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The Smart Way To Decide If Your Old Car Is Worth Another Repair · In Wheel Time Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome to another In Wheel Time podcast.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um somebody has said that we uh sound muffled at times and uh whatever sounds fine in here.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it does.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: Through the ears, uh through the computer, the broadcast, through the board.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I I I don't have any clue about any of that sort of thing.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_03: We've only been here since five o'clock this morning.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_03: Make sure that everything sounds good and works good.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_03: I was getting beauty sleep at five o'clock.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_03: You were?
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it didn't work, but I was I was gonna say Michael.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's all your fault, Mike, again.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_03: All right, uh, let's uh check in with a fellow by the name of John Forisek.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_03: Uh he's the CEO of a company called RepairSurge, repairsurge.com.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_03: And the story goes like this Americans holding on to their cars longer than ever, and the average vehicle on the road is now over twelve years old.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_03: Uh but at around 120 to 180,000 miles, every owner faces the same painful dilemma.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_03: I've been through it recently with somebody else.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_03: Should I fix it or should I finally sell it?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's the magic question, isn't it?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_03: Uh using internal usage patterns across repair manuals for 10,000 plus vehicle models, repair surge analyzed, which common repairs actually offer a positive return on investment, and which one signal it's time to let it go.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_03: Data reveals seven repairs that almost always pay for themselves in extended lifespan lifespan and resale value.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_03: So, John, good morning to you, and thanks so much for joining us.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_03: We appreciate you.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'm I'm glad to be here.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_04: I'm excited.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_03: So tell us tell us about your company.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_03: How did it start, and whose idea was this?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_03: Are yours?
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it was mine.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um RepairSearch is an online platform that gives you the repair manual for your vehicle.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_04: Um it's all cloud-based, so you get the repair procedures, the diagrams, illustrations, parts information, um wiring schematics, torque specifications, all that stuff.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_04: And because it's cloud-based, you can access it on any device.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_04: So you can be on your PC, your laptop, uh, you can be out in the garage, uh, in the garage on your phone, and you can just access it basically anywhere you need it, and you can print stuff out too.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_04: A lot of people just use their use their devices.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_04: So and then another another benefit of it being cloud-based is you get updates to um all the information in real time.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_04: So parts prices get updated, service buttons come out, even corrections to old data, you get all of that included.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_03: So this is a subscription service?
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it is.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_04: So you can subscribe for just depending on how long you think you're gonna have the vehicle.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_04: So if you're not gonna keep it for super long, you can subscribe for a year, but you do get a discount if you subscribe for two years or three years.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_03: How much does that cost?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_04: For one year, we're currently at$29.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_04: And then for two years it's$48, and for three years it's fifty-seven.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_04: So you get a pretty good discount as well.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I was gonna say, I'm kind of surprised.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_03: That seems like a pretty good bargain to me.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_03: I think so.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_03: Do you get both cars?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: What if you got more cars?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm wondering if what if you had more cars?
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_04: If you have more cars, there's a 20% discount on any additional vehicles past the first one.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_03: So if you have something like a Jaguar e-pace or something like that, that uh you're really you know what you want to do with it.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_03: You wish that you'd have never bought it in the first place, but you need to get rid of it.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_03: And at what point do you say, cleanse an in-cabin air filter that's uh two dollars uh two hours on the repair clock and the filter, and I'm going, you know, that's enough to put in a new transmission for a$20 part.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_03: For a$20 part.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sorry, I'm I'm exaggerating, but you get the point.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_03: Because after you have a car for a while, you just really get tired of these little bitty nitpicking things that either go wrong with it or you gotta get this service, and there's nothing cheap about any of it.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_03: You're going, I am so done with it.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you're prioritizing your maintenance.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you're gonna get the oil change, but do you gonna change the filter every time on the air of the cabin?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_02: Are you gonna wait?
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: And then you lose track of what it is, and pretty soon it's uh it's a brick of dirt, and you've got something else to repair.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: So you prioritize I'm gonna do the brakes.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: Well, am I gonna do the brakes this week or next week?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_03: So the mistake that I made was I'm gonna say cabin filter.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_03: I can change that.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_03: No, I cannot.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_03: Now, if I were to change one of yours, didn't I do one for you?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: No, we looked at the one on the jag.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's right.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_03: We looked at the one on the Jag and going, we have to take the fenders off or something.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's absolutely ridiculous on this particular Jaguar.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_03: You would think you'd open the glove box, you know, with a little compartment in there and slide the new filter in.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_03: No big deal.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, no, not on this thing.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you've got to be able to get a lot of people.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_03: I've never known of a British built anything that was easy to work on.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_04: Well, and the the engineers who design the vehicles, you know, sometimes you wonder, they do a great job, but sometimes you wonder with specific choices, you know, how how they factored that in.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_04: A simple repair sometimes.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_04: If you have to take apart, you know, half the engine to get to something, or you have to take off the whole dashboard to get to something, it gets kind of out of hand.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_04: And to be fair to them, they're you know, they're designing for the techs at their dealerships where they have all the all the tools and they're trained on those specific vehicles day in and day out.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um but yeah, it's uh it can be a bit hunt sometimes.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um so what about do-it-yourself oil changes?
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I used to change my oil on all of my cars.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_03: Now I can't even get under the car anymore.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_03: Of course I well own a car that's about six inches off the ground, but that beside itself.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, let's just say I've got a Chevy 1500 half-ton pickup truck.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_03: Plenty of room underneath there.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_03: There's the drain plug, get under there and do it yourself.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, how do I justify buying your service, your your what you have to offer, and a guy that is a do-it-yourself or kind of like me?
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_04: Well, a lot of people aren't doing their own oil changes.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_04: I've been kind of surprised at at the lack of interest in doing that.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_04: It just once you factor in the the cleanup and the disposal, we find that a lot of people just um they would just rather have somebody else somebody else do it.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the disposal to me is the biggest problem.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you've got to capture it and then you've got to take it someplace.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: To to to dispose of it.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you can't just dump it in the yard, right?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: No, shame on you if you make a mess in the trunk of the car with a gallon of oil.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_04: But we do have a lot of do-it-yourselfers who use our product.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_04: Actually, that's our that's primarily what our user banks consist of.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_04: We have professional effects also, um, but a lot of do-it-yourselfers, and that's how we started out is addressing that that market.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: How did you start out?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_03: What what what gave you the mojo here to start this company and go for it?
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I was a manager actually in a in a Midas auto repair shop here in Michigan uh when I was younger, and uh then I I kind of had a hobby level interest in software development.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_04: And kind of as a um, I guess as a hobby, I created this early software tool um with a really catchy brand name.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_04: It was called Automotive Diagnosis and Repair CD.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_04: So kind of a mouse hole.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_04: But uh, but it was basically just general troubleshooting tips and maintenance guides.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_04: I wrote it all myself and I packaged it into a Windows software tool on a CD-ROM.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_04: Uh cloud-based stuff was really early then.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_04: And I just sold it on eBay, and it sold well enough that it kind of proved the concepts.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_04: I also got a lot of uh interesting feedback from buyers explaining exactly what the product didn't have that it needed, and um so that kind of drove me to create the second version and the third.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_04: And now, 23 years later, we're a fully cloud-based platform.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_04: We have vehicle-specific information for just about every vehicle on the road.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_04: Um, all the kind of information I mentioned before, the procedures, the diagrams, the specifications.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and that's really that's all been kind of driven by that recurring theme of every time we've done something, it's been the response has been better, and but we still have those those customers who who we consider to be a uh a blessing who tell us, you know, hey, I'm not happy with some aspect of this thing, and then we know what to work on, and we we try to move on it all.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_03: Would one of those people happen to be your wife, John?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_04: Not usually, she doesn't she doesn't work on cars, so I've I've been fortunate.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_04: Um that hasn't been a lot of things.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's why you chose that's why you chose this way to go because she's not going to participate in it.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_04: Fortunately, that hasn't been a source of strife in our marriages.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_04: You know, my product falling short for her for her use case.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: So whereabouts in Michigan are you?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_04: I'm in Lansing, you know.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but isn't that the whole home of Buick?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh maybe.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, there's there's a GM has a, as you guys probably know, has a pretty heavy presence around the group.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, the tech centers up there too.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: Well, very good.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I can see how this can be really helpful.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: I've got three granddaughters, all three of them go to college, all their cars are over 10 years old, and they run between 110 and 150,000 miles on them.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: So there's something always going wrong with their car.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, some of it, you know, some of it you just got to fix just to keep it rolling, to keep them going to school.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: But I find it interesting that some of the information you say you can go in and look at to determine how far you want to go with that particular car as far as the ROI goes.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that was a question I've been interested in for a while, actually.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_04: And so we have access to a lot of data and the ability to analyze it.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_04: And um so we looked at 2,400 data points essentially that we collected for different repair scenarios for um a selected sample of typical used vehicles from, and we based the data in terms of pricing data on the average of three sort of average cost of living areas.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_04: And um we applied a what I think is a is a pretty simple decision framework, and it's kind of hard to disagree with, to those scenarios to see uh in how many of them it would make sense to repair the vehicle and keep it, or repair it and consider selling it, or repair it and definitely sell it, or sell it without repairing it.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_04: And those are the kind of the four buckets that we that we grouped those scenarios in as we analyzed them.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_03: See, for me, it would be useful.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_03: Uh a car that um wound up in a divorce thing and all of that, but it was a very nice car.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_03: And um right as we were getting divorced, the transmission decided to take a dump.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_03: And um what do we do?
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_03: Because the transmission, it was Alexis RX 350, and uh the transmission was expensive, expensive to repair, and especially expensive if you've got to replace it.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_03: And we thought, well, the car had enough miles on it.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_03: Do we fix it or do we just let go of the car as is, and wound up pretty much giving the car away, letting the the repair facility actually spend their own money on the car, and then they they sold it.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_03: And um, but we didn't have a system like you offer, so I really didn't know what to do.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_03: And um I I didn't the ex-wife needed a car.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_03: Well, what should I advise her to do?
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it wasn't some hateful kind of thing, wasn't that at all.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_03: And so you can understand the dilemma that I was faced because I didn't want anybody to get screwed on on a car.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't want to take the the hit on the financial side of it, but I didn't want to leave the ex stranded on the highway somewhere because the transmission decided it was time to say goodbye.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's uh those are tough scenarios and people face that a lot.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it's I think the the simple decision framework that we arrived at is if the if the repair cost is less than 50% of the value of the vehicle, then it's kind of a no-brainer, repair it, keep it.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_04: Um, this is assuming you're not already intending to sell the vehicle, right?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_04: Uh if the repair cost is 50 to 75 percent, then you still need to repair it, um, but consider selling it and factor in the the overall health of the vehicle, your appetite for further repairs, how well the uh let's say the previous owner maintained it, because certainly you're you're maintaining your vehicle, right?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_04: But how the overall maintenance history of the vehicle and how how confident you are in the vehicle's health.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um, if it's 75 to 100% of the value of the vehicle, is what the repair is gonna cost you, then repair it and definitely sell it because you're at that point where further repairs are gonna almost certainly tip you over 100% of the value in pretty short order.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um and then if you're obviously over 100% of the value of the vehicle, that's you just sell the vehicle.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_04: And at that point, it's it's sort of mathematically totaled from a repair perspective, right?
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: So that would that would fall under the hoopty category.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_04: So you sell it as a mechanic special or you sell it for parts, uh, you sell it to somebody who is willing to take on a project, you know, with full disclosure and them understanding what they're getting into.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and the the reason those middle two categories we say repair it, even if you're gonna sell it, uh, is because you know, we all know this.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_04: If you sell a vehicle that has issues, you're gonna take the hit either way, right?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_04: You're you're gonna pay for the repairs indirectly because you're gonna get less for the vehicle, and then you're gonna have what we call the uncertainty tax, where the buyer is gonna factor in their inconvenience for the fact that they have to get it repaired, the risk of it not being exactly what you think it is that's wrong with the vehicle, and maybe they're getting into you know more expensive territory.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_04: So you're gonna you're gonna take a hit on the value just because of the repairs and then some.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_04: So we believe it's you should always be repairing it unless it's at that point where it's um where it's kind of mathematically totaled.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_04: And then the question is, are you gonna keep driving it or consider selling it or definitely sell it after the repairs?
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, John, I'm sorry.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_03: Go ahead, Morris.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Real quick before we run out of time, I'm I'm kind of envisioning this like like my granddaughters.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we decided it's reached the point we want to sell the car, we get it fixed enough to sell it.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: And we're looking for another car.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now I realize you can't necessarily look at a specific car like maybe Carfax or somebody can, but would your tool be valuable as saying, okay, I'm now I'm looking at a Honda Civic?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it's got 90,000 miles on it because I got to buy three cars, you know how that goes.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, would your tool be useful in in helping make decisions in that regard?
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so we actually thought about, and to be clear, this is more of a of a data study that we did as opposed to a tool, although we are considering building this out into a sort of calculator on our site, um, at which point it would definitely be a tool.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_04: Um but to to your point, we actually considered looking at it from that perspective for the for the total analysis.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_04: And the tricky part was, like you said, if we if we were to repair the cost of continuing to drive the vehicle with the repairs and sort of the cost of ownership factoring that into a different vehicle, that would give us a good uh a good basis for making that decision.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_04: But we don't know what vehicle somebody's gonna choose for that other vehicle, right?
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_04: So we can't do the math on that.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_04: But I think you're exactly right.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_04: If you have an idea what kind of vehicle you're gonna get into for the next one, then you can look at what your cost of ownership is gonna be on that vehicle and compare it to how many more miles you expect to get out of the current vehicle, knowing on average, you know, a well-maintained modern vehicle, you'll maybe get 200,000 miles before you're really in the danger zone.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_04: And compare the two, right?
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_04: And if it's gonna be reached that point where it's your cost of ownership per the miles you're gonna get out of the new car outperforms what you're gonna get in the current car, that kind of informs that decision.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_04: I think that's a good way to look at it.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, just another tool to help.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_03: John, so um, I assume that uh repairsurge.com has all the information that we need to find out more about uh what you have to offer.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, absolutely.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_04: I encourage anybody to check it out if you're in need of a repair manual for your view.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_03: And your marketing people will appreciate it.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I appreciate it too.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you very much.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_03: It's a pleasure to talk to you.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_03: John Forrest.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.com.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_03: All right, coming up, we have the racing calendar.
• 17:43
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• 19:10
  SPEAKER_03: Mm-hmm.
• 19:11
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• 19:15
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome back to the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_03: Time now for Jeff's Racing Calendar.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's uh all we can find now is Santa Claus and Slate Parked on the uh first turn, and uh that's about it.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and are we sponsored in this?
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_03: I'm I'm not sure.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: I think we're sponsored by the Texas Muscle Car.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: There you go.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you for that.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, not a lot of racing going on, but I do want to give you some updates on the racing folks.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: Formula One and the FIA have officially confirmed sweeping technical changes that will reshape how cars will race when the new regulations take effect in 2026.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_02: This is F one.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_02: The overhaul targets lighter machinery, smarter aerodynamics, revised approach to overtaking, making one of the most significant evolutions of the hybrid era.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: Uh under the new rules, F1 car.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: Will become smaller and about fifteen pounds lighter.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: The reduction is designed to improve the agility and efficiency while addressing long-standing concerns over the increasing size and mass of their cars.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_02: Next one we have is John Force Racing in the NHRA area.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: We just had Anton Brown.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: We didn't get a chance to mention it.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: But he's turning one of the most turbulent off seasons in the NHRA memory to the opportunity of handing the Cornwell Tools funny car seat to Jordan Vandegrick after the Austin Brock's departure.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_02: The other driver left, so uh Jordan's coming into place.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: The move not only fills a high profile vacancy, it also signals how John Force's organization intends to evolve in the first phase of its post-force driving era.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: You'll have a veteran tuner, Chris Cunningham, and Rising Star crew chief Jason Bunker repairing the car, which just might have to change its reputation from the Proc rocket to the bunker buster.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_02: That's what they call it.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_02: And lastly, NH uh NASCAR has uh determined a winner and a loser in their charter system.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's more of a franchise thing.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_02: NASCAR is going to have to take the bullet bite and uh honor some of the requests that the drivers and the teams want.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: No more taking their money.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_03: Well, NASCAR is at a big list, right?
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: They've got a little challenge going on next year.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_03: All right, Mr.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_03: Mars.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_03: Time now for this week in auto history, and I know that you've got some stuff lined up for us.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: We've got about seven things that we really found were interesting this week.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Although, like you say, the industry kind of shuts down this time of year.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: So this week, Henry Leland founded the Lincoln Motor Company in Detroit.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what I found really interesting about this was that it was initially built or initially started to build aircraft engines for World War I.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't until after the war that Lincoln shifted to uh luxury automobiles, and they got a really big reputation because of their engineering with the motors.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: They became really good engineers with the whole car.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now they were bought by Ford in 1922, and it continues to be Lincoln's premium division of cars.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Then this week in 1935, the first parking meter was installed.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this was done in Oklahoma City of all places, and it was done to manage traffic, to get people to come in, do your business, and get out and make room for somebody else, kind of like a restaurant runs.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: And another another note that even though this was controversial because everybody thought, well, the roads are public, I pay for them on my taxes, I ought to be able to park where I want when I want.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: Went through all that business with some court cases, but the first parking ticket was issued also in Oklahoma City in 1937.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think they did.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're not going to mention that.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um also this week in 1967, the Ford Mustang.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: Again, introduced in 1964 and a half, but by 1967, they sold 10 million cars.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: 10 million Mustangs that fast.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just a big hit.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: Started the whole pony car segment.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: This particular car we're showing here was number one, the very first Mustang that rolled out.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: And they acquired it because when they found out, found the owner, the millionth, the one millionth Mustang that was made, they traded it to the guy for this car, and that's how this one ended up back in the museum.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Then in 1969, one of the things that everybody remembers is the Plymouth Superbird.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this was a very highly modified short-lived version of the Plymouth Roadrunner.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of graphics, a lot of um had the Roadrunner horn, beep beep type thing.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it was designed to run in NASCAR.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the year before the Daytona, the Dodge Charger Daytona had run in 1969, very successful.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: They only had to produce 500 of the Daytona's because when it was so successful, NASCAR changed the rules.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: So they had to make more of them, one for every car dealership they had, which meant that the Daytona had to make over a thousand cars just to be able to run.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's the reason they only did it for one year.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: And another interesting note, you'll notice that this car has a vinyl top.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Except for the ones that were built for the race car teams, all of the Superbirds had vinyl tops.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: The Daytonas did not.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: What they found was to get them all out in time, they quit finishing the top where the top meets the body lines, the seams.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was easier to just cover them with vinyl than it was to smooth it out for paint.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: The uh cars came with either uh 426 HEMES or 440 cubic inch engines with a four-barrel or a six-barrel.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it's believed that there's about a thousand of them left out on the road somewhere.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: 1970, the EPA sets first auto emission standards.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is where the EPA came in, decided what the automakers had to do.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, that's what started the downturn as far as the horsepower goes into the muscle cars, killed all that stuff, and kind of brought in uh catalytic converters and all the wonderful things that we have now to help control our smog.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: December 2009, General Motors announced it would shut down Saab.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Saab was founded in 1937 in Sweden as an aircraft manufacturer.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it was after the war they got into building cars.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: And they uh Ford bought, I mean, excuse me, Chevrolet bought them and used them as far as some of their makes and models to bring into the country.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is the first Saab 92 that was done in 1949 when they switched from airplanes over to cars.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sorry.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it is.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then you'll notice that even the newer ones looked almost like this.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: They like that design for some reason.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Saw.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: 2015, last one.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: 2015, Volkswagen reaches Dieselgate settlement.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this was really important because uh a lot of people went to jail.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people paid a lot of money fines.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh one guy got arrested in a restroom at an airport in uh Florida trying to get out of the country before the FBI grabbed him, but they got him.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um and they built they offered to buy back 500,000 2.0 liter vehicles in the United States as part of the settlement for this, and it really changed the way they were monitoring how uh manufacturers did their emissions testing.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that's this week in automotive history.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_03: Well, well, that was that was that was quite a fun little trip down memory lake.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_03: Sob.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know anybody.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I probably know people that had one, but they didn't say that they had one.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they wouldn't admit it.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: No, nobody admitted it.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: Only a few people on TV.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_03: The future of North American trade and new duties on robotics loom for the auto industry in 2026, offering potential clarity on a policy landscape that has up-ended the planning of automakers and suppliers.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_03: US Supreme Court in the first part of 2026 is expected to rule on the legality of many tariffs enacted by President Trump earlier this year.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_03: And the future of North American trade will come into focus as the United States, Mexico, and Canada review their trilateral trade agreement that Trump suggested the U.S.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_03: could abandon.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_03: At the same time, the Trump administration has signaled it could pursue a wide range of new tariffs, including an industrial robotics and critical minerals.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_03: New tariffs will likely weigh heavily on auto companies as they decide how to adjust production and investment plans, according to experts.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_03: Volkswagen of America will not offer the ID Buzz minivan for the 2026 model year as the automaker grapples with tepid demand and a challenging environment for electric vehicles in the U.S.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_03: The move caps what has been a difficult year for the Germany-built model, which faced high import tariffs, a pair of embarrassing recalls, one of them with a seat, the elimination of the$7,500 tax credit toward an EV purchase.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_03: EV demand has largely collapsed since the tax credit.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_03: A major draw for first-time buyers expired at the end of September.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_03: You know how much that car that car was like a bunch of money.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_03: I'm going to find out how many they made, so keep going.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's the end of that story.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_03: Farmax plans to aggressively pursue$150 million in savings in the coming months as it seeks a new CEO who can help counter drops in net income sales and revenue.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_03: That income for the fiscal 2026 third quarter dropped 50% to 62.2 million, the company said.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_03: Revenue declined 6.9% year over year to fifth uh$5.8 billion.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_03: The results follow similar declines in the previous quarter in years of stagnant earnings, which led to the firing of longtime CEO Bill Nash in November.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_03: And even though the Ram canceled its fully electric pickup truck, it's still possible to buy one version of the truck.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_03: Ram's merchandise website is offering a 2026 Ram 1500 Rev Hallmark keepsake ornament for$29.95 to hang on your tree.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_03: Diecast metal truck, four and a half inches long, two inches high.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_03: Features dated front and rear license plates and authentic detailing based on the 2026 Ram 1500 Rev, the site says.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_03: It's also available on Hallmark's website for four cents more.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_02: Is that official?
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_02: Uh listen, yeah, it's been announced they're warming up to it.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_02: What are they gonna run?
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe they're gonna run that six-cylinder.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_03: Ooh, hurricane six.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_03: That wouldn't surprise me at all.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: Would it surprise you?
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because there's there's certain criteria for the motors.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_03: Well, the V8.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_02: It might win, and they wouldn't want that.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_03: The the V8 uh uh for Dodge uh was not competitive because of the degree of the alignment of the cylinders.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's a long story, but they couldn't compete, that's why they dropped out.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_03: So fine.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_03: Don't change the rules, just keep on keeping on.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_02: On the uh the ID bus electric vehicle sales have been uh relatively slow.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_02: You like you talked about, 1162 units were sold in the US in 2024, uh, and under 5,000 sold the first nine months uh worldwide.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_02: So it's been a pause.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, we'd love to hear from you.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_03: Just shoot us an email.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_03: The address here is info at inrealtime.com.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_03: We're back after this quick break.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_03: You own a car you love, but why not let Gulf Coast Auto Shield protect it?
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_03: Houstonian John Gray invites you to his state-of-the-art facility to introduce you to his specialist team of auto enthusiasts.
• 31:00
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• 31:16
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• 31:17
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• 31:20
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• 31:37
  SPEAKER_03: Gulf Coast Auto Shield is your place to go for all things exterior.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_03: Call them today, 832-930-5655 or gcautoshield.com.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_03: The award-winning In Wheel Time Car Talk Show now reaches five point three million folks each year.
• 31:53
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• 32:02
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• 32:13
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• 32:15
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• 32:16
  SPEAKER_03: That's it for this podcast episode of the In Wheel Time Car Show.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_03: I'm Don Armstrong, inviting you to join us for our live show every Saturday morning, eight to eleven AM Central on Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and our InWheeltime.com website.
• 32:31
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• 32:40
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