This episode of Drive Radio dives into the real-world dangers and deceptions of the used car market. Hosts and callers share first-hand stories about buying salvaged and branded title vehicles, emphasizing how initial savings often lead to bigger, hidden headaches. The team explains why cheap replacement parts and knock-off accessories can sabotage repairs, degrade safety, and damage resale value. Through expert analysis and lively debate, they break down high-profile flops like the retro Ford Thunderbird and the Mustang E, dissecting marketing decisions that alienated loyal fans and tanked sales. The audience also weighs in with their picks for the
SPEAKER 03 :
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SPEAKER 14 :
There’s no such thing as a stupid question. This is Drive Radio. All of your automotive questions are just one phone call away. 303-477-5600. Drive Radio is made possible by the member shops of Colorado Select Auto Care Centers. To find one near you, go to drive-radio.com. Now, Drive Radio on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, and we are back. Hour number three, Drive Radio, KLZ 560. Appreciate you all listening to us, and it’s been a good day today. So thank you all for calls and comments and text messages and so on. We appreciate it greatly. And one thing that we were talking about as we left that last hour is just quality of parts. And some of you guys that are do-it-yourselfers, which is fine. We understand that some of you have the mechanical ability. to do things, but one thing that I feel most aren’t careful enough of. Now, there are certain things where it’s a non-issue. You’re buying a, well, I say a non-issue, although I think there’s even quality issues here. Say you’re buying a trim piece or a mirror or something like that. Well, believe it or not, even fit and finish of a lower quality part versus a higher quality part, there will be a vast difference. And some of this you guys can tell is from personal experience. And it is. So some things you’ll think, I’ll give you an example. So I was, you know, I’ve been kind of restoring my old 2004 Dodge Cummins, the 5.9 and all that. And at one point I said, you know, I’m going to put some fender flares on it. I’ve got a little bit of a rust in one little corner of the front fender, and I can cover that up with a fender flare. I’m not going to put fenders on it. I don’t want to get that fancy with what I’m doing. We’re not going to do a full paint job and all that kind of stuff. We’ll make it look pretty well just like it is. I decided, you know what, I’ll just put a set of fender flares on. So I go online, and I look, and I kind of shopped around. I could buy Bushwhackers, which is a very well-known brand, and they were going to be like $350 or something. That’s the cheapest I could find. I’m like, I don’t want to spend $350. Not for this old turd. I’m not going to do that. All right. So I went ahead and paid like $150 for probably a Chinese knockoff set. Let’s just say that there’s a big difference. And I really wish that I just went ahead and spent the extra money and got the Bushwhackers because I’ve sold those for years and I knew how well they worked and fit and so on. But I didn’t want to spend that much money. I was being cheap. Well, let’s just say that they look like they’re cheap. Yeah, because they fit like that. They just don’t follow the radiuses and the indentations and all of that. They just don’t have the same fit. So that’s a good example of where, you know, is it affecting anything mechanically? No. But did I get what I paid for?
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
And I would have been better off paying twice the money and getting a much better product at the end of the day because it would have been a much better product at the end of the day. That’s an example of, you know, being cheap and buying a really cheap product. And it looks like a cheap product.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah. Right. And, you know, and then with electronics, that’s a whole other ballgame.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
I mean, you know, it might seem like a good deal, but it’s probably going to be trash. And I will say that every time, any time. I have somebody come in and say, well, I keep setting the same code and I’ve replaced them twice. I’ve got them, you know, especially when they say they got them off Amazon. That’s the first thing we’re going to look at. I mean, there could be a circuit issue, but there could be other issues. But, you know, or we’ve had some times where they get plugged in and cause all kinds of other problems and, you know, in different systems. So. For example, I had a backup camera. Okay. The customer had replaced it and worked good for like two months. It was on a fusion, actually. And anyway, worked good for two months, and then all of a sudden the dash started lighting up like a Christmas tree. There was no communications. Okay. And we didn’t, you know, we had no idea what we were looking at other than all of a sudden we would just have no communication and then everything would be fine. So we fought this problem for a while. And, of course, the customer is paying us to track this down and stuff. And we ended up finding it. It was the backup camera that was killing the communication lines and stuff like that. put a forward camera in there and everything works just fine.
SPEAKER 04 :
Unbelievable. No, cause that’s an example where somebody would think that’s not going to make any difference, but it does.
SPEAKER 06 :
And you know, at, you know, and the diagnostic was super high because it took so long to figure that problem out because we didn’t know what we were fighting and, And nothing would show. In some ways, you’re chasing your tail.
SPEAKER 04 :
You’re right. I hate to say that, but you are.
SPEAKER 06 :
And had we known that up front, you know, because when I told him, you know, we had a backup camera that was an issue, he’s like, well, I just replaced that two months ago. I’m like, with the Ford camera? He’s like, no. And he said he got it off Amazon. Not that Amazon products are bad.
SPEAKER 04 :
Great example.
SPEAKER 06 :
But, yeah, he said he saved $200, so it cost him way more than that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, he spent money doing that.
SPEAKER 06 :
He spent a lot of money trying to get that problem fixed.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yep. Jeff in Montana, you’re next.
SPEAKER 19 :
Hey, how much money do you set, Ben, by saving money?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, great one.
SPEAKER 06 :
I drove six miles to save two cents on gas, so yeah.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, I’ve gotten hopefully wiser about those kinds of things in my advanced years. But you were talking about ugly cars, and it’s not really an ugly car. It’s just one that I was telling Larry that just leaves me Well, that was the latest version of the Thunderbird. Yep. I mean, when I looked at it, it was like, is it coming or going? I couldn’t tell what the front was or the back, except by looking at the headlights. I mean, it just…
SPEAKER 04 :
And an example, Jeff, of where Ford missed the boat on that one. That was a situation where, and not anti-Ford by any means, but that was a situation where they came out with that car, retro look, tried to make it look like the original Thunderbird. It was a complete, utter failure because the only buddy that bought that car were hardcore purist Thunderbird previous or current owners that just wanted the new version. But it was an utmost disaster for them because of that.
SPEAKER 19 :
I was told, and I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I was told that the designer who was female, and it’s not because female designers are bad, but she was designing it for women.
SPEAKER 04 :
I had not heard that.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, if you’re not designing it to a wider audience, if you’re going for a niche like that, you’re going to end up with a niche customer base, which is really, really small. Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
So it just – They only sold – for all four model years, they only sold – they sold the most the first year, 31,000, then it sharply dropped off because of what I just said. The purist bought it the first year, and then it was half those sales the next year, less than half the year after, and very dismal 9,000 is all in 2005. So they only sold a total of 68,000 of those. Four years. Total in four years. It was an utter disaster for them. Yeah. Complete failure. In my opinion, AI will say it wasn’t a complete failure. I would call that a complete failure. Sorry, it was.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, because you’re trying to attract a nostalgic audience and you’ve failed utterly. Correct. And another one where I think Chevy missed the boat, GM missed the boat, is in the year, what would it be? Yeah, 2025? Yeah. No, 2005. Okay, 2005.
SPEAKER 04 :
We are in 25 now.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, so we’re in year 70. It’s sort of been the 50th anniversary of the 55 Chevy. If they had come out with a retro 55 Chevy look with current engineering at the time, you know, 2005 engineering, I think they could have hit a market that was really wide. Because, you know, that’s a pretty wide audience, folks who like 55-50.
SPEAKER 04 :
In 2005, they probably could have. Today, that’d be another failure because most of that market, as I said earlier, has now gone. Now, where they really missed the mark, and they still could get this one, but they’re too dumb to do it. If they were to reproduce, like Ford did the old Bronco, the 77 and earlier Broncos, And granted, it’s not exactly the same, but it’s similar. I mean, it’s got a similar look to it. If they did the same thing with the earlier Blazers and Jimmys, if they actually made a full-size one of those, two-door, and did similar to what the Broncos did, Jeff, they would sell a gazillion of them. They’ve really messed the boat on that one.
SPEAKER 19 :
And I guess I’ll just cap it off with going back to EVs and look at how much money Ford has lost. I mean, they’re showing a profit as a company, but how much have they lost on EVs?
SPEAKER 04 :
They lost a bunch, and I really felt like they weren’t going to be doing much more in the EV world, although they just announced their quote-unquote Model T moment where they’re going to build a pickup truck, sort of a modular pickup truck with multiple variations of starting at around $30,000 with long range and all sorts of pluses where a lot of local delivery type outfits and so on will be able to use that vehicle. So I thought they were pretty much done, Jeff, but I was wrong because they’ve come out with that and they’re still in.
SPEAKER 19 :
full in yeah but that’s that’s gonna be a hybrid right no it’ll be a full ev is it well okay it’s gonna be it’s gonna be like a modular type ev i guess you would call it that’s that’s what i would call it i don’t know what ford’s actually calling it but that’s what i would call it yeah it’s just uh you know meanwhile there was toyota just turning along with the hybrids and uh and building on each year’s knowledge and gaining wisdom and and uh Now, if they finally go, I heard they’re going into the EV market, and when they do, that’s going to be, they’re going to have all that experience to build on. They’re not going to be starting from scratch.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. Ford’s calling this their, it’s a flexible platform. It’s their modular, it’s a Ford Universal EV platform. So, like I said, like a modular EV platform. In other words, they’ll be able to build multiple things off of this one platform. And they’re, again, I thought they were going to be out of it, but they’re all in. Yeah.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, I like your idea about the Jimmys. going to the full size. I don’t know if they’ll… Yeah, they should come in.
SPEAKER 04 :
They should call it like their ZR2 Blazer or something along those lines. If they did something along those lines, you know, did the front and rear locking differentials and so on, they’d have that. They would sell a gazillion of them, Jeff. They really would. It’s dumb that they haven’t done it. They’ve got the platform and the ability to do it. I don’t know why they’re not. They could do it easily.
SPEAKER 19 :
You need to open a car company, John.
SPEAKER 04 :
There’s some aftermarket guys doing exactly what I’m talking about. So there are some guys that are making the two-door version. They’re building it off of a pickup. Actually, I think what they’re really doing is shortening up a Tahoe, I think, is what they’re doing and making that work. But it’s super expensive. It’s like $250,000. Sure.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah. Yeah. I think everybody’s, you know, manufacturer-wise is, you know, two doors are like, it’s just, you know, it’s going to catch a lot of people, but maybe not as much as they think it would.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I mean, Ford sells a two-door Bronco. Jeep still sells a two-door Wrangler. I don’t know. Again, I’m sure they do all their market studies and so on, although I think at times some of their market studies are off, in my opinion. Yeah, I’m sure.
SPEAKER 05 :
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, well, I think it’s the same marketing folks who thought marketing Bud Light to a marginal group was a good idea.
SPEAKER 04 :
That and Cracker Barrel.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, I just found out about the Cracker Barrel controversy today, and that’s like, for me, it’s a tempest in a teapot. But it’s like, why are you messing with this? What good can come from this?
SPEAKER 04 :
I don’t know. I talked about it this past week. They’ve already had some declining sales and so on, although I think their approach in what they’re doing, what Cracker Barrel should have done is just sort of reinvent what they’ve been doing, maybe change a few things around, still try to attract that same customer. What they’re doing right now is running the customer off. That’s really stupid. You’re going to run your core customer off. That’s dumb. Anytime a business does that, it’s a dumb move.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, right. Yeah, but there’s a wider demo you can go for, John.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, yeah, sure there is. You’ve got to get them to still come to your old, what people think of as southern hospitality, southern cooking restaurant, so that doesn’t go away.
SPEAKER 05 :
No, right, exactly.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yes, you’re absolutely right. You have to increase it. You can’t just displace it one with another.
SPEAKER 04 :
Correct, correct.
SPEAKER 19 :
Widen your base.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right, that’s right. Good stuff, Jeff. Appreciate you.
SPEAKER 19 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 04 :
You bet. Have a great afternoon. Bob, hang tight. We’ll come right back to you. Drive Radio, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 18 :
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BG.
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SPEAKER 04 :
And we are back. Drive Radio, KLZ 560. Bob, welcome back.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey, yeah, I was interested in this. One of your future, or your late callers there, about the last edition of the Thunderbird. And here, the what? The T-Bird. Yeah. Well, here’s where Ford made their big mistake. At that point, I think Ford owned a lot of other car companies.
SPEAKER 04 :
They did.
SPEAKER 07 :
And they… I think that Ford Thunderbird, I think it had a four-year run. It was really awful. And what they did was they put that on a platform of a Jaguar, which made it really expensive. And had they put that on the platform of something like a Ford Focus, they’d still be making them now. Think about… Mustang and Camaro, they go in and out, in and out, in and out, but they have replicas that look like, you know, the old versions and stuff like that. And they’re going to continue to sell those Mustangs and Camaros on right now, but they’ll be back. And stuff like that, that Ford Thunderbird was, that was a bad decision to put it on a Jaguar platform. Think of Lee Iacocca. He wanted to bring the Mustang out cheap.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right.
SPEAKER 07 :
He put the Mustang on a Falcon body.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right.
SPEAKER 07 :
A Falcon chassis. And they expected the first year, they call them 64 and a half. There’s no such thing. It’s a 65. They expected to sell 100,000. You know what they sold?
SPEAKER 1 :
450,000.
SPEAKER 07 :
Boatload of them. Because they put it on the Falcon.
SPEAKER 04 :
That and they were, you know, sold as a, you know, weekend sports car. And, you know, most of those at that time, as you know, had six cylinders and they were better economy and blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER 07 :
The base model was a six-cylinder, three-speed manual.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right.
SPEAKER 07 :
And they went up. They barely got over two grand if you got everything. Right, yeah. And the rest is history, you know. And that’s what that Ford Thunderbird, well, they used Jaguar platform. They used the Italians for the design and body and all that stuff. And they were too expensive. Nobody wanted them. That was it for the Thunderbirds. Anyway.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yep. Nope, you’re right. Spot on, Bob. Nope, good comments. And somebody else, Mickey, had sent in reiterating the whole focus group and women and this, that, and the other, and they blew that. Totally blew that one. Bill in Lakewood, you’re next.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hey, John, thanks for taking my call. You bet. Hey, on the list of most ugliest cars? You already took the Aztec away from me. It is so ugly. So that’s the top of my list. But one that almost probably nobody even remembers what it was. I’m a big fan of the old Independence, but I’m sorry, the Marlin. Do you remember the AMC Marlin?
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, yes, I do. Yes, I do.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, they were ugly. That was just, I’m sorry, what were you thinking? Styling. Styling. More modern era is the first gen Ford Edge. I think it was the Edge. It looked like an overwrought, paranoid guy on. Big, bossy square. Yeah, the first gen Ford. And then the last one… Oh, you’re right.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I remember that car now. Yes, you are correct. Sorry, ugliness.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yes. Final one is the final generation post-GM Saab, which they totally ruined. Yeah. Yeah, which they put on a Malibu chassis for a Swedish automaker, and I just wanted to be sick because they completely ruined the Swedish… nature of the sob. Yeah. Yeah. And they were ugly. So there’s just nothing redeemable in those.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah. So that was it. No questions.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right. Thanks so much. You’re very welcome, Bill. Appreciate you very much. Nope, you’re very welcome. Thank you for that. All right, let’s do this. Bottom of the hour. We’ve got half an hour left. Other questions, again, we’re not going to be here next weekend, so anything else you want to squeeze in here before Ken and I get done, please let us know. Parts, whatever, you name it. If you’ve got a question, even some of you getting ready to maybe take your last camping trip of the year and you might have a few questions along those lines, please let us know, 303-477-5600. We’ll be right back. Drive Radio, KLZ 560.
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SPEAKER 04 :
And we are back, Drive Radio, KLZ 560. Appreciate you all listening today, by the way. And, again, we’re not going to be here next Saturday, so any questions you’ve got for us, please let us know. 303-477-5600. Question of the day, ugliest cars, by the way. Somebody said that it may be wrong, but isn’t Ford coming back with the Thunderbird in 2026? I haven’t heard that. If that’s the case, possibly. I don’t always get notices on new things coming out. Now, one thing I will say on this, on things where you see there’s a new product coming out, just be aware that while AI, and I use it, and some of you know some of the things that I do with it and use it for, and so in Canada I’ve been talking about some of that today, even in our industry, and AI can be a really great tool. On the same token, be wary of a lot of the things that you see on the Internet because you can use AI to generate all kind of stuff, what a new car might look like and so on. So there’s a lot of… What I would call AI generated, quote unquote, news releases on, you know, this company is going to do this and this company’s do that. You know, for example, there was an AI generated news story about how Chevrolet was going to reintroduce the Chevelle.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, right.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. No.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah. Trans Am. Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
No.
SPEAKER 04 :
No. Farthest thing from the truth. No, those aren’t coming back. There’s been no official release from GM on any level that they’re going to do either of those particular vehicles. So you’ll see a lot of things where there’ll be some sort of a, you know, oh, look at what GM is going to release. Yeah. Just be really careful unless you see it from a really reputable source. So, for example, GM Authority is a forum and a news site as well. And those guys do a pretty good job of having some inside knowledge on some of the things that might be coming down the pike. And they’ve been pretty accurate on that. There’s a lot of other sites out there, though, folks, where it is a lot of clickbait. And they do a lot of advertising and things like that. They want you to be there because when you’re there, they make money off of you being there and so on and so forth. There’s a lot of that that just isn’t accurate information. So just beware that when you see a lot of these announcements for XYZ, it very well could never come to fruition and probably won’t because it’s not even on the drawing board.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right, exactly. It’s not even a thought.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, it’s an AI-generated whatever, and it looks really cool, but, yeah, it’s never going to make it to market. This is a story that I think I’ve got time today I can touch on. And I talk a lot on this program in this hour, these three hours I should say each week, about salvage title cars. So basically cars where they have been damaged to a point where they’re typically totaled. Now, that damage could come in all sorts of ways. Sometimes it can be just hail damage, and you still end up with a salvage title when it’s all said and done. But in most cases, rebuilt or salvaged title cars, rebranded is kind of a technical term for that. Those rebranded titles are typically done because of a total loss, as in an accident. So there’s been a complete accident, the insurance company does a total loss, that vehicle will typically, not typically, that vehicle always goes to auction some way, shape, or form. There’s usually parts still usable on that vehicle, and in some cases, People will buy that vehicle at auction and rebuild it. And they’re within their rights to do so. By law, the majority of states, Colorado included, is required. And the title at that point, even when it goes to auction, will already have a salvage license. title, you know, rebranded title. In other words, the insurance company is already, even if that car had money owed, the insurance company gets the car, you know, they pay the lien off, they get the car, they rebrand the title, it’s going to say now rebuilt or salvaged title, and then back into the market it goes. So it’s being bought that way. Now, there’s ways to clean titles, they call it, and I talk about that in other shows, but that’s not this particular situation. So This is an article that came out Denver 7. It was this last week. And I want to talk about it today because it’s called, this is the title, Beyond Salvage, Auto Savvy Faces Fraud Allegations As Colorado Customers Speak Out. So Denver 7 investigates its covering allegations of fraud against Auto Savvy, including a $300,000 arbitration award against the nationwide used car company. So they’re located in Colorado Springs. And a person by the name of Charlie Darnell, knew the car that she bought from the Colorado Springs Auto Savvy dealership came with a pass, but she wouldn’t find out the extent of the pass until a minor fender bender nearly two years later. Now, I’m not accusing anybody of anything, her included, but if these type of individuals would listen to us, they probably never would have bought this car in the first place because I am very staunch and I say it constantly, do not buy a salvage title car. There are but just a few circumstances where I would say, yep, go ahead and buy one. And there’s not many.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
And the reason I say that is because insurance can be a problem. You may not have full coverage on the car. A lot of insurance companies will give you liability coverage only, but they won’t allow you to insure it fully. Lots of other things that come into play when it comes to salvage title vehicles. And mainly, for me personally, is the problems associated with. Now, some of you out there listening thinking, well, I can fix one, and it’ll be fine, and I sell them, and blah, blah, blah. Right. It’s still not the same. I don’t care who fixes it. I don’t care what you do to fix it. There’s a reason why that car was totaled in the first place, and I don’t want it. Period. That’s me personally. I don’t want a wrecked car. Now, some of you also know that my feeling on wrecked cars is once wrecked, always wrecked. So that’s the other reason why I don’t want a wrecked car, because they get this bad juju. I’m not a superstitious person. Anybody that knows me knows I’m not. I don’t even believe in ghosts. So at the end of the day, I’m not superstitious. I’m not one of those guys. So am I superstitious? No. But do I believe that once a car is wrecked, always wrecked? Yes.
SPEAKER 05 :
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER 04 :
And I think just because in my world, Ken’s laughing because he knows, it’s just true. It just happens.
SPEAKER 06 :
And I don’t know why, Ken. You know, me either. And I’ve told your story a lot, you know, and we’ve experienced it too. It just happens. Yeah, you know.
SPEAKER 04 :
I don’t know why. Right. You can start with a fender bender, and it just goes down the road from there, and I don’t know why.
SPEAKER 06 :
It goes six months, and something’s going to happen, and yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s just the way there. So anyway, in this particular case, she bought a used 2019 Dodge Durango in 2020 with 3,100 miles on it. and said the dealership was offering almost new cars with low mileage at a cost 20% lower than other dealerships. Well, okay, first of all, buyer beware. And those titles, I can guarantee you, I guarantee you all the paperwork even said these are rebuilt, you know, salvage-titled cars. Guaranteed. Auto Savvy is a nationwide used car dealership that advertises itself as the country’s largest dealer of branded title or salvage title vehicles. So… I’m not faulting these guys, by the way. In fact, I’ll get to my point of this whole story in a few minutes here. But bottom line, they are not hiding from the fact that these are branded titled vehicles. Now, the other way a vehicle can be a branded title or a salvage title vehicle is it’s stolen. It gets stolen. The person that does own the vehicle, by the time they get it back and kind of look at it, in a lot of cases, the insurance company will give them an option of do you want this vehicle or not. If they don’t want it, a lot of times that car, again, will be totaled. It has to be a branded title at that point in time. And all that happened to the vehicle, it was stolen. Now, personally, do I want that vehicle back after it’s been stolen? No. For all the reasons we’re already mentioning, I don’t want it back. I don’t know who drove it. I don’t know what happened. They drove it like they stole it because they did. So at the end of the day, I don’t want it. I mean, that’s like owning a rental car. I want nothing to do with that car once it’s been stolen. Because that old saying, they drove it like they stole it, is true. And they did. And I don’t want it back. So I have no idea what was done to the car. I don’t want it back. Kind of goes along with drive it like it’s a rental.
SPEAKER 06 :
You know, I mean, because that’s how everybody drives it.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. I don’t want that vehicle. So… This particular lady said she looked like a brand-new vehicle, smelled like a new car. Well, yeah, I’m sure it did because it only had a few thousand miles on it, so it probably did. But it was still a branded title vehicle. This is one of these, for me, it’s a buyer beware. Now, she was still awarded. By the way, I don’t agree with the award. $300,000, far too much. I don’t know what problems she had and what she went through. I’ll just be straight up honest. Don’t care. You bought a branded title car.
SPEAKER 06 :
Was it flooded? No.
SPEAKER 04 :
you know what i mean who knows yeah exactly it was it was a crash no because she actually took it to repair shop and the body shop that saw how it was repaired you know talked about how bad it was actually yeah sure damaged and so and again i okay i get that and this thing was fixed with sheet metal screws and drywall screws and it was just a hack job fixing it okay well that’s what you get when you buy a branded right titled car so an arbitration actually awarded her $300,000, stating that false or misleading representations about damage could potentially affect tens of thousands of customers. By the way, Auto Savvy is fighting the award. And frankly, if I were them, I would. You’re buying a salvaged title vehicle. That’s on you. You know you’re buying it for a lot less than you would go buy its counterpart for. Why should you be awarded 300 grand?
SPEAKER 06 :
yeah right exactly i’m sorry that this one for me is cut and dried you bought a salvage title car that’s on you don’t buy it in the first place this is this is what i was told so way back i bought a car from a wholesaler you know a lot goes in buys them from the dealer the ones they don’t want to try to sell and it had a bad clutch you know right um and uh when i was doing the paperwork you know i just paid cash for it and And when I was doing the paperwork, she was saying, okay, so this that you’re signing here means if you drive off the lot and it breaks in half, you own both halves. So there is no warranty. There’s no nothing. And when you get a salvage vehicle, that’s the way it is. I mean.
SPEAKER 04 :
Supposedly, there was an undercover person in this whole story that went in, and the dealership was saying that, yeah, these cars are branded, but they’ve been fixed to factory specifications and so on and so forth. Now, again, you know what? Sales guys can say whatever they want to. And I’m not saying that that’s right, that they’re allowed to say that. I agree. That shouldn’t be done any way, shape, or form. On the same token— Buyer, beware. You’re buying a car with a salvage title. Don’t. Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, you know, restored to factory specifications, is that alignment specifications? There’s no body specifications. Good point. Or maybe there is bodies that I don’t know of. But, yeah, I mean, what does that even mean? So, yeah, who knows?
SPEAKER 04 :
Anyways, there’s been lawsuits against them, and again, people can sue for anything.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right, exactly. And it’s not that they were sold that vehicle. They bought that vehicle. They weren’t held at gunpoint to buy that vehicle. That’s how I would look at it. Yeah, it’s like… So when the customer’s happy, it’s like, oh, I bought this vehicle. Or when a sales goes good, I bought this vehicle. Well, when sales go bad, it’s like they sold me this. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER 04 :
You bring up a great point. All right, we’ve got a call coming in. I’ve got more to say on this as well. Point being, folks, and I say this all the time on this program, and I’ve had people even email me things about buying a salvage title vehicle, which I tell them right off the bat, run. Go somewhere else. Run. You’re better off buying an older vehicle. used vehicle with more miles on it than you are buying that particular vehicle. So we’ll talk more about that. Don’t go anywhere. We’ll be right back. Drive Radio, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 18 :
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SPEAKER 16 :
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SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 04 :
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SPEAKER 08 :
Yes, hi. I have a question. I’d like to Find out if I can turn off my sensor for my cruise control on my 21 Toyota Tundra.
SPEAKER 06 :
Like the distance sensor?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, because it’s very frustrating. You go down the highway, you’re cruising along, somebody cuts right in front of you, and then you start braking. Yeah. The adaptive. You brake on the rear brake. Where are you braking?
SPEAKER 06 :
I’m not sure on the Tundras. I know on the GMs you can shut the adaptive part off, but I’m not sure on those if there’s something in the settings. I believe there probably should be somewhere because not everybody really wants to do that.
SPEAKER 04 :
What year is it, by the way, Jim? It’s 2021.
SPEAKER 1 :
2021. 2021.
SPEAKER 06 :
And, yeah, because you can adjust, like, your distance and stuff. And I’m talking just from experience with my own stuff, but on the GMs. But, yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah, you get, yeah, something gets in front of you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. You can, I did just look it up, you can turn that off. Press and hold the cruise control master button. Holding the button switches the system from adaptive radar-based to standard fixed-speed cruise control.
SPEAKER 08 :
Thank you so much.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, so if you just hold the button on that, so Ken’s right, you can in this case. Now, GM, they’re really easy because it’s very descriptive as to, in fact, with GM, you have to turn it on. It actually starts off, and you turn it on to have adaptive. In your case, it’s always on. You’re holding the button to turn it off.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay. Very good. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, so yes, you can do that, and there’s an easy answer for you, Jim. All right, take care. You’re very welcome. Appreciate that. Yeah, and for a lot of you listening, those are frustrating. Now, I will say that that answer is probably in the owner’s manual, although I will tell you that after reading several of these of late, I will… How do I say this? They’ve gotten worse, not better, finding things in an owner’s manual. They suck. I’m sorry, but they do.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, there’s so much information. Correct.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s a book now. It’s not a manual.
SPEAKER 06 :
It’s a book. Usually there’s a QR, so you can pull it up on your phone, and then at least you can do a search. Yep.
SPEAKER 04 :
But the books themselves are awful. Trying to go through a book is, yeah, exactly. Folks, again, I’ve got multiple different vehicles, and occasionally I have to get one out to, hey, I need to know how to do whatever, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, 500 pages of… Oh, my word. Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
And where you would think that the answer for that should be, it is not. So in defense of Jim, it’s probably in the owner’s manual, but finding it might be a whole… And how they describe it
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
Might also be different in the owner’s manual.
SPEAKER 06 :
Sure. Yeah. You know, tool for spare tire. Well, OK. And it’s under interior backseat, you know, or something like that. Yeah. I mean, that’s.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, they can be there for again. In defense of you guys where you go to look some of these things up and try to find it in the owner’s manual, I will just tell you straight up that it’s not always as easy as it might seem. And, of course, we’ve got some other resources and stuff at our disposal that helps us with this. But, yeah, it is not easy at times to actually find those answers. It’s probably there. Yeah. And, by the way, in his defense, I would have never guessed that.
SPEAKER 06 :
No, right.
SPEAKER 04 :
Without looking that one up, I wouldn’t have guessed that if you hold that down, it switches from one to the other. That one is, I wouldn’t have guessed that. So I learned something on that one because I wouldn’t have known that on that vehicle either.
SPEAKER 06 :
And every car you get into anymore, it’s like, so I’ll go to, you know, move a car or something. And it’s like, okay, I don’t even know, you know. How do I turn the volume down, for one? Because usually the volume’s cranked up on the radio and I need to turn it down. Or how do you move the seat? Or how do you keep the seat from moving? Correct. How do you just move something?
SPEAKER 04 :
No, you’re right. You’re exactly right. John and Cheyenne, go ahead.
SPEAKER 10 :
Hey, first things first. On that owner’s manual thing, I found if you download the PDF, which you usually can, it’s so much easier to search a PDF than to look.
SPEAKER 04 :
Agree. You’re right.
SPEAKER 10 :
You know, and in this day and age, you know, everything’s on pretty much a download available.
SPEAKER 17 :
Pretty much.
SPEAKER 10 :
But going back to the ugly cars, my wife and I, we’ve been in the car for a while talking about it. And I don’t know if this one came up, the Chrysler K car.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, Charlie mentioned it off air. He didn’t say it on air. But, yeah, no, you’re right on that one, too. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER 10 :
And then two others real quick. The first one… The, I think it’s the Kia Soul that looks like a box.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yep. Did that one come up already? Somebody said the Cube, which is similar. Similar, you’re right. Nissan Cube, Kia Soul, same, yeah.
SPEAKER 10 :
The last one past me, and I think it’s the ugliest car on the road, is the Mustang E. I’m with you.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s not my, the EV Mustang, not my favorite car.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, it just ruined the name Mustang.
SPEAKER 04 :
They shouldn’t have called it a Mustang. That was a mistake on Ford’s part, by the way. Truthfully, I think part of the problem with the sales of that car is even that end of things. They should have called that its own name.
SPEAKER 10 :
Or even, say, bring back the Taurus or something.
SPEAKER 04 :
You would have been better off to have come up with a brand new name for that Mustang EV. Oh, yeah. Because that is not a Mustang. No, that was a total snafu on Ford’s part. Whoever thought that was a good idea, it wasn’t.
SPEAKER 10 :
Steve McQueen rolled over in his grave when they released that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it was not a good choice for them to do on that particular car. And, again, I think that’s been part of the problem with some of the whole EV sales in general, John, is these manufacturers got lazy. They had the government pushing certain things. They were literally doing what Uncle Sam was asking them to do or telling them to do, demanding them to do, I should say. And at the end of the day, they did not think through the marketing sides of this very well at all. It was really dumb on their part.
SPEAKER 10 :
Nope. And ruined a classic name of a classic car.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. Yeah, agreed.
SPEAKER 10 :
Last thing, going back to the first hour, you were talking about pep peeves at the gas station. Yes. People, here’s my biggest one. You’re finished pumping. And this usually happens at like a Buc-ee’s or a truck stop. Move. Exactly. And then you’ve got to go into the store and go to the bathroom. Pull away and let somebody else fill up.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you, John. Get out of the way. Right, right.
SPEAKER 10 :
That is the worst. I mean, you know, that’s rude.
SPEAKER 04 :
I agree.
SPEAKER 10 :
Bad manners.
SPEAKER 04 :
The pump is not yours. You don’t own it. Right, exactly. Nor do you have a lease on it. You already leased it. You pumped. Leave. Right.
SPEAKER 10 :
Leave. Pull up. Park closer to the building. But no, I don’t want to start my car and move it 30 feet. to use the restroom.
SPEAKER 04 :
I think some of that, John, is it’s inconsiderate, number one. People aren’t thinking about the other folks. Number two, it’s ignorance. I think some just don’t even realize what they’re doing. They’re just, I hate to say this, they live in la-la land. They have no idea that they’re being rude to someone else. It’s all about me.
SPEAKER 10 :
No, not at all. And just for that guy that wanted to get rid of the adaptive cruise, I kind of like it in heavy traffic because It’s going to stop you before if something happens and you don’t catch everybody coming to a full stop. Your adaptive cruise, if you have it on and are using it in traffic, it’ll slow you down and stop you. Sure. Stop you from maybe having a rear end there.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, it’s one of those driving comforts. I guess we could now say going back in time, earlier in the show talking about the older vehicles and driving versus steering and enjoying the ride and so on. Yeah, I’m with you, John. I think adaptive cruise has… change the game in a lot of ways for the relief of the driver, especially when you’re driving long distances. It is, if you’ve never used it, for those of you listening, if you’ve never used it, it’s a game changer. It really is.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. Yeah. And last thing, uh, they use the Napa ones, but the big old tires in Wyoming and the two in Cheyenne, if you need new TPMS sensors and you get in tires, they just charge you 70 bucks a piece. them and we’ll program them up and everything while they’re doing your tires so if you need them or you think you need them but i’ve got the old 11 ram that doesn’t tell you which tire has a bad sensor and it’s gotten to the point where I’ve given up on trying to figure it out. I just check the air and ignore the light.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, and if you need, you know, and I know we said this earlier, but for those of you that didn’t hear that on the TPMS end of things, if you’ve got one bad sensor and or you’re getting to that age where you’re past that seven-year mark or so, just replace them all. Don’t even mess with it.
SPEAKER 10 :
Just do them all. And I did that and replaced them all, and I still got, I don’t know if I got a bad one, but they can’t tell which is which, so… It’s because there’s no – it’s the older model where it just says you’ve got a low tire. It doesn’t tell you which one.
SPEAKER 04 :
There’s new equipment now that you can check each sensor’s voltage.
SPEAKER 06 :
There’s a scanner. Yeah, I mean, you should be able to see that in a body control.
SPEAKER 04 :
They probably don’t have it, but it does exist, yes.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I mean, maybe not with – yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
If they’re using a generic tool just to do the reset, no, it won’t, but you can, yes.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, there’s a way to figure out what sensor’s not reading right, yeah.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right, guys. Have a great weekend.
SPEAKER 04 :
John, you do the same. I appreciate it. And, yeah, that goes back to, can the whole, you know, having the right equipment, having the right things on hand to do the repairs and so on, and nothing against the tire stores. They’re using, in a lot of cases, a generic tool that will reprogram a lot of vehicles. 99% of the vehicles, yeah. And, no, they can’t get specific and dial into exactly, you know, what is that sensor reading or what is the actual voltage in that sensor and so on. But there is equipment that will tell you.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, and they’re not there for diagnostic. They’re just there for… Not saying there’s anything wrong with that.
SPEAKER 04 :
They’re serving a purpose. They’re getting tires done and so on. But no, they are not your diagnosticians when it comes to, hey, which sensor is bad and which one do I replace? All right. As we head out, Ken, Toontech Automotive over there at Colfax and 225. How do folks get a hold of you? You can give me a call at 303-364-3391. All right, we’re going to call it a day, guys. And, again, have a great Labor Day weekend. We will be out of here next weekend. I hope you all enjoy your time off. Larry Unger, thank you for answering phones today. I appreciate it very much. Charlie Grimes, of course, our engineer. Stay tuned for our next program. And, again, if you’re listening to a replay show, thank you so much. We appreciate it greatly. Don’t forget the text line, 307-200-8222. This is Drive Radio, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 14 :
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.
