.
But you don’t necessarily want to run that on your day-to-day SUV.
No, I get it. Okay, well, interesting stuff. I’m glad you were able to confirm that for me today.
And she’s listening in, so I’m excited about that.
Nice, nice.
All right, thank you.
You’re very welcome, Mike. I appreciate it. Yeah, for those of you that are driving a lot of SUVs, cars even, where it’s all-wheel drive, we were just, Richard just reviewed the new Camry, hybrid, all-wheel drive option.
Same deal. If you’re an all-wheel drive and you’ve got one tire that goes bad, chances are you’re going to put all four on. It’s going to be unlikely you don’t put four tires on.
Right. There’s the electric side to that, but there’s also the mechanical viscous coupler that’s got to deal with tires turning at different speeds.
That’s exactly right.
It’s going to wear out faster.
That’s exactly right.
But I’ll tell you something I’ve been running into the last few weeks. Some of these new BMWs, especially European cars, the front tire and the back tire are different sizes. You can’t rotate them front and back.
The fronts are going to wear out faster, but you can’t replace two tires.
Right.
So it’s going to be a case of you need a new set of tires every year, and they are expensive.
Yep. So again, for those of you that have modern vehicles of any kind, this includes even in some cases front wheel drive vehicles that are sensitive to all four tires being the same size. And this is where I’m not trying to throw anybody under the bus, but I will just tell you straight up, a lot of times the tire dealers themselves and the folks that they’ve got doing the installs, how do I want to say this in a nice way, Mark?
They’re not necessarily automotive technicians.
They’re not trained by the manufacturers, and they haven’t researched it, studied it. They don’t know.
They may know a lot about changing the tire on that particular vehicle, the rim and all of that, you know, getting it back on and off. But even when it comes to the alignment side of the fence and doing any kind of diagnosis where there’s vibrations and things that are happening afterwards, I’ll just tell you straight up, going back there to try to get those problems solved, good luck, because that’s not what they’re there for. They’ve never had that kind of training for the most part.
Yes, there are exceptions. Yes, I know there are a few of these franchised dealers out there where they may have one technician on staff that does have some understanding of what we’re talking about, but those guys are few and far between. In general, you’re not finding those individuals at those kinds of facilities.
Am I saying that in a nice enough way, Mark?
That’s about the best you can do. You know, tires, alignments, any of that, they’re not diagnosing problems and they don’t fix those cars. They don’t know.
Correct. So, just throwing that out at you, and that’s something to keep in mind as you guys look at this time of the year, especially. In fact, probably here in the next couple of weeks, I’ll go through and talk about the difference between all of the tires for winter that are out there.
Winter tires, all weather tires, all season tires, and so on. And yes, there’s a difference in those, and most people don’t understand what those differences are. I’ll also go over in the next couple of weeks the new laws we have in Colorado when it comes to chains and tires and so on, because we have traction laws now in Colorado.
For some of you, maybe, that have just moved into our area, yes, we have some traction laws, and yes, they will apply on winter days, sometimes even in town. Typically, it’s only in the mountains, but sometimes even in town, those will apply, and I’ll keep you guys informed of that here in the next couple of weeks. So we’ll be right back.
Lines are open, 303-477-5600. This is Drive Radio, KLZ 560.
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All right, we are back, Drive Radio Klz 560. Thanks for joining us today, and several comments that came in, by the way, on tires. Some were shocked that we have cars out there that have different front versus back tires, but yes, we do.
And then somebody actually commented that, yeah, my car actually happens to be one of those cars. This is someone that owns a Kia Stinger. So yeah, if it’s a performance car in a lot of cases, it is a high chance you will have a different front tire than a back tire, meaning no rotations, no nothing, you replace one, in that case you are going to be replacing at least two.
You do one side, you are going to do the other.
Yeah, you really need to do four though.
Well, that’s true too.
And the front tires wear out faster.
That’s true. So again, folks, it’s one of those things when it comes to tires that, number one, the ability to buy cheap tires is getting less and less all the time because there really is no such thing. When it comes to tires, I firmly believe you get what you pay for.
Now, does that mean always that the most expensive tire is going to be the best tire? Not always, there’s some really good, what I would call intermediate class tires that work extremely well, have great durability, wearability and so on, and they work fabulous. I’m not saying that you gotta go spend the most money to get the best tire there is, but I will say that tires are a lot like anything else.
You get what you pay for.
You buy the cheapest tire, you won’t be happy, it won’t last long, it’ll never work well, it’ll be noisier. You’ll always wanna go at least mid-grade.
And for those of you that have heavier vehicles, this is something that I haven’t talked about for a while, light duty trucks, for example, and SUVs. It was one of the things I used to do a lot when we had our shops. Ford Explorer, for example.
Ford would have avoided all of its issues with Firestone and the problems they had if they’d have put LT tires on that car in the first place. But they put passenger tires on a fairly heavy SUV. Now, I’m one where that’s one of those vehicles that, if I owned one, I’d be putting LT tires back on it.
Yes, the ride quality won’t be as good. It will be a rougher ride, but at the end of the day, a much safer tire when it’s all said and done, heavier sidewall, et cetera, out of the LT, then you’re getting out of the P Series. I am one that says, manufacturers put far too many P Series tires on cars that should have LT’s in the first place.
That’s a whole nother conversation, probably, for another day. But Gary, you’re up next. Go ahead.
Oh, hi, John.
We’ve talked several weeks ago about the EV mandate. And it’s obvious that EVs are not going over very well. I mean, they’re great for certain circumstances.
But overwhelmingly, the public is rejecting buying EVs.
Right. Yeah. What happened to, I think, Gary, really quick for folks listening is the early adopters, those folks that really wanted one, they liked the idea of it kind of a novelty, maybe even to some.
A lot of those folks have bought one, maybe even their second round of EVs. But those guys are waning, Gary. And to your point, the average Joe driver isn’t buying EVs.
Yeah.
And you know, help is on the way. I don’t know if you heard, but yesterday the House of Representatives voted to overturn the EV mandate and they had eight Democrats voting with the Republicans.
I did see that, which tells you that constituent sentiment is we don’t want this.
Yeah.
You know, the other thing I was thinking about, John, is, you know, the last time I bought a new car, well, yeah, it was a new car. It was in 2016 and it’s still running great.
Yep.
And, you know, I hear about, you know, the average cost of even used cars now are like over, what, $25,000.
Yeah. You know, in today’s world, I mean, I talked to Josh at Ridgeline quite often, and to find even cars that are, Gary, in the $10,000 to $15,000 range as a used car, very, very difficult to get done today to get a really good quality car for 10 to 15. To your point, yes, you’re spending 20 to 25 to get a decent used car.
You are correct.
Yeah, so, I mean, like me, I’m gonna drive this thing till the wheels fall off. And, you know, I feel very lucky that I don’t have to go into that market.
For those where that ends up being mandated and they have no cho… Well, first of all, Gary, I think there’s gonna be a lot of resistance. I’m not sure we’re ever gonna get to the point where people will be forced to buy EVs.
I think there’s already enough pushback to your point a moment ago where I think consumers are just gonna say, wait a minute, I want a choice and I don’t necessarily want to have to buy one. I mean, I think the point, Gary, if that gets pushed, they’ll keep buying used cars. It’ll just push used car prices up from what they even are right now.
So that mode isn’t gonna work. I hope government figures that out because mandating what the motoring public drives isn’t going to work, as you know.
Yeah, John. And one other thing on EVs. I read an article in today’s Wall Street Journal and you know how the government is providing significant subsidies for EVs and this article was saying that the cost to lease EVs are coming down because the government has found a way to pass that credit to the lessor of these cars.
Correct. That’s right. So what’s happening in that for all of you listening, the reason why the monthly payments on an EV are getting so cheap is they’ve figured out how to give those federal and state incentives directly to whoever’s holding the paper.
That could be GM Financial, could be Ford Credit, could be the local credit union, Gary, but what they’re doing is whoever’s holding the paper on the car, they’re passing the credits directly to them so that it’s not a tax form from now. You know, you’re not filling out a tax form to get that back on your taxes next year. You’re getting it immediately at time of purchase.
Yeah, that may help solve the problem of these companies sitting on all these EVs. They can’t sell them. Maybe they can lease them at cheaper prices.
I think it’s going to be one of the ways they’re going to have to look at doing that, Gary, because I don’t think, as you said earlier, the average Joe just isn’t buying them. The early adopters already have. You might get an early adopter to get out of what they have now and buy a new EV, but I’m afraid, Gary, that the majority of people that wanted an EV have already bought them and they’re in the market.
Those that don’t, don’t.
Yeah, you’re right.
And I think it’s going to be really quick as a predictor. I think it’s really going to hurt a lot of the new EVs that are sitting on lots. I hate to say this, but you’re going to see inventories build, even though manufacturers have cut back on the manufacturing of, a good example, by the way, Hummer EV.
Granted, biggest EV you can buy, kind of a novelty, but at one time, and those were selling for, get this, over $100,000 on top of the sticker price of the unit. It was $120,000 vehicle, and they were selling for $220,000 to $250,000 all day long. You can now lease one of those, Gary, for $699,000 a month.
Wow.
And the reason is, is because they’re piling up on dealer lots right now, to your point.
Yeah, so maybe that’s the way, eventually I’ll find my way into an EV.
Well, and really quick, think about that, Gary. It’s a $120,000 vehicle you can lease for $699,000 a month.
Yeah, that sounds really good.
I mean, that’s not a bad deal when you look at it that way. Now, keep in mind that charging that vehicle is extremely expensive. The battery pack is huge.
Its kilowatt per mile is not very good, so it’s not an economical vehicle to buy. But it’s interesting, that’s a vehicle at one time that was bringing over $100,000 on top of its sticker price, that now they’re trying to almost, you know, not exaggerating, but they’re trying to give them away now.
Yep.
All right, John, thanks a lot.
Good comments, Gary. No, appreciate it very much. And he’s bringing up some great points.
And this is completely non-political, because it’s not politics. When you try to force consumers to buy something they don’t want, it ends badly. That’s not a political statement, it’s a fact.
Making people buy something that they don’t want or need never works out well. It’d be no different than if you told everybody, you know what, you can only buy yellow cars. We are no longer going to allow anybody in the marketplace, Ford, Chevy, Chrysler, Toyota, Nissan, no one can build anything other than a yellow car.
First of all, there’d be a huge revolt. People would buy yellow cars and immediately go to places like Roy at ProTech and have them wrapped into a different color. I mean, at the end of the day, they’re still not going to drive yellow cars because they’ll do whatever they can to change the color.
And I know that’s an extreme example, but that’s what’s happening on the EV front. They’re literally telling everybody, by this date, you will be driving an EV whether you like it or not. You can’t do that.
It’s not going to end well, Mark.
No, no, it shouldn’t end well.
The free market doesn’t work that way.
That needs to stop.
I mean, that’d be like telling everybody that, okay, you’re going to drive an SUV, you can only drive this model, or it can only look this way. Mr. Manufacture, you can only build it with this many rows and this much head space and this much hip space and this much arm. You get where I’m going with this.
I mean, you can only build it this way. There’s going to be a huge revolt because people want choice. And at the end of the day, there are some people that don’t want to be limited because EVs are limiting even to this day, even with the amount of charge stations that are out there, even though GM announced this last week that they’re going to now provide adapters free of charge that enable you to hook up to the Tesla Super Charge stations.
Nice. Even with all of that, there’s still going to be this constraint that people have in their eyes and their mind that if I drive an EV, I can’t be as free as I am with an ICE or a diesel engine. Well, diesel’s still an ICE engine, but you get where I’m going, gas or diesel engine.
In their mind, and they’re not wrong, they are still constrained by owning that EV. Now, is it getting easier to own that EV and go distances? Yes, but is it still as free, you know, do you have as much freedom driving the EV as you do an ICE engine?
The answer is no. So until they get that solved to where you can get in that EV and drive to the same location you would in your ICE engine vehicle and have it be just as convenient at the end of the day, and we’re not there yet, and guys, I’m talking as the voice of experience because I own one, and I’ve done that for reasons that I’ve talked about on air numerous times. I know more about EVs than most people selling them and or trying to promote them in the government.
In other words, media. I know more because I own one. I know their limitations.
I also know the effectiveness. I know the plus sides of it, and there are some. The reality is though, they’re not being sold to people with all of the caveats that are out there.
They’re being somewhat deceptive to the public. They’re making them sound a lot better than they really are. To Gary’s point a moment ago, eventually buyers figure that out.
They stop buying, and now it’s not working, and these mandates are going to get reversed no matter who’s the president of the United States because the reality is people are tired of being told what to buy and not buy. We got another full hour coming your way. Don’t go anywhere, Drive Radio, Klz560.
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