Latest / In Wheel Time Podcast / Exploring the idea of Auto Shows and Boats with RoShelle Salinas, the EV Market Constraints, and Cuba's Car Scene

Transcript

Exploring the idea of Auto Shows and Boats with RoShelle Salinas, the EV Market Constraints, and Cuba's Car Scene · In Wheel Time Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: 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 11 am Central.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: It is the In Wheel Time car talk show.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Just ahead we're going to talk to Rochelle Salinas about the upcoming auto boat of show, formerly the Houston Auto Show.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Plus, jeff has a segment on Cuban cars.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: No, no, not cigars, but cars that may include cigars, but we're focused on the cars.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: The cars may be smoking too.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: And later Conrad's car clinic and automotive news headlines.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: This week On the In Wheel Time car talk show, howdy along with David Ainsley filling in for Mike Mars this week, king Conrad along, we always need more.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Jeff Zekin, I'm, don Armstrong, glad you could join us on our live broadcast here on this Saturday morning from the Houston Texas area and joining us now from, I assume, the Houston Texas area, rochelle Salinas with the Houston Auto Boat of Show.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Good morning.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Good morning Hi.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Well, we're doing great.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Thanks, and looks like you are too.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: I haven't talked to you in a while.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: How have you been?
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: I've been good.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, we're trucking along trying to plan this great event.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Well, and that's what we're going to talk about.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: And you know, if you can't, if you can't divulge anything, can you divulge everything now, or no.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: You still got stuff in the works.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: I still have things pending, but I got stuff to share for sure.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Well, why don't you go ahead and spill the beans first, and then we'll go from there?
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: So you know we're really excited to be partnering again with the Boat Show.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: This is our third year to make the Auto Boat of Show and you know we get hits and misses and wins with from both sides of the party on if this is a great combination or not, but when it comes down to it, you know we're both in a situation where inventories have been in a different place than ever before and we have a huge space to fill of, you know, 700,000 square feet at NRG Center, and where we both were able to fill those at that time, you know, at times ago.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: We can't anymore, and so the reality is having these two events together has been spectacular, and they're like-minded in the sense of you need a truck to tow your boat or a quality SUV and so you can shop in both ends of the event, though you can buy a boat at the Boat Show side and you can pick out your vehicle on the Auto Show side.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: It's really become a spectacular combination to have the two events in one.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Well, I have to tell you, I don't know of a car person that doesn't like to look at a boat.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: They might not want to ride in one or buy one, but it's a bonus to me If I go to the car show, and now I got the Boat Show there too.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: And if both person needs a truck to haul it, do you?
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: still have the fishing tank in the Boat of Show, oh yeah.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: So they will have the Bass Tub that has the expert fisherman that is teaching people the proper way to cast and unhook your line from the drudges of underneath the lake.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: So we will have the Bass Tub there this year, along with tons of other vendors and the Boat Show exhibitors.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: I know that they'll have all the great brands, from the pontoon boats to your fishing boats, to the ultra luxury boats, like the world's biggest bay boat that was debuted at the Florida Boat Show, the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: It will actually be here for the first time in Texas.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: That's Bay B-A-Y, not B-A-E, Correct.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, bay, that's good, I like it.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: There's something wrong with that, but whatever the case may be, I'll tell you I do like those to see how the other side lives, and those great big, huge cabin cruisers.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and James, do you mind bringing up the boat?
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Don used to love watching below deck the champagne.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: You can't go without the champagne.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: Oh, bring you some champagne, if you don't mind.
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: So if the two vessels pull up, do they ask for the great Poupon?
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: Oh, yes, absolutely.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: We passed that right off the dock.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: I will tell you that we're looking forward also mainly the car show.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Since we are car show kind of guys, I have to ask you right out of the box is Stalantus going to be there With the Jeep and Ram riding drives?
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: okay, so this is the the bad news before the good news, right, stellantis?
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: The brand, the display itself, the static display will not be on site.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: So, Chrysler, dodge, jeep, ram will not have the vehicles on site where they typically have their product specialists talking about all of the vehicles.
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: Weirdly enough, in the way that corporate world works, we're still waiting to hear if we're going to have any of the off-road Experiences of Camp Jeep or the Ram track.
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: Oh boy, I was hoping to have news for you today, but we got news yesterday.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: It's like still pending, still pending, which has been our life.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: The last you know, three months is that we'll hear news tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Well, I will tell you.
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: I'm just not sure yet.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Well, that's okay.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Thank you for being honest with us.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: I kind of was in fear of the fact that Stellantis wouldn't, because they were not in Chicago and they were not in LA.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I mean you.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: This is the repercussions of the strike and it's extremely unfortunate when you know the everyday consumer walking around the world might not realize that what the strike really pulls on to not just the employees but the ancillary activities that take place with these brands, and this is one of those impacts.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: So we're waiting to see what you know other News will drop, but we're gonna.
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: It's still going to be a phenomenal show.
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: We've got all the other brands represented Chevy's coming back with a great display for Toyota, honda, hyundai is coming back as the OEM instead of the dealer.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: We've got Mazda, the post oak motors with the luxury brands from here in Houston, and then we just sat down with that new I know stealer here in Houston and they're working on bringing a new display as well for the Granadier and if you haven't seen one of those yet, that is a really the baby Bread together of the Land Rover and the G wagon and it is a really cool car.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: So We'll have them there too is Lucid gonna be there?
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: Lucid Tesla.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: Any of those Rivian direct sale vehicles will not be on site.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: No no they.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: Following the Texas franchise laws.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, I got you.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: There was a man are the dealers gonna put together a Chrysler Display?
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: all of that's in the works.
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: We're gonna see.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Okay, the local guys pull something together because those big displays take up a lot of footage inside.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: They do rather than a lot of manpower as well.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Well, I assume that you're going to have the outdoor riding drives.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: Yes, we still have Ford and Subaru participating for riding drives outside, and we may be moving those indoors back To the old way where we used to have the indoor track, where you drove out of the building so that, no matter the weather, you could still participate in a ride and drive.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: Those are some of the plans that are all up in the air, with, you know, waiting this pending news.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: And then Evolve Houston is coming back as well with their educational display Incorporating their partners from U of H and Shell Energy, and there are EV ride and drive.
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: So I don't have a vehicle list yet of what vehicles you'll be able to test drive, but I know we'll have a variety of EVs that will people will be able to take out on street drives too.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: Boy, this is a scramble for you because this is getting close and you still have all of this stuff that you're bending, which means you're still moving stuff around on the floor to make space for stuff to happen.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: Or fill space or fill space yeah exactly.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: I mean, you guys have been talking to me for the past ten years.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: You know I usually have this stuff wrapped over before Thanksgiving and it's just logistical planning right now.
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: We're still putting the puzzle together, so it's been a little bit strenuous, but we're confident we're gonna put on a great event, like we have in years.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I always do yeah, I was gonna comment about the fact that you know Stalat is not being there.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: I got news this week that Jim Morrison is no longer the head of the Jeep brand.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: He's been moved over to Jeep.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: I guess they're starting some sort of a new deal where they're going to market kind of an aftermarket thing for Jeep.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Mainly Wrangler and he's been in charge are gonna be put in charge of that.
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: Well, that's.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: I heard that news as well and we were sad because he was a huge advocate for the Houston auto show.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: He's the one that got us our multiple reveals at the preview night parties as well.
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: So you know he's been a good partner to us.
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: But I'm sure in his new position He'll find a way to interact again and I've heard great things about the person coming in to take his position.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Well, that's good Speaking of that sort of thing.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Are you going to have the preview party?
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: That's another one, that's trying to come together.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: I got you.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Oh, my gosh, this is going to be.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: Don puts you on the spot, doesn't he?
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: Well, you can just come to Don's.
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: Come over to Don's house and invite everybody over to Don's.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: We'll have the.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: We'll have the, the the preview party over here, Finger sandwiches?
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, finger sandwiches.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Uh well, with that news, um gosh, I don't even know what to say.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: You've deflated that balloon Don Pop.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: That one didn't we Well um.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: You know, we we know that that's a big tradition and so it's something I'm hoping we can pull together.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: And you guys, I'm always authentic and candid with you.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: It's just do we really want to um put on a great preview night gala like we've had before, or do we want to change it up to be something different, maybe a more of a networking happy hour?
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: Come and go, get your first look of the auto show, um, as a VIP experience and, just you know, maybe transforming that event to something more palatable in these times and making making sure we set the expectations right, because the last thing we want to do is have people come in and feel disappointed.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: We want to make sure that we're providing and setting the expectations accurately and providing them a really great experience.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Well, if I'm not mistaken, let's go back, I think I think it was the first one.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Uh, it was basically a cocktail party that was upstairs in in in one of the rooms up there, and then you had a chance to go down and stroll through the car show if that's what you wanted to do, but it was kind of a little get together.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: There was certainly nothing wrong with that.
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: No, not at all Not at all.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: Everyone had a great time, yeah.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: And um, so what's wrong with scaling back and having one of those kind of things, cause I thoroughly enjoyed myself, to be honest with you, and what?
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: What it did was it brought everybody together in one room hey, how's it going?
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Hey, I haven't seen you in a while, whereas the big cocktail party and the preview and everybody roaming around you didn't really get yeah you didn't, really didn't get that opportunity, so maybe there's a so are there going to be any reveals this year at Houston?
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: I think we're going to have some Texas debuts for sure.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: Um, I was really hoping for one from Ram, but, um, now I'm I think we may have something from Kia coming, um and I'm and talking to a couple other brands.
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: So so we'll see what surprises we have in our in our next interview for you on that front too.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Kimberly Schultz has been a good friend of mine and the show for uh well, 20 years I guess, and she is, I assume, still with Stalantas At least that's where I get the, the press agreements from, and, um, have you spoken to her at all?
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: I have.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: We've been texting all this week um back and forth to see if she has any intel.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, and, uh, you know, um, it's, it's, it's an interesting time, there's no doubt about it, and I know that the strike has changed a lot of things.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: And, um, there's also a lot of uh stuff going on in the EV market and, from what I've read, it's not all good news.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of constraints going on in many levels and different sources and people and places and things and components, uh, battery technology, that sort of stuff that, uh, you know Ford has decided to put on hold this billion dollar plant, uh, plant number two to make batteries and sales aren't all of that, with all the EVs that are sitting on lots right now, and let's face the fact that that, you know, times are tough.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Grocery prices have increased dramatically and it's, uh, it's, it's tight economy, but I know for a fact that here in Houston, car sales are still doing well.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we are Thankfully, um, we were just talking about this the other day um, how to interview with the Houston Chronicle about a month ago and you know things are stabilizing a bit as the rush that we've kind of had as a big increase, but sales really are taking place and even in the EVs it's very slow but they are selling.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: Um, and I think that building on that awareness and the education and that's exactly what the auto show is for Having people come and learn about what you want your purchase to be and make sure you're having an educated buy when you're going to spend that amount of money, because, you're right, the economy is tough right now and you know that's why we set the price of the auto show at $15 for the moment.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: Um, so if you buy early, you'll get your tickets for $15.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: If you get them at the door, they're $20.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: But still, you're coming in to invest in deciding on what vehicle to buy in the future and how much money you want to spend later on.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: So where can where can people go buy them early?
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, at at Houston auto show comm or Automotive show comm.
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: Either website has our ticket link on it and you can get tickets right now for 15 bucks.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: When is the show?
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: very small people are no ticket master.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: When is the show?
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Rochelle?
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: When is the show?
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: sorry, yeah, you broke up sorry a couple of it January 24 through the 28th, so the last week of January.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay, very good, okay.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: So what are the kind of bombshells you're gonna drop on us this morning?
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: No, I'm just.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: You know we've got it.
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: You know I've got to be optimistic and I really.
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: The boat show side of things is absolutely packed.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: I know they've got a lot of great things coming in.
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: They're gonna have about 200 different vendors of all of the accessories and all of that as well.
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: We will have an RV exhibit too.
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: So it's a.
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: It's a full, diverse show of all kinds of, you know, indoor, outdoor activities and all the fun taking place, and I'm really just pressing forward.
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: This is just one Brand not coming, so I'm not gonna let that get us down.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: We have so much else going on and it's gonna still be a great event.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: Well, and you always do such a good job and considering the last few years with all of the curve balls You've been having to deal with between COVID and all the financial issues caused by the strike and stuff, you've done a good job and always put on a good show.
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: Thank you, thanks.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: I did want to provide you guys with one update.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: You had the technician students on a few months, about a month ago that's, participated in the Houston auto dealers competition.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: Those students went to Fort Worth, to Texas Motor Speedway and they competed in Dallas or in Fort Worth last week and they got 14th place out of 44 teams.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: Wow, very good and the alternate player actually won first place when they did individual testing and he received two $2,500 worth of snap-on tools as a prize.
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: So we're so proud of those students and you know I'm excited that whole competition is funded because of what we do with our work at the auto show and that the auto show funds the Houston Auto dealer Association.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: So just wanted to tie those together and point out the success of those high school students and I'm just really proud that we're able to put on, you know, that secondary event with what we're able to do at the auto show.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: That's awesome we're.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: We're proud of them too, and what a great bunch of they were fun to talk to.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we need more of that.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: There's no doubt about it.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Are you going to have the guys out in front in the lobby this year?
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: The display, the display of Older antique cars and stuff like that unique.
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: We'll still have a great classic Section.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: Ben Miller has put together a good quality selection of, I think, about 50 vehicles this year, so we'll have them.
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: We also have produced a new magazine this year That'll be at the show, called the buyers guide, and it has a full listing of all of today's latest and greatest models for people to Take notes and shopping compare.
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: So pick one of those up when you come on site, and we'll still have the food trucks and that kind of activity going on during the event too good deal, but John just wants to make sure he can get a dome dog when he's there A dumb dog, where is your exotic Christmas vacation this year?
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: That's right.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: I'm still heading to Mexico, as usual.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: That's always a good thing.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: Let me ask you this when you're down there, are you going to buy some new tap shoes?
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: Where will I be tapping to?
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: well, tapping with the media.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: You know Doing the tap dance with the media.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: No, I mean, she knows, I mean it is a tap dance enough, because all the television stations will be having her on.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and usually in the studio, and she'll be put on the spot, kind of like what I'm doing to her right now.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I'm just.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: I think what in the end result is we're gonna need Stellantis to be aware of how much the consumer missed them there, so maybe I'll have to come up with some communication method for Stellantis to be aware of Whatever one.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: I got a great idea hashtag where you at HOU TX.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: I Think that what we need to do is we need to get Kimberly to go with you on these television interviews.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: Let her that yeah, that would be awkward, I'm sure, and I sort of like this, sort of like this.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Anyway, I, I joke, but Not at all at any rate it's.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: It's always great to talk to you and to see you, and we hope that you have a very merry Christmas down in Mexico.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: And good luck with the show and if you have any updates, you know, call us, we'll get you on or send us a note.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: However you want to do it, and we're looking forward to any of the latest greatest news that you've got.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: And when you figure out a strategy to have communication with scientists from the consumer, let us know.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: We'll be glad to share that on our stuff as well.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: For sure, we'll keep you guys updated we love you, thank you, and we'll see you in January, and I assume that we're still going to be doing our remote broadcast from out there.
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: We are going to make it happen.
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: We could take Stalance's spot.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Forget that 10,000 square foot display.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: We'll bring Wally with us.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: We love you, thank you.
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: Same guys Take care.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Bye, bye, bye, bye.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: Bye.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: What a struggle.
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, she's got it tough this year.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: It's a month, month and a half away.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Really a month, because in a month from now they'll be setting up.
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's going to be.
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: You're looking at three weeks right after Christmas probably, yep.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: So, boy, I'm glad I'm not her.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I posted my hashtag.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: Where are you at Houston, Texas?
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: Now we got to figure out how to put drop that on Stalantis.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: All right, let us move ahead.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: Shall we?
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: Jeff has a feature that I'm.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: I always look forward to Jeff's features because he decides what they're going to be.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't have anything to do with that.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: So this, this week, it's going to be Cuban cars.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: We probably should rename that Cuban cars and cigars.
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: You could.
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: You can name it whatever you want.
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: Okay, thanks, here we go.
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: All right, one of the first things you notice as you enter Havana is the colorful vintage cars that line the streets.
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: The classic car is much of Cuban icon, as Don says, as cigars.
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: But why does Cuba have, cuba have, so many old cars?
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: Cuba has never had a car manufacturing industry, so they relied solely on automotive imports to populate the island's roads.
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: During the Cuban Spanish war, conrad, the first ever import to Cuba, was a La Parisienne from a little known French manufacturer in 1898.
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: Oh wow, 1919.
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: Cuba was the largest Latin American importer of US cars and parts and was among the countries with the highest number of vehicles per capita in the world.
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: The classic Model T was the ubiquitous on Cuban streets, fondly referred to as a Funtingo, which means Conrad, clunker or jalapé.
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: Even now, the Cuban cars that you see on the road, they still call them Funtingos.
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: During the first half of the 20th century, cuba was used as a test track for many of the American car manufacturers, meaning that the cars were often available in Cuba before being sold in the United States.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: I did not know that, yes.
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: Ford, Chevrolet, Cadillac and Chrysler shipped their cars down to the Miami port, served the closest one down there, and then they would arrive in Havana a few days later.
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: So by 1956, there were 140,000 cars in Cuba and 90,000 of those were on the streets.
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: 1959 was the beginning of the Cold War, so Fidel Castro put an embargo on the US and foreign imports.
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: So no more parts, no more cars.
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: Cuban owners had to make a choice to either let their cars rest in the garage or use what parts they had readily available, which was often seen today.
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: Cuban locals were forced to make repairs and restorations using what David.
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: Russian and Chinese vehicles Primarily the plethora of Ladas, Volgas and Greelys were still readily available.
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: Now you put ointment on a Greely, it will go away.
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: You can see the range of patched up cars on display through the country, often painted in vivid colors and to hide the panel work and all the Bondo and things like that.
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: So in 2016, Fidel Castro's brother, Raul, kind of relaxed a little bit of the permissions to come into Cuba, which really weren't that great, Still regulated.
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: For instance, if a car cost $29,000 here in the US, it was more like $260,000 in Cuba, Holy Solita.
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: So there were sort of restrictions on that as well.
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: So many of the cars happily drive around.
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: They take tours.
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: You can actually rent one and take a tour.
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: They encourage you to do that, to either rent one or have one as like a taxi, because you can go through all the tobacco growing regions of Pinard de Rio, the world famous Bolivar Royal Corona cigar, which David knows about.
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: So there's a lot of vintage cars in Cuba Today.
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: There's still embargoes, the cars are still cool down there and if you're watching it on video, there's a lot of neat stuff going on down there.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Do they have the Swisher Suite?
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: tour no no Swisher Suite tour.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: No but you can drive a 57 Chevy powered by a Volga four cylinder turbo diesel.
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but not agreeably, because you put on agreement on agreeably.
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: So we're just going to let this roll here and I've got one special coming up that I think is on here, that Mike and I talked about, and there it is.
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: There's the man right there.
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: There's the beauty.
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: Is that Mars?
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: That's Mars in Cuba.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Wait, that's Mars in there.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: That's Mars in 2018.
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: Mr Mars was in Cuba.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Well, what was he dealing over there?
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: Cars parts, really.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, I did not know.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: Remember him going to Cuba.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: For that trip he didn't NAD a.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: Really no.
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: But when we talked I sent Mike's information.
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: She's you know, I've got a picture.
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: I said let's do it.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: He went on the Jerry Garcia tour.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: He's truckin, thank you.
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: Michael, I appreciate your helping that.
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: We love you, buddy God.
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: That that's that's that's classic, so you know you can still find the old 40s, 50s, 30s, all that down there.
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: You know, a few years ago, any new ones.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: A few years ago went to San Francisco and did a Micro bus, love bus tour, oh yeah.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: And so the guy had an old Volkswagen hippie bus from back in the day.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: That's normal in San Francisco took you through.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: You know hate Ashbury, all the sites, and it was very good actually and it was really kind of cool to be in the old hippie bus and what a great idea.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Can you get tickets to go?
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: I guess you can get tickets to go to Havana.
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we have to go through the State Department and you cannot go there just to go.
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: It's not as open as it used to be you have to have a purpose or reason, you have to be something, a benefit, to do that, to be down there, and then you know you can't overstay because you'll be, you know, in jail and all that stuff, not like here.
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: But you have to go through the State Department, get approvals and all you got to have your, your Passports and all that shots and all that good stuff think of how much money Cuba would make on the tourism industry.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Why don't they?
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: open.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: Well that they did that little bit that they were open when Mars went.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: That was a real boon to Cuba.
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: It has been relaxed a little bit, but so far as the car industry down there there's still, those cars will still be there in another 50 years you know, like not letting us go down there.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: It's like what's the purpose?
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Now, back in the day, at the Cold War and all that stuff, I got it.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: You can go to communist countries.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: It's not like it's, you know, against the wall.
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you can go to China and you know all that stuff just behave yourself.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Well, that's a given Conrad, which is why I don't go, because I don't know how to behave myself.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: Clearly.
• 26:39
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• 28:05
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• 28:10
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• 28:18
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• 28:33
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• 28:35
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• 28:42
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• 30:01
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