Latest / In Wheel Time Podcast / Vintage Car Ads, Hidden Houston Date Night and the '26 Subaru Outback!
Transcript
- 0:05Don Armstrong: All right.
- 0:05Don Armstrong: Time out for Jeff's car culture.
- 0:07Don Armstrong: Where did the full page car ad go?
- 0:10Jeff Dziekan: Well, uh, we talked in the preview of the show that well uh Mike and I were trying to coordinate some videos of some of the old car commercials, Dinosaur, Chevrolet, you know, the Bonanza Boys, all that.
- 0:20Jeff Dziekan: Couldn't really coordinate that, so we came up with this.
- 0:22Jeff Dziekan: Uh they're static.
- 0:23Jeff Dziekan: These are actual magazine ads from back in the day.
- 0:26Jeff Dziekan: The first one that we've got is basically a vintage 1966 ad, and it's good deals back in the day, is what it's what it's called.
- 0:35Jeff Dziekan: No, that's not the right one, is it, Mike?
- 0:37Don Armstrong: That's not the that's not a 66, I can tell you that.
- 0:40Jeff Dziekan: But that's okay.
- 0:41Jeff Dziekan: Let's move on to this.
- 0:42Jeff Dziekan: This one, I believe, is uh well, don't know what that is.
- 0:47Jeff Dziekan: That's the chrome, chrome head more chrome in 1957.
- 0:49Jeff Dziekan: That's not even it.
- 0:50Jeff Dziekan: Move on to the next one, Michael.
- 0:53Don Armstrong: That's a pretty picture.
- 0:54Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, it is.
- 0:56Jeff Dziekan: This one is uh the Cadillac.
- 0:58Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, it's a chrome uh chrome chrome and more chrome is what that is.
- 1:02Jeff Dziekan: So you'd see that in a magazine ad, you'd be flipping through your uh uh what with the ladies' magazines that they had back in the day, you that would pop up.
- 1:11Jeff Dziekan: Look! Look magazine.
- 1:13Jeff Dziekan: There you go.
- 1:13Jeff Dziekan: Look at that.
- 1:16Jeff Dziekan: Move on to the next one here.
- 1:20Jeff Dziekan: The LaSalle.
- 1:21Jeff Dziekan: The LaSalle.
- 1:22Jeff Dziekan: That one is uh the 1240.
- 1:24Jeff Dziekan: It's for$1,240.
- 1:25Jeff Dziekan: So you won't find that on Hemings for$1240, that's for sure.
- 1:30Jeff Dziekan: Nice little family.
- 1:31Don Armstrong: Yes.
- 1:35Don Armstrong: What does it say something?
- 1:36Don Armstrong: Now go go sailing on the highway.
- 1:39Don Armstrong: Yeah.
- 1:40Don Armstrong: Now we'll go sailing on the highway.
- 1:41Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, as a Mercury A for 41.
- 1:43Jeff Dziekan: Look at that bad boy.
- 1:45Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, not a big fan, but whatever.
- 1:47Jeff Dziekan: But it's the way they actually drew that picture, the rendering of it.
- 1:50Jeff Dziekan: That's that's pretty nice.
- 1:51Don Armstrong: You don't see it kind of like a one thing that I've noticed on these, they they actually didn't take a picture of the car.
- 1:59Don Armstrong: Somebody did a drawing.
- 2:01Jeff Dziekan: It was like Bill Hitch making a rendering, yeah.
- 2:04Jeff Dziekan: The artist back in the design shops of the actual manufacturer would make the pictures, like you see in today's automotive car shows where they make an actual picture of the car.
- 2:14Jeff Dziekan: That's what they would do.
- 2:15Don Armstrong: Mercury 8 for 1941.
- 2:18Don Armstrong: Next up.
- 2:20Don Armstrong: Ooh, it's a Woody.
- 2:22Don Armstrong: Yeah.
- 2:23Jeff Dziekan: Boston.
- 2:24Don Armstrong: A hit in Boston and Buenos Aires.
- 2:27Don Armstrong: Yeah.
- 2:28Don Armstrong: Got a little European flair there with the wooden sides of the wagon.
- 2:33Mike Marrs: And of course the other thing, almost all of them have got family members in them, either in the cars or even the drawings.
- 2:41Mike Marrs: But you know who makes that?
- 2:43Jeff Dziekan: Jeep.
- 2:44Jeff Dziekan: That's a jeep.
- 2:46Don Armstrong: That is a Jeep.
- 2:46Jeff Dziekan: So you could have a Jeep down.
- 2:48Don Armstrong: Is it a wagoneer?
- 2:49Jeff Dziekan: Uh, that I don't know.
- 2:50Jeff Dziekan: But you could drive it from Boston all the way down to Best.
- 2:54Jeff Dziekan: That's right.
- 2:55Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, yeah.
- 2:56Jeff Dziekan: Stick it on the boat.
- 2:57Jeff Dziekan: Well, no, I think you could probably get there.
- 3:00Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, you'd have to cross the uh Panama Canal to put it on a boat.
- 3:05Jeff Dziekan: Okay.
- 3:06Jeff Dziekan: This is going well.
- 3:09Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, okay.
- 3:10Jeff Dziekan: Nash.
- 3:11Jeff Dziekan: Nash.
- 3:12Don Armstrong: Which is combined with Rambler, and it was called a Nash Rambler eventually.
- 3:17Jeff Dziekan: And that's uh every engineer in the air, or every engineer the air.
- 3:23Jeff Dziekan: That's what it is.
- 3:25Don Armstrong: We've we've re-engineered the air.
- 3:27Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, something like that.
- 3:28Don Armstrong: I guess because of its aerodynamic capabilities.
- 3:31Don Armstrong: And that big old front end looks like a fence.
- 3:34Jeff Dziekan: It does.
- 3:34Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, it really does.
- 3:37Don Armstrong: Not really attractive.
- 3:38Don Armstrong: No wonder the floor.
- 3:39Mike Marrs: Big flat fenders, kind of like uh uh back into the 40s, maybe even 30s.
- 3:44Jeff Dziekan: That's for the coefficient.
- 3:45Jeff Dziekan: The drag coefficient.
- 3:47Jeff Dziekan: That's right.
- 3:49Jeff Dziekan: All right, Mike.
- 3:51Jeff Dziekan: Next.
- 3:52Jeff Dziekan: I don't know how many you got there.
- 3:54Jeff Dziekan: Oh, yeah.
- 3:54Jeff Dziekan: This is my favorite.
- 3:56Don Armstrong: This one is uh uh blindfold test opens eyes of motorists.
- 4:02Mike Marrs: Yeah, so you're driving blindfolded?
- 4:04Don Armstrong: No, the driver's not blindfolded.
- 4:07Don Armstrong: Come on, look at the you gotta look at the picture, Mike.
- 4:10Mike Marrs: Why are we on the road?
- 4:11Jeff Dziekan: I'm trying to read it.
- 4:13Jeff Dziekan: Why are we on this dirt road in the middle of nowhere and you got a shovel in your hand?
- 4:17Don Armstrong: Because they're trying to demonstrate, apparently, the ride quality of rides like a Cadillac, but it's a dodge.
- 4:24Don Armstrong: It's a dodge.
- 4:26Jeff Dziekan: And why do you have rope?
- 4:30Jeff Dziekan: It's just that's crazy.
- 4:32Jeff Dziekan: Thank you, Mike.
- 4:33Jeff Dziekan: That didn't work out.
- 4:34Jeff Dziekan: No, it didn't work out at all.
- 4:35Jeff Dziekan: What happened?
- 4:36Jeff Dziekan: I uh well, they're kind of different that they were they were not in order.
- 4:41Jeff Dziekan: I might have sent them the wrong ones.
- 4:43Mike Marrs: Well, there was no order.
- 4:46Don Armstrong: There was no order, great.
- 4:48Don Armstrong: Well, we you know what, we need to try that again.
- 4:50Don Armstrong: We'll do it again.
- 4:51Don Armstrong: And we needed to we need I want newspaper ads of car dealerships.
- 4:56Don Armstrong: All right.
- 4:57Don Armstrong: Um that and they they should be easy to find because I ran across one.
- 5:01Don Armstrong: I I'm on the same.
- 5:02Don Armstrong: I sent it with you.
- 5:03Don Armstrong: Yeah, I sent it over to you, but I was too late getting it to you to put on there.
- 5:07Don Armstrong: But I will tell you that uh it's funny because if you remember correctly, on the weekends, mainly on Saturday, the car dealerships used to run full page newspaper ads for the cars.
- 5:20Don Armstrong: Well, that one there is the parts department at Kmart.
- 5:23Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, that's the one you sent me.
- 5:24Don Armstrong: Yeah.
- 5:25Don Armstrong: And uh the full pay and they had all of the prices, all of the cars on there.
- 5:29Don Armstrong: So you go there and say, I want that car right there.
- 5:32Don Armstrong: Oh, I'm sorry, we sold that.
- 5:34Don Armstrong: Yeah.
- 5:35Don Armstrong: I don't think it'd be diff it'd be difficult to do these days, especially with the new laws that and the lawsuits.
- 5:42Mike Marrs: Exactly.
- 5:42Mike Marrs: Yeah.
- 5:42Don Armstrong: Yeah.
- 5:43Don Armstrong: I don't know how you'd do it, but you'd have to do it online, I guess.
- 5:46Don Armstrong: But uh yeah, full page ads, all of the new cars, all of the used cars, and then there was always a big thing in there about you know oil changes uh this weekend or$9.95 or whatever it was.
- 5:57Don Armstrong: And different grades of oil.
- 5:58Don Armstrong: Yeah, good.
- 6:00Don Armstrong: Yep, all that.
- 6:01Don Armstrong: And you could also buy tires.
- 6:03Don Armstrong: I know at Richardson Chevrolet, guess what kind of tires we sold?
- 6:07Don Armstrong: Don't know.
- 6:08Don Armstrong: Armstrong tires.
- 6:09Don Armstrong: Oh boy, trip the road.
- 6:11Don Armstrong: Do you remember those ads?
- 6:13Don Armstrong: Armstrong tires?
- 6:14Mike Marrs: Now that you mention it.
- 6:16Don Armstrong: Yeah.
- 6:16Don Armstrong: Wow.
- 6:17Don Armstrong: Well, that was back in the day.
- 6:18Don Armstrong: Armstrong tires.
- 6:19Don Armstrong: Do they still make those?
- 6:20Jeff Dziekan: I bet you it was U Royal, wasn't it?
- 6:23Jeff Dziekan: Uh I I don't I don't think they make them.
- 6:25Jeff Dziekan: Armstrong tires.
- 6:26Jeff Dziekan: But that's something, you know, don't know.
- 6:27Don Armstrong: Yeah.
- 6:28Don Armstrong: Said I thought Armstrong on the side of the tire.
- 6:31Don Armstrong: Look at that.
- 6:31Don Armstrong: Yeah.
- 6:32Jeff Dziekan: Famous.
- 6:33Don Armstrong: You were proud.
- 6:34Don Armstrong: I wasn't.
- 6:35Don Armstrong: I was embarrassed.
- 6:37Don Armstrong: Because I mean, no, who would who would go at that time?
- 6:40Don Armstrong: You'd never go to the car dealership and buy tires.
- 6:44Don Armstrong: Unless you they came in on a wrecker and you had no choice.
- 6:49Don Armstrong: Collision shop for something else.
- 6:50Don Armstrong: Yeah.
- 6:51Mike Marrs: Well, you're one thing you don't think about it.
- 6:53Mike Marrs: And you just that's not where I would think about going to buy tires for my car.
- 6:57Don Armstrong: Yeah.
- 6:58Don Armstrong: Uh we are going to do driving destinations, but not right now, Mike.
- 7:02Don Armstrong: Okay.
- 7:02Don Armstrong: Okay.
- 7:08Don Armstrong: Uh we have Jeff's cruise in.
- 7:10Don Armstrong: But first, though, let's do driving destinations.
- 7:13Don Armstrong: I know that uh we teased that, so let's let's let's do that if you don't mind.
- 7:16Mike Marrs: Where is that, Michael?
- 7:18Mike Marrs: So it's it's been a long time since I was over in Houston running around like on the previous life, but there's a lot of things to do over there.
- 7:25Mike Marrs: We talked about fun and play.
- 7:27Mike Marrs: And then we're gonna talk about date night, trying to find something that's a little bit different for date night.
- 7:32Don Armstrong: Without a gun.
- 7:33Mike Marrs: Without a gun, hopefully.
- 7:34Mike Marrs: If not, go to make sure you go to a place that gives you one when you go in.
- 7:38Mike Marrs: So we're gonna start with Captain Foxheart's Bad News and Bar Spirit Lounge.
- 7:44Mike Marrs: Now, if you're not sure where it's at, because you're gonna walk right past it.
- 7:47Mike Marrs: It's it's very speakeasy-ish looking.
- 7:50Mike Marrs: Uh it's tucked away in an upstairs area in downtown Houston.
- 7:54Mike Marrs: It's kind of a moody cocktail spot, low lighting, vintage lounge vibes, and it's got a very nice hidden skyline view of the city from the patio area.
- 8:04Mike Marrs: The drinks are serious without getting pretentious.
- 8:06Mike Marrs: It's kind of a place where you might hang around a little bit longer than you might want to.
- 8:10Mike Marrs: Now, if you're looking for something a little different from that, you might go to uh something with a little weirdness.
- 8:16Mike Marrs: Go to Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.
- 8:19Mike Marrs: Now, this is gonna have your neon lights, you're gonna have sci-fi decor, you're gonna have creative cocktails, and some pretty good pizza in this place.
- 8:27Mike Marrs: So it's kind of like a restaurant, but it's really not.
- 8:30Mike Marrs: It's more relaxed, quirky, and it's great for people that just want to go someplace, have a few laughs, and kind of sit through some uh unexpected experiences and just something to be different.
- 8:42Mike Marrs: Then from there, if you want to go something back to more quiet, more intimate, you check out La Crepe.
- 8:48Mike Marrs: This historic little wine bar, and it is historic because of the building was built in 1847.
- 8:53Mike Marrs: The Kennedy Bakery is what used to be there, and the Kennedy's actually owned this building for five generations before it was sold, and it's considered the most haunted bar in Houston.
- 9:05Mike Marrs: So you're gonna have lots of candlelight, old brick walls, you're gonna have handwritten tabs, not the computer touch screens.
- 9:12Mike Marrs: So there's no rush here.
- 9:14Mike Marrs: If you just want to go someplace that's nice and slow and have a real conversation, kind of feel a little bit different from the normal Houston nightlife that I'm aware of.
- 9:23Don Armstrong: Get yourself a Jim Fizz.
- 9:27Don Armstrong: La Craft.
- 9:30Mike Marrs: So from there, if you want to stay casual but get outdoors a little bit more, you might go to the Axelrad beer garden.
- 9:37Mike Marrs: Now, this is uh a place that you're gonna find.
- 9:40Mike Marrs: It's actually in the old Axlrod grocery that was built in the 1920s.
- 9:45Mike Marrs: So hence you get the name of the beer garden.
- 9:47Mike Marrs: You're gonna have uh it's gonna be out underneath the trees, you got live music, you got food trucks nearby.
- 9:53Mike Marrs: So it's kind of a laid-back crowd with some picnic tables and just kind of place you can go settle in and hang around for a place just to kind of have a nice time in the evening.
- 10:04Jeff Dziekan: Looks like you could probably take your dog with you to that type of event there.
- 10:07Mike Marrs: Oh, you might.
- 10:08Mike Marrs: Yeah.
- 10:09Mike Marrs: Then uh the other one, the last one I wanted to bring up was a place called the Little Dipper Bar.
- 10:16Mike Marrs: Now, this is small, it's retro, kind of low-key.
- 10:19Mike Marrs: It's got that old Houston neighborhood bar energy with the vintage decor and a little relaxed atmosphere that kind of makes it easy to kind of go in and just settle down, have some light conversation, and just have a relaxed evening if you're looking for something like that.
- 10:37Mike Marrs: Yeah, a lot of these places are downtown.
- 10:39Mike Marrs: This was downtown in the 300 block of Main Street.
- 10:41Mike Marrs: So, so there's a lot of places you can go for date nights.
- 10:44Mike Marrs: It's not necessarily about spending a lot of money and going out to a big fancy place.
- 10:49Mike Marrs: Just kind of take a little drive and find something different and see where things go.
- 10:53unknown: Perfect.
- 10:54Don Armstrong: Very nice.
- 10:54Don Armstrong: I like that.
- 10:56Jeff Dziekan: Well, uh, yeah.
- 11:03Don Armstrong: All right.
- 11:04Don Armstrong: Time now for this hour's car review.
- 11:06Don Armstrong: I had the opportunity to drive the all-new, completely redesigned 2026 Subaru Outback.
- 11:14Don Armstrong: It comes in these trim levels: the Limited, the Limited XT, the Wilderness, Touring, and Touring XT.
- 11:22Don Armstrong: I had the Limited.
- 11:24Don Armstrong: Uh, it is a small SUV, two rows of seating, seats five, completely redesigned for 2026.
- 11:31Don Armstrong: It's taller, it's boxier, it has a real honest to goodness SUV look to it now.
- 11:37Don Armstrong: Gone is the lifted wagon look.
- 11:40Don Armstrong: Uh sharp-looking front fascia on this, black plastic wheel well openings, uh, very rugged looking, much more so than the outgoing model.
- 11:51Don Armstrong: Vertical bumper kickups.
- 11:53Don Armstrong: Now, we used to call them overriders back in the day.
- 11:56Don Armstrong: They don't call them that anymore.
- 11:58Don Armstrong: Yeah.
- 11:58Don Armstrong: So there's the bumper, and then you got little kickups on the bumper itself.
- 12:03Don Armstrong: Uh it's got obviously like that.
- 12:05Don Armstrong: That's it.
- 12:06Don Armstrong: Yes, there you see there.
- 12:07Don Armstrong: Um it is a much taller roof line now.
- 12:11Don Armstrong: Uh what I liked about it, it enhances an overall tougher off-road look.
- 12:18Don Armstrong: That's the way I look at it anyway.
- 12:20Don Armstrong: Uh, we could use improvement, nothing.
- 12:22Don Armstrong: I think that this one will really sell and get away from that uh lifted wagon look.
- 12:27Don Armstrong: Interior highlights, 12.3 inch display screen.
- 12:31Don Armstrong: And depending on the trim, it could be uh kid-proof or semi-luxury uh on the interior as far as materials are concerned.
- 12:39Don Armstrong: Door panel trim.
- 12:41Don Armstrong: Um most cars, uh, this this this one in particular transfers the door panel cover, if you want to call it that, to the dash.
- 12:53Don Armstrong: I think is a good unique uh touch to it.
- 12:56Don Armstrong: Uh rear seat leg room is good cargo.
- 12:59Don Armstrong: Cargo room is enough and it is competitive for its class.
- 13:03Don Armstrong: Uh what I liked about it, the return of buttons.
- 13:06Don Armstrong: Uh don't laugh, but you know, everybody seems to be going to this, oh, let's not put any buttons in it.
- 13:12Don Armstrong: Let's do it all through the app stuff.
- 13:15Don Armstrong: Yeah, on the center screen.
- 13:18Don Armstrong: Well, that's fine if you're sitting still, but if you're driving down the road and you want to include uh, you know, a little bump up in the temperature, let me have a button for that if I may have bump up in the base.
- 13:28Don Armstrong: Bump up in the base that as well.
- 13:30Don Armstrong: So uh anyway, uh they have buttons now, and that's good.
- 13:34Don Armstrong: It is.
- 13:34Don Armstrong: 2.5 liter uh four-cylinder engine, 180 horsepower.
- 13:40Don Armstrong: Now there is an option, it's a 260 horsepower version of it, better for towing and that sort of stuff.
- 13:47Don Armstrong: CVT transmission, all-wheel drive course is standard on all of the Subaru's.
- 13:52Don Armstrong: Till rating 2,700 pounds for this particular one, 25 miles per gallon in the city, 31 on the highway for a combined of 27.
- 14:00Don Armstrong: I got 29.2 miles per gallon over 398.9 miles.
- 14:06Don Armstrong: Uh what I liked about it, this is good for overall everyday driving on Houston Street.
- 14:12Don Armstrong: So don't take it for just off-road stuff.
- 14:14Don Armstrong: This is good for all round goodness in driving it to work or whatever the case may be.
- 14:21Don Armstrong: What could use improvement?
- 14:22Don Armstrong: I think that the downshift is a little bit slow to interact with the foot input, but that's just me, because I am a two-foot kind of guy, even with an automatic transmission.
- 14:32Don Armstrong: Ride and handling, it's compliant, it's good, it's not too stiff.
- 14:36Don Armstrong: What could use improvement?
- 14:37Don Armstrong: I put a question mark there because I don't know because it it rides really well and handles pretty good.
- 14:43Don Armstrong: And I did not take it off-road, so there is that.
- 14:46Don Armstrong: So here's the pricing.
- 14:48Don Armstrong: Base trim price,$41,715.
- 14:51Don Armstrong: Price is tested$43,560.
- 14:54Don Armstrong: The base model price is$34,995.
- 14:58Don Armstrong: I think they're going to sell a ton of these.
- 15:00Don Armstrong: Competitors, Honda Passport in size, but not in price.
- 15:07Don Armstrong: Chevy Blazer, it starts at$34.3.
- 15:11Don Armstrong: It would probably be its closest competitor.
- 15:13Don Armstrong: Uh the Mazda CX70, they like it as well at$42,250.
- 15:20Don Armstrong: So uh the price competitor uh really and size is the Chevy Blazer at$34.30.
- 15:26Don Armstrong: Again, the base model price is$34,995.
- 15:29Don Armstrong: Next week, we're going to review the Kia Telluride.
- 15:33Jeff Dziekan: So that the 29 miles plus per gallon that you I know that you take a certain highway to work back and forth, but you didn't do any extra usage during the week on.
- 15:43Don Armstrong: I did, I did.
- 15:43Don Armstrong: Uh you know, and that goes with all of the stuff that I drive.
- 15:46Don Armstrong: Uh the the most mileage goes uh back and forth to work, and it's about 40 miles one way.
- 15:53Jeff Dziekan: Would that mileage suffer if you're off-road?
- 15:55Jeff Dziekan: Obviously it would.
- 15:56Jeff Dziekan: If you're going the outback trails, you wouldn't get the 29 or 30.
- 16:00Don Armstrong: Well, you know, I I'm not sure because it's got the CVT transmission, so it's not one of those that, you know, well, we've got to put it in the low.
- 16:06Don Armstrong: Maybe you can hold it in a lower gear ratio kind of thing with a CVT.
- 16:11Don Armstrong: I didn't get into all of that.
- 16:13Mike Marrs: Isn't there still a lot of construction on your way to work?
- 16:16Mike Marrs: There's not.
- 16:17Mike Marrs: Oh, okay.
- 16:18Jeff Dziekan: Well, that's on your way to work, Mike.
- 16:19Mike Marrs: Not oh well, I was just gonna suggest maybe he could jump a few ditches and kind of go around some of that stuff to kind of test the off-road key.
- 16:25Don Armstrong: Yeah, I'm sure that Subaru would really appreciate that.
- 16:28Don Armstrong: Hey, who drove this car last?
- 16:30Don Armstrong: Oh, it was Don Armstrong.
- 16:31Don Armstrong: Oh, he won't be getting into it off-road.
- 16:33Don Armstrong: There is that.
- 16:35Don Armstrong: All right.