Latest / In Wheel Time Podcast / Behind the Wheels: Exploring the Shelby Automotive Program, and the Grand Wagoneer!

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Behind the Wheels: Exploring the Shelby Automotive Program, and the Grand Wagoneer! · In Wheel Time Podcast

• 0:00
  Don Armstrong: Welcome to another In Wheel Time podcast, a 30 minute mini version of the In Wheel Time Car Show that airs live every Saturday morning 8 to 11am, central From Studio A at the world famous Sugar Shack in Texas, usa.
• 0:17
  Don Armstrong: It's the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show Coming up.
• 0:20
  Don Armstrong: Ron Lou Ellen, professor and director of the Shelby Automotive Program, joints will also have the upcoming events calendar, mr Maher's reviews, the Grand Wagoneer Plus.
• 0:30
  Don Armstrong: You'll hear the stories making automotive news headlines this week.
• 0:33
  Don Armstrong: Howdy, along with Mike out of this rural bars King, conrad DeLong we always need more.
• 0:38
  Don Armstrong: Jeff Zeekin and I'm Don Armstrong.
• 0:41
  Don Armstrong: Thanks for joining us on this Saturday in our live show.
• 0:43
  Don Armstrong: We're back after a three week respite couple of weekends Welcome back from vacation.
• 0:48
  Don Armstrong: Thank you very much, had a great time.
• 0:49
  Don Armstrong: I joined our chief engineer, david Ainsley, at the cottage up there Off of Lake Huron and it was spectacular.
• 1:03
  Don Armstrong: The upper peninsula, of Michigan and of the world as we know.
• 1:08
  Don Armstrong: It had a great time and thank you, David, for that.
• 1:11
  Don Armstrong: Okay, let's just get right to it.
• 1:14
  Don Armstrong: Let's just get into it.
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: Get her done.
• 1:16
  Don Armstrong: We're going to get her done right now.
• 1:18
  Don Armstrong: Ladies and gentlemen, he is the professor and director of the Shelby Automotive Program automotive repair credentials.
• 1:29
  Don Armstrong: He's from the graduate Northern Arizona University.
• 1:35
  Don Armstrong: Mr Llewellyn has 18 plus years as an industry experience.
• 1:38
  Don Armstrong: I'm just kind of butchering this all up on it, but anyway, we're just going to get right to it.
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: Let's just turn it over to him, how's?
• 1:44
  Don Armstrong: that.
• 1:44
  Don Armstrong: Well, let's just do that.
• 1:45
  Don Armstrong: Good morning sir, good morning Ron Good morning guys.
• 1:49
  Speaker 5: How are you guys doing?
• 1:50
  Don Armstrong: Hey, thank you so much, I'm sorry I butchered your intro all up, but you know what?
• 1:54
  Don Armstrong: It doesn't make any difference, because you're going to explain to us all about the Shelby Automotive Program.
• 2:04
  Don Armstrong: Tell us where the program takes place.
• 2:09
  Speaker 5: Well, Carol was originally born and raised for his youth years near a little town called Pittsburgh, like about 100 miles southeast of Texarkana.
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: Pittsburgh, pittsburgh, texas, pittsburgh, texas.
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: He came back to this area and was going to create his own automotive program back in the mid 2010s, around 2005, 2007.
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: He wanted to build his own automotive school.
• 2:42
  Speaker 5: We didn't get a lot of support from the local people other than the community college where I work, northeast Texas Community College.
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: He decided to create this program, this automotive repair program, at the school where I'm employed.
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: I've been there since 2016, but the program started back in 2007 while Carol was still alive.
• 3:07
  Don Armstrong: Very nice.
• 3:07
  Don Armstrong: Give me the age of the students that you have there Approximately.
• 3:15
  Speaker 5: It's really varied.
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: I mean, most of my students are like college age students, late teens to mid-20s.
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: But I have students sometime that come to us that are just starting over again, trying to start a new career.
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: That could be late 30s, early 40s, all the way close to 50 years old.
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: Careful now we're getting close to us.
• 3:37
  Jeff Dziekan: I'm thinking.
• 3:37
  Don Armstrong: I will say this this interests me a lot.
• 3:40
  Don Armstrong: I love learning things about automotive, and we have our board member here, mr Conrad DeLong, that knows all about that sort of stuff.
• 3:52
  Don Armstrong: He used to be with General Motors years ago and very knowledgeable when it comes to automotive things.
• 3:58
  Don Armstrong: So if you ever need a guest speaker, conrad would be the guy for you, but at any rate.
• 4:03
  Don Armstrong: So how many students do you have?
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: So I mean it's really unique.
• 4:08
  Speaker 5: I mean we've got a connection with Carol's foundation.
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: He connected us with his foundation.
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: His foundation is located in Gardena, california, where the original factory was, where he built the original CSX Cobras, and the foundation gives us $50,000 a year in scholarship money to support our students.
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: And I mean we even have a connection with the actual parent company in Las Vegas.
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: I've got students that go there every summer to Shelby American LLC in Las Vegas, right off the strip where the company is now, and they go there and help build cars through the summer.
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: I've got two kids out there right now.
• 4:48
  Ron Luellen: So they intern there at LLC.
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: Yes, sir.
• 4:51
  Don Armstrong: Nice, and how many students do you?
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: have Okay.
• 4:55
  Speaker 5: So yeah, it's a small college and we're building this program.
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: So I mean our whole student body is around 2000 for a semester.
• 5:04
  Speaker 5: So we're looking at with our high school dual credit students and our college students that we bring in about 55, 60 students a semester.
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: Manageable.
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's not bad yeah.
• 5:16
  Ron Luellen: And as your students graduate your program, are they moving out into the repair world of dealerships and independent shops, or are they moving towards more of the customization world of like Shelby American or you know any of these guys that are doing all this customization work, or even racing?
• 5:36
  Speaker 5: Yeah, well, I mean, the racing is kind of a tough nut to crack, especially with a program that's so fledgling.
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: But yeah, I mean, I've got connections with two of the Shelby car builders that are outside of the Shelby network.
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: I don't know if you guys are aware, but there's only three companies in the entire US that have the right to, or you know the naming rights to build Shelby automobiles.
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: They're a GT in Roaring Springs, pennsylvania.
• 6:06
  Speaker 5: Here in Texas it's a group run by the Stone Brothers out of Flower Mount, texas.
• 6:14
  Speaker 5: They started out as classic recreations and now they spread into Doing more modernized stuff.
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: You know, upgrades shall be upgrades on more modern cars and they're new, new places shall be garage, but they're started out as classic recreation.
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: So those two, along with shall be american, are the only entities in the country that have shall be right to create vehicles and put shall be serial numbers on.
• 6:42
  Don Armstrong: So the program that you have there at the community college, the, is it geared all to?
• 6:49
  Don Armstrong: The shall be brand no sir.
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: No, I just I've, you know, I've tried to since my start there in 16 to try to get the connection with Ford because I mean this makes the most sense to have connection with Ford.
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: So we've partnered with the local dealers and we're not afford, you know, factory training program but we have the Ford ace that we use for our classroom curriculum, the accelerate career education program from Ford and, yeah, my my own philosophies.
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: I don't really care if these kids go to work for Ford.
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: I mean I like that connection with Ford but I think it's just good that they're connected somehow with a manufacturer because I know in my career I learned so much more when I was exposed to manufacturer repair program, repairing vehicles in a manufacturer setting.
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: I work for GMC for years, so where I think it's really good for these kids to understand that you know that when they go to work for a manufacturer and they've got that, you know there's just 10 times, 10 times more information working inside that network than there is working as an independent.
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: You had mentioned that.
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: You know, back in our days we only we didn't have all those connections.
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: Like you said, you had one or two that you relied on, but now, with what you're doing there, you have multiple.
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: So those students can go virtually anywhere in the automotive industry through your program.
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: Yes, sir, yeah, that's.
• 8:15
  Speaker 5: I mean we're we're trying to just make sure we're, you know, not stepping completely into the realm, where we're gonna, you know, pigeonhole ourselves into the Ford program program, want to keep this community college, want to keep it open to, you know, all aspects of automotive repair.
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: But it's really been really helpful that we've got the connection with Shelby and with Ford.
• 8:37
  Ron Luellen: Well, it's a good thing that you're producing general technicians for the industry, because the dealerships have no place to find new technicians.
• 8:47
  Ron Luellen: You know there's such a shortage of Technically experienced people out there to go to work where there's a dealership or independent shops.
• 8:56
  Ron Luellen: So programs like yours are very, very important for the industry To continue to produce technicians for the field, because you know lots of them are my age and they're all retiring and if they're not out mentoring somebody new and young, their knowledge gets lost, their experience gets lost.
• 9:14
  Ron Luellen: So having a program like yours is pretty important, is your program a two year program.
• 9:20
  Speaker 5: Yes, sir, we well, you know it's, it's we've created is a lockstep thing kind of thing.
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: We start out with a one year certificate.
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: We do what we call a summer performance academy in the summer between the first and second year, and we build a car.
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: I mean we have gotten with our partnership with Shelby that they're looking towards the future.
• 9:41
  Speaker 5: You know as well as Ford.
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: I mean they you know building the Ford lightning.
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: So we're, we started an EV program.
• 9:48
  Speaker 5: We had a write up in the New York Times, in the Wall Street Journal.
• 9:52
  Speaker 5: We were the first college in the country that declared that we were going to have a standalone electric vehicle program.
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: Wow, we've even got the funding and built a brand new facility just to support that EV program.
• 10:04
  Ron Luellen: That's shocking yeah lightning.
• 10:09
  Don Armstrong: Well, you know Conrad brings just a sense of humor to this, that no one knows he tries to bring us.
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: I'm sorry.
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: Yes, there's that.
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: Maybe he's not going to be a good speaker for.
• 10:22
  Ron Luellen: So are you a native certified.
• 10:25
  Speaker 5: No, sir, we are not at one point.
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: It's the same as the last college I was.
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: That I was formally was a Yavapai college in Prescott, arizona, and I had to go through the process of the nature certification for the diesel program I had there and that's something that's in the to do list here.
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: But it's, this program is the same as the last program.
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: They there's college.
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: At the last school.
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: They had a president come into that last college and destroy the career tech programs and then they realize they were going to lose all their Federal funding and they ousted her and I had to come back in and create a diesel program there from the ground up, along with the automotive instructors are working there too and we had to go through like a long and it was like six years for us to go, do and put everything together to get the nature of sir oh yeah, yeah, it's very, very complicated are you?
• 11:22
  Ron Luellen: any relationships you have with manufacturers is very beneficial to me to as well.
• 11:26
  Ron Luellen: I used to do.
• 11:27
  Ron Luellen: You know, there's a couple points in time where somebody has to come in and kind of do an inspection of the facility, and I would.
• 11:34
  Ron Luellen: When I work for General Motors I would do some of those native inspections throughout the state of Texas.
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: Are you also?
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: You're a side inspector for for nature?
• 11:43
  Ron Luellen: yeah, are you also?
• 11:44
  Ron Luellen: Are you affiliated at all with the program either?
• 11:49
  Speaker 5: Now, and we haven't really done a lot with skills USA either.
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: But I mean those are things that we really my biggest problem right now, you know the fundings not there only have Three full time instructors and one part time instructor, along with my, my student workers.
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: I mean there's just a lot to do.
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: Oh yeah, if I had some more, if the funding would come across where I had ability to hire some more, you know, season people, some people to help with this, I'd be able to get a lot more this done, I think.
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: But I mean it'll all come into town.
• 12:26
  Ron Luellen: And you know that's the problem is the.
• 12:28
  Ron Luellen: The funding creates Industry need because you're producing technicians for the field and I, you know I would assume a significant amount of them would stay as a community college in those communities to back feed the, the real strong need of dealerships and independent shops for technicians and why that doesn't get a serious funding from the local community and the community college Makes absolutely no sense because it kind of feeds the need that's in and around the area that Is is running dry and running dryer all the time.
• 13:06
  Ron Luellen: So Good idea, good program.
• 13:09
  Ron Luellen: I love the relationship you have with Shelby.
• 13:11
  Ron Luellen: That's quite unique in all my time being associated with various community college programs.
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: The one thing I can say is I mean it's it's Kind of we've we've looked at here the colleges a destination program, because he's Foundation or his foundations actually supporting other colleges.
• 13:32
  Speaker 5: Now they're putting money into other colleges.
• 13:35
  Speaker 5: I mean he had a quite a Hefty foundational you know a lot month that he left behind after he passed.
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: But we are the only one that will ever have the naming rights to be called the Carol Shelby automotive program that's pretty unique.
• 13:49
  Don Armstrong: Yeah, it is.
• 13:50
  Don Armstrong: Yeah, you, you have Students that come from other parts of Texas or the United States.
• 13:58
  Speaker 5: Oh yes, I've got students that have came to me.
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: I've got a partnerships with that other entity up in Lauren Springs, pennsylvania have kids come from that area.
• 14:10
  Speaker 5: I've got this program that we call the hometown scholarship To try to recruit kids from those areas.
• 14:17
  Speaker 5: I've got another Company called Gateway Bronco right outside of St Louis and In the rural Illinois.
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: They they build the first gen Broncos.
• 14:28
  Speaker 5: They've got a place, I think, in Iowa that builds the 10s and they build a custom frames and stick stuff, coyote motors and these things is selling for, you know, quarter million dollars.
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: Of course they do, I've got kids working for them and I try to promote kids from those areas to come stay in our dorms and live in our dorms.
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: You know, do our education go back there?
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: To go to work is the one thing I've noticed with these younger generation.
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: A lot of them they don't want to leave the area they're in.
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: I mean, they want to stay somewhere close to home.
• 14:59
  Speaker 5: I guess they're used to mom setting out their underwear in their socks every morning.
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: I guess I don't know.
• 15:06
  Ron Luellen: And that's why some of us get married.
• 15:10
  Don Armstrong: Yeah, just take another mother.
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: Yeah, but yeah, I mean it's really difficult.
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: I put some of these kids in some just amazing opportunities to go somewhere you know and work for these, you know, these high profile companies, and they, they don't want to do it.
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: I mean they want to stay at home.
• 15:27
  Speaker 5: I mean it just boggles my mind.
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: I mean when I was their age man, I would be on the first train out of town.
• 15:36
  Ron Luellen: Yeah, kind of a difference in work ethic as well, not just you desire, but work ethic in general.
• 15:42
  Ron Luellen: And that's tough to overcome as a school because you've got to be able, as you're trying, to deliver these apprentice I'll say apprentice level technicians to the field.
• 15:54
  Ron Luellen: You know they have to go somewhere and have a good work ethic to become successful and you know a good technician I mean an A level technician is a six figure income person.
• 16:08
  Ron Luellen: Yes and it's not difficult to get the six figures if they're willing to put the work into it.
• 16:13
  Don Armstrong: You had mentioned earlier that you have not had a lot of success in putting any of your students into any kind of racing programs.
• 16:20
  Don Armstrong: Why is that?
• 16:22
  Speaker 5: Well, I mean you know the connection with the name is there.
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: It's just really hard to break into those, those realms.
• 16:29
  Speaker 5: I mean, you know, when I started out teaching for Universal Tech Institute Because I graduated from a diesel program down, I did automotive training in the state here through Job Corps.
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: I did an automotive program down at San Marcos they used to have.
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: It's not even there any longer.
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: Let's start out as an automotive tech.
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: I went to work for a local dealer in Tyler, texas, and then this is back in the early 80s when there were stuff in diesel engines and everything General Motors and they sent me on successfully.
• 17:03
  Ron Luellen: I worked for Oldsmobile back in those days and I am quite unsuccessful.
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: The 570, so it wasn't really a great.
• 17:10
  Ron Luellen: Who'd you work for in Tyler?
• 17:12
  Speaker 5: I worked for what used to be King's Chevrolet in downtown South.
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: But yeah, yeah, they decided they want to make a diesel tech out of me and they sent me to the Houston campus down in the woodlands and I did diesel training down there.
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: So I ended up going back to work for UTI and you know it like we're getting back to these students nowadays.
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: I mean they're just easily influenced and they really don't want to.
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: They really really want to leave home or go anywhere or go away from where they're at.
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: So you know, I think this industry is in a lot of trouble too Because of what you know, you were saying.
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: I mean that these kids, a lot of them, just aren't interested in cars anymore.
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: I mean there's other things that they're interested in.
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: We as an industry know to figure out how to Spark their attention and get them interested and and working on automobiles and, you know, get the word out there to them that there is a lucrative income from working on.
• 18:09
  Don Armstrong: Ron, it's great to talk to you.
• 18:10
  Don Armstrong: We thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us this Saturday morning.
• 18:14
  Don Armstrong: Best of luck to you up there at Northeast Texas Community College.
• 18:17
  Don Armstrong: What's a good way to get a hold of you?
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: The best way to get a hold to me is just go to our Facebook page or our website.
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: Facebook page is just a Shelby automotive program and you can get hold to me on our honor, our web, our website, northeast Texas Community College.
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: It's ntccedu.
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: Or you can get hold to me on my, on my email address, it's our, with my last name, lou Ellen, at NTCC dot.
• 18:49
  Speaker 5: Edu.
• 18:50
  Don Armstrong: Ron, you're great.
• 18:50
  Don Armstrong: Thank you so much.
• 18:51
  Don Armstrong: Thank you luck to you.
• 18:52
  Don Armstrong: Let's stay in touch.
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: Yes, sir, thank you guys, you bet Appreciate you.
• 18:57
  Don Armstrong: Okay, if you'd like to get in touch with us, you can always shoot us an email.
• 19:01
  Don Armstrong: Our address here as info.
• 19:02
  Don Armstrong: At in wheel time calm and be sure to follow us on Facebook, if you would, please.
• 19:06
  Don Armstrong: Okay, time now for the events calendar.
• 19:09
  Don Armstrong: Not the cruise in, but the events calendar.
• 19:12
  Don Armstrong: There's a difference.
• 19:13
  Ron Luellen: I know there is so not this, not tomorrow, but next week is coffee and crown right, right, that's a Sunday morning.
• 19:21
  Ron Luellen: Sunday morning.
• 19:22
  Ron Luellen: October 20th is the 38th at 38th annual Wolf Creek car and truck and bike show at Wolf Creek Park in Cold Spring, texas.
• 19:32
  Ron Luellen: August 12th is the Cypress cars and coffee Back to school drive at the Fairfield Baptist Church.
• 19:39
  Ron Luellen: October 28th is Okay, ok, turbofest in Kareem Springs Shriners Club in Waco, texas.
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: Turbo.
• 19:52
  Ron Luellen: Ok, turbo.
• 19:53
  Ron Luellen: I thought it was a great name.
• 19:54
  Ron Luellen: Creative Lone Star Drift round four at Motorsports Resort in did you read this ahead of time?
• 20:02
  Ron Luellen: No, it's August 19th.
• 20:06
  Ron Luellen: September 23rd.
• 20:07
  Ron Luellen: Lone Star Drift is at the Houston Police Academy at 17,000 Aldean Westfield.
• 20:14
  Ron Luellen: That's September 23rd and then also October 21st.
• 20:19
  Don Armstrong: Lone Star Drift at the Houston Police Academy which, speaking of drifting, we're going to have a guest coming our way, that is going to be Zach Triggs fat cats racing, drift, drifting stuff, and that's going to be at the top of the 10 o'clock hour, central time a little bit why I did a little research on.
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: Now next week I'll be back up in Detroit, and then the week after that, I believe, is the Woodward cruise, the week I come back.
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: I think, well, that's great timing on your part, I guess.
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: Well no on their part.
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: They should have had it a week earlier.
• 20:48
  Don Armstrong: Now You're right, it's all their fault.
• 20:50
  Ron Luellen: That's right, maybe you'll be lucky and they'll cancel your flight.
• 20:52
  Don Armstrong: I always get a dream cruise.
• 20:54
  Don Armstrong: Mr Morris has a review now of the Jeep Wagon here.
• 20:59
  Don Armstrong: Can can I just can I just kind of kick things off and just ask you right up front what is the MSRP on this vehicle?
• 21:07
  Don Armstrong: As it was all the way down to the bottom over there where it's got, you know.
• 21:16
  Jeff Dziekan: Destination.
• 21:16
  Jeff Dziekan: All that, yeah, yeah, it's 100, 14,180 dollars.
• 21:20
  Don Armstrong: Okay, now you can continue on with your review.
• 21:22
  Don Armstrong: We wanted to know where the perspective was.
• 21:26
  Jeff Dziekan: Donning, and it's the kind of guy that reads the last three pages of the book and then starts it over unless he's buying a car, he's looking at the bottom line first, and so this is the 2023 Grand Wagon here, series 3.
• 21:40
  Jeff Dziekan: I say this right, obsidian, obsidian, obsidian, that's not the way it's obsidian.
• 21:48
  Ron Luellen: That's not the way it sounded out in anyway obsidian, obsidian.
• 21:52
  Jeff Dziekan: Okay, I'll take you where it's obscene either way, it's four by four.
• 21:56
  Ron Luellen: It's obsidian.
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 22:01
  Jeff Dziekan: Oh, uh, whatever you want to start over from leader.
• 22:04
  Don Armstrong: Yeah, it's 2020.
• 22:05
  Jeff Dziekan: I was 2023 grand wagon and I did find Don mentioned earlier that he found a place where it does say Jeep someplace on it.
• 22:12
  Jeff Dziekan: I found it on the when Roni.
• 22:15
  Jeff Dziekan: There's one place where it has the word Jeep but generally speaking this says they they marketed as a grand wagon here in the grand wagon here L, which is new and the longer one, but we have the regular grand wagon here, series 3, and I really love the way they did the trims on this series 1, series 2, series 3.
• 22:33
  Jeff Dziekan: That's it.
• 22:33
  Jeff Dziekan: But then they kind of mucked it up with all the groups they had on Convenience groups and rear seat entertainment groups and tailor it's.
• 22:41
  Jeff Dziekan: They add a bunch of stuff on the end of it, but it starts out good.
• 22:44
  Jeff Dziekan: It's a full-size luxury SUV, the one we had, seats 7.
• 22:48
  Jeff Dziekan: It does have the 7 slot grille up front and so it's like a lot of the large SUVs nice, big square, butt, mass, muscular type build.
• 22:57
  Jeff Dziekan: I mean it looks like it's got substance going down the road.
• 22:59
  Jeff Dziekan: We had the black roof, had some black highlights, black tow hooks, uh, and the wheel inserts, so and that went along with the white paint.
• 23:08
  Jeff Dziekan: We had the bright white paint.
• 23:09
  Jeff Dziekan: Now I like white cars and with that black, nice contrasting, it was a really good color combination.
• 23:14
  Jeff Dziekan: I thought led lighting, uh, power Running boards on the sides that come out, you know, whenever you step up on them.
• 23:22
  Jeff Dziekan: But they're wide.
• 23:23
  Jeff Dziekan: I mean these things are almost nine inches wide so they're easy to step on.
• 23:26
  Jeff Dziekan: They're not some little skinny little thing that you're gonna slip off of power liftgate.
• 23:31
  Jeff Dziekan: I had the tri panel Panoramic sunroof.
• 23:33
  Jeff Dziekan: We were rolling some 22 inch polysilumine wheels with the black inserts, again more black trim.
• 23:38
  Jeff Dziekan: That really sets off that white paint obsidian touchscreen I'm ignoring.
• 23:43
  Jeff Dziekan: I had the uh on the inside of it.
• 23:45
  Jeff Dziekan: We had the quilted palermo leather with front seats where heat had been elated with massage Used that a lot.
• 23:51
  Jeff Dziekan: Second row captain's chairs, heated, ventilated.
• 23:54
  Jeff Dziekan: Third row was 6040 power folding seats.
• 23:56
  Jeff Dziekan: Upfront we had the 12 inch touchscreen in the front of it.
• 24:00
  Jeff Dziekan: That was really nice, easy to read.
• 24:02
  Jeff Dziekan: Of course it's easy to use because of the the stilance program that they've got built into it.
• 24:08
  Jeff Dziekan: But the one thing I wanted to point out was and you can see it on the screen if you happen to be looking at the YouTube video there is the panel for the USB ports and everything is really sass behind a panel.
• 24:19
  Jeff Dziekan: Well, that panel is actually an additional screen.
• 24:22
  Jeff Dziekan: So you open it up, you put your phone in there for the Wireless charging, there's USB ports, everything else you need, but when you close that it's all out of sight, out of mind, it doesn't go any place.
• 24:31
  Jeff Dziekan: But that becomes a screen and you can adjust your massaging seats and several other things.
• 24:36
  Jeff Dziekan: So you have an additional screen to work with besides what's up there on the top, and I thought it was a really nice touch and it was really well executed.
• 24:43
  Jeff Dziekan: I love that part of it.
• 24:44
  Jeff Dziekan: Macintosh entertainment system 23 speakers, including the Amazon fire TV for the rear entertainment system, which is two 10 inch speakers behind the rear seats, so they could watch us while we're driving down the road.
• 24:59
  Jeff Dziekan: There you go now to make all this stuff go down that road.
• 25:01
  Jeff Dziekan: You like this dawn in line.
• 25:04
  Don Armstrong: Six turbocharged 510 horsepower 500 pounds New in line six that they're using.
• 25:10
  Don Armstrong: And how was it?
• 25:11
  Jeff Dziekan: Oh man, like I said, I thought it was the v8 to begin, with a twin turbo, 510 horsepower, 500 pound feet of torque.
• 25:18
  Jeff Dziekan: So it's got a lot of low-end juice and that's the standard motor on the series to its series three it will is backed by an eight speed automatic.
• 25:25
  Jeff Dziekan: It'll tow ten thousand pounds, properly equipped with a tow package, which this one had.
• 25:29
  Jeff Dziekan: Epa says it's rated for 14 in the city, highway 20 and combined 17.
• 25:35
  Jeff Dziekan: Now I Do to some other things going on.
• 25:38
  Jeff Dziekan: I didn't get to get it out on the highway much, except for just a couple of quick passes, so I only put a hundred miles on this vehicle all in town.
• 25:44
  Jeff Dziekan: So don't count mine.
• 25:48
  Jeff Dziekan: Well it's things going on, and so it.
• 25:51
  Don Armstrong: Most of the driveway, most of the time you had.
• 25:54
  Jeff Dziekan: No, it was just two miles to here, two miles to there.
• 25:56
  Jeff Dziekan: Too much looking for a new house?
• 25:57
  Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, moving the vacuum cleaner, but this thing had plenty of power and I think I really believe you could tow that ten thousand pounds.
• 26:04
  Jeff Dziekan: I would like to have had the opportunity to try it.
• 26:06
  Jeff Dziekan: Good-looking truck it is Particularly with a black and white.
• 26:09
  Jeff Dziekan: Like I say, we had the standard air suspension on it.
• 26:11
  Jeff Dziekan: You can raise it up.
• 26:12
  Jeff Dziekan: You can actually get an extra ten inches of clearance if you're going off-roading in this vehicle and it also all over running in something like that.
• 26:21
  Jeff Dziekan: To me it's more like you got into some mud, the sand, but that's.
• 26:23
  Jeff Dziekan: They listed it as an off-roading.
• 26:25
  Jeff Dziekan: Okay, you lower it down for exiting, but again, with running boards it's real easy.
• 26:30
  Jeff Dziekan: I love those running boards.
• 26:31
  Jeff Dziekan: Now the base model price on this vehicle is 8999899995 Now.
• 26:37
  Jeff Dziekan: The base trim price for the series 3 107995 now.
• 26:42
  Jeff Dziekan: By the time you throw in a few little options packages and the $2,000 destination fee of course, kicks it up to one thousand a hundred and fourteen thousand one hundred eighty dollars.
• 26:52
  Jeff Dziekan: Now, if you're looking to something to compare that to in that large luxury SUV, of course you're gonna go look at a Cadillac Escalade it's gonna start out at eighty, eight thousand ninety five dollars.
• 27:01
  Jeff Dziekan: You maybe even the Lincoln Navigator it's gonna be kicking out at about ninety, seven thousand, I believe, on the base level, and then the or you could look over it in Lexus LX at ninety two thousand one hundred.
• 27:12
  Jeff Dziekan: But again, you this is the Grand Wagoneer from Jeep, even if they don't claim it.
• 27:20
  Don Armstrong: Thank you, Mike Obsidian Mars.
• 27:22
  Jeff Dziekan: Obsidian Mars.
• 27:23
  Jeff Dziekan: I swear that's how it told me to say that.
• 27:25
  Don Armstrong: The In Wheel Time car talk show is available 24-7 through the I Heart Radio app.
• 27:29
  Don Armstrong: Just look for In Wheel Time car talk and he's the author.
• 27:33
  Don Armstrong: Yeah, we also stream on Facebook, youtube, twitch and InWheelTimecom 30 minute podcast.
• 27:39
  Don Armstrong: That's your fingertips and over a dozen of the most popular podcast outputs.
• 27:43
  Don Armstrong: The In Wheel Time car talk show continues right after this break.
• 27:46
  Don Armstrong: Oh, there you go.
• 27:47
  Don Armstrong: Everyone at the Tailpipes and Tacos cruise in at the Loopy Tortilla Tex-Max in Katie.
• 27:51
  Don Armstrong: Thank you for participating in the best cruise in a round and look forward to seeing you again.
• 27:56
  Don Armstrong: You'll hear about the next cruise in date right here on In Wheel Time.
• 27:59
  Don Armstrong: Next time you're in the West Houston Energy Corridor area, be sure and stop in at the original Loopy Tortilla Tex-Max at I-10 and Highway 6, or the Katie location on the Grand Parkway at Kingsland Boulevard.
• 28:10
  Don Armstrong: When passing through Beaumont or College Station, stop in and have Loopy's award-winning beef fajitas and frozen margaritas.
• 28:16
  Don Armstrong: There's always a celebration at Loopy Tortilla.
• 28:18
  Don Armstrong: Loopy Tortilla founder Stan Hold and his wife Sheila are winning racers on the NHRA Drag Racing Circuit and have a collection of hot rods and classics that everyone appreciates.
• 28:27
  Don Armstrong: Look for them at the next Tailpipes and Tacos cruise in.
• 28:30
  Don Armstrong: The date will be announced soon and will once again be held at the Loopy Tortilla Tex-Max on 99 in Kingsland Boulevard, just south of I-10 and Katie.
• 28:37
  Don Armstrong: We'll give you all the details right here on the In Wheel Time car talk show and online Donations benefit God's Garage.
• 28:43
  Don Armstrong: We'll see you then.
• 28:44
  Don Armstrong: Golf Coast Auto Shield.
• 29:19
  Don Armstrong: Golf Coast Auto Shield is your place to go for all things exterior.
• 29:37
  Don Armstrong: Call them today 832-930-5655 or GCAutoShieldcom.
• 29:44
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• 29:50
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• 29:57
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• 30:03
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• 30:14
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• 30:21
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• 30:28
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• 30:31
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• 30:37
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• 30:42
  Don Armstrong: That's it for this podcast episode of the In Wheel Time car show.
• 30:46
  Don Armstrong: I'm Don Armstrong, inviting you to join us for our live show every Saturday morning 8 to 11 am, central on Facebook, youtube, twitch and our InWheelTimecom website.
• 30:57
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• 31:06
  Don Armstrong: Keep listening and we'll see you soon.